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 (^i i\©i I'!®.
 
 '(d^J^t^^
 
 RIDPATH'S 
 
 History of the World 
 
 BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE CAREER 
 
 OF THE HUMAN RACE FROM THE BEGINNINGS OF 
 
 CIVILIZATION TO THE PRESENT TIME 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE STORY OF ALL NATIONS 
 
 FROM RECENT AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES 
 
 COMPLETE IN FIVE VOLUMES 
 
 By JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL D. 
 
 Author of a "Cyclopaedia of Un'iversal History," Etc. 
 
 Vb'LU'M'E'I 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH COLORED PLATES, RACE MAPS AND CHARTS, 
 TYPE PICTURES, SKETCHES AND DIAGRAMS 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 The Jones Brothers Publishing Company 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Merrill & Baker
 
 €;op2risf)t 1894 
 ©opsriflbt 1895 
 Copsris!)! 1897 
 Coppriflfjt 1899 
 ^U lonts Brol|)frs puilis^ina (Compans.
 
 CO 
 CD 
 
 ■=^ 
 
 ^o ihe QIEcmorg of 
 
 'TM^ SFctther ctnb TSUoiliev 
 
 ^^Sho on fhc '^^ou^h ^voniiev of ©ipxrisjaiioiar 
 "toilet) ant) ^uffeveb anb ^icb ihai 
 
 ®hcir V^htltlrcn 
 
 258674
 
 Preface to Volume 1. 
 
 ITHIN the present cent- 
 ury the motives for writ- 
 ing History have been 
 greatly intensified. First 
 of all, the vision of the 
 historian has been con- 
 siderably widened by the 
 enlargement of geographical knowledge and 
 the establishment of the hitherto uncertain 
 limits of cities and states. By this means not 
 a few of the puzzling and contradictory as- 
 pects of the old-time annals have been brought 
 into clearer light and truer proportion. More 
 particularly in Ancient History has accurate 
 geographical information contributed to the 
 completeness and perspicuity of the narrative. 
 The rectification of Chronology, also, has 
 gone forward with rapid strides, and the result 
 has been no less than the writing anew of whole 
 paragraphs in the earlier chapters of human 
 history. If to this we add the splendid 
 achievements in the department of Archae- 
 ology, in deciphering the hitherto mute rec- 
 ords of antiquity, and in interpreting the 
 significance of the architectural monuments so 
 abundant in most of the countries where civil- 
 ization has flourished, we shall find a large, 
 even an imperative, motive for reviewing and 
 re-writing the records of the Ancient World. 
 It is, however, most of all, the Scientific 
 spirit of the nineteenth century which has 
 demanded, at the hands of the historian, an 
 additional guaranty for the accuracy of his 
 work. This spirit is abroad in all the world, 
 and prevails most of all in the highest depart- 
 ments of human thought and activity. It 
 has not hesitated to demand that History shall 
 become a science. It has challenged or rejected 
 the value of all historical writings that are not 
 pervaded with the scientific method and modeled 
 on the inductive plan. All this is well; the 
 Historian must scrutinize the foundations of 
 his work and the validity of his structure. 
 
 It is to motives such as these that the great 
 historical works of our century owe their ori- 
 gin. But for such reasons, Wilkinson, Ebers, 
 Kawlinson, Duucker, and Curtius had never 
 written ; and the world would still be blindly 
 following the unsifted stories of old. Thus 
 much may be said, then, as to the general 
 reasons for writing History. 
 
 The more particular motive which the Au- 
 thor of the present work has to offer to the pub- 
 lic for undertaking the composition of a book 
 so comprehensive as the title indicates, is this : 
 A desire to bring within the reach of the aver- 
 age reader a concise and accurate summary 
 of the principal events in the career of the 
 human race. The historical works produced 
 in our century have nearly all been in the 
 nature of special studies, limited in their scope 
 to a particular epoch. The result has been 
 that the works in question are so elaborate 
 in detail and so recondite in method, that 
 the common reader has neither courage to 
 undertake nor time to complete them. Be- 
 fore a single topic can be mastered, he finds 
 himself lost in a labyrinth. The synthesis of 
 different periods, treated by different authors, 
 seems impossible ; he tttrns in discouragement 
 from the task; and to him the history of the 
 past remains a sealed fountain. 
 
 It has thus come to pass that the average 
 citizen, who, in the United States at least, is 
 expected to have accurate general views on 
 historical questions, may reasonably plead in 
 bar that the historians, by not considering the 
 limits of his time and opportunity, have put 
 the required knowledge beyond his reach. 
 
 Be it far from me to say aught in dispar- 
 agement of the learned labors of our great 
 historians. They have fairly deserved the 
 plaudits of mankind. It can not be denied, 
 however, ihat the best of our recent histor- 
 ical works are, by excess of learning and the 
 dissertative disposition of the writers, quite 
 
 5
 
 PREFACE TO VOLUME I. 
 
 \ icoramensurate with the demands, and, I may 
 s ly, the needs of the common reader. 
 
 It has been my jiurpose, in the preparation 
 of these volumes, to 'pojiidarize the subject 
 without losing sight of the dignity and impor- 
 tance of the historian's office. The People are 
 as much entitled to accurate information, con- 
 cisely and graphically conveyed, as scholars 
 are entitled to elaborate dissertation. It is a 
 most pernicious error to admit that a true 
 epitome of History can be hastily and easily 
 prepared. Such a work, when conscientiously 
 undertaken, requires the greatest care and 
 the highest skill in execution. 
 
 In preparing the present work, I have 
 freely availed myself of the best and most 
 recent authorities. The names of Wilkinson, 
 Brugsch, Bunsen, Ebers, Duncker, Rawlinson, 
 Smith, Curtius, Grote, Niebuhr, Falke, INIomm- 
 sen, and Von Ranke will suggest the secondary 
 sources which have been relied upon ; and these 
 names are the guarantees for the fundamental 
 accuracy of the narrative. 
 
 As to the style adopted in the following 
 pages, as well as the general views expressed, 
 and the method of treatment employed in the 
 various parts — these are the Author's own. 
 It has been my hope and aim in this work to 
 relate the History of the World in such 
 a manner as to bring the vast record within a 
 manageable limit, so that every reader who 
 will, may obtain, at a moderate expense, and 
 master, with a moderate endeavor, the better 
 parts of the history of the j^ast. 
 
 A word of explanation may be required 
 respecting the arrangement of the earlier parts 
 of the present work. Instead of beginning, 
 as do most of the treatises on Ancient History, 
 with the Chaldtean and Assyrian monarchies, 
 I have chosen to begin with Egypt, tracing, 
 first of all, the history of that country down 
 to the time of its subjection to the Persians; 
 then transferring the scene to Mesopotamia, 
 and following thereafter the natural course of 
 events from the Euphrates to the Tiber — from 
 Babylon to Rome. The choice of the valley 
 of the Nile, rather than the valley of the 
 Tigris, as the place of beginning, has been 
 determined by chronological considerations 
 and the true sequence of events. 
 
 Celncastle, 1890. 
 
 A brief explanation is also demanded re- 
 specting the line of division between Ancient 
 and Modern History. Instead of selecting the 
 downfall of the Western Empire of the Romans 
 (A. D. 476) as the line of demarkation be- 
 tween the world of the ancients and our own, 
 I have taken the overthi'ow of the Greek Em- 
 pu'e by the conquest of Constantinople (A. D. 
 1453), as what may be properly called the 
 death of Antiquity. True it is that Modern 
 Europe was already in the nascent state be- 
 fore the final destruction of the old historical 
 forces ; and for that reason the attention 
 of the reader will be recalled after the over- 
 throw of the Eastern Empire, by the span of 
 a thousand years, to the story of the Barbarian 
 Nations, which may be fairly regarded as the 
 opening scene in the drama of modern times. 
 
 It is also proper to add a word respecting 
 the use of the term Cyclopedia in the title 
 of these volumes. Popularly speaking, the 
 word is limited to the discussion of topics al- 
 phabetically arranged ; but neither etymology 
 nor better usage in literature indicates any 
 such limitation of meaning. I have chosen 
 to use the word in its truer sense, as implying 
 simply a discussion of the whole circle of the 
 subject under consideration. 
 
 As it respects the illustrative part of the 
 present work, it may be said that the aim ha8 
 been kept constantly in view to make the illus- 
 trations contribute to a ready understanding 
 and apt appreciation of the text. Great care 
 has been taken in the preparation of the maps 
 with which, by the liberality of the publishers, 
 the following pages are so copiously inter- 
 spersed. The cuts and drawings have all been 
 selected and arranged in such relation with 
 the text that the one shall illustrate the other. 
 
 I trust that the work, the plan and motive 
 of which I have thus briefly summarized, may, 
 in the present Revised and Enlarged Edition, 
 meet with the same cordial reception at the 
 hands of the public which has been extended 
 to the author's other essays in historical litera- 
 ture. More particularly am I anxious that 
 these volumes may prove to be worthy of the 
 appreciation and praise of my countrymen, to 
 whose candor and charitable criticism I now 
 surrender the fruit of my labors. 
 
 J. C. R
 
 Contents of Volume I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 PREFACE, 5-6 
 
 CONTENTS, 7-18 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 19-21 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 23-24 
 
 Book: Kirst.— Eqypt. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Country. 
 
 General Character of Africa. — Coasts and 
 Mountains. — Northern Africa. — The Nile Valley.— 
 Sources of the River. — The White and Blue 
 Niles. — Formation of Egypt.— Character of the 
 Valley. — The Delta. — Divisions of the Country. — 
 The Houses.— The Annual Flood of the Nile. — 
 Height of the Overflow. — Appearance of the Wat- 
 ers. — Deposit from the Flood. — Advantages to a 
 Primitive People, 29-36 
 
 Chapter II. — The People. 
 
 Origin of the Egyptians. — Not Semites or Ne- 
 groes. — Impulse of Immigrant Tribes. — The Egyp- 
 tians Cushite. — Four Races known in the Valley. — 
 Natural Conditions of Civilization in Egypt. — Fer- 
 tility. — Annual Flood. — Isolation. — Fixedness of 
 Natural Aspect. — Suggestion of Cities. — The Sol- 
 dier and the Priest. — Reflex Effect of Mystery — Nat- 
 ural Suggestion of Monarchy. — Personal Qualities 
 of the Egyptians. — Stature and Physiognomy.^ 
 Longevity, 36-41 
 
 Chapter III. — Civil and Military Annals, 
 
 Obscurity of Ancient Dates. — Herodotus and 
 the Priests. — Dynasties of Gods and Men. — At- 
 tempted Chronology. — Diodorus and his Dates. — 
 Opening of the Monuments.^Manetho. — Diodorus 
 corrects Himself.^What the Problem is. — Were 
 the Dynasties Consecutive or Contemporaneous ?— 
 Views of Modern Scholars. — Mariette. — Brugsch. — 
 Lepsius. — Duncker. — Results. — Reign of Menes. — 
 Founding of Memphis. — Pul^lic Works. — King 
 Ateta. — Kenkenes, Uenephes, and Semenpses. — 
 Butan and Kakan. — Bainnuter. — Nephercheres. — 
 Lesochris. — Nebka. — Tosorthros. — Snefru. — Acces- 
 sion of Khufu. — Age of the Pyramids. — Origin and 
 Character of the Monuments. — Description of the 
 Pyramids of Ghizeh. — How they were Built. — Con- 
 jectural Uses. — Reigns of Khufu, Khafra, and 
 Menkera. — Wars of these Kings. — The Sphinx. — 
 Oppressions of the Fourth Dynasty. — Decline un- 
 
 der Dynasty V. — Ptah-Hotep and Una. — Sixth 
 Dynasty. — Foreign Wars undertaken. — Campaigns 
 of Una.^ — Reign of Pepi. — Extension of Egyptian 
 Power. — Merenra. — Neferkara. — Nitocris. — Dynas- 
 ties VII., VIIL, IX., X.— Twelfth Dynasty estab- 
 lished by Amenemha. — Extent of his Authority. — 
 Usertesen I. — Inscriptions and Obelisks. — Succeed- 
 ing Usertesidae. — The Feiyoom. — Lake Moeris. — 
 The Labyrinth. — Tombs of Benihassan. — Display 
 of Manners. — Queen Sebeknefrura. — Government 
 at Xo'is.^ — Failure of National Power. — Coming of 
 the Hyksos. — Devastation of Egypt. — Revolt against 
 the Shepherds. — Recovery of Independence. — 
 Thebes Ascendant. — Aahmes and Tuthmosis. — 
 Hatasu. — Tuthmosis III. and IV. — Queen Tai. — 
 Amenophis IV. — House of Ramses. — Seti I. — 
 Ramses II. — His Great Campaigns. — His Public 
 Works. — Monumental Evidences of his Renown. — 
 Greatness of Thebes. — Menepta. — Primitive Is- 
 rael. — The Children of Jacob in Egypt. — Story of 
 the Exodus. — Seti II. and Menepta II. — The Later 
 Ramesians. — Dynasties XIX. and XX. — Foreign 
 Influences in Egypt. — The Priestly House. — Disin- 
 tegration of the Kingdom. — Revival under Taf- 
 nekht. — House of Sais. — Divisions of the Coun- 
 try. — War with Ethiopia. — Country invaded by the 
 Assyrians. — Esarhaddon breaks Egypt into Prov- 
 inces. — Destruction of National Spirit. — Reign of 
 Psametik I. — Circumnavigation of Africa. — Battle 
 of Carchemish. — The Last Pharaohs. — Conquest of 
 Egypt by Cambyses, 41-71 
 
 Chapter IV. — Manners and Customs. 
 
 Literature of Egypt. — Delineation of Manners 
 and Customs. — Rank of the King. — His Importance 
 in the State. — Regarded as a Deity. — His Name 
 and Attributes the Same as those of the Deity. — 
 The Discipline of his Life. — Care taken of his 
 Person. — Daily Ceremonial. — Public Pageant. — 
 The King's Court.— The Great Tribunal.— Judi- 
 cial and Administrative Officers. — Furniture of 
 Royal Apartments. — Death of a King. — Woman 
 entitled to Succession. — Few Great Egyptians.—
 
 8 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 The Military Caste. — Weaponry, — Organization of 
 the Army. — The Priests. — Exemption from Secu- 
 lar Duties. — Supported at Public Expense. — Elab- 
 orate Ceremonial. — Classes of Priests. — Famous 
 Shrines.— Colleges. — Priesthood Hereditary. — Dis- 
 cipUne of the Priests. — Personal Purity. — Food. — 
 Celibacy. — Common People. — Vocations. — Hered- 
 ity.— Transmitted Skill. — Changes from Rank to 
 Rank. — Land-ownership. — Subjection of the Peo- 
 ple. — Prosperity of tho Peasants. — The Peasant 
 Home. — Amusements and Sports. — Games Dis- 
 played in Sculpture. — Gaming, Music, and Danc- 
 ing. — The Ox-song. — Egyptian Sepulture. — Em- 
 balming. — The Process Described. — Preparation 
 of Mummies. — Solemnity of Egyptian Funeral 
 Rites. — Ancestral Worship. — Crossing the Lake of 
 the Dead, 71-83 
 
 Chapter V. — Religion and Art. 
 
 Primitive Beliefs of the Eg3'ptians. — AVere they 
 Monotheistic? — Not Idolaters. — The God Ptah. — 
 
 His Worship. — Theory of Worship. — Titles of 
 Ptah. — His Emblems. — Ra. — Where Worshiped. — 
 How Represented. — Associated with Other De- 
 ities. — Emblems. — Titles. — Amun. — Atmu. — Turn 
 and Meutu. — Seb and Tefnet. — Osiris and Isis. — 
 Seats of their Worship. — Set. — Symbolism of Osi- 
 ris and Isis. — Horus. — Kathor. — Thoth. — Minor 
 Divinities of Egypt. — Adoration of Animals. — The 
 Sacred Creatures. — The Ibis. — Apis. — Bennu. — 
 The Phcenix. — Lesser Sacred Beasts. — Better Con- 
 cepts. — The Day of Judgment. — Practical Ethics. — 
 Religious Bias of Egyptian Law. — Strifes of Towns 
 Respecting Sacred Animals. — Egyptian Art Asso- 
 ciated with Religion. — Splendid Ruins of the Nile 
 Valley. — Architecture. — Building Materials. — Pro- 
 fusion of Sculpture. — The Column. — Various Or- 
 ders. — Statuary. — Obelisks. — Writing. — The Hier- 
 oglyphics. — Their Explication. — Hieratic and 
 Demotic Characters. — Coptic. — Egyptian Paint- 
 ing. — Scene in the Temple of Medinet-Habu.— 
 Egyptians Wanting in Ideality, 83-102 
 
 BOOK Second— Chald^ea. 
 
 Chapter VI. — The Country. 
 
 Geographical Character of Mesopotamia. — Eu- 
 phrates and Tigris. — Their Valleys. — Annual 
 Floods. — Tributaries. — Dwindling of the Euphra- 
 tes. — The Chaldsean Plain. — Aspect of the Coun- 
 try. — Extent and Shape. — Recession of thfi Persian 
 Gulf. — Elements of Natural AVealth. — Man Early 
 Attracted to the Situation. — Proximity of Se^^. — 
 Advantages of the Primitive Chaldseans, . 103-107 
 
 Chapter VII. — People and Language, 
 
 Ethnic Place of the Chaldseans Considered.— 
 Recent Classification of Races. — The Aryan Race. — 
 Its Distribution. — The Semitic Race. — The Ham- 
 itic Race. — Kinship of Chaldpeans and Egyptians. — 
 The Chaldseans Modified by Other Peoples. — Per- 
 sonal Characteristics. — Pursuits. — Skill. — The 
 Name Chaldcean. — Principal Tribes. — Character of 
 the Chaldee Language. — Writing, .... 108-111 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Chronology and Annals. 
 
 Berosus.— Fragments of His Works. — Tradition 
 of the Creation. — Oan teaches Men. — Early Dy- 
 nasties.— Chaldsean Tradition of the Flood. — The 
 Same compared with the Assyrian Account. — 
 Other Traditions of a Deluge. — Deeds and Fame 
 of Nimrod.— Tribal Movements of his Epoch. — 
 Urukh, the Builder.— Style of his Structures.— 
 Ruins of Warka.— The Temple.— Inscriptions of 
 Bricks. — The Mugheir Ruins. — Description of 
 Moon-god Temple. — Calneh and Larsa. — Ur. — 
 Reign of Ilgi. — Chaldaea conquered by Elam. — 
 ^udur-Nakhunta. — Kudur-Lagamer. — His Con- 
 
 quests in the West. — Abraham. — Other Elamite 
 Sovereigns. — Dynasty Third. — Kings of Fourth 
 Dynasty. — Ismi-Dagon. — Gurguna. — Haram-Sin. — 
 Babylon the Capital. — INIinor Reigns. — Arabian 
 Dynasty. — Khammu-Rabi. — Samsu-Iluna. — Kara- 
 In-Das. — Kara-Khar- Das. — Purra-Puriyas. — Kurri- 
 Galzu. — Assyrian Conquest of Chaldsea. — Con- 
 dition of Lower Mesopotamia thereafter. — An- 
 tiquity of the Country. — Its Importance in Early 
 History. — Imperfect Knowledge of the Kingdom. — 
 Present Knowledge only an Outline, . . . 111-123 
 
 Chapter IX. — Science and Art. 
 
 Fame of the Chaldseans. — Learning Based on 
 Industrial Pursuits. — The Industries of Chaldsea. — 
 Houses. — Temples. — Absence of Stone. — Varieties 
 of Bricks. — How built in Walls. — Mortar. — Tem- 
 ple of Abu-Sharein. — Wanting in Beauty. — Inner 
 Shrines. — Dwellings and Huts. — Details of Struc- 
 ture. — Chrildsean Burying - places. — Methods of 
 Sepulture.— Coffins. — Drainage. — Pottery. — Signet- 
 Cylinders. — Tools. — Metals. — Fabrics. — Chaldsea 
 Favorably Situ.ited for the Study of Nature. — As- 
 tronomical Knowledge. — Measurement of Time 
 and Distance. — Records of Eclipses. — Numbers. — 
 Weights. — Writing- — The Cuneiform Method. — 
 Tablets and Plates- — Gem Engraving, . . 123-131 
 
 Chapter X. — Religion. 
 
 Chaldsean Views ef Creation. — Myths and Tra- 
 ditions. — Sky-gods. — Doctrine of El. — Anu. — 
 Bel. — Mixed with the Myth of Nimrod. — Hea. — 
 The Moon-god Sin. — Called Hurki. — Samas. — 
 Bin. — Adar. — Mingled with the Fisb-god. — Tern-
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 9 
 
 pies of Bin. — Merodach. — Nergal. — The Chaldsean 
 Venus. — Manner of the Pilgrims at her Shrine. — 
 The Goddess Istar. — Similar to Proserpina. — 
 Nebo. — Similar to Hermes. — Sometimes omitted 
 from Lists. — The Goddesses Dar-Kina and Beltis. — 
 Anata. — Anunit. — Zir-Banit. — Nana. — Varamit. — 
 
 Incitements to Planet "Worship in Chaldsea.— The 
 Houses of the Zodiac. — Primitive Eeligion and 
 Primitive Science. — What the Priest taught.— 
 What the Poet taught.— What the Sage taught.— 
 Blending of the Three Revelations by the Chal- 
 dsean Seers, 132-140 
 
 BOOK Third.— Assyria. 
 
 Chapter XI. — Country and Products. 
 
 Character of Upper Mesopotamia. — Doubtful 
 Boundaries. — Probable Limits. — Extent of Assyria 
 Proper. — Eastern Assyria. — Its Rivers. — The Two 
 Zabs. — Western Assyria. — Its Streams. — Aspect of 
 Mesopotamia. — The Country divided by Sinjar. — 
 The Two Slopes. — Xenoi^hon's Description. — Im- 
 perfect Geography. — Character of Aturia. — Other 
 Provinces. — Western Districts. — Wide Distribution 
 of Ruins. — Assyria fortified by the Zagros and 
 Armenian Mountains. — On the AVest and South 
 by Deserts. — Southern Border exposed. — Diversi- 
 ties of Climate. — Phenomena of Eastern Assyria. — 
 Of Northern Mesopotamia. — Of Central Mesopo- 
 tamia. — Great Changes of Temperature. — Torrid 
 Climate of Southern Assyria. — Modified by Civili- 
 zation. — Striking Changes in Landscape. — Ancient 
 Advantages lost in Modern Times. — Easy Irriga- 
 tion of the Country. — Assyrian Products. — Enu- 
 meration of Things grown. — Present Productions 
 the same as those of Antiquity. — List of Principal 
 Products.^The Manna. — The Mineral Supply. — 
 The Wild Beasts of Assyria. — The Wild Ass in Par- 
 ticular. — Horses. — Cattle. — Camels and Dromeda- 
 ries. — Assyrian Birds. — The Ostrich and the 
 Partridge. — Waterfowl and Birds of Prey. — 
 Fishes, 143-153 
 
 Chapter XII. — People and Cities. 
 
 The Assyrians Semites. — Ethnic Place cf th 
 Race. — Determined by Language and Tradition. — 
 Form and Feature of the People. — Jewish Physi- 
 ognomy. — Brawny Character of the Assyrians. — 
 Like the Jews in Religious Belief. — The Assyrians 
 Warlike and Brave. — Aggressive Disposition. — 
 Cruelty and Ferocity. — A People of Pride and 
 Haughtiness. — Have the Reputation of Craft and 
 Perfidy. — Luxurious Habits. — Pleasure the End 
 of Life. — Learning derived from the Chaldseans. — 
 Superiority of the Assyrians in Government. — 
 Lacking in Scientific Knowledge. — Assyrian Ar- 
 chitecture considered. — The Building Imagina- 
 tion. — Assyria next to Egypt in Structure. — Ruins 
 of Nineveh. — Description of the Movmds. — The An^ 
 cient City. — Its Relation to the Tigris. — Size and 
 Population of Nineveh. — Mistaken Limits of the 
 City. — What should be included and what ex- 
 cluded.— The Walls of Nineveh.— The Gates.— The 
 
 Towers.— Other Defenses.— Difficulty of recon- 
 structing the Ancient City.— Ruins of Calah.— Gen- 
 eral Character of Nimrud.— Wasted by the Ti- 
 gris.— Royal Palaces.— Described by Xenophon.— 
 Khorsabad.— The Mounds. — Wall.— Ruins of Ke- 
 remles.— And of Asshur.— The Site and Surround- 
 ings.— Other Ruins.— Building Activity of the 
 Assyrians, 153-161 
 
 Chapter XIII. — Chronology and Annals. 
 
 Colonization of Assyria. — Babylonian Origin. — 
 Data of Early History.— Table of Dynasties and 
 Kings. — The Chronology. — Legendary Period. — 
 Prehistoric Glimpses. — Asshur-Upalllt and th« 
 Chaldsean Rulers. — The Period Succeeding. — Shal- 
 maneser I. establishes Empire on the Tigris. — Tig- 
 lathi-Adar the True Founder of Assyria. — Re- 
 duces Chaldsea to Dependence. — The Succession 
 broken. — Bel-Kudur's War with Babylon. — Reign 
 of Asshur-Dayan.— Mutaggll and Ris-Illm. — For- 
 eign Wars. — Chronicle of Tiglath-Pileser I. — Hia 
 Great Wars. — The Surrounding Nations are con- 
 quered.— Personal Exploits of Tlglath. — A Builder 
 of Temples. — Specimen of his Inscriptions. — An 
 Uncertain War -with Babylon. — Continuance of 
 the same under BU-Kala. — Period of Decadence. — 
 Reputation of Assyria. — Revival of the Empire 
 under Izir-Pal. — His Conquests. — Riches and Glory 
 of Nineveh.— Izir-Pal's Palace at Calah.— The Cit- 
 ies flourish. — Shalmaneser II. maintains the Fame 
 of his Father. — His Syrian Wars.— Conquers Da- 
 mascus. — Patronizes Architecture and Letters. — 
 The Black Obelisk.— Civil War of Danin-Pal and 
 Shamus-Vul. — Reign of the Latter. — His Cam- 
 paigns. — Conquest of Babylon. — Character of Sha- 
 mus-Vul. — Reign of Vul-Lush III. — Relics of his 
 Time. — Legend of Semiramis. — Decay and Luxury 
 following Vul-Lush III. — Doubtful Dynasty of 
 Pul. — Assyria and Israel. — Tiglath-Pileser II. 
 reigns. — A Reformer. — Reduces Babylon. — Makes 
 War on Samaria and Judah. — Supports Ahaz 
 against Rezln of Damascus. — Carries ofi" the Israel- 
 ites. — Overawes all Syria. — Rebellion of Hoshea. — 
 Shalmaneser II. reigns. — Affairs in Egypt. — The 
 Assyrian King defeats Hoshea. — Besieges Tyre. — 
 Revolution headed by Sargon. — The Latter reduces 
 Susiana and Babylon. — Defeats the Assyrian Al- 
 lies.— Comes in Conflict with Egypt.— Battle of
 
 10 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 Raphia.— Subdues the Arabs.— Puts down Revolts 
 in Philistia. — Suppresses the Insurrection of Mero- 
 dach-Baladan.— Holds Sway at Babylon.— Bad 
 Success in Armenia. — Interferes in Elam. — Policy 
 of Deportation.— The City of Sargon.— Sennacherib 
 comes to the Throne. — Insurrection of Babylon. — 
 The King Victorious.— Overawes Sidon. — Egypt 
 goes to War. — Battle of Eltekeh.— The King over- 
 runs Judah. — Deports the Israehtes. — Subdues 
 Revolt in Babylon.— Bad Faith of Hezekiah.— De- 
 struction of Sennacherib's Army. — War with Me- 
 dia. — Afiair of Beth-Yakin. — Defeat of the Malcon- 
 tents of the South. — Overruns Susiana. — Battle of 
 Chaluli. — War yvith Cilicia. — Monuments of Sen- 
 nacherib. — His Character. — Esar-Haddon obtains 
 the Throne. — His Wars. — Various Expeditions. — 
 Invades Edom. — Conquers Bazu. — Establishes As- 
 syrian Authority in Egypt. — Captures Manasseh. — 
 Accession of Asshur-Bani-Pal. — Defeats Tirha- 
 kah. — Egypt overrun by Ethiopians. — Assyria Vic- 
 torious. — The King's other Wars. — Restores Order 
 in Susiana. — Reduces that Country to a Prov- 
 
 ince. — Affairs in Lydia. — The King defeats the 
 Arabs. — Decline of the Empire. — War with Me- 
 dia. — The Scythian Deluge. — Ravages of the 
 Barbarians. — Accession of Saracus. — Invasion of 
 Assyria by Cyaxeres. — Overthrow of the Em- 
 pire, 162-190 
 
 Chapter XIV. — Religion and Art. 
 
 Assyrian Gods derived from Clialdaea. — As- 
 shur — His Powers and Emblems. — Minor Deities. — 
 Place of Anu. — Attributes and Symbols of Bel. — 
 Hea. — The Moon-god Sin.— Shamas-Vul. — Ninus. — 
 His Emblems. — Merodach. — Nergal. — Nebo. — As- 
 syrian Goddesses. — Associated with Male Deities. — 
 Table of the Assyrian System. — The Good Genius. — 
 The Evil Genius. — Idolatry of the Assyrians. — As- 
 syrian Ethics. — Religious Ceremonial. — Feebleness 
 of the System. — Assyrian Learning derived from 
 Babylon. — Method of Writing. — Tablets and Cyl- 
 inders. — Cuneiform Inscriptions. — Sculpture. — 
 Trades and Manufactures. — Skill of the Assyrians 
 in Industrial Art, 191-200 
 
 Book: Kourth.— IVIedia. 
 
 Chapter XV. — Country and Products. 
 
 General Features of Media.— Natural and Polit- 
 ical Boundaries. — Mountain Ranges.— Zagros and 
 Elburz. — Aspect of the Country.— ]Median Rivers. — 
 Cheerless Landscapes. — Poor in Water.— Lake 
 Urumiyeh. — Provinces of Media. — The Capital. — 
 Features of Ecbatana. — Palace and Citadel. — The 
 Northern City. — Rhaga. — Charax.— Other Towns.— 
 Rock of Behistun. — The Median Climate. — Ex- 
 tremes of Temperature. — Atmospheric Phenom- 
 ena. — Influence of Mountains. — Rare Rains. — 
 Whirlwind and Mirage. — Forest Gi'owth. — Or- 
 chards.— Products of the Soil.— Crops of the 
 Plateau.— Gardens and Flowers. — Mineral Wealth 
 of Media.— Wild Beasts.— Domestic Animals. — 
 Birds.— Fishes and Reptiles, 201-210 
 
 Chapter XVI. — The People. 
 
 The People called Medes. — Iranic Origin. — 
 Physical Type. — Beauty and Strength of the 
 ]\Iedes. — Heroism. — Horsemanship. — Intellectual 
 Qualities.— Cruelty.— Luxury. — Warlike Disposi- 
 tion. — Weaponry and Tactics. — Median Dress. — 
 Toilet and Ornaments. — Polygamy. — Royal Cere- 
 monial. — Hunting. — Animals Pursued. — Median 
 Banquets. — The King's Life. — Absence of Gen- 
 ius.— Art of the Medes, 211-215 
 
 Chapter XVII. — ^Language and Religion. 
 
 The Aryan Speech.— Affinities of the Median 
 and Persian Languages. — Few Remnants of Me- 
 
 dian Proper. — Art of Writing. — System of Alpha- 
 bet. — Arrowhead Method. — Materials used. — The 
 Zendavesta. — The Nature Worship of the Irani' 
 ans. — Priests. — Ahura-Mazdao. — His Attributes. — • 
 Sraosha. — Armati. — Spirit and Duty. — The gexia 
 una. — Mithra and Vayu. — Soma. — Devas and 
 Ahuras. — Incoming of Dualism. — Ahriman. — Prac- 
 tical Ethics. — Sacrifices. — Eternal Things. — Resur- 
 rection. — Myth of King Yima. — Legend of Thrse- 
 tona. — Common Myths of the Medes and the 
 Greeks. — System of Magism. — Sacred Elements. — 
 Disposal of the Dead. — Divination. — Insecticide. — 
 Impressiveness of the System, 216-224 
 
 Chapter XVIII. — Civil and Military An- 
 nals. 
 
 The Madai. — Obscure Origin. — Beginning of 
 National History. — Early Relations with Assyria.— 
 Conquest of Media by Sargon. — The Mythical Dei- 
 oces. — Appearance of Cyaxares. — Organizes the 
 Kmgdom. — Makes War on Assyria. — Is routed. — 
 Reorganizes his Army. — The Invasion of Assyria 
 again Undertaken. — Incoming of the Scythians. — 
 They seize the Country. — A Reign of Terror. — 
 Ended by the Butchery of the Scyths. — Cyaxares 
 negotiates with Babylon. — Insurrection and Inva- 
 sion join Hands. — The Assyrians defeated. — Over- 
 throw of Nineveh. — Division of the Empire. — 
 Other Wars of Cyaxares.— Overruns Asia Minor. — 
 Battle of the Eclipse.^ — Peace made with Alyat- 
 tes. — Sketch of Lydia. — Reign of Gyges. — Sardis. — 
 Besieged by the Cimmerians. — Alyattes expels
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 11 
 
 the Barbarians.— Gold of Sardis.— The Three 
 Powers of Western Asia.— Period of Peace.— Am- 
 bition of Necho.— Battle of'Carchemish.— Ciiarac- 
 ter of Cyaxiires.— Reign of Astyages.— He adds 
 Cadusi., to Media.— Method of Government.— 
 Royal Ceremonial.— Hunting.— Magism.— Rise of 
 Persia.— Cyrus at Ecbatana.— Intrigue and Coun- 
 
 ter-plot.— Prophecy.— Cyrus flees.— Median Inva- 
 sion of Persia. — Battles. — Overthrow of the 
 Medes.— Reversal of the Position of the Two 
 Kingdoms.— Establishment of the Medo-Persian 
 p^j^ver.— Causes of the Catastrophe.— Personal In- 
 fluence of Cyrus, 224-238 
 
 book: Fiktth— babylonia. 
 
 Chapter XIX.— The Country. 
 
 Sketch of Lower Mesopotamia. — Babylonia 
 Proper.— Character of Susiana.— The Euphrates 
 Valley.— Products.— Mesopotamia Proper.— Sketch 
 of the Region.— Northern Syria.— Syria Proper.— 
 HoUow Syria.— Gateway between Asia and Af- 
 rica.— Phoenicia.— Its Advantages.— Early Civili- 
 zation. — Tyre and Sidon. — Damascus. — Pales- 
 tine.— Peculiar Character of the Valley.— Petty 
 Israelitish States. — Philistia. — Idumsea. — Pal- 
 myra.— Extent of the Babylonian Empire.— Its 
 Rivers.— Oroatis.—Jerahi.— Kuran and Dizful.— 
 Kerkah.— Sajur and Kowcik.—Orontes.— Litany.— 
 Barada.— Jordan.— Jarmuk and Jabbok.— Lakes. — 
 Sabakhah.— Bahr-el-Melak.— Dead Sea.— Its Pecu- 
 liarities.— Sea of Tiberiau.— Bahr-el-Huleh.— Bahr- 
 el-Kades.— The Arabian Desert.— The Egyptian 
 239-2-n 
 
 Empire, 
 
 Chapter XX.— Climate and Products. 
 
 High Temperatures of Babylonia.— Variations 
 In Difl'erent Regions.— The Sirocco.— Destruction 
 of Forests.— The Cereals.— Abundant yields.— 
 Forest growths.— General Products of Syria.— 
 Those of Palestine.— Mineral Resources of Baby- 
 lonia.— Gems.— Building Materials.— Babylonian 
 Animals.— Birds.— The Gray Heron.— Fishes.— 
 Domestic Animals.— Camel.— Buflalo, . . • 250-254 
 
 Chapter XXI.— People and Cities. 
 
 Mixed Character of the Babylonians. — Three 
 Race Elements Predominant. — Physical Appear- 
 ance of the Babylonians. — Like the Assyr- 
 ians. — Features. — The Susianians.^ — Hair-dress. — 
 Beards.— Swart Complexion. — Intellectual Charac- 
 teristics. — Babylonian Science. — Energy and En- 
 terprise. — Avarice. — Luxurious Living.— Strength 
 and Heroism.— Cruelty. — Usages of War. — Meth- 
 ods of Civil Government. — Pride and Egotism — 
 Religion. — Practical Ethics. — Calm Demeanor. — 
 The City of Babylon.— Size and Character of the 
 Metropolis. — Great Structures. — Temple of Belus — 
 The Royal Palace.— The Hanging Gardens.— How 
 watered. — The Smaller Palace. — The Walls of Bab- 
 ylon.— The Towers. — Splendor of the City. — Ex- 
 isting Ruins. — Remains of El-Kasr and Amran. — 
 The Birs-Nimrud.— The Old Temple of Nebo.— 
 
 Its Mythological Character.— Other Characteris- 
 tics. — Borsippa. — Opis and Teredon. — Susa.— Car- 
 chemish.— Tyre. — Her Manufactures. — Sidon — 
 Ashdod. — Jerusalem, 254-267 
 
 Chapter XXII.— Arts and Sciences. 
 
 Babylonian Architecture,— Must be studied in 
 Ruins.— The Mounds.— Materials of Structure.— 
 Plan of Structure.— Designs in Color.— The Baby- 
 lonian Palaces.— Bridges.— Bricks.— How laid.— 
 Cement.— Great Magnitude of Buildings.— Rude 
 Character of Painting and Sculpture.— Best Speci- 
 mens— Gem-engraving.— Caricature. — Problems 
 of Stone-cutting.— Enameling.— Pigments.— Paint- 
 ing in Relief.— Metallurgy.— Pottery.— Glazing.— 
 Glass-blowing.— Textile Fabrics.— Brilliant Dyes.— 
 Lore of the Chaldees. — Astronomy in Partic- 
 ular.- Relics of Babylonian Star-lore.— Measure- 
 ment of Time.— Uses of Eastern Learning.— As- 
 trology, 267-274 
 
 Chapter XXIII.— Manners and Customs. 
 
 Meager Personal Monuments.— Dress and Habit 
 of the Babylonians.— Articles of Adornment.— 
 Priestly Garments.— Military Dress.— Weapons.— 
 Organization of the Babylonian Army.— Usages in 
 ■\Yar. — Objects of Invasion. — Priests.— Several 
 Classes of Scholars. — Influence of Learning.— 
 Schools.— Common Vocations.— Commerce in Par- 
 ticular.— Exports and Imports.— Babylonian Lux- 
 ury —Banquets.— Position of Women.— Degrading 
 Customs.— Traces of Esteem for the Sex, 274-278 
 
 Chapter XXIV.— Religion. 
 
 Religious Beliefs derived from the Chaldees.— 
 Sli-ht Variations from the Old System.-Princ.pal 
 Deities -Bel, Merodach, and Nebo.-Images of the 
 Gods.-Retinues of Priests.-Ceremonial.-Proces- 
 sions and Banquets.-Cleanness and Unclean- 
 ness -Symbolism of the Babylonian System.- 
 Emblems of the Deities.-Signs not understood.- 
 Symbolic Names of Temples, 278-280 
 
 Chapter XXV.— Civil and Military An- 
 nals. 
 Periods of Babylonian History.— Babylon a 
 Vice-royalty of Assyria.— Early Troubles between
 
 12 
 
 COJSTTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 the North and the South. — Alternate Independ- 
 ence and Suppression. — Syrian Invasions. — Tlie 
 Kingdom established by Nabonassar. — Pileser II. 
 and Merodach-Baladan. — Semiramis. — Obscure 
 Successor of ITabonassar. — Merodach-Baladan gains 
 the Throne. — The Great Conflict with Sargon. — 
 The Latter Victorious.— Babylon subordinated for 
 Seventy-five Years. — Appearance of Nabopolas- 
 sar.— His Collusion with Cyaxares.— Success of the 
 Conspiracy.— Nabopolassar becomes King.— Foreign 
 Relations. — Babylonia in Alliance with Media. — 
 Battle of Megiddo.— Necho's Invasion of Babylo- 
 nia.— Rout of the Egyptians at Carchemish.— Neb- 
 uchadnezzar triumplis in the West. — He becomes 
 King. — Revolt of the Phoenician Cities.— Siege of 
 Tyre. — Insurrection of Jewry. — Zedekiah's Fate- — 
 Sketch of Israel after the Exodus.— Entrance into 
 Canaan. — Division of the Country. — The Theoc- 
 racy. — Establishment of the Kingdom.— Career of 
 
 Saul. — Accession of David. — His Wars. — Strife of 
 his Sons. — Reign of Solomon. — Division of the 
 Kingdom. — Jeroboam rules Israel. — Succession of 
 Israelitish Rulers. — Overthrow of the Kingdom. — 
 Line of Rulers in Judah from Rehoboam to Zede- 
 kiah. — Capture of Tyre. — War with Egypt re- 
 sumed. — Its Result. — Traditions of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar. — Captives in Babylon. — Their Work in that 
 Metropolis. — Great Cities and Enterprises. — Char- 
 acter of Nebuchadnezzar. — His Pride. — Falls to 
 dreaming. — The Hebrew Daniel tells him the 
 meaning. — The King goes Insane. — Evil-lNIerodach 
 succeeds to the Throne. — Revolution. — Neriglissar 
 reigns. — ^Nabonadius obtains the Crown. — The 
 Shadow of Persia. — Babylonian Alliance with 
 Lydia. — Attempts to protect Babylon. — Lydia falls 
 before the ]\Iedes. — Cyrus invades Babylonia. — De- 
 feats Nabonadius. — Capture of Babylon by the 
 Persians.— End of the Empire, 281-302 
 
 BOOK Si:KTH:.— PERSIA. 
 
 Chapter XXVI. — The Country. 
 
 Territorial greatness of the Empire.— Political 
 divisions. — Persia Proper. — Climate and Character- 
 istics.— Rivers. — Lakes. — Mountains. — Districts. — 
 Forests. — Plateau of Iran. — Its Features. — 
 Streams— Valley of the Indus.— Land of the Fish- 
 eaters. — Elburz Region. — Armenia. — Its Mount- 
 ains. — Asia Minor. — Island Possessions of Per- 
 sia. — African Dominions. — Great Variety of Re- 
 sources, 305-310 
 
 Chapter XXVII. — Climate and Products. 
 
 Tremendous Heats of Southern Persia. — Chill 
 in the Uplands. — Rigors in the Mountains. — Cli- 
 mate of the Indus Valley. — Vegetable Growths of 
 Persia. — Grains and Fruits. — Wild Animals. — 
 Fishes and Reptiles. — Domestic Animals. — Persian 
 Mines. — Pearis and Gems. — Animal Life of the 
 Provinces. — Birds. — The Iguana and Chame- 
 leon, 311-314 
 
 Chapter XXVIII. — People and Cities. 
 
 The Persians of the Iranic Stock. — Same Race 
 with the IVIedes. — Principal Tribes of the Fam- 
 ily. — The Parthians. — The Gandarians. — The Sat- 
 tagydians. — The Gedrosians. — The IVIycians. — The 
 Scythians. — The Cappadocians. — The Phrygians. — 
 The City of Persepolis. — Pasargadfe. — Its Ruins. — 
 Susa. — Miletus. — Sardis. — Ephesus. — Temple of 
 Diana. — Its Wealth and Adornments. — Review 
 of Climatic Conditions as aff'ecting Civiliza- 
 tion, 314-318 
 
 Chapter XXIX. — Arts and Sciences. 
 
 High Rank of Persian Architecture. — Exhibited 
 in Royal Palaces and Tombs.— The Two Palaces 
 
 of Persepolis. — Character of the Platform. — Plan of 
 the Structure. — The Terraces. — The Ascent by 
 Steps. — Sculptures of the Stair-cases. — What they 
 Signify.— The Ten Edifices.— Hall of Pillars.— 
 Plouses of Xerxes and Artaxerxes. — Style of Col- 
 umns and Ornamentation. — The Gate-ways. — The 
 Hall of a Hundred Columns. — A Place for Admin- 
 istration. — The Great Hall of Audience. — Ruins 
 of Pasargadse. — Remains at Istakr. — The Palace of 
 Susa. — The Tombs of the Kings. — General Charac- 
 ter of Architecture. — Sculpture. — The Things rep- 
 resented. — Persian Coins. — Utensils. — Personal 
 Decorations. — Social and Economic Arts. — Absence 
 of Science. — Unreflective Character of the Ar- 
 yans, 319-326 
 
 Chapter XXX. — Manners and Customs. 
 
 The Persian Type. — Stature and Features. — In- 
 tellectual Qualities. — Literary Abilities. — Warlike 
 Spirit.— Moral Qualities— The Truth-telling Char- 
 acter. — Self-indulgence. — Political Servility. — 
 Usages and Manners. — The Soldiery. — Weapons 
 and Armor. — Persian Cavalry. — Scythe-bearing 
 War-chariots. — Persian Order of Battle. — Confi- 
 dence in Numbers. — Stratagems. — Generalship. — > 
 The King commanding. — Decimal Organization. — 
 The Persian Army marching. — Ethics of the Bat- 
 tle-field.— The Empire a Land Dominion. — ]\Iari- 
 time Skill acquired. — Ancient War-galleys. — The 
 Trireme in Particular. — Pontoons.— The Persian 
 King. — His Place in the State. — His Dress and 
 Regalia. — His Officers. — A Fragrant Majesty. — 
 The Royal Retinue.— Habits of the Palace.— The 
 Harem. — The Queen-mother. — The Eunuchs. — 
 Princely Houses, — Ceremonial of the Court. — 
 Rules for the King. — He hunts and games. — 
 His Reading done by Proxy. — He was the State. —
 
 CONTEWTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 13 
 
 Tenfold Tribal Division.— Dress and Manners of 
 the Common People. — Education of Boys. — 
 Disesteem of Industry. — Vanities. — The Penal 
 Code, 327-337 
 
 Chapter XXXI. — Language and Relig- 
 ion. 
 
 Kinship of Persic with European Tongues. — 
 Peculiarities of the Language. — ^The Alphabet. — 
 Cuneiform Method of Writing. — Persian Inscrip- 
 tions. — History of the Arrow-head System.— G rote- 
 fend. — Affinity of Persian and Median Religions. — 
 Zoroaster. — His Place in History. — His Work. — 
 Monotheism and Dualism. — Worship of Ahura- 
 Mazdao. — Persian Temples. — Sacrifices. — Idola- 
 try. — The Ahivras and the Devas. — The Good Gen- 
 ius. — Analogy to Judaism. — Apostasy. — Institution 
 of Magism. — Pi'evalence of Showy Forms, 338-342 
 
 Chapter XXXII. — Civil and Military 
 
 Annals. 
 
 Primitive Persia. — Foundation of the Mon- 
 archy. — Achsemenes. — Reign of Teispes. — Coming 
 of Cambyses. — Subjection of Persia to Media. — 
 Residence of the Crown Prince at Ecbatana. — Cy- 
 rus with his Grandfather. — The Revolution. — 
 Threefold Division of Asia. — Sketch of Cyrus. — 
 Relations of Persia with Lydia. — Croesus and Cyrus 
 at War. — Diplomacy of the Latter. — Battle of Pte- 
 ria. — Conflict in the Valley of Hermus. — Siege of 
 Sardis. — Capture of Croesus and Subversion of 
 Lydia. — Contact with the Greeks. — Revolt of Sar- 
 dis. — Policy of Cyrus with the ^gean States. — 
 Thales. — Conquest of Harpagus. — Cyrus subdues 
 Bactria. — The Sacae conquered. — Further Con- 
 quests in the East. — The King's Enmity to Baby- 
 lon. — Undertakes an Invasion. — Overthrows tliat 
 Empire. — Persian Power extends to the Mediter- 
 ranean. — The Aryan Ascendency. — Cyrus looks to 
 Egypt. — Restores the Jews. — Makes a Campaign 
 into the Great Plateau. — Is slain by the Massage- 
 tse. — Sketch of his Character. — Accession of Cam- 
 byses. — He kills Smerdis. — Makes an Invasion of 
 Egypt-— Meets the Enemy at Pelusium.— Takes 
 
 Memphis.— Overawes the Country. — Disastrous 
 Result of the Expedition against Amun. — Takes 
 Vengeance on the Egyptians. — Story of the False 
 Smerdis. — Death of Cambyses. — His Character. — 
 Reign of the Magus. — He betrays Himself. — Favor 
 to the Magi brings Revolution. — Gomates over- 
 thrown by the Seven Princes. — Accession of Da- 
 rius. — Religious Reform.— The King suppresses 
 Magism. — Insurrections against the Government. — 
 The Same are Suppressed by the Royal Armies. — 
 Babylon is made the Capital. — Suppression of 
 many Revolts. — The King as a Statesman. — Organ- 
 ization of the Empire. — The Satrapial System. — 
 Support of the Government. — The Administration 
 of Espionage. — Post-houses. — Coinage. — The King 
 conquers India. — He looks into Europe. — Scythian 
 Expedition. — Revolt of the Greek Cities. — Sup- 
 pression of the Insurrection. — "Sire, remember 
 Athens." — Policy of Darius. — The Thracian Cam- 
 paign. — The Fleet destroyed. — New Expedition. — 
 Battle of Marathon. — Renewal of Preparations. — 
 Death of Darius. — Xerxes takes up his Work. — 
 The Egyptian Revolt. — The Great Invasion of 
 Greece begun. — Persia impends over Europe. — 
 The Army of Xerxes. — Crossing of the Helles- 
 pont. — Story of Thermopylae. — Salamis and Ruin. — 
 Battle of Platea. — End of the Expedition. — Ac- 
 cession of Artaxerxes. — Second Revolt in Egypt. — 
 Peace of Callias. — Syrian Insurrection. — Greek 
 Broils. — Death of Artaxerxes. — Troublous Times 
 ensuing. — The Lydian Revolt. — Athens humiliated 
 in Sicily. — Leagues Herself with Persia. — The 
 Great Kings learn the Weakness of the Greeks. — 
 Revolt and Expedition of Cyrus the Younger. — 
 Battle of Cunaxa. — Retreat of the Ten Thousand. — 
 Peace of Antalcidas. — Accession of Ochus. — His 
 Campaign into Egypt.— Sidon destroyed. — Rise of 
 Macedonia. — Accession of Darius Codomanus. — 
 The IMacedonian Invasion of Persia. — Battle of the 
 Granicus. — Conquest of Asia Minor by Alexan- 
 der. — Battle of Issus. — Route of the Persians. — 
 Preparations of Darius for the Final Conflict. — Ar- 
 bela. — Overthrow of the Empire. — Pursuit and 
 Death of Darius, 343-376 
 
 Book Skventh.— Parthta. 
 
 Chapter XXXIII. — The Country. 
 
 Place of Parthia in the Scheme of Ancient 
 History. — Point of View from which the Empire 
 is considered. — Chronological Relations of Par- 
 thia. — Reasons for giving Parthian History in this 
 Place. — Parthia in some Sense a Revival of the 
 Persian Power. — Time Limits of the Narrative. — 
 Countries to he considered. — Extent of Parthia 
 Proper. — Character of the Country. — The Flora 
 and Fauna. — Climate. — Parthia protected by her 
 Position. — Nomadic Character of the Primitive 
 
 Tribes. — Territorial Expansion. — Surrounding 
 Provinces. — Sketch of Chorasmia. — Character of 
 Margiana. — Of Arya. — Of Sarangia. — Of Sagar- 
 tia.— Of Hyrcania. — More Distant Territories. — 
 Sketch of Bactria. — Of Arachosia. — Of Sacastana 
 and Carmania.— Of Persia Proper. — Of the Meso- 
 potamian Regions. — Total Geographical Extent 
 of the Empire, 377-383 
 
 Chapter XXXIV. — People and Arts, 
 
 Ethnic Origin of the Parthians. — Of Aryan 
 Derivation. — But Modified with Scythic Blood. —
 
 u 
 
 coy TEXTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 iceasons of the Modification — Tlie Horseback 
 Habits of tlie Race. — Unfixednes^ of Character. — 
 Primitive Rehgious Ciiaracter. — Zoroastrianism 
 accepted. — Dualism. — Deterioration into Mag- 
 ism. — Rise of tlie Magian Priesthood. — Supersti- 
 tions of the People. — Decline of the Faith and 
 Practice. — Nature Worship revived. — Religious 
 Results of Alexander's Conquest. — Warlike Spirit 
 of the Parthians. — Parthian Cavahy. — War Man- 
 ners of the Nation. — Organization of the Army. — 
 Methods of the Campaign. — Tactics. — Efficiency 
 of the Parthian Horse. — Military Operations 
 limited to the Day and the Summer. — Parthian 
 Weakness in the Matter of Sieges. — War 
 Vehicles. — Elephants and Camels. — Battle in 
 Ttrrorem. — Fonnulse for Armistice and Treaty. — 
 Employment of Greek Language. — Governmental 
 Intercourse and Manners. — Pledges and Hos- 
 tages. — Character of the Court. — The Hunt. — The 
 Paradise. — Appearance and Manners of the 
 King. — Royal Garments and Insignia. — Place of 
 Woman. — Acquirements and Learning. — Absence 
 of Arts. — Weakness of the Imaginative and Specu- 
 lative Powers of Mind. — Architectural Instincts 
 and Achievements. — Paucity of Parthian Re- 
 mains. — A Movable Capital. — Hatra and Ctesi- 
 phon — Circular Walls of the Former. — Character 
 of the Ruins. — The Palace. — Nature and Extent 
 of the Structure. — Arches and Sculptures. — At- 
 tempted Restoration. — The Temple of Hatra.— 
 The Parthians not Comparable with Egyptians 
 and Greeks. — The Necropolis — Disposal of the 
 Dead. — Sepulchral Remains. — Parthian Art. — 
 Terra-cotta Work. — Utensils. — Personal Decora- 
 tions. — Jewels. — Bas-reliefs. — The Procession of 
 Victory.— Other Scenes in Relief. — Small ^Esthetic 
 Instincts of the Race, 383-396 
 
 Chapter XXXV. — CrviL and Military 
 Annals. 
 
 Obscurity of the Primitive Parthians. — First 
 Emergence of the Race. — Parthia as a Persian 
 Satrapy. — Falls under the Dominion of Alexan- 
 der. — Rapid Changes in Ancient History. — Parthia 
 associated with other Provinces. — Is assigned to 
 Seleucus. — Establishment of the Empire of the 
 Seleucidse. — Fixing the Capital. — Transference of 
 the Seat of , Government to Antioch. — Break of 
 Seleucus with the Asiatics. — Neglect of the ]\Ies- 
 opotamian Countries by the Kings of Antioch. — 
 Accession of Antiochus Soter. — Reign of An- 
 tiochus Theos. — Successful Revolt of Bactria. — 
 The Example followed by the Parthians. — Ar- 
 saces Heads the Revolution. — Suppression of the 
 Greek Cities. — Tiridates succeeds to the Throne. — 
 His War with Ptolemy. — He conquers Hyrcania. — 
 Callinicus makes an Expedition against Parthia. — 
 Is overthrown. — Beginning of Parthian Power. — 
 The Kingflom improved and defended. — Qu^^stion 
 of removing the Capital. — Influence of the 
 
 Greeks. — Accession of Artabanus I. — He con- 
 tends with Antiochus III. for Media, — Makes 
 War on Bactria. — Period of Obscurity. — Obscure 
 Reign of Priapatius. — Aflfairs in the Extreme 
 East. — Revolt of the Indian Provinces. — Relations 
 of the Punjaub and Syria. — Accession of Phraatea 
 I. — Conquest of the Mardi. — Resentment of Se- 
 leucus IV. — The Caspian Gates. — Phraates gains 
 Possession of the Pass. — Mithridates takes the 
 Throne. — His Place among the Parthian Kings. — 
 Condition of Asia. — Reign of Eucratidas in Bac- 
 tria. — The Kingdom of Syria weakens. — Compli- 
 cations in the South-west. — Mithridates makea 
 War on Bactria.— Condition of AflTairs at An- 
 tioch. — The Parthians conquer the Medes. — 
 Hyrcania annexed. — Elymais, Persia, and Baby- 
 lon subdued. — Heliocles King of Bactria. — Con- 
 quest of that Country by Mithridates. — Establish- 
 ment of the Parthian Empire. — Affairs in Syria. — 
 Reign of Demetrius II. — The Greeks iii the 
 Parthian Empire. — Demetrius begins a War. — 
 Success of IMithridates. — Marriage Project. — Par- 
 thia Dominates Western Asia. — Character of the 
 Government. — The Nobility. — Councils of State. — 
 Parthian Constitution. — Order of Succession. — 
 Power of the JNIegistanes. — The Surena. — Fixed- 
 ness of the Government. — Median Priesthood. — 
 The Satrapial System. — Its Variations. — The Greek 
 Cities. — Freedom of the Provincial Govern- 
 ments. — The Parthian Capitals. — Character of the 
 Court. — Manners of the King in Peace and in 
 War. — Accession of Phraates II. — He makes War 
 on Syria. ^ — Danger from the Greek Cities. — Winter 
 Insurrection against the Syrians. — Destruction of 
 the Army of Sidetes. — Jewish Independence. — 
 The Scythians overrun Parthia. — Phraates Slain. — 
 Accession of Artabanus II. — Barbarian Inroads 
 from the North-east. — Nature of such Move- 
 ments. — Bactria Overrun. — Character of the Inva- 
 ders. — Scythic Cannibalism. — Artabanus beats 
 back the Barbarians. — Is killed. — Mithridates II. 
 accedes to the Throne. — Deflection of the Stream 
 of Barbarism. — Ambitions of Mithridates. — An- 
 nexation of Armenia.^Outspreading of Rome 
 into Asia. — She interferes with the Asiatic 
 States. — Comes Face to Face with Parthia. — Ti- 
 granes of Armenia becomes Independent. — Death 
 of Mithridates. — First Sj-mptoms of Decadence. — 
 Reign of Mnasciras. — Succeeded by Sanatroeces. — 
 Armenian Ascendency. — War between that Coun- 
 try and Parthia. — Lncullus in Asia. — Accession 
 of Phraates III. — Pompey as Proconsul. — Peace 
 between Parthia and Rome. — That Power domi- 
 nates Armenia. — Assassination at the Parthian 
 Court.— IMithridates III.— Is followed by Oro- 
 des. Gabinius Proconsul in Asia. — Is Succeeded 
 by Crassus. — Outbreak of Hostilities. — Parthia 
 invaded by the Romans. — Crassus advances to 
 the Belik. — Great Battle fought. — Ruin of the 
 Roman Army. — Death of Crassus.— Extent of the
 
 COXTENrS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 15 
 
 Disaster— Marriage Union of Partliia and Ar- 
 menia.— Affairs at Seleucia— Execution of the 
 Surena.— Csesar and Pompey.— The Latter de- 
 stroyed.- Caesar's Projects.— His Death.— Rela- 
 tions of Parthia with Rome daring the Civil 
 War. — Second Triumvirate. — Antonius in Asia. — 
 New Tactics of the Romans. — Accession of Phmates 
 IV. — Antonius malis "War on Parthia. — Sketch of 
 the Expedition. — Media reconquered by Par- 
 thia. — Civil Dissensions in the Empire.— Octavius 
 Master of the AVestern World. — Death of An- 
 tonius. — Compact between Rome and Parthia.^ 
 Parthian Princes in the Eternal City. — Protecto- 
 rate of Armenia. — Reign of Phraataces. — Acces- 
 sion of Vonones. — Is expelled by Artabanus. — 
 The Armenian Complication. — Reign of Artabanus 
 III.— War with the Jews of Babylon.— Bloody 
 Annals of the Court. — Reigns of Gotarzes and 
 "Vardanes. — Siege of Seleucia. — Attempt to Re- 
 cover Armenia. — Death of Vardanes. — Rebellion 
 of ]\Ieherdates. — Reign of Volagases I. — Corbulo 
 in Asia. — Civil War in Parthia. — Expedition of 
 Psetus.^-Accession of Pacorus. — Condition of 
 
 Parthia at Close of First Century. — Evils of 
 FeudaUsm. — Mixed Character of the Dynasty. — 
 Chosroes elected King. — Further Troubles with 
 Armenia. — Trajan in Partha. — Parthamasiris. — 
 Victories of Trajan. — Earthquake of Antioch. — 
 Roman Expedition against Parthia. — Ctesiphon 
 taken. — Romans turned back. — Hadrian Makes 
 Peace. — Accession of Volagases II. — Character of 
 the Reign. — Invasion of Alani. — Volagases III. 
 takes the Throne. — Antonines at Rome. — Verus 
 in Asia. — AVar of Cassius. — Great Pestilence. — 
 Afflictions of Parthian Empire. — Reign of Vola- 
 gases IV. — Course of Events in the AVest. — Suc- 
 cesses of Severus in Asia. — War in Mesopotamia. — 
 Disputed Succession. — Volagases V. and Arta- 
 banus IV. — Carac.illa Emperor. — His Relations 
 with Artabanus — Project of Intermarriage.— Cara- 
 calla Makes AVar. — Is Stabbed in IMoon-god Tem- 
 ple. — Macrinus Succeeds. — Battle of Nisibis. — 
 Defeat of the Romans. — Revolt of Persia. — Vicis- 
 situdes of the Conflict. — Downfall of the Parthian 
 Empire. — Causes of Decadence. — Transfer of His- 
 torical Station to Europe, 397-444 
 
 BOOK ElOHTH.— GREECR. 
 
 Chapter XXXVI. — The Country. 
 
 Name of Hellas. — Limits of the Peninsula. — 
 IMountain Ranges. — Spurs and Peaks. — Rivers. — 
 Acheloos in Particular. — Principal Lakes. — Coast- 
 line of Greece. — Natural Divisions of Hellas. — Lim- 
 its of Northern Greece. — Great Variability of 
 Climate.— Structure of Central Greece. — Character 
 of Peloponnesus. — Political Divisions of Ancient 
 Greece. — Thessaly. — Vale of Tempo. — Features of 
 Epirus. — Countries of Central Hellas. — Doris. — 
 Pliocis. — Locris. — Malis.^ Boeotia. — Attica. — Me- 
 garis. — iEtolia. — Acarnania. — Corinth and Sicyo- 
 nia. — Argolis. — Epidauria and Hermionis, — 
 Achaia. — Elis. — Arcndia. — Messenia. — Laconia. — 
 Argolis. — Political Unity in Hellas forbidden by 
 Nature. — Mythology Natural to such a Region.— 
 Beauty of the Grecian Skies and Scenery, 447-456 
 
 Chapter XXXVII.— The People. 
 
 Who the Hellenes were. — The lonians. — Views 
 of the Greeks relative to their Origin. — Testi- 
 mony of Language. — The Hellenes Aryans. — Le- 
 gend of Hellen and his Sons. — AVork of yEolus. — 
 Race of Dorus. — Descendants of Ion. — Acheeus 
 and his Tribe.— The Primitive Pelasgians. — Per- 
 sonal Qualities of the Hellenes. — Stature.— Beauty 
 and Endurance.— The Greek the Man of Nature.— 
 Worship of Comeliness. — Symmetry and Grace. — 
 Features. — The Greek AVoman. — Courage of the 
 Hellenes. — The Greek Mind the Best of the 
 World. — Hellenic Thought Preeminent.— Greek 
 
 Wit. — Craft ^nd Stratagem. — Sense of the Beau- 
 tiful. — The Adventurous Spirit. — Greek Morals. — 
 Deception of the Race. — Morality of the Philoso- 
 phers. — Hellenic Patriotism. — The Love of Lib- 
 erty. — Individuality of the Greeks. — Greatness of 
 the Race, 457-464 
 
 Chapter XXXVIII. — Language, Litera- 
 ture, AND Art, 
 
 Language and Ethnology. — Cognate Tonguea 
 of Greek. — Growth and Spread of Greek. — Three 
 Periods of Development.- — Dialects. — Doric. — 
 Ionic. — Attic. — ^olic. — Greek of Athens. — Primi- 
 tive Macedonian. — Hellenistic a False AVord. — 
 Spread of Greek in the Age of Alexander. — Infec- 
 tion of Latin at Constantinople. — The Alphabet. — 
 Styles of Character. — Grammatical Structure of 
 Greek.— The Noun.— The Adjective.— Tlie Verb.— 
 Sympathetic Character of the Language. — Its Pre- 
 eminence. — Greek Literature. — Homer and his 
 Songs. — Preserved b\" Rhapsody.— Revised by Pi- 
 sistratus. — The Cyclic Bards. — Hesiod. — Appear- 
 ance of the Lyric. — Elegy. — Tyrtseus and Calli- 
 nus. — Minor Bards. — The Iambic. — Archilocus 
 and Hipponax. — The Melos. — Sappho and Anac- 
 reon. — Pindar. — The Drama appears. — Thespis of 
 Attica. — Development of the Theater. — vEschylus 
 and his AA''orks. — Sophocles. — His Tragedies. — Eu- 
 ripides. — Coming of Comedy. — Its Relations to 
 Greek Society. — Aristophanes. — His Fierce Sat- 
 ires. — Menander and Possidippus. — Appearance 
 of Prose.-T-Cadmus. — Herodotus and his Work. —
 
 16 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 Thucydides. — Xenophon. — Rise of Oiatory. — 
 Styles of Delivery.— Doubtful Place of Oratory. — 
 Early Appearance of Art in Hellas. — Tiryns and 
 Mycense. — Schliemann's Discovery.— Style of the 
 Greek Temple. — History of the Column.— The 
 Doric and the Ionic. — Plan of a Temple. — The 
 Inner Part. — Decorations in Color.— Effects of the 
 Ionic and the Doric Structure. — The Acropolis. — 
 The Erechtheum. — The Parthenon.— The Age of 
 Pericles.— Fame of the Great Painters. — Polyg- 
 notus. — Zeuxis and Parrhasius. — Tithmanes. — 
 Apelles. — Greek Sculpture. — Rude Beginnings. — 
 Myron and Polycletus. — Phidias. — Praxiteles. — 
 Lysippus. — Schools of Rhodes and Pergamon. — 
 
 Minor Sculptors, 464-482 
 
 Chapter XXXIX. — Manners and Customs. 
 
 Daily Life of the Greek.— The Public Mar- 
 ket.— Flowers and Wit. — The Crowds that gath- 
 ered. — The Disputatious Spirit. — Birth of 
 Politics. — The Athenian Buzz. — The Courts. — The 
 Pnyx. — The Council. — Hospitality. — Sociability. — 
 Home Fare of the Greeks. — The Feast. — The Ban- 
 quet Ceremonial. — Wreaths and Songs. — Philoso- 
 phy and Banqueting. — Night in Athens. — Women 
 and Heroes. — Later Restrictions on the Sex. — 
 The Spartan Women. — Women of Ionia. — Mar- 
 riage. — Domestic Ethics. — The Helserx. — The Greek 
 Home. — Description of Houses.^Andronitis and 
 Gynseconitis. — The Prostas. — House Decoration. — 
 Furniture. — The Couch.— Toilet of AVomen. — Arti- 
 ficial Lighting. — The Library. — Bric-a-brac. — 
 Greek Slavery.— The Slave Classes, . . . 482-490 
 
 Chapter XL. — Religion. 
 
 Elements of Greek Faith. — Piety under Frivol- 
 ity. — Every Man his Own Priest. — Offerings and 
 Sacrifices. — Growth of Priesthood. — Its Influ- 
 ence. — The Prophetic Gift. — Dodona and Delphi. — 
 The Sacred Oracle.— The Pythia.— The Delphic 
 College. — Puncture of the Fraud. —Mysteries of 
 Eleusis and Samothrace. — The Eleusinian Festi- 
 val. — Feast of Dionysus. — The Panathentea. — 
 The Great Procession. — Greek View of Life and 
 Death. — Human Sympathies. — The Final Scene. — 
 Coffins, Epitaphs, and Tombs, 491-497 
 
 Chapter !5tLI. — Myth and Tradition. 
 
 The Myth-m iking Arj^ans. — Fundamental 
 Unity of Aryan Mythology. — The Greek Legend 
 of Nature. — Zeus and his Offspring. — His Mar- 
 riages. — Hera — Poseidon. — Hades. — Athene. — De- 
 meter. — Hestia. — The Prytaneium. — Ares. — Aph- 
 rodite. — Her Loves. — Hephaestus. — Phoebus 
 Apo'lo. — His Oracle. — Artemis. — Hermes. — INIinor 
 Divinities. — Heracles and his Labors. — Descent of 
 the Myth into the Legend. — Mythology a Natural 
 Philosophy. — Intellectual Vigor of the Aryans. — 
 Essence of the Myth.— The Greek Mind and 
 Nature.— The Things to be Considered.— Mythol- 
 ogy in the Descriptive Stage. — Science and the 
 
 Myth. — Growth of Myths during Migrations, — 
 Linguistic Metamorphosis the Explanation. — Il- 
 lustrations of the Theory. — Legend of Perseus. — 
 Theseus. — Qi^dipus. — Cadmus and Europa. — Ce- 
 crops. — Asclepios. — The Cyclopes. — Legend of 
 Deucalion. — Prometheus. — Epimetheus and Pan- 
 dora. — Argonautic Expedition. — Story of the Tro- 
 jan War, 498-511 
 
 Chapter XLII. — The Hellenic Dawn. 
 
 The Boeotian Migration. — Return of the Herac- 
 lidse. — Vicissitudes of the Movement. — The Do- 
 rians in Peloponnesus.— Previous History of the 
 Peninsula. — Jostling of Other Tribes by the Do- 
 rians. — yEolian Confederation. — Ionia. — Doric 
 Hexapolis. — Truer View of these Movements. — 
 Story of Minos of Crete. — Dawn of History. — Ele- 
 ments of Greek Unity. — The Olympian Games. — 
 Prizes and Rewards. — Management of the Festi- 
 val. — Pj'thian Celebration. — Games of Nemea. — 
 The Isthmian Games. — The Amphyctionic Coun- 
 cil. — Its Duties and Objects. — The First Sacred 
 War.— Relations to Delphic Oracle, . . . 512-523 
 
 Chapter XLIII. — Growth and Law. 
 
 Three States of Peloponnesus. — Seeming Lead- 
 ership of Argolis. — Growth of Sparta. — Lycurgus 
 and his Work. — Divisions of Population and 
 Land. — Distribution of Powder in the State. — 
 The Ephors. — Spartan Education. — The Spartan 
 Child. — Endurance of Spartan Youth. — The Pub- 
 lic Mess. — Singing and Playing. — Spartan Con- 
 tempt of Luxury. — Spartan Mother. — The First 
 Messenian War. — The Second Conflict. — The 
 Warrior Tyrtaeus. — Career of Aristomenes. — Sub- 
 jection of Messenia. — Tegea Conquered.— War 
 with the Argives. — Political Changes in Greece. — 
 Coming of the Despot. — Kingship retained in 
 Sparta. — Sketches of Sicyon and Corinth. — The 
 Despotism of Megara.— Story of Codrus. — The 
 Archonship. — Class Distinctions. — Powers of the 
 State. — Draco and his Laws. — Sacrilege of the 
 Alcmpeonidte. — Appearance of Solon. — His Mission 
 to Sparta. — Plain, Mountain, and Shore. — Appeal 
 to Solon. — His Laws. — Division of Citizens. — As- 
 sembV and Senate. — Punishment of Crime. — The 
 Statutes registered. — Solon in Exile. — He and 
 Croesus.^-His Return to Athens. — Relations with 
 Pisistratus. — Usurpation of the Latter.— He is 
 Exiled.— Third Tyranny.— Benefits to the State.— 
 Hippias and Hipparchus. — Appearance of Clisthe- 
 nes. — Revolution in the Government. — Popular 
 Tendency. — The Ostracism. — Isagoras appeals to 
 Prejudice. — Cleomenes humiliated. — Sparta goes 
 to War.— The Movement fails. — Jealousy of 
 
 Sparta, 523-539 
 
 Chapter XLIV. — The Persian Wars. 
 
 First Relations of Greece and Persia. — Mega- 
 bazus in Thrace. — Revolt of Naxos. — Artaphernes 
 espouses the Cause of the Oligarchs.— Siege of
 
 COJSTTEJSfTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 17 
 
 Naxos.— Game of Histi^us.— Aristagoras secures 
 Help at Athens.— Burning of S-rdis.— " Lord, re- 
 member the Athenians "-End of Histiteus.-Siege 
 of Miletus— Persian Authority restored —Mardo- 
 nius in Asia Minor.-Darius would conquer 
 Greece —The ^ginetan War.-The Persian War 
 undertaken.-The Advance.-Eretria destroyed.- 
 Miltiades appears.-Battle of INIarathon.-Rout of 
 the Persians.— Effects of the Battle.— Honors to the 
 Dead.— Death of Miltiades.— War with ^gina.— 
 Themistoclee and the Greek Fleet.-Aristides.- 
 Eivalry of the Two Leaders.— Xerxes plans the 
 Conquest of Greece.— The Advance of the Great 
 Army.- Preparation of the Greeks.— Athens and 
 Sparta cooperate -The Story of Thermopylse.- 
 Forcing of the Pass.— Battle of Artemesium.— 
 Xerxes would plunder Delphi.— The Destruction 
 of Athens.— Persian Fleet at Phalerum.— Dissen- 
 sions of the Greeks.— The Day of Salamis.— Ruin 
 and Flight of the Persians.— Greeks and Cartha- 
 ginians in Sicily.— Mardoiiius tries to seduce 
 the Athenians.-Battle of Platjea.— The Persian 
 Rout.— Spoils of the Field.— Destruction of the 
 Persian Fleet at Mycale.— Humiliation of the 
 Great King, 539-556 
 
 Chapter XL V.— The Athenian Ascend- 
 ency. 
 
 Career of Pausanias.— His Intrigues with the 
 Persians.— The Confederacy of Delos.— Supremacy 
 of the Spartan Fleet.— Rebuilding of Athens.— 
 Progress of Democracy.— Fall of Themistocles.— 
 End of Pausanias.— The Just Athenian.— Rise 
 of Cimon.— Battle of Eurymedon.— Disasters to 
 Spaita— Leadership of Pericles.— His Politics.— 
 Maritime Sway of Athens.— Revolt of ^gina.— 
 Battle of (Enophyta.— The Long Walls.— Peace 
 •with Persia.— The Athenian Empire.— Various 
 Insurrections.— Revival of Aristocracy.— Glory of 
 Athens.— Policy of Colonization.— Excessive Tax- 
 ation.— Reduction of Samos, 556-566 
 
 Chapter XL VI.— The Peloponnesian 
 Wars. 
 
 Corinth and Corcyra.— The Latter applies to 
 Athens.— Attack on Pericles.— Trial of Aspasia.— 
 Thebans begin Hostilities.— Murder of the Theban 
 Prisoners.— Formation of Peloponnesian League. — 
 Support of Athens. —Invasion of Attica.— The 
 Plague in Athens.— Death of Pericles.— Ravages of 
 the War.— Potidaa taken.— Platfea overwhelmed 
 by the Spartans.— The Prisoners executed.— Bat- 
 tle of Naupactus.— Revolt of Mitylene.— The In- 
 habitants saved from Destruction.— IVIassacre in 
 Corcyra.— Varyine Progress of the War.— Siege of 
 Sphacteria.— Success of Cleon.— Campaigns of the 
 
 Eighth Year.— Brasidas in the Korth.— Defeat oi 
 Cleon.— Peace of Nicias.— Rise of Alcibiades.— He 
 appears at the Olympic Games.— War in Man- 
 tinea.— Melos conquered by Athens.— Affairs in 
 Sicily.— Embassy to Egesta.— The Sicilian Expedi- 
 tion undertaken.— Disputes of the Commanders.— 
 Mutilation of the Hermse.— Alcibiades ordered to 
 Trial.— Siege of Syracuse.— Ill Success of the Athe- 
 nians.— Battles in the Harbor.— Destruction of the 
 Athenian Fleet.— Retreat of Nicias.— Annihilation 
 of his Army.— Consternation at Athens.— Revolt 
 of the Dependencies.— Double Work of Alcibi- 
 ades.— Oligarchic Revolution.— Affairs in Samos.— 
 Negotiations.— Revolt of Eubrea.— The Oligarchy 
 overthrown.— Naval Battles.— Return of Alcibi- 
 ades.— Battle of Arginusse.- ^Egospotami.- Ruin 
 of the Athenians.— Approach of Lysander to 
 Athens.— The City humiliated.— Destruction of 
 the Defenses.— The Oligarchy reinstated.— Samoa 
 subdued.— Reign of the Thirty.— End of Alcibi- 
 ades.— Reaction against Sparta.— Pausanias sup- 
 ports the Oligarchy.— Democratic Revolution.— 
 Career of Socrates, 566-588 
 
 Chapter XL VIL— Spartan and Theban 
 Ascendencies. 
 
 Policy of Sparta.— A gis and Lysander.— Agesi- 
 laiis.— The Decharchy.— Cyrus the Younger.— 
 Agesilaiis in Asia INIinor.— Battle of Cnidus.— Revolt 
 of the Greek States.— Battle of Haliartus.— League 
 against Sparta.— Battle of Coronea.— Conon and 
 the Persians— Siege of Corinth.— Revolution in 
 Tactics.— Iphicrates.— The Peltastae Victorious.- 
 Revival of Athens.— Peace of Antalcidas.— The 
 Mantinean AVar.— The Olynthian League.— Seizure 
 of Thebes.— The Northern War.— Epaminondas 
 and Pelopidas.— Revolt of Thebes.— Athens in- 
 volved.— Character of Epaminondas.— Progress of 
 the War —Peace of Callias.— Isolation of Thebes.— 
 Battle of Leuctra.— Jason of Pherae.— Epaminon- 
 das in the South.— Athens and Sparta in Alli- 
 ance.— Rise of Macedonia.— The Tearless Battle.— 
 Embassy to Persia.— Thebes and Thessaly.— Effort 
 for Peace.— Battle of Cynoscephalaj.— Elis and 
 Arcadia.— Attempt to capture Sparta.— Battle of 
 Mantinea.— Death of Epaminondas.— End of Ages- 
 ilaiis. — Greek Affairs in Sicily.— Dionysius. — 
 Plato.— Dion.— Story of Timoleon.— Sicilian Des- 
 potism overthrown.— Greece threatened by the 
 North.— Philip of Macedon.— He becomes King.— 
 His Policy relative to Greece.— Social and Sa- 
 cred Wars.— Seizure of Delphi.— Philip takes 
 Advantage of Dissensions. — Demosthenes. — 
 His Orations. — Negotiations of Athens with 
 Macedonia.— Pnilip invades Phocis.— The Final 
 Scene, 589-608
 
 18 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 BOOK Ninth.— IVlACEDONiA. 
 
 Chapter XL VIII.— Countries, Cities, and 
 Tribes. 
 Names of the Country.— Regions included in the 
 Empire.— How bounded.— Pi incipal Kiverd.— Val- 
 leys.— Political Divisions.— Orestis and Stympha- 
 lia.— Eordasa and Pieria.— BottiiKa.— Emathca — 
 Mygdonia.— Chalcidice. — Olynthus. — Bisaltia.— 
 Pseonia.- ViaEgnatia.— MythoftheTermenidee.- 
 Reign of Amyntas.— Alexander and Perdiccas.— 
 Archelaus.— Amyntas II.— Hia Sons, • .611-616 
 
 Chapter XLIX.— Reign of Philip. 
 
 Sketch of the Great King.— A Pupil of Epami- 
 nondas. His Residence at Thebes.— War with 
 lllyria.— Philip becomes Regent. — Overthrows 
 Arg£eus.— Defeat of the Illyrians.— Condition of 
 Greece.— Decline of that Country.— A Macedonian 
 Party in the South.— Birth of Alexander.— Philip's 
 Part in the Social War.— Relations with the Athe- 
 nian Democracy.— Affair of Amphipolis.- Taking 
 of Pydna and Potidpea.— Conquest of Thrace.— 
 Sitalces.— The Sacred War affords Opportunity for 
 Interference in Greece. — The King loses an Eye. — 
 Success of Onomarchus. — Is overthrown and 
 killed by Philip. — Battle of Chseronea.— The 
 Olynthian War. — Demosthenes and yEschines. — 
 Party Broils in Athena.— Isocrates —His Policy.— 
 Philip ends the War. — Terms of Settlement.— 
 Aristotle. — Thrace subdued.— Scythian Expedi- 
 tion. — Hostilityof Athens.— Persia on the Scene.— 
 The Triballi. — Perinthusand Amphissa.— Athens 
 joins Amphissa — Defection of Thebes.— Chsero- 
 nea,— Preparations for the Invasion of Persia. — 
 Philip is assassinated. — His Character, . . 616-629 
 
 Chapter L. — Alexander the Great, 
 
 The Prince becomes King. — What was ex- 
 pected. — Loyalty of Thessaly. — The Amphictyones 
 make Alexander Generalissimo. — lllyria and Coast 
 Towns revolt —Are suppressed. — Defeat of Thra- 
 cians and Triballi. — Expedition into lllyria. — 
 Greek Insurrections. — Affairs at Thebes. — Capture 
 of the City.— Obliteration of Theban Power. — 
 Athens overawed.— The King will invade Asia. — 
 At Ilium.— Condition of Asia Minor. — Battle of the 
 Granicus. — The Spoils. — Sardis, Ephesus, and Mi- 
 letus taken. — Halicarnassus. — INIarch through Ly- 
 ciaand Pamphylia. — Plot for Assassination — Pam- 
 phylian Pass. — Destruction of Marmarians — 
 Further Conquests. — "Excepting the Lacedaemo- 
 nians." — Plans of the Spartans. — Memnon. — His 
 Death. — Alexander at Gordium. — The Fabulous 
 Knot. — Athenian Embassy. — Conquests in Asia 
 Minor. — The Persians in Front. — Sickness of 
 the King. — He marches Eastward. — The Syrian 
 Gate. — Battle of Issus. — Capture of the Great 
 
 King's Family. — Alexander turns into Syria. — 
 Damascus taken. — Spartan Intrigues. — Negotia- 
 tions with Darius. — Capture of Tyre. — The Great 
 King makes Overtures. — Gaza is taken. — Egyi^t 
 added to Macedonia. — Founding of Alexandria — 
 The King goes to Amun. — At Memphis. — Tln'psa- 
 cus — Enters Mesopotamia. — Battle of Arbela. — 
 The Overthrow — Alexander at Babylon. — Goi s 
 to Susa. — Thence to Persepolis. — The Persian 
 Gate — Reaches the Capital. — Burning of the 
 Palace. — Intrigue of Darius. — Comes to Naught. — 
 Flight and Death of Darius. — Overthrow of Bes- 
 sus.— The King marries Roxana. — The Example 
 followed. — Jealousy of Greeks and Persians. — 
 Killing of Clitus. — Attempt of Hermolaiis.— Ex- 
 pedition into India. — Overthrow of Porus. — Games 
 and Cities founded. — Conquest of India. — Thus 
 Far, but no Further. — The Return. — Struggle with 
 the Malli.— Division of the Army. — Gedrosia. — 
 Alexander organizes an Empire. — His Works at 
 Babylon. — Mutiny in Army. — Death of Hephaes- 
 tion. — The Cossees subdued. — Plans for the Civ- 
 ilization of Asia — Death of Alexander. — His 
 Character.— View of the Epoch, 629-663 
 
 Chapter LI. — Successors of Alexander. 
 
 Succession not established. — Rupture in the 
 Army. — Arrhidajus and Perdiccas. — Birth of a 
 Son. — Division of Provinces. — Burial of Alexan- 
 der. — Revolt of Greek Soldiers.^Capi^adociana 
 rise. — Quarrels and Jealousies. — Perdiccas resisted 
 by Antigonus and Ptolemy. — Regent invades 
 Egypt. — Attempt of Greece to overthi'ow Anti- 
 pater. — The Latter proclaimed Regent. — Transfor- 
 mations of Authority. — Movements of Eumenes. — 
 Polysperchon Regent. — Democracy in Greece. — 
 Olympias and Eurydice destroyed- — Eumenes 
 and Antigonus. — The Former put to Death. — 
 Antigonus makes War on Seleucus. — Battle of 
 Gaza. — Greek Kingdom of Syria established. — 
 World divided among Alexander's Successors. — 
 War renewed. — Antigonus conquers Cyprus. — 
 Besieges Rhodes. — Battle of Ipsus. — Second Settle- 
 ment.— Demetrius Poliorcetes. — Soter and Phila- 
 delphus in Egypt. — Battle of Corupedion. — Death 
 of Seleucus. — Alexandria glorified. — Downfall of 
 Ceraunus, — Antigonus II. — Achaean League. — 
 Philip succeeds Doson as Regent. — Reign of 
 Soter.— War with the Gauls.— Antiochus Theos.— 
 Syria with Egypt. — Murder of Berenice and its Con- 
 sequences. — Hierax. — Battle of Ancyrse. — Par- 
 thian War. — Revolts of Media and Persia. — Battle 
 of Raphia. — Provinces reduced by Antiochus. — 
 Reign of Philopater. — Philip makes War in Asia 
 Minor. — Rome puts forth her Hand. — Flaminius 
 at Corinth, 66i-680
 
 List of Illustrations, Volume I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Portrait of Author, Frontispiece. 
 
 An Egyptian Princess — Time of the Pha- 
 raohs (Etching), 28 
 
 Head-piece for Egypt, 29 
 
 IMurchison Waterfall — Upper Nile, .... 33 
 
 Kilometer, 34 
 
 Coptic Women Fording the Nile (Modern), . 35 
 Diagram showing the Ethnic Place of the 
 
 Egyptians, 37 
 
 Coptic Maiden (Modern), 40 
 
 Celebrities of Ancient Egypt, 43 
 
 Building the Pyramids, 45 
 
 Pyramids of Gizeh, 46 
 
 Sarcophagus op Menkera, 51 
 
 The Great Sphinx, 53 
 
 Pyramid of Dashur, ' . . 54 
 
 Obellsk of Heliopolis, 55 
 
 Sphinxes of Ammun-Ra, Thebes, 58 
 
 Queen Tai, 59 
 
 Amenophis III. — Ra-Hotep, 60 
 
 Statue op Amenophis IV., 60 
 
 Seti I. burning an Offering of Incense, . . 61 
 
 Hall of Columns at El-Karnak, 62 
 
 Temple of Chesnu at Kabnak, 63 
 
 Temple of Abydos, 63 
 
 Eamses the Great, 64 
 
 Ruins of Thebes, 65 
 
 Menepta, 66 
 
 Exodus op Israel, 67 
 
 Egyptians in Battle with the Ethiopians. — 
 
 Drawn by C. F. Klimsh, 69 
 
 Egyptians Plowing, 72 
 
 The Bull Apis, 73 
 
 Temple of Isis, Phil;e, 75 
 
 HiPPARCHUS IN the OBSERVATORY OP ALEX- 
 ANDRIA, 76 
 
 Fellah Plowing, 77 
 
 Erection of Public Buildings, 78 
 
 Egyptian Dwelling, 78 
 
 Egyptian Dancer. — After a painting by H. 
 
 Makart, 79 
 
 Hieroglyphics of Ox-song, 80 
 
 Process of Embalming, 81 
 
 Funeral Procession crossing the Lake of 
 
 THE Dead, 82 
 
 Mummy Cases, 82 
 
 The Egyptian Trinity, 84 
 
 Sacred Beetle, 84 
 
 Winged Sun, 84 
 
 Osiris 85 
 
 PAaK. 
 
 Isis, 86 
 
 Column of Osiris, gg 
 
 HoRus, . 87 
 
 Column from Temple of Dendera, 87 
 
 The Sacrifice to the Nile. — Drawn by W. 
 
 Gentz, 88 
 
 Sacred Ibis, 89 
 
 Temple of Isis, Island of Elephantine, . . 91 
 Judgment of the Dead.— From the Turin 
 
 Papyrus, 92 
 
 Temple of Dendera, 93 
 
 Ruins of the Temple at Karnak, 94 
 
 Ruins of Kom Ombo, 95 
 
 Facade of an Egyptian Temple (Restored), 96 
 
 Column from Beni- Hassan, 96 
 
 Column from Kom Ombo, 96 
 
 Column from Medinet-Habu, 96 
 
 Protodoric Column from Beni-Hassan, ... 96 
 
 Column from Thebes, 96 
 
 Obelisk of Alexandria, 97 
 
 Sculptured Facade of the Temple of Edfu, 98 
 
 Egyptian Alphabet, 99 
 
 The Rosetta Stone, 99 
 
 Champollion, 100 
 
 Specimen of Egyptian Writing, 100 
 
 Cross Section of the Temple of Edfu, . . . 102 
 
 Head-piece for Chald^ea, 103 
 
 Confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, . 104 
 Euphrates and Plain op Chald^a, .... 106 
 Date Palm of the Lower Euphrates, . . . 107 
 
 Ur of the Chaldees, 115 
 
 Building of the Temple op Warka, Time of 
 
 Urukh, 117 
 
 The Seal of Ilgi, 118 
 
 Kudur-Lagamer Storming a Town in Ca- 
 naan, 119 
 
 Ruins op Susa, 120 
 
 Brick op Babylon, 125 
 
 Glazed Coffins from Warka, 127 
 
 Procession op Bel, 134 
 
 Image of the Fish-God, 136 
 
 Image of Nebo, 137 
 
 Nana, the Phcenician Astarte, 138 
 
 Head-piece for Assyria, 143 
 
 Tigris at Nineveh, 145 
 
 Assyrian Mule, 151 
 
 Assyrian Partridge, 151 
 
 Assyrian Ostriches, 152 
 
 Ninevite Hero, 153 
 
 Assyrian King, 154 
 
 19
 
 20 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, VOLUME I. 
 
 Assyrians going to Battle, 155 
 
 Assyrian War-Chariot 155 
 
 Captives of the Assyrians, 156 
 
 Assyrian Princess in Full Dress, 156 
 
 Assyrian Prince in Full Dress, 157 
 
 Region about Nineveh, 157 
 
 Site of Nineveh 159 
 
 Palace of Asshur-Izur-Pal, 168 
 
 Ornamented Pillar, 1G9 
 
 Jehu's Embassy before Shalmaneser, .... 171 
 
 Palace op Sargon (Restored) 178 
 
 Winged Lion, Time op Sargon, 179 
 
 Death of Saracus, 189 
 
 Assyrian Writing, 198 
 
 Arrow-head, Tablets, and Inscriptions, . . 199 
 Assyrian Caricature— Dragons Fighting, . 199 
 
 Assyrian Soldiers Fighting, 200 
 
 Suing for Peace, 200 
 
 Head-piece for Media, 201 
 
 Sculptured Rock op Behistun, 205 
 
 Ruins of Persepolis, 213 
 
 Cyrus the Great. — Drawn by W. Camp- 
 
 hausen, 235 
 
 The Young Cyrus entering Ecbatana, . . . 238 
 
 Head-piece for Babylonia, 239 
 
 Phcenician Fleet on a Voyage of Discov- 
 ery. — Drawn by P. Philippoteaux, . . . 242 
 Phcenician Scene at Court. — Drawn by P. 
 
 Philippoteaux, 243 
 
 Dead Sea, looking South, 244 
 
 Babylon, 259 
 
 Ruins of Tyre, 265 
 
 View of Jerusalem, 266 
 
 Image op Beelzebub, 279 
 
 Image of Ashtaroth, 279 
 
 High-priest of Israel, 288 
 
 Battle of Michmash, 289 
 
 Saul Anointed by Samuel, 290 
 
 Absalom's Tomb, 291 
 
 Temple op Solomon, 292 
 
 Siege of Tyre by the Babylonians, .... 294 
 Captive Jews led into Babylonia. — After 
 
 the painting by E. Bendemann, 295 
 
 Daniel Interpreting the Dream of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, 297 
 
 Ruins of Sardis, 299 
 
 Crcesus on the Funeral Pyre. — Drawn by 
 
 H. Vogel, 301 
 
 Capture of Babylon, 302 
 
 Head-piece for Persia, 305 
 
 Miletus 317 
 
 Temple op Diana at Ephesus (Restored), . . 318 
 
 Tomb of Cyrus, 324 
 
 Ancient Susa, 326 
 
 Head of a Persian King, 333 
 
 Rebuilding of Jerusalem, 350 
 
 Cambyses kills the Apis. — Drawn by H. 
 
 Vogel, 354 
 
 Battle of Cunaxa, 368 
 
 Return of the Ten Thousand. — H. Vogel, . . 370 
 Darius Codomanus in the Battle of Issus, . 371 
 Victory of Alexander on the Granicus. — 
 After the painting by Chas. Lebrun, . . . 372 
 
 Battle of Issus, 373 
 
 Alexander Discovers the Body of Darius, . 375 
 
 Tail-piece, 376 
 
 Head-piece for Parthia, 377 
 
 Plan of Hatra, 391 
 
 Ruins of Hatra, . 393 
 
 Parthian Slipper Coffin, 394 
 
 Parthian Vases, Jugs, and Lamps, 395 
 
 Hunter killing a Bear, 396 
 
 Parthian Warriors, 397 
 
 Coin of Theodotus 401 
 
 Coin of Arsaces L, 402 
 
 Coin op Artabanus I., 404 
 
 Coin of Mithridates I., 409 
 
 Magus Megistos, or High Priest, 413 
 
 Sulla, 420 
 
 Roman Legionaries, 422 
 
 Roman Soldiers going into Battle, 425 
 
 Julius C^sar, 427 
 
 Charge of Parthian Cavalry, 428 
 
 Roman Army crossing the Tigris, 429 
 
 Coin of Vardanes I., 433 
 
 Coin of Vardanes II., 435 
 
 Coin of Mithridates IV., 435 
 
 Parthian Captives Before Marcus Aueelius, 439 
 
 Sack of Ctesiphon by the Romans, 441 
 
 Tail-piece. — Frieze over Doorway of Tem- 
 ple of Hatra (After Rawlinson), .... 444 
 Greek Girls at their Sports (Etching),. . . 446 
 
 Head-piece for Greece, 447 
 
 Socrates, 463 
 
 Ideal Bust of Homer, 468 
 
 Theater of Segesta (Restored), 471 
 
 Sophocles, 472 
 
 Euripides, 472 
 
 Aristophanes, 473 
 
 Menander > 473 
 
 Thucydides, 474 
 
 Herodotus, 474 
 
 Herodotus reading his History. — Drawn by 
 
 H. Leutemann, 475 
 
 Fight of Achilles and Memnon, 478 
 
 Capture of Helen of Troy, 479 
 
 Fifty-oared Greek Boat, 480 
 
 Phidias in his Study, 481 
 
 The Parthenon Restored, 482 
 
 Types of Greek Women, 487 
 
 Delphi and Parnassus, 493 
 
 Pythia on the Tripod. — Drawn by H. Leute- 
 mann, 494 
 
 Eleusinian Feast. — Drawn by H. Vogel, . . 496 
 
 Colossal Head of Zeus, 499 
 
 Colossal Head of Hera, 500 
 
 Poseidon, . 500 
 
 Ruins of Troas, 509
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, VOLUME I. 
 
 21 
 
 Heroes of the Trojan War, 510 
 
 The Wooden Horse, 511 
 
 Olympian Games, 516 
 
 Death of Codrus. — Drawn by H. Vogel, . . 530 
 Solon dictating his Laws. — Drawn by H. 
 
 Vogel, 533 
 
 Crcesus showing Solon his Treasures. — 
 
 Drawn by H. Leutemann, 535 
 
 Clisthexes in the Olympic Games, 537 
 
 Battle of Marathon, 543 
 
 Discomfiture of the Persians at Delphi, . . 549 
 
 Battle of Salamis, 551 
 
 Spartans at Plat^a, 554 
 
 Athens viewed from the Pir^us, 558 
 
 Pericles, 562 
 
 The Acropolis (Restored), 565 
 
 Alcibiades, 573 
 
 Naval Battle in the Harbor of Syracuse, . 577 
 Destruction op the Athenian Army in 
 
 Sicily. — Drawn by H. Vogel, 579 
 
 Return of Alcibiades to Athens. — Drawn 
 
 by H. Vogel, 583 
 
 Death of Alcibiades, 586 
 
 Last Hours of Socrates. — After the painting 
 
 by David, 588 
 
 Epaminondas saves the Life of Pelopidas. — 
 
 Drawn by H. Vogel, 595 
 
 Banquet of Damocles, 599 
 
 Plato — Museum of DePauw University, . . . 604 
 Demosthenes, 606 
 
 ^schines, 607 
 
 Ancient Corinth, 608 
 
 Head-piece for Macedonia, 611 
 
 Aristotle, 618 
 
 "AsTOR to Philip's Right Eye," 621 
 
 Tsocrates, 623 
 
 Aristotle and his Pupil Alexander, .... 625 
 
 Alexander, 630 
 
 Defeat of the Thracians by the Macedo- 
 nian Phalanx, 632 
 
 Thebans and ^Macedonians in Battle, . . . 634 
 Alexander in Peril of His Life. — Drawn by 
 
 H. Vogel, 637 
 
 Alexander Before Tyre. — Drawn by H. Vo- 
 gel, . . 647 
 
 Alexander at the Temple of Amun, .... 649 
 Macedonians crossing the Jaxartes,. . . .655 
 Defeat of Porus by the Macedonians, . . . 658 
 Festival in Honor of the Birth op Alex- 
 ander's Son. — Drawn by H. Leutemann, 666 
 
 Ptolemy Soter, 672 
 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes 672 
 
 Philadelphus planning the Alexandrian 
 
 Library, 673 
 
 Hall in the Alexandrian Library, .... 674 
 
 Pharos of Alexandria, 675 
 
 Antiochus I., 676 
 
 Flaminius proclaiming Liberty to the 
 
 Greeks. — Drawn by H. Vogel, 679 
 
 Tail-piece, 680
 
 Introduction to Volume I. 
 
 IVILIZATION was first 
 planted iu the great river 
 valleys of the East. The 
 upland, hill-country, and 
 2)lain reacted less favora- 
 ably upon the faculties of 
 man than did the dark 
 alluvium richly spread 
 along the banks of overflowing streams. The 
 exuberance of the soil thus formed, and the 
 copious and perennial supply of water, gave 
 great advantages to those primitive tribes of 
 men who chose for their homes the valley-lands 
 rather than the mountain slopes and plains. 
 Accordingly we find that, at the suggestion of 
 Nature, the first progressive communities were 
 organized by the river-banks, on the fertile 
 deposits made by the overflow of turbid Avaters 
 as they spread out to meet the sea. 
 
 In such a locality the first well-develoj^ed 
 society of which history is called to take ac- 
 count was established. Where the River Nile 
 bears northwards to the Mediterranean his 
 swollen waters, annually yellowed with the rich 
 debris of the mountains, the oldest nation of 
 antiquity was planted. The secular history of 
 mankind properly begins with Egypt. 
 
 The second region to which the attention of 
 the historian is directed is similar to the first. 
 The valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, 
 occupy iug the depression between the Syrian 
 plateau and the table-land of Persia, furnish a 
 situation specially favorable to the development 
 of great kingdoms. Here the incentives and 
 instigations to a civilized life are scarcely infe- 
 rior to those of Egypt; and accordingly we 
 find that, at a very remote period, man availed 
 himself of the natural advantages of the low- 
 lands lying along the two great I'ivers, and 
 planted powerful empires on their banks. 
 
 In this fruitful and well-watered region no 
 fewer than three of the great monarchies of 
 the ancient world — Chald^a, Assyria, Baby- 
 lonia — rose, flourished, and fell. It will thei-e- 
 fore be natural, after tracing the vicissitudes 
 of Egyptian history, down to the time of the 
 
 conquest of that country by the Persians, to 
 turn to the valleys of the Tigris and the Eu- 
 i:)h rates, and narrate, in chronological order, the 
 histories of the three great kingdoms founded 
 on the banks of those rivers. The Second, 
 Third, and Fifth Books of Ancient History will 
 thus be occupied with an account of the Chal- 
 dean, Assyrian, and Babylonian monarchies. 
 
 In an exhaustive account of the early move- 
 ments of the human race, we should next en- 
 ter the valley of the Indus. Here we should 
 see the oldest branch of the Aryan family 
 develojJing into the civilized condition, until, 
 by the sej)aration of the Irauic tribes on the 
 west, a new dominion is established in the 
 hill -countries of Media and Persia. We 
 should observe the growth of this power, 
 warlike and aggressive from the first, until 
 attracted by the wealth and emboldened by 
 the effeminacy of the Mesopotamians, the army 
 of Cyaxares captures Nineveh and makes it 
 the capital of the Median dominions. The 
 Fourth Book will be occupied with the history 
 of the Median Empire, down to its overthrow 
 by Cyrus the Great. 
 
 With this event we may properly pause to 
 observe the revival of Babylonia under Na- 
 bopolassar and his successors. We shall see a 
 new power arising on the ruins of ancient 
 Chakk^a more glorious than she, but destined 
 to a brief career. The Lower or Later Empire 
 of the Babylonians will occupy a few of the 
 most brilliant and interesting chapters in the 
 annals of antiquity. 
 
 The collapse of Babylonia under the blows 
 of Cyrus will take the reader again beyond 
 the Zagros and open to him the records of 
 the Medo-Persian Empire. Here he shall 
 note the growth, culmination, and decline of 
 the greatest power ever planted by the Aryan 
 race in Asia, and at its close shall mark with 
 admiration the triumph of the freedom-loving 
 Hellenes over the consolidated despotism es- 
 tablished by Cyrus and his successors. 
 
 But before transferring his historical sta- 
 tion from Asia to Eui'ope, tlie reader may 
 
 C23J
 
 24 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I. 
 
 ■well pause to observe the rise and expansion 
 of a great native dynasty on the ruius of Per- 
 sia. After a few striking evolutions, and the 
 lapse of a brief period, a new Asiatic domin- 
 ion, known as Parthia, springs up as the rep- 
 resentative State of the Iranic nations. With 
 this Power the successors of Alexander con- 
 tend in desultory and fruitless wars until 
 what time the shadow of Rome, extending 
 across Asia, reaches the Euphrates. Then, 
 for two and a half centuries, the Mistress of 
 the World shall find a barrier to her progress 
 in the long lines of Parthian cavalry lying in 
 the desert horizon of Mesopotamia. The Sev- 
 enth Book will be devoted to the history of the 
 Parthian Empire. 
 
 The next change of scene will be to the 
 Grecian Archipelago. In the islands of the 
 .^gean, and around the adjacent coasts of 
 Asia Minor and Hellas, we shall see the Hel- 
 lenic tribes establishing themselves and laying 
 the foundations of the most brilliant civiliza- 
 tion of the Ancient World. For a while Sparta, 
 with her warrior caste, and Athens, with her 
 intellectual activity, will occupy the fore- 
 ground. The hosts of Persia will be precip- 
 itated upon the small but vigorous democracies 
 of the Greeks, only to be destroyed by their 
 valor. Macedonia shall then achieve, partly 
 by prowess and partly by intrigue, what the 
 Persians could not accomplish — the subjection 
 of the Grecian States. The Eighth Book will 
 contain an account of the rise of the Hellenic 
 colonies, the glory of the Greeks, and their 
 final subordination by the Macedonians. 
 
 In the next scene the Illyrian Greeks of 
 the North, led by Philip and Alexander, shall 
 subvert the democratic liberties of Hellas, visit 
 Asia with retribution, overthrow the Medo- 
 Persian Empire, and carry the Greek lan- 
 guage to the banks of the Indus. Then, as 
 suddenly, the great fabric reared by Macedo- 
 nian genius shall collapse and disappear. The 
 Ninth Book will recount the history of Mace- 
 donia, from the rise of the kingdom to the 
 decline of the States established by the suc- 
 cessors of Alexander the Great, in Asia. 
 
 In addition to these general aspects which 
 the history of the Ancient World presents, 
 certain minor considerations will, from time to 
 time, claim our attention. Several countries 
 in Asia Minor, Syria, on the northern coast 
 
 of Africa, and in Europe, will at intervals de- 
 mand attention and be made the subjects of 
 special chapters in proper connection with the 
 general narrative. In this way the history of 
 Lydia and the other kingdoms of Asia Minor, 
 Phoenicia, Israel, and the Greek colonies will 
 be presented. 
 
 Summing up the results of this brief gen- 
 eral survey of Ancient History, we find the 
 subject presenting itself under nine principal 
 heads, or divisions, as follows : 
 
 I. Book First. — The Egyptian Ascend- 
 ency. From the founding of the Kingdom 
 of Memphis, B. C. 3892, to the conquest of 
 the country by the Persians, B. C. 525. 
 
 II. Book Second. — The Chaldean As- 
 cendency. From the establishment of the 
 Cushite Kingdoms on the lower Euphrates, 
 B. C. (about) 2400, to the subjection of Bab- 
 ylonia by the Assyrians, B. C. 1300. 
 
 III. Book Third. — The Assyrian As- 
 cendency. From the establishment of the 
 Assyrian Empire, by the conquests of Tig- 
 lathi- A dar, B. C. 1300, to the destruction of 
 Nineveh, B. C. 625. 
 
 IV. Book Fourth. — The Median As- 
 cendency. From the origin of that kingdom 
 to its overthrow by Cyrus the Great, B. C. 558. 
 
 V. Book Fifth. — The Babylonian As- 
 cendency. From the revival of the Lower 
 Empire under Nabopolassar, B. C. 625, to the 
 conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, B. C. 538. 
 
 VI. Book Sixth. — The Persian Ascend- 
 ency. From the founding of the Empire of 
 Achsemenes, B. C. 660, to the battle of Arbela, 
 B. C. 331. 
 
 VII. Book Seventh. — The Parthian As- 
 cendency. From the revolt and accession of 
 Arsaces I., B. C. 256, to the destruction of 
 the Empire, A. D. 226. 
 
 VIII. Book Eighth. — The Hellenic As- 
 cendency. From the establishment of Greek 
 colonies in Hellas, in the mythological ages, to 
 the death of Alexander the Great, B. C. 323. 
 IX. Book Ninth. — The Macedonian 
 Ascendency. From the founding of the 
 
 kingdom by Perdiccas I., B. C. ., to the 
 
 absorption of the last of the fragments of Al- 
 exander's dominions by the Roman Empire, 
 B. C. 146. 
 
 In this order the History of the Ancient 
 World will be presented in the following pages. .
 
 CYCLOPEDIA 
 
 OK 
 
 Universal History 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 ORIENTAL MONARCHIES 
 
 HELLENIC ASCENDENCY
 
 AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS
 
 1 1^1 1^1 1:4:1 1^1 mw\ m w\ w\ i?^i 1^1 m i^i 1^1 t^i 1^1 \m \^ 
 
 i*n^ii>^ii^ii 
 
 \\:^\m m \M m m m \^\m 1^1 i^i mm m m m m m 
 
 >^ii^ii^ii>»<i 
 
 \mk 1[ir$f* 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 Chapter i.— The Country 
 
 HE oldest civilization be- 
 gan on that continent 
 which seems to be least 
 favorable to the progress 
 of the human race. 
 Africa lies under the 
 equator, sun-scorched and 
 blasted. In the broadest part, through fifteen 
 degrees of latitude, the country is a desert, 
 the upheaved bed of a sea — more impass- 
 able than the trackless deep. The whole of 
 the southern portion of the continent is oc- 
 cupied with a vast plateau which, descending 
 to the north, sinks at intervals into jagged hills 
 and anon into a tangle of impenetrable forests, 
 wild and gloomy, Avhere, through untold ages, 
 the exuberant forces of Nature have triumphed 
 over the genius and cowed the spirit of man. 
 The African coasts, though washed on three 
 sides with oceans, are nowhere indented with 
 great bays and inlets. Near the shores the 
 mountains rise, and through these the rivers, 
 gathering their waters in the table-lands of the 
 interior, burst out in cataracts, make a short 
 and precipitous course to the foot-hills, and 
 then sluggishly traverse the narrow strip of 
 29 
 
 low and marshy land lying between the hill- 
 country and the sea. 
 
 Northern Africa is a mountainous district 
 occupying the space between the Sahara and 
 the Mediterranean. Near the western ex- 
 treme the peaks of the Atlas range rise to the 
 region of perpetual snow. Further to the 
 east the mountains sink down into hills and 
 finally terminate in the plain of Barca, which 
 is scarcely a thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea. The northern slope, between the 
 Atlas and the MediteiTanean, is occupied with 
 ranges of hills, deep valleys — sometimes cleft 
 by mountain streams and sometimes dry and 
 barren — plains of greater or less extent, and 
 morasses and flats, characterized by the luxu- 
 riant vegetation peculiar to the well-watered 
 portions of Africa. 
 
 At the eastern extreme of this northern 
 slope, looking out towards the Mediterranean, 
 opens the Valley of the Nn.E, the largest in 
 Africa and most fruitful in the world. It 
 occupies the north-eastern corner of the conti- 
 nent, being separated from Arabia by a nar- 
 row strip of sea and guarded on the west by 
 the fastnesses of the desert. Through this
 
 30 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 valley, from south to north, flows the great 
 river, famous from the earliest epoch in his- 
 tory and tradition. Here, on either side of 
 the river, stretching almost from the Tropic of 
 Cancer to the Mediterranean, lies the narrow 
 belt of black alluvium known as Egypt. 
 
 From the great lakes lying under the equa- 
 tor; from the spurs of the table-lands beyond 
 the equator; from the slopes of mountains 
 whose gorges are filled with glaciers and 
 summits are covered with snow, the western 
 branch of the river of Egypt, known as the 
 White Nile or Bahr-el-Abiad, gathers its wa- 
 ters. Plunging down from the highlands, it 
 reaches a country of swamps and morasses; 
 infinite jungles; thickets of bamboo, tama- 
 risks, sycamores ; humid and sunless forests, 
 where zebras, antelopes, and elephants abound ; 
 muddy banks covered with reeds, through 
 which the hippopotamus heaves his huge bulk 
 and crocodiles slide with a lazy plunge. Fur- 
 ther on in its course the river enters a region 
 of grassy plains, interspersed with tropical for- 
 ests, and occasionally broken into hills. 
 
 Far to the south-east, out of the table-lands 
 of Abyssinia, from the slopes and rivulets 
 of the range called Samen, the Bahr-el-Azrak 
 or Blue Nile takes its rise, and descends with 
 a smaller volume of waters to join the AVhite 
 Nile at Khartoom, in 15° 30' N. From this 
 point onward, through several degrees of lati- 
 tude, the ranges of hills lie almost at right 
 angles to the course of the river, which breaks 
 through the successive barriers in a series of 
 cataracts, the last being at Syene. 
 
 The country on either hand has now become 
 a desert, and begins to take on the peculiar 
 character of Egypt. The river at the last cat- 
 aract is a thousand yards in width. From this 
 point to the sea is a distance of seven hundred 
 and fifty miles; and in all this course the Nile 
 receives no tributary of any importance. 
 From Syene to the Mediterranean stretches a 
 vast fissure in the rocky structure of the con- 
 tinent; and in the bottom of this fissure, 
 more or less winding and irregular in its 
 course, flows calmly and majestically the great 
 river which is the fundamental fact of Egypt. 
 
 Out of the rock-bound depression through 
 which it flows the Nile has created a narrow 
 
 valley, which for fecundity of vegetation has 
 no equal in the world. On the west the val- 
 ley is protected through its whole extent by 
 the range of hills, which, standing back but a 
 few miles from the river and parallel with its 
 course, form an effectual barrier against the 
 drifting sands of the desert. Against these 
 hills, rising from three hundred to five hun- 
 dred feet in height, the clouds of dust which 
 blow up from the blasted wastes of Libya and 
 Barca beat in vain. Only now and then, 
 where the hills press close to the river, do the 
 blinding storms from the west fling a thin 
 shower of sand into the valley. 
 
 On the eastern side of the river a similar 
 rampart of hills stands from north to south 
 between the bottoms and the desert flats and 
 sand-dunes which border the Red Sea. But on 
 this side of the river the valley is much nar- 
 rower than on the west. In some localities the 
 eastern range rises abruptly from the water's 
 edge, and in only a few places does the river 
 divide impartially the verdant strip through 
 which it flows. 
 
 The greatest breadth of cultivatable land 
 on the eastern bank of the river is about three 
 miles, and on the western bank about ten 
 miles; but the average breadth on either side 
 is not so great. About seventy-five miles 
 from the Mediterranean the Nile divides into 
 two branches, which flowing, the one in a 
 north-easterly and the other in a north-west- 
 erly course, inclose between them and the sea 
 the triangular district called the Delta. 
 
 The climate of Egypt is peculiar to itself. 
 In no other country do the same conditions 
 exist. The temperature hardly varies as much 
 as fifty degrees during the year. For eight 
 months of the twelve the heat is tempered by 
 refreshing winds. In the upper parts of Egypt 
 clouds are never seen; mist, rain, and snow 
 are impossible. Further down the valley an 
 occasional fleecy cloud floats silently south- 
 ward. In the Delta the sea-breezes from the 
 north not infrequently bring on their dripping 
 wings the benevolent gift of showers. 
 
 Egypt is divided into three principal parts. 
 The first division, called Lower Egypt, ex- 
 tends from the Mediterranean to latitude 
 twenty-nine degrees and twenty minutes north.
 
 MAP I. 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Scale of English Miles 
 
 Note. The ancient names are in Capital lellc 
 
 i/nts_ PTOLEMAIS 
 
 I.FolggrEm;.Ci:i, 
 
 Ijougitude East of Greenwich 34
 
 EG YPT.—TRE CO UNTB 11 
 
 33 
 
 The second division, more recent than the 
 other two, reaches from the southern limit of 
 Lower Egypt to latitude twenty-seven degrees 
 and thirty-eight minutes, and is called Middle 
 Egypt. The third division extends from the 
 
 MURCHISON WATERFALL.— UPPER NILE. 
 
 southern boundary of Middle Egypt to the 
 ancient city of Philse, in latitude twenty-four 
 degrees, and is known as Upper Egypt. The 
 relative extent of these three great divisions 
 of the country, as well as the course of the
 
 34 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 river and the shape of the valley, may be ac- 
 curately traced on the accompanying map. 
 
 In addition to the three major divisions of 
 the country, and for convenience of civil ad- 
 ministration, ancient Egypt was divided into 
 provinces called Noivies. Mention of such di- 
 visions has been found as early as the First 
 Dynasty, and in the subsequent inscriptions 
 the name of hesp, or Nome, is constantly re- 
 curring. The number of the provinces dif- 
 fered at different periods, the lists of Herodo- 
 tus and Diodorus being in several places 
 incomplete or contradictory. The standard 
 number of Nomes, according to Brugsch, was 
 forty-two; and there is little doubt that the 
 forty-two judges who constituted the High 
 Court of Egypt, as well as the myth of the 
 forty-two gods who presided over the tribunal 
 of the dead, may be accounted for on the sup- 
 position of one judge for each Nome, called to 
 a general council. Each of the Nomes had 
 for its center a city and a temple, and here 
 was established the seat of civil government 
 for the district. 
 
 The possibilities of Egypt are all traceable 
 to a single striking phenomenon — the annual 
 inundation of the Nile. About the time of 
 the summer solstice, when the sun looking 
 doAvn vertically upon the ice-gorges in the 
 Abyssinian mountains melts the deposits of 
 snow and pours them in yellow cascades to 
 join their waters in the tAVO great arms of the 
 river, the first pulsations of the flood are felt 
 in Egypt. Where the White Nile receives 
 the Blue at Khartoom, the initial symptoms of 
 the rise are sometimes felt as early as April; 
 but the true swell of the waters does not gen- 
 erally begin until the middle or latter part of 
 June. Then the volume of the river begins to 
 increase; the channel fills to overflow; the 
 current grows turbid, widens and deepens; by 
 the middle of August the inundation proper 
 pours into the valley, and by the autumnal 
 equinox the flood is at its height. Then, after 
 the maximum has been reached, the waters be- 
 gin to recede. 
 
 The banks of the river are, in most 
 places, higher than the adjacent valley-lands. 
 To prevent a violent overflow, huge canals 
 are cut into the bottoms at an angle with 
 
 the course of the stream ; and, during the 
 recession of the flood, the mouths of these 
 canals are closed and the retreat of the waters 
 thus retarded. Almost five months elapse be- 
 fore the river finds his old bed, so that during 
 nearly three-fourths of the year the manifesta- 
 tions of the swell are noticeable in Egypt. 
 
 nii.(;.mi:ter. 
 
 The annual flood is by no means uniform 
 throughout the whole course of the river. 
 The greatest rise is in Upper, and the small- 
 est in Lower Egypt. At the first cataract 
 the inundation rises forty feet above low 
 water. At Thebes, thirty-six feet is the max- 
 imum; at Cairo, twenty-five feet; while at 
 the Damietta and Rosetta mouths of the Nile 
 the average rise is only four feet. The vol- 
 ume of the annual overflow is, however, by 
 no means uniform. In some years the flood 
 is twice as great as in others. If the swell 
 does not exceed eighteen or twenty feet the rise 
 is regarded as scanty ; from twenty to twenty- 
 four feet is considered a meager Nile; from 
 twenty -four to twenty-seven feet, a good Nile ; 
 while a flood of more than twenty-eight feet 
 becomes destructive and dangerous. In a few 
 rare instances there is no rise at all, which 
 condition is a sure precursor of distress and 
 famine. During the reign of the Caliph Mus- 
 tansir a period of seven years (A. D. 1066-
 
 EG YPT. — THE CO UNTR Y 
 
 35 
 
 1073) elapsed in which there was no ir\mda- 
 tion. A slight rise is sure to occasion dearth ; 
 and on the other hand a great flood, in addi- 
 tion to the usual disasters attending high 
 waters, entails various infectious diseases, es- 
 pecially murrain and the plague. It thus 
 happens that a variation of only a few feet in 
 the annual overflow of the river produces the 
 most important results. 
 
 From time immemorial the yearly prosper- 
 ity of Egypt has been estimated by the peri- 
 
 in appearance at different seasons of the 
 year. During the inundation the stream 
 is exceedingly turbid. Afterwards for about 
 two weeks it assumes a greenish tinge, owing 
 to the presence of large quantities of vegeta- 
 ble matter brought down from the tropics. 
 Again it takes the turbid appearance, and re- 
 tains it during the period of subsidence, until 
 the winter months, when the waters are com- 
 paratively clear. At all times, when not agi- 
 tated, the earthy sediment is quickly deposited, 
 
 COrXIC WOMEN FORDINU '^IIE NILE (MODEKN). 
 
 odic overflow of the Nile. At Er-Rodah, near 
 Cairo, in Lower EgyjDt ; at Memphis, a little 
 further south ; and at Thebes, graduated pil- 
 lars, called Nilometers, register the height of 
 the annual inundation, and from this the an- 
 nual estimates are made. 
 
 The current of the Nile is sluggish, the 
 average velocity being at low water no more 
 than two miles per hour, and during the 
 flood not exceeding three or three and a-half 
 miles. The water of the river differs greatly 
 
 and, except during the green stage of the 
 flood, the water is pure and sweet. 
 
 Egypt is the "Gift of the Nile"— so called 
 from antiquity. As the waters of the annual 
 overflow subside, a film of the richest alluvium 
 is deposited over the whole valley. No artifi- 
 cial methods of renewing the soil can equal 
 what nature has here gratuitously provided. 
 True it is that the annual layer, contrary to 
 popular belief, is exceedingly thip, aggrega- 
 ting only about four and a-half inches in
 
 36 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 a century; but, notwithstanding the small 
 amount of matter actually deposited, the soil 
 of the valley, lying for so long a period under 
 the fertilizing water, comes forth after each 
 inundation fresh and fecund as though still 
 warm from creation. Such a soil no cultiva- 
 tion can exhaust — no abuse destroy. The 
 cooling of the air by the immense body of 
 water which rolls through the valley, and the 
 complete saturation of the earth with the 
 flood in the very crisis of summer, when all 
 
 the circumjacent countries are burned to a 
 crisp, constitute the two essential advantages 
 which Egypt has immemorially enjoyed. To 
 these facts she owes her preeminence in an- 
 cient history. - Notwithstanding her rainless 
 climate,' and the gleaming blue of her cloud- 
 less skies, Egypt, novirished and sustained, 
 watered and cooled, by the munificence of her 
 solitary river, ofiered to the primitive race of 
 men the most luxuriant and beautiful home 
 of all the habitable globe. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— The people. 
 
 HE origin of the ancient 
 Egyptians is involved in 
 the same obscurity that 
 clouds the early history 
 of most races. One by 
 one the ancient peoples 
 emerge from the shadows, 
 but the source of their emergence is hidden in 
 the vapor and mist of the dawn. Races, like 
 men, have no recollection of their own infancy 
 and childhood. 
 
 It is now generally agreed that at a very 
 remote period an aboriginal population, feeble 
 in numbers and prowess, was displaced in 
 Egypt by bands of immigrants from Asia; 
 that these immigrants belonged to a Avhite 
 race, and that they were not Semites or Ne- 
 groes. It appears that the incursive tribe 
 came in full force, and that the invaders were 
 not modified to any considerable degree by 
 the influence of the original population of 
 the country. The early inhabitants of the 
 Nile valley and of the district drained by its 
 tributaries Avere as clearly distinguished from 
 the well-known Nigritian types of Africa as 
 were any of the white peoples of Asia. 
 
 The motives for the coming of these white 
 Asiatics into North-eastern Africa were the 
 same which usually induce tribal migrations — 
 namely, overcrowding in the original seats of 
 the tribe, the predatory and adventurous im- 
 pulse, and those strange cosmic influences 
 which draw all the tendrils of animal and 
 
 vegetable life towards the "West. The law ap- 
 pears to be world-wide in its operation. 
 
 Be this as it may, there is no reason to 
 doubt that the immigrant tribes that peopled 
 Egypt were thrown into that country by the 
 same impulses which in successive ages carried 
 into Europe the Celtic, the Hellenic, and the 
 Teutonic races; and the influence of the abo- 
 rigines in forming the new nationality of Egypt 
 was not greater than that of the primitive peo- 
 ples north of the Mediterranean upon the in- 
 vaders of those countries. Doubtless the 
 principal motive which impelled the Asiatic 
 bands towards Egypt was conquest, and the 
 course of their movements from the lower part 
 of the valley southward is distinctly marked. 
 The record of their advances through Lower, 
 Middle, and Upper Egypt is unmistakable, and 
 the evidence thus aflforded gives a complete ref- 
 utation to the theory that the ancient inhabit- 
 ants of the country were the descendants of the 
 Ethiopians. On the conti-ary, it is definitely 
 established that the valley of the Nile and 
 the greater part of the northern coast of 
 Africa, as far south as the hill-country of 
 Abyssinia, were settled by a people who in 
 color, language, and institutions were wholly 
 different from the black races of the interior. 
 
 It is probable, therefore, that the ancient 
 Egyptians were, ethnically considered, a 
 branch of that Cushite family of Asiatic 
 origin which at a very remote epoch occupied 
 and civilized the lower valley of the Tigris
 
 EGYPT.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 37 
 
 and the Euphrates. The ethnic position of 
 the Egyptians will accordingly be given as in 
 the annexed diagram : 
 
 to about the year 1500 B. C, a scene is de- 
 picted in which the god Horns is represented 
 as leading a company of sixteen persons in 
 
 Cushite 
 
 Stock.' 
 
 DIAGRAM SHOWING THE ETHNIC PLACE OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that 
 the invaders of the valley of the Nile were 
 uninfluenced in their primitive character by 
 previous contact with other races. The lan- 
 guage spoken by the ancient Egyptians gives 
 unmistakable evidence of intercourse between 
 them and both the Semitic and Aryan branches 
 of the human family. But the ancient speech 
 of Egypt was a distinct tongue, and the at- 
 tempt to classify it as a Semitic dialect is as 
 erroneous as to make the English language an 
 offshoot of Latin, or German a derivative of 
 Greek. 
 
 From the sculptures and inscriptions it is 
 certain that as many as four races of men 
 were known to the Egyptians — three besides 
 themselves. In a tomb at Thebes, belonging 
 
 ^Scholars are divided in opinion as to the 
 original stock from which the ancient Egyptians 
 and the modern Copts are descended. One class 
 of writers, headed by Bunsen, hold that the stem 
 from which the Cushite races sprang was cer- 
 tainly Semitic— a judgment based on the fact of 
 Semitic radicals and idioms in the Egyptian lan- 
 guage. Another class, headed by Renan, as 
 stoutly maintain that the primitive stock of the 
 Egyptian and Abyssinian races was Aryan or 
 Indo-Europic. Each of these theories seems to be 
 beset with difficulties quite insuperable. A better 
 opinion is that the primitive people of southern 
 Arabia, of the lower Tigris, of the ocean shores as 
 far east as India, and, on the west, of the Nile 
 valley and Abyssinia, were neither Semites nor 
 Aryans. The Author has accordingly given to the 
 original stem of these races the general designa- 
 tion of " Cushite Stock," without attempting to 
 trace its Aryan or Semitic affinities. 
 
 groups of four, each group belonging to a 
 different race. In the company the Egyptian, 
 Semitic, Nigritian, and Aryan types of man- 
 kind are delineated with a clearness not to be 
 mistaken; so that both before and after the 
 original conquest of the Nile valley by the 
 people called Egyptians, it is certain that 
 they were ethnically modified by contact with 
 other races. 
 
 The Asiatic invaders of Egypt, upon their 
 entrance into the valley, found themselves in 
 the midst of strange surroundings. Their 
 previous life was in no manner suited to the 
 new condition. The vocation of the hunter, 
 the wild flight of the nomad, and the vigil of 
 the shepherd were no longer practicable. In- 
 stead of the open plains and boundless deserts, 
 they found here a narrow oasis, green, cool, 
 and luxuriant. Here were no forests. Here 
 were no storms of rain. Here nature restored 
 the soil with her own riches, and yielded her 
 abundance without labor. The first result of 
 the new situation was that the immigrants 
 abandoned the pastoral life for the pursuits of 
 agriculture, and at a very early date acquired 
 fixed habitations. 
 
 The first season after the invasion would 
 bring to the new people the striking phenome- 
 non of a flood in the river; and the regular 
 recurrence of the same fact year by year would 
 force upon their attention the advantages as 
 well as the dangers of the overflow, and sug- 
 gest the best means of protecting man and 
 beast. Intercourse must be maintained dur- 
 
 258674
 
 56 
 
 UNIVEy.SAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ing the long period of the inundation, and 
 the primitive dealings of the mart must be 
 carried on by water. Supplies must be pro- 
 vided and landmarks must be firmly set, so 
 that there shall be no displacement by the 
 flood. The cooperation of man with man was 
 a necessity of the situation. The range of 
 hills on either hand, pressing upon the in- 
 creasing population, stimulated the establish- 
 ment of social order, and rendered necessary 
 the organization of large communities. The 
 situation favored the multiplication of villages, 
 the projection of common enterprises, and the 
 building of cities. In no country of the an- 
 cient world were there so many towns, great 
 and small, crowded into so narrow a district 
 as in the valley of the Nile. The existence 
 of great civic communities sprang from the 
 conditions here suggested. 
 
 Nature to the ancient Egyptians presented 
 a fixed and unchanging outline. In no other 
 region of the globe did natural phenomena 
 recur in an order so monotonous. The few 
 birds that frequented the plashy brink of the 
 river gave forth an ominous cry. The land- 
 scape was solemn ; the sky, still and cloudless. 
 Man surrounded with such a scene and im- 
 pressed by such associations must soon acquire 
 a character stern, sedate, and passionless. 
 The ancient Egyptians were the most un- 
 mirthful of all the peoples of antiquity. The 
 environment was such as to blunt the mirth- 
 ful sentiments and dwarf the fancy. Only a 
 race unimpassioned and saturnine could in- 
 habit and develop Egypt. 
 
 The sameness of nature had another and 
 still more important influence upon the early 
 inhabitants of the country. The unchanging 
 aspect and persistent recurrence of the same 
 phenomena strongly stimulated the natural 
 disposition of men to follow the same pursuit 
 from generation to generation, thus laying the 
 foundation of the system of caste. Whenever 
 a vocation is handed down from father to son 
 for several generations, that pursuit becomes 
 more honorable than others, and it is soon re- 
 garded as a misfortune and disgrace to fall 
 out of the line of ancestral activities and 
 achievements. In Egypt only a few pursuits 
 were possible: and whenever a given family 
 
 had become identified with a certain calling, 
 as of agriculture, priestcraft, or war, it soon 
 became little less than a scandal and a sacrilege 
 in a member of that family to abandon the 
 honored vocation or to affiliate with those who 
 followed less favored pursuits. In but a few 
 countries of the world were the antecedent 
 conditions of caste so sti'ongly operative as 
 in Egypt, and in but a few were castes so 
 early and firmly established. 
 
 The abundance soon acquired by the an- 
 cient Egyptians, the fertility of their lands, 
 the clustering villages, and the facility of 
 access to the valley, quickly aroused the pred- 
 atory lust of the surrounding tribes. The 
 nomads of the deserts and hills saw in the 
 rich bottoms every inducement to foray and 
 incursion. Those who were bravest to repel 
 attacks and swiftest in punishing the maraud- 
 ers Avould soon be held as public benefactors, 
 deliverers of the land out of the hands of 
 brigands and robbers. 
 
 Property is always swift to reward its de- 
 fender. The esteem in which the warrior is 
 held increases with each successful defense of 
 the fields and villages. The timid tillers of 
 the soil willingly yield the palm of precedence 
 and authority to the soldier who fights their 
 battles. He grows strong, and stands high 
 above those who build walls and gather har- 
 vests. The situation in Egypt was of a kind 
 to call into constant requisition the services of 
 a valorous soldiery, and consequently to estab- 
 lish and make preeminent a military caste in 
 the country. 
 
 In the establishment of ancient states and 
 kingdoms, he who stood as the interpreter of 
 Nature was likewise held in great honor and 
 esteem. The mysterious character of the duty 
 which he was caUed to perform lent a charm to 
 his office and gave to the priest — for such he 
 was — a reputation for sanctity and wisdom. 
 Popular respect soon grew into veneration, 
 and the local repute of the seer quickly wid- 
 ened into general fame. 
 
 In proportion to the magnitude and mystery 
 of the problems which the priest had to solve 
 would be the reverential awe and respect with 
 which he would be regarded by the people. 
 If, at any time or under any conditions.
 
 EGYPT.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 39 
 
 the phenomena of Nature seemed of manifest 
 explanation, if the causes of things appeared 
 to be easily traceable to other causes already 
 ^explained by reason or tradition, to that extent 
 would the office and influence of the priest 
 •suffer in popular esteem ; and if, under other 
 •conditions, natural phenomena seemed to be 
 ispecially involved and mysterious, if the causes 
 •of things appeared occult and far beyond the 
 j-each of human vision, to that degree would 
 ihe character and office of the seer be held in 
 veneration. In no other country of ancient 
 or modern times were the aspects and processes 
 ■of Nature clothed in such profound mystery as 
 in Egypt. Here the one great striking phe- 
 nomenon — the inundation of the Nile — seemed 
 ■to be absolutely causeless. The absence of 
 .rain and snow left the popular imagination 
 without even a vague hint respecting the ori- 
 ;gin of that great natural fact upon which his 
 very life depended. The source of the river, 
 being inaccessible by distance and the inter- 
 position of the cataracts which effectually 
 barred up-stream exploration, seemed almost as 
 remote and infinite as the origin of the annual 
 -flood. The solemnity of the procession of the 
 planets and stars, unobscured by tree or 
 mountain or cloud, heightened the eflfect of 
 the mundane mystery. As the yellow, turbid 
 waters swelled bank-full and silently over- 
 spread the valley, rising higher and higher 
 without apparent cause, driving the flocks to 
 the higher grounds and the people into upper 
 compartments, the ancient Egyptians found 
 themselves in a situation strangely combining 
 the hurry and commotion of cities with the 
 solitude of the seas. They who, in the midst 
 ■of such phenomena, seemingly causeless and 
 preternatural, assumed the task of accounting 
 for the order and the cause of things — that is, 
 -of constructing a system of natural and re- 
 ligious philosophy — would from the beginning 
 be regarded by the people with peculiar awe 
 and veneration. Even the powerful soldier- 
 class would do reverence to those who ex- 
 plained — and perhaps influenced — that hidden 
 world of mystery from which proceeded both 
 benefits and disasters. The natural environ- 
 ment in which the civilization of ancient 
 JEgypt was planted was exceptionally favorable 
 N.— Vol. 1—3 
 
 to the development of a priestly caste, sepa- 
 rated from the people and specially powerful 
 in the affairs of the nation. 
 
 In a country of hills and rivers and forests, 
 the people are easily divided into distinct 
 communities, having diverse tastes and con- 
 flicting political interests. In such a situation 
 there is a natural tendency to the development 
 of popular institutions. Republics spring up 
 and flourish under conditions of struggling 
 personal interests and antagonistic political 
 preferences. In countries where the physical 
 and industrial situation of all classes is the 
 same, institutions of an opposite sort are likely 
 to prevail. Monarchy finds its natural soil in 
 the sameness of the situation of its subjects. 
 And this was peculiarly the condition in an- 
 cient Egypt. A great number of civic com- 
 munities, some greater, some of less note, but 
 all in like relation as to soil, industry, dispo- 
 sition, interest, and physical surrounding, 
 could but suggest a strong centralized govern- 
 ment, despotic in its nature and military in 
 its methods. The situation was such as to 
 foster and develop a race of warrior-princes, 
 before whose ambitions the liberties of the 
 Egyptians would fall an easy prey. 
 
 Such then was the ethnic origin of the 
 people of Egypt, so far as it is understood; 
 and such were the antecedent physical condi- 
 tions by which that people was most deeply 
 impressed during the formative period of 
 Egyptian nationality. From these conditions 
 arose the peculiar institutions which flourished 
 for so long a period in the valley of the Nile. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians were a people of 
 great power and vigor, but without the passions 
 and caprices of most of the European tribes. 
 The constitution of the race was at once elas- 
 tic and conservative, energetic and restful, 
 obedient and pertinacious. It was a race self- 
 conscious without egotism, haughty without dis- 
 dain, laborious without great motives, ambi- 
 tious without enthusiasm, warlike without the 
 spirit of conquest. 
 
 In physical form the Egyptians were closely 
 allied to the Asiatic peoples with whom they 
 were ethnically related. The person and coun- 
 tenance, however, soon assumed a distinct type 
 under the influence of the peculiar climate to
 
 40 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ■which they were exposed. Judging from the 
 mummies and sculptures, the expression of the 
 Egyptian face was sedate, fixed, impassive. 
 The forehead was symmetrical, but rather low 
 and receding. The eyes were black, large, and 
 longer than those of any other race. The 
 nose was of unusual length and slightly 
 
 lonians. The beard was scantier, and was 
 either shaven or plaited and worn in a man- 
 ner exceedingly artificial. The complexion 
 varied from a pink flesh-color and light olive 
 in children and girls to a darkish brown 
 in men. The accompanying cut of the head 
 of a modern Coptic maiden will serve to show 
 
 COPTIC MAIDEN (MODERN). 
 
 formed in the bridge. The mouth was calm 
 and expressive ; lips full, but not protruding ; 
 teeth, white and regular; chin, small and 
 round; cheek-bones, rather high and promi- 
 nent. The general outline of the face was 
 oval, the features of the man being narrower 
 than those of the woman. The hair was long, 
 full, black, and crisp, like that of the Baby- 
 
 to what extent ages of time and mutations of 
 circumstance have modified the physiognomy 
 of Ancient Egypt into the face of to-day. 
 
 The Egyptians were a lithe and active peo- 
 ple, capable of considerable endurance, but 
 by no means so heavy and muscular as th^ 
 average of the European races. Judging 
 from the recorded reigns of the kings. th&
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 41 
 
 longevity was considerably above that of most 
 peoples of modern times, though not greater 
 than that of several ancient nations. Nor 
 does it appear that the disposition of the 
 Egyptian — albeit he was a grave and solemn 
 being — was incapable of cheerfulness and 
 pleasure. His courage and pertinacity, his 
 persistent prosecution of life-long enterprises, 
 
 his skill in architecture and valor in war, his 
 industry and frugality in peace, his placid 
 demeanor in society and undoubted preemi- 
 nence in the greatest of ancient arts, will 
 be abundantly shown in tracing the history 
 of those mighty kingdoms founded and 
 maintained by his genius in the valley of 
 the Nile. 
 
 CHAPTER. III.— CIVIL AND NIIIvlTARY ANNALS. 
 
 HE chronology of the ear- 
 lier ages of Egyptian his- 
 tory is confused and un- 
 certain. The sources from 
 which the dates are taken, 
 though unusually abun- 
 dant, are in many parts 
 obscure, and in some conflicting. According 
 to the Greek historians, the Egyptians were 
 the oldest race of men. When Herodotus 
 traveled in Egypt (about 450 B. C), the 
 priests recited to him traditions of the extra- 
 ordinary antiquity of their people. They read 
 to him from a roll of papyrus the names of 
 three hundred and forty-one kings who had 
 reigned over the country between the time of 
 Menes, founder of Memphis and first mortal 
 ruler of Egypt, and the reign of Seti^. Be- 
 fore this time the land was said to have been 
 for thousands of years under the dominion of 
 several dynasties of gods — first the Eight Gods, 
 then the Twelve Gods, then Osiris, then Ty- 
 phon, and last of all Horus, who immediately 
 preceded Menes, the first mortal king. The 
 priests also took Herodotus into the temple of 
 Thebes, and showed him in one of the halls 
 the wooden eflSgies of three hundred and forty- 
 five priests who from father to son had exer- 
 cised the highest priestly ofiice during the reigns 
 of the kings from Menes to Seti. Each in his 
 own life had placed his statue there. 
 
 From these data Herodotus made up his 
 estimate of the antiquity of Egypt. Allow- 
 ing three generations to a century, he com- 
 puted the whole time — three hundred and 
 
 ^ In Greek, Sethos. 
 
 forty generations — from Menes to Seti at 
 11,340 years. From the accession of Seti 
 to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians in 
 525 B. C. Herodotus reckons one hundred 
 and fifty years ; so that according to the Greek 
 calculations, based as they were upon the tra- 
 ditional records kept by the Egyptian priest- 
 hood, the accession of Menes antedates some- 
 what the year 12,000 B. C. 
 
 Four centuries after the time of Herodotus, 
 Diodorus traveled in Egypt, and to him also the 
 legends of the priests were rehearsed. They 
 now placed the number of their kings at four 
 hundred and seventy, beginning with Menes; 
 and Diodorus declares that of all these kings 
 the priests had preserved in their holy books 
 individual sketches, showing such minute details 
 as how tall each king was, what he was like, and 
 what he did. According to the computations 
 of Diodorus, if the length of a generation be 
 estimated as by Herodotus, the accession of 
 Menes is thrust back to the year 16,492 B. C. 
 If the estimate be reduced by allowing four 
 instead of three generations to a century, the 
 epoch of Menes is brought down, according to 
 the data of Herodotus, to 9175, and according 
 to Diodorus, to the year 12,500 B. C. Such 
 are the fabulous aspects of the question. 
 
 From such extravagant recitals only thus 
 much is clear: that the priests of Egypt pos- 
 sessed recorded lists of their kings, extending 
 in a long series to an almost incredible antiq- 
 uity; and that even of a mythical age prece- 
 ding this, when gods and demi-gods ruled the 
 people, accredited traditions were recited. 
 
 After the time of Alexander the Great, th©
 
 42 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 monuments of Egypt were opened to the re- 
 searches of the Greeks. Eratosthenes, the 
 famous librarian of Alexandria, transcribed 
 from the sacred books of Thebes the names 
 and histories of thirty-eight kings who had 
 reigned in that city ; and this list was after- 
 wards carried out and completed by Apollo- 
 dorus, who added the names of fifty-three ad- 
 ditional Theban monarchs, making ninety-one 
 in all. 
 
 A short time previous to this, about the 
 year 250 B. C, a learned Egyptian, named 
 Manetho, a scribe in the temple of Thebes, 
 produced in three books a work on the history 
 of Egypt. The book itself, in the confusion 
 of after times, Avas lost ; but fragmentary chap- 
 ters of it were copied into the works of other 
 historians, notably Josephus, Julius Africa- 
 nus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, and were thus 
 preserved for posterity. According to Mane- 
 tho, the rule of the Egyptian kings began 
 with Menes and extended through thirty dy- 
 nasties, down to the time of Artaxerxes Ochus, 
 a period of 5,366 years. The date of the 
 reign of Artaxerxes is 340 B. C, which gives 
 for date of the accession of Menes the year 
 5706 B. C. This reckoning, however, is in 
 Egyptian years, the same giving, when re- 
 duced to the Julian calendar, the year 5702 
 as the date of Menes. 
 
 The next view of the case is that presented 
 by the historian Diodorus, already referred to. 
 Further investigations among the priests and 
 temples of Thebes revealed to him many 
 sources of error in the traditional accounts 
 first given of the lists of kings. The correc- 
 tions and reductions of dates thus suggested, 
 contracted the extravagant computations ac- 
 credited by the priests, until the accession of 
 Menes was brought down to a date somewhat 
 more recent than the year 5000 B. C. One 
 account gave Diodorus assurance that "for 
 more than 4,700 years, kings, mostly native, 
 had ruled, and the land had prospered greatly 
 under them." Another narrative stated clearly 
 that the oldest pyramid was built 3,400 years 
 before the time of Diodorus's travels. The 
 corrected view of this historian, therefore, 
 fixes the date of Menes at about the year 
 4800 B. C. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the problem pre- 
 sented to modern research is this: Laying side 
 by side the lists of kings given by Manetho 
 and preserved by Josephus, Eusebius, Africa- 
 nus, and Syncellus; the lists of the same as 
 contained in the works of Diodorus; the lists 
 of the same given by Eratosthenes ; the lists 
 of the same as preserved in what is known as 
 the Turin Papyrus (belonging to a period 
 somewhere between 1000 and 1500 B. C); 
 the lists of the same as deciphered from the 
 existing monuments of Egypt — to determine 
 by comparison and equation of dates the true 
 chronology of the period. The chief difficulty 
 which confuses the problem is this: Whether 
 any, a few, or many of the kings belonging 
 to the thirty dynasties extending from Menes 
 to the subjugation of Egypt by the Persians 
 were contemporaneous — reigning in different 
 parts of the country at the same time, or 
 whether all the dynasties were consecutive — 
 succeeding each other in chronological order 
 from first to last. For it is easy to conceive 
 that one dynasty might have had dominion 
 in Lower while another was reigning in Mid- 
 dle or Upper Egypt. 
 
 Some aichjeologists and historians have de- 
 cided this question in one way and some in 
 another. Some have held that a few of the 
 dynasties were contemporaneous and most of 
 them consecutive ; while others have reversed 
 the order. The lists given by Manetho were 
 evidently intended to be given in consecutive 
 order, and the same may be said of those of 
 Eratosthenes, and of those transcribed from 
 the monuments. But a comparison of one list 
 with another always shows discrepancies. The 
 archseologist Mariette, accepting the lists of 
 Manetho, has placed the accession of Menes 
 at 5004 B. C, The historian Brugsch has 
 fixed upon 4400 B. C. as the true date of 
 that event; and Professor Lepsius, following 
 a somewhat different line of investigation, has 
 reduced the latter estimate by 508 years, set- 
 ting the era of Menes at the year 3892 B. C. 
 This last date is accepted by Dr. Duncker 
 as the best approximation which is possible 
 in the present state of historical researches, 
 though Baron Bunsen stoutly maintains that 
 the Lepsian date ought to be reduced to
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 43 
 
 CELEBRITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
 
 44 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the year 3643 B. C— a difference of 243 
 years. 
 
 The system of Lepsius may be regarded as 
 approximately established ; and the following 
 table will, therefore, present the best that is 
 now known of the twenty-six Egyptian dynas- 
 ties from the accession of Menes to the con- 
 quest of the country by the Persians : 
 
 Old Empire \ 
 
 Middle Empire 
 
 New Empire-! 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XI 
 
 XII 
 
 XIII 
 
 XIV 
 
 XV 
 
 XVI 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XX 
 
 XXI 
 
 XXII 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXIV 
 
 XXV 
 
 XXVI 
 
 XXVII 
 
 This (Abydos) 
 Memphis . 
 
 Elephantine 
 Memphis . 
 
 Heracleopolis 
 
 Thebes . 
 
 Xo'is .... 
 (TheHyksos) 
 
 Thebes 
 
 Tanis . 
 
 Bubastis 
 
 Tanis . 
 
 Sais . . 
 
 ( The Ethiopians 
 
 Sais 
 
 (The Persians) . 
 
 DATE 
 B. C. 
 
 3892 
 
 3639 
 
 3338 
 
 3124 
 
 2840 
 
 2744 
 
 2592 
 
 2522 
 
 2674- 
 
 2565^ 
 
 2423 
 
 2380 
 
 2136 
 
 2167t 
 
 2101 
 
 1842 
 
 1684 
 
 1591 
 
 1443 
 
 1269 
 
 1091 
 
 961 
 
 787 
 
 729 
 
 716 
 
 685 
 
 525 
 
 * Dynasties IX. and X., reigning at Heracleopolis, ante- 
 dated somewhat the contemporaneous Dynasties VII. and 
 VIII-, reigning at Memphis. 
 
 t Dynasty XIV., in like manner, antedates Dynasty 
 XIII., at Thebes. 
 
 The civil and political history of Egypt be- 
 gins with the reign of Menes, ^ founder of the 
 First Dynasty. He was a native of This, the 
 modern Abydos, in Upper Egypt. To him 
 belongs the distinction of having brought un- 
 der one dominion the several Egyptian states. 
 Selecting with great wisdom a site on the 
 lower Nile, a short distance above the diverg- 
 ence into the Delta, he constructed a dam, 
 turned the course of the river to the east, and 
 in the district thus reclaimed laid the founda- 
 tions of Memphis, the most splendid city of 
 Egypt. Here he established his capital; here 
 was built the temple of Ptah; and here the 
 first recorded triumphs of Egyptian civilization 
 were achieved. 
 
 ' In Egyptian, Mena. 
 
 On the north and west of the city, Menes 
 directed artificial lakes to be constructed as 
 a part of the defenses of his metropolis. 
 On the south side a huge dyke was thrown 
 up as a protection against inundations of 
 the river. The treasures of the government 
 were established in the city; the laws were 
 revised, and the methods of administration 
 perfected by the king and his counselors. 
 After a long reign of sixty-two years, Menes 
 lost his life in a battle with a hippopotamus, 
 and was enrolled by his countrymen among 
 the gods of Egypt. 
 
 Menes was succeeded on the throne by 
 Ateta,^ to whom is attributed the building 
 of the citadel and palace of Memphis. He is 
 reputed to have been a physician and writer 
 of works on anatomy, fragments of which 
 have survived to the present day. 
 
 The third monarch was Kenkenes, of whom 
 no traditions ai-e preserved. The fourth was 
 Uenephes, in whose reign occurred the first 
 famine recorded in Egyptian history. To him 
 is attributed the building of the pyramid of 
 Kochome, the oldest, perhaps, of all these 
 marvelous structures. During the reign of 
 Semenpses, the seventh king of the First 
 Dynasty, a great plague is said to have oc- 
 curred, and many accompanying portents are 
 mentioned in the traditions of the time. The 
 fact of a plague and a famine at an epoch so 
 remote as the earliest dynasty is sufficient 
 proof that the country was already old and 
 thickly peopled. 
 
 The accession of Butan^ marks the begin- 
 ning of Dynasty II. During the reign of 
 this monarch an earthquake is said to have 
 opened a great chasm, swallowing up many 
 people near the city of Bubastis, in Lower 
 Egypt. The successor of Butan was Kakan,* 
 who is celebrated for having introduced the 
 worship of the bull Apis at Memphis, the 
 calf Mnevis at Heliopolis, and the sacred goat 
 at Mendes. The reign of the next king, 
 Bainnuter,* was distinguished by the passage 
 of a law making woman, equally with man, 
 eligible to the crown of Egypt. During the 
 reign of Nephercheres, the seventh sovereign 
 
 ^In Greek, Athotis. 
 ^In Greek, Kaiechos. 
 
 ''In Greek, Bo'ethos. 
 *In Greek, Binothris.
 
 EGYFT.-CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 45 
 
 . f tl,P Nile are said, iu a tradition repeated by Manetho, to liave been 
 ^' ^'^^bo eVr: t^llTeZ^e^y. and tbe eigbtb naonarcb, naxned L.SOCHKXS, is 
 
 ::^ ^LAeen a ^ - ^^^ ^ ^l;: ^ S;.pbian .in. ...... .bo 
 
 Tbe royal bouse was now cbanged by^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^.^ ^^.^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 who had been subjected by tbe Egyptians, revolted, and were 
 fricrbtened back into allegiance by an alleged increase m tbe 
 dis'c of the moon as they were marching to battle. Tbe legend 
 is no doubt traceable to tbe occurrence of a lunar eclipse, a 
 phenomenon which exercised a striking influence upon the super- 
 stitious imaginations of the ancients. Nebka was succeeded by 
 TosoRTHROS, the Peaceful, tbe Egyptian ^sculapius, who is said 
 to have been a patron of letters and to have introduced, or 
 at any rate improved, tbe art of building with hewn stone. The 
 last king of this dynasty was Snefru, the B^erer, though the 
 lists of Manetho add the name of Sepburis as tbe last of Dy- 
 
 nasty III. . « 
 
 The close of this line of sovereigns is marked as the time trom 
 ^vhicb Egyptian history can begin to be reproduced from exist- 
 ing contemporaneous monuments. Of the following three dynas- 
 ties abundant materials are found in the manifold and won- 
 derful sculptures of tbe age for the reconstruction of both the 
 political and tbe social history of tbe epoch. 
 
 The Fourth Dynasty, also a Mempbian House, began with 
 the accession of Khufu.'^ This is the epoch of the pyramid- 
 builders, one of the most brilliant eras in ancient Egyptian his- 
 tory The government had become consolidated. Ihe regal 
 power bad expanded with tbe growth of the kingdom The 
 population bad so multiplied as to fill the land and to place at 
 the disposal of absolute monarchs a vast amount of unemployed 
 manual labor. The native fertility of the lands bad given to 
 aP classes a greater amount of leisure than was enjoyed by any 
 otber ancient people. The long continuance of the annual 
 
 2 In Greek, Cheo-ps; in IVIanetho, Swph^s. 
 
 BUILDING THE FYKAMIDS.
 
 46 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 inundation, during which the ordinary vocations 
 of industry were measurably suspended, gave 
 additional opportunity to the kings to divert 
 the labor of the populace to ends of personal 
 fame and monumental vanity. Under these 
 conditions, the peculiar ambition of the times 
 was directed to the construction of magnificent 
 sepulchers for the kings. The pyramids were 
 the result of this monument-building impulse. 
 AVest of Memphis, at a distance of about 
 ten miles and running parallel with the river, 
 rises a barren plateau. The elevation is a 
 hundred feet above the level of the Nile, and 
 
 chambers hewn out of the rock: and what 
 more natural than that the king, who in life 
 was lifted so high above his subjects, should 
 in death be buried with a more magnificent, 
 sepulcher? So the royal sarcophagus was- 
 placed in a more spacious chamber under a. 
 grander monument of stone. By degrees the- 
 sepulchral heap grew into definite shape, tak- 
 ing the immovable form and severe aspect of 
 a pyramid. The structure became more andl 
 more regular in its interior arrangement and 
 external outline until, sharply defined against, 
 the sky, the finished pile stood forth the pride 
 
 PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 
 
 stretches north and south for many miles be- 
 tween the verdant valley and the Libyan des- 
 ert beyond. Owing to the rocky character of 
 the ridge, its elevation above the river-level, 
 and the fact that the Sun, the chief deity of 
 the ancient Egyptians, seemed to sink to rest 
 behind it at nightfall, the kings, looking from 
 their palace in Memphis, and musing upon 
 the common fate which should soon call them 
 to the abodes of the gods, naturally chose the 
 western plateau as the most fitting place to 
 build their tombs. 
 
 In the sides of this hilly elevation the 
 bodies of the common dead were placed in 
 
 of the builders and the marvel of after ages. 
 Along the plateau west of Memphis, betweea 
 Abu Roash and Dahshur, about seventy of 
 these mighty monuments were erected.^ Among: 
 these three were preeminent on account of 
 their size and magnificence. They are known, 
 as the Pyramids of Ghizeh, near which city 
 they stand. They are certainly the work ot 
 the Fourth Dynasty, and were built in the- 
 twenty-fifth century before the Christian era. 
 The three are the most conspicuous objects in a. 
 
 ' In the district mentioned in the text. Pro- 
 fessor Lepsius has traced the outlines of sixty- 
 seven pyramids.
 
 v_ 
 
 8000B.0.29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 2000B.C. 19 
 
 n lOOOB.C. 9 
 
 ^ ERVPtlai 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 From the Accession of Dynasty V.. 
 
 B. C. 2840, to the Conquest of the 
 
 Country by Cambyses, B. C. 525. 
 
 1 40. Accelsslon ofDylnnsiy V. r ) 
 Decl ine^of ^tbe^Emplre. 
 
 
 CHALD^EA. 
 
 Fronn the Establishment of the First Dy- 
 
 nasty. B. C. 2550, to the Conquest 
 
 of Babylon by Cyrus. B. C. 538. 
 
 (sHI^ONOLOGIGAIi (©HAI^T 
 No. I. 
 
 ANCIENT AFRICANS. ASIATIC KIHaCOMS. 
 
 — SHOWING — 
 
 THK PEOCRESS OF EVENTS FROM B. C. 3892 TO B. C. B2B. 
 
 PREPARED BY JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL. D. 
 
 4000B.0. 39 38 37 36 
 
 35 34 33 32 31 
 
 
 Accession of Dynasty V. 
 
 ffi'VIS 
 
 MEDIA. 
 
 The Establishment of the 
 Kingdom 
 
 theConauest by the Persians. 
 
 BABYLONIA. 
 
 Th< Assyrian Domlnatio 
 
 theConquest by Cyrus 
 ^- C. 538. 
 
 KINCDOM OF ISRAEL 
 The Colonization m e^,„, 
 
 ■■fK?.r. 
 
 '^o'^yE 
 
 G" ^' 
 
 illshe'd 
 
 lury by 8pnnacberlb. 
 sroy ot BsbyloDla. 
 u(-s( of Babylon by 
 
 
 XI 
 
 Tc mple- ft A »rlah reig 
 
 irpatlon of 
 ptivHy of 
 
 ersutborltyin tht 
 
 Epocli pt »ie grefti'nesa of Bj 
 67. AcoeSfllOD of Kvll-Mero 
 
 Idolatry by HewltlBti
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 61 
 
 group of ten similar structures, the other seven 
 in the neighborhood being of less magnitude 
 and importance. 
 
 The largest and most ancient of these three 
 great piles is the pyramid of Khufu, founder 
 of Dynasty IV. It was originally four hun- 
 dred and eighty feet in height; but the apex 
 has been broken away, until it now measures 
 only four hundred and fifty feet. Each side 
 of the base is seven hundred and sixteen feet 
 in length, the slant being five hundred and 
 seventy-four feet. The structure contains 
 nearly ninety million cubic feet of masonry. 
 It stands precisely on the thirtieth parallel of 
 latitude, and the four sides face the four car- 
 dinal points of the compass with geometric 
 exactitude. On the north side, precisely in 
 the middle, and fifty-two feet above the origi- 
 nal ground-level of the pyramid, a rectangular 
 opening is cut, being the door of a de- 
 scending passage three feet broad and 
 four feet high. This passage leads down- 
 wards at an angle to a chamber hewn 
 in the rock of the foundation, more than 
 a hundred feet below the ground-level 
 of the base. The chamber lies in a per- 
 pendicular line six hundred feet directly 
 under the apex of the pyramid and 
 thirty-six feet above the level of the 
 Nile. At certain points in the main 
 passage to this chamber diverging ways are 
 cut, leading to two other chambers, which also 
 lie in the axis of the pyramid immediately 
 above the first. 
 
 It was in the solemn stillness of these cham- 
 bers that the stone coffins containing the royal 
 mummies were laid to their final rest. Upon 
 the walls round about Avas sculptured the 
 story of the dead king's deeds. The door of 
 the passage was sealed with a stone, and the 
 name of the deceased monarch added to the 
 lists of gods in the temple. It is said that 
 three hundred and sixty thousand men were 
 employed for twenty years in the building of 
 the monument of Khufu. 
 
 The second of the three great pyramids 
 in this group was built by Khafra, brother 
 and successor of Khufu. It is on a level 
 slightly above that of the first, and was 
 originally four hundred and fifty-seven feet in 
 
 altitude. The masonry is somewhat inferior 
 to that exhibited in the monument of Khufu. 
 The general proportion is the same, and the 
 arrangement of the chambers within identical 
 with that in the larger structure. 
 
 The third pyramid on the ridge of Gizeh 
 was built by Menkera,* a successor of 
 Khafra and fourth or fifth king of Dy- 
 nasty IV. This structure is but two hundred 
 and thirty-three feet at the base, and the 
 slant height two hundred and sixty-two feet. 
 The Menkera pyramid stands on looser soil 
 than its more ambitious sisters, and the sub- 
 structure is consequently of greater relative 
 proportions. Part of the exterior consists of 
 polished slabs of granite. The sepulchral 
 chamber within is double, one apartment be- 
 ing behind the other. In the innermost vault 
 the mummy-box of Menkera himself was found 
 
 SARCOPHAGUS OF MENKERA. 
 
 Found in the tomb of that king at Gizeh. 
 
 in recent times by General Howard Vyse, 
 and the hieroglyphic legend written on the 
 case, containing, in addition to the name of 
 the king, the myth of the God Osiris, has 
 been deciphered and rendered into English.' 
 Until recently no other of the royal mummies 
 had been recovered. 
 
 The pyramids are built of successive layers 
 of stone varying from two to six feet in thick- 
 ness, according to the size of the structure. 
 Each layer is less in area than the one on 
 which it rests, and thus the structure is made 
 
 ' In Greek: Mencheres, or Mycerinus. 
 
 ^ The sarcophagus in which the mummy lies is 
 bhie basalt, and bears the following inscription : 
 " O Osiris, King Menkera, ever living one ; begot- 
 ten of the sky, carried in the bosom of Nut, scion 
 of Seb. Thy mother Nut is outstretched over 
 thee ; in her name of the mystery of the sky may 
 she deify thee, and destroy thy enemies. King 
 Menkera, ever-living one."
 
 62 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 to present on either side the appearance of a 
 series of stone steps narrowing and receding 
 to the top. It is stated by Diodorus on the 
 authority of the Egyptian priests that the im- 
 mense masses of stone used in constructing 
 the pyramids were brought from Arabia, and 
 were put into place by building up beneath 
 them huge mounds of earth from which the 
 blocks could be slid into position as from an in- 
 clined plane. Certain it is that in many in- 
 stances the stone used in the pyramids is not 
 found within many miles of where the struc- 
 tures are erected. 
 
 Ancient fable and modern ingenuity have 
 been put on the rack to explain the purpose 
 of the pyramids on some hypothesis other than 
 that they were the burial places of the kings. 
 Some authors have found in the mechanical 
 exactness with which the great structures were 
 reared an evidence that their dimensions Avere 
 intended as the basis of a system of weights 
 and measures. Others have discovered that 
 the pyramids were constructed with a geomet- 
 rical design, and with the purpose of teaching 
 astronomy. Others still, disdaining such hum- 
 ble theories, have declared that nothing less 
 than a divine origin, plan, and purpose could 
 account for the wonderful skill and hidden 
 mystery of the great monuments. As it re- 
 spects all such theories, the historian can say 
 no more than that the pyramids are solely, 
 plainly, and indubitably the sepulchers of the 
 dead kings of Egypt. That they stand with 
 their faces to the four cardinal points of the 
 compass signifies no more than that men in all 
 ages have by preference built their houses with 
 the four sides set to the north, south, east, 
 and west. That the tomb of Khufu stands 
 on the thirtieth parallel, whether it was so 
 placed fortuitously or with design, implies no 
 more at most than that the thirtieth degree 
 was known to the men who built the pyramid — 
 a thing by no means marvelous. 
 
 The principal reigns of Dynasty IV. were 
 of extraordinary length. According to Man- 
 etho, Khufu reigned for sixty -three years; 
 Khafra, for sixty-six years, and Menkera for 
 sixty-three years. But according to Diodorus 
 the first is reduced to fifty and the second to 
 fifty-six years. Even these figures are to be 
 
 accepted with some caution, for it is related 
 in an inscription that Queen Mertitef, who 
 had been a wife of Snefru, last king of Dy- 
 nasty III., was a favorite of both Khufu and 
 Khafra — an impossible thing unless her charms 
 survived for more than a century. 
 
 The reigns of the three great kings were 
 marked by military exploits as well as domestic 
 progress and architectural grandeur. Khufu 
 made war in Ethiopia and completed the con- 
 quests which had been undertaken by Snefru. 
 On the rocks of the Wadi Maghara, in the pe- 
 ninsula of Sinai, is a sculptured image of Khufu 
 lifting on high a war-club over an enemy 
 kneeling before him. To this king is also 
 ascribed the authorship of a part of the Fu- 
 neral Ritual — one of the few existing remnants 
 of Egyptian literature. 
 
 To the great monarch, Khafra, is attrib- 
 uted the building of the enigmatical colossus 
 called the Sphinx. This great image stands 
 north of the second pyramid of Ghizeh, which 
 bears the name of Khafra. The efiigy is the 
 symbolical form of the god Harmachu, mean- 
 ing Horus the Resplendent, to whom the ad- 
 jacent temple was dedicated. The figure is 
 hewn out of the living rock, has the body of 
 a crouching lion and the head of a man, 
 capped and bearded, and is one hundred and 
 ninety feet in length. Between the paws, 
 which are extended to a distance of fifty feet, 
 is a monumental stone bearing the name of 
 Khafra, who is said to have dedicated the 
 image. The shoulders are thirty-six feet in 
 breadth, and the head measures from top to 
 chin twenty-eight feet and six inches. The 
 drifting sands of centuries have fallen around 
 the mighty eflRgy until only the solemn visage, 
 looking out toward the Nile, and a small part 
 of the shoulders and back remain above the 
 level of the desert. 
 
 The heavy drain made upon the labor and 
 the public revenues by the monumental enter- 
 prises of Khufu and Khafra gave rise to the 
 tradition, current in the times of Herodotus, 
 that those kings were the oppressors of the 
 people and enemies to the worship of the gods. 
 It appears that the priests gave countenance 
 to this report, as well as to that which made 
 Menkera the restorer of the national religion
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 53 
 
 -^hich had been despised and neglected by his 
 predecessors. Careful examination of contem- 
 poraneous sculptures have shown both tradi- 
 tions to be without foundation in fact. 
 
 With the close of the Fourth Dynasty — 
 ••even before its close — a decline is noticeable 
 in the political power and architectural grand- 
 eur which had prevailed under Khufu and 
 Khafra. The accession of Dynasty V. was 
 •without eclat or splendor. Of the reigns of 
 the nine kings who are said to have comprised 
 the line very little is recorded. The 
 practice of giving a throne name or _J 
 
 title to the sovereign began with j^-ci 
 
 AssA, next to the last monarch of ^^ 
 
 this dynasty. To this period also is ^ 
 referred the composition of one of -^ 
 the oldest works in Egyptian litera- ^ 
 ture — a treatise on moral duties i 
 written by Prince Ptah-hotep, son ^ 
 •of Assa. In the time of the last ~ 
 king of the line, named Una, the 'Zj- 
 form of the royal sepulchers was _^~^ 
 -changed from the regular to the 
 truncated pyramid, as illustrated 
 in the great monument called 
 *' Pharaoh's Seat,"' north of the 
 pyramids of Dashur. 
 
 The kings of the Sixth Dynasty 
 belonged to a family from Elephan- 
 tis^ in Upper Egypt. It is probable 
 that the seat of government was 
 ibr a while transferred from Mem- 
 phis into Middle Egypt. It is cer- 
 tain that during the period Memphian 
 influence was less marked in the af- 
 fairs of the kingdom than it had been 
 previously. From this epoch begins the his- 
 tory of the foreign Avars of conquest under- 
 taken by the Egyptian sovereigns. National 
 ambition began to take the place of religious 
 solemnity, and the effect of this diversion of 
 the public mind was immediately noticeable in 
 the decline of art and the neglect of monu- 
 mental enterprises. The period is marked by 
 a less careful style in the sculpture, and less 
 elaborate designs in the royal sepulchers. 
 
 'In Egyptian Mastahat-Faraoon. 
 * Elepliantis is a small island in the Nile, oppo- 
 fiite Syene. 
 
 The growth of the military spirit is attested 
 by the famous inscription of Una, found in a 
 tomb at Abydos, wherein it is set forth that 
 great foreign wars had been undertaken and 
 conquests made by the armies of the king. 
 The conquered countries and nations are men- 
 tioned by name, from Avhich it appears that 
 the royal forces, levied from all classes of the 
 population, and composed in part of Negroes 
 enlisted from the surrounding tribes, had 
 already carried the Egyptian dominion far 
 
 1 1 U -1 lU.NX. 
 
 into the deserts of Syria and Arabia. Una, 
 himself, was general of five expeditions 
 against the Amu and Herusha tribes, probably 
 a Semitic race of the Sinaitic peninsula. Nu- 
 bia was also subjugated and a stone pillar set 
 up at the cataracts of Wadi Haifa commemo- 
 rative of the conquest. 
 
 The chief interest of Dynasty VI. centers 
 in the long and glorious reign of Pepi.' He 
 took the throne at the age of six and held it, 
 according to the united testimony of Manetho, 
 Eratosthenes, and the inscriptions, for ninety- 
 
 ^In Greek, Phiops; in Eratosthenes, Apappu^
 
 54 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 five years. It was during this extraordinary 
 reign that the great conquests already referred 
 to were made, and the dominion of Egypt ex- 
 tended to the Red Sea and the cataracts of 
 the Nile. The inscriptions of Pepi are very 
 numerous in all parts of the country from 
 Tanis in Lower Egypt and the Wadi Mag- 
 hara, where the king is represented on the 
 rocks as striking down an enemy, to Nubia, 
 where it is said his dockyards were established. 
 In Middle Egypt he founded the "City of 
 Pepi," the site of which is now unknown, and 
 built for his tomb the second of the two great 
 pyramids of Dashur. 
 
 At the close of Dynasty VI. there is a 
 great break in the monumental records of 
 Egypt. Of the next four dynasties no trust- 
 worthy contemporaneous inscriptions have 
 been discovered. The lists of Manetho, how- 
 ever, cover the period, and a few names of 
 kings succeeding the Sixth and preceding the 
 Eleventh Dynasty have been deciphered from 
 a tablet at Abydos and the Chamber of Kings- 
 at El-Karnak. According to Manetho, Dy- 
 nasties VII. and VIII. belonged to a Memphian. 
 line, and Dynasties IX. and X. to a Heracle- 
 opolite family. Beyond this, little is known. 
 Whether the dynasties occupying this gap of 
 
 PYRAMID OF DASHUR.— Length about 200 feet. 
 
 The successor of Pepi was his sou Merenra. 
 Una was made viceroy of Upper Egypt, and 
 to him Ethiopia was a tributary province. In 
 that country, beyond the Tropic of Cancer, 
 timber yards were established for building 
 ships. The copper mines of Arabia and of the 
 peninsula of Sinai were developed, and the 
 quarries of granite of Elephantis were opened 
 to furnish stone for the monuments. Of the 
 reign of Neferkara, brother and successor of 
 Merenra, little is known; and the same may 
 be said of Queen Nitocris, last of the line, 
 though after times were filled with her fame.' 
 
 •The Story of Cinderella has been traced by 
 curious antiquaries to a legend by Queen Nitocris. 
 
 more than a century and a half (2592-2423 
 B. C.) were contemporary — some reigning in 
 Upper and others in Middle Egypt — remain* 
 an undecided question. It is more than likely 
 that some of the kings of the House of Her- 
 acleopolis, belonging to Dynasties IX. and X.,. 
 were local and contemporary with the sover- 
 eigns of the Memphian line. 
 
 The Twelfth Dynasty was introduced with 
 the reign of Amenemha' I., 2380-2371 B. a 
 He had been a successful minister of a pre- 
 ceding king, and began his own career as a 
 sovereign by imitating the civil and military 
 policy of Pepi. All Egypt was under his do- 
 
 •In Greek, Amenemes.
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 65 
 
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 minion, from Tanis to Nubia, from the Red Sea to the wes- 
 tern desert. Especial attention was given during his reign 
 to the establishment and maintenance of these enlarged 
 boundaries, to the irrigation of the country by means of 
 canals, and to the civil administration of the provincial 
 governors. Sculpture, architecture, and the building of 
 monumental tombs were revived and practiced with the old- 
 time zeal. The figure and fame of Amenemha have been 
 preserved in a colossal statue of red granite, found at Tanis, 
 in Lower Egypt. 
 
 The successor of Amenemha was Usertesen^ I. Under 
 this sovereign the kingdom reached a pitch of prosperity never 
 previously attained since the downfall of the Fourth Dy- 
 nasty. The vigor and splendor of his administration are 
 attested alike by tradition and monument. The inscriptions 
 on the rocks in the Wadi Haifa show something of the ex- 
 tent and importance of his foreign con- 
 quests, and the obelisk of Heliopolis,' the 
 oldest which has been preserved to our 
 
 'In Duncker, Sesurtesen. The kings of 
 this family are known as the Usertesid^. 
 
 =* The inscription repeated on the four sides 
 of the obeUsk of Heliopolis may serve to 
 show, once for all, the style in which these 
 old magnificent kings were celebrated. The 
 sculptured legend runs thus: "Horus, the 
 life of that which is born, the child of the sun, 
 UsERTESEN, wlio is belovcd by the spirits of 
 Heliopolis, who will live forever, the golden 
 hawk, the life of that which is born, this 
 gracious god has erected this obelisk at the 
 beginning of the great festival. He has erected 
 it who assures us of life forever." 
 
 OBELISK OF HELIOPOLIS.
 
 56 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 day, bears witness to the grandeur of his works 
 and reputation. 
 
 The policy of this great monarch was still 
 further advanced by his successor, Amen- 
 EMHA II., and UsERTESEN II., the details of 
 whose reigns are not so fully known. But of the 
 next king, Usertesen III., the materials are 
 again abundant. No former sovereign had a 
 reign so glorious as this, the most illustrious 
 of the Usertesidie. The boundary of Egypt 
 on the south was now fixed at Semneh and 
 Kummeh, beyond the Second Cataract. Here 
 were built outposts and fortresses, and stone 
 tablets were erected, defining the established 
 limits of the kingdom. 
 
 But these triumphs of political enterprise 
 and military prowess were eclipsed by the 
 great works of engineering belonging to this 
 reign. The most noted of these were the 
 great temple called the Labyrinth and the 
 famous artificial lake of Moeris. Both of 
 these wonders were constructed in the peculiar 
 urn-shaped valley called the Feiyoom, a few 
 miles south-west from Memphis. In this place 
 there is a cleft in the Libyan hills, through 
 which the valley of the Nile spreads out, 
 bayou-like, for a considerable distance to the 
 west. Through this opening in the hills the 
 engineers of Amenemha cut a broad canal, lead- 
 ing from the Nile into the valley of Feiyoom, 
 and there, by excavation and dykes, dis- 
 charged the waters from the annual inunda- 
 tion into the artificial lake. A large part of 
 the valley was inclosed Avithin the strong dams 
 which held this overflow. The western part 
 of the Feiyoom was on a lower level, and to 
 all the region the waters of the lake were 
 distributed in season, making the whole a 
 luxuriant garden throughout the year. The 
 reservoir Avas abundantly stocked with fish, 
 furnishing food and amusement to the people. 
 
 More marvelous than the waters of Moeris 
 was the national temple called the Labyrinth, 
 built near the entrance of the canal into the 
 lake. Perhaps no structure of antiquity was 
 more justly celebrated. Herodotus declares, 
 after personal inspection, that its merits were 
 greater than its fame, insomuch that not all 
 the temples of the Greeks put together could 
 equal, either in cost or splendor, this solitary 
 
 wonder of Egypt. The Labyrinth containe(J 
 twelve roofed courts, abutting on each other,, 
 with opposite entrances, six to the north and. 
 six to the south. The Avhole Avas inclosed 
 Avith a A'ast Avall. The temple Avas half above 
 ground and half subterranean, each division 
 containing fifteen hundred apartments. Those 
 above ground Avere visited and examined by 
 Herodotus himself, who seems to have been 
 struck dumb Avith Avonder at the elaborate 
 magnificence of the structure. The subterra- 
 nean chambers Avere the sepulchers of the 
 kings and the halls of the sacred crocodiles. 
 So great and complicated Avere the Avinding 
 ways, the system of colonnades, and the hid- 
 den entrances, that a traveler Avithout a guide 
 could not extricate himself from the infinite 
 complexity of the palaces around him. 
 
 In addition to the great monuments Avhich 
 mark the reigns of the UsertesidsB, the domes- 
 tic life of the times Avas of a sort to excite equal 
 admiration. In the tombs of Beni Hassan, 
 belonging to this epoch, five varieties of plows 
 are depicted. The farming life is shoAvn in 
 detail ; sheep and goats treading the seed into 
 the ground ; Avheat gathered into sheaves, 
 threshed, measured, carried in sacks to the 
 granary ; flax bundled on the backs of asses ; 
 figs gathered ; grapes throAvn in the press ; 
 Avine carried to the cellar ; the overseer and 
 the hands in the fields and gardens ; the bas- 
 tinado laid on the backs of laggards. The 
 scene changes to herds and flocks ; fine breeds 
 of bullocks ; calves, asses, sheep, goats ; cows 
 milked ; butter made ; cheese handled ; fowls 
 strutting in the yard ; fine varieties of geese 
 and ducks. In other sculptures Ave see the 
 spinners and weavers at their Avork ; the pot- 
 ter manipulating the clay or burning the ware 
 in the furnace ; the smith manufacturing jave- 
 lins and lances; the painter with his colors; 
 the mason Avith his troAvel ; the shoemaker at 
 his bench ; the glass-bloAver, Avith distended 
 cheeks, plying his art.^ In another part the 
 interior of the Egyptian home is shown, fur- 
 nished according to the Avealth and taste of 
 the occupant ; servants at their work -^ kitchen 
 
 ' Duncker's History of Antiquity, Vol. I, p. 118» 
 "^ In these groups Negroes are easily distin- 
 guished from the natives.
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS.. 
 
 57 
 
 utensils in use ; domestic apes ; cats and dogs. 
 Public life is also displayed : soldiers exer- 
 cising in arras; battles fought; walls battered; 
 towns cari'ied by storm. Sports have come 
 in vogue: wrestlers with strained sinews; 
 jugglers ; musicians ; dancers, both men and 
 women ; dwarfs and deformities exhibited ; 
 fishing parties with hooks and spears and nets ; 
 every phase of life depicted in imperishable 
 tablets of stone. 
 
 After the short reign of Amenemha IV., 
 the Twelfth Dynasty ended with Queen Se- 
 BEKNEFRURA, and was succeeded by Dynasty 
 XIII., of which no more is known than that 
 the thirteen kings of this line occupied the 
 throne for an aggregate period of but fifty 
 years, and that the kingdom declined rapidly 
 from the grandeur which it had attained un- 
 der the Usertesid^e. The short reigns of the 
 sovereigns of this house indicate an epoch of 
 social disturbance and civil commotion. An- 
 other break occurs at this time in the monu- 
 mental records, and it is probable that the 
 first shocks of impending disasters had already 
 disturbed and alarmed the country. For the 
 first time the seat of government was trans- 
 ferred to the Delta and fixed at the city of 
 Xois, from which circumstance the kings of 
 the Fourteenth Dynasty are called Xoites. 
 This house succeeded in maintaining itself, 
 though Inirdly beyond the limits of the cap- 
 ital, during the whole of the stormy and law- 
 less period of invasion which Avas soon to 
 follow. 
 
 From causes not Avell understood Egypt 
 was now no longer Avarlike and aggressive. 
 On the contrary, the condition of the country 
 was such as to invite assault. The armies of 
 Khufu and of Amenemha III. had gone to 
 dust. The national spirit and resources had 
 withered to such an extent as to promise suc- 
 cess to barbarian invaders, and the invaders 
 quickly came. 
 
 Out of Syria and desert Arabia a swarm of 
 men, belonging to tribes of no historic reputa- 
 tion, gathered on the eastern frontier and then 
 burst into the kingdom. They overran Mid- 
 dle Egypt and captured Memphis. They 
 sacked the towns, pillaged the villages, and 
 broke the statues. They made prisoners of 
 
 princes, put men to the sword, and sold 
 women and children into slavery. The leader 
 of the horde, named Salatis, took up his 
 abode at Memphis as king of the country. 
 Lower and Upper Egypt Avere both made 
 tributary to the barbarian. He planted 
 garrisons in various parts of the country, 
 and along the eastern border built fortresses 
 against Assyria. EastAvard from Bubastis he 
 founded the ncAV city of Avaris,' fortified it 
 with a strong Avail, and placed therein the 
 bulk of his army, numbering 240,000 men. 
 Such was the founding of the ncAV line of 
 sovereigns knoAvn as the Hyksos,^ or Shep- 
 herd Kings of Egypt. 
 
 After Salatis came in succession five of 
 these barbarian soA^ereigns,^ Avhose joint reigns 
 covered a period of two hundred and forty 
 years. BetAveen them and the native Egyptian 
 princes Avho, now in the Delta and noAV in 
 Upper Egypt, raised the standard of revolt 
 there Avas almost constant war. But the in- 
 surrections Avere unsuccessful ; the Hyksos 
 triumphed more and more, and the whole 
 country falling under their sway sank into a 
 state of semi-barbarism. The period of this 
 dominion lasted, according to Manetho, for 
 five hundred and eleven years, during which 
 the fame of Egypt Avas virtually extinguished. 
 Only a few monumental records of the time 
 have survived the cataclysm ; but the sketches 
 of Manetho, Josephus, and the Turin Papyrus 
 bear Avitness to the deplorable condition of 
 the land Avhile the invaders comprising Dy- 
 nasties XV. and XVI. remained in power. 
 
 Finally a rebellion broke out in the district 
 of Thebes. The insurrectionists, led by native 
 captains, Avon a decisive victory over the 
 Shepherds, compelling them to draw in their 
 outposts and concentrate their forces at Ava- 
 ris. This place was besieged by Tuthmosis, a 
 Theban king ; and when neither besieged nor 
 besiegers were successful a compact was en- 
 tered into in accordance with Avhich the Hyk- 
 
 ' At or near the site of the modern Pelusium. 
 
 'The Avord is from hijk, meaning, in the sacred 
 language, a king ; and sos, in the vulgar dialect, 
 signifying a shejiherd. 
 
 'Names of Hyksos after Salatis: Beon, Apach- 
 mas, Apophis, Annas, Assis.
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 SOS were to take their flocks and herds and 
 Zeave the country forever. So the fierce in- 
 vaders who had held Egypt in terror withdrew 
 into the deserts of Syria. 
 
 After the overthrow of the Hyksos, the 
 'Theban House became dominant in all Egypt. 
 ■This, the Eighteenth Dynasty, began with the 
 accession of Aahmes/ about 1591 B. C. Up- 
 oer and Lower Egypt were again consolidated 
 
 troduction of the horse into Egypt and of the 
 war chariot. It is the age in which the rela- 
 tive places of the priestly and the military 
 caste in Egyptian society are reversed, and 
 the soldier made preeminent. In sculpture 
 and monumental elaboration there was a re- 
 naissance of the art of Dynasties XI. and XII. 
 The famous temple-palace of Amun-Ra at 
 Thebes was built, and obelisks were erected 
 here and there, commemorative of the great 
 deeds of the age. 
 
 Aahmes was succeeded by his son Ameno 
 PHis ' I. , and he by his son Tuthmosis I. , dur- 
 
 SPHIXXES OF AMMUN-RA.-THEBES. 
 
 -under one crown. Aahmes secured the influ- 
 ence and favor of Ethiopia by marrying the 
 icing's daughter, the princess Nefru-ari, fa- 
 mous for her dusky charms, her Avealth, and 
 •her accomplishments. Egyptian supremacy 
 ■over the surrounding nations was again ac- 
 knowledged or forced by the sword. The de- 
 •cayed and ruined temples were restored to 
 'their old4ime richness and splendor. The 
 •military spirit, stirred into activity by the 
 -struggle for independence, burned for the ex- 
 .oitements of war. It is the epoch of the in- 
 * .Frequently written Amosis. 
 
 ing whose reign the first great campaigns were 
 undertaken against Assyria and the East. 
 Phoenicia and Syria' were subdued, and the 
 arms of Egypt borne to the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates. Late in his reign, Tuthmosis asso- 
 ciated with himself on the throne his daughter 
 Hatasu, who, after the king's death, reigned 
 jointly with her elder brother Tuthiviosis II. 
 Her rank and influence in the state furnish 
 another proof of the high estimation in which 
 women were held by the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 'In Egyptian Ammun-Hotep ; sometimes Ra- 
 Hotep.
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 59 
 
 Hatasii outlived her brother, and then asso- 
 <;iated with herself her younger brother Tuth- 
 MOSis III. Him she outranked in the govern- 
 ment, and public affairs she directed at her 
 will. By her the temple of Amun-ra was 
 completed, and her fame is recorded in the 
 great obelisks at Thebes. 
 
 After a happy and prosperous reign of 
 twenty-one years. Queen Hatasu Avas suc- 
 ceeded by Tuthmosis, who obliterated as far as 
 practicable his sister's name and inscriptions 
 from the monuments, dating his own reign 
 irom the beginning of hei's. The Assyrian 
 wars were still carried on, and a great battle, 
 in which the Egyptians were victorious, was 
 fought at Migiddo. Kadesh, the chief city of 
 the Kheta tribes, was twice taken by the 
 J]gyptians, and the king marched his armies 
 as far as Nineveh. The entire reign of fifty- 
 iive years was characterized by military activ- 
 ity and civil enterprise. 
 
 The next king of the dynasty was Ameno- 
 PHis II. In the beginning of his reign the 
 ^Egyptians captured Nineveh. On his return 
 from one of his eastern campaigns, he is said 
 to have brought back the bodies of seven 
 kings whom he had slain in battle, and whose 
 heads he put up as trophies on the walls of 
 Thebes. After a short reign he was succeeded 
 'by his son Tuthmosis IV., who, according to 
 Manetho, held the throne for nine years, and 
 was in turn succeeded by his son Amen- 
 OPHis III. He, like Aahmes, married a for- 
 eign princess. Queen Tai', perhaps out of Ara- 
 bia. He began his reign by abandoning 
 warlike enterprises, and devoted himself and 
 iiis empire to works of peace. Architecture 
 again flourished. New temples were built at 
 Thebes, and two great statues, both of him- 
 self, with his mother and the queen in relief 
 AS the front of the die, were erected in the ad- 
 joining plain. 
 
 These two huge effigies in granite, stand- 
 ing in front of what was once the sanctuary 
 •of Osiris, have survived the wreck of centu- 
 ries, and still rise above the flat in solemn 
 ■state by the edge of a forest of palms. The 
 northern colossus is the most famous, being 
 the statue which was known to the Greeks by 
 
 4he name of the Vocal Memnon. According 
 N.— Vol. 1—4 
 
 to the Greek tradition, based on the narrative 
 of travelers who had visited the spot, the fig- 
 ure was said to give forth at sunrise a musical 
 strain resembling the twanging of harp-strings. 
 From the base of the pedestal to the crown it 
 is fifty-nine feet in height. The ruined palace 
 of Luxor likewise bears witness to the grand- 
 eur of the reign of Amenophis. This gorgeous 
 temple was connected with a similar palace at 
 
 QUEEN TAI. 
 
 El-Karnak by an avenue guarded by a thou- 
 sand sphinxes, and at Thebes a colonnade in the 
 same style was lined Avith colossi of the god- 
 dess Pasht. In the inscriptions of his times 
 this monarch is known by the distinguished 
 title of Pacificator of E<jypt. 
 
 Next in the succession was Amenophis IV., 
 son of the ])receding king. He seems to have 
 inherited from his foreign mother a taint of 
 heresy, together with a person of extravagant
 
 60 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 AMEiNOPHIS III.— RA-HOTEP. 
 
 Ugliness. Both he and his family are figured 
 in the monuments with bodies unnaturally 
 attenuated and features of abnormal repulsive- 
 ness. He began his reign by introducing the 
 adoration of the sun with a ceremonial un- 
 known to the national worship. Hymns were 
 chanted by an orchestra of harpers, and the 
 altars and aisles of the temples were strewed 
 with flowers in a manner utterly at variance 
 with the long established forms, and 
 suggestive of the religion of the Vedas. 
 The king changed his name to Khun- 
 aten/ and abandoning Thebes tians- 
 ferred his capital to Middle Egypt. 
 Leaving seven daughters and no son he 
 transmitted his crown to a dynasty of 
 sons-in-law, who were presently 
 overthrown in a reactionary 
 movement headed by Harem- 
 heb, a descendant of Ameno- 
 phis III. By this king the he- 
 retical work of the fourth 
 Amenophis was obliterated as 
 
 ^ Aten, being the name of the 
 solar disc. 
 
 far as possible, and the dynasty ended with his 
 reign in B. C. 1443. 
 
 Dynasty XIX. was founded by the great 
 House of Ramses. The first sovereign of this- 
 name was perhaps related by descent with the 
 Shepherd Kings, whose warlike qualities he- 
 seems to have inherited. He began his career 
 by conducting some successful campaigns m. 
 Ethiopia, and Syria. He concluded a treaty 
 with the nation of Hittites, and after a short, 
 reign died, leaving the crown to his son Seti^ I. 
 
 This monarch took care to strengthen his. 
 claim to the throne by marrying the Princess. 
 Tai, granddaughter to Amenophis III., thus 
 uniting his rights with those of the preceding- 
 dynasty. The offspring of this marriage was' 
 Ramses II, who on arriving at years was asso- 
 ciated with his 
 father in the 
 government. 
 
 Aftei an intei- 
 val Seti abdicated 
 
 favor of his 
 son, not, ho\\e\ei, 
 until he had sis- 
 
 statue OF AMENOPHIS IV. 
 
 J
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 61 
 
 nalized his reign with some of the finest archi- 
 tectural works of Egypt. Chief among these 
 may be mentioned the great Hall of Columns 
 at El-Karnak, containing in a series of mag- 
 nificent sculptures the story of Seti's cam- 
 paigns and victories. 
 
 Ramses^ Jl. (1388-1322 B. C.) was the most 
 illustrious of all the kings of Egypt. He is 
 surnamed the Great. Already at ten years 
 of asre he took part in his father's wars. After 
 the death of that sovereign the young prince, 
 fired with military ambition, began to meditate 
 the conquest of the world. According to He- 
 rodotus, Diodorus, and Manetho — though the 
 narratives are by no _^ , , ,- 
 
 means consistent 
 throughout — Ramses 
 first brought into sub- 
 jection what neigh- 
 boring nations soever 
 had shown signs of 
 rebellion against the 
 domination ,of Egypt. 
 Then dividing the 
 country into thirty- 
 six Nomes, and ap- 
 pointing his brother 
 Armai's to the regency 
 in his absence, he col- 
 lected a vast army of 
 six hundred thousand 
 foot soldiers, twenty- 
 four thousand horse, 
 and tAventy-seven 
 thousand war chariots, 
 
 and set out on his campaign for the conquest 
 of the nations. 
 
 Over the grand divisions of his army King 
 Ramses placed in command certain military 
 comrades who had been educated under his 
 father's direction in the same discipline with 
 himself. First of all, he directed his forces 
 into Ethiopia, and subduing the country im- 
 posed a tribute of ivory, ebony, and gold. 
 On the Red Sea he built a fleet of four hun- 
 dred ships — the first war vessels ever con- 
 structed by the Egyptians — and subdued by 
 land and water the islands and sea coasts as 
 far as India. The Avhole of Asia to the Ganges 
 ^ In Greek, Sesostris, Sesosis, or Sethosis. 
 
 and beyond yielded to his arms, whereupon, 
 turning to the north, he conquered Scythia as 
 far as the river Tanais, dividing Asia from 
 Europe. 
 
 Thence passing into Thrace the king con- 
 tinued his career until the severity of the 
 climate and scarcity of food brought him to a 
 pause. Everywhere in his triumphant course 
 he set up pillars bearing the inscription : " This 
 land Sesostris, king of kings and lord of lords, 
 conquered with his arms." After nine years 
 the victorious monarch returned laden with the 
 untold spoils of war and captives taken from 
 many nations. 
 
 SETl I. BURKING AN OFFERING OF INCENSE. 
 
 Such is the rather florid account left by 
 Herodotus and Diodorus of the foreign cam- 
 paigns of Ramses II. Modern research has 
 shown, by deciphering the inscriptions on the 
 rocks of Beyrout, in the ruins of Tanis, in 
 the Ramesseum at Karnak, and in a temple 
 built by Ramses in Nubia, that the praises of 
 the great monarch's wars have been sounded 
 in too high a key, and that his real exploits 
 were less prodigious than they are painted in 
 the pages of the Greek historians. It appears 
 that his chief campaigns were into Ethiopia, 
 Syria, and Arabia. No doubt his conquests 
 were carried as far as Mesopotamia, and per- 
 haps the larger part of Western Asia owned
 
 UNIVERSAL mSTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 62 
 
 his sway ; but the written traditions of the 
 great king are contradictory in many parts, 
 and in not a few are evidently the result of 
 fulsome eulogy. The building by Kamses of 
 
 a great wall from Pelusium to Heliopolis, in 
 order to protect his eastern frontier against 
 the onsets of the Syrians and Arabs, can 
 hardly be regarded as the work of a con- 
 
 HALL OF COLUMNS AT EL-KARNAK.
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 63 
 
 queror; and the cutting of a 
 system of canals from Mem- 
 phis downward to the sea was 
 in all probability an enter- 
 prise intended to impede the 
 movements of an invading 
 enemy. None the less, the 
 monuments of the Second 
 Ramses, even when inter- 
 preted with a liberal allow- 
 ance for exaggeration, prove 
 conclusively the greatness of 
 the king and the glory of the 
 age which produced them. 
 
 By this monarch was com- 
 pleted the celebrated Hall of 
 Columns, which had been be- 
 gun by his father at Kar- 
 nak, as well as the temple of Amenophis III. 
 at Luxor. Before this magnificent edifice 
 were placed two sitting colossi of himself and 
 two obelisks of red granite, one of which still 
 stands with its everlasting legend as sharply 
 
 TEMPLE OF CHESNU AT KARNAK, BUILT BY RAMSES III. 
 
 cut as in the day of its creation, and the other 
 in like splendor displays its quaint hieroglyph- 
 ics in the Place de la Concorde, at Paris. 
 
 Almost everywhere — in Lower Egypt, Up- 
 per Egypt, and far beyond — the monuments 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF ABYDOS.
 
 64 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 remind us of the exploits and glory of the 
 great king. High up in Nubia, at Abu Sim- 
 bul, in a valley with perpendicular walls of 
 yellow sandstone, two temples, the one dedi- 
 cated to Ra by Ramses and the other to 
 Hathor by his queen, are cut in the native 
 rock. Before the temple of Ramses are four 
 gigantic colossi of himself. The statues are 
 seated on thrones, and are over seventy feet 
 in height. The shoulders are twenty-five feet 
 in breadth, and from the elbow to the finger-tip 
 the measure is fifteen feet. In calm serenity 
 
 EAMSES THE GREAT. 
 
 of expression, truthfulness of proportion, and 
 austere dignity of posture, these great statues 
 are hardly surpassed — perhaps not equaled — 
 in the whole range of ancient art. On the 
 walls of the great temple at Abydos, in a 
 long procession of deified kings, Ramses, as a 
 god, stands glorious; and before the altar, as 
 a mortal, he ofiers sacrifices to his ancestors 
 and to himself. 
 
 Under the munificent patronage of the 
 House of Ramses, the city of Thebes, now the 
 capital of the empire, eclipsed the old-time 
 glory of Memphis. Here the marvelous works 
 of Tuthmosis, of Amenophis, of Seti, of 
 
 Ramses II. and III., rising in massive forms 
 on both sides of the Nile, towered in majestic 
 outline around a horizon of more than fifteen 
 miles. Structures of so much solid grandeur 
 have nowhere else, perhaps, been reared by 
 the genius of man. 
 
 Ramses the Great was succeeded in 1322 
 B. C. by Menepta, who reigned for twenty 
 years. This king has now been generally ac- 
 cepted by historians as the Pharaoh of the 
 exodus of Israel. The story of this remark- 
 able race begins with the call of Abraham 
 from his home in Ur, near the Euphrates, to 
 his promised abode in Canaan. Here his de- 
 scendants multiplied to the fifth generation, 
 when Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, with 
 his children and grandchildren to the number 
 of about seventy,^ " went down into Egypt." 
 For a famine had arisen in Canaan, and Jacob 
 dispatched his sons to the Egyptian granaries 
 to purchase supplies. Joseph, one of the sons 
 of Jacob, had previously been sold by his 
 brothers into bondage, and had come to fiU an 
 important position in the government of 
 Egypt; and thus it happened that the wicked 
 clansmen were brought face to face with the 
 injured brother, who, instead of punishing, 
 forgave them, and sent for the aged father and 
 his house. 
 
 The family of Jacob was thus established 
 (B. C. about 1550)'* in Lower Egypt, east of 
 
 'It seems a matter of surprise that an event 
 of so much importance (viewed from the Hebraic 
 side of history) as the Exodus should have been 
 so difficult to recognize and fix chronologically in 
 the Egyptian annals. The difficulty in question 
 has mostly arisen from the erroneous'date of 1491 
 B. C, given by the Hebrews as the time of their 
 departure. This date would throw the Exodus 
 back to the time of the Shepherd Kings — a view 
 of the case no longer entertained. 
 
 *The date of the going down of Jacob has been 
 sharply contested. The event could not have oc- 
 curred before the time of the Hyksos (2001-1591 B. 
 C), for in that case the Hebrews would have been 
 expelled along with the Shepherds. It could not 
 have occurred during the dominion of the Hyksos, 
 for the position of Joseph in Pharaoh's service, 
 the manner of administration, and the type of 
 Egyptian life described in Genesis preclude such 
 a supposition. It must have occurred after the ex- 
 pulsion of the Shepherd Kings — that is, subse- 
 quent to the year 1591 B. C. The Author has, 
 therefore, taken the middle of the sixteenth cen-
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 65 
 
 the Delta and on the borders of Syria. Here 
 they grew and multiplied in " the land of 
 Ooshen," or Ramses, as it was called by the 
 ^Egyptians. The period of the stay of the 
 Hebrews in the land of their sojourn was 
 about two hundred and forty years. For a 
 time the growing tribe was held in honor by 
 the government and people; but under Seti 
 I. and Ramses II. the ruling class began to 
 look askance at the strangers, and then to op- 
 press them. They were set to work at build- 
 
 and were beaten by task-masters until they 
 broke out in insurrection. 
 
 In the course of time, denial of religious 
 privileges complicated and intensified the re- 
 bellion. Moses appeared as a leader of his 
 people, and demanded, in a personal interview 
 with the king at Tauis, the privilege of con- 
 ducting them a three days* march into the 
 desert to sacrifice to Jehovah. But Menepta 
 replied by charging the Hebrews with a pur- 
 pose to escape their tasks under a pretense of 
 
 KUIXS 01' 
 
 ing and digging. The treasure-cities of Pi- 
 thom and Ramses were enlarged by their 
 labor. Perhaps the great canal projected 
 by Seti from the Nile at Bubastis to the 
 Arabian Gulf was carried as far as the Lake 
 of Crocodiles by the toil of the Hebrews. 
 They were sent to sweat in the brickyards, 
 
 tury as the best approximation to the date of Is- 
 rael's colonization in Egypt. He is not unaware 
 that this construction seems to allow too short a 
 period for the development of the great race of the 
 Exodus. 
 
 THEBES. 
 
 piety. Whereupon Moses, by signs and won- 
 ders done in the king's house and kingdom, 
 humbled the monarch and compelled him "to 
 let the people go." 
 
 After some delays the Israelites departed 
 along the bank of the canal, touching the 
 principal Hebrew towns, and gathering their 
 population as they went. The route then lay 
 through the Wadi Tumilot, reaching the 
 Gulf of Suez a few miles south of the present 
 city of that name. Here the fugitives were 
 hemmed in by the forces of Menepta, which
 
 66 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 had been sent after the retreating host. At 
 this point in the gulf there is a shallow, 
 stretching from shore to shore, almost fordable 
 at low tide. By "a strong east wind," the 
 waters of the sinus were, on the night of Is- 
 rael's encampment there, driven back to the 
 head of the gulf, leaving bare the sandy bot- 
 tom. Over this the hosts of the Hebrews, 
 numbering, it is said, six hundred and three 
 thousand men of the soldier age, or more than 
 two million in all, crossed to the other side in 
 safety, Avhich the Egyptians in pursuit essay- 
 ing to do were drowned. For, the waters re- 
 
 .LJJ^i_ i ;,1J ' l_i .M_.j II J-1JJJ_LL 3 
 
 turning to their place, the Pharaoh's horsemen 
 and chariots, Avith wheels clogged in the mire, 
 were panic-stricken and overwhelmed. 
 
 The story of the Exodus is told by Man- 
 etho, and quoted by Josephus, in terms quite 
 difierent from the Biblical narrative, though 
 in the main corroborative of the event. Man- 
 etho's account is to this effect : That after the 
 accession of King Amenophis (Menepta) he 
 was seized with a desire to see the gods. To 
 this end he took counsel of a certain priest 
 also named Amenophis, who advised the 
 king that if he would see the gods he must 
 
 clear the land of Egypt of the leprous an(f 
 unclean. 
 
 The Pharaoh accordingly collected all the- 
 diseased to the number of eighty thousand and 
 threw them into the stone quarries east of the 
 Nile. Among the victims of this peculiar 
 quarantine were certain priests and learned 
 men, which fact coming to the knowledge of 
 the son of Papius alarmed him lest be should' 
 be visited with the anger of the gods for hav- 
 ing conspired to drive holy men into shame 
 and servitude. Albeit he saw in a vision that- 
 others would come to the help of the lepers- 
 and would hold dominion over Egypt for 
 thirteen years. This he wrote on a roll of 
 papyrus, and then committed suicide. 
 
 Pharaoh now became alarmed and liberated 
 the lepers from the quarries. He gave them 
 Avaris, which had been left in ruins since the- 
 expulsion of the Hyksos. Repairing the city, 
 the lepers chose one Osarsiph, a priest of 
 Heliopolis, as their leader. He gave them 
 laws, enacting among other things that his^ 
 people might kill and eat the gods, that is, 
 the sacred animals of Egypt. He then bade- 
 them fortify Avaris, and at the same time 
 send an embassy to Jerusalem to inform the 
 expelled Hyksos of the situation of affairs, to- 
 invite them to an invasion of the country, 
 and to promise them the keys of Avaris on- 
 their coming. The Shepherds eagerly accepted 
 the invitation, and came down with an army 
 of two hundred thousand to reconquer the- 
 kingdom of their forefathers. Hearing of the 
 invasion the superstitious Amenophis, after 
 gathering a force of three hundred thousand 
 soldiers, forebore to fight, choosing instead to 
 retire into Ethiopia until the thirteen prophetic 
 years of leper domination should pass. 
 
 So Egypt was given up to the unclean. 
 The latter held high carnival in the sacred 
 places of the Egyptians until in process of 
 time Menepta came back with a combined 
 army of Egyptian soldiers and Ethiopian mer- 
 cenaries, and drove the leprous hordes and 
 their allies in a common rout out of the land. 
 And meanwhile the name of Osarsiph, leader 
 of the lepers, had been changed to Moyses. 
 
 The next Pharaoh after Menepta was Seti 
 n. , who was succeeded by Menepta JI. Theu^
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 67 
 
 in 1269 B. C, came the accession of Ramses 
 III., who, in a reign of thirty-two years, 
 brought back the empire to something of the 
 glory which it had under the elder kings of 
 the dynasty. Naval battles are pictured 
 among the inscriptions of this reign. The 
 Hittites and the Amorites are mentioned 
 among those whom Ramses III. conquered in 
 
 Pharaoh, descendant of Ramses the Great. 
 But the kingdom was again entering a decline. 
 The day of warlike exploits was past. The 
 inscriptions no longer tell the story of grand 
 deeds and heroic enterprises. Art — except the 
 art of copying — expires, and architecture lan- 
 guishes. Of King Ramses XII. a quaint legend 
 is recited, how, having married the daughter of 
 
 ./'Mi/Pf/HFAUr , - 
 
 EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 war. The Nubians, the Negroes, and the 
 Libyans each in turn felt the terror of his 
 arms. Ten successful campaigns attested his 
 prowess and ambition. 
 
 From 1222 to 1091 B. C. the throne of 
 Egypt was occupied by eleven kings, all by 
 the name of Ramses. This period covers the 
 remainder of the Nineteenth and all of the 
 Twentieth Dynasty. The latter began with 
 the accession of Setnekht, a certain obscure 
 
 the king of Bachtan, and her sister being sick 
 unto death, the father besought Ramses to 
 send him some priest or god of Egypt who 
 should be able to save the life of his child. 
 Whereupon the Pharaoh dispatched up the 
 river in a fleet of boats an image of the moon- 
 god Chunsu, before whom the evil spirit that 
 possessed the maiden was banished and sent 
 to his own place. So great was the covetous 
 ecstasy of the king of Bachtan that for three
 
 68 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 years and more lie would not permit the effigy 
 of the moon-god to be returned to the sender, 
 finally, he himself was seized with an illness, 
 and thereupon, being in alarm, he hastened to 
 ■send back Chunsu to his place in the temple 
 at Karnak. 
 
 This epoch in Egyptian history is marked 
 for the presence of foreign influences in 
 the civil affairs of the kingdom. The Phara- 
 ohs now generally chose in marriage prin- 
 cesses from distant courts. Foi'eign settle- 
 ments became common in Egypt. A Semite 
 colony was established at Bubastis. The 
 presence of Semitic names — Assyrian, Babylo- 
 nian, Phoenician — gave token of constant in- 
 tercommunication between the Egyptians and 
 ithe nations of the East. Several kings of 
 Dynasty XXII., reigning at Bubastis, bore 
 names indicative of foreign descent. Of this 
 •sort was Sheshank I. , the Shishak of the Bib- 
 lical narrative, who founded the Twenty-sec- 
 ond Dynasty. 
 
 Meanwhile the influence and power of 
 Ahe religious order had increased as the national 
 .spirit expired, insomuch that Dynasty XXI., 
 reigning at Tanis in Lower Egypt, was a dy- 
 nasty of priests. They appeared in public 
 <;lad in the sacerdotal robes worn by the min- 
 isters of Amun-Ka. It was Psiuen-san, one 
 of this priestly line, who gave his daughter in 
 marriage to Solomon. But the dynasty was 
 distinguished by no important enterprise. 
 
 The daughter of the last king of this House 
 >was married to Osorkon, son of Sheshank. 
 The latter became a partisan in the struggles 
 'between Judah and Israel. To him fled Jero- 
 'boam, escaping from the wrath of Solomon. 
 Later in his reign, after the revolt of the Ten 
 Tribes, he made war on Rehoboam, and de- 
 •9poiled his temple and palace. In one of the 
 inscriptions at El-Karnak is given a list of a 
 'hundred and thirty towns and districts which 
 were taken by Sheshank on his expedition 
 ■through Syria. After his return an important 
 •modification was made in the constitution of 
 ^e empire, by which the office of high-priest 
 •of Amun-Ra was made hereditary in the 
 king's family. 
 
 The process of disintegration was now 
 •everywhere apparent. The employment of 
 
 Libyan mercenaries in the army in prefer- 
 ence to the native soldiery increased the ten- 
 dency to decay. A number of semi-inde- 
 pendent principalities arose in different parts 
 of Egypt. No Pharaoh seemed able to main- 
 tain the unity of the nation. A lethargy, 
 like that which preceded the invasion of the 
 Hyksos, paralyzed both king and j^eople. 
 
 The Twenty-third Dynasty, with capital at 
 Tanis, held the throne of Lower Egypt for a 
 brief and inglorious period. At length Taf- 
 NEKHT, prince of Sais, leading Pharaoh of 
 Dynasty XXIV., rallied his powers and re- 
 vived, in some measure, the waning energies 
 of the empire. But the princes ruling in 
 some of the Egyptian provinces, in alliance 
 with the priest-king of Napata, called in the 
 aid of the Ethiopians, who were already in 
 the ascendant in Upper Egypt as far north as 
 Thebes, overthrew Tafnekht, and established 
 Dynasty XXV., called the Ethiopian. The 
 capital was nominally at Thebes. Piankhi, 
 the priest-king under whose leadership the 
 revolution had been accomplished, himself a 
 descendant of the Theban house, was estab- 
 lished on the throne. But Egypt was really 
 ruled from Ethiopia; and in the next reign 
 the logic of events was recognized by giv- 
 ing the seat of the Pharaohs to Kashta, a 
 native Ethiopian, who had married a princess 
 of Thebes. 
 
 Meanwhile, the claims of the Saite House 
 were maintained by Bokenranf, son of Taf- 
 nekht, who seized the occasion of the Ethi- 
 opian usurpation to raise a revolt in Lower 
 Egypt. But the insurrection was only tem- 
 porarily successfnl. For a short time he held 
 the throne, but the Ethiopian powers were 
 rallied by Shabak and led against Lower 
 Egypt in a victorious campaign. Sais, the 
 capital of Bokenranf, was besieged and taken, 
 and himself burned to death. 
 
 In the troublous times that followed the 
 Ethiopian conquest, the country was broken 
 up into petty principalities, ruled for the 
 most part by native governors, who were 
 virtually vassals of Ethiopia. At one time 
 Queen Amenieitis, sister of Shabak, reigned 
 at Thebes ; but the power of the local princes 
 was limited, and only for a season. Later in
 
 EGYPT.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 69 
 
 his reign Shabak, instigated by Hoshea, king 
 of Israel, was drawn into a confederacy of 
 the princes of Syria and promised his aid in 
 a campaign against Sargon, king of Assyria. 
 But the latter, more rapid in his movements 
 than his enemies, bore down upon the con- 
 federates, struck Shabak's army at Eaphia, 
 only a short distance from the eastern borders 
 of Egypt, and inflicted on him a disastrous 
 defeat, 718 B. C. The Ethiopian king fled 
 into his own dominions, retaining only Ethi- 
 opia and a part of Upper Egypt. In Lower 
 and Middle Egypt the native princes trans- 
 ferred their allegiance to Sargon, and thus 
 
 ates; but when the Assyrians, one hundred 
 and eighty-five thousand strong, had come 
 into the vicinity of Pelusium they were de- 
 stroyed by some peculiar visitation or panic 
 which the Egyptians, in common with the 
 Jews, regarded as miraculous.^ (B. C. 698.) 
 Sennacherib fled to Nineveh aud abandoned 
 his Egyptian wars. In the lull that followed 
 the Assyrian discomfiture, Tahraka invaded 
 Egypt, killed Shabatok, and again brought 
 the Avhole land under Ethiopian domination 
 (B. C. 692). 
 
 On the accession of Esarhaddon, son of 
 Sennacherib, to the throne of Assyria, the 
 
 EGYPTIANS IN BATTLE 
 Drawn by C 
 
 the influence of Assyria was established in | 
 the country. 
 
 During the reign of Shabatok, son aud 
 successor of Shabak, the Ethiopian ascend- 
 ancy was restored for a time throughout 
 Egypt. But at the same time Shabatok lost 
 -the Ethiopian crown in a struggle with his 
 rival, Tahkaka. Soon afterward the native 
 Egyptian princes made an alliance with Hez- 
 ekiah, king of Judah, and joined battle with 
 Sennacherib, the successor of Sargon. The 
 «,llied army was defeated in Southern Pales- 
 tine and the princes, one by one, made their 
 submission. Soon, however, they were again 
 in arms, instigated and supported by Tahraka, 
 of Ethiopia. A second time the army of 
 Sennacherib advanced against the confeder- 
 
 ^^^TH the Ethiopians. 
 
 F. Klimsh. 
 
 struggle began anew for the mastery of 
 Egypt. In the year 672 an Assyrian army 
 invaded the country, captured Memphis and 
 Thebes, and drove Tahraka into his own do- 
 minions. Egypt was divided into twenty 
 provinces under as many princes, the leader 
 of whom was Neku, of Sais. In a few years, 
 however, Tahraka returned, drove out the As- 
 syrian garrisons, and reestablished his author- 
 ity. But he, in turn, was speedily put down 
 by Ashur-bani-pal, the successor of Esarhad- 
 don. Several revolts were suppressed, and 
 after a time the native princes of Egypt 
 were won over to the Assyrian interest. Left 
 with some measure of local independence, 
 they accepted the yoke of Assyria, which. 
 
 ^ See Second Kings xix, 35-36.
 
 70 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 on the whole, was less galling than that of 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 The dominion of Assyria was already 
 waning in the East. On the North the fero- 
 cious Scythians were breaking through the 
 borders of the empire. The Assyrian forces 
 were called home to ward off the threatened 
 danger. Egypt, for the time being, was re- 
 lieved from the menace of foreign arms. 
 Quick to seize the opportunity, Psametik, 
 prince of Sais, raised a revolt, quelled the 
 native rulers who opposed him, drew to his 
 banner an army of Egyptians, Tyrians, and 
 Greek mercenaries, set up the standard of 
 nationality, and in a short time established 
 Dynasty XXVI. (B. C. 685). 
 
 Under his vigorous rule and that of his 
 successors the spirit of the Egyptians rap- 
 idly revived. But the new culture which 
 sprang up after the revolution was no longer 
 distinctly Egyptian. War, colonization, and 
 commercial intercourse had filled the cities, 
 especially the seaport towns of Egypt, with a 
 new class of citizens : foreigners, Ethiopians, 
 lonians, Carians, Phoenicians, Jews. The new 
 art was no longer the classical art of Old 
 Egypt. The Egypt of the Pharaohs was dead. 
 The language was infected. The outlandish 
 jargon of dragomans was already heard among 
 the ruins of the ancient civilization. None 
 the less, the age of Psametik I. was a genu- 
 ine renaissance, imitating the styles of Dy- 
 nasties IV. and v., and adding something to 
 the monumental glory of the past. 
 
 Even for warlike enterprises the reign of 
 Psametik is distinguished. Lower Nubia was 
 recovered in a struggle with Ethiopia. In an 
 expedition across the eastern border the power 
 of the Philistines was broken. Nor is it cer- 
 tain to what extent the dominion of the king 
 might have been extended had not a mutiny 
 in his array destroyed his prospects. The 
 native soldiery became jealous of the Ionian 
 and Carian mercenaries, on whose influence 
 the king especially relied, and broke out in a 
 successful revolt. All efforts to reconcile the 
 mutineers proved unavailing, and Psametik 
 was obliged to witness their departure into 
 Ethiopia, where they took service and received 
 lands from the king. The opportunity which 
 
 thus for a time seemed within the grasp of 
 Egypt to become again influential in the af- 
 fairs of the East faded suddenly away. 
 
 In the year 611 B. C, Neku II., son of 
 Psametik, succeeded to the throne of the 
 country. The first years of his reign were 
 occupied with the decayed project of con- 
 structing a canal from the Red Sea into the 
 Nile. Commerce was patronized. A navy 
 was built, manned by Phoenician sailors, and 
 sent by way of the Red Sea to explore the 
 coasts of Africa. In the first summer of their 
 voyage, and again in the second, the seamen 
 landed, pitched a camp, sowed grain, and 
 gathered a harvest. In the third season they" 
 returned to Egypt by way of the Mediterra- 
 nean, having accomplished what, after twenty- 
 one centuries, Vasco da Gama, sailing in the- 
 opposite course, did with so great toil and 
 peril — the circumnavigation of Africa. 
 
 But the monarch in whose reign the famous 
 voyage was made was less fortunate in his- 
 schemes of war. Covetous of the prize of- 
 fered in the East by the decay of Nineveh, he 
 organized an army, marched to Megiddo, joined 
 battle there with Josiah, king of Judah, whom 
 he slew, and then advanced to Carchemish, on 
 the Euphrates. The epoch was in the ebb 
 between the collapse of Assyria and the rise of 
 Babylon. After three years, however, Nabo- 
 polassar, the Babylonian monarch, sent out a 
 powerful army, commanded by his son, Neb- 
 uchadnezzar, to drive the Egyptians from the 
 land. The decisive battle was fought in 605 
 B. C, on the field of Carchemish. The 
 army of Neku Avas utterly defeated, and 
 the power of Egypt in the East forever extin- 
 guished. 
 
 Psametik II. came to the throne in the year 
 595. His short reign was distinguished by na 
 event except a fitful expedition undertaken 
 against the king of Ethiopia. His son and 
 successor, Uahabra,^ inherited the crown in 
 the year 590, and attempted to carry forward 
 the ambitious designs of his grandfather. 
 Under his influence a confederation, embrac- 
 ing Egypt, Palestine, and Phoenicia, wa» 
 formed against Nebuchadnezzar, and the fleet 
 of the latter, manned by Tyrian mercenaries^ 
 
 ^ In Greek, Apries ; in Hebrew, Hophra.
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 71 
 
 -was defeated by the fleet of Uahabra. But 
 the land forces of the Babylonian, advancing 
 into Palestine, besieged and captured Jerusa- 
 lem, sacked the city, pillaged the temple, and 
 i)roke the confederacy to pieces. 
 
 A still greater calamity' soon overtook 
 TJahabra and ruined his house. Undertaking 
 an ill-advised war against the Greek colonies 
 of Cyrene, his army was defeated; and the 
 native soldiers thereupon charged their defeat 
 to a concealed purpose of the king to de- 
 stroy them and to put Hellenic mercenaries 
 in their place. A violent revolt followed, 
 Leaded by Aahmes, Avho was chosen king 
 fey the insurgents; and in 571, the forces of 
 Uahabra were routed in battle and himself 
 -dethroned. 
 
 It is probable that this sudden and compara- 
 tively bloodless revolution was conducted by 
 Aahmes under the instigation and direction 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, and that the crown of 
 Egypt was held by Aahmes as a tributary of 
 the Babylonian king. Nevertheless, the Egyp- 
 tian prince at once proceeded to legitimate 
 his line by taking in marriage the heiress of 
 the Saite dynasty, Queen Shapertap, grand- 
 daughter of Psametik I. He endeavored to 
 arouse the national spirit by cleansing and re- 
 storing the temples, encouraging art, and 
 patronizing learning. The Greek influence, 
 however, was clearly in the ascendant, and 
 triumphed more and more. Naucratis became 
 a Greek town with Greek privileges, and the 
 
 guards of Memphis were for the most part 
 Ionian and Carian mercenaries. 
 
 This encouragement of Hellenic influences 
 was a part of the foreign policy of the king. 
 For he saw with ever-increasing alarm the rising 
 power of Persia, and recognized the instant 
 necessity of preparing for the inevitable onset. 
 This he did with commendable energy. With 
 all of the Greek states he established relations 
 of amity. Croesus, king of Lydia, and Poly- 
 crates, prince of Samos, he joined in an al- 
 liance against the Persian. But before the 
 storm broke out of the East upon the West, 
 Aahmes died and bequeathed the crown to 
 Psametik* HI., his son. 
 
 Cambyses, king of Persia, was already on 
 the march against the Western confederates. 
 The Egyptian army was drawn out to Pelu- 
 sium to stay the coming invasion. Here 
 Psametik, who may be styled the last of the 
 Pharaohs, was met by Cambyses, defeated in 
 battle, and driven back to Memphis. In this, 
 the ancient capital of his country, the Egyp- 
 tian concentrated his forces, and was besieged 
 by the victorious Persians. The city was 
 taken, after a brief investment, in the year 
 525 B. C. The king was captured and led to 
 death. The triumphant soldiery of Cambyses 
 marched over the prostrate gods of Egypt, and 
 the New Empire, which through centuries of 
 glorious achievement had been the pride of 
 the world, was extinguished. The land of the 
 Pharaohs became a Persian province. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— IVLANNERS AND CUSTONIS. 
 
 NLY a few Egyptian books 
 have survived the wreck 
 of ages. And the few 
 that do exist are treatises 
 on Death rather than 
 pictures of Life. The 
 funeral procession, the 
 sepulcher, the ordeal of the soul, the judg- 
 ment of the gods — these are the choice themes 
 of the literature of Egypt. Whereas other 
 civilized nations have given us in their liter- 
 
 ary works a transcript, more or less complete, 
 of the daily life of the people, the Egyptians 
 have left us little more than the ceremonial 
 of the tomb. 
 
 But in a graphic pictorial delineation of 
 Manners and Customs the Egyptians sur- 
 passed all other races, whether ancient or mod- 
 ern. On monument and temple-wall, on pol- 
 ished tablet and face of the native clifl^, on 
 granite obelisk and red-stone sarcophagiis- 
 
 *In HerodotuSj Psammenitus.
 
 72 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 everywhere were pictured the quaint details 
 of common life. From the stony pages of 
 these imperishable records the hopes and fears, 
 the toils and sorrows, the purposes and aims 
 of the people of the villages and fields of 
 Egypt can be gathered as from the open book 
 of yesterday. 
 
 In the society of ancient Egypt the king 
 was first and greatest. Above the common 
 throng he was immeasurably lifted up. He 
 was the one source of political life to the 
 nation. From him flowed all the civil and 
 official rights of the people. He only was 
 not bound by authority. He was not subject, 
 neither indeed could be. The double crown 
 which he wore was no meaningless symbol.^ 
 
 In Egypt every circumstance of the envi- 
 
 EGYPTIANS PLOWING. 
 
 From a Bas-relief of the Oldest Dynasty, Memphis. 
 
 ronment conspired to augment the influence 
 of the KING. The monarchy, once established, 
 rapidly developed into a despotism. Herodo- 
 tus declares that the Egyptians could not have 
 lived without a king. He was alike the prin- 
 ciple of social coherence and the fountain of 
 political power. Before his feet commander 
 and nobleman, magistrate and priest bowed in 
 abject attitude. The custom of universal 
 kneeling in the presence of the sovereigns of 
 the East acquired in Egypt a peculiar signifi- 
 cance. In other courts it was an act of rev- 
 
 ' The high miter or royal cap of the king (see 
 the picture of Ramses the Great, page 64) was the 
 crown of Lower Egypt ; the low miter, of Upper 
 Egypt. After the consohdation of the monarchy 
 the two crowns were combined in a peculiar 
 fashion so as to preserve the outlines of both. 
 
 erence, respect, humility; in Egypt it was an 
 act of worship. 
 
 The Egyptian king was a god. He was 
 defined and invoked by all the divine appella- 
 tions and epithets. He was not merely like 
 the gods, but was one of them. He was not 
 the minister of the sun, but the sun himself, 
 dispensing life and light. He was the mighty 
 Horus; the good god; the master. On aU 
 the monuments and temples in perpetual 
 rhythm of repetition the attributes divine are 
 carved with infinite pleonasm. Everywhere 
 the king is the outpourer of life, the mighty 
 god, son of Ptah, beloved of Amun, ofispring^ 
 of Ra, child of the sun, the eternal. The 
 young Ramses draws the milk of life from the 
 breast of Isis, and the goddess Anuke nurses 
 
 the boy-king Horus 
 into strength and 
 beauty. 
 
 To the Egyp- 
 tians all this was 
 very real. They be- 
 lieved profoundly 
 in the godhead of 
 their sovereign, 
 and because they 
 believed, worship- 
 ed. Before his 
 death he was en- 
 rolled with the 
 spirits of his an- 
 cestors; priests were appointed to his service; 
 and he himself bowed in worship before his 
 own effigy. Between him and the higher 
 powers no human agency could interpose; for 
 who could mediate between the gods and one 
 of their own number? The priesthood was only- 
 common clay before the glory of Pharaoh. 
 
 In the discipline and duties of his official! 
 life the king of Egypt was quite another 
 creature. In the great work of ruling his 
 people he was the slave of traditional cere- 
 mony. Every part of his daily life was guarded 
 by form — each moment apportioned to its 
 place in the royal programme. 
 
 How each day the king must live and act 
 is curiously related by Diodorus. The royal 
 ritual is complete. In the morning, first of 
 all, the monarch read the communications and
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 73 
 
 reports sent in from different quarters of his 
 empire. Then the sacred person must be puri- 
 fied by ablutions and the kingly robes put on. 
 Next came an offering to the gods — a sacrifice 
 made by the priests in the name of their sov- 
 ereign. The high-priest himself offered prayer 
 while the sacrificial beast was brought to the 
 altar. He recounted that the king was a 
 righteous ruler, honorable, just, and pure. 
 He was gentle in demeanor, kind to his friends, 
 terrible to his enemies. If any fault had been 
 committed it was not the king who did it, but 
 the officers of his court; himself was incor- 
 ruptible. He rewarded honest men and pun- 
 ished liars. He was a sovereign faithful in 
 every duty and pious towards the gods. Might 
 the higher powers, therefore, grant him long life, 
 a prosperous reign, and great glory hereafter. 
 
 As soon as the ceremony was ended, the 
 priest read to the king, out of one of the 
 sacred books, -the wise sayings and great deeds 
 of his ancestors, and exhorted him to emulate 
 their wisdom and virtue. At other hours 
 histories and poems were rehearsed for the 
 monarch's pleasure and profit. Anon he 
 walked abroad accompanied by his retinue, 
 but must return at the prescribed moment. 
 At the table he must be abstemious to the 
 last degree. Only the flesh of calves and 
 geese might be eaten, with a fixed portion of 
 wine. All crude and vulgar articles were 
 strictly excluded from the royal board. Pure 
 food was essential for the preservation of the 
 purity of the king's life. Even the priests 
 ate no other. How much more must he who 
 is greater than all priests so live as to expel 
 all disorder and evil? 
 
 Equal — even greater — care and circumspec- 
 tion were taken to preserve the king from 
 social contamination. Those who composed 
 his household and servants were all persons of 
 distinction. No menial was allowed to enter 
 his presence lest some low word should pollute 
 the royal ears. Educated priests and noble- 
 men conversed with him and with each other 
 in his hearing. They went with him about the 
 palace and on his walks abroad, reciting ever- 
 more his father's praises and his own, and 
 laying upon others the sins and mistakes of 
 his administration. 
 
 On public occasions the pageants were 
 oriental in their magnificence. The king was 
 borne to his coronation on a throne under a 
 canopy of purple. A score of priests, carry- 
 ing censers and the statues of the gods, with 
 trumpeters in the van, led the procession. 
 A scribe made proclamation of the great 
 event. Fan-bearers stood on the right and 
 left, and high officers of state bore the weapons 
 and insignia of the king. Behind the throne 
 followed the body-guard, soldiers, and priests, 
 with the white Bull Apis led by his attendants 
 and nurses. 
 
 The court of an Egyptian king was com- 
 posed of a numerous retinue of officers. The 
 government was one of centralized authority. 
 
 THE BULL APIS. 
 
 At the head stood the Supreme Court, com- 
 posed of thirty, or sometimes forty-two judges. 
 Ten of these were chosen from each of the 
 priestly colleges — the first at Memphis, the 
 second at Thebes, and the third at Heliopolis. 
 From the thirty a supreme justice was chosen, 
 who presided at the sessions of the court. 
 Upon his front he wore a breastplate called 
 "Truth," garnished with precious stones and 
 suspended by a chain of gold. 
 
 Before this reverend assemblage were heard 
 and decided all grave questions of state, 
 of administration, of law. The proceedings 
 were characterized by the utmost regularity 
 and judicial fairness. Eight great volumes of 
 statutes at large contained the laws and prece- 
 dents of the kingdom, and to these the judges 
 scrupulously adhered. After the high officers 
 of the court came a multitude of others. 
 There were bearers of the fan, bearers of the 
 parasol, keepers of the king's bow, officers of 
 the guard, stewards of the palace, treasurers,
 
 74 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 overseers of buildings, masters of the horses, 
 keepers of the records, stewards of the graoa- 
 ries, stewards of the royal flocks, butlers, and 
 attendants. 
 
 The chambers and apartments of the king 
 were furnished with the gorgeous profusion of 
 the East. The furniture was decked with sil- 
 ver and gold. The horses were richly capari- 
 soned, and the king's barges were trimmed 
 with many-colored sails and gilded till they 
 flashed in the sun. The lounges and beds of 
 the palace were trimmed and cushioned in 
 luxurious patterns, and the royal kitchen was 
 furnished with utensils as costly as they were 
 curious and quaint. 
 
 Every thing thus conspired to maintain the 
 popular faith that the kings and the gods were 
 one. When the Pharaoh died he was mourned 
 for seventy days — as though Apis were dead. 
 It was a time of fasting and sorrow. Wine 
 might not be drank or flesh eaten in these 
 days of lamentation. But when a new king, 
 son of the dead monarch perliaps, ascended 
 the throne, then indeed "the sun gave light 
 again" — a new Horus had risen on the world. 
 
 Generally the crown descended to the chil- 
 dren of the king, with little or no discrimination 
 against the daughters. The constitution of the 
 oldest empire of the world did not admit that 
 it was a misfortune to be born a woman. In a 
 few instances the line of hereditary descent was 
 broken by revolt and usurpation. 
 
 Besides the king and his retinue of princes 
 there were few eminent Egyptians. There 
 were no distinguished families in the land, 
 no great generals, no orators, no poets, no 
 statesmen. Even the priests were noted as 
 a class, not as men. All grandeur proceeded 
 from the sovereign — was derived from him. 
 In no other great nation of the world has 
 there been such a dearth of individual achieve- 
 ment. The great names of Egypt are the 
 names of the Pharaohs. 
 
 The military caste in Egyptian society 
 was not distinguished for the warlike grandeur 
 of its leadership or the personal heroism of its 
 soldiery ; it was strong en masse — victorious by 
 its impersonal momentum. The army was 
 well disciplined rather than well organized, 
 and war was carried on with some degree of 
 
 scientific skill. The weapons were provided 
 from the royal armories. Helmets, shields, 
 bows and arrows, lances, and swords with 
 curving blades, were served forth to the bat- 
 talions according to the exigency of the serv- 
 ice. The trumpet sounded the march, the 
 battle, the retreat. In attacking towns the 
 battering ram and protecting shed were em- 
 ployed in the manner of the Roman siege. 
 
 In the Old Empire the cavalry service was 
 unknown, and war-chariots were not used un- 
 til after the expulsion of the Hyksos. There 
 were two great military orders — the one called 
 the Hermotyhlam, so named from the peculiar 
 apron which constituted the feature of their 
 uniform ; and the other, the Kalasirians, from 
 the linen coat which they wore. The former 
 were the soldiers of Upper Egypt and the 
 western part of the Delta; the latter of the 
 eastern Delta and the province of Thebes. 
 For it was a resident soldiery, living indepen- 
 dently on lands granted by the king. Each 
 family of the warrior caste had an allotment 
 of about twelve acres — a homestead, the pro- 
 ducts of which belonged to the occupants. In 
 times of emergency this military order could 
 bring into the field a force of five hundred 
 thousand men. 
 
 The favored rank of Egyptian society was 
 the PRIESTS. To them belonged one-third of 
 the lands of the kingdom. They were the 
 holy order in whose hands rested the mainte- 
 nance of the national religious faith, the con- 
 duct of the ceremonies in the temples, the dir 
 rection of the sacrifices, the work of education, 
 and the general culture of the Egyptians. 
 
 By the priests no secular duties might be per- 
 formed. They were expected to devote them- 
 selves exclusively to the business of their 
 sacred oflfice, and to this end they were guar- 
 anteed a liberal support. The revenues from 
 their lands, together with certain taxes and 
 contributions of corn, wine, and animals 
 brought for sacrifice, furnished abundant 
 maintenance, and gave the priests unlimited 
 command of time for their religious duties. 
 The performance of the sacred ceremonies was 
 accordingly elaborate and expensive. The 
 ritual was followed with great exactness and 
 regularity, and every minute detail of wor-
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 75 
 
 ship and sacrifice attended to with punctilious 
 respect for the scriptures and traditions. 
 
 The Egyptian priests were divided into 
 several ranks or classes, according to the dig- 
 nity and importance of the services rendered. 
 In every temple was one High-priest, who 
 ministered only in the greatest things. After 
 him came the Prophet, who was overseer of 
 the temple; a Scribe, who was proficient in 
 writing and had charge of the property; a 
 Chamberlain, who took care of the images, 
 vestments, and sacrifices; an Astronomer, who 
 recorded the phenomena of the heavens; and 
 
 the planets were named and the stars mapped 
 with wonderful accuracy. Here were made 
 the beginnings of that sky-lore which in the 
 middle of the second century B. C. astonished 
 Hipparchus as he studied the heavens in the 
 observatory at Alexandria. 
 
 Among the priestly rank the hereditary 
 principle struggled with the principle of fit- 
 ness. Priests might be, and were, promoted 
 from one rank to another, according to the 
 merit of service ; but in general the office was 
 handed down from father to son in regular 
 succession. Five orders were recognized in 
 
 TEMPLE OF ISIS, PHILAE. 
 
 a Minstrel, who conducted the chants. After 
 these in rank were the image bearers, the 
 nurses of the sacred animals, the embalmers, 
 and ordinary servants of the temple. 
 
 The most famous shrines in the kingdom 
 were the temples of Amun at Thebes, of Ptah at 
 Memphis, of Ka at Heliopolis, and of Isis at 
 Philse. The high-priest of Amun at Thebes 
 was the high-priest of Egypt — next to the 
 Pharaoh in glory. In the temples colleges 
 were established, and were for centuries the 
 chief centers of the intellectual life of the na- 
 tion. Here were the seats of "the learning of 
 the Egyptians," famous throughout the East. 
 
 Here the sciences grew and flourished. Here 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—5 
 
 the temples — first priests, second priests, etc., 
 the fifth being the lowest rank. It is recorded 
 of one Baken-Chunsu that, beginning service 
 in the third order, he rose in distinction until 
 he became high-priest of Amun at Thebes. 
 
 The discipline of the priest's life was exceed- 
 ingly exacting. The rules for the purification 
 of the body, for food, and for conduct were rig- 
 orous in the extreme. The ritual prescribed 
 that every priest must perform ablutions twice 
 by day and twice by night. On every third day 
 the whole person must be shaven, especially 
 the beard and eyebrows. No clothing could 
 be worn except of linen. The shoes were of 
 papyrus. Woolen goods were abominable. No
 
 76 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 priest could touch the hair or skins of beasts 
 without defilement. The animals for sacrifice 
 must first be purified by the attendants. 
 
 The priest's food was ordered in accordance 
 with the same strict regulations. No flesh, ex^ 
 cept that of calves and of geese, might be 
 
 HIPPARCHUS IN THE OBSKRVATORY OF ALEXANDRIA.
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 77 
 
 eaten. Fish might not be touched. Peas and 
 beans were absolutely interdicted — might not 
 be looked upon. The least excess brought 
 defilement and disgrace. The layman might 
 eat what he would, but the priest must be 
 pure and holy. Fasts were frequent and se- 
 vere. Sometimes for six weeks together the 
 priest would mortify his body in order that 
 the roots of deadly sins might be destroyed. 
 Celibacy was not a part of the discipline, but 
 multiplicity of wives, permitted to the Pha- 
 raoh and his noblemen, was forbidden to the 
 priests. 
 
 The common people — the Third Estate — of 
 Egypt were divided into three classes: hus- 
 bandmen, artisans, and shepherds. The lines 
 of division were not very clearly drawn, nor 
 is there much ground for believing that one 
 of these classes outranked the other in social 
 reputation. There is no doubt that the mili- 
 
 FELLAH PLOWING, 
 
 tary and priestly orders stood much higher in 
 general society than did the handcraftsmen 
 and laborers; but it does not appear that as 
 between artisans and husbandmen there was 
 much distinction of rank. The shepherds and 
 swineherds are declared by Diodorus to have 
 been the lowest stratum of Egyptian society — 
 a class held in aversion and contempt by all 
 the other orders. 
 
 A man's place as a citizen in the social 
 scale was for the most part determined by the 
 rank in which he was born. It was not im- 
 possible that this order should be broken and 
 the artisan become a husbandman, or even 
 the shepherd an artisan ; but such transfer of 
 social rank was the exception — not the rule. 
 
 In no other country, perhaps, did the he- 
 
 reditary principle go so far towards fixing the 
 industrial pursuits of men as in Egypt. The 
 vocation of the father was followed by the 
 son. One inscription bears witness to the 
 fact that the profession of architect had been 
 practiced in a given family for twenty-three 
 generations.^ 
 
 The naturally conservative character of the 
 people cooperated with hereditary influences 
 to limit certain occupations to certain families, 
 and certain families to certain occupations; 
 but it is nevertheless true that in the strictest 
 sense of the term the castes of Egypt were not 
 rigid. Intermarriages between the various 
 orders of society were never prohibited, and 
 without exclusiveness in this regard there can 
 be no true caste. 
 
 Transitions from one social and civil rank 
 to another were common, or at least not in- 
 frequent in all periods of Egyptian history. 
 The inscriptions on the tombs never ascribe 
 any merit to the birth of the occupant, but 
 rather to what he did. Nor was it impossible, 
 or even improper, for an Egyptian to belong 
 to two castes at once. He might be farmer 
 and mechanic, or priest and soldier, without 
 destroying his social rank. The disrepute of 
 the shepherd life has been traced to the fact 
 that the keepers of the flocks (not the breeders 
 of herds, who were well esteemed) were mostly 
 Libyan and Arabian nomads, and not native 
 Egyptians. 
 
 The life of the common people of Egypt 
 was passed with the usual vicissitudes of toil 
 and rest. To the farmer and gardener the 
 fertility of the soil gave abundant rewards for 
 their labor. The greatest drawback on the 
 
 ^ It would be an interesting inquiry to deter- 
 mine how far the superior excellence of ancient 
 art is traceable to genius accumulated by the force 
 of heredity. The transmission of skill is a fact 
 that can not be denied ; and it is easy to see that 
 if the hereditary impulse were allowed freely to 
 Avork out its results through many generations, a 
 degree of power in the direction of a certain ac- 
 tivity might be reached which would astonish 
 and bewilder by the beauty and precision of its 
 work. Is it not possible that the inferiority of art 
 and design in our own times is in a large measure 
 traceable to the fact that herein the force of he- 
 redity is constantly thwarted and broken up by 
 the multifarious and ever shifting pursuits of 
 modern life?
 
 78 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.—TRE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 THE ERECTION OP PUBLIC BUILDINGS (EGYPT). 
 
 comfort and independence of the lowly popu- 
 lace was the fact that the lauds belonged to 
 Pharaoh. The husbandmen held their home- 
 steads only by lease, and were thus virtually 
 the tenants of the king. Even the labor of 
 the people might be commanded by the mon- 
 arch who, for his own caprice and pride did 
 not hesitate to squander on the vainglorious 
 pile that was to guard his withered mummy 
 the toil of generations. It was by the confis- 
 cated labor of the people that the pyramids 
 were built. The tasks of those who toiled at 
 the public works and in the mines and quar- 
 ries were many times cruel and severe. The 
 laborer might be driven to his work with rod 
 and whip, or beaten for imperfect service. 
 The private employer and public taskmaster 
 alike might exercise the right of chastisement 
 over those who were employed by them, and 
 
 a thousand sculptures show that the overseers 
 did not neglect to vindicate their right. 
 
 Bating the occasional severity of their 
 labor and the fact that Pharaoh owned their 
 lands, the common people of Egypt, for the 
 
 EGYPTIAN DWELLING. 
 
 From a Bas-relief. 
 
 most part, lived a happy and prosperous life. 
 The domestic tie was strong, and the pleasures
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 79 
 
 of toine of a higher order than in 
 any other nation of antiquity. The 
 monuments furnish numberless ex- 
 amples of the tenderness shown by 
 parents to their children, and the 
 manifestations of courtesy and affec- 
 tion between man and wife are so 
 common as to show that the rule 
 was kindness — ^the exception cru- 
 elty. Even where the sculptures 
 bear witness to family jars and so- 
 cial scandals the delineation is gen- 
 erally given in the spirit of humor 
 rather than in satire and bitterness. 
 As a general rule, the Egyp- 
 tian home was by no means the 
 abode of squalor and despair. Com- 
 forts as great as those found in the 
 peasant-homes of modern Europe 
 were enjoyed by the people of the 
 Nile valley four thousand years 
 ago. The houses of the artisans 
 and husbandmen were generally of 
 brick, and were as well furnished 
 as the houses of the workingmen of 
 to-day, and perhaps better built. 
 In humbler homes the stools and 
 benches and cots were of primitive 
 patterns and rude workmanship; 
 but in the houses of the well-to-do 
 and wealthy the tables, beds, and 
 chairs were elaborately finished and 
 ornamented in the highest style 
 with foreign woods and quaint de- 
 vices of workmanship. 
 
 Though sedate, the Egyptians 
 were fond of amusements, and the 
 various games in which the people 
 delighted are fully delineated on 
 the monuments. The juggler's art 
 was carried to great perfection. It 
 was the delight of the performer to 
 deceive the senses of the beholder 
 of his tricks. Wrestling, jumping, 
 and tumbling were sports greatly 
 enjoyed by the people. The figures 
 of athletes performing feats of 
 strength or boxing for the amuse- 
 ment of the bystanders are deline- 
 ated in many of the sculptures. 
 
 EGYPTIAN DANCER. 
 After the Painting by H. Makart.
 
 80 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 On one of the walls of Beni Hassan the 
 different phases of a game of ball, involv- 
 ing running and leaping, are pictured; and 
 in another part the performers are throw- 
 ing a set of balls into the air, catching them 
 in their faU. Of the indoor games, draughts 
 or checkers was the most popular contest. 
 All classes, from the Pharaoh to the swine- 
 herd, found delight in this amusement. Dice 
 were thrown, as in modern gaming, the 
 cubes being numbered as at present, but the 
 numbers differently arranged. Many other 
 contests of chance and skill, or both combined, 
 are represented in the paintings and sculp- 
 tures of Thebes and Beni Hassan. The 
 children were well provided with such home 
 amusements as were calculated to develop the 
 body and divert the mind. Dolls and wooden 
 manikins, with a jointed anatomy operated 
 by strings, gave infinite amusement to the 
 solemn-eyed urchins of the Egyptian household. 
 
 Among the higher classes music was the 
 chief delight. Musical instruments of almost 
 every conceivable pattern — harps, guitars, 
 lyres, sistra, flutes, pipes, triangles, horns, 
 trumpets, and drums — are found plentifully 
 distributed among the sculptures of the tombs, 
 temples, and palaces. The attitude of the 
 player is carefully delineated. The military 
 band leads the cohort. The dancers take 
 their places, step to the strains of their own 
 instruments, follow the cry of the caller, or 
 whirl to the clapping of hands. The dance 
 of ancient, as of modern, Egypt, was accom- 
 panied with graceful postures of the body and 
 pleasing gesticulations on the part of the per- 
 former. 
 
 Many styles of dancing were cultivated 
 by the Egyptians according to the diverse 
 tastes of the different classes of society. 
 The dance of the priests differed from that 
 of the townsmen and peasantry, while the 
 upper orders of Egyptian society danced not 
 at all or only in private parties. Nor was 
 
 ^ An old Egyptian myth relates the playing of 
 a game of dice by Mercury with the Moon. It 
 was before the birth of Osiris. The stake was the 
 five days necessary to make out a full year in the 
 Egyptian calendar. Fortunately Mercury won, 
 and the five days were accordingly added to the 
 three hundred and sixty. 
 
 the voice of song unheard in the Egyptian 
 home. Though poetry was less cultivated in 
 Egypt than in the countries settled by the 
 Aryan races north of the Mediterranean, the 
 musical talent was perhaps more highly devel- 
 oped by the former than by the latter peoples ; 
 and the songs of Egypt, though lacking 
 in poetic inspiration, were melodious and 
 beautiful.' 
 
 The people of Egypt bestowed unusual 
 care upon the bodies of the dead. The races 
 of men have held two theories in regard to 
 the proper disposal of the human body after 
 death. The first is that the mortal part should, 
 as speedily as practicable after the extinction 
 of life, be reduced to ashes; the second is that 
 the body should be preserved and honored as 
 a living guest.* Those races among whom 
 
 ^ In the fields men sang at the harvest or fol- 
 lowing the plow. The appended stanza from an 
 "Ox-Song" was sung at the threshing-floor, and 
 has been preserved in one of the inscriptions: 
 
 /J />A\W\ /vWAV\ A 
 
 III I I I LU -A. 
 
 © 
 JJ 
 
 111 111^^ /> 
 
 1 I I 
 
 I I I 1^ 
 
 I 1 
 
 I I I 
 
 The following is the translation of this song: 
 Thresh for yourselves, 
 Thresh for yourselves, 
 
 Oxen ! 
 Thresh for yourselves, 
 Thresh for yourselves. 
 Measures for yourselves, 
 Measures for your masters. 
 The marks © ^ to the left of verses 1 and 3 
 signify repeat. 
 
 ^ It may be truly said that the system of earth 
 burial adopted by the nations of modern times 
 has preserved all the objectionable features of cre- 
 mation and embalming, without the merits of 
 either. It is a poor compromise between super- 
 stition and science.
 
 EGYPT.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 81 
 
 the worsliip of ancestors has prevailed, have 
 adopted the latter view, and for this reason 
 have embalmed their dead. The art of thus 
 preserving the remains of the departed was 
 practiced more generally and successfully by 
 the ancient Egyptians than by any other peo- 
 ple. Embalming was as much a profession as 
 the practice of medicine, and the bodies of 
 
 third; and among these the friends selected 
 according to their rank and means. 
 
 The dead body was then delivered to the 
 embalmers, by whom the brain was removed 
 through the nostrils. Then an incision was 
 made in the left side with a sharp stone. 
 Through this opening the entire viscera were 
 removed, and being thoroughly cleansed by 
 
 PROCESS OF EMBALMING. 
 
 all except the poorest of the poor were in 
 some measure preserved against decay. 
 
 When an Egyptian died the friends of the 
 deceased went at once to the embalmer. By 
 him they were shown a set of models, that is, 
 wooden images painted and wrapped in imita- 
 tion of the different styles of mummies pre- 
 pared at the establishment. The models were 
 divided into three classes; first, second, and 
 
 washing with palm wine, were covered with 
 pounded aromatics and deposited in four urns. 
 The cavity of the body was filled with pow- 
 dered myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant sub- 
 stances, and the wound carefully sewn up. 
 The whole body was then packed for seventy 
 days in salt and carbonate of soda, at the end 
 of which tijue it was washed and then wrapped 
 in linen bands anointed on the inner surface
 
 82 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 FUNERAL PROCESSION CROSSING THE LAKE OF THE DEAD. 
 
 witli a certain gum which acted as glue. The 
 mummy was finally put into a wooden case 
 in the form of a man, and delivered to 
 the relatives, by whom it was set upright 
 
 
 
 MUMMY CASES. 
 
 against the wall in one of the rooms of their 
 house. 
 
 The cost of preparing a mummy in the 
 first style is said to have reached as high as 
 twelve hundred and fifty dollars. In the sec- 
 ond style the expense was about three hundred 
 dollars, and the third was so cheap as to be 
 within the reach of all. 
 
 In the second method of embalming, the 
 body of the deceased was filled with the oil 
 of cedar, which was of such strength as to 
 dissolve the viscera. After this was done the 
 body could be easily cleansed and preserved 
 by the action of soda and salt. The cavities 
 of the head and trunk were generally filled 
 with aromatic spices, resins, or bitumen — but 
 the latter was used only in preparing the 
 bodies of the poor. When a priest or one of 
 the wealthy classes was embalmed the mummy 
 was prepared with great elaboration and ex- 
 pense. Sometimes the linen bandage employed 
 measured a thousand yards in length ; the 
 case was tastefully painted and ornamented 
 with gold-leaf; and the sarcophagus of wood 
 or stone was profusely adorned and sculptured. 
 Such was the fantastic figure of the actor as 
 he quit the stage for the sepulcher. 
 
 In every thing relating to the fact of death 
 the ancient Egyptians had peculiar and solemn 
 rites. The ceremonies of the hour were di- 
 rected not only to the body of the departed 
 and its careful preservation from decay — not
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 83 
 
 only to its honorable establishment among the 
 ancestral effigies of the household — but also 
 to such forms and ceremonies as might prop- 
 erly induct the spirit of the dead into the 
 realms of blessedness. The funeral ritual was 
 solemn and elaborate. Prayers were offered 
 for the repose and chants recited for the 
 happy reception of the dead among the im- 
 mortals. The day of sepulture was a time of 
 
 great lamentation. As the mummy of the 
 dead was placed in a barge to be taken across 
 the Lake of the Dead — for it was the manner 
 of the Egyptians to bear the bodies about to 
 be entombed across the water to the place of 
 sepulture — the members of the household, es- 
 pecially the women, were wont to follow in 
 another barge, and with uplifted hands and 
 unbound hair to cry out for the lost/ 
 
 Chapter, v.— reliqion and Art. 
 
 N the present chapter a 
 sketch will be given of 
 the religious system of 
 the ancient Egyptians and 
 of the arts which they 
 invented and practiced. 
 The first topic will, it is 
 believed, prove of unusual interest as embody- 
 ing the ethical and philosophical beliefs of the 
 oldest race of mankind; and the second will 
 hardly fail of like interest as presenting the 
 artistic concepts and achievements of those 
 who were in many respects the greatest people 
 of the ancient world. 
 
 The primitive religious beliefs of the 
 Egyptians have not been clearly determined. 
 The oldest monuments reveal the worship 
 of many gods; but the eminent Egyptolo- 
 gist, De Eouge, has been led, from a care- 
 ful study of the religious systems of Egypt, 
 to affirm that the original principle in them 
 all is the idea of one god. Other scholars, 
 equally distinguished, have decided that the 
 fragments of inscriptions and manuscripts 
 which have been preserved to our day do not 
 warrant De Rouge's conclusion. Certain it 
 is that, however monotheism may have orig- 
 inally prevailed in Egyptian philosophy, the 
 idea at a very early date grew into a polythe- 
 istic development ; but it is also true that the 
 spiritual concept in the religion of Egypt suf- 
 fered less by polytheistic degeneration than 
 among almost any other people worshiping 
 a multiplicity of gods. It was the moving 
 spirits, rather than the material forms, of 
 
 things that were adored by the Egyptians, 
 Only in a few instances, as under Dynasty 
 XVIII. (see p. 58), was the attempt made to 
 introduce the idolatry of material forms. 
 
 Notwithstanding this high form under 
 which the religion of the Egyptians was pre- 
 sented, it was none the less a system closely 
 allied with natural philosophy. The deities 
 worshiped were regarded as the moving powers 
 of Nature. A knowledge of the deities was 
 therefore necessary in order to interpret the pro- 
 cesses and phenomena of the external world. 
 
 The first and greatest of the Egyptian 
 gods was Ptah. His principal sanctuary was 
 at Memphis, and here his worship is said to 
 have been as old as the city itself. Nearly 
 all of the Pharaohs contributed to enlarge 
 and adorn the great Memphian temple where 
 Ptah was adored. He was the god of light, 
 of heat, of fire, and as such was worshiped 
 by the Greeks under the name of Hephaestus. 
 
 The fundamental theory of the Egyptian re- 
 ligion was that whatever gave life was worthy 
 of adoration. The sun, or the spirit that ruled 
 the sun, was preeminently the giver of life; 
 therefore, the sun, or the spirit of the sun, was 
 a god, and worthy of worship in the highest. 
 This spirit of life and light and truth was 
 Ptah. He stood at the head of the dynasties 
 of the gods. His names were sublime. He 
 was the lord of truth, the ruler of the sky, 
 
 ' The usage of ferrying the dead over the water 
 to the tombs was much practiced on Lake Moeris, 
 nor is it improbable that the custom originated 
 with the priests of the Feiyoom.
 
 84 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the king of both worlds, the weaver of the 
 beginning, the producer of the egg of the 
 sun and the moon. He was a creative spirit, 
 having the power of both sexes within him- 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN TRINITY. 
 
 From a Column at El-Kamak. 
 
 self. Therefore was he the Double God, and 
 therefore was the sacred beetle^ which, ac- 
 cording to the tradition of the land, brought 
 forth without the agency of sex, placed on 
 Ptah's shoulders as his head. His body was 
 painted green, for he was the giver of vege- 
 tation. In his hands he bore a Nile gauge 
 and a scepter. On a Memphian pillar (now 
 
 preserved in the 
 Berlin Museum), 
 Ptah is defined as 
 the god who made 
 himself to be god, 
 the double being, 
 who exists by him- 
 self, the only unbe- 
 gotten begetter in 
 heaven or in earth. 
 He was the spirit 
 of intelligent crea- 
 tive power, and as such was the nearest ap- 
 proach to the one God known in the symbol- 
 ism of Egypt. 
 ^ Scarahseus sacer. 
 
 THE SACRED BEETLE. 
 
 After Ptah came E,A. He was the chief 
 divinity worshiped at Heliopolis. He Avas 
 more particularly the god of the sun, the 
 Helios of the Greeks, and as such gave his 
 name to the city. Sometimes he is repre- 
 sented as a chUd, sitting on a leaf of lotus; 
 for in the Egyptian fancy the sun of the 
 winter months was a little chUd. Afterwards, 
 at the vernal equinox, he was a youth ; then, 
 in summer, a bearded man ; and, at the au- 
 tumnal equinox, an old man, gray and de- 
 crepit. The allegory of human life furnished 
 a symbol for the god. He was borne daily 
 around the world in a boat navigated by 
 spirits who, hour by hour, drew the growing 
 deity to his destined place in the west, and 
 thence over the waters of the under world to 
 his renewal in the morning. "The old man 
 becomes again a child," is the language of the 
 monuments. 
 
 In the sculptures of Egypt Ra is repre- 
 sented as a red god, having the head of a 
 hawk. Upon his crest he bears the solar disk. 
 His symbol is generally the hawk — emblem 
 of watchfulness. The sun sees all things. He 
 drives away all darkness. Ra struggles against 
 the gloomy powers, and overcomes them. He is 
 accordingly adored as the victorious, the van- 
 quisher. The worship of Ra was more gen- 
 eral than that of any other deity except Osi- 
 ris, and was frequently combined with the 
 worship of other gods, such as Amun, Num, 
 and Sebek. Thus were produced the com- 
 pound systems of Amun-Ra, Num-Ra, Sebek- 
 Ra, etc., in which both deities were adored 
 together. At Heliopolis two animals were 
 sacred to this god : the black bull, Mnevis, 
 and the famous Phoenix. For it was from 
 
 THE WINGED SUN. 
 
 the temple of this city that the fabled bird 
 began its annual flight around the world. 
 The cat and the hawk were likewise sacred to 
 Ra, and the two-winged globe of the sun his 
 emblem. It was from this great solar deity 
 that the kings of Egypt derived their power 
 and glory: they were all the sons of Ra. 
 While the system of Ptah and Ra — the
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 85 
 
 Beginner and the Sustainer of Life— was in pro- 
 cess of development at Memphis and generally 
 throughout Lower Egypt, the same myths in 
 a modified form appeared at Thebes. The 
 Memphian Ptah became the Theban Amun. 
 The peculiarity of the latter deity was that he 
 was the invisible one. He was accordingly 
 worshiped as the concealed or veiled god. He 
 is represented as sitting on a throne, a scepter 
 in his hand and two feathers rising from his 
 crest. By his side stands the goddess Mut, 
 who is styled the Mother and the Lady of 
 Darkness. The vulture was her symbol. In 
 the sculptures representing battles the vulture 
 is often seen hovering over the head of Pha- 
 raoh—the genius of protection. In the later 
 development of Upper Egypt the god Chnum 
 was associated with Amun, and the latter thus 
 came to bear the symbolism of the former- 
 being the head and horns of a ram. 
 
 Just as Amun was the Theban development 
 of Ptah, so the Theban Atmu was the coun- 
 terpart in Upper Egypt of the Memphian Ra. 
 Atmu was a special form of the solar deity. 
 With a slight variation of attributes, the 
 names Tum and Mentu were applied to the 
 same divinity. Turn was the setting sun, the 
 sun hidden behind the west, the sun of the 
 under world. Mentu was the sun of the east- 
 ern horizon, the sun of morning and the day. 
 Atmu, like Ptah, was called the father of the 
 gods. He was the spirit of the primeval 
 floods, out of whose mists and vapor the sun 
 was born. Therefore he was called the egg of 
 Ra. His emblems were the sun-dial and the 
 horologe. 
 
 Next in the Egyptian theonomy stand the 
 deities Shii and Seb. They were the gods 
 alike of Upper and Lower Egypt, being wor- 
 shiped with equal zeal at Thebes and Mem- 
 phis. Shu was light personified. He was the 
 genius of celestial force, and is represented as 
 supporting heaven. In his human form he 
 bears the ostrich feather, the symbol of truth ; 
 for light and truth are inseparable. His con- 
 sort, Tefnet, goddess of heaven, was repre- 
 sented with the head of a lioness— a symbol 
 holding the same relation to the female deities 
 as did the hawk-head to the gods. Seb, with 
 his consort, Nut, was the founder of the great 
 
 family of Osiris. Seb was the genius of the 
 earth and Nut of the heavens, and both were 
 worshiped in human form, as were Kronos 
 and Rhea by the Greeks. 
 
 The greatest of all the Egyptian myths— 
 the most popular and universal— were those 
 of Osiris and Isis.^ Isis was the receptive and 
 Osiris the fructifying power in Nature. They 
 were the spirits of Blessing and of Life. 
 Their color is green; for the living earth is 
 green; and the sacred tamarisk, with its per- 
 ennial verdure, is the emblem of that indwell- 
 
 ing life which was given by Osiris and bora 
 
 of Isis. 
 
 The primitive seats of the worship and lore 
 of Osiris were at Philse and Abydos. Oppo- 
 site the former city, on a little island in the 
 Nile, whose every sand was sacred, was Osiris's 
 grave, hidden under the tamarisks. An oath 
 taken by this grave was the most solemn 
 thing known to the Egyptian. Other tradi- 
 tions recorded his burial at Abydos, and the 
 priests of the temple in that city prayed to 
 rest near the tomb of their god. In Lower 
 
 1 In Egyptian, Hesiri and Hes.
 
 86 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TSE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Egypt the worship of Osiris was raaintained at 
 
 Memphis, at Sa'is, and in the towns of the Delta. 
 
 The most famous sanctuary of Isis was 
 
 situated at Busiris, in the district lying be- 
 
 tween the branches of the Nile, and here the 
 goddess, together with Osiris, was adored in 
 prayers and praises. At the annual festival 
 great lamentation was made for Osiris's death. 
 While the supplications of the priests were 
 made a bull was flayed; the thighs were cut 
 away; the body was filled with bread, honey, 
 and incense. Then the whole was drenched 
 with oil and set on fire. While the flames as- 
 cended the people lamented, and what re- 
 mained of the sacrifice was eaten. 
 
 Blessing and Life were good; but there 
 was also Evil in the world. There was a spirit 
 of e\al. He was the serpent called Typhou 
 by the Greeks, but the Egyptians called him 
 Set.^ He was the genius of malevolence. He 
 slew Osiris, his kinsman, on the seventeenth 
 day of the month Athyr.'^ Isis lamented the 
 
 ' In Hebrew, Satan. 
 "On this day the sun — Osiris- 
 the sign of the scorpion. 
 
 -passes through 
 
 death of her lord ; and at the great commemo- 
 ration a gilded heifer covered with a black veil 
 of linen was exhibited for four days as a sym- 
 bol of the sorrow of the queen of Life for 
 the god of Blessing. At the end the priests 
 brought out a chest, and the people cried 
 "Osiris is found!" A serpent was slain in 
 efl&gy, and libations were poured out to the 
 living deity. 
 
 Among the sculptures Isis generally ap- 
 pears as a maiden with the horned disk of the 
 moon for her head. She has a scepter 
 with flowers, and the emblem of life is in her 
 hand. In the inscriptions she is honored with 
 the titles of the great goddess and the royal 
 spouse. As to Set, he was burning red in 
 color, and the ass was his sacred animal. He 
 was called the almighty 
 destroyer and blighter. 
 He filled the world Avith 
 forms of evil — serpents 
 and crocodiles and hip- 
 popotami, beetles and 
 dragons and asps. The 
 hot wind that blasted 
 the trees was the breath 
 of Set. The mildew and 
 the blight were flung by 
 his hands upon the gar- 
 dens and orchards. 
 
 Of Osiris and Isis 
 was born the child Ho- 
 RUS. He came into the 
 world to avenge his 
 father. As a child-god 
 he sits on a lotus-leaf, 
 his finger on his lips. 
 As a youth he takes 
 the name of Buto. 
 Then he becomes the 
 strong Horus, the great 
 helper, the pillar of 
 the world. He does column of osiris. 
 
 honor to the spirit of From Mediuet Habu, Time 
 1 . /. , 1 TT • xi of Ramses III. 
 
 his lather. Me is the 
 
 genius of light. He rides in the sun-boat 
 and stabs the serpent Apopis. He treads 
 the crocodiles under his feet, and in the 
 form of the winged disk of the sun tri- 
 umphs over the hippopotamus. The wor^^
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 87 
 
 stiper of Horus cried out In his supplication : 
 "Come to me quickly on this day to guide 
 the holy bark, to force back all lions from the 
 land of Egypt and all crocodiles into the Nile. 
 Shamelessness and sin come and appear upon 
 
 earth ; but when Horus is invoked he destroys 
 them. All mankind rejoice when they see 
 the sun. They praise the son of Osiris, and 
 the serpent turns and flees." Horus was the 
 god of light, turning the gloom of winter into 
 the verdure and life of spring. He was the 
 Apollo of the Greeks. 
 
 Associated with Horus was the goddess 
 Hathor, the Aphrodite of the Greek myths. 
 The principal seat of her worship was at 
 Aphroditopolis. She is represented as the 
 queen of the dance and revel. To her was 
 attributed the power of maternity and the 
 mystery of love. On the monuments she 
 stands with a tambourine, sometimes in fetters. 
 Like Isis, she wears the horned crescent, the 
 moon's disk between. In the sculptures of the 
 
 "^\ii 
 
 temples no fewer than three hundred and 
 sixty local forms are given to this goddess, 
 the queen of the passions of Egypt. 
 
 Among the deities worshiped by the Egyp- 
 tians the god Thoth^ held a place inferior to 
 Ea. He was the chief Moon-god, and was 
 represented with the head of an Ibis. To 
 him is attributed the introduction of letters 
 and the reckoning of time. In the conflict 
 which Horus had with the dragon Set, Thoth 
 by his wisdom aided in destroying the serpent. 
 He was the god of knowledge and of art. 
 At the last, when the souls of the dead are 
 brought before the judgment-seat of Osiris, it 
 is Thoth who records the 
 sentence of eternal doom. 
 After Thoth, who may, 
 perhaps, be regarded as 
 the last of the principal 
 gods of Egypt, came a 
 number of others of less 
 reputation. Among these 
 minor divinities may be 
 mentioned Mat, the god- 
 dess of Truth, and her son, 
 the jackal-headed Anu- 
 Bis. Next were the four 
 genii called the Amenu, 
 who presided over the pro- 
 cess of embalming. Chnum 
 has already been men- 
 tioned as associated with 
 Amun in the system of 
 Upper Egypt. Khem was 
 the Greek Pan, and Nit 
 was a local divinity of 
 Sais. To these should be 
 added the Nile, who, un- 
 der the name of Hapi, 
 was believed in and wor- 
 shiped as the god of fer- 
 tilitv and abundance. In column from the temple 
 
 •' OF DENDERAH, WITH 
 
 times of low water, espe- hathoe masks, tim^ 
 cially when the annual op ciESAR. 
 flood was scanty, portending famine, ofierings 
 were made to the great river with the hope of 
 increasing his benevolence. Traditions exist 
 that at such times a maiden, bound in fetters 
 after the similitude of Hathor, was thrown 
 1 Variously written, Thaut, Taut, Tanut, Toth. 
 
 im 
 
 li m 
 
 ^' 
 
 i
 
 88 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 THJ£ SACRIFICE TO THE NILE. 
 Drawn by W. Gentz.
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART, 
 
 89 
 
 into the tide as a sacrifice of life to a deity 
 that might not be otherwise appeased.^ 
 
 Much has been written of the adoration of 
 animals by the Egyptians. It is hardly cor- 
 rect to say that any beast was worshiped. 
 Certain animals were sacred to certain gods. 
 They were the symbols of the deities — the 
 bodily presence of the invisible principle or 
 power. Perhaps no intelligent Egyptian wor- 
 shiped the bull or the goat; but the theology 
 of the land, as formulated by the priests and 
 the philosophers, indicated these animals as the 
 best living embodiment of the gods to whom 
 they were sacred. It was through the symbol 
 that the god was worshiped ; and since the 
 gods were many, many were the symbols. 
 
 To the creative deities — the robust gods of 
 power and mastery — the sacred animal was the 
 bull; and correlative with this the cow was 
 sacred to the goddesses of birth and receptivity. 
 To Amun and Chnum the ram was sacred; 
 to Ptah the beetle ; to Osiris the heron ; to Ptah 
 and Isis the vulture; to Ra and Horus the 
 hawk and the cat; to Thoth the Ibis; to 
 Anubis the ape; to Set and his later counter- 
 part, Sebek, the crocodile. 
 
 Here superstition found abundant material. 
 The sacred animals had a portion of the divinity 
 within them. Any offense to the beast was 
 an offense to the god of whom the creature 
 was the symbol. The sacred animals must be 
 treated as deities. If the city was burning 
 the cats must be saved — they were the crea- 
 tures of the guardian Horus, who rose to light 
 the world. To honor these animals in the 
 presence of all the people — to cut up bits of 
 flesh for the hawks and stand calling for them 
 to come, or to coax the cats, already replete 
 with delicacies, to take more milk and bread — 
 were acts of profound piety, as it respected 
 the supernal powers. To kill one of these sa- 
 cred creatures, whether intentionally or unin- 
 tentionally, was a deed worthy of death. 
 Diodorus relates that as late as the time of 
 the Ptolemies, when» the Egyptians were ex- 
 
 ^ According to the best historical opinion the 
 belief that human sacrifices were made to the 
 Nile by the ancient Egyptians is without founda- 
 tion — a fact which seems to render mythical 
 Gentz's striking sketch of The Sacrifice to the Nile. 
 
 ceedingly anxious to secure the favor of the 
 Cffisars, a Roman visitor in Egypt had the 
 misfortune to kill a cat, whereupon, in spite 
 of all authority and all fear of consequences, 
 a mob gathered and took his life. 
 
 Among the various races of animals set 
 apart to the gods, certain individuals were 
 preeminently sacred. These were known by 
 the priests, and were detected by marks and 
 signs which distinguished them from the com- 
 mon herd. An animal, when once thus desig- 
 nated, was regarded as an 
 incarnation of the deity. 
 The beast was led into the 
 temple of the god to whom 
 the creature was sacred and 
 was thenceforth addressed 
 in prayer and supplication 
 as if the god himself. By 
 the common people, 
 perhaps, the dis- ^<^,.///);/v' 
 
 SACRED IBIS. 
 
 tinction between the deity and the sacred ani- 
 mal was not much regarded ; but by the priests 
 the discrimination was, no doubt, maintained 
 between the spirit and the material form of 
 their god. 
 
 As it respected the bull sacred to Ptah and 
 Osiris, the Egyptian theology declared that 
 the first Apis was conceived by the influence 
 of a ray of light from heaven. After this, 
 Apis procreated his own kind, and the priests 
 were able" to detect the true god from the un- 
 divine herd with which he pastured. Apia 
 was black. He had a triangular spot of 
 white on the forehead, and under his tongue a 
 fleshy growth in the form of the sacred beetle
 
 90 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of Ptah. His back was marked with spots 
 of white in the shape of an eagle, and his tail 
 was streaked with party-colored hairs. 
 
 When Apis was found he was put for forty- 
 days in the meadows of Nilopolis. He was then 
 conveyed in a boat to the temple of Ptah at 
 Memphis. There he was bathed and anointed 
 and clad in the finest garments. Distinguished 
 priests fed him with the costliest food, and 
 precious frankincense smoked ever before him. 
 When, at last, death put an end to the elab- 
 orate mockery, the extinct god was honored 
 with a gorgeous funeral upon which wealthy 
 noblemen and kings squandered their for- 
 tunes. But the soul of Apis had gone into 
 another, whom the priests were not slow in 
 discovering and restoring to his place in the 
 temple. If Apis refused to die, at the end of 
 twenty-five years he was drowned in a sacred 
 fountain ; for the imposing ceremony of a new 
 installation might not be too long postponed. 
 
 At that season of the year when the inun- 
 dation of the Nile began, promising peace and 
 plenty for the year to come, a peculiar heron, 
 bearing upon his crest two long black feath- 
 ers, appeared in Egypt. The coming of this 
 bird, called Bennu, seemed to announce the 
 fertilization of the land and the return of life. 
 Doubtless, therefore, the heron brought the 
 blessings of abundance ; and to Osiris, the god 
 of blessing, the bird was sacred. In the great 
 temple of Heliopolis the heron was conse- 
 crated as the great Bennu of On, the self- 
 begotten creature who caused the divisions of 
 time to men. 
 
 Closely connected with this myth was the 
 more famous one of the Phcenix. The legend 
 recites that, once in every five hundred years, 
 a great bird, gold-colored and red, and shaped 
 like an eagle, came out of Arabia to the tem- 
 ple of the sun in Heliopolis. Here in the 
 sanctuary of the sun-god the winged creature 
 buried the corpse of his father, embalmed in 
 myrrh. On reaching the age of five hundred 
 years, the phcenix prepared a funeral pile and 
 burned himself upon it. Then out of the 
 ashes he rose by recreation of himself and 
 bore away the remains of his old body to He- 
 liopolis. The phoenix was sacred to Osiris; 
 and the fable is no doubt the mythical ex- 
 
 pression of the completion of some astronom- 
 ical cycle, perhaps the return of the planets 
 to a given aspect. The jDlanet Venus is called, 
 on the Egyptian monuments, "the Star of 
 Bennu-Osiris." 
 
 To Ra of Heliopolis the male cat was sa- 
 cred, and the female to Pasht — the divinity of 
 Bubastis.^ In like manner the vulture of 
 Mut, the ibis of Thoth, and the hawk of Ho- 
 rus, were set apart as objects of popular ven- 
 eration and priestly care. When these ani- 
 imal gods died their bodies were generally 
 embalmed with as much care as those of men 
 of the highest rank. The mummies of the 
 holy creatures — bulls, cows, jackals, dogs, cats, 
 vultures, hawks, ibises, herons, and even croc- 
 odiles — are found abundantly scattered among 
 the sacred rubbish of Thebes, Abydos, Mem- 
 phis, Bubastis, and Hermopolis. 
 
 The faith of Egypt was not, however, 
 wholly given up to incongruous myths and 
 absurd symbolism. Mixed with the material- 
 istic degeneration of the national religion were 
 many concepts approximating the best beliefs 
 of the ages. Everywhere there was the rec- 
 ognition of a difference between soul and body. 
 The spiritual nature of man was clearly ap- 
 prehended. Immortality was accepted as a 
 thing taken for granted. Osiris had the power 
 of aAvakening life out of death. He was the 
 god of the human soul and of everlasting life. 
 There was an invisible world where the spirits 
 of men, eternal and indestructible, dwelt under 
 the dominion of Osiris. 
 
 After death the human soul was believed 
 to descend with the setting sun under 
 the world. Here, in a place called the haU 
 of Double Justice, on the Day of Justifica- 
 
 ^ As a specimen of the hymnody of Egypt the 
 following chant to the male cat of Ra may be 
 given : " Thy head is the head of the Sun-god ; thy 
 nose is the nose of Thoth, the twice mighty lord 
 of Hermopolis. Thy ears are the ears of Osiris, 
 who hears the voice of all who call upon him. 
 Thy mouth is the mouth of Turn, who has pre- 
 served thee from every stain. Thy heart is the 
 heart of Ptah, who has purified thee from every 
 taint of evil in thy parts. Thy teeth are the teeth 
 of the Moon-god ; and thy thighs are the thighs 
 of Horus, who avenged the death of his father, 
 and retaliated upon Set the evil which he pur- 
 posed against Osiris."
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 91 
 
 tion, the soul is examined and its actions 
 weighed. Osiris is on the throne. With a 
 crown on his head, surrounded with lotus- 
 flowers springing out of the water of life, he 
 holds the whip and the crosier. Anubis, the 
 leader and keeper of the dead, and Horus, 
 the god of life, handle the balance, while 
 forty-two spirits, sitting beside Osiris, watch 
 the weighing of the spirit and its deeds. The 
 
 a hypocrite, or a liar; he has not taken the 
 property of the gods ; he is not a drunkard ; 
 he has not slandered his neighbor ; he has not 
 slighted his father or the king; he has not 
 babbled; he has not despised the gods, or 
 stolen the wrappings of the dead. If the 
 heart in the scale outweighs the feather, the 
 soul is acquitted. His heart is given him 
 again. His body is deified. Hathor and Nut, 
 
 THE TEJIi'hE OK ISIS.-ISLANU UE ELEEHANTINE. 
 
 heart of the dead is put into one scale and an 
 ostrich feather — symbol of truth and justice — 
 into the other; and while one of the gods 
 stands ready to record the result, the dead 
 himself recites the acts which are likely to 
 justify him in the presence of the deities. 
 None of the forty-two sins has he committed. 
 He has done no wicked thing; he has not 
 murdered; he has not stolen; he has not 
 
 prayed that he might be seen ; he has not been 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—6 
 
 goddesses of life and the sky, pour upon him 
 the living water, and he passes into the dwell- 
 ings of the immortals. As it respects the 
 fate of the soul when the heart of the dead 
 was outweighed by the feather, the Egyptian 
 monuments are silent. No clue has as yet 
 been found to throw light on this important 
 part of the national faith; but a legend re- 
 cited by Herodotus points to metempsychosis 
 as the destiny of the wicked. The impure
 
 92 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 soul is driven into an animal, and thence into 
 another, in earth, or air, or sea, until after 
 three thousand years of transmigrations it is 
 again admitted into a human body and a sec- 
 ond time born into the world. 
 
 In the practical ethics of life the ancient 
 Egyptians do not suffer by comparison with 
 the other nations of antiquity. Affairs of 
 business appear to have been transacted with 
 more than the usual care and honesty. The 
 people were cautious in incurring obligations, 
 and generally punctilious in fulfilling them. 
 There was nearly always something of a relig- 
 
 The lawyer must necessarily be versed to a 
 certain extent in the lore and traditions of 
 the priests. It was religious considerations, 
 indeed, rather than conflicting secular interests, 
 that broke the harmony of the Egyptian state, 
 and introduced the spirit of faction. The en- 
 mities between the towns were, generally based 
 on hostile religious creeds. In one city the 
 people would slay and eat the animal which 
 in another was held most sacred; and the 
 people of the second city would return the 
 compliment by killing and eating the gods of 
 the first. In a third town the sacred beasts 
 
 JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD. 
 From the Turin Papyrus. 
 
 ious sanction to the business of man with 
 man. The duties and courtesies of life, es- 
 pecially such as appertained to domestic ties 
 and social relations, were observed with more 
 sincerity and good faith than among most 
 other nations of antiquity. In the Egyptian 
 villages and toAvns there was very little brawl- 
 ing and disorder. The administration of jus- 
 tice, in both civil and criminal causes, was 
 speedy, regular, and impartial. Affidavits and 
 pleas were carefully prepared in writing, and 
 the pettifogger was frowned out of court. 
 Albeit, it was the religious bias of the law 
 which complicated and embarrassed its practice. 
 
 of a fourth would be destroyed as a pest, and 
 so on through the whole round of counter 
 idolatries. The goat of Mendes was hardly 
 regarded as sacred beyond the limits of that 
 city. At Cynopolis the dog was worshiped, 
 and at Lycopolis the wolf; and the Cynopo- 
 lites and Lycopolites mutually murdered 
 each other's deities. The people of Dendera 
 hunted and destroyed the crocodile, sacred at 
 Kom Ombo; the Mendesiaus ate the holy 
 sheep of Thebes; and the Lycopolites did the 
 same thing, following the example of their 
 god, the wolf. These sacrilegious acts were 
 the basis of innumerable feuds and mutual
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 93 
 
 detestation between the different sections of 
 the country. A people who could build the 
 pyramid of Khufu and carve the statue of 
 Amenemha III. could not purify their creed 
 
 sense in man is deeply impressed with the 
 mysteries of the national faith, and this sense, 
 struggling for expression, carves in the rock 
 the forms of the gods — the symbols and em- 
 
 TEJIPLK OF DENDERA. 
 
 from folly, or their practices from gross su- 
 perstition. 
 
 The Art of a people is generally closely re- 
 lated to their system of religion. In the 
 earlier stages of civilization the imaginative 
 
 blems of the powers unseen. The generations 
 following improve upon the first rude models, 
 and the coming ages copy and imitate the 
 work of the ages that have preceded them. 
 Moreover, the houses of the gods must be
 
 94 
 
 UNIVERSAL mSTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 grander and nobler structures than the houses 
 of men. Magnificent temples, such as that 
 at Thebes, of Avhose splendor the ruins of 
 El-Karnak and Kom Ombo still preserve the 
 dim and glorious tradition, spring up, exhaled 
 from the pious spirit of the epoch, and the 
 lofty fresco, with its infinite allegories tells 
 the story of aspiration and hope. It is only 
 
 Egyptians displayed no small degree of good 
 taste and skill. The dwellings of the common 
 people were generally square and two stories 
 in height,, with an open gallery above. The 
 materials used were sun-dried bricks laid in 
 bitumen, the columns of support and related 
 parts being generally of wood. The rooms 
 were ranged around the three — sometimes all 
 
 RUIXS OF THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK. 
 
 in the later developments of ancient societies 
 that art was in some measure divorced from 
 religion and made to do service in the secular 
 affairs of men. These tendencies are well 
 illustrated in the art-history of ancient Egypt. 
 Among the Egyptians, Architecture held 
 the most important place. The art of building 
 so as to secure permanence and beauty was suc- 
 cessfully cultivated from a very early epoch. 
 In the construction of ordinary houses the 
 
 four — sides of an open square or court-yard. 
 In this trees were planted, cisterns digged, 
 and fountains constructed according to the 
 wealth and taste of the owner. In the more 
 aristocratic mansions were inclosed two courts, 
 an outer and an inner — the latter being for 
 the use of the women of the household and 
 their intimate friends. Without, the entrance 
 to the dwelling was between two pillars and 
 by way of a porch, which generally contained
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 95 
 
 the name of the proprietor and the traditions 
 of the family sculptured in hieroglyphics. 
 The roofs of the houses were flat, and through 
 these ventilating shafts, provided with large, 
 square fans to catch the wind, were carried 
 into the apartments below. The ceilings of 
 the better sort of houses were frequently stuc- 
 coed with a considerable degree of skill, and 
 
 Syenite, one of the best building materials in 
 the world. Others furnished porphyry, lime- 
 stone, and sandstone, and still others inex- 
 haustible stores of granite. It was of these 
 well-nigh imperishable materials that the build- 
 ers of ancient Egypt reared their temples and 
 palaces and tombs. 
 
 The ability to work in stone was preem- 
 
 RUINS OF KOM OMBO. 
 
 ornaments were employed in the various 
 parts according to the fancy and wealth of 
 the owner. 
 
 The public edifices of Egypt were built of 
 stone. In these structures were attained a 
 grandeur and magnificence hardly surpassed 
 in ancient or modern times. The valley of 
 the Nile, especially in its upper course, was 
 rich in quarries. Those at Syene have given 
 name to the famous crystalline rock called 
 
 inently an art of the Egyptians. No other 
 people have handled the obdurate strata of 
 Nature's rocky bed with equal ease and skill. 
 In most countries the carving of granite has 
 been regarded as a difficult or impossible 
 work ; but to the ancient Egyptian sculptor 
 this hard and unyielding rock was only as so 
 much soapstone which he carved and figured 
 at his will. Sculptures amd hieroglyphics 
 were scattered everywhere with a profusion
 
 56 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 i^^E 
 
 FACADE OF AN EGYPTIAN TEMPLE (RESTORED). 
 
 indicative of perfect ease in the management of the hardest substances ; but the means by 
 which such marvelous results were reached have never been ascertained. It is not even known 
 that the Egyptians were acquainted with the use of iron and steel. To 
 suppose that they were not, heightens our wonder at the work which they 
 
 achieved. To suppose that 
 
 they were, seems inconsis- 
 tent with the fact that no 
 
 steel implement has been 
 
 found among the ruins of Egypt. 
 
 And what still further compli- 
 cates the problem is the fact 
 
 that the bronze chisels discovered 
 
 in the quarries and stone-yards, 
 
 though perfectly edged and 
 
 sharp as new when found, and 
 
 battered on the top from long 
 
 service under the hammer, will 
 
 not now bear a single stroke 
 
 against the very granite upon 
 
 which it is evident they were 
 formerly used, without turning the edge and becoming useless. Of 
 the many conjectures which have been offered to explain the method 
 
 employed by the Egyptians in 
 
 cutting the hardest varieties of 
 stone, not one seems clear and 
 satisfactory. The monuments 
 furnish ample illustrations of 
 the manner in which the ma- 
 sons and sculptors plied their art. 
 The workman kneels or sits or 
 stands before the block ; he 
 lifts the hammer in his 
 right hand, and with the ' 
 left holds the chisel to the 
 
 face of the stone ; but how should a chisel of bronze make 
 any impression on a slab of granite? 
 
 The public buildings of the Egyptians were elaborately, 
 The monuments, likewise, bore upon their exposed parts, as 
 
 COLUMN FROM BENI 
 HASSAN. 
 
 COLUMN FROM KOM 
 OMBO, 200 B. C. 
 
 COLUMN FROM THEBES. 
 
 COLUMN FROM MEDI- 
 NET-HABU. 
 
 PROTODORIC COLUMN 
 FROM BENI-HASSAN, 
 
 even profusely, sculptured.
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 97 
 
 on the faces of obelisks, and still more 
 notably in their chambers and vaults, an 
 endless variety of carved figures and in- 
 scriptions. Nor were these sculptures and 
 hieroglyphics so executed as to leave the im- 
 pression of great labor expended and time 
 consumed in the work. On the contrary, 
 every thing points to the conclusion that these 
 seemingly impossible carvings were regarded 
 as easy and commonplace achievements. The 
 figures and hieroglyphics are elaborately em- 
 bossed and counter-sunk in a manner which 
 is astounding to a modern worker in granite ; 
 and the edges of the inscriptions, after the 
 disasters of forty centuries, are as sharp and 
 beautifully delineated as though they were 
 the work of yesterday. Such is the perfection 
 of these marvelous inscriptions that they 
 are to be regarded as engravings rather 
 than sculptures. 
 
 It was in the architecture of Egypt 
 that the column was first introduced as an 
 element of building. The columnar aspect 
 in some of its many varieties was a pe- 
 culiar feature of all the Egyptian tem- 
 ples; and this, together with the absence 
 of the arch, constituted the type of build- 
 
 ing which prevailed in the Nile valley for 
 more than two thousand years. 
 
 It is a matter of great surprise that a 
 people so skillful in architectural work should 
 have been unacquainted with the uses of the 
 arch as an element of beauty and strength; 
 but Avith a few rare exceptions of the minor 
 sort — and these generally in the vaulted 
 passages of tombs or other subterranean 
 structures — the arch seems to have been un- 
 known. Of columns there were eight varie- 
 ties, all traceable in their ultimate analysis 
 to the square uncarved pier or pillar. This, 
 indeed, when ornamented with a single line 
 of hieroglyphics running down the middle of 
 the faces, may be regarded as the first and 
 oldest style of column found in Egypt. 
 
 The second, so-called protodoric, form 
 was the polygonal piUar, plain or fluted. 
 This second stage of development was 
 emphasized by the addition of paint and 
 the simpler sort of inscriptions upon 
 the angular faces. The third style of 
 column introduced the capital, which at the 
 first was in the form of a bud of papyrus. 
 This style of capital was maintained 
 
 OBELISK OF ALEXANDRIA.
 
 98 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 through several dynasties, during which time 
 the column itself passed through successive 
 modifications, until, in the epoch of Amen- 
 emha HI., it became a round shaft rounded 
 in at the base. In the fourth order the capi- 
 tal, known as the lotus capital, took the form 
 of an inverted beU, with ornaments so under- 
 cut as to be seen only from immediately be- 
 neath; and this style in turn gave place to 
 the palm-tree column, so named from its re- 
 semblance to the palm with the lovjer branches 
 lopped away. In the sixth order the crown 
 of the palm used in the capital gave place to 
 the head of Isis, or that of Hathor, the Egyp- 
 tian Venus. This style was much employed 
 
 SCULPTURED FACADE OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFU, TIME OF THE PTOT,EHrrES. 
 
 under the House of Ramses, whose architects 
 sometimes substituted for the head of Isis or 
 Hathor that of a cow with long reverted 
 horns. The seventh order was composite, the 
 columns being round, and the capitals a mix- 
 ture of former types— the bell, the palm- 
 crown, and the Isis-head being frequently 
 combined in a single capital. The eighth cr- 
 ier is known as the Osiride variety, so called 
 from the figures of Osiris set in the front of 
 the pillar which served as a column of support. 
 Sometimes the statues of other gods or of kings 
 were substituted for the figure of Osiris.' 
 
 'The height of the Egyptian columns varied 
 from fifteen feet to sixty feet, and the diameter 
 from two feet four inches to about twelve feet— the 
 
 In statuary the Egyptian artists have never 
 been surpassed. Not, however, in carving 
 the graceful forms of airy sprites and nymphs, 
 but rather in the colossal gi'andeur of heroic 
 figures did Egypt surpass the art of other na- 
 tions. The great statues of the kings — colossi, 
 sphinxes, gods — have been already mentioned 
 and described in the different parts of the his- 
 tory to which they more particularly per- 
 tained. It need only be added that in giving 
 to figures in stone an air of solemn dignity 
 and everlasting repose the Egyptian sculptors 
 have excelled the artists of every other age 
 and clime. 
 
 As related to the other monuments, the 
 obelisks of Egypt are 
 deserving of special 
 mention. They were 
 in the nature of memo- 
 rial stones, set up to 
 commemorate some im- 
 portant event — the cor- 
 onation of a new Pha- 
 raoh, a proclamation 
 by him, a victory over 
 invaders, the building 
 of a city or temple. 
 The obelisks are of 
 granite or syenite, four- 
 square, tapering, pol- 
 ished, covered with 
 hieroglyphics, and from 
 eight to over one hun- 
 dred feet in height. 
 They generally stand in pairs before the city 
 gate or entrance to temple. 
 
 In the spoliation of Egj^pt these quaint mon- 
 umental stones have been taken by gift, pur- 
 chase, or robbery to distant climes and nations. 
 The Roman emperors carried some of them to 
 the Eternal City; one stands in the Place de 
 la Concorde, at Paris; one interests London; 
 and another, its mate — both from Alexandria — 
 adorns the Central Park at New York. 
 
 Of those arts which tended to humanize 
 the people, Writing held the highest place 
 among the Egyptians. The system which 
 they employed, though extremely complicated 
 
 largest being of the fourth order, found in the tem- 
 ple at Karnak.
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 99 
 
 and laborious, was cultivated at an earlier date 
 and to a fuller extent than by any other race 
 of men. Within the present century the 
 treasures of the hieroglyphics have been un- 
 locked, and the mystery which surrounded 
 
 1 Aa 
 
 > 
 
 Ma 
 
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 Am, 
 
 p>-J la 
 
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 m 
 
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 Bu 
 
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 Aic 
 
 ^ Ba 
 
 <>«t 
 
 Pa 
 
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 J Ba 
 
 I 
 
 Pa 
 
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 En 
 
 <— Ei 
 
 <=> 
 
 Ea 
 
 T 
 
 Er 
 
 ^^ Zi 
 
 >^ 
 
 JLli 
 
 ) 
 
 Km 
 
 -^ Ea 
 
 V 
 
 Sa 
 
 C3 
 
 Ks 
 
 Q n& 
 
 p 
 
 Sn 
 
 C3f=>^ 
 
 JOb 
 
 nJ ITa 
 
 f> - 
 
 Sa 
 
 -==s> 
 
 Mr 
 
 1 na 
 
 1 
 
 Stt 
 
 I 
 
 Kft 
 
 U «" 
 
 1 
 
 Ta 
 
 '^ 
 
 ITa 
 
 v\ lo 
 
 « 
 
 Tu 
 
 a 
 
 Pr 
 
 X la 
 
 8 
 
 Ua 
 
 X- 
 
 Sb 
 
 i^V 
 
 V 
 
 TJi 
 
 # 
 
 6b 
 
 \\' 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ui 
 
 »-*^ 
 
 Ts 
 
 ^^ T^ 
 
 1 
 
 ES'a 
 
 5 
 
 TJh 
 
 y Ka 
 
 o 
 
 KTiv 
 
 > 
 
 Ur 
 
 m ~K.tt 
 
 IE 
 
 SliA 
 
 °p 
 
 Bhm 
 
 1 E^a 
 
 ar 
 
 Sho 
 
 SI 
 
 Bh'n 
 
 V""' 
 
 CZJ 
 
 Bhi 
 
 o=^ 
 
 Bh't 
 
 / — ■ Ma 
 
 ^ 
 
 Eha 
 
 § 
 
 Kh»p 
 
 ^ aia 
 
 
 
 (»)(b 
 
 TOra» 
 
 EGYPTIAN ALPHABET. 
 
 them dispelled by the patience and ingenuity 
 of French, German, and English scholarship. 
 It is now known that in the course of Egyp- 
 tian history down to the time of the Roman 
 emperors four systems of writing were success- 
 ively employed. Further back than the old- 
 
 est of these it is evident that pictorial symbols 
 were used to represent ideas; but at what 
 date the ideographs or picture-writing proper 
 flourished, and under what circumstances it 
 gave place to an improved style of conveying 
 thought, can not now be known. 
 
 The oldest system, then, employed within 
 the historic periods of Egypt was the so-called 
 Hieroglyphics, or sacred carvings. It was 
 long supposed that the pictorial symbols used 
 in this famous writing were true ideographs 
 or actual pictures of the things intended to be 
 represented, and that the system was, there- 
 
 THE ROSETTA STONE, BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 
 fore, analogous to that employed in the writ- 
 ing of the Mexicans and North American 
 Indians; but the investigations of Champol- 
 lion, De Rouge, Young, and Mariette have 
 shown conclusively that the opinion is un- 
 founded, and that the hieroglyphics are true 
 phonetic writing, in which the words are spelled 
 out just as in any of the Aryan languages. It 
 is to Champollion in particular that this dis- 
 covery is due.^ 
 
 1 In 1799 what is known as the Rosetta Stone 
 was discovered by some of Napoleon's men while 
 making an excavation at Rosetta, in Lower Egypt. 
 The stone contained an inscription written in 
 three diflferent characters: First, Hieroglyphic;
 
 100 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The difference between liieroglyphic and 
 alphabetic writing has thus been shown to be 
 only this: that in the hieroglyphic sys- 
 tem the sounds of the language are represented 
 by pictures, many of them no doubt adopted 
 from an older ideographic symbolism, whereas 
 
 CHAMPOLLION. 
 
 in the alphabetic system the sounds of the 
 language are represented by arbitrary charac- 
 ters which have lost all resemblance to the 
 objects of which they were no doubt originally 
 pictures. It has thus transpired that that 
 which was so long supposed to be the picture- 
 writing of Egypt is really not picture-writing 
 at all, but a system of pictorial phonetics in 
 close analogy with other ancient writings. 
 
 eecond, Demotic, or common character of the 
 Egj'ptians ; third, Greek. From the Greek it was 
 discovered that the inscription was tri-Hngual; 
 that is, each of the writings was a translation of 
 the other. Beginning with this clue. Dr. Young 
 finally succeeded, in 1815, in deciphering from the 
 hieroglyphic character the single word Ptolemy; 
 and, to the profound amazement of the scholars 
 of the age, the spelling was found to be Phonetic, 
 and not ideographic. The learned antiquarian also 
 made out the name of Berenice among the pictorial 
 writings in the frescoes of Karnak; and in 1822 
 CLampollion deciphered the word Cleopatra from 
 an obelisk found at Philfe. Afterwards, continu- 
 ing his researches, he completed the translation 
 of the Rosetta Stone, thereby opening up the 
 whole field of Egyptian writings to the long-baffled 
 scholars of the West. 
 
 Nevertheless the hieroglyphics constitute a 
 system so exceedingly complex and obscure 
 as to be extremely difficult to master, even by 
 scholars of profound attainments in language. 
 
 Owing to the slowness and painstaking 
 elaboration demanded in writing the Egyptian 
 tongue in hieroglyphics, the priests at an early 
 date introduced a modification of the symbols 
 by which the pictorial figures were abbreviated 
 and turned into a system of cursive signs 
 running readily into each other in formation 
 and constituting the second general variety of 
 Egyptian writing called the Hieratic. The 
 system was introduced as early as the Eleventh 
 Dynasty. It was in this style that the great 
 body of the Egyptian literature was composed ; 
 and it is by the resolution of the cursive hier- 
 atic forms back into the hieroglyphics of 
 which they were the abbreviated characters, 
 that we are enabled to translate the few rolls 
 of papyrus which the ages have spared to 
 modern times. 
 
 Meanwhile, a vulgar or non-literary lan- 
 guage arose in Egypt. This tongue grew into 
 importance and encroached upon the archaic 
 and obsolescent forms of speech employed by 
 the priests and literati. As early as the times 
 of Psametik (B. C. 600) it was found nec- 
 essary to concede something to the common 
 speech. The people at large no longer un- 
 derstood the sacred language; and the Pha- 
 raohs found it expedient to translate proclama' 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 
 3 
 
 'y* 
 
 
 .^b- 
 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 "^-^ 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 4=n 
 
 ■A 
 
 SPECIMEN OF EGYPTIAN WRITING. 
 
 tions, edicts, and finally the sacred papyri into 
 the vulgar tongue. Thus arose the third sys- 
 tem of composition known as the Demotic, 
 which came into general use and maintained 
 its place in Egypt until the second century 
 of our era. 
 
 With the new ethnic development of the
 
 EGYPT.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 101 
 
 Egyptian race, about the date last mentioned, 
 we pass into the Coptic or last phase of the 
 language. Coptic holds about the same rela- 
 tion to ancient Egyptian as English does to 
 Anglo-Saxon. The Demotic character of the 
 preceding era gave place to the Coptic alpha- 
 bet, and the use of the old systems entirely 
 ceased. An acquaintance with the Coptic 
 language and literature, diligently cultivated 
 in recent times, has been the basis of the pro- 
 found erudition which has opened the treas- 
 ures of ancient Egypt, and constitutes the 
 special branch of learning known as Egypt- 
 ology. 
 
 In writing, the Egyptians used a sharpened 
 reed 'and a palette containing two small wells, 
 the one of red and the other of black ink. 
 The black was used for the ordinary text, the 
 red being reserved for initial letters, the first 
 words of chapters, and other emphatic or crit- 
 ical parts. For paper the leaves of the pa- 
 pyrus were used, being joined together in strips 
 trimmed to the width of ten inches, and fre- 
 quently as much as a hundred and fifty feet 
 in length, the text being written in vertical 
 lines from one end to the other. 
 
