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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12745 ***
+
+THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS
+
+JOINT EDITORS
+
+ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge
+
+J.A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopædia
+
+VOL. XI
+
+ANCIENT HISTORY MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+    ANCIENT HISTORY
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        MASPERO, GASTON
+          Dawn of Civilization
+          Struggle of the Nations
+          Passing of the Empires
+
+      JEWS
+
+        JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS
+          Antiquities of the Jews
+          Wars of the Jews
+
+        MILMAN, HENRY
+          History of the Jews
+
+      GREECE
+
+        HERODOTUS
+          History
+
+        THUCYDIDES
+          Peloponnesian War
+
+        XENOPHON
+          Anabasis
+
+        GROTE, GEORGE
+          History of Greece
+
+        SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH
+          Troy and Its Remains
+
+      ROME
+
+        CÆSAR, JULIUS
+          Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+        TACITUS, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS
+          Annals
+
+        SALLUST, CATOS CRISPUS
+          Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
+
+        MOMMSEN, THEODOR
+          History of Rome
+
+    MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
+
+      HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          The Holy Roman Empire
+
+      EUROPE
+
+        GUIZOT, F.P.G.
+          History of Civilization in Europe
+
+        HALLAM, HENRY
+          View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        LANE-POOLE, STANLEY
+          Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+      ENGLAND
+
+        HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL
+          Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
+
+        FREEMAN, E.A.
+          Norman Conquest of England
+
+        FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY
+          History of England
+
+A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
+of Volume XX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Acknowledgment
+
+
+     Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
+     following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The
+     Struggle of the Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by
+     Gaston Maspero--which appear in this volume, are hereby
+     tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of
+     London, England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Ancient History
+
+
+GASTON MASPERO
+
+
+The Dawn of Civilisation
+
+
+     Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
+     Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in
+     philology and Egyptology, having in great part studied his
+     special subjects on Oriental ground. After occupying for
+     several years the Chair of Egyptology in the École des Hautes
+     Études at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became, in 1874, Professor
+     of Egyptian Philology and Archæology at the Collège de
+     France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director of the
+     Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this
+     museum became enriched with its choicest antique treasures.
+     Dr. Maspero retired in 1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt
+     as Director of Excavations. His works are of the utmost value,
+     his skill in marshalling facts and deducting legitimate
+     inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense
+     work, with the general title of "History of the Ancient
+     Peoples of the Classic East," divided into three parts, each
+     complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of Civilisation"; (2) "The
+     Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the Empires."
+
+
+_I.--The Nile and Egypt_
+
+
+A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
+vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
+plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this,
+the Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as
+it were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper
+begins. It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south
+between regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the
+banks of the river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The
+whole length of the land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly
+parallel at a mean distance of about twelve miles.
+
+During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space;
+and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very
+summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and
+shrunken within the deeps of its own ancient bed, the stream now makes a
+way through its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keep
+to the east, and constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the
+hieroglyphic inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in which the
+river flowed divides, and two other streams are opened up in a southerly
+direction, each of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream.
+
+Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down
+from the distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed
+the immense plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew.
+The river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it
+withheld it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious
+armies follow the Nile for months together, as they pursued the tribes
+who dwelt upon its banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as
+irresistible in its progress as ever. It was a fresh-water sea--_iauma,
+ioma_ was the name by which they called it. The Egyptians, therefore,
+never sought its source. It was said to be of supernatural origin, to
+rise in Paradise, to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man, and
+afterwards to fall into a sea whence it made its way to Egypt.
+
+The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant
+invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as
+large as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the
+Bahr-el-Abiad unites with the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
+Alluvial deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which
+is known as Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our era it must still have
+been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and boatmen the idea of
+an actual sea opening into the Indian Ocean.
+
+Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the
+soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and
+hence it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They
+personified it as a man with regular features, and a vigorous but portly
+body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. Sometimes water springs
+from his breast; sometimes he presents a frog, or libation of vases, or
+bears a tray full of offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or geese. The
+inscriptions call him "Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who
+maketh food to be, and covereth the two lands of Egypt with his
+products; who giveth life, banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to
+overflowing."
+
+He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
+other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his
+head, presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of
+papyrus for his headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses,
+corresponding to the two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and
+Mirit-Mihit for the Lower Egypt--personified the banks of the river.
+They are represented with outstretched arms, as though begging for the
+water that should make them fertile.
+
+
+
+_II.--The Gods of Egypt_
+
+
+The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
+ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly
+every illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of
+some deity. One would think the country had been inhabited for the most
+part by gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the
+requirements of their worship. Each of these deities represented a
+function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit
+was identified with the ripe ear of wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the
+child's cradle at the very moment of its birth; and Raninit presided
+over the naming and nurture of the newly born.
+
+In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual
+jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the
+indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its
+grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one
+of the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form;
+others as animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.
+
+The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
+composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other
+composed of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of
+Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at
+Pharbæthos; Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady
+Tumilat; and, finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was
+enthroned at Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home
+deities. Horus the sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated
+each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended.
+
+Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
+universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
+entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as
+Nit was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human
+form. Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and
+formed a trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the
+local deity was content with one wife and one son, but often he was
+united to two goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than
+lowered, the prestige of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had
+of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents,
+he was generally an infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him
+her breast. The gods had body and soul, like men; they had bones,
+muscles, flesh and blood; they hungered and thirsted, ate and drank;
+they had our passions, griefs, joys and infirmities; and they were
+subject to age, decrepitude and death, though they lived very far beyond
+the term of life of men.
+
+The _sa_, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
+carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who
+thus might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king
+who wished to become impregnated with the divine _sa_ sat before the
+statue of the god in order that this principle might be infused into
+him. The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils
+which death so plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome
+possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was
+the mummy of Anhuri in its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at
+Heliopolis that of Tumu. Usually, by dying, the god became another
+deity. Ptah of Memphis became Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was
+changed into Anubis. Osiris first represented the wild and fickle Nile
+of primitive times; but was soon transformed into a benefactor to
+humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed
+to assume the shapes not only of man, but of rams and bulls, or even of
+water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes. His companion goddess
+was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's horns, who personified the earth,
+and was mother of Horus.
+
+There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family
+fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the
+sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who
+made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water.
+The most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be
+regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed
+gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting
+with an animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden
+intuition.
+
+
+_III.--Legendary History of Egypt_
+
+
+The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or
+traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus.
+Great space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king
+of Egypt, who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys
+rebellious men, and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his
+court was mainly composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went
+forth in his barque, amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his
+accustomed circuit of the world, and returned to his home at the end of
+twelve hours after the journey. In his old age he became the subject of
+the wiles of Isis, who poisoned him, and so secured his departure from
+earth. He was succeeded by Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the
+universe was divided.
+
+The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at
+length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were
+taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain
+by the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was
+divided between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth
+of two kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus,
+son of Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed
+itself under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.
+
+Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating
+to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris
+to the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination
+and trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show.
+Before gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it
+had during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris,
+and had served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from
+the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.
+
+To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two
+Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human
+dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his
+existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are
+mere legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our
+researches. The history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1.
+The Memphite period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from
+the First to the Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers
+over the whole of Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The
+Theban period, from the Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided
+into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3.
+Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided
+again into two parts by the Persian Conquest, the first Saite period,
+from the Twenty-first to the Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite
+Period, from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirtieth dynasty.
+
+
+_IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt_
+
+
+Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel
+to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has
+mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the
+followers of Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose
+granite was erected alongside the god; temples were built here and there
+in the more accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of
+the whole country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and
+uncoffined, were thrust into the sand at a depth of barely three feet
+from the surface. Those of the better class rested in mean rectangular
+chambers, hastily built of yellow bricks, without ornaments or
+treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained the
+provisions left to nourish the departed during the period of his
+existence. Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the
+mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a
+"mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some
+subterranean vaults.
+
+During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs
+formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues,
+and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of
+these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes
+new life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands
+out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else.
+He is god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the
+great-god," connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the
+Pharaohs are blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being
+infused into the royal infant at birth.
+
+The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
+Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
+any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
+very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
+title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered
+her a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of
+private citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having
+no bond of union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of
+birth had destined to be their ruler.
+
+Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
+the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
+were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its
+attendants and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment
+to a score of different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost
+approached the dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which
+adorned each one, a living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers,
+dancers, buffoons and dwarfs whiled away the tedious hours. Many were
+the physicians, chaplains, soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed
+was the army of officials connected with the administration of public
+affairs. The mainspring of all this machinery was the writer, or, as we
+call him, the scribe, across whom we come in all grades of the staff.
+
+The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
+was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
+wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the
+elementary rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the
+scribe takes the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a
+talented scribe rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was
+removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and
+was ennobled.
+
+
+_V.--The Memphite Empire_
+
+
+At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All
+we know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the
+nomads of Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier
+of the Delta, and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid.
+Snofrui called the pyramid "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead
+Pharaoh, identified with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. It
+was built to indicate the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person
+of rank in his tribe or province. The worship of Snofrui, the first
+pyramid-builders, was perpetuated from century to century. His
+popularity was probably great; but his fame has been eclipsed in our
+eyes by that of the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasty who immediately
+followed him--Kheops, Khephren and Mykerinos.
+
+Khufui, the Kheops of the Greeks, was probably son of Snofrui. He
+reigned twenty-three years, successfully defended the valuable mines of
+copper, manganese and turquoise of the Sinaitic peninsula against the
+Bedouin; restored the temple of Hathor at Dendera; embellished that of
+Babastis; built a sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx; and consecrated
+there gold, silver and bronze statues of Horus and many other gods.
+Other Pharaohs had done as much or more; but the Egyptians of later
+dynasties measured the magnificence of Kheops by the dimensions of his
+pyramid at Ghizel. The Great Pyramid was called Khuit, the "Horizon," in
+which Kheops had to be swallowed up, as his father, the sun, was
+engulfed every evening in the horizon of the west. Of Dadufri, his
+immediate successor, we can probably say that he reigned eight years;
+but Khephren, the next son who succeeded to the throne, erected temples
+and a gigantic pyramid, like his father. He placed it some 394 feet to
+the south-west of that of Kheops, and called it Uiru the Great. It is
+much smaller than its neighbour, but at a distance the difference in
+height disappears. The pyramid of Mykerinos, son and successor of
+Khephren, was considerably inferior in height, but was built with
+scrupulous art and refined care.
+
+The Fifth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the Fourth. It reckons nine Pharaohs, who reigned for a
+century and a half, and each of them built pyramids and founded cities,
+and appear to have ruled gloriously. They maintained, and even
+increased, the power and splendour of Egypt. But the history of the
+Memphite Empire unfortunately loses itself in legend and fable, and
+becomes a blank for several centuries.
+
+
+_VI.--The First Theban Empire_
+
+
+The principality of the Oleander--Naru--comprised the territory lying
+between the Nile and the Bahr Yusuf, a district known to the Greeks as
+the island of Heracleopolis. It, moreover, included the whole basin of
+the Fayum, on the west of the valley. Attracted by the fertility of the
+soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up
+their residence in Heracleopolis, the capital of the district of the
+Oleander, and one of them, Snofrui, had built his pyramid at Medum,
+close to the frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the
+Memphites declined, so did the princes of the Oleander grow more
+vigorous and enterprising; and When the Memphite kings passed away,
+these princes succeeded their former masters and eventually sat "upon
+the throne of Horus."
+
+The founder of the Ninth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., who ruled over
+all Egypt, and whose name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.
+His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a
+century. The history of this period seems to have been one of confused
+struggle, the Pharaohs fighting constantly against their vassals, and
+the nobles warring amongst themselves. During the Memphite and
+Heracleopolitan dynasties Memphis, Elephantiné, El-Kab and Koptos were
+the principal cities of the country; and it was only towards the end of
+the Eighth dynasty that Thebes began to realise its power. The revolt of
+the Theban. princes put an end to the Ninth dynasty; and though
+supported by the feudal powers of Central and Northern Egypt, the Tenth
+dynasty did not succeed in bringing them back to their allegiance, and
+after a struggle of nearly 200 years the Thebans triumphed and brought
+the two divisions of Egypt under their rule.
+
+The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban
+dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race. The
+kings of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from
+the valley of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of
+fresh territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country
+had suffered for hundreds of years. The final overthrow of the
+Heracleopolitan dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the
+rule of the Theban house, are supposed to have been the work of that
+Monthotpu, whose name the Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the
+royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious representative
+of the Eleventh dynasty.
+
+The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
+showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
+determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
+found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and
+established for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far
+south to be a suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt,
+Amenemhait proceeded to establish himself in the heart of the country in
+imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took
+up his abode a little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui.
+Having restored peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of
+his reign, when he was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very
+young, to the co-regency with himself.
+
+When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
+against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
+dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with
+greater certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which
+ruled Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its
+great achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight
+sovereigns and the details of their interminable wars are very
+imperfectly known.
+
+Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
+Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty
+kings, who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and
+Sovkhoptus continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work
+so ably begun by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.
+
+During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
+fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
+taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
+Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
+the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
+energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
+incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
+Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis,
+Bubastis and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley,
+from near the spot where it receives its last tributary to where it
+empties itself into the sea. The making of Egypt was finally
+accomplished in his time. The Fourteenth dynasty, however, consists of a
+line of seventy-five kings, whose mutilated names appear on the Turin
+Papyrus. These shadowy Pharaohs followed each other in rapid sequence,
+some reigning only a few months, others for certainly not more than two
+and three years.
+
+Meantime, during what appears to have been an era of rivalries between
+pretenders, mutually jealous of and deposing one another, usurpers in
+succession seizing the crown without strength to keep it, the feudal
+lords displayed more than their old restlessness. The nomad tribes began
+to show growing hostility on the frontier, and the peoples of the Tigris
+and Euphrates were already pushing their vanguards into Central Syria.
+While Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and the eastern
+corner of Africa into subjection, Chaldæa had imposed not only language
+and habits, but also her laws upon the whole of that part of Eastern
+Asia which separated her from Egypt. Thus the time was rapidly
+approaching when these two great civilised powers of the ancient world
+would meet each other face to face and come into fierce and terrible
+collision.
+
+
+_VII.--Ancient Chaldæa_
+
+
+The Chaldæan account of Genesis is contained on fragments of tablets
+discovered and deciphered in 1875 by George Smith. These tell legends of
+the time when "nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when
+nothing below had as yet received the name of earth. Apsu, the Ocean,
+who was their first father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
+all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes
+which bore no fruit. In the time when the gods were not created, Lakhmu
+and Lakhamu were the first to appear and waxed great for ages."
+
+Then came Anu, the sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night;
+Inlil-Bel, the king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and
+the personification of wisdom. Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into
+Anat, Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse
+whom he had produced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these
+fruitful pairs, and, the impulse once given, the world was rapidly
+peopled by their descendants. Sin, Samash and Ramman, who presided
+respectively over the sun, moon and air, were all three of equal rank;
+next came the lords of the planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, the
+warrior-goddess, and Nebo; then a whole army of lesser deities who
+ranged themselves around Anu as around a supreme master.
+
+Discord arose. The first great battle of the gods was between Tiamat and
+Merodach. In this fearful conflict Tiamat was destroyed. Splitting her
+body into halves, the conqueror hung up one on high, and this became the
+heavens; the other he spread out under his feet to form the earth, and
+made the universe as men have known it. Merodach regulated the movements
+of the sun and divided the year into twelve months.
+
+The heavens having been put in order, he set about peopling the earth.
+Many such fables concerning the cosmogony were current among the races
+of the lower Euphrates, who seem to have belonged to three different
+types. The most important were the Semites, who spoke a dialect akin to
+Armenian, Hebrew and Phoenician. Side by side with these the monuments
+give evidence of a race of ill-defined character, whom we provisionally
+call Sumerians, who came, it is said, from some northern country, and
+brought with them a curious system of writing which, adopted by ten
+different nations, has preserved for us all that we know in regard to
+the majority of the empires which rose and fell in Western Asia before
+the Persian conquest. The cities of these Semites and Sumerians were
+divided into two groups, one in the south, near the sea, the other more
+to the north, where the Euphrates and the Tigris are separated by a
+narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, Eridu lying
+nearest the coast. Uru was the most important. Lagash was to the north
+of Eridu. The northern group consisted of Nipur, "the incomparable,"
+Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and residence of life, the only
+metropolis of the Euphrates region of which posterity never lost
+reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the two Sipparas, that
+of Shamash, and that of Annuit.
+
+The earliest Chaldæan civilisation was confined almost to the banks of
+the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not reach
+the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of the
+world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
+north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert,
+it was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an
+isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.
+
+According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
+chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
+36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in
+this mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the
+great deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the
+wickedness of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited
+their wrath. Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved
+miraculously in a great ship. Concerning him and his voyage strange
+fables are recorded. After the deluge, 86 kings ruled during 34,080
+years. One of these was Nimrod, the mighty hunter of the Bible, who
+appears as Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and is the hero of extraordinary
+adventures.
+
+History proper begins with Sargon the Elder, king at the first in Agade,
+who soon annexed Babylon, Sippara, Kishu, Uruk, Kuta and Nipur. His
+brilliant career was like an anticipation of that of the still more
+glorious life of Sargon of Nineveh. His son, Naramsin, succeeded him
+about 3750 B.C. He conquered Elam and was a great builder. After him the
+most famous king of that epoch was Gudea, of Lagash, the prince of whom
+we possess the greatest number of monuments. But in these records we
+have but the dust of history rather than history itself. The materials
+are scanty in the extreme and the framework also is wanting.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Temples and the Gods of Chaldæa_
+
+
+The cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of Egypt,
+by the magnificence of their ruins. They are merely heaps of rubbish in
+which no architectural outline can be traced--mounds of stiff greyish
+clay, containing the remains of the vast structures that were built of
+bricks set in mortar or bitumen. Stone was not used as in Egypt. While
+the Egyptian temple was spread superficially over a large area, the
+Chaldæan temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible. These
+"ziggurats" were composed of several immense cubes piled up on one
+another, and diminishing in size up to the small shrine by which they
+were crowned, and wherein the god himself was supposed to dwell.
+
+The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a
+countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into
+tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe; but,
+whereas in Egypt they were, on the whole, friendly to man, in Chaldæa
+they for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only
+seemed to exist in order to destroy him. Whether Semite or Sumerian, the
+gods, like those of Egypt, were not abstract personages, but each
+contained in himself one of the principal elements of which our universe
+is composed--earth, air, sky, sun, moon and stars. The state religion,
+which all the inhabitants of the same city were solemnly bound to
+observe, included some dozen gods, but the private devotion of
+individuals supplemented this cult by vast additions, each family
+possessing its own household gods.
+
+Animals never became objects of worship as in Egypt; some of them,
+however, as the bull and the lion, were closely allied to the gods. If
+the idea of uniting all these gods into a single supreme one ever
+crossed the mind of a Chaldæan theologian, it never spread to the people
+as a whole. Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on
+which we find recorded prayers, we have as yet discovered no document
+containing the faintest allusion to a divine unity. The temples were
+miniature reproductions of the arrangements of the universe. The
+"ziggurat" represented in its form the mountain of the world, and the
+halls ranged at its feet resembled approximately the accessory parts of
+the world; the temple of Merodach at Babylon comprised them all up to
+the chambers of fate, where the sun received every morning the tablets
+of destiny.
+
+Every individual was placed, from the very moment of his birth, under
+the protection of a god or goddess, of whom he was the servant, or
+rather the son. These deities accompanied him by day and by night to
+guard him from the evil genii ready to attack him on every side. The
+Chaldæans had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in the other
+world as the Egyptians possessed.
+
+The Chaldæan hades is a dark country surrounded by seven high walls, and
+is approached by seven gates, each guarded by a pitiless warder. Two
+deities rule within it--Nergal, "the lord of the great city," and
+Peltis-Allat, "the lady of the great land," whither everything which has
+breathed in this world descends after death. A legend relates that Allat
+reigned alone in hades and was invited by the gods to a feast which they
+had prepared in heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light she refused,
+sending a message by her servant, Namtar, who acquitted himself, with
+such a bad grace, that Anu and Ea were incensed against his mistress,
+and commissioned Nergal to chastise her. He went, and finding the gates
+of hell open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was
+about to decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved
+her life by becoming his wife.
+
+The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the
+departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of
+pestilence and battle. His functions in heaven and earth took up so much
+of his time that he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and
+he was consequently obliged to content himself with the rôle of
+providing subjects for it by dispatching thither the thousands of
+recruits which he gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the
+field of battle.
+
+
+_IX.--Chaldæan Civilisation_
+
+
+The Chaldæan kings, unlike their contemporaries, the Pharaohs, rarely
+put forward any pretension to divinity. They contented themselves with
+occupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the gods.
+While the ordinary priest chose for himself a single deity as master,
+the priest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions. He officiated
+for Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions daily
+occupied many hours. On great days of festival or sacrifice they laid
+aside all insignia of royalty and were clad as ordinary priests.
+
+Women do not seem to have been honoured in the Euphratean regions as in
+Egypt, where the wives of the sovereign were invested with that
+semi-sacred character that led the women to be associated with the
+devotions of the man, and made them indispensable auxiliaries in all
+religious ceremonies. Whereas the monuments on the banks of the Nile
+reveal to us princesses sharing the throne of their husbands, whom they
+embrace with a gesture of frank affection, in Chaldæa, the wives of the
+prince, his mother, sisters, daughters and even his slaves, remain
+absolutely invisible to posterity. The harem in which they were shut up
+by force of custom rarely, if ever, opened its doors; the people seldom
+caught sight of them; and we could count on our fingers the number of
+these whom the inscriptions mention by name.
+
+Life was not so pleasant in Chaldæa as in Egypt. The innumerable
+promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and
+purchase--these cunningly drawn-up deeds which have been deciphered by
+the hundred, reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious,
+and almost exclusively absorbed in material concerns. The climate, too,
+variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed on the
+Chaldæan painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of
+which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable.
+And the plague of usury raged with equal violence in city and country.
+
+In proportion, however, as we are able to bring this wonderful
+civilisation to light we become more and more conscious that we have
+indeed little or nothing in common with it. Its laws, customs, habits
+and character, its methods of action and its modes of thought, are so
+far apart from those of the present day that they seem to belong to a
+humanity utterly different from our own. It thus happens that while we
+understand to a shade the classical language of the Greeks and of the
+Romans, and can read their works almost without effort, the great
+primitive literatures of the world, the Egyptian and Chaldæan, have
+nothing to offer us for the most part but a sequence of problems to
+solve or of enigmas to unriddle with patience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Struggle of the Nations
+
+
+     Maspero in this work gives us the second volume of his great
+     historical trilogy. He shows in parallel views the part played
+     in the history of the ancient world by the first Chaldæan
+     Empire, by Syria, by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, of Egypt,
+     and by the first Cossæan kings who established the greatness
+     of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. The great Theban dynasty
+     is then exhibited in its romantic rise under the Pharaohs.
+     Maspero writes not as a mere chronicler or reciter of events,
+     but as a philosophical historian. He makes the reader
+     understand how fatally the chronic militarism of these
+     competing empires drained each of its manhood and brought
+     Babylon and Assyria simultaneously into a hopeless condition
+     of national anæmia. Equally pathetic is the picture drawn of
+     the gradual but sure decay of the grand empire of the
+     Pharaohs. Maspero, with masterly skill, passes a processional
+     of these despots before our eyes.
+
+
+_I.--The Chaldæan Empire and the Hyksos_
+
+
+Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
+battlefields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such
+regions neighbouring peoples come to settle their quarrels, and bit by
+bit they appropriate it, so that at best the only course open to the
+inhabitants is to join forces with one of the invaders. From remote
+antiquity this was the experience of Syria, which was thus destined to
+become subject to foreign rule. Chaldæa, Egypt, Assyria and Persia in
+turn presided over its destinies. Semites dwelt in the south and the
+centre, while colonies from beyond the Taurus occupied the north. The
+influence of Egypt never penetrated beyond the provinces lying nearest
+the Dead Sea. The remaining populations looked rather to Chaldæa, and
+received the continuous impress of the kingdoms of the Euphrates.
+
+The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at
+first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
+latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
+state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession,
+there to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings
+contain semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes.
+Towards the end of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the
+Christian era, a dynasty arose of which all the members come within the
+range of history.
+
+The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
+the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
+kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416
+B.C. and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the.
+famous and fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the
+throne for fifty-five years.
+
+While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
+separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
+horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
+declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
+invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
+whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
+term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
+conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors.
+The monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The
+problem remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious
+as ever.
+
+About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Isræl,
+or Isrælites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's
+history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews
+arrived in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless
+one of the Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a
+war of five years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs,
+whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from
+various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her
+armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden
+appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The
+isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the
+conflict of the nations was about to begin.
+
+
+_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_
+
+
+The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldæan interference when,
+forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time
+into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
+control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.
+When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of
+Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossæan race
+gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi
+by Chaldæans of the ancient stock.
+
+The Cossæan king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his
+tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
+Media. The Cossæan rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
+doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised
+at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossæan kings did not merely bring
+with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
+land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
+merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
+successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
+over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew
+their allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer
+supreme when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis
+entered the region the native levies which he encountered were by no
+means formidable.
+
+The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
+group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
+completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to
+distinguish at the present time several of these groups, all belonging
+to the same family, but possessing different characteristics--the
+kinsfolk of the Hebrews, the children of Ishmæl and Edom, the Moabites
+and Ammonites, the Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The
+Canaanites were the most numerous, and had they been able to confederate
+under a single king, it would have been impossible for the Egyptians to
+have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of
+Asia.
+
+
+_III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty_
+
+
+The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
+a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
+could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching
+on his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
+surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
+Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the
+secure door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this
+quarter, Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power
+in Ethiopia, where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern
+region and thus extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the
+upper Nile, Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of
+profound peace. Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife,
+Queen Hatshopsitu, reigned for many years with great ability while the
+new Pharaoh, Thutmosis III., was still a youth.
+
+After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
+It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
+reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and
+won a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
+inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
+Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his
+arms, and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king.
+When the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its
+results by means of a series of international decrees, which established
+the constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action
+with the Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position
+among them when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his
+reign.
+
+Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
+who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
+peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
+temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire_
+
+
+When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of
+whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort
+after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By
+such a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III.,
+was raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty.
+He displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting
+mighty building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against
+recalcitrant tribes along the Upper Nile.
+
+Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his
+accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and associated his son,
+Seti I., with himself in the government from his second year of power.
+No sooner had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for
+war against Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron,
+marched to Gaza, and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the
+homage of the Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing
+troops of captives.
+
+By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and
+Luxor, which render his name for ever illustrious. He associated with
+him his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of
+the greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The
+monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of
+the world. He married a Hittite princess when he was more than sixty.
+This alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once
+more breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection
+of the two Powers who shared her territory.
+
+Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old
+age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to
+disfigure it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who
+was thus the glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and
+lived to the age of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes. Under
+his successors, Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation
+became decadent, though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as
+when Minephtah won a great victory over the Libyans. But after the death
+of Siphtah, there were many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy
+prevailed from one end of the Nile valley to the other.
+
+
+_V.--The Rise of the Assyrian Empire_
+
+
+Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last
+dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the
+Oriental world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured
+to rival him in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived.
+In the fifth year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated
+Libyans with complete success. Victories over other enemies followed,
+and also peace and prosperity.
+
+The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had
+so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it
+had made on their constitution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had
+become, as it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and
+language being affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians
+became absorbed in commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the
+inheritance which the Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the
+decline of the power of the latter was that of the Hittites.
+
+The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Cossæan kings, and
+gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard Babylon with
+deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more than 185
+miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many canals
+between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was
+formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper
+Zab, the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every
+means in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and
+the narrow area was the scene of continual war.
+
+Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that
+of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the
+Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of
+latitude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the
+streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a
+network of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The
+provinces thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into
+a proverb. Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well
+wooded. The most important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and
+Nineveh.
+
+Assur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the
+very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was,
+during the struggle with the Chaldæan power, exposed to the attacks of
+the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and
+the Zab, was secure from any sudden assault. Thus it became the custom
+for the kings to pass at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though
+Assur remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire,
+which began its aggrandisement under Assurballit, by his victory over
+the Cossæan kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the
+career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years
+doubled the extent of his dominions. He beautified Assur, but removed
+his court to Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of
+Babylon, and was the first of his race who was able to assume the title
+of King of Sumir and Akkad.
+
+This first conquest of Chaldæa did not produce lasting results, for the
+sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and Assyria became the
+scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the
+depression of Assyria did not last long. Nineveh had become the
+metropolis. Confusion was increased in the whole of this vast region of
+Asia by the invasion and partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon.
+But these were driven back when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To
+Merodach he prayed, and "his prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam,
+taking its king by surprise and defeating him.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of
+Assyria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for
+though his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent
+flying across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of
+Assurishishi, who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son,
+Tiglath-pileser, is the first of the great warrior kings of Assyria to
+stand out before us with any definite individuality. He immediately, on
+his accession, began to employ in aggressive wars the well-equipped army
+left by his father, and in three campaigns he regained all the
+territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and also conquered various
+regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the Chaldæans he met
+with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive, dying about the
+year 1100 B.C.
+
+There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain
+Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the
+footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
+Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left a
+triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had
+accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested
+from him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks
+of the Euphrates near Carchemish.
+
+What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at
+almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?
+The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the
+country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldæa was
+neither extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the
+ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms
+was enrolled in the army, the Chaldæan kings had no difficulty in
+raising, at a moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel
+an invasion, or to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it
+was in schemes that required prolonged and sustained effort that they
+felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age of hand-to-hand
+combats, the mortality in battle was very high; forced marches through
+forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or
+four campaigns against a stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a
+condition of weakness.
+
+When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on Assurishishi, he was still weak from
+the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could
+not conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on
+the banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few
+indecisive advantages; in the second he succumbed.
+
+The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
+causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst
+of her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories
+of Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious
+state of languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted
+themselves which had gradually come to displace the nations over which
+the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to
+them. The Hebrews on the east, and the Philistines on the southwest,
+were about to undertake the conquest of Kharu, as the land which is
+known to us as Canaan was styled by the Egyptians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Passing of the Empires
+
+
+     Maspero, in the third volume of his great archæological
+     trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the
+     Classic East," deals with the passing in succession of the
+     supremacies of the Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldæan,
+     Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The period dealt with in
+     this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries, from 850
+     B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes
+     before us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic
+     dramas. One excellent feature of his method is his balancing
+     of evidences. Where Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ
+     he tells what each asserts. With consummate skill also he
+     arranges his recital like a series of dissolving views,
+     showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading
+     Assyria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media
+     is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of
+     Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the
+     decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
+     culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by
+     Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations
+     on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture
+     and civilisation of the Orient.
+
+
+_I.--The Assyrian Revival_
+
+
+Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
+prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity
+and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the
+country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held
+authority for seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030
+B.C., a Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and
+succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.
+Five or six of his descendants passed away and another was feebly
+reigning when war broke out afresh with Assyria, and the two armies
+encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the
+Lower Zab and the Turnat. The Assyrians were victorious under their
+king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not live long to enjoy his triumph. His
+son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a kingdom which embraced scarcely any of
+the countries that had paid tribute to former sovereign, for most of
+these had gradually regained their liberty.
+
+Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same
+conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the
+vitality and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a
+new element. This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to
+the chariotry. But it must be remembered that the strength and
+discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were
+common to the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus,
+Nairi, the Hittites and Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states
+being, as a rule, both in strength and numbers much on a par, no single
+power was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would be
+its destruction. Twice at least in three centuries a king of Assyria had
+entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had forced the intruder back.
+
+Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those
+conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives.
+He was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than
+the people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief
+cities, then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and
+pillaged many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was
+flayed alive. After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.
+
+A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his
+successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of
+Nimroud, discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He
+conquered the whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a
+savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An
+attack on Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad,
+King of Syria, proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war
+with Babylon, lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for
+Assyria, and Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple
+of E-shaggil, where he offered worship to the local gods.
+
+Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King
+of Isræl, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been
+faithful to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the
+city of Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his
+pledge. He and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance
+against Benhadad, who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had
+organised an expedition, which led to the death of Ahab in battle.
+Isræl lapsed once more into the position of a vassal to Benhadad, and
+long remained in that subjection.
+
+The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son,
+Assur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was
+shaken by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV.,
+the brother of Assurdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son,
+Ramman-nirari III., had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and
+so had secured peace. He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at
+length Damascus made submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and
+able King of Urartu, proved himself a thorn in the side of the Assyrian
+king, for he delivered from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the
+borders of Lake Urmiah and all the adjacent regions.
+
+Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the
+Euphrates, the Assyrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also
+overcame the Hittites and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van,
+or Armenia, which was quite equal in size to Assyria. He died shortly
+before the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent
+the first few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the
+country north of the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of
+Ramman-nirari, but defeated the Assyrians.
+
+Misfortunes accumulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so
+wide a sway, and the end of the Second Assyrian Empire was not far off.
+Syria was lost under Assur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah
+by sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came
+to an end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah,
+proclaimed himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The
+Second Empire had lasted rather less than a century and a half.
+
+
+_II.--To the Destruction of Babylon_
+
+
+Events proved that, at this period at any rate, the decadence of Assyria
+was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of the
+country, but was owing Mainly to the incapacity of its kings and the
+lack of energy displayed by their generals. The Assyrian troops had lost
+none of their former valour, but their leaders had shown less foresight
+and skill. As soon as Tiglath-pileser assumed leadership, the armies
+regained their former prestige and supremacy.
+
+The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, but the buffer provinces,
+containing the tribes on the borders of Syria, Namri, Nairi, Melitene,
+had thrown off the yoke, as had the Arameans, while Menuas of Armenia
+and his son Argistis had by their invasions laid waste the Median
+territory. Sharduris III., son of Argistis, succeeded to the throne of
+Armenia about 760, and at once overran the district of Babilu, carrying
+by storm three royal castles, 23 cities, and 60 villages. He also
+captured the castles of the mountaineers of Melitene. Crossing Mount
+Taurus about 756, he forced the Hittites to swear allegiance.
+
+It was in the middle of this eighth century B.C., in the days of
+Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, and Sharduris III. of Armenia, that
+Isræl, under Jehoash, and his son Jeroboam II.; inspired by the
+exhortations of Elisha the prophet, was rehabilitated for a season,
+winning victories over the Syrians and taking vengeance on Damascus, and
+then attacking the Moabites. The sudden collapse of Damascus led to the
+decline of Syria, but though Jeroboam II. seemed to be firmly seated as
+king in Samaria, the downfall of Isræl and Judah alike, as well as of
+Tyre, Edom, Gaza, Moab, and Ammon, was foretold by the prophet Amos,
+while from the midst of Ephraim the priest-seer, Hosea, was never weary
+of reproaching the tribes with their ingratitude and of predicting their
+coming desolation.
+
+Ere long, Tiglath-pileser began his campaigns against them by attacking
+the Arameans, dwelling on the banks of the Tigris. He overthrew them at
+the first encounter. Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him
+and swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon,
+Borsippa, Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a
+peer," and offered sacrifices to all their gods--to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo,
+Tashmit, and Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.
+
+His next exploit was the rapid conquest of the mountainous and populous
+regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
+conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in
+the difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the
+Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon
+afterwards marched forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout
+of the latter was complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The
+victor was covered with glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the
+forces left him were not sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to
+extort allegiance from the Syrian princes who had allied themselves with
+Sharduris.
+
+After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
+Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of
+Northern Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty
+foiled Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of
+Dhuspas, in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu
+held out against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew.
+Sharduris remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his
+power had received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then,
+Armenia has more than once challenged fortune, but always with the same
+result; it fared no better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under
+Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians.
+
+As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
+Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta,
+where the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
+grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
+abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
+profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
+also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many
+petty states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time
+of Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power
+was really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually
+declared himself king, together with Pharaoh.
+
+Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
+of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was
+at this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Isræl, King
+Pekah being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
+inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.
+
+Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
+had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C.,
+and was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years
+was assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin,
+who was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two
+months and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain
+Ukinzir, an Aramean chief.
+
+But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
+on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against
+it. After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
+Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
+passed since the two empires had been united under one ruler. His
+Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking for him; but he did not
+long survive his triumph, dying after having reigned eighteen years over
+Assyria, and less than two years over Babylon and Chaldæa.
+
+The next great Assyrian name is that of Sargon II., whose origin is not
+clear. And the incidents of the revolution which raised him to the
+throne are also unknown. The first few years of his reign, which
+commenced in 722 B.C., were harassed by revolts among many of the border
+tribes, but these he resolutely faced at all points, inflicting
+overwhelming defeats on the Medes and the Armenians. The Philistines
+were cowed by the storming of Ashdod, and Sargon subdued Phoenicia,
+carrying his arms to the sea. This great monarch, while wars raged round
+him, found time for extensive works of a peaceful character, completing
+the system of irrigation, and erecting buildings at Calah and Nineveh,
+and raising a magnificent palace at Dur-Sharrukin.
+
+And here he intended in peace to build a great city, but he was, in 105
+B.C., assassinated by an alien soldier. Sennacherib, his son, fighting
+on the frontier, was recalled and proclaimed immediately. He either
+failed to inherit his father's good fortune, or lacked his ability.
+Instead of conciliating the vanquished, he massacred entire tribes, and
+failed to re-people these with captive exiles from other nations. So,
+towards the end of his reign--which terminated in 681 B.C.--he found
+himself ruling over a sparsely inhabited desert where his father had
+left him flourishing and populous cities. Phoenicia and Judah formed an
+alliance with each other and with Egypt. Sennacherib bestirred himself
+and Tyre perished. The Assyrian invader then attacked Judah and besieged
+Jerusalem, where Hezekiah was king and Isaiah was prophesying. Whatever
+was the cause, half the army perished by pestilence, and Sennacherib led
+back the remnants of his force to Nineveh.
+
+The disaster was terrible, but not irreparable, for another and an equal
+host could be raised. And it was needed to quell a great Babylonian
+revolt led by Merodachbaladan, who had given the signal of rebellion to
+the mountain tribes also. After a series of terrible conflicts, Babylon
+was taken. And now Sennacherib, who had shown leniency after two
+previous revolts, displayed unbounded fury in his triumph. The massacre
+lasted several days, none being spared of the citizens. Piles of corpses
+filled the streets. The temples and palaces were pillaged, and finally
+the city was burnt.
+
+In the midst of his costly and absorbing wars we may well wonder how
+Sennacherib found time and means for building villas and temples; yet he
+is, nevertheless, the Assyrian king who has left us the largest number
+of monuments.
+
+His last years were embittered by the fierce rivalry of his sons. One of
+these he nominated his successor, Esarhaddon, son of a Babylonian wife.
+During his absence from Nineveh, on the 20th day of Teleth, 681, his
+father, Sennacherib, when praying before the image of his god, was
+assassinated by two other sons, Sharezer and Adrammelech. Esarhaddon,
+hearing of this tragedy, gathered an army, and in a battle defeated
+Sharezer and established himself on the throne.
+
+
+_III.--The Crisis of the Assyrian Power_
+
+
+Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, for he delighted in
+building; but unfortunate disturbances did not permit him to pursue his
+favourite occupation without interruption, and, like his warlike
+predecessors, he was constrained to pass most of his life on the
+battlefield. He began his reign by quelling an insurrection of the
+Cimmerians in the territories on the border of the Black Sea. Sidon
+rebelled ungratefully, although his father had saved her from desolation
+by Tyre. He stormed and burnt the city. The Scythian tribes came on the
+field in 678 B.C., but they were diplomatically conciliated.
+
+Now followed a memorable event. Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all
+the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the
+fabrication of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and
+lavishly devoted gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of
+enamel to decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the
+people, who had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to
+return to their homes.
+
+But fresh foreign complications arose through the support given
+continually to recalcitrant states in the south of Egypt. Esarhaddon was
+provoked to undertake the first actual invasion of Egypt in force by
+Assyria for the purpose of subduing the country. Over a great
+combination of the Egyptians and Ethiopians he won a crushing victory.
+Memphis was taken and sacked. Henceforth, Esarhaddon, in his pride,
+styled himself King of Egypt, and King of the Kings of Egypt, of the
+Said, and of Ethiopia. But he was not very long permitted to enjoy the
+glory of his triumph; a determined revolt of the conquered country
+demanded a fresh campaign. He set out, but was in bad health, and, his
+malady increasing, he died on the journey in the twelfth year of his
+reign.
+
+Before starting on the expedition, he had realised the impossibility of
+a permanent amalgamation of Assyria and Babylon, notwithstanding his
+personal affection for Babylon. Accordingly, he designated as his
+successors his two sons. Assurbanipal was to be King of Assyria, and
+Shamash-shumukin King of Babylon, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+As soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation he had planned
+took place automatically, the two sons proclaiming themselves
+respectively kings of Assyria and Babylon. Thus Babylon regained half
+its independence. But the Assyrian Empire was now at its zenith. Egypt
+was quelled by the army of Esarhaddon, and to Assurbanipal submitted in
+vassalage the nations of the Mediterranean coast.
+
+Now followed years of exhausting warfare and of victory after victory,
+which fatally wasted the strength of Assyria. Never had the empire been
+so respected; never had so many nations united under one sceptre. But
+troubles accumulated. Mutiny in Egypt called for another expedition,
+which led to the capture and sacking of Thebes. Next came a war with
+Elam, ending in its subjection to Assyria, for the first time in
+history.
+
+But with success. Assurbanipal grew arrogant in his attitude to his
+brother, the King of Babylon, and a fratricidal war resulted in the
+defeat and death of Shamash-shumukin and the capture of the rival
+capital. But Assyria was now near one of its recurrent periods of
+exhaustion, and foes were rising for a formidable attack.
+
+
+_IV.--Fall of Media and Chaldæa_
+
+
+At the very height of his apparent grandeur and prosperity Assurbanipal
+was attacked by Phraortes, King of the Medes, who paid for his temerity
+with his life, being left dead, with the greater part of his army, on
+the field. But the sequel was unexpected, for Cyaxares, son of the slain
+Mede, stubbornly continued the conflict, patiently reorganising his
+army, until he won a great victory over the Assyrian generals, and shut
+up the remnant of their forces in Nineveh.
+
+Assurbanipal, after a reign of forty-two years, died about 625 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son, Assuretililani. Against his brother and
+successor, Sinsharishkin, the standard of rebellion was raised by
+Nabopolassar, the governor of Babylon, who declared himself independent,
+and assumed the title of king, but his reign not long after ended with
+his death, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar was proclaimed king in Babylon.
+
+His reign was long and prosperous, and, on the whole, a peaceful one.
+The most notable event in the career of Nebuchadrezzar II., was the
+capture and destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of a revolt of Tyre
+and Judea. The unfortunate king, Zedekiah, saw his sons slain in his
+presence, and then, his eyes having been put out, he was loaded with
+chains, and sent to Babylon.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of fifty-five years. His
+successors were weak rulers, and their reigns were brief and inglorious.
+The army was suffered to dwindle, and the dynasty founded by
+Nabopolassar came to an end in 555 B.C., when Labashi-marduk, the last
+of the line, after reigning only nine months, was murdered by Nabonidus,
+a native Babylonian. This usurper witnessed the rapid rise of the new
+Iranian power which was to destroy him and Babylon. In 553 B.C., Cyrus,
+a Persian general, revolted against Astyages, defeated him, and
+destroyed the Median Empire at one blow.
+
+The only army that was a match for that of Cyrus was the Lydian host
+under King Croesus. A conflict took place between the two, ending in the
+defeat of the most powerful potentate of Asia Minor. But Cyrus treated
+Croesus with consideration, and the Lydian king is said to have become
+the friend of the mighty Persian. From that day neither Egypt nor
+Chaldæa had any chance of victory on the battlefield. Nabonidus became a
+mere vassal of Cyrus, and lived more or less inactively in his palace at
+Tima, leaving the direction of power at Babylon in the hands of his son,
+Bel-sharuzu.
+
+At length the Babylonians grew weary of their king. Nabonidus had never
+been popular, and the discontent of the people at length called for the
+intervention of the suzerain. In 538 Cyrus moved against Babylon, and
+Nabonidus now retreated into the city with his troops, and prepared for
+a siege. But Cyrus, taking advantage of the time of the year when the
+waters were lowest, diverted the Tigris, so that his soldiers were able
+to enter the city without striking a blow. Nabonidus surrendered, and
+Belsharuzur was slain. With him perished the second Chaldæan Empire.
+
+The sagacious conqueror did not pillage the city, and treated the
+citizens with clemency. Cyrus associated his son Cambyses with himself,
+making him King of Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
+of the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian
+dominion extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus
+took place the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.
+
+According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
+his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom;
+but Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
+barbarian hosts of the Massagetæ, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
+the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in
+which all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but
+accomplished the stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone
+remained to be conquered. Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise
+against Egypt; but after a series of successes met with reverses in
+Ethiopia, which affected his mind, and he is said to have ended his own
+life. Power fell into the hands of a chief of one of the seven great
+clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose rival was
+Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.
+
+Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
+being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of
+the great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the
+greatness of the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest
+of the Near East had arrived.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
+
+
+The Antiquities of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole history
+     of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also
+     wrote an autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical
+     treatise, "Flavius Josephus against Apion." His style is so
+     classically elegant that critics have called him the Greek
+     Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities of the Jews"
+     contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
+     portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories
+     embodied in the Old Testament.
+
+
+_I.--From Alexander to Antiochus_
+
+
+After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
+Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
+Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So
+he marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Caria and Pamphylia, and
+again defeated Darius at Issus. The Persian king fled into his own land,
+and his mother, wife, and children were captured. Alexander besieged and
+took first Tyre, and then Gaza, and next marched towards Jerusalem.
+
+At Sapha, in full view of the city, he was met by a procession of the
+priests in fine linen, and a multitude of the citizens in white, the
+high-priest, Jaddua, being at their head in his resplendent robes.
+Graciously responding to the salutations of priests and people,
+Alexander entered Jerusalem, worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple,
+and then invited the people to ask what favours they pleased of him;
+whereupon the high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of
+their forefathers, and pay no tribute on the seventh year. All their
+requests were granted, and Alexander led his army into the neighbouring
+cities.
+
+Now, when Alexander was dead and his government had been divided among
+many, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, by treachery seized Jerusalem, and took
+away many captives to Egypt, and settled them there. His successor,
+Ptolemy Philadelphus, restored to freedom 120,000 Jews who had been kept
+in slavery at the instance of Aristeus, one of his most intimate
+friends. He also dedicated many gifts to God, and showed great
+friendship to the Jews in his dominions.
+
+Other kings in Asia followed the example of Philadelphus, conferring
+honours on Jews who became their auxiliaries, and making them citizens
+with privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Macedonians and Greeks. In
+the reign of Antiochus the Great the Jews suffered greatly while he was
+at war with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, called Epiphanes. When
+Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy, he seized on Judea, but ultimately he made
+a league with Ptolemy, gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and
+yielded up to him Celesyria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia by way of
+dowry. Onias, son of Simon the Just, was then high-priest. He greatly
+provoked the king by neglecting to pay his taxes, so that Ptolemy
+threatened to settle his soldiers in Jerusalem to live on the citizens.
+
+But Joseph, the nephew of Onias, by his wisdom brought all things right
+again, and entered into friendship with the king, who lent him soldiers
+and sent him to force the people in various cities to pay their taxes.
+Many who refused were slain. Joseph not only thus gathered great wealth
+for himself, but sent much to the king and to Cleopatra, and to powerful
+men at the court of Egypt. He had a son named Hyrcanus, who became noted
+for his ability, and crossed the Jordan with many followers; he made war
+successfully on the Arabians, built a magnificent stone castle, and
+ruled over all the region for seven years, even all the time that
+Seleucus was king of Syria. But when Seleucus was dead, his brother
+Antiochus Epiphanes took the kingdom, and Hyrcanus, seeing that
+Antiochus had a great army, feared he should be taken and punished for
+what he had done to the Arabians. So he took his own life, Antiochus
+seizing his possessions.
+
+
+_II.--To the Death of Judas_
+
+
+Antiochus, despising the son of Ptolemy as being but weak, and coveting
+the possession of Egypt, conducted an expedition against that country
+with a great force; but was compelled to withdraw by a declaration of
+the Romans. On his way back from Alexandria he took the city of
+Jerusalem, entering it without fighting in the 143d year of the kingdom
+of the Seleucidæ. He slew many of the citizens, plundered the city of
+much money, and returned to Antioch.
+
+After two years he again came up against Jerusalem, and this time left
+the Temple bare, taking away the golden altar and candlesticks, the
+table of shewbread, and the altar of burnt offering, and all the secret
+treasures. He slew some of the people, and carried off into captivity
+about ten thousand, burnt the finest buildings, erected a citadel, and
+therein placed a garrison of Macedonians. Building an idol altar in the
+Temple, he offered swine on it, and he compelled many of the Jews to
+raise idol altars in every town and village, and to offer swine on them
+every day. But many disregarded him, and these underwent bitter
+punishment. They were tortured or scourged or crucified.
+
+Now, at this time there dwelt at Modin a priest named Mattathias, a
+citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, one of whom, Judas, was called
+Maccabæus. Mattathias and his sons not only refused to sacrifice as
+Antiochus commanded, but, with his sons, attacked and slew an apostate
+Jewish worshipper and Apelles, the king's general, and a few of his
+soldiers. Then the priest and his five sons overthrew the idol altar,
+and fled into the desert, followed by many of their followers with their
+wives and children. About a thousand of these who had hidden in caves
+were overtaken and destroyed; but many who escaped joined themselves to
+Mattathias, and appointed him to be the ruler, who taught them to fight,
+even on the Sabbath. Gathering a great army, he overthrew the idol
+altars, and slew those who broke the laws. But after ruling one year, he
+fell into a distemper, and committed to his sons the conduct of affairs.
+He was buried at Modin, all the people making great lamentation. His son
+Judas took upon himself the administration of affairs in the 146th year,
+and with the help of his brothers and others, cast their enemies out of
+the country and purified the land of its pollutions. Judas celebrated in
+the Temple at Jerusalem the festival of the restoration of the
+sacrifices for eight days.
+
+From that time we call the yearly celebration the Feast of Lights. Judas
+also rebuilt the wall and reared towers of great height. When these
+things were over he made excursions against adversaries on every side,
+he and his brothers Simon and Jonathan subduing in turn Idumæa, Gilead,
+Jazer, Tyre, and Ashdod. Antiochus died of a distemper which overtook
+him as he was fleeing from Elymais, from which he was driven during an
+attack upon its gates. Before he died he called his friends about him,
+and confessed that his calamities had come upon him for the miseries he
+had brought upon the Jewish nation.
+
+Antiochus was succeeded by his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy of tender
+age, whose guardians were Philip and Lysias. He reigned but two years,
+being put to death, together with Lysias, by order of the usurper
+Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who fled from Rome, and, landing in
+Syria, gathered an army, and was joyfully received by the people.
+Against Jerusalem, Demetrius sent an expedition commanded by his
+general, Bacchides. Judas Maccabæus, fighting with great courage, but
+having with him only 800 men, fell in the battle. His brothers Simon and
+Jonathan, receiving his body by treaty from the enemy, carried it to the
+village of Modin, and there buried him. He left behind him a glorious
+reputation, by gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from
+slavery under the Macedonians. He died after filling the office of
+high-priest for three years.
+
+
+_III.--To the Roman Dominion_
+
+
+Jonathan and his brother Simon continued the war against Bacchides. They
+were assisted by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the
+160th year, came up into Syria against Demetrius, and defeated and slew
+him in a great battle near Ptolemais. But the son of Demetrius, named
+after his father, in the 165th year, after Alexander had seated himself
+on the throne and had gained in marriage Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy
+Philometor, came from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers.
+Jonathan and Simon, brothers of Judas Maccabæus, entering into league
+with Demetrius, who offered them very great advantages, defeated at
+Ashdod the army sent by Alexander under Apollonius.
+
+A breach took place between Alexander and Ptolemy through the treachery
+of Ammonius, a friend of the former, and the Egyptian king took away his
+daughter Cleopatra from her husband, and immediately sent to Demetrius,
+offering to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him,
+to give him his daughter in marriage and to restore him to the
+principality of his fathers. These overtures were joyfully accepted, and
+Ptolemy came to Antioch and persuaded the people to receive Demetrius.
+Alexander was beaten in a battle by the two allies and fled into Arabia,
+where, however, his head was speedily cut off by Zabdiel, a prince of
+the country, and sent to Ptolemy. But that king, through wounds caused
+by falling from his horse, died a few days afterwards.
+
+Demetrius, being secure in power, disbanded a great part of his army,
+but this action greatly irritated the soldiers. Furthermore, he was
+hated, as his father had been, by the people of Syria. A revolt was
+raised by an Apanemian named Trypho, who overcame Demetrius in a fight,
+and took from him both his elephants and the city of Antioch. Demetrius
+on this defeat retired into Cilicia, and Trypho delivered the kingdom to
+Antiochus, the youthful son of Alexander, who quickly sent ambassadors
+to Jonathan and made him his confederate and friend, confirming him in
+the high-priesthood and yielding up to him four prefectures which had
+been added to Judea. Accordingly, Jonathan promptly joined him in a war
+against Demetrius, who was again defeated.
+
+Soon after Demetrius had been carried into captivity Trypho deserted
+Antiochus, who had now reigned four years. He usurped power, which he
+basely abused; and Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, raised a force
+against him and drove him away to Apamea, where he was put to death, his
+term of power having lasted only three years. Antiochus Soter then
+attacked Simon, who successfully resisted, established peace, and ruled
+in all for eight years. His death also was the result of treachery, his
+son-in-law Ptolemy playing him false. His son Hyrcanus became
+high-priest, and speedily ejected the forces of Ptolemy from the land.
+Subduing all factions, he ruled justly for thirty-one years, leaving
+five sons.
+
+The eldest, Aristobulus, purposed to change the government into a
+kingdom, and placed a diadem on his own head; but his mother, to whom
+the supremacy had been entrusted, disputed his authority. He cast her
+into prison, where she was starved to death; and next he compassed the
+death of his brother Antigonus, but was soon attacked by a painful
+disease. He reigned only one year. His widow, Alexandra, let his
+brothers out of prison and made Alexander Janneus king.
+
+His reign was one of war and disorder. With savage cruelty he repressed
+rebellion, condemning hundreds of Jews to crucifixion. While these were
+yet living, their wives and children were slain before their eyes. His
+life was ended by a sickness which lasted three years, and after his
+death civil war broke out between his two sons, Aristobulus and
+Hyrcanus, in which great barbarities were committed. The conflict was
+terminated by the intervention of the Romans under Scarus. The two
+brothers appealed to Pompey after he came to Damascus; but that Roman
+general marched against Jerusalem and took it by force. Thus we lost our
+liberty as a nation and became subject to the Romans.
+
+
+_IV.--The Jews and the Romans_
+
+
+Crassus next came with Roman troops into Judea and pillaged the Temple,
+and then marched into Parthia, where both he and his army perished. Then
+Cassius obtained Syria, and checked the Parthians. He passed on to
+Judea, fell on Tarichæa, and took it, and carried away 3,000 Jewish
+captives. A wealthy Idumean named Antipater, who had been a great friend
+of Hyrcanus, and had helped him against Aristobulus, was a very active
+and seditious man. He had married Cypros, a lady of his own Idumean
+race, by whom he had four sons, Phaselus, and Herod, who afterwards
+became king, and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He
+cultivated friendship with other potentates, especially with the King of
+Arabia, to whom he committed the care of his children while he fought
+against Aristobulus. But when Cæsar had taken Rome, and after Pompey and
+the senate had fled beyond the Ionian Sea, Aristobulus was set free from
+the bonds in which he had been laid. Cæsar resolved to send him with two
+legions into Syria to set matters right; but Aristobulus had no
+enjoyment of this trust, for he was poisoned by Pompey's party. But
+Scipio, sent by Pompey to slay Alexander, son of Aristobulus, cut off
+his head at Antioch. And Ptolemy, son of Menneus, ruler of Chalcis, took
+Alexander's brethren to him, and sent his son Philippion to Askelon to
+Aristobulus's wife, and desired her to send back with him her son
+Antigonus and her daughters; the one of whom, Alexandra, Philippion fell
+in love with, and married her; though afterwards his father Ptolemy slew
+him, and married Alexandra.
+
+Now, after Pompey was dead, and after the victory Cæsar had gained over
+him, Antipater, who had managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
+to Cæsar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
+Hyrcanus. He brought over to the side of Cæsar the principal men of the
+Arabians, and also Jamblicus, the ruler of the Syrians, and Ptolemy, his
+son, and Tholomy, the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and
+almost all the cities, and with 3,000 armed Jews he joined Mithradates
+of Pergamus, who was marching with his auxiliaries to aid Cæsar.
+Antipater and Mithradates together won a pitched battle against the
+Egyptians, and Cæsar not only then commended Antipater, but used him
+throughout that war in the most hazardous undertakings, and finally, at
+the end of that campaign, made him procurator of Judea, at the same time
+appointing Hyrcanus high-priest. Antipater, seeing that Hyrcanus was of
+a slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
+Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
+fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
+won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of
+robbers, and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.
+
+Thus Herod became known to Sextus Cæsar, a relation of the great Cæsar,
+who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of Antipater
+and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the Jews,
+especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was capable
+of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
+encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting
+men to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting
+Herod, whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would
+have sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus,
+where he took refuge with Sextus Cæsar. When Herod received the kingdom,
+he slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he
+respected because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city,
+and he even slew Hyrcanus also.
+
+Now, when Cæsar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into Africa to
+fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
+desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
+only Cæsar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
+confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders
+that arose after the death of Cæsar, Cassius came into Syria and
+disturbed Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to
+gather the great tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a
+collector named Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the
+murder of his father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod
+gained new favour with Cassius.
+
+
+_V.--The Herodian Era_
+
+
+In order to secure his position, Herod made an obscure priest from
+Babylon, named Ananelus, high-priest in place of Hyrcanus. This offended
+Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Alexander, son of
+Aristobulus the king. She had ten children, among whom were Mariamne,
+the beautiful wife of Herod, and Aristobulus. She sent an appeal to
+Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in order by her intercession to gain from
+Antony the high-priesthood for this son. At the instance of Antony,
+Herod took the office from Ananelus, and gave it to Aristobulus, but
+took care that the youth should soon be murdered. Then, from causeless
+jealousy, he put to death his uncle Joseph and threw Mariamne into
+prison. Victory in a war with Arabia enhanced his power. Cruelly slaying
+Hyrcanus, he hasted away to Octavian, who had beaten Antony at Actium,
+and obtained also from him, the new Cæsar, Augustus, the kingdom, thus
+being confirmed in his position.
+
+Women of the palace who hated Mariamne for her beauty, her high birth,
+and her pride, falsely accused her to Herod of gross unfaithfulness. He
+loved her passionately, but, giving ear to these traducers, ordered her
+to be tried. She was condemned to death, and showed great fortitude as
+she went to the place of execution, even though her own mother,
+Alexandra, in order to make herself safe from the wrath of the king,
+basely, and publicly, and violently upbraided her, while the people,
+pitying her, mourned at her fate. Herod was also attacked by a
+tormenting distemper. He ordered the execution of Alexandra and of
+several of his most intimate friends.
+
+By his persistent introduction of foreign customs, which corrupted the
+constitution of the country, Herod incurred the deep hatred of very many
+eminent citizens. He erected servile trophies to Cæsar, and prepared
+costly games in which men were condemned to fight with wild beasts. Ten
+men who conspired against him were betrayed, and were tortured horribly,
+and then slain. But the people seized the spy who had informed against
+them, tore him limb from limb, and flung the body in pieces to the dogs.
+By constant and relentless severity Herod still strengthened his rule.
+
+But now fearful disturbances arose in his family. His sister Salome and
+his brother Pheroras displayed virulent hatred against Alexander and
+Aristobulus, sons of the murdered Mariamne, and, on their part, the two
+young men were incensed at the partiality shown by Herod to his eldest
+son, Antipater. This prince was continually using cunning strategy
+against his brethren, while feigning affection for them. He so worked on
+the mind of the king by false accusations against Alexander that many of
+the friends of this youth were tortured to death in the attempts made to
+force disclosures from them.
+
+A traitor named Eurycles fanned the flame by additional accusations, all
+utterly groundless, so that Herod wrote letters to Rome concerning the
+treacherous designs of his sons against him, and asking permission of
+Cæsar to bring them to trial. This was granted, and they were accused
+before an assembly of judges at Berytus and condemned. By their father's
+command they were starved to death. For his share in bringing about this
+tragedy Antipater was hated by the people. But the secret desire of this
+eldest son was to see the end of his father, whom he deeply hated,
+though he now governed jointly with him and was no other than a king
+already.
+
+Herod by this time had nine wives and many children and grandchildren.
+The latter he brought up with much care. Antipater was sent on a mission
+to Rome, and during his absence his plots were discovered, and on his
+return, Herod, amazed at his wickedness, condemned him to death. The
+king now altered his testament, dividing the territory among several of
+his sons. He died on the fifth day after the execution of Antipater,
+having reigned thirty-four years after procuring the death of Antigonus.
+Archelaus, his son, was appointed by Cæsar, in confirmation of Herod's
+will, governor of one-half of the country; but accusation of enemies led
+to his banishment to Vienna, in Gaul. Cyrenaicus, a Roman senator and
+magistrate, was sent by Cæsar to make taxation in Syria and Judea, and
+Caponius was made procurator of Judea. Philip, a son of Herod, built
+cities in honour of Tiberius Cæsar. When Pontius Pilate became
+procurator he removed the army from Cassarea to Jerusalem, abolished
+Jewish laws, and in the night introduced Cæsar's effigies on ensigns.
+
+About this time Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works, drew over
+to him many Jews and Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the
+suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the
+cross, those that loved him did not forsake him, for he appeared to them
+again alive at the third day, as the prophets had foretold; and the
+tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
+John, who was called the Baptist, was slain by Herod the tetrarch at his
+castle at Machserus, by the Dead Sea. The destruction of his army by
+Aretas, king of Arabia, was ascribed by the Jews to God's anger for this
+crime.
+
+Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, became the most famous of his
+descendants. On him Claudius Cæsar bestowed all the dominions of his
+grandfather with the title of king. But pride overcame him. Seated on a
+throne at a great festival at Cæsarea, arrayed in a magnificent robe, he
+was stricken by a disease, and died.
+
+He was succeeded by his son Agrippa, during whose time Felix and Festus
+were procurators in Judea, while Nero was Roman emperor. This Agrippa
+finished the Temple by the work of 18,000 men. The war of the Jews and
+Romans began through the oppression by Gessius Florus, who secured the
+procuratorship by the friendship of his wife Cleopatra with Poppea, wife
+of Nero. Florus filled Judea with intolerable cruelties, and the war
+began in the second year of his rule and the twelfth of the reign of
+Nero. What happened will be known by those who peruse the books I have
+written about the Jewish war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Wars of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," gives the only full and
+     reliable account of the tragic siege and destruction of
+     Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus. Excepting in the opening,
+     he writes throughout in the third person, although he was
+     present in the Roman camp as a prisoner during the siege, and
+     before then had been, as governor of Galilee, the brave and
+     energetic antagonist of the Romans. Becoming the friend of
+     Titus, and despairing of the success of his compatriots, he
+     was employed in efforts to conciliate the leaders of the
+     rebellion during the siege, and he was for three years a
+     privileged captive in the camp of the besiegers. His recital
+     is one of the most thrilling samples of romantic realism in
+     the whole range of ancient literature, and its veracity and
+     honesty have never been impugned. In his autobiography,
+     Josephus tells how, after the war, he was invited by Titus to
+     sail with him to Rome, and how on his arrival there the
+     Emperor Vespasian entertained him in his own palace, bestowed
+     on him a pension, and conferred on him the honours of Roman
+     citizenship. The Emperors Titus and Domitian treated this
+     remarkable Jew with continued favour.
+
+
+_I.--Beginning of the Great Conflict_
+
+
+Whereas the war which the Jews made against the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all times, while some men who were not concerned themselves
+have written vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and while those
+that were there have given false accounts, I, Joseph, the son of
+Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, and a priest also, and who at first fought
+against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done
+afterwards, am the author of this book.
+
+Now, the affairs of the Romans were in great disorder after the death of
+Nero. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name,
+was seventeen years old. He was considered too young to bear the burden
+of royalty, and Judea relapsed into a Roman province. Cuspius Fadus was
+sent as governor, and administered his office with firmness, but found
+civil war disturbing the district beyond Jordan. He cleared the country
+of the robber bands; and his successor, Tiberius Alexander, during a
+brief rule, put down disturbances which broke out in Judea. The province
+was at peace till he was superseded by Cumanus, during whose government
+the people and the Roman soldiery began to show mutual animosity. In a
+terrible riot 20,000 people perished, and Jerusalem was given up to
+wailing and lamentation.
+
+It was in Cæsarea that the events took place which led to the final war.
+This magnificent city was inhabited by two races--the Syrian Greeks, who
+were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently contended for the
+pre-eminence. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the Roman soldiery,
+levied chiefly in Syria, took part with their countrymen. Tumults and
+bloodshed disturbed the streets. At this time a procurator named Gessius
+Florus was appointed, and he, by his barbarities, forced the Jews to
+begin the war in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the
+seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa.
+
+But the occasion of the war was by no means proportioned to those heavy
+calamities that it brought upon us. The fatal flame finally broke out
+from the old feud at Cæsarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the
+magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It happened that the Jews had a
+synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot
+the Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused,
+and to annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean
+buildings and shops upon it, and so made the approach to the synagogue
+as narrow and difficult as possible. The more impetuous of the Jewish
+youth interrupted the workmen. Then the men of greater wealth and
+influence, and among them John, a publican, collected the large sum of
+eight talents, and sent it as a bribe to Florus, that he might stop the
+building. He received the money, made great promises, and at once
+departed for Sebaste from Cæsarea. His object was to leave full scope
+for the riot.
