?- '/- s THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES iE Ancient Lowly tory of the Ancient Working People from the Earliest Known Period to the Adoption of Christianity by Constantine VOLUME I BY C. OSBORNE WARD 9ft? CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY CD-Ol'KKATTVE Copyrisht, 1888 By C. Oseokne Ward FIFTH EDITION PEESS OF JOHN F. BIGGINS CHICAGO W3U Publisher's Note To Fourth Edition V. 1 1 lie liist editions of Osborne Ward's great work were printed and circulated privately, because no capitalist ])ublisliing house would take the responsibility for so rcvoliitionary a book, and no socialist publishing house existed. Now, nearly twenty years after the first publication of the book, its publication has been taken over by a co- operative publishing house owned by sixteen hundred so- cialist clubs and individual socialists. A systematic effort will now for the first time be made to give this author's works the wide circulation they deserve. Osborne Ward's contribution to the history of the working class movement is unique, and its tremendous value is only beginning to be appreciated. In his chosen field, the period of ancient civilization covered by histories and inscriptions, he speaks with an authority based on a minute and comprehensive knowledge of his subject. The case is different when he comments on another field of investigation, and it is only fair to warn the reac r that the author's statements on page 38, which reappear in various forms elsewhere in the book, are now known to be erroneous. The researches of Lewis H. Morgan in "Ancient Society," popularized by Frederick Engels in his "Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State," have stood the test of a generation of criticism, and they show conclusively that a communist form of society ex- isted for ages before the beginning of the era described so graphically in the present work. CHARLES H. KERR. January, 1907. PEEFACB. "Hie ftnthor of this volume is aware thftt ft strong opposition may set in and perhaps for a time, ob- ject to the thoughts and the facts which it portrays. Much of its contents is new. The ideas that lay at the bottom of the ancient competitive system, though in their day thoroughly understood, have been BO systematically attacked and gnawed away during our nearly 2,000 years' trial of the new institution, that men now, no longer comprehend them. The whole may strike the reader as news. Much of it indeed, reads like a revelation from a sealed book ; and we may not at first be able to comprehend it as a natural efiect of a cause. The introduction of Christianity was fought, and for a long time resisted by the laboring element it- self; solely on the ground that it seriously interfered with idol, amulet, palladium and temple drapery manufacture. As shown in the chapter on "Image- makers," there were organized trades, whose labor and means of obtaining a living were entirely confined to their skill in producing for the pagan priesthood m PREFACE. these innmnerable images aud paraphernalia of wor- Bhip. Indeed, the ultimate introduction of certain unmistakable forms of idol worship to be found lin- gering in the so-called Christianity to-day, must be considered as having been partly motived by the re- sistance of trades unions against any change which would result in depriving themselves aud their babes of bread. This has been a potent hindrance to the ever growing but imperceptible realization of the social revolution. The great strikes and uprisings of the working people of the ancient world are ahnost unknown to the living age. It matters little how accounts of five immense strike-wars, involving destruction of prop- erty and mutual slaughter of millions of people liave been suppressed, or have otherwise failed to reach ns; — the fact remains that people are absolutely ig- norant of those great events. A meagre sketch of 8partacuB may be seen in the encyclopedias, but it is always ruined and its interest pinched and blighted by being classed with crime, its heroes with crimi- nals, its theme with desecration. Yet Spartacus was one of the great generals of history ; fully equal to Hannibal and Napoleon, while his cause was much more just and infinitely nobler, his life a model of the beautiful and virtuous, his death an episode oi surpassing grandeur. Still more strange is it, that the great ten-years' ■▼ar of Eunus should be unknown. He martialed at one time, an army of two hundred thousand soldiers. He manoeuvred them and fought for ten full years for liberty, defeating army after army of Rome. Why is the world ignorant of this fierce, epochal rebellion ? PREFACE. U Almost the whole matter is passed over in silence bj our histories of Rome. In these pageb it will be read as newB ; yet should a similar war rage in our day. against a similar condition of slavery, its canse would not only be considered just, but the combatants would have the sympathy and moral support of the civilized world. The story of tliis wonderful workman is news. The great system of labor organization explained in these pages must likewise be regarded as a chapter of news. The portentous fact has lain in abeyance cen- tury after century, with the human family in profound ignorance of an organization of trades and other labor unions so powerful that for hundreds of yeart^ tliey un- dertook and successfully conducted the business of manufacture, of distribution, of purveying provisions to armies, of feeding the inhabitants of the largest cities in the world, of inventing, supplying and working the huge engines of war, and of collecting customs and taxes — tasks confided to their care by the state. Our civilization has a blushingly poor excuse for its profound ignorance of these facts ; for the evidences have existed from much before the beginning of our era — indeed the fragments of the ravaged history were far less broken and the recorded annals much fresher more numerous and less mutilated than the relics which the author with arduous labor and pains-taking, has had at command in bringing them to the surface. Besides the records that have come to us thus broken and distorted by the wreckers who feared the mora] blaze of literature, there were, in all probability, thou- sands of inscriptions then, where but dozens remain now to be consulted; and they are growing fewer and dimmer as their value rises higher in the estimation X PREFACE, of a thinking, appreciative, gradually aTfakening world. The author is keenly aware that certain critics will complain of his dragging religion bo prominently for- ward that the work is spoiled. The defense is, that though our charming histories from a point of view of brilliant events, such as daring deeds of heroes, bat- tles and bloodshed, may be found among the ancients without encounteiing much of a religious nature, yet such is not the case in the lesser affairs of ancient so- cial and political life. The state, city and family were themselves a part of the ancient religion and were a part of its property. Priests were public officers. Home life of the nobles was in constant conformity with the ritual. The organizations of labor were so closely watched by the jealous law that they were obliged to assume a religious attitude they did not feel in order to escape being suppressed. A long list of what we in our time consider honorable, business-like doings, was rated as blasphemy against the gods and punished with death. Nearly all of the idolatry, with its attendant super- stition and nympholepsy, its giants and prodigies, its notions oi elysiv/m and tartarus, its quaking genuflex- ions, its bloody sacrifices and its gladiatorial wakes, had their real origin in the torture of the menials who delved, and in the rewards of the favored ones who banqueted on the riches which flowed from unpaid la- bor ; and nearly all the iconoclasm of the later soph- ists may perhaps be traced to an organized resistance of the working people of pre-christian days. These seemingly curious, if not extraordinary truths will, we are confident, be made clear to the intelligent, careful reader of these pages ; and in this humble hope, the PREFACE. lA author has set them forth as an indiepeneable bcgin- n'nej to those who would logically and correctly under- stand the great problem of labor as it is to-day. As rightly mentioned by Bancroft and others occu- pied in the collection and study of monumental archee- ology, there is often a readiness among tlie degenerate natives to ingeniously imitate and palm off for genn* ine, numbers of fraudulent counterfeit relics upon the unsuspecting and credulous wonder-hunters. This, however, is with us, in our scope of research, placed beyond suspicion. Most of the slabs we mention have already been lying unobserved, on their original sites or in by-nooks of the museums of their own countries, for hundreds of years ; but they have long since been recorded, catalogued and even numbered in dingy old books and manuscripts, the importance of their grim inscriptions having been little understood by the capa- ble epigraphists themselves. Besides, no interest hav- ing ever been elicited on subjects of which they are so suggestive, there has been no lively demand for them, even as curiosities. They are genuine. The author may sum up these prefatory remarks with a word on the general lesson taught by this volume; it being one of the first histories yet compiled and written exclusively from a standpoint of social science. That the "still small voice" meant the ever suppressed yet ever living, struggling, co-operating and mutually support- ing majorities, is made self-suggestive without forsaking history. The phenomenal fact is moreover brought out, that the present movement whose most radical wing loudly disclaims Christianity, is nevertheless building exactly upon the precepts of that faith, as it was told to us and taught us by Jesus Christ ; whatever may or may xii PREFACE. not have been borrowed by His school from the immens;*^ social organization of His own and preceeding ages. Modern greed with its class hatreds, individualism^, aristocracy, its struggle for personal wealth, dangerous, defiant in our faith and in our political economy, is not Christianity at all; it is the ancient evil still lingering in the roots of the gradually decaying paganism that ap- pears to remain for the labor movement to smother and at last uproot and completely annihilate. One thing must be solemnly set forth as a very sug- gestive hint to modern anarchists, however honest their impulses. The historical facts are that the great strikes, rebellions and social wars — if we are permitted to except those of Drimakos and the strike of the 20,000 from the silver mines of Laurium in Attica — all turned out disas- trously for the general cause. The punishments meted out to the strikers and insurgents of the working class after their overthrow by the Eomans, as in the rebellions of Eunus, of Athenion, of Spartacus, of every one we have treated in this book, with but the above exceptions, was bloody, revengeful and exterminatory to the last de- gree. An ancient author whom we quote, gives the aggre- gate number crucified at something more than a million. Crassus and Pompey alone crucified over 6^000 working- men on the Appian Way as examples of the awful blood- wreaking to be expected from Roman military justice. Twenty thousand were similarly massacred at Enna and Tauromanion. These unscrupulous deeds of retribution that went far toward annihilating the ancient civilization by stimulating a blood-thirsting craze in a long succes- sion of Eoman emperors, completely extinguished all hopes of the workingmen for the achievement of liberty by violent means. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The author of the Ancient Lowly, on presenting to the public his first and incomplete edition, felt that it was an experiment. It was a mass of facts, withheld for many ages from the human race — some that had been suppressed — and his natural conjecture that there is still a desire to cover and conceal them was verified by a gen- eral refusal on the part of publishing firms, to touch it. He published it himself. Large numbers of letters flow- ing in from kind-hearted readers at every quarter, and a delightful, perhaps overwrought expression of thanks and sympathy in form of sermons, newspaper reviews and lecture themes has been a consolation that cannot be measured by this poor expression of gratitude. Let his loving answer and assurance to them all be, that the book shall not fall into vandal hands for money or for price; but the naked truth shall be unstintedly offered to its generous and appreciative readers who thus announce themselves, after ages of agitation, fully prepared to accept. Considerable disappointment has been gently hinted, that the author broke off abruptly without writing a chap- ter of conclusions. The actually written twenty-fourth chapter promised in the table of contents, was prudential- ly omitted in the first edition. Conclusions are deviations from the historian's compass — this is one explanation. A stronger one is, that the general conviction which over- takes the student, on studying the ancient working people, is of a nature so radical as to be distasteful to many readers. One curious conclusion is, that the modern and correct doctrine of nationalizing the tools of labor was actually carried out, almost to perfection, especially in the cele- brated Spartan state. But alas! the awful incongruity of its system was, that human beings as slaves, were them- selves bodily those nationalized tools! though treated with 3n> PREFACE, worse contempt of feeling than we have for machines pro- pelled by motors instead of whips ; and the demand of the nationalists or socialists to-day is in some points of princi- ple, to return to the nationalization of Lycurgus, only with the chattel-slave tools and wage-slave tools substituted, oi supplanted by the inanimate labor-saving implements this much-abused workman has invented, constructed and re duplicated for a higher civilization. When this shall hav* been accomplished there will be an exact social equality and a status of positive equities — a vast and beneficent rev olation I Surely, under these considerations, the working masses, the "two-thirds majority," can afford to crowd on- ward until they reach the ambrosial gardens, become them- lelves masters and re-enjoy the symposium, in a region of equitable distribution and plentitude, the "mansion of the blessed," longed for in those earlier euges. Another conclusion arrived at from the facts in history, and explained in this terminal chapter is, that the ancient rebellions, although fearfully disastrous, as mentioned by way of warning in our preface to the first edition, were, under the circumstances, j ust. Workingnien who rebelled and bravely fought and lost, had no other friend to appeal to but their own strong arms ; and looking back upon their Bufferings and their magnificent resistance, we clearly see that they did not lose after all. They won, though they fell in myriads — a martyrdom, nobler and happier than was their crucial life from which such a death was triumph- ant relief — for by their fall they taught a lesson to an in- experienced world that is to this day exerting its influence in creating a better era. We may be thankful for their having lived and fought and died ; for they were the true forefathers of these struggling wage-slaves, now making themselves felt and feared in these, though still cruel and hatclu', yet brighter and more hopeful surroundinge. SOURCES OF IJ^FORMATIOK Immanuel Bekker, Berlin, 1731. i^i^LiAN (Claudius), Varia Historia. Lugduni in Batavis, 170y. American Cijrhpuidia, D. Appleton & Company, N. Y. 18G7. Anonymous, Seven Essays on Ancient Greece. < )xf<>rd, 1832. Antoninus (I'ius), Rescript; Petil, in Tltetaitru^ Anfiquitattim, Utrecht & Leyden, 1G99. Apoouyphal Gospels of the Infancy, l^ruteiiangelion, Cowper. London, 1881 and Others. 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Philo (Judseusl, Quod Omnis Probus Liber, •Turnebus Paris, 1552; Legarde, Onomasiica Sacra, Paris, 1870., Plato, Apology of Socrates, 1 Plato, Menexenos, 1 Plato, Minos, I Bekker, London ed., 1S28, Plato, Phcedo, Stallbaum, Leipzic, 1825, Orell., Winkelmann, Baiter 1840 Burges, Gary, Davis, trs. Plato, Phoedrua, Plato, Protagoras, Plato, De Republican Plato, Statesman, Plato, Thecetetus, _, Plutarch. Lives of Illustrious Men, Teubner Series, Leipzic, 1850 ; English Translation of Langhorne, London, n. d. Polybius, Historia Katholihe, Leipzic, 1843. Pomponius-Mela, De Orbis Situ, Tzschucke, Leipzic, 1807. Porter, (George Richardson), Progress of the Nation, Lon. 1836. Preller (Ludwig), Mithologie: Demeter und Persephone, Leip- zic, 1854. Prudentius (Aurelius) Hymni, *ArvaH, Roma, 1790. PsEUDo- Plutarch, De Nobilitate, in tlie Teubner Series^ 1845. Rangabe-Rliizo, Antiquites Helleniques, 2 vols. Paris, 1855. Real Encyclopoedie, Pauly. Reinesius (ThomasI, Inscriptionum Antiquarum Syntagma, Leipzic, 1682, Oracles: Sibylline BooJcs, 1704. Renan (Ernest), Vie de Jfesus, Paris, 1863. ^ • i^kr Rinaldo, Memorie Istoriche della Citta di Capua, Napoh, 1755. Ritschl (Friedrich Wilhelm), Plautus, Bonn, 1848. Rodbertus (von Jagetzow), Der Normal Arbeitstag, Berlin, 1871. Roacher (Wilhelm), Principes d' Economie Politique, French Edition, Paris, 1872. ^ _. Rogers (J. E. Thorold), Six C<^nturies of Work and Wages, New York, 1884. SOVliCES OF INFORMATION. xil Rohden, Johannis der Tdu/er, Brochure ; A Dissertation. Romanelli (Domenico), Topogra/ia: Viaggio a Pompej. Rose (H. J.), Jiiscripiionea Oroecce VetustissimoB^ Cantabrid- giae,, 1825. Ross (Ludwig), Voyages dans les lies; Let Inscriptions de Scio, Ihille, 1842. Rossi (Giovanni Bernardo de), Inscriptiones Christianoe Urhis liomoe, Roma, 1853. Saint-Edme (M. B.) Dictionnaire de la Penalite, Paris, 1825. Sallustin.'! (Caius Crispus), Eistoriarum Libri Quinque, Vatican Fragments ; Schambach's SMavenavfstaiid. Sanger (William W.), Hislory of Prostitution, New York, 1876. Schambach, Der Italische SMavenavfstand, n. d., n. p., 4to. Schliemann (Henry), The 7'iryns, New York, 1885. SchOmann (F. G.), Asse^nblies of the Athenians, English Uni- versity Translation of Cambridge, 1837. ♦Servius, On the ^neid of Virgil, Fabricius, Meissen, 1661. Siefert (Otto), Sicilische Shiavenlcriege, Altona, 1860. Smith (William), Dictionary of the Bible, Boston, 1886. Smith (William), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, London, 1849. Solon, Code, in Plutarch, Gains and others. Stobseus, Quoting Lost Works of Florilus, mentioned by Bficher. Strabo, Gevgraphica, T/st hucke, Leipzic, 1812. Suetonius (Claudius), Vitoi Duodecim Coesarum, Burmann, Amsterdam, 1743. Syncellus, Quoting Africanus, in Chronica. Tarrentenus (Paternus), De Re MiUtari, Quoted by Drumann, Terence (Publins Afer), Heauton-timorumanos, London, 1857. Tertulian (Quintus [Septimius Florens), Apologeticus and De Idololatria, (Ehler, Leip. 1857; Dr. March, Douglass Series, New York, 1876. Theophrastus, Fthikoi Karakteres {Moral Characters), Ast, Munich, 1825. Theopompus, In *Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Thiersch (Henry W.) Christian Commonwealth, Edinburgh, 1877. Thucydides, Polemon ton Peloponnesion {De Bello Pellopoimes- iaco), Leipzic, Bibliotheca Ttubneriana, Bohme, 1857. Tompkins (Henry), FHendly Societies of Antiquity, Lon,, 1867. Tompkins (Henry, Acting Secretary to Registry, of Friendly Societies of Great Britain), Reports, London, 1867-9! Ulpian (Domitius), De Officio Proconsulis ; Y a.t[ca,n MS. & Ex- cerpta Digestorum ; De Dominorum Soevitia, Bonn, 1840. Dwaroff, Essai sur les Mysteres d' Eltusis, Valerius Maximus, Factorum Dictorwmque Memorabilium Libri IX. Leipzic, 1836. £xil SOURCES OF INFORMATION. Varro {^farcns Terentius), De Re Rustica Libri TVes. *Scjinei- der. Leipzic, 1796. Velleius (Paterculus), Ri.itorioe Romance, Orelli, Leipzic, 1835. Virgil (Publius Maro), yEneid, Teubner Series, Leipzic, 1840. Wallace, (Robert), Numbers of Mankind, Edinburgh, 1753. Weissunborn, Guiaments on Livy, Leipzic, 1871. Wesseling (Peter) Vetei-um Romanorum Itineraria, Utr't, 1750. Wescher-Foucart, Inscriptions recueiUies a Delphes, Paris, 1863. Wescher (C), In Revue Archeolofjique, Paris, 1864. Westermann (Anton), Nymphodorus, In Real-I/ncyclopcBdie. W iKifF.R- Jahrbuch, XX. Wilkinson (Sir Gardner), Ancient Egyptians, Boston, 1883. Wordsworth (Christopher), Fragments of Early Latin, London. Wright (Carroll D.), Industrial Depressi07is, Report of the Unit- ed States Bureau of Labor, Washington, 1886. Xenophon, Conversationes, ' Xenophon, Xenophon, Xenophon, Xenophon, Memorabilia, CEconomicus, De Repnhlica, De Vectigali, Leipzio, 1859. • The Asterisks refer to '^orks that were nasuitea by th« anttan during his reaearclies abroad. SnVTROT.S OF ANCIENT PERTUJlET^P' UNIONo, liom aa Inetripiic )ii jasper. 6ee Chapter xi.^ COMTEJSfTS OF THE VOLUME. CHAPTER I. TAli^T OF LABOR. TRAITS AXD PECULIARITIES OF RACES. Grievances of the Working Classes — The Competitive System among the Ancients — G-rowing Change of Taste in Read- ers of History — Inscr iptions and suppressed Fragments more leeeutly becoming Incentives to reflecting Readers who seek Tliem as a means to secure Facts — No true De- mocracy — No primeval Middle Class known to the Aryan Family — The Taint of Labor an Inheritance through the Pagan Religio-Political Economy. Pcig* 37 CHAPTER n. THE INDO-EUROPEANS. THEIR COMPETITIVE SYSTEIVL Religion and Politics of the Indo-Europeans Identical — Reason for Religion mixing with the Movements of Labor^The Father the Original Slaveholder — His Children the Orifr- inal Slaves — Both Law and Rehgion empowered him to kill them — Work of Conscience in the Labor Problem. 47 uir C0NTE]ST8 OF CHAPTERS. CHAPTER ni. LOST MSS. ARCHEOLOGY. TRUE HISTOEY OF LABOR FOUND ONLY IN INSCRIPTIONS AND MUTILATED ANNALS. Prototypes of Industrial Life to be found in the Aryan and Semitic Branches — Era of Slavery — Dawn of Manumission — Patriarchal Form too advanced a Type of Government possible to primitive Man— Religious Superstition fatal to Independent Labor — Labor, G-overnment and Religion in- dissolubly mixed — Concupiscence, Acquisitiveness and Iras- cibility a Consequence ol the archaic Bully or Boss, with un- limited Povvers — Right of the ancient Father to enslave, sell, torture or kill his Childien — Abundant Proofs quoted — Origin of the greater and more humane Impulses — Sym- pathy beyond mere Self preservation, the Resn.lt of Ed- ucation — Education originated from Discussion — Discussion the ResHlt of Grievances against the Outcast Work-people — Too rapid Increase of their Numbers notwithstanding the Sufferings — Means Organized by Owners for decimating them by Murder — Ample proof — The great Amf)hyctyonic League — Glimpses of a once sullen Combination of the Desperate Slaves — Incipient Organization of the Nobles. Page 67 CHAPTER IV. ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES ANCIENT GRIEVANCES OF THE WORKERS. WoBKiNG People destitute of Souls— Original popular Beliefs — Plato finally gives them half a Soul — Modern Ignorance on the true Causes of certain Developments in History — Sym- pathy, the Third Great Emotion developed out of growing Heason, through mutual Commiseration of the Outcasts — A new Cult — The Unsolved Problem of the great Eleusinian Mysteries — Their wonderful Story — Grievances of slighted "Workingmen- -Organization impossible to Slaves except in their Strikes and Rebellions-- The Aristocrats' Politics and Religion barred the Doors against Work-people — Extraoi- CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS. dinsry Whims and Antics at the Eleuainian Mysteries — The Causes of Grievances endured by the Castaway Laborers — Their Motives for Secret Organization — The Terrible Cryp- tia — The horrible Murders of Workingmen for Sport — Dark Deeds Unveiled — Story of the Massacre of 2,000 Working- men — Evidence — The G-rievanoes in Sparta — In Athens- Free Outcast Builders, Sculptors, Teachers, Priests, Dancers, Musicians, Artisans, Diggers, all more or less Organized — Re- turn to the Eleusinian Mysteries— Conclosion. Page 83 CHAPTER V. STRIKES AN D UPRISINGS. GRIEVANCES CONTINUED. PLANS OF ESCAPE. First Known and First Tried Plan of Salvation was that of Retal« iaiion — The Slaves test the Ordeal of Armed Force — Irasci- bility of the Working Classes at length arrayed against their Masters — Typical Strikes of the ancient Workingmen — Their Inhuman Treatment — Famous Strike at the Silver Digging! of Laurium — '20,000 Artisans and Laborers quit Work in • Body and go over to the Foes of their own Countrymen — The Great Peloponnesian War Decided for the Spartsn;;, •gainst the Athenians by this Fatal Strike. A/cyr l.!'^ CHAPTER VL GRIEVANCES. LABOR TROUBLES AMONG THE ROMANS. MORE BLOODY PLANS OF SALVATION TRIED. The Irascible Plan in Italy — Epidemic Uprisings — Attempt to Fire the City of Rome and have Things common — Conspir- acy of Slaves at the MetropoUs — Two Traitors — Betrayal — Deaths on the Roman Gibbet — Another Great Uprising at Se- tia — Expected Capture of the World — Land of Wine and Delight — Again the Traitor, the Betrayal and Gibbet— The Irascible Plan a Failure — Strike of the Agricultural Laborers in Etruria — Slave Labor — Character of the Etruscans — Exp»« CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS. dition of Glabro — Fighting — Slaves Worsted — Punishment on the dreadful Cross, the ancient Block for the Low-born — Enormous Strike in the Land of Labor Organizations — One Glimpse at the Cause and Origin of Itahan Brigandage — La- borers, Mechanics and Agriculturers Driven to Despair — The great Uprising in Apulia — Fierce Fighting to the Dag- ger's Hilt — The Overthrow, the Dungeon and the Cross — Proof Dug from Fragments of Lost History. J'age 145 CHAPTER Vn. DRIMAKOS. A QUEER OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS. Strikk of Drimakos, the Chiau Slave — Co-operation of the Irascible with the Sympathetic — A Desperate Greek Bonds- man at Large — Labor Grievances of the ancient Scio — Tem- perament and Character of Drimakos — Vast Number of un- fortunate Slaves — Revolt and Escape to the Mountains — Old Ruler of the Mountain Crags — Rigid Master and loving Friend — Great Successes — Price offerei for his Head — How he lost it — The Reaction — Rich and Poor all mourn his Los!