 In mimetic art the Egyptians had little 
 skill ; but in the composition and management 
 of colors they were more expert than any 
 other people of antiquity, except the Greeks. 
 The hues in which the artists of Thebes most 
 delighted were red, green, and blue. In the 
 laws of color-harmony the Theban painters 
 appear to have been as well versed as those of 
 modern times. It was an imperative rule 
 with Egyptian artists to produce pleasing 
 efiects by contrast of color. Strong colors 
 were rarely used without the employment of 
 some complementary tint to soften the glare. 
 
 Painting as an art in Egypt was closely 
 related to architecture. In common with the 
 early Greeks and Etruscans, the Egyptian 
 artists -painted their sculptures. Color was an 
 invariable concomitant of statuary and of the 
 reliefs and intaglios with which the temples and 
 tombs abounded. Columns, and especially capi- 
 tals, were highly ornamented with the colors 
 tvhich were added, and the infinite figures and 
 inscriptions covering facades and halls were in 
 like manner carefully painted. So skillful was 
 
 the work that the alleged incongruity of color 
 and form in sculpture little offended the taste 
 of the beholder. Though this style of work 
 is repugnant to that dictum of modern criti- 
 cism which requires in sculpture the exposure 
 of the native stone, the Egyptians chose to 
 combine the efiects of color with the charm of 
 outline ; and it can not well be doubted, when 
 we take into consideration the severe aspect 
 of all Egyptian structures, that a certain 
 cheerfulness and life were given thereto by 
 the addition of paint. 
 
 Perhaps no better idea of the combined 
 effects of sculpture and painting can anywhere 
 be obtained than in the great palace-temple of 
 Ramses III., at Medinet-Habu. On the north- 
 east wall of this famous ruin is depicted the 
 king seated on his throne under a gorgeous 
 canopy. The throne is inscribed with a hawk- 
 headed figure leading a lion and sphinx. Be- 
 hind the monarch stand the winged effigies 
 of Truth and Justice. The shrine is borne 
 by twelve princes of the realm. High officers 
 of state wave their labella before the mighty 
 Ramses. Priests carry his arms and insignia. 
 The sons of the king follow, bearing the foot- 
 stool of their father's throne, and accompanied 
 by scribes and great warriors. In another 
 part is seen a procession of scholars, fan- 
 bearers, and soldiers. A great scribe makes 
 a proclamation from a roll of papyrus, and 
 the high-priest of Egypt burns incense before 
 the shrine. Birds fly abroad to the four 
 quarters of the world as if to announce to 
 gods and men of the north, south, east, and 
 west the glory and renown of Pharaoh. All 
 this and more is elaborately sculptured, and 
 the effect artistically heightened by the art of 
 the painter. In the temples and palaces of 
 Thebes a like profusion of color and form 
 give evidence of the industry and skill of the 
 Egyptian artists. Nor have the fingers of 
 time much more efl^aced the brilliant hues 
 which were laid on the surface of the sculp- 
 tures than they have crumbled the stone 
 itself. 
 
 Not only were the statues and reliefs, the 
 columns and halls of palaces and temples 
 elaborately painted, but the hieroglyphics and 
 papyrus rolls, were also embellished with col'
 
 102 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ors of great durability — red, blue, yellow, or 
 black — according to the taste of the age ; nor 
 were the Egyptians without ability to de- 
 lineate living forms or landscapes wholly by 
 means of color. The specimens of such an- 
 cient art which have survived to our own 
 (times are more remarkable, however, for the 
 brightness and luster of their tints than for 
 any excellence of general design or particular 
 skill in drawing. 
 
 The civilization of Ancient as of Modern 
 
 Egypt was wanting in ideality. The genius 
 of the people rose not into the realm of the 
 imagination, but flew low on heavy and un- 
 aspiring wing, skimming the dusky horizon of 
 the practical. Solidity and grandeur, a cer- 
 tain stillness of aspect and durability in pur- 
 pose rather than the winged ideality of a 
 lighter and diviner art, are the qualities which 
 are reflected from the massive monuments 
 slumbering in eternal repose amid the sands 
 and bulrushes of the valley of the Nile. 
 
 CROSS SECTION OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFU.
 
 ^ay'ciV'ti>''tttfviyMjy'yy'toy'<»''<>>'yi>^ 
 
 i 
 
 }(ii /^r>^ rCQx xQx ./^>3, .g<>^ .cQ^, .CQ>, .cQx .<^ r^ (^ 
 
 iualt ^fttittit* 
 
 CHALD^^A. 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— The country. 
 
 OT unlike Egypt was the 
 Land of the Chalde- 
 ans. The great wastes of 
 Arabia are raised but little 
 above the level of the sea. 
 Journeying eastward from 
 this desert region the trav- 
 eler, before he begins the ascent of the moun- 
 tain ranges of Kurdistan, comes upon the 
 long belt of fertile territory included between 
 the Euphrates and the Tigris. Within this 
 verdant strip of alluvium and valley-land, 
 generally known by its Greek name of Meso- 
 potamia, flourished three of the most re- 
 nowned kingdoms of antiquity — Chaldsea, 
 Assyria, and Babylonia. 
 
 Beginning at the foot of the mountains of 
 Western Armenia, about the intersection of 
 the thirty-eighth meridian east from Greenwich 
 with the thirty-eighth parallel of north latitude, 
 this famous Mesopotamian region winds away 
 to the south-east, and narrows to a point on 
 the Persian Gulf about longitude 48° 25' E. 
 
 For nearly five hundred miles in its lower 
 course the country between the rivers has all 
 the characteristics of a valley; but above the 
 thirty-fourth parallel it widens, rises into a 
 
 hill-country, and in its upper part becomes a 
 plateau, bordered on the north and east with 
 mountains. The whole distance from the ex- 
 treme north-west of the peculiar district em- 
 braced by the two great rivers to the head of 
 the Persian Gulf is about eight hundred and 
 fifty miles. 
 
 The peculiarities and importance of this 
 remarkable region are traceable to the two 
 magnificent streams which constitute its boun- 
 daries. Bordered on the west by waste plains 
 and deserts, and on the east by a country of 
 hills and mountains, the low-lying plain be- 
 tween was rimmed with deep channels of 
 fresh water, never failing, exhaustless. 
 
 The Euphrates and the Tigris rise not 
 far apart in the mountains of Armenia. The 
 former has its source on the north of the 
 range, and the latter in the southern slopes. 
 The course of the Euphrates is first to the 
 west; then it breaks through the mountains 
 and sweeps in a broad circuit to the right, 
 and then turns in a direction almost due 
 south-east to its far-oS* confluence with the 
 Persian Gulf. 
 
 The course of the Tigris is much more south- 
 erly and direct. Descending from the moun- 
 
 (103)
 
 104 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tains the stream steadily approximates the 
 Euphrates until, in latitude 33° N., a junc- 
 tion of the two rivers seems imminent. Here, 
 however, the Tigris bends to the east and the 
 Euphrates slightly to the west, thus widening 
 the district between them into the shape of an 
 ancient urn. About two degrees further 
 south the confluence actually occurs, though 
 in ancient times each river pursued its course 
 through separate channels to the Gulf. 
 
 In their upper course the Euphrates and 
 the Tigris traverse a region of steppes broken 
 by rocky ridges and interspersed with pas- 
 tures and fruitful districts. The banks of the 
 
 dwindling, as does the Nile, from the diffusion 
 and loss of waters. 
 
 The bed of the Euphrates is lower than 
 that of the Tigris, and its course more quiet 
 and regular. The Tigris, on his higher level, 
 pressed in a narrow, rocky channel, hurries 
 with swifter flow and greater turbulence. 
 Frequent tributaries descending from the 
 ridges and tablelands of Iran join the eastern 
 river, maintaining and swelling his floods, 
 while the solitary Euphrates is left to waste 
 his wealth of waters in the sands. 
 
 The whole region lies sloping to the west — 
 drooping as if to rest its western eaves on the 
 
 ^- a«- 
 
 rivers are fringed with plane-trees, tamarisks, 
 and cypresses. Here and there are meadow- 
 lands, alternating with low hills. Further on, 
 as the rivers descend to the level, the valleys 
 broaden ; but at the same time the higher dis- 
 trict between becomes more sterile — a kind of 
 upland waste, abounding in ostriches and bus- 
 tards, the native home of wild asses and no- 
 madic tribes of men. 
 
 After this desolate hill-country is passed, 
 and the two rivers have sufiiciently approxi- 
 mated to share each other's influence, they 
 enter a plain of brown alluvium, rich, inex- 
 haustible. Through this region for a dis- 
 tance of more than four hundred miles the 
 streams pursue their course, the Euphrates 
 
 desert of Arabia. For this reason the Eu- 
 phrates, not confined by rocky barriers, has 
 ever shown a disposition to encroach upon his 
 right-hand bank, fixing his channel still fur- 
 ther and further to the west. This tendency 
 has been of vast importance to the region 
 along the western bank in the matter of irri- 
 gation : as far as the waters of the river could 
 be carried by artificial channels, assisted by 
 the natural pressure of the current westward, 
 the desert could be reclaimed and converted 
 into a garden. 
 
 Like the Nile, the Euphrates and the Ti- 
 gris are subject to annual floods. With the 
 approach of summer the snows, lying heaped 
 in the gorges of the Armenian mountains, are
 
 CHALB^A.-THE COUNTRY. 
 
 105 
 
 dissolved and poured out into the upper trib- 
 utaries of the rivers. Rains also descend, and 
 the combined effects are seen in overflowed 
 banks and submerged valleys. 
 
 The inundation in the Tigris begins as 
 early as the first of June, while that in the 
 Euphrates, whose fountains lie for the most 
 part on the north side of the mountain ranges, 
 does not begin until the early part of July. 
 Unlike the Nile, however, the rising of whose 
 waters is so regular and calm as to be hardly 
 perceptible from day to day, the floods of the 
 two great rivers of Mesopotamia, especially 
 those of the Tigris, are frequently violent and 
 destructive. Sometimes in the course of a 
 few hours the valleys are deluged, and the 
 Bandy plains bordering the rivers in their 
 lower course converted into a wide and tur- 
 bulent sea rolling down to the gulf. 
 
 In the matter of tributaries both rivers are, 
 in their upper course, plentifully supplied — 
 the Tigris abundantly. On the east the Eu- 
 phrates receives the Belik and the Khabur, 
 the latter widely branching into the hill- 
 country of Mygdonia. The principal tribu- 
 taries of the Tigris are the Great and Lesser 
 Zab, the Adhem, and the Gyndes. A hun- 
 dred smaller streams contribute their waters ; 
 but in its lower course even the Tigris is 
 Bcantily supplied with affluent streams. 
 
 For eight hundred miles above its entrance 
 into the Persian Gulf the Euphrates receives 
 not a single tributary As a consequence, no 
 other river in the world is, in the different 
 parts of its course, so greatly variable in its 
 quantity of waters. At the junction of the 
 Khabur the breadth of the Euphrates is three 
 hundred and fifty yards, and this general 
 width, with a depth of from fifteen to twenty 
 feet, is maintained as far south as the city of 
 Hit, in latitude 33° 34' N. From this point 
 the river dwindles. In the first hundred miles 
 below Hit the width is reduced to two hun- 
 dred and fifty yards. After this the volume 
 is absorbed by canals and natural channels, 
 branching right and left, until at the site of 
 Babylon the width is no more than two hun- 
 dred yards, with a depth of fifteen feet. At 
 the thirty-second parallel the stream is reduced 
 to a width of one hundred and twenty yards, 
 
 with a depth of only twelve feet, indicating a 
 loss of nearly four-fifths of the waters which 
 filled the channel in the upper course of the 
 river. In its lower course next the sea the 
 Euphrates recovers a part of its wasted waters 
 by the return of the canals, and enters the 
 gulf with a width of two hundred yards and 
 a depth of eighteen feet, the Tigris grows 
 in volume through its whole extent, and at its 
 confluence with the Euphrates is the greater 
 river of the two. The entire length of the 
 Euphrates is 1,780 miles and of the Tigris 
 1,146 miles, including, in each case the wind- 
 ings of the channels. 
 
 In the present Book we are concerned only 
 with that part of Mesopotamia included by 
 the great rivers of Assyria after they descend 
 to the alluvial plain through which they flow 
 in their lower course. The line of division 
 between Upper and Lower Assyria may be 
 definitely indicated as beginning at Hit,* on 
 the Euphrates, and extending in a north- 
 easterly direction across the Mesopotamian re- 
 gion to Samarah on the Tigris. Below this 
 line the country, in shape like an ancient 
 goblet, is an alluvium, deposited by the rivers, 
 not unlike Egypt in its physical features, and 
 next to Egypt the oldest country with which 
 history is concerned — Chald^eA. 
 
 That which most attracts attention and 
 excites wonder in the region here described is 
 the absence of those physical features with 
 which the landscapes of nearly all countries 
 are diversified. Here nothing is to be seen 
 except the two great rivers, their banks 
 fringed with palms and cypresses. On all 
 sides the sandy plains stretch away to the 
 horizon, the dead expanse broken now and 
 then by a mound or ruin, or marked by a 
 long, low line of earth, the bank of some an- 
 cient canal. Close to the border of the river 
 where the marsh-lands abound, and along the 
 artificial channels through which the waters 
 are distributed, the vegetation is green, luxu- 
 riant; but these verdant strips soon disap- 
 pear, and the eye, except in early spring, rests 
 on nothing but an arid plain, swelling towards 
 the south into an occasional ridge or sand- 
 dune. To the west, at a distance of from 
 ' The same as Ihi or Is.
 
 106 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 twenty to thirty miles from the Euphrates, 
 vegetation wholly disappears, and the Arabian 
 desert, desolate and unbroken, spreads away 
 to the sky. 
 
 The present extent of Chaldsea Proper, 
 that is, of the urn-shaped district between the 
 two rivers, is about fifteen thousand square 
 miles. The long strip of fertile territory ly- 
 ing between the Euphrates and the Arabian 
 desert has an area of eight thousand square 
 miles ; so that the aggregate area of Chaldsea, 
 if determined by the present geographical 
 condition of the country, would be about 
 twenty-three thousand square miles — a dis- 
 
 more than a hundred — perhaps two hundred — 
 miles further than at the present day. 
 
 The simple physical structure of Chaldsea, 
 the mild climate,' the presence of a perennial 
 supply of fresh water without the annoyance 
 and interruptions of frequent and violent 
 rains, and especially the fertility of the soil, 
 only equaled in its fecundity by the never- 
 failing fruitfulness of Egypt — all contributed 
 to supply to the primitive tribes of this region 
 incentives to civilization second only to those 
 afforded in the valley of the Nile. 
 
 The low-lying flats stretching from river to 
 river had in them the best elements of natural 
 
 THE EUPHRATES AND PLAIN OF CHALD^A. 
 
 trict equal in extent to the State of West 
 Virginia. 
 
 But the ancient limits of "the land of the 
 Chaldseans" were less in extent than here de- 
 fined. From the remotest epoch the Persian 
 Gulf has been steadily receding to the south. 
 The enormous amount of earthy matter car- 
 ried down by the Euphrates and the Tigris 
 and deposited further and further seaward has 
 crowded back the waters of the gulf and built 
 up a district thousands of square miles in ex- 
 tent. The rate of the recession of the sea has 
 been estimated at a mile in each seventy years, 
 and by some authorities at a mile in thirty 
 years. Nor is it doubtful that within the his- 
 toric period the Persian Gulf extended inland 
 
 wealth. Even beyond the Tigris the lands 
 were fruitful. Between the rivers the fertility 
 was marvelous. Wheat and barley, castor- 
 beans and sesame, grew wild. In the low 
 marshes bordering the streams the succulent 
 and bulbous plants flourished in native abun- 
 dance. Here thousands of aquatic birds cir- 
 cled around the ponds and hatched their 
 young among the rushes. Both of the rivers 
 abounded in fish — always a chief factor in 
 
 ^The climate of Chaldpea is rather milder than 
 that of Georgia and the Carolinas. On the lower 
 Euphrates snow is unknown, and though the heat 
 of summer is excessive, the vicissitudes from hot 
 to cold are so quiet and equable as to affect but 
 slightly the constitution of the inhabitants.
 
 CHALDuEA.—THE COUNTRY. 
 
 107 
 
 a people's food. On the higher lands ap- 
 ples and .dates were plentifully produced and 
 flourished without culture or attention. The 
 truthful Xenophon was struck with astonish- 
 ment at the beauty and fruitfulness of the 
 date-palms growing along the river/ 
 
 That such a district should in the earliest 
 times attract a great population, and that this 
 population should be stimulated to vast civil- 
 izing enterprises, was natural, inevitable. The 
 Primitive Man was quick to discover that sit- 
 uation which afforded him the greatest rewards 
 with the smallest expenditure of toil. There 
 he fixed his habitation. There also his fel- 
 lows, driven by hunger from the hill-country 
 or desert waste, came and established their 
 abodes. The hut became a hamlet; the vil- 
 lage, a great city. Whatever opposition na- 
 ture presented added to the zest of endeavor. 
 The necessity of standing guard against the 
 danger of the sudden overflow of the river, 
 the work of draining the marsh-lands, and of 
 digging vast canals for the purposes of irriga- 
 tion, were additional motives, rather than dis- 
 couragements, to the zeal of an ambitious 
 people. 
 
 To her other advantages ancient Chaldsea 
 added the proximity of the sea. The Persian 
 Gulf, a spacious body of water, lay always at 
 her feet. It was an invitation to commerce 
 and the consequent establishment of friendly 
 and beneficial relations with distant states. 
 The branch of the sea which washed the 
 
 ^ Herodotus says of Chaldsea: "Of all countries 
 that we know there is none that is so fruitful in 
 grain. It makes no pretension, indeed, of growing 
 the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the 
 kind ; but in grain it is so fruitful as to yield com- 
 monly two hundred fold, and when the produc- 
 tion is at the greatest even three hundred fold. 
 The blade of the wheat-plant and of the barley- 
 plant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the 
 millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what 
 height they grow, though within my knowledge ; 
 for I am not ignorant that what I have already 
 written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia 
 will appear incredible to those who have not vis- 
 ited the country." To this Theophrastus adds: 
 " In Babylon the wheat fields are regularly mown 
 twice, and then fed off" with beasts to keep down 
 the luxuriance of the leaf; otherwise the plant 
 does not run to ear." 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—7 
 
 Chaldpean sands was protected by its position 
 from the violent storms which make the In- 
 dian Ocean a terror to the mariner. This 
 circumstance was a further incentive to mar- 
 itime enterprises, and will account in some 
 measure for the early ascendency of the 
 Lower Empire over the neighboring king- 
 doms. How well the people of this region 
 improved the advantages of their situation 
 will appear as we survey the records of the 
 
 DATE PALM OF THE LOWER EUPHRATES. 
 
 great state which they planted and so long 
 upheld by their valor. Having control of 
 the wide water-courses by which the products 
 of one of the richest districts in Asia must 
 be carried abroad, and holding to the broad, 
 deep arm of the sea which constituted her 
 harbor on the south, Chaldaea easily asserted 
 and maintained her preeminence among the 
 earliest and greatest monarchies of the ancient 
 world.
 
 108 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY,^THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— PEOPLE AND LANGUAOE. 
 
 HE kinship of the people 
 of ancient Chaldjea with 
 the other nations of an- 
 tiquity has been much 
 debated. For a long 
 time it was confidently- 
 maintained that the Chal- 
 dseans belonged to the Semitic family of man- 
 kind, being in close affinity with the Hebrews, 
 who traced their descent from Shem. It was 
 urged in proof of this position that the lan- 
 guage of the people who planted the first 
 kingdoms on the Lower Euphrates Avas so 
 closely allied Avith the Hebrew and Aramaic 
 dialects as to point unmistakably to a com- 
 mon origin for these several tribes. 
 
 This view is still maintained by some of 
 the ablest linguists and historians ; but within 
 our own times an opposing theory has been 
 advanced which seems likely to supplant the 
 other. A review of the whole question has 
 tended to show that the ancient Chaldseans 
 belonged to the Hamitic family of man- 
 kind, having their closest affinities of race 
 with the primitive tribes of Arabia, the Abys- 
 sinians, the Egyptians, and the peoples of 
 Northern Africa. Recent investigations have 
 greatly strengthened this view by showing 
 that the language spoken by the ancient in- 
 habitants of Chaldsea, instead of being, as 
 had been supposed, a Semitic tongue, was 
 really a distinct speech, though modified by 
 Semitic influences. The question here pre- 
 sented to the student of history is of a kind 
 to excite his interest, and to demand at the 
 hands of the historian some further exposition 
 of the present state of human knowledge con- 
 cerning the different races of men. 
 
 The best classification adopted by ethnolo- 
 gists, at the present day, is that which divides 
 mankind into three races: Black races. Brown 
 races, and White or Ruddy races.' These dis- 
 
 ' It is a matter of surprise that the color of the 
 Ruddy races of men should have been so univer- 
 Bally mistaken for white. There has never been a 
 
 criminations on the line of color were as 
 strongly drawn at the day dawn of authentic 
 history as they are to-day, and are, therefore, 
 rightly employed as the best criteria by which 
 to distinguish one race of men from another. 
 
 In point of civilization the Ruddy races 
 have far outstripped the Brown, and the 
 Brown have outstripped the Black. So strik- 
 ingly has this difference in progress been man- 
 ifested that the historian is not called upon 
 to relate the annals of any of the Black races 
 of men ; and his references to the achieve- 
 ments of the Brown races are few and rather 
 incidental. The Avhole field of ancient and 
 modern history is virtually occupied with the 
 ambitions, activities, and grand monuments 
 of those Ruddy peoples who, springing from 
 a common origin in the East and scattering 
 everywhere, have obtained and held the mas- 
 tery of the world. 
 
 In the period covered by ancient history 
 the Ruddy race extended in its distribution 
 from the valley of the Indus to the western 
 shores of Europe, and from the equator where 
 it crosses Africa to the Baltic Sea. Within 
 this wide extended and diversified area of coun- 
 try the primitive tribes of men were nearly 
 all of a common ancestral family. In a large 
 part of the territory now occupied by the 
 Russian empire the original tribes were brown, 
 but beyond this, within the region above de- 
 fined, neither Brown races nor Black contrib- 
 uted to form the original population. 
 
 The Ruddy family of mankind has been 
 divided by ethnologists into three principal 
 races. These are — 
 
 1. The Aryan Race. This branch of 
 
 White race, properly so-called. The color of the 
 fairest people of the fairest race of ancient or mod- 
 dern times has been a hue very different from 
 white. The term flesh-color or red much more 
 nearly describes the complexion of our own race 
 than the long-accepted epithet, white — which term, 
 indeed, has never been properly applied to any 
 race, except to emphasize the contrast between 
 the Ruddy and the Black or Brown.
 
 CHALDJEA.— PEOPLE AND LANGUAGE. 
 
 109 
 
 the human family is frequently designated by 
 the biblical epithet Japhetic, so named after 
 Japhet, the eldest son of Noah. To this race 
 the names Indo-Gennanic and Indo-European 
 have also been applied by scholars ; but the 
 name Aryan (from the root AR, signifying to 
 plow) has now been generally accepted as the 
 term by which the people of Europe are to 
 be designated. The dispersion of this race at 
 the present time is world-wide, but within the 
 period embraced by ancient history the Ar- 
 yans were limited to Europe and the approx- 
 imate parts of Asia. 
 
 2. The SE»nTic Race. The name of this 
 division is derived from Shem, the second 
 son of Noah, and the term Semitic has been 
 adopted by scholars as properly descriptive of 
 that ancient people who, branching from be- 
 yond Assyria, carried their tribes into North- 
 ern Arabia, across the Red Sea and Upper 
 Egypt into the African desert, northward 
 into Armenia, westward into Canaan, and far 
 out through the Mediterranean, touching the 
 coasts of Africa, and reaching, perhaps, even 
 to Spain and Britain. 
 
 3. The Hajhtic Race. The name of this 
 family of mankind has likewise been derived 
 from the name of one of the sons of Noah — 
 Ham. As in the case of the Semitic division 
 the term Hamitic has been adopted from bib- 
 lical language, and is used by ethnologists 
 and historians to designate that branch of 
 the human race which taking its rise some- 
 where between the Caspian and the Persian 
 Gulf, held its course westward through Chal- 
 dsea; branched to the south around the sea- 
 line of Arabia into Eastern Africa ; entered by 
 a direct migration to the west the valley of the 
 Nile, and further on peopled the whole coast 
 of Northern Africa; branched again by a de- 
 flection to the north, and passing through 
 Asia Minor may have entered Southern Greece 
 and Italy, planting, perhaps, in these two coun- 
 tries the primitive tribes afterwards known as 
 Pelasgians and Etruscans. But whether the 
 latter peoples were certainly of Hamitic origin 
 is still a matter of dispute. 
 
 It has not been well established whether 
 the ethnic affinity between the Chaldseans and 
 the Egyptians, already referred to in the pre- 
 
 ceding Book, resulted from a migration of 
 tribes from the lower Euphrates to the valley 
 of the Nile, or whether the migratory move- 
 ment was in the opposite direction from Egypt 
 into Chaldsea. Certain it is that so far as 
 history is concerned the Egyptians, having 
 developed the older civilization, may. fairly be 
 regarded as the older people ; and the pre- 
 sumption would be that the migratory move- 
 ment by which race relationship was established 
 between the Egyptians and the Chaldaeans was 
 from the west to the east.^ 
 
 It will thus be seen that if the foregoing 
 analysis and scheme of the dispersion of the 
 Ruddy or White races be correctly given, the 
 primitive people of Upper Mespotamia be- 
 longed to the Semitic family, and the inhabi- 
 tants of Lower Mesopotamia, or Chaldsea 
 Proper, to the Hamitic family of mankind; 
 and the student of history will from the pre- 
 ceding discussion have little difficulty in ap- 
 prehending the nature of the relationship. 
 
 More than the other peoples of antiquity 
 the ancient Chaldseans were modified by con- 
 tact with neighboring races. Some tribes of 
 brown Turanians, coming from the north-east, 
 appear to have invaded the country at a very 
 remote epoch, and by settlement therein to 
 have amalgamated with the Chaldseans. Like- 
 wise the Semites of Assyria, by constant inter- 
 course, influenced the language and manners 
 of the people who ruled on the Lower Eu- 
 phrates. Nor is it improbable that Aryan 
 tribes, by early contact with the inhabitants 
 of Chaldsea, may have contributed some ele- 
 ments to the speech and character of the 
 nation. 
 
 What we know of the personal character- 
 istics of the ancient Chaldseans has been gath- 
 ered from an examination of the physiognomy 
 and form of those peoples known to be of the 
 Hamitic race, rather than from the existing 
 
 ' Eawlinson in summing up the evidence on 
 this point says: "On the whole, therefore, it seems 
 most probable that the race designated in Scrip- 
 ture by the hero-founder Nimrod, and among the 
 Greeks by the eponym of Belus, passed from East 
 Africa, by way of Arabia, to the valley of the 
 Euphrates shortly before the opening of the his- 
 torical period." Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, 
 Vol. I., page 54.
 
 110 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 monuments of Chaldsea. The Ethiopians are 
 noted for their swart, reddish complexion and 
 their crisp or frizzled hair.^ Herodotus de- 
 scribes the people of Babylon as being of a 
 dark complexion and having straight black 
 hair.' The Abyssinians, the Copts, the Arabs, 
 and the people of Beloochistan of modern 
 times furnish the best idea of the features and 
 complexion of the ancient inhabitants of Chal- 
 dsea, whose color seems to have been a dark 
 red-brown or copper-hue, and whose person 
 appears to have been well proportioned and 
 somewhat delicate in outline. The figure of 
 the modern Abyssinians is slender; their fea- 
 tures regular and handsome. The forehead 
 is well formed, indicating a fair degree of 
 intelligence; the eyes are dark and lustrous; 
 the nose, straight and high ; and the chin, 
 firm and prominent. Nor are the lips heavy 
 and repulsive, as in the case of the Negro 
 races of the interior of Africa. And this, 
 perhaps, is a fair type of the Chaldsean, who 
 four thousand years ago gathered dates and 
 built cities on the banks of the Euphrates. 
 
 The Chaldseans were a people brave, war- 
 like, and energetic. The proximity, at a very 
 early period, of powerful kingdoms on the 
 east and north was calculated to stimulate the 
 military spirit in repelling invasion and mak- 
 ing conquest. Agriculture was the one fun- 
 damental industry suggested by the character 
 of the country. While this pursuit was of a 
 kind to incite the energies of the people, it 
 was also calculated to provoke aggression and 
 thereby to kindle the spirit of war. 
 
 In ingenuity and skill the Chaldseans dis- 
 played both natural aptitude and acquired 
 proficiency; and in those social qualities and 
 dispositions by which the humanity of a race 
 is so well estimated, they suffer not by com- 
 parison with the better and more enlightened 
 nations of the ancient world. 
 
 It does not appear that the name Chaldcean 
 
 'The frizzled hair of the Ethiopians does not 
 at all resemble the woolly hair of the Negroes, 
 and the other physical characteristics of the two 
 races are equally dissimilar. 
 
 ^ Hair of this kind lias been found in a Chal- 
 dsean tomb of a very early period, the quantity 
 being so abundant as to indicate that the head of the 
 occupant had been profusely adorned by nature. 
 
 was ever employed by the races dwelling 
 about the Persian Gulf to designate them- 
 selves. Nor is it likely that in the earliest 
 times this appellative was used by the people 
 of other kingdoms as the name of the inhabi- 
 tants of Babylon and the adjacent regions. 
 In the ninth century before our era the term 
 Chaldcean first appears in the Assyrian in- 
 scriptions. Later the word was generally em- 
 ployed as the name of the people of Lower 
 Mesopotamia. The historian Berosus, who was 
 certainly competent to say what should be the 
 race-appellation of his own people, called 
 them Chaldseans. The home of Abraham is 
 mentioned in Genesis as Ur of the Chaldees, 
 though this does not imply that the term 
 "Chaldees" was used as eai'ly as the times of 
 Abraham. The words Chaldee, Chaldsea, etc., 
 are the same as the Burbur word Khaldi, 
 meaning the Moon-god, and that also is the 
 meaning of the word Ur or Hur. This is to 
 say that Abraham was called from the city of 
 the Moon-worshipers, or the city of the Chal- 
 dseans. In the later Scriptures the word is of 
 frequent occurrence. Habakkuk says, "Lo, 
 I raise up the Chaldeeans, that bitter and 
 hasty nation." Isaiah in one place calls Baby- 
 lon ' ' the daughter of the Chaldseans," and in 
 another "the beauty of the Chaldees' excel- 
 lency;" while in Job we are told that "the 
 Chaldseans made out three bands and fell 
 upon the camels." Among the Roman authors 
 the word is of frequent occurrence, being 
 found in the writings of Suetonius, the Annah 
 of Tacitus, and the Satires of Juvenal. This 
 common use of the term by ancient authors 
 may well be regarded as sufficient authority for 
 the retention of the name in modern writings.* 
 Modern investigations have shown that the 
 primitive inhabitants of Chaldsea consisted of 
 four principal tribes. On the monuments 
 sovereignty over four races is ascribed to the 
 early mouarchs, and the inscriptions speak of 
 four tongues or dialects among the people. It 
 is not probable that these tribal differences of 
 
 'This peculiarity in the naming of the race 
 whose chief capital was Babylon has its parallel 
 in the case of the Greeks, who, though called 
 Greeks ])y all the world besides, never even heard 
 of such an appellation.
 
 CHALDJEA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 speech were so marked as to indicate diversity 
 of races, but rather a diversity among the 
 branches of a common stock. The inscriptions 
 show that the Chaldee was indeed a composite 
 language, but its vocabulary is always essen- 
 tially Cushite or Hamitic, just as the English 
 vocabulary, though composite, is fundament- 
 ally Anglo-Saxon. In the Chaldee grammar 
 there are strong traces of Turanian influence, 
 just as in English the impress of the Latin 
 models which were dominant in the minds of 
 the British monks of the Middle Ages has 
 been stamped upon our grammar. 
 
 The nearest approach found among living 
 languages to the ancient Chaldee is in the dia- 
 lects of Abyssinia, and, among ancient tongues, 
 in the language of Egypt. ^ It is not to be 
 disputed, however, that Chaldee contained so 
 many foreign elements as to make the work 
 of classification difficult, and to give plausible 
 grounds for disputing its Cushite character. 
 
 Some portions of the grammar of Chaldsea 
 have been satisfactorily explained, but other 
 parts are still either obscure or altogether un- 
 known. The conjugation of the verb is rep- 
 resented as exceedingly complicated. In so 
 far as the process has been explained it is said 
 to be somewhat analogous to the verb-forms 
 in Hebrew. In the formation of the objec- 
 
 tive case of nouns the suffix kii is added, as 
 in Hindustanee. The plurals of nouns and 
 pronouns are formed by doubling the root- 
 word. Thus the pronoun ni, meaning " him," 
 is made plural by reduplication, nini (equiv- 
 alent to him-him) meaning "them." In the 
 formation of the ablative case of pronouns 
 the preposition kita, meaning " with," which 
 generally governs that case, is divided, and the 
 governed word put between the parts. Thus 
 kita is "with," and 7nu, "me;" but the ex- 
 pression "with me," instead of being written 
 kita mu, is ki-mu-ta. Ki-m,i-ta means "with 
 US'" ki-zii-ta, "with thee;" ki-nini-ta, "with 
 them," etc. This is as if we should say in 
 English, " wi-me-th," for "with me;"_"wi-w8- 
 th," for "with us;" " wi-</iee-th," for "with 
 thee;" " \vi-them-th" for "with them," etc. 
 Several other peculiarities of Chaldee have 
 been explained by Smith and Rawlinson, but 
 the system as a whole is but poorly under- 
 stood, even by the best oriental scholars. 
 
 As to the nature of the writing employed 
 by the ancient inhabitants of Lower Mesopo- 
 tamia and the character of the inscriptions 
 which they have left to modern times, these 
 topics will be discussed in a succeeding 
 chapter on the Science and Art of the Chal- 
 dseans. 
 
 Chapter vill.— Chronolooy and annals. 
 
 ONCERNING the antiq- 
 uity of the Chaldsean 
 Empire we have the tes- 
 timony of one native his- 
 torian, Berosus. This 
 famous annalist flour- 
 ished during the first 
 half of the third century before the Christian 
 era. He was a priest of Bel at Babylon, and 
 had access to the records of his country. 
 
 ' A few equivalents will serve to show the af- 
 finities of Old Chaldee — thus: 
 English, "after;" in Chaldee, egir: in Abyssinian, igria. 
 " "great;" " gula; " guda. 
 
 " "little;" " tura; " tuna. 
 
 " '"father;" " atta; ■' etea. 
 
 Soon after the conquest of Babylon by Alex- 
 ander the Great, Berosus wrote a History of 
 Chaldcea in Greek, in three books, and dedi- 
 cated the work to Antiochus, king of Syria. 
 If this history by Berosus had been preserved 
 to the present time it would, no doubt, throw 
 much light upon many of the vexed questions 
 of antiquity. Unfortunately, the work has 
 perished — except a few fragments which were 
 transcribed by Apollodorus and Polyhistor, 
 
 English, 
 
 "brother;" in 
 
 Chaldee 
 
 sis ; in Abyssinian, isha. 
 
 
 ' road;" 
 
 
 kharran; " kara. 
 
 
 • horse : ' 
 
 
 kurra; in Arabic, gurra. 
 
 
 " mouniaia ;" 
 
 
 gabri: " jabal. 
 
 
 'river;" 
 
 
 ar; " nahr. 
 
 
 "house;" 
 
 
 e; in Egyptian. ?.
 
 112 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 two Greek authors of the first century B. C, 
 and from them were afterwards quoted by 
 Eusebius and Syncellus. It is only from these 
 fragments that we gather a Babylonian's own 
 views of the previous history of his country. 
 
 The work of Berosus begins with an ac- 
 count of the traditions of the Chaldseans con- 
 cerning the creation of the world and the 
 origin of man. The chapter which narrates 
 the genesis of things runs thus: " Once all was 
 darkness and water. In this chaos lived horrid 
 animals, and men with two wings, and others 
 with four wings and two faces, and others 
 again that were both male and female. Some 
 had the thighs of goats, and horns on their 
 heads ; others had horses' feet, or were formed 
 behind like a horse and in front like a man. 
 There were bulls with human heads ; and 
 horses and men with the heads of dogs ; and 
 other animals of human shape with fins like 
 fishes ; and fishes like sirens ; and dragons, 
 and creeping things, and serpents, and wild 
 creatures, the images of which are to be found 
 in the temple of Bel. Over all these ruled a 
 woman of the name of Omorka. But Bel 
 divided the darkness and clove the woman 
 asunder, and of one part he made the earth, 
 and of the other the sun, and moon, and 
 planets ; and he drew off the water, and ap- 
 portioned it to the land, and prepared and 
 arranged the world. But those creatures 
 could not endure the light of the sun, and 
 became extinct. 
 
 "When Bel saw the land uninhabited, and 
 yet fruitful, he smote off" his head and bade one 
 of the gods mingle the blood which flowed 
 from his head with earth, and form therewith 
 men and animals and wild creatures, who 
 could support the atmosphere. A great mul- 
 titude of men of various tribes inhabited 
 Chaldsea, but they lived without any order, 
 like the animals. Then there appeared to 
 them from the sea, on the shore of Babylo- 
 nia, a fearful animal of the name of Oan. 
 His body was that of a fish, but under the 
 fish's head another head was attached, and on 
 the fins were feet like those of a man, and it 
 had a man's voice. Its image is still pre- 
 served. The animal came at morning, and 
 passed the day with men. But it took no 
 
 nourishment, and at sunset went again into 
 the sea, and there remained for the night. 
 This animal taught men language and science, 
 the harvesting of seeds and fruits, the rules 
 for the boundaries of land, the mode of build- 
 ing cities and temples, arts and writing, and 
 all that pertains to the civilization of men." 
 
 Such is the mythical account of the origin 
 of things as related in the first chapter of the 
 history of Berosus. The next part of the 
 work is devoted to the chronology of the Chal- 
 dsean kingdom from the creation down to the 
 sixth century before our era. The epoch be- 
 fore the flood — for Berosus has an account of 
 a deluge — is assigned to ten kings, to whom 
 fabulous reigns are allotted as follows: 
 
 1. Alorus, a Chaldsean, who reigned 36,000 years. 
 
 2. Aloparus, son of Alorus, who reigned 10,800 " 
 
 3. Almelon, a native of Sippara, who reigned. ..46,800 " 
 
 4. Ammenon, a Chaldsean, who reigned 43,200 " 
 
 5. Amegalarns, of Sippara, who reigned 64,800 '' 
 
 6. Daonus, of Sippara, who reigned 36,000 " 
 
 7. Edorankhus, of Sippara, who reigned 64.800 " 
 
 8. Amempsinus, a Chaldsean, who reigned 36,000 " 
 
 9. Otiartes, a Chaldsean, who reigned 28,000 " 
 
 10. Hisuthrus, the Chaldsean Noah, who reigned..64, 800 " 
 
 A total of ten kings, reigning 432,000 years 
 
 After the flood the kings of Chaldsea are 
 divided in the scheme of Berosus among nine 
 dynasties. At the close of the first of these 
 dynasties we pass from the fabulous to the 
 historical era, though in some subsequent parts 
 it must be allowed that conjecture rather than 
 knowledge has filled the tables of numbers 
 and dates. The scheme of Berosus, therefore, 
 as completed by modern scholars for the epoch 
 after Xisuthrus, is as follows:^ 
 
 I. Chaldsean 
 
 II. Median 
 
 III. ? 
 
 IV. Chaldsean 
 
 V. Arabian 
 
 VI. ? 
 
 VII. Chaldsean (Pul). 
 
 VIII. ? 
 
 IX. Babylonian 
 
 NCUBEK OP 
 KINGS. 
 
 KEIGNING. 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 8 
 
 406 years* 
 
 11 
 
 48 " 
 
 49 
 
 458 " 
 
 9* 
 
 245 " 
 
 45 
 
 526 " 
 
 1 
 
 28 " 
 
 13 
 
 122 " 
 
 6 
 
 87 " 
 
 ? to B.C. 2458^ 
 2458 * to 2052 
 2052 to 2004 
 2004 to 1546 
 1546 to 1301 
 1301 to 775 
 775 to 747 
 747 to 625 
 625 to 538 
 
 ^The three numbers marked with an asterisk 
 are a variation from the computations of Rawlin- 
 son, who makes the First Dynasty close and the 
 Second begin with the year B. C. 2286 instead of 
 2458 as given above. The author has been in- 
 duced to adopt the variation by a discussion in 
 Duncker's History of Antiquity, Vol. I., page 247. 
 
 ^ The monumental inscriptions have recently 
 shown that there were as many as fifteen kings 
 belonging to this dynasty.
 
 CHALD^A.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 lib 
 
 This scheme may be regarded as fairly au- 
 thentic except in particulars — mostly unim- 
 portant — which are marked as questionable. 
 If we allow but a century to be occupied with 
 the First Dynasty we are carried back to the 
 year 2550 B. C. as the approximate date for 
 the beginning of Chaldsean history. 
 
 To Berosus we are indebted for what is 
 known as the Chaldsean or Babylonian account 
 of the flood. The narrative is full of interest 
 as tending to show that all the nations having 
 their geographical center in Mesopotamia pre- 
 served a common tradition of a great flood of 
 waters, by Avhich the country was deluged and* 
 the people destroyed. The narrative as given 
 by Berosus is as follows: 
 
 "In this year the god Bel revealed to 
 Xisuthrus in a dream that in the fifteenth 
 year and the month Daesius there would be a 
 great storm of rain, and men would be de- 
 stroyed by the flood of waters. He bade him 
 bury all written records, ancient, mediaeval, 
 and modern in Sippara, the city of the sun, 
 and build a ship and embark in it Avith his 
 kindred and nearest friends. He was also to 
 take food and drink into the ship, and carry 
 into it all creatures winged and four-footed. 
 
 "Xisuthrus did as he was bidden and built 
 a boat fifteen stadia long^ and two stadia in 
 breadth, and placed in it his wife and child, 
 his relatives and friends. Then the inunda- 
 tion came. When the rain ceased Xisuthrus 
 sent out some birds, but they returned to the 
 ship, as they could find nothing to eat and no 
 place of rest. After a few days he sent out 
 other birds. They also returned, but with 
 mud on their feet. Then Xisuthrus sent yet 
 others, and they never returned. Xisuthrus 
 knew that the earth had appeared. He took 
 out a part of the roof of his boat, and per- 
 ceived that it had settled down on a moun- 
 tain. Then he went out with his wife and 
 daughter and the architect of the boat. He 
 worshiped the earth, and built an altar and 
 ofiered sacrifice to the gods, and then disap- 
 
 'That is, nine thousand feet. This is the 
 length given in the fragment of Berosus quoted by 
 Eusebius. The same extract, as quoted by Syn- 
 cellus, makes the length five stadia, or three thou- 
 sand feet. 
 
 peared, together with those whom he had 
 brought out of the boat. When his compan- 
 ions whom he had left in the boat had gone 
 out and were in search of Xisuthrus, his voice 
 called to them out of the air, saying that the 
 gods had carried him away in reward for his 
 piety; that he with his daughter and the 
 architect Avere dwelling among the gods. But 
 the others Avere to return from Armenia, 
 where they then were, to Babylon, and, in 
 obedience to the command of the gods, dig up 
 the books buried at Sippara and give them to 
 mankind. They obeyed those instructions. 
 They sacrificed to the gods, and returned by 
 laud to Babylon. They digged up the sacred 
 books, erected many cities and temples, and 
 rebuilt Babylon. On the Gordysean moun- 
 tains, where it settled, remains of the boat of 
 Xisuthrus were in existence for a long time 
 afterwards." 
 
 This account of the great flood, as given 
 by Berosus, is heightened in interest by com- 
 parison with the later and more ornate tradi- 
 tion of the same event as found recorded in 
 the inscriptions of Assyria. Among the ruins 
 of the palace of Ashur-bani-pal, an Assyrian 
 monarch of the seventh century B. C, tablets 
 have been found from Avhich the story of the 
 flood has been deciphered in terms somcAvhat 
 diflferent, and yet strikingly analogous to the 
 old Chaldtean tradition. The legend recorded 
 on the tablets runs thus: That the god Hea 
 commanded Sisit^ to build a ship of given di- 
 mensions and to launch it on the deep, for it 
 was his purpose to destroy sinners. Then 
 Hea said: 
 
 "When the flood comes which I will send 
 thou shalt enter into the ship, and into the 
 midst of it thou shalt bring thy corn, thy 
 goods, thy gods, thy gold and silver, thy slaves 
 male and female, the sons of the army, the 
 wild and tame animals; and all that thou 
 hearest thou shalt do. And Sisit gathered to- 
 gether all his possessions of silver and gold, 
 all that he had of the seeds of life, and 
 caused all of his slaves, male and female, to 
 
 'The same as Xisuthrus. In the writings of 
 Lucian the name of the captain of the deluge is 
 given as Sisythes, which is evidently a form inter- 
 mediate between Xisuthrus and Sisit.
 
 114 
 
 UNIVERSAL mSTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 go into the ship. The wild and tame beasts 
 of the field also he caused to enter, and all 
 the sons of the army. 
 
 "And Samas, the Sun-god, made a flood, and 
 said: 'I will cause rain to fall heavily from 
 heaven; go into the ship and shut the door.' 
 Overcome with fear Sisit entered into the ship, 
 and on the morning of the day fixed by 
 Samas the storm began to blow from the ends 
 of heaven, and Bin thundered in the midst 
 of heaven, and Nebo came forth, and over 
 the mountains and plains came the gods, and 
 Nergal the Destroyer overthrew, and Adar 
 came forth and dashed down: the gods made 
 ruin; in their brightness they swept over the 
 earth. 
 
 "The storm went over the nations; the 
 flood of Bin reached up to heaven ; brother 
 did not see brother; the lightsome earth be- 
 came a desert, and the flood destroyed all liv- 
 ing things from the face of the earth. Even 
 the gods were afraid of the storm, and sought 
 refuge in the heaven of Anu; like hounds 
 drawing in their tails, the gods seated them- 
 selves on their thrones, and Istar, the great 
 goddess, spake : * The world has turned to sin, 
 and therefore I have proclaimed destruction. 
 1 have begotten men, and now they fill the 
 sea like the children of fishes.' And the gods 
 upon their seats wept with her. On the sev- 
 enth day the storm abated, which had de- 
 stroyed like an earthquake, and the sea began 
 to dry. Sisit perceived the movement of the 
 sea. Like reeds floated the corpses of the 
 evil-doers and all who had turned to sin. 
 Then Sisit opened the window, and the light 
 fell upon his face, and the ship was stayed 
 upon Mount Nizir, and could not pass over it. 
 Then on the seventh day Sisit sent forth a 
 dove, but she found no place of rest, and re- 
 turned. Then he sent a swallow, which also 
 returned; and again a raven, which saw the 
 corpses in the water and ate them, and re- 
 turned no more. 
 
 "Then Sisit released the beasts to the four 
 winds of heaven, and poured a libation, and 
 built an altar upon the top of the mountain, 
 aud cut seven herbs, and the sweet savor of 
 the sacrifice caused the gods to assemble, and 
 Sisit praved that Bel might not come to the 
 
 altar. For Bel had made the storm and 
 sunk the people in the deep, and wished in his 
 anger to destroy the ship, and allow no man 
 to escape. Adar opened his mouth, and spoke 
 to the warrior Bel: 'Who would then be 
 left?' And Hea spoke to him: 'Captain of 
 the gods, instead of the storm let lions and 
 leopards increase, and diminish mankind; let 
 famine and pestilence desolate the land and 
 destroy mankind.' When the sentence of the 
 gods was passed, Bel came into the midst of 
 the ship and took Sisit by the hand and con- 
 ducted him forth, and caused his wife to be 
 brought to his side, and purified the earth, 
 and made a covenant; and Sisit and his wife 
 and his people were carried away like gods, 
 and Sisit dwelt in a distant land at the mouth 
 of the rivers."^ 
 
 Traditions of a flood have been preserved 
 in all countries the formation of which has 
 been such as to subject them to the danger of 
 overflow. Egypt is, perhaps, the only excep- 
 tion, and this is easily accounted for by the 
 fact that the inundations of the Nile were so 
 regular and so beneficial in their results as to 
 be desired rather than dreaded by the people. 
 Legends similar to those of the Chaldseans 
 and Assyrians have been found among the 
 peoples of Armenia, Thessaly, Boeotia, India, 
 and indeed, in all countries exposed to de- 
 structive floods. The story of the deluge as 
 narrated in the seventh chapter of Genesis is 
 a record of the same event as that given 
 by Berosus and stamped on the Assyrian tab- 
 lets, though the Hebrew account is in a more 
 refined and elevated form. 
 
 The period at which the great flood in 
 Chaldsea occurred is unknown. The dates 
 given in Berosus are mythical, and are based, 
 no doubt, on a method of computation not 
 now understood. So, also, the First Dynasty 
 of kings after the flood covers one of those 
 fabulous epochs in which tradition runs riot 
 and history gropes in blindness. 
 
 At the beginning of the Second Dynasty 
 there is, as yet, only a tinge of the morning 
 dawn. Here it was that Nimrod, the great 
 
 ^George Smith's Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 185- 
 1P5; also, Duncker's History of Antiquity, pp. 243- 
 245.
 
 CHALD^A.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 115 
 
 hunter, who is represented as being a descend- 
 ant of Cush, flourished in Lower Mesopota- 
 mia. His dominion was at first along the sea- 
 coast, but Avas soon extended northward as far 
 as Babel, which became one of his principal 
 cities. The capital was Ur or Hur, situated 
 on the right bank of the Euphrates a short 
 distance above the mouth. The other chief 
 seats of his power were the cities of Erech, 
 Accad, and Calneh. 
 
 Tradition indicates that Nimrod was a war- 
 rior, as well as a hunter of wild beasts. As 
 early as the time when the Book of Genesis 
 was composed the name of Nimrod had passed 
 into a proverb. The mixture of good and bad 
 in his reputation is, no doubt, attributable to 
 the fact that he was a tyrant 
 as Avell as a defender — an op- 
 pressor of the people as well 
 as a destroyer of lions. Very 
 little is known of the details 
 of his campaigns or the meth- 
 ods of his government, but 
 his fame has reached through 
 the intervening ages as that 
 of Romulus pervades the his- 
 tory of ancient Rome. 
 
 After death Nimrod was 
 deified, and Avas ever regarded 
 by the Babylonians and As- 
 syrians as one of the gods of 
 the nation. His divine title 
 was Bel-Nimrod, signifying 
 God of the Chase. The city of Calneh, as the chief 
 seat of his worship, was called by his name, 
 and to this day the ruins and mounds which 
 are so abundantly scattered over the district 
 where the great hunter once held dominion, 
 are, Avithout distinction, designated by the 
 name Nlmrud} 
 
 Except the first, the successors of Nimrod 
 were less famous. Little is known of them 
 
 or their deeds. To this period belongs the re- 
 tirement of the Semitic tribes from the region 
 about Babylon and their concentration in 
 Upper Mesopotamia on the Tigris. The prim- 
 itive Phoenicians, too, living on the borders 
 of the Persian Gulf, alarmed, perhaps, at the 
 prowess of Nimrod, migrated westward to Ca- 
 naan, and founded their ancient kingdom on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean. Abraham, 
 with his kinsmen, left Ur, and journeyed first 
 up the Eu^jhrates and afterwards to the Avest. 
 The power established by Nimrod was thus 
 left dominant from above Babylon to the sea. 
 After no great interval the mighty hunter 
 Avas succeeded by Ueukh, who was Avellnigh 
 as famous for monumental grandeur as Nim- 
 
 UR OF THE CHALDEES. 
 
 ^ Notwithstanding the almost universal tradition 
 of Nimrod it should be borne in mind that thus 
 far no single inscription or monumental trace of 
 him or his reign has been discovered. If the exist- 
 ing remains of Chaldaea should be depended on as 
 the sole source of our knowledge of early Baby- 
 lonian history, we should be compelled to place 
 the beginning with the succeeding reign of Urukh 
 and to omit as mvthical the story of Nimrod. 
 
 rod for Avar. Urukh is the earliest Chaldsean 
 monarch of Avhom existing remains bear Avit- 
 ness ; of him the testimony is abundant. The 
 burnt bricks and tablets containing his name 
 and inscri2:>tions are of a more primitive pat- 
 tern than those of any other period. In the 
 mounds and ruins the references to this king's 
 reign are found in the loAvest position, and 
 the style of Avriting is more ancient than any 
 other yet discovered in the country. The 
 character of the buildings also indicates a 
 very remote epoch. The bricks are unequal 
 in size, and clay mixed Avith bitumen is the 
 substitute for mortar. 
 
 The architectural style of Urukh's struc- 
 tures, though simple, is massive, in some in- 
 stances suggesting if they do not rival the
 
 116 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pyramids. The foundations of his temples 
 are vast platforms of masonry, so broad and 
 deep as to suggest a Avaste of human labor 
 similar to the prodigal expenditures of toil in 
 the works of ancient Egypt. 
 
 To the age of Urukh belong the ruins of 
 Warka. On the site of this ancient city ' is 
 the celebrated mound called by the natives 
 the Boivariyeh. The general shape of the ruin 
 is that of a cone or pyramid, but the ravages 
 of time have marred the symmetry of the 
 structure. Modern investigations have shown 
 that this massive pile was originally a tower 
 two hundred feet square at the base and two 
 stories in height. The first story was built of 
 sun-dried bricks of irregular shapes and sizes. 
 At intervals of four or five feet layers of 
 reeds were placed in the bitumen to give cohe- 
 rence to the whole. In the upper story, now 
 fallen away in ruins, the central part Avas also 
 of sun-dried bricks but faced on the outside with 
 bricks which had been hardened by burning. 
 
 The present height of this ancient Chal- 
 dsean temple is about one hundred feet above 
 the level of the plain. But little is known 
 of the original proportions or plan of the 
 structure. In the ruin which remains the 
 aaassive buttresses are still easily traced, and 
 their dimensions indicate that the temple in 
 its entirety was one of great height and grand- 
 eur. All the liricks comprising the buttresses 
 are stamped Avith inscriptions and the layers 
 are firmly cemented Avith bitumen. The cubic 
 contents of the entire edifice have been esti- 
 mated at three million feet, and the number 
 of bricks employed in building it at thirty 
 million. 
 
 On the burnt bricks of this ruin the name 
 and praises of Urukh are of constant occur- 
 rence. Sometimes the simple name of the 
 great monarch is stamped in the baked clay. 
 Sometimes the inscription recites that " Urukh, 
 king of Ur, king of Sumir and Accad, has 
 built a temple to his lady, the goddess Nana." 
 Again the legend runs that "Urukh has built 
 the temple and fortress of Ur in honor of his 
 Lord, the god Sin." Or again the words are, 
 "The mighty Lord, king of Ur, may his name 
 continue ! " 
 
 ' \n Genesis called Evech- 
 
 The temple of Mugheir, or Ur, also belongs 
 to the times of Urukh, and is a ruin of equal 
 note. Like that of Warka, it lay until re- 
 cently buried under the rubbish of centuries. 
 Carefully conducted excavations have now 
 laid bare that part of the edifice Avhich has 
 been spared by the elements, and the explorer 
 is able to trace the outline of Avhat Avas once 
 the temple of the Moon-god Hur. The four 
 corners of the building — instead of the four 
 sides, as has been common in nearly all coun- 
 tries ancient and modern — are set to the cardi- 
 nal points of the compass,' so that the longer 
 sides of the parallelogram constituting the 
 ground-plan lie to the north-east and the 
 south-Avest. 
 
 The foundation of this edifice is raised 
 tAventy feet above the level. The longer sides 
 of the base are one hundred and ninety-eight 
 feet and the shorter one hundred and thirty- 
 three feet in length. The first story above 
 the basement is about forty feet in height. 
 This story is protected Avithout by a Avail ten 
 feet in thickness composed of bricks burnt to 
 redness in a kiln and carefully laid in bitumen. 
 The second story, now mostly fallen away, 
 has been of the same shape and general char- 
 acter as the first. Local tradition has pre- 
 served a notion of the third story, which is 
 represented as being the shrine of the god to 
 Avhom the temple Avas erected. Some tiles 
 glazed Avith a blue enamel and some copper 
 nails have been discovered in such a position 
 as to leave the impression that they Avere a 
 part of the materials employed in the construc- 
 tion of the immediate shrine of the deity. 
 
 Ruins similar to those of Warka and 
 Mugheir are found in many parts of Chal- 
 dsea. Calneh or Nipur and Larsa have re- 
 mains only second in importance to those 
 already described. Ever and anon the trav- 
 eler comes upon some enormous heap of rub- 
 bish Avhich on investigation proves to be the 
 overgrown Avreck of a fallen temple. In 
 Calneh tAvo of these mounds are found cover- 
 ing the fragments of buildings erected during 
 the reign of Urukh. Both of these structures 
 were temples, the first dedicated to Beltis and 
 
 ^ Tins feature of the Mugheir ruin is said to 
 be common to all Chaldsean temples.
 
 CHALD^A.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 117 
 
 BUILDING OF THE TEiMPLE OF WAKKA, TIME OF URUKH.
 
 118 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the other to Bel-Nimrod. In Larsa the ruins 
 show that the sun-god, San, was worshiped as 
 the tutelary deity of the city. 
 
 The capital of Urukh's kingdom was the 
 city of Ur. In the inscriptions he is some- 
 times designated as king of Ur — sometimes of 
 Accad. It was in Ur that the building ener- 
 gies of his reign were chiefly displayed. In 
 the ruins of this city his inscriptions are more 
 abundant than those of any other monarch. 
 In Upper Chaldsea the traces of Urukh are 
 less frequent. Babylon was then a newly 
 founded town, and seems not to have risen to 
 importance until the epoch following. After 
 Ur, Warka held the second rank among the 
 cities of the empire, Larsa and Calneh being 
 next in importance. 
 
 After the death of Urukh the kingdom 
 descended to Ilgi, his son, of whom neither 
 traditions nor inscriptions have preserved any 
 lengthy account. The royal seal or signet 
 used by the Chaldsean and Assyrian kings 
 was in the form of a small cylinder, having 
 figures and characters engraved in the surface. 
 This cylinder when rolled upon wax or other 
 plastic substance left the king's name and 
 emblems set in relief upon the material used 
 in sealing. In one of the mounds near Warka 
 
 the signet-cylin- 
 der of Ilgi has 
 been discovered, 
 and is now pre- 
 served in the 
 British Museum. 
 The legend 
 which it bears 
 has been trans- 
 lated as follows: "For saving the life of Ilgi, 
 from the mighty Lord, the king of Ur, son of 
 Urukh." 
 
 By King Ilgi the public works of Ur, 
 begun by his father, were carried forward to 
 completion, and to him also is ascribed the 
 repairing of two of the principal temples of 
 Erech. It is known from the inscriptions that 
 both Urukh and Ilgi were warlike princes, 
 and that in addition to their fame as builders 
 they won by force of arms the distinction of 
 being known to after ages. Such is the mea- 
 ger outline of mingled fact and tradition, by 
 
 THE SEAL OF ILGI. 
 
 which the First Dynasty of Chaldsean kings 
 are preserved in the annals of modern times. 
 
 Meanwhile in the country of Elam, lying 
 east of Chaldsea, a new power had risen, as 
 warlike, perhaps, as the people of Ur and 
 Babylon. The capital of this kingdom be- 
 tween the Tigris and the mountains was the 
 ancient city of Susa. Around this center the 
 mixed tribes of Aryans and Turanians had 
 gathered into a monarchy at a time almost as 
 remote as that of the founding of an empire 
 on the Lower Euphrates. In the obscure 
 epoch following the reign of Ilgi, the Elamite 
 power became aggressive and made war upon 
 the Chaldteans. Under the leadership of their 
 great king, Kudur-Nakhunta, they overran 
 the country as far north as Babylon, sacked 
 the cities, pillaged the temples, and carried 
 off* the images of the gods. This was the be- 
 ginning of Dynasty II., the kings of which 
 are designated by Berosus as Median — though 
 without sufficient reason. For it is evident 
 that the name Elamite or Susianian would 
 more properly describe the monarchs of 
 this line. 
 
 Though the dominion of Elam over Chal- 
 dsea was thus established it does not appear 
 that the Elamite kings resided in the latter 
 country. ' They chose instead their old capital 
 Susa, and governed the Chaldseans by vice- 
 roys appointed over their principal cities. Thus 
 did Kudur-Nakhunta himself, who established 
 tributary kings in the conquered country. 
 After him came the warlike king Kudur- 
 Lagamer,' who while retaining his own court 
 at Susa ruled in Mesopotamia by three of his 
 vassals. 
 
 Having settled the affairs of the countries 
 already under his authority, Kudur-Lagamer 
 resolved on a great expedition, first into 
 Assyria and afterwards into Canaan and 
 Egypt. Raising a large army he advanced 
 up the Euphrates, and thence westAvard against 
 the Canaauitish tribes, who under their kings 
 gathered in the valley of Siddim near the 
 Dead Sea to oppose the progress of the eastern 
 invader. Here was fought one of the first 
 great battles recorded in history. Kudur- 
 Lagamer was victorious, and the kings of 
 
 * The Clie.dor-laomer of Genesis.
 
 CHALD^A.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 119 
 
 Canaan were for a period of twelve years 
 brought into subjection. After this they re- 
 belled, and the Elamite monarch was again 
 
 After this battle, in which Lot, the nephew 
 of Abraham, was taken prisoner, the Elamite 
 army, burdened with spoils and captives, began 
 
 KUDUR-LAGAMER STORMING A TOWN IN CANAAN. 
 
 obliged to come against them. A second great 
 battle was fought near the scene of the first, 
 and, as before, Kudur-Lagamer was completely 
 victorious. The power of the confederacy 
 was apparently broken. 
 
 to withdraw towards Chaldsea, but when in 
 the vicinity of Damascus, Abraham with a 
 band of followers fell upon them by night and 
 drove them in a rout across the desert. It 
 was rather a panic than a victory, though
 
 120 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Abraham's band by their bold onset regained 
 a large part of the booty. The effect of the 
 check, however, was such as to discourage 
 from further invasion the king of Chaldsea. 
 
 Of the subsequent monarchs of the Elamite 
 or "Median" dynasty only three are known 
 by name, and of the first of these, called 
 Sinti-Shil-Khak, nothing except the name 
 has been preserved. The second, named Ku- 
 dur-^Iabuk, is honored in the inscriptions 
 with the title of "Conqueror of the West." 
 He is represented as having enlarged and 
 adorned the city of Ur. To him tradition 
 also ascribes the distinction of having restored 
 the Chaldsean religion, which had been dispar- 
 
 RL'INS OF SUSA. 
 
 aged during the preceding reigns. The tem- 
 ples were repaired, and the old gods brought 
 back with honor to their pillaged shrines. 
 The national pride of the Chaldseans was still 
 further gratified by the removal of the king's 
 court from Susa to the old capital Ur, and 
 this city continued to be the seat of govern- 
 ment during the reign of Arid-Sin, the son 
 and successor of Kudur-Mabuk, and even to 
 the end of the Second Dynasty, B. C. 2052. 
 The semi-authentic annals of these earlier 
 periods of the Chaldsean Empire give place 
 in Dynasty III. to mere conjecture. In the 
 scheme of Berosus eleven kings and a period 
 of forty-eight years are assigned to the inter- 
 val between the time of Arid-Sin and the ac- 
 cession of the fourth line of monarchs. Of 
 
 the history of events during these uncertain 
 years no scrap has been recovered from either 
 monument or tradition. It appears to have 
 been a transitional epoch, during which the 
 power of the Elamite kings and their vice- 
 roys in Chaldsea weakened and disappeared. 
 Whether the sovereigns of Susa became less 
 ambitious of foreign dominion, or whether the 
 Chaldseans recovered by revolt and war their 
 former independence, seems undiscoverable 
 from the remoteness of the time and the con- 
 fusion of the period. 
 
 The Fourth Dynasty was ushered in by 
 the establishment of a line of native sover- 
 eigns, who held the throne of Chaldsea for 
 
 f o u r hundred 
 and fifty-eight 
 years. The kings 
 of this line were 
 forty-nine in 
 number. One 
 of the earlier 
 monarchs of the 
 dynasty was 
 
 ISMI-D AGON, 
 
 who certainly oc- 
 cupied the throne 
 before the mid- 
 dle of the nine- 
 teenth century 
 B. C. His reign 
 is chiefly noted 
 for the extension 
 of Chaldsean authority into the upper part of 
 the Mesopotamian valley. 
 
 The ascendency of Bal^ylon over the 
 country afterwards called Assyria dates from 
 this period. Shamas-Vul, one of the king's 
 sons, who acted as his viceroy in the upper 
 districts of the empire, built a temple at 
 Kileh-Shergat. The inscriptions give other 
 evidences of the preponderating influence of 
 the Chaldsean monarchs towards the north, and 
 show conclusively that the power of Assyria 
 had not yet risen to importance. For a con- 
 siderable period the affairs of this kingdom — 
 if kingdom it may be called — continued to 
 be administered by satraps and governors sen 
 out from Babylon. 
 
 Ismi-Dasou was succeeded on the throne
 
 CHALDyEA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 121 
 
 by a son, called Gurguna. This king is 
 chiefly remembered as the builder of the great 
 cemeteries at Ur, perhaps the most remarkable 
 ruins in Chaldsea. After Gurguna came 
 Nakam-Sin, doubtless his sou, who was the 
 builder of the great temple in the city of 
 Agana. His reign is memorable as the time 
 when the seat of government was transferred 
 to Babylon, which by this epoch had grown 
 to be the metropolis of Chaldsea. 
 
 The tendency to remove the capital farther 
 and farther up the valley betokens the increase 
 of population in Upper Mesopotamia and the 
 gradual spread of civilization northward. The 
 seat of the Empire, which in the times of 
 Urukh had been at Ur, was transferred first 
 to Warka and thence to the more recent 
 Babylon, where it remained until the rise of 
 Assyria. 
 
 The date of Naram-Sin's reign was about 
 the middle of the eighteenth century B. C. 
 He was the first of a long line of sovereigns 
 in the Fourth Dynasty whose names add the 
 word Sin, the same being the Chaldee appella- 
 tive of the Moon-god, whose worship was a 
 chief element in the religion of the times. 
 
 After Naram-Sin came Sin-Shada, who 
 was the builder of the upper terrace in the 
 temple of AVarka, now the ruin of Bowariyeh. 
 Next was Tur-Sin, the greatest monarch of 
 his times. He was the founder of the city 
 Abu-Sharein, the ruins of which bear witness 
 to the introduction of a new style of architec- 
 ture, improved in its structural character and 
 richer in ornament than the building of pre- 
 vious times. Here it is, also, that the most 
 satisfactory traces of the simpler arts are 
 found. Stone knives and chisels and hatchets 
 are discovered everywhere in the ruins ; but 
 implements of metal, except a few imperfect 
 specimens of gold and bronze, are wanting 
 during this period. Iron seems to have been 
 used only in ornaments for the person. 
 
 Of Rim-Sin, the last monarch of this line, 
 not much is known, except what is contained 
 on a single tablet found among the ruins of 
 Ur. Immediately preceding his reign was 
 that of the king Nur-Vul, whose name occurs 
 in the list of Berosus, but of whom no monu- 
 mental record has been discovered. It is evi- 
 
 dent, indeed, that during the times of the Sin 
 kings the power of the Fourth Dynasty de- 
 clined to such an extent as to invite invasion 
 and conquest. The reigns of the later group 
 of these raonarchs covered the period from 
 the close of the eighteenth century to the 
 year B. C. 1546. 
 
 The name Arabian is given by Berosus 
 to the Fifth Dynasty of Chaldsean kings. 
 But it is by no means certain that the great 
 conqueror, Khammu-Rabi, by whom Dynasty 
 IV. was overthrown and supplanted, was out 
 of Arabia. There is no doubt that the dis- 
 sensions and weakness of the Chaldsean kings 
 of the Si7i series had made the country an 
 easy prey to an ambitious leader and his 
 armies, from whatever quarter they might 
 come. 
 
 It is possible that the conquest of Khammu- 
 Rabi was no more than a revolution efiected 
 by a strong-willed chieftain of one of the lower 
 Mesopotamian cities. According to Berosus 
 this dynasty was composed of nine kings, but 
 the names of fifteen sovereigns of the line 
 have been deciphered from the inscriptions 
 and tablets; from which it appears that in 
 several places the less important kings — per- 
 haps those who reigned for a shorter time 
 than a year — were dropped from the lists. 
 Nor is it quite certain in what order the reigns 
 of the so-called Arabian monarchs occurred. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that the first 
 of this line was the great Khammu-Rabi, 
 whose name is associated with many important 
 enterprises. He it was who introduced the 
 system of artificial irrigation, by which large 
 districts in the country about Babylon were 
 converted into gardens. The great canal, 
 afterwards known as the river of Khammu- 
 Rabi, through which the waters of the Eu- 
 phrates were carried into the waste places be- 
 tween the rivers, was constructed during 
 this reign. A Avhite stone tablet preserved in 
 the Louvre, at Paris, recites that the canal cut 
 by Khammu-Rabi became a blessing to the 
 Babylonians, converting desert plains into 
 well-watered fields and spreading around fer- 
 tility and abundance. 
 
 For himself Khammu-Rabi built a new 
 palace at Kalwadha, near the present site of
 
 122 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Baghdad. He also repaired the great temple 
 of the sun at Senkereh/ His reign extended 
 from the middle of the sixteenth century B. 
 C. to about the year 1520. After his death 
 the crown descended to his son, Samsu-Iluna, 
 of whom only one series of inscriptions have 
 been discovered. His reign belonged to the 
 last quarter of the century, after which the 
 lists are broken by a gap of about seventy-five 
 years. 
 
 With the reappearance of the line in the per- 
 son of Kara-In-Das, we come to a group of five 
 kings, between whom and the monarchs of the 
 rising kingdom of Assyria on the north, po- 
 litical relations begin to appear. It is the 
 time when Assyria first competes Avith Chal- 
 dsea for supremacy in Mesopotamia. The 
 chronology becomes more certain, inasmuch as 
 the records of the two monarchies, by counter- 
 references, can be used to check the errors of 
 either. Between the two kingdoms the rela- 
 tions were sometimes warlike and sometimes 
 peaceful. Now a treaty is made, and now 
 the violation x)f a compact leads to invasion. 
 In one instance a revolution occurs, in which 
 the Chaldsean king, Kara-Khar-Das is over- 
 thrown and killed by an insurrectionist named 
 Nazi-Bugas, whereupon an Assyrian army 
 marches down the valley, destroys Nazi-Bugas, 
 and restores to the throne the brother of the 
 murdered king. At another time the daugh- 
 ter of Asshur-Upalit, king of Assyria, is given 
 in marriage to Purra-Puriyas, monarch of 
 Chaldsea, and indeed on every hand are dis- 
 covered the traces of the increasing influence 
 of the northern kingdom. The last of the 
 five monarchs just mentioned was Kurri- 
 Galzu, relics of whose reign are found chiefly 
 at Mugheir'^ and Akkerkuf. 
 
 The latter city is reputed to have been 
 founded by this king, of whom it contains 
 several important inscriptions. The remain- 
 ing sovereigns of the Fifth Dynasty are Saga- 
 Raktigas, who built a temple of the sun at 
 Sippara, Ammidi-Kaga, and six others, whose 
 names occur in a list of the kings in such a 
 way as to classify them with Khammu-Rabi. 
 
 Such is the somewhat meager outline of 
 the civil and political history of ancient 
 
 ' The ancient Larsa. * The ancient Ur. 
 
 Chaldjea, and of the broken genealogy of her 
 princes down to the time when Assyrian influ- 
 ence became dominant in Lower Mesopotamia. 
 The date of this event has been fixed at B. C. 
 1301. In this year Tiglath-Adar, king of 
 Assyria, invaded Chaldaea, captured Babylon, 
 and reduced the country to a dependency of 
 his empire. It is not to be understood that 
 the power of Chaldsea as a nation was de- 
 stroyed or that the political condition of the 
 country was very greatly changed from what 
 it had been during the times of the Fourth 
 and Fifth Dynasties. 
 
 With the accession of Dynasty VI., which 
 is said by Berosus to have embraced forty-five 
 kings, the Babylonian monarchs became and 
 continued mere viceroys, tributary to Assyria, 
 so that, in one sense, the civil history of Chal- 
 dsea may be said to have ended with the As- 
 syrian conquest. However this question may 
 be considered, the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century marks an epoch in the progress of the 
 Lower Empire, and is generally regarded as 
 the end of the first monarchy established on 
 the banks of the Euphrates. 
 
 The ancient kingdom of Chaldsea was, next 
 to Egypt, the oldest civil government of an- 
 tiquity. The conditions under which the em- 
 pire was established were very similar to those 
 which gave shape to early civilization in the 
 valley of the Nile. The great men of Chal- 
 dsea were, first of all, Nimrod, who was the 
 Romulus of the kingdom. After him was 
 Urukh, the Builder, who gave to Chaldsea her 
 material grandeur. Nimrod warred against 
 the adverse elements of primitive savagery ; 
 Urukh bestowed colossal energies on monu- 
 mental forms, and left his memory to the 
 temples of the gods rather than to heroic tra- 
 ditions. Kudur-Lagamer, likewise, may well 
 be regarded as great. He was a conqueror — 
 one of the earliest known to history — and 
 though his conquests beyond the western des- 
 ert could hardly be expected to remain as an 
 integral part of the Empire, yet the military 
 impulse given by him to the nation which he 
 ruled continued for centuries. For a short 
 period he controlled the destinies of a people 
 who were dispersed from the eastern limits of 
 Susiana to the Dead Sea on the west, a dis-
 
 CHALDjEA.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 123 
 
 tance of twelve hundred miles, while from 
 north to south the breadth of his dominions 
 was scarcely less than five hundred miles. 
 Though he and his succesbors were unable to 
 retain control of this widely extended terri- 
 tory, he npvertheless demonstrated the possi- 
 bility of establishing vast empires embracing 
 many peoples and languages, and thus became 
 the prototype of those great oriental conquer- 
 ors whose deeds constitute so large a part of 
 A.ncient History. 
 
 The kingdom of ancient Chaldsea is more 
 interesting to us from its antiquity than from 
 its territorial extent or its material grandeur. 
 At a time when all the rest of Asia west of the 
 Altais and the Himalayas was slumbering in 
 night the Cushite tribes of the Lower Eu- 
 phrates emerged from darkness, and substi- 
 tuted for the coarse manners of barbarism the 
 institutions of primitive civilization — the home, 
 the city, the state. These people betook them- 
 selves to the quiet pursuits of the field and to 
 the erection and decoration of the temples of 
 the gods, while the Semitic and Aryan tribes 
 on the north and west were still nomads, prey- 
 ing upon nature, living by the chase. 
 
 From this ancient seat of refinement a 
 knowledge of science and letters and art was 
 gradually diflfused into Assyria, and after- 
 
 wards into Media and Persia. The method 
 of writing employed by the various races in- 
 habiting these countries is all traceable to the 
 primitive type employed by the Chaldseans. 
 So that it may be fairly said that Chaldsea was 
 the mother of civilization in Western Asia. 
 
 Belonging to the period here considered 
 (2458-1301 B. C), the names and fragments 
 of the histories of about thirty kings have 
 been checked oflT from the lists of Berosus 
 and verified by existing monuments. Further 
 researches in Lower Mesoiaotamia will doubt- 
 less yield still more satisfactory results; and 
 with an amount of exploration and scholarly 
 criticism equal to that which has been given 
 to the valley of the Nile, it is probable that 
 Chaldsean history can be as clearly written as 
 that of Egypt. For the present we are com- 
 pelled to content ourselves with an outline, 
 rather than a narrative, of the famous king- 
 dom founded by Nimrod and terminated by 
 the conquest of Tiglath-Adar, of Assyria. In 
 connection with the history of the latter coun- 
 try, whatever is known of the viceroys reign- 
 ing at Babylon, and of the progress of the 
 country over which they ruled down to the 
 times of Cyrus the Great, will be narrated as 
 it is suggested by the more important history 
 of the Assyrians. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 jOR their learning the 
 Chaldseans have been pro- 
 verbial for three thousand 
 years. Doubtless the 
 country at the head of 
 the Persian Gulf was that 
 land of fabulous wisdom 
 known by the ancients as the East. The 
 great poets and historians of Rome designated 
 by the name Chaldean whoever was fam- 
 ous in a knowledge of the stars, the lore of 
 books, and the gift of prophecy. There is no 
 doubt that long before the language of the 
 Hebrews became a fit vehicle for literary ex- 
 pression there were in Lower Mesopotamia 
 N.— Vol. 1—8 
 
 men worthy to be called philosophers. The 
 traditions of antiquity point to two cities as 
 the fountains of human wisdom — Memphis in 
 Egypt, and Babylon of the Chaldees. 
 
 But learning and philosophy grow up 
 slowly. They have their roots in those homely 
 arts by which human life is sustained and in- 
 vigorated. All the refinements of civilization 
 rest upon the two fundamental facts of agri- 
 culture and architecture. The first stage of 
 the evolution out of barbarism is marked by 
 plowing and building. Where the plow is 
 unknown and the hammer unheard, the tribes 
 of men will never reach beyond the develop- 
 ment of hunters and nomads.
 
 124 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In ancient Chaldsea the agricultural life 
 ■was vividly suggested by the aspect and char- 
 acter of the valley. A level and unobstructed 
 alluvial plain stretched from river to river. 
 What seeds soever were scattered in this mel- 
 low soil sprang into vigorous life. The prim- 
 itive dwellers in these flats were abundantly 
 and certainly rewarded for their labor. The 
 native grains and fruits were refined by culti- 
 vation, and the overplus of the harvest sug- 
 gested new wants and the possibilities of 
 commerce. 
 
 The most fruitful of the districts soon 
 gathered the most enterprising population. 
 The growing village gave token of progress. 
 Then came the town, the city, the temples of 
 the gods. The earliest buildings of Chaldsea 
 were cabins constructed by bending into 
 arches the tall stems of growing plants, inter- 
 woven with reeds, and covered with mats of 
 rushes. Soon the strong trunk of the palm- 
 tree was substituted for the native reed in the 
 construction of the frame, and instead of a 
 barricade of matting, a coat of plastering, 
 composed of mud and bitumen, was laid 
 upon the wall. 
 
 In a mild and equable climate such houses 
 might well suffice for the abodes of men. 
 Villages and towns might be so constructed, 
 wherein civilized peoples could live in comfort 
 and prosperity. But as society advanced the 
 religious impulse and public spirit cooperated 
 to demand and to produce a higher style of ar- 
 chitecture. The temples of the gods must be 
 imposing and ornate, and to this end some 
 material more enduring than reeds and trunks 
 of palms must be procured. In this stage of 
 their development men generally resort to 
 stone ; but the Chaldseans were here at a dis- 
 advantage. What nature has so abundantly 
 supplied in most countries is entirely wanting 
 in Lower Mesopotamia. In the whole coun- 
 try between Samarah and the sea there is not 
 a single quarry of stone. The peculiar char- 
 acter of early Babylonian architecture can be 
 traced to this remarkable feature in the physical 
 structure of the country. The Arabian quar- 
 ries on the west yielded only a coarse sand- 
 stone ; the distance was great, and the inter- 
 vening plain, for the most part, an oozy and 
 
 impassable marsh. The absence of neighbor- 
 ing hills, 
 
 " Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," 
 
 imposed on the Chaldeans the necessity of 
 selecting from the bosom of nature some ma- 
 terial less endui'ing than that which has given 
 immortality to the ruins of Egypt. Except 
 to a very limited extent and only in peculiar 
 situations, such as in the exposed part of an 
 important wall, is any stone found among the 
 remains of Babylonian greatness. 
 
 Clay in the form of bricks and tiles, was 
 the natural substitute, and of this an excellent 
 article was abundantly procurable. 
 
 In the more ancient ruins of Chaldsea, the 
 bricks are of the sun-dried variety; and 
 though, in those parts which have been freely 
 exposed to the action of the elements only 
 dust and shapeless fragments remain, yet, in 
 the inner and more protected situations the 
 bricks are as well preserved and firm as when, 
 four thousand years ago, they were laid in 
 wall and buttress. The introduction of the 
 kiln so greatly improved the quality of bricks 
 as to make them a fair substitute for stone, 
 nor does it appear that the art of hardening 
 clay by the action of fire has been much im- 
 proved beyond the primitive methods em- 
 ployed by the masons of Chaldrea. 
 
 The early builders of the Mesopotamian 
 towns generally used both kinds of bricks in 
 the same edifice, constructing the central parts 
 and inner walls of the sun-dried variety and 
 facing the walls without and parts exposed 
 with bricks burnt in a kiln. The harder and 
 more durable material was thus made to pro- 
 tect the perishable from disintegration under 
 the action of the weather. In cases where 
 buildings were constructed wholly of bricks 
 baked in the sun, the walls — otherwise weak 
 and unstable — were strengthened by building 
 in, at intervals of four or five feet, thick 
 layers of reed matting, which were allowed to 
 project beyond the edge of the wall, thus 
 forming an external protection as well as giv- 
 ing coherence to the mass. The burnt bricks of 
 Chaldsea were large in size and in shape pecul- 
 iar. The side surface was near a foot square, 
 and the thickness about two and a fourth
 
 CHALD^A.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 125 
 
 inclies. Those bricks which were intended 
 for the corners and angles were molded in 
 triangular form or other shapes adapted to 
 the purpose, while such as were intended for 
 the arches were given the shape of wedges. 
 
 In color the kiln-dried bricks were gener- 
 ally of a yellowish tinge, sometimes a dark 
 blue, or more rarely a pale red. The sun- 
 baked bricks were more variable in size, some 
 being as small as six inches square by two 
 inches thick, and some being as much as seven 
 inches in thickness by sixteen inches in length 
 and breadth. The color of these is scarcely 
 darker than the native clay, which, owing to 
 
 BRICK OF BABYLON, TWELVE INCHES SQUARE.' 
 
 the absence of iron in the soil, is much lighter 
 than in most countries. 
 
 In order to cement their walls into a com- 
 pact mass the Chaldseans employed two kinds 
 of mortar. The first was mere clay or mud 
 mixed with chopped straw, the other bitumen. 
 The latter was the better material, binding to- 
 gether so firmly the bricks between which it 
 was placed that even at the present day they 
 can not be separated without a heavy blow. 
 The use of bitumen succeeded the use of clay 
 at the same time that the kiln-burnt suc- 
 ceeded the sun-dried variety of bricks. 
 
 The principal ruins of ancient Chaldsea — 
 Bowariyeh and Mugheir — have already been 
 described in connection with the reign of 
 Urukh. The temple of Abu-Sharein was of 
 the same general character, though somewhat 
 
 ^ The inner inscription contains the name of 
 Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 more refined in its proportions and style than 
 were the edifices at Warka and Ur. It is one 
 of the few structures of true Chaldsean date 
 in which stone is extensively employed. The 
 proximity of a quarry in the neighboring 
 Arabian hills is sufiicient to explain this rare 
 departure from the use of brick ; but it is not 
 so easy to account for the presence of pieces 
 of agate, alabaster, and marble, carefully cut 
 and polished, which have been discovered in 
 abundance scattered about the base of the 
 edifice. Small plates of gold and gilt-headed 
 nails, employed, no doubt, in internal orna- 
 mentation, have likewise been found in the 
 ruin. 
 
 The Chaldsean temples, though massive 
 and imposing, were evidently wanting in 
 architectural beauty. In the level and un- 
 varying plain in which they were situated, 
 they were, no doubt, grand and impressive ob- 
 jects; but the absence of external ornament 
 and of the thousand effects which art so 
 readily produces in the construction of great 
 buildings, must have rendered the temples of 
 Lower Mesopotamia, with their somber outer 
 walls and huge buttresses and unsightly air- 
 holes, devoid of beauty and attractiveness. 
 
 In the inner parts, especially in the sacred 
 shrine of the deity to whom the temple was 
 dedicated, considerable artistic skill was dis- 
 played in ornamenting the wood-work and the 
 images of the god. Plates of blue enamel, 
 nails of copper and of gold, and the bits of 
 alabaster already referred to, indicate that the 
 inner shrines of temples were decorated in 
 a pleasing and artistic manner; but, beyond 
 this, the great structures of Chaldsea were, 
 like the pyramids, dependent for their effect 
 upon the mere grandeur and massiveness of 
 their aspect. 
 
 Of the common buildings — dwellings, 
 houses, huts — not much is known. Only a 
 few structures of this sort have been pre- 
 served. The outlines of one dwelling-house 
 have been traced in the excavations made at 
 Ur. The foundation was a brick platform, 
 raised considerably above the surface. The 
 house itself was in the form of a cross, irregu- 
 lar in outline and wanting in symmetry of 
 proportions. The floors were of burnt brick
 
 126 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 well laid in bitumen, and the walls were plas- 
 tered with gypsum. In the chambers of a 
 house discovered at Abu-Shareiu more elabo- 
 rate decoration is found. The walls are orna- 
 mented with designs in color-frescoes in red, 
 black, and white ; figures of birds, beasts, and 
 men, carefidly drawn on the fine, firm plaster 
 of the walls. 
 
 The compartments of Chaldsean houses 
 were generally long and narrow, and into 
 these doors opened directly from without. 
 The roofs were principally of wood, and 
 framed so as to lie flat from wall to wall. 
 Sometimes an arched roof is found, high and 
 regular, well built of bricks and pointed with 
 bitumen. 
 
 By what means the light was admitted into 
 the Chaldsean houses the excavations have 
 thus far failed to show. No windows have 
 been discovered in the walls ; but this may be 
 accounted for by the fact that only the lower 
 part of the walls, to the height of six or 
 eight feet, remain of what was once a story of 
 considerable elevation. It is to be greatly re- 
 gretted that the building material employed 
 by the ancient inhabitants of Chaldsea was 
 not like that of Egypt — everlasting. 
 
 After the buildings, public and private, 
 which have been preserved on the banks of 
 the Lower Euphrates, the objects of next im- 
 portance to the historian are the burying- 
 places of the dead. The tombs of Chaldsea 
 are so plentiful and so thickly populated as to 
 give rise to the conjecture that the dead of 
 the Assyrians were brought from the north to 
 be interred in the sacred land. The quantity 
 of human remains in certain burying-grounds 
 is thought to be too great to have been de- 
 rived from the people of the adjacent district. 
 Large spaces are literally filled with bones 
 and relics of the dead. Sometimes the coffius 
 have been piled one upon another to the 
 depth of frovi thirty to sixty feet, and for miles 
 out into the desert the very soil underfoot 
 seems to be nothing but the accumulated dust 
 of dead races. 
 
 In some of these localities the relics are 
 from widely separated epochs; but in other 
 places the remains are homogeneous, being 
 evidently gathered from a given period of 
 
 ChaldjBan history. The position and quality 
 of the relics, the nature of the accompanying 
 ornaments, and particularly the character of 
 the coffins in which the remains are inclosed, 
 are generally sufficient to determine the date 
 at which the burying-ground was peopled. 
 None of the remains found in these vast char- 
 nels belong to a time more recent than the 
 middle of the sixth century B. C, while 
 many are to be referred to the earlier, even 
 the earliest, epochs of the national history. 
 
 In disposing of the dead the Chaldseans 
 employed several methods of sepulture. In 
 the first of these the body was laid prone in a 
 brick vault. The chamber was about seven 
 feet in length by three and a-half feet in 
 breadth and five feet high. The floor and 
 walls were made of sun-dried bricks carefully 
 laid in mud or bitumen, and the side walls 
 were closed in above with an arch. On the 
 floor was spread a matting of reeds, and on 
 this the body was laid so as to rest on the left 
 side. The fingers of the right hand were 
 placed upon a copper bowl, which was set in 
 the palm of the left. A single brick was 
 placed beneath the head for a pillow. Articles 
 of ornament and use were set in different 
 parts of the vault, and vessels containing food 
 and drink were placed near the head of the 
 dead. Vaults of this style seem to have been 
 in many instances family tombs, the remains 
 of several bodies being frequently found in 
 the same chamber. Besides the brick vaults, 
 several kinds of coffins were used in earth 
 burial. The first of these was a burnt clay 
 box in the shape of the cover of a dish. In 
 the bottom of the tomb a foundation was laid 
 of bricks. This was covered with mats, as in 
 the brick vaults; on these mats the body of 
 the dead was laid, and over the body a large 
 earthenware trough was turned so as to inclose 
 and cover the remains. The huge dish thus 
 inverted over the dead was generally seven 
 feet long, two and a-half feet broad at the 
 bottom, and three feet high. The covers in 
 the graves of children were only about one- 
 half the size of those in the tombs of adults, 
 the latter being the largest specimens of pot- 
 tery which have been discovered in any 
 country. In a few instances two skeletons
 
 CHALD^A.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 127 
 
 have been found under a single cover, but in 
 most cases only one body was placed under 
 each coffin. Arranged about the dead, as in 
 the family vaults, articles of food and orna- 
 ment were set, the disposition of the body 
 being as in brick chambers already described. 
 The dish-cover coffins were buried at a great 
 depth, none of those discovered at Mugheir 
 being within less than seven or eight feet of 
 the surface.^ 
 
 Another kind of coffins employed by the 
 Chaldseans consisted of two large earthenware 
 vessels, shaped like ancient water-jars, set 
 mouth to mouth and sealed with bitumen. 
 Each jar was about three feet deep, the whole 
 inner space of six feet being 
 sufficient to contain the body 
 of a full-sized adult. Within 
 the earthen cylinder thus 
 formed by setting the two 
 jars mouth to mouth the 
 dead was placed, and the 
 whole covered with earth. 
 For it was the manner of 
 the Chaldseans to arrange 
 the coffins containing the 
 bodies of their dead in rows 
 on the ground and then 
 cover them from sight, 
 gradually raising a mound 
 over the place selected for 
 burial. When a sufficient depth had been 
 attained, another layer was placed above the 
 first, and then another, till the surface of the 
 mound was sometimes raised sixty feet above 
 the original level. 
 
 The sepulchral mounds were carefully 
 drained. Long shafts of clay tiling extended 
 from the surface to the original ground level, 
 insuring a perfect drainage. The shafts were 
 composed of a succession of rings or joints 
 about two feet in diameter, each joint being 
 skillfully fitted into the next and sealed with 
 bitumen. At the top each shaft contracts to a 
 
 diameter of about six inches. The whole tube 
 is filled within and packed without with a 
 mass of broken pottery, the whole being 
 as well adapted to the purpose of a perfect 
 drain as any modern contrivance. By the 
 means here described the tomb-mounds of 
 Lower Mesopotamia have been completely 
 preserved from the effects of dampness, the 
 contents being generally found as dry as the 
 dust of dust. 
 
 Their large dish-cover coffins and huge 
 stacks of drainage tiling show the Chaldseans 
 to have been unusually skillful in the design 
 and manufacture of potteries. Other specimens 
 of their work are more elegant and artistic. 
 
 ^ It is quite probable that a part of this unusual 
 depth of burial may be accounted for on the sup- 
 position of subsequent accumulation on the sur- 
 face. The ''rain of dust," continuing for some 
 thousands of years, has no doubt heaped upon the 
 Chaldsean dead some additional depth of earth. 
 
 GLAZED COFFINS, FROM WABKA. 
 
 Many jars, vases, and drinking-cups, belong- 
 ing to the earlier times of the monarchy, bear 
 evidence of careful manipulation and beauty 
 of finish. Some are of rude and primitive 
 patterns, resembling the aboriginal pottery of 
 Mexico and Peru; but others are produced 
 from the finest clay, skillfully turned on the 
 potter's wheel, and of designs equaling in 
 beauty the second class of Greek vases. In a 
 few instances the artist has, with considerable 
 success, imitated the forms of animals, but 
 this kind of art is generally found on burnt 
 tablets prepared especially to contain the re- 
 liefs. In such works the figures most fre- 
 quently modeled are those of lions, bulls, and 
 men, and the prevailing idea is that of a com- 
 bat — the man overcoming the lion or the lion 
 devouring the man. 
 
 Of the signet-cylinders mention has been
 
 128 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TSE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 made in a previous chapter. These peculiar 
 official ornaments were generally of jasper or 
 chalcedony, and were used by their owners to 
 impress their seals on soft clay tablets employed 
 in writing. The cylinders were about a-half 
 inch in diameter by three inches in length. 
 Through the axis a hole was bored and a metal 
 parallelogram — bronze or copper — one side of 
 which passed through the opening, was 
 attached, and by means of this the cylinder 
 was rolled upon the tablet. The ornament 
 was suspended to the Avrist or neck of the 
 owner by a chain or string fastened to the 
 metal frame. On the surface of the signet, as 
 already noticed, the design of the seal adopted 
 by the wearer was cut in reverse, so that the 
 impression was made in relief. The engraving 
 presented in these ancient relics of a dead 
 empire is frequently of such elegance and 
 delicacy as to excite the admiration, if not the 
 envy, of modern lapidaries. 
 
 The tools and implements employed by the 
 Chaldseans were rude and imperfect. In the 
 oldest ruins flint knives, hatchets, and ham- 
 mers of stone abound, while articles of bronze 
 are less plentifully distributed. Of the latter 
 material the specimens are chiefly arrow-heads, 
 knives, hatchets, and sickles. The stone im- 
 plements are generally indicative of some 
 progress in the use of materials and the adap- 
 tation of means to ends, but in many instances 
 the tools are of so primitive a form, and so 
 rudely fashioned, as to excite surprise that the 
 articles produced with them should exhibit 
 so much elegance. 
 
 At the first the precious metal of the Chal- 
 dseans was iron, its use being limited to orna- 
 mentation. Several of the other metals — silver, 
 zinc, platinum — were unknown. Articles of 
 gold and copper are plentifully found in the 
 mounds, while relics of tin and lead are ex- 
 tremely rare. Gold, like iron, was chiefly em- 
 ployed in the manufacture of ornaments, and 
 copper, in the form of bronze, furnished 
 among the Chaldseans, as among most ancient 
 peoples, the main reliance in the way of me- 
 tallic instruments, particularly in the fabrica- 
 tion of weapons. 
 
 Of the textile fabrics of Chaldsea not much 
 is known. It could hardly be expected that 
 
 the perishable product of looms, whose owners 
 have slumbered in dust for four thousand 
 years, should have survived to excite our cu- 
 riosity. Only a few shreds of linen and some 
 scraps of tasseled head-dress, occasionally found 
 in the tombs, remain as a token of the work 
 done by the weavers and spinners of Lower 
 MesojDotamia. In the book of Joshua we are 
 told how Achan lost his life for coveting a 
 Babylonish garment which he had found along 
 with a wedge of gold among the spoils of 
 Jericho; and the reputation which Babylon 
 afterwards enjoyed as the chief seat of the 
 costliest manufactures of the world, leaves 
 little doubt that her skill in this line of hu- 
 man industry had been of a high order even 
 from the earliest times. 
 
 It was in a clear apprehension of the laws 
 of nature, rather than in a useful application 
 of knowledge to the practical aflTairs of life, 
 that the Chaldseans surpassed most of the 
 nations of antiquity. The featureless plain 
 of Mesopotamia was in a great measure de- 
 void of vivid terrestrial phenomena. Those 
 aspects of the natural world, which in most 
 countries are so complex and variable as to 
 bafile investigation and stimulate the growth 
 of myths, were in Chaldsea, as in Egypt, more 
 regular, and suggestive of an orderly sequence. 
 Here nature seemed calm and majestic. The 
 exact point at which a star cut the horizon 
 could be noted from evening to evening. 
 The return of any given phenomenon in the 
 stately progress of the skies might well pro- 
 voke attention and excite expectancy of 
 another recurrence. The serene climate and 
 pellucid Chaldsean heavens brought the people 
 ever face to face with the stars. That science 
 rather than poetry should be the favorite di- 
 version of the Chaldsean sages . was a natural 
 result of their situation and surroundings. 
 
 The observation of the skies, so assiduously 
 cultivated on the Lower Euphrates, laid the 
 foundation of astronomy and chronology. 
 Diodorus truthfully declares that the Chal- 
 dseans were far before all other nations in 
 their knowledge of the heavens. Here it was 
 that the relation of the solar circuit to the 
 other cycles of the system was discovered and 
 recorded. It was seen that the sun completes
 
 CHALDjEA.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 129 
 
 his course in the heavens in about twelve 
 rounds of the moon, and, therefore, was the 
 year divided into twelve months of thirty 
 days each ; and when this was found to meas- 
 ure the year inaccurately a system of inter- 
 calculations was introduced by which the cal- 
 endar year was made to correspond with the 
 sidereal year of three hundred and sixty-five 
 and a fourth days. 
 
 The progress of the sun through the 
 heavens was mapped for each of the twelve 
 months, and thus the twelve signs of the 
 Zodiac were established. The deviations of 
 the planets from the path of the sun on either 
 side determined the boundaries of the zodiacal 
 signs, and each sign was divided into thirty 
 degrees by the daily progress of the solar orb. 
 
 The phases of the moon fixed the limits of 
 the week at seven days, and after the analogy 
 of the year each day was divided into twelve 
 parts or hours. Thus from nature were de- 
 duced the elements of the duodecimal system 
 of computation. The hour was divided into 
 sixty parts — five times twelve. The cubit 
 consisted of twenty-four finger-breadths — two 
 times twelve. The soss was a cycle of sixty 
 years; the 'ner was ten times sixty, and the 
 sar was the square of sixty, or three thousand 
 six hundred years. 
 
 For determining the distance from point 
 to point in the open skies the breadth of the 
 sun's disc was taken as a unit. On the morn- 
 ing of the equinox, at the precise moment 
 when the upper limb of the sun was seen to 
 cut the horizon, an orifice in a water-jar was 
 opened and the fluid allowed to run until the 
 full disc was risen. The water discharged 
 was carefully measured and was found to be 
 l-720th of the quantity discharged through 
 the same orifice by sunrise on the following 
 morning — from which the inference was drawn 
 that the whole orbit of the sun is measured 
 by seven hundred and twenty times the 
 breadth of his own disc. This ingenious 
 method of observation furnished a unit both 
 of space and time, the former being one-half 
 a degree, and the latter, two minutes, or one- 
 thirtieth of an hour. The distance which an 
 active foot-courier could walk in thirty units 
 of time, that is, an hour, was called a parasang, 
 
 and one-thirtieth of a parasang was a stadium. 
 The stadium was divided into three hundred 
 and sixty parts called cubits, and sixty cubits 
 constituted a plethron.^ 
 
 By the application of these simple, meas- 
 ures to the terrestrial and celestial spheres the 
 Chald^eans obtained very extraordinary re- 
 sults — results which may be fairly called sci- 
 entific. They discovered and recorded the 
 fact that in a period of two hundred and 
 twenty-three mouths the lunar eclipses return 
 in the same order. The establishment of this 
 cycle gave the length of the synodic and pe- 
 riodic months with so much accuracy that 
 modern astronomers have found the calcula- 
 tions true to within less than five seconds of 
 our time. 
 
 The Babylonian tablets have already fur- 
 nished a list of ten eclipses of the moon and 
 three conjunctions of j)lanets which were re- 
 corded by observers in the years 721 and 720 
 B. C. Callisthenes, who accompanied Alex- 
 ander the Great on his expedition to Babylon, 
 sent to Aristotle from that city a set of tablets 
 containing astronomical records reaching back 
 to about the middle of the twenty-third cen- 
 tury before our era. Although these records 
 are lost, and although the data on which 
 they were calculated must have been in some 
 particulars erroneous, yet they were no doubt 
 genuine astronomical tables which — had they 
 been preserved — would possess for modern as- 
 tronomers unusual interest and value. It 
 does not appear that the astronomical science 
 of the Chaldseans was tinctured with astrolog- 
 ical superstitions, or that the baleful effects of 
 priestcraft had blurred the natural beauty of 
 the skies. 
 
 Some knowledge of arithmetic was neces- 
 sarily precedent to progress in astronomy. 
 Nor is it a matter of conjecture that the 
 Chaldseans had considerable skill in the science 
 of numbers. Two systems of notation were 
 
 ^The Babylonian cubit was equal to a fraction 
 over one and two-thirds feet, more exactly 21 
 inches, or 525 millimeters. Hence the following 
 table of equivalents: 
 
 1 cubit = 21 inches. 
 60 cubits = 1 plethron = 35 yards. 
 6 plethra = 1 stadium = 38.2 rods. 
 30 stadia = 1 parasang = 3.58 miles.
 
 130 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 employed, the one duodecimal, the other dec- 
 imal. In writing the numbers, only two ele- 
 mentary characters, the wedge (T) and the 
 arrow-head (>), were employed. These char- 
 acters were combined in a manner at once 
 simple and comprehensive, so as to constitute 
 a complete and satisfactory table of notation. 
 The chief defects of the system were the repe- 
 tition of the same character to express differ- 
 ent numbers, the absence of the Arabic prin- 
 ciple of giving a figure a value according to 
 its rank, and the want of a cipher or zero. 
 Taken all in all, the method was superior to 
 that in use among the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 The system of weights employed by the 
 Chaldseans was based upon their system of 
 measure. A cubit of water, weighing about 
 sixty-six pounds, was divided into sixty equal 
 parts, and each part called a log — being about 
 five-sixths of a pint. This was the unit of 
 measure ; and the weight of this unit, called 
 a mina, was the unit of Aveight. The oldest 
 specimen of a weight which antiquarian re- 
 search has rescued from the past is a duck- 
 shaped stone belonging to King Ilgi of Ur. 
 The simple inscription, " ten minse of Ilgi," 
 tells the story of its date and use. 
 
 Investigation has shown that the Chal- 
 dseans, like most other nations, had one sys- 
 tem of weights for the common articles of the 
 market-place, and another for the precious 
 metals and gems. Instead of the imperial 
 weights employed for all other purposes, gold 
 and silver were estimated by a more delicate 
 system, in which peculiar circular pieces or 
 rings of the precious metals were taken as 
 the units of weight. The denominations were 
 the talent, the shekel, etc. — names afterwards 
 adopted by the Hebrews and the Greeks. 
 
 The system of writing employed by the 
 Chaldteans is worthy of special consideration. 
 Like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, the Babylo- 
 nian system was, for a long time, the puzzle 
 of European scholarship. Its first peculiarity 
 is that all the characters employed are recti- 
 linear, and the second is that the characters 
 are nearly all sloping or wedge-like in form, 
 from which the name cuneiform, meaning 
 wedge-shaped, has been adopted to describe 
 this species of writing. 
 
 Philosophically considered, such writing 
 is of the same nature as the hieroglyphics 
 of the Egyptians. Both systems began with 
 the pictorial representation of objects by 
 means of lines. In the case of the hiero- 
 glyphics the development was rather in the 
 use of curves, while, for some reason, in the 
 system of the Assyrian and Persian nations, 
 the use of right lines predominated. As a 
 result of these two tendencies the curve-line 
 figures of beasts and birds was longer retained 
 in the writing of the Egyptians and soonei 
 lost by cursive abbreviations in the writing 
 of the Chaldseans. The gradual departure 
 from the old pictorial type, and the substitu- 
 tion, first of an emblematic, and afterwards 
 of a phonetic type to represent the name of 
 the object rather than the object itself, and 
 finally the use of this phonetic type in spell- 
 ing alphabetically the words of the language, 
 were the same in both the hieroglyphic and 
 cuneiform systems. Each passed in like man- 
 ner through successive stages of degeneration 
 until the arbitrary alphabet triumphed over 
 the pictorial symbols. 
 
 The appearance of cuneiform writing is 
 peculiarly angular and jagged. The words 
 are produced by combinations of the two 
 simple types, the arrow-head (>) and the 
 wedge (Y). In many instances the character 
 is a monogram rather than a word spelled 
 alphabetically, showing that the process of 
 phoneticizing the language was arrested before 
 it was complete. In other cases the charac- 
 ters used are determinatives, being affixed to 
 certain words to indicate their classification. 
 Thus a given determinative indicates that the 
 word to which it belongs is the name of a 
 being in the class of gods ; another, that the 
 object is classified with men ; another, with 
 countries ; a fourth, with towns, etc. It is 
 probable that the determinatives had, as a 
 general rule, no phonetic influence on the 
 words to which they belonged, their function 
 being merely oflScial, like that of a capital 
 letter in English. It appears that, in some 
 instances, however, the determinative was- 
 pronounced instead of the word to which it 
 was affixed. 
 
 The writing of the Chaldseans is almost as
 
 CHALD^ A.— SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 131 
 
 abundant as that of the Egyptians. It is 
 preserved in the two forms of tablets and 
 bricks. In all cases the writing was impressed 
 on the clay while moist and plastic. The in- 
 scriptions on the bricks are all of a royal 
 origin, recounting the story of the building 
 in which they are found, the name of the 
 king, his titles, his glory and renown. The 
 tablet inscriptions are more frequently of a 
 private character, referring to such matters as 
 deeds, contracts, and personal records. The 
 writing is from left to right in all cases except 
 on the signet-cylinders, on which the inscrip- 
 tions are of course reversed. Where the le- 
 gend is printed on bricks, only a part of each 
 brick — a square near the middle — is occupied 
 with the inscription, which seems, in most 
 cases, to have been stamped upon the clay, 
 but in others to have been engraved or cut in 
 the surface with a tool. 
 
 The tablets of the Chaldseans are plates 
 of baked clay, slightly convex on each side, 
 resembling a small pillow, flattened to the 
 thickness of two or three inches. The shape 
 is not always regular, nor does it appear that 
 the makers cared much for the beauty of the 
 material which was to contain a record of 
 their thought. The sides of the tablets were 
 thickly covered with cuneiform inscriptions. 
 The plates were then carefully burnt, and when 
 this Avas done a new layer of clay was spread 
 over the surface upon which the inscription 
 was repeated. The whole was baked a second 
 time, so that the inner legend was securely 
 incased in a shell of imperishable tiling. If 
 the outer inscription should be defaced, the 
 shell could be broken away, revealing the 
 original Avithin. And this original could 
 even be repeated by casting new clay in the 
 concave mold of the outer crust, for this 
 would contain in relief an exact duplicate of 
 the first inscription on the inner tablet. 
 
 On many of the plates, in addition to the 
 matter contained in the regular inscription, 
 the signet-cylinder of the maker or contractor 
 has been rolled across the surface, producing 
 in relief the legend adopted by the wearer as 
 his motto and seal. This part of the inscrip- 
 tion is found lying in a band across the face 
 
 of the tablet, and is easily distinguishable 
 from the rest, of which it is evidently the at- 
 testation. After the tablet was completed in 
 the manner described, it was laid away among 
 the archives of the family, just as important 
 papers are filed for preservation. Such in- 
 scriptions are abundant in all the ruins of 
 Lower Mesopotamia ; and there is little doubt 
 that the deciphering of these mute plates of 
 antiquity — a work as yet only begun — is des- 
 tined to cast much light on some of the vexed 
 problems of ancient history. 
 
 In addition to what they printed on clay 
 and preserved by burning, the Chaldseans 
 were skillful in gem engraving. Their work 
 of this kind Avas sometimes highly artistic, 
 comparing favorably with that done by the 
 modern lapidary. The signets and seals 
 already described belong to this kind of 
 art, and the inscriptions on some of the 
 cylinders are of such an archaic type as to 
 prove conclusively that the art was success- 
 fully practiced from the earliest times of the 
 Empire. Several of the seals belonging to 
 the elder Chaldsean monarchs have been de- 
 ciphered and translated into English. Of 
 this description is the seal of Urukh, men- 
 tioned in a former chapter. The inscription 
 is: "The signet of Urukh, the pious chief, 
 king of Ur, high-priest of NifFer." Reference 
 has also been made to the seal of Ilgi, on 
 Avhich the legend is as follows: "To the 
 manifestation of Nergal, king of Bit-Zida, of 
 Zurgulla, for the saving of the life of Ilgi, 
 the powerful hero, the king of Ur, son of 
 Urukh. . . . May his name be preserved." 
 A cylinder belonging to one of the Sin Dy- 
 nasty has the folloAving inscription : " Sin, the 
 powerful chief, the king of Ur, the king of 
 the four races. ... his seal." Some of the 
 cylinders are plain, having neither figures nor 
 inscriptions on their surfaces. Others have 
 figures and emblems, but no legend. Consid- 
 erable variety is shown in the designs pre- 
 sented on the signets, and no inconsiderable 
 degree of artistic skill exhibited in their exe- 
 cution. Enough remains to establish the fact 
 that the gem-cutters of Chaldaea were profes- 
 sional workmen and devotees of their art.
 
 132 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD, 
 
 CHAPTER X.— REIvIOION. 
 
 HE religious system of 
 the Chaldseans began with 
 a theory of the creation 
 of the world. This theory, 
 as it was received and 
 taught by the priests of 
 Babylon, has been pre- 
 served in the fragment of Berosus already 
 referred to,^ and is as follows : 
 
 " Once all was darkness and water. In 
 this chaos lived horrid animals, and men with 
 two wings, and others with four wings and 
 two faces, and others again with double organs, 
 male and female. Some had the thighs of 
 goats, and horns on their heads ; others had 
 horses' feet, or were formed behind like a 
 horse and in front like a man. There were 
 bulls with human heads, and horses and men 
 with the heads of dogs, and other animals 
 of human shape with fins like fishes, and 
 fishes like sirens, and dragons, and creeping 
 things, and serpents, and wild creatures, the 
 images of which are to be found in the tem- 
 ple of Bel. 
 
 " Over all these ruled a woman of the 
 name of Omorka. But Bel divided the dark- 
 ness and clove the woman asunder, and of 
 one part he made the earth, and of the other 
 the sun and moon and planets; and he drew 
 off the water and apportioned it to the land, 
 and prepared and arranged the world. But 
 those creatures could not endure the light of 
 the sun and became extinct. 
 
 "When Bel saw the land uninhabited and 
 yet fruitful he smote off" his head and bade 
 one of the gods mingle the blood which flowed 
 from his head with earth, and form therewith 
 men and animals and wild creatures who could 
 sapport the atmosphere. A great multitude 
 of men of various tribes inhabited Chakltea, 
 but ihey lived without any order, like the 
 animals. 
 
 " Then there appeared to them from the 
 sea, on the shore of Babylonia, a fearful ani- 
 * See ante, p. 112. 
 
 mal of the name of Oan. His body was that 
 of a fish, but under the fish's head another 
 head was attached, and on the fins were feet 
 like those of a man, and he had a man's voice. 
 The image of the creature is still preserved. 
 The animal came at morning, and passed the day 
 with men. But he took no nourishment, and 
 at sunset went again into the sea, and there 
 remained for the night. This animal taught 
 men language and science, the harvesting of 
 seeds and fruits, the rules for the boundaries 
 of land, the modes of building cities and 
 temples, arts, and writing, and all that pertains 
 to the civilization of human life." 
 
 Such is the story of the genesis of things 
 as told by Berosus. The narrative goes on 
 to recount the genealogy and history of the 
 princes who first reigned in the earth after 
 the creature Oan taught men the arts and 
 sciences. First came Alorus, whom the god 
 himself had called from the shepherd life to 
 be king of Chaldsea. His reign lasted for 
 36,000 years. After that his son Alaparus 
 ruled for 10,-800; Almelon, for 46,800; and 
 Ammenon for 43,200. Then there came an- 
 other sea-god up from the deep whose name 
 was Idotion. He, like Oan, instructed the 
 human race, and then retired as he came. In 
 a subsequent reign, also of fabulous duration, 
 four additional fish-men, having the wisdom 
 of the gods, came from the sea, and were for a 
 season the teachers of mankind; and finally 
 in the reign of Edorankhus another aquatic 
 god, Odakon, of like fashion with the preced- 
 ing, came and explained in detail the wonders 
 of the system which Oan had revealed in out- 
 line. This was the last of the Chaldeean ava- 
 tars before the flood of Xisuthrus.' 
 
 The gods of the Chaldseans were sky-gods. 
 Their home was in the open heaven. They 
 
 ' It is interesting to note that the ten primeval 
 rulers of the world — Alorus, Alaparus, Almelon, 
 Ammenon, Amegalarus, Daonus, Edorankhus, 
 Amempsinus, Otiartes, and Xisuthrus — correspond 
 in number at least to the ten antediluvian patri- 
 archs mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
 
 CHALD^A.— RELIGION. 
 
 133 
 
 were for the most part the deities of stars 
 and planets. Twelve were worshiped as hav- 
 ing divine powers of the highest order. The 
 supreme god was El. After him was named 
 the great capital Bab-El— the Gate of El. He 
 sat enthroned above the other deities in heaven. 
 He was the lord of the sky-land. Austere and 
 stern he was, sitting apart from the other gods 
 and without sympathy for the human race. 
 
 In the great flood the anger of El was 
 kindled against all men, even Sisit, whom he 
 wished to destroy with the rest. His titles 
 were "the AVarrior," " the Prince of the gods," 
 "the Lord of the universe." In one of the 
 Assyrian tablets he is called "the Lamp of 
 the divinities," and everywhere he was recog- 
 nized as dwelling in light and majesty. The 
 worship of El, however, was not so universal 
 or popular as was that of the gods whom the 
 Chaldsean imagination more intimately asso- 
 ciated Avith human interests and hopes. 
 
 After El the next in rank among the dei- 
 ties of the Chald^eans was the god Anu. He 
 had his abode in the concave dome of the 
 heavens. Hither it Avas that the other gods, 
 terrified by the devastation of the flood, fled 
 for security from the wrath of El. Anu had 
 many titles. In the Assyrian inscriptions he 
 is generally honored with the epithet malik, or 
 king. In other places he is called "the old 
 Anu," " the original Chief," '• the Sire of gods," 
 "the Lord of spirits and demons." On some 
 tablets he is known as "the King of the lower 
 world," "the Lord of darkness," "the Ruler 
 of the far-ofi" city," etc. 
 
 The chief seat of Anu's worship was the 
 ancient city of Erech. Here was one of the 
 favorite burying grounds of the Chaldseans, 
 and over this Anu was said to preside as a 
 tutelary deity. ^ His association with this 
 great necropolis of Lower Mesopotamia gave 
 to him something of the character of Pluto 
 among the nations of the West. The worship 
 of Anu was very ancient. Urukh himself 
 
 ^ The name of the god Anu ajipears in many 
 forms. Sometimes it is Ana, sometimes Yan or 
 Oan, the name of the fish-god who instructed the 
 Chaldseans in the rudiments of science and art. 
 The name also appears in the Hebrew word Anam- 
 melech and others of like formation. 
 
 mentions him among the deities worshiped at 
 Ur. Shamas-Vul, the son of Ismi-Dagon, 
 built at Shergal, as early as 1830 B. C, a 
 temple to the honor of this god. The temple 
 of Warka, even after Anu had long ceased 
 to be worshiped at its shrine, still bore the 
 name of Bit-Anu, or House of Anu. Even 
 Beltis, whose worship was substituted for that 
 of Anu in this temple, was known as the 
 Lady of Bit-Anu. 
 
 The god Bel is generally known by his 
 Greek name Belus. But the attributes given 
 him by the Greek authors do not harmonize 
 perfectly with those ascribed by the Chaldreans 
 to Bel. By the latter this god was honored 
 with such titles as "the iSupreme," "the 
 Father of the gods," "the Procreator," "the 
 Lord of spirits," etc. There is also some con- 
 fusion between the oflSces and titles of Bel 
 and those of the half mythical Nimrod after 
 his deification. It seems that v/hen the great 
 hunter was enrolled among the gods his attri- 
 butes and epithets were merged with those of 
 Belus, or Bel, so that in later times there was 
 little if any distinction between the deified 
 Nimrod and the god with whose nature he 
 was blended. 
 
 The common epithet of this hero-god was 
 accordingly Bel- or Bil-Nipru, that is, Bel- 
 Nimrod, or "the Hunter Lord." The chief 
 seat of his worship was Calneh or Nipur, the 
 modern Nifler. To him this city was sacred. 
 Here, no doubt, the great Nimrod reigned in 
 the heroic age of Chaldsea. The city bore 'lis 
 name, and the great and splendid temple was 
 dedicated to his worship. By many traditions 
 he is associated with this old capital of the 
 country. 
 
 Besides the local unportance of Bel-Nimrod 
 in Calneh, his reputation as a powerful deity- 
 extended to other cities and districts. A 
 large temple was erected in his honor by 
 Kurri-Galzu at Akkerkuf, and invocations 
 found on Assyrian tablets, in which he is ad- 
 dressed as "the Lord of the world," prove 
 that his fame and worship had extended even 
 to the capital of the northern kingdom. To- 
 e-ether with Anu and Hea he constituted a 
 trinity of Chaldee gods quite distinguished in 
 power and attributes from the almighty El
 
 134 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and the stellar deities who will presently 
 claim attention. 
 
 The third divinity in the triad of Chal- 
 d£ea was Hea. He it was who in the like- 
 ness of the fish-monster came up out of the 
 sea to teach the Chaldseans letters and astron- 
 omy. To them he made known the ways of 
 life, and though he took upon himself the 
 form of a reptile in which to make his revela- 
 tion to the first settlers in Lower Mesopotamia, 
 he seems not to have suffered by his abase- 
 ment. By Berosus he is celebrated as being 
 *' the great Giver of good gifts to man." Some- 
 
 PROCESSION OP BKI, 
 
 times he is called " the Lord of the abyss," 
 and sometimes "Lord of the sea." Like Po- 
 seidon of the Greeks, Hea was represented as 
 having dominion over the waters. But more 
 particularly was he w'orshiped as the giver of 
 life and knowledge. As such his symbol was 
 the serpent, the common emblem among the 
 oriental nations of superhuman wisdom.' His 
 
 ^ There are strong grounds for connecting the 
 tradition of Hea in the form of a reptile, making 
 men wise as the gods, with that of the serpent in 
 Paradise luring Adam and Eve with the promise 
 of expanded wisdom in eating of the fruit of the 
 tree of knowledge. Some forms of the Chaldsean 
 myth are very similar to the story of Eden. (See 
 Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. I, p. 609.) 
 
 connection with the invention of letters is 
 perpetuated in the arrow-head, which, in addi- 
 tion to being one of the primary characters in 
 all the cuneiform inscriptions, is also a symbol 
 of Hea. The cult of Hea was one of the 
 most important and influential elements in the 
 religion of the Chaldseans. 
 
 Next came the gods of the planets and 
 stars, the first of whom was the Moon-god 
 Sin. Though placed by Berosus after the 
 god of the sun, in the myths of the Chaldseans 
 themselves the moon-deity has the preeminence 
 over his more luminous rival. Perhaps there 
 is in this fact a hint that the early race of 
 men who gathered into a permanent society 
 at Ur of the Chaldees found pleasure and 
 profit rather in the calm meditations of the 
 eventide and the stillness of the night than in 
 the splendors of the day. There is no doubt 
 that the climate of Lower Mesopotamia was 
 specially favorable to the development of 
 evening reveries; and it is not difficult to 
 conceive how, in the cool of the twilight, 
 while the crescent moon hung her silver arc 
 of beauty in the western sky, the busy imagi- 
 nation and reverent heart of the Chaldsean 
 sage as he sat by the door of his tent could 
 attribute the first of divine powers to the orb 
 of night. 
 
 By the earlier Chaldseans the Moon-god 
 was called Hurki, from the same root as the 
 word Ur, the chief seat of his worship. This 
 name signifies to ivatch, and the epithet was 
 no doubt bestowed in allusion to the vigils of 
 those who by night watched their flocks or 
 dreamed of the infinite, under the stars. The 
 principal titles of Sin Avere "the Powerful," 
 "the Lord of the spirits," and "the King of 
 gods." In reference to his heavenly sym- 
 bol, he was called "the Bright" or "the 
 Shining." On the monuments he sits as a 
 venerable bearded figure, and near his head 
 are pictured the various phases of the crescent 
 moon.' On the signet-cylinder of King Urukh 
 the Moon-god is so drawn. He sits with one 
 
 ' It is a striking peculiarity of the drawings of 
 the crescent moon, as they appear on the Baby- 
 lonian monuments, that the semilune is always set 
 with the bow towards the horizon— a position which 
 in the latitude of Chaldsea could rarely happen in 
 nature.
 
 CHALD^A.— RELIGION. 
 
 135 
 
 hand outstretched as if in salutation, and 
 three worshipers standing before him do obei- 
 sance. This deity Avas the special favorite of 
 the Chaldsean kings. To him, as already 
 noted, the great Urukh and his distinguished 
 son Ilgi built and dedicated the ancient tem- 
 ple of Ur. His Avorship was also popular 
 with the princes of Borsippa and Babylon. 
 One dynasty of Chaldfean sovereigns were in 
 honor of this deity designated as the Sin 
 kings. During the long period of Assyrian 
 domination the Moon-god held his place in the 
 esteem of the people, and as late as the times 
 of Nebuchadnezzar his worship was perpetu- 
 ated with the greatest ardor and formality. 
 
 Next to Sin among the deities of the lumi- 
 naries of heaven was Samas, god of the sun.^ 
 His symbol was the circle. He was repre- 
 sented as illuminating heaven and earth, and 
 was celebrated as lord of the daylight. But 
 more generally his titles were not directly re- 
 ferable to the power and splendor of the sun. 
 He was known as "the Ruler of all things," 
 "the Establisher of the firmament," and "the 
 Vanquisher of the king's enemies." In war- 
 like expeditions Samas went forth with the 
 army. He put the foe to flight. He tri- 
 umphed over opposition. He extended the 
 royal dominion and upheld the king's arm in 
 battle. Just as the sun warms and invigorates 
 universal nature, so Samas in the minds and 
 hearts of men cheered with light and warmed 
 with inspiration. 
 
 The cities of Larsa and Sippara were the 
 principal seats of the Sun-god's worship. At 
 the former place was the great temple reputed 
 to have been built by Urukh and restored 
 from time to time by the Chaldfeau kings 
 down to the times of Nebuchadnezzar. In 
 the latter city the worship of Samas prevailed 
 over all other forms of religion, insomuch 
 that Sippara became known to the Greeks 
 under the name of Heliopolis, or City of the 
 Sun. The idolatry of Adrammelech, the fire- 
 king, told of in the Second Book of Kings as 
 having been introduced into Samaria from the 
 
 ^The name is variously written: Samas, Sha- 
 mas, Shemsi, Sansi, San, etc. The English word 
 sun is no doubt originally derived from the same 
 root. 
 
 East, was but a transplanted form of the wor- 
 ship of the Chaldsean Samas. The high and 
 universal respect in which this deity was held 
 by the princes and kings is indicated in the 
 fact that very few of the royal signet-cylinders 
 are without the symbol of the sun among 
 their emblems of divinity. 
 
 High in rank among the deities of Chal- 
 djea, though perhaps not greatly esteemed in 
 the times of the founding of the Empire, was 
 the storm-god BiN.^ He wielded the power 
 of the air, and Avas therefore allied in his of- 
 fices to the classical Zeus. In the system of the 
 Chaldseans, however, Bin most nearly corre- 
 sponds to the Uranus of Greek mythology. 
 He Avas the wielder of the thunder-bolt, the 
 director of the storm and tempest. He it was 
 Avho in the Chaldsean account of the deluge is 
 represented as thundering in the midst of 
 heaven. He was regarded as the destroyer of 
 the harvest. His emblem, found upon the 
 tablets and cylinders, is a kind of flambeau 
 representing lightning. His character was 
 that of a destructive agent in nature, and yet 
 as the rain-god he Avas celebrated as the giver 
 of fertility and the master of the fecundity 
 of the earth. The rivers and canals and 
 aqueducts were regarded as under his watch- 
 care, and the public works by which civiliza- 
 tion is fostered were protected by his favor. 
 
 The first of the fire-spirits of the planets 
 was Adar, the lord of Saturn. To him were 
 given also the Semitic names of Bar and Nin. 
 In character, however, the god Adar is more 
 nearly allied to the classical Hercules than to 
 Uranus. He was worshiped as the god of 
 strength and courage and the lord of the 
 brave. His face was against the enemy in 
 battle, and the heart of the warrior was 
 strengthened in the conflict by calling on the 
 name of Adar. He was " the Reducer of the 
 disobedient," "the Exterminator of rebels." 
 Like Bel-Nimrod he trampled down the foe. 
 Like the Roman Mars he led the king's armies 
 to victory. 
 
 By a strange mingling of attributes, Adar 
 is sometimes confounded with that fish-god, 
 
 1 This name is also variously written. Some- 
 times it is Iva, and more frequently Vul ; but Bin 
 seems to be indicated as the true form.
 
 336 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 IMAGE OF THE FISH-GOD. 
 
 Oan, who taught the Chaldseans the begin- 
 nings of art and science. In this capacity he 
 is represented in the reliefs as part man and 
 part fish, and underneath is written such titles 
 as "God of the sea" and 
 "the Dweller in the 
 depths." By another 
 change of epithets he is 
 lifted again to his own 
 place in the skies, and 
 adored as ' ' the Chief of 
 spirits " and ' ' the Favor- 
 ite of the gods." Further 
 on, in the myths of Assyria, Adar, as the im- 
 personation of strength and power, takes the 
 character of the Man -bull, and as such stands 
 guard in the sculptured courts of palaces. 
 
 Like the worship of Bin, that of Adar 
 seems not to date from the earliest, but rather 
 the later, times of the Lower Empire. The 
 oldest of his temples were those of Calah, 
 which rank among the more important ruins 
 of Chaldsea. The later temple at Nineveh 
 had so great a reputation for magnificence 
 that the fame thereof was carried to the West- 
 ern nations to be celebrated by Tacitus. The 
 emblem of Adar is generally the fish, and the 
 popularity of the deity and of his worship is 
 indicated in the wide distribution of his em- 
 blem among the inscriptions. 
 
 The Jove of the Chaldseans was called 
 Merodach. His leading title, somewhat gro- 
 tesque withal, is " the Old Man of the gods." 
 His worship was a part of the earlier religious 
 system, and gradually rose to preponderance, 
 especially in the times of the Assyrian su- 
 premacy. Merodach was the god of the judg- 
 ment — the patron of justice^ and right. In 
 his worship there was a larger element of 
 morality than in that of most other Eastern 
 deities.' In all those lands where justice was 
 administered by kings sitting in the gates, 
 Merodach was regarded as presiding and 
 watching over the right. In a philosophical 
 way he was known as "King of the earth," 
 "the most Ancient," and "the Senior of the 
 gods." From the high character and spiritual 
 nature which he bore, he was less frequently 
 
 ' The Hebrew name of Jupiter is Sedek, mean- 
 ing JusUcfi. 
 
 represented by material emblems than was any 
 other of the great deities of Chaldsea. Nor is 
 it certain that any figure in Chaldsean art 
 is now extant which was intended to give the 
 artistic concept of this divinity.^ In the in- 
 scriptions of Nebuchadnezzar 11. , Merodach, 
 under the title of Belrabu, is celebrated as 
 superior to all the deities of heaven and earth. 
 
 To the planet Mars was assigned the war- 
 god Nergal, whose titles are "the King of 
 battles" and "Champion of the gods." The 
 principal seats of his worship were the ancient 
 cities of Kutha and Tarbissa. In the Assyrian 
 account of the flood Nergal is referred to as 
 the destroyer; but his chief fame was based 
 on his power over the chase and the battle- 
 field. In this his attributes are mingled with 
 those of Bel-Nimrod, to whom he is also 
 likened in the worship given him as the an- 
 cestor of the Assyrian kings. The symbol of 
 Nergal is the celebrated Man -lion, which 
 stands with outspread wings at the portals of 
 the great temples and the palace gates of Susa 
 and Nineveh. There is thus established an 
 intimate association between the War-god and 
 Adar, whose efiigy, the winged bull, stands 
 also as the guardian to the entrances of pal- 
 aces and temples. 
 
 The Chaldsean Venus was called Belit — a 
 name which is given in Herodotus as Mylitta. 
 The name means "the Lady," but the more 
 august title of the goddess is "the Queen- 
 mother of the gods." Sometimes she is called 
 ' ' the Lady of Offspring ; " and it appears that 
 the Babylonians gave her a preeminent rank 
 as the goddess of fertility and birth. At 
 Babylon a splendid temple was built in her 
 honor. Within the court was a grove, under 
 whose cool shade a fountain of Avater symbol- 
 ized the divinity. To her the cooing dove 
 was sacred, and the sportive fish, whose fe- 
 cundity peoples the waters. The shrine of 
 the goddess was in the grove, near the fount- 
 ain, and hither came bands of pilgrims to 
 worship. 
 
 According to the custom of the time the 
 maidens of Babylon were once in their lives 
 
 ' Among the sculptures of Babylon, a figure of 
 a god walking is supposed to be an attempt to 
 represent Merodach.
 
 CHALD^A.— RELIGION. 
 
 137 
 
 obliged to offer themselves at this shrine. At 
 a certain season they came in companies, and 
 sat in long rows with chaplets of cords on 
 their heads, waiting to be chosen. With the 
 rest came the daughters of princes, in covered 
 cars, and with numerous attendants. Each 
 maiden was obliged to remain until some one 
 of the pilgrims cast into her lap a coin of 
 gold. Then she must arise and follow him. 
 The coin she afterwards gave to the treasury 
 of the goddess, and was thenceforth freed from 
 her obligation.' In all parts of Lower Meso- 
 potamia the worship of Mylitta was popular, 
 and the richness of her temples attested the 
 faith of the Chaldseans in her whom they re- 
 garded as the giver of beauty and the author 
 of love. 
 
 Opposed to this goddess, who presided over 
 the birth of all things tender and beautiful, 
 was IsTAR, the goddess of war and ruin. In 
 her attributes she is allied to the Artemis of 
 Greek mythology. In her relation to Mylitta 
 we see unmistakable traces of that Eastern 
 imagination which, in constructing its systems 
 of theology, has shown so marked a disposition 
 to arrange the deities in pairs — good against 
 evil, light against darkness, blessing and fruit 
 against death and ruin. By this strange op- 
 position of attributes the planet Venus was 
 assigned to Istar as well as to Mylitta, so that 
 from this source both love and destruction 
 were said to emanate. The double aspect of 
 Venus as morning and evening star had 
 caught the attention of the Chaldseans; and 
 just as the Western nations gave one name — 
 Phosphor or Lucifer — to the star of morning, 
 and another — Hesperus — to the star of even- 
 ing, so the astrologers of the Chaldsean plains 
 assigned two goddesses, the one of love and 
 blessing, the other of ruin and death, to the 
 conspicuous planet of the morning and even- 
 ing skies. 
 
 In the myths of Istar there is a great sim- 
 ilarity to the stories of Proserpina as recited 
 
 ' The stoical Herodotus, in continuing the ac- 
 count of the choosing of tlie maidens, adds: 
 "The good-looking and graceful maidens quickly 
 find a pilgrim ; but the ugly ones can not satisfy 
 the law, and often remain in the temple for three 
 or four years." In the apocryphal Book of Ba- 
 ruch the same ceremony is described. 
 
 in the poems of the Latin race. The coming 
 of Life in the spring, and her disappearance 
 in winter, is commemorated in the narra- 
 tive of Istar's journey to the nether world. 
 She went down to the house of Irkolla, which 
 has no exit. Istar said : ' ' Watchman of the 
 waters, open thy gate, that I may enter. If 
 thou openest not, I will break thy gate and 
 burst asunder thy bars; I Avill shatter the 
 threshold and destroy the doors." The myth 
 recites that the door was opened by the watch- 
 man, and as Istar passed into the lower world 
 he took the crown from her head. At the 
 successive portals 
 through which she 
 passed she was 
 stripped of all her 
 ornaments, until be- 
 yond the seventh 
 gate she was deliv- 
 ered to Ninkigal, 
 the spirit of the 
 depths, by whom Is- 
 tar was grievously 
 afflicted. 
 
 Meanwhile the 
 world above lament- 
 ed the loss of Istar 
 until what time Hea 
 sent word to Nin- 
 kigal to release her. 
 Then was she bathed 
 in the water of life ; 
 the seven portals 
 were opened, and Is- 
 tar came back to earth : a myth of the return 
 of spring. 
 
 The representative of the planet Mercury 
 among the Chaldseans was the god Nebo. 
 His name is derived from the word nihhah, 
 which in the Semitic dialects signifies to 
 prophesy. Nebo was the god of forethought, 
 and intelligence. He presided over knowledge 
 and learning. He was said to hear from afar 
 off, and to teach and instruct mankind. In 
 his attributes he resembled Hermes of the 
 Greeks, though the character of Nebo was 
 more exalted and less treacherous than that 
 of the somewhat whimsical deity of the West. 
 He was called "the Supporter," "the Ever- 
 
 IMAGE OF NEBO.
 
 138 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ready," "the Lord of the constellations." 
 Notwithstanding the latter high-sounding title 
 it does not appear that Nebo was a deity of 
 the first rank in greatness. 
 
 Sometimes the name of Nebo is omitted 
 from lists of the gods, or again it is set among 
 the minor rather than the major divinities of 
 Chaldrea. It is doubtful Avhether Nebo was 
 worshiped from the earliest times, but it is 
 certain that he is to be classified with the dei- 
 ties of Lower Mesopotamia, rather than with 
 those of Assyria. The chief seat of his wor- 
 ship was Borsippa, and it was to him that the 
 
 great temple of 
 world-wide fame, 
 known as the Birs- 
 Nimrud, was ded- 
 icated. At Calah, 
 on the Tigris, the 
 ruins of one of his 
 shrines are found, 
 and it is from this 
 place that the 
 striking statues of 
 the god were taken 
 and transferred to 
 the British Mu- 
 seum. 
 
 The catalogue 
 of planetary gods 
 
 NANA, THE PHCENICIAN ASTARTE. QJxds with Ncbo. 
 
 With each god, according to the system of 
 the Chaldeans, was associated a goddess, 
 who shared with her husband the rule of 
 his sphere. Hea, the Chaldrean Neptune, had 
 Dav-Kina for his queen, and her titles are the 
 same as his. The wife of Bel-Nimrod was 
 Beltis, who had the highest fame, being hon- 
 ored with such preeminent titles as "the 
 Great Goddess," and " Mother of the deities." 
 Her rank in the pantheon of ChaldiBa was 
 almost as high as that of Juno among the 
 Romans, and besides this exaltation she had 
 also many of the attributes of Ceres and Di- 
 ana. The queen of El was called An at A, 
 but her personality is scarcely distinguishable 
 from his, and her titles are but a reflection 
 from her husband's. In like manner was asso- 
 ciated with Samas in authority his wife, the 
 goddess Anunit, who was worshiped at Larsa 
 
 and Sippara. The queen of Merodach was 
 Zir-Banit, who had a temple at Babylon, and 
 who divides with Beltis the honor and rank 
 of the Juno of the Chaldseans. With Nergal 
 was associated the goddess Nana, who appears 
 to have been the divinity whom the Phoeni- 
 cians worshiped as Astarte; while to Nebo 
 was assigned the goddess Varamit, who was 
 honored with the title of " the Exalted one" 
 
 It was thus that in their aspirations for 
 communion with the higher powers, the yearn- 
 ings of the ancient Chaldseans turned upwards 
 to the planets and stars. The horizon of the 
 Babylonian plain was uniform and boundless. 
 It was the heaven above rather than the earth 
 beneath, which exhibited variety and life. 
 The Zodiac was ever new with its brilliant 
 evolutions. Through the clear atmosphere 
 the tracks of the shining orbs could be traced 
 in every phase and transposition. With each 
 dawn of the morning light, with each recur- 
 rence of the evening twilight, a new panorama 
 spread before the reverent imagination of the 
 dreamer, and he saw in the moving spheres 
 not only the abode but the manifested glory of 
 his gods. Between the rising and the setting 
 of the sun and the moon and the stars and the 
 movements and vicissitudes of human life — 
 the waking and sleeping, the vigor and wea- 
 riness of men — there seemed to be a constant 
 relation. The one appeared to depend on the 
 other. The affairs of life seemed to receive 
 their laws and conditions from the skies. The 
 antecedents of good and evil were in the stars. 
 Merodach was the author of good ; Adar, the 
 breeder of malevolence. 
 
 In the Zodiac the sun had twelve houses. 
 His proper home was in the sign of Leo. So 
 likewise the planets passed through twelve 
 stages in their journey, and each sign or 
 "house" through which an orb thus passed 
 became a seat of divine power, and the planets 
 themselves were gods. With these, thirty of 
 the fixed stars were associated as "counseling 
 gods ;" while twelve others in the northern sky 
 and twelve in the south, were called "the 
 judges." As many of these twenty-four lumi- 
 naries as were above the horizon decided the 
 fortunes of the living, while those below the 
 limit of night decided the fates of the dead.
 
 CHALD^A. —RELIGION. 
 
 139 
 
 Each month of the year belonged to one of 
 the twelve major gods, beginning with Ann. 
 "The seven days of the week were governed 
 by the sun, moon, and five planets; and the 
 hours of the day were apportioned to controll- 
 ing luminaries. 
 
 In all this we find one of the earliest and 
 most striking examples of the primitive unity 
 of religion, poetry, and science. In the first 
 .ages of history the offices of the priest, the 
 hard, and the philosopher were hardly to be 
 •distinguished the one from the other. Each 
 had his own subjective concept of nature, and 
 -each expressed what was most strongly im- 
 pressed upon his own thought. Doubtless the 
 man of antiquity, more than the man of mod- 
 ern times, was alive to the varying aspects of 
 the natural world. Doubtless he was thus pre- 
 •disposed to consider Nature, and to speak of 
 her laws, her origin, her destiny. But each 
 thinker responded in his own way, and gave 
 his own interpretation as he was moved by the 
 ■anima mundi. He uttered a prophecy, chanted 
 .a poem, or explained in prose the nature, the 
 origin, the reason of the world, as he was 
 moved thereto by the varying moods of his 
 jnind. 
 
 The primitive priest, as he gazed on the 
 passing panorama of earth and heaven, caught 
 at the idea of intelligent causes behind the 
 tangible forms and processes of nature. To 
 him the important question seemed to be who 
 it was that controlled and directed the move- 
 ments of the world and led onward the mag- 
 nificent marches of the skies. In that part of 
 nature which lay nearest to himself he per- 
 ■ceived no motion or agitation which was not 
 traceable to some intelligent agency. From 
 this he reasoned by analogy that the greater 
 processes of the natural world were in like 
 manner produced by a personal will and 
 power — that is, by a god. This idea has al- 
 ways seemed to men of one type of mind to 
 be the most important thought of which man- 
 kind are capable; and deducible from this 
 assumption, the priests of old reasoned that 
 the most important duties of man related to a 
 knowledge and worship of the gods, who were 
 the causes of all things. 
 
 The poet takes another view of the same 
 N.— Vol. 1—9 
 
 problem. It is to his senses rather than to 
 his reasoning powers that Nature makes her 
 strongest appeal. He feels Avhat he sees. He 
 enjoys ; he suflTers. Upon his sensitive nature 
 falls the shadow of the cloud, and his thought at 
 once changes to somber melancholy, to doubt, 
 to gloomy forebodings. The cloud breaks 
 away, and his spirit becomes radiant as the 
 light. He gathers the sunbeams in his arms. 
 He turns his face upward to the blue pavilion, 
 and pours forth his ecstatic dream in a rhap- 
 sody of the skies. But he speaks only of 
 what he sees and feels. His gratified senses 
 are the sources of his song. 
 
 The sage looks at nature, not in her effects 
 upon his senses and imagination, not in re* 
 spect to the forces which lie behind her visible 
 forms, but in the relations of her parts. By 
 him every phenomenon is attributed to some 
 other, and that to some other still. To him 
 each fact is itself the cause of the fact which 
 succeeds it. All things are related and de- 
 pendent, and the highest knowledge is to un- 
 derstand the laws of these relations and de- 
 pendencies. By such knowledge man may be 
 able to control the conditions under which he 
 exists, and to augment his happiness by an 
 alliance with Nature rather than by the wor- 
 ship of the gods. 
 
 In all times the leading minds of the world 
 have busied themselves with one or the other 
 of these interpretations of Nature. In the 
 primitive ages, however, when thought and 
 feeling and emotion — sensibility, will, and 
 passion — were still commingled in the glowing 
 minds of men, it generally happened that the 
 priest was in part a prophet. The sage was 
 in some sense a philo.sopher; and the seer in 
 his higher and nobler moods broke forth 
 into song. 
 
 Of such sort were the Wise Men of Chaldsea. 
 The interpretation of nature through the min- 
 gled oracles of priest and bard and prophet 
 was the ground-work of that half-mythical and 
 half-scientific lore which, at the first Chaldsean, 
 became disseminated throughout Western Asia. 
 To trace the paths of the stars through the 
 sky, to note the approximation and divergence 
 of the planets, and to estimate the influence 
 of this ever-changing aspect on the affairs of
 
 140 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 men, — such was the work of the priests. To 
 show how the prosperity and reverses of the 
 Empire depended upon conjunctions and oppo- 
 sitions in the skies, was a duty which has 
 made the name Chaldsean synonymous in all 
 ages with seer and prophet. In the Book of 
 Daniel the Chaldseans are spoken of as the in- 
 terpreters of stars and signs, and the same 
 reputation is diffused in the literature of all 
 nations. Until to-day, in the high light of 
 civilization, the idea of some kind of domina- 
 tion of the stars over the affairs of human life 
 has hardly released its hold on the minds of 
 men ; and the language of the old Chaldsean 
 ritual of signs' has still a familiar sound in 
 the ears of the credulous. 
 
 ^ The following application of star-lore to the 
 affairs of life has been deciphered from a tablet 
 discovered at Nineveh : " If Jupiter is seen in the 
 month of Tammuz, there will be corpses. If Venus 
 comes opposite the star of the fish, there will be 
 devastation. If the star of the great lion is gloomy, 
 the heart of the people will not rejoice. If the 
 moon is seen on the first day of the month, Accad 
 will prosper." 
 
 The intellectual grandeur of the Chal- 
 dseans ended with the Assyrian ascendency. 
 The sages and dreamers of the South shrank 
 back before the brandishing sword of the 
 North. But the nobler part of Chaldsea, as 
 of every nation and kindred, could not perish. 
 The mighty works which were accomplished by 
 the race of men who brought Lower Mesopo* 
 tamia into the civilized condition are hardly 
 any longer to be distinguished from the dust 
 of the plain ; but that beautiful astrological 
 idolatry, of which they were the authors, has 
 entered into the dreams and poems of all 
 lands, and has pierced with its tender light 
 even the gloom and melancholy of Byron : 
 
 " Ye stars ! which are the poetry of heaven ! 
 
 If in your bright leaves we would read the- 
 fate 
 Of men and empires, — 't is to be forgiven 
 That in our aspirations to be great 
 Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, 
 And claim a kindred with you ; for ye are 
 
 A beauty and a mystery, and create 
 In us such love and reverence from afar, 
 That fortune, fame, power, life have named' 
 themselves a star." — Childe Harold.
 
 
 
 
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 look l^irit. 
 
 ASSYRIA. 
 
 Chapter XI.— Country and products. 
 
 I F the general character of 
 the country called As- 
 syria something has al- 
 ready been said. In the 
 description of Chaldsea a 
 sketch was also given of 
 the more important re- 
 gion on the north. Upper Mesopotamia is 
 strongly discriminated from the low-lying 
 Babylonian plain. The latter is an alluvium 
 which in the course of ages has been created 
 by the action of the rivers; the former is an 
 upland district, swelling into plateaus, rising 
 into hills and ridges. The natural limits of 
 the country are in some parts indistinct, and 
 the political boundaries of the Assyrian Em- 
 pire were at different epochs fluctuating and 
 uncertain. 
 
 The chief seat of imperial power in As- 
 syria lay on the Tigris, between the thirty- 
 fifth and thirty-seventh parallels of north lati- 
 tude. This region may be regarded as the 
 geographical and political center of that vast 
 dominion which for several centuries held the 
 ascendency in Western Asia. The territory, 
 however, which may be properly included un- 
 
 der the name Assyria had a much wider 
 limit than the two degrees of latitude which 
 included its vital part. 
 
 The ancient historians — Herodotus, Pliny, 
 Strabo — give no satisfactory account of the 
 boundaries of the country. The first consid- 
 ered Chaldsea to be but a district of Assyria ; 
 the second made Assyria and Mesopotamia 
 identical; while the third included Kurdistan 
 on the east and Syria on the west under the 
 common name. 
 
 If in order to discover the true limits of 
 the country we turn to nature, we shall find 
 on the east the well-defined barrier of the 
 Zagros mountain range. This chain, which in 
 the upper course of the Tigris presses moder- 
 ately close to the river, makes a detour east- 
 ward, including the ancient provinces of 
 Adiabene and Chalonitis, and constituting in 
 that direction the natural boundary of the 
 country. On the south, also, the limit of 
 Assyria is plainly indicated in the descent 
 from the upland to the alluvium — a line al- 
 ready defined as extending from Is to Sama- 
 rah. On the Mesopotamian side of the Tigris 
 the determination of a boundary is more dif- 
 
 (143)
 
 144 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ficult; but the best view, whether geographi- 
 cal or historical, is that which makes the 
 western aud south-western boundary of As- 
 syria to be the Eujihrates. On the north, that 
 branch of the Armenian mountains known as 
 the Mons Masius may be properly taken as 
 the natural limit of the country. Within all 
 this extensive area, and even beyond its bor- 
 ders, unmistakable traces of the great Assyrian 
 race are to be found; and if the provinces 
 and kingdoms conquered by this people were 
 to be included, the boundaries would have to 
 be greatly extended in all directions. 
 
 The maximum length of Assyria, measured 
 diagonally from north-west to south-east, was 
 about three hundred and fifty miles; the 
 greatest breadth, three hundred miles. But 
 the average length and breadth of the country 
 were not nearly so great. The whole area of 
 the region included in the irregular boundaries 
 above given was not less than seventy-five 
 thousand square miles — a district equal to the 
 State of Nebraska, and not much below the 
 area of Great Britain. 
 
 During the period of her ascendency, As- 
 syria surpassed in territorial extent any of the 
 nations with which she came in contact.^ The 
 great breadth of the Assyrian dominions, no 
 less than the fortunate geographical position 
 of Mesopotamia and the vigor of the race, 
 contributed to the power and perpetuity of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Assyria is divided by the Tigris into an 
 eastern and a western part. The former 
 stretches from the river across the plains and 
 up the slopes of the Zagros; the latter, lying 
 west of the Tigris, looks to the Mesopotamian 
 uplands and is bordered afar by the Euphra- 
 tes. The eastern region is amply supplied 
 with water. A thousand springs and rivulets 
 bursting from the mountain sides gather and 
 rush along, combining as they near the Tigris 
 into rapid streams and swelling rivers. On 
 the north, also, the region is copiously watered ; 
 
 ^ The great kingdoms and empires of antiquity 
 are dwarfed by territorial comparison with tlie na- 
 tions of modern times. But by the aggregation of 
 many populous cities within a narrow district, a 
 degree of compactness and political concentration 
 was obtained which is hardly surpassed in the 
 more diflfuse civilizations of the present. 
 
 for the high ranges of Armenia send down to 
 the plains a perennial supply. The central 
 and southern region is less favored. The 
 rivers of Mesopotamia, on the side of the 
 Tigris, are neither numerous nor abundant in 
 water. On the side of the Euphrates a few 
 important tributaries are found at intervals, 
 but all the south-western district between the 
 thirty-sixth parallel and the northern limit of 
 Chaldsea is an arid and unfruitful country, 
 with many of the features of the Arabian 
 waste. 
 
 Taken all in all, the upland region rising 
 into hills and ridges between the Euphrates 
 and the Tigris could not be truthfully de- 
 scribed as fertile or as possessing any great in- 
 centives to civilization. Only in that central 
 part, stretching in all directions from the site 
 of Nineveh, were the fruitfulness of the soil, 
 the salubrity of the atmosphere, and the 
 general aspects of nature, of such sort as to 
 react powerfully upon the faculties of man. 
 
 Eastern Assyria, that is, the part between 
 the Tigris and the foot of the Zagros, is a 
 country half hilly and half alluvial in its 
 character. Eanges of hills, parallel with each 
 other, and at right angles with the mountains, 
 divide the district into a succession of valleys, 
 broadening into that of the Tigris, fertile and 
 highly favored. .From the great river to the 
 mountain foot is about one hundred and forty 
 miles. The maximum breadth is attained 
 above the thirty-fifth parallel, and from this 
 latitude southward East Assyria narrows grad- 
 ually to a point at the junction of the Gyndes 
 with the Tigris, a short distance below Bagh- 
 dad. In the river-beds the streams lie low, 
 filling their banks only in the seasons of rain. 
 The hills and ridges are built of limestone, and 
 their upper slopes are covered with stunted 
 brushwood and dwarf oaks. 
 
 Beginning above the thirty-seventh parallel 
 and on the east bank of the Tigris, the rivers 
 of Assyria are, first, the Kurnib, a mountain 
 stream of rapid flow and considerable volume. 
 The next, and greatest, is the Zab Ala, or 
 Greater Zab, which flows with broad and 
 steady current through the district of the 
 most important Assyrian ruins — the region 
 about Nineveh and Calah — and enters the
 
 ASSYRIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 145 
 
 Tigris, after a course of three hundred and 
 fifty miles, in latitude 36° N. The Zab Asfal, 
 or Lesser Zab, drains the ancient province 
 of Adiabene, and the Adhem gathers its wa- 
 ters from the brooks of Chalonitis and falls 
 into the main river about the thirty-fourth 
 parallel. Last of the principal streams of 
 Eastern Assyria is the Diyaleh, the classical 
 Gyndes, which forms the south-western bound- 
 ary of the country from the mountains of 
 Kurdistan to the Tigris at Baghdad. 
 
 On the Mesopotamian bank, that is, in 
 Western Assyria, the streams are neither 
 many nor abundant. The tributaries of the 
 
 featureless, region, well-nigh as level and de« 
 void of charm as is the waste of Arabia. 
 Nevertheless, the surface of this district, like- 
 the American plains, rises and falls; and the 
 country is far from being a sea-level flat likt 
 the alluvial region of Lower Mesopotamia. 
 The streams of this district are few, and sink 
 into the niter-sprinkled soil. Eains are rare 
 and scanty, and the water which pours from 
 occasional springs is frequently brackish and 
 unfit for use. 
 
 Westward from the Khabur are the hills 
 of Abdul-Aziz, an upheaved region covered 
 with fragments of basalt, and presenting here 
 
 THE TIGRIS AT NINEVEH. 
 
 Tigris on this side are mere creeks, but a few 
 miles in length, and generally dry for the 
 greater part of the year. Far to the north, 
 however, in the district of Mons Masius, the 
 streams are perennial, and the country, though 
 half-mountainous, is plentifully supplied with 
 springs and brooks. Into the Euphrates, from 
 the side of Mesopotamia, fall only the two 
 rivers, the Belik or Belichus, which drains the 
 ancient Padan-Aram, and the Khabur, which 
 waters a considerable region between the 
 thirty-fifth parallel and the mountainous coun- 
 try of Mygdonia. 
 
 The traveler, as he stands on the undulat- 
 ing plateau lying south of Mons Masius, sees 
 around him a somewhat elevated, but almost 
 
 and there the cones of extinct volcanoes. 
 This part of Mesopotamia is favored with one 
 small lake — the Khatouniyeh — oblong in 
 shape, with low and sedgy banks, abounding 
 in water-fowl and fish. 
 
 Western Assyria is divided into a northern 
 and a southern slope by a range of hills called 
 the Sinjar. This elevation stretches midway 
 across the country from the Khabur to the 
 Tigris below Nineveh, and constitutes the 
 principal water-shed of Mesopotamia. The 
 range is an upheaval of shaly limestone, fos- 
 siliferous in character, and in some parts 
 mountainous in magnitude. Down the broken 
 sides of this great ridge many springs pour 
 their feeble contribution of water, but the
 
 146 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 resulting streams are small and soon sink into 
 the plains. 
 
 The slopes of the Sinjar are sufficiently 
 fertile to produce fine orchards and fields of 
 grain. The native forests are of considerable 
 importance and extend even to the summit 
 of the range. The country west of Nineveh 
 is a well-wooded region, and the slopes of the 
 hills descending to the river are in many 
 places picturesque and beautiful. 
 
 To the south of the Sinjar range lies the 
 flat, unbroken plain which Xenophon declares 
 to be "a country as level as the sea, and full 
 of wormwood;" adding that, "if any other 
 shrub or reed grew there it had a sweet, 
 aromatic smell, but there wa& not a tree in 
 the whole region." Only one river of any 
 consequence waters the country between the 
 ridges of Sinjar and the northern limit of 
 Chaldsea. This is the Tharthar, which flows 
 in a direction parallel to that of the Tigris, 
 and drops into a salt lake in 34° 30' N. 
 
 Such are the natural features of Assyria. 
 It does not appear that, to any considerable 
 extent, the physical outlines of the country 
 were used as the basis of political divisions. 
 In the earlier development of a consolidated 
 empire, such as the Assyrian monarchy, little 
 importance is attached to provincial bounda- 
 ries. The Assyrians did not themselves culti- 
 vate geography as zealously as did the West- 
 ern nations ; and we are accordingly dependent 
 upon Greek travelers for most of what is 
 known concerning the political divisions of 
 Mesopotamia and the adjacent regions. It is 
 from the geographers Strabo, Dionysius, and 
 Ptolemy, that our information on this subject 
 is chiefly derived. The writers of the Old 
 Testament have also given us some valuable 
 data respecting the names and positions of 
 the Assyrian provinces. The knowledge de- 
 rived from this source, combined with that 
 which is gleaned from the classical geogra- 
 phers, furnishes a fair degree of certainty 
 concerning the main outlines of the political 
 districts of Assyria. 
 
 The central province — that which included 
 Nineveh — was called Aturia, which is merely 
 the Persian spelling of the word Assyria. 
 This district lying chiefly, but not wholly, on 
 
 the east bank of the Tigris, stretches from the 
 Greater Zab northward to above the thirty- 
 seventh parallel of latitude, including within 
 its limits the sites of the great central cities 
 of the Empire. Between the Greater and the 
 Lesser Zab lies the province of Adiabenie, in 
 which are the ruins of Arbela. Still further 
 south, between the Lesser Zab and the Gyndes, 
 are the two provinces of Chalonitis and 
 Apolloniatis, the latter lying along the Tigris, 
 and the former extending eastward to the 
 mountains of Kurdistan. Such are the prin« 
 cipal divisions of Eastern Assyria. 
 
 In Mesopotamia Proper, several provinces 
 are mentioned by Strabo — Acabene, Tingene, 
 Ancobaritis — the position and boundaries of 
 which have not been determined. Far to the 
 north, at the base of the Mons Masius, is the 
 great district called by the Greeks Mygdonia.^ 
 It lies to the north of the Sinjar mountains, 
 and is drained by the tributaries of the Kha- 
 bur. To the west of this, in the upper bend 
 of the Euphrates, is the district called Padan- 
 Aram — an ancient name occurring in Genesis, 
 but not mentioned by Strabo or Ptolemy. 
 
 The limits of the provincial districts of 
 the Assyrian Empire were, like the boundaries 
 of the Empire itself, somewhat shifting and 
 unsettled. There is no doubt, however, that 
 the provinces of what may be properly called 
 Assyria were as numerous and extensive as 
 here described. In every part of these wide 
 regions, with the exception of the arid plain 
 about the intersection of the thirty-fifth degree 
 of latitude with the forty-second meridian, 
 fragments and ruins of Assyrian greatness are 
 plentifully scattered. The supposition that 
 the Empire was limited to the east bank of 
 the Tigris has no foundation in fact. Three 
 out of the four capital cities were built on that 
 side of the river; but in Western Aturia, also 
 in Adiabene and Apolloniatis, in Mygdonia 
 and on the lower Khabur, the remains of 
 cities and palaces indicate unmistakably the 
 presence of imperial power and grandeur. 
 
 Assyria was fortified by nature. Along 
 the eastern frontier lay the ramparts of the 
 
 ^In the writings of Ptolemy this province ia 
 called Gauzanitis — the same as the Gozan men- 
 tioned in Second Kings.
 
 ASSYRIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 147 
 
 ."Zagros — a succession of mountainous ridges, 
 rising grandly ten thousand feet into summits 
 clad in snow. As the Alps to Italy, so stood 
 these lofty battlements to the fruitful lowlands 
 and plains of Mesopotamia. The few gate- 
 "ways in the fastnesses of the Zagros are almost 
 impassable even in summer, and the warlike 
 races who dwelt beyond were quite shut out 
 from foray and incursion. 
 
 On the north the Assyrian plateau was 
 •equally defended. Here the mountains of 
 Armenia form an insurmountable bulwark. 
 The summits are perpetually snow-capped, 
 and the deep gorges are impassable. This 
 great range stands nearly at right-angles to 
 the Zagros, and rises abruptly from the plain, 
 of which it is the natural rampart. Military 
 operations in such a region are impossible, and 
 in this fact are found the natural conditions 
 of that warlike independence immemorially 
 enjoyed by the native tribes of Armenia. 
 Like the Swiss among the Alps, the fierce 
 mountaineers who overlooked Assyria from 
 the north smiled at military menace and 
 scorned the subjection of the peoples of the 
 plain. 
 
 On the west and south-west Assyria is 
 skirted by the wastes of Syria and Arabia, 
 beyond the Euphrates westward, and above 
 the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude, lies the 
 Tocky desert of the Hittites, with its capital 
 Carchemish; while to the south stretch away 
 the illimitable sands of Arabia. The obstacles 
 to invasion from this direction were few and 
 inconsiderable, but the paucity of the popula- 
 tion which could be sustained on the black- 
 ened hills of Syria and the scorched sanddunes 
 of Arabia was a barrier quite as effectual as 
 the ridges and snows of the Zagros and the 
 Armenian highlands. 
 
 The southern border of the Empire was by 
 ■mature the weakest. On the side of Chaldsea 
 "the country lay open to hostile demonstrations ; 
 nor can it be doubted that the relations, both 
 ^varlike and pacific, of the Assyrians and 
 •Chaldseans are to be traced in large measure 
 to the feeble demarkation drawn by nature 
 between the two countries. To create and 
 3naintain the line which was naturally wanting 
 the peoples of Upper and Lower Mesopota- 
 
 mia resorted to dykes and canals; but these, 
 even when grand in extent and construction, 
 could furnish but a poor substitute for those 
 immense and imperishable bulwarks of stone — 
 the mountains. 
 
 The climate of Assyria was as varied as 
 her physical outline. The degree of elevation, 
 the character of the soil, the latitude, the 
 proximity of mountain, river, or desert — all 
 contributed to give variety to atmospheric 
 phenomena, and variability to the aspects of 
 nature. For convenience of discussion the 
 whole of Assyria may be divided into four 
 climatic districts. The first of these is Eastern 
 Assyria — the country beyond the Tigris. The 
 second is Northern Mesopotamia, being that 
 part which is under the immediate influence of 
 the Armenian mountains. The third division 
 is Central Mesopotamia, including the north- 
 ern and southern slopes of the Sinjar; and 
 the fourth is Southern Assyria — being that 
 portion which borders on the plains of 
 Chaldsea. 
 
 The climate of Eastern Assyria is cool and 
 moist. The proximity of the Zagros with its 
 snowy heights reduces the temperature, wakes 
 the breeze, sends down the showers of rain. 
 Even in summer, when rains are more rare, 
 copious dews are distilled by night, refreshing 
 vegetation and cooling the atmosphere. In 
 winter and early spring there is a heavy rain- 
 fall, and the streams run bankful down to 
 join the Tigris. Very rarely does the terrible 
 sherghi, or hot wind of the desert, blow its 
 withering breath on the green slopes of Adia- 
 bene and Chalonitis. Snow falls, but scantily, 
 in December and January, and ice of consid- 
 erable thickness forms on the ponds and 
 brooks. Farther to the south, in Apolloniatis, 
 the climate grows more torrid, approximating 
 that of Chaldsea. The winters but slightly 
 chill the traveler; the summers scorch and 
 burn. 
 
 The climate of Northern Mesopotamia is 
 rather severe. The temperature falls to ten 
 degrees below zero. Winter lasts for half the 
 year. The elevation of the country about the 
 head-waters of the Tigris is as much as one 
 thousand three hundred feet above the level 
 of the sea. The close proximity of the snow-
 
 148 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 covered mountains on the north renders the 
 atmosphere invigorating in summer, and in 
 winter adds rigor to the climate. Snow pre- 
 vails, falling to great depth in the gorges. 
 The spring is late and chill ; the early summer 
 brings abundance of blossoms; July and Au- 
 gust have excessive heat, the temperature ris- 
 ing to 110° or even 115° in the shade. The 
 whole range of the thermometer from winter 
 to summer is above 120 degrees, being as 
 great as in any country in the world. 
 
 The climate of Central Mesopotamia is 
 milder than in Mygdonia and the north. Here 
 it seldom snows, except on the summits of the 
 Abdul-Aziz and the Sinjar. The winter is no 
 more than four months in length ; the spring 
 is as charming as in any region of the globe ; 
 for a short season the landscape is carpeted 
 with the richest verdure and adorned with the 
 most beautiful and fragrant flowers; but in 
 midsummer comes that intense heat from which 
 Central and Southern IMesopotamia have al- 
 ways suffered. From noon till night of the 
 summer day nor man nor beast can well en- 
 dure the glow of the furnace. Fortunately, 
 with nightfall the fiery heat subsides, and the 
 nights and early mornings are not unpleasant. 
 Anon the calm of the day is broken by storms 
 of rain and thunder and hail, bursting from 
 the Sinjar. The tempests are of almost tropi- 
 cal violence, furiovis with contending winds 
 and lurid with incessant lightnings. After 
 the storm has lashed itself to rest, the earth 
 and air are refreshed, and animals and man 
 find a pleasant respite from the heat. The 
 autumn throughout the greater part of West- 
 ern Assyria is remarkably fine, suggesting the 
 halcyon days by the banks of an American 
 river. 
 
 As Southern Assyria narrows and sinks 
 into the alluvial plain of Chaldsea, the torrid 
 element in the climate becomes more pro- 
 nounced. A strictly tropical country can not, 
 of course, be found as far north as the thirty- 
 fourth parallel; but the districts of Lower 
 Assyria, too far inland to be moderated by the 
 ocean, too far from the mountains to feel the 
 invigoration of their snows, and near enough 
 to the hot sands of Arabia to inhale their 
 fiery vapor, may well be regarded as suffering 
 
 all the ills of the tropics — and without the 
 tropical charm. 
 
 It is not to be doubted that in ancient 
 times the climate of these regions was consid- 
 erably modified by the agency of man. The 
 waters of the two great rivers were car- 
 ried far into what are now desert districts,, 
 and were distributed in channels over the sur- 
 face of the country. By this means the soil 
 was irrigated and the air cooled. Vegetation, 
 springing rank along the banks of the canals,, 
 became at once a cause and an eflTect of 
 growth and moisture. As far as the power 
 of man could thus be extended the arid 
 wastes were planted with trees and cities. 
 Still, in the greater part of Southern Assyria 
 the country can never have been fertile ; and 
 the district between the river Khabur and the- 
 northern confines of Chaldsea has always been, 
 what it was in the times of Cyrus and Alex- 
 ander — a country of extreme heat and barren 
 deserts. Xenophon declares that there was no- 
 meadow, no tree, no leaf or twig of green, 
 but only a herbless waste, parched by the heat 
 of the sun. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no country in the world 
 which is subject to such great changes in the 
 appearance of the landscape as in Assyria. 
 In the spring the sudden outburst of verdure 
 spreads a carpet of green grass and brilliant 
 flowers on every hand in infinite profusion; 
 but no sooner is the summer ushered in than- 
 green gives place to yellow, freshness to ster- 
 ility, life to death. The same district which 
 seems in April and May to be a boundless 
 prairie of blossoms and foliage is in a few 
 weeks burnt to a crisp, blackened and deso- 
 late as Arabia. 
 
 In modern times the inhabitants of South- 
 ern Assyria are dependent upon the course of 
 nature for whatever they produce. Irrigation 
 is but little practiced, and only the sudden 
 gush of seasonable weather in the spring pre- 
 vents the reduction of the country to a desert. 
 While the pastures are still green from the 
 continuance of the early rains the flocks find 
 a luxuriant supply; and there is even time 
 before the beginning of the drought for the 
 production and harvest of an abundant crop 
 of those cereals which are adapted to short
 
 ASSYRIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS 
 
 U9 
 
 seasons. After that, all herbage begins to 
 shrivel, the streams dry up to their fountains, 
 and the earth becomes as barren as the alka- 
 line plains east of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fierce summer heats 
 and the long continued drouths to which 
 Assyria is exposed there is no other country 
 better situated by nature for the artificial dis- 
 tribution of water, and the consequent favor- 
 able modification of its climate. For hundreds 
 of miles from their sources the Euphrates and 
 the Tigris have so great a fall as to make 
 practicable and easy the distribution of their 
 wealth through all the thirsty districts of 
 which they form the boundaries. Nor were 
 the ancient Assyrians slow to avail themselves 
 of the suggestion of nature respecting the 
 watering of their plains. Besides the canals 
 and aqueducts, the ruins of which are plenti- 
 fully scattered in Assyria as well as in Chal- 
 dsea, mr.ch evidence exists of the skill of the 
 people in lifting water from the rivers and 
 distributing it for the use of man and the re- 
 freshing of the fields.' Machinery of many 
 kinds was erected along the banks of the 
 Tigris, as along the river of Egypt, by which 
 the fertilizing fluid was lifted and borne to 
 where it was required. By this means large 
 districts which are now, from the brief con- 
 tinuance of the spring showers, reduced to a 
 precarious state, with a minimum of popula- 
 tion, were, in the times of the Empire, the 
 seat of abundance and luxury — crowded with 
 great markets and populous cities. 
 
 The products of Eastern Assyria are not 
 very fully recorded by the classical authors. 
 The olive grew in Chalonitis. Pliny in his 
 Natural History speaks disparagingly of the 
 quality of the Assyrian dates. Spices and 
 aromatic plants were found in the valleys east 
 of the Tigris. Xenophon enumerates sesame, 
 millet, wheat, and barley as the principal 
 grain products of Mesopotamia. For its cit- 
 ron trees Assyria was famous from antiquity. 
 
 ^ At one place in Aturia the water of the Tigris 
 was carried in a tunnel through the hills and then 
 conducted a distance of eight miles in a direction 
 opposite to that of the tributary streams. The 
 aqueduct was supplied with locks and other con- 
 trivances for regulating the supply and flow of 
 the current. 
 
 They not only gave fruit to the hand, and 
 fragance to the sense, but were also esteemed 
 as to leaves and blossoms for their invaluable 
 medicinal properties. The tree was native to 
 the country, and has never flourished equally 
 in any other region. Silk was also, according 
 to Pliny, a natural product of Assyria, the 
 worm producing it being of a peculiar species 
 and unusually large. 
 
 It is rather by the present productions of 
 Mesopotamia than by incidental references 
 thereto by ancient travelers and historians 
 that we are enabled to form a true idea of 
 the vegetable and mineral resources of the 
 empire of Sargon and Sennacherib. The gen- 
 eral climatic conditions remain unchanged, 
 and the modifying influence of human skill 
 may be fairly estimated. To begin with the 
 fruits, the most important are, as they no 
 doubt were twenty -five centuries ago, the 
 orange, the pomegranate, the apricot, the 
 lemon, the olive, the fig, the grape, the apple, 
 the pear, the quince, the plum, the cherry, 
 melons of many kinds, filberts, pistachio-nuts, 
 and chestnuts. The orange flourishes only in 
 Southern Mesopotamia, and those semi-tropical 
 parts bordering on Chaldsea. The pomegran- 
 ate grows in all the provinces except where 
 the chill of the mountain peaks is too percep- 
 tibly felt. The native place of the fig is on 
 the slopes of the Sinjar and the hills of Ab- 
 dul-Aziz. Here too the vineyards flourish, as 
 also further south. The lemon accompanies 
 the orange; and the orchards of apples and 
 pears are most productive on the ridges of 
 Chalonitis and Aturia. Along the spurs of 
 the Zagros the olive grows wild, while the 
 fragmentary woods of the north are enriched 
 with abundance of filberts and chestnuts. In 
 the valleys of Eastern Assyria melons flourish, 
 and the pear and the plum produce fairly on 
 both banks of the Tigris. 
 
 The edible vegetables of Assyria still more 
 abound. Capers and esculent mushrooms are 
 native to large districts. Beans and peas and 
 lentils yield abundantly and without much 
 labor. Onions, cucumbers, and spinach, and 
 indeed most of the garden products of the 
 United States, have been immemorially culti- 
 vated in Assyria. One of the commonest
 
 150 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 shrubs of the country is that odorous absin- 
 thium, or wormwood, mentioned by Xenophon. 
 Its native place is Western Mesopotamia in 
 the region south of the Khabur. Here also 
 axe occasional groves of tamarisk near the 
 river. The most beautiful of the natural 
 growths of the sparse woodlands are the myr- 
 tles and oleanders, which lift their large and 
 brilliant blossoms in great profusion along the 
 banks of the eastern tributaries of the Tigris ; 
 nor should mention be omitted of the famous 
 Scdix Babylonica, or weeping willow, whose 
 delicate drooping sprays have been the admi- 
 ration of all peoples. 
 
 The list of Assyrian products would not be 
 complete without a mention of manna. It is 
 chiefly secreted by the dwarf oak, from the 
 branches of which, under favoring condi- 
 tions, it is gathered in considerable quantities. 
 Other trees and shrubs also yield a supply, 
 but less abundantly ; and in seasons of plen- 
 tiful moisture, especially during the preva- 
 lence of foggy weather, the manna is distilled 
 on rocks or even in the sand. This variety, 
 though scant in quantity, is greatly prized. 
 In times of drouth there is no secretion at all. 
 
 The seasons of the manna harvest are 
 spring and autumn. At these times it is 
 gathered by being shaken upon cloths spread 
 under the oaks. The manna preserves its 
 sweetness only for a brief period after being 
 collected. If not eaten in its natural state it 
 soon sours and becomes ofl^ensive. In order 
 to prevent decay, and to give the product a 
 mercantile value, it is boiled into a kind of 
 paste, which can be preserved in cans and 
 transported like other articles of the market. 
 
 The mineral supply of Assyria is much 
 more varied and important than that of Chal- 
 dsea. Throughout Mesopotamia, as well as in 
 the provinces beyond the Tigris, limestone 
 and sandstone are plentifully distributed. 
 The Mons Masius is built of basaltic rock — 
 a substance almost as firm and heavy as the 
 Syenite of Upper Egypt. The base of the 
 Zagros is packed with several fine varieties 
 of marble, and in Aturia and Adiabene, 
 along the Tigris, beds of gray alabaster fur- 
 nish a material for the sculptor's chisel hardly 
 surpassed by the soft marbles of Italy. The 
 
 Assyrian clay, though unequal in quality to 
 that of the Chaldaean plain, is nevertheless 
 well distributed and of superior quality. 
 
 Eastern Assyria had a wealth of metals. 
 In the immediate vicinity of Nineveh are 
 found rich mines of iron, copper, and lead. 
 The ores crop out of the hill-sides and are ex- 
 posed to view where they were worked by the 
 ancients. In the mountainous regions of the 
 upper Tigris the same metals are found. The 
 Kurdish ranges have mines of silver, tin, 
 and antimony ; nor is it improbable that some 
 of the gold of the palaces of the Assyrian 
 monarchs w^as produced within the limits of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Other valuable minerals abounded in dif- 
 ferent districts. Sulphur, alum, and salt 
 were articles of exportation. In the country 
 between the Lower Zab and the Gyndes inex- 
 haustible supplies of bitumen, naphtha, and 
 petroleum were drawn from pits and wells. 
 Further north, near Nineveh, there were 
 petroleum springs which furnished perennial 
 streams of the same materials. Salt was 
 produced from springs found in the same 
 locality and also from a few salt lakes in 
 Mesopotamia. 
 
 The animal life of Assyria was as varied as 
 the climate. Wild beasts, such as are pecul- 
 iar to deserts, as well as those whose lairs are 
 in the mountains, abounded both in Mesopota- 
 mia and in Assyria beyond the Tigris. The 
 lion roamed over the wastes of the south-west, 
 and was also seen on the cliffs of the Sinjar.^ 
 In similar situations the leopard, the lynx, 
 and the hyena were found ; and the tiger, 
 which is not now a native of this part of 
 Asia, was quite certainly among those crea- 
 tures with which the primitive Assyrians had 
 to contend for the mastery. 
 
 Among the other animals — beasts of the 
 hill-country rather than of of the plain — 
 may be mentioned the bear, the jackal, the 
 
 ^ Assyrian lions are generally represented in the 
 sculptures as maneless. In some cases the draw- 
 ing shows a peculiar, horny claw at the end of the 
 tail, half hidden in the tuft of hair — an eccentric 
 feature not known to exist in any living species. 
 In some of the sculptures the lion is shown with 
 a mane, in which case he is a fair counterpart of 
 the lion of the African desert.
 
 ASSYRIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 151 
 
 -wild boar, and the fox. The wild sheep, the 
 ibex, and the gazelle were of the mountains. 
 The wolf, the porcupine, the badger, and the 
 hare were, for the most part, limited to the 
 plains and to regions of moderate eleva- 
 tion. The ibex abounded in the Zagros and 
 in the highest ranges of the Sinjar and Abdul- 
 Aaiz. The deer was found only in Eastern 
 
 ASSYRIAN MULE. 
 
 From the Sculptures. 
 
 Assyria, near the mountains. The hyena, the 
 lynx, and the beaver were not very common. 
 The last-named animal — differing somewhat 
 in form and instincts from the American 
 beaver — had his habitat on the Khabur, where, 
 until his race was hunted almost to extinction, 
 he built his house and flourished. 
 
 According to Xenophon, the most common 
 •animal in the region south of the Khabur was 
 the wild ass. At the present day, however, 
 the creature is rare and has even been thought 
 to be extinct in its native country. This sup- 
 position is incorrect, the animal still being 
 "found in the district in which it was seen by 
 the Greek historian. The Assyrian wild ass is 
 of the genus Equus, is delicate in form and color, 
 and exceedingly swift of foot, insomuch that, 
 ^hen adult and vigorous, it outstrips all 
 other animals in flight. The young of the 
 species are sometimes taken by the Arabs, but 
 pine and die under domestication. 
 
 The Assyrian sculptors delighted in draw- 
 ing animal forms. The inscriptions of Nim- 
 rod, Khorsabad, Koyunjik, and Nineveh 
 abound in carvings of wild beasts. The 
 forms of the lion, the leopard, the tiger, the 
 wild boar and ass, the mule, the stag, and the 
 gazeUe were in great favor with artists, and 
 the skill with which these animals are carved 
 would, in many cases, do credit to Greece. 
 
 The domestic animals of modern Assyria 
 are mostly of species common in Europe and 
 America. And to these must be added the 
 camel. The horse was in use in Mesopotamia, 
 for the saddle but not for draught, long before 
 his introduction into Egypt. Judging from 
 the sculptures, as weU as from the existing 
 breeds of the country, the Assyrian animal is, 
 for speed, symmetry, and power, fully the 
 equal of the modern Arabian. From time 
 immemorial the chief wealth of the native 
 tribes of Southern Assyria has consisted in 
 horses. Anciently, as well as to-day, travel- 
 ers, princes, and kings gratified their pride 
 and ambition by purchasing, albeit at fabulous 
 figures, the fleet and beautiful steeds of the 
 Mesopotamian and Arabian wastes. The As- 
 syrian horses are less in stature than the 
 heavier breeds of the West, but of exquisite 
 symmetry of form and grace of movement. 
 
 The cattle of Assyria are relatively poor in 
 quality. Not so, however, the sheep and 
 goats. The former are of good size and well- 
 wooled, furnishing fine, heavy fleeces and a 
 superior article of food. The goat, as in most 
 oriental countries, is the principal dependence 
 of the people for milk and cheese. Asses and 
 mules are chiefly used for carrying burdens 
 and drawing loads — a task to which the horse 
 
 ASSYRIAN PARTRIDGK. 
 
 is never subjected. In long journeys requir- 
 ing speed, endurance, and docility, the faith- 
 ful camel lends his unflagging strength and 
 unfailing patience. There are two species- 
 camels proper and dromedaries, the latter be- 
 ing the more fleet and sagacious.^ 
 
 ^ The two-humped camel of Bactria is no longer 
 found in Assyria, though the sculptures show that 
 he was known in the times of the Empire.
 
 152 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The domestic animals of ancient Assyria 
 •were nearly the same as those of the present 
 day. The monuments show that the camel 
 was more in use by the enemy than by the 
 Assyrians themselves. The donkey was not 
 in u«e. The dogs were of a heavy and fierce- 
 looking stock, resembling the mastiff, and 
 quite unlike the fleet and slender greyhound 
 of modern times. 
 
 The sculptures and tablets of ancient As- 
 syria have made us acquainted with but three 
 of the birds known to the people of the Em- 
 pire. These are the vulture, the ostrich, and 
 the partridge. No others have been identified 
 with existing species. The vulture is exhib- 
 ited in connection with battle scenes, where he 
 
 are nearly the same in character with those 
 inhabiting like latitudes in Europe and Amer- 
 ica. The water-fowl — wild goose, wild duck, 
 teal, tern, plover, sandpiper, and swan — are 
 similar to those of the United States. The 
 crane, the stork, the pelican, and the flam- 
 ingo, have the same appearance, habits, and 
 haunts which are peculiar to those species in 
 the Southern States of the Union. The most 
 noted Assyrian birds of prey are the eagle, 
 the hawk, the falcon, and the owl. The song 
 birds are the nightingale and the Seleucian 
 thrush; and the birds of the desert and plain 
 are — besides the ostrich — the great and lesser 
 bustard, the sand-grouse, and the francolin. 
 Assyrian art furnishes abundant proof that 
 
 ASSYRIAN OSTRICHES. 
 
 is seen devouring the bodies of the slain. 
 Sometimes he is made to execute poetical jus- 
 tice by pursuing and tearing the enemies of 
 the king. The ostrich inhabited Mesopotamia 
 below the Khabur, though he has long since 
 abandoned that region for the wider freedom 
 of the Arabian desert.^ The partridge of two 
 or three varieties was found in great abun- 
 dance, and was the delight of sportsmen and 
 gastronomers. 
 
 The birds at present inhabiting Assyria — 
 which are no doubt identical with species ex- 
 isting in the country two thousand years ago — 
 
 ^Xenophon describes the ostrich as seen on 
 the line of march, pursued by hunters, fleeing 
 with long strides across the desert, and " using its 
 wings for sails." 
 
 the rivers and ponds were thronged with fish. 
 The sculptures are not, however, of a sort tc 
 identify varieties, the forms being somewhat 
 rude and conventional. At the present day 
 the two great rivers of Assyria, as well as the 
 smaller streams and the marshes, are crowded, 
 as they no doubt have always been, with bar- 
 bel and carp, which here grow to an unusual 
 size. In the eastern tributaries of the Tigris, 
 especially in the mountain brooks of the Za^ 
 gros, trout are found, and in the deeper 
 streams pickerel and pike. 
 
 Taken all in all, the physical environment 
 of the ancient Assyrians was not materially 
 different from that of the central latitudes of 
 Europe and America. The variations from 
 this standard were the presence of large waste
 
 ASSYRIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 153 
 
 districts, the absence of great forests, the fiery 
 heats of summer, and the consequent appear- 
 ance of semi-tropical plants and animals. In 
 other respects the country in which the Em- 
 pire planted by Tiglathi-Adar and Shalmaneser 
 rose, flourished, and fell, possessed the same 
 
 general antecedents of civilization, the same 
 elements of power and development, the 
 same incentives to human ambition and 
 achievement, as have played upon the fac- 
 ulties of man in Central Europe and the 
 United States. 
 
 Chaipter XII.— people and Cities. 
 
 SSYRIA was peopled by 
 the race of Shem. What- 
 ever controversy has ex- 
 isted respecting the ethnic 
 character of the primitive 
 Chaldseans, concerning 
 the race affinities of the 
 Assyrians there is none. The vague conjec- 
 tures, which until the present century were 
 used as the foundation of historical writings, 
 have given place to exact knowledge, result- 
 ing from antiquarian research and definite 
 principles of criticism. Ancient traditions, 
 the discoveries made among the ruins of the 
 country, and the science of language, have 
 all contributed their testimony as to the ori- 
 gin and kinship of the people who built the 
 cities on the Tigris. The stock is called Se- 
 mitic ; its branches are the Aramaic, the He- 
 Ibraic, and the Arabic. To the first of these, 
 the Aramaic — that is, the race of Aram, or 
 the Highlands — belonged the Assyrians. The 
 latter are thus allied by close affinity Avith 
 the Syrians, the later Babylonians, the Phoeni- 
 cians, the Hebrews, and the Northern Arabs. 
 All these people had common progenitors, 
 who, moving westward from Susiana or be- 
 yond, spread out into Mesopotamia and thence 
 into Arabia and Syria. The language which 
 has been preserved on the tablets, cylinders, 
 :and bricks of the Assyrian ruins is unmistak- 
 ably of the same origin with the Hebrew and 
 the Phoenician ; and unless it could be shown — 
 a thing never attempted — that the people of 
 Upper Mesopotamia had changed their lan- 
 iguage in some primitive stage of their devel- 
 ■opment, the proof of the Semitic character of 
 Tthe race is .positively established. 
 
 If we pass from the language of the Assyri- 
 ans to the traditions of various nations, we find 
 additional evidence of the kinship of Asshur 
 and Shem. In the Book of Genesis, the 
 ancestor of the Assyrians is classified with the 
 progenitors of the Aramaeans, the Hebrews, 
 and the Northern Arabs. The inhabitants of 
 
 NINEVITE HERO, SHOWING TYPICAL PHYSIOGNOMY. 
 
 Kurdistan, who are regarded as the descend* 
 ants of the Assyrians, not only speak a Se^ 
 mitic language, but believe themselves to be 
 of the same race with the Arabs and Israelites. 
 The same tradition was held by the people of 
 Assyria themselves, who in their brief histori- 
 cal fragments recognize as their kinsmen the 
 Syrians, the later Babylonians, the Phoenicians, 
 and the Joktanian Arabs. Whatever hesitancy
 
 154 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 there may be on the part of some historians 
 and ethnologists to use the term "Semitic" as 
 descriptive of one of the primitive families of 
 mankind, there can be none as it respects the 
 question of classifying in one group the peo- 
 ples of ancient Assyria, Northern Arabia, 
 Syria, and Canaan. 
 
 An examination of the physical character- 
 istics of the Assyrians tends to establish the 
 same conclusion. The art of these people 
 has preserved their face and form and stature. 
 On examining the Assyrian sculptures, even 
 
 ASSYRIAN KING. 
 
 the uncritical can but be struck with the 
 resemblance of the form and features to those 
 of the Hebrews. Here we have the same 
 face which is seen among the Jewish captives 
 of Amenophis III. on the monuments of 
 Egypt. The Assyrian physiognomy, as deter- 
 mined by the sculptures exhumed from the 
 ruins of Nimrud and Khorsabad, is identical 
 with that which the Israelite has made familiar 
 to all the world. The forehead is low and 
 straight; the brow prominent; the eyes large 
 and oriental; the nose aquihue and some- 
 times coarse; the mouth firm-set; the lips 
 rather thick ; the chin strong and symmetrical. 
 
 The same countenance belongs, with slight va- 
 riations, to the Bedouin Arabs, and with no 
 variation to the present inhabitants of Kurdis- 
 tan. Such were also the features of thft 
 Syrians and Phoenicians, and wherever a He- 
 brew is found, in any quarter of the world, 
 there the type is perpetuated. 
 
 In person the ancient Assyrians were 
 stronger and heavier than any existing Sem- 
 ites except the Kurdistanese. The Arab of 
 to-day is rather light and slender. The He- 
 brew of the Orient has not the short, stout 
 body peculiar to his kinsmen of the West. 
 The ancient Assyrian was brawny and pow- 
 erful. The tremendous limbs depicted in the 
 sculptures of Nimrud suggest to the beholder 
 the massive muscles and incalculable strength, 
 of gladiators. The weapons which they han- 
 dle and the sports in which they engage show 
 that the Assyrians, more than any other 
 Asiatic people of their times, were men of 
 the heroic mold. And the sculptors, to whose 
 delineations we owe our knowledge of this, 
 robust and vigorous race, seem to have 
 taken delight in doing full justice to the 
 brawny limbs and powerful breasts of their 
 countrymen. 
 
 In the traits of mind exhibited by the As- 
 syrians there is additional evidence of their 
 Semitic origin. Like the Israelites and the 
 Arabs, the people of Assyria were devoted to 
 religion. The public documents — statutes^ 
 edicts, and proclamations of the kings — which 
 the tablets have preserved are characterized 
 by the same iteration of religious forms which 
 marks all the literary productions of the Se- 
 mitic race. Prayers, invocations, solemn ap- 
 peals to their gods, praise to the hidden power 
 Avho ripens the first fruits and gives the vic- 
 tory in war — such are the dominant ideas in 
 the laws and state papers of the Assyrian 
 kings, and such have ever been the prevailing- 
 forms of expression in all branches of this, 
 family of men. The Bedouin of to-day who 
 dismounts from his camel and prostrates him- 
 self on the gleaming sand of the desert bear* 
 not more certain testimony to his race affinity 
 than did the inhabitants of Upper Mesopota- 
 mia in their prayers, and psalms, and procla- 
 mations. The language is the tongue of Israel>
 
 ASSYRIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 155 
 
 though used in the praises of Baal and 
 Astarte. 
 
 The ancient Assyrians were a people of 
 extraordinary valor. Everywhere man is seen 
 
 bodies mutOated, in proof of the victorious 
 vengeance of the conqueror. The heads of 
 the slain are chopped off with swords and 
 enumerated by a scribe, indifferent as a hunter 
 
 ASSYRIANS GOING TO BATTLE. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 in heroic action. He struggles with the ad- 
 versary. With the strong lion he grapples 
 hand to hand. Against all the ferocious crea- 
 tures of the deserts and mountains he goes 
 forth without trepidation. Nothing can sur- 
 pass the defiant courage with which he hazards 
 his person in the conflict. He meets the Avild 
 bull, maddened with wounds, and brings him 
 bellowing to his knees. He quails, not before 
 any aspect of man or beast, but with firm set 
 lips and eyes fixed on his antagonist bends to 
 the struggle and rises victorious. 
 
 The stalwart character and aggressive bear- 
 ing of the Assyrians were particularly shown 
 in war. The same ferocity which they mani- 
 fested in the pursuit and destruction of beasts 
 they also exhibited in hunting men. The 
 sculptures show that the feeling of the Assyr- 
 ians towards the foe was one, not of hostility 
 only, but of hatred and contempt. Against 
 the enemy the bow is drawn with vindictive 
 willingness. The dead of the vanquished 
 army are trampled in the dust, and their 
 
 counting his game. Before the walls of a 
 mutinous city the bodies of the rebels are im- 
 paled on stakes. Others of the dead are 
 flayed; for the skins are an article of mer- 
 
 ASSYRIAN WAR CHARIOT. 
 
 chandise; and anon a group of captives ap- 
 pear, led by cords with rings inserted in the 
 under lips of the prisoners, after the manner 
 of leading beasts. This, however, is true only
 
 %5Q 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pf captive men : women the Assyrian soldiers 
 jtreat with respect and tenderness. 
 
 In personal bearing the Assyrians were 
 characterized by pride and haughtiness. The 
 /nscriptions and tablets are filled with vain- i 
 
 CAPTIVES OF THE ASSYRIANS. 
 
 jglQijious boasting. The other nations are de- 
 ,scribed as cowards, whose gods have abandoned 
 ,them for shame. Fools also are the aliens, 
 ,unwoi:thy of the favor of either earth or 
 ^eaven. They are fit only to be spurned — 
 jgrouud under the heel of Assyria, whose cities 
 .^.re greftt, whose armies are always victorious, 
 iwhose gpds are wise and mighty. No good 
 -thing is conceded to foreign nations. They 
 .are weajc, effeminate; even their own deities 
 .have giv^n them over to merited destruction. 
 jLike the language of the Greeks and the 
 iRoinans respecting the barbarians is this jar- 
 gon pf Assyrian pride towards the peoples 
 tbeyoud |he borders of the Empire. Like 
 ^Jewish 3,uathemas poured on the heads of the 
 .Gentiles ,is this pompous strain of self-adida- 
 ,tion wherewith the Assyrians celebrated them- 
 .^selyes a jifl, disparaged the neighboring nations. 
 The historians and prophets of Israel de- 
 ,nounce the Assyrians as a people of cunning 
 ;^nd cruelty. Part of this may, no doubt, be 
 , charged to, the enmity existing between the two 
 .nations; but it is clear that the people of 
 
 Assyria were not free from subtle and treach- 
 .erous practices. Craft and cruelty were, how- 
 . ever, as they are to-day, the common vices of 
 ■.the Asiatics; and the frenzied denunciations 
 .of Jewish authors come with a bad grace con- 
 .sidering tliat their own annals are stained 
 
 with deceit a^d treacliery and blood. If the 
 
 Assyrians were in the habit of breaking their 
 > treaties, so also were the Greeks. If the peo- 
 
 ,ple (^f Kinqv^h , and Babylon were crafty in 
 
 peace, and perfidious in war, so too were the 
 Phoenicians and the Romans. On the whole, 
 the moral standard of the Assyrians, and their 
 consequent conduct in the practical affairs of 
 life, were not different from that of other 
 ancient nations inflamed by success- 
 ful conquests, and made arrogant by 
 the possession of unlimited power. 
 
 In their luxurious habits the later 
 Assyrians resembled the Romans. In 
 the early epochs of the robust and 
 manly virtues foreign wars swept into 
 the capital city, as afterwards into 
 Rome, legions of captives, trains of 
 spoils and treasures. The great mon- 
 archs of the Empire, corrupted by 
 riches and booty, then began to set the example 
 of voluptuous living. Princes and priests vied 
 with each other in luxury ; and the people, who 
 might have been capable of liberty, fell into 
 licentiousness. The philosophy of Assyria, 
 teaching that happiness was at one with license, 
 gave the reign to individual will, and enthroned 
 pleasure as the chief aim and end of human 
 endeavor. And though the native vigor of 
 the race was for a long 
 time proof against the 
 effeminating tenden- 
 cies of wealth, the 
 time came when the 
 national character 
 yielded to those vices 
 which attend upon 
 material magnificence, 
 and sank into decay. 
 The art and learn- 
 ing of Assyria were, 
 for the greater part, 
 derived from the older 
 civilization of Chal- 
 diea. But the Assy- 
 rians were by no 
 means wanting in 
 original force and 
 genius. Whether as 
 it respects a certain 
 vention or creditable 
 
 ASSYRIAN PRINCESS IN 
 FULL DRESS. 
 
 skill in mechanical in- 
 achievements in those 
 higher arts which humanize mankind, they 
 reached a degree of excellence not hitherto 
 attained in Asia. Especially in political
 
 ASSYRIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 157 
 
 science and in the development of civil 
 institutions did the Assyrians surpass any- 
 contemporaneous nation. The administra- 
 itive skill displayed by the government in 
 
 ASSYRIAN PRINCE IN FULL DRESS. 
 
 the brighter epochs of the Empire would have 
 done credit to the later states of the West. 
 The aptness and ability of the Assyrians in or- 
 ganizing, equipping, and training armies has 
 been proverbial for twenty centuries, and their 
 ^erce valor on the field of battle is recorded 
 wherever their history has been mentioned. 
 Only a knowledge of the means by which the 
 forces of nature are subordinated to the will of 
 man was lacking to give to the Assyrians the 
 precedence in military renown over all the 
 nations of antiquity except the Romans. The 
 greatness and glory of the people is fully 
 conceded by the bards of Israel, especially by 
 Isaiah and Ezekiel, whose writings are filled 
 with mingled praise and censure of that colos- 
 sal power which, under the similitude of a 
 lion, is represented as "devouring the prey 
 and tearing it asunder for his whelps." 
 
 The architecture of a non-literary people 
 is the best record of their grandeur. The 
 houses and cities which men build are com- 
 mensurate with their ambition. Great build- 
 ing springs not so much from sense and 
 necessity as from imagination and dreams — a 
 certain yearning to express in tangible form 
 the outlines of things seen by vision and the 
 inspiration of genius. Races without imagi- 
 nation live close to the ground. They crawl 
 N.— Vol. I— lo 
 
 into hovels. They sleep a gross and sensuous 
 sleep. They dream not of palace and city. 
 Without are tall, green trees, and white 
 clouds piled up mountainous, the arching dome 
 of heaven, and the glitter of the stars; but 
 these things react not on the dull senses of an 
 unimaginative people. Only in the spirit of 
 him who dreams of palms and fountains can 
 spring the desire, the will, to hew the airy 
 column, to rear the splendid edifice, to adorn 
 his abode and glorify the records of his race 
 with palace and temple and tomb. 
 
 In monumental grandeur Assyria stands 
 next to Egypt. The great cities of the Up- 
 per Tigris, though inferior in splendor to the 
 marvels of the Nile valley, were the admira- 
 tion of their own and after times. The exist- 
 ence of these renowned cities, albeit the dust 
 of centuries has settled on their ruins, proves 
 beyond a doubt the amazing vigor and intel- 
 lectual force of the race of men who built 
 them and gloried in their splendor. 
 
 Opposite the modern village of Mosul, on 
 the eastern bank of the Tigris, in latitude 36° 
 20' N. , lie the ruins of Nineveh, the capital of 
 
 THE REGION ABOUT NINEVEH. 
 
 the Assyrian Empire, and one of the great cit- 
 ies of the ancient world. The site is at present 
 marked by two remarkable mounds, the one 
 called Koyunjik and the other Nebbi-Yunus.
 
 158 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 These mounds are distant from each other a 
 little more than half a mile, and between 
 them flows the Khosr-Su, a small tributary of 
 the Tigris. The mounds are of vast propor- 
 tions. The Koyunjik covers an area of over 
 a hundred acres, and rises to the height of 
 ninety-five feet above the plain. The Nebbi- 
 Yunus has an area of forty acres and a height 
 of over a hundred feet. The mass of the 
 larger mound is so immense that, according 
 to careful estimates, it would require the con- 
 tinuous labor of twenty thousand men for a 
 period of six years to raise it to its present 
 proportions. The structure is ellipitical in 
 shape, rising in a gradual slope on one side 
 and abruptly on the other. This immense 
 artificial elevation was crowned in ancient 
 times with the palaces of the Assyrian kings, 
 and the ruins of these magnificent edifices 
 now lie imbedded in the surface. 
 
 The smaller, Nebbi-Yunus, is triangular in 
 shape, and is cleft in twain by a deep ravine 
 which, in the course of centuries, has been 
 washed through its central part. The western 
 half is known as Jonah's Tomb, and the east- 
 ern portion is used as a burying-ground by the 
 Turcomans and Kurds who have possession 
 of the site of the ancient city. This mound, 
 like the Koyunjik, was covered anciently with 
 public buildings and royal palaces. 
 
 Nineveh had a river front of about three 
 miles. This was guarded throughout with a 
 wall stretching along the river bank from the 
 upper to the lower limits of the city. The bed 
 of the Tigris, however, owing to a change in 
 the channel, now lies about a mile to the west 
 of the line of the ancient wall. This western 
 rampart embraced in its course both of the 
 mounds above referred to, so that originally 
 their site was on the bank of the river. The 
 northern wall runs back from the Tigris to the 
 distance of between one and two miles. The 
 eastern rampart is above three miles in length 
 and approaches to within about a thousand 
 yards of the river, which is reached by the 
 shortest of the four walls by which the city 
 was originally inclosed and defended. The 
 whole circuit of the walls was about eight 
 miles, and the area of the city thus included 
 by impregnable defenses was nearly a thou- 
 
 sand eight hundred acres. Many of the citiesj 
 of the East number from one hundred to two- 
 hundred inhabitants to the acre — an estimate 
 which would indicate a population for ancient 
 Nineveh, within the walls, of from one hun- 
 dred and eighty thousand to three hundred 
 and sixty thousand souls. Outside of the 
 defenses the city, no doubt, extended far to 
 the east and north, and in all probability be- 
 yond the river to the west.' 
 
 The dimensions of Nineveh have been 
 greatly overestimated. The discovery of th& 
 ruins of magnificent cities in the immediate^ 
 neighborhood of the capital has led many anti- 
 quarians to suppose that the whole district for 
 a distance of many miles was one immense 
 municipality. The space in which the remain* 
 of Khorsabad, Koyunjik, Nimrud, and Ke- 
 remles — the four great ruins of this region — 
 are found, is an oblong square, eighteen miles; 
 in length and twelve miles in breadth; and 
 there have not been wanting eminent scholars^ 
 and historians who have maintained that thi& 
 whole district was included in Nineveh. The 
 area thus described is about ten times that of 
 London, and it seems quite inconceivable that 
 so great a district should have been covered 
 by a single city. The researches of Layard 
 and others have shown quite conclusively that 
 the four ruins above referred to are really the= 
 remains of four distinct cities, and that only 
 one of these — Koyunjik — is included within 
 the limits of what was Nineveh. Neverthe- 
 less, so wide were the bounds of each, and so 
 far forth stretched the suburbs of the one 
 towards the other, that ancient travelers, such 
 as Diodorus, might well have considered the- 
 whole region as one vast city. In passing- 
 from the one to the other, however, there isi 
 always found a considerable space unmarked 
 by ruins, and the bricks and tablets prove that 
 each city had its own name and institutions^ 
 
 ' If we are to suppose that the part of Nineveh, 
 inchided within the walls bore about the same pro- 
 portion to the whole as did Roma Quadrata to the 
 imperial city, it is safe to conclude that the above- 
 estimates of the extent and population of the cap- 
 ital of Assyria are greatly below the truth. In. 
 most cases the walled outline of old cities included 
 but a fraction of the district covered with build- 
 ings and thronged with human life.
 
 ASSYRIA.—PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 159 
 
 The modern Nimrud is called Calah in the 
 inscriptions of that locality; Khorsabad is 
 written as Dur-Sargina, or City of Sargon ; 
 while the bricks of Keremles show that the 
 ancient name of that place was the City of 
 God.^ It is only the ruin of Koyunjik and 
 the neighboring remains known as Nebbi- 
 Yunus that can be properly identified as the 
 capital of the Assyrian Empire. 
 
 The wall which inclosed Nineveh was of 
 enormous proportions. Xenophon describes 
 it as being fifty feet in thickness and a hun- 
 dred and fifty feet high. Diodorus says that 
 three chariots could drive abreast on the top; 
 and Layard admits that the ruins of the ram- 
 parts are so vast as to justify the description 
 given by the ancient historians. According 
 to the details furnished by Xenophon the first 
 fifty feet of the wall ^-^■, - 
 
 was constructed of hewn 
 blocks of fossil-bearing 
 limestone, polished to 
 smoothness on the out- 
 side, and finished above 
 in a series of battle- 
 ments. At this point 
 the thickness of the 
 wall was diminished, 
 and thence carried up 
 with sun-dried bricks. 
 At the top the structure 
 
 was again broken into ornamental battlements 
 and towers. 
 
 At irregular intervals the rampart of the 
 city was pierced with openings for gates. The 
 most important of these was about the middle 
 of the northern wall. Here a great gateway, 
 fifty feet in height, entered the city. At the 
 outer and inner openings stood colossal figures 
 carved in stone — bulls with the heads of men. 
 The wall above was surmounted with lofty 
 towers and others of less elevation were raised 
 
 at intervals along the summit of the rampart. 
 The gateway itself was provided, in the center 
 of the wall, with vast recesses or chambers on 
 either side, in which bodies of armed men 
 might be stationed to repel attack. The en- 
 trance was guarded by triple gates, and was 
 arched above with solid masonry ornamented 
 with reliefs. The floor of the gateway was 
 paved with flags of limestone, and upon these 
 slabs are seen to the present day the marks 
 made by the wheels of the war-cnariots of 
 Assyria as they went forth to conquest. 
 
 Great as were the walls that surrounded 
 Nineveh the defenses were still further in- 
 creased by a barrier of water on all sides. 
 On the west, along the whole extent of the 
 city, lay the Tigris; and just outside of the 
 short wall on the south a natural tributary 
 
 SITE OF NINEVEH, 
 
 ^The statement of the author of the Book of 
 Jonah that there were in Nineveh one hundred 
 and twenty thousand people who did not know 
 their right hand from the left, is perhaps a meta- 
 phor intended to describe the extreme ignorance 
 or moral blindness of the whole population. 
 Taken literally the statement would indicate 
 either an enormous population or a dense igno- 
 rance inconsistent with the building of great cities. 
 
 made access from without impracticable. 
 Around the remaining two sides, and close 
 to the rampart, a great moat, filled with water 
 from the Khosr-Su, hindered all approach.* 
 On the north side of the city, and beyond the 
 wall and moat, are the remains of a fortress; 
 and far beyond thb eastern and southern ram- 
 parts the lines of ancient circumvallation and 
 detached earthworks are discoverable. No 
 city of antiquity was protected by a more elab- 
 orate and well devised system of defenses than 
 was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. 
 
 ^ In one place a moat, two hundred feet broad 
 and of great depth, is carried through silicious 
 conglomerate for a distance of two miles, and on 
 either side of the ditch, which was filled with 
 water from the Khosr, was a strong and high wall, 
 rising on the outside, even at the present day, to 
 the height of a hundred feet from the bottom of 
 the moat.
 
 160 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Of the internal structure of Nineveh the 
 ancient historians have given us no elaborate 
 account; nor are the ruins in such a condi- 
 tion as to indicate with any considerable pre- 
 cision the character of the city. The lines of 
 the principal streets have not as yet been 
 traced. The sites of the great buildings with 
 which it is certain the city abounded have 
 only in a few instances been identified. The 
 warlike kings whose conquering soldiery made 
 the earth tremble and the splendid edifices 
 wherewith they adorned their capital have gone 
 down to dust together. No doubt the elegant 
 and princely parts of Nineveh lay along the 
 Tigris, in the western district of the city. 
 Here are the two chief ruins of Koyunjik and 
 Nebbi-Yunus, on which were the palaces of 
 the kings, and here has been exhumed the 
 larger part of those interesting remains by 
 which the life, manners, and language of the 
 Assyrians have been so richly illustrated. 
 
 About thirty miles down the Tigris from 
 Nineveh are the ruins of Nirarud, the ancient 
 Calah. The remains are found on the east 
 bank of the river, a short distance above the 
 confluence of the Greater Zab. Calah Avas 
 the second city of the Empire. The ruins at 
 present cover about a thousand acres, being 
 more than one-half as great in extent as those 
 of Nineveh. 
 
 It is evidenced by the ruins, moreover, 
 that the Tigris has carried away a part of the 
 remains, and the small tributaries of this re- 
 gion have also reduced the limits of the 
 ancient city. Calah, like Nineveh, was sur- 
 rounded with a great wall, which was sur- 
 mounted with towers and pierced at intervals 
 with gateways. The general shape was rec- 
 tangular, but on the southern side the limits 
 of the city have been so obliterated by the 
 and of time as to be no longer distinguish- 
 able. As in the case of Nineveh, the Tigris 
 has, on the west, receded from the rampart 
 which it once skirted until a low-lying plain a 
 jnile in width stretches between the river and 
 the wall. On this western side of the ancient 
 city, and overlooking the bed of the Tigris, 
 was an elevated plateau, raised artificially to 
 the height of forty feet and covering an area 
 of sixty acres. On this mound stood the 
 
 royal palaces, and it is in this quarter thai 
 the antiquarian has made his most interesting 
 discoveries. The platform itself was built of 
 successive layers of sun-dried bricks, and the 
 edges of the mound were protected by ram- 
 parts of solid masonry. These were ascended 
 from the lower parts of the city by flights of 
 steps, inclined planes, and staircases of stone. 
 Nearly the whole of the elevation is covered 
 with ruins and relics, the debris of fallen pal- 
 aces and temples. 
 
 Calah was seen and described by Xenophon, 
 who passed that way with the retreating 
 Greeks. He speaks of it as a vast deserted 
 city, formerly inhabited by the Medes. The 
 walls are described as twenty-five feet in 
 thickness, a hundred feet high, and nearly 
 seven miles in length. The foundation of this 
 extended rampart was of limestone to the 
 height of twenty feet, and the upper portion 
 of burnt bricks. Xenophon also mentions the 
 remarkable tower or pyramid which stands at 
 the north-western angle of the elevation here 
 described, rising in its present condition above 
 the surrounding country to the height of a 
 hundred and forty feet. It is the most strik- 
 ing object of all the remains in the neighbor- 
 hood of Nineveh. On this summit originally 
 stood what was perhaps the greatest and most 
 splendid of all the tower-temples of Assyria — 
 a structure, as is shown by the foundation, 
 about a hundred and sixty-seven feet square 
 at the base, and rising in a succession of di- 
 minishing rectangles to the height of fully two 
 hundred feet. 
 
 Ascending the Khosr-Su from Nineveh to 
 a distance of nine miles, the traveler comes 
 to the village of Khorsabad, the site of Dur- 
 Sargina, another buried city. The ruins 
 here, though less in extent than those of the 
 capital, are of almost equal magnificence. 
 Here again we have the rectangular rampart 
 drawn around the city, with the four sides 
 thereof facing the cardinal points of the 
 compass. Here, too, are the artificial eleva- 
 tions or flat-topped mounds from which the 
 proud palaces of kings and princes looked 
 down upon the city and surrounding country.^ 
 
 ' It appears tliat Khorsabad, Nimrud, and one 
 or two other cities in the immediate vicinity of
 
 ASSYRIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 161 
 
 The wall of Khorsabad is about two thousand 
 yards in extent on each side, and is less mas- 
 sive than that drawn around the capital and 
 Nimrud. About the middle of the north-west 
 side and occupying a part of the line of the 
 rampart was the usual palace-mound, on which 
 stood the principal buildings of the city. 
 
 About fifteen miles due east from Nineveh 
 are the ruins of Keremles, the fourth of those 
 cities which antiquarians have been disposed 
 to include within the limits of the capital. 
 If such a conjecture could be entertained, it 
 would indicate an area for the entire city of 
 not less than two hundred and sixteen square 
 miles! Certain it is that at Keremles, as well 
 as at Calah and Khorsabad, the ruins are in- 
 dicative of royal residences and the presence 
 of princely modes of life. 
 
 Passing from these cities immediately asso- 
 ciated with the capital, the next in importance 
 among the Assyrian ruins are those of Asshiir, 
 marked by the modern village of Kileh-Sher- 
 gat. The site is on the west bank of the Ti- 
 gris, about seventy miles below Nineveh. 
 From this point southward the remains begin 
 to partake of the peculiarities of Babylonia, 
 and to be no longer distinctly Assyrian. Like 
 the greater cities to the north, Asshur was 
 quadrangular. The lines of the walls are still 
 traceable across the plain, and the mounds 
 within the ramparts are of the same general 
 character as those already described. One of 
 the palace-mounds within the inclosure of the 
 city is two and a-half miles in circumference, 
 
 Nineveh, were a kind of suburban capitals, to 
 which, perhaps, at certain seasons of the year, 
 the Assyrian kings betook themselves for a tem- 
 porary residence. The style of the palace ruins 
 in four or five of these cities is unmistakably 
 royal, indicating that they were built and occu- 
 pied by kings or princes of the highest rank. 
 
 and is raised in some places as much as a 
 hundred feet above the plain. This stupen- 
 dous platform is covered with heaps of rub- 
 bish, fragments of hewn stone, masses of 
 burnt brick, shattered remains of unknown 
 structures, the debris and dust of ages. 
 
 Besides the extensive ruin of Kileh-Sher^ 
 gat, not many sites of ancient cities have 
 been discovered west of the Tigris. The an- 
 cient Nazibina has been identified with the 
 modern Nisibin. In like manner, the town 
 of Diarbekr, on the Upper Tigris, is thought 
 to mark the place of the ancient Amidi. 
 Passing to the east, in the region between the 
 Greater and Lesser Zab, the modern Arbil is 
 easily identified with the ancient Arbela, the 
 scene of one of Alexander's great battles. In 
 the vicinity of Nineveh several villages — Tar- 
 bisa, Selamiyeh, and Senn — are thought to 
 cover the ground once occupied by important 
 towns and cities. Many other places, espe- 
 cially in Mesopotamia, are known only ap- 
 proximately or not at all. 
 
 The names of a multitude of cities, towns, 
 and localities have been preserved, and 
 their sites in several instances determined 
 with some degree of certainty. After the 
 conquest of Assyria by the Medes, the cities, 
 particularly those west of the Tigris, fell rap- 
 idly into decay. The building activity of the 
 nation which had wrought such wonders was 
 suddenly paralyzed, and the splendor of fane 
 and palace was soon hidden in the smoke of 
 devastation, or dimmed and defiled by the 
 dust that rolled in clouds after the conquering 
 legions of a foreign soldiery. 
 
 Of the great deeds of the Assyrians, con- 
 sidered as a people — of their renown in war 
 and progress in peace — it is now appropriate 
 to speak.
 
 162 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Chaptkr XIII.— Chronoloqy and Annals. 
 
 SSYRIA was colonized 
 from Chaldsea. Accord- 
 ing to Genesis, Asshur 
 went forth from the land 
 of Shinar and builded 
 Nineveh. It appears clear 
 that at a certain epoch 
 the spirit of colonization prevailed in Lower 
 Mesopotamia. One company under the lead- 
 ership of Terah left Ur, and settled in Haran. 
 Another colony — progenitors of the Phoeni- 
 cians — departed from Chaldsea, and established 
 themselves on the shores of the Mediterra- 
 nean. A third and more important migration 
 was conducted up the Tigris, and choosing 
 the region afterwards known as Adiabene, 
 laid the foundations of Asshur — so called from 
 the tribal name of the colony. Around this 
 city as a center and germ soon grew the do- 
 minions of an independent province, widening 
 at first into a tributary kingdom and after- 
 wards into a vast and aggressive empire. 
 
 Among the ruins of Kileh-Shergat and 
 other Assyrian cities are found unmistakable 
 traces of the Chaldsean or Babylonian origin 
 of the people. The oldest bricks are stamped 
 with Babylonian characters, and bear witness 
 to the fact that the country at that time was 
 under the rule of provincial governors. ' An 
 important tablet also contains the proof of the 
 
 coexistence of Chaldsean and Assyrian kinga 
 and of their relations by treaty. The names 
 of several monarchs of the most ancient times 
 are thus preserved, and a dim outline given 
 of the royal families, their intermarriages and 
 lines of descent. The elements of a meager 
 and imperfect history of primitive Assyria are 
 thus exhumed from the dust. 
 
 Data for establishing a trustworthy chro- 
 nology of the earlier epochs are vague and 
 fragmentary. Conjecture and right reason, 
 rather than ascertained facts, have been called 
 in to fill out the broken outline of the provin- 
 cial and kingly periods of Assyrian history. 
 By this means a sketch, not wholly imaginary 
 but falling far short of authenticity, has been 
 produced of the movements of civil society in 
 Assyria before the establishment of the Em- 
 pire. After the accession of Tiglathi-Adar ' at 
 the beginning of the fourteenth century B. C , 
 the scheme of chronology may be fairly re- 
 garded as established on historical foundations. 
 Before that period all dates in Assyrian history 
 are the result of conjecture and hypothesis. 
 
 Gathering together the best results that 
 have thus far been attained for the construc- 
 tion of a chronological outline, the following 
 table may be accepted as the nearest approach 
 to historic accuracy which is attainable in the 
 present state of knowledge: 
 
 Provincial 
 Period, 
 
 Early 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Bel-Sumili-Kapi, 
 Irba-Vul, . . . 
 
 Asshur-Iddin- Akhi, 
 
 Asshur-Bil-Nisi-Su, 
 
 Buzur-Asshur, 
 Asshur-Upalit, 
 Bel-Lush, . . 
 Pud-Il, . . . 
 Vul-Lush, . . 
 Shalmaneser T, 
 
 Provincial governors sent out 
 from Babylonia. Names pre 
 served on fragments of tablets 
 found in Assyria. 
 
 / Contemporary with Purna- \ 
 I Puriyas, King of Chaldsea, j 
 
 Successor to preceding, 
 
 Successor to preceding, 
 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 
 Son of preceding, . • . 
 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 
 Before the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century B. C. 
 
 About 1440 B. C, to 1420 B. C, 
 
 1420 
 1400 
 1380 
 1360 
 1340 
 1320 
 
 1400 
 1380 
 1360 
 1340 
 1320 
 1300 
 
 ' Frequently called Tiglathi-Mn — Nin being another name for Adar.
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 163 
 
 ; The Great , 
 Empire. ' 
 
 Later 
 Kingdom. 
 
 COMMENTS. 
 
 Tiglathi-Adar (Nin), 
 
 Bel-Kiidur-Uzur, . 
 Nin-Pala-Zira, . . 
 Asshur-Dayan I., 
 Mutaggil-Nebo, . 
 Asshur-Ris-Ilim, . 
 Tiglath-Pileser I., 
 Asshur-Bil-Kala, . 
 Shamas-Vul I., . 
 
 Asshur-Mazur, 
 
 Asshur-Dayan II., . 
 Vul-Lush II., . . . 
 Tiglathi-Nin II., . . 
 Asshur-Izir-Pal, . . 
 Shalmaneser II., . . 
 Shamas-Vul II., . . 
 Vul-Lush III., . . . 
 Shalmaneser III., . 
 Asshur-Dayan III., 
 Asshur-Lush, . . . 
 Tiglath-Pileser II., . 
 Shalmaneser IV., . 
 
 Sargon, 
 
 Sennacherib, . . . . 
 Esar-Haddon, . . . 
 Asshur-Bani-Pal, . . 
 Asshur-Emid-Ilin, . 
 
 Son of preceding, 
 
 A break in the succession, . 
 
 Successor to preceding, . 
 Son of preceding, .... 
 Son of preceding, .... 
 Son of preceding, .... 
 Son of preceding, .... 
 Son of preceding, .... 
 Brother of preceding, . . 
 A break in the succession, 
 
 A break in the succession. 
 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . • . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Successor to preceding. 
 Successor to preceding. 
 Successor to preceding. 
 
 Successor to preceding. 
 Successor to preceding. 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Son of preceding, . . . 
 Successor to preceding, 
 
 Abou 
 
 t 1300 B. C. 
 
 to 1280 B. C. 
 
 
 1230 
 
 " 
 
 1210 
 
 « 
 
 
 1210 
 1190 
 1170 
 
 :: 
 
 1190 
 1170 
 1150 
 
 jj 
 
 
 1150 
 
 " 
 
 1130 
 
 u 
 
 
 1130 
 
 K 
 
 1110 
 
 (I 
 
 
 1110 
 
 <( 
 
 1090 
 
 u 
 
 
 1090 
 
 <l 
 
 1070 
 
 
 
 930 
 
 <( 
 
 911 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 911 
 
 (( 
 
 889 
 
 (( 
 
 
 889 
 
 (< 
 
 883 
 
 (( 
 
 
 883 
 
 <( 
 
 858 
 
 (1 
 
 
 858 
 
 (< 
 
 823 
 
 <( 
 
 
 823 
 
 (( 
 
 810 
 
 << 
 
 
 810 
 
 (( 
 
 781 
 
 (< 
 
 
 781 
 
 <( 
 
 771 
 
 <( 
 
 
 771 
 
 U 
 
 753 
 
 " 
 
 
 753 
 
 (( 
 
 745 
 
 (( 
 
 
 745 
 
 <( 
 
 727 
 
 << 
 
 
 727 
 
 (< 
 
 722 
 
 (< 
 
 
 722 
 
 (< 
 
 705 
 
 « 
 
 
 705 
 
 <( 
 
 681 
 
 <( 
 
 
 681 
 
 <( 
 
 668 
 
 << 
 
 
 668 
 
 t( 
 
 626 
 
 (( 
 
 
 626 
 
 " 
 
 625 
 
 n 
 
 On the above scheme it may be remarked 
 that the dates are certainly established only 
 as far back as the reign of Asshur-Dayan II. , 
 in 930 B. C. From this time downwards to 
 the overthrow of the kingdom under Asshur- 
 Emid-Hin, a period of three hundred and four 
 years, the list embraces fifteen monarchs, 
 ■which gives an average of twenty years to 
 •each sovereign. Applying the same average 
 to the seventeen preceding rulers, we find the 
 ■establishment of the early kingdom to date 
 back to about the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury B. C. But it will readily be confessed 
 that the assignment of twenty years to each 
 of this long line of monarchs is no better than 
 a rough approximation to the truth. So far 
 as the lists themselves, and the order of suc- 
 <;ession, and in general the relations of de- 
 scent, are concerned, a tolerable degree of cer- 
 tainty has been attained, but the dates of all the 
 earlier period are tentative and conjectural. 
 
 In the second place, it should be remem- 
 bered that no consecutive annals of the so- 
 called Early Kingdom exist. True it is that 
 a great and aggressive empire like that of 
 
 Tiglathi-Adar can not spring into being at 
 once. Previous progress in civilization, with 
 special reference to the forms and modes of 
 administration, must have been reached by 
 stages slow and painful before the nation can 
 display itself with regal splendor or imperial 
 power. Again, it is shown by analogy that a 
 race of kings — natural leaders and rulers by 
 preeminence — generally precedes the pro- 
 nounced expression of nationality in the 
 history of peoples. In the case of Assyria 
 we have the names and order of succession 
 of seven such rulers; and even before the 
 first of these a broken list of provincial chief- 
 tains or governors has been preserved. The 
 names, if not the deeds, of these primitive 
 heroes of the Assyrian dawn are as real as 
 those of Nuraitor and Romulus. 
 
 A few glimpses of the historic life of As- 
 syria are caught as far away as the times of 
 the earlier kings. No account, indeed, has 
 been preserved of the revolt or peaceable 
 secession by which the Assyrian provinces 
 became independent of the mother kingdom 
 of the South. But the time came when the
 
 164 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 growing people about Asshur were not longer 
 dominated by Chaldsean authority. A royal 
 family sprang up in the North having estab- 
 lished relations with the princes of Babylon. 
 
 Especially did Asshur-Upallit, the third of 
 the early kings, cultivate the friendship and 
 favor of the Southern monarchy. He gave a 
 daughter in marriage to Purna-Puriyas, the 
 Chald?ean, and the son of this union became 
 king after the death of his father. A revolt 
 presently ensued, the subjects of this grandson 
 of Purna rebelling against him until the As- 
 syrian king marched an army into Lower 
 Mesopotamia, overthrew the usurper, Nazi- 
 Bugas, and put another son of Purna on the 
 throne. The whole transaction shows that the 
 rulers of Chaldisa and Assyria regarded each 
 other as equals, and were capable of acting 
 from the same large motives which determine 
 the policy of rulers in times of the most ad- 
 vanced civilization. 
 
 After Upallit for a period of sixty years — 
 covering the reigns of Bel-Lush, Pud-Il, and 
 VuL-LusH — nothing except the names of the 
 kings is known of the civil history of Assyria. 
 The bricks of Asshur show that that city was 
 still the capital ; neither Calah nor Nineveh 
 had yet been built. 
 
 In the next reign, that of Shalmaneser L, 
 the seat of power was transferred further north 
 and to the eastern bank of the Tigris. The 
 whole region on both banks of the river was 
 now dominated by the Assyrians. The semi- 
 peninsular and easily defended district be- 
 tween the Tigris and the Greater Zab was 
 chosen as a site for the new city of Calah or 
 Nimrud. This delightful locality became 
 known as Aturia, or Assyria Proper, and re- 
 mained through many reigns the center of 
 influence in the Empire. From this city the 
 first conquering armies of Assyria were led 
 forth by Shalmaneser to enlarge and strengthen 
 the borders of his dominions on the north. 
 Successful expeditions made the king's arms 
 known on the Upper Tigris where towns were 
 conquered and colonies planted, and the royal 
 power magnified in the presence of the barba- 
 rians. It is the epoch of the first Assyrian 
 wars. 
 
 Tiglathi-Adar, son and successor of Shal- 
 
 maneser, is regarded by common fame as th& 
 founder of the Empire. Herodotus bears wit- 
 ness to the fact that the supremacy which had 
 hitherto been Babylonian became Assyrian. 
 The spirit of conquest became dominant in the 
 Northern kingdom. After a successful war in 
 Lower Mesopotamia, Tiglathi-Adar subscribed 
 himself as conqueror of Babylon. He even 
 established his capital in the subject metrop- 
 olis, and therefrom issued his edicts during the 
 greater part of his reign. Here, too, a branch 
 of his family continued in authority for nearly 
 a century. At times these Assyrian vice-re- 
 gents of Babylonia were in revolt against the 
 Ninevite dynasty. For a season the inde- 
 pendence of Chaldsea is partially restored or 
 again lost as some more ambitious monarch 
 of the Empire would turn his arms to the 
 south. This condition of semi-dependence 
 continued for five or six centuries; though 
 there was a never a time after Tiglathi's 
 conquest when Assyria was not regarded as 
 the dominant power between the Armenian 
 mountains and the Persian Gulf. The race 
 ascendency of the Empire during the whole 
 period from the fourteenth to the seventh 
 century B. C, is clearly marked in the prev- 
 alence of Semitic names and Assyrian inscrip- 
 tions at Babylon and throughout Chaldsea. 
 Nor does it appear that at any time the old 
 Chaldsean dynasty was able to reassert itself 
 successfully against the rulers of Nineveh. 
 
 After the death of Tiglathi-AoAR the succes- 
 sion was broken for a period of a half cent- 
 ury. Whether Bel-Kubur-Uzur, whose name 
 next appears on the tablets, was a relative of 
 the preceding monarch or the founder of a 
 new dynasty has not been determined. After 
 Bel-Kudur, however, the succession is again 
 unbroken till the reign of Shamas-Vul I., in 
 1070 B. C. 
 
 The reign of King Bel-Kudur is chiefly 
 noted for his disastrous war with Babylon. 
 The viceroy of that city and province raised 
 the standard of rebellion against his master, 
 who, in 1210, went out to war with his re- 
 fractory vassal, and was himself defeated and 
 slain in battle. Vul-Baladan, the Babylon 
 prince, now inflamed with victory, organized 
 an expedition against Nineveh, and proceed-
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 165 
 
 ing thither was met near Asshiir and annihi- 
 lated by the army of Nin-Pala-Zira, who had 
 succeeded Bel-Kudur on the throne of Assyria. 
 
 Asshur-Dayan, the third Assyrian emperor, 
 was blest with peace. First of all he marched 
 into Babylonia and restored that province to 
 order. He next busied himself with the de- 
 molition of the old and half-ruined temple of 
 Vul at Asshur — a work so vast that the recon- 
 struction of the edifice was not undertaken 
 for the space of sixty years. 
 
 Of Mutaggil-Nebo, the fourth from Tig- 
 lathi-Adar, only a single record has been pre- 
 served, and in that we are told that "Asshur, 
 the great Lord, aided him according to the 
 ■wishes of his heart, and established him in 
 strength in the government of Assyria." With 
 the reign of Asshur-Ris-Ilem, the next in 
 succession, the military spirit was revived, and 
 an inscription records that the monarch was a 
 powerful king, the subduer of rebellious coun- 
 tries, and the conqueror of all the accursed. 
 He waged several foreign wars, carrying his 
 arms — if one tradition is to be credited — as 
 far west as the Mediterranean. Certain it is 
 that he made a great campaign against the 
 Babylonians, whose viceroy Nebuchadnezzar — 
 first sovereign of that illustrious name — had 
 raised the standard of revolt and led his rebel- 
 lious subjects up the Diyaleh, and along the 
 foot-hills of the Zagros towards the Assyrian 
 capital. The invasion was met by the king's 
 army and beaten back, but Nebuchadnezzar's 
 forces again gathered head and advanced across 
 the open plain until they were met by Ris- 
 Ilim's generals and completely routed. Forty 
 chariots and a banner remained in the hands 
 of the victors. 
 
 With the accession of Tiglath-Pileser I. 
 the details of Assyrian history become more 
 abundant. The new monarch came to the 
 throne about 1130 B. C. The story of his 
 military exploits and civil career is elaborately 
 recorded on two cylinders, which are preserved 
 in the British Museum. The record is made by 
 the king himself, and making allowance for the 
 egotism which has always characterized royal 
 autobiography, and the bombast peculiar to 
 oriental style, the inscription may be accepted 
 as a true history of Tiglath-Pileser's reign. 
 
 This ancient chronicle begins with a 
 lengthy and formal invocation to the gods of 
 Asshur, by whose help and protection the 
 king's greatness had been won and maintained. 
 Then follows a detailed account of the five 
 great campaigns which he had conducted 
 against foreign nations. The first of these 
 was directed to the north against the Mos- 
 chians, at the foot of the Taurus. For fifty 
 years the tribes on this skirt of the Empire 
 had neglected to pay the tribute which had 
 been imposed on them by previous rulers. 
 Now they were subdued, and the tribute- 
 money regularly exacted. Another rebellious 
 Assyrian dependency, called Kasiyara in t^'^ 
 language of the inscription, was also subjected 
 with a great slaughter of armies and overthrow 
 of towns and cities. The second campaign 
 was waged through the same provinces, and 
 was chiefly directed against the Kaskians and 
 Urumians — two tribes which had been making 
 depredations on the Assyrian frontier. These 
 also were overpowered. The wealth of the 
 nation, including one hundred and twenty 
 chariots of war, was transferred by the con- 
 queror to his own capital. Turning to the 
 east, the armies of Tiglath-Pileser next crossed 
 the Lower Zab, and carried the banners of 
 Assyria to the foot of the Zagros. 
 
 In the third year of his wars the king led 
 his forces westward to the Euphrates, against 
 the tribes called the Nairi. This semi-barbar- 
 ous people had never been subjected to As- 
 syrian authority. In Mesopotamia the prog- 
 ress of the king was not seriously resisted, 
 but west of the Euphrates the Nai'ri gathered 
 in great strength, and fought bravely in de- 
 fense of their country. The discipline of the 
 royal armies, however, soon triumphed over 
 native valor, and the scattered tribes were 
 pursued as far west as the Mediterranean. 
 Great spoils were taken, and a tribute exacted 
 amounting to two hundred cattle and twelve 
 hundred horses. 
 
 The third campaign led to a fourth. The 
 Aramaeans, whose country skirted the Eu- 
 phrates from Is to Carchemish, attracted the 
 attention of Tiglath-Pileser, and drew him, 
 already heated with conquest, into an invasion. 
 This was the most brilliant and successful of
 
 166 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 his wars. He swept through the long, narrow 
 territory of the Aramseaus for a distance of 
 two hundred and fifty miles. Six cities were 
 captured, and the whole country ravaged to 
 its northernmost limits. The Assyrian army 
 then drew back to the capital, bearing vast 
 quantities of booty. 
 
 In the next year a fifth and last campaign 
 was conducted in the country between the 
 Oreater Zab and the Eastern Khabour — "the 
 land of Muzr." Here the spurs of the Zagros 
 rendered military movements difficult, and the 
 courage of the mountaineers of Kurdistan was 
 conspicuous in defense of their fastnesses ; but 
 the king's army assaulted the strongholds and 
 put down all resistance. Arin, the capital, 
 was taken, and a tribute was imposed as the 
 condition of peace. The Comari, also, a neigh- 
 boring nation that had lent aid to the Kurds 
 in their recent hostilities, were next punished 
 for their part in the war. Their army of twenty 
 thousand men was routed, and their castles and 
 cities taken and burnt. At the close of the 
 chronicle of his exploits the king sums up as 
 the result of his great campaigns forty-two 
 conquered countries, extending from the head- 
 waters of the Greater Zab to the Euphrates, 
 and beyond to the west as far as the Mediter- 
 ranean. Cities, towns, castles, kings and peo- 
 ples had been subdued and reorganized " under 
 one government" — the imperial government 
 of Assyria. 
 
 The great exploits of Tiglath-Pileser as a 
 hunter of wild beasts are likewise thought 
 worthy to be recorded. Wild cattle had he 
 pursued with his arrows. Nearly a thousand 
 lions had he destroyed while going to and fro 
 on his conquests. Some of the ferocious 
 creatures of the mountains and plains he had 
 confined in cages and dragged back, bound 
 with thongs, to the capital. There did the 
 royal keepers show them alive as the indubit- 
 able proofs of the king's prowess and of the 
 favor of Nin and Nergal, who gave the ad- 
 vantage in conflict, and guided the royal arrow 
 in its flight. 
 
 Great buildings also attested the enterprise 
 of the king. The gods of Asshur-Ishtar, Bel, 
 and n were honored with new and magnifi- 
 cent fanes. Mention has already been made 
 
 of the demolition by Asshur-Dayan of the 
 ancient temple of Anu and Vul, which, after 
 remaining for six and a half centuries the 
 wonder of the capital, had fallen into ruin. 
 Neither Asshur-Dayan himself, nor Nebo, nor 
 Ris-Ilim had been able to restore the structure 
 to its former grandeur. It remained for the 
 victorious Tiglath-Pileser, enriched by con- 
 quest and inflamed with pride, to rear again 
 in pristine splendor the barbaric temple of 
 the gods of his fathers.' The wars of Tiglath- 
 Pileser were mostly waged with tribes which 
 had just emerged from barbarism. The half- 
 civilized peoples whose countries skirted the 
 dominions of Assyria on the west, the north, 
 and the east, were but poorly able to cope 
 with the well-drilled legions of Pileser's army. 
 Only in one direction was there a kingdom 
 possessing sufficient political unity to stand on 
 equal terms with the conquering monarch of 
 Asshur. On the south lay Babylon, old and 
 well-organized, and of ancient renown in arms. 
 In the earlier years of his reign, and even 
 
 * As a specimen of the royal style, the follow- 
 ing somewhat vainglorious account of the rebuild- 
 ing of the temple of Anu and Vul, as given in 
 Tiglath-Pileser's inscription, is appended : " In 
 the beginning of my reign, Anu and Vul, the 
 great gods, my lords, guardians of my steps, gave 
 me a command to repair this their shrine. So I 
 made bricks ; I leveled the earth ; I took the di- 
 mensions; I laid down the foundation upon a 
 mass of strong rock. This place, throughout its 
 whole extent, I paved with bricks in set order ; 
 fifty feet deep I prepared the ground : and upon 
 this substructure I laid the foundation of the 
 temple of Anu and Vul. From its foundation to 
 its roof I built it better than it was before. I also 
 built two lofty towers in honor of their noble god- 
 ships, and the holy place, a spacious hall, I con- 
 secrated for the convenience of their worshipers, 
 and to accommodate their votaries who were nu- 
 merous as the stars of heaven. I repaired and 
 built and completed my work. Outside the tem- 
 ple I fashioned every thing with the same care 
 as inside. The mound of earth on which it was 
 built I enlarged like the firmament of the rising 
 stars, and I beautified the entire building. Its 
 towers I raised up to heaven, and its roofs I built 
 entirely of brick. An inviolable shrine for their 
 noble godships I laid down near at hand. Anu 
 and Vul, the great gods, I glorified inside the 
 shrine. I set them up in their honored purity, 
 and the hearts of their noble godships I de- 
 lighted." — Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, Vol. 
 II., pp. 69-70.
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 167 
 
 during his great campaigns, the relations be- 
 tween Tiglath-Pileser's government and the 
 viceroyalty of Babylon continued friendly ; 
 but after his other wars were completed, and 
 he had for a while devoted his energies to 
 works of peace, the king's belligerent disposi- 
 tion broke out in an invasion of Chaldsea. 
 
 He first led his army into the northern prov- 
 inces, and for two years laid waste the coun- 
 try. The two Sipparas were taken, and Kurri- 
 Oalzu, and Opis on the Tigris. Finally Bab- 
 ylon itself was besieged and captured, after 
 which the royal army began to withdraw up 
 the valley of the Euphrates, taking several 
 cities on the march, and meeting but feeble 
 resistance. No sooner, however, had the As- 
 syrian forces departed from Babylon than 
 Merodach-Iddin, the viceroy of the kingdom, 
 gathered an array and began a vigorous pur- 
 suit. Hanging on Tig.ath-Pileser's rear, he 
 gained several advantages, insomuch that the 
 Assyrian march was converted into a retreat. 
 An assault was made on the king's camp, and 
 the gods of Asshur were captured and borne 
 away in triumph to Babylon, where they were 
 kept, to the shame of the Ninevites, for more 
 than four hundred years. Neither Tiglath- 
 Pileser himself nor any of his successors was 
 able to retake the idols which the king had 
 tome with him through all his conquests, and 
 •which had thus become a part of the fame 
 of Assyria. 
 
 About the close of the twelfth century 
 B. C, Tiglath-Pileser was succeeded on the 
 throne by his son, Asshur-Bil-Kala. Of this 
 prince and his reign not very much is known. 
 The Babylonian difficulties which had for sev- 
 eral generations afflicted the kings of Assyria, 
 again broke out in the reign of Bil-Kala. 
 Shapik-Zira, prince of Babylon, following the 
 example of his father, Iddin-Akhi, revolted, 
 and the Assyrian monarch made an effort to 
 subdue him, but with what success is uncer- 
 tain. There are some evidences also that Bil- 
 Kala devoted his energies in part to the relig- 
 ious enterprises which had characterized the 
 time of his father. The temples, however, do 
 not bear any distinctive marks of this prince's 
 fame or ambition. He was succeeded on the 
 throne by his younger brother, Shamas-Vul, 
 
 by whom a temple was built at Nineveh. 
 Besides this fact nothing is known of the 
 events of his reign. It is a time of decadence 
 in the history of Assyria. For two centuries — 
 from the close of the reign of Bil-Kala to the 
 accession of Tiglathi-Nin, in B. C. 889 — there 
 is an almost total blank in the annals of the 
 Empire. Only the names of the kings (and 
 but a few of these) have been preserved to indi- 
 cate the outline of events and the ebb and flow 
 of power. 
 
 The continued existence of a single do- 
 minion, with its capital at Asshur, was of 
 itself an important fact in ancient history. 
 The families of the Assyrian kings and nobles 
 became well established. The Assyrian stock 
 was the most notable in Western Asia. The 
 princesses of this line were sought in marriage 
 by the illustrious sovereigns of Egypt, and 
 the kings of the surrounding nations nearly 
 all courted the favor of an alliance with the 
 House of Nineveh. As the result of such 
 unions Assyrian names begin to appear in the 
 royal families of the circumjacent kingdoms. 
 For when has the mother forgotten to call her 
 child by the name of her father or brother? 
 
 Passing over the undated reign of Asshuk- 
 Mazur and the obscure times of Asshur- 
 Dayan II. and Vul-Lush II., we come, with the 
 accession of Tiglathi-Nin II. , to another dawn 
 in Assyrian history. The reign of this second 
 Nin was brief and inglorious, and his name 
 and place in the history of his country are 
 only preserved in a single inscription. Not 
 so, however, with his son and successor, the 
 distinguished Asshur-Izir-Pal, who came to 
 the throne in B. C. 883. His accession marks 
 the beginning of a great renaissance in the 
 art, learning, and political development of 
 Assyria. Whether in warlike vigor or civil 
 enterprise, this monarch stands preeminent 
 among his contemporaries. In the first six 
 years of his reign he waged no fewer than ten 
 campaigns against the surrounding nations, 
 carrying his victorious arms from the upper 
 fountains of the Euphrates on the north-west 
 to the spurs of the Zagros, where the tribu- 
 taries of the Diyaleh gather their waters, on 
 the south-east. The Kurdish tribes and moun- 
 taineers of Armenia; two races of Western
 
 168 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Mesopotamia called the Serki aud the Laki; 
 the rebellious inhabitants of Assura; the 
 Na'iri, previously mentioned as a subject- 
 people of the Upper Tigris; the highlanders 
 of the Mons Masius and of the district on the 
 north of Susiana; the Shuhites, who had 
 again revolted ; and especially the Syrians, in- 
 cluding the people of Carchemish and west- 
 ward through the regions about Antioch and 
 Aleppo as far as Tyre and Sidon and the 
 other Phoenician cities — were each in turn 
 made to acknowledge the valor and supremacy 
 of Asshur-Izir-Pal's armies. In the progress 
 of these extended expeditions, not only the 
 military prowess but also the ferocious disposi- 
 tion of the king was fully developed. At the 
 siege of the rebellious town of Assura he mani- 
 
 fested the wrath of a barbarian. He captured 
 the king and sent him in fetters to Nineveh. 
 Those of the inhabitants who had actively en- 
 gaged in the revolt he either crucified or 
 burnt alive ; while those who had been less 
 guilty of the rebellion were punished by the 
 cutting off of their ears and noses. ^ These 
 savage proceedings had the effect of inspiring 
 universal dread of the displeasure of the mon- 
 arch who inflicted them. 
 
 The general effect of Asshur-Izir-Pal's wars 
 was greatly to enrich the Empire. Increased 
 tributes poured into the capital. Contribu- 
 
 ^Sueh brutal methods of subjugation were too 
 much employed by the Assyrian generals and 
 kings. The case of Asshur-Izir-Pal seems to be 
 extraordinary. He appears not to have been 
 troubled with compunctions, but to have gloried 
 rather in his savagery. With the utmost non- 
 chalance he thus relates the sequel of the capture 
 of Tela, one of the towns that resisted his author- 
 ity : "Their men, young and old, I took prisoners. 
 Of some I cut off the feet and hands; of others I 
 cut off the noses, ears, and lips; of the young 
 men's ears I made a heap ; of the old men's heads 
 I built a minaret! I exposed their heads as a 
 trophy in front of their city. The male children 
 and the female children I burnt in the flames! The 
 city I destroyed and consumed and burnt with 
 fire."
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 169 
 
 tions of gold, silver, horses, and cattle were 
 levied without scruple and collected without 
 abatement from the conquered countries. A 
 great stimulus was thus given to the architec- 
 tural and aesthetic development of the As- 
 sj'rians. The later years of the reign of 
 Asshur-Izir-Pal became a kind of Augustan 
 Age, in which literature and the arts flour- 
 ished with a brilliancy which even from the 
 dust of centuries has flashed out on the sur- 
 prised vision of modern times. This era 
 marks a revolution in architectural taste — a 
 change so great as sti'ongly to distinguish the 
 remains of the earlier age at Asshur from the 
 splendid ruins found at Calah and Nineveh. 
 Whereas the former are so rude and unpre- 
 tending as to be at once assigned by the anti- 
 quary to the monumental endeavors of a 
 primitive people, the latter are so grand in 
 conception and so artistic in execution as to 
 be properly classified with the great Avorks of 
 Greece and Egypt. 
 
 The favorite city of Asshur-Izir-Pal was 
 Calah. Under his ambitious and powerful 
 patronage this soon became the metropolis of 
 the Empire. Here he built a royal palace 
 that far outshone any structure hitherto 
 reared within the limits of Assyria. The edi- 
 fice was three hundred and sixty feet in length 
 by three hundred feet in breadth. The gen- 
 eral plan of the structure was a series of 
 halls and chambers and a great central court 
 a hundred and thirty feet long and a hundred 
 feet in width. The palace proper was raised 
 upon a vast rectangular platform of burnt 
 bricks cased with slabs of hewn stone. Fac- 
 ing the city on the north and the Tigris on 
 the west were flights of steps ascending to the 
 grand fayades, while beside the high gates by 
 which access was had to the principal hall, were 
 sculptured slabs representing the great deeds 
 of the king. The gateway in the southern 
 wall was guarded on either hand by winged 
 bulls with human heads carved in yellow 
 limestone, and the halls and chambers within 
 were decorated with enameled bricks, sculp- 
 tures, and frescoes. 
 
 The splendid example of the king as a 
 builder and patron of art reacted powerfully 
 upon the princes and nobles of the Empire. 
 
 Calah and Nineveh rose in grandeur. The 
 rough stone-work and rudely burnt clays of 
 the preceding ages gave place all at once to 
 elaborate designs in bas-relief and magnificent 
 architectural ornaments. The influence of the 
 capital was felt even to the provincial towns, 
 and the native energy of the Assyrian race 
 quickly displayed itself in the higher achieve- 
 ments of civilization. Manufactures spi'ang 
 up and flourished. Shops for the making of 
 fabrics, furnaces for the burning of enameled 
 bricks, forges for the working of metals, fac- 
 tories for the building of coaches and war- 
 chariots, studios for the production of designs, 
 the treatment of colors, 
 and the use of the chisel — 
 grew up, flourished, and 
 multiplied. Assyrian ar- 
 tists traveled to Phoenicia 
 and even to India, and 
 introduced on their return 
 the styles and designs of 
 both the East and the 
 West. Memorial obelisks 
 like those of Egypt were 
 seen on the banks of the 
 Tigris. The taste of Assy- 
 ria became cultured, cos- 
 mopolitan. 
 
 Asshur-Izir-Pal died in 
 B. C. 858, leaving a con- 
 solidated Empire which 
 extended from the moun- 
 tains of Armenia to the 
 Mediterranean Sea. He 
 was succeeded on the throne by his son, 
 Shalmaneser II., who reigned for thirty-five 
 years. This prince had grown up among 
 the Assyrian soldiery. As a boy he had 
 accompanied his father on his great cam- 
 paigns, and had imbibed the spirit of conquest. 
 As a consequence of this training his chief 
 energies were devoted to war. No fewer than 
 twenty-seven campaigns are enumerated in the 
 history of his military career. By far the 
 most important of these wars were those waged 
 against Babylonia and Damascus. In the 
 former country a civil conflict had broken out 
 between Sum-Adin, the king, and his rebel- 
 lious younger brother named Bel-Usati. This 
 
 ORNAMENTED PILLAR, 
 
 TIME OF ASSHUR- 
 
 IZUR-PAL.
 
 170 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD, 
 
 disturbance gave Shalmaneser an opportunity 
 to interfere, and in the eighth year of his 
 reign he led an army into Babylonia and over- 
 threw and slew the insurgent brother; but 
 instead of settling the crown upon the rightful 
 claimant he wheeled suddenly about and 
 marched into Babylon. Here he was received 
 by the people as a deliverer, and easily made 
 himself master of the country. He then con- 
 tinued his conquest southward through Chal- 
 dsea to the Persian Gulf, and afterwards re- 
 turned without opposition to his own capital. 
 
 In 874 B. C. Shalmaneser began his wars 
 with Damascus. Ben-Hadad, king of that 
 country, had become alarmed at the growing 
 dominions and aggressive spirit of the Assyr- 
 ians, and had determined to anticipate the 
 expected invasion of his territory by preparing 
 to repel it. He accordingly entered into a 
 league with Tsakhulena, king of Hamath, and 
 Ahab, king of Israel. The kings of the Hit- 
 tites and Phoenicians were also drawn into this 
 alliance ; and when Shalmaneser marched west- 
 ward into Syria he was confronted by a large 
 and ably commanded army. Nevertheless in 
 a great battle which ensued the allied forces 
 led by Ben-Hadad were defeated. Twenty 
 thousand of their number were killed, and the 
 spoils of the field remained in the hands of 
 the Assyrians. The resistance, however, had 
 been so serious, the battle so hotly fought, that 
 Shalmaneser withdrew from the country, and 
 did not renew the war for a period of five 
 years. 
 
 By and by Shalmaneser, having completed 
 some other conquests, returned to his Syrian 
 war. The Western confederacy had means 
 while fallen to pieces. Hamath had internal 
 dissensions, and Phoenicia had shut herself up 
 in her fortified towns. Ben-Hadad, however, 
 induced the Hittites to join him, and stood 
 forth to meet the Assyrians in battle. The 
 victory, though indecisive, was again gained 
 by Shalmaneser, but he was unable after the 
 conflict to press forward to complete his con- 
 quest. After retiring a second time to his 
 own country, he gathered a third array, far 
 surpassing the others in numbers and equip- 
 ments, and returning against Damascus met 
 and defeated the army of Ben-Hadad with 
 
 great slaughter. The war, however, continued, 
 Ben-Hadad was assasinated by the treacherous 
 Hazael, who usurped the crown and the com- 
 mand of the army. Taking advantage of the 
 mountain range he posted himself in the val- 
 ley of Coelo-Syria, where he was assaulted by 
 the Assyrians and utterly routed. Sixteen 
 thousand of his men were killed, and the 
 spoils of the battle-field, including eleven, 
 hundred and twenty chariots of war, remained 
 in the hands of Shalmaneser. The spirit of 
 resistance was broken. Town after town was 
 taken, and the Assyrian banners were carried 
 without further opposition to the shores of the 
 Mediterranean. It was at this time that Jehu, 
 king of Israel, submitted to the yoke of As- 
 syria, and sent an embassy, bearing presents 
 of silver and gold, to the court of Shalmaneser. 
 
 After completing his wars, Shalmaneser, 
 like his father, turned his attention to the 
 adornment of his capital. The great temple 
 of Nin, the Assyrian Hercules, which had 
 been begun by Asshur-Izir-Pal, was now 
 brought to completion. Not choosing to oc- 
 cupy the palace which his father had built, 
 the king selected another site within a stone's 
 throw of the former edifice, and there reared 
 for the gratification of his pride a structure 
 more vast and splendid than any hitherto- 
 built by an Assyrian monarch. The literary 
 development, however, which had been sO' 
 rapid in the preceding reigns, was, in the time 
 of Shalmaneser, completely checked, and the 
 style employed in the inscrij^tions is even more 
 deficient in perspicuity and elegance than in 
 the time of the king's grandfather. The nar- 
 rative given by the rude annalist of the court 
 is fit to be compared with only the coarsest 
 essays of primitive literature. 
 
 A single monumental record of Shalmane- 
 ser's reign is worthy of special note. Under 
 the di'bris of the king's palace at Calah (Nira- 
 rud) the historian Layard discovered an obe- 
 lisk of black marble, perfectly preserved and 
 covered on its four sides with bas-reliefs and 
 historical inscriptions. The sculptures repre- 
 sent the monarch as receiving tribute from 
 five nations. Ambassadors bearing the pres- 
 ents are led before the king, to whom they 
 bow, laying down at his feet the treasures of
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 171 
 
 gold and silver and ivory which they have 
 brought from distant regions to appease the 
 majesty of Assyria. The inscriptions contain 
 the annals of the Empire during the reign of 
 Shalmaneser, with the usual vainglorious 
 phraseology of the court. 
 
 The last years of Shalmaneser II. Avere 
 clouded with disaster. One feature of his 
 military policy had been distasteful to the 
 people. Several of his campaigns had been 
 intrusted to Dayan-Asshur, the leading gene- 
 ral of the army. The ascendency of this mil- 
 
 the regency upon Shamas-Vul, the younger 
 brother of the rebel, and intrusted to him the 
 command of that part of the army which had 
 maintained its loyalty. With these forces 
 Sharaas-Vul took the field, rapidly reduced 
 the revolted cities, overthrew his brother in 
 battle, and restored the king's authority 
 throughout the Empire. Soon afterwards 
 Shalmaneser died, and the loyal son was re- 
 warded with the crown, which he received 
 with the title of Shamus-Vul II. 
 
 The reign of the new king lasted thirteen 
 
 JEHU'S EMBASSY BEFORE SHALMANESER. 
 
 itary hero over the king and court was a 
 source of displeasure and jealousy. Mean- 
 while, with the long continuance of Shalmane- 
 ser's reign, the ambitious Asshur-Danin-Pal, 
 eldest son of the monarch, grew restive with 
 the unprecedented procrastination of his father's 
 death, and thinking to seize the fruit before it 
 was ripe raised the standard of revolt. Twenty- 
 five different cities, including Asshur (the for- 
 mer capital), Arbela, and several other old and 
 important centers, ready to hail the rising sun, 
 accepted the revolution as an accomplished 
 fact, and proclaimed Danin-Pal as king. In 
 this emergency the aged monarch conferred 
 
 years— from 823 to 810 B. C. His public 
 career was not so distinguished as had been 
 foreshadowed by the ambitions of his youth. 
 His royal acts, like those of his father and 
 grandfather, are chronicled on an obelisk, 
 which has reached our times in a tolerable 
 state of preservation. From this we gather 
 an outline of his military exploits and what 
 he achieved in peace. His campaigns were 
 directed first against the half-civilized Na'iri, 
 whom the memory of previous chastisements 
 was not sufficient to keep in subjection. After- 
 wards the king's army was engaged on the 
 eastern frontier, where, for the first time, the
 
 172 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 swords of Assyria clashed with those of Media 
 and Persia — an ominous sound,' foretokening 
 the day when the Aryan race, bursting 
 through its mountain barriers, should break 
 the dominion of Shem and take Western 
 Asia for a heritage. From his eastern war, 
 in the fourth year of his reign, Shamas-Vul 
 led his army against Babylonia. He entered 
 the country near the mouth of the Diyaleh 
 and pressed on towards the capital; but be- 
 fore reaching his destination he was encoun- 
 tered by Belatzu-Ikbi, king of the Baby- 
 lonians, who had gathered his forces, seized 
 an advantageous position, and stood ready for 
 the hazard of battle. The Assyrians gained 
 the day. Of the Babylonians eighteen thou- 
 sand were killed and three thousand captured. 
 Shamas-Vul pressed hard after the flying 
 enemy. Near the city Belatzu-Ikbi rallied 
 all his forces, embracing his allies on the south 
 and west, and staked all on the issue. An 
 overwhelming defeat followed. The Baby- 
 lonian army was decimated. The royal ban- 
 ner of Babylon and the pavilion of the king 
 were taken, with two hundred tents and one 
 hundred chariots of war. The power of the 
 Babylonians was broken for several genera- 
 tions, and the son of Shamas-Vul became 
 viceroy of the South. The obelisk of Shamas- 
 Vul exhibits the same spiritless style of writ- 
 ing which prevailed in the times of his father: 
 a flat narrative of monotonous facts, inelegant 
 and dull. Nor does it appear that the archi- 
 tectural taste of the king and his nobles was 
 superior or even equal to that of the times of 
 his grandfather. He was content to occupy 
 his father's palace at Calah, and to pass 
 the days not given to military enterprises in 
 rather inglorious ease. Only once does the 
 chronicle of the king break off" to tell the 
 story how, while conducting his Eastern war, 
 at the foot of the Zagros, the monarch en- 
 tered with spirit into a hunt of wild bulls, 
 lud himself killed many in the chase. 
 
 The annals of the reign of Vul-Lush III. , 
 who succeeded Shamas-Vul on the throne in 
 B. C. 810, are meager and imperfect. Enough 
 is known, however, to show that his kingly 
 career, extending over a period of twenty-nine 
 years, was crowded with great events. Like 
 
 his ancestors for several generations, his chief 
 energies were devoted to war. Under the in- 
 fluence of his military successes and his skill 
 in administration, the bounds of the Assyrian 
 Empire were permanently enlarged. In seven 
 different campaigns he carried his banners 
 across the Zagros into Media. Three success- 
 ful expeditions he made into Syria, pressing 
 his way even to the city of Damascus, which 
 he entered in triumph. Turning to the north- 
 west, he swept through Palestine, reducing 
 Tyre and Sidon, breaking the power of the 
 Philistines, and subjecting Edom to his au- 
 thority. 
 
 In the further prosecution of his wars Vul- 
 Lush humbled the Nairi, and the Persians 
 and the Medes sent presents in token of sub- 
 mission. Babylonia remained loyal to the 
 king, who journeyed into that country, en- 
 tered the temples of Borsippa and Babylon, 
 and offered sacrifices to Nebo, Nergal, and 
 Bel. Like his father, Vul-Lush had but little 
 ambition as a builder. His inscriptions bear 
 witness that he restored many of the public 
 edifices, which through neglect were falling 
 into ruins. His own palace was at Nineveh, 
 on the mound called Nebbi-Yunus; but this 
 vast heap, in which, perhaps, lie buried the 
 records of his reign, has never been properly 
 explored. 
 
 Two important relics of Vul-Lush and his 
 time have reached our day. These are dupli- 
 cate statues of the god Nebo, which, though 
 imperfect as works of art, aie of the highest 
 interest from the inscriptions which they bear. 
 The dedication on the pedestal is to the lord 
 Vul-Lush and his queen Semeramis. The 
 place in time and the rank of this famous 
 princess are thus fixed by indubitable evi- 
 dence. The credulous historians of Greece 
 and Rome had assigned Semiramis to an epoch 
 almost as remote as the founding of Nineveh, 
 and had given to her a character as wild and 
 overdrawn as the dreams of a mediaeval fic- 
 tion. She was represented as the most ex- 
 traordinary personage of the ancient world, 
 subduing princes by her fascinations, and lead- 
 ing vast armies to victory. A part of this 
 romance can no doubt be accounted for by 
 the fact that the ancient Assyrians carefully
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 173 
 
 secluded their women, regarding them as in- 
 feriors unworthy of commemoration in chron- 
 icle or sculpture. It thus came to pass, that 
 when at rare intervale, by some fortuitous cir- 
 cumstance, a princess was thrown into the 
 foreground, Oriental imagination and Western 
 credulity combined to invest her with the 
 character of a goddess. So, when the real 
 Semiramis, a princess of Babylon, having 
 rights of her ow^n to the viceroyalty of the 
 South, was taken in marriage by Vul-Lush 
 III. and brought as queen to Nineveh, she 
 was treated with exceptional regard. The 
 Assyrians accepted her as an additional guar- 
 anty of the stability of the Empire; and the 
 Babylonians, looking from afar, saw in her 
 the possible mother of a line of kings who 
 should be their rulers as well as monarchs of 
 the North. Beyond the exceptional promi- 
 nence thus given to Semiramis, it does not 
 appear that her personal genius or achieve- 
 ments would have greatly distinguished her 
 above the other noble ladies of her time. The 
 fabulous stories told of her by the uncritical his- 
 torians from Diodorus to Rollin, when strij)ped 
 of fiction and tradition, shrink into a plain 
 narrative of a Babylonian princess, married 
 to an Assyrian king, retaining her own rights, 
 and adding by personal suj)eriority to the 
 dignity and charms of the j^alace-halls of 
 Nineveh. 
 
 After the death of Vul-Lush III., in B. C. 
 781, a period of decline ensued, in which, for 
 thirty-six years, no great events are recorded. 
 The names of three kings belonging to this pe- 
 riod — Shalmaneser III. , Asshur-Dayan III. , 
 and AssHUR-LusH — have, indeed, been pre- 
 served ; but their reigns were brief and devoid 
 of interest. It appears that, after the great 
 wars of the preceding half century, by which 
 the boundaries of the Assyrian Empire had 
 been pushed back and established at the foot 
 of the mountains and the shore of the sea, the 
 energies of the kings and people, finding vent 
 and development no longer in the peril and 
 glory of military campaigns, fell quickly into 
 decay. The luxury which follows successful 
 war brought effeminancy into the market-place 
 and ease into the palace. The heavy sleep 
 
 which follows indulgence was for a while un- 
 
 N. — Vol. I — 11 
 
 broken, even by the rumor of barbarians in 
 arms or the clamor of rebellious cities. 
 
 In the fifteenth chapter of the Second Book 
 of Kings, an account is given of the invasion 
 of the kingdom of Israel by PuL, king of As- 
 syria. Menahem, the Israelitish ruler, levied 
 upon his chief men and the people a tribute 
 ot a thousand talents of silver, and gave it to 
 Pul to be at one with him and his interests. 
 The narrative seems to place this Pul in such 
 relations of time as to make him the immedi- 
 ate predecessor of Tiglath-Pileser II., who 
 came to the throne of Assyria in B. C. 745. 
 The Assyrian Canon, however, gives for the 
 eighth century the following list of kings : 
 
 Shalmaneser III., 781 B. C. to 771 B. C. 
 
 Asshur-Dayan III., .... 771 " 753 " 
 
 Asshur-Lush, 753 " 745 " 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser II., 745 " 727 " 
 
 Shalmaneser IV., 727 " 722 " 
 
 Sargon, 722 " 705 " 
 
 In this list there is no place for Pul. The 
 name itself is not an Assyrian name, and does 
 not anywhere occur -in the annals of the Em- 
 pire. The most probable explanation of this 
 striking and patent contradiction in the 
 records of the two nations is that the Jewish 
 writers frequently use the term "king" of 
 subordinate rulers.^ Pul was, probably, a 
 Babylonian officer of high rank, perhaps the 
 viceroy himself, who, in the disturbed and 
 obscure epoch following the death of Vul- 
 Lush III., became sufficiently independent of 
 the Niuevite dynasty to make war and levy 
 tribute on his own account. A campaign 
 thus issuing from Babylon against Israel could 
 easily be mistaken for an Assyrian invasion, 
 and the leader of such an expedition would be 
 more than usually susceptible to the influ- 
 ences of a bribe, such as Menahem gave him, 
 * ' that his hand might be with him to confirm 
 the kingdom in his [own] hand." 
 
 ^Thus we have in the Book of Daniel the strik- 
 ing account of the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus, 
 in which Belshazzar, the lieutenant of Nabona- 
 dius, is constantly referred to as king. Belshazzar, 
 or Bel-Shar-Uzur, as the name is written in the 
 Babylonian inscriptions, never held a higher rank 
 than satrap of Babylonia, and can only in an ac- 
 commodated sense of the word be called " King 
 of the Chaldseans."
 
 174 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 After an obscure interval of thirty-six 
 years the Empire, under Tiglath-Pileser II. , 
 again emerges from darkness. Just previous 
 to this event, in the time of the temporary 
 eclipse of Assyrian greatness, occurred the 
 episode of Jonah, who came into the capital 
 and began crying in the streets, " Yet forty 
 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." 
 The alarm of the king — perhaps Asshur- 
 Lush — led to a reform in the morals of the 
 city, and the threatened judgment, for which 
 the prophet sat waiting in his booth of woven 
 boughs without the gates, passed by. The 
 relation of blood, if any, of Tiglath-Pileser II. 
 to the preceding kings of Assyria is unknown. 
 There are evidences that the line of succession 
 was broken, and that Tiglath-Pileser was a 
 logical necessity of his times rather than the 
 legitimate heir to the Empire. Certain it is 
 that he came to the throne in the character 
 of a reformer. The previous era of weakness 
 had encouraged lawlessness and insurrection 
 in the provinces. The frontiers were broken 
 in by the audacity of barbarian chieftains. 
 To reestablish his borders and restore the spirit 
 of the Empii'e were the first care of the king. 
 
 At this time Nabouassar, the ruler of Baby- 
 lon, encouraged by the long lapse of Assyrian 
 authority, had risen to the rank of a rival, 
 and the petty princes who held sway in the 
 southern parts of Chaldsea had ceased to pay 
 tribute to either the Northern or the Southern 
 court. It was against this race of kinglets 
 that the reorganized Assyrian army, led by 
 Tiglath-Pileser, was first conducted. The 
 king's campaign in Lower Mesopotamia was 
 immediately and completely successful. The 
 towns of Sippara and Kurri-Galzu wei-e taken, 
 and whole country bordering on the Gulf 
 brought quickly into subjection. Nabonassar 
 was forced to renew his allegiance, and Tig- 
 lath-Pileser was publicly proclaimed as king 
 of Babylon. In the temples of that city, as 
 well as on other famous shrines of the land, the 
 monarch of Assyria offered sacrifices to the 
 gods of the South, and then returned victo- 
 rious to his owu capital. 
 
 Still more important were the wars of 
 Tiglath-Pileser in Syria. During the deca- 
 dence of the three preceding reigns, the kings 
 
 of Damascus, Samaria, and Tyre, like the 
 Babylonian rulers, had broken faith with the 
 House of Nineveh and assumed their inde- 
 pendence. In 743 B. C. Tiglath-Pileser set 
 out to subdue them. Rezin, king of Damas- 
 cus, was first made to feel the angry stroke 
 of the power which he had provoked to war. 
 In Samaria, Menahem, who was still ruler of 
 Israel, was brought into subjection; and the 
 kings of Tyre, of Hamath, and of the Arabian 
 tribes on the borders of Egypt, were quelled 
 by siege or battle. Azariah, who led forth 
 the army of Judah against the Assyrian, was 
 defeated, and the whole land was traversed 
 by the invader as far as the sea of the West. 
 The campaign lasted for five years, and was 
 never seriously impeded ; and yet, as soon as 
 the army of Tiglath-Pileser was withdrawn 
 into Assyria the insurrectionary movement 
 began again in all the Syrian nations. 
 
 The leaders of these Western rebellions 
 were Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, 
 king of Israel. Instigated by their example, 
 the Hittites and the people of Hamath were 
 induced to take up arms. Ahaz, king of Ju- 
 dah, refused to become a partner to the league; 
 and when the rulers of Israel and Damascus 
 undertook to compel him to join the alliance, 
 by declaring war against him, with the avowed 
 purpose of setting up a partisan of their own 
 as king of Jerusalem, Ahaz sent an embassy 
 to the court of Tiglath-Pileser, offering to be- 
 come his vassal if he would send aid against 
 Rezin and Pekah. The Assyrian monarch at 
 once complied, and in 733 B. C. marched for 
 the third time into Syria. Rezin was beaten 
 in battle and driven into Damascus, which 
 after a two years' siege was taken by the As- 
 syrians. The rebel king was captured and 
 slain, and all resistance ended. 
 
 Pileser next wheeled his army into Sama- 
 ria, attacking first the provinces beyond the 
 Jordan. Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe 
 of Manasseh were overrun, and the people led 
 into captivity. Beyond the Euphrates, along 
 the Khabour and other rivers of Upper Mes- 
 opotamia, the vanquished Israelites were scat- 
 tered in colonies and towns, where further 
 rebellions would be impossible. The inhabi- 
 tants of a few of the towns west of the Jor-
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 175 
 
 dan shared the same fate, and the shadow of 
 Assyria already fell athwart the whole of 
 Palestine. 
 
 The Assyrian monarch next invaded and 
 subdued Philistia. The tribes of Ishmaelites 
 who peopled the peninsula of Sinai were next 
 smitten and scattered. Their native queen, 
 Khabiba, was deposed, and in her place an 
 Assyrian governor was appointed who could 
 be trusted to do his master's will. Returning 
 from these conquests to Damascus the king sum- 
 moned the rulers of the neighboring states 
 and chiefs of the tribes to send in their sub- 
 mission and pay the tribute which he had im- 
 posed upon them. To this call the kings, 
 great and small, of nearly all the Syrian na- 
 tions responded. Ahaz, king of Judah ; Mi- 
 tenna, of Tyre; Pekah, of Samaria; Khanun, 
 of Gaza; Mitinti, of Ascalon ; and the chiefs 
 of the Idumseans, the Moabites, and the Am- 
 monites, — sent in the tokens of their submission 
 and paid the tribute exacted by the Assyrian. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser again crossed the Euphrates. 
 For a few years affairs remained quiet in the 
 West. Meanwhile, however, Hoshea, an Isra- 
 elitish chieftain, made a conspiracy against 
 Pekah, the king, and killed him. The dis- 
 turbed condition of affairs in Samaria which 
 followed this insurrection, together with a re- 
 volt in Tyre, headed by Mitenna, made it 
 jnce more necessary for Tiglath-Pileser to 
 march into Syria. Hoshea quickly submitted, 
 and agreed to hold his kingdom as tributary 
 to the great king. The rebellion in Tyre was 
 also easily quelled, and Tiglath-Pileser, after a 
 bloodless campaign, returned to his capital of 
 Cahah, where, for the remainder of the eight- 
 een years of his reign, he devoted himself to 
 the work of improving and adorning the city. 
 The great palace of Shalmaneser II. was re- 
 stored to its pristine grandeur, and a new edi- 
 fice of the king's own, little inferior in beauty 
 and magnificence to the great works of the 
 classical age of Assyrian architecture, was 
 raised on the mound of Nimrud. 
 
 In 727 B. C. Tiglath-Pileser II. died and 
 was succeeded on the throne by Shalmaneser 
 IV. The attention of this monarch was al- 
 most immediately drawn to the kingdom of 
 Israel. Hoshea, the king, had ever since his 
 
 accession to power been hot and cold in his 
 allegiance. With a change of rulers in As' 
 Syria he began to make demonstrations of in- 
 dependence, but a threatened invasion by 
 Shalmaneser brought him into submission. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, a condition of affairs 
 had supervened in Egypt, which fanned into 
 new heat the slumbering disloyalty of the 
 Israelitish king. The monarchy of Lower 
 Egyi)t had gone to decay. The spirit of the 
 old Pharaohs was extinguished, and the coun- 
 try lay open to the designs of the first ambi- 
 tious comer. Shabak, the Ethiopian, saw his 
 opportunity, and leading an already victorious 
 army down the valley of the Nile, quickly 
 subverted the kingdom. Bocchoris, the Saite 
 Pharaoh, was taken and burnt to death. All 
 remains of opposition were stamped out by 
 the ambitious Ethiopian, whose fame soon 
 spread throughout Syria and the East. In 
 him Hoshea of Israel found a natural confed- 
 erate, and having secured his cooperation, 
 hastened to break his own jiledges of allegiance 
 to Assyria. Shalmaneser quickly scented the 
 revolt, and came Avith impetuosity upon his 
 perfidious subject. Ploshea was defeated in 
 battle, captured, and cast into prison. In the 
 further prosecution of his campaign the As- 
 syrian king laid siege to Samaria. The city 
 was bravely defended by the garrison, aided 
 by Egyptians, but after a two years' environ- 
 ment was taken by storm. 
 
 During the progress of this siege the city 
 of Tyre, encouraged by the obstinate resist- 
 ance of the Israelitish capital, threw off the 
 Assyrian yoke. Shalmaneser proceeded thither 
 with his army, and having gathered from the 
 Phoenician sea-ports, which had remained loyal 
 to his authority, a considerable fleet he sur- 
 rounded the revolted city by land and water. 
 The skillful sailors of Tyre, however, were 
 more than a match for their assailants, and 
 Slialmaneser, after a vigorous and protracted 
 effort was obliged to abandon the siege. In 
 withdrawing from the coast he contented him- 
 self with cutting off the water supply of the 
 Tyrians by destroying the aqueducts in the 
 rear of the city. For five years the people of 
 Tyre saved themselves from perishing of thirst 
 by gathering the rainfall into cisterns.
 
 176 
 
 VNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Meanwhile, in B. C. 722, a revolution oc- 
 curred in Assyria by which Shalmaneser was 
 ejected from the throne. His long absence in 
 the Syrian war had given both cause and oc- 
 casion for rebellion against his authority at 
 home. Now it was that an obscure popular 
 leader named Sargon, or Saru-Kina, appeared 
 in Nineveh, and putting himself at the head 
 of the revolutionary party, was proclaimed 
 king. After a space — Shalmaneser not return- 
 ing — the usurpation was accepted by the Nin- 
 evites, and the revolution became an accom- 
 plished fact. 
 
 Sargon at once began to make good his 
 usurped title by military achievement. Dur- 
 ing the fifteen years of his reign he was con- 
 stantly engaged in war. His first campaign 
 was directed against Susiana, whose king, 
 Humbauigas, had conspired with the now 
 aged Merodach-Baladan, of Babylon, to de- 
 clare independence of Assyria. These kings 
 were defeated by Sargon, but before his suc- 
 cess was complete he was called into Syria to 
 determine the conditions on which the surren- 
 der of Samaria should be accepted. The city 
 was deprived of its independence ; an Assyrian 
 governor was appointed and 27,280 of the in- 
 habitants were carried into captivity beyond 
 the Euphrates. The rest were left undisturbed 
 on condition of the prompt payment of the 
 annual tribute. 
 
 Scarcely had the affairs of Israel been set- 
 tled until Sargon was called upon to sup- 
 press another Syrian revolt. This time the 
 leader of the insurrection was Yahu-Bid, king 
 of Hamath. This usurping ruler had per- 
 suaded the cities of the whole circumjacent 
 region to join him in a league to resist the 
 authority of the Assyrian monarch. An allied 
 army was brought into the field and was met 
 by Sargon at Karkar. Here a decisive l^attle 
 was fought. The allies were defeated. Yahu- 
 Bid was captured and his head cut off*. The 
 other leaders in the rebellion were likewise 
 taken and put to death. Gaza, one of the 
 dependencies of Egypt was next attacked, and 
 the whole region to the Red Sea and Mediter- 
 ranean subjected to the king's authority. 
 
 The invasion of Gaza brought into conflict 
 for the first time the two great powers of Asia 
 
 and Africa — Assyria and Egypt. Shabak, the 
 Ethiopian sovereign of Egypt, led out his 
 army in defense of his province. Khanun, 
 the king of Gaza, rallied what forces he could 
 gather and joined his master to beat back the 
 invading army. Sargon came on to the city 
 of Rhaphia, and here was fought the great 
 battle which decided for a while the mastery 
 of the world. Assyrian valor and discipline 
 prevailed. The Egyptian army was routed. 
 Khanun, of Gaza, was captured and sent to 
 Nineveh, and Shabak was obliged to save him- 
 self by flight. Sargon did not, hoAvever, for 
 the present press his conquest further, but 
 recrossing the Euphrates ^pent several years 
 in quelling the half-civilized races that on the 
 north and north-east of Assyria found refuge 
 in the mountains, while ever and anon they 
 broke out in predatory wars upon the rich and 
 populous districts of their southern neighbors. 
 
 Before his northern campaigns were ended 
 news came to Sargon that the Arab tribes of 
 the Sinaitic peninsula were occupying their 
 time by making inroads into his tributary and 
 now defenseless kingdom of Israel. Setting 
 out into Syria, the king soon brought an 
 army against the marauders, whom he de- 
 feated, scattering some into the deserts of 
 Arabia, and colonizing others in the waste 
 places of Samaria. The presence of the great 
 monarch in the West alarmed the kings of 
 the neighboring nations, and they all, includ- 
 ing the Pharaoh of Egypt, made a hasty sub- 
 mission, accompanied with tributes. 
 
 The next military expedition of Sargon 
 was in B. C. 711. After the battle of Raphia, 
 Ashdod, a city of Philistia, became a tributary 
 of Assyria. The native prince of the city 
 was Azuri, who presently revolted, and was 
 thereupon deposed by the king. One Akhi- 
 mit was appointed in his stead, but him the 
 people rejected and chose a prince called Ya- 
 man to be their ruler. He too was a conspir- 
 ator who soon seduced the cities of Philistia, 
 and even Egypt, to join him in revolt. This 
 led to a siege of Ashdod by the army of Sar- 
 gon, who captured the city, seized the fam- 
 ily of Yaman, sent them prisoners across the 
 Euphrates, and chased the prince himself into 
 Egypt. Shabak, alarmed at the prospect,
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 177 
 
 quickly made his peace by surrendering the 
 fugitive, and sending humble apologies to the 
 king. Over Ashdod an Assyrian governor 
 was appointed, and the Western dependencies 
 of Sargon were again reduced to quietude. 
 
 Meanwhile the condition of affairs in the 
 South had become such as to demand the 
 king's attention. Merodach-Baladan, ruler of 
 Babylon, had flattered himself, after the with- 
 drawal of Sargon's army in the first year of 
 that monarch's reign, that no further danger 
 of Assyrian domination was to be feared. 
 This hope was greatly strengthened by the 
 twelve years of independence which Babylonia 
 had enjoyed while Sargon was absent in his 
 Western and Northern Avars. The king of 
 Babylon had further fortified his desires by 
 uniting in league with himself the king of 
 Susiana, and the chiefs of the Arameeans, who 
 occupied the banks of the Euphrates above 
 the capital. Notwithstanding these prepara- 
 tions, when the army of Sargon marched 
 southward, the courage of the Babylonian 
 king oozed away; his allies mostly deserted 
 him, and he himself sought refuge in the for- 
 tified town of Beth-Yakin. Hither he was 
 followed by the Assyrian army. A battle was 
 fought; the Babylonians were routed, the 
 king was taken, and the city burned. Susiana 
 was also quickly overrun, and the territory 
 partly filled with colonies transported from 
 the north of Assyria. It was the last serious 
 insurrection in Babylonia previous to the over- 
 throw of the Assyrian Empire. Henceforth 
 the power and authority of the House of Nin- 
 eveh were established along the shores of the 
 Persian Gulf, and Chaldjea became an integral 
 part of the dominant kingdom. 
 
 For two years Sargon held his court in 
 Babylon, and while here received the extraor- 
 dinary honor of embassies from distant islands 
 of the seas. Upir, the king of Khareg, in 
 the Persian Gulf, sent messengers to propitiate 
 the great king; and far off Cyprus, "in the 
 Sea of the Setting Sun," came by envoys from 
 her seven kings to make offerings to him who 
 had grown "as the goodly cedar, spreading 
 his branches over the nations." 
 
 In general the northern expeditions of Sar- 
 gon were much less successful than in the 
 
 South and West. The hardy mountaineers of 
 Armenia, finding ever a ready refuge in the 
 fastnesses of the hills, and inured by exposure 
 and perilous conflicts with savage beasts, were 
 a better match for the trained soldiery of As- 
 syria than were the half-nomadic races of 
 Syria and the effete battalions of Egypt. On 
 the south-east Sargon's success was so distinct 
 in his occasional conflicts with the Medes that 
 a good part of their country was reduced to 
 the condition of an Assyrian province. In 
 order to retain his foothold the king established 
 several fortified posts in the region which he 
 had overrun, and imposed on the conquered 
 districts a tribute to be paid in horses of the 
 fine breeds native to Media. 
 
 The last war of Sargon — waged in the last 
 year of his reign — was against the province 
 of Illib, bordering on Susiana. In a dispute 
 for the chieftainship of that country one of 
 the claimants sent for aid to Nakhunta, king 
 of Elam, and by him was promised assistance. 
 The other claimant thereupon solicited help 
 of Sargon, who gladly accepted this opportu- 
 nity of interference in the affairs of the Elam- 
 iteS) and sending thither an army under his 
 generals, defeated Nakhunta, and established 
 the partisans of Assyria in power. But in the 
 next year the king of Elam was successful, 
 regained what he had lost, and even carried the 
 war into the Assyrian territories. 
 
 It was during the reign of Sargon that the 
 plan of keeping conquered countries in sub- 
 jection by deportation of the people became 
 a part of Eastern policy. The tribes of the 
 northern regions, which were subdued by 
 Sargon, were partly carried away and settled 
 in Hamath and Damascus. Home colonies 
 were occasionally organized and sent into dis- 
 tricts which had been subdued by the Assyr- 
 ian arms. The races of the Zagros who be- 
 came subject to the great king were trans- 
 ferred in vast numbers to the towns on the 
 Tigris, and many of the people of the more 
 trustworthy Assyrian provinces were sent to 
 districts which, like Samaria, were ever on the 
 alert for some opportunity of revolt. It was 
 the general policy of dispersing malcontents 
 that led to the wholesale transportation of the 
 Israelitish population into Mygdonia and other
 
 .178 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 regions beyond the Euphrates. By this means 
 Sargon labored assiduously, and not without 
 success, to diffuse the evil elements of his 
 
 Pmpire, and to render homogeneous the di- 
 verse populations over which he was called 
 to rule. 
 
 As a builder Sargon compared favorably 
 
 with the most illustrious of the Assyrian 
 kings. At Khorsabad he built for himself a 
 palace which scarcely paled before the most 
 splendid structures 
 of the Empire. 
 Rather by the pro- 
 fusion of its orna- 
 mentation than by 
 its size did the ar- 
 chitecture of the 
 epoch of Sargon sur- 
 pass the work of pre- 
 vious builders. For 
 his palace Sargon 
 selected a site quite 
 apart from other 
 structures. The high 
 platform was ap- 
 proached by flights 
 of broad steps. 
 Around the exterior 
 of the building ex- 
 tended two series of 
 elaborate sculptures, 
 and above these the 
 surface was covered 
 with enameled 
 bricks, arranged in 
 beautiful patterns, 
 ja.bout this magnifi- 
 cent palace as a cen- 
 ter was built the 
 "City of Sargon,"' 
 in form a square, 
 laid off with geom- 
 etric regularity, one 
 and a sixth miles on 
 either side, capable 
 of accommodating 
 eighty thousand in- 
 habitants. This city, 
 strangely enough, 
 was built remote 
 from the Tigris, back 
 at the foot-hills of 
 the Zagros, where, 
 with mountain scenery in the background, 
 cool air for the brow, and the water of 
 
 ' The town of Khorsabad occupies, in whole or 
 in part, the site of tlie ancient city Dur-Saryiiux.
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 179 
 
 pure springs to quench his thirst, the king, 
 no doubt, dreamed to spend the evening 
 Df his life. His former residence had been 
 at Calah, where many improvements and 
 repairs attested his public spirit. Like- 
 wise at Nineveh, and elsewhere throughout 
 the Empire, are found the traces of his enter- 
 prise and genius. His reign of seventeen 
 years was one of the most prosperous and suc- 
 cessful for many generations, and was a fitting 
 dawn for the rising day that was to follow. 
 
 Sennacherib, son and successor of Sargon, 
 is generally reputed the most illustrious of 
 the Assyrian kings. He is likewise, on ac- 
 count of the frequent mention of his name 
 and deeds in the writings of the Jews, the 
 best known of all the Eastern monarchs. 
 He began his reign in B. C 705, and held 
 the throne for a period of twenty-four years. 
 In the later times of the Assyrian monarchy, 
 as in most old empires, the demise of the king 
 was frequently attended with outbreaks and 
 insurrections; for the malcontents were ever 
 persuading themselves that the new king 
 Jv^ould prove a weakling, unable to maintain 
 the prerogatives of his fathers. On the ac- 
 cession of Sennacherib a movement of this 
 sort occurred in several of the provinces. 
 Merodach-Baladan, the exiled king of Baby- 
 lon, returned to the capital, murdered the 
 viceroy Hagisa, and resumed the throne from 
 which he had been driven in the first year of 
 the rrign of Sargon. For nearly two years Sen- 
 nacherib was so much engrossed with the home 
 afl^airs of the Empire that he found no time 
 to punish the Babylonian revolutionists. In 
 B. C. 703, however, he put himself at the 
 head of his army and proceeded against the 
 combined forces of Babylonians and Elamites, 
 whom Merodach-Baladan had induced to sup- 
 port his claims. 
 
 The Assyrians gained an easy and complete 
 victory, and the usurping king was glad to 
 escape into Susiana. Sennacherib pressed on 
 to Babylon, captured the city, and appointed 
 the Assyrian general, Bilipni, as viceroy 
 of the South. On his way back to Nine- 
 veh the great king devasted the country of 
 the Aramaeans and the neighboring nations 
 on the Middle Euphrates, and returned to his 
 
 capital laden wuth booty, and driving a host 
 of two hundred thousand captives, whom he 
 colonized in different provinces of the Empire. 
 Shortly afterwards the king made a brief 
 campaign against those tribes of the Zagroa 
 in whose aflfairs Sargon had found occasion to 
 interfere. Sennacherib deposed the governor 
 whom his father had appointed, and set up 
 in his stead another who was considered more 
 worthy of trust. 
 
 In the next year, B. C. 701, the Assyrian 
 monarch was called to the "West. There Lu- 
 liya, the king of Sidon, who had obtained 
 authority over most of the cities of Phoenicia, 
 raised the standard of revolt, and made a 
 blustering preparation to meet Sennacherib in 
 
 WINGED LION, TIME OF SARGON. 
 
 the field ; but on the approach of the latter 
 the Sidonian filibuster escaped and fled to 
 Cyprus. The hostile cities immediately sub- 
 mitted, and received in the place of Luliya 
 an Assyrian prince. Tubal, as governor. 
 Only Ascalon and four dependent towns gave 
 Sennacherib trouble, and these places were 
 soon reduced by siege. 
 
 Meanwhile, the city of Ekron, in Philistia, 
 had revolted, expelled the Assyrian general 
 Padi, and solicited the aid of Egypt. The 
 Egyptian king, who was the Ethiopian Sha- 
 bak II. — supported by his viceroys, the native 
 princes of Egypt — espoused the cause of Ek- 
 ron, and for the second time the great powers 
 of Asia and Africa were brought to the arbit- 
 rament of battle. The Assyrian and Egyp-
 
 180 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tian armies met at a place called Eltekeh, a 
 Levitical city in the vicinity of Ekron. Here 
 a great battle was fought, and the banners of 
 Egypt again went down before the invincible 
 soldiery of Assyria. Many trophies and vast 
 spoils fell to the victors. Resistance ceased. 
 Ekron was taken. The captive princes were 
 killed, and their bodies, impaled on stakes, 
 were made a spectacle outside the walls of the 
 city. Padi, the expelled ruler of Ekron, was 
 restored to his office, and Hezekiah, king of 
 Judah, was thus embroiled in the conflict. 
 
 For the king of the Jews had been the 
 keeper of Padi during his imprisonment. 
 Thus was he confederated with the anti-As- 
 syrian party, and accordingly Sennacherib 
 turned against him in wrath. The " fenced 
 cities" of Judah, forty-six in number, were 
 taken and pillaged, and Hezekiah himself 
 was, in the language of the Assyrian king, 
 "shut up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage." 
 
 When thus brought into a strait place, the 
 Jewish monarch sent out messengers with 
 princely presents, and bought a peace by the 
 payment of eight hundred talents of silver, 
 three hundred talents of gold, "and divers 
 treasures, a rich and immense booty." In 
 withdrawing from the country Sennacherib, 
 in accordance with what had now become the 
 settled policy of Assyria, carried with him 
 into his own country out of the lands which 
 he had subdued — chiefly the kingdom of 
 Judah — more than two hundred thousand 
 people, whom he colonized in various parts 
 of the Empire. Hezekiah, in order to obtain 
 the means of paying the heavy tribute which 
 was imposed upon his nation, was obliged to 
 despoil the temple of its treasures, even to the 
 extent of stripping off* the gold and silver 
 with which the doors and pillars had been 
 overlaid by the artificers of Solomon. 
 
 In the meantime, Bilipni, the Assyrian 
 governor of Babylon, had proved false to his 
 trust. The aged and ever-vigilant Merodach- 
 Baladan returned into the country, and ap- 
 pealing to the native Chaldsean nobles, once 
 more fanned the embers of insurrection into a 
 flame. Against these insurgents Sennacherib, 
 almost immediately after his return from his 
 wars in the West, proceeded with an army. 
 
 Merodach-Baladan and the Chaldsean confed- 
 erates were routed from the country, and the 
 old revolutionist, fleeing from Babylonia, 
 found refuge on an island in the Persian Gulf. 
 
 In the following year the attention of the 
 Assyrian king was again drawn to the turbu- 
 lent states bordering on the Mediterranean. 
 Very soon after the previous withdrawal of 
 Sennacherib from Palestine, Hezekiah, the 
 king, chafing under the exactions of tribute, 
 renewed negotiations with Egypt, and after- 
 wards, believing himself secure in the pros- 
 pect of an Egyptian alliance, wholly re- 
 nounced his allegiance to Assyria. Sennacherib, 
 having not much to fear from the petty king 
 of Judah, and a great deal to fear from the 
 immemorial prowess and renown of Egypt, 
 determined to direct his efforts first against 
 the Pharaoh and afterwards against the lesser 
 foe. Therefore, leaving Palestine to the left, 
 the Assyrian marched by the sea-coast route 
 directly to the borders of Egypt, where he 
 laid siege to Lachish, one of her tributary 
 towns. 
 
 From this point he sent forward an embassy 
 to Jerusalem, and straitly demanded repara- 
 tion for the king's breach of faith. Hezekiah 
 adopted a temporizing policy, and the em- 
 bassy was sent a second time with demand for 
 submission and threat of punishment; but the 
 Jewish king had meanwhile been encouraged 
 by the counsels and good cheer of Isaiah, the 
 prophet, who declared that the Assyrian mon- 
 arch should not come nigh Jerusalem, but 
 should return into his own country by the 
 way that he had come. 
 
 In the mean time Lachish had been in- 
 vested and taken by Sennacherib, and also 
 Libnah, from which place he advanced upon 
 Egypt, and was confronted near the town of 
 Pelusium by the Egyptian army under Seti, 
 one of the native princes. It was the eve of 
 a great battle, and the two armies lay facing 
 each other by night, when a pestilential hot 
 wind burst out of the desert and swept over 
 the camp of the Assyrians. Dead men by 
 thousands, smitten by this unexpected and 
 viewless angel of destruction, strewed the 
 earth. A doleful uproar broke out among 
 the veteran soldiery of the East. The camp
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 181 
 
 was struck with a panic, and a spontaneous 
 rout ensued, which was quickly aggravated 
 by the hosts of Egypt pressing upon the fly- 
 ing legions of Assyria. Without further con- 
 sideration of the affront of Hezekiah, the great 
 king quickly withdrew his army, recrossed the 
 Euphrates, and returned to Nineveh.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the serious reverse which 
 he had sustained, Sennacherib soon recovered 
 himself and continued his military operations 
 with unabated vigor. His fifth great cam- 
 paign was directed against the mountaineers 
 of the Upper Zagros, in the country north of 
 Lake Van. The whole of this region, from 
 Media to the borders of Cilicia, was overrun 
 by his armies, but permanent conquest was 
 impossible in such a land inhabited by such a 
 people. Besides plundering the towns, gather- 
 ing such booty as the hill-country afforded, 
 and carrying away captive as many of the in- 
 habitants as fell within his power, Sennacherib 
 accomplished little in these northern wars. 
 
 A novel episode now occurred in the his- 
 tory of Assyria. The people of Beth-Yakin, 
 the native town of the chronic rebel Mero- 
 dach-Baladan, never satisfied with the domina- 
 tion of the North over their city, determined 
 to expatriate themselves and establish a colony 
 in Susiana. They accordingly took to sea 
 with their gods and goods, and landing on 
 the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf, laid the 
 foundations of a new city. This depopulation 
 of one of his provinces angered Sennacherib, 
 and he immediately made prejaarations to re- 
 claim the fugitives by force. Until this epoch 
 the Assyrians had won no laurels on the sea. 
 They were an inland people, and only by 
 
 ^ "And there passed not five and fifty days be- 
 fore two of his [Sennacherib's] sons killed him, 
 and they fled into the mountains of Ararath." — 
 Bookof Tobit, I., 21. 
 
 "And this proved to be the conclusion of this 
 Assyrian expedition against the people of Jerusa- 
 lem. . . . At this time it was that the do- 
 minion of the Assyrians was overthrown by the 
 Medes." — Josephus : Antiquities of the Jews, Book 
 X., chaps. 1, 2. 
 
 Both of these statements are grossly incorrect. 
 Very far was Sennacherib from being killed within 
 fifty-five days of his return to Nineveh ; and the 
 Empire of the Assyrians was not overthrown by 
 the Medes until B. C. 625, seventy-four years after 
 the discomfiture of the great king at Pelusium. 
 
 contact with Phoenicia — mistress of the Western 
 waters — had they acquired any skill in the 
 construction and management of ships. So 
 notorious was the inaptitude of the nation for 
 naval affairs that the king of Susa, who had 
 received the refugee Babylonians into his do- 
 minions, hearing of the wrath of Assyria, 
 never dreamed of danger from a hostile fieet, 
 but made strenuous preparations to repel the 
 expected invasion by land. 
 
 Sennacherib, however, keenly alive to the 
 advantages of the situation, imported into his 
 dominions an army of Phoenician ship-builders 
 and marines, and hastily constructed on the 
 Tigris a fleet of biremes, so formidable in ap- 
 pearance as to strike the Assyrians with 
 amazement. As soon as his fleet was finished 
 and equipped, Sennacherib dropped down the 
 Tigris and crossed the Gulf in the wake of 
 his fugitive subjects. Before either they or 
 the Susianian king were aware of the apjoroach 
 of an enemy, the Assyrians invested the 
 town. The place was taken almost without 
 opposition. The refugees were hurried on 
 board the fleet, and while the king of Susa^ 
 was still awaiting an expected invasion of his 
 dominions by land, the Assyrians with their 
 train of captives, returned into Babylonia. 
 
 Meanwhile the Babylonians themselves, be- 
 lieving — and hoping — that the rash galleys of 
 Assyria which had gone out into the open sea 
 would never return, and that both Sennacherib 
 and his fleet were by this time at the bottom, 
 raised the standard of revolt and chose a cer- 
 tain Susub to be their king. The Susianian 
 monarch also crossed over with an army into 
 Babylonia, so that Sennacherib found himself 
 between two foes — an army of Chaldsean in- 
 surgents on the one side and an army of 
 Elamites on the other. Both were disastrously 
 defeated by the Assyrian king, who drove 
 back with him to Nineveh a vast multitude 
 of prisoners — a heterogeneous throng of Baby- 
 lonians and Elamites, whom the monarch dis- 
 tributed as he would. Susub himself was led 
 a captive to be gazed at by the Ninevites. 
 
 The next two expeditions of Sennacherib 
 were directed against Susiana. The frequent 
 encouragement and positive aid rendered by 
 Nakhunta, the king of this country, to the
 
 182 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ever-insurrectionary Babylonians, furnished 
 sufficient motive and excuse for an Assyrian 
 invasion. Besides, two cities belonging to 
 Assyria had been taken by the Elamites and 
 were held by defiant garrisons. Against these 
 Sennacherib directed the first movements of 
 his campaigns. Both towns were taken, after 
 which the Assyrian army marched into the in- 
 terior, capturing and destroying no fewer than 
 thirty-four large cities and a great number of 
 less important places, devastating the country 
 and carrying terror to both king and people. 
 The former fled afirighted from his capital and 
 sought refuge in a fortified town at the foot 
 of the mountains. At this point in the cam- 
 paign the home affairs of the Empire de- 
 manded the attention of Sennacherib, and he 
 returned to Nineveh laden with spoils. 
 
 In the meantime, Susub, the Babylonian 
 prisoner, escaped from the Assyrians, and re- 
 turning to Chaldiea was once more jiroclaimed 
 king. He made the most vigorous prepara- 
 tions to defend himself against the inevitable, 
 and even went so far in his desperation as to 
 break open the great temple of Bel at Baby- 
 lon and seize the sacred treasures, in order to 
 buy the alliance of the king of Susiana in the 
 approaching conflict. The aid thus sought 
 was promptly given, and an Elamite army 
 was quickly sent into Babylonia to support 
 the insurgents. But it was all of no avail. 
 The veteran army of Assyria was soon in the 
 field; the allied host of the South was beaten 
 down in the hard-fought battle of Chaluli 
 and scattered to the winds. Babylon was en- 
 tered and pillaged. The temples were ran- 
 sacked, and the golden gods of the ancient 
 ages were broken in pieces by a derisive 
 soldiery. 
 
 The last campaign formally undertaken by 
 the great Assyrian was against Cilicia. Here 
 for the first time the armies of Asshur en- 
 countered the Greeks in battle. For a Greek 
 ^fleet was guarding the Cilician coast at the 
 time of the invasion, and this fleet the Phoeni- 
 cian navy of Sennacherib met and defeated. 
 In the land contest, also, the Cilicians were 
 overthrown. Then it was that the Assyrian 
 king, in order to carry out his policy of peo- 
 pling conquered provinces with the inhabi- 
 
 tants of other countries, founded the city of 
 Tarsus, after the model of Babylon. For just 
 as the latter city was divided by the Euphratea 
 flowing through the midst, so Tarsus, cleft by 
 the Cydnus, was divided into twain. 
 
 It appears that several years — near the 
 close of his reign — were occupied by Sen- 
 nacherib in this Cilician war. Whatever 
 successes he may have gained during these 
 aggressive movements in Asia Minor were, 
 perhaps, counterbalanced by losses and insur- 
 rections on the south and east. The records 
 of Babylon indicate that the last eight years 
 of the reign of Sennacherib were coincident 
 with an era of turbulence and misrule in the 
 Southern provinces. It is not unlikely that 
 the king was in his decline, and the vigor with 
 which he was wont to chastise rebellious coun- 
 tries was no longer manifested in his adminis- 
 tration. The Chaldseans, in common with the 
 rest of the human race, had learned that lib- 
 erties can be taken with the aged lion. It is 
 clearly indicated that at the close of the great 
 king's reign Babylon was once more in a state 
 of semi-independence. 
 