+
+On the following day, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a
+citizen of Cæsarea outraged them by oversetting an earthen vessel in the
+way, over which he sacrificed birds, as done by the law in cleansing
+lepers, and thus he implied that the Jews were a leprous people. The
+more violent Jews, furious at the insult, attacked the Greeks, who were
+already in arms. The Jews were worsted, took up the books of the law,
+and fled to Narbata, about seven miles distant. John, the publican, and
+twelve men of eminence went to Samaria to Florus, implored his aid, and
+reminded him of the eight talents he had received. He threw them into
+prison and demanded seventeen talents from the sacred treasury under
+pretence of Cæsar's necessities. This injustice and oppression caused
+violent excitement in Jerusalem when the news reached that city. The
+people assembled around the Temple with the loudest outcries; but it was
+the purpose of Florus to drive the people to insurrection, and he gave
+his soldiers orders to plunder the upper market and to put to death all
+whom they met. Of men, women, and children there fell that day 3,600.
+
+When Agrippa attempted to persuade the people to obey Florus till Cæsar
+should send someone to succeed him, the more seditious cast reproaches
+on him, and got the king excluded from the city; nay, some had the
+impudence to fling stones at him. At the same time they excited the
+people to go to war, and some laid siege to the Roman garrison in the
+Antonio; others made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada.
+They took it by treachery, and slew the Romans. One, Menahem, a
+Galilean, became leader of the sedition, and went to Masada and broke
+open Herod's armoury, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to
+other robbers, also. These he made use of for a bodyguard, and returned
+in state to Jerusalem, and gave orders to continue the siege of the
+Antonio.
+
+The tower was undermined, and fell, and many soldiers were slain. Next
+day the high-priest Ananias, and his brother Hezekiah, were slain by the
+robbers. By these successes Menahem was puffed up and became barbarously
+cruel; but he was slain, as were also the captains under him, in an
+attack led on by Eleazar, a bold youth who was governor of the Temple.
+
+
+_II.--The Gathering of Great Storms_
+
+
+And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews. On the very
+same day two dreadful massacres happened. In Jerusalem the Jews fell on
+Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had
+made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander
+himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to
+circumcision. On that very day and hour, as though Providence had
+ordained it, the Greeks in Cæsarea rose, and in a single hour slew over
+20,000 Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants. For
+Florus caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys. By this
+tragedy the whole nation was driven to madness. The Jews rose and laid
+waste the villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended
+on Gadara, Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places.
+Sebaste and Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed
+Anthedon and Gaza to the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with
+great slaughter.
+
+When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus,
+the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and
+overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be
+surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls. But the plot
+was discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls,
+and an attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed
+with great loss. Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews
+swarming on all the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in
+the night, leaving 400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and
+to display their ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.
+
+But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the
+army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band.
+This happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
+
+
+_III.--Judea in Rebellion Against Rome_
+
+
+Nero was at this time in Achaia. To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in
+order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the
+Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of
+Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem. Meantime, a great massacre of the
+Jews took place at Damascus. Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued
+after Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their
+governors and commanders. Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of
+Gorion, and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute
+authority in the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected
+of aiming at kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of
+zealots. But as commanding within the Temple he had made himself master
+of the public treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his
+extreme subtlety won over the multitude, and all real authority fell
+into his hands. To the other districts they sent the men most to be
+trusted for courage and fidelity.
+
+Josephus was appointed to the command of Galilee, with particular charge
+of the strong city of Gamala. He raised in that province in the north an
+army of more than a hundred thousand young men, whom he armed and
+exercised after the Roman manner; and he formed a council of seventy,
+and appointed seven judges in each city. He sought to unite the people
+and to win their goodwill. But great trouble arose from the treachery of
+his enemy, John of Gischala, who surpassed all men in craft and deceit.
+He gathered a force of 4,000 robbers and wasted Galilee, while he
+inflamed the dissensions in the cities, and sent messengers to Jerusalem
+accusing Josephus of tyranny. Tiberias and several cities revolted, but
+Josephus suppressed the risings, severely punishing many of the leaders.
+John retired to the robbers at Masada, and took to plundering Idumsea.
+
+
+_IV.--Vespasian and Josephus_
+
+
+Nero, on learning from the messengers the state of affairs, at first
+regarded the revolt lightly; but presently grew alarmed, and appointed
+to the command of the armies in Syria, and the task of subduing the
+Jews, Vespasian, who had pacified the West when it was disordered by the
+Germans, and had also recovered Britain for the Romans. He came to
+Antioch in the early spring, and was there joined by Agrippa and all his
+forces. He marched to Ptolemais, where he was met by his son Titus, who
+had, with expedition unusual in the winter season, sailed from Achaia to
+Alexandria. So the Roman army now numbered 60,000 horsemen and footmen,
+besides large numbers of camp followers who were also accustomed to
+military service and could fight on occasion.
+
+The war was now opened. Josephus attempted no resistance in the open
+field, and the people had been directed to fly to the fortified cities.
+The strongest of all these was Jotapata, and here Josephus commanded in
+person. Being very desirous of demolishing it, Vespasian besieged it
+with his whole army. It was defended with the greatest vigour, but was,
+after fierce conflicts, taken in the thirteenth year of the reign of
+Nero, on the first day of the month Panemus (July). During this dreadful
+siege, and at the capture, 40,000 men fell. The Romans sought in vain
+for the body of Josephus, their stubborn enemy. He had leaped down the
+shaft of a dry well leading to a long cavern. A woman betrayed the
+hiding-place, and Josephus was taken and brought before the conqueror,
+of whom he had demanded from his captors a private conference. To
+Vespasian he announced that he and his son would speedily attain the
+imperial dignity. Vespasian was conciliated by the speech of his
+prisoner, whom he treated with kindness; for though he did not release
+him from his bonds, he bestowed on him suits of clothes and other
+precious gifts.
+
+Joppa, Tiberias, Taricheæ, and Gamala were taken, both Romans and Jews
+perishing in the conflicts. Soon afterwards, by the capture of Gischala,
+all Galilee was subdued, John of Gischala fleeing to Jerusalem.
+
+
+_V.--The Prelude to the Great Siege_
+
+
+While the cities of Galilee thus arrested the course of the Roman
+eagles, Jotapata and Gamala setting the example of daring resistance,
+the leaders of the nation in Jerusalem, instead of sending out armies to
+the relief of the besieged cities, were engaged in the most dreadful
+civil conflicts.
+
+The fame of John of Gishala had gone before him to Jerusalem, and the
+multitude poured forth to do him honour. He falsely represented the
+Roman forces as being very greatly weakened, and declared that their
+engines had been worn out in the sieges in Galilee. He was a man of
+enticing eloquence, to whom the young men eagerly gave heed. So the city
+now began to be divided into hostile factions, and the whole of Judea
+had before set to the people of Jerusalem the fatal example of discord.
+For every city was torn to pieces by civil animosities. Not only the
+public councils, but even numerous families were distracted by the peace
+and war dispute. Through all Judea the youth were ardent for war, while
+the elders vainly endeavoured to allay the frenzy. Bands of desperate
+men began to spread over the land, plundering houses, while the Roman
+garrisons in the towns, rather rejoicing in their hatred to the race
+than wishing to protect the sufferers, afforded little help.
+
+Large numbers of these evil men stole into the city and grew into a
+daring faction, who robbed houses openly, and many of the most eminent
+citizens were murdered by these Zealots, as they were called, from their
+pretence that they had discovered a conspiracy to betray the city to the
+Romans. They dismissed many of the sanhedrin from office and appointed
+men of the lowest degree, who would support them in their violence, till
+the leaders of the people became slaves to their will.
+
+At length resistance was provoked, led by Ananus, oldest of the chief
+priests, a man of great wisdom, and the robber Zealots took refuge in
+the Temple and fortified it more strongly than before. They appointed as
+high-priest one Phanias, a coarse and clownish rustic, utterly ignorant
+of the sacerdotal duties, who when decked in the robes of office caused
+great derision. This sport and pastime for the Zealots caused the more
+religious people to shed tears of grief and shame; and the citizens,
+unable to endure such insolence, rose in great numbers to avenge the
+outrage on the sacred rites. Thus a fierce civil war broke out in which
+very many were slain.
+
+Then John of Gischala with great treachery, outwardly siding with
+Ananus, and secretly aiding the Zealots, sent messengers inviting the
+Idumæans to come to his help, of whom 20,000 broke into the city during
+a stormy night, and slew 8,500 of the people.
+
+
+_VI.--The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem_
+
+
+Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and
+Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding
+his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem. Galba was
+made emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then,
+after the defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was
+proclaimed by the East. He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste
+their strength by their internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants
+with forces to reduce various surrounding districts instead of attacking
+Jerusalem. When he became emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds,
+honouring him for his integrity. Hastening his journey to Rome,
+Vespasian commanded Titus to subdue Judea.
+
+At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously. Eleazar, son of
+Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to
+reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the
+Zealots and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath
+against John of Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned. But he
+deserted the Zealots and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that
+there was war between him and Simon, son of Gioras. Thus Eleazar, John,
+and Simon each led a band in constant fightings, and the Temple was
+everywhere defiled by murders.
+
+Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and
+went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude
+burst forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and
+intercepted him and a few others. He had on neither helmet nor
+breastplate, yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him,
+as if by some purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of
+his foes, he escaped unhurt. Part of the army now advanced to Scopos,
+within a mile of the city, while another occupied a station at the foot
+of the Mount of Olives.
+
+Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem
+for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the
+summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and
+Simon from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so
+near the walls. Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an
+attack at the same moment. Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along
+the valley of Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion,
+encamped at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed
+at the entrenchments. The soldiers fell back, many being killed.
+Witnessing their peril, Titus, with picked troops, fell on the flank of
+the Jews and drove them into the city with great loss.
+
+The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches,
+leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying
+all the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and
+the army took up a position all along the northern and the western wall,
+the footmen being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three
+lines behind, and the archers between. Jerusalem was fortified by three
+walls. These were not one within the other, for each defended one of the
+quarters into which the city was divided.
+
+The first, or outermost, encompassed Bezetha, the next protected the
+citadel of the Antonia and the northern front of the Temple, and the
+third, or old, and innermost wall was that of Sion. Many towers, 35 feet
+high and 35 feet broad, each surmounted with lofty chambers and with
+great tanks for rain water, guarded the whole circuit of the walls, 90
+being in the first wall, 14 in the second, and 60 in the third. The
+whole circuit of the city was about 33 stadia (four miles). From their
+pent-houses of wicker the Romans, with great toil day and night,
+discharged arrows and stones, which slew many of the citizens.
+
+At three different places the battering rams began their thundering
+work, and at length a corner tower came down, yet the walls stood firm,
+for there was no breach. Suddenly the besieged sallied forth and set
+fire to the engines. Titus came up with his horsemen and slew twelve
+Jews with his own hands. One was taken prisoner and was crucified before
+the walls as an example, being the first so executed during the siege.
+The Jews now retreated to the second wall, abandoning the defence of
+Bezetha, which the Romans entered. Titus instantly ordered the second
+wall to be attacked, and for five days the conflict raged more fiercely
+than ever. The Jews were entirely reckless of their own lives,
+sacrificing themselves readily if they could kill their foes. On the
+fifth day they retreated from the second wall, and Titus entered that
+part of the lower city which was within it with I,000 picked men.
+
+But, being desirous of winning the people, he ordered that no houses
+should be set on fire and no massacres should be committed. The
+seditious, however, slew everyone who spoke of peace, and furiously
+assailed the Romans. Some fought from the walls, others from the houses,
+and such confusion prevailed that the Romans retired; then the Jews,
+elated, manned the breach, making a wall of their own bodies.
+
+Thus the fight continued for three days, till Titus a second time
+entered the wall. He threw down all the northern part and strongly
+garrisoned the towers on the south. The strong heights of Sion, the
+citadel of the Antonia, and the fortified Temple still held out Titus,
+eager to save so magnificent a place, resolved to refrain for a few days
+from the attack, in order that the minds of the besieged might be
+affected by their woes, and that the slow results of famine might
+operate. He reviewed his army in full armour, and they received their
+pay in view of the city, the battlements being thronged by spectators
+during this splendid defiling, who looked on in terror and dismay. Then
+Titus sent Josephus to address them and to persuade them to yield, but
+the Zealots reviled him and hurled darts at him; but many began to
+desert, Titus permitted them to come in unmolested. John and Simon in
+their anger watched every outlet and executed any whom they suspected of
+designing to follow.
+
+The famine increased, and the misery of the weaker was aggravated by
+seeing the stronger obtaining food. All natural affection was
+extinguished, husbands and wives, parents and children snatching the
+last morsel from each other. Many wretched men were caught by the Romans
+prowling in the ravines by night to pick up food, and these were
+scourged, tortured, and crucified. In the morning sometimes 500 of these
+victims were seen on crosses before the walls. This was done to terrify
+the rest, and it went on till there was not wood enough for crosses.
+Terrible crimes were committed in the city. The aged high-priest,
+Matthias, was accused of holding communication with the enemy. Three of
+his sons were killed in his presence, and he was executed in sight of
+the Romans, together with sixteen other members of the sanhedrin, and
+the parents of Josephus were thrown into prison. The famine grew so
+woeful that a woman devoured the body of her own child. At length, after
+fierce fighting, the Antonia was scaled, and Titus ordered its
+demolition.
+
+Titus now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders
+would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots
+refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer
+court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones
+resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the
+cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. A soldier flung a
+blazing brand into a gilded door on the north side of the chambers. The
+Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to
+take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.
+
+The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left
+but a small portion of the outer cloisters. Titus next spent eighteen
+days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then
+speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any
+mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of
+this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners
+numbered 97,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY MILMAN, D.D.
+
+
+History of the Jews
+
+
+     Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
+     1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's
+     Cathedral, of which for the last nineteen years of his life he
+     was Dean. He was the youngest son of Sir Francis Milman,
+     physician to George III, and was educated at Greenwich, Eton
+     and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had a considerable
+     reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
+     historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including
+     the "History of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the
+     Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire," and the "History
+     of Latin Christianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas V." The
+     appearance of the "History of the Jews" in 1830 caused no
+     small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
+     themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman
+     wrote several hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty,"
+     "When our heads are bowed in woe." Although this history
+     carries the Jewish race down to modern times, it is included
+     in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating of
+     ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not
+     of a definite country.
+
+
+_I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States_
+
+
+By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Machærus
+and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
+Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of
+the states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
+obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
+indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
+ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish
+state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
+communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
+spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
+families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the
+Jews on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West;
+the chief of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more
+temporal title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.
+
+That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
+historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond
+the Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the
+devastation; and, according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in
+the general wreck.
+
+After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world
+during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt,
+Cyrene, and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant
+religious policy of the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan. Great
+atrocities were committed by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the
+retaliation was terrible. It is said that 220,000 Jews fell before the
+remorseless vengeance of their enemies. The flame spread to Cyprus,
+where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards emperor. He expelled the
+Jews from the island. When Hadrian ascended the throne, in 117 A.D., he
+issued an edict which was tantamount to the total suppression of
+Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the law, and
+the observance of the Sabbath.
+
+At this momentous juncture, when universal dismay prevailed, it was
+announced that the Messiah had appeared. He had come in power and glory.
+His name fulfilled the prophecy of Balaam. Barcochab, the Son of the
+Star, was that star which was to "arise out of Jacob." Wonders attended
+on his person; he breathed flames from his mouth which, no doubt, would
+burn up the strength of the proud oppressor, and wither the armies of
+the tyrannical Hadrian. Above all, Akiba, the greatest of the rabbins,
+the living oracle of divine truth, espoused the claims of the new
+Messiah; he was called the standard-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of
+him also wondrous stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab
+was to the ruins of Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he
+openly assumed the title of king. But he and his followers avoided a
+battle in the open field. On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to
+take command of the Roman forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of
+fifty of the strongest castles and nearly a thousand villages. Severus
+attacked the strongholds in detail, reducing them by famine, and
+gradually brought the war to a close.
+
+Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
+Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets
+of the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
+Jerusalem, which he called Ælia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony of
+foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
+new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the
+edict, the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to
+Bethlehem.
+
+
+_II.--Judaism and Christianity_
+
+
+For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
+extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
+successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as
+a separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under
+Hadrian, before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews
+present the extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly
+organised communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias,
+comprehending all of Isrælitish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire;
+the other under the Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern
+Jews paid allegiance. By the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
+were restored to their ancient privileges. Though still forbidden to
+enter Jerusalem, they were permitted to acquire the freedom of Rome, to
+establish many settlements in Italy, and to enjoy municipal honours.
+
+This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
+from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
+peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became
+the great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered
+nation in the closest uniformity.
+
+The middle of the third century beheld all Isræl incorporated into
+their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
+Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, lived in all the state and
+splendour of an oriental potentate, far outshining in his pomp his rival
+sovereign in Tiberias. The most celebrated of the rabbinical sovereigns
+was Jehuda, sometimes called the nasi or patriarch. His life was of such
+spotless purity that he was named the Holy. He was the author of a new
+constitution for the Jewish people, for he embodied in the celebrated
+Mischna all the authorised traditions of the schools and courts, and all
+the authorised interpretations of the Mosaic law. Both in the East and
+the West the Jews maintained their seclusion from the rest of the world.
+The great work called the Talmud, formed of the Mischna and the Gemara
+(or compilation of comments), was composed during a period of thirty
+years of profound peace for the masters of the Babylonian schools, under
+Persian rule. This remains a monumental token of learning and industry
+of the eastern Jewish rabbins of the third and fourth centuries.
+
+The formal establishment of Christianity by Constantine the Great, in
+the early part of the fourth century, might have led to Jewish
+apprehension lest the Synagogue should be eclipsed by the splendour of
+its triumphant rival, the Christian Church; but the Rabbinical authority
+had raised an insurmountable barrier around the Synagogue. And,
+unhappily, the Church had lost its most effective means of
+conversion--its miraculous powers, its simple doctrine, and the
+blameless lives of its believers. Constantine enacted severe laws
+against the Jews, which seem in great part to have been occasioned by
+their own fiery zeal. But, still earlier than these enactments, Spain
+had given the signal for hostility towards the Jews. A decree was passed
+at the Council of Elvira prohibiting Jewish and Christian farmers and
+peasants from mingling together at harvest home and other festivals.
+
+In Egypt, during the reign of Constantius, who succeeded his father
+Constantine, the hot-headed Jews of Alexandria provoked the enactment by
+that emperor of yet severer laws, by mingling themselves in the factions
+of Arians and Athanasians, which distracted that restless city. They
+joined with the pagans on the side of the Arian bishop, and committed
+frightful excesses. An insurrection in Judea, which terminated in the
+destruction of Dio Cæsarea, gave further pretext for exaction and
+oppression. But the apostasy of the emperor for a time revived the hopes
+of the race, especially when he issued his memorable edict decreeing the
+rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the
+Jewish worship in its original splendour.
+
+The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
+execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced
+with his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most
+distant quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment
+ensued. Fire destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the
+enterprise, and the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.
+
+The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
+fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised
+the whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members
+could not but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely
+dispersed in all those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium,
+the Rhine districts, Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and
+Spain. Not only did the Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively
+in mercantile pursuits, but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly
+into their hands--the internal slave-trade of Europe.
+
+The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
+rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
+Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
+the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking
+to impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
+Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.
+
+A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
+provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to
+issue severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the
+patriarchate. In the East, under the rule during the same period of the
+Persian king, Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in
+531 A.D., the position was not more favourable for the Jews of
+Babylonia.
+
+
+_III.--The Golden Age of Judaism_
+
+
+During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
+rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect
+its throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and
+the first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years
+before Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sabæa and
+established an independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was
+subdued by an Arab chieftain and came to an end. But the Jews were still
+powerful in the Arabian peninsula. Mohammed designed to range all the
+tribes under his banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered
+a massacre of all who refused to accept the Koran.
+
+On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on
+without emotion. But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was
+confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no
+further oppression than the payment of tribute. Spain had maintained its
+odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the
+suffering Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant
+invasion of the country by the Saracens. And in France the Jews became
+numerous and wealthy, and traded with great success.
+
+We enter on a period which may be described as the Golden Age of the
+modern Jews. The religious persecutions of this race by the Mohammedans
+were confined within the borders of Arabia. The Prophet was content with
+enforcing uniformity of worship within the sacred peninsula which gave
+him birth. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca were not to be profaned
+by the unclean footstep of the unbeliever. His immediate successors rose
+from stern fanatics to ambitious conquerors. Whoever would submit to the
+dominion of the caliph might easily evade the recognition of the
+Prophet's title. The Jews had reason to rejoice in the change of
+masters. An Islamite sovereign would not be more oppressive than a
+Byzantine on the throne of Constantinople or a Persian on the throne of
+Ctesiphon. In every respect the Jew rose in the social scale under his
+Mohammedan rulers. Provided he demeaned himself peaceably, and paid his
+tribute, he might go to the synagogue rather than to the mosque.
+
+In the time of Omar, the second caliph, the coinage, already a trust of
+great importance, had been committed to the care of a Jew. And the Jews
+acted as intermediate agents in the interworking of European
+civilisation, its knowledge, arts, and sciences, into the oriental mind,
+and in raising the barbarian conquerors from the chieftains of wild,
+marauding tribes into magnificent and enlightened sovereigns. The caliph
+readily acknowledged as his vassal the Prince of the Captivity, who
+maintained his state as representative of the Jewish community. And in
+the West, during the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, the treatment of
+Jews became much more liberal than before. Their superior intelligence
+and education, in a period when nobles and kings, and even the clergy,
+could not always write their names, pointed them out for offices of
+trust. They were the physicians, the ministers of finance, to monarchs.
+They even became ambassadors. The Golden Age of the Jews endured in
+increasing prosperity during the reign of Louis the Débonnaire, or the
+Pious, at whose court they were so powerful that their interest was
+solicited by the presents of kings. In the reign of Charles the Bald,
+the Jews maintained their high estate, but dark signs of the approaching
+Age of Iron began to lower around.
+
+
+_IV.--The Iron Age of Judaism_
+
+
+Our Iron Age commences in the East, where it witnessed the extinction of
+the Princes of the Captivity by the ignominious death of the last
+sovereign, the downfall of the schools, and the dispersion of the
+community, which from that period remained an abject and degraded part
+of the population. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Caliphate
+fell into weakness and confusion, and split up into several kingdoms
+under conflicting sovereigns, and at the same time Judaism in the East
+was distracted by continual disputes between the Princes of the
+Captivity and the masters of the schools. The tribunals of the civil and
+temporal powers of the Eastern Jewish community were in perpetual
+collision, so that this singular state was weakened internally by its
+own dissensions.
+
+When a violent and rapacious caliph, Ahmed Kader, ascended the throne,
+he cast a jealous look on the powers of his vassal sovereign, and,
+without pretext, he seized Scherira, the prince of the community, now a
+hundred years old, imprisoned him and his son Hai, and confiscated their
+wealth. Hai escaped to resume his office and to transmit its honours and
+its dangers to Hezekiah, who was elected chief of the community, but
+after a reign of two years was arrested with all his family by order of
+the caliph Abdallah Kaim ben Marillah (A.D. 1036). The schools were
+closed. Many of the learned fled to Spain, where the revulsion under the
+Almohades had not yet taken place; all were dispersed. Among the rest
+two of the sons of the unfortunate Prince of the Captivity effected
+their escape to Spain, while the last of the House of David who reigned
+over the Jews of the Dispersion in Babylonia perished on the scaffold.
+
+The Jewish communities in Palestine suffered a slower but more complete
+dissolution. Benjamin of Tudela in the compilation of his travels in the
+twelfth century gives a humiliating account of the few brethren who
+still clung, in dire poverty and meanness, to their native land. In Tyre
+he found 400 Jews, mostly glass-blowers. There were in Jerusalem only
+200, almost all dyers of wool. Ascalon contained 153 Jews; Tiberias, the
+seat of learning, and of the kingly patriarchate, but fifty. In the
+Byzantine Empire the number of Jews had greatly diminished.
+
+We pursue our dark progress to the West, where we find all orders
+gradually arrayed in fierce and implacable animosity against the race of
+Isræl. Every passion was in arms against them. In that singular
+structure, the feudal system, which rose like a pyramid from the
+villeins, or slaves attached to the soil, to the monarch who crowned the
+edifice, the, Jews alone found no proper place. In France and England
+they were the actual property of the king, and there was nowhere any
+tribunal to which they could appeal.
+
+The Jew, often acquiring wealth in commerce, might become valuable
+property of some feudatory lord. He was granted away, he was named in a
+marriage settlement, he was pawned, he was sold, he was stolen. Even
+Churchmen of the highest rank did not disdain such lucrative property.
+Louis, King of Provence, granted to the Archbishop of Aries all the
+possessions which his predecessors have held of former kings, including
+the Jews. Philip the Fair bought of his brother, Charles of Valois, all
+the Jews of his dominions and lordships.
+
+The Jew, making money as he knew how to do by trade and industry, was a
+valuable source of revenue, and was tolerated only as such, but he was a
+valuable possession. Chivalry, the parent of so much good and evil, was
+a source of unmitigated wretchedness to the Jew--for religious
+fanaticism and chivalry were inseparable, the knight of the Middle Ages
+being bound with his good sword to extirpate all the enemies of Christ
+and His Virgin Mother. The power of the clergy tended greatly to
+increase this general detestation against the unhappy Jew. And when
+undisciplined fanatics of the lowest order, under the guidance of Peter
+the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the
+Crusades, fearful massacres of Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz,
+Spiers, Worms, and Cologne. Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were
+deeply marked with Jewish blood.
+
+Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First
+Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through
+Germany preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of
+God. The terrible cry of "Hep!"--the signal for the massacre of
+Isrælites--ran through the cities of the Rhine. Countless atrocities
+took place as the Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph,
+to perish by plague, famine, and the sword.
+
+
+_V.--The Jews in England_
+
+
+In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of
+Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration. There were Jews
+in England under the Saxons. And during the days of the Norman kings
+they were established in Oxford and in London. They taught Hebrew to
+Christian as well as to Jewish students. But they increased in both
+wealth and unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them
+being bruited abroad. In many towns furious rabbles at different times
+attacked the Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates
+cruelly to death, as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in
+the reign of Richard I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums
+from wealthy Jews.
+
+The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive
+enactments against them. Jewish history has a melancholy
+sameness--perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing
+only in their cruelty. When parliament refused to maintain the
+extravagant royal expenditure, nothing remained but still further to
+drain Hebrew veins. In the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the
+crucifixion of a Christian child, called Hugh of Lincoln. The story
+refutes itself, but it created horror throughout the country. For this
+crime eighteen of the richest Jews of Lincoln were hanged, and many more
+flung into dungeons.
+
+The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal
+harshness. At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total
+expulsion from the realm. Their departure was fixed for October 10,
+1290. All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy. The Jews were
+pursued from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their
+sufferings. In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts,
+obligations, mortgages were escheated to the king. A like expulsion had
+been effected in France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler
+rank, was not to be outdone in bigotry.
+
+During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher of
+Seville, Ferdinand Martinez, Arch-deacon of Ecija, excited the populace
+to excesses against the Jews. The streets of the noble city ran with
+blood, and 4,000 victims perished. The cruel spirit spread through the
+kingdom, and appalling massacres followed in many cities. A series of
+intermittent persecutions followed both in Spain and Portugal, in reign
+after reign. Jews and Protestants together went through awful ordeals at
+the hands of the Inquisition. When her glory had declined, Spain, even
+in her lowest decrepitude, indulged in what might seem the luxury of
+persecution.
+
+It was in the reign of Charles II. that the Jews found opportunity to
+steal insensibly back into England. Cromwell had felt very favourably
+disposed towards them, but had not dared to permit the re-establishment
+which they had openly sought. But the necessities of Charles and his
+courtiers quietly accomplished the, change, and the race has ever since
+maintained its footing, and no doubt contributed a fair share to the
+national wealth. Russia throughout her history adhered to her hostility
+to the Jews, but expulsion became impossible with such vast numbers. It
+is estimated that Russia contains half the Jewish population of the
+world, notwithstanding that Russia proper from ancient times has been
+sternly inhospitable to the Jewish race, while Poland has ever been
+hospitable.
+
+The most important measures of amelioration in the lot of the Jews in
+England were passed in 1723, when they acquired the right to possess
+land; in 1753, when parliament enacted the Naturalisation Bill; in 1830,
+when they were admitted to civic corporations; in 1833, when they were
+admitted to the profession of advocates; in 1845, when they were
+rendered eligible for the office of alderman and lord mayor; and in
+1858, when the last and crowning triumph of the principle was achieved
+by the admission of Jews into parliament.
+
+In Asia, the Jews are still found in considerable numbers on the verge
+of the continent; in China, they are now found in one city alone, and
+possess only one synagogue. In Mesopotamia and Assyria the ancient seats
+of the Babylonian Jews are still occupied by 5,270 families. But England
+and Anglo-Saxon countries generally have been the most favourable to the
+race. Perhaps the most remarkable fact in the history of modern Judaism
+is the extension of the Jews in the United States. Writing in 1829, I
+stated, on the best authority then attainable, their numbers at 6,000.
+They are now [in 1863] reckoned at 75,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HERODOTUS
+
+
+History
+
+
+     The "Father of History," as Herodotus has been styled, was
+     born at Halicarnassus, the centre of a Greek colony in Asia
+     Minor, between the years 490 and 480 B.C., and lived probably
+     to sixty, dying about the year 425 B.C. A great part of his
+     life was occupied with travels and investigations in those
+     lands with which his history is mainly concerned. His work is
+     the earliest essay in history in a European language. It is a
+     record primarily of the causes and the course of the first
+     great contest between East and West; and is a storehouse of
+     curious and delightful traveller's gossip as well as a
+     faithful record of events. The canons of evidence in his day
+     were defective, for obvious reasons; a miscellaneous divine
+     interposition in human affairs was taken for granted, and
+     science had not yet reduced incredible marvels to ordinary
+     natural phenomena. Nevertheless, Herodotus was a shrewd and
+     careful critic, honest, and by no means remarkably credulous.
+     If he had not acquired the conception of history as an exact
+     science, he made it a particularly attractive form of
+     literature, to which his simplicity of style gives a slight
+     but pleasant archaic flavour. This epitome has been specially
+     prepared far THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Rise of Persian Power_
+
+
+I will not dispute whether those ancient tales be true, of Io and Helen,
+and the like, which one or another have called the sources of the war
+between the Hellenes and the barbarians of Asia; but I will begin with
+those wrongs whereof I myself have knowledge. In the days of Sadyattes,
+king of Lydia, and his son Alyattes, there was war between Lydia and
+Miletus. And Croesus, the son of Alyattes, made himself master of the
+lands which are bounded by the river Halys, and he waxed in power and
+wealth, so that there was none like to him. To him came Solon, the
+Athenian, but would not hail him as the happiest of all men, saying that
+none may be called happy until his life's end.
+
+Thereafter trouble fell upon Croesus by the slaying of his son when he
+was a-hunting. Then Cyrus the Persian rose up and made himself master of
+the Medes and Persians, and Croesus, fearing his power, was fain to go
+up against him, being deceived by an oracle; but first he sought to make
+alliance with the chief of the states of Hellas. In those days,
+Pisistratus was despot of Athens; but Sparta was mighty, by the laws of
+Lycurgus. Therefore Croesus sent envoys to the Spartans to make alliance
+with them, which was done very willingly. But when Croesus went up
+against Cyrus, his army was put to flight, and Cyrus besieged him in the
+city of Sardis, and took it, and made himself lord of Lydia. He would
+have slain Croesus, but, finding him wise and pious, he made him his
+counsellor.
+
+Now, this Cyrus had before overthrown the Median king, Astyages, whose
+daughter was his own mother. For her father, fearing a dream, wedded her
+to a Persian, and when she bore a child, he gave order for its slaying.
+But the babe was taken away and brought up by a herdsman of the
+hill-folk. But in course of time the truth became known to Astyages, and
+to Harpagus, the officer who had been bidden to slay the babe, and to
+Cyrus himself. Then Harpagus, fearing the wrath of Astyages, bade Cyrus
+gather together the Persians--who in those days were a hardy people of
+the mountains--and made himself king over the Medians; which things
+Cyrus did, overthrowing his grandfather Astyages. And in this wise began
+the dominion of the Persians.
+
+The Ionian cities of Asia were zealous to make alliance with Cyrus when
+he had overthrown Croesus. But he held them of little account, and
+threatened them, and the Lacedæmonians also, who sent him messengers
+warning him to let the Ionians alone. And he sent Harpagus against the
+cities of the Ionians, of whom certain Phocæans and Teians sailed away
+to Rhegium and Abdera rather than become the slaves of the barbarians;
+but the rest, though they fought valiantly enough, were brought to
+submission by Harpagus.
+
+While Harpagus was completing the subjugation of the West, Cyrus was
+making conquest of Upper Asia, and overthrew the kingdom of Assyria, of
+which the chief city was Babylon, a very wonderful city, wherein there
+had ruled two famous queens, Semiramis and Nitocris. Now, this queen had
+made the city wondrous strong by the craft of engineers, yet Cyrus took
+it by a shrewd device, drawing off the water of the river so as to gain
+a passage. Thus Babylon also fell under the sway of the Persian. But
+when Cyrus would have made war upon Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetæ,
+who dwelt to the eastward, there was a very great battle, and Cyrus
+himself was slain and the most part of his host. And Cambyses, his son,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_II.--Wars of Egypt and Persia_
+
+
+Cambyses set out to conquer Egypt, taking in his army certain of the
+Greeks. But of all that I shall tell about that land, the most was told
+to me by the priests whom I myself visited at Memphis and Thebes and
+Heliopolis. They account themselves the most ancient of peoples. If the
+Ionians are right, who reckon that Egypt is only the Nile Delta, this
+could not be. But I reckon that the whole Egyptian territory is. Egypt,
+from the cataracts and Elephantiné down to the sea, parted into the
+Asiatic part and the Libyan part by the Nile.
+
+For the causes of the rising and falling of the Nile, the reasons that
+men give are of no account. And of the sources whence the river springs
+are strange stories told of which I say not whether they be true or
+false: but the course of it is known for four months' journey by land
+and water, and in my opinion it is a river comparable to the Ister.
+
+The priests tell that the first ruler of Egypt was Menes, and after him
+were three hundred and thirty kings, counting one queen, who was called
+Nitocris. After them came Sesostris, who carried his conquest as far as
+the Thracians and Scythians; and later was Rhampsinitus, who married his
+daughter to the clever thief who robbed his treasure-house; and after
+him Cheops, who built the pyramid, drawing the stones from the Arabian
+mountain down to the Nile. Chephren also, and Mycerinus built pyramids,
+and the Greeks have a story--which is not true--that another was built
+by Rhodopis. And in the reign of Sethon, Egypt was invaded by
+Sennacherib the Assyrian, whose army's bowstrings were eaten by
+field-mice.
+
+A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake
+Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were
+made by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them,
+Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson
+Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis. And Amasis
+also prospered, and showed favour to the Greeks. But for whatever
+reason, in his day Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt, invading
+it just when Amasis had died, and his son Psammenitus was reigning.
+
+Cambyses put the Egyptian army to rout in a great battle, and conquered
+the country, making Psammenitus prisoner. Yet he would have set him up
+as governor of the province, according to the Persian custom, but that
+Psammenitus was stirred up to revolt, and, being discovered, was put to
+death. Thereafter Cambyses would have made war upon Carthage, but that
+the Phoenicians would not aid him; and against the Ethiopians, who are
+called "long-lived," but his army could get no food; and against the
+Ammonians, but the troops that went were seen no more.
+
+Now, madness came upon Cambyses, and he died, having committed many
+crimes, among which was the slaying of his brother Smerdis. And there
+rose up one among the Magi who pretended to be Smerdis, and was
+proclaimed king. But this false Smerdis was one whose ears had been cut
+off, and he was thus found out by one of his wives, the daughter of a
+Persian nobleman, Otanes. Then seven nobles conspired together, since
+they would not be ruled over by one of the Magi; and having determined
+that it was best to have one man for ruler, rather than the rule of the
+people or of the nobles, they slew Smerdis and made Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, their king.
+
+Then Darius divided the Persian empire into twenty satrapies, whereof
+each one paid its own tribute, save Persia itself, and he was lord of
+all Asia, and Egypt also.
+
+In the days of Cambyses, Polycrates was despot of Samos, being the first
+who ever thought to make himself a ruler of the seas. And he had
+prospered marvellously. But Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, compassed his
+death by foul treachery, and wrought many other crimes; whom Darius in
+turn put to death by guile, fearing to make open war upon him. And not
+long afterwards, he sent Otanes to make conquest of Samos. And during
+the same days there was a revolt of the Babylonians; and Darius went up
+against Babylon, yet for twenty months he could not take it. Howbeit, it
+was taken by the act of Zopyrus, who, having mutilated himself, went to
+the Babylonians and told them that Darius had thus evilly entreated him,
+and so winning their trust, he made easy entry for the Persian army, and
+so Babylon was taken the second time.
+
+
+_III.--Persian Arms in Europe_
+
+
+Now, Darius was minded to make conquest of the Scythians--concerning
+which people, and the lands beyond those which they inhabit, there are
+many marvels told, as of a bald-headed folk called Argippæi; and the
+Arimaspians or one-eyed people; and the Hyperborean land where the air
+is full of feathers. Of these lands are legends only; nothing is known.
+But concerning the earth's surface, this much is known, that Libya is
+surrounded by water, certain Phoenicians having sailed round it. And of
+the unknown regions of Asia much was searched out by order of Darius.
+
+The Scythians themselves have no cities; but there are great rivers in
+Scythia, whereof the Ister is the greatest of all known streams, being
+greater even than the Nile, if we reckon its tributaries. The great god
+of the Scythians is Ares; and their war customs are savage exceedingly,
+and all their ways barbarous. Against this folk Darius resolved to
+march.
+
+His plan was to convey his army across the Bosphorus on a bridge of
+boats, while the Ionian fleet should sail up to the Ister and bridge
+that, and await him. So he crossed the Bosphorus and marched through
+Thrace, subduing on his way the Getse, who believe that there is no true
+death. But when he passed the Ister, he would have taken the Ionians
+along with him; but by counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he resolved to leave
+them in charge of the bridge, giving order that, after sixty days, they
+might depart home, but no sooner.
+
+Then the Scythians, fearing that they could not match the great king's
+army, summoned the other barbaric peoples to their aid; among whom were
+the Sauromatians, who are fabled to be the offspring of the Amazons. And
+some were willing, but others not. Therefore the Scythians retired
+before Darius, first towards those peoples who would not come to their
+help; and so enticed him into desert regions, yet would in no wise come
+to battle with him.
+
+Now, at length, Darius found himself in so evil a plight that he began
+to march back to the Ister. And certain Scythians came to the Ionians,
+and counselled them to destroy the bridge, the sixty days being passed.
+And this Miltiades, the Athenian despot of the Chersonese, would have
+had them do, so that Darius might perish with all his army; but
+Histiæus of Miletus dissuaded them, because the rule of the despots was
+upheld by Darius. And thus the Persian army was saved, Megabazus being
+left in Europe to subdue the Hellespontines. When Megabazus had subdued
+many of the Thracian peoples, who, indeed, lack only union with each
+other to make them the mightiest of all nations, he sent an embassy to
+Amyntas, the king of Macedon, to demand earth and water. But because
+those envoys insulted the ladies of the court, Alexander, the son of
+Amyntas, slew them all, and of them or all their train was never aught
+heard more.
+
+Now Darius, with fair words, bade Histiseus of Miletus abide with him at
+the royal town of Susa. Then Aristagoras, the brother of Histiæus,
+having failed in an attempt to subdue Naxos, and fearing both
+Artaphernes, the satrap of Sardis, and the Persian general Megabazus,
+with whom he had quarrelled, sought to stir up a revolt of the Ionian
+cities; being incited thereto by secret messages from Histiseus.
+
+To this end, he sought alliance with the Lacedæmonians; but they would
+have nothing to do with him, deeming the venture too remote. Then he
+went to Athens, whence the sons of Pisistratus had been driven forth
+just before. For Hipparchus had been slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton,
+and afterwards Hippias would hardly have been expelled but that his
+enemies captured his children and so could make with him what terms they
+chose. But the Pisistratidse having been expelled, the city grew in
+might, and changes were made in the government of it by Cleisthenes the
+Alcmæonid. But the party that was against Cleisthenes got aid from
+Cleomenes of Sparta; yet the party of Cleisthenes won.
+
+Then, since they reckoned that there would be war with Sparta, the
+Athenians had sought friendship with Artaphernes at Sardis; but since he
+demanded earth and water they broke off. But because Athens was waxing
+in strength, the Spartans bethought them of restoring the despotism of
+the Pisistratidæ. But Sosicles, the Corinthian, dissuaded the allies of
+Sparta from taking part in so evil a deed. Then Hippias sought to stir
+up against the Athenians the ill-will of Artaphernes, who bade them take
+back the Pisistratidæ, which they would not do.
+
+Therefore, when Aristagoras came thither, the Athenians were readily
+persuaded to promise him aid. And he, having gathered the troops of the
+Ionians, who were at one with him, marched with them and the Athenians
+against Sardis and took the city, which by a chance was set on fire. But
+after that the Athenians refused further help to the Ionians, who were
+worsted by the Persians. But the ruin of the Ionians was at the
+sea-fight of Lade, where the men of Chios fought stoutly; but they of
+Samos and Lesbos deserting, there was a great rout.
+
+
+_IV.--Marathon and Thermopylæ_
+
+
+Thereafter King Darius, being very wroth with the Athenians for their
+share in the burning of Sardis, sent a great army across the Hellespont
+to march through Thrace against Athens, under his young kinsman
+Mardonius. But disaster befell these at the hands of the Thracians, and
+the fleet that was to aid them was shattered in a storm; so that they
+returned to Asia without honour. Then Darius sent envoys to demand earth
+and water from the Greek states; and of the islanders the most gave
+them, and some also of the cities on the mainland; and among these were
+the Aeginetans, who were at feud with Athens.
+
+But of those who would not give the earth and water were the Eretrians
+of Eubcea. So Darius sent a great armament by sea against Eretria and
+Athens, led by Datis and Artaphernes, which sailed first against
+Eretria. The Athenians, indeed, sent aid; but when they found that the
+counsels of the Eretrians were divided, so that no firm stand might be
+made, they withdrew. Nevertheless, the Eretrians fought valiantly behind
+their walls, till they were betrayed on the seventh day. But the
+Persians, counselled by Hippias, sailed to the bay of Marathon.
+
+Then the Athenians sent the strong runner Pheidippides to call upon the
+Spartans for aid; who promised it, yet for sacred reasons would not move
+until the full moon. So the Athenian host had none to aid them save the
+loyal Platæans, valiant though few. Yet in the council of their generals
+the word of Miltiades was given for battle, whereto the rest consented.
+Then the Athenians and Platæans, being drawn up in a long line, charged
+across the plain nigh a mile, running upon the masses of the Persians;
+and, breaking them upon the wings, turned and routed the centre also
+after long fighting, and drove them down to the ships, slaying as they
+went; and of the ships they took seven. And of the barbarians there fell
+6,400 men, and of the Athenians, 192. But as for the story that the
+Alcmæonidæ hoisted a friendly signal to the Persians, I credit it not
+at all.
+
+Now, Darius was very wroth with the Greeks when he heard of these
+things, and made preparation for a mighty armament to overthrow the
+Greeks, and also the Egyptians, who revolted soon afterwards. But he
+died before he was ready, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his stead.
+Then, having first crushed the Egyptians, he, being ruled by Mardonius,
+gathered a council and declared his intent of marching against the
+Hellenes; which resolution was commended by Mardonius, but Artabanus,
+the king's uncle, spoke wise words of warning. Then Xerxes would have
+changed his mind, but for a dream which came to him twice, and to
+Artabanus also, threatening disaster if he ceased from his project; so
+that Artabanus was won over to favour it.
+
+Then Xerxes made vast provision for his invasion for the building of a
+bridge over the Hellespont, and the cutting of a canal through the
+peninsula of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been shattered. And
+from all parts of his huge empire he mustered his hosts first in
+Cappadocia, and marched thence by way of Sardis to the Hellespont. And
+because, when the bridge was a building, a great storm wrecked it, he
+bade flog the naughty waves of the sea. Then, the bridge being finished,
+he passed over with his host, which took seven days to accomplish.
+
+And when they were come to Doriscus he numbered them, and found them to
+be 1,700,000 men, besides his fleets. And in the fleet were 1,207 great
+ships, manned chiefly by the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia, having
+also Persian and Scythian fighting men on board. But when Demaratus, an
+exiled king of Sparta, warned Xerxes of the valour of all the Greeks,
+but chiefly of the Spartans, who would give battle, however few they
+might be, against any foe, however many, his words seemed to Xerxes a
+jest, seeing how huge his own army was.
+
+Now, Xerxes had sent to many of the Greek states heralds to demand earth
+and water, which many had given; but to Athens and Sparta he had not
+sent, because there the heralds of his father Darius had been evilly
+entreated. And if it had not been for the resolution of the Athenians at
+this time, all Hellas would have been forced to submit to the Great
+King; for they, in despite of threatening oracles, held fast to their
+defiance, being urged thereto by Themistocles, who showed them how those
+oracles must mean that, although they would suffer evil things, they
+would be victorious by means of wooden bulwarks, which is to say, ships;
+and thus they were encouraged to rely upon building and manning a mighty
+fleet. And all the other cities of Greece resolved to stand by them,
+except the Argives, who would not submit to the leadership of the
+Spartans. And in like manner Gelon, the despot of Syracuse in Sicily,
+would not send aid unless he were accepted as leader. Nor were the men
+of Thessaly willing to join, since the other Greeks could not help them
+to guard Thessaly itself, as the pass of Tempe could be turned.
+
+Therefore the Greeks resolved to make their stand at Thermopylæ on land,
+and at the strait of Artemisium by sea. But at the strong pass of
+Thermopylæ only a small force was gathered to hold the barbarians in
+check, there being of the Spartans themselves only 300, commanded by the
+king Leonidas. And when the Persians had come thither and sought to
+storm the pass, they were beaten back with ease, until a track was found
+by which they might take the defenders in the rear. Then Leonidas bade
+the rest of the army depart except his Spartans. But the Thespians also
+would not go; and then those Spartans and Thespians went out into the
+open and died gloriously.
+
+
+_V.--Destruction of the Persian Hosts_
+
+
+During these same days the Greek fleet at Artemisium fought three
+several engagements with the Persian fleet, in which neither side had
+much the better. And thereafter the Greek fleet withdrew, but was
+persuaded to remain undispersed in the bay of Salamis. The
+Peloponnesians were no longer minded to attempt the defence of Attica,
+but to fortify their isthmus, so that the Athenians had no choice but
+either to submit or to evacuate Athens, removing their families and
+their goods to Troezen or Aegina or Salamis. In the fleet, their
+contingent was by far the largest and best, but the commanding admiral
+was the Spartan Eurybiades. Then the Persians, passing through Boeotia,
+but, being dispersed before Delphi by thunderbolts and other portents,
+took possession of Athens, after a fierce fight with the garrison in the
+Acropolis.
+
+Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and
+look to the safety of the Peloponnese only. But Themistocles warned them
+that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new
+lands and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded
+to hold together at Salamis. Yet he did not trust only to their
+goodwill, but sent a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of
+retreat might be intercepted. For the Persian fleet had gathered at
+Phalerum, and now looked to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether,
+despite the council of Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have
+had them not fight by sea at all. When Aristides, called the Just, the
+great rival of Themistocles, came to the Greeks with the news that their
+retreat by sea was cut off, then they were no longer divided, but
+resolved to fight it out.
+
+In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the
+Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any
+fleet more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom
+Queen Artemisia won praise unmerited. As for King Xerxes, panic seized
+him when he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee. He
+consented, however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in
+Thessaly, he being still assured that he could crush the Greeks. And it
+was well for him that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to
+pursue and annihilate the fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy
+the bridge.
+
+When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly
+and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the
+Spartans having failed to send succour. But when at length the
+Lacedæmonians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an army,
+the Persians fell back to Boeotia. So the Greek hosts gathered near
+Platæa to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were
+about 350,000. Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held
+back, till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to
+the Athenians by Alexander of Macedon. But when the Spartan Pausanias,
+the general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little
+wonder, for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Lacedæmonians
+should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at
+Marathon. But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.
+Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain
+whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was
+needful to move to a new position. But the move being made by night,
+most of the allies withdrew into the town. But the Spartans, and Tegeans
+and Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.
+
+Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and
+their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians. But, Mardonius being slain,
+the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and
+Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there
+the barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were
+left alive. But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with
+40,000 men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.
+
+And on that same day was fought another fight by sea at Mycale in Ionia,
+where also the barbarians were utterly routed, for the fleet had sailed
+thither. And thence the Greeks sailed to Sestos, captured the place, and
+so went home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THUCYDIDES
+
+
+The Peloponnesian War
+
+
+     The Athenian historian, Thucydides, was born about 471 B.C.,
+     within ten years of the great repulse of the Persian invasion.
+     Before he was thirty, the great political ascendancy of
+     Pericles was completely established at Athens, and the
+     ascendancy of Athens among the Greek states was unchallenged,
+     except by Sparta. He was forty at the beginning of the
+     Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was appointed to a military
+     command seven years later, but his failure in that office
+     caused his banishment. From that time he remained an exiled
+     spectator of events; the date of his death is uncertain. His
+     great work is the history of the Peloponnesian War to its
+     twentieth year, where his history is abruptly broken off. To
+     Herodotus, history presented itself as a drama; Thucydides
+     views it with the eyes of a philosophical statesman, but
+     writes it also with extraordinary descriptive power, not only
+     in pregnant sentences which have never been effectively
+     rendered in translation, but in passages of sustained
+     intensity, of which it would be vain to reproduce fragments.
+     The abridged translation given here has been made direct from
+     the Greek.
+
+
+_I.--The Beginning of the War_
+
+
+I have written the account of the war between Athens and Sparta, since
+it is the greatest and the most calamitous of all wars hitherto to the
+Greeks. For the contest with the Medes was decided in four battles; but
+this war was protracted over many years, and wrought infinite injury and
+bloodshed.
+
+Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the
+affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a
+colony. Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian
+or the Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither. But having
+a quarrel with Corinth about Epidamnus, she now formed an alliance with
+Athens, whose intervention enraged the Corinthians.
+
+They then helped Potidæa, a Corinthian colony, but an Athenian
+tributary, to revolt from Athens. Corinth next appealed to Sparta, as
+the head of Hellas, to intervene ere it should be too late and check the
+Athenian aggression, which threatened to make her the tyrant of all
+Greece. At Sparta the war party prevailed, although King Archidamus
+urged that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear without actual
+hostilities.
+
+The great prosperity and development of Athens since the Persian war had
+filled other states with fear and jealousy. She had rebuilt her city
+walls and refortified the port of Piræus after the Persian occupation;
+Sparta had virtually allowed her to take the lead in the subsequent
+stages of the war, as having the most effective naval force at command.
+Hence she had founded the Delian league of the maritime states, to hold
+the seas against Persia. At first these states provided fixed
+contingents of ships and mariners; but Athens was willing enough to
+accept treasure in substitution, so that she might herself supply the
+ships and men.
+
+Thus the provision of forces by each state to act against Persia was
+changed in effect into a tribute for the expansion of the Athenian
+fleet. The continuous development of the power of Athens had been
+checked only momentarily by her disastrous Egyptian expedition. Her
+nominal allies found themselves actually her tributary dependencies, and
+various attempts to break free from her yoke had made it only more
+secure and more burdensome.
+
+Hence the warlike decision of Sparta was welcomed by others besides
+Corinth. But diplomatic demands preceded hostilities. Sparta and Athens
+sent to each other summons and counter-summons for the "expulsion of the
+curse," that is of all persons connected with certain families which lay
+under the curse of the gods.
+
+In the case of Athens, this amounted to requiring the banishment of her
+greatest citizen and statesman, Pericles. To this the Spartans added the
+demand that the Athenians should "restore the freedom of Hellas," and
+should specifically remove certain trading disabilities imposed on the
+people of Megara.
+
+At this crisis Pericles laid down the rules of policy on which Athens
+ought to act--rules which required her to decline absolutely to submit
+to any form of dictation from Sparta. When a principle was at stake, it
+made no difference whether the occasion was trivial or serious. Athens
+could face war with confidence. Her available wealth was far greater--a
+matter of vital importance in a prolonged struggle. Her counsels were
+not divided by the conflicting interests of allies all claiming to
+direct military movements and policy. Her fleet gave her command of the
+sea, and enabled her to strike when and where she chose. If
+Peloponnesian invaders ravaged Attica, still no permanent injury would
+be done comparable to that which the Athenians could inflict upon them.
+The one necessity was to concentrate on the war, and attempt no
+extension of dominion while it was in progress.
+
+War was not yet formally declared when the Thebans attempted to seize
+Platæa, a town of Boeotia, which had long been closely allied to Athens.
+The attempt failed, and the Thebans were put to death; but the Platæans
+appealed to Athens for protection against their powerful neighbour, and
+when the Athenian garrison was sent to them, this was treated as a
+_casus belli_.
+
+Preparations were urged on both sides; Sparta summoned her allies to
+muster their contingents on the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica,
+nearly all the mainland states joining the Peloponnesian league. The
+islanders and the cities in Asia Minor, on the other hand, were nearly
+all either actually subject to Athens or in alliance with her.
+
+As Pericles advised, the Athenians left the country open to the ravages
+of the invading forces, and themselves retired within the city. In spite
+of the resentment of those who saw their property being laid waste,
+Pericles maintained his ascendency, and persuaded the people to devote
+their energies to sending out an irresistible fleet, and to establishing
+a great reserve both of ships and treasure, which were to be an annual
+charge and brought into active use only in the case of dire emergency.
+The fleet sailed round the Peloponnese, and the ravages it was able to
+inflict, with the alarm it created, caused the withdrawal of the forces
+in Attica.
+
+In that winter Pericles delivered a great funeral oration, or panegyric,
+in memory of the Athenians who had so far fallen gloriously in defence
+of their country, in which he painted the characteristic virtues of the
+Athenian people in such a fashion as to rouse to the highest pitch the
+patriotic pride of his countrymen, and their confidence in themselves,
+in their future, and in their leader.
+
+
+_II.--Early Successes of Athens_
+
+
+In the second year of the war, Athens suffered from a fearful visitation
+of the plague, which, however, made no way in the Peloponnese. It broke
+out also among the reinforcements dispatched to Potidæa; and it required
+all the skill of Pericles to reconcile the Athenians to the continuation
+of the war, after seeing their territories overrun for the second time
+for six weeks. By dint of dwelling on the supreme importance of their
+decisive command of the sea, and on the vast financial resources which
+secured their staying power, he maintained his ascendency until his
+death in the following year, though he had to submit to a fine. The
+events which followed his death only confirmed the profundity of his
+political judgment, and the accuracy with which he had gauged the
+capacities of the state. In that winter Potidæa was forced to capitulate
+to the Athenians.
+
+In the summer of the third year, the Lacedæmonians called on the
+Platæans to desert the Athenian alliance. On their refusal, Platæa was
+besieged by the allied forces of the Peloponnesians. With splendid
+resolution, the Platæans defeated the attempt of the allies to force an
+entry till they were able to complete and withdraw behind a second and
+more easily tenable line of defence, when the Peloponnesians settled
+down to a regular investment. The same year was marked by the brilliant
+operations of the Athenian admiral Phormio in the neighbourhood of
+Naupactus.
+
+On the other hand, a Peloponnesian squadron threatened the Piræus,
+caused some temporary panic, and awakened the Athenians to the necessity
+of maintaining a look-out, but otherwise effected little. The year is
+further noted for the invasion of Macedonia by the Thracian or Scythian
+king Sitalces, who was, however, induced to retire.
+
+In the next year, Lesbos revolted against the Athenian supremacy. As a
+result, an Athenian squadron blockaded Mitylene. The Lacedaæonians were
+well pleased to accept alliance with a sea-power which claimed to have
+struck against Athens, not as being subject to her, but in anticipation
+of attempted subjugation. The prompt equipment, however, of another
+Athenian fleet chilled the naval enthusiasm of Sparta.
+
+During this winter the Platæans began to feel in straits from shortage
+of supplies, and it was resolved that a party of them should break
+through the siege lines, and escape to Athens, a feat of arms which was
+brilliantly and successfully accomplished.
+
+In the next--the fifth--summer, Mitylene capitulated; the fate of the
+inhabitants was to be referred to Athens. Here Cleon had now become the
+popular leader, and he persuaded the Athenians to order the whole of the
+adult males to be put to death. The opposition, however, succeeded in
+getting this bloodthirsty resolution rescinded. The second dispatch,
+racing desperately after the first, did not succeed in overtaking it,
+but was just in time to prevent the order for the massacre from being
+carried out. Lesbos was divided among Athenian citizens, who left the
+Lesbians in occupation as before, but drew a large rental from them.
+
+In the same summer the remaining garrison of Platæa surrendered to the
+Lacedæmonians, on terms to be decided by Lacedæmonian commissioners.
+Before them the Platæans justified their resistance, but the
+commissioners ignored the defence, and, on the pretext that the only
+question was whether they had suffered any "wrong" at the hands of the
+Platæans, and that the answer to that was obvious, put the Platæans to
+death and razed the city to the ground.
+
+Meanwhile, at Corcyra, the popular and the oligarchical parties, who
+favoured the Athenians and Peloponnesians respectively, had reached the
+stage of murderous hostility to each other. The oligarchs captured the
+government, and were then in turn attacked by the popular party; and
+there was savage faction fighting. An attempt was made by the commander
+of the Athenian squadron at Naupactus to act as moderator; the
+appearance of a Peloponnesian squadron and a confused sea-fight,
+somewhat in favour of the latter, brought the popular party to the verge
+of a compromise. But the Peloponnesians retired on the reported approach
+of a fresh Athenian fleet, and a democratic reign of terror followed.
+
+"The father slew the son, and the supplicants were torn from the temples
+and slain near them." And thus was initiated the peculiar horror of this
+war--the desperate civil strife in one city after another, oligarchs
+hoping to triumph by Lacedæmonian and democrats by Athenian, support,
+and either party, when uppermost, ruling by terror. It was at this time
+also that the Ionian and Dorian cities of Sicily, headed by Leontini and
+Syracuse respectively, went to war with each other, and an Athenian
+squadron was first induced to participate in the struggle.
+
+Among the operations of the next, or sixth, summer was a campaign which
+the Athenian commander Demosthenes conducted in Ætolia--successful at
+the outset, but terminating in disaster, which made the general afraid
+to return to Athens. He seized a chance, however, of recovering his
+credit by foiling a Lacedæmonian expedition against Naupactus; and in
+other ways he successfully established a high military reputation, so
+that he was no longer afraid to reappear at Athens.
+
+Next year, the Athenians dispatched a larger fleet with Sicily for its
+objective. Demosthenes, however, who had a project of his own in view,
+was given an independent command. He was thus enabled to seize and
+fortify Pylos, a position on the south-west of Peloponnese, with a
+harbour sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm,
+withdrew their invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover
+Pylos, landing over 400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality
+now became the scene of a desperate struggle, which finally resulted in
+the Spartans on Sphacteria being completely isolated.
+
+So seriously did the Lacedæmonians regard this blow that they invited
+the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal alliance; but
+the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue that they
+refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some supplies,
+however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards offered by
+the Lacedæmonians for successful blockade-running. At this moment,
+Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
+easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He
+had the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to
+take precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result
+that within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found
+themselves with no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender.
+Their choice of the latter was an overwhelming blow to Lacedæmonian
+prestige.
+
+
+_III.--Victories of Lacedæmon_
+
+
+The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
+Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly
+menace the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians
+were awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested
+part on behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian
+empire. At a sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse
+successfully urged all Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis
+of _uti possidetis,_ and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for
+remaining. Thus for the time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were
+checked.
+
+At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
+factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
+Lacedæmonian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
+Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian
+party became permanently established in power. The most important
+operations were now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly
+into Macedonia, in alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of
+stirring the cities of Chalcidice to throw off the Athenian yoke; and
+the democrats of Boeotia intrigued with Athens to assist in a general
+revolution. Owing partly to misunderstandings and partly to treachery,
+the Boeotian democrats failed to carry out their programme, the
+Athenians were defeated at Delium, and Delium itself was captured by the
+Boeotians.
+
+Meanwhile, Brasidas succeeded in persuading Acanthus to revolt, he
+himself winning the highest of reputations for justice and moderation as
+well as for military skill. Later in the year he suddenly turned his
+forces against the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which he induced to
+surrender by offering very favourable terms before Thucydides, who was
+in command of Thasos, arrived to relieve it. The further successes of
+Brasidas during this winter made the Athenians ready to treat for peace,
+and a truce was agreed upon for twelve months. Brasidas, however,
+continued to render aid to the subject cities which revolted from
+Athens--this being now the ninth year of the war--but he failed in an
+attempt to capture Potidæa.
+
+The period of truce terminating without any definite peace being arrived
+at, the summer of the tenth year is chiefly notable for the expedition
+sent under Cleon to recover Amphipolis, and for a recrudescence of the
+old quarrel in Sicily between Leontini and Syracuse. Before Amphipolis,
+the incompetent Cleon was routed by the skill of Brasidas; but the
+victor as well as the vanquished was slain, though he lived long enough
+to know of the victory. Their deaths removed two of the most zealous
+opponents of the peace for which both sides were now anxious. Hence at
+the close of the tenth year a definite peace was concluded.
+
+The Lacedæmonians, however, were almost alone in being fully satisfied
+by the terms, and the war was really continued by an anti-Laconian
+confederation of the former Peloponnesian allies, who saw in the peace a
+means to the excessive preponderance of Athens and Sparta. Argos was
+brought into the new confederacy in the hope of establishing her nominal
+equality with Sparta. For some years from this point the combinations of
+the states were constantly changing, while Athens and Sparta remained
+generally on terms of friendliness, the two prominent figures at Athens
+being the conservative Nicias and the restless and ambitious young
+intriguer Alcibiades.
+
+In the fourteenth year there were active hostilities between Argos, with
+which by this time Athens was in alliance, and Lacedæmon, issuing in
+the great battle of Mantinea, where there was an Athenian contingent
+with the Argives. This was notable especially as completely restoring
+the prestige of the Lacedæmonian arms, their victory being decisive. The
+result was a new treaty between Sparta and Argos, and the dissolution of
+the Argive-Athenian alliance; but this was once more reversed in the
+following year, when the Argive oligarchy was attacked successfully by
+the popular party.
+
+The next year is marked by the high-handed treatment of the island of
+Melos by the Athenians. This was one of the very few islands which had
+not been compelled to submit to Athens, but had endeavoured to remain
+neutral. Thither the Athenians now sent an expedition, absolutely
+without excuse, to compel their submission.
+
+The Melians, however, refused, and gave the Athenians a good deal of
+trouble before they could be subdued, when the adult male population was
+put to death, and the women and children enslaved. At this time the
+Athenians resolved, under colour of an appeal for assistance from the
+Sicilian city of Egesta, deliberately to set about the establishment of
+their empire in Sicily. The aggressive policy was vehemently advocated
+by Alcibiades, and opposed by Nicias. Nevertheless, he, with Alcibiades
+and Lamachus, was appointed to command the expedition, which was
+prepared on a scale of unparalleled magnificence. It was on the point of
+starting, when the whole city was stirred to frenzy by the midnight
+mutilation of the sacred images called Hermæ, an act laid at the door of
+Alcibiades, along with many other charges of profane outrages. Of set
+purpose, however, the enemies of Alcibiades refused to bring him to
+trial. The expedition sailed. The Syracusans were deaf to the warnings
+of Hermocrates until the great fleet had actually arrived at Rhegium.
+
+Nicias was now anxious to find an excuse, in the evident falsity of
+statements made by the Egestans, for the fleet to content itself with
+making a demonstration and then returning home. The scheme of
+Alcibiades, however, was adopted for gaining over the other Sicilian
+states in order to crush Syracuse. But at this moment dispatches arrived
+requiring the return of Alcibiades to stand trial. Athens was in a panic
+over the Hermæ affair, which was supposed to portend an attempt to
+reestablish the despotism which had been ended a hundred years before by
+the expulsion of the Pisistratidæ. Alcibiades, however, made his escape,
+and for years pursued a life of political intrigue against the Athenian
+government.
+
+Nicias and Lamachus, left in joint command, drew off the Syracusan
+forces by a ruse, and were thus enabled to occupy unchecked a strong
+position before Syracuse. Although, however, they inflicted a defeat on
+the returned Syracusan forces, they withdrew into winter quarters; the
+Syracusans were roused by Hermocrates to improve their military
+organisation; and both sides entered on a diplomatic contest for winning
+over the other states of Sicily. Alcibiades, now an avowed enemy of
+Athens, was received by the Lacedæmonians, whom he induced to send an
+able Spartan officer, Gylippus, to Syracuse, and to determine on the
+establishment of a military post corresponding to that of Pylos on Attic
+soil at Decelea.
+
+
+_IV.--The Disaster of Syracuse_
+
+
+In the spring the Athenians succeeded in establishing themselves on the
+heights called Epipolæ, overlooking Syracuse, began raising a wall of
+circumvallation, and carried by a surprise the counter-stockade which
+the Syracusans were raising. In one of the skirmishes, while the
+building of the wall was in progress, Lamachus was killed; otherwise
+matters went well for the Athenians and ill for the Syracusans, till
+Gylippus was allowed to land at Himera, force his way into Syracuse, and
+give new life. Nicias was guilty of the blunder of allowing Gylippus to
+land at Himera, to aid the defence, at the moment when it was on the
+point of capitulation. A long contest followed, the Athenians
+endeavouring to complete the investing lines, the Syracusans to pierce
+them with counterworks. Nicias sent to Athens for reinforcements, while
+the Syracusans were energetically fitting out a fleet and appealing for
+air in the Peloponnese. Nicias, in fact, was extremely despondent and
+anxious to resign; the Athenians, however, answered his dispatches by
+preparing a great reinforcement under the command of Demosthenes,
+without accepting the resignation of Nicias. The Lacedæmonians, however,
+also sent some reinforcements; at the same time they formally declared
+war, and carried out the plan of occupying and fortifying Decelea, which
+completely commanded the Athenian territory and was the cause of untold
+loss and suffering.