* as a Calamity — The Brigands infest the Island afresh since the Demise of Drimakos — The Reroon at his Tomb — An Al- tar of Pagan Worship at which this Labor Hero becomes the God, reversing the Order of the ancient Rights — Ruins of his Temple still extant — Athenaeus — Nymphodorus — Archae- ology — Views of modern Philologists. Page 163 CHAPTER VITI. VIRIATHUS. A GREAT REBELLION IN SPAIN. Thb Roman Slave System in Spain — Tyranny in Lusitania — Massacre of the People— Condition before the Outbreak — Yirst Appearance of Viriathus — A Shepherd on his Native CO^TE^TS UF (JllAriERS. XX vi. HiIb — A Giant in Stature and rritfllct — He takes Com- mand — Vl iEmilianus — He '\» Out-generuled and at last Beaten by Viriatlius — More Bat- tles and Vietories for the Farmers — Arrival of Plautius with Fresh Roman Soldiers — Viriatlius made Kiii^' — More Victori'S — Treason, Conspiracy and Treachery Lurking in his Oamps — Murdered by his own Perfidious OUicers— Pomii at His Funeral — Relentless Vengeance of the Romans — CriKifixion and worse Slavery than before — The Cause Lost CHAPTER iX EUNUS. GRIEVANCES. MORE SALVATION ON THE VINDICTIVE PLAN. The Irasoible Impulse in its Highest Development and most enormous Organization — Greatest of all Strikes found onRec ord — Gigantic Growth of Slavery — General View of Sicih'an Landlordism and Servitude betore the Outbreak — Great In- crease of Bond^men and Women — Enna, Home of the God- dess Ceres, becomes the Stronghold of the Great Uprising— Eunus; his Pedigree — He is made King of the Slaves — llis- toiy 0. hislO Years' Reign — Somebody, ashamed to confess it, has mangled the Histories — The Fragments of Diodorus and other Noble Authors Reveal the Facts — Cruelties of Damo- philus and ifegallis, the immediate Cause of the Grievance — Eunus, S';;ve, Fire-spitter, Leader, Messiah, King — Venge- ance — The innocent Daughter — Sympathy hand-in-hand with Irascibility against Avarice — Wise Selection by Eunus, of Achseus as Lieutenant — Council of War — Mass- meeting — A Plan agreed to — Cruelty of the Slaves — Their Army — The War begun — Prisons broken open and CO.OOO Convicts work- ing in the Ergastula set free — Quotations — Sweeping Extinc- tion of the Rich — Large Numbers of Free Tramps join — An- other prodigious Uprising in Southern Sicily — Cleon — Con- jectures regarding this Obscure Military Genius — Union of Eunus, Achseus and Cleon — Harmony — Victories over the Romans — Insurgent Force rises to 200.000 Men — Proof— >^xv'ui CONTENTS OF HHAPTERS. Overthrow and Extinction of the Armies of Hyps-teus — Man- lius — Letitulus — The Victorious Workingmen give no Quarter — Eunus as Mimic, taunts his Enemies by Mock Theatrical, Open-Air Plays in the Sieges — Cities fall into his Hands — His Speeches — Moral Aid through the Social Struggle with Gracchus at Rome — Arrival of a Roman Army under Piso — Beginning of Reverses — rucifixions — Demoralization — Fall of Messana — Siege of Enna — Inscriptions verifying History — Romans Repulsed — Arrival of Rupilius — Siege of Tauroma- nion — Wonderful Death of Comanus — Cannibalism — The City falls — Awful Crucifixions — SecondSiege of Enna — Its 20,000 People are crucified on the Q-ibbet — Eunus captured and Devoured by Lice in a Roman Dungeon — Disastrous End of the Rebellion or so-called Servile War. Page 101 CHAPTER X. ARISTONICUS. A BLOODY STRIKE IN ASIA MINOR. Fbeedmen, Bondsmkn, Teamps and Illegitimates Rise against Op- pression — Contagion of monster Strikes — Again the Irasci- ble Plan of Rescue tried — Aristonicus of Pergamus — Story of the Murder of Titus Gracchus and of 300 Land Reformers by a Mob of Nobles at Rome — Blossius, a Noble, Espouses the Cause of the Workingmen — He goes to Pergamus — The Heliopolitai — The Commander of the Labor Army overpow- ers all Resistance — Battle of Leuca — Overthrow of the Rom- ans — Death of Crassus — Arrival of the Consul Paperna — De- feat of the Insurgents — Their Punishment — Discouragement and Suicide — Aristonicus strangled, Thousands crucified and the Cause Lost — Old Authors Quoted. Pa^e '28^ CHAPTER XI. ATHENION. TWOT?M0US STRIKE AND UPRISING IN SICILY. SaooND Sicilian Labor-War — Tryphon and Athenion — Greed and Irascibility Again Grapple — The War Plan o\ Salvation Repeated by Slaves and Tramps — Athenion, another remark- able General Steps Forth — Castle of the Twins in a Hideous Forest — Slaves goaded to Revolt by Treachery and Intrigue xxix C'0.\ 7/;.\ V.S' OF CiIAPTLRfi. of a PoHrlcian — Rebellion and the Clangor of War — Battle in the Mountains — A V^ictory for the Slaves at the Heights of Engyon — Treachery of GatldaeuH the Freebooter — Decoy •nd Crocifixions — Others cast Headlong over a Precipice— The Strike starts up Afresh at lleraclea Minoa — Murder of Clonius a rich Roman Knight — Escape of Slaves froni hifr Ergastuluin—'6\\a.T\) Battles under the Generalship of Salvius — Strife rekindles in the West — Battle of Alll^la — The Pro- preetor punished for his had Administration — Victory Again Wreathes a Lanrel for thf» Lowly — A vast Uprising in Wejt em Sicily — Athenlon the Slave Shepherd — Another Fanatical Crank of Deeds — Rushing the Strugjrle for Existence — Fierce Battles and Blood-spilling — What Ordinary Headers of His- tory have not heard of — Fourth Battle; Triokala — Meek Sacrifices by tlie Slaves, to the Twins of Jupiter and Tha- lia — March to Triokala— Jealousy — Groat Battle and Car- nage — Aihenion Wounded — He escapes to Triokala and re- covers — Fifth Battle — Lucullns marches to the Working- men's Fortifications — Battle of Triokala — The Outcasts Vic- torious — Lucullns islo-t from View — Sixth Battle — Servili- ns, another Roman General Overthrown — The Terrible Athenion Master of Sicily and King over all the Working- People — Seventh and Final Field Conflict — Battle of Macel- la — Death of Athenion — Victory this Time for the Romans End of the Rebellion — Satyros, a powerful Greek Slave es- capes to the Mountains with a Force of Insurgents — They are finally lured to a Capitulation by Aqnillius who treacher- ously turns upon, and consigns them as Gladiators to Rome — They fight the Eighth and last Battle in the Roman Am- phitheatre among wild Beasts — A ghastly mutual Suicide — The Reaction — Treachery of Aquillius Punished — The Gold- Workers pour melted Gold down his Throat, CHAPTER XII. SPARTACUS. THE IRASCIBLE PLAN TESTED ON AN ENORMOUS SCALE. Rin, Vicissitudes and Fall of a Great General — The Strike of the Gladiators — Grievances that led to the Trouble — Growth of Slavery through Usurpation of the Ltid by the arrogant Optimates — What is known of Spartacr- before beir.g Sold XXX CONTENTS OF CHAPTBRS. into Slavery — Bolt of the 78 Grladiators from the Ergastulnm of Leutulus at Capua — Escape of the Ranaways — How t'ney seized Weapons — Vesuvius — FirstBattle — Battle of the Cliffs — Rout of Cl'idius — Second Battle — Destruction of a Praeto- rian Army — Battle of the Mineral Baths — Great Increase '>f the Rebel Force — From a petty Strike it assumes the Propor- tions of Revolution — Fourth Battle ; Hilt to Hilt with Var- inius — Destruction of the Main Army of the Romans — Win- ter Quarters of Spartacus at Metapontem — Honor, Discipline and Temperance of the Workingmen — Proofs by Pliny and Plutarch — Coalision with the Organized Laborers of Italy — Uses of Gold and other Ornaments Forbidden — Wine Ban- ished — Great ISTurabers Employed in the Armories of Sparta- cus — Fifth Battle — Battle of Mt. Garganus — Ambuscade of Arrius — Overthrow and Death of Crixus — Sixth Battle — Spartacus Destroys the Consular Army of Poplicola — Sev- enth Battle — Great Conflict of the River Po — Overthrow of Cassius and Defeat of the 10,000 Romans — Spartacus, now Master, assumes the Offensive — Eighth Battle — Lentulus De- feated ; Great Army nearly annihilated — Mortification and Terror of the Romans — Ninth Battle — Mutina — Proconsul Ca?sius again Routed in a Disastrous Conflict with the wary Gladiator — Spartacus now obliged to contend with the De- mon of Insubordinatioa — Crassus elected Consul — ^Beverses Begin — On down to Rhegium — Sedition, Treachery Betray- als— Workingmen's own Jealousies, Insubordination and Lack of Diplomacy cause their final Ruin — Tenth Battle — Scaling of the Six -Mile Ramparts l.y Spartacus — Battle of Croton — Destruction of tiie Seceders, Gianicus and Castus — Obstinate Fighting — Spartacus arrives and checks the Carnage — Pe- telia, the Eleventh Battle — Victory — Twelfth Battle; Silarus — Last and most Bloody Encounter — Spartacus, stabbing his Horse, Rushes sword drawn, in search of Crassus — Heaps ot the slain — Dying like a King — End of the War — The great iSupplicium — Pompey and Crassus. emulous of meagre Hon- ors — Inhuman Cruelties — Awful Wreaking of Vengeancn on the Cross — Danghng Bodies of 6,000 Crucifisd Workingmen Along the Aopian Way — Thcjsa-fids of Others crucified — Ut- ter Failure of tte IvaweiUe Plan of Deliverance Page Ti'y CHAPTER Xn^. ORGANIZATION. ROME'S OROANIZED WORKINGMEN AND WOMEN Oroaboitioh of the Fbeedukm— The Jua Coeundt^Koxnan Uu- co\'n:\T,s Or rii.\i"n:ns. xxxi ions — The Collegium — Its Power and Influence — What the Poor did witli their Dead — Creitiation — Burial a Divine Rigiif which they were too Lowly to Practice — Worship of bor- rowed Gods — Incineration or Burial and Trade Unions com- bined — Prools — Glance at the Inner social Life of the ancient Brotherhoods — State Ownership and Management — Nation- alized Lands — Nuinher and Variety of Trade Unions — Strug- gles — Numa Pompilius First to Recognize and Uphold Trade Unions — Law of tlie 12 Tables taken fi oni Solon — Harmony, Peace, Ease, steady Work, Prosperity and Plenty Lasting with little Interruption tor 500 Years — Bondmen fared worse. Pane 333 CHAPTER XIV. LAWS AGAINST COMMUNES. THE GREAT ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS. A.MOIENT Fedehations of Labor — How they were Employed by the Government — Nomenclature of tlie Brotherhoods — Cat- egories of King Numa— Vatii'ii.s aiiri Paraifications -Tike MaeoDs, Stonecutters and Bricklayers — Federation for Mn- tnal Advantages — List of the 36 Trade Unions, under the Ju$ Coeundi. Page 359 CHAPTER XV. TRADE UNIONS. OEGANIZEl) ARMOR-MAKERS OF ANTIQUITT. Tbade Unions Turned to the Manufacture of Arms and Muni- tions of War — How it came about — The Iron and Metal Workers — Artists in the Alloy? — How Belligerent Romt was Furnished with Weapons, Shoes and Other Necessa ries for Hei Warriors — The Shieldmakers, Arrowsmiths. Daggermakers, War-Gun and Slingmakere, Battering-Ram- makers etc. — Bootmakers who Cobbled for the Roman Troop? — Wine Men, Bakers and Sutlers — All Organized — Unions of Oil Grinders; of Pork Butchers; even of Cattle Fodderers — The Haymakers — Organized Fishermen — Ancient Labor brought charmingly ^ear by Inscriptiona Pa^e 372 -'rxsii CONTEXTS 01' CHAPTERS. CHAPTER XVI. TRADE UNIONS. THE GREAT TRADES VICTUALING SYSTEM. How RoMK Wab Fed — Unions of Fishermen — Discovery of a Strange Inscription at Pompeii, Proving the Political Power and Organization of the "Workingmen and Women's Unions -^Female Suffrage in Italy — The Fish Salters — Wine Smok- ers — Union of Spicemen — The Game-Hunters' Organizations — Unions of Amphitheatre-Sweepers — Unions of Wagoners, Ox-Drivers, Muleteers, Cooks, Weighers, Tasters and Milkmen — The Cooking Utensil-Makers — Unions of Stewards — Old Familiar Latin Names, with Familiar English Meanings Re- produced — Gaius and the Twelve Tables — Numerous Notes with References to Archajological Collections and to Histories Giving Pages and many Necessary Benderings, of the 01- scure Ourioaities Described. Page 88^^ CHAPTER XVII INDUSTRIAL COMMUNES AMUSEMENTS OF OLD. UNIONS OF PLAYERS Th« Collegu So-snicoeum — Unions of Mimics — Horrible Mim- ic Performances in Sicily — Bloody Origin of Wakes — Unions of Dancers, Trumpeters, Bagpipers, and Hornblowers — The Flute Players — Roman Games — Unions of Circus Performers Ot Gladiators— Of Actors — Murdering Rohust Wrestlers for Holiday Pastimes— Unions of Fortunetellers — Proofs in the Inscriptions — Ferocious Gladiatorial Scenes between the Workingmen and Tigers, Lions, Bears, and Other Wild Beasts made compulsory by Roman Law. P<»y« 401 CHAPTER XVIIL TRADE UNIONS. THE ANCIENT CLOTHING-CUTTERa How THE ANcihNTs wKKE CLOTHED — The Uuions of Fullcrs — Of COMTEyyS OF CHAPTERS xxjciii Linen Weavers, Wool-carders, Cloth-combers — Inscriptions as Proof — Later Laws of Tlieodosius and Justinian Revised — Government Cloth Mills — What was Meant by Public Works — W/io managed Manufactures — The Dyers — Old- fashioned Shoes of the Forefathers — IIow made — Origin of the Crispins — The Furriers' Union — Roman Ladies and Fineries of Fur — The great Ragamuffin Trade — Their In- numerable Unions — Ragpickers of Antiquity — Origin of the Ccnciajuolc — Organization of the Real Tat'. J exitsc.ed two distinctly opposite sets of ideas or of thought upon which mankind — the arrogant blooded family with its competition on the one hmd and the slave with his rebeUioiis, and freedman with his formidable un- ions on the other — have been struggling to build up civil- izations. The transition from a completely competitive to a mutually co-operative system involved complete rev- olution. The channels in which human thought has run since man has been a mere anisnal, occupying as the the- ory of evolution daringly asserts, a hundred thousand or more of years, have, except in the case of the p ^rsecuted and sometimes almost exterminated unions, been purely competitive. The competitive is the oLli-st system known. It is pro- foundly aged. It is the system employed by all living be- ings by which to procure for individuals, each for itself and its species, the means wherewith to subsist. It is, with- out the l(!ast shadow of doubt, the original. It consists in methods of the individual, whether a weed, a tree, fox, reptile, hawk or human being, of subsisting, as an isola- ted creature or ego, independently of others. It has recog- nized self as uppermost and taken upon its own respon- sibility for others' sake their care only for gratification of self, as that manifested in preservation of species. Back in the remote past, as reason began to dawn upon creeping cave-dweUers or troglodytes of our race; when TWO ANTAGONISTIC AL QTSTEMS. 43 thought was inBpiredby suspicion and methods of subsist- ence; wore based upon cunning, nature, in the vagueness of his understanding was full of terrors. As he began to realize the ceitaintyof deatli, man established the first re- ligion ; but it was purely upon the competitive basis, al- ways with this aristocratical ego uppermost. Not until uucounted ages had passed, nor until this pa- gan religion was inconceivably old did another appear, arising from the mutually protective or co-operative idea. This was at so late a period that by groping back into the misty past, wa are enabled to know its founder and trace its history. That it was an innovation, intolerably anti- thetical to this more aged, original conipetition or brute- force underlying anel inspiring both business and reUgion is proved by the hatreds borne against it, which have so stamped themselves, not so much upon the religion as up- on the whole race that kindled its flame, spoke its tongue and cherished its ideas. The great struggle going on to-day seems best under- stood by the laborer.* Porsons bruught up under the purely competitive system which governs human affairs, see with diliiculty the ielea of true socialism ; but the Jews even of our day, grasp it with ease. We are at a loss to comprehend tins. \N hy shuuld the two foimders of the libor pai'ty in Grermany have arrived while young, at the same conception of a method which involves a revolution from the prevailing ieleas of political economy? Marx and Lasselle had been born and educated under the Mosaic law. Kicardo, a Jewish speculator in stocks, was brought up in strict obedience to the Jewish law by his father ; but finding the Hebrew doctrine very adverse to his specula- tive tendencies, notions of wages and pohtical economy, he withdrew or seceded from his ancestral religion and join- ed the more numerous ranks of the competitive one.* The Mosaic Law, divested of its idiosyncracies such as • See Prof. Ely's French and German Socialisms ; Chan. xlL pp. 189-203 ; Lasealle's Allgemeiner Dautscher Arb jiter Vere.n. Ferdinand Lassalle and Kari Marx were Jews; and it is conjectured that their ease in comprehending the true tlieori*« of the working people eminated from their early training. • McCollocb, lotrodaction to The Life of Ricardo ; 1 ondon, 1S76. 44 RACE PECULIARITIES. thirty-two hundred years ago, when men were simpler, were suitable enough, condensed into fan- English, reads about as follows: It is compulsory upon every man to stand in awe and obedience before father and mother and to keep thb sab- bath. Do not turn in favor of idols nor make molten gods for your worship. AU sacrifice of a peace offering must be offered of your own free will, and eaten the same day and the next; for if any of it remain until the third, it must be burned as unhallowed and abominable. When you reap the haiwests of your land, leave some in the corners of the field and do not gather the glean- ings of the harvest nor glean the vineyards. Leave some- thing for the poor and the stranger.' All stealing, false dealing and lying, one to another are forbidden. You must not swear by my name falsely nor profane it. You are forbidden to defraud or rob your neighbor. Pay with- out delay the wages agi-eed upon, to those whom you en- gage to labor for you. Never ill-treat the deaf nor put a stumbling block bel' re the bhnd. Be careful and dis- creet in your judgin- nt au.l your word of honor, ti*eating neighbors with righteous equahty. Never go about tale- bearing among the people, nor stir feuds with neighbors. To hate your brother is forbidden and to prevent him from falling into error you shordd call his Mttention to his fault. Abstain from revenges and grudges against the people and love your neighbor as yourself. Cultivate your stock after the natural law of selection. Let the seed of your fields be pure. Let your garments be un- mixed; if linen, let them be of pure Unen; if wool, let them be all avooI. Then foUow many details minutely describing what constitutes crime and what the punishment. Many of the punishments, while probably in very good keeping with an early and semi-barbarous age, appear to us bru - tal aid distasteful in the extreme. The severe punishment of death * visited upon all who defiled the peculiar people by mixing their blood with Moloch,' has gone far toward preserving the Hebrew stock from admixture with other races of mankind. The purity with which the Jews have ■ Leviticus, xxiil. 22. t Leviticus, xx. 3. 7. i Lerriticui, xsL 14. RELIOION AND TOIL VN AVOIDABLY MIXED. 46 thud maintained themselves amid vicissitudes, such as would have swallowed up and annihilated any other fam- ily of the human race, is readily pronounced one of the most remarkable phenomena encountered in the study of ethnology. The command is severe against witch, wiz- zai'd and spirit-worship." This must bo partly accounted for by the fact that the Egyptians, under whose domina- tion the Jews had chafed for 400 years as slaves, were among the most superstitious in their belief in, and wor- ship of all sorts of prestigiation. Charms, incantations, witchcraft and all the sleights of the wand were so pop- ular that the aii; was for ages interwoven with their reli- gion. However much we may desire to ignore all men- tion of religion in this history of the anci'^nt lowly, we find this impossible because of the prevalence of priest- power and dictum in poHtical economy. The Hebrews were the only ancients who worshiped one deity;" and as that deity is represented to be the very one who dictated the law of Moses, he would naturally be severe against false gods. "I am a jealous God," is an expression often repeated in the bible;" and such a one in giving a code of laws for the government of men would scarcely do othei-wise than make idolati-y a crime. Immodesty also receives a full share of condemnation from the great He- brew law, which thoroughly defines " what constitutes unrefined or immodest actions. It is thus seen that a lofty spirit of chastity and of mor- al purity is inculcated into all the Mosaic law. There is nothing in it that binds the Jews to the practice of any- thing Kke close community of goods. The law of Moses is not communistical. Competitive methods then as now, were the reigning ones. But the law was mutually pro- tective. The condition of society to-day is toned in a great measure by the practice of the demands of this aged code. Nearly all of the above cited paragraphs are now being obeyed by us; and they act alike, among Jew and 10 Leviticia, xx. 6. Witch hangioe by onr fore-fathere originateB here. 11 By this Is meant j one animate, aJl-powerfnl being. Ancient Heliotry and other 1 agan forms, mosit of which treated the working class wlih contempt and cruelty as we shall show, paid homage to inanimate, rtpretentative gods. 1 2 Exudus, XX. 6. 13 Liviticut, xx. 11. M RACE FECULIARITIEa. gentile, an effective part in keeping our civilization pure. The command" that the people when harvesting their grain and grapes, should not forget those vs^ho are lessi fortunate, but should leave some for them, is a touching rebuke to the niggardly system of these more enlighten- ed times. One remarkable habit, that of buying and sell- ing, owning and profiting upon slaves, even of their own kindred," seems inconsistent and cannot again enter into practice. It also, to our critical understanding, brings into severe reproach and doubt the sacred or divine au- thorship of the law of Moses. Jesus rectified all this. Most of the customs of the Hebrews are fixed. The same miles established in Palestine thirty-two hundred years ago are still adhered to. It is true that at that time Judaea was a farming or pastoral country; and that the Jews of to-day, having \)een separated by defeat and per- secution, scattered and distributed to all portions of the world, cannot continue their original pastoral and agricul- tural vocations and so have become merchants and mon- ey-lenders and have assumed the various methods of ob- taining a Hving similarly to other people. It is also true that being thus isolated, having no countary, and obliged to exist in the competitive world, under the competitive idea, they act among outsiders competitively." This they do; and they do it thoroughly. uLevitiau xix. 9, 10. uExodut xxi. 2—8. Our object In bring- fng the Jewish qnestion in here. Is to arrange the <;roandwork before bringlnsj torward the great movements of the lowly, enslaved workini; people, who, as will be seen, had not only their grie\ ance br.t their distinct PUm* of Salvation from trouble, which they for ages followed. ibSee Millman, HisUn-y sf the Jewt, CHAPTER n. THE INDO-EUROPEANS. THEIR COMPETITIVE SYSTEM. BEtmioN and Politioa of the Tndo-Europeans Identical — Reason for Religion mixing with Movements of Labor — The father th(^ Ori-iinal Slaveholder— His Cmldren the Original Slaves —Both the Law and Religion empowered h m to Kill them — Work of Conscience in the Labor Problem. HisTOKY began to register facts and to throw its liest light on the actions of the human race about the time that slavery began to take its leave. But enough of the slave system always remained to cast its dark shad- ows upon life. There had, previously to the historic rec- ord and ages before the breaking up of slavery, been an immense, an immeasurable period of time through whose trackless swamps Humanity had trod ; for the weak, uncer- tain story of a once happy reign of Neptune,* we are for- ced to ignore for want of evidence. When we reflect that there were freedmen or emancipated slaves two thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era, and that consequently the laboring classes have been struggling for four thousand years, writhing out from their slave fet- 1 Plato eays (Jjaws. Iv. 6, Bekk., L. ed.), that a great while before cititw were ever bnill, as is told, and during the reign of Satam. there ex- isted a certain extremely h:ippy mode of government to regulate the dwell- ing of men. ...It had all things nnrestrained, yielding spontaneouely It was governed by Dsemons of a diviner, more perfect race. Plutarch (Nvt- via Poinpiiius), ulso speaks of such a time and states that Nnma desired to bring back those happy days to men. Plutarch ^De Definilione Oraculontm 18,)," a'eo says that Saturn slept on an island of the blessed. But it wae in ancient Italy, Of. Dionysius of Halicamassus, (Anliquitate* Romance, i., 34,V thit the mythical >atiirn and .Janue chained down tne god of war and closed the temples against belligerency and want. The conclusion, af- ter all o ir rese,;rch is, that the whole story is a myth based upon the well know • longings which gave shape to thousands of tJtopiaa and Messiatas. 