 During the vicissitudes of his military 
 campaigns, Sennacherib found time to distin- 
 guish himself and his epoch by splendid mon- 
 uments. At the capital he built a great pal- 
 ace, surpassing in beauty and size any edifice 
 hitherto erected in Assyria. The foundation, 
 which was a vast platform raised about ninety 
 feet above the plain, covered a space of more 
 than eight acres. Within the palace were 
 three great quadrangular courts.^ The prin- 
 cipal halls were the one one hundred and 
 eighty feet, and the other one hundred and 
 fifty feet in length, the wadth of each being 
 above forty feet. Around these halls and 
 courts galleries and apartments were arranged 
 in an artistic manner. The whole number of 
 rooms, besides the courts and halls, was about 
 eighty, of which forty have been explored, 
 and their dimensions and ornamentation ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 In the matter of ornamentation the work 
 ot Sennacherib was distinguished from that 
 
 ' The ground-plan shows that the main courts 
 were respectively 154x125 feet; 124x90 feet; and 
 90x90 feet, in dimensions.
 
 ASS YRIA.—CHR ONOLOG Y AND ANNALS. 
 
 183 
 
 of his predecessors by its superior finish and 
 the introduction of backgrounds in the sculp- 
 tures. In the reliefs which adorn the halls 
 and corridors of the great king's palace there 
 is an elaboration and profusion of details 
 ■which remind the beholder of the infinite 
 particularity and realism displayed in the 
 temples of Egypt. In Sennacherib's sculp- 
 tures there is a constant comformity to the 
 facts and a total absence of imagination, as 
 if any departure from the real had been re- 
 garded by the sculptor as a crime against the 
 laws of art. 
 
 The great works of Sennacherib's time were 
 mostly produced by slave labor — that is, the 
 labor of captives who were thrown into the 
 cities of the Empire by the tides of conquest. 
 Multitudes of Elamites, Jews, Arameeans, 
 Chaldeeans, Cilicians, and Armenians had 
 been added to the laboring population, and 
 these were organized into companies and 
 driven by task-masters to perform the chief 
 part in rearing the prodigious structures 
 which made Assyria famous. 
 
 Sennacherib may well be regarded as a 
 typical warrior-king of ancient times. Among 
 Assyrian monarchs he was perhaps the great- 
 est. Considering the extent of his wars his 
 success in the field was quite unparalleled. 
 Except the disaster at Pelusium and the loss 
 of Babylon in his old age, no single reverse 
 checked the victorious progress of his arms. 
 He possessed a degree of will and self-confi- 
 dence not easily matched among the rulers of 
 the ancient world ; and when we consider the 
 cares and burdens which he must have borne 
 in the civil administration of so vast a gov- 
 ernment, and the versatile and original talents 
 displayed in the architectural and industrial 
 progress of the kingdom during his reign, we 
 are struck with admiration at his tremendous 
 activities and force of character. 
 
 After reigning for nearly a quarter of a 
 century Sennacherib was assassinated by two 
 of his sons. The eldest son, Asshur-Inadi-Su, 
 who had been viceroy of Babylon, died before 
 his father. Nergal, the second son, became 
 heir-apparent to the throne ; but Adramme- 
 lech and Sharezer, two other sons, fired with 
 jealousy on account of their brother's prefer- 
 
 ment, conspired against their father's life and 
 killed him while he was worshiping in the 
 temple.^ 
 
 For the moment the insurrection was nearly 
 successful; for Nergal was driven out of 
 the kingdom. But a reaction soon set in, and 
 the people, shocked, perhaps, at the crime of 
 the parricides, turned to Esar-Haddon, a fifth 
 son of Sennacherib, who was then in com- 
 mand of the army. As soon as the prince 
 could march on the capital — for it was winter 
 then, and the army was far from Nineveh — 
 he was recognized as king, and expelling the 
 assassins, who escaped into Armenia, began 
 his reign in the spring of B. C. 681. He 
 reigned for thirteen years, and like the kings, 
 his ancestors, was principally engaged in the 
 conduct of wars. At the first he put down some 
 forces which were endeavoring to maintain 
 the claims of the assassins of his father. In 
 the next year he led an army into Phoenicia, 
 where Abdi-Milkut, the king of Sidon, had 
 raised a revolt and induced some of the 
 neighboring rulers to join him. Esar-Had- 
 don promptly suppressed the rebellion, and 
 having captured the city, pursued the fugitive 
 king to Cyprus, whither he had fled, and 
 making him prisoner, put him to death. 
 
 An Assyrian governor was apj)ointed over 
 Sidon. Large numbers of her people were 
 transported beyond the Euphrates, and their 
 places were filled by Assyrian subjects taken 
 from the provinces. The next expedition was 
 into Armenia. Here the king captured the 
 city of Arza, and carried away the inhabitants 
 to labor upon the public works of Nineveh. 
 In the following year his army was in Cilicia, 
 where he overthrew a large force of insur- 
 gents, and took and destroyed twenty-one 
 towns, with deportation of the people into 
 Assyria. 
 
 ^ In the commission of this crime we see the 
 indubitable symptoms of the overtli^'ow of the 
 Empire. The dagger of the assassin was now at 
 work in the palace. The sacred character of the 
 king was no longer proof against that insane ambi- 
 tion which could not patiently abide the processes 
 of nature. What the violence of foreign war could 
 not accomplish in that it was weak, that the 
 blasted aftection of the son for the father stood 
 ready to do by the atrocity of secret crime^
 
 184 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In the sixth year of his reign Esar-Had- 
 don marched into Chaldsea, where, for about 
 fourteen years, civil affairs had been in a con- 
 dition bordering on anarchy. One Nebo-Zirzi- 
 Sidi — son of the old revolutionist, Merodach- 
 Baladan — was now in authority at Babylon, 
 holding the place of ruler with little or no re- 
 spect to the wish of the Empire. A younger 
 brother of this reigning prince, Nahid-Marduk 
 by name, had meanwhile gone to Nineveh, 
 where, pledging his own loyalty, he repre- 
 sented to Esar-Haddon the condition of affairs 
 in Babylonia. The king gladly espoused the 
 cause of Marduk, and overthrowing the power 
 of the rebellious prince conferred the sover- 
 eignty on him who had professed loyalty. 
 
 The seventh campaign of Esar-Haddon was 
 against Hazael, king of Edom. The capital 
 city of this ruler was taken, and the Edomite 
 gods were carried along with a captive train 
 to Nineveh. The images, however, were soon 
 afterwards sent back in answer to the prayer 
 of Hazael, who was restored to authority and 
 accepted as a subject of Assyria. Hazael 
 should marry an Assyrian princess and pay 
 an annual tribute of sixty-five camels. So 
 there was peace in Edom. 
 
 The next expedition of Esar-Haddon was 
 into a country beyond the Arabian desert. 
 At least such is the statement of the Assyrian 
 Canon. If the record be true, the campaign 
 was a most extraordinary one, extending four 
 hundred and ninety miles across a leafless, 
 trackless, waterless waste of sand. That the 
 Assyrian king was able to subsist a great army 
 in such a region on such an expedition seems 
 incredible. Esar-Haddon is said to have tri- 
 umphed over this far-off country of Bazu. 
 Laile, the king, escaped, but afterwards went 
 in person to Nineveh to obtain by humility 
 what he had been unable to secure by arms — 
 a favorable peace for his people. 
 
 Shortly after this rather apocryphal epi- 
 sode, Esar-Haddon is found engaged in a war 
 with the Aramaeans, in the marsh-lands of the 
 Euphrates. The Gambulu, one of the tribes, 
 had neglected their tribute, and the king went 
 thither to punish them; but the terrified chief 
 sent in his submission and made haste to pay 
 the tribute. Afterwards the Assyrian led his 
 
 army into the remote confines of Media, where 
 a confederation of tribes was broken and some 
 of the chiefs carried to Nineveh. This cam- 
 paign completed the tenth year of Esar-Had- 
 don's reign. The last and most important of 
 all his wars was his conquest of Egypt. 
 
 Tirhakah was now the Pharaoh. His court 
 was at Memphis. He belonged to that Ethi- 
 opian dynasty established by Shabak I. The 
 Assyrian invasion was directed first against 
 Memphis and afterwards Thebes. Both of 
 these ancient capitals were taken, and Tirha- 
 kah was driven out of the country by the way 
 that his ancestors had entered. All of Egypt 
 between Thebes and the Mediterranean was 
 conquered by the Assyrians. The country 
 was divided into twenty provinces, and over 
 each a governor was set, the whole being sub- 
 ject to the viceroy Necho, father of Psametik 
 I. After reducing the country to an orderly 
 administration, Esar-Haddon returned to his 
 capital, where he inscribed himself on the en- 
 tablature of his palace, "King of the kings 
 of Egypt and conqueror of Ethiopia." 
 
 About this time occurred the rebellion of 
 Manasseh, king of the Jews. The Assyrian 
 generals were sent against him, and he was 
 quickly overthrown. Being taken prisoner, 
 he was conveyed in chains to Babylon. After 
 a while, when his pride was broken, he was 
 liberated by the king and restored to his do- 
 minions. In accordance with the custom of 
 the times, the tribute laid on Judah was in- 
 creased after the rebellion ; and to make as- 
 surance doubly sure, a great train of colonists, 
 gathered from Babylon, Susa, and even from 
 Persia and other foreign regions, was turned 
 into Palestine, until the immigrant population 
 predominated over the native-born in Jewry. 
 
 At this juncture, 669 B. C, Esar-Haddon 
 fell sick and resigned the crown of Assyria 
 to his son, Asshur-Bani-Pal.' The enfeebled 
 monarch retained for himself only the vice- 
 royalty of Babylon, and retiring thither, 
 passed at his southern capital the remaining 
 year of his life. He died in 668, and Asshur- 
 Bani-Pal became sole monarch of the Empire. 
 His younger brother, Saul-Magina, was ap- 
 pointed to the viceroyalty of Babylon. The 
 
 ^The Sardanapahis of the Greeks.
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 185 
 
 reign of the new king was ushered in by a 
 war with Egypt. For as soon as Tirhakah, 
 the expelled Pharaoh, heard that Esar-Haddon 
 was powerless to punish him further, he headed 
 back to Egypt, and driving out Neeho and 
 his band of Assyrian kinglets, restored the 
 old regime as quickly as it had been insti- 
 tuted. Asshur-Bani-Pal hastily marched into 
 Egypt, and encountering the Egyptian army 
 at Kar-Banit, gained a complete victory. 
 Tirhakah fled at once from Memphis, and 
 was pursued by the Assyrians to Thebes, and 
 through Thebes into Ethiopia. 
 
 Tirhakah, when the Assyrian army had re- 
 tired from the country, undertook to secure 
 by intrigue what he was unable to achieve in 
 battle. Several of Asshur-Bani-Pal's gov- 
 ernors, including the viceroy Necho, were se- 
 duced from their allegiance and led into a 
 conspiracy. This was discovered, and the 
 conspirators were taken by the loyal princes 
 and sent to Nineveh. But the rebellious 
 party gradually gained the ascendency, and 
 Tirhakah, returning to Thebes, was reestab- 
 lished in the kingdom. Meanwhile Necho had 
 pleaded for his life and liberty, and, being 
 set free, was intrusted by the Assyrian king 
 with the duty of restoring order in Egypt. 
 An army was intrusted to his command. 
 Tirhakah was once more defeated, and fly- 
 ing from the country, perished in Ethiopia. 
 His step-son, Urdamane, succeeded to the 
 crown, and soon developed military talents su- 
 perior to those of the late king. He carried 
 on a campaign in Upper Egypt, took Thebes, 
 and restored the Ethiopian dynasty to undis- 
 puted authority. Pursuing the Assyrians into 
 Lower Egypt, he besieged Memphis, captured 
 the city, and regained a complete supremacy 
 over the whole country. Asshur-Bani-Pal, on 
 hearing the news — for he was now in Assyria — 
 returned with all haste, entered Egypt, put to 
 flight the combined forces of the Egyptians 
 and Ethiopians, chased them up the Nile val- 
 ley and out of the land. He then sacked 
 Thebes, and carried away a train of spoils 
 such as had never before been taken from a 
 city of the Pharaohs— gold, silver, gems, 
 costly garments, priestly vessels and robes, 
 ornaments of ebony garnished with precious 
 
 stones, obelisks, domestic animals, slaves, and 
 hostages. Native Assyrian governors whose 
 loyalty could not be doubted were then ap- 
 pointed in place of the deposed princes, and 
 the king returned victorious to his own capital. 
 In the meantime a certain Baal, king of 
 Tyre, had thrown off" his allegiauce and defied 
 Assyria. Returning out of Egypt, Asshur- 
 Bani-Pal attacked the insurgent city, subdued 
 the king, and laid upon the people a still 
 heavier tribute. A different motive drew the 
 Assyrian monarch into Cilicia ; for the king 
 of this country had invited him thither and 
 offered him his daughter in marriage. The 
 offer was accepted, and the Cilician princess 
 accompanied her lord to Nineveh. 
 
 Soon after these events Asshur-Bani-Pal 
 made an expedition into Asia Minor, crossing 
 the Taurus, and directing his campaign against 
 several hitherto unknown provinces. After 
 subduing these and returning to his capital, 
 he was honored with an embassy from Gyges, 
 king of Lydia, who sent in a voluntary sub- 
 mission on the part of himself and his country. 
 Afterwards in a war which Gyges waged with 
 the Cimmerians he was successful, and sent 
 some of their chiefs as a curious present to 
 the king of Assyria. The next invasion by 
 the monarch was into the mountainous country- 
 surrounding Lake Van. Aksheri, king of the 
 tribes in this region, was defeated by the As- 
 syrians and put to death by his own subjects. 
 His son Vohalli quickly made peace with the 
 Empire on the condition of paying a heavy- 
 annual tribute. 
 
 A new complication now arose in a differ- 
 ent quarter. Some Susiauian tribes, being 
 hard pressed by famine, obtained permission 
 to remove within the borders of the Empire. 
 As soon, however, as plenty returned, the im- 
 migrants wearied of their new surroundings 
 and desired to return into Susiana. This was 
 refused, and Urtaki, the king of the Susian- 
 ians, thereupon demanded that his subjects be 
 liberated. Hostile movements followed on 
 both sides. The cause of Susiana was es- 
 poused by the Aramseans; but Asshur-Bani- 
 Pal quickly marched into the country of his 
 antagonist, defeated his army, and took him 
 prisoner, Urtaki soon died, and his brother
 
 186 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Ummau-Aldas, who had been in exile on ac- 
 count of his friendship for the Assyrians, was 
 restored to his country and the throne. After 
 his death, however, his sons were excluded 
 from the kingdom by their uncle, who was of 
 the anti-Assyrian party. The princes fled to 
 Nineveh, and Asshur-Bani-Pal found it nec- 
 essary to undertake their restoration. 
 
 The usurper of Susiana made prodigious 
 efforts to save himself, drawing several adja- 
 cent nations, including Babylonia, into an 
 alliance against the Assyrian monarch. But 
 the latter was again easily victorious. The 
 allied army Avas defeated in battle; the king 
 was taken and put to death, and his head 
 nailed up over the gate of Nineveh. The two 
 young Susianian princes returned under the 
 protection of Asshur-Bani-Pal, and to each 
 was given a half of the kingdom. The rebel 
 princes were well-nigh exterminated. Some had 
 their tongues cut out; others were beheaded. 
 
 But the spirit of rebellion was not at all 
 extinguished. Saiil-Mugina, the deposed king 
 of Babylonia, fomented an insurrection, and 
 induced several surrounding states to join 
 him; Even one of the princes of Susiana, 
 whom Asshur-Bani-Pal had recently restored 
 to power, was bribed to break his allegiance 
 and join the revolt. The other bi'other, how- 
 ever, remained loyal to the king, who had con- 
 ferred the right to rule, and so raising an 
 army, he attacked his brother, most of whose 
 forces were absent in Babylonia, and defeated 
 and killed him. For this he was rewarded 
 by Asshur-Bani-Pal with the undivided sover- 
 eignty of Elam. 
 
 But this merited honor he did not long 
 retain, for the army in Babylonia would not 
 follow his lead ; and in the meantime, Inda- 
 Bigas, a chieftain who ruled the mountaineers 
 of Luristan, led a counter revolution, and 
 placing himself on the throne compelled Tam- 
 marit — for that was the name of the Susianian 
 king — to fly for his life. Saiil-Mugina also 
 was attacked by 1m brother, acting in the As- 
 syrian interest, and thus the rebellion was 
 brought to nought. Asshur-Bani-Pal overran 
 the country, captured the toAvns one by one, 
 and extinguished the last sparks of opposition. 
 Saiil-Mugina was taken and burnt to death. 
 
 Several years of quiet followed; but the 
 elements of sedition were constantly working 
 in Susiana. There was an Assyrian party 
 and an auti- Assyrian party. By and by, the 
 success of the latter was so marked that in 
 B. C. 645, Asshur-Bani-Pal again entered the 
 country and captured twenty-six of the prin- 
 cipal cities, including Susa. Western Elam 
 was thus brought completely under the domi- 
 nation of Assyria, while Eastern Elam re- 
 mained to the opposing party. Not long, 
 however, was even this status maintained. A 
 fresh insurrection once more called the Assyr« 
 ian king into the country, which he now en. 
 tered in extreme wrath. Fighting his way 
 victoriously to Susa, the capital, he took the 
 city by assault, and for the space of twenty- 
 three days gave it uj) to the rage of his sol- 
 diers. An edict was issued abolishing Susi- 
 anian independence, and the whole country 
 was formally annexed to Assyria as one of 
 the provinces of the Empire. 
 
 The hard work given to the Assyrian army, 
 for the space of twelve years, by these Elam- 
 itic wars lent encouragement to political dis- 
 content in the West. Psametik of Egypt 
 made a dash for independence. Gyges, king 
 of Lydia, for some time the voluntary subject 
 of Assyria, hearing of the Egyptian outbreak, 
 sent aid to Psametik, and broke with Asshur- 
 Bani-Pal. Scarcely, however, had he done so 
 when the savage Cimmerians, whom he had 
 recently subdued, burst in upon his kingdom, 
 overran the whole country, defeated the king's 
 army, and put him to death. Ardys, his suc- 
 cessor, hastened to make peace with Assyria, 
 and the revolt was at an end. 
 
 The last of Asshur-Bani-Pal's foreign ex- 
 peditions was directed against those Arabs of 
 the desert who had aided the Babylonians in 
 their recent rebellion. Several of the wild 
 tribes allied themselves to resist the power 
 which they had provoked, and a desultory 
 warfare was waged over a wide district of 
 country. That part of the waste region lying 
 between the Persian Gulf and Syria was over- 
 run by the Assyrian army. Damascus, Petra, 
 and the towns of Moab were taken by the 
 king ; and in the Damascene mountains, at a 
 place called Khukhuruna, a decisive battle
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 187 
 
 was fouglit, in which the Arabs were disas- 
 trously routed. The two chiefs who had 
 been conspicuous in furnishing aid to Baby- 
 lon were captured, taken to Nineveh, and be- 
 headed. 
 
 During the latter years of Asshur-Bani- 
 Pal's reign, Assyria suffered a decline from 
 which she never recovered — a decadence attrib- 
 utable in part to the internal forces of disso- 
 lution which were at work in the Empire, 
 and in part to external violence. It was be- 
 tween the years 634 and 626 B. C. that As- 
 syria began to feel the effect of hostile dem- 
 onstrations from without, and to realize in her 
 own experience the difference between invader 
 and invaded. The same treatment which she 
 for so many centuries had visited upon sur- 
 rounding nations was now to be remeasured 
 to her in her OAvn cup. 
 
 For in the mean time the kingdom of Me- 
 dia, on the south-east mountain skirt of the 
 Empire, had grown into a vigorous and war- 
 like life. The native forces of nationality had 
 here received a remarkable development, and 
 immigration from the East had both contributed 
 to the population and made versatile the genius 
 of the Medes. Several times in their foreign 
 wars the kings of Assyria had struck the Me- 
 dian soldiery, and not a few wrongs had been 
 done by the Ninevite dynasty to the rising 
 kingdom beyond the south-eastern mountain 
 chain. The effect of these acts had been to 
 arouse the animosity of the Medes, and they 
 only waited until their power should come, to 
 be avenged upon their great enemy. 
 
 In the year B. C. 634, the king of the Medes 
 felt himself strong enough to begin the con- 
 flict. With a well equipped army he invaded 
 Assyria and offered battle to Asshur-Bani-Pal 
 in his own dominions. The gauge thus thrown 
 down was accepted by the haughty monarch, 
 and the Median king was utterly routed. His 
 army was cut to pieces and himself left among 
 the slain. The effect of this rout, however, 
 was rather to enrage than to terrify the Medes, 
 whose spirit rose with the conflict, and whose 
 immediate note of j)reparation for renewal of 
 the struggle sounded through the land. It 
 was at this juncture of affairs that a new peril, 
 unseen, undreaded alike by Media and Assyria, 
 
 flung an ominous shadow over all of South- 
 western Asia. 
 
 For now it was that the barbarous Scythi- 
 ans swarming in the steppes of the North, at- 
 tracted by chance perhaps to the sunny plains 
 and fruitful fields of the Southern nations, began 
 to pour through the mountain passes and de- 
 vastate the country. It was a consuming horde 
 of ravenous semi-savages, more savage than 
 savagery, that settled upon every green shrub 
 of civilization, and, locust-like, devoured both 
 leafage and fruit. The organization of the 
 race was tribal. One "Head Tribe" had a 
 kind of loose suj)remacy of the rest. The 
 chief pursuit was that of herdsmen and sol- 
 diers. Huge droves of half-wild cattle were 
 followed from steppe to steppe by the nomadic 
 barbarians, who slaughtered when they would, 
 gorged themselves with blood and flesh, and 
 grcAV ferocious as the beasts that raven. ^ 
 
 It was this prodigious race of savages that, 
 while the Medes were preparing for a second 
 invasion of Assyria, burst through the passes 
 of the North and poured into the Median 
 fields. Devastation and ruin followed in their 
 wake. Whatever was destructible perished. 
 The inhabitants either fled for refuge to the 
 fortified towns or were cut down wherever 
 overtaken with the short swords of the barba- 
 rians. All of Upper Media was trodden un- 
 der foot of the Scythian host, on whose feroc- 
 ity neither the weakness of woman nor the 
 helplessness of age left any softening trace. 
 Some of the towns were besieged and starved 
 into submission, and in such cases the inhabi- 
 tants were given up to merciless butchery. 
 
 ^ Many are the cheerful descriptions drawn by 
 the Greek historians of tliis gentle breed of sav- 
 ages. Herodotus and Hippocrates were evidently 
 struck with the sterling, though somewhat stal- 
 wart, virtues of the race. Tliey describe the Scyth- 
 ians as creatures with overgrown and beastly 
 bodies; covered with coarse hair; gross and fat; 
 loose jointed ; abdomens protruding like pots ; un- 
 washed and filthy ; smeared witli paste ; stuffing 
 tliemselves with cheese and the sour milk of mares ; 
 hanging their slain enemies' scalps to their bridle 
 reins, and lapping tlie blood while hot ; using 
 liuman skulls for drinking bowls ; and snoring in 
 the dirt and ashes under rude tents of felt or 
 among the rubbish of their carts. The Scythian 
 armor, besides the bow and arrow, consisted of 
 shield and spear and battle-axe.
 
 188 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In other places the supplies were abundant, 
 and when the patience of the barbarians was 
 exhausted they passed on to ravage other 
 districts. 
 
 Although Media and Iberia were the first 
 countries to feel the shock of the Scythian in- 
 vasion, the ravages of the horde were by no 
 means confined to these states. The savage 
 tide rolled on into Mesopotamia and Armenia, 
 and then swept westward and south-westward 
 into Syria and Palestine. Assyria — especially 
 the better portion between the Zagros and the 
 Tigris — was completely devastated. The ener- 
 gies of the Empire had, no doubt, flagged as 
 the vigor and will of Asshur-Bani-Pal went 
 out in old age. Assyria had so long enjoyed 
 immunity from invasion — had so little imag- 
 ined it a possible thing for any nation to 
 enter her dominions — that many towns and 
 even great cities were built without special 
 reference to defense. Into these the Scythian 
 hosts poured without a check. The accumu- 
 lated treasures of ages melted away before 
 them. Blood flowed in the streets where the 
 shout of an enemy had never before been 
 heard. Palaces were sacked and given to the 
 torch, and all who were not butchered out- 
 right were scattered in terror to the hills. 
 
 Of all the countries trodden under foot 
 by the barbarians, the rich and luxurious but 
 now decrepit Assyria suffered the most terri- 
 ble disasters. It was a blow from which she 
 never recovered. On the west the eflfect of 
 the invasion, spi'eading and difflising itself 
 like a flood of waters, was less seriously felt. 
 Syria soon recovered herself and continued as 
 before. Psametik, of Egyj)t, met the Scyth- 
 ians on the confines of his kingdom and pur- 
 chased exemption. 
 
 In the course of time, however, the barbarian 
 deluge subsided and the dry ground appeared. 
 According to Herodotus, the savages held the 
 mastery of Western Asia for twenty-eight 
 years. After a time they receded, and most 
 of the nations which had fallen under their 
 sway regained their freedom. In Media, es- 
 pecially, was the power of recuperation mani- 
 fested. The people were warlike; the coun- 
 try was hilly; most of the towns were fortified. 
 The barbarian progress — especially in Lower 
 
 Media — had thus been impeded ; and as soon 
 as the swarm had ■ in some measure disap- 
 peared, the Medes turned upon the remaining 
 savages and expelled them. Then, with great 
 vigor, the damage done was repaired ; and 
 while Assyria, whose very opulence was 
 proving her ruin, still nourished the glutton- 
 ous brood at her breast. Media recovered her 
 strength, and made ready to finish in Mesopo- 
 tamia the work which the Scythic horde had 
 so fearfully begun. Such was the course of 
 events between the first and the second inva- 
 sion of the Assyrian Empire by the Medes. 
 
 The aged Asshur-Bani-Pal made some eflJbrts 
 to restore and reorganize his kingdom. In 
 this work, however, he was cut short by death. 
 In the year 626 B. C. the great king died, 
 and was succeeded by his son, Asshur-Emid- 
 Ilin, more generally known by his Greek 
 name of Saracus. It is here, moreover, that 
 the confusion of the Western historians re- 
 garding the last years of the Assyrian Empire, 
 begins. By them the character and deeds of 
 Saracus, who was a voluptuary, without spirit 
 or enterprise, were transferred to Asshur-Bani- 
 Pal — Sardanapalus — from which it has hap- 
 pened that the latter, one of the greatest of 
 the warrior-kings of Assyria, has generally 
 borne the reputation of an eff*eminate Oriental, 
 who went about his palace dressed in woman's 
 apparel, feasting in his seraglio, sleeping the 
 sleep of the glutton. The confusion has ex- 
 tended still further, making Sardanapalus 
 to be the last king of Assyria, him whom 
 Cyaxares destroyed amid the ruins of the 
 Empire. The Assyrian records have now 
 made it clear that to the voluptuary Saracus 
 belongs the discredit of being extinguished 
 in the ruins of his palace and kingdom. 
 
 This prince came to the throne in 626. 
 He began his brief and inglorious reign at 
 Nineveh. Preferring Calah as a capital, he 
 laid, in that city, the foundations of a palace 
 which, in its diminished proportions, was but 
 a caricature of the grand works of his father 
 and grandfather.^ But it was not reserved 
 
 ^ Esar-H ad don's conquest of Egypt made him 
 familiar with the famous architecture of that coun- 
 try. He carried home with him from Thebes some 
 of her guardian sphinxes, and the traces of Egyp-
 
 ASSYRIA.— CHRONOLOGY AND ANNALS. 
 
 189 
 
 DEATH OF SARACUS.
 
 190 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 for Saracus to be either builder or king. The 
 handwriting was already on the wall, and the 
 fiat was gone forth. Cyaxares, king of the 
 Medes, was already gathering and equipping 
 an army for a renewal of the war Avhich had 
 been so long interrupted by the coming of the 
 Scyths. He drew into an alliance with him- 
 self the Susianians, the ancient and inveter- 
 ate foes of Assyria, and in B. C. 627, a few 
 months before the accession of Saracus, was 
 ready to begin the war. The plan of the 
 campaign involved a double invasion of the 
 Empire. The army of Susiana was to march 
 from the south, while Cyaxares himself, with 
 the Medes, was to enter the country from 
 the east. 
 
 To resist the enemy Saracus made such 
 preparations as the enfeebled state of the 
 kingdom would permit. To meet the double 
 invasion which was threatened he divided his 
 army, and appointed the general Nabopolassar 
 to command one of the divisions. To him 
 was intrusted the work of repelling the Susi- 
 anians, who were expected to enter the coun- 
 try on the side of Babylonia, while the king 
 himself was to face Cyaxares. From the be- 
 ginning the Assyrian cause was beset with 
 disaster. Nabopolassar betrayed his king and 
 country. Between him and Cyaxares nego- 
 tiations were opened, and, on condition that 
 the Median king would give his daughter in 
 marriage to Nebuchadnezzar, the oldest son 
 of Nabopolassar, the latter agreed to go over to 
 the Medes and join in the invasion of Assyria. 
 
 tian influence are noticeable from this time forth 
 in the royal buildings of Assyria. Esar-Haddon's 
 great palace at Calah — one of the most splendid of . 
 all the kingly edifices — bore in many parts the 
 touch of the Egyptian. The grand doorway leading 
 to the inner chamber of the palace was guarded by 
 colossal sphinxes and lions after the manner of the 
 temples of Egypt. The palace of Asshur-Bani- 
 Pal at Koyunjik was also touched with this foreign 
 influence ; and it was more than likely that that 
 monarch's taste for literature, of which he and his 
 scribes were the greatest lights of the Empire, 
 was in like manner traceable to an inspiration 
 caught in Egyptian campaigns. 
 
 The defection was fatal. The spirit of 
 Saracus and of those who still supported his 
 cause was broken; and before the combined 
 army of Medes, Susianians, Babylonians, and 
 disloyal Assyrians under NabojDolassar, Sar- 
 acus ftll back to Nineveh, and entered her 
 gates to go out no more. It was now 625 
 B. C, The city was at once invested. The 
 siege was pressed with ever-increasing vigor, 
 and despair settled like a pall over the proud 
 metropolis which had so long been the terror 
 of the nations. Saracus was unequal to the 
 great emergency which was upon him and his 
 people. The last day of Assyrian greatness 
 drew into twilight. The river conspired with 
 fate to overthrow the defenses of the city. 
 The tramp of the Median soldiers was heard 
 in the streets. The inhabitants, who had 
 never before beheld a foreign foe except as 
 trembling captives, fled in dismay before the 
 fiery Medes. The king hastily entered his 
 palace, ordered the slaves to heap the sacred 
 things into a funeral pyre, and mounting to 
 the summit with his wives and servants, ap- 
 plied the torch and perished in the flames. 
 His ashes lay white upon the marble floor, 
 mingled with the ashes of the Assyrian Em- 
 j^ire. A new power had arisen beyond the 
 mountains to take the place of the colossal 
 fabric reared by the genius of Shalmaneser 
 and Tiglathi-Adar. Another race had come 
 into the ascendant, and the glory and great- 
 ness of the Assyrians were shrouded in ever- 
 lasting night.^ 
 
 ^ Lord Byron, in his tragedy of Sardanapalus, 
 has given a most vivid picture of the closing 
 scenes of the Empire. Following Diodorus and 
 Ctesias, the great poet has committed the usual 
 error of confounding Saracus with Asshur-Bani- 
 Pal, attributing to the latter the vices and follies of 
 the former ; and to this is added the geographical 
 absurdity of making the battlements of Nineveh 
 to be washed down by a flood in the Euphrates I 
 Indeed, throughout the whole drama the Assj^rian 
 capital is placed on the banks of the Eujihrates, 
 instead of those of the Tigris. Nevertheless, the 
 tragedy is an imperishable, though highly poetic, 
 account of the sunset of Assyrian glory.
 
 ASSYRIA.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 191 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— REIvIQION AND ART. 
 
 HE Religious System of 
 the Assyrians was well- 
 nigh identical with that 
 of the Chaldseans, from 
 whom it was borrowed. 
 When the colonists that 
 founded Asshur went 
 forth from the low-lying plains of the South, 
 they carried with them the cycle of ideas which 
 the fish-god, coming up from the sea, had 
 taught them. In both countries the external 
 forms of religion Avere alike. The temples, 
 the altars, the sacred offices of Calah and Nin- 
 eveh, were a transcript of those of Borsippa 
 and Babylon, And, subjectively considered, 
 the religious theories and beliefs of Assyria 
 were of the same warp and woof with those 
 which had immemorially prevailed on the 
 Lower Euphrates and the borders of the Gulf. 
 So far as the objects of Assyrian worship 
 were concerned, they were a group of gods of 
 various degrees of importance. There was not 
 sufficient unity in the system to warrant the 
 use of the term monotheistic as descriptive of 
 its character. The deities rose the one above 
 another, but none so high as to be regarded as 
 by preeminence the supreme god of Assyria. 
 Each had his own sphere, within the limits of 
 which his godhood was unquestioned and un- 
 questionable. It was the diflTerence in the 
 elevation of the sphere by w^hich these divine 
 activities were circumscribed that determined 
 the rank and honor of the respective gods in 
 the Ninevite pantheon. 
 
 To the general rule of identity between the 
 deities of Upper and Lower Mesopotamia 
 there was one notable exception. Asshur, the 
 special god of the Assyrian Empire, was un- 
 known in the South. He was the tutelary 
 deity of the race. To him both kings and 
 people iDoked as the peculiar guardian of the 
 city, the court, the nation. His praise was 
 sounded through all the inscriptions, and the 
 prayer of the priest always began with an ap- 
 peal to Asshur. Thirteen kings of the line of 
 
 Nimrod bore the name of this deity — and the 
 name was identical with that of the country; 
 so that the highest patriotism and the most 
 fervid religious zeal found at the beginning of 
 their quest a common fountain of inspiration : 
 to the one he was the hero Asshur, the son of 
 Shem; to the other, the god Asshur, lord of 
 the Assyrian race. Asshur was worshiped as 
 the King of the Gods. He was the Destroyer 
 of the Enemy and the Giver of Victory. 
 "When the colonists waxed strong in the upper 
 country they called their earliest capital 
 Asshur; therefore was he the Founder of 
 Cities. The enemies and servants of the 
 Assyrians were the enemies and servants of 
 Asshur, and to him was due the ascendency 
 of the race over the barbarians. So general 
 and wide-spread was the adoration of this deity 
 that his worship was never localized ; nor does 
 it appear that a temple was ever built in hi3| 
 honor. It was to the lesser gods that the 
 greater fanes were reared. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the myth of 
 Asshur was based on the founding of the race 
 by Asshur, the son of Shem. He, like RomU' 
 lus, passed by apotheosis from earthly fame to 
 divine honors. In this can be seen, also, the 
 reason for the worship of the Assyrian kings. 
 They were god-born. They were the offspring 
 of Nimrod — of Asshur. Like his ancestors, 
 the monarch of Assyria was one of the im- 
 mortals, whom to injure or neglect was to of- 
 fend against the most high powers of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 The emblem of Asshur was .be winged 
 globe. From the midst of the circle issues a 
 royal figure, crowned, bearing the bow, or 
 extending his hand in authority. Sometimes 
 the divine effigy is seen drawing the bow 
 against the enemy, and sometimes only the 
 hands of the unseen god are lifted from the 
 disk. In a few cases two other royal heads, 
 one on either side of the true deity, are seen 
 emerging from the outspread wings ; but the 
 figure of Asshur is generally singular — alone.
 
 192 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The divine emblem is profusely employed in 
 all the Assyrian sculptures, and is, indeed, 
 their distinguishing characteristic. Besides 
 this, however, there is another — the sacred 
 tree — which, like the winged circle, is much 
 employed as an emblem of Asshur. From 
 between the horns of a ram the trunk mounts 
 as a palm, and spreads in symmetrical 
 >>ranches, or is laden wdth cones after the 
 manner of the fir-tree. 
 
 Next after the almost universal adoration 
 of Asshur was the worship of those Chaldsean 
 deities wdiose titles and attributes have al- 
 ready been given in a previous chapter.* The 
 principal names included in this list are Anu- 
 and-Vul, Bel, Sin, Shamas, Vul, Nin, and 
 Nergal. After these were the goddesses Ish* 
 tar, Beltis, and Gula, and in later times, Hea, 
 Nebo, and Merodach. Only Anu-and-Vul 
 were deities whose worship was coincident 
 with the founding of the Empire. The rest 
 were of more recent date, having come into the 
 Assyrian Pantheon about the times of Asshur- 
 Dayan II. The general theory of the god- 
 head of these deities was so nearly the same 
 in Assyria and in the South that only occa- 
 sional variations from the primitive Chaldsean 
 type are to be noted in the religious beliefs 
 of the Assyrians. 
 
 The worship of Anu-and-Vul was intro- 
 duced from Chaldsea into Assyria long before 
 the latter became an independent kingdom. 
 It is thought that Shamas-Vul, the son of 
 Ismi-Dagon of Chaldsea, set up a shrine in 
 Asshur and dedicated it to Anu before As- 
 syria had grown into any distinct importance 
 This old temple was for a long time a land- 
 mark, then fell into decay, was demolished 
 by Asshur-Dayan I., and afterwards rebuilt 
 by Tiglath-Pileser. There was no other im- 
 portant temple of Anu in all Assyria; the 
 worship of this deity was never popular, and 
 hardly practiced beyond the limits of Asshur. 
 
 Many of the inscriptions and invocations 
 which enumerate the gods of Assyria omit 
 Anu altogether, and the word is not employed 
 as a part of any royal name. Nevertheless, 
 when Anu is mentioned, as in the prayer of 
 Tiglath-Pileser L, the name stands second in 
 
 1 See Chapter X, pp. 132-140. 
 
 the list of the divinities invoked. The other 
 Assyrian mouarchs who seem to have looked 
 with most favor on Anu's worship were As- 
 shur-Izir-Pal and Sargon. The place of Anu 
 among the gods of the Empire was neither 
 definite nor conspicuous. 
 
 The third deity of the Assyrians was Bel, 
 the classical Belus. The principal seat of his 
 worship was at Nineveh, which was frequently 
 designated as " the City of Belus." The mon- 
 archs of the Empire sometimes addressed their 
 subjects as "the People of Belus;" and as 
 many as three of the earlier sovereigns bore 
 his name. In those invocations — not a few — 
 from which the name of Anu is omitted, that 
 of Bel stands next to Asshur; and there is 
 everywhere evidence in the inscriptions of the 
 high honor in w^hich this deity was held by 
 the nation. The introduction of his worship 
 was almost contemporaneous with the found- 
 ing of the Early Kingdom ; and Bel-Sumili- 
 Kapi, first of the traditional kings, bore the 
 name of this renowned deity. It appears that, 
 among the later monarchs, Sargon looked with 
 especial favor upon the worship of Bel. One 
 of the gates of Dur-Sargina was dedicated by 
 this king to his favorite divinity and to Bel- 
 tis, his queen. The emblem of Bel most used 
 in the sculptures was the horned cap, which, 
 besides being a general emblem of divinity, 
 was peculiarly appropriated by the third of 
 the Assyrian deities. He w-as held in great 
 honor by the nobles and princes of the Em- 
 pire who rarely, if ever, omitted from their 
 prayers, edicts, and inscriptions the distin- 
 guished name of " the AVarrior Bel." 
 
 The fourth Assyrian divinity, already men- 
 tioned in connection with the Chaldsean Pan- 
 theon, was Hea. He was the god of the hu- 
 man mind, having dominion over the senses, 
 the intellect, the feelings. The concept of 
 such a deity was rather too spiritual for the 
 materialistic disposition of the people, and the 
 worship of Hea was neither popular nor splen- 
 did. A few temples were erected in his 
 honor,* and one of the principal gates of Dur- 
 Sargina bore his name. Sennacherib, on his 
 
 ' The riiins of two — one at Asshur and the 
 other at Calah — have been discovered and partly 
 explored.
 
 ASSYRIA.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 193 
 
 Susianian expedition, stopped on the sea-shore 
 to make an offering of a golden boat ; for how 
 should an army be carried across the untried 
 deep unless Wisdom should direct and guide ? 
 Hea's symbol was a serpent — an image but 
 infrequently found among the sculptures of 
 Assyria. This, added to the fact that the 
 name of Hea was not employed as a part of 
 royal titles and but seldom used in invoca- 
 tions, is another proof of the unpopularity of 
 his worship. 
 
 The Moon-god Sin stood at the head of the 
 planetary deities of Assyria. His rank and 
 attributes were not greatly different from those 
 of his Chaldsean counterpart. The crescent 
 moon, which was the emblem of Sin, is per- 
 haps the most common of all the divine sym- 
 bols found among the Assyrian sculptures; 
 and here again we see the predominance of 
 Southern influences in the fundamental relig- 
 ious beliefs of this great people. Sin was rec- 
 ognized as the oldest of the gods, and when 
 the Assyrians desired to express their thought 
 of the beginning of things they said, "from 
 the origin of the god Sin." Two great tem- 
 ples dating from the reign of Sargon, the first 
 to Sin and Shamas at that monarch's favorite 
 city, and the other to Sin alone at Calah, 
 marked the esteem in which the Moon-god's 
 worship was held in the later times of the 
 Empire ; and when Sargon sought a name for 
 his son, afterwards so greatly distinguished, 
 he said Sm-Akhi-Irih (Sennacherib), "Sin 
 multiplies brethren." 
 
 As in Chaldsea, so in Assyria the divinity 
 of the moon outranked the Sun-god, Shamas. 
 But the worship of the latter Avas exceedingly 
 popular, and but for the Chaldsean dogma of 
 the precedence of Sin, would perhaps have 
 stood next in importance to that of Hea and 
 Bel. There are instances, indeed, in which the 
 name of Shamas is placed in invocations next 
 to that of Asshur, and in a few cases the em- 
 blem of the latter is blazoned in the center 
 with the four-rayed orb, which is the symbol 
 of the former. 
 
 With most of the monarchs Shamas was 
 held in favor. To him Tiglath-Pileser ascribes 
 his right to be ruler of the people; and to 
 him Asshur-Izir-Pal gives the honor of his 
 
 victories. The great north gate of Dur-Sar- 
 gina was dedicated by Sargon to Shamas with 
 the high rank of third among the gods of 
 Assyria; and by Sennacherib and Esar-Had- 
 don he is placed, in their lists of deities, next 
 to Asshur himself The emblem of Shamas 
 is generally associated in the sculptures with 
 that of Sin, the sun being placed to the left 
 of or below the moon. At least two of the 
 monarchs of the Empire took the name of 
 Shamas as a part of their own. 
 
 One of the most primitive forms of As- 
 syrian worship was that of the god VuL. This 
 deity, like most of the others, was introduced 
 into Upper Mesopotamia by the immigrants 
 who peopled the country in the times of the 
 early kingdom. His attributes have never 
 been clearly discriminated from those of sev- 
 eral other divinities with whom he was gener- 
 ally joined in worship. Perhaps his original 
 Chaldsean character was but little changed by 
 the transfer to the North, while his uncertain 
 rank was attributable to the growing prefer- 
 ence of the Assyrians for more favored deities. 
 Several of the kings, however, bear the divine 
 name of Vul, and his temples at Asshur and 
 Calah give evidence of the devotion of both 
 sovereigns and people to this ancient god of 
 the Chaldseans. 
 
 In the old-time, half-traditional history of 
 the Assyrians — fathered and perpetuated by 
 the Greeks, and by them transmitted to the 
 Western nations — the race was said to have 
 been founded by Nestus. He was to Nineveh 
 what Romulus was to Rome, The Assyrian 
 Canon has dispelled most of the legend which 
 Herodotus, Ctesias, and Diodorus recited as 
 early Assyrian history; and what remains is 
 to the effect that the god Nm, or Ninip, the 
 Assyrian Mars, first of the second group of 
 the deities of Asshur, is he after whom the 
 mighty city was named. As such he was es- 
 teemed and worshiped by the great kings of 
 the early line. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser I. designates this god Nin 
 as his guardian; Asshur-Izir-Pal builds him 
 a splendid temple; Sargon dedicates to him a 
 city. The winged bulls — which so abound in 
 Assyrian architecture as the guardians of gate- 
 ways, porches, and courts — are emblems of the
 
 194 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 mighty Nin, who was the sharpener of the 
 weapons of war, and the protector of mankind 
 in peace. Sennacherib and the great mon- 
 archs of the later line, chief builders and pro- 
 moters of Assyrian glory, made the name of 
 Nin a constant repetition, while doorway and 
 palace-hal! witnessed how the best of Assyrian 
 art was consecrated to his honor. Three of 
 the kings bore the name of Nin ^ as a part of 
 their royal appellations, and the principal 
 temple of Calah — long time the capital of the 
 Empire — was dedicated to his worship. 
 
 In the later periods of Assyrian history 
 the Chaldpean or Babylonian Merodach was 
 given a place among the principal deities of 
 the nation. The campaigns of Vul-Lush III. 
 appear to have been the origin of this modi- 
 fication in the previous theology. The intro- 
 duction of the Southern god into the Pantheon 
 of the North was regarded with much favor 
 by subsequent monarchs, but continuous war, 
 with approaching decline, and perhaps some 
 national antipathy to innovation, prevented 
 the erection of temples to Merodach, and his 
 worship was consequently limited to associated 
 ceremonies at the shrines and altars of other 
 gods. His name, which was much used by 
 the Babylonian kings as an element of the 
 royal title, does not appear as an appellative 
 of any Assyrian monarch, though it seems 
 that Merodach was a common name among 
 the nobility. 
 
 According to the tradition of the great 
 kings of the Later Empire, their family Avas 
 descended through three hundred and fifty 
 generations from the god Nergal, the Hercules 
 of Assyrian theology. His symbol was the 
 winged lion, and the multitude of sculptures 
 in which this figure is dominant gives abun- 
 dant proof of the high esteem in which this 
 deity was held by the dignitaries of the royal 
 household. The winged lion and the winged 
 bull, emblems of Nergal and Nin, were the 
 principal figures in most of the palace sculp- 
 ture, and the two gods thus symbolized, being 
 the tutelary deities of hunting and war, were 
 evidently worshiped with great enthusiasm by 
 the kings who found in those pursuits their 
 chief avenues to amusement and glory. It 
 
 ^ Nin is, as already stated, the same as Adar. 
 
 thus happened that Nin and Nergal, though 
 nominally inferior to the high gods Anu and 
 Bel, had really a stronger hold on the royal 
 favor than did those deities who presided over 
 less fascinating pursuits. 
 
 The god Nebo was, like Merodach, a, Chal- 
 dtean importation. The wars of Vul-Lush 
 III. against Babylonia brought back to Nine- 
 veh, as a part of their results, the theologi- 
 cal notions of the priests of Babylon. The 
 Assyrian kings, after plundering with sacri- 
 legious hands the temples of the South, still 
 had a lingering fear of the deities whose im- 
 ages they had pulled down and carried away. 
 And so, with the usual philosophy of robbers, 
 they undertook to worship the gods and keep 
 the goods. It thus happened that some of the 
 later desjDoilers of the Babylonian temples be- 
 came the most assiduous propagandists of the 
 Babylonian faith. To this trait of human 
 weakness is traceable the introduction of the 
 worship of the Chaldsean Nebo at Calah and 
 other great cities of the Empire. 
 
 Such Avere the gods of the Assyrian race. 
 With these certain goddesses were paired, 
 in a manner analogous to the mysticism of 
 Egypt. The male deity was rarely if ever 
 worshiped alone. As the female principle 
 stands in nature universally correlated with 
 the male, as the mother of life, so in the 
 Assyi'ian Pantheon the goddess was always 
 set over against her lord. Thus, with As- 
 shur, the tutelary deity of the race, was 
 joined Sheruha, his queen, the Mistress of the 
 Skies. ^ In like manner, Anuta was the female 
 Anu, and Beltis the female Bel. The queen 
 of Hea was called Dav-Kina, and the wife of 
 the Moon-god Sin was known simply by her 
 title of "The Great Lady." The name of 
 the Sun-goddess, queen of Shamas, was Gula, 
 and the spouse of the god Vul was called 
 Shula. Nin's wife was worshiped together 
 with her lord, under the title of " Queen of 
 the Land ;" and the consort of the Babylonian 
 
 'With Asshur and his worship was also as- 
 sociated the famous goddess Ishtar, the Assyrian 
 Venus. The mythology is here a little obscure, 
 but it appears that in the later times of the Em- 
 pire it was Ishtar rather than Sheruha who was 
 regarded as the true queen and consort of the 
 great and powerful Asshur.
 
 ASSYRIA.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 195 
 
 Merodach was named Zir-Banit. Nergal 
 had for his wife the goddess Laz, and the 
 spouse of Nebo was known by the name of 
 Waemita. 
 
 Of these female divinities some were in great 
 favor; others were less esteemed. Generally, 
 they were adored in the same temples with 
 their lords. Sometimes, however, special 
 shrines were consecrated, and in a few in- 
 stances temples reared, to the favorite god- 
 desses of Assyria. Such was the magnificent 
 edifice which Asshur-Bani-Pal dedicated to 
 Beltis at Nineveh ; and such were the splendid 
 temples of Gula at Asshur and Calah. It 
 was for the worship of Ishtar that Tiglath- 
 Pileser I. repaired and rededicated the great 
 fane at Asshur, the primitive capital; and to 
 her also was reared one of the most splendid 
 temples in Nineveh. 
 
 It thus appears that the deities of the As- 
 syrians were divided into four groups, the 
 first embracing only Asshur and his queen; 
 the second constituting the First Triad — Anu, 
 Bel, and Hea; the third group being the Sec- 
 ond Triad, the planetary gods, Sin, Shamas, 
 and Vul; and the fourth embracing the four 
 minor divinities — Nin, Merodach, Nergal, and 
 Nebo. The mythological scheme may thus 
 be presented in tabular form: 
 
 DEITIES OF THE ASSYRIANS 1 
 
 GODS. 
 
 CORRESPONDING GODDESSES. 
 
 CHIEF SEAT OF 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 
 
 Throughout 
 the Empire. 
 
 
 
 . r Anu 
 
 fe % Bel 
 
 '-■?■ 1 Hea 
 
 I 
 
 
 Asshur. 
 Asshur and 
 
 Calah. 
 Asshur and 
 
 Calah. 
 
 Beltis (Mylitta) 
 
 Dav-Kina 
 
 
 a. f^i" 
 
 P Z ■{ Shamas. 
 gg Vul 
 
 
 Calah and 
 
 Bit-Sargina. 
 Bit-Sargina. 
 Asshur and 
 
 Calah. 
 
 Gula 
 
 Shala 
 
 
 Nin 
 
 " The Queen of the Land." 
 Zir-Banit 
 
 Calah and 
 
 Nineveh. 
 
 Tarbisi. 
 Calah. 
 
 Merodach 
 
 Nerval 
 
 Laz 
 
 Nebo 
 
 Warmita 
 
 Besides the deities who held dominion over 
 man and nature, the Assyrians recognized the 
 existence of spirits less exalted and powerful. 
 As some of the powers of nature seemed to 
 be exerted for the benefit of the human race, 
 
 ^ Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, Vol. II., p. 27. 
 
 an4 some for its destruction, so the spirits 
 were classified into benevolent and malicious. 
 There Avere good genii and evil. The Good 
 Genius was generally figured as a winged man 
 with benignant visage. Such a figure is seen 
 in the sculptures accompanying the king as 
 he goes to offer sacrifice at the altar. The 
 winged visitant wears on his head the horned 
 cap, emblem of divinity, and bears in his 
 right hand the pomegranate, or the cone of 
 the pine-tree, symbols of fecundity and abun- 
 dance. In his left hand the Good Genius car- 
 ries the sacred basket, in which are stored the 
 benefits and blessings which the immortals be- 
 stow on men — a divine cornucopia filled with 
 the benevolence of the gods. Sometimes the 
 Good Genius has the head and visage of a fal- 
 con, after the manner of the hawk-headed 
 Horus or Thoth of the Egyptians. 
 
 The Evil Genius is sometimes savage, 
 sometimes grotesque. Anon he is sculptured 
 as a man with the head of a lion and the ears 
 of an ass. Sometimes he is a monster, half 
 lion and half eagle. In this form he is assailed 
 by Vul, who smites him with the thunderbolt. 
 Again he is a dragon of parts prodigious, as 
 he might have been seen by Milton or drawn 
 by Dore. Sometimes he wields daggers and 
 clubs, standing in ferocious aspect against an^ 
 other figure like himself, or hovering in venge- 
 ful attitude over the winged lion of Nergal, 
 whom he seeks to dismay or destroy. 
 
 The Assyrians may be properly defined as 
 idolaters. The images of the gods were to 
 the popular apprehension the gods them- 
 selves ; nor does it appear that even the kings 
 and priests had other than the coarsest and 
 most material conception of the gods whom 
 they worshiped. The idols were evidently re- 
 garded in the light of deities, rather than im- 
 perfect and rude attempts to represent the 
 immortal powers. The language of the in- 
 scriptions indicates that according to the belief 
 of the Assyrian monarchs a people were help- 
 less when their gods were captured, and the 
 gods were taken when the idols were removed 
 from their shrines. No doubt this coarse ma- 
 terialism was in some degree the result of 
 theological degeneration ; for it is evident 
 from the high and solemn language of th©
 
 196 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Assyrian ritual that the original concepts on 
 which the system was based, were neither gross 
 nor debasing. Still it must be confessed that 
 among the later Assyrians the idol had in 
 a great measure become the god and the god 
 the idol. 
 
 The images which were used to represent 
 the deities of Asshur were of clay, or stone, 
 or metal. The clay idols were the idols of 
 the common people. In the temples and pal- 
 aces the effigies of the gods were of stone or 
 metal. Some were of colossal proportions and 
 were executed with an approach to artistic 
 skill. There was, however, a certain conven- 
 tional and inexpressive type after which the 
 images were carved, far inferior to what the 
 artist was able to produce when freed from 
 traditional restraints. The images are gener- 
 ally rude and heavy, and have little claim to 
 be described as beautiful or artistic. The 
 stone idols are, of course, greatly superior in 
 design and workmanship to the coarse statu- 
 ettes which represented to the masses the 
 powers which govern the world; while the 
 still more costly and carefully executed idols 
 of silver and gold which ostentatious monarchs 
 set up in their palaces and temples, were of 
 even greater merit. 
 
 The religious beliefs of the Assyrians had 
 but little practical effect upon the conduct and 
 discipline of their lives. A certain coarse sort 
 of honor regulated in some measure the inter- 
 course of the people, but it was perhaps as 
 much the outgrowth of natural conditions as 
 of any sentiment of religious obligation. To 
 the Assyrian king the deity whom he wor- 
 shiped was a being more powerful than him- 
 self, but of like passions and prejudices, quick 
 to be offended, ready to aid in battle, capable 
 of hatred and revenge. The religious imagi- 
 nation of the race flew on heavy wing and 
 hovered low about material forms and forces, 
 and the inner life of the people was character- 
 ized by neither the subtile mysticism of the 
 Egyptians nor the fiery zeal of Israel. 
 
 The two principal features of the Assyrian 
 ceremonial were the sacrifice and the invoca- 
 tion. The sacrificial part of their religion 
 was attended to by the kings and priests with 
 considerable pomp and formality. The bas- 
 
 reliefs of Nineveh give a tolerably succinct 
 representation of the ceremony by which the 
 favor of the gods was sought by the shedding 
 of the blood of beasts. The bull was the fa- 
 vorite sacrificial animal. He is led by the 
 king and a retinue of priests to the porch of 
 the temple, where sits the effigy of the deity 
 on a throne, wearing the horned cap, and 
 stretching out his hand towards the procession. 
 The king carries a cup, from which he pours 
 a libation; so also one of the priests, while 
 the rest attend the animal. A fire burns on 
 an altar near at hand, and here a part — per- 
 haps some sacred organ — is consumed as a 
 savor to the deity. The rest of the sacrifice 
 goes to the priests and the people. 
 
 The Assyrian prayers were highly conven- 
 tional and bombastic. The chief fragments 
 of religious literature exist in the form of 
 prayers and supplications. All the titles and 
 attributes of the god are recited by the wor- 
 shiper, who categorically enumerates what 
 things he and his ancestors to remote genera- 
 tions have done to merit the divine approval 
 and patronage. Ml the appellatives of the 
 deity are repeated as carefully as the titles of 
 a modern nobleman in diplomatic correspond- 
 ence. The inscriptions containing these sup- 
 plications are a kind of state papers negotiated 
 between the Assyrian priests and their gods. 
 
 The people had no great part in the higher 
 ceremonies of religion. The king was not 
 only the embodiment of the state, but also the 
 head of the sacerdotal order. Through him 
 and the priesthood the common throng were 
 permitted to approach the deities and share 
 their beneficence. 
 
 The favor of the Assyrian gods was also 
 sought by offerings and gifts. Things taken 
 in war were frequently consecrated in the 
 temples. Young kids and antelopes were 
 brought and given to the priests. Precious 
 stones and gems, and rare metals from foreign 
 lands, were placed before the statuettes of fa- 
 vorite gods until their shrines were resplendent 
 with glittering treasures. The walls and por- 
 tals of the temples were frequently blazoned 
 with silver and gold, contributed by rich no- 
 bles and conquerors returning from successful 
 wars.
 
 ASSYRIA.— RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 197 
 
 Likewise, at intervals the Assyrians 
 feasted in honor of their gods, and rarely, in 
 times of public calamity, endured the rigors 
 and pangs of fasting in order to recover the 
 forfeited favor of the powers on high. In 
 such instances the humiliation was conducted 
 with all the robust vigor of the race. There 
 was neither eating nor drinking until the fast 
 was ended. Ashes were sprinkled on the 
 head, and sackcloth was put on both man and 
 beast. The domestic animals were forced into 
 the same abstinence and discipline as man. 
 All business was suspended, all enterprise 
 hushed, until Asshur had respect to his people. 
 
 Though there is no doubt of the occasional 
 sincerity of the religious sentiment among 
 the Assyrians, yet the theological system 
 adopted by the race was less potent in shaping 
 the destiny of the nation than in most of the 
 ancient monarchies. In Egypt and Greece it 
 is proper to say that the worship of the gods 
 occupied a first place in the social and moral 
 philosophy of the people. In Assyria the 
 same could not be truthfully averred. The 
 Assyrian temples were always inferior to the 
 palaces in beauty and magnificence. The 
 courts and halls in which the royal monarch 
 displayed his splendid robes ^ far outshone the 
 sacred places in which the effigies of the im- 
 mortals were set up in sUence. The glories of 
 the imperial regime quite surpassed all efl^orts of 
 the priestly order to dazzle the senses and lead 
 the imagination captive. The religious system 
 of the Assyrians was a matter of convenience 
 and use rather than a sentiment of fervid zeal 
 and enthusiasm, such as inspired most of the 
 ancient peoples. 
 
 Passing from the system of faith held by 
 the Ninevites to the merely intellectual achieve- 
 ments — the arts, the science, the literature — 
 of the people of Asshur, we find again that 
 the physical and material vigor of the race 
 outran its progress and development in mind. 
 The elements of Assyrian learning came orig- 
 
 'The royal and sacerdotal garments worn by 
 Assyrian princes and priests were of the most 
 costly and elaborate patterns : embroidered to the 
 last degree of art; covered with figures and em- 
 blems — suns and circles and pine-cones, eagles 
 and lions and sacred trees, pomegranates and 
 dragons and winged bulls. 
 
 inally from Chaldsea, and it does not appear 
 that the stream ran higher than its source. 
 As in the case of Rome borrowing from 
 Greece the fundamentals of her art and learn- 
 ing, so was it with Nineveh attempting to trans- 
 plant the genius of Babylon to the banks of the 
 Upper Tigris. Not only were the rudiments 
 of science which were possessed by the As- 
 syrians brought from the older civilization of 
 Lower Mesopotamia, but the language, also, 
 in which these rudiments were imbedded was 
 the old Hamitic dialect of the South — a 
 tongue unknown except to priests and 
 scholars. In this dead language were com- 
 posed the dry, flat annals of the Early King- 
 dom and of the beginnings — even the larger 
 part — of the Empire. Not until the times of 
 Asshur-Bani-Pal were translations made out 
 of the Chaldee classic, and works composed in 
 the vernacular. It is rather to art and manu- 
 factures than to literature and science that we 
 must look for the civil greatness of Assyria. 
 
 In the matter of writing the Assyrians 
 achieved considerable success. The letters em- 
 ployed were nearly the same which have been 
 already described as the written characters of 
 Chaldee. The rectilineal symbols, however, 
 
 such as III , are no longer employed by the 
 
 Assyrians, only the wedge-shaped letters being 
 used. Of these there are several styles, such 
 as the elongated ■ , the contracted •-, the 
 broad form T, and the arrow-head <. These 
 are combined and modified in various ways to 
 the number of about three hundred, and these 
 three hundred cuneiform signs are the primary 
 elements of Assyrian writing. The alphabet, 
 however, has, besides diphthongs and conso- 
 nantal combinations, but nineteen simple let- 
 ters, from which it is seen at once that the 
 written symbols employed represented not ele- 
 mentary sounds but syllables; as pa, pi, pu, 
 ap, ip, up. Besides the letters proper, certain 
 other characters were employed as determina- 
 tives to indicate the classification of the thing 
 expressed by the following word. Thus the 
 wedge sign placed vertically before a word in- 
 dicated that that word was the name of a man, 
 while the sign »V indicated that the follow- 
 ing word was the name of a god. 
 
 The material on which Assyrian writing
 
 198 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 was executed was either the clay tablet or the 
 slab of stone. The former was most used for 
 the common purposes of life ; the latter, for 
 formal and important inscriptions. The royal 
 writings and historical records are, however, 
 frequently found on clay tablets, and the fact 
 that many of these exist unto the present day 
 
 i 
 
 iff 
 
 M 
 
 ^ T— « 
 
 -^2 
 
 4 
 
 s tttI 
 
 s T 
 
 4 
 
 Arkisu Nabu-Kudur-Utsur ni bi se su is sa a a na za-an 
 ki-bir ti sa Assur a na ka sa di it li ka. 
 
 ASSYRIAN WRITING. 
 
 and furnish our chief source of Assyrian his- 
 tory shows their excellence and durability. 
 The tablet was generally in the form of an 
 octagonal cylinder, or more properly prism, 
 of fine and thin terra-cotta, on the exterior 
 faces of which the inscriptions were impressed 
 in columns, each side constituting a column, 
 reading from above down. This writing is 
 exceedingly fine, sometimes requiring a mag- 
 nifying glass for its decipherment. The lines 
 
 are five or six to the inch, being as close as 
 the type in this column. The prisms, many 
 of which are in excellent preservation, are 
 from eighteen inches to three feet in height; 
 and each contains, when perfect, about as 
 much matter as twelve pages of the present vol- 
 ume ! 
 
 These octagonal tablets were disposed 
 about the courts and halls of palaces in such 
 situations as to be easily read. The rooms 
 and niches in which they were set up consti- 
 tuted the Assyrian library ; and here the 
 prince of the house, the occasional scholar, 
 the sage of Asshur, stood or sat, reading 
 the annals of the Empire, the edicts of his 
 sovereign, or the recitative of some priest in- 
 voking the gods in prayer. 
 
 The writing on the stone slabs was of the 
 same character with that of the tablets. The 
 slabs, however, were frequently of great size. 
 They were dressed and cut to proper dimen- 
 sions and built into the doorways and walls 
 of palaces and temples. A single slab was 
 sometimes of such proportions as to hold 
 the contents of a small volume. Wherever 
 there was a dressed surface of stone, unoccu- 
 pied with such ornamentation as prohibited 
 the addition of inscriptions, the Assyrians, 
 like the Egyptians, were fond of covering it 
 with the writing of the country. Hundreds, 
 perhaps thousands, of important and striking 
 bas-reliefs were thus covered in their whole 
 extent with these inscriptions sculptured across 
 their surfaces.^ It thus came to pass that 
 the entablatures and halls and courts of the 
 Assyrian palaces and temples were made to 
 repeat in imperishable records the story of 
 Assyrian greatness. 
 
 In all the arts of Assyria there was mani- 
 fested a striking preference for the practical 
 over the theoretical, for the real over the ideal. 
 Only in rare instances — as when the artist 
 carves fighting dragons or grotesque monsters 
 with drawn knives — did the Assyrian sculp- 
 
 1 A very important and interesting example of 
 this kind of art is set up at the entrance to the 
 Mercantile Library of St. Ivouis. The slab is per- 
 haps twelve feet high and eight or ten feet wide. 
 It contains a colossal bas-relief of one of the Nine- 
 vite kings— a majestic figure — and is literally cov- 
 ered with a cuneiform inscription.
 
 ASSYRIA.-RELIGION AND ART. 
 
 199 
 
 tors attempt to portray the forms of things 
 unreal. In architecture this tendency was 
 constantly exhibited, and the pictorial repre- 
 
 ARROW-HEAD TABLETS AND INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 sentations, whether in stone or in color, showed 
 a realism indicative of little imagination in 
 either artist or people. There is little disposi- 
 tion on the part of Assyrian sculptors 
 to idealize the subjects which they 
 treat, or to rise above the actualities 
 of nature. In general conception, in 
 grace of outline and freedom of execu- 
 tion, the works of Nineveh and As- 
 shur fall far short of the products of 
 Greek art ; but in boldness and a cer- 
 tain truthfulness to life they are hardly 
 surpassed by any of the classic sculp- 
 tures of the ancient world. 
 
 In manufactures and the arts of 
 trade the Assyrians were preeminent 
 above all peoples of their time. The 
 native genius of the race had an apti- 
 tude for the practical activities of the 
 shop and mart ; and besides what the 
 natural skill of Assyria was able to 
 produce for the necessities and com- 
 fort of the people, foreign training and 
 skill contributed to encourage and 
 multiply the manufactures of the 
 kingdom. Into Nineveh were swept by 
 every war, in accordance with the 
 policy of the kings, multitudes of mechanics 
 and artisans, who brought thither and planted 
 on the Tigris the best genius of the surround- 
 
 ing nations. The factories of Assyria teemed 
 
 with a multifarious industry deftly conducted 
 
 by the varying skill of foreign workmen, just 
 
 as the immigrant Dutch weavers made 
 
 prosperous the times of Elizabeth. 
 
 Vases, jars, dishes, and bottles of 
 glass ; bronzes ; ornaments of ivory and 
 pearl; engraved gems and brooches; 
 rings and bells; musical instruments — 
 cornets, flutes, harps; and implements 
 of the house and field, — such were the 
 products of the shops of Nineveh. What 
 arms soever the ancient soldier bore in 
 beating down the enemy, in besieging 
 his town, in leading him captive from 
 the battle, or in warding off his thrusts 
 and blows, were produced in inexhaust- 
 ible stores. The armories of that ever 
 warlike people rang with incessant 
 clangor in the fabrication of the weap- 
 onry and harness of the stalwart soldiery of 
 Asshur. The mechanical powers were well 
 understood and readily applied, in their sim- 
 
 ASSYRIAN CARICATURE. DRAGONS FIGHTING. 
 
 pier forms, to the production of implements 
 and fabrics. Huge aqueducts and tunnels 
 were constructed. The arch was employed in
 
 200 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 building. Glass was blown and spread into 
 transparent sheets. Gems were engraved with 
 a skill unsurpassed in Paris. Woodwork was 
 inlaid with pearl, and 
 garments and robes 
 were woven and orna- 
 mented with an exqui- 
 site richness and beauty 
 that might well excite 
 the covetous pride of 
 the most voluptuous 
 Shah or Czarina of 
 modern times. 
 
 The glory of Assyria 
 was the glory of arms 
 and of material gran- 
 deur. The sheen of her 
 greatness was a barbaric splendor — the prod- 
 uct of the genius of a primitive and powerful 
 race expanding under the fiery impulses of 
 
 ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS 
 FIGHTING. 
 
 war, enriched by the luxuries of conquest, 
 made haughty by domination. 
 
 The Tigris still washes these ancient ruins. 
 The setting sun still falls with his long train 
 of splendid twilight across the Mesopotamian 
 hills, sinking to rest as gloriously as when 
 Asshur-Bani-Pal beheld him for the last time 
 from the western windows of his palace; but 
 the great people who for seven hundred years 
 pressed beneath the conqueror's foot the neck 
 of a hundred enemies, has passed forever into 
 oblivion. Where Sennacherib and Sargon 
 drove their triumphant chariots through the 
 roar of tumultuous thoroughfares, amidst the 
 shouts of a victorious soldiery, some half-savage 
 Kurds, sitting on the broken stones of Khors- 
 abad or Nimrud, watch a distant flock, and at 
 the fall of night the jackal sets up a howl as 
 he issues from his den in the basement of a 
 ruined palace. 
 
 SUING FOR PEACE.
 
 look 'H''"''^'^* 
 
 IMEDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS- 
 
 HE country of Media, 
 now included in the north- 
 ern portion of the Persian 
 Empire, was the scene of 
 the first upland kingdom 
 of Western Asia. Here 
 it ^^as demonstrated that 
 civilization can flourish beyond the alluvium 
 of the river bottoms. The country consists 
 of a plateau on the thither side of the Zagros 
 mountains, sloping to the south and east. On 
 the north, from Ararat almost to the Caspian, 
 the river Aras^ is the boundary; and on the 
 north-east the Elburz chain, rising, not like 
 the Zagros, in parallel ridges with intervening 
 valleys, but in a single lofty range around the 
 Lower Caspian, with spurs breaking off at 
 right-angles, constitutes the natural limit. 
 Eastward lies the land of the Afghans, be- 
 tween which and Media there is no natural 
 demarkation, and on the south the coun- 
 try descends to the arid plains pecialiar to 
 the desert parts of Persia. The general ele- 
 ration of this important district is more than 
 three thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
 In shape Media is a parallelogram, lying 
 1 The classical Araxes. 
 
 with its greater axis from north-west to south- 
 east. The length of this greater dimension is six 
 hundred miles, and the average breadth about 
 two hundred and fifty miles. This gives the 
 not inconsiderable area of one hundred and 
 fifty thousand square miles— a country consid- 
 erably larger than Chaldsea and Assyria to- 
 gether. The whole peninsula of Italy is only 
 two-thirds, and the British Islands no more 
 than four-fifths, as large as Media Proper with 
 the limits here defined. 
 
 The political boundaries of ancient Media 
 are difficult to determine. The authorities 
 disagree ; nor can it be doubted that at some 
 periods the limits of the kingdom were much 
 greater than at others. The historian can 
 look only to those physical barriers to which 
 political power would naturally extend and 
 beyond which it could not pass. These barriers 
 on at least three sides of Media may be deter- 
 mined with approximate accuracy. 
 
 On the west the center of the Zagros may 
 be accepted as the Median boundary in that 
 direction. On the north the boundary would 
 be the mountain chain which shuts in Lake 
 Urumiyeh, and further east the river Aras. 
 On the east the natural limit was that branch 
 
 (201)
 
 202 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Elburz in which lies the pass called the 
 Caspian Gates, and further south the great 
 salt deserts of Khorasan. On the south there 
 is no natural demarkation, but from many 
 considerations a line nearly coincident with 
 the thirty-second parallel of latitude may be 
 regarded as a fair approximation to the old 
 boundary between Media and Persia. 
 
 The upper part of Media is specially moun- 
 tainous. The ancient district of Atropatene, 
 the modern Azerbijan, in the north-western 
 portion of the country, is almost Alpine in its 
 elevations. The Elburz, also, though narrow 
 at the base, is by no means an unaspiring 
 range. Out of this arises at a distance of forty 
 miles from Teheran the snow-capped Dema- 
 vend, the most sightly mountain peak in all 
 Asia west of the Himalayas. The Zagros, 
 already many times mentioned in the history 
 of Assyria, consists of six or seven parallel 
 elevations with depressions between, the whole 
 running in a broad mountainous belt between 
 the valley of the Tigris and the Median plain. 
 
 As the traveler traverses Media from the 
 north-west augle to the south, he beholds a 
 gradual descent of the mountains into hills, 
 these in turn sinking into rocky plains, and 
 finally vanishing in the desert. Except on 
 the south, the boundaries of Media are rocky 
 elevations, highest on the north and north- 
 east, while the central portion of the country 
 thus inclosed is a rough and arid plain. The 
 mountainous skirts of the land are full of ra- 
 vines and gorges, from the sides of which in 
 many places summits shoot up with precipi- 
 tous sides of gray rock. The general aspect 
 falls coldly on the vision, and the natural in- 
 accessibility of the region suggests a predatory 
 people, fond of hunting and war. 
 
 The rivers of Media are of minor impor- 
 tance. The streams which take their rise 
 from the Elburz are short and narrow. Those 
 of the eastern slope hurry down the hill-sides 
 and plunge into the Caspian ; while those on 
 the western declivity are feeble in their waters 
 and are soon lost in the desert plains of the 
 south. Those rivers rising from the Zagros on 
 the west and entering the Tigris have already 
 been described. Some of those whose fountains 
 are on the eastern slopes of the same mountains 
 
 have a considerable volume, and flowing in 
 an easterly direction gather into rivers of im- 
 portance. The KiziL-UzEN makes its way, in 
 a course of four hundred and ninety miles, to 
 the Caspian. The Zenderund waters a con* 
 siderable district in the north-central portion 
 of Media, and the Bendamir, flowing by Perse- 
 polis, falls into Lake Bakhtigan.^ These three 
 rivers are the dominant physical facts in the 
 best portion of the country ; and this district, 
 neither unproductive in fruits nor cheerless in 
 aspect, was the heart of the land in the times 
 of Median supremacy. 
 
 In some limited parts the land was beauti- 
 ful. In the north-west angle, on the skirts 
 of Lake Urumiyeh, some verdant and pic- 
 turesque scenery greets the eye of the trav- 
 eler. Many of the valleys of the Zagros are 
 rich in both beauty and fertility. The banks 
 of the Zenderund, especially in the upper 
 part of its course, are bordered with green 
 pastures and occasional evidences of luxuri- 
 ance. For the rest, the general aspect of 
 Media is that of an arid and stei'ile upland — 
 rocky, alkaline, poor in trees and rain and 
 running streams, tending to a desert. The 
 color of the landscape, except for two months 
 in spring, is brown. The herbage is dry 
 and juiceless, having its roots in a soil of clay 
 and gravel. The grass is coarse and the 
 bushes stunted in growth. The eye turns 
 wearily around the horizon, and is not satis- 
 fied. Even in Atropatene, one of the best 
 districts of Northern Media, large sterile tracts 
 are found at intervals, and gray downs spread 
 out, treeless and desolate, on either hand. 
 
 From time immemorial Media has suffered 
 not only from her scant supply of water, but 
 from the sunken position of the little which 
 nature has bestowed. The river beds are so 
 low and the valleys through which they course 
 so greatly depressed below the level that the 
 artificial distribution of moisture is impracti- 
 cable. The vast systems of irrigation which 
 were so easy and natural in the low countries, 
 
 ^ It is a noteworthy fact that of all the greater 
 rivers of Media not a single one reaches the 
 ocean. The Aras and the Kizil-Uzen make their 
 way to the Caspian. All the rest waste their 
 waters on the arid south.
 
 MEDIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 203 
 
 with their lazy rivers coursing along beds but 
 little lower than the general level, were not 
 to be thought of in the Median gorges and 
 hills. Civilization was proportionally retarded, 
 and the pursuits of the nomad and warrior 
 were favored at the expense of husbandry. 
 Of all the Median rivers only the Zenderund 
 was of a character to have its waters artifi- 
 cially distributed. All of the other streams lay 
 in the bottom of sunken channels, and plunged 
 along with a turbulence terrifying to the peas- 
 ant and fatal to bridges. 
 
 Of other bodies of waters the most important 
 is Lake Urumiyeh. It lies four thousand 
 two hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
 and is a shallow sheet spread out under a 
 blue sky. The length from north-west to south- 
 east is eighty miles, and the average breadth 
 is about twenty-five miles. It is a brackish, 
 Ashless body of water, a sort of Dead Sea of 
 the mountains, nearly divided by a peninsula 
 projecting from the eastern shore and dotted 
 with a few inconsiderable islands. The waters, 
 though incapable of supporting life, are azure 
 in their hue, not unlike the lake tints of 
 Northern Italy, and the natives call the ceru- 
 lean sheet the Blue Sea — in their language, 
 the Kapotan Zoiv. 
 
 For purposes of civil administration ancient 
 Media Avas divided into eleven districts. These 
 subdivisions were, however, embraced in two 
 larger parts known as Great Media and Atro- 
 PATENE. The principal minor provinces were 
 Rhagiana, Ardelan, and Nissea — the latter 
 being the district famous from times imme- 
 morial for its fine breed of horses. The other 
 provinces mentioned by Ptolemy were Margi- 
 ana, Choromithrene, Elymais, Sigriana, Dari- 
 tis, and Syro-Media. These districts seem not 
 to have been divided from each other by nat- 
 ural barriers, and it is possible — even prob- 
 able — that in the times of the Empire only 
 the two great divisions of Atropatene and 
 Media the Great were recognized, the former 
 being the old home of the Medes, and the 
 latter a country added by conquest and colo- 
 nization. 
 
 The capital city of Great INIedia was Ecba- 
 TANA,' situated somewhat to the east of the 
 
 *In Greek, Agbatana; in Persian, Hagmaian. 
 
 Zagros range, at the foot of Mount Orontes, 
 now known as Mount Erwend. The city was 
 doubtless on the site of the modern Susa — a 
 beautiful situation, verdant in spring and 
 summer, well watered with mountain streams, 
 and sloping gently to the west. According to 
 Diodorus Siculus, the ancient city had a cir- 
 cumference of fifty stadia, which would give 
 an area of fifty square miles. No doubt, how- 
 ever, the historian in giving these extravagant 
 dimensions recited what he had heard from 
 the story-tellers of his times, rather than what 
 he himself had seen and measured. Three or 
 four square miles would perhaps be a nearer 
 approximation to the real extent of Ecbatana, 
 nor is this an inconsiderable area for an an- 
 cient city. 
 
 In the case of the Median capital it is to 
 be regretted that antiquarian research has as 
 yet supplied but little information concerning 
 the size and character of the city. The site 
 is covered by the modern Susa, and no doubt 
 from age to age the ancient remains have 
 been rebuilt and built upon until, as in Venice 
 and Rome, the old outline is destroyed and 
 the old plan effaced. No expedition of a 
 scientific character has ever been sent to ex- 
 hume and explore the ancient city, nor is it 
 certain that any account capable of verifica- 
 tion can ever be produced of the old capital 
 of the fiery Medes. 
 
 The authority of Polybius may, however, 
 be cited respecting some of the principal fea- 
 tures of Ecbatana. By him the dimensions 
 of the ground-plan of the palace of Cyaxares 
 are given in definite measurements. The cir- 
 cumference of the building is said to have 
 been one thousand four hundred and twenty 
 yards in extent. Albeit, this is the measure- 
 ment of the mound or raised platform on 
 which the palace was reared, rather than the 
 dimensions of the actual foundation of the 
 building. The palace itseli seems to have 
 been something in the same style as the later 
 royal buildings in Susa and Persepolis, and 
 not wholly unlike the temples of Greece. 
 There were without two rows of columns, the 
 first supporting the main structure, and the 
 second constituting the principal feature of 
 the peristyle or external colonnade. The col-
 
 204 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 umns were of cypress or cedar, and were 
 adorned with precious metals. Supported by 
 the capitals, and crossing each other at right 
 angles overhead, were beams of the same rich 
 woods similarly garnished. The roof was com- 
 posed of silver tiles, which lay flashing in the 
 sunlight. All the conspicuous parts of the 
 palace without and within were made to 
 glitter with sheets of silver and gold laid upon 
 the surface. In later times stone pillars and 
 columns took the place of the colonnade of 
 wood, and the somewhat oriental style of or- 
 namentation gave place to the severer tastes 
 of the West. 
 
 Near to the palace stood the arx or citadel. 
 It was the treasury of the city and state — a 
 place of great natural strength and well de- 
 fended by the skill of man. The public 
 archives of the kingdom were here deposited 
 for safe keeping, and as the tides of war swept 
 by, the Medes looked to this stronghold as the 
 Greeks to the Acropolis, and the Romans to 
 the Capitoline hill. What manner of build- 
 ings and fortifications constituted the defenses 
 of the place only conjecture can testify. Some 
 ruins of later date are all that mark the site 
 once covered with the bulwarks of the capital 
 city of the Medes. 
 
 Besides the citadel it does not appear that 
 Ecbatana had any considerable defenses. To 
 the city tradition assigns no walls. Those 
 races which are able to protect themselves with 
 walls, are better able to do so without them. 
 When London must be defended with a ram- 
 part the Fijis will indeed be ready to take 
 possession of St. Paul's. Among the ancient 
 nations the Medes and Persians, as a general 
 rule, trusted not to walled towns, but rather 
 to the valor and prowess of their soldiery. 
 
 Until recently much confusion has existed 
 in respect to the size and character of Ecba- 
 tana. Most of this has arisen from the fact 
 that the capital town of Northern Media was 
 also called by the same name. The latter was 
 situated in the province of Azerbijan, and was 
 built on the summit of a hill, rising like a 
 sugar-loaf above the surrounding country. 
 This conical elevation sloped down to the 
 plain on all sides, and was encircled with a 
 seven-fold rampart. On the center of the 
 
 summit was placed the citadel, with the treas- 
 ure-house and palace of the king. The con- 
 centric walls were painted of different colors, 
 the outer one being white, the next black, the 
 third scarlet, the fourth blue, the fifth orange, 
 the sixth silver, and the seventh golden — so 
 that viewed from the surrounding plain the 
 concentric battlements of dififerent hues, rising 
 one above the other and the whole crowned 
 in the center with the imposing citadel, pre- 
 sented a scene at once picturesque and grand. 
 
 The Northern Ecbatana was situated in 
 the valley of the Saruk, a tributary of the 
 Jaghetu. The conical hill seems to have been 
 formed, as are some of those in the Yellow- 
 stone National Park, by the overflow of a 
 mineral lake, the deposit of whose waters, 
 rising in incrustations, accumulated from year 
 to year, lifting the small lake to the summit. 
 A mountain of this sort, covered with ruins 
 and surrounded on the sloping sides, is found 
 in the locality described, and seems to answer 
 well the position assigned to the old capital 
 of Northern Media. 
 
 The third city of the Median Empire was 
 Rhaga, situated near the Caspian Gates. It 
 was one of the oldest settlements of the Aryan 
 race, and is mentioned in the Zend-Avesta. 
 It is also referred to in the apocryphal books 
 of Tobit and Judith as the capital of Media 
 where Arphaxad reigned. It was the chief 
 town of the pi:ovince of Rhigiana, on the east- 
 ern border of the Median territory, but the 
 exact location of the city has not been defi- 
 nitely ascertained. Some ruins at the modern 
 village of Rhey are thought to mark the site 
 of Rhaga, and the names are sufficiently sim- 
 ilar to strengthen that supposition. At any 
 rate the city was only a day's march from 
 those wonderful passes^ where the Elburz 
 chain is cleft in twain for the exit of man 
 from the Median uplands to the sea. 
 
 Fourth among the cities of Media was 
 Charax, the site of which is now marked by 
 
 ^The so-called " Caspian Gates" are one of the 
 wonders of geography. One of the passes is of 
 tremendous proportions. The mountain range ia 
 cleft at right angles to the bottom. The walls of 
 rock stand up on either hand a thousand feet in 
 height. The gateway is about five miles long and 
 no more than from ten to forty feet in width.
 
 MEDIA.— COUNTRY A XD PRODUCTS. 
 
 205 
 
 the ruins of Uewanukif, near Rhaga just de- 
 scribed. Not much is known of the cliaracter 
 and importance of this town, and the same 
 may be said, with but slight qualifications, of 
 all the ancient cities of the Medes. The work 
 of scientific discovery, which has been directed 
 with so great profit to the banks of the Eu- 
 phrates and the Tigris, has been turned but 
 little to the Median ruins ; and the task of the 
 autiquaiy, as it relates to this important dis- 
 trict, is yet to be performed. 
 
 Besides the four cities above referred to, 
 four others of considerable note, belonging to 
 Western Media, may be mentioned. They 
 were all situated on the slopes of the Zagros 
 end were therefore better known to the As- 
 syrians and the nations of the West than were 
 the remote cities of the Median plains. The 
 first in rank and importance of the western 
 towns was Bagistan. It is situated on the 
 direct route from Babylon to Ecbatana, and 
 has been easily identified with the modern 
 Behistun. The description given by the an- 
 cients of the scenery and surroundings of Bag- 
 istan might almost be repeated to-day of what 
 the traveler sees about the Persian town which 
 marks the site of the buried city. Here is 
 the famous Rock of Behistun, where Semirarais 
 is said to have carved her own effigy and a 
 commemorative inscription. Here, also, ac- 
 cording to the tradition, she established a 
 great park or paradise, which was refreshed 
 with a marvelous fountain of water. Here, 
 too, upon the face of the living rock, are the 
 world-famous inscriptions of Darius the Great. 
 Upon the scarped surface of these precipices 
 nation after nation — ISIede, Persian, Par- 
 thian — has left the trace of its power and 
 fame. 
 
 Further on towards Ecbatana, at the foot 
 of the southern slope of the Elwend, was the 
 ancient Median town of Ardapan. The site 
 has been identified with that of the Persian 
 village of Arteman. Our only knowledge of 
 the old city is derived from the historian Isi- 
 dore, who declares that the sunny climate and 
 cheery rills of the place attracted thither the 
 sovereigns of Media, anxious to escape the 
 boreal rigors of a more northern residence. 
 The royal palace of Ardapan was a favorite 
 N. — Vol. I — 13 
 
 resort of fatigued and disgusted kings until 
 the splendid structure was sacked and de- 
 stroyed by Tigraues, the Armenian. 
 
 The third town of this second group was 
 CoNXOBAR. The massive ruins which overlook 
 the modern Kungawar make it comparatively 
 certain that the two sites are identical. Here, 
 as well as at Bagistan, the mythical Semiramis 
 had her paradise and temple. That tradition, 
 however, which ascribes the temple to Artemis 
 may contain a larger fraction of truth. The 
 
 SCULPTURED ROCK OF BEHISTUN. 
 
 uncertain certainty of the mortal queen gives 
 place to the certain uncertainty of the immor- 
 tal divinity. In either case, it is but the fin- 
 ger of conjecture which points out the founda- 
 tion of the ancient edifice. 
 
 The last of the Median towns here calling 
 for mention was Aspadan, in the extreme 
 southern limit of the country, close to the 
 confines of Persia. The modern Persian ca})i- 
 tal, Isfahan, occupies the site, and the recent 
 name is nearly the same as the old. 
 
 Owing to the perishable character of Median 
 buildings — as compared with the everlasting 
 structures of the Euphrates and Tigris valley — 
 not much can now be known of the relative
 
 206 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 importance of the towns of Media. Wood, 
 even the beam of cedar, perishes. The archi- 
 tecture of the Medes is eaten up of time, and 
 the little that Time has spared War has de- 
 voured. Kot a single edifice of the times of 
 the Empire has remained in any thing more 
 , than shadowy outline within the whole coun- 
 try of ancient Media. As a consequence, the 
 opportunities for reconstructing the architec- 
 ture and the social life of which it was the 
 outer garb are either meager or altogether 
 wanting. 
 
 The climate of Media could be inferred 
 from the situation of the country. The zone, 
 the elevation, the trend of the region, the 
 proximity of great waters and high moun- 
 tains — these are the elements out of which 
 climate is compounded. As ^ledia was greatly 
 elevated, the country was dry, arid. The 
 mountain walls and southern trend gave a 
 higher temperature than would have otherwise 
 prevailed. The not inconsiderable extent of 
 the country from north to south, the variations 
 in elevation, and especially the proximity of 
 the desert on one side, furnished the condi- 
 tions of variability. 
 
 In general, the climatic division of the 
 region here considered was into two parts — 
 Atropatene, or Northern Media, and the 
 Southern Plateau, the latter being subdivided 
 into a western and an eastern district, differ- 
 ing greatly from each other in natural char- 
 acteristics. 
 
 The climate of Atropatene is one of ex- 
 tremes. In summer the temperature rises 
 almost to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit, and in 
 winter the cold is excessive. Perhaps no 
 other region of the globe, lying in the same 
 latitude, is subject to such extreme rigors. 
 By the close of November the ground is 
 frozen. Then comes the snow, may be to the 
 depth of several feet. Then in midwinter 
 clear weather prevails, the sun blazing around 
 his shortened circuit by day, and the chaste 
 moon smUing coldly, almost disdainfully, on 
 the snow glare by night. All the while a 
 bitter high wind, keen and merciless as the 
 sword of an Afghan, whirls across the icy 
 hills, and he who faces it long may fall down 
 frozen to death. This terrible winter is largely 
 
 attributable to the great elevation of the dis- 
 trict, the very valleys being as much as four 
 thousand or five thousand feet about the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 During the winter months out-of-door ac- 
 tivity is mostly suspended. The incontinent 
 caravan, sometimes tempted to set forth, finds 
 a probable grave in the drift. By the mid- 
 dle of March the ice-manacles are generally 
 broken, and nature begins to revive. On the 
 hill-tops the snow fights with the sun until 
 May-day. About this time there is an epoch 
 of rainy weather. The sunshine rouses a sud- 
 den heat in the valleys. There is a quick 
 outburst of luxuriance. The slopes flush 
 green. Ominous clouds pass over. Xow and 
 then one of them bursts with a clap of thun- 
 der. One shower chases another across the 
 fields. Hard after the dash of rain comes 
 perhaps a blast of haU-stones. Calves in the 
 pastures are sometimes killed; likewise men. 
 The houses are hammered; the fruit-trees 
 knocked to pieces. Sometimes in the morning 
 Xature is robed in an infinite fog. Then 
 bright, warm days follow fast, and in June it 
 is hot, sultry. Altogether, the autumn is the 
 most pleasant season. The weather is settled, 
 and life has something of equanimity. 
 
 Passing out of Atropaten^ and journeying 
 to the south-east a modification is soon noticed 
 in the climate. The winters are shorter. The 
 snow, even in December and January, is scant 
 and soon melts away. Ten or fifteen degrees 
 below the freezing point is about the minimum 
 temperature. This is the eastern part of the 
 great plateau. Here are the important cities 
 of Teheran and Isfahan. In spring-time all 
 nature bursts out a-blooming. The gardens 
 are full of roses. The air breathes balm. For 
 a season every sense is in paradise. Song-birds, 
 the very prime donne of the thicket and croft, 
 make vocal the perfumed breezes. While the 
 scant showers of spring continue there is noth- 
 ing wanting to soothe or intoxicate. At a 
 later date the sultry air of summer begins to 
 scorch and blast the beauty of the earlier 
 months. The mercury rises on some hot mid- 
 day to 100 ° F. Vegetation withers. At in- 
 tervals a gust of hot air blows up from the 
 southern desert, and life flies before it.
 
 MEDIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 207 
 
 Fortunately, however, the mountains with 
 their snows are not far away, and when 
 the breeze turns and falls from these incor- 
 ruptible heights there is a most grateful vicis- 
 situde from the otherwise intolerable breath 
 of the desert. In all ages the better class of 
 people in these districts of Media have been 
 in the habit of seeking refuge during the heats 
 of July and August in the shadow of the ad- 
 jacent mountains, from whose cool white brow 
 the refreshing air has dropped upon the fever- 
 ish faces of the suppliant population. Indeed, 
 the city of Hamadan seems to have been 
 founded by those who were escaping from the 
 sultry plains. Here, by the nearness of the 
 mountain and the plentiful supply of spring 
 water, the natural conditions of a summer 
 resort were discovered long before the dubious 
 luxuries of civilization hat' made ennui one 
 of the afflictions of society. The same — or 
 nearly the same — praise may be bestowed upon 
 the situation of Ecbatana, which was chosen 
 as the summer residence of the Persian kings. 
 If it were not for the scantiness of the 
 rainfall the Median plateau might be justly 
 described as a delightful climate. In respect 
 of moisture much is wanting to the comfort 
 and luxuriance of the regions. The soil is 
 rarely drenched with the dead drunkenness of 
 rain, and the thirsty plains swallow with a 
 feverish gulp the occasional libations of the 
 clouds. As a consequence of this atmospheric 
 drought the dews of night are correlatively 
 scanty, and each morning sees quickly enacted 
 the cruel tragedy of Apollo and Daphne. 
 Albeit the dryness of the air is favorable to 
 health, and the dark vapors of the poisonous 
 marsh and sunless jungle are unknown in the 
 Median uplands, where the fields glisten and 
 the hair of Nature is as crisp as flax. 
 
 One of the most striking atmospheric phe- 
 nomena of this part of Media is the whirlwind. 
 Ever and anon, in the hot season, a sudden 
 gust from the heated sands of the south strikes 
 a counter current of colder air dropping from 
 the mountain slopes, and a focus is produced, 
 around which a great cloud of leaves, stubble, 
 and sand is twisted into an inverted cone, with 
 its base against the sky. The monstrous ap- 
 parition goes whirling across the plains, fling- 
 
 ing all lighter substances to the capricious 
 demons of the air; but the violence of such 
 storms is by no means so great as that of the 
 tornadoes and cyclones of the tropics. In this 
 region of Media also appears the famous mi- 
 rage, the wonder of travelers and puzzle of 
 philosophy. The strange phenomenon is sup- 
 posed to be the result of unequally rarefied 
 strata of air thrown into undulations by the 
 heated surface of the earth and viewed hori- 
 zontally. Spectral images are thus produced 
 of things which lie in the distance, perhaps 
 below the horizon. Mountains appear where 
 there are none ; villages rise in the waste, and 
 springs in the desert. The scene is a phantas- 
 magoria. Giants are transformed into col- 
 umns, and a clump of bushes into the domes 
 and minarets of a city. Lakes of bright 
 water bordered w^ith the palm hang motionless 
 not far away, then vanish. It is the whimsi- 
 cal specter of the desert. 
 
 In the western portion of the Median pla- 
 teau the climate is greatly modified by the 
 proximity of the Zagros. In the more moun- 
 tainous part of this region the severe cold of 
 the protracted winter is like that of Atropa- 
 tene. Adown the slopes the rigors are less 
 relentless, and in the valleys there is Avarmth 
 and verdure. Here, too, w'ater and running 
 streams are more abundant than in any other 
 portion of Media. In summer the valley air 
 is humid, and in some parts malaria prevails, 
 and the people suffer from chills and fever. 
 In this country of hills and glens it is possible, 
 as in California, to pass in a few hours' jour- 
 ney from the bleak frosts and snows of the 
 mountains to the luxuriance, warmth, and 
 sunshine of the vales. 
 
 The plateau of Media is in great measure 
 devoid of timber. It were hard to say whether 
 the generally arid condition of the region is at- 
 tributable to the absence of forests or whether 
 the failure of the latter has been caused by 
 the persistent atmospheric drought.' On the 
 
 'The correlation of vegetation and rain is a 
 question for which civilization must furnish a 
 practical solution. The tree and the water-brook 
 are inseparable phenomena, but which is the 
 cause of the other? It is evident that vegetation 
 depends upon humidity, but does not the rain- 
 cloud follow the forest and shun the waste ? Is it
 
 208 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 mountains the case is different. Here the 
 forest growth is abundant and stalwart. The 
 high ridges of Atropatene are not so heavily 
 wooded as the Zagi'os ranges on the west. 
 The latter are covered with heavy timber. 
 The Elburz chain is clad with forests of pine, 
 ;wild almond, and oak. Here, too, the poplar 
 and walnut abound. Ash and terebinth groves 
 are common, as well as those in which the 
 oriental plane-tree and the willow are the 
 prevalent growth. The oak, besides its use as 
 a timber-tree, yields abundantly the nutgalls 
 of commerce. The hill-slopes are covered with 
 the plant which yields gum tragacanth, and 
 many districts abound in nuts and berries. 
 
 In the valleys of the Zagros and the more 
 sheltered parts of Northern Media the or- 
 chards are as fine as in any part of the world. 
 In these almost every kind of fruit grows to 
 perfection. These regions seem to be the na- 
 tive land of apples, pears, and peaches. Here, 
 also, the vine flourishes. The olive, the al- 
 mond, and the apricot grow wild. Quinces of 
 richest flavor, plums, cherries, mulberries, and 
 nectarines complete the list of principal fruits 
 belonging to the vales of Zagros and the more 
 favored parts of Atropatene. 
 
 On the great plateau, as already said, for- 
 est trees are scattered but sparsely. The pre- 
 vailing types are the plane, the poplar, and 
 the willow. More rarely the cedar, the elm, 
 and the cypress are found, chiefly along the 
 Ibanks of the infrequent rivers. Back a short 
 distance from the streams the forest growth 
 dwindles to bushes and shrubs — only a clump 
 af thorn here and there or some half-grown 
 tiamarisk breaks the monotony of the gray and 
 dfueerless plain. Of all Media by far the most 
 exuberant district is that which lies along the 
 Lower Aras. Here there is a native luxuriance 
 equal to that of any region in the w^orld. The 
 very delta of the Nile has scarcely a greater 
 fecundity. Flowers and fruits grow wild, and 
 the grass is so high in summer that a man on 
 horseback is hidden as he passes. 
 
 As to those products which flourish only 
 by culture. Media resembles other lands of 
 
 not probable that all the deserts of the world can 
 be reclaimed by the simple expedient of planting 
 trees ? 
 
 the same latitude and elevation. The physical 
 conformation of the country is not unfavor- 
 able to agriculture. In Atropatene and on 
 the slopes of the Zagros the soil is easily up- 
 turned with the plow, and the various crops 
 spring up and ripen without much attention or 
 labor. The leading cereals are wheat, barley, 
 millet, sesame, corn, and rice. The tobacco 
 plant flourishes, as does also the castor bean, 
 and the fields whiten with cotton as in the 
 Southern States of the Union. In the gar- 
 dens are cucumbers, melons, and pumpkins. 
 Nor is the estate of man, as determined by the 
 means of subsistence, in any respect equivocal 
 or menaced with peculiar hardships. 
 
 In all parts of the Median plateau to 
 which nature has not denied a sufficiency 
 of water, the same — though less flattering — 
 agricultural conditions exist. As we proceed 
 to the south and east, however, and the 
 streams dwindle and die, and the springs 
 become few and poor in water, cultivation 
 becomes more difficult and less fruitful of 
 results. In modern times a system of canals 
 and tunnels has in some degree triumphed 
 over the natural tendency to ban-enness ; but 
 in the days of the Median Empire no such 
 artificial compensation of nature's poverty was 
 known. The plateau of Iran, which, in our 
 day produces moderately good crops of wheat, 
 corn, barley, rice, and millet, was perhaps 
 incapable of such production at the time when 
 Media was in her power. Still, at the present 
 time, the yield of fruits and vegetables is in 
 many parts fairly, and in a few especially, 
 good. In a few districts the melons and 
 grapes are provei'bially fine in flavor. Be- 
 sides these exceptional products, a large part 
 of the Median plain is peculiarly adapted to 
 the production of sundry drugs well known 
 among the nations. The principal of these 
 are rhubarb, senna, opium, asafoetida, mad- 
 der, saffron, and tobacco. 
 
 In the decoration of the earth few coun- 
 tries can equal Media. The flowers are lux- 
 uriant and abundant. In the brief spring, 
 and again for a season in the autumn, the 
 blossoms are everywhere. In the summer, as 
 in many parts of the United States, the sun 
 devours every thing. For a while, however,
 
 MEDIA.— COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 209 
 
 there is beauty. The magnificent rose-tree, 
 aometimes fourteen or fifteen feet in height, 
 covers herself with a queenly festoon, painted 
 with every hue and fragrant Avith the richest 
 odors. The gardens are adorned with flower- 
 ing shrubs, chief of which are the lilac and 
 the jasmine. In some districts hollyhocks 
 grow wild, as do also tulips, crocuses, and 
 lilies. Primroses, heliotropes, and pinks are 
 seen, and water-lilies rarely by the margin 
 of the streams. In like situations many fra- 
 grant mints are found, and sages in the gar- 
 dens. The chief feature of all this region is 
 the rapid metamorphosis from the desolation 
 of winter to the verdure and flowers of spring, 
 and a similarly sudden blight of all this 
 beauty with the apparition of the withering 
 heats of summer. 
 
 In the matter of mineral wealth Media is 
 by no means to be contemned. Her quarries 
 of stone are equal in quality to those of As- 
 syi'ia and much more widely distributed. In 
 the hiUs near Lake Urumiyeh is found the 
 famous yellow Tabriz marble, Avhich is so trans- 
 parent as to be cut thin and used instead of win- 
 dow glass. Other varieties have different hues, 
 according to the nature of the carbonates de- 
 posited from the springs of the neighborhood. 
 Good grades of building stone are found in 
 nearly every part of the country, and the 
 quai'ries show that considerable attention has 
 been given, both in ancient and modern times, 
 to getting out and preparing the enduring 
 materials furnished by nature. It appears, 
 however, that the uses to which stone was put 
 by the Medes were rather such as setting 
 curbs and laying pavements in baths and pal- 
 aces than in architecture proper. 
 
 Of the wealth of Media in the precious 
 metals not much is known. It is thought that 
 some parts of the Zagros contain mines of 
 gold and silver. There are traditions of gold 
 mines in other mountainous districts, but 
 modern exploration has not demonstrated the 
 truth of the stories. The same uncertainty 
 prevails in respect to the mines of lead and 
 antimony which are said to exist in Atropa- 
 tene. It is certain that quartz rock abounds, 
 and this would lead to the expectation of the 
 precious metals. In the way of gems the 
 
 most important were emei'alds and lapis lazvli. 
 As to salt there is an endless — not to say in- 
 finite — supply. Vast plains are covered with 
 it. Salt springs are found in many places, 
 and the whole desert country towards the 
 south-east is more or less glazed with saline 
 incrustations. Kock salt, too, is abundant, 
 and is quarried out for native and foreign 
 consumption. Niter and sulphur are found 
 in the Elburz mountains and fine beds of alum 
 along the Aji Su. 
 
 The wild animals of Media are of the same 
 general tyjDes with those of Assyria. Among 
 the ferocious beasts the principal are the lion, 
 the tiger, the leopard, and the bear. In some 
 parts the wdld boar is a terror. Jackals, 
 wolves, and beavers are common, as are also 
 foxes, rabbits, and porcupines. Another group 
 embraces the wild ass, the goat, the sheep, the 
 ibex, the stag, and the antelope. The aurochs 
 or mountain ox inhabits the Zagros. Among 
 the smaller tribes may be named the marmot, 
 the rat, the ferret, and the mole. Of all the 
 districts of Media, Atroj)at^ne has the greatest 
 number of animals, and several of the species 
 above enumerated — such as the tiger and the 
 lion — are limited to this part of the country. 
 The Median wild ass differs from that of 
 Mesopotamia, as well as from that of Tartary, 
 in having no dark lines across the shoulders. 
 His ears are large and heavy, like those of a 
 donkey, and his mane is short and black. 
 
 Among the domestic animals of Media the 
 most important was the camel. He was the 
 chief reliance of whoever had burdens to 
 transport from place to place. There were 
 three breeds: the Bactrian, with the double 
 hump in his back; the Arabian, with his 
 longer and fleeter limbs; and a cross-breed 
 possessing the better points of the other two. 
 After the camel the mule was next in useful- 
 ness, and was preferred in the mountainous 
 districts for his smaller size and surer footing. 
 
 Most celebrated of all the Median domestic 
 animals were the Nissean horses, whose praises 
 were recited by nearly all the historians from 
 Herodotus to Livy. These steeds were noted 
 for their great size and peculiar shape, and 
 were prized by all the kings and princes of 
 the East. The breed is thought to have beeo
 
 210 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of Parthian extraction, and to be represented 
 in Media at the present day by a stock of 
 horses called Turkoman. Another breed is 
 now found in the country, which is evidently 
 of Arabian descent and more recent devel- 
 opment. 
 
 The kine of Media differed not much from 
 those found in most countries belonging to 
 the north temperate zone. The sheep and 
 the goat were of the common varieties, and 
 were deduced from the wild breeds of the 
 hills. As to dogs, the finest was that Mace- 
 donian greyhound which, if tradition is to be 
 accepted, was introduced in Assyria and be- 
 yond by the armies of Alexander. The ani- 
 mal is strong and swift, being used in pursuit 
 of the antelope and other fleet-footed and 
 long-winded game. His scent is fine and his 
 instinct unerring, though in fleetuess he is 
 reckoned inferior to the greyhound of England. 
 
 The great bird of the Median upper air is 
 the eagle. After him the genus Falco is rep- 
 resented by the falcon proper and several 
 species of hawk. Of land birds the most 
 noted are the stork, the pelican, and the bus- 
 tard. Of the edible birds the chief are the 
 quail, the partridge, the dove, the pigeon, and 
 the snipe. On the great Plateau water-fowl 
 are rai'ely seen, but in Atropatene wild ducks 
 are frequently noticed by the traveler. The 
 principal song birds are thrushes, linnets, 
 larks, goldfinches, and nightingales, while the 
 chattering race is represented by the crow, the 
 magpie, and the blackbird. In the neighbor- 
 hood of Isfahan pigeons are reared for profit, 
 and the round towers which are the homes of 
 innumerable flocks are seen here and there in 
 the landscape. 
 
 As already said, the lakes of Media are 
 Ashless, being salt. Not so the rivers, though 
 in these the finny tribes do not abound. The 
 
 colder streams of the Zagros yield some fine 
 trout. As for the rest, the rivers of the 
 Plateau have several varieties of carp, barbel, 
 and gudgeon, but the waters are generally too 
 brackish to be a favorite home of fishes. In 
 many Median streams the unpoetic craw-fish, 
 with his reversed locomotion, is as much the 
 object of the fisherman's craft as the more 
 graceful denizens of the open river. 
 
 Portions of Media are as much plagued 
 with poisonous reptiles as any part of the 
 globe. In the grassy flat-lands along the lower 
 Araxes, snakes of vicious and deadly species 
 so abound that travel in summer time is 
 hardly practicable. Other districts are like- 
 wise infested with both serpents and scorpions, 
 but the sting of the latter is rather trouble- 
 some than dangerous. Lizards are very abun- 
 dant and of every hue. They are sometimes 
 more than two feet in length, and are a terror 
 to Europeans, though perfectly harmless. Of 
 the plague-pests of the air the most formidable 
 are the locusts. When they come it is in a 
 cloud that darkens the air. A single day of 
 their devouring reign is suflScient to sweep 
 from a whole district the last vestige of ver- 
 dure. The very twigs and branches of plants 
 and trees are destroyed, and nothing but a 
 mockery of vegetation left in the land. The 
 only compensation for the scourge is found in 
 the fact that the poorer people avenge them- 
 selves by eating the eaters of their orchards. 
 
 Besides the ravenous breed of locusts, there 
 are one or two other varieties of destroying 
 insects, notably a kind of ferocious grasshop- 
 per, described as being four inches in length 
 and armed behind with a sword. The creature 
 is not, however, so formidable as indicated 
 by his appearance, being a kind of diminished 
 Falstaff of the meadows, with more noise than 
 danger in him.
 
 MEDIA.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 211 
 
 CHAPTER XVI.— The People. 
 
 I HEN the hosts of Xerxes 
 moved down the defile of 
 Thermopylae, the men se- 
 lected to clear the pass of 
 the Spartans were a body 
 of Medes. It was the 
 first introduction of that 
 fierce soldiery to the people of the West. 
 They were at that time in close alliance with 
 their kinsmen, the Persians; and indeed the 
 two races have ever been intimately associated 
 on the page of history. " Medo-Persian " is 
 the name by which the great dominion estab- 
 lished by the Achsemenian kings has been im- 
 memorially designated. ' ' Thy kingdom is 
 divided and given to the Medes and Persians," 
 was the interpretation of the ominous inscrip- 
 tion on the wall of Belshazzar, the Babylonian 
 viceroy, and in a thousand paragraphs of 
 Greek and Roman literature the two peoples 
 are in like manner mentioned together. 
 
 Those readers who have given some atten- 
 tion to the study of the races of mankind will 
 understand the ethnic place of the jNIedes 
 from the statement that they were an offshoot 
 from the Iranic branch of Asiatic Aryans. 
 This classification throws them first of all into 
 relationship with the Persians, more remotely 
 with the races of the Indus, and still more re- 
 motely with the Greeks, the Romans, and the 
 Kelts. For the unscholarly reader the Medes 
 may be classified as belonging to the Japhetic 
 family of Adamites. 
 
 Nearly all that is known concerning the 
 physical characteristics of the people of an- 
 cient Media has been gathered from the 
 sculptures of Persepolis, These carvings rep- 
 resent not only the Persians, by whose artists 
 the sculptures were executed, but also the 
 kindred Medes, Avho, as the older people, were 
 in good fame at the Persian capital. Besides, 
 the Greek historians — Herodotus and notably 
 Xenophon in the Cyroj^cedia and the Anabasis — 
 have given personal and character sketches of 
 the Medes, so full and explicit that their ap- 
 
 pearance is almost as well known as that of 
 the Romans or Assyrians. From these sources 
 it is known that the typical Mede was tall and 
 graceful and of great physical nobility. The 
 physiognomy was almost equal in beauty to 
 the Greek, while in strength of body the 
 Mede was hardly inferior to the warrior of 
 Assyria. The Median forehead was high and 
 straight, and the nose was of that Macedonian 
 type which continues in the same line with 
 the forehead, long and well formed, and some- 
 times hawk-like and imperious. The upper 
 lip was short and moustached ; the chin round 
 and strong and heavily bearded. The hair 
 was abundant to superfluity, and was drawn 
 back from the forehead and. twisted into curls 
 around the ears and neck. From the care 
 shown in its arrangement, the Medes were 
 evidently proud of the plentiful locks which 
 clustered around their heads. The Median 
 women are described by the Greeks as of great 
 personal charms. Their beauty was of that 
 queenly style peculiar to semi-heroic ages. 
 
 The manner of life among the early Aryans, 
 whether Persian, Hindu, or Greek, was such 
 as to encourage and develop physical perfec- 
 tion, and to make the bodies of men and 
 women glow with those native charms which 
 generally wither under the heats of civilization. 
 For this reason the ancient Mede was, as com- 
 pared with the modern Persian, a person of 
 beauty and dignity. From the Roman to the 
 Italian marks the distance from freedom to 
 servitude, from open nature to subtle craft, 
 from courage to cunning, from the giory and 
 audacity of paganism to the treachery and ser- 
 vility of religious thralldom. So has it been 
 in Greece, in Media, in Persia, in the valley 
 of the Indus. So will it ever be so long as 
 Nature shall continue to be regarded as the 
 foe instead of the friend of man. The great- 
 ness of the intellectual achievement of modern 
 times is tarnished not a little by the eclipse 
 of the physical grandeur and beauty of the 
 early races.
 
 212 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 lu the qualities of heroic mauhood the au- 
 cieut Medes were rivals of the Greeks. The 
 men of the Median hills had the courage of 
 Athenian soldiers, if not the stoicism of Spar- 
 tans. Of their warlike daring there can be 
 no doubt. The poems of Horace attest the 
 reputation of the Medes even in the Eternal 
 City, and the prophet Ezekiel describes the 
 kingdom of Cyaxares as the terror of nations. 
 
 It was no doubt owing to this warlike consti- 
 tution that the Medes at the first gained the 
 ascendency over the surrounding tribes of the 
 great plateau, and laid the foundations of their 
 historic renown. They had the bravery and 
 audacity, if not the artistic possibilities and 
 intellectual force, of the Hellenes. To the 
 present day these same qualities are in some 
 measure preserved in the wild Kurds of the 
 hills, whose face and figure have the freedom 
 and symmetry of Sulliotes. 
 
 Of all the ancient peoples the Medes were 
 perhaps the most remarkable for their manage- 
 ment of the horse. They were disciplined 
 from, childhood to ride at will, and were 
 trained to perform feats on horseback. This 
 tended to make them sinewy about the chest 
 and erect in figure. Their dress also was of a 
 kind to favor development; so that the hered- 
 itary beauty of the old Aryan stock found 
 no difficult expression in the person of the 
 Mede. 
 
 Owing to the meager architectural remains 
 left by the people of Media, and the want of 
 a national literature, there is some difficulty 
 in determining from original sources the per- 
 sonal appearance and demeanor of the race, 
 but the Persian decorations and monuments 
 supply the deficiency. It appears that the 
 chief intellectual qualities of the people were 
 a certain barbaric energy and a love of display. 
 Their pride was personal rather than national, 
 and hence it found expression in ostentatious 
 dress more than in architecture. Perhaps no 
 ancient people took more pleasure in personal 
 display than did the Medes. A magnificent 
 dress and stately semi-barbaric bearing char- 
 acterized them, though their splendor was 
 rather of richness than of artistic eflfect. In 
 intellect the Medes were not a superior people, 
 and as a consequence their civilization, though 
 
 not wanting in force, was unsupported by the 
 principles of perpetuity. 
 
 A leading trait of the Median character 
 was cruelty. The reputation of the race was 
 that of unparalleled atrocity in war. The con- 
 quests of the Medes were marked by the 
 worst abuses of half-savage warfare. Women, 
 maidens, old men, babes, were all alike the 
 objects of the undiscriminating vengeance of 
 the Median soldiery. The object in battle 
 was rather to insult and wreak vengeance on 
 the foe than to spoil and ravage. The old 
 annals of the East abound in references to 
 the outrages and bloodthirsty spirit of the 
 Medes. 
 
 After victory and conquest had brought 
 renown and riches to the race the people grad- 
 ually imbibed the vices of luxury. Having 
 gained the supremacy over Assyria, the soldiers 
 and courtiers of the Median monarchs soon 
 became enamored of the more expensive and 
 elaborate life of the people whom they had 
 cou(|uered, and began to adopt those methods 
 and gratifications which first intoxicate and 
 then kill. There is little doubt that before 
 the time of Cyrus the Great the native vigor 
 of the Median stock had been sapped to such 
 a degree that the Persians found little diffi- 
 culty in reversing the political relations be- 
 tween their own and the kingdom of Astyages. 
 It is thus that civilization by relaxing the se- 
 verity of the habits of her foemeu avenges 
 herself and her wrongs upon the spoilers of 
 her vineyards. The luxurious capital of As- 
 syria, with her palaces and banqueting-halls, 
 was thus able to do what the armies of Sara- 
 cus were impotent to accomplish — break the 
 power of the Medes. 
 
 Being peculiarly a warlike race, the first 
 aspect of Median life is that which presents 
 the army going to battle. The soldiers wore 
 broad-sleeved tunics and trousers. They cov- 
 ered their heads with felt caps and bore their 
 quivers on their backs. The tunic was some- 
 times converted into a coat of mail by an 
 arrangement of small metallic plates, overlap- 
 ping like the scales of a fish. The most pe- 
 culiar piece of the armor was the shield, which 
 was a structure of wickerwork, oblong in form, 
 and equaling or exceeding the height of the
 
 MEDIA.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 213 
 
 warrior. It was set on the ground before him, 
 and was broad enough to protect two or three 
 soldiers, one of whom discharged arrows from 
 the covert, while the other, armed with a 
 spear, sustained the shield in its place and 
 acted on the defensive.^ Such was the infantry. 
 But the more important branch of the 
 service was the horse. The cavalrymen were 
 archers. Skilled in the management of steeds 
 and the use of the bow, they adopted the tac- 
 tics of whirling in circles round about the 
 foe, discharging from every advantageous po- 
 sition showers of arrows, and then dashing 
 out of reach. It was the tactics of Arabs 
 or Scythians reduced to method and made 
 
 inserted in a ring or socket at the upper end 
 of the shaft. The lower end terminated in an 
 ornamental knob or ball, made in the likeness 
 of an apple or pomegranate. At the soldier's 
 right side hung the Median short sword, fas- 
 tened by a belt around the waist and also se- 
 cured by a strap to the thigh. 
 
 Of the Median dress something has already 
 been said. The principal article of apparel 
 was a long flowing robe, which seems to have 
 been a pattern original with the Medes. Thia 
 garment was of so great beauty as to strike 
 the fancy of the Greeks, and their historians 
 have immortalized it in the classics. Thia 
 famous robe was so made as to fit closely 
 
 RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS 
 
 terrible by discipline. The other weapons of 
 offense, besides the bow, were the spear, the 
 sword, and the dagger. The bow was of a 
 very peculiar pattern — short and greatly 
 curved. It was borne in a case, which was 
 slung either at the side or over the shoulders 
 of the soldier. The Median arrow was short, 
 not exceeding three feet in length. The spear 
 was six or seven feet long, and had the head 
 
 ^ Besides the large wicker shield here described, 
 tlie ]\Iedes also employed a small circular disk, 
 made of metal or wood, and ornamented with 
 knobs and circles. It resembled the bosses or 
 small shields carried by the Boeotians, and de- 
 pended for its efficiency upon tVie agility and skill 
 of the wearer in intercepting with it the flying 
 arrows of the foe. 
 
 about the shoulders and chest and then spread 
 into two capacious sleeves. At the waist it 
 was bound with a girdle, and fell loosely about 
 the lower person to the ankles. It was a gar- 
 ment greatly superior in gracefulness and ele- 
 gance to the to2:a of the Romans, to which it 
 bore some general likeness. The color waa 
 generally purple, crimson, or scarlet. Some- 
 times the robe was striped longitudinally with 
 bands of purple and white. The material 
 mostly employed was silk, but among the 
 poorer classes .less costly fibers were used — 
 wool, no doubt, for winter garments. It is 
 in this imposing robe that the Medes and 
 Persians are always figured in the sculptures 
 of Persenolis.
 
 214 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The Median foot-dress was a sort of flat- 
 bottomed moccasin, laced or buttoned in front. 
 The head was covered in war with a felt hat, 
 but in peace a kind of light tiara, made of 
 stiff cloth and of a strangely original design, 
 was worn both indoors and out. The general 
 presence of a Mede in full dress was at once 
 stately and picturesque. The people appear 
 to have been inordinately fond of personal 
 display, and to have resorted to many artifices 
 to eradicate the defects of nature and heighten 
 their personal beauty. Nor does it appear 
 that the Median women, more than the men, 
 were addicted to those tricks by which age 
 and ugliness are hidden from attention. The 
 eyes were penciled to magnify their size and 
 luster. The skin was rubbed with cosmetics 
 a la viode, and false hair was in demand to 
 supply the occasional deficiency of nature. In 
 short, the shops of Ecbatana in the days of As- 
 tyages would have shown to the cynical ob- 
 server the same elaborate satire upon human 
 nature which in every age of the #orld 
 Fashion has written on the bodies and lives 
 of her subjects. 
 
 The principal ornaments worn by the 
 Medes were of gold. The backward condi- 
 tion of the arts, and the slender commercial 
 connection with other nations rich in precious 
 stones, will account for the general absence 
 of gems among the personal decorations of 
 this people. Necklaces and collars of gold 
 were much worn by the nobility, and plain 
 earrings were generally a part of the adorn- 
 ment of persons of rank. Gold bracelets 
 were common among all classes — nobles, war- 
 riors, and even peasants; and the bridle-bits 
 and harness of the horses of the wealthy were 
 decorated with the same precious metal. 
 
 The chief feature of the social system of 
 the Medes was polygamy. The king main- 
 tained a seraglio of wives and concubines, 
 and the nobles, according to their ability, 
 imitated his example. There were five legiti- 
 mate wives, who held the same relation in the 
 household, and after these the rest of the 
 retinue. The women were secluded, but not 
 with the same rigor as in modern Moham- 
 medan coimtries, and the usual abuses pecu- 
 liar to such a system were prevalent. 
 
 The ceremonial of the Median court was 
 characterized by a pompous formality. The 
 monarch himself was rarely seen, and the ap- 
 proach to him was guarded by imposing forms, 
 which must be scrupulously observed. Proper 
 officers stood sentry by the enti'ance way to 
 the kingly presence. He who would have 
 audience must prostrate himself as if doing 
 homage to a god, and even then he must 
 stand at a distance, between files of eunuchs 
 and courtiers. In affairs of state, and indeed 
 in all important communications, the things 
 said and done had to be presented in writing, 
 and all decisions and decrees were issued in 
 like manner. From time to time the officers 
 of the court submitted reports of such 
 branches of business as were intrusted to 
 them and of the general condition of the Em- 
 pire. By these means the necessity of going 
 forth from his palace was taken away, and 
 the king for the most part passed his days in 
 seclusion. 
 
 As in Assyria, so in Media, hunting was 
 the national sport. In this way the monarch 
 and his nobles amused themselves when the 
 cares of state were less severe. But in the 
 royal chase, as practiced in Assyria and Me- 
 dia, there was this marked difference that, in 
 the latter country, the king himself seldom or 
 never engaged personally in the pursuit of 
 wild beasts. In Assyria, on the other hand, 
 the monarch in person leads the chase, attacks 
 the lion, slays the wild boar. The Median 
 sovereign witnesses and enjoys the sport of his 
 nobles, but as a rule does not engage in the 
 contest. He stands apart, and approves or 
 condemns as his courtiers are skillful or 
 clumsy in the contest.^ 
 
 The principal beasts thus hunted by the 
 Median nobles were the lion, the bear, the 
 leopard, and the wild boar. The pursuit of 
 these was regarded as perilous, and the victo- 
 rious hunter returned with the honors of war. 
 
 ' It is possible that the Assyrian sculptors rep- 
 resent their emperors as doing what they did only 
 by proxy ; but considering the aggressive and war- 
 like spirit of the race of Nimrod, it is not improb- 
 able that pictorial representations of the battles 
 of the kings with lions, bears, and boars are true 
 to the facts, and that the royal custom of the 
 Medes was diflferent.
 
 MEDIA.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 215 
 
 The less dangerous beasts of the chase were 
 stags, gazelles, wild asses, and wild sheep. 
 The method of hunting was to pursue on 
 horseback the prey roused from the covert, 
 and when sufficiently near to strike it down 
 with well-directed arrows or javelins. Some- 
 times herds of deer were driven into inclos- 
 ures and shot down at the pleasure ot the 
 sportsmen ; and troops of wild boars were in 
 like manner, but with more danger, driven 
 into marsh grounds, where they were worried 
 with dogs and bands of "beaters" until they 
 fell an easy prey to the hunter's shaft. 
 
 The Medes were great eaters and drinkers. 
 Their banquets were characterized by profu- 
 sion and luxury. Their tables were laden 
 with rich viands — meat, game, wine, bread, 
 sauces, and indeed every article with which a 
 semi-barbaric appetite could be excited or ap- 
 peased. The guests ate with the hand, after 
 the oriental fashion, using no knives or forks. 
 The point of distinction at the feast was to 
 multiply the number of dishes with which 
 each guest was surrounded. The meals of 
 nobles and royal personages were always after 
 the manner of banquets. Wine was used 
 freely, and the close of the feast was fre- 
 quently a rout, of which Bacchus was geueral- 
 in-chief. 
 
 Great care was taken to guard the life of 
 the king. The measures adopted generally 
 indicated social depravity and political treach- 
 ery. That shocking absence of the sense of 
 honor, for which all Eastern courts are pro- 
 verbial, was constantly apparent in the rela- 
 tions between the king and his subjects. They 
 would follow him to battle and obey his com- 
 mands, but could not be trusted. So the food 
 and wine with which the monarch was daily 
 served must always be tasted by the obsequi- 
 ous bearer, lest some faithless courtier should 
 have contrived to destroy the royal life by 
 poison; and ever in his dreams the king be- 
 held behind the purple curtain of his couch 
 the assassin's hand clutching a dagger. 
 
 Doubtless this deplorable social condition 
 belonged rather to the later than to the ear- 
 lier days of Median greatness. It was after 
 conquest and lust and satiety had destroyed 
 
 the fierce native nobility of the Medes that 
 they exhibited the degrading vices peculiar to 
 effeminate despotisms. When the rich capi- 
 tals of Assyria opened their gates the hardy 
 soldiers of the trans-Zagros fell quickly into 
 gluttony and riotous excesses. And so, as has 
 happened so many times in the history of 
 mankind, the very victory of the Medes over 
 their enemy furnished the insidious conditions 
 of their overthrow. It only remained for 
 Persia, grown great by the practice of the 
 stalwart virtues, to turn the tables upon the 
 Medes, softened by luxury, and do unto them 
 as they had done to the enervated population 
 of Nineveh and Asshur. 
 
 The Medes had little genius. In literary 
 culture they achieved no distinction. No 
 poem or historical fragment has been traced 
 to a strictly Median source. Of their art but 
 little is known. At Hamadan, the site of the 
 ancient capital, has been found a single speci- 
 men of sculpture, the broken fragment of a 
 colossal lion, which is believed to have been 
 the product of a Median chisel. As far as 
 may be judged from the appearance of this 
 weather-eaten and mutilated torso, it is of the 
 same style as that of Assyria. The body is 
 about twelve feet in length, and the creature 
 seems to have had something of the majesty 
 of a sphinx. 
 
 No doubt the art of the Medes can best .be 
 judged by that of Persia. It is thought by 
 critics that the great sculptures which adorned 
 the capital of the Persian kings were imitated 
 from those of Assyria ; and if this be true, 
 then it is evident that the artistic styles dis- 
 played in the ruins of Persepolis were brought 
 thither by way of Media, and not directly 
 from the West. The point in which origi- 
 nality may with most plausibility be claimed 
 for the Medes is in their architecture, which, 
 though suggestive of that of Assyria, is still 
 sufficiently differentiated to be regarded as a 
 distinct form. It is to be greatly regretted 
 that some ruin of Azerbijan or the Median 
 plateau has not furnished the antiquary and 
 the historian with more tangible and authentic 
 evidences of the condition of art and science 
 anions: our oldest kinsmen of Western Asia.
 
 216 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— LANQUAQE AND RELIQION, 
 
 HE language of the Medes 
 was Aryan. It was a 
 branch of that great speech 
 which has filled the world 
 with its dialects, of which 
 among the tongues of an- 
 tiquity the Greek, and 
 among those of modern times the English, 
 are the most illustrious representatives. The 
 Median language was closely allied to the 
 Persian, being either the parent or the elder 
 sister of that tongue ; from which it happens 
 that a fair notion of the speech employed by 
 the subjects of Cyaxares may be obtained from 
 an examination of the inscriptions of Persep- 
 olis. It is as though one should study Latin 
 from Italian manuscripts. 
 
 It has been thought by some scholars that 
 the famous Zendavesta, or bible of the Zo- 
 roastrians, is written in the language of the 
 ancient Medes ; but more careful investigation 
 has shown that the language of the Zoroastrian 
 scripture is older than that of Media, and 
 that it is to be traced geographically to Bactria 
 and Sogdiana. So, though it is probable that 
 learned Medes could have read the books of 
 Zoroaster, still it would have been brokenly 
 and imperfectly, as an English student would 
 read Anglo-Saxon, or an Italian, Latin. 
 
 It would be impossible at the present day 
 and in the present state of knowledge to de- 
 termine with precision the differences existing 
 between the languages of Media and Persia. 
 The fragments of the former speech which 
 have descended to modern times are very 
 meager, and consist mainly of isolated words 
 from which the Median grammar can be but 
 imperfectly reconstructed. The words which 
 have been thus preserved are for the most 
 part nouns, principally proper names, and 
 these furnish but an indifferent clue to the 
 real structure of the language. 
 
 Median names are almost identical with the 
 Persian equivalents. In some instances the 
 spelling; is precisely the same. Thus Arbaces, 
 
 Artabazus, Harpagus, Ariobarzanes, Tiridates, 
 and many other analogous names are without 
 distinction in the two languages. In other 
 cases the variation is so slight as to be of little 
 importance, as Artynes for Artanes, Parmises 
 for Parmys, Intaphernes for Intaphres, etc. 
 In still another class the Median words, though 
 not similar to any known Persian names, are 
 clearly made up of Persian roots and combi- 
 nations. To those who are acquainted with 
 the physiognomy of languages this kind of 
 evidence is conclusive proof of affinity between 
 the tongues in which it exists. Such names 
 as Ophernes, Sitraphernes, Mazares, Spitaces, 
 Megabernes, and the like, are so clearly Per- 
 sian in their typical structure as to be unmis- 
 takable by scholars, and yet these words are 
 not known as the names of Persians. A fourth 
 class, though having the Persic type, have no 
 root-identity with any known words in that 
 tongue, but are easily made out by compari- 
 sons with Zend and Sanskrit. It is as though 
 Norman names, the equivalents of which could 
 not be found in French, should be discovered 
 in Italian or Spanish — a fact not at all incon- 
 sistent with the laws of linguistic growth and 
 decay. Thus it happens that the names of 
 the principal personages of Median history — 
 Deioces, Phraortes, Astyages, and Cyaxares — 
 are made up of parts not found in Persian, 
 but are easily explained by Zend and Sanskrit 
 roots. In like manner the meaning of many 
 Median names of places may be traced in cor- 
 responding forms found in the older branches 
 of the Aryan speech. Of this kind are the 
 names of the principal cities — Ecbatana, Bag- 
 istan, Aspadan, etc. 
 
 Besides the names of persons and places 
 only a few Median words have survived. The 
 word for day was spaka. The heralds who 
 carried messages to and from the king were 
 called angari. One of the measures employed 
 by the Medes was known as the artahe, and 
 the Median robe was called candy s. Two 
 other words — artades, meaning " the just," and
 
 MEDIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 217 
 
 devas, meaning "the evil" — are of record as 
 belonging to the Median dictionary; and 
 here, so far as present scholarship can deter- 
 mine, our knowledge of the vocabulary of 
 this ancient people is bounded. Only one 
 other fact concerning the speech of the Medes 
 is known, and that is the prevalence of the 
 terminational particle ok in nouns. This end- 
 ing seems to have been a kind of guttural 
 suffix, which was gradually softened down and 
 finally dropped altogether from the later de- 
 velopment of the language in Persia. 
 
 That the Medes possessed the art of writ- 
 ing their language can not be doubted. In 
 the First Book of Herodotus the story is told 
 how Harpagus the Mede sent to Cyrus a let- 
 ter concealed in the body of a hare. Several 
 other references of like sort indicate the be- 
 lief of the ancients that the art preservative 
 of arts was known and practiced by the people 
 of Media. Several passages in the Book of 
 Daniel state specifically that King Darius 
 wrote and signed the decrees which from time 
 to time he issued "unto all peoples, nations, 
 and languages;" and in the tenth chapter of 
 Esther it is stated that there was kept at the 
 Persian court a book containing the annals 
 of the Median monarchs. But it is doubtless 
 true that the native writings of this people 
 were limited to political papers and royal 
 messages, and that no national literature of 
 any importance w^as ever produced. The peo- 
 ple were a matter-of-fact and comparatively 
 idealess race, and outside of the sacred lore 
 in which their religious system was expressed, 
 the world of letters was uncultivated — the 
 world of thought unexj)lored. 
 
 In one respect, however, the jNIedes made 
 a decided advance. The cumbrous and elab- 
 orate system of writing employed by the peo- 
 ple beyond the Zagros mountains was greatly 
 simplified by both the Medes and Persians. 
 Instead of employing three or four hundred 
 characters (some of them composed of as 
 many as fifteen elementary strokes or wedges), 
 the ancient Aryan scribes reduced their sys- 
 tem to a manageable compass, based on an al- 
 phabetic analysis of sounds. In this effort at 
 scientific writing they were comparatively 
 successful. 
 
 The system which they thus produced 
 embraced a list of twenty-three distinct sounds, 
 expressed by thirty-seven characters, which 
 Avas a nearer approximation to accuracy than 
 has been attained by several modern nations. 
 The characters, moreover, which were used in 
 the Medo-Persic alphabet were much simpler 
 in form than those employed by the peoples 
 of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys. The ele- 
 mentary stroke in writing was the wedge, f. 
 This character, except in the arrow-head vari- 
 ation (<), was always written either perpen- 
 dicularly (f), horizontally (►), or inclined 
 to the right {\)', and indeed the latter posi- 
 tion was only employed as a mark of separa- 
 tion between words. Each letter was made 
 up of a combination of simple strokes, the 
 minimum in any one letter being two wedges, 
 and the maximum five. 
 
 The Median writing was executed from 
 left to right. The characters were produced 
 between two parallel lines drawn horizontally 
 across the stone tablet or parchment. Fre- 
 quently, at the right-hand edge, the words 
 were divided, and a part carried back to the 
 beginning of the next line, after the manner 
 of modern times. As in many other lan- 
 guages, there was great danger of mistaking 
 one character for another. Several of the let- 
 ters so nearly resembled others as to be indis- 
 tinguishable in careless writing. A slight 
 error in the use of the stylus or graving tool 
 was sufficient to alter or confound the sense 
 of a paragraph. 
 
 Whether the INIedes employed a cursive or 
 round hand is not known. If writing was a 
 common art, much used by the people, it 
 would appear probable that a continuous or 
 running combination of the characters would 
 have naturally taken the place of the slow 
 and tedious elaboration of wedges. If, how- 
 ever, w-riting was limited in its practice to the 
 king's counselors and scribes, then it is likelv 
 that no departure w'as made from the typical 
 forms of the graven alphabet. 
 
 The materials used in writing were stone 
 and parchment. The latter substance was 
 employed in disseminating the edicts of the 
 kings and for other similar purposes. For 
 the more important statutes and records of
 
 218 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the Empire the face of the imperishable rock 
 was used, and the scribe's chisel was the pen. 
 The method of writing on clay tablets and 
 cylinders seems not to have been known 
 among the early Aryans of the Median pla- 
 teau. Whatever writing they did was lim- 
 ited to the practical and necessary affairs of 
 life; the voice of imagination found no utter- 
 ance, the tongue of poetry no language. 
 
 Such was the speech of the Medes. As in 
 the case of nearly all the other ancient peo- 
 ples, the oldest records of this language are 
 embalmed in the religious system which was 
 formulated on the emergence of the race from 
 barbarism. This system is presented in the 
 Zend A VESTA, though, as already said, the lan- 
 guage of that great work is much more an- 
 tique than that development of speech which 
 prevailed in the days of Astyages. 
 
 The Zendavesta is in eight Books, covering 
 the same general topics which are presented 
 in the Old Testament — Laws, Covenants, 
 Prayers, Songs, etc. In these we can see re- 
 flected with considerable clearness the hopes 
 and aspirations of our ancestral race in its 
 earliest communings with the gods. It was 
 the blind effort of an unscientific age to in- 
 terpret the phenomena of the world and to 
 discover the Cause or causes of Nature. Per- 
 haps the oldest part of this quaint Bactrian 
 bible is the Gathas, or "Songs," many of 
 which are no doubt more primitive than the 
 separate existence of the Medo-Persian race. 
 They contain the unpremeditated and often 
 fervid utterances of awe-struck worshipers, 
 pouring out their praises and petitions to the 
 invisible powers of the earth and air and sky. 
 Tliese powers were many rather than one, 
 and possessed few — perhaps none — of the at- 
 tributes of personality. There was at the first 
 only one class of divine beings — the AJmras, 
 or gods. These were good, and were wor- 
 shiped as beneficent and life-giving influences. 
 It is believed that that system of dualism 
 in which the bad powers of the universe are 
 set over against the good was unknown to the 
 earliest religion of the Aryan race. 
 
 The Powers, then, or Beings most wor- 
 shiped by the ancient Bactrians were Indra, 
 the Storm ; Mithra, the Sunlight ; Armati, 
 
 the Earth; Vayu, the Wind; Agni, the Fire; 
 and Soma, Intoxication. These principles or 
 forces of nature were the common objects of 
 adoration before the earliest tribal separations 
 of the Aryans — the de'ties alike of Hindus 
 and Iranians. It was nature-worship, pure 
 and simple, in the garb of polytheism. It 
 was not long, however, before the perceptions 
 grew by evolution, and it was seen that the 
 powers of the physical world are harmful as 
 well as helpful — bad as well as good. Upon 
 the good principles of nature, therefore, the 
 affections of the worshiper were turned and 
 centered, while from the bad his gaze was 
 averted, and by them his fears alarmed. Thus 
 arose the good spirits and the evil — the Ahu- 
 ras and Devas, the beneficent gods and the 
 demons. Their worship was conducted by 
 three classes of priests : the Kavi, or Proph- 
 ets ; the Icaropani, or Sacrificers ; and the ricikhs, 
 or Sages. The ceremonies consisted of hymns 
 chanted in praise of the gods, in sacrifices of 
 animals and fruits, and in libations and intox- 
 ication. Of the sacrifice a part was burnt 
 upon an altar, the rest remaining to the 
 priest; and in the ceremony of intoxication 
 a portion of the liquor was poured out on the 
 earth and the residue drank by the karopani, 
 who, when drunken, were thought to be in 
 communion with the deity. 
 
 With the progress of religious ideas in 
 Media, and the acceptance of the dualistic 
 system of good and evil, there came also the 
 concept of one god above the rest — a supreme 
 and all-wise Intelligence by whom the other 
 deities were held in subordination. This great 
 God of the Medes was called Ahura-Mazdao, 
 or Ahuramazda — the living Creator of all. 
 His attributes were holiness, purity, goodness, 
 truth, fatherhood, and happiness. He was 
 the possessor and giver of all blessings, both 
 temporal and everlasting. Earthly honor and 
 preferment and spiritual elevation and wisdom 
 alike flowed from this immortal Source of 
 light and beneficence. Health, as well as 
 virtue; wealth, as well as wisdom, came to 
 the good from the bovmteous hand of Ahura- 
 Mazdiio, and by withholding he punished the 
 evil for their sin. He was a mighty and 
 spiritual God, of whom no image or likeness
 
 MEDIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 219 
 
 could be made, and before whose sight all vile 
 and gross practices were an abomination. He 
 had, in general, the same high godhood and 
 attributes of personality which are ascribed to 
 the Jehovah Elohim of the Pentateuch, and 
 for this reason a strong national and religious 
 sympathy existed between the Medo-Persic 
 races and the Hebrews. Notwithstanding the 
 intolerance of both peoples in matters of re- 
 ligion, the Jews under Persian rule never 
 revolted, nor did the Persians at any time 
 persecute their Jewish subjects. Both nations 
 declared openly and with almost equal empha- 
 sis against the practices of idolatry, and both 
 agreed upon the indivisible unity and almight- 
 iness of the Supreme Being. 
 
 Associated with Ahura-Mazdao were the 
 angels. One was the great messenger and 
 bearer of good news to men. His name was 
 Sraosha. Ail the beneficence contrived above 
 for the human family was revealed to man 
 by this angel of light and blessing. He also 
 kept the true faith from corruption, and after 
 death brought home to celestial abodes the 
 souls of the just. Besides this sublime per- 
 sonage, several of the divine attributes were rep- 
 resented as angels. Such were Vohu-Mano, 
 "the Good Mind," and Mazda, "the Wise," 
 and AsHA, "the True," who are sometimes 
 represented as personal, but generally as sim- 
 ple characteristics or qualities of the godhead. 
 
 Next after Sraosha among the angelic hier- 
 archies was Ariviati, the goddess of the Earth. 
 She was the Median Ceres, and like the Roman 
 divinity, she kept alive the sentiment of piety. 
 When the half-wild Mede contended with the 
 thicket for the mastery of the soil, Armati 
 encouraged him in his battle with perverse 
 Nature, and when at last the harvest came she 
 was the giver. The swelling seed, the grow- 
 ing stalk, the fragrant blossom, the ripening 
 fruit — were not all these the blessings show- 
 ered upon men by the angel of the fecund 
 Earth? Wherever germination and birth re- 
 vived the hope of the world, there Armati, 
 the good genius sent by Ahura-Mazdao, was 
 present to give and to inspire the delights which 
 come of increase. 
 
 Thus by degrees from the older nature- 
 worship of the primitive Aryans, the mind of 
 
 the Iranic peoples was called to the contem- 
 plation of Spirit and Duty. It was an ad- 
 vance from the form to the essence. The 
 form was AVind, and Thunder, and Sunlight, 
 and Fire ; the essence was Truth, and Purity, 
 and Wisdom, and Life. Even in those parts 
 of the Median religious system in which the 
 old symbolism was preserved there was a con- 
 stant refinement, tending to the substitution 
 of spirit for mere form. Thus the Earth was 
 represented under the metaphor of the cow, 
 and presently it was the geiis urva or soul of 
 the cow that was addressed in worship. The 
 earth was thus conceived of as pervaded by 
 a directing principle of life — a soul — the 
 " anima mundi" of the Greek philosophers. 
 
 The myth goes on to recite how when man, 
 under the inspiration and direction of Ahuro- 
 Mazdao, first cut the breast of the Earth with 
 a plowshare, the geus urva cried out in an- 
 guish, and besought the high angels to save 
 Armati from the pain and shame of desecra- 
 tion. But the high angels, knowing the will 
 of Ahura-Mazdao, refused to interfere. Earth 
 was left to suffer her pangs without allevia- 
 tion, but was given in recompense of her sor- 
 row the flowers and fruits and harvests. 
 
 For some reason the worship of Mithra, 
 the Sunlight, was not included in the oldest 
 songs of the Zendavesta. In this the system 
 of the Medes was discriminated from that of 
 the Aryans of the Indus valley. With the 
 latter the worship of the Sun-god was of the 
 highest importance and popularity. With 
 the Iranians, however, the introduction of 
 Mithra into the pantheon belongs to a later 
 date and a lower plane of religious thought. 
 But not so of Vayu, the Wind. In the oldest 
 hymns of the Zendavesta his praises are 
 chanted and his godhead appeased with sac- 
 rifices. 
 
 The Soma plant of the East is a species of 
 Asdepias. The power of the expressed and 
 fermented juice to produce intoxication was 
 known from the earliest times. The pleasing 
 thrill of delight which the drinker experienced, 
 and the sudden exaltation of his faculties 
 under the influence of the inebriating cup — 
 were not these the gift of a god? What 
 other power in all the earth could so bring
 
 220 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 mau into communion with the joyous divin- 
 ities? Thus did Soma become the phiut and 
 drink of the deities. The gods in their revels 
 and excesses grew drunken. So said the 
 coarser theology of the people. But the Zo- 
 roastrian reformers were scandalized at the 
 thought, and declared that the gods were 
 sober, and that men were made into beasts by 
 the power of Soma. Thus was a schism begun 
 between the Aryans of the Median plateau, and 
 their older kinsmen, the Brahmins, of India. 
 For a while, after the Zoroastriau reform, the 
 line was sharply drawn between the temperate 
 theology of the Bactrian prophet and the 
 license and abandonment of the older system 
 of faith. 
 
 As already said, the Zoroastriau system of 
 divinity recognized the existence of devas, or 
 "fiends," as the antagonists of the gods. The 
 latter were known by the general name of 
 ahuras, or "deities." It was the system of 
 dualism in its infancy. Good and evil were 
 opposed. Out of the conflicting forces of 
 nature the intellect of man worked its way 
 backwards to antagonistic principles. It is 
 interesting to note, moreover, how in the the- 
 ology of the Bactrians and Medes a spirit of 
 optimism prevailed over the pessimistic ten- 
 dency of thought. The gods and the angels 
 and good spirits were differentiated into indi- 
 vidual character. They were arranged in or- 
 ders and hierarchies, the one above the other, 
 and were given names. Ahura-Mazdao was 
 at the head. But not so of the devas. These 
 were all grouped together. They had no in- 
 dividual names or characters. They were 
 simply unclassified devils. There was no fiend- 
 in-chief standing over against Mazdao, like 
 Lucifer in the Miltonic theology. A deva 
 was simply a deva — a malicious sprite disturb- 
 ing the world and working mischief to the 
 affairs of men. 
 
 Traces of the counter system of good and 
 evil appear in the oldest hymns of the Zenda- 
 vesta. The primitive Zoroastrians recognized 
 the unceasing conflict between the powers of 
 light and darkness. Truth and falsehood, 
 purity and depravity, are set against each 
 other. There were spirits of light and spirits 
 of darkness. Nature had her storms and her 
 
 sunshine. Man vibrated between smiles and 
 tears. But the bards and sages dwelt upon 
 the joyful rather than the gloomy aspect of 
 life. The good gods were adored more than 
 the devas were feared. 
 
 At the outset much of the Medo-Bactrian 
 system of dualism was traceable to the poetic 
 language of the Zoroastriau sages. Abstract 
 conceptions were personified. What was 
 purely natural in the beginning became ideal 
 in the imagination of the poets, and was then 
 rendered concrete by personification. Natural 
 philosophy became religion by ascribing the 
 conflicts of nature to personal causes. Further 
 on in the history of the system the dualistic 
 belief rose higher, and in later times ventured 
 to set up Ahriman as the foe and rival of 
 Ahura-Mazdao. The world became a battle- 
 field between the antagonistic powers of -the 
 air. Man was alternately aided and beset. 
 Health and prosperity and happiness — gifts of 
 the bright immortals — were shadowed by sick- 
 ness, calamity, and sorrow — visitations of the 
 spirits of evil and malevolence. 
 
 Then did the priests elaborate their system 
 of dual theology and adorn it with decora- 
 tions. They made out two great hierarchies, 
 the one heavenly, the other infernal. The 
 six leading attributes of Ahura-Mazdao were 
 personified into six great deities. One was 
 known as the "Good Mind." Another was 
 the "Highest Truth;" a third was "Wealth." 
 To the fourth was given the name of the 
 "White," or "Holy;" while the fifth and the 
 sixth were called respectively " Health " and 
 "Immortality." Then the demon Ahriman 
 was invented. He was the "Bad Mind." 
 With him were associated as councilors Indra 
 and Shiva — both from the pantheon of the 
 Brahmins. Three other personified principles 
 of evil were set in the Council of the Bad; 
 and thus the armies of the air were marshaled 
 to elevate or debase, to aid or destroy the 
 children of mankind. 
 
 The faith of the Medes was by no means 
 exclusively a religion of theoretic beliefs. 
 There was much of practical ethics in the 
 system. Human duty was clearly recognized, 
 and its doctrines inculcated both by precept 
 and law. The great cardinal principles of
 
 MEDIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 221 
 
 right living were as well defiued as by any 
 of the pagan nations. Truth in word and 
 purity in life were regarded as the foundations 
 of society. Piety towards the gods and indus- 
 try in honest endeavor were virtues without 
 which life was worthless. It is in evidence 
 that the Medes were capable of sound thought 
 on moral subjects. Every action was traced 
 to its motives and judged accordingly. Hu- 
 man conduct was weighed according to the 
 thought which produced, the word which ex- 
 pressed, and the deed which embodied it. One 
 of the most beautiful aspects of the system 
 was that which carried morality into the ordi- 
 nary pursuits of life. Sraosha expected of 
 men that they should till the soil. It was a 
 religious duty to do so. To destroy weeds 
 and brambles was well pleasing in the sight 
 of Ahura-Mazdao. To cut down thorns and 
 to speak the truth were acts the same in na- 
 ture and results. All the people were re- 
 quired to devote themselves in whole or in 
 part to the work of tillage. Ahura-Mazduo 
 expected it. Zoroaster taught it. Piety de- 
 manded it — not only this, but a filial obedience 
 to the will of the True God and reverence 
 for his holy angels. 
 
 The sacrifices of the Medes generally de- 
 manded the shedding of blood, but not the 
 blood of men. The animal most offered was 
 the horse. It was reckoned most pleasing to 
 the deities that this noble creature should 
 bleed before the altar. Oxen, sheep, and 
 goats were also oflTered up as victims. The 
 sacrifice was made by the priests. The flesh 
 was held on high and waved before the sacred 
 fire, and then the consecrated parts were 
 eaten at a solemn feast. 
 
 "How happy art thou who hast come here 
 to us from mortality to immortality!" Such 
 were the words with which the archangel, 
 Vohu-Mano, welcomed the soul of the right- 
 eous Mede into the abodes of the blest. For 
 the soul of man was deathless. The spirits 
 of the wicked and the good alike survived the 
 shock of death. When the mortal pang was 
 over the liberated soul — whatever might be 
 its moral status — traveled a long and narrow 
 path towards the unseen world. On the hither 
 side of the gate of paradise was there the 
 N.— Vol. I— 14 
 
 "Bridge of the Gatherer." Who could go 
 over it? Only the righteous. Them the angel 
 Sraosha aided with his hand and his counsel. 
 The bad fell ofl^ into the abyss. Upward to 
 the throne of Ahura-Mazduo ascended the 
 souls of the good. Before these were set the 
 delectable joys of paradise. But all the evil 
 spirits went down in outer darkness, to be 
 chilled with bitter winds and to sit at poison- 
 ous banquets. Such were heaven and hell. 
 
 It does not appear that the earlier Zoroas- 
 trians believed in the resurrection of the body. 
 At a later date, however, the doctrine was in- 
 troduced and taught by the Magi. The later 
 portions of the Zendavesta show conclusively 
 that the belief in the raising up of the dead 
 was a recognized dogma at the date of that 
 part of the INIedian bible in which the refer- 
 ences occur. The doctrine of the immortality 
 of the soul was not involved with the notion 
 of the resurrection, but existed as an earlier 
 belief fundamental to the faith of the Medes. 
 
 The myths of Media were many and inter- 
 esting. One of the most important was that 
 relating to the origin and primitive state of 
 man. The early condition of the human race 
 was one of happiness. It was an Age of 
 Gold. The people were ruled by King Yima. 
 It was a land of sunsiiine and peace. Sum- 
 mer reigned; the vine flourished; blossoms 
 filled the air. For a long time a contented 
 and flourishing race honored their good king 
 and lived without sorrow. By and by the 
 aspect of nature changed. Winter came. The 
 beauty of the world was destroyed by bitter 
 frosts. Then King Yima and his people re- 
 moved to another country more delightful 
 than the first. In this land, according to the 
 Vendidad, there was "neither overbearing nor 
 mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor vio- 
 lence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither pu- 
 niuess nor deformity, neither Imge teeth nor 
 bodies beyond the usual measure." Whether 
 of the flowers of the gardens, the fruits of the 
 fields, or the cattle upon the hills, no other 
 land was so beautiful and good as this second 
 home of the primitive Aryans. It was the 
 golden epoch, which the patriotic imagination 
 of the poets has ever depicted as the first and 
 most glorious state of the human race.
 
 222 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The second great mythical hero of the 
 Medes was Thr^tona. He was the Bactriau 
 Beowulf-^the slayer of dragons and extermi- 
 nator of monsters. By him was slain the 
 great devil Zohak, a mighty dragon, having 
 " three mo'iths, three tails, six eyes, and a 
 thousand scaly rings," and who had his lair in 
 the frozen peaks of the Elburz. A second 
 myth gave an account of another dragon more 
 ambitious and terrible than Zohak. The name 
 of this second monster was Cnavidhaka. He 
 boasted that he would convert the Avhole sky 
 into a chariot, and that he would harness, to- 
 gether Ahura-Mazdao and Ahriman and drive 
 them as his horses through the heavens. Such a 
 disgrace to the hierarchies, good and bad, was 
 not to be tolerated or thought of. A third 
 hero appeared on the sceuei the inheritor of 
 the renown of Yima, called Keresasha. He 
 slew the boastful dragon and gave peace to 
 earth and sky. 
 
 These traditions of the ancient Medes give 
 a tolerably adequate notion of the current and 
 sweep of their myth-miikiug powers and cre- 
 ative imagination. It is especially interesting 
 to note that their legends are of the same 
 general character as those presented in the 
 poems of the Greeks and Romans — that is, 
 heroic. Carrying the analogy further, it is 
 easily discoverable that the traditions of the 
 Teutonic nations of Northern Europe belong- 
 to the same epic catalogue of stories with 
 those of the Persian plain and Indus Valley. 
 Keresaspa, Achilles, ^Eneas, Beowulf, Coeur 
 <le Lion — they are all one in nature — all men 
 rising by heroic exploits to the rank and fame 
 of demigods. And this is another proof and 
 illustration of the common origin and race 
 affinities of all the Aryan families and tribes. 
 
 Thus it may be seen that the religion of 
 the Msdes, beginning with a tolerably distinct 
 expression of monotheism and with peculiarly 
 spiritual forms of worship, degenerated to a 
 certain extent into that dualistic folly which 
 makes the world to be warred for by conflict- 
 ing principles of good and evil. The latter 
 system embraced hierarchies of angels, and 
 finally personified the adverse forces of nature 
 into demons of high and low estate. 
 
 iJ^ v^t remains to mention a third form of 
 
 religious faith ado]3ted by the Iranic nations, 
 and afterwards made famous in the litera- 
 ture of the West. This is the celebrated 
 system of Magism. As the Medes in their 
 epoch of power pressed their way to the west 
 and north they came into contact with the 
 Scythian tribes of Armenia and Kurdistan. 
 In these mountainous regions was the seat of 
 the Magian system. Here the fire-temples 
 were built, of which not a few still stand as 
 mute witnesses of one of the strangest aspects 
 of the religious beliefs of mankind. The faith 
 of the Magi can hardly be classified with any 
 other ever accepted and taught by men. It 
 made the elements of nature the direct objects 
 of worship. It was not that some power pre- 
 sided over those elements that might be rever- 
 enced and adored, but the physical fact was 
 itself the thing w^orshiped as divine. The 
 elements of nature were four: fire, water, 
 earth, and air. Of these the first was the 
 most energetic and sublime. The consuming 
 flame was the highest manifestation of the 
 divine presence. Before this beautiful phe- 
 nomenon in whose rapturous embrace the ma- 
 terials of the world melted into ashes, the 
 awed worshiper stood in silent adoration. So 
 the pi'iest built an altar, and the sacred fire 
 caught from heaven, was kindled and kej)t 
 burning always. The priest was the Holy 
 ]\Iagus. No other might attend the altars or 
 conduct the mystic rites. Through him only 
 might the common worshiper approach the 
 divine presence and be reconciled by prayer 
 and sacrifice. The sacred emblem, flaming ou 
 the altar, inspired the profoundest awe and 
 reverence. No breath of any mortal might 
 be blown upon it without pollution. The 
 burning of dead bodies was a horrid profana- 
 tion. Of the sacrificial offerings only a frag- 
 ment of fat was given to the flame. 
 
 The Water was also sacred. The swift-flow- 
 ing river or placid lake was defiled with any un- 
 clean touch of man. No drop of blood might 
 mingle with the wave, and the laving of hu- 
 man hands left behind the stains of sin. In 
 like manner the bosom ci Earth was holy. 
 To profane the sacred soil was solemnly inter- 
 dicted. No corpse might repose therein, nor 
 any draff be thrown upon the divine ground.
 
 MEDIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 223 
 
 Likewise was the Air adored and propitiated 
 with offerings. 
 
 All the ceremonial of the Magian faith 
 was conducted by the priests. The sons of 
 Levi had not more exclusive jurisdiction over 
 the altars of Israel than did the Magi over 
 those on which were kindled the sacred fires 
 of the East. Nor was the Magus himself 
 unlike the Levitical priest. In person and 
 apparel the two impressed the beholder as be- 
 longing to the same class of hierarchs. Both 
 were members of a caste. Both inherited the 
 priestly office from their fathers. Both exhib- 
 ited a lofty manner and solemn air caught 
 from the severe and lofty conceptions of their 
 respective systems. The Magus wore a white 
 robe and a stately miter, from which, on either 
 side, depended a lappet, whereby the sides of 
 the face were concealed. He bore in his hand 
 a bundle of tamarisk twigs — the sacred em- 
 blem of his sacerdotal and prophetical office. 
 By him thus clad and exalted in the eyes of 
 the multitude the sacrifices were prepared and 
 offered, and the libations of milk and honey 
 poured forth before the fires of the altar. For 
 hours together he chanted hymns and uttered 
 mystical incantations. Before him even the 
 king and the noble stood with humble tokens 
 of reverence, while the common worshiper 
 looked up awe-struck and trembling. 
 
 A strange practical question in the jMedian 
 system of belief was the post-mortem disposition 
 of human bodies. The dead might not be 
 burned, for by that method the sacred fire 
 would be defiled. Nor might a corpse be 
 buried in the ground or consigned to the 
 river, for in that case the one or the other of 
 the elements would be polluted. Likewise to 
 leave the body to be gradually resolved by 
 the slow action of the atmosphere was a pro- 
 fanation of the fourth great object of worship. 
 The last, however, seemed to be the least ap- 
 palling profanation of the sacred elements, 
 and was accordingly sometimes adopted. But 
 a more general way was to expose the dead to 
 be devoured by beasts and birds of prey ; and 
 this method is still followed by the Guebres 
 of Persia and India. Round towers, called 
 the Towers of Silence, and built according to 
 a pattern prescribed in the Zendavesta, are I 
 
 erected at various points, and on the tops of 
 these circular towers, doorless and windowless, 
 are set a kind of hoppers constructed of iron 
 grates. Into these the bodies of the dead are 
 thrown, and when the vultures and crows 
 have stripped the skeleton bare and torn 
 away the tendons, the bones drop through 
 the grating into the inclosed space of the 
 tower. The revolting features of this method, 
 however, prevented its universal adoption at 
 any period of Median history. As a kind of 
 compromise between the humanity of the peo- 
 ple and the rigor of the priests another plan 
 was substituted, which consisted in covering 
 the bodies of the dead with a layer of wax, 
 so as to prevent contact with, and conse- 
 quent defilement of, the earth. 
 
 The Magi claimed to have the gift of divi- 
 nation and prophecy. The bundle of tamarisk 
 rods which they bore about with them was 
 the symbol and means of their prophetic pow- 
 ers. The superstition of a divining agency in 
 the rods seems to have been imbibed from the 
 Scythians, whose priests used bunches of wil- 
 low wands in ascertaining the things of the 
 future.^ The soothsayer was a popular char- 
 acter and was much sought after, as he ever 
 has been and ever will be, until, in the slow 
 evolution of civilization, the ignorant mul- 
 titudes shall come to understand that the 
 universe is governed by law. 
 
 Practically considered, the most valuable 
 part of the Magian profession was that in 
 which the priests were engaged in insecticide. 
 The bad animals, the bad reptiles, the bad 
 bugs, — were not all these the work of Ahri- 
 man ? So the Magus carried with him an in- 
 strument for the extermination of all the 
 dragon's brood of small pests in the earth. 
 It Avas made a religious duty resting upon the 
 priests to impale and destroy what creeping 
 thing soever caught his eye. Albeit, by the 
 
 * There is little doubt that the absurd water 
 witchery of modern times is traceable to this far- 
 off origin. The water witch of to-day is a lineal 
 descendant of the Scythian Magus. The forked 
 switch of witch-hazel has taken the place of the 
 rod of tamarisk, and the frontier conjurer traverses 
 the ground with the same serious face of perfect 
 self-deception which the priest of Media wore a 
 thousand years before the birth of Csesar.
 
 224 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 roadside, the river bank, the mouldering wall 
 of palace or town, the Magi sat all day long 
 in a ceaseless warfare with snakes and mice 
 and lizards. Nor frog, nor worm, nor fly 
 escaped the vigilant cruelty and inspired ha- 
 tred of the zealous hierarch of the fire-altars. 
 Such were the principles and practices of 
 Magism — the fire-worship of the Medo-Bactrian 
 nations. It was a picturesque rather than a 
 powerful type of religion. To see the white- 
 robed and mitered priests on the mountain- 
 
 top, passing to and fro in solemn service 
 before the altars on which were kindled the 
 ever-burning fires, to hear them chanting 
 weird hymns and uttering vague and awful 
 prophecies, might well incite in an unscientific 
 and half-barbarous age emotions of sublimity 
 and fear — sentiments of awe and devotion. 
 But the old spiritual power of the Zoroastrian 
 faith could hardly be compared in its in- 
 fluence over life and conduct with the more 
 showy formality of the Magian ceremoniaL 
 
 Chapter, xviil.— CiviIv and ivtiLiXARY Annals. 
 
 HETHER the Madai, 
 mentioned in the tenth 
 chapter of Genesis as con- 
 stituting a branch of the 
 Ja^^hetic family, meant 
 the race of the Medes, is 
 a question not easily re- 
 solved. The supposition, if allowed, would 
 indicate for that race an antiquity much 
 greater than can be deduced from the Assyr- 
 ian records. In favor of this hypothesis of 
 great antiquity may be mentioned the fact 
 that elsewhere in the Old Testament the word 
 Madai always signifies the Medes, and also the 
 additional fact that Berosus succinctly declares 
 that one of the earliest Chaldeean dynasties, 
 long before the rise of the Assyrian Empire, 
 was Median. The narrative states that this 
 Median line of mouarchs in Lower IMesopo- 
 tamia resulted from a conquest made by the 
 warlike race dwelling beyond the Zagros. 
 This statement, made by the native his- 
 torian of Chaldsea, carries double weight, in 
 that it involves a humiliating subjugation of 
 his own people by foreign armies — a state- 
 ment which, unless it were true, would be 
 forbidden by patriotism. The references by 
 Berosus and the author of Genesis seem to 
 point to the Medes as one of the primitive 
 races of mankind, appearing on the horizon 
 at a date as remote as two thousand years be- 
 fore the common era. 
 
 From these faint gleams of historic light 
 
 no more can be said than that the Medes 
 were a very ancient people. Of their career 
 in peace and war at that remote epoch noth- 
 ing whatever is known. Veiled they are in 
 the same impenetrable obscurity which dark- 
 ens the beginnings of all human history. 
 Negatively, the Zendavesta shows that at the 
 date of the composition of that Iranic bible 
 (about B. C. 1000) the Median race had not 
 yet begun to be felt in the affairs of nations. 
 Not until a century and a half after this date 
 do the Medes actually emerge into the clear 
 day of national life and activity. Before this 
 time it can be said only with approximate 
 certainty that this people had made a conquest 
 in Chaldsea and established over that country 
 a line of kings. 
 
 The actual annals of Media, then, begin 
 with the latter half of the ninth century before 
 the Christian era. At this time Shalmaneser 
 II. was king of Assyria. This monarch, ac- 
 cording to the records of his reign, made war 
 into the country beyond the Zagros mount- 
 ains, and while on one of his campaigns came 
 in contact with the Medes. A portion of the 
 territory of this people was devastated ; but 
 the Assyrian records do not indicate such re- 
 sistance on the part of the Medes as would be 
 expected from a great or vigorous nation. 
 The war, on the contrary, seems to have been 
 such as a powerful monarch would wage with 
 scattered and badly organized tribes. 
 
 After the death of Shalmaneser and the
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AXD MILITARY ANXALS. 
 
 225 
 
 accession of his son, Shamas-Vul, a second 
 Assyrian invasion of Media occurred. The 
 offense of the Medes seems to have been 
 merely the manifestation of a belligerent 
 spirit. For this potentiality of war their 
 country was again ravaged until Shamas-Vul 
 and his array were satisfied, and returned 
 through the mountain passes to Nineveh. It 
 was in this hard school of destructive incur- 
 sions that the Medes were taught their first 
 lessons in resistance and revenge. 
 
 Assyria was now in the heyday of her 
 power. To save themselves and their country 
 from further depredation the Medes adopted 
 the expedient of tribute. As the price of 
 peace they agreed to pay an annual stipend. 
 This policy was adopted in the reign of Vul- 
 Lush III., about the close of the ninth cent- 
 urv B. C During the following one hundred 
 years the !Medes became more compact and 
 populous. They lay like a cloud along the 
 eastern horizon of Assyria. Doubtless the 
 tribute had been paid only by those western 
 tribes who had felt more than once the venge- 
 ance of the Ninevite kings. The tribes to the 
 east had remained comparatively free from 
 foreign domination. 
 
 In the meantime a growth of nationality 
 had fired the spirit of the Medes, and the 
 presence of that spirit gave the Assyrians 
 warning that actual subjugation was necessary 
 to the maintenance of their authority beyond 
 the mountains. So Sargon the Great, in the 
 year B. C. 710, determined to subdue the 
 oountry and annex it to his dominions. 
 Armies were marched through the mountain 
 passes. Military posts were established and 
 filled with soldiers. Whole colonies of Medes 
 were deported into Assyria, and their places 
 were supplied either with Assyrians or with 
 captive bands of Samaritans, whom the mon- 
 arch had recently brought home from his 
 Western campaigns. IMedia was reorganized 
 as a province of the Empire, and the tribute 
 was systematically enforced, a part of the an- 
 nual tax being a levy of horses for the stables 
 of the king and for the captains of his armies. 
 
 The date of this subjugation of Media by 
 Sargon corresponds almost exactly with the 
 reign of the half-fabulous king Deioces, who. 
 
 according to Herodotus, became monarch of 
 the Medes in B. C. 708. The account long 
 received as true from the old Greek historian 
 is now known to have no foundation in fact. 
 On the contrary, at the very time assigned by 
 Herodotus for the successful revolt of Media, 
 under the leadership of Deioces, Sargon's 
 armies were wasting the country and destroy- 
 ing its independence; and for sixty years 
 after this event no serious insurrection oc- 
 curred on the part of the subject people. 
 
 During this period the domination of As- 
 syria was extended eastward to the Elburz and 
 to the north-west into Azerbijan. AVanton ex- 
 l^editions were made through the country both 
 by Sennacherib and his son, Esarhaddon, and 
 towns and cities on the remotest confines of 
 ISIedia were either destroyed or made tribu- 
 tary. Occasionally some nomadic chief, hov- 
 ering with his lawless bands on the outskirts 
 of the Empire, was seized and carried away 
 as a curious spectacle for the gaze of the 
 Ninevites. Such examples acted in terrorem, 
 and the peace of the borders ceased to be 
 disturbed. 
 
 About the middle of the seventh century 
 B. C, we reach the solid ground in Median 
 history. From the year 875 to 660 B. C, is 
 the epoch of myth and fable. Soon after the 
 latter date the great Cyaxakes appeared on 
 the scene, and his coming heralded a com- 
 plete change in the condition of the countries 
 beyond the Zagros. The beginning of this 
 change was precipitated by the incursion of 
 new Aryan tribes from the direction of Bac- 
 tria. The incursionists were Avelcomed by 
 their kinsmen, the Medes, who at heart de- 
 tested the Assyrian power, and were but too 
 glad to find in an augmented and fresh popu- 
 lation both the occasion and the material of 
 revolt. 
 
 Cyaxares placed himself, as by natural 
 selection, at the head of this malcontent host 
 of his countrymen, and the power of Assyria 
 was soon overthrown as far west as the mount- 
 ains. The Scythian tribes still infesting this 
 border country were reduced to submission, 
 and the able and fearless Cyaxares set about 
 the organization of an independent kingdom. 
 Making his head-quarters and capital close to
 
 226 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the Zagros chain, he not only proved himself 
 equal to the task of keeping the Assyrians at 
 bay, but soon began to cast longing eyes 
 through the mountain jiasses at the luxurious 
 plains about Nineveh. 
 
 The political condition of Assyria was at 
 this time of such sort as to invite invasion. 
 Asshur-Bani-Pal, now in the thirty-fourth year 
 of his reign, was, if not already in his dotage, 
 less vigilant than in his youth. Perhaps there 
 was mixed with the general lethargy a certain 
 contempt of danger; for when had the big- 
 muscled soldiers of Assyria had cause to fear 
 an enemy? Nevertheless, an enemy was at 
 the gate. Cyaxares, at the head of a large, 
 courageous, but poorly disciplined army, 
 poured through the mountains, and the As- 
 syrian king was suddenly confronted with a 
 host that could no longer be despised. But 
 the aged monarch proved equal to the emer- 
 gency. At the head of his army he met the 
 Medes in the province of Adiabene. A severe 
 battle was fought, in which the old-time j^row- 
 ess of Assyria triumphed over the naked cour- 
 age of the mountain soldiery of Media. The 
 army of Cyaxares was terribly routed, and 
 fell back pell-mell through the passes of the 
 Zagros. The king's father, Phraortes, who, 
 before his son's accession, had been in some 
 sort king of the Medes, was slain in the battle. 
 
 The disaster was to have been expected. 
 The Median army was a melange of half-bar- 
 barians. What could they do against the war 
 chariots of Nineveh ? Nothing but be mowed 
 down like a harvest. Cyaxares was quick to 
 take in the situation. He saw that his defeat 
 was directly chargeable to the constitution of 
 his forces. Every chief had come at the head 
 of his own clan, armed according to the rude 
 resources of his province. Horse and foot 
 were mingled. Bows and arrows, and spears, 
 and slings, and darts made a medley of impo- 
 tent weaponry. The king would remedy this 
 condition of affairs, and by breaking up and 
 reforming these heterogeneous bands of war- 
 riors, would marshal forth an army. It was 
 not long till the vigorous spirit of the mon- 
 arch had pervaded and fired both soldiers and 
 people. Discipline flashed along the ranks, 
 and the sting of recent defeat kindled the 
 
 anger of revenge. As soon as his mixed host 
 of Medes and Scythians was brought into 
 proper subordination, the king again set his 
 face towards Assyria. 
 
 There was now an orderly invasion. Asshur- 
 Bani-Pal took the field as before. The two 
 armies met a short distance from Nineveh. 
 The Assyrians were borne down before the 
 new foe from the mountains, and were driven, 
 after a decisive battle, behind the ramparts 
 of the capital. Hard after them came the 
 avenging Medes. A siege was begun, but be- 
 fore it had progressed to the extent of endan- 
 gering the city, the attention of Cyaxares was 
 suddenly recalled by a crisis in the affairs of 
 his own country. 
 
 It was the Scythians. As already said the 
 southernmost tribes of this barbaric race had 
 been easily subdued by the Medes. The two 
 peoples south of the Caucasus had to some 
 extent mingled together. A part of the army 
 of Cyaxares was Scythic. But the great body 
 of trans-Caucasian Scyths had felt only so 
 much of this Median ascendency as to excite 
 resentment. The hostile feelings of the north 
 gathered head. While Cyaxares was still en- 
 gaged with the Assyrians beyond the Zagros 
 the Scythic host poured down into Azerbijan 
 and headed for Ecbatana. But Cyaxares 
 hastily returning from Nineveh confronted 
 them and prepared for battle. A savage con- 
 flict ensued, in which the reckless audacity of 
 the Scythians proved more than a match for 
 the disciplined forces of the Medes. Cyax- 
 ares was defeated, and he and his subjects 
 were compelled to seek refuge in the walled 
 towns and to sue for peace. Madys, the 
 Scythic leader, dictated terms, which were 
 less severe than might have been expected 
 from a barbaric chieftain victorious in battle. 
 An annual stipend was imposed after the man- 
 ner of civilized states, and Cyaxares was al- 
 lowed to retain his crown, tributary to his 
 conqueror. Doubtless the easy terms imposed 
 by the triumphant barbarians was due to the 
 fact that their incursion arose rather from the 
 inspiration of the plunder than the lust of 
 conquest. Albeit, the character of Media as 
 a cold and upland region, with little accumu- 
 lated wealth, was not such as to entice or long
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 227 
 
 retain a horde of the hungry and omnivorous 
 beasts from beyond the Caucasus. The low- 
 lying plains of the south-west, rich in fields 
 of pulse and vineyards, were better calculated 
 to appease the unappeasable maws of such 
 savages. 
 
 The condition was now that of foreign 
 domination and terrorism. The Scythians 
 after their manner pitched their tents here 
 and there over the country. Their flocks and 
 herds were pastured on the lands of the sub- 
 ject Medes, who with mixed feelings of hatred 
 and fear found themselves unable to thwart 
 or stay the fierce wills of the barbaric leeches 
 that had fastened on the veins of their coun- 
 try. In such a situation energy and industry 
 were at a discount. The more a district was 
 cultivated the more it was ravaged. The less 
 cultivated parts fared better. The roving 
 habits of the oppressors carried them from 
 one region to another. The walled town was 
 about the only refuge for the galled and des- 
 perate Medes, who were afraid to offer resist- 
 ance either by stratagem or open revolt. 
 
 For some years the reign of terror continued 
 until the Scyths by dispersion into various 
 provinces became less of a scourge — less im- 
 minently dangerous to the subject people. 
 By and by the invaders filed off in large num- 
 bers into Assyria, Babylonia, and Pa]fstiue, 
 renewing their ravages everywhere to the very 
 gates of Egypt. Many bands remained under 
 their chiefs in ISIedia, but the native subjects 
 of Cyaxares began to breathe more easily, 
 and their long smothered wrath rose in pro- 
 portion as the danger disappeared. In this 
 juncture of afl^airs the king himself deter- 
 jiMued to set the example of revenge and de- 
 si! action. 
 
 Cyaxares made a feast. Treachery was 
 mixed in the cups. The appetite of the 
 Scythians became the means of their ruin 
 and overthrow. The invited chiefs were plied 
 with drink until they lay stupid, whereupon 
 the hidden bands of armed Medes broke into 
 the banquet hall, and slew them all without 
 mercy. The sound of the murderous work 
 was heard beyond the palace, and a popular 
 fury broke out against the savage oppressors 
 of the land. The incensed people took up 
 
 what weapons soever they could, and hewed 
 right and left in a war of extermination. No 
 records have been preserved of the struggle. 
 It is known only that the Scythians were 
 completely overwhelmed. Those who escaped 
 the avenger's hand were driven through the 
 passes of the Caucasus into their native 
 haunts. So complete was the overthrow that 
 scarcely a trace of the foreign domination 
 remained in the country which the barbarians 
 had held and ravaged for a period of years. 
 
 As soon as the Scythians had ceased to be 
 a terror, the Medes renewed their project of 
 invading Assyria. That great Empire had 
 fallen into decrepitude. Saracus, the reigning 
 monarch, was an unworthy successor of those 
 mighty kings who for centuries had dominated 
 the better parts of Western Asia. The out- 
 skirts of the kingdom lay open and invited 
 attack. The resources at the command of 
 Saracus were as little adequate to supply the 
 means of resistance as Avas the king capable 
 of hurling back an invader. As soon as Cy- 
 axares could muster and discipline his forces, 
 he entered with renewed energy upon the 
 cherished plan of Assyrian subjugation. 
 
 At this time the viceroyalty of Chaldsea, 
 which had been a dependency of Assyria for 
 more than a half century, had recovered in 
 some measure the influence and renown of 
 her pristine era. The Assyrian yoke, though 
 not especially galling, was nevertheless a — 
 yoke. No insurrections had occurred; but 
 with the decadence of Assyria the elements 
 centering at Babylon were rife for mischief. 
 In this condition of aflairs the Median inva- 
 sion, led by Cyaxares in person, was precipi- 
 tated. Before beginning his campaign, how- 
 ever, the king of the Medes took the 
 precaution to test the loyalty of the Baby- 
 lonian viceroy. That notable was in no mood 
 to be virtuous, and readily yielded to the 
 overtures of the Median king. It was ar- 
 ranged that an army of revolting Babylonians 
 should march up the Tigris simultaneously 
 with the approach of Cyaxares from the east. 
 The Assyrians would thus be struck in flank 
 and front, and the capital would stagger under 
 the blow. 
 
 IMonn while Saracus was informed of the
 
 228 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY. — THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 conspiracy. His weakness was spurred by 
 alarm into such activity as his effete adminis- 
 tration was capable of exhibiting. As the 
 best expedient he divided his forces, sending 
 one army down the river to resist the ap- 
 proaching Babylonians, while the main divi- 
 sion under his own command was directed 
 eastward to confront Cyaxares. Nabopolassar, 
 the Babylonian governor, had in the mean 
 time fallen without reserve into the arms of 
 the Medes. He had been astute enough to 
 discover at once the waning star of Assyria 
 and the coming Median ascendency. He also 
 saw the advantages of his position, and espe- 
 cially his opportunity to set a high price upon 
 his defection from Assyria. He accordingly 
 proposed to Cyaxares, in answer to the over- 
 tures of the latter, that the conditions of his 
 betrayal of his sovereign should be an alliance 
 of fortunes between Media and Babylonia; 
 that he himself should continue ruler of the 
 latter country; and that Cyaxares, as an 
 earnest of good faith, should give his daugh- 
 ter Amyitis to be the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 son of Nabopolassar, and heir of the Babylo- 
 nian viceroyalty. To these conditions Cyax- 
 ares at once assented, and the double march 
 on Nineveh began. 
 
 The campaign that followed was one of 
 battles and vicissitudes. The combined army 
 of Medes and Babylonians was met on the 
 advance, and twice defeated by the aroused 
 hosts of Assyria. Cyaxares fell back into the 
 mountains, only to come again, and again 
 suffer defeat. He and his ally then retreated 
 into Babylonia, and were reinforced by fresh 
 contingents from Media. A third advance 
 was made. The Assyrian camp Avas surprised 
 by night and ruinously routed. The broken 
 fragments rolled back into Nineveh, and the 
 victorious invaders advanced to the siege. 
 
 Once within the walls, the Assyrians felt 
 secure, for, in expectancy of such a disaster, 
 the city had been garrisoned and supplied 
 with provisions and stores. For more than 
 two years the awkward but dauntless besieg- 
 ers beat around the invested capital. It was 
 naked ferocity attacking a rock. But by and 
 by Nature joined the conspiracy. With the 
 rainy season of the third year the Tigris rose 
 
 bank full, and threatened to do what the 
 clumsy enginery of Media seemed impotent 
 to accomplish. The turbid tide rolled higher, 
 beat the city bastions, and finally swept away 
 the walls and let in the wolves of conquest. 
 Saracus — such is the tradition of the event — 
 shrank into his palace, heaped up the antique 
 splendors of his ancestors, mounted the pile 
 with his wives and concubines, and perished 
 in the flames. 
 
 Such was the fall of Nineveh and of the 
 great Assyrian Empire. The collapse was 
 complete. It only remained for Cyaxares 
 and Nabopolassar to make such use of their 
 victory as should secure the vast harvest of 
 conquest. It seems that both the Median 
 monarch and his ally were in a faith-keeping 
 mood in the presence of their success. Instead 
 of quarreling about the spoils of war they 
 agreed to remain on terms of amity and divide 
 the world between them. A division was ac- 
 cordingly made. Nabopolassar received Bab- 
 ylonia, Susiana, Chaldsea, and the whole val- 
 ley of the Lower Euphrates spreading out 
 towards Arabia and Egypt on the south-west. 
 This the quondam viceroy and now king at 
 once proceeded to organize into the kingdom 
 of Babylonia — a power which will furnish the 
 subject-matter of the following Book. 
 
 Cyaxares himself took what had constituted 
 the Assyrian Emj)ire proper, embracing all 
 the northern portion of Mesopotamia and the 
 provinces thereunto adjacent. This vast and 
 important region, added to his own kingdom 
 of Media, gave, not only territorially, but also 
 as it respects population and resources, suffi- 
 cient scope for the exercise of all the energies 
 and ambitions of the victorious monarch. 
 Thus out of the wreck of Assyria arose two 
 separate and independent empires. Media on 
 the east, and Babylonia on the south and 
 west. And contrary to the natural expect- 
 ancy excited by such a beginning, the two 
 powers, instead of broils and war, continued to 
 cultivate the friendliest relations. 
 
 Cyaxares had conquered Nineveh, but had 
 not conquered a peace. The elements of hos- 
 tility were active in his dominions. The Scyth- 
 ians who had been thrown off from his own 
 kingdom of Media were aggregated in bands
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 229 
 
 iu vuj-ious parts, and were led to depredations 
 by chiefs of greater or less ability and ambi- 
 tion. Besides, the northern provinces of As- 
 syria, long time restless under the oppressions 
 of the Ninevite kings, sought eagerly in the 
 downfall of Saracus an occasion and opportu- 
 nity ot revolt. Doubtless Cyaxares himself 
 had grown warlike, and was not displeased at 
 the hostile turbulence which promised further 
 gratification to his ambition. He accordingly 
 entered upon a career of conquest which ex- 
 tended, through many vicissitudes of victory 
 and defeat, over a period of more than ten 
 years. 
 
 The general excuse for the wars which 
 followed was that common foe of the times — 
 the Scyths. To pursue these barbarians into 
 what territories soever they might have in- 
 vaded was claimed as a just measure of re- 
 venge on the part of Cyaxares. Albeit, in 
 many instances the Median king was hailed, 
 even at the head of a consuming army, as a 
 deliverer from the scourge of Asia. But in 
 those provinces and countries in which the 
 inhabitants were of Turanian origin, and there- 
 fore of nomadic habits, the people frequently 
 made common cause with the Scyths in the 
 attempt to beat back the more civilized ad- 
 vance of Cyaxares and the Medes. 
 
 The two countries against which the arms 
 of the Median king were first directed were 
 Armenia and Cappadocia. These vast districts, 
 half-organized out of barbarism, were still in- 
 habited by native tribes, together with large 
 numbers of invaders precipitated from various 
 regions. Some of these belonged to the Tu- 
 ranian race; others were Aryans; many were 
 Scyths — a wavering mass of savages and 
 robbers. 
 
 The first of these two countries had been a 
 nominal dependency of Assyria. The Arme- 
 nians had borne the yoke and waited their 
 opportunity. The high mountains and im- 
 penetrable fastnesses of the region gave a nat- 
 ural barrier to invasion, but the will of Cyax- 
 ares surmounted the ramparts of nature and 
 the Armenians were subdued in a vigorous 
 campaign. Cappadocia lay still more remote, 
 but the Mede paused not until not only this 
 country but also the far-off tribes of Colchians, 
 
 Iberians, and Moschi were brought into sub- 
 jection. By these conquests the borders of 
 the Median Empire were extended on the 
 north to the Caucasus, and on the west to 
 the river Halys. It does not appear that the 
 campaigns were bitterly waged or long con- 
 tinued. The races with whom Cyaxares con- 
 tended were accustomed to mastery by some 
 military power, and that of the king of the 
 Medes was not moi*e odious than had been 
 the domination of the Assyrians. 
 
 More important by far was the next cam- 
 paign of Cyaxares, directed against the king- 
 dom of Lydia. To enter this country he 
 must cross the Halys — the Rubicon of Asia 
 Minor. The pretext for doing so was the 
 pursuit of the Scythians; but the Lydians 
 readily divined the real motive and made prep- 
 arations for resistance. A league was formed 
 among the princes of Asia Minor to oppose 
 the further progress of the Medes to the west. 
 
 These formidable preparations rather incited 
 than cooled the purpose of Cyaxares. He 
 summoned the Babylonians to his aid, and 
 gathered from various provinces contingents 
 of troops and provisions. With a great army 
 he marched westward, and began the invasion 
 of Lydia. He found in Alyattes, king of 
 that country, a foeman worthy of his steel. 
 It was no longer a campaign against semi- 
 savages, but a regular military combat between 
 opposing armies. Success varied from side to 
 side. Several hard battles were fought, and 
 in more than half of the conflicts the Lydians 
 were victorious. In one instance a general 
 and hotly contested engagement took place 
 in the 7ught. For six years the war continued, 
 until at last superstition ended what the lust 
 of conquest had begun. In the midst of a 
 hard fought battle, while the heated combat- 
 ants were absorbed in the work of death, a 
 mysterious shadow crept over the face of Na- 
 ture. The sunlight grew dim and cold in the 
 dust of battle. A solar eclipse (B. C. 610) 
 was hanging an ominous curtain over the 
 heavens. A sudden awe fell on the armies; 
 then silence; and then, as the darkness deep- 
 ened, horror and quaking. An unscientific 
 age fears not man but the gods. 
 
 The battle was at an end. Nabopolassar
 
 230 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of Babylon, on the part of the Median mon- 
 arch, and Syennesis, king of Cilicia, on the 
 part of the Lydian allies, came forward on 
 the field and made mutual proposals of peace. 
 The threatening heavens made the negotia- 
 tions easy. It was agreed to end the war on 
 the spot. The Scythians were forgotten. The 
 dominions of Alyattes were to be left intact by 
 his friend, the king of the Medes. All things 
 were to be as they were before, and some 
 things better. For the two amiable sovereigns 
 ratified the compact by marrying Aryenis, the 
 daughter of the Lydian king, to the young 
 Astyages, son and heir of Cyaxares. And to 
 make all things sure, each of the kings punc- 
 tured his arm and gave the bleeding wound 
 to the lips of the other. Each of the friends 
 drew the life of the other from the wound. 
 Alas, for the deeds of the past. 
 
 It is proper in this connection to give some 
 account of the previous history of the coun- 
 try with which the Medes were thus brought 
 into contact. The kingdom of Lydia was one 
 of the most ancient of all Asia Minor. Tra- 
 dition pointed to an origin at least seven 
 hundred years before the time of Cyaxares. 
 Three dynasties of kings had ruled the nation, 
 the Atyadse, the Heraclidse, and the Merm- 
 nadoe. Of the first house there had been 
 four kings; of the second, twenty -two; of the 
 third, four — thirty recorded reigns, besides 
 several conjectural. The most ancient name 
 of the country was Mseonia, and the people 
 were called Mseonians ; but under Lydus, the 
 second of the Atyad kings, the name was 
 changed in his own honor to Lydia. 
 
 The Lydian legends were full of great 
 pretensions. One tradition recited that both 
 Belus and Ninus — the mythical founders of 
 Babylon and Nineveh — were Lydian princes 
 sent forth to establish kingdoms in Mesopota- 
 mia. Colonies had been planted — so said the 
 myths — in the remotest parts of the world. 
 Such an origin was claimed for the Etruscans 
 of Italy, and for other primitive states of the 
 west of Europe. A Lydian general, named 
 Ascalus, had led an army to the extreme 
 south-west, and built the city of Ascalon in 
 Syria. 
 
 The more authentic annals of Lydia go 
 
 back to about the beginning of the ninth cent- 
 ury B. C. It is probable that the two dynas- 
 ties, the Heraclidse and the Mermnadse, were 
 difierent branches of the same house. So 
 much is indicated by the feuds between them 
 and by the common names occurring in both 
 lists of kings. The later Heraclide monarchs 
 had treated the princes of the Mermnadse with 
 injustice, born of distrust and jealousy ; and 
 this wrong grew to such proportions that the 
 Mermnads were obliged to seek safety in exile. 
 Their partisans, however, maintained their 
 cause, and anon the banished leaders re- 
 turned, put the Heraclide king to death, and 
 established their own chief, named Gyges, on 
 the throne of Lydia. This revolution, occur- 
 ring in the beginning of the eighth century, 
 marked the commencement of a new era of 
 vigor and prosperity of the kingdom. It was 
 from this time that the wealth of Lydia became 
 proverbial throughout the known world. Gy- 
 ges himself was one of the richest rulers of 
 his epoch. Magnificent gifts were sent by him 
 to the oracle of Delphi, in Greece. Sardis, 
 his capital, was a rich and luxurious city, and 
 in both art and commerce his kingdom had 
 great fame. Nor was his reputation less war- 
 like than that of his predecessors. He ad- 
 vanced his arms to the ^gean, thus coming 
 into conflict with the Greek colonists of Asia 
 Minor, most of whom he subdued and made 
 tributary to his kingdom. All the western 
 coasts looking out towards the Mediterranean 
 felt his power and acknowledged his greatness. 
 The kingdom of Lydia was not free from 
 the common calamity of the times. The trans- 
 Caucasian barbarians were not likely to over- 
 look a field so promising in plunder. From 
 this direction came the fierce Cimmerians, 
 spreading terror and ruin through the coun- 
 try. Gyges, having first sought and obtained 
 the help of the Assyrians, gave battle to the 
 invaders, and inflicted a decisive blow. Of 
 the routed Cimmerians many were killed and 
 many taken prisoners, of whom not a few 
 were sent as a present to Asshur-Bani-Pal at 
 Nineveh. In a second war with the same rude 
 and turbulent race fortune completely forsook 
 the banners of the king. He himself was slain 
 in a great battle, and the people and soldiery
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 231 
 
 were obliged to seek refuge in the walled 
 towns. Fascinated by the fabulous wealth of 
 Sardis, the barbarians besieged the city, and 
 after a long investment, succeeded in break- 
 ing in and reducing every thing to ruin. 
 Only the citadel held out against the venge- 
 ance of the furious men of the North. 
 
 A period of prostration followed this over- 
 throw. The Asiatic Greeks dependent on 
 Lydia recovered their freedom. The emanci- 
 pation of the coast cities, however, was but 
 of brief duration, for in the next reign after 
 that of Gyges the Lydians had already suffi- 
 ciently recovered from the Cimmerian ravages 
 to continue and maintain their conquests in 
 the extreme west of Asia Minor. The cities 
 of Smyrna and Miletus were taken, and the 
 territory of ClazomeniB devastated in a suc- 
 cessful campaign conducted by the Lydian 
 king. 
 
 After Gyges the most distinguished ruler 
 of Lydic" was his great-grandson, Alyattes. 
 This monarch undertook the work of expell- 
 ing the Cimmerians and their descendants 
 from the kingdom. Large districts were al- 
 most exclusively inhabited by this people. 
 Contact witii j'vilization had somewhat modi- 
 fied their warlike habits, but they were still 
 sufficiently vengeful to be an object of terror 
 as well as of aversion. To expel these in- 
 truders at once and forever was not an easy 
 task, but was less so than when in the time 
 of active invasion they were fresh in their 
 native ferocity. Alyattes succeeded in clear- 
 ing not only his own kingdom, but all Asia 
 Minor of the scourge that had so long threat- 
 ened and lashed the nations of Western Asia. 
 Lydia, Bithynia, Paphlagouia, Phrygia, and 
 Cilicia were all freed from the terror Avhich 
 had oppressed them. 
 
 A great cause of the prosperity and wealth 
 of the Lydian kingdom was the natural fer- 
 tility of the country. No other of all Asia 
 Minor had so rich a soil. Not only was this 
 true of the field and glebe and orchard, but 
 the sands also yielded their treasure. The 
 bed of the Pactolus, flowing through the cap- 
 ital, glittered with gold. In this fact is 
 founded the well authenticated claim of the 
 Lydians to be regarded as the inventors of 
 
 coined money. They were a frank and merry 
 people, having great sociability and not a little 
 artistic taste. The game of ball, which for 
 more than two thousand years has been the 
 dernier ressort of the boys of the world, is 
 said by Herodotus to have been invented by 
 the sport-loving Lydians. So also of dice and 
 several other popular games which still sur- 
 vive. They were musicians, having many 
 peculiar instruments on which they produced 
 sweet and plaintive melodies. In the active 
 sports and in the discipline of war they were 
 second only to the Assyrians and Medes. In 
 the management of the horse they greatly ex- 
 celled. The cavalry wing was an important 
 branch of the Lydian army, and long before 
 the time of Alyattes the cavalrymen of the 
 service numbered thirty thousand. 
 
 After the Battle of the Eclipse, Western 
 Asia presented three great kingdoms : Media, 
 Babylonia, Lydia — all at peace. The princes 
 and princesses of the three powers were inter- 
 married, and the affinities thus established, 
 strengthened by treaty stipulations, furnished 
 strong bonds of amity. Aryenis, the daugh- 
 ter of Alyattes and sister of Croesus, was 
 married to Astyages, the crown prince of 
 Media ; and- Amyitis, the sister of Astyages, 
 was wedded to Nebuchadnezzar, the heir ap- 
 parent to the throne of Babylonia. Nor were 
 the royal brothers-in-law in such proximity of 
 territory as to be much vexed with each oth- 
 er's minor movements and ambitions. Ecba- 
 tana, Babylon, and Sardis stood vrell apart, 
 and opportunity was thus given to the mem- 
 bers of the three royal houses to love and ad- 
 mire each other — at a distance. 
 
 Thus, after the crisis of B. C. 610, a half 
 century of peace elapsed. The previous 
 times had been filled with turbulence and 
 bloodshed. For more than five hundred 
 years there had not been such an epocli of 
 quiet as that which followed the treaty be- 
 tween Cyaxares and Alyattes. All three of 
 the monarchies grew strong, prospered, flour- 
 ished. Even the dependent provinces, not 
 greatly distressed with tributes, felt the glow 
 of peace. In the whole of Western Asia 
 there was a marked advance in the elements 
 of civilization. The only disturbance of these
 
 232 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 peaceful tendencies was from the direction of 
 Syria and Egypt. In this quarter there were 
 several hostile movements which broke the 
 quiet of Babylonia. 
 
 With the revival of Egyptian affairs un- 
 der Psametik I., the old ambition of the 
 Pharaohs to dominate the East returned. 
 Actuated by this motive, the king just men- 
 tioned, extending his power in the direction 
 of Palestine, besieged and captured the city 
 of Ashdod, and thus established himself in a 
 strong fortress beyond the limits of Africa. 
 Following up this advantage, Pharaoh Necho, 
 son and successor of Psametik, overthrew 
 Josiah, king of Judah, in the battle of Me- 
 giddo, and afterwards, making head towards 
 the Euphrates, took Carchemish, and com- 
 pelled the submission of nearly the whole of 
 Syria. The provinces thus overrun, however, 
 had fallen to Nabopolassar at the division of 
 the Assyrian Empire, and thus the Babyloni- 
 ans were aroused to the defense of their rights. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar made haste to punish the 
 intrusion into his kingdom. At the head of his 
 army he advanced against Necho at Carche- 
 mish, overthrew him in battle, and drove him 
 precipitately out of the country. Egypt in 
 turn was made to feel the heel of invasion, 
 and the Babylonian borders were established 
 to the very gates of Pelusium. In all these 
 Syrian wars of Nebuchadnezzar he was backed 
 and assisted by his brother-in-law, Astyages, 
 king of the Medes. 
 
 Meanwhile the aged Cyaxares, the virtual 
 founder of Median greatness, died. He was 
 one of the great men of his times. States- 
 manship can hardly be ascribed to a ruler of 
 that era; but Cyaxares had ambition, and 
 was able to govern men. He could foresee 
 an end from the beginning, and could adapt 
 thereto the means most likely to secure the 
 desired object. King of a warlike people, he 
 showed himself fit to lead. First in a war- 
 like age, he maintained his ascendency to the 
 end of life. By his conquests and abilities 
 he brought to his people the materials of a 
 great kingdom ; but to organize those materi- 
 als into institutions befitting a commonwealth 
 was a work of which neither he was capable 
 nor his times desirous. His success, therefore, 
 
 as a conqueror and a king lacked the element, 
 of stability. The greatness of his reign was 
 the greatness of inorganic power supported by 
 personal will rather than by administrative 
 forms or political wisdom. After a reign of 
 forty years he passed from the scene of his 
 activities, and was succeeded by Astyages. 
 
 The accession of this prince was in the 
 year 593 B. C. Though not wanting in abili- 
 ties, he was less ambitious than his father. 
 It is more easy to inherit an empire than to 
 win one; but inheritance is not a fact well 
 calculated to develop the highest powers of 
 manhood or kingship. Nor was the court of 
 an oriental monarch a place to inspire those 
 generous activities, without which great char- 
 acter is impossible. 
 
 The long reign of Astyages was compara- 
 tively uneventful. The most important occur- 
 rence of his whole career — if we except the 
 disaster of its close — was an addition of terri- 
 tory, which he had the good fortune to secure 
 rather by diplomacy than by war. On the 
 north-eastern borders of Media lay the coun- 
 try of the Cadusians. They possessed not a 
 little power and influence. More than once 
 Cyaxares had thought to make war and sub- 
 due them ; but his Western campaigns had 
 drawn him away to larger enterprises. If the 
 Cadusians were a temptation to the Medes^ 
 the Medes were a menace to the Cadusians. 
 At the time of the accession of Astyages they 
 were ruled by a king named Onaphernes, who, 
 believing his country to be in danger, took 
 wisdom into his counsel, and opened negotia- 
 tions with the Median monarch relative to an- 
 nexation. This odd piece of statecraft was 
 successful; for Astyages w^as an easy-going 
 king, who preferred peace to war, and was 
 very willing to make terms with the Cadusian 
 ruler. So without bloodshed the dominions of 
 that barbaric but politic prince were trans- 
 ferred to Media, himself remaining as viceroy. 
 
 This stroke of good policy was perhaps the 
 greatest achievement of Astyages. His social 
 life was clouded, for he was sonless. His 
 Lydian wife, Amyitis, had brought him no 
 heir. Other wives were sought; but no son 
 came to the palace of Ecbatana. At last. 
 Tigrania, a beautiful princess from Armenia^
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 233 
 
 sister of Tigranes, king of that country, was 
 given to the Median king; but no son came 
 with the gift. So as the monarch grew old, 
 it seemed not improbable that the thi'one 
 -would be left without an occupant — a calamity 
 to be greatly dreaded in those times and coun- 
 tries, where the king is the state. Nor is it 
 unlikely that in the present instance the child- 
 lessness of Astyages was a circumstance of his 
 final overthrow. 
 
 In civil affairs the method of government 
 adopted by the Median kings differed not 
 greatly from that of Assyria. The general 
 character of the royal court was the same as 
 that of Nineveh. The monarch, except when 
 called forth to war, was net seen in public. 
 His seclusion was guarded by an elaborate 
 retinue of court officers — mostly eunuchs. In 
 ■dress the luxurious style of the Ninevite kings 
 was adopted. Long robes of costly texture 
 adorned the bodies of the courtiers, and the 
 sovereign himself was magnificent. The halls 
 of the palace flashed with many-colored gar- 
 ments, red and purple, adorned with gold and 
 gems. The wrists of the officers were clasped 
 with thick bracelets, and their necks with 
 heavy chains. 
 
 An audience with the king of Media 
 ■could only be obtained through an elaborate 
 ceremony. The monarch had one officer called 
 his "Eye." Another high worthy had the 
 ■duty of conducting strangers into the majestic 
 presence. A third bore his cups; a fourth 
 was his herald. After these were the guards 
 of the palace, the torchbearers, and the ushers 
 according to their several ranks. 
 
 As in Assyria, the chief sport of the mon- 
 archs of Media was hunting; and to this end 
 public parks were established near the capital, 
 into which were brought multitudes of wild 
 animals, such as the kingly fancy delighted to 
 pursue. At intervals the somewhat restricted 
 ■excitements of the parks were exchanged for 
 the freedom of the open country, when the 
 king and his court went forth to hunt at will. 
 
 One of the principal events of the reign 
 of Cyaxares had been the estkblishment of 
 Magism as the court religion. The priests of 
 this faith were held in the highest honor, and 
 they made themselves constantly necessary to 
 
 the superstition of the royal household. The 
 king's dreams must be interpreted. Omens 
 and portents must be explained. Matters of 
 state policy must be laid before the supernal 
 powers. Who but the Magi should attend to 
 these mysterious offices? Astyages, like his 
 father, encouraged this priestly caste; gave 
 them honors ; made them influential in his 
 government. Thus was developed in the state 
 another antecedent of its destruction. For, 
 as will be presently seen, religious zeal against 
 the prevailing customs of the court fired the 
 enemies of Astyages in the day of his over- 
 throw. 
 
 As the unwarlike king of the Medes grew 
 old, destiny prepared for him and his kingdom 
 a common catastrophe. Up to this time the 
 kingdom of Persia, lying to the south and east 
 of Media, had attracted but little attention 
 from any of the surrounding nations. What 
 the relations of that country were to the Me- 
 dian monarchy under Cyaxares is not very 
 clear. Perhaps the Persians, governed by 
 native rulers, had held a sort of natural de- 
 pendence on the court of Ecbatana. Being 
 of the same race with the Medes they enjoyed 
 some immunity from invasion. Indeed, there 
 was less in the highlands of Persia to tempt 
 the cupidity of a conqueror than in almost 
 any other of the regions bordering on the Me- 
 dian Empire. The habits and manners of the 
 two peoples were alike, and the general mo- 
 tives of war were for the most part wanting 
 between them. No doubt there was a certain 
 dependency — political, and perhaps tributary — 
 of the Persian upon the Median kings, but 
 the former as well as the latter were hereditary 
 monai'chs, and claimed distinguished relation- 
 ships Avith the most honored royal families of 
 Western Asia. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when, 
 during the reign of Astyages, the young Per- 
 sian prince Cyrus was a resident at the court 
 of the Mede. He was here to observe, to be 
 educated, to learn refinement of manners, and 
 especially to be indoctrinated with the great 
 lesson of subordination to the powerful mon- 
 arch to whom he himself, on his accession to 
 the throne of Persia, was expected to be a 
 loyal subject.
 
 234 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that a 
 young man of genius learns more than is in- 
 tended by his masters. He may come to ap- 
 prehend that they are liviug upon the renown 
 of the past, that their wisdom is dust, and 
 their lessons slavery. So thought Cyrus at 
 the court of the king of the Medes. A reign 
 of vice had succeeded a reign of vigor. The 
 luxury of Assyria had effeminated both the 
 king and his subjects. 
 
 The young prince of barbaric Persia was 
 himself fresh from the hills. He despised the 
 kind of life which he beheld around him. He 
 saw the great kiug of the Medes immersed in 
 banquets, atteuded by a retinue of despicable 
 eunuchs, caressed by concubines, and amused 
 by dancing-girls. Ecbatana was a revel, and 
 the king's palace a debauch. Moreover the 
 simple religious faith of Cyrus, schooled as he 
 had been in the doctrines of Zoroaster, was 
 shocked with what appeared to him the hollow 
 mockeries of Magism. His father's house, 
 the Achjemenian princes of Persia, taught 
 not, tolerated not, the gross and unspiritual 
 practices of the Priests of the Fire. Doubt- 
 less Ahura-Mazdao was angry at the Median 
 idolatries, and was only waiting to destroy. 
 
 In these circumstances Cyrus, pent up at 
 the court of Astyages, found abundant food 
 for rebellious thoughts. He longed to escape 
 from his surroundings, and to lead an insur- 
 rection in honor of his country and his relig- 
 ion. His position, however, was virtually that 
 of a hostage, and he was jealously watched 
 and guarded. In his anxiety he applied to 
 Astyages for leave to return to Persia. He 
 alleged that his father, the Persian king, was 
 old and feeble, and required to be cared for 
 by his son and heir. Astyages refused the 
 plea. He so greatly admired and loved the 
 youth that he could not endure his absence 
 from the palace! Cyrus thereupon sought 
 an intercessor. A favorite attendant of 
 the king pleaded with him that the young 
 mau might be allowed to depart. Permission 
 was at length obtained, and with a few at- 
 tendants the prince set out from the Median 
 capital. 
 
 The mind of the fearful is always haunted 
 with dread and superstition. After the de- 
 
 parture of Cyrus, Astyages sat at a banquet. 
 The wine flowed, and the dancing-girls were 
 merry. The king demanded a song. One of 
 the girls — or as some sa}^, a minstrel — took up 
 a lyre and chanted this ominous prophecy: 
 
 The lion once had the wild boar in his hall, 
 
 But he let him depart to his own ; 
 He has broken the meshes that held him thrall, 
 
 And, behold, how the boar has grown ! 
 
 He will wax, and grow great, and return at length, 
 
 And tlie lion has need to defend, 
 For the boar will o'ei'matc'a him in courage and 
 strengt)), 
 
 And tear him in pieces and rend! 
 
 The kiug of the Medes was not so drunken 
 as to hear this prophecy with equanimity. 
 He was thrown into alarm, and instantly or- 
 dered a company of his guards to follow Cyrus 
 and bring him back to the palace. The prince 
 was overtaken and captured. The king's or- 
 ders were made known, and Cyrus consented 
 to return. That night, however, he made his 
 captors a feast, and while they were in the 
 stupor of drink he mounted his horse and es- 
 caped to the outposts of Persia. There he 
 took command of a body of soldiers, and when 
 the guards of Astyages, awaking to find their 
 prisoner fled, pursued and again overtook the 
 fugitive, it was only to find him at the head 
 of a force equal to their own, to be routed by 
 him and driven back into Media. Cyrus then 
 made good his escape to his father's court and 
 found protection in the Persian army. 
 
 Astyages was terrified and enraged at the 
 result. He beat his body and very properly 
 declared himself a fool for having yielded to 
 the solicitations of his courtier and permitted 
 the escape of Cyrus from his clutches. He 
 resolved, however, to recover by force the ad- 
 vantage which he had lost by carelessness. 
 He summoned his genei-als and immediately 
 gave orders for a great invasion of Persia. 
 The largest Median army ever mustered was 
 at onr^e collected. Tradition numbers three 
 thousand war-chariots, two hunared thousand 
 horse, and a million of infantry as the terrible 
 array which Astyages deemed necessary to re- 
 cover a young man whom he could recently 
 have destroyed by a nod. The Mede put 
 himself at the head of his host, and the inva- 
 sion of Persia began.
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 235 
 
 Cyrus and Cambyses, his father — king of 
 the Persians — prepared resistance. They had 
 a hundred chariots of war, fifty thousand 
 horsemen, and two hundred thousand infantry. 
 AVilling with this comparatively small force 
 to anticipate the movement of his enemy, 
 Cambyses marched boldly to a frontier town 
 of his dominions and awaited the onset. The 
 
 a mortal wound. The Persians were attacked 
 in front and rear and only succeeded in sav- 
 ing themselves by flight. The army retreated 
 in broken fragments and fell back on Pasar- 
 gadse, the capital. After burying his dead 
 rival the king of the Medes pressed on to 
 make an end by destroying at one blow the 
 metropolis and the kingdom. 
 
 CYRUS THE GREAT. 
 Drawn by W. Cainph9.usen. 
 
 Medes joined battle, and for a whole day 
 the conflict raged without decisive results ; but 
 on the second day superior numbers gave the 
 advantage to Astyages. Detaching a hun- 
 dred thousand men he sent them to the rear 
 of the town, and while the Persians were ab- 
 sorbed in the main contest the stronghold in 
 their rear was assaulted and taken. In defend- 
 ing the fortifications Cambyses himself received 
 
 The stress of their afRdrs brought out the 
 best qualities of the Persians. Cyrus, who on 
 his father's death was recognized as king, dis- 
 played remarkable heroism. Before Astyages 
 could reach the capital, the Persian had re- 
 organized his army, and advanced to meet 
 him. The country between the field of the 
 first battle and Pasargadse was rough and 
 hilly, and the Median advance was conse*
 
 236 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 quently retarded. The circumstance gave to 
 Cyrus an opportunity to select his own ground 
 of defense. A most advantageous situation 
 was accordingly chosen. A narrow defile, 
 with lofty hills rising precipitously on either 
 side, was found in the Median line of march, 
 and seized by the Persians. Ten thousand 
 picked troops were placed in the pass, and 
 against these the Medes flung themselves in 
 Tain. Astyages, however, adopting his former 
 tactics, detached a division of his army, and 
 succeeded in gaining the heights above the 
 defile, and the Persians were thus forced to a 
 hasty retreat. But in another range of hills 
 nearer to the capital they secured a similar, 
 though less defensible, position, and again 
 awaited the onset. 
 
 With the coming of Astyages another two 
 days' conflict ensued, more terrific and more 
 decisive than the first. The hills which the 
 Medes must ascend, driving the Persians, 
 were steep, and the slopes were covered with 
 thickets of wild olive. For a whole day the 
 host of Astyages beat in vain against the ob- 
 stacles. The Persians held their position un- 
 daunted, discharging showers of missiles and 
 hurling down great masses of stone upon the 
 ranks of their assailants. 
 
 On the second day the overpowering num- 
 bers of the Medes began to tell in their favor. 
 Astyages placed one division of his army be- 
 hind those files which were ordered to the 
 charge, and commanded those in the reserve 
 lines to urge forward those in advance, and to 
 kill all who gave way before the Persians. 
 In this way it was contrived that the terror 
 behind was as great as the danger before. 
 To fall back was certain death; to advance 
 was possible victory. Before their assailants, 
 maddened by this merciless alternative, the 
 Persians lost ground for a while, and were 
 driven to the very summit of the hills. Here 
 their wives and children, who were more se- 
 cure with the army than in the capital, began 
 to fling up their arms and cry out with min- 
 gled tears and reproaches against that weak- 
 ness which seemed ready to expose them to 
 capture. Stung by these outcries, and roused 
 to the desperation of valor, the Persians made 
 a sudden rally, and flun^ themselves with the 
 
 recklessness of death upon the advancing foe. 
 Sixty thousand of the Medes were borne down 
 by this extraordinary onset. The voice of 
 woman had risen above the roar of battle, 
 and the arm of Persia had thrust back the foe. 
 
 The victory thus gained was indecisive. 
 The Persians were relatively too weak to make 
 the overthrow complete. Astyages succeeded 
 after some maneuvers in gaining a position in 
 the immediate vicinity of the capital. He 
 was preparing to strike a final blow at his 
 antagonist, when the latter, anticipating the 
 movements of his enemy, fell suddenly on the 
 Median camp. It was the fifth pitched battle 
 which had been fought between the opposing 
 armies. Gaining something by the surprise 
 and much more by the impetuosity of his 
 attack, Cyrus cut right and left into the heart || 
 of the Median bivouac. Panic and rout en- 
 sued, and the fugitive remnants of the army 
 of Astyages were pursued in all directions. 
 The victory was complete and overwhelming. 
 The chiefs and generals of Cyrus gathered 
 around him on the battle-field, and proclaimed 
 him Kestg of Media and Persia. 
 
 Astyages made good his escape and fled 
 towards Ecbatana. He was accompanied by 
 a small body of friends who still adhered to 
 his fortunes; but the company was overtaken 
 by the eager and vigilant Cyrus, who routed 
 the band and captured the king. It was As- 
 tyages who had added cruelty to folly and 
 wickedness to disaster by punishing and put- 
 ting to death several of his generals, upon 
 whom he laid the blame of his overthrow. 
 This despicable conduct, added to much pre- 
 vious imbecility, created a wide-spread dis- 
 affection, and large numbers of the leading 
 Medes were ready to hail Cyrus as a deliverer. 
 The fact that there was no legitimate heir to 
 the Median throne tended to reconcile the 
 people to their recent disaster, and to incline 
 them to accept a Persian prince as their ruler. 
 
 Thus, in the year 558 B. C, was the great 
 monarchy established by Cyaxares brought to 
 a sudden end. The king was the state, and 
 the king was a prisoner. Ecbatana surren- 
 dered without a defense. The dependent 
 provinces sent in embassies and tendered their 
 submission. In a short time the authority of
 
 MEDIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 237 
 
 Cyrus was as completely established in the 
 north as in the south. That large proportion 
 of the Medes who favored the Zoroastrian re- 
 form were satisfied; for Magism was over- 
 thrown. The ambitious, who had fretted un- 
 der the effeminate government of Astyages, 
 were secretly pleased at the prospect of mauly 
 vigor in affairs of state. The philosophic 
 were content; for they saw in the revolution 
 only the transfer of authority from one royal 
 house to another. The patriotic were not 
 offended, for they remembered that the princes 
 of Persia and Media were kinsmen — nobles of 
 the same blood and the same family. Perhaps 
 no conquest of history has brought less dis- 
 turbance to the vanquished state than did the 
 overthrow of Media by the arms of Cyrus. 
 
 The inquiry naturally arises why the allied 
 kingdoms of Babylonia and Lydia were not 
 involved in the stirring and critical move- 
 ments just described. Perhaps the first an- 
 swer is to be found in the suddenness of the 
 circumstances which precipitated the Medo- 
 Persian war. Scarcely could the news of the 
 passion of Astyages against Cyrus and the 
 rapid invasion of the dominions of Cambyses 
 have been borne to Babylon and Sardis, until 
 other intelligence would have followed of the 
 annihilation of the Median army and the over- 
 throw of the monarchy. Sovereigns were 
 more ready to send succor to a king at the 
 head of his army than to a captive in the 
 hands of his enemy. Especially would this 
 be true of the king of Lydia, whose remote 
 capital could hardly be expected to send a 
 contingent to so great a distance. As to Bab- 
 ylonia, Nebuchadnezzar, king of that country 
 and brother-in-law of Astyages, was already 
 dead, and could no longer recognize old obli- 
 gations. Neriglissar, who at the time occu- 
 pied the • palace of Babylon, was himself a 
 product of revolution, and an enemy of that 
 house which had maintained the alliance with 
 Media. So Astyages was left to his fate, and 
 his fate was — Cyrus. 
 
 We thus have the spectacle of a vast em- 
 pire which arose suddenly, and was more sud- 
 denly extinguished. In territorial extent this 
 great power surpassed the combined areas of 
 
 Oreat Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—15 
 
 In richness of soil and fertility of resources 
 Media fully equaled Assyria, with her seven 
 hundred years of history. The mettle of the 
 people was by nature equal to the demands 
 of great nationality, and no incentive to the 
 highest ambition seems to have been v/anting 
 in the character and surroundings of the race. 
 
 The causes of the sudden eclipse of Median 
 promise must be sought on the side of polit- 
 ical weakness and social barbarism. The in- 
 herent vice of personal, and therefore irre- 
 sponsible, government, identifying the nation 
 with the king, and wrapping up the- destiny 
 of the former in the personal and capricious 
 destiny of the latter, rendered every thing 
 precarious. After this the greatest element 
 of weakness was the want of political unifica- 
 tion among the various kingdoms and prov- 
 inces which were successively absorbed into 
 the Empire. The administration of the Me- 
 dian kings seems never to have embraced any 
 rational measures for the reduction of their 
 various peoples into a homogeneous nation. 
 The organization of the government was so 
 crude and imperfect as to furnish no guar- 
 anty of security ; and the king in his meth- 
 ods of exercising and dispensing authority 
 was a mixture of the oriental despot and the 
 barbaric chieftain. Successful war is a neces- 
 sary condition of the perpetuity of such a 
 government. When that fails, or when the 
 monarchy falls into the hands of an imbecile, 
 the state goes headlong. 
 
 To these causes must be added the general 
 decline of the warlike spirit of the Medes and 
 their degeneration into vice. The court set the 
 example. Astyages was by constitution averse 
 to that kind of severe and adventurous enter- 
 prises upon which the martial spirit is fed 
 and nurtured. Nor did he, like Caesar, pos- 
 sess the sublime abilities of peace. He gave 
 himself up instead to the careless and reckless 
 indulgence of appetite and passion. It was 
 Charles Stuart succeeding Cromwell — an age 
 of lasciviousness following hard after an age 
 of austerity and the rough, but solid, virtues 
 of war. 
 
 The vicious tendencies of the Median court 
 were caught up and diffiised by the nobles. 
 To outdrink and outcarouse the king was the
 
 238 
 
 UMVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 highest flattery which the courtier could pay 
 to his master. And so, i)ercolating through 
 the higher ranks of society, the insidious 
 streams of vice and immorality descended to 
 the common people and poisoned the national 
 life. 
 
 Finally, the personal character of Cyrus 
 had much to do with the revolution which 
 subverted Media and gave to his own country 
 the leadership of Western Asia. Fresh from 
 his native hills, he saw in the court of the 
 great kiug every thing to be detested, nothing 
 to be admired. There national 'immorality 
 
 and national impiety flourished. There disci- 
 pline was relaxed. There effeminacy was 
 enthroned. There, for thirty-five years, the 
 heroic virtues of war had given place to indo- 
 lence, to indulgence, to inglorious riotings 
 with piping eunuchs and unchaste dancing- 
 girls. In all this there was the incentive to 
 ambition and genius to strike a blow against 
 one who was too great not to be envied and 
 too mean not to be despised. The blow was 
 struck with a manly arm, and the fabric of 
 Median renoAvu reared by the valor of Cyax- 
 ares passed away like a vision. 
 
 THE YOUNG CYRUS ENTERING ECBATANA.
 
 :>-:> ki^ "c^>y 'k^-'c^^ "^i^^ ^t>-' *c^ <c^ ^to^ ^^^ S^ 
 4X£ . — 
 
 m 
 
 3Aaa,,t<>t.tQi,c'>3.A>>, xOx XQ^ /Xtx .<Q\ ,:<i\ f&. 
 
 look Xifl^- 
 
 BABYLONIA. 
 
 Chapter :kix.— The country. 
 
 F the general character of 
 the low-lying plain at the 
 head of the Persian Gulf 
 much has already been 
 said in the history of 
 Chaldfea. It is only nec- 
 essary to recapitulate the 
 leading features of that peculiar district. It 
 consisted of two parts : that between the rivers 
 Tigris and Euphrates, and the long and irreg- 
 ular strip of country bordering the latter river 
 on the right bank, and bounded westward by 
 the Arabian desert. 
 
 The area of the first division, or Lower 
 Mesopotamia, was nearly eighteen thou- 
 sand square miles, and of the western tract 
 about nine thousand square miles — making 
 the entire area of what may be called Baby- 
 lonia Proper not far from twenty-seven 
 thousand square miles. The whole region 
 was an alluvial deposit, the product of 
 the two great rivers of Western Asia. The 
 boundary on the east was the Tigris; on 
 the south, the Gulf of Persia; on the west, 
 the desert; and on the north, a line drawn 
 from Samarah on the Tigris to Hit on the 
 Euphrates. Comparatively, the district thus 
 
 defined was less than the kingdom of Port 
 ugal. 
 
 Babylonia Proper, however, was only the 
 nucleus of the vast Babylonian Empire, whose 
 greatness is now to be considered. It will be 
 remembered that Nabopolassar, on his defec- 
 tion from Saracus, the last king of Assyria, 
 received from his ally, Cyaxares, the vice- 
 royalty of Babylon. This he organized into 
 an independent kingdom — the first step in a 
 career of conquest which laid the larger part 
 of Western Asia tributary at the feet of his 
 successors. It is with the extensive countries 
 thus brought under the sway of Babylon that 
 we have now to deal. 
 
 At the downfall of Nineveh, and in the 
 division of spoils between Cyaxares and Nabo- 
 polassar, it is not easy to determine precisely 
 what countries fell to the share of the latter. 
 A few historical references and the nature of 
 the countries subdued by the combined arms 
 of Media and Babylonia are the only indica- 
 tions of the limits of the parts claimed by the 
 respective conquerors. In a general way it 
 may be said that the western and south-west- 
 ern parts of the Assyrian Empire fell to Nabo- 
 polassar, and the residue to Cyaxares. Besides 
 
 (239)
 
 240 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 this natural division, the Babylonian prince 
 claimed and obtained the important country 
 of Susiana, beyond the Tigris. This province 
 constituted, then, the eastermost part of the 
 kingdom of Babylon, and is first to be consid- 
 ered in describing the character of the coun- 
 tries dominated by Nabopolassar and his 
 successors. 
 
 Susiana, corresponding with the modern 
 provinces of Khuzistan and Luristan, lay be- 
 tween the river Tigris and the Bakhtiyari 
 Mountains. The breadth of the country is 
 one hundred and twenty miles. The surface 
 is, for the most part, an alluvium, rising on 
 the east into a hill country abutting against 
 the mountains. The upland part is a beauti- 
 ful region, covered with fine woods and full 
 of springs. Across the country from the 
 mountain spurs and running to the westward 
 are many rivers of excellent character, clear 
 and rapid. The country in the western part 
 and in the valleys of Luristan is fertile in an 
 eminent degree ; but as the hills rise higher 
 and higher on the east the land becomes bare 
 and rocky, comparatively unfit for the abode 
 of either man or beast. This mountainous 
 barrier, however, constituted an excellent east- 
 ern boundary for the Empire — easily defensi- 
 ble against the encroachments of enemies. 
 Looking down from this rocky rampart a 
 country lay spread to the westward whose 
 sloping hills and narrow valleys and swift 
 streams of shining water framed a landscape 
 similar to those presented on the Median 
 slopes of the Zagros. Taken all in all, the 
 province of Susiana was one of the most at- 
 tractive and valuable districts which Nabopo- 
 lassar inherited from Assyria. 
 
 Next in importance among the Babylonian 
 provinces may be mentioned the Valley of 
 THE Euphrates, aboA,*e the city of Hit. This 
 was a long, serpentine piece of territory con- 
 forming to the course of the river. On the west 
 it was bounded by the Arabian Desert, and 
 on the east by the highlands of Mesopotamia. 
 Through this tract the Euphrates makes its 
 way, sunk in many parts in a deep bed and 
 pressed between banks of limestone and gyp- 
 sum. At intervals on either hand the hills 
 rise to a moderate heiffht and are covered with 
 
 shrubs and stunted timber. In other parts 
 the course of the river is marked by a narrow 
 strip of date-palms, willows, and tulips. So 
 deep is the bed of the stream and so imper- 
 vious the banks that the presence of the fresh- 
 water tide is felt for but a short distance, and 
 by the same circumstances irrigation is ren- 
 dered difficult or impossible. The chief value 
 of the valley is as a line of communication 
 between Babylonia and the West. By this 
 route Abraham and his household journeyed 
 from Ur to Canaan, and ever afterwards the 
 invasions and counter-invasions between Syria 
 and Eg}^t, on the one hand, and the Em- 
 pires founded on the Euphrates and Tigris on 
 the other, were made through this natural 
 gateway. 
 
 The chief fertility of this valley is found 
 on the western or Mesopotamian side. Here, 
 at intervals, especially in the upper course 
 of the river, the cultivable land spreads out 
 to a considerable distance, and is sufficiently 
 fruitful to yield fair rewards to husbandry. 
 The forests, too, improve north of the Kha- 
 bour, and the general features of the country 
 are such as please the eye and suggest civili- 
 zation. In the times of Assyrian and Babylo- 
 nian greatness this region along the Euphrates 
 was filled with a large and active population. 
 The river was one of the great lines of com- 
 merce, not only between the upper country 
 and Babylon, but also in a larger sense be- 
 tween the East and the West. 
 
 The third province of the Empire was 
 Mesopotamia Proper. Something has already 
 been said of this region in the description of 
 Assyria. The name indicates^ the boundaries. 
 It is likely, however, that that portion of 
 Mesopotamia in which the streams take their 
 course to the Tigris rather than to the Eu- 
 phrates, was not included in the part allotted 
 to Nabopolassar in the division of Assyria. 
 Doubtless, the valley of the Tigris was taken, 
 along with the trans-Tigrene provinces, by 
 Cyaxares as his portion of the conquest. But 
 all that large region in which the waters of 
 the rivers — notably the Khabour — fall off to 
 the west and join the Euphrates, went natu- 
 rally and politically to Nabopolassar and his 
 successors.
 
 BABYLONIA.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 241 
 
 This Euphratine slope of Mesopotamia is 
 a country of much importance. It extended 
 on the north to the Masian mountains; on the 
 east to the watershed of the Tigris valley ; on 
 the west, to the Euphrates. In this district are 
 the great rivers, the Bilik and the Khabour, 
 with their numerous tributaries. The banks 
 of these streams are generally rich in pastur- 
 age, and in parts the fertility is exceptionally 
 good. Between the two rivers just mentioned, 
 and iu the district where rise the Hills of 
 Abd-el-Aziz, is found a region known as the 
 Land of Fountains, where more than three 
 hundred springs of pure water break out 
 into brooks and running streams, refreshing 
 the land with a natural irrigation. 
 
 West of the river Euphrates, and south of 
 the Taurus range, lay the country known as 
 Northern Syria. It was a land of small fer- 
 tility and but few natural advantages. Like 
 the Euphrates valley, its usefulness consisted 
 largely iu the fact of its being a thoroughfare 
 between the East and the West. The surface 
 was hilly and barren. From the north, begin- 
 ning with the spurs of the Amanus and 
 Taurus, the rocky ranges gradually descended 
 to the desert country about Aleppo. The soil 
 is generally unfruitful and the landscape deso- 
 late. The rainfall is insufficient, and the 
 streams few and poor in water. The hill- 
 sides and plains are covered in many parts 
 with stones, and but little cultivable land is 
 fouud. A meager crop of grain may be pro- 
 duced in the better districts, but, for the rest, 
 the country has no agricultural value beyond 
 the production of pistachio-nuts and a few 
 olives and grapes. It was, however, across 
 this somewhat forbidding region that the vast 
 and profitable trade between the countries of 
 the Euphrates and the opulent cities of the 
 distant Mediterranean was carried on. To 
 this source must be attributed the greater 
 part of whatever wealth and importance the 
 region possessed in the times of the Empire. 
 
 As compared with the country just de- 
 scribed, Syria Proper, lying to the south and 
 west, had many and great advantages. This 
 important province of the Babylonian Empire 
 extended on the west to the Mediterranean, 
 and on the south as far as the latitude of 
 
 Tyre. Along that distant coast arise the two, 
 mountain chains of Libanus and Bargylus, 
 forming the barrier of the desert and furnish- 
 ing hundreds of streams of water. Upon the 
 slopes grew the finest timber. In the valleys 
 between the spurs bounding rivulets swelled 
 into rivers, and picturesque landscapes were 
 seen. Further inland lies the parallel range 
 of Antilibanus, with Hermon on the southern 
 and Jebel-el-Ala at the northern terminus; 
 but in natural attractiveness these mountain 
 districts fall below the magnificent Libanus, 
 with his cascades and forests and glens. 
 
 Between these two mountain ranges, ex- 
 tending north and south for over two hundred 
 miles, is the famous valley known as the Hol- 
 low Syria. Few richer districts are found 
 anywhere on the earth's surface. About mid- 
 w^ay of this valley the two rivers, Orontes and 
 Litany, one flowing northward and the other 
 southward, take their rise. Along their banks 
 is found a soil unsurpassed in fertility and re- 
 sources. Stretching away to the foothills of 
 the mountains is spread an area of vegeta- 
 tion the most luxuriant to be seen in all 
 Western Asia. 
 
 But not only in its natural advantages is 
 this noble valley preeminent. Its historical 
 importance is even greater than the riches 
 which nature has lavished upon it. For Hol- 
 low Syria is the gateway between Asia and 
 Africa. Along this lowland, flanked on either 
 hand with mountains, the tides of human am- 
 bition have surged to and fro for several 
 thousand years. Along this line the Egyp- 
 tians carried their solemn banners in the days 
 of Tothmes and Ramses II. By the same 
 route, in an opposite direction, came the con- 
 quering armies of Sargon and Sennacherib. 
 By this way marched and countermarched the 
 forces of Necho and Nebuchadnezzar. Alex- 
 ander, on his way to Amun to be proclaimed 
 the Son of Jupiter, traversed this valley. 
 Here, too, marched the victorious legions of 
 Pompey the Great; and here the Crusaders 
 swept up and down in their struggles to gain 
 the Holy Sepulcher. Almost every foot of 
 this verdant region has been covered with the 
 tents of conquest and ground beneath the 
 heel of war.
 
 242 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The western slope of Libanus, dropping 
 down to the Mediterranean, extending along 
 the coast for about one hundred and eighty 
 miles, constituted Phoenicia, one of the small- 
 est, but at the same time most important, 
 countries included in the Babylonian Empire. 
 Kext the sea the land had no great fertility, 
 being a mere strip of sand; but here Avas the 
 possibility of commerce. Here, too, rose the 
 long line of date-palms, which gave the name 
 of Phcemcia — land of the purple date. 
 
 to the industry of men at a time when Egypt 
 was still fresh in her youth. All this would 
 have passed perhaps but for the safe and fre- 
 quent harbors which indented the shore, hold- 
 ing at perpetual bay the storms of the bois- 
 terous sea. These quiet havens of Phoenicia 
 were the birthplace of the navies of the 
 world. Here man first learned to contend 
 successfully Avith the perils of the open ocean 
 and to make Neptune, as well as Mars and 
 Jove, his confederate and friend. 
 
 PHCENICIAN FLEET ON A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 
 Drawn by P. Phillppoteaux. 
 
 In its widest part the country was scarcely 
 twenty miles in breadth, and anon the moun- 
 tain spurs came within a mile of the sea. An 
 insignificant belt of sand! But Nature had 
 chosen it as the spot from which should begin 
 the dominion of man over the deeps. Com- 
 merce was a necessity of the situation. The 
 forests of Lebanon have been proverbial in 
 all ages. The heavy cedars almost overhung 
 the sea. To cut these giants of the wood and 
 float them down the short swift streams to the 
 coast gave a vent to the energies and profit 
 
 The fleets of Phoenicia put boldly to sea. 
 When History was still in the dawn the 
 strange crafts of this hardy maritime people 
 were seen creeping around the shores of the 
 Mediterranean. In the great days of Assyria 
 and Babylon the overland trade from the val- 
 ley of the Euphrates and still further east 
 was brought to the Phoenician coast to be 
 carried to the distant colonies and growing 
 nations of the West. By and by these same 
 fleets became important in discovery and in 
 war. The cities of Phoenicia grew rich. Tliey
 
 BABYLONIA.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 243 
 
 were the arbiters of the deep. Government 
 flourished. The court was one of the most 
 splendid in the East. Tyre and Sidon be- 
 came first known and then famous as far as 
 the knowledge of man 
 extended by communica- 
 tion in the earth; inso- 
 much that the insignifi- 
 cant strip of territory in 
 which they were situated 
 possessed a greater im- 
 portance in the destinies 
 of the ancient world than 
 did whole kingdoms 
 which were given up to 
 torpor and inaction. 
 
 N^ext in interest and 
 influence among the out- 
 lying provinces of Bab- 
 ylonia was Damascus. 
 This country lay east of 
 the range of Antilibanus, 
 and owed its fertility, 
 and in some sense its ex- 
 istence, to the two rivers 
 Awaaj and Barada, by 
 which it was chiefly wat- 
 ered. The moisture thus 
 diffused in an otherwise 
 arid region produces ex- 
 uberant vegetation and a 
 stalwart forest growth of 
 poplar, cypress, and Aval- 
 nut. AVheat and barley 
 grow in the fields; apri- 
 cots, oranges, pomegran- 
 ates, and olives, in the 
 orchards. In this fruitful 
 circle of more than thirty 
 miles in extent lies the 
 city of Damascus, which 
 for beauty of situation 
 and construction has been 
 for centuries the most at- 
 tractive of oriental cities. 
 
 In its full extent Palestine, the Holy Land 
 of the Hebrews, embraced an area of about 
 eleven thousand square miles. This limit in- 
 cluded the subordinate divisions of Galilee, 
 Samaria, Bashan, and Gilead. The full length 
 
 of the country was one hundred and forty 
 miles, the breadth varying from seventy to 
 one hundred miles. The fundamental fact of 
 Palestine was the Jordan, which traverses a 
 
 phcenician scene at court. 
 
 Drawn by P. Philippoteaux. 
 
 rocky valley from the slopes of Mount Her- 
 mon, in latitude 33° 25' to latitude 31° 47' N., 
 where it loses its existence in the brackish 
 waters of the Dead Sea. 
 
 The region is peculiar. The valley is clearly
 
 244 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the result of some cataclysm or volcanic erup- 
 tion, by which the surface of the earth has 
 been rent, producing a wide gorge or fissure, 
 the lower or southern portion of which is 
 greatly depressed below the surface. The Jor- 
 dan begins his course at a considerable eleva- 
 tion above the sea, and pursues a somewhat 
 precipitous course to the latitude of Merom, 
 where the sea-level is attained. From this 
 point onwards the Jordan is lower than the 
 Mediterranean, and as the descent is rapid, 
 the level of the river at the salt lake which 
 engulfs it is one thousand three hundred and 
 twenty feet l)elow that of the sea. 
 
 on the corresponding slope to the left lie the 
 provinces of Iturjea, Bashan, and Gilead. The 
 whole land is hilly, undulating, rising into a 
 mountainous background. The southern por- 
 tion is most arid and barren, cheerless and 
 uninviting. The northern part has a larger 
 number of running streams. In some districts 
 of Samaria there are plains and valleys which 
 invite cultivation and yield fair rewards to 
 toil. The most beautiful part is Galilee, in 
 which water-brooks, sloping hills, and green 
 forests send back to the eye a sense' of rest 
 and quiet. Of the level portions of Palestine 
 the fairest to view is the plain of Esdraeloo, 
 
 stretcjiing from 
 the bay of Acre 
 to the valley of 
 the Jordan and 
 jjresenting many 
 
 flowery 
 scapes. 
 
 land* 
 
 TilE DEAD SEA, LOOKING SOUTH. 
 
 On the two sides of the Jordan the land 
 rises in rocky ridges. The country is thus 
 divided into two slopes set over the one against 
 the other. In width the fertile part of the 
 valley is from one to ten miles, and this nar- 
 row tract embraces about all the fertile land 
 which Palestine possesses. A few vales here 
 and there, generally running at right-angles 
 to the course of the river, have a deposit of 
 rich soil, from which spring beauty and fra- 
 grance, but the general aspect of the country 
 is forbidding and gloomy. 
 
 On the highlands rising from the right or 
 west bank of the Jordan are found the small 
 states of Judsea, Galilee, and Samaria, while 
 
 The last of the 
 subordinate divis- 
 ions of this small 
 but famous coun- 
 try is Philistia — 
 from which by a 
 corruption of the 
 spelling the name 
 of Palestine is de- 
 rived. The dis- 
 trict lies to the 
 right towards 
 Egypt, and in its 
 general aspect is 
 like the other provinces, though on a lower 
 level. Towards the sea Philistia sinks into 
 a sandy plain, but the inland parts are more 
 attractive and contain a good deal of cul- 
 tivable land, yielding wheat and barley in 
 abundance. In this region are the cities of 
 Gaza, Jaffa, and Ashdod, famous alike in 
 myth and history: in myth, for their names 
 are lost in the shadows of remote ages; in 
 history, for it was through Philistia that the 
 banners of conquest were borne back and 
 forth in the great wars between Egypt and 
 the powers of Western Asia. 
 
 Kext after Palestine, among the countriet 
 which Nabopolassar obtained by the conquest
 
 BAB YL OXIA.— THE CO UNTE Y. 
 
 245 
 
 of Nineveh, may be mentioned the large and 
 irregular region called Idum^a, lying next to 
 Egypt. It was the land of the Amalekites, 
 the terror of Jewry. On the east lay the 
 great desert; on the south, the mountains of 
 Sinai and the northern arm of the Red Sea; 
 on the west, the borders of Egypt; on the 
 north Palestine. The whole region was — and 
 is — an undulating rocky plain, with a surface 
 of thin soil or gravel, degenerating into a 
 semi-desert. In some parts there are shrubs 
 and pasturage, whereon the nomads of Arabia, 
 beating up from the south, sustain their flocks 
 for a season. An occasional grove of palms 
 relieves the monotony of the landscape, yields 
 its fruit to the hungry desertman, furnishes 
 him a shade for his noonday rest. Next to 
 the seashore the country is as an elevated 
 beach. Further inland, extending from the 
 fissure in which the Dead Sea lies, is the long 
 depression called the Araba Valley, running 
 down towards Egypt, and gradually rising to 
 the level of the plain. Still further there 
 are a few barren ranges of unaspiring hills, 
 from the summit of which the African sunset 
 is seen full and red beyond the sea of Egyjit. 
 The area of ancient Idum^ea may be stated 
 approximately at one thousand six hundred 
 square miles. 
 
 The last of the Babylonian provinces here 
 requiring mention was Palmyra — the Land 
 and City of Palms. It lay between the valley 
 of the Euphrates and Syria, with the desert of 
 Arabia on the south. The general character 
 of the country was similar to that of Idumsea 
 and the region about Damascus. But here 
 the desert is broken at intervals by an oasis — 
 that happy local paradise of the burning sand. 
 The city of Palmyra itself was built in one of 
 these oases, among nodding palms, amid foun- 
 tains and brooks of life-giving water. 
 
 Such, then, is the general outline of the 
 vast dominions ruled by Nebuchadnezzar. 
 From the extreme east, on the further bor- 
 ders of Luristan, to the western limit, at the 
 gateway of Egypt, the Empire measured well- 
 nigh one thousand four hundred miles in ex- 
 tent. The breadth ranged in different parts 
 from one hundred and sixty to two hundred and 
 eighty miles, giving an aggregate area of nearly 
 
 two hundred and fifty thousand square miles 
 of territory — an area about equivalent to the 
 empire of Austria. In shape, it will be ob- 
 served, the Babylonian dominions were greatly 
 elongated from east to west, and this fact be- 
 came one of the chief obstacles in the admin- 
 istration and maintenance of authority. The 
 difficulty was heightened, moreover, by the 
 displacement of Babylon, the capital, W'hich 
 occupied a position almost at one extremity 
 of the country, being nearly a thousand 
 miles distant from the western frontier. All 
 the advantages which the great city enjoyed, 
 all the ancient fame which gathered about 
 that marvelous capital, could hardly counter- 
 balance the evils arising from its extreme 
 situation. 
 
 If beginning on the east, we glance at the 
 rivers by which the Babylonian Empire was 
 watered, w^e find first of all the Oroatis, the 
 modern Tab, on the borders of Susiana. Its 
 headwaters are gathered within the limits of 
 Persia; but in its principal course it traversed 
 the territory of the great king. The whole 
 length of the stream is over two hundred 
 miles, and for a considerable distance above 
 the mouth it is navigable for boats of respect- 
 able size. In its upper course the waters are 
 fresh and pure, but near the sea the influence 
 of the tides and brackish sands convert the 
 current into brine. 
 
 A second important river of Susiana is 
 the Jerahi. This stream gathers its waters 
 from many fountains on the western slopes of 
 the Zagros. After accumulating a consider- 
 able volume, the river receives the large trib- 
 utary known as the Abi Zard, or Yellow River, 
 and pursues his southwesterly course tow- 
 ards the Persian Gulf. Near Dorak the Je- 
 rahi enters the district where irrigation is nec- 
 essary, and from this point onward the volume 
 of w^ater in the channel is greatly reduced 
 by canals and reservoirs, into which it was 
 distributed. Though thus diminished, the 
 stream maintains its course to the Gulf, which 
 it enters after a winding route of two hun- 
 dred miles. This river, after its junction 
 with the Abi Zard, is navigable for boats of 
 considerable burden, its breadth being over a 
 hundred yards.
 
 246 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Much larger than either of the streams just 
 described is the Kuran. Like the preceding, 
 it is made up of two branches, the Kuran 
 proper and the Dizful. The former stream 
 takes its rise in the Yellow Mountains, bor- 
 dering Persia, and after a tortuous course 
 breaks through the Zagros and turns in a 
 south-westerly course to Shuster. Here the 
 stream divides into two channels, to be re- 
 united just above the junction Avith the Dizful. 
 From its fountains to this junction the Kuran 
 is two hundred and ten miles in length, and 
 the Dizful, before the waters of the two 
 streams are joined, has flowed a distance of 
 two hundred and eighty miles. Below the 
 confluence the Kuran is a majestic river, 
 equaling or surpassing in volume either the 
 Tigris or the Euphrates. The mouth of this 
 great stream is in the Shat-el-Arab, about 
 twenty miles below the city of Busra. The 
 whole length of the Kuran is about four hun- 
 dred and thirty miles. 
 
 A longer but less important river belonging 
 to the same region is the Kerkah — the Cloas- 
 pes of the ancients. Its volume is made up 
 from three principal tributaries, all of which 
 flow down from the slopes of the Zagros. 
 After the union of the three branches the 
 river takes a westerly course, passing the city 
 of Behistun and the ruins of Rudbar. At 
 the last-named place the channel finds its way 
 out of the mountainous district, and after its 
 confluence with the Abi-Zal flows into the 
 plain. With its left margin it washes the 
 ruins of Susa, and thence turning to the 
 south-west falls, after a course of more than 
 five hundred miles, into the Shat-el-Arab. 
 Like the preceding streams the Kerkah is 
 navigable for large-sized boats. 
 
 Of the two great rivers, the Euphrates and 
 the Tigris, without which Chaldsea, Assyria, 
 Babylonia had never been, a full description 
 has already been given in Books Second and 
 Third. In like manner the course and char- 
 acter of most of the Mesopotaraian streams 
 have been sufficiently delineated. If we pass 
 beyond the Euphrates to the west, however, 
 we shall find a great number of important 
 streams not hitherto described or noticed. 
 Beginning at the north, the first of these is 
 
 the Sajur, a tributary of the Euphrates. It 
 is a stream about sixty -five miles in length, 
 navigable in its lower course for boats of the 
 smaller sort. The waters are gathered from 
 the spurs and foot-hills of the Amanus range 
 and are borne along by the ruin-crowned hill, 
 Tel Khalid, to join the parent river in latitude 
 36° 37' N. 
 
 The second river of this region is the 
 KowciK, called by the Greeks the Chalis. Its 
 sources are in the hills of Ain-Tab, and 
 its channel is first directed towards the Eu- 
 phrates. Nature, however, has put barriers 
 in this direction. In the plain near Aleppo 
 a large tributary from the north deflects the 
 course of the stream to the south, and so, for 
 sixty miles, the river flows on through the sandy 
 plain. At this point in its route it meets the 
 hills and is turned eastwai'd for a short dis- 
 tance, where it enters and is lost in the great 
 brackish marsh called El Melak. 
 
 In that remarkable valley between the 
 ranges of Libauus and Antilibanus rises the 
 Orontes, the finest river of Syria. The wa- 
 ters of this great stream are gathered from the 
 slopes of the Antilibanus. Its upper fountain 
 is seven miles north of the ruins of Baalbek. 
 The course of the river is first in a north- 
 westerly direction, but after a sudden turn to 
 the north-east the stream flows along the foot- 
 hills of the Antilibanus to Lebweh, where it 
 is deflected over to the plains of Lebanon. 
 From this quarter the volume of water is in- 
 creased by many tributaries, and the river 
 finds its way along the base of the Lebanon 
 range. Further on it flows through the Lake 
 of Hems, and issuing, makes a detour around 
 the extreme of the mountains, turning towards 
 the Mediterranean. In this part it traverses 
 the valley of Antioch, and finally reaches the 
 sea in latitude 36° 5' N. The whole length 
 of the river is a little over two hundred miles. 
 Its course is rapid and impetuous ; its channel 
 deep and capacious. 
 
 The river Litany has already been men- 
 tioned as occupying the same valley with the 
 Orontes ; but the two streams flow in opposite 
 directions. The Orontes is known as the River 
 of Syria; the Litany, as the River of Tyre. 
 The fountains of the latter are near to those
 
 BAB YL OXIA. — THE CO UNTR Y. 
 
 247 
 
 of tlie former. A few miles north of Baalbek 
 a slight watershed turns the brooks to the 
 south and the valley gathers them together 
 into the Litany. The course of the stream is 
 at fii'st southerly. The mountain slopes on 
 either hand send down additional rivulets, 
 and the volume is widened and deepened. 
 Near the southern extreme the valley be- 
 tween the Libauus and Antilibanus is con- 
 tracted in a narrow and forbidding gorge a 
 thousand feet in depth, through which the 
 river rushes headlong. After foaming and 
 plunging through these narrows, the agitated 
 stream issues into the plain, circles around 
 the base of Lebanon, and, after a course of 
 seventy-five miles, finds its way to the sea. 
 
 On the opposite side of the Antilibanus 
 range rises the River of Damascus, called the 
 Barada. It has its principal source in a small 
 lake situated in latitude 33° 41' N. From 
 this origin the stream flows eastward, first 
 through a glen between high cliffs until the 
 Antilibanus is cleared, and then from the 
 town of Suk in a south-easterly course towards 
 Damascus. In this vicinity the river begins 
 to be divided, both by artificial and natural 
 channels, until its waters are mostly dispersed 
 to convert a desert region into a paradise. 
 What remains of the stream finally disap- 
 pears, after a course of about forty miles, in 
 some marsh lands a half day's journey from 
 the city. 
 
 The river Jordan is immemorially famous. 
 Its sources are to the north of Lake Merom. 
 Its uppermost fountain is a spring called the 
 Ras-en-Neba, near Hasbeiya. The rivulet, 
 proceeding from this origin, descends the 
 north-western slope of Mount Hei'raon. Small 
 brooks from several directions join their wa- 
 ters at Merom. This upper part of the Jor- 
 dan valley is a place of reeds and marshes, 
 and even after issuing from the lake the Jor- 
 dan is for a considerable distance a sluggish 
 and indifferent stream. Then, as the valley 
 sinks, the current becomes rapid and in some 
 parts headlong. Between Merom and Tibe- 
 rias the fall is in places as much as fifty feet 
 to the mile, but after passing the latter place 
 the decline is not so rapid, and the stream 
 sometimes flows with a placid current. From 
 
 Tiberias to the Dead Sea is a distance of sev- 
 enty miles, and the difference in level is about 
 six hundred feet. 
 
 In this part of its course the Jordan re- 
 ceives two tributaries. The first of these is 
 the Jarmuk, which drains the district south- 
 east of Lake Tiberias. In the rainy season 
 its banks are full, but in summer the channel 
 is almost dry. It traverses a country of con- 
 siderable fertility until it approaches the 
 rocky gorge of the Jordan, into which it falls 
 through a chasm with precipitous walls on 
 either hand a hundred feet in height. The 
 other confluent of the parent stream is the 
 brook Jabbok. This classic stream drains the 
 land of Gilead. Like the Jarmuk, the Jab- 
 bok swells to a torrent in winter and shrinks 
 into a rocky bed in summer. On the sides of 
 the ravine through which it flows — sunk deep 
 in the earth — are seen overhanging oaks. 
 Here is a thicket of cane and yonder a cluster 
 of oleanders. Like the preceding stream the 
 Jabbok enters the Jordan through a cleft in 
 the rocks, roaring when swollen, and broken 
 into foam. The whole length of the Jordan, 
 from the springs of Ras-en-Neba to the Dead 
 Sea, is, in a direct line, one hundred and thirty 
 miles, or twice that distance if the wanderings 
 of the channel be included in the measurement. 
 
 Passing, then, to other bodies of water em- 
 braced within the limits of the Babylonian 
 Empire, we find not a few lakes of importance. 
 Especially is this true in the western portions 
 of the dominions of Nebuchadnezzar. The 
 greater number of these sheets of water were 
 of the brine briny, made so by having no out- 
 lets and by the saline character of the sur- 
 rounding districts. Four of the most impor- 
 tant, however, were fresh water; namely, the 
 Lake of Antioch — the Bahr-el-Melak — the 
 Bahr-el-Kades, the Lake Merom, and the Sea 
 of Tiberias. All of these bodies were simply 
 expansions in the beds of rivers, by whose 
 volume they were perpetually repleuished 
 from the hills, and through whose channels 
 the overflow was carried to the sea. 
 
 Beginning in Northern Syria, the first salt 
 lake demanding attention was the Sabakhah. 
 It was situated on the route from Aleppo to 
 the Euphrates, just below the thirty-sixth
 
 248 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 parallel of latitude. It contains about fifty- 
 square miles of water, being thirteen miles in 
 length and from three to five miles brcjad. It 
 is the product of several small streams, which 
 pour their contributions into a basin from 
 which there is no outlet. The watei-s are so 
 exceedingly salty that the natural incrusta- 
 tions are gathered along the shores and sold — 
 a rudimentary and puny commerce. 
 
 The Bahr-el-Melak has already been men- 
 tioned as the lake into which flows the river 
 of Aleppo. It has the same general character 
 as that last described, but is considerably less 
 in area. Its value, however, is not less con- 
 siderable, for from the bed of this basin, Avhen 
 the waters under the summer sun have re- 
 ceded to their lowest ebb, the inhabitants take 
 from the bottom a large part of the salt which 
 supplies the markets of Syria. Over the sur- 
 face of the same sheet of brine, when the 
 winter rains have filled the basin to the brim, 
 large flocks of geese and ducks and solitary 
 flamingoes go sailing. 
 
 The three lakes in the immediate vicinity of 
 Damascus have already received some notice. 
 Between the rainy and the dry season they fluc- 
 tuate greatly in extent. Indeed, when the 
 rains are excessive the edges of the three 
 bodies touch each other, and the lake is con- 
 tinuous. They are all, as has been said, sup- 
 plied from the streams of the Antilibanus, 
 and being without an outlet, are brackish 
 and heavy.' 
 
 The Dead Sea, at the lower extremity of 
 the gorge of the Jordan, is the largest salt 
 lake of Western Asia. Perhaps no other 
 body of water of equal size has attracted so 
 much attention. It is forty-six miles in 
 length and ten and a-half miles in breadth. 
 The area is about two hundred and fifty 
 square miles. The lake is of an oblong form, 
 being quite regular in shape, except on the 
 eastern side near the southern extremity, 
 where a long peninsula projects nearly to the 
 other shore. All that portion of the sea lying 
 
 ' The marvel of the Dead Sea in regard to the 
 quality of its waters has been greatly exaggerated. 
 The fact is, that dead seas prevail wherever the 
 natural conditions are present. Syria abounds in 
 them, and Utah furnishes a notable example. 
 
 south of this peninsula is shallow, having a 
 depth of only a few feet, while the main body 
 lying to the north sinks to the extraordinary 
 depth of one thousand two hundred or one 
 thousand three hundred feet ; and since the 
 surface of the lake is above one thousand 
 three hundred feet below the level of the 
 Mediterranean, the hotloifi of the chasm is in 
 some places more than two thousand six hun- 
 dred feet below the sea! No other body of 
 water on the earth's surface is so greatly 
 depressed. 
 
 The water of the Dead Sea is impregnated 
 with salt and other minerals to a degree un- 
 equaled. Lake Urumiyeh, in Northern Media, 
 most nearly approaches it in saltness and gen- 
 eral character. From this unusual impregna- 
 tion of minerals, and from the great depres- 
 sion of the surface, the Dead Sea waters have 
 a specific gravity and consequent buoyancy 
 greater than any other lake or sea. Chemical 
 analysis shows that one-fourth of the whole 
 weight of this thick brine is composed of 
 solid matter — a quantity twice as gi-eat as is 
 found in the waters of the open ocean. 
 Heavy logs of wood thrown into the Dead 
 Sea float out of the surface, buoyed up like 
 cork, and the human body will sink of its 
 own weight only to the shoulders. For the 
 greater part the lake is lifeless. Even the 
 shores are incrusted with the crystalline de- 
 posits of ages. Lot's wife is a pillar of salt ! 
 
 Turning to the fresh-water lakes, the most 
 important is the Sea of Tiberias, or Galilee. 
 In shape it resembles its salt counterpart of 
 the south, being an ellipse, with its greater 
 axis up and down the* Jordan valley. Its 
 length is thirteen miles; its width, six miles. 
 The greatest depth is one hundred and sixty- 
 five feet. It is simply an expansion of the 
 Jordan, which comes down from Merom dis- 
 colored with a muddy sediment. This, how- 
 ever, is left in the bottom of the lake, and the 
 river issues below a clear and beautiful stream. 
 
 The region of Tiberias and the sheet of water 
 itself may claim considerable beauty — more 
 than any other region of Palestine. The 
 traveler stands on the beach and sees around a 
 large circumference of the lake a well-defined, 
 pebbly shore ; before him a lake of bright.
 
 BABYLONIA.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 249 
 
 pure water ; around him a background of 
 hills. Water-fowl on graceful wing alight 
 here and there, and the finny tribes break the 
 surface in their sport. 
 
 A few miles north of Tiberias is Lake Me- 
 rom, now known as the Bahr-el-Huleh. It is 
 nearly circular in shape, and has an area of 
 about twenty-five square miles. The country 
 round about is a marsh, covered with swamp- 
 grass, reeds, and rushes. Through these the 
 traveler beats a diflScult passage down to the 
 lake. Wild fowl take to flight, and the water 
 teems with fishes. 
 
 Passing from the country of the Jordan 
 and entering the valley of the Orontes, we 
 find the Bahr-el-Kades, similar in all respects 
 to the lakes Tiberias and Merom. The first 
 is, like the latter two, an expansion of the 
 river to which it owes its supply. The area 
 of the Kades lake is nearly the same as that 
 of Merom, being about eight miles long by 
 three in width. There is a tradition extant 
 that the lake in question owes its origin to a 
 dam which was built across the Orontes in 
 the times of Alexander the Great, and there 
 are some evidences that the basin has been 
 artificially formed by the deflection of the 
 river. If such is, indeed, the origin of Bahr- 
 el-Kades, the lake had no existence in the 
 times of Nebuchadnezzar — a thing quite pos- 
 sible. 
 
 About one hundred and fifteen miles north 
 of the last mentioned body of water lies the Sea 
 of Antioch, the Bahr-el-Melak of modern 
 geography. It lies nearly four-square, with 
 the angles, like the corners of an Assyrian 
 palace, facing the points of the compass. It 
 is a shallow lagoon, only a few feet in depth. 
 The surrounding country is a marsh, like the 
 region about Merom. The banks are fringed 
 around the whole circumference with a thick 
 growth of reeds, and the huts of fishermen are 
 seen here and there — as they have been from 
 ihamemorial times. 
 
 Such were the general features of the great 
 
 Empire of the Babylonians. To the east lay 
 Persia, between which and the Chaldsean plains 
 rose an almost impassable barrier of moun- 
 tains. After the conquest of Assyria by Me- 
 dia, the latter country bounded Babylonia on 
 the north, nor was there any physical obstacle 
 to invasion from that direction. It will be 
 remembered, however, that from the circum- 
 stances attending the overthrow of Nineveh, 
 relations of amity were established between 
 the Medes and the Babylonians, and were long 
 maintained. The danger, therefore, to which 
 the kings of Babylon might have been ex- 
 posed from possible attack by their ambitious 
 and warlike neighbors on the north was from 
 the first reduced to a minimum. 
 
 On the south of Babylonia lay Arabia — 
 a desert waste. Such was the country that 
 no great population could be maintained upon 
 its treeless, blasted surface. For this reason 
 the Empire had little to fear from the Arabs, 
 who could never muster in sufficient numbers 
 to menace a compact and powerful people 
 like the Babylonians. On the extreme west 
 of the dominions of the great king spread the 
 Mediterranean, from whose billows no threat- 
 ening foe was to be expected. On the south- 
 west border, however, lay the land of the Pha- 
 raohs, the most ancient and for a long time the 
 most powerful of kingdoms. Egypt was the 
 rival of Babylonia. The monarchs of the 
 two great nations eyed each other askance; 
 and causes of quarrel were found not a few. 
 The remoteness of the two countries Avas the 
 saving fact which prevented almost continual 
 war. If Egypt had the greater fertility, it 
 was restricted to narrow boundaries. The 
 wider domains and larger and more warlike 
 population gave the advantage to the Baby- 
 lonians, who waxed great and branched like 
 a cedar, while the declining energies of the 
 Egyptians wasted to feebleness and extinction. 
 It is now proper to consider in brief the pe- 
 culiarities of the Babylonian climate and 
 products.
 
 250 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 CHAPXBR XX.— CLINIAXE AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 AKEN all in all, the coim- 
 tries included within the 
 Babylonian Empire were 
 dry and hot. On the 
 south the desert was in 
 close proximity. The 
 seas which washed the 
 borders of the dominions of Nebuchadnezzar 
 were small, and their influence was little felt 
 at a distance from the shore. Nor did the 
 mountain ranges included within the Empire 
 reach to such length and rise to such height 
 as to insure large quantities of rain or diffuse 
 everlasting freshness. The country was in; 
 eluded between the thirtieth and thirty-seventh 
 parallels of latitude, and was through the 
 larger part of its extent level and sandy. 
 
 From all of these circumstances heat pre- 
 dominated. The summers were long and 
 scorching; the winters, brief and mild. Of 
 course, the high temperatures of Chaldtea, of 
 Idumsea and Palmyrene were more excessive 
 in degree than in Mesopotamia and the north- 
 ern provinces. In all those parts approximate 
 to the Persian Gulf, even in the hilly regions 
 of Susiana, the heat of midsummer is fearful. 
 Frequently the thermometer at midday reaches 
 107° of Fahrenheit, and even in the under- 
 ground apartmerHts, which the people construct 
 to protect themselves, the temperature hardly 
 falls below 100°. At night the heat is as- 
 suaged, and the people find rest on the roofs 
 of their houses. In all the low countries and 
 southern districts winter brings no snow. In 
 December the rainy season sets in, and con- 
 tinues until March. Sometimes the clouds 
 pour down abundantly, and at intervals there 
 are violent storms of hail. Such is the gen- 
 eral character of the eastern parts of what 
 was the Babylonian Empire. 
 
 In the western provinces, next to the Med- 
 iterranean, there was a moister and cooler cli- 
 mate. In the mountainous districts of Liba- 
 nus and Antilibanus the winter is suflSciently 
 rigorous. In the valleys, however, the climate 
 
 is more mild than in the corresponding districts 
 of Europe. In some parts, indeed, as in Pal- 
 estine and along the Phoenician coast, the 
 winters are scarcely more severe than in Bab- 
 ylonia proper. At the Dead Sea the ther- 
 mometer never falls to the freezing point of 
 water, and in the summer season the heats 
 are intense and oppressive. In general the 
 temperature of Syria is about as here described, 
 but in the higher regions the air has a freer 
 movement, and the effects of the heat are 
 thereby assuaged. 
 
 The one great climatic drawback, however, 
 in the countries once ruled by the kings of 
 Babylon is the fierce Sirocco, or hot wind of 
 the desert. This burning blast is always blown 
 from the heated sands of Arabia. It is the 
 terror alike of man and beast. Mixed with a 
 cloud of fine hot sand the blast sweeps up 
 over the Syrian or Babylonian plains and 
 bl'sters what living thing soever it smites. 
 The sky grows lurid and the air is dai'kened. 
 The animals and birds fly to their covert, and 
 man seeks a shelter for protection. 
 
 It is not likely that any great changes have 
 occurred in the climatic conditions of the Bab- 
 ylonian dominions during the twenty-four 
 hundred years that have elapsed since the 
 days of the great Empire. Perhaps the soil 
 in many parts has suffered some deterioration, 
 but the same products are undoubtedly yielded 
 to-day as when they were gathered by the 
 husbandmen for Nebuchadnezzar's army. In 
 one respect the country has suffered much. 
 Many regions have been stripped of their for- 
 ests, and by this fatal procedure the natural 
 tendencies to drought have been aggravated. 
 Especially is this true in Syria, the climate of 
 which has certainly undergone some change 
 from the denudation of the woodlands;^ but 
 
 1 Woe to the country that cuts down its woods. 
 The United States may well be warned by the 
 past. The woodman's axe is indeed the signal of 
 civilization, and it is also the forerunner of the 
 desert! The desert lies just the other side of the 
 cleared fields.
 
 BAB YLONIA.— CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 251 
 
 the essential identity of products ancient and 
 modern precludes the conclusion of any great 
 transformation. • 
 
 In ancient Babylonia wheat grew native, as 
 did also barley. Lentils and sesame came 
 without culture, but more abundantly with it. 
 The edible roots peculiar to most parts of the 
 north temperate zone grew plentifully and 
 yielded large crops to the gardener. The date 
 palm flourished in all the southerly parts of 
 the Empire, and the great apple-belt of the 
 world crossed the Babylonian plain. The 
 fruits of the country were various, and grew a 
 plentiful supply without the perils of winter 
 rigors or the untimely frosts of spring. 
 
 The yield of smaller grains was almost like 
 that of Egypt in abundance. The character 
 and amount of some of these crops as given by 
 the ancient historians is well-nigh incredible, 
 and can only be accepted on the supposition 
 that the alluvium of the Euphrates valley was 
 still fresh in its native powers, and that the 
 indigenous wheat-plant and other similar 
 growths felt here the rich impulses of nature. 
 
 The products of the Babylonian plain have 
 already been sketched in the History of Chal- 
 dffia. Those of Susiana were similar. Wheat 
 and barley yielded a hundred fold. The date- 
 palm flourished. In the native woods grew 
 acacias and poplars. This region, like parts 
 of Media and Persia, is the home of apples 
 and pears. Nearly all the fruits peculiar to 
 the better parts of the north temperate zone 
 grew ripe and abundant in the upland districts 
 and foot-hills of Khuzistan. The mountain 
 slopes of Susiana furnished a fair supply of 
 timber, and this was sometimes cut, as in Phoe- 
 nicia, and floated down the streams to the 
 populous districts, where the cities were built. 
 For building materials, however, the palm- 
 tree — straight and tall and easily hewn — was 
 generally preferred, and this tree grew best 
 in the low plains next to the Gulf. 
 
 In the district hitherto described as the 
 Valley of the Euphrates — meaning that part 
 of the valley above the alluvial plain of Chal- 
 d^ea — the products are not much varied from 
 those of Susiana and Babylonia proper. As 
 we ascend the river one of the peculiarities is 
 the appearance of the olive instead of the 
 
 date : the latter prefers the sand. Next come 
 the mulberry and the pistachio-nut, and the 
 walnut is abundant. In this region, as well 
 as in many parts of Mesopotamia, the vine 
 flourishes, though the valleys of the great 
 rivers seem not to have equaled those of Syria 
 as it respects the vintage. The small grains — 
 wheat, millet, and barley — grew well in all the 
 arable districts bordering on the Upper Eu- 
 phrates; and the orchards, in addition to 
 apples and pears and plums, yielded good 
 crops of pomegranates and oranges. 
 
 The northern portion of Syria was better 
 adapted to pastoral pursuits than to agricul- 
 ture. In general, there was more forest and 
 less productive soil. It was from the dense 
 woods of Northern Syria that the kings of 
 Nineveh, in the days of her glory, brought 
 the treasures of timber with which to adorn 
 the palaces of their capital. In various parts 
 of this region immense forests of walnut, oak, 
 pine, poplar, and ash are found, furnishing 
 an almost limitless amount of lumber. In the 
 open country wild shrubs appear in abun- 
 dance — the oleander Avith its splendid flowers, 
 the honeysuckle with its fragrance, the myrtle 
 with its deep green leaves. In the orchards 
 grow the orange and the olive, the pome- 
 granate and the mulberry. The vine also is 
 cultivated, and pistachio-nuts and walnuts 
 flourish as well as in Mesopotamia. The vege- 
 table growths of the garden are similar to 
 those of like latitudes in Europe. Of general 
 products the castor-bean is — and has always 
 been — one of the most important staples of 
 Syria; and in modern, though perhaps not in 
 ancient, times, cotton assumes its j^lace among 
 the products of the country. 
 
 Nearly all of the native and transplanted 
 growths of Babylonia are found in South- 
 western Syria. In this part of the dominions 
 of the Empire, however, the heat was more 
 intense than in the northern provinces, and 
 the greater moisture fi-om the proximity of 
 the sea tended to create certain modifications 
 in the products of the country. Here, also, 
 are found the highest mountains within the lim- 
 its of the ancient Empire, and these, also, were 
 the causes of some changes in the things which 
 spring from the soil. Many new products
 
 252 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 appear, not found in Northern Syria, such as 
 the fig and the banana. The date still grows 
 as far towards Arabia as Damascus, but its 
 existence is precarious. Some of the products, 
 such as liquorice and the egg-plant, are sug- 
 gestive of Egypt. Others, like the lemon and 
 the almond, are similar to the same fruits in 
 the southern latitudes of the United States. 
 
 The general character of the products of an- 
 cient Palestine are of common fame, and need 
 hardly be repeated. The woods of the moun- 
 tain slopes were of cedar and oak and juniper. 
 The wild olive was a common plant of the 
 valleys. The papyrus of Egypt, the sugar- 
 cane, and the mistletoe either grew wild or 
 were cultivated in the gardens. — Such is a 
 cursory view of the vegetable pi-oducts, the 
 fruits, and the forests which prevailed in the 
 Empire of the Babylonians. 
 
 Of mineral resources the supply was pecul- 
 iar. In Babylonia Proper oue of the most 
 important was bitumen. It was found as far 
 east as Susiana, but the most abundant sup- 
 ply was procured from the springs of Hit, on 
 the Euphrates. In the Dead Sea of Palestine 
 the same substance exists in inexhaustible 
 quantities. The part which this strange sub- 
 stance played in the rockless plain of ancient 
 Chaldsea, and afterwards in the buildings of 
 the Babylonians, has already been referred to 
 in the Second Book. As has already been 
 said, common salt was abundantly procured 
 from the beds of many of the Syrian lakes, 
 and was exported as merchandise. The Dead 
 Sea and the lakes nea: Palmyra yielded the 
 same mineral, the supply being limited only 
 by the energy of the manufacturers. From 
 the sources just mentioned, sulphur and niter 
 were also procured, and in other parts the 
 same substances were occasionally found. Of 
 all the countries embraced within the Empire, 
 the best for copper and iron was Palestine, 
 but even in this country the yield of these 
 valuable metals was not great. Silver was 
 found in small quantities in the range of 
 Antilibanus. It is not known that any gold 
 mine existed within the countries swayed by 
 the kings of Babylon. 
 
 Among the Babylonians gems and precious 
 stones were greatly coveted. But it does not 
 
 appear that the same were found anywhere in 
 the low plains around the head of the Persian 
 Gulf. Several kinds of gems were taken from 
 the hills of Susiana. In the channel of the 
 river Choaspes, agates were found in abun- 
 dance. In the vicinity of Damascus there 
 were beds from which alabaster was taken. 
 The Phoenician mines furnished lapis-lazuli, 
 and amethysts were obtained in the neigh- 
 borhood of Petra. From these various sources 
 the rough gems were brought to Babylon, and 
 engraved in a manner which has excited the 
 envy of modern times. Cornelians, rock- 
 crystals, chalcedony and onyx stones, jasper, 
 and feldspar were sought and sold in the shops 
 of the great city. 
 
 Of the supply of building material some- 
 thing has already been said iij the history of 
 Chaldjfia and Assyria. No stone was found in 
 Babylonia. In the earliest times, the ac- 
 quaintance of the Chaldseans with the native 
 tribes of Mesopotamia was not such as to en- 
 courage the importation of stone from the 
 north. In the valley of the Euphrates, 
 above the city of Hit, building stone is abun- 
 dant. Quarries exist on both sides of the 
 river, and in the country to the west, that is, 
 in Northern Syria, there is no deficiency. 
 
 The hills of Susiana are also piled up with 
 stone, and in Southern Syria ledges of out- 
 cropping rock frequently constitute the princi- 
 pal feature of the landscape. The variety 
 most abundant is common limestone, though 
 sandstone as well as silicious rocks and granite 
 are plentifully distributed. In the later and 
 more splendid days of the Babylonian Em- 
 pire stone was much used for building and 
 ornamentation, and the material so employed 
 was taken from the quarries on the Upper 
 Euphrates, and brought down the river to the 
 capital. Building with bricks, however, was 
 never superseded, even in the palmiest times 
 of the great kings. 
 
 Passing, then, to the animal life of Baby- 
 lonia, and beginning with the savage beasts, 
 we find the lion, then, as always, a monarch. 
 He was to be met in many parts — Chaldsea 
 of old, Mesopotamia, Syria, alike in the des- 
 ert and the hills. Next and most formidable 
 were the bear, the hyena, the panther, and the
 
 BABYLONIA.— CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 253 
 
 leopard. The herbivora were represented by 
 the wild ox, the wild ass, the stag, the ante- 
 lope, the goat, and the sheep. Of the lesser 
 creatures may be named the fox, the hare, 
 and the rabbit. A few of these animals are still 
 found, but rarely or in remote districts ; others 
 are common, and abound. The ferocious 
 beasts have receded or encroached upon the 
 borders of civilization as those limits have 
 been enlarged or contracted by the fluctuations 
 of political power. 
 
 In modern times quite a number of addi- 
 tional animals not mentioned in the Assyrian 
 inscriptions have become prevalent in the 
 countries once dominated by the Babylonians. 
 Such are the otter and the beaver, the lynx 
 and the badger, the sable and the squirrel, 
 the jerboa and the porcupine. Some of these 
 are found in some parts, and some in others. 
 Alligators have been occasionally seen in the 
 Euphrates by travelers. 
 
 The birds of Babylonia were — and are — 
 nearly identical with those now occupying the 
 same latitudes in Europe and America. The 
 chief birds of prey are the eagle, the vulture, 
 the falcon, the owl, the hawk, and the crow. 
 The smaller race consists of magpies, jack- 
 daws, blackbirds, thrushes, nightingales, larks, 
 et id ormie genus. Of the edible birds the 
 most prized and most abundant are pheasants, 
 quails, and partridges. Of the river-fowl the 
 principal are geese and ducks. Of the ugly 
 and fantastic species may be mentioned the 
 pelican, the flamingo, the stork, the heron, 
 and the cormorant. Besides these are snipes, 
 woodcocks, sand-grouse, and parrots. In the 
 times of the Empire the ostrich was common 
 in Syria and Babylonia, though that phenome- 
 nal creature is not any longer found in those 
 regions. Perhaps the most peculiar bird of 
 these countries is a kind of heron, unknown 
 in Europe. It inhabits Northern Syria and 
 the districts about Aleppo. It is grayish 
 white in color, having tips of scarlet on the 
 wings, and a large beak scarlet and black. 
 The feet are yellow and the eyes red. In 
 shape it resembles the stork, but it is four feet 
 high, and the expanded wings measure as much 
 as nine feet I This strange creature goes in a 
 
 flock of his kind. They are semi-aquatic. 
 
 N. — Vol. I — 16 
 
 In the rivers of Northern Syria they may be 
 seen standing in rows across the stream. They 
 select a shallow. Here they squat with their 
 outspread tails up-stream. The current w 
 thus stopped ; the water below runs away, 
 leaving bare the bed. When this feat is ac- 
 complished the birds all swoop down at a 
 signal and gather up in their big beaks the 
 fish and frogs that have been exposed in the 
 bed of the river ! 
 
 The fishes belonging to the waters of As- 
 syria and Chaldaea have already been men- 
 tioned. Some of the reptiles also have been 
 noticed. Of insects, those most dreaded are 
 scorpions, tarantulas, and locusts. The last- 
 named have been the dread of fifty genera- 
 tions. Coming up from no one knows where, 
 swarming across the sky in clouds that no 
 one can measure, settling like an inexorable 
 plague on every green thing that springs from 
 the goodness of the earth, these devastating 
 creatures are the veritable curse of the coun- 
 tries subject to their ravages. In the locust- 
 bird Nature has kindly provided an antidote 
 with the bane. 
 
 The principal domestic animals of Babylo- 
 nia may be briefly mentioned. The chief of 
 these were the camel, the horse, and the ass. 
 The nature of the country was specially 
 adapted to the service ot these creatures. The 
 open plain, tending on the Arabian side to 
 the desert, gave opportunity for the endurance 
 and sagacity of the camel, for the fleetness 
 and spirit of the horse, for the dogged pa- 
 tience and pertinacity of the ass. Next iu 
 importance w^ere the mules and the oxen. 
 The former were large and strong, and as in 
 other countries combined in themselves the 
 better qualities of their diverse ancestry. 
 They were much used alike in peace and war. 
 The monuments of Assyria show them under 
 the saddle, harnessed to carts, drawing huge 
 war-chariots on the way to battle. From 
 their attitude in the inscriptions they seem to 
 have been large and full of spirit, plunging 
 and rearing like horses. The asses from which 
 these animals were derived were larger and 
 better in all respects than the breeds known 
 in Europe. The same can not be said for 
 the horses of Babvlonia, for these were hardly
 
 254 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 equal to those of some other countries. Nev- 
 ertheless they were produced in great num- 
 bers. Herodotus narrates that the stables of 
 one of the Babylonian kings contained no 
 fewer than eight hundred stallions and sixteen 
 thousand mares. The prevalent breeds, if Ave 
 may judge by the delineations which have 
 been left in Assyria, were large-boned, large- 
 headed, strong, and heavy-muscled rather 
 than elegant or swift — adapted rather for the 
 brick-yards of the plain than for fleetness or 
 beauty. 
 
 The sheep and goats of Mesopotamia were 
 like those of other countries. Of the former 
 animal several breeds were reared, of varying 
 grades as it related to flesh or fleece. The 
 latter yielded its flesh to the Babylonian 
 butcher-stalls — its milk and cheese to the 
 peasant. Next in importance of the domestic 
 animals was the dog. The tablets show them 
 of many species and in the performance of 
 various services. The breeds presented ranged 
 from the elegant greyhound to the heavy and 
 impassive mastiff. 
 
 It is not known that the camel was native 
 to Babylonia. In several of the neighboring 
 countries, however, the beast was an eflScient 
 agent in the affairs of life, and his importa- 
 tion into the Babylonian provinces was easy 
 and natural. The caravan trade then — as 
 
 ever — depended for its efficiency upon the 
 ship of the desert. The commercial com- 
 munication between the countries bordering 
 on the valley of the Euphrates and those 
 lying along the Mediterranean was maintained, 
 perhaps originally suggested, by the abilities 
 and temper of the camel. In war likewise 
 and in common travel this same remarkable 
 creature became indispensable to the wants 
 and caprices of men. 
 
 On the Babylonian cylinders are found 
 certain representations which seem to indicate 
 the buffalo as an animal native to the coun- 
 try. The creature thus delineated differs from 
 the ox, and corresponds very well with the 
 buffalo of Europe. The animal appears to 
 have been domesticated, and to have been 
 subsisted in the same manner and for the 
 same ends as the ordinary Babylonian cattle. 
 Oxen are represented on the same tablets, 
 and the uses of the two species, whether of 
 labor in the flelds, or slaughter for the mar- 
 kets, or of sacrifice to the gods, seem to have 
 been identical. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch — as supplemented 
 by Avhat is said in the histories of Chaldsea 
 and Assyria — of the general aspects of Nature 
 as she appeared to the ancient Babylonians, 
 and of the principal gifts which she gave 
 them out of her treasure. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI.— PEORLE AND ClXIES. 
 
 fSsm^s 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 ||T is difficult to define 
 properly the race-charac- 
 ter of the Babylonians. 
 From the earliest times 
 the people inhabiting the 
 low plains of Chaldsea 
 were a vielange of diverse 
 tribes. Here the old Cushites had had their 
 abode. Here certain of the Semitic family 
 had found a home. Here perhaps some of 
 the primitive Aryans had intruded among 
 their elder brethren. Here the great Arab 
 Dynasty had been established, and had ruled 
 from the middle of the sixteenth century 
 
 to the year B. C. 1300. At the latter date 
 the Semitic Assyrians of the north swooped 
 down on Babylon, and took the land, bringing 
 in the customs and blood of Upper Mesopo- 
 tamia. Here the plan of colonizing the con- 
 quered but insurrectionary populations of for- 
 eign countries was fully and unreservedly 
 adopted; and here the tides of war, sweeping 
 back and forth from the east and the north 
 and the west, drew in with their ebb and flow 
 a vast debris of humanity, and left it as a 
 sediment in the countries about Babylon. 
 From all these causes a mixture and agglom- 
 eration of races took place within the realms
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 255 
 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, the like of which could 
 not be found in any other portion of the an- 
 cient world. The Babylonian nation was 
 composite. 
 
 The three dominant race elements in the 
 people of the Empire were the Semitic, the 
 Cushite, and the Turanian. By the first the 
 Babylonians were allied with the Hebrews 
 and Phoenicians; by the second, with the 
 Arabs and ancient Egyptians; by the third, 
 with the wild races of Northern Asia. With 
 the progress of time, however, and the as- 
 sumption of a fixed national type, the Semitic 
 element in the Babylonian people became 
 more and more predominant. After the con- 
 quest of the country by the Assyrians this 
 tendency was increased. It was like the in- 
 fluence of the Normans among the Celtic in- 
 habitants of Western France. The race-type 
 assumed in Babylonia became assimilated 
 to that of Assyria and the West. In the 
 times of the later Empire the old antecedents 
 had in a great measure been lost in a fixed 
 form, hardly discriminable by a common ob- 
 server from the well-known type of Assyria. 
 It may, therefore, be assumed that the Baby- 
 lonians of the time of Nebuchadnezzar and 
 his successors were a race of Semites, varied 
 and modified by many diverse lines of ancient 
 descent. 
 
 In the physical appearance of the ancient 
 Babylonians the historian must trust rather 
 to the delineations found on the Assyrian 
 monuments than to representations left us 
 by native artists. Of the latter only a few 
 portraits, drawn on cylinders, have been pre- 
 served ; and even these seem to present the 
 Babylonian form and features such as they 
 were 'in the times of ancient Chaldtea, rather 
 than at the high noon of imperial distinction. 
 According to these delineations the people of 
 Old Babylonia Avere slender and lithe — a 
 rather thin visage and meager person. In 
 later times, however, owing to the race-mixture 
 already described, and especially to the ascend- 
 ency of the Assyrians, this slight personal as- 
 pect of the ancients was greatly modified. The 
 Babylonians, like their northern masters, be- 
 came strong and massive — a big-muscled, 
 strong-limbed race, whose bone and brawn 
 
 were the impersonation of strength and en- 
 durance. 
 
 It can not, of course, be ascertained how 
 faithful are the representations made by the 
 Assyrian artists of the citizens of Baby- 
 lon, or to what extent those artists merely 
 used the conventional types which they had 
 been accustomed to chisel in the stones of 
 Nineveh. At any rate, the later Babylonians 
 as depicted by their northern conquerors have 
 the same form and features as did the men 
 who carved their portraits. A full account 
 of the personal appearance of the Ninevites 
 has already been given in a chapter of the 
 Third Book. 
 
 In so far, then, as the physiognomy of the 
 Babylonians differed from the well-known As- 
 syrian type, the difference seems to be this: 
 The eyes of the former people were larger 
 and not so almond-shaped as those of the latter. 
 The Babylonian nose was shorter and more 
 depressed than the Assyrian, and the general 
 expression was less determined and spirited. 
 No doubt these slight departures from the 
 type prevalent in its best development at Nin- 
 eveh were the result of climate, and perhaps 
 of some old inherited characteristics from the 
 ancient Chaldseans.^ 
 
 In the country of Susiana there seems not 
 to have been any such amalgamation of races 
 as existed in Babylonia proper. In the for- 
 mer province the old Cushite race remained 
 comparatively pure down to the times of the 
 Empire. In this case, also, our knowledge of 
 the person and features of the people is due 
 rather to Assyrian sculpture than to the na- 
 tive art of Susiana. The delineations found 
 amid the ruins of the Ninevite palaces prove 
 that there were two Susianian types, quite dis- 
 tinct and striking : the one, the ancient Cushite 
 just referred to, and the other, a heavy south- 
 ern face, having the leading peculiarities of 
 the Negro. The two types are found side by 
 side in the sculptures, the one face being high 
 and Caucasian in its general contour, the other 
 
 ' As a general rule a northern climate raises 
 the features into greater prominence ; a southern, 
 depresses them. But in extreme latitudes the 
 rule seems to be reversed, and in the high north 
 the features fall.
 
 256 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 marked with thick, protuberant lips, a receding 
 forehead, a broad, thick nose, and having the 
 head covered with the short crisp hair of 
 Africa. Perhaps the people thus represented 
 were the primitive people of Susiana, origin- 
 ally derived from the south, and yielding at 
 a later date to a northern race represented in 
 the other delineation. 
 
 Like most of the ancient peoples, the Bab- 
 ylonians wore their hair long. It does not 
 appear, however, that to the matter of head 
 adornment they gave so much attention as did 
 the Egyptians and Assyrians. The sculptures 
 show that the hair of the Babylonian was gen- 
 erally arranged in a single heavy curl, which 
 hung stiffly over the shoulders. Sometimes 
 the natural locks were left loose and allowed 
 to fall about the neck. In some figures the 
 hair descends to the waist, and is braided or 
 bound in a sheath. In other cases the Assyr- 
 ian fashion of a cluster of curls about the 
 neck and shoulders, or a close mass on the back 
 of the head, is followed. Perhaps the time 
 was when the dandies and belles of Babylon 
 looked to Nineveh for their styles as the world 
 of absurdity now turns to Paris in the matter 
 of personal adornment. 
 
 After the manner of Arabia most of the 
 Babylonians wore long, flowing beards. A 
 patriarchal appearance was thus given to many 
 of the portraits. Sometimes the beard, when 
 not curling, fell nearly to the waist, and some- 
 times when crisp clung closely to the face. 
 The practice of shaving was common, and 
 many of the delineations show the face smooth 
 from the razor. As compared with the As- 
 syrians the prevalent complexion of the Bab- 
 ylonians was dark and swarthy. Here again 
 their old descent from the south had coop- 
 erated with the current effects of climate to 
 give to the features that bronzed and tropical 
 aspect which until to-day prevails in the coun- 
 try about the head of the Persian Gulf. Bab- 
 ylon lies four degrees nearer the equator than 
 Nineveh, and the prevalence of the intense 
 summer heats of the low plains of that re- 
 gion gives to the face a strong suggestion of 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 Turning then from the personal habits and 
 appearance of the people to their intellectual 
 
 and moral traits we find much to admire and 
 not a little to contemn. In mental abilities 
 they surpassed most of the ancient races. 
 They had inherited from their ancestors, the 
 old Chaldseans, a large store of primitive learn- 
 ing. The attainments of the Chaldseans in 
 astronomical and mathematical knowledge have 
 been proverbial in all ages, and this scientific 
 lore was transmitted to the Babylonians. The 
 latter people not only maintained but promoted 
 the knowledge thus received from their pred- 
 ecessors. Their fame for learning resounded 
 through all Western Asia, and echoes of it 
 were heard in the eastern parts of Europe. 
 The Greek historians and philosophers ac- 
 knowledged their indebtedness to Babylonia for 
 many valuable inventions and much abstract 
 learning. The scholars of the Empire were 
 in good repute, and their attainments appear 
 to have been fully up to the measure of their 
 times and opportunities. The age was unsci- 
 entific and unscholarly, and the maintenance 
 by any people of a resj)ectable body of learn- 
 ing brought them deserved preeminence. 
 
 The Babylonians, however, were unable to 
 rise above that superstition which has been the 
 besetting sin of the human mind. They poi- 
 soned their scientific teachings Avith a vast mass 
 of groundless imaginings deduced from their 
 own vague fears and conjectures. Astronomy 
 thus sank to the level of astrology, and science 
 in general remained without a fixed limit of 
 certainty. The same degeneration of learning 
 took place as afterwards occurred among the 
 Arabian philosophers of Baghdad, Cairo, and 
 Cordova. For this reason the purposes had 
 in view by the scholars of Babylonia fell below 
 the ends of true science. To determine some 
 occult or mysterious thing appeared to be the 
 highest aim of their investigations. To inter- 
 pret dreams, or to determine from the aspect 
 of the stars and planets the destinies of hu- 
 man life, Avas the chief work of the Babylo- 
 nian philosophy. The scientist became a' 
 soothsayer, and the sage degenerated into a 
 rhapsodist or pi'ophet. The mind had not yet 
 learned in its investigations that in order to 
 know, the hand of Thought must be laid im- 
 plicity in the hand of Nature. 
 
 In the matter of personal energy and ac-^
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 257 
 
 tivity the Babylonians held a high rank 
 among the nations of antiquity. They had the 
 spirit of adventure. Alike on land and sea they 
 went forth to acquaint themselves with the 
 world and the Avorld with them. They became, 
 after the Phoenicians, the most distinguished 
 merchants of the age. Their enterprise made 
 them first in the marts of Asiatic commerce. 
 Babylon became the great metropolis of AVest- 
 ern Asia. Whatever mankind had to sell was 
 offered, and whatever the needs of the world 
 demanded was purchasable, in the emporiums 
 of that great city. The life of the capital 
 was the life of trade and commercial rivalry. 
 
 Under these conditions the Babylonians 
 became greedy of gain. Avarice grew upon 
 what it fed on, and the covetous spirit domi- 
 nated almost every other feeling. Whatever 
 would bring money was /or sale. The domes- 
 tic virtues were recklessly flung away for 
 the means of further gratification. Every 
 woman once in her life must offer herself to 
 strangers publicly before the temple of Beltis ; 
 for by this means the crowd of strangers in 
 the city would be increased. Maidens were 
 sold at auction, for thus the wealthy princes 
 and libertines of the surrounding nations 
 would be drawn to the unscrupulous market. 
 The father or brother, with his daughter or 
 sister, stood ready to barter for money the 
 pleasures due only to love. 
 
 The prime motive of all this avarice Avas 
 the passion for luxurious living. Babylon 
 was the paradise of gluttony and lust. What- 
 ever ministered to the appetites and senses 
 was eagerly sought and enjoyed without scru- 
 ple. Adornment of the person, rich garments 
 dyed with costly dyes, jewels of untold value, 
 costly viands gathered perhaps from foreign 
 lands, fragrant oils for perfuming the body — 
 every thing that could excite or appease hu- 
 man desire was demanded and found and 
 wasted in luxurious and riotous abandonment. 
 The banquet and the feast brought drunken- 
 ness and I'evel. The tables were spread with 
 riches which no appetite could consume. 
 Dark wines were poured into goblets of gold. 
 Tropical fruits were heaped in plates of silver. 
 The palace halls were harems; for polygamy 
 was the usage of the land and city. 
 
 It has not often happened in the history of 
 mankind that such personal traits and habits 
 as those of the Babylonians were blended — 
 and partly redeemed — with strength and hero- 
 ism. In spite of their luxury, the people of 
 the Empire were fearless soldiers. Those who 
 encountered them in the field found that there 
 was iron under the velvet. The epithets 
 which were applied to them by foreign histo- 
 rians show that their valor in war was equal to 
 their abandonments of pleasure. One would 
 have looked in vain among the bronzed cohorts 
 of Nebuchadnezzar for the fragrant dandies 
 who were recently drunken in Babylonian 
 palaces. 
 
 Not only were the people brave and war- 
 like, but with these heroic virtues they joined 
 rapacity and cruelty. The Babylonian sol- 
 diery was not only without fear, but also 
 without mercy. Woe to the enemy against 
 whom the fierce hand was lifted! There was 
 neither quarter nor compassion. Nearly al- 
 ways engaged in contests with surrounding 
 nations, war became a profession. Accus- 
 tomed to bloodshed and rapine, the soldiers 
 of the Empu'e learned to destroy without dis- 
 crimination, to kill without compunction. 
 They rode their horses and drove their char- 
 iots over living and dead, crushing in an in- 
 distinguishable mass the innocent with the 
 guilty. The tender and outraged form of 
 woman was thrown with contempt across the 
 brainless bodies of babes. From the moun- 
 tains that frowned on the thither borders of 
 Luristan to the gateway of Egypt, this iron- 
 hearted, merciless, lascivious soldiery carried 
 the banners of the Empire, and the nationa 
 cowered in fear before them. 
 
 In their methods and usages of war the 
 Babylonians were very little impressed with 
 the practices of civilized states. Their cam- 
 paigns were characterized with needless vio- 
 lence and barbarity. The plan of colonizing 
 insurrectionary inhabitants was rigorously fol- 
 lowed. All the hardships of such removals 
 were inflicted without mercy. Prisoners taken 
 in battle were either killed or shamelessly 
 mutilated. The unresisting inhabitants of 
 provinces engaged in revolt were visited with 
 indiscriminate vengeance. The best interests
 
 258 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Empire were many times sacrificed to 
 the blind rage of revenge kindled against 
 those whom a better treatment might easily 
 have won to loyalty. 
 
 In the civil administration of the govern- 
 ment the same ferocious methods were em- 
 ployed by the public officers. The suspected 
 was condemned, and the condemned was exe- 
 cuted. A fault was a crime. The displeasure 
 of the king meant death. His frown was 
 fatal. Torture was inflicted without mercy 
 upon the objects of the royal wrath. Oft'eud- 
 ers were cut to pieces alive or Avere cast 
 bound into fiery furnaces. Such was the 
 spirit, the temper, of this terrible race of 
 Asiatic conquerors. They spared not any 
 thing that opposed them. 
 
 Following hard after these dissolute and 
 vengeful methods of peace and war came that 
 haughty and austere spirit for which the Bab- 
 ylonians were noted. Their successes were 
 such as to make them deem themselves invin- 
 cible. Pride came with power, as avarice 
 from gain, and lust from lawless indulgence. 
 The princes of Babylon walked abroad amid 
 the splendors of the city, and contemplated 
 with haughty egotism the magnificence of 
 their surroundings. The city sat as a queen, 
 and her royal broods of pampered idlers found 
 little to check their selfishness and overween- 
 ing pride. 
 
 These hard, cruel, and relentless features 
 of Babylonian character were little softened 
 by their religion. Albeit, the traveler visit- 
 ing the great metropolis would have imagined 
 that a people so devoted to the worship of 
 the gods would be incapable of the deeds of 
 cruelty. Temples rose on the right hand and 
 the left. Retinues of priests, engaged in some 
 work peculiar to their sacred offices, were ever 
 in sight. Costly statues of the deities were 
 set up in honor of the unseen, and to attract 
 the gaze of the pious. In no other country, 
 with the possible exception of Egypt, was the 
 ceremonial of religion more costly and elabo- 
 rate. The kings were the chief worshipers. 
 Princes went devoutly to the temples. Royal 
 favors were poured out without stint in the 
 maintenance of the national faith. The names 
 of all classes had a religious signification, con- 
 
 taining some sacred syllable from the name of 
 a god. The seals of officers and the charms 
 worn by men and Avomen of fashion were 
 nearly always embellished with some religious 
 device or emblem. When the feast was 
 spread and the wine was poured and the ban- 
 queters became uproarious, ever and anon a 
 song in honor of the gods was heard above 
 the rout. 
 
 It is said that in the noisy marts of Baby- 
 lon, where each was striving to sell and get 
 gain, a certain code of honesty prevailed. 
 Perhaps it was such honesty as was current in 
 the streets of mediaeval Venice — a kind of pol- 
 itic observance of one's words and promises. 
 Commercial transactions necessarily imply a 
 certain kind of good faith which must be ob- 
 served by those who trade ; and it is rather to 
 this condition than to any subjective trait of 
 cliaracter that the alleged honesty of the Bab- 
 ylonian tradesmen must be referred. To this 
 must be added another element of temper 
 Avith Avhich the people of the Empire have 
 been credited by ancient historians. They 
 are said to have preserA^ed under all circum- 
 stances a calm and placid demeanor, little 
 indicatiA'^e of the fierce passions Avhich AA^ere 
 burning under the surface. This trait is, in- 
 deed, a quality of Asiatic manners quite uni- 
 versal in some of the oriental nations. It 
 appears to accord with the character of the 
 Chinese and Hindus and Turks to conceal 
 under a calm and sometimes benignant de- 
 meanor the fiercest rage and most vindictive 
 purposes of Avhich the human heart is capable ; 
 and it is not unlikely that some race-charac- 
 teristic of this sort has furnished the basis for 
 the reputed equanimity of the Babylonians. 
 Howe\'er this may be, it is of record that 
 they hid beneath a calm and imperturbable 
 exterior the evil designs and bloody purposes 
 AA'hich so much abounded in their characters 
 and liA'es. 
 
 The Babylonians were a people dwelling 
 mostly in cities. The rural population was 
 relatively unimportant. It Avas in the crowded 
 thoroughfares of the noisy metropolis that the 
 national qualities were fully developed. The 
 character of great Babylon, who said in her 
 heart, " I sit a queen," may, therefore, be
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 259 
 
 properly considered in this part of the history 
 of the Empire. Perhaps no other city of the 
 ancient world, with the single exception of 
 Rome, has occupied so large a share of the 
 attention of the antiquary, the historian, and 
 the philosopher. 
 
 Babylon, the chief city and great capital 
 of the Empire of Nebuchadnezzar, was situ- 
 ated on both sides of the river Euphrates in 
 latitude 32° 39' N. The name " Bab-ili" sig- 
 nifies the gate of God. The modern town of 
 Hillah occupies the ancient site. It was the 
 largest and most opulent metropolis of the 
 ancient world. In modern times the whole 
 space once occu- 
 pied by the city 
 is dotted here and 
 there with ruins, 
 indicating in shad- 
 owy outline the 
 site of palace and 
 temple, of wall 
 and battlement. 
 Huge mounds of 
 incredible extent 
 and number show 
 the traveler and 
 the antiquary the 
 tomb of one of 
 the wonders of 
 the world. 
 
 The exact size 
 of ancient Baby- 
 lon is not known. 
 