+
+Now, at Syracuse the besieged took the offensive both by sea and land,
+and were worsted on the water, but captured some of the Athenian forts,
+commanding the entry to the besiegers' lines--a serious disaster. By the
+time that Demosthenes with his reinforcements reached Sicily nearly the
+whole island had come over to the side of Syracuse. Before this, the
+Syracusans had again challenged an engagement both by sea and land, with
+results indecisive on the first day but distinctly in their favour on
+the second. At this juncture, Demosthenes arrived, and, seeing the
+necessity for immediate action, made a night attack on the Syracusan
+lines; but, his men falling into confusion after a first success, the
+attempt was disastrously repulsed.
+
+Demosthenes was quick to realise that the whole situation was hopeless;
+but Nicias lacked nerve to accept the responsibility of retiring, and
+also had some idea that affairs within Syracuse were favourable. His
+obstinacy gave Demosthenes and his colleague Eurymedon the impression
+that he was guided by secret information. And now it became the primary
+object of Gylippus and the Syracusans to keep the Athenians from
+retiring. Another naval defeat reduced the Athenians to despair; they
+resolved that they must cut their way out.
+
+The desperate attempt was made, but by almost hopeless men against an
+enemy now full of confidence. To the excited, almost agonised, watchers
+on shore, it seemed for a brief space that the ships might force a
+passage; the fight was a frenzied scuffle; but presently the terrible
+truth was realised--the Athenian ships were being driven ashore. The
+last hope of escape by sea was gone, for, though there were still ships
+enough, the sailors were too utterly demoralised to make the attempt.
+
+Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be
+tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had
+themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads. On the third day the
+Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the
+lamentations of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave
+behind. For three days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually
+harassed, cut off from all communications. On the third day their
+passage was barred in a pass, and they found themselves in a trap. On
+the third night they attempted to break away by a different route, but
+the van and the rear lost touch. Overtaken by the Syracusans,
+Demosthenes attempted to fight a rearguard action, but in vain, and he
+was forced to surrender at discretion with his whole force. Next day,
+Nicias with the van was overtaken, and, after a ghastly scene of
+confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the vanguard were forced to
+surrender also. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death; great numbers
+were seized as private spoil by their captors, the rest of the
+prisoners--more than 7,000--were confined for weeks under the most
+noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were sold
+as slaves. So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the
+nineteenth year of the war.
+
+The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident
+expectation of her immediate and utter ruin. Lacedæmonians anticipated
+an unqualified supremacy. At Athens there was a stubborn determination
+to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were intriguing
+for Lacedæmonian or Persian aid in breaking free, while Alcibiades
+became extremely busy.
+
+The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly
+driven into Piræus by an Athenian fleet and blockaded. On the open
+revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought
+into play their reserve fund and reserve navy--the emergency had arisen.
+While one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians
+struck hard at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked
+successes. Meanwhile, a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy
+and re-established the democracy, to which the Athenians accorded
+freedom, thereby securing an ally. In Lesbos also they recovered their
+challenged supremacy.
+
+Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty
+politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great
+object was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual
+confusion. These events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and
+to them must be added a Lacedæmonian treaty with Persia through the
+satrap Tissaphernes. All the leading men, however, were engaged in
+playing fast and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in
+view. Of this labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling
+outcome was the sudden abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the
+capture of the government by a committee of five with a council of four
+hundred and a supplementary assembly of five thousand--in place of the
+whole body of citizens as formerly. The Five and the Four Hundred in
+effect were the Government, and established a reign of terror.
+
+At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army
+and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the
+democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian
+state. Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting
+through him to receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he
+succeeded in restraining the fleet--which was still more than a match
+for all adversaries--from sailing back to the Piræus to subvert the rule
+of the Four Hundred. The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact,
+that the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited
+democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have
+joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five
+Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the
+best administration it had ever known. A great naval victory was won by
+the Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly
+larger Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+XENOPHON
+
+
+Anabasis
+
+
+     Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died probably
+     in 355. He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood
+     was an intimate member of the Socratic circle. In 401 he
+     joined the expedition of Cyrus, recorded in the "Anabasis,"
+     and did not again take up his residence in Athens. The
+     "Anabasis" must be introduced by an historical note. In the
+     year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by
+     a peace establishing the Lacedæmonian supremacy consequent
+     upon the crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami.
+     In the same year the Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was
+     succeeded on the throne by his son Artaxerxes. His younger
+     son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the throne. He had
+     personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek
+     soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern
+     nations. Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a
+     large contingent of Greek mercenaries, who had become the more
+     readily available since the internecine struggle between the
+     two leading states of Hellas had been brought to an end. The
+     term "Anabasis," or "going up," applies properly to the
+     advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is
+     mainly concerned, is the "Katabasis." The author writes his
+     record in the third person. This epitome has been specially
+     adapted for THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Going-up of Cyrus_
+
+
+Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his
+preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on
+the pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the
+western satraps, Tissaphernes. Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus,
+a Lacedæmonian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another
+like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a
+Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect
+more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.
+
+Next, an excuse for marching up-country, at the head of all these
+forces, was found in the need of suppressing the Pisidians. He advanced
+from Sardis into Phrygia, where his musters were completed at Celænæ. A
+review was held at Tyriæum, where the Cilician queen, who had supplied
+funds, was badly frightened by a mock charge of the Greek contingent.
+When the advance had reached Tarsus, there was almost a mutiny among the
+Greeks, who were suspicious of the intentions of Cyrus. The diplomacy,
+however, of their principal general, Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian,
+coupled with promises of increased pay, prevailed, though it had long
+been obvious that Pisidia was not the objective of the expedition.
+
+Further reinforcements were received at Issus, the eastern seaport of
+Cilicia; Cyrus then marched through the Cilician gate into Syria. At
+Myriandrus two Greek commanders, probably through jealousy of Clearchus,
+deserted. Cyrus won popularity by refusing to presume thereon; and the
+whole force now struck inland to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.
+
+At Thapsacus, Cyrus announced his purpose. The Greek soldiers were angry
+with their generals for having, as they supposed, wilfully misled them,
+but were mollified by promise of large rewards. One of the commanders,
+Menon, won the approval of Cyrus by being the first to lead his own
+contingent across the Euphrates on his own initiative. The advance was
+now conducted by forced marches through a painfully sterile country. In
+the course of this, the troops of Clearchus and Menon very nearly came
+to blows; the intervention of Proxenus only made matters worse; and
+order was restored by the arrival of Cyrus, who pointed out that the
+whole expedition must be ruined if the Greeks fell out among themselves.
+
+By this time, Artaxerxes had realised that the repeated warnings of
+Tissaphernes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
+Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate
+devastation of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian
+officers of Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.
+
+The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
+barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number
+over 1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus
+now advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but,
+finding this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was
+hurriedly taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The
+Greeks, under Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the
+centre, and Ariæus on the left. The king's army was so large that its
+centre extended beyond the left of Cyrus.
+
+The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
+without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut
+off, Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed
+the opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing
+Artaxerxes, was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the
+field. So ended the career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the
+Great had established the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the
+mirror of honour, just himself and the rewarder of justice in others,
+generous and most loyal to his friends.
+
+
+_II.--The Homeward March_
+
+
+When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ariæus, broke and fled. The Greeks
+had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the main
+body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
+Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter.
+Artaxerxes, however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek
+column.
+
+It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
+messengers from Ariæus that Cyrus was slain, and that Ariæus had fallen
+back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait twenty-four
+hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward. Clearchus
+replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious, and that
+if Ariæus would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown for him,
+since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes inviting the
+Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he might come
+and take them if he could, but if he meant to treat them as friends,
+they would be no use to him without their arms, if as enemies, they
+would keep them to defend themselves.
+
+Though no formal appointment was made, the Greeks recognised Clearchus
+as their leader. They fell back to join Ariæus, who declined the
+proposal to seat him on the Persian throne; and it was agreed to follow
+a new route in retreat to Ionia, the way by which the force had advanced
+being now impracticable.
+
+Now, however, Artaxerxes began to negotiate through Tissaphernes, the
+Greeks maintaining a bold and even contemptuous front, warranted by the
+king's obvious fear of risking an engagement.
+
+Finally, an offer came to conduct the Greeks back to Grecian territory,
+providing them, at their own cost, with necessaries. Prolonged delays,
+however, aroused suspicions of treachery among the Greeks, who
+distrusted Tissaphernes and Ariæus alike; but Clearchus held it better
+not to break openly with the Persians. The march at last began along a
+northerly route towards the Black Sea, the Greeks keeping rigidly apart
+from the Persian forces which accompanied them, in readiness for an
+attack.
+
+At the crossing of the Tigris suspicion was particularly active, the
+conduct of Ariæus being especially dubious; but still no overt
+hostilities were attempted until the river Zabatus was reached, after
+three weeks of marching. Here Clearchus endeavoured to end the extremely
+strained relations between the Greeks and the barbarian commanders by an
+interview with Tissaphernes. Both men carefully repudiated any idea of
+hostile intentions, and the Persian invited Clearchus and the Greek
+officers generally to attend a conference. Not all, but a considerable
+number--five generals, including Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon, with
+twenty more officers and nearly two hundred others--attended. At a given
+signal all were treacherously massacred; but a fugitive reached the
+Greek camp, where the men sprang to arms. Ariæus, approaching with an
+escort, declared that Clearchus had been proved guilty of treason, but
+was received with fierce indignation, and withdrew.
+
+Of the murdered generals, Clearchus was a man of high military capacity,
+but a harsh disciplinarian, feared and respected, but very unpopular;
+Proxenus, a particular friend of Xenophon, was an amiable but not a
+strong man; Menon, the Thessalian, was a crafty and hypocritical
+time-server, of whom no good can be spoken.
+
+The ten thousand Greeks were now in an ugly predicament; they were a
+thousand miles from home, while between them and the Black Sea lay the
+mountains of Armenia. They were surrounded by hostile hordes, and were
+without cavalry. They had no recognised chief, and their most trusted
+leaders were gone. The whole company seemed paralysed under a universal
+despondency. It was at this juncture that Xenophon, an Athenian
+gentleman-volunteer, was stirred to action by a dream. He rose and
+roused the officers of the contingent of Proxenus, to which he was
+attached. Heartened by an address, in which he pointed out that, on the
+one hand they had to depend on their own courage, skill, and
+resourcefulness, and, on the other, were released from all obligation to
+the Persians, they unanimously chose him their leader, and at his
+instigation roused the senior officers of all the other contingents to
+assemble for deliberation.
+
+The council thus summoned, inspired again by the words of Xenophon,
+vigorously backed up by other leaders, appointed new generals, among
+them Xenophon himself, and set about actively to organise a retreat to
+the sea. The contagion of resolute determination spread through the
+ranks of the whole force. Cheirisophus the Lacedæmonian was given the
+chief command, the two youngest generals, Xenophon and Timerion, were
+placed in charge of the rear-guard. A troop of slingers was organised;
+all horses with the arroy were sequestrated to form a cavalry squadron.
+The army started on its march through the unknown, formed in a hollow
+square, which was shortly so organised that the columns could be
+broadened or narrowed according to the ground without creating
+confusion.
+
+They soon found themselves able to repulse without difficulty even
+attacks in force by the troops of Tissaphernes, the enemy being entirely
+outmatched in hand-to-hand fighting. The slingers and archers, however,
+proved troublesome, and hostile forces, though keeping out of reach,
+were never far off. At last Tissaphernes and Ariæus drew off altogether,
+and the Greek generals having as alternative courses the march east upon
+Susa, north upon Babylon, and west towards Ionia, decided to revert to
+the course northwards to the Black Sea.
+
+
+_III.--The Sea! The Sea!_
+
+
+This route led at first through the country of the Carduchi, a very
+warlike folk who had never been subjugated. Here there was a good deal
+of hard fighting, the Carduchi being adepts in hill warfare, and
+particularly expert archers. Such was the length and weight of their
+arrows that Greeks collected them, and used them as javelins. Seven days
+of this brought the retreating force to the river Centrites, which parts
+the Carduchian mountains from the province of Armenia. With a barely
+fordable river, troops in evidence on the other side, and the Carduchi
+hanging on their rear, the passage offered great difficulties, solved by
+the discovery of a much shallower ford. A feint at one point by the
+rearguard drew off the enemy on the opposite bank, while the main body
+crossed at the shallows, which the rearguard also managed to pass by a
+successful ruse which misled the Carduchi.
+
+The Persian governor of Western Armenia, Tiribazus, offered safe passage
+through his province, but scouts brought information that large forces
+were collecting, and would dispute the passage of a defile through which
+the army must pass. This point, however, was reached by a forced march,
+and the enemy was put to rout.
+
+For some days after this the marching was very severe; the men had to
+struggle forward on very nearly empty stomachs, through blizzards,
+suffering terribly from frostbite and the blinding effect of the snow on
+their eyes, so that at times nothing short of actual threats from the
+officers could induce the exhausted men to toil forward; and all the
+time the enemy's skirmishers were harassing the troops and cutting off
+stragglers. These, however, were finally dispersed by a sudden onslaught
+of the rearguard, and after this a more populous district was reached,
+where food and wine abounded, and the Greeks, who were not ill-received,
+made some days' halt to recuperate.
+
+Here a guide was obtained for the next stages; but on the third night he
+deserted, because Cheirisophus had lost his temper and struck him. This
+incident was the only occasion of a serious difference between Xenophon
+and the elder commander. On the seventh day after this the river Phasis
+was crossed; but two days later, on approaching a mountain pass, it was
+seen to be occupied in force. A council of war was held, at which some
+jesting passed, Xenophon remarking on the reputation of the
+Lacedæmonians as adepts in thieving, a jibe which Cheirisophus retorted
+on the Athenians; as the business in hand was to "steal a match" on the
+enemy, each encouraged the other to act up to the national reputation.
+In the night, a detachment of volunteers captured the ridge above the
+pass; the enemy facing the main body beat a hasty retreat when they
+found their position turned.
+
+Another five days brought the army into the country of the Taochi, where
+the Greeks had to rush a somewhat dangerous position in order to capture
+supplies. A space of some twenty yards was open to such a storm of
+missiles from above that it could only be passed by drawing the enemy's
+fire and making a dash before fresh missiles were accumulated. When this
+was accomplished, however, the foe offered no practical resistance, but
+flung themselves over the cliffs.
+
+Eighteen days later the Greeks reached a town called Gymnise, where they
+obtained a guide. Their course lay through tribes towards whom the
+governor was hostile, and the Greeks had no objection to gratifying him
+by spoiling and burning on their way. On the fifth day after leaving
+Gymnise, a mountain pass was reached.
+
+When the van cleared the top of the mountain, there arose a great
+shouting. And when Xenophon heard it, and they of the rear-guard, they
+supposed that other enemies were ranged against them, for the men of the
+land which had been ravaged were following behind; but when the clamour
+grew louder and nearer, and the new arrivals doubled forward to where
+the shouting was, so that it became greater and greater with the added
+numbers, Xenophon thought this must be something of moment. Therefore,
+taking Lycias and the horsemen, he rode forward at speed to give aid;
+and then suddenly they were aware of the soldiers' shout, the word that
+rang through the lines--"The sea! the sea!" Then every man raced,
+rear-guard and all, urging horses and the very baggage-mules to the top
+of their speed, and when they came to the top, they fell on each other's
+necks, and the generals, and officers, too, with tears of delight. And
+in a moment, whoever it was that passed the word, the men were gathering
+stones, and there they reared a mighty column.
+
+And as for the lucky guide, he betook himself home laden with presents.
+
+Of what befell between this point and the actual arrival of the army on
+the coast of the Black Sea at the Grecian colony of Trapezus [Trebizond]
+the most curious incident was that of the soldiers lighting upon great
+quantities of honey, which not only made them violently ill, but had an
+intoxicating effect, attributed to the herbs frequented by the bees in
+that district. This necessitated a halt of some days. The second day's
+march thence brought them to Trapezus, where they made sacrificial
+thank-offerings to the gods, and further celebrated the occasion by
+holding athletic games.
+
+
+_IV.--The End of the Expedition_
+
+
+But Trapezus was not Greece, and the problem of transport was serious.
+The men, sick of marching, were eager to accomplish the rest of their
+journey by sea. Cheirisophus the general, as being a personal friend of
+the Lacedæmonian admiral stationed at Byzantium, was commissioned to
+obtain ships from him to take the Greeks home.
+
+Cheirisophus departed. The army, which still numbered over ten thousand
+persons, was willing enough to maintain its military organisation for
+foraging and for self-defence; also to make such arrangements as were
+practicable for collecting ships in case Cheirisophus should fail them;
+but the men flatly refused to consider any further movement except by
+water.
+
+So they stayed where they were, maintaining their supplies by raids on
+the natives; but time passed, and there were no tidings of Cheirisophus.
+At last, they saw nothing for it but to put the sick and other
+non-combatants aboard of the vessels which had been secured, send them
+on by sea, and themselves march by the coast to Cerasus, another Greek
+colony. Thence they continued their westward progress, in which they met
+with considerable resistance from the natives, who were barbarians of a
+primitive type, until they came to Cotyora.
+
+This was another settlement from Sinope; but it received the Greeks very
+inhospitably, so that the latter continued their practice of ravaging
+the neighbouring territories. It was now eight months since the
+expedition had started on its homeward march. Here a deputation arrived
+from Sinope to protest against their proceedings; but Xenophon pointed
+out that while they were perfectly willing to buy what they needed and
+behave as friends, if they were not allowed to buy, self-preservation
+compelled them to take by force. Ultimately, the deputation promised to
+send ships from Sinope to convey them thither.
+
+During the time of waiting there was some risk of the force breaking
+itself up, and some inclination to make attacks on the officers,
+including Xenophon. The formulation of charges, however, enabled him
+amply to justify the acts complained of, and order generally was
+restored. At last, however, a sufficient number of ships were collected
+to convey the force to Sinope, where also Cheirisophus put in his
+long-delayed appearance.
+
+Cheirisophus came practically without ships and with nothing but vague
+promises from the admiral at Byzantium. At this point it occurred to the
+army that it would be better to have a single commander for the whole
+than a committee of generals each in control of his own division. Hence
+Xenophon was invited to accept the position. On consulting the omens he
+declined, recommending that, since Cheirisophus was a Lacedæmonian, it
+would be the proper thing to offer him the command, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+The force now sailed from Sinope as far as Heraclea. Here the
+contingents from Arcadia and Archæa--more than half the force--insisted
+on requisitioning large supplies of money from Heraclea. Cheirisophus,
+supported by Xenophon, refused assent; the Arcadians and Achæans
+consequently refused to serve under their command any more, and
+appointed captains for themselves. The other half of the army was also
+parted in two divisions, commanded by Cheirisophus and Xenophon
+respectively.
+
+From Calpe the Arcadians and Archæans made an expedition into the
+interior, which fared so ill that Xenophon, hearing by accident of what
+had happened, was obliged to march to their relief. To his satisfaction,
+however, it was found that the enemy had already dispersed, and the
+Greek column was overtaken on the way back to Calpe. The general effect
+of the episode was to impress upon the Arcadians and Archæans that it
+was commonsense for the whole force to remain united.
+
+The usual operations were carried on for obtaining supplies, report
+having arrived that Cleander, the Lacedæmonian governor of Byzantium,
+was coming, which he presently did, with a couple of galleys but no
+transports. From information received, Cleander was inclined to regard
+the army as little better than a band of brigands; but this idea was
+successfully dissipated by Xenophon. Cleander went back to Byzantium,
+and the Greeks marched from Calpe to Chrysopolis, which faces Byzantium.
+
+Here the whole force was at last carried over to the opposite shore, and
+once more found itself on European soil, having received promises of pay
+from the admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real intentions were
+aroused, and Xenophon had no little difficulty in preventing his
+soldiery from breaking loose and sacking Byzantium itself.
+
+Ultimately, the greater part of the force took service with the Thracian
+king Seuthes. Seuthes, however, failed to carry out his promises as to
+payments and rewards. But now the Lacedæmonians were engaged in a
+quarrel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes and Artabazus; six
+thousand veterans so experienced as those who had followed this famous
+march into the heart of the Persian empire, had fought their way from
+Cunaxa to Trapezus, and had supported themselves mainly by their
+military prowess in getting from Trapezus to Europe, were a force by no
+means to be neglected, and the bulk of the troops were not unwilling to
+be incorporated in the Lacedæmonian armies. And so ends the story of the
+Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE GROTE
+
+
+History of Greece
+
+
+     George Grote, born at Beckenham, England, Nov. 17, 1794,
+     entered the bank founded by his grandfather, from which he
+     withdrew in 1843. He joined the group of "philosophic
+     Radicals," among whom James Mill was a leader, and was a keen
+     politician and reformer, and an ardent advocate of the ballot.
+     His determination to write a sound "History of Greece" was
+     ensured, if it was not inspired, by Mitford's history, a work
+     full of anti-democratic fervour and very antagonistic to the
+     great Greek democratic state of Athens. In some respects his
+     work is a defence of the Athenian democracy, at least as
+     contrasted with Sparta; it appeared in twelve volumes between
+     1846 and 1856, and covered Greek history from the earliest
+     times "till the close of the generation contemporary with
+     Alexander the Great." It at once occupied, and still holds,
+     the field as the classic work on the subject as a whole,
+     though later research has modified many of his conclusions.
+     His methods were pre-eminently thorough, dispassionate, and
+     judicial; but he suffers from a lack of sympathetic
+     imagination. He died on June 18, 1871, and was buried in
+     Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+_I.--Early History_
+
+
+The divine myths constitute the earliest matter of Greek history. These
+may be divided into those which belong to the gods and to the heroes
+respectively; but most of them, in point of fact, present gods, heroes,
+and men in juxtaposition. Every community sought to trace its origin to
+some common divine, or semi-divine, progenitor; the establishment of a
+pedigree was a necessity; and each pedigree contains at some, point
+figures corresponding to some actual historical character, before whom
+the pedigree is imaginary, but after whom, in the main, actual. The
+precise point where the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates
+into the historical, is not usually ascertainable.
+
+The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
+period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend;
+the tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek
+peoples, and having an actual basis in historical fact. The events,
+however, are of less importance than the picture of an actual
+historical, political, and social system, corresponding, not to the
+supposed date of the Trojan war, but to the date of the composition of
+the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the myths themselves with a good
+deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to rationalise them, or to
+find for them an allegorical interpretation. The myths of other European
+peoples have undergone a somewhat similar treatment.
+
+Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
+peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
+Ægean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication between
+one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system which
+isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its own
+separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
+congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in
+the city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised
+into the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely
+recognised their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct
+aggregate, and very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate
+from the non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."
+
+Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
+Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
+discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the
+dual kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The
+government lay and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan
+race--as for a time with the Normans in England--which formed a close
+oligarchy, while within the oligarchical body the organisation was
+democratic and communistic. For Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries
+B.C. were characterised by the two Messenian wars; and we note that
+while the Hellenes generally recognised her headship, Argos claimed a
+titular right to that position. As a general rule, the primitive
+monarchical system portrayed in the Homeric poems was displaced in the
+Greek cities by an oligarchical government, which in turn was overthrown
+by an irregular despotism called _tyrannis_, primarily established by a
+professed popular leader, who maintained his supremacy by mercenary
+troops. One after another these usurping dynasties were again ejected in
+favour either of a restored oligarchy or of a democracy. Sparta, where
+the power of the dual kingship was extremely limited, was the only state
+where the legitimate kingship survived. Corinth attained her highest
+power Under the despot Periander, son of Cypselus. Of the Ionian section
+of Greek states, the supreme type is Athens. Her early history is
+obscure. The kingship seems to have ended by being, so to speak, placed
+in commission, the royal functions being discharged by an elected body
+of Archons. Dissensions among the groups of citizens issued in the
+democratic Solonian constitution, which remained the basis of Athenian
+government, except during the despotism of the house of Pisistratus in
+the latter half of the sixth century B.C. But outside of Greece proper
+were the numerous Dorian and Ionian colonies, really independent cities,
+planted in the coast districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene and Barka in
+Mediterranean Africa, in Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily, and
+even at Massilia in Gaul, and in Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area.
+These colonies brought the Greek world in touch with Lydia and its king,
+Croesus, with the one sea-going Semitic power, the Phoenicians, with the
+Egyptians, and more remotely with the wholly Oriental empires of Assyria
+and Babylon, as well as with the outer barbarians of Scythia.
+
+Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens was generally under the rule of the
+despot Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510, the Pisistratidæ were
+expelled, and Athens became a pure democracy. Meanwhile, the Persian
+Cyrus had seized the Median monarchy and overthrown every other
+potentate in Western Asia; Egypt was added to the vast Persian dominion
+by his son Cambyses. A new dynasty was established by Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, who organized the empire, but failed to extend it by an
+incursion into European Scythia.
+
+The revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor against the governments
+established by the "great king" brought him in contact with the
+Athenians, who sent help to Ionia. Demands for "earth and water,"
+_i.e.,_ the formal recognition of Persian sovereignty, sent to the
+apparently insignificant Greek states were insolently rejected. Darius
+sent an expedition to punish Athens in particular, and the Athenians
+drove his army into the sea at the battle of Marathon.
+
+Xerxes, son of Darius, organised an overwhelming force by land and sea
+to eat up the Greeks. The invaders were met but hardly checked at
+Thermopylæ, where Leonidas and the immortal three hundred fell; all
+Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands, including
+Athens. But their fleet was shattered to pieces, chiefly by the
+Athenians under Themistocles and Aristides at Salamis, and the
+destruction of their land forces was completed by the united Greeks at
+Platæa. A further disaster was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.
+
+
+_II.--The Struggles of Athens and Sparta_
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Sicilian Greeks, led by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
+resisted and overthrew the aggression of Carthage, the issue being
+decided at the battle of Himera. The part played by Athens under the
+guidance of Themistocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a new
+position among the Greek states and an indisputable naval leadership. As
+the maritime head of Hellas she was chief of the naval Delian League,
+now formed ostensibly to carry on the war against Persia. But the
+leaguers, who first contributed a quota of ships, soon began to
+substitute money to provide ships, which in effect swelled the Athenian
+navy, and turned the contributors into tributaries. Thus, almost
+automatically, the Delian League converted itself into an Athenian
+empire. In Athens itself an unparalleled personal ascendancy was
+acquired by Pericles, who made the form of government and administration
+more democratic than before. But this growing supremacy of Athens
+aroused the jealous alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw her own
+titular hegemony threatened; the subject cities grew restive under the
+Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward professedly as champion of the
+liberties of Hellas; Athens, guided by Pericles, refused to submit to
+Spartan dictation, and accepted the challenge which plunged Greece into
+the Peloponnesian war.
+
+The Athenians concentrated on the expansion of their naval armaments,
+left the open country undefended and gathered within the city walls, and
+landed forces at will on the Peloponnese. Platsea, almost their sole
+ally on land, held out valiantly for some time, but was forced to
+surrender; and Athens herself suffered frightfully from a visitation of
+the plague. After the death of Pericles, Cleon became the most prominent
+leader of the aggressive and democratic party, Nicias, of the
+anti-democratic peace party. Over most of Greece in each state the
+oligarchic faction favoured the Peloponnesian league, the democratic,
+Athens. The general Demosthenes at Pylos effected the surrender of a
+Lacedæmonian force, which temporarily shattered Sparta's military
+prestige, a blow in some degree counteracted by the brilliant operations
+of Brasidas in the north, where, however, both he and Cleon were killed.
+
+Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to the possibilities of a great
+sea-empire, in consequence of her intervention having been invited in
+disputes among the Sicilian states. As the outcome, incited by the
+brilliant young Alcibiades, she resolved on the fatal Sicilian
+expedition. The expedition, planned under command of Alcibiades and
+Nicias, was dispatched in spite of the startling mutilation of the
+Hermæ, a sacrilegious performance attributed to Alcibiades. It had
+hardly reached Sicily when he was recalled, but made his escape and
+spent some years mainly in intriguing against Athens. The siege of
+Syracuse was progressing favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus was
+allowed to enter and put new life into the defence. Disaster followed on
+disaster both by sea and land; finally, the whole Athenian force was
+either cut to pieces or surrendered at discretion, to become the slaves
+of the Syracusans, both Nicias and Demosthenes being put to death.
+
+Meanwhile, the truce between Athens and Sparta had been ended, and war
+again declared. Sparta occupied permanently a post of the Attic
+territory, Deceleia, with merciless effect. The Sicilian disaster moved
+the islanders, notably Chios, to revolt, by Spartan help, against
+Athens. She, however, renovated her navy with unexpected vigour. But,
+with her fleets away, Alcibiades inspired oligarchical intrigues in the
+city; a _coup d'état_ gave the government to the leaders of a group of
+400. The navy stood by the democratic constitution, the 400 were
+overthrown, and an assembly, nominally of 5,000, assumed the government.
+A great Athenian triumph at Arginusæ was followed later by a still more
+overwhelming disaster at Ægos Potami.
+
+The Spartan commander Lysander blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
+to surrender. Lysander established the government known as that of the
+Thirty Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias. Lysander's ascendancy
+created in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the
+Spartan king Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens
+by Thrasybulus, and the restoration of the Athenian democracy.
+Throughout, the conduct of the democratic party, at its best and its
+worst, contrasted favourably with that of the oligarchical faction.
+
+These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
+of the Parthenon and Phidias; of Æschylus, the soldier of Marathon; then
+Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
+himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
+science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
+differing from the Sophists fundamentally.
+
+
+_III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas_
+
+
+The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
+used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
+Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
+who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a
+Greek conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan
+dominion. Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens,
+their former foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the
+most notable battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within
+the Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of
+Persia, and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by
+the name of the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy
+of Greek cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan
+domination.
+
+In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
+dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at
+the battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill
+and tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige.
+As a consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a
+force under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation
+was established.
+
+Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
+some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
+continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
+cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
+fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
+Himera. Owing to the disaster to Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
+feared by Carthage as a protection to the Hellenic world; and for two
+centuries to come, her interventions in Sicily were incessant. Now, the
+presence of a foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for power at
+Syracuse their opportunity, of which the outcome was the subversion of
+the democracy and the establishment of Dionysius as despot.
+
+His son, Dionysius II., succeeded, and was finally ejected by the
+Corinthian Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career of victories as
+Syracusan general against Carthage, acted as general liberator of
+Sicilian cities from despotisms, laid down his powers, and was content
+with the position, not of despot, but of counsellor, to the great
+prosperity of Sicily as a whole.
+
+Going back to the north of Greece, the semi-Hellenic Macedon with a
+Hellenic dynasty was growing powerful. Philip--father of Alexander the
+Great--was now king, and was resolved to make himself the head of the
+Greek world. His great opponent is found in the person of the Athenian
+orator Demosthenes, who saw that Philip was aiming at ascendancy, but
+generally failed to persuade the Athenians to recognise the danger in
+which they stood. Philip gradually achieved his immediate end of being
+recognised as the captain-general of the Hellenes, and their leader in a
+new Persian war, when his life was cut short by an assassin, and he was
+succeeded by his youthful son Alexander.
+
+The Greek states, awakening to their practical subjection, would have
+thrown off the new yoke, but the young king with swift and overwhelming
+energy swept down from Thrace upon Thebes, the centre of resistance, and
+stamped it out. He had already conceived, in part at least, his vast
+schemes of Asiatic conquest; while he lived, Greece had practically no
+distinguishable history. She is merely an appendage to Macedon.
+Everything is absorbed in the Macedon conqueror. With an army incredibly
+small for the task before him, he entered Asia Minor, and routed the
+Persian forces on the river Granicus. The Greek Memnon, the one able
+leader for the Persians, would have organised against him a destructive
+naval power; but death removed him.
+
+Alexander dispersed the armies of the Persian king Darius at the Issus,
+captured Tyre after a remarkable siege, and took easy possession of
+Egypt, where he founded Alexandria. Having organised the administration
+of the conquered territories, he marched to the Euphrates, but did not
+engage the enormous Persian hosts till he found and shattered them at
+the battle of Gaugamela, also called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexander
+swept on to Babylon, to Susa, to Persepolis, assuming the functions of
+the "Great King." The fugitive Darius was assassinated. Alexander
+henceforth assumed a new and oriental demeanour; but he continued his
+conquests, crossing the Hindoo Koosh to Bactria, and then bursting into
+the Punjab. But his ambitions were ended by his death, and their
+fulfilment, not at all according to his designs, was left to the
+"Diadochi," the generals among whom the conquered dominions were parted.
+Athens led the revolt against Macedonian supremacy, but in vain.
+Demosthenes, condemned by the conquering Antipater, took poison. The
+remainder of the history is that of the blotting out of Hellas and of
+Hellenism.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN
+
+
+Troy and Its Remains
+
+
+     Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
+     Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December
+     27, 1890. During his early childhood an old scholar, who had
+     fallen upon evil days, delighted him with stories of the great
+     deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age of fourteen he was
+     apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
+     antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet
+     have the happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him
+     from his low position, and he went to Holland and found a
+     situation in an office. He now began to study languages,
+     suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
+     money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to
+     Russia, learning Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek.
+     Later, he travelled in Europe and the East, making a voyage
+     round the world. At last he realised the dream of his life.
+     Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
+     Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at
+     Tiryus, Mycenæ, and Troy, largely solving the problems of
+     antiquity and archæology associated with these localities.
+     "Troy and Its Remains" is published here in order that, having
+     read in the classical histories, we may see how the ancient
+     world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of
+     one of the most famous of archæologists.
+
+
+_I.--Searching for the Site of Troy_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October_ 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca, the
+Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
+by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the
+Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of
+Bunarbashi, to which place most archæologists assign it. At the same
+time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be
+identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and
+down to its Complete destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning
+of the ninth century A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years,
+after its disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium
+Novum by Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited
+his Ilium Novum.
+
+The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
+north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still,
+which is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and
+from its imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of
+Hissarlik seems specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever
+since my first visit I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of
+Priam in the depths of this hill.
+
+On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
+Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
+excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
+explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
+walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
+Lysimachus.
+
+Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
+end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
+prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
+offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
+hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its
+stead some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of
+the Trojan war.
+
+I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
+on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate
+this locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on
+the face of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's
+work. Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks
+of stone, the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who
+is an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the
+Iliad by heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All
+of my workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only
+on Sunday, a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.
+
+_Hissarlik, October_ 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
+continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average,
+80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I
+found an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow,
+grey, and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently
+with a kind of potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of
+their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume
+they have served as _ex votos_ for hanging up in the temples.
+
+I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
+inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
+writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
+century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have
+been one of the kings of Pergamus.
+
+The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
+glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west
+by the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.
+
+_Hissarlik, November_ 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33 feet.
+During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous mass
+of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
+of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
+sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
+battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have
+been made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have
+reached the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find
+are too well finished.
+
+I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
+indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and
+more traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly
+convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan
+war, and hence I am more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy
+by further excavations; for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in
+this is firm--it can only have been here, on the site of Ilium.
+
+
+_II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, April 5, 1872._ On the first of this month I resumed the
+excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.
+
+In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
+small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the
+owl's head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins
+have stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the
+highest importance to archæology. Such symbols were already regarded,
+thousands of years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very
+greatest importance. The figure of the cross represents two pieces of
+wood which were laid crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial
+altars in order to produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the
+friction of one piece of wood against another.
+
+At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
+many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am
+firmly convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a
+goddess, and the important question now presents itself, what goddess is
+it who is here found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be
+found upon the idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must
+necessarily be the tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian
+Athena, and this indeed perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer,
+who continually calls her _thea glaukopis Athene,_ "the goddess with the
+owl's face."
+
+_Hissarlik, June 18, 1872._ I had scarcely begun to extend a third
+cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian
+marble, containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus
+Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four
+immortal horses which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing
+is to be seen of a chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about
+two-thirds of the sun's disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is
+very expressive, and the folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured;
+but my admiration is specially excited by the four horses, which,
+snorting and looking wildly forward, career through the universe with
+infinite power. Their anatomy is so masterly that I confess I have never
+seen so masterly a work.
+
+It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
+nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a
+word about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus
+Apollo does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple
+of the sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament
+to any other temple.
+
+I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
+represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
+terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that
+is, Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman
+upon the propylæa of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
+sun-city.
+
+This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
+Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this
+work of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo,
+after the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the
+Ilian Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after
+the subjugation of the Persian Empire.
+
+Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
+the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that
+at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric
+Troy. [The reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came
+back to this opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand
+wonderful objects; whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the
+removal of which gives immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls
+of very fine terra-cotta, and it is curious that those which have no
+decorations at all are always of the ordinary shape, and of the size of
+small tops, or like the craters of volcanoes, while almost all those
+possessing decorations are flat, and in the form of a wheel.
+
+Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
+for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number
+of copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small
+instruments for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some
+curious pieces of ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in
+the shape of an exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or
+double-edged knives of white silex in the form of saws in quantities,
+each about two inches long; also many hand millstones of lava, and some
+beautiful red vases, cups, vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these
+depths we likewise find many bones of animals; boars' tusks, small
+shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and stag, as well as the vertebræ of
+the shark.
+
+The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
+large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone,
+hewn and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet.
+These buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined
+with earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed
+to pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
+disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
+well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
+which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum
+are those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]
+
+Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
+civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
+foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
+house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the
+fact that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol
+of the _suastika_, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive
+Trojans belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the
+symbols on the round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which
+preceded the Trojans was likewise of long duration, for all the layers
+of _débris_ at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also
+were of Aryan descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious
+symbols. Several of the symbols belonged to the time when Germans,
+Pelasgians, Hindoos, Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one
+nation.
+
+I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
+those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
+those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
+glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below,
+so that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
+vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
+urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
+mouth, bent back, and either short or long.
+
+I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
+three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
+very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata
+we also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
+whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs,
+amongst which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position.
+But the fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial
+altar with blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the
+_rosa mystica_, are also very frequently met with here.
+
+This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
+and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the
+Holy Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan
+symbol, as yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because
+I find it at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the
+successors to the Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200
+years before Christ.
+
+At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
+by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
+ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches
+of earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate
+in five leaves.
+
+I now come to the strata of _débris_ at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet,
+which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan race, who
+took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
+destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
+feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
+entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined
+with clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only
+are all the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are
+of a coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.
+
+A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
+_débris_ on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its present
+surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants killed or
+driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise have
+belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still very
+frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double cross
+with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the whorls
+degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it is
+considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
+strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
+feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
+many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
+together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas
+leave no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the
+surface of this hill was much lower than it is now.
+
+It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
+it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
+Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
+taken place 700 B.C.
+
+
+_III.--Homeric Legends Verified_
+
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August_ 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill where
+I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick, which
+obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
+uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
+trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a
+depth of 46-1/2 feet.
+
+This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
+its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
+covered it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and
+imposing, for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain
+of Troy, but of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and
+Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the whole area of
+the plain of Troy than this.
+
+In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
+well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that
+the lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and
+burnt alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a
+vase, this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in
+the pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all
+corpses were burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found
+great numbers. The bones were always burnt to ashes.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872._ In stopping the excavations for
+this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
+exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
+thank God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but
+that none of us has been seriously hurt.
+
+As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
+solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
+discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
+soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
+called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site
+of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by
+the whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only
+corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also
+with all the traditions handed down to us by later authorities.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. _During this last week, with splendid
+weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a good
+piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
+Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have
+laid bare the tower in several places.
+
+The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
+the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
+beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote
+antiquity lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently
+have described them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873._ Although the Pergamus, whose depths I
+have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by the
+Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
+ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests
+on one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle
+on mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
+probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on _Ilios anemoessa_.
+
+My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
+have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
+street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture
+to assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Scæan Gate. It
+is in an excellent state of preservation.
+
+Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
+sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
+company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus
+the Trojan and Achæan armies face to face about to settle their
+agreement to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
+Menelaus.
+
+I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
+to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that
+its site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth
+century. But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being
+obliged to give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be
+able to make it a thousand times larger, but I value truth above
+everything, and I rejoice that my three years' excavations have laid
+open the Homeric Troy, even though on a diminished scale, and that I
+have proved the Iliad based upon real facts.
+
+Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
+he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
+events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long
+doubted the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a
+mere invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised
+world will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown
+itself to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected
+from the statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will
+accept with delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really
+exist, that a large portion of it has now been brought to light, and
+that Homer, even though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events
+that actually happened.
+
+Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
+Poseidon and Apollo, the Scæan Gate of the palace of King Priam, for all
+these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
+made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments
+only from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was
+then still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in
+the mouth of all minstrels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JULIUS CÆSAR
+
+
+Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+
+     Caius Julius Cæsar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of a noble
+     Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot
+     with the democratic section against the republican oligarchy.
+     Marrying Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief
+     opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla, he incurred the
+     implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit Rome.
+     For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome
+     after Sulla's death, Cæsar attached himself to the illustrious
+     Pompey, whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he
+     obtained a quæstorship in Spain, and on returning next year
+     reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and
+     Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the First
+     Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
+     Cæsar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant
+     success excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of
+     Pompey. Civil war broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of
+     Pompey, who was defeated in the fateful battle of Pharsalia,
+     and was afterwards murdered in Egypt. Julius Cæsar now
+     possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on games and
+     public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt,
+     Pontus, and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But
+     the jealousy of many of the aristocrats led to the formation
+     of a plot, and on March 15, 44 B.C., Cæsar was assassinated in
+     the Senate House. This summary relates to the commentaries
+     known to be by Cæsar himself, certain other books having been
+     added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed that he
+     writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul_
+
+
+Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgæ inhabit; the
+Aquitani another; those who in their own language are called Celts, in
+ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language,
+customs, and laws. Among the Gauls the Helvetii surpass the rest in
+valour, as they constantly contend in battle with the Germans. When
+Messala and Piso were consuls, Orgetorix, the most distinguished of the
+Helvetii, formed a conspiracy among the nobility, persuading them that,
+since they excelled all in valour, it would be very easy to acquire the
+supremacy of the whole of Gaul. They made great preparations for the
+expedition, but suddenly Orgetorix died, nor was suspicion lacking that
+he committed suicide.
+
+After his death, the Helvetii nevertheless attempted the exodus from
+their territories. When it was reported to Cæsar that they were
+attempting to make their route through our province, he gathered as
+great a force as possible, and by forced marches arrived at Geneva.
+
+The Helvetii now sent ambassadors to Cæsar, requesting permission to
+pass through the province, which he refused, inasmuch as he remembered
+that Lucius Cassius, the consul, had been slain and his army routed, and
+made to pass under the yoke by the Helvetii. Disappointed in their hope,
+the Helvetii attempted to force a passage across the Rhone, but, being
+resisted by the soldier, desisted.
+
+After the war with the Helvetii was concluded, ambassadors from almost
+all parts of Gaul assembled to congratulate Cæsar, and to declare that
+his victory had happened no less to the benefit of the land of Gaul than
+of the Roman people, because the Helvetii had quitted their country with
+the design of subduing the whole of Gaul.
+
+When the assembly was dismissed, the chiefs' of the Ædui and of the
+Sequani waited upon Cæsar to complain that Ariovistus, the king of the
+Germans, had seized a third of their land, which was the best in Gaul,
+and was now ordering them to depart from another third part.
+
+To ambassadors sent by Cæsar, demanding an appointment of some spot for
+a conference, Ariovistus gave an insolent reply, which was repeated on a
+second overture. Hearing that the king of the Germans was threatening to
+seize Vesontio, the capital of the Sequani, Cæsar, by a forced march,
+arrived there and took possession of the city. Apprised of this event,
+Ariovistus changed his attitude, and sent messengers intimating that he
+agreed to meet Cæsar, as they were now nearer to each other, and could
+meet without danger.
+
+The conference took place, but it led to no successful result, for
+Ariovistus demanded that the Romans should withdraw from Gaul and his
+conduct became afterwards so hostile that it led to war. A battle took
+place about fifty miles from the Rhine. The Germans were routed and fled
+to the river, across which many escaped, the rest being slain in
+pursuit. Cæsar, having concluded two very important wars in one
+campaign, conducted his army into winter quarters.
+
+
+_II.--Taming the Rebellious Belgæ_
+
+
+While Cæsar was in winter quarters in Hither Gaul frequent reports were
+brought to him that all the Belgæ were entering into a confederacy
+against the Roman people, because they feared that, after all Celtic
+Gaul was subdued, our army would be led against them. Cæsar, alarmed,
+levied two new legions in Hither Gaul, and proceeded to the territory of
+the Belgæ. As he arrived there unexpectedly, and sooner than anyone
+anticipated, the Remi, who are the nearest of the Belgæ to Celtic Gaul,
+sent messages of submission and gave Cæsar full information about the
+other Belgæ.
+
+Cæsar next learned that the Nervii, a savage and very brave people,
+whose territories bordered those just conquered, had upbraided the rest
+of the Belgæ who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people, and had
+declared that they themselves would neither send ambassadors nor accept
+any condition of peace. He was informed concerning them that they
+allowed no access of any merchants, and that they suffered no wine and
+other things tending to luxury to be imported, because they thought that
+by their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired.
+
+After he had made three days' march into their territory, Cæsar
+discovered that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other
+side of the River Sambre, not more than ten miles from his camp, and
+that they had persuaded the Atrebates and the Veromandui to join with
+them, and that likewise the Aduatuci were expected by them, and were on
+the march. The Roman army proceeded to encamp in front of the river, on
+a site sloping towards it. Here they were fiercely attacked by the
+Nervii, the assault being so sudden that Cæsar had to do all things at
+one time. The standard as the sign to run to arms had to be displayed,
+the soldiers were to be called from the works on the rampart, the order
+of battle was to be formed, and a great part of these arrangements was
+prevented by the shortness of time and the sudden charge of the enemy.
+
+Time was lacking even for putting on helmets and uncovering shields. In
+such an unfavorable state of affairs, various events of fortune
+followed. The soldiers of the ninth and tenth legions speedily drove
+back the Atrebates, who were breathless with running and fatigue. Many
+of them were slain. In like manner the Veromandui were routed by the
+eighth and eleventh legions; but as part of the camp was very exposed,
+the Nervii hastened in a very close body, under Boduagnatus, their
+leader, to rush against that quarter. Our horsemen and light-armed
+infantry were by the first assault routed, and the enemy, rushing into
+our camp in great numbers, pressed hard on the legions. But Cæsar,
+seizing a shield and encouraging the soldiers, many of whose centurions
+had been slain, ordering them to extend their companies that they might
+more freely use their swords.
+
+So great a change was soon effected that, though the enemy displayed
+great courage, the battle was ended so disastrously for them that the
+Nervii were almost annihilated. Scarcely five hundred were left who
+could bear arms. Their old men sent ambassadors to Cæsar by the consent
+of all who remained, surrendering themselves. The Aduatuci, before
+mentioned, who were coming to the help of the Nervii, returned home when
+they heard of this battle.
+
+All Gaul being now subdued, so high an opinion of this war was spread
+among the barbarians that ambassadors were sent to Cæsar by those
+nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine, to promise that they would give
+hostages and execute his commands. He ordered these embassies to return
+to him at the beginning of the following summer, because he was
+hastening into Italy and Illyricum. Having led his legions into winter
+quarters among the Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states
+were close to those in which he had waged war, he set out for Italy, and
+a public thanksgiving of fifteen days was decreed for these
+achievements, an honour which before that time had been conferred on
+none.
+
+
+_III.--War by Land and Sea in Gaul_
+
+
+When Cæsar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with the
+twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
+Veragri, and the Seduni, who extend from the territories of the
+Allobroges and the Lake of Geneva and the River Rhone to the top of the
+Alps. The reason for sending him was that he desired that the pass along
+the Alps, through which the Roman merchants had been accustomed to
+travel with great danger, should be opened.
+
+Galba fought several successful battles, stormed some of their forts,
+and concluded a peace. He then determined to winter in a village of the
+Veragri, which is called Octodurus. But before the winter camp could be
+completed the tops of the mountains were seen to be crowded with armed
+men, and soon these rushed down from all parts and discharged stones and
+darts on the ramparts.
+
+The fierce battle that followed lasted for more than six hours. During
+the fight more than a third part of the army of 30,000 men of the Seduni
+and the Veragri were slain, and the rest were put to flight,
+panic-stricken. Then Galba, unwilling to tempt fortune again, after
+having burned all the buildings in that village, hastened to return into
+the province, urged chiefly by the want of corn and provision. As no
+enemy opposed his march, he brought his forces safely into the country
+of the Allobroges, and there wintered.
+
+These things being achieved, Cæsar, who was visiting Illyricum to gain a
+knowledge of that country, had every reason to suppose that Gaul was
+reduced to a state of tranquillity. For the Belgæ had been overcome, the
+Germans had been expelled, and the Seduni and the Veragri among the Alps
+defeated. But a sudden war sprang up in Gaul.
+
+The occasion of that war was this. P. Crassus, a young man, had taken up
+his winter quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border
+on the Atlantic Ocean. As corn was scarce, he sent out officers among
+the neighbouring states for the purpose of procuring supplies. The most
+considerable of these states was the Veneti, who have a very great
+number of ships with which they have been accustomed to sail into
+Britain, and thus they excel the rest of the states in nautical affairs.
+With them arose the beginning of the revolt.
+
+The Veneti detained Silius and Velanius, who had been sent among them,
+for they thought they should recover by their means the hostages which
+they had given Crassus. The neighbouring people, the Essui and the
+Curiosolitæ, led on by the influence of the Veneti (as the measures of
+the Gauls are sudden and hasty) detained other officers for the same
+motive. All the sea-coast being quickly brought over to the sentiments
+of these states, they sent a common embassy to P. Crassus to say "If he
+wished to receive back his officers, let him send back to them their
+hostages."
+
+Cæsar, being informed of these things, since he was himself so far
+distant, ordered ships of war to be built on the River Loire; rowers to
+be raised from the province; sailors and pilots to be provided. These
+matters being quickly executed, he hastened to the army as soon as the
+season of the year admitted.
+
+Cæsar at once ordered his army, divided into several detachments, to
+attack the towns of the enemy in different districts. Many were stormed,
+yet much of the warfare was vain and much labour was lost, because the
+Veneti, having numerous ships specially adapted for such a purpose,
+their keels being flatter than those of our ships, could easily navigate
+the shallows and estuaries, and thus their flight hither and thither
+could not be prevented.
+
+At length, in a naval fight, our fleet, being fully assembled, gained a
+victory so signal that, by that one battle, the war with the Veneti and
+the whole sea-coast was finished. Cæsar thought that severe punishment
+should be inflicted, in order that for the future the rights of
+ambassadors should be respected by barbarians; he therefore put to death
+all their senate, and sold the rest for slaves.
+
+About the same time P. Crassus arrived in Aquitania, which, as was
+already said, is, both from its extent and its number of population, a
+third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Præconius, the
+lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
+understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known,
+the Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was
+long and vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired
+to their principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted.
+Crassus then marched into the territories of the Vocates and the
+Tarusites, who raised a great host of men to carry on the war, but
+suffered total defeat, after which the greater part of Aquitania of its
+own accord surrendered to the Romans, sending hostages of their own
+accord from different tribes. A few only--and those remote
+nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to do this.
+
+
+_IV.--The First Landing in Britain_
+
+
+The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
+Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome,
+55 before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
+called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
+men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
+into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
+strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
+harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.
+
+The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
+send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
+home, and going forth in their turn in other years.
+
+Cæsar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the Gauls
+(whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from the
+Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the army
+earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
+discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had
+taken place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the
+Germans were then making excursions to greater distances, and had
+advanced to the territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are
+under the protection of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul,
+Cæsar thought proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had
+discovered, and, having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and
+ordered some cavalry to be raised, resolved to make war against the
+Germans.
+
+When he had advanced some distance, the Germans sent ambassadors,
+begging him not to advance further, as they had come hither reluctantly,
+having been expelled from their country. But Cæsar, knowing that they
+wished for delay only to make further secret preparations, refused the
+overtures. Marshalling his army in three lines, and marching eight
+miles, he took them by surprise, and the Romans rushed their camp. Many
+of the enemy were slain, the rest being either scattered or drowned in
+attempting to escape by crossing the Meuse in the flight.
+
+The conflict with the Germans being finished, Cæsar thought it expedient
+to cross the Rhine. Since the Germans were so easily urged to go into
+Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories.
+Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty of constructing a bridge,
+owing to the breadth, rapidity, and depth of the river, he devised and
+built one of timber and of great strength, piles being first driven in
+on which to erect it.
+
+The army was led over into Germany, advanced some distance, and burnt
+some villages of the hostile Sigambri, who had concealed themselves in
+the woods after conveying away all their possessions. Then Cæsar, having
+done enough to strike fear into the Germans and to serve both honour and
+interest, after a stay of eighteen days across the Rhine, returned into
+Gaul and cut down the bridge.
+
+During the short part of the summer which remained he resolved to
+proceed into Britain, because succours had been constantly furnished to
+the Gauls from that country. He thought it expedient, if he only entered
+the island, to see into the character of the people, and to gain
+knowledge of their localities, harbours, and landing-places. Having
+collected about eighty transport ships, he set sail with two legions in
+fair weather, and the soldiers were attacked instantly on landing by the
+cavalry and charioteers of the barbarians. The enemy were vanquished,
+but could not be pursued, because the Roman horse had not been able to
+maintain their course at sea and to reach the island. This alone was
+wanting to Cæsar's accustomed success.
+
+
+_V.--Cæsar on the Thames_
+
+
+During the winter Cæsar commanded as many ships as possible to be
+constructed, and the old repaired. About six hundred transports and
+twenty ships of war were built, and, after settling some disputes in
+Gaul among the chiefs, Cæsar went to Port Itius with the legions. He
+took with him several of the leading chiefs of the Gauls, determined to
+retain them as hostages and to keep them with him during his next
+expedition to Britain, lest a commotion should arise in Gaul during his
+absence.
+
+Cæsar, having crossed to the shore of Britain and disembarked his army
+at a convenient spot advanced about twelve miles and repelled all
+attacks of the cavalry and charioteers of the enemy. Then he led his
+forces into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the River Thames, which
+river can be forded in one place only. Here an engagement took place
+which resulted in the flight of the Britons. But Cassivellaunus had sent
+messengers to the four kings who reigned over Kent and the districts by
+the sea, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximaquilus, and Segonax, commanding
+them to collect all their forces and assail the naval camp.
+
+In the battle which ensued the Romans were victorious, and when
+Cassivellaunus heard of this disaster he sent ambassadors to Cæsar to
+treat about a surrender. Cæsar, since he had resolved to pass the winter
+on the continent, on account of sudden revolts in Gaul, demanded
+hostages and prescribed what tribute Britain should pay each year to the
+Roman people.
+
+Cæsar, expecting for many reasons greater commotion in Gaul, levied
+additional forces. He saw that war was being prepared on all sides, that
+the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, with the addition of all the Germans
+on this side of the Rhine, were under arms; that the Senones did not
+assemble according to his command, and were concerting measures with
+Carnutes and the neighbouring states; and that the Germans were
+importuned by the Treviri in frequent embassies. Therefore he thought
+that he ought to take prompt measures for the war.
+
+Accordingly, before the winter was ended, he marched with four legions
+unexpectedly into the territories of the Nervii, captured many men and
+much cattle, wasted their lands, and forced them to surrender and give
+hostages. He followed up his success by worsting the Senones, Carnutes,
+and Menapii, while Labienus defeated the Treviri.
+
+Gaul being tranquil, Cæsar, as he had determined, set out for Italy to
+hold the provincial assizes. There he was informed of the decree of the
+senate that all the youth of Italy should take the military oath, and he
+determined to hold a levy throughout the entire province. The Gauls,
+animated by the opportunity afforded through his absence, and indignant
+that they were reduced beneath the dominion of Rome, began to organise
+their plans for war openly.
+
+Many of the nations confederated and selected as their commander
+Vercingetorix, a young Avernian. On hearing what had happened, Cæsar set
+out from Italy for Transalpine Gaul, and began the campaign by marching
+into the country of the Helvii, although it was the severest time of the
+year, and the country was covered with deep snow.
+
+The armies met, and Vercingetorix sustained a series of losses at
+Vellaunodunum, Genabum, and Noviodunum. The Gauls then threw a strong
+garrison into Avaricum, which Cæsar besieged, and at length Cæsar's
+soldiers took it by storm. All the Gauls, with few exceptions, joined in
+the revolt; and the united forces, under Vercingetorix, attacked the
+Roman army while it was marching into the country of the Sequani, but
+they suffered complete defeat. After struggling vainly to continue the
+war, Vercingetorix surrendered, and the Gallic chieftains laid down
+their arms. Cæsar demanded a great number of hostages, sent his
+lieutenants with various legions to different stations in Gaul, and
+determined himself to winter at Bibracte. A supplication of twenty days
+was decreed at Rome by the senate on hearing of these successes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TACITUS
+
+
+Annals
+
+
+     Publius Cornelius Tacitus was born perhaps at Rome, shortly
+     before the accession of the Emperor Nero in 54 A.D. He married
+     the daughter of Agricola, famous in the history of Britain,
+     and died probably about the time of Hadrian's accession to the
+     empire, 117 A.D. He attained distinction as a pleader at the
+     bar, and in public life; but his fame rests on his historical
+     works. A man of strong prepossessions and prejudices, he
+     allowed them to colour his narratives, and particularly his
+     portraits; but he cannot be charged with dishonesty. The
+     portraits themselves are singularly powerful; his narrative is
+     picturesque, vivid, dramatic; but the condensed character of
+     his style and the pregnancy of his phrases make his work
+     occasionally obscure, and particularly difficult to render in
+     translation. His "Germania" is a most valuable record of the
+     early institutions of the Teutonic peoples. His "Histories" of
+     the empire from Galba to Domitian are valuable as dealing with
+     events of which he was an eye-witness. His "Annals," covering
+     practically the reigns from Tiberius to Nero, open only some
+     forty years before his own birth. Of the original sixteen
+     books, four are lost, and four are incomplete. The following
+     epitome has been specially prepared from the Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Emperor and Nephew_
+
+
+Tiberius, adopted son and actual stepson of Augustus, was summoned from
+Illyria by his mother Livia to the bedside of the dying emperor at Nola.
+Augustus left a granddaughter, Agrippina, who was married to Germanicus,
+the nephew of Tiberius; and a grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of
+evil reputation. The succession of Tiberius was not in doubt; but his
+first act was to have Agrippa Postumus put to death--according to his
+own statement, by the order of Augustus. At Rome, consuls, senators, and
+knights hurried to embrace their servitude. The nobler the name that
+each man bore, the more zealous was he in his hypocrisy. The grave
+pretence of Tiberius that he laid no claim to imperial honours was met
+by the grave pretence that the needs of the state forbade his refusal of
+them, however reluctant he might be. His mother, Livia Augusta, was the
+object of a like sycophancy. But the world was not deceived by the
+solemn farce.
+
+The death of Augustus, however, was the signal for mutinous outbreaks
+among the legions on the European frontiers of the empire; first in
+Pannonia, then in Germany. In Pannonia, the ostensible motive was
+jealousy of the higher pay and easier terms of service of the Prætorian
+guard. So violent were the men, and so completely did the officers lose
+control, that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was sent to make terms with
+the mutineers, and only owed his success to the reaction caused by the
+superstitious alarm of the soldiery at an eclipse of the moon.
+Germanicus, who was in command in Germany, was absent in Gaul. Here the
+mutiny of the Lower Army, under Cæcina, was very serious, because it was
+clearly organised, the men working systematically and not haphazard.
+
+News of the outbreak brought their popular general, Germanicus, to the
+spot. The mutineers at once offered to make him emperor, a proposal
+which he indignantly repudiated. The position, in a hostile country,
+made some concession necessary; but fresh disturbances broke out when it
+was suspected that the arrival of a commission from the senate meant
+that the concessions would be cancelled. Here the reaction which broke
+down the mutiny was caused by the shame of the soldiers themselves, when
+Germanicus sent his wife and child away from a camp where their lives
+were in danger. Of their own accord, the best of the soldiers turned on
+their former ringleaders, and slew them. And the legions under Cæcina
+took similar steps to recover their lost credit. Germanicus, however,
+saw that the true remedy for the disaffection would be found in an
+active campaign. The desired effect was attained by an expedition
+against the Marsi, conducted with a success which Tiberius, at Rome,
+regarded with mixed feelings.
+
+The German tribe named the Cherusci favoured Arminius, the determined
+enemy of Rome, in preference to Segestes, who was conspicuous for
+"loyalty" to Rome. Germanicus advanced to support the latter, and
+Arminius was enraged by the news that his wife, the daughter of
+Segestes, was a prisoner. His call to arms, his declamations in the name
+of liberty, roused the Cherusci, the people who had annihilated the
+legions of Varus a few years before. A column commanded by Cæcina was
+enticed by Arminius into a swampy position, where it was in extreme
+danger, and a severe engagement took place. The scheme of Arminius was
+to attack the Romans on the march; fortunately, the rasher counsels of
+his uncle, Inguiomerus, prevailed; an attempt was made to storm the
+camp, and the Romans were thus enabled to inflict a decisive defeat on
+the foe.
+
+It was at this time that the disastrous practice was instituted of
+informers bringing charges of treason against prominent citizens on
+grounds which Tiberius himself condemned as frivolous. The emperor began
+to make a practice of attending trials, which indeed prevented corrupt
+awards, but ruined freedom.
+
+Now arose disturbances in the east. The Parthians expelled their king,
+Vonones, a former favourite of Augustus. Armenia became involved, and
+these things were the source of serious complications later. Tiberius
+was already meditating the transfer of Germanicus to these regions. That
+general, however, was planning a fresh German campaign from the North
+Sea coast. A great fleet carried the army to the mouth of the Ems;
+thence Germanicus marched to the Weser and crossed it. Germanicus was
+gratified to find that his troops were eager for the impending fray. A
+tremendous defeat was inflicted on the Cherusci, with little loss to the
+Romans. Arminius, who had headed a charge which all but broke the Roman
+line, escaped only with the utmost difficulty.
+
+Nevertheless, the Germans rallied their forces, and a second furious
+engagement took place, in which the foe fought again with desperate
+valour, and were routed mainly through the superiority of the Roman
+armour and discipline. The triumph was marred only by a disaster which
+befel the legions which were withdrawn by sea. A terrific storm wrecked
+almost the entire fleet, and it was with great difficulty that the few
+survivors were rescued. The consequent revival of German hopes made it
+necessary for two large armies to advance against the Marsi and the
+Catti respectively, complete success again attending the Roman arms.
+
+Jealousy of his nephew's popularity and success now caused Tiberius to
+insist on his recall. At this time informers charged with treason a
+young man of distinguished family, Libo Drusus, mainly on the ground of
+his foolish consultation of astrologers, with the result that Drusus
+committed suicide. This story will serve as one among many which
+exemplify the prevalent demoralisation. In the same year occurred the
+audacious insurrection of a slave who impersonated the dead Agrippa
+Postumus; and also the deposition of the king of Cappadocia, whose
+kingdom was annexed as a province of the empire.
+
+A contest took place between the Suevi and the Cherusci, in which Rome
+declined to intervene. Maroboduus, of the Suevi, was disliked because he
+took the title of king, which was alien to the German ideas, being in
+this respect contrasted with Arminius. The Cherusci had the better of
+the encounter.
+
+
+_II.--The Development of Despotism_
+
+
+Germanicus on his recall was in danger, while in Rome, of being made the
+head of a faction in antagonism to Drusus, the son of Tiberius. He was
+dispatched, however, with extraordinary powers, to take control of the
+East, where Piso, the governor of Syria, believed that he held his own
+appointment precisely that he might be a thorn in the side of
+Germanicus. The latter made a progress through Greece, settled affairs
+in Armenia and Parthia, and continued his journey to Egypt.
+
+Piso's machinations, encouraged by the reports which reached him of the
+emperor's displeasure at the conduct of Germanicus, caused the gravest
+friction. Finally, on the return from Egypt through Syria, Germanicus
+became desperately ill. He declared his own belief that Piso and his
+wife had poisoned him; and, on his death, the rumour met general
+credence, though it was unsupported by evidence. Agrippina returned to
+Rome, bent on vengeance, and the object of universal sympathy. Piso
+attempted to make himself master of Syria, but failed to win over the
+legions, and then resolved to return to Rome and defy his accusers.
+
+About this time Arminius was killed in attempting to make himself king.
+Shortly before, Tiberius had rejected with becoming dignity a rival
+chief's offer to poison the national hero of German independence.
+
+On the arrival in Italy of Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, the
+popular and official expressions of grief and sympathy were almost
+unprecedented. This public display was not at all encouraged by Tiberius
+himself. Drusus was instructed to emphasize the fact that Piso must not
+be held either guilty or innocent, till the case had been sifted.
+Tiberius insisted that not he, but the senate, must be the judge; the
+case must be decided on its merits, not out of consideration for his own
+outraged feelings. Piso was charged with having corrupted the soldiery,
+levied war on the province of Syria, and poisoned Germanicus. All except
+the last charge were proved up to the hilt; for that alone there was no
+evidence. Piso, however, despaired, fearing less the ebullitions of
+popular wrath than the emotionless implacability of the emperor. He was
+found dead in his room; but whether by his own act or that of Tiberius,
+was generally doubted. The penalties imposed on his wife and son were
+mitigated by the emperor himself.
+
+A number of notorious scandals at this period emphasise the degradation
+of morals and the disregard for the sanctity of the marriage tie in a
+society where children were regarded as a burden, in spite of official
+encouragement of the birth-rate. There was an instructive debate on a
+proposal that magistrates appointed to provinces should not take their
+wives with them.
+
+Risings in Gaul of the Treveri and Aedui created much alarm in Rome; the
+composure of Tiberius was justified by their decisive suppression.
+
+In Africa, Blæms successfully suppressed, though he did not finally
+curb, the brigand chief Tacfarinas, who had been building up a nomad
+empire of his own. It was under Dolabella, the successor of Blæms, that
+Tacfarinas was completely overthrown and slain.
+
+Hitherto the rule of Tiberius had been, on the whole, prosperous. But
+the ninth year marks the establishment of the ascendancy of Ælius
+Sejanus over the mind of the emperor, whereby his sway was transformed
+into a foul tyranny. Not of noble birth, Sejanus had neglected no means,
+however base, to secure his own favour with Tiberius and with the
+Prætorian Guard, of which he held the command. He was now determined to
+get rid of Drusus, the son of Tiberius, as the most dangerous obstacle
+to his ambitions. He accomplished his purpose by administering a poison,
+of which the operation was unsuspected till the facts were revealed many
+years later by an accomplice. Then the young sons of Germanicus became
+the accepted representatives of the imperial line, for the infant sons
+of Drusus died very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, Sejanus now
+directed his attacks against the more powerful persons who might be
+regarded as partisans of the house of Germanicus.