48 INDO-EUROPEAN LABOR. ters witliout having yet fully succeeded, we may at least, establish a basis of conjecture as to the time it required for the laboring denizens of the ancient slave system to grow to a conception of manhood and womanhood, suffi- cient to break their first bonds. Of the purely slave epoch which preceded the art of annals we have httle but con- jecture. There must have been a comparatively high civ- ilization at the dawn of manun.issions, where history and archaeology find human society and begin gracefully to transmit to us its deeda An inconceivable space of time must have intervened. Let us attempt to make history for the laboring classes from conjectural data in order to connect the link binding the known with those dark abysses of the unknown in antiquity. i The supposed original cradle of tiie Aryan family from j which comes the Caucasian or Indo-Eiu'opean type, ia I Central Asia. Greeks and Romans were Aryan Europe- f ans ; Arabs or Ishmaelites, Jews or Hebrews, and PhcEni- cians belonged to the Semitic family. We have already seen that the Semitic races, especially the Jews, were us- ing a low and very imperfect and unsatisfactory form of the co-operative ideal in place of the Pagan or purely competitive one, as a basis upon which to buUd their so- ciety and their civilization. The Aryans, especially the Greeks and Romans on the contrary, built their society and their civilization upon the extreme competitive idea. j The one ever was and is, mutual, interacting, loving, char- itable, rigidly reverential and non- destructive; the other fierce, warlike, excessively egoistic, combative and destruc- tive. Both brave, lofty, intelligent, capable, and suscep- tible of a higher development of physical type and of intellectual culture than any other branches of the hu- man race.' It appears from all the evidences that the first form of society was that of masters and slaves.' The extreme 2 Under the ancient idea, religion which governed political as well as private habits, was exclusively based upon man-worship. Zene or Jupiter was a man god. Dcemons or Lares were dead men, imagined, all through ['agan times to be still influential for good or evil. Cf. I'ausauias, Descip- tio Grcecice, v. 14. At Olympia the tlist two prayers were offered at the local fire, always burning in honor of these dead men and of Zeas. 3Granier de Cassagnac, HUtoire des Classes Ouwiint et da CUusu Bourgi'Mises, Chaps, iii. iv. v. ORIGIN OF BONDAGE. 49 lowliness of the laboring man's condition at that remote period can easily be imagined when we consider that all the children of the aristocratic household except the old- est son bom of the real wife and legal mother, were to- tally unrecognized by law. All except this lieir^" were originally slaves. In fact this was the origin of slavery. The first human law was, long before being written, a law of entailment upon primogenitui'e. When the patrician or owner of the property, which in those times, mostly consisted of lands, died, the property did not fall to the children or by testament, as is now the case. It fell to the oldest male child. No otlier person of that house- hold had any claim upon it. The deceased father may have had many other children, but these became subjects to the manor ; and frequently they were very numerous.* This eldest son and inheritor was, by usage of that day, obliged to bury his father within the house or court aiui worship him as a god. The original workingman waa not even a citizen.' There is no lack of testimony regard- ing this curious custom which was really the religion and the rule or groxmdwork upon which stood the anci- ent competitive regulation of labor. Let us now trace this new family in order to get at the origin and perpet- uation of human slavery. There being in primitive ages no power as now exists, behind this new heii* and adniinistrator or despot of the paternity, he easily becomes an absolute lord or monarch. To make this unjust and wonderfvd civilization appear more comprehensible and home-like, we may assume fa- miliar names. A rich farmer, one who has inherited his property from his father, dies, leaving many children, i Fustel de Coalange, Citi Antique, c. vii. pp. 76—89 Ih-oit de Success- ion. Uranier, Hist, des Classes Ouvriera , p. 69: ''Ainsi, nouB ponvons dire maintenant que none avons trouve les premiers enclaves qui fnrent; c' etaient les enfants." As to the great numbers in families, see Iliad, XXIV. V. 495. 6. 7: HfVTriKOVTo. 11.01 fi na ; to Macrobius, Somnium Scipionis <6 Saturnaliorvm Libri and many others. ON THE ORIGINAL STRIKK 56 That came later. For fully six thousand years it has been growing more and more numerous until in the nineteenth centur}^ it may be said to have almost filled the great cav- ity and is now pressing in all directions to force the ex- tinction of both those aged originals. Theoretically, this middle or intermediary class betwixt lord and menial, owner and outcast, immortal and perish- able, is perfect; occupying the ambrosial vales of Utopia where men ai-e no longer struggling for existence afi^ainst despotism, ignorance and death. In theory we should sup- pose it an altruistic state in which men looking upward to wisdom and mutual love, and backward to past ignorance and competitive greed and hatreds, would erect their so- ciety and their government upon a plan wlierein neither lords nor menials could have law or foothold. Such would be the revolution realized— the revolution that began with manumissions. But practicahy — although many are dream- ing of this ultimatum — we are far from it. Lords still exist though with milder domination and slaves yet remain though on a higher plain. M. de Laveleye informs us that communities held lands in common for the people in times past" and cites an abundance of instances in proof; but while this may all be true, it is none the less true thnt the original condition was that of masters and slaves. Particularly was this the case with the people from whose records we extract these data — the Ai-yan race. It is the perfectly natural condition, explainable in tlie tlieory of development. In the Aryan, especially its Indo-Eiu-opean type, we see the original the- ory of development veritied ; and it comes to us from pre- historic data which philology, archaeology and reason har- moniously combine to verify. What would man, primi- tively a wild animal, naturally do? Would he not be just like all animals? It wants only the observation of an hour to note that a group of barnyard fowls, soon after being put into a yard begin fighting for mastery or lordship; and this conflict will not stop until the strongest, cle-\er- est chanticleer has mastered every adversary. This also M De Laveleye, Primilve Pri/perly, pp 137. In atieinptin5» to prove these no- tions about primitive property, tliis autlior ie confronieii at the outset, with the fact that he IB seeking to rebut the principle of development; hie village com- munities are a lal/e, not a ^'primitive" condition. M IND 0-EUR PEA N LABOR. imist be said of a herd of cattle grazing on a common. Tlie sti'ongest steer, after a fiill test of its muscular forces, becomes master of the flock and remains so. With perfect truth it might be further remarked that should no individual of the herd be of the male gender, the contest for mastery will be between the heifers ; thus seeming to prove the principle of the survival of the fittest without any reference to the instinct of perpetuation of species. Even plants, in theii" striiggle for existence are constantly in the competitive field, warring with each other — the tares rooting out the wheat — until the hand of the reasoning cultivator lays low the obnoxious weeds. Thus it is shown that the principle of individual ascend- ency with its acknowledgement, is the original and nat- ural one. It is the quiritare do7ninium. The law of nat- ural selections and survival of the fittest apphes without the aid of reason. Xaturalists who have lavished grt-at care and honest pains in search of proof of this philosophy in plants, animals and men,-° have scarcely brought their in- vestigations to bear upon that new, almost supernal power of reason, which some admit to have come later, as a re- sult of evolution. If we are allowed to tread ihe penetralia of this philos- ophy with the eye and ear of a critic we shall find in the law of natural selections the bed rock of brute competi- tion. While beholding this with the conriction of its truth and forced to admit it as the fiat of growth, we shall see that it rests upon the toppling trestles of brute force. We shall find that the superstructure resting upon these abutments is time-worn and rotton. Its spans ai'e becoming unsafe; its planking hoof -worn; its string- ers sway with the winds of newer things and we find o\u'- selves dizzy peering into the angry foam of jDrogress be- low. As long as there are only masters and slaves the strongest brutes may survive ; but when the new idea of manumission arrived which was forced upon the masters by the growth of population, the survival of the fittest changed hands. If we accept the doctrine of natural »5 We here Incorrectly place man above animals in deference to ' he egoism he has not outgrown. Eepecially is man to be considered and classed among animals under the philosophy of the fittest, since this very survival is mostlj the result of the competltiTe Btmggle, akin to brute force asd ante Idem, p. 6. "From the earliest times the Greeks and Romans recognized private property as applied to the soil and traces of ancient tribal community weie already so indistinct as not to be discoverable without carefnl study." Al. de Laveleye might better have said such traces are not discoverable at all; and indeed, the mosi of tlie instances he cites are of a comparatively recent era, the probable development of resistance, thousand of years after the mannmission of slaves had set in as a result of their strikes and aprisincB, of which wo get clues. LAW OF ENTAIL AND ITS DANGERS. €9 no hesitation in saying that the Aryan religion, as already described, made the first born son, by the law of entail, the owner oi" his own children who thus became slaves.* Ref erences to this old custom are very numerous in the an cicnt writings.' Under Lycurgus*the Spartans tried the system of communal proprietorship from the year 825 to 371 B. C. Although every deference was paid to the ten- ets of the Pagan religion tbnt this celebrated code of laws established by the great lawgiver should not interfere with worship, yet worship itself being interwoven with pro- perly was seriously disturbed; because to divide among the people, the rabble, the profane, that which fell to the god who si pt under the sacred henrtli, or to his living son, seemed to be a sacrilege too blasphemous to endure. The Scheme fell to naught. The probable fact is, that the a,nc\ent 2yaterfamilias\ perceiving himself robbed of his pa- terniiy, united with other pairicians in similar trouble and succeeded in working the overthrow of the innovation. We propose to establish that these great innovations, like the laws of Lycurgus and many similar attempts at reform, the detailed causes of whose mighty commotions some- times shook Rome and Greece like the eruption of a vol- cano, were often caused by the multitudes of secret trades and other social organizations existing in those ancient days Historians seldom mention them. The reason for this is quite clear. This disturbing element was made up of the outcasts of society. How did it come about that there were liuch outcasts? The answer to this involves a detour of discovery into pbeaomana of evolution. Of a family of say thirty persons — there exists abundance of evidence that there were oftt n thirty and more persons born to one patri- cian or lord * — there is but a single owner or director, the first-born son. The otlicr children and servants by pur- chase or otherwise, are slaves. It was a crime to leave the paternal estate. They might be clubbed to death for dis- 6 La CiU Antique; Leviticus, 11.4. 1 Plato, .ifimis, also Sorvius In JEneid, v. 84, vl. 152. sRoscher, Hiataire df, l' t^rcmrmne Politique, French tr. Paris, p. 192. "Hs adopted ii common i-roporcy ; education in common, eating in common, steal- \ivi antliorized, commorce interdicted, precious metals p'oecribed, laud divided equ;.|iy uiiioii^' the citizens etc' KOiaiiicT dc Liissagnac, Hist, des Classes Ouvriires, p. 70 70 TREATMENJ OF THE FOOR. satisfaction with their lot but they must not leave or desert it. That entailed certain death. In extraordinai-y circum- Btauces they actually did leave the bondage of the paternal estate and become wanderers or nomads. This was the probable origin of the second estate. We mean by this the freedman. Whether they obtained their freedom by revolt and bloodshed, by running away from their masters, or by emancipation as per agreement, makes little difference. In the Asiatic races of later times mentioned by Le Play," they seem to have never relinquished their allegiance to some lord, patriarch or ruler. By a tenacity of habit to which we shall refer, the very most ancient customs thus sometimes come down to us. The power of human habit is astonishing. There linger to this day, in the religion wor- shiped by the most enlightened of mankind, many rites and forms common in remote antiquity ; for although the tenets and the sentiment are no longer the same, the old rites befit themselves to the new ideas. Desertion from this bondage is known to have been a very risky affair ; because the deserter or runaway slave had not only the perils of the act of desertion to run but he also forfeited his i-ight and title to the small hope of bliss accorded him by the gods after death. Even at emanci- pation the right of worship ceased," and a new altar had to be erected. This was in case of marriage of a daughter when no one was injured or offended. But a deserter Avas treated with terrible malignity both by the father or owner and by the injured deity whose relationship in pedigree or consanguinity he severed, desecrated, disgraced by the blasphemous act. They had curious opinions on death ; and religion to those ancient working people, was a part oi life." The fear of not being buried with the right of sepul- ture was gi-eater than the fear of death itself." Although comparatively no consequ-nce was attached to a slave, yet the slave himself being by lineage and by entailment a chat- tel, evidently had some right to sepulture. Of what kind 10 Le Play, Organizalion of Labor, chap. i. §.9, Ena;. trans., assures ns that among the nomads, the direct descenflants of one father generally remained grouped together. They lived under the alisolute authority of tlie ui ad of the family, in a gyetem of community. Some of them are living in this method still. 11 Fustel de Coulanges, CiU Antique, chap. ill. 11 idem. chap. 1. p. 12 "L opinion premiere dcs antiqaes generations fnt qae I'iUt hamun vfvait dans le tombeau ; que 1' ame ne M separait pas da corpa 9t qa' all* rwtAit &x&9 i cette partie da sol od les otsements ^talent •n- torrto." CI VILIZA TION OUTGROWS SLA VER 7. Tl it is difticult to determine," because historians who recorded tnilitary deeds and le<^al transactions which in later days Wi've considered work for noblemen, wire themselves al- most always of noble blood and wouldnot mention so mean a thing as a slave who performed labor. This fact accounts largely for the scarcity of written record in regard to labor in ancient times. Compelled by the darkness of this unwritten age of slav- ery which must have lasted infinitely longer than seven thousand years of whose events we catch an occasional glimpse, we first find the great philosopher Aristotle ac- knowledging," in his startling prediction that " slave labor may become obsolete." So again Rodbertus of our own times, looking at and judging from the organized resistance of laboring men, predicts that society will outgrow wages or competitive slavery.^® Hi-re are two seemingly parallel cases ; the one representing a condition of afl'airs 350 years before Christ, the other taken from actual conditions before our own eyes, in both cases, given against the stubborn will of the ruling wealthy by two of the profoundest and most daiingly honest ]>hilosophers the world has produced. At the time Rodbertus von Jagetzo%v made this startling pre- diction, Germany under Bismarck, was stifling every ef- fort of press, legislation, trade-unions and socialists, to give the dreaded fact to the world. The freedmen at the time of Aiistotle were forming an innumerable phalanx of com- bined strength. It is not hard for students of sociology to understand why in ancient times no mention was made by historians of the wonderful organizations which then existed. But for laws necessarily recorded for the use of government and for the habit which labor unions of those times enter- tained, compulsorily perhaps, of inscribing their name, fes- tivities, the tutelary saint they worshiped and the handi craft they belonged to, upon slabs of stone, there would be no means of knowing or even conjecturing the history of a transition period which launched maukind, after long cen- turies of struggle, out of a passive subinif-sion to abject ser- isldem, Ctiap. i. Antiques Oroyances. uLaterwe find cremation; but only the poor who poeBessrd no gronnd bunied thbir dead. These were the outcasts suppoi^ed lo have no souls. 1". Ari!^totle, i'o/i((C.s', i. 4. n^ i!odbertus, JSormal ArbeiUlag ; Ely, Bitt. Fraich and Geiinait .SocialUms, pp. 176-7. f2 TREATMENT OF THE POOR. vitude into the true competitive system. We shall farther on have more to say in detail of the hatred and contempt which the ancient slave masters held toward their poor working chattels. There v^^as a taint upon laLor, So there is now. Thus far then, there is no prouress. We shall attempt to ana- lyze the original cause of this taint upon labor and prove that the progress of to-day consists in its diminution. Admitting the theory of development we go back to man at the dawn of reason, when he was still a beast. We even imagine a group, such as Professor Oswald Heer has pic- tured in the frontispiece of his ina^ttrly scieniific work on the fossils of Switzerland." Prowling around this group of naked human forms — some upon trees, otheis crawling, others walking plantim-ade, or gorilla-like — we see wild animals, birds and reptiles, all in search of food. Just as the steer after a deaperate encounter with its rival cornea out the victor and ever liolds the mastery over the rest of a herd, so the most powerful and ferocious of this aroup of primeval men wins witb bis club, bis fingers, or lists the mastery over the rest. These are first impulses. They are entirely animal in character. Wild geese and ducks seek in conflict the means oi knowing vvljieh of their flock shall be leader in their flight; and him of the most magnetic or muscular or intellectual powers they follow. The purely animal, then, is the form which primitive, animal man as- sumes. This strong master of the group is the prototype of the pati'ician and inheritor of the estate as thousands of years afteiwards we find him lord of the manor with his slaves about him. It would be absurd to suppose that im- mediately at the dawn of reason, this wild animal actually assumed one of the highest types of civilization. The com- munistic or even the patriarchal is one of the highest forms which human beings have attempted. Tiiey have, it is true, been attempted but mostly to prove failures; simfily be- cause they were of a type even in their crudest state-, too far progressed for others to appreciate and apply. The master or as we may better characterize him, the bully has always beeu too jealous. That Abraham and Moses tried a very low form of it, and isolated themselves so as not to V Dr. Oswald Heer, UrweU der SAvMiM, EVIDENCE OF INSCRIPTlOm. ?| Joterfere with others, is true. But it is too well known thai the Hebrews were not appreciated in their good work. Their very attempt to institute the patriarchal system even in its imperfect, half competitive form, brought against them the jealousy of the world of heathendom. It was an intol- erable innovation upon the more ancient, aristocratic, brutal syh;tem of masters and slaves. And it was no mere indi- vidual, but this gigantic system which massed its powers to drive the presumptious Hebrews from the face of the earth. The mere animal form of government must have come first. This reasoning, says the law of evolution, must have born very brutal forms. Surely enough, so we find it at tlie dawn of history and at the highest discernible antiquity not only in Greece and Rome but in Egypt. It was the slave system under which the Egyptian monuments were built; and no thinking person can doubt that thousands of years of this slavery must have elapsed before the Egyptians arrived at the art of architecture in which recorded history finds them. Advancing reason had already been of millennial date ere those people could have known how to carve their hiero- glyphs with nice precision upon the monuments. Again, we fail to see that these inscriptions mention any mode of a more ancient communal or patriarchal government. The simplest form of governing the primeval race must have been the one adopted ; and the simplest was the one common among the animals of to-day. There was at the head of every group, or tribe, or family, a master ; and him the rest obeyed, afterwards adored. It next seems natural that surrounded by wild and fierce creatures of the waters, glades and forests, the first rea- sonable thing to protect this master would be to select some place of security — some rock or cave or height, whence he might go or send forth into the forests, the swamps and shores in search of fruit, roots, shellfish and gnme. An- other thing; it is natural for man to settle permanently somewhere. This is peculiarly the case with the Aryan races. It is the form of life almost universally adoj)ted by the Indo Europeans. They select a seat and conquer and subjugate in all directions. This also corresponds with our proposition that the first idea was to obtain a home. With the growth of experience iti the application of reason came egoism which it is said the brute does not often man- 74 TREATMENT OF THE POOR. ifest. Now with animal prowess, a little reason and a large effoism, we have what the present labor movement calls a "boss/' He is endowed with the three great attributes whi<'h our imdern authorities on moral philosophy denom- inate irascibility and concujnscence. Given the riGjht of proprietorehip wrung through suj)e- rioi'ity in physical power from his tribe and his cliildrcn, and he unhesitatingly uses them as slaves. This the true beast cannot do, ^;ince it requires reason. The first impulse, that of cupidity, makes hiai a tyrant and the second, that of irascibility, fills him with cruel ferocity, accounting ibr the well known fact that the ancient slave-holder could and often did kill his own children." The first impulse, that of concu- piscence and acquisitiveness combined into one, makes him desirous to enjoy and accumulaie. So his children are nu- merous. These two nearly allied sources of human desire or greed filled him with a rivalry to accumulate and often to se- quester the stores which the toil of his slaves produced. A third impulse, that of sympathy, being yet mostly want- ing, man reasonably was thus tilled with pomp and greed. These whetted his yet unbridled passions, making him ambitious to embellish his estate, caused the land to be fruit- ful, inspired him to build better houses, select and multiply his concubines and otherwise adorn the paternity. But the ©riginal parent-aristocrat ov paterfamilias never until much later, desisted from the enforcement of absolute virtue of the parent-aristocrat mother or niaterfamilias. Sympathy, it would seem came to him but tardily. Sym- pathy was inspired later; — brought into the world through the cult of the organizations of freedmen, after the begin- ning of the era of manumissions. Socrates and Aristotle recognized their powerful school of fraternal coherence and mutual love which it seems almost certain culminated in the wonderful institution known as Chistianity, destroying the old Paganism or, at least, laying the foundation for its final eradication from the world. This picture presents a poor outlcok for the slaves, who were obliged to perform the master's drudgery. They how- ever, always had two advantages : being to the family bom, 18 Terentins, Heauton Timorumeiios, Act III. 6 ; Dionyglus of HallcarnaBBUs, AnliquitaUs Rvmavw, lib. II. cap. sxvi.; Codex Justiniani, lib. VU. Ut. Xlvll, Pandeda, (Digeit), lib. XXVIII. leg. xi. TEE IGNOMINIOUS CREMATION. 76 iLcy owned a meagre right to some kind of burial; whereas it is known that later, the fret'dman could only expect cre- mation. To have the remains refused the noble rite of bur- ial was a disgrace. It was a virtual acknowledgement that the person liad no soul. Malefactors, runaways or de- serters and freedmen so lowly as to be without prntection, in other words all whom God spurned to recognize as hav- ing an immortal life, were burned or cast out to rot without honors.*' The other advantage was that their owners weie their supporters which freed slaves from the responsibilities of the struggle for bread. Still the whole picture presents a poor outlook for the slaves who were obliged to perform his drudgery. But as if they might be inclined to desert him the religious belief was so riveted upon their benighted minds that for thousands of years they did not doubt that the punishment for desertion would be a species of damna- tion. The slaves were taught that the most hallowed of all places was the central focus or alter of worship of the manes of their master. The holy and awful funeral repast had al- ways to be partaken upon the same spot where the family ancestors lay. Thus for generations families worshiped each other at the same tomb.'" We have already quoted from Dr. Fustel that the dread of being dei)rived of sepulture was greater than the fear of death itself. So fearful were the ancients, even the ancient laborers, of arousing the ire of their tutelary deities that they worshiped them by sacri- fices. They even fed " these disengaged souls" and period- ically furnished them with wine, milk, fruit, honey and other table delicacies which in life they had been known to pre- fer. These strange beliefs which were by no means con- fined to the Indo-European, but as Fustel de Coulanges has made clear, embraced the entire Aryan family," were the isCicero, De Legibus, 2, 23, "Eominem mortnnm, inquit lex XII., ( meaning the Twelve I'ables, ) in Urbe ne sepelito neve orito Quid? qui' post XII. in Urbe fepulti, sunt clari viri." 20 Euripides, Trojans, 381. 21 Virgil, Aineld, III. 300: Euripides, Iphigenia. 