 Modern explorers have been unable to 
 trace the course and extent of the walls. 
 All authorities, both of ancient and recent 
 times, agree that the city lay four-square, with 
 the river running diagonally through the midst. 
 But the remains of the ancient ramparts do 
 not sufficiently indicate the lines of circum- 
 vallation. The old historians, therefore, sev- 
 eral of whom visited the city and were eye- 
 witnesses of her greatness, are the best, and, 
 indeed, the only, sources of information. 
 Herodotus declares the walls to have been 
 fourteen miles in length on each side, or fifty- 
 six miles in circumference. This would give 
 an area of one hundred and ninety-six square 
 miles. Ctesias, who also wrote from personal 
 
 observation, fixes the length of the walls at 
 ten and a half miles on each side, or forty 
 miles in entire compass, giving an area of one 
 hundred and ten square miles. These are re- 
 spectively the largest and the smallest esti- 
 mates of the size of the city which have 
 reached us from antiquity. The writers and 
 travelers who followed Alexander in his vic- 
 torious career report the dimensions of Baby- 
 lon as intermediate between the figures given 
 by Herodotus and those of Ctesias. The his- 
 torian Rawlinson, after a careful review of 
 all the facts, fixes the size of the city or in- 
 closure within the walls at about one hundred 
 
 square miles. This, though a much less area 
 than is included in the modern cities of Paris 
 or London, is far greater than the space 
 covered by any other ancient city. Rome 
 could have been two or three times inclosed 
 within these walls, and Nineveh was hardly 
 one-fifth as great in extent. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that this 
 whole area of a hundred square miles or more, 
 was actually occupied with the buildings of 
 the city. An open space all around was left 
 inside of the walls, and even in the parts cov- 
 ered wnth edifices or devoted to streets there 
 was doubtless much unoccupied ground. Or- 
 chards and gardens and parks would intervene 
 here and there, and certain parts would be
 
 260 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 reserved for public or private improvements. 
 It is believed that the city by the extent of 
 space thus included within the walls, and not 
 actually appropriated for building purposes, 
 was' rendered quite independent of outside 
 support in case of invasion or siege; for the 
 rich grounds which were not devoted to 
 building could be made quickly available for 
 gardens. 
 
 For an elaborate description of Babylon 
 we are indebted to Herodotus. The streets 
 were broad, and were laid out at right angles. 
 The city was thus divided into blocks or 
 squares. The walls were pierced on each side 
 with twenty-five gates — a hundred openings 
 in all. The gates were the termini of the 
 streets, so that the whole inclosure was divided 
 into six hundred and twenty-five great squares. ' 
 These in their turn Avere divided into smaller 
 blocks by less important streets, and along 
 these the imposing houses of the proud city 
 were erected. 
 
 The buildings of Babylon were generally 
 three or four stories in height. They were 
 not, however, of so solid a character as those 
 of Nineveh. Good building-stone, that sine 
 qua non of architecture, was wanting in Bab- 
 ylonia, and its place had in a large measure 
 to be supplied with less desirable materials. 
 The walls were for the most part of brick, 
 and the beams and frame-work were of the 
 palm-tree, which constituted the one available 
 timb'^r of the country. Of the trunks of this 
 tree the posts and columns were fashioned. 
 About these were twined for decorations 
 wreaths of rushes, and the whole was then 
 covered with stucco, and made to resemble 
 carved pillars of stone. 
 
 The Euphrates entered the city by one 
 archway and found an exit by another. Along 
 its whole course inside of the walls the banks 
 were paved for a great distance with bricks 
 laid in bitumen. Thus were constituted the 
 wharves of Babylon. The river, moreover, 
 was inclosed with a wall on either bank run- 
 ning parallel with his course, and preventing 
 the waters from overflow in times of floods. 
 These protecting walls were pierced with arched 
 
 ^ At the smallest estimate each of these squares 
 contained nearly a hundred acrex. 
 
 openings at every street crossing, and through 
 these openings the crowds of merchants and 
 market people and idlers made their way 
 down to the river bank, where boats were ever 
 ready for conveyance to the other side. In 
 case of high water the archways were shut, 
 and the walls became continuous. In some 
 places, instead of the ferry, the river was 
 spanned with bridges, over which the crowds 
 jostled from side to side. These bridges were 
 built with a draw between the piers, so that 
 communication could be easily cut off". As an 
 additional means of passage, a tunnel (if we 
 may believe Diodorus) was constructed under 
 the channel from shore to shore. This pas- 
 sage was fifteen feet in width and twelve feet 
 in height, being paved and walled and arched 
 with bricks. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable single struc- 
 ture of Babylon was the great temple of Belus. 
 It was founded four-square, in an inclosure a 
 quarter of a mile long on each side. It con- 
 sisted of a great tower or pyramid, on the top 
 of which was placed the shrine of the deity. 
 It was built somewhat after the manner of 
 the structures of Egypt. The basement was 
 a square of solid masonry, measuring over six 
 hundred feet on each side. On this was an- 
 other square of smaller proportions, and on 
 this another, and so up to the summit. The 
 ascent to the top was on the outside by means 
 of steps, which wound around the edifice. 
 The height of the temple was four hundred 
 and eighty feet, being but a few feet less than 
 that of the greatest Egyptian pyramid. The 
 summit overtopped the city. From the shrine 
 the whole panorama of Babylonian glory lay 
 spread below as a picture. Palaces and marts, 
 Avails and river, quays and decorated boats, 
 and beyond all the limitless plains of old Chal- 
 d^ea, down to the distant horizon of the desert, 
 furnished perhaps the most Avonderful vision 
 which the eyes of man beheld anywhere in 
 the precincts of the ages that are dead. 
 
 The shrine on the summit of the tower 
 contained originally three colossal statues; one 
 of the god Bel, one of Beltis, and one of 
 Ishtar. Here were two great censers and three 
 golden bowls, the drinking cups of the three 
 deities. In front of Beltis were placed two
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 26i 
 
 lions of gold and two silver serpents, weighing 
 each thirty talents; and these were accom- 
 panied with two huge bowls of silver of the 
 same weight as the serpents. These splendid 
 treasures, however, were carried away at the 
 time of the Persian conquest; and when He- 
 rodotus visited Babylon the shrine was dis- 
 mantled. The statues were gone. So also 
 the golden lions, the serpents, and the drink- 
 ing-cups. Instead of these were set a golden 
 table, and a couch draped with a rich cover- 
 ing. The old Greek historian found on his 
 ascent to the top, about half-way up, a resting- 
 place arranged with seats for those who ascended 
 and descended the great tower. 
 
 The second and less pretentious shrine at 
 the base of the edifice had also been despoiled 
 by the Persians. Originally there had stood 
 in this place a colossal human figure, wrought 
 of solid gold, twelve cubits in height. In the 
 time of Herodotus there remained only a small 
 sitting image of Bel, with a golden table placed 
 in front. Here the offerings of the worshipers 
 were laid in the presence of the deity. In 
 front of the basement of the temple were set 
 tAvo altars of sacrifice, and on these human 
 beings were probably offered up to appease 
 the anger of the Warrior Bel. 
 
 Not equal to the temple of Belus in height, 
 but of greater ground dimensions, was the 
 royal palace. This also was a quadrangular 
 edifice, and was surrounded with three-fold 
 ramparts of masonry, the outermost being 
 nearly seven miles in extent. The inner wall 
 measured more than two miles around, and 
 the basement of the palace proper was of an 
 incredible size. The two inner walls were 
 faced with enameled bricks, upon which were 
 pictured a vast array of animals. The scenes 
 were chiefly from the chase. In one part a 
 lion is thrust through with a spear, and in 
 another a huntress hurls a javelin at a leopard. 
 No complete description of the parts and gen- 
 eral appearance of this great building has 
 been preserved. It is only known that there 
 were three bronze gates to the palace, so mas- 
 sive as to require machinery to open and 
 shut them. 
 
 It was within the inclosure of this royal 
 palace that were constructed the famous 
 
 Hanging or Elevated Gardens of Babylon, 
 which constituted one of the " Seven Wonders" 
 of the ancient world. Their construction was 
 due to the caprice of Amyitis, the Median 
 wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who, pining for her 
 native hills, besought her royal spouse to 
 create for her a landscape. A rectangle was 
 selected, each side of which measured four 
 hundred feet. Around this space were built 
 a series of open arches, and upon these, serv- 
 ing as piers, other rows of arches were erected, 
 after the manner of an ancient theater; and 
 thus the vast structure arose to the height of 
 seventy-five feet. Upon the summit was 
 spread an abundance of earth, and here not 
 only were seeds sown and flowers reared and 
 shrubs transplanted, but trees of the largest 
 growth, brought from distant provinces, were 
 set in their native beauty. It was a miniature 
 Bois cle Boulogne, created on a hill of masonry. 
 On the banks of the Euphrates was set a 
 huge hydraulic machine, working after the man- 
 ner of the screw of Archimedes, and by this 
 means water was raised in pipes to the summit 
 and distributed about the Gardens; and to 
 prevent this water from percolating to the 
 masonry, layers of rushes and floors of bricks 
 laid in bitumen and sheets of lead were inter- 
 posed between the superincumbent earth and 
 the supporting arches beneath. On the out- 
 side, at convenient intervals, were flights of 
 steps leading to the top, and along the ascent 
 were grottoes and resting-places, where the 
 royal pleasure-parties regaled themselves at 
 their ease : why should they hurry on such an 
 excursion? Hurry is precipitated by those 
 who fear that their pleasures will escape them. 
 Across the Euphrates from the principal 
 palace stood another of smaller proportions. 
 Around it, in the usual manner, was drawn a 
 three-fold rampart, the outer wall measuring 
 about three and a-half miles in circumference. 
 These ramparts and the walls of the palace 
 itself were covered with representations of 
 hunting scenes and battles, drawn with con- 
 siderable skill on the surface of enameled 
 bricks. As in the case of the larger palace, 
 not much is known of the appearance of the 
 smaller structure. Within the halls and courts 
 were set bronze statues, representing the gods
 
 262 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and the great kings of Babylon. Here were 
 seen the mythical Ninus and Semiramis, sur- 
 rounded by princes of old Chaldsean renown. 
 
 The Walls of Babylon are associated in 
 history and tradition with the Hanging Gar- 
 dens as one of the Seven "Wonders of the 
 world/ These walls were, pei-haps, the most 
 marvelous structures of the sort ever erected. 
 Their true dimensions, however, have never 
 been determined. The Greek historians who 
 visited Babylon have left contradictory ac- 
 counts of the breadth and height of the vast 
 ramparts surrounding the city. Nor is it 
 likely that positive measurements would have 
 been much more satisfactory, for these being 
 made at different times would have represented 
 the walls in various degrees of dilapidation 
 resulting from the havoc wrought by besiegers 
 and the slower ravages of time. Herodotus 
 states the breadth of the walls at eighty-five 
 feet, and the height at three hundred and 
 thirty-five feet. Ctesias, without giving the 
 breadth, puts the height at three hundred 
 feet. Pliny gives the two dimensions as 
 sixty and two hundred and thirty-five feet 
 respectively. The lowest estimates of all are 
 those given by Clitarchus and Strabo, who 
 place the breadth at thirty-two feet and the 
 height at seventy-five feet; but these authors 
 must either have greatly underestimated the 
 dimensions or else given measures of the ruined 
 rampart rather than of the original walls. 
 Perhaps a fair average approximation would 
 be seventy -five feet for the thickness and two 
 hundred and fifty feet for the height — meas- 
 urements sufficiently vast to shock if not con- 
 found the credulity of modern times. The 
 length of these stupendous battlements has 
 already been given as being more than forty 
 miles. 
 
 On the top of the great wall of the city 
 were two hundred and fifty towers. These 
 were arranged in pairs on the outer and inner 
 edges of the rampart, and so broad was the 
 
 ^The Seven Wonders of the ancient world 
 were: the Pyramids of E^ypt, the Pharos or 
 Light-house of Alexandria, the Colossus of 
 Rhodes, the AValls and Hanging Gardens of Baby- 
 lon, the Tomb of King Mausolus, the Temple of 
 Diana at Ephesus, and the statue of Jupiter 
 Olympius. 
 
 space that a four-horse chariot could be turned 
 between them. The towers were square, and 
 looked down, the outer row upon the sur- 
 rounding country, and the inner, upon the 
 city. So vast was the mass of masonry in 
 these walls, so great their height and thick- 
 ness, that they were an impregnable bulwark 
 against any enginery of the times. They 
 could be neither undermined nor surmounted. 
 
 Such was the famous capital of the Baby- 
 lonian kings. In splendor and opulence and 
 power it far surpassed any other city of an- 
 cient times. Through her magnificent streets 
 swept the chariots of princes and monarchs. 
 Out of her splendid gates poured the bronzed 
 cohorts of well-nigh invincible soldiers, going 
 forth to conquest. Into these same gates 
 were driven the captives from a hundred 
 vanquished provinces. Over her palaces and 
 temples the oriental sun rose in unclouded 
 glory. In the might of her power and re- 
 nown she saw her rivals one by one expire, 
 and in her triumph she arrogated to herself 
 the rank and title of mistress of the world. 
 But in the slow processes of destiny her own 
 time came to suffer humiliation and downfall. 
 No other city, reared by the genius and pride 
 of man, has suffered a more complete extinc- 
 tion. Babylon is literally in the dust. Only 
 scattered mounds, which the rolling years 
 have covered with grass and shrubs, remain 
 of the once mighty metropolis of the Babylo- 
 nians. All else rests in the slumber of ever- 
 lasting oblivion. 
 
 Journeying down the river from Baghdad 
 to Hillah, the traveler of to-day comes un- 
 expectedly upon a series of scattered heaps 
 which, could they speak, would cry up from 
 the ground, "We are Babylon!" As he pro- 
 ceeds, the mounds increase in size and fre- 
 quency. In the intervals between them, 
 should he disturb the soil, he finds an indis- 
 tinguishable mass of broken bricks and pot- 
 tery, slowly returning to dust. The mounds 
 mark the sites of the palaces and temples, 
 and the intermediate spaces the place of the 
 common buildings and streets of the city. The 
 northernmost of the great heaps is called Babil 
 by the Arabs to the present day. It is a mound 
 nearly four-square, with steep sides. The top
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 2fi8 
 
 is flat, though traversed with several raviues, 
 plowed out by time. The southern side of 
 the elevation, extending a distance of six 
 hundred feet, is tolerably well jDreserved. The 
 eastern face, also, is easily traceable for a dis- 
 tance of five hundred and forty feet. The 
 other two sides of the square have been worn 
 down by the action of the elements, and re- 
 duced in some places to a level with the plain. 
 The highest part of the mound is one hundred 
 and forty feet above the surrounding country. 
 The vast heap consists of a mass of sun-dried 
 bricks, but in the outer Avail the bricks are 
 burnt and enameled, bearing the monogram 
 of Nebuchadnezzar. This great mound of 
 Babil has been identified by antiquaries as the 
 site of the temple of Belus. 
 
 A short distance down the river is the still 
 larger mound known as El Kasr, or "the 
 Palace." This remarkable elevation is two thou- 
 sand one hundred feet in length by one thou- 
 sand eight hundred in breadth. Its sununit is 
 seventy feet above the level of the plain. 
 Like the other heaps, it consists of an infinity 
 of crushed bricks and slabs and pottery. In 
 the basement some passages have been ex- 
 plored, which are paved and arched with bricks. 
 Some of the slabs which have been discovered 
 in this mound bear inscriptions by which the 
 place has been identified as the site of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's palace. All the bricks which 
 have been discovered in that vicinity bear his 
 monogram, so that both tradition — as shown 
 in the name of ' ' the Palace " now borne by 
 the ruin — and antiquities point unmistakably 
 to this spot as that on which w'as reared the 
 royal house of the great king. 
 
 Near the ruin of El Kasr is that of Am- 
 RAN, so-called, according to tradition, because 
 here was buried the prophet Amran-ibn-Ali. 
 It is simply a heap, irregular in outline, and 
 less striking than the Kasr ruin. It lies near 
 the river bank, and one of the sides of the 
 original structure was evidently lashed by the 
 water when the river was full. The three 
 sides of the elevation, which have been traced 
 with some accuracy, measure respectively 
 3,000, 2,400, and 2,100 feet. The slopes of 
 this mound, like many others, are furrowed 
 with deep ravines, through which the rains of 
 
 two thousand years have found their way to 
 the plain. 
 
 It is fitting in this connection to call at- 
 tention to the fact that modern antiquaries 
 have been divided in their opinion as to the 
 site of the famous Birs Nhvirud, or so-called 
 "Tower of Babel." Some have attempted to 
 identify this ruin with the Mound of Babil 
 already described ; while others, with better 
 reason, have decided in favor of a more strik- 
 ing elevation near the city of Borsippa. This 
 is distant from the heaps which mark the site 
 of Babylon about ereven miles, and may, 
 therefore, have jwgsiWy been included within 
 the walls of the ancient city. There are rea- 
 sons for believing, however, that such was not 
 the case, though no doubt, owing to the vast 
 extent of the rampart of the capital, the Birs 
 Nimrud may have not been far distant from 
 the w^alls. Be this as it may, and whatever 
 difiiculties may arise from fixing the site of 
 the Tower away from Babylon, there can be 
 little doubt tliat the Birs Nimrud of Borsippa 
 is the true ruin of the ancient and gigantic 
 structure. 
 
 It is from this greatest of the Babylo- 
 nian mounds that the best knowledge of the 
 character of the ancient temples or towers is 
 derived. Some account of the'general features 
 of the Birs Nimrud and of the wonderful tow'er 
 Avhich constituted its essential part will accord- 
 ingly be given in this connection. The plan 
 of the structure has been cai*efully studied on 
 the ground, and an accurate knowledge has 
 thus been acquired of the dimensions and 
 peculiarities of the original edifice. 
 
 The Bii's Nimrud is the ruin of the great 
 temple of Nebo. Its foundation was an exact 
 square, each side being two hundred and 
 seventy-two feet in length. The height of 
 this first platform of masonry was twenty-six 
 feet. Upon this was raised the second square 
 of the same height as the first, the sides 
 measuring two hundred and thirty feet. This 
 second square, however, was not placed cen- 
 trally over the first, but was displaced or 
 drawn over towards the south-western edge of 
 the lower platform. The displacement was 
 such as to make the oflTset on one side meas- 
 ure thirty feet and on the other but twelve feet.
 
 264 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The third square was laid upon the second 
 in precisely the same manner as the second 
 on the first. This platform was also twenty- 
 six feet in height, and measured one hundred 
 and eighty-eight feet on each side. The fourth 
 square was laid on the third in the same man- 
 ner as the others; but the thickness of this 
 platform was reduced to fifteen feet, the sides 
 measuring one hundred and forty-six feet, and 
 the same style of displacement towards the 
 south-west side being observed. 
 
 Above the fourth stage in the Birs the ef- 
 fects of the ruin become more manifest, and 
 estimates have to be substituted in many parts 
 for exact measurements. The fifth square was 
 of the same thickness as the fourth, and was 
 laid in like manner. The sides of this plat- 
 form and of the. sixth and seventh squares 
 measured one hundred and four feet, sixty-two 
 feet, and twenty feet respectively. The thick- 
 ness of fifteen feet for each platform w^as 
 maintained to the top. On the seventh square 
 was erected the shrine of the god, being a 
 cube of fifteen feet in each of its dimensions. 
 The whole height of the original structure 
 was, therefore, one hundred and fifty-six feet, 
 and the theodolite shows that the present 
 height of the Birs is within three feet of the 
 original elevation! The blasts of twenty-five 
 centuries have not sufiiced to level the house 
 of Nebo with the Chal(li3ean plain. 
 
 The great temple was an embodiment of 
 Babylonian mythology. The seven platforms 
 were dedicated to the seven planets known to 
 the ancients. To each of these planets a color 
 was assigned, according to the astrological no- 
 tions of the Chaldseans. To the Sun was 
 given the color of gold; to the Moon, silver; 
 to Mercury, blue; to Venus, yellow; to Mars, 
 red; to Jupiter, orange; to Saturn, black. 
 To this planet was assigned the basement 
 square, which was accordingly painted black. 
 The second platform was dedicated to Jupiter, 
 and was painted orange. The third was given 
 to Mars, and was red. The fourth, or golden 
 square, was assigned to the Sun ; the fifth, or 
 yellow, to Venus. The sixth, or blue platform, 
 was sacred to Mercury; and the last was as- 
 signed to the Moon and received her color — 
 silver. These colors were laid on in various 
 
 ways, some being burnt in the surface of the 
 bricks, some painted, and the fourth and sev- 
 enth squares — and with the latter perhaps the 
 shrine itself — being faced respectively with thin 
 layers of gold and silver! Such was the profu- 
 sion of superstition ! 
 
 It will thus be seen that the Tower of Nebo 
 rose, like the temple of the Medes in Ecba- 
 tana, in successive bands of brilliant color. 
 Viewed from a distance, the eflfect must have 
 been such as to attract and please the eye.^ 
 Doubtless, when the sun flashed his splendors 
 upon the brilliant hues of the great pyramid, or 
 when the full-orbed moon in milder radiance 
 diffiised her light around the gigantic pile, 
 the awe-struck worshiper may well have im- 
 agined that Nebo himself was enshrined on 
 the summit. 
 
 A strange fact relative to the Birs Nimrud 
 monument is that no stairways or other means 
 of ascending to the top have been discovered. 
 It is possible, however, that more extensive 
 ex]:»lorations would uncover flights of steps. 
 The face of the first or basement square of 
 masonry was in several places indented 
 with niches, but these seem to have been for 
 ornameut rather than for statues. It may be 
 remarked, also, that the third platform was 
 less durable than the rest, owing to the fact 
 that the bricks composing it were, in order to 
 secure the blood-red color, only half-burnt, 
 and were thus left perishable. 
 
 Antiquaries have decided that the sloping 
 or receding side of the mound facing to the 
 north-east is the true front of the Tower. It 
 is also believed that within the platforms of 
 masonry were apartments where the priests of 
 Nebo lived ; and it is not impossible that the 
 means of ascent were contrived within rather 
 than without the temple. Many of these 
 things, however, have been left to conjecture 
 and to such dim reasoning as the data will 
 support. It is a disputed point, even, whether 
 the approach to the Tower was simply a plain 
 ascent, or whether there was an elaborate 
 
 ' It will be observed that the Babylonians were 
 either ignorant of the charming effects of the 
 solar spectrum, or else they preferred to sacrifice 
 beauty to their mythology. The beautiful con- 
 trasts of color were quite neglected in the arrange- 
 ment of the bands on the successive squares.
 
 BABYLONIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 265 
 
 vestibule which has gone to dust with the cen- 
 turies. The latter view is sustained to a cer- 
 tain extent by the existence in front of the 
 north-east slope of an irregular mass of ruins, 
 which seem to indicate some kind of raised or 
 columnar approach to the main edifice. 
 
 The city of Borsippa, near which the great 
 Birs still stands, was among the most impor- 
 tant of Babylonia. It was one of the ancient 
 and venerated towns of Chaldtea. In the 
 primitive ages, before the Assyrian Empire 
 had arisen or Media had an existence, Bor- 
 sippa was already a flourishing mart, adorned 
 with temples and other public buildings. A 
 sketch of these, and of the city itself, has 
 been given in the Second Book. 
 
 After Borsippa may be mentioned the town 
 of Opis. It was situated on the eastern bank 
 of the Tigris, just below the confluence of the 
 Gyndes. The ancient name of this city was 
 Hupiya. The site is now marked by the ruins 
 of Khafaji. In the days of its importance 
 Opis was a large and flourishing emporium, 
 receiving commerce from both the rivers which 
 washed its Avails. A short distance to the 
 south, and on the same side of the Tigris, was 
 another consider- _^-_ 
 
 able town called _ _ -=^==r~ 
 
 SiTACE, which __ ^^E 
 
 gave its name to 
 the province in 
 which it lay. 
 Further down, 
 on the shore of 
 the Persian Gulf, 
 was Teredon, 
 founded by Neb- 
 uchadnezzar, and 
 containing in the 
 palmy days of 
 the Empire 
 
 many thousand inhabitants. The site has 
 not been identified, owing to the fact that 
 the shore line of the Gulf has receded and 
 the whole district been covered with deposits. 
 It is thought, however, that Teredon was lo- 
 cated in the neighborhood of the modern town 
 of Zobair. 
 
 Passing into the Provinces of the Empire 
 the most notable city was SusA, the capital of 
 
 Susiana. In the times of Babylonian great- 
 ness it was second only to Babylon, It lay, 
 as already stated, between the two branches of 
 the river Chaospes, on a beautiful plain, re- 
 lieved, at the distance of twenty-five miles, 
 with a background of mountains. It was one 
 of the most healthful and attractive regions 
 within the dominions of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 Here was situated the ancient palace of the 
 old native kings. It was reared upon a great 
 mound, after the style of the Babylonian 
 and Assyrian temples. The ancient city lay 
 on the eastern side of the palace. Here, ac- 
 cording to Herodotus, lived in primitive days 
 King Memnon, who led an army to Troy to 
 defend the city against the Greeks. Such was 
 the beauty and salubrity of Susa and her en- 
 virons that the place was regarded as a sort 
 of second capital of the Empire. Several of 
 the Babylonian monarchs here maintained 
 summer residences, and the court of Susa, 
 thronged with princes and native and foreign 
 noblemen, almost rivaled the splendors of 
 Babylon. 
 
 On the Upper Euphrates was Carchemish, 
 famous for more than one decisive battle fought 
 
 EUINS OF TYRE. 
 
 in her vicinity. The strategic position was 
 one of great importance. By this route, as 
 through a gate, the armies of Mesopotamia 
 and the South must make their way in their 
 invasions of Syria. Here the nations of the 
 West — Egyptians, Phoenicians, Israelites — 
 must debouch, if at all, into Babylonia. 
 
 Far distant on the Mediterranean lay 
 queenly Tyre, greatest of the maritime cities
 
 266 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Empire. The position Avas strong, 
 easily defensible. At lirst the shore was 
 chosen; but at a later date, when Tyre 
 had grown to be the wealthiest metropolis 
 of the West, the city was carried out to a 
 littoral island, which became thenceforth the 
 principal seat of business and defense. The 
 shore-town was known as Old Tyre. The 
 
 its fortunate position and the genius of its 
 inhabitants upheld its preeminence even 
 down to the days of the Mohammedan con- 
 quests. 
 
 Next may be mentioned the rival city of 
 SiDON — older, but less famous, than Tyre. It 
 was situated on the coast, twenty-three miles 
 north of the sister city. Sidon was the old 
 
 VIEW OF JERT'SALEM. 
 
 people of the city were the most enterprising 
 of their times. They were manufacturers, 
 merchants, sailors ; large-minded and courage- 
 ous; ready for any enterprise, and quick in 
 the spirit of adventure. Their manufactures 
 were of matchless beauty and excellence. 
 Kings, princes, and nobles were proud to 
 wear the royal-dyed fabrics of Tyre. Several 
 times in the vicissitudes of the nations the 
 city was besieged, and a few times taken ; but 
 
 metropolis of Phoenicia. The people of the 
 country were proud to be called Sidonians in 
 honor of their ancient capital. The period 
 of greatest prosperity was from 1600 to 1200 
 B. C, when its commercial preeminence was 
 already acknowledged by the Egyptians. 
 Sidon was destroyed by the Persians in the 
 year B. C. 351, as a punishment for rebelling 
 against Artaxerxes III. It then became a 
 provincial town of little importance. In
 
 BABYLONIA.— ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 267 
 
 modern times the site of the old capital is 
 marked by the seaport of Saida. 
 
 On the route from Palestine to Egypt lay 
 the city of Ashdod. It was regarded as the 
 western key to Syria, as Carchemish was 
 the eastern. He who held the two strong- 
 holds just mentioned, and Tyre, the doorway 
 to the sea, practically controlled the whole of 
 the Syrian dominions; nor could the suprem- 
 acy of these regions be long maintained save 
 by the possession and control of these impor- 
 tant cities. 
 
 Finally should be mentioned Jerusalem, 
 the capital of Palestine. It is situated fifteen 
 miles west of the head of the Dead Sea. It 
 is built on a high plateau of limestone about 
 
 two miles square, abutting against the mount- 
 ains on the north. Here was originally the 
 capital of the Jebusites, one of the Cauaanit- 
 ish tribes expelled by Joshua. Under David 
 and Solomon, Jerusalem grew into importance. 
 It became regarded as the Holy City of Israel, 
 and acquired great fame as the principal seat 
 of the worship of Jehovah. In the times of 
 the Babylonian ascendency the city, lying 
 almost on the route between Babylon and 
 Memphis, was many times an object of the 
 cupidity or vengeance of the rival nations of 
 the East and the West. Her demolished 
 walls, ruined towers, pillaged temple, and 
 depopulated streets frequently boi-e witness to 
 obstinate defense and signal punishment. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII.-ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 F the general character 
 of the learning of the 
 Babylonians, much may 
 be inferred from what 
 has already been said of 
 the lore of the Chaldees. 
 The artistic tastes and 
 philosophical opinions of the later people Avere 
 derived from the culture of the ancient mon- 
 archy. The civilization of Babylonia was 
 merely an expansion or development of that 
 of Chaldiea, modified as it was, with a certain 
 infusion of Assyrian opinions and practices. 
 
 If we begin with Architecture, we must 
 traverse to a considerable extent the same 
 ground which has been gone over in the ac- 
 count of the cities and temples of the Empire. 
 Perhaps, however, some more specific notice 
 of the style of building employed by the Bab- 
 ylonians may be added with propriety; and 
 in producing such a sketch it is natural to 
 begin with the royal palaces. These ^vere, of 
 course, next after the temples of the gods, the 
 most important structures of the times. 
 
 It is an unfortunate fact that the Babylo- 
 nian royal palaces have suflTered more from 
 the dilapidations of war and violence than 
 have the temples ; partly, no doubt, because 
 
 the latter were more solidly built, and partly 
 because, in case of conquest, the temple is 
 less likely than the king's house to suflfer from 
 the fury and lust of a victorious soldiery. 
 The renmins of the royal structures of the 
 Babylonians furnish but a meager outline and 
 dim shadow of the superb originals. But, as 
 if in compensation for this loss, the old histo- 
 rians and travelers have left us materials tol- 
 erably abundant from which to fill out the 
 the outline. 
 
 The palaces of Babylon, like those of As- 
 syria, were built upon raised mounds or plat- 
 forms. These mounds were square in shape, 
 and were constructed of solid masonry. The 
 elevation of the platform w'as fifty or sixty 
 feet above the surface. The great mass of the 
 square was constructed of sun-dried bricks, 
 but a thick wall around the outside and a sub- 
 stantial pavement on the top were of burnt 
 bricks or stone slabs carefully laid in bitumen. 
 Upon this practically imperishable basis the 
 palace proper was reared. 
 
 The material used in the body of the struct- 
 ure was burnt bricks of the finest and most 
 durable quality. They were laid in a kind 
 of cement which, if we may judge from the 
 way in which it has withstood the elements
 
 268 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 for centuries, was superior to any thing of like 
 sort employed in modern masonry. The walls 
 of the building were of enormous thickness. 
 The ground-plan was a rectangle, the sides of 
 the square being parallel with those of the 
 foundation. It is unfortunate that no remains 
 of a Babylonian palace have been discovered 
 in a state of such preservation as to furnish 
 authentic data for the restoration of the edi- 
 fice. Only a few facts can be educed from 
 the crumbling debris on the summits of 'the 
 mounds. In general, the walls were straight. 
 They were high enough to be imposing. They 
 were not pierced with windows or other open- 
 ings. They were strengthened by buttresses, 
 built at intervals along the face. They were 
 decorated here and there with sculptured slabs, 
 set in both the inner and the outer surface. 
 The figures with which these were adorned 
 were generally small, but were executed with 
 care and with considerable artistic skill. 
 
 It was rather, however, to the device of 
 color than to the work of the chisel that the 
 palace walls owed their beauty. On the 
 smooth surface of the bricks the Babylonian 
 painters exhausted their resources in depicting 
 such scenes from the chase and the fight as 
 could please the eye or flatter the vanity of 
 the royal occupants. What the splendid 
 sculptures of Nineveh furnished to the Assyr- 
 ian kings in the way of artistic pleasures, that 
 the painter's brush in some measure supplied 
 for the princes of BaJDylon. An abundance 
 of these pictorial representations have been 
 found on the great mound of El Kasr. 
 
 Curiosity to know the details — the height, 
 the number of stories, the internal arrange- 
 ment — of these Babylonian palaces will, per- 
 haps, remain forever ungratified. No doubt, 
 in altitude, they greatly overtopped the three- 
 and four-story houses. As the king was lifted 
 up above his subject, so his abode and the 
 abodes of his princes and nobles were raised 
 on high above the unaspiring cityful. An- 
 other conjecture is that the palaces were 
 lighted through the roofless space overhead, 
 and not by means of windows. The extreme 
 mildness of the climate would justify such a 
 supposition, and the same is attested by the 
 fact that no windows have been found in the 
 
 walls. Another feature of the palaces, not con- 
 jectural, is the drainage, which was carefully 
 provided for by subterranean passages in the 
 basement. 
 
 An examination of the meager remains of 
 the bridges across the Euphrates and of the 
 great wall around the city does not indicate 
 that the Babylonian architects were especially 
 skillful. The piers of the bridges, however, 
 were correctly built, with a sharp angle 
 against the current of the river. In general, 
 the buildings of Babylonia, particularly those 
 of the great capital, were loftier and more 
 imposing than the structures of other oriental 
 countries.^ No doubt they were equally 
 superior to those of other nations in respect 
 to ornamentation and general structure and 
 adaptation. 
 
 In the manufacture and preparation of 
 building material, the Babylonians surpassed 
 only in the production of bricks. Like their 
 ancestors, the Chaldseans, they had two va- 
 rieties — those dried in the sun and those 
 burnt in kilns. The former were used only 
 in the interior of thick walls and in building 
 great platforms and buttresses, wherein the 
 action of the elements could not be felt. All 
 the exposed portions of structures were of the 
 kiln-baked variety — very hard and perfect. 
 The finest were of a yellow color, and were 
 so firm as to be practically imperishable. 
 Another very superior quality were of a blu- 
 ish tinge, sometimes almost black, and were 
 well-nigh as hard as stone. The softer sorts — 
 half-burnt varieties, etc. — were red or pink, 
 and could be easily broken into fragments. 
 
 The sizes employed were variable, but the 
 standard make were from twelve to fourteen 
 inches square on the face and three or four 
 inches thick. For the corners and angles 
 sizes and shapes were used which were adapted 
 in form to the situation. The bricks were all 
 cast in molds, after the manner of modern 
 times, and were stamped on one face with a 
 monogram or inscription. The die was always 
 
 ^ In the present day the houses of the people 
 of the countries described in the text are rarely, 
 if ever, more than two stories in height. Accord- 
 ing to Herodotus, those of ancient Babylon were 
 " three or four stories high."
 
 BABYLONIA.'^ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 269 
 
 sunk below the surface, so that the design, 
 whatever it was, should not be injured or 
 broken away in laying or handling. In 
 building walls or other masonry, the bricks 
 were generally laid horizontally, though in 
 some instances the vertical position was pre- 
 ferred. In other cases both plans were 
 adopted, a row being set vertically after each 
 horizontal layer. 
 
 The material used to keep the bricks in 
 place was cement, and of this there were 
 three varieties. The first was composed of a 
 mixture of common clay and chopped straw. 
 In building, this mortar was used more abun- 
 dantly than by modern masons, being some- 
 times laid on to the thickness of two inches. 
 The second sort of cement was composed of 
 bitumen, and was identical with that employed 
 by the Chaldseans. This variety was used in 
 basements and pavements, and especially in 
 those parts of structures which were exposed 
 to the action of water. The third kind 
 was composed of lime, and was of a quality 
 unsurpassed, perhaps unequaled, by that em- 
 ployed in any other country. Until to-day, 
 the great masses of bricks piled up in the 
 basement squares and thick walls of the Baby- 
 lonian ruins are held together with a tenacity 
 which seems to defy alike the insidious onset 
 of the elements and the stroke of the anti- 
 quary's hatchet. 
 
 That which is the most striking feature of 
 the present ruins of the Babylonian jilain, 
 and which, no doubt, was most striking in the 
 original edifices, is their great magnitude. 
 They are imposing by their size. In this re- 
 spect they are allied with the monuments of 
 Egypt. There is about them a certain im- 
 pressive grandeur, which, next after the 
 gigantic structures of the Nile valley, strike 
 the beholder as the most majestic remains of 
 antiquity. They make up in massiveness what 
 they lack in beauty, and their sameness and 
 silence heightens rather than weakens the 
 vision of vanished greatness. 
 
 Passing from architecture to Painting and 
 Sculpture, but little is found to admire. 
 Only a few fragments, mutilated by time and 
 accident, have survived to the present; and 
 
 from these it may not be properly judged 
 
 N.— Vol. I— 17 
 
 what was or was not the attainment of Baby- 
 lonian art. Of sculpture, a half-dozen broken 
 pieces have survived. Of these the most im- 
 portant is the figure of a colossal lion stand- 
 ing over the prostrate body of a man, found 
 on the top of the mound of El Kasr. Artists 
 and antiquarians have pronounced the work 
 of little merit. The figure of the lion in 
 many parts deviates from the outlines of 
 nature, and in some features is distorted. 
 The form of the man is so clumsily done as 
 to be hardly distinguishable. A certain pose 
 and grandeur of general effect, faintly sugges- 
 tive of the sculptures of Egypt, are all that 
 redeem the group from contempt. Of figures 
 modeled in clay a few have been discovered. 
 The best is that of a mother and child. The 
 statuette is no more than three and a half 
 inches in height. The mother sits. The 
 child is encircled in the left arm. The figures 
 are nude, the attitudes graceful. The general 
 effect is pleasing, as if deduced from nature 
 by an artist. The figures were originally 
 glazed wdth some sort of enamel, which has 
 peeled oflT, exposing the clay. 
 
 Of bas-reliefs the best specimen is that of 
 one of the Babylonian kings. The piece is 
 now preserved in the British Museum. It is a 
 black slab, upon the surface of which the fig- 
 ure is engraved with excessive details of orna- 
 ment. There is very little grace or artistic 
 skill displayed in the work, though the finish 
 is almost as fine as that of the Assyrian sculp- 
 tures. The proportions of the figure are tol- 
 erably well preserved, and there is a 6ertain 
 stiff* dignity in the attitude not Avholly un- 
 meritorious. The king with the left hand 
 grasps his bow ; in the right he holds his 
 arrow. His eyes are fixed, like those of Apollo 
 on the typhon — but here the likeness ends. 
 The whole figure, with the exception of the 
 face and neck and hands, is covered with 
 elaborate ornamentation, showing all the de- 
 tails of the royal garment. 
 
 Turning to animal forms, Babylonian art 
 appears to a better advantage. A common 
 subject of the artist was the dog. The crea- 
 ture was presented in bas-relief, generally on 
 a black stone slab. His canine excellency is 
 on guard. He rises on his fore-feet, and will
 
 270 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 spring upon the intruder if he advances 
 further. The piece is evidently a kind of 
 cave canem, suitable for halls and doorAvays. 
 Another figure, also in relief, is that of a great 
 bustard, executed with much spirit. The bird 
 strides, and has the manner of nature. On 
 the cylinders are figures of cows, deer, mon- 
 keys, goats— sometimes figured with what may 
 be called artistic ability. 
 
 In the matter of engraved gems, the art of 
 Babylonia is tolerably represented in modern 
 museums. The peculiarity of such work is 
 lis quaintness. Sometimes the artist seems to 
 have caricatured the thing represented. In 
 one gem the central figure is that of a man 
 with two elbow joints in one of his arms! In 
 the same group two of the figures menace 
 each other with their fists, while two grotesque 
 animals in another corner make grimaces. 
 The whole is purposely done in the ridiculous 
 or satirical spirit. In some pieces the whole 
 group is composed of animals intentionally 
 misshapen and ludicrous. They make faces. 
 One takes the head of another in his mouth. 
 The wrong head is put on the body. A bird 
 is finished as a fish, and a goat ends like a 
 monkey. Among these odd conceits a human 
 figure appears. He would assert human dig- 
 nity by kicking out at the well-pleased mon- 
 sters around him. It is a mark of grotesque 
 fancy, perhaps tipped with satire. In other 
 gems there is a sort of procession of nonde- 
 script creatures flung from the fancy of the 
 artist. Some are comical; some, quaint; 
 some, it may be, serious. Generally a man 
 brings up the rear — human intelligence follow- 
 ing a nondescript cavalcade of the lower crea- 
 tures in the march of folly! It is hard to 
 discover whether the spirit of the work is that 
 of profound irony or of mere caprice. 
 
 One feature of the gem-engraving practiced 
 by the Babylonians may well excite some won- 
 der. This relates rather to the mechanical 
 than to the artistic part of the process. By 
 what means was the cuttiiig of the stones ac- 
 complished? In some cases, as when the 
 softer gems such as lapis-lazuli, serpentine, 
 and alabaster were used, the engraving would 
 be easily accomplished. But in the case of 
 the hard stones, such as cornelian, jasper. 
 
 agate, quartz, syenite, loadstone, and feldspar, 
 it is difficult to understand how the cutting 
 could be accomplished — what kind of tools 
 and devices could be employed in an unscien- 
 tific age to reach the required result. The 
 use of emery seems to have been a necessary 
 part of the process. From the nature of the 
 work done it appears that revolving points of 
 steel or some other substance equally hard and 
 tenacious would have been a sine qua nan of 
 the lapidary's bench. It should be observed 
 that the Babylonian gems indicate clearly the 
 superiority of the mechanical over the artistic 
 part of the process — a rare fact in the history 
 of ancient art. Modern curiosity may well 
 be racked to know by what kind of contri- 
 vances the work was accomplished. 
 
 Another fact stUl better calculated to excite 
 our astonishment is the minuteness of much 
 of the engraving. It seems impossible that it 
 could have been done without the use of mag- 
 nifying lenses. Indeed, the supposition of the 
 use of such devices is not wholly unwarranted. 
 It is certain that the manufacture of glass was 
 known and practiced by several of the nations 
 of antiquity, and the actual discovery by Mr. 
 Layard, at Nineveh, of a plano-convex lens 
 of rock crystal is proof positive of the exist- 
 ence of such knowledge in Assyria. Why not 
 in Babylonia? The gem-engraving of that 
 country seems to have demanded some such 
 scientific expedient. 
 
 It is not unlikely that the best and at the 
 same time most peculiar species of Babylonian 
 art has perished. This was pictorial enamel- 
 ing. It was practiced on the surface of glazed 
 bricks. The almost universal decay of the 
 great walls and bastions and buttresses of the 
 palaces and temples has carried down to dust 
 the artistic designs with which they w^ere em- 
 bellished. The ancient historians bear record 
 to the striking and beautiful effects which 
 were achieved in the surface decorations of 
 the public and private buildings of Babylon, 
 but the actual evidence has crumbled away 
 and the antiquary is put at fault. What is 
 known with respect to these remarkable pic- 
 torial representations is that their subjects 
 were selected chiefly from battle and the 
 chase, and that nearly all conspicuous build-
 
 BABYLONIA.— AETS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 271 
 
 ings were distinguished by their presence. 
 Just as the artistic sense of the Assyrians 
 found expression in the abundant sculptures 
 of Nineveh and Calah, so the taste of the 
 Babylonians sought and found gratification in 
 the colored designs of enameled walls. The 
 prophet Ezekiel speaks only common fame 
 when he refers to ' ' the image of the Chal- 
 dseans, portrayed upon the Avails with ver- 
 milion." He also describes the pictures thereon 
 as being "girded with girdles upon their loins, 
 exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all 
 of them princes to look to, after the manner 
 of the Babylonians of Chaldsea, the land of 
 their nativity." He further says that as soon 
 as Aholibah saw these images she doted xqwn 
 them, and sent messengers into Chaldsea. Such 
 was the influence of these striking pictures 
 upon those who visited the great city. All 
 the facts in the case go to show that according 
 to the then standards of art criticism the 
 enameled pictures on the walls of Babylonian 
 buildings were of a high degree of excellence. 
 The known skill of the Assyrians in sculpture 
 at a much earlier date, as well as the kinship 
 and similar tastes and activities of the two 
 peoples, render it inherently probable that the 
 Babylonian artists achieved with the brush 
 something of the same distinction attained by 
 their northern rivals with the chisel. It also 
 stands to reason that the artists of the two 
 nations would alike select from war and the 
 chase the principal subjects for delineation. 
 
 In the application of color the Babylonians 
 seem to have followed nature. The tints most 
 employed were white, blue, yellow, brown, and 
 black. Red was not much used. These colors 
 were distributed to difierent objects according 
 to the fitness of things. Water was repre- 
 sented with pale blue, and the earth with a 
 shade of yellow. Lions were painted a tawny 
 hue, and spear-heads black. 
 
 Chemical analysis shows that the pigments 
 employed on the decorated walls were essen- 
 tially the same as those used by modern artists. 
 The yellow was principally an oxide of iron; 
 the blue was produced by the oxidation of 
 cobalt or copper. The red was a sub-oxide 
 of the last-named metal. The yellow was 
 sometimes the antimoniate of lead. 
 
 The designs were painted on the surface 
 of brick walls before the glazing was applied. 
 Or, if the bricks were glazed before they were 
 laid, then the design was laid on with refer- 
 ence to the position which the bricks should 
 occupy in the structure. The latter suppo- 
 sition is borne out by the fact that the bricks 
 were so laid, and indeed so made, as to give 
 the figure represented on the surface a raised 
 character, like that attained in bas-relief. This 
 indicates no little skill in botn ^he artist and 
 the artisan. The eflfect could culy have been 
 reached by modeling a large mass of clay with 
 the desired figure in the surface, and then cut- 
 ting the same into bricks to be afterwards set 
 in the same relative position in the wall. All 
 of this implies a kind of designing, and an 
 adaptation of means to ends, of which modern 
 workmen need not be ashamed. 
 
 In the matter of metallurgy the Babylo' 
 nians had considerable attainments. Of the 
 precious metals, gold and silver were abun- 
 dantly employed. Of these were made the 
 vessels and utensils of the palace and the 
 temple. The chief of the baser metals were 
 iron and lead. The alloy, known as bronze, 
 was more important than either. Of this were 
 made the magnificent gates and doors for 
 which the great buildings of Babylon were 
 famous. The art of casting metals was well 
 known. The golden images found about the 
 temple altars and shrines were generally cast 
 in a mould. Sometimes, however, the idol 
 was of baser stufl^, plated with the precious 
 metal. The silver statuettes were in like man- 
 ner cast molten. The gold and silver facings 
 so much used as a covering for walls and fur- 
 niture were thin plates hammered into proper 
 shape. The great castings, such as enormous 
 bronze gates, doors, portcullises, etc., were of 
 a sort to be set in fair rivalry with the works 
 of modern times. Of smaller castings of the 
 same material there were a multitude: brace- 
 lets, armlets, dagger handles, small figures in 
 imitation of the human form, or the forms of 
 animals. Such were set as decorations about 
 the halls and hearths of the Babylonians. 
 
 The pottery of the nation was as good as 
 the fine wares of Assyria, from which it dif- 
 fered in no essential particular. Brick-making
 
 272 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 was better understood than by the Ninevites, 
 with whom stone was more prized. From the 
 kilns of Babylon all kinds of cups and vases 
 and jars were produced of good quality and 
 in great abundance. The colors preferred 
 were yellow and red and green. The vessels 
 thus produced were symmetrical, being evi- 
 dently the work of the potter's wheel. They 
 were of elegant shapes, but were without or- 
 namentation, the only exception being in the 
 case of vases, which sometimes have a raised 
 band carried around the exterior surface in 
 the form of a spiral. Glazing was frequently 
 employed, both without and within. 
 
 Among the other arts practiced by the 
 Babylonians was that of glass-blowing. Sev- 
 eral bottles and vases produced by this method 
 have been found in the ruins. These articles, 
 however, are not very perfect either in design 
 or execution. Every specimen is more or less 
 warped from symmetrical outlines. The glass 
 composing them is in some instances tolerably 
 clear; in others tinted with coloring matter. 
 There are some grounds for believing that the 
 artisans of the country were able to produce 
 large masses of solid glass, but no actual dis- 
 covery has verified the supposition. The 
 historian Pliny has contributed a rather apoc- 
 ryphal story about the presentation to an 
 Egyptian king by one of the Babylonian mon- 
 archs, of a huge block of green glass, or em- 
 erald, six feet in length and four and a half 
 feet broad. 
 
 No nation of antiquity, with the possible 
 exception of the Phoenicians, surpassed the 
 Babylonians in the manufacture of textile 
 fabrics. The products of the factories of the 
 capital were famous as far as civilization ex- 
 tended. As far west as Athens and Carthage 
 the carpets of Babylon were prized above 
 those of every other country. The dyes em- 
 ployed were imperishable, and the designs 
 used were artistic and beautiful. The figures 
 of animals, real and fabulous, were woven into 
 the patterns with wellnigh as much skill and 
 delicacy as by the looms of modern times. 
 In like manner cotton goods were produced 
 of the finest and best quality. Brilliant dyes 
 and beautiful patterns made these fabrics so 
 attractive that the kings and princes preferred 
 
 them for garments. Such goods were exported 
 to foreign countries, and were the admiration 
 of the connoisseurs of Sardis and Damascus 
 and Memphis. Nor was the manufacture of 
 linen less conspicuously successful. At Bor- 
 sippa and other places in Babylonia factories 
 were established which produced great quan- 
 tities of linen fabrics, these being the goods 
 commonly worn by the people.^ The nobles 
 l^referred cotton and woolen garments. 
 
 It is the misfortvme of nations living in a 
 pre-literary age that their learning is either 
 unknown or discredited by posterity. The 
 lore of the Chaldees perished for want of 
 books. The tradition of it only is preserved 
 in the literature of the Western nations. But 
 this reflected light has indicated ancient Chal- 
 dsea as the birthplace of several branches of 
 learning, most notably the science of astron- 
 omy. Over these old Babylonian plains was 
 arched a cloudless sky. The great heats of 
 midday made the calm twilights and starry 
 nights of summer the time of out-door medi- 
 tation. Overhead the benignant planets pur- 
 sued their everlasting courses. The upturned 
 face of that unscientific age caught from the 
 bending heavens the first sublime lessons of 
 the universe. To trace the paths of familiar 
 stars, to watch the silent revolution of the 
 celestial wheel, to note recurrences and then 
 to expect them, — these were but natural and 
 necessary stages in the sublime lore of the 
 heavens. 
 
 Thus would soon be developed a correct 
 perception of the differences between the 
 planets and stars, and a knowledge of the di- 
 verse laws by which they were respectively 
 governed. By and by the moon, as being a 
 wanderer, was associated with those five plan- 
 etary bodies discoverable by the naked eye, 
 and finally the sun himself was added as the 
 seventh globe of fire which seemed to- change 
 place among the fixed orbs of the skies. The 
 paths of these seven *' planets " were carefully 
 mapped, and the rudiments thus obtained of 
 
 ' It is interesting to note how the various prod- 
 ucts of manufacture will be reversed in value in. 
 the processes of civilization. The relative values 
 of cotton, linen, woolen, and even silk goods have 
 been many times interchanged in the course of 
 history. The same may occur again.
 
 BABYLONIA.-AETS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 273 
 
 a true science of astronomy. Of course, the 
 fundamental hypothesis of the solar system 
 was at fault, as it continued to be until the 
 days of Copernicus. 
 
 Beyond their knowledge of the planetary 
 system, the Babylonians made considerable 
 progress in the study of the fixed stars. These 
 were arranged in groups and constellations, 
 and upon them was conferred the imperish- 
 able poetry of names. The imagination of 
 the observer caught a resemblance in the 
 heavens to the things on earth. The figures 
 of the great animals of the terrestrial sphere 
 were transferred to the celestial, and sky-maps 
 were drawn with the outlines of these figures. 
 The poles of the heavens were fixed, and 
 Arcturus and Orion took their place, the one 
 with his bow and the other with his club, in 
 the blue pavilion spangled with points of fire. 
 From the Babylonians to the Greeks, from 
 the Greeks to the Arabians, from the Arabians 
 to Modern Europe, from Modern Europe to 
 the world, this old star lore of the East, with 
 its quaint uranography of animals and men 
 and monsters, has been transmitted, and the 
 science of to-day and to-morrow seems unable 
 to cast the spotted skin of the past! The 
 Zodiac is there with its Bull and its Lion and 
 its Virgin, and who shall ascend into heaven 
 to take them down? 
 
 In the British Museum is a conical, black 
 stone upon which are figured the Signs of the 
 Zodiac as taught by the Babylonian astrono- 
 mers. Several of the outlines are identical 
 with those presented on a modern celestial 
 sphere. The Ram, the Bull, and the Scorpion 
 are easily recognized among the groups, and 
 the genius of ancient Superstition makes com- 
 ical grimaces at the genius of recent Folly. 
 
 After the manner of their system and under 
 the limitations of their knowledge, the Baby- 
 lonians labored at the practical problems of 
 the heavens. Eclipses were calculated and 
 predicted ; the phenomena sometimes happen- 
 ing as foretold and sometimes falling wide of 
 the times specified. Of course, the calcula- 
 tions were based upon observations of recur- 
 rences and other data of a misleading charac- 
 ter rather than upon the well-known principles 
 of modern astronomy. Certain facts were 
 
 recognized, however, with respect to the mo- 
 tions of the sun and moon, tending to make 
 the calculations of the Babylonian seers more 
 trustworthy than at first sight would be con- 
 jectured. In the first place, the sun's course 
 through the Zodiac was carefully traced. The 
 signs of the great belt were called the 
 "Houses of the Sun "—for there the deity 
 seemed to lodge from month to month. In 
 like manner the path of the moon was accu- 
 rately mapped through the same zone of the 
 heavens. The " Houses of the Moon," mark- 
 ing the monthly stages of the silver orb, were 
 located as were the "Houses of the Sun." 
 Albeit, the two classes of "Houses" did not 
 exactly coincide, owing to the inclination of 
 the moon's orbit ; but the relations of the two 
 paths through space were so Avell determined as 
 to afford a fair basis of expectancy in the matter 
 of eclipses. The laws of nature, however, 
 Avere not sufficiently understood to remove 
 such striking phenomena from the realm of 
 superstition to the cool domain of Science. 
 The Babylonians, like the other peoples of 
 antiquity, looked on and shuddered while the 
 great mystery of darkness was accomplished. 
 Lists of eclipses as recorded by the astrono- 
 mers of Babylon and preserved by the Greek 
 historians have been verified by modern math- 
 ematicians, and have been found correct^ in 
 time and extent of obscuration. 
 
 The Babylonians also succeeded in a toler- 
 ably accurate measurement of time. They 
 fixed the length of the year at three hundred 
 and sixty-five days, six hours, and eleven 
 minutes— a very close approximation. By 
 means of the (jnomon and the polos, two vari- 
 eties of sun-dial, they kept the hours of the 
 day. The period of the moon's revolution in 
 her orbit was accurately determined, and the 
 relative — though not the absolute — distances 
 of the planets from the earth and from each 
 other seem to have been known. It is also 
 in evidence that some of the secondary planets, 
 as the four moons of Jupiter, had been ob- 
 served and figured by the sages of Babylon. 
 If we look at the uses to which the scholars 
 
 ^ The five most conspicuous examples — all be- 
 ing eclipses of the moon — belong to the years B. C. 
 747, 721, 720, 621, and 523.
 
 274 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Empire put their astronomical knowl- 
 edge, there is less to admire. The astrological 
 purpose Avas dominant. The astronomer was 
 expected to inquire under what stars a person 
 was born, and to determine therefrom his des- 
 tiny. The fortunes and fate of human life 
 were to be deduced from the aspects of the 
 skies. Sometimes the celestial influence, which 
 began with birth and ended only with death, 
 was benign, and sometimes malignant. A 
 particular star presided at the entrance of 
 each man into the world, but to determine the 
 entire destiny of his life the astrologer must 
 know the aspect of the whole heavens at the 
 moment of his entrance upon life. From 
 these higher offices, relating to the weal or woe 
 
 of human beings, the Babylonian sages de- 
 scended to such topics as meteorology. They 
 predicted the weather, the apparition of comets, 
 the coming of the earthquake. They kept 
 lists of lucky and unlucky days, and pointed 
 out in a semi-prophetical way the portents of 
 doom to particular countries and peoples. 
 Peace, prosperity, and plenty ; famine, pesti- 
 lence, and war, were all determined from the 
 overruling influence of the stars. 
 
 Such was the mixture of scientific truth 
 and vague superstition in the beliefs and scho- 
 lasticism of the Babylonians, who from the 
 great city of the Euphrates stretched out so 
 proudly the imperial rod over the nations of 
 Western Asia. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII.— NIANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 ONCERNING the Man- 
 ners and Customs of the 
 Babylonians, a great deal 
 may be inferred from 
 what has already been 
 said respecting the other 
 aspects of their civiliza- 
 tion. The monuments of the country being 
 so meager as compared with the unperishable 
 records left us by the primitive Egyptians and 
 the Assyrians, we are more at a loss to deduce 
 what may be called the Personal Life of the 
 people of Babylonia than in the case of the 
 ancient inhabitants of the valleys of the Nile 
 and the Tigris. We are left, therefore, rather 
 to the old historians tlian to contemporaneous 
 inscriptions, in determining the personal habits 
 and individuality of the subjects of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar. To Herodotus especially are we in- 
 debted for copious descriptions of w4iat he saw 
 and heard in Babylon. 
 
 Beginning with the subject of dress : the 
 people of the lower classes generally clad them- 
 selves in a linen garment reaching to the feet. 
 Over this a woolen tunic was worn, and this 
 was surmounted with a white cape. The feet 
 were sometimes incased in checkered shoes 
 with wooden bottoms. The hair was usually 
 
 worn long, and was gathered close to the head 
 under a sort of miter or turban. A cane or 
 walking-stick, with a carved handle, was a 
 universal accompaniment, especially in the 
 hands of gentlemen of leisure. The miter and 
 cape and Avoolen tunic of the Babylonian 
 attire were thrown off'as convenience suggested, 
 and the figures frequently appear merely with 
 the long linen robe. The worshipers in the 
 temples are generally bare-headed, and wear 
 to theii" devotions a peculiar embroidered 
 tunic, diflferent from that Avorn at labor. The 
 rich man at the altars of the gods is arrayed in 
 more costly style. He Avears a miter, and his 
 garments are longer and more elaborate than 
 are those Avoru by the peasantry. He is pic- 
 tured with a goat in his arms, or some other 
 sacrifice ready to be oflfered. In adjusting the 
 long or principal garment, the Babylonians 
 left the right arm and shoulder bare, some- 
 what after the manner of the Romans. 
 Around the waist the clothing was held se- 
 curely wath a belt. 
 
 A different style of dress was that of a short 
 coat with sleeves, fringed on the sides, reach- 
 ing to the knees. This also was w^orn by wor- 
 shipers in the temples, though sometimes in 
 every-day life by peasants. As a general rule
 
 BABYLONIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 275 
 
 the feet of the common people are bare, 
 though kings and noblemen are not so repre- 
 sented. Other parts of the royal attire were 
 distinguished both in pattern and material 
 from the dress of the people. His gown de- 
 scended to the ankles. It was richly fringed 
 and embroidered. A vestment worn over this 
 came as low as the knees, and was adorned 
 with tassels. In addition to the regular girdle 
 two cross belts, perhaps to support the mon- 
 arch's quiver, are seen on the royal person. 
 The miter or turban was of great height, 
 cylindrical in shape, and expanded towards 
 the crown. It covered nearly the whole head, 
 resting close upon the brows. The material 
 was of some kind of felt-cloth, elaborately 
 wrought and brilliantly dyed to please the 
 kingly fancy. 
 
 The chief articles of mere adornment were 
 the bracelets. The figures on the cylinders 
 indicate that the kings had the good taste to 
 leave earrings to others. In some instances 
 collars or necklaces were worn by royal person- 
 ages, and these articles are sometimes found 
 about the necks of the gods. The collars 
 were made of joints or rings of gold or silver, 
 and the bracelets were plain bands of the same 
 precious metals. 
 
 As in most of the ancient countries, the 
 garments of the priests were costly and elab- 
 orate. The princij)al article was a long robe, 
 ornamented from top to bottom with a series 
 of flounces. Over this Avas placed an open 
 jacket, finished in the same style as the robe. 
 Down the back hung a long scarf or ribbon. 
 The head-dress was a tiara or miter, different 
 in pattern from those turbans worn by other 
 people of high or low degree. Sometimes the 
 priestly cap was pointed with horns in a way 
 to suggest the sacerdotal head-gear of the 
 Egyptians. The priests went barefoot before 
 the altars of the gods. 
 
 Of military armor and dress not so much 
 is known as of the garments of the priestly 
 caste. The principal articles worn by soldiers 
 were helmets, breast-plates, and shields. The 
 material used was bronze. The articles car- 
 ried were bows and arrows, spears, daggers, 
 and clubs. The bows are of the usual pat- 
 tern, and might be mistaken for those of 
 
 American Indians. The curve extends from 
 end to end; the length is about four feet. 
 The quiver, too, is the ordinary sheath, such 
 as is used by the half-civilized races of to-day. 
 The arrows are three feet in length, barbed 
 with a metallic point, feathered and notched 
 to receive the string. In the soldier's girdle 
 were worn his daggers, many specimens of 
 which have been discovered and are preserved 
 in modern museums. No battle-axes have 
 been found, but the same are represented ii 
 several patterns on the cylinders. The draw- 
 ings indicate that the weapons were rude and 
 clumsy, such as are employed by people just 
 emerging from savagery.^ 
 
 The Babylonian army embraced the three 
 divisions of infantry, cavalry, and chariots. 
 The tactics and discipline were essentially the 
 same as those employed by the Assyrians. A 
 few representations of war-chariots have been 
 found on the cylinders. The pattern and equip- 
 ment are like those seen in the sculptures of 
 Nineveh, but the drawings are rude, and the 
 details can not be determined. The cavalry 
 was regarded by foreign nations as the most 
 formidable division of the army. The prophet 
 Habakkuk, who had occasion to know whereof 
 he affirmed, says of the Babylonian soldiery: 
 "They are terrible and dreadful. From them 
 shall proceed judgment and captivity; their 
 horses also are swifter than the leopards, and 
 are more fierce than the evening wolves. And 
 their horsemen shall spread themselves, and 
 their horsemen shall come from far ; they shall 
 fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. And they 
 shall scofl^ at the kings, and the princes shall 
 be a scorn unto them : they shall deride every 
 stronghold ; for they shall heap up the earth 
 and take it." A like fame is given to the 
 Babylonian cavalry by Jeremiah, and others 
 of the Hebrew seers. In later times, how- 
 ever, as appears from the distribution of the 
 forces in the army of Xerxes, the horsemen 
 of Babylonia were less esteemed than the 
 infantry, perhaps on account of the superior 
 reputation which had now been attained by 
 
 * A battle-axe, pictured on a clay tablet discov- 
 ered in the ruins of Sinkara, is thought, from its 
 primitive pattern, to have belonged to the Chaldaic 
 period.
 
 276 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the cavalry of the Medes and Persians them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Babylonian infantry was a vast mass 
 of half-disciplined soldiers, made up of na- 
 tives, provincials, and foreigners. They were 
 irregular, both in movement and weaponry. 
 Each of the subject nations sent its own con- 
 tingent of troops, armed and equipped accord- 
 ing to the manner of the respective countries. 
 It was a courageous host, having an almost 
 fatalistic contempt of death, inspired by the 
 hope of booty and fired with the lust of con- 
 quest. In marching, the army spread itself 
 over the invaded country, destroying every 
 thing within reach. The populace was driven 
 before them into the towns. These were be- 
 sieged and taken with every accompaniment 
 of violence and barbarity. If the walls were 
 weak, they were soon leveled with battering- 
 rams. If the ramparts resisted such assault, 
 then mounds of earth were heaped outside 
 until the fortifications were overtopped, and 
 the infuriated soldiery poured in to their re- 
 past of blood and plunder. Sometimes, when 
 the walls were high and strong and ably de- 
 fended, years were consumed in the siege, the 
 vengeance of the besiegers gathering head to 
 burst with the excess of long-restrained rage 
 upon the fated city. Woe to the rebellious, 
 and a double woe to them that resisted ! 
 
 The campaigns of the Babylonians were 
 waged without much regard to political expe- 
 diency. The object had in view was rarely, 
 if ever, the national development of the Em- 
 pire. Passion was the mainspring of war. 
 When that failed, the priests were called in 
 with their hocus-pocus to decide what nation 
 should be next invaded I In the progress and 
 management of the invasion the priests were 
 as much relied on as the generals to give di- 
 rection to the movements and to explain the 
 failures and successes of the army. The wars, 
 indeed, were regarded as the avenging bolts 
 of the Babylonian gods, hurled against the 
 impudent deities of other lands. Meanwhile, 
 if a royal indigestion precipitated a bad dream, 
 or if the king was from any cause troubled 
 in his cogitations, all must be interpreted and 
 made clear by the clever gentlemen who wore 
 the robes of the altar. The only compensa- 
 
 tion to this mutual superstition was that if the 
 priests failed to satisfy the king's spirit with 
 their rendering of his troubles, or if they 
 gave advice ending in disaster which could 
 not be explained away, their gods were rarely 
 able to save them from their master's wrath. 
 
 Looking more closely at the priestly pro- 
 fession, not merely in their relations to mili- 
 tary management, but more particularly as to 
 their regular duties in the temples, we find 
 them, as were the priests of Egypt, the pos- 
 sessors of a certain body of learning and tra- 
 ditions. They had rules and precedents, dog- 
 mas and ceremonials. They had methods of 
 purification, and laws for conducting the sac- 
 rifices. They had principles of interpretation, 
 and a canon of criticism relating to portents 
 and omens. Their wisdom was in high repute. 
 From king to peasant no one might question 
 the infallibility of their oracles. 
 
 It is not certainly known to what extent 
 there was in Babylon a guild of secular schol- 
 ars distinct from the priests. There are some 
 reasons for believing that such a class of per- 
 sons existed ; and the condition of Babylonian 
 learning — a mixture, as we have seen, of tol- 
 erably exact science with gross superstition — 
 seems to warrant the supposition of a secular 
 as well as a hierarchical brain at work in the 
 problem. The language of contemporaneous 
 Western writers also, notably the expressions 
 of the prophet Daniel, indicate quite clearly 
 the existence of several classes of wise men in 
 Nebuchadnezzar's capital. Some are called 
 simply Chaldseans; some, soothsayers; some, 
 magicians; some, astrologers. Nor does the 
 language indicate that these are merely differ- 
 ent names for the same group of persons. It 
 could not even be inferred from the recital of 
 Daniel that any of the classes referred to were 
 priests. Indeed, it would seem clear from the 
 presidency of Daniel (himself a Hebrew and 
 not a priest) over the Babylonian college that 
 a powerful non-priestly element existed in the 
 learned body of the city.' In all such ques- 
 tions, however, it should be always borne in 
 mind that the office of the priest in most of 
 the nations of antiquity was that of a natural 
 philosopher, rather than of a spiritual guide. 
 He was expected to interpret the phenomena
 
 BABYLONIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 277 
 
 of nature, for with those phenomena the an- 
 cients were much more concerned than with 
 the mysteries of spix'itual being or the possi- 
 bilities of immortality. 
 
 However these questions may be decided, 
 there is no doubt that the philosophers and 
 priests of the Babylonian Empire exercised 
 great influence in the afiairs of the state. 
 They held high office. They were the king's 
 advisers. They conducted the ceremonials of 
 religion. They were reputed to have the 
 confidence of the gods. By degrees the priests 
 became a caste. They had their own rules 
 and discipline. Their sons were brought up 
 to perform the duties of their fathers. Around 
 this organization grew a certain body of 
 literature, in which were recorded the tradi- 
 tions of the past and the speculations of the 
 present. The history of the ancient Chal- 
 dseans, chronological lists of kings real and 
 mythical, treatises on grammar and law and 
 science — such were the materials of which the 
 Babylonian sages constructed their meager 
 kingdom of letters. 
 
 The principal schools and seats of learning 
 in Babylonia were at the old towns of Erech 
 and Borsippa. At these places a certain de- 
 gree of mental activity and 'even audacity was 
 developed. There were scholastic schisms and 
 disputatious factions suggestive of Greek 
 wrangling and mediaeval dogmatism. But 
 under this superficial agitation, such as will 
 always exist when the human mind undertakes 
 to drag Nature up to the temple of Truth, 
 there was a vast deal of practical scientific 
 knowledge. Mathematics, astronomy, and 
 other branches of natui'al philosophy were 
 cultivated with such success as to leave a trace 
 on all subsequent history. 
 
 As already indicated the two principal pur- 
 suits of the Babylonian common folk were 
 agriculture and commerce; after these, manu- 
 factures loomed into much importance. Of 
 the kinds of agricultural work and the meth- 
 ods of tillage not much is known beyond what 
 has ah-eady been presented in the Histoiy of 
 Chaldsea. The products were the same, and 
 the cultivation perhaps identical. 
 
 From Babylon the lines of commerce 
 stretched out to nearly all the countries of 
 
 the known world. The merchants, resident 
 and traveling, constituted a large per cent of 
 the population. Their energy and success 
 are attested by tradition and history. They 
 were both exporters and importers; and the 
 shops of Babylon displayed an array of goods 
 from almost every land. Not only by land, 
 but by sea as well, was this commerce carried 
 on. Around the shores of the Persian Gulf, 
 and as ambition and cupidity increased along 
 the distant coasts of Africa and India, 
 the ships of the merchant princes of the 
 great city sailed Avith their cargoes and re- 
 turned laden. Babylon was called the " City 
 of Merchants," and the Babylonians in the 
 army of Xerxes were known as the "Navi- 
 gators of Ships." 
 
 The leading articles of merchandise were 
 wool, linen, cotton, and the fabrics made 
 therefrom. The precious metals were im- 
 ported from distant mines. From Phoenicia 
 were brought tin and copper. Gold and ivory 
 were gathered from Arabia ; silk, from India. 
 Media contributed wool and several varieties 
 of precious stones. From Upper Mesopotamia 
 were imported — by way of the great rivers — 
 wine and gems, emery and building stone. 
 With these imports came foreign merchants 
 as well as native traders — in the shops of 
 Babylon was heard the jargon of tongues and 
 the noise of them who sell and get gain. 
 
 The staple of the Babylonian table was the 
 dried fruit of the date tree: this for the com- 
 mon peasants. Herodotus declares it to have 
 been the bread of the people. The dates were 
 gathered when ripe, and were pressed into 
 cakes in the same manner in which they are 
 prepared at the present time. The goat fur- 
 nished milk and cheese. The sap and pith 
 of the palm yielded, under fermentation, the 
 palm-wine which was served on the table. 
 Of vegetables the chief were cucumbers and 
 melons. Of the oddities of the Babylonian 
 board may be mentioned gourds and pickled 
 bats — the latter especially beiug a dish which 
 could hardly excite the appetite of a modern 
 epicure. The markets of the country always 
 abounded in fish. It constituted one of the 
 chief articles of diet, particularly of those 
 living on the borders of the provincial marshes
 
 278 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Empire or along the Gulf. Fishes 
 were taken with hooks and nets, and were 
 cured in the sun. Sometimes a "fish-cake" 
 was produced by pounding and straining the 
 fiber and reducing it to a compact mass, like 
 bread. As already narrated, the tables of the 
 rich were loaded with viands and delicacies. 
 
 No people lived more luxuriously, as it re- 
 spects banqueting and feasting, than did the 
 ancient Babylonians. The supper of princes 
 was a revel, at which voluptuousness and in- 
 toxication, heightened with music, were the 
 presiding genii. An orchestra of trained per- 
 formers sat conspicuous and discoursed mellif- 
 luous strains, while the perfumed guests were 
 plied with wine. Indeed, the music of the 
 Babylonians, struck from fine instruments of 
 many sorts and fashions, was a notable feature 
 of social life. Alike in the royal banqueting- 
 halls and in the huts of the peasantry, in the 
 stores and market-houses as well as in the 
 painted palaces and the temples of the gods, 
 sweet strains were heard to inspire the courage 
 or lull the senses of the people. 
 
 The position of the women of the Empire 
 was peculiar. It began in abasement and 
 came near ending in honor. When a maiden 
 became marriageable, Avhich she did at an 
 early age, she was subject to be sold by pub- 
 lic auction. Her father or brother might thus 
 expose her to the excited passions of rival 
 
 bidders. The custom was commonly practiced, 
 and, as it appears, without compunction on 
 the part of either seller or buyer. When the 
 creature was thus sold and delivered over to 
 lawless rapacity, it was with the understand- 
 ing that she should at some time go of her 
 own accord to the temple of Beltis and deliver 
 herself up to the first stranger whom she met. 
 And this Esplanade of Shame was always 
 thronged with visitors! 
 
 These two degrading customs apart, the 
 women of Babylonia fared much better than 
 in most other Eastern countries. There was 
 no harem, properly so called. AVomen were 
 apparently free from that degrading seclusion 
 which oriental despots have contrived to pre- 
 serve the purity of the sex! Nor do the an- 
 nals of the Empire indicate that the wives of 
 the Babylonian kings and princes were worse 
 treated or held in less esteem than were the 
 women of Macedonia or Carthage. From the 
 pictorial sketches found on the cylinders, rep- 
 resenting the various vocations and pleasures 
 of the Babylonian women, even among the 
 peasantry, it would not appear that their lot 
 was to be more deplored than that of the 
 men of their age and country. Doubtless, the 
 relations of the sexes then, as always under 
 the present constitution of human nature, 
 were to a certain degree refined by mutual 
 sorrow and hallowed by the blessedness of love. 
 
 CHAPTKR XXIV.— reliqion. 
 
 FEW paragraphs will 
 suffice to give an outline 
 of the theology and re- 
 ligious rites of the Baby- 
 lonians. Their system 
 Avas so little deflected 
 from that of primitive 
 Chaldfea that the whole subject might be dis- 
 missed with a simple reference to what has 
 been said in the Second Book respecting the 
 religion of the Chaldees. The original gods 
 of the plains of Shinar survived the shock of 
 the Assyrian conquest, and revived without a 
 
 
 m^a M 
 
 vSi 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 change of n.ame or feature amid the splendors 
 of the Later Empire. Nebuchadnezzar might 
 have walked to the temple arm in arm with 
 the shade of Kudur-Lagamer, and the twain 
 would have found no cause of controversy! 
 True, some subtle distinctions had arisen with 
 which the elder was unfamiliar in his day, 
 but they were not such as to disturb his faith 
 or shock his orthodoxy. 
 
 The few changes which occurred in the re- 
 ligious development of the Chaldsean into the 
 Babylonian system had respect to such points 
 as the relative rank of different deities, and
 
 BAB YL ONIA.— RELIGION. 
 
 279 
 
 to such non-esseiitials as tlie matter of names 
 and epithets. In several instances, the higher 
 god of the Chaldseans becomes the lower of 
 the Babylonians, and vice versa. Thus Mero- 
 dach, who was inferior to Bel in the primitive 
 pantheon, was made his superior by the priests 
 of Nebuchadnezzar. Nabonadius, however, 
 resented the degradation of Bel and restored 
 him to his supremacy. In like manner, there 
 was a confusion and even blending of the 
 names and offices of Beltis and Ishtar, who 
 are sometimes spoken of as one and the same 
 divinity. 
 
 The three great gods of the Babylonian 
 system were Bel, Merodach, and Nebo. After 
 these was Nergal, who had the principal seat 
 of his worship at Cutha. Bel and Merodach 
 were the supreme deities of Babylon. Here 
 once a year, in the magnificent temple of the 
 former god, a great festival was celebrated. 
 A splendid jDrocession was formed in his honor, 
 and on the broad altar in front of his shrine 
 a thousand talents of frankincense were burned. 
 Nebo was the tutelary deity of Borsippa. His 
 worship was especially popular, and his name 
 was incorporated in the names of a majority 
 of the Babylonian kings. The great monarchs, 
 
 IMAGE OF BEELZEBUB, THE FLY GOD. 
 
 JVafco-polassar, iVefcit-chadnezzar, and Naho- 
 nadius, were so-called after their patron god. 
 The names of Nergal and Bel occur in like 
 manner, but less frequently. The worship of 
 the Moon as the deity of Borsippa, and the 
 
 Sun at Sippara, has already been described in 
 the Book on Chaldsea. 
 
 In all the Babylonian temples were images 
 of the gods. It does not appear, however, 
 that the worship conducted before these 
 images was downright idolatry. The theory 
 of the priests was — as it 
 has ever been — that the 
 mind of the worshiper was 
 fixed upon the deity by 
 means of the symbol. To 
 many of the ignorant 
 masses, however, the idol 
 was doubtless the god, and 
 the god the idol. An in- 
 termediate class believed 
 that the deity came down 
 at certain times, and ate 
 and drank the ofierings 
 which were left before his 
 
 imao-e image of ashtaroth. 
 
 The making of idols was a regular trade in 
 the city. The god-smith was in good repute. 
 The materials used in the fabrication of images 
 were gold, silver, bronze, and stone — accord- 
 ing to the costliness of the temple and shrine 
 wherein the statues were to be placed. Some 
 of the idols were cast solid ; others were of 
 the base metals, or even of clay, overlaid or 
 plated with gold or silver. 
 
 Each one of the Babylonian temples had its 
 retinue of i:)riests. To them the management 
 of the shrines and images and the conduct of 
 worship were intrusted. These hierarchs 
 lived either in the temple itself or in adjacent 
 houses assigned to their use. They married 
 and reared families just as the members of 
 other professions, and their places in the 
 priestly office were taken by their sons. In 
 many cases, however, the sacred college was 
 recruited from the ranks of the laity, nor was 
 any marked discrimination made even against 
 foreigners. In the conduct of the ceremonies 
 of their religion the priests were formal and 
 dignified. Their dresses were rich to the last 
 degree, and the public services were pompous 
 and magnificent. The altars were hidden 
 under clouds of frankincense ; costly offerings 
 were laid on the shrine ; victims bled to satisfy 
 the hunger of the gods. The great occasions
 
 280 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of religious solemnity were holidays in the 
 city. Processions were formed and banquets 
 spread in honor of such days. Wine flowed 
 freely. Priests and people alike gave way to 
 the revel. The gods were said to rejoice and 
 drink with their Avorshipers, and all the ex- 
 cesses of the festival were shared in common 
 by men and deities.^ During such seasons of 
 religious abandonment the esplanade before 
 the temple of Beltis was more than usually 
 thronged with women and strangers to fulfill 
 the degrading injunctions of that goddess and 
 her priests. 
 
 As among the Egyptians and the Jews, 
 certain requirements were made of the Baby- 
 lonians respecting personal cleanliness. Ab- 
 lutions and the burning of incense were the 
 means employed to purify those who were de- 
 filed. The newly-married were unclean, and 
 were obliged to sit for a season before a burn- 
 ing censer. The touch of a dead body, and 
 many other acts analogous to those interdicted 
 by the Egyptian priests and by Moses, ren- 
 dered the person unclean ; and Avhatever thing 
 the unclean touched was in like manner de- 
 filed. After the prescribed formula of purifi- 
 cation the unclean were restored to purity and 
 returned to the ordinary duties of life. 
 
 The Babylonian priests were mystics. They 
 delighted in the substitution of the symbol for 
 the thing. They assigned to their deities, and 
 to many other facts of their religion, sacred 
 numbers and signs by which the divine things 
 were known in conversation and writing. 
 Thus the god Anu was numbered 60; Bel, 
 50; and Hea, 40. The Moon was 30; the 
 Sun, 20; and Vul, 10. Beltis Avas 15, and 
 Nergal 12. Besides these numbers, which 
 were usually employed instead of the sacred 
 names for which they stood, many other signs 
 
 ' It was on occasions of this sort that the priestess 
 of the temple had the splendid gold-embroidered 
 couch of the inner shrine prepared for herself and 
 for the god who was said to visit her. 
 
 and symbols were used in the same mys- 
 tical manner. The surfaces of the cylinders 
 arc in some instances almost covered with 
 these signs, the same being placed here and 
 there in all the vacant spaces of the regular 
 inscription. Among such signs may be men- 
 tioned the circle crossed with transverse di- 
 ameters, which was the symbol of Shamas^ 
 god of the Sun ; also the six-rayed star, which 
 was the emblem of Anunit. Vul, the air-god, 
 was represented by a triple thunderbolt, and 
 Hea by a serpent. Ishtar was symbolized by 
 the female form, and Bar by a fish. Beside* 
 those signs, the meanings of which have been 
 determined, many more are found, the sig- 
 nificance of Avhich has not yet been deter- 
 mined — and may never be. Prominent among 
 these uninterpreted symbols are the double 
 cross, the jar, the altar, the lozenge, and many 
 kinds of beasts and birds." To these may be 
 added the double horn, the sacred tree, and 
 the sjjearhead, all of which are many times- 
 repeated on the cylinders. It is safe to infer 
 that all these signs had reference to the theo- 
 logical notions and religious ceremonies of the 
 Babylonians, that they were understood by 
 the priests and perhaps by the people, and 
 that the final purpose of such symbolization 
 was to prevent the most sacred ideas and words 
 of religion from becoming too common by 
 rej^etitiou on the lips of the vulgar. 
 
 Most of the great temples of Babylonia 
 had symbolic names, the meanings of which 
 have not been determined. Such names are 
 nearly always preceded by the syllable bit, and 
 this part is evidently identical with the He- 
 brew word beth, meaning a "house." Thus 
 the names of some of the most noted temples 
 were Bit-Saggath, Bit- Ana, Bit-Parra, Bit- 
 Ulmis, Bit-Tsida, etc.; but the meanings of 
 these primitive words, Saggath, Parra, Ulmis, 
 etc. , are unknown. The sense and the symbol 
 have sunk together into that oblivious dust 
 from which there is no resurrection.
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 281 
 
 CHAPITER XXV.— CiVIIv AND NlILIXARY ANNALS. 
 
 ABYLON was 
 seven kings. 
 
 ruled by 
 Of these 
 the great names are Na- 
 bopolassar, Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, and Nabonadiue. The 
 history of the Empire be- 
 gins with the accession 
 of the first named, in the year B. C. 625. 
 Babylonia, however, as a province or vice- 
 royalty of Assyria, had had an existence 
 extending over several centuries. The As- 
 syrian conquest had never extinguished the 
 southern kingdom, but merely reduced it to a 
 position of subordination. There was thus in- 
 terposed between the time of the capture of 
 Babylon by the Assyrians, in B. C. 1300, 
 with the consequent transfer of the leadership 
 of the Mesopotamian nations to Nineveh, and 
 the sudden revival of Babylonian indepen- 
 dence under Nabopolassar, a long and dubious 
 period in the history of the ancient kingdom 
 of the South — a period in which the political 
 status of Babylonia fluctuated between abso- 
 lute subjection and quasi independence. It is 
 in this chaotic time, between the extinction 
 of the Chaldsean monarchy and the restitution 
 under Nabopolassar, that the beginnings of 
 Babylonian history must be sought and found. 
 Very soon after the conquest of the coun- 
 try by Tiglathi-Adar, in B. C. 1300, it was 
 found desirable to govern Babylonia as a 
 viceroyalty rather than as an integral part of 
 the Assyrian Empire. In order to prevent 
 revolts and to insure the loyalty of the pro- 
 vincial government, the Ninevite kings were 
 careful for a long time to select, as their vice- 
 roys in the South, princes and nobles of As- 
 syrian blood. With this precaution, the 
 province was left in a state of comparative 
 independence, subject only to the regular pay- 
 ment of the tribute. It was but natural, 
 however, that these Babylonian governors, so 
 far removed from Nineveh, should frequently 
 look askance at the doings of the home gov- 
 ernment, and that they should see in the situ- 
 
 ation the suggestion of independence. Even 
 under a certain Nebuchadnezzar, the first 
 Babylonian viceroy, there were two outbreaks 
 on the part of the governor. He made con- 
 siderable headway against the forces of Asshur- 
 Kis-Ilim, the then Assyrian king, and though 
 defeated and driven back, he retired into his 
 government without serious punishment. 
 
 When Asshur-Ris-Ilim was succeeded by his 
 son, Tiglath-Pileser I., the latter determined 
 to avenge the insult offered to his country and 
 led an army into Babylonia. Merodach-Iddin- 
 Akhi had now become viceroy, and between 
 him and the Assyrian there was a struggle 
 for the mastery. The Babylonians were 
 beaten. Several of their cities were takefi, 
 including the two Sipparas, Opis, and Baby- 
 lon ; but there was still vigor enough left in 
 the army of the viceroy to pursue and harass 
 the king as he retired from the country. It 
 is said, even, that Merodach in one instance 
 made a dash on the rear of the Assyrian 
 army, and succeeded in capturing and carrying 
 away the images of the gods, which Pileser 
 had brought along to protect him. These 
 disturbances continued during the two suc- 
 ceeding reigns, and it was not until the close 
 of the first century after the conquest that a 
 state of comparative quiet was attained. 
 
 This more peaceful condition was brought 
 about rather by the weakening of Assyrian 
 influence than by any stupor among the 
 Babylonians. For about two hundred years 
 (B. C. 1100-900), the power which had been 
 so signally established by Tiglathi-Adar was 
 allowed to decline in the hands of incompetent 
 successors. Meanwhile the Babylonians, re- 
 covering from the depression of conquest, 
 flourished and extended their influence, polit- 
 ical and commercial, into several surrounding 
 countries. But, Avith the accession, in the 
 year B. C. 880, of Asshur-Izir-Pal, a new en- 
 ergy was diffused in Assyrian affairs. This 
 monarch marched an army into Babylonia, 
 and recovered all those territories over which
 
 282 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the viceroys had in the interim extended their 
 authority. 
 
 In the year 850 B. C. a civil broil arose 
 in Babylonia, and the distraction thus entailed 
 gave an easy opportunity to the son of Asshur- 
 Izir-Pal still further to humble the ambitions 
 of the Babylonians. He had the prudence to 
 espouse the cause of the legitimate viceroy, 
 who was opposed by a younger brother. The 
 Assyrian king was admitted to Babylon. The 
 younger brother was slain, and the rightful 
 governor restored to his authority. But the 
 Assyrian, having thus become strong by acting 
 as arbiter in a civil war, proceeded to make him- 
 self more completely than ever master of the 
 whole of Lower Mesopotamia. Those districts 
 which had been dependent upon Babylonia 
 were made to feel that a mightier than Baby- 
 lonia had come. Their petty kings were dis- 
 placed. Assyrians were put in their stead, 
 and tribute exacted from all the provinces of 
 the South. The relation of the viceroyalty to 
 the Ninevite power was no longer ambiguous. 
 
 Nine years later the country was again — 
 and this time wantonly — invaded by the As- 
 syrians. The object seems to have been mere 
 spoliation. The viceroy met his antagonist in 
 the field, and was twice disastrously defeated. 
 He was obliged to make an absolute submis- 
 sion. Babylon fell to the rank of a provin- 
 cial city, subject to a heavy tribute. For 
 more than fifty years this state of miserable 
 subjection continued. Not until the disturbed 
 reign of Asshur-Dayan III. , B. C. 770, did a 
 revival take place in the fortunes of Babylo- 
 nia. PuL was now the provincial governor. 
 Taking advantage of the troubles in Assyria, 
 he organized an army, overran Lower Meso- 
 potamia, made a successful campaign into the 
 upper valley of the Euphrates, and carried 
 his victorious arms without serious opposition 
 into Syria and even Palestine. These bold 
 movements on the part of Pul cleared the 
 ground for the still more marked successes 
 which were to follow. 
 
 In 747 B. C. Nabonassar became ruler of 
 Babylonia. He is generally regarded as the 
 first king of the Later Empire. Certain it is 
 that by him Babylonian independence was for 
 a time reestablished. The ambition of this 
 
 monarch, however, seems to have extended no 
 further than Babylonia Proper. The other 
 dependent provinces of the South were left to 
 go their ways. Several of them succeeded 
 for a season in throwing off the yoke and 
 reaching up towards sovereignty. Thus did 
 Yakin, chief of one of the coast provinces. 
 Thus also did Nadina and Zakiru, two other 
 local rulers in the northern part of Lower 
 Mesopotamia. Babylonia under Nabonassar 
 was thus restricted to her narrowest limits. 
 Nevertheless, the kingdom was so completely 
 established as to constitute the beginning of a 
 new era, from which are dated the subsequent 
 events in the history of the Empire.^ 
 
 It does not appear that the rather easy- 
 going Tiglath-Pileser II. , king of Assyria, was 
 much disturbed by Nabonassar's assumption 
 of sovereignty. In the early part of his reign 
 he made an invasion of Chaldsea, but his 
 object seems to have been merely to humble 
 Merodach-Baladan — son and successor of Ya- 
 kin, mentioned above — who was trying to 
 maintain local independence. Pileser does 
 not seem to have troubled himself with the 
 more important work of humbling Nabonas- 
 sar, who was, perhaps, too large game for the 
 king's quiver. All of this inured greatly to 
 the benefit of the Babylonian, who witnessed 
 with delight the subjugation of the petty, re- 
 bellious princes of his own neighborhood by 
 the Assyrians. It saved himself the trouble 
 of making war upon the insurrectionists within 
 his own borders. That which humbled them 
 gave him strength. The broken-down prov- 
 inces of the South naturally looked to him as 
 a leader and protector, since he only seemed 
 able to stand without alarm in the presence 
 of the majesty of Assyria. 
 
 The reign of Nabonassar extended from 
 B. C. 747 to B. C. 733. With him, according 
 to Herodotus and other ancient writers, was 
 associated his mother, Semiramis. Attempts 
 have been made to show that she and the As- 
 syrian Semiramis were one and the same per- 
 
 ^ It should not be forgotten in this connection 
 that Nabonassar took care to have destroyed the 
 records of his predecessor in order to make sure 
 his own place in history as the founder of a dy- 
 nasty.
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 283 
 
 sonage. If we are to trust the accepted 
 chronologies, the Assyrian queen flourished a 
 full half century before the date assigned to 
 the Babylonian. Possibly there were two 
 princesses of the same name. Possibly a mis- 
 take has been made in the dates, x^t any 
 rate it appears that the queen-mother— or 
 queen-wife, as some say— of Nabonassar exer- 
 cised a large influence during his reign, and 
 added to the traditional glory of the name of 
 Semiramis, 
 
 Nabonassar conducted no important wars, 
 and added nothing by conquest to his domin- 
 ions. After a reign of fourteen years he was 
 succeeded by an obscure prince, called NADros. 
 He is not reckoned among the "kings," and 
 his two successors, Chinzinus and Porus, were 
 still less worthy to be counted among the 
 great rulers of Babylon. The next was named 
 Elulacus, who is rather a mythical than a 
 historical personage. Nadius is said to have 
 reigned for two years, and the others followed 
 in quick succession. None of the four left 
 any distinct impress on the history of their 
 times, nor do they seem to have been honored 
 even in their own country. With the accession 
 of Merodach-Baladan, however, another era 
 of prosperity and power dawned in Babylonia. 
 This ambitious prince had been the ruler of 
 a province in the times of Nabonassar, and in 
 the vicissitudes that followed that monarch's 
 death gained such influence as to make him- 
 self the successor of Elulacus. He had, after 
 his father's death, been obliged by Tiglath- 
 Pileser to acknowledge himself tributary to 
 Assyria; but this was done with a mental 
 reservation, and after remaining for a while 
 in obscurity, he suddenly availed himself of 
 a change of dynasties in both Assyria and 
 Babylonia to extend his authority over the 
 latter country. This was accomplished in the 
 year 721 B. C, coincidently with the acces- 
 sion of Sargon to the throne of Nineveh. 
 
 It was a precarious assumption of power. 
 Merodach-Baladan seemed to realize the peril 
 of his situation. Sargon, the new monarch of 
 Assyria, was not a ruler to be trifled with. 
 The Babylonian saw that he must fight. For 
 some time the affairs at Nineveh were in such 
 a condition as to favor Merodach's usurpation. 
 
 A period of twelve years intervened before 
 Sargon was ready to turn his attention to 
 affairs in Babylonia. This interval had been 
 well employed by the king of that country in 
 preparations for the conflict. He had suc- 
 ceeded in building up a formidable league to 
 resist the further encroachments of Assyrian 
 ambition. He established friendly relations 
 with Hezekiah, king of Judah. Sabak, the 
 Egyptian Pharaoh, also entered into the plans 
 of Merodach, and thus an alliance was effected 
 between Babylonia and Susiana in the East 
 and Egypt and Palestine in the West. The 
 array thus presented to Sargon was not to be 
 despised. 
 
 The geographical position of the parties, 
 however, greatly favored the Assyrians. Nin- 
 eveh was so situated with respect to Babylonia 
 and Syria as to enable Sargon to divide the 
 parties to the league. He could easily thrust 
 his armies between those of his antagonists 
 and beat them in detail. He accordingly or- 
 ganized two campaigns, one against Egypt 
 and one against Babylon. The allies were 
 unable to withstand him. In B. C. 711 he 
 made his way into Egypt. The stronghold of 
 Ashdod was taken without much resistance, 
 and Pharaoh Sabak made haste to send an 
 embassy suing for peace. Egyptian depen- 
 dency was reestablished, and Sargon turned 
 his attention to the reduction of Babylonia. 
 
 In the next year he marched into Lower 
 Mesopotamia. A decisive battle was fought, 
 and Merodach-Baladan was completely over- 
 thrown. He retreated into his native prov- 
 ince, and shut himself 4n the fortress of 
 Yakin; but Sargon pursued him, took the 
 city, got possession of the Babylonian himself, 
 and carried him oflf to Nineveh. Before leav- 
 ing the South, Sargon had himself proclaimed 
 king of Babylon, thus, for the time, extin- 
 guishing the line of native rulers. 
 
 The Assyrian monarch, however, did not 
 long live to enjoy his double throne. Upon 
 his death, in the year B. C. 704, insurrections 
 immediately broke out in Babylonia, and sev- 
 eral aspirants claimed the crown. A son of 
 Sargon attempted to uphold his father's claims, 
 but was unable to do so. A prince named 
 Hagisa secured the throne, but was driven.
 
 ■284 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 away after a month's occupancy. Meanwhile, 
 Merodach-Baladan, after a captivity of several 
 years, succeeded in escaping from Nineveh, 
 and reappeared where he was most needed. 
 He kiUed Hagisa, and again seized the throne. 
 
 His ascendency was for a short time main- 
 tained, but Sennacherib, who had now suc- 
 ceeded Sargon as king of Assyria, marched 
 against him, overthrew him in battle, and 
 drove him into exile. The Assyrian then 
 reestablished the authority which had been 
 exercised by his father in Babylonia, and for 
 the next seventy-five years the status of the 
 country as a dependency of Assyria was not 
 seriously disturbed. Sometimes the kings of 
 Nineveh controlled afiairs in the South with- 
 out subordinate governors, and at other times 
 viceroys were appointed after the manner 
 which had prevailed before the accession of 
 Pul. During the reigns of Esarhaddon and 
 Asshur-Bani-Pal, of Assyria, several revolts 
 occurred, but they were of little importance, 
 and were easily subdued. In no case did 
 these civil troubles continue for more than a 
 year. — Such is a brief sketch of the Bab- 
 ylonian kingdom from the conquest by Tig- 
 lathi- Adar down to the time of the revolt of 
 Nabopolassar. 
 
 The circumstances leading to this important 
 •event have already been reviewed in connec- 
 tion with the overthrow of Assyria by the 
 Medes. Two generations had now passed, and 
 the Babylonians had become comparatively 
 contented under the dominion of the Ninevite 
 rule. Perhaps they had come in some measure 
 to regard themselves as an integral part of 
 the Assyrian Empire. At any rate, when the 
 first symptoms of the Median invasion ap- 
 peared, they were not shaken from the alle- 
 giance to which they had now grown accus- 
 tomed. In the first disastrous expedition of 
 Cyaxares against Nineveh, the Babylonians 
 took no part. During the whole time of the 
 Scythic invasions, when the attention of the 
 Empire was absorbed with the movements of 
 that barbaric horde, the southern viceroys 
 made no effort to assert their independence. 
 
 Meanwhile the baffled but not broken 
 ambition of Cyaxares was busily at work. 
 His emissaries were in Babylonia, sowing the 
 
 seeds of insurrection. The nobles and princes 
 of the country were taught to expect the not 
 improbable collapse of Assyria under the 
 assaults of the Mede. Such was the discon- 
 tent thus created that when the rumor of a 
 second advance by Cyaxares through the 
 passes of the Zagros reached Nineveh, the 
 news also came that the Babylonians had re- 
 volted, and were marching from the south to 
 cooperate in the invasion. Under this double 
 peril the forces of Assyria were divided. 
 Saracus remained at the head of his principal 
 army to confront the Medes, and Nabopolassar, 
 a trusted Assyrian general, was put in com- 
 mand of a large division with orders to march 
 into Babylonia, restore order in the kingdom, 
 and defend the southern border against ag- 
 gression. 
 
 It appears that Nabopolassar was not seri- 
 ously resisted in his mission. Either by force 
 or counsel he concOiated the Babylonians to 
 the extent of gaining admission to the capital, 
 where he was quietly installed as viceroy of 
 the kingdom. Here, however, he soon saw 
 his own opportunity. The agents of Cyax- 
 ares were ready to foster and stimulate a trea- 
 son, which the circumstances had ali'eady 
 suggested. Nabopolassar fell from his loyalty 
 and entered into willing negotiations with the 
 Mede. It was arranged that the viceroy 
 should betray his king and join in the coming 
 invasion of Assyria. Babylonia, as the price 
 of this treachery, was to be made independent. 
 Nabopolassar was to be the king. His son 
 Nebuchadnezzar should have for his queen 
 Amyitis, the daughter of Cyaxares: and aU 
 was accomplished as it was contrived. 
 
 As soon as it was known in Babylon that 
 the king of the Medes was on the march, 
 Nabopolassar set out from the capital with an 
 army. While he made his way northward 
 his ally came from the east. The overthrow 
 of Saracus and the siege and capture of Nin- 
 eveh followed. The Assyrian Empii-e was 
 broken up, and each of the confederates took 
 his allotted portion. Assyria Proper fell to 
 the Medes, and Nabopolassar received the 
 kingdom of Babylon, to which were an- 
 nexed Susiana on the east, and the valley of 
 the Euphrates and the whole of Syria on the
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 285 
 
 west. To these subject countries the transfer 
 of masters was no great hardship, nor was the 
 conduct and usurpations of Nabopolassar in 
 any quarter seriously resented. Such were the- 
 circumstances of the founding of what may 
 be properly called the Empire of the Bab- 
 ylonians. 
 
 The great revolution occurred in the year 
 625 B. C. Nabopolassar entered upon a 
 peaceful reign of twenty-one years. His gov- 
 ernment was not seriously disturbed by revolts 
 or by foreign invasion. He seems to have 
 had that wisdom of peace which permits the 
 fruits of revolution to ripen into institutions. 
 The reigns of such rulers are generally called 
 uneventful, but if the histories of countries 
 •were written by peasants, a different story 
 would be told — a story of prosperity in com- 
 mercial marts and of quiet vmder roofs of 
 thatch. 
 
 The foreign relations of Babylonia were 
 peculiarly auspicious. Assyria on the north 
 was disrupted. Media on the east was bound 
 by a marriage tie and a treaty of amity. Per- 
 sia had not yet become formidable, and Lydia 
 was far away. Egypt, now under the rule 
 of Pharaoh Psametik, had assumed a con- 
 servative policy quite necessary to her own 
 salvation. So Babylon, basking in the sun- 
 shine of good fortune, began to wax great 
 and to exhibit that splendor of proportions 
 and adornment for which she was soon to 
 become famous throughout the world. 
 
 A single circumstance contributed to main- 
 tain the military ardor of the Babylonians. 
 By the terms of the alliance between Cyaxares 
 and Nabopolassar, the latter was to assist the 
 former in the prosecution of his wars. From 
 this clause in the agreement it frequently 
 happened that the Babylonian king had to 
 lead an army into the field to aid in the cam- 
 paigns of his ally. In those wars in which the 
 Medes were obliged to engage after the cap- 
 ture of Nineveh, in order to maintain and 
 establish by force what had been won by bat- 
 tle, contingents of Babylonian troops were 
 always auxiliary, and' not infrequently Nabo- 
 polassar himself and, after him, his successors 
 were present in person in the field. It will 
 
 foe remembered that when the armies of Cyax- 
 
 N.— Vol. I— 18 
 
 ares and Alyattes were contending in the 
 great Battle of the Eclipse, it was Nabopolas- 
 sar who acted on the part of the Medes in 
 settling the conditions of peace. ^ It is easy 
 to conceive that the Babylonian was more zeal- 
 ous in his efforts for reconciliation than if he 
 himself had been one of the principals in the 
 contest. Albeit, he may have known better 
 than the other kings on that memorable field 
 that an eclipse is simply a natural occurrence 
 in no wise indicative of the wrath of the 
 celestials. 
 
 After the peace thus established between 
 the ISIedes and the Lydians, Nabopolassar re- 
 turned to his own capital. He was no longer 
 either young or warlike. It was the fate of 
 his old age, and of the close of his reign, to 
 be clouded with disaster. A cloud arose out 
 of Egypt which cast a shadow over him 
 and his empire. The Pharaoh Psametik was 
 now dead, and his successor, Necho, was a 
 ruler less politic and more ambitious. He 
 regarded the Babylonian dominion in Syria 
 as a usurpation, which he determined to resent 
 and punish. Accordingly he raised an army 
 and began an invasion, with a view to rees- 
 tablish Egyptian supremacy in that country. 
 He proceeded through the plain of Esdraelon, 
 as far as the city of Megiddo, where he met 
 Josiah, king of Judah, with an army drawn 
 up to oppose his progress. Josiah was at this 
 time tributary to Nabopolassar, and from some 
 cause had come to prefer a Babylonian to an 
 Egyptian master. He therefore stood loyally 
 in the way of Necho, who first tried strategy 
 and then force to remove the obstacle. The 
 battle went against the Jewish king, who was 
 driven, mortally wounded, into Jerusalem, 
 where he died. Necho then proceeded with 
 the invasion of Syria, and carried his triumph- 
 ant arms to the very banks of the Euphrates. 
 
 The authority of Egypt was thus restored 
 over the whole western portion of the domin- 
 ions which, out of the spoils of Assyria, had 
 fallen to Nabopolassar. On his return from 
 this successful campaign, Necho interfered in 
 the civil war which was going on between the 
 two sons of Josiah, both of whom claimed the 
 crown of Judah. The Egyptian decided in 
 
 1 See page 229.
 
 286 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 favor of Jehoiakim, Jehoahaz, the younger 
 brother, being deposed as a usurper. Before 
 reaching his own country, Necho fell upon 
 the strong fortress of Gaza, next to Ashdod, 
 the principal town of Philistia, and carried it 
 after a siege. 
 
 Nabopolassar was now (B. C. 605) in the 
 last year of his life. Alarmed by the loss of 
 Syria, he determined to recover what Necho 
 had taken from him. After the army was 
 raised and equipped, however, the aged king 
 found himself unable to conduct the expedi- 
 tion, and so the command was given to his 
 son, Nebuchadnezzar. This prince had al- 
 ready had considerable experience in war, and 
 had shown tokens of the distinguished career 
 which awaited him. He pushed boldly into 
 Upper Syria, where at Carchemish the Egyp- 
 tians had established themselves in full force 
 to hold v.he country. Here they were at- 
 tacked by the Babylonian army and w^ere 
 completely routed. Every vestige of Egyp- 
 tian resistance melted aAvay. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar proceeded to the West, 
 meeting no further opposition. He paused 
 for a short time in Palestine, where he re- 
 ceived the submission of Jehoiakim, whom 
 Necho had set up, and then continued his 
 triumphant course to the gateway of Egypt. 
 Doubtless the Pharaoh would have paid dearly 
 for his recent ambitions but for the news 
 which here reached Nebuchadnezzar of his 
 father's death. Without delay, the king, 
 fearing that some rival might usurp the throne 
 of Babylon, gave orders for his army to re- 
 trace its course into Upper Syria, and himself, 
 with a detachment, made all speed by the 
 nearest route across the desert to the capital. 
 
 In Babylon, however, every thing w^as 
 quiet. After the death of Nabopolassar, the 
 priests, loyal to the son, had assumed the con- 
 duct of affairs until the prince might return 
 from the borders of Egypt. He had a tri- 
 umphant reception, and Avas peacefully estab- 
 lished on the throne of the Empire. His 
 accession, in B. C. 604, marks the era of 
 Babylonian greatness. Whether we regard 
 the vigor and success of his wars, or the glory 
 of his capital, or his prestige as a civil ruler, 
 his reign must be considered one of the most 
 
 illustrious of ancient history. It was at this 
 time that the great palaces and temples arose, 
 that the AValls were built, that the Hanging 
 Gardens were reared for the Median wife of 
 the king. It is hardly too much to say that 
 the chief renown of the Babylonians as a na- 
 tion is referable in a large degree to the per- 
 sonal energy and kingcraft and warcraft of 
 Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 To Josephus and other JcAvish historians 
 we are indebted for the best accounts of the 
 wars of this period. The contemporaneous 
 records of Babylonia furnish but scanty and 
 imperfect materials from w^hich to gather any 
 extended account of the militaiy movements 
 of the time. It is to be assumed that most 
 of the campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar were 
 carried on to the West — into Syria, Palestine, 
 Phoenicia, Egypt. It was from this direction 
 that he was provoked in his boyhood, and the 
 restless peoples spreading out towards Syria 
 and the Mediterranean were in a state of tur- 
 bulence most likely to continue the provoca- 
 tion. On the side of the Medes and Persians 
 not much trouble was to be anticipated. His 
 wife was a sister of Astyages, and Cyrus had 
 not yet appeared on the stage. These circum- 
 stances gave peace on one side of the Empire, 
 and on the other war. The Jewish historians 
 had good reason to recount the inroads and 
 devastations wrought by the great king's 
 armies. 
 
 For the first six years the reign of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar w^as but little disturbed. The first 
 important insurrection was the revolt of Tyre, 
 the chief city of the Phoenicians. About the 
 same time, Jehoiakim, king of Judah — doubt- 
 less calling to mind the fact that he owed his 
 own sovereignty to Pharaoh Necho, the rival 
 of the king of Babylon, and believing that 
 the Egyptians would come to his aid — revolted 
 and took up arms. It Avas to punish these 
 Phoenician and Jewish rebels that Nebuchad- 
 nezzar undertook the first great campaign 
 after his accession. He invested Tyre, but 
 that strong city proved for a long time im- 
 pregnable. So the king, without desisting 
 from the siege, divided his forces, and with 
 one division proceeded against Jerusalem. To 
 the last moment Jehoiakim relied upon the
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 287 
 
 Egyptians to come to his aid, but the Pharaoh 
 held aloof, and his self-constituted ally was 
 left to his fate. He made his submission to 
 Nebuchadnezzar, who deliberately put him to 
 death, and he was "buried with the burial of 
 an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the 
 gates of Jerusalem." For the time being, 
 the Babylonian king conferred the crown of 
 Judah upon Jehoiakin, son of the recent 
 ruler; but he soon fell under suspicion of 
 treachery, was deposed, and taken a captive to 
 Babylon, thus making way for Zedekiah, who 
 ■was put upon the Jewish throne. 
 
 Meanwhile, the siege of Tyre continued. 
 The island city seemed invincible before the 
 clumsy methods of the Babylonians, but the 
 latter hung to the task with vindictive energy. 
 Year after year went by, and the city must 
 soon have fallen but for a second revolt 
 on the part of the Jews. For some reason 
 these people had come to prefer Egyptian to 
 Babylonian masters. Perhaps they even hoped 
 ultimately to throw off all mastery and be- 
 come independent, as in the days of David. 
 At any rate, Zedekiah, after having kept his 
 faith with Nebuchadnezzar for eight years, 
 became at heart disloyal, and entered into an 
 intrigue with Egypt against the Babylonians. 
 Pharaoh Apries was now the Egyptian ruler, 
 a youth whose ambition overleaped his pru- 
 dence. He and Zedekiah took counsel to- 
 gether against the mighty, and it was agreed 
 that the Jewish king should revolt and that 
 the Egyptian should come to his support. 
 Accordingly, in B. C. 588, Zedekiah threw 
 off his allegiance and gathered an army for 
 defense. This was the fourth insurrection 
 which had occurred since Palestine became a 
 Babylonian dependency. Nebuchadnezzar was 
 enraged. He marched with his host against 
 the city of the Jews, desolating the country 
 as he came. Jerusalem was at once invested. 
 Mounds were built against the walls, and the 
 place was already reduced to straits when 
 Apries came up from Egypt to succor his 
 friend. Nebuchadnezzar, for the time, gave 
 up the siege, turned upon the Egyptians, 
 whom he routed in battle and drove precipi- 
 tately into their own country. Zedekiah was 
 thus left to his fate. The investment of the 
 
 city Avas renewed, and after eighteen months 
 Jerusalem fell. Zedekiah attempted to escape 
 with a remnant of his troops, but was captured 
 near Jericho. His sons were slaughtered be- 
 fore his face ; his eyes were put out, and he 
 was sent in chains to Babylon. The state of 
 Judah was extinguished, and the seventy 
 years' captivity of the Jews began. Gedaliah 
 was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to rule 
 over the ruins of Palestine, among which 
 Jeremiah sat weeping. 
 
 It is appropriate in this connection to re- 
 count in a few paragraj)hs the history of the 
 people of Israel. Their career as a tribe from 
 the days of Abraham to the time of the Exo- 
 dus has already been sketched in the First 
 Book.^ After their escape from the Egyp- 
 tians, the crossing of the Gulf of Suez, and 
 a conflict with the Amalekites, Moses led the 
 people to Sinai, where the Law was given and 
 the Jewish economy instituted. The Levites 
 were set apart to have exclusive jurisdiction 
 over the national worship. In his progress 
 from Sinai to Canaan — a desert march from 
 station to station through a period of forty 
 years — Moses avoided the lands of the Edom- 
 ites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, but 
 proceeded boldly against Sihon, king of the 
 Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. Both of 
 these chieftains lived east of the Jordan. 
 They were dispossessed of their lands, which 
 were bestowed on the tribes of Reuben and 
 Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Moses 
 died on Mount Nebo, and was succeeded in 
 authority by Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim. 
 He proved himself to be an able and reso- 
 lute general. He led the tribes of Israel 
 across the Jordan into Canaan, or the Holy 
 Land, and there began a war of extermina- 
 tion upon the native inhabitants. A preda- 
 tory life of forty years in the desert had con- 
 verted the brick-makers of Egypt into a hardy 
 soldiery, and the Canaauites were driven 
 back before them. All were exterminated ex- 
 cept the Gibeonites, who secured their safety 
 by a stratagem, and became a dependent or 
 servile class among the Hebrews. The other 
 Canaanitish kings were enraged at this immu- 
 nity of the Gibeonites, and assembled in the 
 See Book First, pp. 64-66.
 
 288 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 north with the remnants of the native tribes 
 to punish those who had made an alliance 
 with the invader. Jabin, the so-called "king" 
 of Canaan, was leader of the confederacy 
 against which Joshua mustered his forces at 
 Beth-horon. Decisive battles were fought at 
 this place, and shortly afterwards at Merom, 
 in both of which Joshua completely overthrew 
 and dispersed his enemies. The country of 
 Palestine was peaceably divided among the 
 remaining ten and a half tribes of Israel.^ 
 The tribes of Keuben and Gad and half of 
 the tribe of Manasseh had already received 
 
 HIGH PRIEST OF IREAEU 
 
 their chosen portion east of the Jordan. The 
 first period of Jewish history exteuds from 
 the time of the conquest of Canaan, B. C. 
 1350, to the establishment of the mon- 
 archy under Saul, B. C. 1095. The govern- 
 ment of Israel during this period was a theoc- 
 racy. Moses had been a law-giver and leader. 
 
 ^ It will be remembered that the twelve sons 
 of Jacob became the progenitors of the thirteen 
 tribes of Israel. The two sons of Joseph— Eph- 
 raim and Manasseh— inherited equally with their 
 uncles. When the tribe of Levi was set apart for 
 the service of the sanctuary, the number of tribes 
 inheriting lands (for the Levites had none) was 
 again reduced to twelve. 
 
 After him Joshua, the general, gave the peo- 
 ple peace by war. After him a series of 
 rulers arose known as Judges; for they 
 "judged Israel." Many of these were persona 
 of distinguished merit either in Avisdom or 
 war. Such were Deborah and Samson and 
 Gideon, who — the first by exaltation of char- 
 acter, the second by strength, and the third 
 by military prowess — conducted the govern- 
 ment with energy and success. Sometimes 
 for an interval there was no judge at all. In 
 such interregna every man was at liberty to 
 do what seemed good in his own eyes. 
 
 By and by the example of the surround- 
 ing nations produced the infection of mon- 
 archy in Israel. The people clamored for a 
 king. The uncertain judgeshij) proved only 
 an equivocal defense against the strong, per- 
 sonal governments of the adjacent pagan 
 nations. Under the popular impulse, and 
 against the theocratic principle, Saul, the son 
 of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was chosen 
 for the royal honor, and was anointed by the 
 prophet Samuel. With this event the second 
 period of Israelitish history begins. 
 
 Saul was a w^arrior. He was an austere 
 and able man, cordially disliked by the priest- 
 hood, between whom and himself there was a 
 conflict of authority. He began his reign by 
 making war on the Ammonites, whom he 
 quickly reduced to subjection. He then fell 
 upon the Philistines, whom he routed with 
 great slaughter in the decisive battle of ^lich- 
 mash. Then the Moabites, Amalekites, and 
 Edomites were successively driven beyond the 
 borders of Israel. Meanwhile, however, an 
 anti-Saul party had arisen among the people. 
 The intractable spirit of the king had given 
 the priests opportunity to incite discontent 
 and to direct popular attention to young 
 David, the son of Jes^e, as the coming ruler 
 of Israel. There were dissensions in the 
 house of Saul. The jealousy of the king was 
 aroused against David, and Jonathan, the 
 king's son, espoused the cause of the young 
 aspirant to the extent of becoming his pro- 
 tector. By and by, in a battle with the Philis- 
 tines, led by Achish, king of Gath, Saul and 
 all but one of his sons were killed. Ishbo- 
 sheth survived, and was for a brief period rec-
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS, 
 
 289 
 
 BATTLE OF MICHMASH.
 
 290 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ognized as king of Israel. David, however, 
 was also crowned at Hebron, and only awaited 
 Ishbosheth's death to become king of the whole 
 nation. 
 
 One of the first acts of his reign was the 
 conquest of Jerusalem, the principal town of 
 the Jebusites, which place he made the future 
 capital of Israel and the holy city of his race 
 
 remnants of the old pagp,n nations around the 
 borders of Palestine were reduced to absolute 
 subjection. The king conquered a peace, and 
 rested on his laurels. 
 
 At this epoch a national literature made its 
 appearance. David himself was a poet and a 
 patron of song. He is the reputed author of 
 many of the Psalms composed during his 
 
 SAUL A>OINTED BY SAMUEL. 
 
 in all time to come. The Ark of the Cove- 
 nant, set up a long time ago in the desert, 
 was now transferred from Kirjathjearim to 
 Jerusalem, and this fact fixed the religious 
 thought of the people on the new capital. 
 David then entered upon his wars, which were 
 successful to the extent that the primacy of 
 Israel was for a season extended from the Red 
 Sea to the banks of the Euphrates. All the 
 
 reign, which have ever since remained a cen- 
 tral element in the religious worship of both 
 Jewish and Christian peoples. Less creditable 
 to the king were the social abuses which began 
 in his time, and in some measure under his 
 countenance. Polygamy was introduced and 
 abetted by the king's example, and his per- 
 sonal conduct in many respects has subjected 
 him to the censure of after ages. Growing
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 291 
 
 out of the jealousies attendaut upon his mul- 
 tiple marriages, his sons, Absalom and Adon- 
 ijah, revolted against their father's authority, 
 and the former of the two was proclaimed 
 king. The armies of Israel were sent against 
 them ; Absalom was killed, and Adonijah was 
 sentenced and executed after the death of the 
 king. 
 
 ABSALOM'S TOMB. 
 
 David was succeeded by his son Solomon, 
 whose chief glory is the building of the temple 
 at Jerusalem. He was perhaps the most cul- 
 tured and certainly the most splendid king of 
 his times. The fame of his court extended 
 into all the surrounding nations. Luxury was 
 given full sway. The government was trans- 
 formed into a sultanate, in which all the vices 
 of the East flourished. The splendors of the 
 gorgeous temple erected on Mount Moriah 
 shone with a strange luster into the royal 
 palace and harem of the abandoned king. 
 His old age was distracted with domestic 
 troubles, and his death was clouded with the 
 shadows of imminent revolt and dissolution. 
 
 No sooner was Solomon dead than Reho- 
 BOAM, his son and successor, adopted his 
 father's methods as his own. He assumed 
 towards the discontented people, long oppressed 
 by heavy burdens of taxation, a haughty air 
 well calculated to fire the rebellious spirit. 
 Jeroboam, the Ephraimite, appeared as a pop- 
 ular leader. Ten of the tribes revolted and 
 went over to his banner. The remaining two 
 tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under 
 Rehoboam, who henceforth took the title of 
 king of Judah, the ten tribes under Jeroboam 
 
 constituting the kingdom of Israel. Thus, in 
 B. C. 975, was effected the division of the 
 Hebrew nation into two peoples, who ever 
 afterwards maintained towards each other an 
 attitude of estrangement and hostility. 
 
 Jerusalem remained the capital of Judah, 
 but the borders of Israel came within ten 
 miles of the city. The capital of the latter 
 kingdom was fixed first at Shechem, then at 
 Tirzah, and finally at Samaria. Jeroboam 
 began his reign with a series of measures best 
 calculated to win the people away from any 
 remaining compunctions as it respected alle- 
 giance to the House of David, now represented 
 by Rehoboam. At Bethel and Dan new 
 sanctuaries were set up, and the god Apis, 
 cast of gold, was substituted for the ark and 
 the altar of the temple. A new priesthood 
 was instituted, and not a few Levites went 
 over from Judah to Israel. The people fol- 
 lowed the new idolatry with enthusiasm, up- 
 braided for their apostasy, but hardly checked 
 in their fall by the indignant protests of the 
 prophets. It was under these conditions that 
 Elijah appeared and fought the good fight 
 v/ith the prophets of Baal. 
 
 From Jeroboam, the first, to Hoshea, the 
 last, of the kings of Israel, there were nine- 
 teen reigns. The rulers who held the throne 
 during this period belonged to no fewer than 
 nine different houses— a fact indicative of the 
 extreme turbulence of the kingdom. Nadab, 
 the successor of Jeroboam, was murdered by 
 his successor, Baasha. The latter had some 
 military ambition, and built a fortress at 
 Ramah, with a view to future encroachments 
 on the kingdom of Judah; but Ben-hadad, 
 king of Syria and friend of Judah, drove the 
 Israelite back into his own country. Elah 
 succeeded to the throne only to be slain by 
 ZiMRi, who was king for a week, when he in 
 turn was deposed by Omri, who had been 
 Elah's captain of the host. Then came Ahab 
 and Jezebel, whose unsavory names have 
 offended all Christendom. She outlived her 
 husband, as well as Ahaziah, who succeeded 
 him, until she and her favorite son JehorAM 
 were both put to death by Jehu, captain of 
 the guard. The latter took the kingdom, and 
 held it long enough to lose all his territories
 
 292 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
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 east of the Jordan in a war with Hazael, 
 king of Damascus. It was at this epoch that 
 Israel first became tributary to Assyria, in the 
 reign of Asshur-Nazir-Pal, monarch of that 
 country. In the times of Jehoahaz, successor 
 of Jehu, the Syrians made further conquests 
 from Israel, and the kingdom appeared on the 
 verge of extinction until the military abilities 
 of JoASH, the next king of the line, restored 
 a part of what had been lost during the two 
 preceding reigns. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. 
 
 These temporary successes were extended 
 by Jeroboam II., the ablest king of Israel, 
 who regained all that the surrounding nations 
 had won from his kingdom, and restored the 
 former borders of Israel. After him, how- 
 ever, there was another lapse, both Zecha- 
 EiAH and Shallum — the next two kings — 
 being murdered in the same year. Menahem 
 succeeded to the throne, and undertook a 
 vain-glorious expedition against the Babylo- 
 nians, whose dominions he invaded as far a& 
 Thapsacus. This town he took, only to be 
 quickly expelled and followed to his own 
 dominions by Pul the Babylonian. 
 
 The next two reigns, of* Pekahiah and 
 Pekah, were of little importance. During this 
 time (762-730 B. C.) Tiglath-Pileser, of As- 
 syria, overran the territories of Israel and re- 
 duced the kingdom to the last extreme. Ho- 
 shea, the last king of Israel, came to the throne- 
 in B. C. 730, and held it for nine years, when, 
 after a two years' siege of his capital, he waa 
 taken and the nationality of Israel extin- 
 guished by Shalmaneser — a full account of 
 which is given in the History of Assyria.^ 
 
 The kingdom of Judah, ruled over by the 
 descendants of David during twenty reigns — 
 covering a period of three hundred and sixty- 
 
 1 See Book III., p. 175.
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 293 
 
 nine years — ^has a history somewhat more rep- 
 utable than that of Israel. The people had 
 fewer vices, and fewer of their kings suffered 
 death by violence. A long list of misfor- 
 tunes, however, came upon the kingdom, not 
 a few of which were precipitated either by 
 the folly of the people or the treachery of 
 their rulers. Judah, as has already been as- 
 serted, lay on the highway beween Babylonia 
 and Egypt, the rival powers of the East and 
 the West; and the Jewish nation was not in- 
 frequently ground between the upper and the 
 nether mUl-stone. Thus, during the reign 
 of Rehoboam, the first king of Judah, Jeru- 
 salem was taken and pillaged by Shishak of 
 Egypt. There were, also, constant troubles 
 with Israel. Abijam, the successor of Reho- 
 boam, gained some successes over that king- 
 dom, especially the capture of Bethel, one of the 
 ancient sacred places of the nation. Asa, the 
 next king, was so hard pressed, by the Egyp- 
 tians on one side and the Israelites on the 
 other, that he was obliged to despoil the tem- 
 ple of its treasures in order to purchase the 
 help of Ben-hadad of Damascus. Jehosha- 
 PHAT, the next king, made an alliance with 
 the Israelite Ahab, and the two made com- 
 mon cause against the Syrians ; but the people 
 of Judah paid dearly for the advantage on 
 account of the idolatrous practices which 
 flowed in with this friendly intercourse. 
 While Jehoeam was king, a horde of Philis- 
 tines and Arabs gained possession of Jerusa- 
 lem. Later, Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, 
 killed all of her offspring, except Joash, and 
 instituted the worship of Baal instead of that 
 of Jehovah. Idolatry was rampant for a sea- 
 son, until the queen was overthrown in a 
 revolt headed by Jehoida, the high-priest. 
 
 Of the reigns of Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, 
 JoTHAM, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and 
 Amon there is little to be recorded, except a 
 steady decline of the kingdom, accompanied 
 with domestic troubles and petty wars. Jo- 
 siah's reign was an epoch of partial restora- 
 tion. The land was cleared of idolatry. The 
 king showed himself to be a true iconoclast. 
 The pagan altars were everywhere broken 
 down and the idols ground to dust. After 
 this work was done the temple was renovated, 
 
 and the ancient worship of Jehovah restored 
 in comparative purity. It was at this time 
 that a copy of the Mosaic Law was found and 
 brought forth as a swift witness against the 
 degeneracy of the Jewish nation. 
 
 The close of the reign of Josiah corre- 
 sponds with the date of those devastating in- 
 cursions of the Scythians, which have been 
 hitherto narrated in the Second and Third 
 Books. These barbarians found their way 
 into Palestine, and even as far as Ascalon and 
 Bethshan. At the former city they captured 
 and despoiled the temple of Astarte, and the 
 latter place took the name of the savage in- 
 vaders, being known for many centuries as 
 Scythopolis. About the same time that Ju- 
 dah was thus overrun by savages from the 
 north-east, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt started 
 on his campaign against Babylonia. Josiah, 
 the king, for once loyal to the Babylonian 
 sovereign, undertook to oppose the Egyptian's 
 progress, but in the great battle of Megiddo 
 was defeated and slain. Then followed the 
 brief and disastrous reigns of Jehoiakevi and 
 jEHOiACKCsr, and finally that of Zedekiah, 
 whose relations with Nebuchadnezzar were nar- 
 rated at the beginning of this digression. With 
 the overthrow of Zedekiah, in the year B. C. 
 586, the kingdom of Judah was extinguished. 
 It had survived the rival kingdom established 
 by Jeroboam one hundred and thirty-five 
 years, but finally yielded to the same forces 
 which had brought to an end the erratic ca- 
 reer of the Ten Tribes of Israel. 
 
 Resuming, then, the thread of Babylonian 
 history : Tyre fell. For thirteen years it had 
 withstood the siege, but in the year after the 
 downfall of Jerusalem, namely, in B. C. 585, 
 Nebuchadnezzar, now relieved from his em- 
 barrassments with the Jews, renewed in per- 
 son the assaults on the Phoenician capital, and 
 the investment was pressed to a successful 
 issue. 
 
 Having thus secured, beyond perad ven- 
 ture, the capitals of two of 'the principal 
 states of the West, Nebuchadnezzar was free 
 to undertake the chastisement of Egypt. It 
 will be remembered how Pharaoh Apries, 
 having allowed Zedekiah to break with the 
 Babylonians in the interest of Egypt, had
 
 294 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 incontinently rushed to the support of his 
 ally and had then incontinently rushed back 
 again. Nebuchadnezzar now made prepara- 
 tions to punish his would-be rival, and, in 
 B. C. 581, began an Egyptian campaign. 
 
 Herodotus and the records of Egypt differ 
 as to the results of the invasion, the former 
 stating that Apries was dethroned and put to 
 ■death ; the latter, that the Pharaoh continued 
 to reign until many years afterwards, when 
 he perished in an insurrection of his own 
 subjects. The truth appears to be that in 
 
 and all around the outposts to the horizon of 
 civilization, until his Empire extended from 
 the Pillars of Hercules to the limits of Ar- 
 menia and the foot of the Caucasus. For 
 such extraordinary exploits and wide-spread 
 dominion there are no sufficient grounds of 
 historic belief. After all deductions, how- 
 ever, the wars of Nebuchadnezzar were suffi- 
 ciently important and successful to win for 
 him the name of a great conqueror, and to 
 insure for his own capital and kingdom sua 
 era of peace and splendor. 
 
 SIEGE OF TYRE BY THE BABYLONIANS. 
 
 his first campaign, Nebuchadnezzar had no 
 marked success ; but that in a second invasion 
 of the country, in B. C. 570, the king of 
 Egypt was driven from his throne, to be suc- 
 ceeded by Amasis, who became tributary to 
 the Babylonian Empire. 
 
 Such were the wars of the great king in 
 Syria and the West. Besides these actual 
 achievements tradition has built up about the 
 name of Nebuchadnezzar almost as dazzling 
 -an array of conquests as of Sesostris or of 
 Alexander, The Babylonian was even re- 
 puted to have made war in Africa and Spain 
 
 Perhaps the first great result of these im- 
 perial conquests was to bring into Babylon 
 and the surrounding districts vast multitudes 
 of captives, who sank at once to the level of 
 a servile class. These hordes of driven crea- 
 tures furnished at a trifling cost an unlimited 
 supply of labor. The Babylonians were thus 
 relieved from oppression, and found time to 
 build and to banquet. There were thus af- 
 forded those limitless resources out of which 
 arose the otherwise inconceivable wonders of 
 Babylon. The conquered provinces were in a 
 measure depopulated, in order that by de-
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 295 
 
 portation and colonization in and around 
 Babylon all further danger of provincial in- 
 surrections might be removed, and at the 
 same time an exhaustless supply of slave la- 
 bor be furnished to meet the demands of the 
 splendid capital, led and incited by imperial 
 caprice. 
 
 Thus were begun and executed the princi- 
 
 Now it was that the incomparable Walls of 
 Babylon, with their more than five hundred 
 million cubic feet of solid masonry, were 
 raised in massive grandeur around a circum- 
 ference of forty-one miles. Now it was that 
 the Hanging Gardens arose for the delight of 
 the imperial spouse, capricious as Pompadour. 
 Now it was that the great temple of Nebo at 
 
 CAPTIVE JEWS LED INTO BABYLONIA. 
 After the painting by E. Bendemann. 
 
 pal monuments of Babylonian greatness: for 
 most of these wonders belong to the reign of 
 Nebuchadnezzar. It was the captive Jews, 
 Egyptians, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Moab- 
 ites — swept hitherward in the wake of the 
 victorious armies of the Empire — who for the 
 most part reared those stupendous masses of 
 masonry which even to-day in ruins break 
 here and there the horizon of the Babylonian 
 plain as if with the shoulders of a mountain. 
 
 Borsippa, hidden at present under the moun- 
 tainous Birs-Nimrud, was reared as if to the 
 skies. Now it was that the almost equally 
 grand temple of Belus at Babylon was ex- 
 tended and adorned. Now it was that the 
 vast reservoir of Sippara, one hundred and 
 forty miles in circumference and one hundred 
 and eighty feet in depth, was digged and fur- 
 nished with its flood-gates and sluices. Now 
 it was that not only the banks of the Eu-
 
 296 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 phrates, but also the shores of the Persian 
 Gulf, were lined with quays and warehouses 
 for the safety and convenience of them that 
 go down to the sea in ships. Now it was that 
 on more than a hundred sites in Babylonia 
 cities were built, any one of which, but for the 
 superior splendor of Babylon, would have been 
 worthy to perpetuate the fame of the king. 
 Now it was that the grand canal from the 
 city of Hit, on the Euphrates, to the sea, a 
 distance of four hundred miles, carrying 
 through the alluvial plain a broad stream of 
 water that gave life and kept the desert at 
 bay, was excavated by the servile armies that 
 Nebuchadnezzar had brought home in the 
 wake of conquest. No wonder that the cap- 
 tive Hebrew cried out, "By the rivers of 
 Babylon, there we sat down and wept," 
 
 The old writers have left not a few traces 
 of the personal character of this great king. 
 By the Jewish historians he is generally de- 
 picted as a sanguinary and cruel monarch. 
 If his conduct with respect to the Jews be 
 viewed apart from the provocations which led 
 to the same, there is good ground for the an- 
 tipathy manifested by Israelitish authors. 
 But it must be remembered that the kings of 
 Israel were guilty of constant duplicity, and 
 that the severe punishments Avhich followed 
 came as a necessary consequence under the 
 military practices of the times. In the case 
 of the slaughter of Zedekiah's sons before the 
 face of their father and the putting out of his 
 own eyes, there could be found little palliation 
 for the atrocity. The act, however, Avas in 
 keeping with the spirit of the age, and could 
 be easily paralleled in the history of almost 
 any other oriental nation. 
 
 Of the splendor and magnificence of Neb- 
 ichadnezzar, as displayed in his court and 
 government, there can be no doubt. His 
 audiences before his courtiers and foreign am- 
 bassadors were a pageant perhaps unequaled 
 in the ancient world. He was surrounded by 
 a retinue of princes, governors, and captains, 
 whose gorgeous apparel and courtly manners 
 made the throne a cynosure. The halls of 
 his palace were thronged with counselors and 
 soothsayers, who, according to common fame, 
 ■were expert in the lore of both earth and 
 
 heaven. His coflfers were filled with untold 
 treasures, gathered by taxation and tribute 
 and war from nearly all the nations of West- 
 ern Asia. To have withstood the volume of 
 adulation which rose in clouds around his 
 throne would have implied a type of character 
 unknown in his age and country. The great 
 king was proud and haughty. He ordered to 
 be made of himself a golden image ninety 
 feet in height and nine feet in breadth ! And 
 he Avas not free from the Egyptian foUy of 
 claiming a measure of divine honors. 
 
 To the credit of the king may be men- 
 tioned his loyalty to his queen. It was hardly 
 to be expected that a princess of a foreign 
 nation, given to him without his choosing and 
 for reasons purely political, Avould have gained, 
 much less retained, an ascendency over his 
 mind and affections. But Amyitis charmed 
 her royal spouse, and maintained such an in- 
 fluence over him as to become a powerful fac- 
 tor in the government. Besides the Hanging 
 Gardens erected for her delight, many other 
 works, public and private, gave proof of the 
 esteem in which she continued to be held by 
 the king. 
 
 The old age of Nebuchadnezzar was not 
 unlike that of Louis XIV. In the midday 
 of their power each might well be called the 
 Grand Monarch. In the hour of the setting 
 sun each might well be commiserated for the 
 woes that befell him. When well advanced 
 in years, the king of Babylon dreamed a 
 dream. It Avas the vision of a tree reaching 
 unto heaven, and bearing leaves and fruit for 
 the blessing of the nations. Suddenly a 
 watcher appeared, and said, "Hew it down, 
 and cut ofl^ his branches. Nevertheless, leave 
 the stump of his roots in the earth, even with 
 a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass 
 of the field ; and let it be wet with the dew 
 of heaven, and let his portion be with the 
 beasts." All of the soothsayers and astrolo* 
 gers of the court failed to interpret this 
 strange vision until the Hebrew Daniel wa3 
 called in, who declared to the monarch that 
 he himself was the tree which should be hewn 
 down and have his branches cut away; that 
 the king should be smitten and driven forth 
 to live with the beasts of the field until his
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 297 
 
 pride should be humbled and his reason re- 
 stored. So Nebuchadnezzar was visited with 
 madness. He imagined himself a beast, and 
 •went forth ou all fours into the fields. He 
 
 his reason suddenly returned, and he was 
 allowed a brief interval of glory and peace 
 before his death. His reign covered a period 
 of forty-four years, and is by far the most 
 
 DANIEL INTERPRETING THE DREAM OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 
 
 lived on herbs, and slept under the open 
 canopy at night. Under the influence of the 
 lycanthropy which had attacked him, he 
 barked like a wolf. He became hairy by ex- 
 posure to the elements, until after seven years 
 
 illustrious in the annals of the Babylonian 
 Empire. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded in B. C. 
 557 by his son, Evtl-Merodach. He appears 
 not to have possessed his father's courage or
 
 298 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 abilities. He had been reared in the court 
 rather than in the field, and his tastes were 
 little inclined to war and great enterprises of 
 state. It seems that the circumstances of his 
 father's affliction, and the part played by 
 Daniel in relation thereto, had influenced his 
 mind towards religious subjects and made a 
 favorable impression regarding the HebrcAV 
 captives. Under these impulses the young 
 king ordered the now aged Jehoiachin, who 
 had been in a Babylonian prison for thirty- 
 five years, to be set at liberty. The Israelite 
 was advanced to honor at the court, and is 
 said to have become one of the king's coun- 
 cilors. Other marks of favor were shown to 
 the Jewish captives, whose condition from this 
 time forth became more tolerable than that 
 of most of their fellow exiles. But before 
 any important measures were undertaken in 
 
 Palace. The ruins of this edifice indicate 
 that it was a royal residence, second only in 
 proportions and splendor to the greater won- 
 der on the opposite side of the Euphrates. 
 The house of Neriglissar was ornamented with 
 the best art of the times, and but for the 
 superior magnificence of its rival, would 
 have been regarded as the special glory of 
 Babylon. 
 
 The reign of Neriglissar Avas brief, lasting 
 only for a little over three years. He was 
 succeeded by his son Laborosarchod, a mere 
 youth, unable either in age or abilities to bear 
 the vast responsibilities of the Empire. The 
 ambitious princes of the court, tired of in- 
 efficieucy, resolved on heroic measures. Ac- 
 cusations of crime were put forth against the 
 young king, who, incapable of defense, was 
 seized, dethroned, and put to death Avith 
 
 X. NABOPOLASSAR, 605. 
 
 i 
 2. NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 561. 
 
 6. NABONADIUS, 539=^ Daughter. 3. EVIL-MERODACH. A Daughter=A. NERIGLISSAR, A Daughter. 
 
 563. I 556. [ 
 
 5. LABOROSOARCHOD, .WG. Belshazzar, 539. 
 
 NABOPOLASSAR. (Regent of Babylon.) 
 
 THE FAMILY 
 
 OF 
 
 Showing tlie relation of Belshazzar to the Babylonian Kings. 
 
 their behalf an insurrection broke out in 
 which, after a reign of only two years, Evil- 
 Merodach was driven from his throne and 
 killed. 
 
 The leader of this revolt was Neriglis- 
 sar, a turbulent spirit, who had married 
 Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. He had partici- 
 pated in the Western wars of that great king, 
 and had imbibed the military ardor of his 
 sovereign. His character Avas thus more in 
 accord with the temper of the Babylonians 
 than was that of Evil-Merodach, and the revo- 
 lution was easily accomplished. Neriglissar 
 ascended the throne Avithout opposition as the 
 fourth king in the line of Nabopolassar. His 
 accession AA'as all the more readily accepted 
 on account of a claim Avhich he advanced to 
 be a descendant of one of the old kings of 
 Babylon. The principal event of his reign, 
 which was peaceful, Avas the erection, across 
 the river from the great palace of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, of what is knoAvn as the Lesser 
 
 torture. With his OA^erthroAV the House of 
 Nabopolassar, Avhich had held the throne of 
 Babylonia for seventy years, Avas extinguished, 
 and the croAvn Avas conferred by the conspira- 
 tors upon one of their own number named 
 Nabonadius. He had been an important 
 ofiicer in the government, but had no claim 
 by blood relationship to royal honors. To 
 remedy this defect in title he immediately 
 sought a marriage Avith one of the daughters 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, and to placate the ghost 
 of legitimacy the widow of Neriglissar Avas 
 taken to the royal couch. After the marriage 
 no trouble was anticipated, nor did any occur 
 relatiA'e to the right of the usurper to be 
 king. 
 
 Babylonia was now on the eve of great 
 CA^ents. Scarcely Avas Nabonadius securely 
 seated on the throne when an embassy came 
 to Babylon from Sardis, the capital of Lydia. 
 The business was of the utmost moment. The 
 circumstances of the overthrow of the king-
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 29& 
 
 dom of the Medes by Cyrus will be readily 
 recalled.' The ambitious young prince of 
 Persia very little resembled either in character 
 or policy the unaspiring Astyages, whom he 
 had beaten out of an empire. The Persian 
 at once entered on a career of conquest. 
 Dissatisfied with a dominion embracing not 
 only his paternal kingdom, but also that of 
 Media, inclusive of all Cyaxares had retained 
 of the Assyrian Empire, Cyrus looked boldly 
 to the West, and discovered on the horizon 
 the rich domains of Lydia. That realm 
 discerned the approaching danger, and doubt- 
 ing of its own ability to cope single-handed 
 with so powerful an enemy at once sought to 
 contract alliances with the neighboring powers. 
 To this end, in the year B. C. 
 555, legates were sent to Nabo- 
 nadius, who had thus to decide 
 between the risk which he him- 
 self might soon have to take 
 from the overgrown ambition of 
 Persia, and the certainty of ex- 
 citing the hostility of Cyrus by 
 accepting the overtures of the 
 Lydians. The latter alternative 
 was chosen. The proposed alli- 
 ance between Lydia and Baby- 
 lonia was consummated. The 
 two kingdoms agreed to cooper- 
 ate in the maintenance of mu- 
 tual independence against the 
 threatened encroachments of the Persians. 
 
 Nabonadius had the wisdom to see that his 
 course would in the near future bring on a 
 trial of arms between himself and Cyrus. To 
 prepare for this emergency was, therefore, the 
 first and great care of the Babylonian. He 
 accordingly began a series of works in and 
 about Babylon, the object of which was to 
 secure the capital and government against the 
 coming storm. The nature of these works 
 was such as to indicate that the people had 
 already fallen into that stage of helplessness 
 which prefers the impotent array of walls 
 and barricades to the d-^cisive battle of the 
 open plain. In the first place the Euphra- 
 tes, was confined within walls, which were 
 closed at the street crossings with ponderous 
 1 See Book VI., p. 344. 
 
 gates of bronze. Thus, though an enemy 
 might enter by the river, he would find him- 
 self between huge battlements, and would be 
 no more in the city than he was outside the 
 ramparts. 
 
 In addition to this, a great wall — described 
 by Xenophon — a hundred feet high and 
 twenty feet in thickness, extending across- 
 the Mesopotamian plain from the Euphrates 
 to the Tigris, was interposed against the ap- 
 proach of an army from that direction. The 
 surface of the country towards the north was 
 likewise cut transversely with canals and 
 sluices to impede the progress of invasion 
 from the side of Assyria. Ample time was 
 given to complete these great works ; for the 
 
 RUINS OF SAEDIS. 
 
 Persians and the Lydians were already en- 
 gaged in war. 
 
 Crcesus, king of Lydia, had acted with too 
 great haste. Without awaiting the move- 
 ments of the Babylonians he plunged into the 
 fight with Cyrus. The latter pressed forward 
 into the country of his antagonist, whom he 
 overthrew in the battle of Pteria, and then 
 beseiged the capital. After an investment 
 Sardis fell; Croesus Avas taken prisoner, and 
 his kingdom, reduced to submission, was an- 
 nexed to the Persian Empire.' 
 
 1 It is narrated in a tradition which has gone 
 into the literature of all lands, that the Lydian 
 king was condemned to die by fire. When the 
 pyre was prepared and Croesus was seated thereon 
 awaiting the application of the torch, he cried 
 out, " O, Solon, Solon ! " For he remembered the
 
 soo 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In thesp events Nabonadius had borne no 
 hand, being occupied with the defenses of 
 his own capital. These were completed. A 
 period of fourteen years elapsed before Cyrus 
 turned his attention to the great power which 
 by the Lydian alliance had thrown down the 
 ^age of battle. The actual invasion of Bab- 
 ylonia did not begin until B. C. 539, and 
 then Nabonadius behind his ramparts regarded 
 the movement with contempt. It was not 
 thought possible that the Persian could pene- 
 trate to the capital, or that if he did, he 
 ■could make the slightest impression upon the 
 massive fortifications of the city. 
 
 Cyrus was now on the march. About 
 midway between Ecbatana and Babylon an 
 incident occurred highly characteristic of the 
 times. In crossing the river Gyndes one* of 
 the white horses which drew the chariot of 
 the sun Avas drowned. The Persian king 
 thereupon ordered a halt, and consumed the 
 better part of the summer and fall in punish- 
 ing the river, which he did by scattering its 
 waters through three hundred and sixty chan- 
 nels into the desert! In the following spring 
 lie was enabled to resume the less important 
 work of overthrowing an Empire ! Such was 
 the folly of antiquity. 
 
 Cyrus crossed the Tigris without opposition, 
 and found himself in Babylonia. He pro- 
 ceeded to the immediate vicinity of Babylon, 
 where he was encountered by the army of 
 Nabonadius, who had resolved to risk a bat- 
 tle in defense of his capital. In the conflict 
 which ensued the Babylonians were com- 
 pletely defeated. The larger portion of the 
 army retreated into the city, but the king 
 with the remainder threw himself into Bor- 
 sippa, thus perhaps hoping to divide the forces 
 of his antagonist. But the hope was vain. He 
 who was fool enough to attack the Gyndes for 
 drowning a horse, was wise enough to know 
 that Babylon was the object of his endeavor. 
 
 •declaration of the Athenian sage that none might 
 be truly considered happy until they were dead. 
 This exclamation led to an inquiry on the part of 
 ■Cyrus as to what god it was that Croesus called 
 upon. On hearing the story of Solon and his 
 sayings, the half-barbaric mind of the Persian was 
 struck with admiration, and Croesus was released 
 irom the penalty. 
 
 Meanwhile in the city there was little 
 alarm. Belshazzar, the eldest son of the king, 
 had remained therein, and to him, when his 
 father went forth to contend with the Per- 
 sians, the general direction of afiairs was nat- 
 urally intrusted. The queen, his mother, 
 also remained in the city, against the walls 
 of which for a season the hosts of Cyrus beat 
 in vain. Indeed, the Persian soon despaired 
 of taking Babylon by any direct or open 
 means. He therefore resorted to an auda- 
 cious expedient, which was planned and exe- 
 cuted with entire success. Leaving a por- 
 tion of his troops to occupy the attention 
 of the Babylonians before the city walls, he 
 withdrew with the remainder to a safe 
 distance up the river, and there having 
 marked the topography of the country, un- 
 dertook the work of dispersing a large part 
 of the waters of the Euphrates from the nat- 
 ural bed into canals which he had cut for the 
 purpose. AVhen the work was done, and 
 every thing was in readiness to dissipate the 
 river, Cyrus still delayed. He had learned 
 that the great annual festival of the Babylo- 
 nians was about to be celebrated, and he 
 awaited the coming of that event as the best 
 time to strike the impending blow. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Babylonians, in contempt 
 of an enemy whom they supposed to be foiled 
 in his purposes, made unusual preparations 
 for the great feast. The young prince, Bel- 
 shazzar, gave himself up recklessly to the 
 occasion. A thousand nobles were invited to 
 a royal banquet at the palace. There was 
 splendor within and darkness without. It 
 was the night of doom. While the revel was 
 going on in the wild abandonment of victo- 
 rious debauchery, the hardy Persian was 
 opening the sluices into his canals above the 
 city. The river began to sink, but made no 
 moan. The invaders hurried along the banks 
 to the wall of the city. There was no alarm. 
 The river had left on either side a broad 
 space of bare ground. The Persians passed 
 in without opposition. The noise of the fes- 
 tival resounded afar. The river-gates were 
 seized by the invaders, who now sounded the 
 tocsin and began the assault. It was a gigan- 
 tic massacre. The drunken Babylonians fled
 
 BABYLONIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 301 
 
 N.— Vol. I— 19 
 
 CRCESUS ON THE FUNERAL PYRE. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel.
 
 802 
 
 UNIVERSAL HIS'rORY.—THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 in all directions. The iDrince Belshazzar and 
 his nobles were slain at their banquet, and 
 the dawn found the victorious Persian in com- 
 plete possession of the city. 
 
 As soon as possible he dismantled the outer 
 walls, and then proceeded against Nabonadius. 
 
 dethroned king the governorship of the prov- 
 ince of Carmania. 
 
 It was the last act in the drama of the 
 great Empire. *'The kingdom was given to 
 the Medes and Persians." A new power had 
 arisen, whose energies were still freshened with 
 
 CAPTURE OF BABYLON. 
 
 The latter was still at Borsippa, awaiting an 
 opportunity to strike a blow at the invader. 
 But the invader came swiftly upon him, and 
 the king, seeing the uselessness of a further 
 struggle against the inevitable, went forth 
 and surrendered. Honorable terms were 
 granted by Cyrus, who treated the subject 
 army with consideration, and bestowed on the 
 
 the breezes of the hills and whose natural 
 ambitions had not yet been quenched in the 
 cups of luxury and lust. "The beauty of 
 the Chaldees' excellency" faded like the 
 shadow of a pageant from the great canvas 
 of history, and the glory of Babylon began 
 to hide itself under the dust, and ruin of the 
 ages.
 
 lonfe ^«xl|. 
 
 PBRSIA 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI.— XHK country. 
 
 HE Persian Empire, es- 
 tablished by Cyrus the 
 Great, was of vast ex- 
 tent. After the dominion 
 of the Csesars, no other 
 kingdom of the ancient 
 world had equal terri- 
 torial limits. From east to west the rule of 
 the Achsemenian kings extended over more 
 than fifty-six degrees of longitude, and from 
 north to south through twenty degrees of lati- 
 tude. The boundaries of the Empii-e on the 
 east were the river Indus and Thibet; on the 
 south, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of 
 Arabia and Nubia; on the west, the Great 
 Desert, the Mediterranean, the JSgean, and 
 the river Strymon; on the north, the Danube, 
 the Euxine, the Caucasus, the Caspian, and 
 the Jaxartes. 
 
 Such was the territorial horizon of the 
 great kings. A right line from the eastern to 
 the western limit of the Empire reached as 
 far as from New York to San Francisco ; and 
 the measure from north to south was, in its 
 greatest dimension, fully one thousand five 
 hundred miles. The entire area was more 
 than eight times as great as Babylonia, four 
 
 times as great as Assyria, and more than one« 
 half as great as the whole of modern Europe. 
 The Persian territories embraced fully two 
 million square miles. 
 
 Glancing at the political divisions of the 
 Empire, we find an array of provinces and 
 subordinate kingdoms almost equal in number 
 and extent to the Provindos of Rome. The 
 general divisions were into three groups: the 
 Central, the Eastern, and the Western. The 
 Central provinces were Persia Proper, Susiana, 
 Babylonia, Assyria, Media, the Caspian dis' 
 trict, and the Great Desert. The Eastern 
 were Hyrcania, Parthia, Asia, Chorasmia, 
 Sogdiana, Bactria, Scythia, Sattagydia, India, 
 Paricania, Eastern Ethiopia, and Mycia. The 
 AYestern were Pseonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, 
 Armenia, Iberia, Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia, 
 Egypt, and Cyrenaica. Most of these coun- 
 tries, especially the more important, have 
 been already described in the preceding Books. 
 Others will be considered in subsequent por- 
 tions of the work. It remains, in this connec- 
 tion, to describe briefly the character, climate, 
 and resources of that district which constituted 
 the nucleus of the Empire. 
 
 Persia Proper, corresponding almost pre- 
 
 (305)
 
 306 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 cisely in boundaries with the modern province 
 of Faristan, lay upon the gulf of the same 
 name, and extended from the river Tab to the 
 Indian Ocean. It was bounded on the east 
 by Mycia, on the north by Media, on the 
 west by Susiana, and on the south by the 
 ocean. Its length from east to west was four 
 hundred and fifty miles, and its breadth an 
 average of two hundred and fifty miles, giv- 
 ing a geographical area of over one hundred 
 thousand square miles, being about one-half 
 as large as Spain. This territory exceeds that 
 of modern Faristan to the extent of including 
 the ancient province of Carmauia, which now 
 constitutes the district of Kerman. 
 
 The most distinctly marked natural division 
 of Persia Proper was — and is — into a Warm 
 and a Cold district, the former being about one- 
 eighth and the latter seven-eighths of the whole 
 territory. The Hot region, a strip from ten 
 to fifty miles in width, lies next to the sea, 
 and consists of the eastern extension of the 
 Susianian plain. It is a kind of a half-desert, 
 saline district, whose salt sands, sloping to the 
 sun, are heated to an unusual degree, and 
 drink up the streams which, few and sparse, 
 make a feeble struggle to reach the ocean. 
 In summer the temperature is excessive. The 
 air glows and fluctuates and flings up the 
 mirage like that of Arabia. The soil is gravel 
 and clay — poor in almost every quality of 
 productiveness. 
 
 The Cold region of ancient Persia was an 
 upland, flanked with ranges of mountains. 
 From Ispahan, in a south-westerly direction, 
 runs a lofty chain, which, in the province of 
 Kerman, turns to the west, and thus supports 
 the larger part of Faristan on the east and 
 south. It is in the angle thus formed that 
 the Persian upland lies — a district in every 
 respect different from the hot belt which, 
 south of the mountains, slopes to the sea. 
 The high tract included in the ranges east 
 and south is generally bi'oken. Here and 
 there hills rise to mountains. Plains are in- 
 terspersed. At intervals verdant valleys ap- 
 pear, rich in their luxuriance. It is the com- 
 mon verdict of travelers that the region is in 
 many respects one of the most beautiful in the 
 world. There are situations which, for loveli- 
 
 ness and romantic scenery, rival the vales of 
 Greece; but these are contrasted in other 
 parts with landscapes which, from the scanti- 
 ness of water, sink into comparative sterility. 
 The north-eastern portion of Persia is for the 
 most part of this character. In this region 
 the streams are of the same sort as those of 
 Media, many of them running in sunken 
 channels or dwindling away to nothing in a 
 country of sand. 
 
 The chief rivers of Persia are the Tab and 
 the Araxes. The former has been already 
 described in the History of Babylonia.^ The lat- 
 ter rises in the mountains of Bakhtiyari, and 
 flows in a south-easterly direction past the 
 ruins of Persepolis. Here it receives the 
 Pulwar, and thence makes its way to the salt 
 lake Neyriz, in which it is lost. In all the 
 Icwer course of this river the Avaters are 
 drawn off* at intervals into canals, which, trav- 
 ersing the country, furnish the means of ir- 
 rigation. The volume of the stream is thus 
 greatly reduced, and the remnant discharged 
 into the lake is insignificant. 
 
 Next in importance may be mentioned the 
 KooNAZABERNi, a Small stream which rises 
 near the ruins of Shapur. Pressed between 
 ranges of lofty hills, it traverses a valley for 
 nearly a hundred miles, and reaches the Per- 
 sian Gulf a short distance north of the city 
 of Bushire. All the other streams of the coun- 
 try are of comparatively little importance. 
 
 Of other inland bodies of water the largest 
 is the lake Neyriz, above referred to. It is 
 about sixty miles in length and five miles 
 broad. In summer, owing to the intense heat, 
 its dimensions are greatly reduced. When 
 this occurs the inhabitants make the most of 
 nature's offer by gathering large quantities of 
 salt from the exposed bed, after the manner 
 already described in the account of the lakes 
 of Syria. The second lake in size is the 
 Deri AH Nemek, about ten miles from the town 
 of Shiraz. It is also a "dead" sea, having 
 no outlet. It has an area of about forty 
 square miles ; the character of the waters is 
 the same as that of Neyriz. A few other 
 small lakes are found in different parts of the 
 country, but none contain fresh water. 
 
 1 See Book Fifth, p. 245.
 
 PERSIA.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 307 
 
 In its general features the country is moun- 
 tainous. The geographical peculiarity of the 
 ranges is the frequent gorges and chasms by 
 which they are cleft in twain. Not only 
 where the mountains are divided for the 
 passage of streams, but in many other places 
 where nature makes no such demand, the 
 chains are parted, so that transit from one 
 side to the other is easy. In many districts 
 roads are made through these great chasms, 
 on either side of which rise frightful preci- 
 pices of rock, some of which are two thousand 
 feet high. Sometimes the abyss is closed 
 overhead, and the road winds under a grotto. 
 
 The range already referred to as dividing the 
 Hot from the Cold region of Persia is cleft 
 in no fewer than four places by these striking 
 and picturesque mountain gorges. These 
 passes have in all ages furnished the inhabi- 
 tants with a safe and easy route from the in- 
 land districts to the sea, and at the same time, 
 from their defensibility, have ever been a safe- 
 guard in war. A few men at the top of the 
 chasms can easily make the passage of an 
 army impossible. It was in the very entrance 
 to one of these mountain gorges that Pasar- 
 GAD^, the ancient capital of the country, was 
 situated. 
 
 Of political divisions in Persia Proper there 
 were five : Paractacene, Mardyene, Taocene, 
 Ciribo, and Carmania. The first of these lay 
 among the mountains of Bakhtiyari. The 
 second was adjacent to the first, and extended 
 from Bebahan to Kazerun. Taocene lay in 
 the Hot district along the coast. Ciribo Avas 
 the other division of the same region. The 
 eastern part of the Persian upland Avas known 
 as Carmania — the modern Kerman. BetAveen 
 these political districts into which the country 
 was divided there A\'ere no natural lines of 
 demarkation, the only distinction of that kind 
 being the mountain range already referred 
 to as dividing the coast region from the table- 
 lands. 
 
 Nearly one-half of Persia Proper Avas un- 
 inhabitable. The mountain regions could 
 support only a scanty population. The sandy 
 plains, devoid of vegetation and incrusted 
 with salt, could sustain no animal life. It 
 was on the hill-slopes, and by the banks of 
 
 infrequent rivers, and in the valleys that a 
 population accumulated and flourished. The 
 uplands generally tended to sterility, and the 
 landscape in such regions had a touch of 
 desolation, dropping aAvay to a brown horizon 
 of cheerlessness and solitude. 
 
 The forests of Persia Avere in the moun- 
 tains. BetAveen Bebahan and Shiraz there is 
 a tract of fine Avood land sixty miles in ex- 
 tent, and from the latter city eastAvard tOAvards 
 Carmania is an attracti\'e country of low 
 hills covered Avith timber and divided by 
 luxuriant valleys. The plains about Shiraz 
 and Kazerun are beautiful in appearance, and 
 even under their scanty supply of Avater pro- 
 duces abundant crops. Such is the general 
 character of Persia Proper, the heart of the 
 great Empire of the Achsemenian kings. 
 
 Turning to the provinces and countries 
 which were conquered by the Persian mon- 
 archs and added to their dominions, we find 
 many of those already described in the his- 
 tories of Chaldsea, Media, and Babylonia. 
 But the limits of Persia reached far beyond 
 these countries, and embraced others of which 
 no account has hitherto been given. Some 
 of the regions Avith Avhich A\'e are noAV brought 
 into contact lay eastward from Persia Proper, 
 some to the far north-west, and some to the 
 south-Avest, looking to Africa. 
 
 Beginning with the eastern part of the Em- 
 pire, we have first of all the Great Plateau of 
 Iran, a vast region extending through tAventy 
 degrees of longitude, and raised to an elevation 
 of five thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea. It has a breadth of seven degrees, form- 
 ing a kind of rectangle with an area of five 
 hundred and fifty thousand square miles. 
 The grand plateau extends from the Zagros 
 mountains to the valley of the Indus, and em- 
 braces the great countries of Khorasan and 
 Afghanistan. 
 
 Two-thirds of this vast region are a desert. 
 The plain is high and rainless. The few 
 streams that descend from the mountain 
 slopes flow a short distance and are SAvallowed 
 in the sands. Of all the rivers on the north- 
 ern and western sides, only tAvo contribute 
 sufficient water to form lakes. On the south 
 the mountains are cleft here and there for the
 
 308 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 passage of some more ambitious stream to the 
 sea, but for the rest running water is a 
 stranger. With the coming of the summer 
 heats the limits of the desert are greatly ex- 
 tended ; for many districts which in the brief 
 spring-time put up a sudden verdure, wither 
 to desolation under the cloudless skies and 
 fierce suns of July, At such seasons of the 
 year the river beds are dry and the air glows 
 like a furnace. 
 
 In the western portions of the great pla- 
 teau the conditions of nature are modified by 
 the proximity of the mountains. Here the 
 surface of the country is broken into ridges. 
 Kain is more abundant, and many small 
 streams trace the valleys with a band of life. 
 In the south and east also the same changes 
 occur as the limits of the table-land are ap- 
 proached, and the plains grow green as the 
 hills rise above the horizon. But within these 
 surrounding borders of comparative fertility 
 there is little else than a barren waste of 
 blackened sand : nor will there ever be. 
 
 On the north of the region here described 
 is another not more attractive. It is the dis- 
 trict occupied by the modern Khiva and Bo- 
 khara, bounded on the west by the Caspian, 
 and running eastward through fourteen de- 
 grees of longitude. Its breadth is about the 
 same, extending from the thirty-sixth to the 
 fiftieth parallel of north latitude, a distance 
 of more than eight hundred miles. The 
 whole region is one of the most forbidding 
 in the world. It is the great Sahara of the 
 North, a vast trackless plain of red or black 
 sand, blown up here and there into dunes by 
 the bleak wind which finds nought else upon 
 which to Avaste its vagrant energies. If it 
 were not for the ranges of the Great and 
 Little Balkan which, near the Caspian, break 
 the surface with moderate elevations and fur- 
 nish the conditions of rain, the whole region 
 would be a treeless and almost lifeless desert. 
 To the modifying influence of these mount- 
 ains must be added the presence of two large 
 rivers which traverse the waste and pour their 
 volumes into the basin of the Aral. These 
 are the Oxus (the modern Amoo) and the 
 Jaxartes (the modern Sir) — two streams of 
 considerable historical importance. Others of 
 
 lesser note are the Murgah, the Abi Meshed, 
 the Herirud, the Maymene, the Balkh, and 
 the Ak Su. Most of these take their rise on 
 the slopes of the mountains referred to, and 
 flow desertward until they are lost in the 
 sands. In some instances small, brackish 
 lakes are formed as the termini of these 
 streams. It is along the banks of these rivers 
 that the only fertile soil of the country — ex- 
 cept in proximity to the Balkans — is found. 
 Here, in good seasons, a fair degree of fruit- 
 fulness is seen, and a line of orchards and 
 cornfields and meadows marks the course of 
 the river across the waste. Here, from times 
 immemorial, the larger part of the popula- 
 tion inhabiting this desolate region has been 
 gathered. 
 
 Lying to the east of this desert of Bokhara 
 and Khiva is the Valley of the Indus, one of 
 the most ancient seats of civilization. Its impor- 
 tance has been but feebly apprehended by the 
 AVestern nations, to whom the Nile of the East 
 has seemed like a dream on the horizon. The 
 region drained by the Indus is divided into 
 two distinct regions, a broad, triangular plain 
 towards the north, and a long, narrow valley 
 towards the south. The broad district of the 
 north is a territory through which, gathering 
 their waters from the hills, flow five consider- 
 able rivers converging into one — the Indus ; and 
 hence to this division of the country is given 
 the name of Punjab, or Five Rivers. At the 
 lower angle of this district the five valleys 
 narrow into one, and through this to the sea 
 flows the river of India. This valley is 
 known in modern geography as Sinde, which 
 is merely a variation of the word India or 
 Hindu.^ 
 
 The Punjab region has at the north a 
 breadth of about three hundred and fifty 
 miles, but the country narrows towards the 
 south until, at the confluence of the Five 
 Rivers, the breadth is not more than seventy 
 miles. The whole length of the Indus valley 
 is about eight hundred miles, and the average 
 breadth below the Punjab is, approximately, 
 fifty miles. The upper division of the coun- 
 try is mountainous towards the north, and 
 
 ^ In the native language the Indus is called the 
 Sindus.
 
 PERSIA.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 309 
 
 abuts against Kashmeer and Thibet. Sloping 
 southward it sinks into a plain whose natural 
 resources are unsurpassed. The area of the 
 Punjab is about fifty thousand square miles. 
 
 The valley of the Indus proper is almost 
 as fertile as that of the Nile, Like that river, 
 the Indus is the father of the land. He di- 
 vides his channel, giving ofl^ here an arm and 
 there a branch for the perpetual nourishment 
 of the hungry soil. All the way down from 
 the twenty-eighth parallel to the sea these di- 
 verging channels are found at intervals, some- 
 times rejoining the parent tide and sometimes 
 diffusing themselves completely in the districts 
 which they water. As we descend to the sea 
 we find on the right the ranges of Suliman 
 and Hala, between which and the river lies 
 the important plain of Gandava, with an 
 area of seven thousand square miles — one of 
 the richest tracts in the world. From this 
 point southward the valley narrows for a 
 hundred miles, and thence to the sea expands 
 into the Delta of the Indus, a disti'ict of an 
 area of more than one thousand square miles, 
 rich as Egypt, but breeding malaria and sub- 
 ject to inundations. This is the rice field of 
 India. 
 
 Passing westward from the mouth of the 
 Indus along the coast to the Persian Gulf the 
 traveler enters the long, narrow strip of shore 
 land, once the native seat of the Ichthyo- 
 phagi, or Fish Eaters. The region is bounded 
 on the north by the Great Plateau of Iran, 
 and on the south by the Indian Ocean, Its 
 length from east to west is about five hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, but its greatest breadth 
 scarcely exceeds twenty miles. It slopes sea- 
 ward, has a surface of scorched sand, and 
 most of the streams run dry in summer. The 
 winter rains, however, blown up heavily from 
 the Indian Ocean, completely saturate the 
 soil, and in some parts there is for a consid- 
 erable season good pasturage and some fair 
 crops of grain. 
 
 The next district requiring notice is that 
 which is formed by the eastern outspreading 
 and descent of the Elburz mountains. This 
 high chain divides into a number of parallel 
 ranges of no great height, between which flow 
 such streams as the Ettrek and the Gurgan ; 
 
 and the valleys thus formed, with their gen- 
 eral trend to the East, were among the most 
 delightful within the limits of the Persian 
 Empire. Another district less attractive was 
 that lying east of Sogdiana and Bactria, the 
 modern Chinese Tartary. It was one of the 
 native seats of the Scythians, and contributed 
 to the Persian armj^ a quota of fearless half- 
 savages. The country in the north and west 
 was comparatively well-watered and fertile, 
 but the remainder was an arid waste. — Such 
 were the Eastern provinces of the Empire of 
 Cyrus and Darius. 
 
 The North-western districts of that Emj^ire 
 were still more important. West of the Cas- 
 pian Sea lies the great table-land of Armenia. 
 This is indeed a continuation westward of the 
 Great Plateau of Iran : they touch at the 
 corners, and would be continuous but for the 
 interposition of the Caspian. The western 
 portion of the great elevation embraces not 
 only Armenia Proper, but also a part of 
 Modern Persia and most of Asia Minor, 
 
 The mountain ranges traversing this vast 
 region extend from east to west, with trans- 
 verse spurs running north and south. The 
 most important chain is the Taurus, which 
 really supports the jilateau on the south-west, 
 and traverses a large part of Asia IMinor, 
 The peaks of this range in the western por- 
 tion rise to the height of ten thousand feet, 
 and further east the elevation is still greater, 
 reaching the line of perpetual snow. On the 
 opposite or northern side of the plateau the 
 mountains are not so high. These extend 
 from the Mysian Olympus to the neighborhood 
 of Kars, Between this northern range and 
 the Taurus several parallel chains of slight 
 elevation occur, and this country of high 
 ridges and mountain spurs is Armenia — one 
 of the most beautiful and valuable parts of 
 the Persian Empire. From this province 
 came the horses which the nobility proudly 
 rode to battle. From these mountain slopes 
 and hill sides was taken the larger part of the 
 timber and stone demanded by the architects 
 of Ecbatana and Persepolis. 
 
 West of Armenia lay Asia Minor, a coun- 
 try of vast resources. The general elevation 
 is not great. A single mountain, Argaeus,
 
 310 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 rises to the height of thirteen thousand feet. 
 The country is one of broad plains well- 
 watered and fertile, rich in timber and min- 
 erals. Nearly every important product of 
 the north temperate zone was found in this 
 delightful region. The principal rivers Avere 
 the Meander and the Hermus. Outside of 
 the mountainous borders of Armenia and Asia 
 Minor, on the north and north-east, were 
 various lowland districts which were overrun 
 by the armies of the Empire, but were not of 
 much historical importance. South of the 
 Taurus lay Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, 
 provinces the names of which frequently 
 occur in the annals of the times. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the limit of 
 Persian ambition on the west was marked by 
 the shore-line of the ^gean. Many of the 
 littoral islands and the more remote Cyclades 
 were both claimed and conquered by the suc- 
 cessors of Cyrus. Of these may be mentioned 
 Rhodes, Cos, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, 
 Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace, and Thasos. 
 Further on, the extensive countries of Thrace 
 and Ppeonia were subjugated and held for 
 twenty years by Darius. The general charac- 
 ter of these islands and countries will be 
 properly considered in the History of Greece. 
 
 More important than any other island con- 
 quest was that of Cyprus.^ Here were fine 
 forests. Here grew the vine and the olive. 
 Here the cornfields flourished, and here the 
 copper mines poured out their wealth. The 
 island is one hundred and forty miles in 
 length and thirty-five miles broad, somewhat 
 mountainous in the interior, but in all respects 
 a beautiful and valuable country. 
 
 Of the African districts brought under 
 dominion of the Persians, the principal was 
 Egypt, of which an ample geographical de- 
 scription has already been given in Book 
 First. Beyond Egypt was Libya, a desert 
 country dotted with oases. The tract lay 
 along the Mediterranean, and varied consid- 
 erably in breadth from a narrow strip to dis- 
 tricts several hundred miles in width. The 
 chief products were dates and the hides of 
 
 ^ It was from the Greek word cyprios [so. chnl- 
 cos], meaning copper, that the name of Cyprus 
 was derived. 
 
 wild animals. From this region, moreover, a 
 large proportion of the African slaves of an- 
 tiquity were gathered by traders and pirates. 
 
 Further west along the coast was Cyrenaica, 
 lying between the meridians of 20° and 23° 
 15' E. The country is a highland, and is for 
 that reason well-watered and fruitful. Rich 
 pastures and fields of grain might be seen 
 even from times most ancient. The people 
 were much more civilized than were the 
 Libyan savages, and the province — which was 
 the westernmost of the Persian dominions — was 
 always regarded as among the best in Africa. 
 
 It will be remembered that in addition to 
 vast districts and countries — Eastei'n, North- 
 western, South-western — here described as 
 parts of the Empii'e of the Ach^emenians, all 
 of the countries of Media, Babylonia, Assyria, 
 and Egypt were likewise embraced in their 
 almost world-wide dominion. The great bulk 
 of the territory lay to the east ; but outside 
 of the valleys of the Indus and the Oxus the 
 lands stretching out beyond Persepolis were 
 of little value. Civilization has never been 
 able, in those vast and arid regions, to main- 
 tain more than a precarious footing. The 
 greater part was a riverless, shrubless waste, 
 better adapted to the cultivation of jackals 
 and bustards than to the development of high- 
 ways and the growth of cities. 
 
 In the western half of the Empire nature 
 was more generous. Here Avere the rich and 
 powerful countries of Susiana, Media, Baby- 
 lonia, Assyria, to say nothing of the fertile 
 and productive countries of Syria, Armenia, 
 and Asia Minor. Egypt herself, the harvest- 
 field of the Avhole earth, was for a while in- 
 cluded among the territorial treasures of the 
 'descendants of Cambyses. Within their do- 
 minions six great rivers throbbed like tre- 
 mendous arteries, sending life from the moun- 
 tains to the seas. The Jaxartes, the Oxus, 
 the Indus, the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the 
 Nile — such were the mighty currents on 
 whose banks were gathered the subjects of 
 Darius, and on whose bosoms floated fleets of 
 boats bearing his treasures. It is now fitting 
 to examine somewhat in detail the resources 
 of the Empire, as determined by its climate 
 and other natural conditions.
 
 PERSIA.— CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 311 
 
 Chapter xxvii.— Cliniate and products. 
 
 T is impossible to sketch 
 in general terms the cli- 
 matic peculiarities of a 
 country extending 
 through twenty degrees 
 of latitude. The difficulty 
 is heightened if the coun- 
 try extends for three thousand miles from 
 east to west, and varies in its level from 
 sunken gorges one thousand three hundred 
 feet below the sea to mountains whose summits 
 are twenty thousand feet in height. Only 
 specific observations on different parts of the 
 vast tract can give any adequate idea of the 
 inner moods and outward aspects of Nature. 
 
 In Persia Proper — both ancient and mod- 
 ern — there are tAvo kinds of climate. The 
 narrow strip along the coast is a region of 
 torrid heats. No snow is ever seen. Through 
 the larger part of the year rain seldom falls. 
 The one redeeming feature, so far as moisture 
 is concerned, is the heavy dew, which satu- 
 rates whatever is exposed to it at night. The 
 early mornings are from this cause cool and 
 refreshing. But as midday approaches, the 
 scorching rays of the sun drive away every 
 particle of vapor and burn the earth to a 
 crisp. The thermometer marks as high as 
 125° F. Nature lies weltering or is blistered 
 with heated sands blown in clouds before 
 some sudden gust or sirocco. Only certain 
 types of animal and vegetable life can survive 
 the fierce heats of the Avorse than tropical 
 summers. Men retreat from the coast and 
 find refuge in the foot-hills, or even ascend 
 the mountains, till the torrid season is past. 
 With the approach of autumn, when the 
 reign of the sun is abbreviated and occasional 
 showers are blown up from the sea, the situa- 
 tion again becomes tolerable, and such life as 
 can be supported in the region finds a respite 
 from the excesses of the climate. Along the 
 whole coast, as far east as the excessive limit 
 of the Empire, the same extreme heats are 
 found, modified about the estuaries of occa- 
 
 sional rivers into the damp suffocations of 
 water-vapor and malaria. 
 
 Passing into the uplands of Persia, a great 
 change is encountered. The winters are cold. 
 The thermometer marks fifteen degrees below 
 the freezing point. Snow falls abundantly. 
 Severe storms drive across the face of the 
 country. Then, with the opening of spring, 
 comes a heavy fall of rain. In summer the 
 showers are few and scanty, and the autumns 
 are very dry. The temperature of midsum- 
 mer is not enervating, being nearly always 
 modified by cool breezes. The fluctuation, 
 however, between the noonday heat and the 
 chill of night is so considerable as to put the 
 constitution to the test of endurance. 
 
 Turning to the mountainous countries of 
 the Elburz, the Zagros, and Armenia, a still 
 more rigorous climate is experienced. With 
 the return of the sun in summer the weather 
 is bright and genial, but the Avinter blasts are 
 furious, and the snoAV heaps up to a great 
 depth in the gorges of the hills. The climate 
 of Asia Minor was, on the whole, the best of 
 any in the confines of the Empire. The me- 
 teorological character of Syria has been suffi- 
 ciently noted in connection AA'ith the history 
 of Babylonia; and that of Egypt, in Book 
 First. Cyrenaica had a delightful climate. 
 Except in winter there was no rain at all, but 
 the summer vapors of the Mediterranean, 
 heavy to saturation, drooping over the cool 
 uplands of this peculiar region, came down in 
 dews so copious as to leave all nature drip- 
 ping: it Avas sufficient. In the AA'inter time 
 violent storms rolled along the coast, bellow- 
 ing Avith thunder and pouring out floods 
 of rain. 
 
 On the extreme east of the dominions of 
 the Achsemenians lay the valley of the Indus, 
 with such climatic conditions as are not, per« 
 haps, encountered anywhere else in the world. 
 The heats are so oppressive, the atmosphere 
 so sultry, as to quench the energy of the 
 strongest race if long exposed to their debili-
 
 312 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tating influence. For a while, in a rainless 
 season, the vaUey will be filled with intolera- 
 ble clouds of dust, driven into the eyes and 
 nostrils of every thing alive, and then a tor- 
 nado will roll up from the horizon and pour 
 out a flood, whirled into sheets by furious 
 winds. Then will come a lull; the stifling 
 air becomes laden with hot vapors, under the 
 influence of which human nature collapses. 
 The delta of the great river is a locality so 
 hot and dank, so infected with miasmatic va- 
 pors and flooded with poisonous waters, as to 
 be unendurable except for a small portion of 
 the year.^ 
 
 Turning to the vegetable growths of the 
 Empire, and beginning with the woodland, 
 we find in Persia Proper a valuable, but not 
 very extensive, forest. The prevailing trees 
 are oaks, sycamores, poplars, planes, willows, 
 cypresses, acacias, and junipers. The prin- 
 cipal shrubs are the wild fig, the wild almond, 
 the tamarisk, the myrtle, the box, the rhodo- 
 dendron, the tragacanth bush, the blackberry, 
 and the liquorice-plant. Perhaps no country 
 in the world is richer in native fruits than 
 Persia. The date-palm flourishes. Lemons, 
 oranges, and pomegranates abound. Grapes, 
 apricots, and plums are found in all parts. 
 Peaches, quinces, and apples are indigenous 
 to the country. Pears, figs, and mulberries 
 are gathered in abundance. The "royal" 
 walnuts, sold in all the markets of the world, 
 are from Persia. The almonds and pistachio- 
 nuts served in the great hotels of Europe and 
 America are in many cases a Persian product. 
 In short, almost every variety of fruit pro- 
 duced in the north temperate zone either 
 grows wild in this land, or else yields abun- 
 dantly under transplantation. 
 
 In the matter of grain the products are 
 almost equally various. Besides the usual 
 small crops of the field many products pecul- 
 iar to the country are added to her resources. 
 Of this sort are madder, and indigo, and 
 
 ' It remains for modern science to determine 
 whether any locaUty, unless actually infected with 
 living germs sown by some preceding contagion, 
 will, under the influence of purely natural condi- 
 tions, produce disease. If the so-called germ theory 
 of disease be correct, then the question is an- 
 Bwered in the negative. 
 
 henna. Opium and tobacco are also produced 
 in large quantities, though it is quite certain 
 that some of these were unknown in ancient 
 times. Cotton has been from time immemo- 
 rial a product of Persia, but Indian corn is 
 of recent introduction. 
 
 The wild animals are almost identical with 
 those of Mesopotamia.^ The ichneumon, 
 however, is not found west of the Zagros. 
 It inhabits the strip of hot country next to 
 the Indian Ocean. The birds of Persia are 
 the same as those of Assyria and Babylonia. 
 To these must be added the oyster-catcher, 
 the hooded crow, and the cuckoo. In the 
 matter of song birds the Persian woods and 
 hedges can boast of a greater variety than 
 almost any other country, thrushes and night- 
 ingales being of the number. Swallows, spar- 
 rows, and blackbirds also add their less artis- 
 tic music. 
 
 The supply of fish was, so far as the coast 
 countries were concerned, quite inexhaustible. 
 In the Hot district of Southern Persia this 
 article of food gave a name to the inhabitants, 
 who were known to the ancient writers as 
 Ichthyophagi. The sea also gave an unusual 
 contribution in its whales, which were often 
 cast ashore. The bones were a great treasure 
 to the natives, who used them for building 
 huts. The waters along the coast abounded 
 in oyster-beds, from which the inhabitants 
 scooped up with little exertion a large propor- 
 tion of their food. 
 
 The rivers of the Empire were, as a gen- 
 eral thing, well supplied with fish; but the 
 same could not be said for the lakes, whose 
 brackish waters were rarely capable of sup- 
 porting life. The reptiles of the country 
 were of the same species as those inhabiting 
 Mesopotamia. Snakes have always prevailed 
 in the Persian plateau, but they are not es- 
 pecially venomous. The insects, however, are 
 peculiarly troublesome, many of the species 
 being of a sort to endanger life by their bite 
 or sting. Scorpions are everywhere, creeping 
 into houses and furniture. In some districts 
 there are poisonous spiders or tarantulas. 
 There are also centipedes, whose bite is some- 
 times fatal. Among the lesser pests may be 
 
 ^See Book Fifth, pp. 252-254.
 
 PERSIA.— CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS. 
 
 313 
 
 mentioned musquitoes, which, swarm and buzz 
 and bite with the ferocity of those infesting 
 the banks of the Lower Mississippi. 
 
 At intervals Persia is greatly afflicted with 
 locusts. They sometimes swarm up like the 
 devouring plagues of Syria and Egypt. They 
 generally come on the Avinds which blow from 
 the coasts of Arabia. The sky is not infre- 
 quently darkened with the clouds of these 
 devastating creatures that drop in myriads on 
 every spot of greenness, leaving it a desola- 
 tion. It only remains for the inhabitants 
 when visited with this plague to avenge them- 
 selves by eating the eaters. 
 
 The domestic animals of Persia are the 
 same as those of Media and Mesopotamia. 
 The most valuable are the sheep and the goat. 
 Cows and oxen are less esteemed. The horses 
 are of many fine breeds, from the fleet Ara- 
 bian to the heavy Turcomans used for com- 
 mon service. The sheep are, for the most 
 part, black or brown, small and short-legged, 
 but bearing fleeces of great fineness. Camels 
 were employed by the ancient, as by the mod- 
 ern Persians, for carrying heavy burdens, 
 and for other service requiring great en- 
 durance. 
 
 In the times of the Empire the mines of 
 Persia were already in a flourishing condition. 
 Gold aud silver, copper and iron, were the 
 principal metals produced therefrom. It is 
 believed that the red-lead mines near Neyriz 
 were also worked with advantage in the times 
 of the Achsemeniaus. As to salt, the supply 
 was limitless. From the exposed beds of 
 lakes, and in some districts from the surface 
 of the earth, it was taken up with little labor. 
 In Carmania and some other provinces rock 
 salt was found of several colors, and in great 
 abundance. Near the city of Dalaki there 
 were springs of naphtha and bitumen. Sulphur 
 was a product of several districts, but the 
 values of this mineral were little known or 
 appreciated. 
 
 The pearl-fisheries of the Persian Gulf 
 have been famous since the days of Darius. 
 The pearls gathered from this source were 
 reckoned the finest of all the East. In the 
 uplands of the north several varieties of hard 
 gems were found, but they were for the most 
 
 part of kinds less valuable than those of Bab- 
 ylonia and India. 
 
 Passing beyond the limits of Persia Proper, 
 we come again to those great countries — 
 Egypt, Chaldsea, Assyria, Media — whose ani- 
 mal and vegetable products and mineral 
 resources have already been described in the 
 preceding Books. Outside of the borders of 
 these countries, in regions of which only the 
 geography has thus far been sketched, there 
 were many animals unknown in the domin- 
 ions of Nebuchadnezzar and Ramses. In the 
 country between the Elburz mountains and 
 the Caspian the tiger has his haunts. He is 
 also found on the borders of the Sea of Aral 
 and in the valley of the Indus. In the latter 
 locality elephants were not infrequent objects 
 of wonder to Western travelers. The water 
 of the Indus and the jungles along the banks 
 were the native abode of the alligator and the 
 crocodile. The hippopotamus was found only 
 in Egypt. In Bactria was the home of the 
 two-humped camel, that creature of prodig- 
 ious strength and patient endurance, whose 
 qualities made him almost a necessity of an- 
 cient civilization. The celebrated goat of An- 
 gora, with its heavy fleece of white, silk-like 
 wool, should also be mentioned among the an- 
 imals of the Empire. In Armenia and parts 
 of Afghanistan the elk flourished and was 
 reckoned among the most royal beasts of 
 the chase. 
 
 Around the peaks of the Taurus circled 
 the great vulture. In the Delta of the Indus 
 ibises were abundant. The ostrich ranged the 
 sandy regions of Mesopotamia, but was not 
 found on the Persian plateau. The other 
 birds were either those which have been 
 hitherto noticed in the Books on Bab- 
 ylonia and Egypt, or were such as are com- 
 mon in most parts of the north temperate 
 zone. Some of the reptiles require particular 
 mention. 
 
 Of these first the iguana. This creature is 
 found in Syria and Egypt. It is from a foot 
 to three feet in length, and is the color of an 
 olive, streaked with black. This is the ani- 
 mal which is so cordially hated in Moham- 
 medan countries. Its attitude is thought to be 
 in imitation of the foUoivers of the Prophet when
 
 314 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 they go to prayer J Therefore it is mercilessly 
 killed by the faithful. 
 
 Contrary to popular belief the Egyptian 
 asp is a reptile of considerable size, sometimes 
 growing to the length of six feet. It is an 
 exceedingly poisonous serpent and is easily 
 angered. It has the power of distending the 
 skin of its neck to a wonderful degree, and 
 this it does when its wrath is kindled. It 
 feeds on mice, frogs, and other vermin, and 
 is not considered an unmixed evnl even by 
 those who are exposed to its often fatal pres- 
 ence. In the desert districts of Syria is found 
 the cerastes, or horned snake, whose bite is 
 still more deadly than that of the asp. The 
 creature lies buried in the sand, ft'om which 
 it differs but little in color. Unnoticed it 
 springs out like the rattlesnake, and a sudden 
 
 twinge in its victim's foot or hand is the signal 
 of doom. 
 
 In the same countries with the cerastes 
 and the asp is found the chameleon — that 
 strange creature which assimilates the color 
 of its surroundings. It has a most oddly 
 shaped body, a long prehensile tail like that 
 of an opossum, and a protruding eye of un- 
 usual brilliancy. Its motions are contradic- 
 tory and ludicrous. Its pace is that of a 
 snail, and the creature could never "make a 
 living" but for the precision and lightning- 
 like rapidity with which its long, round 
 tongue is darted forth to seize its prey. 
 Whatever is thus taken is gulped like a flash, 
 and then the odd beast is as sober and devout 
 as ever. The chameleon is the bete noir of the 
 bugs of the Orient. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII —PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 CCORDING to the best 
 ethnological views of 
 modern times the great 
 Aryan race, now distrib- 
 uted through Europe and 
 America, had its origin 
 within the Persian Em- 
 pire. The province of Bactria has generally 
 been selected as the geographical source of 
 this widespread and aggressive family of man- 
 kind. From their native seat the primitive 
 Aryans seem to have moved southward. The 
 oldest division migrated into the Punjab, and 
 passed thence down the various valleys to the 
 confluence of the rivers in the Indus — and 
 thence to the sea. Thus was established the 
 Indie branch of the human family. A second 
 division spread over the Great Plateau of 
 Iran, constituting the Iranic stock, of which 
 the Persian race became tlie central and prin- 
 cipal development. The Medes, of whom an 
 account has already been given, were a col- 
 lateral branch of the same stock, and were 
 thus allied by blood with the people who sub- 
 verted them. These two races, very properly 
 combined in the one ethnic title of Medo- 
 
 Persian, were the principal and only note- 
 worthy developments of the Iranian stock. 
 
 The time of the early tribal migrations 
 here referred to is lost in prehistoric shadows. 
 It was not until about the eighth century B. 
 C. that the Medo-Persians assume an impor- 
 tant part in the afiairs of nations. But 
 Berosus gives to the Medes an influence over 
 surrounding tribes as early as B. C. 2400. If 
 such a date be allowed, it would make the 
 Iranians as old a people as the Chaldreans 
 themselves. It will be remembered that tradi- 
 tion assigns to Chaldsea a "Median" dynasty 
 among the first that ruled that country. An 
 inscription of Tiglath-Pileser about B. C. 
 1100, mentions the "country of the Medes," 
 and the same reference occurs on one of the 
 black obelisks belonging to the ninth century. 
 
 The early Iranic race, with its semi-nomadic 
 habits, divided into many branches, ramifying 
 into distant provinces. People of this race 
 mixed with the Susianiaus on the south and 
 spread westward into Armenia and to the 
 shores of the JEgean. But, as already said, 
 the home and principal seats of this people 
 were and ever remained in Media and the
 
 PERSIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 315 
 
 plateau of Persia. They constituted the vigor 
 and soul of those vast populations, which were 
 bound together for a season by the genius of 
 Cambyses and Cyrus. Bearing this fact in 
 mind, it is appropriate to consider the ethnic 
 character of some of the provincial peoples of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Beffinnine: at the south-east with the vast 
 region now divided between Afghanistan and 
 Beloochistan, we find the country ajopropriated 
 by many tribes, some of which are compara- 
 tively unknown in history. Here dwelt the 
 Sagartiaus, the Cossteans, the Parthians, the 
 Gandarians, the Sattagydians, and the Ge- 
 drosians. The native seats of the Sagartians 
 and the Cossseans were in the Avestern portion 
 of Afghanistan. The former people were 
 much more powerful and widely distributed 
 than the latter. They Avere scattered in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country from the Elburz 
 to the borders of Pei'sia, and were a hardy, 
 warlike people. The Cossseans were concen- 
 trated about the mountains of Siah-Koh. 
 
 Perhaps the most important of the races 
 above mentioned were the Parthians — a people 
 whose courage gave them fame as far west as 
 Rome. Their territory lay south-east of the 
 Caspian, embracing what is now the northern 
 portion of Khorassan. In early times they 
 were nomadic, having no large cities. Their 
 valor in war gave them, in the time of the 
 Empire, a certain preeminence over the sur- 
 rounding nations. The Parthians were thought 
 to be of Scythic origin. They armed them- 
 selves in the same fashion with that barbaric 
 race, and were regarded as the equals of the 
 Scythians in those extraordinary feats of 
 horsemanship and archery for which the latter 
 were so celebrated. The Parthian language 
 also indicated the race-affinity between this 
 people and the Scyths. 
 
 The original abode of the Gandarians was 
 Kabul, and the region on both sides of the 
 river of that name. They spread out east- 
 ward to the upper tributaries of the Indus, 
 and held all that mountainous district which 
 constitutes the north-eastern corner of the 
 great plateau. The Sattagydians lived south 
 of the country of the Gandarians, in the dis- 
 trict between the valley of the Indus and the 
 
 desert. Both of these wild races were brave 
 and hardy, but were less populous and daring 
 than the Parthians. The Sattagydians occu- 
 pied that part of Afghanistan not held by 
 the Sagartians, that is, the region between the 
 Ghuzni river and the Indus valley. They 
 were a tribe of about the same numbers and 
 character as the Sattagydians, though the 
 territory occupied by the latter was much 
 superior to that of the former. 
 
 Below the country of the last named na- 
 tion, in the south-eastern corner of the great 
 plateau, dwelt the Gedrosians. They held the 
 larger part of the modern Beloochistan, a 
 region of few rivers and many mountains. 
 The Gedrosians were regarded by the Persian 
 and Macedonian kings as a people of consider- 
 able importance, and the Roman historians 
 and proconsuls frequently refer to them in re- 
 spectful terms. 
 
 Such were the principal half-civilized na- 
 tions belonging to the eastern portion of the 
 Empire of Darius. It only remains to notice 
 the tribe of the Mysians, who occupied the 
 western part of the Hot region bordering on 
 the sea, and the Persian Scythians, whose bad 
 fame has been more than once referred to in 
 the preceding pages. Their seat was the great 
 plain of Chinese Tartary. On the west lay 
 Sogdiana and Bactria; on the north were the 
 mountains of Tien-chan, and on the east the 
 desert of Cobi. These barbarians were called 
 by Homer the "cheese-eating, mare-milking 
 Scythians." Herodotus describes them as 
 savages skilled in archery and horsemanship. 
 By Hippocrates they are referred to as gross, 
 flabby, loose-jointed beasts, covered with scat- 
 tering hair. It was their custom to drink 
 the blood of the first enemy whom they slew 
 in fight. The body of the dead foe was 
 scalped and skinned a la mode, and the delicate 
 trophies thus obtained were preserved as souv- 
 enirs of the pleasant days of war. When 
 their kings died a great many men and beasts 
 were sacrificed in their honor, while sooth- 
 sayers and magicians attended to the black 
 arts of the occasion. It was these refined 
 moralists who gave the Persians some of their 
 hottest work, and slew in battle their most 
 illustrious king.
 
 310 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In the plateau of Asia Minor, west of 
 Armenia, lived the Cappadocians. They were 
 called by the Greek historians the "White 
 Syrians." They were a people of the Semitic 
 race, hardy and vigorous, but their character 
 was marred by the foolish superstitions to 
 which they abandoned themselves. They 
 built many temples, the most famous being 
 that of Comana, dedicated to the goddess Ma, 
 the Bellona of the Romans. The high-priest 
 of the nation was a dignitary second only in 
 honor to the king, whom he greatly influenced 
 in affairs of state. 
 
 On the other side of the river Halys dwelt 
 the Phrygians, one of the most ancient nations 
 of Asia Minor. They are thought to have 
 been of an Iranian origin, and thus to have 
 been allied by blood with the Medes and Per- 
 sians. Their ancient king was the mythical 
 Midas, who turned whatever he touched into 
 gold. In the time of the Persian Empire the 
 Phrygians were regarded as one of the most 
 progressive and cultured peoples in the Avest- 
 ern dominions of the great kings. Before this 
 time they had been subdued by the Lydians, 
 and when in their turn they were overthrown 
 by the Persians, the kingdom of Phrygia went 
 to the new master from beyond the Tigris. 
 
 Of the cities of the Empire many have 
 already been described in the preceding Books. 
 Among those which have not yet received any 
 extended notice, the greatest was Persepolis. 
 This was the capital of Persia Proper in the 
 times when under the Achsemenian kings that 
 country held the leadership of Western Asia. 
 The city was situated thirty-five miles north 
 of the modern Shiraz, in the plain of Mer- 
 dasht, near the confluence of the rivers Medus 
 and Araxes. This spot, surrounded by lofty 
 mountains, is one of the most beautiful situa- 
 tions in the world. The plain is well- watered 
 by the two rivers Bendamir and Pulwar, and 
 is fruitful to luxuriance. After the removal 
 of the government from Pasargad^, the 
 ancient capital, in the time of Darius Hystas- 
 pis, Persepolis became the seat of the Empire 
 until conquest and ambition carried the great 
 kings to Susa and Babylon. 
 
 In modern times all that remains of 
 Persepolis is a ruin, but from it has been 
 
 gathered a fair idea of the magnificence of 
 the ancient city. Over a considerable por- 
 tion of the plain the broken columns and 
 crumbling architraves of the once splendid 
 capital lie scattered. On every hand is the 
 evidence of the massiveness and solidity and 
 grandeur which characterized the buildings 
 of the Persians. Near one of the mountain 
 spurs, projecting somewhat into the plain, are 
 the ruins of the great palace of Xerxes. The 
 basement is still intact. The platform is one 
 thousand five hundred feet in length and nine 
 hundred and thirty-six feet wide. Three of 
 the sides are supported by walls of great 
 strength, and the fourth abuts against the 
 hill. The basement is composed of three 
 elevations or terraces, the middle one being 
 over forty feet in height. The details of this 
 great palace will be hereafter noticed in con- 
 nection with the Architecture of the Persians. 
 
 In the hillside near the ruins of the city 
 are the celebrated rock tombs of the kings. 
 One of them still bears the inscription of 
 Darius Hystaspis. About two miles north of 
 this interesting locality are the remains of one 
 of the fortified gates of the city, grand and 
 massive. In wealth and population Persepolis 
 was, next after Susa, the greatest city of 
 Western Asia east of the Tigris. It was de- 
 stroyed in the time of Alexander of Macedon, 
 and after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes is 
 no longer mentioned among the towns of 
 Persia. 
 
 Susa, the capital of Susiana, was called the 
 " Lily."^ It was the lily of the Empire, one 
 of the residences of the kings, and the chief 
 treasury of the kingdom. It was situated 
 between the Choaspes and the Coprates rivers 
 in one of the most beautiful spots in the Per- 
 sian dominions. The city was walled after 
 the manner of Babylon, and had a circum- 
 ference of twenty miles. It was founded by 
 Tithonus, the father of Memnon, and became 
 noted at an early day for its splendor and 
 wealth. Here it was, in B. C. 325, that 
 Alexander the Great celebrated his marriage 
 with Parysatis, using the treasures of the city 
 with a liberal hand in honor of his nuptials. 
 
 ^ The Hebrew word shushan, from which Susa 
 is derived, means a lily.
 
 PERSIA.— PEOPLE AND CITIES. 
 
 317 
 
 It is only in recent times that antiquai'ies 
 have succeeded in establishing beyond ques- 
 tion the site of the ancient capital. 
 
 The most important cities of Asia Minor 
 were Ephesus, Sardis, and Miletus. The last 
 named was the capital of the province of 
 Caria, and was, in the times of the Hellenic 
 ascendency, a member of the Ionian confed- 
 eracy. The town was situated on a headland 
 or promontory opposite Mycale, and com- 
 manded the bay, into which flowed the river 
 Meander. The builders of the city wei-e 
 Cariaus and Cretans. The leader of the latter 
 Avas named Miletus, and from him the town 
 took its appellation. At a later date num- 
 bers of Greek traders and colonists settled in 
 the place and gave it its commercial im- 
 portance. Perhaps no 
 
 other city on the shores . _ 
 
 of the JEgean carried 
 its trade and settle- 
 ments so far or pros- 
 pered so greatly as did 
 Miletus. It became the 
 envy of surrounding 
 nations. The Lydians 
 twice made unsuccess- 
 ful war upon this mar- 
 itime metropolis, and 
 not until Croesus led 
 his army against it did 
 
 the stronghold succumb. Then for a brief 
 space the city was a Lydian trophy, until 
 Cyrus came into the West and swept all within 
 his grasp. 
 
 The city of Sardis, capital of Lydia, was 
 situated on the river Pactolus, near the con- 
 fluence of that stream and the Hermus, 
 about forty-five miles east from Smyrna. It 
 was one of the most ancient cities of West- 
 ern Asia. The name is mythological, and is 
 thought to have been given in honor of the 
 Syrian Sun-god. The city was already famous 
 at the time of the composition of the Homeric 
 poems, in which there are many references to 
 the Lydians and their capital. The site was 
 specially favorable to the foundation of a 
 city. Here, from the hills of Mount Tmolus 
 and Mount Sipylus, the river brings down its 
 sands of gold. From no other place in all 
 
 Asia could the precious dust be so easily and 
 plentifully gathered. In the time of- Croesus, 
 Sardis was regarded as one of the richest cit- 
 ies in the world, and her fame has been coex- 
 tensive with history. The site is marked at 
 the present day only by a few ruins, of which 
 the most important are the still-standing walls 
 of the ancient acropolis and the remains of a 
 great amphitheater, cut partly in the side of 
 a hill. 
 
 Ephesus, like Miletus, was a member of 
 the Ionian confederacy. It was situated near 
 the mouth of the river Cayster, and was said 
 to have been founded by the Amazons. From 
 a very early date it was a place of great pros- 
 perity. In the way of fame it claimed to be 
 the birthplace of Homer. More substantial 
 
 MILETUS. 
 
 was the distinction of the Ephesians in claim- 
 ing Heraclitus, Hermodorus, and Parrhasius, 
 all of whom were born in this city. The 
 tutelary divinity of the place was Diana, 
 whose great temple was one of the Seven 
 Wonders of the World. It was enlarged and 
 restored on seven different occasions, the ex- 
 pense being met by contributions from all 
 Asia. On the night of the birth of Alexan- 
 der the Great a certain slave, named Erostra- 
 tus, in order to immortalize himself by per- 
 petrating a capricious crime, set fire to the 
 magnificent structure, and it was burned to 
 the ground. When Alexander was grown to 
 years he oflTered to rebuild the temple on con- 
 dition of receiving its name, but this was 
 refused, and the Ephesians themselves under- 
 took the task of restoration, which was not 
 comnleted for two hundred and twenty years.
 
 318 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The temple of Diana was the chief glory 
 of the city. The style was Grecian. The 
 length of the ground-plan was four hundred 
 and twenty-five feet and the bi'eadth two hun- 
 dred and twenty feet. The structure w^as 
 thus four times as large as the Parthenon at 
 Athens. The statue of the goddess was one 
 of the finest works of art ever produced. It 
 was wrought of ivory and gold, and was a 
 marvel of costliness and beauty. The temple 
 was decorated with sculptures by Praxiteles 
 
 TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPIJESUS, EESTOEED. 
 
 and one of the masterpieces of Apelles. A 
 representation of the temple was stamped on 
 the coins and medals of the city. Next 
 among the wonders of Ephesus was the great 
 theater, of which a good portion has been 
 exhumed, and is still well preserved. It was 
 a vast circle of stone rising seat on seat, until 
 the capacity was sufficient to accommodate 
 fifty thousand persons. 
 
 In the course of the preceding Histories of 
 Egypt, Chaldeea, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, 
 and in the present Book on Persia, a pretty 
 full delineation of the race-character of the 
 
 peoples of Western Asia and the northern 
 parts of Africa has been attempted. Sketches 
 of considerable length have also been pre- 
 sented of those fundamental facts in geogra- 
 phy and climate upon which the dispositions 
 and genius of nations are so largely based. 
 A summary of the prevalent animals and 
 plants and fruits of the various countries has 
 been given to the end that a just estimate 
 may be made of the means of subsistence and 
 the manner of life in those ancient times when 
 
 the relations of 
 man with the ani- 
 mal kingdom were 
 so much more im- 
 portant than they 
 are to-day. De- 
 scriptions also have 
 been presented — 
 some brief, some 
 more ample — of 
 the leading cities 
 of antiquity, those 
 vast aggregations 
 of humanity which, 
 in the absence of 
 a vigorous and in- 
 telligent country 
 populace, really 
 constituted the an- 
 cient state. It will 
 not, therefore, be necessary hereafter to refer 
 so often or so extensively to the above-men- 
 tioned primary facts in civilization, but rather 
 to give a larger relative importance to the 
 actual movements of human society, taking it 
 for granted that the ethnic, geographical, and 
 climatic conditions and surroundings of the 
 people under review are sufficiently under- 
 stood. In entering upon the history of the 
 Greeks and Romans it will again be desirable 
 to note the external conditions by which these 
 peoples and the other races of Europe have 
 been affected in habits, manners, and deeds.
 
 PERSIA.— ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 819 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX.— ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 IMONG the peoples of 
 Western Asia, the Per- 
 sians, after the Babylo- 
 nians and the Ninevites, 
 stand first in architectural 
 skill. For a long time 
 their merits remained un- 
 noticed or unacknowledged. The remote geo- 
 graphical position of Persia, lyiug beyond the 
 Zagros, prevented the Greek traders and his- 
 torians from obtaining personal information 
 respecting the artistic achievements of the 
 subjects of Cyrus and Cambyses. Nor, is it 
 unlikely that at a later date, when in the 
 times of Alexander a better knowledge of the 
 architecture and sculpture of the Persians be- 
 came diffused in the West, there was a twinge 
 of jealousy in the Greek writers when they 
 came to speak of works that might rival those 
 of their own country. Neither Herodotus nor 
 Xenophon ever visited Persia, and the refer- 
 ences to architecture made by Ctesias, who 
 dwelt for seventeen years at the court of Susa, 
 are few and meager. At the time of the 
 overthrow of the Empire by the Macedonians, 
 the wrath of Alexander was loosed against 
 the palaces and cities of his foes, and the 
 pride of the laud was in a great measure ex- 
 tinguished by the fagot. Nevertheless, the 
 ruins that were left behind and the occasional 
 accounts of the Greek authors have furnished 
 sufficient data from which to derive a tolerable 
 notion of Persian art at the epoch of the Achae- 
 menians. Indeed, in modern times more at- 
 tention has been given by travelers and anti- 
 quarians to the remains of Persepolis than to 
 those of Babylon and Nineveh. 
 
 As in most of the ancient kingdoms, so in 
 Persia, the grandest display of architectural 
 skill was in the construction and decoration 
 of royal palaces. Owing to the purer and 
 simpler religious doctrines of the Persians, 
 their temples were relatively less grand and 
 less numerous than those of the Mesopotamian 
 
 nations and the Egyptians. After the palaces, 
 N. — Vol. I — 20 
 
 the most striking works of the Empire were 
 the tombs which the great kings, with feelings, 
 no doubt, akin to those of the Pharaohs, 
 built for their final abodes. It is, then, to the 
 houses of the kings — living and dead — that 
 we must turn for our knowledge of the style 
 and character of the building arts of the 
 Persians. 
 
 There are in Persia Proper the remains of 
 two great palaces. One stood within the 
 walls of Persepolis, and the other in the im- 
 mediate vicinity of the city. The latter, 
 which was the great edifice to which the torch 
 was a2:)plied by the orders of Alexander, is the 
 best preserved ruin in the country, and is in 
 its present state sufficient, under careful ex- 
 amination, to give a fair idea of the original 
 edifice. It is built on a raised platform, after 
 the manner prevalent in Assyria and Baby- 
 lonia. The exact philosophy of such a method 
 has never been ascertained. Perhaps the ideal 
 consideration was merely the elevation of the 
 king's house to a level from which the 
 monarch might look down on his people. 
 There were also certain physical advantages 
 to be gained from the high situation. In 
 those countries where the summer heats were 
 excessive, the king's halls would have a cooler 
 breeze than in the plain. Thfe elevated posi- 
 tion was also more defensible. In some coun- 
 tries, as in Babylonia, there were many ills 
 and pests which were avoided in a measure 
 on the high platform Avhere stood the house 
 of the king. Here the miasm of the lowlands 
 was not felt. Here the insects and vermin 
 which plagued the people of less favored situ- 
 ations were kept at bay by the perpendicular — 
 sometimes jutting — walls and solid masonry 
 of the basement. 
 
 The platform of the great palace just out- 
 side of Persepolis was built of massive blocks 
 of hewn stone. These were held together by 
 strong clamps of iron. The blocks were pur- 
 posely cut of different shapes and sizes, and 
 were fitted together according to a plan which
 
 320 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 contemplated strength and solidity. The out- 
 side of the wall, which was in the lowest part 
 twenty feet in height, was smooth and per- 
 pendicular. The ground plan was a rectangle, 
 the dimensions of which have been given in 
 the preceding chapter.^ On the north side, 
 however, the native rock of the mountain 
 spur, against which the platform abuts, was 
 used as a part of the substructure, and this 
 end of the wall is set at an angle to the other 
 sides of eighty degrees instead of the right 
 angle, which measures the remaining corners. 
 The surface of the wall is purposely broken 
 at intervals with certain angular projections 
 and recesses, after the same style noticed in 
 the basement stories of the palaces at Baby- 
 lon and Nineveh. 
 
 The platform consists of a series of terraces, 
 three of which ai*e still seen. The lowest of 
 these is on the south side. It has an 
 elevation of twenty feet, is eight hundred 
 feet in length and one hundred and eighty 
 feet wide. The northern terrace has much 
 greater dimensions, being thirty-five feet high, 
 and having a breadth of about five hundred 
 and fifty feet. The central terrace is still 
 more grand, being forty-five feet in height. 
 The length and lireadth, however, are no 
 greater than that of the northern elevation, 
 being respectively seven hundred and seventy 
 and four hundred feet. It was uptm this cen- 
 tral terrace that the palace proper was reared. 
 
 The ascent to the great platform was made 
 by a system of staircases so massive and grand 
 as to excite just wonder, even at the present. 
 The broadest and noblest of these ascents is 
 on the west side of the elevation near its 
 northern end. The stairs composing the flight 
 are of solid stone. They are of two sets, and 
 are built at right-angles to the wall of the 
 platform. At the first landing they diverge 
 to the right and left, and then converge to a 
 common lauding on the upper level. The 
 steps are very broad and low, being no more 
 than three or four inches in height. Modern 
 travelers ride up and down them without dif- 
 ficulty, the breadth of the flight being suffi- 
 cient to allow of ten horsemen abreast. The 
 ancient world has bequeathed to the modern 
 
 1 See Book Sixth, p. 316. 
 
 no other example of a stairway so massive, so 
 simple, so grand, so enduring. 
 
 The second ascent is on the north front of 
 the second terrace leading to the summit. It 
 consists of four flights of steps, two of them 
 being central, and the other two distant about 
 sixty feet on either side. The width of this 
 second flight is sixteen feet, and the entire 
 length of the staircase two hundred and twelve 
 feet. Tne ascent is as gentle as in the flight 
 on the Avestern front of the lower platform 
 described above, the elevation being at the 
 rate of thirty-one steps in ten feet, or a little 
 less than four inches to the step. 
 
 The chief difference between the two stair- 
 cases is that the lower one on the west is per- 
 fectly plain, being composed of broad slabs of 
 hewn stone laid with a solidity of adjustment 
 which time has been unable to disturb. The 
 faces of the second stairway, however, are 
 covered with sculptures, the most interesting 
 of any found among the relics of Persian 
 greatness. One of the chief of these works 
 is a relief of a lion devouring a bull, the fig- 
 ures being executed with great spirit. At the 
 observer's left as he ascends the steps are 
 eight colossal Persian guards, who stand sentry 
 over the approach to their royal master. 
 They are armed with spear and sword and 
 shield, and are executed in a style worthy of 
 the chisels of Greece. Another row of smaller 
 figures, carrying the bow and quiver, stand in 
 another part of the ascent, and though less 
 striking are equally artistic. Further on, the 
 wall was divided into three horizontal bands, 
 each of which was occupied with an array 
 of figures. Those in the upper band are 
 nearly destroyed, but in the lower two divis- 
 ions the sense of the work can be easily made 
 out. In the middle baud a large number of 
 subject peoples are bringing (by their repre- 
 sentatives) their tril)ute to the great king; 
 while in the lower band the courtiers and 
 officers of the monarch, arranged in rank ac- 
 cording to their several dignities, are conduct- 
 ing the ceremonial of the court. In three 
 different parts of the stairway slabs are left 
 for the evident purpose of receiving inscrip- 
 tions, and on one of these, written in Old 
 Persian, ire the following memorable words:
 
 PERSIA.— ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 321 
 
 "Xerxes, the Great King, the King of 
 Kings, the son of King Darius, the Ach- 
 iEMENiAN." Thus is removed all doubt as to 
 whose royal halls opened at the landing of 
 these stairs, or under whose auspices the great 
 palace was reared. 
 
 On the top of the terraces are the ruins of 
 what were once the most splendid edifices in 
 all Persia. It appears from the remains that 
 the summit was not occupied by one continu- 
 ous palace of great proportions, like the 
 Louvre, but that no fewer than ten separate 
 and distinct buildings were erected on the 
 platform. One-half of these were structures 
 of large dimensions, and the remaining five 
 of but moderate size and importance. Four 
 of the larger buildings were upon the summit 
 of the central terrace, while the fifth of the 
 first class stood at some distance between that 
 elevation and the foot of the hill. Of the 
 four structures on the central platform three 
 were palaces consisting of sets of chambers 
 and apartments suitable for the royal resi- 
 dence, but the fourth was an open Hall of 
 Pillars of great extent and beauty, designed, 
 as is believed by antiquarians, for the Audi- 
 ence Hall of the kings. The three palaces 
 were the abodes of Darius, Xerxes, and Ar- 
 taxerxes-Ochus, by whose architects they were 
 no doubt respectively built. The House of 
 Darius stood near the western edge of the ele- 
 vation, between the Hall of Audience and 
 the House of Artaxerxes. The ground-plan 
 measured one hundred and thirty-five feet in 
 length and about one hundred feet in breadth. 
 It was the most elevated of all the buildings 
 on the terrace, having the foundation fifteen 
 feet higher than the level of the platform and 
 five feet higher than the floor of the House 
 of Xerxes. This difference in elevation, how- 
 ever, was perhaps more than compensated by 
 the greater height of the buildings bearing the 
 names of the later kings. The House of Da- 
 rius is believed to have been but one story 
 high, and to have measured in altitude no 
 more than twenty-five feet. The whole build- 
 ing was comparatively simple, suggesting in 
 design and execution the severe work of the 
 early architects of Greece. The sculptured 
 stairway was the most ornamental part of the 
 
 edifice, the other parts being nearly devoid of 
 decorations. By comparison the palace was 
 of much less dimensions than those built by 
 the kings of Nineveh : it was the chaste solid- 
 ity and classic execution of the work rather 
 than the size of the structure that gave fame 
 to the edifice in which Darius planned the 
 subjugation of the Greeks. 
 
 The remaining two palaces, those of Xerxes 
 and Axtaxerxes-Ochus, were larger and more 
 elaborate. The latter is a complete ruin, inso- 
 much that no adequate idea of its style and 
 details can be obtained. The former is still 
 preserved in outline, from which it is known 
 to have been a reproduction of the architec- 
 ture of the palace of Darius. The great hall 
 in this edifice was eighty feet square. In the 
 portico were two rows of pillars, six in a row. 
 Around the hall were the royal apartments in 
 which the king and his. household and officers 
 had their abodes. These apartments were — 
 unlike those of the Babylonian palaces — 
 roofed over, the roofs being supported by 
 rows of columns. The whole structure was 
 thrown back to the rear edge of the terrace, so 
 that the open space, instead of being distrib- 
 uted around the building, as in the case of 
 the palace of Darius, was all thrown to the 
 front. In the matter of ornamentation, as 
 determined from the sculptures of the stair- 
 ways, there is a marked change in taste from 
 the style of the older buildings. In the halls 
 and passages of the House of Xerxes the fig- 
 ures, instead of representing heroic combats, 
 in which bulls and lions and the king himself 
 are seen struggling for the mastery, depict 
 the attendants of the monarch bearing viands 
 and passing to and fro in such service as 
 clearly belonged to a luxurious and sensual 
 court. 
 
 In addition to the main buildings which 
 crowned the great platform, it supported four 
 gateways, which covered the approaches to the 
 various palaces. It appears that these were a 
 kiud of guard stations, where sentries were 
 posted to hold at bay any who might unduly 
 come into the presence of the king. The 
 largest one of these gateways stood opposite 
 the center of the landing-place before the 
 main stairway which led to the summit of the
 
 322 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 platform. The structure was a great square, 
 measuring eighty-two feet on each side. The 
 walls were of enormous thickness, the roof 
 supported by columns sixty feet in height. 
 There were two portals through which passage 
 must be sought to the space beyond, and these 
 were thirty-five feet high and twelve feet in 
 breadth. The portals were guarded without 
 by colossal bulls, some of them having the 
 heads of men and the wings of eagles, after 
 the style prevalent in Assyria. The massive 
 pillars of masonry in which these marvelous 
 effigies are carved are still in a tolerable state 
 of preservation, and the mythological mon- 
 sters look out in solemn silence over the ruins 
 of former glory. 
 
 It remains to notice briefly the two great 
 pillared halls, which have been pronounced by 
 competent judges to be the most marvelous 
 pieces of architecture ever Avrought by artists 
 of the Aryan race in Asia. The first, known 
 as the Hall of a Hundred Columns, was situ- 
 ated about the center of the great platform, 
 rather nearer to the eastern than to the west- 
 ern edge. Here a grand square, two hundred 
 and twenty-seven feet on each side, was laid 
 off* and inclosed with a tremendous wall of 
 the uniform thickness of ten and a half feet. 
 The whole space was covered over, the roof 
 being supported by a hundred columns set in 
 ten rows of ten columns each. Each of the 
 four walls was pierced with two grand door- 
 ways, which stood facing the corresponding 
 openings on the opposite side, the passage 
 through leading between rows of columns on 
 the right and left. In front of the main 
 structure was a portico one hundred and 
 eighty-three feet long by fifty-two feet in 
 depth, the roof being supported by sixteen 
 pillars, thirty-five feet in height. Between 
 the portico and the main hall were three win- 
 dows, and in the remaining three sides of the 
 square the walls contained niches, finished 
 above with a peculiar style of fluted orna- 
 mentation. 
 
 It is evident that the Hall of a Hundred 
 Columns was a place of public ceremonies. 
 All of the sculptures and decorations are o£a 
 sort to warrant this conclusion. It was not a 
 place for couches and banquets and for the 
 
 idle displays of courtiers, but for the formal 
 dispatch of the important aflTairs of the Em- 
 pire. The Achsemenian kings were not merely 
 oriental figure-heads, but energetic rulers, 
 who gave their first hours to business and the 
 rest to relaxation, perhaps to luxury. The 
 representations on the walls of the great hall 
 show the monarch in a victorious struggle 
 against some monster, real or fabulous, or 
 else sitting in state, dispensing orders or re- 
 ceiving ambassadors from foreign lands. In 
 such scenes he occupies the throne, over 
 which is spread a canopy. He wears the 
 crown, and in his right hand bears the golden 
 scepter. Five dignitaries of the Empire 
 stand near by, and on a lower level at a dis- 
 tance are fifty armed guardsmen, standing in 
 files of ten, bearing swords and bows and 
 quivers. On another portal a throne still more 
 elaborate is represented. It is on a raised 
 dais of three stages, the successive platforms 
 being supported by a series of sculptured fig- 
 ures. These apparently represent the natives 
 of the various provinces under the dominion 
 of the Persians. The various costumes are as 
 widely different as the person and features of 
 the wearers. Doubtless these throne scenes, 
 looking down silently from the doors and 
 panels of the great hall, were an actual 
 transcrijjt of what was witnessed almost con- 
 stantly in the great pillared rectangle, where 
 the Majesty of Persia sat and dispensed his 
 edicts to the nations. 
 
 On a different part of the great platform 
 are the ruins of another edifice, still more 
 wonderful than the Hall of a Hundred Col- 
 umns. This was the structure known as the 
 Chehl Minar, or Great Hall of Audience. 
 The space covered by this building was three 
 hundred and fifty feet in length and two 
 hundred and forty-six feet in breadth. Like 
 the Hall of a Hundred Columns, it was a 
 structure the vast roof of which was supported 
 by a system of pillars, which in grandeur and 
 beauty surpassed any thing in the ancient 
 world, excepting only the columnar wonders 
 of Egypt and Greece. The main square in 
 the Hall of Audience consisted of a space of 
 twenty thousand square feet, occupied by 
 thirty-six pillars, arranged in rows of six. On
 
 PERSIA.— AETS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 323 
 
 three of the sides of this principal space were 
 magnificent porticoes, each being one hundred 
 and forty-two feet long by thirty feet in 
 breadth. The structure of these was also co- 
 lumnar, each porch being supported by twelve 
 pillars, placed in rows of six, to correspond 
 with those of the main edifice. The seventy- 
 two columns, thirty-six of which stood in the 
 principal square and the remainder in the 
 porticoes, were all sixty-four feet in height. 
 Many of them are still erect, and, with the 
 exception of displaced capitals, present, after 
 the dilapidations of twenty-two hundred years, 
 almost the original appearance. The capitals 
 are of two varieties. The first style consists 
 of two half-griffins facing in opposite direc- 
 tions, or of two bull's heads arranged in the 
 same manner. The other style is more com- 
 plex, consisting of three parts. The first, which 
 rests on the head of the column, is a lotus-bud ; 
 the second, a system of volutes, set perpendic- 
 ularly; and the third the bull's-head cap already 
 described. The bases of the pillars are bell- 
 shaped, and are for beauty unsurpassed by 
 any in the world. The ornamentation consists 
 of a system of lotus-leaves depending. The 
 columns themselves taper gently to the top, 
 and are fluted through their entire length, 
 the number of flutings being forty-eight or 
 fifty-two in each pillar. The entablature and 
 the grand roof overhead have fallen into in- 
 distinguishable ruin. — Such were the magnifi- 
 cent structures which once crowned the sum- 
 mit of the great platform of Persepolis. 
 
 The other palaces, to which reference has 
 already been made, were found at Pasargads, 
 the ancient capital, at the city of Istakr, and 
 at Susa. Pasargadse was the city of Cyrus 
 the Great, and nearly all the ruins discovered 
 at that place (now the town of Murgab) per- 
 petuate in some way his name and deeds. 
 The monuments found here are the most 
 ancient in all Persia, and represent the begin- 
 nings of that style of palatial structure which 
 gained its full development at Persepolis. 
 The largest single ruin at Pasargadse presents 
 a ground plan one hundred and forty-seven 
 feet in length and one hundred and sixteen 
 feet in width. This space was surrounded by 
 a massive wall, in the four sides of which were 
 
 huge stone doors. On the facing of each 
 portal is this legend: "I am Cyrus, tele 
 King, the Ach^menian." The buUding 
 within the inclosure was columnar, though all 
 of the pillars, except a single one, have fallen. 
 This remaining shaft has a height of thirty- 
 six feet. It is a column perfectly plain, with 
 a diameter of three feet and four inches at 
 the base. The stumps of seven of the other 
 pillars remain on the pavement, and these are 
 arranged in rows so as to indicate an oblong 
 structure. In a smaller building of similar 
 style, found at no great distance, the bases of 
 twelve columns have been found as they Avere 
 originally placed. Besides these ruins the 
 remains of a square tower have been found 
 at Murgab. The structure is of hewn stone, 
 built with great solidity, having projecting 
 corners and a height of forty-two feet. Not 
 far distant is a fourth and last foundation, 
 composed of solid stone carefully dressed and 
 laid immovably in horizontal courses. Some 
 of the facing stones are as much as ten feet 
 in length, and are put into place with artistic 
 exactness. The structure is said by antiqua- 
 rians to bear a remarkable resemblance to the 
 basement of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. 
 At the town of Istakr have been discov- 
 ered the remains of a ruined palace, dating 
 back to the times of the Achsemenians. The 
 ground plan of the edifice has not been deter- 
 mined. ' One standing column and the bases 
 of eight others have been found in their orig- 
 inal places. Parts of the walls have also been 
 traced by the curious and certain features of 
 the building made out with sufficient clearness 
 to show that the palace was in its architecture 
 of a later date than the edifices of Pasargadse. 
 The fluted columns, massive portals, and thick 
 walls are more like those of Persepolis than 
 those of the ancient capital. 
 
 The great palace at Susa, one of the resi- 
 dences of the Persian kings, was built by 
 Darius Hystaspis and afterwards restored by 
 Artaxerxes Longimanus. The site selected 
 was the old rectangular platform of unburnt 
 bricks, which from the earliest times had sup- 
 ported the royal abodes of the kings of 
 Susiana. The view from this summit was one 
 of the most beautiful to be had in the Empire.
 
 324 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The palace front was to the north-west, look- 
 ing to the distant mountains of Luristan. 
 The royal edifice erected here by Darius was, 
 so far as has been determined by the few 
 remains and by the references of the Greek 
 historians, almost an exact duplicate of the 
 palace of Persepolis: a description of the one 
 will answer for the other. 
 
 As already said, the architectural works 
 of the Persians which, next after their pal- 
 aces, have been considered most worthy of 
 note were the tombs of the kings. Eight of 
 these royal sepulchers have been examined. 
 They are found to be of two kinds; the one 
 being a structure built in an open space, and 
 the other an ornamented chamber carved in 
 
 TOMB OF CYRUS. 
 
 the native rock of the hillside. By far the 
 most conspicuous work of the first class is the 
 celebrated tomb of Cyrus. It is situated near 
 Pasargadse in a rectangular area now covered 
 with broken pillars, of which there were 
 originally twenty-four. The tomb proper con- 
 sists of a basement of marble in the form of 
 a pyramid. The lower layer of slabs measures 
 on one side forty-seven and on the other forty- 
 three feet. The pyramid rises to the summit 
 in seven contracted squares, the upper area 
 measuring over twenty feet on each side. 
 Upon the platform thus formed was reared a 
 marble chamber almost exactly the shape of 
 a common house of to-day, having a double 
 sloping roof of marble slabs. The door was 
 in the middle of the end. The inner cell or 
 tomb was eleven feet in length by seven feet 
 
 in each of its other dimensions. There is 
 little doubt that within this marble crypt, in 
 a coflfin of gold, the founder of the Persian 
 Empire was laid in his last resting-place. 
 
 The rock-tombs — those carved in the hill- 
 sides — are more elaborate by far than the one 
 just described. Four of this kind have beep 
 discovered in the face of the mountains skirt- 
 ing the valley of the Pulwar, and three have 
 been found in the vicinity of Persepolis. The 
 hill-front selected by the builders was first 
 hewn to a smooth surface. This was then 
 divided into three horizontal sections, the cen- 
 tral one being much broader than the lower 
 and upper ones. The lower section remained 
 without ornamentation, being simply hewn 
 plain with definite outlines. The 
 middle section, corresponding to the 
 transverse arm of a Greek cross, con- 
 tained the tomb proper. The front 
 of this section was adorned with a 
 row of columns, between which the 
 Btoue was cut away, forming cham- 
 bers in the hill. In the center a 
 deeper recess was carved, intended 
 to receive the body of the dead. The 
 upper section was highly ornamented, 
 being a kind of architrave covered 
 with allegorical figures, and generally 
 representing in its upper part the king 
 himself in the act of worshiping 
 Ormazd. Such is the character of 
 the great tomb of Darius Hystaspis, near 
 Persepolis. 
 
 A short distance from this royal burying- 
 ground stood an edifice the meaning of which 
 has not been determined. This is a square 
 tower, built of blocks of marble. The height 
 of the building is thirty-six feet. The ground- 
 plan is a square, measuring twenty-four feet 
 on each side. The corners were ornamented 
 with pilasters, and the faces with niches. In 
 the middle of the north side was a doorway 
 looking towards the tombs. The door leads 
 into a square chamber, which reaches from 
 the level of the entrance to the top of the 
 tower, and is covered with a roof. 
 
 Taken all in all, the architecture of the 
 Persians was simple and grand. There ap- 
 pear to have been great regularity of struc-
 
 PERSIA.— ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 325 
 
 ture and harmony of design. The general 
 effect was heightened by the elevation which 
 was attained by means of the basement plat- 
 forms. The columnar feature of the great 
 buildings added a beauty hardly surpassed by 
 the temples of Greece. On the other hand, 
 the Persian buildings — though the fiiult was 
 not as conspicuous as in those of Babylonia — 
 were little improved in appearance by 0})en- 
 ings in the walls, or by any device by which 
 surfaces are broken and their monotony re- 
 lieved. In the way of analogy, the sculp- 
 tures and other decorations of buildings were 
 like those of Assyria rather than those of 
 Eg}'^t and Greece, though traces of similarity 
 may be seen to the works of the latter coun- 
 tries. But for the reckless fury of Alexander 
 and his followers, much of the architectural 
 glory of the Persians which now lies in heaps 
 of ruin would still bear witness to the ambi- 
 tion and genius of the vigorous j^eople by 
 whom that glory was achieved. 
 
 In the matter of Persian sculpture, nearly 
 every thing that may be presented has al- 
 ready been said incidentally in connection 
 with their architecture. The work of this 
 sort consists of figures carved in relief on 
 slabs of stone. Sometimes, as in the case of 
 the tomb of Darius, described above, the 
 artist has displayed his skill on the face of 
 the natural rock. In every case, however, 
 the figures are upon the surface of the mate- 
 rial of which they are composed. No sepa- 
 rate piece of Persian statuary has been dis- 
 covered. The colossal bulls and other effigies 
 of the sort which stand guard at the entrances 
 to the palaces are but partially developed fig- 
 ures, only the front of the image being raised 
 from the pillars in which the body is im- 
 bedded. Neither clay models nor metallic 
 castings have been found. No specimen of 
 Persian pottery, no carving in ivory or wood, 
 has rewarded the curiosity of the antiquary. 
 Of stamped coins, however, great numbers 
 are in existence, and of engraved gems not a 
 few have been discovered. The colossal bulls, 
 some copied from nature and some mytholog- 
 ical monsters having men's heads and eagles' 
 wings, are of a high order of artistic merit. 
 The figures are grand and imposing. Indeed, 
 
 there is about them a certain sphinx-like maj' 
 esty suggestive of the great effigies of Egypt. 
 There is in these works the sublimity of repose 
 combined with the beauty of strength. 
 
 After the winged bulls the next class of 
 figures requiring notice are those of a man, 
 generally the king, contesting with beasts. 
 Sometimes the antagonist of the royal person 
 is a wild bull ; sometimes, a lion ; sometimes, 
 a monster of mythology. These scenes are 
 represented with great spirit and truthfulness, 
 the artist always being careful to give the an- 
 ticipation of victory to his master, the king. 
 The third series of sculptures are those rep- 
 resenting processions of human figures, some- 
 what like those upon the architraves of Gre- 
 cian tem2:)les. The persons depicted are the 
 courtiers of the king, a retinue of guards, a 
 file of attendants, or an embassy of foreigners 
 bringing tribute and homage to the great king. 
 The fourth kind of sculptures represent the 
 monarch himself, either engaged in some 
 public duty of the government or in devo- 
 tions to his god. The fifth and last group 
 are those representing animal figures — notably 
 lions and bulls — either singly or engaged in 
 combat. In scenes of the latter sort nature 
 is followed; for the lion kills the bull. 
 
 The Persian coins are of great interest. 
 The designs are of many varieties and subjects. 
 Sometimes the impression is a simple medal- 
 lion of the king, armed and crowned. On 
 one side of some of the coins the figures are 
 raised, and on the other indented. The de- 
 sign in some cases is a galley; in others, the 
 king driving his chariot; in others, a city. 
 
 Of the household utensils of the Persians 
 not much is known. The sculptures represent 
 nothing in this line excej)t a few pieces of 
 royal furniture. On the walls of the palace 
 at Persepolis several censers are depicted. 
 The form of a basket is also given, shaped 
 somewhat like a reticule. Goblets and covered 
 dishes are also seen in the hands of servants 
 attending on the banquets. Those who bring 
 tribute-money present the same in a kind of 
 bowl or basin, though these articles were prob- 
 ably brought with the tribute from some dis- 
 tant province. 
 
 In the matter of personal decorations the
 
 326 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Persians seem to have had the simple tastes 
 peculiar to the Aryan race. The articles were 
 nearly all plain bands of gold. Such were 
 the ear-rings, finger-rings, and bracelets. Col- 
 lars were sometimes formed by twisting to- 
 gether several bands of the precious metal, 
 but the work displays not much artistic skill. 
 The hilts of swords were made plain, and 
 adapted merely to service, though the shafts 
 of spears were sometimes ornamented with a 
 knob representing an apple or pomegranate. 
 
 In the social and economic arts the Per- 
 sians were not celebrated. In the production 
 of fabrics they were greatly surpassed by the 
 Babylonians and the Phoenicians. Nor was it 
 necessary that the people of the original king- 
 
 dependent for its finer fabrics upon the fac- 
 tories of Babylonia and Kashmeer and Egypt. 
 In scientific attainments the Persians were 
 still less distinguished. The advance of science 
 in any country depends in a great measure 
 upon the regularity of the recurrence of the 
 phenomena of nature. In regions where 
 nature is capricious and variable the apparent 
 confusion and lawlessness of things perplex 
 the understanding, and mythology, by ascribing 
 a transcendental origin to things, better satisfies 
 the mind than natural science, which insists 
 on regularity. Astronomy, for instance, will 
 never flourish in a land of hills and forests 
 under a foggy atmosphere and a cloudy sky. 
 In these natural conditions can be easily 
 
 ANCIENT SUSA. 
 
 dom should devote themselves to those indus- 
 trial pursuits which were so assiduously fol- 
 lowed in the subject countries of the Empire. 
 The leadership of Western Asia was won by 
 the swords of the Persian kings at a time 
 when Bal)ylon, Tyre, Sardis, Borsippa, Da- 
 mascus, and the cities of India were already 
 famous for their manufacturing industries. 
 These, becoming tributary, were glad to avert 
 the onsets of Persian armies by pouring their 
 treasures into Persepolis and Ecbatana. The 
 soldiers of a warlike country were not very 
 likely to emulate the skill and industry of 
 weavers when they could take for nothing the 
 product of their looms and work-benches. So 
 the manufactures of the Persians never won 
 distinction. Their home fabrics attained a 
 fair degree of excellence ; but it does not ap- 
 pear that their goods were ever in demand in 
 foreign markets. The country thus remained 
 
 discovered the reason why ancient star-lore 
 flourished in Egypt and Chaldsea and lagged 
 in Media and Persia. To this must be added 
 another cause found in a difference of race. 
 The Semitic and Cushite families of men were 
 both by nature and locality contemplative in 
 their habits of thought. The Aryans, on the 
 other hand, were aggressive and restless, prone 
 to excessive activity by day and profound 
 sleep by night. The determination of causes 
 and relations — the essence of science — requires 
 observation, reflection, experiment — conditions 
 foreign to the nature and environment of the 
 Persians. They neither patronized schools 
 nor esteemed intellectual greatness. While 
 learning flourished In many of the provinces 
 of the Empire, while the schools of Borsippa 
 and Miletus were hives of mental activity, 
 Persia Proper neither founded institutions nor 
 appreciated their importance.
 
 FEESIA.—3IANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 327 
 
 Chapter xxx.— Manners and customs. 
 
 HAT kind of people the 
 Persians were can be 
 easily determined from 
 their sculptures. In these 
 the national physiognomy 
 and person are so clearly 
 delineated as to leave no 
 doubt. The figures are sufficiently numerous 
 and varied to satisfy all curiosity respecting 
 the personal appearance and bearing of the 
 subjects of the Achpemenians. The Persian 
 face and general type diflTer so markedly from 
 the representations of the human form and 
 countenance as delineated in the sculptures of 
 Assyria and Egypt, as to be unmistakable 
 even by amateurs in ethnic peculiarities. The 
 remains of Persepolis also present us with 
 many figures of foreigners done by native 
 artists, and the truthfulness of such Avork 
 furnishes good ground for belief that they 
 were equally — perhaps more — faithful in carv- 
 ing the features and form of their own coun- 
 trymen. 
 
 In stature the Persians were rather tall. 
 They differed not much in form from the 
 typical European. They were not so heavy 
 and strong-muscled as the Assyrians, but sur- 
 passed them in agility and freedom. Their 
 features were striking and regular. The ex- 
 pression was mild, vivacious, benignant — in 
 no case coarse or brutal. The head was high 
 and oval, and (if we may credit Herodotus) 
 the skull was much thinner than that of other 
 peoples.* 
 
 As far as it is possible to generalize on 
 such a subject, it may be averred that the 
 Persians were witty and vivacious. They 
 seem to have had neither the sedateness of 
 Egyptians nor the meditative habits of the 
 Babylonians. Their sculptures and architec- 
 ture show that they had the artistic fancy, 
 though in a less degree than the Greeks. It 
 
 ' The Father of History accounts for this fact 
 on the theory that the Persian skull was protected 
 by a head-dress. 
 
 was, however, in state-craft and war that the 
 intellectual superiority of the people was best 
 illustrated. In these respects the Persian 
 genius was conspicuous. The ability of the 
 Acheemenian kings in conducting the affairs 
 of a great Empire which they had conquered — 
 an Empire composed of heterogeneous popu- 
 lations widely scattered and speaking diverse 
 languages — can in no way be questioned ; and 
 their warlike spirit was such as to give them 
 for a considerable period an unequivocal as- 
 cendency over all Western Asia. Even in 
 their great combats with the Greeks it was 
 discipline rather than courage that gave to 
 the latter their victories. 
 
 What were the literary — especially the 
 poetical — abilities of the ancient Persians we 
 have no means of knowing. It is not likely 
 that in this manner their imagination found 
 much relief or pleasure. It is true that the 
 Persian poet Firdusi, who flourished in the 
 latter half of the tenth century, has ascribed 
 to his countrymen of ancient times the posses- 
 sion of sentiments and passions kindled with 
 poetic fire. But this perhaps is like the 
 ascription of epic enthusiasm to the Gael in 
 McPherson's Ossian — to be taken with many 
 grains of allowance. 
 
 In the heroic virtues the Persians were 
 hardly inferior to the Greeks and Romans. 
 They believed that destiny pointed to them as 
 the conquerors of the world. Under this in- 
 spiration, they went to battle with the rash 
 courage of crusaders and met death with the 
 indifference of the Moslems. It was believed 
 by the great kings that they ought to go to 
 war. It was the precedent of the Empire to 
 conquer, and when opportunity was wanting, 
 when the energies of the people seemed to be 
 turned to pursuits less daring and dangerous, 
 the monarchs felt that the Achsemenian star 
 was waning in the heavens. The valor of the 
 Persian soldiery will be amply illustrated in 
 the chapter on the military and civil history 
 of the nation.
 
 328 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TSE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Of moral qualities the most conspicuous 
 virtue of the Persians was — as it is of any 
 people who possess it — their love of truth. 
 This trait in the national character was so 
 noted as to become proverbial in both Asia 
 and Europe. The praises of the Greek his- 
 torians — themselves the literary exemplars of 
 a people who too frequently in their conduct 
 hovered along the bogs of falsehood, not to 
 say the abysses of perfidy — are not stinted 
 with respect to the sterling character of Per- 
 sian truthfulness. Herodotus declares that 
 the three principal precepts of Persian educa- 
 tion were, "to ride, to draw the bow, and to 
 speak the truth." The last injunction was in- 
 corporated in the national religion. Ahura- 
 Mazdao was known and worshiped as "the 
 Father of Truth." In the best parts of the 
 Zendavesta the practice of truth is inculcated 
 as the basis of all conduct acceptable to the 
 immortal gods. 
 
 This element of character was all the 
 more conspicuous in the Persian race when 
 contrasted with the lying and treacherous 
 habits which were shamelessly illustrated in 
 the career of most of the oriental nations. It 
 was only in the later times of the Empire, 
 when the effects of luxury had told disas- 
 trously on the moral character of the race, 
 that the Persians imbibed the habit of intrigue 
 and treachery, and even then, perhaps, only 
 as employing the same weapons used by their 
 enemies. In the early times a rigid adherence 
 to truth was practiced in the affairs of life, 
 from the dealings of peasants and masons to 
 the treaties of the king. Even a promise ob- 
 tained on false information or under false 
 pledges was faithfully observed. 
 
 It is said that the Persian love of truth 
 was so marked as to lead the people to the 
 avoidance of debt. It was conceived that the 
 debtor was frequently placed in such relations 
 of dependence as to encourage in him the 
 practice of equivocation and falsehood. There- 
 fore it was better to avoid the obligation. 
 Therefore, in the market-place, it was better 
 to use few words and plain. Therefore it was 
 better, in all manner of communication, to be 
 straightforward in speech, so that human con- 
 duct might be easily and sincerely fathomed 
 
 to its bottom motives and impulses. It may 
 be safely averred that in respect of this high 
 species of morality the earlier Persians gave a 
 fairer example than any other people of the 
 ancient world. 
 
 Combined with these high traits of charac- 
 ter were others of a different sort. Like 
 most strong races, the people of Persia were 
 given to self-indulgence. Great strength and 
 great hunger are concomitants in human 
 character. If the possessor have not learned 
 the lesson of restraint, strength will display 
 itself in violence, and hunger in excessive 
 gratification. The hunter and the soldier are 
 not likely to be reserved in the banqueting 
 hall. The Persian, moreover, bore his nature 
 on the surface. What he was he was. He 
 spoke out and acted. If he was angered he 
 raged. If he was pleased he laughed. In- 
 stead of that exterior calmness so noticeable 
 in the demeanor of the Babylonians, the inner 
 feelings and passions of the Persian flashed 
 out in word and gesture, and his purposes 
 were known to all observers. 
 
 Another element in the national character 
 was its servility as it respected the king and 
 the court. This amounted to a kind of abase- 
 ment in the presence of power quite incon- 
 sistent with the otherwise erect attitude of the 
 people. The paradox thus presented of a 
 union in the same race of qualities so opposite 
 as dignified self-assertion and crouching ser- 
 vility can only be explained in the light of 
 the age and the then political condition of the 
 world. At a time when the state was a neces- 
 sity and the king was the state ; in an epoch 
 when those political institutions by which in 
 modern times the will of the people finds so 
 easy an utterance had no existence and could 
 have none, the conditions of despotism, with 
 its correlative, a servile spirit, were natural 
 and perhaps inevitable. Every age is to be 
 judged by its own criteria, and not in accord- 
 ance with principles whose reign has not yet 
 been ushered in. The government of Persia 
 was absolute, and the governed patiently 
 bowed to the political necessities of the age. 
 The citizen became the sycophant. The king 
 acted without limitation. Whom he would 
 he kept alive, and whom he would he slew.
 
 PERSIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 S29 
 
 Turning to the outward usages and man- 
 ners of the Persian people, and beginning 
 with their customs in war, we find them to be 
 in close affinity with the Medes. Like the 
 latter, the Persians placed their chief reliance 
 on the infantry and cavalry wings of the 
 army, and paid little attention to chariots of 
 war/ The foot soldier was clothed in a close- 
 fitting leathern tunic, reaching to the knees 
 and the wrists. The legs were tightly en- 
 cased in trousers, also of leather. The feet 
 were covered with high shoes, which joined 
 the leggins at the ankles. The head was pro- 
 tected by a round felt cap, projecting in the 
 front and risiug above the scalp. The waist 
 was bound with a double girdle, from which, 
 on the right side, hung the short Persian 
 sword. The other weapons were a spear and 
 a bow and quiver. The spear-shaft was 
 about six feet in length, and the head was 
 flat, with a ridge on each side down the 
 middle. The bow was about four feet long, 
 and was swung perpendicularly in front of the 
 left shoulder, the cord being up and down the 
 back. The quiver was worn on the same 
 shoulder, and was filled with arrows made of 
 reeds, feathered, and tipped with metal points. 
 Another weapon in use by footmen was the 
 battle-axe, but this is rarely shown in the 
 sculptures. The sling also is occasionally 
 seen, besides being mentioned by Strabo and 
 Xenophon as a part of the Persian weaponry. 
 The missiles shot from slings were pebbles. 
 
 The defensive armor of a common foot 
 soldier was a shield of wicker-work. It was 
 in shape a sort of half-cylinder, as long as the 
 soldier's body, and set or carried upright 
 before him in battle. From behind this pro- 
 tection he discharged his arrows. Both He- 
 rodotus and Xenophon mention the coat-of- 
 mail as a part of the defensive armor of 
 Persian infantry. It was composed sometimes 
 of metallic scales or plates arranged like those 
 of the shell of an armadillo, and sometimes 
 
 ' Sooner or later every nation adapts its 
 weaponry to the field of service. The war-chariots 
 of antiquity could never have been thought of in 
 a country of hills and gorges. Only in the Meso- 
 potamian plains, the Syrian deserts, and the flat- 
 lands of the Egyptian Delta could such ponderous 
 implements have come into usa 
 
 of a quilted linen corselet after the style of 
 those worn by the soldiers of Egypt. 
 
 In the times of the founding of the mon- 
 archy the weapons offensive and defensive of 
 horsemen were almost identical with those of 
 the foot. In the later tactics of the Empire, 
 however, a new style was adopted. The 
 cavalryman was armed with a javelin, and 
 this became his principal weapon of attack. 
 It was a short, strong shaft of wood, barbed 
 with a point of iron. Each soldier carried 
 two of these darts, one of which he discharged 
 in the onset and retained the other for the 
 encounter. The cavaliy were also armed with 
 knives and short swords like those worn in the 
 other branch of the service. In the way of 
 defensive armor the horsemen were clad in 
 coats-of-mail and helmets and greaves, and 
 were thus protected at every point. The 
 shield was for obvious reasons dispensed with, 
 being a useless and cumbrous impediment. 
 
 Not only the soldier himself, but, as only 
 second in importance, the horse Avhich he rode 
 was protected with armor. The mail was of 
 the same description as that worn by the rider. 
 The horse's head was guarded by a frontlet, 
 and his neck and breast by metallic plates. 
 Even the legs were defended against the mis- 
 siles of the foe, so that the whole animal was 
 as thoroughly encased as his master. Besides 
 the dragoons, who constituted the main 
 branch of the cavalry service, there was a 
 light-horse wing to the Persian military organ- 
 ization, the business of which was to skirmish 
 with an approaching enemy or to hang upon 
 the flanks and annoy a retreating army. 
 Taken all in all, the constitution and discipline 
 of the forces were such as to secure rapidity 
 of movement and adroitness of manoeuver 
 rather than that forceful and resistless execu- 
 tion which was secured by the phalanx of the 
 Macedonians. 
 
 On two great occasions in Persian history, 
 namely, in the battles of Cunaxa and Arbela, 
 the scythe-bearing war-chariots were effectively 
 employed, though, as a general rule, these 
 formidable engines were more terrible to the 
 imagination than to the other senses of an 
 army. The long curving blades, which pro- 
 jected from the hubs of the chariot wheels,
 
 330 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 were sufficiently dangerous when they could 
 be got against the enemy, but there was the 
 rub; for what with frightened or wounded 
 horses, and what with a chasm in the ground 
 or a slain charioteer, not much was to be 
 apprehended from those military mowing- 
 machines of the ancients. If the battles of 
 antiquity had always been appointed to take 
 place in the Babylonian brick-yards, and if 
 the soldiers had been rooted like wheat stalks 
 to the earth, then perhaps the execution of 
 the scythe-bearing chariots would have been 
 equal to the expectancy. 
 
 It appears, however, that the chariot was 
 put to a very rational and important use in 
 the movements of the Persian army. In such 
 vehicles the king (if he commanded, as was 
 generally the case) and the princes of the 
 Empire had their station in battle. The gen- 
 erals and leaders of the army were thus made 
 conspicuous. A sudden impulse was no doubt 
 given to the onset by the apparition of royalty 
 rumbling by and shouting his commands from 
 the chariot of Ormazd. 
 
 The general idea of a Persian battle was to 
 keep the best in front. In the later times of 
 the Empire, when war-chariots were intro- 
 duced, it was customary to place them in ad- 
 vance of the rest of the forces. First of all, 
 it was the plan to send this alarming enginery 
 against the foe. In the rear of the chariots, 
 and occupying the center of the field, was the 
 main army of infantry. This was arranged 
 in squares, so placed as to support each other. 
 The front lines were held by the picked troops 
 of Persia, they being considered most valiant. 
 The supports were the less reliable soldiery 
 of the provinces, foreigners, auxiliaries. The 
 cavalry was arranged on the two wings, and 
 was generally intended to operate on the 
 flanks of the enemy. In the beginning of an 
 engagement, the squares advanced to within 
 striking distance of the adverse lines. Here 
 there was a halt, the Persians planted their 
 shields on the ground and began a discharge 
 of arrows upon the foe. In the rear the 
 other troops shot clouds of darts and other 
 missiles over the heads of the front ranks. If 
 the enemy's lines were broken, the cavalry 
 bore down on the wings and completed the 
 
 discomfiture. If, however, he stood courage- 
 ously and came to a conflict hand to hand, 
 then the Persians drew their swords, and in a 
 short time either scattered their antagonists 
 or were themselves put to flight. When the 
 lines broke there was generally a rout. There 
 was little thought of regaining by valor or 
 strategy a lost battle. There seems to have 
 been but a sorry notion of that kind of cour- 
 age which recovers itself and snatches victory 
 from defeat. 
 
 The Persian kings depended mainly for 
 success upon superior numbers. They aug- 
 mented their forces to the greatest possible 
 extent. In the battle-field the squares were 
 arranged one behind the other to a great 
 depth, so that the lines in front might feel 
 the double impulse of support and of actual 
 pressure forward. Besides this strength of 
 the mass the great numbers of the Persians 
 enabled them to spread beyond the wings of 
 any ordinary army that might oppose them, 
 and to surround and close in upon the flanks 
 of the enemy. When victory inclined towards 
 the standard of the king then the cavalry 
 became especially formidable. The dextrous 
 Persian horsemen, skilled in every species of 
 maneuver, hovered in clouds around the re- 
 treating army, swooping down in perpetual 
 onsets, until the enemy was completely worn 
 out and scattered. 
 
 In the matter of stratagem the Persian 
 commanders exhibited some skill. As early 
 as the founding of the Empire, we find Cyrus 
 the Great, in his war with the Lydians, em- 
 ploying an array of camels merely to terrify. 
 In the front of the plain of Arbela, Darius 
 Codomanus had the ground sown with the 
 tribulus, or three-spiked iron ball, as a means 
 of preventing or defeating the charge of the 
 Greek cavalry. Nor were the usual ruses 
 and military devices for deceiving an enemy 
 unknown or unpracticed by the great kings 
 and their subjects. In this respect, perfidy 
 excepted, the Persians were like the other 
 nations of the East. 
 
 It does not appear that generalship was a 
 thing highly esteemed, or could be, under the 
 Achsemenians. In an absolutism of the kind 
 presented by the government of Cyrus and
 
 PERSIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 331 
 
 his successors it was not possible for great 
 generals to flourish. They would have stood 
 in the way of the king. He must himself 
 command. He must have the glory of vic- 
 tory. Still there was in the Persian army a 
 great array of officers, and these were ar- 
 ranged as superiors and subordinates, from 
 the king, who was the commander-in-chief, 
 and who was nearly always at the head of his 
 army in the field, to the humblest captains of 
 the line. 
 
 Ranking next to the monarch in authority 
 were a few high officers, eight or ten in num- 
 ber, corresponding to the major-generals of a 
 modern army. After these the highest rank 
 was held by the satraps or provincial govern- 
 ors, who generally came at the heads of 
 their respective levies of soldiers. The organ- 
 ization of the ranks was after the decimal 
 fashion. The lowest officer commanded ten 
 men. Ten of these squads constituted a com- 
 pany under a higher officer; and ten of these, 
 what may be called a legion ; and ten of these, 
 a division. Several divisions were thrown to- 
 gether and commanded by a general or satrap, 
 so that in all, counting from the king, there 
 were six ranks of subordinate commanders. 
 
 Such was the scheme under which the 
 largest armies ever seen on the fields of the 
 world were organized. In times of war every 
 nation in the Empire was expected to furnish 
 its own contingent of troops. These came 
 each with the peculiar uniform and accou- 
 terments of his own country. Albeit, the 
 appearance of a Persian army, marshaled in 
 squares ready for the fight, clad in the various 
 military habits of several scores of nations, 
 and bearing weapons equally varied in char- 
 acter, must have been a scene at once pict- 
 uresque and imposing. Here were arranged 
 nearly every variety of human kind, from the 
 black Ethiopians of the Upper Nile and the 
 savage Scyths of the North to the fair and 
 well-formed soldiers of Media and Persia. 
 
 The campaigns of the Empire were gen- 
 erally planned for the spi-ing and summer. 
 As far as practicable, the winter was avoided 
 as unsuitable for military operations. When 
 the army was in the field, the means of sub- 
 sistence were carefully attended to. The ad- 
 
 vance was made with the baggage and com- 
 missary in front. Between this and the first 
 division a space intervened. The main army 
 came afterwards, preceded by a guard of a 
 thousand horse aud a thousand foot and the 
 sun-car of Ormazd, drawn by the sacred 
 horses, and having in it the fire kindled from 
 heaven. The emblems of the national faith 
 were thus visibly present to the soldiery, and 
 were as well calculated as any superstitious 
 symbols could be to fire the hearts and nerve 
 the arms of the host. Next came the king 
 himself, in a car second only in splendor to 
 that of the sun. Around him were his rela- 
 tives. Then followed another guard like that 
 which went in advance, and after this a body 
 of ten thousand picked Persians, known as 
 the "Immortals." These were infantry, and 
 were succeeded by a like number of horse. 
 Between this division and the great columns 
 composing the mass of the army a space was 
 left of four hundred yards. Then came the 
 great squares of Persians, Medes, and provin- 
 cials, gathered from all parts of Western 
 Asia. The army thus constituted was able to 
 march about twenty-five miles per day. As 
 the advance continued, requisitions were made 
 upon the inhabitants of the provinces and 
 towns through which the route lay, and many 
 a district was completely exhausted under the 
 enormous drain. Such was the efl^ective- 
 ness of the means employed to provision the 
 army that the rash invasion of Ethiopia by 
 Cambyses furnishes the only example in the 
 history of the Empire in which disaster was 
 precipitated by a failure of supplies. 
 
 In the conduct of battle the Persians were 
 more humane than most of the oriental peo- 
 ples. The beaten enemy was granted quarter, 
 and prisoners were treated with a fair degree 
 of consideration. When conquests were made 
 the rulers of the conquered provinces were 
 frequently retained as provincial governors, or 
 in lieu of their own countries were granted 
 other territories as an appanage. Sometimes 
 captive princes were received into favor at 
 the Persian court, where they were given 
 residence and freedom. Of course, all these 
 favors were contingent upon the submission 
 of the recipients and their loyalty to the new
 
 332 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 order of things. In case of rebellion, severe 
 punishments were meted out to the insurrec- 
 tionists. The leaders were generally })ut to 
 death in some ignominious and cruel way. 
 The chief aiders and abettors of revolt 
 were likely to share the fate of the principal 
 instigators. It was not often, however, that 
 the wrath of the Persian kings burned 
 so fiercely as to involve the common people 
 of a rebellious province in destruction. In 
 one case, it is said that thx'ee thousand Baby- 
 lonian rebels suffered a wholesale crucifixion 
 at the hands of Darius. To crucify or impale 
 alive was the usual penalty meted out to 
 traitors and rebel chiefs. The people of a 
 country engaged in revolt were frequently 
 punished by transportation into Persia, where 
 they were reduced to the condition of slaves. 
 
 The geographical position of Persia was 
 not such as to suggest dominion over the seas. 
 When conquest, however, had given her su- 
 premacy over several maritime states, and 
 had taught her the vast importance of ruling 
 by sea as well as by land, an appreciation of 
 nautical skill was produced, which exercised a 
 large influence on the subsequent history of 
 the Empire. It was perceived that Phoenicia, 
 Cyprus, and the islands of the Grecian archi- 
 pelago, owed their importance to the conquest 
 of the sea. After the Persians acquired con- 
 trol of the ]Mediterranean, it was but natural 
 that they should concern themselves more 
 than hitherto with the means of maintaining 
 their dominion. To this end the great kings 
 became the builders of docks and the patrons 
 of sailors. The yards of Phoenicia, Cyprus, 
 and Egypt became quickened under this in- 
 fluence. Large fleets were built and equipped, 
 and the seamen of Persia became as skillful 
 as any of that age. 
 
 Inasmuch as naval warfare was a conspic- 
 uous feature of the contests of several of the 
 great states of antiquity, notably of the Per- 
 sians, Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians, a 
 sketch of the war-vessels employed by them 
 will be of interest. The standard ship of all 
 the nations just mentioned was the trireme, or 
 three-oared boat, by which is meant three 
 banks of oars. Several attempts were made 
 by the ancients, but without marked success, 
 
 to extend the number of benches and the cott 
 sequent capacity of the galley ; but the quad- 
 riremes of the Carthaginians and the quinque- 
 remes of the Syracusans were too unwieldy 
 for naked human strength, and were aban- 
 doned in favor of the trireme. The latter 
 was a ship of considerable size, requiring a 
 regular crew of two hundred men. Besides 
 these the vessel was capable of accommodating 
 thirty marines. Of the crew one hundred 
 and eighty sailors manned the oars, and the 
 remaining twenty attended to the other service 
 of the galley. Each oarsman sat on a small 
 seat fixed in the side of the ship, opposite the 
 port of his oar. The oars in each superior tiei 
 were arranged obliquely above and behind 
 those of the inferior bank, and each was fast- 
 ened in the port with a thong of leather. 
 In addition to the propelling force of the 
 oars each galley was, as a rule, provided with 
 a mast and at least one sail. The twenty 
 membei's of the crew not oarsmen included 
 the captain, or (juhernator, and his subordinate 
 oflicers and assistants. The steering was ac- 
 complished by means of a rudder at the stern. 
 The vessel in its central part was overlaid 
 with a deck, level with the bulwarks, and on 
 this deck the marines stood and fought. 
 
 The trireme was expected to do service 
 not only by bringing a company of armed men 
 against a like company of the enemy, but also 
 as a ram to split and run down the opposing 
 galleys. Each ship was armed with a strong 
 beak, called the embolus, projecting straight 
 in front, sometimes above and sometimes 
 below the water-line, and mailed with a shoe 
 of iron or bronze. The beak was finished 
 above in the likeness of the head of some 
 animal real or mythological. The point of 
 superiority in the naval tactics of the times 
 was to drive this beak into the sides of the 
 enemy's galleys, and send them and their crew 
 together down to Neptune. Besides the tri- 
 remes, which constituted the body of the Per- 
 sian naval armament, several other varieties 
 of ships, designed for some special feature of 
 the service were employed, but the general 
 plan of them all was that of a galley pro- 
 pelled by oars. 
 
 An important use to which the vessels of
 
 PEESIA.—3IANNEES AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 333 
 
 the Persians were sometimes put was that of 
 forming pontoons across rivers and arms of 
 the sea. The plan of these boat-bridges was 
 simple. A number of galleys were arranged 
 side by side, the heads up stream. A short 
 space was left between each vessel and the 
 next. Each ship was securely anchored, and 
 then a transverse platform of timbers was laid 
 from bank to bank. Thus was constructed a 
 floating bridge over which the heaviest armies 
 could be transported. The prime importance 
 of structures of this sort will fully appear in 
 the invasion of Greece by the Persians. 
 
 The fleets of the Empire were furnished 
 and manned almost exclusively by the sub- 
 ject nations. Each state sent its contingent 
 of ships. The oarsmen were a part of the 
 equipment. The fighting sailors who manned 
 the decks were either Medes or Persians, but 
 they to whom was assigned the less glorious 
 task of toiling at the oars were Phoenicians, 
 Egyptians, Cypriots, Cilicians, Pamphylians, 
 Carians, or Greeks, according to the nation- 
 ality of the respective vessels. 
 
 Passing, then, from the military and naval 
 life of the Persian people to their customs in 
 peace, let us begin with his majesty the king. 
 The ruler of the nation was, under the exist- 
 ing theory of human government, an absolute 
 dictator. His absoluteness was not shorn. Be- 
 ing the representative of Ormazd in the earth, 
 his dignity had a celestial flavor. His right 
 to be king might not be questioned. To look 
 askauce at royalty was to be guilty of both 
 treason and impiety. The king's wrath was 
 but a reflex of the anger of heaven and his 
 smile was the sunshine of the world. Every 
 thing pertaining to the person and life of the 
 sovereign must, therefore, be on a scale of 
 magnificence i^roportionate to his exaltation. 
 
 So the king's dress was ample and gor- 
 geous. The richest and most brilliant silk 
 was the material. The royal garment was a 
 robe with ample folds and hanging sleeves. 
 The color was purple and the embroidery of 
 gold. Around the waist was a girdle, and 
 the skirts fell to the ankles. Under this robe 
 was a tunic, also purple in color, but striped 
 with white. On the monarch's feet were high, 
 yellow shoes, buttoned at the front and taper- 
 
 ing towards the toe. It was the head-dress, 
 however, which specially distinguished the 
 king from any, even the most exalted, of his 
 subjects. This consisted of a tiara or miter, 
 tall and cylindrical, swelling at the top and 
 ending in a circle broader than the diameter 
 of the cap. This was the monarch's badge by 
 which alike by army and court and people he 
 was denoted and recognized. Around the 
 king's brow and at the base of the miter was 
 the royal circlet, called the diadem. Besides 
 the tiara the monarch was also distinguished 
 by the golden scepter and the parasol, the 
 latter being carried either by himself or an 
 attendant. The scep- 
 ter was a tapering 
 rod about five feet 
 in length and finished 
 at the smaller end 
 with a bulb in the 
 shape of an apple or 
 pomegranate. When 
 the king appeared in 
 public he bore the 
 scepter in his right 
 hand, perpendicu- 
 larly in front of his 
 person. 
 
 In common with 
 other princes and no- 
 blemen the sovereign 
 wore gold ornaments 
 and jewels. His ear- 
 rings were bands of gold set with gems. His 
 wrists were adorned with bracelets, and his 
 neck with a twisted collar. Besides these 
 decorations he wore a sword of the usual short 
 pattern, not very elaborate in workmanship, 
 but incased in a costly sheath of jasper or 
 lapis-lazuli. 
 
 The oflicers, civil and military, who stood 
 next to the royal person were his charioteer, 
 and five attendants, whose respective duty it 
 was to bear the king's bow, his quiver, his 
 stool, his parasol, and his fan and napkin. 
 The charioteer wore no armor. He merely 
 managed the steeds. The bow-bearer stood 
 behind the monarch, holding the bow in his 
 left hand, ready to be delivered to his royal 
 master. Next to him stood the bearer of the 
 
 HEAD OF A PERSIAN KING, 
 
 From a bas-relief.
 
 334 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 quiver. The stool-bearer's duty was to assist 
 the monarch as he mounted to his seat in the 
 chariot or dismounted therefrom. Last in the 
 list of attendants were the bearers of the par- 
 asol and the fan, who were unarmed and had 
 their stations behind their sovereign, the one 
 to ward off the sun's rays and the other to 
 cool his brow with artificial breezes or to wave 
 away intruding flies from too great familiarity 
 with the majesty of Persia. 
 
 Like the Babylonians and Assyrians, the 
 Persians delighted in ointments and perfumes. 
 Frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, spikenard, 
 cassia, and various gums were used in abun- 
 dance to regale the senses of the kings and 
 princes. Even on the way to battle the mon- 
 arch failed not to take with him an alabaster 
 box filled with fragrant oils and extracts. 
 Fiery Mars was thus made the bedfellow of 
 A-donis. 
 
 Apart from the personal staff of the king, 
 the principal officers of the court were the 
 steward of the household, the master of the 
 horse, the chief eunuch, the king's "eyes" 
 and "ears — a kind of honorable spies, whose 
 duty it was to find out and report to their 
 sovereign all matters of importance — and the 
 royal secretaries and heralds. A retinue of 
 less dignity included the ushers of the palace, 
 the tasters of the king's food (forsooth it 
 might be poisoned), the cupbearers, the cham- 
 berlains, and the musicians. Then came the 
 guards, doorkeepers, huntsmen, cooks, and 
 common servants. Besides this extensive 
 array of officers and attendants there were 
 nearly always resident at the Persian court a 
 large number of foreign ambassadors and vis- 
 iting princes, together with the king's rela- 
 tives, favorite nobles, and captives of high 
 rank who had been received into the 
 friendship and trust of the monarch. It is 
 said that as many as fifteen thousand persons 
 were sometimes entertained at the court, and 
 if we may credit Herodotus, the daily expense 
 of the royal tables was four hundred talents 
 of silver. A thousand beasts — sheep, goats, 
 oxen, stags, asses, horses, and camels — were 
 each day slaughtered to furnish forth the 
 feast, and besides these the feathered tribes of 
 half the world were brought under contribu- 
 
 tion to satisfy the appetite of the monarch 
 and his banqueters. 
 
 As a general rule the king himself ate and 
 drank apart from the guests of the palace. 
 On ordinary occasions he was served in his 
 own chambers, but sometimes a favored few 
 were permitted to feast with him. At the 
 banquet the monarch reclined on a gold-em- 
 broidered couch, and was served with the richest 
 food and rarest wines. The guests were gen- 
 erally seated on the floor — after the manner 
 of the times — and were served with less costly 
 viands. People of a lower rank were served 
 in an adjacent chamber, between which and 
 the king's apartments a curtain was drawn, 
 concealing him from view. On a few state 
 days and great festivals the sovereign presided 
 publicly at the banquet of his nobles and offi- 
 cers, and on these rare occasions even vulgar 
 eyes might catch a glimpse of the sovereign 
 of Persia. 
 
 After the manner of the East the Achse- 
 menian kings adopted the harem as a part of 
 their domestic economy. In the hardy days 
 of Cyrus and Cambyses the institution was 
 not so fully developed as in later times. 
 AVith the early kings a seraglio of three or 
 four wives and a moderate retinue of concu- 
 bines was deemed sufficient. Of these wives 
 one only held the supreme place, and in con- 
 tradistinction to the rest was called the Queen. 
 She only was permitted to wear the crown, 
 and before her all the rest stood abashed or 
 actually prostrated themselves as to royalty. 
 It appears that even down to the overthrow 
 of the Empire by the Macedonians this re- 
 deeming feature of one woman supreme over 
 her rivals, and perhaps so in the aflJections of 
 the king, was preserved in the social system 
 of the Persian court — the natural and inevit- 
 able protest of love over lust. It is not im- 
 probable that such queens as Atossa, Amestris, 
 and Statira retained through life an honorable 
 preeminence in the esteem of their lords, and 
 that in their presence and companionship such 
 kings as Hystaspis, Xerxes, and Codomanus 
 may have realized the essential badness of 
 the system which they had inherited. The 
 Persian queen, however, never shared her 
 husband's authority : she had influence, but no
 
 PERSIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 335 
 
 power. The other wives — who must always 
 be selected from noble families — had the title 
 of consort, and were thus in some measure 
 superior to the miserable group of concubines 
 below them. It was, however, a sad and 
 dubious preeminence, which in its nature could 
 bring neither honor nor happiness to those 
 who possessed it. 
 
 One important feature of the government, 
 as related to the social system of the Persians, 
 was the influence of the Queen-Mother — 
 should there be one — in the affairs of state. 
 In cases where the queen outlived her lord 
 she did not, to be sure, after his death inherit 
 the crown. That went to her son. But, in- 
 stead of being retired to a position less honor- 
 able than that which she had held during the 
 king's life, she was raised in dignity and in- 
 fluence. She was given charge of the Gynse- 
 ceum or establishment for the women, and in 
 this important office wielded an authority 
 over the queen, her daughter-in-law. Her 
 son, the king, was as yet, in all likelihood, a 
 youth, and was by no means from under the 
 natural influence of his mother; so that to 
 secure her interest and favor was one of the 
 most vital points in the diplomacy of courtiers 
 and ambassadors. It is not impossible that 
 this ascendency of the Queen-Mother in the 
 affairs of state and over that native hot-bed 
 of discontent — the Gynseceum — was specially 
 conservative and salutary. 
 
 The common service of the harem was 
 committed to the eunuchs. Of these there 
 were great numbers about the court. The 
 king's attendants were largely of this class. 
 They were multiplied as the government be- 
 came elaborate. From some reason quite in- 
 conceivable in modern times, their influence 
 increased. They became a directing power in 
 the state. Many of them were the king's 
 trusted counselors, and were held in high 
 honor. They had in charge the education of 
 the princes of the Empire, and several of 
 them are said by Ctesias to have distinguished 
 themselves as generals in the field. They are 
 represented, however, as being of an inti'igu- 
 ing and ambitious disposition, and to have 
 been at the bottom of many court broils and 
 
 ■assassinations. In spite of the influence and 
 N.— Vol. I— 21 
 
 distinction attained by this despicable class of 
 beings, it appears that in one respect they 
 were publicly dishonored: in the sculptures 
 of Persepolis not a single figure of a eunuch 
 occurs. Neither they nor any woman — not 
 even the queen — was deemed worthy of the 
 immortality of art. 
 
 The Persians recognized seven royal — or at 
 least princely — houses. The members of these 
 constituted the nobility of the Empire. The 
 first of these great houses was the Achse- 
 menian, to which belonged the great kings. 
 This family was, of course, preeminent over 
 all the rest. Each of the princely houses had 
 its own head or chief, and the seven together 
 constituted the body known as the "Seven 
 Counselors " of the king. They had much 
 independent influence. Their right to advise 
 was in virtue of their birth. They might 
 seek the presence of the monarch at any time 
 and in any place except the Gynseceum. At 
 public festivals they sat by right next to the 
 sovereign, and in important business of state 
 they shared in some measure the responsibility 
 of the king's edicts and proclamations — not, 
 however, to the extent of touching upon his 
 absolute and inalienable prerogatives. 
 
 The ceremonial of the Persian court was 
 formal and elaborate. He who would have 
 audience with the sovereign must be intro- 
 duced by the usher of the royal household 
 and must prostrate himself before the king. 
 He who came unannounced was subject to 
 death. The ct^rpet which was laid for the 
 monarch's feet might not be touched by any 
 other. To sit down even unwittingly on the 
 throne was a capital crime. Robes which the 
 king had worn might never be put on by 
 another. In short, every circumstance by 
 which the artificial dignity and elevation of 
 the sovereign might be heightened and main- 
 tained was attended to Avith scrupulous care. 
 
 On his part, the monarch was equally bur- 
 dened with etiquette. He must, for the most 
 part, live and eat alone. He must not be 
 seen. He must not walk beyond the walls of the 
 palace. He must be infallibly consistent, even 
 in inconsistency; for no edict once issued 
 might ever be revoked. The laws of the 
 Medes and Persians were unchangeable.
 
 336 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Fortunate was it for the king that the 
 rigor of precedent was sometimes relaxed in 
 his favor. Royal etiquette permitted him to 
 hunt and to play at games. To the former 
 he gave himself with enthusiasm. It was the 
 pride of the great Achsemenians to be distin- 
 guished in the chase. To combat with a lion 
 was a sport worthy of the king. To be vic- 
 torious over the fiercest and strongest creatures 
 of the desert and mountain was an act worthy 
 to be engraved in stone and in the royal signet 
 with which the edicts of authority were signed. 
 The favorite theme of Persian art is the mon- 
 arch in his chariot, letting fly his unerring 
 arrows into the vitals of the king of beasts. 
 
 Tired of the hunt, the sovereign amused 
 himself at dice. Not for the game only, but 
 for the wager, were the blocks thrown on the 
 royal board. Plutarch is authority for the 
 statement that sometimes as much as a thou- 
 sand darics were staked on a single throw. 
 Favorite slaves, eunuchs, and women were 
 rafiied for and lost and won in the reckless 
 excitements of the kingly gaming-table. 
 
 Persian royalty had no literaxy taste what- 
 ever. It is doubtful whether the monarch 
 was an expert reader. His secretary, how- 
 ever, had the duty of reading to him of the 
 current affairs of the kingdom and the history 
 of the past. The examples and fame of pre- 
 ceding sovereigns were thus rehearsed out of 
 a work called the "Book of the Chronicles 
 of the Kings of Persia and Media," from 
 which the reigning prince was expected to 
 learn the lessons of emulation and wisdom.^ 
 
 The annals of the common life of the Per- 
 sian people are meager and unsatisfactory. 
 The state was every thing, and the king was 
 the state. The full light which jilayed upon 
 the throne was rarely turned to the common 
 lot. The sculptures are almost wholly devoted 
 to the illustration of royalty and its attendant 
 circumstances. Something, however, can be 
 made out respecting the manners and customs 
 of the men who composed the armies and 
 built the cities of the great kings. 
 
 ^ Rehearsals of the deeds of the dead were 
 given almost daily by the Egyptian priests in the 
 presence of the Pharaoh, for whose benefit the 
 Btory was recited. 
 
 The Persian people were divided into ten 
 tribes, of which three appear to have been 
 land-owners, three agriculturists, and four no- 
 mads or shepherds. Of the land-owning class 
 the principal tribe was the Pasargadte. The 
 agricultural tribes were the Panthial^ei, Deru- 
 siaei, and the Carmanians. The nomadic 
 classes were the Dai, the Mardi, the Dropici, 
 and the Sagartii. The lines between these 
 various classes were not fixed, as in Egypt, 
 by a distinction of caste, but the various 
 tribes held to a given method of life after the 
 manner of the clan. 
 
 The dress of the Persian common people 
 was a cotton tunic and trousers of leather. The 
 head was covered with a felt cap and the 
 waist was belted. High shoes, laced at the 
 front with strings, protected the feet. The 
 richer class wore long robes with hanging 
 sleeves, after the style of the Medes. The 
 caps of the opulent were raised into a tiara, 
 their hands were incased in gloves, and their 
 clothing was embroidered. Nobles generally 
 wore chains and collars of gold — ^bracelets, 
 ear-rings, and jewels. 
 
 The social life of the commons was, like 
 that of the noble and royal ranks, disfigured 
 by the practice of polygamy. There was no 
 actual restriction as to the number of wives. 
 To have a numerous retinue was considered 
 honorable. Especially was it a point of dis- 
 tinction to have large families of sons, and he 
 who could disj)lay the greatest number some- 
 times received a premium from the king. As 
 if the wives were not enough, nearly all men 
 had as a part of their households a train of 
 concubines, and these were generally foreign- 
 ers, Greek girls being preferred. 
 
 The boys of the Persians were educated — 
 if such a word as education may be properly 
 used of the training systems of antiquity — > 
 with great care. For the first five years the 
 child was left with the mother and her woman 
 attendants. From that time forth his disci- 
 pline began. Before dawn he must arise and 
 present himself in a certain place before his 
 master. Here the lad was exercised for a 
 certain number of hours in running and 
 jumping, in shooting with the bow, in sling- 
 ing stones and hurling the javelin. After two
 
 PERSIA.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 
 
 337 
 
 years of this preparatory work he was pro- 
 moted to the horse. Him he must mount and 
 ride. On his back he must go to the hills 
 and join in the hunt. He must jump on and 
 off while his steed is running. He must dis- 
 charge his arrows and darts while galloping at 
 full speed. He must heed nor heat nor cold. 
 He must sleep outdoors at night. He must 
 appease the insatiable stomach of boyhood 
 with one meal in two days. Sometimes he 
 must go to the woods and fill himself as best 
 he may with acorns and wild pears. All 
 stimulating and luxurious food was withheld. 
 Whatever conduced to hardihood, to bodily 
 vigor, to endurance, was sedulously inculcated. 
 In the way of ornamental branches he was 
 taught to read. His teachers also gave him a 
 modicum of morals ; for he must hear recited 
 some old poems recounting the character and 
 exploits of certain gods and heroes, whom he 
 must revere and imitate. Thus for fifteen 
 years the lad was put through the discipline 
 appointed to youth, and then graduated a 
 horseman and soldier. For such was the aim 
 of life. Indeed, for five years before his 
 graduation the Persian stripling had already 
 been enrolled in the army and was liable to 
 the call of the king. 
 
 The subjects of the Achsemenians seem to 
 have looked with as much contempt on com- 
 mercial pursuits as did the feudal lords of the 
 Middle Ages on common industry. They 
 would none of it. Such pursuits tended to 
 effeminate the mind. Artisans and traders 
 were of no reputation. Shops and stores 
 were driven from the respectable parts of 
 towns and cities. Merchants were regarded 
 as intriguers and liars. Manufacturers had 
 Ao character. True men — valorous and dar- 
 
 ing—did not degrade themselves by toiling at 
 those miserable crafts by the practice of which 
 the servile tribes enriched themselves at the 
 expense of their manhood.— Such were the 
 dogmas of industrial morality. 
 
 In the later times of the Empire, luxury 
 came in like a flood— and folly came also. 
 Personal vanity learned to display itself in 
 the immemorial way. The lower eyelids must 
 be stained, so that the eyes should appear 
 large and lustrous. Eunuchs must wear false 
 beards and mustaches, and the hair of the 
 dead must supplement the scanty work of 
 nature on the vainglorious skulls of fools. It 
 was high time for the appearance of the 
 Macedonian phalanx. 
 
 The penal code of the Persians was on a 
 par with the statutes of many modern coun- 
 tries — the dominant idea being to kill. The 
 fangs of barbarism have their last roots in the 
 law-books of the world. They are th^ only 
 thing never reformed except by revolution. 
 The theory of the barbaric age is that the 
 cure for crime is punishment. The theory of 
 civilization is that penal measures are among 
 the smallest and least salutary of all the in- 
 fluences to be employed in the eradication of 
 criminal passions and practices. In Persia 
 the penalty of death was recklessly inflicted. 
 Great crimes and small misdemeanors and 
 mere accidents of conduct were all indiscrimi- 
 nately visited with the extreme penalty. To 
 this was added cruelty of execution. Some- 
 times the head of the criminal was laid on a 
 flat stone and crushed with another. Some- 
 times crucifixion was employed. Sometimes 
 the condemned was buried alive. The soul 
 of the age was cruelty, and the heart of justice 
 a stone.
 
 338 
 
 VNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI.— LANGUAQE AND RELIGION. 
 
 HE language of ancient 
 Persia was one of the 
 oldest forms of Aryan 
 speech. It was so nearly 
 identical with that of the 
 Medes as to be regarded 
 as the same tongue with 
 merely dialectical differences. After Sanskrit, 
 Persian presents the most primitive type of 
 that great group of languages beginning in 
 the songs of the Vedas and ending in the 
 English book of yesterday. It is thus closely 
 allied with Latin and Greek, Moeso-Gothic, 
 and Anglo-Saxon. Accordingly we find that 
 the known words in Old Persian are nearly 
 always found with but little variation in the 
 speech of the Greeks and Romans, and per- 
 haps in the English of to-day. Thus the 
 Persian brdtar is bhrdtar in Sanskrit, frater in 
 Latin, bruder in German, and brother in Eng- 
 lish. The Persian diivard is dvara in Sanskrit, 
 thyra in Greek, thure in German, and door in 
 English. The Persian matar is mdtar in San- 
 skrit, meter in Greek, mater in Latin, mutter 
 in German, and mother in English. The Per- 
 sian, pathi is panthan in Sanskrit, patos in 
 Greek, pfad in German, and path in English. 
 The list might be extended to many scores of 
 words illustrating with certainty the identity 
 of all the Aryan tongues and the true place 
 of Persian as a member of that group. 
 
 In the declension of Persian nouns six 
 cases were employed : the nominative, the 
 genitive, the accusative, the vocative, the ab- 
 lative, and the locative. The following de- 
 clension of the noun Mada, meaning "a 
 Mede," may serve to show the usual case end- 
 ings and forms of the noun : 
 
 SINGULAR. PLURAL. 
 
 N. Mada a Mede. Madfi Medes. 
 
 G. Madahy3, . . of a Mede. MadanSm, .... of Medes. 
 
 Ac. Madam, ... a Mede. Mad§, Medes. 
 
 v. Mada O Mede. MadS O Medes. 
 
 Abl. MadS, , . by a Mede. Madaibish, ... by Medes. 
 
 Loc. Madaiya, . with a Mede. Madaishuva, . . with Medes. 
 
 There were several varieties of declension, 
 but the above forms are typical of the case 
 
 structure of the language. Adjectives fol- 
 lowed the nominal forms in all particulars. 
 The comparative and superlative degrees of 
 adjectives were formed by adding respectively 
 the syllables tara and tavia to the stem of the 
 positive. In rare cases, however, the super- 
 lative was formed by adding isla to the posi- 
 tive stem — another instance of the radical 
 identity of Persian and English, the ida being 
 the same as the English ed. In counting, 
 the decimal system was employed, though the 
 value of the digit did not depend on its place, 
 as in Arabic numeration, but was absolute, 
 as in the Roman method. The personal pro- 
 nouns were ddam (I), mand (my), mam (me), 
 via (with me) ; in the plural vayam (we), 
 amakham (our), accusative and ablative un- 
 known. In the second person the forms were 
 tuvam (thou), taiya (thine), tuvam (thee), 
 tuvam (O, thou), the plural forms being un- 
 known. In the third person, hauva (he), ava 
 hya (his), avam (him), shaiya (with him). 
 
 Persian verbs had three voices : the active, 
 the middle, and the passive. The middle 
 voice was very nearly identical in its forms 
 with the passive. The verbal moods were the 
 indicative, subjunctive, potential, imperative, 
 and infinitive. The tenses were the present, 
 the imperfect, the aorist, and the perfect, the 
 place of a future tense being supplied by the 
 use of the present subjunctive. The verb to 
 be had in the present tense the following 
 forms: amiya (I am), ahya (thou art), astiya 
 (he is); plural, ama/i?/a (we are), — (ye are), 
 hatiya (they are). I ivas, was aham, and he 
 ii<as, aha. The scheme of the other parts of 
 speech — adverbs, prepositions, and conjunc- 
 tions — was made out according to the anal- 
 ogies of the other Aryan languages, and the 
 general rules of syntax were almost identical 
 with those of Latin and Greek.' 
 
 The Persian alphabet contained twenty- 
 
 ^ The absence of the dative case in Persian and 
 other Hke pecuUarities necessitated departures not 
 a few from the principles of Latin and Greek.
 
 PERSIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 839 
 
 three phonetic elements, represented by thirty- 
 six characters. The system of writing was 
 the cuneiform, of which some notices have al- 
 ready been given in the history of Chaldsea. 
 Persia was — and is — the native land of the 
 cuneiform inscriptions. It appears that this 
 style of writing, with characters made up of 
 wedges, was born out of necessity, and the 
 necessity existed in the materials chosen in 
 certain countries to contain the records of 
 their deeds and learning. The peculiarity of 
 the cuneiform elements is their rectilinear 
 character. They contain no curves. In those 
 countries in which clay tablets and stone were 
 the materials on which writing was executed, 
 curved lines would naturally be avoided, and 
 even in the primitive stages of the art the 
 writer would reduce his system to right-line 
 strokes. Those nations, on the other hand, 
 that chose papyrus and parchment, and that 
 laid on the characters with a pigment, would 
 prefer the curve as more beautiful, and per- 
 haps more easy of execution. Thus arose in 
 Assyria, Media, Babylonia, and Persia the 
 cuneiform system, and in Greece and Rome 
 the oval style of letters. 
 
 All of the extant specimens of Persian 
 writing are done in stone. The rock inscrip- 
 tions of the times of the Achsemenians are 
 among the most famous in the world. The 
 most noted of these is that executed on the 
 face of the great cliff at Behistun. Here, at 
 the height of three hundred feet above the 
 ground, the surface of the precipice was 
 smoothed over a great space. Pieces of stone 
 were fitted in in those parts where there were 
 breaks and flaws until the whole was reduced 
 to a perfect surface. Then the inscriptions 
 were cut in the face of the rock. The whole 
 was finally covered with a silicious coating to 
 protect the work from the action oi the ele- 
 ments. The inscriptions are contained in five 
 great columns, the first four having over 
 ninety lines each, and the fifth thirty-five. 
 The story recorded is the genealogy of Darius 
 Hystaspis and the annals of his reign — what 
 were the provinces of the Empire ; how the 
 king put down rebellions and triumphed over 
 his enemies. An effigy of the monarch him- 
 self is given in relief. He is armed with a 
 
 bow, and his foot is planted on the prostrate 
 form of an adversary. Next in importance to 
 the inscription here described is that on the 
 tomb of Darius near Persepolis. The third 
 in extent is that containing the further his- 
 tory of Darius and Xerxes, on the face of a 
 cliff at the foot of Mount Elwend, near 
 Hamadan. Finally, may be mentioned a sec- 
 ond inscription of Xerxes, found near the 
 Persian town of Van. 
 
 The characters used in the cuneiform 
 writing are from one-sixth of an inch to two 
 inches in length. They are all chiseled in the 
 surface of stone. The Persians seem not to 
 have adopted the expedient of clay tablets to 
 be first impressed with characters and after- 
 wards burned to hardness. The work of the 
 inscriptions is all executed from left to right, 
 after the manner of all the Aryan nations. 
 
 The history of what may be called cunei- 
 form learning is full of interest. The atten- 
 tion of modern Europe was first called to the 
 inscriptions in the year 1618, when Garcia de 
 Sylva Figueroa, ambassador of Philip III. , of 
 Spain, copied from the ruins of Persepolis a 
 section of cuneiform writing. He even ven- 
 tured the expression of his belief that the 
 work was actual writing, perhaps in some 
 dead language. The next traveler to call at- 
 tention to the inscriptions was Pietro della 
 Valle, an Italian, who in 1622 sent to the 
 antiquarian Kircher a brick inscribed with 
 cuneiform characters. After this it became 
 fashionable to bring or send into Europe speci- 
 mens of this curious work of the East. More 
 than a century elapsed, however, before any 
 serious attempt to translate the Persic in- 
 scriptions was made. In 1767, the elder Nie- 
 buhr, father of the historian, transcribed from 
 the ruins of Persepolis and brought home to 
 Denmark a considerable portion of an inscrip- 
 tion. The extract was published, and the 
 scholars of Europe began to exercise their 
 skill in attempts at translation. 
 
 Many, however, still denied that the in- 
 scriptions were writing at all. Thomas Hyde, 
 an eminent scholar, declared them to be mere 
 idle fancies of the Persian masons and archi- 
 tects. Professor Witte, of Rostock, thought 
 that they were the worh of worms I Some de-
 
 340 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 cided that the cuneiform characters were talis- 
 manic signs, or perhaps a kind of symbolism 
 understood by the priests. Others, in turn, 
 admitting that the work was actual writing, 
 pronounced it Chinese, Cufic, Hebrew, Sa- 
 maritan, and even Greek. 
 
 Meanwhile, the more expert and patient 
 scholars were steadily pursuing the line of 
 investigation marked out at the first by Fig- 
 ueroa and afterwards by Niebuhr. It was 
 not, however, until September of '1802 that 
 Professor Grotefend, then but twenty-seven 
 years of age, presented before the Academy 
 of Sciences in Gottingen the first actual trans- 
 lation of the cuneiform inscriptions. The ac- 
 curacy of his work was demonstrated both 
 then and afterwards, and a branch of univer- 
 sity learning was founded on the great dis- 
 covery. A review of the patient and ingen- 
 ious steps in the process by which at last 
 Grotefend succeeded in unraveling the mys- 
 tery is here forbidden for want of space. 
 His work will be commemorated as long as 
 the Achsemenian kings are known in history. 
 
 As it respects the religious system of the 
 Persians, much said in the History of Media 
 might here be repeated. The two peoples 
 were of close relationship in race, and almost 
 identical in language and religion. As al- 
 ready said, the original faith of the country 
 was the nature worship of India, but this did 
 not extend into the period of nationality. 
 When the Medes rose to the ascendency of 
 Western Asia, the doctrine of Magism, long 
 acknowledged by the tribes whom they subju- 
 gated, gradually supplanted the purer beliefs of 
 the people until, as we have seen, a chief cause 
 of that struggle which substituted the Persian 
 for the Median ascendency was the hostility 
 of Cyrus and his people against the apostasy 
 of the Medes from the faith of their fathers. 
 That faith was the system of reformed relig- 
 ion taught and established by the gi'eat apos- 
 tle of the Medo-Persic race. 
 
 Zoroaster, the founder of this reformed 
 faith, was a native of Bactria. Concerning 
 his career there is much that is still obscure. 
 He was the son of Pourushaspa, who lived in 
 the time of King Vistaspa, in whom the 
 young Zoroaster and his doctrines found a 
 
 patron and friend. Until recently the King 
 Vistaspa, or Hystaspes, has been identified 
 with Darius Hystaspes, which identification 
 would place the birth of the Bactrian prophet 
 in the sixth century B. C. An examination 
 of the Zendavesta, however, proves beyond a 
 doubt that the epoch of Zoroaster must be 
 referred to a period much more remote. The 
 archaic language of the bible just referred to 
 could never have belonged to the times of 
 the Achsemenian kings. So the supposed 
 identity of Vistaspa and Hystaspes had to be 
 abandoned.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, closer historical investigations 
 have shown that Vistaspa was the last of the 
 line of native princes ruling in Bactria before 
 the conquest of that country by the Assyrians 
 in B. C. 1200. So the latter date may be 
 taken as a minimum for the epoch of Zoroas- 
 ter. Careful critics have placed him at a 
 period considerably more remote. It is safe 
 to say that he flourished under the Kaia- 
 nian princes of Bactria, before the Assyrian 
 conquest. 
 
 Zoroaster came without supernatural claims, 
 but his ministry was such as soon to give him 
 the reputation of being a supernatural per- 
 sonage. His life was above reproach, devoted 
 to the great work of introducing a truer and 
 purer faith among his countrymen. His re- 
 form was in the nature of a protest against 
 the sensuous doctrines and idolatrous ceremo- 
 nial of the prevailing system. His teachings 
 are contained in the Zendavesta — the bible 
 of the Iranian nations. The general effect 
 of his work was to substitute the essence for 
 the outer shell of religion and to elevate spirit 
 in the place of form. Ahura-Mazdao was a 
 spirit, and they who worshiped him must do 
 so in spirit and in truth. So taught the 
 prophet of Bactria. 
 
 It was among the hills of Persia that the 
 doctrines of Zoroaster found their safest ref- 
 uge. At a time when Media under Astyages 
 was going rapidly down into the bogs of idol- 
 atry, the hardy race of Persians, still uncor- 
 rupted by luxury and by pageants appealing 
 
 ^ This for the same reason that the works of 
 Chaucer are sufficient proof that their author did 
 not flourish in the age of Queen Anne.
 
 PERSIA.— LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 
 
 341 
 
 to the senses, sustained the simple faith with 
 earnestness and zeal. Monotheism was ac- 
 cepted. One God, over and above nature, 
 was believed in and worshiped. To him was 
 ascribed such titles as the "Lord of Heaven," 
 the " Maker of Heaven and Earth." The re- 
 ligious idea was dominant. Even in affairs 
 of state there was a strict and outspoken rec- 
 ognition of Ahura-Mazdao as the supreme 
 ruler of the world. The great kings prayed 
 to him as the giver of life and victory. 
 
 Still, the lesser powers of nature were 
 recognized as divine. It was beyond the 
 genius even of Zoroaster to grasp the idea of 
 the absolute unity of the universe. It was 
 admitted that there was a pantheon of minor 
 deities. These might properly be prayed to, 
 or appeased with sacrifices, or adored in 
 worship. The unequivocal supremacy of 
 Ahura-Mazdao was the essential principle. 
 That being granted, it was not impious to cry 
 out to the lesser gods. 
 
 It is impossible to say at what precise 
 period in Persian history the doctrines of 
 dualism began to gain a foothold. Certain it 
 is that they were not of the original system. 
 Their introduction marks the beginning of 
 that degeneration which has characterized 
 every religion in the world under the refine- 
 ments of theology. As already said in the 
 History of Media, the Zoroastrian priests 
 came by and by to discriminate the evil pow- 
 ers of nature from the good, and unable to 
 realize the existence of a higher law which 
 includes in its beneficence the presence of 
 evil as a necessary element in the problem of 
 the world, they adopted the expedient of per- 
 sonification and set up a catalogue of devils. 
 It was one of the bad evolutions of depraved 
 ingenuity. 
 
 As in the case of the early Medes, the 
 worship of the Persians consisted in prayers 
 to Ahura-Mazdao and the good spii'its who 
 assisted him in the government of mankind. 
 Another part of the ceremony was the chant- 
 ing of solemn gathas, or hymns, in praise of 
 the deity. Sacrifices were offered both to 
 please and to appease the majesty of heaven, 
 and Soma was worshiped as the best gift of 
 the gods. In yielding religiously to intoxica- 
 
 tion man entered into the divine moods and 
 spirit. 
 
 Of the Persian temples not very much is 
 known. It is possible that the square towers, 
 already described in the chapter on the archi- 
 tecture of the Achsemenians, may have been 
 edifices for the worship of the deities.' The 
 form of the altars before Avhich Ahura-Mazdao 
 was approached in prayer is determined from 
 the sculptures on the tombs. They had in 
 general the shape of a mushroom. The bot- 
 tom consisted of three diminishing squares. 
 On these was set a stone cube with openings 
 through the center, and this was surmounted 
 with a hemispherical dome. The height of 
 the whole was four or five feet. 
 
 Of living sacrifices the horse, as the noblest 
 creature, was preferred. Cattle, sheep, and 
 goats were also offered, and it is too apparent 
 that human beings sometimes bled before the 
 altars. Such sacrifices, however, are said to 
 have been rare, as they were certainly against 
 the nature and spirit of the Zoroastrian faith. 
 
 Of idols properly so-called the Persians 
 had none. The Zendavesta everywhere de- 
 nounces idolatry as contrary to true religion. 
 Symbols, however, were permitted. The most 
 popular emblem was that of Ahura-Mazdao, 
 the same being a winged circle, sometimes 
 bearing a human figure in the center. This 
 famous symbol is thought to have been copied 
 from the Assyrians, with Avhom it stood for 
 Asshur. The sign is seen occupying a prom- 
 inent place in nearly all the Persian sculp- 
 tures, especially on the face of the rock tombs 
 where the kings were buried. At a later date, 
 when the w^orship of Mithra, the sun-god, was 
 introduced from the system of India, that 
 deity was honored with a symbol of the great 
 orb over which he presided, the same being in 
 the Persian sculptures a plain disk and not- a 
 four-rayed circle like that seen on the monu- 
 ments of the Ninevites. 
 
 In the account given in Book Fourth of 
 the beliefs of the Medes, mention has been 
 made of the spirits of good and evil — the 
 ahuras and the devas of Iranic mythology. On 
 one of the old pillars at Pasargadae, thought 
 to have been erected by Cyrus the Great, is 
 
 > See Book Sixth, p. 324.
 
 342 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 a colossal figure representing the Good Genius 
 of the Persian faith, the great angel Sraosha, 
 one of the most benign conceptions found in 
 the records of paganism. The figure is that 
 of a man with four wings outspread at the 
 shoulders, his hands lifted before a calm, pure 
 face, as if in the act of conferring blessings 
 from the treasury of heaven/ Upon his head 
 rise the two spreading horns of power, and 
 between these on either side stands a small mis- 
 shapen figure of a human being. In the 
 center of the outspread horns is a complex 
 triple ornament, evidently symbolical, but the 
 sense not easily perceived. In many of the 
 sculptures quaint diabolical figures are seen 
 representing the devas or mischievous imps 
 whose business it was to torment human life 
 with vexations and spleen. 
 
 The belief in one supreme God and the 
 detestation of the practices of idolatry were 
 the elements in the Persian faith upon which 
 the strong religious sympathy heretofore re- 
 ferred to as existing between the subjects of 
 the Achsemenians and the Jews was founded. 
 In these respects the two peoples ran in the 
 same channels of thought and practice, and 
 the favor shown the Jewish nation by Cyrus 
 and Darius was evidently traceable to com- 
 munity of belief. 
 
 By and by, in the latter days of the mon- 
 archy, when vice and luxury had sapped the 
 heroic virtues of the first age of Persian 
 greatness, corruptions came in, and defiled 
 the primitive faith of the people. It was the 
 story of Median apostasy repeated. The old 
 Scythic tribes inhabiting the country before 
 the conquest by the Persians had been Ma- 
 gians. This system had prevailed among the 
 barbarous tribes of the Great Plateau before 
 the days of Zoroaster, so that the doctrines 
 introduced by that reformer were superim- 
 posed on a basis of belief that was ever ready 
 to rise up from the beds of human nature and 
 reassert its supremacy. Perhaps this sub- 
 
 ' See Book Fourth, p. 219. 
 
 stratum of religious belief, combined with the 
 general social degeneration in the times of the 
 later monarchy, made the purer doctrines 
 of Zoroastrianism fall an easy prey to the 
 more showy but less substantial system of the 
 Magians. This change in faith, however, was 
 rather a union or amalgamation of the two 
 systems than a conquest of one by the other. 
 Henceforth, till the coming of Alexander, 
 the leading doctrines and practices of both 
 Zoroastrianism and Magism were retained in 
 the agglomerated faith of the Persians. 
 