+
+Despite the multiplications of prosecutions, it is to be noted that it
+was still possible for a shrewd and tactful person, as exemplified by
+the career of Marcus Lepidus, to uphold the principles of justice and
+liberty without losing the favour of the emperor. Among other
+prosecutions, that of Cremutius, whose crime was that of praising the
+memory of Brutus and Cassius, demands attention, as the first of the
+kind.
+
+The ambitions of Sejanus received a check when he had the presumption to
+request Tiberius to grant him the hand of the widow of Drusus in
+marriage. In order the more surely to bring disgrace on the house of
+Germanicus, he now implanted in the mind of Agrippina a conviction that
+Tiberius intended to poison her. That such suspicions were mere
+commonplaces of that terrible time is well illustrated by the story.
+Incapable of hiding her feelings, the persistent gloom of her face and
+voice, and her refusal of proffered dishes as she sat near Tiberius at
+dinner, attracted his attention; to test her, he personally commended
+and pressed on her some apples; this only intensified her suspicions,
+and she gave them to the attendants untasted. Tiberius made no open
+comment, but observed to his mother that it would hardly be surprising
+should he contemplate harsh measures towards one who obviously took him
+for a poisoner.
+
+
+_III.--Morbid Tyrant and Dotard_
+
+
+It was at this time that Tiberius withdrew himself from the capital, and
+took up his residence at a country seat where hardly anyone had access
+to him except Sejanus; whether at the favourite's suggestion or not is
+uncertain. The retreat finally selected was the island of Capræ.
+
+The monstrous lengths to which men of the highest rank were now prepared
+to go to curry favour with Tiberius and Sejanus was exemplified in the
+ruin of Sabinus, a loyal friend of the house of Germanicus. The
+unfortunate man was tricked into speaking bitterly of Sejanus and
+Tiberius. Three senators were actually hidden above the ceiling of the
+room where he was entrapped into uttering unguarded phrases, and on this
+evidence he was condemned.
+
+The death of the aged Livia Augusta removed the last check on the
+influence of Sejanus.
+
+[The account of his two years of unqualified supremacy, and of his
+sudden and utter overthrow has been lost, two books of the "Annals"
+being missing here.]
+
+From this time, the life of Tiberius at Capræ was one of morbid and
+nameless debauchery. The condition of his mind may be inferred from the
+opening words of one of his letters to the senate. "If I know what to
+write, how to write it, what not to write, may the gods and goddesses
+destroy me with a worse misery than the death I feel myself dying
+daily." The end came when Macro, the prefect of the Prætorians, who, to
+save his own life and secure the succession of Gaius Cæsar Caligula, the
+surviving son of Germanicus, caused the old emperor to be smothered.
+
+[The record of the next ten years--the reign of Caligula, and the first
+years of Claudius--is lost. When the story is taken up again, the wife
+of Claudius, the infamous Messalina, was at the zenith of her evil
+career.]
+
+While the doting pedant Claudius was adding new letters to the alphabet,
+Messalina was parading with utter shamelessness her last and fatal
+passion for Silius, and went so far as publicly to marry her paramour.
+It was the freedman Narcissus who made the outrageous truth known to
+Claudius, and practically terrorised him into striking. Half measures
+were impossible; a swarm of Messalina's accomplices in vice were put to
+death. To her, Claudius showed signs of relenting; but Narcissus gave
+the orders for her death without his knowledge. When they told Claudius
+that she was dead, he displayed no emotion, but went on with his dinner,
+and apparently forgot the whole matter.
+
+A new wife had to be provided; Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,
+niece of Claudius himself, and mother of the boy Domitius, who was to
+become the emperor Nero, was the choice of the freedman Pallas, and
+proved the successful candidate. Shortly after, her new husband adopted
+Nero formally as his son. It was not long before she had assumed an air
+of equality with her husband; and all men saw that she intended him to
+be succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.
+
+Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
+proprætor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
+then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most
+brilliant of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage,
+however, were of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman
+legions; his forces were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the
+Brigantes, was by them betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was
+carried to Rome, where by his dignified demeanour he won pardon and
+liberty. In the Far East, Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew
+Rhadamistus, and Parthia and Armenia remained in wild confusion. The
+reign of Claudius was brought to an end by poison--the notorious Locusta
+was employed by Agrippina for the purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero,
+to whom his mother's artifices gave the priority over Britannicus.
+
+
+_IV.--The Infamies of Nero_
+
+
+At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
+first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was
+full of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a
+freed-woman, by way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother,
+Agrippina. The latter, enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened
+her son with the legitimate claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero
+had the boy poisoned. In terror now of his mother, he would have
+murdered her, but was checked by Burrus. Nero's private excesses and
+debaucheries developed, while the horrible system of delation
+flourished, and prosecutions for treason abounded.
+
+About this time the emperor's passion for Poppæa Sabina, the wife of
+Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
+immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's
+boon companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Poppæa remained at
+Rome. Poppæa was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged Nero
+against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
+the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress.
+The plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero,
+however, with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched
+assassins to carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.
+
+For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
+the cringing congratulations of Roman society, to which Thrasea Pætus
+was alone in refusing to be a party. The emperor forthwith began to
+plunge into the wild extravagances on which his mother's life had been
+some check. He took cover for his passion for chariot-driving and
+singing by inducing men of noble birth to exhibit themselves in the
+arena; high-born ladies acted in disreputable plays; the emperor himself
+posed as a mime, and pretended to be a patron of poetry and philosophy.
+The wildest licence prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to
+defend it.
+
+About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the
+Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages
+committed against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to
+fierce revolt. Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the
+Romans at Camulodunum and massacred them. Suetonius, returning hastily
+from the west, found the Roman population in panic. The troops, however,
+inspired by the general's resolution, won a decisive victory, in which
+it is said that no fewer than 80,000 Britons, men and women, were
+slaughtered.
+
+Not long after, Burrus died--in common belief, if not in actual fact, of
+poison; and Seneca found himself driven into retirement, while
+Tigellinus became Nero's favourite and confidant. Nero then capped his
+matricide by suborning the same scoundrel who had murdered Agrippina to
+bring foul and false charges against his innocent wife, Octavia; who was
+thus done to death when not yet twenty, that her husband might be free
+to marry Poppæa. As a matter of course, the crime was duly celebrated by
+a public thanksgiving.
+
+The dispatch of an incompetent general into Asia resulted in a most
+inglorious Parthian campaign. Nero, however, was more interested first
+in extravagant rejoicings at the birth of a daughter to Poppæa, and then
+in equally extravagant mourning over the infant's death. It was well
+that Corbulo, marching from Syria, restored the Roman prestige in the
+Far East.
+
+These events were followed by the famous fire which devastated Rome;
+whether or no it was actually Nero's own work, rumour declared that he
+appeared on a private stage while the conflagration was raging, and
+chanted appropriately of the fall of Troy. He planned rebuilding on a
+magnificent scale, and sought popularity by throwing the blame of the
+fire--and putting to the most exquisite tortures--a class hated for
+their abominations, called Christians, from their first leader,
+Christus, who had suffered the extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate,
+procurator of Judæa, in the reign of Tiberius.
+
+A very widespread conspiracy was now formed against Nero, in favour of
+one Gaius Calpurnius Piso; Fænius Rufus, an officer of the Prætorians,
+who had been subordinated to Tigellinus, being one of the leaders. The
+plot, however, was betrayed by a freedman of one of the conspirators.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SALLUST
+
+
+The Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+
+     The Roman historian Caius Crispus Sallust, who was born at
+     Amiternum in 86 B.C., and died in 34 B.C., lived throughout
+     the active career of Julius Cæsar, and died while Anthony and
+     Octavian were still rivals for the supreme power. It might be
+     supposed from his works that he was a person of eminent
+     virtue, but this was merely a literary pose. He was probably
+     driven into private life, in the first place, on account of
+     the scandals with which he was associated. He became a
+     partisan of Cæsar in the struggle with Pompey, and to this he
+     owed the pro-consulship of Numidia, on the proceeds of which
+     he retired into leisured ease. Sallust aspired with very
+     limited success to assume the mantle of Thucydides, and the
+     rôle of a philosophic historian. He displays considerable
+     political acumen on occasion, but his assumption of stern
+     impartiality is hardly less a pose than his pretense of
+     elevated morality. His "Conspiracy of Catiline"--the first of
+     his historical essays--was probably written, in part at least,
+     with the object of dissociating Cæsar from it; the lurid
+     colors in which he paints the conspirator are probably
+     exaggerated. But whether true or false, the picture presented
+     is a vivid one. This epitome is adapted specially from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--The Plotting_
+
+
+I esteem the intellectual above the physical qualities of man; and the
+task of the historian has attracted me because it taxes the writer's
+abilities to the utmost Personal ambition had at first drawn me into
+public life, but the political atmosphere, full of degradation and
+corruption, was so uncongenial that I resolved to retire and devote
+myself to the production of a series of historical studies, for which I
+felt myself to be the better fitted by my freedom from the influences
+which bias the political partisan. For the first of these studies I have
+selected the conspiracy of Catiline.
+
+Lucius Catilina [commonly called Catiline] was of high birth, richly
+endowed both in mind and body, but of extreme depravity; with
+extraordinary powers of endurance, reckless, crafty, and versatile, a
+master in the arts of deception, at once grasping and lavish, unbridled
+in his passions, ready of speech, but with little true insight Of
+insatiable and inordinate ambitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's
+supremacy, with a craving to grasp the control of the state, utterly
+careless of the means, so the end were attained. Naturally headstrong,
+he was urged forward by his want of money, the consciousness of his
+crimes, and the degradation of morals in a society where luxury and
+greed ruled side by side.
+
+The wildest, the most reckless, the most prodigal, the most criminal,
+were readily drawn into the circle of Catiline's associates; in such a
+circle those who were not already utterly depraved very soon became so
+under the sinister and seductive influence of their leader. This man,
+who in the pursuit of his own vices had done his own son to death, did
+not hesitate to encourage his pupils in every species of crime; and with
+such allies, and the aid of the disbanded Sullan soldiery swarming in
+Italy, he dreamed of subverting the Roman state while her armies, under
+Gnæus Pompeius, were far away.
+
+The first step was to secure his own election as consul. One plot of his
+had already failed, because Catiline himself had attempted to move
+prematurely; but the conspirators remained scatheless. Those who were
+now with Catiline included members of the oldest families and of
+equestrian rank. Crassus himself was suspected of complicity, owing to
+his rivalry with Pompeius. The assembled conspirators were addressed by
+Catiline in a speech of the most virulent character. He urged these
+social outcasts to rise against a bloated plutocracy battening on the
+ill-gotten wealth to which his audience had just as good a title. He
+promised the cancellation of all debts, the proscription of the wealthy,
+and the general application of the rule of "the spoils to the victors."
+He had friends at the head of the armies in Spain and Mauritania, if
+Gaius Antonius were the other successful candidate for the consulship,
+his co-operation, too, could be secured. Such was the purport of his
+speech; but I do not credit the popular fiction that the conspirators
+were solemnly pledged in a bowl of mingled wine and blood.
+
+Rumours of the plot, however, began to leak out through a certain
+Fulvia, mistress of Quintus Curio, a man who had been expelled from the
+senatorial body on account of his iniquities; and this probably caused
+many of the nobility to support, for the consulship, Cicero, whom, as a
+"new man," they would otherwise have religiously opposed. The result was
+that Catiline's candidature failed, and Cicero was elected with Gaius
+Antonius for his colleague.
+
+At length Cicero, seeing that the ferment was everywhere increasing to
+an extent with which the ordinary law could not cope, obtained from the
+senate the exceptional powers for dealing with a national emergency
+which they had constitutional authority to grant. Thus, when news came
+that a Catilinarian, Gaius Manlius, had risen in Etruria at the head of
+an armed force, prompt administrative measures were taken to dispatch
+adequate military forces to various parts of the country. Catiline
+himself had taken no overt action; he now presented himself in the
+senate, was openly assailed by Cicero, responded with insults which were
+interrupted by cries of indignation, and flung from the house with the
+words "Since I am beset by enemies and driven out, the fire you have
+kindled about me shall be crushed out by the ruin of yourselves."
+
+Seeing that delay would be fatal, he started at once for the camp of
+Manlius, leaving Cethegus and Lentulus to keep up the ferment in Rome.
+To several persons of position he sent letters announcing that he was
+retiring to Marseilles; but, with misplaced confidence, he sent one of a
+different and extremely compromising tenor to Quintus Catullus, which
+the recipient read to the senate. It was next reported that he had
+assumed the consular attributes and joined Manlius; whereupon he was
+proclaimed a public enemy, a general levy was decreed, Antonius was
+appointed to take the field, while Cicero was to remain in the capital.
+
+
+_II.--The Downfall_
+
+
+Meanwhile, Lentulus at Rome, among his various plots, intrigued to
+obtain the support of the Allobroges, a tribe of Gauls from whom there
+was at the time an embassy in Rome. The envoys, however, took the advice
+of Quintus Fabius Sanga, and while he kept Cicero supplied with
+information, themselves pretended to be at one with the conspirators.
+
+Risings were now taking place all over Italy, though they were
+ill-concerted. At Rome, the plan was that when Catiline's army was at
+Fæsulæ, the tribune Lucius Bestia should publicly accuse Cicero of
+having caused the war; and this was to be the signal for an organised
+massacre, while the city itself was to be fired at twelve points
+simultaneously. The insurgents were then to march out and join Catiline
+at Fæsulæ.
+
+The Allobroges were now departing, carrying with them letters from
+Lentulus to Catiline; but according to a concerted plan, they were
+arrested. This provided Cicero with evidence which warranted the arrest
+of Lentulus and other ringleaders in Rome; and its publication created a
+popular revulsion--the lower classes were not averse from plunder, but
+saw no benefit to themselves in a general conflagration of Rome.
+
+A certain Lucius Tarquinius was now captured, who gave information
+tallying with what was already published, but further incriminated
+Crassus. Crassus, however, was so wealthy, and had so many of the senate
+in his power, that even those who believed the charge to be true,
+thought it politic to pronounce it a gross fabrication. The danger of an
+attempted rescue of Lentulus brought on a debate as to what should be
+done with the prisoners. Cæsar, from whatever motive, spoke forcibly
+against any unconstitutional action which, however justified by the
+enormity of the prisoners' guilt, might become a dangerous precedent. In
+his opinion, the wise course would be to confiscate the property of the
+prisoners, and to place their persons in custody not in Rome, but in
+provincial towns.
+
+Cæsar's humanitarian statesmanship was answered by the grave austerity
+of Cato. "The question for us is not that of punishing a crime, but of
+preserving the state--or of what the degenerate Roman of to-day cares
+for more than the state, our lives and property. To speak of clemency
+and compassion is an abuse of terms only too common, when vices are
+habitually dignified with the names of virtues. Let us for once act with
+vigour and decision, and doom these convicted traitors to the death they
+deserve." The decree of death was carried to immediate execution. In the
+meantime, Catiline had raised a force numbering two legions, but not
+more than a quarter of them were properly armed. He remained in the
+hills, refusing to give battle to Antonius.
+
+On hearing the fate of Lentulus and the rest, he attempted to retreat to
+Gaul, but this movement was anticipated and intercepted by Metellus
+Celer, who was posted at Picenum with three legions. With Antonius
+pressing on his rear, Catiline resolved to hazard all on a desperate
+engagement. In exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men
+fighting for life and liberty were more than a match for a foe who had
+infinitely less at stake.
+
+Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the
+government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant
+example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous
+generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against
+the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's
+followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front;
+he himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing
+at a distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and
+among the rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all
+the stoutest soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled
+with the elation of victory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--I
+
+
+     Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at
+     Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary
+     education at Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months
+     at Magdalen College, Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church
+     led to his banishment to Lausanne, where he spent five years,
+     and acquired a mastery of the French language, formed his
+     taste for literary expression, and settled his religious
+     doubts in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the
+     militia, and was a member of parliament. It was in 1764, while
+     musing amidst, the ruins of the Capitol of Rome, that the idea
+     of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the city first started
+     into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A Study
+     in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous
+     Works," published after his death, which include "The Memoirs
+     of his Life and Writings," complete the list of his literary
+     labours. He died of dropsy on January 16, 1794. The portion of
+     the work which is epitomized here covers the period from the
+     reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and includes the
+     famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the
+     Christian church.
+
+
+_I.--Rome, Mistress of the World_
+
+
+In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome
+comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised
+portion of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed,
+as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the
+empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its
+permanent bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the
+Rhine and Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards
+the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent
+settlement of Great Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the
+precepts of Augustus, if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in
+the east, which were renounced by Hadrian.
+
+By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
+its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
+the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added
+weight and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a
+constant preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the
+meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and
+no longer, as in the days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome
+herself, were preserved in their allegiance to the emperor, and their
+invincibility before the enemy, by the influences of superstition,
+inflexible discipline, and the hopes of reward. The peace establishment
+of the Roman army numbered some 375,000 men, divided into thirty
+legions, who were confined, not within the walls of fortified cities,
+which the Romans considered as the refuge of pusillanimity, but upon the
+confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen soldiers, distinguished by
+the titles of City Cohorts and Prætorian Guards, watched over the safety
+of the monarch and the capitol.
+
+"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
+observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
+soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous
+cities, adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public
+buildings, demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the
+Roman system. In Britain, York was the seat of government. London was
+already enriched by commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary
+effects of its medicinal waters.
+
+All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
+capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
+traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
+frontiers of the empire. This great chain of communications ran in a
+direct line from city to city, and in its construction the Roman
+engineers snowed little respect for the obstacles, either of nature or
+of private property. Mountains were perforated and bold arches thrown
+over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road,
+raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country, consisted of
+several strata of sand, gravel, and cement, and was paved with granite
+or large stones. Distances were accurately computed by milestones, and
+the establishment of post-houses, at a distance of five or six miles,
+enabled a citizen to travel with ease a hundred miles a day along the
+Roman roads.
+
+This freedom of intercourse, which was established throughout the Roman
+world, while it extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements
+of social life. Rude barbarians of Gaul laid aside their arms for the
+more peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The cultivation of the earth
+produced abundance in every portion of the empire, and accidental
+scarcity in any single province was immediately relieved by the
+plentifulness of its more fortunate neighbours. Since the productions of
+nature are the materials of art, this flourishing condition of
+agriculture laid the foundation of manufactures, which provided the
+luxurious Roman with those refinements of conveniency, of elegance, and
+of splendour which his tastes demanded. Commerce flourished, and the
+products of Egypt and the East were poured out in the lap of Rome.
+
+Though there still existed within the body of the Roman Empire an
+unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the
+benefits of society, the position of a slave was greatly improved in the
+progress of Roman development. The power of life and death was taken
+from his master's hands and vested in the magistrate, to whom he had a
+right to appeal against intolerable treatment. These magistrates
+exercised the authority of the emperor and the senate in every quarter
+of the empire, inflexibly maintaining in their administration, as in the
+case of military government, the use of the Latin tongue. Greek was the
+natural idiom of science, Latin that of government.
+
+
+_II.--The Seeds of Dissolution_
+
+
+But while Roman society persisted in a state of peaceful security, it
+already contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. The long peace
+and uniform government of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison
+into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced
+to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the
+military spirit evaporated. The citizens received laws and covenants
+from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a
+mercenary army. Of their ancient freedom nothing remained except the
+name, and that Augustus, sensible that mankind is governed by names, was
+careful to preserve.
+
+It was by the will of the senate the emperor ruled. It was from the
+senate that he received the ancient titles of the republic--of consul,
+tribune, pontiff, and censor. Even his title of _imperator_ was decreed
+him, according to the custom of the republic, only for a period of ten
+years. But this specious pretence, which was preserved until the last
+days of the empire, did not mask the real autocratic authority of the
+emperor. The fact that he nominated citizens to the senate was proof, if
+proof were needed, that the independence of that body was destroyed; for
+the principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the
+legislative power is nominated by the executive.
+
+Moreover, the dependence of the emperor on the legions completely
+subverted the civil authority. To keep the military power, which had
+given him his position, from undermining it, Augustus had summoned to
+his aid whatever remained in the fierce minds of his soldiers of Roman
+prejudices, and interposing the majesty of the senate between the
+emperor and the army, boldly claimed their allegiance as the first
+magistrate of the republic. During a period of 220 years, the dangers
+inherent to a military government were in a great measure suspended by
+this artful system. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense
+of their own strength and of the weakness of the civil authority which
+afterwards was productive of such terrible calamities.
+
+The emperors Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by
+their own domestics. The Roman world, it is true, was shaken by the
+events that followed the death of Nero, when, in the space of eighteen
+months, four princes perished by the sword. But, excepting this violent
+eruption of military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to
+Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood and undisturbed by
+revolution. The Roman citizens might groan under the tyranny, from which
+they could not hope to escape, of the unrelenting Tiberius, the furious
+Caligula, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the
+timid, inhuman Domitian; but order was maintained, and it was not until
+Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher,
+succeeded to the authority that his father had exercised for the benefit
+of the Roman Empire that the army fully realised, and did not fail to
+exercise, the power it had always possessed.
+
+During the first three years of his reign the vices of Commodus affected
+the emperor rather than the state. While the young prince revelled in
+licentious pleasures, the management of affairs remained in the hands of
+his father's faithful councillors; but, in the year 183, the attempt of
+his sister Lucilla to assassinate him produced fatal results. The
+assassin, in attempting the deed, exclaimed, "The senate sends you
+this!" and though the blow never reached the body of the emperor, the
+words sank deep into his heart.
+
+He turned upon the senate with relentless cruelty. The possession of
+either wealth or virtue excited the tyrant's fury. Suspicion was
+equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation, and the noblest blood of the
+senate was poured out like water.
+
+He has shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon
+as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered
+by his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the
+instigation of Lætus, his Prætorian prefect, a robust youth was admitted
+into his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and
+celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city,
+an ancient senator of consular rank, and persuaded him to accept the
+purple. A large donative secured them the support of the Prætorian
+guard, and the joyous senate eagerly bestowed upon the new Augustus all
+the titles of imperial power.
+
+For eighty-six days Pertinax ruled the empire with firmness and
+moderation, but the strictness of the ancient discipline that he
+attempted to restore in the army excited the hatred of the Prætorian
+guards, and the new emperor was struck down on March 28, 193.
+
+
+_III.--An Empire at Auction_
+
+
+The Prætorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious
+murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it with their
+subsequent conduct. They ran out upon the ramparts of the city, and with
+a loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to
+the best bidder by public auction. Sulpicianus, father-in-law of
+Pertinax, and Didius Julianus, bid against each other for the prize. It
+fell to Julian, who offered upwards of £1,000 sterling to each of the
+soldiers, and the author of this ignominious bargain received the
+insignia of the empire and the acknowledgments of a trembling senate.
+
+The news of this disgraceful auction was received by the legions of the
+frontiers with surprise, with indignation, and, perhaps, with envy.
+Albinus, governor of Britain, Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius
+Severus, a native of Africa, commander of the Pannonian army, prepared
+to revenge the death of Pertinax, and to establish their own claims to
+the vacant throne. Marching night and day, Severus crossed the Julian
+Alps, swept aside the feeble defences of Julian, and put an end to a
+reign of power which had lasted but sixty-six days, and had been
+purchased with such immense treasure. Having secured the supreme
+authority, Severus turned his arms against his two competitors, and
+within three years, and in the course of two or three battles,
+established his position and brought about the death of both Albinus and
+Niger.
+
+The prosperity of Rome revived, and a profound peace reigned throughout
+the world. At the same time, Severus was guilty of two acts which were
+detrimental to the future interests of the republic. He relaxed the
+discipline of the army, increased their pay beyond the example of former
+times, re-established the Prætorian guards, who had been abolished for
+their transaction with Julian, and welded more firmly the chains of
+tyranny by filling the senate with his creatures. At the age of
+sixty-five in the year 211, he expired at York of a disorder which was
+aggravated by the labours of a campaign against the Caledonians.
+
+Severus recommended concord to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and his
+sons to the army. The government of the civilised world was entrusted to
+the hands of brothers who were implacable enemies. A latent civil war
+brooded in the city, and hardly more than a year passed before the
+assassins of Caracalla put an end to an impossible situation by
+murdering Geta. Twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death
+under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta. The fears of
+Macrinus, the controller of the civil affairs of the Prætorian
+prefecture, brought about his death in the neighbourhood of Carrhæ in
+Syria on April 8, 217.
+
+For a little more than a year his successor governed the empire, but the
+necessary step of reforming the army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
+218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
+Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the East.
+
+Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
+human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the
+master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the
+female sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder
+on March 10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.
+
+Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
+ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
+government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
+banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_IV.--Tyranny and Disaster_
+
+
+Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
+one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
+the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
+but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole
+state, and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's
+avarice ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds
+of the cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
+offerings.
+
+Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
+Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
+domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
+and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
+Aquileia.
+
+Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
+to their own virtues at the hands of the Prætorian guard, Gordian became
+emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
+virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
+engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world
+recognized the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.
+
+Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
+accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the
+foundation of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that
+these rites had been performed in the history of the city, for the next
+twenty years the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and
+military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and
+fatal moment of its dissolution. Six emperors in turn succeeded to the
+sceptre of Philip and ended their lives, either as the victims of
+military licence, or in the vain attempt to stay the triumphal eruption
+of the Goths and the Franks and the Suevi. In three expeditions the
+Goths seized the Bosphorus, plundered the cities of Bithynia, ravaged
+Greece, and threatened Italy, while the Franks invaded Gaul, overran
+Spain and the provinces of Africa.
+
+Some sparks of their ancient virtue enabled the senate to repulse the
+Suevi, who threatened Rome herself, but the miseries of the empire were
+not assuaged by this one triumph, and the successes of Sapor, king of
+Persia, in the East, seemed to foreshadow the immediate downfall of
+Rome. Six emperors and thirty tyrants attempted in vain to stay the
+course of disaster. Famine and pestilence, tumults and disorders, and a
+great diminution of the population marked this period, which ended with
+the death of the Emperor Gallienus on March 20, 268.
+
+
+_V.--Restorers of the Roman World_
+
+
+The empire, which had been oppressed and almost destroyed by the
+soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians, was saved by a series of
+great princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial
+provinces of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius,
+Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the
+foreign and domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with a
+military discipline, the strength of the frontier, and deserved the
+glorious title of Restorers of the Roman world.
+
+Claudius gained a crushing victory over the Goths, whose discomfiture
+was completed by disease in the year 269. And his successor, Aurelian,
+in a reign of less than five years, put an end to the Gothic war,
+chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and
+Britain from the Roman usurpers, and destroyed the proud monarchy which
+Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, had erected in the East on the ruins of the
+afflicted empire.
+
+The murder of Aurelian in the East (January 275) led to a curious
+revival of the authority of the senate. During an interregnum of eight
+months the ancient assembly at Rome governed with the consent of the
+army, and appeared to regain with the election of Tacitus, one of their
+members, all their ancient prerogatives. Their authority expired,
+however, with the death of his successor, Probus, who delivered the
+empire once more from the invasions of the barbarians, and succumbed to
+the too common fate of assassination in August 282.
+
+Carus, who was elected in his place, maintained the reputation of the
+Roman arms in the East; but his supposed death by lightning, by
+delivering the sceptre into the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian
+(December 25, 283), once more placed the Roman world at the mercy of
+profligacy and licentiousness. A year later, the election of the Emperor
+Diocletian (September 17, 284) founded a new era in the history and
+fortunes of the empire.
+
+It was the artful policy of Diocletian to destroy the last vestiges of
+the ancient constitution. Dividing his unwieldly power among three other
+associates--Maximian, a rough, brutal soldier, who ranked as Augustus;
+and Galerius and Constantius, who bore the inferior titles of Cæsar--the
+emperor removed the centre of government by gradual steps from Rome.
+Diocletian and Maximian held their courts in the provinces, and the
+authority of the senators was destroyed by spoliation and death.
+
+
+_VI.--Reign of the Six Emperors_
+
+
+For twenty-one years Diocletian held sway, establishing, with the
+assistance of his associates, the might of the Roman arms in Britain,
+Africa, Egypt, and Persia; and then, on May 1, 305, in a spacious plain
+in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, divested himself of the purple and
+abdicated the throne. On the same day at Milan, Maximian reluctantly
+made his resignation of the imperial dignity.
+
+According to the rules of the new constitution, Constantius and Galerius
+assumed the title of Augustus, and nominated Maximin and Severus as
+Cæsars. The elaborate machinery devised by Diocletian at once broke
+down. Galerius, who was supported by Severus, intrigued for the
+possession of the whole Roman world. Constantine, the son of
+Constantius, on account of his popularity with the army and the people,
+excited his suspicion, and only the flight of Constantine saved him from
+death. He made his way to Gaul, and, after taking part in a campaign
+with his father against the Caledonians, received the title of Augustus
+in the imperial palace at York on the death of Constantius.
+
+Civil war once more raged. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was declared
+Emperor of Rome, and, with the assistance of his father, who broke from
+his retirement, defended his title against Severus, who was taken
+prisoner at Ravenna and executed at Rome in February 307. Galerius, who
+had raised Licinius to fill the post vacated by the death of Severus,
+invaded Italy to reestablish his authority, but, after threatening Rome,
+was compelled to retire.
+
+There were now six emperors. Maximian and his son Maxentius and
+Constantine in the West; in the East, Gelerius, Maximin, and Licinius.
+The second resignation of Maximian, and his renewed attempt to seize the
+imperial power by seducing the soldiers of Constantine, and his
+subsequent execution at Marseilles in February 310, reduced the number
+to five. Galerius died of a lingering disorder in the following year,
+and the civil war that broke out between Maxentius and Constantine,
+culminating in a battle near Rome in 312, placed the sceptre of the West
+in the hands of the son of Constantius. In the East, the alliance
+between Licinius and Maximin dissolved into discord, and the defeat of
+the latter on April 30, 313, ended in his death three or four months
+later.
+
+The empire was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, and the
+ambition of the two princes rendered peace impossible. In the years 315
+and 323 civil conflict broke out, ending, after the battle of Adrianople
+and the siege of Byzantium, in a culminating victory for Constantine in
+the field of Chrysopolis, in September. Licinius, taken prisoner, laid
+himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, and was duly
+executed.
+
+By successive steps, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the
+resignation of Licinius, Constantine had reached the undivided
+sovereignty of the Roman world. His success contributed to the decline
+of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual
+increase as well of the taxes as of the military establishments. The
+foundation of Constantinople and the establishment of the Christian
+religion were the immediate and memorable consequences of this
+revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--II
+
+
+_I.--Decay of the Empire under Constantine_
+
+
+The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness of
+Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror
+bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new
+capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he
+established have been embraced, and consecrated, by succeeding
+generations.
+
+Byzantium, which, under the more august name of Constantinople, was
+destined to preserve the shadow of the Roman power for nearly a thousand
+years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site
+selected for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor,
+and its circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of
+the arts no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital,
+and the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable
+ornaments to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten
+years the city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial
+palace, its theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with
+more haste than care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with
+all due pomp and ceremony, and a population was provided by the
+expedient of summoning some of the wealthiest families in the empire to
+take up their residence within its walls.
+
+The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
+which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
+system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank
+of each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of
+the Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles
+of your Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent
+Highness.
+
+The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
+Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still
+annually elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority,
+not from the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor.
+On the morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity,
+and in the two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to
+office by the annual games. As soon as they had discharged these
+customary duties, they retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy,
+during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their
+own greatness. Their names served only as the legal date of the year in
+which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient
+title of Patrician became now an empty honour bestowed by the emperor.
+Four prefects held jurisdiction over as many divisions of the empire,
+and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and Constantinople. The proconsuls
+and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of Respectable, and the
+provincial magistrates to the lower class of Honourable. In the military
+system, eight master-generals exercised their jurisdiction over the
+cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military commanders, with
+the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held sway in the
+provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for such was
+the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds of
+the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
+The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they
+were included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne.
+Seven ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of
+the palace, and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the
+number of the immediate followers of the sovereign.
+
+The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
+from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
+census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was
+compelled to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid
+his contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this
+land tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial
+industry, and "free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on
+the occasion of any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The
+peculiar "free gift" of the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.
+
+Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
+year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or
+murder, of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the
+reputation of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the
+Roman world was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta.
+With a successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
+Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
+337.
+
+
+_II.--The Division of East and West_
+
+
+The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
+Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
+Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
+years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
+resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete
+extinction of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for
+fifty-six years in Armenia.
+
+Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
+successively as Cæsars the two nephews of the great Constantine, Gallus
+and Julian. The first, being suspected, was destroyed in 354; the second
+succeeded to the purple in 361.
+
+Trained in the school of the philosophers, and proved as a commander in
+a series of successful campaigns against the German hordes, Julian
+brought to the throne a genius which, in other times, might have
+effected the reformation of the empire. The sufferings of his youth had
+associated in a mind susceptible of the most lively impressions the
+names of Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and religion.
+At the age of twenty he renounced the Christian faith, and boldly
+asserted the doctrines of paganism. His accession to the supreme power
+filled the minds of the Christians with horror and indignation. But
+instructed by history and reflection, Julian extended to all the
+inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal
+toleration, and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians
+was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow subjects,
+whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.
+
+While re-establishing and reforming the old pagan system and attempting
+to subvert Christianity, he held out a hand of succour to the persecuted
+Jews, asked to be permitted to pay his grateful vows in the holy city of
+Jerusalem, and was only prevented from rebuilding the Temple by a
+supposed preternatural interference. He suppressed the authority of
+George, Archbishop of Alexandria, who had infamously persecuted and
+betrayed the people under his spiritual care, and that odious priest,
+who has been transformed by superstition into the renowned St. George of
+England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter, fell a
+victim to the just resentment of the Alexandrian multitude.
+
+The Persian system of monarchy, introduced by Diocletian, was
+distasteful to the philosophic mind of Julian; he refused the title of
+lord and master, and attempted to restore in all its pristine simplicity
+the ancient government of the republic. In a campaign against the
+Persians he received a mortal wound, and died on June 26, 363.
+
+The election of Jovian, the first of the domestics, by the acclamation
+of the soldiers, resulted in a disgraceful peace with the Persians,
+which aroused the anger and indignation of the Roman world, and the new
+emperor hardly survived this act of weakness for nine months (February
+17, 364). The throne of the Roman world remained ten days without a
+master. At the end of that period the civil and military powers of the
+empire solemnly elected Valentinian as emperor at Nice in Bithynia.
+
+The new Augustus divided the vast empire with his brother Valens, and
+this division marked the final separation of the western and eastern
+empires. This arrangement continued, until the death of Valentinian in
+375, when the western empire was divided between his sons, Gratian and
+Valentinian II.
+
+His reign had been notable for the stemming of the invasion of the
+Alemanni of Gaul, the incursions of the Burgundians and the Saxons, the
+restoration of Britain from the attacks of the Picts and Scots, the
+recovery of Africa by the emperor's general, Theodosius, and the
+diplomatic settlement with the approaching hordes of the Goths, who
+already swarmed upon the frontiers of the empire.
+
+Under the three emperors the Roman world began to feel more severely the
+gradual pressure exerted by the hordes of barbarians that moved
+westward. In 376 the Goths, pursued by the Huns, who had come from the
+steppes of China into Europe, sought the protection of Valens, who
+succoured them by transporting them over the Danube into Roman
+territory. They repaid his clemency by uniting their arms with those of
+the Huns, and defeating and killing him at the battle of Hadrianople in
+378.
+
+To save the provinces from the ravages of the barbarians, Gratian
+appointed Theodosius, son of his father's general, emperor of the East,
+and the wisdom of his choice was justified by the success of one who
+added a new lustre to the title of Augustus. By prudent strategy,
+Theodosius divided and defeated the Goths, and compelled them to submit.
+
+The sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to
+the government of the East and the West in 395. The symptoms of decay,
+which not even the wise rule of Theodosius had been able to remove, had
+grown more alarming. The luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
+dissolute, and as the increasing depredations of the barbarians had
+checked industry and diminished wealth, this profuse luxury must have
+been the result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour
+and declines the thoughts of futurity.
+
+The secret and destructive poison of the age had affected the camps of
+the legions. The infantry had laid aside their armour, and, discarding
+their shields, advanced, trembling, to meet the cavalry of the Goths and
+the arrows of the barbarians, who easily overwhelmed the naked soldiers,
+no longer deserving the name of Romans. The enervated legionaries
+abandoned their own and the public defence, and their pusillanimous
+indolence may be considered the immediate cause of the downfall of the
+empire.
+
+
+_III.--Ruin by Goth, Vandal, and Hun_
+
+
+The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. His sons within three months
+had once more sharply divided the empire. At a time when the only hope
+of delaying its ruin depended on the firm union of the two sections, the
+subject of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed by their respective
+masters to view each other in a hostile light, to rejoice in their
+mutual calamity, and to embrace as their faithful allies the barbarians,
+whom they incited to invade the territories of their countrymen.
+
+Alarmed at the insecurity of Rome, Honorius about this time fixed the
+imperial residence within the naturally fortified city of Ravenna--an
+example which was afterwards imitated by his feeble successors, the
+Gothic kings and the Exarchs; and till the middle of the eighth century
+Ravenna was considered as the seat of government and the capital of
+Italy.
+
+The reign of Arcadius in the East marked the complete division of the
+Roman world. His subjects assumed the language and manners of Greeks,
+and his form of government was a pure and simple monarchy. The name of
+the Roman republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of
+freedom, was confined to the Latin provinces. A series of internal
+disputes, both civil and religious, marked his career of power, and his
+reign may be regarded as notable if only for the election of St. John
+Chrysostom to the head of the church of Constantinople. Arcadius died in
+May 408, and was succeeded by his supposed son, Theodosius, then a boy
+of seven, the reins of power being first held by the prefect Anthemius,
+and afterwards by his sister Pulcheria, who governed the eastern
+empire--in fact, for nearly forty years.
+
+The wisdom of Honorius, emperor of the West, in removing his capital to
+Ravenna, was soon justified by events. Alaric, king of the Goths,
+advanced in 408 to the gates of Rome, and completely blockaded the city.
+In the course of a long siege, thousands of Romans died of plague and
+famine, and only a heavy ransom, amounting to $1,575,000, relieved the
+citizens from their terrible situation in the year 409. In the same year
+Alaric again besieged Rome, after fruitless negotiations with Honorius,
+and his attempt once more proving successful, he created Attilus,
+prefect of the city, emperor. But the imprudent measures of his puppet
+sovereign exasperated Alaric. Attilus was formally deposed in 410, and
+the infuriated Goth besieged and sacked Rome, and ravaged Italy. The
+spoil that the barbarians carried away with them comprised nearly all
+the movable wealth of the city.
+
+The ancient capital was devastated, the exquisite works of art
+destroyed, and nearly all the monuments of a glorious past sacrificed to
+the insatiate greed of the conquerors. Fire helped to complete the ruin
+wrought by the Goths, and it is not easy to compute the multitude of
+citizens who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were
+suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.
+
+The complete ruin of Italy was prevented by the death of Alaric in 410.
+
+During the reign of Honorius, the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks were
+settled in Gaul. The maritime countries, between the Seine and the
+Loire, followed the example of Britain in 409, and threw off the yoke of
+the empire. Aquitaine, with its capital at Aries, received, under the
+title of the seven provinces, the right of convening an annual assembly
+for the management of its own affairs.
+
+Honorius died in 423, and was succeeded by Valentinian III. His long
+reign was marked by a series of disasters, which foretold the rapidly
+approaching dissolution of the western empire.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 429 crossed into Africa, conquered the
+province, and set up in the depopulated territory, with Carthage as his
+capital, a new rule and government. Italy was filled with fugitives from
+Africa, and a barbarian race, which had issued from the frozen regions
+of the north, established their victorious reign over one of the fairest
+provinces of the empire. Two years later, in 441, a new and even more
+terrible danger threatened the empire.
+
+The Goths and Vandals, flying before the Huns, had oppressed the western
+World. The hordes of these barbarians, now gathering strength in their
+union under their king, Attila, threatened an attack upon the eastern
+empire. In appearance their chieftain was terrible in the extreme; his
+portrait exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large
+head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few
+hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body
+of nervous strength, though of a disproportionate form. He had a custom
+of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which
+he inspired.
+
+This savage hero, who had subdued Germany and Scythia, and almost
+exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine, and had conquered
+Scandinavia, was able to bring into the field 700,000 barbarians. An
+unsuccessful raid into Persia induced him to turn his attention to the
+eastern empire, and the enervated troops of Theodosius the Younger
+dissolved before the fury of his onset. He ravaged up to the very gates
+of Constantinople, and only a humiliating treaty preserved his dominion
+to the "invincible Augustus" of the East.
+
+After the death of Theodosius the Younger, and the accession of Marcian,
+the husband of Pulcheria, Attila threatened, in 450, both empires. An
+incursion of his hordes into Gaul was rendered abortive by the conduct
+of the patrician, Ætius, who, uniting all the various troops of Gaul and
+Germany, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, under their
+Merovingian prince, and the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, after
+two important battles, induced the Huns to retreat from the field of
+Chalons. Attila, diverted from his purpose, turned into Italy, and the
+citizens of the various towns fled before the savage destroyer. Many
+families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, found a safe refuge
+in the neighbouring islands of the Adriatic, where their place of refuge
+evolved, in time, into the famous Republic of Venice.
+
+Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome, prepared to desert his people and
+his empire. The fortitude of Ætius alone supported and preserved the
+tottering state. Leo, Bishop of Rome, in his sacerdotal robes, dared to
+demand the clemency of the savage king, and the intervention of St.
+Peter and St. Paul is supposed to have induced Attila to retire beyond
+the Danube, with the Princess Honoria as his bride. He did not long
+survive this last campaign, and in 453 he died, and was buried amidst
+all the savage pomp and grief of his subjects. His death resolved the
+bonds that had united the various nations of which his subjects were
+composed, and in a very few years domestic discord had extinguished the
+empire of the Huns.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked and pillaged the ancient capital
+in June 455.
+
+The vacant throne was filled by the nomination of Theodoric, king of the
+Goths. The senate of Rome bitterly opposed the elevation of this
+stranger, and though Avitus might have supported his title against the
+votes of an unarmed assembly, he fell immediately he incurred the
+resentment of Count Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the
+barbarian troops who formed the military defence of Italy. At a distance
+from his Gothic allies, he was compelled to abdicate (October 16, 456),
+and Majorian was raised to fill his place.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Emperor of the West_
+
+
+The successor of Avitus was a great and heroic character, such as
+sometimes arise in a degenerate age to vindicate the honour of the human
+species. In the ruin of the Roman world he loved his people, sympathised
+with their distress, and studied by judicial and effectual remedies to
+allay their sufferings. He reformed the most intolerable grievances of
+the taxes, attempted to restore and maintain the edifices of Rome, and
+to establish a new and healthier moral code. His military abilities and
+his fortune were not in proportion to his merits. An unsuccessful
+attempt against the Vandals to recover the lost provinces of Africa
+resulted in the loss of his fleet, and his return from this disastrous
+campaign terminated his reign. He was deposed by Ricimer, and five days
+later died of a reported dysentery, on August 7, 461.
+
+At the command of Ricimer, the senate bestowed the imperial title on
+Libius Severus, who reigned as long as it suited his patron. The
+increasing difficulties, however, of the kingdom of Italy, due largely
+to the naval depredation of the Vandals, compelled Ricimer to seek the
+assistance of the emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the East in
+457. Leo determined to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals, and
+solemnly invested Anthemius with the diadem and purple of the West
+(467).
+
+In 472, Ricimer raised the senator Olybrius to the purple, and,
+advancing from Milan, entered and sacked Rome and murdered Anthemius
+(July 11, 472). Forty days after this calamitous event, the tyrant
+Ricimer died of a painful disease, and two months later death also
+removed Olybrius.
+
+The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne. After
+suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in
+475, to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the
+command of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna. The
+troops would have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they
+consented to acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.
+
+The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon
+discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the
+slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded
+a third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious
+demand, and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a
+bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to
+associate under his command they might extort the justice that had been
+denied to their dutiful petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer,
+resolving to abolish the useless and expensive office of the emperor of
+the West, compelled the unfortunate Augustulus to resign.
+
+So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
+emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
+promontory of Misenum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--III
+
+
+_I.--The Growth of the Christian Church_
+
+
+The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
+religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened,
+and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The
+various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all
+considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally
+false; by the magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of
+toleration the Christian church grew with great rapidity. Five main
+causes effectually favoured and assisted this development.
+
+1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
+the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.
+
+2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
+circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
+theory.
+
+3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.
+
+4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.
+
+5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
+formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
+Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all
+circumcised Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight
+of Mosaic ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous
+brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited
+for their own practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of
+the public religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as the Christian Jews of
+Jerusalem were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence
+they could make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the
+Emperor Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts
+of the city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by
+disavowing the Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the
+Mosaic ceremonies with the Christian faith, and existed, until the
+fourth century, under the name of Ebeonites.
+
+The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
+Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
+field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
+most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a
+few years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and
+noble principles of the disciples of Plato.
+
+To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
+future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
+mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the
+precepts of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer
+should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every
+rank, and of every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate
+expectation of the second coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of
+God with His saints for a thousand years, strengthened the ancient
+Christians against all trials and sufferings.
+
+The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
+Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
+comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
+tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
+healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
+Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.
+
+Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
+the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
+lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those
+of their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
+insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
+search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that
+institution of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state
+of celibacy was regarded as the nearest approach to the divine
+perfection, and there were in the primitive church a great number of
+persons devoted to the profession of perpetual chastity.
+
+The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of
+freedom and equality. The societies which were instituted in the cities
+of the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity.
+The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional
+assistance of the "prophets "--men or women who, as often as they felt
+the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the
+assembly, of the faithful. In the course of time bishops and presbyters
+exercised solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance. A
+hundred years after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the
+president of the presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and
+discipline of the Church, managed the public funds, and determined all
+such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the
+tribunal of an idolatrous judge.
+
+Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic,
+and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that
+might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these
+little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod. The
+bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at
+stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons. The institution of
+synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest
+that it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular
+correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which
+mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings, and the
+Catholic Church soon assumed the form and acquired the strength of a
+great federative republic.
+
+The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the
+primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary
+gifts was substituted. In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the
+opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of
+very considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design
+as our statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or
+bequeathed to any corporate body, without special sanctions. The bishops
+distributed these revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or
+excommunication of recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained
+the dignity of their office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.
+
+
+_II.--The Days of Persecution_
+
+
+The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight
+seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and
+worship. When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the
+pagans, and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic
+of the Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness
+seems all the more remarkable. It can be explained partly by the
+misapprehension which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the
+principles of the Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the
+sect. The Jews were allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive
+faith. But the Jews were a nation; the Christians were a sect. Moreover,
+the Christians were regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of
+Moses, and, worshipping no visible god, were held to be atheists.
+
+The Roman policy also viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
+association among its subjects, and the secret and nocturnal meetings of
+the Christians appeared peculiarly dangerous in the eyes of the law.
+
+They were oppressed by the Emperor Domitian. Trajan protected their
+meetings by requiring definite evidence of these illegal assemblies, and
+an informer who failed in his proofs was subject to a severe or capital
+penalty. But the edicts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius protected the
+Church from the danger of popular clamour in times of disaster,
+declaring that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted as
+legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had
+embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians.
+
+The authority of Origen and Dionysius annihilates that formidable army
+of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
+Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous
+achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance.
+
+The martyrdom of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, on September 14, 258, was
+one of the most notable of that period. Under Marcus Antoninus, the
+Christians were treated harshly, but the tyrant Commodus protected them
+by his leniency. After a temporary period of persecution during the
+reign of Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm from 211 to 249. The
+storms gathered again under Decius, and so vigorous was the persecution
+that the bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile
+or death.
+
+
+_III.--The Church under Constantine_
+
+
+From 284 to 303, during the reign of Diocletian, the Christian Church
+enjoyed peace and prosperity, but in the latter year Galerius persuaded
+the emperor to renew the persecution of the sect. An edict on February
+24 enacted that all churches throughout the empire should be demolished,
+and the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should
+presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purposes of religious
+worship. Many suffered martyrdom under this cruel enactment. Churches
+everywhere were burnt, and sacred books destroyed. Three more edicts
+published before March 304 led to the imprisonment of all persons of the
+ecclesiastical order, compelled the magistrates to exercise torture to
+subvert the religion of their Christian prisoners, and made it the duty,
+as well as the interest, of the imperial officers to discover, to
+pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful.
+
+But after six years of persecution, the mind of Galerius, softened by
+salutary reflection, induced him to attempt some reparation. In the
+edict of toleration which he published on April 30, 311, he expresses
+the hope "that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up
+their prayers to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and
+prosperity, and for that of the Republic."
+
+The triumph of the great Constantine established the security of the
+Christian Church from the attacks of the pagans. Converted in 306,
+Constantine, as soon as he had achieved the conquest of Italy, issued
+the Edict of Milan (313), declaring that the places of worship which had
+been confiscated should be restored to the Church without dispute,
+without delay, and without expense. Though himself never received by
+baptism into the Church, until his last moments, his powerful patronage
+of the Christians, and his edicts of toleration, removed all the
+temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of
+Christianity.
+
+The faith of Christ became the national religion of the empire. The
+soldiers bore upon their helmets and upon their shields the sacred
+emblem of the Cross. All the machinery of government was employed to
+propagate the faith, not only within the empire, but beyond its borders.
+Confirmed in his new religion by the miraculous vision of the Cross,
+Constantine, who was the master of the world, consented to recognise the
+superiority of the ecclesiastical orders in all spiritual matters, while
+retaining himself the temporal power.
+
+The persecution of heresy was carried out by Constantine with all the
+ardour of a convert. An edict confiscated the public property of the
+heretics to the use either of the revenue or the Catholic Church, and
+the penal regulations of Diocletian against the Christians were now
+employed against the schismatics. The Donatists, who maintained the
+apostolic succession of Donatus, primate of Carthage, as opposed to
+Cæcilian, were suppressed in Africa, and a general synod attempted to
+regulate the faith of the Church.
+
+The subject of the nature of the divine Trinity had early given rise to
+discussion. Of the three main heretical views, that of Arius and his
+disciples was the most prevalent. He held in effect that the Son, by
+whom all things were made, though He had been begotten before all
+worlds, yet had not always existed. He shone only with the reflected
+light of His Almighty Father, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors,
+who were invested with the titles of Cæsar or Augustus. He governed the
+universe.
+
+The Tritheists advocated a system which seemed to establish three
+independent deities, while the Sabellian theory allowed only to the man
+Jesus the inspiration of the divine wisdom. The consubstantiality of the
+Father and of the Son had been established by the Council of Nicæa in
+325, but the East ranged itself for the most part under the banner of
+the Arian heresy. At first indifferent, Constantine at last persecuted
+the Arians, who later, under Constantius, were received into favour.
+
+Constantinople, which for forty years was the stronghold of Arianism,
+was converted to the orthodox faith under Theodosius by Gregory
+Nazianzen.
+
+
+_IV.--The Conversion of the World_
+
+
+The pagan religion was finally destroyed about the year 390, and the
+faintest vestiges of it were not visible thirty years later. Its
+influence, however, might be observed in many of the ceremonies which
+were introduced into the Church, and the worship of martyrs and relics
+seemed to revive a system of polytheism by the worship of a hierarchy of
+saints. Among the most famous of the dignitaries of the Church at this
+period was the Archbishop of Constantinople, who was distinguished by
+the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. He attempted to purify
+the eastern empire, excited the animosity of the Empress Eudoxia, and
+died in exile in 407.
+
+The monastic system had been founded by Antony, an illiterate youth, in
+the year 305, by the establishment on Mount Cobyim, near the Red Sea, of
+a colony of ascetics, who renounced all the business and pleasures in
+life as the price of eternal happiness. A long series of hermits, monks,
+and anachorets propagated the system and, patronised by Athanasius, it
+spread to all parts of the world.
+
+The monastic profession was an act of voluntary devotion, and the
+inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God
+whom he deserted. The monks had to give a blind submission to the
+commands of their abbot, however absurd, and the freedom of the mind,
+the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by
+the habits of credulity and submission. In their dress and diet they
+preserved the most rigorous simplicity, and they subsisted entirely by
+their own manual exertions. But in the course of time this simplicity
+vanished, and, enriched by the offerings of the faithful, they assumed
+the pride of wealth, and at last indulged in the luxury of extravagance.
+
+The conversion of the barbarians followed upon their invasion of the
+Roman world; but they were involved in the Arian heresy, and from their
+advocacy of that cause they were characterised by the name of heretics,
+an epithet more odious than that of barbarian. The bitterness engendered
+by this reproach confirmed them in their faith, and the Vandals in
+Africa persecuted the orthodox Catholic with all the vigour and cruel
+arts of religious tyranny.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--IV
+
+
+_I.--Theodoric the Ostrogoth_
+
+
+After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, an interval of fifty
+years, until the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the
+obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who
+successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same
+period Italy revived and nourished under the government of a Gothic
+king, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the
+ancient Romans.
+
+Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of royal line
+of the Amali, was born (455) in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years
+after the death of Attila. The murmurs of the Goths, who complained that
+they were exposed to intolerable hardships, determined Theodoric to
+attempt an adventure worthy of his courage and ambition. He boldly
+demanded the privilege of rescuing Italy and Rome from Odoacer, and at
+the head of his people forced his way, between the years 488 and 489,
+through hostile country into Italy. In three battles he triumphed over
+Odoacer, forced that monarch to capitulate on favourable terms at
+Ravenna (493), and after pretending to allow him to share his
+sovereignty of Italy, assassinated him in the same year.
+
+The long reign of Theodoric (493-526) was marked by a transient return
+of peace and prosperity to Italy. His domestic and foreign policy were
+dictated alike by wisdom and necessity. His people were settled on the
+land, which they held by military tenure. A series of matrimonial
+alliances secured him the support of the Franks, the Burgundians, the
+Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Thuringians, and his sword preserved his
+territory from the incursions of rival barbarians and the two disastrous
+attacks (505 and 508) that envy prompted the Emperor Anastasius to
+attempt.
+
+
+_II.--Justinian the Great_
+
+
+The death of the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the throne a Dardanian
+peasant, who by his arts secured the suffrage of the guards, despoiled
+and destroyed his more powerful rivals, and reigned under the name of
+Justin I. from 518 to 527. He was succeeded by his nephew, the great
+Justinian, who for thirty-eight years directed the fortunes of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The Empress Theodora, who before her marriage had been a theatrical
+wanton, was seated, by the fondness of the emperor, on the throne as an
+equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty. Her rapacity, her
+cruelty, and her pride were the subject of contemporary writings, but
+her benevolence to her less fortunate sisters, and her courage amidst
+the factions and dangers of the court, justly entitle her to a certain
+nobility of character.
+
+Constantinople in the age of Justinian was torn by the factions of the
+circus. The rival bands of charioteers, who wore respectively liveries
+of green and blue, created in the capital of the East, as they had
+created in Rome, two factions among the populace. Justinian's support of
+the blues led to a serious sedition in the capital. The two factions
+were united by a common desire for vengeance, and with the watchword of
+"Nika" (vanquish) (January 532), raged in tumult through Constantinople
+for five days. At the command of Theodora 3,000 veterans who could be
+trusted marched through the burning streets to the Hippodrome, and
+there, supported by the repentant blues, massacred the unresisting mob.
+
+The Eastern Empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations
+whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers
+of Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over 64 provinces and 935
+cities. The arts and agriculture flourished under his rule, but the
+avarice and profusion of Justinian oppressed the people. His expensive
+taste for building almost exhausted the resources of the empire. Heavy
+custom tolls, taxes on the food and industry of the poor, the exercise
+of intolerable monopolies, were not excused or compensated for by the
+parsimonious saving in the salaries of court officials, and even in the
+pay of the soldiers. His stately edifices were cemented with the blood
+and treasures of his people, and the rapacity and luxury of the emperor
+were imitated by the civil magistrates and officials.
+
+The schools of Athens, which still kept alight the sacred flame of the
+ancient philosophy, were suppressed by Justinian. The academy of the
+Platonics, the Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics,
+and the Garden of the Epicureans had long survived.
+
+With the death of Simplicius and his six companions, who terminate the
+long list of Grecian philosophers, the golden chain, as it was fondly
+styled, of the Platonic succession was broken, and the Edict of
+Justinian (529) imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens.
+
+The Roman consulship was also abolished by Justinian in 541; but this
+office, the title of which admonished the Romans of their ancient
+freedom, still lived in the minds of the people. They applauded the
+gracious condescension of successive princes by whom it was assumed in
+the first year of their reign, and three centuries elapsed after the
+death of Justinian before that obsolete office, which had been
+suppressed by law, could be abolished by custom.
+
+The usurpation by Gelimer (530) of the Vandalic crown of Africa, which
+belonged of right to Hilderic, first encouraged Justinian to undertake
+the African war. Hilderic had granted toleration to the Catholics, and
+for this reason was held in reproach by his Arian subjects. His
+compulsory abdication afforded the emperor of the East an opportunity of
+interfering in the cause of orthodoxy. A large army was entrusted to the
+command of Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to
+every age and to every nation. Proved in the Persian war, Belisarius was
+given unlimited authority. He set sail from Constantinople with a fleet
+of six hundred ships in June 533. He landed on the coast of Africa in
+September, defeated the degenerate Vandals, reduced Carthage within a
+few days, utterly vanquished Gelimer, and completed the conquest of the
+ancient Roman province by 534. The Vandals in Africa fled beyond the
+power or even the knowledge of the Romans.
+
+
+_III.--Gothic Italy_
+
+
+Dissensions in Italy excited the ambition of Justinian. Belisarius was
+sent with another army to Sicily in 535, and after subduing that island
+and suppressing a revolt in Africa, he invaded Italy in 536. Policy
+dictated the retreat of the Goths, and Belisarius entered Rome (December
+536). In March, Vitiges, the Gothic ruler, returned with a force of one
+hundred and fifty thousand men. The valour of the Roman general
+supported a siege of forty-one days and the intrigues of the Pope
+Silverius, who was exiled by his orders; and, finally, with the
+assistance of a seasonable reinforcement, Belisarius compelled the
+barbarians to retire in March of the following year. The conquests of
+Ravenna and the suppression of the invasion of the Franks completed the
+subjugation of the Gothic kingdom by December 539.
+
+The success of Belisarius and the intrigues of his secret enemies had
+excited the jealousy of Justinian. He was recalled, and the eunuch
+Narses was sent to Italy, as a powerful rival, to oppose the interests
+of the conqueror of Rome and Africa. The infidelity of Antonina, which
+excited her husband's just indignation, was excused by the Empress
+Theodora, and her powerful support was given to the wife of the last of
+the Roman heroes, who, after serving again against the Persians,
+returned to the capital, to be received not with honour and triumph, but
+with disgrace and contempt and a fine of $600,000.
+
+The incursions of the Lombards, the Slavonians, and the Avars and the
+Turks, and the successful raids of the King of Persia were among the
+number of the important events of the reign of Justinian. To maintain
+his position in Africa and Italy taxed his resources to their utmost
+limit. The victories of Justinian were pernicious to mankind; the
+desolation of Africa was such that in many parts a stranger might wander
+whole days without meeting the face of either a friend or an enemy.
+
+The revolts of the Goths, under their king, Totila (541), once more
+demanded the presence of Belisarius, and, a hero on the banks of the
+Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with
+reluctance the painful task of supporting his own reputation and
+retrieving the faults of his successors. He was too late to save Rome
+from the Goths, by whom it was taken in December 546; but he recovered
+it in the following February. After his recall by his envious sovereign
+in September 548, Rome was once more taken by the Goths. The successful
+repulse of the Franks and Alemanni finally restored the kingdom to the
+rule of the emperor. Belisarius died on March 13, 565.
+
+The emperor survived his death only eight months, and passed away, in
+the eighty-third year of his life and the thirty-eighth of his reign, on
+November 14, 565. The most lasting memorial of his reign is to be found
+neither in his victories nor his monuments, but in the immortal works of
+the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, in which the civil
+jurisprudence of the Romans was digested, and by means of which the
+public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused
+into the domestic institutions of the whole of Europe.
+
+
+_IV.--Gregory the Great_
+
+
+Justinian was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II., who lived to see the
+conquest of the greater part of Italy by Alboin, king of the Lombards
+(568-570), the disaffection of the exarch, Narses, and the ruin of the
+revived glories of the Roman world.
+
+During a period of 200 years Italy was unequally divided between the
+king of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. Rome relapsed into a
+state of misery. The Campania was reduced to the state of a dreary
+wilderness. The stagnation of a deluge caused by the torrential swelling
+of the Tiber produced a pestilential disease, and a stranger visiting
+Rome might contemplate with horror the solitude of the city. Gregory the
+Great, whose pontificate lasted from 590 to 604, reconciled the Arians
+of Italy and Spain to the Catholic Church, conquered Britain in the name
+of the Cross, and established his right to interfere in the management
+of the episcopal provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul. The merits of
+Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult,
+but in the attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of
+a citizen and the best right of a sovereign.
+
+The short and virtuous reign of Tiberius (578-582), which succeeded that
+of Justin, made way for that of Maurice. For twenty years Maurice ruled
+with honesty and honour. But the parsimony of the emperor, and his
+attempt to cure the inveterate evil of a military despotism, led to his
+undoing, and in 602 he was murdered with his children. A like fate
+befell the Emperor Phocas, who succumbed in 610 to the fortunes of
+Heraclius, the son of Crispus, exarch of Africa. For thirty-two years
+Heraclius ruled the Roman world. In three campaigns he chastised the
+rising power of Persia, drove the armies of Chosroes from Syria,
+Palestine, and Egypt, rescued Constantinople from the joint siege of the
+Avars and Persians (626), and finally reduced the Persian monarch to the
+defence of his hereditary kingdom. The deposition and murder of Chosroes
+by his son Siroes (628) concluded the successes of the emperor.
+
+A treaty of peace was arranged, and Heraclius returned in triumph to
+Constantinople, where, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he
+peacefully enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. The year after his return
+he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true Cross to the
+Holy Sepulchre. In the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to
+the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.
+
+Heraclius died in 612. His descendants continued to fill the throne in
+the persons of Constantine III. (641), Heracleonas (641), Constans II.
+(641), Constantine IV. (668), Justinian II. (685), until 711, when an
+interval of six years, divided into three reigns, made way for the rise
+of the Isaurian dynasty.
+
+
+_V.--The New Era of Charlemagne_
+
+
+Leo III. ascended the throne on March 25, 718, and the purple descended
+to his family, by the rights of heredity, for three generations. The
+Isaurian dynasty is most notable for the part it played in
+ecclesiastical history.
+
+The introduction of images into the Christian Church had confused the
+simplicity of religious worship. The education of Leo, his reason,
+perhaps his intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired him with a
+hatred of images. By two edicts he proscribed the existence, as well as
+the use, of religious pictures. This heresy of Leo and of his successors
+and descendants, Constantine V. (741), Leo IV. (775), and Constantine
+VI. (780), whose blinding by his mother Irene is one of the most tragic
+stories of Roman history, justified the popes in rebelling against the
+authority of the emperor, and in restoring and establishing the
+supremacy of Rome.
+
+Gregory II. saved the city from the attacks of the Lombards, who had
+seized Ravenna and extinguished the series of Greek exarchs in 751. He
+secured the assistance of Pepin, and the real governor of the French
+monarchy--Charles Martel, who, by his signal victory over the Saracens,
+had saved Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. Twice--in 754 and 756--Pepin
+marched to the relief of the city. His son Charlemagne, in 774, seemed
+to secure the permanent safety of the ancient capital by the conquest of
+Lombardy, and for twenty-six years he ruled the Romans as his subjects.
+The people swore allegiance to his person and his family, and the
+elections of the popes were examined and authorised by him. The senate
+exercised its rights by proclaiming him patrician and of the power of
+the emperor; nothing was lacking except the title.
+
+A document, known as the Forged Decretals, which assigned the free and
+perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West to
+the popes by Constantine, was presented by Pope Hadrian I. to
+Charlemagne. This document served to absolve the popes from their debt
+of gratitude to the French monarch, and excused the revolt of Rome from
+the authority of the eastern empire.
+
+Though Constantinople returned, under Irene, to the employment of
+images, and the seventh general council of Nicæa, September 24, 787,
+pronounced the worship of the Greeks as agreeable to scripture and
+reason, the division between the East and the West could not be avoided.
+The pope was driven to revive the western empire in order to secure the
+gift of the exarchy, to eradicate the claims of the Greeks, and to
+restore the majesty of Rome from the debasement of a provincial town.
+The emperors of the West would receive their crown from the successor of
+St. Peter, and the Roman Church would require a zealous and respectable
+advocate.
+
+Inspired by these motives, Pope Leo, who had nearly fallen a victim to a
+conspiracy (788), and had been saved and reinstated by Charlemagne, took
+the opportunity presented by the French king's visit to Rome to crown
+him emperor. On the festival of Christmas (800), in the church of St.
+Peter, Leo, after the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, suddenly placed
+a precious crown on his head. The dome resounded with the acclamations
+of the people, his head and body were consecrated with the royal
+unction, and he was saluted, or adored, by the pontiff after the example
+of the Cæsars.
+
+Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THEODOR MOMMSEN
+
+
+History of Rome
+
+
+     Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig on November
+     30, 1817. He studied at Kiel University for three years,
+     examined Roman inscriptions in France and Italy from 1844 to
+     1847, and attained his first professorship at Leipzig in 1848,
+     and the Berlin Chair of Ancient History in 1858. His greatest
+     work was the "History of Rome," published in 1854, and its
+     successor, the "Roman Provinces." On this work he brought to
+     bear a research and a scholarship of almost unparalleled range
+     and completeness. He was a man capable of vehement and
+     occasionally unreasonable partisanship, and a strict and
+     cold-blooded impartiality would have tempered the enthusiasm
+     of some of his portraits and the severity of others. These
+     defects, however, are less obvious when his history is
+     condensed in small compass. There are cases in which his
+     judgments are open to adverse criticism. But at the present
+     day it may safely be affirmed that there is no extant history
+     of Rome down to the establishment of the empire which can be
+     regarded as rivalling that here presented. Upwards of 900
+     separate publications remain as a monument of Mommsen's
+     industry. He died on November 1, 1903.