476, "Behold, 1 pool npon the earth of the tomb milk, honey and wine; for it is with these that we revivif3' the dead:" Cf. also, Ovid, Pastus, II. 540. 22 Critically, this expression is incorrect: for the ancients believed that the eoul was never di8en;,'aged, but remained buried with the body in bliss. Con- sult Fustel de Coulangee, Cili Antique, liv. I chap. iv. 23 In substance L)r, Fustel, Idem. p. '26 says: Cos croyances ne sont pas asDrement emprantSes ni par les Grecs des iJindous ni paries Eindons dos Grecs; mais eliesappartenaieut ^ toates les Icnx races, de loin recaI6uB et dv miliea de 1' Asie. )d TREATMENT OF THE POOR. prevailinjT ones and formed the basis of the great Pagan re- ligion. The superstition worked so powerfully upon the benighted conscience of slaves that however severe their lot, they required a higher scale of euUy;htennient than could be had in these low forms of slavery before they could see their way clear to revolt. This, however came in the course of time. There is no doubt that discussion among the numer- ous oiganizations of freedmen did much toward bringing this about. The increasing number of slaves also gave them opportunity to meet and interchange opinions. In the deep gloom of abject slavery men seldom revolt. Revolt is es- pecially rare where there is no (jontact with public opinion adverse to it. It is not probable, therefore, that the slaves, however bad their treatment, found themselves in a condi- tion enough advanced in the scale of manhood to organize revolt until thousands of years of their abject servitude had elapsed. But it appears certain that revolts had been going on for a long time before we catch the earliest clues to their history. When language had become perfected and means of mutual comprulien&ion had come into their grasp, so that an intelligent interchange of each others feelings was had, and it became easy to expies^s their grievances and suffer- ings one with anotlier, they began to revolt. If a lord or capitalist in a paroxysiu of unbridled rage, ordered one slave for a trivial offense to be strangled by the others," they were compelied to bo the executioners of their comrade. If his majesty raised his hand and dashed out the brains of his own child, the other <;hildren,*' though by no means so keenly sensitive to xXvi horror as we of our own time, would feel a comnicu sym))atiiy and perhaps lay up the in- fanticide for a futuie day of vengeance. When the right of sepulture was taken W^nn them and they found that even the consolation of religion was gone, they went desperate and reckless over the imagined withdrawal, by the God they worshiped, of his blessing. In this state of mmd they wSee story of Oamophilos In chapter viiL, on the revolt of Enniis. IS We have, in the ancient records, many allusions to the murder of chil- dren by tne lords of the estate. See Dionyssius of Ilalicarnassus, Arcliiologia Rhomana, lib. II. cap. sxvi 'O 6« ruiy 'PaiiJ.alui' voixo^tTiq^ diroirav, oj^ cinety, iS- uiKev i^ovo'iai' irarpi Ka6' vlov, Koi Trapa TTavra t'ov Tov piov xpovov . . , , , edi'Tt dnox- TiVfui/at TrpoatpqTai- Also Code of Jmtinian. lib. VIII. tit xlvil. leg. X., where this right is mentioned aa having once existed ; "Jus (patrbus) vitsa in libeco* ueci.»qne potestas olim erat pcrmisaa," TEE FIRST MERCENARY SOLDIERS. Tl ronst have frequently plotted together and concocted iiisar- rectioiis." They however, did not co-operate with each other for the accumulation of wealth. This is a phenome- non of which we shall hereafter speak more lengthily. But the principle cause of the rebelUoiis which in course of time became very common, was their increase among themselves. It must not be supposed because the master who owned all at their expense ano first mentioned classes they are utterly incomprehensible. The sociologist however, who sees the slaves growing in numbers while the gens '* remained stationary in num- bers, can easily pictiu'e the causes and spirit of these leagues. They were confederations of the lords or indi- vidual owners of the palriinonies or estates. These es- tates, as we have seen, fell to the lords, by entail in pri- mogeniture. The Amphictyony '' was simply a co-opera- tive association of the lords to defend their estates; and they most naturally, as customary with all Pagan ancients, held forth fii-st and foremost the horrors of irreligion, knowing that the superstition of the slaves was their true stronghold, since by making it appear that attack upon or contemptuousness of the holy property was an unpar- donable misdemeanor or even to utter words of conspiracy against that property remaining in the hands of the first bom son, was blasphemy. This superstition thus incul- cated was always, in ancient times, the bulwark of pro- tection to the nobles. The Amphictyony existed 2,000 years before Christ, probably even much prior to that time, and grew more and more powerful, until about B. C. 700 it had grown in numeric strength and in the sub- tle art of self- protection so that it assumed the dignity of the Amphictyonic Council, seated itself in the holy tem- ples of Apollo and Demeter, and had delegates who to ft there spring and autumn, representing twelve tribes or states of Greece and the Archipelaijo. Some 600 years before Christ the Amphictyonic Council had misundor- standings with its delegates and wars of extermination began. These troubles were called the holy wars. It ia known that for many centuries these corporations pro- tected themselves mutually. If one of the small neighboi- 88 Latin "Gerw," whence the "gentry." See Maun*8 Ancient ami MeUiaval Uepulbcs, chapter vi. •i» Kiske. American PolUical Ideas, u. 72. n TREATMENT OF TEE POOR. hoods represented in and protected by the federation was attacked or threatened, the entii'e power of all the others was thrown together in its defense. The article of agree- ment between them ran as follows: Not to destroy or al- low to be destroyed or cut off from water, in peace or war, any town in the Amphictyonic brotherhood ; not to plunder" the property of the god or treacherously ex- tract valuables from the sanctum. Now in face of the fact that there were by this time great numbers of sup- ernume rary slaves who had, on account of their servitude and the abuses they suffered, become reckless, fierce and ready to enter upon a life of desperate revolt, still we find writers denying that this brotherliood had any otlier idea than a purely religious one. To the searching sociologist it is quite clear that this organization must have been one of the very first efforts of the Indo-Eiu'opeans to form a government for the protection of property, From incipiency this must have been the earliest form of government. But it was an aristocratic government which cast a taint on labor. It perpetuated the holi- ness of property which has ever since upheld the dogma of divine right of the fathers and of kings and is prob- ably the originator of that dogma. Away back in the past, before the country had become thickly peopled and while superstition combined with rigid rules of the masters, kept down aU danger of revolt among the slaves, there were no cities. " We have not space in this work to explain the phenomenon of the ancient city, but refer the curious to Dr. Fustel, whose work** cannot be perused without profit. Modern scholars are making valuable com- pilations of evidence showing that cities, like nearly ev- erything else, were a natural and gradual growth. The great Hesiod, himself a poor freedman if not a slave, may have had the Amphictyonic league and its wars in mind when he wrote : "Men'B right arm Is law ; for spoils they WKlt And lay their mutual cities desolate." « *> The custom was to bury with the deceased father many preciouB articles of which he was fond in life. See Funck-Brentano, La Oivdlisatimi et ta Lois. on this Fetish custom and his evidence that the favorite wife was often bnried alive alone with the other trinkets ; livre II. c ii pp. 114-116, « Fustel de Coulanges, CM Antique, liv.III. C. 11. etllL «/d. III. C. 1 43 Hesiod, 'Epym Kal 'Hue'poi, V. 161. CHAPTER IV. ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES ANCIENT GRIEVANCES OF THE WORKERS. Working People destitute of Souls — Original popular Beliefs — Plato finally gives them half a Soul — Modern Ignorance on the true Causes of certain Developments in History — Sym- pathy, the Third Great Emotion developed out of growing Reason, through mutual Commiseration of the Outcasts — A new Cult — The Unsolved Problem of the great Eleusinian My-teries — Their wonderful Story — Grievances of slighted Workingmen — Organization impossible to Slaves except in their Strikes and Piebellions — The Aristocrats' Politics and Religion barred the Doors against Work-people — Extraor- dinary Vvhims and Antics at the Eleusinian Mysteries — The Causes of Grievances endured by the Castaway Laborers — Their Motives for Secret Organization — The Terrible Cryp- tia — The horrible Murders of Workingmen for Sport — Dark Deeds Unvsiled — Story of the Massacre of 2,000 Working- men — Evidence — The Grievances in Sparta — In Athens — Free Outcast Builders. Sculptors, Teachers, Priests, Dancers, Musicians, Artisans, Digfjeis, all more or lees Organized — Re- turn to the Eleusinian Mysteries — Conclnsion. DoEiNG the long period occupying — in the case ot the Indo-Eiiropean race from which most of us are derived, several thousand years, theri- came ahout a differentia- tion in favor of the slaves. Granier in his bright exposi- tion of this great social suT)ject, declares slavery to have been the natural outcome of the Pauan, or family religion.' Fustel de Coulanges in his instructive and extraordinarily lucid work has proved every word wi'itten by Graniei ^Bitt, des Cayses OuvrlU-es, pp. 39-41. Vide (\)&^. lil. jNUtink 84 THE MYSTERIES. Tipon this daring theme, to be true.' Philosophers of ou/ %ge, catching at written and unwritten obscurities which saliently obtrude upon the path of researchers groping in Bociology, are getting down to real causes of events which for 2,000 years remained phenomena undeciphered. Ages upon ages have rolled and the mouldering stones and tab- lets, invaluable with their begrimed inscriptions, have sau- cily stared at science, unheeded. Furtive hints by anci- ent historians for centuries have mocked the lore of uni- versities, bearing their inuendos which failed to insult the professorial sticklers to our darling notes and emen- dations. Great Social wars with ominous wing have beeu flopping and airing our ignorance as to their deep, sup- pressed causes. Then the downfall of the Roman empire — that of all others most inexplicable wonder — has been for twenty centuries chopped up into indigestible morsels and administered to students of history searching after great events and ecclesiastical lore. At last the student of sociology enters the field. He is philosopher enough to divest himself of the crusty film in which prejudice is encysted and manly enough to step out of the contumeli- ous state and like a Murillo go down among the tatterde- malions and give them credit for what they were. Society began with the bully.* It began with unbridled irascibihty, concupiscence and egoism. This creature, man, having killed or clubbed away the others, sought among the females the handsomest mate and in the best cave or hut began the family. The Aryan is not a nomad. He wants a home, a permanent residence. He is brigand enough to launch forth into all the enterprizes of plunder, but he returns to his home. This home remained his fast- ness which he would not quit. The land around it be- came his. "When children came they were also his. When they grew strong and could work, his concupiscence differentiated into cupidity ; and begetting many, he forced them to work. They became his slaves. If the little ones refused or otherwise displeased him his irascible impulses prevailed and he killed them. Those whom he could not spare he only punished. His irascibility made him a tLa CiU Antiqut, pp. 76-89; See also /Zuul, xxL, Odyssey, xxlL, Levit^a-:-;. KZV. 40, 41, 44, 47, 48. * We are forced to employ this homely term u there exists in Engl'ah no •flier which to nearly conveys oar idea. ORIGIN OF THE PROLETARIAT. 86 tyrant, -while his acquisitiveness made him rich. He be- came a lord. Sympathy was a stranger to his bosom though no doubt it worked an influence at an early day in moulding the nature of the family, as we know there were favorites. He Hved in the wonder-world. The phenomena of na- ture he could not understand. There were thunders and Hghtnings, but electricity was a terror which shaped a god. When this god of nature grew into shape upon his imagination his egoism coveted its glory and immortality and the bully came to imagine himsdf a god; and assumed for himself power and immortality deifying himself at death and ordaining his first-born son his worshiper and the sole inheritor of his fortiine. The remuneration de- manded of the son for this succession was the paternal worship and the deification and adoration of the dead fa- ther, now a saint. Egoism was thus the originator of the Pagan religion, of immortality and of the sainthood.* It was a part of the genius of this cult to be aristocratic and exclusive. It inculcated divine rights of masters, of noble lords and afterwards of kings. On the other hand it was a part of the genius of paganism to have slaves. It was so exclusively aristocratic that only a very few could possibly enjoy its beatitudes. The rest were obliged to be castaways. The castaways who were debarred the favorit- ism of eternal life through the aristocratic burial and dei- fication were slaves, doomed by an inheritance of expro- priation and of poverty, to slavery. When they became numerous, although wretched, there now and then devel- oped a man or woman of genius. Bereft of everything tangible, they still had minds. With minds they consid- ered and discussed their lowly condition; with strength and ingenuity some worked themselves out of bondage and became freedmen. As freedmen they began to organize into protective associations and trade unions. Thus two distinct parties were formed. Meantime the power of the lords or property owners increased but not so rapidly in numeric strength as tlie power of the outcast, and the grandees, seeing the bondmec, runaways and freedmen forming into conxmunes, some at * Latin paoania, of, or belonging to the conntry, pagu*. There were theo no towne or citlei These came later. Of. La CM Antique, patsim. 88 THE MYSTERIES. tradesmen, some as brijrands, all dissatisfiecl, some Terv dangerous, also betook themselves to organiz ition. Tims there were two distinct c'assps. Which of these two clas- ses began eariit-st to ovaatiizefor self defense we cannot un- dertnke lo prove but leasou coniecturcs that it must have been the outcasts. But certain it is ' ihcy formed into power- ful ^>/oo^r?(;S * or ci/ries for mutual assistan(;e, sometimes un- der religious pretenses, as in the case of the Italian collegia. All alunff, parallel with each other through time, these two systems, ihe grandees or gentes on the one hand and the outcasts or disinherited ou the other, have existed, se- curing themselves by mutual organization. We do not see in history much of the working classes. The principal men- tion made of them is in coimection with slavery and the concomitant degradation of servitude. We know from certain passages in history that insurrections or slave re- bellions occurred. Some of them were on a prodigious scale. Ph'tarch mentions instances where the masters by decree of the phratries sometimes allured large numbers of the slaves on ph-a of a fesiival or hunt and when at a con- venient si)ot fell upon and murdered them by hundreds, merely to get rid of a dangerous element.' That the ser- vile element keenly felt the contempt in which they were re- garded, crops out in the records of the remote past. We propose to give aian}^ instances. The exclusion of slaves, freedmen and afterwards Christ- ians from the Eleusinian mysteries gives the student of so- ciology an important hint to pages of the unwritten labor question; showmg the reasons why the outcasts resorted to co-0|»eration among themselves, as an only practical court of ap])eals to any power against oppression wlien aggrieved. All writers who have spoken of this celebrated and myste- rious organization agree that it was very ancient. As we have found irrefutable evidences of numerous trade unions so ear'y as the eighth and ninth century before Christ, we • Fustel de Conlanses, CiU Antique, lib. IL pp. 88^9, LaFamille; Mann's Ancienl and il'-duival Hepiiblics, pp. '22-27. «Mor;,-an, Ancienl SooHi-i. p. 88 : "The (t>paTpia Is a brotherhood, as the term Imports; and a natural growth from the organization into Rentes. It is an ortranic union or ns-ociation of two or m-rc iji-nies of the same tiil)e for certain comiiiOD oljjects. 'i hese ^en/es were usually such as had been fonnel by the scKineuta tion of an original gens." This author sees some analoL'y between the ancienl Greelc and Roman gens and certain tribes of North American Indians; notabl; the Iroijuois. Consult chapters ii. and iii. 1 Plutarch, Lycurgus; aleo Lycurgus and Numa compared. THE ORIGINAL CRUSADK 87 need not trace the Elfusinian band back of that time. It is however, worthy of remark that this organization existed at a much earlier date and that, although the societies of the workmen do not as luminously come to the front on oc- count of this stigma which made them secret and prevented their recognition, it is no proof whatever that they did not also exist. The organization known as the Eleusinians,* ac- cording to ancient authors was in full force 1,500 years be- fore Christ. Cicero who was an admirer of all the Pagan forms that tended to hand down the exclusive splendor and dignity of the aristocratic stock, believed lliese feasts to have belonged to the remotest antiquity and that they lasted the long'St of almost any institution,* Like the great trade-union move ncnt they transmit unwritten records through an occasional slab, bearing inscriptions.'* The Eleusiniau crusade was a celebrated and excKisively aristocratic religious festival in honor of the goddess Dem- eter or Ceres," held at Bleusis, a large town some ten miles from Athens, in Attic Greece. It was a great outpouring from Athens, every 5 years in the mouth Boedromloa,^'^ last- ing nine days, The great preparations made before the fes- tival began, the extraordinary solemnity of the aflfair, the manner in which the Athenians attended it in a drome or chanting caravansary, gave it the appearance of a crusade. It was the origin of all well-known crusades. The attend- ance at this crusade was a trial of one's eligibility to the blessings of life eternal. Eleusis means a trysting place ; consequently it is probable that the srreat games suggested the uame of the place, and once established upon a project- ing rock of the sea, the city afterward grew around it and in course of time held a large population. There are some touching meraenioes which may be gleaned from this cele- brated name. Whoever rea Is the bible in Greek finds fre- quent mention of this word in the signification of the com- ing of the Saviour. It is a symbolic word. Emblems in » In later centories the little Mysteries continued thoagh they were not con- fneii to Eleusis. ■Cicero, De Ltffibiu, 11. cap. XVI.; Pane^riais of Isncrales, 6. ' udgin» from the slab of Paros they began in ! he fifteenth century before Chi . t, LSLTOaaae, Dictinnnaire Uaiversel, Art L.i'i P.UusinUn<:. Ceres, like the Pelasgic Herinea was the ithyihallicdeity, having power over iei)roduction and the s;;ppli<'if of life. Cf. r.ucyc. tsrit. vol. XI. p. 670. ' !i jr)5poMiiu>', the space of time- fiom '^ciitcmuer l-^th to October 15lh ; from 3c.y7po,j.€u), I chase with a shout i'iie- ■u-' in th.- battle with the .^mazom, ch:i-c d them with cries It is a word ot tiiecii antiQuliy Plutarch. Thesetu. 88 THE MYSTERIES. those days were common ; and much that ?8 unexplained or that may yet be explained —unexplained throuLih ignorance or neglect — comes oat, by a proper interpretation of em- blems. But the Eleusinian mysteries were too absurdly exclusive to stand the erosions of what is known as progress. In per- fect agreement wit!i what we have said regarding the ex- clusive character of their worship, centering it upon the egoistic household name, forcing a puflfed aristocracy by dint of glorifying a human creature and cutting off" that glory from the many, especially those who toil, it had made itself odious and intolerable long before the advent of Christ. Yet the antiquity and greatness of the trysting scenes at Eleusis had become renowned in every well-known part of the world. All over Palestine, long afterwards the cradle of another but infinitely more democratic plan of worship, this curious practice was well-known. In Italy and Africa its fame had gone forth. We are not sijeaking of the Eleusinian mysteries merely to recount a paltry historico-ecclesiastical fact. We are making a point in sociologic research. We therefore ask our reader's indulgence in comparing the social life of home- spun work people through a metaphor as opposite as the Eleusinian emblems. Yet it is no metaphor. It bears with it a bone of contention which raged for centuries, split and divided, founded heresies, sophistries, philosophies, provoked labor unions, involved work-people in communism, drew out discassion and laid the foundation of the religion of Je^us in after years. We now proceed to explain how this was done. In ancient mythology Proserpine, or as some write it, Persephone, was the beautiful daughter of Ceres the Demeter, and of Jupiter. Pluto the god of the infernal regions fell in love with Proserpine and while she was in tlie act of gathering flowers in a vale of Enna in Sicily, stole her from her mother, carrying her off to his nether-world home." The mother though an immortal and living on ihe heights of Enna the Sicilian Olympus, was so grieved at the loss of her child that she came down from heaven, betook to her- self the garb of mortals, became an old woman, assumed the dntiea of a nuree and wandered through the country, nh^f, ^btsf. tUL, containing the story of Ennna and the great scnrlle war THE LOST CHILD FOUND. 89 f tying her profession for a subsislance from place to place. Sie went to Eleusis and there got employment. It was a job of nursing a child of the king of the place. The child's name was Demo})hon and under the celestial solicitude of this goddess in disguise, Metanira, the mother, beheld with astonishment and curiosity the marvelous thrift of her boy, Ceres breathed upon him the breath of life, dressed him with ambrosial ointment and at night used to purge the dross of mortality from him by immersing him in a bath of mysterious fire, with an object of making him also immor- tal. But one night the fond and curious mother peeped through the veil screening the immortalizing process of trans-substantiation and seeing tlie boy pendent in a halo of flame screamed with aflright, causing the haggard old nurse to let the youngster drop deep into the consuming pit where he instantly perished. The hag then, to save herself, threw off her disguise became rehabilitated and forced the people of Eleuses to build her a temple to dwell in while still continuing her search for the lost Proserpine. Now the jjrofessional business of Jupiter was to watch the interestg of mortal men. But Ceres unable to endure the loss of her stolen child and remembering the details of her husband's escape when a babe from the ferocious Saturn, struck the earth with her wand of famine. She rebelled energetically against the shape of things, and at last Jupiter came to the rescue of the innocant denizens of the earth as a profes- sional duty. This led to the discovery of Proserpine. From her temple at Eleusis, Demeter who was the protectress of the products of labor made things uncomfortable for the peo- ple who were in her husband's care. They were stricken with malaria. Contagion spread. The ground ceased to produce and the horrors of famine engulfed them. Men prayed, sacrificed, and besought their patron gods, each gens for itself, and urged the further combination of gentile tribes into phratries to no effect until great Jove at last got Mercury to visit Erebus who went down into the pagan in- ferno where Pluto was enjoying the charms of the beautitiil stolen prize. Thus the sly god got found out. This pagan inferno was Hades where Pluto was king. He, like Satan was cunning. He knew that by tomipting her, as the devil a time before had tempted Eve, he could induce her to eat the fobidden fruit;— this time a pomegranite seed. Un- 80 THE MYSTERIES. warily she was lured into the temptation which cost her a fourth part of each year, for the rest of her immortal exis- tence, in the infernal abode with Pluto. The otlier three- fourths of the year, however, she was permitted to pass upon earth. Such is the ridiculous story which among the ancients, was believed at the point of the poniard or under penalty of the hemlock for at least two thousand years. To cavil with its austere sanctity was a heresy costing the blasphem- ist his life and every hope of immortality. Some palliation of the absurdity of this sub-terrestrial abode is furnished by the qualitication that in ancient belief the world was flat, not round ; and between the two flat surfaces there flowed a river with whose murky waters Erebus had something to do. On the other side, once there, the journeyino- immortals were ushered into view of the indescribable beatitudes of the elysium. This gorgeous terra incognita was not to be reached without passing the terrible cynocephalous or many-headed watchdog named Cerberus. But heaven was on the other side. Passage from this to that was the agony. Now Ceres, the wife of the mighty Jupiter and mother of the lovely Proserpine, was the goddess of the harvests. She represented the cereals. Slie rode on a jagatnatha drawn by dragons. Her brow was coronated with wreaths of wheat. This rape of Proserpine by Pluto on the ragged edge, between our world of mortals and heaven became em- blematic of the agonies of winter ; — from autumn when the the wheat was sown, then the cold hyemal gloom of gesta- tion in the dark borderlands, the trysting place, the hyper- borean domain of liades ; thence over the half congelated Styx was ferried the elastic imagination by the money get- ting Charon, and behold, the vernal raptures of heaven and its elysian fields appear, full of springing verdure, the land of exquisite delight! Such was the Mythic origin of the Eleiisiuian Mysteries. They were weird forms of imagination, assimilating things real with things unreal and working them up into maxims, emblems and creeds, until they assumed a priesthood and became an organization of men and women knit by the tie of secrecy which nothing but the long fluctuations of pro- gress could unbind. THE MYSTERIOUS RITES. 