 One of the features of this religious de- 
 generation was the introduction of the wor- 
 ship of Mithra, the god of the sun, and his 
 elevation to a rank equal, if not superior, to 
 that of Ahura-Mazdao himself. This innova- 
 tion took place in the reign of Artaxerxes 
 Mnemou, and from that date forth the Per- 
 sians may be said to have been worshipers of 
 the sun. The change in the national faith 
 was marked, as already said, by the presence 
 of the sun-symbol along with that of Ahura- 
 Mazdao in the sculptures of Persepolis. 
 
 The general efiect of the modifications here 
 mentioned was to cause an approximation of 
 Zoroastrianism to the other forms of religious 
 faith prevailing in Western Asia. The cere- 
 monials of Media and Persia were no longer 
 distinct in method or purpose. The essential 
 integrity and elevation of the primitive belief 
 were allowed to fall into desuetude, and the 
 religion of show took the place of the spiritual 
 doctrines inculcated by him of Bactria. Un- 
 til this date Persia had been a land without 
 temples. Now building in honor of the gods 
 began to be a passion, but before time enough 
 had elapsed for the country to be covered 
 with great temples like those of Egypt and 
 Babylonia, the Macedonian conqueror stood 
 at the door and knocked. Before the day of 
 Arbela, the simple faith of the ancient people 
 had been replaced with a system of vainglori- 
 ous idolatry.
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 343 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII.— CIVIL AND NULIXARY ANNALS. 
 
 EFERENCES to the Per- 
 sian race are found in 
 the Assyrian inscriptions 
 as early as the reign of 
 Shalmaneser II. , about 
 the middle of the ninth 
 century B. C. These peo- 
 ple were then located in the south-western parts 
 of Armenia, and had a tribal government under 
 chieftains who were their leaders in war. The in- 
 scriptions mention twenty-five of such clans who 
 were obliged to pay tribute to the Assyrians. 
 For three reigns this relation of dependency 
 to the Ninevite kings was maintained. The 
 tribes were even at this early date closely 
 associated with the Medes, who were regarded 
 as their kinsmen and confederates. Nearly a 
 century then elapsed before the Persians are 
 again mentioned. In the reign of Sennache- 
 rib, however, they are a second time heard of 
 in a situation which implied a migration from 
 their old haunts in Armenia. It was in the 
 district north-east of Susiana, on the very 
 borders of Persia Proper, that the tribes next 
 appear. From this locality they easily spread 
 into the country where their real historical 
 development began. 
 
 It was not far from the date of the cap- 
 ture of Nineveh by Cyaxares that the Per- 
 sians grew into a monarchy. About the close 
 of the seventh century B. C, they were suf- 
 ficiently consolidated to attract the attention 
 of their neighbors as an independent power. 
 It was at this date, as nearly as may be de- 
 termined, that AcH^MENES, founder of the 
 great line of sovereigns bearing his name, 
 ascended the throne of Persia. The scattered 
 tribes were united under one government, 
 and royalty was recognized as the foundation 
 of the state. Of the deeds of Achsemenes 
 very little is known. He is celebrated in the 
 inscriptions of Behistun and elsewhere rather 
 as the father of great monarchs and the 
 founder of the kingdom than for any actual 
 accomplishments of peace or war. As a gen- 
 
 eral rule, however, a famous character is not 
 born of nothing, and we may safely conclude 
 that the builder of the primitive Persian mon- 
 archy was one of those barbaric geniuses with- 
 out whose agency the ancient world could 
 hardly have been lifted from the quagmires. 
 
 Achsemenes was succeeded on the throne by 
 his son TeIspes, of whom our information is 
 still more limited. His importance, like that 
 of most of the kings of the world, seems to 
 have been derived from his father and his 
 descendants. Of the next two rulers the 
 names even have not been certainly ascer- 
 tained, but it is believed that one of them 
 was called Cambyses. It appears that in his 
 reign one event of some importance occurred, 
 the same being an intermarriage between his 
 daughter Atossa and the king of Cappadocia. 
 This would imply that considerable state-craft 
 had been developed at the Persian court, and 
 that the kingdom had grown to such import- 
 ance as to make a marriage with one of its 
 princesses desirable to foreign rulers. 
 
 Meauwhile, the kingdom of the Medes on 
 the north had become especially powerful in 
 Western Asia. According to Herodotus, the 
 Persians were subordinated to their kinsmen 
 by conquest as early as 634 B. C, and in 
 this condition they remained, subject to the 
 exactions of a galling dependency until the 
 relations of the two countries were reversed 
 by the strong arm of Cyrus. The authority 
 of the native inscriptions, however, indicates 
 no such conquest, and it is probably true that 
 the tributary relations of Persia to the sister 
 kingdom arose rather out of juniority and 
 kinship than out of conditions imposed by the 
 sword. Certain it is, however, that there was 
 a dependency of the younger kingdom upon 
 the elder, and that Persia down to the time 
 of Cyrus should be regarded rather as a fief 
 of Media than as an independent state. No 
 doubt the kings of this period were restive 
 under their subordination, and awaited the day 
 when their political condition should be revo-
 
 344 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 lutionized. Their resentment, moreover, was 
 constantly whetted by the enforced residence 
 of the heir apparent of the Persian crown at 
 the court of the Median king. For it was 
 one of the conditions of the dependency that 
 the crown prince of Persia should be retained 
 during his minority at the Median capital. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when 
 Cambyses, the father of Cyrus the Great, oc- 
 cupied the throne. It was the daydawn of 
 Persian ascendency. Astyages was now king 
 of Media. That power had run a rapid 
 course up to greatness and down to efferaiuacy. 
 Friendly relations were maintained between 
 the two kingdoms, of the Medes and Persians. 
 Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, was the 
 wife of Cambyses and mother of the young 
 prince Cyrus, who, in accordance with the 
 custom, was obliged to reside at the court of 
 his grandfather. Here, being a young man 
 of genius and ambition, he became a close 
 student of the political condition. He saw 
 that Media was in no condition to extend her 
 power or even defend herself against aggres- 
 sion. He saw that the vices of Magism had 
 sapped the national faith, and that, as com- 
 pared with his father's hardy and virtuous 
 government, there was no longer any necessity 
 or even fitness for the subjection of his coun- 
 try to the king of the Medes. He revolved 
 these things in his mind, and was already 
 well advanced in the concept of rebellion 
 when those fortuitous circi^mstances arose by 
 which the crisis was precipitated. The es- 
 cape of Cyrus from the court of his grand- 
 father ; the efforts of the latter to retake him ; 
 the insurrection of the Persians in behalf of 
 their prince; the invasion of the country by 
 Astyages; the fierce battles which were 
 fought; the final stand of the Persian army 
 on the hills around Pasargadse; the discomfit- 
 ure and rout of the Medes; the death of 
 Cambyses, and the undisputed mastery of the 
 whole situation by the victorious Cyrus, — all 
 this has been recounted in the preceding 
 pages. ^ 
 
 It will be remembered that, long before 
 this revolution, Assyria had succumbed to 
 Cyaxares, who, with Nabopolassar of Babylon 
 
 ^See Book Fourth, pp. 234-2.^tt. 
 
 and the king of Lydia, took Western Asia 
 for an inheritance. By this sudden reversal 
 of the relations between Media and Persia — 
 by which the former, with very little resist- 
 ance from the Medes themselves, was brought 
 to acknowledge the supremacy of the latter — 
 the Persian prince found himself suddenly in 
 possession of the leadership of the better part 
 of Asia. The kingdom became an empire. 
 The Aryan race obtained the mastery of the 
 great Semitic nations of Mesopotamia and the 
 West. A solidarity was thus accomplished 
 of all the Iranian peoples of the wide regions 
 beyond the Zagros. The conditions for the 
 sudden development of a great political power, 
 perhaps the greatest which the annals of the 
 world had yet presented, were all existent, 
 and nothing was lacking which genius could 
 supply in the ambitious and warlike prince 
 under whom that power was to burst into lux- 
 uriant leafage and blossom. 
 
 Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, and founder 
 of the Persian Empire, was born about the 
 year B. C. 580. His birthplace is thought 
 to have been Ecbatana. Before he was born 
 his grandfather, Astyages, had ominous 
 dreams, and gave orders that the child should 
 be put to death as soon as born. A certain 
 Harpagus, however, an officer in the royal 
 court and a believer in fate, gave the babe to 
 a herdsman, who reared him as his son. 
 
 Of course, the lad, being a prince incog- 
 nito, ruled all his playfellows. So much for 
 natural selection. He gave orders that a cer- 
 tain Mede should be scourged, and when this 
 brought on difficulty Cyrus was taken into 
 his grandfather's presence, and by him was 
 recognized. It was now too late to kill the 
 royal scion, but the son of Harpagus was put 
 to death as a proper punishment for his 
 father's disobedience. After this, Cyrus re- 
 mained at the court, and before his escape 
 from Ecbatana was instructed by Harpagus 
 in the rudiments of rebellion and the best 
 means of subverting the kingdom of the 
 Medes. The result has already been narrated. 
 The subsequent history of the great king is a 
 part of the history of his times, and will be 
 presented in the following narrative. 
 
 The conquest of Ecbatana by Cyrus was
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 345 
 
 accepted by the Medes as a matter of course. 
 The young prince was already a favorite with 
 a majority of the Median nobles. They who 
 in matters of religion longed for a return to 
 the simple faith of the fathers, hailed him as 
 a deliverer from national apostasy. He was, 
 moreover, a grandson of the recent king, and 
 might, therefore, be regarded almost as the 
 rightful heir to the throne. Every circum- 
 stance favored the peaceable assumption by 
 him of all the rights and prerogatives hitherto 
 belonging to the kings of Media. Such was 
 the ready acquiescence in the new order of 
 the peoples beyond the Zagros. 
 
 To the Assyrians the change was only a 
 change of masters. To them it imported 
 nothing that a Persian rather than a Mede 
 should inherit whatever was left of the glory 
 of Nineveh and Calah. So they accepted the 
 substitution of one dynasty for another with- 
 out any effort on their part to regain their 
 lost independence. In looking around the 
 horizon, Cyrus could discover but one quarter 
 from which to anticipate the coming of dan- 
 ger. This was in the extreme North-west. 
 In this connection, the tripartite division of 
 Western Asia by Cyaxares, Nabopolassar, and 
 the king of Lydia will be readily recalled. 
 After the accession of Cyrus, it was this king- 
 dom of Lydia which appeared to him the only 
 power of which he had occasion to be appre- 
 hensive. It was, therefore, to this remote 
 country between the Halys and the ^gean 
 to which the Persian king first turned his at- 
 tention. At this time the Lydian monarch 
 was Crcesus, who, as we have already seen — 
 in order to anticipate the movements of his 
 foe — hastily sent an embassy to the king of 
 Babylonia, inviting his cooperation against the 
 Persian. How that invitation was accepted 
 and became the ground for the subsequent in- 
 vasion of Lower Mesopotamia and the over- 
 throw of Babylon, has already been narrated.' 
 In this place we have to do only with the 
 conquest of Lydia by the Persians. 
 
 Croesus was not averse to the war. His 
 father had for a long time withstood the as- 
 saults of the Medes led by Cyaxares, and had 
 finally, after the skies were so ominously 
 
 '.'^ee Book Fifth, p. 299. 
 
 veiled at the Battle of the Eclipse, secured 
 an honorable and advantageous alliance by 
 intermarriage between his own house and that 
 of Ecbataua. Croesus had as little cause as 
 his father to dread disaster in a contest with 
 the Iranians from beyond the mountains. 
 And so, without waiting to receive active aid 
 or even assurances of aid from the Babylo- 
 nians, he flung himself into a war with Cyrus. 
 
 The Lydian king made great preparations 
 for the conflict. In addition to the resources 
 of his own kingdom — then by far the most 
 powerful and opulent in Asia Minor — he se- 
 cured an alliance with Pharaoh Amasis of 
 Egypt, and also with the oligarchy of Sparta. 
 Thus fortified with enormous W'Calth and with 
 the support of several of the most powerful 
 states of the West, to say nothing of expected 
 aid from Nabonadius of Babylon, he felt him- 
 self strong enough to confront even the con- 
 queror of the Medes. 
 
 Cyrus began his work by diplomacy. 
 Knowing that Lydia had but recently sub- 
 dued many of the small states between the 
 Halys and the ^gean, and learning that a 
 large per cent of the people of those states 
 were of Greek descent and therefore of dispo- 
 sitions exceeding averse to despotic rule, he 
 sent emissaries among them to test their loy- 
 alty to the Lydian king, and, if possible, to 
 foment insurrections. At this time, however, 
 the Ionian Greeks, who were engaged in com- 
 merce by land and sea, were not especially 
 galled by the rule of the easy-going Croesus, 
 and perceiving that war meant ruin to mer- 
 chants, thought it not wise to break their al- 
 legiance ; and so the agents of Cyrus returned 
 to their master with no results. 
 
 The Persian was not discouraged. Throw- 
 ing aside all expedients, he put himself at the 
 head of his army and advanced rapidly to the 
 west. Taking the circuitous route from Meso- 
 potamia, he came by way of Erzerum into 
 that part of Northern Cappadocia known 
 afterwards as the Kingdom of Pontus, and 
 soon found himself on the borders of his ad- 
 versary's country. Croesus, meanwhile, had 
 advanced to meet his antagonist. Several 
 Cappadocian towns were taken by the Lyd- 
 ians, and the two armies came together in a
 
 346 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 district called Pteria. Here a hard battle 
 was fought, but night came on without de- 
 cisive results. On the morroAV the Persians 
 did not renew the fight; and Croesus, seeing 
 that with an inferior force he had held his 
 own in a whole day's battle against the re- 
 nowned warrior of the East, drew the false 
 conclusion that the Persian was overrated, 
 that he durst not renew the conflict, and that 
 no further hostilities need be expected until 
 the following spring. For it was already well 
 advanced towards winter. Acting on these 
 erroneous deductions, the Lydian monarch fell 
 back across the Halys and proceeded, at his 
 own capital of Sardis, to disband a large 
 part of his troops, trusting to re-collect them 
 in the spring in time to foil any attempts of 
 his adversary. 
 
 Cyrus, it appears, had foreseen precisely the 
 course which the Lydian would take. For 
 himself he had no thought of allowing the in- 
 vasion to lag. So, as soon as he was informed 
 of the policy of the king of the Lydians, he 
 pressed forward, crossed the Halys, and came 
 with great rapidity into the immediate vicinity 
 of Sardis. Croesus, though surprised, was 
 not dismayed. He gathered the remnant of 
 his army, mostly native Lydians, and went 
 out to give the Persians battle. Cyrus had 
 respect enough for his antagonist to act with 
 extreme circumspection. 
 
 The Lydian cavalry was at this time re- 
 garded as the best in Western Asia ; so, in 
 the beginning of the battle, which was fought 
 in the valley of the Hermus, but a few miles 
 from the capital, the Persian king ordered a 
 line of camels to be arranged in that part of 
 the field where they would be opposed to the 
 Lydian horse. The latter were frightened 
 into a stampede, but the cavalrymen dis- 
 mounted and fought on foot, and the whole 
 battle on the side of the Lydians was pressed 
 with the greatest courage. The Persians, 
 however, gained ground in every part, and 
 after a very hard conflict the Lydians were 
 driven within the walls of Sardis. Here 
 Croesus determined to defend himself to the 
 last extreme. 
 
 Cyrus at once began a siege ; for the city 
 was walled. The Lydians suflfered no great 
 
 alarm, deeming the capital impregnable. 
 Their courage was increased by an unsuccess- 
 ful assault made by the Persians. Croesus 
 sent messengers to the provincial states of his 
 kingdom and to Egypt and Babylonia to urge 
 forward contingents and supplies to the end 
 that the Persian king might be overwhelmed. 
 After his attack on the ramparts Cyrus in- 
 vested the city, and the siege was progressing 
 slowly when an accident brought about what 
 valor had been unable to accomjDlish. The 
 citadel, which occupied a part of the defenses, 
 was built on the native rock, from which in a 
 single place a slope led down with a com- 
 paratively easy descent to the plain outside. 
 A Persian soldier, happening to see a Lydian 
 Avhose helmet had fallen over the battlement, 
 descend this slope and return without diffi- 
 culty, perceived that he and his companions 
 could do the same, and making a rush up the 
 slope, gained the citadel, cut down the guards, 
 and laid the city at the mercy of Cyrus. 
 Sardis fell. Pillage followed. Croesus, about 
 to be slain, was recognized and taken into the 
 presence of the Persian king. The latter at 
 the fii'st treated his fallen foe with some 
 severity, but afterwards received him into 
 favor. The captive monarch was taken to 
 Ecbatana, where he was given a provincial 
 government, or, at any rate, the revenues of 
 a province for his support. Here, and after- 
 wards at Babylon, he continued to reside for 
 thirty years, a friend of his conqueror and of 
 his successor, Cambyses. Such was the usage 
 of the early Persian kings, whose conduct on 
 the score of humanity may be set in happy 
 contrast with the ferocious bloodthirstiness of 
 contemporary oriental monarchs. 
 
 As to the kingdom of Lydia, thus sub- 
 verted, it was at once annexed to the Persian 
 dominions. With the capture of the king 
 and capital all resistance ceased, as was usually 
 the case in Eastern conquests. Cyrus had no 
 cause of spite against any except those Ionian 
 Greeks who had refused at the suggestion of 
 his ambassadors to break their allegiance to 
 Croesus.' But the punishment of these petty 
 
 ' These circumstances are worthy of special 
 note as being the first in a long train of events 
 involving the relations of the Greek cities of Asia
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 347 
 
 Greek towns was not considered a work of 
 sufficient importance to detain the king of 
 Persia in the West ; so, after a delay of a few 
 weeks in Sardis, he set out for his own capital, 
 having extended the borders of his Empire in 
 a single campaign to the shores of the -^gean 
 sea. 
 
 On his departure from the Lydian capi- 
 tal Cyrus committed the government of the 
 country to a certain Tabalus. Another Lyd- 
 ian, named Pactyas, was intrusted with the 
 important duty of transferring the almost fab- 
 ulous treasures accumulated by Croesus and 
 his predecessors to Ecbatana. The work also 
 involved the transfer of some of the more 
 wealthy and influential Lydian nobles to the 
 capital of the conqueror. Scarcely, however, 
 had this work begun when an insurrection 
 broke out headed by Pactyas himself, who 
 broke with the governor and drove him into 
 the citadel. A large part of the native pop- 
 ulation, together with the Greek merchants 
 and traders of the city, joined with Pactyas, 
 who was able with the treasures in his pos- 
 session to employ a large mercenary force 
 against Tabalus. Cyrus, now en route for 
 Ecbatana, heard of the insurrection, and de- 
 taching a strong body of troops put them 
 under command of Mazares, a Median gen- 
 eral, with directions to suppress the revolt 
 and restore order in the lately conquered 
 kingdom. Mazares returned to Sardis, but be- 
 fore he reached the city Pactyas had concluded 
 that discretion was the better part of valor, 
 especially in a rebel, had given up the at- 
 tempt against Tabalus and fled from Sardis. 
 
 The insurrectionists were disarmed and or- 
 der restored without difficulty. Some of the 
 Greek towns whose citizens had espoused the 
 cause of Pactyas were taken and the people 
 sold as slaves. The rebel leader was hunted 
 down in the island of Chios. He was sur- 
 rendered under command of Mazares, who 
 soon afterwards died, and was succeeded in 
 the government of Lydia by another Median 
 general, named Harpagus. 
 
 Minor with the Persian Empire, and leading 
 ultimately to those wars of world-wide fame in 
 which "all Asia" was precipitated upon the 
 small but heroic states of Greece- 
 
 By him a policy less severe was adopted 
 towards the Ionian towns of Asia Minor. He 
 proceeded to reduce them to submission, but 
 in many instances the inhabitants were per- 
 mitted to escape, and in others the terms ex- 
 acted were so easy that the example of sub- 
 mission spread from city to city, until not 
 only they but the adjacent Greek islands — 
 with the exception of Samos — voluntarily 
 surrendered, and became tributary to the 
 Persians. 
 
 In this general establishment of the au- 
 thority of the Great King along the shores of 
 the ^geau, one or two circumstances are 
 worthy of special note. Policy began to take 
 the place of brute force. This was illustrated 
 in the conduct of Cyrus towards Miletus. This 
 city had for a long time held out against the 
 Lydians. It had finally yielded to Croesus 
 only a short time before he himself was over- 
 thrown by a greater. Cyrus was quick to 
 recognize this course of Miletus, and the city 
 was therefore excepted when the orders were 
 given to Harpagus to reduce all the Asiatic 
 Greeks to submission. The greatest of the 
 cities of these people was thus made a con- 
 spicuous example of the favor which was 
 likely to follow in all cases to those who stood 
 against the enemies of Persia. Another cir- 
 cumstance is the appearance at this time of 
 wise statesmanship — at least by suggestion — 
 among the Greeks of the Ionian towns — such 
 statesmanship as, if adopted, might possibly 
 have saved them, and perhaps even their 
 countrymen beyond the -lEgean from the Per- 
 sian scourge. It was at this time that Thales, 
 a philosopher of Miletus, proposed that a 
 Greek Congress, to be constituted of repre- 
 sentatives from all the coast towns of Asia 
 Minor and the littoral islands, should assem- 
 ble at Teos and form a confederacy, with a 
 view to securing the independence of each 
 and all. It was nothing less than a rational 
 measure looking to the establishment of Greek 
 nationality; but the spirit of localism, which, 
 in some shape or other, was the bane of the 
 Gre^s in all their subsequent history, was 
 already too strong to be overcome, and the 
 suggestion of Thales was of little practical 
 effect.
 
 348 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In the meantime Harpagus continued his 
 conquests. Forming a large force of mercen- 
 aries, composed chiefly of the lonians and 
 ^olians, he marched into Caria and easily 
 overran the country. The Greeks also of the 
 Dorian towns on the coast gave up Avitliout a 
 struggle and became tributary to the Persian 
 king. The Lycians, however, in alliance with 
 the Caunians, made a stubborn resistance. 
 The story of their defense is one of tragic 
 heroism. Overpowered by the superior forces 
 of Harpagus, they retreated into their two 
 towns, Caunus and Xanthus, and when these 
 could be defended no longer, they applied the 
 torch to their own homes, burned their wives 
 and children, and then rushing forth fell upon 
 their enemies and fought till the last man 
 perished. 
 
 On reaching his own capital, after the con- 
 quest of Lydia, Cyrus immediately turned his 
 attention to the countries on his eastern bor- 
 ders. Of these the most important was Bac- 
 tria. Inhabited, like Media and Persia, by 
 people of the Iranic race, having its own 
 traditions and history, famous as the home of 
 Zoroaster, this land had an affinity in lan- 
 guage, customs, and population with the best 
 parts of the Empire. During the time of the 
 Median ascendency Bactria had been nomi- 
 nally dependent upon that power, but no 
 actual reduction of the people to the extent 
 of incorporating them with the other nations 
 subjugated by Cyaxares had taken place. 
 The Bactrians were brave and warlike, but 
 less skillful in tactics and discipline than their 
 invaders. Cyrus, however, in his campaign 
 against them, found them a formidable foe; 
 and it was his superiority in numbers and 
 equipment, combined with the impetus of vic- 
 tory which his army had now acquired, rather 
 than naked valor, which led to his success. 
 The Bactrians were subdued, made their sub- 
 mission, and were incorporated in the Empire. 
 
 The next campaign — following immediately 
 after the Bactrian — was directed against the 
 great nation of the Sacse. These multitu- 
 dinous barbarians were excellent soldiers, fight- 
 ing desperately both on foot and on horseback, 
 wielding the bow and the battle-axe with 
 terrible effect, wheeling and whirling in battle 
 
 like swift clouds driven by angry winds. Men 
 and women fought side by side in the ranks, 
 and there was little difference in the effective- 
 ness of their blows or courage. They came 
 into the field a half-million strong to resist the 
 coming of Cyrus. In one terrible battle they 
 had some advantage. Their king — Amorges — 
 was taken by the Persians, but the queen — 
 Sparethra — took his place at the head of the 
 battle, which was fought with such despera- 
 tion that several Persian officers of distinction 
 fell into the hands of the Sacse and enabled 
 them to get back their king by an exchange 
 of prisoners. Nevertheless the prowess of the 
 Persians proved too much for the undisci- 
 plined rage of the barbarians, and they were 
 overcome. Like the other tribes, they sub- 
 mitted to the Persian yoke and became tribu- 
 tary to the conqueror. 
 
 After this success Cyrus rapidly overran 
 the territories of nearly all those nations 
 which have been described in a preceding 
 chajDter as provincial dependencies of the 
 Empire. Hyrcania, Parthia, Chorasmia, Sog- 
 diana, Arya, Sattagydia, and Gandaria, each 
 in turn fell before the resistless arms of Persia. 
 As far north as the Jaxartes — on whose banks 
 a town named Cyropolis for generations bore 
 witness to the presence of the conqueror — 
 and as far east as Afghanistan, and southward 
 to Seistan, the Persian king continued his 
 triumphant march, repeating in each province 
 the drama of victory. At the close of the 
 great campaign the whole vast region bounded 
 on the north by the Jaxartes, on the east by 
 the valley of the Indus, on the south by the 
 deserts of Khorassan, and on the west by the 
 Caspian sea, had been reduced to submission 
 and added to the Persian dominions. 
 
 According to the Greek historian, Arrian, 
 who was Roman prefect of Cappadocia in the 
 second century of our era, the next campaign 
 of Cyrus was into Gedrosia. But of this ex- 
 pedition we have no details, and the fact of 
 the conquest has been called in question. The 
 country of the Gedrosians, however, was, in 
 the times of Darius Hystaspis, a province of 
 the Empire, and it must therefore have been 
 added by himself or some of his predecessors, 
 most likely Cyrus. Be this as it may, the
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 349 
 
 conquest was effected at some time between the 
 reign of the latter and that of Darius. 
 
 The period assigned to these Eastern cam- 
 paigns of Cyrus is thirteen or fourteen years. 
 Perhaps during these long-continued wars and 
 marches he returned at intervals to his own 
 capital. It is probable that the monarch spent 
 many of his winters either at Ecbatana or 
 Pasargadse, and thence with the opening of 
 spring renewed his military operations after 
 the prevalent manner of the times. Thus, 
 for a long period, by the constant occupations 
 of Cyrus in the East, did Nabonadius, king 
 of Babylon, secure exemption from the pun- 
 ishment which he had provoked by his alliance 
 with Croesus in former yearSo It does not 
 often happen, however, that an Eastern king 
 allows his wrath to cool in the case of one 
 who has entered a league against him, and so 
 the vengeance of the Persian was procrasti- 
 nated rather than extinguished. When his 
 Eastern wars were ended he was already sixty 
 years of age, but his ardor was not cooled, 
 and he now found time to inflict on the Bab- 
 ylonians the chastisement long due for their 
 defection and disloyalty to old traditions of 
 friendship. 
 
 It was in the year B. C. 539 that the 
 Persian monarch found himself in readiness 
 to proceed against Babylon. It will be re- 
 membered that he was delayed one winter in 
 Susiana, as it has been alleged, by the drown- 
 ing of the sacred horses. Here it was, at any 
 rate, either by design or accident, that his 
 soldiers became expert in the use of the spade 
 and learned how to change the channels of 
 great rivers. In the spring of the next year 
 he resumed his march into the Babylonian 
 plain, and in the course of that memorable 
 summer succeeded in the complete demolition 
 of the Empire of the Babylonians. How the 
 great city fell ; how Nabonadius was cooped 
 up in Borsippa; how, foreseeing the inevit- 
 able, he surrendered himself and his people 
 to the conqueror, has already been fully nar- 
 rated in the preceding pages.' With the cap- 
 ture of Babylon there was an immediate rec- 
 
 ' For an account of the capture of Babylon and 
 the establishment of Persian supremacy in Meso- 
 potamia, see Book Fifth, p. 300. 
 
 ognition of the new order of things through- 
 out Mesopotamia. Susiana had been already 
 subdued. Syria and Palestine passed as a 
 matter of course to the conqueror. His Em- 
 pire was suddenly enlarged by territories 
 whose aggregate area was not less than a 
 quarter of a million of square miles. From 
 the Indus to the Mediterranean there was no 
 longer left a single state able to throw serious 
 resistance or even an interesting impediment 
 in the way of the Great King. Up to this 
 time in the history of the world no other had 
 ruled such vast dominions. It was the sudden 
 ascendency of a new family of mankind. For 
 fifteen hundred years the Semites and Cushites 
 had dominated the best parts of Western Asia 
 and Africa. It was now the turn of the Ar- 
 yans to introduce their world-wide supremacy 
 by the establishment of their first great Em- 
 pire. This collapse of the political power of 
 the Semitic race involved a great change in 
 the opinions and usages of mankind. It was 
 a crisis which marked the downfall of an old 
 system of religious faith which, variously in- 
 flected, had prevailed among the Mesopota- 
 mian nations and in various countries whose 
 people were in race-affinity with the Chal- 
 daeans and Assyrians. For all this there was 
 substituted a new set of doctrines and beliefs, 
 in spirituality greatly superior to the old, in 
 philosophy much more accordant with right 
 reason. The ancient religious beliefs of Bab- 
 ylon and Nineveh were impaled on the sword 
 of Cyrus the Great and held up for a specta- 
 cle ; and the gods of the Babylonian plain did 
 a sudden and everlasting obeisance to the 
 spirit of Zoroaster. 
 
 Inside of the borders of the Empire estab- 
 lished by the Persian king there was little left 
 to engage his energies. On the extreme 
 south-west the little state of Phoenicia neg- 
 lected or refused to acknowledge the new or- 
 der by sending tokens of submission. It does 
 not appear, however, that the mind of Cyrus 
 was seriously disturbed by this act, which at 
 the worst could occasion but little trouble. 
 He had been so long accustomed to combat- 
 ing with enemies of larger growth that he 
 gave little attention to the hostile attitude as- 
 sumed by the Phoenicians. It was Egypt,
 
 350 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 rather than Phoenicia, to which he looked as 
 the next field worthy of his talents and ambi- 
 tion, and with a view to aiding his interests 
 and plans in this direction he adopted a 
 measure which, to say the least, was as much 
 one of statecraft as of religious preference. 
 
 This was the restoration to their own country 
 of the captive Jews of Babylon. For seventy 
 years these exiles had toiled at the public 
 works in and about the great city. In the 
 latter part of this period the rigor of the 
 
 come out from Jewry were now dead, but the 
 enthusiasm and gratitude of their children 
 were easily awaked at the prospect of a return 
 to the abandoned altars of their fathers; and 
 the edict of emancipation issued by Cyrus 
 was hailed with delight by the people, who, 
 under the leadex'ship of Ezra and Nehemiah, 
 returned to Palestine and began the work of 
 rebuilding Jerusalem. 
 
 While the invasion of Egypt was stiU 
 postponed by Cyrus, his attention was called 
 
 THE REBUILDING OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 Babylonians had relaxed, and the servile race 
 had found some favor in the eyes of their 
 masters. It will be remembered that the later 
 Babylonian kings had more than once con- 
 templated restoring the Jews to their own 
 land. This idea was adopted— though for 
 different reasons — by Cyrus, who perceived 
 that such an act would assure the establish- 
 ment of a friendly nation on the immediate 
 borders of Egypt, and in the direct line of 
 march which he must take in case of an inva- 
 sion of that country. All but a few of the 
 generation who seventy years before had 
 
 by the turbulence of certain barbarian nations 
 to the other extreme of his empire. It is not 
 impossible that there Avas that in the disposi- 
 tion of the king which led him to prefer cam- 
 paigns against the half-savage races of the 
 Great Plateau rather than war with the luxu- 
 rious peoples of Asia Minor and the South- 
 west. At any rate, instead of engaging in a 
 war with Egypt, he began a march to the 
 north-east for the purpose of chastising the 
 wild tribes of that region, who had grown in- 
 solent by immunity. The particular people 
 to be punished were, according to Herodotus,
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 351 
 
 the Massagetse, who had their haunts beyond 
 the Jaxartes; but according to Ctesias, the 
 race against which the campaign was directed 
 was a nation called the Derbices, dwelling 
 next to India. The stories of the results of 
 the war that ensued are also contradictory. 
 The account of Herodotus is, that in a great 
 battle with the Massagetse Cyrus was at first 
 victorious, but that afterwards he was defeated 
 and slain, his body falling into the hands of 
 the barbarians, by whom it was treated with 
 shameful indignity. The story told by Ctesias 
 is that the Derbices were assisted by the In- 
 dians, who furnished them with soldiers and 
 elephants. In a hard fought battle Cyrus 
 was defeated and mortally wounded. In a 
 second engagement, however, the Persians 
 rallied, and, with the help of the Sacse, over- 
 came the enemy and compelled them to sub- 
 mit. All accounts agree that Cyrus lost his 
 life. As to his body, that certainly was re- 
 covered from the foe, even if it ever fell into 
 their hands; for the tomb of the great con- 
 queror remains at Pasargadse unto the present 
 day. His reign lasted for twenty-nine years, 
 his death occurring in the year B. C. 529. 
 His exit from power and from the world is 
 wrapped in that strange obscurity which has 
 veiled the final passage of so many of the 
 celebrities of history. 
 
 The reign of Cyrus the Great marked an 
 epoch in the history of the ancient world. 
 The transformation from pure orientalism to 
 half-rational methods of government began 
 from this time, and was in some degree trace- 
 able to the character of Cyrus. He was a 
 man of genius, essentially warlike, little satis- 
 fied with the vocations of peace. In courage 
 and energy he was without a rival among the 
 raonarchs of the age he lived in. His judg- 
 ment was unerring, his foresight equal to any 
 emergency, his humanity far above the spirit 
 of his times. His conduct was frequently 
 marked by charitable features, for which we 
 should look in vain in many modern heroes. 
 Whether in himself, considered as general and 
 king, or in his surroundings, which, as always 
 happens, were determined in their moral tone 
 by his own example, he rises in character far 
 above any other monarch of his own epoch, 
 
 A. — Vol. T 22 
 
 perhaps above any Asiatic king who ever sat 
 on a throne. The epithet of "Great" which 
 he fairly won may be defended and reaffirmed 
 before the bar of history. 
 
 One of the chief influences shed forth from 
 the reign of Cyrus was the birth of Persian 
 art. The simple but massive structures at 
 Pasargadse were among the best fruits of that 
 strength and energy which diffused itself on 
 every hand. It was the Doric era in Persian 
 architecture. The added glories of the great 
 palaces of the successors of C3ncus at Persep- 
 olis were but the natural growth and develop- 
 ment of what was begun at Pasargadse. 
 
 Like a prudent king, Cyrus settled the 
 succession in the monarchy. It was ordained 
 that the crown should descend to Cambyses, 
 the eldest son of the king. In this respect 
 Cyrus was less embarrassed than his successors, 
 for he had eschewed polygamy and limited 
 himself to but one wife. By her he had five 
 children, two sons and three daughters. The 
 second son was named Smerdis, and to him 
 the king assigned the independent government 
 of several provinces. In this circumstance 
 was laid the foundation of the civil and social 
 broils that ensued, and of the revolution 
 which finally cost his family the throne of the 
 Empire. 
 
 For no sooner was Cyrus dead and Cam- 
 byses established in authority than the latter 
 became jealous of his brother Smerdis to the 
 extent of issuing a secret order that he should 
 be put to dea'.h. The bloody edict was ful- 
 filled, but all knowledge of the fact was care- 
 fully concealed. Only the king and a few 
 confederates knew of the crime that had been 
 committed. 
 
 Having thus freed himself from the dan- 
 gers of rivalry, and taken Nemesis into his 
 confidence, Cambyses was ready to undertake 
 what his father had contemplated — the con- 
 quest of Egypt. It was now a quarter of a 
 century since Pharaoh Amasis, by his alliance 
 with Croesus, had given mortal offense to Cy- 
 rus. But the Lydian king was now resident 
 at the capital of the Empire, and was held in 
 favor with Cambyses himself; so it seemed 
 malapropos to dig up a difficulty on the score of 
 an extinct quarrel between Persia and Lydia.
 
 352 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The king, therefore, sought some new occa- 
 sion. He sent an embassy to Egypt and made 
 demands that Amasis should give him his 
 daughter for a wife. The demand was com- 
 plied with, and for a while Cambyses thought 
 himself in possession of an Egyptian princess ; 
 but he soon learned that he had been made 
 the victim of a vile fraud, for the girl, after 
 the manner of human nature, told him that 
 she was only a princess by proxy, not being 
 the daughter of Amasis at all. That crafty 
 ruler had sent an Egyptian damsel named 
 Nitetis to personate his daughter in the 
 Persian palace. 
 
 Cambyses, however, was not displeased at 
 the "outrage," for the transaction gave him 
 the very opportunity which he sought to settle 
 old scores and new grievances together. He 
 accordingly began elaborate preparations for 
 the invasion of Egypt. In order to secure a 
 safe passage through the Syrian deserts he 
 made treaties with the Arab chiefs and secured 
 their friendship. He saw that in a war with 
 the Egyptians a naval armament would be in- 
 dispensable, and to secure this in the distant 
 Mediterranean was a work of the greatest 
 difficulty. The king, however, opened nego- 
 tiations with the Phoenicians, whom by alter- 
 nate threats and bribes he induced to furnish 
 fleets for the desired purpose. The island of 
 Cyprus was also seduced from her loyalty to 
 Egypt, and led into a contribution of ships 
 and sailors. The Greek cities of Asia Minor, 
 both Ionian and ^olian, entered the league, 
 and placed a large naval force at the disposal 
 of the Persian king. So, after four years of 
 preparation, in B. C. 525, Cambyses began 
 his invasion. Advancing by way of the 
 Mediterranean coast, he came to PELUsroM, 
 where the Egyptians had come out to con- 
 front him. Here a decisive battle, in which 
 fifty thousand are said to have fallen, was 
 fought, and the Persians were completely vic- 
 torious. The Egyptians beat a hurried re- 
 treat to Memphis, and shut themselves within 
 the fortifications. 
 
 Meanwhile, the combined fleets of Phoenicia, 
 Cyprus, and the Greek cities had dispersed 
 the Egyptian armament, so that by the time 
 Cambyses appeared before Memphis the 
 
 allied fleet had taken possession of the Nile, 
 and Psametik, who at this juncture suc- 
 ceeded his father, Amasis, on the throne, was 
 rigorously blockaded both by land and water. 
 Nevertheless the resistance was stubborn. The 
 Greek mercenaries in the pay of the Egyptians 
 long and stoutly defended the city ; but Per- 
 sian persistence triumphed in the end, and the 
 capital of the Pharaohs fell into the hands 
 of Cambyses. The captive Psametik was 
 treated with the usual consideration shown to 
 princely prisoners, and was not, for the time, 
 wholly deprived of power. ^ 
 
 As soon as the downfall of Egypt was 
 known, the petty states bordering on the Nile 
 valley at once sent in their submission. Thus 
 did the tribes inhabiting the Libyan desert 
 and the more distant colonies of Barca and 
 Cyrenaica. In all the regions immediately 
 adjoining the scene of his recent conquests 
 there was none to furnish Cambyses with 
 occasion for further war. But the passion 
 which he had inherited from his father could 
 not be satiated, and he began to scan the 
 horizon for new fields in which to display hia 
 powers. There were in Africa at this time 
 three countries besides those already subju- 
 gated, which appeared to the Persian worthy 
 of his arms. These were Carthage in the 
 west, the Oasis of Amun in the distant 
 desert, and Ethiopia in the south. If these 
 were reduced to submission, then all Africa 
 would be under the sway of Persia, as much 
 as Western and Central Asia. What his 
 father had done with the wild tribes between 
 the Jaxartes and Khorassan, Cambyses would 
 do with the nations of the unknown south- 
 west. Three great campaigns were accord* 
 ingly planned by the conqueror ; one against 
 Carthage, one against the Oasis of Amun, 
 and the third against Ethiopia. In the prose- 
 cution of the first he was thwarted at the very 
 outset by an unexpected difficulty. The Phoe- 
 nicians refused to participate in the Cartha- 
 ginian expedition on the grounds that Car- 
 thage was a Phoenician colony, and that they 
 
 ^ For a further account of the capture of 
 Memphis by the Persians and the conversion of 
 Egypt into a province of the Empire, see Book 
 First, p. 71.
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 358 
 
 could not be expected to make war upon their 
 own kinsmen and friends. Without the 
 cooperation of the fleet the campaign was an 
 impossibility, for no march to such a distance 
 with the desert on the left and the sea on the 
 right, could be conducted without a constant 
 resort to ships for necessary supplies. So the 
 attack on Carthage had to be postponed or 
 wholly given up. But the expedition against 
 Amun was immediately undertaken. It will 
 be remembered that this oasis was the seat of 
 the worship of the god Amun, held in such 
 high esteem by the Thebans, and, indeed, by 
 all the hierarchy of Egypt. To overthrow 
 this shrine and altar, and to substitute therefor 
 the rites and ceremonies of Zoroastrianism, 
 seemed to Cambyses a necessary part of the 
 work by which Persia and Persian institutions 
 should become predominant in all the world. 
 So an army of fifty thousand men was organ- 
 ized at Memphis and dispatched against 
 Amun. But Amun was regardful of his 
 ancient rights. The Libyan sands were blown 
 up in a terrific storm, and the Avhole army 
 was buried alive. Not a man was left to 
 carry the news to Cambyses how nature had 
 fought for Africa. 
 
 These checks and disasters angered rather 
 than dismayed the Persian monarch. With 
 the residue of his forces, he now undertook 
 in person the subjugation of Ethiopia. The 
 march lay across the Nubian desert. It was 
 more serious business than the crossing of 
 those Syrian wastes with which the kings of 
 Western Asia were all familiar. The Persian 
 had not advanced far until he began to be 
 distressed by failure of provisions. The far- 
 ther he went the more straitened became 
 his condition. To go forward was irretrieva- 
 ble ruin; to return was humiliation and dis- 
 grace. Necessity turned the scale in favor of 
 retreat. Without striking a blow Cambyses 
 staggered back across the desert, and was glad 
 to find himself again in Egypt with the sur- 
 vivors of his ill-advised expeditions. 
 
 The Egyptians — especially the priests — 
 were quick to see what they regarded as the 
 «mens of hope in these disasters of their op- 
 pressor. To the people the haggard king and 
 his hungfy forces seemed now but an army 
 
 of shreds and patches. The gods of Africa 
 were evidently in a revival. Wherefore the 
 priests proceeded to declare a new incarnation 
 of Apis, and the people, in accordance with 
 immemorial usage on such occasions, broke 
 forth in a jubilee. Meanwhile, political sedi- 
 tion was at work. Psametik himself, who 
 until now had retained the government — of 
 course, under direction of his conqueror — was 
 detected in treasonable intrigues. The Egyp- 
 tian princes were mostly engaged in the same 
 dangerous business, and the priests were eager 
 to set fire to the insurrection. But the Per- 
 sian lion, who had come back half-starved 
 from the Nubian desert, was still a lion, and 
 he soon taught them the folly of supposing 
 him an ass. He seized Psametik and put 
 him to death. The nobles who had conspired 
 with him were also slain. The priests were 
 scourged until their sacred backs were bloody. 
 The new Apis, in all his royal calfhood, was 
 ordered to be brought into the presence of 
 Cambyses, who ran him through with his 
 sword. The festival of the incarnation was 
 abolished by an edict. Every tradition of the 
 hierarchy was openly insulted. The king tore 
 open the sacred sarcophagi, and handled the 
 royal mummies with as much contempt as if 
 they had been pieces of decayed wood. He 
 went into the holy places in the temples of 
 Memjihis, and made faces at the image of 
 Phtha. His insulted godship was then taken 
 down and burned. The Egyptians quailed be- 
 fore the angry monarch, whose vehement 
 character they had underestimated, and all 
 symptoms of rebellion immediately disap- 
 peared. There is little doubt, however, that 
 the wrath of the king was in the long run an 
 impolitic as well as an uu-Persian display of 
 passion, and that the subsequent disquietude 
 and disloyal spirit of the Egyptians was in 
 some degree traceable to the severity with 
 which their first foolish defection was visited. 
 For a series of years, however, all spirit of 
 resistance disappeared, and Egypt, without 
 complaint, assumed a provincial position in 
 the great Empire. 
 
 As soon as quiet was completely restored 
 on the Nile, Cambyses, in the year B. C. 522. 
 set out on his return to Persia. He had pro-
 
 354 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ceeded as far as Syria when the most startling 
 news reached him from his own capital. A 
 herald suddenly dashed into the camp and 
 made open proclamation that Cambyses was 
 dethroned, and demanded submission of all 
 loyal Persians to Smerdis, the king, the son 
 of Cyrus. For the moment Cambyses was 
 
 must be an impostor ; but he could not be de* 
 nounced as such without betraying the crime 
 of the king. Even should Cambyses now 
 proclaim the truth, he would not be believed ; 
 for his assertion would be accepted as the fic- 
 tion and lie of a falling coward. It was sug- 
 gested by Prexaspes that the impostor was a 
 
 CAMBYSES KILLS THE APIS. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 utterly confounded, not knowing whether his 
 brother was really alive or whether another 
 had assumed his character. It happened, 
 however, that Prexaspes, the Persian noble- 
 man to whom the assassination of Smerdis had 
 been intrusted years before, was with the 
 army, and by him the king was reassured that 
 the perfidious deed had really been accom- 
 plished. He who now impersonated Smerdis 
 
 certain Gomates, a Magus, to whose brother 
 Cambyses, in departing for Egypt, had com- 
 mitted the government of his palace — and 
 this conjecture proved to be correct; but it 
 availed the king nothing who or what he was 
 who had seized his throne. In the sore dis- 
 tress and desperation of the case, the Persian 
 king, with the rash impetuosity of his nature, 
 determined to put himself beyond the reach
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 355 
 
 of conspirators. He drew his sword and 
 plunged it into his side. The wound was 
 mortal, and in a few days he expired. The 
 silent Nemesis had settled her account. 
 
 The character of Cambyses is strongly con- 
 trasted with that of his father. The latter 
 preserved to his death the confidence of his 
 army and country. The former was never 
 entirely secure with either. His unsuccessful 
 campaigns in Africa tarnished his reputation 
 as a general, and the loyalty of his troops 
 in the hour of the great crisis may well be 
 doubted. He was subject to extremes of 
 passion, and when aroused was capable of any 
 cruelty. In his private life he is represented 
 to have been of a cold and haughty temper, 
 little conducive of personal esteem. His 
 name, moreover, is stained with the practice 
 of revolting vices and the perpetration of 
 dark crimes. Under the influence of a vile 
 passion he married his own sister, and he pro- 
 cured his brother's assassination. In the Per- 
 sian inscriptions he is described by epithets 
 indicating the low esteem in which he was 
 held by his countrymen. Nor were the Greek 
 historians more careful of his memory. He 
 remained true to the national religion, and it 
 is believed that an element in his despair was 
 the belief that both his army and his country- 
 men at large were infected with the vices of 
 Magism to the extent of making hopeless any 
 struggle which he might make to dethrone the 
 usurper Gomates. 
 
 To the impostor the death of the king was 
 so far all that could be desired. That event 
 freed himself from the greatest, but not the 
 only, peril which confronted him. He still 
 had a difficult and dangerous part to play. 
 There was the liability to detection. There 
 were his mutilated ears ; for Cyrus the Great 
 had cut off those members for the pei'petration 
 of a crime. There was the religious im- 
 broglio ; for he was the tool of the Magians, 
 who through him hoped to secure in Persia, 
 as they had done in Media, the establishment 
 of a system in which there was some chance 
 for a priesthood to display itself This fea- 
 ture of the usurpation had to be kept well in 
 the background, both by the managers and 
 the beneficiary ; for it was not safe for either 
 
 to do more than chuckle in private over the 
 prospect of a religious revolution. 
 
 Under conditions such as these, conspira- 
 tors generally adopt the ruse of advancing 
 some popular measure which shall distract at- 
 tention from the real purposes to be promoted. 
 Gomates and his Magian counselors accord- 
 ingly began their government by issuing 
 edicts for the remission of all tributes and 
 military service for the space of three years. 
 These were measures calculated to give great 
 satisfaction, especially in the provinces, where 
 the danger of insurrection was to be most ap- 
 prehended. As a second step in the direction 
 of allaying discontent, the Pseudo-Smerdis — 
 for by that name is he generally known — took 
 to wife all the widows of Cambyses. This 
 was a popular but dangerous proceeding, for 
 some of these ex-wives of the late king — cer- 
 tainly Atossa — were acquainted with the real 
 Smerdis, and might therefore be expected to 
 reveal the imposture. To prevent this a new 
 rule was adopted for the harem by which the 
 inmates, who had hitherto associated freely 
 within the Gynreceum, were now isolated, 
 each being strictly ordered to remain in her 
 own apartments. All communication, both 
 within and without, was, as to the women of 
 the seraglio, positively interdicted. By these 
 measures the conspirators hoped to trammel 
 up the consequences of the audacious business 
 which they had in hand. 
 
 It is, however, in the nature of crime to 
 betray itself. Brief immunity gives a longer 
 rein. Gomates, encouraged by temporary 
 success and instigated by the impatient Ma- 
 gians, soon set about the work of the religious 
 revolution. He ordered the temples of the 
 Zoroastrians to be destroyed and their rites to 
 be discontinued. Everywhere the Magi ap- 
 peared as the representatives of religion. The 
 adherents of the old system were for the 
 time overawed. In Media the change was, 
 of course, accepted with favor, and in the 
 provinces with indiflference. What to them 
 was a change from Ahura-Mazdao to the gods 
 of Sun, Earth, Water, and Air? As for 
 them their own local altars and petty deities 
 had been abolished long ago ; so the war of 
 the great gods worshiped by conquerors con-
 
 S56 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 cerned them not at all. Only in Persia was 
 there danger of insurrection against the meas- 
 ures which Gomates advanced with ever- 
 increasing boldness. 
 
 Meanwhile suspicions began to be blown 
 abroad. There were many who recalled the 
 dying declarations of Cambyses to the effect 
 that the self-asserting Smerdis was an impos- 
 tor. The sudden change in the management 
 of the seraglio, and more particularly the se- 
 clusion of the king himself, who neither went 
 beyond the palace walls or permitted himself 
 to be seen within them, added to the growing 
 belief that all was not well with the state. 
 In the minds of all those who were faithful 
 to Zoroastrianism there was still greater cause 
 for suspicion in the religious treason of the 
 secreted monarch, which was such as no true 
 Achsemenian ever could have been guilty of. 
 Still the unseen beast might be a lion, and 
 for a while rebellion smouldered. 
 
 After a season, however, rumor spread her 
 wings. There were mutterings in various 
 quarters portending an outbreak. At first 
 these were suppressed, and a few leaders ot 
 discontent were put to death. Soon, however, 
 the ' ' Seven Princes " of the Empire took secret 
 counsel regarding the condition of affairs, and 
 it was resolved that the impostor in the 
 palace should be overthrown at all hazards. 
 As a leader of the daring business Darius, 
 one of the Princes, son of Hystaspes, who 
 was a Persian noble of lineal descent from 
 Achsemenes, was chosen. He had himself — 
 if we trust his great inscription on the rocks 
 of Behistun — a clear, even indisputable title 
 to the crown in case of the failure of the line 
 of Cyrus. Even in the life-time of that king 
 Darius had been recognized as of the blood 
 royal, and had been under suspicion of enter- 
 taining designs on the crown. Now that 
 Smerdis was killed and Cambyses had killed 
 himself, there was an open road for a legiti- 
 mate Achsemenian to the throne of the 
 Empire. 
 
 On arriving at the capital Darius became 
 the soul of the conspiracy. He and his fel- 
 lows organized a select band, and were on the 
 eve of assaulting the palace when Gomates 
 took the alarm and fled. He was pursued to 
 
 Sictachotes, in Media, where he had taken 
 refuge in a fort. This was entered by Darius 
 and his followers, and the impostor was sur- 
 rounded and slain. A number of his adhe- 
 rents, who had sought refuge with him in the 
 fort, shared his fate. The head of the usurper, 
 with the indisputable proof of his pernicious 
 career written in the stumps of his ears, was 
 cut off and borne away by the insurgents, 
 who exhibited it everywhere as at once the 
 cause and the justification of their bloody 
 deed. There was a general uprising, and each 
 one felt warranted in cutting down the first 
 Magus whom he met. Until nightfall there 
 was a massacre, but the destruction of life 
 was not renewed on the morrow. An edict 
 was, however, issued that henceforth the anni- 
 versary of the death of Gomates should be 
 observed as a solemn festival, during which 
 none of the Magian caste should venture 
 forth under penalty of losing his life. 
 
 DARros ascended the throne without oppo- 
 sition. He took care to claim the Achseme- 
 nian descent, and thus secured himself against 
 any hostility on the part of zealous adherents 
 of the house of Cyrus. In entering upon his 
 reign some additional guarantees of good gov- 
 ernment were given, though these were merely 
 concessions of privileges and prerogatives to 
 the great princes who had recently helped him 
 to the throne. Among these pledges was that 
 which gave to each prince the unrestricted 
 right to enter the palace and have interviews 
 with the king. Another stipulation was that 
 the royal wives should henceforth be chosen 
 from the families of the Seven Princes, and 
 from them only. In addition to these guar- 
 antees it was specially conceded to Otanes, one 
 of the princes, that he and his successor at 
 the head of his house should be exempt from 
 kingly interference, and should be annually 
 honored with a present from his sovereign. 
 
 The bottom principles in the recent civil 
 broils in Persia had been essentially religious. 
 To this subject the new monarch at once turned 
 his attention. The Zoroastrian temples were 
 rebuilt and the old rites re'instituted. In pro- 
 portion as favor was thus shown to the ancient 
 faith the innovations of Magism were carefully 
 eradicated. The general policy of Cyrus wag
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 357 
 
 adopted in the government, and the impre?sion 
 was thus sought to be made that the revo- 
 lution was really a restitution of the old 
 Hgime. 
 
 During the reign of the Pseudo-Smerdis the 
 Jews of the West had had trouble. The re- 
 building of their ancient temple, which had 
 been begun under the edict of Cyrus, had, on 
 the petition of the Samaritans, been ordered 
 to cease. After the accession of Darius the 
 enemies of the Jewish people attempted to 
 secure a continuance of the injunction, but 
 the king not only renewed the concessions 
 made by Cyrus but actually opened the royal 
 store-houses to furnish the means for the com- 
 pletion of the work in Jewry. 
 
 The religious attitude of Darius was at 
 once his strength and his weakness. In Per- 
 sia Proper the actions of the king in suppress- 
 ing Magism met with general favor, and the 
 same was true in Bactria and the north-east. 
 But in other parts of the Empire, especially 
 in Media, the reverse was true. In countries 
 where Magism had come to be preferred to 
 the doctrines of Zoroaster, there was profound 
 though silent hostility to the religious revolu- 
 tion. In this the seeds of discontent were 
 plentiful. The circumstances, moreover, un- 
 der which Darius had obtained the crown 
 were such as to suggest the possibility of 
 other successful conspiracies. In the distant 
 parts of the Empire the full force of the im- 
 posture of Gomates, and the full justice of 
 the Seven Princes in rebelling against him, 
 would not be felt, and Darius would be re- 
 garded merely as an insurgent who had won 
 the throne by audacity. The re'imposition 
 of tribute and of military service by the new 
 king — things necessary to an actual, but not 
 necessary to a factitious, monarch — tended to 
 disaffection. 
 
 All these reasons, and others, combined to 
 launch Darius and his government on a sea 
 of troubles. Almost immediately after the 
 new regime was established a series of rebel- 
 lions broke out, which rolled wave after wave 
 through well-nigh the whole extent of the 
 Empire, and involved in their suppression the 
 persistent efforts of the king for a period of 
 six years. Even the home government was 
 
 shaken by a revolt, which was, however, 
 easily quieted by force. 
 
 The most serious of the insurrections were 
 in Susiana, Babylonia, Media, Assyria, Ar- 
 menia, Parthia, Hyrcania, Margiana, Sagartia, 
 and Sacia. In all of these countries rebellion 
 followed rebellion like a succession of explo- 
 sions, and at times much more than half of 
 the entire Persian dominions were in revolt. 
 If Darius had been a prince subject to alarms, 
 or if he had been wanting in expedients 
 backed by great persistence, he would, in all 
 probability, have been overwhelmed. But he 
 faced his insurgent provinces with true cour- 
 age, and ultimately showed himself the master. 
 
 The rebellions in Susiana and Babylonia 
 broke out at about the same time. Rightly 
 judging the Babylonian insurrection to be the 
 more important, the king at once proceeded 
 to put down the rebels in that country. 
 They were led by a certain Nebuchadnezzar, 
 who showed himself as the son of Nabonadius, 
 the last king of Babylon. Under the prestige 
 of a great name, the insurgent hoped to 
 throw off the Persian yoke and reestablish 
 the independence of his country. An army 
 was organized under his lead and advanced to 
 the Babylonian frontier on the Tigris. Here 
 Darius found his rebellious subjects posted on 
 the river bank, the stream defended by their 
 boats. But the king crossed in their faces 
 and drove them away in a rout. He pursued 
 Nebuchadnezzar in the direction of Babylon. 
 The latter made another stand on the Eu* 
 phrates, but was again defeated and driven 
 with the remnant of his forces into the capi- 
 tal. The city was soon surrendered and the 
 rebellion ended. The specter who called 
 himself Nebuchadnezzar was taken and put 
 to death. 
 
 On his departure in person against the in- 
 surgent army in Babylonia, Darius had dis- 
 patched a part of his forces to suppress the re- 
 volt in Susiana. These had already achieved 
 some successes before news came of the king's 
 victories over the Babylonians. The Susi- 
 anian rebellion had been instigated by an 
 aspirant named Atrines, who also claimed 
 royal honors and purposed the reestablishment 
 of the old monarchy. But this ambitious
 
 358 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 leader was overthrown and captured by the 
 troops sent against him. He was sent to 
 Darius, now marching in person against the 
 Susianians, and by him was put to death. A 
 new rebel, however, took his place, with even 
 more lofty pretensions. He called himself 
 Martes, and had it given out that he was a 
 descendant of the ancient kings. His pre- 
 tensions were soon extinguished ; for the king 
 was now free from the peril of the Babylonian 
 revolt, and Martes was seized by the Susi- 
 anians, terrified at the approach of their sov- 
 ereign, and by them was put to death before 
 the king's arrival. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the North, the three great 
 states of Media, Assyria, and Armenia had 
 revolted, and were making common cause 
 against Darius. At the head of the rebellion 
 was Xathrites, a Mede, who was proclaimed 
 king. He, like the other insurgents of his 
 time, claimed royal descent, representing him- 
 self as a great-grandson of Cyaxares. His 
 claim was recognized not only by the Medes, 
 but also by the Assyrians and Armenians, 
 who acknowledged him as their sovereign. 
 Here, then, was an affair of the most alarm- 
 ing proportions. 
 
 Darius now established his court at Baby- 
 lon. Thence he sent forth his generals to 
 test the strength of his antagonist. The main 
 army was put under the command of Hy- 
 darues, one of the Princes who had helped 
 Darius to the throne. He advanced into 
 Media, while Dadarses, with another division, 
 was sent against the Armenians, and Vomises 
 against the Assyrians. All three armies had 
 hard battles with the insurrectionists, and in 
 some of the engagements the forces of the 
 king were worsted, but the rebels were finally 
 and completely subdued. Xathrites fled 
 towards Parthia, but was taken and brought 
 to Ecbatana, where Darius had him dread- 
 fully mutilated and chained to the door-posts 
 i0f the palace. After some days of suffering 
 he was crucified. The Avhole North was 
 speedily overrun by the king's armies and 
 taught the bitter lesson of experience. 
 
 The revolts in Parthia, Hyrcania, and 
 Sagartia were less important and were easily 
 quelled. The terror excited by the Great 
 
 King's successes and by the severe measures 
 adopted by him against those who defied his 
 authority, was borne on the wings of Rumor, 
 and was of itself sufficient in most instances 
 to deter the tempted from the rashness of re- 
 bellion. In one instance there was a domestic 
 insurrection. While Darius was absent in 
 Parthia, another impostor, a second Smerdis 
 redivivus, appeared and claimed the throne. 
 The remnant of the Magi were ready for any 
 thing. A party of adherents gathered around 
 the pretender, who took the field and en- 
 deavored to win by force as well as fraud. 
 But he was soon overwhelmed by the Persian 
 army, which could not be seduced from its 
 loyalty, and was captured and crucified. 
 
 While these events were taking place in Per- 
 sia, a second rebellion had broken out in 
 Babylonia. A certain Aracus who, like the 
 preceding impostor, styled himself " Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, son of Nabonadius," raised the 
 standard of revolt, and gathered around him 
 the malcontents of the kingdom. A force 
 was sent against him by Darius, and he was 
 soon taken and put to death. With his over- 
 throw there seems to have been an end of 
 turbulence, and the king found, for the first 
 time since his accession, an opportunity to 
 turn his attention to other matters, not, how- 
 ever, until he had compassed the killing of 
 the governor of Sard is for some disloyal con- 
 duct, and procured the death of the Egyptian 
 Pharaoh for daring to put his image on the 
 coins of the Empire. 
 
 The monarch, as soon as quiet was every- 
 where restored, gave himself to grave ques- 
 tions of statecraft. The occurrence of rebel- 
 lions and the heterogeneous character of the 
 nations composing the Empire, led him to 
 consider the feasibility of reconstructing the 
 whole frame of government, to the end that 
 tranquillity might henceforth be the rule and 
 revolt the exception in the history of his 
 country. 
 
 The first object proposed by Darius was 
 the establishment of uniformity throughout 
 the Empire by the institution of a govern- 
 ment by satrapies. The satrapy was either a 
 certain district specially organized as a pro- 
 vincial department, or one of the many petty
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 359 
 
 states over whicli the new order was extended. 
 The governor, or satrap, with his attendant 
 officers, was in every case to hold a like rela- 
 tion to his sovereign, but the people over 
 whom he ruled were permitted to retain their 
 local institutions of language, law, and cus- 
 tom. The satrap was in all cases appointed 
 by the king, and was removable at his pleasure. 
 He was charged with the collection of the 
 taxes, the maintenance of order, and the ad- 
 ministration of the laws. He was the repre- 
 sentative of the sovereign, and might insti- 
 tute — indeed was expected to institute — a 
 court similar to that of the Empire, but less 
 elaborate. The satrap had his retinue of 
 councilors, eunuchs, guards, and servants. He 
 had his harem organized and managed after 
 the example set by the king. He had his 
 court ceremonial and edicts, all intended to 
 do locally and on a small scale what the Great 
 King did with pomp and pageantry. The 
 office was one which in its very nature was 
 subject to the grossest abuses. Since the 
 chief duty of the satrap was to collect and 
 forward to his master certain revenues and 
 tributes, and since, that done, the king was 
 not likely to look carefully into the matter of 
 assessments and taxes, a vast opportunity was 
 given for peculation, and most of the satraps 
 availed themselves thereof to heap up enor- 
 mous treasure. Neither the property nor the 
 honor of the provincials had any guaranty 
 against the rapacity of the local governors. 
 
 The hardships to which the people of the 
 satrapies were subject were increased by 
 the military system which was adopted. The 
 army of the Empire was composed almost 
 exclusively of Medes and Persians. The 
 troops were quartered at various places in the 
 satrapies, each fort and stronghold being thus 
 occupied by a foreign soldiery, who cared 
 nothing for the locality in which they were 
 established. The number of satrapies into 
 which the Empire was divided varied at dif- 
 ferent times from twenty to thirty. In a few 
 instances, as in Cilicia, Paphlagonia, and 
 Phoenicia, the native rulei'S of the country 
 were retained as a kind of concession to the 
 old system, or perhaps a necessary compromise 
 with the spirit of the people. 
 
 As to Persia Proper, her condition was 
 exceptional. Over her no governor was ap- 
 pointed. The home kingdom was under the 
 immediate jurisdiction of the king. Nor were 
 any regular taxes assessed against the people 
 of Persia ; they, on the contrary, making 
 voluntary contributions when the king passed 
 through the country. 
 
 One of the principal advantages derived 
 from the new order was the substitution of a 
 system of regular taxation for the method of 
 special levies and contributions which had 
 hitherto prevailed. The aggregate amount 
 obtained under the new regime was, from the 
 system introduced in the assessments and col- 
 lections, much greater than the sums derived 
 from the old manner of special levy. The 
 annual amount assessed to each satrapy va- 
 ried according to the wealth and the charac- 
 ter of the productions of the province. The 
 poorer satrapies paid an annual tribute of a 
 little over two hundred thousand dollars. The 
 better class were assessed to the extent of 
 about a million and a-quarter dollars ; while 
 the richest — India — was obliged to pay as 
 much as five million dollars annually ! Some- 
 times the levy was made in Icind. Egypt was 
 assessed to be paid in corn ; Media, in mules, 
 sheep, and horses ; and Babyldnia was, at least 
 in one instance, required to meet a levy of 
 five hundred boy eunuchs! 
 
 The chief danger to which the satrapial 
 government was exposed was, of course, the 
 liability of treason and conspiracy on the part 
 of the governor. The avoidance of this peril 
 seems to have received a large share of the 
 king's attention. The difficulty was met by 
 the establishment of a system of checks among 
 the royal officers. Of these there were three 
 in each satrapy directly amenable to the 
 king. These were the satrap himself, the 
 military commandant of the district, and the 
 secretary. The first was the administrative 
 officer of the government ; the second was re- 
 sponsible for his division of the army ; and 
 the duty of the third was to keep the mon- 
 arch constantly informed of the state of affiiirs 
 in the provinces. He was called the " King's 
 Eye" and the "King's Ear," and it was not 
 the smallest part of his work to see and hear
 
 360 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the first indications of disloyalty on the part 
 of his fellow-officials, the governor and the 
 commandant. It will readily be seen that 
 officers thus checked and watched at every 
 turn would have but a small margin of op- 
 portunity for plotting mischief against the 
 state. 
 
 Besides this counterpoise and purposely- 
 contrived jealousy of the provincial officers, 
 the king sent annually into each satrapy a 
 trusted legate of his own, armed with power 
 and accompanied by a sufficient number of 
 troops to revolutionize the local government 
 should he detect therein any thing inimical 
 to the king's majesty. In addition even to 
 this safeguard, and as if to make assurance 
 doubly sure, the satrapial officers, that is, the 
 three principals in the government, were ap- 
 pointed, as far as practicable, from the king's 
 own kinsmen, and were generally intermarried 
 with the daughters of the princely houses of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Another measure instituted by Darius, 
 having direct reference to his scheme of gov- 
 ernment, was the establishment of post-houses 
 and post-roads between the different parts of 
 the Empire and the capital. The stations 
 were founded at a distance from each other 
 equal to the space which a horse was estimated 
 to be able to travel at full gallop without 
 breaking. At each post was placed a relay 
 of couriers and swift steeds, by which a mes- 
 sage could be transmitted, even from remote 
 provinces, almost on the wings of the wind. 
 
 Mention should also be made of the system 
 of coinage instituted by the Great King. 
 His name of Darius has furnished to the vo- 
 cabulary of the world the term Daric, given 
 to the coins of the Empire. The gold daric 
 weighed one hundred and twenty-four grains 
 Troy, and the silver, two hundred and thirty 
 grains. The value of the first, therefore, was a 
 little over five dollars, and of the second about 
 sixty cents. Thus was the second period in 
 the reign of Darius devoted to the promotion 
 cf peace and stable government, as the first 
 had been to the suppression of rebellion. 
 
 After nine years devoted thus to affairs of 
 state, the king again, in B. C. 507, took up 
 arms, this time for the enlargement of his 
 
 territories. It will be remembered that Cyrus 
 had extended by conquest the eastern bor- 
 ders of the Empire to the valley of the Indus. 
 The ambition of Darius now contemplated the 
 addition of both the Punjab and Sinde to his 
 dominions. He accordingly undertook in per- 
 son the reduction of the gorgeous East. The 
 expedition was entirely successful, and a vast 
 region, rivaling the valley of the Nile in fer- 
 tility and the Sacramento in auriferous de- 
 posits, was added to the kingdoms won by his 
 great predecessor. Having thus reached a 
 natural barrier on the east, the frozen regions 
 on the north, the sea on the south, there 
 remained for the arms of Persia no other 
 passage to fame than the gateway of the West. 
 
 There lay the Hellespont, across which the 
 shores of Europe were easily discerned with 
 the naked eye. All Asia Minor was now an 
 integral part of the Empire. The Persian 
 banner was thus advanced to the coast line of ■ 
 the -^gean. Now came, too, the episode of s 
 Democedes, the Greek physician, who, taken 
 prisoner at Sardis, had been sent as a slave to 
 Susa. There he attracted the attention of 
 Darius, whose crippled foot he healed. After- 
 wards he cured the queen, Atossa, and by her 
 intercession was permitted under a Persian 
 escort to depart to his own country. Thus 
 was brought back to Darius full accounts of 
 the countries as far west as Italy. The king's 
 mind was inflamed with the prospect, and he 
 would have immediately set out for a Euro- 
 pean invasion but for the presence in the far 
 North-west of that ancient scourge, the Scyth- 
 ians. He felt it necessary, or at any rate 
 desirable, to overawe this savage race before 
 undertaking a work so vast as that which he 
 contemplated in the West. Accordingly he 
 organized an expedition against the Scyths. 
 
 He crossed the Euxine ; penetrated Thrace ; 
 passed the Danube ; traversed a vast area of 
 country; struck terror into the barbarians 
 rather by numbers and display than by battle, 
 and returned in safety to his capital. In re- 
 turning, however, he left in Thrace a division 
 of eighty thousand men under the command 
 of Megabazus, with orders to subdue that 
 country to the authority of Persia. The gen- 
 eral was successful in the discharge of his
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 361 
 
 duty, and carried his conquest from the Pro- 
 pontis to the borders of Macedonia. An 
 embassy was sent into the latter country to 
 demand earth and water, the usual tokens of 
 submission, and Amyntas, the king, acceding 
 to the request, became a vassal of Persia. 
 Alexander the Great will hereafter avenge 
 the humiliation of his country. — Thus was 
 gained an Asiatic foothold on the soil of 
 Europe. 
 
 After his return to Susa, Darius dismissed 
 for a while his designs of conquest in the 
 West, and gave himself to the work of adorn- 
 ing his capital. While engaged in this work, 
 however, news came of a revolt which was the 
 immediate precursor of one of the most heroic 
 episodes in the history of the world. The Greek 
 towns of the Ionian and ^olian confederacies 
 along the coasts of Asia Minor had, in common 
 with the rest of the world, fallen under the dom- 
 ination of Persian governors. These rulers were 
 generally despotic and odious to the people. 
 They were regarded as foreign tyrants, and 
 were associated in the public mind with Darius 
 and his government : they were a part of it. 
 
 At this time the governor of Miletus was 
 Histiseus, who had accompanied the king on 
 his Scythian campaign. He it was who had 
 guarded the bridge over the Danube unheeding 
 the solicitations of treason, and had thus se- 
 cured for his master those distant parts. With 
 some of the Persian governors, however, he 
 had quarreled, and, being wronged by them, 
 took sides with the anti-Persian party in the 
 city. His son-in-law, Aristagoras, also a 
 prominent leader in Miletus, advanced the 
 daring project of throwing off the Persian 
 yoke. The Ionian and ^olian cities were in- 
 duced to join in the enterprise. An embassy 
 was sent to Athens as the mother city of 
 Miletus, and she promised to her sorrow to 
 furnish a contingent of twenty ships. Eretria 
 was also solicited, and agreed to furnish five 
 ships. Only the austere Sparta would promise 
 nothing, 
 
 Aristagoras returned to Miletus, and in a 
 short time it was determined to strike out 
 boldly and attack Sardis, the capital of Asia 
 Minor. With singular audacity the Greeks 
 proceeded against the city and took it at the 
 
 first onset. Artaphernes shut himself up in 
 the citadel. The assailants began to plunder 
 the accumulated treasures, especially those at 
 the shrine of Apollo. A fire broke out, and 
 the greater part of the city was laid in ashes. 
 The news of the daring exploit spread every- 
 where, and a general uprising, which would 
 have been impossible in any other than a com- 
 munity of Greeks, followed along the whole 
 coast. 
 
 It was, however, a deed of rashness rather 
 than bravery. Darius hurried his forces to 
 the West, and the petty principalities gave 
 way before vindictive leadership and weight 
 of numbers. Cyprus, which had been gained 
 by the Greeks, was retaken. The Carians 
 were overcome after a brave resistance. One 
 after another the Ionian and -^olian towns 
 went down before the onslaughts of the Per- 
 sians. Aristagoras took to flight. Miletus 
 was the last, as she had been the first, of the 
 rel)el cities. She made a stubborn defense. 
 The remnants of the Greek armaments as- 
 sembled to her aid, but were defeated by the 
 Persian fleet. The city fell. Her people 
 were seized and carried away to the shores of 
 the Persian Gulf. What might, under saga- 
 cious and unwavering leadership, have been a 
 permanent recovery of independence by the 
 Asiatic Greeks, had ended in smoke and 
 vapor. Besides, there were the insults of 
 Athens and Eretria still to be avenged by a 
 king whose memory rarely failed him in such 
 matters. For fear, however, that vengeance 
 might slumber, a secretary was employed to 
 repeat each morning in the monarch's ear, 
 "Sire, remember Athens." 
 
 The king remembered Athens. Determin- 
 ing to proceed at once against that city, he 
 appointed Mardonius, his son-in-law, com- 
 mander of the expedition, which was to press 
 forward by way of Thrace, Macedonia, and 
 Thessaly into Greece. As a measure prepara- 
 tory to the campaign, and designed to secure 
 beyond all contingency the loyalty of the 
 Greek towns on the Asiatic coast, Darius 
 now granted to these that very freedom for 
 which they had fought in the recent revolt, 
 dismissed the tyrants which had oppressed 
 them, and conceded to them the right of
 
 362 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 democratic government. For the king knew 
 well that such a measure would give employ- 
 ment to the factious temper of the Greek 
 leaders in Ionia and ^olia, and distract their 
 attention wholly from the affairs of their 
 countrymen in the West. 
 
 As soon as this change in the government 
 of the coast towns had been effected, Mardonius 
 began his advance through Thrace. At first, 
 opposition melted before him. Thasos, with 
 its rich mines, was taken. Macedonia was 
 obliged to acknowledge her tributary relation 
 to the Empire. Every thing seemed to indi- 
 cate the speedy reduction of the whole country 
 to complete submission. But while the Per- 
 sian fleet was rounding Mount Athos a violent 
 storm arose and sent three hundred triremes 
 and twenty thousand soldiers to the bottom. 
 This disaster was immediately followed by a 
 successful onset made by the Brygi, a tribe of 
 Thracians dwelling between the Strymon and 
 the Axius. These half-barbarians fell upon 
 the Persian land forces by night, killing many 
 and wounding the general. But the veteran 
 Mardonius, by no means dismayed, followed 
 his assailants and compelled them to submit. 
 The injury done to the fleet, however, was so 
 great that the main object of the expedition 
 had to be abandoned: the Persians retreated 
 into Thrace and thence into Asia Minor. 
 
 Still Darius remembered Athens. Within 
 two years a second great army was organized 
 and put under command of Datis and Arta- 
 phernes. In B. C. 490 they set out to ac- 
 complish what Mardonius had failed to do. 
 Avoiding the dangerous route by way of 
 the promontory of Athos, the expedition 
 sailed directly across the ^gean, and passing 
 through the Cyclades came at once upon the 
 objects of its vengeance. Eretria was taken 
 and leveled to the ground. Then came the 
 turn of Athens. Meanwhile, Miltiades, gov- 
 ernor of the Thracian Chersonesus, who had 
 accompanied Darius on his expedition against 
 the Scythians, and afterwards broken with 
 the king by taking sides with the revolted 
 Ionian cities, was chosen, with nine other 
 polemarchs, to protect Athens against the 
 Persians. With great skill he gained over 
 his colleagues to agree to a battle. The plain 
 
 of Marathon was selected, and here where the 
 mountains look on the sea was fought that 
 first battle that gave freedom and immortality 
 to the Greek race. The Persians, notwith- 
 standing they outnumbered the Greeks ten to 
 one, having two hundred thousand men, while 
 their opponents could muster but twenty thou- 
 sand, were disastrously beaten and hurled back 
 in a broken rout upon Asia.* 
 
 Still Darius remembered Athens. He im- 
 mediately began preparations on a gigantic 
 scale for subjugation of the audacious 
 Greeks. For three years the whole energies 
 of the Empire were devoted to the organiza- 
 tion and equipment of a force sufficiently 
 great to overwhelm not only Greece but the 
 whole of Europe. Never before in history 
 had such stupendous measures been taken to 
 secure the subjugation of a belligerent people. 
 When, however, the preparations were nearly 
 completed, a revolt broke out in Egypt, and 
 the attention of the Persian king was thus 
 for the time distracted by the necessities of a 
 double field of war. His energies, however, 
 rose with the emergency. He determined to 
 lead one army in person, and send the other 
 under trusted generals to put down all opposi- 
 tion. But on the eve of these great move- 
 ments, the king, in the sixty-third year of his 
 age and the thirty-sixth of his reign, fell sick 
 and died ; and the unfinished work of revenge 
 and subjugation was left to Xerxes, his son 
 and successor on the throne of the Empire. 
 Thus ended the career of Darius Hyspastis, 
 noted both in peace and war as one of the 
 greatest sovereigns of the ancient world. 
 
 Xerxes was not the king's eldest son, but 
 Artabazanes, the eldest, was not "born in 
 the purple,"^ and so the crown descended to 
 Xerxes, the son of Atossa, he being born 
 
 ' It is deemed best to reserve the full account 
 of the Grjeco-Persian wars for the following Book, 
 devoted to the History of Greece. It is believed 
 that the more plentiful sources of information ac- 
 cessible from the Greek side of the conflict, and 
 indeed every circumstance would indicate that the 
 fuller narrative of the great struggle should be 
 recited from the Athenian point of view. 
 
 2 " Born in the purple" signifies, in the civil 
 polity of ancient Persia, that the prince to whom 
 the phrase is applied was born after his father's 
 I accession to the throne.
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 363 
 
 after his father acceded to the throne. The 
 new sovereign was not slow to take up and 
 prosecute his father's unfinished Avork. His 
 preference, however, was to punish Egypt 
 rather than to conquer Greece. It is not im- 
 possijjle that, if left to himself, he would have 
 abandoned the Grecian war altogether; but 
 his advisers soon brought him to see that sheer 
 political necessity and a decent respect for the 
 honor of his country required him to subjugate 
 the impudent states of Greece. So it was de- 
 termined to carry forward with all dispatch 
 the purposes of Darius. 
 
 In the mean time, however, in B. C. 485, 
 a revolt broke out in the province of Bab- 
 ylonia, which had to be suppressed before 
 even Egypt could be reduced to submission. 
 Zopyrus, the Babylonian satrap, in attempting 
 to maintain order, was overthrown and killed 
 by the insurgent populace ; but Megabyzus, 
 his son, was soon restored to authority, and 
 Babylon paid the penalty by suffering a sack 
 and the plunder of her great temple. The 
 king, as soon as this insurrection was disposed 
 of, proceeded into Egypt and quickly over- 
 threw his rebellious subjects, punishing the 
 leaders and increasing the tribute of the 
 country. This being accomplished, he at last 
 found himself ready to proceed against the 
 Greeks. 
 
 It requii'ed four years of preparation, 
 however, before every thing was deemed in 
 readiness for the invasion. The failures of 
 the preceding expeditions had forewarned the 
 Persian against the dangers that had precipi- 
 tated them. It was seen that a sufficient 
 force could not be conveyed directly across 
 the -^gean. Xerxes must rely upon his army 
 rather than his navy, and yet the latter would 
 be necessary in full force. A land march 
 around the long coast line of Thrace and 
 Macedonia would be the only feasible method 
 of pouring Persia upon Greece in overwhelm- 
 ing power. So this route was chosen. All 
 the satraps of the Empire were ordered to 
 prepare their contingents of men and ships, 
 and were stimulated by promises of immense 
 rewards to them who sent to the rendezvous 
 the finest and best armed quotas of troops. 
 
 To the states on the coast was committed 
 
 the work of equipping the navy, which was to 
 consist of one thousand two hundred triremes 
 and three thousand galleys of smaller size. 
 Storehouses were established on the proposed 
 line of march, and these were filled with un- 
 told supplies of corn. Still greater in magni- 
 tude was the work of cutting in twain with a 
 ship-canal the isthmus which held Mount 
 Athos to the mainland, which enterprise was 
 deemed essential to the passage of the ships 
 from the Strymonic into the Signitic gulf. 
 Besides this, the Hellespont was to be again 
 spanned with a bridge of boats, as it had 
 been by Darius in his campaign against the 
 Scyths. The bridge of Xerxes, however, was 
 much greater than that built by his father. 
 It w^as built double — that is, of two rows of 
 boats, over which was laid the immense wooden 
 structure of the bridge proper. The whole 
 was covered with earth and brush-wood, form- 
 ing a solid causeway from shore to shore, de- 
 fended on each side by bulwarks. When the 
 work was nearly completed a storm arose, 
 broke the cables, and swept the structure 
 away. For this piece of inefficiency on the 
 part of the builders and of impudence on the 
 part of the elements, the former were put to 
 death and the latter, in their representative, 
 the sea, were properly scourged. 
 
 At last, in the spring of 481 B. C, the 
 march began. Forty-nine nations were mar- 
 shaled under their respective banners. The 
 army numbered eighteen hundred thousand 
 men ! Of these there were eighty thousand 
 cavalry and twenty thousand charioteers and 
 camel-riders.^ Each contingent was armed 
 and equipped after the fashion of the country 
 whence it came. Each had its own com- 
 mander and its own place in the advance. 
 The whole army was broken into three great 
 divisions. The front column consisted of 
 about one-half of the contingents and the 
 
 1 The method of counting the host, as given by 
 Herodotus, is interesting and amusing. Ten thou- 
 sand men were first counted and huddled closely 
 together. Around this compact mass a wall was 
 built to the height of a man's waist- The space 
 was then emptied and successively filled until the 
 whole army had been measured. It was found 
 that the infantry filled the inclosure a hundred 
 and seventy times.
 
 364 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TEE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The next division was com- 
 posed exclusively of Persian soldiers, in the 
 midst of whom the king had his place, 
 with the sacred emblems of authority and re- 
 ligion. Next to the royal person was the 
 famous cohort of ten thousand, called the 
 "Immortals." The third column was made 
 up of the other half of the contingents fur- 
 nished by the provinces and states of the 
 Empire. 
 
 The march was from Susa to Sardis, from 
 Sardis to Abydos. At the latter place a 
 throne was erected on an eminence, from 
 which the king surveyed the country, the sea, 
 and the army. It was such a sight as was 
 never before, never afterwards, witnessed by 
 any potentate of the earth. Herodotus relates 
 that, as the pageant passed before the mon- 
 arch, he remarked pathetically to Artabanes 
 that in a few years not a man of the immense 
 host would be alive. The lesson of mortality 
 rushed over him, and he gave way to tears. 
 
 The Hellespont was crossed in safety, the 
 passage requiring seven days and nights. The 
 king, having first prayed and cast a golden 
 goblet into the sea, went in advance, amid 
 myrtle boughs and clouds of incense. Then 
 came the "Immortals," and then the endless 
 stream of soldiers. The march now lay 
 through Thrace. For some distance the ad- 
 vance was through territories already subject 
 to the king, and no opposition was met. The 
 country for a great distance on either hand 
 was eaten up. The first trouble was in the 
 district between the Strymon and the Axius, 
 where it is said that droves of lions came 
 down out of the mountains and killed and ate 
 many of the camels. At Pieria a halt was 
 made, and the king sent ambassadors to all 
 the states of Greece, except Sparta and 
 Athens, demanding earth and water as tokens 
 of submission. Nor was it believed that any 
 would dare refuse. 
 
 The replies were favorable from a large 
 number of the states, but others refused. 
 The march was accordingly renewed, and con- 
 tinued without molestation to the Pass of 
 THERMOPYLiE. Here, between Callidromus 
 and the sea, was a long, narrow defile, which 
 had been selected by the Greeks as aflfbrding 
 
 them the most advantageous point of defense 
 on the whole line of the Persian advance. 
 Here were collected the forces of Sparta and 
 Athens, and of a few other states that had 
 determined to stand or fall with their county- 
 men. The whole body numbered nine thou- 
 sand men. They were under the polemarch 
 Leonidas, of Sparta. His own band num- 
 bered only three hundred men; but there 
 were seven hundred Lacedemonians, one thou- 
 sand Phocians, one thousand Locrians, seven 
 hundred Thespians, and four hundred Thebans, 
 all of whom were first-class soldiers, skilled in 
 the best discipline of the Greeks. These took 
 possession of the pass and awaited the onset. 
 
 After a four days' pause the Persians ad- 
 vanced. The vanguard was beaten back. 
 The Medes and Cissians were sent into the 
 defile and were repulsed. The Immortals were 
 sent forward and were cut to pieces. For two 
 days assault after assault was made upon the 
 invincible Greeks, but to no avail. On the 
 third night, however, the Persians discovered 
 a path over the mountains, gained the lower 
 end of the pass, hemmed in all of the heroes 
 except those — the larger number — who, re- 
 ceiving the news, had preferred to save them- 
 selves by flight. The Spartans and some 
 others remained. They attacked the enemy 
 in front, but were pressed back into the nar- 
 rowest part of the defile. Here they fought 
 till the last man was killed. Twenty thousand 
 of the enemy had fallen, and Xerxes had had 
 a taste of the coming banquet. 
 
 As the invading army proceeded into 
 Greece, the Persian fleet kept along the coast 
 as far as the island of Euboea. Here in three 
 sea-fights, on three successive days, the Greeks, 
 with an armament of only two hundred and 
 seventy-one ships, held their own against their 
 enemy. The Athenian fleet fell back to Sala- 
 Mis, where it took a position in the strait 
 between that island and the shore. From 
 this place it was proposed to retire, but the 
 strategy of Themistocles prevailed, and the 
 Persians having blockaded the strait above 
 and below, that famous battle was fought of 
 which an account will be given in a subse- 
 quent Book.^ The enormous armament of the 
 
 'See Book Eighth p. 550.
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 365 
 
 Persians was beaten and scattered to the winds. 
 Five hundred ships were sunk. The sea for 
 miles around was covered with broken galleys 
 and fragments of the general ruin. 
 
 Xerxes, who had watched the battle, fore- 
 saw the end, and fled for Asia. His retreat 
 was hastily made to the Hellespont, where he 
 found his magnificent bridge swept away by a 
 storm, and was glad to cross to Abydos in an 
 open boat. Mardonius was left behind in 
 Greece with two hundred and sixty thousand 
 men to renew in the following spring the work 
 of subjugation which thus far had wrought 
 the other way. 
 
 In the following year, B. C. 480, Mar- 
 donius returned to the task. With the open- 
 ing of spring he marched from Thessaly into 
 Attica, and took possession of Athens. Here 
 he tried diplomacy, and was about to succeed 
 when Sparta, who had been disaffected, re- 
 appeared as the ally of the Athenians. Con- 
 tingents rapidly poured in from the other 
 states until the combined army of the Greeks 
 numbered one hundred and eight thousand 
 men. Mardonius had now three times that 
 number. The two great forces met in a death 
 struggle on the memorable field of Plat^a, 
 where the discomfiture of the Persians was so 
 complete and overwhelming as to destroy at 
 once and forever all thoughts of renewing the 
 contest by the enemies of Greece.^ The tre- 
 mendous avalanche which had rolled with 
 such crushing weight upon the devoted com- 
 monwealths of the Hellenes had melted into 
 vapor, and the skies were as blue as before. 
 
 In a short time after the battle of Platsea, 
 Thrace, Macedonia, and Pteonia recovered 
 their independence, and the borders of the 
 Persian Empire were contracted to the ^gean 
 and the Hellespont. Not only did the Greeks 
 beat back the invasion, but they followed up 
 their advantage and recovered and restored to 
 independence all the islands of the Propontis 
 and the ^gean, which had hitherto belonged 
 to Persia. They landed a force on the coast 
 of Asia Minor, defeated sixty thousand Per- 
 sians at Mycale, and destroyed the remnants 
 of the fleet which had escaped from Salamis. 
 
 ^ For full account of the battle of Platsea, see 
 Book Eighth, pp. 553, 554. 
 
 Nor is it to be questioned that if the Greek 
 states had stood together in the great cause 
 of emancipation and had resolutely followed 
 up with blow on blow the work they had 
 begun, the whole of the Greek confederations 
 on the shores of Asia Minor would have been 
 liberated from foreign domination. Political 
 dissensions, however, prevailed among the 
 Grecian commonwealths, and the extension of 
 freedom stopped with the Cyclades. 
 
 After the subsidence of his ill-fated wars, 
 Xerxes abandoned himself to his court. It 
 was a licentious turmoil, which ended pres- 
 ently in tragedy. The seraglio system had 
 begun to bear its evil fruits in the destruction 
 of virtue and the establishment of intrigue 
 and blood-cruelty. Xerxes himself had been 
 but once married; but instead of the lawful 
 abandonment of the harem he entered into 
 criminal relations with the princesses of his 
 court, thus provoking the jealous rage of the 
 queen, Amestris. A band of enemies thus 
 arose around him, and finally a conspiracy 
 was formed, whose leaders, Artabanes and 
 Aspamitres, entered the king's chamber and 
 murdered him. He had reigned for twenty 
 years, and though the Empire under his do- 
 minion had suffered little positive reduction, 
 yet great disasters had lowered the reputation 
 of the Persian arms, and social and domestic 
 broils, ending in assassination, had disgraced 
 the annals of the nations. 
 
 Of the three sons of Xerxes, the eldest, 
 Darius, was, at the instigation of Artabanes 
 and on the false charge of having killed the 
 late king, put to death by the youngest, Ar- 
 taxerxes. The other son, Hystaspes, who 
 held the office of satrap of Bactria, and was 
 absent from the court, Avas unable to prevent 
 either the crime of his brother's death or the 
 usurpation of Artaxerxes, who at once, B. C. 
 465, took the throne. Hystaspes, taking up 
 arms to maintain his own right to the Empire, 
 was overthrown in two battles by the forces 
 of Artaxerxes. 
 
 Five years after the death of Xerxes 
 another revolt broke out in Egypt. The 
 leaders were a Libyan chief named Inarus and 
 a native Egyptian named Amyrtacus. To 
 their aid came an Athenian fleet of two hun-
 
 366 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 dred vessels, and the Persians were defeated 
 in several engagements. Memphis was taken 
 by the insurgents and held until the arrival 
 of a large Persian army under Megabyzus, 
 who overwhelmed the rebels, retook Memphis, 
 and destroyed the Athenian fleet. Inarus was 
 crucified. 
 
 Athens, smarting under her reverse, equipped 
 another fleet of two hundred sail and sent 
 it under Cimon against Cyprus, a dependency 
 of Persia. He began a siege of Citium, but 
 died soon afterwards, and the siege was aban- 
 doned. The fleet then sailed to Salamis, and 
 there falling in with a Phoenician squadron of 
 three hundred ships, captured or dispersed the 
 whole. Artaxerxes, alarmed at the condition 
 of affairs, sought peace, and the same — known 
 as the "Peace of Callias" — was agreed to on 
 condition that Cyprus should remain to the 
 king, but that all the Greek cities of Asia 
 Minor should be granted their freedom. The 
 Mediterranean was divided by a line running 
 north and south through Phaselis. Persian 
 war-ships should not pass to the west of that 
 line, or Greek ships to the east. Thus after a 
 struggle of fifty years (from B. C. 499 to 
 449) was ended the first great conflict between 
 the Greeks and the Persians. 
 
 A short time after the conclusion of peace 
 the tranquillity of the Empire was broken by 
 a revolt in Syria. The leader was that same 
 Megabyzus who had recently suppressed the 
 insurrection in Egypt. Against his positive 
 promise the rebel Inarus had been put to 
 death by the king. Megabyzus was incensed 
 and took up arms in his own satrapy, and 
 the ■ revolt was so successful that Artaxerxes 
 was presently obliged to treat with the insur- 
 gents, and to grant them honorable terms of 
 reconciliation. It was the first time since the 
 days of Cyrus that the majesty of Persia had 
 been successfully defied by a provincial gov- 
 ernor — a fatal precedent for the future of 
 the Empire. 
 
 In the years that followed the treaty of 
 peace with the Greeks there were several 
 petty rebellions, but none of them of a mag- 
 nitude to endanger the general tranquillity. 
 Samos took up arms in 440, on account of 
 the bad faith of the satrap of Sardis, but was 
 
 soon pacified. The provinces of Lycia and 
 Caria, under the leadership of Zopyrus, raised 
 the standard of insurrection, and some of the 
 Greek states were on the eve of lending aid 
 to the insurgents, but were prevented from 
 doing so by local dissensions among themselves. 
 Artaxerxes saw with satisfaction that the po- 
 litical broils of Greece were sufficient to pre- 
 vent any formidable aggression from that 
 quarter. The Lycians and Carians, left with- 
 out support, were soon brought into sub- 
 mission. 
 
 Artaxerxes was without great strength of 
 character. His mother, Amestris — she of the 
 evil mind — and Amytis, his sister, exercised 
 an undue influence in the affairs of govern- 
 ment. The administration was thus in a 
 good measure given up to spite and caprice. 
 The king himself was of a gentle and unwar- 
 like disposition, and was incapable of great 
 actions either in the field or court. No con- 
 quests for the enlargement of the Empire 
 were planned, no important expeditions un- 
 dertaken, during his reign. He occupied the 
 throne for twenty-four years, and dying in 
 B. C. 425, left his crown to his only legiti- 
 mate heir, Xerxes II., son of the queen 
 Dampasia. 
 
 There were, however, seventeen other sons 
 of the late king, who had for their mothers 
 various concubines belonging to the court. 
 Some of these were ambitious, and one of 
 them, named Sogdianus, taking advantage of 
 the half-drunken condition of Xerxes at a 
 feast, murdered him, only forty-five days after 
 his accession. The assassin took the throne, 
 but in a few months another half-brother, 
 named Ochus, following the bloody method 
 of Sogdianus, killed him and took the throne 
 under the title of Darius Nothus. He had 
 held the satrapy of Hyrcania during the life 
 of Artaxerxes, and had married his aunt, 
 Parysatis, a daughter of Xerxes the Great. 
 By her he had a son, Arsaces, afterwards 
 known as Artaxerxes II. The reign of 
 Nothus lasted for nineteen years (B. C. 426- 
 407), and was almost wholly occupied with 
 rebellions in the satrapies and imbroglios with 
 the Greeks. The first insurrection was raised 
 by his brother, Arsites, and that same Mega-
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 367 
 
 byzus who had been previously at the head 
 of the Syi'ian revolt. For a while the insur- 
 gents, aided by a large force of Greek mer- 
 cenaries, were successful, and not until these 
 foreign auxiliaries had been corrupted with 
 Persian gold were the king's forces able to 
 reduce the rest to submission. Terms were 
 granted to Arsites, but the queen induced the 
 king to break his word of faith, and the rebel 
 brother was put to death. 
 
 The next insurrection broke out in Lydia. 
 Pissuthnes, the satrap of that province, was a 
 member of the royal family. With the re- 
 accumulated wealth of Sardis, he hired a 
 large contingent of Greeks, who were now 
 known to be the best soldiers in the world — 
 unconquerable save by bribery. This was the 
 weapon now employed against them. Tissa- 
 phernes, the Persian general who was sent 
 against them, used the gold of his master, 
 and Lycon, the Greek commander, yielded to 
 the temptation, went over with his men to 
 the king, and left the rebellious satrap to the 
 mercy of the winds. Again were terms of 
 surrender granted, only to be violated when 
 Pissuthnes was taken a prisoner to Susa, 
 and executed in defiance of all honor. Soon 
 afterwards, however, Amorges, a son of Pis- 
 suthnes, renewed the struggle, and was able 
 to hold out against Tissaphernes for several 
 years. 
 
 Meanwhile, the commonwealth of Athens 
 had been engaged in her great and disastrous 
 campaign against Sicily. In that island she 
 had suffered an overthrow so complete as to 
 leave her prostrate. When the knowledge of 
 this ruin of the ancient rival of his country 
 was borne to Darius he at once ordered the 
 satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus to begin 
 the exaction of tribute from the Greek cities 
 of Asia Minor as of old. This edict Avas in 
 direct violation of the Peace of Callias, but 
 Persian faith was dead, and the action was 
 regarded as a matter of course. To produce 
 dissension among the Greeks themselves a 
 tempting offer was made to Sparta, and by 
 her accepted, to enter into an alliance with 
 Persia. She who at Thermopylae had cut 
 down her thousands now leagued herself with 
 
 the foes of liberty. 
 
 N. — Vol. I — 23 
 
 Thus a new war broke out between the 
 Persians and the Greeks. But it was no 
 longer necessary for Darius and his successors 
 to bear down with immense armaments upon 
 the West, since either Athens or Sparta — em- 
 bittered by their own long continued interne- 
 cine strife — could always be secured against 
 the other by bribery. The court of Susa was 
 able to gain and to maintain among the powers 
 of Greece an ascendency which was not seri- 
 ously impaired until the petty states of that 
 distracted country went down before the am- 
 bition of Alexander. Such was the condition 
 of affairs during the latter years of the reign 
 of Darius Nothus. That monarch died in 
 the year B. C. 407, and was succeeded by 
 Arsaces with the title of Artaxerxes II. He 
 had not been "born in the purple," and his 
 right to the throne was to that extent en- 
 dangered. 
 
 Before the death of the late king, the 
 question of the succession had been raised by 
 Parysatis, the queen, who preferred her younger 
 son, Cyrus. This preference was intensified 
 by the fact that this prince had been born 
 after his father became king, and was, there- 
 fore, under the old precedent, the rightful 
 heir. Nevertheless, Darius named Artaxerxe8 
 for his successor and the latter became king, 
 not, however, until his life had been at- 
 tempted by Cyrus on the day of coronation. 
 
 The latter was arrested and was about to be 
 put to death, but his mother interceded for 
 him and he was sent away to his satrapy in 
 Asia Minor, burning for revenge. He im- 
 mediately began the organization of a body 
 of Greek mercenaries, for the ostensible pur- 
 pose of making war on the Pisidians of tne 
 Western Taurus, but with the real object of 
 killing his brother, the king, and taking the 
 throne of Persia. 
 
 By various maneuvers and subterfuges he 
 succeeded in collecting eleven thousand Greek 
 soldiers. He put himself at the head of this 
 army, which was soon augmented by two 
 thousand additional Greeks and nearly one 
 hundred thousand provincials gathered from 
 his satrapy, and began his advance from Sar- 
 dis through Lydia and Phrygia. Tissaphernes, 
 in the meantime, had carried the tidings to
 
 368 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE AXCIEXT WORLD. 
 
 Susa and given tlie alarm to the king, who 
 readily perceived that he was the object of the 
 expedition. It was not, however, until Cyrus 
 had penetrated Cilicia that the mask was 
 thrown off and his real intentions divulged to 
 the soldiery. 
 
 The Greeks at first refused to proceed, but 
 were gradually won over to the project. The 
 advance was resumed, and after a twenty-nine 
 days' march from Tarsus the army reached 
 Thapsacus, on the Euphrates. The river was 
 forded, but not until the Greeks had again 
 
 recovered himself, and put his army in array 
 of battle. Within three hours after the first 
 sight of the Persian host was caught, the con- 
 flict began. The Greek auxiliaries were 
 placed on the right center, and were the main 
 dependence of Cyrus in the battle. The 
 forces of Artaxerxes were so vast as to out- 
 flank the invaders on both wings, but Cyrus 
 2:)revented this by resting his right against the 
 river. The Greeks began the fight by singing 
 a psean to Zeus and then charging the foe. 
 The Persians gave way before them. The 
 
 BATTLE OF CUNAXA. 
 
 been stimulated with a promise of additional 
 pay. The course now lay down the left bank 
 of the Euphrates, and after thirty-three days 
 Cyrus came within one hundred and twenty 
 miles of Babykm, where the first traces of the 
 enemy were seen. After that the advance 
 was made each day with slowness and caution. 
 In the meantime, Artaxerxes, fully aroused, 
 had raised a force of nine hundred thousand 
 men, and was advancing to the onset. At 
 last the two armies came in sight on the 
 famous field of Cunaxa. Cyrus had believed 
 that his brother Avas fleeing before him, and 
 came near being surprised; but he quickly 
 
 scythe-bearing chariots were turned by their 
 frightened horses upon their own ranks. For 
 three miles the Greeks scattered all before 
 them. In the center, meanwhile, Cyrus en- 
 gaged his foe and gained some advantages. 
 Finally a charge was made against the six 
 thousand horsemen who composed the body- 
 guard of the king, and they were put to 
 flight. In the confused struggle in this part 
 of the field Cyrus discerned at a distance the 
 form of his brother, and shouting out, "Ton 
 ANDRA HORo" (I See the man), made a rash 
 plunge in that direction to cut him down. 
 But before he could reach Artaxerxes he was
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 36& 
 
 himself struck with a javeliu and slaiu. As 
 the whole question was merely whether his 
 life or that of the king should bleed on the 
 altar of fraternal vengeance, the fight was 
 virtually decided. The provincial forces that 
 made up the body of Cyrus's army broke and 
 fled. But the Greeks stood fast, and thoug-h 
 their captains were soon inveigled into a con- 
 ference and treacherously killed, they began 
 to recede in good order, with the hojpe of 
 reaching their own country. 
 
 Now it was that the famous " Retreat of 
 the Ten Thousand " began, under the leader- 
 ship of Xenophon. The hosts of the Per- 
 sians hung upon their flanks and rear, but 
 discipline and courage kept their myriads at 
 bay, and after untold hardships and a march 
 of many hundred miles through Mesopotamia 
 and the mountainous regions of Armenia to 
 Trapezus on the Euxine, the heroic Greeks at 
 last came in safety, and by their exultant cry 
 of " The sea! the sea !" gave proof to after 
 times of the valor and fortitude of their race.^ 
 The mercenaries who had thus aided Cyrus 
 in his attempt on the throne w^ere mostly 
 Spartans. Their conduct gave grounds to the 
 king for going to war with their country; for 
 their country would not disavow what its 
 soldiery had done. For six years (B. C. 399- 
 394) a desultory conflict was carried on be- 
 tween the satraps of Lydia and Phrygia on 
 the one side and Sparta on the other. In the 
 year B. C. 393 a league was formed by Argos, 
 Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, which compelled 
 the Spartans to withdraw from foreign com- 
 plications and defend themselves at home. In 
 ihe straitened condition of their oligarchy 
 they undertook and were finally able to secure 
 the establishment of peace. The general pro- 
 posal was that all of Asia should go to the 
 Persians, and that all of the Greek islands 
 and states should be free. For six years the 
 negotiations were pending, but finally, in 
 B. C. 387, the terms were acceded to by all the 
 parties and the "Peace of Antalcidas" was 
 
 ' There is little doubt that the exi>loit of these 
 Ten Thousand Greeks in penetrating to the heart 
 ol the Persian Empire and then returning in 
 safety, furnished Alexander with a precedent for 
 his conquest. 
 
 established. In the mean time a revolt broke 
 out in Cyprus, led by the Greek governor 
 Evagoras, who beat off the forces sent against 
 him and achieved a nominal independence. 
 In the remaining years of the reign of Arta- 
 xerxes a series of rebellions occurred in the 
 outlying provinces, the existence of which 
 and the success of some indicated as clearly 
 as daylight the moribund condition of the 
 Empire. 
 
 After a long reign of forty-six years Arta- 
 xerxes died, and was succeeded by Ochus, 
 who, with the connivance and aid of Parysatis, 
 had first cleared the field of claimants by the 
 murder of all his brothers and rivals. The 
 bloody road by which he went to the throne 
 was not more bloody than the scepter which 
 he wielded. ' As soon as he was king he in- 
 stigated a series of murders by which nearly 
 all the princes and a large number of prin- 
 cesses were destroyed. The next matter to 
 which he turned his attention was the recon- 
 quest of Egypt, which now for about fifty 
 years had held a nominal independence. Al 
 the head of a great army Ochus marched intc 
 the Nile valley, Avhere he was met and sig- 
 nally defeated by the Pharaoh Nectanebo. 
 Immediately after this a revolt broke out in 
 Phoenicia, and the ancient city of Sidon re- 
 covered her independence. But Ochus, in 
 the midst of what seemed universal dismem- 
 berment, was undismayed. He reorganized 
 an immense army, consisting of three hundred 
 and thirty thousand men, and again advanced 
 into Egypt. This time Nectanebo was routed 
 in a series of battles, and was finally driven 
 into Ethiopia. Sidon w^as also besieged. All 
 who came out to ask for terms were put to 
 death. Finally, in the wretchedness of 
 despair, the remaining forty thousand people 
 set fire to their own houses and perished in 
 the flames. Ochus coolly sold the ashes of the 
 city to a company of adventurers, who hoped 
 to gather from the ruin the gold and orna- 
 ments of the people. Such w^as the vindic- 
 tive energy and relentless severity of Ochus 
 that the terror of his name spread throughout 
 the Empire and raised the king to the pin- 
 nacle of autocratic power. Rebellions, for the 
 time, became few and far between.
 
 870 
 
 UNIVERSAL EIBTORY.-TIIE ANCIENT WORLD.
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY AXXALS. 
 
 371 
 
 It was at this eiJoch iu the history of Persia 
 that her attention was first directed to Mace- 
 DONLA.. That State was rapidly rising to in- 
 fluence in the West, and the king directed 
 his governors to take steps to check her prog- 
 ress. An army was sent into Thrace, in B. C. 
 340, to help to sustain the independence of 
 that kingdom against the Macedonians, and 
 succor was given to the people of Perinthus, 
 then besieged by Philip. But the career of 
 Ochus was near an end. In B. C. 338 he 
 was poisoned by a conspirator named Bogoas, 
 who set up Akses, one of the king's sons, and 
 slew all the rest — thus hoping to be virtually 
 monarch himself. But very soon Arses began 
 to show signs of restiveuess and courage, and 
 he and his children were all in turn assassin- 
 ated. Bogoas, who thus acquired a kind of 
 character of king-maker, next elevated Codo- 
 MANUS, a remote member of the royal house, 
 to the throne. He took to himself the title 
 of Daeius, In this same year (B. C 336), 
 PhUip of Macedon was assassinated by Pau- 
 sanias, and the crown of that country de- 
 scended to the youthful Alexander. Thus, at 
 the same time, in two distant counti'ies, were 
 established in power two foemen who should 
 presently contend for the mastery of the 
 world. 
 
 The story of the growth of the Macedonian 
 power and the hurling of that power like a 
 thunderbolt upon the effete kingdoms of Mes- 
 opotamia will 1)6 fully narrated in the Eighth 
 Book.^ For the present it may suffice to re- 
 count from the Persian side the tragic end of 
 the great Empire of the Achcemenians. Per- 
 sonally considered, Darius Codomanus was one 
 of the best of the whole line of kings who 
 swayed the destinies of his country. His ap- 
 pearance on the stage, however, was at an 
 epoch when fate was against him. At the 
 very time of his accession a division of the 
 Macedonian army had already been landed by 
 Philip on the Asiatic coast. But for the 
 death of the king of Macedonia the disasters 
 of Persia must have sooner come, nor borne 
 less heavily. The assassination of Philip gave 
 a brief respite to Darius, who, however, little 
 improved the interval with measures to repel 
 
 ' See Book Ninth, pp. 616-6fi3. 
 
 the threatened invasion. It was doubted 
 whether the youthful Alexander could even 
 maintain himself in Europe, to say nothing 
 of an Asiatic conquest. But when it was seen 
 that a greater than Philip was come, then the 
 king made such preparations as he could to 
 stop the avalanche. A numerous fleet was 
 manned and equipped. Large bodies of troops 
 were sent from beyond the Euphrates to the 
 frontiers of Asia Minor. Mercenaries were 
 hired. Agents were dispatched into the Greek 
 states to stir up revolts. The Hellespontine 
 Greeks were organized in the pay of Persia, 
 
 DARIUS CODOMANUS IN THE BATTLE OF ISSU3. 
 
 After the Fresco in Pompeii. 
 
 and were put under the command of Memnon 
 of Rhodes, an able general. 
 
 By these measures some brief advantages 
 were gained on the Hellespont, nor, for the 
 time, did the movements of Alexander excite 
 serious apprehensions. So in the beginning 
 of his expedition, in the spring of B. C. 334, 
 his passage into Asia was not disputed. His 
 force consisted of thirty thousand foot and 
 five thousand horse. With this small but 
 compact and well-disciplined army he ad- 
 vanced to Mysia without opposition. The 
 Persians were first arrayed in his pathway at 
 the Granicus, a small stream between Abydos 
 and Dascyleiura. With forty thousand mea 
 advantageously posted on the opposite bank
 
 pi;illl!lllllllll!i il'.;! '.!':!;!ir''"'" • ^fe^^Jw J ^'^ii^^ 'K '^£. '^Vr.,1 < \\\\
 
 PERSIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 375 
 
 they awaited the coming of the Macedonian, 
 who gladly caught a first sight of his Asiatic 
 adversaries, and immediately charged through 
 the stream and up the bank in the face of the 
 enemy. The battle was stubbornly contested, 
 especially by the Greek mercenaries in the 
 Persian army. But the Macedonians carried 
 the field, slaying more than one-half of the 
 whole opposing force. Alexander himself 
 displayed an almost reckless daring, and was 
 slightly wounded in the battle. The Mace- 
 donian dead numbered scarely more than a 
 hundred. 
 
 At the head of this force, in the spring of 
 B. C. 333, the king set out from Babylon, ad- 
 vanced first to Sochi, and thence to Issus, on 
 the gulf of the same name. He thus attained 
 a position somewhat in Alexander's rear; for 
 the latter had been sick at Tarsus, and was 
 unable to act with celerity in the early season. 
 Nevertheless, he immediately, on hearing the 
 place of his adversary, turned about and ad- 
 vanced upon him. 
 
 Darius, in the mean time, had become im- 
 patient and set out from Issus to find the 
 Mncedoniaus; but he had only to advance a 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ISSUS. 
 From a Fresco in Pompeii. 
 
 All of Asia Minor now lay open to the 
 conqueror. Lydia, Ionia, Caria, Lycia, Pam- 
 phylia, Pisidia, and Phrygia were successively 
 overrun, and all of the great cities from Mile- 
 tus to Gordium fell into his hands. At the 
 last named city he established his winter- 
 quarters and awaited the coming of spring. 
 A single campaign had laid Asia Minor at 
 his feet. 
 
 Meanwhile, Memnon, the general upon 
 whom Darius chiefly depended, died, and the 
 king was driven to act merely on the defens- 
 ive. He determined, however, to meet his 
 antagonist well to the west, and organized a 
 vast army of nearly a half-million of men. 
 
 short distance to find the objects of his search. 
 In November the two armies met on the 
 banks of the Pinarus, but the battle takes its 
 name from Issus. 
 
 The conflict was begun by Alexander. 
 From the beginning it was seen that the Per- 
 sians feared the long spears of the Macedoni- 
 ans; but the cavalry of Darius fought with 
 great bravery, as did also the Greek merce- 
 naries in the right wing of the army. Alex- 
 ander himself with the right and the right 
 center charged the Persian infantry in his 
 front and routed them with great slaughter. 
 The cavalry, seeing the defeat of the foot, 
 also broke into flight, and the Greek auxilia-
 
 374 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ries were beaten clown. The result was a 
 complete and overwhelming victory for Alex- 
 ander, who now grew confident of his ability 
 to take the Persian Empire with a Macedo- 
 nian phalanx. The losses of Darius in the 
 battle of Issus have been placed as high as 
 one hundred thousand men, while that of the 
 Macedonians amounted to no more than nine 
 hundred and fifty in killed and wounded! 
 To this disparity must be added the loss of 
 the king's mother, wife, and sister, who were 
 captured by Alexander. 
 
 The contest, however, was not yet decided. 
 The resources of the Empire were so vast as 
 not to be exhausted by a single overthrow. 
 It was, moreover, Alexander's plan, as soon as 
 he had inflicted a signal defeat upon the main 
 army of Persia, to turn about into Phoenicia 
 and reduce that country and Egypt before 
 proceeding to Babylon. He thus purposed, 
 by briuging all the countries from Syria to 
 Libya under his sway, to leave no disturbing 
 elements behind him when he should continue 
 his march to the East. The great conquests 
 of the son of Philip in the countries skirting 
 the Mediterranean, his triumphant progress to 
 the south-west, his penetration to the Oasis of 
 Amun, and his return into Asia Minor pre- 
 paratory to his final struggle with Darius, will 
 be properly considered in the History of the 
 Macedonian ascendency.^ These movements 
 occupied a period of twenty months, so that 
 the summer of B. C. 331 arrived before the 
 conflict was renewed for the dominion of Asia. 
 
 In the mean time the Persian king made 
 great preparations for the renewal of hostili- 
 ties. First, however, he tried what negotia- 
 tion could accomplish by sending two embas- 
 Bies to the conqueror. To the first, which 
 requested peace and the surrender of the 
 king's family, now held prisoners, Alexander 
 replied haughtily, demanding either an abdi- 
 cation of Darius in his favor or else that the 
 monarch would come forth and fight it out. 
 To the other proposition which was made to 
 the Macedonian while he was engaged in the 
 siege of Tyre, and which embraced the giving 
 of ten thousand talents for the restitution of 
 the royal family, the surrender to Alexander 
 
 ' See Book Ninth, pp. 629-651. 
 
 of all the countries west of the Euphrates, 
 and his reception of Statira, the king's daugh- 
 ter, in marriage, he answered still more con- 
 temptuously. The countries were his already. 
 When he wanted the ten thousand talents he 
 would take them. If he desired to marry the 
 daughter of Darius he would do so as soon as 
 he pleased. The Persian was a fool to ofler 
 him what he already possessed. So it only 
 remained to fight and — be beaten. 
 
 The whole Empire was laid under contri- 
 bution for the final conflict. Twenty-five na- 
 tions furnished large contingents of troops. 
 More than a million of men were gathere(? 
 under the king's standards. For once a field 
 of battle was deliberately selected. In the 
 heart of ancient Assyria, about thirty milea 
 from Nineveh, in a vast plain as level as 
 the lowlands of Mesopotamia, in every way 
 adapted for the advantageous operations of a 
 great mass of men, and especially for the evo- 
 lutions of the scythe-bearing war-chariots, 
 Darius marshaled his hosts. The plain was 
 improved with special respect to the battle. 
 Every impediment was taken away. Finally, 
 in all that quarter from which the Macedo- 
 nian cavalry must make their charge, the 
 ground was sown with spiked balls of iron to 
 cripple the enemy's horses. Such was the 
 field of Arbela. 
 
 On came Alexander from his campaign in 
 Egypt. He advanced through Syria, crossed 
 the Euphrates, traversed Mesopotamia, and 
 entered Assyria without resistance. It was 
 now October of B. C. 331. Darius carefully 
 occupied his chosen position. The scythe- 
 bearing chariots were placed in front. Then 
 came the Scythian, Bactrian, Armenian, and 
 Cappadocian cavalry. After these were the 
 great masses of infantry, arranged in two 
 wings, and after all, the Babylonian reserve 
 massed in the rear. The king took his post in 
 the center and awaited the onset. About him 
 were arranged body-guards of archers and 
 cavalry, and a troop of elephants mounted 
 and directed by their Indian masters. 
 
 Alexander went into the conflict with great 
 care. From deserters he learned the exact 
 disposition of his enemy's forces. On the 
 margin of the battle-field he paused over
 
 P:ERSIA.— CIVIL AXD MILITARY AXNALS. 
 
 :375 
 
 ALEXANDER DISCOVERS THE BODY OP DARIUS.
 
 376 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 night, counseling his generals, and reconnoi- 
 tering the grounds occupied by Darius. His 
 own forces consisted of forty thousand foot 
 and seven thousand horse — these against a 
 million! Light-armed troops were deployed 
 by the Macedonian to operate against the 
 Persian chariots. Then came the heavy lines 
 of battle. Alexander commanded the right ; 
 Parmenio, the left. In beginning battle the 
 conqueror charged diagonally across the field 
 and greatly disconcerted the Persians. Darius 
 ordered his chariots into battle ; but the char- 
 ioteers were soon brought down by the agile 
 skirmishers, and the few vehicles which 
 reached the battle-lines were allowed to pass 
 through without harm only to be overthrown 
 in the rear. Alexander, meanwhile, had 
 reached the Persian flank, and discovering a 
 gap in the left wing, he plunged into it like 
 an avalanche. He soon fought his way into 
 the immediate vicinity of Darius, and himself 
 hurled a lance which brought down the king's 
 charioteer. The cry at once spread that Da- 
 rius was slain. Then came the rout. The 
 lines broke. The banner of the Empire hung 
 
 suspended for a moment ; then fluttered ; then 
 fell never to rise. The king fled to Arbela.' 
 The field was a turmoil of struggling, flying 
 cohorts. The remnants of the Persian host 
 rolled across the Zab ; but before they reached 
 safety on the other side, the Macedonians 
 had destroyed three hundred thousand men ! 
 The victory was overwhelming, astounding, 
 the very crack of doom to that great power 
 which had so long overshadowed Western 
 Asia. Darius was pursued to Arbela, thence 
 through Rhagse to the Elburz mountains, and 
 thence to the deserts of Parthia. Here he 
 was assassinated by Bessus, the satrap of Bac- 
 tria. He was discovered by Alexander in a 
 dying condition by the roadside. He asked 
 for a cup of water, thanked the giver, and 
 died. And with him died the Empire of the 
 Persians. The body of the dead monarch was 
 sent by Alexander to Persepolis, where it was 
 honorably buried in the tombs of the kings. 
 
 ' The great battle which takes the name of 
 Arbela was fought on the other side of the river 
 Zab, at the little village of Gaugamela, and should 
 have been so named.
 
 \mk ^mm\\\}. 
 
 PARTHIA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 fiY the events recorded iu 
 the preceding Book the 
 reader has been made 
 fully aware, not only of 
 the existence, but of the 
 prowess and enterprise of 
 the Hellenic race out of 
 the West. The conflict wliich he has been 
 considering, terminating in utter disaster to 
 the Persian Empire at Arbela, was a crisis in 
 the affairs of two great peoples having the 
 same ethnic derivation. The Macedonians 
 were one of the European developments of 
 that same family whose fecundity on the 
 plateau of Iran gave us the Persians. Hav- 
 ing seen the result of the struggle between 
 the two races, we might here at once transfer 
 our station to the West, to follow the evolu- 
 tion of the Hellenic tribes into nationality, 
 from nationality to conquest, and from con- 
 quest to decadence. 
 
 Thus far in the present volume we have 
 pursued tliis suggestive method, tracing the 
 coui'se of one people until its conflict w'ith 
 another people has led us naturally to consider 
 the history of the latter. Thus the conquest 
 of Egypt by the Persians carried the reader's 
 attention, first of all, from the valley of the 
 
 Nile to the valley of the Euphrates. The con- 
 quest of ancient Chaldsea by the Assyrians 
 next drew his interest from the south to the 
 north, from Babylon to Nineveh. Then came 
 the conquest of Assyria by the Medes, which 
 carried the inquirer beyond the Zagros, and 
 made him acquainted, for the first time, with 
 the warlike representatives of the Aryan race. 
 His attention was next recalled by the revival 
 of the Babylonian Power until what time 
 Persia forced her way across Mesopotamia, and 
 subdued the larger part of Western Asia. The 
 history of this Persian Empire we have just 
 considered, and the suggestion of its close 
 would carry us naturally in the wake of the 
 conquerors to Macedonia and the Grecian Isl- 
 ands. This direction we shall indeed pres- 
 ently folloAV ; but before the final transfer of 
 our historical position from Asia to Europe — 
 before descending from this Iranian plateau to 
 view the astonishing development of the an- 
 cient Hellenic tribes in their archipelago and 
 on the main-laud of Greece — it remains to con- 
 sider the peculiar history of an Empire Avhich 
 sprang up, and at length occupied the place 
 of Persia on the highlands of Western Asia. 
 This Empire is Parthia. Its consideration 
 in this connection is difficult. The Parthian 
 
 (377)
 
 378 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Power did not reach its climax until after the 
 successors of Alexander the Great had quar- 
 reled and fought themselves into silence. The 
 Empire then extended throughout the period 
 which covered the entire decline and extinc- 
 tion of the Grecian commonwealths, and lay 
 alongside in time with the development of 
 the later Republic and Empire of Rome, 
 Of the dominions of the latter, Parthia was 
 destined to constitute the tkus-far on the East. 
 Against the Parthian arrows in the far East 
 not even the Roman legions could prevail. The 
 strong men, the wild warriors of Central Asia, 
 held the legionaries at bay, or buried them by 
 multiplied thousands in the desert. In time, 
 therefore, the consideration of Parthia before 
 the history of Greece and Rome is a derange- 
 ment of historical relations ; but in place the 
 narrative must be given here. The reader 
 will therefore retain his jioint of observation 
 on. the Great Plateau, and note the develop- 
 ment of the Parthian Empire down to the 
 beginning of the second century of our Era, 
 before transferring his station to Macedonia 
 and the Hellenic peninsula. 
 
 The relations of the Parthian Empire with 
 Persia were remarkable, but not without prec- 
 edent. We have seen Babylonia revived from 
 the grave of ancient Chaldsea. We have 
 seen the Persians themselves flourishing in the 
 land of the Medes. We shall hereafter see 
 many examples of the upspringing of a new 
 national growth from the roots of the fallen 
 tree of some old nationality. In the present 
 instance Parthia may be said to have come 
 forth from the ruins of Persia. The Parthians 
 had long existed as a distinct people, subject 
 to Persian authority. It was reserved for 
 them, by their greater vitality, to survive the 
 wreck of the other Iranian nations, to expand 
 over the ruins of the Alexandrian conquests, 
 to establish a true Empire, and to defend it 
 through several revolutionary epochs, until 
 the drama of Ancient History was closed, and 
 that of Modern History begun. It might al- 
 most be said that the Parthian Power has 
 never ceased until the present time, and that 
 the Persian Shah is the living representative 
 of Arsaces I. 
 
 At the beginning, then, it will be proper 
 
 for us to consider briefly the Country of ancient 
 Parthia and the territories subsequently in- 
 cluded in the Empire. This will be followed 
 by a view of the people and their civilization ; 
 after which the narrative of their civil and 
 militai-y career will be given to the beginning 
 of the third century of our era. The dis- 
 tinction must be borne in mind between the 
 Province of Parthia proper and the Imperial 
 country ruled by the great kings during the 
 last century of the ancient epoch. Parthia 
 Proper may be said to have corresponded with 
 tolerable exactitude to the modern province 
 of Khorassau. The position and extent of the 
 country can be noted by the reader by a 
 simple reference to a map of the Persian Em- 
 pire of the present time. The country no\t 
 includes the districts of Damaghan, Sharud, 
 Sebzawar, Nishapur, Meshed, Shebri-No, and 
 Tershiz. The length from east to west is 
 about three hundred miles, and the extreme 
 width a hundred and twenty miles. The area 
 is thirty-three thousand square miles, being a 
 little greater than that of Ireland in Europe, 
 or the State of Indiana in America. 
 
 The position of Parthia may be defined in 
 general geographical terms as lying about mid- 
 way between the south-eastern borders of the 
 Caspian and the northern shore of the Arabian 
 sea. The country had on its western side the 
 province of Hyrcania, but the latter was gen- 
 erally included under the common name of 
 Parthia. To the east and north lay Margiana, 
 and to the south and west Sagartia and Sar- 
 augia. On the south-east the country was 
 bounded by ancient Arya — a name significant 
 to all the Indo-European peoples. The reader 
 will already have noted that Parthia as here 
 defined is not far removed from the primitive 
 seats of those tribes out of whose fecund loins 
 all the great races of Europe and America 
 have been ultimately derived. 
 
 Of the general character of Parthia Proper, 
 and of the surrounding regions, sufiicient has 
 already been said in the description of the 
 same countries in connection with Media and 
 Persia. The mountain region extending east- 
 ward in a chain from the southern extremity 
 of the Caspian, branches out into many ranges 
 in the Parthian territory ; and from these
 
 PARTHIA.—THE COUNTRY. 
 
 879 
 
 brooks aud rivers descend into the plains, 
 furnishing a fair supply of Avater. The soil is 
 tolerably fertile, and the climate marked with 
 those particular vicissitudes under which the 
 energies of the human race are best developed. 
 It is probable that the flora and fauna of 
 modern Khorassan fairly represent the vegeta- 
 ble and animal life of the ancient country. 
 
 It is sufficient to note the great contrast be- 
 tween the region which we are considering 
 and the deserts north and south. The man 
 of antiquity may have well regarded Parthia 
 with delight on his escape from the sandy 
 waste on either hand. The primitive tribes, 
 roaming at will through groves of pine, through 
 sloping lands covered with walnut, ash, and 
 poplar, by river banks lined with the Avillow 
 and mulberry, may have Avell chosen this coun- 
 try in preference to any that they had found, 
 and pledged their lives aud barbarian resources 
 to its defense. Nor could the winters, extend- 
 ing from October to April, severe in snow and 
 freezing, prevail to destroy the preference of 
 the first Parthiaus for the country of their 
 choice. 
 
 The situation was favorable for the devel- 
 opment of an ancient State, and the character 
 of the people conduced strongly to that end. 
 We have seen how primeval man at the first 
 chose the alluvial valleys and lowlands about the 
 estuaries of great rivers ; but the second choice 
 of position was those upland regions whose 
 beauty of situation and abundant resources 
 invited the first tribes to rest and settlement. 
 In this respect Parthia may be regarded as 
 most attractive. In addition to the general 
 fruitfulness of the country — its production of 
 the native cereals and berry fruits of the forest 
 and river banks — the region might well be 
 selected for the desert defenses on either side. 
 Nature has provided for the races of men many 
 natural bulwarks, but none superior to a waste 
 of desert sand. It is, therefore, likely that for 
 long ages before the first authentic annals, the 
 country here described was peopled by adven- 
 turous and Avarlike tribes. That they did not 
 multiply and develop at an early epoch into a 
 great State must be attributed to the fact that 
 agriculture was not suggested with sufficient 
 emphasis to provoke the energies of the race. 
 
 A mixed life contained the summary, and for 
 a long time limited the activities, of the prim- 
 itive Parthiaus. But the mixed life signifies 
 a sparse and somewhat fluctuating population, 
 and this is unfavorable to the early develop- 
 ment of social and political power. 
 
 We have thus far considered only the orig- 
 inal province of Parthia Proper, and not the 
 character of the countries which Avere brought 
 under the Parthian sway in the times of the 
 Empire. We are not here concerned to note 
 the political and historical development, but 
 only the territorial extension of the primitive 
 kingdom. Suffice it to say, that hard after 
 the decline of the Persian power came the 
 rise of Parthia and the expansion of her do- 
 minions north, south, east, and west. The 
 reader will not have failed to detect the name 
 of Parthia in several paragraphs of Persian 
 history. The country Avas included for a long 
 time within the dominions of the Achaemenian 
 kings, and constituted no mean part of the 
 Empire of Cyrus and his successors. There 
 were times, as Ave shall hereafter see, when 
 the native force of the Parthian race asserted 
 itself against the Persian rule, and more than 
 one rebellion gave token of Avhat might be 
 expected as soon as the Persian Power should 
 suflTer from foreign violence or fail from in- 
 herent Aveakness. 
 
 That event at length arrived, Avhen near 
 the close of the fourth century B. C. the 
 Son of Philip, as we have seen in the preced- 
 ing Book, ground under his heel not only the 
 Mesopotamian countries, but all the dominions 
 of the Great Plateau aud beyond to the river 
 Indus. It thus happened that Parthia had, 
 first, her historical relations Avith the Persian 
 Empire ; afterwards, with the Empire of Alex- 
 ander and its divisions ; and lastly, Avith the 
 military governments established by the Ro- 
 mans out of the far West. 
 
 But Ave are here to note merely the exten- 
 sion of territory which came to the Parthians 
 by Avar and conquest. This territorial expan- 
 sion first included the adjacent countries of 
 Chorasraia, Margiana, Arya, Sarangia, Sagartia, 
 and Hyrcania. The provinces and kingdoms 
 known by these names were, as we shall here- 
 after see, OA'errun and subdued by the armies
 
 380 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of the Parthian kings, and were added, one 
 by one, to their dominions. The process of 
 physical growth was coincident with the re- 
 verse process of decay on the part of the 
 Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, in the 
 countries of Central Asia. 
 
 The province of Chorasmia bounded Parthia 
 Proper on the north, and consisted of a low- 
 lying plain between the Parthian mountains 
 and the ancient river Oxus. As we have in- 
 dicated above, this was for the greater part a 
 desert region, capable of supporting only the 
 wild tribes of Tura with their flocks. It is 
 believed that to the present day the nomadic 
 habit of life has prevailed with all the suc- 
 ceeding nations that have occupied the country. 
 Nor is it wonderful that the sparse peoples of 
 such a district should have been conquered 
 with ease by the warlike Parthians. 
 
 The country of Margiana was sometimes 
 considered as a distinct kingdom, and some- 
 times as a province of Bactria. The region 
 lay to the north-east of Parthia, and included 
 a much more favorable district than might be 
 found in Chorasmia. The river Margus carried 
 verdure and plenty on its banks, and its waters 
 were diverted, in both ancient and modern 
 times, by channels and canals and dykes, 
 extending for many miles from the pi'incipal 
 stream. Strabo has given us an account of 
 the fertility of this region, and of the extraor- 
 dinary fruitfuluess of the vine, bending with 
 rich clusters on the banks of the Margus. 
 
 Next among the provinces touching Par- 
 thia, and lying on the eastern border of that 
 country, was Arya, the little district which in 
 the fate and vicissitude of things has preserved 
 to modern times the name of our ancestral race. 
 This province embraces the ancient valley of 
 Herat. The country is mountainous, limited 
 in area, not populous, easily subdued by the 
 more powerful Parthians in the time of their 
 warlike greatness. 
 
 Next in our progress to the south we find 
 the province of Sarangia, greater in extent 
 than Arya, but hardly stronger in develop- 
 ment. Here dwelt the desert barbarians called 
 the Sarangse. The region was one of alternate 
 hills and plains, not wholly waste, having a 
 few small rivers flowing in a south-westerly 
 
 direction. It does not appear that the primi- 
 tive Sarangians were a people of great force, 
 either in war or in peace, and their country 
 was in course of time easily absorbed in the 
 Parthian Empire. 
 
 Still skirting the latter country in a south- 
 westerly direction, we come to the larger State 
 of Sagartia — larger, but at the same time more 
 inhospitable, less capable of supporting a great 
 population. The ancient tribes were men of 
 the desert, living after the manner of Bedouin 
 Arabs, subsisting for the most part by the 
 capture of such animals as nature had as- 
 signed to the sandy waste. The disposition of 
 the ancient people was more warlike than that 
 of the tribes inhabiting Sagartia and Saran- 
 gia ; but their armies were never sufficiently 
 strong to compete in battle with the Parthian 
 horsemen. 
 
 We now complete the circuit on the west 
 with the province of Hyrcania. As we have 
 said above, this coilntry was at times included 
 under the common name of Parthia. It had 
 the same geographical and climatic character 
 with the latter country. It was traversed 
 through its major diameter by two valleys 
 lying between mountain ridges of considerable 
 elevation. The country was well wooded and 
 fairly watered. In this respect Hyrcania 
 rivaled the better parts of Parthia in excel- 
 lence of tree-growth and vegetable products. 
 It was said to be a land abounding in shrubs 
 and green slopes and flowers — fruitful in many 
 things, pleasing to the eye, abounding in the 
 creatures of the chase. The country has been 
 represented in both ancient and modern times 
 as especially prolific in animal life. The trav- 
 eler, as far back as the times of Strabo, was 
 pleased with the prospect. In area the province 
 was considerably inferior to Parthia Proper. 
 Of all the bordering regions of the latter 
 country, Hyrcania, however, was the most in- 
 teresting and important. It has been urged 
 by Rawlinson and other competent critics of 
 the situation, that the place and character of 
 both the country and people of Parthia were 
 favorable to the expansion of political power 
 and the establishment of a widely extended 
 rule over the surrounding nations. 
 
 We have now considered briefly the extent
 
 382 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TEE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and nature of those countries immediately sur- 
 rounding the original Parthian kiugdom, but 
 have by no means included in the description 
 the wide range of countries beyond — countries 
 included in the times of Mithridates in the 
 Parthian Empire. Ou the north-east we have 
 first of all the extensive country of Bactria. 
 In different ages this region has been variously 
 defined. In general, the country so named 
 was bounded on the south and south-east by 
 the mountains of Hindu Kush ; ou the north 
 by the Oxus; on the west by Chorasmia and 
 Margiana. In the times of the Parthian as- 
 cendency, however, Bactria extended north- 
 ward far beyond the Oxus Proper to the 
 northern branch of that river, skirting the 
 mountain range which defined the southern 
 limit of Scythia. The country had much of 
 the same character with Margiana and Cho- 
 rasmia, but was less of a desert, more of a hill 
 country, especially toward the east. The tri- 
 angular apex of Bactria lying among the 
 mountains under the meridian of 74° east 
 from Greenwich, marked the uttermost limit 
 of the Parthian dominion on the side of India. 
 It suffices to say that the country for a long 
 time resisted the ambitions of the Parthian 
 kings, and it was near the close of the second 
 century B. C. before it was included in their 
 dominions. 
 
 On the south of the country just described, 
 bordered on the west by Arya and Saraugia, 
 was the small province of Arachosia, another 
 mountain region of similar character to Bac- 
 tria, but less severe in climate. It was watered 
 by the river Etymandrus and its tributaries, 
 reaching far into the highlands on the north- 
 east. The country here described occupied 
 the southern, as Bactria occupied the northern, 
 slopes of the Hindu Kush. The province ex- 
 tended through about four meridians of longi- 
 tude, and was nearly square, marking the 
 extreme south-eastern limits of the Parthian 
 Empire. 
 
 Following the boundary of that great do- 
 minion to the south-west, we come to the two 
 countries of Sacastaua and Carraania, the first 
 lying south of Sarangia and almost Avholly 
 desert in character. Carmania is also, in its 
 northern part, a desert waste, and on its 
 
 southern border next to Gedrosia, a mount- 
 ainous region. Indeed, the whole of the two 
 countries just mentioned were in ancient times, 
 as they are at present, as little attractive and 
 as poorly adapted to civilization as almost any 
 region of Central Asia. 
 
 On the west, however, we come to the 
 country of Persis, or Persia Proper, lying 
 along the gulf of the same name, a region of 
 hills and streams and pleasant prospects. We 
 have here reached, against the sea, the south- 
 ern limit of the Parthian Empire, at its greatest 
 estate, in one of the most attractive and inter- 
 esting regions of the whole. Persia has been 
 already described, not only in its narrower, 
 but in its imperial extent ; nothing need here 
 be added as to the physical characteristics and 
 possibilities of the country. So also of both the 
 Medias, the Magna, and the Atropatene. These 
 have been amply described in a former Book. 
 
 On the south and west of these great and 
 important countries, but still included in the 
 Parthian dominion, lay Babylonia and all the 
 Mesopotamian countries, bounded by the Eu- 
 phrates on the west. Here were Susiana, 
 Assyria, Adiabene, and all the regions as far 
 north as the Armenian mountains. The 
 country of Armenia was also included in the 
 Empire of Mithridates, but here we reach the 
 ultimate limits of that Empire on the west. 
 Viewing it as a whole, we find it extending 
 from the extreme western deflection of the 
 Upper Euphrates, in longitude 38° 30' east to 
 the meridian of 74° in the Hindu Kush. The 
 northernmost limit was .on the Oxus, a little 
 above the parallel of 42° N., and the extreme 
 southern boundary on the Persian gulf under 
 the parallel 27° 30' N. The whole extent 
 from east to west was hardly less than fifteen 
 hundred miles, and the greatest breadth from 
 north to south about four hundred miles. The 
 geographical area was not far from 450,000 
 square miles, being about co-extensive with 
 the area of the modern Persian Empire. 
 
 It must not be understood, however, that 
 the two dominions — Ancient Parthia and 
 Modern Persia — coincided in their bounda- 
 ries. A glance at the two maps will enable the 
 reader to note how diflferent were the limits of 
 the ancient Empire from those of its modern
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 883 
 
 representative. We do not here dwell further 
 upon the physical characteristics and natural 
 potency of the countries held under a single 
 sway by Mithridates, for the reason that the 
 game have already been amply considered in 
 
 the preceding histories of Babylonia, Assyria, 
 Media, and Persia. We, therefore, pass at 
 once to the consideration of the Parthians as 
 a people, their institutions, general character 
 and manner of life and government. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV.— PEOPIvE AND ARTS. 
 
 HE ethnic origin of the 
 Parthian race has not 
 been well determined. It 
 would appear that their 
 arrival in Central Asia 
 was somewhat later than 
 the incoming of many 
 other peoples into that region of the world. 
 Doubtless the Chaldseans, the Assyrians, the 
 Medes, and even the Persians, antedated by 
 several centuries — many centuries in the case 
 of the older of these nations — the arrival of 
 the Parthians in their ancestral seats. 
 
 We are here close to one of the great 
 ethnic problems with which the student of 
 history is confronted in the beginning of his 
 inquiry. The question is no less than that of 
 the origin of the Aryan family of men. His- 
 tory is able to trace backwards the movements 
 of the Aryan peoples to the region of the 
 Bactrian Highlands, but beyond that all is 
 mist and thick darkness. Did the Aryans 
 come from some other region afar? — some 
 country in which they were associated with 
 the Semitic or Hamitic family of men ? The 
 answer is not apparent. We are, therefore, 
 led to begin with the development and migra- 
 tions of the Aryan tribes from the region of 
 their primitive settlements without the solution 
 of the fundamental problem. 
 
 Parthia was not far from the Aryan nidus. 
 We may safely ascribe the origin of the people 
 to the same source with that of the Persians 
 and the Medes. Of a certainty the Parthians 
 were strongly discriminated from the peoples 
 just mentioned. They had more of the Tu- 
 ranian character — fewer of the well-known 
 characteristics of the Indo-Europeans as illus- 
 trated in the Hellenic and Roman races. So 
 N.— Vol. 1—24 
 
 strongly marked were the distinctions just re- 
 ferred to, that many inquirers have been disposed 
 to regard the Parthians as having a Scythic 
 origin. Arrian, among the ancients, declares 
 his belief in such a derivation. It can not be 
 doubted that there were relations between the 
 Parthians through the tribes of Chorasmia with 
 the Scyths beyond the Oxus. It must be ob- 
 served that race distinctions fade away some- 
 what along the border lines where two families 
 of mankind fret and roll together. Modern 
 history furnishes a hundred examples of such 
 obliteration of ethnic features along the bound- 
 aries of States and nations. 
 
 It was doubtless so in antiquity, but even 
 in a stronger measure. At a time when society 
 was unsettled, when the tribal state had not 
 yet given place to fixedness of residence, there 
 was more frequent mixing and interweaving 
 along the selvages of races than even in 
 modern times. These circumstances may serve 
 to explain the presence of Scythic elements 
 among the ancient Parthians. So that natural 
 and ethnic causes may be found sufficient in 
 number and character to account for the tra- 
 ditions of the Greek and Roman story-tellers 
 who were wont to classify the Parthians with 
 the Scythic race. 
 
 We may agree that at the time of the great 
 invasion of all central and Western Asia by 
 the Scythian barbarians, a larger amount of 
 their work and influence remained in Parthia 
 than in the other countries which they con- 
 quered. The Parthian language shows un- 
 mistakably a Scythic infection — just as English 
 bears indubitable evidence of the Norman 
 conquest. The Parthian vocabulary had in it 
 a large addition of Scythic words, and the 
 civil and military habits of the people were
 
 384 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 modeled, to a considerable extent, after those 
 of the Turanian barbarians. There are at the 
 present time certain Teutonic peoples in 
 Europe upon whom the Slavs have made a 
 like impression, insomuch that their race char- 
 acter might be mistaken by even a critical 
 observer. How much the more may such a 
 mistake be expected in the case of an ancient 
 people modified by a foreign influence ! We 
 must conclude that the Parthians, along with 
 the Bactrians, Chorasmians, Hyrcanians, 
 Medes, and Persians, belonged to the common 
 family to which the name Aryan has been 
 assigned. 
 
 The life of the Parthian people, however, 
 Lad much the aspect of that of the peoples 
 beyond the Oxus. This is to say that, like the 
 Tartar and the Turcoman tribes of a later day, 
 the Parthians were nomadic in habit, spending 
 the greater part of their time on horseback and 
 abroad. The Roman historians, as late as the 
 time of the conflict of the Consular armies with 
 the Parthian cavalry, were struck with aston- 
 ishment at the manners of a people who trans- 
 acted the larger part of their business and at- 
 tended to all duties and avocations, even to 
 eating and drinking, while mounted on their 
 horses. It should not be forgotten, however, 
 that much of the same disposition was shown 
 by the Persians, and the student might, if he 
 would, trace this aspect of Turanian life far 
 into Asia Minor, and even into Europe. In 
 other particulars also the Partliians revealed 
 their innate sympathy with nomadic manners. 
 There was little fixedness of settlement, at least 
 until a late date, in the Parthian ascendency. 
 The old habit of hunting, of riding abroad, of 
 gratifying the passion for rapid transit from 
 scene to scene, continued to prevail, and at 
 length gave form to the organization and tactics 
 of the Parthian army. 
 
 It was such a people as these that Cyrus 
 the Great met and conquered in the early years 
 of his aggressive career. The nation was in- 
 corporated as one of the satrapies of the Per- 
 sian Empire, and remained in that dependence 
 until what time the cohorts of Alexander, ris- 
 ing from the West, shattered the Achsemenian 
 Dynasty and reduced it to its original elements. 
 But of the historical development and varying 
 
 vicissitudes of the Parthian race we shall 
 speak moie fully hereafter. 
 
 As usual with men of antiquity, the re- 
 ligious life of the Parthians presented many 
 interesting features, and revealed no small part 
 of the national character. We are here, geo- 
 graphically and ethnically speaking, not far 
 from the primitive seat of one of the great re- 
 ligions of .mankind. Zoroaster was a Bactrian. 
 We have already seen how the faith and doc- 
 trine which he formulated and taught spread 
 among the races of the Great Plateau and be- 
 came organic in the Zendavesta. 
 
 The teachings of the great prophet were 
 accepted by the Achsemenian kings, and were 
 imposed by them as a State religion upon the 
 subject nations of the Persian Empire. Among 
 these was Parthia. Whatever may have been 
 the tribal faith and practice of the old Par- 
 thians, they accepted the religion of their con- 
 querors, not only in its early singleness but in 
 its subsequent dualistic deyelopment. The 
 wild warriors of the Parthian plain came to- 
 believe in Ahura-Mazdao as the fountain of 
 all Good, and in Ahriman as the source of 
 all Evil. 
 
 We have had occasion, in a former chapter, 
 to trace the rise of this belief and its evolution 
 among the Iranic peoples. It was from this 
 source that Dualism as a principle of philo- 
 sophic belief made its way to the West, became 
 interfused with the speculations of the Western 
 nations, and at last intertwined itself with the 
 opinions and practices of the leading people* 
 of modern times. But it must be allowed that 
 dualism — the division of the universe into the 
 two parts of good and evil and the creation 
 of a hierarchy of the Powers set against each, 
 other in perpetual warfare, involving the lives 
 and actions of men — is a natural growth pe- 
 culiar to the human mind at a certain epoch of 
 its career. We have seen such phenomena in 
 the valley of the Nile, in the valley of the 
 Euphrates, and in the highest activity on the 
 Iranian plateau. We shall hereafter see traces 
 of the same thing in the mercurial intellect of 
 the Greeks, in the heavier cogitations of the 
 Romans, and in the dreams of the Teutonic 
 barbarians in their forest solitudes. But among 
 all peoples, the races now under consideration
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 386 
 
 ■were most active in the development of such a 
 belief and in its dissemination, Zoroaster was 
 the abstract and chronicle of the religious 
 opinions and philosophical speculations of the 
 peoples among whom he appeared. The Par- 
 thians took his system and entertained it dur- 
 ing their period of ascendency. Indeed, in 
 nearly all respects they became the representa- 
 tives of the Persians who had preceded them. 
 
 But in the hands of the Parthians, as in 
 the hands of the Persians, the Zoroastrian sys- 
 tem suffered deterioration. It went at length 
 into the form of Magism and idolatry. It were 
 difficult to say to how great an extent the 
 idolatrous aspect of the Magian cult was the 
 result of the revival of the ancient polytheistic 
 instincts of the race. Perhaps a part of the 
 degeneration may be attributed to this cause, 
 and part to the rise of a priesthood. Here 
 the history of Parthia could but repeat the 
 common story of the mischief always done, 
 the havoc always wrought with a national re- 
 ligion when it falls into the hands of a priest- 
 hood. Then it is that superstition, selfishness, 
 folly, the pride of caste, and the ambition of 
 power begin to take the place of the religious 
 fervor which marks the earlier stages of devel- 
 opment. Henceforth the history of religion 
 becomes a history of forms which by their 
 growth and inflection quench the glow that 
 dwelt in the spirits of the primitive prophets. 
 
 The Parthians fell under the dominion of 
 these influences. The Magi soon became a 
 powerful caste in the State. Fire, as the em- 
 blem of the sun, and perhaps the emblem of 
 life, became the object of superstitious adora- 
 tion. The elements of nature were held in 
 sacred awe. Rivers were worshiped, as were 
 many other parts of the material world. The 
 superstitions which we have noted in the case 
 of the Persians revived among the Parthians. 
 The dead might not be buried, but must rather 
 be exposed on high in the tops of towers, where 
 the bodies might be devoured by the birds of 
 the air. After the lapse of a long time the 
 bones might be gathered and deposited in 
 tombs. The sacred fire must be kept burning 
 by the priests. In short, the whole ritual of 
 Magism must be performed — the ceremonies of 
 the faith perpetuated by the people. Under 
 
 such conditions, the Magi at one time became 
 especially powerful. They were members of 
 the National Council, under the Parthian kings, 
 and were as haughty, arrogant, and arbitrary 
 as they and their class have always been in 
 their despotism over society. 
 
 At length, however, Magism fell into a de- 
 cline. The high priests lost their hold upon 
 the Government. It would appear that a sort 
 of original paganism revived, which may well 
 remind one in its manifestation of the beliefs 
 and practices prevalent on the banks of the 
 Tiber and in the German woods. The Sun 
 became the principal object of Parthian wor- 
 ship. After him the Moon was adored as the 
 divinity of night. We might almost transfer 
 and adapt in this connection the celebrated 
 chapter of the Sixth Book of the Caesarian 
 Commentaries, wherein Julius describes the re- 
 ligion of the Teutonic nations. The prevail- 
 ing principle was that those objects of nature 
 only were fit to be worshiped by the aid of 
 which men were manifestly benefited. The 
 system was thus virtually devoid of specula- 
 tion. The Sun did good to men. Therefore 
 the Sun might well be worshiped. On a lower 
 plane we find the common beliefs of the Aryan 
 nations in minor divinities and spirits by whom 
 the smaller affairs of life were controlled and 
 guided. There were genii of the day-time, 
 genii of the night, genii of the hearthstone, 
 the spirits of the fathers, and the Larvae of the 
 earth. The system in its last estate was not 
 essentially different from that of the Pagan na- 
 tions of Europe. 
 
 The men of Alexander took with them into 
 the East the religious beliefs of the Hellenic 
 Aryans. The name of the Olympian Zeus 
 was heard in Babylon, in Seleucia, in Ctesi- 
 phon, in Ecbatana, in Persepolis, in Hatra, 
 and in Bactra. Wherever the Greek cities 
 were planted, there the mythology of the 
 West, with its ample inflections, was founded. 
 This invasion of Zoroastrianism and Magism 
 the Parthians seem not to have resented. 
 As a general fact the Aryan religions have 
 been tolerant ; those of Shem have refused to 
 know other than themselves. The same prin- 
 ciple was illustrated when the Romans became 
 the conquerors of the East. They also carried
 
 386 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 their religious system, such as it was, to the 
 banks of the Euphrates aud far beyond. 
 
 Ah'eady before this time Judaism had been 
 propagated by several means in the Aryan 
 countries. At a still later period, when Rome 
 was converted to Christianity, the new faith 
 was carried under the protection of the eagles 
 to the uttermost limits of the Empire. It 
 were impossible to say to what extent these 
 foreign religious influences permeated Parthia 
 and brought her people under their sway. 
 Already at the time of the primitive apostles, 
 Parthian Christianity had become a fact ; and 
 St. Luke enumerates the Parthiaus along with 
 the Medes and Elamites among the strangers 
 :gathered in Jerusalem. All this would indi- 
 cate on the part of the Parthian raonarchs the 
 same tolerant spirit which the Greeks and 
 Romans were wont to show to alien systems 
 •of religion. 
 
 One of the chief forms of activity among 
 the Parthians was war. It is from their mili- 
 tary character that the race is best known to 
 the world. Long before the close of the An- 
 cient Era the name of this people was heard as 
 far west as Rome — and generally with terror. 
 They it was doubtless whom Horace had in 
 view under the name of Medii in the Secular 
 Hymn : — 
 
 Now by the sea and on the land, the Mede 
 
 Fears the strong squadrons and the axe of Rome ; 
 
 Now the late haughty Scythian doth plead 
 For mild resj^onse — and men of India come. 
 
 The reader may, therefore, well be surprised 
 to note the fact that this most warlike nation, 
 whose fiarce, wild cavalry swept like flying 
 clouds across the deserts of the Great Plateau, 
 had no fixed military establishment — no stand- 
 ing army. It appears, on the contrary, that the 
 Parthians, by their disposition and habit of 
 life, constituted what may be called a natural 
 soldiery. There Avere two branches to the 
 Parthian service, the cavalry and the foot. 
 But the first was the important part. Indeed, 
 it is doubtful whether the Parthian infantry 
 was of much value in the field. It was upon 
 the cavalry that the kings relied for victory; 
 and the reliance was not misplaced. 
 
 In time of war the Parthian monarch 
 called upon his vassals to bring forth each his 
 
 quota of warriors for the field. It appears 
 that the constitution of Parthian society was 
 essentially feudal. The vassal was bound to 
 his suzerain in the matter of military service. 
 He must call out his retainers and slaves, see 
 to their equipment and mounting, bring them 
 to the place of rendezvous, and command them 
 in battle. It was thus that the army was 
 made up of bands of warriors drawn from the 
 various districts after the manner of the Cru- 
 saders. But a common enthusiasm pervaded 
 the whole, and there was no lack of unity in 
 the general command. This was reserved for 
 the king in person, and for his generalissimo, 
 called the Surena. 
 
 The latter may be regarded as the head 
 baron of the country. The oflftce which he held 
 hereditary in his family. It is doubtful 
 whether even the king could displace him 
 from the position in which he was fixed by 
 heredity and custom. The same was in great 
 measure true of the other vassals. Each com- 
 manded in his own right, aud held his place 
 at home and in the field in virtue of what may 
 be called the Parthian constitution. 
 
 Looking at the organization of the army, 
 we find a heavy-horse and a light-horse con- 
 tingent. The first was the main branch of the 
 service. This wing was undoubtedly the finest 
 cavalry of the ancient world. The warriors 
 were armed in mail as to their bodies, the scale- 
 armor of iron and steel descending as low as 
 the knees, well made and strong, polished to 
 brightness, capable of resisting any of the or- 
 dinary missiles of the battle-field. On the head 
 was a helmet, also burnished, heavy, and well 
 made. The arms and the legs were free, as 
 they must needs be in fighting from the horse. 
 
 The weapons of these Parthian dragoons 
 were bows and arrows and a spear. All these 
 were long aud strong. The arrow was shot 
 with such violence that its flight was said to 
 be invisible from its rapidity, and scarcely any 
 armor of the enemy could protect the wearer 
 from its fall. The spear was equally fatal, 
 being thrust with a violence which frequently 
 impaled two warriors with a single blow. The 
 horseman also carried a short sword, which in 
 close quarters he drew and used with fearful 
 eflfect. The horses of the dragoons, like their
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 387 
 
 riders, wore a scale armor iu battle, having 
 the same adjusted to their heads, necks, and 
 breasts. The light-horse carried "bows and ar- 
 rows, but were unarmored, and bore no spears. 
 The value of this wing depended upon its 
 dexterity. Horsemen of this class hovered 
 within bow-shot, discharging their arrows with 
 great rapidity, wheeling to right and left, at- 
 tacking the flank, and raauoeuvering in such 
 manner as to confuse the enemy. 
 
 The supply-train of the Parthian army was 
 furnished by a caravan of camels laden Avith 
 provisions and military accoutrements. It has 
 been noted that the Parthians, advancing to 
 battle, always carried an abundance of arrows, 
 so that literal showers of these missiles might 
 be rained upon the enemy. The attack was 
 made with the utmost spirit. So far as strat- 
 egy was concerned, the same consisted in de- 
 ceiving the enemy ; in bringing him into un- 
 favorable situations ; in cutting off supplies; in 
 taking advantage of any temporary confusion 
 that might occur, and finally in the furious 
 charge directly on the line. This mode of at- 
 tack was like a thunder-gust which expended 
 itself with the onset. When the flying squad- 
 rons came within reach of the adverse lines, 
 they began to rain upon them a terrible dis- 
 charge of arrows, which was kept up inces- 
 santly until the actual shock of combat, when 
 the spears, and finally the swords, were used. 
 It was the expectation by this means to break 
 everything into confusion and sweep the 
 enemy from the field. But if the charge was 
 firmly met, the battle generally continued for 
 but a few minutes after the shock, when the 
 Parthians would turn to flight. 
 
 This, however, was a deceptions movement, 
 intended to draw the enemy into pursuit. 
 The dragoons, as well as the light-horse, merely 
 scampered out of reach, and immediately 
 formed anew. If the foe, unacquainted with 
 this manoeuver, should chance to follow, and 
 offer by the break of the lines or other for- 
 tuitous circumstances any advantage, the onset 
 would be immediately renewed by the Par- 
 thians in a second charge like the first. This 
 manner of battle was on the whole especially 
 effective. It is probably true that in the 
 whole vast circle of victory and Imperial con- 
 
 quest the Roman legions never met anywhere 
 on the frontiers of the world a more dangerous 
 enemy than was this same Parthian army. 
 Hereafter we shall show in many details of 
 campaign and battle the results of the doubt- 
 ful contests waged by Rome with the mailed 
 dragoons of Parthia. The fact has been cited 
 that in the six great campaigns made by the 
 Mistress of the World into the countries be- 
 yond the Euphrates she was obliged in no fewer 
 than five to yield the palm to her skillful and 
 courageous antagonist. 
 
 Several additional facts connected with the 
 Parthian method of warfare may be cited as 
 of interest to the general reader. The Par- 
 thians avoided all military movements, par- 
 ticularly battle, in the night. Perhaps the 
 management of cavalry in the darkness is at- 
 tended with greater peril and difficulty than 
 are consequent upon the evolutions of in- 
 fantry. Moreover, the Parthians did not em- 
 ploy fortifications, either for their camp or in 
 the field. For the rest, superstition may have 
 had something to do with that feature of the 
 tactics which required the withdrawal of the 
 army at nightfall to a considerable distance, 
 and the total avoidance of battle or further 
 movements until the morrow. 
 
 For reasons of a similar character the 
 winter was avoided as unsuited to campaign- 
 ing. We may readily perceive that the sum- 
 mer season, as in all other countries and 
 conditions, would be regarded as a favorable 
 time for those rapid and headlong movements 
 upon which the success of Parthian warfare 
 especially depended. It was noted, moreover, 
 by the Greeks and Romans in their conflicts 
 with the Parthians, that the latter could en- 
 dure heat and deprivation of water much better 
 than themselves — a circumstance which gave a 
 not inconsiderable advantage to the warriors 
 of the East. 
 
 On the other hand, the latter were weak 
 in all operations pertaining to sieges and in- 
 vestments. In the nature of the case, the 
 Parthian cavalry were unable to carry a forti- 
 fied position. They appear to have been al- 
 most ignorant of the machinery and appliances 
 necessary to a siege. The Romans, therefore, 
 were comparatively safe in the fortified sta-
 
 388 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tions which they established on the eastern 
 borders of the Empire. But they coukl never 
 be completely at rest in such situations ; for 
 their supplies were constantly endangered 
 by the ceaseless vigilance of the Parthian 
 horsemen. Whenever communications could 
 be cut off, it became simply a question of 
 time when the Romans must come forth and 
 take the hazards of the open field in a move- 
 ment towards the base of supplies. Such re- 
 treats were nearly always fatal. The Par- 
 thians, whenever they perceived a movement 
 of the kind, were on the alert. Xo straggler 
 henceforth escaped. On both wings and the 
 rear of the receding army a cloud of warriors 
 might be seen hovering in the horizon, and a 
 single misstep of the retreating forces was suf- 
 ficient to effect their ruin. 
 
 Another feature of the Parthian warfare 
 was the absence of chariots and vehicles of all 
 kinds. Those who could not ride must walk. 
 In general, it might be said that the whole 
 force was mounted on either horses or camels. 
 In rare instances members of the royal house- 
 hold, the women and others, were borne after 
 the army in chariots. Sometimes the ponder- 
 ous bulk of an elephant was seen ; but this 
 generally marked the presence of the monarch 
 or the generalissimo. These important per- 
 sonages were sometimes made conspicuous, as 
 well as secure, by having their station on the 
 backs of trained elephants. In rare cases 
 camels were used by the cavalry in actual 
 battle ; but the Greeks and Romans learned 
 that these beasts could be easily disabled by 
 sowing tribuli, or ii*on stars, in the way of their 
 spongy feet. 
 
 In the Parthian manner battle was made 
 with as much noise as possible. The army 
 was accompanied with its musicians, or clamor- 
 makers, who in time of the onset beat upon 
 metal drums, which resounded over the plains, 
 and was answered by the wild shouts of the 
 horsemen as they rushed to the onset. The 
 charge, as we have said, was at full speed. 
 The oncoming of the flying squadrons was so 
 rapid that they seemed to the Romans to rise 
 out of the earth. As soon as the charge had 
 broken upon the legions, the horsemen, if un- 
 successful, fled, as we have seen ; but in doing 
 
 so fired backwards. Nor were the enemy able to 
 perceive any diminution in the shower of arrows 
 until the receding column was out of reach 
 
 Out of the nature of things war brings 
 cessation, and finally armistice and treaty. 
 These things require formalities. Since war 
 was the mood of antiquity, rules for formal in- 
 tercourse between belligerents were devised at 
 an early day. The Parthians had a well-regu- 
 lated ceremonial of the field and for military 
 conferences. It was the custom, when they 
 desired to confer with an enemy, to go forward 
 in full sight with unstrung bows. This signi- 
 fied a desire to communicate with the enemy. 
 The right hand was stretched out towards the 
 opposing camp, to signify the wish for a parley. 
 When the preliminaries of the conference had 
 thus been arranged, the formal representatives 
 of the two powers were wont to come together 
 on some neutral ground, as on a bridge span- 
 ning some boundary stream, and there discuss 
 the terms of settlement. Under such circum- 
 stances treaties were made. Nor could it be 
 said that the Parthians were less faithful in 
 the observance of stipulations to which they 
 had agreed than were the Greeks and Romans. 
 From the former of these peoples, who in the 
 times of Alexander had established them- 
 selves and planted their civilization in many 
 cities, old and new, throughout the East, the 
 Parthians had acquired a knowledge of the 
 Greek tongue, and this for several centuries 
 was used as the medium of civil and military 
 intercourse between them and the nations of 
 the West. 
 
 It were a mistaken view of the subject to 
 consider the Parthian administration in the 
 times of the Empire as a government of bar- 
 barous principles and methods. On the con- 
 trary, it became as well refined as the contem- 
 poraneous governments which had in the 
 meantime been established by the European 
 Aryans. The forms of intercourse were regu- 
 lar and enlightened. Embassies were sent by 
 the Parthian monarchs to foreign courts, and 
 such were received in turn at the Parthian 
 capitals. It was the custom of the times to 
 send by the hands of international commis- 
 sioners presents from king to king as seemed 
 befitting to the age and condition. In none 
 
 A
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 389 
 
 of these respects were the Parthian raouarchs 
 less scrupulous than their contemporaneous 
 sovereigns in the West. The intercourse be- 
 tween Phraates IV. and the Emperor Augus- 
 tus was conducted as between monarch and 
 monarch of equal rank. Ambassadorial court- 
 esies were common, aud without disparage- 
 ment to the kiugs of the Ea,st. The usual 
 methods of maintaining international faith 
 wei'e observed. Oaths were made and pledges 
 given after the manner of antiquity. The giv- 
 ing and taking of hostages was one of the 
 commonest means of securing good faith and 
 the fulfillment of agreements. It happened 
 on several occasions that members of the Par- 
 thian royal family were freely sent to Rome 
 in pledge of the fidelity of the king to his 
 stipulations with the Western Empire. 
 
 If from the consideration of war we turn to 
 the peaceful aspect of life and look at the king 
 and his court, we shall find m-uch of interest 
 and instruction. True, we are constrained for 
 the most part to consider the aspect of this 
 Toyal life in the East through a glass darkly; 
 for its manner has been mostly narrated by 
 the historians of Greece and Rome and Jewry. 
 The Parthians were not themselves a literary 
 people, and but few original sources of infor- 
 mation are at our command. First of all, we 
 may refer to the national amusement, which 
 was hunting. After war it would appear that 
 the next highest source of interest and excite- 
 ment among the people, whether of noble or 
 of common rank, was the attack on wild beasts. 
 We have seen this trait of character already 
 displayed in Assyria and Persia. Nor is it 
 needed that we should return to antiquity to 
 find a similar passion in full activity. Nearly 
 €very people, indeed, on its advance from half- 
 barbarity to civilization has found gratification 
 in the pursuit and killing of wild animals. In 
 the first intent the wild beast takes the place 
 of the enemy. Its blood is typical of his. 
 The fall of the boar under the arrow's flight 
 or spear-thrust of the pursuer is next in the 
 scale of delight to the fall of the enemy in 
 battle. 
 
 Parthia abounded in wild beasts. On the 
 Assyrian borders the lion was found. Hyr- 
 cania was the native lair of tigers so fierce that 
 
 "Hyrcanian" became an epithet descriptive of 
 the most dangerous species of that animal. 
 Leopards and bears also abounded. The Par- 
 thian hunters followed these animals into their 
 haunts, and exposed their lives in the contest. 
 In course of time, however, when the Empire 
 was established, pleasure and excitement were 
 sought in a manner more artistic and less dan- 
 gerous. Then were constructed the great parks, 
 called by the Eastern nations "Paradises," 
 wherein animals taken from the forests were 
 loosed, to live and propagate their kind under 
 the dominion of half-natural conditions. Here 
 the artificial hunt was made. The king and 
 his companions traversed the paradise, raised 
 the wild beast from his covert, pursued and 
 smote him after the manner of the ancient 
 chase in the wild and desert. 
 
 We may glance at the appearance of the 
 king when he went forth as a hunter. On 
 such occasions he wore a short cloak, of which 
 we find examples on the monuments and coins. 
 A helmet protected his head, and in his hand 
 he carried the strong bow with the double 
 curve, the animal tendon for a thong, and the 
 swift arrow against which nothing alive might 
 stand. Like his countryman, the monarch 
 went on horseback. His person was orna- 
 mented in barbaric fashion with jewels and 
 gold. His horse wore trappings of the same 
 splendid fashion with the king's garments, and 
 the attendants were only less gorgeous in their 
 apparel, less haughty in manner, than the mon- 
 arch himself. 
 
 At the Court another fashion prevailed. 
 Here a long robe, like that of the Persian and 
 Median nobles, was worn by the king. The 
 insignia of royalty were hung about his neck. 
 A diadem circled his forehead, and his ears 
 supported rings and jewels. Like her consort, 
 the queen-in-chief, preeminent above the harem, 
 proud in her ascendency over hundreds of 
 concubines which the law granted to the sov- 
 ereign, adorned herself in a manner equally 
 splendid. She, as well as he, received the 
 title of Divine. She, like the king, wore a 
 diadem and sometimes a tiara. Not often, 
 however, was she permitted, under the custom 
 of the race, to obtrude herself into public 
 affairs. More than those of any other of the
 
 390 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Aryan peoples were the social and domestic 
 habits of the Parthians conformed to the man- 
 ners of the Orient. Polygamy was the law 
 of the laud. The harem was the expression 
 of the social system in its ultimate analysis. 
 All women except the characterless crowd of 
 Hetoerce, dancers, and the like, who followed 
 in the wake of the army, were secluded from 
 sight. They must hide themselves like the 
 women of Shem. They must be veiled, that 
 their faces be not seen by men. With men 
 they must not converse, except with their hus- 
 bands in the harem. The sexes were sepa- 
 rated at the domestic meal and at the public 
 banquet. The care of the harem was intrusted 
 to eunuchs, after the manner already described 
 in the history of Persia. 
 
 We have already remarked upon the small 
 intellectual development of the Parthian peo- 
 ple, as shown in the absence of litei'ature and 
 art. Their learning proceeded as far as the 
 mastery of their own tongue and, in the best 
 days of the Empire, a very general acquire- 
 ment of Greek. It appears that the Parthian 
 kings and their subjects were quick to discover 
 the superiority of the language of the men of 
 Alexander, and were not long in adopting it, 
 at least as the speech of their higher inter- 
 course. Greek was introduced as the official 
 language. The Parthian coins bore Greek in- 
 scriptions, and that tongue was, as we have 
 seen, used for several centuries in all the im- 
 portant intercourse between the Parthians and 
 the Western nations. 
 
 Beyond this it does not appear that the 
 subjects of Phraates and Mithridates were able 
 to progress. Of science they knew not even 
 the rudiments. Their interpretation of nature, 
 in so far as they were curious to know the 
 laws of phenomena, was purely mythological. 
 Of sculpture they knew but little, and of paint- 
 ing perhaps nothing at all. This is to say, 
 that of the higher forms of pictorial art they 
 were ignorant, except by incidental intercourse 
 with the Greeks and Romans. In these re- 
 spects the Parthian race was in striking analogy 
 with the Medes and Persians, whose want of 
 genius in the particulars here referred to has 
 been noted by many critics and historians. 
 
 The activities of the Parthians were thus 
 
 physical rather than intellectual. They lacked 
 altogether the imaginative and speculative dis- 
 position of the Greeks, and indeed of all the 
 European Aryans. The civilization which they 
 established was material in the highest degree. 
 The nation was not without great force, great 
 outward activity, and inner energy; but the 
 poetic dream, the imaginative flight, the art- 
 istic concept, were things unknown, even in the 
 highest development to which the Parthian peo- 
 ple could attain. 
 
 In an architectural way the achievements- 
 of the Parthians were more creditable. It is. 
 in architecture that physical energies, com- 
 bined with the lower forms of ideality, find 
 their best expression. We have several in- 
 stances in history of peoples who succeeded 
 in reaching a fair degree of architectural work 
 without attaining to poetry and art. In its- 
 higher manifestations architecture, of course, 
 becomes ideal. It expresses at the last the 
 imaginative powers of the human mind, and 
 is only secondary in rank to sculpture and 
 painting. But in its lower forms it is the 
 most material of all the arts. Thus far the 
 Parthians were able to proceed in the human 
 evolution, and no farther. 
 
 As a rule the Asiatic Aryans have not 
 been great builders. We have seen how small 
 a thing the Medes transmitted to after times 
 as it respects their architectural achievements. 
 The Persians, under the Achsemenian kings, 
 rose to a higher level of structural ability. 
 In the preceding Book the reader has been 
 made acquainted with the palaces and temples 
 of Persepolis, and of one or two other of the 
 principal Persian cities. But even here we 
 fail to note the splendor and abundance of 
 Assyria, to say nothing of Egypt and Greece. 
 On the Great Plateau the energies of humaa 
 life have always been expended in forms of 
 action different from those of closely crowded 
 and permanent societies like those of the val- 
 leys of the Euphrates and the Nile. 
 
 Parthia was not rich in temples or palaces 
 or tombs. This is true particularly of the 
 Parthian kingdom in the earlier times, before 
 the expansion of the nation had resulted in 
 the establishment of a great dominion. The 
 old kings and the primitive nobility were bar- 
 
 I
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 391 
 
 baric in their habits and manners, caring little 
 for fixedness, and not much for visible splendors. 
 The consideration of the building methods and 
 results in the country is attended with difficul- 
 ties from the historical changes to which it 
 was subject. The determination of the age 
 of a given ruin is uncertain ; so that the in- 
 quirer may not well ascertain whether the 
 Avork has been done by the ancient race, in 
 the Greek period, under the Arsacidse, or 
 under the subsequent Sassanians. It is the 
 architecture of the Arsacidse only which we 
 should regard as truly Parthian in its charac- 
 ter. The remains of those structures which 
 were made subsequent to the year 226 A. D., 
 must be regarded as the work of a later period. 
 Kawlinson has determined the time in which 
 the true national building was effected as cov- 
 ering about two centuries ; namely, the first 
 and second of our era. But we must remem- 
 ber that the works remaining to us of this 
 period were merely the highest development 
 of a kind of building which had been culti- 
 vated for several preceding centuries. 
 
 The unfixedness of Parthian society is well 
 illustrated in the fact that the seat of the gov- 
 ernment was not established at any one city, 
 but was transferred from place to place, ac- 
 cording to the preference of the monarch. 
 There were thus several Parthian capitals, 
 among which there was little preeminence. 
 At the time when the Empire was at its great- 
 est expansion, the city of Hatra was perhaps 
 the most centralized and important place of 
 residence for the Great Kings. It is from the 
 ruins of this old metropolis that we are best 
 able to gather an adequate idea of the ancient 
 architecture of the country. By the Greeks 
 the city was called Ctesiphon. It was situ- 
 ated on the left bank of the Tigris, over 
 against Seleucia, the capital of the Seleucidse, 
 where the successors of Alexander for awhile 
 established themselves. Ctesiphon was built 
 by the Parthians across the river from the 
 Greek capital, and at length grew into a place 
 of importance. With the decline of the Greek 
 power in Asia, Seleucia shrank away, while 
 the Parthian city was improved and enlarged. 
 
 The founding of this Hatra is assigned to 
 Vardanes ; not the monarch of that name, but 
 
 another, whose history has not been deter- 
 mined. It appears that the city flourished 
 greatly in the latter days of the Parthian Em- 
 pire, but declined with the dominion of which 
 it constituted one of the principal ornaments,, 
 only to be revived at a subsequent period by 
 the Sassanian kings. In the year 232 A. D. , 
 when the Roman Emperor Severus overran 
 the country, the prisoners out of Ctesiphon 
 were estimated at a hundred thousand. 
 
 We are here concerned, however, with the 
 character of the architecture of the Parthian 
 period. Hatra had the novel characteristic? 
 of being circular in form. The city was sur- 
 rounded by a wall, thick and strong, about 
 
 PLAN OF HATRA. 
 
 three miles in circumference, and a true circle 
 in form. The rampart was built of cut stone, 
 strengthened with bastions at intervals of a 
 hundred and seventy yards. Outside of the 
 wall was a ditch, broad and deep, and beyond 
 this was a mole, or agger, drawn around after 
 the manner of the ancients. We thus see 
 that at the time of the Parthian ascendency 
 the building arts and military expedients of 
 the West had been introduced to the extent 
 of making the capital city easily defensible 
 against a powerful enemy. The nomadic in- 
 stincts of the race had stooped to the adoption 
 of those rational means by which cities are 
 protected from assault. 
 
 From north to south across the circle 
 formed by the great wall, and constituting an
 
 392 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 arc thereof, was a river channel passing 
 through and furnishing water to the inhab- 
 itants. Perhaps the course of the stream had 
 been artificially rectified, as the antiquarian 
 has found it to be a right line through the 
 midst. In this respect the city was not unlike 
 Babylon, receiving the river thi'ough the wall 
 on the one side and permitting its outflow on 
 the other. There was thus formed two seg- 
 ments, a greater and a smaller, within the 
 <;ircle of the wall. In the smaller and eastern 
 division were the burial-grounds of the people, 
 while the residence portion occupied the greater 
 division west of the stream. Here were placed 
 the public buildings, the palaces of the king 
 and his officers and nobles, and whatever 
 temples the religious system of the country 
 <iemanded. 
 
 All these structures have in great measure 
 gone down to dust; but enough remains to 
 give the antiquarian a correct idea of the 
 whole. The ruins have been explored by 
 Layard, Fergusson, Ainsworth, and Ross, with 
 the same general result as to the character of 
 the ancient buildings of the city. Special at- 
 tention has been directed to a large edifice 
 standing near the center, and considered to 
 have been the palace of the king, with perhaps 
 an adjoining temple. Around the whole was 
 a wall in the form of a parallelogram, having 
 the respective dimensions of seven hundred 
 and eight hundred feet. The wall was of cut 
 stone, and was strengthened at frequent inter- 
 vals with bastions like those found in the 
 outer rampart of the city. Within this in- 
 •closure were two courts, the first being open 
 and free from architectural remains, and the 
 ■second containing the ruins of the two edifices 
 to which we have just referred. 
 
 It is believed that the larger of the two, so 
 far as the ground plan was concerned, was the 
 less important and imposing. It has been 
 •conjectured that this division of the general 
 structure was intended as a residence for the 
 king's guard, the minor officers, and servants 
 of the court. The second building appears to 
 have been the royal residence. It consisted — 
 as has been determined by the ruins — of seven 
 principal halls lying parallel, opening to the 
 east. Three of these were of larger and four 
 
 of smaller dimensions. All were arched or 
 vaulted. The smaller halls were thirty feet 
 in depth and twenty feet in width, and the 
 height was thirty feet. The larger halls had 
 a depth or length of ninety feet, were thirty- 
 five feet in breadth and sixty feet in height. 
 Into these vaulted and elongated chambers 
 light was admitted from the eastern openings, 
 which are supposed to haVe been closed Avith 
 curtains in the times of occupancy. 
 
 The observer standing in front of the struc- 
 ture would see a fagade of cut stone well laid 
 in a great wall from right to left, pierced by 
 seven archways, resembling very much the 
 entrances to stone viaducts, tunnels, or the 
 under arches of bridges, such as we see in 
 modern architecture. These arched halls con- 
 stituted the great apartments of the palace. 
 They were ornamented within, and at the 
 further extremity terminated in smaller rooms, 
 which were doubtless the sleeping chambers of 
 the occupants. In the fagade, considerable 
 skill was shown by the stone-cutters and 
 builders. The seven arches, three of greater 
 and four of smaller dimensions, were so ar- 
 ranged as to give a pleasing efl^ect. The arches 
 were sprung from sculptured pilasters, bearing 
 spirited figures, some real and some mytholog- 
 ical in character. In one place a female form, 
 floating in air, was represented in a way to 
 remind the beholder of the more elegant 
 figures thus suspended in the mural decora- 
 tions of Pompeii. In several places heads 
 were carved in the stone, particularly in the 
 keystone, in a manner peculiar to the Parthian 
 workmen, but by no means devoid of art. 
 
 The side walls of the arched halls within 
 were relieved by square pilasters rising from 
 the floor to the spring of the vault. In this 
 part much ornamental work was done. There 
 were capitals and ovals and peculiar carvings 
 of several varieties, especially in the line of 
 the cornice. Here again, on the capitals of 
 the pilasters, were found human heads and 
 mythological creatures, some of which were 
 truly remarkable in character, and without 
 likeness among any other known sculptures. 
 It has been noticed, moreover, by antiquarians 
 that the figures in question were all marked 
 by a striking quality of spfrit And activity — a
 
 PARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 393 
 
 certain airiness of life almost jocose in its ex- 
 pression. 
 
 A close examination of the struc- 
 ture here before us has led to the be- 
 lief that the first story, now remaining 
 in ruins, was surmounted by a second 
 and perhaps a third story of nearly the 
 same height, but of different character 
 from the first. In these, of course, the 
 arched openings would be wanting, 
 their place being taken by windows 
 or apertures not unlike what we should 
 expect in a modern building. Some 
 have gone so far as to construct restora- 
 tions of the palace, giving the full 
 fagade of about three hundred feet 
 from right to left, and a height of three 
 stories. Nor is it improbable that the 
 conjecture fairly represents to the eye 
 the true outline of the ancient edifice. 
 And in this we may not forbear to note 
 the close resemblance of the restora- 
 tion to the well-known appearance of 
 the projection of a great railway station 
 in Europe or America. The arches in 
 the first story correspond to the open- 
 ings for the tracks, and the second and 
 third stories above are not unlike the 
 superstructure of our stations for pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 We have already remarked that at 
 the bottom or further end of the great 
 halls were arranged the apartments of 
 actual occupation. Research has shown 
 among these the usual division between 
 those assigned to the men and those 
 occupied by the women. It is in evi- 
 dence that the arrangements in this 
 respect were strictly Oriental, the aim 
 being to prevent the free intercourse of 
 the men and the women of the court. 
 
 Something has already been said of 
 the adjacent structure, to which anti- 
 quarians have assigned the ofiice of 
 a temple. It is not certainly known 
 that such was the use of the edifice. 
 The ground plan shows a square of 
 about forty feet in each dimension. It appears 
 that the building was surrounded through its 
 whole extent by a hall or passage-way, which 
 
 was vaulted after the manner of the halls in 
 the palace. Two windows were so set as to 
 
 ^;^ 
 
 admit the light into the passage. The door- 
 way bore a frieze which exhibited some of the 
 finest work which the Parthian chisels were
 
 394 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 able to produce. As to the interior apart- 
 ment, that also was of a vaulted form above, 
 and dimly lighted by a single aperture. It 
 has been noted that the main apartment within 
 was devoid of ornamentation, and from this 
 fact the conjecture has been principally formed 
 that the room was devoted to religious worship. 
 The severe spii'it of the Iranians did not per- 
 mit the religious thought to be distracted from 
 the contemplation of the unseen by the inter- 
 position of material forms. 
 
 The present sketch may serve as an outline 
 of building at its best estate among the Par- 
 thians. While the race may not by any 
 means be compared in its structural abilities 
 with the Greeks, the Romans, or the Egyptians, 
 it may well be likened to the Persians and 
 Susianians. The work which we have here 
 described was on the whole substantially and 
 well done. The building material — a gray- 
 
 members of a given family or kindred. The 
 work is plain and solid. The subterranean 
 apartments are of a peculiar bell-shape, widen- 
 ing to the bottom somewhat after the manner 
 of the modern cistern. Such underground 
 rooms are carefully walled with stone well 
 laid, plain, and substantial. It is quite likely 
 that the vaults were used as a receptacle for 
 the bones collected from the towers of the 
 dead, where, as already explained, the flesh of 
 the bodies had been plucked away and de- 
 voured by the birds of the air. 
 
 It is clear, however, that burial, in the 
 proper sense, came at length to be practiced 
 by the Parthians. We may well infer that 
 the notions of the Babylonians were to some 
 extent adopted by the Parthian people of the 
 times of the Empire. At all events coffins are 
 found not wholly dissimilar to those of the 
 ancient Chaldees, but there is a sufficient 
 
 PARTHIAN SLIPPER COFFIN. 
 
 brown limestone — was selected of the proper 
 quality, and was handled with skill. The 
 cutting was done with great exactitude. No 
 mortar or cement has been found in any of the 
 walls. It would appear that the builders re- 
 lied wholly upon perfect work by the chisel 
 for the fitting and juxtaposition of the ma- 
 terials. Like the builders of Egypt and Baal- 
 bec, they relied upon the accuracy of the line 
 and the perfection of the work rather than on 
 the uncertain and dubious expedient of mortar. 
 We have already remarked that the smaller 
 segment within the circular wall of Hatra was 
 for the most part a necropolis. The surface of 
 this part is marked with many small structures, 
 square as to their shape, built of stone, but 
 long since fallen into ruins. It can hardly be 
 doubted that they were the sepulchres of the 
 Parthian citizens dwelling across the river. In 
 general, the foundations are about twenty feet 
 square, but are sometimes larger. Doubtless 
 each structure marks the resting-place of the 
 
 variation from the type to indicate a change 
 of use and manner. Instead of the so-called 
 "dish-cover" vessel, the Parthians employed 
 Avhat is known as the "slipper" coffin, so 
 named from its resemblance in shape to a 
 slipper. Such boxes were of earthenware, a 
 blue-green in color, and glazed and orna- 
 mented in the way of finish. They are found 
 of all lengths, from three to six feet, are not 
 untasteful in form, and are perhaps among the 
 most durable sarcophagi ever invented. 
 
 The antiquary, by careful examination, 
 has found near the foot of the box an aperture 
 evidently designed for the escape of the gases 
 generated in putrefaction. As for the princi- 
 pal opening, that was closed over the face of 
 the dead with a lid, which was no doubt 
 hermetically sealed in its place. The small 
 art of the Parthians sought expression on the 
 coffin-lid, which was not infrequently adorned 
 with figures either suggestive of the life and 
 manners of the dead or emblematical of some
 
 FARTHIA.— PEOPLE AND ARTS. 
 
 895 
 
 are sufficient to 
 
 of those -wavering hopes wherewith the living 
 of all ages have beguiled themselves in the 
 presence of death. 
 
 We have come in this connection to the 
 consideration of such in- 
 different Art as the Par- 
 thians were able to pro- 
 duce. We have seen how 
 unfavorable on the whole 
 the country was for an 
 artistic development, and 
 how little genius for re- 
 production of forms and 
 images the Parthian race 
 possessed. The remains 
 of this people, however, 
 show a certain degree of aesthetic perception, 
 and a corresponding measure of artistic achieve- 
 ment. First of all, we may mention the 
 terra-cotta statuettes which are found in the 
 ruins of the Parthian cities. Some of these 
 Loftus has described with his usual care. The 
 Parthian artist seems to have preferred the re- 
 cumbent posture in the subject of his work. 
 One effigy represents a warrior reclining at a 
 banquet. He wears his helmet, his coat of 
 mail, and his greaves. There is evidently 
 much truthfulness in the delineation. Female 
 figures are represented according to the fitness 
 of things. The figure is draped, and the 
 face veiled after the manner of the East. In 
 some instances, however, it appears that the 
 infection of Western art had reached to Iran, 
 for examples have been found in which a por- 
 tion of the person and the lower limbs are 
 nude. 
 
 From these attempts at the representation 
 of the highest existing form, namely, the body 
 of man, we may pass to the consideration of 
 utensils. These were to a certain extent of 
 artistic outline and finish. The vases and jars, 
 water-jugs and lamps, of the Parthian people 
 were of terra-cotta, and were sufficiently well- 
 formed to merit praise even in a modern col- 
 lection of such objects. In general, the same 
 were modeled after the Babylonian pattern, 
 being produced on the potter's wheel, and 
 hardened by the heat of the furnace. It may 
 be noted in this connection that the larger 
 part of the pottery recovered from the Par- 
 
 thian period has been found in the sepulchral 
 vaults, where, no doubt, food and drink were 
 placed by the hand of that superstitious af- 
 fection which was stretched out by all the an- 
 
 PAETHIAN VASES, JUGS, AND LAMPS. 
 
 cient peoples over the burial-place of the 
 departed. 
 
 From utensils we may pass to personal 
 decorations. These were many, and not in- 
 elegant. We have already referred to the 
 triple necklaces worn by the kings and queens, 
 and doubtless by the nobility. The diadems 
 of royal personages were adorned with jewels. 
 Ear-rings and finger-rings appear to have been 
 generally worn by both men and women. 
 Beads and bangles were of the fashion, as were 
 also armlets, wristlets, anklets, and the like. 
 The toes were ofteu adorned with rings. In 
 the manufacture of ornaments the Parthian 
 smiths employed the precious metals, as also 
 copper and brass. Another kind of personal 
 ornament much in vogue, especially among 
 the nobility, was the band of gold which 
 was made to depend from caps and mitres 
 in the style of modern ribbons. The infer- 
 ence of great personal pride may be deduced 
 from the universality of adornments for the 
 person. 
 
 It is the decision of antiquaries that not 
 more than a half dozen authentic examples of 
 Parthian bas-reliefs have been recovered. 
 From these the opinion of the modern reader 
 must be formed relative to the extent and 
 character of Parthian sculpture. On the Rock 
 of Behistun one of these examples is found. 
 It consists of a procession of figures moving in 
 one direction, somewhat after the manner of 
 the procession on the frieze of the Parthenon. 
 Some of the figures are on foot, but the rest 
 are mounted, and are riding with lance at rest,
 
 396 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 evidently in the charge of battle. In one part 
 a flying figure appears, which is thought to 
 represent Farae or Victory. The attitude of 
 both men and horses is spirited, and it is be- 
 lieved that the work, before the decay which 
 has come through centuries of exposure to the 
 elements, was of a high order of artistic merit. 
 It has been observed, however, that there are 
 discrepancies in the design, as for instance, the 
 circlet, or diadem, which Flying Fame holds 
 over the head of the warrior is altogether too 
 large, being suflBcient to cover his whole figure ! 
 
 another example of such art is that of a 
 mounted hunter engaged in conflict with a 
 bear. His spear is at the animal's throat. 
 His horse rises and the bear rears on his hind 
 legs for the final struggle. The work is rudely 
 done, but the design is true to nature and 
 marked with much spirit. The figure on 
 horseback presents a wonderful beard, curled 
 into a puff surrounding all the lower part of 
 the face, and balanced behind with a cor- 
 responding protuberance of the hair. The 
 bear much resembles an American grizzly iii 
 
 HUNTER KILLING A BEAR. 
 
 But this is, as Hamlet might say, to consider 
 the question " too curiously." 
 
 Other bas-reliefs have been discovered in 
 various places. A favorite subject was the 
 horse and the man. One work of great value 
 and merit represents a INIagus, or High Priest, 
 in the oracular attitude. At his right hand is 
 the cone burr. He is in full robe of ofiice. 
 He wears a mitre that might almost have 
 suited one of the mediaeval Popes. His hair is 
 worn long, and is cui'iously done into a broad 
 puff' extending laterally on both sides at the 
 back of the neck as far as the shoulders. Still 
 
 his form and attitude, and the hunter seems U 
 be clad as a man of the arctic regions. 
 
 On the whole, however, and to sum up re- 
 sults, it might almost be said that the Parthiana 
 were a people wholly inartistic in taste and 
 habit. No doubt a single Greek town of the 
 second or third class, in the times of the Hel- 
 lenic ascendency, exhibited a larger range of art 
 work, whether of the chisel or the brush, than 
 did the whole Empire of Mithridates spread- 
 ing through many lauds, from the little prin- 
 cipality of Osrhcene in the upper bend of the 
 Euphrates to the summits of the Hindu Kush.
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 397 
 
 CHAPTKR XXXV.— CiVIIv AND NlILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 its we have said in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, the tribal 
 history of the Parthiaus 
 is lost iu the mist and 
 distance. Nor need the 
 reader of the present age 
 cultivate the anxious 
 spirit relative to the origin of the migrations 
 and the wild nomadic life of a primitive peo- 
 ple so far removed in time and place from all 
 the interests of the world that now is. Cer- 
 tain it is that the Parthians were little known 
 to the Semitic peoples, as is evidenced by the 
 fact that the name is not found in the He- 
 brew Scriptures. 
 
 We have already spoken of the Aryan or- 
 igin of the Parthian people and the probable 
 
 intermixture with them of the Scyths. Their 
 first emergence into historical view is in con- 
 nection with the story of the Persian Empire 
 at that juncture when the Pseudo-Smerdis at- 
 tempted by false pretensions to gain possession 
 of the throne. The narrative of that inter- 
 esting episode in Persian history has already 
 been presented. At the time of the conspiracy 
 the Parthians revolted and upheld the cause- 
 of Smerdis against Darius Hystaspis until" 
 what time both they and the Pretender were- 
 put down. 
 
 From this circumstance we learn that at 
 this time — namely, in 521 B. C. — Parthia was 
 a province, or satrapy, of the Persian Empire. 
 It appears, indeed, that Hystaspes, father of 
 Darius the Great, held the office of satrap of 
 
 PARTHIAN WARRIORS.
 
 398 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Parthia at the time of the Smerdiau revolt. 
 He, of course, supported the claims of his son, 
 as did also the majority of the other princes. 
 But the Parthians, in league with many from 
 the adjacent provinces in the North, strove to 
 overturn the throne, suffering severe reverses 
 in the field, losing in a single engagement, ac- 
 cording to the reckless estimates of antiquity, 
 about eleven thousand men. Thus much may 
 be gathered from the inscriptions on the Rock 
 -of Behistun. 
 
 We thus arrive at the existence of Parthia 
 as a division of the Empire of the Persians. 
 After their suppression and punishment for 
 revolt in the interest of Smerdis, the Par- 
 thians accepted Darius, and remained loyal to 
 the succeeding Achsemenian kings. Their 
 history becomes the common history of Per- 
 sia down to the time when the complication, 
 existing for more than a century between the 
 Great Kings and the commonwealths of Greece, 
 was cut by the sword of Alexander. 
 
 It is not needed in this connection to review 
 the work of the Conqueror as he passed from 
 Europe into Asia and traversed that continent 
 i;hrough a distance of two thousand miles. 
 Persia was now in the ascendant over all the 
 East. Her dominion was accepted by many 
 peoples and nations. Alexander, by the acute- 
 ness of his genius, perceived that his object- 
 ive point was the court of Babylon, that the 
 overthrow of Darius would be a universal 
 victory, and that the subject nations would, 
 with the master stroke, fall asunder and ac- 
 cept himself instead. 
 
 The event was as the expectation. Arbela 
 ended all. With the life of Darius Avent out 
 the dynasty and the whole cycle of ideas 
 which it represented. True, Alexander deemed 
 it important to continue his expeditions north, 
 south, and east, until the subject nations were 
 taught by ocular demonstration the futility of 
 opposition to his will. One of his campaigns 
 was directed against Bactria. In the prosecu- 
 tion of this, passing from the Tigris to the 
 hostile country, he must needs traverse Par- 
 thia. But it does not appear that the Par- 
 thians had refused to accept the results of Ar- 
 bela. Little, perhaps nothing, is said of any 
 resistance on their part to the Conqueror's prog- 
 
 ress. To them, as to so many others, the 
 event was but a change of masters. 
 
 The reader of the present age is many times 
 astonished at the rapid and spectacular trans- 
 formations of antiquity — this for the reason 
 that he does not apprehend the civil and so- 
 cial condition of the ancient world. The Per- 
 sian Empire, for instance, was not closely 
 enough bound in its parts to constitute a 
 Staatenbund, much less a consolidated union 
 of nations. Each satrap was a feudatory, 
 holding loosely under his suzerain. To strike 
 down the latter was to break the nexus of the 
 whole, and to deliver the provinces back to 
 local independence. But the condition was 
 such that the establishment of another nexus 
 was easy, if not necessary. 
 
 Thus for two centuries we contemplate 
 Parthia as a satrapy of the Persian Empire, 
 and then behold its transference to the Son 
 of PhilijD and his successors. It is sufficient 
 to note in this connection that the country of 
 Parthia proper was, under the Persian kings, 
 at first associated for governmental purposes 
 with Chorasmia, Sogdiana, and Arya. In the 
 second stage Parthia was bound up with Hyr- 
 cania into a single province, and it is probable 
 that the two were held as one at the time of 
 the conquest of the Empire by the Macedo- 
 nians. By that event Parthia, without other 
 serious changes, was subjected to a Greek ad- 
 ministration under officers appointed at the 
 first by Alexander himself, and afterwards by 
 his successors. 
 
 In order to follow the history of the coun- 
 try we are obliged in this place to enter again 
 that distracted epoch which succeeded the death 
 of Alexander the Great. We shall hereafter, 
 when we come to narrate with particularity 
 the partition of the world among the Greeks, 
 describe the wars, the tumults, and the trans- 
 formations by v/hich the quadripartite division 
 of Asia, Eastern Europe, and South-eastern 
 Africa was effected. For the present it is suf- 
 ficient to present an outline of that part of 
 the field with which the destinies of Parthia 
 are concerned. The four Powers to which we 
 have just referred — as determined by war and 
 compromise among the successors of Alexan- 
 der — were Macedonia, Egypt, Asia Minor, and
 
 PARTHIA— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 399 
 
 Syria. The last named was misnamed ; for 
 the dominion so-called had, at first, but little 
 respect to Syria Proper. Ou the contrary, it 
 included all of the Alexandrian conquests in 
 South-western Asia. It was by far the most 
 extensive and important part of what had 
 been taken by the Son of Philip ; and it is 
 with this so-called Kingdom of Syria that we 
 are here concerned^ 
 
 Considered from the style of dynasty estab- 
 lished over it, the same was known as the 
 Kingdom of the Seleucid^, so named from 
 Seleucus Nicator, founder of the line of sov- 
 ereigns referred to. As for Seleucus, he had 
 not at the division of the Empire received a 
 portion, but he was at length appointed satrap 
 of Babylon, and from that position soon rose 
 to preeminence in the East. In this relation 
 he served under Antigonus, to whom the King- 
 dom of Syria had been given. But having 
 aroused the jealousy of the king, Seleucus fled 
 to Egypt, and put himself for a season under 
 the protection of Ptolemy. At length the 
 Greek monarchs of the three western divisions 
 of the Macedonian Empire banded against the 
 king of Syria. When this confederacy was 
 formed, Seleucus first recovered his office as 
 satrap of Babylon, and in that relation joined 
 the Western monarchs' with his forces on the 
 field of Ipsus. It was by the battle so named 
 that the subsequent destinies of Western Asia 
 were for a long time determined. A new di- 
 vision, being a modification of that already in 
 existence, was made by the victors, and Seleu- 
 cus received for his part all of the Asiatic con- 
 quests which had been achieved by Alexander, 
 with the exception of Lower Syria and Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 No sooner had this result been achieved 
 than Seleucus was able to look around and 
 view with complacency his dominions. These 
 included Upper Syria, Mesopotamia, parts of 
 Cappadocia and Phrygia, Assyria, Media, Baby- 
 lonia, Susiana, Persia Proper, Carmania, Sa- 
 gartia, Hyrcania, Parthia, Bactria, Sogdiana, 
 Arya, Zarangia, Arachosia, Sacastana, Gedro- 
 sia, and the hither parts of India — and to 
 these was presently added Armenia on the 
 west. The Imperial realms here defined in- 
 cluded a million two hundred thousand square 
 N.— Vol. 1—25 
 
 miles, from which, after deducting the waste 
 and desert parts, about eight hundred thousand 
 square miles of valuable and fertile territory 
 remained. 
 
 It now devolved upon Seleucus to choose 
 his capital and organize his Government. In 
 this connection the cities of Mesopotamia, fa- 
 mous in ancient story, would naturally suggest 
 themselves. There on the Lower Euphrates 
 was Babylon, which Alexander himself had 
 preferred as the seat of his dominion. On the 
 Upper Tigris was Nineveh, or the site of Nine- 
 veh, equally well situated for a capital of em- 
 pire. For a short season the former was 
 chosen ; but Seleucus for some reason wearied 
 of Babylon, and determined to build a capital 
 of his own. For this he chose a site about 
 forty miles distant to the north-east, on the 
 right bank of the Tigris, and there laid the 
 foundations of Seleucia, which soon sprang into 
 importance and grandeur as the seat of central 
 interest for all of South-western Asia. 
 
 Here then was founded the Kingdom of the 
 Seleucidse, under auspices favorable to perma- 
 nence and grandeur. But it was not long 
 until Seleucus made the fatal mistake of aban- 
 doniug the position which he had so well chosen 
 in Mesopotamia and seeking another and less 
 favorable capital in the far south-west, on the 
 border of his Empire. 
 
 It would appear that Alexander and his 
 successors fought against the law of nature in 
 their attempt to carry European institutions 
 backwards across Asia. There is certainly an 
 irresistible cosmic force which draws men to 
 the West. The historical drama constantly 
 shifts its scene in the direction of the setting 
 sun. There was doubtless a time in the past 
 when Babylon itself was a young and progress- 
 ive municipality in the West. A large part 
 of ancient history is concerned with the pro- 
 cesses and vicissitudes by which the central 
 energies of human power were transferred from 
 Babylon to Rome, just as a large part of Mod- 
 ern History has covered the details of the 
 movement from Rome to London. There is 
 something in nature, there is something in man, 
 there is much in the correlations of man and 
 nature, which propel civilization in the direc- 
 tion indicated and makes it almost impossible
 
 400 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 to replant eastward the aggressive societies and 
 institutions of the West. 
 
 The men of the Alexandrian epoch found 
 it so. Perhaps no valid reason could have 
 been assigned by Seleucus for yielding his 
 vantage on the banks of the Tigris and trans- 
 ferring his seat of government to Antioch, in the 
 valley of the Orontes. Whatever may have 
 been his motive, the policy was fatal to the 
 maintenance of a European dominion in South- 
 western Asia. The king, by the removal, re- 
 associated himself with the contentious and 
 contending successors of Alexander in Mace- 
 donia, Egypt, and Asia Minor. He was at 
 once rein vol ved with them in those wars which 
 were destined to continue until what time the 
 
 must sooner or later lose him all his Eastern 
 provinces. Alexander had, against the preju- 
 dices of his own countrymen, adopted th& 
 policy of uniting the ruling classes and native 
 princes of the East with himself. He had 
 encouraged to a great extent among his officers^ 
 and men the formation of marriage unions and 
 other alliances by which the conquered peoples- 
 might come to regard their interests as identi- 
 fied with those of the Conqueror. He had 
 deliberately called to his aid the princes of 
 the subject Asiatic provinces, reappointed them 
 to their places, conferred honors upon them^ 
 and made them secure under his authority. 
 While this policy had left behind much bitter- 
 ness on the part of the adventurers who had 
 
 I. SELEUCUS I. (Nicator) B. C. 280. 
 2 ANTIOCHUS I. (Soter), 261. 
 3. ANTIOCHUS II. (Theos), 246. 
 
 4. Seleucus II. (Callinicus), 226. 
 
 Antiochus Hierax. 
 
 5. Seleucus III. (Ceraunus), 223. 
 
 6. ANTIOCHUS III. (The Great), 187. 
 
 DYNASTY 
 OF THE SELEUCIDi^. 
 
 EXPLANATION: 
 Kings numbered in order of succession, 
 
 tl.us, 1.2.3. etc. 
 
 Regular Jescent indicated thus . 
 
 Doubtful or spurious descent, thus 
 
 Arabic numbers after names indicate 
 
 date of death or dethronement. 
 
 7. Seleucus IV. (Philopator), 175. 8. Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes), 164. 
 
 10. Demetrius I. (Soter), 150. j 
 
 ! 9. Antiochus V. (Eupator), 162. 11. Alexander Balas, 145. 
 
 12. Demetrius II. (Nicator), 125. 14. Antiochus VII. (Sidetes), 128. 13. Antiochus VI. (Theos), 142. 
 
 16. Antiochus IX., 95. 
 18. Antiochus X., 83. 
 
 15. Antiochus VIII. 17. Seleucus V., 20. Demetrius III., 21. Antiochus XII., 69. 
 (Grypus), %. 94. 88. | 
 
 I 22. Antiochus XIII., 65. 
 19. Antiochus XI., 83. 
 
 Mistress of the World should, from her seat 
 on the Tiber, stretch out her scepter over all. 
 
 But we are here concerned rather with the 
 actual course of events than Avith speculative 
 views concerning them. The withdrawal of 
 the cajiital of the East from Seleucia to An- 
 tioch left the Asiatic nations without the visible 
 presence of the master. It left them to the 
 suggestion of conspiracy, revolt, and independ- 
 ence. Worst of all, it left them to the domi- 
 nation of corrupt satraps, who resumed the 
 manners and methods of the past, extorting 
 from the subject peoples whatever might be 
 gained by excess and tyranny. 
 
 For Seleucus had in the meantime com- 
 mitted another administrative error, which 
 
 hoped to revel in all the spoils of conquest — 
 while it had in many instances alienated the 
 home Government of Macedonia — it had nev- 
 ertheless secured to the Conqueror the regards,, 
 the confidence, and even the aflfection of peo- 
 ples and races whom he could not otherwise 
 have bound sincerely to his interests. 
 
 At the first his successors followed in a 
 feeble and uncertain way the policy of their 
 great leader. But their weakness and cupidity 
 soon prevailed, and they began to promote Eu- 
 ropeans in the place of native princes. This 
 method was fatally adopted by Seleucus on his 
 withdrawal to Antioch. He set Greeks in 
 authority over the Asiatics, as if to say that 
 his security in the East depended upon Euro-
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 401 
 
 pean rather than Asiatic support. It may 
 be doubted whether his governors themselves, 
 chosen henceforth from the small European 
 contingent, were more loyal, more devoted to 
 the king than would have been the native no- 
 blemen of Asia; and as for the subject peo- 
 ples, all sympathy between themselves and 
 their rulers must at once have been destroyed. 
 
 We thus see the head of the Syrian king- 
 dom of the Greeks establishing himself in 
 leisure aud pleasure at Antioch, little legardiug 
 the concerns of the East. The Mesopotamian 
 countries and all beyond were left in charge 
 of their European governors. Seleucus him- 
 self gave his attention to Western affairs, in- 
 terfering in Egypt and Asia Minor, according 
 to the caprice of the day. Seleucus reigned un- 
 til the year B. C. 280 when he was assassinated 
 at Lysimachia. He left his crown to his son 
 Antioch us I., called Soter, second of the 
 Seleucid princes. The latter pursued the same 
 policy with his father, and became involved in 
 the same troubles. The administration of the 
 East was continued in the same manner, was 
 attended with the same dangers, and that of 
 the West was distracted with like quarrels 
 and battles, until, after the space of nineteen 
 years, Autiochus Soter was slain by a Gaul, in 
 a conflict near Ephesus. 
 
 The crown next descended to Antiochus 
 II., surnamed Theos, who, during the ten 
 years of his reign, was engaged in almost con- 
 stant warfare with Asia Minor and Egypt. 
 The history of all three reigns, covering the 
 period from the accession of Seleucus, in B. C. 
 301, to the death of Antiochus Theos, in 
 B. C. 250, has a common feature — that of 
 neglect of the East aud needless complication 
 with the affairs of the West. 
 
 During this period, the old kingdom of 
 Parthia, reduced for centuries to subordination, 
 first to Persia, afterwards to the successors of 
 Alexander, lay in comparative obscurity. But 
 the time had now arrived for an emergence 
 by rebellion into light and life and action. 
 At this epoch the actual history of Parthia as 
 an independent power begins. All the rest is, 
 as it were, the setting of the picture. From 
 this time forth the movement, first toward free- 
 dom, and then to greatness, is rapid and direct. 
 
 The administration of Antiochus the Di- 
 vine was of precisely the kind to furnish 
 the opportunity aud the suggestion of a revolt. 
 About six years before the conclusion of his 
 reign, Theodotus, or Diodotos, the Greek 
 satrap of Bactria, perceived in the distance 
 between himself and Antioch and in the ef- 
 feminate administration of the king the hint 
 of successful rebellion. He accordingly at 
 once threw off the yoke, gave himself the title 
 of BaslJeus, and entered upon an independent 
 administration. Thus did Bactria lead the 
 way in renouncing the sovereignty which had 
 been accepted since the Alexandrian conquest. 
 It appears that Antiochus had neither the am- 
 bition nor the courage to chastise his rebellious 
 governor, and Theodotus was accordingly per- 
 mitted to take his undisturbed course to inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 The example was contagious. The neigh- 
 boring satrapies felt the shock of the Bactrian 
 
 COIN OF THEODOTUS. 
 
 revolution, and soon adopted a similar method. 
 Parthia was the first to follow in the wake of 
 the neighboring revolt. In this country, how- 
 ever, the movement took on a wholly different 
 character. In Bactria the revolution could 
 hardly be said to be national. The Greek 
 governor was simply permitted to raise him- 
 self to the rank and title of king; but in 
 Parthia the revolt had a different source. 
 Here the spring of action was a national sen- 
 timent against the rule of the Europeans in 
 any form. The feeling was against the Greek 
 Dynasty in toto, so that instead of following 
 the lead of the governor in making himself 
 independent of Antiochus, the Parthians rose 
 against the governor himself, and the whole 
 system of foreign domination which he repre- 
 sented. 
 
 The circumstances and details of the revolt 
 have been differently told by different authors. 
 It has been narrated that a certain Arsaces —
 
 402 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 which name the leader of the revolution cer- 
 tainly bore — appeared out of Bactria, from 
 which country he had fled from the jealousy 
 of Theodotus. Coming into Parthia, he in- 
 duced the people to accept him for their leader 
 in a rebellion against their own Greek gov- 
 ernor. Successful in this, he was made king 
 of Parthia and founder of the dynasty. 
 Another account says that Pherecles, satrap 
 of Parthia under Antiochus the Divine, of- 
 fered an insult to Arsaces, who, according to 
 this tradition, Avas a native Parthian, son of 
 Phriapites, and that he — Arsaces — and his 
 brother Tiridates drew five of their fellow- 
 noblemen into a conspiracy and slew the 
 satrap. This done, the people were easily in- 
 duced to rise and throw off" the foreign domi- 
 nation altogether. They then chose Arsaces 
 for their king. Still another account makes 
 Arsaces to have been a Scythian of the nation 
 called the Dahee, who came by hostile invasion 
 into Parthia, overthrew the Greek government, 
 and made their leader king. 
 It is sufficient for historical pur- 
 poses to say that the rebellion 
 against the Greeks was led by 
 a patriot named Arsaces, who 
 com OF ARSACES I. ^.^^ pgrhaps of Scythian extrac- 
 tion ; that the foreign officers were expelled ; 
 that the pride of the nation was gratified by 
 the success of the insurrection ; and that its 
 leader was made king of Pai'thia, with the 
 title of Arsaces I. These events are assigned 
 to the year B. C. 256, but some have moved 
 the event forward to 250, being the year of 
 the death of Antiochus Theos. 
 
 The accession of Arsaces and the founding 
 of the Parthian monarchy were not wholly 
 peaceful. The expulsion of the Greeks from 
 the country — the suppression of their in- 
 fluence — was not of easy accomplishment. 
 The Greek capital, Hecatompylos, built by 
 Alexander, had been peopled in the first place 
 by Macedonians and other men out of the 
 West. These and their descendants would, 
 out of the nature of things, resist the revolu- 
 tion and strive to regain their ascendency. 
 The party of the late government, great or 
 small, would follow the counter-revolution. 
 Arsaces, therefore, had to make battle with 
 
 the malcontents, and to put them down by 
 force of arms. Nor was he able to give per- 
 fect quiet to the kingdom before his death, 
 which came by a spear-thrust in the side, in 
 the year B. C. 247. 
 
 The crown descended to Tiridates, brother 
 of the late king. But he took for his title 
 Arsaces II., and is generally referred to by that 
 name. It appears that the name Arsaces was 
 at once adopted as the designative title of the 
 Dynasty, which is thus known in history as 
 the Arsacid^e. It remained for the second 
 king of this great house to promote, establish, 
 and defend the kingdom planted in Aveakness 
 and uncertainty by his brother. His reign 
 lasted for over thirty years, during which time 
 Arsaces II. fully justified the expectations of 
 his country. The boundaries of Parthia were 
 enlai'ged. It was fortunate for the monarchy 
 that so strong a character was at its head, for 
 scarcely was the king established in power 
 until all of his energies and resources were 
 needed to protect the nation from conquest. 
 It was at this juncture, namely, in B. C. 245, 
 that Ptolemy Euergetes, of Egypt, warlike 
 and ambitious, led an ai'my into Asia, entered 
 the kingdom of Syria, overthrew Seleucus 
 Callinicus in battle, captured Antioch, and then 
 made an expedition into Mesopotamia — as 
 though he would recover the whole Empire of 
 Alexander. The major countries in his path 
 yielded with little resistance. Babylonia, Su- 
 siana, Assyria, Persia, and Media went down 
 successively before the invader. Indeed, the 
 restoration of the Asiatic dominion was com- 
 plete, with the exception of Bactria and 
 Parthia. 
 
 Tiridates thus found his kingdom threat- 
 ened by a new conqueror, between whom and 
 himself an unequal contest must be waged — 
 on his own side for existence, and on the 
 side of Ptolemy for Empire. But destiny had 
 prepared a different event. "While Ptolemy 
 was engaged in rapidly reconstructing the 
 power which Seleucus had permitted to go to 
 wreck, his attention was suddenly recalled to 
 Egypt. In that country a rebellion had 
 broken out, and the king was obliged to hurry 
 back to Africa, lest his losses at home might 
 be greater than his gains in Asia. The great
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 403 
 
 campaign which he had made with so much 
 apparent success became, historically consid- 
 ered, a campaign and nothing more. The 
 countries which he had conquered regained 
 their independence Avith the withdrawal of 
 the Egyptian army, and South-western Asia 
 resumed her former aspect. 
 
 But the lesson of the expedition was not 
 lost on Tiridates. He could but observe with 
 what ease the countries through which Ptolemy 
 had passed had been subdued. The wings of 
 his own ambition fluttered at the prospect. 
 Why should not a Parthian king make suc- 
 cessful warfare in the neighboring countries? 
 He accordingly organized an army, marched 
 into Hyrcania, overran the district, and added 
 it to his own dominion. This was an act of 
 direct aggression on the kingdom of Syria. 
 Hyrcania was a satrapy of that Power, and 
 Seleucus Callinicus must either yield ignobly 
 to the aggression, or else fight for the recovery 
 of the province. Thus were prepared the 
 antecedents of a conflict between the Parthians 
 on the one side and the Graeco- Asiatic kings 
 on the other, which was destined to be trans- 
 mitted to the Romans, and by them perpetuated 
 for several centuries. 
 
 For the moment, however, Callinicus was 
 unable to attempt the punishment of his 
 enemy. The king of Syria had a brother, 
 Antiochus Hierax, who troubled his dominions 
 in the West and paralyzed the powers of the 
 kingdom. But at length an accommodation 
 was reached between the two brothers, and 
 Callinicus found himself ready for his eastward 
 expedition. It appears that by this time the 
 Parthian cavalry had diffiised a wholesome 
 fear of itself throughout South-western Asia. 
 At all events the Syrian king deemed it pru- 
 dent to approach the enemy with the support 
 of an ally. He accordingly drew the king 
 of Bactria into a league with himself against 
 Parthia — a thing most unnatural and most 
 dangerous to the latter kingdom. 
 
 Callinicus then advanced to the conflict, 
 which Tiridates was not well able to enter. 
 Courage was not wanting, but an adequate 
 force to contend with the combined armies of 
 Syria and Bactria. The Parthian king found 
 it necessary to recede before the enemy, and 
 
 to fall back into Scythia, beyond the Oxus. 
 Parthia was penetrated by the foe, and it ap- 
 peared superficially that the independence of 
 the country was at an end. At this juncture, 
 however, Theodotus died, and the crown de- 
 scended to his son, more patriotic than his 
 father. Tiridates succeeded in detaching the 
 new king of Bactria from the unnatural 
 league, and brought him into alliance with 
 himself. The situation was so changed by 
 this event that Tiridates was able to meet 
 Callinicus in the field. A decisive battle was 
 fought, in which the Syrian army was routed 
 and driven from the country. 
 
 This success was perhaps the critical event 
 in the early history of the Parthian Kingdom. 
 It was regarded by the people as the definitive 
 achievement of independence. The day of the 
 battle became the day of the nation, and was 
 commemorated after the manner which peo- 
 ples in all ages have adopted in preserving 
 and transmitting the story of their liberty. 
 Nor was the efl^ect of the victory to be disre- 
 garded as it respected the other countries of 
 Asia. The final delivery of Parthia by suc- 
 cessful battle from the dominion of the Greek 
 Kingdom of Syria was an example to the other 
 Asiatic States. It showed that the successors 
 of Alexander, in so far from being invincible, 
 might be repelled by valor and constrained by 
 overthrow to confine themselves to the borders 
 of the Western seas. Henceforth the discern- 
 ing eye might discover the unmistakable symp- 
 toms of the coming of a native Asiatic Empire 
 in the place of the vast dominion established 
 by the Son of Philip. 
 
 The critical events to which we have just 
 referred happened about the year 237 B. C. 
 The purposes of Callinicus after his defeat and 
 expulsion may not be well discovered ; but the 
 difficulties in his own dominions were so great 
 as to confine his attention henceforth to his 
 home aflPairs. Hierax was again an insui-gent, 
 and with him the king had to decide the issue 
 by force. Parthia, delivered from apprehen- 
 sion, was left to pursue her own course, and 
 Tiridates employed the remainder of his reign, 
 full twenty years in duration, in consolidating 
 and establishing the kingdom. 
 
 By this time the Parthians had departed in
 
 401 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the national evolution, from the ancient bar- 
 baric type, and had learned to avail themselves 
 of approved methods of defense. Instead of 
 trusting henceforth to the wild and audacious 
 charges of their cavalry, they began to fortify 
 the country against the possible recurrence of 
 such invasions as that of Callinicus. Several 
 positions of importance were converted into 
 fortifications and intrusted to regular garrisons 
 for defense. The king is himself represented 
 by Justin and other authors as active in these 
 enterprises. Among other works which he 
 promoted was the building of a new capital. 
 We may well believe that Hecatompylos was 
 not wholly a pleasant seat of government for 
 the first of the Arsacid princes. The place 
 had been built, as we have said, by Alexander. 
 Jt was a Greek city. It represented the 
 European domination — a thing which had now 
 become hateful to the nation. The tradition 
 •of such a city was in the way of a peaceful 
 native administration. The 
 suggestions of the place were 
 against the existing order, and 
 the king sought to escape from 
 these surroundings and to 
 transfer his government to 
 the new city of Dara, which 
 he founded and promoted as the Parthian 
 capital. 
 
 For some reason, however, the enterprise 
 was not wholly successful. It is not certain 
 that Tiridates ever succeeded in removing the 
 Government to his new city. If so, the 
 transfer was of brief duration. AVe may con- 
 jecture that the Hecatompylonians, seeing the 
 Government about to slip away from them, 
 found it to their interest to become more loyal 
 to the existing order — less Greek and more 
 Parthian in their sympathies. It is possible, 
 moreover, that there was an equalization of 
 forces. Even the Saxons of England were 
 not wholly proof against the refinement, the 
 culture, the graceful speech and manners of 
 the Normans. Though they succeeded in ab- 
 sorbing their conquerors, they were them- 
 selves, in a measure, absorbed in turn. The 
 Greeks were the Normans of Parthia. With 
 them were culture, artistic taste, elegant 
 speech, fancy and wit. These things are lov- 
 
 COIN OF 
 ARTABANUS I. 
 
 able, even in our enemies. Our hatred of the 
 foreigner yields somewhat to our liking for his 
 ways. Women more than men are subject to 
 this infection. Probably the Parthian prin- 
 cesses and ladies of high rank had found in 
 the Greek residents of Hecatompylos a mere 
 graceful and charming folk than their own 
 brothers and lovers. At any rate the Greek 
 attraction finally prevailed over the repelling 
 forces, and Hecatompylos was retained as the 
 future capital of Parthia. 
 
 It was about the year 214 B. C. that 
 Tiridates, second of the Arsacidse, died, leav- 
 ing the crown to his son Artabanus I. He 
 also was an Arsaces, being the third of that 
 title. By this time Seleucus Callinicus had 
 also rendered his account, transmitting his 
 throne to Antiochus III., his second son. The 
 latter inherited the local troubles with which 
 the reign of his father had been distracted. 
 Scarcely had he taken the crown when 
 Achseus, one of his governors, rose in rebellion, 
 and civil war again ensued in Syria. 
 
 By this time the Parthian kings had learned 
 to be observant of the course of afllairs in the 
 West and the South-west, and to take advantage 
 of any circumstance which might favor the de- 
 velopment of their own kingdom. Artabanus 
 I. was of this mood. Perceiving that the 
 king of Syria had as much as he could attend 
 to in his home dominions, the Parthian planned 
 the conquest of Media. This ancient State, 
 now fallen into decay, lay open to invasion, 
 and Artabanus undertook its conquest. He 
 carried a vigorous campaign into the country, 
 where he seems to have been received with 
 little hostility. He made his way to Ecbatana, 
 took the city, completed the conquest, and 
 added Media to his dominion. For the mo- 
 ment it appeared that a great kingdom or Em- 
 pire was about to be projected, under the aus- 
 pices of the Arsacidse. 
 
 But Antiochus III. could not well permit 
 his great dependencies in the East to be torn 
 away without an effort for their recovery. 
 As soon as he could bring affairs to quiet in 
 Upper Syria, he gathered a large army and 
 set out for Mesopotamia. The event showed 
 that the king was not incapable of great am- 
 bition. Passing rapidly beyond the Tigris
 
 PARTHIA— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 405 
 
 •and the Zagros mountains, he entered Media, 
 recovered the capital, restored the Syrian au- 
 thority, and then moved forward against Par- 
 thia itself. In doing so, he had to traverse 
 the Iranian desert, a region almost wholly 
 without water. Upon this circumstance Arta- 
 banus relied to keep his enemy at bay. He 
 kept detachments of cavalry in the desert in 
 front of the Syrian army, with orders to fill 
 up or poison the wells upon which Antiochus 
 must depend for water. But the progress of 
 the latter could not be stayed. Hyrcania was 
 entered and its cities taken. The Parthians 
 now confronted the enemy, but were unable 
 to check his course. They adopted the expe- 
 dient, however, of keeping out of his way 
 until what time the Syrian king, wearied with 
 campaigning against a foe whom he could not 
 strike down, consented to peace. 
 
 It is thought that Artabanus agreed to co- 
 operate with the Syrian monarch in a war 
 with Bactria. That country, the reader will 
 remember, had also become independent. 
 Euthydemus, the king, had shown himself able 
 to defend the country. Nor did he shrink 
 from the invasion of his dominions by Anti- 
 ochus. It is probable that Artabanus was se- 
 cretly in sympathy with the Bactrian king in the 
 struggle that ensued with Antiochus. At any 
 rate, Euthydemus was able to uphold the for- 
 tunes of his country until the Syrian king, see- 
 ing the impossibility of restoring the Eastern 
 Empire by war, withdrew from the country, 
 leaving both Parthia and Bactria to follow their 
 own course of development. It would seem that 
 Antiochus scarcely regarded himself as a victor 
 in his Eastern wars, for the conditions of peace 
 which he conceded to those who had opposed 
 him were such as follow a drawn battle rather 
 than a conquest. 
 
 It would appear, however, that Parthia was 
 considerably weakened by the struggle through 
 which-, she had passed. The history of the 
 kingdom becomes for many years obscure. 
 The remainder of the reign of Artabanus was 
 of little importance in a national sense. At 
 least the ancient historians have passed over 
 the closing years of the third century B. C, 
 as though they were marked by no stirring 
 •event from the side of Parthia. In Bactria the 
 
 case was somewhat diflTerent. We may infer 
 that this kingdom was not so severely pun- 
 ished in the war with Syria as was Parthia. 
 At any rate, the remaining years of Euthy» 
 demus, and of his son and successor Demetrius, 
 were marked in Bactrian history as a period 
 of advancement and prosperity. Historically 
 considered, the forces were at this time bal- 
 ancing between the two kingdoms as to which 
 should finally take the lead in the restoration 
 of the Asiatic Empire under native princes. 
 
 We may, therefore, say no more in this 
 connection than that the subsequent reign of his 
 son, named Peiapatius, otherwise ArsacesIV., 
 was more obscure than that of his predecessor. 
 The single fact remains that he occupied the 
 throne from B. C. 196 to 181. The epoch was 
 in one sense important, for it was at this time 
 that the period in history assigned to the suc- 
 cessors of Alexander the Great comes to a 
 close. In the year 196 B. C. the Roman 
 Proconsul, Titus Quinctius Flaminius, made 
 his appearance at the Isthmian games, at Cor- 
 inth, and proclaimed the protectorate of the 
 Western Republic over Greece. It was the 
 end of Hellenic independence, and the begin- 
 ning of the end of all those divisions of po- 
 litical power which had been established in the 
 East by the Macedonians. Since it was from 
 the latter that Parthia had most to fear, and 
 since these were now to be completely over- 
 whelmed by Rome, Ave may note the time as 
 the crisis from which the Parthian Empire 
 and ascendency were to begin. It thus hap- 
 pened that in the obscurity of the reign of 
 Priapatius the antecedents were preparing of 
 a great dominion for his successors. 
 
 We may here make a brief pause and digres- 
 sion for the purpose of noting the condition of 
 affairs in the extreme eastern part of the former 
 dominions of Alexander the Great. If the 
 Macedonian governors had not been able to 
 hold their authority over the Asiatics in the 
 meridian of Parthia and Bactria, what shall 
 we say of their inability in the Indus valley ? 
 There lay the great region of the Punjaub, 
 cut off from all dictation of the West and 
 from all support by the Europeans. The will 
 of the Conqueror had indeed been suflScient to 
 hold the countries of Afghanistan and the
 
 406 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Upper Indus in subjection, but not so the will 
 of his successors. 
 
 The native Indian princes, like those of the 
 Great Plateau, soon revolted, and regained 
 their independence. Among these a king called 
 Chandragupta arose and established a dominion 
 in the Punjaub fit to be called a kingdom. 
 Already at the close of the fourth century 
 B. C. , when Seleucus Nicator made his great 
 expedition into the East, he found Chandra- 
 gupta reigning over the countries between the 
 two great rivers of India. Nor was it deemed 
 advisable by the Macedonians to enter into a 
 war with him for the recovery of the country. 
 The Indian prince was left in authority under 
 treaty stipulations defining the extent of the 
 Indian Kingdom. Nearly a century went by, 
 and Antiochus IIL crossed Asia on his expe- 
 dition to the East. But on approaching India 
 he also made a pause, and renewed with the 
 successors of Chandragupta the treaty of Se- 
 leucus. Amicable relations were established 
 between the Syrian Kingdom and the far East, 
 and gifts were interchanged between the mon- 
 archs in the manner of ancient royalty. 
 
 But these things were displeasing to the 
 king of Bactria. It was little agreeable to 
 his feelings to be overspanned by so wide an 
 arch as that between Antioch and the Pun- 
 jaub. Euthydemus determined to break this 
 far-reaching connection between the East and 
 the West, and himself made war on India. 
 After him Demetrius, the succeeding Bactrian 
 king, took up the cause. He carried a vic- 
 torious array into Afghanistan, and afterwards 
 into India. On the River Hydaspes he built 
 the city Euthymedeia, long known in ancient 
 geography. He established his supremacy in 
 the countries dominated by his arms ; and the 
 historian of the day might well have been 
 on tiptoe to witness the further expansion of 
 the Bactrian power into a universal Asiatic 
 Empire. 
 
 This period, however, covered the climax. 
 The Bactrian ascendency could reach no 
 higher. It is believed that the success of the 
 kingdom in the times of Euthydemus and 
 Demetrius was correlated with the unsuccess 
 of Parthia at the same epoch. It may have 
 been that the Parthian kings of the period 
 
 were unable to do more than to maintain the 
 status in qxio until what time the nation might 
 revive from the effects of the Syrian war, and 
 until Bactrian ambition should run its course. 
 
 We may pass at once from the unknown 
 reign of Arsaces IV. to that of his son and 
 successor Phraates I., otherwise Arsaces V. 
 The' latter acceded to power in the year B. C. 
 181, and his coming marked an epoch of re- 
 vival in the fortunes of the kingdom. It were 
 difficult to say how much under such circum- 
 stances is due, on the one hand, to the re- 
 newal of spirit among the people, and how 
 much on the other should be attributed to the 
 ambition of the monarch. Neither is available 
 to any great extent without the aid of the 
 other. Of a certainty an ancient king could 
 not of himself make a successful war. Equally 
 certain it is that an ancient people, accus- 
 tomed to the forms of monarchy, used to re- 
 ceive mandates, and to look to its head for 
 orders and inspiration, could not make suc- 
 cessful war without the leadership of a com- 
 petent king. 
 
 In this case we may assume that the people 
 of Parthia had recovered from their period of 
 depression, and that Phraates was ambitious 
 of conquest. At all events he began his reign 
 by making war on the Mardi. These were a 
 mountain people living in the fastnesses of the 
 Elburz range — a kind of Swiss of the sub- 
 Caspian hills. Their position was almost in- 
 accessible, and their spirit the spirit of mount- 
 aineers. We may perceive, moreover, that 
 Phraates was much at fault in making his 
 first war from his inability to use the Parthian 
 cavalry in the country which he must pene- 
 trate. Nevertheless, the invasion of Mardia 
 was successful. The tribe was conquered and 
 combined with the Parthians. 
 
 The reader must bear in mind that the 
 authority of the kings of Antioch still nomi- 
 nally extended to the borders of Parthia and 
 Bactria. Any movement of the Parthian 
 king, therefore, beyond the limits of his own 
 territory was aggressive, and might well pro- 
 voke the hostility of the Seleucid monarch. 
 The latter at this time was Seleucus IV., sur- 
 named Philopator. At the time of the con- 
 quest of the Mardians by Phraates, the Syrian
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 407 
 
 monarch was deeply involved with Rome. 
 The shadow of that colossal power had already 
 fallen on Greece and Egypt and the East. It 
 was therefore out of the question for the king 
 of Syiia, whatever may have been his resent- 
 ment, to proceed against the Parthian King- 
 dom in punishment for its aggression. Per- 
 haps the loss of the country of the Mardi was 
 not much regarded. The great Powers of 
 Western Asia were nearly all established on 
 the plain. The massive peoples which were 
 wielded by the kings of Mesopotamia, of Asia 
 Minor, and of Syria were adjusted to the low- 
 lands, to the alluvial countries, and knew not 
 how to deal with mountain tribes any more 
 than the ostrich understands the eyrie of the 
 eagle. So the Mardi were permitted to go to 
 the conqueror. 
 
 Phraates, gratified with his success, soon 
 made a bolder move. It would appear that 
 he was able to consider geography in its rela- 
 lations with political development. It hap- 
 pened that his point of view took in easily 
 one of the critical positions of Asia. The 
 Greek writers have dwelt with much interest 
 on the celebrated pass called the Caspian 
 Gates. We have already had occasion, in the 
 histories of Media and Persia, to refer to this 
 famous gap left by nature between the mount- 
 ains on the one hand and the desert on the 
 other. In modern geography the place is 
 designated as the Pass of Girduni Sudurrah. 
 It is, in a word, the gateway between Ar- 
 menia, Media, and Persia on the one side, and 
 Turkistan, Khorassan, and Afghanistan on the 
 other. Nor is there any other' way by which 
 convenient or even practicable passage between 
 the East and the West can be found. The 
 situation seems almost to have been contrived 
 as a military expedient in the strategy of the 
 Asiatic nations. 
 
 For here the Elburz mountains stretch their 
 impassable barrier from the Caspian on the 
 north to the desert regions of the Great Pla- 
 teau on the south. At the termination of the 
 range in this direction a spur projects to a 
 considerable distance desertward, as if to ex- 
 tend the barrier beyond the natural limit. 
 This mountain spur is broken from the prin- 
 cipal range in such manner as to make 
 
 human transit possible, but hardly practicable 
 through the northern gap. At the lower ex- 
 tremity, however, where the offshoot abuts 
 against the desert, stand the so-called Caspian 
 Gates. The approach from either side seems 
 to be absolutely barred by the mountain wall, 
 but an army winding carefully along finds a 
 narrow and unobstructed pass from Media 
 Rhagiana on the west into the country of the 
 ancient Sagartians on the east. 
 
 The importance of the Caspian Gates was 
 well known to the ancients. Phraates per- 
 ceived it. Having conquered the Mardi, he 
 next turned his attention to Media Rhagiana ; 
 for, could he but succeed in conquering that 
 country, he could gain possession of the western 
 entrance to the Gates, and thus be able to bar 
 henceforth the progress eastward of a Syrian 
 army. The enterprise was one of hazard. It was 
 undertaken by Phraates by transferring a part • 
 of the tribe of the Mardi into the open country 
 westward from the Gates. The movement 
 was successful. Phraates and his Parthians 
 made their way through the pass and overran 
 at least a portion of Media Rhagiana. The 
 country west of the Gates was occupied by 
 Parthian garrisons, and the strategic position 
 was secured by Phraates. His reign, however, 
 was not marked by any other important 
 events. He wore the crown for only seven 
 years, dying in B. C. 174. 
 
 Thus far the dynasty had been tolerably 
 regular as to the descent of the crown. Tiri- 
 dates is reckoned as the brother of the first 
 Arsaces. The succession was then to the son 
 and to the son's son. With the death of 
 Phraates, however, the crown, in accordance 
 with the purpose of the late king, was trans- 
 mitted to his brother Mithridates, as against 
 the claims of his own son. It is probable that 
 Mithridates had been a strong stay of the 
 monarchy during the late reign. Phraates had 
 honored himself with the title of Philadelphus, 
 which Avould indicate his reliance upon his 
 brother. If we are to judge by results the 
 lateral transmission of the crown was beneficial 
 in the highest degree, for we here come to the 
 sudden rise of Parthia to the rank and char- 
 acter of an Empire. 
 
 More than any other name among Parthian
 
 408 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 monarchs is that of Mithridates kuown to the 
 peoples of the West. Those historians who 
 are willing to allow to individual agency the 
 general results which in the aggregate go by 
 the name of History, have been wont to 
 ascribe to Mithridates the place among his 
 countrymen which the same writers assign, 
 each in his respective sphere, to Alexander and 
 Csesar. More properly we may regard this 
 
 dinary as to impress itself strongly upon the 
 Greeks and Romans, whose historians have 
 done tolerable justice to the builder of the 
 Parthian Empire. 
 
 The conditions of success, however, had been 
 prepared for Mithridates before his coming. 
 The state of South-western Asia and Eastern 
 Europe was now favorable, as it had not been 
 before, to the construction of a great political 
 
 ARSACES. 
 
 1. Arsaces I., B. C. 247. 
 
 2. TiRIDATES I., 214. 
 
 3. Artabanus I., 196. 
 
 4. Priapatius, 181. 
 
 5. Phraates I., 174. 
 
 6. Mithridates I., 136. 
 7. Phraates II., 127. 
 
 8. Artabanus II., 124. 
 
 9. Mithridates II., 89. 
 
 10. Mnasciras, 76. 
 
 11. Sanatrceces, 67. (?) 
 12. Phraates III., 60. 
 
 DYNASTY 
 OF THE ARSACID;E. 
 
 EXPLANATION: 
 
 Kings numbered in order, thus, 1,2,3. etc. 
 
 Regular descent indicated thus . 
 
 Doubtful descent Indicated thus 
 
 Arabic numbers after names indicate 
 date of death or dethronement. 
 
 13. Mithridates III., 55. 
 
 14. Orodes I., 37. 
 
 15. Phraates IV., 2. 
 
 ~ i 1 1 
 
 17. Orodes II., 13. 19. Artabanus III., 42. 23. Vonones II., 52. 
 
 18. Vonones I., 16. Rhodaspes. 16 Phraataces, 12 A. D. 21. Gotarzes, 51. Artabanus. 22. Vardanes, 46. 
 Mithridates. 20. Tiridates II., 35. i 1 — 
 
 24. VOLAGASES I., 78. 
 
 Tiridates. 
 
 Pacorua. 
 
 25. Pacorus, 108. 
 
 Exedares. 
 
 Parthamasiris. 
 
 26. Chosroes, 130. 
 
 27. volagases ii., 149. 
 
 28. VOLAGASES III., 191. 
 
 29. VOLAGASES IV., 209. 
 
 .30. Artabanus IV., 226. 
 
 Volagases. 
 
 sixth representative of the Arsacid Dynasty 
 as the personal expression of the historical 
 growth and purpose of the Parthian nation in 
 his age. To him undoubtedly great abilities and 
 great ambitions must be ascribed. His cour- 
 age and .strength were equally manifested in 
 civil administration and in war. His reign, 
 covering a period of thirty-seven years, is the 
 most important and interesting of Parthian 
 history. His career as a ruler was so extraor- 
 
 power on the scene of what had been the 
 Persian Empire. In the first place, the con- 
 dition of Bactria invited the Parthians to 
 achieve what the neighboring kingdom had 
 not been able to accomplish — the consolidation 
 of Asia. True, the Bactrian kings had, as we 
 have seen, aspired to dominion. They had put 
 out their hands by conquest over the East to 
 the extent of grasping the country as far as 
 Upper India. They had also crossed the Pare-
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 409 
 
 pamisus Mountain chain to the south, and 
 had brought Arya, Sarangia, and Arachosia 
 under their sway. 
 
 Eucratidas was now the king of Bactria. It 
 appeared that during his reign the full polit- 
 ical and military energies of his people had 
 been put forth, and that victory and organi- 
 zation could go no further under the Dynasty 
 of Euthydemus. A great difficulty existed in 
 holding in one even the countries already 
 brought into union. The student of history 
 will not have failed to note among the ancient 
 nations to what an extent a mountain barrier 
 was a bar to the political unity of the peoples 
 on the two sides of the chain. At the time of 
 which we speak it was found difficult to hold 
 together the nations lying on the south and the 
 north of the Paropamisus While Eucratidas 
 was absorbed with the work of unifying the 
 Southern races, the Northern races rose agaiust 
 him. There the Scythians made invasions, 
 and the nomadic life reasserted itself in rebell- 
 ion. Turning his attention to these distrac- 
 tions, the king soon found that the tribes of 
 the South were not to be trusted in his ab- 
 sence. Thus between the two the energies of 
 Eucratidas were wasted, and the kingdom 
 vexed with disunion and war. 
 
 In the direction of Syria there was equal 
 confusion. The great dominion established by 
 Seleucus was gradually receding and contract- 
 ing around Antioch. Even in those foreign 
 parts still dependent upon the Seleucid king 
 there was a loosing of the bands wherewith 
 they were bound to the center. At this time 
 Seleucus Phllopator had become king and had 
 involved himself in foreign wars. Now it was 
 that Ccele-Syria became an object of conten- 
 tion between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidse. 
 It was said that Antiochus the Great in giving 
 his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy V., had 
 promised to dower her with Coele-Syria, which 
 would have transferred the country to Egypt. 
 The reigning Seleucus also found cause of 
 quarrel and war with the Grecian section of 
 the Alexandrian Empire and with Armenia, 
 now in revolt against himself. Of a certainty 
 a prince thus distracted by serious conflicts on 
 three sides of his dominions was in no condition 
 successfully to resist a determined movement 
 
 for nationality among the Asiastics beyond 
 the Tigris. 
 
 It thus happened that Mithridates found 
 on his accession to power a fair field for his 
 ambitions. He found Eucratidas, his Bactrian 
 rival, involved in a war on the side of India. 
 This circumstance seemed to invite the Par- 
 thian to his first aggression. He led an army 
 into the adjacent parts of Bactria, and seized 
 the two provinces of Turiua and Aspionus. 
 It is believed that by this, his first successful 
 foreign campaign, the king of Parihia possessed 
 himself of the regions out of which the Scythic 
 elements of the Parthian nation had been de- 
 rived. A source of disturbance was thus cut 
 off, and its fountain drawn up by absorption. 
 The king made himself secure in his conquest, 
 and then wheeled about towards Media. We 
 have seen how the latter province had already 
 been partly taken away from the Syrian kings. 
 But the latter still held 
 their sway over Media 
 Magna, and it was against 
 this district that Mithri- 
 dates now advanced. 
 
 The Syrian crown at 
 this time had descended 
 to Antiochus Eupator, 
 a mere youth, incapable 
 
 of affairs. The kingdom was in the hands 
 of the regent Lysias ; but his energies were 
 for a while exhausted in a war with the 
 Jews. At the court also he found opposition 
 in the designs of a certain Philip, who, as the 
 teacher of Eupator, claimed the right of con- 
 trolling the boy-king's actions and policy. 
 Civil war broke out until what time Philip 
 was overthrown and slain. By this time 
 Prince Demetrius, a cousin of Seleucus, laid 
 claim to the throne in virtue of their common 
 descent. Demetrius had been given by one 
 of the former Seleucids as a hostage to Rome. 
 His youth was spent in the city of the Tiber. 
 At length he made his escape from Italy, re- 
 turned to Syria, headed a revolution against 
 his cousin, and gained the throne. 
 
 It was during this confused and confusing 
 condition of affairs that Mithridates threw his 
 army upon the Medes. It was of little avail 
 that the Syrian claim to the dominion of the 
 
 COIN OF MITHRIDATES I.
 
 410 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 country was asserted. Even before the be- 
 ginning of the invasion the Median tribes had 
 become virtually independent. Indeed, the 
 spirit of the people was a more serious ob- 
 stacle to the ambitions of Mithridates than 
 was the Syrian army. The details of the war 
 with Media have not been preserved, but the 
 general result was manifested in the transfer 
 of Media Magna to the Parthian king. Per- 
 haps the condition of the country thus sub- 
 jugated was not greatly changed. It is be- 
 lieved that the same prince who had ruled 
 under the king of Syria was retained in office 
 by Mithridates as his representative among 
 the subject people. 
 
 It was now evident that the king of Parthia 
 was about to begin his career as Imperial con- 
 queror. Such premonitions are always alarm- 
 ing to the surrounding peoples. Whoever 
 plays the part of Alexander or Caesar has a 
 hard struggle at the outset. It is only after a 
 period of victory, when the volume of con- 
 quest begins to roll on by its own momentum 
 that the conqueror rides majestically on the 
 rising wave. In the present instance the 
 Hyrcanians took the alarm and set themselves 
 against the Parthian king. The latter was 
 now ready for any emergency, and made haste 
 to advance against the hostile nation. The 
 Hyrcanians sought to induce the Medes and 
 the Mardian mountaineers to join them in the 
 war, but their efforts were unavailing. Hyr- 
 cania was thus exposed without support to the 
 wrath of Mithridates, who soon succeeded in 
 reducing the province to submission. Thus in 
 at least three directions the Parthian monarch 
 stretched his cords and strengthened his stakes. 
 
 Scarcely had these movements been ac- 
 complished when a revolt broke out in Ely- 
 ma'is. It is believed that the prince or king 
 of this country had already made himself in- 
 dependent of the Syrian monarchy before his 
 war with Mithridates. The latter now, for 
 the first time, had opportunity to test his abil- 
 ities as leader of an army in a truly foreign 
 war. Thus far he had contended with nations 
 whose dominions bordered on Parthia. Now 
 he was obliged to lead his forces to a distance 
 through a desert country, and meet the Ely- 
 maeans in battle. But the event was auspi- 
 
 cious to the Parthian, who overran Elymais 
 and added it to his dominions. This successful 
 campaign had thrown him between Persia and 
 Babylonia. It was not likely that a victorious 
 monarch would fail to make the most of his 
 advantageous position. It appears that both 
 the Persians and the Babylonians recognized 
 the peril of their situation, and, perceiving the 
 weakness of the ties by which they were bound 
 to Antioch, deemed it prudent to cast in their 
 lot with the conqueror. It thus happened that 
 an extensive region in the South-west, includ- 
 ing the Babylonian plain and the whole 
 country eastward to the Carmanian desert, 
 was added by a single campaign to what may 
 now be called the Parthian Empire. 
 
 A period of more than twenty years was 
 occupied by Mithridates in these wars. Dur- 
 ing the whole of this time the Syrian kings 
 had been unable to disentangle themselves 
 from their troubles in the West and give at- 
 tention to the Eastern revolution. Nor had 
 the king of Bactria found opportunity or dis- 
 position to attempt the recovery of what had 
 been lost by conquest. The attention of Eu- 
 cratidas had been constantly occupied with 
 troubles and revolts on the side of India. He 
 was thus obliged to assent to the loss of his 
 western provinces to his rival. It would seem 
 that the two kings, one pressing his way to- 
 wards the Indus and the other towards the 
 Babylonian plain, had come to amity and 
 common purposes. But to a part of the Bac 
 triau nation this concord with Parthia was 
 distasteful. Prince Heliocles, son of the Bac- 
 trian monarch, represented the discontent, 
 and sought to recover from Parthia the lost 
 provinces. Believing that his father, the 
 king, was in the way of his ambitions, he 
 secured his taking oif by violence, and seized 
 the crown for himself This he did with the 
 evident purpose of going to war with Mith- 
 ridates. 
 
 But the latter was on the alert. Perceiving 
 the designs of his antagonist, the Parthian 
 king turned into Bactria, quickly overthrew 
 Heliocles, subverted the kingdom as to all its 
 western provinces, and added them to his 
 Empire. He then carried his victorious arms 
 to the east, forcing the Bactrian monarch to
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 411 
 
 the mountains, and compelling him and his 
 successors to accept henceforth the restricted 
 region adjacent to Upper India. Thus between 
 the years B. C. 163 and 140 were the widely- 
 extended countries of South-western Asia re- 
 stored by revolt and war to Asiatic domina- 
 tion. The drama as a whole was virtually a 
 restoration of the Persian Empire under the 
 auspices of Parthia. Of the extent and char- 
 acter of the Imperial territories we have already 
 given an account in the first chapter of the pres- 
 ent Book. The Imperial domain now consisted 
 of at least twelve provinces, and embraced an 
 area but little less than five hundred thousand 
 square miles in extent. It only remained for 
 Mithridates to consolidate, organize, and de- 
 fend the countries and nations that had fallen 
 under his sway. 
 
 As for foreign violence, little was to be 
 feared except from the side of the kingdom 
 of Syria. Doubtless the reigning princes at 
 Antioch had been deterred for nearly a quarter 
 of a century from invading the East by the 
 distractions of the West. Doubtless the news 
 of Eastern rebellions, wars, conquests, and 
 transformations smote dismally on the ears of 
 the Syrian kings. Doubtless the loss of their 
 revenues was to them a source of extreme 
 annoyance and discomfort. But the struggles 
 of the rulers around the eastern shores of the 
 Mediterranean, from the Libyan desert to the 
 Grecian archipelago, were sufficient to keep 
 the Syrian mouarchs from any efl^brt at the 
 recovery of their provinces. We have seen 
 how the Eegent Lysias and the teacher Philip 
 contended for the mastery of the government 
 and the young king of Antioch ; how Deme- 
 trius Soter came from Rome and took the king- 
 dom, and how Syria was obliged to contend 
 with Egypt for the recovery of the territory 
 given away with the first Cleopatra. 
 
 At length the crown of what remained of 
 the Syrian monarchy descended to Demetrius 
 II., a prince not without ambition. Reaching 
 a lull in the Western wars he cast his eyes to 
 the East, and about the year 140 B. C. 
 planned an expedition for the recovery of the 
 fortunes of his house by war. Mithridates 
 had not found everything comformable to his 
 will in the administration of the new Empire. 
 
 Among the conquered Bactrians there were 
 mutterings, discontent, incipient rebellions. 
 In all the countries which he had conquered 
 were Greek cities planted either by Alexander 
 himself or by his successors. These seats of 
 power and influence had been built up by im- 
 migration from Europe. Thither had come 
 thousands of Greeks and Macedonians from 
 the European main-land, from the archipelago, 
 and from Asia Minor. These had increased, 
 multiplied, expanded. They had become the 
 intellectual class throughout all South-western 
 Asia. They had taken, in marriage or in 
 illicit relations, the choice princesses of the Asi- 
 atics. There had thus appeared a large and 
 influential Grieco-Asiatic element in the popu- 
 lation. 
 
 On the whole, the sympathies of this class 
 were hostile to the Parthian ascendency. 
 Through a hundred and seventy years the 
 Seleucid kings had held sway, real or nomi- 
 nal, over the countries this side of India. 
 Even the Asiatics, pure and simple, had be- 
 come at last accustomed to the European and 
 Syrian dominations. All of these conditions, 
 sympathies, and tendencies had to be overcome 
 and reversed by Mithridates before his Im- 
 perial rule could be accepted with cordiality by 
 the diverse peoples whom he had conquered. 
 
 It thus came to pass that when Demetrius 
 II. entered upon his war with Parthia, he was 
 assisted somewhat by the social and political 
 condition of Asia. He began his campaign 
 under favorable auspices, making his way first 
 into Babylonia, where he received the submis- 
 sion of the country. It will be understood 
 by the reader that the peoples of these Asiatic 
 dominions had little choice among their mas- 
 ters. They could therefore be delivered from 
 hand to hand as merchandise of the mart. 
 But Demetrius now began to encounter op- 
 position. The Bactrian cavalry was in his 
 front. He was able, however, to continue 
 his advance and to win several battles be- 
 yond the Mesopotamian rivers. Elymais was 
 overrun and temporarily recovered to the 
 Syrian monarchy. Other districts were re- 
 taken, and Mithridates found himself receding 
 before the superior forces of his enemy. 
 
 It appears that at this time, if we are to
 
 412 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 trust the testimoDy of Justin, the Parthian 
 king overreached his rival by proposing ne- 
 gotiations. While these were pending he at- 
 tacked and routed the Syrian army, capturing 
 Demetrius himself and leading him away into 
 the interior. It seems that the whole expedi- 
 tion was blown away. Nor was Mithridates 
 satisfied until he had taken the captured king 
 from capital to capital through the provinces, 
 showing him in the cities to the Grseco- 
 Asiatics as an example of what might be ex- 
 pected of those who dared to raise the arm 
 against his Empire and himself. 
 
 Of a certainty the victory of Parthia was 
 suflSciently decisive. So much, however, 
 could hardly be said for the scheme of the 
 king to unite his dynasty with that of Syria 
 by intermarriage. It appears that he placed 
 his royal prisoner, Demetrius, in a suitable 
 residence in Hyrcania, where he maintained 
 him in a style befitting his rank. He also 
 sought to have his daughter given to the 
 Syrian monarch, in order that the destinies 
 of the two houses might be blended iu the 
 issue. But the project came to naught. 
 Mithridates himself was now well advanced in 
 years. He was exhausted by the vicissitudes 
 and struggles of a reign more than thirty-seven 
 years in duration. Soon after he had put his 
 royal prisoner into Hyrcania for safe-keeping 
 he sickened and died, in B. C. 136. 
 
 As we have said, the Parthian Empire had 
 now reached its greatest territorial extent. 
 It had become the great power of Western 
 Asia. The Old Era was drawing to a close. 
 Rome was making her way through an aristo- 
 cratic republicanism towards Imperial world- 
 wide dominion. Already by the time which 
 we have now reached, namely, the last quarter 
 of the second century B. C. , the two rival 
 powers of the world were the Roman Republic 
 in the West and Parthia in the East. Before 
 entering upon an account of the struggles be- 
 tween these two, covering several centuries 
 about the beginning of our era, it may be of 
 interest and instruction to note with some par- 
 ticularity the civil and political constitution 
 of the Parthians. 
 
 The Government of the Empire was in its 
 leading features an amplification and adapta- 
 
 tion of the old Parthian monarchy to the 
 new Imperial conditions. We have many 
 such examples in history of an aspiring State 
 imposing by war and diplomacy its civil insti- 
 tutions upon surrounding and subject peoples. 
 In our own day we need go no further than 
 the recent establishment of the German Em- 
 pire, under the hegemony of Prussia, in illus- 
 tration of this form of political development. 
 Ancient Parthia — Parthia Proper — imposed 
 herself and her half-barbaric forms of admin- 
 istration upon the nations whom she conquered, 
 insomuch that the Empire was but an enlarge- 
 ment of institutions Avhich had already existed 
 for four or five centuries. 
 
 The first point to which we may refer in 
 the explication of the political life of the Par- 
 thians, is the ascendency and strong counter- 
 check of the Nobility on the Monarchy. The 
 secular nobles were known as the Megistanes. 
 The body so called might well be compared to the 
 British House of Lords in embryo ; that is, it 
 Avas composed of two groups of notables, the one 
 secular, and the other of a religious derivation. 
 The former were called, in the Grseco- Asiatic 
 tongue, the Sophoi, that is, the "Wise," and 
 the latter were the Magi, or degenerated Zo- 
 roastrian priesthood. These two branches of 
 nobles combined to form one of the great 
 councils by which the Parthian monarch was 
 advised and, in at least a negative sense, di- 
 rected. Besides the Megistanes there was an- 
 other body, made up for the most part of 
 members of the royal family, and known as 
 the Domestic or Privy Council. In these ar- 
 rangements Ave see the germs in the one of 
 the modern Senate, and in the other of the 
 modern Ministry, or Cabinet. After all, an- 
 tiquity is not so far away ! 
 
 The head of the Parthian monarchy Avas 
 chosen by election of the Megistanes. The 
 naming of the king required the concurrent 
 voice of the Megistanes and the Domestic 
 Council. But over and above these bodies 
 Avas the constitution, in Avhich heredity, was 
 recognized as tlie best law of choice. That is, 
 the councils must choose by law, among the 
 Arsacid princes, that one whom the constitu- 
 tion pointed to as the legitimate sovereign. 
 This Avas generally the eldest son of the late
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 413 
 
 Mrig; or in lieu of him, liis next brother 
 m'jst be chosen. In default of sons, then the 
 eldest surviving brother of the last monarch 
 was the one designated for the crown ; after 
 him, his brother. In default of sous and 
 brothers, then the choice rested on the uncle 
 of the last ruler. In case the descent was 
 thus diverted from the direct line, it could 
 not be recovered by representatives of that 
 line except in default of the younger branch 
 whereon the crown now 
 rested. Here again we dis- 
 cover a:i almost identical 
 prototype of the English 
 law of royal descent and 
 inheritance. 
 
 In some instances the 
 Parthian councils felt war- 
 ranted in deposing their 
 sovereign. Such proceed- 
 ing, however, could but be 
 revolutionary in character. 
 Only an imbecile or idiot 
 prince would permit him- 
 self, without an appeal to 
 the sword, to be put aside 
 by the act of the Megis- 
 tanes. If James 11. proves 
 recreant to his trust — is no 
 longer tolerable by the na- 
 tion — we will put him aside. 
 We will declare that he has 
 himself abdicated the throne. 
 We will call over William to 
 be king in his stead. But 
 of a certainty James and his 
 adbei'ents, not accepting our 
 decision in the matter, will 
 fight for the recovery of his 
 crown and kingdom. 
 
 As to induction into office, we might have 
 expected that the Magi, more particularly the 
 Magus Megistos, or High Priest, would be called 
 upon, or would assume the right, in virtue of his 
 religious office and after the manner of his kind, 
 to crown the sovereign and consecrate him to 
 his royal duties. But this office, on the con- 
 trary, was reserved for the Surena, or General- 
 issimo of the army. He it was who was sum- 
 moned on the day of coronation to put the 
 
 crown upon his sovereign's head, a fact which 
 fully establishes the strongly military character 
 of the monarchy. 
 
 In common with the other great despotism* 
 of the East, the Parthian Government waa^ 
 little changed from age to age. There was in 
 it much of the same quality which made the 
 laws of the Medes and Persians the synonym 
 for uuchangeableness in both ancient and 
 modern times. As a rule the king governed 
 
 MAGUS MEGISTOS, OR HIGH PRIEST. 
 
 according to his own judgment, executing his 
 own decisions as though they were the decrees 
 of a Parthian Congress. The reader must 
 understand, however, that in all personal gov- 
 ernments there are traditional checks and re- 
 straints upon the absolutism of the sovereign, 
 the nature and force of which it is difficult for 
 citizens of a modern republic or kingdom to 
 understand. It appears that the nature of 
 man is of itself a constitution whose provisions-
 
 414 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 are as well understood and as mandatory as 
 the most formal articles in the written code of 
 nations. Added to this unalterable principle 
 of human nature, as shown in the unwritten 
 restraints imposed by public opinion on the 
 wills of barbaric kings and emperors, we must 
 allow, in the case of Parthia, a restraining in- 
 fluence to the Magian priesthood. This body, 
 whose numbers, in the latter times of the Em- 
 pire, Gibbon has estimated at eighty thousand, 
 could not fail to hold the rod of religious au- 
 thority over the secular rulers. The sovereign 
 himself, according as his nature was of a re- 
 ligious or a secular bias, must have felt in 
 greater or less degree the common awe which 
 the traditional representative of the ancient 
 Iranian faith exercised over the minds and 
 conduct of the common people. 
 
 In lieu of a representative Government, com- 
 posed of delegates assembling from all parts 
 at the capital — in lieu of a system of adminis- 
 tration by which revenues were regulai'ly gath- 
 ered and authority dispensed from the central 
 Government to its remotest members — the an- 
 cient provincial system, developed by the 
 Ach?emenian kings into the well-known sa- 
 trapial form, was adopted and adhered to by 
 the Parthian monarchs. The plan was, in 
 brief, to regard the different provinces as a 
 sort of quasi independencies, over each of which 
 a satrap, or governor, was appointed by the 
 king. There was, however, among the de- 
 pendencies much inequality. Some of them 
 consisted merely of the territories of a tribe 
 only half emerged from the barbaric state. 
 Others rose as high in the scale as regular 
 kingdoms. There was a great difference in 
 rank between the rulers of the latter and 
 those of the former. The latter were in real- 
 ity sub-kings, tributary monarchs to the great 
 sovereign, who now took upon himself the title 
 of King of Kings. Over the smaller and less 
 important provinces mere satraps, holding office 
 during the pleasure of the sovereign, w^eresent 
 out. In such countries as Media, Persia, Arme- 
 nia, and Babylonia, the viceroys were rulers of 
 royal rank and hereditary rights. They had, 
 of course, been obliged to accept a tributary 
 relation to the Parthian Emperor ; but beyond 
 this the administration of the sub-kings was 
 
 comparatively free from interference. There 
 was, indeed, no general administration for the 
 whole Empire, but a sort of feudalism, under 
 w^hich connections and subordinations were es- 
 tablished on the principle of protection from 
 above down, and of military service and 
 tribute on the part of the subject States. 
 
 Besides the two kinds of government here 
 referred to, namely, the common satrapy and 
 the half-hei'editary viceroyalty, there was still 
 a third variety of political organization within 
 the Imperial dominions. This was the free 
 city. It was not within the desire, and prob- 
 ably not within the ability, of the Parthian 
 monarchs to eradicate the Grseco-Macedonian 
 municipalities which for nearly two centuries had 
 constituted the nests of Europeanism in Asia. 
 These cities had for six generations lain lik 
 gems of culture on the immoderate breast of 
 barbarism. In many respects they were in 
 Asia, but not of it. In the natural order of 
 things they became detached from the sur- 
 rounding provinces. At length permanent re- 
 lations were established between them and the 
 monarchy. Many of the cities paid tribute 
 directly to the roysd treasury, and were hence- 
 forth isolated from the local government of the 
 satrapy. 
 
 It was the policy of the Empire not to dis- 
 turb the provincial governments, of whatever 
 kind they Avere, so long as the tribute was paid 
 regularly and in full amount. The same 
 principle held with the cities. The latter 
 were allowed to proceed on their own lines of 
 development. Thus, for instance, Seleucia 
 grew to greatness. According to Pliny, the 
 population waxed to six hundred thousand. 
 Fortifications were built, and the place be- 
 came a sort of Hamburg of antiquity. A 
 municipal government was constituted after a 
 plan that might well remind the reader of 
 Mediaeval Venice under the Doges. Of course 
 the arts and learning of the Parthian Empire 
 fled for covert to these Grseco- Asiatic strong- 
 holds. Each became a sort of Constantinople 
 of the desert, wherein Culture might peaceably 
 examine her still beautiful features in the 
 mirrors which had been preserved from the 
 days of the Grecian ascendency. 
 
 To destroy such places was a thing not to 
 
 i
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 416 
 
 be considered by the Parthian kings ; and so 
 they were spared from violence. More than 
 this, we may discover in the situation one of 
 the prevailing habits of the Parthian court. 
 We have already remarked upon the unfixed- 
 ness as to the locality of the seat of govern- 
 ment. Hecatompylos, the old capital of Par- 
 thia Proper, ceased to be regarded as the seat 
 of the Empire. Ctesiphon was preferred, par- 
 ticularly for the winter months. The milder 
 climate of the South and the half-Greek re- 
 finements of the metropolis wooed the kings 
 and their courts out of the boisterous North. 
 Not far away was the city of Vologesocerta, 
 which likewise invited at certain seasons a 
 visit from the sovereign. Then, with the re- 
 turn of summer, the Emperor and his retinue 
 would hie away into Media and fix themselves 
 for awhile at Ecbataua, the ancient capital. 
 Sometimes the royal residence was at Tape, 
 in Hyrcania; and during the spring months 
 the monarch Avas wont to enjoy himself at 
 Ehages, which had been one of the first con- 
 quests of Mithridates. 
 
 Could the observer look in once more upon 
 this ancient Parthian court, as it was consti- 
 tuted in the days of the King of Kings, he 
 should behold an assemblage of splendid per- 
 sons clad in the style of the Orient, having 
 the manners of a half-redeemed barbarism, 
 and living in such luxurious habit as war 
 and pride and appetite had engendered. The 
 manner of the royal establishment was virtu- 
 ally the same as that of Assyria and Persia. 
 The story of the kingly courts in those coun- 
 tries has already been recited. In general, 
 there was about the king's residence much 
 passion and treachery. It might almost ap- 
 pear that there is something climatic about 
 the sentiments and customs of men, by Avhich 
 they are controlled in the different epochs of 
 history and the different localities of the world. 
 It might be difficult to conceive of the exist- 
 ence of the Hellenic democracy on the Plateau 
 of Iran, and equally difficult to imagine the 
 existence of a Persian or Parthian court in the 
 Grecian Islands. 
 
 However this may be, we may assure our- 
 selves that the Arsacid princes virtually re- 
 vived and restored the style of government 
 N.— Vol. 1—26 
 
 which had been practiced by the Achsemenian 
 kings. But in one respect Parthia appears to 
 have outdone the Orient in the way' of bar- 
 baric grandeur. In time of Avar, not only the 
 king, but his court, his Government, Avent into 
 the field. The State was encamped Avith the 
 army. An immense retinue of non-combatants 
 folloAved in the Avake of the expedition. A 
 caravan of camels carried not only the mili- 
 tary equipage, but a half cityful of articles be- 
 longing to peace. The king and his generals had 
 no thought of leaving any gratification behind 
 them. The Avives and concubines of the mon- 
 arch and his nobles Avere borne on litters from 
 camp to camp, and all the means of revelry, 
 all the accoutrements of pleasure, Avere boun- 
 tifully supplied at every stage of the cam- 
 paign. The royal society removed from place 
 to placj Avith only the cavalry interposed be- 
 tAvecn itself and the enemy. 
 
 Conquest had noAV reached its territorial 
 limit except on the side of Syria. In that 
 direction the country was still open to inva- 
 sion, and the motives Avere present for the re- 
 newal of Avar. Time and again the Grseco- 
 Syrian kings had thought to recover by the 
 sword their Eastern provinces. Time and again 
 the Parthians had succeeded in beating them 
 back. Would not the latter noAV turn upon their 
 foe, and drivo an expedition in the direction of 
 the Mediterranean? At this very time Deme- 
 trius, one of the Syrian kings, was a prisoner in 
 the handn (if the Parthians. We have seen how 
 Mithridates confined him in regal state in 
 Hyrcania, and how he sought to give him his 
 daughter Rhodogune in marriage. This pro- 
 ject went over unfulfilled to Phraates II., 
 Avho, in the year 136 B. C, succeeded his 
 father on the throne. 
 
 Meanwhile the Syrian crown had, when the 
 captivity of Demetrius Avas known, descended 
 to Antiochus Sidetes, brother of the prisoner. 
 It appears that as soon as Phraates came into 
 power he began to consider the question of 
 conquering Syria. He first sought to promote 
 his purpose by an intrigue. Having succeeded 
 in inducing the captive Demetrius to accept 
 Rhodogune as his Avife, he attempted to enlist 
 his prisoner in his cause. To this end he 
 tempted him with the prospect of liberation.
 
 416 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE AJSCIENT WORLD. 
 
 hoping that as soon as Demetrius was free he 
 would reclaim the Syrian throne. The cap- 
 tive was himself not innocent of such a dream, 
 but he sought to consummate his hopes with- 
 out the connivance of his brother-in-law. He 
 accordingly made one or two nnsuccessful ef- 
 forts to escape, but was in each instance pur- 
 sued, retaken, and brought back to captivity. 
 
 Meanwhile feelings of correlative antago- 
 nism were cherished by the Syrian king against 
 the Parthians. He too bided his time. For 
 the present Antiochus Sidetes was engaged in 
 a war with the Jews. That rebellious people, 
 under the leadership of the High Priest Simon, 
 attempted to maintain the independence which 
 had been conceded by Demetrius before his 
 overthrow and captivity. In course of time 
 the Jews, under the command of John Hyr- 
 canus, who had succeeded his father Simon, 
 were reduced to submission, and Antiochus 
 found himself free to make war on the Par- 
 thians. He organized a powerful army, and 
 set out in the direction of Babylonia. The 
 king of Syria was still able, notwithstanding 
 the losses of territory which his predecessors 
 had met, to bring into the field a force greatly 
 superior to that with Avhich Phraates was able 
 to confront him. The latter, however, came 
 forth as far as Mesopotamia, and time and 
 again joined battle with his antagonist. But 
 in each engagement the victory remained with 
 the Syrians, and the Parthian king was obliged 
 to recede toward the central parts of his Empire. 
 
 The successes of the Syrians in the field 
 were, in the next place, increased by the 
 chronic disaffection of the Greek cities. The 
 latter, together with many of the provinces on 
 the side of Babylonia, rose and went over to 
 Antiochus. It was the same old story of ex- 
 changing masters under the expediency of 
 the hour. For the time, the western horizon 
 seemed to bear nothing but thunder-clouds 
 'and tempest for Phraates; but he was un- 
 daunted, and set himself against further dis- 
 aster. The time had now come for making 
 the most of the captive Demetrius. The Par- 
 thian king set him at liberty, and he sped 
 away like an arrow in the direction of Syria. 
 It seems, however, that Antiochus did not learn 
 of the flight of the dangerous bird, and so he 
 
 pressed on, gaining additional advantages 
 until what time winter set in, and the Syrian 
 army was distributed into the cities for 
 quarters. 
 
 The forces of the invasion were thus scat- 
 tered over a wide extent of country ; but the 
 situation seemed one of security, and no un- 
 easiness was felt by the king. On the side of 
 Parthia, however, the case was viewed with a 
 keener eye. The Parthian soldiers were able 
 for winter service, being inured to the climate. 
 The case, moreover, was well-nigh desperate, 
 and Phraates determined to make the most of 
 the opportunity. At first the different de- 
 tachments of the Syrian army were well re- 
 ceived in the cities to which they were sent; 
 but military occupation is always a weariness 
 of the flesh. The soldiers ate and drank and 
 caroused, after the manner of their kiud, until 
 the citizens became heartily sick of having 
 gone over to Antiochus. 
 
 As the winter wore on Phraates, learning 
 of the universal discontent, sent trusted agents 
 into all the cities where the Syrians were 
 quartered, and contrived a great conspiracy. 
 It was arranged that on a given day each 
 city should rise against the soldiers and de- 
 stroy them, while at the same time Phraates 
 himself should make a rush for the head- 
 quarters of the Syrian army and overwhelm 
 his enemy in battle. The plot was carried into 
 execution. At the given time the citizens 
 sprang to arms, surrounded the quarters of 
 the soldiers, and slew and massacred until 
 scarcely a Syrian was left to tell the story. 
 The rumor of the insurrection flew to Anti' 
 ochus, and he led forth his central division to 
 the rescue, only to be met by Phraates in the 
 field. In this struggle also the issue was 
 against the Syrians. The Parthian cavalry 
 swept everything before it, and Antiochus 
 himself was slain. Almost the entire force, 
 enormous as it was, was destroyed. Accord- 
 ing to Diodorus Siculus, three hundred thou- 
 sand of the Syrians perished. 
 
 At all events the expedition was brought 
 to utter ruin. Not a vestige of the invading 
 force was left in the field. The triumph of 
 Phraates was complete in every particular. 
 He succeeded in capturing the son and
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 41T 
 
 daughter of his adversary. The rapid res- 
 toration of Parthiau authority ensued in all 
 those parts of the country which had been 
 overawed by the Syrians. The Parthian king 
 made strenuous efforts to overtake and bring 
 back Demetrius, hoping thus to secure all the 
 Seleucid princes, and thus perhaps extinguish 
 the Dynasty. But Demetrius had already 
 fled beyond his reach, and could not be re- 
 taken. 
 
 As to the Syrian monarchy, an additional 
 disaster was in waiting. No sooner was it 
 known in Judjsa that Antiochus was slain 
 than the people rose against their masters and 
 achieved their independence. The kings of 
 Antioch, in the remaining sixty-three years of 
 their power, were not able again to subdue 
 the Jews, and Palestine remained an inde- 
 pendency until what time the scepter of Rome 
 was passed over the countries east of the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great advantages of 
 victory, Phraates found serious obstacles in his 
 path. An enemy, not indeed so numerous, 
 but far more terrible in war than the Syrians, 
 rose on the opposite borders of the Empire. 
 For several generations the Scythians had 
 been in league with the Parthians. The old- 
 time kinship and affinity of the two peoples 
 have been more than once referred to in the 
 preceding pages. Friendship existed, and 
 common cause was frequently made by the 
 Scyths with the people and king of Parthia. 
 When Antiochus Sidetes, the late invader, 
 came into Babylonia with his army, Phraates 
 had solicited the aid of the Scythians, and a 
 great body of the wild warriors had accepted 
 the call. They set out on their march to join 
 Phraates, but did not succeed in doing so until 
 after the defeat and destruction of the Syrian 
 army. Then, forsooth, Phraates had no further 
 use for the Scyths or for their belated offers 
 of aid. The Northern warriors then demanded 
 their pay, and when this was refused they 
 turned about and began to take by ravage in 
 the districts of Parthia a liberal compensation 
 i for their alleged services. 
 
 ! Against these disturbers of his Empire 
 1 Phraates was now obliged to turn about from 
 j the scene of his great victory. He had mean- 
 
 while forgiven the Greek cities, and had ac- 
 cepted from them a contingent of soldiers. 
 He had also incorporated with his own army 
 the prisoners whom he had taken from An- 
 tiochus. There was thus a considerable di- 
 vision of his forces made up of foreign ele- 
 ments. With this army he advanced against 
 the Scyths, and came to battle. In the midst 
 of the conflict the Greeks, on the Parthian side, 
 treacherously rose against their general and 
 went over to the Scythians. The Parthians, 
 thus weakened by defection, were routed and 
 swept from the field. Phraates himself was 
 among the slain. 
 
 Had the Scythians possessed the instincts 
 of conquest and reorganization, they might 
 now, to all appearances, have gone forward to 
 the overthrow of the Empire ; but their method 
 was simply the method of plunder. As for 
 the Greeks, by whose aid the victory had been 
 achieved, finding themselves suddenly liber* 
 ated from military captivity, they broke up 
 and rolled away towards the West, recovering' 
 as best they might their homes in Mesopo^ 
 tamia and Syria. The reign had been brief, 
 extending only to the year B. C. 127. Nor 
 might it be claimed that the Empire had, on 
 the whole, been improved or strengthened by 
 the agency and valor of the sixth of the Ar- 
 sacid kings. 
 
 Phraates at the time of his death was still 
 a young man. It appears that he left no son 
 to succeed him. At any rate the crown was 
 transferred to his uncle, Artabanus II. The 
 latter, on coming to power, had to face the 
 most serious responsibilities. The victorious 
 Scythians and their Greek auxiliaries were still 
 in the heart of Parthia. The native array 
 had been almost destroyed. At the same time 
 serious difiiculties arose on the side of Baby- 
 lonia. The satrap of this country had by his 
 oppressions goaded the people into rebellion 
 and war. But the clouded aspect of affairs 
 soon gave place to a clearer sky. The Greeks, 
 as we have seen, were more anxious to escape 
 from the country than to continue the conflict. 
 As for the Scythians, they in all ages were 
 satisfied to stuff themselves with coarse food, 
 to heat their blood with strong drinks, and to 
 enjoy the ineffable sleep of barbarism. In the
 
 418 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 present instance they plundered until they 
 were satisfied, and then withdrew from the 
 country, leaving the Parthians to reflect upon 
 the costliness of refusing military pay to half- 
 savages. 
 
 But while the Empire thus happily emerged 
 from the dangerous local complications which 
 had thickened around the last years of Phra- 
 ates, another and more general peril came in- 
 stead. This was the pressure which now be- 
 gan to be felt on the northern and eastern 
 frontiers from the impact of human hordes 
 bearing down out of the unknown regions be- 
 yond the Jaxartes. It were long to give an 
 account of this extraordinary movement. In 
 its origin, its character, and tendencies, it was 
 one of the many irruptions of the barbaric 
 upon the civilized or half-civilized races of 
 men. The philosophy of such ethnic agita- 
 tions is better understood as it respects the 
 after-parts and results of the movements than 
 with respect to their origin. The true begin- 
 ning of the migration of tribes is a thing ex- 
 ceedingly hard to discover. After the war- 
 like migrations have once been started, it is 
 easy enough to note the process by which one 
 barbarous nation after another is jostled from 
 its seats until the last of the series is thrown 
 across the borders of civilization. Again, we 
 may say that the primal impulse is partly 
 cosmic and partly ethnic in character. Time 
 and again we have had occasion to remai'k 
 upon the operation of those subtle forces in the 
 natural world by which the human race is 
 pressed westward through all continents and 
 across all seas. Again, some races of men ex- 
 hibit a peculiar aptitude for movements of this 
 kind. It might be said with truth that they 
 are most susceptible in their constitution to 
 the influence of those far-reaching physical 
 laws to which we have just referred. 
 
 But as we have said, the origin, the source, 
 the fountain of the disturbance is hardly dis- 
 coverable. The impulse rises far off" in the 
 regions of utter barbarism. Perhaps we might 
 find it in the peculiar fecundity of certain 
 tribes, in certain stages of their development. 
 Such movements always precede the nio- 
 nogamic stage in the human evolution. At 
 any rate, we may contemplate a certain spot 
 
 in barbarism as overstocked with human be- 
 ings, having the aggressive instinct and the 
 nomadic character. Migration ensues, and 
 the neighboring tribes are propelled in a di- 
 rection a little to the south of west. This 
 course is sought under the same influence 
 which carries the colony of bees to its des- 
 tination after leaving the parent hive. Eu- 
 rope has been many times troubled, and at 
 least once extinguished, by a barbarian ava- 
 lanche precipitated under the influences here 
 described. 
 
 At the time of which we speak Asia, as 
 well as Europe, began to feel the pressure. 
 Bactria was the first to be smitten in the flank 
 by the ram's-head of barbarism. About the 
 time of the accession of Artabanus II. the 
 Bactrian provinces were despoiled by barba- 
 rians of the nomadic order. A large part of 
 the country was actually taken by tribes out 
 of the North, breaking in as though they had 
 been fired from a catapult. But Bactria Avas 
 not the only part so threatened and assaulted. 
 Arya was also invaded, and the Hyrcanian 
 borders felt the pressure. All along the line 
 of the Oxus, from its Caspian delta to its 
 head-waters in the mountains of Upper India, 
 the horde surged back and forth to find an 
 entrance into the Empire. 
 
 The tribes were nameless and numberless. 
 Their character has been depicted by Herod- 
 otus and Strabo. The nomadic habit was the 
 dominant trait. The tribesmen had wagons 
 and carts and the other apparatus peculiar to 
 races of the woods and steppes ; and the 
 women and children of the race were borne in 
 these vehicles from one station to another. 
 The vocation was hunting, war, plunder. Do- 
 mestic animals, especially cattle and horses, 
 were carried along with the movement. The 
 milk-drinking and cheese-eating appetite of the 
 Scyths is known wherever Ancient History 
 has been read. The social structure was based 
 on polyandria, the sexual union being much 
 the same in manner as that of the North 
 American Indians. 
 
 The Asiatic barbarians were famous in their 
 day for their skill in horsemanship and archery. 
 Their weapons were the bow and arrow, the 
 spear and the lance, the knife, or short sword,
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 419 
 
 aud the battle-axe. These, as to their metal- 
 lic parts, were of bronze. War was waged in 
 the style of savages. Many usages which have 
 been eliminated in civilized warfare prevailed. 
 Arrows were poisoned with the venom of ser- 
 pents or the diseased discharges of animal 
 bodies. The enemy might be destroyed in 
 any manner fatal to human life. Not only 
 should the foe be slain, but his hody might be 
 cooked and eaten, as if it were the product of 
 the chase. Nor did the cannibalism of the 
 barbarians stop with devouring the fallen foe. 
 Friends and kinsmen might be eaten if only 
 the rules of the Scythian constitution should 
 be observed. The young and middle-aged 
 were not for food ; but with the failure of the 
 bodily powers in advanced life, the father or 
 uncle of the polyandriau family was taken, 
 
 , killed by his household, and eaten with grati- 
 tude. Nor does it appear that the victims under 
 such circumstances regarded their fate as a 
 hardship. It was the usage of the nation. The 
 hardship came in the form of disease which 
 sometimes prevented the law from having its 
 course in the final disposition of the body. 
 
 It was against sucli a race as this that 
 Artabanus II. was called to contend. Nor 
 was he slow to accept the challenge which 
 came roaring out of the country of the Jax- 
 artes. Soon after his accession to the throne 
 he made successful warfare first upon those 
 tribes that had already broken into his domin- 
 ions. Bactria was expurgated of her savage 
 contents, and the king then led his army vic- 
 toriously into the enemy's countr)\ The na- 
 tion of the Tochari was turned back by battle, 
 and the cohort of barbarism felt a sudden jar 
 in its progress, at which the tribes were 
 startled and stood still. But while Artabanus 
 was thus carrying on successful warfare with 
 the hostile races beyond his own borders, he 
 was wounded in battle, and died from the in- 
 jury. The event, while not at once decisive 
 as to the general issue of the war, ended the 
 campaign, and the Parthians receded from the 
 barbarian countries. As for the crown, it was 
 at once transferred to Mithridates II., son 
 and successor of the late king. 
 
 } The volume of barbarism, like a stream of 
 water, on meeting an obstacle turns to right 
 
 or left, and makes its way into a devious 
 channel. It appears that the war of Arta- 
 banus in the country north of the Oxus had 
 had some such physical effect on the savage 
 races. At least the new king found less 
 difficulty than might have been anticipated in 
 staying the further progress of the nomads. 
 The beast of barbarism reared, plunged, and 
 took another course. Mithridates II. had 
 little trouble in re-establishing his northern 
 frontier. The Scythic tribes were turned to 
 the east, as if to make a detour around the 
 Empire. The historical forces had been strong 
 enough to deflect the cosmic forces, and to 
 discharge the river of savagery far to the east 
 in Afghanistan and Upper India. Bactria was 
 wholly recovered by the king, and it was 
 evident that the barbarians, finding a vent in 
 another direction, would trouble him no 
 further. 
 
 It was equally manifest that the kingdom 
 of the Seleucidee would not again send out an 
 army to interfere with the natural course of 
 events in the countries beyond the Euphrates. 
 This condition of affairs invited the ambitious 
 and capable Mithridates to enlarge his borders 
 by war. Of the surrounding countries Ar- 
 menia was at this time the most inviting. Thus 
 far only a part — the smaller and less impor- 
 tant part — of the country had been brought 
 under the sway of the Parthian kings. Ar- 
 menia Magna, as the country between the 
 Euphrates and the Araxes was called by the 
 Romans, still retained its independence. More 
 properly, it had been included as a part of the 
 kingdom of Syria, and had not been wrested 
 therefrom by the Parthians. The country 
 was of ancient renown. It had been an object 
 of contention and conquest among the great 
 conquerors. Alexander had taken it. Seleu- 
 cus had received it. With the decline of the 
 Syrian monarchy, Armenia attained a quasi in- 
 dependence. A branch of the House of Arsaces 
 was recognized in authority over the Arme- 
 nians. There had evidently been an uncertain 
 war between the country and Parthia. The 
 Prince Tigranes was, in his youth, a hostage at 
 the Parthian court. Now, at length, the time 
 had arrived when a great contention was to 
 determine whether Armenia should be joined
 
 420 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 in political fortunes with the East or the West — 
 with the Empire having its seat beyond the 
 Caspian, or Avith the Republic having its seat 
 on the Tiber. 
 
 For Rome had now appeared. She had 
 boldly put forth her claim to the mastery of 
 Europe. One after another of the adjacent 
 countries had yielded to her sway. Greece, 
 in 196 B. C, had become a Roman province. 
 Just fifty years later Carthage was finally ob- 
 literated. The countries of the Western and 
 Central Mediterranean presented no further 
 obstacle, and Roman ambition must pass over 
 into Asia Minor and the still remoter East. 
 As far back as B. C. 190, Antiochus III., of 
 Syria, was ruinously routed on the field of 
 Magnesia. He was obliged to accept what 
 terms soever the conqueror imposed. He was 
 compelled to relinquish his 
 authority over a large part 
 of his kingdom; to give 
 up his elephants of war ; 
 to surrender — or promise 
 to surrender — the fugitive 
 Hannibal of great renown ; 
 and to give his own son 
 as a hostage for the ful- 
 fillment of the treaty. 
 Thus did the Roman Re- 
 ' "„ . public succeed in obtain- 
 
 ing a foothold in Asia, and 
 it was the custom of that stern Power not to 
 relinquish what had once been acquired. As 
 soon should we expect the She-wolf nurse of 
 the Twin Robbers to give up her prey through 
 the possession of sentiment. 
 
 We pause not in this connection to narrate 
 the progress of events among the States of 
 Asia Minor whereby Rome and Parthia were 
 first brought into relations. At the first the 
 connection brought friendship rather than an- 
 tipathy. Mithridates V. , king of Poutus, had 
 suddenly risen to great power, and about the 
 close of the second and the beginning of the 
 first century B. C. had constructed an Empire 
 out of a petty kingdom in Asia Minor. He 
 had made himself and his armies a terror in 
 all the countries west of Armenia. A part of 
 that kingdom was added to his dominions. 
 Half of Paphlagonia was snatched away. 
 
 Galatia was overrun and conquered, and Cap- 
 padocia was threatened by his ambitions. 
 
 The king of Armenia was at this time that 
 Tigranes whom we have mentioned above. 
 He seems to have favored the project of the 
 king of Pontus, and to have made an alliance, 
 political and matrimonial, with him. Now it 
 was, namely, in the year B. C. 92, that the 
 Roman Proconsul Sulla was sent with an army 
 into Asia to thwart the Pontine monarch in 
 his plans. It happened that the Eastern army 
 with whom the Consul first came to battle 
 was the Armenian contingent. This force was 
 routed by the Romans, and Cappadocia was 
 saved from the grip of Mithridates V. As 
 for Tigi-anes, king of Armenia, he had in the 
 meantime renounced any ties of friendship or 
 political relation with the king of Parthia. 
 He had gone to war with that personage, and 
 had succeeded for the time in making himself 
 master of so much of Armenia as had belonged 
 for nearly a century to the Parthian Empire. 
 Thus did Tigranes become an enemy to both 
 jNIithridates II. and Rome. 
 
 He who is the enemy of your enemy is, in 
 politics and war, your friend. It thus came 
 to pass that an amicable relation was estab- 
 lished between the Parthian king and the 
 Roman Proconsul in Asia. The former sent to 
 the latter as his ambassador a nobleman named 
 Orobazus, bearing a proposal for a league be- 
 tween Parthia and Rome. The well-known 
 policy of the Roman Senate of reserving all 
 treaty rights to itself, forbade Sulla to do 
 more than to entertain the Parthian ambassa- 
 dor and to encourage by friendliness the over- 
 tures made by his master. But before any 
 jiositive treaty could be eflfected between the 
 leading powers of Europe and Asia, the am- 
 bitious and aggressive Tigranes was able to 
 work much havoc along the western borders 
 of the Parthian Empire. A war of nearly 
 ten years' duration, extending to the year 
 B. C. 83, ensued, in the course of which the j 
 Armenian king was almost uniformly victo- ' 
 rious. He made successful campaigns into 
 Upper Mesopotamia, and tore away no incon- 
 siderable territory from the dominions of ^ 
 Mithridates. He established and consolidated 
 his kingdom on an independent basis. For a
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 421 
 
 season he exercised sovereignty without the 
 slightest obeisance in the direction of Antioch 
 or Ctesiphon or Rome. 
 
 Mithridates II. went down to death six 
 years before the conclusion of his war with 
 the Armenians, in which his unsuccess was so 
 conspicuous as to cast some shadow on his 
 title of "The Great," won in his youth by 
 victorious battle with the Scyths. His reign 
 covered a period of about thirty-five years, and 
 was principally noted in its latter days on ac- 
 count of the contact and first relations of the Em- 
 pire which he ruled with the Roman Republic. 
 
 It happens in the history of most nations 
 that after what may be called the first Im- 
 perial epoch a period of distraction and de- 
 cadence ensues. Success to a nation brings 
 the same trials and dangers which it brings to 
 the local society or to the individual. The ex- 
 ercise of power and the means of gratification 
 entail perils and plant pitfalls, and rarely do 
 a people escape the one or avoid the other. 
 There now supervened in the history of the 
 Parthian Empire such a time of retrogression 
 and confusion. This was manifested, first of 
 all, on the dynastic side. The reader will have 
 observed with what regularity the crown had 
 thus far passed to the ninth prince of the Ar- 
 sacidse. No break or serious disturbance had 
 occurred in the Dynasty. But a time now fell 
 out when obscurity came to the royal house, 
 and it is not known positively who was the 
 next king in order after Mithridates II. It is 
 believed, however, that a pi'ince of little repu- 
 tation, bearing the name of Mnasciras, prob- 
 ably the son of the late monarch, came to the 
 throne. Neither from the Behistun inscrip- 
 tions nor from the Parthian coins are we able 
 to know definitely the course of the succession. 
 The events of the years extending from B. C. 
 89 to B. C. 76 are so obscure that one may 
 almost pass the gap as though it were not. 
 
 In the latter part of this period, however, 
 the light returns sufficiently to enable us to 
 see men as trees walking. In B. C. 76 a new 
 king, named Sanatrceces, whom we may con- 
 sider as the eleventh of the Dynasty, came to 
 the throne, and the administration, whatever 
 it had been, was quickened into greater ac- 
 tivity. It is known that the new monarch was 
 
 already an octogenarian on his coming to 
 power. It is also known that he had been for 
 a great time a prisoner, or possibly a hostage, 
 among the Scythians ; and it is believed that 
 his accession to the throne of the Empire was 
 effected by the aid of a body of Scythian war- 
 riors who returned with him in his old age 
 from the country beyond the Oxus. From 
 this circumstance Ave get a glimpse of a con- 
 dition which had evidently come to pass in the 
 Empire. Civil war had ensued, and part of 
 the people had no doubt joined in the recall of 
 Sanatrceces. At any rate, the aged hero 
 gained the crown, and did something before 
 his death to restore the fortunes of his country. 
 
 The period at which we have here arrived 
 might almost be designated in Asiatic history 
 as the age of the Armenian ascendency. We 
 have seen above with what vigor Tigranes, the 
 Armenian king, son-in-law of Mithridates II., 
 had followed his ambitions and added to his 
 conquests. By him Armenia Minor was con- 
 quered and absorbed. From Parthia the 
 great and valuable province of Northern 
 Mesopotamia was taken. Adiabene also, in- 
 cluding, according to the current organization, 
 the ancient Assyria, was in like manner torn 
 from the Empire by conquest. Parts of Media 
 were added to the Armenian dominion, inso- 
 much that Tigranes sent the dread of his name 
 into all the surrounding countries. 
 
 While thus by successful war Armenia was 
 advancing to the rank of a first-class Power in 
 South-western Asia, Rome was strengthening 
 her position and advancing her interests in all 
 the hither parts of the continent. The army 
 of the Republic and that of Tigranes were face 
 to face, and it was only a question of time 
 when one or the other must go to the wall. 
 The king of Parthia had cause to fear each 
 and both of these ti-emendous forces as >:hey 
 rose on his western borders. He was in doubt 
 whether it were best for him to take his 
 chances by allying himself with the Armeni- 
 ans, and thus recognizing the violence by which 
 Tigranes had taken away a portion of the Par- 
 thian Empire, or to make a union with Rome. 
 In his embarrassment he dealt doubly with 
 the question, holding out to each party the 
 promise and expectation of favor.
 
 422 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY. — THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 It is said that Luculliis, the Roman Consul, 
 now engaged in war with Tigranes, was so 
 much offended at the uncertain course taken 
 by the Parthian king, that he contemplated 
 the abandonment of the Armenian war until 
 what time he should make an expedition be- 
 yond the Tigris and teach Sanatroeces the folly 
 of temporizing with Rome. This, however, 
 was not done. Tigranes at length fell back 
 before the Roman legions, and Parthia was 
 delivered from her peril. The reign of Sana- 
 troeces ended with his life, about the year 67 
 B. C, when he was succeeded by his son, 
 Phraates III. 
 
 Pompey the Great had now come into 
 Asia, and with him the new king was obliged 
 to deal. The Roman was engaged in a war 
 •with Pontus, but he solicited and gained the 
 friendship of Phraates, to whom in return he 
 
 j/z'^'/Y-:; 
 
 ROMAN LEGIONARIES. 
 
 pledged the restoration of the provinces which 
 had been conquered by th Armenians. By 
 this means the Parthian king was induced to 
 make an alliance with Rome. At the same 
 time he became deeply involved \.'ith Armenia. 
 In that country civil dissension had come as a 
 paralysis to Tigranes. His son, bearing his 
 own name, had entered into a conspiracy and 
 become leader of a rebellion against the throne. 
 The insurrection soon cam to naught, and the 
 young Tigranes fled to the court of Parthia for 
 refuge and protection. Phraates espoused his 
 cause, and being under promise to Pompey to 
 prevent Armenia from joining Pontus in the 
 field, the Parthian king now fulfilled his 
 promise by taking up the quarrel of the refugee 
 prince and marching into Armenia to support 
 him against his father. 
 
 For the time this movement was successful. 
 
 The elder Tigranes fled to the mountains for 
 safety, and the younger was proclaimed king. 
 But on the withdrawal of Phraates into his 
 own dominions, the tide turned, and the re- 
 bellious prince was defeated in battle and 
 obliged to save himself by flight. By this time, 
 however, the Romans had ended the war with 
 Pontus, and turned with crushing force against 
 Armenia. Tigranes was obliged to yield to 
 the Proconsul and to accept his arbitration in 
 the aflTairs of the East. It thus happened that 
 by battle and diplomacy Pompey managed 
 Avith Roman energy and skill to gtiin a place 
 from which he was able to balance up Ar 
 menia and Parthia, the one against the other, 
 in such manner as to make the hostility of 
 either of little account as it respected his own 
 purposes in the country. It has been con- 
 jectured that the Roman contemplated an im- 
 mediate war on Parthia as the stronger and 
 more dangerous of the two Powers with which 
 he must ultimately contend. But he was de- 
 terred from such an undertaking, and chose to 
 jmploy craft and talent rather than the sword 
 in holding his position as arbiter of Western 
 Asia. 
 
 Meanwhile in Parthia a deplorable civil con- 
 dition followed in the wake of Imperial great- 
 ness. The time had arrived when the poly- 
 gamic, system and the personal passions of the 
 royal princes brought in the age of conspiracy 
 and murder in the king's house. A condition 
 supervened not unlike that which has dis- 
 graced the history of modern times in the 
 courts of Persia and Turkey. Phraates III. 
 was not permitted to end his reign in the order 
 of nature. His two sons, Mithridates and 
 Orodes, formed a plot which reached as high 
 as their father's life. He was assassinated by 
 them. The elder of the two took the throne 
 in B. C. 60, and, like other murderers, found 
 it desirable to obliterate the memory of his 
 crime with the glory of foreign war. 
 
 The complrii t whi^h he had made against 
 his fath was the alliance of the latter with 
 the Romans, and the tameuess with which the 
 late king had permitted himself to be robbed 
 by the Armenians under the arbitration of the 
 Roman Proconsul. Mithridates III. therefore 
 proceeded to make war on the Armenians for
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 423 
 
 the recovery of Northern Mesopotamia. He 
 thus became a breaker of the peace. He was 
 enabled, however, to gain his object, and the 
 ancient boundary of the Parthian Empire on 
 the north-west was restored. The Armenians 
 were no longer able to meet the Parthians in 
 battle. As for the king, arrogance came with 
 conquest. His home administration at once 
 revealed the essentially criminal character of 
 Mithridates. He became jealous of his 
 brother — brother by blood and brother in 
 crime — and drove him from the country. 
 Other measures of like character followed, and 
 it was not long until the Megistanes, whipped 
 into courage by the king's folly and wicked- 
 ness, rose to the height of action and hurled 
 Mithridates from the throne. 
 
 Orodes was now recalled from banishment 
 and raised to power. As for the deposed 
 monarch, he and his party were placated by 
 conferring on him the governorship of Media ; 
 but his conduct made it impossible for Orodes 
 to tolerate him longer, and he was expelled. 
 He hereupon went over to the Romans, where 
 he besought the Proconsul Gabinius, successor 
 of Pompey, to aid him in recovering the Par- 
 thian throne. The Roman was about to ac- 
 cept his overture, and would doubtless have 
 begun war on Parthia had not a dynastic 
 complication arisen in Egypt which promised 
 a fairer field and a richer reward for Roman 
 interference. Mithridates was thus left to di- 
 gest his choler in exile. Presently, however, 
 he sought reconciliation with his brother, re- 
 turned to Parthia, threw himself upon the 
 mercy of the king, and was affectionately be- 
 headed for his pains. 
 
 This event ended for the time the civil dis- 
 sensions of the Empire, and enabled Orodes I. 
 to exercise undisputed sway over the nation. 
 The attention of the Romans had now been 
 drawn away from the Mesopotaraian border, 
 and the Parthian king found opportunity to 
 foster his ambitions and develop his plans. 
 His abilities were of a large order. He aspired 
 to become a great conqueror, like the early 
 Arsacid kings. His fame grew, and he was 
 presently able to gain sundry advantages in 
 the way of detaching the petty princes on his 
 western border from their allegiance to Rome. 
 
 But the time had arrived when in the order 
 of events, if not in the necessity of things, the 
 growing animosity of the Republic and Parthia 
 must be referred to the decision of battle. 
 
 Marcus Lucinius Crassus, member of the 
 first Triumvirate of Rome, had now been sent 
 out as Proconsul of Syria. He came to his 
 province with the intention of a Parthian war. 
 Arriving in the year B. C. 54, he deliberately 
 formed his plans for the invasion of the Em- 
 pire. He organized a great expedition, 
 crossed the Euphrates, and began to overrun 
 the country. Several of the Greek cities 
 yielded without a conflict. Zenodotium, how- 
 ever, resisted his progress, but at length con- 
 sented to receive a Roman garrison. This was 
 admitted, and Crassus continued his campaign. 
 But the people of the city rose on the gar- 
 rison, and put them to the sword. The Pro- 
 consul then turned about, destroyed the city, 
 and sold the inhabitants into slavery. 
 
 Thus far the Parthians had kept at a dis- 
 tance. With the coming of winter there had 
 been no serious conflict. On the whole, the 
 Parthians had cause to congratulate themselves 
 on the small progress and success of the 
 Roman army. It appears that Orodes came 
 to the conclusion that little was to be feared 
 from the invasion. He conceived a contempt 
 for Crassus, and sent to him an embassy with 
 such proposals as might well have aroused the 
 animosity of an Oriental, to say nothing of a 
 Roman Proconsul. Among other things 
 Orodes referred with mock sympathy to the 
 advanced age of Crassus, and promised in cer- 
 tain contingencies to deal with him as he would 
 with a dotard. The interview might well be 
 made the subject of a drama. Crassus en- 
 raged, but still restraining himself, replied that 
 on his arrival at Seleucia he Avould send an 
 answer to the Parthian king. Hereupon Va- 
 gises, ambassador of Orodes, tapped the palm 
 of one of his hands with the forefinger of the 
 other, and exclaimed: "O Crassus, the hair 
 will grow here before ever you come to Seleu- 
 cia !" Such were the amenities of the winter 
 season, when neither party could verify in the 
 field the threats and hatreds of the council. 
 