+
+
+Iapygians, Etruscans, and Italians, the last certainly Indo-Europeans,
+are the original stocks of Italy proper. Of the Italians there are two
+divisions, the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian. Central Italy was occupied
+by the Latins, who were established in cantons formed of village groups;
+which cantons at an early age formed themselves into the loose Latin
+League, with Alba at its head.
+
+The Roman canton, on both banks of the Tiber, concentrated itself on the
+city earlier than others. The citizens consisted of the families which
+constituted the larger groups of clans or gentes, formed into those
+tribes. The remainder of the population were their dependents or slaves.
+At the head of the family was the father, and the whole community had
+its king, standing to it in the same relation as the father to the
+family. His power, within the law, was absolute; but he could not
+override it or change it on his own authority. This required the formal
+assent of the assembled citizens. The heads of the clans formed a
+separate body--the Senate--which controlled the appointment of the king,
+and could veto legislation.
+
+By admission of aliens and absorption of other communities, swelling the
+number of dependents, was gradually created a great body of plebeians,
+non-citizens, who began to demand political rights; and whom it was
+necessary to organise for military purposes which was done by the
+"Servian Constitution." Gradually Rome won a supremacy in the Latin
+League, a position of superiority over the aggregate of the other
+cantons.
+
+In this community arose three political movements: (1) On the part of
+the full citizen, patricii, to limit the power not of the state, but of
+the kings; (2) of the non-citizens, to acquire political rights; (3) of
+antagonism between the great landholders and the land-interests opposed
+to them. The first resulted in the expulsion of the monarchs, and the
+substitution of a dual kingship held for one year only. But in many
+respects their joint power was curtailed as compared with that of the
+monarch, while for emergencies they could appoint a temporary dictator.
+The change increased the power of the General Assembly, to which it
+became necessary to admit the non-citizen freeholders who were liable to
+military duties. The life tenure of the members of the Senate greatly
+increased the powers of that body, and intensified the antagonism of the
+patriarch and the plebeians.
+
+At the same time, a landed nobility was developing; and when fresh land
+was acquired by the state, the Patricians claimed to control it. But the
+great agricultural population could not submit to this process of land
+absorption, and the consequent strife took the form of a demand for
+political recognition, which issued in the appointment of Tribunes of
+the Plebs, with power of administrative veto.
+
+The struggle over privileges lasted for two hundred years. First the
+Canuleian law made marriage valid between patricians and plebeians, and
+instituted for a time military tribunes. The Licinian law, eighty years
+later, admitted plebeians to the consulship, and also required the
+employment of free labour in agriculture. The decisively democratic
+measure was the Horticunian law, after another seventy years, giving the
+exclusively plebeian assembly full legislative power. The practical
+effect of the changes was to create a new aristocracy, semi-plebeian in
+origin, and to reduce the personal power of the chief officers of state,
+while somewhat increasing that of the remodelled Senate; rendering it a
+body selfish indeed in internal matters, but essentially patriotic as
+well as powerful.
+
+
+_I.--The Description of Italy_
+
+
+During the period of this long constitutional struggle, Rome and her
+kinsfolk had first been engaged in a stubborn and ultimately successful
+contest with the non-Aryan Etruscan race; and then Italy had been
+attacked by the migrating Aryan hordes of the Celts, known as Gauls, who
+sacked Rome, but retired to North Italy; events giving birth to many
+well-known stories, probably in the main mythical. But the practical
+effect was to impose a greater solidarity of the Latin and kindred
+races, and a more decisive acceptance of Roman hegemony.
+
+That hegemony, however, had to be established by persistent compulsion,
+and there were three stages in its completion. First, the subjection of
+the Latins and Campanians; then the struggle of Rome with the
+Umbrian-Samnites; finally, the decisive repulse of the Epirote invader
+Pyrrhus--in effect a Hellenic movement. The Roman supremacy established
+through the exhaustion of the valiant Samnites required to be confirmed
+by stern repression of attempts to recover liberty. But the Hellenic
+element in Italy, antagonistic to the growing Roman power, in effect
+invited the intervention of the Epirote chief. But his scheme was not
+that of an imperial statesman, but of a chivalrous and romantic warrior.
+His own political blunders and the iron determination of the Romans,
+destroyed his chances of conquest. His retirement left Rome undisputed
+lord of Italy; which in part shared full citizenship, in part possessed
+only the more restricted Latin rights, and in part only rights conceded
+under varying treaties.
+
+A sense of common Italian nationality was developing. But if Rome was
+queen of Italy, Carthage was queen of the seas. Maritime expansion was
+precluded, though Rome's position fitted her for it. Carthage was the
+one Phoenician state which developed political as well as commercial
+power. The commercial cities of North Africa were in subordination to
+her, in the Western Mediterranean she had no rivals, her domestic
+government was oligarchical.
+
+Roman intervention in the affairs of Sicily, where Carthage was the
+dominant power, produced the rupture between the two great states which
+was bound to come sooner or later. Sicily itself was the scene of the
+initial struggle, which taught Rome that her victories on land were
+liable to be nullified by the Carthaginian sea power. She resolved to
+build a navy, on the plan of adopting boarding tactics which would
+assimilate a naval engagement to a battle on land. These tactics were
+successful enough to equalise the fighting value of the respective
+fleets. The Romans were enabled to land an invading army under Regulus
+in Africa.
+
+Though superior on land, the general's blundering led to a disaster, and
+for some time misfortune by sea and failure by land dogged the Romans.
+But Carthage failed to use her opportunity; she did not attempt to
+strike a crushing blow when she could have done so. But the private
+energy of Roman patriots at last placed on the seas a fleet which once
+more turned the scale, whereas it was on land that the brilliant
+Carthaginian Hamilcar had displayed his genius and daring. The first
+Punic War gave Rome predominance in Sicily, and a position of maritime
+equality. Sardinia was added to the Roman dominion, and her provincial
+administration came into being.
+
+She was carrying her expansion farther over Celtic regions, when
+Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, hurled himself against her, and came near
+to destroying her. Hamilcar had conceived the idea of imperial
+expansion, and given it shape by creating a dominion in Spain; he had
+looked forward to the life-and-death struggle with Rome that was
+destined to his son; for which Spain was to be the base. Hannibal, left
+in control in Spain, deliberately challenged Rome to war.
+
+The challenge was accepted, war was declared, and Hannibal accomplished
+the amazing feat of leading an army of 60,000 men from Spain and
+effecting the passage of the Alps, while the Romans were landing an army
+in Spain. In a brilliant campaign, he defeated the stubborn Roman
+legions at Vercellæ and the Trebia.
+
+But success depended not on the winning of victories by an isolated
+force, but on the disruption of Italy. His superiority in the field was
+again demonstrated at Trasimenus, but no Italian allies came in. He
+outwitted Fabius, and then utterly shattered at Cannæ a Roman force of
+double his own numbers. For a moment it seemed that Italian cohesion was
+weakening; but the Roman Senate and people were stirred only to a more
+dogged resolution.
+
+Cannæ failed to break up the Roman confederation. Generalship unaided
+could accomplish no more. In Spain, where young Scipio was soon winning
+renown, the Roman arms were in the ascendant, and in Sicily. No
+effective aid was coming from Macedon, though war was declared between
+her and Rome. Hannibal's activities began to be paralysed; by slow
+degrees he was forced into the south. Hannibal succeeded in crossing
+the Alps with fresh forces, but by a brilliant operation was annihilated
+on the Metaurus. The time had come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal
+and strike at Carthage herself. Even Hannibal's return could not save
+her. The victory of Zama decided the issue. Carthage became virtually a
+tributary and subject state. Spain was a Roman province, and North
+Africa a sort of protectorate.
+
+The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
+protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
+Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria.
+Antiochus had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to
+impose his own yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his
+decisive overthrow at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of
+Asia Minor. Pergamus, under the house of Actalus, was established as a
+protected kingdom, as Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek
+states, however, were becoming conscious that their freedom was hardly
+more than a name; Perseus of Macedon once more challenged Rome, not
+without Greek support. Macedon was finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus
+at Pydna. From that moment, Rome dropped the policy of maintaining free
+states beyond the seas, which had manifestly failed. Virtually, the
+known world was divided into subjects and dependencies of Rome, so vast
+was the change in the forty years between the battles of the Metaurus
+and Pydna.
+
+Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
+ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
+city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses
+were distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually
+the city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a
+close and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
+inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
+Cato.
+
+In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
+after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
+neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led
+to the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of
+the dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
+Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
+Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
+intrigue for office emoluments, involving a pandering to the city mob
+for its suffrages.
+
+
+_II.--The Revolution_
+
+
+Socially, the most patent evil was the total disappearance of the free
+agricultural class, the absorption of all the land into huge estates
+under slave labour. The remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus was the
+partial state resumption of land and its re-allotment. He adopted
+unconstitutional methods for carrying his proposals, and was murdered in
+a riot led by the oligarchs. Appeals to the Roman populace were not,
+unfortunately, appeals to the Roman nation.
+
+His brother, Gaius, deliberately designed a revolution. He proposed to
+work through the antagonism of the aristocrats and the wealthy
+non-senatorial equestrian order; and by concentrating power in the hands
+of the tribunate, hitherto checked by the restrictions on re-election.
+In effect, he meant to destroy the oligarchy by making the Tribune a
+perpetual dictator, and thus to carry through social reforms; to
+establish also legal equality first for the Italians, then for the
+provinces also. But these reforms were not particularly attractive to
+the city mob, and the other side could play the demagogue. The condition
+of Cæsarism is the control of physical force; Gaius Gracchus fell
+because he had not that essential control. The oligarchy remained
+supreme. The plans of Gracchus for planting colonies and distributing
+allotments were nullified.
+
+The evils of slave labour multiplied, and issued in servile
+insurrections. In Numidia, the able Masimissa had been succeeded by
+Micipsa. On Micipsa's death, the rule was usurped by his illegitimate
+nephew Jugurtha, whose story has been told by Sallust. The war was at
+least terminated less by the low-born general in command, Marius, than
+his brilliant lieutenant Sulla. But Marius re-organised the army on the
+basis which was to make a military despotism practicable, as it made a
+professional instead of a citizen army.
+
+But now a new foe appears; the first Teutonic (not Celtic) hordes of the
+Cimbri and Teutones; to meet with an overwhelming check at the hands of
+Marius at Aquæ Sextiæ and Vercellæ. The successful soldier allied
+himself with the popular leader Saturninus; the programme of Gaius
+Gracchus was resuscitated. But Marius, a political incapable, separated
+from the demagogues, and by helping to crush them, effaced himself.
+Livius Drusus attempted to carry out the Gracchan social reform, with
+the senate instead of the tribunate as the controlling power; the
+senatorial party themselves wrecked his schemes, and the antagonistic
+power of the equestrian order was advanced.
+
+But the immediate outcome was the revolt of the Italians, the _socii_
+(whence the name social war). They were not citizens, not on an equal
+footing with the citizens before the law. The revolt was suppressed, but
+the legions were completely out of hand. The attempt of Sulpicius to
+head the reform movement was answered by Sulla, who for the first time
+led a Roman army against Rome, crushed Sulpicius, prescribed some of his
+adherents, and placed the power of the senate on a stronger footing by
+legal enactment. Then he went to the East, to conduct the war against
+Mithridates.
+
+While Sulla was conducting his operations, military and diplomatic, with
+skill and success in the East, his arrangements at Rome had left
+discontent and disappointment seething. There was another revolution,
+led by Cinna, Marius and Sertorius; it mastered Rome. Marius spilt seas
+of blood, but soon died. For three years Cinna was supreme, but he had
+no constructive policy.
+
+But now Sulla had finished his work in the East. He was returning at the
+head of a body of veterans devoted to him; and his diplomacy won over
+half Italy to his side. The struggle with the revolutionary government
+was not greatly prolonged, and it was decisive.
+
+In plain terms, the Roman constitution had gone utterly to wreck; Sulla
+was in something of the same position as Oliver Cromwell. He had to
+reconstruct under conditions which made a constitutional restoration
+impracticable; but his control of the efficient military force gave him
+the necessary power. That any system introduced must be arbitrary and
+find its main sanction in physical force--that it should partake of
+terrorism--was inevitable.
+
+Sulla obtained the formal conferment on himself of absolute power. He
+began by applying this rule of terror not vindictively, but with
+impersonal mercilessness, against the lives and property of the
+opposition. In the constitution which he promulgated the senatorial body
+was alone recognised as a privileged class; the senate itself was
+increased, it recovered full control of the judiciary and of
+legislation; no power was left of cancelling membership. The tribunician
+power was curtailed.
+
+The civil and military functions of consuls and prætors were separated.
+They were to hold civil power in Italy proper during their year of
+office; they were then to have a second year in military control of a
+province. The planting of military colonies provided numerous garrisons
+whose interests were associated with the new constitution. When Sulla
+had done his work, he resigned his extraordinary powers with entire
+indifference. In a little more than a year he died.
+
+The Sullan constitution saved the Roman empire from imminent collapse;
+but it was impossible that it should be more than a makeshift, like
+Cromwell's protectorate. There were huge classes with perpetual
+grievances; the removal of the military forces to the provinces left the
+city of Rome without adequate governors of the provinces themselves. And
+there was no man of the hour of supreme ability to carry on work
+demanding a master.
+
+
+_III.--Pompey and Cæsar_
+
+
+The young Graccus Pompeius was the most distinguished of the Sullan
+party; Crassus was the wealthiest and most powerful of the Equestrian
+group; Lepidus was the popular leader. A popular insurrection which he
+headed was suppressed, and he disappeared, but Sertorius, once an
+associate of Marius, had obtained a remarkable personal ascendancy in
+Spain, and, in league with the Mediterranean pirates, threatened to be a
+formidable foe of the new constitution. For some years he maintained a
+gradually waning resistance against the arms of Pompeius, but finally
+was assassinated.
+
+Meanwhile Tigranes, King of Armenia, had been developing a powerful
+monarchy; and mutual distrust had brought on another war with
+Mithridates, successfully conducted by Lucullus. Out of this war arose a
+struggle with Tigranes, on whom an overwhelming defeat was inflicted at
+Tigranocerta. But the brilliant achievements of Lucullus were nullified
+by the mutinous conduct of the troops, and the factious conduct of the
+home government. The gross inefficiency of that government was shown by
+the immense extension of organised piracy, and by the famous slave
+revolt under Spartacus, which seriously endangered the state.
+
+Pompeius on his return from Spain was barred on technical grounds from
+the triumph and the consulship which he demanded. He was thus driven
+into an alliance with the democratic party, and with Crassus. The result
+was the fall of the Sullan constitution, and the restoration of checks
+on the power of the senate. Pompeius might have grasped a military
+despotism; he did not, but he did receive extraordinary powers for
+dealing with the whole Eastern question, and when that work was settled
+successfully, he would be able to dictate his own terms.
+
+Pompeius began his task by a swift and crushing blow against the pirate
+cities and fleets, which broke up the organisation. He crushed
+Mithridates in one campaign, and received the submission of Tigranes;
+Mithridates soon after fell by his own hand, the victim of an
+insurrection. Anarchy in Syria warranted Pompeius in annexing the
+Seleucid dominion. The whole of the nearer East was now a part of the
+Roman empire; and was thenceforth ruled not as protectorates, but as a
+group of provinces. Egypt alone was not incorporated.
+
+Meanwhile, the democratic party at Rome were dominant, though their
+policy was inconsistent and opportunist. Probably the leading men, such
+as Crassus and the rising Gaius, Julius Cæsar, stood aside from the
+wilder schemes, such as the Catilinarian conspiracies, but secretly
+fostered them. Catiline's projects were betrayed, and the illegal
+execution of the captured conspirators by the consul Cicero was hailed
+by Cato and the senatorial party as a triumph of patriotic
+statesmanship. Catiline himself was crushed in the field.
+
+The definite fact emerged, that neither the senatorial nor the
+democratic party could establish a strong government; that would be
+possible only for a military monarchy--a statesman with a policy and an
+irresistible, force at his back. But Pompeius lacked the courage and
+skill. Cæsar, as yet, lacked the military force. Pompeius, on his return
+from the East, again allied himself with Crassus and Cæsar, whose object
+was to acquire for himself the opportunity which Pompeius would not
+grasp. The alliance gave Pompeius the land allotments he required for
+his soldiers, and to Cæsar the consulship followed by a prolonged
+governorship of Gaul.
+
+The conquest and organisation of Gaul was an end in itself, a necessary
+defence against barbarian pressure. Cæsar's operations there were
+invaluable to the empire; incidentally, they enabled him to become
+master of it. Cæsar has left his own record. Gaul was transformed into a
+barrier against the Teutonic migration. But Pompeius, nominally holding
+a far greater position, proved incapable of controlling the situation in
+Rome; he could not even suppress the demagogue Clodius, while the
+prestige of his military exploits was waning. Fear of the power of the
+Triumvirate was driving moderate men to the senatorial part; that party,
+without an efficient leader, began to find in Pompeius rather in ally
+against the more dangerous Cæsar than an enemy.
+
+But they would not concede him the powers he required; which might yet
+be turned to the uses of his colleagues in the Triumvirate; he could not
+afford to challenge Cæsar; and Cæsar adroitly used the situation to
+secure for himself a prolongation of his Gallic command. The completion
+of his work there was to have precedence of his personal ambitions.
+Crassus was sent to the Eastern command; and Pompeius remained in Italy,
+while nominally appointed to Spain.
+
+Pompeius, indeed, attained a predominance in Rome which enabled him to
+secure temporarily dictatorial powers which were employed to counteract
+the electoral machinery of the republican party; but he had not the
+qualifications or the inclination to play the demagogue, and could not
+unite his aspirations as a restorer of law and order with effective
+party leadership. Crassus disappeared; his armies in the East met with a
+complete disaster at Carrhæ, and he took his own life. Cæsar and
+Pompeius were left; Pompeius was not content that Cæsar should stand on
+a real equality with him, and the inevitable rupture came.
+
+In effect Pompeius used his dictatorship to extend his own military
+command and to curtail Cæsar's. The position resolved itself into a
+rivalry between the two; Cæsar declaring as always for the democracy,
+Pompeius now assuming the championship of the aristocracy, and the
+guardianship of the constitution.
+
+For Cæsar the vital point now was that his own command should not
+terminate till he exchanged it for a fresh consulship. As the law now
+stood, he could not obtain his election without resigning his command
+beforehand. But he succeeded in forcing Pompeius to break the law; and
+in making the official government responsible for declaring war. He
+offered a compromise, perhaps, in the certainty that it would be
+rejected--as it was. He was virtually declared a public enemy; and he
+struck at once.
+
+At the head of his devotedly loyal veterans he crossed the Rubicon. His
+rapid and successful advance caused Pompeius to abandon Italy and fall
+back on the Eastern Provinces. The discipline preserved, and the
+moderation displayed by Cæsar won him unexpected favour. Having secured
+Italy, he turned next on Spain, and secured that. Swift and decisive
+action was pitted against inertness. When Cæsar entered Epirus the odds
+against him on paper were enormous; but the triumphant victory of
+Phansalus shattered the Pompeian coalition. Pompeius hurried to Egypt,
+but was assassinated while landing. The struggle, however, was not over
+till after the battle of Thapsus nearly two years after Phansalus.
+
+Cæsar was now beyond question master of the whole Roman world. He had
+made himself one of the mightiest of all masters of the art of war; but
+he was even more emphatically unsurpassed as a statesman. In the brief
+time that was left him he laid the foundation of the new monarchy which
+replaced the ancient Republic of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Mediæval History
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+The Holy Roman Empire
+
+
+     The third of Gibbon's divisions of his great history was
+     devoted to that period which is comprised between the
+     establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 and the final
+     extinction of the Eastern Empire with the conquest of
+     Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453. Although this was the
+     longest period, Gibbon devoted much less space to it than to
+     the preceding parts of his history. This fact was partly due
+     to the gradual diminution of Roman interests, for the
+     dominions of the empire became contracted to the limits of a
+     single city, and also to the fact that the material which the
+     most painstaking search placed at his disposal was distinctly
+     limited. But though the conquest of the Normans, to instance
+     one section, has been dealt with inadequately in the light of
+     modern research, the wonderful panorama that Gibbon's genius
+     was able to present never fails in its effect or general
+     accuracy. The Holy Roman Empire is, of course, properly
+     classified under Mediæval History, which accounts for its
+     separation from the rest of Gibbon's work.
+
+
+_I.--Birth and Sway of the Empire_
+
+
+The Western Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, as it has been called, which
+was re-established by Charlemagne (and lasted in shadow until the
+abdication of Francis II. under the pressure of Napoleon in 1806), was
+not unworthy of its title.
+
+The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
+the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The Greek emperor was
+addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the
+imperial dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks
+respectfully saluted the _august_ Charlemagne with the acclamations of
+"Basileus" and "Emperor of the Romans." Lewis the Pious (814-840)
+possessed the virtue of his father but not the power. When both power
+and virtue were extinct, the Greeks despoiled Lewis II. of his
+hereditary title, and with the barbarous appellation of _Rex_ degraded
+him amongst the crowd of Latin princes.
+
+The imperial title of the West remained in the family of Charlemagne
+until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 884. His insanity dissolved
+the empire into factions, and it was not until Otho, King of Germany,
+laid claim to the title, with fire and sword, that the western empire
+was restored (962). His conquest of Italy and delivery of the pope for
+ever fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From
+that memorable era two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by
+force and ratified by time: (1) That the prince who was elected in the
+German Diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and
+Rome; (2) but that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and
+Augustus till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman
+pontiff.
+
+The nominal power of the Western emperors was considerable. No pontiff
+could be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the
+Church, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Gregory
+VII., in 1073, usurped this power, and fixed for ever in the college of
+cardinals the freedom and independence of election. Nominally, also, the
+emperors held sway in Rome, but this supremacy was annihilated in the
+thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century the power derived from his
+title was still recognised in Europe; the hereditary monarchs confessed
+the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity.
+
+The persecution of images and their votaries in the East had
+separated-Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and prepared the way
+for the conquests of the Franks. The rise and triumph of the Mahometans
+still further diminished the empire of the East. The successful inroads
+of the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians, who assaulted by sea or by
+land the provinces and the capital, seemed to advance the approach of
+its final dissolution. The Norman adventurers, who founded a powerful
+kingdom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople (1146),
+and their hostile enterprises did not cease until the year 1185.
+
+
+_II.--Latin Rulers of Constantinople_
+
+
+Under the name of the Latins, the subjects of the pope, the nations of
+the West, enlisted under the banner of the Cross for the recovery or the
+release of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and
+preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with
+Godfrey of Bouillon (1095-99) and the peers of Christendom. The second
+(1147) and the third (1189) crusades trod in the footsteps of the first.
+Asia and Europe were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years; and
+the Christian powers were bravely resisted and finally expelled (1291)
+by Saladin (1171-93) and the Mamelukes of Egypt.
+
+In these memorable crusades a fleet and army of French and Venetians
+were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the
+capital (1203), they subverted the Greek monarchy; and a dynasty of
+Latin princes was seated near three-score years on the throne of
+Constantine.
+
+During this period of captivity and exile, which lasted from 1204 to
+1261, the purple was preserved by a succession of four monarchs, who
+maintained their title as the heirs of Augustus, though outcasts from
+their capital. The _de facto_ sovereigns of Constantinople during this
+period, the Latin emperors of the houses of Flanders and Courtenay,
+provided five sovereigns for the usurped throne. By an agreement between
+the allied conquerors, the emperor of the East was nominated by the vote
+of twelve electors, chosen equally from the French and Venetians. To
+him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, a
+fourth part of the Greek monarchy was assigned; the remaining portions
+were equally snared between the republic of Venice and the barons of
+France.
+
+Under this agreement, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, was
+created emperor (1204-05). The idea of the Roman system, which, despite
+the passage of centuries devoted to the triumphs of the barbarians, had
+impressed itself on Europe, was seen in the emperor's letter to the
+Roman pontiff, in which he congratulated him on the restoration of his
+authority in the East.
+
+The defeat and captivity of Baldwin in a war against the Bulgarians, and
+his subsequent death, placed the crown on the head of his brother Henry
+(1205-16). With him the imperial house of Flanders became extinct, and
+Peter of Courtenay, Count of Auxerre (1217-19), assumed the empire of
+the East. Peter was taken captive by Theodore, the legitimate sovereign
+of Constantinople, and his sons Robert (1221-28) and Baldwin II.
+(1228-37) reigned in succession. The gradual recovery of their empire by
+the legitimate sovereigns of the East culminated in the capture of
+Constantinople by the Greeks (1261). The line of Latin sovereigns was
+extinct. Baldwin lived the remainder of his life a royal fugitive,
+soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration. He died in
+1272.
+
+From the days of the Emperor Heraclius the Byzantine Empire had been
+most tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary
+succession. Five dynasties--the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian,
+and Comnenian families--enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony
+during their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four
+generations. The imperial house of Comnenius, though its direct line in
+male descent had expired with Andronicus I. (1185), had been perpetuated
+by marriage in the female line, and had survived the exile from
+Constantinople, in the persons of the descendants of Theodore Lascaris.
+
+Michael Palæologus, who, through his mother, might claim perhaps a
+prior right to the throne of the Comnenii, usurped the imperial dignity
+on the recovery of Constantinople, cruelly blinded the young Emperor
+John, the legitimate heir of Theodore Lascaris, and reigned until 1282.
+His career of authority was notable for an attempt to unite the Greek
+and Roman churches--a union which was dissolved in 1283--and his
+instigation of the revolt in Sicily, which ended in the famous Sicilian
+Vespers (March 30, 1282), when 8,000 French were exterminated in a
+promiscuous massacre.
+
+He saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
+and blood. From these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men,
+who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son, Andronicus the Elder
+(1282-1332). Thousands of Genoese and Catalans, released from the wars
+that Michael had aroused in the West, took service under his successor
+against the Turks. Other mercenaries flocked to their standard, and,
+under the name of the Great Company, they subverted the authority of the
+emperor, defeated his troops, laid waste his territory, united
+themselves with his enemies, and, finally, abandoning the banks of the
+Hellespont, marched into Greece. Here they overthrew the remnant of the
+Latin power, and for fourteen years (1311-1326) the Great Company was
+the terror of the Grecian states.
+
+Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignity of the house
+of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens
+as a government or an appanage was successfully bestowed by the kings of
+Sicily. Conquered in turn by the French and Catalans, Athens at length
+became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth,
+Delphi, and a part of Thessaly, and was ruled by the family of Accaioli,
+plebeians of Florence (1384-1456). The last duke of this dynasty was
+strangled by Mahomet II., who educated his sons in the discipline of the
+seraglio.
+
+During the reign of John Palæologus, son of Andronicus the Younger,
+which began in 1355, the eastern empire was nearly subverted by the
+Genoese. On the return of the legitimate sovereign to Constantinople,
+the Genoese, who had established their factories and industries in the
+suburb of Galata, or Pera, were allowed to remain. During the civil wars
+the Genoese forces took advantage of the disunion of the Greeks, and by
+the skilful use of their power exacted a treaty by which they were
+granted a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominions. The Roman
+Empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a
+province of Genoa if the ambition of the republic had not been checked
+by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. Yet the spirit of commerce
+survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital
+and navigated the Euxine till it was involved by the Turks in the final
+servitude of Constantinople itself.
+
+
+_III.--End of the Roman World_
+
+
+Only three more sovereigns ruled the remnants of the Roman world after
+the reign of John Palæologus, but the final downfall of the empire was
+delayed above fifty years by a series of events that had sapped the
+strength of the Mahometan empire. The rise and triumph of the Moguls and
+Tartars under their emperors, descendants of Zingis Khan, had shaken the
+globe from China to Poland and Greece (1206-1304). The sultans were
+overthrown, and in the general disorder of the Mahometan world a veteran
+and adventurous army, which included many Turkoman hordes, was dissolved
+into factions who, under various chiefs, lived a life of rapine and
+plunder. Some of these engaged in the service of Aladin (1219-1236),
+Sultan of Iconium, and among these were the obscure fathers of the
+Ottoman line.
+
+Orchan ruled from 1326 to 1360, achieved the conquest of Bithynia, and
+first led the Turks into Europe, and in 1353 established himself in the
+Chersonesus, and occupied Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont. Orchan
+was succeeded by Amurath I. (1389-1403). Bajazet carried his victorious
+arms from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became
+contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black
+Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of
+ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or
+Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the
+wealth and populousness of a kingdom.
+
+Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
+Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet
+had not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul
+power under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a
+conquest of Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan
+(1398-1399), Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found
+himself at length face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was
+taken prisoner in the war that followed. Kept, probably only as a
+precaution, in an iron cage, Bajazet attended the marches of his
+conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403. Two years later, Timour also
+passed away on the road to China. Of his empire to-day nothing remains.
+Since the reign of his descendant Aurungzebe, his empire has been
+dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a
+Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom is now possessed by the
+Christians of a remote island in the northern ocean.
+
+Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
+was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than
+it again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a
+period of civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman
+Empire was once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II.
+(1421-1451).
+
+One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
+of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
+Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
+domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.
+
+While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
+Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
+Manuel sank into the grave, and John Palæologus II. (1425-1448) was
+permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
+dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
+Constantinople.
+
+On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emperors,
+assumed the purple of the Cæsars. For three years he was allowed to
+indulge himself in various private and public designs, the completion of
+which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the ruins
+of the empire.
+
+
+_IV.--The Great Siege of Constantinople_
+
+
+Mahomet II. succeeded his father Amurath on February 9, 1451. His
+hostile designs against the capital were immediately seen in the
+building of a fortress on the Bosphorus, which commanded the source
+whence the city drew her supplies. In the following year a quarrel
+between some Greeks and Turks gave him the excuse of declaring war. His
+cannon--for the use of gunpowder, for some time the monopoly of the
+Christian world, had been betrayed to Amurath by the Genoese--commanded
+the port, and a tribute was exacted from all ships that entered the
+harbour. But the actual siege was delayed until the ensuing spring of
+1453.
+
+Mahomet, in person, surveyed the city, encouraged his soldiers, and
+discussed with his generals and engineers the best means of making the
+assault. By his orders a huge cannon was built in Hadrianople. It fired
+a ball one mile, and to convey it to its position before the walls, a
+team of sixty oxen and the assistance of 200 men were employed. The
+Emperor Constantine, unable to excite the sympathy of Europe, attempted
+the best defence of which he was capable, with a force of 4,970 Romans
+and 2,000 Genoese. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour,
+and whatever supplies arrived from Candia and the Black Sea were
+detained for the public service.
+
+The siege of Constantinople, in which scarcely 7,000 soldiers had to
+defend a city sixteen miles in extent against the powers of the Ottoman
+Empire, commenced on April 6, 1453. The last Constantine deserves the
+name of a hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman
+virtue, and the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western
+chivalry. But their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the
+operations of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size
+or number; and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant
+them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and
+overthrown by the explosion.
+
+The great cannon of Mahomet could only be fired seven times in one day,
+but the weight and repetition of the shots made some impression on the
+walls. The Turks rushed to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the
+enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault. In the attack, as
+well as in the defence, ancient and modern artillery was employed.
+Cannon and mechanical engines, the bullet and the battering-ram,
+gunpowder and Greek fire, were engaged on both sides.
+
+Christendom watched the struggle with coldness and apathy. Four ships,
+which successfully forced an entrance into the harbour, were the limit
+of their assistance. None the less, Mahomet meditated a retreat. Unless
+the city could be attacked from the harbour, its reduction appeared to
+be hopeless. In this perplexity the genius of Mahomet executed a plan of
+a bold and marvellous cast. He transported his fleet over land for ten
+miles. In the course of one night four-score light galleys and
+brigantines painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and were
+launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far
+above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. A bridge, or
+mole, hastily built, formed a base for one of his largest cannon. The
+galleys, with troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible
+side of the walls, and, after a siege of forty days, the diminutive
+garrison, exhausted by a double attack, could hope no longer to avert
+the fate of the capital.
+
+On Monday, May 28, preparations were made for the final assault. Mahomet
+had inspired his soldiers with the hope of rewards in this world and the
+next. His camp re-echoed with the shouts of "God is God; there is but
+one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God"; and the sea and land, from
+Galata to the Seven Towers, were illuminated with the blaze of the
+Moslem fires.
+
+Far different was the state of the Christians. On that last night of the
+Roman Empire, Constantine Palæologus, in his palace, addressed the
+noblest of the Greeks and the bravest of the allies on the duties and
+dangers that lay before them. It was the funeral oration of the Roman
+Empire. That same night the emperor and some faithful companions entered
+the Dome of St. Sofia, which, within a few hours, was to be converted
+into a mosque, and devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the
+sacrament of the Holy Communion. He reposed some moments in the palace,
+which resounded with cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all
+whom he might have injured, and mounted on horseback to visit the guards
+and explore the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last
+Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine
+Cæsars.
+
+At daybreak on May 29 the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land. For
+two hours the Greeks maintained the defence with advantage, and the
+voice of the emperor was heard encouraging the soldiers to achieve by a
+last effort the deliverance of their country. The new and fresh forces
+of the Turks supplied the places of their wearied associates. From all
+sides the attack was pressed.
+
+The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps one hundred, times
+superior to that of the Christians, the double walls were reduced by the
+cannons to a heap of ruins, and at last one point was found which the
+besiegers could penetrate. Hasan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and
+strength, ascended the outward fortification. The walls and towers were
+instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from
+the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.
+
+Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of
+a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. His mournful
+exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
+head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the
+infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple.
+Amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried
+under a mountain of the slain.
+
+After his death, resistance and order were no more. Two thousand Greeks
+were put to the sword, and more would have perished had not avarice soon
+prevailed over cruelty.
+
+It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
+which had defied the power of Chosroes and the caliphs, was
+irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet II. Sixty thousand Greeks
+were driven through the streets like cattle and sold as slaves. The nuns
+were torn from the monasteries and compelled to enter the harems of
+their conquerors. The churches were plundered, and the gold and silver,
+the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments of St. Sofia
+were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind.
+
+The cathedral itself, despoiled of its images and ornaments, was
+converted into a mosque, and Mahomet II. performed the _namaz_ of prayer
+and thanksgiving at the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had
+so lately been celebrated before the last of the Cæsars. The body of
+Constantine was discovered under a heap of slain, by the golden eagles
+embroidered on his shoes, and after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet
+bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. Constantinople,
+desolated by bloodshed, was re-peopled and re-adorned by Mahomet. Its
+churches were shared between the two religions, and the Greeks were
+attracted back to their ancient capital by the assurance of their lives
+and the free exercise of their religion.
+
+The grief and terror of Europe when the fall of Constantinople became
+known revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades.
+Pius II. attempted to lead Christendom against the Turks, but on the
+very day on which he embarked his forces drew back, and he was compelled
+to abandon the attempt. The siege and sack of Otranto by the Turks put
+an end to all thoughts of a crusade, and the general consternation was
+only allayed by the death of Mahomet II. in the fifty-first year of his
+age.
+
+His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy; he was possessed of a
+strong city and a capacious harbour, and the same reign might have been
+decorated with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FRANÇOIS GUIZOT
+
+
+History of Civilisation in Europe
+
+
+     François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, French historian and
+     statesman, was born of Huguenot parents at Nimes on October 4,
+     1787. The liberal opinions of his family did not save his
+     father from the guillotine in 1794, and the mother fled to
+     Geneva, where Guizot was educated. He went to Paris in the
+     later days of the Empire, and engaged himself at once in
+     literature and politics. His lectures on the History of
+     Civilisation delivered in 1828, 1829, and 1830, during his
+     professorship at the University of Paris, revealed him as a
+     historian with a rare capacity for mastering the broad
+     essential truths of history, co-ordinating them, and
+     expounding them with vigour and impressiveness. His first
+     series of lectures was on "The History of Civilisation in
+     Europe," a masterly abstract of a colossal subject; the second
+     on "The History of Civilisation in France." From 1830 to 1848
+     Guizot occupied high offices of State, ultimately becoming
+     prime minister; in 1848, like his master Louis Philippe, he
+     had to fly the country. He died on September 12, 1874.
+
+
+_I.--The Nature of Civilisation_
+
+
+The subject I propose to consider is the civilisation of Europe--its
+origins, its progress, its aims, its character. The fact of civilisation
+belongs to what is called the philosophic portion of history; it is a
+vague, obscure, complex fact, very difficult, I admit, to explain and
+describe, but none the less requiring explanation and description. It
+is, indeed, the greatest historical fact, to which all others
+contribute; it is a kind of ocean which makes the wealth of a people,
+and in the bosom of which all the elements of the people's life, all the
+forces of its existence, are joined in unity.
+
+What, then, is civilisation--this grave, far-reaching precious reality
+that seems the expression of the entire life of a people? It seems to me
+that the first and fundamental fact conveyed by the word civilisation is
+the fact of progress, of development. But what is this progress? What is
+this development? Here is the greatest difficulty of all.
+
+The etymology of the word civilisation seems to provide an easy answer.
+It tells us that civilisation is the perfecting of civil life, the
+development of society properly so called, of the relations of men to
+men. But is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and usual sense of
+the word? France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was
+acknowledged to be the most civilised country in Europe; yet in respect
+of purely civil progress France was then greatly inferior to some other
+European countries, Holland and England, for example. Another
+development, then, reveals itself--the development of individual life,
+of the man himself, of his faculties, sentiments, and ideas.
+
+These two notions that are comprehended in the broad notion of
+civilisation--that of the development of social activity and that of the
+development of individual activity--are intimately related to each
+other. Their relationship is upheld by the instinctive conviction of
+men; it is proved by the course of the world's history--all the great
+moral and intellectual advances of man have profited society, all the
+great social advances have profited the individual mind.
+
+So much for civilisation in general. It is now necessary to point out
+the essential difference between modern European and other
+civilisations. The characteristic of other civilisations has been unity;
+they seem to have emanated from a single fact, a single idea. In Egypt
+and India, for example, the theocratic principle was dominant; in the
+Greek and Phoenician republics, the democratic principle. The
+civilisation of modern Europe, on the contrary, is diverse, confused,
+stormy; all the forms and principles of social organisation theocratic,
+monarchical, aristocratic, democratic, co-exist in it; there are
+infinite gradations of liberty, wealth, influence. All the various
+forces are in a state of constant struggle; yet all of them have a
+certain family resemblance, as it were, that we cannot but recognise.
+
+These diverse elements, for all their conflict, cannot any one of them
+extinguish any other; each has to dwell with the rest, make a compromise
+with the rest. The outcome, then, of this diversity and struggle is
+liberty; and here is the grand and true superiority of the European over
+the other civilisations. European civilisation, if I may say so, has
+entered into eternal truth; it advances in the ways of God.
+
+
+_II.--Feudalism_
+
+
+It would be an important confirmation of my assertion as to the diverse
+character of our civilisation if we should find in its very cradle the
+causes and the elements of that diversity. And indeed, at the fall of
+the Roman empire, we do so find it. Three forms of society, each
+entirely different from the other, are visible at this time of chaos.
+The municipalities survived, the last remnant of the Imperial system.
+The Christian Church survived. And in the third place there were the
+Barbarians, who brought with them a military organisation, and a hardy
+individual independence, that were wholly new to the peoples who had
+dwelt under the shelter of the empire. The Barbarian epoch was the chaos
+of all the elements, the infancy of all the systems, a universal hubbub
+in which even conflict itself had no definite or permanent effects.
+
+Europe laboured to escape from this confusion; at some times, and in
+some places, it was temporarily checked--in particular by the great
+Charlemagne in his revival of the imperial power; but the confusion did
+not cease until its causes no longer acted. These causes were two--one
+material, one moral. The material cause was the irruption of fresh
+Barbarian hordes. The moral cause was the lack of any ideas in common
+among men as to the structure of society. The old imperial fabric had
+disappeared; Charlemagne's restoration of it depended wholly on his own
+personality, and did not survive him; men had no ideas of any new
+structure--their intellectual horizon was limited to their own affairs.
+By the beginning of the tenth century the Barbarian invasions ended, and
+as the populations settled down a new system appeared, based partly on
+the Barbarians' love of independence, partly on their plans of military
+gradation--the system of feudalism.
+
+A sound proof that in the tenth century the feudal system was necessary,
+and the only social state possible, lies in the universality of its
+establishment. Everywhere society was dismembered; everywhere there was
+formed a multitude of small, obscure, isolated societies, consisting of
+the chief, his family, his retainers, and the wretched serfs over whom
+he ruled without restraint, and who had no appeal against his whim. The
+power he exercised was the power of individual over individual, the
+domination of personal will and caprice; and this is perhaps the only
+kind of tyranny that man, to his eternal honour, is never willing to
+endure. Hence the prodigious and invincible hatred that the people have
+at all times entertained for feudal rule, for the memories of it, for
+its very name.
+
+The narrow concentrated life of the feudal lord lent, undoubtedly, a
+great preponderance to domesticity in his affairs. The lord had his wife
+and children for his permanent society; they continually shared his
+interests, his destiny. It was in the bosom of the feudal family that
+woman gained her importance in civilisation. The system excited
+development of private character and passion that were, all things
+considered, noble. Chivalry was the daughter of feudalism.
+
+But from the social point of view feudalism failed to provide either
+legal order or political security. It contained elaborate obligations
+between the higher and the lower orders of the feudal hierarchy, duties
+of protection on the one side and of service on the other. But these
+obligations could never be established as institutions. There was no
+superior force to which all had to submit; there was public opinion to
+make itself respected. Hence the feudal system was without political
+guarantee to sustain it. Might alone was right. Feudalism was as much
+opposed to the establishment of general order as to the extension of
+general liberty. It was indispensable for the reconstruction of European
+society, but politically it was in itself a radically bad system.
+
+
+_III.--The Church_
+
+
+Meanwhile the Church, adhering to its own principles, had steadily
+advanced along the route that it had marked out for itself in the early
+days of its organisation. It was during the feudal epoch the only power
+that made for civilised development. All education was ecclesiastical;
+all the arts were in the service of the Church. It had, during the Dark
+Ages, won the Barbarians to its fold by the gorgeous solemnity of its
+ritual; and, to protect itself against secular interference, it had
+declared the spiritual power to be independent of the temporal--the
+first great assertion, in the history of European civilisation, of the
+liberty of thought.
+
+In one set of respects the Church during the feudal epoch satisfied the
+conditions of good government; in another, it did not. Its power was
+uniformly distributed, it drew its recruits from all classes, and
+entrusted the rule to the most capable. It was in close touch with every
+grade of mankind; every colony of serfs, even, had its priest. It was
+the most popular and most accessible society of the time, the most open
+to all talents and all noble ambitions. But, on the other hand, it
+failed in that all-important requisite of good government, respect for
+liberty. It denied the rights of individual reason in spiritual matters,
+and it claimed the right to compel belief--a claim that placed it in
+some dependence upon the temporal powers, since as a purely spiritual
+body, governing by influence and not by force, it could not persecute
+without the aid of the secular arm.
+
+To sum up, the Church exerted an immense and on the whole a beneficent
+influence on ideas, sentiments, and conduct; but from the political
+point of view the Church was nearly always the interpreter and defender
+of the theocratic system and the Roman Imperial system--that is, of
+religious and civil despotism.
+
+
+_IV.--The Towns_
+
+
+Like the Church, the municipalities survived the downfall of the Roman
+empire. Their history varied greatly in different parts of Europe, but
+none the less some observations can be made that are broadly accurate
+with respect to most of them.
+
+From the fifth to the tenth century, the state of the towns was a state
+neither of servitude nor of liberty. They suffered all the woes that are
+the fate of the weak; they were the prey of continual violence and
+depredation; yet, in spite of the fearful disorders of the time, they
+preserved a certain importance. When feudalism was established, the
+towns lost such independence as they had possessed; they found
+themselves under the heel of feudal chiefs. But feudalism did bring
+about a sort of peace, a sort of order; and with the slightest gleam of
+peace and order a man's hope revives, and on the revival of hope he
+takes to work. So it was with the towns. New wants were created;
+commerce and industry arose to satisfy them; wealth and population
+slowly returned.
+
+But industry and commerce were absolutely without security; the townsmen
+were exposed to merciless extortion and plundering at the hands of their
+feudal overlords. Nothing irritates a man more than to be harassed in
+his toil, thus deprived of its promised fruits. The only way in which
+the towns could defend themselves from the violence of their masters was
+by using violence themselves. So in the eleventh century we find town
+after town rising in revolt against its despot, and winning from him a
+charter of liberty.
+
+Although the insurrection was in a sense general, it was in no way
+concerted--it was not a rising of the combined citizens against the
+combined feudal aristocracy. All the towns found themselves exposed to
+much the same evils, and rescued themselves in much the same manner. But
+each town acted for itself--did not go to the help of any other town.
+Hence these detached communities had no ambitions, no aspirations to
+national importance; their outlook was limited to themselves. But at the
+same time the emancipation of the towns created a new class, a class of
+citizens engaged in the same pursuits, with the same interests and the
+same modes of life; a class that would in time unite and assert itself,
+and prevent the domination of a single order of society that has been
+the curse of Asia.
+
+Although it may be broadly asserted that the emancipation did not alter
+the relations of the citizens with the general government, that
+assertion must be modified in one respect. A link was established
+between the citizens and the king. Sometimes they appealed for his aid
+against their lord, sometimes the lord invoked him as judge; in one way
+or another a relation was established between the king and the towns,
+and the citizens thus came into touch with the centre of the State.
+
+
+_V.--The Crusades_
+
+
+From the fifth to the twelfth century, society, as we have seen,
+contained kings, a lay aristocracy, a clergy, citizens, peasantry, the
+germs, in fact, of all that goes to make a nation and a government;
+yet--no government, no nation. We have come across a multitude of
+particular forces, of local institutions, but nothing general, nothing
+public, nothing properly speaking political.
+
+In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the contrary, all the
+classes and the particular forces have taken a secondary place, are
+shadowy and almost effaced; the stage of the world is occupied by two
+great figures, government and people.
+
+Here, if I am not mistaken, is the essential distinction between
+primitive Europe and modern Europe. Here is the change that was
+accomplished in the period extending from the thirteenth to the
+sixteenth century. Viewed by itself, that period seems a characterless
+one of confusion without cause, of movement without direction, of
+agitation without result. Yet, in relation to the period that followed,
+this period had a tendency and a progress of its own; it slowly
+accomplished a vast work. It was the second period of European
+civilisation--the period of attempt and experiment, succeeding that of
+origins and formation, and preparing the way for that of development
+properly so called.
+
+The first great event of this period was the Crusades--a universal
+movement of all classes and all countries in moral unity--the truly
+heroic event of Europe. Besides the religious impulse that led to the
+Crusades, there was another impulse. They gave to me an opportunity of
+widening their horizons, of indulging the taste for movement and
+adventure. The opportunity, thus freely taken, changed the face of
+society. Men's minds were opened, their ideas were extended, by contact
+with other races; European society was dragged out of the groove along
+which it had been travelling. Religious ideas remained unchanged, but
+religious beliefs were no longer the only sphere in which the human
+intellect exercised itself. The moral state of Europe was profoundly
+modified.
+
+The social state underwent a similar change. Many of the smaller feudal
+lords sold their fiefs, or impoverished themselves by crusading, or lost
+much of their power during their absence. Property and power came into
+fewer hands; society was more centralised, no longer dispersed as it
+formerly was. The citizens, on their part, were no longer content with
+local industry and trade; they entered upon commerce on a grander scale
+with countries oversea. Petty influence yielded place to larger
+influences; the small existences grouped themselves round the great. By
+the end of the Crusades, the march of society towards centralisation was
+in steady progress.
+
+
+_VI.--The Age of Centralisation_
+
+
+Already, in the twelfth century, a new idea of kingship had begun, very
+faintly, to make its appearance. In most European countries the king,
+under the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his
+headship. But there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and
+somebody bore the title of king; and society, striving to escape from
+feudal violence and to get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to
+the king in an experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could
+do. Gradually there developed the idea of the king as the protector of
+public order and justice and of the common interest as the paramount
+magistrate--the idea that changed Europe society from a series of
+classes into a group of centralised States.
+
+But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
+These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance,
+or it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To
+the first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over
+Europe that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three
+reasons--because Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal
+administrative force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed
+by the feudal aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy
+prevented the formation of a caste capable of theocratic organisation.
+Attempts at democracy were made, for a time with apparent means, by the
+Italian civic republics; but they were a prey to internal disorder,
+their government tended to become oligarchical, and their incapacity for
+uniting among themselves made them the victims of foreign invaders. The
+Swiss Republican organisation was more successful, but became
+aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the towns of Flanders and
+the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved their privileges,
+but remained confined within their walls.
+
+The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
+States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and
+the Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were
+ineffective and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was
+to preserve in a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of
+England were exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a
+mode of government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in
+practice.
+
+Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
+the war of independence against England brought a sense of national
+unity and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown, and the central
+power made dominant, by the policy of Louis XI. Similar effects were
+brought about in Spain by the war against the Moors and the rule of
+Ferdinand. In England feudalism was destroyed by the Wars of the Roses,
+and was succeeded by the Tudor despotism. In Germany, the House of
+Austria began its long ascendancy. Thus in the fifteenth century the new
+principles prevailed; the old forms, the old liberties were swept aside
+to make way for centralised government under absolute rulers.
+
+At the same time another new fact entered into European history. The
+kings began to enter into relations with each other, to form alliances;
+diplomacy was created. Since it is in the nature of diplomacy to be
+conducted more or less secretly by a few persons, and since the peoples
+did not and would not greatly concern themselves in it, this development
+was favourable to the strengthening of royalty.
+
+
+_VII.--The Spiritual Revolt_
+
+
+Although the Church until the sixteenth century had successfully
+suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
+men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous
+impetus from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth
+century upon ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order
+are presented during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the
+councils of Constance and Bale to reform the Church from within; the
+most notable of which was that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual
+revolution that accompanied the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared
+for the event that was inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at
+Wittenberg in 1520.
+
+The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
+accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome
+of a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a
+revolt of the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs.
+The minds of men were during the sixteenth century in energetic
+movement, consumed by desire for progress; the Church had become inert
+and stationary, yet it maintained all its pretensions and external
+importance. The Church, indeed, was less tyrannical than it had formerly
+been, and not more corrupt. But it had not advanced; it had lost touch
+with human thought.
+
+The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
+where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
+resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and
+activity of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human
+spirit. It accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would
+have desired. It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision
+between temporal absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and
+did come.
+
+Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
+movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
+properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
+aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
+monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out
+against absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil
+societies have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical
+society has always been the first to be changed.
+
+We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
+the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
+centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century
+the two principles were for the first time to be opposed.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Political Revolt_
+
+
+Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
+exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there
+had in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete;
+the Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had
+formerly denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil
+liberty that were stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of
+action in the old institution of the country--the charter, the
+Parliament, the laws, the precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental
+countries had no such means of action, and led to nothing.
+
+Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
+religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty
+and the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces.
+For the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious
+party, it was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political
+party took the lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that
+the reformers finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute
+power spiritual and temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in
+that year brought England into the great struggle that was raging on the
+Continent between the principle of despotism and the principle of
+freedom.
+
+England differed from other European countries in that the essential
+diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than
+anywhere else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it
+was overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others
+were strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her
+nobles and commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe
+lagged behind England in civil freedom. But there was another
+reason--the influence of France.
+
+During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
+in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth
+century, French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it
+was unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes
+supposed, adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim
+was the strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
+planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
+despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as
+the most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.
+
+Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
+degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be
+maintained without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The
+rule of Louis XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no
+roots. The decrepit remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought
+face to face with a society in which free examination and free
+speculation had been carried to lengths never imagined before. Freedom
+of thought once came to grips with absolute power.
+
+Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
+speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
+upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by
+this grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the
+insurmountable evil of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of
+a despot like Louis XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit
+that prevailed at the Revolution. Each human power has in itself a
+natural vice, a principle of weakness, to which there has to be assigned
+a limit. It is only by general liberty of all rights, interests and
+opinions that each power can be restrained within its legitimate bounds,
+and intellectual freedom enabled to exist genuinely and to the advantage
+of the whole community.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY HALLAM
+
+
+View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9, 1777,
+     at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of
+     Bristol. Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was
+     called to the English bar, but devoted himself to the study
+     and writing of history. He received an appointment in the
+     Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed him in
+     comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur
+     Henry, who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's
+     "In Memoriam." Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried
+     at Clevedon, Somersetshire. The "View of the State of Europe
+     during the Middle Ages," commonly known as Hallam's "Middle
+     Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was already
+     well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
+     first important work. It is a study of the period from the
+     appearance of Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the
+     Franks, to the close of the Middle Ages, the arbitrary
+     dividing line being drawn at the invasion of Italy by Charles
+     VIII. of France.
+
+
+_I.--France_
+
+
+The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
+Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
+degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors
+of the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
+Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
+deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
+overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.
+
+Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
+Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended
+his power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person
+the Roman empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on
+Christmas Day A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces
+under his successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition
+amongst brothers.
+
+France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
+Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany
+was completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced
+by Hugh Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the
+House of Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories
+until the reign of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his
+own hands the greater part of the immense territories held by the kings
+of England as French feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of
+Philip Augustus was succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose
+admirable character enabled him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy
+over the imagination of his people. In spite of the disastrous failure
+of his crusading expeditions, the aggrandisement of the crown continued,
+especially under Philip the Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs
+after the successive reigns of his three sons placed Philip of Valois on
+the throne according to the "Salic" law of succession in 1328.
+
+On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
+the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
+pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
+qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of
+England, and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English
+successes. After the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and
+the English lost their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the
+throne disaster followed. France was rent by the rival factions of
+Burgundy and Orleans, the latter taking its more familiar name from the
+Court of Armagnac. The troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
+prevented England from taking advantage of these dissensions; but Henry
+V. renewed the war, winning the battle of Agincourt in his first
+campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes on his second invasion. After
+his death came that most marvellous revolution wrought by Joan of Arc,
+and the expulsion of the English from the country.
+
+In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
+the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of
+the long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted
+against the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for
+himself sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was
+secured when his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the
+Duchess Anne.
+
+The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
+of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
+Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
+followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the
+king's vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
+subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
+protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
+neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
+essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
+confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
+conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
+capable of conversion into money payments.
+
+Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
+of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings.
+A close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed
+by the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same
+position as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in
+many cases commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were
+freemen, and the remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It
+was not impossible for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the
+privileges possessed by the vassals of the Crown were scarcely
+consistent with the sovereignty. Such were the rights of coining money,
+of private war, and of immunity from taxation.
+
+Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
+supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons.
+It was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in
+the fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced
+the general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon
+claimed the right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing
+forward grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid
+convocation of the States General by obtaining grants from provincial
+assemblies of the Three Estates.
+
+The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
+feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according
+to recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat.
+The Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the
+establishment of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a
+supreme Court of Peers to whom were added the king's household officers.
+The peers ceased by degrees to attend this court, while the Crown
+multiplied the councillors of inferior rank; and this body became known
+as the Parliament of Paris--in effect an assembly of lawyers.
+
+The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
+of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
+especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
+principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military
+service for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.
+
+
+_II.--Italy and Spain_
+
+
+After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
+revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial
+supremacy was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman
+emperor. Italian unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy
+offended Italy. Still from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election
+of the King of Germany was assumed, at least my him, to convey the
+sovereignty of Italy. In the eleventh century Norman adventurers made
+themselves masters of Sicily and Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on
+the other hand the emperors favoured the development of free cities,
+owning only the imperial sovereignty and tending to self-government on
+Republican lines. The appearance on the scene in the twelfth century of
+the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a period characterised by a
+three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the northern cities for
+independence; the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the
+Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the kingdom of Naples
+to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first quarrels with Milan
+led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long war in which the
+battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive victory. The mutual
+rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from turning this to
+good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a child of four
+when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his mother to
+that of Sicily.
+
+It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
+temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
+Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire,
+were established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the
+young Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the
+Papacy which ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this
+time the quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere
+family feuds resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as
+Papal champion; the republics of the North were in effect controlled by
+despots for a brief moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the
+leadership of Rienzi. In the general chaos the principle interest
+attaches to the peculiar but highly complicated form of democracy
+developed in Florence, where the old Patrician families were virtually
+disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was the state of Florence, the
+records certainly point to the conditions having been far worse in the
+cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.
+
+Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
+given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
+position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
+cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her
+commerce by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the
+taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became
+effectively Queen of the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern
+Mediterranean. In effect her government was a close oligarchy; possessed
+of complete control over elections which in theory were originally
+popular. The oligarchy reached its highest and narrowest development
+with the institution of the famous Council of Ten.
+
+Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
+was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
+overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
+the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It
+was not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the
+Crown of Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert
+successfully a claim to Naples.
+
+When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
+dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of
+the greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the
+more northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which
+were developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon.
+Frontier towns acquired large liberties while they were practically
+responsible for defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century
+great territories were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased
+as the Moors were reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the
+fourteenth century the struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and
+his brother established the house of Trastamare on the throne. The
+Crowns of Castille and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella
+and Ferdinand.
+
+The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
+Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however,
+the "Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number
+of these was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation
+through representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made
+nor annulled except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was
+varied by the claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when
+matters were conducted in a fashion of which they disapproved.
+
+The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
+Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects
+counterbalanced the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.
+
+
+_III.--The German Empire and the Papacy_
+
+
+When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
+five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
+Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
+generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction
+of their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which
+came into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the
+extinction of this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the
+partisans of the Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and
+Welfs,--the origin of the Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House,
+the Hohenstauffen, gained the ascendancy in the person of Frederick
+Barbarossa. The lineal representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found
+to-day in the House of Brunswick.
+
+The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
+history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of
+election of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming
+established. There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne,
+the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of
+Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects,
+however, several other dukes and princes were at least on an equality
+with the electors.
+
+In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
+some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of
+Austria, Bavaria, or Luxemburg.
+
+Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
+territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
+authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
+1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
+that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free
+cities. Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period
+mainly by Maximilian.
+
+The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
+a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook
+Mohammedanism. Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at
+first to strengthen its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but
+the so-called fourth crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one
+with no elements of permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established,
+and the crusading spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the
+Byzantine Princes were left to cope with the Turks single handed, and
+the last of the Cæsars died heroically when the Ottomans captured
+Constantinople in 1453.
+
+Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
+Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively
+late period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not
+infrequently the Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was
+more than recovered by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were
+almost exempt from civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive
+authority in matters of religion. The state, however, maintained its
+temporal supremacy. When the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed
+ecclesiastical influence increased.
+
+It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
+supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
+after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak
+kings to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority
+developed and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication
+and interdict.
+
+A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
+close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the
+Papacy by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution
+of Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the
+complete supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused
+to recognise the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical
+appointments within their own dominions; and he emphasised the
+distinction between the priesthood, as a cast having divine authority,
+and the laity, by enforcing with the utmost strictness the
+ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which completely separates the churchman
+from the normal interests and ambitions which actuate the layman.
+
+In the contest between Gregory and the emperor, it seemed for the moment
+as if the secular power had won the victory; but, in fact, throughout
+the twelfth century; the claims which Gregory had put forward were
+becoming practically effective partly from the great influence exercised
+through the Crusades. These Papal pretensions reached their climax in
+the great Pope Innocent III., who asserted with practical success the
+right to pronounce absolutely on all disputes between princes or between
+princes and their subjects, and to depose those who rejected his
+authority. Throughout the thirteenth century Rome was once more mistress
+of the world.
+
+The Church derived great influence from the institution of mendicant
+orders, especially those of St. Dominic and St. Francis which recovered
+much of the esteem forfeited by the old Monastic orders. Another
+instrument of Papal influence was the power of granting dispensations
+both with regard to marriages and as to the keeping of oaths. If the
+clergy were free for the most part from civil taxation, they were
+nevertheless severely mulcted by the Papacy. The ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction encroached upon the secular tribunals; the classes of
+persons with respect to whom it claimed exclusive authority were
+persistently extended, in spite of the opposition of such Princes as
+Henry II. and Edward I.
+
+At last, however, the Papal aggressor met his match in Philip the Fair.
+When Boniface VIII. died, his successors first submitted to the French
+monarchy and then became its nominees; while they resided at Avignon,
+virtually under French control. The restoration of the pontificate to
+Rome in 1375 was shortly followed by the Great Schism. For some years
+there were two rival Popes, each of whom was recognised by one or the
+other half of Western Christendom. This was terminated by the Council of
+Constance, which incidentally affirmed the supremacy of general councils
+over the Pope. The following council at Basle was distinctly anti-papal;
+but the Papacy had the better of the contest.
+
+
+_IV.--England_
+
+
+The Anglo-Saxon polity limited the succession of the Crown to a
+particular house but allowed a latitude of choice within that house. The
+community was divided into Thames or gentry, Ceorls or freemen, and
+serfs. The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as
+villeinage. The composition of the king's great council called the
+Witenagemot is doubtful. The country was divided into shires, the shire
+into districts called hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. There
+appears to be no adequate authority for the idea that trial by jury was
+practised; the prevailing characteristic of justice was the system of
+penalty by fine, and the responsibility of the tithing for the misdeeds
+of any of its members. There is no direct evidence as to the extent to
+which feudal tenures were beginning to be established before the Norman
+conquest.
+
+The Norman conquest involved a vast confiscation of property and the
+exclusion of the native English from political privileges. The feudal
+system of land tenure was established; but its political aspect here and
+in France was quite different. There were no barons with territories
+comparable to those of the great French feudataries. That the government
+was extremely tyrannical is certain. The Crown derived its revenues from
+feudal dues, customs duties, tallages--that is, special charges on
+particular towns,--and the war tax called the Danegelt; all except the
+first being arbitrary taxes. The violence of King John led to the demand
+of the barons for the Great Charter, the keystone of English liberty,
+securing the persons and property of all freemen from arbitrary
+imprisonment or spoliation. Thenceforth no right of general taxation is
+claimed. The barons held themselves warranted in refusing supplies.
+
+The King's Court was gradually separated into three branches, King's
+Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas. The advance in the study of law had
+the definite effect of establishing a fixed rule of succession to the
+Crown. One point must still be noticed which distinguishes England from
+other European countries; that the law recognises no distinction of
+class among freemen who stand between the peers and villeins.
+
+The reign of Edward I. forms an epoch. The Confirmation of the Charters
+put an end to all arbitrary taxation; and the type of the English
+Parliament was fixed. In the Great Councils the prelates and greater
+barons had assembled, and the lesser barons were also summoned; the term
+baron being equivalent to tenant in chief. A system of representation is
+definitely formulated in Montfort's Parliament of 1265. Whether the
+knights were elected by the freemen of the shire or only by the tenants
+in chief, is not clear. Many towns were self governing--independent,
+that is, of local magnates--under charters from the Crown. Montfort's
+Parliament is the first to which towns sent representatives. Edward
+established the practice in his Model Parliament; probably in order to
+ensure that his demands for money from the towns might in appearance at
+least receive their formal assent.
+
+Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of
+Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the
+illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two
+houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of
+the Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public
+counsellors. Under the second heading is introduced a distinction
+between statutes and ordinances; the latter being of a temporary
+character, and requiring to be confirmed by Parliament before they
+acquire permanent authority. In the next reign the Commons assert the
+right of examining the public expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more
+openly and boldly expressed resentment at the acts of the king's
+ministers and claimed rights of control. For a time, however, the king
+secured supremacy by a coup d'état; which in turn brought about his
+deposition, and the accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness
+of his title to the inheritance of the Crown.
+
+The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably
+redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the
+inclination of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely
+combated. It is also to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of
+war or peace is freely submitted to the approval of Parliament.
+
+This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of
+dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the
+practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked
+sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further
+definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.
+
+At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to
+vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the
+towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members
+were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor
+can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued
+for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower
+clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but
+presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in
+Parliamentary business.
+
+We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The
+court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a
+juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In
+spite of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of
+arbitrary imprisonment.
+
+So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a
+monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular
+courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is
+absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a
+hereditary executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The
+special advantage enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an
+aristocracy with interests antagonistic to those of the people. It would
+be truer to say that the liberties of England were bought by money than
+by the blood of our forefathers.
+
+The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and
+an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time
+of the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382,
+which corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie.
+Sharply though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed
+to have been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is
+here sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a
+statute of Henry VII. that obedience to the _de facto_ government is not
+to be punished on the ground that government is not also _de jure_.
+
+
+_V.--Europe_
+
+
+In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language
+as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters
+was practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost
+exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a
+multitude of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the
+cause of not a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The
+monasteries served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of
+general lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is
+conclusive as to the general corruption of morals among the clergy as
+among the laity. The common diversion of the upper classes, lay and
+clerical, when not engaged in actual war, was hunting. An extended
+commerce was impossible when robbery was a normal occupation of the
+great.
+
+Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce
+developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the
+Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the
+manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the
+fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen
+manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great
+Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and
+Southern areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century,
+by which time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic
+in the Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a
+less degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard,
+developed a large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was
+sufficiently difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on
+the sea, and piracy was extremely prevalent.
+
+Governments as well as private persons were under a frequent necessity
+of borrowing, and for a long time the great money lenders were the Jews.
+They, however, were later to a great extent displaced by the merchants
+of Lombardy, and the fifteenth century witnesses the rise of the great
+bankers, Italian and German.
+
+The structure and furniture of all buildings for private purposes made
+exceedingly little provision for comfort, offering an extreme contrast
+to the dignity of the public buildings and the sublimity of
+ecclesiastical architecture.
+
+During the last three hundred years of our period it is clear that there
+was a great diminution of the status of servitude and a great increase
+in the privileges extended to corporate towns. Private warfare was
+checked and lawless robbery to a considerable extent restrained. It is
+tolerably clear that the rise of heretical sects were both the cause and
+the result of moral dissatisfaction, tending to the adoption of higher
+moral standards. Some of these sects were cruelly crushed by merciless
+persecution, as in the case of the Albigenses. The doctrines of
+Wickliffe, however, were never stamped out in England; and the form
+which they took in Bohemia among the followers of the martyred John Huss
+had little about them that was beneficial.
+
+The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
+chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour.
+To this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the
+Crusades. To valour and devotion was added the law of service to
+womanhood, and chivalry may fairly claim to have developed generally the
+three virtues essential to it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality.