91 Wliat the actujil perfoniinnce wasatthe/)ew6fn' a h the ui they esiiniaicd every thought of mechanic arta as well ag wish for r.ciios " lOa THE MYSTERIESL fewest in numbers, 30,000 lots for the Periceci or Laoont ans who were more numerous in proportion. The poor Helots or work-people and descendants from slaves got nothing although their proportionate numbers were three to one. This hegemony of Greece incorporated into it- self the most degrading slavery to be fovmd in the world's history. Lycurgus although to his favorite people per- haps in many respects a model, was towards those he ar- rogantly assumed to be beneath him — the laboring class — the model of a monster. His system of the ambuscade" disgusted even Plato, who was a believer in slavery. Plato's great heart turned away in loathing from such a stupendous abomination. The ambuscade, a diabolism that should blacken any age, could exist only in a country where calm, cold-blooded contempt gets the better of the warmer emotions. In looking over the lofty but ghastly eloquence of Cicero, whose implacable contempt for the working people in later times cost him his life, we have the nearest parallel to inveterate hate. No historigrapher can hereafter afiford to neglect \h& inhuman butcheries perpetrated by the ambuscade ; since they differed from the massacres of Stone Henge, of Saint Bartholomew, of the Incas, of the Mamelukes, of Wyoming, in being consiihimated at moments of profoundest peace ; at moments when the innocent victims were wrapt in the fiendish assassins' service, sweating in the fields, at the mUl, with the flocks, on the provision market, producing, garnering and distributing the food, the clothing, the shelter which their heartless butchers were consuming without gratitude, to invigorate their veins whereby to accompUsh such treacheries ! Just before reciting these horrors let us revert to the victim. He was primarily the slave by the ancient family law of entail and primogeniture. The shackles of abject servitude were first inherited through the humiliating law of entails which fixed the heir of the patrimony, the first born son, as a lord to be served, worshiped, immortalized, and blessed; his children to be chattels, subjected, forced to labor, distrusted, branded and cursed." 86 For more on the Crypiia, see Platarch, I/yeurnm. 36Fustel de Coulanges, Ci« Ani.quf. ivrc li, Lu^avMU; Qtwtim ittCm- agnac, Histlqircdes Classes Ouvrkhes, ibap 3. FLOGGED ONCE A DAT 103 Next, after this primary calamity came the slaves of war; whole communities taken, caiTied off by the captors and degraded to slavery and its concomitant curse," as in the case of the Messenian war with Sparta. Lastly the slave trade; — three great ancient systems. Under these he suffered torments which no pen of mortal will ever por- tray. He was known by his dress, sometimes going in rags equivalent to nudity, in gangs under a brutal boss. Sometimes, in this condition, man along with woman, destitute of means of being decent, dragging the long day among the fields and flocks ; dogskin hats and sheep- skm breeches, which survive longest the wear of the wearer, and often totally nude. They were each flogged once a day as an admonition, though having committed no offence and forbidden to learn the manly arts. They were obliged to stoop and crouch in piteous obsequious- ness to these drivers lest jealous tyranny interpret their upright posture to be an assumption of the estate of man- hood.'* Such was the condition of the workingman of Sparta which, above all other countries whereof we dis- cover a historic trace, was the most pitiless toward the slave. And the most shameful phase of this confession is the cruel fact that all this was precept of the Lycurgan law! We must return to the cn-yptia or ambuscade of the law of Lycurgus. These Helots or working people, state-slaves of Lacedsemon, hved and performed much of their labor in the rural districts. The law of Lyciirgus provided for the election, annually, of five magistrates or overseers, called ephori, whose function was to strengthen and heighten the principles of democracy that the happiness of the people might be equalized. Plutarch's doubts as to whether Lycurgus instituted the ephori seem to be dis- pelled by his ac! nowledgmeiit that both Plato and Aris- totle thought so.^* One of the functions of this institu- «' Mlian, EtstoHa Varia, I. 1, ; AthentBus. Deipnosophistoe. vl ; Xenophon Memorabilia, S, 6, § 2 ; Biicher. Aufitdnde der unfreim Arbeiter S. 36 ; All of these authors also Livy el ve evidence on the enslavment of men taken in war, 38 "The Ephori indeed, declared war against them! Against whom? Vv'iiy poor, naked elaves nho tilled their lands, dres8< d their food and did all those offices for them w hich they were too proud to do for themselvet." Of. Plutarch, Lycurgus, note in Lau^homc? tr. 39 Plato, Repuhlic' DUserlalionon Lacedifinon; Aristotle, Politic, v. ascribes their oriirin to a later period of the law's existence than that of the 1 awiiver'j .'tM-m-^. iScverihelesa they are the outcome of the great law of Lycarirus. 104 THE MYSTERIES. tion for the promotion of popular democracy was to see that the ambuscade was well carried out. AM that was meant by the term people was the people who owned the land, either by parcel or as government property together with the slaves and other chattels of that property. This means that the really worthless and indolent non-pro- ducers were the people. The useful majority of the in- habitants, the working population, were entirely ignored, contemptously denied every vestige of participation in this much boasted government, although there exists abun- dance of evidence that they were naturally intelhgent and as woi-thy as their masters, of enjoying the product of their labor in this state of democracy. Instead of this, the ephori ordained that a certain num- ber of young men from among the aristocrats should, at their command, arm themselves with daggers, and pro- vided with a sort of knapsack with provisions, secretly sneak off into the mountains and jungles." The distances these legalized assassins were required to go varied very much. These youths had governors who had the powei to order them to do as the ephori should determine. Tha governors, whenever the ephori voted a new slaughter ol the working peojole, called together the smartest and most able bodied of these young men, armed them with dag- gers, sharpened and gleaming for the occasion.*^ At the same time the inhuman overseers whom we may with due propriety call bosses, in accord with a technical significa- tion fully adopted by the prevailing labor movement of to-day, were ordered to see to it that the toilers should be without arms or means of any kind with which to de- fend themselves when suddenly set upon by the amateur Spartan soldier, dagger in hand. With all these odds against them the poor, unsuspecting, half naked working people were driven by the bosses, as usual into the field, the mill, the kitchen and the various places of service wlierever required to eke the drudgery of a sun-and-sun summer day of toil. Meantime the assassins were laying in wait in the vicinity for their prey. It was a manly spoit! The law of Lycurgus made more compulsory than any other code on earth, the provisions of zoanly *o Plntarch Lyeurffus where these horron are teUtai. «i Thucydides. De BeUo Peloponneaiaoo. lib«r IV. 80. THE ASSASSINS* SPORT. 106 gjmnasticfl. This was one of them. It was sport ! " By the exercise of this manly sport the youth's blood flowed stronger, his muscles grew, bis body waxed athletic; he digested with a better relish the food his blood-begrimed rictim had in the morning prepared for him before his murderous weapon slashed and pierced her gentle heart. "We quote from Plutarch, No one ever speaks illy of Plu- tarch. His means of knowing facts were better than ours, and his kind nature even in the barbarous age in which he lived, revolted against the consistency of such a democ- racy. He says :** " The governors of the youth ordered the shrewdest of them from time to time to disperse themselves in the country, provided only with daggers and some necessary provisions. In the day time they hid themselves and rested in the most private places they could find ; but at night they sallied out into the roads and killed all the Helots they could meet wiih. Nay, sometimes by day, they fell upon them in the fields and mui-dered the ablest and strongest of them." ** These are specimens of authentic history of the lowly as they have passed through a transition period of un- numbered centuries, from abject slavery to a Christian democracy which recognizes aD men as equal and provides for them precepts for equal enjoyment. But before quit- ting these chambers of cruelty and carnage it remains owe sad duty to recount what modern hiR-^^riins well know, but seldom divulge — the great assassinatir n. It happened during the Peloponnesian war. This account comes from the trusted and rehable historian Thucydides, who lived at the time and made it his business for many years to keenly observe what transpired, during that long and tedious struggle of seven and twenty years. The story is briefly told by him. Dressed and reflected upon in our own way it appears in substance as follows: During the great Peloponnesian war, one of the most renowned in antiquity, the forces of the army sometimes became decimated and it was necessary to recruit them «*K, O. Mflller In Di4 Dorier, denies this; but tVie evidence Ls too strong *ea!n^t him. Again, MUller'e opinion regarding their "aboriginal dcBcent" ha- been completely overturned. *' Platarchs l/ycurgw. i* Idem ; Cf . tr. of the LanRhorne? Vol. T. op. 63 4. loe THE MTSTEHIES. trom whatever source possible. When, therefore, there were no more soldiers to be had from among the Spartans and Perioeci or recognized citizens, the military authori- ties were obliged to call out the laboring men who, at the time of the Peloponnesian war, were three to four times more numerous than the non-laboring class. This in an- cient times was always a humiliation. War was the noble occupation, labor the ignoble one. To ask a person in disgrace to assist the nobles out of trouble was equivalent to liumihating confession. K then, the laborer, in a great rmergency was marshaled to the rescue, the only way to blot out the stain such a hmnihation entailed was to en- franchize this warrior from social thraldom and thus stanch the blot by elevating him from the fetters of bond- age. If further, the bondsman after performing the ser- vice manfully, redeeming his masters by bravery and valor, earning his liberty by saving their lives and preserving their realm from wreck, could be secretly murdered after such decree of manumission was administered, it would save the proud masters many a disagreeable jeer, painful wince and blush of shame when reminded that their ex- istence and happiness was due to the daring and fideUty of a hated menial who still shocked their pride with his presence. It came to pass that this humihating expedient was in- dispensible to save the nation from irretrievable ruin and thousands of the enslaved laborers were marshaled and drilled into the army. They were not allowed to bear heavy arms; that would have been a still greater disgrace. So they bore light arms and bore them gallantly. After serving through many a tedious campaign probably of years' duration, after winning victories in many a skirm- ish and in many a field and earning the full measure of their promised reward, after seeing the Lacedaemonian armies victorious at every hand and the great war prosperously advancing toward triumph for the southern Greeks, there were brought before the military tribunal for dismissal over two thousand workingmen who had proved truest in arms and been adjudged worthiest of liberty. Their faithful hands had valiantly borne the standard of an un- grateful country. Tlieir strong hearts had never flinched either before tlieir sullen discipline or the cleaving blades MURDER OF 2,000 FIELD-HANDS, 107 of the combatanta Their fiery zeal and fearless blows had won the victory and earned the liberty which, before this august council, proudly they heard pronounced. Over 2,000 slaves who toiled for masters were thus regularly enfranchised and marched into a temple or other enclo- sure or field — no mortal knows or ever will know what — to take the oath of freedom. But the anxious wives and children waited and wept long before these brave men came to gladden their hovel homes. For here we come to the recital of one of the darkest pages of history. StOl more painful is this page because blotted. Too foully blotted for perusal ; since, aside from a ghastly blood-stain that smirches its story in mysterious gloom, it is written in the almost undecipher- able hieroglyphs of reticent shame. Thucydides blushes for this lui'id page ; "' but unlike the unmanly historians of the past who have cringed in the presence of truth which could not port the flattery of lords and masters of high degree, he bravely told us aU he knew. And what he knew is enough to make the blood run cold.** Besides, it comes to us subscribed to by Plato,*' Aristotle ** and Plutarch,*' on whose minds, if we catch aright their words, this massacre we are goiug to relate made an impression BO strong as to waver the tone of these great philosophers' belief in slavery *' and seriously color their dialectics. « Thucydides during the Peloponnegian war for the hegemony of Greece, commanded a division of the Athenian marine force ; but being out-gcneraled at Amphipolis by Bra-idas went for twenty years into exile and during that time used his wealth and talent writing the celebrated history which has come down to ns. « Thucydides, De BeUo Peloponnesiaco, liber IV. cap. 80. "Kol fi/oio twi' EtAiuTiui/ ^ovAojafVoi; ijf eiri iTpo<(>dcrei. eKTrefixjiai, fir) Tt Trpbs Ta napovra r^s HiiAou tXaiieyrfi veiaTtpitrincTLV iitti koI Tofie inpa^av, (fio^ovfievoi avruf Trjv veoTrjTo. koI Tb irA^0os (aei vap Ta iroAAa AoKeSai/xovioi; irpbs tous EiAutos t?)S <^uAaK^s jrepi fioAia-Ta (caffecTT^/cet)" Trpoeinov auTw;' oCav'ot. Oi £e ov iroAAy vtrrtpov r)^a.vii>opi)." ^^ Plato, De RepuOlica, Disserlalton on Model State. 48 Aristotle, Politic, V. 49 Plutarch, Lycnrgus, cap. 28. This massacre occurred under Brasidas, In B. C. 424. .Elian, Historia Varta, 1. 1, ?ays that in Greece the supersti- tious belief everywhere prevailed that these cruelties to the poor slaves caused a judgment from heaven upon the Spartans, in form of an earthquake, B. C. 467, by which 20,000 people lost their lives. This must have been before the massacre described and proves the frequency of those horrible deeds of the Ephori and their tutored and organized ass;i«sins. For later comments on this earthquake at Sparta and the superstitiou.s le. rors believed to come from their cruelty to slaves, see McCnllagh, Industrial llislory of Free Nations, I. p. 6. tm THE MYSTERIES. This much is known that during the time these 2,000 or more soldiers were going thi'ough the ordeal of being garlanded, crowned, distinguished and conducted to the temple of the gods to receive their first beatitude, their blessing and reward for bravery, the ephori were busily and secretly making out a declaration of war, arming the valorous young men and giving them instructions to crawl cat-like upon them with the assassin's daggers ! No more is known ; for here the page is torn beyond recovery. Bui enough is known. The happy braves all disappear for- ever. Naught but a dark and spectral mystery broods over this page of history. The workingmen had received the emoluments of their hire at the hand of an assassin democracy ! The careful student of history from a standpoint of so- cial science may pick up evidence that to some extent even the Helots were organized. Facts continually crop out in the records showing that these degraded doers of Spartan labor under the law of Lycurgus, unable to resist the ex- actions, raised insurrections against their tormentors, and that they sometimes got the better of them. In almost every oti er pai-t of Greece they are known to have been organized into many furnss of associative self-sujipoii by which they were able to command more respoet. We re- turn to Athens. The fact must not be lost sight of that at Athens as everywhere among the Aryans, there were two distinct classes by birth — the nobles, claiming to be descended from tLe gods, and the earth-borns wlio went back to earth. The first would not work if they could possibly avoid it ; at least this may be said of the men. The lat- ter did most of the work ; not only the menial di-udgery but the skilled labor of building the magnificent temples and other public edifices whose imixising ruins are still a wonder of the now living age. To the credit of Wi man in high life be it said that sometunes the materfamilias spun and wove, according to some testimony of Plato. There are two important facts to be considered: In Greece, Eome and elsewhere in Europe and western Asia, northern Africa and the islands, the working people greatly outnumbered the non-workei'S. In Greece they wore liu-ee and tour times more numerous. Again, they LAND AND WORK-HANDS PUBLIC O00D8, lOd were often chatties of that state. The land belonged to the state and the laborers who tilled the land went with it. This as we shall see. became in Italy, under the gen- erous laws of Numa, a great benefit for them which they enjoyed for about 500 years. In Greece the land also belonged to the state ; but the cruel law of Lycurgus which was instituted 1,000 years before Christ and held good, as Plutarch tells us for f 00 years, treated the poor creatures with such flagitious absolutism that they could never enjoy so well as did the Roman laborers, the boon of theii' own organization. The law of Lycurgus was pernicious in its inculcation of the two moral elements of Plato ; those of irascibility and concupiscence without sympathy. When a master owns a slave from whom he expects to receive labor pro- duct, he finds it for his own advantage to treat him well; otherwise he would not receive the full product of the man's labor; but when the land belonged to the state and the slaves also, this personal responsibility was smothered with it. Thus hatred and contempt, attributes of Plato's irascible impulse, constituting one of the bases of moral philosophy, were for ages allowed to develope in the breast of the Spartan. Again, concupiscence or desire, being common or national under the Lycurgan law, was averted from its natural competitive course by a commun- ism of gratification without responsibilities and a commun- ism of participation; and these with idleness and all the depravity which such deteriorating influences entail, low- ered Spartan morality below the plain of sympathy. This unfeeling and inhuman condition of the pubUc mind be- ca.me a natural result ultimately destroying the otherwise unhindered plan of Lycurgua Had the law of Lycurgus provided for absolute equality of all men, slave and noble alike, had its communism ap- plied to all on exactly equal footing, the common owner- ship could have been carried out by the state with gi-eater general happiness and all the cruelty which depraved Spartan life would have been saved to the credit of a splen- did people. But that would have been a death blow to the Pagan religion, itself based upon egoism and possible only uader a systeiu of lurds and slaves. Thus, with the exception of the taint of labor and its concomitant wrongs 110 THE MYSTERIES. to the human race, the ancients began radically. Tliejr began by having the family egoism of the primordial hearthstone — the first ownership — subdued into common ownership of land and even of children; and had tbey banished that hideous curse, the taint of labor and added to their other and truly virtuous methods of self culture, the enobling, healthful and thrift-bearing practice of im- partial economical labor as a necessary requisite to sanity and wealth they would have taught the world a lesson of advancement instead of one in degeneracy and shame. The same must be said of Athens and the other Grecian states except that none of them are known to have been so cruel and heartless as the Spartans under the Lycur- gan law. We have thus sufficiently shown the grievance borne by the ancient working people inciting and goading them to organization- It now remains to be proved that the Greeks of this class, were actually in a substantial state of combination, especially the Athenians, during the ex- istenoe of the Eleusinian games near Athens; a point which throughout the chapter has been the subject in kernel, of our inquiry. This substantiated, we have a startling clue to the causes from a sociological standpoint, of two histor- ical phenomena: the social wars and the advent of o\ir era. Every recent investigation reveals fresh slabs or drags from the depths of time, earth and obhvion something in proof. Dr. Schliemann, quotes a passage of Homer which shows an explanation comprehensible to us in no other way than that there existed an understanding at that an- cient day, between the lower people. A peddler came to the palace with a gold collar set with amber beads, and Homer sang a beautiful verse describing the knowing look that the young prince saw exchanged between the man and the servant woman in the hall while the queen was admir- ing the amber necklace.*' These were the nods and winks so Schliemann, Tiryns ; The Pre-Hstorie Palace, p. 868, containing the Cage from Homer. This also suggests that the working people, includino )e servants, were secretly In league at Mycenee and that the league reached •afaraaPhcenicin. r}\v6' diajp voKviSpit e/xov irpb; Siafiara varpot, Xpvffeov opiiov e\iiiv, fieri 5' rjKeKTpoKriv eepTO' TOi' pLtf ap' eu fjLe\ap6u)i>TO, ical b(t)6a\fioi iwl tnja fitfijiKU'*' GREAT ANTIQUITY OF LABOR UiVfONS. Ill of the secret society which were observed but could not be read by the lad. This was in the second millennium before Christ, Granier, who must have been a great hunter of facts, ob- serves that slavery was originally of the family; not of vio- lent origin," precisely what Dr. Fustel de Coulanires has since proved beyond refutation of the most probing com- mentators seeking contrary evidence." Of course history gives ponderous testimony that violence was a som-ce of enslavement; but that was not the origin. When our era opened it brought with it an inestimable boon; a pearl of great price ; the utter extinction of social class" — noth- ing less than the long sought revolution. Dr. CHffe Leslie in an introduction to M, De Laveleye's " Primitive Prop- erty," observing the progress of this greatest of all tho revolutions which he rightly sees is yet far from being realized though nearly aU civilized races have repudiated the curse of slavery, takes the entirely correct view with regard to ownership after th« momentous but gradual revolution is past.** It is known that in early Greece the hetairai and the hetairoi were female and male associates of the laboring class, and that they had their legalized association for mutual benefit. From very early times they used their associations, not only for mutual protection against op- pression but also for mutual improvement and pleasure," The celebrated jugglers were mostly members of an or- ganization under whose auspices they used their jugglery a.3 a trade wherewith to gain a living. These are of al- most incredibly ancient origin and in Greece many of them \»ere descendants of Egyptian slaves. It is not difficult to prove that at an epoch since which an eeon of time has •1 HMoire des ClassU Ouvri'kret, p. 83 : •Tn conclusion, everything leads in tL« plainest manner to the belief that slavery had no other beginning than that •l :he family entailment of which it constitnted an economic part." i>%La CM Antique, liv. II. chap, vil, pp, 76-89. MPanl, EpUtU to the Gallallom, chap, ill, verse 28; "There la neither Je'y &«« Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Jesus Christ." n Prtmilive Properly, Introdttetton, p. rri. "The owner* of property are on t^e eve of becoming a powerless minority ; for the many, to whom the whole power of the state is of necessity gravitating, see all the means of subsistenoe aid enjoyment afforded by nature In the possession of the few." Olifie Leslie. 66 Guhl and Koner, Life of (he Greelct and Romant, pp. 268-269, showing dueek customs and manners at a symponon. Other evidence testifies to there be- ing a secret organization at these leasts, which conducted tliA ceremoniea. 8m also IjUders, DU IHimyHtchen Kvmtltr, pastim. 112 THE MYSTERIES. rolled over the human ijk e, those jugglers were plying theu" profession the same as at a much later era in which we find them at Athens.'