 For the Roman commander the situation 
 had become embarrassing. He had projected
 
 424 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 his campaign centrally across Northern Meso- 
 potamia. In different parts of the country he 
 had been obliged to establish garrisons of oc- 
 cupation. Each remove reduced the number 
 of his effective forces. Added to this was a 
 certain want of knowledge of the enemy's 
 country, which confused the Proconsul in de- 
 termining his line of advance. It was finally 
 determined that the route of the expedition 
 should be through Upper Mesopotamia. This 
 country had already been entered by the army 
 in the preceding summer, but had been given 
 up for the winter. This course would briug 
 the expedition into supporting distance of Ar- 
 menia, and it was exjiected that the Romans 
 would receive from that country a large ac- 
 cession of force. 
 
 Meanwhile Orodes had organized his army 
 and thrown it forward to confront the enemy. 
 His forces were under the immediate com- 
 mand of the Surena or Generalissimo, who in 
 this instance — though his name has not been 
 preserved — appears to have been a military 
 captain of the greatest ability and courage. 
 For many years he had been one of the princi- 
 pal stays of the Empire. Through his agency, 
 indeed, Orodes had been confirmed on the 
 throne. He had already recovered several 
 important places, including the rebellious city 
 of Seleucia. The army now sent out to meet 
 the Romans under his command was composed 
 entirely of cavalry. It had jierhaps been 
 foreseen that it was by this branch of the 
 service that victory might be expected rather 
 than from the Parthian infantry. The latter 
 was no match for the Roman legionaries, 
 whose valor had spread a wholesome fear 
 throughout the civilized world. 
 
 The winter quarters of the Roman army 
 had been on the Upper Euphrates. Here lay 
 the province of Osrhoene, Avhose prince, Abga- 
 rus, though in alliance with the Romans, was 
 secretly in sympathy and communication with 
 the Parthians. He was intrusted by Crassus 
 with a command of light-horse, and was as- 
 signed to the duty of scouring the country in 
 advance of the army, and of determining the 
 route across Mesopotamia. It has been as- 
 serted by Plutarch and others that this treach- 
 erous guide purposely led Crassus and his 
 
 forces into a desert region, where water could 
 not be found, and where every advantage 
 Avould be on the side of the Parthians in 
 battle. Perhaps the inhospitable character of 
 the region was exaggerated. But at any rate 
 the advance now lay through an open country 
 little obstructed by rivers or hills, and well 
 fitted for the operations of the Parthian cavalry. 
 Of the character of the latter and its method 
 of giving battle, sufficient has already been said 
 in a former chapter. 
 
 At the same time of the advance of Crassus 
 the Parthian army was brought to the front, 
 and the two forces rapidly approached with 
 every element of determination and passion on 
 both sides. At length the conflict was pre- 
 cipitated on the River Belik, about midway 
 between Carrhse and Ichnse. It was the 6th 
 of May, in the year B. C. 54. The Parthian 
 army, under the command of the Surena, 
 was carefully stationed in half-concealment be- 
 hind some woods and low hills in the neigh- 
 borhood. The cavalrymen had been ordered 
 to cover their arms Avith their garments or to 
 keep them behind the horses, so that the 
 blaze of weaponry might not flash upon the 
 Romans in its appalling splendor until the 
 moment of battle. 
 
 Crassus came on from the west. His army 
 of about forty thousand men was composed 
 mostly of Roman legions or heavy infantry. 
 To this was attached a body of cavalry which 
 the Proconsul had brought with him out of 
 Gaul, where it had been organized by Julius 
 Caesar. All of a sudden the Parthian drums 
 sounded the battle-note. Then the cavalry 
 flashed into line, and the charge began. The 
 Parthian lines came on at full gallop, but 
 stopped short of the legions by the space of a 
 bow-shot. Then began snch a tempest of ar- 
 rows as the invincible legionaries had never 
 before been obliged to face. No armor could 
 resist the stroke of these fiery missiles. The 
 air was darkened by the discharge. The Ro- 
 mans could not come at their enemy. AVheu 
 they advanced the Parthians receded to a dis- 
 tance, firing backwards with the same facility 
 as when they halted and faced the enemy. 
 
 Such battle had never before been known 
 in the Mesopotamian plains. The Romans
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 425 
 
 strove with all their might to close with their 
 elusive foe, but the latter pursued the estab- 
 lished tactics, and could uot be reached. At 
 length the sou of Crassus, bearing his father's 
 name and commandiug the Roman cavalry, 
 put himself at the head of a squadron of six 
 thousand men, and charged furiously upon the 
 Parthians. The latter fell back from the 
 onset as if in panic. The young Crassus 
 pressed on after the enemy further and further, 
 until he was out of sight, when all of a sudden 
 the Parthian cavalry recovered itself, threw 
 forward the wings, and completely surrounded 
 the Romans. The latter fought with despera- 
 tion. The Gallic horsemen dismounted, rushed 
 among the enemy's horses, seized the spears, 
 and stabbed the steeds to death. But no 
 valor could avail. The Roman advance under 
 
 were incompetent as besiegers. Nevertheless, 
 they hovered around Carrhse, and cut off the 
 city from supplies. 
 
 It appears, however, that the Parthian com- 
 mander preferred to take no risks as to the 
 future. Nothing short of the complete dis- 
 comfiture of Crassus and his remaining forces 
 would satisfy. To this end the Surena now 
 stooped to treachery. He plotted to inveigle 
 the Proconsul into his power. It may not be 
 certainly known whether he contemplated the 
 destruction of his enemy's life by perfidy, but 
 it is in the nature of bad faith to bring a more 
 criminal catastrophe than was imagined at the 
 outset. The Surena, whatever may have been 
 his intentions, opened negotiations with the 
 pent-up Romans. He rode with unstrung bow 
 and outstretched hand into the open space be- 
 
 .^v\-> 
 
 ROMAN SOLDIERS GOING INTO BATTLE. 
 
 the young Crassus was beaten down almost to 
 a man. The commander himself was slain, 
 and his head stuck on a pike. 
 
 Again the drums sounded, and the charge 
 on the main body under the Proconsul was 
 renewed. The head of Crassus' son was borne 
 aloft in full view of the Romans, who now, 
 shattered by the battle, began to recede from 
 the field. The wounded were abandoned, and 
 on the following morning were slain by the 
 Parthians. Crassus the elder, with the rem- 
 nant, succeeded in making his way to Carrhre, 
 where he stationed himself behind the ram- 
 parts and found a momentary security. It 
 was hoped that he could hold his position 
 until what time his ally Artavasdes, king of 
 Armenia, could come to his relief Perhaps 
 this might have been done, as the Parthians 
 
 fore the city, and called out for Crassus to 
 come forth and confer with him on the condi- 
 tions of peace. The wily Parthian had pre- 
 pared for the occasion by letting slip certain 
 of the Roman prisoners, into whose ears false 
 information had first been dropped to the effect 
 that the Parthians were anxious for peace and 
 friendship with the Romans, and that Crassus 
 might easily come to an agreement with the 
 Parthian king. These insinuations had been 
 carried by the returning prisoners into Carrhse, 
 and the Roman mind was abused to the ex- 
 tent of accepting them as true. 
 
 Crassus, however, already beyond his six- 
 tieth year, and well informed as to the dis- 
 position and character of the Asiatics, was 
 slow to take the bait. But the legionaries 
 w^ere now thoroughly demoralized, and the
 
 426 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 General was urged to avail himself of the op- 
 portunity. He accordingly went forth into the 
 plain, where a conference was held between 
 him and the Surena. Terms of peace were 
 discussed and agreed upon ; but the Parthian 
 insisted that the stipulations should be reduced 
 to writing, and to this end the Romans present 
 were induced to mount Parthian horses and to 
 ride off towards the Sureua's tent. Scarcely, 
 however, had they started, when Crassus and 
 his friends, suspecting treachery, reined up 
 the horses, and refused to proceed. The diffi- 
 culty grew hot, and one of the Parthians was 
 cut down with the sword. Weapons Avere 
 drawn, and all of the Romans, including 
 Crassus, were slain on the spot. Thus, far off 
 on the Mesopotamian plain, was the rich Tri- 
 umvir, who, with Pompey the Great and Julius 
 Caesar, had recently divided the world as a fam- 
 ily inheritance, done to death on the treach- 
 erous sword of a Parthian warrior. 
 
 When the Roman soldiers in Carrhse learned 
 the fate of their General, they were in despair. 
 Most of them surrendered to the Parthians. 
 Some escaped. Altogether ten thousand were 
 taken prisoners. These were transferred into 
 the heart of the Parthian Empire, colonized 
 and absorbed by intermarriage. Of the whole 
 Roman army, numbering forty thousand, only 
 about one-fourth succeeded in reaching places 
 of safety. The disaster was overwhelming — 
 wanting nothing to complete its magnitude or 
 horror. 
 
 The immediate result of this, the first war 
 of the Romans with the Asiatic Empire, was 
 to restore to the latter all the provinces which 
 she had possessed on the side of Mesopotamia. 
 The Euphrates again became the western 
 boundary. As for Armenia, that State also 
 passed to the Parthian dominion. It will be 
 remembered that Crassus, to the hour of his 
 death, expected the Armenian king, Arta- 
 vasdes, to come to his assistance ; but that 
 monarch had decided to accept a position 
 suboi'dinate to the King of Kings. At the 
 very time that the Surena was bringing down 
 the Roman eagles on the Upper Euphrates, 
 Orodes himself was making an expedition into 
 Armenia. This it was that determined the 
 friendship of the king of that country. It 
 
 was expedient for him to become friendly. In 
 order to cement the ties thus formed, the Par- 
 thian king took for his son Pacorus the 
 daughter of the Armenian monarch in marriage. 
 Nor may we pass from the event without noting 
 the manners of the age. While the festival 
 was on at the Armenian capital — while Orodes 
 and Artavasdes were witnessing the perform- 
 ance of one of the tragedies of Euripides — 
 the news came of the overthrow and death of 
 Crassus and the destruction of his arm)'. As 
 usual, in such cases, the head of the Roman 
 Proconsul was brought along to confirm the 
 intelligence. It happened that in the play 
 the Greek actor had to represent a similar 
 slaughter by the display of a mock-head on 
 his thyrsus. By one of the happy inspirations 
 of barbarism, he substituted the real head of 
 Crassus ! Doubtless the sensation in the royal 
 boxes was sufficient. 
 
 In another direction, the drama was con- 
 tinued in the desert. The Surena, at enmity 
 with Seleucia for her half-treachery to the 
 Parthian cause, marched thither, to bring the 
 citizens to a renewal of loyalty. He chose to 
 spread the report in this direction that Crassus 
 was not killed, but was a prisoner in the hands 
 of the conqueror. To give verisimilitude to 
 his fiction, he selected a Roman, like Crassus 
 in personal appearance, clad him in the pro- 
 consular insignia, mounted him on a horse, 
 compelled him to play his part, and sent after 
 him into Seleucia a troop of mockers and 
 abandoned women. Going into Seleucia him- 
 self, the Surena divulged to the Senate the 
 horrid immoralities which he had discovered in 
 the literature of the Roman camp — a revelation 
 sufficiently disgusting to the people who were 
 unable to recognize in themselves a society 
 fully as abominable and more perfidious in its 
 manners than that of the Romans. 
 
 By this time, however, the Surena had 
 reached the limit of his career. His success 
 in the field had been so great as to make him, 
 according to the judgment of Orodes, a person 
 dangerous to the Empire. The great captain 
 was accordingly seized and put to death. The 
 command of the army was transferred to 
 Osaces, who was presently sent to the Syrian 
 frontier, to assist the prince Pacorus in a
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 427 
 
 desultory campaign, 'upon which he had en- 
 tered in that quarter. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Syria and Asia Minor 
 were at this time in a condition to invite con- 
 quest ; not indeed that the Romans were un- 
 able to defend their possessions in the East, 
 but the political distractions of Italy were such 
 as to prevent unity of action. The destruc- 
 tion of the tripartite agreement — known as the 
 Triumvirate — by the death of Crassus, had 
 left the world to two masters, Csesar and Pom- 
 pey, the one a representative of the new de- 
 mocracy of Rome, and the other the repre- 
 sentative of that ancient aristocratic order by 
 which the Republic had been dominated for 
 many centuries. At this time the orator 
 Cicero was Proconsul of Cilicia, and knowing 
 full well the condition of affairs in Asia, he 
 hardly overstated the fact to the Senate when 
 he declared that Rome had not a friend on 
 that continent. The expedition of Pacorus 
 made its way in the direction of Antioch, and 
 gained possession of several important places. 
 But after this the Parthians divided in dif- 
 ferent directions, one division being carried 
 against Palestine, and the other led among the 
 kingdoms of Asia Minor. If the invaders had 
 had the skill to take cities as well as to win 
 battles in the field, it would appear that they 
 might have destroyed the Roman dominion in 
 all the countries east of the ^gean. 
 
 But the Parthians did not avail themselves 
 of the situation. At length, in B. C. 49, 
 Pompey, being then hard pressed by Caesar, 
 made overtures to Orodes, with a view to se- 
 curing his aid against his rival. The Parthian 
 king offered to go to the rescue on condition 
 that Pompey would deliver what remained of 
 the kingdom of Syria to him. But the pro- 
 posal was rejected. Soon afterwards came the 
 battle of Pharsalia, in which the fortunes of 
 Pompey and the aristocratic party were utterly 
 swept away. At one time he seriously con- 
 templated putting himself under the powerful 
 protection of Orodes. But he was induced 
 to change his mind, and presently took flight 
 for Egypt. 
 
 Caesar, now completely victorious, was fully 
 informed of the condition of affairs in the 
 East. He had known the disposition of Oro- 
 
 des to give aid to Pompey. In his own mind 
 the vision of a Parthian conquest had for some 
 years been settling into a purpose. But he 
 was not yet ready to undertake so vast an en- 
 terprise. After Pharsalia, he returned to 
 Rome, and took up the tremendous work of 
 I'eorganizing society on a new Imperial plan, 
 with himself at the head. It was not until 
 B. C. 44 that he found himself sufficiently free 
 from the tremendous complications of the West 
 to turn his attention to the conquest of Parthia. 
 Like the other designs of that greatest man 
 of antiquity, the Parthian war took shape, 
 and the first cohorts of the Roman army 
 were thrown into Greece, preparatory to 
 the great Asiatic campaign. Nor may we 
 well pass over this historical hypothesis 
 without conjec- 
 turing the result 
 had Caesar been 
 permitted to pur- 
 sue his purpose. 
 Certain it is that 
 the P^arthians 
 would have felt 
 the stroke of the 
 strongest hand 
 which was ever 
 laid upon the 
 Empire. Cras- 
 sus and Pompey 
 and Trajan and 
 Severus c o m - 
 bined could hardly have represented the skill, 
 the energy, the persistency, the adroitness 
 in diplomacy and war of that matchless Ju- 
 lius, whose end was now at hand. His des- 
 tiny had at last overtaken him. The Opti- 
 mate Conspirators gathered around him in 
 the Senate House, and stabbed him to death, 
 on the Ides of March, in the very spring 
 when the Parthian expedition was to be 
 undertaken. 
 
 Thus had Orodes the good fortune to wit- 
 ness the destruction of all three of the pre- 
 eminent Romans who had constituted the first 
 Triumvirate. The Surena had chopped off 
 the head of Crassus in the desert. A bloody 
 assassin had cut down Pompey on the shore of 
 Egypt. The daggers of Brutus and Cassius 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR.
 
 428 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE AyCIENT WORLD. 
 
 had dispatched Csesar in the Senate House. 
 Parthia for the time was freed from all appre- 
 hension on the side of Rome. 
 
 The reader of history will readily recall 
 the dreadful civil war which followed the 
 murder of Julius. He will remember the 
 struggle of the conspirators to undo the great 
 historical movement of the age. He will 
 once more follow the complifcation which was 
 presently cut with the sword of the victor at 
 Philippi. In this civil war the Parthians 
 bore a minor part. Bodies of Parthian horse- 
 men were on several occasions found in the 
 army of Brutus and Cassius. Marcus An- 
 tonius, who had received the East for his 
 portion of the world, entered into relations 
 with Orodes, and sought to join the king with 
 himself in his war with Brutus and Cassius. 
 
 A CHARGE OF PARTHIAN CAVALRY. 
 
 But the Parthian preferred the other course. 
 At length the battle of Philippi was fought, 
 and the ancient aristocracy of Rome was 
 hacked to pieces under the bloody swords of 
 the avengers of Csesar. Now it w^as that the 
 three masters of the world were able to divide 
 their inheritance. The Second Triumvirate 
 was formed. Octavianus established himself 
 in Italy. Lepidus became the cipher which 
 made the other two figures significant. An- 
 tonius found food for his passions in Egypt. 
 
 It appears that Parthia postponed her 
 struggle with Rome to an inauspicious occa- 
 sion. Pacorus now availed himself of the 
 help of the treacherous Labienus, recently 
 envoy of Brutus and Cassius at the Parthian 
 court, and organized an army for the conquest 
 of the country as far as Antioch. They 
 
 rushed to the field, and Saxa, the Roman 
 governor of Syria, was defeated in battle. 
 Labienus and Pacorus, having taken Antioch, 
 led their forces, the one in the direction of 
 Palestine, and the other into Asia Minor. 
 Both were for aAvhile successful. Hyrcanus, 
 the king of Jerusalem, was expelled, and his 
 rival Antigonus set in his place under the 
 authority of the Parthian Prince. Labienus 
 carried his victorious arms through Pamphylia, 
 Lycia, and Caria. Thus, by the close of the 
 year 40 B. C, nearly the whole of Asia Minor 
 was overrun. 
 
 It was in the nature of Antonius to make 
 love and war by turns. Hu \vas equally fierce 
 in the chamber and the field. Learning of the 
 condition of affairs in the East, he was roused 
 to wrath, and resolved to teach the Asiatics a 
 
 lesson not to be forgotten. 
 
 In 39 B. C. he sent for- 
 ward his lieutenant Ven- 
 tidius with orders to crush 
 Labienus and the Parthi- 
 ans. On his arrival in 
 Asia, Labienus was taken 
 by surprise, and was 
 obliged to recede before 
 his enemy. Pacorus was 
 called to the rescue, but 
 both together failed to 
 stay the progress of the 
 Romans. Labienus was 
 defeated, pursued, taken, and put to death. 
 The Parthians receded into Northern Syria, 
 and attempted to hold the pass of Mount 
 Amanus, but Ventidius succeeded in securing 
 the place, and in driving the Parthians into 
 Mesopotamia. 
 
 Pacorus, however, was not willing to relin- 
 quish the countries which he had so easily 
 conquered. In the following year he renewed 
 the war by crossing the Euphrates, and en- 
 gaging in battle with the Romans. It was in 
 the nature of that soldiery to learn from the 
 enemy. The method of Parthian warfare had 
 now become well understood. Ventidius had 
 prepared for the emergency. It was no longer 
 the story of Crassus on the Belik. When the 
 Parthians came on to battle, they found the 
 Romans well posted to receive them. On
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 429 
 
 rushing to the charge, and before reaching 
 their favorite distance of a bow-shot, they were 
 assailed by the slingers of Labienus, and a 
 shower of singing stones rained upon them, 
 knocking them dead from their horses. The 
 battle raged furiously, but at length the Par- 
 thians gave way. Pacorus himself was slain. 
 The Romans succeeded in securing the bridge 
 across the Euphrates, and the retreat was cut 
 off. The Parthian army was scattered in all 
 directions. The authority of Orodes in the 
 West and South-west was completely and finally 
 obliterated. All the Western provinces were 
 recovered by the Romans. The Euphrates 
 once again became the boundary between the 
 two Empires; but from either side the hostile 
 powers glared at each other, neither satisfied 
 with the issue. 
 
 We may now turn for 
 a moment to note the con- 
 dition of affairs at the cap- 
 ital of the Empire. Orodes 
 had grown old. His rec- 
 onciliation with Pacorus, 
 who at one time had been 
 in rebellion against him, 
 was complete. Perhaps the 
 aged monarch felt a Par- 
 thian pride in the military 
 successes of his son in the 
 West. The death of the 
 latter, therefore, fell heavily 
 upon the king. He became 
 half-insane on account of the loss of his son. 
 True, he had thirty other sons, children of 
 various wives and concubines, but none of 
 them might well take the place of the warrior 
 prince who had perished in battle. The 
 king, however, felt it expedient to determine 
 the succession before his death. He accord- 
 ingly designated Phraates as his successor, 
 and the choice was ratified by the Megis- 
 tanes. Orodes then abdicated the throne 
 in favor of his son. The latter, jealous for 
 good reason of some of his half brothers who 
 were born of a princess, conspired with his 
 mother, who was a common concubine, and 
 had the princes whom he feared put to death. 
 The aged father hereupon rebuked his son, 
 and was himself murdered for his interference. 
 
 Thus, in B. C. 37, came Phraates IV. to 
 the throne of Parthia. Like other royal 
 murderers, he was obliged to go forward in 
 the bloody path which he had chosen. One 
 after another, his half brothers and other rela- 
 tives were assassinated. In the next place his 
 jealousy fell upon the nobles, of whom many 
 were slain, and others fled. A body of them, 
 headed by a certain Monseses, made their way 
 to Antonius, and represented to him the con- 
 dition of affairs in Parthia. Monseses besought 
 the Roman to enter the country and support a 
 counter-revolution in his favor, promising to 
 accept the crown at the hands of Antonius, 
 and to hold it as a subject of the Roman Re- 
 public. 
 
 The bait was tempting. Antonius had 
 
 ROMAN ARMY CROSSING THE TIGRIS. 
 
 sufficient cause for making war on the Par- 
 thians. Time and again they had entered and 
 ravaged the Roman provinces in Syria and 
 Asia Minor, Ambition also led him on. He 
 accordingly gathered his forces on the Euphra- 
 tine frontier, and made preparations for an 
 invasion. Phraates, informed of these move- 
 ments, took the alarm, and sent for Monsesea 
 to be restored to honor. Antonius permitted 
 him to depart, but sent with him an embassy, 
 demanding of the Parthian king the restora- 
 tion of the Roman standards taken from 
 Crassus, and the liberation of all prisoners 
 who still survived. These demands were not 
 complied with, and Antonius continued his 
 preparations for war. His aggregate forces 
 amounted to a hundred and thirteen thousand
 
 430 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 meu. The army was made up of the legions, 
 sixty thousand stroug^ of thirty thousand 
 Asiatics who had j(nued his standard, of ten 
 thousand Gallic horsemen, and a considerable 
 force out of Armenia. Artavasdes, king of 
 the latter country, long balancing his interests 
 between Parthia and Rome, had at last as- 
 sented to a league with Antonius, and promised 
 his support in the ensuing war. 
 
 This alliance enabled the Roman to enter 
 the Parthian Empire by way of Armenia, and 
 in that direction the expedition was under- 
 taken, Antonius, after traversing the friendly 
 -districts, entered the hostile territory in Media 
 Atropatene ; and here the war began. The 
 Romans advanced to the capital and besieged 
 the city. Several unsuccessful assaults were 
 made ; but the place could not be taken. 
 Winter came on, with the siege undetermined. 
 Meanwhile the Parthian army got upon the 
 flank and rear, and captured or destroyed the 
 siege-train of the Romans. The soldiers be- 
 came discouraged, and winter bellowed around 
 with hurricanes of sleet and snow. Antonius 
 was obliged to fall back. He made an effort 
 to negotiate, but the enemy laughed at his 
 •calamity. Nevertheless, Antonius was not 
 Crassus. The Proconsul had no notion of 
 losing his army or his life. Instead of re- 
 treating by the expected route, he sought a 
 •directer course through a mountain pass back 
 to the River Araxes, and by this way he 
 managed to reach a place of safety. His 
 losses, however, had been very great. About 
 forty thousand of his men had perished 
 by battle or the severity of the season. Par- 
 thia might well congratulate herself that the 
 retreat of the Roman array through the winter 
 snows, for a distance of three hundred miles, 
 was the beginning of the end. Such indeed 
 it might have been but for the treacherous 
 condition of all political dependence in the 
 countries concerned. 
 
 For no sooner was Antony repelled than 
 the Median governor of Atropatene quarreled 
 with the king about the division of the Roman 
 spoils. Suspicion followed suspicion, and the 
 Mede concluded that for him the way of safety 
 was in an appeal to Antonius. He accord- 
 ingly sent an embassy to Alexandria, whither 
 
 the Roman had retired to spend the winter 
 with Cleopatra, and tendered to him an alli- 
 ance offensive and defensive against Parthia. 
 Antonius readily accepted the overture. He 
 had become angered at his ally, the king of 
 Armenia, who had abandoned him in the day 
 of his peril, and was anxious to find a new 
 confederate on the border of the Parthian 
 Empire. 
 
 Early in B. C. 34 the Roman general re- 
 turned to the army in Armeni; , aiid presently 
 succeeded in gaining possession of Artavasdes, 
 the king. Plis son and successor was dsieated 
 in battl', and obliged to fly to the Parthians. 
 As for the king f the Medes, Antony ce- 
 mented the union between th.t personage and 
 himself by marrying the daughter of the prince 
 to his son Alexander, offspring of his amours 
 with Cleopatra of Egypt. 
 
 During this year nothing was done in the 
 field. The attention of Antony had been 
 drawn to Europe by the threatening attitude 
 of Cctavianus. The long accumulating diffi- 
 >:ulties between the two Roman leaders was 
 rapidly coming to the arbitrament of the 
 sword. Antonius was obliged to return from 
 Armenia into Asia Minor to counteract the 
 movements of his rival. Hereupon Phraates, 
 in B. C. 33, renewed the war, and succeeded 
 in making the king of Media his prisoner. 
 The Armenian monarch, Artaxias, recovered 
 his throne. The Roman garrisons were ex- 
 pelled from the countries which they had oc- 
 upied within the limits of the Empire. 
 
 By this time, however, the civil dissensions 
 in Parthia were renewed, and an insurrection 
 against the king, headed by a certain Tiridates, 
 was for the moment successful. Phraates 
 fled to the Scythians, solicited their aid, re- 
 turned with an army, and quickly restored 
 himself to power. The usurper escaped to Oc- 
 tavianus, who was at that time in the East, and 
 took with him to that distinguished Roman 
 the son of the Parthian king. When Phraates 
 demanded the restoration of his son and the 
 giving up of the rebel Tiridates who had con- 
 spired against him, Octavianus refused the latter 
 request, but agreed to the former on condition 
 that the Parthian would surrender the stand- 
 ards taken from Crassus and liberate the sur*
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 431 
 
 viving Romau prisoners. This demand had 
 now become habitual with the Romans in all 
 their dealings with Parthia. In the present 
 case Phraates received his sou with gladness, 
 but refused to give up the standards or to set 
 the Roman prisoners at liberty. 
 
 The reader of history knows full well the 
 story of the final conflict between Octavianus 
 and Antonius. Hereafter, in the history of 
 Rome, we shall record at length the vicissi- 
 tudes of the long struggle which culminated 
 at Actium. Hereby the peaceable accession 
 of Octavianus to the Imperial throne was made 
 easy and inevitable. Antonius, following the 
 seductions of Cleopatra, fled once more to 
 Egypt, and there, after additional defeat and 
 humiliation, stabbed himself and died in the 
 presence of the woman for whom he had lost 
 the world. 
 
 By these events Parthia was again liber- 
 ated for a season from the fear of Roman in- 
 vasion. But Augustus — for by this title Oc- 
 tavianus is henceforth known — was little 
 disposed, peaceable as were his general inten- 
 tions, to permit the affairs of the East to re- 
 main in their present indeterminate state. 
 After spending the first ten years of his reign 
 in regulating and establishing the Imperial 
 Government, after the pattern given by Julius, 
 the Emperor found himself ready to settle 
 finally the issue between himself and the Par- 
 thian king. Accordingly, in B. C. 20, he went 
 in person into Asia, and, partly by menace and 
 partly by diplomacy, induced Phraates to sur- 
 render the Crassian standards. However hu- 
 miliating the act may have been to the King 
 of Kings, he nevertheless yielded to the inev- 
 itable and gave up the trophies which signified 
 so much to the half-barbaric pride of himself 
 and his subjects. The Roman prisoners who 
 still survived were permitted to return to 
 Europe, and an amicable relation was estab- 
 lished between the emperors of the East and 
 the West. 
 
 It can not be doubted that at this time it 
 was definitely agreed that henceforth the River 
 Euphrates should be observed by both Powers 
 as the true inter-imperial boundary. Such 
 agreement was in harmony with the well- 
 known theory of Augustus that the Roman 
 N.— Vol. 1—27 
 
 Empire had now expanded to its natural limit, 
 beyond which neither sound policy nor mili- 
 tary ambition could safely carry it. To this 
 the Parthian king, troubled with dissensions in 
 his own dominion, was glad to assent, and 
 thus a condition of stability and peace was 
 reached in the chasing years of the Ancient Era. 
 
 Henceforth for a long time amity existed 
 between Ctesiphon and Rome. Phraates se- 
 lected the City of the Tiber as a place for the 
 residence and education of his four sons. 
 These were Vonones, Seraspadanes, Rhodaspes, 
 and Phraates. 
 
 Once and again, however — and that with 
 respect to the troublesome kingdom of Ar- 
 menia — did hostilities break out between the 
 two Empires. The question at issue was the 
 old one as to the relative and preponderating 
 influence of Rome or Parthia with the Arme- 
 nian king. Augustus found it necessary to 
 send his son Cains Csesar to the East with an 
 army. The Romau prince came to the Eu- 
 phrates and was about to begin an invasion, 
 when the Parthian monarch, taking counsel of 
 his fears, yielded to the inevitable, and a new 
 treaty was made by himself and the young 
 Csesar on an island in the Euphrates. The 
 settlement was definitive. The supremacy of 
 Rome in Armenian affairs was acknowledged, 
 and henceforth Parthia abstained from aggres- 
 sion in this direction. Soon after the treaty 
 was concluded, Caius Csesar, going into Ar- 
 menia, and being obliged to besiege a town, 
 was slain by a missile from the walls. But 
 events went forward to their logical conclu- 
 sion. Armenia passed under the protectorate 
 of Rome, and all beyond was left to the undis- 
 puted sway of the Parthian kings. 
 
 Meanwhile the reign of Phraates IV., fif- 
 teenth of the Arsacidse, had ended with his 
 life, in the year B. C. 2. The crown de- 
 scended to his son Phraataces, offspring of an 
 Italian slave-girl, whom Augustus had sent as 
 a present to his friend, the late king of Parthia. 
 To him, rather than to any of the elder sons long 
 resident in Rome, the throne passed without 
 dispute. But it was not long until the Par- 
 thian nobles, hating the mother of their new 
 sovereign and despising the race to which she 
 belonged, rose against Phraataces, drove him
 
 432 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 from power, and took his life. Having suc- 
 ceeded thus by insurrection in undoing the 
 existing order, the Megistanes proceeded to 
 elect to the throne a certain Orodes, of whom 
 little is known except that he was one of the 
 Arsacidse. We may conjecture that he was a 
 descendant of Orodes, fourteenth monarch of 
 the line. 
 
 At any rate, about the year A. D. 12, he 
 was called home from exile, and given the 
 crown. Almost immediately, however, he dis- 
 played such qualities of cruelty and vice as 
 sickened the nobles with their own work. A 
 company of them accordingly inveigled the 
 king into a hunting excursion, and availed 
 themselves of the opportunity to put him to 
 death. An embassy was at once despatched 
 to Rome, to call home Vonones, eldest son of 
 Phraates IV. The prince complied with the 
 requisition, returned from his long absence, 
 and accepted the crown. But it was soon 
 found that his residence in Rome had unfitted 
 him for the Parthian throne. He came back 
 essentially a Roman, and in a short time the 
 alienation between him and his makers was 
 complete. Vonones was permitted to reign 
 for about three years; but in A. D. 16, or 
 possibly the following year, the nobles again 
 went into insurrection, deposed Vonones, and 
 elected a certain Artabanus, who at this time 
 was viceroy of Media Atropatene, to the 
 throne of the Empire. By a strange vicissi- 
 tude, Vonones escaped into Armenia, and was 
 made king of that country. 
 
 The action of the Armenians, in accepting 
 the refugee Arsacid for their king, could but 
 arouse the animosity of Artabanus, and he at 
 once undertook to prevent the recognition of 
 Vonones by Rome. In this he was successful 
 to the extent of obliging Vonones to fly to the 
 Roman governor of Syria for protection. 
 It became necessary for Tiberius, who had now 
 succeeded Augustus in the Imperial rank at 
 Rome, to send the brave and talented Ger- 
 manicus to the East, to regulate the Armenian 
 succession. The latter, on arriving at Ar- 
 taxata, the capital of Armenia, cut the com- 
 plication by raising a European nobleman, 
 named Zeuo, to the throne, with the title of 
 Artaxias. On the whole, this action was 
 
 pleasing to the Parthian king, who in the next 
 place requested Germanicus to banish Vonones 
 into foreign parts. This request was complied 
 with ; but Vonones, attempting to defeat the 
 arrangement by flight, was pursued, overtaken, 
 and slain. 
 
 In A. D. 19 Germanicus died, and Lucius 
 Vitellius was appointed to succeed him in the 
 government of Western Asia. It was believed 
 by Artabanus that Tiberius was in his dotage, 
 and that Vitellius was not the equal of his 
 predecessor. The Parthian, therefore, imagined 
 that he might once more with safety attempt 
 the restoration of his influence and authority 
 in Armenia. Tiberius, when informed of the 
 purposes of the king, sought by an intrigue 
 to stir up a rebellion among the Parthian 
 nobles, and in order to encourage such a 
 movement, sent the young Phraates, a brother 
 of Vonones, to the Mesopotamian border 
 The prince reached Asia, but the change in 
 his manner of life brought on a disease of 
 which he presently died. 
 
 Meanwhile, Artabanus had destroyed one 
 or two of the leading conspirators against him- 
 self. Being relieved of present apprehension 
 by the death of Phraates, he sent the Roman 
 Emperor an audacious letter, in which that 
 personage was openly charged with all the 
 crimes, vices, and corruptions in the catalogue 
 of human sin. In retaliation for this insult 
 Tiberius ordered Vitellius to interfere again in 
 the affairs of Parthia, and in particular to 
 maintain his ascendency in Armenia. In that 
 country a desultory war occurred in the years 
 A. D. 35 and 36. At one time it apj>eared 
 that the armies of Parthia and Rome would 
 be brought to decisive battle, but Vitellius 
 succeeded in inciting an insurrection before 
 which Artabanus fled into Hyrcania. 
 
 In the meantime, Prince Tiridates, son per- 
 haps of Rhodaspes, at Rome, was sent into 
 Asia as the candidate of Tiberius for the vacant 
 throne. The prince entered Mesopotamia, and 
 was well received by the Greek cities. He 
 was even crowned in Seleucia, and entered 
 upon his duties as King of Kings. But the 
 movement was delusive and farcical. The 
 nobles, native and to the manner born, could 
 have no sympathy with a sovereign who had
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 433 
 
 been reared in Rome. They accordingly went 
 into Hyrcania, found old Artabanus Avith his 
 bow and hunting shirt, and induced him to 
 head the counter-revolution against Tiridates. 
 The latter was obliged to fly. His following 
 melted away, and he was glad to find himself 
 once more in safety beyond the Euphrates 
 among the Romans. 
 
 In the fourth decade of the first century 
 the condition of affairs above described con- 
 tinued to prevail. Petty hostilities on the 
 side of Armenia recurred constantly, but no 
 general war. The empire became involved in 
 hostilities with the Jews of Babylon — one of 
 the many complications in which that people, 
 now dragging on to the close of their national 
 existence, were involved. But the details, 
 though sufficiently bloody and disgraceful, are 
 of little interest to the reader of general his- 
 tory. Events passed in the usual order until 
 the year A. D. 40, when Artabanus was a 
 second time expelled from the throne, and 
 died after a two years' banishment and a reign 
 of twenty-six years' duration. 
 
 The reader will have noted the utter absence 
 among the Parthians of royal rank of those 
 family ties and affections whereby in modern 
 times the kindred of one blood are held in 
 unity and trust. On the contrary, the court 
 of this ancient people was constantly stained 
 with blood poured forth by parricidal or frat- 
 ricidal violence. On the death of Artabanus 
 III. his sons contended for the throne. At 
 first the eldest, Gotarzes, was given the crown. 
 But it would seem that his hereditary right 
 was soon forgotten on account of his atrocious 
 conduct. Scarcely had he risen to power until 
 he seized and put to death his brother, Arta- 
 banus, together with his wife and son. It was 
 evident that, after the Oriental manner, he 
 purposed, according to his passion and jealousy, 
 to destroy all his kindred. It can not have 
 passed attention that for the last half century 
 the Megistanes had increased their power and 
 exercised their rights more freely tlian at a 
 remoter age. In the present instance they 
 accepted the challenge and drove the king 
 from the throne. His brother Vardanes was 
 called home from a distant province and given 
 the diadem. Gotarzes was abandoned, and 
 
 obliged to fly to the country of the Dahae, 
 where, according to the precedent in such 
 cases, he put himself under the protection of 
 the Scyths. 
 
 Vardanes came to power without battle so 
 far as his brother was concerned, but was 
 obliged to take arms against the city of Seleu- 
 cia. That important metropolis had never 
 lost its Grecian character — had never been in 
 political or social sympathy with the Parthian 
 nation. We have heretofore remarked upon 
 the quasi independence of the city and its 
 government by a local Senate of three hun- 
 dred. Just about the time of the accession 
 of Vardanes there was a municipal revolt, and 
 the authority of the king was wholly dis- 
 carded. In the year A. D. 42 he brought an 
 army against Seleucia and laid siege to the 
 place, but it was nearly seven years after the 
 revolt before he succeeded in its suppression. 
 
 In the meantime Go- 
 tarzes, fretting in banish- 
 ment, induced the Scyths 
 to support him in making 
 war on the king. He 
 accordingly organized an 
 army, advanced into 
 Hyrcania, and was 
 joined by malcontents 
 
 until the movement became formidable. The 
 two brothers approached each other for battle ; 
 but Gotarzes, learning that the National 
 Council was about to depose both of them, 
 sent word to Vardanes, and the two were 
 reconciled. The king remained in authority, 
 and Gotarzes Avas made governor of Hyr- 
 cania. 
 
 It appears that the Parthians were for- 
 getful of the danger with which they were 
 ever menaced from the side of Rome. Not- 
 withstanding his treaty stipulation, the king 
 now attempted to reassert his power in Ar- 
 menia. That country had accepted its place' 
 as a vassal of the Roman Empire. Vardanes,. 
 believing himself able to revolutionize the 
 Armenian Government, sought the alliance of 
 the governor of Adiabene, but that personage 
 opposed his projects, and remained loyal to- 
 Rome. Hereupon the Parthian monarch went 
 to war with him, but before a result was 
 
 COIN OP VARDANES I.
 
 434 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 reached, Gotarzes arose again in rebellion, 
 and with a Hyrcaniau army, attempted to 
 gain the throne. The king marched against 
 him and defeated him in several battles. 
 But the nobles presently afterwards enticed 
 Vardanes into the chase, and put him to 
 death. 
 
 This murder opened the way for Gotaezes, 
 who, in A. D. 46, was recognized as king. 
 The character of that prince, however, soon 
 revealed itself, and the nobles sent an embassy 
 to Rome, requesting that the prince Meher- 
 dates, son of Vonones, be sent to them for 
 the royal honor. The Emperor Claudius, who 
 now occupied the throne, yielded to the re- 
 quest, and Meherdates was sent to Mesopota- 
 mia. He soon found himself at the head of 
 a rebellious army, and advanced as far as 
 Media Adiabene. At this point, however, his 
 forces began to desert him, and he was 
 obliged to recede before the king. Before es- 
 caping from the complication into which he 
 had rushed, he was betrayed into the hands 
 of Gotarzes, who treated him with contempt 
 rather than cruelty. 
 
 The king, however, did not long survive 
 his triumph. In A. D. 51 he died. The 
 crown was transferred to an Arsacid prince 
 named Vonones, who is believed to have 
 been a half brother of Artabanus III. No 
 events of any importance occurred during his 
 reign, or at least the record of none such has 
 reached posterity. It is believed that his oc- 
 cupancy of the throne did not exceed a year 
 in duration. Nor is the manner of his death 
 referred to by the ancient historians. All that 
 is known is that about A. D. 51 or 52 the 
 crown was transferred to the king's son Vola- 
 GASES I. In entering on his reign, the latter 
 appointed his brother Pacorus to a provincial 
 governorship, and then undertook the conquest 
 of Armenia, in order to procure a province 
 for his other brother named Tiridates. 
 
 It appears that at this juncture the Romans 
 were less jealous than usual concernmg Par- 
 thian intervention in Armenian affairs. At 
 any rate, Volagases was permitted to organize 
 an expedition, and to advance into the coveted 
 territory. He gained therein a footing, and 
 raised Tiridates to the governorship. Having 
 
 done so much, the king sent an embassy to 
 Nero to acquaint him with his motives and 
 purposes. The Roman Emperor was angered 
 at the thing done, and Corbulo, a noted 
 general, and Umraidius, at that time Pro- 
 consul of Syria, were directed to recover the 
 lost possessions of the Empire. The com- 
 manders gathered an army on the Armenian 
 frontier, but presently opened negotiations 
 with Volagases, and the difficulty was adjusted 
 without battle. Strangely enough, the Romans 
 conceded the Armenian kingdom to Tiridates; 
 and the Parthian monarch was permitted to 
 retire from the country without punishment. 
 
 These events occurred in the year A. D. 
 55. It was fortunate for Volagases that he 
 was able so easily to extricate himself from 
 the difficulty on his western border. All of 
 his energies and resources were now demanded 
 in an effort to suppress a rebellion Avhich in 
 his absence had been fomented by his son 
 Vardanes. Civil war now ensued for the 
 space of three years, and the insurrection was 
 suppressed. Finding himself no longer op- 
 posed, the king turned again to Armenia, and 
 demanded that the Romans should make still 
 further concessions in regard to the govern- 
 ment of that country. But the latter seized 
 the opportunity to recover the ground already 
 lost. Corbulo occupied the years A. D. 58-60 
 with a war against the Armenians, or rather 
 against the Parthian party, headed by Tiri- 
 dates, and expelled that prince finally from 
 the counti'y. The Roman rule was restored 
 in full, and Volagases was obliged to content 
 himself with an Armenian administi'ation es- 
 tablished by his rival. 
 
 By this time the Parthian nobles had come 
 to doubt the infallibility of their monarch. 
 They charged him with iuefficiency in permit- 
 ting Armenia to slip from his grasp. The 
 king, resolving to regain public confidence, 
 sought to do so by organizing a third expedi- 
 tion for the purpose of restoring Tiridates to 
 the Armenian throne. But the expedition was 
 unsuccessful, and an armistice was declared 
 until Avhat time the Parthian embassy des- 
 patched to Rome might return with tlie de- 
 cision of Nero. The latter sent out as his 
 representative and general in the East Lucius
 
 PAR THIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 435 
 
 COIN OF VARDANES II. 
 
 was DOW intrusted. 
 
 Psetus. The latter came into Syria, and joined 
 his forces with those of Corbulo. 
 
 Both generals soon entered the Parthian 
 country, Psetus making the invasion of Ar- 
 menia. Winter came on, and the Roman 
 commander established himself in a poorly 
 fortified camp. Volagases hurried forward 
 with a large army, and the position of Paetus 
 became perilous. He was surrounded by the 
 Parthian s, and obliged 
 to capitulate on condi- 
 tion of retiring from the 
 country. The wrecks of 
 his forces were joined 
 with those of the prudent 
 Corbulo, to whom the 
 maintenance of Roman 
 interests in the country 
 It was in vain that the 
 Parthian king sought to induce Corbulo to 
 come to an accommodation. The Roman, 
 vfiih the opening of spring, advanced into 
 Armenia, and reoccupied the territory held in 
 the previous year by Psetus. 
 
 Volagases was now thoroughly alarmed, 
 and reopened negotiations. Tiridates was 
 obliged, on the site of the old camp of Psetus, to 
 pull off his royal garments and lay them down 
 before a statue of Nero. It was agreed, how- 
 ever, that the deposed prince should go to 
 Rome and receive again his crown at the 
 hands of the Roman Emperor. This was ac- 
 cordingly done. While Tiridates was permitted 
 to reign in Armenia, it was with the consent 
 and virtually under the authority of Rome. 
 
 The reign of Volagases was now long and 
 peaceful. It is believed that he held the throne 
 from A. D. 51 to about A. D. 78, a period 
 of twenty-seven years. He reached a good 
 old age, and died, bequeathing the crown to 
 his son Pacorus. 
 
 During the remainder of the first century 
 of our era, but few important events occurred 
 in the history of the Parthian Empire. After 
 the troubles of Volagases with the Romans, 
 no further complications with that people arose 
 for a considerable length of time. It seems, 
 however, that the Parthians, like other bar- 
 barian nations, were not more prosperous in 
 peace than in war. It may be conceded that 
 
 war is the natural condition of a nomadic 
 State, just as peace is the normal condition of 
 an industrial State. So long as the soil is not 
 extensively cultivated, so long as commerce 
 does not spring and flourish, so long as manu- 
 facturing industries are not created, a people 
 must procure for themselves the objects of 
 desire by the spoliation of their neighbors. 
 
 Of all the ancient peoples none fulfilled this 
 condition more perfectly than did the Par- 
 thians. As a result, the coming of peace was 
 the coming of inaction, sluggishness, and de- 
 cay. There were, moreover, during the reign 
 of Pacorus, which extended to about A, D. 
 108, many internal disturbances which tended 
 to the disintegration of the Empire. It ap- 
 pears that the old feudal principle not only 
 held its own against the consolidating forces, 
 but gradually prevailed over them. In times 
 of peace feudalism, as illustrated in the local 
 governmects of the provinces, was rampant to 
 the extent of making the feudatories virtually 
 independent. Rawlinson has pointed out the 
 fact that the history of this period is confused 
 by the presence of coins bearing the images 
 and superscriptions of sovereigns unknown to 
 the Grecian and Roman authors. Thus we 
 find a Vardanes II., and afterwards, between 
 the years 62 and 78 A. D., an Artabanus IV. 
 and a Volagases II., as though such sover- 
 eigns had reigned between Volagases I. and 
 his son Pacorus. Further on there is a coin 
 of Mithridates IV., for 
 whom there is no place 
 in the line of the Arsa- 
 cidse. Doubtless the ex- 
 planation is to be found 
 in the ^^ct that many of 
 the local governors car- 
 ried their independence 
 to the pitch of coining 
 
 money and putting their own efiigies and in- 
 scriptions on the coins. It might thus happen 
 that three or four provincial mints were at 
 work in different parts of the Empire at the 
 same time. 
 
 On the death of Pacorus, which is assigned 
 to the year 108 A. D., the Megistanes again 
 asserted their authority by putting aside the 
 two sons of the late king and choosing his 
 
 COIN OF MITHRIDATES IV.
 
 436 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 brother Chosroes instead. A reason for this 
 action may be found in the youth of the 
 princes and in the military experience of the 
 king-elect. It might be supposed that by 
 this time the Parthians had learned by ex- 
 perience the unwisdom of intermeddling with 
 the affairs of Armenia. It may be confessed, 
 however, that the last compact Avith the Ro- 
 mans was of a kind to encourage the belief 
 that Arsacid princes should henceforth wear 
 the Armenian crown. Tiridates had been ac- 
 cepted in that relation, and reigned to the 
 end of his life, at the close of the first cen- 
 tury. Pacorus, at that time king of Parthia, 
 had raised his son Exedares to the vacancy, 
 assuming either that Rome would offer no 
 objection, or else that he should be able by 
 arms to enforce his will and authority. 
 
 For the time it appeared that the former 
 supposition was realized, and that Exedares 
 would be permitted to reign in peace. The 
 Roman Emperor Trajan Avas at this time hotly 
 engaged in his war with the Dacians on the 
 Danube. This work occupied his attention 
 until the year 114 A. D., when Dacia was 
 subdued. Trajan now found time to turn his 
 attention to the affairs of the East. A great 
 expedition was accordingly organized and sent 
 into Asia, to impress upon the Parthians the 
 truth of their forgotten lesson. As the army 
 advanced, Chosroes sought to stay the coming 
 storm by sending out an embassy, which met 
 the Romans at Athens. The Parthian pro- 
 posed that Exedares should abdicate the Ar- 
 menian throne, and that hig brother, Partha- 
 masiris, should be chosen for the place under 
 the auspices and with the consent of Rome. 
 The proposition might well have satisfied the 
 Roman Emperor, but the latter had determined 
 to reestablish his authority in the East on a 
 new basis, disregarding all antecedents, and 
 aiming only at a permanent and undisturbed 
 supremacy. The Parthian ambassadors were 
 accordingly sent back to their master, and 
 the expedition was carried into Asia. 
 
 Nevertheless Parthamasiris went to the Ro- 
 man camp, presented himself to the Emperor, 
 and laid down his crown before him. Trajan, 
 however, instead of replacing it on his head, 
 retained the prince, and presently informed 
 
 him that Armenia was destined henceforth to 
 be a Roman province. As for Parthamasiris, 
 he was permitted to leave the camp, but was 
 pursued by a band of Roman horsemen, who, 
 doubtless with the privity and instigation of 
 the Emperor himself, recaptured him and put 
 him to death. Chosroes was either unable 
 or unwilling to hazard interference with the 
 purposes of the murderer of his nephew. Ar- 
 menia was yielded up, and a Roman governor 
 was appointed to exercise authority over the 
 country in place of the Arsacid prince. 
 
 With a high hand and outstretched arm 
 Trajan proceeded to overawe all the neigh- 
 boring nations and to instill the fear of his 
 name. At least two of the Western provinces 
 of Parthia were torn away and added to the 
 Roman dominion. Everything was settled ac- 
 cording to the Emperor's will, and he then re- 
 2)aired to Antioch, where he established his 
 head-quarters for the winter. Scarcely, how- 
 ever, had he planted himself in the city when 
 it was shaken into ruins by one of the most 
 disastrous earthquakes recorded in Ancient 
 History. The Emperor himself barely escaped 
 from the falling building in which he had 
 taken his residence. All the Syrian cities 
 suffered injury, greater or less, from the dis- 
 turbance. The Eastern Mediterranean and 
 the -^gean sea were tossed and heaved by the 
 shock, and some of the Greek towns were 
 thrown down. 
 
 It appears that Trajan, while in the East, 
 in the preceding year, namely, in A. D. 115, 
 had made up his mind to attack Parthia itself. 
 His plans in this particular were matured in 
 the following spring. A Roman fleet was sent 
 on xvagotis across the desert to the Tigris, 
 where the vessels were reconstructed and 
 launched. It was determined to make Media 
 Adiabene the point of attack. Against this 
 country the expedition was now directed, 
 and Chosroes found himself unable to defend 
 his province. He was obliged, by the internal 
 condition of the Empire, to hold aloof from 
 the contest and see one of the most important 
 countries under his authority overrun by the 
 Romans. 
 
 The passion of Trajan Avas now thoroughly 
 aroused. From his conquest of Adiabene he
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 437 
 
 inarched against Ctesiphon, and took the city. 
 He traversed Mesopotamia, and captured Bab- 
 ylon without fighting a battle. Seleucia re- 
 volted, and, following her immemorial prefer- 
 ence, fell willingly into the hands of the 
 conqueror. The Parthian king retired from 
 his capital cities, and went far into the inte- 
 rior, drawing after him the Roman army. It 
 appears that not even the discerning mind of 
 Trajan was able to apprehend the danger to 
 which he exposed himself in his lengthening 
 march to the East. When he had advanced 
 to a great distance in that direction without 
 being able to bring the enemy to battle, he 
 was suddenly startled with the intelligence 
 that the provinces and cities behind him were 
 rising against the Romans. City gates were 
 shut on every hand. The soldiers began to 
 suffer. The Parthians rallied and returned in 
 the wake of the retreat. Not without serious 
 losses, vexations, and humiliations did the 
 Roman army finally succeed in reaching a 
 place of safety. The Parthians recovered 
 everything except Adiabene, Upper Mesopo- 
 tamia, and Armenia. Trajan himself scarcely 
 survived his repulse. He died in 117 A. D., 
 and was succeeded in the Imperial authority 
 by Hadrian. 
 
 Each party in the conflict, thus ever re- 
 newed on the eastern frontier of the Roman 
 Empire, had now learned a lesson from the 
 other. Hadrian was not slow to perceive that 
 the vaulting ambition of Trajan had over- 
 reached itself and fallen on the other side. 
 He immediately changed the policy of the 
 Empire with respect to Parthia, choosing the 
 method of conciliation and concession. Upper 
 Mesopotamia and Adiabene were restored to 
 Chosroes. The daughter of that monarch, 
 whom Trajan had captured and sent to Rome, 
 was returned in honor to her father. In the 
 year A. D. 122 the two emperors met on the 
 disputed border and personally adjusted the 
 affairs between them. The Parthian king 
 lived to about 130 A. D., when the throne 
 passed toVoLAGASES II. But the relations of the 
 latter to the Arsacid line are uncertain. Most 
 authors have made the descent regular from 
 father to son, but in this instance the testi- 
 mony of the coins and the accepted narratives 
 
 of the Greek and Roman historians are in 
 conflict ; for which reason the place by de- 
 scent of the second Volagases in the diagram 
 of the Arsacidse has been indicated by the line 
 of doubt. 
 
 The new reign was one of peace. The 
 agreement between Hadrian and Chosroes was 
 on the whole well kept. It seems, moreover, 
 that at this time the feudatories were less 
 troublesome — less disposed to advance their 
 own claims to independence — than they had 
 been during the preceding half century. In 
 only one instance was the peace of the Empire 
 under Volagases II. seriously broken. At this 
 time a certain Pharasmanes, king of the Ibe- 
 rians, had become in his own esteem an im- 
 portant personage in Western Asia.. Himself 
 a feudatory of Rome, he dared to treat Ha- 
 drian and his authority with contempt. To- 
 wards Volagases he held a similar insolent 
 attitude. At length he instigated the bar- 
 barous nation of the Alani to pass the Cauca- 
 sus and plunder Cappadocia and Atropatene. 
 The first of these States belonged to Rome ; 
 the other, to Parthia. Volagases found cause 
 to complain to Hadrian of the conduct of his 
 vassal. The Roman governor Arrian soon 
 drove the Alani out of Cappadocia, but 
 neglected to expel them from Atropatene. The 
 Parthian king for his part — being no warrior — 
 was constrained at length to purchase the re- 
 tirement of the barbarians with much gold. 
 
 Volagases reigned until A. D. 149. Ha- 
 drian had died eleven years previously. The 
 latter was succeeded in the Imperial dignity by 
 Titus Aurelius, first of the Antonines. Soon 
 after his accession, a passing gust of ill feeling 
 was created between the two Empires by the 
 attempt of the Parthian king to recover the 
 golden throne of his ancestors which Trajan 
 had captured in Ctesiphon and sent home to 
 Rome. It was claimed by the Parthians that 
 the amicable relations now existing between 
 the East and the West warranted and de- 
 manded the surrender of the trophy. But 
 neither Hadrian nor his successor was willing 
 to give it up. 
 
 As for the Parthian succession, that fell to 
 Volagases III. , son of the late king. He was 
 destined to the longest reign which had ever
 
 43S 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 yet occurred in the anuals of the Arsacid 
 kings. At the beginning of his reign his am- 
 bitions incited him to hostility with Rome. 
 He made preparation for a war, but a remon- 
 strance and rebuke from Antouinus Pius pre- 
 vented the outbreak. Nevertheless the Par- 
 thian cherished his purpose, and in A. D. 161 
 he began a war by invading Armenia. The 
 Parthiaus had never been satisfied with the 
 protectorate of Rome over that country. 
 They had always sought, when the opportunity 
 was present, to restore their influence by es- 
 tablishing on the Armenian throne a priuce of 
 the Arsacidse, to the end that the two countries 
 should be and remain in political and military 
 sympathy. 
 
 An opportunity to reassert the ancient 
 claim was afforded by the death of the first 
 Antoninus and the accession of his son, the 
 justly celebrated Marcus Aurelius. The Par- 
 thian king was successful in his Armenian 
 campaigns, and a certain Tigranes, his kins- 
 man, was made king. Hereupon Severianus, 
 prefect of Cappadocia, accepted the challenge, 
 and marched against the Parthians. Crossing 
 the Euphrates, he was met, near Elegeia, by 
 the army of the king, was driven into the 
 city, besieged, and in a short time destroyed 
 with all his forces. The Parthians now as- 
 sumed the offensive, an I made a great cam- 
 paign into Syria and PaLstine. Such high- 
 handed proceedings roused great animosity at 
 Rome, and an army under command of Lucius 
 Verus, brother of the Emperor, was sent at 
 once to the East. On his arrival in Asia, 
 terms of accommodation were offered to the 
 Parthians, but were rejected with scorn. The 
 lieutenants of Verus then threw forward the 
 army from Antioch, and in A. D. 163 Vola- 
 gases was routed in the battle of Europus. 
 
 Meanwhile, a revulsion took place in Ar- 
 menia. Statins Priscus and other generals of 
 the Roman army marched into that country, 
 and Tigranes was driven from the throne. It 
 could not be expected that after thus hurling 
 back the Parthians into their own country the 
 Romans would forbear to follow up their suc- 
 cesses with invasion. Cassius received from 
 the Emperor the appointment of Captain- 
 general, with instructions, or at least permis- 
 
 sion, to carry the war into Parthia. The 
 advance was begun under favorable auspices, 
 and a battle was fought at Sura, in Mesopo- 
 tamia, in which the Romans were victorious, 
 Cassius then advanced on the great city of 
 Seleucia, which he besieged, took, and de- 
 stroyed. Ctesiphon met the same fate. The 
 king, his government and his army were 
 obliged to fall back into the interior. Media 
 was overrun by the conquerors, and for the 
 time it seemed that a greater than Antonius 
 or Trajan had come. 
 
 At the crisis of the war, however, when it 
 seemed that the Parthian Empire was about 
 to be overthrown, a strange and terrible pesti- 
 lence broke out in the Roman army, and the 
 soldiers began to die by hundreds and thou- 
 sands. Superstition contrived for the malady 
 a supernatural origin. It was said that a cell 
 in one of the temples at Seleucia had been 
 broken open by the soldiers, and that a spirit 
 of death had issued forth to punish the sacri- 
 lege. Terror and disease combined to ruin 
 the expedition. The army receded from Asia 
 into Europe, spreading the pestilence in its 
 wake. Only a few of the soldiers survived, 
 and Italy was so greatly infected as to lose a 
 large percentage of her population. 
 
 Thus in disaster ended the most successful 
 campaign — so far as its military progress was 
 concerned — which the Romans had ever made 
 into Parthia. It would appear that the Par- 
 thians were not foolish enough to underrate 
 the injury which they had suffered. They 
 were intelligent enough to perceive that the 
 pestilence rather than their own valor had 
 saved the Empire from conquest and per- 
 haps disruption. Volagases, therefore, was 
 satisfied to have peace by the cession to Rome 
 of the province of Osrhoeue, which remained 
 henceforth a part of the Roman dominion. 
 Parthia was obliged to accept the humiliation. 
 Her two great cities had been leveled to the 
 ground. Her army was no longer able to 
 contend with the legions of Rome, even when 
 the latter were commanded by lieutenants. 
 Civil contention had tended powerfully to 
 weaken the monarchy. The method of mutual 
 assassination among the Arsacid princes had 
 prevailed so long as to become a precedent of
 
 FARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 439 
 
 political action. More than all, the vice of 
 race had prevented the emergence of the people 
 into the higher forms of civilization. Neither 
 literature nor art had appeared with its regen- 
 erating influence to renew, vivify, and en- 
 lighten the nation. It would seem that the 
 spirit of Volagases himself 
 was humbled or broken. 
 After the destruction of 
 his capital, he reigned for 
 fully a quarter of a century, 
 but gave little sign of 
 those ambitions which had 
 fired the energies of his 
 youth. Only in a single 
 instance did there appear 
 a likelihood of the renewal 
 of war with the Roman Em- 
 pire. Cassius, great in the 
 recollection of his Asiatic 
 campaign, became an in- 
 surgent in Syria, where he 
 was in command, and in the 
 year A. D. 174 proclaimed 
 himself Emperor in that 
 country. Between him and 
 Volagases hostilities were 
 imminent, when the Roman 
 army out of Europe ar- 
 rived in Syria, and the re- 
 volt of Cassius was put 
 down with a strong hand. 
 The Roman Emperor, al- 
 ways inclined to peace, 
 readily accepted the over- 
 tures which were now made 
 by the Parthian king, and 
 the long existing amicable 
 relations between the two 
 Powers were fully restored. 
 
 With the death of Mar- 
 cus Aurelius, in the year 
 A. D. 180, the Roman 
 throne went to his son Commodus, infamous 
 in the annals of the Empire. Volagases sur- 
 vived his contemporary for eleven years, dying 
 in the year 191, and bequeathing his crown 
 to his son Volagases IV. 
 
 The reader of history will readily recall the 
 course of events at this epoch in the West. 
 
 Commodus was murdered, and the Imperial 
 throne was presently claimed by several com- 
 petitors. In the East, Pesceunius Niger set 
 up his banner and claimed the diadem. In 
 the West, Severus was acknowledged at Rome. 
 Other claimants arose in the persons of Albi- 
 
 PARTHIAN CAPTIVES BEFORE MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 
 nus and Julianus. When Niger perceived 
 that he must take by the sword the crown to 
 which he aspired, he sought the aid of the 
 Parthian king. The latter was wary of the 
 proposed alliance. One of his dependents, 
 however, the satrap of Hatra, joined his for- 
 tunes with the Roman pretender, and sent to
 
 440 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 him a body of troops. On the whole, how- 
 ever, the Parthian nations were disposed to 
 take advantage of the civil war in the AVest, 
 and to expel the Romans from Mesopotamia. 
 They seized the places which had been occu- 
 pied for generations by Roman garrisons, and 
 demanded that all Europeans should retire 
 from the country. 
 
 Meanwhile, Severus triumphed over his 
 ■enemies, and at once undertook to restore the 
 Imperial authority beyond the Euphrates. 
 This work was accomplished with comparative 
 €ase. Not only was Mesopotamia ovei-run, 
 but Adiabene was entered and occupied. By 
 the time this work was accomplished, however, 
 namely, in the summer of A. D. 195, a new 
 complication had arisen in Italy, and Severus 
 was obliged to hurry to the West. 
 
 It was hoped by Volagases IV. and his 
 subjects that the retirement was final, and 
 hostilities were immediately renewed. Not 
 only in Adiabene, but in Mesopotamia also, 
 the Roman garrisons were attacked and either 
 destroyed or expelled from the country. 
 Syria was entered and terrorized ; but Sev- 
 erus had by this time restored order in the 
 West, and hastily returned to prosecute the 
 Eastern war. The Parthians were hurled 
 from Syria. In A. D. 197 a Roman army 
 was sent into Armenia, and the protectorate 
 of the Empire over that province was rees- 
 tablished. The Parthian king had a personal 
 conference with Severus, and gave his sons 
 into the hands of the Emperor as hostages. 
 
 It seems, however, that the Parthian king 
 was no longer able to control the destinies 
 of his Empire. The Mesopotamian provinces 
 and cities were hostile to the Romans, and 
 Severus had to send detachments of his army 
 to bring them into subjection. One after an- 
 other the hostile parts were invaded and sub- 
 dued. Ctesiphon, which had in the mean time 
 been rebuilt and reestablished as the capital, 
 was the next object of attack. The Romans 
 carried the city by assault, and Volagases 
 saved himself from capture by fleeing into the 
 interior. The city was plundered by the in- 
 vaders, and a great part of the inhabitants 
 put to the sword. Again it appeared that the 
 Parthian Empire was at the verge of extinc- 
 
 tion ; but the supplies of the Roman array 
 failed, and it became necessary for the Emperor 
 to retire. In doing so he sought to take, en 
 7-oute, the city of Hatra. But in this project 
 he was unsuccessful. The Parthians rallied, 
 and Severus found it expedient to retire into 
 Syria. In this case, however, the Parthians 
 did not pursue. The damage done to Vola- 
 gases and his Empire had been so great that 
 he did not dare to follow his retiring antago- 
 nist. Severus remained in the East until the 
 year A. D. 201, having in the interval re- 
 stored order in all the countries to the limits 
 of the Roman Empire. 
 
 As for Volagases IV. , his reign extended to 
 the year 209, while that of Severus continued 
 for two years longer. It was the misfortune 
 of the Parthian sovereign to leave a disputed 
 succession. His sons Artabanus and Vola- 
 gases contended for the crown. It is believed 
 that both of these princes reigned as contem- 
 poraries in different parts of the Empire. But 
 Volagases V. was displaced about 216 A. D., 
 and the sole dominion remained to Artabanus 
 IV. The latter was recognized as king by the 
 Romans. 
 
 In the West, Caracalla succeeded his father 
 Severus in the year 211. At that time civil 
 war existed in Parthia between the two brothers 
 who were contending for the crown. The new 
 Roman Emperor was ambitious, from the day 
 of his accession, of winning fame by war, and 
 since the opportunity did not ofler in the 
 West, he turned his attention to Asia. Not 
 satisfied with having Osrhoene reduced to a 
 Roman province, he sought to bring the an- 
 cient and oft-disputed kingdom of Armenia 
 into like relation with the Empire. He man- 
 aged by treachery to seize the Armenian king 
 and his family, whereupon the subjects of the 
 captive monarch took up arms. Fighting 
 with desperation, they succeeded in Avinning a 
 victory over the Roman lieutenant who was 
 sent to subdue them. 
 
 Nevertheless, Caracalla continued his ex- 
 actions and oppressions, and sought a quarrel 
 with the Parthian king. He himself went to 
 Antioch, and established there his capital. 
 Soon afterwards he opened with the Parthian 
 monarch negotiations of an extraordinary kind.
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 441 
 
 The student of Roman history is well aware 
 of the desperate character of Caracalla, and is 
 prepared to expect all manner of treachery at 
 his hands. In nothing, however, was the 
 deep-seated perfidy of his nature more fully 
 revealed than in the transaction in which he 
 now engaged with Artabanus IV. He sent 
 an embassy to that sovereign bearing a letter 
 in which the Roman traversed at length the 
 relations existing between the two Empires, 
 and ended by asking the Parthian to give him 
 his daughter in marriage. By this means the 
 two great Powers of Europe and Asia would 
 be united in a common destiny. The sur- 
 rounding barbarian nations could be easily 
 reduced by war, and thus the two great Pow- 
 ers of Europe and Asia be brought under a 
 single scepter. 
 
 The Parthian king was 
 staggered by this astounding 
 proposal, but seeing that war 
 was intended in case of a 
 refusal, he first temporized 
 and then yielded to the de- 
 mand. The Roman Em- 
 peror hereupon set out in 
 great state, with a strong 
 military force, to visit the 
 Parthian capital and re- 
 ceive his bride. On arriv- 
 ing at Ctesiphon he was 
 received with corresponding 
 pomp in the plain before the 
 city. But while the ceremonies were pre- 
 paring, and the conference of the sovereigns 
 no more than begun, a signal was given, and 
 the Roman soldiers rose with drawn swords 
 upon the Parthians. The latter were butch- 
 ered by thousands. The king himself barely 
 escaped the common fate. Ctesiphon was 
 taken and plundered, and the Romans, laden 
 with spoils, set out on the return through 
 Babylonia. On the way Caracalla directed 
 his march through the ancient necropolis of 
 the Parthian nobility at Arbela. Here the 
 Romans paused and tore open and ravaged 
 the tombs. Thence they continued the march 
 to Edessa, where the Emperor established 
 himself for the winter of 216-17. In the fol- 
 lowing spring he made preparations to renew 
 
 his barbarous and wanton war, but in April 
 of this year he was assassinated in the temple 
 of the Moon-god, at Carrhte. 
 
 So far as Caracalla possessed the right to 
 the Imperial diadem of Rome, the same was 
 now transferred to Macrinus, who to the vices 
 of his predecessor added a cowardice of his 
 own. He would fain have come to an accom- 
 modation with the Parthians, but the latter 
 were now angered to desperation. In the 
 negotiations that followed Artabanus made 
 such demands as could not be accepted even 
 by a poltroon. Macrinus was accordingly 
 obliged to put forth his army and take the 
 hazard of battle. The hostile forces came 
 together near the city of Nisibis, at this time 
 the metropolis of Mesopotamia. Here the 
 
 SACK OF CTESIPHON BY THE ROMANS. 
 
 question was finally decided whether the power 
 of Rome should be extended over the Great 
 Plateau of Iran, or whether the line of de- 
 markation which Augustus had pointed out 
 should remain as the thus-far of Roman domi- 
 nation in the East. 
 
 Both armies as they came together were at 
 their best; but the Parthians were the more 
 ably commanded. The battle began with a 
 local struggle between divisions of the two 
 forces for the possession of a stream which 
 was to furnish water. A hard-fought engage- 
 ment terminated indecisively, and the armies 
 rested for the night. On the following morn- 
 ing the conflict was renewed, and all day long 
 the battle raged with fury. One division of 
 the Parthian army was composed of a body
 
 442 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of soldiers mounted on camels, and armed 
 with long spears against which it was difficult 
 for the Romans to stand. In falling back, 
 however, they sowed the ground with tribuli, 
 which, piercing the camels' feet, ended the 
 charge. Again night came on with the battle 
 undecided. 
 
 On the third day, however, the Parthians 
 began to gain. Their cavalry wings were ex- 
 tended right and left, and seemed to envelop 
 the legions. These were obliged to thin ranks 
 in order to confront the enemy. Hereupon, 
 by rapid evolution, the Parthians concentrated 
 their forces, charged after their furious manner, 
 and drove the Romans from the field. The 
 latter sought safety in their camp, and were 
 in peril of destruction. But the Parthians, as 
 well as their foe, had suffered enormous losses, 
 and when Macrinus opened negotiations, Arta- 
 banus was willing to grant more liberal terms 
 than might have been expected from such a 
 victor on such a field. He, however, de- 
 manded and received a sum equal to about 
 seven and a-half million dollars as an indem- 
 nity for the injuries inflicted on his people and 
 provinces. 
 
 Such was the end of a conflict which had 
 extended through nearly three centurius of 
 time. The Romans and the Parthians fought 
 no more battles. Of all the outlying countries 
 of Europe or Asia, only the Parthian Em- 
 pire had been able to interpose an immovable 
 bulwark against the aggressive ambitions of the 
 race of Romulus. It might well appear that 
 now, when the conflict had been finally decided 
 against the Romans by the sword — when the 
 Emperor Macrinus himself had been obliged 
 to fly from the field of Nisibis in order to save 
 his life — the Parthians would revive from their 
 depression and enter upon a new career of de- 
 velopment. Destiny, however, had written it 
 otherwise. That which a foreign enemy had 
 been unable to accomplish was now to be 
 brought about by internal violence. Through 
 the whole history of the Empire, the disrupt- 
 ive forces had been at work. The provinces 
 had been held together with the greatest diffi- 
 culty. Time and again we "have referred to 
 the fact that no stronger political tie than the 
 Feudal principle had been discovered where- 
 
 with to bind the nations and peoples, brought 
 under a single dominion by Mithridates, into 
 one great community, having common interests 
 and common conditions of life. This circum- 
 stance was the element of weakness which had 
 ever menaced the stability of the Empire, and 
 out of this was now to spring the great catas- 
 trophe by which the Parthian dominion was 
 to be subverted. 
 
 It remained for Persia — that is Persia 
 Proper — to become the agent of disruption. 
 The reader will remember that it was under 
 the auspices of Persia that the former great 
 Empire had been created on the Iranian 
 Plateau. With the conquest of Alexander, 
 the ancient Power was destroyed, and Persia 
 became a tributary kingdom in the new do- 
 minion established by the Arsacidse. It ap- 
 pears that the Persian kings had had, during 
 the Parthian ascendency, a show of respect, a 
 degree of importance, which might not be 
 paralleled among the other feudatories of the 
 Empire. 
 
 There were, however, serious causes of dis- 
 content among the Persians. The tradition 
 of their old-time glory, the memory of the 
 deeds of Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis still lin- 
 gered among the people. Outside of the 
 Greek cities no other province of the Empire 
 was comparable with Persia in culture and re- 
 finement. The ancient religious faith tended 
 to pride of race and contempt for the Pagan 
 States. The Imperial Government had for 
 several centuries pursued a tolerant policy in 
 matters of religion, granting no exclusive favors 
 to any particular faith. This policy was a 
 matter of great grief to the Persian Magi, who 
 had all the haughtiness and bigotry of Asiatic 
 Pharisees. To be placed on a level with the 
 servants of the other gods of the Parthian 
 Empire was a thing intolerable to the Persians 
 of the ancient sacerdotal order. The secular 
 offices within the limits of Persia were gener- 
 ally filled by Parthians as against the claims 
 of native warriors and statesmen. Notwith- 
 standing their great lineage and glorious his- 
 tory, the Persians were unable to see that they 
 enjoyed any advantages — civil, religious, or 
 social — over the rude and half-civilized nations 
 of the Northern provinces. The reasons for
 
 PARTHIA.— CIVIL AND MILITARY ANNALS. 
 
 443 
 
 rebelliou wei'e thus deep-seated in the constitu- 
 tion and history of the State, and nothing 
 but opportunity was wanting for a great in- 
 surrection. 
 
 At the time of the battle of Nisibis the 
 under-king of Persia bore the famous name 
 of Artaxerxes. He appears to have been a 
 man of extraordinary ambitions and great 
 force of character. It is believed that he was 
 himself a Magus, profoundly instructed in the 
 mysteries of the ancient faith, and deeply de- 
 voted to the religion of his countrymen. It 
 were impossible to tell, in the absence of con- 
 temporary evidences, the precise motives by 
 which the Persian king was influenced in rais- 
 ing the standard of revolution. Certain it is 
 that one of the leading impulses of the re- 
 bellion was the hoped-for restoration of the 
 ancient Zoroastrian faith, which had for so 
 long a period been reduced to the level of a 
 pagan cult. But we may well believe that 
 the Persian under-king was influenced in haz- 
 arding his fortunes on the issue of civil war 
 by political and warlike ambitions, as well as 
 by his religious zeal. He perceived in the 
 Parthian situation a great opportunity. A 
 pretender to the Imperial crown, named Vola- 
 gases v., had appeared in the field. He 
 claimed to be a representative of the Arsacid 
 dynasty, and was not without a considerable 
 support in difl^erent provinces. It is believed, 
 moreover, that Hyrcania had already fallen 
 away from its allegiance to the Empire. Many 
 other circumstances, the nature of which it is 
 difficult, after so great a lapse of time, to ap- 
 prehend, were doubtless potential in exciting 
 and directing the revolutionary movement 
 which now broke out in Persia, under the 
 leadership of Artaxerxes. To him it now re- 
 mained, in the same year of the final repulse 
 of the Romans, to raise the standard of suc- 
 cessful revolt against Artabanus. 
 
 It would seem that Artabanus had suffered 
 so greatly from his recent Roman wars with 
 Commodus, Caracalla, and Macrinus, as to 
 be unable to bring into the field against the 
 revolted country an army of suflBcient strength 
 and resources for the work. At any rate, 
 when the two forces — the insurrectionary on 
 the one side, and the Imperial on the other — 
 
 came together on the plain of Hormuz, the 
 king's army was beaten in battle, routed, and 
 driven to the four winds. Artabanus himself 
 was slain , and the victory of the Persians was 
 so complete that there was little hope of re- 
 viving the national cause. Some of the Ar- 
 sacid princes sought to restore the fortunes 
 of their House, and desultory fighting con- 
 tinued through another year; but the army of 
 Artaxerxes triumphed more and more, and he 
 was soon enabled to compel the last represent- 
 ative of the ancient dynasty to submit to his 
 will. Thus by conquest and a complete re- 
 version of political relations was the Em- 
 pire founded by Arsaces, and developed and 
 defended by the great kings of the second 
 century B. C, crowded to the precipice, and 
 hurled down into darkness and oblivion. 
 
 The causes of the subversion of the Par- 
 thian Power are easily discoverable, even from 
 the rapid survey here presented of the history 
 of the Empire. In the first place, the exist- 
 ence of feudalism in its Asiatic form had pre- 
 vented the complete union of the many prov- 
 inces and dependencies constituting the Imperial 
 dominions. Time and again we have pointed 
 out the disastrous results of the loose con- 
 federative system on which the Empire was 
 founded. The diflferent peoples thus vaguely 
 combined under a single govei-nment retained 
 too great a measure of independence and sov- 
 ereignty for the welfare and stability of the 
 central administration. The feudatories never 
 coalesced to the extent of forming a consoli- 
 dated union. The Empire was merely a league 
 of States ranging in character fi'om half-bar- 
 baric to civilized and refined. Over these dif- 
 ficulties of government a common language, 
 common institutions, and a common spirit 
 could not well prevail. 
 
 In the next place, the family of the Arsacidse 
 branched out into subordinate sovereignties, any 
 one of which might aspire to the hegemony 
 of the Empire. The Arsacid princes, in the 
 second century B. C, felt no longer the strong 
 tie of kindred. They were not sufficiently 
 advanced in statesmanship to understand that 
 the interests of each Avere subordinate to the 
 interests of the dynasty as a whole. The di- 
 verse motherhood of the princes often aggra-
 
 444 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 vated the existing condition; for when have 
 the two mothers of the sons of a common 
 father forborne to quarrel and hate and mur- 
 der in the supposed interest of their own 
 offspring? 
 
 Doubtless, moreover, there was, to a certain 
 extent, a dynastic decay in the Arsacid family ; 
 but this was little noticeable in the general 
 condition at the beginning of the third cen- 
 tury. Artabanus fought valiantly, and was 
 victorious over the Romans. Even after him 
 Prince Artavasdes, who sought to shore up the 
 falling monarchy, struggled hard to sustain the 
 fortunes of his House. But the effort was in 
 vain, and the Empire went down headlong to 
 ruin, under the impact of the Persian Rebellion. 
 
 In the course of the present Book the 
 reader's attention has been carried forward from 
 the time of the destruction of the Persian 
 
 Empire by Alexander the Great to the over- 
 throw of the last of the Arsacid kings, and 
 the revival of the Persian Power under Ar- 
 taxerxes Ardishir, founder of the. Sassanian 
 Dynasty. He is now asked to retrace his 
 course to the point of view which he occupied 
 at the beginning; to stand again on the field 
 of Arbela ; to note from that point of obser- 
 vation the conquerors rather than the con- 
 quered ; to cast his eye to the far West in the 
 direction from which those conquerors came — 
 to Macedonia, to the ^gean archipelago, to 
 the main-land of ancient Hellas — and to take 
 up, as his next great lesson in the progress of 
 human history, the story of those Hellenic 
 peoples, to whom, without reserve, the heroic 
 praise may be accorded of the most intellectual, 
 the most witty, the most fascinating, the most 
 artistic, and the most poetic race of men. 
 
 pgy<PM^^gffggyj>mf ^^igM^^ 
 
 FRIEZE OVER DOORM'AY OF TEMPLE, HATRA. (After RoSS.)
 
 SPORTS OF GREER GIRLS
 
 lllM^MMMMMMMMMMJ[llMMM^M^LM§MMWiMJi 
 
 laafe :gig|l|. 
 
 QRBECB. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI.— The country. 
 
 REECE, the eastermost 
 of the three peninsulas 
 which from the south of 
 Europe drop into the 
 Mediterranean, was in 
 her palmy days the scene 
 of the most extraordinary 
 activities ever displayed by the human race. 
 The name Greece was not given to the country 
 by the Greeks themselves, by whom the land 
 was immemorially called Hellas, and them- 
 selves Hellenes. The words Greece and 
 Greeks were brought into use by the writers 
 of Rome, who for some reason adopted the 
 name of the petty tribe called the Greed as 
 an appellative of the whole race. 
 
 A sketch of a land so noted as Hellas can 
 hardly fail of interest. The country lies be- 
 tween parallels thirty-six and forty of north 
 latitude, and the meridians twenty-one and 
 twenty-six of longitude east from Greenwich. 
 The length of the peninsula from Mount 
 Olympus to the southernmost cape is two hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, and the breadth from 
 Attica to Acarnania one hundred and eighty 
 miles. The area — though difficult of exact 
 determination — may be fairly estimated at 
 
 thirty-four thousand square miles — a district 
 but little larger than the State of Indiana ; 
 but this estimate does not include the many 
 Greek islands, proximate or more remote from 
 the main-land, which, inhabited by the same 
 race and running the same course in history, 
 might well be included in the aggregate 
 measurement. 
 
 The peninsula is sharply defined on the 
 north by the Olympian and Cambunian moun- 
 tains. These have a general course from east 
 to west, and extend from the Thermaic gulf 
 to the promontory of Acroceraunia, on the 
 Adriatic. But the country lying south of 
 this range includes not only Greece Proper 
 but also Epirus on the west. The transverse 
 range, which constitutes the fundamental fact 
 in the geological structure of the peninsula, 
 is called the Pindus, which, starting from the 
 southern slope of Olympus, stretches south- 
 ward, and dividing and branching and sink- 
 ing in elevation, straggles through the 
 Isthmus and finally terminates in the cape or 
 headland of Toenarus. Epirus and Thessaly 
 in the north are thus divided by a lofty chain. 
 
 On the east side of Pindus, below Thessaly, 
 the spur-range of Othrys strikes ofl^ to the 
 
 (447)
 
 448 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 coast, thus inclosing between itself and Olym- 
 pus the Thessalian Plain. Further to the 
 south the range called CEta departs to the 
 east and reaches the sea at the Euboean strait. 
 At the eastern extrema of this elevation is 
 the pass of Thermopylae. From the branch- 
 jing off of CEta the Pindus chain begins to 
 divide. One range stretches to the south-west 
 across ^tolia, and descends to the level at 
 the Gulf of Corinth. The other branch runs 
 to the south-east, and numbers among its 
 heights the famous peaks of Parnassus, Heli- 
 con, Cithwron, ^galeus, and Hymettus. In 
 Peloponnesus the descending heads of Pindus 
 are known by the names of Olenus, Paua- 
 chaicus, Pholoe, Erymanthus, Lycseus, Par- 
 rhasius, and Taygetus. It only remains to 
 note that the eastern prolongation of Olympus 
 is known as Ossa and Peliou. The range 
 here drops away to the south-east of Thessaly, 
 and after disappearing under the sea rises in 
 the ridge of Euboea, and then breaks into the 
 Cyclades, of which Andros, Tenos, Myconos, 
 Naxos, and many others are but the uplifted 
 heads of submerged mountains. Taken all in 
 all, Greece is, in respect of geological forma- 
 tion, one of the most mountainous countries 
 in the world. The so-called "chains" which 
 traverse the region south of Olympus are 
 scarcely chains at all, but rather a mass of 
 elevations branching off laterally and turning 
 from their course until the whole land seems 
 but a multitude of heights, promiscuously ar- 
 ranged, not very aspiring, sinking in green 
 slopes to the level of the surrounding seas. 
 
 In such a country lakes and small rivers 
 are likely to abound. Of the latter the 
 Grecian streams most noted are, first, the 
 PENEros, which drains the plain of Thessaly, 
 and, carrying a considerable volume of water, 
 makes its way between Ossa and Olympus 
 into the ^gean sea. Next may be mentioned 
 the AcHELOOS, which, taking its rise on the 
 slopes of Pindus, divides ^tolia from Acar- 
 nania and falls into the sea of Ionia. The 
 third is the Euenuus, also a stream from the 
 side of Pindus, making its way into the same 
 sea at a more easterly point of the coast. In 
 Bceotia the two rivers are the Cephisus and 
 the Asopus, neither of much importance, 
 
 scarcely maintaining a flow of water during 
 the summer. Through the state of Elis flows 
 the ALPHEros, which also drains Arcadia, being 
 of a more respectable volume. In Messenia 
 the principal stream is the Pamisus, which, 
 though small, is perennial. Near Argos flows 
 the Inachus, and Attica is watered by the 
 Cephisus and the Ilissus, both scant in waters 
 and by no means justifying the descriptions 
 and poetical enthusiasm of the ancients. 
 
 Of these rivers the only one that carries 
 down to its mouth a noticeable quantity of fer- 
 tilizing material is the Acheloiis, which in high 
 water lays a fair deposit on the valley-lands 
 near the Ionian sea. A great majority of the 
 streams which the Attic patriots honored with 
 the name of "rivers" are little more than 
 brooks, dry to the bottom during the hot 
 months of summer. 
 
 Lakes, also, are a necessity of the con- 
 formation of the country. In many localities 
 are natural basins compassed with hills, and 
 in such situations, unless nature has provided 
 a subterranean outlet, the waters gather, 
 forming a marsh or lake. Of these there are 
 two in Thessaly, the Nessonis and the Bcebeis, 
 both of considerable size. In the region 
 between the rivers Acheloiis and Euenus 
 lies Lake Trichonis, which appears to have 
 been a more extensive body of water in an- 
 cient than in modern times. In Boeotia the 
 river Cephisus forms, in one part of its course, 
 an extensive marsh called Copais, and lakes 
 Hylike and Harma are also found in the 
 same state. The Copals is drained by a 
 famous natural subterraneous channel known 
 as the Katabothra, through which the over- 
 plus of waters found a way to the other side 
 of the hills. Many other examples are found 
 in different parts of Greece, especially in Pel- 
 oponnesus, of a like contrivance of nature 
 for the escape of confined bodies of water. 
 The calcareous limestone of which the hills 
 are mostly composed was specially favorable 
 to the formation of such passages. 
 
 For the coast-line of Greece the geography 
 of the world can scarcely present a parallel. 
 Around the whole extent of the peninsula 
 there seems to have been a war between sea 
 and land as to which should more impenetrate
 
 GREECE.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 451 
 
 the other. All the way around, from the 
 Thermaic Gulf to the borders of Epirus, is 
 an almost continued succession of peninsulas 
 and bays. Sometimes, as in the case of the 
 great island Eubcea, the sea is completely vic- 
 torious, and a portion of the shore is cut oflf 
 by straits and channels. Again, as on the 
 west of Peloponnesus, the land for a distance 
 presents a tolerably regular outline of coast. 
 Notably, however, near the middle — in the 
 waist, as it were, of her body — is Greece 
 almost divided. Here, on the east the Sa- 
 ronic Gulf running up under Attica, and on 
 the west the Gulf of Corinth, press inland to- 
 wards each other until only a narrow barrier 
 of rocky isthmus remains between. So nearly 
 does Peloponnesus come to being an island. 
 Thus by a long and infinitely varied coast- 
 line was laid in nature the antecedent of the 
 maritime supremacy of the Greeks, 
 
 The general division into a Northern, a 
 Central, and a Southern Greece is most 
 obviously marked in the geographical features 
 of the peninsula. The part of the country 
 which lies between the Corinthian Gulf and 
 the Olympian mountains is subdivided into 
 two parts by the approximation of the Am- 
 bracian and Maliac gulfs. A line drawn 
 from the one to the other constitutes the 
 lower, as the fortieth parallel constitutes the 
 upper, boundary of Northern Greece. From 
 the line of the two gulfs to the Isthmus of 
 Corinth is Central Greece; while Southern 
 Greece is obviously conterminous with the 
 Peloponnesus. 
 
 It will be seen at a glance that the north- 
 ern division of the country, as here defined, 
 includes Thessaly and Epirus, but excludes 
 Macedonia. The latter is a country of high- 
 lands, entirely different in characteristics from 
 the regions lying to the south. It consists in 
 large part of circular valleys hemmed in by 
 ranges of hills, with few slopes towards the 
 sea; while, on the other hand, Greece Proper, 
 though mountainous to the extent of secluding 
 in a great measure the districts from each 
 other, tends in nearly all parts to the shore. 
 
 It will readily be inferred, from the geo- 
 graphical conditions here presented, that the 
 
 climate of Greece is exceedingly varied. 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—28 
 
 Such is true to an astonishing degree. Be- 
 ginning at the north, next the range of 
 Olympus, and proceeding to the south, first 
 into the valleys of Central Greece and thence 
 into Peloponnesus, there is presented to the 
 traveler almost every variety of atmospheric 
 condition. The general aspect of nature 
 changes like the scenes of a panorama, until 
 almost every disposition and hue of her 
 wealth, and even of her caprice, has been 
 displayed. 
 
 Passing from Northern to Central Greece, 
 a new order of structure is observed. The 
 landscape becomes more complex. The moun- 
 tains in many parts fall into hilly ranges. 
 The country is described by Curtius as "so 
 manifoldly broken up that it becomes a suc- 
 cession of peninsulas connected with one an- 
 other by isthmuses." In the western part, 
 Mount Tymphrestus rises to a height of more 
 than seven thousand feet, and the range of 
 Parnassus reaches a still greater elevation in 
 the eastern portion of the peninsula. 
 
 In Peloponnesus still greater changes are 
 observed. Here, around a kind of center in 
 the state of Arcadia, arise high bulwarks with 
 spurs projecting from every slope into the 
 surrounding districts — Messenia, Laconia, Ar- 
 golis. Some of the scenery is Alpine in its 
 wildness. The eye is surprised in every part 
 by striking landscapes, secluded spots of 
 beauty, marvelous contrasts of hill and wood 
 and valley. It is, however, in considering 
 the political divisions of Greece, that the 
 marked local peculiarities of the land may be 
 best presented. 
 
 Ancient Greece was divided into a multi- 
 tude of states, the foundations of which were 
 laid in nature. In other countries lines have 
 been drawn, for mere convenience of govern- 
 ment, between province and province. In 
 Greece the lines were laid when the pe- 
 ninsula was thrown into form. Beginning 
 next the Olympian range we have in North- 
 ern Greece the two extensive states of Thes- 
 saly and Epirus. They are, as already said, 
 divided from each other by the range of Pin- 
 dus. The former is the largest political divi- 
 sion of all Greece. It lies from north to 
 south between the Cambunian mountains and
 
 452 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Thermopylae, and stretches east and west from 
 the Pindus slope to the ^gean. The greater 
 part of the country is a plain, which, at its 
 north-easternnaost extremity, is broken by the 
 Vale of Tempe, celebrated from remote an- 
 tiquity as one of the most lovely spots of 
 earth, a sylvan solitude, a chosen haunt of 
 Apollo. The Thessalian plain was the largest 
 productive district in Greece, and was greatly 
 prized for its agricultural resources. It was 
 thought by the inhabitants to have been in 
 former times the bed of a lake, having its 
 outflow through the Peneus, whose sinking 
 channel gradually drained it into the sea. 
 Thessaly was subdivided into four provinces, 
 known by the names of Thessalaotis, Hestise- 
 otis, Pelasgiotis, and Phthiotis — a division 
 retained until a late date in Grecian history. 
 
 Epirus was in geographical position most 
 remote, in extent second, and in character 
 most barbarous of all the states of Greece. 
 It was bounded on the east by Pindus, on the 
 north by Illyria, on the west by the Ionian 
 sea, and on the south by ^tolia, Arcarnania, 
 and the Ambracian Gulf. Its two rivers were 
 the Acheron and the Cocytus. The country 
 was rugged and less attractive than most of 
 the other states, and was by the Greeks them- 
 selves regarded as a kind of foreign region 
 inhabited by people of another race. The 
 things for which Epirus was most noted Avas 
 Dodona with her oaks and the ancient oracle 
 of Jupiter; Canope and Buthrotum, with 
 their harbors ; Ambracia, the capital of King 
 Pyrrhus; and Nicopolis, built by Augustus 
 Caesar, in commemoration of his victory at 
 Actium. The Epirotes had some share in the 
 stirring history of Greece, but are generally 
 disparaged by the Greek historians. 
 
 Passing into Centi'al Greece, Ave find in 
 the eastern half the states of Doris, Phocis, 
 Locris, Malis, Boeotia, Attica, and Megaris; 
 and in the Avestern half Acarnania, -iEtolia, 
 and Ozolian Locris. Doris was in the heart 
 of the country, and was the smallest state of 
 all Greece. It was bounded on the east by 
 Phocis, on the south by Ozolian Locris, on 
 the west by JEtolia, and on the north by Ma- 
 lis. To the westward rose Mount CEta. The 
 whole district was mountainous, and it Avas 
 
 not in nature that it should contain a great 
 civilization. Nevertheless, the part Avhich the 
 Dorians played in Grecian history was suffi- 
 ciently conspicuous to make their country an 
 object of interest. 
 
 The state of Phocis Avas bounded on the 
 north by Locris, on the east by Boeotia, on 
 the south by the Corinthian Gulf, and on the 
 west by Ozolian Locris. At one point it 
 reached the brine, in the channel of Euboea, 
 and possessed the harbor of Daphnus. The 
 surface of the country is exceedingly mount- 
 ainous, being ti'aversed by the range of Par- 
 nassus. South of this chain are several fertile 
 districts, the most extensive being the plain 
 of Crissaea. The principal river is the Ce- 
 phissus, which in a considerable part of its 
 course forms an exuberant valley. The most 
 striking of the local interests Avhich, during 
 the Grecian ascendency, and indeed e\^er since, 
 have attracted the attention of mankind, were 
 the city and oracle of Delphi, the latter being 
 the most famous seat of alleged inspiration in 
 the Avorld. 
 
 Locris, in the most ancient times, extended 
 across the entire peninsula from the Corin- 
 thian gulf to the strait of Euboea. By the en- 
 croachments of the Phocians and the Dorians, 
 hoAveA'er, the state was cut in two, the central 
 part being ajDpropriated by the conquerors. 
 The Locrians were thus confined to tAVO nar- 
 roAV districts, both maritime ; the eastern or 
 Locris Proper, lying upon the strait, and the 
 western or Ozolian Locris, being on the gulf 
 of Corinth. The former extended along the 
 coast from the Pass of Thermopylae to the 
 mouth of the Cephissus, and had the same gen- 
 eral character as Phocis, Avhich bounded it on 
 the south. The Ozolian Locris, bordering the 
 gulf, was a rugged and somcAvhat barren coun- 
 try, one of the poorest in Central Greece. 
 The name Ozolae, or Stinkards, was given to 
 the people from the fetid odors of the sul- 
 phur springs Avhich abounded in several parts. 
 The principal towns were Naupactus and 
 Eupalium. 
 
 The small state of Malis is sometimes 
 omitted from the political geography of 
 Greece, but should be included. It lay im- 
 mediately north of Doris, and at the western
 
 GREECE.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 453 
 
 extreme of the Malian gulf. The little dis- 
 trict so named produced no important effect 
 upon the course of Grecian history, nor were 
 there either Malian cities or citizens of such 
 note as to attract the applause of their bois- 
 terous countrymen. 
 
 Not so, however, of the state of Bceotia. 
 Bounded on one side by the channel of Eu- 
 boea and ou the other by the Corinthian gulf, 
 lying between Attica at the extreme of the 
 peninsula and Phocis on the north-west, this 
 country held a position in every way favor- 
 able for a large influence in the affairs of 
 Greece. Geographically, Boeotia is a sort of 
 basin, surrounded by the ranges of Cithseron 
 and Parues on the south. Helicon on the 
 west, Parnassus on the north-west, and the 
 Opuntian chain on the east. Within this 
 basin lies Lake Copai's, forty-seven miles in 
 circumference, formed, as hitherto said, by 
 the overflowing of the river Cephissus; also 
 the plain of Thebes, and the valley of Asopus. 
 
 Of all the Grecian commonwealths the 
 most important was Attica. The name means 
 the Shore or Coast. The land so called was 
 the extremity or foot of the long peninsula 
 which constitutes the eastern part of Central 
 Greece. In shape it is a triangle, bounded 
 on the north-west by Bceotia, on the east by 
 the -^gean, on the south-west by the Saronic 
 gulf and Megaris. The area of the country 
 is eight hundred and forty square miles, and 
 yet in this small district were exhibited the 
 most marvelous energies ever displayed by the 
 human mind. In Attica several mountain 
 ranges sink down to the coast. Several 
 plains, as the Eleusinian, the Athenian, the 
 Mesogsean, and the Paralian, intervene be- 
 tween the hill-ranges or along the shore. The 
 first named contained the sacred city of 
 Eleusis. The second was watered by the two 
 principal rivers of Attica, the Cephissus and 
 the Ilissus, both insignificant streams, sinking 
 into dry beds in summer. Attica was the 
 native seat of the Ionic race, and at a very 
 early date attained a precedence among the 
 Hellenic commonwealths, which she held alike 
 by prowess in battle and the acuteness of her 
 people. 
 
 From the instep of the Atticau peninsula 
 
 and extending across through a narrowing 
 isthmus into Peloponnesus, was the little state 
 of Megaris. The boundaries on the north 
 were Attica and Boeotia ; on the south, the 
 sea; on the west, the Corinthian gulf The 
 whole area is but one hundred and forty-three 
 square miles. The surface is rugged and 
 hilly. The principal mountain is Cithseron, 
 which rises on the border of Boeotia. Across 
 the southern part of Megaris from sea to sea 
 extends the Geranean chain, through which 
 three passes afford land routes from Central 
 Greece into Peloponnesus. The first is the 
 Scirouian pass close to the Saronic gulf, which 
 is the direct road from Corinth to Athens. 
 The second is near the Corinthian gulf, and 
 leads from Peloponnesus into Boeotia. The 
 third was about the center of the range, and 
 as a thoroughfare had a less importance than 
 the other two, which at their northern ter- 
 mini reached into the open country. Megaris 
 contained but one small plain, and in that 
 was situated the metropolis of the state. In 
 the earliest times this district was considered 
 a part of Attica, being then inhabited by 
 ^olians and lonians. 
 
 Passing into the western half of Central 
 Greece, we come to ^tolia, situated on the 
 north shore of the gulf of Corinth. It was 
 bounded on the east by Doris and Locris, and 
 on the west by Acarnania. At its southern 
 extremity it is divided by a narrow strait 
 from Peloponnesus. On the north lay the 
 district inhabited by the Dolopes. The prin- 
 cipal river was a small stream called the 
 Evenus, now the Fidhari. jEtolia was a 
 rough region, larger than most of the states 
 of Greece, but so little civilized as compared 
 with those on the eastern shore as to perform 
 but a minor part in Grecian history. Not 
 until the times of Alexander did the -^tolians 
 begin to display the energy of character for 
 which their countrymen were so greatly dis* 
 tinguished afterwards. 
 
 The remaining Greek state north of the 
 Corinthian gulf was Acarnania. On the east 
 lay ^tolia, on the north the Ambracian gulf, 
 on the west and south the Ionian sea. Like 
 most of the other districts, the surface is 
 mountainous, but presents considerable variety
 
 454 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of lake and valley and pasture. In character 
 both the country and its inhabitants resem- 
 bled Epirus with her half-savage tribes of 
 semi-Grecians. The Acarnanians were for the 
 most part a race of shepherds, who at times 
 abandoned then- pastures for the chase and 
 war. At no time in their history — their 
 peninsular position with the presence of good 
 harbors seemed to suggest maritime enter- 
 prise — did they engage to any considerable 
 extent in commercial pursuits. Like the 
 Epirotes, they were somewhat contemptuously 
 regarded by the more civilized states of the 
 eastern coast, and were not much consulted in 
 the great transactions of Grecian history. 
 
 Peloponnesus — meaning "the Island of 
 King Pelops," by whom, according to tradi- 
 tion, the country was colonized — has an area 
 of a little more than eight thousand square 
 miles. It has the general shape of a maple 
 leaf, the stem resting at ^gium, on the Gulf 
 of Corinth. The country was divided politi- 
 cally into eleven states: Corinth, Sicyonia, 
 Achaia, Elis, Arcadia, Messenia, Laconia, 
 Argolis, Epidauria, Troezenia, and Hermionis. 
 
 The first two, Corinth and Sicyonia, were 
 small districts on the east and west sides of 
 the isthmus. They were so named from their 
 principal cities, and embraced merely the 
 surrounding plains and hills to the extent of 
 a few hundred square miles of territory. In 
 later times they were both regarded as in- 
 cluded in the large state of Argolis. Epi- 
 dauria, likewise, lying on the Saronic Gulf, 
 was but the small district surrounding the 
 city of Epidaurus, near the coast. This, too, 
 was embraced in the territory of the Argives. 
 The lower extreme of the same peninsula re- 
 ceived the local name of Hermionis from the 
 town of Hermione, which gave it its only im- 
 portance. 
 
 The state of Achaia extended along the 
 greater part of the northern coast of Pelo- 
 ponnesus, resting for sixty-five miles on the 
 Corinthian Gulf It was that part of the 
 maple leaf which supported the stem. It had 
 the general character of the other districts 
 already described, being hilly and rugged, 
 with occasional pastures intervening. The 
 most important town was Patrse, which, under 
 
 the name of Patras, is still known in Grecian 
 geography. The country was first settled by 
 the lonians, but these were dispossessed by 
 the Achseans, on the occasion of the Dorian 
 conquest of Peloponnesus. 
 
 Elis lay on the Ionian Sea, from the 
 promontory of Araxus to the river Neda. 
 Its greatest breadth was thirty-five miles, and 
 its area about one thousand square miles. 
 The mountains in this western part of South- 
 ern Greece fall away in slopes to the sea, and 
 Elis presents, for a country so limited in ex- 
 tent, a considerable amount of level land. 
 The city of Elis occupied the largest plain, 
 between the Alpheus and the Peneus rivers. 
 The north-eastern portion, however, was as 
 mountainous as any other district in the 
 country. 
 
 Arcadia was the only state of Southern 
 Greece which had no sea-coast. Next to 
 Laconia, it was the largest division of Pel- 
 oponnesus, having an area of one thousand 
 seven hundred square miles. Of all Greece 
 this was the most picturesque region, nor 
 would it be easy to find its parallel in the 
 world. It was a country of mountains and 
 forests and meadow-lands, fountains and 
 Avater-brooks, glens and grottoes. Here rise 
 Mounts Cyllene, Lycseus, and Erymanthus. 
 Here the river Alpheus gathers its waters, 
 and here Lake Stymphalis spreads its crystal 
 sheet. Everywhere the eye is delighted with 
 that endless vicissitude of beauty which never 
 tires and never cloys. Without seaports, the 
 country had no commercial enterprise. 
 
 The ancient inhabitants were Pelasgians, a 
 race of rough shepherds and hunters, who 
 were with difficulty transformed into more 
 civilized conditions. They were, nevertheless, 
 a peaceable, quiet tribe, given to music and 
 dancing. It thus happened that in all polite 
 languages of modern times the term "Ar- 
 cadian" has come to signify either beauty of 
 natural scenery or rusticity of manners. In 
 the epoch of Greek heroism the inhabitants 
 of this state became a brave and martial 
 people, but none of their captains achieved in 
 the field a great military fame. The four 
 principal cities of Arcadia were Mantinea, 
 Tegea, Archomenus, and Megalopolis, the
 
 GREECE.— THE COUNTRY. 
 
 455 
 
 latter being built as a defense against the 
 Spartans. The first three never rose to great 
 importance, chiefly because of intestine dis- 
 putes and quarrels, which, frequently amount- 
 ing to violence, destroyed their prosperity. 
 
 To the south-west of Arcadia, washed on 
 two sides by the sea, lay Messenia. Here, 
 too, is a region of mountains. Only two 
 plains of any imj)ortance are embraced within 
 the territory. Of these the southern was 
 called Macaria, meaning the Blessed, so named 
 from its exuberance and beauty. Some of 
 the valleys further inland are also exceed- 
 ingly fertile, and the climate, being one of the 
 mildest in the world, Avould have made life in 
 this region present a benign aspect, but for 
 the native boorishness of the original popula- 
 tion and the oppressions of the Spartans. 
 
 Among the Messenian cities the principal 
 were the seaport town of Pylos, Cyparissia, 
 Corone, Methoue, Abia, Derte, Stenyclarus, 
 and Messene, the capital. Besides these 
 towns there were two important mountain 
 fortresses, Ithome and Ira, the former being 
 regarded as the stronghold of the nation. In 
 the revolutions of the country the population 
 of Messenia Avas twice transformed, first from 
 Ai'gives to -^olians, and then from -lEolians 
 to Dorians, who came in with the ascendency 
 of their race in Peloponnesus. Messenia was 
 in the course of her history the scene of 
 some most heroic struggles, in which her own 
 people and the Spartans were the principal 
 actors. 
 
 Laconia was the south-easternmost division 
 of the ancient Peloponnesus. It was the 
 largest state of Southern Greece, and, histor- 
 ically considered, by far the most important. 
 It was bounded on the north by Arcadia and 
 Ai'golis, on the east and south by the sea, on 
 the west by the gulf and state of Messenia. 
 At the lower extremity the country divides 
 into two branching peninsulas, including be- 
 tween them the Gulf of Laconia, and termi- 
 nating in the two capes of Tsenarum and 
 Malea, the most southern points of land in 
 Europe. Within the limits of Arcadia the 
 most important region is a long valley in- 
 closed on three sides by mountain ranges 
 and open on the south to the sea. There is 
 
 thus prepared and fortified by nature that 
 wonderful district in which Sparta had her 
 native lair. Across the north of this valley 
 stretch the Arcadian mountains, from which 
 two ranges branching southward defend the 
 two sides of the Spartan glen from almost 
 every possibility of assault. These two lateral 
 chains are known as Taygetus and Parnon, 
 the former rising to the height of seven thou- 
 sand nine hundred feet, and the latter to an 
 elevation of six thousand three hundred and 
 fifty feet. On the slopes of these mountains 
 are forests of pine, evergreen, abounding in 
 game, haunts of the huntress Diana. The 
 valley is drained by the river Eurotas, famous 
 in song and story. Into this stream smaller 
 brooks, flowing down from the slopes of Tay- 
 getus and Parnon, pour their waters, forming 
 an ever-increasing volume to the sea. On the 
 banks of this river stood the invincible capi- 
 tal, known by its two names of Laced^mon 
 and Spakta — a town which has given to the 
 valor of the w^orld an imperishable epithet. 
 A few others of smaller note were Amyclse in 
 the plain south of Sparta, the old residence 
 of the Achsean kings ; Helos, from which rose 
 the Helots, situated on the gulf of Laconia; 
 and Gythium, a naval station on the same 
 coast. In the valley of the Eurotas there were 
 considerable tracts of land susceptible of cul- 
 tivation, but the soil was not sufficiently 
 fertile to encourage husbandry. 
 
 The remaining state of Southern Greece 
 was Argolis, lying between the Argolic and 
 Saronic gulfs. On the west it was bounded 
 by Achaia and Arcadia; on the south the 
 land-limit w^as Laconia. With the exception 
 of the fertile plain of Argos the whole coun- 
 try is mountainous, some of the summits ris- 
 ing to the height of more than five thousand 
 feet. Two small rivers, the Planitza and the 
 Erasinus, are the only perennial streams. 
 The coast is indented with many bays, ren- 
 dering Argolis especially favorable to naviga- 
 tion and commerce. The state is one of the 
 most ancient in the whole peninsula. In the 
 earliest epochs of history the term Argive 
 was often used synonymously with Greek, such 
 usage extending even into the poems of Ver- 
 gil. Argolis was divided into six petty king-
 
 456 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 doms, Argos, Mycense, Tiryus, Troezenia, Her- 
 miouis, and Epidaurus. By and by Argos 
 became the leader, and absorbed all the rest. 
 The names of these petty principalities, or 
 rather of the cities which constituted their 
 nuclei, will readily be recognized as those of 
 the famous sites from which in our own day the 
 antiquarian Schliemann has exhumed such 
 priceless treasures illustrative of the history 
 of the ancient Greeks. Argolis contains the 
 larger portion of those marvelous ruins to 
 which archaeologists have given the name Cy- 
 clopean — a mass of huge walls of unhewn 
 stone, laid without cement, said in legend to 
 have been the work of the gigantic Cyclops, 
 sons of Heaven and Earth. 
 
 Such, then, is a general sketch of the 
 geography, physical and political, of ancient 
 Greece. It will readily be seen that the 
 country was formed for a multitude of segre- 
 gated communities. In no other region of 
 the world are the natural indications so 
 deeply laid for petty states. The hills and 
 mountains are just of such height and charac- 
 ter as to break up all attempts at political 
 centralization. Such a thing as unity was 
 impossible in a race so situated. In many 
 parts the people on opposite sides of a range 
 were strangers for generations together. Lo- 
 cal patriotism kindled a torch in every valley, 
 and around its flame of light and heat were 
 gathered the affections of a clan. Beyond 
 the hill-tops there was nothing but distrust, 
 aversion, hatred. It thus came to pass that 
 the Greek communities were individualized 
 to an extent unknown, perhaps impossible, 
 among the great nations of the plain. In 
 such a situation faction would prevail, poli- 
 tics become a profession, freedom the rule. 
 The presence of a centralized despotism in 
 ancient Greece would have been as much of 
 
 an anomaly as a modern monarchy established 
 among the solitude and snow-capped summits 
 of the Swiss Alps. 
 
 It is not the place in this connection to do 
 more than merely note the fact that in the 
 broken and multiplex aspect and physical 
 conditions of Greece were also laid the foun- 
 dations of the wonderfully inflected mythology 
 and matchless art of the race. The human 
 mind here found itself under circumstances 
 of such infinite variety that the interpreta- 
 tion and representation of nature flashed into 
 forms as variable as the caprices of the kaleid- 
 oscope. Further on, considering the philos- 
 ophy, mythology, and art of the Greeks, 
 there will be necessarily a more amplified 
 statement of these views. For the present it 
 may suffice to add that in ancient Greece the 
 conditions of beauty, whether in sky, or earth, 
 or sea, were more abundant and intense than 
 in any other country. The faculties and per- 
 ceptions of the people Avere thus stimulated 
 into a class of activities — the history, the 
 poem, the oration, the subtle analysis of 
 thought — in excess of what has been else- 
 where accomplished even to the px-esent time. 
 
 The traveler, the poet of to-day catches at 
 once the indefinable charm which the bounty 
 of nature has never withdrawn from the re- 
 gion between Olympus and the sea. Even 
 the morose Childe Harold feels the warmth 
 of a new inspiration under the cloudless 
 heaven of Greece : 
 
 Yet are th}^ skies as blue, thy crags as wild ; 
 
 Sweet are thy groves and verdant are thy fields, 
 Thine ohve ripe as when Minerva smiled, 
 
 And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields; 
 
 There the hlithe bee his fragrant fortress builds, 
 The freeborn wanderer of thy mountain air ; 
 
 Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds, 
 Still in his beam Mendeli's marhles glare ; 
 Art, glory, freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.
 
 GREECE. — THE PEOPLE. 
 
 457 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII— THK PEOPLE. 
 
 S already said iu the pre- 
 ceding chapter, the jDeo- 
 ple known as Greeks 
 were by themselves balled 
 Hellenes — the descend- 
 ants of Helleu, their 
 ancestor. Though a prim- 
 itive people, they were by no means as remote 
 in their origin and development as Avere many 
 nations of the East. Indeed, it is safe to say 
 that the Hellenes were among the younger 
 races who contributed to form the population 
 of Old Europe, and that, as compared in age 
 with the peoples of the Nile and Euphrates 
 valleys, they were as of yesterday in their 
 origin and development. 
 
 When the Phoenicians, themselves of Se- 
 mitic descent, had peopled the eastern shore 
 of the Mediterranean and begun their mari- 
 time discoveries, they came first of all upon 
 Cyprus, and then by easy stages among the 
 Cyclades. From one of these islands to the 
 next was but a step until the south-eastern 
 promontories of the main-land of Hellas were 
 reached. In all the little isles anchored in 
 these beautiful waters a people were found, 
 numerous, active, well-formed, light-complex- 
 ioned, quick to appreciate the advantages of 
 commerce. Thus was opened up an acquaint- 
 ance between the great maritime nation of 
 the eastern Mediterranean and the Greek 
 populations of the ^gean islands and the 
 main peninsula of Hellas. In the further ex- 
 tension of their commerce it was found by 
 the Phoenicians that a people of the same 
 race occupied the shores of Asia Minor. 
 These were the Ionians, who, like the Phoeni- 
 cians, were expert sailors, devoted to com- 
 merce and adventure. 
 
 These Ionian or Asiatic Hellenes were the 
 oldest of the Greek populations. By them it 
 was that bands of their countrymen, carried 
 to the west, came upon the islands of the Cy- 
 clades and finally into Hellas, finding there 
 others of their race already established. Thus 
 
 it was that the Ionians became competitors of 
 the Phoenicians in a half-friendly contest for a 
 predominant influence in the islands of the 
 ^gean and even in Greece Proper. 
 
 If we consult the Greeks themselves with 
 regard to their origin, we receive ambiguous 
 answers. In the first place they held stren- 
 uously to the tradition that they were au- 
 tochthones, that is, born of the earth. There 
 was no myth of a settlement by immigrant 
 tribes from abroad. Their ancestors had 
 always abode in Hellas from the time when 
 Earth gave them birth. On the other hand, 
 there were traditions in almost every state of 
 Greece that the beginnings of arts and insti- 
 tutions had been brought in by illustrious 
 foreigners, whose supernatural wisdom fur- 
 nished a basis of social life. All of these wise 
 strangers came from over sea, bringing from 
 distant shores the dawn of civilization. Such 
 legends are substantiated, moreover, by the 
 Greek theology ; for all of the gods of Hellas 
 were the deities of foreign lands disguised in 
 the fine drapery of Greek thought.' Nor is 
 it conceivable that a foreign pantheon should 
 thus have been established but* by migrating 
 tribes who brought with them their gods from 
 distant homes. 
 
 The science of language has within the 
 present century clearly determined the race- 
 position of the Greeks. They belonged to the 
 Aryan or Indo-European family of men, being 
 thus allied with the Hindus, Medes, and Per- 
 sians of Asia, and the Latin, Celtic, and Teu- 
 tonic races in Europe. As already said, the 
 tribal home of this wide-branching tree of 
 human life appears to have been in the coun- 
 try of Bactria ; but at what particular point 
 in the tribal migrations the Hellenic stock 
 
 1 The historian Curtius makes an exception of 
 Zeus, whom he regards as native to the Greek 
 imagination ; but recent investigations in philology 
 have established beyond doubt the identity of 
 Zens Pater with the Dyaus Pitar of the Vedic 
 pantheon.
 
 458 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 took its rise, it is perhaps impossible to deter- 
 mine. Be that as it may, the first formal de- 
 velopments of the Greek race into organized 
 communities took place on the coasts of Asia 
 Minor, looking out towards the ^gean. The 
 people thus established flowed from the same 
 source as did others who occupied the Spo- 
 rades, and the Cyclades, and finally the whole 
 of peninsular Hellas. All that may be cer- 
 tainly affirmed is that, regarding as Greek the 
 whole community around the JEgean Sea, the 
 eastern portions were settled first, the wave of 
 popula-tion swelling westward into Hellas 
 Proper and onward to the shores of the 
 Ionian Sea. 
 
 Leaving, then, the matter of the prehis- 
 toric migrations as undetermined, and taking 
 up the traditions of the Greeks regarding 
 their ancestry, we have the well-known legend 
 of their father Hellen. He Avas the i-eputed 
 son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. From him 
 came all the Hellenes. He had three sons, 
 DoRUS, XuTHUS, and ^olus, of whom the 
 first and the last gave their names to their de- 
 scendants, the Dorians and ^olians. Xuthus, 
 like Joseph among the Israelites, founded no 
 tribe himself, but his two sons. Ion and 
 AcH^us, became the head of the lonians and 
 the Achjeans. Thus by tradition we have an 
 account rendered of the four leading divisions 
 of the Greek race. Nor was there ever any 
 doubt among the Hellenes themselves of the 
 accuracy of this matter-of-fact genealogy, 
 which they received from their fathers. But 
 the device of primitive nations in coining 
 personal names as the explanation of the be- 
 ginnings of their nationality is now well un- 
 derstood, and the easy-going story of Hellen 
 and his sons signifies no more than that the 
 Hellenes first awoke to tribal consciousness at 
 the foot of Mount Othrys, where Hellen was 
 said to have had his home ; and the migration 
 of his sons from the borders of Thessaly sim- 
 ply implies an attempt of some vigorous 
 imagination to account for the presence in 
 different parts of Greece of the Dorians, 
 -^olians, lonians, and Achseans. 
 
 The tradition goes on to elaborate, ^olus 
 succeeded his father in Thessaly. But his 
 multiplied descendants spread southward as 
 
 far as the Isthmus of Corinth. Afterwards 
 they peopled the islands of Lesbos and Tene- 
 dos, and founded on the coast of Asia Minor 
 a group of cities known as the ^olian Con- 
 federacy. Of their dialect Greek literature 
 has preserved but a few fragments, and these 
 indicate an affinity with Doric rather than 
 Attic Greek. 
 
 The race of Dorus appeared first in 
 Macedonia, then made migrations, spread as 
 far as the island of Crete, where they founded 
 Tetrapolis, and then into Peloponnesus, where 
 they became predominant in the three states 
 of Argolis, Laconia, and Messenia. In man- 
 ners and life the Dorians were sedate, digni- 
 fied, and grave as compared with the other 
 peoples of Greece, often displaying both in 
 their deeds and institutions a severity in 
 marked contrast with the milder habits of the 
 lonians. They spoke a less refined dialect, 
 characterized by broad vowels and rough com- 
 binations of consonant sounds, and were a 
 people of rude address, little given to speech. 
 
 The lonians were the maritime branch of 
 the Hellenic race. They had their original 
 seats on the coast of Asia Minor, and from 
 thence spread into the western islands. They 
 Avere predominant throughout the -^gean, 
 and were, as indicated alike by tradition and 
 language, the oldest of the Greek tribes. 
 The name of their reputed ancestor, Ion, 
 seems to be associated with the Hebrew Javan, 
 the Persian Yauna, the Egyptian Uinim, and 
 the Indian Yonas — all names of mythical an- 
 cestors. It was these Ionian Greeks who at 
 a veiy early date became first the rivals and 
 then the superiors of the Phoenicians in the 
 commerce of the ^gean and eastern Medi- 
 terranean. It was they who spread all around 
 the shores of those waters, establishing colo- 
 nies and trading posts at suitable stations, or 
 sometimes in the heart of great cities, as in 
 Alexandria and Memphis. It was they who 
 constituted the body of that Greek population 
 in the towns of Asia Minor, to whom refer- 
 ence has many times been made in the His- 
 tory of the Persian Empire. 
 
 The AcH^ANS had their native seat in 
 Thessaly. Of all the Greek stocks they were 
 the rudest. They were among the oldest of
 
 GREECE.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 459 
 
 the tribes and took so prominent a part in the 
 Trojan war as to give their name, even in 
 Homer, to the whole body of the Hellenes. 
 It is evident that during the Heroic Period 
 they were the dominant race in Greece, and 
 contributed greatly to the warlike fame which 
 for hundreds of years made Greek and victor 
 synonymous. 
 
 Although the Greeks regarded themselves 
 as autochthones, or indigenous to Hellas, yet 
 they conceded to another people priority of 
 occupation, at least in certain parts of the 
 country. These were the Pelasgians, of 
 whose original seats history is still in doubt. 
 It is certain, however, that in Attica, Argolis, 
 Arcadia, Epirus, and several other parts of 
 Greece, this people was established and civilized 
 before the Hellenes took possession. It is said 
 that the primitive name of the whole country 
 was Pelasgia, and it is known that this race were 
 distributed as far west as Italy, forming, in a 
 sense, the bottom population of that country 
 as well as of Greece. Nor do the Pelasgians 
 appear to have been a people very dissimilar 
 to the Greeks who displaced them. Their 
 religion was similar to that of the Hellenes. 
 Their chief god was Jove, to whom in Dodona 
 the famous shrine was erected, which retained 
 its reputation during the whole period of the 
 Grecian ascendency. To what extent this 
 people was driven out or extinguished, and to 
 what extent incorporated with the conquering 
 Hellenes, it is impossible to tell ; but it is not 
 unlikely that a large per cent of the primitive 
 inhabitants were allowed to remain in a sub- 
 ject condition, and were gradually absorbed 
 by the dominant Greeks. 
 
 Much space might be devoted to the per- 
 sonal character of the Hellenes. Their quali- 
 ties of body and mind were such as to fix 
 upon them the attention of their own and 
 after times. In stature they were rather be- 
 low than above the average of ancient peoples. 
 They had not the height of the barbarians or 
 the muscular development of the Assyrians 
 and Romans. It was rather in symmetrical 
 activity than in massiveness or gigantic pro- 
 portions that they surpassed the other races 
 ®f their times. In beauty of body they were 
 peerless. In agility and nervous vigor they 
 
 were the finest specimens of men that the 
 world has produced. Not that hardin*ess and 
 endurance were wanting. Not that the bodily 
 life of the Greek was tender and unable to 
 endure. Not that he was more susceptible 
 to hardships and exposure, less able to en- 
 dure fatigue and combat exhaustion: for his 
 body was capable of a discipline and conse- 
 quent endurance rarely equaled, never sur- 
 passed, in the ancient Avorld. But he was 
 more alive in his jDhysical being, more highly 
 developed, more complete in his nervous 
 structure, than any other man of antiquity. 
 
 It was, moreover, in this high-wrought, per- 
 fectly finished physical manhood of the Greek 
 that were laid the foundations of his wonderful 
 mind, of his energy of thought, his reason, 
 his imagination, his courage. Not only in 
 the order of the world is the physical man 
 planted in nature, not only is he, so to speak, 
 an indigenous shoot of his native soil, draw- 
 ing his saps and juices from that fecundity 
 which is prepared by sun and air and rain, 
 but the roots of the mental man are in like 
 manner planted in his physical nature, draw- 
 ing therefrom the sustenance of thought, the 
 elements of combination, the juices of reason 
 and imagination, the sap of hope or despair. 
 In his perfect body the Greek had the founda- 
 tion of his strength. Nature here, under the 
 free law of natural selection, Avrought out a 
 finer organism than in other regions where 
 her resources were fewer, her energies tram- 
 meled with restrictions. In Greece she ac- 
 complished the finest Motherhood of Man ever 
 presented. In the Greek, with his fair com- 
 plexion, blue eyes, beautiful body, and radi- 
 ant face, she held aloft the best gift of her 
 abundant love. 
 
 No other people, indeed, were ever gifted 
 with so great personal beauty as the Hellenes, 
 and no others ever so much adored the gift. 
 At festivals and in public processions the 
 fairest was the first. Prizes were given to the 
 handsomest man, the most beautiful woman. 
 In the Greek town of Segesta, in Sicily, a 
 temple was built and sacrifices ofl^ered to her 
 who was adjudged most beautiful. The hom- 
 age thus paid to personal comeliness was 
 sincere and universal.
 
 460 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The climate of Greece, free from extremes 
 of heat and cold, cooperated with the habits 
 of the people to produce perfect symmetry of 
 form and feature. Solon, speakiug with pride 
 of the youth of his country, says: "They 
 have a manly look, are full of spirit, fire, and 
 vigor; neither dry and withered, nor heavy 
 and unwieldy, but of a form at once graceful 
 and strong. They have worked and sweated 
 off all superfluous flesh, and only retained 
 what is pure, firm, and healthy. This perfec- 
 tion they could not attain Avithout those 
 physical exercises and the regimen that ac- 
 companies them." 
 
 The men of Greece, though not above the 
 medium height, were graceful and vigorous. 
 Their chests were arched, their limbs straight, 
 their carriage erect and indicative of great 
 agility. The complexion was fair, but not 
 white ; for the Eastern origin of the race, com- 
 bining in influence Avitli the constant outdoor 
 exercise and the free exposure of their bodies 
 to the air and sun gave a tinge of bronze to 
 the person which was admired rather than 
 avoided. The neck was round and beauti- 
 fully molded, and on this was set a head 
 which for symmetry and proportion has never 
 been equaled. The nose descended in a 
 straight line with the forehead, and the lips 
 were full of expression. The chin was strong 
 and round, but not unduly prominent. The 
 whole form and features glowed with an in- 
 tellectual and spiritual life — an ideal expres- 
 siveness which shone upon the beholder like 
 the sunlight. 
 
 The female face and figure were still more 
 elevated and refined. Here nature surpassed 
 all art and gave to the world an imperishable 
 ideal. The hands and feet of Greek women 
 were modeled to the finest proportions of 
 which conception or fancy are capable. The 
 face was full of grace and modesty. The 
 original type was a dark-blonde, the hair 
 auburn, the eyes blue ; and this type was 
 maintained until intercourse Avith surrounding 
 nations and the intermixture of foreigners 
 from every city of the civilized world modi- 
 fied the features and complexion and brought 
 into favor other styles of beauty. It was the 
 Greek maiden and mother, with their native 
 
 charms and graces, that gave to the art of 
 ancient Europe those classic models which 
 have been, and are likely ever to remain, the 
 inspiration and the despair of the chisels and 
 brushes of the modern world. Not only the 
 men and women of Athens thus surpassed in 
 strength and loveliness of person, but the 
 people of the other Greek states as well en- 
 tered into the rivalry of beauty. The girls 
 of Boeotia were as much praised for their 
 comely grace as were those of Attica; and 
 for the women of Thebes artists and poets 
 alike were wont to claim a superiority of love- 
 liness over all the daughters of Hellen. Nor 
 should failure be made to mention the maidens 
 of Ionia, who, alike in the royal courts of the 
 East and in the free vales of the West, were 
 regarded as bearing from an easy contest the 
 palm of matchless beauty. 
 
 In mental qualities the Hellenes were still 
 more strongly discriminated from the other 
 peoples of antiquity. They had courage of 
 the highest order. Nothing could daunt or 
 dispirit the Greek. When aroused he went 
 to war. Perhaps the cause was not worthy 
 of the combat, but being offended, he fought. 
 Arming himself with the best implements of 
 war which an unscientific age could afford, he 
 sought his enemy to slay or be slain. When 
 a Greek fled the law of nature was suddenly 
 reversed, and the clouds smiled at a caprice 
 so exceptional as to be ridiculous ! As a gen- 
 eral rule his courage in battle was a thing so 
 business-like and matter-of-course as to appear 
 natural and inevitable. Before the career of 
 his race was half run the enemy who stood 
 before him in fight expected to be killed out 
 of the nature of the thing. In the midst of 
 the struggle his valor was first sublime and then 
 savage ; rarely cruel. To be brave was to be 
 Grecian, and not to fight when insulted or 
 wronged, even in trifles, was so little Greek as 
 to be regarded a stigma in any son of Hellen 
 who thus shamed his race. 
 
 In intellectual qualities, properly so-called, 
 the Greek had an easy precedence of any and 
 all competitors in the ancient world. If the 
 word man be really derived from the Sanskrit 
 root to think, then indeed was the Greek the 
 highest order of man. He could think, com-
 
 GREECE.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 461 
 
 bine, reason. He could formulate and express 
 his thoughts with a clearness and cogency 
 never surpassed. He could excogitate, imag- 
 ine. In an age when the coarser senses and 
 more brutal instincts of human nature were 
 rampant and lay like an incubus on the spir- 
 itual faculties of man, the Greek mind rose 
 like a lily above the pond. It opened its 
 waxen cup. It gathered the dews. It drank 
 the sunlight by day and the starlight by night. 
 it gave its fragrance first to its own place and 
 then to all the world, and then bequeathed its 
 imperishable beauties and perfume to the im- 
 mortality of art. 
 
 Out of the mind of the Greek were pro- 
 duced the loftiest concepts of philosophy. In 
 a time of universal darkness there was light 
 in Hellas. It is not intended in this connec- 
 tion to sketch an outline of the work done 
 by the great thinkers of Athens. That will 
 appear in another part. From the sti*eets of 
 that city, from her walks, her groves, her 
 Academy, a luminous effulgence has been 
 shed into all the world. In the highest seats 
 of modern learning the reasoning of Plato and 
 the formulj?e of Aristotle still in some measure 
 hold dominion over the acutest intellects of 
 the world. Nor is it likely that the truth 
 which they evolved from their capacious un- 
 derstanding will ever be restated in a form 
 more acceptable and attractive to the human 
 mind than that to Avhich themselves gave 
 utterance. They are to-day in all the world, 
 
 " The dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule 
 Our spirits from tlieir urns." 
 
 Besides the general intellectual superiority 
 of the Greeks they possessed certain peculiar- 
 ities of mind for which they were specially 
 noted. They were witty. However wit may 
 be defined, the Hellenes had it. They were 
 able to discover far-fetched analogies. They 
 could juxtaposit the heterogeneous and pi'o- 
 duce an electrical shock by the touch of con- 
 tradictories. They liked that flash of light 
 which scorches its victim. The paradox was 
 always a generous nut to the Greek who found 
 it. To him the bitterly ridiculous was better 
 than a jewel of fine gold. An impossible ver- 
 ity was his delight. A pungent untruth made 
 true or a luminous and startling lie was to 
 
 him a joy forever. A joke, even at the ex- 
 pense of the gods, was better than the richest 
 banquet flowing with wine. 
 
 Then came subtlety, leading to craft in 
 action. All the fine lines of possibility in a 
 fact and its relations were discovered by the 
 Greek intellect as if by intuition. To per- 
 ceive with delicacy the exact conditions of 
 the thing considered — an impossible task to 
 the sluggish perceptions of most of the peoples 
 of antiquity — was to the Greek but a process 
 of healthful exercise. He knew more than 
 his enemy. He beat him and laughed at him. 
 He was the most capable animal of all an- 
 tiquity. He was Reynard in the ancient 
 Kingdom of the Beasts. He planned and 
 contrived while others slept. His were the 
 trick and the stratagem. He held up a false 
 appearance, and smiled at his foe for being 
 fool enough to believe it real. He found 
 more pleasure in setting a trap than in taking 
 a city. He set a snare and stuck a spear- 
 head through the loop. He made cunning a 
 virtue, and recounted a successful wile with 
 the same pride as if reciting the brave ex- 
 ploits of heroes. To succeed by craft was 
 nothing if it succeeded, and success without 
 superior skill was more shameful than defeat. 
 The Greek met the enemy with ambiguous 
 speech. He attacked him with a riddle. He 
 swept the field with a device, and slew the 
 flying foe because he did not understand! 
 He entered the treaty-room with a dilemma, 
 arranged the terms with a subterfuge, and 
 went out with a mental reservation. 
 
 In the midst of his keen wit, his happy 
 perception of the ridiculous and his profound 
 subtlety, the Greek retained in the highest 
 degree a sense of the beautiful. He loved 
 and appreciated the delicate outlines of form 
 and color to the extent of adoration. In a 
 beautiful land he awoke to consciousness. He 
 saw around him a living landscape, and above 
 him a cerulean sky. He held communion 
 with all the nude simplicities of nature, and 
 under her delightful inspiration felt the flutter 
 of wings within him. He would imitate her 
 loveliness. He saw in his musings and even 
 in his slumbers the outlines of radiant forms. 
 He caught at the vision. His thought became
 
 462 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Apollo, and his dream was transformed into 
 Psyche. 
 
 From the concun-ence of such faculties as 
 those possessed by the Greeks, certain kinds 
 of activity were inevitable. Native energy 
 would lead to vigorous achievement. From 
 the first the Hellenes were adventurous. They 
 tempted both land and sea. The voyage from 
 one Cyclade to another fed a hunger and nur- 
 tured an ambition. The ocean was something 
 to be overcome. Others, as well as they, de- 
 sired possession. Hence war, struggle, vic- 
 tory, peace, commerce, the city, the state. 
 Here the Greek found food. He planted 
 himself in his peninsula and islands. He made 
 enterprise. He took advantage of the adven- 
 ture of others. He made nature his confed- 
 erate. He filled his sails with her winds. He 
 went abroad and colonized. He sought the 
 world's extreme. He established his dominion 
 in another peninsula in the Western seas, and 
 called it Great Greece, as distinguished from 
 his own. He undertook the carrying-trade 
 for the nations, and spoke his musical accents 
 in the marts of Babylon and Memphis and 
 Carthage. He hired himself for gain to 
 oriental despots whom he despised, and trans- 
 ported their armies in his fleet. He became 
 a cosmopolite, and learned among the swarm- 
 ing millions of foreign lands the lesson of 
 fearlessness. He believed — and not without 
 good reason — that a Greek spear and a Greek 
 stratagem were more than Egyptian cohorts, 
 more than the hosts of Persia. He became 
 self-confident in his activities, arrogant in suc- 
 cess, reckless even when his capital was in 
 ashes and his family in exile. He was daunt- 
 less, imperturbable, courageous even to the 
 doors of desperation and death. 
 
 As to moral qualities, the Greeks were not 
 so greatly preeminent above the other peoples 
 of antiquity. They had, like the Assyrians 
 aad the Romans, many of the robust virtues, 
 but it can not be said that the moral percep- 
 tions of the race were, in delicacy of discern- 
 ment between right and wrong, equal to the 
 keenness of their intellectual faculties. The 
 morality of Greek social life was as high, per- 
 haps higher than the age. Woman was still a 
 slave, but her condition in Greece was greatly 
 
 preferable to that exhibited in any Eastern 
 civilization. The conditions of her life were 
 much improved by the influence of Greek in- 
 stitutions, and Greek motherhood and sister- 
 hood were esteemed at something like their 
 true valuation. Nor was it possible in a 
 country where freedom was the rule that love 
 should be absent or its fruit despised. The 
 Hellenic family was maintained more by the 
 action of natural laws than by the influence 
 of the commonwealth, and the altar of domes- 
 tic affection received its gifts from the hand 
 of preference rather than from the enforce- 
 ment of duty. Still, this natural freedom was 
 by no means destructive of sacred ties, and 
 although it was productive of much social im- 
 morality and abandonment, yet it gave birth 
 to such an array of genius within given limits 
 of population as can not be paralleled else- 
 where in history. 
 
 Turning to the domain of ethics proper, 
 and considering what may in general terms 
 be called the fountain of right, namely, adhe- 
 rence to truth and principle, the Greeks were 
 by no means above reproach. They had in 
 this regard fewer of the heroic virtues than 
 did the Romans of the Republic. With the 
 average Greek the rule was that the end jus- 
 tified the means, and the majority adopted 
 this rule without compunction. The natural 
 disposition to adoj)t intrigue and deception 
 as legitimate instruments for the accomplish- 
 ment of certain results encroached in practice 
 upon the better principles of action, to the 
 extent of making treachery in private life and 
 perfidy in public affairs much too common for 
 the honor and reputation of the race. While, 
 however, such was in general the ethical code 
 of the Greeks there were among them not a 
 few philosophers and teachers who alike in 
 their instructions and examples were without 
 doubt the best exponents of morality and per- 
 sonal worth that the world has ever produced. 
 The greatness of Socrates stands unchallenged. 
 The beauty and sublimity of his teachings 
 have never been assailed except by bigots. 
 The luster of his life and the heroism of his 
 death have cast a mellow light through the 
 centuries, and his steady belief in immortality 
 has remained as the greatest protest of the
 
 GREECE.— THE PEOPLE. 
 
 463 
 
 pagan world against the notion of the extinc- 
 tion of the human soul. While it is true 
 that the Athenians on an important state oc- 
 casion gave as a formal reason for the break- 
 ing of a treaty the statement that it was no 
 longer to their advantage to keep it, and while in 
 multiplied instances the pages of Grecian his- 
 tory are stained with the record of deeds per- 
 fidious, it is also true that the disks of Soc- 
 rates and Plato shine above the fogs of this 
 depravity with an immortal brightness. 
 
 Nor should there be failure to mention the 
 redemptive virtue of Greek patriotism. It 
 may be true, as has been urged by some phi- 
 lanthropists, that those local attachments of 
 man to his own hill, his own province, his 
 own country, which in the aggregate pass by 
 the name of patriotism, are in the nature of 
 a vice which will be extinguished in the higher 
 developments of civilization. But such a 
 proposition can not be established out of the 
 history of the past, nor is it likely to be es- 
 tablished in the immediate future. In gen- 
 eral, the progress of mankind, as well as the 
 average happiness of the world, has been 
 fostered and sustained by the devotion of 
 patriotism; and even in the present condition 
 of the world, patriotism remains a fact and 
 internationality a dream. 
 
 The Greeks were patriotic. Their land 
 was of such a character as to nurture and 
 stimulate local attachment. There seems to 
 be more principle involved in fighting for a 
 hill than for a brickyard. The human race 
 fits to inequality of surface. It is difficult to 
 be moved from such a situation. Beauty, 
 sublimity, variety, every element which draws 
 forth from man an affectionate regard for 
 nature fired the Greek with enthusiasm for 
 his country, his altars, his hearthstones, his 
 gods. The masterful struggles at Marathon, 
 Platsea, and Salamis are but the attestation 
 of the vigor and invincible force of the pa- 
 triotism of the Greeks. 
 
 They loved liberty. Freedom had her 
 birth among the hills of Greece. Here it was 
 that political rights were first debated, and 
 the duties of government limited by statute. 
 There was something in the Greek mind 
 which could not tolerate the exactions of ar- 
 
 bitrary authority. What they could not con- 
 sent to they resisted. They quaffed freedom 
 as from a cup. Their patriotic impulses led 
 to the acceptance of the doctrine that the man 
 existed for the state ; but the spirit of liberty 
 made it dangerous to be the state. Hellas 
 was an arena. Contention, party strife, the 
 conflict of opinion, the counter currents of 
 interest, the inebriety of the demagogue, the 
 factious outcry, the excited assembly, the up- 
 roar, the ostracism — all these were but the 
 concomitants of that wonderful agitation in 
 the painful throes of which were born the 
 liberties of the people. With the growth of 
 the Grecian commonwealths popular consent 
 became more and more the necessary ante- 
 cedent of action. The 
 voice of the new-born 
 fact called political 
 freedom cried in the 
 streets. There was a 
 clamor, not wise but 
 loud. It was as a 
 sound in the tree- 
 tops — the voice of 
 democracy — a voice 
 never to be stilled 
 unto the shores of 
 time and the ends of 
 the earth. 
 
 In thought and 
 action the Greeks 
 were the best in- 
 dividualized of all 
 uity. The nations of the East were masses. 
 Egypt was a mass. Babylon was a mass. 
 Assyria, Media, Persia, Lydia — what were 
 they but vast aggregates of humanity undis- 
 tinguishable in member or part? But the 
 Greek was differentiated. He passed out of 
 the nebulous condition and became stellar. 
 He counted one. Every other Greek counted 
 one. The units stood apart. The nebulae of 
 antiquity broke into stars in the sky of Greece. 
 A new force was felt henceforth among the 
 nations of the earth. The lessons of individ- 
 uality and freedom reflected from almost every 
 page of Grecian literature were caught here 
 and there by the brighter intellects of antiq- 
 uity. The far-reaching gleam shot its arrow 
 
 SOCRATES, NAPLES. 
 
 the peoples of antiq-
 
 464 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY. — THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of light even into the darkness of the Middle 
 Age, and the patriots of every civilized coun- 
 try of the world have found their precedents 
 among the liberties of the Greeks. — How 
 
 these qualities of body and mind and moral 
 nature in the Hellenic race will work in the 
 elaboration of a national career will be exhib- 
 ited in the chapters to follow. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII.— IvANGUAGE, LITERATURE, 
 
 AND Art. 
 
 Y far the richest speech 
 of Ancient Europe was 
 the Greek; and among 
 the languages of Asia it 
 had no rival except the 
 Sanskrit. The genealogy 
 of this famous tongue has 
 already been referred to in the notice of the 
 origin of the Hellenic race. Indeed, the 
 tribe-origin of the Greeks could never have 
 been known but for the science of language, 
 which has become the torch-bearer of eth- 
 nology in every quarter of the earth. The 
 race-history of every people is recorded in its 
 language, and if only that language has 
 been crystallized into a national literature, 
 there is little trouble in tracing out the 
 prehistoric career of the people by whom it is 
 spoken. 
 
 Greek, then, is one of that great group of 
 languages known as Aryan or Indo-European. 
 It has for its cognate tongues, Sanskrit and 
 Persic in Asia, and Latin, Celtic, and Teu- 
 tonic in Europe. It is now understood by 
 scholars that in the migration of nations to 
 the West the Celts, the Germans, and the 
 Slaves preceded the other members of the 
 European group. In a later movement came 
 the two remaining branches of the family, the 
 Greeks and the Romans. These were closely 
 allied in ethnic and linguistic affinities. Any 
 one at all familiar with the Latin and Greek 
 tongues will recall their fundamental identity 
 in both vocabulary and grammatical structure. 
 The two peoples by whom these languages 
 were spoken held together for a long time 
 after their separation from a common parent 
 stock, and only at a comparatively late period 
 began to differentiate into peculiarities of race 
 and speech. The one people settled around 
 
 the shores of the ^gean, and the other in 
 the Italian peninsula. 
 
 In the former situation, Greek was a 
 spoken tongue as early as the fifteenth cen- 
 tury before our era. At a later date the lan- 
 guage spread with the adventures and colo- 
 nizations of the Hellenes, until their accents 
 were heard from the coasts of Asia Minor to 
 Sicily, and from Thrace to Cyrenaica. At a 
 still later time it became the prevailing tongue 
 in the Macedonian, Syrian, Egyptian, and 
 Byzantine empires. In modern times frag- 
 ments of the language are spoken in parts of 
 Southern Italy, and even in one of the can- 
 tons of Switzerland. In Greece, at the present 
 time, an abridged and simplified form of 
 Greek is the language of the people, and thia 
 Romaic tongue differs less from the language 
 of Demosthenes than does the English of to- 
 day from the tongue of Chaucer. 
 
 The history of the Greek language has 
 been divided by scholars into three periods, 
 the first of which embraces its literary devel- 
 opment from the time of the composition of 
 the Epic poems to the establishment of the 
 common speech by the historians and philoso- 
 phers of Athens. The second includes the 
 period of diffusion, during which, from its 
 inherent excellence as a medium of communi- 
 cation, Greek became first the language of 
 scholars m all civilized countries, and was 
 then contracted, by the gradual decline of the 
 Roman power, to its original seats. The 
 third division embraces the degeneration of 
 classical Greek, and the rise out of the same 
 of the vulgar or common tongue spoken by 
 the descendants of the Hellenes. 
 
 The tribal divisions of the Greek race on 
 its settlement in Hellas soon gave rise to 
 dialectical differences in speech. It was not
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 465 
 
 long before the Dorians employed one kind 
 of vocalization and accent and the lonians 
 another. Thus arose the three primitive forms 
 of Greek, the Doric, the Ionic, and the 
 iEolic. At first the Doric was most widely 
 spoken, being the form of speech prevalent in 
 Northern Greece, in Peloponnesus, in Crete, 
 and in the colonies of the Dorians in South- 
 ern Italy and Sicily. The chief authors who 
 have preserved this ancient dialect in their 
 works are Pindar and Theocritus, 
 
 The Ionic variety of Greek prevailed on 
 the coast of Asia Minor, in most of the 
 JEgean islands, in the peninsula of Attica, 
 and in the foreign colonies established by the 
 lonians. It was developed at an early day as 
 the language of poetry, and in this tongue 
 were achieved the literary triumphs of the 
 race. Ionic had itself a threefold develop- 
 ment — the Old Ionic, the New Ionic, and the 
 Attic. The first is the language of the epic 
 poetry, and is rendered immortal in Homer 
 and Hesiod. The New Ionic is the speech of 
 Herodotus; while the Attic, being the lan- 
 guage of Athens, contained the great body 
 of Greek classical literature. It was the 
 tongue of the scholars and philosophers — the 
 chariot of fire in which the lightnings of 
 Demosthenes were driven through smoke and 
 tempest upon the enemies of his country. 
 
 Again the Attic dialect was itself divided, 
 according to its three eras of development— 
 the Old, the Middle, and the New. The Old 
 Attic differed but little from the Ionic, It 
 was the language of Thucydides. After his 
 time there were large additions of Doric and 
 ^olic words to the vocabulary, and thus was 
 formed the Middle, and finally the New, 
 speech of Attica. In this spoke the great 
 orators and wrote the philosophers of Athens 
 in the epoch of her glory. 
 
 The Moiic variety of Greek was scarcely 
 limited to any definite territory. It was inter- 
 fused with the other dialects, and was rather 
 a modifying element than a distinct type of 
 speech. It was the oldest form of Greek, 
 and was not much inflected from that primi- 
 tive tongue which was the mother, not only 
 of all the Hellenic dialects, but also of the 
 Italic languages. It thus happened that 
 
 ^olic, being in a measure a prehistoric type 
 of language, was not fully represented in 
 literary productions. Before the dawn of 
 Greek literature, the Doric and Ionic dialects 
 had become the prevalent forms of speech, 
 and the poets adopted these, instead of ^olic, 
 as the vehicle of their expression, for the 
 same reason that Chaucer wrote English in 
 preference to Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 The Greek of Athens became, par excel- 
 lence, the langua-ge of the Hellenic civiliza- 
 tion. To speak it and write it became the 
 ambition of the educated in every quarter of 
 the world. Its forms and structure became 
 fixed by law and usage. Perhaps no people 
 ever had so refined a language, or spoke it 
 with such purity and grace, as did the Athe- 
 nians. For several centuries it retained its 
 structure unimpaired. Not until the age of 
 Alexander, when it had, by agency of his 
 conquests, become the spoken language of 
 Macedonians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Syrians, 
 and of many other nations, did a difference 
 begin to appear between the classical Greek 
 and the vulgar tongue of the people. 
 
 It is of interest, in this connection, to note 
 the antecedents of that style of Greek which, 
 prevailing in Alexandria, became the vehicle 
 of interpretation between the Jewish oracles 
 and the western nations. It appears that 
 primitive Macedonian was a form of speech 
 different from Hellenic. The afiinity seems 
 to have been with Illyrian rather than with 
 Greek. The early Grecians and Macedonians 
 could not understand each other without an 
 interpreter. Nevertheless, in the court of 
 Philip and Alexander, Greek was the medium 
 of communication. It seems, therefore, that 
 the vernacular Macedonian had been dis- 
 carded by the upper classes of the people, and 
 the language of Hellas adopted in its stead. 
 Albeit, Alexander and his court spoke Greek 
 like foreigners, and incorporated therewith 
 many Macedonian words and idioms. This, 
 then, was the speech which the Conqueror car- 
 ried with him into Egypt. The term "Hel- 
 lenistic," therefore, as applied to the type of 
 Greek employed by the Seventy in the trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures, is a misnomer, and 
 should be replaced by "Macedonian."
 
 466 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In all the countries brought under the 
 sway of Alexander, the language of the 
 Greeks became the language of the governing 
 class and of the philosophers. In every such 
 country was a gradual and perhaps inevitable 
 corruption of the speech thus imposed upon 
 native tongues. From the third century of 
 our era, the departure from the old standard 
 of purity and elegance became so great that 
 the Greek authors were no louger understood 
 by many of the peoples pretending to sj)eak 
 their language. Meanwhile, the transfer of 
 the capital of the Roman world to Con- 
 stantinople introduced a large element of 
 Latin into the heart of Hellenism, and then 
 the pilgrims and crusaders from the ^yest 
 brought in their importation of Gallicisms, 
 until the degeneration of Greek was well-nigh 
 complete. Still, in the hands of purists and 
 scholars, it continued to be the vehicle of 
 literature until, surviving the barbarism of 
 the Middle Age, it became a potent factor in 
 the revival of learning. 
 
 Turning to the structural forms of the 
 language of the Hellenes, as distinguished 
 from its historical development, we find much 
 of interest. The original Greek alphabet 
 consisted of sixteen characters, which were 
 reputed to have been brought into Hellas by 
 the Phoenician Cadmus. He was a mythical 
 king of Thebes and brother of the monarch 
 of Phoenicia. The whole matter is legendary, 
 but perhaps contains some grains of truth. 
 It is probably true that the Greek letters had 
 a Phoenician origin, but it is more likely that 
 they came in a regular way from the contact 
 of the lonians with the scholars of Sidon than 
 that they were the beneficent contribution of 
 a traveling philosopher. As to the date of 
 the introduction, modern antiquarians are di- 
 vided in opinion, some holding it to have 
 been as early as the fourteenth, others as late 
 as the eighth, century before our era. The 
 addition of several letters to the sixteen given 
 by Cadmus is ascribed to Palamedes; but 
 others think that twenty-two of the characters 
 were derived directly from Phoenicia, and that 
 only the letter hypsilon was of a truly Hellenic 
 origin. At any rate, the number of char- 
 acters in the Greek alphabet proper is twenty- 
 
 four. It happened, however, in making up 
 the list, that two of the letters, the vav and 
 the koppa, were discarded, but their places 
 were filled with two others, the ^^/li and the 
 chi. The other modifications were the addi- 
 tion of psi and omega by the lonians, and 
 finally the introduction of the aspirated e, 
 called eta, to serve the purpose of e long. The 
 alphabet thus completed was officially adopted 
 in Athens, B. C. 403. 
 
 Of the seven vowels employed in Greek, 
 two (ji, uj) were long, two (s, o) short, and 
 three (a, i, u) common. Every initial vowel 
 Avas written with a breathing (') (') above it 
 to indicate whether it was to be pronounced 
 with a smooth utterance, as in the case of an 
 initial vowel in English, or be given with an 
 aspiration, that is, with the sound of h pre- 
 ceding. Marks were also employed to show 
 the accentuation of words. The circumflex 
 accent (") might be placed on either of the 
 last two syllables of a word; the acute ('), 
 on either of the last three, without respect to 
 the length of the vowel in the syllable so ac- 
 cented ; the grave (^), on every syllable not 
 otherwise marked, but was not written except 
 on the last. 
 
 In the earlier ages of Greek literature the 
 characters employed in writing were what is 
 called uncial, that is, a kind of square, capital- 
 like letters, much larger than the body of 
 oi'dinary type. There was no cursive or 
 modified style of writing diff*ering from the 
 established forms of the letters. Such a de- 
 vice as a running-hand of Greek was un- 
 known until the second century before our 
 era, when the scholars of Alexandria intro- 
 duced the cursive system. The ordinary small 
 letters, such as make up the body of a Greek 
 page, were not adopted until about the 
 middle of the eighth century, A. D.; at any 
 rate, no manuscripts or inscriptions containing 
 that style of letter are known to antedate the 
 year 750 of our era. 
 
 In its grammatical structure the Greek 
 language is one of the most complete, and, at 
 the same time, one of the most flexible in the 
 world. The noun preserves five cases out of 
 the original eight belonging to the primitive 
 Aryan. It also has three numbers ; singular,
 
 GREECE.—LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART 
 
 467 
 
 dual, and plural. By this means the discrim- 
 ination of objects as it respects unity, binity, 
 and multiplicity is easily carried out in speech. 
 The language presents three genders ; mascu- 
 line, feminine, and neuter. The article (ho, 
 he, t6) accompanies the noun and follows its 
 inflections. It also has an independent use, 
 being capable of representing the absent noun 
 as by a delicate innuendo. In its power of 
 nominal combination no other language has 
 equaled the Greek. There was practically no 
 limit to the ability of a Greek author to form 
 compound nouns, expressing the most com- 
 plex ideas. The striking off of case-endings 
 and the j uxtaposition of radicals was a process 
 so easy and natural as to suggest itself in the 
 ordinary flow of speech, and the laws of the 
 language were so tolerant of growth as to jDut 
 no restriction on either the poetic imagination 
 or the necessity of philosophy. A whole hex- 
 ameter might flow in a word, if fancy sug- 
 gested the combination. 
 
 The adjective was specially full and rich in 
 its expressiveness. Each word of this class 
 was capable of one hundred and thirty-five 
 endings! Of course, many of these were 
 duplicates of others, but .the full scheme 
 showed the number here indicated.^ In gen- 
 eral the adjective conformed to the mutations 
 of the noun. There was thus established be- 
 tween fact and epithet the closest bonds of 
 sympathy. The adjective did obeisance in its 
 forms to the noun with which it was joined. 
 It swayed to and fro with its master, followed 
 his fortunes and vicissitudes, shared his wealth 
 and his poverty. 
 
 But it was the Greek verb which most of 
 all exhibited the fecundity of the language. 
 Here was revealed the great force and per- 
 spicuity of the speech of the Hellenes. A 
 double series of affixes, added or prefixed to 
 the verb-roots, clearly distinguished the tenses 
 as to the time and- completeness of the action 
 expressed by them. For past time the aug- 
 ment, and for completed action the reduplica- 
 tion, furnished delicate discriminations for 
 which we should look in vain in Latin or in 
 
 ^ That is, five cases multiplied by three num- 
 bers, by three genders, by three degrees of com- 
 parison = 135 adjectival forms. 
 N. — Vol. I — 29 
 
 any other tongue ever spoken in Europe. 
 The root of a Greek verb was thus subject to 
 a kind of development by means of endings 
 and prefixes until the exact notion of the 
 time, its point and duration, and the com- 
 pleteness of the action, was expressed with a 
 specific delicacy of which no other language 
 has ever shown itself susceptible. 
 
 There was thus established among all the 
 parts of the formal structure of the Greek 
 tongue a kind of sympathetic union which 
 moved the whole as one. A Greek sentence 
 was agitated through all its length and depth 
 by the stress of expression. The paragraph 
 trembled from end to end when the thrill of 
 life awoke in any part. The language, with 
 its multitudinous endings, all in harmonious 
 accord, lay like a rich meadow of stately 
 timothy swaying and waving in the breezes 
 of thought. Each stalk nodded to his fellow. 
 The ripple of mirth danced over the surface 
 like a scarcely perceptible breath of air. The 
 shadow chased the sunshine, and the sunshine 
 the shadow. A sigh came out of the forest 
 and a deeper wave moved gently away to the 
 distance. The thrill of joy, the message of 
 defiance, the moan of the disconsolate spirit, 
 the psean of battle, the shout of victory, 
 every mood and every emotion which the 
 mind of man in his most vigorous estate is 
 capable of experiencing, SAvept in rolling bil- 
 lows across the pulsating bosom of this beauti- 
 ful speech. 
 
 The tongue of the Greeks was, in its kind, 
 as preeminent as their literature. The one 
 was the counterpart of the other. So won- 
 derful in its completeness is the grammatical 
 structure of the language that it has been 
 made, not without good reason, the founda- 
 tion of linguistic study in nearly all the uni- 
 versities of the world. The historian, Cur- 
 tius, in summing up the structural elegance 
 of Greek, thus assigns to its true place the 
 speech of the Hellenic race : " If the grammar 
 of their language were the only thing remain- 
 ing to us of the Hellenes, it would serve as a 
 full and valid testimony to the extraordinary 
 natural gifts of this people, which, after with 
 creative power appropriating the material of 
 their language, penetrated every part of it
 
 468 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 with the spirit, and nowhere left a dead, inert 
 mass behind it — of a people which, in spite 
 of its decisive abhorrence of every thing bom- 
 bastic, circumstantial, or obscure, understood 
 how to accomplish an infinity of results by 
 the simplest means. The whole language re- 
 sembles the body of an artistically trained 
 athlete, in which every muscle, every sinew, 
 is developed into full play, where there is no 
 trace of tumidity or of inert matter, and all 
 is power and life." 
 
 It is not possible within the contemplated 
 limits of the present work to discuss the liter- 
 ature of the Greeks under an exhaustive anal- 
 ysis. All that can be done is to note, with 
 
 some degree of 
 care, the leading 
 branches in the 
 literary art of the 
 Greeks — the poe- 
 try and history of 
 the Hellenic auth- 
 ors. On the very 
 confines of the 
 cloudy horizon of 
 Greek history 
 stands the sublime 
 figure of Homer. 
 Myth or man — 
 who knows? At 
 any rate, he was a 
 Being — one whose 
 radiance has fallen 
 on all the subse- 
 quent ages of man's endeavor. Even before 
 him we have reason to believe that there 
 were precursive bards of feebler wing who 
 put into the lips of the primitive Greeks 
 the chant, the psean, the choral song, the 
 merry roundelay of the singing girls and 
 vintagers. But it remained for the deeds of 
 the heroes of the nation to furnish the mate- 
 rial of a loftier strain, and Scio's rocky isle 
 to furnish the singer. 
 
 Here, then, was the beginning of Epic 
 Poetry — the song heroic which recounts the 
 warlike deeds of the valiant and strong. The 
 Blind Being chose for one of his themes the 
 siege and sack of Troy — its causes, the out- 
 rage done to hospitality and trust, the coun- 
 
 IDEAL BUST OF HOMER. 
 
 Sans Souci, Potsdam. 
 
 sel of the belligerent gods, the array of na- 
 tions, the stratagem, the catastrophe; and for 
 the other the wanderings of the brave and sa- 
 gacious Ulysses, involving the social aspects 
 of his own and foreign lands. Thus were 
 wrought the Iliad and the Odyssey. 
 
 The work was greater than the theme. The 
 language was still plastic. Under the magical 
 touch of genius the two great epics rose like 
 exhalations from the new-made earth. They 
 were chanted in the ears of all Greece. It 
 was the beginning of the literary culture of 
 the Aryan race. The influence of Homer's 
 heroic songs was transfused, like a strong 
 current of ancestral blood, into the whole 
 body of Greek letters that rose out of this 
 radiant dawn. The Iliad and the Odyssey 
 have remained the best in their kind among 
 the works of the human genius ; nor is it 
 likely that the deliberate judgment of three 
 thousand years will ever be reversed in the 
 tides of time. 
 
 The Homeric poems have not reached us 
 in their original form. At the time of their 
 production the Greeks already possessed the 
 art of writing, but that art was employed 
 rather for the brief and business affairs of 
 life than for literary composition. The ear of 
 the early Greek was attuned to harmony. He 
 would hear the music of verse recited by a 
 living master. He would feel the thrill of 
 enthusiasm which could be kindled by no life- 
 less tablet. The swaying form of the rhap- 
 sodist, his rapt visage, his flashing eye, his 
 sonorous voice rising and falling like the sea — 
 these were the elements of inspiration, these 
 the coals that kindled emulation. Thus it 
 happened that memory became the repository 
 and the tongue the deliverer of the verse of 
 Hellas. 
 
 It is likely that for several centuries to- 
 gether the poems of Homer, vast in extent 
 as they are, were written only in the memo- 
 ries of men. Doubtless in this period many 
 changes were introduced by the caprices of 
 not too faithful rhapsodists — many transposi- 
 tions of parts, and perhaps some total loss of 
 sections or whole episodes of the epic. Fi- 
 nally, however, in a day of happy fortune 
 for all the world, the poems were reduced to
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 writing. While Pisistratus was tyrant of 
 Athens the work was undertaken at his in- 
 stance and under his patronage. The Athe- 
 nian grammarian Onomacritus was appointed 
 to revise and arrange both of the poems, re- 
 jecting what appeared to him to be the inter- 
 polations of weaker bards and the manifest 
 corruptions of the ignorant. Thus were the 
 two greatest epics of the world, flung from 
 the vigorous imagination of the Blind Being 
 of Ionia, preserved and transmitted to after 
 ages in nearly the forms which now they bear. 
 Of the time at which Homer flourished only 
 so much is known as that he lived in the mys- 
 terious epoch where history and fable blended, 
 and when Greece was just beginning to awake 
 to a consciousness of her power. 
 
 Around Homer grew up a race of bards 
 called the "Cyclic poets" — like unto himself, 
 but of less repute. They were like the group 
 of English writers known as the Shakespearean 
 dramatists, clustering about a greater light, in 
 whose efiiilgence they were lost. Not only 
 have the works of the Cyclic bards perished, 
 but most of themselves have not even left 
 behind the legacy of a name. 
 
 After the old Ionian bard came Hesiod. 
 He was a Dorian, who flourished about a cen- 
 tury after Hgpier, and dwelt at the foot of 
 Mount Helicon, near Delphi. His fond coun- 
 trymen set up their poet in rivalry with his 
 great predecessor, and even invented a fiction 
 that the two had once contested for the palm 
 in song and that the award had been made to 
 Hesiod. But the story was an impossibility, 
 both in time and fact. The subjects selected 
 by the Dorian bard were the fables of the 
 gods. Instead of the stirring strifes of heroes 
 he recited the history of the national religion. 
 He also collected and reduced to verse the 
 practical and proverbial wisdom of the peo- 
 ple, in a rather tedious didactic poem called 
 Works and Days. Between these productions 
 and the living pictures of Homer there is, in 
 both subject and treatment, the greatest pos- 
 sible contrast. Neither in Hesiod, their mas- 
 ter bard, nor in his successors, did the Boeotian 
 school in Grecian literature ever approximate 
 the excellence and breadth of the Ionic and 
 Attic authors. 
 
 After the epic — which ceased to be culti- 
 vated from the epoch of Homer and Hesiod — 
 the next kind of Greek poetry which appeared 
 was the lykic. In the form of elegy it became 
 as the heroic songs of the masters. The elegy, 
 like the epic, took its rise among the Ionian 
 Greeks of Asia Minor. To them it seems to 
 have been suggested by the elegos of the 
 Phrygians. It was primarily a song of wail- 
 ing, to be chanted with the accompaniment 
 of a flute. Among the Greeks, however, the 
 elegy took a wider range, and included in its 
 subjects the stirring themes of patriotism and 
 war. Even love and conviviality were made 
 elegiac by the Hellenic bards, who, in alter- 
 nate hexameters and pentameters, chanted the 
 fiery charms of passion and the joys of the 
 festival. 
 
 It was in the seventh century B. C. that 
 the elegy of the Greeks achieved its greatest 
 triumphs. Not infrequently the gravest af- 
 fairs of state, the policy of cities, the conduct 
 of war, were determined by a song. Thus 
 the old decrepit Tyrt^us, who was, in answer 
 to an oracular call, sent in derision by the 
 Athenians to be a leader of the Spartans, 
 fired them to a pitch of unprecedented en- 
 thusiasm by a battle-lyric composed for the 
 occasion. Callinus of Ephesus in like manner 
 inspired his countrymen in their war with the 
 Magnesians. Solon himself disdained not the 
 composition of a poem by which he induced 
 the men of Athens to reconquer Salamis. 
 The lyrics of Theognis of Megara were col- 
 lected and taught as a manual of wisdom and 
 virtue. The praises of those who fell at 
 Marathon were sung in immortal strains by 
 SiMONiDES of Chios, while the poems of 
 MiMNERMOS exalt the fleeting joys of life 
 as the fairest and best to Avhich mortality may 
 aspire. 
 
 The next development of Greek verse — 
 also lyric — was the iambic or personal poetry. 
 For the old Hellenic bard did not forbear to 
 assail his enemy with caustic words as well as 
 spears and javelins. This type of poetry 
 seems to have been invented by Archilocus, 
 who, taking advantage of the license conceded 
 to all at the festival of Demeter to indulge in 
 personal mockery and jests, introduced a new
 
 470 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 style of verse, composed in alternate iambi 
 and trochees, dipped in the bitterest wit and 
 sarcasm, to the extent of driving to suicide 
 (such is the tradition) those against whom the 
 poisoned arrows Avere sent flying. Even 
 greater and fiercer in invective was the poet 
 HiPPONAX, who flourished about the middle 
 of the sixth centviry, and is said to have satir- 
 ized to death two sculptors who had carica- 
 tured his ugliness. 
 
 After the iambic came the melos, or song. 
 This style of poetry was mostly cultivated by 
 the ^olian and Dorian bards, who were cele- 
 brated for the tenderness of their emotion and 
 feeling. In this species of verse the singer 
 expressed his own joys and sorrows, his long- 
 ings and hope. It was from Mitylene, the 
 capital of the island of Lesbos, that the song 
 proper took its rise. In Greece of the main- 
 land it was admired rather than imitated. 
 But there was a Lesbian school where this 
 style of composition was encouraged and 
 taught. Here flourished the aristocrat Al- 
 CiEUS, who, in his songs of love and hate, 
 poured out the passion of his times. Here 
 the great Sappho, the angel of unrequited 
 love, achieved in her passionate and beautiful 
 hymns the highest place among all the poetesses 
 of Greece. The story of her suicide by leap- 
 ing from the Lucadian rock because of 
 Phaon's neglect seems to have no foundation 
 in fact. She was a mother who loved her 
 child and taught a school of maidens, in- 
 structing them in choral measures and the 
 beauty of the dance. Her poems flow with a 
 tender and glowing love, the truest and deep- 
 est passion, the most graceful and tuneful 
 sentiments. After her came Anacreon of 
 Teos, almost equally celebrated, but flourish- 
 ing in a different atmosphere. He was an 
 Ionian bard, and had the luxurious grace and 
 abandonment of his people. Living at the 
 courts of tyrants, and knowing little of the 
 deep, pure charms of nature, he gilded arti- 
 ficial life and celebrated artificial love. Even 
 in his old age, when the fires of youth were 
 extinguished, he continued to sing in rvords 
 the songs from which the spirit had long since 
 vanished. 
 
 But by far the greatest of the Greek lyric 
 
 poets was the Boeotian Pindar. He was born 
 in B. C. 522, and was thus a contemporary 
 of -^schylus. His education was Attic, but 
 the inspiration of his muse seems to have 
 been caught from a predecessor, the Sicilian 
 Stesichorus, of Himera, who flourished near 
 the close of the seventh century. Pindar's 
 harp had many tones. He sang in manly 
 cadences of public and private life; the 
 struggles and vicissitudes of the one, the 
 hopes and fears of the other. In his odes he 
 rises to the highest flight. The victors in war 
 and in the great games enacted in the pres- 
 ence of the assembled nation are made famous 
 in his heroic song. The style is involved and 
 difficult, but the spirit is the spirit of fire. 
 He was the evening star of the lyric poetry 
 of Greece. A change was passing over, the 
 national imagination, and the dawn of the 
 drama was in the eastern sky. 
 
 The Greeks now demanded the poetry of 
 action. The transformation from lyric to 
 DRAMATIC was casy and natural — necessary. 
 From the ecstatic song representing the joys 
 and sufferings of others to impersonation was 
 but a step. The Greek chorus belonged alike 
 to lyric recitation and dramatic action. The 
 transformation was gradual. Thespis of Attica 
 was the first tragic poet. His claim to be 
 so regarded is based upon the introduction by 
 him of an actor who came upon the stage and 
 held discourse with the chorus and its leader. 
 Then came -^schylus, who added a second 
 actor to the dramatis personse ; and finally 
 Sophocles, who gave a third, thus making the 
 list of characters sufficiently extensive for 
 complete and complex actions. The chorus, 
 however, remained ; for it was deemed neces- 
 sary to fill the space between the acts of the 
 drama with something which should sustain 
 the interest of the spectators. But Dionysus 
 and his Bacchic crew of singers and satyrs 
 were banished from the stage. Instead of the 
 revel and the feast the grave events of the 
 national traditions and history were brought 
 forward as the subject of the play. 
 
 Then followed the improvement of the 
 theater. From the time of the Persian, wars 
 regular structures of stone took the place of 
 the wooden buildings hitherto used for spec-
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 471 
 
 tacles. The form of the amphitheater was 
 adopted. The auditorium at Athens was cap- 
 able of seating twenty thousand people. The 
 estimate was made for the whole male popu- 
 lation of the city.' Here was the stage upon 
 which were presented the dramas of JEschylus, 
 Sophocles, and Euripides. The building was 
 open to the sky. The semi-circular rows of 
 seats were divided transversely with gangways 
 affording easy exit and entrance. On the 
 front row of benches sat the dignitaries of the 
 state. Judges were appointed to deteritiine 
 the merits of the production. The orchestra 
 was set in front of the players. On the walls 
 surrounding the stage were painted scenes 
 
 and pathetic. He stoops not at all. With 
 him it is the work of the gods and of fate. 
 The dark destiny of men is the underplay. 
 Another drama is enacted on high, over which 
 is bent the eye of the awful Zeus, calm, 
 severe, omniscient. 
 
 Under the canon of criticism a tragedy in 
 the time of -^schylus must consist of three 
 pieces, based upon the same fundamental 
 theme. There was thus produced what was 
 called a "trilogy," the three parts being in 
 some sense independent, but in another sense 
 subordinate productions. Of these trilogies 
 ^schylus produced two, the subject of the 
 first, called the PerscB, being the great wars of 
 
 THEATER OF SEGESTA, RESTORED. 
 
 representing the country or place wherein the 
 play was supposed to have been real. Trian- 
 gular prisms were set up in the wings, by the 
 revolution of which on their axes an easy 
 change of scene could be eflTected. Neverthe- 
 less we should look in vain in the theaters of 
 ancient Greece for that elaborate realism 
 which is the boast of the modern stage. 
 
 Greek tragedy begins properly with the 
 great name of ^schylus. He it was who by 
 the force of his genius gave form and life and 
 nationality to the new type of literature. He 
 was born in B. C. 525. In his youth he 
 fought in the battle of Marathon. In his sen- 
 timents he sympathized with the old Athens 
 of the aristocracy — the ancient regime — rather 
 than with the growing democratic principles 
 i)f the commonwealth. His subjects are lofty 
 
 the Greeks and Persians, the struggle of 
 Europe and Asia. Out of this triad, the cen- 
 tral piece, representiug the lamentations in 
 the palace of Xerxes, at Susa, has been pre- 
 served. The subject of the other trilogy, 
 known as the Oresteia, was the murder of Aga- 
 memnon, with the fatal consequences which 
 followed hard after, until the Eumenides were 
 finally appeased. This work has been pre- 
 served entire, and furnishes the basis of the 
 high estimate which all subsequent ages have 
 put upon the tragic genius of the author. 
 
 The Greek drama was still further ampli- 
 fied by Sophocles. Born in B. C. 495, he 
 followed close to ^schylus, of whom he is re- 
 garded as the successful rival. Now it was 
 that the chorus was abridged and a third actor 
 sent upon the stage. The dialogue became
 
 472 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 more varied and natural. Individuality of 
 character was achieved. The always lofty and 
 pathetic solemnity of the language of ^Eschy- 
 lus was in some measure substituted with the 
 language of common life. The men of Sophocles 
 
 SOPHOCLES.— Rome, Lateran. 
 
 are more human than those of his predecessor. 
 In his themes, however, the sorrowful myster- 
 ies of being are still preferred. The dark riddle 
 of fate, the unsolved enigma of life, the hard 
 destiny of struggling man, beaten by adverse 
 winds of duty and inclination, of necessity 
 and preference — such are the mournfid topics 
 of his dramas. In the Antigone best of all 
 are these qualities of the genius of Sophocles 
 depicted. 
 
 The next evolution is presented in Eurip- 
 roES. He is less ideal than his predecessor, 
 but truer to nature. His drama is more of 
 a reality. He takes his stand in the midst of 
 human life as it is. His language is the lan- 
 guage of the people. The heroes of his plays 
 are more possible than those of Sophocles. 
 They are redeemed with weaknesses, touched 
 with folly, stained with tears. He has more 
 
 variety in his action, greater freedom, more 
 surprises and vicissitudes. Nor were the es- 
 sentially tragic qualities of his genius less 
 tragic for this descent towards the actual plane 
 of human life. As occasion required, all tht 
 sublime force of tragedy is revealed by his 
 muse. In the Medea the terrible passion of 
 Phsedra in revenging her slighted love has a 
 terror hardly equaled in Sophocles and ^schy- 
 lus. But with those who succeeded Euripides 
 a decline in tragic qualities becomes immedi- 
 ately apparent. The Greek play is henceforth 
 rather the roar of the court-house than a sub- 
 lime conflict in the arena of gods and heroes. 
 
 Then came Greek comedy. Hellas laughed. 
 She amused herself. She took Bacchus into 
 goodfellowship. The wine-god was mirthful. 
 In the autumn, when the lesser Dionysia were 
 celebrated, the season was made hilarious with 
 mummeries and jokes. Any one present 
 might be the victim. The choral song was 
 transferred into comic representation. Folly 
 mixed a cup and poured it on the heads of 
 revelers. For a great while the scene was 
 enacted in the village, where rustics gathered 
 for amusement. In the serious city, where 
 the weighty affairs of state engrossed the 
 attention of all, there was no time for reck- 
 less enjoyment. Not until the beginning of 
 the fifth century B. C. did comedy make a 
 public appearance in Athens, and not until 
 near the close of that century was the new 
 S2:)ecies of drama received with general favor. 
 
 Perhaps the 
 early structure 
 of Athenian so- 
 ciety did not 
 favor the devel- 
 opment of such 
 a literature. 
 Freedom — the 
 freedom of a de- 
 mocracy — was 
 necessary to in- 
 sure immunity, 
 without which 
 comedy can not 
 
 flourish. When it did come it came with license. 
 Nothing was too serious or sacred for the 
 shaft of the reckless satirist. Man, woman, 
 
 EURIPIDES.— Viscontl.
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART 
 
 473 
 
 .all human affairs, the war, the state, the 
 heroes, the immortal gods themselves writhed 
 under the audacious irony and merciless sar- 
 casm of the Greek comedian. Mockery, ridi- 
 cule, derisive scorn, bitter invective, every 
 weapon which the forge of conscienceless in- 
 genuity could invent or imagine, was put into 
 the quiver and swung behind the swaggering 
 actor's shoulder. He shot right and left. He 
 shouted when his victim fell. He made grim- 
 aces at the corpse. With him Olympus was 
 no better than a stable for goats. 
 
 It may be observed, however, that notwith- 
 standing this extremity of license the Greek 
 •comedy has always at bottom a foundation of 
 morality. It is the cant of human nature, 
 its sham pretense and folly, which received no 
 mercy at the hands of the executioner. 
 
 Of all the Greek comedians of the old 
 school only one was so fortunate as to have 
 his works preserved to posterity — Aristoph- 
 anes, greatest of his kind. He was born in 
 Athens, B. C. 452, and produced his comedies 
 between the years 427 and 388. In richness 
 of humor and quaintness of invention he 
 stands without a peer. His imagination is as 
 vivid as his wit is keen. His language is as 
 free as his thought is audacious. He attacks 
 the abuses of his times with a wild delight, 
 and his personal satire is fierce in its vehe- 
 mence. As the champion of the old regime 
 he attacks the demagogues and sophists with 
 an excessive bitterness. 
 In his literary sympathies 
 he is with jEschylus. He 
 despises Euripides and 
 his following. The dema- 
 gogue Cleon, his contem- 
 porary, he brings upon 
 the stage and covers him 
 W'ith opprobrium. In his 
 Clouds he attacks the 
 sophists with unparalleled 
 ARISTOPHANES. scvcrity. Hcpoursupou 
 
 (Monumenti dell' insti- them all the bottles of 
 *"^°-^ his scorn, and spares not 
 
 Socrates. The folly of the Sicilian expedition is 
 made immortal in the Birds, in which the war 
 policy of the Athenians is mercilessly scourged. 
 The lawyers of the city felt the castigation of 
 
 MENANDER.— VisCOnti. 
 
 his rod in the play of the Wasps; and in the 
 Frogs Euripides is held up to public contempt. 
 
 After Aristophanes Greek comedy was 
 modified to a great extent in the hands of 
 the two principal authors of the Later 
 School — Menander and Possidippus. The 
 license which the 
 old comedians had 
 used and abused 
 was somewhat 
 abridged, and the 
 subjects of plays 
 became less per- 
 sonal and parti- 
 san than hitherto. 
 The scenes and 
 incidents of pri- 
 vate life — its fol- 
 lies, its misdi- 
 rected loves, its grotesque adventures — are sub- 
 stituted for the weightier vices of society. Social 
 intrigue, plot and counterplot, the knave, the 
 fool, the coxcomb — such are the materials and 
 characters of that New Comedy, which, pre- 
 vailing to the times of Alexander, was trans- 
 ferred to Rome aud became the model of in- 
 vention in the works of Plautus and Terence. 
 
 After the age of Homer aud Hesiod, cen- 
 turies elapsed before even the begiuniugs of a 
 prose literature appeared in Hellas. The ear 
 of generation after generation w^as filled with 
 the rhythmic cadences of the bards ere the 
 project of giving a literary dress to the com- 
 mon language of life was conceived or imag- 
 ined. Perhaps, when at last the suggestion 
 of doing so was entertained, it Avas with a 
 certain dread lest the sacred mystery of letters 
 should be profaned by the unhallo>wed tongue 
 of prose. To the courageous and versatile 
 lonians must be awarded the palm for break- 
 ing the poetic spell and daring to commit to 
 record their traditions and reflections in the 
 natural language of history and philosophy. 
 
 Perhaps the first prose work produced by a 
 member of the Hellenic race was a history of 
 the founding of Miletus, written by the Ionian 
 Cadmus, a native of that city. After him, a 
 school of legendary chroniclers grew up in the 
 Greek cities of Asia Minor. Some of them 
 were travelers. They put down in prose
 
 474 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 HERODOTUS.— Visconti. 
 
 ■what tilings soever they saw and heard abroad. 
 Others rewi'ote the rhapsodies and legends of 
 the bards, but their work was childish and 
 unworthy to survive. 
 
 Then came the great Herodotus, justly 
 styled the Father of History. He Avas born 
 in Halicarnassus, in the year B. C. 484. He 
 was a Dorian by descent and an Ionian by 
 education. His merit con- 
 sists in this, that he, first 
 of the great minds of the 
 Aryan race, perceived that 
 history should be stripped 
 of poetic disguises, and yet 
 given an artistic and phil- 
 osophic form in the lan- 
 guage of common life. He- 
 rodotus had the genius of 
 the traveler, the curiosity 
 of an antiquarian, the in- 
 dustry of an artisan. He 
 sought companionship with 
 the literati of foreign cities. 
 He stored his mind with records of the East. 
 He reflected not a little upon the nature and 
 causes of events, and thus fitted himself for 
 historical authorship to a degree not to be ex- 
 pected of his age. He selected for a theme 
 the great struggle between his country and 
 Persia. As his narrative proceeds and he 
 finds himself in contact with other nations, he 
 pauses with a natural grace to recount their 
 annals, their customs, their traditions, their 
 laws. Garrulous ? Granted ; but such gar- 
 rulity! Would that the primitive world had 
 produced more such charming gossijis! To 
 spare the one were to lose the quaintest monu- 
 ment of ancient literature. 
 
 After him came the philosophic Thucydides. 
 He selected for his theme the then recent 
 Peloponnesian Avar. He thus secured a unity 
 of subject for which Ave should look in A'ain 
 in the Avork of the Father of History. Edu- 
 cated in the political school of Pericles, under 
 the full influence of the sophists and rhetori- 
 cians of Athens, by nature of a calm tempera- 
 ment, in Avhich reason predominated over 
 imagination, Thucydides came to his task 
 fully equipped, both in himself and his dis- 
 cipline. True, his language is sometimes heavy 
 
 and not always perspicuous. True, that 
 many of his periods are inartistic and un- 
 musical ; but his is the history of reason and 
 truth. The story is told Avithout passion and 
 with but few touches of prejudice. It is a 
 story as if told by an impartial statesman who 
 reviews with great breadth of vision and im- 
 partial judgment one of the most momentous 
 epochs in the history of his people. The Pel- 
 oponnesian war thus found an expositor equal 
 in greatness to itself. 
 
 Then came Xenophon — charming story- 
 teller of the Athenians. In qualities of mind 
 he AA'as inferior to Thucydides. He had 
 neither the eleA^ated vicAvs nor the unbiased 
 judgment of his predecessor. He was withal 
 something of an adventurer. Out of sym- 
 pathy Avith his own city and state, he drifted 
 to the Spartans. As one of the leaders of a 
 band of mercenary soldiers, he accepts pay 
 from Cyrus the Younger and goes with that 
 ambitious prince against Darius, He writes 
 the Retreat of the Ten Thousmid, and after- 
 wards the Memorabilia of Socrates. His style 
 is above reproach, and displays the capabilities 
 of the Attic tongue at its best estate. The 
 purity of his diction gave him a reputation 
 with his countrymen aboA^e the intrinsic 
 merits of his works. As a model of Attic 
 Greek, the Anabasis of Xenophon will ever 
 hold a leading place ; as a history it takes 
 rank with the military records of Caesar's 
 Gallic War. 
 
 Then came Oratory — a necessary concom- 
 itant of the political freedom 
 of the Greeks. The progress 
 of Athens from an aristocracy 
 to a democracy made public 
 speech a prerequisite of leader- 
 ship. The greatest debaters 
 of the world Avere Athenian 
 citizens, interested in the af- 
 fairs of the commonwealth; 
 advocates, partisans ; men who 
 espoused one side of a ques- 
 tion with a passionate zeal that 
 displaced all other considera- 
 tions and made life a burden until the passion 
 was liberated in utterance. From this it should 
 not be inferred that all the Greek orators were 
 
 ! 
 
 THUCYDIDES. — ViS- 
 
 conti.
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 476 
 
 men of vehement manner in public address. 
 In this respect there were two classes of speakers ; 
 the one represented by Pericles, who in deliv- 
 
 ery was calm and deliberate, using no gestures 
 and exhibiting few marked changes of coun- 
 tenance ; and the other by Demosthenes, 
 
 HERODOTUS BEADING HIS HISTORY TO THE ASSEMBLED GREEKS. 
 Drawn by H. Leutemann.
 
 476 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 whose fiery impetuosity and rapidity of utter- 
 ance were the marvel of his age. 
 
 It has been disputed whether oratory is 
 properly a division of literature. Be that as 
 it may, certain it is that the orator, being by 
 profession a man of affairs, is more intimately 
 involved with the current of public life, and 
 is therefore more properly a pai't of the secu- 
 lar history of his country than is the man of 
 letters. It thus becomes proper to consider 
 the orator and his work in connection with 
 the civil and military affairs of the state 
 rather than in a sketch of the national litera- 
 ture. This method will here be followed, and 
 the account of Pericles, ^schines, Demosthe- 
 nes, and the other great exemplars of Greek 
 oratory, will be reserved for a future chapter 
 where their relations to the state will sug- 
 gest appropriate notices of their lives and 
 influence. 
 
 Passing, then, to the consideration of the 
 Art of the Hellenes we find materials of the 
 profoundest interest. Long before the strug- 
 gles of the Heroic Age awaked the conscious 
 powers of the Greeks there had been in 
 Hellas an epoch of art. A people had lived 
 thei'e who built structures as imperishable as 
 those of Nineveh and Memphis. Of this sort 
 may be mentioned the ancient reservoirs at 
 Orchomenus in Boeotia, the so-called Cyclo- 
 pean walls of Tiryns, and the massive ruins 
 which have recently been uncovered by 
 Schliemann at Mycense. All of these are 
 prehistoric and all exhibit unmistakable proof 
 of the architectural skill of some primitive 
 people who dwelt in Hellas before the age of 
 the Hellenes. The citadel of Agamemnon 
 and the Gate of Lions at Mycense seem to 
 establish the fact of an organized community, 
 swayed by arbitrary authority, primitive but 
 skillful, at a period long anterior to that in 
 which the Greeks began the record of their 
 own career as a people. There is thus in 
 Greek art a mythical period corresponding to 
 the age of fable and tradition. While the 
 Hellenes were still in the shadows of legend 
 and myth, monuments were reared in Argo- 
 lis and Boeotia, whose presence was an enigma 
 to the Greeks themselves, and the interpretation 
 of which has been the puzzle of antiquarians. 
 
 The ruins of Mycense are primitive in 
 structure. They are massive and peculiar. 
 In the building of what is thought to have 
 been the treasure-house of the king of the 
 people, much artistic skill is displayed. In 
 the center of solid masonry of hewn stone is 
 a conical vault, the arch being produced by 
 the narrowing of successive layers. The 
 stones were formerly lined with plates of 
 bronze, as were also the ornaments on the 
 outside of the vault. The plates were ham- 
 mered, and were held to their place on the 
 face of the stone with rivets. Within this 
 treasure-house Schliemann ■ discovered vessels 
 and utensils of gold, evidently belonging 
 to a royal period in the history of some prim- 
 itive race. 
 
 After this epoch most ancient in the art 
 of Hellas several centuries passed with no 
 development. It was an «age of shadows, 
 perhaps of decline. Not until the times just 
 j)receding the Persian wars was there the 
 dawn of the true day of the art of the Greeks. 
 Of the sixth century B. C. only a single tem- 
 ple has been preserved ; but of the following 
 hundred years the great columnar edifices of 
 Selinus, Agrigentum, and P{?estum remain as 
 immortal monuments of the age. 
 
 The nucleus of the Greek temple was the 
 cella, where stood the statue of the deity. In 
 the earliest times the statue was set in a grove ; 
 the thought of protection from the elements 
 suggested the erection of a covering. The 
 temple may thus be regarded as the house of 
 the statue rather than the house of the god. 
 At first the structure was no more than four 
 walls inclosing a cell, with a roof to shelter 
 the image. Then came elaboration. Columns 
 were erected, first in front, and then on all 
 four sides, and on the tops of these were 
 placed the entablature. With the growth of 
 artistic design the original idea of the temple 
 was in a measure obscured. In the great 
 structures of the classic age only faint reminis- 
 cences of the primeval edifice were preserved. 
 
 The origin of columns can never perhaps 
 be ascertained. Long before Greece waa 
 Greece, the columnar structure had been em- 
 ployed in Egypt and in parts of the East. 
 In the migration of the Hellenes from their
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 477 
 
 Asiatic home they brought with them a 
 knowledge of pillared structure. It was not 
 so much, therefore, as inventors that the 
 Ionian and Dorian Greeks produced their 
 respective styles of column, but rather as 
 improvers and beautifiers of what already 
 ■existed in a ruder and less perfect form. Side 
 by side the two columnar styles appeared in 
 the Hellenic architecture^the Doric and the 
 Ionic — each perfect in its kind — each capa- 
 ble of the grandest effects known to the 
 builder's art. 
 
 In their general structure the two orders of 
 temple differed but little. The ground-plan 
 and design in both were the same. Walled 
 terraces were first constructed lifting the edi- 
 fice above the profane level of its surround- 
 ings. Upon the platform thus produced the 
 temple proper was reared. Around the cella 
 were the four walls, and around these those 
 sublime colonnades of fluted pillars which 
 have remained the admiration of all after 
 a,ges. The covered space of the Greek temple 
 was thus greatly extended beyond the rectan- 
 gle of the walls. On the capitals i-ested a 
 ■decorated impost. This consisted of three 
 parts : the ai'chitrave, the frieze, and the cor- 
 nice. The roof rose over all in a gentle slope, 
 presenting at each end a triangular space, 
 called the tympanum. Upon this were set 
 those immortal sculptures the parallel of 
 which has never been seen in the world. 
 
 The interior space of the classic temple 
 was lighted from above by an opening in 
 the roof, called the hypaithron. In the back- 
 aground of this single hall stood the statue of 
 the god to whom the edifice was dedicated. 
 In some instances, when the temple was of 
 ^reat size, the inner space was divided by 
 transverse rows of columns, and these stood 
 sometimes one row above the other, forming 
 a gallery around the hall. Such was the ar- 
 rangement in the great temple of Neptune at 
 Psestum. 
 
 Not every thing in temple decoration 
 was left to the artist's chisel, but much to 
 the painter's brush. Column, impost, gable, 
 -and ceiling were all artistically colored. In 
 strength and brilliancy of hue the pigments 
 ■employed by the Greek painters of this age 
 
 surpassed all rivalry. Whatever the brightest 
 and richest tints of blue and gold and crim- 
 son could do to set the temple in a blaze of 
 glory, radiant as the sunshine of the Grecian 
 sky, that was added by the decorative skill of 
 the artist to the already sublime work of the 
 builder and the sculptor. Both the Doric and 
 Ionic temples were thus improved with the 
 beautiful effects of color deftly laid on under 
 the guidance of the keenest artistic per- 
 ception. 
 
 In Asia Minor and the J^gean islands the 
 Ionic style of structure prevailed over the 
 Doric, but in Athens and throughout Hellas 
 Proper both styles flourished together. As 
 already said, the two differed in the column — 
 not in the general character of the edifice. 
 The Doric pillar was imposing, massive. It 
 gave a solemn grandeur to the building of 
 which it was the principal feature. It added 
 an air of seriousness and solidity. It was 
 plain to the last degree of severity. It was 
 baseless and virtually without a capital, hav- 
 ing only a massive, circular disk upon the 
 top to support the architrave. The diameter 
 of the pillar was so great as to shorten its ap- 
 parent height ; the shaft tapered but little ; 
 it stood calmly in the repose of infinite 
 strength. The Ionic column, on the other 
 hand, was the pillar of beauty. Its height 
 Avas augmented by the slender and tapering 
 shaft. Elegance and grace and delicacy added 
 each her charm to this fluted dream of Greek 
 architecture. The Ionic pillar rose on a beau- 
 tiful pedestal and was crowned with a capital 
 ornate and airy. It was the poetry, as the 
 Doric was the prose, of the magnificent tem- 
 ples of Greece. 
 
 Of such grand structures almost every 
 Greek city could make its boast. These were 
 the splendid edifices which were laid in ruins 
 by the Persians. These were the grand struc- 
 tures which rose again with added beauty in 
 the age of Pericles, when Grecian civilization 
 shone with its richest luster. Then it was 
 that the Acropolis became the seat of the 
 guardian gods of the land, and was adorned 
 as no other hill of the world. Temples and 
 statues, the work of the best artists ever pro- 
 duced by the race of man, shone afar over
 
 478 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 land and sea from the classical and splendid 
 brow of Athens. 
 
 Now was finished the Erechtheum, the 
 great Ionic shrine of the gods of the people. 
 On the site of the ancient temple of Athene 
 the architect Ictinus erected the magical Par- 
 thenon, the ideal of Doric grandeur, which 
 the genius of Phidias adorned with a wealth 
 of art never equaled before or afterwards. ' 
 The Propyl^a were built by Mnesicles — beau- 
 tiful colonnades surmounting broad flights 
 of marble steps by which the Acropolis was 
 ascended. 
 
 honored with the name of preservation. The 
 masterjDieces of Plynotus, of Zeuxis, of 
 Apelles have sunk into oblivion ; only their 
 imperishable fame, transmitted by the foreign 
 robbers who despoiled Greece of her treasures, 
 has remained of what were doubtless the great- 
 est achievements of the human genius display- 
 ing its powers on cauvas. All that we can 
 ever hope for is to see faintly reflected in the 
 paintings of Herculanseum and Pompeii the 
 borrowed glories of the pencils of the 
 Gi^eeks. 
 
 We are not, however, left wholly in the 
 
 Thetis. Achilles. Eos. Memnon. 
 
 GREEK ART.— FIGHT OF ACHILLES AND MEMNON. 
 From an Archaic Vase, Berlin. 
 
 The Age of Pericles was the climax of 
 Grecian architecture. The Peloponnesian war 
 and the wild career of the democracy in 
 Athens were unfavorable to further develop- 
 ment, even if further development had been 
 possible. The same great age witnessed also 
 the highest achievements of the chisel and the 
 brush. The art of the painter followed that 
 of the builder. Unfortunately for the world 
 the work of the former was less substantial 
 than that of the latter. Not a single piece 
 of Greek painting belonging to the period of 
 development and greatest excellence has been 
 preserved, unless indeed the traditions and re- 
 productions of the Roman artists should be 
 
 dark as to the actual power of the Grecian 
 painters in the adaptation of color and design. 
 Though every canvas of the great masters has 
 perished, there yet remain the decorated vases 
 of Athens and Corinth. From these we are 
 able to determine with some degree of satis- 
 faction and within the narrow limits of dec- 
 orative art the skill in color and design dis- 
 played by the artists, or more properly the 
 handicraftsmen, of Greece. In these works 
 we see, as in other blanches of the industry 
 of genius, a gradual development from the 
 mere linear decoration of the primitive pot- 
 tery to the highly artistic designs of the class- 
 ical period, when the figures of men and birds
 
 GREECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART 
 
 479 
 
 and beasts are given with the best effects of 
 ceramic art. 
 
 Of the great painters of Greece more is 
 known than of their works. Plygnotus, who 
 flourished from B. C. 475 to 455, is regarded 
 as the first of the masters. By him many of 
 the public buildings of Athens were adorned 
 with elaborate frescoes and splendid panels. 
 He it was who is said to have painted Polyx- 
 ena with such expressiveness of countenance 
 that the whole Trojan war jimhed from hsr eyes I 
 
 Then came Zeuxis and Parrhasius. The 
 first painted grapes which deceived the birds, 
 
 But the greatest painter of the Greeks was 
 Apelles, the court artist of Alexander the 
 Great. He was an Ionian by birth, who fol- 
 lowed the traditions of the Sicyonian School. 
 He began his career in portraiture, and so 
 great was his fame that Alexander would per- 
 mit no other to paiut him. The generals of 
 the Conqueror and the beloved Campaspe 
 were also the subjects of his art. From por- 
 traiture he proceeded to mythological themes, 
 and in these achieved the highest honors. 
 His masterpiece was a picture of Venus Rising 
 from the Sea, executed with such wonderful 
 
 Helen. 
 GREEK ART.-CAPTURE 
 
 From an Archaic 
 
 and the other a curtain which deceived Zeuxis! 
 Athens applauded the achievements of her 
 favorite artists, and wealth poured her treasure 
 into their laps. Tithmanes also shared their 
 fame. He it was who in his Sacrifice of Iph- 
 igenia, unable to depict as he would the grief 
 of the father, di'eiv a veil over his face, and left 
 the rest to thought. This great artist belonged 
 to what is known as the Sicyonian School, 
 and to a time subsequent to the age of Pericles. 
 Pausias, also, was a member of this group. 
 He had the reputation of possessing great 
 realistic powers and extraordinary genius in 
 the art of foreshortening. 
 
 Menelaos. 
 OF HELEN OF TROY. 
 
 Vase, Berlin. 
 
 sweetness and delicacy as to surpass all com- 
 petition. 
 
 From the age of Apelles painting declined 
 until its glory was extinguished with the glory 
 of Hellas by the conquest of the country by 
 the Romans. Nevertheless, in the period be- 
 tween the time of Alexander and the final 
 destruction of Greek nationality, many artists 
 flourished who under more favorable circum- 
 stances would have done honor to their coun- 
 try. Such was Protogenes of Rhodes and 
 the realistic Theon, whose picture of the 
 Swords-man gave him merited fame. 
 
 But the chisel of Hellas surpassed her
 
 480 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pencil. The plastic art of the Gi-eek rose to 
 a pitch of excellence which pictorial repre- 
 sentation never could attain. Whatever com- 
 petition the painters of modern times — notably 
 those of the fifteenth and the sixteenth cen- 
 tury — may claim with the painters of Greece, 
 competition with the Greek sculptors there is 
 and can be none. It is safe to set the names 
 of Phidias and Praxiteles in a category by 
 themselves; for none others have to an equal 
 degree won the admiration of mankind. Like 
 the painting of the Greeks, sculpture followed 
 in the wake of the useful arts. Literary 
 culture preceded it. Only when refinement 
 and leisure had been attained by the indus- 
 trial pursuits, only when war had aroused and 
 poetry had soothed the spirit of Hellas, did she 
 begin to give form to fancy and make her 
 thought imjDerishable in marble. 
 
 FIFTY OARED GREEK BOAT. 
 
 From a vase. 
 
 Sculpture had its rude beginnings. The 
 early Greek exercised his skill in carving 
 wood and hammering metal. The art of cast- 
 ing in bronze, said to have been first practiced 
 by two Samians, Rhoicus and Theodorus, 
 also preceded the carving of stone. At the first 
 sculpture was employed almost exclusively for 
 temple decoration, but it was not long in 
 being freed from such thraldom. The human 
 form became the model. The gymnasia had 
 taught the lesson of natural modesty, and im- 
 parted to the naked body all the exquisite 
 grace and beauty of which it is susceptible. 
 To reach out after this ideal of loveliness was 
 the passion which seized the sculptors of 
 Greece and gave them inspiration. So, be- 
 ginning in vEgina, a class of artists arose who 
 with consummate skill began to chisel in 
 stone the beautiful lineaments of the human 
 form. 
 
 At the first there was much that was 
 rude and conventional, but the artist more 
 
 and more threw ofi* his fetters, until, by the 
 middle of the fifth century, perfect freedom 
 had been achieved. Then Myron and Poly- 
 CLETUS arose, the one with his great works in 
 bronze, and the other with his beautiful mar- 
 bles. Myron it was who produced the Ladas, 
 a victor in a foot race Avho died at the goal. 
 The last gasp is on his lips. He pants. He 
 is dead. The masterpieces of Polycletes were 
 the Doryphorus, a young and beautiful spear- 
 man ; the Diadunienus, a boyish figure, bound 
 as to his brows with a wreath of flowers ; and 
 the Canephorce, or maidens with their baskets. 
 Phidias was the chief glory of the admin- 
 istration of Pericles. To him was committed 
 the work of making the Parthenon sublime. 
 From his studio went forth trophy after trophy 
 to adorn the crowning glory of the Acropolis. 
 Indeed, it is not conceivable that one mind 
 
 should have de- 
 signed, much less 
 one hand executed, 
 the multitude of 
 works which are 
 ascribed to Phidias. 
 It is more likely 
 that a group of 
 great artists, work- 
 ing under his direction and inspiration, con- 
 tributed in keenest rivalry the wonderful dec- 
 orations of the Parthenon. A description of 
 the separate pieces would occupy a chapter. 
 Around the cella was a frieze four hundred 
 feet in length covered with bas-reliefs. The 
 metopes were occupied with ninety-two sculp- 
 tures representing the Combats of the Centaurs. 
 The work on the frieze presents the great 
 procession of the Panathencea — a living pano- 
 rama of the scenes which appealed most 
 strongly to the imagination of the Greeks. 
 
 In statuary proper Phidias, if possible, sur- 
 passed the sublimity of his reliefs. His statues 
 of Athene and the Olympian Zeus were re- 
 garded as the master works of antiquity — the 
 latter being classified as one of the Seven 
 Wonders of the world. Both this and the 
 Athene were done in that magnificent style 
 of art called chryselephantine, that is, wrought in 
 ivory and gold. It was a revival and glorifi- 
 cation of one of the most ancient artistic
 
 GEEECE.— LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
 
 481 
 
 methods known to the Greeks, namely, the 
 overiaying of a statue with hammered plates 
 of metal. But the rude works of the primi- 
 tive artists gave but little prophecy of the 
 splendors of which this style was capable in 
 the hands of a Phidias. To him also was at- 
 tributed the famous group of Niobe — that 
 mother of anguish, smitten by the gods for 
 her maternal pride. 
 
 After Phidias, Praxiteles stands highest 
 among the sculptors of the Greeks. His 
 
 this artist that Alexander would be modeled 
 by no other. His most ftimous work is the 
 Apoxyomenos, now in the Vatican Museum. 
 After the time of Lysippus two schools of 
 sculpture arose, the one having its seat in 
 Pergamon and the other in Rhodes. The 
 artists of these schools followed and imitated 
 their predecessors; but their works in many 
 instances exhibited original force directed by 
 the hand of genius. The Pergamine sculptors 
 were specially noted for the realistic effects at 
 
 PHIDIAS IN HIS STUDY. 
 
 theme was passionate love. Venus was his 
 ideal. In five statues he gave her the form of 
 marble. His Aphrodite Knidos is preserved — 
 in a copy — iu the museum at Munich/ 
 
 At the head of the sculptors of the time 
 of Alexander the Great stood Lysippus. He 
 introduced a new quality into statuary — that 
 of an ideal refinement upon nature. His 
 works show a delicacy in limb and member 
 which could hardly be equaled in those of any 
 other master. So great was the reputation of 
 
 ^The Venus of Melos, by an unknown artist, be- 
 longs to this period, and is regarded as par excellence 
 the most beautiful piece of Grecian sculpture. 
 
 which they aimed in their productions, many 
 of which are wonderful in fidelity. Such is 
 the celebrated piece representing a dying 
 Gaul in the Roman amphitheater— a work 
 which evoked from the genius of Byron one 
 of his finest stanzas : 
 "I see before me the gladiator lie; 
 
 He leans upon his hand— his manly brow 
 Consents to death, but cottquers agony. 
 
 And his drooped head sinks gradually low— 
 
 And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow 
 From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, 
 
 Like the first of a thunder-shower ; and now 
 The arena swims around him— he is gone, 
 Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the 
 wretch who won."
 
 482 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Of the Rlioclian school of artists the work 
 of greatest merit which has been preserved is 
 the group of the Laocoon, the joint product 
 of the three sculptors, Agesandros, Athana- 
 DOEUS, and Polydorus. This celebrated piece 
 and the Dying Gladiator, just described, stand 
 
 productions of Grecian chisels down to the 
 time when the freedom of Hellas was extin- 
 guished by the Romans. From that time 
 forth, though the love of art continued, no 
 artists arose to rival the great masters who had 
 flourished before the days of spoliation and 
 
 THE PARTHENON RESTORED.— Finished 438 B. C. 
 
 in the museum of the Vatican at Rome. A 
 second work of Rhodian art, almost as cele- 
 brated as the Laocoon, is the group of the 
 Farnese Bull, representing the binding of 
 Dirke to a wild bull by Amphion and Zethus. 
 It is the joint product of the sculj^tors Apol- 
 LONHJS and Taukiscus. Such were the last 
 
 servitude. It became the policy of Rome, 
 however, to foster for her own glory the 
 genius of the Greeks; and under her liberal 
 patronage were produced not a few of the 
 celebrated sculptures to be hereafter noticed, 
 such as the Apollo Belvedere and the Venu8 de 
 Medici. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX.— NIANNERS AND CUSTONIS. 
 
 HE life of the Greeks was 
 preeminently a life of 
 publicity. At day-break 
 the people rose and went 
 forth. Having broken 
 his fast with some bread 
 dipped in wine, the citi- 
 zen sought the open place to take his part in 
 the busy scene of |niblic and private affairs. 
 Even before this early hour the country folk 
 had arisen and made their way to the markets. 
 In the marts Avere exposed the products of 
 the field and the garden. Here were vegeta- 
 
 bles and fruit and milk and honey. At tJiO 
 fountains were seen the water-carriers hurry- 
 ing to and fro with their pitchers. The arti- 
 sans and shopkeepers soon thronged the streets, 
 and the city hummed with the noise of indus- 
 try. Nor should the troops of boys hurrying 
 to school be forgotten as an interesting feature 
 of the life that filled the streets of Athens at 
 early morning. 
 
 Tlae public market of the city was a scene 
 of hurry and, withal, of hilarity; for the 
 Athenians were never morose. The buildings 
 stood in the center of town, where the prin-
 
 GREECE.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 483 
 
 cipal streets crossed, affording ready entrance 
 from all directions. Instead of the low booths 
 which in modern cities so often pass for market- 
 houses, the Greeks gave to their buildings 
 used for this purpose much care, both in 
 structure and ornamentation. The place was 
 not only a market but a public promenade, 
 where friend met friend, exchanged the usual 
 civilities of life, and discussed the affairs of 
 the state. 
 
 In the different apartments of the market 
 the various products were exposed, each after its 
 kind. Some sold wine ; others, fruits ; others, 
 peas and lentils; others, flowers. For the 
 Greeks never banqueted until they had 
 wreathed themselves with flowers. It was the 
 sestheticism of a natural civilization. The 
 flower-girls of the Greek market-place were 
 many times made the subjects of the painter's 
 brush and the sculptor's chisel. 
 
 Not only were the daily needs of the people 
 supplied from the market, but around this 
 square of the city were arranged the principal 
 buildings belonging to the other vocations: 
 shops of artisans, physicians' stalls, artists' 
 studios, places for loungers and gossips. Here 
 the witty assembled. Here the doctors dis- 
 coursed on the art of healing. Here Hip- 
 pocrates prescribed for his patients. Here 
 the popular satirist made the physician smart 
 with his puns and epigrams. Of Dr. Hermas 
 the bitter rogue said : 
 
 " Diophantes, sleeping, saw, 
 Hermas, the physician : 
 Diophantes never woke 
 From that fatal vision ! " 
 
 Around the market were also gathered 
 clowns and showmen, sellers of amulets and 
 charms, venders of nostrums and ointments. 
 In another part were the money-changers and 
 bankers, domestic merchants and importers of 
 foreign goods. The money-changers were the 
 notaries who authenticated documents and 
 certified the validity of contracts. They re- 
 ceived deposits, charged commissions, issued 
 checks and drafts. Before their benches were 
 frequently seen many of the wealthiest citi- 
 zens of the state. 
 
 The great majority of those who plied vo- 
 cations in the Greek market were men. The 
 N. — Vol. I — 30 
 
 exceptions were in the case of the sellers of 
 bread and flowers. These branches were man- 
 aged by women and girls. The ladies of 
 Athens went not to market. But of men — 
 old men, youths, striplings — all classes were 
 here congregated from day to day. Here 
 Socrates walked with his demure visage and 
 far-seeing eyes. Here Diogenes carried his 
 lantern. Here came the frivolous dandy with 
 his new suit and cane. Only the public 
 officers, who during market hours were engaged 
 elsewhere in administrative duties, and the 
 artisans plying their vocations, were not seen 
 in the noisy but witty crowds about the public 
 market. 
 
 There is little doubt that several traits of 
 Athenian character — its rage for discussion, 
 its whimsicality, its madness for politics — were 
 in some measure traceable to the life of the 
 market-place. Here grew and was stimulated 
 that tendency to extremes for which the 
 Greeks have been so much marked by soberer 
 peoples. They were capable within the brief- 
 est period of feeling and exhibiting the highest 
 pitch of enthusiasm and the lowest ebb of 
 despondency. In the market one spirit fired 
 a thousand. There bad news quenched hi- 
 larity and sent all to their homes in despair. 
 
 The citizens of Athens — and Athens is 
 typical of all the free cities of Greece — were 
 a populace. It was • the native soil of the 
 demagogue, the sycophant, the statesman. 
 Whether a man would be one or the other de- 
 pended upon his character and genius. Polit" 
 ical parties could but flourish here. Athena 
 was a lawyers' camp. Broils and litigation 
 were the necessary results of that type of free- 
 dom which was claimed by the primitive 
 democracy. 
 
 So vast was the activity and so keen the 
 litigious instincts of the Athenians, that in the 
 heyday of the city's power a fourth or fifth 
 of her people attended court every day! 
 Aristophanes, in his comedy of the Birds, de- 
 clares that the cicada sings for a month, but 
 that the Athenians buzz with lawsuits to the 
 end of their lives. The satirist then makes 
 two Athenians, tired out with the unceasing 
 contentions of their city, go on high and found 
 another commonwealth in the clouds. But
 
 484 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 scarcely was the new city organized until the 
 Athenian lawyers and sycophants rose in a 
 flock and went to it! 
 
 While Athens remained under the aris- 
 tocracy, courts were organized in ten different 
 quarters of the city. When the government 
 took on the democratic form, the judicial 
 power fell into the hands of the whole body 
 of the citizens. From all who were over 
 thirty years of age six thousand were drawn 
 by lot to act as jurymen. Of these one thou- 
 sand were drawn out as talesmen. The re- 
 maining five thousand were divided into ten 
 sections, and each section was assigned to hear 
 causes in one of the ten judicial districts of 
 the city. Except on the occasion of public 
 festivals and holidays, these courts sat every 
 day in the year. High benches were arranged 
 for each of the great juries, and on a lower 
 level in front Avas the arena where the suitors 
 and their advocates appeared .n the trial. 
 
 The proceedings were always public, and 
 were attended by great throngs, Avho were anx- 
 ious to witness what was done, and especially to 
 hear the pleadings. The courts indeed were 
 much more attended than was the Pnyx, where 
 four times a year were held the meetings of 
 the great assembly. The fee which was paid 
 for presence at court was larger than that 
 which was given for going to the Pnyx, and 
 for this reason the magistrates had to adopt 
 the measure of fining in order to secure 
 attendance at the latter. Sometimes a rope 
 smeared with red paint was stretched across 
 the street and carried rapidly forward with a 
 hustling crowd in front ; for whoever was 
 touched with the paint was punished with a 
 fine. A sufficient crowd could thus be ob- 
 tained to attend to the legislative affairs of 
 the city. When the people were assembled 
 on the terraces of the Pnyx and order had 
 been secured by the bailiffs and policemen, 
 any citizen might propose a measure and 
 secure, if he could, its adoption. Any one 
 might address the assembly for or against the 
 proposed measure, and in doing so the speaker 
 wore a crown as a badge of inviolability. So 
 great was the concession to freedom of speech ! 
 
 The edicts of the public ass^nibly were 
 carried into effect by the Boule, or Council, a 
 
 body of five hundred citizens, to whom was 
 committed the execution of the laws. The 
 meetings of this body were held in the Bouleu- 
 terimn, a public building situated between the 
 Acropolis and the market-space. The Council 
 was divided into ten sections of fifty members 
 each, and each section was assigned its turn 
 in duty by lot. It was before this Boule or 
 Great Council that the international affairs of 
 Greece were transacted. It had control in 
 general of foreign affairs. It received ambas- 
 sadors and made treaties. To be a member 
 of this august body Avas the highest civil dig- 
 nity to which an Athenian might aspire ; and 
 yet so complete was the reign of democracy 
 that any one, however humble, might hope 
 for a seat in the Bouleuterium. So great was 
 the difference between the freedom of Greece 
 and the absolutism of the oriental monarchies! 
 
 In entering the domain of the private life 
 of the Greeks what first strikes the attention 
 is their hospitality. It was a fundamental 
 principle with the Hellenes that the stranger 
 should be entertained. Though he were an 
 enemy, Zeus Xenios required that he be re- 
 ceived in a hospitable manner. No question 
 might be asked of the stranger who came unan- 
 nounced. He might take his seat at the board, 
 and should be served with the best. After he 
 had eaten and drank, his nativity and mission 
 might be inquired. From the days of Homer 
 the guest was received with courtesy. He 
 was given a bath. Food and drink were 
 placed before him. Servants attended to his 
 comfort. A couch was spread in the hall. 
 He rested. He went his way in peace. 
 
 With a development of Greek society, how- 
 ever, there was a necessary curtailment of pa- 
 triarchal hospitality. Travel for travel's sake 
 became more common, the demands upon so- 
 cial bounty more numerous. Still there never 
 was a time when hospitality ceased to be the 
 rule. There was something in the nature of 
 the Greek analogous to what is seen in the 
 modern Parisian. He was sociable. By pref- 
 erence he ate not alone. He either invited 
 others or was himself entertained. He could 
 not endure solitude. Life with him was de- 
 fined as an opportunity to talk ; and the best 
 of life was with a group of friends at the table.
 
 GREECE.— MANNERS AND CUST03IS. 
 
 485 
 
 In the earlier times the Greeks lived fru- 
 gally. The fare of the Homeric heroes was 
 of the plainest. The meats were the flesh of 
 the domestic animals roasted on spits. Home- 
 made bread was passed from hand to hand. 
 Nor did the ancient Hellenes, like the glut- 
 tons of Rome, eat to repletion and satiety. 
 With the development of the means of living 
 greater variety was introduced. Poultry and 
 game were added to the meats. Fish and 
 cheese became staple articles of food. Oys- 
 ters and crabs and Boeotian eels came to be 
 regarded as delicacies on the tables of the 
 rich. Most of the vegetables peculiar to the 
 north temperate zone where it slopes towards 
 the tropics were abundantly served. Then 
 came the wines, of which the variety and qual- 
 ities produced from the vintages of Hellas 
 and the Cyclades were superior to those of 
 any contemporaneous country. 
 
 As a rule the preparation of the feast was 
 intrusted to the supervision of the Greek ma- 
 tron with whom it was a point of honor that 
 her lord and his guests should banquet in 
 good style. Where the feast was of such 
 proportions as to become a public reception 
 rather than a private meal, the services of 
 professional cooks were procured for the occa- 
 sion. Though woman was then, as ever, the 
 presiding genius of the preparation, she was 
 allowed no place at the board. When, how- 
 ever, there were no invited guests, the hus- 
 band frequently dined with his wife in the 
 gynceconitis or woman's apartment of the 
 house. 
 
 At nearly every meal, however, friends were 
 invited ; for in the gymnasia and market- 
 place man met man, and the two went to- 
 gether to dine. Before the meal was begun 
 all the participants carefully prepared them- 
 selves. They bathed. They perfumed them- 
 selves. They put on their best attire. When 
 all was ready, they exchanged salutations. 
 An ode was sung. The table was spread in 
 the andronitis, or the man's hall of the house. 
 The board was adorned with coverings and 
 hangings. Couches were spread; for the 
 Greeks reclined at the feast. The left arm 
 rested on a cushion. The head was crowned 
 with a chaplet of flowers. On each couch 
 
 were two guests. The place of honor was 
 next to the host. Each was assigned his 
 place at the board. A slave spread the 
 viands and brought the cups of wine. A 
 spoon was laid before each guest. Plates 
 there were none; neither knives nor forks. 
 The meats were served already cut into bits, 
 which the eaters took with their fingers. The 
 drinking was reserved for the close. Then 
 the wine was mingled with two or three parts 
 of water : the Greek was by nature too much 
 of an aesthete to drink fire at a banquet. 
 
 The servants of the table were the young- 
 est and handsomest slaves. They crowned 
 the heads of the banqueters with flowers, and 
 garlanded their breasts with myrtle and vio- 
 lets. After the feast came the song and the 
 dance, generally performed by the servants. 
 The guests were many times heated with 
 wines, and not infrequently the feast degen- 
 erated into a revel. It was, however, the 
 excess of nature rather than the deliberately 
 sought intoxication which the drinkers of the 
 North indulged in for the sheer oblivion whicK 
 followed. To the Greek, delight, exhilaration,, 
 exuberance of spirit, the joyous ecstasy of" 
 companionship, the thrill of elevated emotion,, 
 the forgetful uess rather than the oblivion of 
 care and dread, — such were the motives of 
 his abandonment to the pleasures of drink. 
 So he and his poets praised the wine. Anac- 
 reon but expressed the common question of 
 the Greek race in one of his odes : 
 
 " Thirsty earth drinks up the rain. 
 Trees from earth drink that again, 
 Ocean drinks the air, the sun 
 Drinks the sea, and him the moon. 
 Any reason canst thou think 
 I should thirst while all these drink?" 
 
 Such was the power and influence of the 
 Greek feast that the greatest of the philoso- 
 phers and sages forebore not to participate in 
 its pleasures and to praise both it and its 
 memories. So did even Socrates and Plato. 
 When, in B. C, 416, the poet Agathon, on 
 the day after his victory in tragic verse, gave 
 a banquet to his friends, the greatest minds 
 of the ancient world gathered in honor of the 
 occasion ; and the feast itself was made the 
 basis of Plato's Symposium, one of the most
 
 486 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 charming pieces of literature which ever pro- 
 ceeded from that tall spirit.^ 
 
 During the night the streets of Athens 
 were in charge of public slaves and police- 
 men. For such offices Scythians were pre- 
 ferred. Armed with their bows and arrows, 
 they patrolled the public places, and muttered 
 broken Greek at the disorderly. About one 
 thousand two hundred of these uncouth 
 guards were nightly encamped on the Areop- 
 agus. Their services were in constant de- 
 mand to check and repress the uproar and 
 riot of the unmanageable crew of young 
 Athenians who poured through the streets in 
 the reckless abandonment of mischief and the 
 not infrequent perpetration of crime. 
 
 The women of the ancient Greeks had 
 more freedom than among any other primitive 
 people ; and they repaid the gift with a 
 munificent contribution of beauty and faith- 
 fulness. Alcestis gives her life as a ransom 
 for her husband's. Antigone follows a father's 
 wretched fortunes with all a daughter's love. 
 Penelope for twenty years longs for her absent 
 lord. What to her are suitors while lie is far 
 away? Andromache stands by Hector to the 
 end. Even Helen is the victim of the in- 
 trigue of the immortals rather than the way- 
 ward and guilty wife, insomuch that, after 
 her return to Menelaiis, she is regarded as a 
 true and noble queen. Such was woman in 
 the age of the heroes. 
 
 In the later developments of Greek civiliza- 
 tion woman suffered. She became restricted 
 in her freedom, and lost her ascendency over 
 the minds of men. Perhaps the change in 
 her condition and rank may be attributed to 
 the constant encroachments of democracy, 
 which, by making every man a participant in 
 public affairs, while not conceding like pre- 
 rogatives to woman, gradually drew off one 
 of the sexes to the market-square and the 
 Pnyx, there to discuss the many times facti- 
 
 ^ It will be remembered that it was at this feast 
 of Agathon that the mad-drunk Alcibiades broke 
 in unbidden, assumed the role of symposiarch, 
 drank a great bowl of wine, put a garland on the 
 big, brain-knotted head of Socrates, and declared 
 that the reason why the old sage was not already 
 drunken was because there was not wine enough 
 in Greece to intoxicate him ! 
 
 tious issues of politics, while at the same time 
 the other sex was more and more restricted by 
 domestic duties and limited by the horizon of 
 home. It was the pernicious political dis- 
 covery that each of the sexes has a " sphere" — 
 a discovery which has cost the world centuries 
 of retrogression. 
 
 In the Dorian and ^olian states, most 
 notably in Sparta, the Greek woman came 
 more nearly maintaining her old-time inde- 
 pendence and consequent influence over men 
 and public affairs than in the more highly 
 civilized commonwealths of the lonians. The 
 Spartans continued to make a boast of their 
 women loug after the time when the philoso- 
 phers, to say nothing of the politicians, of 
 Athens had come to pass them by with indif- 
 ference. The Spartan mothers retained the 
 old-time flavor of heroism even as long as 
 they had a country. They reared their sons 
 and gave them to the state. The epitaph of 
 Damaineta continued to find exemplification 
 among the heroic daughters of that brave 
 land — 
 
 " Eight sons Damaineta to battle sent, 
 Anu buried all beneath one monument. 
 No tear she shed for sorrow, but thus spake — • 
 'Sparta, I bore these children for thy sake.' " 
 
 The Ionian women of the classical age 
 were less esteemed for heroic than for femi- 
 nine qualities. The girls were for the most 
 part secluded. Ou the occasion of public fes- 
 tivals they appeared and took part in the 
 songs and dances. They were bred more and 
 more to the indoor than to the outdoor life. 
 Housekeeping, however, was not taught until 
 after marriage. Then the care of the Greek 
 home devolved almost exclusively upon the 
 woman. In this relation she came to be dis- 
 prized as something of a drudge. The poets 
 and wits made her the object of innumerable 
 satires. She was left to her beauty and grace 
 for protection rather than to any chivalrous 
 sentiment among the men. Nevertheless, 
 with these many disadvantages, the women 
 of Attica continued to be ladylike and noble. 
 The Greek was rarely discourteous to his 
 wife. Her modesty and dignity were not 
 often shocked by rude language or base con- 
 duct. Her home was sacred from the intru-
 
 GREECE.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 487 
 
 sion of strangers, and she was little annoyed 
 by the recklessness of men. 
 
 In the matter of marriage the selection and 
 contract were made by the parents. In mak- 
 ing choice they were influenced not a little 
 by those social considerations which the over- 
 prudent father and mother have in all time 
 been disposed to substitute for the preference 
 of the parties most concerned. The prospec- 
 tive husband was not infrequently obliged to 
 pay the debts of his father-in-law as a condi- 
 tion of betrothal. But 
 as a general rule the 
 selection of the hus- 
 band or wife was made 
 from the circle of 
 friends and according 
 to the wishes of the 
 young people who were 
 to be joined. Domes- 
 tic happiness was, after 
 all, the rule, and social 
 misery the exception, 
 in the households of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 As it respects fidel- 
 ity, the law was very 
 severe with the women 
 and very lax with the 
 men. The discrimina- 
 tion in this regard was 
 so great that in some 
 stages of Greek society 
 marriage was well-nigh 
 at a discount in the 
 presence of male aban- 
 donment. In the Io- 
 nian cities of Asia 
 
 Minor and the archipelago, and more 
 particularly in Corinth and Athens, a large 
 class of women arose known as hd(zrce, 
 whose lives and influence were opposed 
 to domestic ties and wifehood. Sometimes 
 women of this class were accomplished 
 to the last degree in the culture of their 
 times. Such was Thargelia of Miletus, who, 
 in her relations with the king of Persia, exer- 
 cised an influence in favor of her country. 
 Such especially was the renowned Aspasia, 
 ■who by her association with Pericles became 
 
 known and respected throughout all Greece. 
 Such were her gifts and genius that both he 
 and Socrates acknowledged their indebtedness 
 to her for lessons in oratory and philosophy. 
 Nor should mention be omitted of Lais, who 
 obtained an ascendency over the cynical spirit 
 of Diogenes. The story of the Boeotian 
 Phryne is well known, w^hose charms exposed 
 before the judges saved her from sentence of 
 death, and whose beauty was made the in- 
 spiration of Praxiteles when he modeled the 
 
 TYPES OF GREEK WOMEN. » 
 
 Venus of Knidos, and of Apelles, when he 
 painted the goddess rising from the sea. 
 
 Looking for the home of the Greek we 
 find nothing but description. Not a single 
 house of the classical age has been preserved 
 for the inspection of modern times. No Her- 
 culaneum or Pompeii has laid its contribution 
 of protecting ashes on a Greek town or vil- 
 lage. But the descriptions of the ancient 
 writers are abundant, and from these may be 
 
 ^ For types of Men, see " Heroes of the Trojan 
 War," p. 510.
 
 488 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 drawn a fair reproduction of the abodes of 
 the Hellenes. Their houses belonged to the 
 Southern rather than the Northern type of 
 buildings. Instead of one great hall lighted 
 from without and steeply roofed, the house of 
 the South consisted of an inclosure about a 
 rectangular court, from which the light is ad- 
 mitted into the various apartments. It w^as a 
 house of this sort in which the Greeks of the 
 Heroic Age made their dwelling. Whether 
 the common abode of the peasant or the 
 palace of the prince the type was the same, 
 the structure being varied merely in its de- 
 tails and adornment. 
 
 The first distinctive feature of the Greek 
 house within was the division into a man's 
 and a woman's department — the andronitis and 
 the gynceconitis. Above the first court was a 
 second or even a third, according to the 
 ■wealth and ambition of the builder. In vil- 
 lages and other situations where there was 
 abundance of room, the ground-plan was a 
 rectangle about twice as great in length as in 
 breadth, but in cities where space on the 
 streets was valuable the fronts of the houses 
 were narrowed, and the depth and height of 
 the buildings proportionally increased. 
 
 On the outside the houses of the Greeks 
 were generally stuccoed and painted. In the 
 second story front some small windows looked 
 down on the street. Between two columns 
 below was the door, which w^as guarded by a 
 slave, and was opened at the signal of knocks. 
 Between the door and the street were the 
 apartments of the servants, arranged on either 
 side of a passage. 
 
 The andronitis, or man's hall, was generally 
 surrounded with columns. This apartment 
 occupied the front of the dwelling. Here 
 the man of the house attended to his private 
 afiairs, assisted by his steward and servants. 
 Here he prosecuted his studies. Here were 
 his parchments. Here he received and enter- 
 tained his friends. Here was spread the ban- 
 quet — of which an account has already been 
 given. From the andronitis a passage lead- 
 ing to the rear entered the woman's hall or 
 gynceconitis, where were arranged the various 
 apartments for the female occupants of the 
 bouse. Here the women lodged, washed the 
 
 linen, spun and wove. From these rooms a 
 second passage, closed by a gate, led into the 
 garden in the rear of the dwelling, or into 
 the street if the building extended the whole 
 depth of the square. 
 
 In the center of the whole establishment 
 was the court called the Prostas — a place 
 sacred to religious devotions. Here stood the 
 family altar. Here in the background was 
 set up the statue of Hestia, the protectress of 
 the hearthstone. Here were celebrated the 
 festivals and anniversaries of the family. 
 Here were ofl!ered the sacrifices and vows of 
 religion. Here the marriage was celebrated. 
 Here the new-born child was joyously wel- 
 comed into the household. Here at the altar 
 of Hestia was the refuge of the slave and 
 panting fugitive who fled thither for pro- 
 tection. 
 
 From the earliest times the Greeks took 
 pride in decorating their houses. Already in 
 the Homeric age ornaments of metal and 
 ivory were beaten or carved for the adorn- 
 ment of the w'alls and cornice. In the most 
 ancient ruins which have been uncovered — 
 those of Mycense and Tiryns — the work of 
 decoration is already fully displayed, even in 
 the Treasure-house of Atreus. The work of 
 the hammer and the chisel preceded that of 
 the brush. So far as artistic painting is con- 
 cerned, it was at first restricted to buildings 
 of a public character. Alcibiades is said to 
 have been the first to employ a painter to 
 fresco and ornament his house with artistic 
 figures in color. Afterwards, however, down 
 to the times of Alexander the Great, this 
 kind of decoration grew in fashion, especially 
 in Athens, until all except the poorest houses 
 bore some trace of the artist's skill. Even 
 Zeuxis was many times called from his studio 
 to honor with his brush the palaces and villas 
 of the wealthy Athenians. 
 
 It is the peculiarity of modern times that 
 mechanical skill has taken the precedence of 
 art. One of the results of this interchange 
 of faculties is the superior elegance and splen- 
 dor of modern furniture as compared with 
 that of antiquity. Still the latter was not 
 wanting in many evidences of artistic taste, 
 and especially in a certain Oriental magnifi-
 
 GREECE.— MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 489 
 
 cence. Of course, the couches and tables of 
 the kings of the East were gorgeous to the 
 last degree, but in democratic Greece the 
 same class of motives did not exist for rich 
 and costly trappings. Here it was merely 
 the gratification of the sesthetic faculties that 
 led to whatever elegance was displayed in the 
 furniture of the Grecian dwelling. This taste 
 led to a considerable variety of patterns and 
 designs. The chairs, tables, and couches were 
 frequently of costly workmanship. Sometimes 
 the frames were cast of bronze, or when carved 
 of wood were inlaid with silver and ivory. 
 The feet and exposed parts of the frames of 
 such articles of furniture were generally exe- 
 cuted in imitation of the form of some animal 
 or creature of mythology — the lion's paw, the 
 dolphin's back, the half-developed form of a 
 nymph. Many of the chairs, especially those 
 of the women, were of great elegance, the 
 backs being carved to fit the person, and the 
 seats laid with ornamented cushions, upon 
 which the deft fingers of the maidens of 
 Greece had exhausted their skill. 
 
 The Greek couch consisted of a kind of 
 bench for the mattress, guarded at one end 
 with a head-board, but without a back. Over 
 this, in the earlier times, were laid covers, 
 but these at a later date were superseded with 
 cushions filled with feathers. The bedstead, 
 like the frame of the chair, was sometimes 
 artistically designed, and sometimes plainly — 
 even roughly — executed, according to the 
 taste and means of the owner. The frame 
 of the bed was generally concealed by drapery 
 drawn around it, the same being ornamented 
 with fringes, tassels, and gold and silver 
 embroidery. 
 
 Preserved in chests in the gynseconitis 
 were the articles of the toilet belonging to the 
 women — a numerous array of caskets, cosmet- 
 ics, and jewelry. Indeed, no people, whether 
 ancient or modern, have given more attention 
 to artistic care pf the person than did the 
 matrons and maidens of Greece. But the 
 peculiarity of the latter was, to their honor, 
 that their whole notion of personal attractive- 
 ness as heightened by art consisted in beauti- 
 fying and not destroying nature. 
 
 Night divides the world with the day. 
 
 What should the Greeks do in the darkness? 
 It is matter of surprise that the great genius 
 of the race did not more concern itself with 
 the matter of artificial illumination. The 
 problem of light was one in which neither 
 they nor any other people of antiquity seemed 
 to take much interest. The homes of the 
 Greeks were lighted with oil-lamps with wicks, 
 and the streets with torches. In the actual 
 contrivance there seems to have been no 
 advance from the first principles, such as are 
 adopted by half-civilized I'aces in illumination ; 
 but in the designs of the lamps it is easy to 
 discover the peculiar and superior qualities of 
 Greek taste. These have the most elegant 
 forms, being of that flat, bowl-like pattern 
 which the best modern art is proud to imitate. 
 They were ornamented with an endless variety 
 of designs, some in color and some in relief — 
 vines and fruits and figures of animals and 
 birds. The materials in most common use 
 were terra-cotta and bronze, but the rich had 
 their lamps of silver and sometimes of gold. 
 They were designed for hanging or standing, 
 and for the latter use were supported by can- 
 delabra of the slenderest and most beautiful 
 styles. These were set by the couches in the 
 andronitis, and here reclined the Greek in the 
 evening and read. Near by stood the library, 
 with its tiers of pigeon-holes, into which were 
 inserted the cylindrical cases containing the 
 rolls of manuscript. 
 
 The material used in writing was prepared 
 papyrus brought from Egypt. Upon this the 
 poem or disquisition of the philosopher was 
 carefully copied by a sc»-ibe. The Greek 
 manuscripts were generally executed with 
 great care a-nd exquisite finish as to neatness 
 and accuracy. In the house of a prominent 
 and influential man a small library of favorite 
 authors might always be expected. In the 
 age of the Macedonian ascendency, however, 
 the library became a public rather than a 
 private enterprise ; and the example of Alex- 
 ander in founding in Egypt and elsewhere 
 vast collections of books was emulated by 
 nearly all the great men of subsequent times. 
 Book collectors were common in Greece, and 
 the possession of rare or exquisite rolls was in 
 many a rage, as in modern times. Of this
 
 490 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 sort were the poet Euripides and the philoso- 
 pher Aristotle, both of whom distinguished 
 themselves by accumulating large libraries of 
 valuable and rare works. 
 
 Other connoisseurs there were who turned 
 their energies to the collection of articles of a 
 non-literary character. Old things of quaint 
 device and singular pattern were eagerly 
 sought after by the dilettanti and hunters of 
 bric-a-brac, just as the relics and fashions of 
 the fourteenth century are now pursued by 
 the fanciers of what is valuable for being out 
 of date. Indeed, this taste for the rare and 
 curious was as keen in the Greeks as in any 
 of the monomaniacs of our day. The lyre of 
 Orpheus was hunted as eagerly as the wood 
 of the True Cross is now sought by those 
 who believe in its virtues. One Greek carved 
 an ivory chariot and four horses of such stu- 
 pendous proportions that the whole could 
 be covered by the wings of a house-fly, and 
 another executed two verses of Homer on a 
 grain of sesame ! Art becomes ingenuity in 
 Lilliput! 
 
 The care of the Greek household was 
 largely intrusted to the slaves. These were 
 owned by all families except the poorest. 
 The morality of the institution was never 
 questioned even by the philosophers. With 
 them human freedom meant freedom for the 
 Greek. Not even the author of the Atlantis 
 seems ever to have troubled himself about the 
 existence of slavery in his own country. The 
 slaves were all barbarians, either taken in 
 battle or purchased in the market. He 
 who went to war with a Greek did it with 
 a knowledge that he was running the risk 
 of perpetual servitude with the chances 
 greatly against him. Still, however, the con- 
 dition he would be thus exposed to was far 
 more tolerable than in any other ancient state. 
 
 The slave of the Greek, though subject 
 to his master, was not as a rule treated with 
 
 severity. He might marry and have a house- 
 hold of his own. In sickness and old age he 
 was released from toil, and cared for with de- 
 cency if not with tenderness. Ties of friend- 
 ship and even of intimacy were not infre- 
 quently contracted between slave and master 
 which survived all vicissitude and ended only 
 with life. Albeit the condition of the Helots 
 in Sparta — a subject race belonging to the 
 soil and transferred with it as serfs — was an 
 estate totally different from common chattel 
 slavery as it presented itself in Athens and 
 the other cities of Central Greece. 
 
 The slave-class in Attica was very numer- 
 ous. In a population of five hundred and 
 fifty thousand souls, fully four hundred thou- 
 sand were slaves — being in the ratio of three 
 to one of the free citizenship. This enormous 
 element of population was distributed, as we 
 have already seen, into the houses of the free 
 Greeks and into the factories, quarries, mines, 
 and indeed in all places where "naked human 
 strength" was the thing required. In the 
 house of any well-to-do Greek citizen a reti- 
 nue of about twenty slaves, male and female, 
 was required for the service. Upon them was 
 devolved the entire labor, though not the su- 
 perintendence, of the establishment. In the 
 gynseconitis the mistress of the house and her 
 daughters sat among the domestics and super- 
 vised and directed in all that was done. The 
 householder meanwhile ordered his division of 
 the servants to their various tasks, and then 
 went to the market-place to talk politics and 
 discuss the management of the war. There 
 is little doubt that the institution of slavery 
 among the Greeks was thus the blind com- 
 plement of that factious democracy which, 
 uncurbed by useful tasks of labor, inserted its 
 idle talons in the breast of the state and tore 
 out her vitals. — Such were the manners and 
 institutions of the Hellenes in the times of 
 their power and renown.
 
 GREECE.— RELIGION. 
 
 491 
 
 Chapter XL.— Reliqion. 
 
 Wl 
 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 BRIEF sketch of the 
 religion of the Greeks, 
 considered apart from 
 tlieir system of mythol- 
 ogy, will be appropriate 
 before the traditions and 
 civil history of the race 
 are presented. When we consider the moral 
 elvation of the Olympian hierarchy there is 
 not much to admire. The gods who dwelt on 
 that sublime height were of the same sort 
 with the men who dwelt at its base. "Like 
 men like gods," might well apply to the Greek 
 family, whether terrestrial or celestial. There 
 is not much wonder, therefore, that the for- 
 mer should not greatly respect the latter, 
 since they saw them as beings of like passions 
 ■with themselves. 
 
 Consulting the literature of the Greeks 
 from Homer to Aristophanes one might well 
 conclude that the Hellenes were a peoj^le de- 
 void not only of the genuine religious instinct 
 but even of a decent respect for their deities. 
 Such, however, would be far from a true con- 
 clusion. Perhaps in many instances the fan- 
 tastic legends of tradition were brushed aside 
 by the lucid intelligence and skeptical dispo- 
 sition of the Greeks, but behind the fiction 
 the substance of the thing remained in the 
 imagination of the people : and the substance 
 was adored with a sincere veneration. 
 
 The beings, then, whom the Greeks wor- 
 shiped were regarded as the guardians of 
 mankind and the avengers of evil. To them 
 belonged the reward of virtue and the pun- 
 ishment of crime. They hasted not in their 
 work, but their work was sure. They ob- 
 served the minds and hearts of men, honored 
 the upright, regarded the faithful, heard the 
 voice of supplication. This was the ground- 
 faith of the Greek, whether philosopher or 
 peasant. Nor does it appear that the most 
 skeptical spirit ever wholly shook it off. Soc- 
 rates himself was in the habit of prayer, and 
 disdained not to consult an oracle. 
 
 There was thus in the ofttimes frivolous 
 nature of the Greek a sincere vein of piety. 
 His earliest efforts in art were permeated with 
 devotion. Homer's heroes believe most im- 
 plicitly in the gods — pray to them, fear them. 
 The Grecian states, taking up the theme, de- 
 nounce impiety. He whose teachings seem 
 dangerous, or whose life is sacrilegious, is 
 banished or put to death. The memory of 
 the impious is execrated. All this shows a 
 deep-seated, though often misdirected, vein 
 of religious sentiment in the people. 
 
 All the principal acts in the drama of 
 Greek life were introduced with religious 
 ceremony, The man of the house was the 
 priest. He needed no other. He said his 
 own prayers. He made his own offerings for 
 himself and his family. When he prayed to 
 the gods of the air he stood with upturned 
 face and held his hands aloft. If he suppli- 
 cated the deities of the deep, his hands were 
 stretched to the sea. The birth of the child, 
 the betrothal, the marriage, the funeral — all 
 the chief events in the life of the household — 
 were sanctioned with some religious rite. 
 
 As early as the days of Homer the Greeks 
 raised the altar of sacrifice. Upon this the 
 worshiper offered his gifts and victims. Of 
 things without life those most brought to the 
 sacrificial fire were fruit and cakes, oil and 
 wine, milk and honey. In offering living 
 victims the best of the flock or herd was 
 selected, and sometimes, as in the case of the 
 hecatomb, as many as a hundred animals were 
 slain at once. Not all of the creature offered, 
 but only certain parts were burned in the 
 fire ; the remainder was eaten by the wor- 
 shipers and the priests. Even in the shed- 
 ding of blood the aesthetic taste of the Greek 
 appeared, for the beast to be offered was 
 wreathed as to his head and horns with a gar- 
 land of flowers. The neck of the animal was 
 sprinkled with salt and consecrated barley, 
 and then the knife let out the creature's life. 
 
 As already said, every free Greek — and
 
 492 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 every Greek was free — could act as his own 
 priest. The introduction, therefore, of a class 
 of priests was merely a matter of preference 
 and division of labor. It was rather in con- 
 nection with certain sacred places, seats of the 
 gods, oracles, etc. , that the services of a regu- 
 lar priesthood seemed to be demanded. In 
 the great temples, also, groups of priests were 
 a necessity of the service ; but they gathered 
 about the shrine, not by hereditary right or 
 by appointment of a superior hierarchy, but 
 simply by that natural selection which, work- 
 ing among men, sends some to one vocation 
 and some to another. The rank and rights 
 of citizenship were no more sacrificed by the 
 assumption of priestly duties than by the 
 doctor in treating a patient or the lawyer in 
 pleading a cause. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that the 
 priests, having once assumed the sacred office, 
 acquired thereby a certain dignity and honor. 
 They were respected and venerated by all 
 classes. The popular imagination associated 
 them with the holy rites which they cele- 
 brated, with the solemn temple where they 
 lived, and even with the high gods whom 
 they served. They thus acquired a great 
 reputation for sanctity, and a consequent in- 
 fluence over the minds of the people. Nor 
 "was their reputation less distinguished for the 
 learning which they claimed by tradition and 
 oracular response. They were well acquainted 
 with the old unwritten laws and venerated 
 customs of the Greeks, and thus became a 
 conservative force in the state — a force not 
 without a salutary influence on the distract- 
 ing and revolutionary tendencies of such a 
 people. 
 
 Among the Greeks the belief in prophecy 
 ■was very general ; and here again freedom 
 had her way, for any one might be a prophet. 
 The gods were no respecters of persons. The 
 voice of the deity might be heard by any one 
 as well as by a priest. If the latter was more 
 frequently in communion with the supernal 
 powers, it was only because he dwelt near 
 some shrine or sacred haunt which the god 
 delighted to frequent. The signs by which in 
 «arth or sea or sky the deities made known 
 their will were not of private interpretation ; 
 
 and so the many rather than the few heard 
 and recognized the voices from on high. 
 
 But in the case of the oracles the divine 
 resj^onses were delivered by the priests. The 
 inquiries of those who woaild learn the mys- 
 teries of the future and of fate were borne to 
 the inner place by priestly hands and sub- 
 mitted to the god for answer. Such was the 
 usage at Dodona, in Epirus, the most ancient 
 oracle of Zeus. In the rustling of the oak 
 leaves were heard the breathings of that great 
 Immortal who was held to be the first among 
 the 230wers of heaven ; but the noise in the 
 oaks was unintelligible save to the sacred per- 
 sons who were by holy life and residence in 
 the groves acquainted with the meaning of 
 the mysterious messages. Such also was the 
 method of obtaining responses at the still 
 more famous shrine of the prophetic Apollo, 
 at Delphi. This oracle was the most cele- 
 brated in Greece, perhaps in the world. In 
 the classical age the greatest intellects recog- 
 nized the validity of the Delphic responses, 
 and the weightiest aflairs of state hung breath- 
 less until the answer was delivered. 
 
 The spot chosen by Apollo for his favorite 
 haunt was a wild ravine at the foot of Par- 
 nassus. The scene was grand and solitaryo 
 Only the murmur of a brook broke the im- 
 pressive silence. On either hand rose ver- 
 tical walls of rock. Here in this gorge the 
 god of light and poesy and song had slain the 
 Python, the great dragon of darkness and 
 barbarism. The Castalian fountain sprang 
 from the spot, and the Muses made it their 
 home. Here from a cleft in the rock issued 
 that intoxicating vapor which benumbed the 
 senses of man and brought him into commun- 
 ion with the deity. The tongue of the intoxi- 
 cated became the oracle of the god. Around 
 the sacred spot holy men gathered to muse 
 and pray. Here houses were built. Here a 
 shrine was erected for the deity. Here rose 
 the holy city of Delphi, whose fame as the 
 seat of divine inspiration spread first through- 
 out all Greece and then to the ends of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 He who would inquire of Apollo came 
 bringing gifts. Something precious must be 
 brought in recompense for prophecy. Treas-
 
 GREECE.— RELIGION. 
 
 493 
 
 ures of gold and silver and sculpture and 
 painting were cast in profusion into the divine 
 thesaurus, until the shrine became rich beyond 
 estimate. In times of turbulence and war 
 the eyes of the irreligious were cast longingly 
 towards the accumulated treasures in the 
 house of Apollo, and more than once the 
 profane hand of expediency was laid upon 
 them. 
 
 The Delphic responses were obtained 
 through the lips of a priestess called the 
 Pythia. She was chosen from the women of 
 Delphi, and was especially consecrated to her 
 
 verse, but in later times the priests, grown 
 less careful, gave back the reply in prose. 
 
 In these conditions were laid the founda- 
 tions of the priestly lore which was cultivated 
 at Delphi. It was the business of the college 
 to know the actual state of afiairs, not only 
 in Greece, but, as far as practicable, in all the 
 surrounding nations. By such information 
 the priests could know, and did know, before- 
 hand the kind of inquiries which would arise 
 out of the political and social conditions of the 
 country. They accordingly busied themselves 
 in framing and answering supposititious ques- 
 
 DELPHI AND PARNASSUS. 
 
 sacred office. Once every month she purified 
 herself by fasting and ablutions. She chewed 
 laurel leaves, bathed in and drank from the 
 Castalian spring. Then she went into that 
 part of the temple where the fissure in the 
 native rock still gave forth its vapor. She 
 seated herself on the tripod, and Avas soon in- 
 toxicated with the gas. Then she fell down 
 in a swoon. She uttered wild ejaculations in 
 her delirium, and these were caught up by 
 the attending priests and wrought into oracu- 
 lar — generally ambiguous — responses to the 
 inquiries Avhich had been propounded. As a 
 rule the answers were rendered in hexameter 
 
 tions, and in this line of work acquired not a 
 little skill. In the ordinary affairs of politics 
 and war they were very well prepared to give 
 intelligent advice, or even to predict with ap- 
 proximate certainty the natural course of 
 events. When, however, it came to the 
 actual domain of prophecy and to matters of 
 which the priest could know no more than 
 another, he had necessary recourse to fraud, 
 and this he found in the construction of am- 
 biguous responses — couplets which could be 
 made to read both ways in the light of the 
 denouement. Thus Croesus was told that if 
 he crossed the Halys he would destroy a great
 
 494 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 kingdom. Whose kiugdom? His own, or 
 that of Cyaxares ? The former, as it proved ; 
 the latter, as it was hoped. Thus was the 
 credit of Apollo and his priests maintained 
 against the hazard of contingency. 
 
 There were, however, those among the 
 witty Greeks who fathomed and derided the 
 double utterances of Delphi. The comic 
 poets found the Apollonian ambiguity a 
 precious morsel. They imitated the style of 
 the confused priest, and made him the butt 
 of profane mirth. Aristophanes introduces 
 
 leveled against them, the Delphic priesthood 
 held their own for many centuries, and did 
 not perceptibly wane in their influence over 
 the public mind until after the establishment 
 of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Of scarcely less importance than the ora- 
 cles were the Mysteries of the Greeks. These 
 were rites celebrated in seci"et orders, and in- 
 tended to gratify a higher grade of religious 
 aspirations than could be satisfied by the 
 popular faith. The orders were open only to 
 those who could establish by satisfactory proofs 
 
 THE PYTIIIA ON THE TKIPOD. 
 Drawn by H. Leutemaiin. 
 
 the leather-seller Cleon and a sausage-maker, 
 and the decision of a squabble between them 
 is thus oracularly rendered: 
 
 " Moreover, when the eagle in his pride, 
 With crooked talons and a leathern hide, 
 Shall seize the black and blood-devouring snake,^ 
 Then shall the woeful tan-pits quail and quake; 
 And mighty Zeus shall give command and place 
 To mortals of the sausage-selling race : 
 Unless they choose, continuing as before, 
 To sell their sausages for evermore." 
 
 The satire was all the keener for being In 
 the exact vein of the Delphic utterances. 
 But despite the sharp darts that were thus 
 
 ^ Meaning a saiisnge! 
 
 the previous rectitude and purity of their 
 lives. To such the promise of a calmer and 
 more elevated frame of mind, a deeper hope 
 of present peace and future immortality, was 
 held forth on condition of entering the mys- 
 teries. Every pure Greek might aspire to 
 membership in one of the sacred orders. 
 Even women were admitted with the men to 
 equal participancy in the new life of holiness 
 and consecration. 
 
 To attain the highest rank in one of the 
 mysteries, the candidate had to pass three de- 
 grees. He was first initiated; then, after a 
 season of probation, advanced to a second de-
 
 GREECE. —RELIGION. 
 
 495 
 
 gree; and finally admitted to the third or 
 highest rank, in which he was enrolled with the 
 epoptce, or ' ' beholders " — for such were allowed 
 to behold the unveiled myths of the national 
 religion. 
 
 The two principal mysteries of Greece 
 were those celebrated at Eleusis and at Sam- 
 othrace. The latter j)lace was a small island 
 in the ^gean, on which from the earliest 
 times a society had flourished whose aim was 
 to interpret and illustrate the secrets of nature. 
 What these secrets were, and by Avhat cere- 
 monies they were interpreted, have never 
 been ascertained — so thick and carefully 
 drawn was the curtain between the "initiated " 
 and the outer world of vulgar sense. More 
 famous far were the mysteries known as 
 Eleusinian. These were celebrated at the 
 city of Eleusis, in Attica. The society was in 
 great repute, and many of the most distin- 
 guished Athenians were proud to be num- 
 bered among the epoptce. Here, too, the 
 secrecy was profound. Only thus much is 
 known, that the mysteries of nature — es- 
 pecially those appertaining to life — were 
 sought to be unveiled to the senses and per- 
 ceptions of men by the rites of the celebrants. 
 The two deities honored within the veil were 
 Demeter, the great Earth-mother, and Diony- 
 sus, the wine-god. Eleusis was the seat of 
 one of the most celebrated of the Greek 
 myths — that in which Demeter, after search- 
 ing long by land and sea, at last learned that 
 her lost daughter Persephone had been mar- 
 ried to Hades, the dark specter of the under 
 world, and that she was now his queen in the 
 realms below. Here the mother procured her 
 daughter's return to life and joy — at least for 
 a season.* The myth became the basis of the 
 mystery which the initiated were to explain 
 and illustrate with their rites — the mystery of 
 the varying and beautiful processes of life. 
 
 In the months of August and September 
 of each year, after the harvests had been 
 
 * Persephone represents Life. In the summer 
 she rejoices in leaf and bud and flower. But in 
 winter Pluto takes her under the earth. She is 
 seen no more. She is queen of the dark abodes 
 in the Land of Gloom. With the sunshine of 
 spring she returns and gladdens her mother, 
 Eartii. 
 
 gathered, a period of twelve days was set 
 apart for the celebration of the great feast 
 known as the Eleusinia. Athens abandoned 
 herself to the occasion. Strangers came from 
 all parts of Greece to be present at the anni- 
 versary. First the candidates and initiates 
 prepared themselves by bathing in the sea, 
 by fasting and sacrifice. Then for five days 
 offerings were made to Demeter and Dionysus ; 
 and on the sixth was the great procession, in 
 which the ancient statue of Dionysus, gar- 
 landed with flowers and bearing a torch in his 
 hand, was brought with loud acclaim and 
 laughter and song from Athens to Eleusis. It 
 was always arranged that the procession should 
 not reach its destination until nightfall. The 
 image of the god was borne after dark into a 
 great building, where the mysteries were cele- 
 brated, and here under the flickering glare of 
 torches were begun the awful ceremonies 
 which occupied the remainder of the festival. 
 Before the close of the mysterious proceedings 
 Persephone was welcomed back to earth, and 
 then hilarity and banqueting succeeded to the 
 previous despondency and gloom. 
 
 The proper feast of Dionysus was wilder 
 and more extravagant in character than that 
 of Demeter. As sometimes celebrated, it was 
 an orgy in which the participants abandoned 
 themselves to frantic excesses. At the Diony- 
 sia in Athens it was regarded as a duty in 
 those who took part in the exercises to become 
 drunken. Every one crowned himself with 
 ivy and flowers, and offered to him whom he 
 met a cup of wine. The image of Bacchus 
 was borne about in processions, and a wild 
 crew of Satp's, Bacchantes, and Pans rushed 
 madly along, piping and shouting till the day 
 became an uproar and the night hideous. 
 
 The great local religious festival of the 
 Athenians was called the Panathencea. It was 
 celebrated every fourth year in honor of 
 Pallas Athene, the patron goddess of the city. 
 On the return of the anniversary Athens was 
 crowded with strangers. Hither came a 
 throng of poets, musicians, artists, gymnasts, 
 showmen, mountebanks — every type of hu- 
 manity known to the world of the Greeks. It 
 was a time of excitement, of competition, of the 
 exhibition of skill in achievement and strength.
 
 496 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The great day was the day of the proces- 
 sion. In the morning outside of the city the 
 throngs gathered. Here the column was 
 formed. At the head of the procession came 
 a band of flute players and citharists. Then 
 followed the Athenian soldiery — infantry and 
 cavalry. Behind this division marched all 
 those who had ever been crowned as victors 
 in the public contests of the country. The 
 next division was composed of priests, leading 
 
 burst of music was sounded from the instru- 
 ments, and then, in the sublime presence of 
 the Protectress of the city, the votive gifts 
 were laid and the sacrifices offered by the 
 priests. 
 
 If the Greek mind, participating in these 
 great festivals, could have been fathomed, 
 there would have been revealed a double class 
 of sentiments ; the one looking joyfully upon 
 life, and the other scanning death with appre- 
 
 THE ELIITTSTOTATT FEAST.— Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 the animals presently to be offered in sacrifice. 
 Next followed the old men of Athens, each 
 carrying some costly gift to be offered to the 
 goddess. Then came the woman's column of 
 the procession — matrons and maidens chosen 
 for their beauty and reputation. In the 
 midst they drew in a car the pejdos, or em- 
 broidered robe, with which the statue of Pal- 
 las was to be clad at the end of the march. 
 
 Through the beautiful streets of the city 
 the procession made its way, pausing at the 
 various shrines and altars, and then ascended 
 the hill to the citadel. Before the temple a 
 
 hension and dread.' There were exhibited in 
 the different parts of the ceremonies the traces 
 of these conflicting feelings, the one class 
 tending to produce merriment and even rap- 
 
 ^ No one can thoughtfully study the life of the 
 Athenians without being constantly reminded of 
 the Parisians of the last and present centuries. 
 Athens was the Paris of antiquity, and Paris is 
 the Athens of the modern M'orld. There are to 
 be seen in both peoples the same quaUties of na- 
 ture — that same excitability of temper, in which 
 are strangely mingled the opposites of heroism 
 and weakness, of excessive joyousness and deep 
 gloom, of hope and despair.
 
 GREECE. —RELIGION. 
 
 ^7 
 
 ture under the beautiful aspects of the world, 
 and the other class tending to gloom and de- 
 spondency under the shadow of the coming 
 doom ! To the Greek, Life meant every 
 thing of happiness which the most exuberant 
 fancy could depict, and Death meant what 
 Homer and the heroes believed it to be, a 
 dreary and joyless existence beyond the inky 
 Styx. 
 
 In those matters which the ancients desig- 
 nated by the general name of piety the Greeks 
 were worthy to be commended. Suffering 
 excited their sympathy. Sorrow called for 
 kindred tears. To the dead were due the 
 sacred rites of sepulture. Even the passing 
 stranger should, for humanity's sake, sprinkle 
 a few handfuls of earth on the unburied corse 
 exposed by the way. The atrocious spite of 
 the Orientals in pursuing the lifeless body of 
 the foe with insult and mutilation was ab- 
 horred by the sensitive Greeks, who saw in the 
 lifeless frame only the sad relic of mortality. 
 Only in the highest heat of battle was any 
 indignity offered to the dead by the humane 
 soldier of Hellas. 
 
 When a Greek fell into his last slumber, 
 the friends immediately composed the body 
 and laid upon the mouth the ferriage-fee for 
 Charon. The corse was clad in white and 
 laid upon a bier. Flowers were brought by 
 the mourning friends, who put on badges of 
 sorrow. On the morrow the corse was burned 
 and the ashes committed to an urn. In 
 the later times the horror known as earth 
 burial became common, and finally prevailed 
 over the former beautiful and cleanly method 
 of purification by fire. 
 
 After burial in the earth became the usual 
 method of bestowing the dead, cemeteries were 
 arranged outside the city walls. Sometimes 
 there were single tombs here and there, where 
 some distinguished person had been buried 
 within his own premises. In other parts there 
 were public burying-grounds, in which there 
 was a vast aggregate of graves. Over each 
 was raised a mound of earth, and on this 
 were planted ivy and roses. The coffin of the 
 Greeks was an elongated ellipse, generally of 
 terra-cotta, resembling somewhat the "dish- 
 cover" burial cases of the Chaldseans.^ Over 
 the grave was erected a memorial stone or 
 monument, and on this was an inscription 
 giving the name of the dead, an eflSgy per- 
 haps of his person, a word of praise for his 
 virtues, and an epigram composed for his mem- 
 ory. The epitaphs of the Greeks were of the 
 highest order of merit and originality; nor 
 was there about the grave any of those sym- 
 bols of lugubrious woe which since the Mid- 
 dle Age have added so much to the horrors 
 of the city of the dead. 
 
 In the coffin of the Greek, Superstition 
 performed her usual little drama. The per- 
 sonal ornaments worn by the deceased were 
 laid with his body — a pardonable weakness 
 and mark of respect. But there were also 
 vessels for fruit and oil — the drinking-cup, the 
 cake of bread, the beverage for the departed. 
 The articles thus put away with the dead for 
 his use have risen for the edification of man- 
 kind ; out he to whom they were given in 
 death — 
 
 "Sleeps the sleep that knows not breaking.'* 
 
 1 See Book Second, p. 127.
 
 498 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.—THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Chapter xivi.— niyth and Tradition. 
 
 TRUE interpretation of 
 the myths of the Greeks 
 has been one of the most 
 difficult problems im- 
 jjosed on modern scholar- 
 ship. Longfellow tells a 
 story how the infant 
 Christ, having forgotten the name of the letter 
 aleph, and being informed by his teacher that 
 it was aleph, suddenly startled his instructor 
 with the question. ' ' But, please good Rabbi, 
 what does aleph meanf The question of the 
 myth to us is, not so much WJmt is itf but, 
 What does it meanf 
 
 Many theories have been advanced to ex- 
 plain the origin and true nature of the myths 
 of antiquity. They are the peculiar property 
 of the Aryan race. Among the Semitic na- 
 tions mythology did not, could not, flourish — 
 this for reasons to be hereafter explained. 
 But the Aryans were a people whose brains 
 teemed with myths. 
 
 In the next place it should be observed that 
 all branches of the Aryan family had the 
 same myths, almost infinitely varied and in- 
 flected, it is true, but yet at bottom the same. 
 Just as the different languages of the Indo- 
 European race are fundamentally identical, 
 so the mythology of that race in all its mul- 
 titudinous outbranchings flows from a common 
 fountain and has the same identical substance. 
 The myths of India, Greece, Italy, Germany, 
 and Scandinavia difier not in material, but 
 only in development. The same story runs 
 from the valley of the Indus to Iceland, from 
 the frozen North to the waters of the southern 
 seas. 
 
 But of all the mythologies no other was so 
 highly developed as that of Greece. The 
 same exuberance which characterized the 
 other elements of Greek life seems to have 
 given a double impulse to the myths of 
 Hellas. Both in number and completeness 
 they far surpass the fictions of any of the 
 eister peoples of the ancient world. 
 
 In the first place it may be well to sketch 
 again what may be called the personnel of 
 Grecian mythology. In the beginning was 
 Chaos. Chaos wedded Night. From them 
 sprang the Heaven and the Earth. The 
 Heaven w^as Uranus; the Earth, G.EA. 
 Uranus succeeded Chaos in the government 
 of the universe. Then was born Cronos. 
 Cronus had Uranus, the Heaven, for his 
 father, and Gsea, the Earth, for his mother. 
 Time was born of the Heaven and the Earth. 
 Gsea had other children, born perhaps of 
 Chaos. These were the Cyclopes and Bronte 
 and Sterope. Bronte and Sterope were Thun- 
 der and Lightning. These chaotic offspring 
 were hurled by Uranus into Tartarus ; but 
 Gsea was in pain for the banishment of her 
 children. She persuaded Cronos and the 
 other children of Uranus to mutiny against 
 him. He was seized by them, mutilated, de- 
 throned ; and Cronos, the eldest of the sons, 
 took the throne of the father. Time usurped 
 the dominion of Heaven. 
 
 Cronos wedded Rhea, another daughter of 
 Uranus and Gsea. Rhea was the Earth.^ Of 
 Time and Earth were born the days. But 
 Time swallow^ed his oflTspring as soon as they 
 were born, and Rhea was in anguish for her 
 children. About to be delivered of Zeus, she 
 gave her lord a stone, and he swallowed that 
 instead of the child. Zeus inherited the 
 heavens, and became first among gods and 
 men. He was the Blue Sky. He was the 
 Light. Though the Days perished he was 
 immortal. — Such is the first span from Chaos 
 to Zeus — from Confusion to Light and Order. 
 
 Zeus enthroned delivered the Cyclopes 
 from their dungeon. In return they gave 
 him back Bronte, the Thunderbolt. With 
 this he warred against the Titans. In the war 
 he was aided by Forethought. Forethought 
 was Prometheus ; but Prometheus filched fire 
 from heaven and kindled it for men below. 
 
 ^ Ehea = the Greek era, by transposition of the 
 r = Latin terra, earth.
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 For this was Forethought seized and bound to 
 the rugged cliffs of Caucasus to suffer unend- 
 ing tortures. Afterwards Zeus and his two 
 brothers, Hades and Poseidon, drew lots for 
 the different parts of the universe. The 
 sovereignty of heaven fell to Zeus; the sea, 
 to Poseidon ; and the Avorld below to Hades. 
 
 Zeus was thus established at the head of 
 the Greek pantheon. He took for his spouse 
 his sister Hera,^ daughter of Cronos and 
 Rhea. A numerous divine jDrogeny sprang 
 up to the Father of gods and men. His 
 ■eleven children, constituting with himself the 
 Olympian hierarchy, or " twelve gods," were 
 Leto and her two children, Apollo and Ar- 
 temis, Ares, Hermes, Athena, Heph^stus, 
 Hestia, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hera, 
 who is sometimes reckoned as the daughter 
 rather than the sister of Zeus. These gods held 
 their court on Olympus, as the two subor- 
 dinate courts of Poseidon and Hades were 
 held respectively in the sea and the under- 
 world of darkness. — It will be appropriate to 
 notice briefly the power and province ascribed 
 by the Greek imagination to each of these 
 gods and goddesses. 
 
 Zeus was the chief deity of the Hellenic 
 race. He was subject to nothing but Fate. 
 The Greeks believed in an absolute Necessity 
 which held the universe in its clutches. To 
 this all men and gods must bow in submission. 
 Zeus was constrained by the Absolute. Other- 
 wise he was supreme. He did his will. He 
 established his seat on Olympus, and from 
 that cloudy summit ruled the world. In final 
 causation every thing, whether good or bad, 
 flowed from him. The destiny of aU mortals, 
 and in some sense of all immortals, was di- 
 rected by his nod. He took for his wife 
 Metis, by whom he became the father of 
 Athena; then Themis, who was the mother 
 of the HoR^ and the Parc^ — the Hours and 
 
 ^ It will be well in this connection to give once 
 for all the Latin and Greek equivalents for the 
 names of the principal deities— thus : Ouranos= 
 Uranus ; Cronos=Saturn ; Zeus=Jupiter, or Jove ; 
 Hades=Pluto ; Poseidon=Neptune ; Hera=Juno ; 
 Apollon=Apollo ; Artemis=Diana ; Leto=Latona ; 
 Ares=Mars ; Hermes=Mercury ; Athena=Mi. 
 nerva; Heph8estus= Vulcan ; Hestia= Vesta ; De- 
 meter=Ceres ; Aphrodite= Venus. 
 N.— Vol. I— 31 
 
 the Fates ; then Eurynome, of whom were born 
 the Graces; then Hestia and Mnemosyne, 
 whose children were Persephone and the 
 Muses ; then Leto, who bore him Apollo and 
 Artemis; and then Juno, who became the 
 mother of Ares, Hebe, and Hephjestus. So 
 the king of the gods took to himself the 
 epithet "Olympian." He sat on his throne 
 and hurled the thunderbolt. To him was 
 erected the shrine among the oaks of Dodona, 
 and afterwards the splendid temple at Olym- 
 pia, the latter containing the celebrated 
 
 COLOSSAL HEAD OF ZEUS. 
 
 The Otricoli mask, of the Vatican. 
 
 chryselephantine statue of the god done by 
 Phidias. 
 
 Hera was regarded by the Greeks as the 
 queen of heaven. She bore, in some sense, 
 the same relation to women as Zeus did to 
 men. She was the patroness of marriage, 
 and under the epithet of Elethyia presided 
 over the birth of mortals. In the Homeric 
 legends she is represented as the least amiable 
 of the divinities — jealous and petulant to the 
 extent of keeping the other Olympians, and 
 especially Zeus, in perpetual trouble. She 
 even organized a conspiracy with Poseidon 
 against her husband to dethrone and imprison
 
 500 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 him ; but he, discovering the plot, seized her 
 and hung her in the clouds. She was haughty 
 and imperious. In the Trojan war she 
 
 COLOSSAL HEAD OP HERA.— Villa Ludovici. 
 
 espoused the cause of the Greeks, and was 
 regarded as the chief source of the woes of 
 Hium. Her principal seats of worship were 
 at Argos, Samos, and Sparta. At the first- 
 named place was built her finest temple, and 
 in this was her colossal statue done in ivory 
 and gold. 
 
 When the lots were cast for the sovereignty 
 of the universe the sea fell to Poseidon, son 
 of Cronos and Rhea. He was not especially 
 represented as inhabiting the waters, but 
 rather as having dominion over the move- 
 ments of the great deep. His vicegerent, 
 Nereus, lived in the sea, just as Helios dwelt 
 in the sun, while the destiny of the orb was 
 controlled by Phcebus Apollo. The meaning 
 of the name of Poseidon is not certainly 
 known, and from that source nothing can be 
 gathered of his nature. He is represented in 
 the Iliad and Odyssey as equal in dignity to 
 Zeus, but inferior to him in power. To Po- 
 seidon was attributed a part of the work of 
 creation. He was said to be the maker of 
 
 the horse. He was called the "Keeper of 
 the Earth," and the " World-Shaker "—title? 
 indicative of almost Jovine majesty. In one 
 legend he disputes the sovereignty of Greek 
 cities w'ith Athena, Hera, and Helios. As a. 
 rule he was loyal to Zeus, cheerfully conced- 
 ing to him the supreme dominion ; but in one 
 instance, at the instigation of Hera and 
 Athena, he conspired to dethrone the king of 
 the gods, but the plot was revealed by Thetis ; 
 and the hundred-handed Briareus was placed 
 beside the throne to guard it against rebel- 
 lions. 
 
 Poseidon had his palace in the deep waters 
 near -^gse, on the shores of Euboea. Here 
 he kept his golden-maned horses, which bore 
 him swiftly in a sea-chariot over the surface 
 of the deep. He controlled the ocean in 
 time of storms, lest it should sweep the land 
 from its foundations and overwhelm the world. 
 Unlike Zeus, Poseidon was subject to other 
 wills besides his own. He was sometimes com- 
 pelled by the authority of his brother to do 
 great works for men. He it was who, to- 
 gether with Heracles, was obliged by the 
 council of the immortals to rebuild the walls 
 of Troy for Laomedon, who refused to pay 
 him for his services. The god, incensed at 
 
 POSEIDON.— Museo Chiaromonti. 
 
 this treatment, espoused the cause of Agamem- 
 non and Menelaiis, and helped to wreak venge- 
 ance on the Trojans. But the most famous 
 legend of Poseidon is that in which he con- 
 tends with Athena for the naming of Athens. 
 Zeus decreed that the name should be given
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 501 
 
 to that deity who conferred the greatest boon 
 on the human family. Poseidon created and 
 gave the horse. Athena offered as her gift 
 the olive-tree. The award was made to 
 Athena, for the olive, symbol of peace, was 
 'better than the horse that men ride to battle. 
 Poseidon had for his wife the goddess Amphi- 
 TRITE — that jealous Nereid who threw the 
 herbs into the well of Scylla and thus trans- 
 formed her rival into a monster. 
 
 To Hades, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, 
 fell the dominion of the unseen abodes under 
 the earth, the dreary and desolate kingdom 
 of darkness. The world Avas flat. Its surface 
 belonged to the cheerful gods of light. All 
 the gloomy realm below was the realm of the 
 somber Hades. He was in some sort the an- 
 tagonist of light and life. He seized Per- 
 sephone, the fair daughter of Demeter, and 
 drew her down from the upper world to be 
 his wife in the abodes of gloom. Then the 
 bereft mother Earth went about all winter 
 long searching for her daughter Life^ The 
 gloomy Hades agreed to give her up for half 
 the year, but the other half she should dwell 
 with him, and the Earth should be desolate 
 in her absence. 
 
 Hades had charge of the mineral treasures 
 of the earth. They lay hidden in dark caves, 
 and were his especial property. And more 
 especially since death is a mystery, since it is 
 the coming of darkness, since man goes away 
 into the shadows and is seen no more — to 
 Hades was assigned the dominion of the dead. 
 They went to him. His kingdom was the 
 place of the unseen spirits. There, in his 
 sunless abode, must the banished sons of mor- 
 tality find their place. Hence was Hades 
 called Polydegmon, the Receiver of Many — for 
 he received many into his cheerless kingdom. 
 Sometimes Hades was called the Zeus of the 
 Nether World. His authority was absolute in 
 
 'Persephone is close to Eve. Eve means Life, 
 and should have been so rendered, and would 
 have been but for the blundering of th"e English 
 translators. The Seventy very properly rendered 
 the Hebrew word by Zoe — "Life;" but King 
 James's scholars fe'd back unon a corrupt imitation 
 of the spelling of the Hebrew word, and the sense 
 was lost. The woman was called Life; for she 
 was the mother of all living. 
 
 his place of darkness. There he had his pal- 
 ace; and by the portals sat the grim dogs 
 Orthros and Cerberus, the latter with his 
 three terrible heads, guarding the approach 
 to the abode of his master. 
 
 Athene was the daughter of Zeus. She 
 sprang from his forehead cleft by the axe of 
 Hephaestus. That is, the Dawn sprang from 
 the forehead of Light split by the Sun ! 
 Athene is sometimes called Tritogenia, mean- 
 ing Daughter of the Sky. She was the god- 
 dess of the Greek people just waking from 
 the night of unconscious barbarism to the 
 light of civilization. Her birds were the owl 
 and the cock ; the one sounding out the night, 
 and the other trumpeting the clarion of day* 
 break. To wake from slumber is to know. 
 To know is to be wise. Hence, Athene was 
 the goddess of wisdom. She knew the mind 
 of Zeus. She is the Virgin Divinity of the 
 Greek race. She is serene and high. Only 
 once does she act unworthily. She it was 
 who dressed Pandora when she was sent to 
 Epimetheus bearing the fatal casket which 
 contained the woes of the world. But she 
 gave the olive-tree to Athens and received the 
 name of the city. 
 
 Deiueter was the Earth and the mother of 
 Life — that beautiful PerseiAone whom the 
 unfeeling Zeus gave to Hades. When the 
 unsuspecting maiden was gathering flowers at 
 Enna, the ground suddenly opened, and 
 Hades, riding in a chariot drawn by coal- 
 black horses, seized her and bore her down 
 below. Demeter put on a mourning-robe, 
 and wandered with a torch in her hand, 
 searching for her daughter. She met Hecate, 
 who told her that she had heard the cry of 
 Persephone when Hades seized her. The 
 mother then went to Helios, the Sun, and he 
 told her the story of her daughter's doom. 
 Then she wandered to Olympus, refusing to 
 be comforted. Nor did the Earth any more 
 yield her increase of fruits or flowers until 
 Hermes was sent below to bring back Life 
 from the darkness. 
 
 Hestia was the eldest daughter of Cronos 
 and Rhea. She was the goddess of that sacred 
 fire that burned on the hearthstone of home. 
 The primitive theory of society was that all
 
 502 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 men are enemies until reconciled. The hearth 
 was the place of reconciliation; the fire was 
 its symbol; Hestia, the divinity by whose 
 agency it was accomplished. Of her but few 
 myths are recorded. One recites that she was 
 solicited to become the wife of Poseidon, but 
 refused. The influence of this goddess, how- 
 ever, was as deeply felt as that of any other 
 of the Olympians. Her worshij) required the 
 performance of actual religious duties. Her 
 altar became the conservator of home. He 
 who acted treacherously, who broke the peace, 
 who violated the laws of humanity, could 
 never be a true votary of Hestia. She re- 
 quired truth in the inner parts, purity of 
 heart, uprightness of action, sincerity of pur- 
 pose and of life. 
 
 The peace of the domestic hearthstone was 
 not enough. Each town had its Pnjtaneiwn, 
 where a sacred fire was kept burning on a 
 public hearth; and if at any time it was 
 extinguished, it must be rekindled either by 
 rubbing together pieces of wood or with a 
 burning-glass ; for a common fire was profane. 
 Around this holy flame kindled from above 
 the prytanes, or elders of the city, assembled 
 and debated in homelike spirit the peace and 
 welfare of the state. Likewise — so recounted 
 the myth — there was in the center of the 
 earth a hearthstone on which the fire was kept 
 forever burning — the hearth or Prytaneium of 
 the whole world. 
 
 Ares, son of Zeus and Hera, was the god 
 of the tumult of Avar. He was not, as is 
 popularly believed, the deity who gave direc- 
 tion and decided the issues of war, but rather 
 the god of din, of uproar, of slaughter. He 
 had little steadiness of character or purpose. 
 He changed from side to side. He was any 
 thing for a continuance of the noise and con- 
 fusion of battle. He was an enemy of men, 
 sending among them violence, plagues, fam- 
 ines. He was of gigantic stature, and when 
 fallen his body measured rods on the earth. 
 He might be wounded, and in that event his 
 roaring was like the groans of ten thousand. 
 He was called the "Grinder," for he ground 
 into dust the hopes and pleasures of mankind. 
 He gained Aphrodite for his wife, but when 
 she was seen to prefer Adonis, Ares converted 
 
 himself into a wild boar and wounded his 
 rival to death. Having slain Halirrhothius, 
 son of Poseidon, Ares was tried before the 
 Olympian council, and being acquitted, was 
 honored with the name of the great court of 
 Athens, the Areopa.gus, which held its sittings 
 on the Hill of Mars. 
 
 Aphrodite sprang from the foam of the sea. 
 One legend of her origin made her the daugh- 
 ter of Uranus and Hemera, the Heaven and 
 the Day. In another — and this is the story 
 of the Iliad — she is called the daughter of 
 Zeus and Dione. She was the goddess of 
 beauty, of love, of passion. She was ever 
 attended by the Horse and the Charites. In 
 honor of her origin she was given the names 
 of Enalia and Pantia. Sometimes, as tho 
 goddess of pure afl!ection, she was called 
 Urania. The principal legend of this divin- 
 ity is that which recites the award to her of 
 the prize of beauty. At the marriage of 
 Peleus and Thetis, Eris, the god of Strife, 
 threw down a golden apple with the inscrip- 
 tion. To tlie most Beautiful. It was claimed by 
 Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite. Zeus left the 
 award to be made by Paris, the son of Priam, 
 and by him the prize was given to Aphrodite. 
 She gave him in return the most beautiful 
 woman in Greece, Helen of Sparta, wife of 
 Menelaiis. And hence the Trojan war. 
 
 Aphrodite had for her husband Hephsestus, 
 but she preferred Adonis, who loved her not 
 in return. Once she was beloved by Posei- 
 don; once, by Ares. Her human lover was 
 Anchises of Troy, by whom she became the 
 mother of -^neas, the ancestor of the Ro- 
 mans. The myths of Aphrodite are many 
 and sometimes contradictory. Her charactei 
 is that of vicissitude. She changes. Some- 
 times she is pure and tender; sometimes 
 vehement and passionate. In the Spartan 
 temple she was represented as a victorious 
 goddess, conquering rather than winning, 
 subduing rather than sustaining the spirits of 
 her votaries. 
 
 Hephsestus was the presiding genius of the 
 Olympian smithy. He was puny at birth, 
 but powerful — as well as lame and ugly — 
 when grown up. His delight was the forge. 
 Here he fashioned the weapons of the gods
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 503 
 
 and the heroes. His career was hard and 
 inglorious. His mother, Hera, was so dis- 
 pleased with his ugliness that she would ban- 
 ish him from Olympus. Afterwards he es- 
 poused her cause in a quarrel with Zeus, and 
 by him was hurled down into the island of 
 Lemnos. He subseqently regained a measure 
 of favor, but never rose to a dignity higher 
 than that of cupbearer to the gods. One of 
 his myths is that when the armor of Achilles 
 had been taken by Hector from the body of 
 Patroclus, Hephaestus, at the prayer of The- 
 tis, made for her son a new suit burnished 
 till it flashed like the sun. His good fortune 
 in winning Aphrodite for his wife was blasted 
 by the wandering of her affections to Adonis. 
 
 Apollo had nearly always the epithet of 
 Phoebus. He was the overpowering Bright- 
 ness of the Sun. He did not, however, have 
 his residence in the great orb of day, that 
 being reserved for Helios. Phoebus was the 
 son of Zeus and Leto. His mother wandered 
 through many lands until she came at last to 
 Delos, and promised that in return for shelter 
 the island should become famous as the birth- 
 place of her son. Here Phoebus was born ; 
 and the pledge of the mother was fulfilled ; 
 for from henceforth Delos became one of the 
 eacred places of the Hellenes.^ The island, 
 once rocky and sterile, was covered with 
 flowers and verdure. The nymphs came and 
 wrapped the infant Apollo in a white robe. 
 Themis fed him with nectar and ambrosia. 
 He took a harp in his hand and declared 
 himself the revealer of the will of Zeus to 
 mankind. 
 
 As a god, Phoebus was the bringer of the 
 light. Light was the harbinger of knowl- 
 edge. He became the patron of learning 
 and art and song. It was the ushering in 
 of the Beautiful, not only for Greece, but for 
 all the world. Barbarism drew a cowl over 
 his leaden eyes and slunk into a cavern. 
 The morning of civilization arose with the 
 Tesplendent sun, drawn in the car of Phoebus. 
 
 * " The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece, 
 Where burning Sappho loved and sung, 
 Where grew the arts of war and peace, 
 Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung." 
 
 — Bvron. 
 
 Darkness shivered and died in the sweet dawn 
 of poesy. The flash of beauty and the vic- 
 tory of thought began in the luminous myth 
 of Apollo. 
 
 He had limbs, for strength and whiteness, 
 
 Like the war-maid Amazon's, 
 And his eye shot forth the brightness 
 
 Of the Oriental sun's. 
 By his mighty side and shoulder 
 
 Hung the quiver and its darts ; 
 And the world has grown no older 
 
 Since Apollo gave the arts! 
 
 The great oracle of Phoebus was at Del- 
 phi — the most famous of all the shrines of 
 the Hellenes. Here it was that Apollo slew 
 the Typhon, the terrible dragon of darkness 
 that had so long kept the world in terror. 
 Here it was that the inspiration of the gods, 
 breathing from the crevice of the rocks, gave 
 the Pythia her prophetic powers and made 
 men acquainted with the future. Of all the 
 worship known to the Greeks that of Apollo 
 was most widely spread and influential. His 
 voice, speaking through the oracle, not infre- 
 quently changed the current of Hellenic his- 
 tory. Under the shadow of his temple the 
 Amphyctionic council of the Greek states, 
 the greatest and wisest body of the nation, 
 held its meetings, as if to gain for their de- 
 liberations the highest sanctions of wisdom 
 and religion. 
 
 Like unto Apollo was his sister, Artemis. ' 
 She possessed in general the same powers and 
 attributes with her brother. With her name, 
 however, are associated fewer myths than with 
 most of the other divinities. She took part 
 in the affairs of men more as a friend than an 
 enemy. She gave to Procris her hound and 
 spear. She healed JEneas when he fell 
 wounded before Troy. But she insisted that 
 Iphigenia should be sacrificed, and was im- 
 placable. 
 
 Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia, began his 
 career by extemporizing a cithara from a tor- 
 toise shell. From this he proceeded to the 
 theft of the cattle of Phoebus. Then he kin- 
 dled fire by the friction of wood, and thus 
 gave to the world the warmth of the cheerful 
 flame : all this during the first day of his life. 
 Then followed the contest between himself 
 and Phoebus respecting the stolen herd, the
 
 504 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 trial of the cause in the court of Zeus, the 
 placation of Apollo's temper by the device of 
 music, the interchange of the lyre of Hermes 
 for the wisdom of Phoebus, and to the treaty 
 between the two deities — one of the most 
 elaborate, interesting, and witty myths of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Such was the Olympian hierarchy. Be- 
 sides the ''twelve gods," however, there were 
 many others believed in by the Hellenes. 
 Such was Dionysus, the wine-god, to whom 
 frequent reference has already been made. 
 As to his parentage the myths are various, 
 the most rational being that he was the son 
 of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus, 
 king of Thebes. She, tempted to her ruin, 
 was visited by Zeus, and was destroyed by his 
 lightnings ; but Dionysus was born in the 
 midst of the thunderbolts. He was brought 
 up in Naxos, and passed through many and 
 grievous toils before coming to his fame. His 
 principal legend is that which recounts the 
 history of the introduction of the vine. 
 Dionysus stood on a cliff by the sea. Some 
 Tyrrhenians passing in a ship saw him and 
 took him. They bound him with withes, but 
 these were broken off. As they sailed away a 
 stream of wine flowed over the deck of the 
 vessel, and a vine clambered up the masts. 
 In the midst of the leaves hung bunches of 
 luscious grapes. 
 
 One of the most famous of the myths was 
 that of Heracles. He was the son of Zeus 
 and Alcmene. By his father the greatness of 
 his physical strength was predicted. In his 
 cradle, as he lay sleeping, two serpents coiled 
 themselves around him; but on waking he 
 clutched them by the throats and choked 
 them to death. As he grew he became the 
 abused servant of Eurystheus, grandson of 
 Perseus, who by the craft of Juno was sub- 
 stituted for Heracles in the kingdom. The 
 latter was condemned for twelve years to toil 
 for the benefit of man. His whole life was 
 spent in performance of heavy tasks, too 
 grievous to be undertaken by any other than 
 this divine toiler. Twelve stupendous "la- 
 bors" were imposed upon him, but neither did 
 his patience fail nor his strength prove inade- 
 quate to his tasks. He strangled the great 
 
 lion that infested the Nemsean valley. He 
 slew the huge, nine-headed Lernsean hydra. 
 He captured the Arcadian stag that had 
 golden horns and brazen feet, of surpassing 
 swiftness and strength. He took the Eryman- 
 thian boar, having chased him through the 
 deep snow until exhausted he was caught in a 
 snare. He cleansed the Augean stables, 
 where three thousand oxen had been stabled 
 for thirty years. To wash out the horrid ag- 
 gregation the rivers Alpheus and Peneus were 
 turned into the stalls, and the woi'k was done 
 in a single day. He destroyed the birds of 
 Stamphalia, terrible creatures with claws and 
 wings and beaks of brass, feeding upon the 
 flesh of men. He captured the mad bull of 
 Crete that Minos had neglected to sacrifice 
 when sent by Poseidon. He carried away the 
 wild mares of Diomedes that fed upon human 
 beings, and brought them tamed to Mycenae. 
 He took away the girdle of Hippolyte, queen 
 of the Amazons, which she had received as a 
 gift from Ares. He seized the red oxen of 
 Geryones, guarded as they were by the giant 
 Eurytion and the two-headed dog Orthrus. 
 He obtained the golden apples of the Hes- 
 perides, given by Rhea to Juno and protected 
 by the dragon Ladon. Finally, he seized and 
 carried to the upper world the three-headed 
 dog Cerberus that stood guard at the portals 
 of Hades. In his further career he went 
 about doing good to men, in beating back the 
 adverse forces of nature and subduing the 
 monsters that infested the primeval world. 
 
 In tracing the course of Grecian mythology, 
 it is quite impossible to tell precisely where 
 the godlike ends and the heroic begins. 
 There is a point at which the deeds of the 
 actor become the exploits of a man — exagger- 
 ated doubtless beyond the range of human 
 performance, but still essentially the exploits 
 of a man. At that point the m}i;h proper 
 descends into a legend ; the element of the 
 supernatural gradually disappears ; and tradi- 
 tion begins to lay the foundation of history. 
 But before entering the domain of what may 
 be called the traditions and legends of Greece 
 as distinguished from her mythology proper — 
 or so much of it as appertains to the lives 
 and deeds of the gods — it will be appropriate
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 605 
 
 to add a few paragraphs on the signification 
 of the Hellenic myths. What did they mean f 
 How did they originate ? How did the gods 
 of the Greeks become what they were in the 
 imagination of the people? These questions 
 are not to be answered with over-assurance of 
 certainty, but with a modest caution and 
 reserve. 
 
 In the first place, then, the mythology of 
 the Hellenic race should be regarded a System 
 of Natural Philosophy. It was an effort of the 
 human mind to interpret Nature. Knowledge 
 consists in a perception of cause. To be able 
 to refer one fact to another as its antecedent 
 and that to another, is the first step in natu- 
 ral science, and indeed in any science. Na- 
 ture has always presented herself to the mind 
 as a mystery to be solved. Her ever-varying 
 and beautiful phenomena are precisely of a 
 sort to fascinate the senses and challenge the 
 reason of men. She has thus offered herself 
 to all races, but her petition to be known has 
 been felt as an ardent appeal by only a few 
 peoples of vigorous intellect and active imag- 
 ination. Of this sort were the Aryan races, 
 who have all manifested a keen interest in 
 the great mystery which at once evokes their 
 admiration and awakens their curiosity. The 
 Aryans, under favorable conditions, have 
 always been a people of the liveliest setise- 
 perception. They have seen with keener ap- 
 preciation the beautiful pictures of Nature, 
 and heard with purer delight the rhythm of 
 her melodies than have any other of the 
 families of mankind. 
 
 Among these Aryan races — Indians, Per- 
 sians, Medes, Italicans, Germans, Celts — the 
 Greeks were preeminently the people of high- 
 est intellectual power and liveliest imagina- 
 tion. They were especially curious to hnoxv — 
 eager to hear, to see, to understand. Their 
 senses were susceptible of the most vivid im- 
 pressions. Their interest in the great pano- 
 rama of Nature was unflagging. Imagination 
 and reason were ever on the alert to explain 
 the shifting scenery of the visible world. 
 
 So the Greeks began to put into language, 
 to describe, to interpret the phenomena of 
 earth and sky and sea. Here at the outset 
 they were opposed with a serious obstacle. 
 
 Nature in some parts of the world, as in 
 Egypt and Chaldsea, displays herself in a suc- 
 cession of orderly aspects. She varies but 
 little. Day after day, through cloudless skies, 
 the great sun travels the prescribed path to 
 his western exit into darkness. Night after 
 night the tremendous wheel of the silent 
 universe is revolved in solemn grandeur over- 
 head. There is little variation. Observation 
 is stimulated by the regularity and steadiness 
 of the phenomena, and the lines of causation 
 from consequent to antecedent, unbroken by 
 interferences or accident, are easily traced from 
 step to step. But in Greece the exact op- 
 posite of all this is true. Here, if anywhere 
 in the world, Nature knows no law. The 
 coasts of Hellas are bounded by a line of in- 
 describable irregularity. The sea gnaws at 
 the shore, and the shore thrusts out to sea. 
 The surface of the country is set at all slopes 
 and angles. Hills rise from the valleys, and 
 mountains overtop the hills. Forests, glens, 
 grottoes, vistas, fountains, sequestered spots, 
 thickets of tangled vines, rocky chasms with 
 the murmur of waters in the bottom, patches 
 of the bluest sky seen through gnarled 
 branches of hoary oaks, — every aspect of 
 smile or frown which Nature can well assume, 
 is here the expression of her face. She is 
 whimsical, capricious. A flash of warm sun- 
 shine transfigures the landscape, and then — 
 
 Chill and murk is the mighty blast 
 Where Pindus' mountains rise, 
 
 And angry skies are pouring fast 
 The deluge of the skies. 
 
 In the midst of this almost infinite com- 
 plexity the Greek mind stood confused. 
 Nature here seemed without law. Her pro- 
 cesses were everywhere broken and interrupted. 
 The consequent was detached from the ante- 
 cendent. The diflferent parts of the natural 
 world seemed to be under the dominion of 
 individual forces. Unity was indiscoverable 
 in the multiplex aspect of Nature. She 
 seemed made up of antagonisms and conflicts. 
 In her moods was the mingling of calm and 
 storm, of light and darkness, of joy and sor- 
 row. The interpretation of such a variable 
 and capricious Fact as that with which the 
 Greek found himself environed would of
 
 506 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 necessity be broken into parts, confused in 
 details, contradictory in statement. 
 
 What, then, more particularly were the 
 facts and "phenomena which the imagination 
 and reason of the Greeks, and the ancestors 
 of the Greeks, were called upon to explain? 
 They were the visible phenomena of the ex- 
 ternal world. Here were, first of all, the 
 three great facts of sky and earth and sea. 
 Here, also, were the two principal orbs of 
 heaven, the sun and the moon. Here, in the 
 next place, and especially, were the attributes 
 and effects of those bodies — light, heat, dawn, 
 twilight, day as one fact and night as another. 
 Here were clouds floating overhead. Here 
 were fountains bubbling from the earth. 
 Here were the unseen but powerful winds. 
 Here were the waves of the . deep sea — the 
 murmur of their music, the roar of their 
 wrath. Here was the hot lightning, flashing 
 through the vapor-burdened air of summer, 
 and the deep roll of the thunder, shaking 
 both earth and heaven. 
 
 Of these things what explanation? The 
 mind of primitive Arya stood before the prob- 
 lem. It began descriptively. The first stage 
 of mythology is simple description. The phe- 
 nomena of Nature and her simpler processes 
 were merely described. They were described 
 as they would be by a people of a vigorous 
 sense-perception and lively imagination. But 
 there was at the outset no impersonation — no 
 ascription of active causes to natural pkenomena 
 outside of themselves. The facts and sequences 
 of Nature were at the first merely expressed 
 in such words as seemed to give the truest im- 
 pression of the things described. That is to 
 say, the primitive natural philosopher of the 
 Aryan race spoke of Nature, described her as 
 she appeared to his senses. He said : The 
 sun rises. He rises from the sea. The light 
 comes from the east. The light is from the 
 sun. The dawn precedes the day. Darkness 
 flees befox-e the dawn. Darkness goes under 
 the world when day comes. The sun dries 
 up the dew. The clouds give rain. The 
 clouds are the creatures of the air. The sky 
 is over all. The sky is the highest thing. 
 The sky thunders. The sky lighten.?. Fire 
 is from the sun. Fire warms. Water 
 
 quenches. The sea is troubled. Man is 
 afraid. The powers are stronger than he. 
 Underground is dark. Love is sweet. War 
 crushes. All things go on and on. 
 
 Such was the natural language of man 
 attempting to depict and explain the things 
 which he saw. It was merely the rudiments 
 of a natural philosophy, which in a literary 
 and enlightened age would erelong have be- 
 come Scie7ice; but, being in a pre-literary and 
 unenlightened age, it became Mythology. It 
 only remains, then, to explain the process by 
 which the rudiments of the primitive natural 
 philosophy of the Aryan races were mytholo- 
 gized — converted into myths. The explana- 
 tion of this process is to be sought and found, 
 whole and perfect, in the history and muta- 
 tions of human speech. It is to the Science 
 of Language that we must look for the inter- 
 pretation of the metamorphosis of the prim- 
 itive philosophy of nature into myths. 
 
 It must be understood that the original 
 Aryan tribes of Bactria broke up and rolled 
 away in migratory bands in several directions. 
 The tribes filled India, the Great Plateau of 
 Iran, the shores of Asia Minor, the islands 
 and mainland of Greece, Italy, Germany, 
 Scandinavia, the whole of Europe. These 
 peoples had an original language, which was 
 spoken before the tribal separation. It wot* 
 during ilie migration and settlement of these na- 
 tions in distant -paHs that Nature became an ob- 
 ject of study and description. But, while this 
 process was going on, while the Indians were 
 becoming Indians and the Greeks Greeks, the 
 languages of the nations about to be were 
 undergoing rapid processes of growth and 
 decay : growth — for the new objects which 
 constantly appeared before a migratory and 
 developing people, especially if those people 
 were possessed of lively sensibilities, would 
 constantly demand new names and new 
 descriptions ; decay — for the transfer of place 
 and scene and sentiment would with equal 
 certainty remand large numbers of words and 
 phrases, descriptive of things no longer seen 
 and heard, to the ever-increasing list of obso- 
 lete and obsolescent fragments which time and 
 change were daily tossing into the waste-basket 
 of human speech.
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 507 
 
 Now, it is this waste-basket of human 
 speech that contains the mythology of the an- 
 cients. The words, phrases, and scraps of de- 
 scription which were cast therein were, when 
 so dropped among the debris, merely unfig- 
 urative expressions for the things previously 
 seen and heard. But it must be borne in 
 mind that in a pre-literary age this mass of 
 waste fragments of dying speech would for a 
 long time be carried along with the migrating, 
 and even by the settled, tribes, and that obso- 
 lete and obsolescent words and phrases would 
 continue to be heard on the tongues of people 
 who, having no lexicon in which the original 
 meanings of such words and phrases were 
 crystallized, would use them in a neiv sense 
 unknown to their fathers. It thus came to 
 pass that the alphabet and rudimentary les- 
 sons of the primitive natural philosophy, be- 
 ing couched in an obsolescent phraseology, 
 were gradually transformed into myths. The 
 old word which had been merely a name or 
 descriptive epithet became, when its meaning 
 was lost and when that meaning was expressed 
 by a new word coined in the fertile brain of 
 invention, the name of a person rather than the 
 name of a thing. And this is the sum and 
 substance of the mythologizing process by 
 which the merely descriptive jDhrases of early 
 science were transformed under a natural law 
 of linguistic change into a new sense descrip- 
 tive of imaginary Causes and Personal Agen- 
 cies apart from the facts to be interpreted. 
 It is thus that the Science of Language, not 
 by theory and speculation, but by the actual 
 demonstration of truth, has revealed the true 
 origin and nature of the myths of antiquity. 
 It only remains to elucidate the subject with 
 a few examples and illustrations caught almost 
 at random from the language of mythology. 
 
 The word zeus meant originally the blue 
 sky. It had no other signification. "This 
 meaning was not known to the Greeks them- 
 selves. The true sense of the word has been 
 discovered only in recent times, by an exam- 
 ination of the cognate Sanskrit in which dyaus 
 pitar (==zeus pater in Greek) means simply 
 father of the sky, the dyaus being the word 
 for sky. Neither Socrates nor Plato ever 
 dreamed of such a fact in their language. 
 