+Resting, however, as it did on the personal prowess and skill of the
+individual in single combat, the whole system of chivalry was destroyed
+by the introduction on an extensive scale of the use of firearms.
+
+We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
+four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities;
+the application of modern languages to literature, and especially to
+poetry; and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be
+said to have begun with the establishment of the great schools by
+Charlemagne out of which sprang the European universities. For a long
+time of course all studies were dominated by that of theology, and the
+scholastic philosophy which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits
+were, they kept alive an intellectual activity which ultimately found
+fresh channels. The Romance languages developed a new literature first
+on the tongues of the troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which
+gave birth to Dante and Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century
+that a new enthusiasm was born for the study of classical authors,
+though Greek was still unknown. And the final and decisive impulse was
+given when the invention of printing made the great multiplication of
+books possible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+STANLEY LANE-POOLE
+
+
+Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied Arabic
+     under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before
+     going up to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of
+     Oriental Coins in the British Museum," which appeared in
+     fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892, and founded his
+     reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
+     numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo
+     officially employed by the British Government upon the
+     Mohammedan antiquities, and published his treatise on "The Art
+     of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year he visited
+     Stockholm, Helsingfors, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and
+     Constantinople to examine their Oriental collections. He has
+     written histories of the "Moors in Spain," "Turkey," "The
+     Barbary Corsairs," and "Mediæval India," which have run to
+     many editions; and biographies of Saladin, Babar, Aurangzib;
+     of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and Sir Harry Parkes. He has
+     also published a miniature Koran in the "Golden Treasury"
+     series, and written "Studies in a Mosque," besides editing
+     three volumes of Lane's "Arabic Lexicon." For five years he
+     held the post of Professor of Arabic at Trinity College,
+     Dublin, of which he is Litt.D. Mohammedan Egypt, his special
+     subject, he has treated in several books on Cairo, the latest
+     being "The Story of Cairo." But his most complete work on this
+     subject is "The History of Egypt in the Middle Ages," here
+     epitomised by the author.
+
+
+_I.--A Province of the Caliphate_
+
+
+Ever since the Arab conquest in 641 Egypt has been ruled by Mohammedans,
+and for more than half the time by men of Turkish race. Though now and
+again a strong man has gathered all the reins of control into his own
+hands and been for a time a personal monarch, as a rule the government
+has been, till recent years, a military bureaucracy.
+
+The people, of course, had no voice in the government. The Egyptians
+have never been a self-governing race, and such a dream as
+constitutional democracy was never heard of until a few years ago. By
+the Arab conquest in the seventh century the people merely changed
+masters. They were probably not indisposed to welcome the Moslems as
+their deliverers from the tyranny of the Orthodox Church of the East
+Roman or Byzantine Empire, invincibly intolerant of the native
+monophysite heresy; and when the conquest was complete they found
+themselves, on the whole, better off than before. They paid their taxes
+to officials with Arabic instead of Greek titles, but the taxes were
+lighter and the amount was strictly laid down by law.
+
+The land-tax of about a pound per acre was not excessive on so fertile a
+soil, and the poll-tax on nonconformity, of the same amount, was a
+moderate price to pay for entire liberty of conscience and freedom in
+public worship guaranteed by solemn treaty. The other taxes were
+comparatively insignificant, and the total revenue in the eighth century
+was about £7,000,000. The surplus went to the caliph, the head of the
+vast Mohammedan empire, which then stretched from Seville to Samarkand,
+whose capital was first Damascus and afterwards Baghdad.
+
+For over 200 years (till 868) Egypt was a mere province of this huge
+caliphate, and was governed, like other provinces, with a sole view to
+revenue. "Milk till the udder be dry and let blood to the last drop" was
+a caliph's instructions to a governor of Egypt. As these governors were
+constantly changed--there were sixty-seven in 118 years under the
+Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad--and as a governor's main object was to "make
+hay while the sun shines," the process of milking the Egyptian cow was
+often accelerated by illegal extortion, and the governor's harvest was
+reaped before it was due. Illegality was, however, checked to some
+extent by the generally wise and just influence of the chief justice, or
+kadi, whose probity often formed the best feature of the Arab government
+in Egypt.
+
+Nor did the caliphs extort taxes without giving something in return. The
+development of irrigation works was always a main consideration with the
+early Mohammedan rules, from Spain to India, and in Egypt, where
+irrigation is the country's very life, it was specially cared for, with
+a corresponding increase in the yield. Moreover, the governors usually
+held to the agreement that the Christians should have liberty of
+conscience, and protected them from the Moslem soldiery. As time went
+on, this toleration abated, partly because the Moslems had gradually
+become the predominant population. At the beginning the caliphs had
+taken anxious precautions against the colonising of Egypt; they held it
+by an army, but they were insistent that the army should not take root,
+but be always free to join the caliph's standard. But it was inevitable
+that the Arabs should settle in so fertile and pleasant a land. Each
+governor brought a small army as his escort, and these Arab troops
+naturally intermarried with Egyptian women, who were constitutionally
+inclined to such alliances. A few Arab tribes also settled in Egypt.
+
+This gradual and undesigned Arabising of the country would lead to
+oppression of the Christians, to the "squeezing" of wealthy natives, and
+occasionally to the institution of humiliating distinctions of dress and
+other vexations, and even to the spoiling of Coptic churches. Then
+sometimes the Copts, as the Egyptian Christians are called, would rebel.
+Their last and greatest rebellion, which occurred in the Delta in
+830-832, was ruthlessly trampled out by Turkish troops under Mamun, the
+only Abbasid caliph who made a visit to Egypt. Many Copts now
+apostatised, and from this time dates the predominance of the Moslem
+population and the settling of Arabs in the villages and on the land,
+instead of as heretofore only in the two or three large towns.
+
+The coming of the Turkish troops with the caliph Mamun was an ominous
+event for the country. Up to 846 all the successive governors had been
+Arabs, and many of them were related to the caliphs themselves. With
+some unfortunate exceptions, they seem to have been men of simple
+habits--the Arabs were never luxurious--and usually of strict Mohammedan
+principles. They made money, honestly if possible, during their brief
+tenure; but they did not harass the people much by their personal
+interference, and left the local officials to manage matters in their
+own way, as had always been the custom. They lived at the new capital,
+Fustat, which grew up on the site of the conqueror's camp, and very near
+the modern Cairo; for Alexandria, the symbol of Roman domination, was
+dismantled in 645 after the Emperor Manuel's attempt at reconquest. If
+they did not do much active good, they did little harm, and Egypt
+pursued her immemorial ways.
+
+The last Arab governor, Anbasa, was a man of fine character, and his
+term of office was distinguished by the building of the fort of
+Damietta, as a protection against Roman raids, and by a defeat of the
+tributary Sudanis near Dongola.
+
+
+_II.--Turkish Governors_
+
+
+The Arabs have neither the ferocity nor the luxuriousness, nor, it
+should be added, the courage and the genius for administration of the
+Turkish race. In the arrival of Turkish troops in 830 we see a symptom
+of what was going on all over the eastern caliphate. Turks were taking
+the place of Arabs in the army and the provincial governments, just as
+the Persians were filling up the civil appointments. The caliph's
+Turkish bodyguard was the beginning of the dismemberment of the
+caliphate. It became the habit of the caliphs to grant the government of
+Egypt, as a sort of fief, to a leading Turkish officer, who usually
+appointed a deputy to do his work and to pay him the surplus revenue.
+Such a deputy was Ahmad-ibn-Tulun (868-884), the first of the many
+Turkish despots of Egypt. Ibn-Tulun was the first ruler to raise Egypt
+from a mere tax-paying appendage of the caliphate to a kingdom,
+independent save for the recognition of the caliph on the coinage, and
+he was the first to found a Moslem dynasty there. A man of fair
+Mohammedan education, iron will, and ubiquitous personal attention to
+affairs, he added Syria to his dominions, defeated the East Romans with
+vast slaughter near Tarsus (883), kept an army of 30,000 Turkish slaves
+and a fleet of a hundred fighting ships.
+
+He beautified his capital by building a sumptuous palace and his
+well-known mosque, which still stands in his new royal suburb of Katai;
+he encouraged the small farmers and reduced the taxation, yet he left
+five millions in the treasury when he died in 884. His son maintained
+his power, and more than his luxury and artistic extravagance; but there
+were no elements of stability in the dynasty, which depended solely upon
+the character of the ruler. The next generation saw Egypt once more
+(905) a mere province of the caliphate, but with this difference, that
+its governors were now Turks, generally under the control of their own
+soldiery, and much less dependent upon the ever-weakening power of the
+Caliph of Baghdad. One of them, the Ikhshid, in 935 emulated Ibn-Tulun
+and united part of Syria to Egypt; but the sons he left were almost
+children, and the power fell into the hands of the regent Kafur, a black
+eunuch from the Sudan, bought for £25, who combined a luxurious and
+cultivated court with some military successes and real administrative
+capacity.
+
+
+_III.--The Fatimid Caliphs_
+
+
+The Mohammedan world is roughly divided into Sunnis and Shia. The Shia
+are the idealists, the mystics of Islam; the Sunnis are the formalists,
+the schoolmen. The Shia trace an apostolic succession from Ali, the
+husband of the prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima, hold doctrines of
+immanence and illumination, adopt an allegorical interpretation of
+scripture, and believe in the coming of a Mahdi or Messiah. The Sunnis
+adhere to the elective historical caliphate descended from Mohammed's
+uncle, maintain the eternal uncreated sufficiency of the Koran,
+literally interpreted, and believe in no Messiah save Mohammed.
+
+The Shia, whatever their racial origin, form the Persian, the Aryan,
+adaptation of Islam, which is an essentially Semitic creed. In the tenth
+century they had established a caliph among the Berbers at Kayrawan
+(908). They had thence invaded Egypt with temporary success in 914 and
+919. When the death of Kafur in 968 left the country a prey to rival
+military factions, the fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the
+Fatimid caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from
+Fatima--sent his army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the
+sport of Turkish mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just
+as the Copts had welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the
+Fatimid general, entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a
+name still applied both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations
+in 969, and immediately laid the foundations of the fortified palace
+which he named, astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir),
+El-Kahira, "the Martial," or "the Victorious," which gradually expanded
+to the city of Cairo. He also founded the great historic university
+mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by the heretical Shia, became the
+bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the theological centre of orthodox
+Islam.
+
+The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
+Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like
+the Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and
+recognised the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of
+their hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force
+extreme Shia doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with
+its graduated stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they
+were content to add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary
+Mohammedan ritual, and to set them conspicuously on their coinage,
+without entering upon a propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems
+apparently preserved their orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate
+for two centuries with traditional composure. The Christian Copts found
+the new _régime_ a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
+in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with
+the local heads of the Christian religion.
+
+The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
+Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
+attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
+Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
+Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly
+due, of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and
+accountants, for Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had
+rest under this wise and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example
+in his luxury and love of display, he unquestionably maintained law,
+enforced equity, punished corruption, and valiantly defended his
+kingdom. He fitted out a fleet of 600 sail at Maks (then the port of
+Cairo, on the Nile), which kept the Emperor Basil at a distance and
+assured the caliph's ascendancy from end to end of the Mediterranean
+Sea.
+
+After these two great rulers the Fatimid caliphate subsisted for nearly
+two centuries by no virtue or energy of its own. The caliphs lived
+secluded, like veiled prophets, in their huge palace at Cairo, given
+over to sensual delights (Saladin found 12,000 women in the Great Palace
+when he entered it in 1171), and wholly regardless of their kingdom,
+which they left to the care of vezirs, who were chiefly bent on making
+their own fortunes, though there were many able, and a few honest men
+amongst them. The real power rested with the army, and the only check
+upon the tyranny and debauchery of the army lay in its own jealous
+divisions. The fanatical Berber regiments imported from Tunis, the
+bloody blacks recruited in the Sudan, and the mutinous Turkish troops
+long established in the country, were always at daggers drawn, and their
+rivalry was the vezirs' opportunity. In such anarchy the country fell
+from bad to worse.
+
+The reign of Hakim, the frantic son of Aziz and his Christian wife, was
+a personal despotism of the most eccentric kind, marked by apparently
+unreasonable regulations, such as keeping the shops open by night
+instead of by day, and confining all women to the house for seven years,
+as well as by intermittent persecution of Christians and Jews; and also
+by enlightened acts, such as the founding of the Hall of Science and the
+building of mosques, for all the Fatimides were friends to the arts; and
+ending in the proclamation of Hakim as the incarnation of the Divine
+Reason, in which capacity he is still adored by the Druses of the
+Lebanon. This assumption led to popular tumults and an orgy of carnage,
+in the midst of which Hakim mysteriously disappeared (1021).
+
+His successors, Zahir (1021-1036), and Mustansir (1036-1096) did nothing
+to retrieve the anarchic situation, of which the soldiers were the
+unruly masters. Palace cliques, disastrous famines (one of which lasted
+seven years, 1066-1072, and even led to the public selling of human
+joints as butcher's meat), slave, or rather freedmen's, revolts,
+military tumults, and the occasional temporary ascendancy of a talented
+vezir, sum up the history of Egypt during most of the eleventh century.
+The wisdom and firmness of two great Armenian vezirs, Bedr-el-Gemali
+(1073-1094) and his son Afdal (1094-1121), brought a large degree of
+order, but the last years of the Fatimid caliphate were blotted by
+savage murders both of caliphs and vezirs, and by the loss of their
+Syrian dominions to Seljuks and Crusaders.
+
+
+_IV.--The House of Saladin_
+
+
+It was a question whether Egypt would fall to the Christian king of
+Jerusalem or the Moslem king of Damascus; but, after several invasions
+by both, Nur-ed-din settled the problem by sending his Syrian army to
+Cairo in 1169, when the Crusaders withdrew without offering battle, and
+the Fatimid caliphate came to an end in 1171.
+
+On the Syrian general's death, two months after the conquest, his
+nephew, Salah-ed-din ibn-Ayyub (Saladin), succeeded to the vezirate, and
+after Nur-ed-din's death, in 1174, he made himself independent sultan,
+not only of Egypt but of Syria and Mesopotamia. Saladin was a Kurd from
+the Tigris districts; but his training and his following were purely
+Turkish, moulded on the Seljuk model, and recruited largely from the
+Seljuk lands. His fame was won outside Egypt, and only eight of the
+twenty-four years of his reign were spent in Cairo; the rest was passed
+in waging wars in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, culminating in the
+catastrophic defeat of the Crusaders near Tiberias in 1187, and the
+conquest of Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land.
+
+The famous crusade of Richard I., though it resulted only in recovering
+a strip of coast from Acre to Jaffa, and did not rescue Jerusalem, wore
+out Saladin's strength, and in 1193 the chivalrous and magnanimous
+"Soldan" died. In Egypt his chief work, after repressing revolts of
+black troops and Shia conspiracies, and repelling successive naval
+attacks on Damietta and Alexandria by the Eastern emperor and the kings
+of Jerusalem and Sicily, was the building of the Citadel of Cairo after
+the model of Norman fortresses in Syria, and the encouragement of Sunni
+orthodoxy by the founding and endowment of medresas, or theological
+colleges. The people, who had never been really converted to the Fatimid
+creed, accepted the latest reformation with their habitual nonchalance.
+This was really the greatest achievement of Saladin and his house. Cairo
+succeeded to Baghdad and Cordova as the true metropolis of Islam, and
+Egypt has remained true to the most narrow school of orthodoxy ever
+since.
+
+Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
+half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
+brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for
+a quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able
+son Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's
+frequent absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the
+discredited Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure
+of Damietta was a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to
+defeat the "Franks" at Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.
+
+On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
+Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with
+him in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to
+Christians, and listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he
+granted trading concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established
+a consulate at Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem
+learning, built colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in
+every way. What had happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the
+Fatimides, was repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne
+successively till 1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade,
+the salvation of Egypt devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves,
+who had formed the _corps d'élite_ of Saladin's army.
+
+
+_V.--The Mamluks_
+
+
+Political women have played a great rôle in Egypt from Hatshepsut and
+Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
+engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
+Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
+Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
+Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
+France.
+
+At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
+she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice
+against a woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and
+a half one Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he
+could, and sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that
+forty-eight sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the
+river," so called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and
+twenty-three Burgis, named after the burg, or citadel, where their
+quarters originally were), succeeded one another from 1250 to 1517, it
+will be seen that their average reign was but three and a half years.
+The throne, in fact, belonged to the man with the longest sword.
+
+The bravest and richest generals and court officials surrounded
+themselves with bands of warrior slaves, and reached a power almost
+equal to the reigning sultan, who was, in fact, only _primus inter
+pares_, and on his death--usually by assassination--they fought for his
+title. All were alike slaves by origin, but this term implied no
+degradation. Any slave with courage and address had the chance of
+becoming a freedman, rising to influence, and climbing into his master's
+seat. Every man was every other man's equal--if he could prove it; but
+the process of proving it often turned Cairo into a shambles.
+
+The Mamluks were physically superb, a race of born soldiers, dashing
+horsemen, skilled leaders, brilliant alike in battle and in all manly
+sports. They were at the same time the most luxurious of men, heavy
+drinkers, debauched sensualists, magnificent in their profusion, in
+their splendid prodigality in works of art and luxury, and in the
+munificence with which they filled their capital with noble monuments of
+the most exquisite Saracenic architecture. Most of the beautiful mosques
+of Cairo were built by these truculent soldiers, all foreigners, chiefly
+Turks, a caste apart, with no thought for the native Egyptians whose
+lands they received as fiefs from the sultan; with no mercy when
+ambition called for secret assassination or wholesale massacre; yet
+fastidious in dress, equipment, and manners, given to superb pageants,
+laborious in business, and fond of music and poetry. Their orthodoxy is
+attested not only by their innumerable religious foundations and
+endowments, but by their importing into Cairo a line of Abbasid
+caliphs--_fainéants_ indeed, but in a manner representative of the great
+caliphs of Baghdad, extinguished by the Mongols in 1258--and in
+maintaining them till the Ottoman sultan usurped their very nominal
+authority as Commanders of the Faithful.
+
+The greatest of all the Mamluks was Beybars (1260-1277). He it was who
+had charged St. Louis's knights at Mansura in 1249, and afterwards
+helped to rout the Mongol hordes at the critical battle of Goliath's
+Spring in 1260; and he was the real founder of the Mamluk empire, and
+organised and consolidated his wide dominions so skilfully and firmly
+that all the follies and jealousies and crimes of his successors could
+not destroy the fabric. He made his army perfect in discipline, built a
+navy, made canals, roads, and bridges, annexed Nubia, organised a
+regular postal service, built fortifications, mosques, colleges, halls
+of justice, and managed everything, from the fourth cataract of the Nile
+and the Holy Cities of Arabia to the Pyramus and the Euphrates, by his
+immense capacity for work and amazing rapidity of movements.
+
+Egypt prospered exceedingly under his just, firm, and capable rule; he
+was severe to immorality and strictly prohibited wine, beer, and
+hashish. He entered into diplomatic relations with European powers to
+the great advantage of his country's trade; and his bravery,
+munificence, and justice have made him a popular hero in Arabic romances
+down to the present day.
+
+None of his successors approached his high example Khalil indeed
+recovered Acre and all that remained of the Crusader's possessions in
+Palestine, and the Mamluks, who never lost their soldierly qualities
+whoever happened to be their nominal ruler, handsomely defeated the
+Mongols again in 1299 and 1303, and for ever saved Egypt from the
+unspeakable curse of a Mongol conquest Nasir, whose reign covers most of
+the first half of the fourteenth century, was a great builder, and so
+were many of the nobles of his court. It was the golden age of Saracenic
+architecture, and Cairo is still full of the monuments of Nasir's emirs.
+He encouraged agriculture, stockbreeding, farming, falconry, as well as
+literature and art, everything, in short, except vice, wine, and
+Christians.
+
+The Burgi, or Circassian Mamluks (1382-1517), were little more than
+chief among the emirs. Widespread corruption, the open sale of high
+offices and of "justice," and general debauchery characterised their
+rule. Yet they built many of the loveliest mosques in Cairo, and the
+conquest of Cyprus, long a nest of Mediterranean piracy, by Bars Bey in
+1426 may be added to their credit. Kait Bey (1468-1496) was a great
+builder, and in every way a wise, brave, and energetic, public-spirited
+sovereign, and was an exception to the general baseness.
+
+Egypt was rich in his day. The European trade had swelled enormously,
+and the duties brought in a prodigious revenue. The Italian Republics
+had their consulates or their marts in Alexandria, and Marseilles,
+Narbonne, and Catalonia sent their representatives. The Indian trade was
+also very considerable; we read of £36,000 paid at one time in customs
+dues at Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan
+took toll on every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in
+the palmy days that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route
+in 1497. It was an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not
+resigned without a struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off
+Chaul in the Bay of Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida
+avenged the honour of his country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral
+Hoseyn off Diu in the following year, and the prolific transit trade of
+Egypt was to a great extent lost.
+
+This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
+dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
+defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion.
+But the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of
+Constantinople in 1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and,
+after defeating the shah of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt
+was only a matter of time. The victory was made easier by jealousies and
+treachery among the Mamluks. Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant
+troops in a battle near Aleppo in August 1516; a last desperate stand of
+the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill at Cairo in January 1517, was
+overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a province of the Turkish empire.
+Such it remains, formally, to this day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
+
+
+Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
+
+
+     Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the most
+     celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
+     Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period
+     of English history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain
+     from the earliest times, and carried on until the reign of
+     Elizabeth, in the course of which, between 1580 and 1584,
+     Holinshed died. The work did good service to Shakespeare, who
+     drew from it much of the material for his historical plays.
+     The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
+     another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John
+     Hooker and others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the
+     foreword to which the "Chronicles" are described as containing
+     "the most curious and authentic account of the manners and
+     customs of our island in the reign of Henry VIII. and
+     Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer
+     this is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope
+     of this work, it is impossible to convey an impression of the
+     whole, which is best represented by means of selected examples
+     of the chronicler's method. Being the work of so many
+     different authors, the literary quality of the "Chronicles"
+     naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
+     them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs
+     of early England.
+
+
+_I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William Brooke,
+Knight_
+
+
+Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
+down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed
+in the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to
+yeeld to their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I
+condescended to it, and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good,
+although no gaie success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor
+regard the substance of that which is here declared, I must needs
+confess that it is none of mine owne; but if your lordship have
+consideration of the barbarous composition shewed herein, that I may
+boldlie claim and challenge for mine owne. Certes, I protest before God
+and your Honor, that I never made any choise of stile, or words, neither
+regarded to handle this Treatise in such precise order and method as
+manie other would have done, thinking it sufficient, truelie and
+plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather
+than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre,
+a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable to the reader.
+But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto the truth of
+things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled Treatise of
+mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the self-same
+argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.
+
+
+_II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine_
+
+
+As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
+sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture,
+more or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of
+forreine inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold
+commodities have oft allured sundrie princes and famous capteines of the
+world to conquer and subdue the same unto their owne subjection. Manie
+sorts of people therefore have come in hither and settled themselves
+here in this Ile, and first of all other, a parcell of the lineage and
+posteritie of Japhet, brought in by Samothes, in the 1910 after the
+creation of Adam. Howbeit in process of time, and after they had
+indifferentlie replenished and furnished this Iland with people, Albion,
+the giant, repaired hither with a companie of his owne race proceeding
+from Cham, and not onelie annexed the same to his owne dominion, but
+brought all such as he found here of the line of Japhet, into miserable
+servitude and most extreame thraldome. After him also, and within lesse
+than six hundred and two yeares, came Brute, the son of Sylvius, with a
+great train of the posteritie of the dispersed Trojans in 324 ships; who
+rendering the like courtesie unto Chemminits as they had done before
+unto the seed of Japhet, brought them also wholie under his rule and
+governance, and dispossessing them he divided the countrie among such
+princes and capteines as he had led out of Grecia with him.
+
+Then after some further space of time the Roman Emperours subdued the
+land to their dominion; and after the coming of the Romans, it is hard
+to say with how manie sorts of people we were dailie pestered. For their
+armies did commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I
+may call them) a confused mixture of all other countries and nations
+then living in the world. Howbeit I thinke it best, because they did all
+beare the title of Romans, to retaine onelie that name for them all,
+albeit they were wofull guests to this our Iland: sith that with them
+came all kinds of vice, all riot and excess of behaviour into our
+countrie, which their legions brought with them from each corner of
+their dominions.
+
+Then did follow the Saxons, and the Danes, and at last the Normans, of
+whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to
+our countrymen than the Danes, or more heavie and intollerable to our
+Iland than the Saxons or the Romans. For they were so cruellie bent to
+our utter subversion and overthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse
+reproach to be accounted a slave than an Englishman, or a drudge in anie
+filthie businesse than a Britaine: insomuch that everie French page was
+superiour to the greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishman's life
+but a pastime to such of them as contended in their braverie who should
+give the greatest strokes or wounds unto their bodies when their toiling
+and drudgerie could not please them or satisfie their greedie humours.
+Yet such was our lot in those daies by the divine appointed order, that
+we must needs obey such as the Lord did set pyer us, and this all
+because we refused grace offered in time, and would not heare when God
+by his preachers did call us so favourablie unto him.
+
+By all this then we perceive, how from time to time this Hand hath not
+onelie been a prey, but as it were a common receptacle for strangers,
+the naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter,
+till in the end they came not onelie to be driven into a corner of this
+region, but in time also verie like utterlie to have been extinguished.
+Thus we see how England hath been manie times subject to the reproach of
+conquest. And whereas the Scots seeme to challenge manie famous
+victories also over us, it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in
+this as in the most part of their historie, which is to seeke great
+honour by lying, and great renown by prating and craking. Indeed they
+have done great mischief in this Hand, and with extreime crueltie; but
+as for anie conquest the first is yet to heare of.
+
+But beside those conquests aforementioned, Huntingdon, the old
+historiographer, speaketh of another, likelie (as he saith) to come one
+daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no man to good, sith
+nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger and much cold.
+
+
+_III.--Of King Richard, the First, and his Journie to the Holie Land_
+
+
+Richard the First of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the Second,
+began his reign over England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of our
+Lord 1189. He received the crowne with all due and accustomed
+sollemnitie, at the hands of Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterburie, the
+third daie of September.
+
+Upon this daie of King Richard's coronation, the Jewes that dwelt in
+London and in other parts of the realme, being there assembled, had but
+sorie hap, as it chanced. For they meaning to honour the same coronation
+with their presence, and to present to the king some honourable gift,
+whereby they might declare themselves glad for his advancement, and
+procure his freendship towards them, for the confirming of their
+privileges and liberties; he of a zealous mind to Christes religion,
+abhorring their nation (and doubting some sorcerie by them to be
+practised) commanded that they should not come within the church when he
+should receive the crowne, nor within the palace whilest he was at
+dinner.
+
+But at dinner-time, among other that pressed in at the palace gate,
+diverse of the Jews were about to thrust in, till one of them was
+striken by a Christian, who alledging the king's commandment, kept them
+backe from comming within the palace. Which some of the unrulie people,
+perceiving, and supposing it had been done by the king's commandement,
+tooke lightlie occasion thereof, and falling upon the Jewes with staves,
+bats, and stones, beat them and chased them home to their houses and
+lodgings. Then did they set fire on the houses, and the Jewes within
+were either smoldred and burned to death within, or else at their
+comming forth most cruellie received upon the points of speares, billes,
+and swords of their adversaries that watched for them verie diligentlie.
+This great riot well deserved sere and grievous punishment, but yet it
+passed over without correction, because of the hatred generallie
+conceived against the obstinate frowardnesse of the Jewes. Finallie,
+after the tumult was ceased, the king commanded that no man should hurt
+or harm any of the Jewes, and so they were restored to peace after they
+had susteined infinit damage.
+
+No great while after this his coronation, the king sought to prepare
+himself to journey to the holie land, and to this end he had great need
+of money. Therefore he made such sale of things appertaining to him, as
+well in right of the crowne, as otherwise, that it seemed to divers that
+he made his reckoning never to return agan, in so much that some of his
+councillors told him plainelie, that he did not well in making things
+awaie so freelie; unto whom he answered "that in time of need it was no
+evill policie for a man to help himself with his owne." and further,
+"that if London at that time of need would be bought, he would surelie
+sell it, if he might meet with a convenient merchant that were able to
+give him monie enough for it."
+
+Then all things being readie, King Richard set forth, and, after great
+hindrance by tempests, and at the hands of the men of Cyprus, who warred
+against him and were overcome, he came to the citie of Acres, which then
+was besieged by the Christian armie. Such was the valiancie of King
+Richard shown in manfull constraining of the citie, that his praise was
+greatly bruted both amongst the Christians and also the Saracens.
+
+At last, on the twelfth date of Julie, in the yeare of grace 1192, the
+citie of Acres was surrendered into the Christian men's hands. These
+things being concluded, the French King Philip, upon envie and malice
+conceived against King Richard (although he pretended sickness for
+excuse) departed homewards. Now touching this departure, divers
+occasions are remembered by writers of the emulation and secret spite
+which he should bear towards King Richard. But, howsoever, it came to
+passe, partlie through envie (as hath beene thought) conceived at the
+great deeds of King Richard, whose mightie power and valiantnesse he
+could not well abide, and partlie for other respects him moving, he took
+the sea with three gallies of the Genevois, and returned into Italie,
+and so home into France, having promised first unto King Richard in the
+holie land, and after to pope Celestine at Rome, that he would not
+attempt any hurtfull enterprise against the English dominions, till King
+Richard should be returned out of the holie land. But this promise was
+not kept, for he sought to procure Earle John, King Richard's brother,
+to rebell against him, though he then sought it in vaine.
+
+Yet were matters nowise peacefull within the realme of England, and
+because of this, and likewise because the froward humours of the French
+so greatlie hindered him in warring against the Saracens, King Richard
+determined fullie to depart homewards, and at last there was a peace
+concluded with Saladin. But on his journie homewards the King had but
+sorie hap, for he made shipwracke on the coast of Istria, and then fell
+into captivitie; and this was the manner that it came to passe.
+
+
+_IV.--Of King Richard's Captivitie_
+
+
+King Richard, doubting to fall into the hands of those who might bear
+him ill-will, made the best shift he could to passe through quietlie,
+yet were many of his servants made captive, and he himself came with but
+three men to Vienna. There causing his servants to provide meat for him
+more sumptuous and fine than was thought requisite for so meane a person
+as he counterfeited then, he was straightway remarked, and some gave
+knowledge to the Duke of Austrich named Leopold, who loved him not for
+some matter that had passed in the holie land. Moreover, his page, going
+about the towne to change gold, and buy vittels, bewraied him, having by
+chance the King's gloves under his girdle: whereupon, being examined,
+for fear of tortures he confessed the truth.
+
+The Duke sent men to apprehend him, but he, being warie that he was
+descried, got him to his weapon; but they alledging the Duke's
+commandement, he boldly answered, "that sith he must be taken, he being
+a King, would yeeld himselfe to none of the companie but to the Duke
+alone." The Duke hearing of this, speedilie came unto him, whom he
+meeting, delivered up his sword, and committed him unto his custodie.
+Then was he brought before the princes and lords of the empire, in whose
+presence the emperour charged him with diverse unlawfull doings. King
+Richard notwithstanding the vaine and frivolous objections laid to his
+charge, made his answers always so pithilie and directlie to all that
+could be laid against him, and excused himself e in everie point so
+thoroughlie, that the emperour much marvelled at his high wisdom and
+prudence, and not onelie greatlie commended him for the same, but from
+thenceforth used him more courteously. Yet did King Richard perceive
+that no excuses would serve, but that he must paie to his covetous host
+some great summe of monie for his hard entertainment. Therefore he sent
+the bishop of Salisburie into England to provide for the paiment of his
+ransome.
+
+Finallie the King, after he had beene prisoner one yeare, six weekes,
+and three daies, was set at libertie on Candle-mass day, and then with
+long and hastie journies, not keeping the high waies, he hasted forth
+towards England. It is reported that if he had lingered by the way, he
+had beene eftsoones apprehended. For the emperour being incensed against
+him by ambassadors that came from the French king, immediatlie after he
+was set forward, began to repent himselfe in that he had suffered him so
+soon to depart from him, and hereupon sent men after him with all speed
+to bring him backe if they could by any means overtake him, meaning as
+then to have kept him in perpetual prison. But these his knavish tricks
+being in the good providence of God defeated, King Richard at length in
+good safetie landed at Sandwich, and the morrow after came to
+Canterburie, where he was received with procession. From thence he came
+unto London, where he was received with great joy and gladnesse of the
+people, giving heartie thanks to almightie God for his safe return and
+deliverance.
+
+The same yeare that King Richard was taken by the Duke of Austrich, one
+night in the month of Januarie about the first watch of the night, the
+northwest side of the element appeared of such a ruddie colour as though
+it had burned, without any clouds or other darknesse to cover it, so
+that the stars showed through that redness and might be verie well
+discerned. Diverse bright strakes appeared to flash upwards now and
+then, dividing the rednesse, through the which the stars seemed to be of
+a bright sanguine colour.
+
+In Februarie next insuing, one night after midnight the like wonder was
+seene and shortlie after newes came that the king was taken in Almaigne.
+And the same daie and selfe houre that the king arrived at Sandwich,
+whitest the sunne shone verie bright and cleare, there appeared a most
+brightsome and unaccustomed clearnesse, not farre distant from the
+sunne, as it were to the length and breadth of a man's personage, having
+a red shining brightnesse withall, like to the rainbow, which strange
+sight when manie beheld, there were that prognosticated the king
+alreadie to be arrived.
+
+
+_V.--Of Good Queen Elisabeth, and How She Came into Her Kingdom_
+
+
+After all the stormie, tempestuous, and blustering windie weather of
+Queene Marie was overblowne, the darksome clouds of discomfort
+dispersed, the palpable fogs and mists of most intollerable miserie
+consumed, and the dashing showers of persecution overpast, it pleased
+God to send England a calm and quiet season, a cleare and lovelie
+sunshine, and a world of blessings by good Queene Elisabeth, into whose
+gracious reign we are now to make an happie entrance as followeth.
+
+On her entering the citie of London, she was received of the people with
+prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, and tender words, all which argued a
+wonderfull earnest love of most obedient subjects towards their
+sovereign. And on the other side, her grace, by holding up her hands,
+and merrie countenance to such as stood farre off, and most tender and
+gentle language to those that stood nigh unto her grace, did declare
+herselfe no lesse thankfullie to receive her people's good will, than
+they lovinglie offered it to her. And it was not onelie to those her
+subjects who were of noble birth that she showed herself thus verie
+gracious, but also to the poorest sort. How manie nose gaies did her
+grace receive at poore women's hands? How oftentimes staid she her
+chariot, when she saw anie simple bodie offer to speake to her grace? A
+branch of rosemarie given her grace with a supplication about
+Fleetbridge, was seene in her chariot till her grace came to
+Westminster, not without the marvellous wondering of such as knew the
+presenter, and noted the queene's most gracious receiving and keeping
+the same. Therefore may the poore and needie looke for great hope at her
+grace's hand, who hath shown so loving a carefulnesse for them.
+
+Moreover, because princes be set in their seat by God's appointing, and
+they must therefore first and chieflie tender the glorie of Him from
+whom their glorie issueth; it is to be noted in her grace that for so
+much as God hath so wonderfullie placed her in the seat of government of
+this realme, she in all her doings doth show herselfe most mindful of
+His goodness and mercie shewed unto her. And one notable signe thereof
+her grace gave at the verie time of her passage through London, for in
+the Tower, before she entered her chariot, she lifted up her eies to
+Heaven and saith as followeth:
+
+"O Lord Almightie and everlasting God, I give Thee most heartie thanks
+that Thou hast beene so mercifull unto me as to spare me to behold this
+joy full daie. And I acknowledge that Thou hast dealt as wonderfullie
+and as mercifullie with me as Thou diddest with Thy true and faithfull
+servant Daniell Thy prophet, whom Thou deliveredst out of the den from
+the crueltie of the greedie and raging lions; even so was I overwhelmed,
+and onlie by Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, onlie be thankes,
+honor, and praise, for ever. Amen."
+
+On Sundaie, the five and twentieth daie of Januarie, her majestie was
+with great solemnitie crowned at Westminster, in the Abbey church there,
+by doctor Oglethorpe bishop of Carlisle. She dined in Westminster hall,
+which was richlie hung, and everything ordered in such royall manner, as
+to such a regall and most solemn feast appertained. In the meane time,
+whilst her grace sat at dinner, Sir Edward Dimmocke, knight, her
+champion by office, came riding into the hall in faire complete armour,
+mounted upon a beautifull courser, richlie trapped in cloth of gold, and
+in the midst of the hall cast downe his gauntlet, with offer to fight
+in her quarell with anie man that should denie her to be the righteous
+and lawfull queene of this realme. The queene, taking a cup of gold full
+of wine, dranke to him thereof, and sent it to him for his fee.
+Finallie, this feast being celebrated with all due and fitting royall
+ceremonies, tooke end with great joy and contentation to all the
+beholders.
+
+Yet, though there was thus an end of the ceremonies befitting the
+queene's coronation, her majesty was everywhere received with brave
+shows, and with pageants, all for the love and respect that her subjects
+bare her. Thus on Whitsundaie, in the first year of her reign, the
+citizens of London set forth a muster before the queene's majestie at
+Greenwich in the parke there, of the number of 1,400 men, whereof 800
+were pikes, armed in fine corselets, 400 shot in shirts of mail, and 200
+halberdiers armed in Almaine rivets; these were furnished forth by the
+crafts and companies of the citie. To everie hundred two wifflers were
+assigned, richlie appointed and apparelled for the purpose. There were
+also twelve wardens of the best companies mounted on horsebacke in
+coates of blacke velvet, to conduct them, with drums and fifes, and sixe
+ensigne all in lerkins of white sattin of Bridges, cut and lined with
+black sarsenet, and caps, hosen, and scarfs according. The
+sergeant-majors, captaine Constable, and captaine Sanders, brought them
+in order before the queene's presence, placing them in battell arraie,
+even as they should have fought; so the shew was verie faire, the
+emperour's and the French king's ammbassadors being present.
+
+Verilie the queene hath ever shown herself forward and most willing that
+her faithfull subjects should be readie and skilfull in war as in peace.
+Thus in the fourteenth yeare of her reign, by order of her council, the
+citizens of London, assembling in their several halles, the masters
+chose out the most likelie and active persons of their companies to be
+pikemen and shot. To these were appointed diverse valiant captaines, who
+to train them up in warlike feats, mustered them thrice everie weeke,
+sometimes in the artillerie yard, teaching the gunners to handle their
+pieces, sometimes at the Miles end, and in saint George's field,
+teaching them to skirmish.
+
+In the arts of peace likewise, she is greatlie pleased with them who are
+good craftsmen, and shews them favour. In government we have peace and
+securitie, and do not greatlie fear those who may stir up wicked
+rebellion within our land, or may come against us from beyond the sea.
+
+In brief, they of Norwich did say well, when the queene's majestie came
+thither, and in a pageant in her honour, one spake these words:
+
+    "Dost them not see the joie of all this flocke?
+      Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome cheere,
+    Be still (good queene) their refuge and their rocke,
+      As they are thine to serve in love and feare;
+    So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand
+      Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD A. FREEMAN
+
+
+The Norman Conquest of England
+
+
+     Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne, Staffordshire,
+     England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
+     remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at
+     eleven he had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had
+     taught himself the rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune
+     in 1848 enabled him to settle down and devote himself to
+     historical research, and from that time until his death on
+     March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
+     strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in
+     two volumes of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which
+     appeared in 1849. Freeman's reputation as historian rests
+     principally on his monumental "History of the Norman
+     Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes between 1867
+     and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
+     by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an
+     extraordinary degree of insight. His historical scenes are
+     remarkably clear and vivid, as though, according to one critic
+     "he had actually lived in the times."
+
+
+_Preliminary Events_
+
+
+The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
+history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that
+which belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands
+by itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional
+period in the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been
+only Teutonic, was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and
+speech of the Romance nations.
+
+At the very moment when Pope and Cæsar held each other in the death
+grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
+barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection
+with the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less
+immediate change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled,
+or enslaved the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when
+Africa was subdued by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate
+change than the conquest of Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with
+it not only a new dynasty, but a new nobility. It did not expel or
+transplant the English nation or any part of it; but it gradually
+deprived the leading men and families of England of their land and
+offices, and thrust them down into a secondary position under the alien
+intruders.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the old English constitution survived the
+Norman Conquest. What the constitution had been under the Saxon Eadgar,
+that it remained under William. The laws, with a few changes in detail,
+and also the language of the public documents, remained the same. The
+powers vested in King William and his Witan remained constitutionally
+the same as those which had been vested in King Eadgar and his Witan a
+hundred years before. Immense changes ensued in social condition and
+administration, and in the relation of the kingdom to foreign lands.
+There was also a vast increase of royal power, and new relations were
+introduced between the king and every class of his subjects; but formal
+constitutional changes there were none.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, for the saying is the very summing up of the
+whole history, that the Norman Conquest was not the wiping out of the
+constitution, the laws, the language, the national life of Englishmen.
+The English kingship gradually changed from the old Teutonic to the
+later mediæval type; but the change began before the Norman Conquest. It
+was hastened by that event; it was not completed till long after it, and
+the gradual transition, was brought to perfection by Henry II.
+
+Certain events indicate the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. The
+accession of Eadward at once brings us among the events that led
+immediately to that conquest, or rather we may look on the accession of
+this Saxon king as the first stage of the conquest itself. Swend and
+Cnut, the Danes, had shown that it was possible for a foreign power to
+overcome England by force of arms.
+
+The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut hindered the formation of a
+lasting Danish dynasty in England. The throne of Cerdic was again filled
+by a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the
+country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient
+nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly
+opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best,
+wittingly or unwillingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by
+accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers--not national kinsmen
+like Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and
+manners--enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the
+country.
+
+The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once
+more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could
+not altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of
+Eadward. With Eadward, then, the Norman Conquest really begins. The men
+of the generation before the Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to
+behold the event itself, but who were to do all that they could do to
+advance or retard it, are now in the full maturity of life, in the full
+possession of power.
+
+Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide
+among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the
+warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, of York and Ely, are fast growing
+into maturity. Harold Hadrada is already pursuing his wild career of
+night-errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his
+exploits in Russia and Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem.
+
+The younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof
+and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their
+cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and
+State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold
+and of William, is already a great prelate, abbot of the great house of
+Tewkesbury, soon to succeed Lyfing in the chair of Worcester.
+
+Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were
+already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's
+bidding, and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil
+and for good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in
+conduct and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled
+minority, and learning those arts of the statesman and the warrior which
+fitted him to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest
+conqueror of England.
+
+The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is
+gradually preparing for the scene of their performance. The great
+struggle of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had
+his share, the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of
+England stand forth as worthy rivals of the noblest of prizes, will form
+the subject of the next, the chief and central portion of my history.
+
+The struggle between Normans and Englishmen began with the accession of
+Eadward in 1042, although the actual subjugation of England by force of
+arms was still twenty-four years distant. The thought of another Danish
+king was now hateful. "All folk chose Eadward to King." As the son of
+Æthelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonised
+Alfred, he had long been-familiar to English imaginations. Eadward, and
+Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the
+representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice
+spoke out at once, and unmistakably. His popular election took place in
+June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, and even before his
+burial. Eadward, then, was king, and he reigned as every English king
+before him had reigned, by that union of popular election and royal
+descent which formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship. He
+was crowned at Winchester, April 3, 1043. But by virtue of his peculiar
+character, his natural place was not on the throne of England, but at
+the head of a Norman abbey, for all his best qualities were those of a
+monk. Like him father, he was constantly under the dominion of
+favourites.
+
+It was to the evil choice of his favourites during the early part of his
+reign that most of the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a
+still more direct path was opened for the ambition of his Norman
+kinsman. In the latter part of his reign, either by happy accident or
+returning good sense, led him to a better choice. Without a guide he
+could not reign, but the good fortune of his later years gave him the
+wisest and noblest of all guides.
+
+We have now reached the first appearance of the illustrious man round
+whom the main interest of this history will henceforth centre. The
+second son of Godwine lived to be the last of our kings, the hero and
+martyr of our native freedom. The few recorded actions of Harold, Earl
+of the East Angles, could hardly have enabled me to look forward to the
+glorious career of Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, King of the English.
+
+Tall in stature, beautiful in countenance, of a bodily strength whose
+memory still lives in the rude pictorial art of his time, he was
+foremost alike in the active courage and in the passive endurance of the
+warrior. It is plain that in him, no less than in his more successful,
+and, therefore, more famous, rival, we have to admire not only the mere
+animal courage, but that true skill of the leader of armies which would
+have placed both Harold and William high among the captains of any age.
+
+Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
+remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature
+in his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
+warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an
+enemy. From the time of his advancement to the practical government of
+the kingdom there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he
+can be charged.
+
+Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
+twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
+great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
+ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
+elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as
+the free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in
+hand on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.
+
+William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
+the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed
+with greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish
+greater things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment;
+no man ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession
+for all time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently
+above all others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment
+in the highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose
+and the unbending will.
+
+We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
+But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the
+same time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the
+conqueror of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy
+and the conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the
+help of France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came
+to his duchy under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with
+competitors for his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout
+the whole of his early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his
+own making, and he came honourably out of all.
+
+In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
+Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
+friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare in those days.
+Such visits as those which William and Eustace of Boulogne paid at this
+time to this country were altogether novelties, and unlikely to be
+acceptable to the English mind. We may be sure that every patriotic
+Englishman looked with an evil eye on any French-speaking prince who
+made his way to the English court.
+
+William came with a great following; he tarried awhile in his cousin's
+company; he went away loaded with gifts and honours. And he can hardly
+doubt that he went away encouraged by some kind of promise of succeeding
+to the kingdom which he now visited as a stranger. Direct heirs were
+lacking to the royal house, and William was Eadward's kinsman. The
+moment was in every way favourable for suggesting to William on the one
+hand, to Eadward on the other, the idea of an arrangement by which
+William should succeed to the English crown on Eadward's death. The
+Norman writers are full of Eadward's promise to William, and also of
+some kind of oath that Harold swore to him. Had either the promise or
+the oath been a pure Norman invention, William could never have paraded
+both in the way that he did in the eyes of Europe. I admit, then, some
+promise of Eadward, some oath of Harold. But when the time came for
+Eadward the Confessor to make his final recommendation of a successor,
+he certainly changed his purpose; for his last will, so far as such an
+expression can be used, was undoubtedly in favour of Harold.
+
+There is not the slightest sign of any intention on the part of Eadward
+during his later years to nominate William to the Witan as future king.
+The two streams of English and Norman history were joined together in
+the year when the two sovereigns met for the only time in their reigns.
+Those streams again diverged. England shook off the Norman influence to
+all outward appearance, and became once more the England of Æthelstan
+and Eadgar. But the effects of Eadgar's Norman tendencies were by no
+means wholly wiped away. Normans still remained in the land, and
+circumstances constituted secondary causes of the expedition of William.
+
+It was in the year 1051 that the influence of strangers reached its
+height. During the first nine years of Eadward's reign we find no signs
+of any open warfare between the national and the Normanising parties.
+The course of events shows that Godwine's power was being practically
+undermined, but the great earl was still Jutwardly in the enjoyment of
+royal favour, and his fast possessions were still being added to by
+royal grants. But soon England began to feel how great is the evil when
+a king and those immediately around him are estranged from the mass of
+his people in feeling.
+
+To the French favourites who gradually crowded the court of Eadward the
+name, the speech, and the laws of England were things on which their
+ignorant pride looked with utter contempt.
+
+Count Eustace of Boulogne, now brother-in-law of the king of the
+English, presently came, like the rest of the world, to the English
+Court. The king was spending the autumn at Gloucester. Thither came
+Count Eustace, and, after his satisfactory interview with the king, he
+turned his face homewards. When a few miles from Dover he felt himself,
+in a region specially devoted to Godwine, to be still more thoroughly in
+an enemy's country than in other parts of England, and he and all his
+company took the precaution of putting on their coats of mail.
+
+The proud Frenchmen expected to find free quarters at Dover, and they
+attempted to lodge themselves at their pleasure in the houses of the
+burghers. One Englishman resisted, and was struck dead on the spot. The
+count's party then rode through the town, cutting and slaying at
+pleasure. In a skirmish which quickly ensued twenty Englishmen and
+nineteen Frenchmen were slain.
+
+Count Eustace and the remnant of the party hastened back to Gloucester,
+and told the story after their own fashion. On the mere accusation of a
+stranger, the English king condemned his own subjects without a hearing.
+He sent for Godwine, as earl of the district in which lay the offending
+town, and commanded him to inflict chastisement on Dover. The English
+champion was then in the midst of a domestic rejoicing. He had, like the
+king, been strengthening himself by a foreign alliance, and had just
+connected his house with that of a foreign prince. Tostig, the third son
+of Godwine, had just married Judith, the daughter of Baldwin of
+Flanders.
+
+Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to
+visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing
+his course. Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract
+justice and humanity, dictated a distinct refusal. Now or never a stand
+was to be made against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial
+for the burghers of Dover.
+
+But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a
+peaceful settlement of the matter. Eustace probably still lingered about
+the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready
+to poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader.
+It was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert. Godwine and three
+other earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of
+Eustace, but the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward,
+Leofric, and Ralph, bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep
+Godwine in check. Thus the northern and southern sections were arrayed
+against each other.
+
+There were, however, on the king's side, men who were not willing to see
+the country involved in civil war. Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia,
+stood forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed
+that hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should
+assemble at Michaelmas in London.
+
+Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to
+collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London. Godwine
+and his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear
+without a security for a safe conduct. The hostages and safe-conduct
+were refused. The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as
+he sat at his evening meal. The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his
+feet, overthrew the table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode
+for his life all that night. In the morning the king held his
+witenagemot, and by a vote of the king and his whole army, Godwine and
+his sons were declared outlaws, but five days were allowed them to get
+out of the land. Godwine, Swegen, Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha
+and Judith, the newly-married wife of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a
+ship laden with as much treasure as it would hold. They reached the
+court of Flanders in safety, were honourably received by the count, and
+passed the whole winter with him.
+
+Two of Godwine's sons, however, sought another refuge. Harold and his
+younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek
+shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially
+received by King Diarmid. For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic
+leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over
+the feeble mind of the king was complete. It was while Godwine dwelt as
+an exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the
+friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as
+William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit
+which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one,
+among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.
+
+Stirring events followed in quick succession. General regret was felt
+among all patriotic Englishmen at the absence of Godwine. The common
+voice of England soon began to call for the return of the banished earl,
+who was looked to by all men as the father of his country. England now
+knew that in his fall a fatal blow had been dealt to her own welfare and
+freedom. And Godwine, after sending many petitions to the king, vainly
+petitioning for a reconciliation, determined to return by force,
+satisfied that the great majority of Englishmen would be less likely to
+resist him than to join his banners.
+
+Harold sailed from Ireland to meet his father by way of the English
+Channel. Godwine sailed up the Thames, and London declared for him.
+Panic reigned among the favourites of King Eadward. The foreigners took
+to flight, among the fugitives being Archbishop Robert and Bishop Ulf.
+The gemot met and decreed the restoration of the earl and the outlawry
+of many Normans. The king yielded, and accorded to Godwine the kiss of
+peace, and a revolution was accomplished of which England may well be
+proud.
+
+But a tragedy soon followed, in the death of the most renowned
+Englishman of that generation. During a meal at the Easter festival
+Godwine fell from his seat, and died after lying insensible for three
+days. Great was the grief of the nation. Harold, in the years that
+followed, became so increasingly popular that he was virtually chief
+ruler of England, even before the death of Eadward, which happened on
+January 5, 1066. His burial was followed by the coronation of Harold.
+But the moment of struggle was now come. The English throne had become
+vacant, and the Norman duke knew how to represent himself as its lawful
+heir, and to brand the king of the nation's choice as an usurper. The
+days of debate were past, and the sword alone could decide between
+England and her enemy.
+
+William found one Englishman willing to help him in all his schemes, in
+the person of Tostig, Harold's brother, who had been outlawed at the
+demand of the nation, owing to his unfitness to rule his province as
+Earl of Northumberland. He had sunk from bad to worse. Harold had done
+all he could for his fallen brother, but to restore him was impossible.
+Tostig was at the Norman court, urging William to the invasion of
+England. At his own risk, he was allowed to make an incursion on the
+English coast. Entering the Humber, he burned several towns and slew
+many men. But after these ravages Tostig repaired to ask help of Harold
+Hardrada, whom he induced to prepare a great expedition.
+
+Harold Hardrada and Tostig landed and marched towards York. A battle was
+fought between the Mercians and Norwegians at Fulford, in which the
+former were worsted, but Harold was marching northward. In the fearful
+battle of Stamford Bridge both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain,
+and the Viking host was shattered. The victorious English king was
+banqueting in celebration of the great victory, when a messenger
+appeared who had come at fleetest pace from the distant coast of Sussex.
+
+One blow had been warded off, but another still more terrible had
+fallen. Three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of
+the Normans, once the peaceful guest of Edward, had again, but in quite
+another guise, made good his landing on the shores of England. It was in
+August 1066 that the Norman fleet had set sail on its great enterprise.
+For several weeks a south wind had been waited for at the mouth of the
+River Dive, prayers and sacred rites of every kind being employed to
+move Heaven to send the propitious breeze. On September 28 the landing
+was effected at Pevensey, the ancient Anderida. There were neither,
+ships nor men to resist the landing. The first armed man who set foot on
+English ground was Duke William himself, whose foot slipped, so that he
+fell with both hands on the ground.
+
+A loud cry of grief was raised at the evil omen. But the ready wit of
+William failed him not. "By the splendour of God," he cried, "I have
+taken seizin of my kingdom; the earth of England is in my hands." The
+whole army landed in order, but only one day was spent at Pevensey. On
+the next day the army marched on eastward and came to Hastings, which
+was fixed on as the centre of the operations of the whole campaign.
+
+It was a hard lot for the English king to be compelled to hasten
+southward to dislodge the new enemy, after scarcely a moment's rest from
+the toils and glories of Stamford Bridge. But the heart of Harold failed
+him not, and the heart of England beat in unison with the heart of her
+king. As soon as the news came, King Harold held a council of the
+leaders of Stamford Bridge, or perhaps an armed gemot. He told them of
+the landing of the enemy; he set before them the horrors which would
+come upon the land if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud
+shout of assent rose from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his
+faith rather to die in arms than to acknowledge any king but Harold.
+
+The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
+march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
+London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
+immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
+English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
+shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold
+seems to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the
+fight at Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at
+Pevensey. Though his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in
+order to seek divine help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of
+his earlier days, devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross
+which gave England her war-cry.
+
+Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
+from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
+plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan,
+and he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
+ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
+real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to
+attack him at a great disadvantage.
+
+William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
+constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The
+latter halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters
+of the invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of
+Senlac. It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a
+post of great natural strength, which he speedily made into what is
+distinctly spoken of as a castle.
+
+The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
+commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
+scene.
+
+The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
+The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
+kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English
+post. Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse,
+William led his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill
+of Telham first caught sight of the English encamped on the opposite
+height of Senlac.
+
+First in each of the three Norman divisions marched the archers,
+slingers, and cross-bow men, then the more heavily-armed infantry,
+lastly the horsemen. The reason of this arrangement is clear. The
+light-armed were to do what they could with their missiles to annoy the
+English; the heavy infantry were to strive to break down the palisades
+of the English camp, and so to make ready the way for the charge of the
+horse.
+
+Like the Normans, the English had risen early. The king, after exhorting
+his troops to stand firm, rode to the royal post; he there dismounted,
+took his place on foot, and prayed to God for help. The battle began at
+nine in the morning--one of the sacred hours of the church. The trumpet
+sounded, and a flight of arrows from all three Norman divisions--right,
+centre, and left,--was the prelude to the onslaught of the heavy-armed
+foot. The real struggle now began. The French infantry had to toil up
+the hill, and to break down the palisade, while a shower of stones and
+javelins disordered their approach, and while club, sword and axe
+greeted all who came within the reach of hand-strokes.
+
+Both sides fought with unyielding valour. The war-cries rose on either
+side. The Normans shouted "God help us!" the English called on the "Holy
+Cross." The Norman infantry had soon done its best, but that best had
+been in vain. The choicest chivalry of Europe now pressed on to the
+attack. The knights of Normandy and of all lands from which men had
+flocked to William's standard, now pressed on, striving to make what
+impression they could with the whole strength of themselves and their
+horses on the impenetrable fortress of timber, shields, and living
+warriors.
+
+But all was in vain. The English had thus far stood their ground well
+and wisely, and the tactics of Harold had so far completely answered.
+Not only had every attack failed, but the great mass of the French army
+altogether lost heart. The Bretons and the other auxiliaries on the left
+were the first to give way. Horse and foot alike, they turned and fled.
+The whole of William's left wing was thrown into utter confusion.
+
+The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single
+prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops. Order was
+soon restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more
+terrible attack. The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out
+Harold. A few moments more, and the two might have come face to face,
+but Gyrth, the noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at
+William. The missile narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish
+steed, the first of three that died under him that day. But William
+could not fight on foot as well as on horseback. He rose to his feet,
+pressed straight to seek the man who had so nearly slain him, and the
+earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of William's mace. Nor did he fall
+alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was smitten to the earth by an
+unknown assailant.
+
+The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as
+unyielding as ever. Direct attack was unavailing. In the Norman
+character fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed. He
+ventured on the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the
+unwary English rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts
+of delight. The error was fatal to England. The tide was turned; the
+duke's object was now gained; and the main end of Harold's skilful
+tactics was frustrated. The English were no longer entrenched, and the
+battle fell into a series of single combats. As twilight was coming on
+an arrow, falling like a bolt from heaven, pierced Harold's right eye,
+and he sank in agony at the foot of the standard. Round that standard
+the fight still raged, till the highest nobility, the most valiant
+soldiery of England were slaughtered to a man.
+
+Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we
+may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been
+conquered at all. As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was
+only a matter of time. From that day forward the Normans began to work
+the will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in
+England no chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought
+down to bondage and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an
+Englishman, and the men of England were no more a people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
+
+
+History of England
+
+
+     James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April
+     23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894. He was educated at
+     Westminster, and Oriel College, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders, he
+     was, for a time, deeply influenced by Newman and the
+     Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the radical revolution
+     of thought revealed by his first treatise, the "Nemesis of
+     Faith," which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation. Its
+     tendency to skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its
+     profound pathos, its accent of tenderness, and its fervour
+     excited wide admiration. Permanent fame was secured by the
+     appearance, in 1856, of the first two instalments of his
+     magnificent work, "The History of England, from the Fall of
+     Wolsey to the Defeat of the Armada," the last volume appearing
+     in 1870. This treatise on the middle Tudor period is one of
+     the most fascinating historical treatises in the whole range
+     of literature. It is written in a vivid and graphic prose, and
+     with rare command of the art of picturesque description.
+     Froude never accepted the doctrine that history should be
+     treated as a science; rather he claimed that the historian
+     should concern himself with the dramatic aspect of the period
+     about which he writes. The student may disagree with many of
+     Froude's points of view and portraitures, yet his men and
+     women breathe with the life he endows them, and their motives
+     are actuated by the forces he sets in motion. Of his
+     voluminous works perhaps the most notable, with the exception
+     of the "History," are his "History of Ireland in the
+     Eighteenth Century," 1871-74, and his "Short Studies on Great
+     Subjects," the latter aptly exhibiting Froude's gifts of
+     masterful prose and glittering paradox.
+
+
+_I.--The Condition of England_
+
+
+In periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and
+the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the
+influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves
+back into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a
+single type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms
+of the son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into
+paths the footprints of his ancestors.
+
+So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that
+to cease to change is to lose place in the great race. Looking back over
+history, we see times of change and progress alternating with other
+times when life and thought have settled into permanent forms. Such was
+the condition of the Greeks through many ages before the Persian wars,
+and such, again, became the condition of Europe when the Northern
+nations grafted religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own
+hardy natures.
+
+A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
+that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is
+necessarily obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we
+have lost the key which would interpret the characters of our fathers.
+But some broad conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least
+possible to us. A rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows
+that it was something under five millions.
+
+The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
+principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
+service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
+strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best
+be determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food.
+Both were as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in
+the fourteenth century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were
+1/2d. a pound; mutton was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought
+for 4d.; a good capon for 3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d.
+Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d. a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon,
+and table beer was less than 1/2d.
+
+A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
+reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
+could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day
+can for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of
+the 6th of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters,
+masons, bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others,
+employers of skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if
+no meat and drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year,
+fivepence a day for the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the
+yearly average. The common labourers were to receive fourpence a day for
+the half year; for the remaining half, threepence.
+
+The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
+shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and
+this is far from being a full account of his advantages. The
+agricultural labourer held land in connection with his house, while in
+most parishes there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest
+land, which furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and
+ducks and geese, and where, if he could afford a cow, he was in no
+danger of being unable to feed it; and so important was this privilege
+considered, that when the commons began to be largely enclosed,
+Parliament insisted that the working man should not be without some
+piece of ground on which he could employ his own and his family's
+industry.
+
+By the 7th of the 31st of Elizabeth it was ordered that no cottage
+should be built for residence without four acres of land at lowest being
+attached to it for the sole use of the occupants of such cottage.
+
+The incomes of the great nobles cannot be determined for they varied
+probably as much as they do now. Under Henry IV. the average income of
+an earl was estimated at £2,000 a year. Under Henry VIII. the great Duke
+of Buckingham, the wealthiest English peer, had £6,000. And the income
+of the Archbishop of Canterbury was rated at the same amount. But the
+establishments of such men were enormous. Their retinues in time of
+peace consisted of several hundred persons, and in time of war a large
+share of the expenses was paid often out of private purses.
+
+Passing down to the body of the people, we find that £20 a year and
+heavy duties to do for it, represented the condition of the squire of
+the parish. By the 2nd of Henry V. "the wages" of a parish priest were
+limited to £5 6s. 8d., except in cases where there was a special license
+from the bishop, when they might be raised as high as £6. Both squire
+and priest had sufficient for comfort. Neither was able to establish any
+steep difference between himself and the commons among whom he lived, so
+far as concerned outward advantages.
+
+The habits of all classes were free, open, and liberal. In frank style
+the people lived in "merry England," displaying the "glory of
+hospitality," England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules according to
+which all tables were open to all comers without reserve. To every man,
+according to his degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare
+and free lodging. The people hated three things with all their
+hearts--idleness, want, and cowardice.
+
+A change, however, was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction
+of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era.
+Chivalry was dying; the abbey and castle were soon together to crumble
+into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, and convictions of the
+old world were passing away never to return. A new continent had arisen
+beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk
+back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth
+itself, unfixed from its foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in
+the awful vastness of the universe. In the fabric of habit which they
+had so laboriously built for themselves mankind were to remain no
+longer.
+
+
+_II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy_
+
+
+Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
+through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him
+on the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder.
+The clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they
+deserved it. They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt
+the meaning of their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their
+authority was exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of
+the crown; and therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was
+compelled to stoop before them.
+
+The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
+conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
+duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
+recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
+conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
+remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
+their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
+inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without
+faith, wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy
+and cut off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary
+life.
+
+Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
+taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there
+were no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among
+them a remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who
+was essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
+English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
+influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
+entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
+Protestants.
+
+Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
+before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
+familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable.
+Dreaming that it could be effected from within, by the church itself
+inspired with a wiser spirit, he himself fell the first victim of a
+convulsion which he had assisted to create, and which he attempted too
+late to stay.
+
+Wolsey talked of reformation, but delayed its coming. The monasteries
+grew worse and worse. Favoured parish clergy held as many as eight
+benefices. Bishops accumulated sees, and, unable to attend to all,
+attended to none. Wolsey himself, the church reformer (so little did he
+really know what a reformation means), was at once Archbishop of York,
+Bishop of Winchester and of Durham, and Abbot of St. Albans. Under such
+circumstances, we need not be surprised to find the clergy sunk low in
+the respect of the English people.
+
+Fish's famous pamphlet shows the spirit that was seething. He spoke of
+what he had seen and knew. The monks, he tells the king, "be they that
+have made a hundred thousand idle dissolute women in your realm." But
+Wolsey could interfere with neither bishops nor monks without a special
+dispensation from the pope. A new trouble arose from the nation in the
+desire of Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who had been his
+deceased brother's wife, was six years older than himself, and was an
+obstacle to the establishment of the kingdom. Her sons were dead, and
+she was beyond the period when more children could be expected. Though
+descent in the female line was not formally denied, no queen regent had
+ever, in fact, sat upon the throne; nor was the claim distinctly
+admitted, or the claim of the House of York would have been
+unquestionable. It was, therefore, with no little anxiety that the
+council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children, on whom their hopes
+were centred, either born dead, or dying one after another within a few
+days of their birth.
+
+The line of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak
+from her childhood. If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to
+insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a
+civil war was inevitable. The next heir in blood was James of Scotland,
+and gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the
+existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was
+said, would rise up against a king of Scotland who entered England as
+sovereign.
+
+So far were Henry and Catherine alike that both had imperious tempers,
+and both were indomitably obstinate; but Henry was hot and impetuous,
+Catherine cold and self-contained. She had been the wife of Prince
+Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., but the death of that prince occurred
+only five months after the marriage. The uncertainty of the laws of
+marriage, and the innumerable refinements of the Roman canon law,
+affected the legitimacy of the children and raised scruples of
+conscience in the mind of the king. The loss of his children must have
+appeared as a judicial sentence on a violation of the Divine law. The
+divorce presented itself to him as a moral obligation, when national
+advantage combined with superstition to encourage what he secretly
+desired.
+
+Wolsey, after thirty years' experience of public life, was as sanguine
+as a boy. Armed with this little lever of divorce, he saw himself in
+imagination the rebuilder of the Catholic faith and the deliverer of
+Europe from ecclesiastical revolt and from innovations of faith. The
+mass of the people hated Protestantism as he, a true friend of the
+Catholic cult, sincerely detested the reformation of Luther. He believed
+that the old life-tree of Catholicism, which in fact was but cumbering
+the ground, might bloom again in its old beauty. But a truer political
+prophet than Wolsey would have been found in the most ignorant of those
+poor men who were risking death and torture in disseminating the
+pernicious volumes of the English Testament.