® The professional business of these jugglers and tumblers was to amuse the people; and there ai'e abundant inscriptions and pictures to be found on vases and other pieces of pottery which show that they worked hard to earn their money. These were specimens of the slave system which marks the despotic rule, and ex- isted first. All remote antiquity bears evidence, in pre- historic inscriptions and inkings of dififerent nature, of many slaves, and that labor was degraded." The slaves being first, there came about an era of manumissions. Freedmen entered upon the scene bearing the taint of slave labor and were obliged to resort to all sorts of in- dustry and wit to make a Hving ; and among other methods adopted to secure that end, they entered into mutual alhances with each other for common assistance through trade organizations. There were great numbers also of the communia mimorum " or unions of comic actors who in a similar manner got a living by amusing the people. Strabo speaks of them ** and Bockh gives the Greek of an interesting institution of this kind.*" Mommsen gives the law recorded in the digest from Gains, which after- wards supi^ressed most of these societies." A curious union was that of the Urinaiores^ men whose business at Rome was to dive in the Tiber and probably e« "An attempt has been made to mathematically measure this vast eriofl of time by calculating from the depth of mud of tlie alluvial Nile, at wh ch ob jects have been found, by L. Horner, on Tke Alluvial Land of Egypt, and result" published in the Phil. Transaclioni, 1858, p. 75, which gives 12,n00 years, at the assumed rate of deposit of three and five tenths inches per 100 years at Men. phis, from the fragments of vases found 70 feet under ground." Sir Gardne- Wilkinson, Ancient Etpjptians, vol. I. pp. 8-9., note, paraphrased. 61 Of. Bancroft, A'atice Races, vol. IV. Antiquities, pp. o0.5-6. showln that 1 the remote past of Central America, Inscriptions exhibiting the most despotic conditions were produced, probably thousands of years before the discovery of the present nomadic races who were found in a semi-connnunal state. At P/ lenque are inscriptions on the ancient walls showing conditions coeval with th< earliest European monarchism. A king garbed in fine military attire, and the everlasting slaves on bended knees and in humble suppliance. They a e freely drawn, with art superior to Egyptian, being in has reliefi, in stucco on the wall- of the palace. 69 Mommsen, De Collegiis et Sodaltdit Romanorum. p. 83_: "Commni 'a mim- orum Romanorum et in nomina et in institutis to. koivo. rdv wtpi rtv ovvw TtviTMv referunt, quae apud (irascos ampla et plurima fuernnt." 69 strabo. Geographira, XIY. 643,28. 60 Corpus Inscriptionum Grcecarmn, nos. 349 and 2931. « Mommsen ; De Coll. et Sodal. Romanorunu, p. 84. Great number* of th"** locicties existed about the Hellefpont and among the Ionian Iilands. BOLON'8 LABOR LAW8. 113 also into the public baths in search of things lost by the grandees while boating or bathing. ** At Naples, Nice and other places on the sea these divers had unious and no doubt possessed skilled men who succeeded in restoring the valuables after the wrecks of triremes, and other craft. '" Especially were these unions a benefit to community at Sy- racuse, the Pirseus and Byzantium, where these and other unions abounded in great nimibers. Mommsen on the law of Solon also declares that there were both sacred and civil communes,^'' and he further states that all such soci- eties were not only permitted, but they possessed at that early period (B. C 600), the right of perpetual organiza- tion. The probability' is that these organizations had ex- isted from a much earlier epoch than that of Solon ; but having never done any harm at Athens and the Athenians being a much more sympathic people than the Spartans, they were never molested. So long as the trade unions of the world, ancient and modern, have restricted them- selves to mere pleasure, religion, and frugality, they do not appear to have been harshly dealt with ; but so soon as they ventm'ed to consider and act upon the subject of pohtics, which <..f all others, was most necessary to their welfare, they became objects of hate and of repression. Especially was this the case in ancient times ; because pol- itics like war, was a noble calling. Petty frugality, and crude convivial, as well as bm-ial ordeals were too trifling and mean in the eyes of the nobles to attract attention. There was at Athens a class of public servants." They were not real slaves although public property, and ti'eated as menials; never being allowed to participate in the slightest degree in the principle of government and yet they actually performed all the routine labor of the gov- ernment. At the time we hear of them through public records and through inadvertent mention by historians, they seem to resemble freedmen. They received a small salary to keep them alive, and their business was to keep 8* OreUlus, Inscriptionum Latinarum SeUftarum AmplUsima CollecUo, No. 411 R : "Ti. Claudlo Esquil. Severo Decuriali lictore. sportulae viritiir. dividantur prsesertim cum navit,'atioscapharum diligentia ejus adquisita et ooii flrmata sit. Ex decreto ordinia corporis plscatorum et urinatorum totiua alvet Tlberis qulbus ex SO. coire licet." The inscription was 1'ound in Rome. 63 "NotablUs est hoc loco lex Solonis, ox qua sacra civiliaque communia non alio jure fuerunt quam quo societates ad nc;;otiationem pr.-Bdltionemve constl tutse." Mommsen, De CoUegils el Sodo.lu-iis Romanonim, p. 39. 61 Consult Dr. Hermann, I'oUliral Aniui'ddes of Grer-c, purjiernph 1 IT. 114 TRE MYSTERIES. the books and do the various duties of a public office un- der government. They had their protective \uiions. Being clerks, and constantly in presence of polite people, they made a gen- teel appearance and were apt in the civilities of court. But like all their class they also had a grievance. They were treated as menials because they were not "blooded;" and consequently could not pit their natural genius and ability against that of their masters who conducted the public offices and who belonged to noble stock. " It was required that Archons and priests should prove the purity of their descent as citizens for three generations." " The business of the Pagan temple was a part of the state af- fairs; and consequently priests in those times were pub- lic officers. Priests were politicians. One of the quali- fications of the Archons or rulers was to have a good rec- ord that they attended to religious ceremonies. Ostracism, banishment and death were among the punishme nts de- signated by the law for neglecting these duties of citizen- ship; and the least whisper against any of the gods or the regulations of the Pagan religion was blasphemy. This explains the causes of that great dijBEerence in station which existed without regard to the business qualifications of the men. Smart workingmen without rights, or any claim to rights, were often required on a mean salary to do all the work of both departments of governments with- out being entitled to the least benefit in either, while a tyrant and sensuahst held all control and honor like some modem sinecurists of our offices. There is evidence that this exclusivism was regarded by the poor workmen as a great grievance; but their exclusion from free participa- tion in rehgious rights and especially from membership in and access to the Eleusinian mysteries was the gi-eatest one. Against these grievances they were organized in secret. Dionysius of Hahcamassus mentions a society of the Thiasotes or Greek labor unions, the members of which had for their patron deity the goddess Minerva through the noble family of the Nautii, who brought the image of Minerva away from the Trojans to Italy.** Here it ap- t&Idem, §. 148. The SoKifnavia, or scrutiny Into the sntecedants of candi- dates, is here explained. 66 Dionysius of Halicarnassns, Antiqvitatet Ecmartce, VI. 69. REMOTEL Y ANCIENT STRIKE AND MASSA ORE. 1 15 pears that the union was not permitted to worship their goddess directly but had to approach her through a noble family. By worshiping the borrowed proxy they got ac- cess indirectly to the object of their reverence. This statement is valuable as it sheds hght upon what m those early times is thus proved to have been felt as a grievance ; and shows that it was imperative on the part of the un- recognized working people to organize and take counsel with each other on what they considered a most important matter, the right of worship, from wliich they were ex- cluded on account of their reputed meanness of birth. The existence or non-existence of the soul depended upon it. Dirksen in his Twelve Tables points to Gains in proof that the hetairai and the sodales were one and the same organization ; " the former being in Greece and the latter in Italy. He fiirther states that a comparison with the law of Solon proves that they were tolerated and their ac- tions encouraged, if not regulated by him. The Twelve Tables are now known to be contemporaneous with, if not a translation from the law of Solon; and the law of Solon was a paraphrase of the still more ancient law of Amasis an Egyptian king. Nor was this organization common to Rome and Greece, Grauier says: " Trades Unions existed since the time of Solomon, and among the Greeks from the time of The- seus."** In the time of Joshiia, B. C. 1537-1427, they are spoken of. We have evidence regarding an organization that attempted a resistance to the overbearing nobles, in time of Agis I. These were Helots. The insurrection did not succeed, for it appears that the king caused their murder in large numbers. Agis I, was one of the mythi- cal Spartan kings and is beheved to have reigned more than a thousand years before Christ. This great massa- cre of the helots took place 1055 years before Christ. Traditionally the event came down to the era of writing as something mysterious and tei-rible. When at last, it entered the chronicles of historians it was dim in detail and being a subject which gave pain instead of pleasm-e — one of those seiwile episodes which early history appears 61 They had in Greece the cruo-a-irot (communists), who ate at the common table, the o/idrai/ioi (burial societies), the diao-wrai (diaciplps of the doctrine o/ mutual love). 68(.iranior de Cassagnac. IlisUnrt ties Claues Ouvrihret, chap. xll. 116 THE MYSTERIES. to have preferred to leave unwritten — v?e unfortunately have only a few faint records which have struggled through the misis of high antiqiiity and gleam darkly through sul- len tradition and ventiu'esome historic jottings upon us. But the mui-der of the helots l)y order of Agis I. is spoken of by many authors as having oocurred B. C. 1,055 or thereabout. After that event they became adseripfi glebae, public property attached to the soil. The student of history from a standpoint of sociology, would, however, be glad to obtain more light upon that event ; because we want to know what was the origin of the Aristotelian philosophy and the surroundings that motived it. Of all the philosophies or S3'stem3 of arrangement as a basis of enduring poHty, the chrematistics of Aristotle, properly understood, is sure to be that which any and all great labor movements cannot but adopt. The sociolo- gist, who intelligently scans the evolution of our race on the enormous scale in which things are presented to him by the vicissitudes of the lowly and downtrodden poor who have fed and enriched the non-laboring few from earhest ages, cannot but wonder how a rich and fortunate man, an aris- tocrat, a beHever in slavery, a dialectician, and one who spurned the menial, who coiuiciled and advised the might- iest of monarchs, could have settled down in the conclu- sion that there is only one way of getting at truth and til at is by beginning at small things and through them, in tireless investigation and experiment, learn to know and improve. Yet all who study the logic of this man, as laid down by him, are irresistibly led to traverse the very path which he opened with the keen edge of his slashing knife of reason. He " discriminated between the several facul- ties; — the nom'ishing, feeling, concupiscent, moving and reasoning powers of animal organism and attempted to explain the origin of these powers within the body, and build his morals and pohtics on the peculiarities of human organization.'"^* Everything according to Aristotle, if we would positively know, must be founded on close obser- vation of facts. His eudaimonia was attained only through the bhss that rewards mind or reason when it achievea w American Encyclojiaidia. Art. Aristotle LABOR A SOURCE OF A THINKER'S SUCCESS. 117 truth by indefatigable experiment and experience. He would have men acquire all knowledge by study of hum- ble facts, and lay down therefrom a true basis of political economy. Nothing, not even the servile race, the slaves, the freedmen, the workingmen, was so mean but Aristotle could enrich his mind by studying it. Here hes concealed from all eyes except those of the student of man from the standpoint of sociology, a phe- nomenon. Why did Aristotle adopt opposite conclusions from Plato, his old master ? Plato believed largely in tlie theory that only the unseen gods dwelling in the etlierial abodes, could impart to man absolute knowledge. Aris- totle dared believe and teach that knowledge could only be had by observation and experiment with little things; for they were the beginnings. The poor workingman, then infinitessimally httle as Aristotle beheved him, was the beginning, being the author of labor product and con- sequently worthy of observation and study. This was the first encoiu'agement the unappreciated maker and pro- ducer of aU means of life ever received from a philoso- pher.'" In all ages the workingman has been an unob- served factor. He is of the earth; this he has himself acknowledged, whatever claims the idler may have filed in his own behalf to the contrary. Being of earth, he digs and cultivates it and from his labor springs the fniit which when ripe and harvested is eaten and enjoyed by the idler. He built edifices which have sxirvived the de- compositions of time and his master enjoyed them. But more important and more obscure are the fine details he performed which, though often considered too mean to mention, were in reality as now, the vei"y bulwark of human existence and though too obscure to attract attention were in reality the foundation of all nourishment, achievement, history and knowledge. The great philosopher saw this. He studied nature; and the workingman, recognized as an element of nature, was watched by him. The numer- ous mutual societies andimiousof resistance existing about the philosopher came in for a sliare of investigation ami 10 It has been stated that Aristotle plagiarized Kapila and certain other East Indian tea<;hers and authors of great learniug, having; obtained their books while on his celebrated scientific journey of researches with the emperor Alexander the Great. The question is however, obscure. He certainly foUowed some ol the Id' IS of Anaia^'jni.-., Tapila and others. 118 THE MYSTERIES. wore seen to be the (lee}>ly underlying fundament ol all whence the whole superstructure of society rose. With- out the little, and humble, too unappreciated prod\icer the world would be a wilderness of forests and wild beasts Hence, as all came from humble toil, so the toil of iaves- tigation and experiment, however mean and unworthy the rich might esteem it, was the very most necessary of all things to resort to in order to arrive at tinith, improve- ment and correct government. This is the basis of the philosophy of Aristotle. The world is following it to-day, led by labor; and the myriad links of invention, and dis- covery in experimental progress, are in exact harmony with the recommendations of the Stage rite of the Nj'm- phseum. There are some curious episodes in the life of Plato, which the ordinary reader, without system and without knowledge of the little details of Hfe of the age he lived in, overlooks. What was the trouble with him at Syra- cuse? Nearly four hundred years before Christ, Plato, after varied travels, after he had wiitten his " Theastetus," and his " Statesman," and was well-known to have decided against the workingmen, to have pronounced them too vile to merit a better fate than bondage, and to have de- clared that the proper form of government was that of aristocrats and slaves, we find him at Syracuse, spxirned by Dionysius, waived from his presence, and consigned to the bilUngsgate that fed the gi-eat city with fish." To be sent away fi'om the tyi'ant's presence when his sole mission was to teach his majesty the honeyed sweets " of his then famous philosophy, was bad ; but to be relegated to the city's ban-Ueues^ among the brobdagnagians, and hear theii' ridicule, was worse. But they must have been especi- ally disagreeable to him since he well knew that their raillery was directed against him. They were of the low- born, with little education and no urbanity ; he was ol the great gens family, a very Ariston, of pure stock, boasted of, among all Athenians. But they had wit and suificient means of knowing facts, to be informed that he was the proud teacher of aristocrats, that he did not teach 11 Grote, Plata and the oOier Companiom of Socrates. '2 "At Platoni quum in cunis parvulo dormientl apes In labellla conssedlaent responsum est, singularl llhim suavitate. orationis fore; it» futura eloqueat^J provisa in infante est." Cicero, De DivinalU'ie, I. 36. PLATO CAUGHT BY FISHMONGERS 119 the lowest of the people but that he believed with tiie cit- izens of Sparta and of Athens tliat their slavery and humiliation were just. We also have found some evidence that these people were organized. They belonged to the four trade unions, viz : the mercenaries," the caudicarii or boatmen and sailors, the piscatorii, fisherman and the fabri, artisans. There must also have been vmions of the tax gatherers ; at any rate in later times, for Cicero men- tions vectigalia in connection with Verres who was gov- ernor in SicOy.'* This last fact is one vei-y interesting to know ; for it sheds fresh hght upon that memorable episode in the life of Plato. The unions, finding that the tyrant Dionvsius had taken an affront at Plato, and hating him themselves, were •willing to CO li spire with the king against his life. It was probably an oi-gauization of the caudicarii whom Dionysius engaged to carry him off to Italy and their greed to make a hving out of the affau- was probably what saved his life. Instead of killing him as they were probably paid to do, they received an offer in Italy for him ahve, which they ac- cepted and sold Plato as a slave. He was afterwards ran- somed by his friend Dion and returned to Athens a wiser man. We are not informed as to what influence this ex- perience had upon the great philosopher ; but there are gleamings which illume our conjectiu'e that his illustri- ous disciple, Aristotle, who always opposed his theories, took care to emich his store of wisdom from the circum- stance. In early times, while the world was yet too ignorant and inexperienced to understand the advantages of arbitration and of subsisting upon peacefxd rather than warlike meas- ures, brigandage was common. It existed by interna- tional permission or common consent. The only indus- trial system then known was that conducted by the trade anions; for according to the regulations of Solon and king Numa, even the slaves were many times managed by over- Beers who were under pay of the unions. The rich citi- nOrote, ITM. p. 70. The mercenary soldiers especially hated Plato wh« had acted the friend of Dlonysiua. The latter had cut down their pay, p. 86). in consequence of which they had struck. They were all orgauized. Cf. also, Qrote's Plato, and Llvy, XXV. 33. •M Cicero, Verres. II. 3, 7: "Quouiam quasi quKdain prffidia populi Bo- man! sunt vectigalia nostra atque provincise," I2d TEE MYSTERIES. zen believed it a disgrace to labor. He made his wealth or cap work for him. Among other chattels were his slaves. But he was too high to personally conduct the labor of slaves. This was done, to a lai*ge extent, by those who were not ashamed to perform labor. Of course, then, these overseers were descendants of slaves. They were the freedmen, who on receiving their manumission struck out for themselves; and for safety and success formed themselves into unions for mutual assistance and resistance against competitioD, danger and abuse. Among the multitudes of occupations they assumed are found, especially with the Grecians and Syracusians, the Phoe- nicians and the people inhabiting the Grecian Archipel- ago, that of brigands and the mercenaries. Both the brigands and mercenary systems were closely leagiied into unions which upheld each other in the vicissitudes of the straggle for life. The whole system of the warlike patrician families both in Greece and Kome may be said to be one of brigandage. What is arming a mtdtitude of idle men, disciplining them to the use of weapons and marching them into a neighboring country to destroy the products of industry but brigandage ? Yet ancient his- tory is a constant repetition of this predatory and cruel system. It was brigandage. Among the sufEerers from this system were oftentimes the working people ; some of them slaves, but many also freedmen, belonging to unions. They were thus torn from their peaceful occupation. Possessing the long ex- perience of association they naturally utilized this their only means of gaining a living, by becoming brigands. They turned their trade unions into bandities and learned to estrange themselves from habits of industrious peace and assume the fierce modes of marauders. They exchanged the workshop for the jungles, the mountain fastnesses, the caves and thus became fighters and guerrillas. A remark- able case of this desperation is seen in that extraordinary man Spartacus, the gladiator, of whom we shall give, in a future chapter, a complete and exhaustive history, in in- vestigating the terrible results of Roman repression of trade unions by the conspiracy laws. It is enough here merely to mention that this tendency of ancient labor or- ganization to reverse their habits, forsake the peaceful in- THE TRADE UNION A STATE INSTITUTION, 121 dustries which they loved, and wander away in organized clubs seeking subsistence through plunder, was by no means a fault as such actions are now considered; for otherwise they would have immediately been seized by the conquering legions and sold into slavery. In those precarious times, therefore, brigandage was no crime, al- though to be caught was slavery or death. But it added a fierceness to the social aspect of the human race. The Eleusinian mysteries caused a great deal of dissat- isfaction and feud by reason of their severe, aristocratic exclusiveness which often wounded the pride even of the haughty patrician families of Attica, and we now return to them as our legitimate theme. In our chapter on the system of trade imions farther on we give a detailed de- scription of the ancient labor unions and evidences of their immense number which we have collected, partly by our own travel and observation, partly by personal inter- views with the great authors of Archaeological works and partly by ransacking with much patience and labor every written statement which original law and history, together with the criticism of modern and ancient authors thereon, have contributed to illmne this dark page of the social past. The ancient trade union, both under the law of Solon and of Numa Pompilius, was a state institution! The land taktn by conquest belonged to the state, together with the family religion and all its magnificent temples of worship. The great buildings of the cities were property of the state; most of the slaves who cultivated the soil under the direction, exclusively, of the trade union, were also property of the state. This made a social state — an almost socialistic state — and in many respects more social than poHtical; but entirely spoiled by the terrible social distinctions of rank." The rehgion, based upon heredity and superstition combined, was an extraordinary tissue of errors, greatly increasing the common misery of the people by flaunting in their faces the insult that none but TsMllar, Origin of Ranks, Basil. 1703. chap, vi.; Granler, Hist.de: C ussfj 'Ouvri'eres, pp. 484-493. In his 18th chapti r, Granier cites the rescript ci An- toninus Pius : "Dominorum quidem pote^iatti : : Bervos snos inlibi ri i t-se oportet, nee cuiquam hominum ,1ns siinm detia)ii. Ulpian,Z)« Officii Pi' run- tulis. lib. vm ; Pe D(n)iinwrum Smvitia. Thispov. ci of the aiasterso. r heir (','.■, ;-: •■/.as t':v.;. l;i! -v tr ;!ip'>'.r • 1 f ' tli^^ sf.f.t.<}. 122 THE MYSTERIES. the high-l)oni citizen, eligible to the Eleusinian mysteries, could be sure of heaven. There could be no peace of mind while such a grievance existed; for it not only goaded the greater part of the people as an insult but distracted them with fears. It is a prominent character- istic of the Aryan race to beUeve in religion and build up institutions of a rehgious nature; and it wiU probably re- main so unless some physical discovery be made throwing positive hght against the theory of immortality. At the same time the Indo-Europeans were — precisely as they stiU are — an extremely democratic people by nature. A religion, then, based upon the most absurdly aristocratic dogmas could not, without great conflict maintain itself among the equality-loving Indo-Europeans. Jesus Christ dming his visit among us established the remarkable idea that God was no respecter of persons ; that all men were created equal; that although the elysion and tartaros or the heaven and hell were the same, the eligibility to gain the one and fly the other depended not upon stock, birth, fortune, but behavior. The revolution was then begun. When we understand from a standpoint of scientific so- ciology the phenomena of the past thus connected with the ancient struggles of the lowly, there bursts forth be- fore our vision a glory of light sweeping away hitherto insurmountable difficulties to the analysis of certain vague and obscure points in history. It is now, after having opened these facts thus far, in order to set down two theorems : The first is, that the greater the orgayiization of the working classes for rmitnal protection and resistance the higher the standard of e?