 To them the word Zeus had issued from the 
 prehistoric shadows as the name of the su- 
 preme god of their race — nothing more, noth- 
 ing less. But it is now clearly seen that 
 sometime during the Hellenic migration the 
 word zeus became mythologized — lost its old 
 scientific meaning of sky, passed through the 
 stage of sky-god, and then, since the sky is the 
 highest thing, became the name of the Father 
 of gods and men, the supreme deity of the 
 race. This simple method of illustration can 
 be carried forward with entire satisfaction 
 through the whole list of the gods and god- 
 desses of Greece, the fictions thus unraveled 
 being of the highest beauty in the light of 
 the new interpretation. 
 
 Thus, for instance, dew in the original 
 Aryan speech was called procris. One of the 
 names of the sun was cephalus. The child at 
 early morning, beholding the dew-drops on 
 the grass, might well wonder and grieve to 
 see them disappear in the sunlight. The par- 
 ent would explain that cephalus had taken p>rO' 
 oris away— had killed her with kisses. So the 
 phrase would arise that cephalus loved procris 
 and devoured her. It is at first a poem in pri- 
 mary science. But so soon as the original 
 meanings of cephalus and procris have been 
 supplanted by other words and the original 
 words have become obsolescent, then the 
 myth-making imagination, retaining the old 
 phrase-poem, preserves it in the legend that 
 the god Cephalus, loving the maiden Procris, 
 devoured her with kisses. In the same way 
 Phoebus, the sun, pursues Daphne, the dawn, 
 and gives her no rest from his fierce passion ; 
 but she returns in the twilight of evening to 
 watch with faithful tenderness beside the 
 couch of her dying lord. The myth of Cro- 
 nos devouring his oflfspring means no more — 
 whatever it may have meant to the Greek — 
 than that time eats up the days and years as 
 soon as they are born. It is all a mutation 
 of speech, beginning with an attempt ta 
 explain in plain language the phenomena of 
 Nature, and ending by the giving to obsolete 
 words of a new sense significant of a Cause 
 rather than descriptive of a Fact. It 
 was thus that the wonderful, the beautiful 
 fabric of Grecian mythology was built up un-
 
 508 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 consciously out of an attempt of the primitive 
 Hellenes to formulate a system of natural 
 philosophy, and out of the transformation of 
 that system by the mythologizing processes 
 of human speech. 
 
 After the myth of Heracles, there is a 
 gradual descent in the system of the Greeks 
 to the plane of human possibility. Thus, 
 though Perseus is still the son of Zeus, he be- 
 gins to appear as one of the mortals. He 
 was brought up by King Polydectes, by whom 
 he was sent to fetch the head of the gorgon 
 Medusa. To save himself from being con- 
 verted into stone on beholding the monster, 
 Perseus employed the device of a mirror, and 
 thus succeeded in cutting off Medusa's head. 
 Finding Polydectes to have been treacherous, 
 he converted him and his household into 
 stone by displaying the head of the dead 
 gorgon. After this, being unwilling to return 
 to Argos, of which he is the reputed founder, 
 Perseus exchanged governments with King 
 Megapeuthes, and received for his kingdom 
 Tiryns, in return for his own city of Argos. 
 
 Of like character is the tradition of The- 
 seus, the legendary hero of Attica. His 
 parents were mortals, his father being ^geus, 
 king of Athens, and his mother the daughter 
 of Pittheus, king of Troezena. His royal 
 parentage was concealed from him until his 
 maturity, when he returned to Athens and 
 was about to be destroyed by Medea. He 
 afterwards engaged in a series of adventures, 
 or labors, like those of Heracles, undertaken 
 for the good of his countrymen. He even 
 devoted himself to death by a self-offering to 
 the Minotaur of Crete, but Ariadne, daughter 
 of King Minos, furnished him a sword and a 
 ball of thread, by means of which he traced 
 the labyrinth and slew the Minotaur in his 
 den. On his return to bis own country with 
 Ariadne he forgot to hoist the white sail, 
 which was to be the signal of his victory, and 
 King ^geus, believing his sou destroyed, 
 threw himself into the sea. Theseus thus be- 
 came king of Attica. He afterwards subdued 
 the Amazons, went on the Argonautic expe- 
 dition, and fought against the Centaurs, those 
 fabulous horse-man monsters that inhabited 
 the plains of Thessaly. 
 
 Similar, also, is the legend of CEdipus, the 
 great hero of Thebes. On account of a warn- 
 ing from the Delphic oracle he was exposed 
 at birth by his father, Laios, but was rescued 
 and taken to Corinth, where he was adopted 
 as the son of Polybus and Merope. Journey- 
 ing towards Thebes, he met an old man in a 
 chariot, who ordered him out of the way and 
 struck him. CEdipus was enraged and slew 
 him, and the dead man afterwards proved to 
 be his father, Laios. Not knowing what he 
 had done, CEdipus went on to Thebes. There 
 the merciless Sphinx had brought drought and 
 distress upon the city; for none could answer 
 the riddles which the monster, sitting on the 
 brow of the hill above the city, propounded 
 to the people. But CEdipus solved the dark 
 sayings of the Sphinx, and she threw herself 
 down from the height and perished. The 
 deliverer was rewarded by the gift of locaste, 
 the queen, who was bestowed on him in mar- 
 riage. Now, locaste was his mother! So the 
 oracle was fulfilled. A plague came on the 
 city. CEdipus tore out his eyes, and locaste 
 died of despair. 
 
 Nor should the legend be omitted of Cad- 
 mus and EuROPA. They were the children of 
 Agenor and Telephassa. In childhood, Europa 
 was carried away by Zeus, who appeared in 
 the form of a white bull. Then the mother 
 and brothers went to search for her who was 
 abducted. In Thessaly, Telephassa died, but 
 Cadmus, under direction of Phoebus Apollo, 
 went on to Delphi and found his sister. 
 After the discovery, he was directed by the 
 god to follow a cow that should appear before 
 him, and where she should lie down there he 
 should found a city. He did so, and thus 
 laid the foundation of Thebes. 
 
 The founding of Athens by Cecrops intro- 
 duces another interesting legend. According 
 to one myth this great hero was of Pelasgic 
 origin, but the commonly received tradition 
 made him an Egyptian from Sa'is. He is 
 said to have brought a colony into Attica and 
 to have founded the Acropolis. In the tem- 
 ple of Artemis a statue was placed to his 
 honor; for in a dispute between that goddess 
 and Poseidon he had decided for her, and 
 the olive-tree, instead of the trident, was
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 509 
 
 taken as the symbol of Athens. After the 
 foundations of the city were laid, Cecrops di- 
 vided Attica into twelve communities. He 
 gave good laws, established marriage, abol- 
 ished bloody sacrifices, encouraged agriculture 
 and the building of ships, brought in the 
 dawn of civilization. 
 
 Many other legends of like sort might be 
 recited from the treasure-house of Grecian 
 story. One of peculiar interest is that of 
 AsCLEPios. ' He was the reputed son of Apollo 
 and the nymph Coronis. At his birth Phoebus 
 left the mother and went his ways. Then 
 came Ischys from Arcadia and won her love. 
 For this disloyalty Artemis slew Coronis, but 
 Asclepios was saved alive. He was reared by 
 the centaur Cheiron, who 
 taught him the mysteries of 
 the healing art, by which 
 the pupil gained a world-wide 
 fame. He even raised the 
 dead; but by doing so he pro- 
 voked the wrath of Hades, 
 who complained to Zeus that 
 his kingdom would be unpeo- 
 pled. Zeus thereupon smote 
 Asclepios with a thunderbolt. 
 For this, Apollo, being en- 
 raged, slew the Cyclopes, 
 servants of Zeus ; but the lat- 
 ter squared the account by 
 condemning Apollo to serve for a year in 
 the house of Admetus, king of Pherse. 
 
 Deucaliox Avas the son of Prometheus and 
 Clymene. In him is preserved the tradition 
 of the Grecian flood. In the time of King 
 Lycaon and his sons the wickedness of the 
 world became intolerable. Zeus resolved to 
 destroy mankind with a deluge of water. So 
 he sent a flood. As the waters rose Deuca- 
 lion entered the ark which he had prepared 
 in accordance with the warning of his father, 
 Prometheus, and for eight days was borne on 
 the breast of the waters. Then the ark rested 
 on Parnassus. Deucalion came out with his 
 wife Pyrrha, and prayed for the restoration 
 of mankind. Hermes, in answer, told him 
 that he and Pyrrha, in descending the moun- 
 
 ^ Usual y known by his Latin name of ^scu- 
 lapius. 
 
 tain, should cover their faces with mantles 
 and cast behind them the bones of their 
 mother. Deucalion was a rationalist. By 
 "mother" he understood the earth, and by 
 " bones" he understood stones ; for the stones 
 are the bones of the earth. So he and Pyrrha 
 did as Hermes had bidden ; the stones which 
 they flung behind them became human beings, 
 and the world was repeopled. 
 
 Another interesting legend is that of Pro- 
 metheus and Epevietheus, the Forethought 
 and Afterthought of the Grecian myth. The 
 story of Prometheus has already been given. 
 On one occasion he slew an ox in sacrifice, 
 and, placing the flesh and entrails under the 
 skin in one place and the bones under the fat 
 
 RUINS OF TROAS. 
 
 in another, told Zeus to take his choice. The 
 ruler of gods and men chose the fat and got 
 the bones. Finding himself outwitted, and 
 Prometheus being gone, Zeus proceeded to 
 punish Afterthought in his stead. He ordered 
 Hephaestus to make a clay- woman. He com- 
 manded Athene to clothe her in beautiful 
 robes, and Hermes to give her the power of 
 speech to deceive and betray mankind. So 
 Pandora was made and given to Epimetheus 
 for a wife! "When she was received into his 
 house she there opened a great cask, out of 
 which flew all the plagues of the world. 
 Every thing escaped except Hope, and she was 
 left imprisoned ! 
 
 In the domain of exploits the two most 
 famous preserved in the legendary lore of the 
 Greeks were the Argonautic Expedition 
 and the Trojan War. The first of these was
 
 510 
 
 UmVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 undertaken by the Grecian chiefs for the re- 
 covery of the Golden Fleece. This fleece 
 belonged to the ram of Phrixus. He was the 
 son of Athamas and Nephele. When Nephele 
 died Athamas married Ino. Phrixus and 
 Helle, his sister, were very unhappy until the 
 ram with the golden fleece came and carried 
 them away. While he bore them aloft Helle 
 fell off" and was drowned in the narrow strait 
 thenceforth called the Hellespont. Phrixus rode 
 onward to the palace of -S^etes, king of Col- 
 chis. By him was the ram sacrificed to Zeus 
 and the fleece hung up in the palace until 
 
 among the armed men that sprang up from 
 the teeth of the dragon. On doing this, the 
 armed men fell to slaying each other. Then 
 Medea lulled the dragon to sleep. Jason 
 quickly slew him and bore away the Golden 
 Fleece in triumph. 
 
 The story of the Trojan War is perhaps 
 the most famous tradition of antiquity. In 
 the poems of Homer it has acquired an im- 
 mortality of fame. The circumstances lead- 
 ing to the war have already been referred to 
 in the myth of Venus, to whom, by the judg- 
 ment of Paris, was awarded the golden apple 
 
 Paris. Diomedes. Odiseeua. 
 
 HEROES OF THE TROJAN WAR. 
 
 Agamemnon. 
 
 what time the chiefs of the Greeks should 
 come and recover it. 
 
 The Greek leaders were gathered for this 
 mission by Jason. They sailed away in the 
 good ship Argo — Heracles, Meleagros, Am- 
 phiaraos, Admetus, and many others. They 
 passed the rocks called the Symplegades, that 
 opened and closed so quickly that scarcely 
 might a bird dart through with safety. They 
 traversed the land of the Amazons, and came 
 to Colchis. JEetes refused to surrender the 
 fleece until Jason should plow the land with 
 the fire-breathing bulls and sow it with the 
 teeth of the dragon, who guarded the fleece. 
 Medea aided him. She anointed his body so 
 that the breath of the bulls should not destroy 
 him, and instructed him to throw a stone 
 
 thrown by Strife among the deities at their 
 banquet. When it was known that Helen 
 was abducted from the house of her lord, Men- 
 elaiis, king of Sparta, there was a general 
 uprising among the princes of Greece for her 
 recovery. A great expedition was undertaken 
 by water against Troy, the city of Priam, on 
 the upper coast of Asia Minor. The gods 
 and goddesses were nearly all involved in the 
 conflict. Hera and Athene were for the 
 Greeks ; Aphrodite for the Trojans. The city 
 Avas besieged for ten years, and was finally, 
 when naked valor had failed, taken by the 
 device of the Wooden Horse. Famous in 
 all the world is the story of the stratagem. 
 The Greeks made of sawn fir a huge effigy 
 of a horse, and filled the cavernous bod^
 
 GREECE.— MYTH AND TRADITION. 
 
 511 
 
 with a company of soldiers. This monstrous 
 enigma they left standing on the sand, and 
 then saUed away as if they were giving up 
 the siege. They took care, however, to con- 
 vey to the Trojans a lie so carefully contrived 
 
 carried off, Helen herself recovered and borne 
 back to her Spartan home. The condition of 
 Greece in the time of the return of the expe- 
 dition — the social life, manners, and institu- 
 tions of the race — are depicted with great 
 
 THE WOODEN HORSE. 
 
 as to induce them to cut their walls and draw 
 in the dangerous horse. At night the pent- 
 up soldiers came forth ; the Greeks sailed back 
 from Tenedos, and Troy was taken. Priam's 
 palace was sacked and burnt, its treasures 
 
 beauty in the imperishable pages of the 
 Odyssey. — Such, then, are the mythological and 
 legendary antecedents of that brilliant people 
 whose career in peace and war is now to be 
 narrated.
 
 512 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 CHAPTER XIvII.— THE HELLENIC DAWN. 
 
 T what time and In what 
 manner the states of 
 Hellas were first colo- 
 nized can not now — per- 
 haps never will — be 
 known. History opens 
 upon the scene with set- 
 tled tribes, walled cities, and petty kings al- 
 ready established in the country. Still, at 
 the very dawn of Greek history, we are met 
 with a commotion among the tribes, a general 
 jostling of one race by another to the ex- 
 tent of undoing a previous condition and the 
 establishment of a new in its stead. One of 
 the earliest of these movements is that of the 
 Boeotians from Thessaly into their own coun- 
 try, known as the Bceotian Migration. Their 
 original seat was in the district of -^olis in 
 Central Thessaly, from which position they 
 were driven by the incoming of rude tribes 
 from Epirus. Being thus dispossessed, the 
 Boeotians moved to the south and obtained a 
 footing in the country afterwards called Boeo- 
 tia. There was thus begun from the north a 
 movement which jostled tribe after tribe of 
 the primitive Hellenes from their seats until 
 nearly all the states had felt the influence of 
 the agitation. The date of this migration is 
 uncertain. Presumably, the event was subse- 
 quent to the Trojan War; for neither this 
 migration of the Boeotians, nor the later one 
 of the Dorians, is mentioned in the Iliad or 
 Ody^setj. 
 
 It is not improbable that the removal of 
 the Boeotians into Central Greece gave the 
 initial impulse in the larger and more impor- 
 tant movement of the Dorians, known as the 
 Dorian Migration or the Return of the 
 Heraclid^. Here there is a mingling of 
 history and fable. It is easy to see how the 
 people, displaced by tne Boeotians from their 
 little state of Doris in Central Greece, would 
 in turn fall upon some of the tribes further 
 south, and that thus the wave of agitation 
 would roll on into Peloponnesus. But tradi- 
 
 tion has taken up the lay and gives a more 
 elaborate account of the movement. 
 
 The Dorians, according to their belief, 
 had original claims in Peloponnesus. These 
 claims Avere based uj^on the relations of this 
 people with the descendants of Heracles. To 
 him belonged the rightful sovereignty of 
 Southern Greece ; but of this he was deprived 
 by the wiles of Hera, who contrived to have 
 Eurystheus preferred for the kingdom of Ar- 
 gos. Heracles was condemned to service, and 
 his descendants to exile. Under the lead of 
 Hyllus, the son of Heracles, they had at- 
 tempted to regain their lost patrimony ; but 
 Hyllus Avas slain by Echemus of Tegea, and 
 they themselves were bound to renounce all 
 efforts at recovery for the space of a hundred 
 years. Finally, however, the century elapsed, 
 and the grandsons of Hyllus — Temenus, Cres- 
 phontes, and Aristodemus — determined to 
 recover their birthright. In this effort they 
 were joined by the Dorians, who retained a 
 grateful recollection of how Heracles, in for- 
 mer times, had aided their king -^gimius in a 
 war with the Lapithse. So the Heraclidse 
 and the Dorians made common cause in the 
 attempt to gain possession of Peloponnesus. 
 
 Meanwhile, the sons of Heracles were 
 warned by an oracle not to attempt to pass 
 through the isthmus of Corinth, but to cross 
 the gulf at its mouth. They were given free 
 passes through -^tolia, the king himself act- 
 ing as their guide. The Ozolian Locrians, 
 also, lent their aid by giving them a harbor 
 in which to construct the necessary ships, and 
 this place was henceforth known as Naupac- 
 tus or Shiptown. Aristodemus died here, but 
 his two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles, and 
 the remaining brothers led the people across 
 the gulf into Achaia. 
 
 At this time the most powerful chief in 
 Peloponnesus was Tisamenus, son of Arestes. 
 Against him the Heraclidse and the Dorians 
 marched, and he was defeated in battle. 
 Gathering his subjects together, however, he
 
 GREECE.— THE HELLENIC DAWN. 
 
 51» 
 
 retired into the northern districts of Southern 
 Greece, then occupied by the lonians. Them 
 he expelled, and then took possession of their 
 country. The victory of the Heraclidae being 
 complete, they proceeded to divide among 
 themselves and the Dorians the conquered 
 states of Peloponnesus. Oxylus, the ^tolian, 
 received the kingdom of Elis. Temenus and 
 Crasphontes and the two sons of Aristode- 
 mus then drew lots for the three states of 
 Sparta, Argos, and Messenia, The first fell 
 to the children of Aristodemus; Argos, to 
 Temenus ; and Messenia to Cresphontes. Nor 
 was there serious opposition on the part of 
 the people of the country. The Epeans, who 
 were the primitive people of Elis, submitted 
 after the death of their king. Bands of 
 ^tolians were brought into the country from 
 the north of the gulf, and from henceforth 
 the new people were called Eleans. Temenus 
 secured Argos without difficulty ; and his sous 
 soon enlarged the kingdom by conquering 
 Troezenia, Epidauria, Egina, and Sicyonia, 
 thus extending the state of Argolis to the 
 limits defined in a preceding chapter. The 
 state of Sparta was secured to the sons of 
 Aristodemus by the treachery of the Achaean 
 Philonomus, who was rewarded with the sov- 
 ereignty of Amyclse. The towns of Sparta 
 all submitted with the exception of Helos, 
 whose people, the Helots, were for their ob- 
 stinacy reduced to servitude. Of them much 
 will hereafter be said as the servile class in 
 Sparta. Melanthus, king of Messenia, gave 
 up without a struggle, and withdrew with a 
 large part of his subjects into Attica. 
 
 A short time subsequent to these events 
 the state of Corinth was also taken by the 
 Dorians. When the Heraclidae were about 
 to embark from Naupactus, on their mission 
 of conquest, one of the leaders, named Hip- 
 potes, had killed a priest by the name of 
 Carnus, and for this he was banished by the 
 other sons of Heracles and forbidden to share 
 with them in the division of Peloponnesus. 
 For ten years he was an exile; but after his 
 death his son, Aletes, revived his father's 
 claims, marched into Corinth with a body of 
 Dorians, overthrew the dynasty of the Sisy- 
 phids, and took the kingdom. The original 
 
 ^Eolian inhabitants were banished from the 
 country. Thus were the Heraclidae established 
 as the rulers of all Peloponnesus. But no 
 date can yet be assigned for these half-legend- 
 ary movements of the Hellenic tribes. 
 
 The previous political condition of the 
 country thus overrun by the Dorians may be 
 briefly noticed. Peloponnesus was, during the 
 Heroic Age, the seat of those kingdoms from 
 which the most of the Greek chiefs were 
 gathered for the conquest of Troy. That 
 most ancient city Mycenae, in Argolis, was the 
 capital of Agamemnon, known as the "king 
 of men." His brother Menelaiis was, at the 
 same time, king of Sjmrta, and from him was 
 his wife Helen, the beautiful cause of the 
 woes of the Greeks, taken away by the con- 
 trivance of Aphrodite and the willingness of 
 Paris. At the same time Argos was ruled by 
 Diomedes, who bore so heroic a part in the siege 
 of Troy. Other i^rinces held sway in different 
 portions of the country. The central mount- 
 ainous region was inhabited — as it continued 
 to be after the Dorian conquest — by the Ar- 
 cadians, a primitive race thought to have 
 been the descendants of the Pelasgiaus. The 
 two principal towns of this region were Tegea 
 and Mantiuea. The rest of the country was 
 occupied with villages and rustic settlements, 
 which, from their seclusion, bore no active 
 part in the history of Greece. Such was that 
 condition of affairs which was superseded by 
 the establishment of the kingdoms of the 
 Heraclidae in Southern Hellas. 
 
 Meanwhile, other tribal movements had 
 been precipitated by the invasion of the Do- 
 rians. Many of the original inhabitants of 
 Peloponnesus, driven from their homes by the 
 Heraclidae, sought refuge in foreign lands. 
 The coasts of Asia Minor became the principal 
 resort of these fugitives and exiles. The 
 first band was made of those Achaeans of Pel- 
 oponnesus, who, jostled from their native 
 haunts on the Corinthian gulf, went first into 
 Bceotia. Then they were joined by others, 
 principally of the ^olian race, and soon de- 
 parted for new homes on the other side of the 
 JEgean. They settled along the northern 
 coast of Asia Minor, taking possession of the 
 islands of Lesbos and Tenedos ; and here they
 
 514 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 laid the foundations of those cities -which 
 were afterwards joined in the ^olian Con- 
 federation. 
 
 More important by far was the migration 
 of the lonians. These people had been ex- 
 pelled by the Achseans from their native seats 
 on the Corinthian Gulf, and had sought refuge 
 in Attica. Here they were joined by others 
 of the same race, just as the -lEolians had 
 gathered head in Boeotia. Many strangers, 
 exiles, and refugees also assembled with the 
 emigrants who departing from Attica were 
 led by the family of Codrus, the last king of 
 Athens, to their chosen homes among the Cy- 
 clades and on the coast of Asia Minor. Here 
 was founded the Ionian Confederation. 
 The country in which the cities of this league 
 were located lay along the shore from the 
 river Hermus to the Meander, and has already 
 been described in the Book on the History of 
 Persia. The two principal islands belonging 
 to Ionia were Chios and Samos, with which 
 were included many others of smaller import- 
 ance. Twelve cities in this part of Asiatic 
 Greece belonged to the confederation, many 
 of them of great importance both commer- 
 cially and politically. 
 
 In the partition of Peloponnesus it hap- 
 pened that some of the Dorian chiefs could 
 not be provided with a "kingdom" on the 
 main-land of Greece. For this reason, they 
 with their followers and many of the native 
 Achseans, also left the country and established 
 themselves in Asia Minor. The part of the 
 coast selected lay to the south of Ionia, and 
 included the two important islands of Rhodes 
 and Cos. In the former three of the six 
 cities belonging to the colonies known as the 
 Doric Hexapolis were founded — Lindus, 
 lalysus, and Camirus. On the main-land 
 were situated the two important towns of 
 Halicarnassus and Cnidus. 
 
 So runs the tradition of the various migra- 
 tions — Dorian, Ionian, ^olian — which oc- 
 curred at the close of the Heroic Age of 
 Greece. These narratives can not be accepted 
 without many grains of allowance. It is now 
 well known that Ionia was the oldest civilized 
 «tate of the Greeks, and that enlightenment 
 spread westward from the shores of Asia 
 
 Minor, until, diffused among the Cyclades, it 
 finally flashed its radiance into Hellas Proper. 
 From this it will be seen that the only rational 
 view to be taken of the alleged migrations 
 from the West is that which represents the 
 lonians of the main-land, disturbed by the 
 movement of the Dorians from the North, as 
 going back and settling among their own 
 countrymen, already for a long time the dom- 
 inant people on the coast of Asia Minor. 
 Nor is there any thing incongruous in this 
 view of the case; for people, when driven by 
 invasion from their homes, are just as likely 
 to return to their kinsmen as to strike out 
 into unoccupied regions. Criticism, therefore, 
 simply demands that the migration of the 
 JEolians, lonians, and Dorians shall be read 
 the return of the ^olians, etc., which is, in- 
 deed, the very language given by tradition to 
 the movement of the Heraclidse from the 
 North into Peloponnesus. 
 
 The colonies sent out by the Greeks in 
 these early times were not all directed to the 
 Cyclades and Asia Minor. Tradition also de- 
 scribes a migration of Dorians into Crete. 
 This island had been the scene of many pre- 
 historic wonders. Here Minos, the great law- 
 giver and hero, had established his institutions 
 in the old mythological dawn, when Zeus's love 
 for Europa gave a benefactor to men before 
 the days of Deucalion. For that fabulous 
 naA'igator was the son of Minos. He, having 
 from his father a pledge that all of his 
 prayers should be granted, and aspiring to be 
 king of Crete, prayed that a bull might come 
 from the sea as a sacrifice for Poseidon. But 
 when the animal appeared he was so beautiful 
 that another was led to the altar instead of 
 that sent. Poseidon was offended, and as a 
 punishment afflicted the wife of Minos by in- 
 spiring her with an insane passion for the 
 bull. So was born the monster INIinotaur, 
 whom ]\Iinos shut up in the Cnossian Laby- 
 rinth. He then obtained the throne of Crete 
 and became famed as a law-giver. From him 
 Lycurgus was said to have obtained the 
 models of those institutions which he gave the 
 Spartans. So into Crete, at the close of the 
 Heroic Age, a band of Dorians, driven by 
 Sparta from the town of Amyclse, was led
 
 GREECE.— THE HELLENIC DAWK 
 
 515 
 
 and colonized. There they founded the two 
 cities of Gortyna and Lyttus. The new- 
 comers represented themselves as being of the 
 same race with the primitive Cretans, and 
 Claimed the glories of Minos as their own. 
 There was thus effected a solidarity of Dorian 
 interests, not only in Southern Peloponnesus, 
 but also in the islands of Crete, Melos, and 
 Thera. In the political struggles of after- 
 times, the Spartans could always depend 
 upon these island populations for sympathy 
 and aid. 
 
 These migratory movements of the Hellenic 
 tribes, in the shadowy era just subsequent to 
 the Heroic Age, are the events in which the 
 myths and traditions of the preceding times 
 gradually melt away, and the day dawn of ac- 
 tual history is ushei'ed in. From this time 
 forth dates may be fixed with approximate 
 certainty ; yet actual certainty is not attained 
 until the establishment of the Olympic games ; 
 and since this event is the Year One of Gre- 
 cian chronology, it will be proper here to re- 
 count the circumstances of the establishment 
 of the Olympiad, and of the other great 
 periodic gatherings of the Greeks. 
 
 After their belief in a common descent 
 and the possession of a common language, 
 the facts which most closely allied the Hellenes 
 were their great periodic games and festivals. 
 To participate in these was to be Greek ; not 
 to participate Avas to be barbarian. A spirit 
 of union was engendered among all the states, 
 which, though not always triumphant over 
 jealousy and faction, was nevertheless of in- 
 calculable advantage in promoting the com- 
 mon interests of the race in its competitions 
 and struggles with the outside world. Of 
 these national festivals, in which the predom- 
 inating feature was the game or contest, there 
 were four in number: the Olympic, the 
 Pythian, the Isthmian, and the Nemean. 
 They were open to all persons of the Hellenic 
 race, and were attended by enormous throngs 
 gathered from all parts of the Grecian world 
 and from kingdoms beyond the seas. At 
 what time they were instituted is not known ; 
 for they came, like most of the other institu- 
 tions of Greece, out of the shadows of the 
 mythical ages. 
 
 N. — Vol. I — 33 
 
 The Olympian Games, the ftiost famous 
 and popular of all, took their name from the 
 town of Olympia, on the banks of the river 
 Alpheus, in Elis. Here stood an ancient 
 temple of the Olympian Zeus; and here, at 
 some time in the prehistoric period, the games 
 began to be celebrated. As yet they were 
 only a local institution, and continued such 
 until they were revived and amplified by 
 Iphitus, king of the Eleans, and Lycurgus, 
 the law-giver of Sparta. This important 
 event took place in the year B. C. 776. So 
 great was the celebrity which the games under 
 the new patronage at once achieved, that 
 henceforth their mythical history was neg- 
 lected and the celebration above referred to 
 was numbered as the First Olympiad ; and 
 from that were dated all the subsequent events 
 of Grecian history. So strong a hold did this 
 Era obtain in public usage throughout all 
 Greece and the civilized world, that the 
 method of dating by Olympiads was not aban- 
 doned until the close of the fourth century, 
 and then only by an edict of the Roman Em- 
 peror Theodosius. 
 
 The Olympian games were celebrated 
 every fourth year. In the first stages of their 
 development they embraced merely a contest 
 for the palm in foot-racing, the celebration 
 lasting for but a single day. In a short time, 
 however, the competition was extended to 
 other sports. Trials of strength, as well as 
 of fleetness, were introduced. Then came the 
 competition of skill. AVrestling, boxing, 
 jumping, throwing the quoit, hurling the 
 javelin, were the more common of the sports. 
 Afterwards, the exciting horse-race and the 
 chariot-race were added. The driver entered 
 the course with four fiery steeds, harnessed 
 abreast to the car in which himself was 
 mounted, and went whirling away like mad 
 to gain a place in advance of his competitors. 
 At the same time that the scope of the con- 
 test was enlarged, the period was extended 
 from one day to five. During the festival 
 almost every hour witnessed a renewal of the 
 sport. The competition, though of the keen- 
 est edge, was always friendly, and during the 
 whole time of the prevalence of the institution 
 fighting with weapons was forbidden.
 
 516 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The only prize with which a victor in the 
 Olympian games was rewarded was a wreath 
 of wild olive; but this was considered the 
 greatest honor which a Greek could achieve. 
 
 No other distinction conferred in peace or war 
 was reckoned of equal honor. The winner 
 was gratified with every mark of appreciative 
 regard which it was possible for an enthu- 
 siastic ]ieople to bestow. His name was pro- 
 
 claimed before all Greece, and applauded 
 by all his countrymen. His family was 
 ennobled by his victory. His statue was 
 set up in the sacred grove of the Olympian 
 
 Zeus. On his re- 
 turn to his own 
 city he was re- 
 ceived without the 
 walls by a proces- 
 sion, and was es- 
 corted to his home 
 with shouting and 
 the music of flutes. 
 The rhapsodists re- 
 cited his praises. 
 Rewards were 
 voted to him by 
 the citizens. His 
 taxes were re- 
 mitted, and he 
 was given a dis- 
 tinguished seat in 
 all public assem- 
 blies. If a Spar- 
 tan, he might 
 henceforth in batr 
 tie fight next to 
 the person of the 
 king. His victor's 
 wreath was hung 
 up as a precious 
 legacy to his chil- 
 dren's children, 
 who were thereby 
 to be reminded 
 of a glorious an- 
 cestry. 
 
 The attendance 
 at the Olympic fes- 
 tival was enor- 
 mously large, and 
 embraced the best 
 people of all 
 Greece. The gen- 
 eral management 
 was intrusted to a committee of Eleans, 
 who appointed a court of judges, called the 
 Hellanodicce. These decided all the contests 
 and made the awards to the victors. During 
 the continuance of the festival all violence
 
 GREECE.— THE HELLENIC DAWK 
 
 517 
 
 ceased. No act of hostility was permitted in 
 all Greece. The territory of Elis became 
 sacred, and the marching of any armed force 
 upon it was an act of sacrilege. Every thing 
 that could add to the interest of the great 
 celebration was carefully attended to. With 
 the progress of the contests the enthusiasm of the 
 throng rose to the highest pitch, and a feeling 
 of unity and goodfellowship, most essential to 
 the welfare of the Hellenic states, was gener- 
 ously cultivated. Especially was this true 
 after artistic, musical, and poetical contests 
 were added to those of mere bodily skill and 
 endurance. The humanizing tendency of the 
 festival was felt as a creative force in all the 
 highest branches of human achievement, and 
 not a few of the great works of the Greek 
 mind might without sophistry be traced to the 
 influence of the national games. 
 
 After the Cirrhsean war, in B. C. 585, a 
 new festival called the Pythian was instituted 
 by the Amphictyonic Council. It was cele- 
 brated once in three years in the Cirrhsean 
 plain, and was on the same general plan as 
 the Olympic games. The Amphictyons pre- 
 sided, and, since the festival was in honor of 
 Apollo, music and poetry, as well as bodily 
 contests, were from the first a part of the ex- 
 ercises. So great was the success of the in- 
 stitution thus established that the Pythian 
 games became second only to those at Olympia. 
 
 The Nemean festival was, as indicated by 
 its name, celebrated in the valley of Nemea, 
 in Argolis. It was instituted in the fifty- 
 second Olympiad, B. C. 572, and was held in 
 each alternate year. Before this time there 
 had been local games at Nemea, running 
 back in their origin to the mythical ages. 
 The celebration was in honor of the Nemean 
 Zeus, and was at the first open only to war- 
 riors; but afterwards this restriction was re- 
 moved, and all Greeks might participate. In 
 the contests, however, some military features 
 were preserved, such as that between foot- 
 racers clad in armor. But in general the 
 competition was like that in the Olympic and 
 Pythian games. At the beginning, the victor 
 in a Nemean contest was crowned with a 
 chaplet of wild olive, but afterwards the 
 olive was replaced with parsley. 
 
 The Isthmian games were celebrated on the 
 Isthmus of Corinth, in the month of April, 
 on each second and fourth year of the Olym- 
 piad. They are said to have been first insti- 
 tuted by Athamas, king of Orchomenus. 
 Afterwards they were revived by Theseus in 
 honor of Poseidon, and finally, in the sixth 
 century before our era, were made a national 
 festival for all Greeks. The celebration was 
 conducted under the auspices of the Corin- 
 thians and the Athenians, but at a later period 
 the Sicyonians held the exclusive right of ■ 
 presiding and deciding the contests. After 
 Greece had fallen under the dominion of the 
 Romans, gladiatorial shows were introduced, 
 as were also contests of wild beasts — a kind 
 of sport always repulsive to the refined tastes 
 of the Hellenes. The prize offered for victory 
 in an Isthmian contest was a garland of pine 
 leaves, and to this a law of Solon added a 
 reward of a hundred drachmse. 
 
 In connection with these great games, con- 
 sidered as institutions calculated to create and 
 foster a pan-Hellenic spii'it, mention should 
 also be made of the Amphictyonic Council. 
 Its general character was that of a kind of 
 sacred congress. It had a mythical and re- 
 ligious origin. Amphictyon, the reputed 
 founder, was one of the heroes. The associ- 
 ation was in the first place a religious body, 
 which met at stated intervals to perform sac- 
 rifices and supervise the rites of the country. 
 Having their head-quarters in the great temple 
 at Delphi, to which all Greece was wont to 
 look for the omens of prophecy, the Amphic- 
 tyons gradually acquired an ascendency over 
 other associations of like sort in diflTerent parts 
 of the country. Influence grew into author- 
 ity, and the Council came to be recognized 
 as a determining influence in the weightiesi 
 affairs of the Greeks. It was the great court ^ 
 of appeal to which inter-state disputes were 
 referred for settlement ; but its power to reg- 
 ulate and determine questions of national im- 
 portance never rose to true congressional 
 proportions, else the destiny of the Hellenic 
 communities, resolved into a Union, might 
 have withstood both Philip and the Romans. 
 
 The Council held two sessions annually, 
 the first in the spring at the shrine of Apollo,
 
 518 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 in Delphi, and the other in the autumn, in 
 the temple of Demeter, at Therm opylse. Its 
 members were called Ajniphictyons, and were 
 chosen as deputies by the twelve states repre- 
 sented in the court. The delegates from each 
 state consisted of a Hieromnemon, or chief, 
 and several subordinates called Pylagorce; but 
 each delegation acted as a unit in the Coun- 
 cil, and cast two votes in the name of the 
 state represented. The different tribes who, 
 by the appointment of deputies, recognized 
 the authority of the Amphictyons were the 
 Thessalians, the Boeotiaus, the Dorians, the 
 lonians, the Perrhsebians, the Magnetes, the 
 Locrians, the CEtseans, the Achseans, the Pho- 
 cians, the Dolopians, and the Malians. From 
 the names of these constituent peoples it will 
 readily be seen how ancient was the Amphic- 
 tyonic institution ; for several of these tribes 
 had virtually disappeared before the classical 
 age of Greece. 
 
 Among the first duties of the great Coun- 
 cil was to uphold the influence of the oracle 
 and temple of Delphi. The interests of the 
 states represented were carefully, though not 
 always efficiently, guarded. On the assump- 
 tion of their duties the deputies were required 
 to take the following oath: "We will not 
 destroy any Amphictyonic town, or cut it off 
 from running water in war or peace. If any 
 one shall do so, we wUl march against him 
 and destroy his city. If any one shall plun- 
 der the property of the god, or shall be cogni- 
 zant thereof, or shall take treacherous counsel 
 against the things in his temple at Delphi, 
 we will punish him with foot and hand and 
 voice, and by every means in our power." 
 
 It is clear from the tenor of this obligation 
 that the primary objects of the Council were 
 religious rather than secular. It was only 
 in later developments that the Amphictyons 
 became an important power in the political 
 affairs of Greece ; nor did their influence ever 
 become so great as to entitle them to be con- 
 sidered a congress, in the modern sense of that 
 word. Perhaps the most important general 
 result of the organization was that it tended 
 to the nationality of Greece. The line was 
 thus drawn more distinctly than ever between 
 Greek and Barbarian. The Amphictyons 
 
 were themselves united in one body, and the 
 unity of the twelve states represented was 
 thereby symbolized and stimulated. The name 
 of Hellenes, applied to the whole Greek people, 
 acquired a new significance because of this fed- 
 eral title adopted by the' Council. 
 
 A second result of scarcely less importance 
 was that of a fixity of territorial limits for the 
 several Greek states. This was one of the 
 matters of which the Amphictyony took spe- 
 cial cognizance. The determination of borders 
 w^hich might not be disputed was a matter of 
 great moment in the maintenance of peace 
 and the promotion of civilization. 
 
 The early character of the CouncU may be 
 inferred from its relation to the First Sacred 
 War, which occurred between the years B. C. 
 595 and 585. The Phocian town of Crissa 
 was situated on the heights of Parnassus, near 
 the oracle of Apollo. Its territory extended 
 from the mountains to the gulf of Corinth. 
 Its seaport was the little town of Cirrha. 
 Having commercial advantages it grew to im- 
 portance. The visitors who came from all 
 parts of the Grecian world to consult the ora- 
 cle landed and embarked at Cirrha. With 
 the increase of population the place became 
 ambitious. Crissa, not without cause, grew 
 jealous; and, when the Cirrhseans proceeded 
 to enrich themselves by levying exorbitant 
 contributions upon the pilgrims going to and 
 from the shrine of Apollo, took cognizance of 
 the matter and declared war. The Thessalians 
 and Athenians were summoned to the aid of 
 Crissa, and for ten years Cirrha was invested 
 by the forces of the Council. At last the 
 town was taken by a stratagem not very hon- 
 orable in so sacred a cause. It is said that, 
 at the suggestion of Solon, the lawgiver of 
 Athens, the waters of the river Plistus, which 
 flowed through the besieged city, were poi- 
 soned, and the Cirrhseans were thus driven 
 to surrender. The town was leveled to the 
 ground. The rich plain in which it stood, 
 extending northward towards Delphi, was 
 consecrated to Apollo, and curses were pro- 
 nounced upon him who henceforth should 
 ever attempt its cultivation.' Thus, by the 
 
 ^ It was in this plain that the Pythian games 
 were celebrated. See p. 517.
 
 €>
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 523 
 
 diligence of the great Council was the honor 
 of Phoebus vindicated. From this time forth 
 his oracle was more consulted than ever, and 
 richer gifts were poured into his treasury. The 
 influence of the Amphictyons was extended 
 
 throughout all Greece. It was seen that in 
 them the national religion and traditions had 
 found an immovable bulwark against aggres- 
 sion — a power jealous of whatever seemed to 
 threaten the unity and renown of Hellas. 
 
 CHAPTER XIvIII.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 iOST notable of the facts 
 belonging to the second 
 period of Greek develop- 
 ment — a period extending 
 from the epoch of the 
 Dorian migrations to the 
 revolt of the Ionian cities 
 against the Persians — were the growth and pre- 
 ponderance of Sparta and Athens as the two 
 leading Hellenic states, and the establishment of 
 institutions by the legislation of liycurgus and 
 Solon. The first fact unfortunately involved 
 a rivalry of the two commonwealths which 
 became the bane of Greek history, but the 
 other contained those legislative germs which, 
 springing here and there in the soil of free- 
 dom, have contributed not a little to the 
 growth of human liberty. 
 
 After the agitations consequent upon the Re- 
 turn of the Heraclidse had somewhat subsided, 
 there appeared in Peloponnesus the three 
 leading states of Laconia, Argos, and Mes- 
 senia. It was in the first of these that the 
 new Dorian population from the North became 
 most easily and completely predominant. 
 Argos was not so much revolutionized, and 
 Messenia was still less affected in her popula- 
 tion and institutions by the invasions. A 
 period followed in which the new masters of 
 Southern Greece had to struggle and fight for 
 the maintenance of their supremacy. By and 
 by, when that supremacy was fully established 
 and acknowledged, the two leading states of 
 Peloponnesus — Sparta and Argolis — fell into 
 quarrels and went to war. After the Dorian 
 invasion of Argolis, that state still remained 
 for a while a confederacy of free cities. Such 
 were Argos — the capital — Cleonse, Phlius, 
 Sicyon, Epidaurus, Troezen, and -^gina. 
 
 These were leagued together in the common 
 worship of Apollo, and each of the cities 
 maintained a temple in his honor. The cen- 
 tral shrine was in Ai-gos, and from this place 
 the authority of the confederacy was exer- 
 cised. Her privileges inci'eased until the time 
 of Phidon, who was king of Ai-gos, and who, 
 about B. C. 747, reduced the free cities and 
 established himself in a desj^otism. 
 
 It seemed that Argolis under his leader- 
 ship was going to win an easy supremacy 
 over all the Dorian states. He made a con- 
 quest of Corinth. He claimed to be par ex- 
 cellence the representative of the great ancestor, 
 Heracles, and in his name demanded the sub- 
 mission of his kinsmen, the leaders of the 
 Heraclidse. In the Eighth Olympiad he in- 
 terfered with the presidency of the games, 
 deprived the Eleans of their privileges, took 
 the presidency himself, and then set up the 
 Pisatans instead of their deposed rivals. 
 
 This act, however, soon led to his down- 
 fall. For the Eleans, unwilling to lose the 
 honorable prerogative of presiding over the 
 Olympic festival, appealed to Sparta to aid in 
 the maintenance of their rights. The appeal 
 was favorably heard. The Spartans espoused 
 the cause of the petitioners, went to war with 
 Phidon, defeated him in battle, and destroyed 
 the pretensions of Argolis to the leadership of 
 Southern Greece. From this time forth there 
 was never any doubt that Sparta was destined 
 to the first place among the Peloponnesian 
 states. 
 
 It will be remembered that, when the 
 Heraclidse drew lots for the distribution of 
 territories, Laconia fell to the two sons 
 of Aristodemus. This fact remained a pre- 
 cedent in Spartan institutions, and a
 
 524 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 double, instead of a single, royal house was a 
 part of the primitive constitution of the coun- 
 try. Up to the time of the war with Argolis 
 and the establishment of the supremacy of 
 Sparta, that state had had the same general 
 type of civilization and development as the 
 other Dorian communities and cities; but 
 from this time onward a separation took place 
 between Sparta and all the other Hellenic 
 commonwealths, until she was almost as much 
 distinguished in her institutions and popular 
 characteristics from her sister Doric states of 
 Argos and Corinth as she was from Thebes 
 and Athens. Only with Crete did the cus- 
 toms, manners, and laws of the Spartans hold 
 them in fellowship and sympathy. This sepa- 
 ration — amounting to an isolation — of Sparta 
 from the other Grecian states, and her conse- 
 quent assumption of an independent career, 
 were traceable to the work of her great law- 
 giver, Lycurgus. 
 
 The dissensions in Laconia between the old 
 and the new populations constituted a serious 
 drawback to the progress of that state. The 
 Dorian warriors, who had taken possession of 
 the country, were too strong to be displaced, 
 but the mass of the people smarted under 
 their exactions, and would have rebelled but 
 for fear of the consequences. Besides this 
 source of trouble, the evil of a double royal 
 house, involving the reign of two kings 
 simultaneously, was felt as a dangerous ob- 
 stacle to the public welfare. The Spartans, 
 moreover, were by nature and previous his- 
 tory a lawless tribe, little disposed to accept 
 the restraints of civilized society. All of 
 these embarrassments combined in producing 
 a necessity for a complete revision of existing 
 laws, and in short for the establishment of a 
 fixed constitution of government. 
 
 The preparation of such a constitution was 
 committed to Lycurgus. Tradition makes 
 him to have been of the Heraclidse. He Avas 
 the son of Eunomus, a brother of the King 
 Polydectes. AVhen the latter died, Lycurgus 
 became guardian of his son Charilaiis, who 
 was heir to the throne. In spite of the tempta- 
 tion to which he was subjected by the widow 
 of the late king, Avho wished Lycurgus to 
 murder the child and marry her, he remained 
 
 true to the state, and, taking Charilaiis into 
 the agora, had him proclaimed as king. He 
 himself left Sparta and went into Crete. 
 
 Here he became a student of the laws and 
 institutions of Minos, and them he is said to 
 have made the basis of the code which he 
 afterwards reported to his countrymen. From 
 Crete he traveled into Egypt and Ionia, and 
 even — if the tradition may be trusted — as far 
 as India. While abroad he became acquainted 
 wath the Homeric poems, which had not 
 hitherto been recited in Peloponnesus. On 
 his return to his own people he found the 
 state in anarchy, and a common belief that he 
 was to be the agent of the rescue of his coun- 
 try. He accordingly yielded to public solici- 
 tation, consulted the oracle at Delphi, and 
 undertook the preparation of a new frame of 
 government. The oracle itself furnished the 
 fundamental articles of the constitution, so 
 that Lycurgus returned from Delphi with the 
 sanction of Apollo. Apjoearing in the agora 
 with thirty leading citizens, he made known 
 his mission, which was gladly accepted by a 
 majority of the people ; but Charilaiis and a 
 few of his partisans yielded with reluctance, 
 and were overawed by the popular voice. 
 
 Lycurgus thus came to his countrymen in 
 the double character of a law-giver and a 
 messenger from Delphi. Necessity and Phoe- 
 bus Apollo were the joint sponsoi's of his 
 legislation. After a season the new constitu- 
 tion was prepared and given to the state. It 
 was wisely based upon the fundamental con- 
 ditions which were present in the country. 
 The Doric race w'as recognized as in every re- 
 spect predominant. The whole body of the 
 population was divided into three classes* 
 first, the Spartans of Dorian descent, who con- 
 stituted the ruling caste ; second, the Perioecse, 
 or Laconians, who far outnumbered the Spar- 
 tans; and third, the Helots or slaves. 
 
 The Dorians had taken the land by conquest. 
 They were accordingly retained as the soldier- 
 class forever. No work, no business, was ever 
 to interfere with their profession of arms. 
 Estimating their numbers at nine thousand, 
 Lycurgus divided the fruitful valley and 
 plain of the Eurotas into nine thousand equal 
 parts, and to each soldier one part was as-
 
 GREECE. —GRO WTH AND LA W. 
 
 525 
 
 signed for his support. But the tillage of the 
 land was reserved for the servile class, the 
 Helots, who were bound to the soil by a sys- 
 tem of serfdom. The remaining lands of 
 Laconia, chiefly consisting of mountainous 
 districts in the interior, were divided into 
 thirty thousand parts and distributed to the 
 original inhabitants of the country, thence- 
 forth called Perioecse, or " dwellers around." 
 The Perioecse were to remain free, but were to 
 devote themselves to agriculture, trade, and 
 commerce. They were also subject to mili- 
 tary service at the call of the dominant class 
 of Spartans. There was thus, as nearly as 
 practicable, an adaptation of all classes to the 
 previous conditions existing in the state. 
 
 As another conservative measure, the two 
 kings were left undisturbed, but their preroga- 
 tives were reduced to a mere dignity and to 
 leadership in war. The legislative power was 
 given to two assemblies. The first and high- 
 est consisted of thirty members called the 
 Gerontes, or " old men," of whom the kings 
 were two, whatever might be their ages. The 
 remaining twenty-eight must be over sixty 
 years old. The right to originate all laws 
 and measures of state polity belonged to this 
 body. The other assembly embraced as mem- 
 bers all male Spartans over the age of thirty. 
 These met once a month and voted upon the 
 measures proposed by the Gerontes. The 
 voting was to be by acclamation, aye or 710 ; 
 and no debate was permissible. From the 
 first all discussions and wrangling were odious 
 to the Spartan spirit. 
 
 The constitution of Lycurgus also estab- 
 lished an overseership of six Ephors, or magis- 
 trates. To them was intrusted a supervisory 
 power over the laws passed by the assembly, 
 and a final voice in all public matters. Even 
 the kings were accountable to the Ephors for 
 then- conduct. The kingly oflace was thus so 
 greatly hedged with restrictions as to be re- 
 duced to a minimum of influence, and in this 
 shorn condition was permitted to survive in 
 Sparta long after the complete destruction of 
 royal prerogative in the other states of Greece. 
 The Lycurgian statutes next proceeded to 
 the education of the Spartans. The theory 
 of the government was that all classes existed 
 
 for the benefit of the state. The individual 
 was for the commonwealth — nothing else. 
 There has, perhaps, never been in all history 
 another instance in which the idea of indi- 
 vidual subordination to the public good was 
 carried to such lengths as in Sparta. The 
 principle lay at the very bottom of Spartan 
 society, and explained many otherwise inex- 
 plicable circumstances and peculiarities of the 
 national character. It followed naturally 
 from this theory that the citizenship should 
 be adapted by proper training to the uses of 
 the state. Of the dominant Spartans this 
 would be true in the highest measure. 
 
 The system contemplated simply the mak- 
 ing of soldiers. At birth the child Avas in- 
 spected to determine its fitness to live. There 
 was no compunction. It was simply business. 
 The Ephors decided the question. If weak or 
 deformed the babe was exposed in the hill's of 
 Taygetus to perish. If robust and promising 
 it was given to the mother for the first seven 
 years and then taken from her. Henceforth 
 the lad belonged to the state. He was put to 
 school. The school was a gymnasium. No 
 metaphysical nonsense was allowed about the 
 establishment. It was for the development 
 and hardening of the body. A course of 
 rigid discipline and athletic exercises was pre- 
 scribed, so severe and heartless as to defy a 
 parallel. The youth must wear the same gar- 
 ment winter and summer. Hunger, thirst, 
 and exposure must be endured without a 
 murmur. When starving for food the lad 
 might steal, but if caught in the act he was 
 punished for that. One boy stole a fox, hid 
 it under his garment, and suflfered the beast 
 to tear out his bowels rather than betray the 
 theft. Once in his life each youth was taken 
 before the altar of Artemis and scourged till 
 his back ran gore. The boy was obliged to be 
 silent or to say yes and no — no more. Whatever 
 was more than these came of evil. He must 
 be laconic, impassive. He must endure j)ain 
 and smile. So must the Spartan girl ; for the 
 discipline was nearly alike for both sexes. 
 All feeling must be eliminated. She who 
 must presently give up her own babe to fill 
 the belly of a Laconian wolf must do so 
 smiling. At the age of thirty the boy was
 
 526 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 promoted to manliood. He might then marry 
 and engage in public affairs. He still, how- 
 ever, belonged to the state in the same sense 
 as before. He slept in the public barracks, 
 and was not released from military service 
 until he reached the age of sixty. 
 
 One feature of the Lycurgian system is de- 
 serving of special mention, and that is the 
 public mess. A table was spread, at which 
 every male citizen was obliged to take his 
 meals. The institution was called SijssiUa, 
 that is, "eating together." Each table was 
 arranged for the accommodation of fifteen 
 persons, and no others than those eating 
 regularly at this bench could be admitted ex- 
 cept by unanimous consent. The system was 
 communistic. Each eater sent to the table 
 monthly his quantum of provisions, consisting 
 of a little barley-meal, wine, cheese, and figs. 
 A small money contribution was also levied 
 for the purchase of meats and fish. These 
 articles, however, were only eaten on occasion. 
 At the common meal the principal dish was a 
 kind of black broth, which was unsavory ex- 
 cept to the half-starved whose ravenous stom- 
 achs craved filling, no matter with what. 
 
 As to intellectual accomplishments, the 
 Lycurgian system provided for two — singing 
 and playing on the lyre. But the idea in 
 both was warlike. The song was a psean for 
 battle. The lyre was merely to waken martial 
 enthusiasm. The poets of Sparta were the 
 bards of the barracks. They sang and shouted 
 nothing but war. In the times of Spartan 
 greatness Homer was the favorite. Tyrtseus 
 was a popular hero. Archilochus, who in one 
 of his poems chanced to mention his own 
 flight from the battle-field, was banished from 
 the country! 
 
 What the Greeks of Central Hellas re- 
 garded as civilization was abhoi'red on the 
 banks of the Eurotas. Elaborate speech, po- 
 liteness, affable companionship, lively man- 
 ners, these were frivolities of which a Spartan 
 would not be guilty. Luxury was more to 
 be dreaded than the plague. Riches meant 
 inequality. Money was a necessary evil. To 
 make it as little desirable as possible Lycur- 
 gus decreed that the coin of Sparta should be 
 of iron. So should he be satirized and pun- 
 
 ished who traded, and he who took valuables 
 to market would require a cart and oxen to 
 bring home his money. ^ In such a school of 
 roughness and austerity were the warlike vir- 
 tues of the Dorians nursed into full vigor. 
 
 The system bore its fruits. The man be- 
 came a soldier, utterly indifferent to hardship, 
 exposure, death. The woman became the 
 mother of such men, and was proud of it. 
 She gave her son a shield with the injunc- 
 tion, " Return tvith it or on it." When he was 
 brought home stark from the battle-field, she 
 said no word. The Spartan mother must not 
 disgrace herself! She had only given her son 
 to the state. It was for that she bore him. 
 He had died on his shield. Why grieve for 
 one who had served his country ? — Thus it 
 was that the Spartans became a race of sol- 
 diers ; and such were their valor and stoicism 
 in fight that there was just one way to defeat 
 them, and that was to destroy the last man! 
 As long as one remained, Sparta was in- 
 vincible. 
 
 All of the early history of Peloponnesus 
 is involved with that of Sparta. Two-thirds 
 of the peninsula was completely under her 
 control ; and the rest acknowledged her lead- 
 ership. With one state, however, she had a 
 protracted and obstinate contest. This was 
 Messenia, on the west, a commonwealth in 
 which the supremacy of the Dorians had 
 never been fully established or quietly ac* 
 cepted. It was only a question of time when 
 the domination of Sparta would lead to an 
 outbreak. The date assigned for the begin- 
 ning of the first conflict is B. C. 743. Before 
 this, one of the Spartan kings had been killed 
 by the Messenians at the temple of Artemis, 
 on Mount Taygetus, but the murderers gave 
 such an account of the affair as justified the 
 killing. Shortly afterwards, however, a pri- 
 vate quarrel led to open war. Polychares, a 
 leading Messenian, who had won a crown at 
 an Olympic festival, was robbed of his cattle 
 
 1 It has been urged with some plausibility that 
 the statute for iron money did not properly be- 
 long to the laws of Lycurgus, but to a later date. 
 As a matter of fact no gold or silver money had 
 as yet been coined in Greece ; and the practical 
 satire of the Lycurgian system would, under the 
 circumstances, be no satire at all.
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 527 
 
 by a Spartan, Eusephnus, who added to the 
 crime by murdering the son of Polychares, 
 who was sent for redress. The father ap- 
 pealed to the Spartan Ephors for justice, but 
 was turned away. He then took matters into 
 his own hands, and gave his herdsmen orders 
 to kill all the Lacedtcmonians whom they 
 should meet. The Spartans, who w^ere prob- 
 ably not displeased, secretly prepared for hos- 
 tilities, marched across the frontier, took the 
 fortress of Amphia, and killed the garrison. 
 
 War broke out in earnest. For four years 
 the Messenians defended themselves with 
 vigor, but in the fifth they were defeated and 
 driven into their stronghold, the old fortress 
 of Tthome. They appealed to the Delphic 
 oracle, and answer was given that the king's 
 daughter would have to be sacrificed to Hades 
 in order to secure victory. The king w^as 
 about to comply when the girl's lover inter- 
 fered, and she was killed in a scandalous man- 
 ner. Although this was no sacrifice, the 
 superstitious Spartans were kept at bay by 
 the news for several seasons. In the thir- 
 teenth year of the war, however, the struggle 
 was renewed. The king of Messenia was 
 killed in battle, and was succeeded by Aris- 
 todemus, who fought bravely for his country. 
 Theopompus, king of Sparta, marched against 
 him, and his forces were augmented by a large 
 band of Corinthians. The Messenians were 
 aided by the Arcadians and Sicyonians. In 
 the eighteenth year of the struggle a great 
 battle was fought in which the Spartans were 
 defeated and driven into their own territories. 
 
 It was now their turn to apply to the ora- 
 cle. An answer was returned which promised 
 success on condition of a stratagem. Mean- 
 while, however, Aristodemus was dismayed by 
 dreams. His murdered daughter appeared 
 and beckoned him to follow. In despair he 
 went to her tomb and killed himself. The 
 Messenians were disheartened, and abandoned 
 Ithome. The Spartans thereupon gained pos- 
 session and leveled the fortress to the ground. 
 The whole of Messenia was quickly overrun. 
 Some of the inhabitants fled into Arcadia ; 
 others to Eleusis and Athens. Those who re- 
 mained were reduced to a condition of servi- 
 tude like that of the Helots. Thev were 
 
 obliged by the conquerors to pay them one- 
 half of the produce of their lands and to 
 submit to intolerable marks of degradation. 
 
 After thirty-nine years, however, the spirit 
 of the Messenians revived. In B. C. 685 
 Aristomenes claimed the kingdom, and soon 
 showed himself to be a warrior worthy to lead 
 his people to freedom. A revolt broke out, 
 which, before it was quelled, drew into the 
 vortex of war nearly all the states of Pelopon- 
 nesus. The haughty conduct of Sparta had 
 borne the natural fruits of disloyalty, and the 
 Argives, Arcadians, Sicyonians, and Pisatans 
 all espoused the cause of the Messenians 
 against their oppressors. As in the previous 
 war, however, the Corinthians sided with 
 Sparta and sent her a contingent of troops. 
 
 The first conflict was indecisive, but the 
 advantage was with Aristomenes. As a piece 
 of efl^rontery he crossed the Spartan frontier 
 by night, went to the temple of Athena of 
 the Brazen Horse, and hung up a shield with 
 this inscription : "Dedicated by Aristomenes to 
 the goddess from the Spartan spoils." Such 
 was the eflfect of this piece of audacity that 
 the Spartans again cried to the Delphic oracle 
 for advice. The answer was returned that 
 they should apply to the Athenians for a 
 leader. This was wormwood to both the 
 parties ; but the Athenians, fearing to dis- 
 obey the voice of Phoebus, selected a lame 
 schoolmaster and poet named Tyrtseus, and 
 sent him to lead the warrior Spartans to vic- 
 tory ! The latter received him with honor, 
 and he soon showed both them and the senders 
 what a bard may do in war. He began to 
 compose martial songs so inspired with the 
 spirit of battle that the courage of the Spar- 
 tans was revived and themselves fired with 
 the greatest zeal for the conflict. Tyrtseus 
 was made a citizen of the state, and the war 
 was renewed with vigor. 
 
 At the first battle, however, fought at the 
 Boar's Grave, in the plain of Stenyclerus, the 
 Spartans and Corinthians were defeated with 
 great losses. During the second year Aristo- 
 menes still kept his foe at bay, but in the 
 third a decisive battle was fought which, 
 through the treachery of one of the allied 
 chiefs, resulted in a signal disaster to the
 
 528 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Messenians. Aristomenes was obliged to re- 
 tire from the open field to the mountain 
 fortress of Ira, where for eleven years he 
 maintained the cause of his country. From 
 this stronghold he would as occasion offered 
 sally forth in successful raids against the foe. 
 
 Such was his prowess that three times he 
 celebrated the sacrifice of Hecatomphonia for 
 having in each instance slain with his own 
 hand a hundred of the enemy. Three times 
 he was taken. Twice he broke away from 
 his captors, but in the thii'd case he was car- 
 ried with fifty others to Sparta and thrown 
 into a deep pit. All the rest were killed, but 
 he fell to the bottom unhurt. The next day 
 he saw a live fox in the pit, and seizing the 
 beast by the tail, he followed it through the 
 fissures in the rocks till he found an exit and 
 escaped. Equal was the surprise both to his 
 own friends and the enemy when he reap- 
 peared at Ira. 
 
 Nevertheless, the indomitable energy of 
 the Spartans gradually gained the ascendency. 
 Aristomenes was said to have forfeited the 
 favor of the gods. He was wounded, and, 
 while in a disabled condition, was attacked by 
 the Lacedsemonians, who succeeded in captur- 
 ing Ira. Aristomenes escaped with a band of 
 followers. They fled first into Arcadia, and 
 afterwai'ds into Rhodes, where the hero passed 
 the rest of his days. Many others of his 
 countrymen, led by his sons, left Messenia and 
 found refuge in Rhegium in Southern Italy. 
 The memory of their brave king was long 
 cherished by the Messenians, whose bards re- 
 cited his heroism and recounted his reappear- 
 ance in battle. 
 
 Thus, in the year B. C. 668, ended the 
 Second Messenian War. The people were again 
 reduced to serfdom. For three hundred years 
 they remained in a state of abject dependence 
 upon the wills of their conquerors. Their 
 history during this long period is known only 
 in connection with that of the dominant state. 
 Their territory Avas annexed to Laconia, 
 whose limits were thus extended across Pelo- 
 ponnesus from sea to sea. The supremacy of 
 the Spartan oligarchy was thus completely 
 established in all the southern portion of the 
 peninsula. The adjacent parts of Arcadia 
 
 were also brought under their sway, and as 
 far north as the gulf of Corinth there were 
 none left, except the Tegeans, courageous 
 enough to dispute their leadership. 
 
 The city of Tegea, however, situated in 
 the south-eastern portion of Arcadia, deter- 
 mined to fight for independence. The people 
 Avere brave and had a warlike history. Twice 
 they had already measured spears successfully 
 with the Spartans. In the reign of Charilaiis, 
 nephew of Lycurgus, the Lacedaemonians had 
 marched against Tegea, but were disastrously 
 defeated. Their king and all the survivors 
 of the battle were captured. In B. C. 580, 
 the Spartans again invaded the territory and 
 were again routed. The prisoners were taken 
 and enslaved, being obliged to toil in the very 
 chains which they had brought for the Te- 
 geans. The latter thus maintained their in- 
 dependence for thirty years. In B. C. 560, 
 however, the struggle was renewed by the 
 Spartan kings, Anaxandrides and Ariston. 
 The Delphic oracle sent the Spartans a mes- 
 sage that they should be successful when they 
 secured the bones of Orestes, son of Agamem- 
 non, now buried at Tegea. This feat was ac- 
 complished by a stratagem, and the relics 
 were carried in triumph to Sparta. Then the 
 tide turned against the Tegeans. They Avere 
 defeated in several engagements, their city 
 was taken, and themselves reduced to depend- 
 ency. In this case, however, the conquering 
 state preferred the alliance rather than the 
 enslavement of the people, and Tegea was 
 spared the fate of Ira and Ithome. 
 
 The Spartans also succeeded in annexing 
 the district of Cynuria to their territories. 
 This province had belonged to Argos, and the 
 attempt of that city to recover their possession 
 brought on war. It Avas agreed between the 
 tAvo states that the question should be decided 
 in a single combat between three hundred 
 chosen AA^arriors on each side. The picked 
 force of Argives and Spartans Avent into bat- 
 tle, and so fierce was the fight that only two 
 of the former and one of the latter were left 
 alive. The tAvo Argives, believing themselves 
 A'ictorious, bore the ucaa'S to Argos, but the 
 Spartan remained on the field, stripped the 
 bodies of the dead, and claimed the Aactory.
 
 GREECE.— GEOWTH AND LAW. 
 
 529 
 
 Thereupon the armies of the two states 
 marched out and fought a decisive battle, in 
 which the Argives were defeated. Othryades, 
 the Spartan who had survived from the pre- 
 vious conflict, slew himself in despair because 
 he was left alive. Cynuria remained to 
 Sparta, and Argos no longer dared to oppose 
 any impediment to the will of the conqueror. 
 
 Meanw^hile, in other parts of Greece, im- 
 portant political changes had taken place, by 
 which the form of the government in most of 
 the states had been altered to what is known 
 as a despotism. In all of the commonwealths 
 except Sparta the kingly office had been 
 abolished. Indeed, in such small states the 
 institution of royalty could not flourish, for 
 the king was seen and known as a man rather 
 than as a ruler. At his death his son some- 
 times succeeded to his power, but was fre- 
 quently limited to a term of years. The next 
 step was the choice of some nobleman or 
 chief, who, with the title of Archon, exercised 
 the same authority hitherto possessed by 
 the king; but the officer so chosen was not 
 recognized as having a dignity much above 
 that of his fellow nobles. So the government 
 virtually rested, after the abolition of royalty, 
 in the hands of the few, and was designated 
 as an oligarchy, distinguished on the one side 
 from kingly prerogative, and on the other 
 from democracy. 
 
 Such was the general political condition at 
 the middle of the seventh century B. C, 
 when a new factor appeared in Greek politics. 
 This was the despot. He generally came in 
 the character of some leading citizen, who by 
 espousing the cause of the people gained suf- 
 ficient power to overthrow the oligarchy and 
 make himself ruler of the city. He w^as gen- 
 erally designated by the Greeks themselves by 
 the name of Tyrant, but the Greek sense of 
 that word is so different from the English 
 equivalent as to make the word Despot, or 
 Master, a better translation. As a rule the 
 despot arose from the ranks of the artisans, 
 but sometimes a noble would take advantage 
 of his position to become a popular leader. 
 The authority of such a ruler when once 
 established was generally exercised in an ar- 
 bitrary and tyrannical manner, and not infre- 
 
 quently the Greeks had cause to deplore the 
 revolution by which such a system of govern- 
 ment had been substituted for the oligarchy. 
 In such cases the hatred of the people for 
 their own tool w^ho had now^ become their 
 master was intense, and this led to the next 
 step in the political evolution, namely the 
 substitution of democracy for the despotism. 
 
 It will readily appear that Sparta, wherein 
 the old form of kingship had been retained 
 by the Lycurgian statutes, was natui-ally thrown 
 in her sympathies on the side of the oligar- 
 chies of Greece, as against the despotisms and 
 the growing tendencies towards democracy. 
 The oligarchy stood next to royalty, and in 
 the light of this fact the conduct of the Spar- 
 tan government in its numerous interferences 
 in the affiiirs of other Greek states must be 
 interpreted. Such interference became a ne- 
 cessity of the situation, made so by the natu- 
 ral desire of the Spartans to maintain a pre- 
 ponderating influence throughout Greece. 
 
 Just west of the isthmus of Corinth was 
 the city of Sicyon. Like the other states, 
 Sicyonia had been under the oligarchical form 
 of government; but in B. C. 676, a popular 
 leader named Orthagoras arose, and a despot- 
 ism was established instead. The primitive 
 population of the country, who had never been 
 exterminated by the Dorian conquerors, sup- 
 ported Orthagoras, and he was thus enabled 
 to fix his tyranny so firmly that the dynasty 
 lasted for a hundred years. The last of the 
 line was Clisthenes, who was famed in his 
 time for a victory won in a chariot race at 
 the Olympic games. He died in B, C. 560, 
 and leaving no son the despotism became 
 extinct, 
 
 A similar tyranny flourished in Corinth for 
 seventy-four years. It began its career with 
 the overthrow of the Bacchiadse in B. C. 655, 
 and w^as established by Cypselus. He was 
 himself descended from the nobles, but es- 
 poused the cause of the popular party. After 
 conducting the government well for thirty 
 years, he left it to his son Periander, who was 
 greatly detested for his cruelty and exactions. 
 Nevertheless, it was under his iron rule that 
 Corinth became one of the leading cities of 
 Greece — a place which she held for several
 
 530 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 centuries. The tyrant patronized art and 
 letters, and invited the most learned men of 
 his times to his court. After reigning for 
 forty years he was succeeded by a relative, 
 Psammetichus, who reigned four years, and 
 with him the dynasty perished. 
 
 The despotism in Megara was established 
 by Theagenes, in B, C. 630. He appeared in 
 the usual way as a leader of the people, over- 
 threw the oligarchy, and made himself master 
 of the state. After holding authority for 
 thirty years, he was driven from the govern- 
 
 tion to the close of the sixth century B. C. 
 Meanwhile a state had arisen in Central 
 Greece whose fame was destined to be ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 The story of the founding of Athens by 
 Cecrops has already been given. From that 
 time until the age of Solon, who gave to the 
 state its constitution, the history of Attica 
 contains only traditions. One of the principal 
 of these is the consolidation by Theseus of the 
 twelve districts into which Cecrops had di- 
 vided the peninsula. Another is that of the 
 
 DEATH OF COD RUS.— Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 ment, but his party punished the offense by 
 despoiling the homes of the nobles. An edict 
 was passed by which all existing debts were 
 canceled, and the rich made to refund the 
 interest which they had received on loans. 
 These actions, however, so exasperated the 
 party of the nobles that the latter rallied a 
 strong force and the party of Theagenes was 
 suppressed. The oligarchy was reestablished, 
 and remained as the fixed form of government 
 for several generations. Such, then, was the 
 general course of events in Peloponnesus from 
 the establishment of the Lycurgian constitu- 
 
 abolition of royalty. In the time of the Do- 
 rian invasion of Attica the Delphic oracle 
 gave answer to the invaders that they would 
 be successful if the life of the Athenian king 
 was spared. The name of that ruler was 
 CoDEus. Hearing the report of the oracle, he 
 disguised himself, went before the walls of 
 Athens, provoked a quarrel with the Dorian 
 soldiers, and permitted himself to be killed. 
 Learning what they had done the Dorians 
 broke up their camp and retired from Attica. 
 The Athenians, in joy for their deliverance, 
 declared that no one was worthy to succeed
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 531 
 
 Codrus in the government, and accordingly abol- 
 ished the office of royalty, substituting there- 
 for the archonship. The right to be Archou, 
 however, was for the time limited to the fam- 
 ily of Codrus. Eleven members of that family 
 succeeded one another in the government, 
 and then, in B. C. 752, the office was limited 
 to a period of ten years. Thirty-eight years 
 later the restriction to the family of Codrus 
 was removed and the archonship. thrown open 
 to all the nobles. The next step in the road 
 to democracy was taken in B. C. 683, when 
 the office was limited to one year's duration, 
 and distributed to nine persons instead of one. 
 Of these nine, however, one continued to be 
 the chief archon and the rest associates. None 
 but the nobles were eligible to the archonship ; 
 so that the government of Athens was peace- 
 ably transferred from royalty to oligarchy in 
 the same manner as in the states of Pelopon- 
 nesus. As yet the people had no voice in 
 the direction of public affairs. 
 
 The class-distinctions of the Athenian pop- 
 ulace were arranged — so says tradition — by 
 Theseus. There were three castes: the Eupa- 
 tridce, or nobles; the Geomori, or husband- 
 men ; and the Demiurgi, or artisans. The 
 first exercised all the political and religious 
 rites of ttie people ; the husbandmen tilled 
 the soil ; the artisans plied their respective 
 crafts ; but neither wielded any considerable 
 influence in the affairs of state. 
 
 From the institution of the annual archon- 
 ship, in B. C. 683, the more authentic history 
 of Athens begins. Of the nine archons who 
 were then appointed instead of the one W'ho 
 had held authority previously, one was the 
 President, called Archon Epoynjmus; for the 
 year took its name from him. He was the 
 representative of the State, and decided all 
 matters of public importance. The second 
 archon was called Basileus; and to him was 
 committed the oversight of Religion. The 
 third bore the title of Polemarch, and com- 
 manded the army. The remaining six were 
 called Thesmothetce, or legislators. The con- 
 stitution of the Court of Areopagus, or Sen- 
 ate of Athens, has already been described. Such 
 was the character of Athenian political society 
 in the times preceding the legislation of Solon. 
 
 The government of the oligarchy was se- 
 vere and arbitrary. There were no written 
 laws, and the precedents of the state were 
 not well established. It was withal a govern- 
 ment of partiality, administered by the nobles 
 for the nobles. After about a half a century 
 the public discontent became so great that a 
 nobleman namejj Draco, of whose previous 
 history but little is known, was appointed to 
 draft a code of written laws. The work was 
 undertaken in B. C. 624. The lawgiver 
 adopted the constitution of Athenian society 
 as it was, and gave his attention almost 
 wholly to the question of crime and its pun- 
 ishment. His laws were characterized by ex- 
 treme severity. All crimes were punishable 
 with death! The theory was that a petty 
 theft deserved death, and for murder no 
 greater penalty could be affixed. It was said 
 that his statutes were written i"n blood. Per- 
 haps, however, the code was as merciful as 
 the spirit of the age ; for the age cared noth- 
 ing for the sacredness of human life. 
 
 The code of Draco was of little utility. 
 Violence and discontent continued to prevail 
 to such an extent as to prevent the growth 
 and endanger the stability of the state. After 
 a few years of trouble a revolution was un- 
 dertaken by the malcontents headed by Cy- 
 lon, one of the Eupatridse. He was the son- 
 in-law of Theagenes, the tyrant of Megara, 
 from whom he learned the lesson of despot- 
 ism as a cure for public troubles. Obtaining 
 from the Delphic oracle an answer which he 
 regarded as favorable, he seized the Acropolis 
 and undertook to maintain himself against the 
 authorities of the city, but he was soon over- 
 thrown and driven from the country. Many 
 of his adherents were hunted down and were 
 slain even at the very altars of the gods where 
 they had taken refuge. 
 
 This act of sacrilege, however — done as it 
 was by the orders of Megacles, one of the 
 archons — terrified the people to such a degree 
 that the family to which Megacles belonged 
 was put under the ban and their trial de- 
 manded by the court. But the offending 
 nobles could not for the time be brought to 
 justice, and the confusion in the state grew 
 from bad to dangerous, until Solon persuaded
 
 532 
 
 UIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the family of the Alcmseonidse, to which Me- 
 gacles belonged, to submit their cause to trial. 
 The court adjudged them guilty, and they 
 were banished from Attica. Still the Athe- 
 nians were terrified at the imagined anger of 
 the gods, and a plague in the city was attrib- 
 uted to the vengeance of those w^hose altars 
 had been profaned by the shedding thereat 
 of human blood. Nor could the public mind 
 be quieted until, at the suggestion of the 
 Delphic oracle, the Cretan sage Epimenides 
 was brought to Athens to purify her from 
 pollution. 
 
 In this business, which resulted in produc- 
 ing comparative quiet, the guiding hand of 
 Solon again appeared. To him the people of 
 the city began to look as to one who by his 
 wisdom and prudence was able to save the 
 state from anarchy. This remarkable man 
 was born in the year B. C. 638. He was on 
 his father's side descended from Codrus, and 
 by his mother was related to Pisistratus. In 
 youth he learned a trade, and afterwards 
 traveled as a merchant in Greece and Asia. 
 He was a poet of no mean ability, and while 
 yet comparatively young was reckoned as one 
 of the Seven Wise Men of his country. Re- 
 turning from his travels, he became interested 
 in public affairs, and soon acquired a great 
 reputation for probity and learning. In B. C. 
 600 he rendered the state most valuable ser- 
 vice by commanding the Athenian expedition 
 for the recoveiy of Salamis, which had re- 
 volted to Megara. After a tedious struggle 
 the decision of the question was left to the 
 arbitration of Sparta. Solon went thither as 
 the ambassador of Athens, and managed the 
 cause so skillfully as to obtain a judgment in 
 favor of his country. Soon afterwards his 
 fame was further heightened by the influence 
 which he wielded over the Amphictyonic 
 Council in inducing that body to declare war 
 against the town of Cirrha, thus precipitating 
 the Sacred War. 
 
 At the age of Solon the Athenian common- 
 wealth embraced three classes of citizens. 
 These were first the Pedimi, or wealthy class, 
 who, living mostly in the open country in 
 and about Athens, were designated as The 
 Plain ; second, the Diacrii, or poor people 
 
 of the hilly districts, who were called The 
 Mountain; third, the Parali, or mercantile 
 class, living mostly on the sea-coast, and 
 known as The Shore. These classes were 
 arrayed against each other politically, and a 
 reconciliation of their interests seemed impos- 
 sible. The poor were in great distress. The 
 rich had loaned them money, and had charged 
 exorbitant rates of interest. Both the prop- 
 erty and the person of the debtor were mort- 
 gaged to the rapacious creditor. Payment 
 was in most instances impossible. Many of 
 those who had been bankrupted had become 
 the slaves of those whom they owed. Others 
 had been actually sold to barbarians. The 
 materials of a disastrous insurrection were 
 ready to be fired by the first spark of agitation. 
 
 The oligarchs became alarmed, and ap- 
 pealed to Solon for aid. They knew that he 
 had the confidence of the Mountain and the 
 Shore, as well as their own. In B. C. 594 
 he was chosen archon, and was authorized to 
 exercise unlimited powers in remodeling the 
 constitution of the state. All parties accepted 
 his appointment as an earnest of reform. 
 Such was the universality of his influence 
 that he might easily have usurped all the 
 functions of the government, overthrown the 
 oligarchy, and made himself master of Athens ; 
 but his virtue was equal to his ability, and he 
 rebuked those who tempted him to such a 
 course. He entered upon his work without 
 the least bias of personal ambition. 
 
 As a preliminary measure he abolished all 
 the laws of Draco except that relating to 
 murder. He then divided the people into 
 classes, according to their property assessment. 
 This division was made the basis of the new 
 political system ; for a man's right to political 
 preferment rested henceforth on the amount 
 of property of which he was possessed. As a 
 measure of present relief, he canceled all 
 mortgages which had been given on the score 
 of interest. Debtors sold into slavery were 
 set free. The lands of the state were freed 
 from encumbrances. The power to mortgage 
 the person for debt was annulled. No general 
 abolition of debt was attempted ; but, as a 
 measure of relief, the standard of the coinage 
 was lowered about one-fourth, so that the new
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 533 
 
 silver mina contained but seventy-three parts 
 in a hundred of its former value. It was 
 found that Solon himself was a loser by this 
 measure; for he had loaned five talents, 
 which were paid back in units of the lower 
 standard. 
 
 In the property division of the citizens the 
 first class was made to consist of those whose 
 annual incomes were in excess of five hun- 
 dred measures of corn. These were called the 
 Pentacosiomedimni. The second class embraced 
 
 other classes in numbers, being the common 
 people of Attica. 
 
 As to public honors, all the higher offices, 
 including the archonship, were reserved for 
 citizens of the first class. The inferior offices, 
 however, might be held by persons of the 
 second and third classes. Citizens of the 
 fourth rank might hold no public trust what- 
 ever. But these discriminations were counter- 
 balanced by a just distribution of burdens. 
 An income-tax was levied on the first three 
 
 SOLON DICTATING HIS LAWS. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 all whose incomes ranged between three hun- 
 dred and five hundred measures. They were 
 called the Knights, from the fact that each in 
 this rank was considered able to furnish a 
 war-horse to the state. The third class was 
 made of those whose annual revenues were 
 between two hundred and three hundred 
 measures of corn. Those belonging to this 
 class were called Zeugitce, from the fact that 
 each was reckoned able to own a yoke of 
 oxen. The fourth rank embraced all whose 
 incomes amounted to less than two hundred 
 measures. The members of this class were 
 designated as Thetes, and were in excess of the 
 
 classes, but the fourth class was exempt. 
 Citizens of the second and third ranks were 
 subject, as well as the first, to military service, 
 the second furnishing the cavalry and the 
 third the heavy-armed foot. The light-armed 
 troops were furnished by the fourth rank. 
 The disqualification of the common people for 
 holding office was compensated by the right 
 of suffrage. The right to vote in the public 
 assembly was conceded to the Thetes, who, 
 being in the majority, might control the elec- 
 tion of the archons and other officers; and 
 since the archon, at the end of his year of 
 office, was subject to prosecution before the
 
 534 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 assembly for his public acts, the check of the 
 Fourth Estate upon the admiuistration of 
 affairs was very salutary. 
 
 As a counterpoise to this eulargemeut of 
 the Assembly, Solou instituted a Senate, or 
 Council of Four Hundred, with whom all 
 matters of discussion in the popular body 
 must originate. The senators were elected by 
 the Assembly, and in turn presided over its 
 deliberations. Like the archons, they held 
 office for a year, and were amenable at the 
 end of the term for their conduct. The old 
 Court of Areopagus was retained by Solon, 
 but additional duties were imposed upon it. 
 Besides its ancient powers, it was given a gen- 
 eral supervision of the laws and the duty of 
 supervising the lives and occupations of the 
 people. 
 
 In the punishment of crime the legislation 
 of Solon was merciful. The thief must re- 
 turn double the value of the thing stolen. 
 Slander of either the living or the dead was 
 prohibited. Foreigners were invited to settle 
 in Attica. The father must teach his son 
 some useful trade or run the risk of being 
 left uncared for in his old age. He who took 
 a prize in the Olympic or Isthmian games 
 should be rewarded and honored. He who in 
 case of a civil sedition stood aloof and took 
 no sides was devoid of public spirit and should 
 be disfranchised. 
 
 When the Constitution was completed it 
 was inscribed in rollers and tablets and depos- 
 ited in the Acropolis. Solon acknowledged 
 that the work was imperfect, but held it to be 
 the best that the Athenians were able to bear. 
 When the task was completed, he bound the 
 Athenians by an oath to keep his statutes for 
 ten years, and then, to avoid the annoyance 
 of those who were sure to want alterations 
 and amendments, he went abroad as a trav- 
 eler. He visited Egypt and Cyprus, and in 
 the latter place was honored with the found- 
 ing of a new town named Soli, in his honor. 
 
 Afterwards he went to Sardis and made the 
 acquaintance of Croesus. It was on this occa- 
 sion that the celebi'ated interview occurred 
 which has been so much repeated for its lesson. 
 Croesus, desiring to make an impression on his 
 visitor, took him into his treasury and showed 
 
 him his riches. He then inquired of the im- 
 passive philosopher whom he considered the 
 happiest man he had ever seen. Solon, after 
 some little reflection, named two obscure 
 Greeks whom the Lydian had never heard of. 
 Mortified at being unable to extort a compli- 
 ment, Croesus expressed his disgust, but Solon 
 explained that no man can well be accounted 
 happy until his life is ended, since the vicissi- 
 tudes of human affairs may soon bring even 
 the proudest to the level of the beggar. For 
 the time the lesson made no impression on the 
 proud monarch; but in after years, when his 
 kingdom was overturned and himself, a pris- 
 oner, was about to be burned to death by the 
 orders of Cyrus the Great, Croesus in his an- 
 guish cried out the name of Solon. Cyrus 
 inquired upon what god the condemned was 
 calling, and was told the story of the philoso- 
 pher's interview and saying. The lesson was 
 so well suited to the Persian king that he or- 
 dered Croesus to be liberated and made him 
 his friend. — It is unfortunate that this story 
 is mythical rather than authentic. 
 
 After ten years Solon, in B. C. 562, re- 
 turned to Athens. He found a very un- 
 happy state of circumstances. The Shore, the 
 Mountain, and the Plain could not be recon- 
 ciled. At the head of the three parties stood 
 Megacles, one of the Alcmseonidse ; Pisistratus, 
 a cousin of Solon ; and Lycurgus, a wealthy 
 Athenian. The second of these partisan chiefs 
 had by far the greatest influence. He was 
 an able general, an accomplished orator, and 
 a demagogue. He espoused the cause of the 
 Mountain, not for the Mountain's sake, but 
 for his own ; for he was ambitious to become 
 master of Athens. His plans were already 
 well matured when Solon returned to Athens. 
 The latter attempted to dissuade Pisistratus 
 to desist from his ambitious schemes, but fail- 
 ing to influence him, he next addressed the 
 people of the city in poems, directed to the 
 political dangers which menaced the state. 
 These also were ineffectual. Meanwhile, a 
 crisis was precipitated by Pisistratus. Hav- 
 ing wounded himself and hacked his chariot 
 mules until they were bloody, he drove to 
 the market-square and showed himself bleed- 
 ing to the people, whom he told that the Plain
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 535 
 
 had attempted to kill him for defending pop- 
 ular liberty. A tumult followed. The strat- 
 agem was successful. The people ran to- 
 gether in an assembly, and against the protest 
 of Solon, voted Pisistratus a body-guard of 
 fifty men. He gradually increased the num- 
 ber, and when sufficiently strong seized the 
 Acropolis and made himself master of the 
 city. It was expected that Solon would be 
 banished or put to death, but Pisistratus 
 
 tures to Pisistratus, to whom he proposed to 
 give his daughter in marriage. A scheme 
 was concocted for the return of the exiled 
 tyrant. It was arranged that a tall and beau- 
 tiful woman, named Phya, should go to him 
 and accompany his return in the character of 
 Pallas Athene ! So the factitious goddess 
 mounted the chariot beside the despot and 
 rode into Athens, the awe-struck people 
 looking on in wonder at the prodigy, and 
 
 CRCESUS SHOWING SOLON HIS TREASURES. 
 Drawn by H. Leutemann. 
 
 treated him with kindness, and even solicited 
 his advice in matters of administration. But 
 the old sage did not long survive. He died 
 in B. C. 558, and his ashes were, according 
 to his will, sown in the island of Salamis, which 
 he had won in his youth for Athens. 
 
 After the usurpation of Pisistratus the 
 other leaders, Lycurgus and Megacles, were 
 for a time driven from the city. Soon, how- 
 ever, they combined against him, and he in 
 turn was driven into exile. But the Shore 
 and the Plain could not long agree. The 
 
 leaders quarreled, and Megacles made over- 
 N. — Vol. I — 33 
 
 quietly permitting Pisistratus a second time 
 to usurp the powers of the state. 
 
 The tyrant married the daughter of Mega- 
 cles, but soon treated her with contempt. He, 
 offended at this, abandoned Pisistratus, and 
 again made common cause with Lycurgus. 
 After a brief struggle the despot was again 
 driven off. His exile in Euboea lasted for ten 
 years, but at the end of that time he crossed 
 over into Attica, collected his partisans at 
 Marathon, defeated the forces of his rivals, 
 and a third time made himself supreme in the 
 city. The pardon which he offered to those
 
 536 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 who had opposed him was generally accepted, 
 and those who did not accejDt were exiled. 
 
 The government of Pisistratus during the 
 Third Tj^ranny was firm and severe. He 
 maintained his authority by means of a band 
 of Thracian mercenaries. The children of 
 those who were suspected of j^lotting against 
 him were seized and sent to Naxos. But in 
 the matter of exactions his rule was milder 
 than that of the oligarchy. He kept the stat- 
 tutes of Solon without alteration, and was 
 himself obedient to the law. He won the 
 applause of the Fourth Estate by throwing 
 open his gardens to the poor of the city. He 
 adorned Athens with public buildings. He 
 encouraged art and literature. He established 
 the first public library in Greece, and laid all 
 the world under obligation by the collection 
 of the Homeric poems. For thirty-three 
 years he kept Athens in a state of tranquillity 
 which she had never known before. Dying, 
 he bequeathed the government to his two 
 sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, and they, in 
 B. C. 527, began an administration of the 
 same character as that of their father. Hip- 
 parchus was the more noted of the two. He 
 promoted literature by maintaining at his 
 court the poets Anacreon and Simonides. To 
 his time belongs the setting up of the Hermce, 
 or small statues of Hermes, which were placed 
 along the streets and in other j)laces to denote 
 boundaries, and by the inscriptions which 
 they bore to remind the people of moral obli- 
 gations. 
 
 Matters were going well in the government 
 until a private feud led to the assassination 
 ot Hipparchus. A certain Harmodius, hav- 
 ing given offense to the two rulers, Hippias 
 sought revenge by a public insult to his sister. 
 Harmodius and his friend Aristogiton deter- 
 mined to appease their anger by killing both 
 of the governors. At the festival of the 
 Panathensea they stood with daggers hid in 
 their myrtle leaves waiting their opportunity. 
 But Hippias was seen conversing with one 
 who was in the secret, and the conspirators 
 believed themselves betrayed. They, how- 
 ever, made a rush on Hipparchus and cut him 
 down ; but Hippias escaped. He immediately 
 arrested those who were found to be in the 
 
 conspiracy, and they were either executed or 
 banished. This was but the beginning of a 
 career of cruelty. Many citizens were con- 
 demned on mere suspicion. The taxes were 
 increased, and the whole body of the people 
 grievously oppressed. There were loud mut- 
 terings of discontent, and the exiled family 
 of the Alcmseonidse made an effort, though 
 without success, to overthrow the government 
 of Hippias. Finally, however, through the 
 influence of the Delphic oracle, the Spartans, 
 though hitherto friendly to the family of 
 Pisistratus, were induced to interfere against 
 the Athenian tyrant. Their first attempt 
 ended in failure, but in a second invasion of 
 Attica, Hippias was defeated and obliged to 
 go into exile. He fled to Sigeum, on the 
 coast of Asia Minor, and became a fruitful 
 source of disturbance in the relations between 
 the Greeks and the Persians. The expulsion 
 of the tyrant was regarded by his countrymen 
 as a deliverance from thralldom and oppression. 
 
 At this time Clisthenes, the son of Mega- 
 cles, appeared in the theater of Athenian poli- 
 tics. The Spartans, after expelling Hippias, 
 had left the people to their own ways. It was 
 Clisthenes who had by his strategy won over 
 the oracle to declare against the family of 
 Pisistratus. To him Athens now looked for 
 further assistance. He came as the leader of 
 the popular party, and was opposed by IsAG- 
 ORAS, who was backed by the nobles. Ac- 
 cording to the statutes of Solon the First 
 Estate had a monopoly of the highest offices, 
 and this fact gave the advantage to Isagoras. 
 But Clisthenes laid the axe at the root of the 
 tree by proposing a change in the constitu- 
 tion, by which the Third Estate should be 
 admitted to a share in the government. It 
 was the beginning of the Athenian democracy. 
 
 As a measure precedent to the contemplated 
 change, the four classes, or castes, into which 
 the Athenians had been divided were abol- 
 ished, and the whole body of the populace 
 distributed into ten new tribes. Until this 
 time great numbers of residents in Attica had 
 not had the rights of citizenship, from the 
 fact that they had never been classified with 
 either of the four estates. The Clisthenian 
 plan proposed that all should be included in
 
 GREECE.— GROWTH AND LAW. 
 
 537 
 
 the redistribution of the population. By this 
 plan the aggregate citizenship of the state was 
 vastly increased in numbers, and the increase 
 nearly all went to the credit of the democracy. 
 The new distribution was not based upon 
 class-distinctions, but on territory, the only 
 true basis of political division. The territory 
 of each tribe was called a deme, and every 
 person living within the district was obliged 
 to enroll himself as a citizen. Each deme 
 managed its local affairs in its own way, 
 
 transfer the government from archons, or 
 governors, to the people, and to substitute for 
 the close and arbitrary methods of the oligarchy 
 the open discussions of a public assembly, 
 thus preparing the way for the age of Pericles. 
 The military arrangement was based upon 
 the tribal distribution. Each tribe elected its 
 own general, so that an Athenian army was 
 generally commanded by ten officers of equal 
 rank. The old rank of polemarch, however, 
 was retained from the times of the arclionship 
 
 CLISTHENES IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 
 
 and had its own magistrate, called the 
 Demarchus. 
 
 Another change introduced by Clisthenes 
 was the enlargement of the senate to five 
 hundred members, or fifty from each tribe. 
 The powers of the body were also multiplied, 
 so that a good share of the administration of 
 the state was included in its functions. It 
 sat the year around, and was presided over 
 by the senators in turn. The Ecclesia, or 
 Assembly, met forty times a year, and was 
 also presided over by certain senators detailed 
 for that duty. The general effect of the 
 whole movement directed by Clisthenes was to 
 
 to the date of the Persian wars. It will 
 readily be seen that the efficiency of an 
 Athenian army would depend rather upon 
 valor and discij^line than upon generalship, 
 for no generalship could well be developed 
 under a system which required each command- 
 ing officer to be general for a day and to give 
 place to another on the morrow. 
 
 The condition of affairs in Athens was now 
 such as to afford unusual opportunities for the 
 ambitious citizen to become first a demagogue 
 and then a despot. As a counterpoise against 
 this danger, Clisthenes introduced the Ostra- 
 cism. The plan was, in brief, to banish by a
 
 538 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 popular vote for a period of ten years any 
 one who might be considered dangerous to the 
 state. The method was this. If the Senate 
 and Ecclesia should first decide that the state 
 was menaced by a citizen, the question was 
 submitted to the people. Each citizen who 
 desired to vote wrote the name of the person 
 whom he wished to have banished on anostracon, 
 or oyster-shell, and dropped it into the urn. 
 If, when the shells were counted, it was found 
 that six thousand votes had been cast against 
 any person, the measure was carried as to him. 
 No special charge need be preferred against 
 the person considered dangerous. He was 
 allowed no opportunity of trial or defense. 
 The only cheering symptom of his case was 
 that he might return without serious dispar- 
 agement at the end of his term of condemna- 
 tion, or might be recalled at any time by the 
 same power which had condemned him to 
 banishment. None the less, the abuses of 
 such an arbitrary and extraordinary system 
 were fewer than might have been expected. 
 As a matter of fact, it was not easy to get six 
 thousand free citizens to vote for the exile of 
 another free citizen unless they thought that 
 there were good grounds to suspect his pa- 
 triotism. 
 
 The constitution proposed by Clisthenes 
 greatly heightened his reputation with his 
 countrymen. His rival, Isagoras, was driven 
 to the unwise extreme of inviting foreign in- 
 fluence to counteract what he himself could 
 not successfully oppose. So he sent word to 
 the Spartan king Cleomenes that one of the 
 accursed family of the Alcmseonidse was mas- 
 ter of Athens, and invoking his aid to secure 
 the expulsion of Clisthenes. The Spartan 
 accepted the invitation and marched a force 
 into Attica. But Clisthenes, seeing himself 
 the cause of trouble to his country, retired 
 from Athens before the arrival of Cleomenes. 
 The latter, however, attempted to undo the 
 new constitution. He reduced the Senate to 
 three hundred men, and then expelled seven 
 hundred families of those who w^ere the prin- 
 cipal supporters of the recent statutes. These 
 proceedings so angered the people that they 
 took up arms, drove Cleomenes and Isagoras 
 into the citadel, and compelled them to sur- 
 
 render. Clisthenes came back on the rising 
 tide, and the Spartan king was allowed to re- 
 tire in disgrace. Isagoras went into exile, 
 but many of his leading adherents in Athens 
 were put to death. The reaction was so 
 strong as to secure the complete establishment 
 of the new constitution as the fundamental 
 law of the state. 
 
 It was not to be expected that Sparta would 
 tamely bear the recent humiliation of her king 
 by the Athenian democrats. Clisthenes clearly 
 foresaw that Cleomenes would renew the con- 
 flict at the earliest practicable moment. He 
 accordingly determined to strengthen himself 
 by a foreign alliance. Messengers were sent 
 to Tissaphernes, satrap of Lydia, requesting 
 his support for Athens in the expected struggle 
 with the Spartans. The message was kindly 
 received by the Persian governor, who re- 
 turned answer that if the Athepians would 
 send earth and water as tokens of submission 
 to the Great King he would defend them 
 against their enemies. The messengers ac- 
 cepted the terms, but on their return to 
 Athens the conditions were repudiated with 
 proper disgust. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cleomenes called together his 
 allies from Peloponnesus, and marched a large 
 force into Attica to Eulusis. The Spartan 
 kept to himself as long as possible the des- 
 tination of the expedition, and when he was 
 finally obliged to divulge his purpose the 
 Corinthians refused to proceed. His colleague 
 Demaratus also opposed the further prosecution 
 of the campaign. So the whole movement 
 fell to pieces. Unfortunately for themselves, 
 the Thebans and Chalcidians of Euboea had 
 been induced by Cleomenes to join in the 
 movement against Athens. That city now 
 found herself free to punish the defection of 
 those from whom she had a right to expect 
 friendship and had received enmity. She ac- 
 cordingly sent a force against Thebes and in- 
 flicted upon her a severe defeat. Thence 
 marching into Euboea, the Chalcidians were 
 still more severely dealt with. Their estates 
 were confiscated and divided among four 
 thousand of the Athenian poor. 
 
 These marked successes of Athens so fired 
 the jealousy of the Spartans that they deter-
 
 GREECE.^THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 539 
 
 mined to make a third effort to undo the 
 democratic institutions of their rival. The 
 tyrant Hippias was sent for from Sigeum, 
 and coming to Sparta represented to her 
 assembled allies the great benefits from his 
 restoration to authority. But the Corinthians 
 refused, as before, to have any thing to do 
 with the enterprise. They denounced the 
 system of despotism which Sparta would 
 establish in Athens as a wicked and bloody 
 thing, and the other allies were scarcely less 
 outsjjoken in their denunciations. Further 
 interference with Athenian affairs had to be 
 abandoned, and Hippias returned to his exile, 
 first at Sigeum and afterwards at the court of 
 Darius. Athens thus relieved of her perils, 
 pursued her own course under the auspices of 
 democracy, and was not long in taking the 
 foremost rank among the cities of Greece. 
 
 Up to this point in their history a general 
 view of the progress of the Greek states 
 
 Avould show them pursuing independent ca- 
 reers and tending to antagonisms rather than 
 to unity among themselves. The final causes 
 of this condition have already been referred 
 to as existing in the peculiar country which 
 the Greek tribes settled and the spirit of free- 
 dom and individuality peculiar to the race. 
 As long as these primary forces of develop- 
 ment were left free to work out their own 
 results the Grecian commonwealths preferred 
 a certain local completeness to any possible 
 union of the Hellenes in one nation. It was 
 only when this excessive individuality was 
 overcome by the presence of a common dan- 
 ger that cooperation was rendered possible 
 and unity considered a good. The time came, 
 however, when such a danger appeared im- 
 minent and overwhelming, and it will be the 
 purpose of the following chapter to recount 
 the heroism of the Greeks in the shadow of 
 the peril. 
 
 Chapter xliv.— the Persian wars. 
 
 r will be remembered that 
 the ambition of Darius 
 the Great led him into 
 an expedition against the 
 Scythians inhabiting the 
 great plain between the 
 Don and the Danube. 
 The circumstances of that campaign have 
 already been narrated in the History of the 
 Persian Emj^ire.' In the conduct of the in- 
 vasion the king was in many things depend- 
 ent upon the Greeks of Asia Minor, especially 
 those living on the shores of the Hellespont. 
 The course taken by the expedition was deter- 
 mined by the advice of one of the Grecian 
 generals, and the bridge of boats by which 
 Darius crossed into Europe was built by 
 Greek carpenters, and it was at the sugges- 
 tion of the same friends that the bridge was 
 left standing to insure an easy return if the 
 Persians should meet with disaster. It will 
 also be recalled that while Darius was prose- 
 ^ See Book Sixth, p. 360. 
 
 cuting the campaign a body of Scythians 
 came suddenly to the Hellespont, reporting 
 that the Persians were defeated, and urging 
 the guards of the bridge to burn it down, 
 make common cause with themselves, and 
 overwhelm the invaders. This advice was 
 seconded by Miltiades, an Athenian, now 
 despot of the Thracian Chersonesus, and many 
 of the Ionian Greeks favored the same policy ; 
 but Histiseus of Miletus supported the king, 
 reminding the Ionian governors that if their 
 master was destroyed they would perish with 
 him. This view prevailed. So Darius on 
 his return found a safe exit from the perils 
 that were gathering around him. 
 
 Megabazus was left with an army of 
 eighty thousand men to finish the work on the 
 Hellespont. He quickly reduced the rem- 
 nant of the Greek cities which had not 
 yielded to Persia, and then, in B. C. 510, 
 carried his conquest through Thrace to the 
 borders of Macedonia. From this point he 
 sent an embassy to Amyntas, the king, de-
 
 540 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TRE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 manding earth and water, and these were im- 
 mediately sent. This proceeding extended 
 the limits of the Empire to Thessaly, so that 
 any further enlargement in that direction 
 would involve a direct conflict Avith the Eu- 
 ropean Greeks. Meanwhile, however, His- 
 tiaus fell under the suspicion of Megabazus, 
 who induced Darius to summon him to Susa. 
 Once there, he was detained under the pre- 
 text that the Persian king could not spare the 
 society of so refined a gentleman. The Greek 
 was soothed by permission to appoint his son- 
 in-law, Aristagoras, as ruler of Miletus in his 
 absence. 
 
 There now followed a few years of calm 
 until a mere spark, struck from the rocks of 
 Naxos, fired a universal conflagration. This 
 island, in B. C. 502, was the scene of a pop- 
 ular insurrection by which the oligarchical 
 party was overthrown and exiled. The lead- 
 ers went to Miletus and applied to Aristago- 
 ras for help. The latter readily consented, 
 but feeling himself unable to take up the 
 enterprise alone, he sent to Artaphernes, the 
 Persian satrap of Lydia, to furnish the means 
 of restoring the oligai'chs, assuring him that 
 by good management the limits of the Em- 
 pire might thus be stretched across the Cyc- 
 lades and made to include even the large 
 island of Euboea, lying in sight of the main- 
 land of Greece. 
 
 The very flattering overture was eagerly 
 caught by the Persian. A fleet of two hun- 
 dred ships was equipped and the command 
 given to Aristagoras. A large land force, 
 commanded by Megabates, was put on board 
 with the exiled oligarchs, and the expedition 
 weighed anchor for Naxos. At Chios the 
 fleet made a brief pause, and here the com- 
 manders quarreled. Megabates was so en- 
 raged at the conduct of Aristagoras that he 
 sent a message to the Naxians and warned 
 them of their danger. The latter immedi- 
 ately put their city in a state of defense ; 
 and after a four months' siege, the forces of 
 Aristagoras were obliged to withdraw in dis- 
 grace. The commander, on reaching Miletus, 
 found himself in a condition so critical that 
 he meditated an abandonment of the Persian 
 cause and a revolt of the Greek cities as the 
 
 best means of saving himself from ruin. At 
 this juncture a message came from Histiseus 
 urging the very course which Aristagoras was 
 on the eve of adopting. So the latter at once 
 called together the magistrates of the city, 
 exi^lained his purposes, resigned his authority, 
 and suggested that the other Greek cities 
 should be at once advised to throw off their 
 despots and the Persian yoke with them. 
 This popular impulse rolled like a wave down 
 the coast of Asia Minor. Every city became 
 inflamed with the hope of freedom, and in 
 B. C. 501 a general declaration of indepen- 
 dence of Persia was adoj)ted. 
 
 The Asiatic Greeks were wise enough to 
 know that they had undertaken a contract 
 which must be rendered valid by an indorse- 
 ment of blood. Aristagoras at once repaired 
 to European Greece to solicit alliances. Go- 
 ing first to Sparta, he laid the great cause 
 before Cleomenes, but the latter could not be 
 induced either by patriotic considerations or 
 by bribes to undertake the cause of the re- 
 volted cities. In Athens, however, Aristago- 
 ras met with a different reception. Here he 
 found an abundance of sympathy, and the 
 assembly promptly voted an armament of 
 twenty ships to aid the cause of the lonians.^ 
 The city of Eretria furnished five ships, and 
 the fleet repaired to Asia Minor. In the follow- 
 ing spring Aristagoras, thus reenforced, began 
 a march into the interior of Lydia. Sardis 
 was taken and burned by a handful of 
 Greeks, mostly Athenians ; but to maintain 
 themselves in so distant a part was impossible. 
 A hasty retreat from the scene of their au- 
 dacity was all that remained for them to do. 
 They were followed by the avenging Persians, 
 and before they could reach the cities on the 
 coast were severely punished for their daring 
 deed of invasion. 
 
 When the news was carried to Darius in 
 his palace at Susa, he gave way to rage. He 
 called for his bow and shot an arrow high in 
 air, and called on the gods to give him 
 vengeance. He had never heard of the Athe- 
 nians and made inquiry who they were. He 
 
 ^ This is the act which is declared by Herodo- 
 tus to have been the " beginning of mischief be- 
 tween the Greeks and the barbarians."
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 541 
 
 commanded an attendant to call out to him 
 three times a day, "Lord, remember the 
 Athenians ! " 
 
 It soon became apparent that the Asiatic 
 Greek towns could not maintain themselves 
 in the unequal struggle. The Phoenicians 
 furnished the Persians with fleets. The revolt 
 in Cyprus was soon suppressed. The Ionian 
 cities fell one after another. Aristagoras 
 abandoned the cause and was killed in Thrace. 
 In the meantime the crafty Histiseus per- 
 suaded Darius to send him into Ionia to help 
 the Persian generals. Artaphernes, however, 
 was not deceived, and openly accused the 
 Greek of having made a shoe for Aristagoras 
 to wear. HistiiBus, however, escaped to the 
 island of Chios and offered his services to 
 the Greeks; but all were suspicious of him. 
 Finding himself an object of universal distrust 
 he turned pirate, and sailed with eight Les- 
 bian galleys towards Byzantium. He preyed 
 on whatever he could find on land and sea 
 until finally he was overtaken on the coast of 
 Mysia. Being carried to Sardis, Artaphernes 
 had him crucified and his head sent to Darius, 
 The Great King seeing the pallid visage of 
 the man who had once saved his life, showed 
 his own humanity by having the bloody tro])hy 
 honorably buried. 
 
 Several of the Greek cities still held out 
 against the Persians. Chief of these was 
 Miletus, which was besieged by a large army, 
 as well as on the side of the ^gean by a 
 Phoenician fleet. The Greeks knowing them- 
 selves to be strongest as sailors gathered their 
 forces from the various towns and embarked 
 them on ships. Their armament numbered 
 three hundred and fifty-three vessels while 
 that of the Persians counted six hundred sail. 
 But the latter were wary of their antagonists 
 and stood off" from battle. The Greek fleet 
 lay by the shore at Sade, near Miletus. The 
 exiled despots, now on board of the Persian 
 ships, knowing the rivalries and dissensions 
 existing among the Greeks, became the secret 
 agents of overtures made to them for peace 
 on terms advantageous to all who would sail 
 away and return to their allegiance. At first 
 these overtures were refused by all ; but when 
 the Samians saw the jealousies and conten- 
 
 tions which prevailed to the extent of destroy- 
 ing all discipline, they renewed the negotia- 
 tions and agreed to withdraw in case of a 
 battle. 
 
 The Persian fleet now no longer forbore 
 to attack, and when the fight began the Sa- 
 mians, according to promise, sailed out of line 
 and bore away. They were followed first by 
 the Lesbians and then by others until the 
 hundred brave ships of Chios were left to 
 contend alone. These were soon overpowered 
 and destroyed. Miletus was soon afterwards 
 taken, and resistance to Persian authority was 
 at an end. Those who had been engaged in the 
 revolt were treated with the utmost severity. 
 Some were put to death, some sold into sla- 
 very, and some deported into foreign parts. 
 The cities declined in wealth and population. 
 A new sui'vey of the country was made and 
 a tribute assessed upon each of the districts 
 for the benefit of the Persian treasury. 
 
 Shortly after the suppression of the Ionian 
 revolt, the Persian king sent his son-in-law, 
 Mardonius, to succeed Artaphernes as satrap 
 of Lydia. His government included the 
 provinces recently in insurrection. To him 
 Darius gave a large armament, with instruc- 
 tions to seize and take to Susa those Athe- 
 nians and Eretrians who had assisted in the 
 Ionian rebellion. Mardonius, in B. C. 492, 
 set out on this mission. He had a strong land 
 force and a large fleet. He proceeded down 
 the coast of Thrace and Macedonia, and 
 ordered his ships to join him below Mount 
 Athos. But while doubling this dangerous 
 promontory a storm arose, which destroyed 
 three hundred vessels and twenty thousand 
 men. Soon afterwards Mardonius was him- 
 self defeated by the Brygiaus, a race of white 
 Thracians, who slaughtered a large part of 
 his army. He was glad to make his way back 
 into Asia, covered with disgrace. 
 
 Darius now determined to undertake the 
 conquest of Greece in person. In order to 
 ascertain the temper of the Hellenic states he 
 sent heralds to each, demanding earth and 
 water. All complied except Sparta and 
 Athens, The authorities of the former city 
 threw the messenger of the Great King into 
 a well, and the Athenians cast the herald into
 
 542 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 a pit and bade him take his earth and water 
 from there. At this time Athens was at war 
 with ^gina. The ^ginetans were of those 
 who sent tokens of submission to Darius. 
 The Athenians now called upon Sparta as the 
 leading Grecian state to punish the people of 
 JEgina for deserting the cause of the country. 
 Cleomenes, the Spartan king, readily took up 
 the cause, and, proceeding against the ^gine- 
 tans, seized ten of the leaders and gave them 
 to the Athenians as hostages. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the spring of B. C. 490, 
 the preparations of the Persians being com- 
 plete, Darius began his invasion of European 
 Greece. A vast army was assembled in 
 Cilicia. The fleet which was to accompany 
 the expedition numbered six hundred galleys, 
 besides the transports. The command was 
 given to the Median Datis and Artaphernes, 
 a son of the former satrap of Lydia of that 
 name. Their instructions were to conquer all the 
 Greek states that had not already made their 
 submission, and to take special vengeance on 
 Athens and Eretria by burning them to the 
 ground and selling the inhabitants into slav- 
 ery. Manacles were prepared and sent to the 
 commanders, with which the Greeks were to 
 be bound and led into captivity. The dreams 
 of the Persian were not troubled by any 
 specter prophesying failure. 
 
 The expedition of Datis and Artaphernes, 
 departing from the coast of Asia Minor, pro- 
 ceeded across the ^gean by way of the 
 Cyclades. Naxos was taken and its principal 
 city reduced to ashes. All the other islands 
 submitted, nor did the Persians meet any op- 
 position until they came to Euboea. Eretria 
 bravely defended herself for six days, and 
 was then taken through the treachery of two 
 citizens, who opened the gates. The city was 
 burnt, and the principal inhabitants put into 
 chains, according to the command of the king. 
 It only remained for Datis to cross the strait 
 and do likewise to Athens and her imperti- 
 nent democracy. 
 
 Here was the rub. For the Athenians had 
 prepared for the crisis such means of resist- 
 ance as seemed most likely to stay the deluge. 
 According to the custom, ten generals had 
 been chosen to command the army. Of these 
 
 the men of greatest ability were Miltiades, 
 Themistocles, and Aristides. The first was 
 the same previously mentioned as that despot 
 of the Thracian Chersonesus, who advised the 
 destruction of the bridge of the Hellespont in 
 order to secure the destruction of Darius. In 
 the struggle of the Persians and the Ionian 
 cities Miltiades had taken the side of his 
 countrymen, and had captured Lemnos and 
 Imbros from the enemy. After the revolt of 
 the Greek cities had been suppressed he fled 
 to Athens for safety. 
 
 As soon as the Athenians heard of the de- 
 struction of Eretria they sent a courier to 
 Sparta imploring assistance.^ The Spartans 
 returned a favorable answer, but the moon 
 was now near her full, and they could lend 
 no aid until after the change ! Such was 
 their custom. The Athenians took their 
 station at Marathon and awaited the onset. 
 Five of the generals desired to delay until 
 after the arrival of the Spartans, but the 
 other five washed to fight at once while the 
 spirit of the people was up to the point of 
 battle. Finally the polemarch, Callimachus, 
 who, retained by the old statutes of the oli- 
 garchy, now constituted the eleventh officer, 
 gave his vote for an immediate engagement, 
 and it was agreed by all that Miltiades should 
 have supreme command until the issue of the 
 conflict should be determined. 
 
 At this critical moment a thousand Boeo- 
 tians from the little town of Platsea arrived 
 as a voluntary reenforcement of their country- 
 men. Miltiades could now muster ten thou- 
 sand men of heavy armor, besides a few light- 
 armed troops, who were not of much moment 
 in battle. The Persian army numbered one 
 hundred and ten thousand. 
 
 The plain of Marathon lies on the coast, 
 at the distance of twenty-two miles from 
 Athens. It is a tract semicircular in shape, 
 defined at each extreme by a promontory 
 reaching into the sea. Between these two 
 head-lands the plain stretches along the shore, 
 a distance of six miles. Its greatest breadth 
 
 'The messenger who carried the petition of 
 Athens to Sparta on this occasion was Phidippides. 
 He is said to have run the whole distance of a- 
 hundred and fifty miles in forty-eight hours !
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 543 
 
 from the sea to the mountains is, near the 
 center, about two miles. The Persians were 
 arranged along the shore, and the Greeks 
 stood on the opposite side of the plain about 
 the middle, backed by the hills. Seeing the 
 impossibility of giving strength to so long a 
 line with so small a force, Miltiades massed 
 
 a run. They traversed the mile of interven- 
 ing space and fell like two thunder-clouds on 
 the astonished foe. The battle raged furiously. 
 Both w'ings of the Greeks drove the enemy 
 before them, but the center, being weak, was 
 in turn broken through by the Persians. As 
 soon, however, as Miltiades perceived himself 
 
 BATTLE OF MARATHON. 
 
 his troops in the two wings. He gave com- 
 mand of the right to Callimachus, and placed 
 the contingent of Platseans on the left. Thus 
 at last the Hellenes stood face to face with 
 the Medes and Persians, long regarded as the 
 invincible soldiery of the East. 
 
 Miltiades, anxious for battle, gave the or- 
 der for the onset. The Greeks advanced on 
 
 victorious on the flanks, he recalled his wings 
 and fell upon the Persian center. Here were 
 the best troops of Datis's army. It was 
 already late in the afternoon. The sun look' 
 ing over the hills of Greece flashed his full 
 beams in the face of her foes. After a sharp 
 resistance they broke and fled under such on' 
 sets as they had never felt before. They were
 
 544 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pursued to the beach, where their ships saved 
 them from annihilation. As it was, six 
 thousand four hundred of their soldiers lay 
 dead on the field. The Athenians attempted 
 to fire the fleet, but only succeeded in de- 
 stroying seven vessels. The rest made their 
 escape, carrying the Persians with them. The 
 Athenian loss was one hundred and ninety-two 
 meu, but among these was the brave pole- 
 march Callimachus, who here gave his life for 
 the freedom of his country.^ 
 
 Just at the close of the battle a bright but 
 traitorous shield was seen raised aloft on a 
 distant mountain in the direction of Athens. 
 It was a signal for the Persian fleet to sail 
 thitherward and take the city before the 
 soldiers of Miltiades could return to her de- 
 fense. It was noticed, moreover, by the 
 Greeks that the vanishing armament departed 
 in the direction of Cape Sunium. Accord- 
 ingly, Miltiades marched with all haste to- 
 wards the city. His conjectures were correct ; 
 for just as he arrived the Persian fleet hove 
 in sight. But when the army of Datis, about 
 to debark, saw before them the same dusty 
 heroes from whom they had so recently fled 
 at Marathon, they could not be induced to 
 land. They turned their prows instead to the 
 shores of Asia Minor, and the ^gean soon 
 rolled between Athens and her perd. 
 
 iNIarathon was to the Greek what Bunker 
 Hill is to the American. After the battle the 
 Athenians gave themselves up to raptures. 
 The day became historic. Poetry brought her 
 magic song and imagination her legends to 
 add to and hallow the remembrance of a deed 
 so great. It was said that Theseus reappeared 
 in the battle. At night ever afterwards, the 
 
 ^ It is not wonderful that the genius of Byron, 
 on viewing Marathon, broke forth in an unusual 
 strain : 
 
 "The battle-field where Persia's victim horde 
 First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword, 
 
 As on the morn to distant glory dear, 
 "When Marathon became a magic word, 
 Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appear 
 The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's 
 career — 
 
 The flying Mede, his shaf tless, broken bow ; 
 
 The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear ; 
 Mountains ahove, earth's, ocean's plain below, 
 
 Deatli in the front, destruction in the rear!" 
 
 old heroes of Athens marshaled their hosts in 
 the clouds, and the noise of invisible warriors 
 shouting to the charge, the uproar of chariots 
 and horses, and the moans of dying spirits, 
 could be heard above that haunted, glorious 
 field. 
 
 Miltiades became the hero of the day. No 
 mark of honor or gratitude was omitted. 
 Besides the great tumulus or mound which 
 public patriotism and affection reared over the 
 one hundred and ninety-two immortals who fell 
 at Marathon, a separate monument was erected 
 on the field to the memory of Miltiades. His 
 influence became unbounded ; but he seems to 
 have belonged, after all, to that type of heroes 
 who are able to bear adversity better than 
 success. The memory of an old resentment 
 rose within him, and forgetting his great- 
 ness, he asked the Athenians to give him an 
 armament of seventy sail without explaining 
 his intentions. AVhen the fleet was voted, he 
 sailed away to the island of Paros and at- 
 tacked the capital city; for against a leading 
 citizen of that place he harbored a grudge of 
 many years. But the Parians defended them- 
 selves with such vigor that Miltiades was 
 about to despair of success when a priestess in 
 the temple of Demeter promised him success 
 if he would visit the temple by night. In 
 attempting to do so he wounded himself on 
 the wall, and was barely able to reach his 
 ship. In this miserable condition he was 
 obliged to return to Athens. He could give 
 no honorable account of himself or of the use 
 which he had made of his country's fleet. 
 Charges were preferi'ed against him, and he 
 was brought in with his gangrened wound 
 and laid before the judges. It was asked that 
 he be condemned to death, but such a sen- 
 tence could not be obtained against the hero 
 of Marathon. He was severely punished by a 
 fine of fifty talents, but before the sum could 
 be raised he died of his injury. 
 
 The next important event in the career of 
 Athens Avas her war with JEgina. For a long 
 time there had been between the city and this 
 island a feeling of suppressed hostility. In 
 B. C. 506 the ^ginetans had given aid to 
 the Thebans in a strife with the Athenians, and 
 had even invaded the territory of Attica with-
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 545 
 
 out a declaration of war. These acts were 
 laid to heart by the city ; and when ^giua 
 made haste to abandon the Greek cause by 
 sending earth and water to the Persian king, 
 the feeling of resentment against her was 
 greatly increased. It will be recalled that 
 Cleomenes, one of the Spartan kings, had, on 
 account of this act of the J^giuetans, and at 
 the instigation of Athens, gone to the island 
 and inflicted a severe punishment. After the 
 battle of Marathon the authorities of JUgiua 
 demanded back the hostages which they had 
 been compelled to give to the Athenians, and 
 the refusal of the latter to do so led to a dec- 
 laration of Avar. Hostilities were vigorously 
 waged on both sides, but the conflict had not 
 long continued until Athens discovered the 
 great disadvantage at which she was j^laced 
 by having no navy. It was clearly impossi- 
 ble to carry on a successful war at sea, or 
 with a country lying in or beyond the sea, 
 without the employment of a fleet. The little 
 island of ^gina was able, in the present con- 
 dition of affairs, to look across the Sarouic 
 gulf and laugh at Attica. Moreover, it was 
 seen by the wise, and especially by Themisto- 
 CLE8, who had now become the political leader 
 of the Athenians, that it was only a question 
 of time when the Persian king would renew, 
 on a still more formidable scale, the attempt 
 against Grecian freedom. The prudent states- 
 men of the city discerned in this remote dan- 
 ger far greater ground of apprehension than in 
 the petty imbroglio with the ^ginetans. 
 
 So Themistocles introduced in the assembly 
 that important measure by which the whole 
 current of Athenian history was changed — the 
 proposition to build a large fleet for the pro- 
 tection of the state. It was fortunate that 
 the treasury of Athens was now in a condition 
 to warrant the proposed action. The silver 
 mines of Laurium had recently yielded so 
 largely that a surplus was at the disposal of 
 the city, and a proposition was actually pend- 
 ing at the time to distribute the same among 
 the citizens. Themistocles took advantage of 
 all these facts in the advocacy of his measure, 
 and had the good fortune to secure its passage. 
 It was ordered that a fleet of two hundred 
 vessels be at once built and equipped at pub- 
 
 lic expense, and to this was added another 
 clause that hereafter twenty ships should be 
 annually added to the navy. 
 
 Thus was Greece made ready for the com- 
 ing storm. For Darius was nursing his 
 wrath for a final explosion. In the interval 
 between the battles of Marathon and Sala- 
 mis — a period of ten years — the public affairs 
 of Athens were directed by Themistocles and 
 Aristides, two of the greatest Greeks. The 
 first owed his preeminence to talent and pol- 
 icy ; the second, to integrity. In the adapta- 
 tion of means to ends and in that far-sighted 
 discernment by which the plans of men and 
 states are peneti*ated and laid bare, the palm 
 must be awarded to Themistocles; but in 
 soundness of moral perception and undevi- 
 ating conformity to the right as the best 
 means of reaching the desired object, Aristi- 
 des stands first among the Greeks, if not 
 among all the statesmen of antiquity. He 
 was named the Just, and posterity has not 
 challenged the title. 
 
 Such was the then condition of Athenian 
 society that these two eminent men were 
 brought into constant antagonism. Themis- 
 tocles was the progressive and Aristides the 
 conservative leader. They broke heavy lances 
 over the question of building the fleet. Aris- 
 tides held that to do so was to change the 
 habits of the people to the injury of the state. 
 He urged that the heavy armed soldiers were 
 a better protection in Greece than any number 
 of ships, and that out of Greece the Athenians 
 had no business to be engaged in war. But 
 the logic of events w'as against him. Not 
 only did the arguments of Themistocle's pre- 
 vail with the assembly and senate, but the 
 public voice was so strongly against Aristides 
 that the ostracism was turned to his downfall 
 and he was sent into exile. This act of the 
 Athenians left Themistocles without a rival, 
 and in this attitude of leader he stood in the 
 hour of the most tremendous crisis that Greece 
 had ever witnessed. 
 
 For Darius had not forgotten Athens. 
 How he spent years in preparing the ava- 
 lanche which was to fall upon and overwhelm 
 the impudent cities of European Greece ; how 
 the Great King, when his preparations were
 
 546 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 well-nigh completed, was surprised and de- 
 tained by a revolt in Egypt, and how ere this 
 was suppressed he suddenly died — has been 
 narrated in the preceding pages/ And how 
 Xerxes, inheriting his father's hatred of the 
 Greeks, coming to the throne in the full flush 
 of early manhood, and receiving the vast 
 array of men and ships already marshaled 
 and equipped by Darius, determined to pros- 
 ecute the great scheme of Grecian subjection, 
 has been recounted in the same connection. 
 
 To make sure of an easy and expeditious 
 advance Xerxes sent forward his builders to 
 construct a bridge of boats across the Helles- 
 pont, and his diggers to cut off the neck of 
 Mount Athos. By the one structure he would 
 make his way with dignity from Asia into 
 Europe, and by the other work would secure 
 a safe passage for his fleet from the Strymouic 
 into the Singitic gulf. The construction of 
 the great bridge and the dramatic passage of 
 the Hellespont by the countless hosts of the 
 Persians have been heretofore described in 
 the History of Persia, and need not be here 
 recounted. 
 
 After he had traversed for some distance 
 the coast line of Thrace the king paused in 
 the plain of Doriscus to number his forces. 
 The enumeration and method of making it have 
 already been given in Book Sixth, to which 
 the reader is referred once for all for an ac- 
 count of the Persian progress from Sardis to 
 Thermopylae.''' 
 
 The fleet kept in close relation with the 
 land force as far as the canal which had been 
 cut by the king's command, but after making 
 the passage was ordered to double the two re- 
 maining promontories of Sithonia and Pallene 
 and rejoin the army at the city of Therma, 
 now Thessalonica, on the coast of Macedonia. 
 After passing Olympus, Xerxes entered a 
 country not hitherto subdued to his authority, 
 and from this point the invasion proper began. 
 
 The Greeks, meanwhile, were on the alert 
 to repel as well as they might the terrible host 
 which was rolling down upon them. A con- 
 gress of the states was called to meet at Cor- 
 inth, with a view to uniting the whole race in 
 an effort to save their native land from de- 
 
 1 See Book Sixth, p. 362. ''Ibid. pp. 363, 364. 
 
 struction ; but the meeting was unsuccessful. 
 To most of the cities it seemed preposterous 
 to attempt to resist the Persians. Many sent 
 earth and water. Only a few would attend 
 the congress. Some of these opposed defens- 
 ive measures and withdrew. The whole 
 brunt of protecting the Hellenic world against 
 the barbarians fell on Sparta and Athens. In 
 all Central Greece only the Athenians and 
 Phociaus and the people of the two small 
 towns of Platsea and Thespia in Boeotia stood 
 firm for the defense of native land. Such 
 states as Thebes, with its grudge against 
 Athens, and Argolis, with its deep-seated an- 
 tipathy to Sparta, witnessed the approach of 
 Xerxes with indifference, if not with pleasure. 
 Neither the distant states nor the colonies 
 sent any aid to those who had determined for 
 the sake of Greece to throw themselves across 
 the path of the invader. 
 
 The Athenians in this emergency behaved 
 Avith great magnanimity. They effected a recon- 
 ciliation with the people of ^gina, and thus 
 gained the codperation of their fleet. They 
 conceded to the Spartans the supreme com- 
 mand in the approaching conflict. Themisto- 
 cles, both in the congress and the field, waived 
 his claims in favor of his allies. The two 
 states bound themselves in a solemn covenant 
 to resist to the death, and it was agreed that 
 in case of success one-tenth of the property 
 of every Greek city that had refused to sup- 
 port the national cause should be consecrated 
 to the Delphian Apollo. 
 
 All preparations being completed, it was 
 determined to meet the enemy in the pass of 
 Thermopylae. Where Mount QEta comes 
 down to the sea, pressing for the distance of 
 a mile the morass along the margin of the 
 Malian Gulf, and barely leaving space at 
 the entrance and exit for the passage of a 
 wagon road, lay the defile through which the 
 Persian host must pour into Central Greece. 
 The place was defensible in the highest de- 
 gree. The narrow strait of Euboea, lying be- 
 tween the island of that name and the main- 
 land, could easily be blockaded by an inferior 
 fleet, and the enemy be thus prevented from 
 carrying troops to the southern extremity of 
 the pass. It was thus provided by nature
 
 GREECE. — THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 547 
 
 that a small but resolute band of men might 
 be able to stand for an indefinite time in the 
 face of an overwhelming foe. 
 
 The fleet of the allies, under command of 
 the Spartan Eukybiades, now sailed to the 
 north of Euboea and took its station ofi" Cape 
 Artemesium. At the same time a small body 
 of troops was sent to occupy the pass of 
 Thermopylse. It was the eve of the celebra- 
 tion of the Olympic games, and the people of 
 Sparta, with that strange nonchalance for 
 which the race is noted, preferred to attend 
 to the festival first and the Persians after- 
 wards. It was believed that the handful of 
 men already advanced to Thermopylae could 
 hold the pass until, the games being over, the 
 main body should arrive for their support. 
 
 The advance which was thus sent forward 
 to keep Asia at bay for a week consisted of 
 three hundred Spartans, three thousand heavy- 
 armed troops from the other states of Pelo- 
 ponnesus, seven hundred Thespians, four hun- 
 dred Thebans, one thousand Phocians, and 
 about the same number of Locrians. With 
 this force of nearly seven thousand men, Leon- 
 IDAS, the young king of Sparta, who had been 
 placed in command with the simple order to 
 defend Thermopylae against the Persians, took 
 possession of the pass and awaited the onset. 
 Having ascertained from the Phocians that 
 there was a route over the mountains by which 
 it was practicable for the enemy to make his 
 way into Central Greece, he placed the Pho- 
 cian contingent on the heights with orders to 
 thwart any such movement should it be begun. 
 
 With the approach of the Persians there 
 was much trepidation among the Peloponnesian 
 troops, and many desired to retreat to the 
 isthmus of Corinth, and there make a stand 
 at the doorway of Southern Greece; but the 
 influence of Leonidas prevailed over such un- 
 patriotic fears, and the battle began at the 
 upper end of the pass. Here, when the Per- 
 sian's came in sight, they beheld a few Spar- 
 tans running and leaping as if in sport, while 
 others were combing their long hair as though 
 preparing for a festival. Demaratus, the ex- 
 iled Spartan king, who accompanied Xerxes 
 on the expedition, explained to the monarch 
 that this conduct on the part of his country- 
 
 men meant that they were devoting themselves 
 to death, and that nothing might be expected 
 except resistance as long as one man was left 
 alive. 
 
 Not able to appreciate such strange conduct, 
 Xerxes tarried four days, believing that the 
 absurd project of defense would be abandoned 
 and that the Spartans would disperse. At the 
 end of that time he sent a demand to Leonidas 
 to give up his arms. The true Laconic reply 
 was, "Come and take them." When the 
 Spartan was told that the Persians were so 
 numerous that a discharge of their darts 
 would cloud the sky, he answered, "That is 
 good ; we shall fight in the shade ! " 
 
 On the fifth day a band of Medes was sent 
 forward to clear the pass. They were killed. 
 Others were sent forward, and were killed. 
 Xerxes leaped up in rage and agony from the 
 seat which had been prepared for him from 
 which to witness the battle. The Immortals 
 were ordered to the charge, and were cut to 
 pieces. On the second day the scene was re- 
 newed. Heap after heap of Pei'sian slain 
 was piled at the upper entrance to the 
 pass. The darts of the barbarians fell harm- 
 less on the bronze shields of the Spartans. 
 The rage of the bafiled king knew no bounds, 
 but just as he was about to despair of forcing 
 his way through, the secret mountain-path was 
 revealed to him by a traitorous Malian, and 
 he at once ordered his generals to begin an 
 advance by that route. A large detachment, 
 led by the informant, set out at nightfall. 
 The Phocians who had been appointed to 
 guard the path were alarmed at the unex- 
 pected approach arid retired to the heights. 
 The passage of the Persians to the rear of 
 Leonidas was thus unopposed. 
 
 The Spartan called a council of war, and 
 there was much division of opinion. The 
 greater number favored a retreat while it was 
 yet possible. The privilege of taking this 
 step was freely conceded by Leonidas, but as 
 for him and his Spartans there was but one 
 course to pursue. The laws and customs of 
 their country did not permit them to abandon 
 a post which had been committed to their 
 charge. The order of the king was specific ; 
 he was to defend the pass. That he would do.
 
 548 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Death was nothing. The seven hundred 
 Thespians resolved to share the fate of such a 
 leader and his men. The four hundred The- 
 bans who had been obliged to join the expe- 
 dition rather as hostages than as soldiers were 
 detained to face an unwilling death. The 
 remainder retired from the pass and escaped. 
 
 As soon as Xerxes supposed that the de- 
 tachment sent over the mountains had reached 
 the southern entrance to the pass, he ordered 
 a renewal of the attack. Leonidas and his 
 comrades now advanced into the open space 
 and fought like lions. Every man became a 
 hero, and before each one was a heap of Per- 
 sian dead. By and by, as the Persian hosts 
 were thrust forward by those in the rear, the 
 heroic ranks began to thin. Their lances 
 were broken, and they were obliged to take 
 their swords. They were beaten back inch 
 by inch. Every man kept his face to the 
 foe. They retired within the pass and gained 
 possession of a hillock, where they huddled to 
 die together. The Thebans begged for quar- 
 ter, and explained that they fought against 
 their will. They were spai'ed. Around the 
 remnant on all sides the Persians closed rank 
 on rank. It was the ever-narrowing circle of 
 doom. Javelins were showered in their faces 
 by thousands. Man by man they sank and 
 perished. Not one remained alive from the 
 glorious sacrifice. Persia had another taste 
 of Hellas. 
 
 On the hillock where the heroes died a 
 marble lion was set up in honor of Leonidas — 
 fit emblem of his valoi'. The inscription said : 
 ' ' Four thousand Poloponnesians here fought 
 with three millions of the foe." Another 
 couplet, intended for the Spartans, ran thus: 
 
 " Go, tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, 
 That here obedient to their laws we lie." 
 
 In the meantime, the Greek fleet under 
 Eurybiades had had a terrible battle with the 
 Persian armament at Artemesium. Before 
 th3 engagement, however, a great storm driv- 
 ing shoreward had struck the enemy's fleet 
 while anchored at Aphetse and wrecked no 
 fewer than four hundred ships. Still, they 
 were so much superior to the Greeks in num- 
 bers — the latter having: but two hundred and 
 
 seventy-one vessels — that it was with diflBculty 
 that Eurybiades and Themistocles induced 
 their captains to hazard battle. As a pre- 
 cautionary measure they withheld the attack 
 until nearly nightfall, so that in case of dis- 
 aster they might have the advantage of dark- 
 ness. But the onset of the Greek ships was 
 successful, and when night fell the advantage 
 lay with the allied fleet. Nevertheless, so 
 great was the apprehension of the sailors that 
 the use of Eubcean gold in the hands of The- 
 mistocles was that night necessary to keep 
 the armament steady for the work of the 
 morrow. 
 
 During the night, however, another violent 
 storm arose and wrought such fearful havoc 
 with the Persian fleet — at the same time in- 
 juring the Greeks but little on account of 
 their sheltered position — that in the morning 
 the enemy declined battle. In the course of 
 the day a squadron of fifty-three additional 
 ships from Athens arrived as a reenforcement, 
 and the spirits of the Greeks, fired by good 
 omens and encouraged by home support, rose 
 to a pitch of enthusiasm flaming for the 
 fight. On the following day the Persian fleet 
 formed a semicircle and bore down for battle. 
 The Greeks, in order not to be surrounded, 
 supported themselves by the shore. Through 
 the whole day the conflict ivaged furiously. 
 The Persians did not surrender the mastery 
 of the world without a struggle worthy of a 
 better cause. Their overwhelming force of 
 ships and sailors gave them the advantage 
 even against the superior valor of the Greeks. 
 At nigthfall the Persians had lost most ships, 
 but the allied fleet had suffered so greatly 
 that it was deemed prudent not to continue 
 the fight. At this juncture, moreover, news 
 arrived of the fall of Leonidas, and it was at 
 once resolved to withdraw from the Eubcean 
 coast for the defense of Attica. So, during 
 the night after the battle, the fleet fell back 
 through the strait, doubled CajDC Sunium, and 
 anchored at Salamis. 
 
 Notwithstanding the enormous losses which 
 had been inflicted on the Persians, they were 
 steadily bearing down for the accomplishment 
 of their object. Attica lay open to invasion. 
 The fatal folly of the Spartans in neglecting
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 549 
 
 to send their whole force to the north to stay 
 the Persian advance at Thermopylae was now 
 bearing its disastrous fruit in the exposure of 
 Southern as well as Central Greece. Several 
 cities hitherto wavering now went over oiienly 
 to the enemy. Xerxes was only six days' 
 march from Athens. Themistocles urged the 
 people to gather together their effects and 
 abandon the city. The advice was accepted 
 with reluctance; but the Delphic oracle 
 added its voice to the persuasion of the 
 Athenian leaders. The Sacred Serpent kept 
 
 money. The Areopagus voted funds to re- 
 pair the fleet and to support the emigrant 
 population. 
 
 On his way down from Thessaly Xerxes 
 ravaged the country. Phocis was severely 
 punished for her refusal to submit. Her de- 
 serted towns were destroyed and her people 
 driven to the hills. The patriotic cities of 
 Thespiee and Platsea were plundered and 
 burned. At Delphi occurred an extraordi- 
 nary episode. Apollo, by his oracle, forbade 
 the removal of the treasures of his temple. 
 
 DISCOMFITURE OF THE PERSIANS AT DELPHI. 
 
 in the temple of Athene Polias, on the Acrop- 
 olis, left the altar and escaped. So the terri- 
 fied people were induced to follow. Some 
 went to Mgina, others to Troezen, many to 
 Salamis. 
 
 The Delphic oracle had said that a " wooden 
 wall" should protect the Athenians. Albeit, 
 a wooden wall might mean the fleet. So 
 the oracle Avas interpreted by Themistocles. 
 Others said it meant the walls of Athens. 
 Not all of the people would leave their homes. 
 For once dissension ceased. On the proposi- 
 tion of Themistocles all sentences of banish- 
 ment were revoked. The rich gave their 
 
 On came the Persians to lay sacrilegious hands 
 on the accumulated gifts of centuries of de- 
 votion. They began defiling through one of 
 the gorges at the foot of Mount Parnassus, 
 making their way towards the temple. Of a 
 sudden there were peals of thunder overhead. 
 Great crags were loosened from their places 
 and rolled down upon the terrified ranks o£ 
 the barbarians. The gods had espoused the 
 cause of the Greeks. Spectral warriors of 
 gigantic stature were seen hovering with re- 
 vengeful look in the rear of the terror-stricken 
 host as it turned to fly from its profane pur- 
 pose of plunder.
 
 550 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In Athens a few desperate persons seized 
 the Acropolis and determined to defend it. 
 When Xerxes reached the city he found the 
 stronghold surrounded by wooden walls, but 
 these he soon fired Avith burning arrows. The 
 hill was presently carried and its defenders 
 slaughtered. The temple and other buildings 
 situated there were sacked and burned. The 
 city was pillaged and given to the flames. 
 The Persian had remembered Athens ; but it 
 was noticed that in the space of two days the 
 sacred olive-tree on the Acropolis suddenly 
 thrust forth a green shoot a cubit in length. 
 Athene saw her city in ashes, but spoke by 
 the olive branch the promise that she should 
 arise from her despair and ruin. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Persian fleet, re-collecting 
 its energies after the dubious victory of Arte- 
 mesium, sailed into the bay of Phalerum. 
 There were still more than a thousand ships 
 spared from the vengeance of the sea and the 
 prowess of the Greeks. In opposition to this 
 immense squadron the allies could number 
 but three hundred and sixty-six vessels, of 
 which two hundred were Athenian galleys, 
 and the rest from the confederate states. As 
 soon as Xerxes reached the coast he inspected 
 his fleet and held a council of w^ar. It was 
 determined to make an immediate attack 
 upon the Greek armament and at the same 
 time to send forward the land forces towards 
 Peloponnesus. This decision was reached 
 with great unanimity by the Persian com- 
 manders, only Queen Artemesia, of Halicar- 
 nassus, opposing the views of the majority. 
 
 On the other side there were dissensions 
 among the Greeks. The Peloponnesian com- 
 manders were eager to abandon Salamis and 
 sail southward for the protection of their own 
 coasts ; JHit Themistocles with great vehe- 
 mence urged the necessity of fighting where 
 they were. He showed the great importance 
 of giving battle in the narrow strait where 
 the superior numbers of the Persians would 
 give them but little advantage. Nevertheless, 
 the opposite opinion prevailed and it w'as 
 voted to retreat. 
 
 After the council Themistocles repaired to 
 the ship of Eury blades, and succeeded in 
 winning him over to the idea of present 
 
 battle. The commanders were again called 
 together, and after some discussion were or- 
 dered by Eurybiades to prepare for action. 
 Later in the night, however, news arrived 
 from Sparta representing the distress of the 
 people on account of the absence of the fleet, 
 and begging for its return. The council was 
 a third time convened, but Themistocles had 
 now determined to accomplish by a stratagem 
 what he could not effect by argument. He 
 despatched a trusted messenger to Xerxes, 
 and informed him that the Greek fleet was 
 about to sail, and advising the Persian to 
 divide his squadron, send one-half around the 
 island to the other extremity of the strait and 
 shut up the Greeks in their present predica- 
 ment. This advice was acted on by Xerxes; 
 and before the adjournment of the council 
 Aristides, returning from his banishment, 
 reached Salamis, came into the assembly, and 
 informed the body that the Persian fleet now 
 occupied both ends of the strait, and that 
 they must fight or perish. The scheme of 
 Themistocles had succeeded. 
 
 With the morning Xerxes had a throne 
 erected on Mount ^galeos, op2:)osite the bay 
 of Salamis, and from this perch he would 
 view the battle. Necessity had now brought 
 the Greeks to their work, and w'ith ardor they 
 prepared for battle. Themistocles was in his 
 glory. The Greek seamen were early at their 
 posts; nor were the Persians, now under the 
 eye of their king, slow in preparing for battle. 
 At the sound of the trumpet the allied fleet 
 moved forward to the attack. Just about to 
 engage the foe, however, they were seized 
 with alarm and fell back to the beach. But 
 then appeai'ed above the ships a female 
 figure, perhaps the august Athene herself, 
 and waved them to the attack. The Athenian 
 vessels thereupon bravely made the onset, 
 followed by the rest, nor was there any fur- 
 ther wavering. All day long the fight con- 
 tinued. The Persian fleet became more and 
 more confused in the narrow waters, which 
 aflforded no room for evolutions. The ships 
 were crowded upon each other and became 
 helpless. The attacks of the Greeks grew 
 constantly more audacious. The. fate of their 
 country now depended on the blows which
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 551 
 
 they dealt upon the barbarians. Every ship 
 that went to the bottom brought a revival of 
 hope, a promise of freedom. As the sun sank 
 low, victory declared for the Greeks. Two 
 hundred of the Persian ships had been de- 
 stroyed. Many more were captured. The 
 whole bay was covered with the wreck of 
 Asia. As the issue declared itself Xerxes, in 
 the extremity of terror and despair, rose and 
 fled. The residue of the fleet was scattered 
 to the winds. 
 
 The episode of the battle of Salamis oc- 
 
 landed on the island were attacked by a body 
 of heavy-armed soldiers led by Aristides, and 
 were destroyed to a man. The victory was 
 complete, and the sun set on one of the most 
 glorious days in Grecian history.^ 
 
 Xerxes, becoming concerned for his per- 
 sonal safety, quitted the country with all 
 haste. There was no need for such a flight; 
 for his army was but little reduced in num- 
 bers, and of his fleet there still remained a 
 squadron much larger than that of the Greeks ; 
 but the king had enough of that peculiar 
 
 BATTLE OF SALAMIS. 
 
 cured when Artemesia, queen of Caria, who 
 had tried to dissuade the king from risking 
 all in the straits of Salamis, performed prodi- 
 gies of valor in the fight. " My men are 
 women to-day, and my women men," said 
 Xerxes, as he beheld her bravery. Finally, 
 turning to fly, she struck a galley commanded 
 by one of her own countrymen, and sent both 
 it and the crew to the bottom. The Greek 
 commanders, seeing the deed and believing it 
 to have been purposely done, allowed the 
 queen to escape without pursuit. In the 
 meantime the Persian troops that had been 
 N.— Vol. 1—34 
 
 glory which came of battles with the Greeks, 
 and was eager to leave the land which his 
 father had been so anxious to remember. 
 Pressing forward as rapidly as he could 
 through Boeotia and Thessaly, he came, after 
 a march of forty-five days, to the Hellespont. 
 
 ' Lord Byron's graphic verse on the battle of 
 Salamis should not be omitted : 
 
 "A king sate on the rocky brow 
 
 Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; 
 And ships by thousands lay below, 
 
 And men in nations; all were his! 
 He counted them at break of day — 
 
 And when the sun set where were they?
 
 552 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The guard which had accompanied him were 
 reduced by famine and disease. Here the 
 fleet had been ordered to congregate after the 
 defeat at Salamis. The king found his ships, 
 but the great bridge had been destroyed by 
 the storms. He and his forces were carried to 
 the opposite side, and were safe in Asia. 
 And in the company there were no Athenians 
 wearing fetters! 
 
 As soon as the Greek commanders at Sala- 
 mis saw themselves victorious they began a 
 pursuit of the Persian fleet. This they kept 
 up as far as the island of Andros. The peo- 
 ple of many of the Cyclades had sided with 
 the Persians in the recent struggle, and were 
 now made to feel severely the folly of such a 
 course ; for Themistocles punished them with 
 little mercy for their defection from the na- 
 tional cause. From Andros onward the Persian 
 armament pursued its course without molesta- 
 tion to the Hellespont, where it received the 
 king and a remnant of his forces, and carried 
 them across to Asia. 
 
 Xerxes did not regard his flight from 
 Greece as an abandonment of the purposes 
 for which the expedition was undertaken. 
 Before determining his own course after the 
 battle of Salamis, he held a conference with 
 Mardonius, to whom he intrusted the com- 
 pletion of the conquest of Greece. For this 
 purpose three hundred thousand men were 
 left under his command. Mardonius flattered 
 his master with the assurance that the reverses 
 which he had suffered were but temporary 
 checks to the general progress of subjugation, 
 that one great object of the invasion — the de- 
 struction of Athens — had been accomplished, 
 that in the following spring he himself would 
 complete the work, and that Xerxes might 
 now retire from the country without dishonor. 
 This specious theory of the results of the in- 
 vasion had a soothing effect on the king, who 
 gladly left his son-in-law behind to finish or 
 be finished, and himself speedily returned to 
 the ease of his own capital. His throne in 
 the palace of Susa was an easier seat than 
 that which he had filled for a day on the 
 cliff" above Salamis! 
 
 While the battle of Salamis was fighting, 
 another conflict was raging between the 
 
 Greeks of Sicily and the Carthaginians, who 
 had invaded the island. The people of Sicily 
 were like the Greeks of Hellas, divided into 
 two parties. One of these favored the pre- 
 dominance of Carthaginian influence in the 
 island, while the other upheld the national 
 spirit, favoring independence. A certain 
 Terillus, governor of Himera, had been ex- 
 pelled by Theron, the despot of Agrigentum. 
 The deposed ruler and his adherents invited 
 in the Carthaginians, who, in B. C. 480, 
 came three hundred thousand strong under 
 the lead of Hamilcar, and proceeded to be- 
 siege Himera. But Gelon, the governor of 
 Syracuse, came to the rescue of the city with 
 an army of fifty-five thousand troops, and 
 with this force — comparatively small as it 
 was — attacked and routed the Carthaginians 
 with a loss, if we may trust Diodorus, of one- 
 half of their army, Hamilcar being among 
 the slain. The Carthaginian fleet was then 
 set on fire and consumed. The victory of 
 the Sicilian Greeks was, if possible, more com- 
 plete than that which their countrymen were 
 at that hour winning in the bay of Salamis. 
 
 With the opening of spring the remnant 
 of the Persian fleet in the jEgean, numbering 
 four hundred vessels, gathered at the island 
 of Samos. At this time the Grecian squadron 
 of one hundred and ten ships lay at -^gina ; 
 but, notwithstanding the great disparity in 
 the numerical strength of the two armaments, 
 the Persians made no sign of a disposition to 
 venture a battle. It was their business rather 
 to keep a watch on the Ionian cities, which 
 were again showing signs of insurrection. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mardonius began his campaign 
 for the comj)letion of the conquest of the 
 Greek states. His first measures were diplo- 
 matic. He consulted the oracles of Boeotia 
 and Phocis, and promulgated the idea of a 
 Perso-Athenian alliance against the Spartans. 
 Alexander, the then king of Macedonia, was 
 sent to the authorities of Athens with flatter- 
 ing overtures. Their city should be restored. 
 Their territory should be extended. The king 
 of Persia would become their friend. Sparta 
 should be humiliated. The first place should 
 be given to Athens. But the seductions of 
 the foe were all in vain. Alexander was dis-
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 553 
 
 missed with words to the effect that his j^er- 
 sonal safety would better be consulted before 
 he became the bearer of another such a mes- 
 sage to the Athenians. Sparta, however, was 
 anxious, and sent envoys to counteract the 
 dangerous temptations held out by the Per- 
 sians. To these messengers Athens replied that 
 all that was expected of Sparta was that she 
 should send an array into Attica to help pro- 
 tect the northern frontier against the coming 
 attack of Mardonius. The envoys promised, 
 then went home, and then, with their usual 
 perfidy, pleaded adverse omens as a reason for 
 non-fulfillment. 
 
 In May of B. C. 479 Mardonius again 
 advanced into Attica and occupied Athens. 
 The people of the city retired as before to 
 Salamis. From hence they sent a hurried 
 embassy to Sparta, imploring aid against the 
 common foe and intimating (what they 
 never intended) that circumstances might 
 compel them to accept the overtvires of the 
 Persians. No answer was returned for the 
 space of ten days, and the Athenians were on 
 the edge of despair, when the aged Chileos in 
 the Spartan council reminded them that if an 
 alliance should be effected between the Athe- 
 nians and the Persians, the ships of the former 
 might easily bring the whole army of the lat- 
 ter into the heart of Peloponnesus. The 
 Spartans were thrown into the utmost alarm 
 by the suggestion, and a force of ten thousand 
 men, besides a still larger body of Perioeci 
 and Helots, was at once dispatched into Cen- 
 tral Greece. The command of this army was 
 given to Pausanias, the Spartan regent for 
 the son of Leonidas. 
 
 Mardonius, seeing that diplomacy was use- 
 less, destroyed what remained of Athens, and 
 retiring into Boeotia took his station near the 
 little town of Plat^a. Here he laid off a 
 camp a mile and a-quarter square, and forti- 
 fied it with barricades. The Spartans, ad- 
 vancing by way of the isthmus, were reen- 
 forced by eight thousand Athenians, three 
 thousand Megarians, and six hundred Platse- 
 ans. The total force gathered for the battle 
 numbered thirty-eight thousand seven hun- 
 dred heavy-armed soldiers, seventy thousand 
 Helots and other troops of light armor, and 
 
 one thousand eight hundred Thespians — - 
 amounting to about one hundred and tea 
 thousand men. 
 
 Crossing the range of Cithaeron, the Greeks 
 came in sight of their foe drawn up in order 
 of battle. Having no cavalry, Pausanias 
 occupied the rougher grounds and aimed to 
 draw the Persian from the position which 
 gave freedom to his horse. Mardonius or- 
 dered a charge against his antagonist, and the 
 same was bravely made. The Greeks suffered 
 not a little from the onset, but were success- 
 ful in killing Masistius, the commander of the 
 cavalry. They threw his body into a cart and 
 exhibited it along the lines. When the Persians 
 fell back from the onset, Pausanias descended 
 from the heights for a general battle on the 
 grounds chosen by the Persians. The right 
 wing, being the post of honor, was held by 
 the Spartans, and the left by the Athenians. 
 The little river Asopus lay between the two 
 armies. Mardonius, with the best of the 
 Medes and Persians, took his position in the 
 left wing, so as to face Pausanias and his 
 Lacedaemonians, the Persian right, numbering 
 fifty thousand men, being allotted to the 
 Greek allies of the enemy. Then there was 
 a pause. Destiny from one side of the river 
 glared in the face of Fate on the other. 
 
 Both armies were reluctant to begin the 
 contest. For eight days each maintained its po- 
 sition, fearing the awful hazard of the onset. 
 Finally, Mardonius succeeded in cutting oflf 
 the supply train of the Greeks, and captured 
 five hundred of their beasts of burden in de- 
 files of the Cithseron. He was then advised 
 to follow up this policy, and at the same time 
 to try the effect of bribes upon the leaders of 
 the Greeks. But Mardonius rejected the ad- 
 vice and gave the orders for a general attack. 
 
 On the following night an incident oc- 
 curred highly illustrative of the spirit and 
 disposition of the age and people. Alexander 
 of Macedon stole out of the Persian camp in 
 the darkness, rode to the Greek outposts, 
 called for Aristides, and informed him of the 
 impending attack. As an excuse for his 
 treachery, he added: "I am myself a Greek 
 by descent, and with sorrow would I see 
 Hellas enslaved by these Persians."
 
 554 
 
 UNIVERSAL mSTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Aristides at once informed the generals of 
 the Greeks of what might be expected on the 
 morrow, and preparations were made accord- 
 ingly for the coming battle. Still, with the 
 morning dawn, each army hesitated to make 
 the onset. Finally the Persian cavalry began 
 the fight, and succeeded in cutting off the 
 Greeks from the fountain of Gargaphia, 
 fv'hich supplied the camp with water. This 
 was the only important movement of the day. 
 
 With the coming of night Pausanias gave 
 orders for the Greeks to fall back a mile and a 
 
 soon as the front line of the Persians had re- 
 coiled from the shock, Pausanias gave the or- 
 der to charge. The fighting became at once 
 general and desperate. The Persians exhib- 
 ited unusual valor. They flung themselves 
 with reckless courage upon the spears of the 
 Spartans, only to be transfixed by the thou- 
 sand. The invincible Lacedaemonian phalanx 
 moved forward like an avalanche in its work 
 of destruction. It seemed a huge beast forti- 
 fied on every side with bristling quills, urging 
 its way now to the right and now to the left, 
 
 SPARTANS AT PLAT.EA. 
 
 half to a position which he considered more 
 favorable for the battle. This change of po- 
 sition, however, was not accomplished without 
 considerable confusion ancl dispute among the 
 officers of the allied army. On seeing the 
 Spartans in full retreat — a sight not often 
 witnessed by a Persian general — Mardonius 
 at once gave orders for pursuit. The Persians 
 dashed across the Asopus, ascended the hill 
 recently occupied by the Greeks, and fell 
 upon the Lacedaemonians, hastily but steadily 
 deployed into line of battle. The onset made 
 but little impression on the Greeks, and as 
 
 trampling in the bloody dust the mangled 
 bodies of the barbarians. Mardonius at- 
 tempted in vain to stay the battle. At 
 the head of his body-guard of a thousand 
 men, he fought with conspicuous bravery 
 until he was pierced with a Grecian dart and 
 fell dead from his charger. It was the signal 
 of the rout. 
 
 The Persians, immemorially accustomed 
 to attribute victory and defeat to their 
 leader, broke and fled beyond the Asopus. 
 So rapidly had the work of destruction been 
 accomplished by the allied army that a divi-
 
 GREECE.— THE PERSIAN WARS. 
 
 555 
 
 sion of forty thousand Persians, commanded 
 by Artabazus, did not reach the field until 
 after the rout. More panic struck, however, 
 than his fellow-generals who had participated 
 in the battle, he broke away without deliver- 
 ing a blow, and fled in the direction of the 
 Hellespont. The allied Greeks, flushed with 
 victory, pursued the main body of the Per- 
 sians to their fortified camp beyond the Aso- 
 pus, stormed the barricades, and slaughtered 
 the disorganized barbarian host till the whole 
 area ran with blood. Rarely in the annals 
 of war had such a scene of carnage been wit- 
 nessed as the infuriated Greeks enacted in 
 this final arena of the great invasion. Such 
 was the fearful destruction that of the three 
 hundred thousand soldiers in the army of 
 Mardonius, only three thousand or four thou- 
 sand escaped with their lives. The sword of 
 Hellas had pierced the heart of Asiatic 
 pomp and the huge carcass of despotism was 
 stretched upon the plain of Platsea, never to 
 rise again. 
 
 Ten days were consumed in dividing the 
 spoils of the battle. The body of Mardonius 
 was decently buried by Pausanias. The 
 sword and silver-footed throne of the Persian 
 commander and the breast-plate of Masistius 
 were carried in triumph by the Athenians to 
 Athens and deposited among the trophies of 
 the Acropolis. Immense was the booty gath- 
 ered from the field and camp. Every thing 
 with which oriental luxury and magnificence 
 could decorate an army was strewn for miles 
 in the dust. Of this one portion was set aside 
 for the Delphic oracle ; another share went to 
 the temple of the Olympian Zeus; and still 
 another to the Isthmian Poseidon. Pausanias 
 himself was largely rewarded from the wreck 
 of Asia, and the remaining enormous aggre- 
 gate of booty was divided among the allied 
 forces in proportion to their numbers. 
 
 Of all the Greek cities that had espoused 
 the cause of the Persians, the most conspicu- 
 ous in her treason to the national cause was 
 Thebes. In the recent battle the Theban 
 contingent had been posted by Mardonius op- 
 posite the Athenians, and had fought Avith 
 desperate valor. To punish them and their 
 city seemed to the allies to be the first duty 
 
 incumbent after the destruction of the Persian 
 army. Accordingly the Spartans proceeded 
 to ravage the Theban territory and besiege 
 the city. A demand was made upon the 
 authorities that those leaders who had led the 
 people into the unnatural alliance with the 
 Persians should be given up for punishment. 
 When this was refused on the part of the 
 city, the leaders made a voluntary surrender 
 of themselves, expecting that a large ransom 
 would procure their relief. It was a fatal 
 mistake. For no sooner were they in the 
 power of Pausanias than they were sent to 
 Corinth and executed without trial. 
 
 On the same day of the battle of Platsea, 
 which completed " the wreck of the Persian 
 army, the final destruction of the great fleet 
 was accomplished on the coast of Asia ]\Iinor. 
 After transferring across the Hellespont that 
 remnant of the Persian army which accom- 
 panied Xerxes on his homeward flight, what 
 remained of the Persian squadron from the 
 havoc of Artemesium and Salamis dropped 
 down the coast and anchored at the headland 
 of Mycale, near the city of Miletus. Thither 
 they were pursued by the Spartan leader 
 Leotychides; but before his arrival, the Per- 
 sians, rather than hazard another sea-fight 
 with the victorious Greeks, drew their remain- 
 ing ships ashore, surrounded them with a ram- 
 part, and placed for their defense an army of 
 sixty thousand Persians under command of 
 Tigranes. 
 
 The Greeks followed, came to anchor, made 
 a landing, and immediately joined battle. No 
 sooner were the first defenses of the Persians 
 carried by the impetuosity of the attack 
 than they turned and fled. They were hotly 
 pursued into the principal fortification, which 
 was soon carried by the assailants, though not 
 without some desperate fighting. As soon, 
 however, as the Spartan reserve came up 
 and the Ionian Greeks in the army of Ti- 
 granes mutinied in the ranks, the victory was 
 completed. Tigranes and Mardontes, the 
 other Persian general, were both killed; the 
 fleet was burned to ashes, and as the coast 
 wind scattered them along the shore and bay^ 
 the last fragments of the greatest expedition 
 known in the annals of the ancient world
 
 556 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 were tossed into dust and oblivion. The 
 dreams of him who three times daily at his 
 own command was reminded to remember the 
 Athenians, and the proud .visions of his son, 
 cherished from the jialace of Susa to the 
 
 Hellespont, and from the Hellespont to Thes- 
 saly, had been so completely dissipated that 
 no ambitious imagination of Oriental king or 
 general ever durst again evoke them from 
 the shadows. 
 
 CHAPTER x:ivV.— The Athenian Ascendency. 
 
 general of the Greeks 
 ever showed himself less 
 able than Pausanias to 
 bear success with equa- 
 nimity. After the battle 
 of Platsea, he began at 
 once to disj)lay his vanity, 
 his insolence, his disloyalty. He hired Si- 
 mouides, the poet, to attribute the victory 
 solely to himself; and a like piece of vain- 
 glory was manifested in an inscription which 
 he caused to be i:)laced on a tripod at the 
 shrine of Delphi. Still he remained in com- 
 mand of the Spartan army, and conducted a 
 successful campaign against Byzantium. At 
 the capture of this place, several members of 
 the royal household fell into his power. This 
 fact furnished him with an opportunity to 
 open negotiations with the Persian court, in- 
 volving his own perfidy and treason. He 
 sent privately to Xerxes the members of his 
 family, and at the same time gave it out to 
 his own countrymen that his high-born Persian 
 captives had escaped. Along with this princely 
 present to the Great King, he sent to him a 
 letter to the following eflJect: — 
 
 "Pausanias, the Spartan commander, wish- 
 ing to oblige thee, sends back these prisoners 
 of war. I am minded, if it please thee, • to 
 marry thy daughter and to bring Sparta and 
 the rest of Greece under thy dominion. This 
 I hold myself able to do with the help of thy 
 counsels. If, therefore, the project at all 
 pleases thee, send down some trustworthy man 
 to the coast through whom we may carry on 
 aur future correspondence." 
 
 This letter, being so full of perfidy, was 
 of precisely the kind to delight a Persian 
 monarch — particularly Xerxes. He imme- 
 
 diately responded in a manner highly flatter- 
 ing to Pausanias. The princess was promised 
 to him in marriage ; lavish supplies of money 
 were sent forward, and he was urged to prose- 
 cute his plans as rapidly as possible, with the 
 assurance that the king of Persia would not 
 be slow in supplying all his needs. It was in 
 the nature of Pausanias to discount his pros- 
 pects. He began to realize on the possible 
 by assuming the dress and manners of a Per- 
 sian prince. His command of the fleet was 
 in that style of elaborate flummery j^eculiar 
 to eastern officers. This thing was from the 
 first exceedingly distasteful to the captains 
 and seamen of the allied fleet. The news 
 reached Sparta, and that sedate commonwealth, 
 shocked at the shameless disloyalty of her 
 officer, immediately dispatched Dorcis to super- 
 sede him. But before the arrival of the latter, 
 the captains of the fleet, disgusted with the 
 conduct of Pausanias, had themselves trans- 
 ferred the command from him to the Athe- 
 nians. 
 
 Such, however, was the strict subordination 
 of the Spartans to authority that the larger 
 part of their squadron accompanied the dis- 
 graced Pausanias on his return home." This 
 left Dorcis with so few ships at his disposal 
 that he could not resist the transfer of the 
 command to the fleet of Athens, which ever 
 since the battle of Salamis had given to that 
 city a preponderating reputation and influence 
 in the afl^airs of Greece. This circumstance 
 became the central fact in the Athenian Su- 
 premacy. The Ionian cities of Asia Minor 
 and most of the adjacent islands, inhabited as 
 they were by people of the same race with 
 the Athenians, were well pleased with this in- 
 crease of power on the part of their kinsmen
 
 GREECE.— THE ATHENIAN ASCENDENCY. 
 
 557 
 
 in European Greece, for they saw in this fact 
 the possible — even the probable — deliverance 
 of themselves from the thralklom of Persia. 
 The leadership of Athens was therefore gladly 
 recognized by all the louiaus, and the senti- 
 ment spread until the islands of Rhodes, Cos, 
 Lesbos, and Tenydos, together with the Greek 
 towns on the Chalcidician peninsula, joined 
 in the league, by which was formed, under 
 the patronage of Athens and through the in- 
 fluence of Aristides, the Confederacy of 
 Delos. It was agreed that hereafter, in the 
 interests of Greece, deputies from all the 
 states represented in the league should an- 
 nually assemble at the temple of Apollo and 
 Artemis, in the island of Delos, to discuss 
 questions pertaining to the welfare of the con- 
 federation and the honor of the Greek name. 
 
 As soon as the league was formed the com- 
 mand of the allied fleet was transferred from 
 Aristides to Cimon. He immediately set out 
 on an expedition against the town of Eion, 
 on the river Strymon. This place was deliv- 
 ered from Persian rule, and in B. C. 470, the 
 island of Scyros was reduced by the fleet and 
 colonized with Athenians. This rapid growth 
 of the power of Athens was hailed by most 
 of the states of Greece as a reward fairly 
 earned by her heroic conduct in the Persian 
 wars. But to Sparta this splendid rise of her 
 rival from the ashes of despair was gall and 
 wormwood. She looked with a lack-luster 
 and jealous eye on the doings of the Confed- 
 eracy of Delos and the extension of Athenian 
 reputation. Nor were the agencies by which 
 Athens at home, among the extinct cinders 
 of her recent overthrow, had again become 
 so suddenly the pride of Central Greece, more 
 pleasing to the narrow-minded Lacedaemonians 
 who were more stung with the arrows of jeal- 
 ousy than by the darts of the enemy. For 
 this sudden development of reviving energy 
 was traceable most of all to the superhuman 
 energies of two Athenian statesmen, Themis- 
 tocles and Aristides. To the latter, as already 
 said, was due the formation of the Confeder- 
 acy of Delos, and to the former the growth 
 and extension of the maritime power of the 
 state. 
 
 Meanwhile, the city so recently consumed 
 
 by Persian wrath was rapidly rebuilding. 
 The houseless fugitives came back from Trce- 
 zen, J^gina, and Salamis. The streets were 
 widened and extended. Ambition rose with 
 the occasion. Beauty was consulted ; and 
 also safety. For it was determined to sur- 
 round Athens with walls and fortifications 
 against which the waves of barbarism would 
 hereafter beat in vain. These measures, so 
 natural and necessary, greatly excited the 
 jealousy of the J^ginetans, and knowing the 
 disposition of Sparta, they sent to her an em- 
 bassy earnestly advising the Lacedaemonians 
 to interfere and prevent the completion of 
 the works by which Athens would be ren- 
 dered independent alike of foreign and do- 
 mestic animosity. The Spartans would gladly 
 have undertaken this work, but the crafty 
 Themistocles outwitted them in negotiation 
 until what time the fortifications were so well 
 advanced as no longer to require concealment 
 or apology. Themistocles, thus freed from inter- 
 state difficulties, devoted himself assiduously 
 to the increase of the navy and development of 
 Athenian commerce. The harbor of Piraeus 
 was improved and surrounded with an im- 
 pregnaljle wall sixty feet in height. Every 
 exposed part of the peninsula was rendered 
 defensible, and Athens felt secure behind her 
 ramparts. 
 
 In this period of rapid recovery political 
 rancor in a great measure subsided. Themis* 
 tocles and Aristides made common cause in 
 rehabilitating the state. The latter had so 
 far modified his opinions as to accept the 
 democratic tendencies of his countrymen as 
 natural and right. He himself brought for- 
 ward and secured the passage of a law by 
 which all restrictions were removed from the 
 Thetes or Fourth Estate, and themselves made 
 eligible to the highest offices in the gift of 
 the state. 
 
 Thus at last the archonship and also mem- 
 bership in the court of Areopagus were 
 opened to the humblest citizen of the com- 
 monwealth. Under the impulse of these pro- 
 gressive measures every enterprise of the 
 Athenians sprang forward with unwonted 
 rapidity and success. The only drawback 
 upon the prosperity of the city and state was
 
 558 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the spirit of party and the untrustworthiness 
 of political leadership. These dangers were 
 
 elective officer. He put on pomp. He 
 boasted of what he had done for the state. 
 
 mimA 
 
 wlmkr ji; 
 
 if'fl 
 
 '^liiiiilil; 
 
 g^m 
 
 m 
 
 '•!ifl^!' 
 
 specially manifested in the case of Themisto- 
 cles. Coming to consider himself infallible, 
 he assumed a carriage unbecoming in an 
 
 He acquired luxurious habits ; and these had 
 to be supported by peculation and corruption 
 in office. When sent out with a squadron to
 
 GREECE.— THE ATHENIAN ASCENDENCY. 
 
 559 
 
 restore order among the Cyclades by putting 
 down certain irresponsible governors who had 
 usurped authority during the Persian wars, 
 he compounded with several of the petty 
 despots for money. 
 
 Meanwhile Cimon and Alcmseon had be- 
 come the leaders of what remained of the old 
 aristocratic party in Athens. They made no 
 concealment of their preference for the con- 
 stitution of Sparta over the too democratic 
 institutions of their own city. In this fact 
 was laid the foundation of a Lacedsemonian 
 faction in the heart of Athens ; and it was 
 not long in making itself felt, to the injury of 
 the state. It will be remembered that Pau- 
 sanias had been deposed from the command 
 of the allied fleet at Byzantium on account 
 of his too manifest intrigues with the Per- 
 sians. The party of Cimon was now insti- 
 gated from Sparta to prefer the same charge 
 against Themistocles, and he was accordingly 
 accused of being in collusion with the court 
 of Susa. This charge, however, could not be 
 sustained, but the manners and conduct of 
 their leader had become so distasteful to the 
 Athenians that in a short time an appeal was 
 made to the ostracism and Themistocles was 
 banished. 
 
 He went first to Argos, where he re- 
 mained five years. Before the expiration of 
 that time, however, proofs were discovered of 
 his being implicated with Pausanias in a trea- 
 sonable correspondence with Persia. The 
 Spartan leader after his downfall had returned 
 to the service as a private, had then lived in 
 Asia Minor, had time and again been sus- 
 pected of disloyalty, had been recalled to 
 Sparta, but not brought to trial on account of 
 the trepidation of the Ephors in the presence 
 of the criminal. By and by Pausanias dis- 
 patched a slave to bear a letter to Asia; but 
 the slave remembering that his fellows who 
 had previously gone on such missions had 
 never returned, broke the seal and read how 
 he himself was to be killed as soon as the 
 letter was delivered. He went in terror and 
 gave the missive to the Ephors. The latter 
 thus obtained convincing proofs of the guilt of 
 Pausanias, and were about to arrest him when 
 he fled to the temple of Poseidon. Not daring 
 
 to drag him from the altar they ordered masons 
 to build up the doors, and in this work the mother 
 came and laid the first stone. When the 
 wall was built solid the roof was removed 
 and Pausanias was left to starve to death. 
 When in the agonies of death, however, his 
 body was carried out lest it should pollute the 
 altar. His correspondence was rifled and 
 letters were found showing that Themistocles 
 was also in the conspiracy to deliver Greece 
 to Persia. Sparta thereupon renewed her 
 demand that the great Athenian should be 
 brought to trial. When about to be arrested, 
 hoAvever, Themistocles fled, first to the court 
 of Admetus, king of the Molossians, thence 
 to Asia Minor, and thence to Artaxerxes at 
 Susa. Here he became a resident, in close 
 confidence of the Persian king. By him, 
 after a year, the Greek was sent to Magnesia 
 and given the revenues of that city for sup- 
 port — this with the understanding that the 
 plans now matured for delivering his country 
 to Artaxerxes should be carried out. But in 
 a short time Themistocles died, nor was the 
 suspicion wanting that he killed himself in a 
 fit of despair. Thus in utter disgrace per- 
 ished the heroes of Plataea and Salamis. 
 
 Aristides held out faithful to the end. He 
 died four years after the banishment of The- 
 mistocles, and such was his poverty that he 
 was buried at the public expense. Neverthe- 
 less he kept until the hour of his death his 
 hold upon the public confidence, and he was 
 at that time archon eponymos of the city. 
 His sterling virtues had served a better pur- 
 pose in the great issue of life than the bril- 
 liant talents of Themistocles or the military 
 genius of Miltiades. His reputation remained 
 untarnished to the last, and the historians of 
 his country have transmitted his spotless fame 
 to an admiring posterity. 
 
 By the death of the great leader, CraoN 
 was left in the lead of Athenian politics. 
 Although his antecedents placed him in th6 
 ranks of the old oligarchical party, his man- 
 ners, talents, and address rendered him popu- 
 lar with the masses. He was a citizen of un- 
 doubted patriotism, and expended a good part 
 of his revenue in adorning the city. His own 
 house was a public resort, in which every
 
 560 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD, 
 
 thing was open and free, even to people of 
 the poorest class. He was, however, a soldier 
 rather than a statesman, and possessed but 
 little taste for literature and art. 
 
 During his leadership occurred the revolt 
 of Naxos against the Confederacy of Delos. 
 In B. C. 466, this island renounced the com- 
 pact and took up arms, but the insurrection 
 was quickly suppressed by Cimon, and the Nax- 
 ians were obliged to resume their tributary re- 
 lations to Athens. Soon afterwards the allied 
 squadron sailed to the coast of Asia Minor, 
 and gained at the mouth of the river Eury- 
 medon a great victory over the fleet and 
 army of the Persians. Thus by means of 
 their naval superiority did the Athenians es- 
 tablish on a still firmer foundation their su- 
 premacy over the members of the confederacy. 
 
 In the next year after the reduction of 
 Naxos, the government of Athens, then pursu- 
 ing a policy of colonization, was opposed in 
 making a settlement by the people of Thasos, 
 and this island was subjected to a blockade 
 and siege. Before the same was concluded, 
 the Thasians sent to Sparta and requested 
 that state to make a diversion in their favor 
 by an invasion of Attica. This proposition, 
 base as it was, was about to be accepted by 
 the Lacedsemonians when they were prevented 
 by a series of calamities which brought the 
 state to the lowest ebb of fortune. First 
 came a violent earthquake, which laid the 
 city in ruins and killed twenty thousand of 
 the inhabitants. Hard after this followed a 
 revolt of the Helots, who, believing that Po- 
 seidon had shaken down the stronghold of 
 their oj^pressors, rose with what weapons they 
 could gather and began to kill and burn. 
 They were joined by the Messenians, who, 
 through generations of hatred, awaited an 
 opportunity to be revenged. When the mot- 
 ley crew of insurrectionists were beaten back 
 from Laconia, they shut themselves up in the 
 old fortress of Ithome and were besieged. 
 
 The Spartans, having little skill in taking 
 fortified towns, sent for the Athenians to help 
 them, although at this very time they were 
 engaged with the Thasians in a perfidious 
 scheme to invade Attica. Athens responded 
 to the call, and sent down a large force to 
 
 aid in the reduction of Ithome ; but the Spar- 
 tans, unable to conceal their spleen, soon dis- 
 missed them with contempt and carried on 
 the siege alone. The troops had been sent 
 into Messenia through the influence of Cimon, 
 an avowed friend of the Spartans, and their 
 dismissal was so flagrant an insult as to break 
 down Cimon's party and put the conduct of 
 affairs into the hands of the democrats. The 
 latter were now under the leadership of a 
 young man, who, as a politician and states- 
 man, was destined soon to surpass all his pred- 
 ecessors — Pericles, the orator and scholar. 
 
 In the Athenian government, as it was 
 now constituted, the venerable court of Areop- 
 agus was the last hold of the old oligarchical 
 party. Its right, to exercise a general super- 
 vision over the citizens as it respected their 
 manners and vocations was so exceedingly un- 
 democratic as to be borne with extreme 
 impatience by the progressive element in 
 Athenian politics. Even Aristides, strongly 
 conservative as he was, had consented, in 
 obedience to the popular demand, that the 
 membership of the court should no longer be 
 limited to the Eupatridse, or First Estate; 
 but this concession was not enough, and 
 Pericles succeeded in striking at the founda- 
 tions of privilege by making the members of 
 the court to be chosen by lot. Other innova- 
 tions followed, until not only this august 
 body of ancient Greece, but also the Senate 
 of Five Hundred, was reduced to a mere 
 specter of its former self. Finally, the tables 
 of the laws of Solon were brought down from 
 the Acropolis and deposited in the market- 
 place, as if to say that henceforth the powers 
 of the Athenian commonwealth were to be 
 exercised directly by the people. 
 
 These measures — amounting to a revolu- 
 tion — were not accomplished but with an 
 excess of party strife. Ephiaites, the friend 
 of Pericles, by whose efforts the Solonian 
 tablets had been brought down to the market- 
 square, was assassinated. Cimon was ostra- 
 cized for ten years. The oligarchical party 
 went down in ruins, and the leadership of 
 Pericles was firmly established. 
 
 The new statesmen belonged to the school 
 of Themistocles. His policy looked to the
 
 GREECE.— THE ATHENIAN ASCENDENCY. 
 
 561 
 
 extension of the influence of Greece in Eu- 
 rope. Sparta and Spartan institutions he 
 held in undisguised contempt. To weaken by 
 every possible means the influence of the 
 Lacediemoniaus was one of his leading polit- 
 ical principles. Without hesitation he allied 
 himself freely with Argos and Megara, the 
 traditional enemies of Sparta. By these overt 
 acts the jealousy of Sparta was heated into 
 animosity soon to burst into the flames of war. 
 
 In the mean time the allied fleet, under the 
 lead of the Athenians, was successfully ex- 
 tending the dominion of Greece on the sea. 
 While cruising on the coast of Cyprus and 
 Phoenicia, the squadron was, in B. C. 460, 
 called upon by the revolt of Inarus to inter- 
 fere in the affairs of Egypt. The Greek 
 sailed up the NUe, and bore an active part in 
 the overthrow of Persian authority. For four 
 or five years they conducted a siege of the so- 
 called White Fortress, in which the Persians 
 had shut themselves up. With the coming of 
 Megabyzus and his army, the Athenians were 
 in turn besieged in the island of Prosopitis, 
 and were finally obliged to surrender. Con- 
 trary to the stipulated terms, the greater 
 number of the captives were put to death, 
 Inarus himself being crucified. The fleet was 
 mostly destroyed, and fifty additional ships 
 which arrived just after the surrender were 
 also captured and burnt. 
 
 During the occurrence of these events, the 
 inhabitants of -lEgina, unable longer to re- 
 strain their jealousy, induced the Corinthians 
 and Epidaurians to join them, and gave battle 
 to an Athenian squadron near their own 
 island. ' It was the first act of actual hostility 
 between the Dorian and Ionian races in Eu- 
 ropean Greece. The Athenians were com- 
 pletely victorious, capturing seventy ships 
 from the -^ginetans, lauding a large force on 
 the shore, and laying siege to their principal 
 city. Sparta meanwhile was unable to inter- 
 fere on behalf of her friends ; for the Helots 
 were still in insurrection, and gave the Lace- 
 daemonians full occupation in their own coun- 
 try. So alarming, however, was the growth 
 of Athens, that even before the siege of 
 Ithome had been brought to a successful issue 
 the Spartan government ordered an army of 
 
 one thousand five hundred heavy -armed sol- 
 diers and ten thousand allies to march into 
 Doris, for the ostensible purpose of aiding that 
 state against the Phocians, but with the real 
 object of checking the progress of Atheus in 
 Central Greece. The true purjDOse, however, 
 was soon discovered, for the Spartans, after 
 having settled to their satisfaction the affairs 
 of Doris and Bceotia, took up a menacing 
 position at Tanagra, on the very borders of 
 Attica. This was more than the Athenians 
 could tamely bear. They marched out with 
 such forces as they could rally for the occa- 
 sion, and fought a bloody battle with the 
 Spartans, in which, though the results were 
 indecisive, the latter had the advantage. They 
 next crossed over into Attica, and then pro- 
 ceeded homewards, ravaging as they went. 
 
 The general effect of this digression was 
 favorable to Athens. Party strife was hushed 
 in the presence of the common danger. CH- 
 mon himself on the eve of the recent battle 
 left the place of his banishment, repaired to 
 the Athenian army, and asked permission to 
 fight in the ranks with his countrymen. 
 When this was refused, he set up his armor 
 on the battle-field and exhorted his friends to 
 rally to it and strike home for Athens. Such 
 was the eflTect of this patriotic conduct that a 
 measure, recalling him from exile, was at once 
 proposed by Pericles and passed by the as- 
 sembly. 
 
 The concord which was thus introduced into 
 the stormy arena of Athenian politics was so 
 marked that the city bounded forward on a 
 new career of prosperity. Within two months 
 after the battle of Tanagra, the Athenians 
 again marched into Bceotia and met the army 
 of that state on the bloody field of (Eno- 
 PHYTA. Here under the command of Myron- 
 ides, they gained a complete and over- 
 whelming victory. Thebes, the capital, and 
 all the other Boeotian towns were taken by the 
 Athenians. The oligarchical government, re- 
 cently established by the influence of the 
 Spartans, was overthrown, and democracies 
 instituted in their stead. The Athenian army 
 then marched through Phocis and Locris, 
 compelling them also to conform to the new 
 democratic reghne, which was thus extended
 
 562 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 from the gulf of Corinth to the pass of 
 Thermopylae. 
 
 In the mean time Pericles had undertaken 
 and completed those celebrated works known 
 as the Long AValls, by which the two sea- 
 ports of Athens — Phalerum and Pirseus — were 
 joined with the city. One of these walls 
 was four miles and the other four and a-half 
 miles in length. They were built so thick 
 and high as to be impregnable to any ordi- 
 nary assault, and furnished an abundant pro- 
 tection to the commercial and foreign inter- 
 ests of Athens. The ascendency thus gained 
 by the city was so undisputed that, for a 
 number of years, not even the Spartans dared 
 to break the peace which the Athenians had 
 
 enforced in Cen- 
 tral Greece. A 
 five years' truce 
 was concluded be- 
 tween them, dur- 
 ing which time 
 Cimon, in the 
 prosecution of his 
 cherished ambi- 
 tion against the 
 Persians, con- 
 ducted an expe- 
 dition to Cyprus 
 and laid siege to 
 the town of Cit- 
 ium. While this 
 was in progress 
 the great general 
 died and was suc- 
 ceeded by Anaxicrates, who abandoned the 
 siege, but soon afterward gained a decisive 
 victory over the combined fleets of Phoeni- 
 cians and Cilicians. 
 
 In a short time after these events a general 
 peace was made between the Persians and 
 the Greeks. It was agreed, half informally 
 and half by actual stipulations, that the Per- 
 sian king would no longer tax or disturb, in 
 any way, the Greek colonies on the coast of 
 Asia Minor; nor would he send any vessel 
 01 war to the west of a line drawn from the 
 Thracian Bosphorus to Phaselis, in Lycia. As 
 for the Athenians, they should refrain from 
 all further aggression, and concede to the 
 
 PERICLES. 
 
 London, British Museum. 
 
 Persians the undisturbed possession of Cyprus 
 and Egypt. 
 
 By this time the sway of Athens had be- 
 come so complete, not only in European 
 Greece, but among the Cyclades, that the 
 Confederacy of Delos was virtually extin- 
 guished by her authority. Even the treasury 
 of the league had been quietly transferred 
 by the Athenians from Delos to their own 
 city. In Central Greece the states of Mega- 
 ris, Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris, and in Pelo- 
 ponnesus Trcezenia and Achaia had been 
 almost completely subordinated to Athenian 
 domination. It was virtually a Greek empire 
 under the leadership of Athens. The city 
 was now at the acme of her influence and 
 sj)lendor. For a few years, at the middle of 
 the fifth century B. C, it may fairly be al- 
 lowed that, for intellectual greatness, archi- 
 tectural achievement, and artistic fame Athens 
 far surpassed any city of the ancient, and per- 
 haps of the modern, world. It was, however, 
 politically speaking, a short-lived glory. The 
 nature of the bonds which united Athens to 
 the dependent states were such as at any mo- 
 ment to be snapped asunder. 
 
 In B. C. 447, Boeotia threw oflf the Athe- 
 nian yoke and made herself independent. In 
 a futile attempt to suppress the insurrection, 
 Tolmides, with one thousand heavy-armed 
 soldiers — a force entirely inadequate to such 
 an enterprise — was disastrously defeated and 
 himself slain. Then followed in quick suc- 
 cession similar revolts in Phocis, Locris, Eu- 
 boea, and Megaris. Ilien came the Spartans, 
 headed by the king, Pleistoanax, and entered 
 the Attic territory. Nor is it certain that 
 Athens herself would not then have fallen 
 into the power of the Lacedsemonians but for 
 the means employed by Pericles, who is said 
 to have bribed the invaders to withdraw from 
 the country. To compensate for these losses, 
 the Athenian leader had nothing to boast ex- 
 cept the reconquest of Euboea. Such had 
 been the collapse of Athenian pretensions 
 that, in B. C. 445, Pericles was glad to enter 
 into a truce of thirty years with Sparta, by the 
 terms of which the Athenians agreed to aban- 
 don all conquests except in the Gulf of Corinth, 
 and to leave the other states to their freedom.
 
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 GREECE.— THE ATHENIAN ASCENDENCY. 
 
 565 
 
 These disasters of Athens, bringing with 
 them a decline in the influence of Pericles, 
 gave opportunity in the city for the revival 
 of the party of the oligarchy. This was ef- 
 fected under the leadership of Thucydedes, a 
 man of distinguished abilities, but not of such 
 commanding genius as to be a fit opponent 
 for Pericles. It was the circumstances rather 
 than the preeminent talents of the leader that 
 made him the competitor of the great demo- 
 crat. Nor were the methods which he and 
 his adherents adopted better calculated to win 
 the favor of the 
 Athenian populace. i^^"^"" 
 
 After beating in vain 
 for a season against 
 the democratic ma- 
 jority, Thucydides 
 was relieved of the 
 cares of party leader- 
 ship by being ostra- 
 cized. His party was 
 broken up by his 
 downfall, and Peri- 
 cles, during the rest 
 of his life, remained 
 the undisputed leader 
 of Athenian politics. 
 
 With the over- 
 throw of the party 
 of the aristocracy, 
 Athens, as a city, 
 was raised to the 
 highest pitch of 
 glory. Whatever art 
 
 and letters and refinement could do to gild 
 the splendid capital was bestowed without 
 stint. Now it was that the Acropolis was 
 crowned with the magnificent Parthenon, de- 
 signed by Callicrates and Ictinus and adorned 
 by Phidias. On the summit was reared the 
 ivory statue of Athene Promachos, forty-seven 
 feet in height, looking serenely towards the 
 sea. Now, at the foot of the hill, was built 
 the great Odeum for the musical and dramati- 
 cal entertainment of the people. Now, on 
 the western side of the Acropolis, were con- 
 structed the Propyl^a, or entrances to the 
 temple, second only in magnificence to the 
 Parthenon itself. Nor were the useful works 
 
 of the city neglected. A third -wall was ex- 
 tended to the Piraeus. The hax'bors and docks 
 of Attica were improved and beautified, and 
 the public markets greatly enlarged. The 
 expense of these works is said to have ex- 
 ceeded $3,500,000, It was at this time that 
 the dominion of Greek thought — of philoso- 
 phy, of oratory, of art — was established on a 
 basis which has not been materially shaken by 
 the revolutions of twenty-two centuries, and 
 which seems destined to be everlasting. 
 
 A second part of the policy of Pericles 
 
 THE ACROPOLIS, RESTORED. 
 
 was the extension of the Athenian race by 
 colonization. It was not the theory of Athens 
 that companies of stragglers and vagabonds 
 should represent her on foreign coasts, but 
 rather that bands of reputable citizens, well 
 organized and well supplied, should go abroad 
 and establish Greek civilization in its integ- 
 rity. At one time during the administration 
 of Pericles, a company of a thousand Athe- 
 nians settled in the Thracian Chersonesus; 
 another band of five hundred in Naxos, and 
 a third of two hundred and fifty in Andros. 
 A still larger colony was established at Thurii, 
 near the site of ancient Sybaris, in Southern 
 Italy. Among those who joined this com-
 
 566 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 pany were the orator Lysias and the historian 
 Herodotus. In B. C. 437, another settlement 
 of equal importance was made at Amphipolis, 
 on the river Strymon, in Macedonia — a de- 
 pendency which afterwards played a conspicu- 
 ous part in Greek history. 
 
 A more liberal and less ambitious policy 
 on the part of Pericles might have postponed 
 or possibly averted the coming disasters of his 
 country. But, in his eagerness to make 
 Athens glorious, there was but little thought 
 given to justice and equity of administration. 
 Especially was this manifested in the exorbi- 
 tant tribute which was collected from the 
 Athenian dependencies. The members of the 
 Confederacy of Delos were taxed to the ex- 
 tent of six hundred talents annually, and this 
 too when the occasion for which the tribute 
 was originally levied had entirely passed 
 away. The peace with the Persians made 
 such an imposition no longer necessary as a 
 measure of defense; but the ambition of 
 Pericles still exacted it as a measure of luxury. 
 
 At this time the only members of the Con- 
 federacy which retained their freedom and 
 continued to consult with the Athenians on 
 
 terms of comparative equality, were Samos, 
 Lesbos, and Chios. The first of these islands 
 became embroiled with the Milesians, and the 
 latter appealed to Athens for a settlement of 
 the difficulty. The Samian government wag 
 still under the control of an oligarchy, and 
 this furnished Pericles with a good excuse for 
 interference. In B. C. 440 an expedition 
 was sent to reduce the Samians by force. A 
 democracy was established in the island, and 
 many leading Samians were sent to Lemnos 
 as hostages. This state of things, however, 
 was soon undone by a counter revolution 
 backed by the satrap of Sardis ; but the Athe- 
 nians returned, put down the revolt, and re- 
 established their own style of government over 
 the Samians. The latter were obliged to pay 
 the expenses of the war, amounting to a 
 thousand talents, and to give hostages for the 
 maintenance of the peace. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs in B. C. 
 435, when a petty quarrel between Corinth 
 and her dependency Corcyra applied the spark 
 to the long smouldering animosities and jeal- 
 ousies of the Greeks, and set their country in 
 the flames of civil war. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVi.— The peloponnesian wars. 
 
 ARLY in her history the 
 city of Corinth had es- 
 tablished, on the island 
 of that name, the colony 
 of Corcyra. Afterwards 
 Corcyra sent out a colony 
 and founded Epidamnus 
 on the coast of Epirus. The latter, however, 
 as well as the former, regarded Corinth as her 
 mother city. The Epidamnians, like the 
 other Greek states, expelled the oligarchical 
 party, and the latter brought in the Illyrians 
 to restore them. The authorities appealed to 
 Corcyra for aid, which was refused ; for the 
 Corcyrseans sympathized with the oligarchs. 
 The Epidamnians then applied to Corinth. 
 The latter sent out an expedition, and the 
 democracy in Epidamnus was sustained. But 
 
 the authorities of Corcyra resented the inter- 
 ference, sent a squadron, blockaded the town, 
 and restored the oligarchs. The Corcyrseans 
 then tried to persuade the Corinthians to refer 
 the matter to arbitration, but the latter sent 
 a still larger fleet to the western coast, and 
 this was defeated and destroyed by the Cor- 
 ey rsean squadron at Actium. This left the 
 Epidamnians at the mercy of the oligarchical 
 party. 
 
 The Corinthians immediately went to work 
 rebuilding their fleet. Within two years they 
 had gathered with their own exertions and 
 from their allies a squadron of one hundred 
 and fifty ships. The Corcyrseans, seeing these 
 preparations and remembering that Corinth 
 was a member of the Lacedaemonian league, 
 applied to Athens for support. The Athenian
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 567 
 
 assembly, after hearing the ambassadors, re- 
 solved upon a defensive alliance with Corcyra, 
 and agreed to defend the island in case of in- 
 vasion. To this end a fleet of ten sail, under 
 command of Lacedsemonius, was sent to the 
 Corcyrseans. In the mean time the Corinthian 
 fleet arrived, and a hard battle was fought, in 
 which the Corey rseans were defeated. But, 
 as the Corinthians were preparing to press 
 their advantage on the morrow, a new contin- 
 gent of twenty vessels hove in sight from 
 Athens. The Corinthian captain, believing 
 this to be but a detachment of a larger fleet, 
 at once stood away and sailed for home. 
 
 In this condition of affairs Perdiccas, king 
 of Macedonia, appeared on the scene. Hav- 
 ing certain grievances against the Athenians, 
 he sought revenge by instigating the inhabi- 
 tants of Potidsea, a dependency of Athens 
 occupying the neck of the peninsula of Pal- 
 lene, to revolt against the mother city. At 
 the same time he urged the Spartans, as the 
 head of the Lacedsemonian league, to make 
 an invasion of Attica. Hereupon the Ephors 
 called a meeting of the Peloponnesian states. 
 The dissatisfied delegates addressed the as- 
 sembly, and all were loud in their denuncia- 
 tions of the Athenians. An agent of Athens 
 then resident in Sparta spoke in favor of his 
 country, but the adverse opinion prevailed, 
 and near the close of B. C. 432 war was re- 
 solved upon by the Peloponnesian league 
 against the Athenians. 
 
 Sparta did not, however, proceed to imme- 
 diate hostility. With her usual cunning she 
 undertook, first of all, to secure the over- 
 throw of Pericles. The opponents of this 
 statesman were instigated to attack him. He 
 was charged with peculations. His friend, the 
 philosopher Anaxagoras, was persecuted for 
 opinion's sake. He was not orthodox on the 
 subject of the gods. With him was involved 
 AsPASiA, that paragon of beauty and genius, 
 who for years had shared the counsels and 
 affections of Pericles. The philosopher fled, 
 but Aspasia was tried. The haughty Pericles, 
 who for a generation had stood unmoved in 
 every storm, wept as he pleaded her cause 
 before the court. She was acquitted; but 
 the enemies of the statesman next turned 
 
 upon Phidias, and he was prosecuted on the 
 charge of having appropriated the gold which 
 had been voted for the Acropolitan statue of 
 Athene. The great sculptor died in prison 
 before the day of trial. 
 
 None the less, the party of Pericles stood 
 firm, and he retained his grip on the rudder 
 of the state. The Spartans continued to prod 
 him with demands, and finally sent an ulti- 
 matum to the effect that if the Athenians 
 would avoid war they should at once liberate 
 all of their dependent states. The assembly 
 replied that Athens did not desire war, that 
 she would give satisfaction for her seeming 
 violation of the Thirty Years' truce, but as 
 for the rest she would resist force with force. 
 
 Actual hostilities were begun by the The- 
 bans who, in the interest of the Peloponne- 
 sian league, fell upon Platsea by night. The 
 band, however, that thus unexpectedly to the 
 Platoeans gained possession of their city was 
 soon overwhelmed, and before daybreak all 
 but one hundred and eighty were killed and 
 the rest made prisoners. When the main 
 army of Thebes came up it was induced to 
 retire with the promise that the prisoners 
 should be given up, but the Platseans took 
 advantage of the lull, gathered in their 
 friends and property from the surrounding 
 districts, and then killed the prisoners to the 
 last man. This perfidious and desperate deed, 
 though done against a band of guerrillas, set 
 the states on fire. Passion spread like a con- 
 flagration. The pent-up jealousy of forty cit- 
 ies, each with its long-smothered grievance, 
 burst forth against the Athenian common- 
 wealth as the common cause of all the ills 
 that Greek flesh had inherited. Delos was 
 rocked with an earthquake. Crazy sooth- 
 sayers harangued crowds of the superstitious. 
 The oracles lifted up their ambiguous voice 
 and uttered two-tongued promises and impreca- 
 tions. The blood was hot. Neutrality was 
 hardly thought of. Every Peloponnesian 
 state, except Argos and Achaia, ranged itself 
 with Sparta ; and in Central Greece Megaris. 
 Bceotia, Phocis, and East Locris, besides the 
 tribes of Leucadia and Anactoria, all gath- 
 ered under the Lacedsemonian banners. One 
 might think, from the sudden and universal
 
 568 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 explosion of animosity, that the Greek race 
 had become more wearied with hearing Athens 
 called the Great than the Athenians themselves 
 had been tired of hearing Aristides called the 
 Jiist: and in either case there was equal rea- 
 son—or the want of it. The continental 
 allies of Athens were Thessaly, Platsea, Acar- 
 nania, and a part of Messenia about Naupac- 
 tus. Her insular support embraced Chios, 
 Lesbos, Corcyra, Cephallenia, and Zacynthus. 
 In those resources which are said to constitute 
 the sinews of war the Athenians had great 
 strength. In the treasury of the Acropolis 
 was deposited a sum equal to seven millions 
 of dollars. The annual revenue of the state 
 was very great, and the riches of the various 
 temples and shrines — not, of course, to be 
 rashly touched by the hand of war — gave an- 
 other immense aggregate. The fleet consisted 
 of three hundred vessels ; the standing army 
 of thirty-one thousand eight hundred men. 
 The forces of the league were superior in foot 
 soldiers, being about sixty thousand strong, 
 but greatly inferior in the matter of a fleet. 
 This defect the Spartans hoped to supply by 
 the help of the Corinthians and the Dorian 
 colonies of Italy, or in case of need to call 
 upon their friends, the Persians. 
 
 The ai'my of the confederation assembled 
 at the isthmus of Corinth under command of 
 Archidamus, the Spartan klag. From this 
 point the expedition began against Attica. 
 By midsummer of B. C 431 the march had 
 proceeded to the Thriasian plain, near Eleu- 
 sis. By the orders of Pericles the country 
 was abandoned. The population Avithdrew 
 within the walls of Athens, and the city was 
 filled to ovei-flowing. Archidamus was disap- 
 pointed in his hope of bringing on a gen- 
 eral battle. The cooped-up people clamored 
 greatly at the policy adopted, and the Athe- 
 nian cavalry was sent out to harass the en- 
 emy. From the Thriasian plain the Spartans 
 next moved to Acharnse, and continued their 
 ravages. To appease the people as well as to 
 punish the enemy Pericles sent a fleet of one 
 hundred and fifty ships to fall upon the coast 
 of Peloponnesus. The Corinthian settlement 
 of Sollium, the town of Astacus, and the island 
 of Cephallonia which, until now, had held a 
 
 dubious attitude in the conquest, were taken 
 by the squadron. The Locrian towns of 
 Thronium and Alope were also captured by 
 another detachment of the Athenian fleet, 
 and the anti-Athenian party in ^gina was 
 suppressed and driven out of the island. The 
 efiect of these bold diversions was such that 
 late in the summer Archidamus evacuated 
 the country, and his army was presently dis- 
 banded. As soon as this movement was 
 known in Athens, Pericles marched out with 
 thirteen thousand heavy armed soldiers, in- 
 vaded Megaris, and ravaged the country as 
 furiously as the Lacedaemonians had wasted 
 Attica. 
 
 It was now evident that the war was des- 
 tined to be of long duration. The Athenians 
 accordingly made every preparation to main- 
 tain their cause. In accordance with a reso- 
 lution of the assembly, one thousand talents 
 were sacredly set apart for the service of the 
 city in case she should be attacked by sea; 
 and it was further resolved that each year a 
 hundred galleys should be retained for the 
 protection of the city. 
 
 In the beginning of the second campaign, 
 B. C. 430, Archidamus again invaded Attica. 
 At this juncture a foe appeared within the 
 Avails of Athens far more more dreadful than 
 the enemy without. A dreadful pestilence 
 attacked the people, Avith which they began 
 to sicken and die by hundreds. It Avas a 
 form of pestilence hitherto unknown in the 
 city. The Greek physicians could in no Avise 
 stay its j^rogress. Terror seized the public 
 mind. Some ascribed the plague to the 
 wrath of Apollo. Others said that the Spar- 
 tans had poisoned the Avells. The supersti- 
 tious mountebank, who in every age of the 
 Avorld has afflicted human society with his 
 pestilential presence, came out from his place 
 and abetted the disease by playing upon the 
 fears of the people. The malady attacked 
 the mind as Avell as the body. A gloomy and 
 despondent spirit foreran the approach of the 
 pestilence. Athens was a universal funeral. 
 Hundreds lay unburied. The air reeked with 
 the stench of corpses. One fourth of the 
 population died. The Lacedsemonian Avithout 
 and Death within stretched a pall over At- 
 
 1 
 
 I
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 569 
 
 tica. The mutteriugs of despair joined their 
 volume with the howl of discontent, and a 
 spirit less resolute than Pericles would have 
 succumbed to the clamor. But he stood like 
 a statue. To distract the public mind from 
 its grief, and to empty the stricken city of a 
 part of its population, he fitted up a squadron 
 at Piraeus, took command himself, sailed to 
 Peloponnesus, and began to mete to the towns 
 of the league the same vengeance which they 
 had measured to him. But, notwithstanding 
 his herculean efforts, sedition broke out in 
 the city. Cleon, his political adversary, took 
 advantage of his absence, and preferred 
 against him the charge of peculation. Peri- 
 cles was condemned to pay a fine ; and for 
 awhile it seemed that, at last, the influence 
 of the great leader over the minds of his 
 countrymen was broken. 
 
 But public opinion soon reacted ; he was 
 again chosen general of the army, and quickly 
 regained his ascendency. The drama of his 
 life, however, was now nearing the final scene. 
 The members of his family were struck down 
 by the plague. He himself survived an attack 
 of the epidemic ; but a low fever supervened, 
 the forces of nature failed, and Pericles lay 
 dying. In the last hours he said to those 
 who were recalling the exploits of his brilliant 
 career : ' ' What you praise in me is partly 
 the result of good fortune, or is, at all events, 
 common to me with many other commanders. 
 What I chiefly pride myself upon, you have 
 not noticed: on my account no Athenian 
 ever wore mourning." 
 
 Meanwhile the Lacedsemonians continued 
 to ravage Attica. In a campaign of forty 
 days' duration they carried their devastations 
 into all parts of the peninsula. During the 
 year also the allied fleet seized the island of 
 Zacynthus, but was not able to retain it. The 
 fisheries and commerce of the Athenians suf- 
 fered not a little from the attacks of Spartan 
 and Corinthian buccaneers, whose plan of 
 battle was to fight, filch, and flee. The pris- 
 oners taken by these pirates were generally 
 put to death without mercy. It was not long, 
 however, until the Athenians found opportu- 
 nity to apply the lex talionis. A company of 
 
 Spartan envoys, on their way to the court of 
 
 N.— Vol. I— 31; 
 
 Persia, paused en route to seduce Sitalces, king 
 of Thrace, from his allegiance to the Athe- 
 nians. But the seduction extended only so 
 far as this — that they were themselves arrested 
 and sent to the authorities of Athens, by 
 whom they were killed as so many dogs. 
 Among those who thus perished was Aristeus, 
 one of the ablest generals of the league. 
 
 In the mean time the siege of Potidsea waa 
 at last brought to a successful issue. The 
 resistance had been long and obstinate. The 
 Potidseans defended their town Avith desperate 
 valor, and when at last reduced by famine to 
 the verge of despair, they ate the bodies of 
 their dead sooner than surrender. Only when 
 honorable terms were offered did they flnally 
 succumb to necessity and capitulate to the 
 besiegers. The town was then destroyed and 
 the territory occuj)ied by a colony sent out 
 from Athens. 
 
 The third year of the war oj)ened with the 
 siege of Platgea by the Spartans. The latter 
 had now gro^vn weary of ravaging Attica, 
 and determined to strike a decisive blow by 
 overwhelming the city by whose act the con- 
 flict had been kindled. On their approach 
 the Platseans sent out an embassy solemnly 
 protesting against the invasion on the grounds 
 of the oath of Pausanias, who, after the over- 
 throw of the Persians, had jjublicly vowed to 
 Zeus Eleutherius that henceforth the freedom 
 and independence of Platsea would ever be 
 regarded and upheld by the Spartans. But 
 the oath of the dead was not likely to prevail 
 with a race whose notion of faith was to break 
 it whenever it promised advantage to do so. 
 
 The Platseans were summoned to surrender. 
 When this was refused Archidamus proposed 
 that the inhabitants of the city should go 
 whithersoever they pleased, that the Lacedae- 
 monians would till the country until the war 
 was ended and then restore it to the original 
 owners. But on referring the question to the 
 Athenians the latter advised the Platseans to 
 hold out against the invaders, and the pro- 
 posal was accordingly declined. 
 
 The siege at once began. The town con- 
 tained less than six hundi'ed people, and yet 
 this handful defied the army of the league 
 and determined to defend themselves to the
 
 570 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 last. Archidamus began to build a mound 
 outside of the wall, from the summit of which 
 his soldiers might surmount the barricade. 
 But the Platseans built a second wall inside 
 of the first, and at the same time undermined 
 the mound which was thrown up outside. 
 After three months of vain endeavor the 
 Lacedaemonians were obliged to adopt the 
 policy of a mere blockade, which should of 
 necessity reduce the garrison by starvation. 
 For two years the Platteans held out, and 
 then when their provisions were nearly ex- 
 hausted, two hundred and twelve of their 
 number, choosing a dark December night, 
 scaled the ramparts which the Spartans had 
 built around the town, and escaped. The 
 remainder still defended themselves, but were 
 at last compelled by sheer famine to capitu- 
 late. There remained of the garrison two 
 hundred Platseans and twenty-five Athenians. 
 
 As soon as all were surrendered they were 
 brought to trial. Each one was led before 
 the Spartan judges and asked the question 
 whether during the present war he had ren- 
 dered any assistance to the Lacedaemonians or 
 their allies f The question was, of course, not 
 even a decent mockery, and was necessarily 
 answered in the negative. Thereupon with- 
 out further ceremony every man of the num- 
 ber was led off" and executed. The town of 
 Plattea was leveled to the earth and the ter- 
 ritory given to the Thebans. 
 
 During this third year of the war, Sitalces, 
 king of Thrace, acting on the suggestion of 
 the Athenians, invaded the dominions of 
 Perdiccas of Macedon ; but the expedition 
 was undertaken at so late a season that its 
 serious consequence was to drive the Macedo- 
 nians to take refuge in their towns until the 
 Tracians were withdrawn. About the same 
 time, the Spartans, using Corinth as a base 
 of operations, prepared a fleet of forty-seven 
 vessels, and proceeded to make an expedition 
 against Acarnania. At this time a small 
 Athenian squadron of twenty sail, under 
 command of Phormio, lay at Naupactus. 
 Notwithstanding the disparity of the fleets, 
 the Athenian captain attacked the Peloponne- 
 sian armament, and gained a decisive victory. 
 The Lacedaemonians, enraged at this result, 
 
 prepared a new fleet of seventy-seven vessels 
 and again started to cross the gulf; but 
 nothing daunted, Phormio a second time gave 
 battle, and if not positively victorious, so 
 crippled the enemy's squadron that the expe- 
 dition had to be abandoned. As a slight 
 compensation for these disasters, the Spartans 
 succeeded in surprising Salamis by night and 
 ravaging a good part of the island before the 
 Athenians could rally and drive them off". 
 
 From this time forth for several seasons 
 the annual invasion of Attica occurred, with 
 its monotonous repetition of pillage and de- 
 struction. 
 
 What with these perpetual devastations, 
 and what with the wasting plague, Athens was 
 becoming exhausted ; but her sjDirit rose with 
 the occasion. New levies were made for the 
 fleet from the upper classes of society. An 
 income tax was laid upon the people, by 
 which two hundred talents were to be annu- 
 ally added to the treasury. The Lacedsemo- 
 nians were surprised by the appearance of 
 two new squadrons at a time when they were 
 imagining the maritime strength of the Athe- 
 nians to be nearly extinct. It was fortunate 
 for the latter that they were thus able to re- 
 cuperate, for the fourth year of the war 
 brought them a serious trial in the revolt of 
 Mitylene. An armament was, however, im- 
 mediately sent against the rebellious island, 
 and the Mityleneans were subjected to a rigor- 
 ous blockade. Assistance was promised by 
 the Spartan government, and a squadron was 
 sent out under Alcidas, but before he arrived 
 off* Lesbos the Athenians had compelled the 
 place to capitulate. 
 
 During the debates in the Athenian as- 
 sembly as to what disposition should be made 
 of the prisoners, the demagogue Cleon, already 
 mentioned as a would-be rival of Pericles, 
 appeared as a leader. He had been a leather- 
 seller,' and ha(,l every quality of mind and 
 character requisite in a rabble-rouser. In the 
 present instance he proposed in the very face 
 of the terms granted by Paches, the Athe- 
 nian commander before Mitylene, that not 
 only the prisoners now in the power of the 
 authorities, but also the whole adult male 
 
 * See the satire of Aris^^ophanes, supra, p. 494.
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 571 
 
 population of" the captured city, should be put 
 to death ! And the resolution was carried. A 
 trireme was immediately dispatched to Lesbos 
 to order the execution of the edict. The mad 
 democratic mob that had ordered this butchery 
 then slept and woke up sober. The atrocity 
 of the thing staggered the city, and on the 
 morrow a new meeting was called to recon- 
 sider. After an acrimonious debate, a revo- 
 cation of the previous order was carried by a 
 bare majority. A second trireme, now twenty- 
 four hours behind the other, was at once sent 
 away to stay the execution of the Mityle- 
 neaus. The galley reached Lesbos just in 
 time. The former order was already in the 
 hands of Paches, and he was preparing to 
 carry it into effect when the panting oarsmen 
 of the second boat reached the shore. The 
 merciful edict of the assembly, however, ex- 
 tended only to the citizens of Mitylene, and 
 not to the prisoners who had been taken in 
 the siege and sent to Athens. These, to the 
 number of more than a thousand, were led 
 out and put to death. 
 
 The Mitylenean atrocity was excused by 
 the Athenians on the ground that it was a 
 measure of just retaliation for the massacre of 
 the Platseans by the Lacedaemonians. It was 
 not long till another scene of still more fearful 
 cruelty was enacted in Corcyra. For some 
 time there had been in that island a bitter 
 struggle between the oligarchical faction sup- 
 ported by Sparta and the democratical party 
 backed by Athens. After much mutual vio- 
 lence and several counter revolutions, the oli- 
 garchs were, by the arrival of an Athenian 
 fleet, completely overthrown. The popular 
 vengeance broke forth furiously against them. 
 They were pursued into their hiding places. 
 They were dragged from the temple-altars and 
 butchered without a sign of mercy or com- 
 punction. For seven days the horrible 
 massacre continued, and then ceased only 
 because there were no more to murder. 
 
 In the next epoch of the war the plague 
 reappeared in Athens, and Peloponnesus was 
 again shaken by an earthquake. The Athe- 
 nians, attributing their woes to the anger of 
 Apollo, ordered a purification of the island of 
 Delos, provided that ^o more births or deaths 
 
 should occur in that sacred seat, and insti- 
 tuted a festival in honor of the offended god. 
 In the seventh year's invasion of Attica by 
 the Spartan general Agis, the devastation was 
 suddenly brought to an end by the news that 
 the Athenians, under the lead of Demosthenes, 
 had succeeded in establishing a military sta^ 
 tion at Pylus, in Messenia, thus menacing the 
 peace of all Western Peloponnesus. Agis 
 was recalled and ordered to dislodge Demos- 
 thenes from his foothold in Messenia. The 
 latter, with a small force of about one thou- 
 sand men, built fortifications and awaited the 
 onset. A Spartan fleet, commanded by Brasi- 
 das, arrived in the bay and made an unsuc- 
 cessful attack upon the Athenians. Then 
 came a squadron from Athens, and the Spar- 
 tans were driven away wuth a loss of five 
 ships. They, however, continued to occupy 
 the densely wooded island of Sphacteria, which 
 lay across the entrance to the bay of Pylus. 
 This place was now closely blockaded by the 
 Athenian squadron, and it presently became 
 apparent that the Peloponnesian army was re- 
 duced to great straits. The Spartan Ephors, 
 after having themselves reconnoitered the 
 situation, decided that there was no hope but 
 to surrender. An embassy was accordingly 
 sent to Athens, and the assembly at last had 
 the inexpressible joy of seeing a company of 
 saturnine Spartan envoys humbly suing for 
 peace! Cleon was in his glory, and, taking 
 advantage of the occasion, insisted upon such 
 extravagant terms as could not be granted 
 but by the ruin of the Lacedaemonians. The 
 views of the demagogue prevailed over pru- 
 dence, and the opportunity for a favorable 
 peace was thrown away. The envoys were 
 sent back to Pylus, and Demosthenes was 
 ordered to press the siege of Sphacteria to a 
 successful issue. The armistice broke up in 
 mutual bad faith, and hostilities were at once 
 renewed. 
 
 The Spartans, now grown desperate, suc- 
 ceeded by one means and another in getting 
 a considerable quantity of provisions to the 
 island, and the siege was indefinitely prolonged. 
 While the Athenians were expecting to hear 
 of the capture of the Spartan army, a demand 
 came for -eenforcements. There was a reac-
 
 572 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tion in the assembly, and Cleon was about to 
 lose his grip ; but he turned furiously upon 
 Nicias, one of the generals, and accused him 
 of being the cause of the delay and disap- 
 pointment. The braggart then went on to 
 declare that if lie were strategus, he would 
 take Sphacteria in twenty days. Thereupon 
 Nicias moved that Cleon be given the com- 
 mand ! In spite of an attempted escape from 
 his own trap, the demagogue Avas obliged to 
 accept what the assembly now thrust upon 
 him, and without one day's military experience 
 he departed with a small force to take com- 
 mand at Pylus! 
 
 On arriving at the scene Cleon found the 
 Athenians already preparing for an assault on 
 the island. By accident a fire was kindled in 
 the edge of the forest, which, blown into a con- 
 flagration by the wind, swept through the 
 island and destroyed the forest, which had 
 thus far been the main protection of the 
 Spartans. The latter were thus exposed to an 
 attack. The Athenians, led by Demosthenes 
 and Cleon, landed in force, and a battle of 
 unusual severity was fought, in Avhich the 
 Spartans were completely defeated. In answer 
 to a demand for surrender, the remnant threw 
 down their shields and held up their hands I 
 
 Such a scene had not before been witnessed 
 in Greece. It was the Spartan code to con- 
 quer or die ; but now two hundred and ninety- 
 two of the supposed invincibles, many of them 
 of the best families in Laconia, gave them" 
 selves into the power of an enemy. The 
 victory was complete. Pylus was strengthened. 
 The prisoners were taken to Athens; and 
 before the expiration of the twenty days 
 Cleon, by the strange favor of fortune, stood 
 in the assembly and presented his prisoners! 
 
 After the siege of Sphacteria, the Athenian 
 fleet, under Eurymedon and Sophocles, pro- 
 ceeded to Corcyra, and aided the people of 
 that island in reducing the last post held by 
 the oligarchs, the fortress of Istone. This 
 place was surrendered on condition that the 
 prisoners should be spared until they should 
 be condemned after a formal trial before the 
 assembly ; but they were presently induced to 
 try to escape, for the express purpose that a 
 pretext might be found for their destruction. ^ 
 
 Eurymedon consented to this atrocious piece 
 of business, and all the prisoners were led out 
 two by two and put to death. 
 
 At this juncture the Athenians were un- 
 doubtedly in a position to have procured 
 terms of peace most advantageous to the 
 state ; but they gave themselves up to passion 
 and continued hostility. In the beginning of 
 the eighth year they reduced the important 
 island of Cythera, and once more ravaged the 
 coasts of Laconia. They then undertook a 
 camjDaign against the Megarians, and another 
 into Boeotia. In the first of these some ad- 
 vantages were gained, and the town of 
 Nissffia was taken and occupied by an Athe- 
 nian garrison. But the Boeotian expedition 
 ended in disaster. The state was invaded on 
 both sides simultaneously, by Demosthenes 
 and Hippocrates. The former found the 
 country preoccupied, and was obliged to re- 
 tire, and the latter, after having gained pos- 
 session of the temple of Apollo at Delium, 
 and garrisoned the town, was overtaken in 
 the plain of Oropus and completely routed. 
 Nothing but the approach of night saved any 
 part of the Athenian army from the fury of 
 the heavy-armed soldiers of Boeotia. Delium 
 was retaken, and the campaign closed with 
 the complete recovery of the country from 
 Athenian influence. 
 
 In the mean time the long-cherished plan 
 of Sparta to overthrow the rule of her rival 
 in Thrace was successfully carried out by 
 Brasidas. With a force of one thousand 
 seven hundred picked troops he made his way 
 through Thessaly, and, forming a junction 
 with the forces of Perdiccas of Macedon, pro- 
 ceeded into Thrace. Here his conduct was 
 such as to win over a large part of those who 
 adhered to the Athenian cause. The two 
 towns of Acanthus and Stagirus received him 
 gladly. He then urged his way to the im- 
 portant colony of Amphipolis, on the river 
 Strymon. Even this place was surrendered 
 without a siege, as were also most of the towns 
 in the Chalcidician peninsulas. 
 
 The effect was such that Athens was now, 
 in her turn, anxious for peace. In the ninth 
 year after the opening of hostilities (B. C. 
 423), a truce was agreed to for twelve months.
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 573 
 
 and both parties found time to breathe from 
 the long struggle in which they had been en- 
 gaged. In the beginning of the next year, 
 however, the war was renewed, and Cleon 
 made an effort to recover Thrace. With a 
 large army he went against Amphipolis, which 
 was defended by Brasidas. The latter, with 
 his large military experience, was more than 
 a match for the loud democrat whom accident 
 had once led to victory. Brasidas soon lulled 
 his antagonist into fancied security, and then 
 sallied out and inflicted a terrible defeat. 
 Cleon was killed, together with half of the 
 Athenian soldiery. The rest were scattered 
 to the winds. Brasidas, however, was mor- 
 tally wounded in the battle, and w^as carried 
 into the town to die. He was buried in the 
 agora, and was henceforth honored as (Bcisl, 
 or founder of Amphipolis. 
 
 The war had now degenerated into per- 
 sonal antagonisms and recriminations. By 
 the death of the two leaders, the one a 
 "king" of Sparta and the other the popular 
 despot of the Athenian assembly, the princi- 
 pal agents in perpetuating the strife were re- 
 moved. Nicias, who now assumed the leadership 
 in Athens, and Pleistoanax, the other Spartan 
 king, were both favorable to peace. In B. C. 
 421 negotiations were opened, and were soon 
 brought to a successful issue in a proclamation 
 of peace for fifty years. The leading princi- 
 ple assumed in the pacification was a mutual 
 restitution of prisoners and conquests. Upon 
 this, however, there were some restrictions. 
 Thebes was permitted to retain Platsea. 
 Athens kept Nisssea — the seaport of Me- 
 garis — Anactorium, and Sollium. Several 
 towns regained their independence. Others, 
 which were left tributary to the Athenians, 
 had their tax reduced to the scale established 
 by Aristides. The allies of Athens were gen- 
 erally pleased with the settlement, but the 
 dependent states of the league against her 
 were filled with resentment towards Sparta, 
 for whom they had fought eleven years, and 
 by whom they were now abandoned. Boeotia, 
 Corinth, Elis, and Megaris refused to sign the 
 treaty, and their attitude became so hostile 
 that Sparta made an alliance with Athens to 
 maintain the compact. — Thus did the Peace 
 
 OF Nicias at last afford to distracted Greece 
 an opportunity to recuperate her powers, so 
 terribly shattered by the shocks and ravages 
 of civil war. 
 
 Much difficulty was experienced in at- 
 tempting to secure compliance with the terms 
 of the treaty. The Spartans found it impos- 
 sible to surrender Amphipolis to the Athe- 
 nians, for the inhabitants refused to accede to 
 the transfer. Thereupon the authorities of 
 Athens declined to surrender the harbor of 
 Pylus. The disaffected Corinthians, now en- 
 tirely alienated from Sparta, projected the 
 scheme of a new Lacedaemonian confederacy, 
 with Argos at the head. In the midst of 
 these complications, Alcibiades appeared on 
 the stage of 
 Athenian poli- 
 tics. He soon 
 became one of 
 the most strik- 
 ing figures that 
 had risen in that 
 stormy arena. 
 Young and bril- 
 liant, of an il- 
 lustrious de- 
 scent, dashing 
 and courageous, 
 quick in concep- 
 tion and fertile 
 in expedients, 
 
 unscrupulous and reckless, he possessed the 
 very qualities which in success would make, 
 and in disaster mar, an Athenian statesman. 
 His ambition Avas as boundless as his conduct 
 was notorious. Not even the austere genius 
 of his instructor, Socrates, could bring the 
 audacious and extravagant youth to any 
 thing like a decent discipline. 
 
 The first noted public appearance of this 
 distinguished youth w^as on the occasion of 
 the coming of the Lacedsemonian ambassadors 
 requesting the surrender of Pylus. He at first 
 violently opposed the petition, and even went 
 so far as to urge the sending of an embassy 
 to Argos to solicit that city to become a mem- 
 ber in a new Athenian league. In spite of 
 the earnest efforts of Nicias and of the pro- 
 tests of the Spartan ambassador, Alcibiades, 
 
 ALCiBi A DES. — Visconti.
 
 574 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— TRE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 by means of intrigue and bluster, succeeded 
 in this work, and not only Argos, but also 
 Elis and Mantinea, agreed to maintain an 
 alliance with Athens for a hundred years. 
 
 In the next year, B. C. 419, the Athenians 
 were again admitted to the Olympic games. 
 It was supposed that, just emerging from a 
 long and ruinous war, she would present but 
 a sorry figure at the great festival. What, 
 therefore, was the surprise of the assembled 
 «tates when Alcibiades himself entered for the 
 games seven four-horse chariots, and with 
 these gained both the first and the second 
 prize? Besides his display in the races, he 
 procured from his countrymen one of tht 
 fichest general exhibits ever presented on such 
 an occasion; and at the conclusion of the 
 ■celebration all Greece rang with the praises 
 of the Athenians. 
 
 But Alcibiades Avas a politician as well as 
 a racer. He visited several Peloponnesian 
 towns, with the purpose of alienating them 
 more and more from the Spartan cause. 
 These proceedings continued until the Lace- 
 daemonians were obliged to resist. They 
 marched into Argos and gained a position 
 from which they might soon have won a 
 marked success; but Agis, the commander, 
 permitted himself to be tricked into a truce 
 fcy the machinations of Alcibiades, who then 
 gathered a force of Argives and Athenians 
 and invaded Mantinea. Near the temple of 
 Hercules they were met by the Spartan army 
 under Agis, and were disastrously defeated. 
 It was estimated that one thousand one hun- 
 dred men of the allied forces perished in the 
 battle. This success induced the state of 
 Argolis to detach itself from Athens and return 
 to its old relations with the Lacedaemonians. 
 
 In the year B. C. 416, the Athenians suc- 
 ceeded in the capture of Melos and Thera, 
 the only islands in the JEgenn not hitherto 
 brought under their dominion. In the con- 
 <[uest of the Melians — whose only offense con- 
 sisted in refusing to surrender to those who 
 bad attacked thera in a time of peace — the 
 Athenians crowned all their preceding atroc- 
 ities by putting the male citizens of the island 
 to death and selling the women and children 
 into slavery. 
 
 In the mean time, about B. C. 428, the 
 Dorian race in Sicily, under the leadership 
 of Syracuse, had become identified with the 
 Peloponnesian league, then at war with 
 Athens. War had been declared against the 
 towns of Leontini and Camarina, as well as 
 the Italian city of Rhegium. Hereupon the 
 Leontinians sent their orator, Gorgias, to 
 Athens to solicit aid. At that time the 
 Athenians voted aid to all the enemies of 
 Sparta ; so a fleet of twenty sail was sent to 
 help the anti-Lacedsemonian league in the 
 West. 
 
 In the following year another squadron 
 of forty galleys was sent to Sicily, and it now 
 became apparent that Athens instead of help- 
 ing others entertained the covert purpose of 
 helping herself to the possession of the whole 
 island. A reaction occurred among the Sicil- 
 ians, and the expedition w^as obliged to sail 
 home in disgrace. Three years later, however, 
 the Leontinians again asked for assistance, 
 but the Athenians were not then in a condi- 
 tion to give it ; but when, in B. C. 416, the 
 application was renewed from the town of 
 Egesta, then at war with Selinus, Alcibiades 
 espoused the project, and a resolution of sup- 
 port was about to be voted; but the cautious 
 Nicias interposed and induced the assembly 
 first to send an embassy to Egesta to see 
 whether the game was worth the expenditure. 
 The Egestseans entertained the envoys. They 
 took them into the temple of Aphrodite and 
 displayed a vast heap of treasures which were 
 borrowed for the occasion ! They gave a ban- 
 quet which nearly exhausted the resources of 
 the town. But the ambassadors were gener- 
 ously hoodAvinked, and took home a glowing 
 account of the luxury of the western city! 
 So it was at once i-esolved to espouse the 
 cause of these wealthy petitioners, and a squad- 
 ron of a hundred ships — under the joint com- 
 mand of Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus — 
 was dispatched to Sicily. 
 
 No enterprise ever undertaken by the 
 Greeks was more enthusiastically prosecuted. 
 Crowds of volunteers came forward and 
 begged to be accepted for the expedition. 
 The three commanders vied with each other 
 in the equipment of their respective ships.
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 575 
 
 The Athenians gave themselves to the work 
 of preparation as if to a holiday. Finally, 
 when every thing was in readiness, and the 
 fleet was on the eve of departure, an event 
 occurred which not only dampened the public 
 ardor but stirred the superstitions and fears 
 of the people to their profoundest depths. In 
 a single night the statues of the god Hermes, 
 which stood at the street corners and in all 
 the public places of the city, were mutilated 
 and knocked to pieces. No such a shocking 
 sacrilege had ever before been known in the 
 history of the country. No reason could be 
 assigned for the act. The universality of tiie 
 destruction indicated that it had been accom- 
 plished by a band of conspirators acting se- 
 cretly in the dead of night. No one was 
 detected in the work. The people awoke in 
 the morning to find th« sacred busts in front 
 of their houses wantonly disfigured or broken 
 into a shapeless mass. The excitement and 
 indignation of the public knew no bounds. 
 A commission was at once appointed to 
 examine witnesses and discover the perpetra- 
 tors of the crime ; but the investigation was 
 without practical results. Suspicion fell 
 upon Alcibiades, but no proof was discovered 
 against him. The suspicion, however, held 
 fast, and when no evidence could be adduced 
 of his guilt in the mutilation of the Hermce, 
 Pythonicus, one of the leaders of the Assem- 
 bly, preferred against him the charge of hav- 
 ing profaned the Eleusinian mysteries by 
 giving a representation of them in private. 
 In proof of this the testimony of a slave was 
 given ; but Alcibiades denied the charge and 
 demanded an investigation. The inquiry, 
 however, was, by the machinations of his ene- 
 mies, postponed until after the return of the 
 expedition. It was thus contrived that Alci- 
 biades should depart under a cloud. Mean- 
 while, the preparation of the fleet was com- 
 pleted, and Corcyra was named as the place 
 of rendezvous. The departure of the squad- 
 ron was such a scene as the Athenians had 
 never witnessed. The force consisted of two 
 thousand two hundred and fifty heavy-armed 
 soldiers. At day-break these marched on 
 board of the gayly decorated vessels lying at 
 the wharves of Pirseus. Nearly the whole 
 
 population of the city lined the shores. A 
 blast of the trumpet proclaimed silence. Then 
 was heard the voice of the herald lifted in 
 prayer to the country's gods. The war psean 
 of the Greek was chanted, and libations were 
 poured into the sea from goblets of gold and 
 silver. Then each galley, as if in a race, 
 started for the island of ^gina. Thence the 
 squadron sailed to Corcyra, where it was aug- 
 mented by the arrival of thirty-four galleys 
 and nearly six thousand troops sent by the 
 states in alliance with Athens. On arriving 
 at Southern Italy, the Greeks were coldly re- 
 ceived. Even at Rhegium permission to pur- 
 chase supplies was granted Avith reluctance. 
 In the mean time the news was borne to Syra- 
 cuse and preparations were immediately made 
 to defend the city. 
 
 While lying in the harbor of Rhegium, 
 the Greek commanders fell into serious dis- 
 putes about the purposes and plans of the 
 expedition. Nicias was in favor of limiting 
 the campaign to the reduction of Selinus ; 
 while Alcibiades and Lamachus proposed that 
 the capture of Syracuse should be included in 
 their conquest. Lamachus favored an imme- 
 diate attack upon the Sicilian capital while 
 it was yet unprepared for defense. Alcibiades, 
 however, preferred such a delay as would 
 enable him to procure assistance from the 
 Italian allies of Athens. This view prevailed. 
 For the present nothing was done except to 
 explore the harbor of Syracuse and to take 
 possession of Catana, which was henceforth 
 used as a base of supplies and operations for 
 the Greek squadron. 
 
 At this point news was received from 
 Athens indicating an extremely unfortunate 
 state of affairs in the city. Terror had seized 
 tlie public mind on account of the mutila- 
 tion of the Hermse. The charge of having 
 committed that crime was again brought for- 
 ward against Alcibiades. Many persons were 
 arrested, among whom was an orator named 
 Andocides, who turned informer, and by 
 means of his own testimony and that of slaves 
 secured the conviction and execution of a 
 number of citizens. This had the effect to 
 quiet public excitement, but the persons put 
 to death were doubtless innocent of the crime.
 
 576 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The charge of having profaned the Eleu- 
 sinian mysteries was still unanswered, and a 
 vote Avas passed by the assembly demanding 
 the return of Alcibiades for trial. A galley 
 was dispatched to Sicily to bring him to 
 Athens ; but on his way home he effected his 
 escape and sailed to Sparta. The Athenian 
 court regarding this flight as a confession of 
 guilt, condemned him to death, and ordered 
 the confiscation of his property. On hearing 
 of his sentence, Alcibiades remarked with non- 
 chalance, " I will show the Athenians that I 
 am still alive." 
 
 Meanwhile the operations in Sicily had 
 made no progress. The Syracusans were not 
 even annoyed at the presence of an enemy 
 so little aggressive. Their horsemen rode 
 around the Athenian camp and insulted the 
 garrison. A rumor was now blown abroad 
 that the inhabitants of Catana were them- 
 selves on the eve of expelling the Athenians. 
 In order to assist this movement, the Syra- 
 cusan army drew out of the city and marched 
 to the aid of the Catanoeans. Seizing the op- 
 portunity afforded by their absence, Nicias 
 succeeded in conveying his whole squadron 
 into the harbor, effected a landing near the 
 temple of the Olympian Zeus, and threw up 
 fortifications. Here he was presently attacked 
 by the Syracusan army returning from Ca- 
 tana, but the victory remained with the Athe- 
 nians, who presently withdrew into winter- 
 quarters at Naxos. From this point Nicias 
 sent messengers to Athens asking fresh sup- 
 plies of troops and means. A reenforcement 
 of cavalry was accordingly sent out, with 
 three hundred talents in money. 
 
 With the spring, the siege of Syracuse 
 began. The city lay upon a peninsula be- 
 tween the Great and Little harbors. On the 
 land side it was defended by a wall, and the 
 sea-front was protected by the nature of the 
 ground and by fortifications. In the northern 
 suburbs of the city, however, was a high 
 ground called Epipolse, and of this the Athe- 
 nians succeeded in gaining possession. An 
 attempt of the Syracusans to dislodge them 
 was repulsed. Here Nicias constructed a fort, 
 and the siege was pressed by both sea and 
 land. 
 
 In the mean time Lamachus had died, and 
 the whole command devolved upon Nicias, 
 who was inferior to his colleague in energy. 
 By this time the Syracusans became discour- 
 aged and made overtures of surrender: but 
 Nicias, over-confident of success, paid little 
 attention to the proposals and continued the 
 siege. At this juncture, however, Gylippus, 
 the Spartan general, arrived with a small 
 squadron in the bay of Tarentum. Thence 
 he proceeded to Himera, and, publishing to 
 the people that other forces from his country 
 would soon arrive, he gathered an army of 
 three thousand men and marched to the relief 
 of Syracuse. He succeeded in passing the 
 heights of Epipolse, and entered the city 
 without op^DOsition. Having effected a junc- 
 tion with the Syracusans, he sent an audacious 
 message to Nicias, allowing him five days to 
 gather his effects and leave Sicily. 
 
 It would have been well if Nicias had 
 taken the advice of his enemy, for the latter 
 very soon turned the tide of success against 
 the Athenians. The Syracusans in their turn 
 captured and fortified the heights of Epipolse. 
 Nor was it long — such was the activity of 
 Gylippus — until the Athenians were put into 
 the attitude of a besieged rather than a besieg- 
 ing army. Nicias fell sick and asked to be 
 recalled. Instead of complying with this re- 
 quest, however, the Athenians sent out addi- 
 tional troops under command of Demosthenes 
 and Eurymedon. The Spartans also reen- 
 forced their Sicilian army, and the Syracusans 
 presently gave battle to the Athenian fleet. 
 
 The latter gained an indecisive victory, but 
 while the battle was in progress, Gylippus made 
 an assault upon some of the forts erected by 
 Nicias and captured them, with large quanti- 
 ties of provisions. In a short time the Syra- 
 cusans sailed boldly out into Great Harbor, 
 and again gave battle to the fleet. This time 
 the Athenian squadron was routed, and the 
 remnant of the ships was only saved from de- 
 struction by being drawn to the shore under 
 protection of the Athenian works. 
 
 At this juncture a new fleet of seventy- 
 five vessels, carrying five thousand heavy 
 armed troops, arrived from Athens. Demos- 
 thenes, the commander, immediately made an
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 577
 
 578 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 attempt to take Epipolse, but was repulsed. 
 He then urged Nicias to withdraw from his 
 dangerous position in Great Hai'bor and retire 
 to Thapsus; but just as this movement was 
 about to begin an eclipse of the moon oc- 
 curred, and the seers declared that the fleet 
 must not leave its moorings for a lunar 
 month/ Their decision was complied with, 
 and the Syracusans, learning how matters 
 stood, determined to make a league with 
 superstition and destroy the foe before the 
 next full moon. They accordingly blocked 
 up the mouth of Great Harbor with a cordon 
 of galleys. So the Athenian squadron of one 
 hundred and ten triremes was cooped up, with 
 no opportunity of escape except by battle. 
 
 It was, however, resolved to break through 
 at all hazards. Accordingly, on an appointed 
 morning, the fleet of Nicias loosed its moor- 
 ings and proceeded to the attack. Nearly the 
 whole population of the city lined the shores 
 of the bay. The larger part of the Athenian 
 land-forces were put on board of the ships, and 
 the remainder looked on from the fortifica- 
 tions. The attack was directed first against 
 the line of galleys by which the mouth of the 
 harbor was blockaded. But the latter held 
 their position. Presently the whole armament 
 on both sides was engaged, and for some time 
 the battle hung dubiously between the com- 
 batants. Then the Athenians began to give 
 way. Nearly a half of their vessels were 
 destroyed, and the rest driven back to the 
 protection of the shore. The victory was in 
 every respect complete and overwhelming. 
 
 The Athenians were still about forty thou- 
 sand strong. As soon as the battle was de- 
 cided, they determined, if possible, to escape 
 from their perilous position. The only course 
 remaining was a retreat overland to the 
 shelter of some friendly town, where they 
 might defend themselves until succored by re- 
 inforcements. But instead of taking advan- 
 tage of the confusion of the first night after 
 his defeat, Nicias waited till the next; and 
 the Syracusans thus found time to gather and 
 fall upon the retreating column. In the at- 
 tempt to reach the coast, Demosthenes, who 
 commanded the rear division, was cut off*, and 
 
 ' This eclipse occurred August 27, B. C. 413. 
 
 after fighting until his forces were greatly re- 
 duced, was obliged to surrender. Finally, 
 Gylippus overtook Nicias, who, with the 
 army, now numbering no more than ten 
 thousand men, was slill struggling to gain the 
 coast. Arriving at the river Erineus, they 
 attempted to cross, but the enemy crowded 
 them down the banks and into the stream. 
 All hope was abandoned. The army became 
 a disorganized mass and was forced to surren- 
 der at discretion. The remainder of the fleet 
 had been given up at the beginning of the 
 retreat. Not a vestige remained. No such 
 complete destruction of an army and squad- 
 ron had ever been known. The prisoners 
 were sent to work in the stone-quarries, where, 
 huddled together, driven to their tasks without 
 sufficient food, and exposed to the elements, 
 they soon began to die of exhaustion and 
 pestilence, until the survivors sickened and 
 fell over the bodies of the dead. All were 
 enslaved except the Athenians and the Sicilian 
 Greeks. Among these were many men of 
 culture and refinement; and a tradition recites 
 that not a few of these gained the esteem of 
 their masters by enacting for them the plays 
 of the Greek dramatists. Demosthenes and 
 Nicias were both condemned to death, the 
 only favor shown them being the concession 
 of suicide instead of a public execution. 
 
 Soon after the appalling disaster just re- 
 corded, the news was carried into Athens by 
 a barber of Piraeus. So incredible appeared 
 his story that the authorities put him to the 
 torture. Presently, however, straggling fugi- 
 tives began to arrive with confirmation of the 
 awful intelligence. The Athenians were first 
 furious and then gave themselves up to de- 
 spair. It was seen at a glance that no power 
 could much longer prevent the capture of 
 the city by the Lacedaemonians. Neverthe- 
 less the authorities began to bestir themselves 
 for the public defense. It was, however, the 
 misfortune of the city of Athens that military 
 success was constantly necessary to preserve 
 the loyalty of her dependent cities and islands. 
 Whenever the tide turned against her, these 
 dependencies would not only abandon her in- 
 terests, but enter into leagues for her de- 
 struction.
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 579
 
 580 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In the present emergency the first to 
 revolt was the island of Chios. The insur- 
 rection was instigated by Alcibiades, who, 
 now residing at Sparta, lost no opportunity 
 to inflict on his country some humiliating 
 injury. He crossed over in person to the 
 ^land, and aided the insurgents in overthrow- 
 ing the party favorable to Athens. The 
 islands of Zeos and Lesbos and the city of 
 Miletus followed the example of Chios ; and 
 the Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor 
 were given up by a treaty with Tissaphernes 
 to their masters, the Persians. Samos, how- 
 ever, remained faithful to the Athenians. 
 The oligarchy in that island was suppressed, 
 and Samos became a kind of stronghold of 
 Athenian influence in the ^gean. 
 
 In the mean time, Athens began to recover 
 from her overthrow. The reserve of one 
 thousand talents which had lain undisturbed 
 in the Acropolis since the administration of 
 Pericles, was now voted by the assembly to 
 be used in the construction of a fleet. When 
 this was completed, an expedition was fitted 
 out against Chios, and that island was rapidly 
 overrun and restored to its former relations. 
 A victory was also gained over the Lacedse- 
 monian squadron at Miletus, but that city 
 still remained under the control of the Per- 
 sians. The Spartans soon prepared another 
 armament so powerful in numbers and equip- 
 ment that its ability to overcome all opposi- 
 tion could not be reasonably questioned. 
 
 Alcibiades, in the mean time, from his long- 
 continued duplicity, had gained the distrust 
 and aversion of the Spartan government. 
 The Ephors first denounced him as a traitor 
 and then condemned him to death, but he 
 escaped the penalty by fleeing to the court of 
 Tissaphernes. He at once set about to per- 
 suade the sati'ap to adopt a new line of policy 
 with regard to the Greek states. The wily 
 Greek soon convinced him that the interest 
 of Persia required that the Grecian common- 
 wealths should be allowed to wear each other 
 out in mutual conflicts to the end that the 
 Great King might absorb the fragments into 
 his empire. ^It was this influence aided by 
 bribery that prevented the activity of the 
 Spartan squadron. Persia was thus won over 
 
 to favor the Athenian cause. The real pur- 
 pose of Alcibiades was to get himself restored 
 to his country. He communicated with the 
 Athenian generals at Samos, and made it 
 appear that he was able to secure a Persian 
 alliance and would gladly do so on condition 
 of his own restoration, and the substitution 
 of an oligarchy for the democratic form of 
 government in Athens. A proposition to 
 this effect was brought forward in the assem- 
 bly by Pisander. The democracy was furious 
 at the proposal ; but the necessity of the state 
 was so great that a vote was procured in favor 
 of the overthrow of the constitution of Clis- 
 thenes. Pisander was then dispatched at the 
 head of an embassy to treat with Alcibiades 
 and Tissaphernes with respect to the proposed 
 alliance ; but when the ambassadors were re- 
 ceived by the satrap, Alcibiades, speaking on 
 his behalf and knowing his own inability to 
 perform what he had jDromised, made such 
 extravagant demands of his countrymen that 
 they were obliged to break up the conference. 
 In the mean time oligarchical clubs were 
 multiplied in Athens, and under their influ- 
 ence the democracy was subjected to a reign 
 of terror. Assassination became the order of 
 the day, and it was soon evident that the revo- 
 lution in the government would be accom- 
 plished. Pisander, on his return from Asia 
 proposed a committee of ten to draft a new 
 constitution. The instrument when produced 
 j)rovided first for the overthrow of the exist- 
 ing magistrates ; secondly, for the abolition of 
 all official salaries; thirdly, for the appoint- 
 ment of a council of Four Hundred, with 
 whom the principal functions of governments 
 should be lodged; and fourthly, for the limi- 
 tation of the right of suffi'age to a body of 
 five thousand citizens. The revolution was 
 completed by force. The old senate was 
 ejected by the Four Hundred, who were in- 
 stalled in the ancient seats of authority. 
 Then followed proscriptions and confiscations. 
 The principal leaders of the democracy were 
 assassinated. The next movement was to 
 send an embassy to Sparta with overtures for 
 peace; but Agis, the king, prefeired to com- 
 pel a settlement on his own terms. He ac- 
 cordingly made an attempt to capture Athens,
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 581 
 
 but being foiled, he concluded to enter into 
 negotiations with the Athenians. 
 
 It was one of the peculiarities of this 
 stormy period in Greek history that the de- 
 mocracy, Avhich had been overthrown in its 
 original stronghold, was still upheld in Samos. 
 The army now in that island, led by Thrasy- 
 bulus and Thrasyllus, remained loyal to the 
 old institutions of Athens. It was through 
 the influence of these leaders that Alcibiades, 
 who was now on the side of democracy, but 
 always on the side of himself, was elected one 
 of the generals of the army. That distin- 
 guished patriot began at once to magnify his 
 ofiice by passing to and fro in the assumed 
 character of an ambassador between Asia and 
 continental Greece. Thus would he induce 
 the belief among his democratic countrymen 
 that he was busy with the construction of the 
 Perso-Athenian alliance. 
 
 As soon as the Four Hundred heard of 
 the condition of affairs in Samos they sent 
 thither an embassy to explain the change in 
 the government and to demand the accept- 
 ance of the same by the people. The envoys 
 were met with disdain both by the citizens 
 and soldiery. A proposition had already been 
 made in the army to proceed against Athens 
 and overthrow the usurpers, and but for the 
 influence of the more dispassionate there is no 
 doubt that such a movement would have been 
 undertaken. As it was the ambassadors were 
 dismissed with ill-disguised contempt. They 
 were told that the Four Hundred must sur- 
 render their places, and that the old Senate 
 must be restored as conditions precedent to 
 the maintenance of peace. 
 
 Already in Athens there were symptoms 
 of an anti-oligarchic revolution. The extreme 
 leaders under the new regime had gone to the 
 length of proposing that a Spartan garrison 
 should be established in Piraeus. The Lacedee- 
 monians, however, did not fall in with this 
 scheme, but sent a fleet to cruise in the neigh- 
 boring waters, until a more favorable season. 
 In the mean time the democracy gained con- 
 stantly, and in a short time an assembly was 
 held at Piraeus by which the old forms of 
 government were again instituted. 
 
 About this time a revolt broke out in Eubcea, 
 
 instigated by the Spartans and supported by 
 their fleet. Athens was astounded to learn 
 that her greatest and nearest dependency had 
 renounced her friendship and assumed her 
 freedom. An Athenian fleet hastily sent to 
 the rescue was attacked and annihilated by 
 the Lacedaemonian squadron. Athens was 
 thus left naked to her enemies. The popular 
 voice clamored in the streets, and an assembly 
 was called in the Pnyx. A vote was passed 
 by which the Four Hundred were deposed 
 and the Senate reinstated in its ancient au- 
 thority. The old constitution was restored in 
 all of its features, except that the restriction 
 by which the right of suffrage was limited to 
 five thousand citizens was allowed to stand. 
 Those who had participated in the late oligar- 
 chy were permitted to leave Athens or to hide 
 themselves in obscurity. Only two of the 
 leaders, Antiphon and Archiptolemus, were 
 condemned and executed, and a few others 
 were punished by the confiscation of their 
 property, or the destruction of their houses. 
 In a short time the office of archon was re- 
 created, and this was followed by a vote 
 recalling Alcibiades and his friends from exile. 
 
 In the conduct of the war the next imjjor- 
 tant movement was a naval battle between 
 the Athenians and Lacedaemonians in the 
 strait between Sestos and Abydos. The 
 former were victorious, and set up a trophy 
 on the headland of Cynossema, from which 
 place the battle takes its name. The Spartan 
 squadron, now lying at Euboea, hearing of the 
 disaster which had overtaken their friends, 
 sailed for the Hellespont, but while doubling 
 Mount Athos the fleet was caught in a storm 
 and totally wrecked. The remnant of the 
 other armament which had survived the battle 
 was presently overtaken by Alcibiades, and 
 only saved from total destruction by being 
 drawn ashore, when the vessels were defended 
 by the Persians. A short time afterwards, 
 however, Mindarus was enticed to sea, attacked 
 by the Athenian squadron, followed to the 
 shore, and slain. Every Spartan ship was 
 either taken or destroyed. The victory was 
 so decisive as to recover for the Athenians 
 the whole of the Propontis. 
 
 The Persians now actively aided the Lace-
 
 582 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 dseraouians, but the energy of the Athenian 
 fleets, now directed by Alcibiades, secured, in 
 the years B. C. 409 and 408, complete control 
 of the Hellespontine countries. Until this 
 time the banished Alcibiades had not returned 
 to Attica. In the spring of B. C. 407 he 
 determined to avail himself of his recall and 
 make a public visit to Athens. He accord- 
 ingly sailed for PiriBus, where he was met by 
 nearly the whole population of the city and 
 escorted in triumph to the scene of his earliest 
 career. Before the Senate and the Assembly 
 he protested his innocence of the charges pre- 
 ferred against him, and the sentences of con- 
 fiscation and banishment were unanimously 
 revoked. As for himself, he now through 
 policy gave great attention to the national 
 superstitions, and publicly conducted the pro- 
 cession in the celebration of the Eleusinian 
 mysteries. In the following September he 
 put to sea, and was presently worsted by the 
 Lacedaemonian fleet in the battle of Notium. 
 His conduct, moreover, became as reckless 
 and dissolute as ever. The news of his pro- 
 ceedings was carried to Athens, and the good 
 democracy of that city voted him out of com- 
 mand and gave his place to Conon. 
 
 Meanwhile, Callicratidas succeeded Lysander 
 in the command of the Spartan squadron. 
 He was a man of great energy, and soon dif- 
 ftised a new life in the moribund frame of his 
 country. Shortly after assuming control of 
 the fleet he gained a victory over the Athe- 
 nians in the harbor of Mitylene, but Conon 
 maintained his position until reenforcements 
 arrived from Athens, and then took his sta- 
 tion near the islands of Arginusse, close to the 
 coast of Asia Minor. Here the Spartans gave 
 battle. The Athenian fleet numbered one 
 hundred and fifty vessels, and the Lacedse- 
 monian one hundred and twenty. The con- 
 flict was long and desperate. After losing 
 seventy-seven ships and their brave com- 
 mander, who was thrown overboard and 
 drowned, the Spartans were disastrously de- 
 feated. The battle was followed, however, by 
 an event which took away the spirit of the 
 victors. Twelve of the Athenian ships, which 
 were disabled during the fight, were through 
 some carelessness left drifting helplessly with 
 
 their crews of wounded and dying men until 
 a sudden storm, swooping down upon them, 
 sent the whole to the bottom of the sea. 
 
 The Athenians immediately summoned the 
 commanding generals — except Conon, who had 
 followed the remnant of the enemy's fleet to 
 Mitylene — to answer for this neglect. Passion 
 ran high, and in spite of the protest of Socrates 
 and a few other cool-headed patriots, the as- 
 sembly voted that the commanders should be 
 put to death. They were accordingly com- 
 pelled to drink the fatal hemlock. Among 
 those who thus perished was the young Peri- 
 cles, the promising son of the great statesman, 
 and Aspasia. 
 
 After the death of Callicratidas the com- 
 mand of the Spartan fleet was again conferred 
 on Lysander. He — after the year B. C. 405 
 had been mostly consumed in recuperating 
 the squadron, and in negotiations with Cyrus 
 the younger, now satrap of Asia Minor — laid 
 siege to the Hellespontine town of Lampsacus. 
 Thither he was followed by Conon, but the 
 latter arrived too late to save the place from 
 capture. 
 
 The Athenian fleet in September of B. C. 
 405 took its station at ^gospotami, or Goat 
 River, on the opposite side of the channel 
 from Lampsacus. The position was an ex- 
 posed one, but the Athenians were over-confi- 
 dent, and for several days in succession they 
 sailed into the open channel and oflfered bat- 
 tle to the Spartans. This, however, was de- 
 clined. Lysander kept his forces in hand and 
 Avaited his opportunity. Alcibiades, who now 
 lived in a castle in the neighborhood, and was 
 to all appearances out of politics, came down 
 to his countrymen, and besought them to find 
 a stronger position ; but his precautions were 
 treated with indifference. The Athenians 
 scattered themselves about their camp and 
 gave no further thought to the situation. On 
 the fifth day of these dilatory proceedings, 
 Lysander, having watched his opportunity, 
 swooped down upon the Athenians while a 
 large part of them were dispersed through the 
 country, and inflicted upon them the most 
 ruinous defeat of the whole war. Of the one 
 hundred and eighty ships which composed the 
 squadron only eight or ten succeeded in
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 583 
 
 J 'J.'^^^ 
 
 93 
 H 
 
 S O 
 
 <i >
 
 584 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 escaping. The remainder were either captured 
 or destroyed. The prisoners, to the number 
 of three or four thousand, including the gen- 
 erals — with the exception of Conon, who es- 
 caped and found a hiding-place in Cyprus — 
 were condemned and put to death! The 
 whole force was annihilated. 
 
 Athens was left without a shadow of de- 
 fense, except what measures she could extem- 
 porize, against the coming doom. When the 
 Paralus' arrived at Piraeus and the news was 
 known, there was universal despair. Xeno- 
 phon declares that on that night no man 
 slept. It was now a question of existence with 
 her who had so long been mistress of the sea. 
 Two out of the three harbors of the city were 
 blocked up in the vain hope of defending the 
 third. Lysander was in no haste. The Athe- 
 nian supplies from the Euxine were wholly 
 cut off, and from afar Famine and Sparta 
 both lifted a sword against the doomed city. 
 
 Beginning his progress towards the capital, 
 Lysander compelled the garrisons of the 
 various towns en route to quit their places and 
 repair to Athens. In every city the demo- 
 cratic form of government was overthrown, 
 and an oligarchy, consisting of ten members 
 with a Spartan Harmost at the head, appointed 
 in its stead. In tlieir desperation, the people 
 of Athens gathered in an assembly and voted 
 a general amnesty. The prisons were opened, 
 and all except a few of the worst criminals 
 were liberated. Then the oligarchic and dem- 
 ocratic factions swore an oath of mutual for- 
 giveness, and agreed henceforth to labor only 
 for the common weal. 
 
 Finally, Lysander made his appearance. 
 With a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys 
 he landed at ^gina, and then proceeded to 
 blockade Pirseus. Salamis was ravaged by 
 the army, which marched without opposition 
 to the very gates of Athens. Inside the walls, 
 however, determination was mixed with de- 
 spair, and the first proposals made to them by 
 the Spartans were rejected. The people began 
 to die of hunger, and yet Archestratus was 
 imprisoned for proposing to accept the prof- 
 
 ^The Parahis was the commander's galley in 
 an Athenian fleet, corresponding to the flag-ship 
 in a modern navy. 
 
 fered terms. After three months of dreadful 
 suffering, the spirit of the people was at last 
 completely broken, and Theramenes was sent 
 to Sparta to conclude with the Ephors the best 
 treaty which they would grant. 
 
 The states in alliance with the Lacedae- 
 monians, more particularly Corinth and 
 Thebes, insisted that the very name of Athens 
 should be blotted out, and the residue of her 
 population sold into slavery ; but the Spartans 
 themselves interfered to prevent so brutal a 
 proceeding. One of the Ephors even ven- 
 tured on a figure of sjieech, and declared that 
 Sparta would never consent that one of the eyes 
 of Greece should be put out. Still the terms 
 were sufficiently severe and humiliating. The 
 Long AValls of Athens should be thrown down. 
 The fortifications of the Piraeus and Phalerum 
 should be razed. The territorial limits of the 
 Athenians should be contracted to Attica. 
 All foreign possessions should be given up. 
 All ships of war should be surrendered. All 
 exiles should be unconditionally restored. 
 The Athenians should become the allies of 
 the SjDartans. These terms, hard as they 
 Avere, were immediately accepted by the as- 
 sembly, and it only remained for the Athe- 
 nians to comply with the conditions. 
 
 The winter had now worn away. In 
 March of B. C. 404, the city was formally 
 surrendered. It was the last act in a war 
 which, through every grade of ferocity, had 
 continued for twenty-seven years. Lysander 
 at once proceeded to exact the fulfillment of 
 the terms of the treaty. The dock-yards were 
 burned and the arsenals destroyed. All the 
 Athenian galleys except twelve were sent to 
 Sparta. Then came the demolition of the 
 fortifications. It Avas no light task, for the 
 works were of great solidity and massiveness. 
 The overthrow of the Long Walls was a task 
 tedious and difficult. But the Spartans, in 
 mockery, converted the work into a festival! 
 Bauds of flute-players and dancers wreathed 
 with flowers accompanied the workmen, and 
 as the heavy stones were pried from their 
 beds and cast down, shout after shout echoed 
 the downfall of Athenian glory. Nor did the 
 demolition cease until not one stone was left 
 upon another. She who, by the splendor of
 
 GREECE.— THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 585 
 
 her genius, had diffused a lustrous light into 
 the abodes of barbarism, was left naked to 
 her enemies — a pitiable spectacle of wretched- 
 ness and despair. 
 
 As soon as the Spartans had completed 
 their work and the dismantled city was left 
 to herself, there was a revival of faction. 
 The oligarchic minority was reenforced by the 
 return of many exiles who owed their banish- 
 ment to democratic votes. Among these the 
 most prominent character was Critias, the 
 uncle of Plato. He, with Theramenes, hav- 
 ing organized clubs and perfected arrange- 
 ments for a revolution, invited Lysander to 
 return from Samos, whither he had gone after 
 the capitulation of Athens, and aid by his 
 presence and influence in the contemplated 
 coup d' Hat by which an oligarchy was to be 
 established over the Athenians. A proposi- 
 tion was then made in the assembly that a 
 committee of thirty members be appointed to 
 revise the constitution and provide for the 
 future government of the city. Lysander 
 himself addressed the assembly, and informed 
 them that their personal safety depended upon 
 an affirmative vote. Of course it was so re- 
 corded. Critias and Theramenes headed the 
 list of committeemen, who were henceforth 
 known as the Thirty Tyrants. 
 
 It will be remembered that Samos showed 
 herself to be the last stronghold of Greek 
 democracy. This island was accordingly in- 
 vaded by Lysander, after the conquest of 
 Attica had been completed, and, like the 
 mother state, was soon driven to submission. 
 This was the completion of the work of the 
 Lacedaemonian fleet in the ^gean. As soon 
 as terms of surrender had been accepted and 
 the government settled on a new basis satis- 
 factory to Lysander, he sailed for Sparta. No 
 other general of those hitherto sent out by the 
 Ephors had ever returned so completely vic- 
 torious. He brought home the spoils and 
 figure-heads of all the ships which he had 
 taken. The booty was enormous, and besides 
 what he had taken by force he turned over to 
 the treasury four hundred and seventy talents 
 which had been given him by the Persians 
 for the prosecution of the Avar, 
 
 In Athens the Thirty proceeded to organ- 
 N.— Vol. 1—36 
 
 ize a reign of terror. Butchery was the order 
 of the day. Sometimes there was a formal 
 condemnation of the accused; sometimes 
 there was none. The newly appointed sen- 
 ators — mere tools of the Tyrants — were re- 
 quired in voting to deposit their pebbles 
 openly on a table in front of their masters — 
 this on questions of life and death ! Bands 
 of assassins were hired to complete the work 
 of exterminating the democracy. At the last 
 a proscription list was made out, and the ad- 
 herents of the Thirty were permitted to in- 
 sert therein what names soever they pleased. 
 
 The object became plunder rather than po- 
 litical vengeance. No such scenes had ever 
 before been witnessed in Athens. Neither 
 rank nor virtue was spared. The orator Ly- 
 sias and his brother Polemarchus were among 
 the condemned. Theramenes, refusing to 
 participate in the diabolical business, was 
 himself denounced by Critias in the senate- 
 house, and though clinging to an altar was 
 dragged away to execution. When given the 
 cup of hemlock he swallowed the draught, 
 threw a drop of the poison on the floor, and 
 exclaimed, "Here's a health to the gentle 
 Critias." It was amid such scenes that the 
 liberties of Greece went out in darkness. 
 
 It was in the midst of these proscriptions, 
 but not by means of them, that Alcibiades 
 met his fate. From his castle in Thracian 
 Chersonesus he had watched the downfall of 
 Athens and the progress of the oligarchical 
 revolution. When the proscription began he 
 became apprehensive of danger, and with 
 good reason, for the Thirty had already in- 
 cluded his name in a list of the condemned. 
 Sacrificing a great part of his property, he 
 fled for safety, with as much of his wealth 
 as he could carry with him, to the court of 
 Pharnabazus, satrap of Phrygia. From him 
 he sought the privilege of continuing his 
 flight to Susa, where he thought to play the 
 same part with Darius that Themistocles had 
 played with Artaxerxes. But Pharnabazus 
 refused him conduct through the province, 
 and in the meantime Lysander sent a dis- 
 patch to the satrap to have the Athenian put 
 to death. Acting under this order, a band 
 of assassins set fire to the house of Alcibiades
 
 586 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and stood ready to cut him down. With un- 
 flinching courage he seized his sword and 
 rushed forth upon the dastards; but before 
 he could reach them they pierced him through 
 with their javelins. Thus, in a foreign land 
 and unfriended, save by the woman Timan- 
 dra, who remained faithful to him until his 
 death, and performed alone for her brilliant 
 and eccentric lord the rites of sepulture, per- 
 ished the famous Alcibiades, who, but for a 
 certain want of principle, which was indeed 
 but the common vice of his countrymen, 
 
 Even Thebes and Corinth turned their sym- 
 pathies to the fallen Athens. A band of 
 Athenian exiles, temporarily domiciled in Bce- 
 otia, found a leader in Thrasybulus, seized 
 the fortress of Phyle, and bade defiance to 
 the oligarchy. The Thirty marched out with 
 a force of Spartans and native cavalry, but 
 were several times repulsed. Nor was it cer- 
 tain but that the troops whom they com- 
 manded, at least such of them as were Athe- 
 nian born, sympathized with Thrasybulus 
 rather than with their masters. Encouraged 
 
 DEATH OF ALCIBIADES. 
 
 would have been one of the greatest Greeks 
 of his age. 
 
 It was a part of the strange, bad temper 
 of the Hellenic states that they always turned 
 against the strongest. Sparta was now, after 
 the complete humiliation — almost extinction — 
 of her rival, destined to feel the force of this 
 law. A reaction took place in the Greek 
 mind unfavorable alike to the Lacedaemo- 
 nians and their leaders. Lysander himself, 
 after a career of unparalleled popularity, 
 power, and honor became, in the course of a 
 single year, an object of suspicion and hatred. 
 
 by his success and the manifestations of pub- 
 lic support, the Greek patriot abandoned 
 Phyle and seized Piraeus. A large force was 
 immediately sent against him, and a severe 
 battle was fought, in which the army of the 
 Thirty was completely routed. Among the 
 best trophies of the field was the dead body 
 of Critias, who was killed in the engagement. 
 The death of this unprincipled tyrant threw 
 the government into the hands of the more 
 moderate of the oligarchical party, and a new 
 revolution was effected, by which the Thirty 
 were deposed, and a council of Ten appointed
 
 GREECE.— TSE PELOPONNESIAN WARS. 
 
 587 
 
 in their stead. Such were the mutterings of 
 discontent that the new governors felt con- 
 strained to call upon Pausanias, the Spartan 
 king, for assistance. The latter at the head 
 of an army marched into Attica, and had 
 several indecisive combats with Thrasybulus. 
 But a desire for peace now pervaded all par- 
 ties. Pausanias himself was at enmity with 
 Lysander, and for this reason was less severe 
 in determining the terms of settlement. With 
 singular liberality, considering the circum- 
 stances, it was agreed that the Athenian exiles 
 now under the banner of Thrasybulus should 
 be unconditionally re-admitted to Athens, and 
 as for the i-est full amnesty should be granted 
 to all except the Thirty and the Ten. 
 
 As soon as this settlement was agreed to, 
 Thrasybulus and the exiles returned in tri- 
 umph to the city. There was a universal re- 
 vival of democracy. An assembly was imme- 
 diately convened, and a complete undoing of 
 the work of the oligarchy was determined on. 
 The whole field where tyranny had so loug 
 cultivated her brambles was plowed up to the 
 subsoil and harrowed to a level. The laws 
 of Solon and Draco were revised by a com- 
 mittee and adopted by the assembly and the 
 Senate.^ The old regime was revived in every 
 part, and every effort was made by the new 
 government to obliterate forever from public 
 memory and the records of the state the his- 
 tory and infamy of the recent tyrannies of 
 the Thirty and the Ten. 
 
 It was at this juncture that Socrates, great- 
 est spirit of the pagan world, was arrested 
 and brought to his death. He fell a victim 
 to superstition. As early as B. C. 423 he had 
 been attacked — but not with great bitterness — 
 by Aristophanes, in the comedy of the Clouds. 
 From this, however, he rallied and continued 
 his teaching. For twenty-four years he dis- 
 seminated his views on those subjects concern- 
 
 ' It was in the inscription of these revised 
 statutes of Athens on the walls of the PceciM 
 Stoa that the full Ionic alphabet of twenty-four 
 letters was for the first time pubHcly employed. 
 Its use for some time previously had been common 
 among the Athenian scholars, but for the public 
 acts of the government the old Attic alphabet of 
 sixteen or eighteen letters had always been 
 hitherto used. 
 
 ing which men have always felt the deepest 
 interest. Towards the close of the fifth cen- 
 tury he fell under the suspicion of heterodoxy 
 in the matter of the national religion. Nor 
 is it likely that his resolute and glorious 
 genius did tamely bow to the absurdities 
 which he as a teacher was expected to uphold 
 and honor. In B. C. 399 an open accusation 
 was brought against him by three fellows 
 whose base spirits were fit for nothing else — 
 Meletus, a seller of leather; Anytus, a third- 
 rate poet; and Lycon, a bad rhetorician. 
 
 This trio charged the philosopher before the 
 assembly with neglecting the worship of the 
 gods, with introducing new deities, and also 
 with corrupting the youth of the city. Soc- 
 rates said little in defense, but rather pro- 
 voked his fate by a bold avowal of his prin- 
 ciples. A small majority was obtained against 
 him. Even then by the use of means within 
 his reach he might have escaped death, but 
 with lofty disdain he allowed the bigotry of 
 his countrymen to take its course, and' he was 
 sentenced to drink the hemlock. He told his 
 judges that instead of being put to death he 
 ought to be supported at public expense to 
 teach in the Prytaneum! He would neither 
 retract, nor modify, nor explain, but stood 
 like a Titan at bay. 
 
 The sacred vessel which had just gone to 
 the annual festival at Delos, until the return 
 of which it was unlawful to put any one to 
 death, did not again reach the city for thirty 
 days. During the interval Socrates remained 
 in prison. Nor was his manner of life much 
 changed from what it was before his condem- 
 nation. He continued to converse with his 
 friends. He refused to escape when the 
 means were aflTorded of his doing so. He 
 spoke cheerfully of his death and of his hope 
 of immortality. It was the custom of the 
 Greeks when one recovered from sickness to 
 sacrifice a cock to ^sculapius. When the 
 last hour came and the cup of hemlock was 
 calmly drained, the philosopher said to his 
 friend Crito who stood with other comrades 
 beside him: "Crito, we owe a cock to -^scu- 
 lapius; discharge the debt, and by no means 
 omit it." Thus was eclipsed the sublimest 
 genius of antiquity.
 
 588 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 But his work survived. The teachings 
 of Socrates can never fail to interest and in- 
 struct the seeker after truth. Every enlight- 
 ened age will drink from the exhaustless 
 fountain of his wisdom. The enunciation of 
 his doctrines marked an epoch, not only in 
 the ethics of Greece, but in the morality of 
 the human race. His contribution to the 
 wisdom of mankind was greater than that 
 which any other philosopher has brought into 
 
 to morals. His theme was human conduct. 
 He sought to impress upon his hearers a con- 
 viction of the barrenness of those speculative 
 systems in which the Greek so much de- 
 lighted. He would reduce the current beliefs 
 to an absurdity. His weapon was dialogue; 
 his method, interrogation. His antagonist — 
 real or imaginary — was a Sophist whose prop- 
 ositions were admitted only to be quickly 
 ground into dust under a reductio ad absurdum. 
 
 LAST HOURS OF SOCRATES.— After the painting by David. 
 
 the store-house of ages. The breadth and 
 profundity of his understanding, his sturdy 
 defense of the truth, his generous nature, his 
 masterful grasp of the greatest themes, his 
 honest assaults on error, and the pungent 
 speech and dramatic method in which his im- 
 mortal aphorisms are set before us, — all con- 
 spire to stamp him as the loftiest genius of 
 the ancient world. 
 
 Socrates turned the mind of man from idle 
 speculation to practical ethics — from vagaries 
 
 Woe to the fallacy-monger who fell into the 
 power of this inexorable and humane giant! 
 The world beholds him yet, and will ever be- 
 hold him as he sits among his companions 
 and delivers to them his immortal sayings. 
 His magnificent, ugly face ; his tremendous 
 head ; his beetling brows, and eyes that darted 
 their Promethean fire into the soul of mys- 
 tery and scorched the wings of falsehood — it 
 is Socrates, whom Plato and Xenophon have 
 pictured, whom hemlock could not kill.
 
 GREECE.— SPAETAX AND TREBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 5S9 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN 
 ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 HAT lias been called the 
 Spaktan Suprejiacy in 
 Grecian history may be 
 dated from the battle of 
 ^gospotami, in B. C. 
 405. That conflict de- 
 cided the fate of Athens, 
 and there was none other of the Hellenic 
 states at all able to compete either on land or 
 sea with the Lacedaemonians. The latter, 
 therefore, as if by right, assumed the mastery 
 of Greece, and for a while her dominion w^as 
 as unlimited as it was arbitrary. 
 
 Among her first acts was the punishment of 
 certain states that had in some way injured 
 her interests or insulted her pride. The 
 Eleans had on a certain occasion excluded 
 the Spartans from participation in the Olym- 
 pic games, and more recently had refused 
 permission to King Agis to offer sacrifices in 
 the temple of Zeus. The inclination of Elis 
 to the democratic rather than the oligarchic 
 form of government was especially distasteful 
 to the Lacedaemonians, who now determined 
 to regulate the affairs of their western neigh- 
 bors and punish them for previous misconduct. 
 In B. C. 402 Agis began a campaign against 
 Elis, but was stopped by his superstition. An 
 earthquake aroused his fears, and the expedi- 
 tion was postponed until the following year. 
 With the ensuing summer, however, the 
 campaign was again undertaken. The allies, 
 even including a body of Athenians, joined 
 the expedition, and the Eleans were soon re- 
 duced to submission. The pious Agis per- 
 formed his sacrifices and dictated the terms 
 of peace. 
 
 In the mean time, Lysander, now a private 
 but ostentatious citizen of Sparta, became a 
 source of trouble in that state. His ambition 
 had grown with what it fed on, and he con- 
 templated no less than a revolution of the 
 government, by which he hoped to have Agis 
 set aside and himself made king. To this 
 
 end he consulted the oracles of Zeus at 
 Dodona and at Ammon, in distant Libya, as 
 well as that of Apollo at Delphi ; but, though 
 he used the persuasive power of money, the 
 answers were adverse to his schemes. He suc- 
 ceeded, however, in getting Leotychides, the 
 eldest son of Agis, set aside, on the ground 
 that he w^as an illegitimate son of Alcibiades. 
 But Agesilaus, a younger son, born of another 
 mother, obtained the throne, and soon became 
 a popular and efficient ruler. A conspiracy 
 was organized against him on the ground of 
 his lameness, an old oracle having warned the 
 Spartans to beware " of a lame reign." But 
 Lysander, hoping to use the new king for his 
 own purposes, explained that a lame reign and 
 a lame hing were two very different things; 
 so the insurrection was suppressed, and the 
 leaders put to death. 
 
 Nearly all the states of Greece were now 
 subject to Sparta. The system of govern- 
 ment, established through the agency of 
 Lysander in the dependencies, was that of the 
 Decarchy, or Council of Ten, under the leader- 
 ship of a Spartan Harmost, or governor. It 
 was essentially a tyranny, and the Lacedae- 
 monian supremacy, which was based thereon, 
 contained no element of strength or perpetuity. 
 There was, moreover, in the present state of 
 affairs a certain inconsistency which weak- 
 ened the Spartan authority. The state had 
 fought through the whole of the Peloponne- 
 sian wars for the ostensible purpose of liberat- 
 ing Greece from the dominion of Athens. 
 What good to substitute the dominion of 
 Sparta ? On the whole, the Greek mind sym- 
 pathized with the Ionian race and the demo- 
 cratic tendencies of the Athenians rather thaii 
 with the austere Dorians and their oligarchy. 
 
 Meanwhile, a stirring drama had been 
 enacted in Asia Minor. The conspiracy of 
 Cyrus the Younger against his brother Arta- 
 xerxes had gathered head and broken into 
 nothing at the battle of Cunaxa. The part
 
 590 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 which the Spartans bore in the great cam- 
 paign, their heroism in the battle, their escape 
 from the clutches of the Persians, their cele- 
 brated retreat and return into Europe, have 
 already been recounted in the History of 
 Persia.^ 
 
 As soon as the great expedition had col- 
 lapsed, the satrapy held by Cyrus was con- 
 ferred on Tissaphernes. The latter began his 
 administration by attacking the Ionian cities, 
 and the Spartans were obliged to send out an 
 array under Dercyllidas for their protection. 
 After holding his own for a year and gaining 
 some advantages over the Persians, he was con- 
 fronted by Pharnabazus, who secured the ser- 
 vices of Couon the Athenian as commander 
 of a fleet to operate against the Lacedae- 
 monians. 
 
 King AgesUaiis himself went to Asia, in 
 B. C. 396, and took command of the Pelo- 
 ponnesian army. After wintering at Ephesus 
 he advanced upon Sardis and won a victory 
 over Tissaphernes on the banks of the Pacto- 
 lus. The latter was soon afterwards put to 
 death at the instance of Parysatis, who still 
 proved herself to be the mother of mischief 
 as well as of Artaxerxes. The satrapy of 
 Lydia was transferred to Tithraustes, and he 
 soon induced Agesilaiis to withdraw into the 
 country of his friend Pharnabazus, satrap of 
 Phrygia. The latter had always had the con- 
 fidence of the Spartans, and he now pro- 
 tested with the king in such manly terms that 
 the latter was induced to withdraw to Thebe, 
 on the gulf of Elseus; and from that place 
 he was erelong obliged to repair to Sparta 
 to protect his own country from impending 
 dangers. 
 
 For, in the mean time, the energies of 
 Conon, backed by Persian gold, had brought 
 into existence and equipped a fleet superior 
 to that of the Lacedseraonians. The appear- 
 ance of this armament in the western waters 
 had the effect to incite in the island of Rhodes 
 a democratic insurrection by which the oligar- 
 chy had been suppressed. Afterwards, in 
 August of B. C. 394, the allied squadron of 
 Sparta and Phoenicia was overtaken at the 
 peninsula of Cnidus, in Caria, and defeated 
 
 ' See Book Sixth, pp. 367-369. 
 
 with a loss of more than half of the arma* 
 ment. The effect of these successes of the 
 enemies of Sparta was such as further to 
 weaken her hold upon her dependent states 
 and to hasten the day of the overthrow of 
 her power. 
 
 About this time Timocrates, a prominent 
 Rhodian, was dispatched to the leading Greek 
 cities, well supplied with Persian gold, to in- 
 duce a revolt against the Lacedaemonians. 
 Thebes, Corinth, and Argos were all induced 
 by his arguments to renounce the Spartan 
 alliance, and hostilities were almost immedi- 
 ately begun. A quarrel occurred between the 
 Locrians and Phocians respecting the owner- 
 ship of a narrow strip of territory, and the 
 former appealed to Thebes for aid. The Pho- 
 cians on their part called on the Spartans for 
 help, and the latter at once responded in full 
 force under Lysander himself. After devas- 
 tating the Phocian territory he proceeded to 
 attack the town of Haliartus, where the insur- 
 gents were posted ; but the latter made a des- 
 perate sally, defeated the Lacedaemonians and 
 killed Lysander. In the following night, so 
 complete was the Theban victory, the invad- 
 ers disbanded, and left the country. A few 
 days afterwards, when Pausanias, who ex- 
 pected to join Lysander at Haliartus, arrived, 
 he found only the unburied Spartan dead of 
 the recent battle. He was forced by the 
 actual peril of the situation to accept the 
 terms prescribed by the Thebans and with- 
 draw to his own home. The victorious insur- 
 gents followed in his rear and virtually drove 
 him beyond the border. Afraid to return to 
 Sparta, the king found a hiding-place in the 
 temple of Athene, at Tegea, and being con- 
 demned to death was obliged to save himself 
 by remaining at the altar of the protecting 
 goddess. 
 
 The eflfect of this decisive reversal of for- 
 tune was to strengthen and encourage the 
 enemies of Spartan rule. Athens, Thebes, 
 Corinth, and Argos now entered into a for- 
 mal league against the Lacedaemonians. The 
 Eubceans, the Ozolian Locrians, the Acarna- 
 nians, the Ambracians, the Leucadians, and 
 the Thracian Chalcidicians were presently 
 added to the alliance, which now made no
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 591 
 
 concealment of its purpose of open war. In 
 the beginning of B. C. 394, the allies gath- 
 ered at the isthmus of Corinth and bade de- 
 fiance to the Peloponnesiaus. It was at this 
 juncture that the Spartan Ephors, becoming 
 with good reason more anxious for the safety 
 of the country than for foreign conquest, re- 
 called Agesilaiis from Asia Minor to defend 
 his own dominions. 
 
 The Spartans rallied for the conflict with 
 unusual energy. They advanced by way of 
 Man tinea to Sicyon, where they were con- 
 fronted by the allies, twenty-four thousand 
 strong. The latter, however, fell back to the 
 more defensible country in the immediate vi- 
 cinity of Corinth. Here was fought a severe 
 battle, in which the Spartans won an indeci- 
 sive victory. 
 
 In the mean time Agesilaiis had left Asia 
 Minor, and was approaching by the old Thra- 
 cian route marked out by Xerxes. He was 
 joined en route by the Ten Thousand Greeks, 
 who were now making their way homewards 
 from the Euxine. After reaching Phocis, 
 Agesilaiis heard of the defeat and death of 
 Pisander at the battle of Cnidus, but he con- 
 cealed the news from the army. On the plain 
 of CoRONEA he was confronted by the allied 
 army. The Thebans, who led the advance, 
 made a headlong charge and broke the oppos- 
 ing lines, but in other parts of the field the 
 Spartans were victorious. The Thebans turned 
 about and fought their way back to their 
 friends in one of the most desperate hand-to- 
 hand conflicts recorded in Grecian history. 
 Though the field remained to Agesilaiis, his 
 success was so little decisive that the only 
 mark of defeat on the side of the allies was 
 their petition for the privilege to bury the 
 dead. After the battle the Spartan king at 
 once made his way into Peloponnesus, where 
 he was received with great joy by the alarmed 
 Lacedaemonians and their allies. In the three 
 battles which had been recently fought, two 
 on land and one at sea — Corinth, Coronea, 
 Cnidus — the naval engagement had been espe- 
 cially disastrous to the Spartans, while the 
 land conflicts had given them no decided ad- 
 vantage. On the sea, Conon and Pharna- 
 bazus, acting in concert, were sweeping every 
 
 thing before them, and the Spartan dominion 
 in the ^gean faded away more rapidly than 
 it had been acquired by the battle of ^gos- 
 potami. 
 
 In the year B. C. 393, the allied fleet, hav- 
 ing completed its work among the islands, 
 bore down upon Greece. Presently the strange 
 spectacle was witnessed of a friendly Persian 
 armament lying in the harbor of Piraeus! 
 Pharnabazus, in his intense dislike of the 
 Spartans, assented heartily to the plans of his 
 colleague, Conon, who took advantage of the 
 situation to secure the resurrection of Athens. 
 The gold of Persia Avas freely used in the 
 work of restoring the walls and fortifications 
 of the city. Nor was the hearty aid given to 
 this enterprise by the Thebans — at whose in- 
 stance Athens had been dismantled and de- 
 stroyed — a less conspicuous example of the 
 mutability of parties among the Greeks. By 
 the assistance thus lent by her former enemies 
 most bitter and unrelenting, the capital city 
 of Attica again assumed her place, and though 
 shorn of her renown and glory, was soon a 
 scene of busy life and ambitious projects. 
 
 The whole brunt of the war now fell on 
 Corinth. The allies, attempting to penetrate 
 Peloponnesus by way of the isthmus, were 
 resisted by the Spartans, who from their head- 
 quarters at Sicyon ravaged the country along 
 the gulf at will. They finally broke down a 
 considerable portion of the long walls by 
 which the city of Corinth was connected with 
 her seaport of Lechseum, and also gained a 
 victory over those who tried to prevent the 
 demolition. An army of carpenters and 
 masons was soon sent out from Athens, and 
 the walls were quickly rebuilt ; but Agesilaiis, 
 by the aid of his brother Teleutias, who com- 
 manded the fleet, gained possession of Le- 
 chaeum, and rendered the barricades of no 
 further use to the city. Corinth herself was 
 driven to the verge of capitulation, and a 
 company of Thebans, who came as an em- 
 bassy to sue for peace, were treated with insult 
 and contempt by the king, who was now con- 
 fident of his ability to inflict a complete dis- 
 comfiture upon his enemies. 
 
 Just at this juncture an unexpected turn 
 occurred in the relations of the parties.
 
 592 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Hitherto the important wing of a Greek army 
 had always consisted of the ho2dites, or heavy- 
 armed soldiers. The peltastce., or troops of 
 light armor, haa ever been regarded as of but 
 secondary importance in battles. It was consid- 
 ered the business of the peltasts to skirmish — 
 to annoy and distract the enemy rather than 
 actually to beat him from the field or into 
 the dust. That work was reserved for the 
 hoplites, who came to the death grapple and 
 were the actual combatants — the determining 
 force of a Greek army. 
 
 Some of the allied forces in Corinth were 
 at the time referred to under command of 
 the Athenian Iphicrates. For two years he 
 had been engaged in the training of a body 
 of peltasts with a view to making them more 
 formidable in battle. For the coat-of-mail 
 worn by the hoplites he substituted a linen 
 corselet, which did not impede the freedom of 
 the body. He lessened the weight and diam- 
 eter of the shield. The length of the javelin 
 and short sword hitherto carried by the pel- 
 tast was increased one half. The new tactics 
 laid stress upon rapidity of evolution in the 
 field rather than upon the mere momentum 
 of the column. 
 
 Having got his corps well disciplined, 
 Iphicrates succeeded in several unimportant 
 engagements in inflicting considerable injury 
 upon the enemy. An opportunity now oflfered 
 to test the value of the new service on a more 
 extensive scale. A body of hoplites from 
 Amycla, desiring to participate in a festival 
 at home, were escorted by a division of Spar- 
 tans, also hoplites; and when the latter were 
 returning, Iphicrates, with what appeared to 
 all a piece of reckless audacity, drew out his 
 corps of peltasts, and gave them battle. 
 
 The conflict grew sharp and then furious. 
 The heavy-armed Spartans began to fall on 
 every side under the assaults of their more 
 active and less encumbered assailants. They 
 were bewildered at the novel and dangerous 
 onsets of the new soldiery. After a large 
 part of their number had been cut down 
 without ability on their part to inflict much 
 injury in return, they broke and fled. They 
 were pursued, decimated, driven into the sea. 
 The effect was such that Agesilaiis withdrew 
 
 from before Corinth and returned in a very 
 humble plight to Sparta. Iphicrates there- 
 upon sallied forth and retook nearly all the 
 towns in the eastern and northern districts of 
 Corinth. 
 
 The Spartans, now thoroughly alarmed by 
 the successes of the allies, and especially by 
 the exposure of their coast to the ravages of 
 Conon's fleet, liable at any moment to drop 
 upon them, concluded that it was time for 
 peace. They accordingly opened negotiations 
 by sending Antalcidas, their best diplomatist, 
 to the court of Tiribazus, who had succeeded 
 Tithraustes as satrap of Ionia. For the time, 
 however, the ambassador was unsuccessful. 
 The representatives of the allies were able to 
 thwart his efforts, although Tiribazus was in 
 hearty sympathy with the Spartan cause. It 
 was at this juncture that, by the connivance 
 of the satrap and the Persian court, Conon 
 was seized — a perfidious act — and imprisoned. 
 Though he soon afterwards made his escape 
 and returned to his old refuge at the court of 
 Evagoras in Cyprus, he never again took part 
 in the public affairs of his country. 
 
 By this time Athens had suflSciently re- 
 vived to send out a fleet of forty triremes to 
 recover her possessions on the Hellespont. 
 The command of the expedition was given to 
 Thrasybulus, who had complete success in 
 his mission. The Athenian authority was 
 reestablished, and the toll of ten per cent 
 reimposed on all vessels sailing out of the 
 Euxine. After this work was accomplished, 
 Thrasybulus sailed to Lesbos and deposed 
 the Spartan governor of the island. Landing 
 on the coast of Pamphylia, he began to lay 
 contributions on the inhabitants; but the lat- 
 ter gathered a force, attacked his camp by 
 night, and killed him. Like many another 
 illustrious Greek Avho had served his country 
 in the day of her need, he was doomed to 
 perish in an ignominious way on the shore of 
 a foreign land. 
 
 The attention of the Athenians was next 
 called to the condition of affairs in the island 
 of ^gina. It will be remembered that Ly- 
 sander had restored the exiled ^ginetans and 
 reestablished the oligarchy. Without suf- 
 ficient resources to create a regular navy, the
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES^ 
 
 593 
 
 people of the island began to fit out privateers 
 to prey upon Athenian commerce. The Lace- 
 dsemonian • commander, Teleutias, went to 
 Mgma. with a small squadron, and turned the 
 attention of the buccaneers to an enterprise 
 hardly less dangerous but somewhat more 
 honorable. This was an attempt to capture 
 Piraeus. With a fleet of only twelve ships he 
 sailed audaciously into the bay, landed his 
 men on the quays, seized all the portable 
 merchandise which was exposed about the 
 warehouses, robbed most of the ships in the 
 harbor, and sailed back to JEgina. 
 
 In the mean time Antalcidas, accompanied 
 by the Ionian satrap Tiribazus, had made his 
 way to the Persian court at Susa. The Great 
 King was now more inclined than hitherto to 
 favor the establishment of a general peace. 
 After much negotiation the conditions were 
 finally determined ; and in B, C. 387 the am- 
 bassadors returned to Asia Minor to promul- 
 gate the terms of the treaty. The forces 
 with which Antalcidas was now backed were 
 so overwhelming, both by land and sea, as to 
 render resistance well-nigh hopeless. Ambas- 
 sadors from the Grecian states were invited to 
 meet Tiribazus, and before them, under the 
 royal seal of Persia, the treaty was delivered. 
 It was couched in the following terms : ' ' King 
 Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in 
 ' Asia and the islands of Clazomense and Cyprus 
 should belong to him. He also thinks it just 
 to leave all the other Grecian cities, both 
 small and great, independent — except Lemnos, 
 Imbros, and Scyros, which are to belong to 
 Athens, as of old. Should any parties refuse 
 to accept this peace, I will make war upon 
 them, along with those who are of the same 
 mind, both by land and sea, with ships and 
 with money." 
 
 Such was the celebrated Peace of Antal- 
 cidas, dictated, as it was, by an Asiatic mon- 
 arch, the threats of whose ancestors had been 
 laughed to scorn by the Greeks in the heroic 
 days of old. Now, however, the conditions 
 were tamely accepted by a degenerate race, 
 whose resources had been consumed in inter- 
 necine strife and whose patriotism had per- 
 ished in the miserable heats of faction. The 
 only incident in the acceptance of the treaty 
 
 by the Greek states was that Thebes, instead 
 of taking the oath in her own name only, 
 persisted in swearing for the whole Boeotian 
 confederacy, of which she claimed to be 
 the head. 
 
 It was this assumption of something more 
 than local independence on the part of the 
 Thebans that gave to the Spartans their first 
 excuse for interfering with the terms of the 
 treaty. They accordingly insisted, at the ear- 
 liest opportunity, that the other Boeotian 
 cities, as well as Thebes herself, should be lo- 
 cally independent. These cities, with the 
 exception of Orchomenus and Thespise, all 
 preferred to remain in their present relations 
 as members of the confederacy; but Sparta, 
 determining to have her will by force, pro- 
 ceeded to establish garrisons in the two towns 
 which favored her views, and at the same 
 time undertook the resurrection of Platsea, in 
 order to make the same a basis of her future 
 operations in Central Greece. After the de- 
 struction of this place, as previously narrated, 
 the Platseans who escaped destruction became 
 domiciled in Athens, and by intermarriages 
 were now distinguished only by tradition from 
 the other inhabitants; but when their city 
 was rebuilt, most of these descendants of the 
 exiled families were induced to return. 
 Thebes, meanwhile, looked on and witnessed 
 these insulting proceedings without the pres- 
 ent power to interfere. 
 
 As soon as this work was accomplished in 
 the North, Sparta found time to settle an old 
 grudge which she held against the town of 
 Mantinea, in Arcadia. There was nothing 
 more specific to be alleged against this place 
 than that in the course of the Lacedaemonian 
 wars the Mantineans had always been un- 
 friendly, supplying encouragement to the 
 enemies of Sparta and rejoicing in her mis- 
 fortunes. Agesipolis was now dispatched to 
 punish the spirit rather than the overt acts 
 of Mantinea. When the city refused to de- 
 molish her walls, the Spartans dammed up 
 the river Ophis until the back-water, rising 
 against the bulwarks of sun-dried bricks, 
 undermined them. The people were then 
 obliged to surrender at discretion. All the 
 fortifications were destroyed, and the city was
 
 594 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 resolved into the five villages of which it was 
 originally composed. Over each of these vil- 
 lages a petty oligarchy was established, and 
 then the Lacedaemonians retired to their own 
 
 place. 
 
 Meanwhile, the city of Olynthus, at the 
 head of the Toronaic gulf, in the southern- 
 most of the Chalcidician peninsulas, had be- 
 come the center of a formidable confeder- 
 acy. Nearly all the towns in that region, 
 with the exception of Acanthus and Apollo- 
 nia, had entered a league for the maintenance 
 of their independence. But the two just 
 named, being under the influence of oligar- 
 chies, and threatened with war by the confed- 
 erate cities, appealed to Sparta for aid. Their 
 ambassadors were supported by Amyntas of 
 Macedon, and the Lacedsemonians were not 
 hard to convince of the propriety of taking 
 up arms against Olynthus. An army of ten 
 thousand was at once put into the field, and 
 two thousand of these were hurried to the 
 North. 
 
 This advance force gained some advan- 
 tages over the league, and Potidsea was 
 won over to Sparta. When the remainder 
 of the Lacedsemonian army, under the com- 
 mand of Phoebidas, was sent forward, it passed 
 through Bceotia, and by a singular act of 
 treachery gained possession of Thebes. The 
 Thebans had joined the Olynthian alliance, and 
 thus aggravated the existing animosity of the 
 Spartans, but the latter concealed their pur- 
 poses, and acting in conjunction with Leonti- 
 ades, one of the Theban polemarchs, laid a 
 plan to overthrow the government. It hap- 
 pened that at this time the festival of the 
 Thesmophoria was celebrating in Thebes, and 
 that in accordance with the custom the Cad- 
 mea or citadel, was given up to the women. 
 While the city was thus in a defenseless con- 
 dition, Phoebidas, pretending to continue his 
 march, suddenly turned about, seized the 
 Cadmea, arrested and put to death Ismenias, 
 the popular leader, and compelled three hun- 
 dred of his followers to fly for their lives. 
 
 The sequel of this audacious villainy was 
 in keeping with the Spartan character. With 
 profound duplicity the Ephors, who had author- 
 ized the act, now, in answer to the indignant 
 
 voice of Greece, disavowed what Phoebidas 
 had done and imposed on him a fine for his 
 conduct. Then they restored him to his com- 
 mand, and were meanwhile careful to keep 
 possession of the Cadmea! 
 
 Thebes, thus overrun, was obliged to enter 
 into a Spartan alliance, and to furnish troops 
 to assist in the prosecution of the Olynthian 
 war. For four years (B. C. 383-379) the 
 conflict was continued. Agesipolis died and 
 was succeeded by Polybiades. The Spartans 
 gradually gained on the allies until the latter 
 were broken up. Olynthus was besieged, and 
 after a long investment, was taken and dis- 
 mantled. All the Macedonian towns which 
 had been in rebellion against Amyntas were 
 restored to his authority. The influence of 
 the democratic states in the North, so neces- 
 sary as a counterpoise to the growing power 
 of Macedon, was destroyed, and the flood- 
 gates left open for the coming deluge. 
 
 For three years the city of Thebes re- 
 mained in the hands of the Spartan confeder- 
 ates. The leaders of the democracy were liv- 
 ing in exile in Athens. Chief among these 
 was the wealthy young Pelopidas, who had 
 already, by his virtues and abilities, acquired 
 an ascendency over the minds of his country- 
 men. The leader in Thebes Avas the great 
 Epaminondas, between whom and Pelopidas 
 the warmest ties grew up. On one occasion, 
 when Pelopidas was scarcely of the military 
 age, he had fought rashly in battle and was 
 beaten down by the enemy ; but, in the crit- 
 ical moment, Epaminondas threw his broad 
 shield between the gallant youth and de- 
 struction. 
 
 Ever afterwards Pelopidas looked to Epam- 
 inondas as to a father. Between the two he- 
 roes communication was now opened, and a 
 conspiracy was formed for the liberation of 
 Thebes from thralldom. A banquet was given 
 to the polemarchs, Archias and Philippus, and 
 when they were well drunken Pelopidas, and 
 six others, who had come into the city in dis- 
 guise, Avere introduced dressed as women. 
 When the intoxicated oflficers undertook to 
 lift their veils the conspirators drew their 
 daggers and stabbed them. Leontiades, the 
 military governor, was surrounded in his
 
 GREECE.— SPARl. N AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 595 
 
 house and killed. Epaminondas issued a proc- 
 lamation of freedom, and the Thebaus from 
 every side rushed to arms. An assembly was 
 called and the conspirators were publicly 
 crowned with wreaths of flowers. The old 
 office of Bceotrarch was revived, and Pelopi- 
 das, Charon, and Mellon were chosen to ad- 
 minister the affairs of the state. The city 
 was soon filled with returning exiles. Athe- 
 nian volunteers poured into the country, and 
 
 but the fact of the invasion remained, and 
 the exasperation of Athens could not be ap- 
 peased. 
 
 Having once more completely broken with 
 the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians set to work 
 with great energy to establish a new league 
 which should be powerful enough to uphold 
 the independence of the democratic states. 
 The plan proposed was the constitution of the 
 old confederacy of Delos. A congress was to 
 
 EPAMINONDAS SAVES THE LIFE OF PELOI'IDAS. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 Epaminondas soon found himself at the head 
 of a courageous and powerful force. 
 
 Sparta was thunderstruck with the intelli- 
 gence. Rallying from her consternation she 
 dispatched an army under Cleombrotus and 
 Sphodrias to suppress the alarming insurrec- 
 tion. The former soon retired from Bceotia 
 without accomplishing any thing, and the 
 latter was bribed by the Thebans to invade 
 Attica — this for the purpose of compelling the 
 Athenians to enter into an active alliance 
 with themselves. The ruse was successful. 
 The Spartans disavowed the act of Sphodrias, 
 
 be created of delegates from the seventy in- 
 dependent cities composing the league, and 
 this body was to have the power to advise 
 and direct in all matters of common interest, 
 under the leadership of Athens. It was at 
 once voted to raise an army of twenty thou- 
 sand hoplites and five hundred cavalry, and 
 to equip a fleet of two hundred galleys. A 
 special tax was assessed in Athens to push 
 forward the preparations, and in Thebes the 
 army was rapidly brought into a state of per- 
 fect discipline. 
 
 Now it was that the military genius of
 
 596 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Epaminondas began to shine with inextin- 
 guishable luster. He had every quality req- 
 uisite in a popular hero. He was a man of 
 the people. To the intellectual acquirements 
 most prized in his own country — music, danc- 
 ing, and gymnastic skill — he added the best 
 accomplishments of Athenian learning. By 
 the study of Pythagoras and Socrates he had 
 familiarized himself with the best aspects of 
 Greek thought. To the gifts of persuasive 
 eloquence he added personal virtue, and to 
 courage of the most heroic pattern the high- 
 est military genius ever produced in Greece. 
 