^ lightenment in the communities they inhabit. In other words the intensity of enlightenment in civilization may be measured and compared by the numeric proportion of the laboring people arrayed in organized resistance against ignorance and oppression. The second theorem may be construed to read that the higher the enlightenment, the more complete is the extinction of social ranks. We are also now ready to make an announcement which no person can consistently deny, to wit : that the era covered by the ancient trade unions is that known, sung and celebrated as the "Golden Age." It is not only the era of mihtary, but pre-eminently of social, and io TEE ANCIENT SOCIAL STATE. 128 Greece, of intellectual prosperity. The great literary era of the Romans occupies the latter half of the celebrated golden era. It lasted from the days of Numa Pompiliua who encouraged the fi'ee organization of Roman trade unions wbieli was about 690 years before Christ, until the year 58 B. C when Ciesar ordered the conspii-acy laws.'* In Greece from the time of Solon about 592 years before Christ it continued down to her conquest by the Romans. Thus the economical prosj^erity of both Greece and Rome is proved to have covered those centuiies which were favored with the right of free organization. We BhaU now proceed to touch upon the actual deeds of these unions and show as we have the evidences that the su- perb architectiu-al works whose august ruins still amaze the beholder were, to some extent at least, the handiwork of those trade unions, backed by that phenomenal, and to the present age, incomprehensible social state which never sold its lands, religion, jurispinidence or ornaments to others, nor allowed them to be overridden by monopolies. The labor of land culture — which produced and distributed among all people their food — of manufacturing arms and eqmpments for the armies, of provisioning the armies while on the march and at rest, of manufactviring and re- pairing the household fui'niture, of image-making, which appears to have been a considerable industry and of con- structing architectural works, was largely assigned to the labor unions duiing the golden age." Numa discouraged warfare, but made specific arrangements governing the artisan class; " and at the Saturnalia obliterated the lines of distinction between the nobles and the common born. He distributed the artisans kito nine great mechanical fraternities. Flavins Josephus " uives an elaborate and highly interesting account of the building of the temple of Jerusalem by Solomon. Suffice it to say here, that the eiJiployer, Hiram, who was engaged by Solomon to come with his skill and skilled force all the way from Tyre a distance of about 100 miles, to design and construct this '•Snetonlus, Ctuar, 42: "C8B.sar cnncta collegia praeter antlquitus con- ■tltnta dlstraxt." "Granler, pp. a84-3'i3, all through. I* Plutarch, Nvmia, cap. xvll.; also Lycui^rus, ami Nuvia Compared. iw.Joof-phns, AtUiquUAa of Ou J«wt book XII. cap. il. ; alio flW. (ffOie J«wt, book VTU. 124 TEE MTSTERIEa. magnificent edifice, was, so to speak, a boss or chief over a ti-ade union, which through him, took one of the largest and most imposing contracts known in ancient or modern times; and it is a very interesting example of the intelligence and extraordinary enterprise of the Phoenici- ans. We are not among those eager creduli wlio jump at conclusions, and ready to suppose that this Hiram was the founder of the celebrated ancient fraternity of " Free Masons." On the contrary, the institution was old when Hiram brought to Solomon the 3,200 foremen and the 40,000 ai'tificers who built this gorgeous temple of which Josephus so glowingly speaks. But this immense work being a religious undertaking, conducted by a political decree and under state control, and furthermore being a Semitic, not an Aryan enterprise and consequently free from the mean, rank exclusivism characterizing and beht- tling the source-history of all their great works, was able to rise and carry with it some lucid sci7itillae as to the manner of its erection. The great temple of Solomon furnished posterity a slight glimpse at the order of Free Masons ; being a landmark merely observable in an ob- scure night of time. Its ruins may, therefore, be truth- fully classed, by the student of sociology, as archaeological proof of the ancient trade union movement. By this, the mind of the general reader may better understand the Bource of that all-pervading cloud which so unfortunately shuts us off fi'om the clues — to say nothing of the history — regarding the construction of one of the most magnifi- cent works of sculptured masonary ever produced. The religio-political institutions, based on the antithetic origin of birth and its entailments of rank, prevented the work- ingmen from rising into recognition, or transmitting be- yond their own generation any detailed knowledge as to how those structures rose. The powerful archon Pericles, of Athens, furnished us an illustration of this. He wanted to build the Parthenon. Now Pericles, the statesman, building a church, shows that no difference existed be- tween church and state, since beHef was compulsory un- der law. The Parthenon was the grandest edifice of either the, ancient or modem world.** Although Pericles was a *o Gahl and Eoner, Hft tf tkt thieJa and Somant, pp. 26-28. THE BRILLIANT LOW-BORNS. 12. noble, of ttie family of the PisistratidiB, yet we know that he was the intimate friend of Phidias. So we are informed that Solomon enjoyed the acquaintance of Hiram. This might be, though Phidias and Hiram were both of mean extraction, according to the estimation of ranks. But their superiors admired them for their genius alone. A wonderfxil contrast projects from a coincidence of the late mediaeval age, consisting in Raphael's intimacy with Pope Leo X., for at the time of Raphael, Christianity with its inexorable moral erosions had gnawed away much of the ancient ranks, and had begun to invite an absolute equal- ity ; whereas, in the more ancient times, under the domin- ion of the Pagan faith, it could not be more than admira- tion and acquaintance. In the same manner, Pericles, who was the master political genius of his age, could admire and keep an acquaintance with Aspasia, a lady of the lower rank, but he could not raise her by any gift of title to a higher one than that in which she was born. It is almost certain that in the construction of the Par- thenon, Ictinus was to Pericles what Iliiam" was to Solo- mon. Ictinus,** we are told, was chief architect, and with the assistance of Callicrates and Phidias who worked on the chryselephantine statue of Athena, had charge, as chief architect, of the Parthenon. It appears " that Phi- dias took the entire control of all the building entt-iprises of Athens and also,' probably of the temple of Eleiisis: for Ictinus built the fane of this temple. We are now cen- tering upon the interesting point of our investigation. It- took Phidias, Ictinus and Callicrates ten years to desigr and complete the new Parthenon, the most mag-nificeii' and imposing structure of ancient or modern times. More fortunate are we in having Josephus and other authority for the temple of Solomon whereon not only the chief architect, but 3,200 foremen and 40,000 masons of the great " body " or masons' fraternity were engaged.^* At the Piraeus there existed, at the time of the building of the Parthenon, great numbers of trade unions,'^ under *i Care shonld be taken not to confound Hiram the artificer with his friend Hiram the king. srGnlil and Kouer, Idem, p. 25. 83 Pausanias, Helladoi Periegesis, (Description of Greece). 84 Josephus, Jnliquilies of the Jews, book VII. chap, il. In latin the "body" torptis, was a legalized \v(iikiiignicu's society, tlie same as coWeyiwm. Se« DreUl, buicr. Vol. ITT. Henzen. p. 170, of supplement index. '^Seo Chapter I. of LUders Dioni/suclie KunslUr, pp. 14-18. 186 t'JE MYS'JEFJES. a provision of Solon engraved on T/ooden soroDsandkopI in the Acropolis rnJ tlie Prytaneum, whicli were le^lizevl organizations and wl-cs" j'ri.o.rr^ized'bupineRs was to wbrV for the state. Now with the Tmiltitudes of trade unions existing all around, at Athens, at the l^irains, at Elcusis- is it supposable that the three directors built the parthe. non in ten years ? Instead of the 3,200 foremen and 40- 000 men as at Jemsalem, there were probably at Athens 4,000 foremen and 50,000 masons, sculptors, draftsmen, hod carriers, laborers and others too numerous to detail We find that this great public work was finished 438 years before Christ, just at the time when the golden age oi labor was at its zenith of glory both in Greece and Rome. It was the golden age of art and economic thrift. It also corresponds exactly with the stretch of time during which the trade unions iinder the laws of Solon at Athens and of Numa at Home were in fullest force, granting and encouraging organization of the working people, which was used l>y them for protection and for resistance to all dangers that might beset them. It is thii.:^ shown that while a serious grievance existed among the working people of ancient Greece, in form of an exclusivism denying them the right to save their souls by becoming m<^mbers on equal footing in the Eleusinian order, there also existed a vast organization or confrater- nity which, then as now, afforded them opportunities for meeting in secret and discussing this grievance. It is scarcely necessary even to conjecture whether they did or did not use these advantages for such discussion. Human nature is alike in all ages. When the conspiracy law, or law of Elizabeth, was annulled in 1824,** permitting the people to organize in England, they immediately took ad- vantage of every opportunity trade unionism afforded, wherewith to discuss their grievances. The growth and intelligence of the ponderous labor movement in the United States is largely due . to the discussion which is constantly taking place in their secret unions. We ven- ture that the same thing occurred in the times we are de- scribing; because it could not well have been otherwise. Where the grievance exists and the opportunity to meet MThorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, p. 438 As to the nature of the act of Elizabeth, seo idem, pp. 39* 9. Cf. Porter's Progress of the Nation, THE LAW OF ORGAmZATION. \Vt and discuss it exists, it is not in the order of nature among intelligent beings, to resist it. We are fortunate enough to have found statements upon the subjects of trade unions transmitted to us through great authoiity. Gains, who wrote a digest of law on the Twelve Tables, has a passage which has been preserved and so important is it that both Granier and Mommsen refer to it as conclusive evi- dence that the law of the Twelve Tables providing for the right among working people to organize and enjoy trade unions, was to some extent a translation from Greek tables of the code of Solon." In this passage are mentioned many organizations taken from the Greek text inscribed on the scroll of the law of Solon and also on the tablet of the Twelve Tables. The Thiasotai then were precisely in Greek what the Collegia were in Latin. The saOors' unions here mentioned were the same which we speak of elsewhere as existing in large nximbers at the Piraeus or sea- port of Athens which was distant from the metropolis only five miles. The organizations of the stone masons, the marble cutters, the carvers, the image makers of wood mineral and ivory, and others, wei'e located within the city. Some of tbese unions, probably the image makers, pretended more religious piety than others; but the fact is," that all of them were combined for mutual aid and re- sistance against grievances. Under the law, so long as they did not corrupt the statutes of the country {^dum ne quid ex puhlica lege corrumpant," ) they were not only allowed to career unmolested but were even protected by this provision of the great lawgivers. This brings us face to face with two proven facts: that »ilHge»t, lib. XLVIl, tit. xxli leg. 4; "Sodales sunt qnl ejasdem collegil Bontquam Graecl irapiov vocant." Again: "Sodallbue," alt Gains, "potestatem facie lex (dnodeclm Tabnlarom) pactionem quam velint sibi ferre. dum ne quid ex publica lege cormmpant." Sed haec lex videtur ex lege Solonie translata esse; nam Uluc ita est : "E'ivSi 6^>10S, tj paTpoes, ij iepiav opyiav, T) vaOra), avvanoi,, ij oii.6ra^oi, rj ^latrSyran, tf iiri \iav oi.x°f-^voi, if ei» t/jLiropiav. Crt rauruir 6ia5(0»Tat Trpos AAAtjAow?, Kvpiov tlvai, iav fir) airayoptvayi 6riii6(Tia ypatiy-ara..' Both Mommsen (Z>« CoUegiU el Sodalielis Romanorum, p. 36,) and Granier, Hist, des Classes Ouwrliret.p, 291, quote this remarkable passase from the Digest. The unions here mentioned In the Solonic law are the Brotherhood the Priests of the Communes, the Sailors, the Co-operatom, the Burial Fratermlies; and the rea- ular trade unionB or tJiowrioTai Buch as were organized in the categories of Numa 88 Mommsen, De Oolleffiit et Sodaliciis Romanorum, p. 35, "Ut Igltur de in- terpretatione verbl a Xn. Tabulls adhlbiti non oonstet, Gail verba ad omnia col- legia pertinere certum est neque ulla ratio reddi videtur posse, cur collegia opi- fleam Isgum ferendamm jure caruerint sacris sodaUtatibus concesso." See also Ltiders, Die IHnoysischen Kunstler, passim. These points are overwhelming la proof that the Greek and Koman trade union systems were nearly Identical. 138 THE MYSTERIES. dorixig the renowned era of Grecian architecture, belles-let- tresy philosophy, sculptiire, paintings — all work of labor- ers — there also flourished a great labor movement; just as now in England, in Germany, in France, in the XJnited States and Canada, during the most brilhant period of all human enlightenment, ancient or modem, there flour- ishes an enormous social organization for self-help and for resistance against grievance endured by working peo- ple. It also proves the correctness of our theorems that the greater the organization of the laboring people against grievances the higher the enHghtenment, and the higher the enlightenment the more complete the extinction of so- cial rank ; consequently the intensity of human civiliza- tion viewed on the largest scale, is, under the competitive system, to be ascertained by the prevalence or non-pre- valence of these organizations, acting as mutually self-aid- ing forces and as tribimals or courts of appeal from the grievances their members are hable to suffer. How inef- fable, then, the arrogance of a paltry few ! What must have been the character of resistance during the times of which we speak ? Evidently very crude. At the present day there is much system ; a general interlinking of union with nnion, no matter how wide apart, for a quite clearly expressed common cause. Not so anciently, although we have an inscription at Pompeii to prove that in B. C. 79 there existed an international union. Their grievances were greater than now, because social equahty was con- temptously and most openly put down. The law recog- nize them as having no more claim to citizenship than dogs. Now, in Germany, France, almost everywhere, the working people axe voting. Whoever, in reading the " Ancient Assemblies,"** for a moment imagines that those celebrated gatherings in- cluded the slaves orfreedmen, should read more carefully. It is the freemen who are meant, not freedmen. The differ- ence wa^ simply infinite, even in enlightened Attica; for freedmen were descendants of the ancient sUves. They never were citizens, could not vote, could not hope, exce]»t m cases of great genius like tliat of Phidias, to be decently HScbSmann, ^i«(. AssembUet of the AOieniant, pansfm. This book ■will cleai n> Miy error readers may entertain who doubts whether the working class wa* •Uowed a yc(ce in legislation. NA rUR E OF DIS i'USSlON AM ONG THE L G WL Y. 129 sp'iken to; and even as sucli they were obliged to obtain some special decree from the Areopagus in order to detach themselves from this scathiDg odium of rank. Being so mean, so lowly, while the patiicians, the grandees, the free- men were descendants of tlie nobility in the direct lineage of the gods, it followed that the gods also contemned them. Consequently two-thirds of the population of Greece were without a soul. If they claimed to have souls they knew that the only place for them was Tartarus or hell ; certainly not heaven; for that was the abode of the gods who spurned them on account of their lowly birth. Better cultivate the belief that they had no souls at all! This to them, terrible reflection, was probably the origin of the ancient philosophy of annihilation.*" The philosophy of extinction of the sou' must have consumed a share of the discussions of those an- cient mechanics in their secret meetings. They built the magnificent temples which glowed with genial warmth of the solemn and haughty religion, only for the heaven-bom, repelling with sullen frowns the earth-born designers and finishers of their collonades, vaults and sculptured images. No merely political institution could possibly separate so widely one class fi'om another as did that arrogant religion which not only instituted slavery of the laboring people but denied them an immortal soul and the beatitudes of heaven." There is now no grievance of this kind in civil- ized existence — although economical and social dissatis- faction remains. The new religion is rapidly extinguishing the dogma of distinctions in birth, as well as the dogma that " the earth-bom have no immortal existence." •• Narrowing the array of evidence into our legitimate field, we find in Eleusis a target at which millions are peering with a mingling of longing, of envy and of hate. They are 90 Conanlt LncretiTU, IM Rerun Naiura ; kUo Arnobltu, who wrote the f*- fflona Adversui Oenta. Arnoblus was not fuUy convinced of Christianity ; and Bt the same time hie mind was evidently so enlarged by It that he could not reconcile It with the older Pagan belief in the nether post-mortem abodes. He was however, religiously Inclined and was reluctantly drawn to Christianity which obliterated aU llnee by declaring the equality of aU mankind. Between theae awful doubts Amobias seems never to have come to a beUef in an Immortal existence. Pliny the celebrated naturalist was a believer in the doctrine of Lt»- cretiiia that there Is no existence hereafter. Cf. Cuvier in Bibliog. Vnlvtrulle. 91 Granier, iTist. Whole argument ; FusteldeCoulauge3,Oi(e'.4nti5u<. Nointelli* gent person can read these invaluable works without understanding our meaolBA 62 Whatever science may or may not develop regarding these debatablt theories is not the part of this disquisition to consider. We simply give tbf facts at command, aa to the difference between the griavsvces dlscuBMd bl tke organizations of then and now. 130 THE MYSTERIES. the two-thirds of the population of the country — the lahor- ing ranks. There, upon a lovely range of rock and Inwn stands the old Pelasgian city of Eleusis, populous and thiek- siudded with their own eranoi and thiasoi, labor unions wliose members are the strong-muscled men of Greece. It is the eve of autumn, the great quinquennial Boedromion which from traditions brought mystic meanings picturiog the fierce amazons in flight before the conquering giants of Theseus. It is the last half of shimmering September whose delicious zephyrs float the gossamers above the sea. All the world knows that on the morrow thousands upon thousands of people are to leave the Athenian metropolis behind them and commence their crusade to the Eleusinian feast. They are the eligibles, the citizens, the freemen. Not a being from among the laboring and lowly class can be permitted hardly to join the great procession. Fond of privilege but barred its enjoyment they gather in their best rags, upon the scene and form in a standing multitude along the line of march. No care has ever been bestowed upon their education and they are in consequence, rough, per- haps boisterous and insulting. As the procession moves along they pelt the crusaders with sticks and stones.** They feel the deep disgrace of their exclusion and are animated with unhappy feelings and hatred and revenge. They turn their eyes toward the magnificent temple of Megaron, built ** by their own hands, of marble quarried from the rock near by.''° It is pre-eminently the most majestic work of their handicraft, standing solemn and alone like a myster- ious winged creature, striking awe by its very presence and as though a ghostly appar ition which had eurged from the dark pits of the sea.** To the left loomed up a view of MWhen, as the fable goes, Ceres left king Celeus and went to the old temple, lambe, her female slave, ridiculed her. Ever afterwards at the ayvp^os or dajr of march at the crusades, the lower or excluded classes met on the wayside with Btones, clubs and ridicule. 9-1 Consult Rose, InscHptionet Ormca Vetiutissimae, pp. 187-190. 9s Idem, p. 187, note ; "E duro quodam marmoris genere (quale prope Elea- siniem invenitur.") Likewise the description of the great temple, by Guhl and Koner, lAfe of the Greeks and Rmaans, pp. 47-49. 8« "Propo oleam erat putens aquse salssB (e6.katabat. I)e foiite salso noli dubltare. Kam et alius in arce fons aquae amarae qui etesiarum flatu — stib ortum < aniculac — impleri, postea considers solebat, Clepsydra dictus." Is-ter. Ap. Schol. Aris- ophanis, Av. 1693, p. 63. Though this superstition may have been based at the acropolis, it is evident that the horrors of it came from old Eleusts : bo- sides Erechtlieia was the priestess in charge of the Eleusinian taltiationa. ORDSADEES CLUBBED AND STONED. 131 the Tioh\e pronaos whose fluted columns towered high, hold- ing their graceful architraves, and culminating in those ex- quisite Corinthian capitals of the pilasters, celebrated throughout the world for the beauty and richness of their carvings. Their own Ictinus, guiding their own, or their ancestors* toil had built the huge, but forbidding telestenum and conclave where th)se mysterious initiations and de- grees were conferred; not upon them, but upon those bora worthy of the honor. Their own Xeuocles was them.i-ster mason who had led them through a labyrinth of toil which produced the lordly, throne-like anactoron were dwelt the immortal Ceres. Their own master sculptor, Metagenes had directed their skillful hands through the mazes of sculpture which produced those soft and charming friezes, and reared the upper columns on which rest the vast entablatures with their architraves and frettings. Led by such masters who have come down to fame as the genius of classic architec- ture, wage-earners had delved for more than a decade of years to fashion the home of the Mystagogoi^ those fav- ored priests who repulsed theni with bitterest scorn and all others who could not bring proof that for three generations at least, they had never disgraced themselves by the social blight of labor. These were the thanks the ancient lowly received for building those enduring and exquisite monu- ments of art. No wonder then, that as the procession moved down from the acropolis to the sea, the outcasts, uncultured, unrefined, enslaved, treated the haughty initiates with brickbats and jeers. There were quarrels about this grievance; but so dark has the historian been upon the subject that we are unable to obtain further positive data thaa these we quote. But what we do know sheds light upon the causes of a great change which in course of time came into the world; a change that planted the seed of revolution. It was a re- iigio-politieal state based upon legalized pretentions, and assumed absolute rights of less than one-third of the entire population of the Indo European world and the absolute non- recognition and social, political and hierarchical ostracism of the other two-thirds of the population on whose labor they depended for their food, clothing, shelter and worship. A word more may sufi&ce to close this chapter. Our ob- ject in saying so much has been to exhibit the double griev- 182 THE MYSTERIES. anc© suffered by the religious as well as the social and eco- nomic tyranny of ancient society over the laboring people. From the time labor organizations began, until the era of the sophists, no one can tell the ages that elapsed. The so- phists and philosophers began their -work in Greece five centuries before Christ. They were revolutionists so far as they dared go. The general movement of Plato and Aris- totle must though conflicting, certainly be regarded as one of the most remarkable of the world. It worked enorm- ously in the direction of preparing mankind for the revolu- tion — the change from a condition of slavery of the useful laboring masses to one of complete social, political and spiritual recognition and equality. Plato was a slave owner. He was so proud that he disdained to accept money for his services as a teacher, preferring to accept presents from the wealthy young students under his charge —the reverse of what in our own times is considered pro- per. Had Plato thus lived and acted just before our mod- em war of the rebellion he would have been called a slave- driving hypocrite by abolitionists at the North, and a cant- ing moralist by the people at the South. He was of neither party. Even the workingmen of his own times hated him. What he did was probably equilibrated both between sym- pathy and diplomacy, largely tempered by sympathy and conscience and on the whole, working all the radical good which the times would permit. The world is better for th'ip celebrated advocate of slavery having lived; for on the whole, though he could not see any way possible of ex- punging this horrid social ulcer of slavery from his republic, his sympathy got the better of acquisitiveness and like all the teachers of that era, he melted the brutal spirit which in Sparta instigated such inhuman cruelties toward the la- boring class. All over Attica they were treated with com- parative tenderness and consideration and though they suf- fered the grievances we have described, yet they shared the :ige of philosophy and art as an age peculiarly their own in organization and plenty. It was their G)? tjiJ-ipai efcocTToy eAaji/Sai'ti'. eTreiSJ) yap i) AexeXtia to fx-ev npoiTOV viro irdirns T^« arpaTias ei' xiij (Je'pei toijtoj TeivtCTi^eiffa, io'Ttpoi' &s apoupaiv cltto tu>v w6ktmv Kara SioSox')*' XP^^'"" eTrtoucais ttj xiopaemotcelro, ttoAAA e^Xanre Tcu? 'Ai^ vcUoVf (cou iv Tois irpioTois xP^f^^'""^ ^' oKixipio xai av&ptumiiv ipi^opa ixaKuxTe ra rrptiyinaTa. irponpov p-ev yap ppax^^ai- ■yiyi'Oineat ai eo-^oAat Toy aAAov XP°'''"' riii y^t airoXavfiv oiiK ixuiKvov tots 6e ^vufX'^v iiri.Ka<^p.(vu>v, Koi OTC fiiv Kat trAtoviov iniovTdiv, ore &' ef avayKijs T^s i(r)j5 ifpoypS.'; KaTaiJeou(rr)s re TJi^ \iup'''''''0 «•' yji anoxpoTif Te Ka- (vf>! ToAatTTwpouvTf?, oi 6' eTtTp«i(T(coyTO. Xen..phLin De Vedigal. IV. 25. st^iinnier de Cassuj^Bac, IHstoire des Clastts Ouvriires, chap. ilL * PlutiU h Nxcias and Crasstis Compared. 1. « DrtmiKnn. Arbeiter und Communislen in Griechenland and S. 263, .or instances of i. en own- ia^ ereat numbars of slaves ; See a.-o 13&okti ^ LaurUcht SUberbergwerke in M- NO SUNDAY FOR WORKIXQMEN, 135 ons race of enlightentneut. Even at that early age the slave's servitude was the source of his own intelligent dis- gust; for covered as he was with the indelible brands and scars of 8\steraatic mutilation, and decrepit in premature ag'i through blows and strains of violence and overwork, his mind remained unimpaired, often edged to consciousness of its own incompatibility with this state of degradation. The poor creatures were never allowed to eat white bread.* There were no Sundays for them. Of the 365 days tliey were forced to delve 360. Sometimes the government owned them and subbed them with the mines themselves to the contractors, following the plan of Xenophon,' who some- times thus worked great nimibers at a time. Often, how- ever, the rich contractor himself owned laboring men with whom to operate the mines. Thus Nicias owned a thou- sand slaves,* Mnason also owned a thousand.* The ancients appear to have had a species of passion for seeing acts of brutality and cruelty. Wakes are of great antiquity. Originally they were pub- lie fights on the occasion of the death of an important mem- ber of a gens family, in which the combatants were his slMes so unfortunate as to have survived him. All the fam- ily, its slaves and their children, perhaps also the community not alHed by blood, were suramond to see what in our re- fined age would not, only be repellent cruelties, but intol- erable ones — a tight to the death, of slaves of the deceased, with daggers and clubs." The first combat on record of this kind occuiTed in B. C. 264, arranged by the brothers Brutus," But a.ithors agree that the practice comes from much more reraoie antiquity ; and mention of it is made here to prepare the reader to understand some of the causes 5 Granier, Ue Cas«. Hi»t. Ouvrikres, p. 98,wiio gives references. * Bflcher Aufstande der un/reicn ArheiVr, S. 96 ; Xenoph. Meniorab, 111. 8, 12. For 360 days in the year those poor workinir peoule male and female, had to drudge. Xenophon 4, 16; Bdokb, Silberbergwerke, S. 125. "Xenophon, De Vectigal. cap. iv. sBncher, Aufstande, etc. S. 96; Drumann Arbeiter und Commtmisien, {S. 11-23. sBockh, Public Economies of the ALhenians. p. 263. The celebrated plan ot Xenophon for replenlshins the Atlien an treasury {De Vectigal. cap, Iv. ) >vaa to have the t"te put 60 000 of its own slave? on the state silver mines oi Laarinm to be ea ed to contraotorg. lie even gives figures on the prajtun ab;e income fropi th:^ p 'n of relief to the -tate. loFre liinder. Darslellunyen au der SiUengesddchle Rom$, II. 216. u Giihi and Koaer, Life of tie Greeks and llomans. We si ve references to modem authors so that readers noi con', ersant with the orit^inal languages may get them wnd satisfy thom-elve . 138 STRIKE AT THE SILVER MINES. lurting at the bottom of the evil of ancient strikes and up- risings. Gibbon relates the horrible story of the Sy racusian, L. Pomitius." One of the poor, innocent slaves during hia prsBtoi'ship, one day while assisting in the chase, killed a wild boar of enormous size and very dangerous. The dar- ing deed got noised about until it reached the ear of Dom- itius who ordered the slave to be brought to him as he de- sired to see so brave a man. The poor creature appeared before this fellow, humbly expecting a trifle of praise so sel- dom the lot of the Syracusian slave. To his horror, how- ever, this monster's first question was, what kind of weapon or means were employed by him in performing the deed. The answer was a javelin. "Are you not aware that the jave- lin is a weapon for gentlemen ; and that for so mean a crea- ture as a slave to use the weapons of men, is death ? " Turn- ing to his soldiers he said, " take this slave away and crucify him." The trembling wretch was actually crucified upon the spot. The heart sickens at the contemplation of our descent from such a type of monsters ! Biicher notes" that single contractors often worked 300 to 600 slaves in the silver mines of Lauriura and that con- victs who were government property were sometimes sold to the contractors who exploited their labor in their own name." Sometimes intelligent men in those days were half Blaves and half free, being enfeoffed by livery of seizin, no donbt, if unambitious of freedom, enjoying thereby some advantages over those entirely out in the competitive world. Such men were paid a per diem, varying from 3 to 7 oholi, or from 10 to 19 cents for their labor.^" Callias the friend of Ciraon, B. C. 460, became wealthy, managing mines. All or nearly all the mines were, with the ancients, the property of the state. The state contracted the working of the mines to enterprising business men who often hired slaves to do the work. These contractors were often men of noble blood. The sense of the social structure being against conducting or managing one's own business. M Gibbon, Dediru and Fall of (he Roman Empire, Vol. L p. 48. N.T., I860: B»ckli, Silberbergwerke, S. 122-3. adds testimony to this hardheartedness of the ancients, referring to Plato who, for his perfect state, wanted only Greeks exempt from slavery. -i Aufsldnde etc., S. 96. 14 Bockh, Abhandlimg der Histarisch-Philologiichm CUute ier Fteussiseliat Akademie der Wiessenchaflen, 1814-15. 16 Id. Public Econ. of Atheniang, p, 184, STATISTICS OF ANCIENT WAGES 137 Only the elaves and other workmen, those who actually per- formed the work, were doomed to suffer the odium of labor. Any business man who could get a bond, could take from the state a portion or the whole of a mine; and sometimes even the slaves themselves were to be had of the state. In this case, the complete outfit was contracted for by the in- dividual, who had no further care than to manipulate pro- ducts and gains. CaUias and Cimon had either contracts for or ownership in the mines of silver at Laurium, located to the southeastward of Athens about 30 miles." Their names appear also, hut vaguely in connection with the Pangaeus mines in Thrace. It is known that Thucidydes the celebrated historian owned mining property in Mace- donia. He was a rich slave owner and optimate. One Sosias a Thracian contractor hired from Nicias a thousand slaves, at an obolus per day each." Hyponicus rented or hired as many as 600 slaves to these contractors and re- ceived, as Xenophon tells as, a mina daily for their labor. Philemonides for 300 slaves got half a mina}^ Public servants were not always free. Wages in the time of Pericles stood about as follows:" for a common laborer who carried dirt, 3 oholi^^ or 10^ cents per day. A gar- dener got 14 cents; a sawyer of wood, one drachm, oi' 19 cents; a carpenter received sometimes as high as 17^ cents while millers in the grain mills received 15 to 18 cents. Scribes or copyists no more. The architect of the temple of Minerva got no more than the stone sawyer and others only as much as the common laborer. His name was Polias. Bceckh says he received one drachm or exactly 17^ cents. The hypogrammateus or secretary to the superintendent of public buildings got only 6 oholi or about 15 cents. The fares for traveling conveyances were also very low. In fact, the clerks and public oflScials of every kind were government subjects who received low salaries and worked long hours. Their life was a constant drudgery. Tl)e su- perintendents themselves were officers of family or blood. They were citizens; but the dignity of their position re- strained them from receiving any recompense. w Pintarch, Cimon. Cornelius Nepos. Cimon; "non tam generosus quam pecnniosuB, qm magnas pecnnias ex metal lis fecerat." 1' Xenophon, De Vekgal. §. 4, 14; i'l march, jViVias, 4. 18 Xenophon Id. 1, c. S 15 v Bockh, Pub. Econ. AOien, p. 164. w An obolus was 3>i cts, a drachma 19. 138 STRIKE AT THE SILVER MINES. Thus in Greece, Rome and everywhere throughout an- tiquity, sucli were the oppressive conditions that the intelli- gent among the working classes, goaded by their 8ufferini and Crassus Conip. Init. Plutarch here avers that the woikmen un ier Nicias were often malefactors and convicts. BOTE SEXES WORKED NAKED IN TEE MINES. 13S These mines of Laurium were in operation when the Pe- loponnesian war broke oat, B. C. 432, between the Spartans and Athenians, which lasted 27 years. Thucidydes speaks as though the oifer hehl out to the workmen employed as slaves by the Athenians, of 18 cents per day uniformly, was a very tempting one,'* They were poor dependents, some slaves, some freedmen, some convicts, subjected to abuse, thrown pell-mell together, driven to hard work, poorly fed, those within the mines, naked and suffering, and utterly destitute of that feeling known to us as patriotism, although many of them were Athenians." During this obstinate Struggle the Lacedaemonian forces, B. C 413, approached as near to Athens as Decelea, a garrisoned frontier town in Boetia held by them, where they established themselves over against the Athenian lines. The distance between Decelea on the borders of Boetia and Athens is only about 20 miles. The Athenian ergasteria or workshops were manned in part by slaves.'* So, whether in the shops and arsenals at Athens, or in the silver mines of Laurium, both of which, during war time, were indispensable for supply- ing money and arms, the sinews of production were not quickened by that peculiarly inspiriting urgent known to us as patriotism. Labor hated alike home, fatherland and em- ployer. When war broke oiit the laborer, instead of turn- ing his power and genius to swift production of engines for hurling missiles of destruction among the invaders of his country, sought in the vortex of fierce disturbance, some fissure of retreat from the monstrous cruelties of bondage. Thus in this pivotal contest between the Spartans and Athenians, compared with the Spartans' treatment of the Helots or Lacedaemonian slaves, the Athenians with all the horrors that have been pictured, were mild, we find the grievance intensified beyond endurance. Compared with Spartan suavity, philosophy and moral advancement, the Athenians were as civilization to barbarism; for Sparta had never questioned the claims of Pagan aristocracy and Ly- curgus had built upon it in all its austere presumptiveness a ring or community of about one-third the population and damned the remaining two-thirds to a stage of slavery » Thucydides. De Bella Pdoparmesiaxx), VII. 27, already quoted, p. 107. siBilcher, Aufstande d. unfreien Arb. S. 21. M Drumann; Arb. u. Communislen In Griechealand «. Rom^ S. 64; "Auch In den Piibiiken, epyaartpia, bah muu •ux bolaven." 140 STRIKE AT THE SILVER MINES. very little better than that of naked convicts described by DiodoruR in the gold mines of Egypt."' Yet notwithstand- ing the brutal example the poor slaves had just witnessed, of Spartan treachery, in assassinating 2,000 brave helots a few years before,*" some knowledge of which they must certainly have poss^essed " we find the poor Athenian work- men readily accepting an oflfer by the Spartans and joining them in great numbers against their own fatherland. Undoubtedly this was a very dangerous exploit of the strikers and could not have succeeded without some organ- ization. But we are left in the dark regarding most of the details. No doubt the near approach of the Lacedsemonian forces and the demoralization of the Athenians as well as their ingratitude, together with the arrogance of Cimon and the revenges of Alcibiades, might have had much to do with it. This great strike must have been plotted by the men themselves. We are, through the two or three brief refer- ences to it, given us by the historians/'^ left to infer that it must have been well concerted, violent and swift. The in- ference is unequivocal that in 413, B. C. 20,000 miners, me- chanics, teamsters and Inborers suddenly struck work; and at a moment of Athens' izreatest peril, fought themselves loose from their ntasters and their chains. These 20,000 workmen made a desperate bolt for the Spartan garrison newly established at Decelea on the borders of Bcetia. The strike must have been the more desperate on account of the offers held out to them by the enemy. One of the offers was that they should be provided with work which thi-y should perform on their own reckoning; but that they should pay only a part of it to their masters or employers. At this lay, by industry and patience they could not only live better but could lay by a certain sum with which to 29 IMortorus. Bib. Hist. III. 11, V. 38. so 1 Liicydides, IV. 80, massacre of the HelotB, B. 0. 424, ut supr, p. 106 sq 81 Witnes the intimate unclercunen: oi lu ephony uaiins: the great np- ri ing.^ "I Eunus, Arisionicus, Athenion and Spartaius; and ihe same was icp atei! during the anti-slavery rebellion in the United states, with sama li.y terjou Iv a ;ourate information. :i2Thucydides, De Bella Pel. VI. 91. VIII. 4, VII. 27; Xenoplion, Dt VecHgal. 4 25; Drumann, Arb. u. Comm. S. 64; BUcher, AufstHnde. u»- freen Aibeiler's. 21 : -'Im Jahre "'or Chr. 413 schlugi n a. oh 20,000 A heu- isohe Faiirikarbeiter za den l^akedirmoniern, ein sclworer Schlag fiir den Lku is be.; Bergbau." Bbckh, Laurische Silberbergwerke, S. 9U-1, also meD^ liuna it. THE STRIKE A RECOGNIZED SUCCESS. 141 buy themselves free. Unaccustomed to plenty and sud- denly thus provided with enough to eat and drink, they naturally gave themselves up to indulgence to some extent for Dr. Drumann tells us that many of the slaves lived bet- ter than the freedmen themselves, though we have no ac- count of their dissipating." The statement of Dr. Bucher, that this strike of the workmen of Athens was a heavy blow to the raining operations of the Laurian silver diggings, con- firms the importance of this immense uprising in Attica. The sudden loss of 20,000 workmen, inured to the hard- Bhips of mining life, and drilled to the mechanical nice- ties of the assays for the money supply, of the wagon workSj and of the armories at Athens where most of the sabers, slings, daggers, javelins, campaign wagons and other impedimenta of war were constructed, is known to have been a serious set-back to the progress of the Pe- loponnesian conflict. But while it disheartened the Athen- ians it proportionately encouraged and delighted the Lace- daemonians ; and as the latter were not of the party of pro- gress but engaged in invidious activity against the Athen- ians, at that time the most democratic and advanced peo- ple in the world, it acted directly against the evolution of mankind. No one pretends to deny that the Spartans, boasting of the hegemony of their youth and their conse- quent warlike prowess, were mad with jealousy against the wondrous work of Athenian philosophy, letters, fine art and polish ; — the very adornments, theoretical and mechanical, ** Dramann, Arbeiter und Communislen in Griechenland und Rom, 8. 64. "Der grbsste Theil der 20,000, welche ira peloponnesischeu Kriege in Attica zu der Bpartanischeu Bpsatzung in Decelia enflielen, kam aus Fabriken. Mitunter wurde ihneo gestattet, ftlr eigene Rechnung zu arbeiten, und ein Gewisses tlieil an ihre Herren abzugeben ; so konnten fleissige und sparsame eine Summe eriibrigen und sich loakaufen; manche machten meiir Aulwand als die Freien." Biicher Bays, S. 21: " Wo viele Sklaven derselben Nationalitat in einer Stadt zilsammen lebten, sagt Platen, (legg. VI. p. 777), geschahe grosses Unheil, wasdoch nur auf wirllche Aafstande mit aU ihren Graueln zu deuten ist." So also at Rome the feeling was against the poorest class and aggravated hj a fear of their muti- nies. Cato the elder was a hard-hearted slave-driver as Livy, (XXXIX. 40), coolly hints, without seeming to imagine that brutal treatment of a menial was inhomanity. Macrobius, (Salumaliorum Libri, I, xi. 2, 25-30,) says that in Borne so great was the cruelty of citizens to the laboring class that God himself protested; "Audi igittir quanta indignatio de serui supplicio caelum pene- traaerit. anno enim post lioinam conditam quadringentesimo septuagesimo quarto Autranius quidam Maxinius seruum suum ueberatum patibuloque con- Btrictnm ante spetaculi comniissionem per circum egit: ob quam causam indig- natns luppiter Annio cuidam per qnietem imperauit ut senatui nuntiaret non Bibi placuisse plenum crudelitatis admissum." Thus cruelty with other griev- ances caused them to revolt. Of course, those who were already free were stiU more fortunate. It is curious that the law was such that the slaves remained Blavsg even after winning the strike. 142 STRIKE AT THE SILVER MINB& which have in course of subsequent ages succeeded in rid- ding the world of slavery. Yet we find in this great strike 20,000 workingmen revolting and turning their niuscle against their own comparatively progressive institutions, thus doing all in their power to aid the Spartans in subdu- ing this growing Athenian intelligencje. Of course we can- not blame them for resistance ; for it raised them, although it doomed their cause. The brilliant Athenians were, after a struggle of 27 years, defeated and the Spartans succeeded in re-establishing the old, jealous, conservative paganism — that deadliest enemy of freedom, the nursery of slavery, the borne of priestci-aft and of aristocracy, ever inculcating belief in divine right of few against many. Not far from Decilea on the Athenian seacoast, about five miles to the southeastward of the Laurian silver mines, was the little mining city of Sunion. There was an old castle at this place, which, like that in the forest of Sicily," was under the aBgis of a powerful divinity who recognized the workingman and protected him, whatever his deeds or his guilt, so long as he could hold himself within its walls. It was about the close of the first Labor war of Eunus of Sicily that another enormous and horribly bloody strike oc- curred in the mines of Laurium.*' The men undertook and carried out the same plan as that of Decelia, and struck work to the number of more than a thousand.** It must have been a memorable and shockingly sanguinary event. Sun- ion was the stronghold of the silver mines." By the ap- pearance of things as presented to us in the meagre details given, no improvement for the comfort of the miners had ever been introduced since the great strike of Decelea. The poor creatures were still suffering under the lash, delving 860 out of the 365 days in the year, naked, men and women in- discriminately tugging under the clubs of heartless foremen and directors, the same as ages before," That these poor »* See Second Sicilian Labor War, chap, xl where It Is related that the strlkors were actually shielded by the god of the castle, and no one dared to disturb them ontil they had organized that mighty rebeUion. 8* A full account of this strike-war occurs in chap. x. pp. 201-241 q. v. 8s Augustin de civ. d. HI. 26, teUs as also of a great uprising of the minera In Macedonia. 87 Bocbh, Laurische Silberherg^verh, S, 90. 3« Athenjeus, Deipnosophishv. VI. p. 271: quoting B. Poseldonlns, the contln- nator of the Histories of Polybiug says: " Kal ai jroAAai Si avrai 'AttikclI jiupiaSes riov oiKeriiii' fiefic/xeVai eipya^ofTO rd /ue'roAAa. Tlovi.oi youK o' ^iAd(ro<^o? Kai aTrooTayrai ovfvv SovAuc airixrrouTtt iyivm. 8m klso BOckh, S. 123. *» See Demosth, Agt. Pant. 966-7. The eranoi mentioned were the veritable trade unions, corresponding with the Eoman collegia, the French jurandes and the English trade unions. The thiasoi, as we persistently explain, were that branch of the eranoi which had in charge the entertainments and solemnities. We have ah'eady shown that slaves often belonged to the unions. Foucart, {Aisodation* B»- ligiettsues Chtz Les Grecs, p. 121 and 219, i/wcripttore No. 38), mentions an important Inscription showing that one Xanthos a Lycian slave belonging to a Bomaa named Caius Orbius, founded a temple at the mines and consecrated It to the moon god. This moon god in return for the favor protected the slavM. Tbe «Ub bears evidence from which we quote the first six lines as foUovni Sai-flos AuKtos Tatov 'Opdiov KaBtlSpvaa to Up bi^oC Mj/i-os Tvpoi'i'ov, atpeT((ra>'TO( Tou 6«o0, iir' ayaBrj TVXTk «oi(ii)9ei'o aKadapTov irpoadyeiv, KaOapi^daTu) Si airo (TKopouv xcuyoipcMV Kai yvvaiKOf, Kovtrap-evovi Si KaraKtwaKa av6riiiephv tunropt^ taOaif Kai ex toii' yvvai,Keiu>v Sia inTo. ijiJt.epiiv Kov I Consult alsi Kombardini, De Car- eere et anliquo ejus l/vu, quotinu tke law; 'Itorauius permihsit maratis jus vita an necessiiudinis in uxores suas indulgere." 148 EARLY MUTINEERS OF ITALY. ger." He characterizes it indeed, as prodigious.' Thus though all the particulars are not given the probabilities are, that it was a memorable affair. A certain number of slaves of Rome formed a conspir- acy to secretly set fire to the city in the night. The plan was to fire the houses in many places at once. Then, when the buildings were ablaze, they expected a stampede of the people as sometimes occurs at a burning theatre or church, on which occasion there settles a horror and a craze, the people losing their wits and thus faUiug an easy prey to a few well organized ruffians who, with a stern leader are able so shrewdly to command and manage as to demoUsh, plunder and make off with much that the flames leave unconsumed. This was the intention of the Roman slave conspiracy. They made their plans to throw the city into a vast confusion and at a point when flamts and fright combined to perfect the moral chaos, to seize the arms from the armories and whatever else was avail- able, put the citizens to the sword, set their fellow slaves free, and having completed the work of devastation, take possession of the property, occupy the citadels and tlie capitol and settle down in the enjoyment of the women whom they did not propose to hui-t in their general mas- sacre of the men. In the act of carrying out this prodig- ious carnage they where betrayed by two of the conspira- tors as is commonly the case in such attempts. As a re- ^ suit the ringleaders were seized by the officers of justice and crucified.*" It is very singular that Livy, usually elaborate when dwelling upon an important event, should so peremptorily dismiss this subject which he introduces as one of the his- torical events of Rome in which the Roman peoiale, as it were, through the protecting power of their god Jupiter, narrowly escaped. How many or how many thousands were crucified, excepting the two who exposed the con- spiracy to Jupiter," is not stated. We recaU this to mind with the more interest, since later uprisings like those of Eunus, Aristonicus and Spartacus were followed by the »Liv. lib, IV. 45: •' Annus (e'icitatp populi Romani periculo potius In- genti qnam clade insignia " Cf Dionys Halicar, excsrpt xi. 10 IJionysius of Ilalioarnassu^, Acechceol. Shomaike, xil. 5, V. Idem. IV. 45: "Avertit neand i consilia Jupiter, indeciaque dnfr rum coiiU'rlienen^i sontes joana-: iledeiunt." RUNAWAYS IN THE SWAMPS. 149 execution of thousands upon the cross. The two traitors were richly rewarded with money and freedom." Bficher reckons the year in which occiu-red another uprising in the heart of Latium, Italy, to have been B. C. 194. It was a very dangerous stiike of slaves. The old Pomptine swamps in ancient times near the mountain city of Setia were infested with tbe runaway slaves, who to exist, were obhged to sally out from their glades where they hid by day, and played a role of brigands. All about the swamps on the higher levels, the soil was celebrated for productiveness. Setan wines were renowned for their rehsh. The city itself was between these marshes and the mountain cliffs, affording the brigands an immense range of forests, rocks, acclivities and jungles, which could be used as fastnesses when the pursuers or the weather would not permit the fugitives to live in the marshes be- low. Of course the little fortified Setia full of good things, but maintained by the labor of slaves, was an object of envy and a moral stumbling block to this order of submis- sion within, and their cupidity or vengeance without. There were also numbers of other small cities and towns in this region. The encroachments of the rich getis fam- ilies upon the ager publinis or public lands, which under the laws of Numa and Servius TuUius had been cultivated by the small farmers, sometimes by unions of farmers and as it were, in a socialistic way, had driven out the happy olden days and flogged into their places the horrid slave system of cultivation. Here, at the foot of this spur of the Appenines, as in the valley of the Guicus about Per- gamum and the exquisite plateau of Enna," the greedy slave owner had fastened upon the limbs of his human chattels the clanking chains of enforced bondage and de- clared a lockout of the former guilds who worked the government lands on shares. That they had no other right to these lands than that of lawless might we shall in our chapter on Spartacus, sufiSciently poi'tray." These landlords, it is conceded by every one who b»s given attention to the subject," acted in every way the w/ifcm: "Indlclbus dena nulla pijivls asris, qiiBB turn divltiSB habebnn tur, ex srarto mntneraia et libertas prseniium iuit.' '3 See dettilel accounts o: the f