 After the failure of Cleombrotus and 
 Sphodrias, the now aged Agesilaiis himself 
 took the field to restore the fortunes of Sparta. 
 In B. C. 378 he invaded BcBotia with a large 
 army. The country was ravaged to the gates 
 of Thebes, but no decisive battle was fought, 
 nor did the Spartans manifest any extreme 
 anxiety to incur the hazard of a general en- 
 gagement. In the next year the same scenes 
 were witnessed and the same results reached, 
 except that Agesilaiis was injured in his lame 
 leg and for several seasons disabled from com- 
 mand. The campaign of B. C. 376 was in- 
 trusted to Cleombrotus, but the Thebans met 
 him in the passes of the Cithseron and he 
 was obliged to retire without crossing the 
 Boeotian frontier. 
 
 During this same year the Athenian fleets 
 under Chabrias and Phocion gained complete 
 control of the seas. The Spartan squadron 
 commanded by Pollio was defeated off Naxos, 
 and on the western coast the islands of Ceph- 
 ellenia and Corcyra were recovered for the 
 league. So great was the success of the allied 
 navy that by the close of the year there was 
 less cause to apprehend danger from the fleet 
 of Sparta than from the privateers of JEgma,. 
 But for a growing jealousy between Thebes 
 and Athens every thing would have foreto- 
 kened the complete triumph of the allies. 
 
 The years B. C, 375 and 374 were marked 
 by still greater successes of the Theban arms. 
 In the former summer Pelopidas gained a de- 
 cisive victory over the Spartans at the town 
 of Tegyra. The harmost of Orchomenus had 
 begun an invasion of Locris, and at the same 
 time Pelopidas undertook the capture of Or- 
 
 chomenus ; but both leaders were foiled in the 
 objects of their campaigns. In returning, 
 however, the Thebans fell in with the enemy 
 near Tegyra, and although greatly inferior in 
 numbers Pelopidas did not hesitate to join 
 battle. Depending upon the splendid Theban 
 phalanx known as the Sacred Band, he boldly 
 made the onset, and when a messenger big 
 with alarm ran to him and cried out, "We 
 are fallen into the midst of the enemy," he 
 coolly replied, "Why then the enemy are 
 fallen into the midst of us!" The result of 
 the battle was ruinous to the Lacedsemonians. 
 Both of their generals were killed, and the 
 losses in the ranks were very severe. All of 
 the region round about, with the exception of 
 Orchomenus and Chseronea, was detached 
 from Spartan rule. 
 
 By this stage of the war it had become 
 with Thebes not so much a question of inde- 
 pendence as how far she might extend her 
 influence. Phocis was the first state against 
 which she felt called to take up arms. The 
 Phocians had refused to pay the tribute 
 levied by the congress of the confederacy, 
 and felt comparatively safe in doing so be- 
 cause of the support of her ancient allies, the 
 Athenians. The latter, offended at the atti- 
 tude of Thebes, proposed peace to the Spar- 
 tans, and terms were at once agreed upon. 
 But the treaty was broken almost as soon as- 
 made, and hostilities continued. 
 
 After a few years of varying successes, the 
 desire for a settlement became general through- 
 out Greece. Antalcidas was again dispatched 
 (B C. 372) to the court of Persia to represent 
 that Thebes, by the restoration of tke Boeotian 
 confederacy, had violated the terms of the 
 treaty dictated by the Great King, and to ask 
 his intervention. This proceeding quickened 
 the desire for peace on the part of the demo- 
 cratic states; for they greatly preferred to 
 settle the affairs of Greece without the aid or 
 interference of Persia. In furtherance of 
 such a desire a conference was held at Sparta 
 in the spring of B. C. 371, and after con- 
 siderable discussion the conditions of peace — 
 known as the Peace of Callias from the 
 name of the Athenian ambassador — were 
 agreed to by the deputies.
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 597 
 
 The terms of the compact were — the inde- 
 pendence of the various Greek cities, the dis- 
 banding of the hostile fleets, and the dismissal 
 of all the Spartan garrisons from the towns 
 now occupied by them. When it came to 
 signing the treaty there was a strange inci- 
 dent, which revealed more plainly than words 
 the hollowness of the settlement, or perhaps 
 it might be said of any settlement between 
 the states represented in the congress. Sparta 
 ratified the terms for herself aTid her allies. 
 Athens signed for herself only, and each of 
 the confederate cities gave a separate ratifica- 
 tion until it came to Thebes. Epaminondas in 
 sisted that he would sign for himself and for 
 the Bceotian confederacy^ When this j)roceed- 
 ing was resisted by Agesilaiis, the Theban 
 boldly defended his right, maintaining that 
 the same difl^ered in no respect from the right 
 of Sparta to sign for the Lacedaemonian 
 ieague. He declared that in either case the 
 right depended on the sword, and that a Boeo- 
 tian sword was as good as a Spartan. Agesi- 
 laiis was greatly angered at this "insolence," 
 and the altercation became so violent that the 
 king in a rage ordered the name of Thebes 
 to be struck out of the treaty. So Epamin- 
 ondas was left to himself and his sword. 
 
 Of course there was but one thing to be 
 expected — the immediate invasion of Boeotia 
 by the Lacedaemonians. Nor was it regarded 
 as within the range of things possible that 
 Thebes, even with the support of her great 
 general, could long withstand the assaults of 
 her inveterate and powerful foe. Neverthe- 
 less, when Cleombrotus, who now held com- 
 mand of the Spartan army in Phocis, was 
 ordered to march into Boeotia and put down 
 all opposition, Epaminondas, nothing daunted, 
 made preparations to give him battle. The 
 combatants met on the plain of Leuctra. The 
 Thebans were greatly discouraged at the ap- 
 proach of the enemy. Bad omens were re- 
 ported by the seers. Three of the seven 
 Boeotrarchs voted to return to the city and to 
 send their wives and children to Athens. 
 But Epaminondas could not be appalled. 
 Just before the battle began an exile dis- 
 covered that the field contained the tombs of 
 two Theban virgins who had killed themselves 
 
 after having been violated by Spartan sol- 
 diers. The general had their graves covered 
 with garlands, and demanded that the out- 
 raged honor of Theban womanhood should 
 now be vindicated on the dastardly race that 
 had committed the deed. The spirit of the 
 soldiers was fired with the appeal, and the 
 conflict began. 
 
 The tactics adopted by Epaminondas were 
 a novelty in Grecian warfare. Hitherto there 
 had been but little variation from the estab- 
 lished usage of the field. The Greek com- 
 mander generally arranged his forces so as to 
 "attack in line." The theory of battle was 
 that the whole line — center, left wing, right 
 wing — must be maintained unbroken. It is 
 to Epaminondas that the method of attacking 
 in column, that is, of throwing upon some 
 particular part of the enemy's lines a heavy 
 mass of men moving in a column with a nar- 
 row front, but of great depth, must be re- 
 ferred. He adopted this policy for the first 
 in the battle of Leuctra. Concentrating his 
 best troops in the left wing, where they were 
 massed to the depth of fifty files, he threw 
 them with irresistible force against the Spar- 
 tan right. The Theban center and right were 
 not advanced at all, but held in reserve to 
 act according to the emergency. With the 
 onset the Lacedaemonian right wing was 
 utterly routed. Cleombrotus Avas mortally 
 wounded — the first Spartan "king" who had 
 fallen in battle since the day of Thermopylse. 
 The rout was complete. The Spartans were 
 granted the privilege of burying their dead, 
 but these were first stripped of their armor, 
 which was hung as a trophy in Thebes. 
 
 The effect of this victory was tremendous 
 in all Greece. It had been believed that in a 
 general field battle the Spartan hoplites were 
 invincible. Here at Leuctra, though superior 
 in numbers, advantageously posted, and ably 
 commanded, they had been beaten down by 
 the hitherto comparatively undistinguished 
 soldiery of Thebes, and this, too, by a method 
 of attack which was an innovation upon the 
 established rules of battle. Sparta had never 
 before suffered so great a disaster in the field. ^ 
 
 ^As illustrative of Spartan character and man- 
 ners, the reception of the news of the battie of
 
 598 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Whether viewed in itself as a ruinous defeat, 
 or considered as a precedent of what might 
 be expected hereafter, the shock might well 
 be regarded as fatal to Spartan military 
 fame. 
 
 At this epoch in Grecian history appeared 
 on the stage Jason of Pher^, generalissimo 
 of Thessaly. After the battle of Leuctra, the 
 Thebans sent to him for assistance in the fur- 
 ther prosecution of their war with Sparta. 
 Already ambitious of extending his own in- 
 fluence in Northern and Central Greece, he 
 gladly joined his forces with those of Thebes 
 to complete the expulsion of the Lacedaemo- 
 nians from the country. This was accom- 
 plished, however, rather by strategy than by 
 force ; for Jason assumed the ofiice of an ar- 
 biter, and the three hundred surviving Spar- 
 tans were permitted to escape from Boeotia 
 and return home. 
 
 It was evident from this transaction that 
 Jason of Pherae, having had a taste of Greek 
 politics, was enamored of the situation, and 
 that he saw in the same an opportunity for the 
 extension of his own influence and authority. 
 After scanning the horizon, it appeared to 
 him that Southern Greece offered the most 
 favorable field for his operations. Accord- 
 ingly he announced his intention to partici- 
 pate in the ensuing Pythian Festival of 
 August, B. C. 370. He caused it to be pro- 
 claimed that he would himself take charge of 
 the celebration, and that his sacrifice to 
 Apollo should consist of one thousand bulls 
 and ten thousand sheep, goats, and swine. 
 The Delphian priests and Amphictyons were 
 thrown into consternation by these tidings, 
 but the oracle gave assurance that Phoebus 
 would guard his shrine. A short time after- 
 wards, and before the date of the festival, 
 Jason was brought to a pause by assassina- 
 tion. Seven young men rushed upon him 
 
 Leurtra forms a striking incident. The festival 
 of Gyinnopiedia, which was celebrating at the 
 time, went on without interruption. Women 
 were forbidden to wail for their dead. The rela- 
 tives of those who were slain went about the 
 streets laughing; while those whose friends had 
 survived from the battle wept from shame and 
 mortification. As for the rest, Sparta merely pre- 
 pared to rescue her army. 
 
 and gave him his quietus while he sat in pub* 
 lie hearing causes. 
 
 In the mean time the Mantineans, whose 
 city, as heretofore related, had been disman- 
 tled by the Spartans, had availed themselves 
 of the decline of Lacedaemonian influence to 
 rebuild their ramparts. In this work they 
 were supported by other Arcadian towns and 
 also by Thebes; for the latter saw in these 
 movements a sign of the cloud that was to 
 break over Sparta. Agesilaiis marched into 
 Arcadia, but was unable to prevent the Man- 
 tineans from restoring their city. He, how- 
 ever, did much damage by ravaging the 
 country round about, and then withdrew. 
 
 Epaminondas was already on the march to 
 the south, where he was joined by the Argives 
 and the Eleans, by whom his already large 
 army was increased to seventy thousand men. 
 His plan now contemplated the restoration to 
 independence of Messenia, whose people for 
 generations had been scattered into all parts 
 of Greece. So great was the enthusiasm 
 created by the presence of Epaminondas in 
 Peloponnesus that the enemies of Sparta, 
 availing themselves of the manifest paralysis 
 of that power, exhorted him to make an in- 
 vasion of Laconia. To this he assented, and 
 his army was immediately advanced across 
 the border and was soon at Amyclse, on the 
 the Eurotas, only a few miles from the 
 capital. 
 
 The alarm at that city knew no bounds. 
 The women of Sparta, who had never seen the 
 face of an enemy, went about wailing. 
 Nothing but the energy and courage of Ages- 
 ilaiis saved the city from capture and de- 
 struction ; but through his exertions, assisted 
 by the Ephors, the walless capital of Laconia 
 was soon brought into a state of defense. 
 And though the king did not dare to go 
 forth and give his antagonist battle, he yet 
 succeeded in protecting the city. Epaminon- 
 das, however, wasted the country at will, and 
 withdrew unmolested to the west. Here, in 
 Arcadia and Messenia, he prosecuted success- 
 fully his purpose of establishing an Arcadian 
 confederation and restoring the state of Mes- 
 senia to independence. To secure- the latter 
 object, the ancient cliffs of Ithome were se-
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND TREE AN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 599 
 
 lected, and a new capital, called Messene, was 
 esta,blished on the summit. 
 
 Such was the present abasement of Sparta 
 that she now sent humbly to Athens to solicit 
 an alliance against the Thebans. The Athe- 
 nians readily assented, but Sparta, in order to 
 
 bats .-oon broke through the passes, and in 
 B. C. 369 made the usual invasion of South- 
 ern Greece. Still the campaign was not at- 
 tended with much success, and in the mean 
 time the Lacedaemonian cause was consider- 
 ably revived by the arrival of a squadron 
 
 BANQUET OF DAMOCLES. 
 
 secure the league, was obliged to renounce 
 her claims of leadership. It was agreed that 
 the command both by land and sea should 
 alternate in periods of five days between the 
 generals of the two states. The first move- 
 ment of the new allies was to occupy the 
 isthmus of Corinth. Thus should Epaminon- 
 das be cut ofl' from communication with his 
 confederates in Peloponnesus. But the The- 
 
 from Syracuse, the same being sent out by the 
 Sicilian tyrant, Dionysius.^ With the approach 
 
 1 It was at the court of the Tyrant Dionysius 
 that the celebrated incident occurred in which 
 the courtier Damocles figured as the principal 
 actor. As narrated by Cicero, this distinguished 
 sycophant had, after the manner of his kind, 
 lauded Dionysius, and ascribed to him such hap- 
 piness as belongs only to the immortals. In order 
 to rebuke this unseemly flattery, the Tyrant in-
 
 600 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 of winter Epaminondas retired to Thebes and 
 the allies to their respective states. 
 
 The year B, C. 368 was mostly occupied 
 by an expedition of Pelopidas into Thessaly. 
 After the death of Jason, Alexander, a Thes- 
 salian prince, had succeeded, by murdering 
 his two brothers, in becoming generalissimo 
 of the country. Against him— for he enter- 
 tained the same ambitious projects of his 
 predecessor — the Theban campaign was di- 
 rected. Pelopidas was entirely successful. 
 Alexander was obliged to solicit a settlement, 
 and the cities of Thessaly were mostly in- 
 duced to enter into a league against the ex- 
 tension of his power. As soon as the state 
 was reduced to quiet Pelopidas marched into 
 Macedonia, whose regent Ptolemy was induced 
 to make an alliance with the Thebans; and 
 to bind the compact the young Macedonian 
 prince, Philip, son of Amyntas, was given as 
 a hostage and taken to Thebes, where he spent 
 several years, keenly alive to the influences 
 of Greek politics and the culture of the 
 South. Thus was brought about the first con- 
 tact between the Greek states and the great 
 power of the North by whose sword their lib- 
 erties were so soon to be extinguished. 
 
 Meanwhile, the league of the Arcadian 
 cities had grown strong as well as over-con- 
 fident under the leadership of Lycomedes. 
 Like all the other Greeks the Arcadians, as 
 soon as freedom dawned, rushed forward to 
 gain first independence and then ascendency. 
 This haste to be great roused the jealousy of 
 Thebes, and she now looked coldly on the 
 Arcadian confederation or even sympathized 
 with its enemies. After the arrival of the 
 Syracusan reinforcements the Spartans, feel- 
 ing strong enough to assume the offensive, in- 
 vaded Arcadia, and succeeded in bringing on 
 an action in which the forces of the towns of 
 the league were completely routed. Not a 
 single Spartan fell in the conflict, and the 
 ■fight was for this reason given the name of 
 the Tearless Battle. 
 
 vited Damocles to a banquet. When the courtier 
 arrived and was seated, he glanced upward and 
 beheld above his head a sword suspended by a 
 single hair! Thus would his master teach him 
 the peril and precarious tenure of greatness. 
 
 The important event of the years B. C. 
 367-366 was the embassy sent by Thebes to 
 Persia. Ever since the Peace of Antalcidas 
 the Great King had claimed and exercised 
 the rights of an arbiter in the internal aflfairs 
 of Greece. The Thebans, now claiming the 
 position of leadership, felt that it was neces- 
 sary for their assumption to be recognized by 
 the Persian court. Pelopidas and Ismenias 
 were accordingly sent to Susa to secure the 
 sanction of the royal power to the claim of 
 Thebes, and also to obtain the decision of 
 the king respecting several disputes now 
 pending between the Greek states. The 
 Athenians, in order if possible, to counteract 
 the arguments of the Theban ambassadors, 
 sent Timagoras and Leon to represent Athens 
 and the Peloponnesiau league. But the king, 
 who had now learnt that the easiest way to 
 maintain his ascendency in Greece was to 
 support the strongest state, readily inclined 
 to the side of Thebes. Her leadership was 
 formally recognized, and the pending difficul- 
 ties in Peloponnesus were all decided accord- 
 ing to her wish. 
 
 The settlement, however, was unfavorably 
 received in Greece. In vain did Thebes in- 
 sist that the rescript of the Great King should 
 be accepted by the assembly convened to hear 
 the conditions of the adjustment. The Arca- 
 dians withdrew from the council. Other 
 states refused to ratify the terms. Pelopidas 
 and Ismenias went in person to Thessaly to 
 secure a ratification. Alexander had them 
 seized and imprisoned at Pherse. When the 
 Thebans undertook to recover their general 
 and sent an army of more than eight thou- 
 sand men into Thessaly they were defeated 
 and driven from the country. For in a fit 
 of folly they had refused that year to reelect 
 Epaminondas Boeotrarch, and the commanders 
 who went against Alexander were incompe- 
 tent as leaders. 
 
 The great general, however, was serv- 
 ing in the ranks, and when the army, pur- 
 sued by Alexander, was about to be ruined, 
 the soldiers called on Epaminondas to save 
 them. He accordingly took command and 
 the Theban forces were delivered from their 
 peril. A reaction in his favor was the imme-
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 601 
 
 diate result. He was restored to his office 
 and intrusted with a new expedition to se- 
 cure the release of Pelopidas. He at once 
 proceeded into Thessaly and induced Alexan- 
 der rather by diplomacy than by force to set 
 Pelopidas at liberty. Epaminondas then re- 
 frained from any severe retaliation against 
 the generalissimo on the ground of ex- 
 pediency. 
 
 The next incident of the struggle to main- 
 tain the Theban ascendency was the capture 
 of Oropus. This town, situated near the bor- 
 der line between Athens and Thebes, had for 
 a long time been in possession of the former 
 city; but the people of Oropus, composed for 
 the most part of Theban exiles, sympathized 
 with the mother state, and watching their op- 
 portunity seized the city and delivered it over 
 to Thebes. About the same time the Arca- 
 dians, under the lead of Lycomedes, having 
 been alienated by the course of the Theban 
 authorities, sought and obtained an alliance 
 with Athens, though in the course of the 
 negotiations Lycomedes was assassinated by 
 some exiles acting in the Theban interest. 
 
 By this league it became more than ever de- 
 sirable for Athens to have possession of the 
 isthmus of Corinth to the end that she might 
 keep a free communication between herself 
 and her Peloponnesian allies. She accord- 
 ingly with singular moral obliquity formed 
 the design of seizing Corinth, though between 
 herself and that city there was not the slight- 
 est cause of quarrel. The Corinthians, how- 
 ever, gathered an intimation of the scheme, 
 and were able by judicious measures to thwart 
 the purpose of her friend. They then turned 
 to Thebes with a proposition for a general 
 peace. To this the Thebans assented, and a 
 conference was accordingly convened at Sparta, 
 but only the minor states could agree on the 
 terms of settlement. Thebes, Athens, Sparta, 
 and Arcadia could not be reconciled, and the 
 struggle continued as before. 
 
 During the years B. C. 365-364 the Athe- 
 nians regained in some measure their ascen- 
 dency at sea. A fleet under command of 
 Timotheus conquered Samos and restored the 
 authority of his country in most of the Cyc- 
 
 iades. The eflfect of this revival of maritime 
 N.— Vol. 1—37 
 
 power was to arouse and exasperate the The- 
 bans, who had never hitherto wielded any 
 influence in the -^Egean. Epaminondas en- 
 couraged his countrymen to build a fleet of 
 one hundred triremes and was himself put in 
 command of the squadron. Sailing to the 
 Hellespont in B. C. 363 he made as though 
 he would begin a conquest of the countries 
 adjacent thereto, but nothing came of the ex- 
 pedition. The sea-service was a novelty both 
 to himself and his men. 
 
 While this mai-itime ambition had pos- 
 session of the mind of Epaminondas, Pelopi- 
 das organized a land force and again invaded 
 Thessaly. The recollection of his imprison- 
 ment rankled within him, and he determined 
 that Alexander should feel the force of his 
 vengeance. The latter raised a large army 
 and advanced to meet the Thebans. The two 
 enemies confronted each other in the field of 
 Cynoscephal^, where the Thessalians, though 
 greatly superior in numbers, were completely 
 routed. Pelopidas, however, like Cyrus the 
 Younger at Cunaxa, inspired by a sudden 
 rage on beholding Alexander in the enemy's 
 confused ranks, made a rash and furious 
 charge with the hope of reaching him. But 
 Alexander was surrounded by his friends, and 
 Pelopidas, cutting at them with blind fury, 
 was himself struck down and killed. His loss 
 was so great as to counterbalance the victory. 
 Shortly afterwards, however, a second Theban 
 campaign against Thessaly was completely 
 successful. Alexander was stripped of all his 
 dependencies and confined to the limits of his 
 own city of Pherse. 
 
 In the mean time a war had broken out. 
 between Elis and Arcadia. The latter state 
 in B. C. 364 had transferred the presidency 
 of the Olympic games from the Eleans to the 
 Pisatans, and the former endeavored to main- 
 tain their rights by force. During the prog- 
 ress of the festival they came armed into the 
 sacred precincts, and were resisted by the Ar- 
 cadians. The temple of Zeus was seized and 
 used as a fortress, and the celebration waa 
 broken up in a shameful conflict. The Eleans 
 were finally compelled to retire, but they 
 sought revenge by striking the one hundred 
 and fourth Olympiad from the list of the
 
 602 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 festivals and counting it ever afterwards a 
 dies noil. 
 
 After the war had continued for two years 
 Epaminondas again undertook the pacification 
 of Peloponnesus and marched a large army 
 across the isthmus. He was joined by reen- 
 forcements from those states and towns favor- 
 able to the Theban cause, while those who 
 were opposed rallied in great force at Man- 
 tinea. The aged Agesilaiis, of Sparta, set out 
 for this place at the head of the Lacedaemo- 
 nian forces, and Epaminondas seeing the La- 
 conian capital thus exposed, once more formed 
 the design of capturing it. By a swift move- 
 ment he reached the city before Agesilaiis 
 could reenter; but the houses were so well 
 defended and the old king so alert that the 
 Theban was obliged to retire. Sparta again 
 escaped destruction by the skin of her teeth. 
 
 Epaminondas, however, at once made his 
 way to Mantinea, and here was fought the 
 decisive battle of the war. The conflict oc- 
 curred in the plain between the city and Te- 
 gea. On coming upon the field Epaminondas 
 ordered his soldiers to ground arms. From 
 this movement the Spartans and Mantinseans 
 inferred that the battle would not occur 
 until the following day. They accordingly 
 took off their breastplates and disposed them- 
 selves at ease. But Epaminondas was busy 
 with preparations, and had no thought of 
 procrastination. He adopted the same plan 
 of battle as at Leuctra. He massed his best 
 troops into a column of great depth and 
 hurled them upon the enemy, who, hurrying 
 into rank, were unable to withstand the 
 shock. The field was swept at a single charge, 
 and the soldiers of Sparta were again seen in 
 flight. But the victory was purchased by 
 Thebes at too dear a price. Epaminondas, 
 fighting in the foremost ranks, was struck in 
 the breast with a spear and fell mortally 
 wounded. He was carried from the field in 
 a dying condition. Having satisfied himself 
 that his shield tvas safe, and that the victory 
 was certainly won, he ordered the spear-head 
 to be drawn from his breast, and died. 
 
 The Theban ascendency perished with him. 
 Both of those — lolaidas and Daiphantus — 
 whom he had indicated as his successors per- 
 
 ished in the battle, and his O'vn dying advice 
 to make peace was as necessary as it was judi- 
 cious. His great rival, Agesilaiis, survived 
 him but a short time, and then ended his 
 career in a most dramatic manner. At the 
 age of eighty years, the indomitable old man, 
 hobbling about on his lame leg, organized a 
 force of one thousand hoplites and went on 
 an expedition into Egypt. That country, 
 under the leadership of Tachos, was now en- 
 gaged in an insurrection against the Persians, 
 and the Spartan king went to his aid. He 
 cut so ridiculous a figure on his arrival that 
 Egyptian ridicule could not be restrained. 
 
 But the party of Nectanebis, who presently 
 rose against Tachos, better appreciated the 
 military genius of the short old octogenarian, 
 who went stumping about the ranks with the 
 imperturbable spirit for which his race had 
 always been noted. Agesilaiis actually raised 
 Nectanebis to power, and was by him re- 
 warded with a present of two hundred and 
 thirty talents. But on his way homeward 
 the old man died. His body was embalmed 
 in wax and carried to Sparta, where it was 
 buried with great honor. The ancient proph- 
 ecy which had confronted him at the be- 
 ginning of his reign, and which Lysander 
 had to explain away, had indeed been ful- 
 filled. Sparta had good reason to beware of 
 the "lame reign," for her prominence in the 
 affairs of Greece ceased with the death of 
 Agesilaiis. 
 
 Mention has been recently made of a 
 squadron ^ent to the aid of the Lacedaemo- 
 nians by Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. The 
 incident naturally suggests a few paragraphs 
 on the progress of Grecian civilization in Sic- 
 ily and Southern Italy. After the complete 
 collapse of the Athenian expedition of B. C. 
 413, at which time the government of Syra- 
 cuse was in the hands of the oligarchic or 
 Spartan party, a revolution occurred in favor 
 of the democracy. One Diodes, a learned 
 and patriotic citizen, was appointed to draft 
 a popular constitution. Hermocrates, the 
 leader of the oligarchy, was banished; but 
 a counter revolution was soon organized by 
 which he was enabled to return and Diodes 
 was himself sent into exile. While the oii-
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 603 
 
 garchic chief was endeavoring to regain pos- 
 session of Syracuse he was slain; but his 
 cause was immediately taken up by the young 
 Dionysius, a man of great abilities and au- 
 dacity, who soon obtained a vote of the assem- 
 bly by which he was raised first to authority 
 and then to despotism. He first made suc- 
 cessful war upon several of the Sicilian cities, 
 and then began a conflict with Carthage. But 
 this undertaking proved beyond his capacity 
 to manage. The island was invaded by an im- 
 mense force of Carthaginians, and Syracuse 
 was only saved from capture, and perhaps 
 destruction, by the ravages of a pestilence 
 which broke out in the camp of the besiegers. 
 Imilcon, the Carthaginian general, then pur- 
 chased from Dionysius the privilege of a safe 
 retreat from the island. 
 
 Under the direction of the tyrant, Syracuse 
 soon became the foremost city in the west. 
 And, indeed, in all continental Greece, Sparta 
 only could rival the power and grandeur of 
 the Sicilian capital. Dionysius himself set 
 the example in artistic and literary culture. 
 He courted the Muses. He had his poems 
 publicly recited, not only in his own city, but 
 also in Athens. He contended for prizes at 
 the Lensean festival and at the Olympic 
 games. Several second and third prizes were 
 awarded to him, and finally the first prize in 
 tragedy, given for his play entitled the Raii- 
 som of Hector. For thirty-eight years he 
 wielded the destinies of the city, and died 
 without an overthrow. 
 
 After him his son, known as Dionysius the 
 Younger, became master of Syracuse, and for 
 a while, under the influence of Plato, who 
 was invited to his court, showed some signs 
 of mitigating the rigorous rule established by 
 his father ; but the influence of courtiers pre- 
 vailed against these tendencies, and Plato him- 
 self, falling into disrepute, was for a season in 
 danger of his life. At length, however, the 
 philosopher escaped and returned to Greece. 
 
 Soon afterwards, in B. C. 357, Dion, the 
 leader of the opposing party in politics, headed 
 an insurrection against the tyrant, and the 
 latter was overthrown, to the great joy of the 
 people. Dion then became ruler of the city, 
 and was expected to make an effort at reform. 
 
 He had been the friend of Plato, and had im- 
 bibed that great thinker's profound but some- 
 what impracticable views of government, and 
 the people looked for a millennium; but in 
 this they were so grievously disappointed that 
 Dion was soon assassinated by one Callippus, 
 who held the city for about a year, when he 
 was in turn driven out by a nephew of Dion. 
 Several revolutions followed in quick succes- 
 sion, untU finally an appeal was sent to Sparta 
 for the restoration of order. The Lacedae- 
 monian authorities thereupon dispatched the 
 celebrated Timoleon to quiet the disturbances 
 in Sicily, and especially to restore the ascen- 
 dency of Spartan influence in Syracuse.* 
 
 The squadron given to Timoleon numbered 
 only ten vessels, but with this small armament 
 he made his way into Sicily. Having arrived 
 at Adranum he encountered Hicetas, the then 
 leader of the democratic party in the island, 
 who came out with a large force to drive back 
 the Spartans. Timoleon, however, gained a 
 decisive victory, and then marched into Syra- 
 cuse without further opposition. Dionysius 
 (the third of that name), who now headed 
 the oligarchy, surrendered to him, and he thus 
 became master of the city. He at once pro- 
 ceeded to the demolition of the fortifications 
 of Orytigia and the destruction of the other 
 relics of the reign of the Elder Dionysius, in- 
 cluding his splendid mausoleum ; and when 
 this work was accomplished the new governor 
 erected courts of justice on the sites of the 
 overthrow. Those who had been banished 
 were invited to return, and of these — together 
 with companies of citizens who joined them — 
 there came from Corinth ten thousand in a 
 single colony. The constitution was revised, 
 and most of the statutes of Diodes again made 
 operative in the government of the city. 
 
 ^ The story of Timoleon's previous life is a 
 tragedy. Once in battle he saved the life of his 
 elder brother Timophenes, but afterwards, when 
 the latter was overtaken in a piece of treachery 
 to his country, he consented to his death. Then 
 remorse seized him, and, loaded with the impre- 
 cations of his mother, he slunk out of sight and 
 tried to starve himself to death. After a long 
 seclusion he was, by one of those strange caprices 
 for which the Greek mind was so peculiarly noted, 
 called to take charge of the expedition just organ- 
 ized in aid of the Syracusans.
 
 604 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 After the defeat of Hicetas, that leader 
 still held out for a season, defending himself 
 in the town of Leontini. Here he was pres- 
 ently besieged by Timoleon and obliged to 
 capitulate ; but he sought revenge by inviting 
 in the Carthaginians, who immediately re- 
 sponded by sending into the island an army 
 of seventy thousand men. Against these 
 Tunoleon could muster but twelve thousand; 
 but with this small force he went boldly into 
 battle at the river Crimesus, and, assisted by 
 a terrible storm which burst suddenly in the 
 face of the enemy with hail and lightning 
 and wind, gained a complete and decisive 
 victory. Ten thousand of the Carthaginians 
 
 PLATO, 
 ^fuspum of DePauw University. 
 
 were destroyed in the battle and fifteen thou- 
 sand made prisoners. The effect of the vic- 
 tory was such that the enemy was glad to ac- 
 cept the terms of peace which, in B. C. 338, 
 Timoleon saw fit to offer. 
 
 In the mean time, Hicetas was overthrown, 
 taken pri.soner, and condemned to death 
 for his treachery. The various despots who 
 under the influence of the oligarchy had ob- 
 tained possession of most of the Sicilian 
 towns were now ejected, and the whole 
 island speedily brought to a condition of 
 quiet never before enjoyed. As soon as this 
 happy condition of affairs had been reached, 
 Timoleon resigned his trust and retired to 
 private life. For his services he would accept 
 nothing but a modest house given him by the 
 city. He soon afterwards brought his family 
 
 from Greece, and passed the rest of his life 
 in honorable seclusion. It was impossible, 
 how^ever, that his influence should not be 
 sought and felt in the public business of the 
 city and island. He w^as frequently consulted 
 as a kind of patriotic oracle in deciding the 
 gravest questions of state. After his blindness, 
 which ensued not long after his retirement, 
 he continued to be a mark of the distin- 
 guished esteem and confidence of the Syracu- 
 sans, who took delight in bringing him in a 
 car into the public assembly or theater, and 
 on such occasions he was always received 
 with a burst of popular enthusiasm. At his 
 death, in B. C. 336, he was honored with a 
 splendid funeral at the public expense, and a 
 concourse of weeping people gathered at his 
 tomb to bear witness to his heroic virtues and 
 unselfish patriotism. 
 
 Before the events which have just been 
 narrated, the final act in Hellenic history had 
 begun in Greece. It will have been noticed 
 that, with the decline of Sparta, the appre- 
 hensions of the Athenians and Thebans were 
 directed to the North rather than to Pelopon- 
 nesus. The imbroglio with Alexander of 
 Pherse had indicated that even within the 
 limits of Northern Greece the elements of 
 danger to the independence of the smaller 
 states lay hidden ready for development; but 
 more particularly was there cause for alarm 
 from the growing power of the great kingdom 
 just beyond Olympus. 
 
 The giving of the youth, Philip of Mace- 
 don, as a hostage to the Thebans, and his 
 residence of several years among the Greeks, 
 have already been mentioned. While in 
 Thebes the young man made good use of his 
 opportunities. He studied the Greek lan- 
 guage and literature. He made the acquaint- 
 ance of Plato. He studied military science 
 under Epaminondas, and familiarized himself 
 Avith the current condition of the aflfairs of 
 Greece. His great natural abilities were thus 
 stimulated in a school well calculated to bring 
 out the best energies of his genius. Before 
 leaving Thebes — which he did in B. C. 359 — 
 to assume the duties of the Macedonian goy 
 ernment during the absence of his brother 
 Perdiccas on the lUyrian campaign, he had
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 605 
 
 already attracted the attention of the most 
 eminent Greeks of his time. Nor were there 
 wanting those who could discover in the 
 young prince the forecastings of a remarkable 
 career. 
 
 When Perdiccas was slain by the Illyrians, 
 the crown of Macedonia fell to his sou, with 
 Philip for regent. Two claimants to the 
 throne now arose — Pausanias, who was sup- 
 ported by the king of Thrace, and Argseus, 
 with whom the Athenians were leagued on 
 account of the favor which he had shown 
 them in gaining possession of Amphipolis. 
 
 But Philip, by his address, soon secured the 
 withdrawal of support from both of the pre- 
 tenders, and thus brought their cause to 
 naught. Having thus provided for peace at 
 home, he at once entered upon his campaign 
 against the Pseonians and Illyrians. Both of 
 these peoples were quickly and easily sub- 
 dued. The tactics which Philip had learned 
 from Epaminondas were put to use in the 
 very first battle, and with terrible effect upon 
 the Illyrians. who were put to utter rout by 
 the ieavy column which the Macedonian 
 massed against a single point in their lines. 
 The effect of the victory so strengthened 
 Philip at home that by common consent he 
 assumed the crown; but the son of Perdiccas 
 was treated with consideration by the new 
 king, who gave him his daughter in marriage. 
 The first contact of Philip with the Athe- 
 nians was respecting the possession of Amphip- 
 olis. It will be remembered that this city 
 had been wrenched from Athens by Brasidas 
 of Sparta, and had subsequently had a nom- 
 inal independence. With the organization of 
 the Olynthian league the members of that 
 confederacy became extremely anxious that 
 Amphipolis should become a member of the 
 alliance. The position of the city at the 
 mouth of the Strymon rendered it of vast im- 
 portance to Philip, whose ambition reached 
 towards the ocean as well as landward. With 
 extraordinary skill, not unmixed with crafti- 
 ness, he secured the friendliness and support 
 of Athens by promising to give her Amphip- 
 olis if she would yield Pydna to him ; and 
 at the same time he procured the withdrawal 
 of the claim of Olynthus by agreeing to cede 
 
 to that city the town of Anthemus. These 
 measures having cleared the field of opposi- 
 tion, he suddenly laid siege to Amphipolis and 
 took it before assistance could be rendered by 
 any. He also kept Pydna ; and the Olyn- 
 thians and Athenians were left to nurse their 
 complaints. The people of Olynthus were 
 soon i^lacated by the recovery of Potidsea, 
 which town Philip graciously turned over to 
 them as a kind of compensation for the loss 
 of Amphipolis. 
 
 The year B. C. 356 was a fortunate epoch 
 for the Macedonian king. In that year his 
 general, Parmenio, gained a great victory 
 over the Illyrians, by which the previous con- 
 quest of Philip was strengthened and con 
 firmed. In the Olympic games the king's 
 chariot won a prize in the face of the sharpest 
 competition ; and last, but not least, a son 
 was born and named — Alexander. 
 
 At this time Central Greece — especially 
 Athens — was distracted by the Social War. 
 A coalition was formed against that state by 
 Byzantium, Rhodes, Chios, and Cos; and the 
 eflTorts of the mother city to suppress the re- 
 volt proved unavailing. The conflict, how- 
 ever, was continued (B. C. 357-355) until 
 Artaxerxes interfered, and Athens was obliged 
 to assent to the independence of her insurgent 
 dependencies. Meanwhile another contest, 
 known as the Sacred War,^ had broken out 
 between Thebes and Phocis. The people of 
 the latter state had long been held in dislike 
 by the Thebans, who now, using their great 
 influence in the affairs of Greece, secured a 
 vote at the Amphictyonic council by which a 
 heavy fine was imposed on the Phocians, who 
 had — as was alleged — been cultivating a por- 
 tion of the consecrated plain of Cirrha. 
 
 Phocis, after protesting in vain and being 
 afflicted with a second fine, flew into a pas- 
 sion, and, under the lead of Philomelus, seized 
 Delphi, temple, oracle, and all. With the 
 enormous treasures thus secured, the Phocians 
 bid defiance to the Thebans. Teri thousand 
 mercenaries were hired, and with this force 
 Philomelus, making his way into Locris, de- 
 feated the army which Thebes had put into 
 
 ^ This was the second conflict so-called. See sti' 
 pra, p. 518.
 
 606 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 the field against him. But the tide soon 
 turned, and in a second battle the Phocians 
 were routed and their leader killed. Ono- 
 marchus succeeded to the command, and the 
 war continued with varying success and 
 great barbarity ; for the sacrilegious nature 
 of the quarrel embittered the contest by 
 as much as superstition is more cruel than 
 reason. 
 
 Thus by the Social and the Sacred War 
 was Greece weakened. Philip saw in the dis- 
 tractions of his neighbors on the south an 
 opportunity to interfere for the aggrandize- 
 ment of his own influence. First he invaded 
 Thessaly, where the exactions of Alexander 
 
 of Pherse and his 
 successors had so 
 embittered the 
 people that an 
 easy conquest was 
 open to any lib- 
 eral-minded and 
 sagacious general. 
 The town of Phe- 
 rse, however, more 
 subjected to the 
 influence of the 
 recent tyrants 
 than other Thes- 
 salian cities, re- 
 sisted Philip and 
 was besieged. 
 Onomarchus, the 
 Phocian, who had 
 received some assistance from the Pherse- 
 ans, now sent a force of seven thousand men 
 to their aid, and Philip was obliged to retire 
 for a time from the country. Returning, 
 however, with an army of twenty thousand 
 men he overran all Thessaly, but Onomarchus 
 again marched into the country and gave the 
 Macedonian battle near the gulf of Pagasse. 
 The latter was this time completely victorious. 
 The Phocian general was slain. Philip pro- 
 claimed himself the defender of the Delphic 
 shrine, and was about to march at once into 
 Central Greece, but was turned back by a 
 strong force posted at Thermopylae. 
 
 Now it was that the great Demosthenes 
 appeared in the arena at Athens. The peo- 
 
 DEMOSTHENES.— Berlin. 
 
 pie of the city divided into a Macedonian and 
 an anti-Macedonian party. The latter was 
 led by the orator; the former, by his 
 rivals, Phocion and -^schines. The story of 
 the life of Demosthenes is full of interest and 
 instruction. Defrauded by his guardians and 
 turned out in poverty on the world, weak in 
 body, and subject to great dejection, he began 
 a struggle for preeminence against every dis- 
 advantage. His first public appearance on 
 the bema was a failure; but he applied him- 
 self with indefatigable industry to study and 
 practice, and soon wrested from public opin- 
 ion the palm of oratory which twenty-two 
 centuries have not plucked away. 
 
 The subject which then agitated the Athe- 
 nians — the encroachments of Philip and the 
 consequent peril to the liberties of Greece — 
 was of a sort to evoke the highest interest and 
 to arouse the most patriotic passions. In a 
 series of orations known as the Philippics the 
 orator discussed the Avhole question involved 
 in the present state of his country, and more 
 particularly sought to stimulate the Athenians 
 to a vigorous and united effort to stay the 
 approach of the Macedonians. His efforts, 
 however, were comparatively unavailing. In 
 B. C. 352 the assembly voted to organize a 
 fleet to operate against Philip, but the move- 
 ment was marked by neither energy nor suc- 
 cess. Two years later the city of Olynthus, 
 still at the head of the Northern confederacy, 
 sent an urgent appeal to Athens to assist in 
 repelling the insidious, but now scarcely dis- 
 guised, ambitions of Philip. Demosthenes 
 delivered three orations, known as the Olynthi- 
 acs, on the question thus presented to the as- 
 sembly. But no energetic action could be 
 evoked, even by the fiery appeals of the 
 matchless orator. Greece sat languidly by 
 and saw town after town of the Olynthian 
 league won over or conquered by Philip, until 
 finally Olynthus herself was taken, her forti- 
 fications leveled, her people sold as slaves, and 
 the whole Chalcidician peninsula reduced to 
 a Macedonian province. 
 
 Meanwhile, the disgraceful Sacred War 
 continued. As long as the treasures in the 
 Delphian temple held out, the Phocians were 
 able year after year to hire new armies of mer-
 
 GREECE.— SPARTAN AND THEBAN ASCENDENCIES. 
 
 607 
 
 cenaries and continue the struggle. Thebes 
 was, perhaps, as nearly exhausted as her 
 rival. In this condition of affairs the ques- 
 tion was bruited of a league which, beginning 
 with the Thebans and the Athenians, should 
 extend to most of the states of Central 
 Greece — to the end that civil hostilities might 
 cease, and the country be united to repel for- 
 eign aggression. 
 
 The news of this promising enterprise, 
 however, was carried to Philip, and in the 
 summer of B. C. 347 he sent indirect pro- 
 posals to Athens inviting a conference in the 
 mutual interests of the two powers. In re- 
 sponse the Athenians sent an embassy to the 
 court of Philip headed by Demosthenes, -^s- 
 chines, and Philocrates. They were enter- 
 tained by that wily monarch, but nothing 
 came of the negotiations. The Macedonian 
 king soon afterwards sent an embassy to 
 Athens, and the terms of a treaty were 
 agreed upon. In order to secure the ratifica- 
 tion of this compact the former Athenian 
 envoys were again dispatched to Macedon, 
 but Philip was absent on a campaign; and 
 even when he was found he insisted that the 
 ambassadors should accompany him into Thes- 
 saly to mediate, as he averred, between Phar- 
 salia and Halus. The whole object was to 
 gain time to prosecute his plans in Central 
 Greece. 
 
 The treaty, however, was ratified. The 
 envoys of Athens returned home. Demos- 
 thenes entered a protest against the conditions 
 of the settlement. His following in the city 
 declared that -(Eschines had deluded the peo- 
 ple with a false notion of security. The 
 usual political wrangle occurred; but the 
 Macedonian party was in the ascendant, and 
 <i vote of thanks to Philip was passed by the as- 
 sembly for the terms which he had dictated! That 
 monarch was already on his march into 
 Greece. The supine Athenians sent him 
 word that unless the Phocians would redeliver 
 to the Amphictyons the shrine of Apollo they 
 would unite with him against the defilers of 
 the sacred city. The curtain was up for the 
 last scene in the independence of Greece. 
 
 In the mean time, Phalaecus, general of 
 the Phocian army, entered into negotiations 
 
 with Philip and withdrew, with the monarch's 
 consent, into Peloponnesus. The Macedonian 
 then entered Phocis without opposition. The 
 towns made a virtue of necessity by surren- 
 dering. Delphi was taken. The Amphicty- 
 ons were convened. To them was referred 
 the question as to what disposition should be 
 made of those who had profaned the temple 
 of Apollo and wasted his treasures. The 
 council voted that every Phocian town, with 
 
 ^scHiNEs.— Naples. 
 
 the exception of Abje, should be leveled to 
 the ground. The people should be scattered 
 into hamlets of not more than fifty houses. 
 The Phocians should be taxed until the an 
 nual tribute should amount to ten thousan(J 
 talents — this to replace the squandered treas- 
 ures of the temple. The Spartan members 
 of the Amphictyony should be deposed. 
 Finally and specially : the two votes of Phocisf 
 in the council should be taken away and con- 
 ferred on Philip of Macedon! Thus, in the 
 year B. C. 346, was a foreign king, with full 
 power to enforce his will, given a seat at the 
 head of that venerable body, which for so
 
 608 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 many centuries had been reserved with sacred 
 fidelity for members of the Hellenic race. 
 
 It was now no more than a question 
 of time when the Macedonian monarch would 
 assert his advantage and absorb the Greek 
 states in his dominions. The cry of patriot- 
 ism might now be lifted in the streets, but to 
 what purpose? The rapid decline of the 
 
 and versatile people who contributed to an* 
 tiquity her brightest pages. The voice of the 
 Greek, so shrill in battle so musical in peace ; 
 his gay activities, his energy, so often reviv- 
 ing from humiliation and ruin ; his brush, his 
 chisel — alas, for all these! where are they? 
 The beauty of Athens has sunk into the dust. 
 The wolves of Mount Taygetus howl in the 
 
 ANCIENT CORINTH. 
 
 Grecian communities, their failure in public 
 spirit, the decadence of Grecian institutions, 
 and the substitution of centralization for indi- 
 viduality — all this will come properly into the 
 field of view in the course of the following 
 Book, which will contain the history of the 
 Macedonian ascendency. 
 
 For the present, it is sufficient to take 
 leave, not without regret, of that brilliant 
 
 dark among the broken stones of Sparta. 
 The splendor of Corinth is no more. Only 
 by the imperishable Thought — the verse of 
 Homer, the page of Herodotus, the infinite 
 spirit of Plato, the clarion of Demosthenes — 
 has the renown of Hellas survived, illumining 
 the world that now is, and shedding a glory 
 over her name, even to the far-ofi* shores of 
 the setting sun.
 
 look !|tnl^. 
 
 MACEDONIA. 
 
 Chapter xivVlll.— Country, Cities, and Tribes. 
 
 HE most ancient name of 
 the country known in the 
 times of Philip and Alex- 
 ander, as Macedon, or 
 Macedonia was Emathia. 
 By this appellation it is 
 referred to in the Iliad. 
 Doubtless the more recent name was derived 
 from the mythical founder of the nation, a 
 certain Macedo, who was, of course, one of 
 the sons of Zeus, Another ancient appella- 
 tive of this country was Macetia, or the land 
 of the Macetse, which name, in its turn, has 
 been associated by the curious with the word 
 Kittim, used in the tenth chapter of Genesis. 
 Already in the times of Herodotus the more 
 ancient names had been rejected in favor of 
 Macedon ; but the region so called was, in the 
 times of that ancient story-teller, only a small 
 district in the vicinity of Mount Pindus. A 
 better acquaintance with the primitive lan- 
 guage 'of the Macedonians would, no doubt, 
 throw much light, not only on the origin of 
 the tribes by which Macedon was peopled, but 
 also on the geographical districts in which 
 they settled 
 
 Of the general character of the countries 
 
 which constituted the empire of Alexander, 
 much has already been said. Nearly all of 
 the provinces within the limits of that vast 
 dominion, except Macedonia Proper, had been 
 previously included in one or more than one 
 of the kingdoms which preceded the advent 
 of the conqueror. What had been Egypt, 
 Chaldsea, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, became 
 Persia ; and the various countries dominated 
 by Cyrus and Cambyses were in turn subdued 
 by the son of Philip. These countries, having 
 been described in the preceding Books, from 
 the First to the Seventh inclusive, will here 
 require no further consideration as it respects 
 their geography or productions. It is only of 
 the character of the original kingdom of Philip 
 that something should now be added. 
 
 Macedonia, then, is bounded on the south 
 by the Gambunian mountains, which divide 
 it from Thessaly. On the west rises the chain 
 known in different parts of its course as Scar- 
 dus, Bernus, Pindus. Beyond this range lies 
 Illyria. From Msesia on the north, Macedo- 
 nia is divided by the Orbelian mountains, 
 while on the east it is separated from Thrace 
 by the river Strymou The country was thus 
 included on three sides by mountainous eleva- 
 
 (611)
 
 612 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 tions, and on the fourth by a stream of con- 
 siderable volume. In the time of Herodotus, 
 Macedon had boundaries not nearly so great 
 as those here given ; but in the age of the 
 geographer Strabo, the limits were made to in- 
 clude a large part of Illyria and Thrace. 
 
 The rivers of Macedonia are three in num- 
 ber; the Axius, the Lydias, and the Haliac- 
 mon. All of them find their way into the 
 Thermaic gulf. The most easterly and largest 
 is the Axius, now called the Vardar. It 
 gathers its waters from the hill-country, be- 
 tween the ranges of Scardus and Orbelus, and 
 flows in a course somewhat south-easterly, re- 
 ceiving several tributaries, the most important 
 being the Ericon. The second of the princi- 
 pal streams is the Lydias, now called the 
 Kara Azmac. This is the river which passes 
 through the lake on which Pella, the capital 
 of Macedonia was situated. It drains the cen- 
 tral part of the country, and becomes conflu- 
 ent with the Axius about a league above the 
 entrance of that stream into the sea. Still 
 further to the south-east is the Haliacmon 
 which gathers its streams from the Cambu- 
 nians, and flows through the marshy districts 
 of Macedonia into the sea. In the time of 
 Herodotus, however, it was in its lower course 
 deflected to the north and joined its waters 
 with those of the Lydias before falling into 
 the gulf. 
 
 The valleys of these three rivers are sepa- 
 rated from one another by tranverse chains of 
 mountains, branching from the Scardus. The 
 range dividing the Haliacmon from the Lydias 
 is called Bermius, and that between the Ly- 
 dias and the Axius, Dysorum. Macedonia was 
 thus geographically constituted of three prin- 
 cipal valleys, all opening out upon the Ther- 
 maic gulf. 
 
 It is, however, with the political divisions 
 of the country rather than its physical con- 
 stitution that the historian is mostly concerned. 
 Within the limits of Macedonia, then, as it 
 was inherited by Philip, son of Amyntas, 
 were to be found the following provinces: 
 Lyncestis, Stymphalia, Orestis, Elimea, Eor- 
 dsea, Pieria, Bottisea, Emathia, Mygdonia, 
 Chalcidice, Bisaltia, and Pseonia with its sub- 
 divisions. Lyncestis, the first of these dis- 
 
 tricts lay to the west, next to Illyria, from 
 which it was divided by the Bernus range. 
 It was bounded on the north by Pseonia. 
 The principal stream was the Erigonus, and 
 the principal thoroughfare the Egnatian Way. 
 The district was originally inhabited by an in- 
 dependent tribe governed by their own king. 
 
 To the south-east of Lyncestis lay the ter- 
 ritory of Orestis. The barbarians of this dis- 
 trict also were originally independent of the 
 Macedonian kings. The country was of small 
 extent and contained but few towns, the prin- 
 cipal being Celetrum and Orestia, the latter 
 the birthplace of Ptolemy Lagus. Immedi- 
 ately south of this district was the small coun- 
 try of Stymphalia, the principal town of 
 which was Gyrtona. Like the two preceding, 
 the original Stymphsei were barbarians, and 
 retained their independence until conquered 
 by the Macedonian kings. Immediately east 
 was the province of Elimea, a mountainous 
 and barren country, but of great importance 
 to the Macedonians ; for through this district 
 lay the passes into Epirus and Thessaly. The 
 principal river of Elimea was the Haliacmon ; 
 the principal towns were a city of the same 
 name as the province and -iEane, said to have 
 been founded by colonists from Tyre. 
 
 Adjacent to Elimea on the east was the 
 little barbarian state of Eord^A, which, like 
 its neighbors, maintained its independence 
 until subjugated by Macedon. Through this 
 district passed the great Egnatian Way, which 
 reached from Edessa and Pella into Greece. 
 The two principal towns of the state were 
 Cellse and Arnissa. Further to the south-east 
 was the celebrated district of Pieria, said to 
 have been the birthplace of Orpheus and the 
 native seat of the Muses. Pieria was contig- 
 uous to Thessaly, and was nestled at the base 
 of Olympus. It contained the towns of Phila — 
 situated near the famous Thessalian vale of 
 Tempe — Heraclia, and Dium, one of the chief 
 cities of Macedonia; also the small town of 
 Pimplea, in which Orpheus was born, and 
 near which is the conical tumulus, said to be 
 the tomb of that mythical maker of song. In 
 this same district was the city of Pydna, cele- 
 brated for the great victory gained there bj 
 Publius jEmilius over the Macedonians under
 
 MACEDONIA.— COUNTRY, CITIES, AND TRIBES. 
 
 613 
 
 Perseus — by which event the Empire founded 
 by Philip was at last extinguished. Some 
 miles to the north of this city was the town 
 of Methone, before the walls of which, as will 
 be remembered, the right eye of Philip was 
 shot out by an archer.' Another Pierian town 
 of some importance was Phylace ; and a short 
 distance to the north of this was Agassse, which 
 was occupied by -lEmilius after the battle of 
 Pydna. 
 
 The next subdivision of ancient Macedonia 
 was the province of Botti^a, situated between 
 the Haliacmon and the Lydias. One of the 
 principal towns of this district was Alorus, on 
 the left bank of the Haliacmon. At the 
 mouth of the Lydias was the city of Jehnse, 
 and a hundred and twenty stadia up that 
 river was Pella, the Macedonian capital. 
 
 Ejiathea was, as already said, the most 
 ancient of the Macedonian districts. It was 
 the small but fertile region in which was 
 planted the central root of that great tree 
 which was destined to overshadow the nation. 
 According to tradition this province was first 
 colonized by a company of Argives, called 
 the Temenidse. The chief city was ^gse, or 
 Edessa, which up to the time of Philip was 
 regarded as the capital of Macedonia. The 
 other important cities were Cydrse, Brysi, 
 Mieza, and Cyrrhus, in the latter of which 
 was the temple of Athene, built by Alexander. 
 Nor should failure be made to mention the 
 two cities of Citium and Idomene, the former 
 of which was the head-quarters of Perseus, and 
 the latter of some note on account of its cap- 
 ture by Sitalces, king of the Odrysse. 
 
 The province of Mygdonia extended from 
 the Axius to the Strymon. It remained under 
 the dominion of the primitive barbarians until 
 they were expelled by the Temenidse. The 
 principal river of the district was the Axius, 
 and the chief town Amj'don, which is men- 
 tioned in the Iliad as a place of note. At the 
 mouth of the Axius was the city of Chalastra, 
 which was one of the first places taken by 
 Xerxes in his invasion of Greece. On the 
 river Echedorus, which loses itself in a vast 
 marsh close to the Axius, was situated the 
 ancient city of Thernse, the modern Thessa- 
 
 *See sequitur, p. 621. 
 
 lonica, one of the most celebrated of the Mace- 
 donian cities. 
 
 To the south and east of Mygdonia lay the 
 peculiar province of Chalcldice, consisting of 
 several peninsulas, jutting into the ^gean. 
 This region was originally colonized by people 
 from the island of Euboea. The Chalcidicians 
 for a long time maintained their independence, 
 but were at length subjugated and added to 
 the conquests of the Macedonian kings. The 
 peninsula of Pallene was of special importance. 
 Here was said to have occurred the combat 
 between the gods and the Titans. A more 
 authentic distinction was the possession of the 
 rich city of Potidsea, which occupied the neck 
 of the isthmus by which Pallene was joined 
 to the main-land. This place was founded at 
 a very early date by a colony of Corinthians, 
 but in after times it became a dependency of 
 Athens. Afterwards, near the same site, was 
 founded by Cassander the city of Cassandrea, 
 which at one time was the most opulent munic- 
 ipality in all Macedonia. Other important 
 towns in the peninsula were Clitse, Aphytis, 
 Neapolis, Thrambus, Mende, and Seione, all 
 of which are mentioned by Herodotus. 
 
 Between Pallene and the next of the three 
 peninsulas, named Sithonia, at the head of 
 the gulf, was the celebrated city of Olynthus, 
 founded by Eretrians from Euboea. This cor- 
 poration at a very early date adopted a demo- 
 cratic form of government, and taking up the 
 federative system, which had been so success- 
 fully employed by the Athenians, became the 
 center of that Olynthian league which will 
 occupy our attention in the times of King 
 Philip. The people of the Sithonian penin- 
 sula were of Thracian origin, though several 
 of the towns — such as Galepsus and Torone — 
 were founded by Greek colonies. 
 
 The third of the Chalcidician peninsulas is 
 called Acte. It is that tongue of land which 
 terminates in Mount Athos, and which was cut 
 ofi" from the shore by the canal of Xerxes. 
 Acte abounded in towns, of which the princi- 
 pal were Sane — on the Singitic gulf — Uranop- 
 olis, Dium, ApoUonia, Thyssus, Cleonse, and 
 Acanthus, which stood at the other extremity 
 of the canal from Sane. This was perhaps the 
 most important city in this part of Chalcidice,
 
 614 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and will be frequently mentioned as the scene 
 of historical events. Nor should Arethusa, 
 the burial-place of Euripides, be omitted from 
 a list of Chalcidician towns. 
 
 The next of the Macedonian provinces was 
 BisALTiA, situated between the river Strymon 
 and the lake Bolbe. This district was orig- 
 inally settled by colonists from Thrace. It was 
 governed by native kings until the time of 
 Xerxes, and soon afterwards fell into the hands 
 of the Macedonians. The chief town of the 
 province was Argilus, said to have been founded 
 by a colony from the island of Andros. In 
 the interior were several other towns — Ossa, 
 Bisaltes, Berta, Arolus, and Callithera — of no 
 great importance in Macedonian history. 
 
 The country of P^onia, though after the 
 times of Philip included in Macedon, was pre- 
 viously an independent state. It was by far 
 the largest of those original territories on which 
 the son of Amyntas laid the foundations of 
 his dominion. As early as the time of the 
 Trojan war the Pseonians were powerful enough 
 to be conspicuous in the host of Agamemnon. 
 They embraced originally several barbarian 
 tribes ; but these were ultimately gathered into 
 one nation, governed by a single chief. The 
 subordinate provinces into which Pseonia was 
 divided were Pelagonia, with its cities of Stu- 
 bera and Bryanium ; Deuriopis ; and the 
 countries of the Almopes, lori, Agrianes, and 
 Doberes. The various tribes inhabiting these 
 districts gradually lost their individuality, and 
 were absorbed into a single people. 
 
 The geography of Macedonia should not be 
 dismissed without a reference to the great 
 thoroughfare by which the different provinces 
 and towns were connected. This was known 
 by its Roman name of Via Egnatia, or the 
 Egnatian Way. It was a great military road 
 leading from Lyncestis, on the confines of II- 
 lyria to Edessa, Pella, Methone, and the other 
 principal Macedonian cities. From the main 
 way several roads branched north and south, 
 the former leading into Pteouia, Dardania, 
 Moesia, and the Danubian districts, and the 
 latter into the southern provinces of the king- 
 dom, Thessaly and Central Greece. 
 
 In the course of these geographical notes 
 on Macedonia references not a few have been 
 
 made to the primitive peoples by whom the 
 country was settled. It will now be appro- 
 priate to notice somewhat more fully those 
 early populations and their movements down 
 to the time when the kingdom was firmly es- 
 tablished by the House of Amyntas. The 
 origin of the Macedonian dynasty has been 
 involved in much dispute. Only one thing 
 may be regarded as certainly established, and 
 that is that the royal family was sprung from the 
 race of the Temenidae of Argos, and that these 
 were, according to tradition, the descendants of 
 Hercules. The myth is to the effect that the 
 Argive Cavanus, who was the son of Temenus, 
 who was the son of Hercules, led out a colony 
 from his native city, and, arriving in Emathia, 
 overcame the reigning king, Midas, and took 
 possession of Edessa, the capital. It would 
 thus appear that the dynasty was Dorian in 
 its origin, being thus allied with the Lace- 
 daemonians, more than with the -lEolian and 
 Ionian races. Herodotus, however, recites the 
 tradition somewhat differently. By him we 
 are told that three brothers — Gavanes, -^ro- 
 pus, and Perdiccas — descendants of Temenus, 
 left Argos, and making their way into Upper 
 Macedonia, succeeded in establishing a king- 
 dom which fell to Perdiccas, the youngest of 
 the three ; and with this statement of the Fa- 
 ther of History the concurrent testimony of 
 Thucydides may also be adduced. By some 
 authors it is held that there was a double mi- 
 gration, and that the three brothers were the 
 grandsons of Cavanus. 
 
 Of the reigns of the first four kings who 
 succeeded the mythical Perdiccas nothing is 
 known; but in the reign of Amyntas (B. C. 
 537-498), who was the fifth in descent from 
 the founder, the affairs of Macedonia begin to 
 come into the light. It was already the be- 
 ginning of the Persian aggressions in the West. 
 Megabazus, the general of Darius, having al- 
 ready made considerable conquests in Thrace 
 and Pseonia, advanced to the northern bor- 
 ders of Macedonia ; and Amyntas was glad to 
 make his submission as a condition of peace. 
 Soon afterwards some of the Persian officers 
 offered grave insults to the Macedonian women, 
 whereupon Alexander, son of Amyntas, took 
 summary vengeance on the ofl!enders. A diffi-
 
 MACEDONIA.— COUNTRY, CITIES, AND TRIBES. 
 
 615 
 
 culty thus arose which was about to bring on 
 war, but hostilities were avoided by the timely 
 marriage of Gygea, daughter of Amyntas, to 
 Bubares, the Persian deputy, who had been 
 sent out to obtain satisfaction for the murder 
 of the Great King's officers. 
 
 On his accession to the throne this prince 
 Alexander presented himself for admission to 
 participation in the Olympic games. He was 
 at first refused, but on an examination of his 
 claims to be an Argive by descent, the man- 
 agers decided that the Macedonian dynasty 
 was indeed Greek, and the prince was accord- 
 ingly admitted. 
 
 The reign of Alexander covered the period 
 of the great Persian invasion of Greece. Mace- 
 donia was occupied by the invaders, and the 
 king had a difficult part to perform between 
 the Greeks with whom he sympathized, and 
 the Persians whom he dreaded. He sent much 
 secret information to the allied commanders, 
 but at the same time succeeded in retaining 
 the confidence of the barbarians. At last 
 Mardonius sent him to Athens in a final effi)rt 
 which he made to detach that commonwealth 
 from the Greek league. 
 
 During the reign of Perdiccas, who suc- 
 ceeded his father, Alexander (B. C. 476), on 
 the throne, the affairs of the kingdom became 
 more complicated. The prince was of a crafty 
 disposition, and took part according to his in- 
 terest in the politics of Greece. He sided first 
 with the Lacedaemonian and then with the 
 Athenian party, as success inclined from one 
 to the other. While in league with the Spar- 
 tans, he induced the revolt of several Athenian 
 dependencies in the north ; but for this course 
 he was presently punished with an invasion of 
 his own kingdom by Sitalces, king of Thrace, 
 by whom Macedonia was well-nigh overrun. 
 
 From a description given by Thucydides 
 of the extent of the Macedonian dominions in 
 the time of Perdiccas, it may be seen that the 
 country then embraced nearly all the provinces 
 and tribes which were included under the au- 
 thority of Philip, the father of Alexander. 
 Pseonia had not yet been subjugated, but the 
 remaining districts were nearly all ruled by 
 the house of Temenus. It was a proper retri- 
 bution to the Macedonian king that the war 
 
 which he fomented in the north between Ath- 
 ens and Sparta, and which led to the expedi- 
 tion of Brasidas, brought to him no augmenta- 
 tion of power, but only disappointment. 
 
 Quite unlike Perdiccas was his son and 
 successor, Archelaijs. He soon proved him- 
 self to be the most prudent and liberal of the 
 earlier kings. To his single reign Thucydides 
 ascribes a greater improvement in the condi- 
 tion of the kingdom than to all the eight that 
 had preceded. The internal aflfairs of the state 
 now began to receive the attention and sup- 
 port of the government. Roads were built, 
 fortresses erected, the array equipped and or- 
 ganized. It was the dawn of art and litera- 
 ture at the Macedonian court. Distinguished 
 men were invited thither by the king, who 
 sought to substitute the reign of intelligence 
 for the reign of force. At his capital Eu- 
 ripides resided for many years, supported by 
 royal favor. Zeuxis, the celebrated painter, 
 lent his genius to the work of decorating the 
 residence of the king. Socrates also was in- 
 vited to reside in Edessa, but, as usual, that 
 resolute and saturnine genius refused to be 
 beholden to any. A great light began thus 
 to be diffused through the North, which, if 
 less resplendent than the glow which kindled 
 over Athens, was nevertheless such as to dis- 
 pel the shadows beyond Olympus. 
 
 Archelaiis fell by the hand of an assassin, 
 though the occasion and circumstances of his 
 death are not fully known. After his reign 
 Macedonia suflfered a decline. Of the careers 
 of the four following kings very little has been 
 preserved either in history or tradition. The 
 fifth sovereign from Archelaiis was Amyntas, 
 who inherited the kingdom in a distracted con- 
 dition, and sufl^ered most of the ills of kingly 
 misfortune. Domestic troubles kept him em- 
 broiled, and foreign foes were busy on his 
 borders. Of these the most active were the 
 Illyrians on the west, and the Olynthians on 
 the north-east. From the former he purchased 
 a respite by means of bribes and presents, and 
 from the latter he was saved by the interfer- 
 ence of the Spartans. For twenty-four years 
 (B. C. 393-369) he supported the arduous 
 duties of government and died, leaving three 
 sons to the care of their mother, Eurydice.
 
 616 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Of these sons the eldest was Alexander; 
 the second, Perdiccas ; and the youngest, 
 Philip — that Philip who was destined to make 
 his power felt in all the West, and to pave the 
 way for the still greater achievements of his 
 son. Thus through the region of myth and 
 tradition have been traced the brief annals of 
 
 Macedonia from the days of the earlier Te- 
 menidse to the time when the great state of 
 the North, under the direction of the son of 
 Amyntas, began first to be distinctly felt as a 
 political power, and then to rise rapidly to an 
 unequivocal ascendency over all the surround- 
 ing kingdoms. 
 
 CHAPTER XIvIX.— REIQN OR F*HILIP. 
 
 F the career of Philip of 
 Macedon a sketch has al- 
 ready been given in the 
 History of Greece. To 
 him the Macedonian Em- 
 pire owed its foundation 
 and strength. Without 
 the masterful abilities of his more distinguished 
 son, Avithout the far-reaching ambition of Cae- 
 sar, he nevertheless possessed the genius to 
 grasp the condition of his times, and to plant 
 on the ruins of surrounding states the foot of 
 power and dominion. 
 
 Philip was the third and youngest son of 
 Amyntas. The eldest brother, Alexander, lost 
 his life in a civil turmoil. Perdiccas, the next 
 eldest, was hard pressed by opposition, and was 
 on the eve of losing the kingdom, when Pelop- 
 idas, the Theban, interfered in his behalf, and 
 secured under his powerful influence the peace- 
 ful possession of the crown. It Avas in grati- 
 tude for this support that Perdiccas, as an 
 earnest of good faith and a pledge for the 
 fidelity of Macedonia to the interests of Thebes, 
 gave into the friendly custody of Pelopidas 
 the youth Philip and thirty others from the best 
 families in the kingdom. 
 
 Thus it was that destiny prepared the way 
 for greatness. For Philip could hardly have 
 become the distinguished monarch that he was 
 but for the incident which, bringing him to 
 Thebes, threw him into contact with the civil- 
 ization of the Greeks. His education was of 
 precisely the sort to fashion a hero. He was 
 established in the family of Polyranus, father 
 of Epaminondas; and here he absorbed his 
 first ideas of politics and generalship. He 
 
 became at an early age familiar with the lit- 
 erature and customs of the Greeks, learned 
 their language, became a Greek himself. The 
 example and influence of Epaminondas, whose 
 conversation and friendship he enjoyed with- 
 out restriction, molded his views and senti- 
 ments. The Theban became his model. He 
 grew like that which he admired ; and although 
 his native talents and ambitions were by no 
 means subordinated to the Theban environ- 
 ment, yet so far as education could go toward* 
 the shaping of character and the determination 
 of future activities, to that extent undoubt- 
 edly was Philip the result of the forces which 
 played upon him while domiciled in Thebes. 
 It must be confessed, moreover, that the Mac- 
 edonian prince shoAved himself to be an apter 
 pupil of Epaminondas in the matter of acquir- 
 ing military skill than in imitating the sterling- 
 integrity and moral virtues of his model. For 
 in essential soundness of character Philip wa& 
 by no means comparable with the Theban 
 general. 
 
 During his residence at the Boeotian capital 
 the prince, accompanied by his masters, trav- 
 eled into other parts of Greece. He visited 
 Athens and was profoundly impressed with 
 the institutions and peculiarities of that city. 
 There he became acquainted with the greatest 
 geniuses of the age. Among his acquaintances 
 and friends were Plato, Isocrates, and Theo- 
 phrastus. He studied the Athenian character 
 and apprehended its weakness and its strength. 
 He Avas initiated into the mysteries of Deme- 
 ter, and Avhile attending one of the celebra- 
 tions held in honor of this divinity, had the 
 good fortune to meet Olympias, daughter of
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 617 
 
 the king of Epirus, and mother that was to be 
 of Alexander. 
 
 Soon afterwards the prince was called home 
 to enter, under trying circumstances, upon the 
 duties of the kingdom. For a long time Illyria 
 had claimed tribute of Macedonia. During 
 the period when Amyntas, and after him Per- 
 diccas, was supported by the powerful influence 
 of Thebes, the claim had been refused. But 
 I when Pelopidas fell in the struggle with Alex- 
 ander of Pherse and Epaminondas was pres- 
 ently killed at the battle of Mantinea, Mace- 
 donia was left to her own resources, and the 
 claims of the Illyrians were renewed. This pre- 
 tense, however, was resisted by Perdiccas, who 
 raised an army and took the field to maintain 
 the independence of his kingdom. A hard 
 battle was fought with the king of Illyria, in 
 which the latter was completely victorious. 
 Perdiccas was killed and four thousand of his 
 troops cut to pieces. Macedonia was thus to 
 all seeming left to the mercy of the foe. 
 
 Now it was, in B. C. 383, that the youth- 
 ful Philip Avas hurriedly recalled from his 
 sojourn in Greece to assume the duties of the 
 tottering government. It was, however, as 
 regent for the infant son of Perdiccas, and not 
 in his own right, that he began his public 
 career. The circumstances were disheartening 
 to the last degree. The Illyrians were ravag- 
 ing the country as the sequel of the victory 
 over Perdiccas. The Pseonians, encouraged 
 by supposed immunity from punishment, de- 
 scended from the mountains and plundered as 
 they would. Two claimants to the throne, 
 Pausanias and Argseus, came forward in open 
 opposition to Philip. The Athenians were 
 hostile on account of the alliance of Macedo- 
 nia with Thebes, and sent an army to the 
 North to prevent the rise of Philip to power. 
 The Thracians also availed themselves of the 
 opportunity to make an invasion of the country. 
 
 The prince of Macedon, nothing daunted, 
 soon showed himself equal to the emergency 
 of his country. His confidence inspired the 
 people. An ancient oracle had said that Mac- 
 edonia, under a son of Amyntas, should rise to 
 the highest pitch of power. Philip was now 
 the only son of Amyntas ; and should the pro- 
 phetic voice of the gods prove false ? Soldiers 
 
 rallied to the standard of the prince destined 
 to victory. The Macedonian phalanx, mod- 
 eled after that of Thebes as constituted by 
 Epaminondas, was created. From every side 
 of the huge living mass projected an impene- 
 trable thicket of spears. With this invincible 
 body of destruction, Philip bore down upon 
 the Illyrians and Pseonians, and in a short 
 time routed them from the country. 
 
 This work was less serious than that of dis- 
 posing of the rival claimants. In the princi- 
 pal Macedonian towns there was a strong party 
 in favor of Argseus. A fleet was sent out by 
 Athens to uphold his pretensions. The squad- 
 ron anchored before Methone, a city on the 
 Thermaic gulf, and here a junction was effected 
 between the Macedonian malcontents and the 
 Athenians. The combined forces then pro- 
 ceeded to lay siege to Edessa, the capital of 
 the province of Pieria ; for it was believed 
 that the capture of this place would decide 
 the fate of the kingdom. But Philip was on 
 the alert, and before the arrival of Argseus be- 
 fore the town, the defenses were so strengthened 
 that it could not be taken. The pretender 
 then became alarmed for his safety and sought 
 to retreat to Methone ; but on the way thither 
 he Avas attacked by Philip and killed. The 
 Macedonians in the army of the malcontents 
 were kindly treated by the king and incorpo- 
 rated with his own forces; and with singular 
 liberality the Athenians under the command of 
 Argseus, were loaded with favors and sent home 
 without any mark of contempt or cruelty. It 
 was upon such acts as these that the future 
 popularity of Philip in Central Greece was 
 laid upon secure foundations. Generosity in 
 the conduct of war was a new thing under 
 Grecian skies — a fact which at the first it was 
 difficult to understand or appreciate. 
 
 By this time the Illyrians had rallied from 
 their first chastisement and gathered in great 
 force on the western frontier. They were led 
 by their king Bardyllus, now more than ninety 
 years of age. A decisive battle was fought in 
 which the new tactics and spirit of the Mace- 
 donians bore down all oppositon. A signal 
 victory was gained by Philip. Bardyllus was 
 slain and the shattered powers of his govern- 
 ment were unable to offer further resistance.
 
 618 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Ulyria was converted into a Macedonian prov- 
 ince. This was the last of the premonitory 
 struggles by which the authority of Philip was 
 established on a basis that could not be shaken. 
 The ambition of the king, however, was by 
 no means appeased by these initial successes. 
 The condition of Greece, moreover, at this 
 time was such as to furnish abundant food for 
 the aspiring spirit of the Macedonian ruler. 
 In the long struggle between Thebes and 
 Sparta, by which the resources of each had 
 been, in a measure, exhausted, Athens had, in 
 some degree, regained her pristine influence 
 among the Grecian states. Epaminondas was 
 dead, and the brief but glorious ascendency 
 of Thebes had perished with him. Sparta was 
 so broken by the long struggle of the war, that 
 
 she exhibited no 
 present symptoms 
 of a revival. 
 
 The Athenians 
 were thus left in 
 a temporary pre- 
 dominance in the 
 affairs of Greece. 
 But a foe more 
 dangerous than 
 the hosts of Per- 
 sia, more to be 
 dreaded than the 
 Spartan Phalanx, 
 was rapidly sap- 
 ping the founda- 
 tion of Attic strength. The spirit of the peo- 
 ple had given way to fickleness and frivolity. 
 Patriotism was well-nigh dead. The old heroic 
 virtues were extinct. The new vices of licen- 
 tiousness ran riot in the streets ; and even the 
 shrill clarion of Demosthenes was unable to 
 evoke from the lethargy of his country, the in- 
 dignant flash of ancient heroism. 
 
 Nor were the Phocians and Thessalians in 
 a better condition to resist the possible growth 
 of Macedonia. The former people, brave and 
 daring as they were, had exhausted their en- 
 ergies in the conflict? of the Sacred War, and 
 the latter had been so mischievously governed 
 by Alexander of Pherse, and were by disposi- 
 tion so reckless and eager for change as to 
 form no bulwark against the designs of such a 
 
 ARISTOTLE.— Museo ViscoDti, 
 Iconographica Greca. 
 
 prince as Philip. That discerning monarch 
 readily perceived in the condition of the Gre- 
 cian states that Athens, being the most influ- 
 ential, should be first won to his interests. 
 
 Being by nature crafty and diplomatic, 
 Philip adopted the policy of creating and fos- 
 tering in Athens a Macedonian party, upon 
 which he could rely in the work of extending 
 his influence over Greece. He accordingly 
 espoused the Athenian cause in the Olynthian 
 war, and aided the Greeks in regaining pos- 
 session of Amphipolis. The latter, with their 
 usual duplicity, soon repaid him by inducing 
 the seaport town of Pydna to revolt, and it 
 was in vain that Philip remonstrated against 
 the bad faith of his allies. Thus early in the 
 relation of the two powers was a breach effected 
 and the seed sown of unending distrust. The 
 immediate effect was as unfortunate for Athens 
 as it was displeasing to Philip ; for the Greeks 
 were obliged, for the time, to abandon the 
 siege of Amphipolis, and to try to save the 
 honor of the state by the capture of a few un- 
 important towns in Thrace. But what they 
 thus failed to accomplish by force of arms was 
 soon effected by one of their commanders. A 
 certain Charidemus, having gone over to the 
 Olynthians, succeeded in persuading the Am- 
 fihipolitans that their interests required them 
 to enter into an alliance with Athens. 
 
 In the mean time Philip added to the dig- 
 nity and promise of his court by marrying 
 Olympias, daughter of the king of Epirus, a 
 princess of great vivacity and beauty. Within 
 a year, and on the very day of the announce- 
 ment of a great victory by his general, Par- 
 menio, Philip received the news that an heir 
 was born to the throne of Macedon. It was 
 to the king an event of great joy. He imme- 
 diately expressed his delight in the following 
 letter the philosopher Aristotle, whom he at 
 once selected as the future teacher of his son : 
 
 " King Philip to Aristotle. Health! You 
 are to know that a son hath been born to us. 
 We thank the gods not so much for having 
 bestowed him on us as for bestowing him at a 
 time when Aristotle lives. We assure our- 
 selves that you will form him a prince worthy 
 to be our successor, and a king worthy of 
 Macedon. Farewell."
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 619 
 
 Returning to the relation of Philip to the 
 Greeks, the next important complications to 
 be noted were those arising from the Social 
 War. Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium, and Cos, 
 supported by king Mausolus, rose against the 
 Athenians and entered into a league for mu- 
 tual defense. A declaration was published that 
 the members of the alliance were "resolved 
 henceforward to protect their own commerce 
 with their own fleets; and wanting thus noth- 
 ing from the Athenian navy they would, of 
 course, pay nothing for its support." At the 
 same time an insurrection broke out in the 
 island of Euboea; and the Thebans, being 
 solicited to aid those in rebellion, passed over 
 thither with an army. But the Athenian 
 general, Timotheus, succeeded without great 
 difficulty in bringing the insurgents to submis- 
 sion, and as for the Thebans, who had rashly 
 rushed into the conflict, they wei'e glad to 
 capitulate with the privilege of retiring from 
 the island. 
 
 At this juncture, however, and before Ti- 
 motheus could proceed against the other states 
 in insurrection, the alarming news was borne 
 from the North that Philip, justly angered at 
 the Athenians for having induced the inhab- 
 itants of Pydna to revolt against him, had 
 made an alliance with Olynthus, thus threat- 
 ening the overthrow of Potidsea, Methone, and 
 all the other dependencies of Athens in that 
 region. Owing, however, to the distracted 
 condition of Attic public opinion, it was 
 thought better to enter into negotiations with 
 Philip and the Olynthians rather than to take 
 up the sword. Thus would the Athenians be 
 left free to bring the Social War to successful 
 conclusion. Ambassadors were accordingly 
 dispatched from Athens to Macedon, and a 
 counter embassy was presently sent by Philip. 
 
 Not much headway was made, however, to- 
 ward the establishment of peace. The politic 
 Macedonian king made some concessions to the 
 Athenians, especially by the surrender of the 
 town Anthemus, but he reserved his settled 
 purpose to wrench from the Greeks, at the 
 earliest opportunity, the possession of Amphi- 
 polis. Nor was the occasion long deferred. 
 Having fomented the discord which already 
 
 existed in the city, and strengthened as far as 
 
 N.— Vol. 1—38 
 
 practicable the Macedonian party among the 
 Amphipolitans, he suddenly besieged the place 
 and compelled a surrender. The Athenian 
 party within the walls was subjected to no 
 persecutions. The prisoners were set at lib- 
 erty, only a few of the more rampant leaders 
 of the Athenian faction being reserved for 
 banishment. 
 
 Having secured this important conquest, 
 Philip immediately turned his attention to the 
 two towns of Pydna and Potidsea. In both 
 of these cities, as well as in all the other Chal- 
 cidician towns, a strong party remained at- 
 tached to the interests of the king, and by a 
 prudent use of this friendly faction the work 
 of subjugation was abridged and facilitated. 
 Such was the influence of the king with the 
 inhabitants of both Pydna and Potidsea that 
 both places were taken without any prolonged 
 investment or serious opposition from within. 
 
 In both captures Philip again displayed his 
 magnanimity. Indeed, Potidsea was volun- 
 tarily restored to the Olynthians, the king 
 being careful, however, to protect the Athenian 
 faction from the rage of the natives. Hisi 
 liberality extended even to supplying with a 
 free hand the needs of those who had been sud- 
 denly reduced by the capitulation to poverty. 
 The effect of this unusual procedure was still 
 further to strengthen the ever-widening influ- 
 ence of the Macedonian. All the towns from 
 the borders of Thessaly to the Thracian Cher- 
 sonesus, acting of their own accord, renounced 
 their relations with the Greeks and added 
 themselves to the dominions of the king. Even 
 in the streets of Athens the praises of Philip 
 were freely spoken by his friends and admirers. 
 
 So great was the embarrassment of the 
 Greeks, occasioned by the liberality of the 
 popular monarch of the North, that the latter 
 was left comparatively free to prosecute what 
 plan soever he might adopt for the further ex- 
 tension of his power. His next enterprise 
 was the conquest of Thrace. The king of this 
 country was Sitalces — a kind of "genius," 
 being a mixture of ruler and rhapsodist. He 
 affected in his government the manners of the 
 East. He chose not war as a pursuit, or to 
 devote himself to those works which the an- 
 cients regarded as heroic. To Iphicrates, the
 
 620 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 favorite Athenian general, he gave his daugh- 
 ter in marriage, trusting by this soft method 
 of substitution to station a warrior between 
 himself and harm. Thus might he find oppor- 
 tunity to retire with his court to some Arca- 
 dian river-bank, and there sit musing among 
 the flowers while the brutal race of his fellow- 
 men surrendered itself to the bloody intoxica- 
 tions of war. Albeit the king of Macedon 
 made short work with this poetic sovereign, 
 who, unable to meet the pupil of Epaminondas 
 in the field, sent to him a literary effusion, 
 ■with which he thought to soften the stony 
 heart of Mars. But Mars and his officers 
 were infinitely amused. They laughed im- 
 moderately at this new species of tactics, and 
 then proceeded to complete the conquest of the 
 country.^ In the course of the expedition the 
 gold mines of Thrace were captured by the 
 Macedonians, who immediately began to work 
 them with such success that Philip's revenues 
 are said therefrom to have been augmented by 
 more than a million of dollars annually. 
 
 The king of Macedon, caring nothing for 
 his friend Sitalces, whom he had just subdued, 
 permitted that ruler to remain in nominal au- 
 thority. Scarcely, however, had Philip with- 
 drawn from Thrace when an insurrection broke 
 out under the leadership of Miltocythes. The 
 latter was supported by the Athenian party. 
 Nevertheless Philip, though seeing clearly that 
 the movement was instigated by his enemies, 
 permitted the revolt to take its course until 
 Sitalces was assassinated by a certain Python, 
 who thereupon repaired to Athens and was 
 rewarded for the murder. Not even this cir- 
 cumstance, nor the subsequent persecution of 
 the infant son of Sitalces by the Athenian 
 party, induced Philip to interfere. Keeping 
 steadily in view the one great purpose of ex- 
 tending his authority over the whole of the 
 Grecian peninsula, he was willing — even de- 
 sired — that the Athenians and Thracians 
 should exhaust themselves in the struggle, to 
 
 ^ It was during this campaign of Philip in 
 Thrace that he came upon the Thsesian colony of 
 Crenidae. Liking the situation of the settlement, 
 he dislodged the occupants, and substituted in 
 their place a company of Macedonians. The new 
 colony was named Philippi — afterward rendered 
 famous by the overthrow of Brutus and Cassius. 
 
 the end that he might be the gainer from 
 their weakness. 
 
 The events which led to the outbreak of 
 the Sacred War, beginning as it did in the 
 animosity of Thebes and Phocis, and involving 
 in its course nearly all of Central and most 
 of Southern Greece, have already been nar- 
 rated in the preceding Book.^ It will be re- 
 membered that the Phocians, under the lead 
 of the able Philomelus, and supported, though 
 somewhat feebly, by Archidamus of Sparta, 
 availed themselves of the resources of the 
 Delphic temple, organized an army of merce- 
 naries and defended themselves year after year 
 against the assaults of the Thebans and their 
 allies. They even defied the wrath of heaven, 
 for the decree pronounced against them by the 
 venerable Amphictyons was set at naught. 
 
 In the struggle that ensued the Athenians, 
 though nominally arraying themselves with the 
 enemies of Phocis, in reality stood aloof. For 
 their own complications in the North, and 
 especially the dread and suspicion of Philip, 
 kept their attention directed to himward rather 
 than to the vortex which was whirling around 
 Delphi. There is good ground for believing 
 that Athens, even at this time, contemplated 
 sending an invitation to Philip to interfere ac- 
 tively against the defilers of the Delphic tem- 
 ple, and thus to become a member of the 
 Hellenic body. Perhaps the suggestion of 
 such a course was inspired by the king him- 
 self, who greatly desired in this half-peaceable 
 way to become a participant in the affairs of 
 Greece. 
 
 In the mean time, however, Philip's in- 
 terest was more immediately excited by the 
 project of adding Methone to his possessions. 
 This city was accordingly invested, and was 
 brought to the brink of capitulation before 
 the Athenians could interfere. Nor did their 
 troops arrive, even at the last, in time to save 
 the Me th on cans from the clutches of their 
 adversary. The town was taken in B. C. 353, 
 and although the fortifications were razed to 
 the ground and the lands divided among the 
 soldiers, the prisoners were treated with the 
 greatest moderation and humanity. Each was 
 allowed without molestation to go quietly forth 
 
 ' See Book Eighth, p. 605.
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 621 
 
 in search of a new home. Whether acting 
 from humane and philanthropic motives or 
 merely from the suggestions of policy, the 
 conduct of the great Macedonian was in most 
 grateful contrast with that of the other heroes 
 of his age. 
 
 It was during the siege of Methone that 
 Philip had the misfortune to lose one of his 
 eyes. A random arrow discharged from the 
 rampart fell square in the king's face and de- 
 stroyed one-half of his sight. When the ar- 
 
 was succeeded by Onomarchus, who in a short 
 time effected an alliance with Lycophron, gen- 
 eralissimo of Thessaly, whom Philip had re- 
 cently deposed from office. The issue was 
 thus made of sustaining Lycophron by Pho- 
 cian and overthrowing him by Macedonian 
 influence. Philip marched into Thessaly, as 
 did also Phayllus, brother of Onomarchus. A 
 severe battle was fought and the Phocians 
 were defeated; but Onomarchus immediately 
 came to the scene with another army, and the 
 
 "ASTOR TO PHILIP'S RIGHT EYE." 
 
 row-head was drawn away, it was found to 
 contain the following label : " Astor to Philip's 
 right eye." It appeared on inquiry that the 
 unerring missile had been discharged by an 
 offended archer who had recently offered his 
 services to the king and been rejected. He 
 had represented to Philip that his skill with 
 the bow was so great that he could kill a small 
 bird on the wing. The king not believing the 
 story had put off the applicant with the re- 
 mark, "Well, well, I shall make use of thee 
 when I go to war with the starlings." Astor 
 had then joined the Methoneans and now vin- 
 dicated his skill in a way never to be forgotten. 
 Meanwhile the Phocian general, Philomelus, 
 
 victory was reversed by the overthrow of the 
 Macedonians. 
 
 It was now the turn of Philip to rally and 
 fight for his kingdom ; for had Onomarchus 
 successfully followed up the advantage gained 
 by the defeat of his adversary, the king might 
 have been hard pressed to save his crown ; but 
 to him the defeat which he had sustained was 
 but a temporary reverse. He at once reorgan- 
 ized his forces and augmented them to twenty 
 thousand men. Onomarchus again came to 
 the contest with an equal number of troops. 
 Philip openly avowed his cause to be that of 
 the Greeks — the cause of Apollo and liberty 
 against irreligion and the despotism of a tyrant.
 
 629 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Taking advantage of the superstition of tlie 
 people, he decked the heads of his soldiers 
 ■with laurel, the emblem sacred to Phoebus. A 
 spirit of enthusiasm was thus diffused through 
 the army ; nor did the Phocians come to the con- 
 flict without the highest incentives of battle. 
 
 The struggle that ensued was long and 
 bloody. As between the Macedonian and 
 Phocian phalanxes, it seemed doubtful which 
 •would bear the other down. At length, how- 
 ever, the fate of the day was decided by a 
 charge of the Thessalian cavalry which broke 
 the lines of Onomarchus, and was the begin- 
 ning of his overthrow. The Phocians wavered 
 and then fled. They were pressed into the sea 
 by the triumphant Macedonians. Nor did the 
 Athenian squadron, which just then hove in 
 sight, arrive in time to bring succor to the fu- 
 gitives. Six thousand of the Phocians fell in 
 the battle and the flight. Onomarchus him- 
 self was killed and his body hung on a gibbet, 
 Departing from his usual method in victory, 
 and yielding to that despicable spirit of relig- 
 ious bigotry, which caught from the supposed 
 vindictiveness of the gods, has in every age con- 
 verted men into demons, Philip gave his assent 
 to the murder of the three thousand prisoners 
 who fell into his hands. The effect of this 
 decisive victory was to reverse completely the 
 relative prospects of the two parties in the 
 North, and still further to open the w^ay for 
 the ambitious projects of the king. His posi- 
 tion was already such as to enable him to in- 
 fluence the destinies — at least indirectly — of 
 most of the states of Greece. His army was 
 the most effective in all Europe. His soldiers 
 believed in his talents and courage. He had 
 shown himself capable of magnanimity. Even 
 superstition looked out from under her cowl, 
 and gave him a sardonic smile as the avenger 
 of sacrilege. 
 
 After the defeat and death of Onomarchus, 
 the command of the Phocian army was de- 
 volved on Phayllus. The treasures of Delphi 
 still sufficed to hire and equip armies. When 
 it was seen that Apollo did not come down in 
 sublime anger to destroy the profaners of his 
 shrine, several of the other states seemed to 
 have caught an itching palm for a share in the 
 divine resources. The pliable Athens was not 
 
 j^roof against the seductions of the sacred gold, 
 and a force of five thousand of her citizens 
 were enrolled under the mercenary banner of 
 Phocis. The Achseans, too, were ready to 
 share the spoils, and sent a contingent to be 
 paid from the Delphic treasury. 
 
 Notwithstanding these preparations, how- 
 ever, the Thebans showed themselves more 
 than a match for the heterogeneous soldiery 
 commanded by Phayllus. The war continued 
 with varying successes until finally at Ch^ro- 
 NEA a decisive battle Was fought in which the 
 Phocians were disastrously routed. After this 
 the scene of hostilities was transferred to Pe- 
 loponnesus. Sparta took up the cause of Pho- 
 cis. Megalopolis was besieged, and the adhe- 
 rents of the sacred cause were hard pressed, 
 until the Thebans came to the rescue. 
 
 In the mean time the Athenians were busy 
 in planning trouble for Philip in Thrace and 
 Thessaly. Their most successful piece of di- 
 plomacy was in the instigation of the revolt 
 of Olynthus. The king himself was absent on 
 a campaign in Thrace when the news was 
 borne to him of the Olynthian secession. It 
 was not easy to perceive for what reason that 
 people had rebelled against his authority ; but 
 it is certain that the Athenians were privy to 
 what Avas done, for they immediately de- 
 spatched a fleet under the command of Chares 
 to uphold the insurgents. It was late in the 
 year before Philip could return from his Thra- 
 cian campaign and direct his attention to the 
 rebellious city. When he approached with a 
 large army the fears of the inhabitants got the 
 better of their rash patriotism, and they sent 
 out envoys to the king to discuss the question 
 of a settlement. But Philip was now thor- 
 oughly angered, and resolved to punish the 
 Olynthians according to their deserts. The 
 city was rigorously besieged, and was soon 
 obliged to surrender at discretion. In this 
 case the discretion was used with great sever- 
 ity. Olynthus was leveled to the ground. The 
 people were made prisoners and sold by public 
 auction into slavery. No age or sex was 
 spared by the enraged king, whose wrath, as is 
 alleged, was fanned by the philosopher, Aris- 
 totle, who was present at the sale, pointing 
 out to Philip the richest citizens, and suggest-
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 623 
 
 ing in what manner the heaviest ransoms might 
 be obtained. 
 
 By this time the power of the king of Mace- 
 don was so well established, and his warlike 
 fame had sounded so far, as to make even the 
 factious Greeks wary of further hostilities. 
 They accordingly made overtures for peace, 
 and sending a deputation of their most distin- 
 guished citizens to represent the state, opened 
 negotiations with the king. The two orators, 
 Demosthenes and ^schines, were the spokes- 
 men on behalf of the Greeks. After some 
 length of discussion, in which it is said that 
 the former, owing to the strangeness of the 
 situation and the importance of the business 
 in hand, appeared to a great disadvantage as 
 compared with his rival, the conference was 
 adjourned, and a counter embassy was pres- 
 ently thereafter sent to Athens to make known 
 the views of the king respecting the terms of 
 peace. 
 
 Then followed the usual hot discussions in 
 the Athenian assembly, and then in B. C. 346, 
 five plenipotentiaries were appointed to go to 
 Bella, the Macedonian capital, and conclude a 
 settlement. Here the terms of the treaty Avere 
 finally decided. All the states were brought 
 to peace except Halus, which was excluded at 
 the dictation of Athens, and Phocis, which Avas 
 made an exception by the demand of Philip. 
 Thus was a pacification effected between Ath- 
 ens and Macedonia, and Philip was freed to 
 bring the Phocian war to a conclusion. 
 
 Accordingly, as soon as the treaty was made, 
 a decree Avas passed by the Athenian assembly 
 declaring that unless the Phocians should at 
 once surrender the temple of Delphi to the 
 Amphictyons, Athens would enter the league 
 against them. Philip himself addressed a let- 
 ter of the same tenor to his allies in Central 
 Greece, inviting all to join him in bringing to 
 a sudden end the resistance of the contuma- 
 cious Phocians. This proposition Avas rejected, 
 hoAA^ever, by the Athenians, Avho greatly de- 
 sired the friendly interest of Philip AA'hen it 
 was manifested at a proper distance. Their 
 duplicity, moreover, soon led them to open 
 negotiations with Phocis; but the latter dis- 
 trusted the overtures of her would-be ally, and 
 continued the Avar. 
 
 It Avas at this juncture of afl^airs that the 
 scholarly and eloquent Isocrates gave to the 
 Greeks his elaborate oration on the condition 
 and true policy of the country. On the Avhole 
 the theory of the address Avas that the Greek 
 race should accept the leadership of Philip in 
 a crusade _ against barbarism. A pacific tone 
 Avas assumed throughout, and the idea of a 
 common cause in Avhich the Greeks and Mace- 
 donians should embark against a common 
 enemy was made predominant. The oration 
 Avas after the manner of the times addressed 
 to Philip, and concluded in the following 
 Avords: "The sum of Avhat I advise is this — 
 that you act beneficially toAvard the Greeks; 
 that you reign constitutionally over the Mace- 
 donians; that you extend your sway as Avide 
 as may be over 
 the barbarians. 
 And thus Avill 
 you earn the 
 gratitude of all ; 
 of the Greeks, 
 for the good you 
 will do them ; 
 of the Macedo- 
 nians, if you 
 Avill preside over 
 them constitu- 
 tionally and not 
 tyrannically; 
 and of all oth- 
 ers, as far as you relie\'e them from bar- 
 baric despotism, and place them under the 
 mildness of a Grecian administration. Others 
 must haA^e their opinions of AA'hat the times 
 require, and Avill judge for themselves how far 
 AA^hat is here Avritten may be adapted to them ; 
 but I am fully confident that no one Avill give 
 you better ad\uce or any more fitly accommo- 
 dated to the existing state of things." 
 
 The eflfect of this able and dispassionate 
 oration was favorable to a general pacification, 
 but not on the basis of the local independence 
 of the Greek states. The positions assumed 
 by Isocrates Avere ably and passionately con- 
 troverted by Demosthenes and other demo- 
 cratic orators. Nor does it appear that Philip 
 himself was at this time especially anxious to 
 assume the office of arbiter in settling the 
 
 IbUCKATES. 
 
 Miiseo Visconti.
 
 624 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 quarrels of his southern neighbors. For the 
 present he was detained with his campaign 
 against Halus. That brought to a successful 
 conclusion, he once more turned his attention 
 to the affairs of Phocis and resolved to bring 
 the Sacred War to a sudden end. 
 
 Collecting a large army, Philip advanced 
 by way of Thermopylse into Central Greece. 
 Here he was joined by the Thebans. The 
 Phocians quickly j)erceived that their day had 
 come. Athens was not to be trusted. Sparta 
 had designs of her own. All Peloponnesus 
 was wavering toward the Macedonian interest. 
 The Phocian army was now under command 
 of Phalsecus, who, perceiving the hopelessness 
 of the cause, offered to capitulate. Philip 
 agreed that he should retii-e immolested into 
 Southern Greece. The principal towns of 
 Phocis were then surrendered to the king. 
 
 The passions of the Thebans against those 
 who had so long resisted them could hardly be 
 restrained ; but Philip insisted that the terms 
 should be observed. The general question of 
 what should be done Avith Phocis and her in- 
 habitants remained to be settled by a congress 
 of the states, which was now convened by 
 Philip at Thermopylae. Before this body the 
 most cruel demands were made by the extreme 
 party of the Amphictyons. The deputies from 
 CEta demanded that all the Phocians should 
 be hurled down from the cliffs about Delphi ; 
 but Philip was less vindictive than Phcebus, 
 and the penalty finally voted by the council, 
 though excessive in its severity, was less 
 bloody than might have been expected. 
 
 The terms granted were these : The Phocians 
 should lose forever their place in the Amphic- 
 tyonic council; the three principal cities of 
 Phocis should be dismantled, and the remain- 
 ing towns destroyed ; no hamlet should be 
 permitted of more than fifty houses, nor any 
 nearer to the next than a furlong ; the heavy 
 arms and horses belonging to the people should 
 be given up; finally, a tax of sixty talents 
 annually should be assessed upon the lands of 
 Phocis until all the squandered treasures of 
 the Delphic shrine should be replaced. To 
 Philip was assigned the duty of enforcing the 
 conditions; and in order that he might the 
 more consistently undertake the settlement, 
 
 the two votes hitherto belonging to Phocis in 
 the council of the Amphictyons were trans- 
 ferred to him, with full membership in the 
 body. 
 
 It appears that, with the exception of the 
 anti-Macedonian party in Athens, nearly aU 
 the Greeks were satisfied with the conditions 
 of peace. The moderation of Philip and the 
 general wisdom of the measures which he 
 promoted were such as to elicit hearty praises. 
 Even Demosthenes, in his oration, On the 
 Crown, concedes the great popularity of the 
 king in the time just succeeding the treaty. 
 Diodorus, who, however, was more favorable 
 to the Macedonian interest, says: "Philip, 
 after concurring with the Amphictyons in 
 their choice for the common welfare of Greece, 
 providing means for carrying them into exe- 
 cution, and conciliating good will on all sides 
 by his humanity and affability, returned into 
 his kingdom, bearing with him the glory of 
 l^iety, added to the fame of military talents 
 and bravery; in possession of a popularity 
 which gave him great advantage for the future 
 extension of his power." 
 
 The peace thus established was generally 
 accepted as a finality. The smaller states, 
 which had long been subject to the domination 
 of the stronger, found the authority of Philip 
 more tolerable than that of their former mas- 
 ters. All of the Peloponnesian states without 
 exception favored the new regime, and in 
 Central Greece, only Athens looked askance 
 at the preeminent influence thus conceded to 
 the king. 
 
 The promising heir to the throne of Mace- 
 donia was now fourteen years of age. Aris- 
 totle, his instructor, resided at the court. 
 Upon him and his influence over the j^rince, 
 the king bestowed the most anxious attention. 
 The philosopher received royal honors at the 
 hands of his liberal master. He was loaded 
 Avith favors. His birthj)lace, the town of Sta- 
 gira, was rebuilt and beautified by the orders 
 of Philip. The monarch, as a farther mark 
 of consideration, laid out near Pella a spacious 
 and beautiful park, in which were shady walks, 
 rustic seats, marble statues, and cool retreats 
 iu which the Peripatetics gathered to discuss 
 the origin of things and the destiny of man.
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 625 
 
 At this time the most disturbed region ad- 
 jacent to King Philip's dominions was Thrace. 
 In the eastern part of this country a leader 
 named Cersobleptes arose, and acting under 
 an inspiration from Athens, gathered a large 
 force of insurgents. It was found necessary 
 to bring a Macedonian army into the country 
 before the rebellion could be suppressed. The 
 work, however, was easily accomplished, and 
 
 sickness and death had been scattered through- 
 out Greece ; nor did such reports fail to produce 
 the usual results. The Athenians seized the 
 opportunity to organize a fleet and send it 
 against the maritime dependencies of Macedon. 
 Marauding expeditions were made along the 
 coast, and in defiance of the terms of the recent 
 treaty, the influence of the Greeks was used 
 to induce revolt and dissensions in Philip'a 
 
 ARISTOTLE AND HIS PUPIL, ALEXANDER. 
 
 the coast districts of Thrace were incorporated 
 with Macedonia. 
 
 Soon afterwards the king undertook an ex- 
 pedition into barbarous Scythia ; but the north- 
 ern wilds proved to him as they had done to 
 Darius, a more formidable foe than a phalanx 
 of spears in an open field. Philip was snow- 
 bound in a desolate country where he could 
 find no enemies. After his army had been 
 brought to the borders of starvation he was 
 glad with the opening of spring to make his 
 way back to his own capital. 
 
 Before his return, however, rumors of his 
 
 kingdom. The Athenian admiral, Diopithes, 
 instigated by the clamors of the assembly, now 
 under the lead of Demosthenes, proceeded to 
 positive hostility, and took by storm two towns 
 belonging to Philip. Those who escaped from 
 the assault were dispersed into the Cherso- 
 nesus, and the Macedonian envoys who were 
 sent to remonstrate against the outrage, were 
 thrown into prison. In the next place an 
 embargo was laid upon all ships sailing into 
 Macedonian ports, by which means the grow- 
 ing commerce of the kingdom was suddenly 
 cut off and destroyed.
 
 626 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 While this business was progressing in the 
 North, Demosthenes entered into correspond- 
 ence with Persia, with a view to securing the 
 cooperation of that country against the grow- 
 ing power of Philip. The project was suc- 
 cessful to the extent of obtaining from the 
 court at Susa a large remittance of money to 
 be used by the Athenians according to their 
 discretion. By this means the fleets were 
 still further strengthened, and the island of 
 Eubsea, long alienated from Athens, was won 
 back to her old relations. 
 
 Meanwhile Philip returned from his Scyth- 
 ian campaign. It is related that as he was 
 making his way back to his capital he was 
 attacked by a wild people called the Triballi, 
 in the passes of the Msesian mountains. So 
 sudden and fierce was the onset that for a 
 while the Macedonians were well-nigh over- 
 whelmed. Nothing but the desperate exer- 
 tions of the king and the valor of his soldiery 
 saved him from utter rout. Philip himself 
 was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and 
 was about to be taken when the prince Alex- 
 ander, rushed to his side and covered him 
 with his shield. Victory finally declared for 
 the Macedonians. The barbarians were driven 
 back with great losses, but the king's army 
 also suffered not a little, and himself was 
 lamed for life.^ 
 
 As soon as Philip was himself again he 
 undertook the recouquest of those cities Avhich 
 had revolted against him. His first movements 
 were directed against Perinthus and other 
 towns on the Hellespont. In this enterprise, 
 however, he was, on account of the weakness 
 of the Macedonian navy, unable to make 
 any headway, and the campaign had to be 
 abandoned. This want of success greatly ex- 
 hilarated the Athenians, and Demosthenes 
 redoubled his exertions to secure favorable 
 alliances for Athens, and to induce further de- 
 fection among the dependencies of Macedonia. 
 
 ' Philip was greatly embarrassed by his wounded 
 limb. He is reported to have been sensitive on the 
 score of his lameness. It was on this account that 
 Alexander indulged in his famous piece of pleas- 
 antry at his father's expense : " How can you, sir," 
 said the prince, " be displeased at an accident 
 which at every step serves to remind you of your 
 valor?" 
 
 At this juncture of affairs the Greek states 
 were again thrown into commotion by the 
 prospect of Avar among themselves. The peo- 
 ple of Amphissa, seeing in some of the grounds 
 sacred to Apollo a fine opportunity of garden- 
 ing, set at defiance the old Amphictyonic 
 decree and began to honor nature with culti- 
 vation. This act raised the cry of sacrilege, 
 and another sacred war was imminent; but 
 the influence of Philip was so great that he 
 was elected president of the Amphictyons and 
 was thus brought into a position to mitigate, 
 if not prevent, the expected conflict. 
 
 Athens, meanwhile, was busy in creating 
 a coalition against Philip. Thebes was induced 
 to join her. Corinth, though for many years 
 standing aloof from the hostile broils in which 
 most of the states had been immersed, gave 
 her adherence to the anti-Macedonians and 
 exhibited an unwonted energy of preparation.* 
 Philip, though cognizant of this unfriendly 
 business, proceeded in his own way. He con- 
 vened the Amphictyons at Thermopylae and 
 laid before them the complaints against the 
 people of Amphissa. In obedience to the 
 order of the council he issued an edict requir- 
 ing all the states to furnish a contingent of 
 troops for the punishment of the sacrilege of 
 tilling Apollo's ground. The Athenians and 
 their allies were thus thrown into a most un- 
 pleasant dilemma. Either they must answer 
 Philip's call and join him in a crusade against 
 the Amphissians, or else they must array them- 
 selves by the side of those who had profaned 
 the national religion. They chose the latter 
 course, and actually sent ten thousand merce- 
 naries to the aid of the sacrilegious city ! It~ 
 was done, not that they loved the defilers of 
 Apollo's lands, but dreaded Philip of Macedon. 
 
 The alliance, however, was of no great 
 value to the Amphissians. Against them the 
 king at once proceeded and they were soon 
 
 ' A happy incident is related of this movement 
 on the part of the Corinthians. While they were 
 busily engaged in preparing for war, Diogenes, 
 who now resided in Corinth, was seen anxiously 
 and energetically rolling his tub from one place to 
 another. When inquiry was made of him why he 
 did so, he replied that he did not desire to appear 
 singular by being the only man in Corinth who 
 was not absurdly employed !
 
 MACEDONIA.— REIGN OF PHILIP. 
 
 627 
 
 subdued and punished, but with far less sever- 
 ity than had been visited upon the obstinate 
 Phociaus. 
 
 As soon as Philip's success had been such 
 as to alarm the assembly at Athens that body 
 dispatched au embassy to the king to complain 
 of his violation of the treaty! As a matter of 
 fact, they themselves had violated it from the 
 beginning, and he had observed the terms 
 with scrupulous fidelity. Still he replied to 
 the envoys, and through them to the Athenian 
 people, with such severe courtesy as the cir- 
 cumstances seemed to warrant. His letter 
 was as follows: 
 
 "Philip, King of the Macedonians, to the 
 Athenian council and people, greeting. AVhat 
 your disposition towards me has been from the 
 beginning, I am not ignorant, nor with what 
 earnestness you have endeavored to gain the 
 Thessalians, the Thebans, and the rest of the 
 Boeotians to your party. But now you find 
 them too wise to submit their interests to your 
 direction, you change your course and send 
 ministers with a herald to me to admonish me 
 of the treaty, and demand a truce, having in 
 truth been injured by me in nothing. Nev- 
 ertheless, I have heard your ambassadors, and 
 consent to all your desires; nor shall I take 
 any step against you, if, dismissing those who 
 advise you ill, you consign them to their de- 
 served ignominy. So may you prosper." 
 
 The last clause of the king's paper, relating 
 to the dismissal of the democratic leaders, was 
 directed against Demosthenes and his associates. 
 These were themselves now the ruling influ- 
 ence in the assembly, and Philip's address was 
 not therefore likely to be received with favor. 
 The passions of the "sovereign multitude" 
 were swayed by the very powers which were 
 to be renounced and consigned to ignominy. 
 
 Meanwhile the Thebans, after much waver- 
 ing between interest and inclination, decided in 
 favor of an Athenian alliance, and as soon as 
 the league was effected the assembly of Athens 
 dispatched into Boeotia a large force, to oc- 
 cupy the frontier towns which wriuld lie first 
 in the way of a Macedonian invasion. Philip 
 at the head of his forces took possession of the 
 town of Elateia, which commanded the pass 
 of Thermopylse. While occupying this posi- 
 
 tion he made one further effort to secure a 
 settlement of their diflSculties without the 
 shedding of blood ; but his overtures were re- 
 garded by the allies as so many symptoms of 
 fear. The Macedonian party, on the other 
 hand, urged the king's sincerity, as evidenced 
 in his previous course; and but for the hot 
 appeals which were poured from the popular 
 tribunals peace might still have been preserved. 
 It was, however, in Thebes, rather than in 
 Athens, that symptoms of wavering were most 
 discoverable. Demosthenes accordingly re- 
 paired to the former city, and poured out the 
 fiery torrent of his eloquence to persuade those 
 who faltered to stand fast in their resistance 
 to the common foe.^ 
 
 The allied army of mercenaries now thrown 
 into the field consisted of fifteen thousand foot 
 and two thousand horse. The Boeotian hop- 
 lites consisted of fourteen thousand, while the 
 Athenian division comprised nearly twenty 
 thousand men. The army of Philip exceeded 
 thirty thousand, and though inferior in num- 
 bers to the combined forces of the allies was 
 greatly superior to them in discipline and or- 
 ganization. 
 
 The battle-field on which the destinies of 
 Greece were now to be decided was at Ch^- 
 RONEA. Here in the summer of B. C. 338 
 it was to be determined whether the old organ- 
 ization, involving a multitude of petty and 
 independent states, should be longer main- 
 tained, or whether the expanding kingdom of 
 the North should dominate the whole penin- 
 sula of Hellas. The issue was really decided 
 by the military genius of Philip, against whom 
 the allied Greeks could bring no commander 
 of equal abilities. The youthful Alexander, 
 too, bore a conspicuous part in the contest. 
 The battle was long and sanguinary. The 
 victory inclined to the Macedonians. The de- 
 feat of the allied forces was complete and 
 overwhelming. Philip, with his usual moder- 
 ation, dismissed the prisoners without punish> 
 ment. The bodies of the dead were sent to 
 
 ^ It was in the course of the oration delivered 
 on this occasion that Demosthenes swore by Pallas 
 Athene that if any one should dare to say that 
 peace ought to be made with Philip he would him- 
 self seize him by the hair and drag him to prison.
 
 628 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Athens for burial, and the king sent thither 
 his general Antipater and his son Alexander 
 to treat with the Athenians on the subject of 
 peace. He invited them to renew the compact 
 which had recently existed between Greece 
 and Macedon. A counter embassy was re- 
 turned to the king, and the Greeks were only 
 too ready to accept the favorable conditions 
 which were offered. 
 
 As soon as peace was reestablished the at- 
 tention of Philip was directed to the king of 
 Persia. For some time it had been his policy 
 to establish himself at the head of a Hellenic 
 confederacy, and then hurl the united forces 
 of Greece and Macedonia upon the dominions 
 of the Great King, against whom all the people 
 of the West cherished so profound an antipa- 
 thy. Diodorus, in his account of the course 
 pursued by Philip at this juncture, says: "The 
 king, encouraged by his victory at Chseronea, 
 by which the most renowned states had been 
 checked and confounded, was ambitious of 
 becoming the military commander and head 
 of the Greek nation. He declared, therefore, 
 his intention of carrying war, in the common 
 cause of the Greeks, against the Persians. A 
 disposition to concur in this purpose and to 
 attach themselves to him as their chief per- 
 vaded the Grecian people. Communicating 
 then with all, individuals as well as states, in 
 a manner to conciliate favor, he expressed his 
 desire of meeting the nation in congress to 
 concert measures for the great object in view, 
 and such a body was accordingly convened at 
 Corinth. This explanation of his intentions 
 excited great hopes, and so produced the de- 
 sired concurrence that at length the Greeks 
 elected him generalissimo of their confederate 
 powers. Great preparations for the Persian 
 war were put forward, and the proportion of 
 troops to be furnished by every state was cal- 
 culated and determined." 
 
 The final scene in Philip's eventful and am- 
 bitious career was now at hand. The army 
 of more than two hundred thousand men, 
 raised by the allied states to war against the 
 Persians, was destined to be led into Asia by 
 another. After his victory at Chseronea the 
 monarch returned to his capital, and in B. C. 
 336, occupied a brief interval with the mar- 
 
 riage of his daughter to Alexander, king of 
 Epirus. A feast was made in honor of the 
 occasion. When the banquet was at its height 
 and Philip, after the manner of the times, had 
 given himself freely to indulgence, a certain 
 Pausanias, who harbored a grudge against 
 the king on account of a supposed injury, 
 plunged a dagger into his breast and laid him 
 lifeless. The assassin immediately fled, but 
 before he could make his escape through the 
 city gates he was overtaken and instantly cut 
 down. 
 
 The causes of this tragic event, beyond the 
 petty resentment which the murderer was 
 known to have felt, have never been deter- 
 mined. The most plausible theory of the as- 
 sassination is that w'hich attributes it to the 
 revenge of Olympias, who, in the preceding 
 year had been discarded by the king. Philip 
 had chosen in her place a maiden named Cle- 
 opatra, daughter of Attains, one of his gen- 
 erals. It is said that the conduct of Olympias, 
 on hearing of the murder of the king, was 
 such as to warrant the susj^icion that she had 
 been privy to his taking off. The sudden de- 
 struction of the assassin prevented his divulg- 
 ing his motives, and it is therefore not known 
 whether political influences originating in 
 Greece or Persia had any thing to do with 
 procuring the crime. 
 
 Philip of Macedon may be fairly ranked as 
 the greatest ruler of his time. At the begin- 
 ning of his career he had to battle with lim- 
 ited resources to create and consolidate his 
 kingdom. Such was his success that at the 
 close of his reign — though the end was pre- 
 cipitated by sudden violence — the Macedonian 
 supremacy was established on a basis not to be 
 shaken. Nor was it more by force and mili- 
 tary genius than by the possession of great 
 civil abilities that he gained his preeminence. 
 He was a diplomatist, a thinker, a discerner 
 of motives. His disposition was more humane 
 than the age he lived in. His self-possession 
 was remarked by all who came into his pres- 
 ence. His power of conversing and his affa- 
 ble manners made his company to be sought 
 by the learned and polite. The summary 
 given by Diodorus respecting Philip's charac- 
 ter may be quoted with approval : ' ' He es-
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 629 
 
 teemed mere physical courage and physical 
 strength in the field as among the lowest qual- 
 ities of a superior officer. He set an almost 
 exclusive value on military science as distin- 
 guished from personal prowess, and not less on 
 the talent of conversing, persuading, and con- 
 ciliating those over whom a general might be 
 
 appointed to preside. Upon these qualities he 
 founded the only favorable opinion which he 
 entertained of himself; for he was wont to 
 remark that the merit of success in battle he 
 could only share with those under him, whereas 
 the victories he gained by argument, affability, 
 and kindness were all his own." 
 
 CHAPTER L.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 iHEN Philip was assassi- 
 nated the prince Alex- 
 ander was in his twen- 
 tieth year. Doubtless the 
 vague suspicion which as- 
 sociated him with his fa- 
 ther's murder wasgi'ound- 
 less and unjust. Even if Olympias was properly 
 charged with complicity in the crime, it is 
 not likely that Alexander, who was almost 
 constantly with his father, and appears to 
 have been greatly attached to him, would con- 
 nive at his destruction. It is more probable 
 that in so far as the assassination had any po- 
 litical significance, it was based on a scheme 
 to transfer the crown to Amyntas, the son of 
 Antiochus, and was therefore in the highest 
 degree against the interest of Alexander. Nor 
 was it in accord with the character of the 
 prince to begin his career with parricide. 
 
 In accordance with custom, the new king 
 was conducted to the throne with military 
 pomp. He addressed the Macedonian nobles 
 who were assembled to witness the ceremony 
 in words well calculated to inspire confidence. 
 He declared his purpose to rule in accordance 
 with the policy adopted by his father, and 
 added with great gravity : ' ' The king's name 
 is changed, but the king you shall find re- 
 mains the same." As an earnest of his pur- 
 pose, he retained his father's officers, both in 
 the government and in the army ; nor might 
 any one find cause to complain on account of 
 his own disparagement in the esteem and 
 honor of the court. 
 
 It was not to be apprehended, however, 
 that a prince of twenty could succeed such a 
 
 ruler as Philip, whose powerful arm had made 
 his name a terror to conspirators, without many 
 and serious trials. It was to be expected that 
 not a few of the turbulent peoples over whom 
 the father had held sway would try the cour- 
 age and tempt the patience of the son. At 
 this time, moreover, the influence of Persia 
 was constantly felt in the AVest, particularly 
 in the states of Greece. The agents of Darius 
 went everywhere to promote the interests of 
 their master by creating confusion in the coun- 
 sels of his enemies. The purpose of Philip to 
 invade Asia was well known at the court of 
 Susa, and the news of that monarch's death 
 was received with delight by the Persian king, 
 who fondly imagined that the youthful succes- 
 sor of the great Macedonian would be unable 
 to prosecute his father's ambitious plans. The 
 emissaries of Da: ins undjrstood thoroughly the 
 factious and turbulent spirit of the Greeks, and 
 the policy pursued was that of fanning the 
 slumbering jealousy of the states until it should 
 burst into a flame of insurrection. 
 
 The first attention of the new king was di- 
 rected to Thessaly. Of those states included 
 within the limits of Northern Greece, this was 
 the most powerful ally of the Macedonians. 
 The agents sent out by Alexander found the 
 Thessalians in a loyal disposition, and the 
 friendly relations existing between them and 
 Philip were easily confirmed. The civil and 
 military authority of the state remained in the 
 same hands as before. The influence of Thes- 
 saly thus became of great importance to Alex- 
 ander, who was able to use his ally to good 
 advantage in securing the allegiance of the 
 other states.
 
 630 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 The next important matter occupying the 
 attention of the young king was the meeting 
 of the Amphictyonic council at Thermopylse. 
 It was necessary for Alexander to have con- 
 ferred on him his father's seat as ]iresident 
 of that venerable body. This dignity, however, 
 was easily attained at the hands of the Am- 
 phictyons, and Alexander immediately sought 
 the still higher honor of being elected general- 
 issimo of all the Greeks. For this purpose a 
 
 congress of the states was called to meet at 
 Corinth. When the body was assembled, the 
 king proposed to the delegates that the great 
 expedition against Persia, which had been cut 
 short by the death of his father, should now 
 be resumed, and that himself should be elected 
 to command the combined forces of the 
 West. The proposition was readily assented 
 to by a majority of the delegates, though not 
 without the opposition of the Lacedsemonians, 
 who held that they were restrained by an an- 
 
 cient custom from committing the command 
 of their armies to another. 
 
 It appears, withal, from this circumstance, 
 that the deliberations of the congress were uu- 
 trammeled by any fear of the king, each state 
 being allowed to exercise the suffrage in its 
 own way. Thus was brought to a successful 
 conclusion the preliminary arrangements by 
 which the largest and most important expedi- 
 tion ever undertaken in Greece was intrusted 
 to a youth of twenty 
 years. 
 
 Now it was that the 
 ambitions of Alexander 
 found free scope for 
 exercise. Preparations 
 were immediately re- 
 sumed for the equipment 
 of the army for the 
 grand campaign into 
 Asia. It was perhaps 
 fortunate for Alexander 
 that at this juncture 
 difficulties arose which 
 furnished an opportu- 
 nity to test his capacities 
 and try the mettle of 
 his soldiery in a field 
 near home. Before the 
 expedition could set out 
 for Asia Minor, ominous 
 clouds gathered around 
 his kingdom, and threat- 
 ening invasions gathered 
 on three sides of the 
 realm. On the west the 
 Illyrians revolted and 
 resumed their independ- 
 ence. On the north the 
 Thracians, headed by the warlike tribe of Tri- 
 balli, rose in arms; and on the east the mis- 
 cellaneous nationalities inhabiting the coasts 
 and islands of the Mgean threw off the re- 
 straints of authority and • again betook them- 
 selves to marauding and piracy. 
 
 It was this alarming condition of affairs 
 which first struck fire from the daring spuit 
 and military genius of the young king. Has- 
 tily dividing his forces he despatched Parmenio 
 with one division against the Illyrians, while
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 cm 
 
 ixe himself at the head of the other proceeded 
 against the freebooters of the coast. With 
 extraordinary rapidity he fell upon those who 
 had defied his authority and scattered them 
 in terror before him. He pursued the fugi- 
 tives into the mountains of Hsemus, and gave 
 them no rest even in the rocky defiles where 
 they had sought refuge. No campaign con- 
 ducted by Philip had exhibited such audacity 
 or been crowned with" such speedy success. 
 
 Turning from his expedition to the coast, 
 Alexander next made his way into Thrace. 
 Here the enemy had seized the tops of the 
 mountains, and having fixed their war-chariots 
 in front of their lines so as to form a rampart 
 against the phalanx, they regarded their po- 
 sition as impregnable. It was proposed, more- 
 over, should the Macedonians attempt to 
 scale the heights, to hurl down the chariots in 
 their faces. But Alexander, nothing daunted, 
 ordered his men to ascend the acclivity, and 
 to open their ranks for the passage of any en- 
 gines that might be sent down against them. 
 It is said by Arrian that not a single Mace- 
 donian was killed in the charge. The heights 
 were carried and the barbarians scattered to 
 the winds. Fifteen hundred of their dead, 
 together with all the women and spoils of the 
 battle, were left on the field. 
 
 The king next turned his attention to the 
 Triballi whom he followed northward of 
 Hfemus into the great forests which stretch 
 out on the right bank of the Danube. After 
 hunting the barbarians out of the woods, he 
 assaulted them and their king, Syrmus, on 
 the island of Pence, in the river Ister; but 
 for once his audacity was overdone. The 
 place proved impregnable, and he was obliged 
 to desist from the attack. The Triballi, how- 
 ever, were glad to escape with their lives, and 
 made no further attempt to disturb the peace 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 Alexander next crossed the Danube, and 
 made a successful campaign against the Getse. 
 These people were less warlike than the Tri- 
 balli, and could offer no successful resistance 
 to the progress of the Macedonians. The 
 whole country was speedily overrun ; the 
 capital was destroyed and the tribes subdued. 
 Returning to the south bank of the river, the 
 
 king was met by a humble embassy from 
 Syrmus, who begged that he and his people 
 might have peace. Likewise came envoys 
 from the Celts dwelling on the Ionian bay. 
 They too, though representing a haughty and 
 warlike race, sought the favor of Alexander, 
 and were received as friends and allies.^ 
 
 Alexander next directed his course against 
 the revolted Illyrians. Marching with great 
 rapidity into their country, he penetrated to 
 the capital, Pellion, which he seized before 
 the insurgents were well aroused to a sense of 
 their danger. The Illyrians, however, and 
 the Taulantians, who had joined them, trusted 
 rather to the defensible position which they 
 had chosen among the hills than to the risks 
 of a battle. They therefore waited to be at- 
 tacked, and it was some time before Alexan- 
 der could bring them to an engagement. At 
 last, however, he assaulted them in their po- 
 sition, and they were quickly dispersed. The 
 leaders of the revolt thereuj^on made over- 
 tures for peace, which were readily accepted 
 by the king. News had already been carried 
 to him of a troublous state of aflTairs in 
 Greece, whereat Alexander was so greatly 
 disturbed that he speedily withdrew from 
 Illyria and returned to Macedon. 
 
 After the death of Philip, the anti-Mace- 
 donian party in the Greek states became more 
 active than ever. Especially were the radical 
 energies of Demosthenes vehemently directed 
 against the young king of the North. Every 
 motive which envy and revenge could suggest 
 was busily and persistently paraded to incite 
 insurrection among the southern dependencies 
 of Macedonia. Thebes took fire. This state, 
 after the battle of Chseronea, had been reduced 
 to a condition of vassalage. The people, 
 naturally proud and headstrong, chafed under 
 the domination of Macedonia, and. Greek- 
 like, were ready at the first opportunity to 
 break into revolt. It was in anticipation of 
 such an emergency that in the very year of 
 
 ^ It is related that, in the interview of Alexan- 
 der with the Celtic ambassadors, he inquired 
 what might be the cause of their alarm, expecting 
 the flattering answer that they dreaded his name. 
 What, therefore, was his chagrin on being told 
 that the thing which the Celts most feared was 
 that the sky might Jail on their heads and bury them!
 
 632 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTOEY.—THE ANCIENT WORLD.
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GEE AT. 
 
 633 
 
 Alexander's accession a garrison had been, by 
 the order of the Amphictyons, established in 
 the Theban citadel. The two commanders of 
 this body of guards were Amyntas and Timo- 
 laiis. The first was a Theban and the second 
 a Macedonian. Both, believing in the peace- 
 able disposition of the citizens, took up their 
 quarters in the town instead of the citadel. 
 Meanwhile a sedition was fomented in Athens, 
 and certain Theban exiles residing there were 
 instigated to return to their own city and 
 head an insurrection. Accordingly, in the 
 dead of night, Amyntas and Timolaiis were 
 beset in their quarters and killed. Heralds 
 then ran through the town, proclaiming that 
 Alexander was dead, and urging the citizens 
 to attack and destroy the Macedonian garrison. 
 
 Hearing of this condition of affairs, Alex- 
 ander came down with all haste from the 
 North, and marched into Bceotia. Before the 
 Thebans could prepare resistance, the king 
 was upon them. They were incredulous, and 
 refused to believe that he who but a few days 
 before had been proclaimed dead in the moun- 
 tains of Illyria was actually at their doors 
 with a Macedonian phalanx. Thinking that 
 the advance was some company of marauders, 
 they sent out a body of cavalry and peltasts 
 to confront them. Alexander, acting with 
 great moderation, made proclamation that the 
 infatuated multitude should cease from their 
 rash hostility and return to their allegiance. 
 When the demagogues who had control of the 
 city would not hear to the proposed settle- 
 ment, the king advanced his army to the city 
 gates, and stood ready for action. For it was 
 believed that the Macedonian party in Thebes 
 would presently assert itself, and that the 
 storming of the town would thus be avoided. 
 
 But while matters stood in this attitude a 
 party of the besiegers, under command of 
 Perdiccas, being close to the city wall, discov- 
 ered the means of scaling the rampart, and, 
 without waiting for orders, began an assault. 
 They fought their way into the heart of the 
 city, but the Thebans rallied in great num- 
 bers and the assailants were driven back. 
 Retreating through the gates, the Macedonians 
 were pursued by the rash throng of citizen 
 soldiers, who recklessly pressed on until they 
 
 struck the phalanx, which Alexander had 
 drawn up to resist them. Against this im- 
 movable wall the Thebans dashed themselves, 
 and were hurled back in confusion. A battle 
 was now fairly on. The Macedonians followed 
 the insurgents into the city. 
 
 The besieged garrison now poured out of 
 the citadel, and the discomfiture of the The- 
 bans was soon complete. Great numbers were 
 slaughtered in the streets. The auxiliaries in 
 Alexander's army, burning with the recollec- 
 tion of wrongs which they had suffered at the 
 hands of the Thebans in the times of Pelopi- 
 das, gave free rein to their passions, and made 
 an indiscriminate butchery of the inhabitants. 
 Nor did the violence of the victors cease with 
 the bloody tragedy by which the town was 
 taken. A congress of the confederate states 
 was presently convened, and decrees of relent- 
 less barbarity were passed against Thebes and 
 her people. It was solemnly resolved that the 
 Theban name should be blotted out ; that the 
 city should be destroyed ; that the women and 
 children should be sold into slavery ; that the 
 territory should be parceled out to the allies 
 and to those of the natives who had main- 
 tained their allegiance to Macedonia ; and 
 that the citadel should be held by a garrison 
 in the Macedonian interest. 
 
 The character of Alexander was illustrated 
 in the enforcement of the act of the congress. 
 Much of the severity of the edict was abated. 
 Especially where the interests of literature 
 and art were concerned did the king act the 
 magnanimous part. The house of the poet 
 Pindar was not demolished, and even his rela- 
 tives were spared from persecution. In other 
 respects the decree was enforced, and Thebes 
 was extinguished. Six thousand of her peo- 
 ple had perished in battle, and thirty thou- 
 sand were sold into slavery. It is said that 
 the mind of Alexander was haunted not a 
 little with the recollection of these atrocities 
 perpetrated against the Thebans, and that he 
 attempted, as far as lay in his power, to make 
 amends by the bestowal of favors upon those 
 who survived the destruction of the state. 
 
 Great was the alarm at Athens when it 
 was known that Thebes had been taken and 
 destroyed. It was confidently expected that
 
 634 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Alexander, well knowing that the Theban re- 
 volt had been instigated by the Athenians, 
 would at once proceed to inflict on them the 
 punishment which they had provoked. An 
 assembly was immediately called in the terri- 
 fied city, and an embassy was dispatched to 
 the king congratulating him on his safe return 
 from Illyria and his success in exterminating the 
 Thebans ! So great was the difference in their 
 feelings towards Alexander dead and Alex- 
 ander living! The king made answer to the 
 embassy, accepting their compliment ; but at 
 
 tors, and promising themselves to try and 
 punish their leaders for the seditious counsel 
 which they had been in the habit of giving. 
 To this Alexander acceded, but made it a con- 
 dition that Charidemus, who had acted as a 
 Greek spy at the court of Philip, should be 
 banished from the country. The king indeed 
 was anxious at as early a date as possible to 
 bring all Greece to a state of quiet to the end 
 that he might enter upon the prosecution of 
 those larger plans which he had inherited from 
 his father. 
 
 THEBANS AND MACEDONIANS IN BATTLE. 
 
 the same time he sent a letter to the Athe- 
 nians telling them that their friendly feelings 
 would be reciprocated on condition of the sur- 
 render by them to him of ten of their leaders, 
 whom he named. The list included Demos- 
 thenes, Lycurgus, Hyperides, Polyeuctus, 
 Charites, Charidemus, Ephialtes, Diotemus, 
 and Merocles. The city was thrown into great 
 confusion by the demand. It is said that De- 
 mosthenes, being in terror, gave Deraades five 
 talents to intercede for him with Alexander. 
 The Athenians sent back another embassy, 
 begging the king's indulgence for their ora- 
 
 Returning to his own capital Alexander 
 diligently renewed his preparations for the 
 invasion of Asia. In this work he spent the 
 winter of B. C. 335-334, and Avith the open- 
 ing of spring found himself in readiness to 
 proceed with his campaign. His army con- 
 sisted of but thirty -five thousand men, but 
 these were thoroughly drilled and hardened 
 by the severe discipline of exposure and war. 
 They Avere mostly veterans who, under Philip, 
 had learned to overcome all obstacles, and 
 who now, under Philip's son, had come to 
 share his courage and ambitions.
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 635 
 
 The Macedonian advance began from Pella 
 to Sestos on the Hellespont. Here, at the 
 tomb of Protesilaiis Alexander offered sacrifices. 
 Then flinging himself into a galley he bade 
 adieu to the shores of Europe, and was rowed to 
 the opposite coast. Arriving in Asia, he first 
 visited the site of ancient Troy. Thoroughly 
 imbued with the spirit of the Iliad, he paused 
 to make offerings in the temple of Minerva, 
 and from this shrine he obtained a suit of 
 armor which tradition said had been preserved 
 from the time of the Trojan war. In the 
 place of this he dedicated to the goddess one 
 of his own coats-of-mail, which was hung up 
 in the temple. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Persian king appeared to 
 take no alarm on account of the Macedonian 
 lion who had entered his dominions at a 
 bound. The crossing of the Hellespont had 
 been made without opposition, though the 
 Persian fleet far outnumbered any armament 
 that Alexander could have brought against it. 
 No general preparations had been made by the 
 court of Susa to resist the impending inva- 
 sion. The defense of the western provinces 
 had been left to their respective satraps, while 
 the Greek cities on the coast had been in- 
 trusted to the guardianship of the Rhodian 
 general, Memnon. The carelessness of Da- 
 rius and his ofiicers in permitting the actual 
 invasion to begin without taking measures 
 necessary to repel it Avas little less than a 
 blind infatuation of security for which the 
 Persian Empire was presently to pay a ruin- 
 ous price. 
 
 Alexander greatly desired to try the mettle 
 of the Persians, rather than of the Greeks 
 inhabiting the Ionian cities. He also had a 
 respect for the military abilities of Memnon, 
 but none at all for the prowess of the average 
 satrap. He, therefore, made his way first 
 along the shores of the Propontis in a north- 
 easterly direction, and thus came into the 
 province of Lower Phrygia, of which Arsites 
 was the governor. To him Memnon sent a 
 most excellent piece of advice to the effect 
 that the satrap should lay waste the coun- 
 try in advance of Alexander, and avoid a 
 battle. But Arsites had an army of more 
 
 than forty thousand men, and was himself 
 
 N. — V^ol. I — 39 
 
 not devoid of courage. He therefore an- 
 swered that not a house should be burned, 
 nor an article of property be destroyed within 
 the limits of his satrapy. This, of course, 
 meant battle, and the day was at hand. 
 
 For delay was not in Alexander's nature. 
 He pressed forward rapidly to the river Gran- 
 icus, and came upon the stream near the town 
 of Zelia. On the opposite bank the Persian 
 army was already encamped; for Arsites, 
 knowing the route of Alexander, had taken 
 advantage of the stream to oppose his passage. 
 When Alexander reached the bank he was 
 for giving immediate battle ; but at this junc- 
 ture the veteran Parmenio, who knew better 
 than the impetuous young king the hazards 
 of war, advised his master not to attempt the 
 crossing of the stream in the face of such an 
 enemy. But the king was not to be foiled in 
 his purjDOse. With a vision more far-reaching 
 than that of Parmenio, he saw that immedi- 
 ate and victorious battle was the thing now 
 needed to fire the spirits of the Macedonians 
 and to strike terror into the foe. To his vet- 
 eran general's admonition he therefore re- 
 plied : "Your reflections are just and forci- 
 ble ; but would it not be a mighty disgrace to 
 us, who so easily passed the Hellespont, to be 
 stopped here by a contemptible brook? It 
 would, indeed, be a lasting reflection on the 
 glory of the Macedonians as well as on the 
 personal bravery of their commander ; and 
 besides, the Persians would forthwith consider 
 themselves our equals in war, did we not in 
 this first contest with them achieve something 
 to justify the terror which attaches to our 
 name." 
 
 So it was determined to give battle with- 
 out delay. Parmenio was appointed to the 
 left wing; Philotas, to the right. Here also 
 Alexander himself took his station. The 
 preparations made by the Macedonians were all 
 in plain view of the Persians on the opposite 
 bank. Discovering, from the armor and dec- 
 orations of Alexander's principal officers, in 
 what part of the lines the king was to com- 
 mand, the Persians drew up their best cohorts 
 opposite where the great Macedonian must 
 cross the river. This movement on the part 
 of the enemy was altogether agreeable to
 
 636 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Alexander, who was complimented by this dis- 
 position of the Persian forces. He saw more- 
 over that if he should be able to break that 
 part of the enemy's line which had been 
 strengthened to resist him personally, the rest 
 would, in all probability, after the manner of 
 Asiatics, fall into confusion and fly from the 
 field. He accordingly determined to charge 
 through the river and into the face of the 
 foe. The first body consisting of the peltasts 
 and cavalry rushed through the stream and 
 up the opposite banks. Here they were met 
 by the Persians in superior numbers and after 
 a brief struggle were driven back. The time 
 thus gained, however, enabled Alexander to 
 cross with the main division of heavy-armed 
 soldiers. 
 
 The fight now began in earnest. For some 
 time it seemed doubtful whether the Macedo- 
 nians could force the enemy from their posi- 
 tion. Alexander exhibited the greatest per- 
 sonal bravery. He was in the thickest of the 
 fight and when his lance was broken quickly 
 supplied its place with another. He charged 
 with the greatest impetuosity and with his 
 own hand killed the commander of the Per- 
 sian cavalry. At one time he was surrounded 
 by the enemy and beaten down, and was 
 barely rescued by some courageous friends. 
 At length the Persian cavalry broke and fled 
 ignominiously. 
 
 In the mean time Parmenio crossed with 
 the left wing, and had with greater ease gained 
 a footing on the opposite bank. The opposing 
 Persian lines had here been weakened to 
 strengthen their left, opposed to Alexander. 
 It thus happened that Parmenio had a less 
 desperate struggle for victory than did Alex- 
 ander. The Persians were scattered from all 
 parts of the field, and the Greek mercenaries 
 under Omares were soon borne down by the 
 phalanx, and either killed or captured. Of 
 the Persians fully ten thousand were slain in 
 battle. Spithridates and Mithrobazanes, gov- 
 ernors of Lydia and Cappadocia, Mithrides, a 
 son-in-law of Darius, Pharnaces, the queen's 
 brother, Omares, general of the mercenary 
 Greeks, and many other nobles and distin- 
 guished men, were among the slain. It is 
 stated the loss on the side of the Macedo- 
 
 nians amounted to no more than one hundred 
 and twenty.^ 
 
 Alexander at once gathered the spoils of 
 the battle-field and sent a portion to each of 
 the states represented in the expedition. The 
 present in each case was sent with the request 
 that the spoils should be devoted as a memo- 
 rial of the joint success of the Macedonians 
 and Greeks against the enemy of both. The 
 factious Athenians, who had as a matter of 
 fact so many times broken faith both Avith the 
 king and his father, were specially remem- 
 bered in the distribution of trophies. Three 
 hundred suits of complete armor, stripped 
 from the bodies of the Persian dead, were 
 sent to Athens to be hung up in the temple 
 of Pallas Athene ; and to accompany this gift 
 the avenger of Europe on Asia dictated the 
 following inscription: "Alexander, son of 
 Philip, and the Greeks, excepting the 
 Lacedemonians, offer these, taken from 
 
 the barbarians of ASIA." 
 
 The battle of the Granicus made more 
 easy the future progress of the conqueror. 
 The terror of his name preceded him, and 
 town after town fell into his power. Resis- 
 tance almost ceased, insomuch that where the 
 king had expected hard conflicts he met no 
 opposition. Dascylium, the Bithynian capital, 
 threw cpen her gates to Parmenio. Sardis, 
 the rich metropolis of Lydia, strong both by 
 nature and military preparation, was surren- 
 dered with obsequious readiness. The satrap, 
 Mithranes, accompanied by the dignitaries 
 of the city, went out and met Alexander 
 seven miles beyond the gates, and humbly 
 implored his considerate mercy for themselves 
 and their subjects. 
 
 From Sardis Alexander moved forward 
 to Ephesus and Miletus. In both of these 
 cities the strife of the Persian and Macedo- 
 
 ^ It is said that Alexander was deeply affected 
 by the loss of those slain in his first battle. 
 Twenty-five of the royal guards, mostly young men 
 of fiery spirit like himself, fell in the conflict near 
 the person of their king. He ordered statues of 
 the valiant soldiers to be cast by Lycippus and 
 placed in the city of Dium, Macedonia. He also 
 gave to the parents and other relatives of those 
 who fell at the Granicus the freedom of their 
 respective cities; and the children of his dead 
 soldiers were forever exempted from taxation.
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 637 
 
 oian factions had risen to such a height as to 
 portend massacre and destruction. Never was 
 the prudence of Alexander displayed to a 
 better advantage than in the settlement of 
 these internal broils. Assuming the office of 
 mediator, he behaved with such moderation 
 and liberality as to secure the confidence even 
 of the democracy. He established and con- 
 firmed the government of the cities in a man- 
 ner so little selfish as to substitute good order 
 
 selfish — or remitting the tax altogether — which 
 would have been unwise — required a continu- 
 ation of payment, and directed that the whole 
 revenue should be used in restoring the tem- 
 ple of Diana — a measure well calculated to 
 stimulate the patriotism and flatter the pride 
 of the Ephesians. 
 
 Of still greater importance, alike to Alex- 
 ander and the Persian king, was the city of 
 Miletus. Of all the seaports belonging to 
 
 ALEXANDER IN PERIL OF HIS LIFE. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 for anarchy and prosperity for destructive 
 turmoil. At Ephesus he greatly heightened 
 his popularity by a politic measure respecting 
 the tribute. Hitherto the city had been bur- 
 dened with a heavy annual tax, which went 
 to the satrap of the province. At the times 
 when Ephesus was subject to Athens and 
 Sparta, the tribute had been paid to them. 
 So that to the Ephesians the temporary lib- 
 erty which they gained by the Ionian revolt 
 amounted merely to a change of masters. 
 Alexander, however, instead of exacting the 
 tribute for his own — which would have been 
 
 Persia on the -^gean, this was the most valu- 
 able and necessary. For Darius already had 
 a large armament in the western seas, and the 
 free communication of the conqueror with his 
 own country was thus endangered. To gain 
 possession of Miletus was, therefore, a matter 
 of prime importance to Alexander, and to 
 lose it a serious disaster to the king of Persia. 
 As soon as the Macedonian could settle affairs 
 in Ephesus, he accordingly set out for Miletus. 
 On his arrival he at once began a siege ; for 
 the Milesians were not so ready to surrender 
 their citv as had been the citizens of Rardis.
 
 638 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 It required, however, but a short time for the 
 walls to be knocked down by the battering- 
 rams and the garrison dispersed. Such was 
 the fame of invincibility which already at- 
 tached to the name of Alexander that the 
 Persian fleet, lying in the harbor of Miletus, 
 made no effort to save the city from falling. 
 Thus was Miletus added to the trophies of 
 Macedonia. 
 
 In the mean time, Memnon had given 
 special attention to the defenses of Halicar- 
 nassus, and the garrison was thoroughly 
 drilled in anticipation of an attack. On ar- 
 riving before the city, Alexander found that 
 the walls were surrounded with a ditch thirty 
 cubits in width and fifteen cubits deep. It 
 was necessary that this should be filled up be- 
 fore the rams could be brought to bear on the 
 ramparts. The garrison was vigilant, .and 
 from the walls discharged every species of 
 missile upon the assailants. But the siege was 
 pressed with vigor, and Memnon was soon 
 brought to such straits that he found it neces- 
 sary to withdraw by night. In doing so he 
 set fire to his enginery to prevent it from 
 falling into the hands of Alexander. By this 
 means a portion of the city was burned. The 
 king took possession without further resistance, 
 and with his usual moderation quieted the 
 alarm of the people. The citadel was still 
 held by a portion of the forces of Memnon. 
 but Alexander, not deeming it prudent to 
 consume time in the reduction of the place, 
 left Ptolemy with a body of three thousand 
 men to keep the province in subjection, and 
 appointed the princess Ada, who had put her- 
 self under his protection, to be regent of 
 Caria while he should prosecute his campaign. 
 
 The next point to which the conqueror 
 directed his march was the city of Tralles. 
 This place was speedily reduced, and the ex- 
 pedition was then directed into Phrygia. The 
 winter was now at hand, and according to all 
 precedent military operations must cease. 
 Not so, however, with Alexander, who in- 
 formed his army of his intention to continue 
 the campaign eastward, so that if Darius 
 should accept the challenge he might meet 
 him in the following spring on the confines of 
 Syria. To quiet all discontent, however, he 
 
 gave free permission to all who had been re- 
 cently married to return to their wives and 
 spend the winter months in Macedonia. Three 
 of his generals — Ptolemy, Coenus, and Me- 
 leager — were of this number, and to them he 
 gave the command of the division which was 
 to return home. He then ordered Parmenio 
 to take his station at Sardis, so as to preserve 
 an uninterrupted line of coinmunication be- 
 tween Macedonia and the army. 
 
 With the remainder of his forces Alexander 
 now set out through Lycia and Pamphylia. 
 His object was by the reduction of all the 
 seaport towns to make the Persian fleet use-" 
 less; for without friendly harbors a squadron 
 in these waters could do no harm. In his 
 progress through the coast provinces the four 
 principal cities — Telmissus, Pinara, Xanthus, 
 and Patara — made voluntary submission, and 
 more than thirty of the smaller towns sent 
 embassies and made their peace with the con- 
 queror. Phaselis, the capital of Lower Lycia, 
 tendered him by the hands of her ambassadors 
 a golden crown, and solicited his friendship 
 and protection. All the province was brought 
 into submission, and particularly was a certain 
 fortress, held by the barbarous Pisidians, re- 
 duced by assault and the garrison expelled 
 from the country. 
 
 Meanwhile the enemies of the king, unable 
 to oppose him in the field, undertook to secure 
 his destruction by treachery. The scheme 
 was worthy of its authors. A certain son of 
 the Macedonian prince, Aeropus, also named 
 Alexander, whom the great Alexander on hi? 
 accession to the throne had admitted to his 
 friendship, was now made the tool of a con- 
 spiracy by which the king was to be put out 
 of the way. It will be remembered that 
 Amyntas, who was himself a claimant to the 
 throne, had fled to the Persian court, from 
 which great hot-bed of treachery he became 
 an active member of the plot. He sent a cer- 
 tain Asisines into Phrygia as a pretended 
 messenger to the satrap of that province, but 
 really as a bearer of dispatches to the spuri- 
 ous Alexander. The latter was advised that 
 if he would procure the murder of the king 
 he should himself have the throne of Mace- 
 donia under the protection and favor of Persia.
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 639 
 
 But the vigilant Parmenio caught the mes- 
 senger and sent him to Alexander, to whom 
 he confessed the whole treasonable business. 
 The other Alexander was at that time serving 
 as an officer in Parmenio's army. He was at 
 once seized and imprisoned, and the whole 
 scheme ended in a miserable abortion. 
 
 Alexander then resumed his march east- 
 ward along the sea-coast. It was in this part 
 of his course that the first of many omens 
 was noticed by the army, and ascribed to the 
 will and favor of the gods. At a certain part 
 of the Pamphylian coast one of the spurs of 
 the Taurus juts into the sea so as to prevent 
 a passage along the beach. The king's pro- 
 gress was thus suddenly hindered ; but as he 
 approached the obstacle the wind, which had 
 for many days blown from the south and 
 driven the surf high against the rocks, turned 
 about as if by magic, and, blowing from the 
 north, carried the tide far down the beach, 
 leaving a broad space of sand exposed, over 
 which the army passed in safety. Thus for 
 the son of Philip was established the prece- 
 dent of the favor of the ruling deities — a 
 circumstance of which the king was by no 
 means too modest to avail himself. It became 
 a part of his policy to encourage the belief 
 that he was under the guidance and protec- 
 tion of heaven. 
 
 In the hilly country, on the eastern con- 
 fines of Lycia, dwelt the barbarous tribe of 
 Marmarians. They were a race of robbers. 
 Not daring to oppose the progress of the 
 Macedonians, they waited until the army had 
 passed by, and then falling upon the baggage 
 and cattle-train, succeeded in securing a large 
 amount of booty. With this they fled to 
 Marmara, their principal town, a place almost 
 impregnable from the nature of the surround- 
 ings. But Alexander quickly turned about, 
 pursued the robbers to their den, brought up 
 his engines, and began to batter the walls. 
 The barbarians, seeing that they were ginned- 
 in their own trap, held a council, and adopted 
 the horrible expedient of murdering their 
 Tivomen and children, burning the town, and 
 escaping who could through the Macedonian 
 lines. A great feast was accordingly made, 
 and after all had well eaten the work of c^e- 
 
 struction began. Human nature revolted, 
 however, in the midst of the massacre, and 
 six hundred of the young men of the tribe 
 refused to be the butchers of their mothers 
 and sisters. But the town was fired, and the 
 rest of the program was carried out to the 
 extent that most of the robbers broke through 
 and escaped to the hills. Their experience 
 had been sufficient to take away all desire of 
 further depredations. 
 
 The next point toward which the expedi- 
 tion was directed was the town of Perga, in 
 Pamphylia. Here there was no disposition 
 on the part of the authorities to resist or 
 even resent the coming of Alexander. While 
 marching thither the king was met by ambas- 
 sadors from the city of Aspendus, who came 
 to tender their submission and to obtain fa- 
 vorable terms of peace. The Macedonian met 
 them in his usual temper of moderation. He 
 conceded to them the conduct of their own 
 affairs. No garrison should be established in 
 their city. The annual tribute — payable in 
 horses — hitherto assessed by the king of Per- 
 sia, should now be sent to Alexander. In 
 addition to this, a contribution of fifty talents 
 should be made by the city. On these condi- 
 tions the people of Aspendus should in no 
 wise be disturbed. The terms were readily 
 agreed to by the commissioners ; but on their 
 return home there had been a revulsion 
 among the citizens, and the whole settlement 
 was rejected. The king was thus obliged, as 
 soon as Perga and Sida had made their sub- 
 mission, to set out against Aspendus. The 
 city was at once invested, and the inhabi- 
 tants soon came to their senses. They now 
 desired to capitulate on the conditions previ- 
 ously offered, but the Macedonian was not 
 so easy a master. He exacted double the 
 amount of the contribution which he had 
 first named, assessed a yearly tribute, and 
 compelled the Aspendians to accept a gov- 
 ernor to be named by himself. 
 
 No people of the West received the news 
 of Alexander's successes with so much dis- 
 pleasure as did the Lacedaemonians. They 
 alone had stood aloof from the confederacy 
 of which Alexander was generalissimo. They 
 alone had not been remembered, or remem-
 
 640 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 bered in a disparaging way, in the sending 
 home by the conqueror of trophies from his 
 battles. In his presents and messages to the 
 Greeks it was his habit to add the clause, " ex- 
 cepting the Lacedczmomans." Agis, the Spartan 
 king, now sought to neutralize these indigni- 
 ties by fomenting discord among the Grecian 
 states to the end that Alexander might be 
 obliged to abandon his far-reaching plans for 
 the settlement of petty rebellions at home. 
 In this work Memnon, the Rhodian, was an 
 able coadjutor, while in the distance stood the 
 Persian monarch ready and eager always to 
 furnish both the means and the motives of 
 distraction to the fearless prince who had in- 
 vaded his dominions. 
 
 In furtherance of his plans the Lace- 
 daemonian king canvassed the republican 
 states of Peloponnesus, and induced several 
 of them to join him in inviting Darius to 
 send a portion of his army to occupy South- 
 ern Greece. At the same time Memnon, who 
 now had command of the Persian fleet, was 
 urged to assume the aggressive in the -^gean. 
 Thus was it planned to compel the withdrawal 
 of Alexander from the East. The king of 
 Persia, however, not fully confident that the 
 Macedonian could be frightened from his 
 purpose by a noise behind him, began to 
 gather armies and prepare all needed means 
 <jf defense. 
 
 The approach of spring, B. C. 333, found 
 Alexander in Pamphylia. Gathering infor- 
 mation of the measures adopted by his ene- 
 mies to compass his destruction, he determined 
 to retire to Gordium, the capital of Lower 
 Phrygia, and make that place a rendezvous 
 for the various divisions of his army. The 
 time had come for the return of those who, 
 under Ptolemy and Meleager, had spent the 
 winter in Macedonia. With them large reen- 
 forcements were expected to arrive. After 
 the consolidation of his forces the king would 
 determine the plan of the year's campaign. 
 
 In his way from the Lycian coasts to 
 Phrygia, Alexander had to cross the ridges of 
 Taurus. In doing so he encountered several 
 warlike tribes, who attacked him with fury, 
 only to be dispersed. The proper pursuit and 
 punishment of these half-savage bands was, 
 
 however, quite impossible in such a region ; for 
 the mountain fastnesses gave them immunity. 
 The city of Celsense, the metropolis of Phrygia, 
 opened her gates to receive the new mas- 
 te;- instead of the old. What was it to the 
 inhabitants of these towns of Asia Minor 
 whether they should pay tribute to Darius or 
 to the son of Philip? Only this — that the 
 son of Philip was the more generous ruler. 
 All Phrygia, after the surrender of the city, 
 submitted to the conqueror, and readily ac- 
 cepted the provisions which he made for the 
 future management of the province. 
 
 Before reaching Gordium, the king re- 
 ceived intelligence of the successes of Memnon 
 in the -^gean. The island of Chios had 
 been taken by the Persian fleet. All of Les- 
 bos except Mitylene had been reduced, and 
 that city was closely invested. It was the 
 purpose of Memnon, as soon as the siege 
 could be brought to a successful conclusion, 
 to make his way to the Hellespont, fall upon 
 the coast of Macedonia, and compel the re- 
 turn of Alexander for the defense of his own 
 dominions. Nor was it likely that Antipater, 
 who had been left by the king at Pella to 
 serve as regent during his absence, could be 
 able to raise a sufiicient armament to beat 
 back the invaders from his coasts. The situ- 
 ation was not without its dangers ; but before 
 the crisis could be reached in which Alexan- 
 der would be obliged to decide between aban- 
 doning his own territories to invasion or 
 giving up his cherished and inherited ambi- 
 tion of conquering Persia, he was relieved of 
 all anxiety by the death of Memnon. The 
 loss of that able commander was a severe 
 blow to Persian hopes in the West. The fleet 
 could make no further progress, and was 
 presently disbanded. The -^gean was re- 
 lieved of Persian domination, and the schemes 
 of the anti-Macedonian party in Southern 
 Greece were brought to naught. A reaction 
 set in in Alexander's favor, and from nearly 
 all the states of continental Greece reenforce- 
 ments went forward to join him in Asia. It 
 was seen, moreover, that contingents of troops 
 began to move from the Perso-Grecian towns 
 in Ionia and elsewhere to swell the forces of 
 Darius in the East; from which it was dis*
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 641 
 
 cerned that the Great King had abandoned 
 the idea of distracting Alexander from his 
 purpose, and had resolved to meet him in 
 battle. Than this nothing could have been 
 more grateful to the feelings of the conqueror. 
 
 So, after a brief stay at Celsense, the king 
 continued his course to Gordium. Here oc- 
 curred that famous incident to omit which 
 were a grave crime against the cherished 
 traditions of the human race. It is the 
 story of the undoing of the Gordian Knot. 
 One of the legendary kings of Phrygia was 
 Gordius, who, when as a peasant plowing in 
 the field, was favored with the descent of 
 the bird of Jove, alighting on the yoke of 
 his oxen. There the eagle sat until the even- 
 tide. Clearly this presaged his own and the 
 greatness of his house. The soothsayers of 
 Telmessus interpreted the omen, and a pro- 
 phetess became his wife. Of this union was 
 born the child Midas, who, when grown to 
 manhood and the state was greatly disturbed 
 with civil commotions, rode with his father 
 and mother in a car into the city. 
 
 Meanwhile an oracle had said that the king 
 whom the people sought should be brought to 
 them in a car. Accordingly Midas was hailed 
 as king by the shouting populace. He there- 
 upon took off the yoke of his oxen, and 
 dedicating it and his chariot to Zeus, fastened 
 them with cords made of the cornel tree to 
 the shrine in the acropolis of Gordium. The 
 cord was twisted and fastened in so artful a 
 way that the ends were undiscoverable ; and 
 the oracle declared that the fates had decreed 
 the empire of the world to him who should 
 untie the knot. Albeit, here was an oppor- 
 tunity which Alexander must not let pass 
 unimproved. On arriving at the city he was 
 shown into the temple, and there beheld the 
 fateful relics, secured, as of old, by their fas- 
 tenings. As to how he succeeded in loosing 
 the knot, there are two trad'tions — the one 
 reciting that he drew out the pin which fas- 
 tened the yoke to the beam and thus detached 
 the yoke itself, while the other says that he 
 severed the knot with his sword. 
 
 A matter of much more historical impor- 
 tance was the arrival at Gordium of an Athe- 
 nian embassy. The commissioners came to 
 
 request that Alexander would liberate those 
 citizens of Athens whom he had taken as 
 prisoners on the banks of the Granicus, fight- 
 ing for the Persian king. These, with two 
 thousand others, were still detained in Mace- 
 donia, and their countrymen had undertaken 
 to procure their release. The king listened 
 attentively to what the envoys had to say, 
 but declined to grant their request. He told 
 the embassy, however, to inform their coun- 
 trymen of his kindly feelings towards the 
 Athenians, and of his purpose, so soon as the 
 Persian war could be brought to a successful 
 issue, to set their fellow-citizens at liberty. 
 
 In the mean time, Darius had completed 
 the organization of his army, and was already 
 on his march to the West. Hi"' intention was 
 to cross the Great Desert and attack Alexan- 
 der before the latter could pass the confines 
 of Asia Minor. It was equally important for 
 the Macedonian to complete the conquest of 
 the lesser Asia, and to secure the mountain- 
 passes on its eastern borders before the coming 
 of the Persian avalanche. At this time there 
 remained three satrapies unconquered: Cap* 
 padocia, Paphlagonia, and Cilicia. It was of 
 the utmost importance to Alexander to expe- 
 dite the conquest of these provinces. He ac- 
 cordingly hurried in the direction of Paphla- 
 gonia, but before entering the satrapy he had 
 the good fortune to receive therefrom a friendly 
 embassy, proffering the submission of that im- 
 portant country. 
 
 Thus relieved from the necessity of a 
 conquest, he hastened into Cappadocia, and 
 there too was received without resistance. 
 Having appointed Macedonian governors over 
 these two leading provinces, and taken 
 their pledge of allegiance to himself as gen- 
 eralissimo of the Greeks, he turned into 
 Cilicia. But in attempting to make his way 
 thither through a mountain-pass called the 
 Gate of Taurus, he was suddenly confronted 
 by the Persians, who had preoccupied the de- 
 files to prevent his passage. Such, however, 
 was the terror of the conqueror's name that 
 the enemy did not, even in their advantageous 
 position, dare to give him battle. On the 
 contrary, they abandoned the pass and fled. 
 Alexander then pressed on to Tarsus, the
 
 642 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Cilician capital. Arsanes, the governor, hastily 
 decamped with the garrison, and fled to Da- 
 rius. The city authorities thereupon opened 
 the gates, and Alexander was admitted with- 
 out opposition. It was the last act in the 
 conquest of Asia Minor. In all the rich and 
 beautiful regions of the western division of 
 the Persian Empire, not a foot of territory 
 remained to Darius. 
 
 The exertions and anxieties of the ambi- 
 tious young king now began to tell upon his 
 constitution. In the long marches from Cap- 
 padocia into Cilicia, he had suffered the ex- 
 tremes of fatigue. It is likely, moreover, 
 that some of the districts through which he 
 passed, were miasmatic, and that some of the 
 towns were "nfected with contagion. Soon 
 after his capture of Tarsus, Alexander was 
 attacked with a fever which came near ending 
 his life. The severity of his illness was 
 heightened by his own indiscretion. Just be- 
 fore he was prostrated, oppressed with fatigue 
 and the summer heat, he plunged into the 
 river Cydnus, noted for the icy coldness of 
 its waters, and amused himself as a swimmer. 
 On coming forth he was presently prostrated, 
 and rapidly brought so low that his life was 
 despaired of by all except Philip, the Acar- 
 nanian, his favorite physician. The latter 
 continued to attend and encourage his master. 
 While Philip was engaged in preparing a 
 draught for his royal patient, the king re- 
 ceived a secret dispatch from his old general, 
 Parmenio, informing him that Philip was a 
 traitor and had been bribed by Darius to 
 poison his king. While the letter was yet in 
 Alexander's hands, the cup containing the 
 draught was handed him by Philip. The 
 king received the potion, and at the same 
 time handed the dispatch to the physician. 
 Observing no change in Philip's countenance 
 as he read, Alexander without a word drank 
 the potion, and the loyal attendant was soon 
 gratified with a favorable change in his pa- 
 tient. For once the ftiithful Parmenio had 
 been misled by false information, which had 
 well-nigh proved fatal both to the king and 
 his physician. 
 
 As soon as Alexander had sufficiently re- 
 covered from his illness to resume the direc- 
 
 tion of affairs, he sent forward Parmenio to 
 occupy the pass which led into Syria. This 
 order was issued with the double view of pre- 
 venting a like action on the part of Darius 
 and of securing to himself an easy route into 
 the Greater Asia. He himself made a brief 
 campaign into the mountainous district of 
 Cilicia. On his march thither he was sur- 
 prised on coming to the city of Anchialus ta 
 observe the extent and magnificence of its 
 fortifications and public buildings. It was 
 here that the statue of Sardauapalus, the re- 
 puted founder of the city, was found, still 
 bearing that famous old Assyrian inscription, 
 which the Greek scholars accompanying Alex- 
 ander interpreted as follows: " Sardanapa- 
 lus, THE SON OF AnACYNDARAXES, IN ONE 
 DAY FOUNDED AnCHIALUS AND TaRSUS. EaT, 
 DRINK, play; all OTHER HUMAN JOYS ARE 
 NOT WORTH A FILLIP." 
 
 Leaving this place the conqueror proceeded 
 to Sali, upon which he imposed a tribute of 
 forty thousand pounds. Thence he made his 
 way to Megarsus and Mallus. At the former 
 place he made sacrifices in honor of Pallas 
 Athene ; and at the latter he won the people 
 over to his cause by freeing them from the 
 Persian tribute. Nor were the inhabitant* 
 less ready to join his standard on account of 
 their nationality, Mallus having been origi- 
 nally founded by a colony of Argive Greeks. 
 
 While Alexander tarried at Mallus intelli- 
 gence arrived of the movements of Darius. 
 The Great King had already crossed the Syr- 
 ian plain, and was but two days' march from 
 that mountain pass which the Macedonians 
 had already seized. The soldiers of the con- 
 queror were eager to meet the enemy, and he 
 quickly moved forward to the gateway lead- 
 ing from Cilicia into Syria. It is related that 
 at this juncture Darius was perplexed with 
 contradictory counsels. The Greek officers in 
 his army advised him to tarry in the plain 
 near where he was, and there receive the 
 Macedonian onset, but the Persian generals 
 urged the king to press forward to the foot- 
 hills and drive his enemy back through the 
 passes. The monarch followed the advice of 
 neither implicitly, and of both in part. In- 
 stead of going forward to the Syrian Gate,
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 643 
 
 now held by Alexander, he made a side 
 movement to the right, and occupied another 
 pass, known as the Amanic Gate. Having 
 gained this entrance into Asia Minor, he 
 passed through with his army and advanced 
 as far as Issus, thus putting himself between 
 Alexander and those countries which he had 
 recently subdued. 
 
 The Macedonians were agitated not a little 
 on learning that the Great King was on the 
 line of their communications. It is reported 
 that Alexander was considerably exercised to 
 prevent the spread of alarm among his gen- 
 erals and soldiers; but he confidently asserted 
 that of all courses which Darius could have 
 taken the one chosen was to himself the most 
 pleasing. He called the attention of his offi- 
 cers to the fact that in the rougher country — 
 rougher as compared with the Syrian plain — 
 which the Persian had selected it would be 
 impossible to display his vast army in full 
 force or to use it efficiently. Here, said the 
 conqueror, the cavalry of the enemy would 
 be of no avail, and his light-armed troops, 
 with their showers of missiles, could not be 
 employed to advantage. As for himself, he 
 knew that the immortal gods, ever favorable 
 to the cause of the allied Greeks, must have 
 inspired the Persian king to put himself in a 
 position where he must be destroyed. Having 
 thus reassured his soldiers, he began a retro- 
 grade movement through the Syrian Gate. 
 
 The position now occupied by Darius was 
 eminently favorable. A short distance from 
 the western terminus of the pass out of which 
 the Macedonians must come, flows the river 
 Pinarus which, gathering its waters from the 
 highlands, descends to the west and then turns 
 southward in its course to the sea. The 
 stream thus describes an arc the convexity of 
 which was towards the west. On this side 
 of the river the Persians were drawn up for 
 battle, while the Macedonians, making their 
 exit from the gate, must come up in the inner 
 curve of the Pinarus and cross the stream in 
 the face of the enemy. The one advantage 
 of Alexander was that his array occupied the 
 chord of an arc while the enemy was disposed 
 on the rim of the circle. 
 
 In arranging for battle the command of 
 
 the Macedonian left, lying next to the sea, 
 was given to Parmenio. Opposed to him was 
 the Persian cavalry. To face the Greeks in 
 the army of Darius the phalanx was set in 
 the center of the Macedonian line. The com- 
 mand of the right Alexander reserved for 
 himself. Opposite were the high grounds 
 from which the Persians must be dislodged in 
 case they should not themselves be unwise 
 enough to descend into the plain for battle. 
 
 The number of soldiers in the army of 
 Darius has been variously stated. The old 
 historians, with whom exaggeration — espe- 
 cially of the numerical force of an enehiy — 
 was a habit, computed the Persian host at a 
 half million of fighting men. More careful 
 authorities have reduced the number to one 
 hundred and forty thousand. Of these fully 
 thirty-five thousand were cavalry. To oppose 
 this tremendous array Alexander had in all 
 about forty thousand soldiers. 
 
 After considerable maneuvering, in which 
 both commanders appeared anxious lest by 
 some misstep an advantage might be gained 
 by the enemy, the battle began by the advance 
 of the Persian right against Parmenio. Alex- 
 ander had contemplated beginning the fight 
 himself by assaulting the heights over against 
 him, but when he saw that the battle was 
 opening in another part of the field he dis- 
 patched thither the Thessalian horse to assist 
 his veteran general. But though thus weak- 
 ened he forebore not to cross the stream and 
 assail the Persian left. On both wings the 
 charge of the Macedonians, though stoutly 
 resisted, was successful, and the Persians were 
 put to flight. In the center the phalanx 
 crossed the river, and was met on the other 
 bank by those old Ionian Greek soldiers whom 
 Memnon had trained in former years, and 
 who were in an unnatural way fighting under 
 the Persian banners. 
 
 These men were of different mettle from 
 the barbarians with whom they fought. They 
 had the ancient valor of Greek soldiers, and 
 felt no doubt some mortification that the pres- 
 tige of their race was about to be transferred 
 to the Macedonians. The latter on their part 
 regarded their antagonists as traitors to the 
 I cause of the allied Greeks, and had, besides.
 
 644 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 their own reputation to sustain as well as 
 wrongs to be avenged in the ranks of their 
 unnatural countrymen. Here, then, the bat- 
 tle was furious and bloody. Hardly could 
 the staggering phalanx make its way against 
 the stubborn resistance of the Greek soldiers; 
 nor is it certain which way victory in this 
 part of the field would have inclined but for 
 the overthrow of the Persian wings. 
 
 The success of Alexander and Parmenio 
 enabled them, especially the former, to fall 
 upon the flanks of the Persian center, and 
 the valiant soldiers who confronted the 
 phalanx found themselves assailed from three 
 directions. Under such assaults they began 
 to lose ground, but such was their valor that 
 they nearly all perished sooner than relinquish 
 the field. It was in this part of the battle 
 that Darius displayed conspicuous bravery. 
 He urged forward his chariot into the thickest 
 of the fight and encouraged his soldiers both 
 by voice and example until his horses were 
 cut down and himself almost taken by the 
 Macedonians. Nothing but the courage of 
 his brother Oxathres saved the king from 
 capture or destruction. In the critical mo- 
 ment the monarch was thrust into a fresh 
 chariot and borne from the field. As usual 
 in the great battles of the East the flight of 
 the king was the signal for a universal rout. 
 The ranks everywhere broke and fled precip- 
 itately from the scene. Only the Persian 
 cavalry on the right wing made a stand and 
 fought as if to sustain their old-time fame for 
 valor. Nor did they desist from their onsets 
 until some time after the rout had become 
 general in all other parts of the field. 
 
 As soon as the flight began the Macedo- 
 nians pressed hard upon the fugitives. Thou- 
 sands were cut down in the panic and confu- 
 sion. Alexander himself at the head of the 
 cavalry bore down upon the flying foe and 
 cut his broken ranks to pieces. His hope was 
 to overtake and capture the king and thus 
 end the business of the Empire. But Darius, 
 after fleeing as far as he could in his chariot, 
 mounted a horse and succeeded in escaping 
 through the Amanic Gate. But so hot was 
 the pursuit that the shield, bow, and cloak of 
 the king were secured by Alexander. 
 
 The losses of the Persians are differently 
 stated by different authors. The lowest esti- 
 mate, which is perhaps nearest the truth, 
 places the number slain at about seventy thou- 
 sand, and of the captives at forty thousand. 
 Nor is there any trustworthy account of the 
 loss sustained by the Macedonians. There ap- 
 pears to have been an intent on the part of 
 the Greek writers to gloss over the matter or 
 to represent the list as insignificant. It is im- 
 possible, however, but that a severe loss must 
 have been inflicted on Alexander's army ; for 
 the battle was long and obstinate, and the 
 Ionian Greeks gave the phalanx blow for 
 blow. It is known that Ptolemy and several 
 other distinguished officers were slain. 
 
 The battle of Issus furnished several in- 
 cidents which posterity has been pleased to 
 preserve. When Alexander returned from 
 his pursuit of Darius he learned that the 
 family of that monarch, including his wife, 
 his daughters, and his mother, were prisoners 
 in the Macedonian camp. They were in the 
 greatest agitation, believing that the king had 
 been slain, and that they themselves would be 
 dishonored and sold as slaves. Hearing of 
 their distress, the conqueror at once sent his 
 friend Leonatus to quiet their alarm, and to 
 assure them that the king had made good his 
 escape. They were informed that they should 
 be treated not only with humanity, but with 
 that courtesy which befitted their rank. The 
 language attributed to Alexander sounds like 
 a phrase of chivalry ; for he is reported to 
 have said to the distracted princesses that 
 towards the Great King he had no personal 
 enmity at all — that he warred with him only 
 because they could not both be ruler of Asia. 
 
 On the following day the Macedonian, 
 accompanied by his intimate friend Hephses- 
 tion, called in person at the tent which had 
 been assigned to the captive women. When 
 they were ushered into the presence of the 
 royal household the princesses, mistaking the 
 stately Hephsestion for Alexander, prostrated 
 themselves before him and began to plead for 
 commiseration. Hephsestion at once drew 
 back and pointed to the king as the one to 
 whom they should address themselves. Alex- 
 ander at once relieved the embarrassment in
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 645 
 
 a manner that would have done honor to a 
 crusader. He told the queen that she had 
 made no mistake ; that Hephsestion was 
 another Alexander, as worthy to be esteemed 
 as himself.^ 
 
 In the mean time, one of the eunuchs in 
 attendance upon the royal household made 
 his escape and carried to Darius the story of 
 the treatment accorded to his family. To him 
 the thing seemed incredible. The great Orien- 
 tal, believing in the essential badness of 
 human nature, at once conjectured that his 
 beautiful queen had fascinated his adversary, 
 and that that was the occasion of his clemency. 
 Jealousy seized him, and he was in a transport 
 until his attendant informed him that the 
 Macedonian was in no sense his rival — that 
 his conduct towards the queen had been a 
 sincere act of courtesy and consideration. 
 Then the mood of Darius changed, and in 
 great excitement he offered a prayer to the 
 gods that if the empire of Asia should ever 
 depart from himself it might fall to Alexander. 
 
 Before he could follow up his victory, 
 Alexander deemed it prudent to complete the 
 conquest of Syria and Phoenicia. These were 
 the only two provinces remaining unsubdued 
 in the western countries of the Greater Asia. 
 The king dispatched Parmenio with one di- 
 vision of the army against Damascus, the 
 capital of Syria, while he himself with the 
 other division advanced into Phcenicia. The 
 first expedition was soon crowned with com- 
 plete success. Damascus was taken without 
 serious opposition. Parmenio also captured a 
 number of agents who were employed by 
 Darius in corresponding with the anti-Mace- 
 donian party in Greece. From these Alex- 
 ander learned the exact nature of the intrigues 
 which were constantly hatched in Athens, 
 
 * The comments of Arrian upon this incident 
 are worthy to be repeated. " T neither," says he, 
 " relate [this circumstance] as truth nor condemn 
 [it] as fiction. If it be true, the pity shown by 
 Alexander to the women and the honor bestowed 
 on his friend deserve commendation; whilst, if 
 we supposed them feigned and only related as 
 probabilities, it is honorable to him to have had 
 such speeches and actions recorded by the writers 
 of his own times, not only as being generally be- 
 lieved, but as consonant with the character which 
 he bore among his contemporaries " 
 
 Thebes, and Sparta, with a view to compass- 
 ing his overthrow. Upon these malcontent 
 elements in the Greek states the intelligence 
 of the battle of Issus and of the capture of 
 the Grseco-Persian spies fell like a cold bath. 
 
 The knowledge that Alexander was abso- 
 lutely master of the situation in all the western 
 parts of Asia was disagreeable news to the re- 
 actionists, who were endeavoring to sow the 
 seeds of insurrection in the West. Nor was 
 the success of Parmenio at Damascus limited 
 to the capture of the city and the emissaries. 
 He likewise secured possession of the money- 
 chest of Darius, out of whose abundant 
 cofiers the Western Greeks were to be per- 
 suaded to favor the interests of Persia. With 
 this sinew of war in the hands of the Mace- 
 donians it was not likely that the lonians and 
 continental Greeks would any longer so greatly 
 prefer a Persian to a Macedonian ruler. 
 
 In no part was the effect of the battle of 
 Issus more distinctly felt than in Sparta. 
 Agis, the Lacedaemonian king, still continued, 
 even after the death of Memnon, to agitate 
 measures unfavorable to Alexander. To sup- 
 port this movement and disposition of the 
 Spartans Darius had, on setting out with his 
 army to meet the Macedonian, dispatched a 
 fleet under Pharnabazus and Antophradates 
 to sail into the -lEgean and cooperate with the 
 Peloponnesians in a proposed expedition 
 against Macedonia. The squadron reached 
 the shores of Southern Greece, and Agis was 
 busUy engaged in preparing for the northern 
 invasion when the news came of the victory 
 of Alexander at Issus. Of a sudden the Per- 
 sian commanders came to the conclusion that 
 there was need for them in Asia. They ac- 
 cordingly dropped away as quickly as possible, 
 and returned with the fleet to Persian waters. 
 Great was the relief of Alexander when he 
 learned of the collapse of the proposed descent 
 on the coasts of Macedonia. 
 
 In the mean time the conqueror was pro- 
 ceeding to lay siege to Tyre. It was consid- 
 ered of the first importance that this great 
 maritime city, from which the fleets of Persia 
 were supplied with whatever gave them 
 strength and efficiency, should be converted 
 into a Macedonian dependency. WhUe Alex-
 
 646 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 ander was on his way thither, he was met at 
 the town of Marathus by ambassadors from 
 Darius. These came to propose in the name 
 of their master that he and the Macedonian 
 should become friends and allies, and to re- 
 quest that the Persian princesses should be 
 permitted to return to Susa. At this time 
 Alexander was emboldened by success, and 
 also angered at the treacherous relations re- 
 cently unearthed between the Persian court 
 and the anti-Macedonians in Greece. He 
 therefore answered Avith much haughtiness. 
 He accused the Persian monarch of having 
 been privy to the assassination of King Philip. 
 He brought home the charge of having in- 
 trigued with the Greeks to compass the down- 
 fall of Macedonia. He recited various injuries 
 done to himself and his country by the court 
 of Susa. He announced that he himself and 
 not Darius was now monarch of Asia, and 
 that any further communications must be ad- 
 dressed to him, not as king to king, but as 
 vassal to lord. Finally, Darius was invited, 
 if he desired further intercourse, to come to 
 Alexander in person, and in that event he 
 should be treated as a subject, but with proper 
 consideration. The conclusion of the Mace- 
 donian's message, addressed as it was by a 
 youth of twenty-three to the representative of 
 Cyrus the Great, is worthy to be repeated: 
 "If you have any fears for your personal 
 safety, send some friends to receive my 
 pledged faith. On coming to me ask for 
 your wife and children, and whatever else you 
 may wish, and receive them, for every reason- 
 able request shall be granted. Henceforth, 
 if you have any communication to make, ad- 
 dress me as the King of Asia; and pretend 
 not to treat with me on equal terms, but pe- 
 tition me as the master of your fate. If not, 
 I shall regard it as an insult and take meas- 
 ures accordingly. If, however, you propose 
 still to dispute the sovereignty with me, do 
 not fly, but stand your ground, as I will 
 march and attack you wherever you may be." 
 A memorable dispatch ! Not worded after 
 the manner of modern diplomacy, but never- 
 theless intelligible. Perhaps the king of Per- 
 sia was able to understand it. As soon as 
 these negotiations were ended, Alexander 
 
 pressed forward to Tyre. Before reaching 
 the city he was met by a deputation, headed 
 by the son of the governor, who came to 
 proffer the allegiance of their city, but at the 
 same time refused to permit the conqueror to 
 enter within their walls. The proposal was so 
 little satisfactory to the king that he demanded 
 unconditional submission, and in case of re- 
 fusal threatened to storm the town. The 
 Tyrians would not comply, and Alexander at 
 once proceeded to invest the city. Then fol- 
 lowed a memorable siege of seven months' 
 duration, in which it were difficult to say 
 whether the besieged or the besiegers exhib- 
 ited greater heroism. Tyre was built on an 
 island, at the distance of a half-mile from the 
 shore. Her seamen were the most expert and 
 daring in the world. Before the Macedonian 
 could bring his engines to bear on the ram- 
 parts, he must build a mole sufficiently broad 
 to bear them, and extending from the shore 
 to the city. This done, and the battering- 
 rams being brought into position, the Tyrians. 
 succeeded in burning them before they could 
 be made efl^ective. Alexander now saw that 
 he must meet the enemy on their own ele^ 
 ment. He accordingly began to train a force 
 of sailors, and not until this work was accom- 
 plished did he find himself in a condition to^ 
 assault the city with fair prospects of success. 
 At last, however, he made the attack, and Tyre 
 was taken by storm. The people who had so 
 long defied him now paid dearly for their ob- 
 stinacy. The enraged Macedonian soldiery 
 was turned loose upon them, and eight thou- 
 sand were put to the sword. Besides this 
 tremendous butchery, thirty thousand of the 
 inhabitants were sold into slavery. 
 
 Before the siege of Tyre was brought to a. 
 close a second embassy arrived from Darius. 
 This time the Great King made the trial of 
 money as a means of relaxing the temper of 
 the Macedonian. He offered for the ransom 
 of his family and as the basis of peace and 
 friendship a sum equivalent to ten millions of 
 dollars. As a further inducement he proposed 
 to give his daughter in marriage and to cede 
 to Alexander all the country in Asia west of 
 the Euphrates. It must be confessed that the 
 offer was highly flattering, and most warriors-
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 G47 
 
 ALEXANDER BEFORE TYRE. 
 Prawn by H. Vogel.
 
 648 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 would have been glad to accept so vast an 
 empire at the hand of a vanquished foe. But 
 the son of Philip would be all or nothing. 
 When the proposal was, according to his man- 
 ner in such matters, laid before a council of 
 his generals, the sage Parmenio, when asked 
 for his opinion, replied: "If I were Alexander 
 I would accept the terms." "And I, too," 
 said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio!" It 
 was evident that the king of Macedon had his 
 eye fixed on the big game of the East, and 
 that all attempts either of friends or foes to 
 divert him from his purpose would prove in 
 vain. A message so harsh as to be hardly in 
 accordance with the magnanimous temper 
 which he had so many times displayed was 
 prepared and forwarded to Darius. The de- 
 spatch was couched in the following terms: 
 "I want no money from you, nor will I 
 receive a part of the empire for the whole ; 
 for Asia and all its treasures belong to me. 
 If I wish to marry your daughter I can do so 
 without your consent. If you wish to obtain 
 any favor from me, come in person and ask 
 for it." Here was an end of controversy. Of 
 a certainty Darius must yield and become a 
 vassal, or else take the field and — lose it. 
 
 After the capture of Tyre, Alexander next 
 turned his attention to Gaza. This strongly 
 fortified town, situated in the midst of vast 
 sands, was the only remaining obstacle between 
 the conqueror and the gateway of Egyj^t. It 
 was a part of his general policy to leave behind 
 him no fortress occupied by an enemy. Gaza 
 was garrisoned by a large force of Arabians 
 well provided with every thing which fore- 
 thought could furnish against the emergencies 
 of a siege. The persistency of the Macedoni- 
 ans in their investment and final capture of 
 Tyre had forewarned Batis, the governor of 
 Gaza, of what he in his turn might expect. 
 A gallant defense Avas made, but the town 
 was finally carried by assault. When the 
 Macedonians had scaled the ramparts the in- 
 habitants with desperate courage gathered in a 
 group and fought till the last man was killed. 
 The town was sacked. The women and chil- 
 dren were sold into slavery, and a Macedonian 
 colony was founded in the ruins of the city. 
 The incident of the siege was a severe wound 
 
 received by Alexander, whose life thereby was 
 thought for the time to be endangered. 
 
 By the fall of Tyre and Gaza the whole of 
 Phoenicia, Samaria, and Judaea was given up 
 to the conqueror. Having no longer any cause 
 to fear insurrections behind him he now pressed 
 forward toward Egypt. Arriving at Pelu- 
 sium he demanded a surrender of the fortress, 
 which was immediately given into his posses- 
 sion. The Persian governor of Egypt was next 
 summoned to renounce his authority in favor 
 of Alexander. Unable to resist the demand 
 and finding that the Egyptians, long burdened 
 with the oppressions of Persia, were in sym- 
 pathy with the Macedonian, the satrap yielded 
 without striking a blow. Thus within a week 
 and without the shedding of blood was the 
 sovereignty of the whole of Egypt transferred 
 to Alexander. 
 
 It rarely happens in a case of genius such 
 as that possessed by the son of Philip, that 
 the exhaustless energies of the mind are able 
 to be appeased with a single line of activity. 
 The really great warriors of the world have gen- 
 erally been great statesman. Alexander, Csesar, 
 Charlemagne, Napoleon — each like the other — 
 was but poorly satisfied — perhaps not satisfied 
 at all — with the bloody work of destroying 
 his fellow-men. In each case the ambition to 
 bring order into the world, to regulate, to civ- 
 ilize the nations, rose with a larger and brighter 
 disk than the mere ambition of war presented. 
 
 As soon as Egypt was fairly in his posses- 
 sion, and the conquest thus completed of all the 
 countries west of the Euphrates, the Macedo- 
 nian hero began to excogitate such measures 
 as seemed best adapted to promote the inter- 
 ests of the peoi:)les whom he had brought under 
 his sway. One of the first schemes produced 
 by his fertile brain was a method by which 
 intercourse might be rendered easy and rapid 
 between India and the states of the West. A 
 principal feature of the plans which now oc- 
 cupied his mind was the establishment in 
 Egypt of a great emporium of commerce. 
 He first by surveys familiarized himself with 
 the valley of the Nile as far south as Heliop- 
 olis. In the course of his examination of 
 the country, he availed himself of every means 
 and opportunity to win the admiration and
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 649 
 
 affections of the people. Returning by way 
 of Memphis, he carefully examined the several 
 mouths of the Nile. Having rejected both 
 Pelusium and Canopus as unsuited in situa- 
 tion for the contemplated city, he passed to 
 the western side of that branch of the river on 
 which the latter town was located, and there 
 selected a site for the proposed metropolis. 
 To Dinocrates he assigned the work of layinj^ 
 out and founding the city; and as if to trust 
 his fame to an enterprise of peace rather than 
 to the havoc of war, he ordered that the new 
 
 Possibly, however, the impulse which urged 
 him thither was the ambition to do what Cam- 
 byses had failed to accomplish. Nor is it un- 
 reasonable to suppose that the Macedonian was 
 willing to avail himself of this means to 
 heighten his reputation among the African 
 races by consulting the oracle of their great 
 deity in the desert. 
 
 Of course the journey to Amun was ac- 
 companied with miraculous indications of the 
 favor of heaven. When the Macedonians were 
 well-nigh dying of thirst, rain poured down 
 
 ALEXANDER AT THE TEMPLE OF AMUN. 
 
 Egyptian capital should bear his name — Alex- 
 
 ANDMA. 
 
 It will be remembered that the family of 
 Philip of Macedon, not without pride, traced 
 its mythical origin to the great heroes, Per- 
 seus and Hercules. It appears that Alexander 
 was not above the half superstitious vanity 
 of claiming these fabulous personages as his 
 ancestors. Such an element of vainglory in 
 his nature it may have been which induced 
 him, while still tarrying in Egypt, to under- 
 take a pilgrimage across the desert to the 
 shrine of Ra or Jove, in the oasis of Amun. 
 
 in torrents. When the band of pilgrims had 
 lost its way in the desert, two tremendous ser- 
 pents suddenly appeared and marshaled them 
 toward the oasis. Ravens likewise flew before 
 the pilgrims. So they came to the beautiful 
 site of the shrine of Jove. The Macedonian was 
 received with every mark of distinction by the 
 obsequious priests who, after the manner of 
 their kind in all ages, were willing — 
 
 "To bend the pregnant hinges of the knee 
 That thrift might follow fawning." 
 
 Ostensibly, Alexander had visited the oasis 
 to consult the oracle of Amun as to the va-
 
 650 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 lidity of his own claims to be regarded as the 
 son of Zeus. To his inquiry on this question, 
 if we may trust the credulous fable-writers of 
 antiquity, a favorable answer was returned by 
 the auspicious spirit of the place ; and the son 
 of Philip was enabled to return into Egypt 
 bearing the unequivocal honors of deity/ 
 
 In arriving at Memphis, Alexander at once 
 proceeded to reorganize the Egyptian govern- 
 ment. He also reviewed and modified, in 
 some particulars, the governments which he 
 had previously established in the provinces sub- 
 dued by his arms. In the early spring of 
 B. C. 331, having completed the civil arrange- 
 ments to which he had devoted his time since 
 the preceding autumn, he set out for Tyre, 
 which place he had appointed as a rendezvous 
 for both his fleets and armies. Here he met 
 ambassadors from Athens and other cities of 
 the Greek confederacy, with whom he con- 
 ferred respecting the prosecution of his Asiatic 
 campaign. He then began his movement to 
 the East, and in the first days of summer 
 reached the Euphrates. At Thapsacus he 
 found the bridge across the river broken down, 
 and the enemy in considerable force on the 
 opposite bank; but they quickly decamped, 
 without attempting to hinder his passage. 
 
 Alexander effected his crossing without de- 
 lay, and proceeded eastward along the north- 
 ern confines of Mesopotamia. He had not 
 advanced far, however, in this direction until 
 he was informed by deserters and scouts that 
 Darius had led his army up the eastern bank 
 of the Tigris, and, as if to await his antag- 
 onist, had selected a strong position on the 
 margin of that broad and rapid stream. It is 
 probable that this intelligence occasioned a 
 change in the plans of the conqueror. It had 
 been his purpose to make his way into Lower 
 
 ^ A half humorous incident of Alexander's in- 
 terview with the priest of Amun has been pre- 
 served by Plutarch. It appears that the oracle, 
 not quite willing to vouch for the divine paternity 
 of the Macedonian, indulged in the usual trick of 
 ambiguity. The old priest, on coming out to de- 
 liver the response of the god, is said, as if blun- 
 dering in his Greek, to have addressed Alexander 
 as Pai Bios (son of Jove), when as a matter of 
 fact he was merely intending to say Paidion (my 
 son)! Of course Alexander's courtiers preferred 
 Pai Dios to Paidion. 
 
 Mesopotamia, and, having captured Babylon, 
 to press forward to Susa. But learning the 
 whereabouts of Darius, and perceiving the in- 
 tentions of the Great King to offer battle in 
 his chosen position, he rapidly advanced in 
 that direction. On the fourth day of his 
 march he came in sight of the Persian host; 
 but on the appearance of the Macedonian 
 Darius began to recede towards the south, 
 with the evident intention of drawing Alex- 
 ander further and further into the enemy's 
 country. But the latter pressed upon him 
 with so much eagerness and audacity that the 
 Persian was compelled to make a stand for 
 battle. He accordingly selected a suitable 
 field on the banks of the Bumadus, a small 
 eastern tributary of the Tigris. The king 
 made his head-quarters six miles distant from 
 the plain selected for the fight, at the town 
 of Arbela, where the Pei'sian baggage and 
 military chests were deposited. 
 
 If we may trust the ancient authors, Darius 
 brought to the battle-field, on Avhich his own 
 and the destinies of his empire were now 
 staked, an army of foot-soldiers numbering at 
 least a million, wdiile the cavalry amounted to 
 forty thousand, the scythe-bearing chariots to 
 two hundred, and the elephants to fifteen. To 
 oppose this limitless host, Alexander had forty 
 thousand foot and seven thousand horse. It 
 is not improbable, however, that this incredi- 
 ble disparity in numbers ai'ose not from the 
 facts in the premises, but from the disposition 
 of the Greek writers to glorify the achieve- 
 ments of their countrymen. 
 
 Alexander at this great crisis behaved with 
 more than his usual caution. He sj^ent four 
 days in fortifying his camp, and at the second 
 watch of the fifth night drew out his forces 
 for battle. While advancing upon the enemy, 
 he jDcrceived on reaching the summit of a hill 
 the evidence of such unusual preparation on 
 the part of Darius that it was deemed prudent 
 to hold a council of war. Most of the Mace- 
 donian generals gave their vote for an imme- 
 diate attack, but the veteran Parmenio ad« 
 vised that the ground which they were to 
 traverse and the general disposition of the 
 Persian forces should be carefully scanned 
 before incurring the hazard of battle. With
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 651 
 
 this view Alexander, whose judgment seems to 
 have been cooled by the tremendous stake at 
 issue in the conflict, fully coincided, and a 
 whole day was accordingly spent in recouuoit- 
 ering the field. 
 
 In the early morning of the seventh day, 
 all the preliminaries having been arranged, 
 the two armies cautiously advanced towards 
 each other, and then grappled in a struggle 
 which was to decide the fate of Asia. The 
 battle began with an action of the cavalry and 
 chariots. Soon, however, the lines of infantry 
 became involved, and the fight raged along 
 the whole front of the field. Nor were the 
 Greeks at first able to drive the heavy masses 
 of the enemy before them. On no previous 
 field had the Persians displayed so much 
 bravery and steady discipline. The Scythian 
 cavalry had well-nigh proved a match for the 
 famous horsemen of Thessaly. In some parts 
 of the field, under the tremendous pressure of 
 numbers, the allied forces actually wavered 
 and lost some ground. But the Macedonian 
 phalanx, irresistible as hitherto, made its 
 steady way, like some huge engine of destruc- 
 tion, upon the heavy masses of the enemy, and 
 before its horrible forest of spears, the barba- 
 rians were forced into flight. Darius him- 
 self — whether by his own will or by the con- 
 fused tides of the rout which swelled around 
 him is not certainly known — was borne away 
 with the roaring mass of fugitives. 
 
 Discovering the flight of the king, and eager 
 to possess himself of the royal person, Alexan- 
 der, with the cavalry, pressed forward with ex- 
 treme audacity, and the Macedonian left, un- 
 der command of Parmenio, who was charged 
 with the protection of the camp, was almost 
 fatally weakened. It happened, moreover, 
 that the Persian cavalry on the right, opposite 
 to Parmenio, was commanded by Mazseus, one 
 of the ablest of the Great King's generals. 
 This daring officer succeeded in breaking 
 through the Macedonian lines, and captured 
 the camp. Messengers were hastily sent to 
 Alexander, who on the right was far in ad- 
 vance in pursuit of the king. With the ut- 
 most speed the conqueror wheeled and came 
 back to the support of Parmenio. The bat- 
 tle on the left was renewed with desperate 
 N. — Vol. I — 40 
 
 bravery until the Persian liorse was finally put 
 to flight. 
 
 The camp was regained, and Alexander 
 again pressed forward in the hope of capturing 
 the fugitive king. On arriving at the river 
 Lycus, he tound that Darius had already crossed 
 to the other side. The pursuit was therefore 
 given over, and, after a brief rest, the con- 
 queror turned aside in the night, and before 
 morning entered the town of Arbela without 
 opposition. Here he secured the rich treas- 
 ures which the Persian king, pending the bat- 
 tle, had there deposited. The chariot, shield, 
 and bow of Darius were found among the 
 captured spoils. 
 
 Of the number slain in the battle of Arbela' 
 no authentic account can be given. The cred- 
 ulous Arrian says that the Persians lost three 
 hundred thousand in killed and a still greater 
 number in prisoners, while the whole loss of 
 the Greeks is stated at not more than a hun- 
 dred. Such a statement, however, is so glar- 
 ingly improbable as to be entirely unworthy of 
 respect. In general it may be said that the 
 old authorities are of but little value in deter- 
 mining the numbers composing armies or the 
 losses in battle. 
 
 After his overthrow at Arbela, Darius at- 
 tempted to make a stand in Media. Around 
 him here were gathered the scattered fragments 
 of his army. But Alexander, knowing that 
 the king could never again oflTer him any 
 effectual resistance, now turned his course in 
 the direction of Babylon. No serious opposi- 
 tion, however, was to be anticipated from the 
 great cities of the Chaldsean plain. On arriv- 
 ing in the vicinity of the great metropolis a vast 
 procession of people with priests and nobles at 
 the head came out to surrender the city of 
 Nebuchadnezzar to the son of Philip. The 
 gates were opened and the citadel and treas- 
 ury given up without the slightest attempt to 
 save them from the clutch of the conqueror. 
 Within the Babylonian vaults and treasure- 
 houses, so vast a wealth of stores and money 
 was found as never before had greeted the 
 eyes of the Macedonian soldiery. Nor did 
 Alexander lose the opportunity to establish 
 
 ' For the true name of this great battle see 
 Book Sixth, p. 376.
 
 652 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 himself in popular esteem by flattering the 
 national superstitions. Careful respect was 
 shown to the religious rites of the Babylonians, 
 and the conqueror himself disdained not to 
 enter the great temple of the city and offer 
 sacrifices to Belus. 
 
 Remaining for a while in Babylon, Alex- 
 ander received a deputation from the Arme- 
 nians of the North, who professed their desire 
 to be included as subjects of his Empire. Soon 
 afterwards a delegation arrived from Susa, 
 the Persian capital, and he was informed of 
 the wish of that great city to put her keys in 
 his hands. The ambassadors expressed their 
 dislike of the Persian dynasty, and the wish of 
 the Susianians to share their destinies with the 
 House of Macedon. This was important in- 
 telligence, and Alexander immediately availed 
 himself of it by marching in the direction of 
 the Persian capital. Before arriving at Susa, 
 however, he was met by a son of the satrap, 
 who came out to assure him of a hospitable 
 reception. He was informed that the city, 
 with all its defenses and treasures, would be sur- 
 rendered without delay or opposition. Within 
 twenty days after his departure from Babylon 
 he reached his destination. Susa was given 
 up, and the Macedonian found himself in pos- 
 session of a sum equal to fifty millions of dol- 
 lars. In the royal palace were found many 
 of the treasures which Xerxes had taken from 
 the Greeks. Among the rest were two bronze 
 statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, those 
 famous popular heroes who slew the tyrant 
 Hipparchus. These venerated relics were at 
 once returned by Alexander to the Athenians, 
 though the conqueror could hardly have been 
 in sympathy with the cause of which they 
 were the symbols. 
 
 While tarrying at Susa, Alexander rein- 
 stated the wives and daughters of Darius in 
 the royal palace. He also, in reorganizing the 
 government, intrusted the satrapy to a native 
 Persian, thus exhibiting a conciliatory disposi- 
 tion towards the traditions of the people. 
 Meanwhile a large reenforcement, sent out by 
 Antipater, arrived from Macedonia. With 
 them came fifty youths from the most distin- 
 guished families, who were recommended to 
 the king as proper additions to his body-guard. 
 
 The time had now come to begin the in- 
 vasion of the original seat of the Persian Em- 
 pire. Between Susiana and Persia Proper 
 were ranges of high mountains, the passes of 
 which must be traversed by the Macedonians 
 on their way from Susa to Persepolis. These 
 heights were inhabited by a race of warlike 
 barbarians who, even in the palmy days of 
 Persian ascendency, had maintained their in- 
 dependence, and were in the habit, with sin- 
 gular impudence, of obliging the subjects of 
 the Great King to pay toll for the privilege 
 of passing through the mountains. It was 
 the program of these half-savages, on the ap- 
 proach of the conqueror, to occupy the cliffs, 
 and compel the king of Macedon to pay the 
 usual tribute. But the buccaneers of the hills 
 were soon taught another lesson. The light- 
 armed Macedonians, agile as the mountaineers 
 themselves, hastily preoccupied the heights, 
 and the barbarians were glad to escape with 
 their lives. It was not the custom of Alex- 
 ander the Great to pay for the privilege of 
 going where he would. 
 
 At a further stage of his progress through 
 the hill-country, the Macedonian encountered 
 a still more serious obstacle. The Persian 
 Gate, through which he must descend from 
 the highland into the plain, had been seized 
 by the satrap, Ariobarzanes, who, with forty 
 thousand picked soldiers, had chosen this fa- 
 vorable position with the determination to 
 stop the progress of Alexander toward the 
 East. In attempting to force the pass, the 
 Macedonians were not only checked but actu- 
 ally repelled, until what time Alexander, 
 having discovered another defile through the 
 mountains, passed through with one division 
 of his army, and fell upon the Persian 
 rear. The discomfiture of Ariobarzanes was 
 complete. 
 
 It was now no longer any concern of the 
 Macedonian what should become of the satrap 
 who had attempted to bar his progress, but 
 whether he himself could reach Persepolis 
 before the fugitives from the recent overthrow 
 should bear thither the news of his coming. 
 He had been informed of the purpose of the 
 Persepolitan authorities to destroy the treas- 
 ures and records of the city rather than per-
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 653 
 
 mit them to fall into the hands of the ravager 
 of Asia. It was, therefore, of great impor- 
 tance to Alexander, by becoming the herald 
 of his own victory, to prevent the contem- 
 plated destruction. So rapid was his march 
 that he dashed upon the city gates unan- 
 nounced : nor could those in iauthority, anx- 
 ious as they were to save themselves by flight, 
 interfere to prevent the pillage of the capital. 
 Persepolis went down, like the other great 
 cities of Asia, before the trampler of the 
 Orient. 
 
 Once safely established in the capital of 
 the Empire, Alexander again found time to 
 pause for a season from the anxieties of war. 
 Both he and his soldiers gave themselves up 
 to festivities not wholly free from excess and 
 rioting. At this juncture occurred one of the 
 least creditable transactions of Alexander's 
 life — the burning of the magnificent palace 
 of the Persian kings. It appears that a cer- 
 tain Thais, an Athenian Hetcera, celebrated 
 for her beauty and accomplishments, was in- 
 vited by Alexander to a banquet given by 
 him to his generals. Wine flowed freely, and 
 the Macedonian, in common with the rest, was 
 under the influence of the inebriating cup. 
 In the midst of the feast, Thais recalling to 
 mind the demolition of her native city by the 
 Persians, and feeling towards them that burn- 
 ing hatred of which a woman only is capable, 
 proposed that, as a measure of retaliation and 
 revenge, the torch should now be applied to 
 the royal palace of Persepolis. It is related 
 that the Greek generals, having recently no- 
 ticed on the part of Alexander a certain in- 
 clination to look with favor on the luxurious 
 and effeminating manners of the Persians, and 
 fearing, as is believed lest he should, in re- 
 organizing the Empire, conclude to establish 
 his capital in the East, and seeing in the great 
 palace of the Persepolitan kings a temptation 
 to such a course, interposed no objection to 
 the revengeful freak of the Athenian woman. 
 Alexander, perceiving that his generals did not 
 object to the incendiary proposition, not only 
 gave his own assent to the wish of his favor- 
 ite, but himself rushed forth with a torch and 
 fired the royal dwelling. The progress of the 
 flames, however, soon sobered the temporary 
 
 madman, and in sudden repentance for his 
 crime, he endeavored to save the palace from 
 destruction ; but the conflagration had already 
 proceeded so far that only a part of the royal 
 house could be rescued from the flames. 
 
 For four months after his entrance into 
 Persepolis, Alexander remained in the city. 
 Darius, meanwhile, had established himself in 
 Ecbatana, and was there rallying such forces 
 as he could command, in the hope of saving 
 the northern provinces of his empire. He 
 also busied himself with that business which 
 had now become a part of the traditional 
 policy of the Persian kings, namely, the in- 
 stigation of a revolt among the states of 
 Greece. In collusion with Agis, king of the 
 Lacedaemonians, Darius succeeded, in the 
 Avinter of B. C. 331-330, in organizing a for- 
 midable rebellion among the confederated 
 powers of the West. An army was raised in 
 Southern Greece, and an expedition planned 
 against Macedonia. Antipater, who was still 
 regent of the hereditary dominions of Alex- 
 ander, prepared resistance, and even antici- 
 pated the movements of the enemy by march- 
 ing into Peloponnesus. ' The war was thus 
 precipitated upon the Spartans and their 
 allies, and the whole issue was soon decided 
 by a decisive battle, in which Antipater wa& 
 completely victorious. The insurgents were 
 disjDersed and Agis slain. So complete was 
 the triumph of the Macedonian cause that 
 even in Sparta the friends of Alexander se- 
 cured control of affairs, and a contingent of 
 Lacedsemonian troops was sent forward to the 
 king at Persepolis. 
 
 With the opening of spring the conqueror 
 left the Persian capital and set out into- 
 Media. On his approach to Ecbatana, Darius, 
 having heard of the failure of the movement 
 in his favor in Greece, and finding himself 
 unable to confront his antagonist in the field, 
 gathered together his treasures, and with a 
 guard of ten thousand men, left the city to 
 become a fugitive in the earth. The city 
 was taken without a blow, and the whole of 
 Media was added to the new empire of the 
 Macedonian. 
 
 With the latter it now became a prime 
 ambition — a passion — to gain possession of tt^
 
 654 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Persian king. Accordingly, having selected 
 a body of his best troops, he started in pur- 
 suit of the royal refugee, and, after a march 
 of incredible rapidity, arrived in eleven days 
 at the city of Rhagse, near the gi^eat pass of 
 the Caucasus, called the Caspian Gate. Here 
 he learned that Darius had abandoned the 
 hill-country and was continuing his flight 
 across the Parthian plains. While making a 
 temporary pause to procure supplies and rest 
 his men, intelligence was brought to Alexan- 
 der that Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, to- 
 gether with two others, one of whom was a 
 cavalry officer in the body-guard of the king, 
 had conspired against Darius, seized his per- 
 son, and were now dragging him back to be 
 delivered to the conqueror. It was their pur- 
 pose, however, after the manner of Asiatics, 
 to hold possession of their captive, and thus 
 be able to extort terms favorable to them- 
 selves — perhaps to sell the prisoner at an 
 enormous price in money and preferments. 
 
 Setting out in the night, Alexander again 
 pressed forward with great rapidity, and on 
 the morrow arrived at a village which had 
 just been occupied by Bessus and his confed- 
 erates. Again hurrying forward across the 
 desert, he soon came in sight of the fugitives. 
 A brief and feeble resistance was offered to 
 the pursuers, and then the captors of the 
 king, fearing that Darius, when taken, might 
 induce Alexander to punish them for their 
 perfidy, plunged their swords into the royal 
 ■captive and deft him in his chariot by the 
 road-side to die. In a few moments the con- 
 •queror was on the spot, but not until the last 
 king of the Persian Empire had breathed out 
 his life. Only the bleeding, lifeless body of 
 him w^ho had once swayed the millions re- 
 mained as a trophy to the conqueror. It is 
 not often that the history of the world has 
 jjresented a scene so dramatic as that of the 
 son of Philip standing before the dead body 
 of his adversary. It was greatly to the honor 
 of Alexander that he behaved Avith the ut- 
 most humanity in the presence of his fallen 
 foe. The royal corpse was carefully conveyed 
 to Persepolis, and splendidly buried in the 
 tombs of the Persian kings. 
 
 With the death of Darius, the empire 
 
 founded by Cyrus the Great" was extinguished. 
 The invasion of Xerxes, with its attendant 
 havoc and devastation to the states of Greece, 
 had, after a century and a-half of waiting, 
 been amply avenged by the Macedonian con- 
 queror. There was no longer any serious 
 opposition to the establishment of a new 
 dynasty on the ruins of the East. For a 
 brief season, Bessus, the treacherous satrap of 
 Bactria, assumed the title of Artaxerxes and 
 laid claim to the dominions of the Great King. 
 
 It was, however, but an act of vaulting am- 
 bition which o'erleaped itself and fell on the 
 other side. He was pursued by Alexander 
 into the province of Sogdiana, cooped up in 
 a fortress, and finally surrendered into the 
 hands of the Macedonians. After being muti- 
 lated according to the practice of the East, J 
 he was cruelly put to death. The Bactrians, 
 however, for several months continued to op- 
 pose the authority of Alexander. It was 
 found necessary to make a campaign into the 
 country between the Caspian and the Jaxar- 
 tes. fhis river was crossed by the Macedo- 
 nian army — the furthest limit of its northward 
 progress. The satrap, Spitamenes, called to 
 his aid the people of Sogdiana, and the fierce 
 Scythians, thus creating an army of formi- 
 dable proportions. But the general, Coenus, 
 soon overthrew them in battle, and Spitame- 
 nes was pursued into the desert and put to 
 death. Another insurgent, named Oxyartes, 
 took possession of a fortress, situated in an 
 almost inaccessible height, and, being well 
 supplied with provisions, bade defiance to the 
 Macedonians. When summoned to surrender, 
 they coolly asked Alexander if his men had 
 wings. This piece of bravado was answered 
 on the following day by a Macedonian storm- 
 ing party, who, with hands and feet, if not 
 with wings, ascended the cliff and carried the 
 fortress by storm. 
 
 Among the captives found in this strong- 
 hold of the enemy was the daughter of Ox- 
 yartes, the beautiful Roxana, whom Alex- 
 ander, against the half-suppressed protests of 
 his Greeks, chose for his wife. It appears 
 that the union was based on politics as well as 
 affection ; for it was now evident that the 
 Macedonian contemplated the organic consoli-
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 655 
 
 MACEDONIANS CROSSING THE JAXARTES.
 
 656 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 dation of the various nations subdued by his 
 arms, and that he saw in intermarriage one 
 of the chief means by which this result was 
 to be accomplished. It was observed, more- 
 over, that his army had of late been recruited 
 from Asiatic sources, and notwithstanding the 
 jealousy which this measure created among 
 his Macedonian and Grecian subjects, Alexan- 
 der persisted in the course which seemed to 
 him most likely to conciliate the favor of the 
 recently subjugated peoples. 
 
 Thus it was that the banner and phalanx 
 of Macedonia were carried to the borders of 
 India. Nor was there any doubt of the ability 
 of the conqueror to press his way eastward 
 until the ocean and the Himalayas should im- 
 pede his progress. His army was now an 
 army of veterans, inured in the campaigns of 
 four successive years to every species of hard- 
 ship incident to the camp and the field. Be- 
 sides the discipline which they had received 
 at the hands of the bravest and most expe- 
 rienced generals, the person and example of 
 Alexander himself, who shared with his sol- 
 diers all the hardships of the march and the 
 battle, had inspired them with enthusiasm for 
 their leader and confidence in their abilities 
 to conquer the world. 
 
 To these prospects of future achievement 
 a single circumstance seemed to oppose a 
 barrier. Of late there had arisen trouble not 
 a little between the Macedonian and some of 
 the officers of his army. In the first place he 
 was led to suspect that Philotas, the son of 
 Parmenio, was engaged in a treacherous con- 
 spiracy against himself. The young general 
 was accordingly arrested, tried before a mili- 
 tary commission, condemned by his judges, 
 and put to death. This was a fatal blow to 
 Parmenio, who, though long the confidential 
 adviser of Philip and afterwards the ablest 
 general of Philip's son, soon fell under sus- 
 picion of disloyalty, and, whether guilty or 
 innocent, was speedily sent to his death. In 
 these proceedings it was evident that the mu- 
 tual trust of the king, and Ids officers, Avhich 
 for many years had survived the ordeals of 
 privation and battle, was clouded with discon- 
 tent and suspicion. 
 
 The winter of B. C. 329 was passed by the 
 
 Persian army in Bactria. It was during this 
 interval that an event occurred from the 
 effects of which the king never wholly es- 
 caped. The Asiatic courtiers, who now con- 
 stituted a part of the retinue of Alexander, 
 began to exercise upon his character a dele- 
 terious influence. It is clear that his ear was 
 no longer oflfended with the base flatteries of 
 the East. This gradual alienation from the 
 severe manners of his father's court was 
 noticed with mortification by the austere 
 Macedonians, who still constituted the body 
 of his friends. On a certain occasion, in the 
 Bactrian winter-quarters, a banquet was given 
 in honor of Castor and Pollux. When all 
 were well heated with wine, some of the 
 fawning puppies of the East began in their 
 usual obsequious way to flatter the king on 
 his great achievements and divine paternity. 
 Thereupon Clitus, the ablest of the Macedo- 
 nian generals after Parmenio, and the intimate 
 friend of the conqueror, rebuked the syco- 
 phants with all the hot words in his vocabulary. 
 
 Alexander, to his shame, interfered to stop 
 the reproaches of Clitus, who thereupon turned 
 on his master a torrent of well-deserved re- 
 bukes. The king, already excited with drink, 
 gave way to passion, and in a moment of un- 
 governable rage snatched a weapon from one 
 of his guards, and gave his faithful general a 
 death-thrust on the spot. With the quick re- 
 turn of reason, realizing the hox'rible crime 
 which he had committed, he fell into bitter 
 remorse, shut himself up in his chamber, 
 would not see his friends, and for three days 
 neither ate nor drank. Finally he was per- 
 suaded that the rash murder of his friend was 
 chargeable to Bacchus rather than to himself, 
 and with this miserable subterfuge he quieted 
 his conscience. 
 
 A short time afterwards an event occurred 
 which came near costing Alexander his life. 
 Among his retainers was a company of young 
 men known as the Band of Pages. Their 
 leader was a certain Hermolaiis. On an oc- 
 casion Alexander accompanied these youths 
 on a boar hunt in the Bactrian forests. 
 When the beast was brought to bay, Herma- 
 laiis, without waiting according to good man- 
 ners for the king to strike down the game,
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDEE THE GEE AT. 
 
 657 
 
 himself gave the death blow, Alexander, in 
 childish anger for the affront thus offered, fell 
 upon the young man in the presence of his 
 companions, beat him with a rod, and took 
 away his horse. Hermolaiis showed himself 
 capable of revenge. Taking four of his com- 
 panions into his confidence, he made con- 
 spiracy with them to kill the king that night 
 in his bed-chamber ; for the pages were the 
 guardians of the royal sleeping apartments. It 
 chanced, however, that the plot was overheard 
 by the convenient old woman who was near 
 the chamber. She thereupon persuaded the 
 king not to retire that night; and on the fol- 
 lowing day, the young men being put to the 
 rack, confessed the particulars of their mur- 
 derous scheme. They, also, declared that the 
 instigator of the plot was a certain Athenian 
 named Callisthenes, an arrogant philosopher 
 belonging to the court. He and the young 
 men were straightway condemned and exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 The time had now arrived to begin the 
 contemplated expedition into India. In the 
 spring of B. C. 327, Alexander set out across 
 the mountain range of Paropamisus, and 
 quickly penetrated the valley of the Indus. 
 His army was now swollen to more than one 
 hundred thousand men. This great force he 
 divided into two corps, reserving the command 
 of one for himself, and giving the other to 
 Hephsestion. This general the king ordered 
 to press forward to the river Cophenes, while 
 he himself undertook the conquest of the bar- 
 barous tribes dwelling between that river and 
 the Indus. As soon as this work was accom- 
 plished, he crossed the great river, and made 
 his way into the eastern provinces. Several 
 districts were rapidly overrun, and a certain 
 Taxiles, the most important ruler of this re- 
 gion, made a voluntary surrender of his terri- 
 tories. He also sent to the conqueror a 
 present of seven thousand Indian horses, and 
 in other ways testified his willingness to be 
 enrolled among the subjects of the king. 
 Alexander cordially accepted the prince as his 
 ally, and restored him to his dominions. 
 
 Meanwhile, PoRUS, the most powerful king 
 of South-eastern India, had gathered a vast 
 army of his subjects and advanced to the river 
 
 Hydaspes to oppose the passage of the Mace- 
 donians. For the third time in the course 
 of his campaigns, Alexander beheld on the 
 opposite bank of a stream the cohorts of an 
 innumerable enemy drawn up to hinder his 
 progress. To the mind of the Macedonian, 
 the present emergency seemed more grave 
 than that which presented itself at the Gran- 
 icus or Issus. Instead, therefore, of dashing 
 into the river with the reckless audacity dis- 
 played in his first battle, he hesitated and 
 maneuvered. After making so many feints 
 as to throw Porus off his guard, he finally suc- 
 ceeded in crossing in the night. A general 
 engagement ensued with the morning light, and 
 the Indians were completely routed. The two 
 sons of the king and twenty-three thousand 
 of his troops were kiUed. Porus himself, 
 flying on his great war elephant, was cap- 
 tured and brought into the presence of Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 It is narrated that the Indian prince was 
 of so goodly a person and manners that the 
 Macedonian, greatly impressed with the bear- 
 ing of his prisoner, asked him in what way 
 he could serve him. "By acting like a 
 king," was the reply. "I should do as much 
 for my own sake," said Alexander; "but 
 what shall I do for yours ? " Porus answered, 
 "I have preferred my only request." So 
 greatly Avas Alexander pleased with the re- 
 sponse of the royal captive that he at once 
 reinstated him in authority ; and having 
 presently conquered thirty-seven cities on the 
 eastern frontier, he added them to the posses- 
 sion of his new friend and confederate.^ 
 
 Having completed the conquest of India, 
 the conqueror sought recreation for himself 
 and his men by instituting on the bank of 
 the Hydaspes a series of gymnastic and eques- 
 trian games like the Olympic festival of 
 Greece. When the celebration was com- 
 pleted, he proceeded to found in honor of his 
 victories the city of Nic!?ea, and soon after- 
 
 ' The reader can but be struck with the supe- 
 rior bearing of Alexander in the field. War 
 brought out the better qualities of his character 
 and genius. It was in the times of surcease, when 
 his restless energies no longer found vent in the 
 excitement of campaign and battle that his pas- 
 sions turned to meanness and depravity.
 
 658 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 DEFEAT OF PORUS BY THE MACEDONIANS.
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 659^ 
 
 wards he selected a site for Bucephalia, so 
 named in honor of his famous horse, Buceph- 
 alus. The conqueror then intrusted to Cra- 
 terus a division of his army, with instructions 
 to build and fortify the new cities. He him- 
 self with the remaining division again set out 
 towards the east. He crossed first the river 
 Acesines, and in the region beyond con- 
 quered a second prince named Porus. He 
 then passed the Hydraotes, and came into 
 a country inhabited by independent tribes, 
 which attempted in their half-barbarous way 
 to impede his progress. A battle was fought 
 with them and they were routed in confusion. 
 They then retired into their fortress of San- 
 gala, and having refused to capitulate, were 
 besieged by the Macedonian army. For a 
 brief period the town was obstinately de- 
 fended, but was presently carried by storm. 
 Seventeen thousand of the Indians were killed 
 in the assault, and seventy thousand more 
 were made prisoners. The city was leveled 
 to the ground, and the confederate tribes not 
 involved in its destruction fled beyond the 
 Hyphasis for safety. 
 
 All of the vast region known as the Pun- 
 jaub, or Land of the Five Rivers, was now 
 completely subjugated. Of the great streams, 
 by which this country was watered, the Hy- 
 phasis, just mentioned, was the most easterly. 
 This river, therefore, constituted the natural 
 limit of Upper India. But no corresponding 
 limit was found to the ambition of Alexander. 
 He immediately began to prepare to cross the 
 Hyphasis, and to continue his progress to the 
 East. But here at last the fates had decreed 
 that the son of Philip should pause. The 
 arrow shot from strongest bow into highest 
 sky must turn somewhere and seek again the 
 earth in its flight. If the impulse of conquest 
 still bore onward the conqueror himself, it 
 was no longer felt in the breasts of his gen- 
 erals and men. On the banks of the Hy- 
 ' phasis they hesitated, wavered, refused to go 
 further. In vain did the baffled Macedonian 
 attempt to persuade his commanders and sol- 
 diers to accompany him to the extreme of 
 Asia. In vain he promised them an easy and 
 circuitous route through victory and spoil to 
 the ocean of India. Then they should sail 
 
 homeward by a brief and pleasant passage- 
 through the Persian Gulf. But destiny was 
 fixed — they would go no further. So, tO' 
 conceal his defeat and mortification, the con- 
 queror consulted the gods and announced that 
 the divine oracles had indeed decreed a return 
 to Europe. Under the breastplate of Mars- 
 appeared the duplicity of the priest and the- 
 shrewdness of the politician ! 
 
 So the Macedonian proceeded to build 
 twelve pillars on the bank of Hyphasis, and 
 left them there as monuments of his victory 
 and as limits of his progress towards the ris- 
 ing sun. To Porus he then intrusted the gov- 
 ernment of the seven provinces — with their 
 two thousand cities — which he had conquered 
 in his Indian campaign, and himself immedi- 
 ately prepared to descend the Hydaspes to the 
 Indus and the Indus to the sea. 
 
 As soon as the arrangements for the return 
 to Europe could be comjileted, the conqueror 
 formed his army in three divisions, giving the 
 first to Hephsestion, the second to Craterus, 
 and reserving the third for himself. The 
 first two divisions were ordered to proceed 
 along the river bank, while the commander 
 himself, with his division, embarked on board 
 a fleet built for the purpose by the Phoenician 
 and Cypriot carpenters belonging to the army. 
 Fi-equently in his progress down the river the 
 conqueror was hindered by the hostility of 
 native tribes. In one instance a nation called 
 the Malli so greatly retarded his movements- 
 that he felt constrained to go on shore and 
 besiege their capital. This was defended with 
 much spirit by the barbarians, until Alexan- 
 der, vexed with the delay, ordered the place 
 to be carried by storm. The assault w^as at 
 once made, and every thing fell before the 
 charge of the Macedonians until they came to 
 the citadel. Here the ramparts had to be 
 mounted with scaling-ladders. These the 
 king at once ordered to be brought forward ; 
 but becoming angry at what to him seemed 
 unnecessary delay, he snatched a ladder him- 
 self, placed it against the wall, and in spite 
 of the vociferous remonstrances of his com- 
 panions began rapidly mounting to the top. 
 
 In order to save their king from what seemed 
 certain destruction, the Macedonians pressed
 
 660 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 after him; but just as he reached the summit 
 the ladder broke, and all the rest were pre- 
 cipitated to the ground. The son of Philip 
 was left alone on the top of the rampart, 
 where his brilliant armor flashing in the sun 
 made him a conspicuous mark for a hundred 
 javelins. Nothing but his audacity saved 
 him from certain death. Instead of attempt- 
 ing to escape he leaped boldly in the citadel, 
 placed his back to the wall, and cut down 
 the Mallian commander, with several others 
 who rushed upon him. In a few moments 
 three of his own trusted followers scaled the 
 rampart and sprang to the side of their king. 
 The first instantly fell, fatally wounded, but 
 the other two placed themselves between the 
 foe and the king, who had already received 
 an arrow in his breast, and beat back the as- 
 sailants until the Macedonians broke thi'ough 
 the walls and the place was carried. The 
 wound of the king was not such as to endan- 
 ger his life, but the peril to which his rash- 
 ness had exposed him Avas perhaps the great- 
 est which he had ever faced in the vicissitudes 
 of battle. 
 
 Having reached the sea, arrangements 
 were at once completed for the return of the 
 expedition, first to the capital of Persia, and 
 afterwards to Europe. The army was divided 
 into two parts, one of which was to embark 
 on the fleet and the other to proceed overland 
 across the Gedrosian desert ; for it was deemed 
 necessary that the two divisions by land and 
 sea should keep within supporting distance, 
 the land forces to supply the squadron from 
 time to time, and the squadron to furnish the 
 land forces with the means of embarkation 
 should the same be found desirable. 
 
 The fleet was under command of Nearchus, 
 and Alexander himself took charge of the di- 
 vision which was to proceed to Persia. March- 
 ing at the head of his columns, carrying full 
 armor, and claiming no exemption from the 
 hardships of the common soldier, the con- 
 queror plunged into the desert sands, and for 
 two months toiled on through the Gedrosian 
 waste. Not until the expedition reached the 
 province of Carmania were adequate supplies 
 obtained to meet the wants of the army. 
 
 During the two years' absence of Alexan- 
 
 der in the East, the governors of Babylon, 
 Persepolis, and Susa, behaving after the man- 
 ner of Orientals, had resumed the oppressive 
 methods of government to which both they 
 and the people had so long been accustomed. 
 Great abuses had prevailed, and the conqueror 
 found his subjects restless and discontented 
 under the exactions of their rulers. To regu- 
 late these disorders and to punish those of his 
 subordinates who had proved unworthy of 
 their trust were now the first duties of the 
 king. 
 
 More than ever he perceived the desira- 
 bility of unifying as far as practicable the 
 diverse nationalities over which he was called 
 to rule. He, therefore, redoubled his exer- 
 tions in the way of conciliating the various 
 peoples under his sway, and as a means of 
 doing so he again had recourse to intermar- 
 riages. It will be remembered that the fam- 
 ily of Darius had been left in the palace of 
 Susa about three years previously. On re- 
 turning to that place Alexander proceeded to 
 celebrate his marriage with the eldest daugh- 
 ter of the late king. To Hephsestion, his 
 favorite general, he gave a sister of the prin- 
 cess which he himself had chosen. To Near- 
 chus was assigned the daughter of Mentor, 
 the brother of that Memnon who had so ably 
 opposed the Macedonian at the beginning of 
 his career. Eighty of the leading commanders 
 of the army were rewarded with princesses 
 of Persia, and the nuptials were celebrated 
 with great magnificence after the style of the 
 country. By these means the affections of 
 the Persians were rapidly turned to him who 
 had scourged them ; but to the Greeks there 
 was much that was distasteful in the proceed- 
 ings of their great leader. 
 
 Having remained for a time at Susa, busy 
 with plans and projects for the organization 
 and development of the Empire, Alexander 
 now set out for Babylon. He descended the 
 Eubseus and then ascended the Tigris, making 
 surveys and maps of the rivers with a view 
 to their future improvement. A corps of 
 competent engineers accompanied him, and 
 these were constantly consulted as to the best 
 means of opening the country to commerce 
 and an improved civilization. There is no
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 661 
 
 period in Alexander's life in which lie appears 
 to a better advantage than in this careful ex- 
 ploration of his dominions with a view to the 
 establishment of a reign of peace. Especially 
 were his energies judiciously employed on 
 arriving at Babylon. Hitherto it appeared 
 to have been the chief concern of the rulers 
 of that great city to protect it by some artificial 
 means from the hazard of capture by an 
 enemy. Fear had made a league with the 
 Euphrates. Dams had been built across the 
 channel in such a way as to inundate those 
 parts before the city over which the Assyrian 
 might assail the gates. The natural uses of 
 the great river as a way of commerce and a 
 source of irrigation were thus destroyed. 
 
 Alexander, on discovering the condition of 
 affairs, made haste to open the channel for 
 his fleet and the merchantmen of the world. 
 He had the harbors repaired and enlarged 
 until they were able to accommodate a thou- 
 sand ships. He encouraged every enterprise 
 which promised to facilitate the opening 
 of commerce with distant regions, and to 
 stimulate the industrial energies of the vast 
 populations under his authority. He ordered 
 his engineers to construct new channels by 
 which the waters of the Euphrates might be 
 better distributed for purposes of irrigation 
 and to drain the great marshes to the west of 
 the river, where for ages this overflow had 
 gathered into stagnant pools, unfitting the 
 land for habitation. 
 
 When these grand enterprises were well 
 under way Alexander ascended the Tigris to 
 the city of Opis, where he caused to be cele- 
 brated the Olympic festival. It was on this 
 occasion that he had to face another mutiny 
 of his soldiers. The veteran Greeks of his 
 army could not conceal their inherent dislike 
 for the manners and character of the Orien- 
 tals. With chagrin and mortification they 
 had seen their great leader more and more 
 assimilated to the Persian mode of life. Even 
 his dress was conformed to the styles of the 
 East. Unable to see in all this any thing 
 but an alienation of the king from the sevei*e 
 habits and discipline of his native land, the 
 sturdy Macedonians became morose, melan- 
 choly, mutinous. They demanded the privi- 
 
 lege of returning home. They refused longer 
 to participate in useless struggles with barba- 
 rians and campaigns which were endless. 
 
 In this peril the genius of Alexander stood 
 him well in hand. He made an address to 
 his soldiers in which he reviewed their won- 
 derful achievements, extolled their heroism, 
 depicted the rescue of Asia from barbarism 
 by their valor, and exhorted them not to tar- 
 nish their reputation and the glory of the 
 Greek name by yielding to bad passions and 
 pernicious counsels. Such was the power of 
 the appeal that the soldiers were overcome 
 with mingled remorse and admiration. A re- 
 action flashed along the ranks, and the mutiny 
 was at an end. The conqueror then availed 
 himself of the situation by sending to their 
 homes ten thousand of his veterans. He 
 loaded them with rewards and honors and 
 put them in charge of the able Craterus, 
 whom he commissioned as regent of Macedo- 
 nia in place of Antipater. Thus by prudence 
 and sound discretion he converted an alarming 
 insurrection into an increase of power and 
 authority over his army. 
 
 In the mountainous district between Media 
 and Persia dwelt a tribe of warlike barbarians 
 who during the whole ascendency of Achae- 
 menian dynasty had maintained their inde- 
 pendence. Nor were they more inclined to 
 yield obedience to Alexander. Unable to re- 
 duce them except by force the Macedonian 
 set out from' Opis and crossed the Median 
 border. While on the way one of the satraps 
 sent to him a body-guard composed of a hun- 
 dred Amazons, perhaps the most novel con- 
 tingent ever added to his army. The famous 
 woman-warriors were mounted like troopers 
 and carried battle-axes and lances. 
 
 Befoi-e engaging the mountaineers who 
 had defied his authority, Alexander had the 
 misfortune to lose his bosom friend and 
 trusted general, Hephisstiou. No previous 
 personal loss had so deeply affected him. For 
 days together he would neither eat nor drink. 
 As usual when in grief, he shut himself up, 
 and would not be consoled. At last he found 
 some comfort in giving his friend a magnifi- 
 cent funeral, and then his attention was dis- 
 tracted by the excitements of the campaign.
 
 662 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.~THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 In a short time the Cossees were subdued, 
 and the Macedonian, having for the moment 
 no other enemies with whom to contend, 
 found time for a civil enterprise more Avorthy 
 of his genius. This was tlie exploration of 
 the Caspian sea. Until now it had been be- 
 lieved that this great body of water was but 
 an arm of the Arctic Ocean. Alexander 
 gave instructions to Heraclides, commander 
 of the shipwrights, to go into the Hyrcauian 
 forest, prepare a fleet, and determine the 
 geographical limits of the unknown sea. 
 He himself, when the work was well under 
 way, departed for Babylon, having deter- 
 mined to make a formal entry into the city, 
 and from that center direct the affairs of his 
 government. 
 
 After the battle of Arbela, Alexander 
 had intrusted the Babylonian government to 
 the priests of the temple of Belus. These 
 hierarchs had all the subtlety and double- 
 dealing habits of their race. Knowing the 
 use to which they had put the king's reve- 
 nues, and dreading an examination of their 
 accounts with the royal treasury, they under- 
 took to prevent Alexander from visiting the 
 city. They sent out a deputation of sooth- 
 sayers to warn him that the omens were not 
 favorable for his present coming, and advising 
 delay. But the king easily penetrated their 
 hypocritical anxiety, and put them to confu- 
 sion by quoting a saying of Euripides that he 
 is the best prophet who makes the best guess ! 
 
 Having established himself in the palace 
 at Babylon, he immediately resumed the great 
 works from which he had been distracted by 
 the campaign into Media. Further improve- 
 ments of the river were projected, and he 
 himself spent days together in an open boat, 
 under the burning sun, directing the work of 
 his engineers. He also planned an elaborate 
 survey of the coasts of Arabia and Eastern 
 Africa ; and at the same time his mind was 
 busy with future military operations, which 
 embraced, among other schemes, the conquest 
 of Western Europe. Nor was such an en- 
 largement of his empire beyond the possibili- 
 ties of his all-embracing genius. His fame as 
 a conqueror had already extended to the re- 
 motest parts of the civilized world ; and the 
 
 dream of universal empire Avas less visionary 
 wuth him than with any other character of 
 history. While tarrying at Babylon, embas- 
 sies came from Libya and Carthage, and from 
 the Italian states of Lucania and Tuscanv ; 
 and it is alleged that envoys were received 
 from European Scythia as well as from Gaul 
 and Spain. 
 
 His first actual campaign was planned 
 against Africa, but before entering upon an 
 enterprise so vast and of such uncertain 
 duration, he ordered a magnificent sacrifice 
 to the gods and a feast to his army. The 
 day was one of the most famous in the history 
 of the great festivals of Babylon. The king 
 himself entered most heartily into the cere- 
 monies, participating with his ofiicers in the 
 banquet with which the pageant was con- 
 cluded. Whether the momentous event which 
 followed hard after the festivities was trace- 
 able to the excesses of which the king was 
 guilty, or whether his exposure in the marsh- 
 lands about Babylon had poisoned his system 
 Avith malaria, or whether his constitution was 
 broken by the hardships and fatigues of so 
 many campaigns, or whether all of these cir- 
 cumstances combined at this crisis to bring 
 the great Macedonian to his bed — is not cer- 
 tainly known. At any rate, on the day after 
 the festival he was seized with a violent fever. 
 For several days, however, he continued to 
 attend to his duties, bathing, offering sacrifi- 
 ces, and receiving embassies ; but on the eighth 
 day his condition became serious ; on the 
 ninth, critical; and on the tenth, his life was 
 despaired of. 
 
 As soon as the intelligence was carried to 
 the army, the soldiers Avere thrown into the 
 greatest agitation. They distrusted the com- 
 manders who A\'ere near the person of their 
 king, and broke out with violent threats un- 
 less they should at once be admitted to his 
 presence. Certain of their numijer were ac- 
 cordingly brought into the chamber where the 
 son of Philip Avas breathing his last. He ex- 
 changed a look of sympathy Avith his veterans, 
 and held out his hand, but was unable to 
 speak. He liA^ed till the folloAving morning 
 and expired in the midst of his generals. 
 
 Many stories were set afloat to account for
 
 MACEDONIA.— ALEXAXDEE THE GREAT. 
 
 663 
 
 his sudden death, one of which was that Aris- 
 totle had prepared for Antipater, the deposed 
 regent of Macedonia, a subtle poison, which 
 the latter forwarded to Babylon to be used 
 against the person of the king. But subsequent 
 investigations dispelled such rumors, and left it 
 clear that Alexander had died from natural 
 causes. The great event which left the em- 
 pire of Asia without a master occurred in 
 B. C. 323. 
 
 Alexander the Great, whose remarkable ca- 
 reer has been summarized in the preceding 
 pages was at the time of his death but thirty- 
 two years and eight months of age. In person 
 he was handsome and well-proportioned, though 
 not sufficiently tall to make his presence espe- 
 cially commanding. The discipline of his boy- 
 hood had been such as to give him symmetry 
 of body and soundness of constitution. Be- 
 ginning the military life before he reached his 
 majority, he became inured to every species 
 of hardship and exposure. It was, however, 
 in the quality of his mind that he surpassed 
 all the heroes of his times. His ambition was 
 as great as the arena, and the arena was the 
 world. His courage was equal to his ambi- 
 tion, and his genius to his courage. His sa- 
 gacity in the council was as great as his abili- 
 ties in the field ; and his skill in discerning the 
 motives of men, in exposing intrigue, and in 
 outwitting the craft of an enemy, was preem- 
 inent above all his contemporaries. Of his 
 vices the most conspicuous were the inordinate 
 passion of which he was sometimes guilty, 
 and the strong appetite which he too frequently 
 indulged. His chief follies were vanity and 
 superstition — the former manifested in the 
 pleasure which he evidently took in those who 
 praised him and his deeds, and the latter in 
 such supreme nonsense as claiming his pater- 
 nity from Jupiter. As in the case of other 
 conquerors, it has been the fate of the Mace- 
 donian to have his name used as a synonym 
 for cruelty, heartlessness, tyranny. The su- 
 perficial gaze of mankind has been fixed on 
 the turmoil and destruction of his great battles. 
 The bloody field strewn with the mangled 
 bodies of thousands has shut from sight the 
 
 better qualities of the man. In humanity and 
 magnanimity he was preeminent above all 
 the great men of his age. It may be said 
 that by him and his father a new code of war 
 was instituted among the nations — a code 
 which had a method in its cruelty, and which 
 had an end and aim beyond the mere fact of 
 spoliation and conquest. 
 
 The consequences of Alexander's career and 
 works were in the highest measui-e salutary. 
 Before his day Asia was effete. For centuries 
 the great consolidated despotisms of the East — 
 Assyria, Babylonia, Persia — had hung like a 
 pall on the spirit of man. Alexander dis- 
 pelled the cloud and liberated from bondage. 
 He drew across the fertile plains of Asia Minor 
 and Mesopotamia the tremendous plowshare of 
 reform. He stirred the nations to their pro- 
 foundest depths. He broke up and trampled 
 on the traditions and precedents of the Asi- 
 atics. He cleft the high walls which barba' 
 risra, owl-like, had reared between herself and 
 the light; and the light streamed through. 
 He came as a harbinger out of the young and 
 resolute West. He and his generals were 
 scholars and statesmen. They spoke Greek. 
 The beautiful speech of the Hellenes flowed 
 like quicksilver through the dirt and linguistic 
 debris of the East. It carried on its liquid 
 tide the most splendid literature of the ancient 
 world. Art grew like a hyacinth from the 
 mire of his battles. Letters flourished in his 
 capitals. The barbarians heard the sound 
 thereof and were glad. The date-palms of 
 the Euphrates quivered with the agitation of 
 a new life. Commerce put on new robes and 
 walked like a queen over the long-abandoned 
 quays of Babylon. In the course of his con- 
 quests, civilization gained a victory over dark- 
 ness, and the sky brightened from east to vest 
 over half the world. Though anarchy came 
 by his death, the results of his great activities 
 had taken so firm hold on the soil of Asia as 
 never to be uprooted. For men having once 
 arisen to a better estate and felt the blessing 
 of the sunlight do not willingly go back to 
 darkness, or lie again contented in the wallow 
 of barbarism.
 
 664 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Chapter lt.— Successors ok Alexander. 
 
 iHE death of Alexander 
 the Great left the world 
 without a master. Nor 
 had the work of organ- 
 izing and consolidating the 
 great empires, subdued by 
 his arms, proceeded suffi- 
 ciently far to give promise of successful com- 
 pletion. He left no successor who could right- 
 fully claim the scepter. The children born 
 of his Asiatic wives were not regarded as legit- 
 imate claimants of the throne. His oldest son, 
 born of Barcina, the widow of Memnon, was 
 but five years of age. It was not to be sup- 
 posed that the burdens and responsibilities of 
 a great military empire would be devolved 
 upon such a child, even under a regency. 
 Roxana, his Bactrian queen, had not yet be- 
 come a mother. Of all who might with some 
 show of reason lay claim to the succession, 
 Arrhidfeus, the half-brother of Alexander, son 
 of Philip and Philine, held the first place, and 
 to him the Greek and Macedonian leaders first 
 looked as to a possible successor. But Arrhi- 
 dseus had neither intellect nor ambition. His 
 education had not been directed to the conduct 
 of aflTairs, and his native force was so feeble 
 as to make him even an inefficient tool in the 
 hands of others. It was evident, therefore, 
 that the strong hand of military power must 
 be stretched out over the chaos occasioned by 
 the death of Alexander. 
 
 As soon as the son of Philip was no more, 
 eight of the leading generals of the army, to- 
 gethex' with Perdiccas, to whom Alexander had 
 given his ring and signet, assembled in Baby- 
 lon to consider the condition of the Empire 
 and to devise means for its government. These 
 eight commanders were Leonatus, Lysimachus, 
 Aristonous, Python, Seleucus, Eumenes, Me- 
 ieager, and Nearchus. Meanwhile the phalanx, 
 being Macedonian and more concerned in the 
 affairs of the home kingdom than in the man- 
 agement of the vast realms which they had 
 helped to conquer, had, out of deference to 
 
 the House of Philip, named Arrhidseus as 
 successor to Alexander. This action soon led 
 to a rupture between the infantry and cavalry 
 wings of the army. The latter desired some 
 able military chieftain, who could lead them 
 against an enemy and sustain their fame as 
 soldiers. The former, headed by the phalanx, 
 preferred a legitimate sovereign, under whom 
 Macedonia should still be and remain the cen- 
 ti'al fact in the Empire. The eight leaders 
 just referred to took sides with the cavalry, 
 and Perdiccas was forced, partly by expedi- 
 ency and partly by an attempt made upon his 
 life, to join his fortunes with the other gen- 
 erals. The cavalry, under such leadership, 
 assembled without the city, and threatened to 
 cut off" supplies and starve into compliance all 
 who opposed their views. 
 
 The great council assembled in the palace 
 of Babylon, After a variety of projects had 
 been discussed, it was proposed by Aristonous 
 that the general afl!airs of the Empire should 
 be intrusted to Perdiccas, with the title of 
 Regent. The measure was carried ; and he 
 on whom the dangerous honor was imposed 
 was thus set in direct antagonism with Arrhi- 
 dseus, who had received the suffi-ages of the 
 infantry, Meleager, the general of that wing 
 of the army, found himself in a serious pre- 
 dicament: he must break either with his sol- 
 diers or with the Regent, He sided with the 
 soldiers, and became their leader. This party 
 undertook to uphold Arrhidseus, and thus a 
 conflict was brought on which came near 
 ending in bloody work. The forces were al- 
 ready drawn out for battle, the phalanx on 
 one side and the cavalry on the other, when 
 the catastrophe was avoided by the mingled 
 fear and magnanimity of Arrhidseus himself. 
 When battle was about to begin he threw him- 
 self among the soldiers, and besought them to 
 refrain from such an act as would prove an 
 everlasting stain upon their reputation. He 
 publicly renounced all claim to the crown. 
 "If this diadem," said he, "can be possessed
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSOES OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 665 
 
 only by the wounds and death of Macedo- 
 nians, I will instantly divest myself of the 
 pernicious ornament. Take back the fatal 
 present. Give it to some one worthier than 
 I am, if he can preserve the splendid gift un- 
 stained by the blood of his countrymen." The 
 effect of this appeal was such that the phal- 
 anx receded from its attitude, and gave in its 
 allegiance to the regency under Perdiccas. 
 With him, however, in a short time Leonatus 
 was associated in the government, and soon 
 afterwards Meleager as a colleague. 
 
 Soon after the completion of these arrange- 
 ments Queen Roxana gave birth to a son. 
 The event was hailed as a glad omen, and the 
 child was honored with his father's name. It 
 was ordered that the infant should be nurtured 
 with the greatest care and treated as the heir 
 expectant of the Empire. The next thing de- 
 manding the attention of the leaders was the 
 division of the provinces. Ptolemy, son of 
 Lagus, chose for his portion the Nile valley, 
 and thus became the founder of the Grieco- 
 Egyptian dynasty. By this choice he was 
 removed somewhat from the broils into which 
 he foresaw that his colleagues would in all 
 likelihood be plunged. Antipater received 
 Macedonia, but with him was associated the 
 veteran Craterus, whom it will be remembered 
 Alexander had sent thither as regent. The 
 Thracian states fell to Lysimachus, and Cappa 
 docia to Eumenes. The Greater Phrygia was 
 assigned to Antigonus, and the Lesser to 
 Leonatus. The home provinces of Persia were 
 allotted to Pencestes, and the kingdom of Me- 
 dia to Python. Perdiccas received Babylonia 
 and retained as his lieutenants in the govern- 
 ment Aristonous and Seleucus. Thus was the 
 world parceled out among the generals of the 
 conqueror. 
 
 During all these important transactions the 
 body of the great dead lay unburied in Baby- 
 lon. He had given directions that he should 
 be interred in the oasis of Amun, near the 
 shrine of Zeus. At length Perdiccas under- 
 took to fulfill the injunction of his master. 
 The body was embalmed and preparations 
 made for a grand pageant to the distant place 
 of burial. Two years, however, elapsed before 
 the funeral was actually completed; and then 
 
 the plan was changed and Alexandria substi- 
 tuted for the Libyan oasis as the place of 
 sepulture. Nor could posterity complain that 
 the great city founded in his honor was se- 
 lected as the final resting-place of the son of 
 Philip rather than the green spot in the desert 
 which superstition more than rational prefer- 
 ence had suggested. 
 
 The first disturbance which demanded the 
 attention of the Regent Perdiccas was the 
 revolt of the mercenary Greeks. These troops 
 had been placed as garrisons and colonies in 
 the cities of northern and eastern Media, and 
 upon them was imposed the duty of maintain- 
 ing those borders of the Empire intact from 
 the encroachments of barbarians. As soon, 
 however, as it was known that the king was 
 dead, the Greeks, believing themselves now 
 free from restraint, revolted, and placing them- 
 selves under a commander of their own began 
 their march for Greece. Perdiccas at once 
 dispatched his lieutenant, Python, to suppress 
 the insurrection and turn back the insurgents 
 to the places from which they had issued. 
 This officer, however, proved treacherous and 
 formed a design of making Media indepen- 
 dent, but Perdiccas sent after him public 
 orders to kill all the Greeks and divide their 
 property among the Macedonian soldiers. The 
 nature of the orders being known in the army 
 Python durst not disobey, and the bloody 
 mandate was executed without mercy. 
 
 The next revolt was in the province of 
 Cappadocia. The people of this country, under 
 the lead of their native king, Ariathes, bade 
 defiance to the rule of the Macedonians, and 
 Perdiccas intrusted to Eumenes the task of 
 reducing them to obedience. The character 
 of these warlike barbarians was well known 
 to the Regent, and he accordingly ordered 
 Antigonus and Leonatus, governors of the two 
 Phrygias, to assist in the work of subjugation. 
 Both, however, refused to obey the order, and 
 Perdiccas himself was obliged to march to the 
 aid of his colleague. Notwithstanding the 
 valor of the Cappadocians, they were quickly 
 overthrown by the veteran Macedonian army, 
 and the authority of Eumenes reestablished 
 on a firm basis. 
 
 Soon afterwards an insurrection broke out
 
 666 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.-THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 •in Pisidia and Isauria. The former country was 
 -quickly overrun, the capital taken by assault, 
 :and the inhabitants put to the sword. The 
 
 mountaineers of Isauria, however, made a more 
 successful resistance. Being finally cooped up 
 in their principal town, they made a desperate
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 667 
 
 defense. When hope was lost they fired their 
 houses, burned their wives and children, drove 
 back the assailants from the ramparts, and 
 then, discovering the impossibility of escape, 
 turned about and perished in the flames. The 
 Macedonians succeeded in taking a town of 
 bones and ashes. 
 
 The epoch that followed the death of Al- 
 exander is mostly filled with events growing 
 out of the quarrels and jealousies of those into 
 whose hands the Empire had fallen. It was 
 not long until Ptolemy formed a scheme to 
 marry the daughter of Antipater. This action 
 of course contemplated the ultimate union of 
 Macedonia and Egypt. Perdiccas, whose craft 
 in the cabinet was by no means equal to his 
 generalship in the field, having heard of the 
 project of Ptolemy, claimed Antipater's daugh- 
 ter's daughter for himself; but he was soon 
 reminded that not even this politic marriage 
 was as advantageous as another which was 
 possible. For there Avas Cleopatra, the sister 
 of Alexander, whom he might solicit, and thus 
 unite himself directly with the House of 
 Philip. So the marriage to the daughter of 
 Antipater was annulled in favor of that with 
 the princess. But meanwhile the friends of 
 Arrhidpeus,who was still nominally the successor 
 to Alexander, urged him to seek an alliance 
 with Eurydice, also of the royal blood. This 
 princess, however, was presently put to death, 
 as was believed, by the influence of Perdiccas. 
 This event raised such a mutiny that the Re- 
 gent was glad to recede from his position and 
 begin a policy of conciliation towards his 
 rivals. 
 
 As soon as afl^airs were again quieted Per- 
 diccas summoned Antigonus to repair to Bab- 
 ylon and defend himself against the charge 
 of insubordination in refusing to aid Eumenes 
 in the Cappadocian war. But the general 
 refused to obey the summons. In this course 
 he was encouraged by Antipater and Craterus 
 in Macedonia and Ptolemy in Egypt. These 
 rulers, alarmed at the assumptions Ci the Re- 
 gent, who now blinked not at all his claim to 
 authority over all the dominions of Alexander, 
 made a league against him, and took up arms 
 to maintain it. In the matter of war, how- 
 ever, Perdiccas was perfectly at home. He at 
 >4._Vol. I— a-i 
 
 once planned an invasion of Egypt, and has- 
 tened as a measure of preparatory revenge to 
 strip Antigonus of his government, conferring 
 the same on Eumenes. Nor were Antipater 
 and Craterus behindhand in preparations. By 
 the time that the Regent was ready to begin 
 his descent on Egypt they were on the march 
 into Asia. The defense of the country against 
 them was intrusted to Eumenes. With an 
 army of about twenty thousand men he met 
 the invaders near the plain of ancient Troy. 
 One of his oflficers, named Neoptolemus, de- 
 serted and went over to Craterus; and by his 
 counsel that able veteran was put off" his guard, 
 considering the forces led by Eumenes no more 
 than a medley of barbarians. The battle soon 
 showed the mistake. Eumenes was completely 
 victorious. Craterus and Neoptolemus were 
 both slain, and even the phalanx was driven 
 to the mountains. 
 
 In the mean time Perdiccas was making his 
 way towards Egypt. Once on the confines of 
 that country, he summoned Ptolemy to come 
 into his presence and answer a long list of 
 charges. This the Egyptian governor did in 
 a manner to exculpate himself; but the baf 
 fled Regent at last found a pretext in this — 
 that Ptolemy had assumed to arrest the funeral 
 cortege of Alexander, and to bury the body 
 of that hero in an Egyptian city instead of in 
 the oasis of Amuu. So the invasion was 
 continued to Pelusium. Ptolemy proved him- 
 self equal to the emergency. He planned a 
 series of fortifications which the assailants were 
 unable to carry. A part of the forces of Per- 
 diccas were drowned in attempting to cross the 
 Nile, and his army, being divided by that 
 stream, was attacked in detail and utterly 
 routed. The Regent, availing himself of the 
 protection of the survivors, was glad to with- 
 draw from the country. Soon afterwards, 
 B. C. 321, when he was preparing to renew 
 the contest with Ptolemy, he was assassinated 
 in his tent by Python, that disloyal general 
 whom he had previously sent against the re- 
 volted Greeks in the Median cities. 
 
 Two years before this event a league had 
 been formed in Greece for the overthrow of 
 Macedonian authority. As usual, Athens 
 headed the cOnfederacv. The command was
 
 668 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 intrusted to Leosthenes, who advanced at the 
 head of about twenty thousand men and took 
 possession of the pass of Thermopylae. From 
 this stronghold Antipater was unable to dis- 
 lodge him, and was himself so much worsted 
 in the battle that he fell back and defended 
 himself in the town of Lamia, near the Ma- 
 lian gulf. 
 
 Word was now sent to Asia Minor asking 
 Leonatus, the governor of Phyrgia, for reen- 
 forcements. The latter made a rapid march 
 into Macedonia, and Leosthenes meanwhile, in 
 the attempt to prevent a junction of his ene- 
 mies, made several unsuccessful assaults on 
 liamia, in one of which he was killed. His 
 successor, Antiphilus, hearing of the approach 
 of Leonatus, went forth to meet him on the 
 northern confines of Thessaly. Here a bloody 
 battle was fought, in which victory remained 
 with the Greeks. Leonatus was slain and the 
 larger part of his army sought refuge in the 
 mountains. But Antipater soon succeeded in 
 rallying his forces and gained a complete vic- 
 tory over Antiphilus. The Greeks sued for 
 peace, but the Macedonian would not treat 
 with them except as separate states. This put 
 Athens at his mercy. He dictated to the 
 Athenians a change of government and com- 
 pelled them to surrender Hyperides and De- 
 mosthenes, the two principal orators of the 
 democracy. The former, however, made good 
 his escape from the city, and the latter, rather 
 than fall into the hands of his enemies, ended 
 his life by poison. The Athenians perceived 
 that the magnanimity of Philip and Alexan- 
 der was no longer to be expected from the 
 court of Macedon. 
 
 After the overthrow of Perdiccas at Pelu- 
 sium, it was within the power of Ptolemy to 
 seize the regency for himself. Instead, how- 
 ever, of taking this ambitious course, he con- 
 tented himself with nominating for that im- 
 portant office his friend Arrhidseus, one of the 
 conqueror's generals not hitherto conspicuous. 
 He it was who, conducting the funeral pageant 
 of Alexander, by way of Egypt to the African 
 oasis, had been persuaded by Ptolemy to erect 
 the royal tomb in Alexandria instead of the 
 desert. 
 
 After the overthrow and death of Craterus. 
 
 at the hands of Eumenes, the passions of the 
 Egyptian army were greatly inflamed. They 
 heard of the destruction of their old general 
 with mortification and rage. This was di- 
 rected first of all against Perdiccas as the cause 
 of the unseemly broil between friends. After 
 the death of the Regent they looked to Eu- 
 menes as the responsible representative of the 
 mischief, and so they resolved to exterminate 
 him and all his confederates. Fifty of the 
 leading adherents of the late Perdiccas, includ- 
 ing his brother Alcetas, were proscribed, and 
 the army at once set out through Syria to en- 
 force the edict. At Triparadus, however, they 
 were met by Eurydice, the wife of Arrhidseus, 
 and by her persuaded to abandon the enter- 
 prise. Her influence became, for the hour, 
 well-nigh omnipotent, and Avhen Antipater, 
 who had been sent for, arrived at the scene, 
 he was amazed to find that not even his pres- 
 ence was sufficient to break the spell with 
 which the queen had bound the soldiery. At- 
 tempting to bring his old soldiers to their 
 senses, they turned upon him and would have 
 put him to death, but for the timely interfer- 
 ence of Sciences and Antigonus. Presently, 
 however, a reaction set in, such as could hardly 
 be looked for except in a mutinous army, and 
 the veterans made haste to proclaim Antipater 
 regent! Accepting the trust at their hands, 
 he returned to Macedonia, in B. C. 322, and 
 assumed the duties of directing the affau'S of 
 the dissolving Empire. 
 
 Several changes had now become necessary 
 in the provincial governments. Eumenes was 
 declared an outlaw, and his satrapy of Cap- 
 padocia conferred on Nicanor. Clytus was 
 appointed to the governorship of Lydia, and 
 Cilicia was conferred on Philoxenes. As yet, 
 however, all of these provinces lying within 
 the dominions of Eumenes, were under his 
 authority, and must be taken from him by 
 force of arms before these new governors 
 could gain possession of their respective terri- 
 tories. The regent Arrhidseus was now con- 
 fined in his authority to Hellespontine Phrygia. 
 Last and greatest of the provinces was Baby- 
 lonia, which was awarded to the young and 
 ambitious Sciences. 
 
 These arrangements having been completed,
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 669 
 
 Antipater undertook the subjugation of Eu- 
 menes. With him Antigonus joined his forces, 
 and the campaign against Cappadocia was 
 pressed with vigor, Nora, the strongest fort- 
 ress in that country, was besieged, and Eu- 
 menes was hard pressed to hold out against 
 his assailants. While the blockade was still 
 in force, the unscrupulous Antigonus made 
 overtures to Eumenes, and tried to induce 
 him to enter into a league against Antipater; 
 but Eumenes replied that he would enter into 
 no alliance with any except a representative 
 of the House of Alexander. He then returned 
 into the fortress, and the siege was resumed. 
 
 Before the place could be taken Antipater 
 died, and Polysperchon was appointed to suc- 
 ceed him in the regency. In the mean time, 
 the son of Roxana was associated with Arrhi- 
 dseus, and both were put in charge of the 
 new Regent. It soon became apparent that 
 Antigonus had expected the general manage- 
 ment of affairs to devolve on himself, and 
 finding another preferred before him, he be- 
 gan to take counsel how he might obtain by 
 force or intrigue that which was denied him 
 by the free-will of others. He accordingly en- 
 tered into a conspiracy with Cassander, the 
 son of Antipater. This ambitious soldier had 
 succeeded in gaining the affections of Eu- 
 rydice, and hoped to gain not only her, but 
 with her the shadowy Empire, the crown of 
 which was worn by her half-imbecile husband. 
 
 For this piece of political gallantry Cassan- 
 der was disinherited by his father. The young 
 man had fled to Antigonus, and now became 
 his natural ally. Hereupon Antigonus took 
 the field and attempted to win by open force, 
 while Cassander, remaining in the shadow, 
 continued to operate by subtlety. Ephesus 
 was presently seized, and some ship-loads of 
 money, amounting to six hundred talents, des- 
 tined to meet the expenses of the Imperial 
 government of the East, were captured by 
 Antigonus. Eumenes was again tempted to 
 join him in an alliance against Polysperchon, 
 but could not be seduced from his loyalty. 
 
 The faithful satrap presently thereafter suc- 
 ceeded in making his escape from Nora, and 
 thus brought the siege to naught. He soon 
 afterwards entered into an open alliance with 
 
 Polysperchon, who conferred upon him the 
 supreme command of all of the Asiatic armies 
 of the Empire. Another measure of the Re- 
 gent was his edict reestablishing democracy in 
 all the states of Greece. It was thought by 
 this means that the allegiance of the Hellenic 
 commonwealths would remain unshaken, not- 
 Avithstanding the temptations to which they 
 were subjected by Antigonus. The event, 
 however, was the introduction of a reign of 
 confusion such as not even the turbulent 
 Greeks could well endure* For a while the 
 popular distraction knew no bounds. The 
 worst elements of society became suddenly 
 predominant. At Athens the aged Phocion, 
 Avho had been forty-five times elected general 
 by the assembly, and was now eighty-five 
 years old, was condemned by the rabble to 
 drink the hemlock. During the year 318 
 B. C. a desultory warfare was cari'ied on be- 
 tween Cassander and Polysperchon. A naval 
 battle was fought in the Bosphorus, in which 
 Nicanor, the admiral of Antigonus, was de- 
 feated with a loss of one-half of his ships; 
 but that satrap a few days afterward made a 
 sudden descent upon the victors while en- 
 camped on the coast of Thrace, and in the 
 battle of Byzantium inflicted on them a bloody 
 defeat. Athens thereupon surrendered to Cas- 
 sander, and the government was conferred on 
 Demetrius Phalereus. 
 
 Meanwhile Polysperchon, as a means of 
 strengthening his government, had brought 
 home to Pella, Olympias, the mother of Alex- 
 ander. That ambitious and passionate woman 
 became a powerful influence in the affairs of 
 state. Her favorite scheme was to secure the 
 united dominions of the conqueror for her 
 grandson Alexander, sou of Roxana. The 
 ascendency of Eurydice over the supporters of 
 her husband, Arrhidseus, was equally marked. 
 It thus happened that the Macedonian world 
 was torn almost as much by the rivalries of 
 two women as by the arms of Cassander and 
 the Regent. The struggle, however, was brief 
 as it was fierce. Olympias, having gained 
 over the soldiery to her cause, compelled Eu- 
 rydice and her husband, the king, to fly for 
 their lives. Having soon afterwards obtained 
 possession of their persons, she caused them
 
 670 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 both to be assassinated. Thus, after a nom- 
 inal reign of six years, was extinguished the 
 spectral successor of Alexander the Great. 
 
 Cassander was greatly enraged at this atroc- 
 ity and hastened into Macedonia to avenge the 
 death of Eurydice. On his approach the aged 
 Olympias took counsel of discretion and es- 
 caped from the city. With her grandson, 
 Alexander ^gus, and his mother Roxana, she 
 shut herself up in the strong fortress of Pydna, 
 and was there besieged by Cassander. At the 
 last, famine effected what arms had failed to 
 accomplish, and the relentless old queen sur- 
 rendered herself to her enemies. She was sub- 
 jected to the form of a trial and put to death. 
 While these events were happening in Eu- 
 rope the struggle continued between Eumenes 
 and Antigouus in Asia. The former, in addi- 
 tion to the conflict with his enemies in the 
 field, was troubled not a little in his civil 
 councils. The Macedonians, upon whom he 
 was compelled to rely for support, looked upo^i 
 him with disfavor, for he was a man of obscure 
 birth and foreign parentage. Meanwhile An- 
 tigonus, after his victory in the battle of 
 Byzantium, began a pursuit of Eumenes, who 
 was then with his army in Phoenicia. 
 
 The latter, unable to meet his foe in the 
 field, began retreating toward the east. He 
 called upon Seleucus, the Babylonian satrap, 
 to aid him with men and supplies; but that 
 prince, instead of complying, opened the sluices 
 of the Tigris and came near destroying Eu- 
 menes and his whole army. They escaped 
 from their peril, however, and made their way 
 as far east as the borders of Persia. Here, in 
 B. C. 316, they were overtaken by Antigonus, 
 and a battle was fought, with indecisive results. 
 In a second conflict, however, Eumenes was 
 defeated and taken prisoner. He was carried 
 through the Macedonian camp and begged the 
 soldiers to kill him, but they would not. But 
 soon afterwards he was secretly put to death 
 in prison. For twenty years he had fought 
 for the House of Philip ; and after every other 
 general of note had abandoned the cause of 
 Alexander and begun to contrive for himself, 
 he still continued to strive for the maintenance 
 of IMacedonian supremacy. Among the many 
 who had given free rein to selfishness and 
 
 treachery, Eumenes alone kept his honor 
 bright and went down to the grave without a 
 stain on his escutcheon. 
 
 Antigonus, having thus triumphed over all 
 opposition, assumed the regency. Polysper- 
 chon retired into Peloponnesus. Olympias 
 was dead. The young Alexander JEgus was 
 thus left naked to his enemies. Antigonus 
 gathered his forces and made a campaign 
 into Media. Having observed that of late the 
 veteran cohort known as the Argraspides, or 
 Silver-shields, had had too much to do in 
 settling difiiculties appertaining to the govern- 
 ment, he dispatched them on arduous expedi- 
 tions to the frontier provinces for the purpose 
 of wearing them out Avith privations and 
 fatigue. A second measure was to get rid of 
 Python. That turbulent spirit was invited to 
 join Antigonus with the promise of preferment, 
 but was presently seized and put to death. 
 Then followed the overthrow of Peucestes, 
 satrap of Persia. Being jealous of this officer, 
 Antigonus followed him to his capital, Pasar- 
 gadse, and having driven him from authority 
 appointed one of his own tools as his successor. 
 The next object of the Regent's dislike was 
 Seleucus, governor of Babylonia. Dissem- 
 bling his purpose, he marched to the capital 
 and was royally entertained by Seleucus ; but 
 the latter, perceiving that he was destined to 
 fall by the same hand that had destroyed 
 Python and Peucestes, made his escape from 
 Babylon and fled to Egypt. He was cor- 
 dially received by Ptolemy, and the two im- 
 mediately sent proposals to Cassander and 
 Lysimachus to enter into a league against the 
 ambitious Antigonus. They were joined by 
 Asander, satrap of Caria, and the confederates 
 then made their demands of the Regent. 
 But he rejected the overtures with disdain. 
 Both parties made preparations for war, and 
 in B. C. 315 hostilities began. The struggle 
 continued for a period of twelve years, and 
 involved all the leading populations from the 
 Adriatic to the Indus. 
 
 In the beginning of the contest Antigonus 
 invaded Caria, and Asander, the governor, 
 was overthrown. The Regent next succeeded 
 in securing the favor of a strong party in 
 Peloponnesus, where Polysperchon still main-
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 671 
 
 tained a shadowy authority. Having thus 
 gained a foothold, Antigonus made war on 
 Cassander and stripped him of all his Grecian 
 dependencies. He next turned his arms 
 against Lysimachus, governor of Thrace, and 
 him also he overthrew and drove from his 
 dominions. Syria was next conquered, chiefly 
 through the warlike abilities of Demetrius, 
 the son of the Regent. The government of 
 Ptolemy still remained intact. 
 
 At this juncture the confederates made 
 known their desire for peace; but the ambi- 
 tion of Antigonus had grown with what it 
 fed on, and he Avould listen to nothing. 
 Ptolemy thereupon took up arms and went 
 forth with a large army to Gaza. Here a 
 decisive battle was fought, in which the 
 Egyptian was completely victorious. The 
 fortunes of Antigonus were so badly shat- 
 tered that Seleucus was enabled to return to 
 Babylon and resume the duties of his satrapy. 
 The Syrian cities opened their gates to Ptol- 
 emy, who intrusted the defense of the con- 
 quered countries to Cilles and returned to 
 Alexandria. His lieutenant, however, was 
 soon defeated in two battles by Demetrius, 
 and all that Egypt had gained was as sud- 
 denly lost. Ptolemy was obliged to give up 
 Syria to the foe.* 
 
 After his return to Babylon, Seleucus was 
 obliged to defend himself against the satraps 
 of Media and Persia. It will be remembered 
 that these officers had been elevated to power 
 by Antigonus, and their continuance in au- 
 thority now depended upon their supporting 
 his cause. But Seleucus, collecting his forces, 
 went forth against them and they were over- 
 whelmingly defeated. Evagoras, the Persian 
 governor, was left dead on the field, and Ni- 
 canor of Media was obliged to save himself by 
 flight. This victory, B. C. 312, was decisive in 
 one part of the struggle. Seleucus was firmly 
 seated. A Greek kingdom in the East was 
 thus established, with its capital at Babylon, 
 The great dynasty of the Seleucid^e was 
 founded on the Euphrates, under whose be- 
 
 'It was in the withdrawal of Ptolemy from 
 Syria that he was accompanied to Alexandria by 
 the Jews, who thenceforth constituted so impor- 
 tant an element of population in that city. 
 
 neficent government the eastern part of the 
 dominions conquered by Alexander were des- 
 tined for a long time to enjoy a measure 
 of peace and prosperity. 
 
 The sudden success achieved by Seleucus 
 induced Antigonus to listen to proposals for 
 a general settlement. An important confer- 
 ence was accordingly held between himself 
 and the confederate leaders, and conditions 
 of peace were agreed upon. It was decided 
 that Egypt should be given to Ptolemy and 
 his successors. Thrace went to Lysimachus; 
 and Macedonia, not including Greece, was 
 awarded to Cassander until such time as 
 Alexander ^gus, the son of the conqueror, 
 should arrive at his majority. Antigonus re- 
 served Asia for himself, thus refusing to 
 recognize the government of Seleucus at 
 Babylon. Thus by the successors of Philip's 
 son was the world again parceled out into 
 kingdoms. 
 
 Scarcely had this settlement been effected 
 when Cassander opened the ball by the mur- 
 der of the young Alexander and his mother, 
 Roxana. Then followed soon afterwards the, 
 destruction of Hercules, another son of the 
 conqueror, and Barcina, his mother. Thus 
 at last was the deck cleared of the legitimate 
 claimants to the crown of the Macedonian 
 Empire. The bloody conspirators now had 
 the game to themselves. 
 
 In a short time, Ptolemy, in disregard of 
 the terms of the treaty, made a campaign into- 
 Syria and retook certain cities belonging to 
 Antigonus. He then opened a correspondence 
 with Cleopatra, sister of Alexander the Great> 
 with a view to marriage ; but Antigonus, 
 having discovered what was going on, sent a 
 dispatch to the satrap of Sardis, Avhere Cleo- 
 patra resided, and had the princess assassinated. 
 
 Soon after this event Demetrius raised a 
 large force and invaded Greece. By the 
 terms of the treaty the Grecian states were to 
 remain independent ; but Cassander had at 
 once seized them as a part of the spoils belong- 
 ing to him. With an armament of two hun- 
 dred and fifty galleys, and five thousand 
 talents in money, Demetrius now proceeded 
 to enforce the settlement. The Athenians 
 went wild over this ghastly restoration of
 
 672 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 PTOLEMY SOTER. 
 
 their liberties. As soon as quiet was restored, 
 Demetrius proceeded to Cyprus, which was 
 now occupied by the forces and partisans of 
 Ptolemy, and laid siege to Salamis, the capital 
 of the island. The Egyptian ruler came out 
 with a large squadron to the relief of the city ; 
 but in a severe naval 
 battle he was so com- 
 pletely defeated that he 
 could offer no further 
 resistance to the prog- 
 ress of his enemy. 
 Salamis and the other 
 towns of the island sur- 
 rendered, and were 
 transferred to Antigonus, in whose name De- 
 metrius made the conquest. 
 
 The blow inflicted on Ptolemy in his un- 
 fortunate sea-fight suggested to Antigonus the 
 invasion of Egypt. With a powerful army 
 of ninety thousand men and eighty elephants 
 he marched through Syria to the coast, and 
 then embarked for the mouth of the Nile. A 
 storm, however, shattered the squadron, and 
 on arriving in Egypt he found a united people 
 and a country rendered almost impregnable 
 by the skill and energy of his adversary. 
 Such was the aspect of affairs that he was 
 ■obliged to adopt the humiliating expedient of 
 retreating without striking a blow. In order, 
 Lowever, to redeem his reputation, he directed 
 his flotilla to the island of Rhodes, and under- 
 took the subjugation of the capital city. For 
 more than a year Demetrius beat about the 
 xamparts with every species of enginery 
 known to the military skill of the times ; but 
 the Rhodians, assisted by Ptolemy, held out 
 against him, until at last he was obliged (B. C. 
 505) to abandon the siege and grant to 
 Hhodes her independence.' 
 
 Notwithstanding these reverses to his arms, 
 Antigonus still indulged the ambitious project 
 of regaining all the dominions of the Empire. 
 He looked to the subjugation of Egypt, Mace- 
 donia, and the East. So aggressive were his 
 
 ' It was in commeraoration of the aid given to 
 ihe Rhodians by Ptolemy in this memorable siege 
 that they conferred on him the title of Soter, or 
 Savior — a title more generous than just ; for it was 
 to their own heroism that they owed their deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 movements that the former league of Seleucua, 
 Ptolemy, and Lysimachus against him was re- 
 newed, and both parties prepared for war. 
 Seleucus entered Cappadocia with twenty 
 thousand men, and the leaders came from the 
 West to join his forces. It was now B. C. 
 301, and another crisis had arrived in the his- 
 tory of the nations subdued by Alexander. 
 Antigonus and Demetrius, at the head of 
 their army, met the allies at the little village 
 of Ipsus, and here the decisive battle was 
 fought. Antigonus was slain. His army was 
 routed ; and Demetrius barely escaped with 
 eight thousand men. A new division of ter- 
 ritory followed ; Ccele-Syria and Palestine fell 
 to Ptolemy ; the larger part of Asia Minor to 
 Lysimachus: Antioch became the capital. 
 
 In this strait of his aflTairs, Demetrius was 
 suddenly relieved by fortune. Seleucus, now 
 jealous of the growing power of Lysimachus, 
 came to the rescue and formed an alliance 
 with Demetrius by marrying his daughter 
 Stratonice. The father, whose political estate 
 was thus unexpectedly improved, at once re- 
 sumed the aggressive, retook Cilicia from 
 Lysimachus, and, in B. C. 295, made a suc- 
 cessful invasion of Greece. In the next year 
 he was declared king of Macedon, an incen- 
 tive thereto being his marriage with Phila, 
 the daughter of Antipater. 
 
 As soon as he was weU seated in authority 
 Demetrius re- 
 those vis- 
 schemes 
 which his father 
 had entertained 
 even to the day 
 of his death. The 
 son was equally 
 ambitious, and 
 Avould fain make 
 good his claims 
 to universal do- 
 minion. He ac- 
 cordingly organ- 
 ized a powerful 
 
 army with a view to entering upon a 
 career of conquest. At the outset he 
 was opposed by Lysimachus and Ptolemy. 
 While his attention was directed to these 
 
 newed 
 ionary 
 
 DEMETRIUS POUORCETES. 
 
 Museo Visconti.
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 673 
 
 formidable antagonists, a foe still more to be 
 dreaded appeared in Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. 
 With him he went to war, but on approaching 
 the borders of his adversary large bodies of 
 the troops of Demetrius went over to the 
 enemy, and he was obliged not only to aban- 
 don the campaign, but also to leave his own 
 kingdom to the combined ravages of Pyrrhus 
 and Lysimachus. The Macedonian, however, 
 continued the war in Asia Minor, until he wns 
 
 brilliant son Agathocles — an event which 
 made the king an object of execration in all 
 the West. His punishment was left to Seleu- 
 cus, who, in B. C. 281, marched into Asia 
 Minor, met Lysimachus on the field of CoRU- 
 PEDiON and slew him in battle. Before leav- 
 ing his capital, however, the now aged Seleu- 
 cus had virtually abdicated the government 
 in favor of his son, Antiochus, in whose 
 hands he placed his young wife Stratonice. 
 
 PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS DISCUSSING WITH THE ARCHITECTS THE PLANS FOR THE 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 betrayed by his son-in-law, Seleucus, surren- 
 dered to his enemy, cast into prison, and 
 brought to his death. 
 
 In the mean time Ptolemy Soter was suc- 
 ceeded in Egypt by his son, Ptolemy Phila- 
 delphus — presumably so called because he did 
 .rwt love his brother ; for Ptolemy Ceraunus, 
 the oldest son of Soter, was displaced by that 
 ruler in favor of the younger, who became 
 his successor. Arsinoe, the sister of Philadel- 
 phus, was married to Lysimachus, and him 
 she is said to have instigated to murder his 
 
 In these acts the venerable monarch was 
 largely influenced by a desire which had pos- 
 sessed him to revisit his native Macedonia. 
 As soon as the battle of Corupedion had been 
 decided in his favor, he continued his course 
 to the West, and was presently rewarded 
 with a sight of his native hills, which he had 
 not beheld for ffty-two years. Soon after- 
 wards, while with an old man's curiosity he 
 was examining an ancient altar, Ptolemy 
 Ceraunus, who had accompanied him on his 
 return into Macedonia, stole behind and
 
 674 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 stabbed him to death. The murderer at 
 once repaired to Lysimachia, and announcing 
 himself as the avenger of their late king's 
 death, seized the throne and held it for the 
 space of three years. 
 
 From all this blood and violence it is a 
 grateful relief to turn to the court of Phila- 
 delphus. To him it is fair to accord the 
 praise of being the most enlightened sovereign 
 
 discussions, and with a discernment that 
 would have done credit to Francis Bacon 
 sought to draw them away from the region 
 of inane speculation and to limit their re- 
 searches to the things beneficial to men. The 
 great Pharos which had been begun by Ptol- 
 emy I. was completed in B. C. 280, and the 
 glare of its flaming torch was flung for more 
 than forty miles across the Mediterranean. 
 
 HALL IN THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. 
 
 of his times. He made Egypt more glorious 
 than she had been since the days of the great 
 Pharaohs of antiquity. Alexandria became 
 under his munificent patronage the most 
 splendid seat of learning in the world. ]Men 
 cf letters fro-i all quarters of the world came 
 hit>er as tc an asylum. He founded the 
 Alexi^ndrian library, and invited to his court 
 the most distinguished scientists, poets, and 
 philosophers. He participated in their learned 
 
 Thus, in the city named after the conqueror 
 of Asia, the light and learning of Asia was 
 mingled with the enterprise of the West. 
 
 With the death of the aged Seleucus per- 
 ished the last of those remarkable military 
 chieftains who had followed the fortunes of 
 Alexander the Great. The personal strug- 
 gles of those who had heard the voice of that 
 mighty hero in battle ended with the battle 
 of Corupedion. Antiochus wns I>'' with the
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 675 
 
 Greek kingdom of Syria. Ptolemy Philadel- 
 phus reigned in Egypt; Ceraunus in Mace- 
 donia. By him the sons of Lysimachus were 
 murdered, Arsinoe driven into Egypt, and 
 Antigonus, son of Demetrius, excluded from 
 the throne. 
 
 But the blind Nemesis, ever on the trail 
 of the butcher, soon 
 sent her avenging 
 ministers to balance 
 the disturbed scales 
 of justice. The Gauls 
 came. Having ac- [^B 
 quired rather than 
 appeased an appetite 
 for plunder during 
 their recent invasion 
 of Italy, they now 
 poured into Thrace 
 and Macedonia. 
 Without proper prep- 
 aration or due cau- 
 tion in the presence 
 of such a foe, Cer- 
 aunus went forth and 
 gave them battle. 
 The result was that 
 his army was cut to 
 pieces by the barba- 
 rians and himself 
 slain in the fight. 
 The invaders then 
 made their way into 
 Asia Minor, selected 
 their province, con- 
 quered it, and gave 
 it the name of 
 Galatia. 
 
 After a long struof- 
 gle with King Pyr- 
 rhus and the Gauls, 
 Antigonus, the son of 
 
 Demetrius, at length secured the throne of 
 Macedonia and took the title of Antigonus II. 
 In a reign of twenty-seven years (B. C. 269- 
 242) he embroiled himself but little with the 
 afiairs of surrounding kingdoms. In an at- 
 tempt, however, which he made upon the lib- 
 erties of the Greek states, he stirred up so 
 much resentment that, under the lead of the 
 
 Achaians an alliance, known as the Ach^an 
 League — hereafter to act a conspicuous part 
 in the concluding drama of Grecian history — 
 was formed against him and his schemes. In 
 B. C. 242 he died at the advanced age of 
 eighty, and left his crown to his son Deme- 
 trius II., whose reign of ten years was not 
 
 PHAROS OF ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 marked by any notable events. His ambi- 
 tions — such as they were — were successfully 
 resisted by the League, and his petty wars 
 with the -^tolians, Illyrians, and Thracians 
 had no important results. At his death the 
 crown descended to his son Philip, then but 
 three years of age, who was placed under the 
 regency of his uncle, Antigonus Doson.
 
 676 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 Meanwhile, in B. C. 222, Cleomenes, the 
 young ' ' king " of Sparta — for that unchange- 
 able commonwealth still clung to its tradi- 
 tional names— not liking the growing ascend- 
 ency of the League, made war on the 
 confederated states, and the latter called on 
 Antigonus Doson to aid them in resisting the 
 Lacedaemonian aspirant. The two armies 
 which were brought into the field by the re- 
 spective parties met on the field of Sellasia, 
 and Cleomenes was overthrown and driven 
 into Egypt. That country, in the mean time, 
 had passed from the hands of the great Phil- 
 adelphus to his son Ptolemy Euergetes, from 
 whom the Spartan refugee now sought pro- 
 tection and vindication. 
 
 For fourteen years Antigonus Doson re- 
 mained as regent of Macedonia, and was then, 
 at death, succeeded in authority by his ward 
 Philip, who was destined in a short time to 
 be embroiled with the Romans, and to 
 become one of the actors in the complicated 
 drama in which the new Republic of the West 
 stretched out her scepter over all of the con- 
 tending parties. 
 
 Soon after the accession of Philip to power 
 the Achaean League made a rash invasion of 
 ^tolia and were repulsed with great loss. 
 The ^tolians pressed home their advantage, 
 ind the Achseaus applied to Philip for aid. 
 Che monarch repaired into Greece, and under- 
 took to settle all difficulties by conciliatory 
 ttieasures proposed in a general conference of 
 the states. But the business resulted in noth- 
 ing, and that conflict ensued known as the 
 Second Social War. In this contest Philip 
 took the side of the League, and for four 
 years (B. C. 222-218) upheld the cause 
 against the ^tolians and their allies. At the 
 end of this time the Nemsean festival was 
 celebrated, and while the festivities were on, 
 the news came of Hannibal's great victory 
 over the Romans on the field of Thrasimenus. 
 The effect of one violence was to counter- 
 act another. The Greek states were led 
 to consider the tremendous political powers 
 which had been developed in the West, and 
 how they themselves were thereby imminently 
 exposed to conquest. This reflection led to a 
 settlement. Even the ^tolians were able to 
 
 see that, unless all Greece should be united, she 
 would in the near future fall an easy prey to 
 one or other of the powers of the West. 
 
 Turning to the East, and resuming the 
 history of the Greek kingdom of Syria we find 
 on the throne as successor to Seleucus his son, 
 Antiochus Soter — a title conferred on account 
 of his victorious defense of the country against 
 the Gauls. He came to the throne in B. C. 
 280, and had a disturbed reign of eighteen 
 years. His first military operation was a cam- 
 paign against Bithynia, which for some time 
 had been in a state of insurrection. The ex- 
 pedition was intrusted by the king to his gen- 
 eral, Patroclus ; but the Bithynians soon com- 
 pelled him to withdraw in disgrace. Nor was 
 the campaign which was undertaken in B. C. 
 280 against the kingdom of Pergamus more 
 successful. A few years later Antiochus was 
 induced to engage in a broil which proved to 
 be still more unfortunate to himself and king- 
 dom. A certain Magas, who had been ap- 
 pointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, as governor 
 of Cyrene, raised the standard of revolt and 
 induced Antiochus, who was his father-in-law, 
 to espouse his cause. This injudicious action 
 cost the king of Syria dearly. The powerful 
 fleet of Ptolemy struck right and left at the 
 Syrian dependencies, and while Magas gained 
 nothing but defeat, his father-in-law was, in 
 the course of a four years' war, mulcted of 
 the fine provinces of Lycia, Pamphylia, Caria, 
 and Cilicia. 
 
 Soon afterwards, in B. C. 262, the barba- 
 rous Gauls, who were now firmly established 
 in Asia Minor, and had 
 received vast accessions 
 from their countrymen in 
 Europe, made such havoc 
 by their ravages that An- 
 tiochus resolved on their 
 extermination. With a 
 large army, he met and 
 assaulted the barbarians 
 before the walls of Ephesus. The conflict was 
 one of the most bloody and desperate of the 
 century ; and such were the valor and deter- 
 mination of the Gauls that the Syrian army 
 was entirely routed and Antiochus killed. 
 The title of Soter, which he had borne for 
 
 ANTIOCHUS I.— Berlin.
 
 MACEDONIA.— SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 677 
 
 eighteen years as a successful defender of his 
 country against these identical marauders, was 
 suddenly annulled by them, and converted into 
 a theme of ridicule. 
 
 The late king of Syria was succeeded in 
 B. C. 261 by his son, Antiochus Theos. This 
 young prince, on hearing of his father's de- 
 feat at Ephesus, hastened thither with a new 
 army to mend, if possible, the fortunes of the 
 kingdom. But after a desultory war of sev- 
 eral years' duration, he was obliged to retire 
 before the invincible barbarians, and leave 
 them in peaceable possession of their province. 
 In a struggle, however, with a chieftain who 
 had seized the governorship of Caria, Anti- 
 ochus was crowned with success; and it was 
 for this pitiful victory that the base fools who 
 thronged his court conferred on him the title 
 of Theos or the god. 
 
 About the same time the Syrian king be- 
 came involved in a war with Ptolemy Phila- 
 delphus, from whom he gained, only to lose 
 them again, the provinces of Coele-Syria and 
 Phoenicia ; but before the contest was ended, 
 the attention of Antiochus was suddenly re- 
 called by the alarming condition of affairs on 
 the north-eastern frontiers of his own kingdom. 
 In B. C. 254, both Bactria and Parthia, of. 
 fended at the exactions and inhumanity of 
 the royal governors, raised the standard of re- 
 volt and defied the power of the king. Theo- 
 dotus, the Bactrian satrap, was for the time 
 entirely successful. Agathocles, the Parthian 
 governor, was attacked by two patriot broth- 
 ers, Arsaces and Tiridates, and by them the 
 adherents of Antiochus were obliged to take 
 to flight. Startled at these outbreaks, the 
 Syrian monarch was glad to enter into nego- 
 tiations for peace with Ptolemy, between whom 
 and himself terms were soon agreed upon, and 
 the treaty confirmed by the marriage to Anti- 
 ochus of the Egyptian Princess Berenice. By 
 this act Laodice, Avhom the Syrian had previ- 
 ously married, and by whom he had two chil- 
 dren, was discarded ; but the queen soon sought 
 revenge by poisoning Antiochus, and securing 
 the succession to her son, Seleucus, surnamed 
 Calliuicus. It was in this year, B. C. 246, 
 that Ptolemy Euergetes succeeded his father 
 Philadelphus on the throne of Egypt. 
 
 The first work which the new prince of 
 Alexandria felt constrained to undertake was 
 to visit retributive justice upon those who had 
 murdered his sister Berenice ; for that prin- 
 cess had been hunted down by Laodice and 
 put to death within the sacred precincts of the 
 Daphnean temple. Seleucus thus stood as the 
 representative of the crime which had been 
 committed against the House of Ptolemy. The 
 latter raised an army and began an invasion 
 of his rival's dominions, and at the same time 
 the Parthian insurrection continued on the 
 eastern frontier of the Empire. The Egyptian 
 soon overran Syria and continued his victori- 
 ous career through Media and Babylonia even 
 to the banks of the Indus. But his conquest 
 was one rather of spoliation than political 
 aggrandizement. He returned to the West 
 with plunder amounting in value to forty 
 thousand talents of silver. In addition to this 
 vast booty he brought home to his country- 
 men the statues of more than two thousand 
 Egyptian gods which had been carried away 
 by Cambyses to Susiana and Persia.^ 
 
 In the mean time the government of Seleu- 
 cus was still further distracted by a rebellion 
 in Syria, headed by his brother Antiochus 
 Hierax, who induced the Gauls to join his 
 standard. While these two were engaged in ? 
 struggle for the mastery, Euergetes, who mighV 
 easily have reduced the whole country, with- 
 drew into Egypt, apparently satisfied with the 
 vengeance which he had taken on his enemy. 
 
 This afforded opportunity, and motive to Se- 
 leucus and Hierax to come to an adjustment; 
 but a permanent peace between them was impos- 
 sible, and in B. C. 242, hostilities again broke 
 out with greater violence than ever. A severe 
 battle was fought at Ancyrse, in which Hierax 
 was victorious, but the Gauls, who had won 
 the battle, hearing that Seleucus was dead, 
 turned on their own commander, by whose 
 destruction they thought to obtain the mastery 
 of Asia for themselves. Barely did Hierax 
 escape from their clutches. Two years after- 
 wards, with one hundred thousand Gauls, he 
 renewed the contest, marched against Babylon, 
 
 ^ It was for this service that he was honored 
 by the Egyptians with the surname of Euergetes, 
 the Doftr of Good.
 
 678 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 and was utterly routed by the army of Seleu- 
 cus. The defeated insurgent fled to Egypt, 
 put himself under the protection of Ptolemy, 
 and by him was detained as a prisoner for 
 thirteen years. 
 
 Meanwhile the Parthians, having strength- 
 ened themselves by an alliance with the Bactri- 
 ans, held out against the Syrians. With them, 
 after the overthrow of Hierax, Seleucus at 
 once renewed the contest. In B. C. 239 a 
 decisive battle was fought with the rebel bar- 
 barians, in which they gained a great victory 
 over the Syrian army. Seleucus was taken 
 prisoner and sent into the wilds of Upper 
 Asia, where he was held a captive until his 
 death, ten years later. As soon as his cap- 
 tivity was known at Babylon the authorities 
 placed upon the throne his eldest sou, Seleu- 
 cus III., who took the title of Ceraunus, or 
 Thunder — a name given in contempt by the 
 soldiers; for he was a despicable weakling 
 both in mind and body. He began his inglo- 
 rious reign of three years by attempting to 
 carry out the plans of his father. A conspir- 
 acy was presently made against him by Nicana, 
 one of his generals, and a certain Gaul named 
 Apaturius, and he was assassinated in the 
 twentieth year of his age. The throne was 
 immediately conferred on his brother Anti- 
 ochus, surnamed the Great. 
 
 In the beginning of his reign the new mon- 
 arch was greatly aided in his government by 
 his cousin Achseus, one of the most distin- 
 guished soldiers of his times. Not so, how- 
 ever, was the king supported by the minister 
 Hermeias, who proved treacherous, and sowed 
 revolt in the provinces. Molon and Alexan- 
 der, governors of Media and Persia, headed 
 insurrections in their respective satrapies, and 
 the royal generals who were sent against them 
 were defeated. At length, in B. C. 222, An- 
 tiochus took the field in person, and the for- 
 tunes of the war were changed. When the 
 armies were drawn up for battle the soldiers 
 of the insurgent satraps deserted them and 
 went over to the king. Molon and Alexander 
 found refuge in suicide, and Hermeias was 
 condemned to death, not, however, until he 
 had produced a fatal breach between Achseus 
 and the king. 
 
 Euergetes was at length succeeded on the 
 throne of Egypt by Ptolemy Philopater — a 
 prince whose character illy accorded with that 
 of his illustrious predecessors. The kingdom 
 was neglected to the extent of inviting foreign 
 aggression. The ambitious Antiochus saw in 
 the situation an opportunity to recover Phoe- 
 nicia and Coele-Syria, nor was he slow in re- 
 taking these provinces from the Egyptians. 
 The latter, foreseeing that the Syrian king 
 would soon be knocking at their doors, fell 
 back before him, and destroyed all the wells 
 between Palestine and Egypt. Several able 
 generals oj^posed the progress of Antiochus, 
 and finally confronted him at Raphia with a 
 powerful army. The two forces met in B. C. 
 218. Besides the immense array of infantry 
 and cavalry on each side, nearly two hundred 
 elephants were marshaled forth to influence 
 the result of the battle. The contest was long 
 and bloody. At the first, victory inclined to 
 the banner of Antiochus; but the tide pres- 
 ently turned, and he was subjected to a disas- 
 trous rout. More than fourteen thousand of 
 his dead were left on the field. So decisive 
 was the result that Phoenicia and Coele-Syria 
 were at once recovered, and Antiochus was 
 glad to conclude a peace on the basis of res- 
 titution. 
 
 While the attention of the king of Syria 
 was occupied with these events, Achseus, justly 
 ofl^ended at the course of his master in treating 
 him as disloyal, secured for himself several 
 provinces in Asia Minor, and prepared to de- 
 fend them. Phrygia and Lydia Avere included 
 in his dominions. With Prusias, king of 
 Bithynia, Attains, king of Pergamus, and 
 Mithridates, king of Pontus, he had made 
 successful alliances. Nevertheless he was una- 
 ble to stand before the arms of Antiochus. 
 Attains, who had been compelled rather than 
 persuaded to espouse the cause of Achseus, 
 went over to the Syrian king. The insurgent 
 general was driven into Sardis, and when the 
 city was taken he shut himself up in the cit- 
 adel. Ptolemy attempted through an emissary 
 to secure the escape of Achseus, but the agent 
 proved treacherous, and the general, being 
 betrayed into the hands of his enemies, was 
 wrapped in the skin of an ass and crucified.
 
 MACEDONIA. -SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 
 
 679 
 
 Antiochus next vindicated his title of Great 
 by doing what several of his predecessors had 
 ingloriously failed to accomplish — subdue the 
 Parthiaus and Bactrians. In a campaign of 
 B. C. 214 he overran both of the revolted 
 provinces, gained decisive victories, and re- 
 duced to obedience the rebellious inhabitants, 
 
 any important benefits from the victory ai 
 Rhaphia. His conduct precipitated an epoch 
 of civil discord, and it was a good riddance 
 when his vicious indulgences brought his life 
 to a close. He was succeeded by his son, sur- 
 named Epiphanes, who was a mere child ai 
 his father's death. This circumstance suggested 
 
 TITUS QUIXCTIUS FLAMIXIUS PROCLAIMING "LIBERTY" TO THE GREEKS. 
 Drawn by H. Vogel. 
 
 who for thirty years had defied the authority 
 of the Syrian kings. Having achieved these 
 brilliant successes, Antiochus continued his 
 campaign to the banks of the Indus, and re- 
 turned to his capital with a great augmenta- 
 tion of wealth and honor. 
 
 So great were the vices of Ptolemy Philo- 
 pater that Egypt was not permitted to reap 
 
 to Philip of IMacedon the feasibility of an 
 Egyptian invasion. Accordingly, in B. C. 202, 
 he set out through Asia Minor, and captured 
 most of the cities therein belonging to the 
 House of Ptolemy. Several of the ^gean 
 islands fell into his power, and still further 
 successes were promised to his arms ; but the 
 Rhodians, alarmed at these aggressions, assisted
 
 680 
 
 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
 
 by Atlalufe, king of Pergamus, sent out a fleet 
 against Philip, and the Romans, also interfer- 
 ing, compelled him to return to his own do- 
 minions. 
 
 For a year or two, however, he continued 
 to press the war in Asia Minor, and, among 
 Utier successes, gained a decisive victory over 
 the -lEtolian general Scopas, in a battle at the 
 foot of Mount Panius. His justification for 
 all these proceedings was that as the heir of 
 Seleucus Nicator he was the rightful ruler of 
 all the countries of the Lesser Asia. In B. C. 
 197, he besieged the fortresses of Mysia and 
 Caria, and presently afterwards invested 
 Smyrna and Lampsacus. He then overran 
 Thrace, and began to rebuild the ruined city 
 of Lysimachia. All these measures indicated 
 that the Macedonian ruler was about to lay a 
 strong hand on the greater part of the Alex- 
 andrine Empire in the West. But a stronger 
 Hand now reached out of the shadows. The 
 outlines of the fingers of Rome were seen on 
 the wall of destiny. 
 
 In B. C 196 the Isthmian games were in 
 progress at Corinth. The states were assem- 
 bled to witness the time-honored celebration. 
 Sufldenly the Roman proconsul, Titus Quinc- 
 tiu*' Flaminius, appeared in the midst and an- 
 nounced that the great Republic of the West 
 
 assumed thenceforth the protectorate of the 
 commonwealths of Greece. He, as arbiter, 
 would hear the embassadors of the several 
 states at war, and settle without prejudice all 
 the points in controversy ! The announcement 
 was equivalent to saying that the empire of 
 the world had been suddenly transferred from 
 the banks of the Euphrates to the banks of 
 the Tiber, from Babylon to Rome 1 
 
 We have now pursued the course of events 
 from the death of Alexander the Great through 
 the turmoil of revolution and bloodshed down 
 to the time when the fragments of the colossal 
 empire established by the son of Philip began 
 to be absorbed by the Roman Republic. The 
 period occupied by the contentions of the suc- 
 cessors of Alexander B. C. 326-196 is one of 
 the darkest and most difficult passages in his- 
 tory. These times were the Middle Ages of 
 Antiquity. They, stood chaotic between the 
 unity of Persia and Macedonia on the one 
 hand, and the greater unity of Rome on the 
 other. Not without a certain sense of relief 
 may the reader turn from the heterogeneous 
 jumble of events presented by the annals of 
 the Grseco-Syrian, Grseco-Egyptian, and Mace- 
 donian kingdoms to the unique and singular 
 grandeur of Rome. To that great power of 
 the West our attention will now be directed.
 
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