+
+Catherine being a Spanish princess, Henry, in 1527, formed a league with
+Francis I., with the object of breaking the Spanish alliance. The pope
+was requested to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of
+England to marry a wife who could bear him children. Deeply as we
+deplore the outrage inflicted on Catherine, and the scandal and
+suffering occasioned by the dispute, it was in the highest degree
+fortunate that at the crisis of public dissatisfaction in England with
+the condition of the church, a cause should have arisen which tested the
+whole question of church authority in its highest form. It was no
+accident which connected a suit for divorce with the reformation of
+religion.
+
+
+_Anne Boleyn_
+
+
+The Spanish emperor, Charles V., gave Catherine his unwavering support,
+and refused to allow the pope to pass a judicial sentence of divorce.
+Catherine refused to yield. Another person now comes into conspicuous
+view. It has been with Anne Boleyn as with Catherine of Aragon--both are
+regarded as the victims of a tyranny which Catholics and Protestants
+unite to remember with horror, and each has taken the place of a
+martyred saint in the hagiology of the respective creeds. Anne Boleyn
+was second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a gentleman of noble family.
+She was educated in Paris, and in 1525 came back to England to be maid
+of honour to Queen Catherine, and to be distinguished at the court by
+her talents, accomplishments, and beauty.
+
+The fortunes of Anne Boleyn were unhappily linked with those of men to
+whom the greatest work ever yet accomplished in this country was
+committed. In the memorable year 1529, after the meeting of parliament,
+events moved apace. In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted,
+the astonished church authorities saw bill after bill hurried up before
+the lords, by which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes
+would be dried up to flow no longer. The Great Reformation had commenced
+in earnest.
+
+The carelessness of the bishops in the discharge of their most immediate
+duties obliged the legislature to trespass in the provinces most purely
+spiritual, and to undertake the discipline of the clergy. Bill after
+bill struck hard and home on the privileges of the recreant clergy. The
+aged Bishop of Rochester complained to the lords that in the lower house
+the cry was nothing but "Down with the church." Yet, so frightful were
+the abuses that called for radical reform, that even persons who most
+disapprove of the reformation will not at the present time wonder at
+their enactment, or disapprove of their severity. The king treated the
+bishops, when they remonstrated, with the most contemptuous disrespect.
+Archbishop Cranmer now adopted a singular expedient. He advised Henry to
+invite expressions from all the chief learned authorities throughout
+Europe as to the right of the pope to grant him a dispensation of
+dissolution of his marriage. The English universities, to escape
+imputations of treasons and to avoid exciting Henry's wrath, gave
+replies such as would please him, that of Oxford being, however, the
+more decided of the two. Most of the continental authorities declined to
+pronounce any dictum as to the powers of the pope.
+
+
+_The Fall of the Great Chancellor_
+
+
+The fall of Wolsey was at hand. His enemies accused him of treason to
+the constitution by violating a law of the realm. He had acted as papal
+legate within the realm. The parliaments of Edward I., Edward III.,
+Richard II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced
+illegal all presentations by the pope to any office or dignity in the
+Anglican Church, under a penalty of premunire. Henry did not feel
+himself called on to shield his great minister, although the guilt
+extended to all who had recognised Wolsey in the capacity of papal
+legate. Indeed, it extended to the archbishops, bishops, the privy
+council, the two houses of parliament, and indirectly to the nation
+itself. The higher clergy had been encouraged by Wolsey's position to
+commit those acts of despotism which had created so deep animosity among
+the people. The overflow of England's last ecclesiastical minister was
+to teach them that the privileges they had abused were at an end.
+
+In February, 1531, Henry assumed the title which was to occasion such
+momentous consequences, of "Protector and only Supreme Head of the
+Church and Clergy of England." The clergy were compelled to assent.
+Further serious steps marked the great breach with Rome. The annates, or
+first fruits, were abolished. Ever since the crusades a practice had
+existed in all the churches of Europe that bishops and archbishops, on
+presentation to their sees, should transmit to the pope one year's
+income. This impressive impost was not abrogated. It was a sign of the
+parting of the ways.
+
+Henry laid his conduct open to the world, declaring truly what he
+desired, and seeking it by open means. He was determined to proceed with
+the divorce, and also to continue the reformation of the English church.
+And he was in no small measure aided in the former resolve by the
+recommendation of Francis, for the French king advised him to act on the
+general opinion of Europe that his marriage with Catherine, as widow of
+his elder brother Arthur, was null, and at once made Anne Boleyn his
+wife. This counsel was administered at an interview between the two
+kings at Boulogne, in October, 1532.
+
+The pope had trifled for six years with the momentous question, and
+Henry was growing old. At the outset of the discussion the pope had
+said: "Marry freely; fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you
+desire." But the pontiff, reduced to a dilemma by various causes, had
+fallen back on his Italian cunning, and had changed his attitude,
+listening to the appeals of Catherine and her powerful friends. And now
+he threatened Henry with excommunication.
+
+Henry entered privately into matrimonial relations with Anne in
+November, 1532, and the marriage was solemnly celebrated, with a
+gorgeous pageant, at Westminster Abbey in the following January. On July
+24 the people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the
+church doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine
+of Spain, heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by
+that title any more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be
+held and esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short
+years.
+
+
+_Protestantism_
+
+
+Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
+and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
+fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the
+growing desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the
+year 1525 was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The
+Association of Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the
+land carrying tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the
+order all who dared risk their lives in such a cause.
+
+The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
+such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
+spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
+October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
+echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
+Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
+translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the
+formation of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed.
+The bishops subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and
+these were burned before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But
+Wolsey had for two years been suppressing the smaller monasteries.
+Simultaneously, Protestants were persecuted wherever they could be
+detected and seized. "Little" Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished
+Cambridge student, was burnt as a heretic at the stake, as were James
+Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and several other members of
+the "association." These were the first paladins of the reformation, and
+the struggle went bravely forward. They were the knights who slew the
+dragons and made the earth habitable for common flesh and blood.
+
+As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
+Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
+pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When
+the breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal party at
+home had assumed an attitude of suspended insurrection, the fortunes of
+the Protestants entered into a new phase. The persecution ceased, and
+those who were but lately its likely victims, hiding for their lives,
+passed at once by a sudden alternation into the sunshine of political
+favour.
+
+Cromwell and Latimer together caught the moment as it went by, and
+before it was over a work had been done in England which, when it was
+accomplished once, was accomplished for ever. The conservative party
+recovered their power, and abused it as before; but the chains of the
+nation were broken, and no craft of kings or priests or statesmen could
+weld the magic links again, Latimer became famous as a preacher at
+Cambridge, and was heard of by Henry, who sent for him and appointed him
+one of the royal chaplains. He was accused by the bishops of heresy, but
+was on trial absolved and sent back to his parish. Soon after the tide
+turned, and the reformation entered into a new phase.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, like Latimer of humble origin, was the "malleus
+monachorum." Wolsey discovered his merit, and employed him in breaking
+up the small monasteries, which the pope had granted for the foundation
+of the new colleges. Cromwell remained with the great cardinal till his
+fall. It was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed
+itself. The lords had passed a bill of impeachment against
+Wolsey--violent, vindictive, and malevolent. It was to be submitted to
+the commons. Cromwell prepared an opposition, and conducted the defence
+from his place in parliament so skilfully that he threw out the bill,
+saved Wolsey, and gained such a reputation that he became Henry's
+secretary, representing the government in the House of Commons, and was
+on the highroad to power.
+
+The reformation was blotted with a black and frightful stain. Towards
+the end of April, 1536, certain members of the Privy Council were
+engaged in secretly collecting evidence which implicated the queen in
+adultery. In connection with the terrible charge, as her accomplices
+five gentlemen were arrested--Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeton, a court
+musician, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and, the accusation in
+his case being the most shocking, Lord Rochford, the queen's brother.
+The trial was hastily pushed forward, and all were executed. The queen,
+who vehemently and piteously appealed to Henry, passionately protesting
+that she was absolutely innocent, was also condemned, and was beheaded
+in public on Tower Hill.
+
+Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John
+Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the
+cause of Anne Boleyn's ruin. On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and
+passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the
+queen took cold, and died on October 24.
+
+In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England. The great monasteries
+were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old
+nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics. On
+January 6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne,
+daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of
+Saxony. This event was brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell.
+The king was deeply displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride
+when he met her on her landing, but retreat was impossible. Though Henry
+was personally kind to the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.
+
+Cromwell's enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great
+statesman. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of
+corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and,
+in spite of Cranmer's efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on
+July 28, 1540. For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl
+of Essex, was supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the
+nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.
+
+Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne,
+setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without
+objection or delay. The queen had placidly given her consent. Handsome
+settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance
+producing nearly three thousand a year. In August of the same year the
+King married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord
+Edmond Howard. Brief, indeed, was her reign. In November, 1541, she was
+charged with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows. The king was
+overwhelmed. Some dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it
+with infamy.
+
+Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen. They
+were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been
+her confidential companion, suffered within the Tower. Once more the
+king ventured into marriage. Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last
+choice, was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but
+by his own personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he
+desired.
+
+The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
+Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
+had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France
+to attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to
+proclaim a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only
+shepherds and agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were
+instantly the finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously
+defeated the Scots that all the latter either perished in the morass by
+the Solway, or were captured.
+
+Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
+Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.
+
+The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
+future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
+conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition
+of the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince
+Edward to the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the
+morning of Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was
+in Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of
+Monday, the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was
+already in session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the
+minority of Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full
+power. Cranmer set the willing example, and the other prelates
+consented, or were compelled to imitate him, in an acknowledgment that
+all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm,
+only emanated from the sovereign. On February it was ordered in council
+that Hertford should be Duke of Somerset, and that his brother, Sir
+Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be
+Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley, the chancellor, Earl of
+Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of Warwick. The Duke of
+Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real power was at once in
+his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he persuaded
+himself--to do good.
+
+
+_Edward's Guardian_
+
+
+Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
+proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
+were melted into coin. Somerset gave the popular movement the formal
+sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
+purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide
+to doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in
+the parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the
+New Testament" were provided as a commentary.
+
+Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
+Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
+refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into
+with Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should
+marry Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547,
+the Scots were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned
+southward. His brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him,
+and was arrested, tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549.
+But the fall of the protector himself was not long delayed, for under
+his administration of three years his policy gradually excited wide
+discontent. In various parts of the country insurrections had to be
+suppressed. The French king had taken away the young Scottish queen, the
+king's majesty's espouse, by which marriage the realms of England and
+Scotland should have been united in perpetual peace. Money had been
+wasted on the royal household. The alliance with Charles V. had been
+trifled away. The princely name and princely splendour which Somerset
+affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst the ruin of the
+national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset House,
+London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
+national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation
+with which the council regarded him.
+
+His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
+both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him
+to such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign
+his deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his
+uncle. On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high
+treason and condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22,
+1582. The English public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are
+good judges, for the most part, of personal character; and so
+passionately was Somerset loved, that those who were nearest the
+scaffold started forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood. Before
+this event, Dudley, by whose cruel treachery the tragedy had been
+brought about, had been created Duke of Northumberland. The great aim of
+this nobleman was to secure the succession to the throne for his own
+family. With this purpose in view he married his son, Lord Guildford
+Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk, to whom,
+by the will of Henry VIII., the crown would pass, in default of issue by
+Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.
+
+In April, 1553, Edward, who had been removed to Greenwich in consequence
+of illness, grew rapidly worse. By the end of the month he was spitting
+blood, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. The
+accession of Mary, who was personally popular, was looked forward to by
+the people as a matter of course. Northumberland now worked on the mind
+of the feeble and dying king, and succeeded in persuading him to declare
+both his sisters incapable of succeeding to the crown, as being
+illegitimate. The king died on July 6. The last male child of the Tudor
+race had ceased to suffer.
+
+When Lady Jane was saluted by Northumberland and four other lords, all
+kneeling at her feet, as queen, she shook, covered her face with her
+hands, and fell fainting to the ground. The next Monday, July 10, the
+royal barges came down the Thames from Richmond, and at three in the
+afternoon Lady Jane landed at the broad staircase of the Tower, as
+queen, in undesired splendour. But that same evening messages came
+saying that Mary had declared herself queen. She had sent addresses to
+the peers, commanding them on their allegiance to come to her.
+
+Happily, the conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane was crushed, without
+bloodshed, although it had seemed for a time as if the nation, was on
+the brink of a civil war. But, though Mary wished to spare Lady Jane and
+her husband, her intentions were frustrated by the determination of
+Renard, ambassador of the emperor. Northumberland was sent to the Tower,
+and beheaded on August 22, and in the following November Lady Jane and
+her husband were also condemned. Mary long hesitated, but at length
+issued the fatal warrant on February 8, 1554, and four days later both
+were executed. Lady Jane was but a delicate girl of seventeen, but met
+her fate with the utmost heroism.
+
+Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, became the chief instrument of
+the restoration of the Catholic faith under Mary. His fierce spirit soon
+began to display itself. In the fiery obstinacy of his determination
+this prelate speedily became the incarnate expression of the fury of the
+ecclesiastical faction, smarting, as they were, under their long
+degradation, and under the irritating consciousness of those false oaths
+of submission which they had sworn to a power they loathed. Gardiner now
+saw his Romanising party once more in a position to revenge their wrongs
+when there was no longer any Henry to stand between them and their
+enemies. He would take the tide at the flood, forge a weapon keener than
+the last, and establish the Inquisition.
+
+
+_The Reign of Terror_
+
+
+Mary listened to the worse counsels of each, and her distempered humour
+settled into a confused ferocity. Both Gardiner and she resolved to
+secure the trial, condemnation, and execution of her sister Elizabeth,
+but their plans utterly miscarried, for no evidence against her could be
+gathered. The princess was known to be favourable to the Protestant
+cause, but the attempts to prove her disloyalty to Mary were vain. She
+was imprisoned in the Tower, and the fatal net appeared to be closing on
+her. But though the danger of her murder was very great, the lords who
+had reluctantly permitted her to be imprisoned would not allow her to be
+openly sacrificed, or indeed, permit the queen to continue in the career
+of vengeance on which she had entered. The necessity of releasing
+Elizabeth from the Tower was an unspeakable annoyance to Mary. A
+confinement at Woodstock was the furthest stretch of severity that the
+country would, for the present, permit. On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was
+taken up the river.
+
+The princess believed herself that she was being carried off _tanquam
+ovis_, as she said--as a sheep for the slaughter. But the world thought
+she was set at liberty, and, as her barge passed under the bridge, Mary
+heard with indignation, from the palace windows, three salvoes of
+artillery fired from the Steelyard, as a sign of the joy of the people.
+Vexations began to tell on Mary's spirit. She could not shake off her
+anxieties, or escape from the shadow of her subject's hatred. Insolent
+pamphlets were dropped in her path and in the offices of Whitehall. They
+were placed by mysterious hands in the sanctuary of her bedroom.
+
+Her trials began to tell on her understanding. She was ill with
+hysterical longings; ill with the passions which Gardiner, as her
+chancellor, had provoked, but Paget as leader of the opposing party, had
+disappointed. But she was now to become the wife of King Philip of
+Spain. Negotiations for this momentous marriage had been protracted, and
+even after the contract had been signed, Philip seemed slow to arrive.
+The coolness manifested by his tardiness did much to aggravate the
+queen's despondency. On July 20, 1554, he landed at Southampton. The
+atmospheric auspices were not cheering, for Philip, who had come from
+the sunny plains of Castile, from his window at Southampton looked out
+on a steady downfall of July rain. Through the cruel torrent he made his
+way to church to mass, and afterwards Gardiner came to him from the
+queen. On the next Sunday he journeyed to Winchester, again in pouring
+rain. To the cathedral he went first, wet as he was. Whatever Philip of
+Spain was entering on, whether it was a marriage or a massacre, a state
+intrigue or a midnight murder, his first step was ever to seek a
+blessing from the holy wafer. Mary was at the bishop's palace, a few
+hundred yards' distance. Mary could not wait, and the same night the
+interview took place. Let the curtain fall over the meeting, let it
+close also over the wedding solemnities which followed with due
+splendour two days after. There are scenes in life which we regard with
+pity too deep for words.
+
+The unhappy queen, unloved, unlovable, yet with her parched heart
+thirsting for affection, was flinging herself upon a breast to which an
+iceberg was warm; upon a man to whom love was an unmeaning word, except
+as the most brutal of all passions. Mary set about to complete the
+Catholic reaction. She had restored the Catholic orthodoxy in her own
+person, and now was resolved to bring over her own subjects. But clouds
+gathered over the court. The Spaniards were too much in evidence. With
+the reaction came back the supremacy of the pope, and the ecclesiastical
+courts were reinstated in authority to check unlicensed extravagance of
+opinion.
+
+Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and three other prelates formed a court on
+January 28, 1555, in St. Mary Overy's Church, Southwark, and Hooper,
+Bishop of Gloucester, and Canon Rogers of St. Paul's, were brought up
+before them. Both were condemned as Protestants, and both were burnt at
+the stake, the bishop at Gloucester, the canon at Smithfield. They
+suffered heroically. The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of
+their rivals. There was a general conviction among them that Protestants
+would all flinch at the last; that they had no "doctrine that would
+abide the fire." Many more victims were offered. The enemies of the
+church were to submit or die. So said Gardiner, and so said the papal
+legate and the queen, in the delirious belief that they were the chosen
+instruments of Providence.
+
+The people, whom the cruelty of the party was reconverting to the
+reformation, while the fires of Smithfield blazed, with a rapidity like
+that produced by the gift of tongues at Pentecost, regarded the martyrs
+with admiration as soldiers dying for their country. On Mary, sorrow was
+heaped on sorrow. Her expectation of a child was disappointed, and
+Philip refused to stay in England. His unhappy wife was forced to know
+that he preferred the society of the most abandoned women to hers. The
+horrible crusade against heretics became the business of the rest of her
+life. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Latimer, and many other
+persons of distinction were amongst the martyrs of the Marian
+persecution. Latimer was eighty years of age.
+
+Mary's miseries were intensified month by month. War broke out between
+England and France. For ten years the French had cherished designs, and
+on January 7, 1558, the famous stronghold fell into their hands. The
+effect of this misfortune on the queen was to produce utter prostration.
+She now well understood that both parliament and the nation were badly
+disposed towards her. But her end was at hand. After much suffering from
+dropsy and nervous debility, she prepared quietly for what she knew was
+inevitable. On November 16, at midnight, taking leave of a world in
+which she had played so evil a part, Mary received the last rites of the
+church. Towards morning she was sinking, and at the elevation of the
+Host, as mass was being said, her head sank, and she was gone. A few
+hours later the pope's legate, Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, followed her.
+Thus the reign of the pope in England and the reign of terror closed
+together.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12745 ***
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+  <title>The World's Greatest Books XI</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12745 ***</div>
+
+<center> <h1>THE WORLD'S</h1> <h1>GREATEST</h1> <h1>BOOKS</h1>
+
+<h2>JOINT EDITORS</h2>
+
+<h3>ARTHUR MEE</h3> <h3>Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge</h3>
+
+<h3>J.A. HAMMERTON</h3> <h3>Editor of Harmsworth's Universal
+Encyclop&aelig;dia</h3>
+
+<h2>VOL. XI</h2>
+
+<h3>ANCIENT HISTORY</h3> <h3>MEDI&AElig;VAL HISTORY</h3>
+</center>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
+
+<b><a href='#Ancient_History'>ANCIENT HISTORY</a></b><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EGYPT<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#GASTON_MASPERO'>MASPERO, GASTON</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Dawn_of_Civilisation'>Dawn of Civilization</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Struggle_of_the_Nations'>Struggle of the Nations</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Passing_of_the_Empires'>Passing of the Empires</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JEWS<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#FLAVIUS_JOSEPHUS'>JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews'>Antiquities of the Jews</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Wars_of_the_Jews'>Wars of the Jews</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HENRY_MILMAN_DD'>MILMAN, HENRY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_the_Jews'>History of the Jews</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GREECE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HERODOTUS'>HERODOTUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History'>History</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#THUCYDIDES'>THUCYDIDES</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Peloponnesian_War'>Peloponnesian War</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#XENOPHON'>XENOPHON</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Anabasis'>Anabasis</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#GEORGE_GROTE'>GROTE, GEORGE</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Greece'>History of Greece</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HEINRICH_SCHLIEMANN'>SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Troy_and_Its_Remains'>Troy and Its Remains</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ROME<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#JULIUS_CAESAR'>C&AElig;SAR, JULIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War'>Commentaries on the Gallic
+War</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#TACITUS'>TACITUS,
+PUBLIUS CORNELIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Annals'>Annals</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#SALLUST'>SALLUST,
+CATOS CRISPUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Conspiracy_of_Catiline'>Conspiracy of Catiline</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_GIBBON1'>GIBBON, EDWARD</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__I'>Decline and Fall of the
+Roman Empire</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#THEODOR_MOMMSEN'>MOMMSEN, THEODOR</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Rome'>History of Rome</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href='#Mediaeval_History'>MEDI&AElig;VAL HISTORY</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_GIBBON2'>GIBBON, EDWARD</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Holy_Roman_Empire'>The Holy Roman Empire</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EUROPE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#FRANCOIS_GUIZOT'>GUIZOT, F.P.G.</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Civilisation_in_Europe'>History of Civilization in
+Europe</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HENRY_HALLAM'>HALLAM, HENRY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#View_of_the_State_of_Europe_During_the_Middle_Ages'>View of the
+State of Europe During the Middle Ages</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EGYPT<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#STANLEY_LANE_POOLE'>LANE-POOLE, STANLEY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Egypt_in_the_Middle_Ages'>Egypt in the Middle Ages</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ENGLAND<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#RAPHAEL_HOLINSHED'>HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Chronicles_of_England_Scotland_and_Ireland'>Chronicles of England,
+Scotland and Ireland</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_A_FREEMAN'>FREEMAN, E.A.</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Norman_Conquest_of_England'>Norman Conquest of England</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#JAMES_ANTHONY_FROUDE'>FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_England'>History of England</a><br />
+
+<p>A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
+of Volume XX.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>Acknowledgment</h1>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
+following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The Struggle of the
+Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by Gaston Maspero--which appear
+in this volume, are hereby tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian
+Knowledge, of London, England. </p></blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Ancient_History'></a>Ancient History</h1>
+
+
+<h2><a name='GASTON_MASPERO'></a>GASTON MASPERO</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Dawn_of_Civilisation'></a>The Dawn of Civilisation</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
+Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in philology and
+Egyptology, having in great part studied his special subjects on Oriental
+ground. After occupying for several years the Chair of Egyptology in the
+&Eacute;cole des Hautes &Eacute;tudes at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became,
+in 1874, Professor of Egyptian Philology and Arch&aelig;ology at the
+Coll&egrave;ge de France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director
+of the Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this museum
+became enriched with its choicest antique treasures. Dr. Maspero retired in
+1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt as Director of Excavations. His works
+are of the utmost value, his skill in marshalling facts and deducting
+legitimate inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense work,
+with the general title of "History of the Ancient Peoples of the Classic
+East," divided into three parts, each complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of
+Civilisation"; (2) "The Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the
+Empires." </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Nile and Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
+vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
+plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this, the
+Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as it
+were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper begins. It
+is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south between
+regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the banks of the
+river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The whole length of the
+land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly parallel at a mean distance
+of about twelve miles.</p>
+
+<p>During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space;
+and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very
+summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and shrunken
+within the deeps of its own ancient bed, the stream now makes a way through
+its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keep to the east, and
+constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the hieroglyphic
+inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in which the river flowed
+divides, and two other streams are opened up in a southerly direction, each
+of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream.</p>
+
+<p>Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down
+from the distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed
+the immense plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew. The
+river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it withheld
+it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious armies follow
+the Nile for months together, as they pursued the tribes who dwelt upon its
+banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as irresistible in its progress as
+ever. It was a fresh-water sea--<i>iauma, ioma</i> was the name by which
+they called it. The Egyptians, therefore, never sought its source. It was
+said to be of supernatural origin, to rise in Paradise, to traverse burning
+regions inaccessible to man, and afterwards to fall into a sea whence it
+made its way to Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant
+invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as large
+as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the
+Bahr-el-Abiad unites with the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Alluvial
+deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which is known as
+Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our era it must still have been vast
+enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and boatmen the idea of an actual
+sea opening into the Indian Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the
+soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and hence
+it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They personified it
+as a man with regular features, and a vigorous but portly body, such as
+befits the rich of high lineage. Sometimes water springs from his breast;
+sometimes he presents a frog, or libation of vases, or bears a tray full of
+offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or geese. The inscriptions call him
+"Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who maketh food to be, and
+covereth the two lands of Egypt with his products; who giveth life,
+banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."</p>
+
+<p>He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
+other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his head,
+presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for his
+headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses, corresponding to the
+two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and Mirit-Mihit for the Lower
+Egypt--personified the banks of the river. They are represented with
+outstretched arms, as though begging for the water that should make them
+fertile.</p>
+
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Gods of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
+ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly every
+illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of some
+deity. One would think the country had been inhabited for the most part by
+gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the requirements of their
+worship. Each of these deities represented a function, a moment in the life
+of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit was identified with the ripe ear of
+wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the child's cradle at the very moment of its
+birth; and Raninit presided over the naming and nurture of the newly
+born.</p>
+
+<p>In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual
+jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the
+indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its
+grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one of
+the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form; others as
+animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.</p>
+
+<p>The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
+composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other composed
+of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of Sebennytos
+and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at Pharb&aelig;thos;
+Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady Tumilat; and,
+finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was enthroned at
+Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home deities. Horus the
+sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated each other that none
+could say where the one began and the other ended.</p>
+
+<p>Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
+universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
+entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as Nit
+was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human form.
+Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and formed a
+trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the local deity was
+content with one wife and one son, but often he was united to two
+goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than lowered, the prestige
+of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had of himself but limited
+authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was generally an
+infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him her breast. The gods
+had body and soul, like men; they had bones, muscles, flesh and blood; they
+hungered and thirsted, ate and drank; they had our passions, griefs, joys
+and infirmities; and they were subject to age, decrepitude and death,
+though they lived very far beyond the term of life of men.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>sa</i>, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
+carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who thus
+might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king who wished
+to become impregnated with the divine <i>sa</i> sat before the statue of
+the god in order that this principle might be infused into him. The gods
+were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils which death so
+plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome possessed the mummy
+and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was the mummy of Anhuri in
+its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at Heliopolis that of Tumu.
+Usually, by dying, the god became another deity. Ptah of Memphis became
+Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was changed into Anubis. Osiris
+first represented the wild and fickle Nile of primitive times; but was soon
+transformed into a benefactor to humanity, the supremely good being,
+Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed to assume the shapes not only of man,
+but of rams and bulls, or even of water-birds, such as lapwings, herons,
+and cranes. His companion goddess was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's
+horns, who personified the earth, and was mother of Horus.</p>
+
+<p>There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family
+fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the
+sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who
+made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water. The
+most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be regarded as
+the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed gods and
+fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting with an
+animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden intuition.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Legendary History of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or
+traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus. Great
+space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king of Egypt,
+who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men,
+and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his court was mainly
+composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went forth in his barque,
+amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his accustomed circuit of the
+world, and returned to his home at the end of twelve hours after the
+journey. In his old age he became the subject of the wiles of Isis, who
+poisoned him, and so secured his departure from earth. He was succeeded by
+Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the universe was divided.</p>
+
+<p>The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at
+length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were
+taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain by
+the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was divided
+between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth of two
+kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus, son of
+Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed itself
+under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.</p>
+
+<p>Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating
+to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris to
+the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination and
+trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show. Before
+gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it had
+during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris, and had
+served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from the very
+beginning of the Typhonian wars.</p>
+
+<p>To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two
+Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human
+dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his
+existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are mere
+legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our researches. The
+history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1. The Memphite
+period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from the First to the
+Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers over the whole of Egypt
+during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The Theban period, from the
+Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided into two parts by the
+invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3. Saite period, from the
+Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided again into two parts by the
+Persian Conquest, the first Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the
+Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite Period, from the Twenty-eighth to
+the Thirtieth dynasty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel to
+the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has mounted
+guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the followers of
+Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected
+alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more accessible
+places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole country. The
+bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined, were thrust into
+the sand at a depth of barely three feet from the surface. Those of the
+better class rested in mean rectangular chambers, hastily built of yellow
+bricks, without ornaments or treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse
+pottery contained the provisions left to nourish the departed during the
+period of his existence. Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out
+of the mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a
+"mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some
+subterranean vaults.</p>
+
+<p>During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs
+formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues,
+and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of
+these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes new
+life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands out
+boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else. He is
+god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the great-god,"
+connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the Pharaohs are
+blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being infused into the
+royal infant at birth.</p>
+
+<p>The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
+Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
+any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
+very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
+title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered her
+a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of private
+citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having no bond of
+union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of birth had
+destined to be their ruler.</p>
+
+<p>Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
+the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
+were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its attendants
+and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment to a score of
+different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost approached the
+dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which adorned each one, a
+living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers, dancers, buffoons and dwarfs
+whiled away the tedious hours. Many were the physicians, chaplains,
+soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed was the army of officials
+connected with the administration of public affairs. The mainspring of all
+this machinery was the writer, or, as we call him, the scribe, across whom
+we come in all grades of the staff.</p>
+
+<p>The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
+was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
+wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the elementary
+rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the scribe takes
+the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a talented scribe
+rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was removed to Berlin
+by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and was ennobled.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Memphite Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All we
+know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the nomads of
+Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier of the Delta,
+and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid. Snofrui called the
+pyramid "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead Pharaoh, identified
+with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. It was built to indicate
+the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person of rank in his tribe or
+province. The worship of Snofrui, the first pyramid-builders, was
+perpetuated from century to century. His popularity was probably great; but
+his fame has been eclipsed in our eyes by that of the Pharaohs of the
+Memphite dynasty who immediately followed him--Kheops, Khephren and
+Mykerinos.</p>
+
+<p>Khufui, the Kheops of the Greeks, was probably son of Snofrui. He
+reigned twenty-three years, successfully defended the valuable mines of
+copper, manganese and turquoise of the Sinaitic peninsula against the
+Bedouin; restored the temple of Hathor at Dendera; embellished that of
+Babastis; built a sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx; and consecrated
+there gold, silver and bronze statues of Horus and many other gods. Other
+Pharaohs had done as much or more; but the Egyptians of later dynasties
+measured the magnificence of Kheops by the dimensions of his pyramid at
+Ghizel. The Great Pyramid was called Khuit, the "Horizon," in which Kheops
+had to be swallowed up, as his father, the sun, was engulfed every evening
+in the horizon of the west. Of Dadufri, his immediate successor, we can
+probably say that he reigned eight years; but Khephren, the next son who
+succeeded to the throne, erected temples and a gigantic pyramid, like his
+father. He placed it some 394 feet to the south-west of that of Kheops, and
+called it Uiru the Great. It is much smaller than its neighbour, but at a
+distance the difference in height disappears. The pyramid of Mykerinos, son
+and successor of Khephren, was considerably inferior in height, but was
+built with scrupulous art and refined care.</p>
+
+<p>The Fifth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the Fourth. It reckons nine Pharaohs, who reigned for a
+century and a half, and each of them built pyramids and founded cities, and
+appear to have ruled gloriously. They maintained, and even increased, the
+power and splendour of Egypt. But the history of the Memphite Empire
+unfortunately loses itself in legend and fable, and becomes a blank for
+several centuries.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The First Theban Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The principality of the Oleander--Naru--comprised the territory lying
+between the Nile and the Bahr Yusuf, a district known to the Greeks as the
+island of Heracleopolis. It, moreover, included the whole basin of the
+Fayum, on the west of the valley. Attracted by the fertility of the soil,
+the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up their
+residence in Heracleopolis, the capital of the district of the Oleander,
+and one of them, Snofrui, had built his pyramid at Medum, close to the
+frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the Memphites declined,
+so did the princes of the Oleander grow more vigorous and enterprising; and
+When the Memphite kings passed away, these princes succeeded their former
+masters and eventually sat "upon the throne of Horus."</p>
+
+<p>The founder of the Ninth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., who ruled over
+all Egypt, and whose name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.
+His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a century.
+The history of this period seems to have been one of confused struggle, the
+Pharaohs fighting constantly against their vassals, and the nobles warring
+amongst themselves. During the Memphite and Heracleopolitan dynasties
+Memphis, Elephantin&eacute;, El-Kab and Koptos were the principal cities of
+the country; and it was only towards the end of the Eighth dynasty that
+Thebes began to realise its power. The revolt of the Theban. princes put an
+end to the Ninth dynasty; and though supported by the feudal powers of
+Central and Northern Egypt, the Tenth dynasty did not succeed in bringing
+them back to their allegiance, and after a struggle of nearly 200 years the
+Thebans triumphed and brought the two divisions of Egypt under their
+rule.</p>
+
+<p>The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban
+dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race. The kings
+of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from the valley
+of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of fresh
+territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country had
+suffered for hundreds of years. The final overthrow of the Heracleopolitan
+dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the rule of the Theban
+house, are supposed to have been the work of that Monthotpu, whose name the
+Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the royal lists as that of the
+founder and most illustrious representative of the Eleventh dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
+showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
+determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
+found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and established
+for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far south to be a
+suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt, Amenemhait proceeded
+to establish himself in the heart of the country in imitation of the
+glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took up his abode a
+little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui. Having restored
+peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of his reign, when he
+was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very young, to the
+co-regency with himself.</p>
+
+<p>When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
+against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
+dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with greater
+certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which ruled
+Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its great
+achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight sovereigns and
+the details of their interminable wars are very imperfectly known.</p>
+
+<p>Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
+Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty kings,
+who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and Sovkhoptus
+continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work so ably begun
+by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.</p>
+
+<p>During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
+fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
+taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
+Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
+the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
+energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
+incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
+Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis, Bubastis
+and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley, from near the
+spot where it receives its last tributary to where it empties itself into
+the sea. The making of Egypt was finally accomplished in his time. The
+Fourteenth dynasty, however, consists of a line of seventy-five kings,
+whose mutilated names appear on the Turin Papyrus. These shadowy Pharaohs
+followed each other in rapid sequence, some reigning only a few months,
+others for certainly not more than two and three years.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, during what appears to have been an era of rivalries between
+pretenders, mutually jealous of and deposing one another, usurpers in
+succession seizing the crown without strength to keep it, the feudal lords
+displayed more than their old restlessness. The nomad tribes began to show
+growing hostility on the frontier, and the peoples of the Tigris and
+Euphrates were already pushing their vanguards into Central Syria. While
+Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and the eastern corner of
+Africa into subjection, Chald&aelig;a had imposed not only language and
+habits, but also her laws upon the whole of that part of Eastern Asia which
+separated her from Egypt. Thus the time was rapidly approaching when these
+two great civilised powers of the ancient world would meet each other face
+to face and come into fierce and terrible collision.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VII.--Ancient Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an account of Genesis is contained on fragments of
+tablets discovered and deciphered in 1875 by George Smith. These tell
+legends of the time when "nothing which was called heaven existed above,
+and when nothing below had as yet received the name of earth. Apsu, the
+Ocean, who was their first father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
+all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes which
+bore no fruit. In the time when the gods were not created, Lakhmu and
+Lakhamu were the first to appear and waxed great for ages."</p>
+
+<p>Then came Anu, the sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night;
+Inlil-Bel, the king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and the
+personification of wisdom. Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into Anat,
+Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse whom he
+had produced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these fruitful
+pairs, and, the impulse once given, the world was rapidly peopled by their
+descendants. Sin, Samash and Ramman, who presided respectively over the
+sun, moon and air, were all three of equal rank; next came the lords of the
+planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, the warrior-goddess, and Nebo;
+then a whole army of lesser deities who ranged themselves around Anu as
+around a supreme master.</p>
+
+<p>Discord arose. The first great battle of the gods was between Tiamat and
+Merodach. In this fearful conflict Tiamat was destroyed. Splitting her body
+into halves, the conqueror hung up one on high, and this became the
+heavens; the other he spread out under his feet to form the earth, and made
+the universe as men have known it. Merodach regulated the movements of the
+sun and divided the year into twelve months.</p>
+
+<p>The heavens having been put in order, he set about peopling the earth.
+Many such fables concerning the cosmogony were current among the races of
+the lower Euphrates, who seem to have belonged to three different types.
+The most important were the Semites, who spoke a dialect akin to Armenian,
+Hebrew and Phoenician. Side by side with these the monuments give evidence
+of a race of ill-defined character, whom we provisionally call Sumerians,
+who came, it is said, from some northern country, and brought with them a
+curious system of writing which, adopted by ten different nations, has
+preserved for us all that we know in regard to the majority of the empires
+which rose and fell in Western Asia before the Persian conquest. The cities
+of these Semites and Sumerians were divided into two groups, one in the
+south, near the sea, the other more to the north, where the Euphrates and
+the Tigris are separated by a narrow strip of land. The southern group
+consisted of seven, Eridu lying nearest the coast. Uru was the most
+important. Lagash was to the north of Eridu. The northern group consisted
+of Nipur, "the incomparable," Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and
+residence of life, the only metropolis of the Euphrates region of which
+posterity never lost reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the
+two Sipparas, that of Shamash, and that of Annuit.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest Chald&aelig;an civilisation was confined almost to the
+banks of the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not
+reach the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of
+the world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
+north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert, it
+was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an isolated
+area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.</p>
+
+<p>According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
+chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
+36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in this
+mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the great
+deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the wickedness
+of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited their wrath.
+Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved miraculously in
+a great ship. Concerning him and his voyage strange fables are recorded.
+After the deluge, 86 kings ruled during 34,080 years. One of these was
+Nimrod, the mighty hunter of the Bible, who appears as Gilgamesh, King of
+Uruk, and is the hero of extraordinary adventures.</p>
+
+<p>History proper begins with Sargon the Elder, king at the first in Agade,
+who soon annexed Babylon, Sippara, Kishu, Uruk, Kuta and Nipur. His
+brilliant career was like an anticipation of that of the still more
+glorious life of Sargon of Nineveh. His son, Naramsin, succeeded him about
+3750 B.C. He conquered Elam and was a great builder. After him the most
+famous king of that epoch was Gudea, of Lagash, the prince of whom we
+possess the greatest number of monuments. But in these records we have but
+the dust of history rather than history itself. The materials are scanty in
+the extreme and the framework also is wanting.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VIII.--The Temples and the Gods of Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of Egypt,
+by the magnificence of their ruins. They are merely heaps of rubbish in
+which no architectural outline can be traced--mounds of stiff greyish clay,
+containing the remains of the vast structures that were built of bricks set
+in mortar or bitumen. Stone was not used as in Egypt. While the Egyptian
+temple was spread superficially over a large area, the Chald&aelig;an
+temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible. These "ziggurats"
+were composed of several immense cubes piled up on one another, and
+diminishing in size up to the small shrine by which they were crowned, and
+wherein the god himself was supposed to dwell.</p>
+
+<p>The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a
+countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into
+tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe; but, whereas
+in Egypt they were, on the whole, friendly to man, in Chald&aelig;a they
+for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only seemed to
+exist in order to destroy him. Whether Semite or Sumerian, the gods, like
+those of Egypt, were not abstract personages, but each contained in himself
+one of the principal elements of which our universe is composed--earth,
+air, sky, sun, moon and stars. The state religion, which all the
+inhabitants of the same city were solemnly bound to observe, included some
+dozen gods, but the private devotion of individuals supplemented this cult
+by vast additions, each family possessing its own household gods.</p>
+
+<p>Animals never became objects of worship as in Egypt; some of them,
+however, as the bull and the lion, were closely allied to the gods. If the
+idea of uniting all these gods into a single supreme one ever crossed the
+mind of a Chald&aelig;an theologian, it never spread to the people as a
+whole. Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on which we
+find recorded prayers, we have as yet discovered no document containing the
+faintest allusion to a divine unity. The temples were miniature
+reproductions of the arrangements of the universe. The "ziggurat"
+represented in its form the mountain of the world, and the halls ranged at
+its feet resembled approximately the accessory parts of the world; the
+temple of Merodach at Babylon comprised them all up to the chambers of
+fate, where the sun received every morning the tablets of destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Every individual was placed, from the very moment of his birth, under
+the protection of a god or goddess, of whom he was the servant, or rather
+the son. These deities accompanied him by day and by night to guard him
+from the evil genii ready to attack him on every side. The Chald&aelig;ans
+had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in the other world as the
+Egyptians possessed.</p>
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an hades is a dark country surrounded by seven high
+walls, and is approached by seven gates, each guarded by a pitiless warder.
+Two deities rule within it--Nergal, "the lord of the great city," and
+Peltis-Allat, "the lady of the great land," whither everything which has
+breathed in this world descends after death. A legend relates that Allat
+reigned alone in hades and was invited by the gods to a feast which they
+had prepared in heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light she refused,
+sending a message by her servant, Namtar, who acquitted himself, with such
+a bad grace, that Anu and Ea were incensed against his mistress, and
+commissioned Nergal to chastise her. He went, and finding the gates of hell
+open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was about to
+decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved her life by
+becoming his wife.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the
+departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of
+pestilence and battle. His functions in heaven and earth took up so much of
+his time that he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and he was
+consequently obliged to content himself with the r&ocirc;le of providing
+subjects for it by dispatching thither the thousands of recruits which he
+gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the field of battle.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IX.--Chald&aelig;an Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an kings, unlike their contemporaries, the Pharaohs,
+rarely put forward any pretension to divinity. They contented themselves
+with occupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the
+gods. While the ordinary priest chose for himself a single deity as master,
+the priest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions. He officiated for
+Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions daily occupied
+many hours. On great days of festival or sacrifice they laid aside all
+insignia of royalty and were clad as ordinary priests.</p>
+
+<p>Women do not seem to have been honoured in the Euphratean regions as in
+Egypt, where the wives of the sovereign were invested with that semi-sacred
+character that led the women to be associated with the devotions of the
+man, and made them indispensable auxiliaries in all religious ceremonies.
+Whereas the monuments on the banks of the Nile reveal to us princesses
+sharing the throne of their husbands, whom they embrace with a gesture of
+frank affection, in Chald&aelig;a, the wives of the prince, his mother,
+sisters, daughters and even his slaves, remain absolutely invisible to
+posterity. The harem in which they were shut up by force of custom rarely,
+if ever, opened its doors; the people seldom caught sight of them; and we
+could count on our fingers the number of these whom the inscriptions
+mention by name.</p>
+
+<p>Life was not so pleasant in Chald&aelig;a as in Egypt. The innumerable
+promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and
+purchase--these cunningly drawn-up deeds which have been deciphered by the
+hundred, reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious, and
+almost exclusively absorbed in material concerns. The climate, too,
+variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed on the
+Chald&aelig;an painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of
+which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable. And
+the plague of usury raged with equal violence in city and country.</p>
+
+<p>In proportion, however, as we are able to bring this wonderful
+civilisation to light we become more and more conscious that we have indeed
+little or nothing in common with it. Its laws, customs, habits and
+character, its methods of action and its modes of thought, are so far apart
+from those of the present day that they seem to belong to a humanity
+utterly different from our own. It thus happens that while we understand to
+a shade the classical language of the Greeks and of the Romans, and can
+read their works almost without effort, the great primitive literatures of
+the world, the Egyptian and Chald&aelig;an, have nothing to offer us for
+the most part but a sequence of problems to solve or of enigmas to unriddle
+with patience.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Struggle_of_the_Nations'></a>The Struggle of the
+Nations</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Maspero in this work gives us the second volume of his
+great historical trilogy. He shows in parallel views the part played in the
+history of the ancient world by the first Chald&aelig;an Empire, by Syria,
+by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, of Egypt, and by the first Coss&aelig;an
+kings who established the greatness of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. The
+great Theban dynasty is then exhibited in its romantic rise under the
+Pharaohs. Maspero writes not as a mere chronicler or reciter of events, but
+as a philosophical historian. He makes the reader understand how fatally
+the chronic militarism of these competing empires drained each of its
+manhood and brought Babylon and Assyria simultaneously into a hopeless
+condition of national an&aelig;mia. Equally pathetic is the picture drawn
+of the gradual but sure decay of the grand empire of the Pharaohs. Maspero,
+with masterly skill, passes a processional of these despots before our
+eyes. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Chald&aelig;an Empire and the Hyksos</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
+battlefields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such
+regions neighbouring peoples come to settle their quarrels, and bit by bit
+they appropriate it, so that at best the only course open to the
+inhabitants is to join forces with one of the invaders. From remote
+antiquity this was the experience of Syria, which was thus destined to
+become subject to foreign rule. Chald&aelig;a, Egypt, Assyria and Persia in
+turn presided over its destinies. Semites dwelt in the south and the
+centre, while colonies from beyond the Taurus occupied the north. The
+influence of Egypt never penetrated beyond the provinces lying nearest the
+Dead Sea. The remaining populations looked rather to Chald&aelig;a, and
+received the continuous impress of the kingdoms of the Euphrates.</p>
+
+<p>The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at
+first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
+latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
+state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession, there
+to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings contain
+semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes. Towards the end
+of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the Christian era, a dynasty
+arose of which all the members come within the range of history.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
+the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
+kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416 B.C.
+and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the. famous and
+fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the throne for
+fifty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
+separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
+horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
+declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
+invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
+whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
+term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
+conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors. The
+monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The problem
+remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious as
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Isr&aelig;l,
+or Isr&aelig;lites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's
+history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews arrived
+in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless one of the
+Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a war of five
+years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs, whose policy
+was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from various quarters,
+and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her armies across all her
+frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden appearance in the heart of Syria
+gave a new turn to human history. The isolation of the kingdoms of the
+ancient world was at an end; and the conflict of the nations was about to
+begin.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chald&aelig;an interference
+when, forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first
+time into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
+control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared. When
+Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of Khammurabi became
+extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Coss&aelig;an race gained the
+throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi by
+Chald&aelig;ans of the ancient stock.</p>
+
+<p>The Coss&aelig;an king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and
+his tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
+Media. The Coss&aelig;an rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
+doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised at
+first over the nomes of Egypt. The Coss&aelig;an kings did not merely bring
+with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
+land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
+merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
+successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
+over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew their
+allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer supreme
+when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis entered the
+region the native levies which he encountered were by no means
+formidable.</p>
+
+<p>The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
+group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
+completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to distinguish
+at the present time several of these groups, all belonging to the same
+family, but possessing different characteristics--the kinsfolk of the
+Hebrews, the children of Ishm&aelig;l and Edom, the Moabites and Ammonites, the
+Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The Canaanites were the most
+numerous, and had they been able to confederate under a single king, it
+would have been impossible for the Egyptians to have broken through the
+barrier thus raised between them and the rest of Asia.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
+a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
+could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching on
+his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
+surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
+Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the secure
+door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this quarter,
+Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power in Ethiopia,
+where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern region and thus
+extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the upper Nile,
+Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of profound peace.
+Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife, Queen Hatshopsitu,
+reigned for many years with great ability while the new Pharaoh, Thutmosis
+III., was still a youth.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
+It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
+reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and won
+a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
+inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
+Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his arms,
+and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king. When the
+Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its results by
+means of a series of international decrees, which established the
+constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action with the
+Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position among them
+when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his reign.</p>
+
+<p>Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
+who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
+peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
+temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of
+whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort
+after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such
+a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III., was
+raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty. He
+displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting mighty
+building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against recalcitrant
+tribes along the Upper Nile.</p>
+
+<p>Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his
+accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and associated his son, Seti
+I., with himself in the government from his second year of power. No sooner
+had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for war against
+Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron, marched to Gaza,
+and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the homage of the
+Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing troops of
+captives.</p>
+
+<p>By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and
+Luxor, which render his name for ever illustrious. He associated with him
+his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of the
+greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The
+monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of
+the world. He married a Hittite princess when he was more than sixty. This
+alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once more
+breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection of the
+two Powers who shared her territory.</p>
+
+<p>Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old
+age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to disfigure
+it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who was thus the
+glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and lived to the age
+of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes. Under his successors,
+Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation became decadent,
+though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as when Minephtah won a
+great victory over the Libyans. But after the death of Siphtah, there were
+many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy prevailed from one end of the
+Nile valley to the other.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Rise of the Assyrian Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last
+dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental
+world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him
+in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived. In the fifth
+year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated Libyans with
+complete success. Victories over other enemies followed, and also peace and
+prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had
+so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it had
+made on their constitution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had become, as
+it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and language being
+affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians became absorbed in
+commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the inheritance which the
+Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the decline of the power of the
+latter was that of the Hittites.</p>
+
+<p>The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Coss&aelig;an
+kings, and gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard
+Babylon with deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more
+than 185 miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many
+canals between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was
+formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper Zab,
+the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every means in
+its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and the narrow
+area was the scene of continual war.</p>
+
+<p>Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that
+of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the
+Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of
+latitude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the
+streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a network
+of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The provinces
+thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into a proverb.
+Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well wooded. The most
+important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>Assur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the
+very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was,
+during the struggle with the Chald&aelig;an power, exposed to the attacks
+of the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and
+the Zab, was secure from any sudden assault. Thus it became the custom for
+the kings to pass at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though Assur
+remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire, which
+began its aggrandisement under Assurballit, by his victory over the
+Coss&aelig;an kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the
+career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years doubled
+the extent of his dominions. He beautified Assur, but removed his court to
+Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of Babylon, and was
+the first of his race who was able to assume the title of King of Sumir and
+Akkad.</p>
+
+<p>This first conquest of Chald&aelig;a did not produce lasting results, for the
+sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and Assyria became the
+scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the depression
+of Assyria did not last long. Nineveh had become the metropolis. Confusion
+was increased in the whole of this vast region of Asia by the invasion and
+partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon. But these were driven back
+when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To Merodach he prayed, and "his
+prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam, taking its king by surprise and
+defeating him.</p>
+
+<p>Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of
+Assyria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for though
+his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent flying
+across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of Assurishishi,
+who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son, Tiglath-pileser, is the
+first of the great warrior kings of Assyria to stand out before us with any
+definite individuality. He immediately, on his accession, began to employ
+in aggressive wars the well-equipped army left by his father, and in three
+campaigns he regained all the territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and
+also conquered various regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the
+Chald&aelig;ans he met with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive,
+dying about the year 1100 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain
+Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the
+footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
+Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left a
+triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had
+accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested from
+him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks of the
+Euphrates near Carchemish.</p>
+
+<p>What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at
+almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady? The
+main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the country
+and the material conditions of its existence. Chald&aelig;a was neither
+extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the ambition of
+her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms was enrolled in
+the army, the Chald&aelig;an kings had no difficulty in raising, at a
+moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel an invasion, or
+to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it was in schemes that
+required prolonged and sustained effort that they felt the drawbacks of
+their position. In that age of hand-to-hand combats, the mortality in
+battle was very high; forced marches through forests and across mountains
+entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or four campaigns against a
+stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a condition of weakness.</p>
+
+<p>When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on Assurishishi, he was still weak from
+the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could not
+conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on the
+banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few indecisive
+advantages; in the second he succumbed.</p>
+
+<p>The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
+causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst of
+her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories of
+Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious state of
+languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted themselves which
+had gradually come to displace the nations over which the dynasties of
+Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to them. The Hebrews on the
+east, and the Philistines on the southwest, were about to undertake the
+conquest of Kharu, as the land which is known to us as Canaan was styled by
+the Egyptians.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Passing_of_the_Empires'></a>The Passing of the
+Empires</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Maspero, in the third volume of his great arch&aelig;ological
+trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the Classic
+East," deals with the passing in succession of the supremacies of the
+Babylonian, Assyrian, Chald&aelig;an, Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The
+period dealt with in this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries,
+from 850 B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes before
+us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic dramas. One
+excellent feature of his method is his balancing of evidences. Where
+Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ he tells what each asserts. With
+consummate skill also he arranges his recital like a series of dissolving
+views, showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading Assyria is
+rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media is looming into sight. We
+are, in this third instalment of Maspero's monumental work, brought to
+understand how the decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
+culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by Alexander, prepared
+at length for the entry of Western nations on the stage, and how Europe
+became the heir of the culture and civilisation of the Orient.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Assyrian Revival</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
+prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity and
+distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the country, and
+an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held authority for
+seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030 B.C., a
+Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and succeeded in
+bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule. Five or six of his
+descendants passed away and another was feebly reigning when war broke out
+afresh with Assyria, and the two armies encountered each other again on
+their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat. The
+Assyrians were victorious under their king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not
+live long to enjoy his triumph. His son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a
+kingdom which embraced scarcely any of the countries that had paid tribute
+to former sovereign, for most of these had gradually regained their
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same
+conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the vitality
+and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a new element.
+This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to the chariotry.
+But it must be remembered that the strength and discipline which the
+Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were common to the military
+forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hittites and
+Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states being, as a rule, both in
+strength and numbers much on a par, no single power was able to inflict on
+any of the rest such a defeat as would be its destruction. Twice at least
+in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the
+Babylonians had forced the intruder back.</p>
+
+<p>Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those
+conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives. He
+was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than the
+people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief cities,
+then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and pillaged
+many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was flayed alive.
+After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his
+successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of Nimroud,
+discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He conquered the
+whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a savage bull
+ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An attack on
+Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad, King of Syria,
+proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war with Babylon,
+lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for Assyria, and
+Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple of E-shaggil,
+where he offered worship to the local gods.</p>
+
+<p>Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King
+of Isr&aelig;l, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been faithful
+to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the city of
+Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his pledge. He
+and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance against Benhadad,
+who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had organised an expedition,
+which led to the death of Ahab in battle. Isr&aelig;l lapsed once more into the
+position of a vassal to Benhadad, and long remained in that subjection.</p>
+
+<p>The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son,
+Assur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was shaken
+by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV., the brother
+of Assurdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son, Ramman-nirari III.,
+had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and so had secured peace.
+He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at length Damascus made
+submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and able King of Urartu,
+proved himself a thorn in the side of the Assyrian king, for he delivered
+from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the borders of Lake Urmiah and all
+the adjacent regions.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the
+Euphrates, the Assyrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also
+overcame the Hittites and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van, or
+Armenia, which was quite equal in size to Assyria. He died shortly before
+the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent the first
+few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the country north of
+the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of Ramman-nirari, but
+defeated the Assyrians.</p>
+
+<p>Misfortunes accumulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so
+wide a sway, and the end of the Second Assyrian Empire was not far off.
+Syria was lost under Assur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah by
+sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came to an
+end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah, proclaimed
+himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The Second Empire had
+lasted rather less than a century and a half.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--To the Destruction of Babylon</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Events proved that, at this period at any rate, the decadence of Assyria
+was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of the country,
+but was owing Mainly to the incapacity of its kings and the lack of energy
+displayed by their generals. The Assyrian troops had lost none of their
+former valour, but their leaders had shown less foresight and skill. As
+soon as Tiglath-pileser assumed leadership, the armies regained their
+former prestige and supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, but the buffer provinces, containing
+the tribes on the borders of Syria, Namri, Nairi, Melitene, had thrown off
+the yoke, as had the Arameans, while Menuas of Armenia and his son Argistis
+had by their invasions laid waste the Median territory. Sharduris III., son
+of Argistis, succeeded to the throne of Armenia about 760, and at once
+overran the district of Babilu, carrying by storm three royal castles, 23
+cities, and 60 villages. He also captured the castles of the mountaineers
+of Melitene. Crossing Mount Taurus about 756, he forced the Hittites to
+swear allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the middle of this eighth century B.C., in the days of
+Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, and Sharduris III. of Armenia, that
+Isr&aelig;l, under Jehoash, and his son Jeroboam II.; inspired by the
+exhortations of Elisha the prophet, was rehabilitated for a season, winning
+victories over the Syrians and taking vengeance on Damascus, and then
+attacking the Moabites. The sudden collapse of Damascus led to the decline
+of Syria, but though Jeroboam II. seemed to be firmly seated as king in
+Samaria, the downfall of Isr&aelig;l and Judah alike, as well as of Tyre, Edom,
+Gaza, Moab, and Ammon, was foretold by the prophet Amos, while from the
+midst of Ephraim the priest-seer, Hosea, was never weary of reproaching the
+tribes with their ingratitude and of predicting their coming
+desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Ere long, Tiglath-pileser began his campaigns against them by attacking
+the Arameans, dwelling on the banks of the Tigris. He overthrew them at the
+first encounter. Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him and
+swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon, Borsippa,
+Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a peer," and
+offered sacrifices to all their gods--to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo, Tashmit, and
+Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>His next exploit was the rapid conquest of the mountainous and populous
+regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
+conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in the
+difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the Euphrates in
+the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon afterwards marched
+forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout of the latter was
+complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The victor was covered with
+glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the forces left him were not
+sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to extort allegiance from the Syrian
+princes who had allied themselves with Sharduris.</p>
+
+<p>After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
+Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of Northern
+Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty foiled
+Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of Dhuspas,
+in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu held out
+against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew. Sharduris
+remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his power had
+received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then, Armenia has more
+than once challenged fortune, but always with the same result; it fared no
+better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under Sharduris in the time
+of the Assyrians.</p>
+
+<p>As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
+Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta, where
+the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
+grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
+abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
+profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
+also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many petty
+states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time of
+Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power was
+really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually declared
+himself king, together with Pharaoh.</p>
+
+<p>Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
+of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was at
+this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Isr&aelig;l, King Pekah
+being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
+inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.</p>
+
+<p>Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
+had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years was
+assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin, who
+was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two months
+and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain Ukinzir, an
+Aramean chief.</p>
+
+<p>But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
+on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against it.
+After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
+Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
+passed since the two empires had been united under one ruler. His
+Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking for him; but he did not
+long survive his triumph, dying after having reigned eighteen years over
+Assyria, and less than two years over Babylon and Chald&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<p>The next great Assyrian name is that of Sargon II., whose origin is not
+clear. And the incidents of the revolution which raised him to the throne
+are also unknown. The first few years of his reign, which commenced in 722
+B.C., were harassed by revolts among many of the border tribes, but these
+he resolutely faced at all points, inflicting overwhelming defeats on the
+Medes and the Armenians. The Philistines were cowed by the storming of
+Ashdod, and Sargon subdued Phoenicia, carrying his arms to the sea. This
+great monarch, while wars raged round him, found time for extensive works
+of a peaceful character, completing the system of irrigation, and erecting
+buildings at Calah and Nineveh, and raising a magnificent palace at
+Dur-Sharrukin.</p>
+
+<p>And here he intended in peace to build a great city, but he was, in 105
+B.C., assassinated by an alien soldier. Sennacherib, his son, fighting on
+the frontier, was recalled and proclaimed immediately. He either failed to
+inherit his father's good fortune, or lacked his ability. Instead of
+conciliating the vanquished, he massacred entire tribes, and failed to
+re-people these with captive exiles from other nations. So, towards the end
+of his reign--which terminated in 681 B.C.--he found himself ruling over a
+sparsely inhabited desert where his father had left him flourishing and
+populous cities. Phoenicia and Judah formed an alliance with each other and
+with Egypt. Sennacherib bestirred himself and Tyre perished. The Assyrian
+invader then attacked Judah and besieged Jerusalem, where Hezekiah was king
+and Isaiah was prophesying. Whatever was the cause, half the army perished
+by pestilence, and Sennacherib led back the remnants of his force to
+Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>The disaster was terrible, but not irreparable, for another and an equal
+host could be raised. And it was needed to quell a great Babylonian revolt
+led by Merodachbaladan, who had given the signal of rebellion to the
+mountain tribes also. After a series of terrible conflicts, Babylon was
+taken. And now Sennacherib, who had shown leniency after two previous
+revolts, displayed unbounded fury in his triumph. The massacre lasted
+several days, none being spared of the citizens. Piles of corpses filled
+the streets. The temples and palaces were pillaged, and finally the city
+was burnt.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of his costly and absorbing wars we may well wonder how
+Sennacherib found time and means for building villas and temples; yet he
+is, nevertheless, the Assyrian king who has left us the largest number of
+monuments.</p>
+
+<p>His last years were embittered by the fierce rivalry of his sons. One of
+these he nominated his successor, Esarhaddon, son of a Babylonian wife.
+During his absence from Nineveh, on the 20th day of Teleth, 681, his
+father, Sennacherib, when praying before the image of his god, was
+assassinated by two other sons, Sharezer and Adrammelech. Esarhaddon,
+hearing of this tragedy, gathered an army, and in a battle defeated
+Sharezer and established himself on the throne.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Crisis of the Assyrian Power</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, for he delighted in
+building; but unfortunate disturbances did not permit him to pursue his
+favourite occupation without interruption, and, like his warlike
+predecessors, he was constrained to pass most of his life on the
+battlefield. He began his reign by quelling an insurrection of the
+Cimmerians in the territories on the border of the Black Sea. Sidon
+rebelled ungratefully, although his father had saved her from desolation by
+Tyre. He stormed and burnt the city. The Scythian tribes came on the field
+in 678 B.C., but they were diplomatically conciliated.</p>
+
+<p>Now followed a memorable event. Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all
+the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the fabrication
+of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and lavishly devoted
+gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of enamel to
+decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the people, who
+had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to return to their
+homes.</p>
+
+<p>But fresh foreign complications arose through the support given
+continually to recalcitrant states in the south of Egypt. Esarhaddon was
+provoked to undertake the first actual invasion of Egypt in force by
+Assyria for the purpose of subduing the country. Over a great combination
+of the Egyptians and Ethiopians he won a crushing victory. Memphis was
+taken and sacked. Henceforth, Esarhaddon, in his pride, styled himself King
+of Egypt, and King of the Kings of Egypt, of the Said, and of Ethiopia. But
+he was not very long permitted to enjoy the glory of his triumph; a
+determined revolt of the conquered country demanded a fresh campaign. He
+set out, but was in bad health, and, his malady increasing, he died on the
+journey in the twelfth year of his reign.</p>
+
+<p>Before starting on the expedition, he had realised the impossibility of
+a permanent amalgamation of Assyria and Babylon, notwithstanding his
+personal affection for Babylon. Accordingly, he designated as his
+successors his two sons. Assurbanipal was to be King of Assyria, and
+Shamash-shumukin King of Babylon, under the suzerainty of his brother. As
+soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation he had planned took
+place automatically, the two sons proclaiming themselves respectively kings
+of Assyria and Babylon. Thus Babylon regained half its independence. But
+the Assyrian Empire was now at its zenith. Egypt was quelled by the army of
+Esarhaddon, and to Assurbanipal submitted in vassalage the nations of the
+Mediterranean coast.</p>
+
+<p>Now followed years of exhausting warfare and of victory after victory,
+which fatally wasted the strength of Assyria. Never had the empire been so
+respected; never had so many nations united under one sceptre. But troubles
+accumulated. Mutiny in Egypt called for another expedition, which led to
+the capture and sacking of Thebes. Next came a war with Elam, ending in its
+subjection to Assyria, for the first time in history.</p>
+
+<p>But with success. Assurbanipal grew arrogant in his attitude to his
+brother, the King of Babylon, and a fratricidal war resulted in the defeat
+and death of Shamash-shumukin and the capture of the rival capital. But
+Assyria was now near one of its recurrent periods of exhaustion, and foes
+were rising for a formidable attack.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Fall of Media and Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At the very height of his apparent grandeur and prosperity Assurbanipal
+was attacked by Phraortes, King of the Medes, who paid for his temerity
+with his life, being left dead, with the greater part of his army, on the
+field. But the sequel was unexpected, for Cyaxares, son of the slain Mede,
+stubbornly continued the conflict, patiently reorganising his army, until
+he won a great victory over the Assyrian generals, and shut up the remnant
+of their forces in Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>Assurbanipal, after a reign of forty-two years, died about 625 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son, Assuretililani. Against his brother and
+successor, Sinsharishkin, the standard of rebellion was raised by
+Nabopolassar, the governor of Babylon, who declared himself independent,
+and assumed the title of king, but his reign not long after ended with his
+death, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar was proclaimed king in Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>His reign was long and prosperous, and, on the whole, a peaceful one.
+The most notable event in the career of Nebuchadrezzar II., was the capture
+and destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of a revolt of Tyre and Judea.
+The unfortunate king, Zedekiah, saw his sons slain in his presence, and
+then, his eyes having been put out, he was loaded with chains, and sent to
+Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Nebuchadrezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of fifty-five years. His
+successors were weak rulers, and their reigns were brief and inglorious.
+The army was suffered to dwindle, and the dynasty founded by Nabopolassar
+came to an end in 555 B.C., when Labashi-marduk, the last of the line,
+after reigning only nine months, was murdered by Nabonidus, a native
+Babylonian. This usurper witnessed the rapid rise of the new Iranian power
+which was to destroy him and Babylon. In 553 B.C., Cyrus, a Persian
+general, revolted against Astyages, defeated him, and destroyed the Median
+Empire at one blow.</p>
+
+<p>The only army that was a match for that of Cyrus was the Lydian host
+under King Croesus. A conflict took place between the two, ending in the
+defeat of the most powerful potentate of Asia Minor. But Cyrus treated
+Croesus with consideration, and the Lydian king is said to have become the
+friend of the mighty Persian. From that day neither Egypt nor Chald&aelig;a
+had any chance of victory on the battlefield. Nabonidus became a mere
+vassal of Cyrus, and lived more or less inactively in his palace at Tima,
+leaving the direction of power at Babylon in the hands of his son,
+Bel-sharuzu.</p>
+
+<p>At length the Babylonians grew weary of their king. Nabonidus had never
+been popular, and the discontent of the people at length called for the
+intervention of the suzerain. In 538 Cyrus moved against Babylon, and
+Nabonidus now retreated into the city with his troops, and prepared for a
+siege. But Cyrus, taking advantage of the time of the year when the waters
+were lowest, diverted the Tigris, so that his soldiers were able to enter
+the city without striking a blow. Nabonidus surrendered, and Belsharuzur
+was slain. With him perished the second Chald&aelig;an Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The sagacious conqueror did not pillage the city, and treated the
+citizens with clemency. Cyrus associated his son Cambyses with himself,
+making him King of Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital of
+the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian dominion
+extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus took place
+the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
+his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom; but
+Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
+barbarian hosts of the Massaget&aelig;, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
+the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in which
+all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but accomplished the
+stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone remained to be conquered.
+Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise against Egypt; but after a
+series of successes met with reverses in Ethiopia, which affected his mind,
+and he is said to have ended his own life. Power fell into the hands of a
+chief of one of the seven great clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes,
+whose rival was Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
+being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of the
+great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the greatness of
+the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest of the Near East
+had arrived.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='FLAVIUS_JOSEPHUS'></a>FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews'></a>The Antiquities of the
+Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole
+history of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also wrote an
+autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical treatise, "Flavius
+Josephus against Apion." His style is so classically elegant that critics
+have called him the Greek Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities
+of the Jews" contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
+portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories embodied in
+the Old Testament. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--From Alexander to Antiochus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
+Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
+Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So he
+marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Caria and Pamphylia, and again
+defeated Darius at Issus. The Persian king fled into his own land, and his
+mother, wife, and children were captured. Alexander besieged and took first
+Tyre, and then Gaza, and next marched towards Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>At Sapha, in full view of the city, he was met by a procession of the
+priests in fine linen, and a multitude of the citizens in white, the
+high-priest, Jaddua, being at their head in his resplendent robes.
+Graciously responding to the salutations of priests and people, Alexander
+entered Jerusalem, worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple, and then
+invited the people to ask what favours they pleased of him; whereupon the
+high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers,
+and pay no tribute on the seventh year. All their requests were granted,
+and Alexander led his army into the neighbouring cities.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when Alexander was dead and his government had been divided among
+many, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, by treachery seized Jerusalem, and took
+away many captives to Egypt, and settled them there. His successor, Ptolemy
+Philadelphus, restored to freedom 120,000 Jews who had been kept in slavery
+at the instance of Aristeus, one of his most intimate friends. He also
+dedicated many gifts to God, and showed great friendship to the Jews in his
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Other kings in Asia followed the example of Philadelphus, conferring
+honours on Jews who became their auxiliaries, and making them citizens with
+privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Macedonians and Greeks. In the
+reign of Antiochus the Great the Jews suffered greatly while he was at war
+with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, called Epiphanes. When Antiochus
+had beaten Ptolemy, he seized on Judea, but ultimately he made a league
+with Ptolemy, gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and yielded up to
+him Celesyria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia by way of dowry. Onias, son of
+Simon the Just, was then high-priest. He greatly provoked the king by
+neglecting to pay his taxes, so that Ptolemy threatened to settle his
+soldiers in Jerusalem to live on the citizens.</p>
+
+<p>But Joseph, the nephew of Onias, by his wisdom brought all things right
+again, and entered into friendship with the king, who lent him soldiers and
+sent him to force the people in various cities to pay their taxes. Many who
+refused were slain. Joseph not only thus gathered great wealth for himself,
+but sent much to the king and to Cleopatra, and to powerful men at the
+court of Egypt. He had a son named Hyrcanus, who became noted for his
+ability, and crossed the Jordan with many followers; he made war
+successfully on the Arabians, built a magnificent stone castle, and ruled
+over all the region for seven years, even all the time that Seleucus was
+king of Syria. But when Seleucus was dead, his brother Antiochus Epiphanes
+took the kingdom, and Hyrcanus, seeing that Antiochus had a great army,
+feared he should be taken and punished for what he had done to the
+Arabians. So he took his own life, Antiochus seizing his possessions.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--To the Death of Judas</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Antiochus, despising the son of Ptolemy as being but weak, and coveting
+the possession of Egypt, conducted an expedition against that country with
+a great force; but was compelled to withdraw by a declaration of the
+Romans. On his way back from Alexandria he took the city of Jerusalem,
+entering it without fighting in the 143d year of the kingdom of the
+Seleucid&aelig;. He slew many of the citizens, plundered the city of much
+money, and returned to Antioch.</p>
+
+<p>After two years he again came up against Jerusalem, and this time left
+the Temple bare, taking away the golden altar and candlesticks, the table
+of shewbread, and the altar of burnt offering, and all the secret
+treasures. He slew some of the people, and carried off into captivity about
+ten thousand, burnt the finest buildings, erected a citadel, and therein
+placed a garrison of Macedonians. Building an idol altar in the Temple, he
+offered swine on it, and he compelled many of the Jews to raise idol altars
+in every town and village, and to offer swine on them every day. But many
+disregarded him, and these underwent bitter punishment. They were tortured
+or scourged or crucified.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at this time there dwelt at Modin a priest named Mattathias, a
+citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, one of whom, Judas, was called
+Maccab&aelig;us. Mattathias and his sons not only refused to sacrifice as
+Antiochus commanded, but, with his sons, attacked and slew an apostate
+Jewish worshipper and Apelles, the king's general, and a few of his
+soldiers. Then the priest and his five sons overthrew the idol altar, and
+fled into the desert, followed by many of their followers with their wives
+and children. About a thousand of these who had hidden in caves were
+overtaken and destroyed; but many who escaped joined themselves to
+Mattathias, and appointed him to be the ruler, who taught them to fight,
+even on the Sabbath. Gathering a great army, he overthrew the idol altars,
+and slew those who broke the laws. But after ruling one year, he fell into
+a distemper,  and committed to his sons the conduct of affairs. He was
+buried at Modin, all the people making great lamentation. His son Judas
+took upon himself the administration of affairs in the 146th year, and with
+the help of his brothers and others, cast their enemies out of the country
+and purified the land of its pollutions. Judas celebrated in the Temple at
+Jerusalem the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices for eight
+days.</p>
+
+<p>From that time we call the yearly celebration the Feast of Lights. Judas
+also rebuilt the wall and reared towers of great height. When these things
+were over he made excursions against adversaries on every side, he and his
+brothers Simon and Jonathan subduing in turn Idum&aelig;a, Gilead, Jazer,
+Tyre, and Ashdod. Antiochus died of a distemper which overtook him as he
+was fleeing from Elymais, from which he was driven during an attack upon
+its gates. Before he died he called his friends about him, and confessed
+that his calamities had come upon him for the miseries he had brought upon
+the Jewish nation.</p>
+
+<p>Antiochus was succeeded by his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy of tender
+age, whose guardians were Philip and Lysias. He reigned but two years,
+being put to death, together with Lysias, by order of the usurper
+Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who fled from Rome, and, landing in Syria,
+gathered an army, and was joyfully received by the people. Against
+Jerusalem, Demetrius sent an expedition commanded by his general,
+Bacchides. Judas Maccab&aelig;us, fighting with great courage, but having
+with him only 800 men, fell in the battle. His brothers Simon and Jonathan,
+receiving his body by treaty from the enemy, carried it to the village of
+Modin, and there buried him. He left behind him a glorious reputation, by
+gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from slavery under the
+Macedonians. He died after filling the office of high-priest for three
+years.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--To the Roman Dominion</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Jonathan and his brother Simon continued the war against Bacchides. They
+were assisted by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the
+160th year, came up into Syria against Demetrius, and defeated and slew him
+in a great battle near Ptolemais. But the son of Demetrius, named after his
+father, in the 165th year, after Alexander had seated himself on the throne
+and had gained in marriage Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, came
+from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers. Jonathan and Simon,
+brothers of Judas Maccab&aelig;us, entering into league with Demetrius, who
+offered them very great advantages, defeated at Ashdod the army sent by
+Alexander under Apollonius.</p>
+
+<p>A breach took place between Alexander and Ptolemy through the treachery
+of Ammonius, a friend of the former, and the Egyptian king took away his
+daughter Cleopatra from her husband, and immediately sent to Demetrius,
+offering to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him, to
+give him his daughter in marriage and to restore him to the principality of
+his fathers. These overtures were joyfully accepted, and Ptolemy came to
+Antioch and persuaded the people to receive Demetrius. Alexander was beaten
+in a battle by the two allies and fled into Arabia, where, however, his
+head was speedily cut off by Zabdiel, a prince of the country, and sent to
+Ptolemy. But that king, through wounds caused by falling from his horse,
+died a few days afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Demetrius, being secure in power, disbanded a great part of his army,
+but this action greatly irritated the soldiers. Furthermore, he was hated,
+as his father had been, by the people of Syria. A revolt was raised by an
+Apanemian named Trypho, who overcame Demetrius in a fight, and took from
+him both his elephants and the city of Antioch. Demetrius on this defeat
+retired into Cilicia, and Trypho delivered the kingdom to Antiochus, the
+youthful son of Alexander, who quickly sent ambassadors to Jonathan and
+made him his confederate and friend, confirming him in the high-priesthood
+and yielding up to him four prefectures which had been added to Judea.
+Accordingly, Jonathan promptly joined him in a war against Demetrius, who
+was again defeated.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Demetrius had been carried into captivity Trypho deserted
+Antiochus, who had now reigned four years. He usurped power, which he
+basely abused; and Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, raised a force
+against him and drove him away to Apamea, where he was put to death, his
+term of power having lasted only three years. Antiochus Soter then attacked
+Simon, who successfully resisted, established peace, and ruled in all for
+eight years. His death also was the result of treachery, his son-in-law
+Ptolemy playing him false. His son Hyrcanus became high-priest, and
+speedily ejected the forces of Ptolemy from the land. Subduing all
+factions, he ruled justly for thirty-one years, leaving five sons.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest, Aristobulus, purposed to change the government into a
+kingdom, and placed a diadem on his own head; but his mother, to whom the
+supremacy had been entrusted, disputed his authority. He cast her into
+prison, where she was starved to death; and next he compassed the death of
+his brother Antigonus, but was soon attacked by a painful disease. He
+reigned only one year. His widow, Alexandra, let his brothers out of prison
+and made Alexander Janneus king.</p>
+
+<p>His reign was one of war and disorder. With savage cruelty he repressed
+rebellion, condemning hundreds of Jews to crucifixion. While these were yet
+living, their wives and children were slain before their eyes. His life was
+ended by a sickness which lasted three years, and after his death civil war
+broke out between his two sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, in which great
+barbarities were committed. The conflict was terminated by the intervention
+of the Romans under Scarus. The two brothers appealed to Pompey after he
+came to Damascus; but that Roman general marched against Jerusalem and took
+it by force. Thus we lost our liberty as a nation and became subject to the
+Romans.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Jews and the Romans</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Crassus next came with Roman troops into Judea and pillaged the Temple,
+and then marched into Parthia, where both he and his army perished. Then
+Cassius obtained Syria, and checked the Parthians. He passed on to Judea,
+fell on Tarich&aelig;a, and took it, and carried away 3,000 Jewish captives. A
+wealthy Idumean named Antipater, who had been a great friend of Hyrcanus,
+and had helped him against Aristobulus, was a very active and seditious
+man. He had married Cypros, a lady of his own Idumean race, by whom he had
+four sons, Phaselus, and Herod, who afterwards became king, and Joseph, and
+Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He cultivated friendship with other
+potentates, especially with the King of Arabia, to whom he committed the
+care of his children while he fought against Aristobulus. But when
+C&aelig;sar had taken Rome, and after Pompey and the senate had fled beyond
+the Ionian Sea, Aristobulus was set free from the bonds in which he had
+been laid. C&aelig;sar resolved to send him with two legions into Syria to
+set matters right; but Aristobulus had no enjoyment of this trust, for he
+was poisoned by Pompey's party. But Scipio, sent by Pompey to slay
+Alexander, son of Aristobulus, cut off his head at Antioch. And Ptolemy,
+son of Menneus, ruler of Chalcis, took Alexander's brethren to him, and
+sent his son Philippion to Askelon to Aristobulus's wife, and desired her
+to send back with him her son Antigonus and her daughters; the one of whom,
+Alexandra, Philippion fell in love with, and married her; though afterwards
+his father Ptolemy slew him, and married Alexandra.</p>
+
+<p>Now, after Pompey was dead, and after the victory C&aelig;sar had gained
+over him, Antipater, who had managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
+to C&aelig;sar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
+Hyrcanus. He brought over to the side of C&aelig;sar the principal men of
+the Arabians, and also Jamblicus, the ruler of the Syrians, and Ptolemy,
+his son, and Tholomy, the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and
+almost all the cities, and with 3,000 armed Jews he joined Mithradates of
+Pergamus, who was marching with his auxiliaries to aid C&aelig;sar.
+Antipater and Mithradates together won a pitched battle against the
+Egyptians, and C&aelig;sar not only then commended Antipater, but used him
+throughout that war in the most hazardous undertakings, and finally, at the
+end of that campaign, made him procurator of Judea, at the same time
+appointing Hyrcanus high-priest. Antipater, seeing that Hyrcanus was of a
+slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
+Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
+fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
+won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of robbers,
+and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Herod became known to Sextus C&aelig;sar, a relation of the great
+C&aelig;sar, who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of
+Antipater and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the
+Jews, especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was
+capable of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
+encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting men
+to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting Herod,
+whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would have
+sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus, where he
+took refuge with Sextus C&aelig;sar. When Herod received the kingdom, he
+slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he respected
+because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city, and he even
+slew Hyrcanus also.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when C&aelig;sar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into
+Africa to fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
+desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
+only C&aelig;sar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
+confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders that
+arose after the death of C&aelig;sar, Cassius came into Syria and disturbed
+Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to gather the great
+tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a collector named
+Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the murder of his
+father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod gained new
+favour with Cassius.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Herodian Era</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In order to secure his position, Herod made an obscure priest from
+Babylon, named Ananelus, high-priest in place of Hyrcanus. This offended
+Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Alexander, son of Aristobulus
+the king. She had ten children, among whom were Mariamne, the beautiful
+wife of Herod, and Aristobulus. She sent an appeal to Cleopatra, queen of
+Egypt, in order by her intercession to gain from Antony the high-priesthood
+for this son. At the instance of Antony, Herod took the office from
+Ananelus, and gave it to Aristobulus, but took care that the youth should
+soon be murdered. Then, from causeless jealousy, he put to death his uncle
+Joseph and threw Mariamne into prison. Victory in a war with Arabia
+enhanced his power. Cruelly slaying Hyrcanus, he hasted away to Octavian,
+who had beaten Antony at Actium, and obtained also from him, the new
+C&aelig;sar, Augustus, the kingdom, thus being confirmed in his
+position.</p>
+
+<p>Women of the palace who hated Mariamne for her beauty, her high birth,
+and her pride, falsely accused her to Herod of gross unfaithfulness. He
+loved her passionately, but, giving ear to these traducers, ordered her to
+be tried. She was condemned to death, and showed great fortitude as she
+went to the place of execution, even though her own mother, Alexandra, in
+order to make herself safe from the wrath of the king, basely, and
+publicly, and violently upbraided her, while the people, pitying her,
+mourned at her fate. Herod was also attacked by a tormenting distemper. He
+ordered the execution of Alexandra and of several of his most intimate
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>By his persistent introduction of foreign customs, which corrupted the
+constitution of the country, Herod incurred the deep hatred of very many
+eminent citizens. He erected servile trophies to C&aelig;sar, and prepared
+costly games in which men were condemned to fight with wild beasts. Ten men
+who conspired against him were betrayed, and were tortured horribly, and
+then slain. But the people seized the spy who had informed against them,
+tore him limb from limb, and flung the body in pieces to the dogs. By
+constant and relentless severity Herod still strengthened his rule.</p>
+
+<p>But now fearful disturbances arose in his family. His sister Salome and
+his brother Pheroras displayed virulent hatred against Alexander and
+Aristobulus, sons of the murdered Mariamne, and, on their part, the two
+young men were incensed at the partiality shown by Herod to his eldest son,
+Antipater. This prince was continually using cunning strategy against his
+brethren, while feigning affection for them. He so worked on the mind of
+the king by false accusations against Alexander that many of the friends of
+this youth were tortured to death in the attempts made to force disclosures
+from them.</p>
+
+<p>A traitor named Eurycles fanned the flame by additional accusations, all
+utterly groundless, so that Herod wrote letters to Rome concerning the
+treacherous designs of his sons against him, and asking permission of
+C&aelig;sar to bring them to trial. This was granted, and they were accused
+before an assembly of judges at Berytus and condemned. By their father's
+command they were starved to death. For his share in bringing about this
+tragedy Antipater was hated by the people. But the secret desire of this
+eldest son was to see the end of his father, whom he deeply hated, though
+he now governed jointly with him and was no other than a king already.</p>
+
+<p>Herod by this time had nine wives and many children and grandchildren.
+The latter he brought up with much care. Antipater was sent on a mission to
+Rome, and during his absence his plots were discovered, and on his return,
+Herod, amazed at his wickedness, condemned him to death. The king now
+altered his testament, dividing the territory among several of his sons. He
+died on the fifth day after the execution of Antipater, having reigned
+thirty-four years after procuring the death of Antigonus. Archelaus, his
+son, was appointed by C&aelig;sar, in confirmation of Herod's will,
+governor of one-half of the country; but accusation of enemies led to his
+banishment to Vienna, in Gaul. Cyrenaicus, a Roman senator and magistrate,
+was sent by C&aelig;sar to make taxation in Syria and Judea, and Caponius
+was made procurator of Judea. Philip, a son of Herod, built cities in
+honour of Tiberius C&aelig;sar. When Pontius Pilate became procurator he
+removed the army from Cassarea to Jerusalem, abolished Jewish laws, and in
+the night introduced C&aelig;sar's effigies on ensigns.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works, drew over
+to him many Jews and Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the
+suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross,
+those that loved him did not forsake him, for he appeared to them again
+alive at the third day, as the prophets had foretold; and the tribe of
+Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. John, who was
+called the Baptist, was slain by Herod the tetrarch at his castle at
+Machserus, by the Dead Sea. The destruction of his army by Aretas, king of
+Arabia, was ascribed by the Jews to God's anger for this crime.</p>
+
+<p>Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, became the most famous of his
+descendants. On him Claudius C&aelig;sar bestowed all the dominions of his
+grandfather with the title of king. But pride overcame him. Seated on a
+throne at a great festival at C&aelig;sarea, arrayed in a magnificent robe,
+he was stricken by a disease, and died.</p>
+
+<p>He was succeeded by his son Agrippa, during whose time Felix and Festus
+were procurators in Judea, while Nero was Roman emperor. This Agrippa
+finished the Temple by the work of 18,000 men. The war of the Jews and
+Romans began through the oppression by Gessius Florus, who secured the
+procuratorship by the friendship of his wife Cleopatra with Poppea, wife of
+Nero. Florus filled Judea with intolerable cruelties, and the war began in
+the second year of his rule and the twelfth of the reign of Nero. What
+happened will be known by those who peruse the books I have written about
+the Jewish war.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Wars_of_the_Jews'></a>The Wars of the Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," gives the only full
+and reliable account of the tragic siege and destruction of Jerusalem by
+the Romans under Titus. Excepting in the opening, he writes throughout in
+the third person, although he was present in the Roman camp as a prisoner
+during the siege, and before then had been, as governor of Galilee, the
+brave and energetic antagonist of the Romans. Becoming the friend of Titus,
+and despairing of the success of his compatriots, he was employed in
+efforts to conciliate the leaders of the rebellion during the siege, and he
+was for three years a privileged captive in the camp of the besiegers. His
+recital is one of the most thrilling samples of romantic realism in the
+whole range of ancient literature, and its veracity and honesty have never
+been impugned. In his autobiography, Josephus tells how, after the war, he
+was invited by Titus to sail with him to Rome, and how on his arrival there
+the Emperor Vespasian entertained him in his own palace, bestowed on him a
+pension, and conferred on him the honours of Roman citizenship. The
+Emperors Titus and Domitian treated this remarkable Jew with continued
+favour. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Beginning of the Great Conflict</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Whereas the war which the Jews made against the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all times, while some men who were not concerned themselves
+have written vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and while those
+that were there have given false accounts, I, Joseph, the son of Matthias,
+by birth a Hebrew, and a priest also, and who at first fought against the
+Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, am
+the author of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the affairs of the Romans were in great disorder after the death of
+Nero. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name, was
+seventeen years old. He was considered too young to bear the burden of
+royalty, and Judea relapsed into a Roman province. Cuspius Fadus was sent
+as governor, and administered his office with firmness, but found civil war
+disturbing the district beyond Jordan. He cleared the country of the robber
+bands; and his successor, Tiberius Alexander, during a brief rule, put down
+disturbances which broke out in Judea. The province was at peace till he
+was superseded by Cumanus, during whose government the people and the Roman
+soldiery began to show mutual animosity. In a terrible riot 20,000 people
+perished, and Jerusalem was given up to wailing and lamentation.</p>
+
+<p>It was in C&aelig;sarea that the events took place which led to the
+final war. This magnificent city was inhabited by two races--the Syrian
+Greeks, who were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently
+contended for the pre-eminence. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the
+Roman soldiery, levied chiefly in Syria, took part with their countrymen.
+Tumults and bloodshed disturbed the streets. At this time a procurator
+named Gessius Florus was appointed, and he, by his barbarities, forced the
+Jews to begin the war in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the
+seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa.</p>
+
+<p>But the occasion of the war was by no means proportioned to those heavy
+calamities that it brought upon us. The fatal flame finally broke out from
+the old feud at C&aelig;sarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the
+magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It happened that the Jews had a
+synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot the
+Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused, and to
+annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean buildings and
+shops upon it, and so made the approach to the synagogue as narrow and
+difficult as possible. The more impetuous of the Jewish youth interrupted
+the workmen. Then the men of greater wealth and influence, and among them
+John, a publican, collected the large sum of eight talents, and sent it as
+a bribe to Florus, that he might stop the building. He received the money,
+made great promises, and at once departed for Sebaste from C&aelig;sarea.
+His object was to leave full scope for the riot.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a
+citizen of C&aelig;sarea outraged them by oversetting an earthen vessel in
+the way, over which he sacrificed birds, as done by the law in cleansing
+lepers, and thus he implied that the Jews were a leprous people. The more
+violent Jews, furious at the insult, attacked the Greeks, who were already
+in arms. The Jews were worsted, took up the books of the law, and fled to
+Narbata, about seven miles distant. John, the publican, and twelve men of
+eminence went to Samaria to Florus, implored his aid, and reminded him of
+the eight talents he had received. He threw them into prison and demanded
+seventeen talents from the sacred treasury under pretence of C&aelig;sar's
+necessities. This injustice and oppression caused violent excitement in
+Jerusalem when the news reached that city. The people assembled around the
+Temple with the loudest outcries; but it was the purpose of Florus to drive
+the people to insurrection, and he gave his soldiers orders to plunder the
+upper market and to put to death all whom they met. Of men, women, and
+children there fell that day 3,600.</p>
+
+<p>When Agrippa attempted to persuade the people to obey Florus till
+C&aelig;sar should send someone to succeed him, the more seditious cast
+reproaches on him, and got the king excluded from the city; nay, some had
+the impudence to fling stones at him. At the same time they excited the
+people to go to war, and some laid siege to the Roman garrison in the
+Antonio; others made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada. They
+took it by treachery, and slew the Romans. One, Menahem, a Galilean, became
+leader of the sedition, and went to Masada and broke open Herod's armoury,
+and gave arms not only to his own people, but to other robbers, also. These
+he made use of for a bodyguard, and returned in state to Jerusalem, and
+gave orders to continue the siege of the Antonio.</p>
+
+<p>The tower was undermined, and fell, and many soldiers were slain. Next
+day the high-priest Ananias, and his brother Hezekiah, were slain by the
+robbers. By these successes Menahem was puffed up and became barbarously
+cruel; but he was slain, as were also the captains under him, in an attack
+led on by Eleazar, a bold youth who was governor of the Temple.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Gathering of Great Storms</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews. On the very
+same day two dreadful massacres happened. In Jerusalem the Jews fell on
+Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had
+made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander
+himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to
+circumcision. On that very day and hour, as though Providence had ordained
+it, the Greeks in C&aelig;sarea rose, and in a single hour slew over 20,000
+Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants. For Florus
+caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys. By this tragedy the
+whole nation was driven to madness. The Jews rose and laid waste the
+villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended on Gadara,
+Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places. Sebaste and
+Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed Anthedon and Gaza to
+the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with great slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus,
+the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and
+overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be
+surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls. But the plot was
+discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls, and an
+attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed with great
+loss. Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews swarming on all
+the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in the night, leaving
+400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and to display their
+ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.</p>
+
+<p>But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the
+army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band. This
+happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Judea in Rebellion Against Rome</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero was at this time in Achaia. To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in
+order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the
+Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of
+Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem. Meantime, a great massacre of the Jews
+took place at Damascus. Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued after
+Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their
+governors and commanders. Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of Gorion,
+and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute authority in
+the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected of aiming at
+kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of zealots. But as
+commanding within the Temple he had made himself master of the public
+treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his extreme subtlety
+won over the multitude, and all real authority fell into his hands. To the
+other districts they sent the men most to be trusted for courage and
+fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Josephus was appointed to the command of Galilee, with particular charge
+of the strong city of Gamala. He raised in that province in the north an
+army of more than a hundred thousand young men, whom he armed and exercised
+after the Roman manner; and he formed a council of seventy, and appointed
+seven judges in each city. He sought to unite the people and to win their
+goodwill. But great trouble arose from the treachery of his enemy, John of
+Gischala, who surpassed all men in craft and deceit. He gathered a force of
+4,000 robbers and wasted Galilee, while he inflamed the dissensions in the
+cities, and sent messengers to Jerusalem accusing Josephus of tyranny.
+Tiberias and several cities revolted, but Josephus suppressed the risings,
+severely punishing many of the leaders. John retired to the robbers at
+Masada, and took to plundering Idumsea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Vespasian and Josephus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero, on learning from the messengers the state of affairs, at first
+regarded the revolt lightly; but presently grew alarmed, and appointed to
+the command of the armies in Syria, and the task of subduing the Jews,
+Vespasian, who had pacified the West when it was disordered by the Germans,
+and had also recovered Britain for the Romans. He came to Antioch in the
+early spring, and was there joined by Agrippa and all his forces. He
+marched to Ptolemais, where he was met by his son Titus, who had, with
+expedition unusual in the winter season, sailed from Achaia to Alexandria.
+So the Roman army now numbered 60,000 horsemen and footmen, besides large
+numbers of camp followers who were also accustomed to military service and
+could fight on occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The war was now opened. Josephus attempted no resistance in the open
+field, and the people had been directed to fly to the fortified cities. The
+strongest of all these was Jotapata, and here Josephus commanded in person.
+Being very desirous of demolishing it, Vespasian besieged it with his whole
+army. It was defended with the greatest vigour, but was, after fierce
+conflicts, taken in the thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, on the first
+day of the month Panemus (July). During this dreadful siege, and at the
+capture, 40,000 men fell. The Romans sought in vain for the body of
+Josephus, their stubborn enemy. He had leaped down the shaft of a dry well
+leading to a long cavern. A woman betrayed the hiding-place, and Josephus
+was taken and brought before the conqueror, of whom he had demanded from
+his captors a private conference. To Vespasian he announced that he and his
+son would speedily attain the imperial dignity. Vespasian was conciliated
+by the speech of his prisoner, whom he treated with kindness; for though he
+did not release him from his bonds, he bestowed on him suits of clothes and
+other precious gifts.</p>
+
+<p>Joppa, Tiberias, Tariche&aelig;, and Gamala were taken, both Romans and
+Jews perishing in the conflicts. Soon afterwards, by the capture of
+Gischala, all Galilee was subdued, John of Gischala fleeing to
+Jerusalem.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Prelude to the Great Siege</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>While the cities of Galilee thus arrested the course of the Roman
+eagles, Jotapata and Gamala setting the example of daring resistance, the
+leaders of the nation in Jerusalem, instead of sending out armies to the
+relief of the besieged cities, were engaged in the most dreadful civil
+conflicts.</p>
+
+<p>The fame of John of Gishala had gone before him to Jerusalem, and the
+multitude poured forth to do him honour. He falsely represented the Roman
+forces as being very greatly weakened, and declared that their engines had
+been worn out in the sieges in Galilee. He was a man of enticing eloquence,
+to whom the young men eagerly gave heed. So the city now began to be
+divided into hostile factions, and the whole of Judea had before set to the
+people of Jerusalem the fatal example of discord. For every city was torn
+to pieces by civil animosities. Not only the public councils, but even
+numerous families were distracted by the peace and war dispute. Through all
+Judea the youth were ardent for war, while the elders vainly endeavoured to
+allay the frenzy. Bands of desperate men began to spread over the land,
+plundering houses, while the Roman garrisons in the towns, rather rejoicing
+in their hatred to the race than wishing to protect the sufferers, afforded
+little help.</p>
+
+<p>Large numbers of these evil men stole into the city and grew into a
+daring faction, who robbed houses openly, and many of the most eminent
+citizens were murdered by these Zealots, as they were called, from their
+pretence that they had discovered a conspiracy to betray the city to the
+Romans. They dismissed many of the sanhedrin from office and appointed men
+of the lowest degree, who would support them in their violence, till the
+leaders of the people became slaves to their will.</p>
+
+<p>At length resistance was provoked, led by Ananus, oldest of the chief
+priests, a man of great wisdom, and the robber Zealots took refuge in the
+Temple and fortified it more strongly than before. They appointed as
+high-priest one Phanias, a coarse and clownish rustic, utterly ignorant of
+the sacerdotal duties, who when decked in the robes of office caused great
+derision. This sport and pastime for the Zealots caused the more religious
+people to shed tears of grief and shame; and the citizens, unable to endure
+such insolence, rose in great numbers to avenge the outrage on the sacred
+rites. Thus a fierce civil war broke out in which very many were slain.</p>
+
+<p>Then John of Gischala with great treachery, outwardly siding with
+Ananus, and secretly aiding the Zealots, sent messengers inviting the
+Idum&aelig;ans to come to his help, of whom 20,000 broke into the city
+during a stormy night, and slew 8,500 of the people.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and
+Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding
+his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem. Galba was made
+emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then, after the
+defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was proclaimed by the
+East. He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste their strength by their
+internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants with forces to reduce various
+surrounding districts instead of attacking Jerusalem. When he became
+emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds, honouring him for his
+integrity. Hastening his journey to Rome, Vespasian commanded Titus to
+subdue Judea.</p>
+
+<p>At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously. Eleazar, son of
+Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to
+reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the Zealots
+and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath against John of
+Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned. But he deserted the Zealots
+and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that there was war between him
+and Simon, son of Gioras. Thus Eleazar, John, and Simon each led a band in
+constant fightings, and the Temple was everywhere defiled by murders.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and
+went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude burst
+forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and
+intercepted him and a few others. He had on neither helmet nor breastplate,
+yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him, as if by some
+purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of his foes, he
+escaped unhurt. Part of the army now advanced to Scopos, within a mile of
+the city, while another occupied a station at the foot of the Mount of
+Olives.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem
+for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the
+summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and Simon
+from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so near the
+walls. Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an attack at the
+same moment. Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along the valley of
+Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion, encamped at the foot of
+the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed at the entrenchments. The
+soldiers fell back, many being killed. Witnessing their peril, Titus, with
+picked troops, fell on the flank of the Jews and drove them into the city
+with great loss.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches,
+leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying all
+the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and the army
+took up a position all along the northern and the western wall, the footmen
+being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three lines behind, and
+the archers between. Jerusalem was fortified by three walls. These were not
+one within the other, for each defended one of the quarters into which the
+city was divided.</p>
+
+<p>The first, or outermost, encompassed Bezetha, the next protected the
+citadel of the Antonia and the northern front of the Temple, and the third,
+or old, and innermost wall was that of Sion. Many towers, 35 feet high and
+35 feet broad, each surmounted with lofty chambers and with great tanks for
+rain water, guarded the whole circuit of the walls, 90 being in the first
+wall, 14 in the second, and 60 in the third. The whole circuit of the city
+was about 33 stadia (four miles). From their pent-houses of wicker the
+Romans, with great toil day and night, discharged arrows and stones, which
+slew many of the citizens.</p>
+
+<p>At three different places the battering rams began their thundering
+work, and at length a corner tower came down, yet the walls stood firm, for
+there was no breach. Suddenly the besieged sallied forth and set fire to
+the engines. Titus came up with his horsemen and slew twelve Jews with his
+own hands. One was taken prisoner and was crucified before the walls as an
+example, being the first so executed during the siege. The Jews now
+retreated to the second wall, abandoning the defence of Bezetha, which the
+Romans entered. Titus instantly ordered the second wall to be attacked, and
+for five days the conflict raged more fiercely than ever. The Jews were
+entirely reckless of their own lives, sacrificing themselves readily if
+they could kill their foes. On the fifth day they retreated from the second
+wall, and Titus entered that part of the lower city which was within it
+with I,000 picked men.</p>
+
+<p>But, being desirous of winning the people, he ordered that no houses
+should be set on fire and no massacres should be committed. The seditious,
+however, slew everyone who spoke of peace, and furiously assailed the
+Romans. Some fought from the walls, others from the houses, and such
+confusion prevailed that the Romans retired; then the Jews, elated, manned
+the breach, making a wall of their own bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the fight continued for three days, till Titus a second time
+entered the wall. He threw down all the northern part and strongly
+garrisoned the towers on the south. The strong heights of Sion, the citadel
+of the Antonia, and the fortified Temple still held out Titus, eager to
+save so magnificent a place, resolved to refrain for a few days from the
+attack, in order that the minds of the besieged might be affected by their
+woes, and that the slow results of famine might operate. He reviewed his
+army in full armour, and they received their pay in view of the city, the
+battlements being thronged by spectators during this splendid defiling, who
+looked on in terror and dismay. Then Titus sent Josephus to address them
+and to persuade them to yield, but the Zealots reviled him and hurled darts
+at him; but many began to desert, Titus permitted them to come in
+unmolested. John and Simon in their anger watched every outlet and executed
+any whom they suspected of designing to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The famine increased, and the misery of the weaker was aggravated by
+seeing the stronger obtaining food. All natural affection was extinguished,
+husbands and wives, parents and children snatching the last morsel from
+each other. Many wretched men were caught by the Romans prowling in the
+ravines by night to pick up food, and these were scourged, tortured, and
+crucified. In the morning sometimes 500 of these victims were seen on
+crosses before the walls. This was done to terrify the rest, and it went on
+till there was not wood enough for crosses. Terrible crimes were committed
+in the city. The aged high-priest, Matthias, was accused of holding
+communication with the enemy. Three of his sons were killed in his
+presence, and he was executed in sight of the Romans, together with sixteen
+other members of the sanhedrin, and the parents of Josephus were thrown
+into prison. The famine grew so woeful that a woman devoured the body of
+her own child. At length, after fierce fighting, the Antonia was scaled,
+and Titus ordered its demolition.</p>
+
+<p>Titus now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders
+would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots
+refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer
+court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones resisted
+the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the cloisters,
+Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. A soldier flung a blazing brand
+into a gilded door on the north side of the chambers. The Jews, with cries
+of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to take revenge on their
+enemies or perish in the ruins.</p>
+
+<p>The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left
+but a small portion of the outer cloisters. Titus next spent eighteen days
+in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily
+captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night
+alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of
+Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners numbered 97,000.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HENRY_MILMAN_DD'></a>HENRY MILMAN, D.D.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_the_Jews'></a>History of the Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
+1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral,
+of which for the last nineteen years of his life he was Dean. He was the
+youngest son of Sir Francis Milman, physician to George III, and was
+educated at Greenwich, Eton and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had
+a considerable reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
+historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including the "History
+of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the Abolition of Paganism in
+the Roman Empire," and the "History of Latin Christianity to the
+Pontificate of Nicholas V." The appearance of the "History of the Jews" in
+1830 caused no small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
+themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman wrote several
+hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty," "When our heads are bowed
+in woe." Although this history carries the Jewish race down to modern
+times, it is included in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating
+of ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not of a
+definite country. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Mach&aelig;rus
+and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
+Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of the
+states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
+obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
+indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
+ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish state
+it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
+communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
+spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
+families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the Jews
+on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West; the chief
+of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more temporal
+title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.</p>
+
+<p>That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
+historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond the
+Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the devastation; and,
+according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in the general wreck.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world
+during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt, Cyrene,
+and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant religious policy of
+the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan. Great atrocities were committed
+by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the retaliation was terrible. It is said
+that 220,000 Jews fell before the remorseless vengeance of their enemies.
+The flame spread to Cyprus, where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards
+emperor. He expelled the Jews from the island. When Hadrian ascended the
+throne, in 117 A.D., he issued an edict which was tantamount to the total
+suppression of Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the
+law, and the observance of the Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>At this momentous juncture, when universal dismay prevailed, it was
+announced that the Messiah had appeared. He had come in power and glory.
+His name fulfilled the prophecy of Balaam. Barcochab, the Son of the Star,
+was that star which was to "arise out of Jacob." Wonders attended on his
+person; he breathed flames from his mouth which, no doubt, would burn up
+the strength of the proud oppressor, and wither the armies of the
+tyrannical Hadrian. Above all, Akiba, the greatest of the rabbins, the
+living oracle of divine truth, espoused the claims of the new Messiah; he
+was called the standard-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of him also wondrous
+stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab was to the ruins of
+Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he openly assumed the
+title of king. But he and his followers avoided a battle in the open field.
+On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to take command of the Roman
+forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of fifty of the strongest castles
+and nearly a thousand villages. Severus attacked the strongholds in detail,
+reducing them by famine, and gradually brought the war to a close.</p>
+
+<p>Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
+Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets of
+the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
+Jerusalem, which he called &AElig;lia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony
+of foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
+new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the edict,
+the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to Bethlehem.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Judaism and Christianity</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
+extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
+successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as a
+separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under Hadrian,
+before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews present the
+extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly organised
+communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias, comprehending all of
+Isr&aelig;litish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire; the other under the
+Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern Jews paid allegiance. By
+the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient
+privileges. Though still forbidden to enter Jerusalem, they were permitted
+to acquire the freedom of Rome, to establish many settlements in Italy, and
+to enjoy municipal honours.</p>
+
+<p>This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
+from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
+peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became the
+great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered nation
+in the closest uniformity.</p>
+
+<p>The middle of the third century beheld all Isr&aelig;l incorporated into
+their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
+Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, lived in all the state and
+splendour of an oriental potentate, far outshining in his pomp his rival
+sovereign in Tiberias. The most celebrated of the rabbinical sovereigns was
+Jehuda, sometimes called the nasi or patriarch. His life was of such
+spotless purity that he was named the Holy. He was the author of a new
+constitution for the Jewish people, for he embodied in the celebrated
+Mischna all the authorised traditions of the schools and courts, and all
+the authorised interpretations of the Mosaic law. Both in the East and the
+West the Jews maintained their seclusion from the rest of the world. The
+great work called the Talmud, formed of the Mischna and the Gemara (or
+compilation of comments), was composed during a period of thirty years of
+profound peace for the masters of the Babylonian schools, under Persian
+rule. This remains a monumental token of learning and industry of the
+eastern Jewish rabbins of the third and fourth centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The formal establishment of Christianity by Constantine the Great, in
+the early part of the fourth century, might have led to Jewish apprehension
+lest the Synagogue should be eclipsed by the splendour of its triumphant
+rival, the Christian Church; but the Rabbinical authority had raised an
+insurmountable barrier around the Synagogue. And, unhappily, the Church had
+lost its most effective means of conversion--its miraculous powers, its
+simple doctrine, and the blameless lives of its believers. Constantine
+enacted severe laws against the Jews, which seem in great part to have been
+occasioned by their own fiery zeal. But, still earlier than these
+enactments, Spain had given the signal for hostility towards the Jews. A
+decree was passed at the Council of Elvira prohibiting Jewish and Christian
+farmers and peasants from mingling together at harvest home and other
+festivals.</p>
+
+<p>In Egypt, during the reign of Constantius, who succeeded his father
+Constantine, the hot-headed Jews of Alexandria provoked the enactment by
+that emperor of yet severer laws, by mingling themselves in the factions of
+Arians and Athanasians, which distracted that restless city. They joined
+with the pagans on the side of the Arian bishop, and committed frightful
+excesses. An insurrection in Judea, which terminated in the destruction of
+Dio C&aelig;sarea, gave further pretext for exaction and oppression. But
+the apostasy of the emperor for a time revived the hopes of the race,
+especially when he issued his memorable edict decreeing the rebuilding of
+the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the Jewish worship in
+its original splendour.</p>
+
+<p>The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
+execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced with
+his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most distant
+quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment ensued. Fire
+destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the enterprise, and
+the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
+fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised the
+whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members could not
+but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely dispersed in all
+those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium, the Rhine districts,
+Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and Spain. Not only did the
+Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively in mercantile pursuits,
+but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly into their hands--the
+internal slave-trade of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
+rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
+Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
+the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking to
+impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
+Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
+provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to issue
+severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the patriarchate.
+In the East, under the rule during the same period of the Persian king,
+Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in 531 A.D., the
+position was not more favourable for the Jews of Babylonia.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Golden Age of Judaism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
+rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect its
+throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and the
+first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years before
+Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sab&aelig;a and established an
+independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was subdued by an Arab
+chieftain and came to an end. But the Jews were still powerful in the
+Arabian peninsula. Mohammed designed to range all the tribes under his
+banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered a massacre of all
+who refused to accept the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on
+without emotion. But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was
+confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no
+further oppression than the payment of tribute. Spain had maintained its
+odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the suffering
+Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant invasion of the
+country by the Saracens. And in France the Jews became numerous and
+wealthy, and traded with great success.</p>
+
+<p>We enter on a period which may be described as the Golden Age of the
+modern Jews. The religious persecutions of this race by the Mohammedans
+were confined within the borders of Arabia. The Prophet was content with
+enforcing uniformity of worship within the sacred peninsula which gave him
+birth. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca were not to be profaned by the
+unclean footstep of the unbeliever. His immediate successors rose from
+stern fanatics to ambitious conquerors. Whoever would submit to the
+dominion of the caliph might easily evade the recognition of the Prophet's
+title. The Jews had reason to rejoice in the change of masters. An Islamite
+sovereign would not be more oppressive than a Byzantine on the throne of
+Constantinople or a Persian on the throne of Ctesiphon. In every respect
+the Jew rose in the social scale under his Mohammedan rulers. Provided he
+demeaned himself peaceably, and paid his tribute, he might go to the
+synagogue rather than to the mosque.</p>
+
+<p>In the time of Omar, the second caliph, the coinage, already a trust of
+great importance, had been committed to the care of a Jew. And the Jews
+acted as intermediate agents in the interworking of European civilisation,
+its knowledge, arts, and sciences, into the oriental mind, and in raising
+the barbarian conquerors from the chieftains of wild, marauding tribes into
+magnificent and enlightened sovereigns. The caliph readily acknowledged as
+his vassal the Prince of the Captivity, who maintained his state as
+representative of the Jewish community. And in the West, during the reigns
+of Pepin and Charlemagne, the treatment of Jews became much more liberal
+than before. Their superior intelligence and education, in a period when
+nobles and kings, and even the clergy, could not always write their names,
+pointed them out for offices of trust. They were the physicians, the
+ministers of finance, to monarchs. They even became ambassadors. The Golden
+Age of the Jews endured in increasing prosperity during the reign of Louis
+the D&eacute;bonnaire, or the Pious, at whose court they were so powerful
+that their interest was solicited by the presents of kings. In the reign of
+Charles the Bald, the Jews maintained their high estate, but dark signs of
+the approaching Age of Iron began to lower around.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Iron Age of Judaism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Our Iron Age commences in the East, where it witnessed the extinction of
+the Princes of the Captivity by the ignominious death of the last
+sovereign, the downfall of the schools, and the dispersion of the
+community, which from that period remained an abject and degraded part of
+the population. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Caliphate fell
+into weakness and confusion, and split up into several kingdoms under
+conflicting sovereigns, and at the same time Judaism in the East was
+distracted by continual disputes between the Princes of the Captivity and
+the masters of the schools. The tribunals of the civil and temporal powers
+of the Eastern Jewish community were in perpetual collision, so that this
+singular state was weakened internally by its own dissensions.</p>
+
+<p>When a violent and rapacious caliph, Ahmed Kader, ascended the throne,
+he cast a jealous look on the powers of his vassal sovereign, and, without
+pretext, he seized Scherira, the prince of the community, now a hundred
+years old, imprisoned him and his son Hai, and confiscated their wealth.
+Hai escaped to resume his office and to transmit its honours and its
+dangers to Hezekiah, who was elected chief of the community, but after a
+reign of two years was arrested with all his family by order of the caliph
+Abdallah Kaim ben Marillah (A.D. 1036). The schools were closed. Many of
+the learned fled to Spain, where the revulsion under the Almohades had not
+yet taken place; all were dispersed. Among the rest two of the sons of the
+unfortunate Prince of the Captivity effected their escape to Spain, while
+the last of the House of David who reigned over the Jews of the Dispersion
+in Babylonia perished on the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish communities in Palestine suffered a slower but more complete
+dissolution. Benjamin of Tudela in the compilation of his travels in the
+twelfth century gives a humiliating account of the few brethren who still
+clung, in dire poverty and meanness, to their native land. In Tyre he found
+400 Jews, mostly glass-blowers. There were in Jerusalem only 200, almost
+all dyers of wool. Ascalon contained 153 Jews; Tiberias, the seat of
+learning, and of the kingly patriarchate, but fifty. In the Byzantine
+Empire the number of Jews had greatly diminished.</p>
+
+<p>We pursue our dark progress to the West, where we find all orders
+gradually arrayed in fierce and implacable animosity against the race of
+Isr&aelig;l. Every passion was in arms against them. In that singular structure,
+the feudal system, which rose like a pyramid from the villeins, or slaves
+attached to the soil, to the monarch who crowned the edifice, the, Jews
+alone found no proper place. In France and England they were the actual
+property of the king, and there was nowhere any tribunal to which they
+could appeal.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew, often acquiring wealth in commerce, might become valuable
+property of some feudatory lord. He was granted away, he was named in a
+marriage settlement, he was pawned, he was sold, he was stolen. Even
+Churchmen of the highest rank did not disdain such lucrative property.
+Louis, King of Provence, granted to the Archbishop of Aries all the
+possessions which his predecessors have held of former kings, including the
+Jews. Philip the Fair bought of his brother, Charles of Valois, all the
+Jews of his dominions and lordships.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew, making money as he knew how to do by trade and industry, was a
+valuable source of revenue, and was tolerated only as such, but he was a
+valuable possession. Chivalry, the parent of so much good and evil, was a
+source of unmitigated wretchedness to the Jew--for religious fanaticism and
+chivalry were inseparable, the knight of the Middle Ages being bound with
+his good sword to extirpate all the enemies of Christ and His Virgin
+Mother. The power of the clergy tended greatly to increase this general
+detestation against the unhappy Jew. And when undisciplined fanatics of the
+lowest order, under the guidance of Peter the Hermit and Walter the
+Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the Crusades, fearful massacres of
+Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz, Spiers, Worms, and Cologne.
+Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were deeply marked with Jewish
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First
+Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through Germany
+preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of God. The
+terrible cry of "Hep!"--the signal for the massacre of Isr&aelig;lites--ran
+through the cities of the Rhine. Countless atrocities took place as the
+Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph, to perish by plague,
+famine, and the sword.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Jews in England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of
+Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration. There were Jews in
+England under the Saxons. And during the days of the Norman kings they were
+established in Oxford and in London. They taught Hebrew to Christian as
+well as to Jewish students. But they increased in both wealth and
+unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them being bruited
+abroad. In many towns furious rabbles at different times attacked the
+Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates cruelly to death,
+as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in the reign of Richard
+I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums from wealthy Jews.</p>
+
+<p>The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive
+enactments against them. Jewish history has a melancholy
+sameness--perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing only
+in their cruelty. When parliament refused to maintain the extravagant royal
+expenditure, nothing remained but still further to drain Hebrew veins. In
+the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the crucifixion of a Christian
+child, called Hugh of Lincoln. The story refutes itself, but it created
+horror throughout the country. For this crime eighteen of the richest Jews
+of Lincoln were hanged, and many more flung into dungeons.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal
+harshness. At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total
+expulsion from the realm. Their departure was fixed for October 10, 1290.
+All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy. The Jews were pursued
+from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their sufferings.
+In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts, obligations,
+mortgages were escheated to the king. A like expulsion had been effected in
+France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler rank, was not to be
+outdone in bigotry.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher of
+Seville, Ferdinand Martinez, Arch-deacon of Ecija, excited the populace to
+excesses against the Jews. The streets of the noble city ran with blood,
+and 4,000 victims perished. The cruel spirit spread through the kingdom,
+and appalling massacres followed in many cities. A series of intermittent
+persecutions followed both in Spain and Portugal, in reign after reign.
+Jews and Protestants together went through awful ordeals at the hands of
+the Inquisition. When her glory had declined, Spain, even in her lowest
+decrepitude, indulged in what might seem the luxury of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the reign of Charles II. that the Jews found opportunity to
+steal insensibly back into England. Cromwell had felt very favourably
+disposed towards them, but had not dared to permit the re-establishment
+which they had openly sought. But the necessities of Charles and his
+courtiers quietly accomplished the, change, and the race has ever since
+maintained its footing, and no doubt contributed a fair share to the
+national wealth. Russia throughout her history adhered to her hostility to
+the Jews, but expulsion became impossible with such vast numbers. It is
+estimated that Russia contains half the Jewish population of the world,
+notwithstanding that Russia proper from ancient times has been sternly
+inhospitable to the Jewish race, while Poland has ever been hospitable.</p>
+
+<p>The most important measures of amelioration in the lot of the Jews in
+England were passed in 1723, when they acquired the right to possess land;
+in 1753, when parliament enacted the Naturalisation Bill; in 1830, when
+they were admitted to civic corporations; in 1833, when they were admitted
+to the profession of advocates; in 1845, when they were rendered eligible
+for the office of alderman and lord mayor; and in 1858, when the last and
+crowning triumph of the principle was achieved by the admission of Jews
+into parliament.</p>
+
+<p>In Asia, the Jews are still found in considerable numbers on the verge
+of the continent; in China, they are now found in one city alone, and
+possess only one synagogue. In Mesopotamia and Assyria the ancient seats of
+the Babylonian Jews are still occupied by 5,270 families. But England and
+Anglo-Saxon countries generally have been the most favourable to the race.
+Perhaps the most remarkable fact in the history of modern Judaism is the
+extension of the Jews in the United States. Writing in 1829, I stated, on
+the best authority then attainable, their numbers at 6,000. They are now
+[in 1863] reckoned at 75,000.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HERODOTUS'></a>HERODOTUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History'></a>History</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The "Father of History," as Herodotus has been styled, was
+born at Halicarnassus, the centre of a Greek colony in Asia Minor, between
+the years 490 and 480 B.C., and lived probably to sixty, dying about the
+year 425 B.C. A great part of his life was occupied with travels and
+investigations in those lands with which his history is mainly concerned.
+His work is the earliest essay in history in a European language. It is a
+record primarily of the causes and the course of the first great contest
+between East and West; and is a storehouse of curious and delightful
+traveller's gossip as well as a faithful record of events. The canons of
+evidence in his day were defective, for obvious reasons; a miscellaneous
+divine interposition in human affairs was taken for granted, and science
+had not yet reduced incredible marvels to ordinary natural phenomena.
+Nevertheless, Herodotus was a shrewd and careful critic, honest, and by no
+means remarkably credulous. If he had not acquired the conception of
+history as an exact science, he made it a particularly attractive form of
+literature, to which his simplicity of style gives a slight but pleasant
+archaic flavour. This epitome has been specially prepared far THE WORLD'S
+GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Rise of Persian Power</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I will not dispute whether those ancient tales be true, of Io and Helen,
+and the like, which one or another have called the sources of the war
+between the Hellenes and the barbarians of Asia; but I will begin with
+those wrongs whereof I myself have knowledge. In the days of Sadyattes,
+king of Lydia, and his son Alyattes, there was war between Lydia and
+Miletus. And Croesus, the son of Alyattes, made himself master of the lands
+which are bounded by the river Halys, and he waxed in power and wealth, so
+that there was none like to him. To him came Solon, the Athenian, but would
+not hail him as the happiest of all men, saying that none may be called
+happy until his life's end.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter trouble fell upon Croesus by the slaying of his son when he
+was a-hunting. Then Cyrus the Persian rose up and made himself master of
+the Medes and Persians, and Croesus, fearing his power, was fain to go up
+against him, being deceived by an oracle; but first he sought to make
+alliance with the chief of the states of Hellas. In those days, Pisistratus
+was despot of Athens; but Sparta was mighty, by the laws of Lycurgus.
+Therefore Croesus sent envoys to the Spartans to make alliance with them,
+which was done very willingly. But when Croesus went up against Cyrus, his
+army was put to flight, and Cyrus besieged him in the city of Sardis, and
+took it, and made himself lord of Lydia. He would have slain Croesus, but,
+finding him wise and pious, he made him his counsellor.</p>
+
+<p>Now, this Cyrus had before overthrown the Median king, Astyages, whose
+daughter was his own mother. For her father, fearing a dream, wedded her to
+a Persian, and when she bore a child, he gave order for its slaying. But
+the babe was taken away and brought up by a herdsman of the hill-folk. But
+in course of time the truth became known to Astyages, and to Harpagus, the
+officer who had been bidden to slay the babe, and to Cyrus himself. Then
+Harpagus, fearing the wrath of Astyages, bade Cyrus gather together the
+Persians--who in those days were a hardy people of the mountains--and made
+himself king over the Medians; which things Cyrus did, overthrowing his
+grandfather Astyages. And in this wise began the dominion of the
+Persians.</p>
+
+<p>The Ionian cities of Asia were zealous to make alliance with Cyrus when
+he had overthrown Croesus. But he held them of little account, and
+threatened them, and the Laced&aelig;monians also, who sent him messengers
+warning him to let the Ionians alone. And he sent Harpagus against the
+cities of the Ionians, of whom certain Phoc&aelig;ans and Teians sailed
+away to Rhegium and Abdera rather than become the slaves of the barbarians;
+but the rest, though they fought valiantly enough, were brought to
+submission by Harpagus.</p>
+
+<p>While Harpagus was completing the subjugation of the West, Cyrus was
+making conquest of Upper Asia, and overthrew the kingdom of Assyria, of
+which the chief city was Babylon, a very wonderful city, wherein there had
+ruled two famous queens, Semiramis and Nitocris. Now, this queen had made
+the city wondrous strong by the craft of engineers, yet Cyrus took it by a
+shrewd device, drawing off the water of the river so as to gain a passage.
+Thus Babylon also fell under the sway of the Persian. But when Cyrus would
+have made war upon Tomyris, the queen of the Massaget&aelig;, who dwelt to
+the eastward, there was a very great battle, and Cyrus himself was slain
+and the most part of his host. And Cambyses, his son, reigned in his
+stead.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Wars of Egypt and Persia</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Cambyses set out to conquer Egypt, taking in his army certain of the
+Greeks. But of all that I shall tell about that land, the most was told to
+me by the priests whom I myself visited at Memphis and Thebes and
+Heliopolis. They account themselves the most ancient of peoples. If the
+Ionians are right, who reckon that Egypt is only the Nile Delta, this could
+not be. But I reckon that the whole Egyptian territory is. Egypt, from the
+cataracts and Elephantin&eacute; down to the sea, parted into the Asiatic
+part and the Libyan part by the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>For the causes of the rising and falling of the Nile, the reasons that
+men give are of no account. And of the sources whence the river springs are
+strange stories told of which I say not whether they be true or false: but
+the course of it is known for four months' journey by land and water, and
+in my opinion it is a river comparable to the Ister.</p>
+
+<p>The priests tell that the first ruler of Egypt was Menes, and after him
+were three hundred and thirty kings, counting one queen, who was called
+Nitocris. After them came Sesostris, who carried his conquest as far as the
+Thracians and Scythians; and later was Rhampsinitus, who married his
+daughter to the clever thief who robbed his treasure-house; and after him
+Cheops, who built the pyramid, drawing the stones from the Arabian mountain
+down to the Nile. Chephren also, and Mycerinus built pyramids, and the
+Greeks have a story--which is not true--that another was built by Rhodopis.
+And in the reign of Sethon, Egypt was invaded by Sennacherib the Assyrian,
+whose army's bowstrings were eaten by field-mice.</p>
+
+<p>A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake
+Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were made
+by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them,
+Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson
+Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis. And Amasis also
+prospered, and showed favour to the Greeks. But for whatever reason, in his
+day Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt, invading it just when
+Amasis had died, and his son Psammenitus was reigning.</p>
+
+<p>Cambyses put the Egyptian army to rout in a great battle, and conquered
+the country, making Psammenitus prisoner. Yet he would have set him up as
+governor of the province, according to the Persian custom, but that
+Psammenitus was stirred up to revolt, and, being discovered, was put to
+death. Thereafter Cambyses would have made war upon Carthage, but that the
+Phoenicians would not aid him; and against the Ethiopians, who are called
+"long-lived," but his army could get no food; and against the Ammonians,
+but the troops that went were seen no more.</p>
+
+<p>Now, madness came upon Cambyses, and he died, having committed many
+crimes, among which was the slaying of his brother Smerdis. And there rose
+up one among the Magi who pretended to be Smerdis, and was proclaimed king.
+But this false Smerdis was one whose ears had been cut off, and he was thus
+found out by one of his wives, the daughter of a Persian nobleman, Otanes.
+Then seven nobles conspired together, since they would not be ruled over by
+one of the Magi; and having determined that it was best to have one man for
+ruler, rather than the rule of the people or of the nobles, they slew
+Smerdis and made Darius, the son of Hystaspes, their king.</p>
+
+<p>Then Darius divided the Persian empire into twenty satrapies, whereof
+each one paid its own tribute, save Persia itself, and he was lord of all
+Asia, and Egypt also.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of Cambyses, Polycrates was despot of Samos, being the first
+who ever thought to make himself a ruler of the seas. And he had prospered
+marvellously. But Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, compassed his death by
+foul treachery, and wrought many other crimes; whom Darius in turn put to
+death by guile, fearing to make open war upon him. And not long afterwards,
+he sent Otanes to make conquest of Samos. And during the same days there
+was a revolt of the Babylonians; and Darius went up against Babylon, yet
+for twenty months he could not take it. Howbeit, it was taken by the act of
+Zopyrus, who, having mutilated himself, went to the Babylonians and told
+them that Darius had thus evilly entreated him, and so winning their trust,
+he made easy entry for the Persian army, and so Babylon was taken the
+second time.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Persian Arms in Europe</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Now, Darius was minded to make conquest of the Scythians--concerning
+which people, and the lands beyond those which they inhabit, there are many
+marvels told, as of a bald-headed folk called Argipp&aelig;i; and the
+Arimaspians or one-eyed people; and the Hyperborean land where the air is
+full of feathers. Of these lands are legends only; nothing is known. But
+concerning the earth's surface, this much is known, that Libya is
+surrounded by water, certain Phoenicians having sailed round it. And of the
+unknown regions of Asia much was searched out by order of Darius.</p>
+
+<p>The Scythians themselves have no cities; but there are great rivers in
+Scythia, whereof the Ister is the greatest of all known streams, being
+greater even than the Nile, if we reckon its tributaries. The great god of
+the Scythians is Ares; and their war customs are savage exceedingly, and
+all their ways barbarous. Against this folk Darius resolved to march.</p>
+
+<p>His plan was to convey his army across the Bosphorus on a bridge of
+boats, while the Ionian fleet should sail up to the Ister and bridge that,
+and await him. So he crossed the Bosphorus and marched through Thrace,
+subduing on his way the Getse, who believe that there is no true death. But
+when he passed the Ister, he would have taken the Ionians along with him;
+but by counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he resolved to leave them in charge of
+the bridge, giving order that, after sixty days, they might depart home,
+but no sooner.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Scythians, fearing that they could not match the great king's
+army, summoned the other barbaric peoples to their aid; among whom were the
+Sauromatians, who are fabled to be the offspring of the Amazons. And some
+were willing, but others not. Therefore the Scythians retired before
+Darius, first towards those peoples who would not come to their help; and
+so enticed him into desert regions, yet would in no wise come to battle
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at length, Darius found himself in so evil a plight that he began
+to march back to the Ister. And certain Scythians came to the Ionians, and
+counselled them to destroy the bridge, the sixty days being passed. And
+this Miltiades, the Athenian despot of the Chersonese, would have had them
+do, so that Darius might perish with all his army; but Histi&aelig;us of Miletus
+dissuaded them, because the rule of the despots was upheld by Darius. And
+thus the Persian army was saved, Megabazus being left in Europe to subdue
+the Hellespontines. When Megabazus had subdued many of the Thracian
+peoples, who, indeed, lack only union with each other to make them the
+mightiest of all nations, he sent an embassy to Amyntas, the king of
+Macedon, to demand earth and water. But because those envoys insulted the
+ladies of the court, Alexander, the son of Amyntas, slew them all, and of
+them or all their train was never aught heard more.</p>
+
+<p>Now Darius, with fair words, bade Histiseus of Miletus abide with him at
+the royal town of Susa. Then Aristagoras, the brother of Histi&aelig;us, having
+failed in an attempt to subdue Naxos, and fearing both Artaphernes, the
+satrap of Sardis, and the Persian general Megabazus, with whom he had
+quarrelled, sought to stir up a revolt of the Ionian cities; being incited
+thereto by secret messages from Histiseus.</p>
+
+<p>To this end, he sought alliance with the Laced&aelig;monians; but they
+would have nothing to do with him, deeming the venture too remote. Then he
+went to Athens, whence the sons of Pisistratus had been driven forth just
+before. For Hipparchus had been slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and
+afterwards Hippias would hardly have been expelled but that his enemies
+captured his children and so could make with him what terms they chose. But
+the Pisistratidse having been expelled, the city grew in might, and changes
+were made in the government of it by Cleisthenes the Alcm&aelig;onid. But
+the party that was against Cleisthenes got aid from Cleomenes of Sparta;
+yet the party of Cleisthenes won.</p>
+
+<p>Then, since they reckoned that there would be war with Sparta, the
+Athenians had sought friendship with Artaphernes at Sardis; but since he
+demanded earth and water they broke off. But because Athens was waxing in
+strength, the Spartans bethought them of restoring the despotism of the
+Pisistratid&aelig;. But Sosicles, the Corinthian, dissuaded the allies of
+Sparta from taking part in so evil a deed. Then Hippias sought to stir up
+against the Athenians the ill-will of Artaphernes, who bade them take back
+the Pisistratid&aelig;, which they would not do.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, when Aristagoras came thither, the Athenians were readily
+persuaded to promise him aid. And he, having gathered the troops of the
+Ionians, who were at one with him, marched with them and the Athenians
+against Sardis and took the city, which by a chance was set on fire. But
+after that the Athenians refused further help to the Ionians, who were
+worsted by the Persians. But the ruin of the Ionians was at the sea-fight
+of Lade, where the men of Chios fought stoutly; but they of Samos and
+Lesbos deserting, there was a great rout.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Marathon and Thermopyl&aelig;</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Thereafter King Darius, being very wroth with the Athenians for their
+share in the burning of Sardis, sent a great army across the Hellespont to
+march through Thrace against Athens, under his young kinsman Mardonius. But
+disaster befell these at the hands of the Thracians, and the fleet that was
+to aid them was shattered in a storm; so that they returned to Asia without
+honour. Then Darius sent envoys to demand earth and water from the Greek
+states; and of the islanders the most gave them, and some also of the
+cities on the mainland; and among these were the Aeginetans, who were at
+feud with Athens.</p>
+
+<p>But of those who would not give the earth and water were the Eretrians
+of Eubcea. So Darius sent a great armament by sea against Eretria and
+Athens, led by Datis and Artaphernes, which sailed first against Eretria.
+The Athenians, indeed, sent aid; but when they found that the counsels of
+the Eretrians were divided, so that no firm stand might be made, they
+withdrew. Nevertheless, the Eretrians fought valiantly behind their walls,
+till they were betrayed on the seventh day. But the Persians, counselled by
+Hippias, sailed to the bay of Marathon.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Athenians sent the strong runner Pheidippides to call upon the
+Spartans for aid; who promised it, yet for sacred reasons would not move
+until the full moon. So the Athenian host had none to aid them save the
+loyal Plat&aelig;ans, valiant though few. Yet in the council of their
+generals the word of Miltiades was given for battle, whereto the rest
+consented. Then the Athenians and Plat&aelig;ans, being drawn up in a long
+line, charged across the plain nigh a mile, running upon the masses of the
+Persians; and, breaking them upon the wings, turned and routed the centre
+also after long fighting, and drove them down to the ships, slaying as they
+went; and of the ships they took seven. And of the barbarians there fell
+6,400 men, and of the Athenians, 192. But as for the story that the
+Alcm&aelig;onid&aelig; hoisted a friendly signal to the Persians, I credit it not at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Darius was very wroth with the Greeks when he heard of these
+things, and made preparation for a mighty armament to overthrow the Greeks,
+and also the Egyptians, who revolted soon afterwards. But he died before he
+was ready, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his stead. Then, having first
+crushed the Egyptians, he, being ruled by Mardonius, gathered a council and
+declared his intent of marching against the Hellenes; which resolution was
+commended by Mardonius, but Artabanus, the king's uncle, spoke wise words
+of warning. Then Xerxes would have changed his mind, but for a dream which
+came to him twice, and to Artabanus also, threatening disaster if he ceased
+from his project; so that Artabanus was won over to favour it.</p>
+
+<p>Then Xerxes made vast provision for his invasion for the building of a
+bridge over the Hellespont, and the cutting of a canal through the
+peninsula of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been shattered. And
+from all parts of his huge empire he mustered his hosts first in
+Cappadocia, and marched thence by way of Sardis to the Hellespont. And
+because, when the bridge was a building, a great storm wrecked it, he bade
+flog the naughty waves of the sea. Then, the bridge being finished, he
+passed over with his host, which took seven days to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>And when they were come to Doriscus he numbered them, and found them to
+be 1,700,000 men, besides his fleets. And in the fleet were 1,207 great
+ships, manned chiefly by the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia, having
+also Persian and Scythian fighting men on board. But when Demaratus, an
+exiled king of Sparta, warned Xerxes of the valour of all the Greeks, but
+chiefly of the Spartans, who would give battle, however few they might be,
+against any foe, however many, his words seemed to Xerxes a jest, seeing
+how huge his own army was.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Xerxes had sent to many of the Greek states heralds to demand earth
+and water, which many had given; but to Athens and Sparta he had not sent,
+because there the heralds of his father Darius had been evilly entreated.
+And if it had not been for the resolution of the Athenians at this time,
+all Hellas would have been forced to submit to the Great King; for they, in
+despite of threatening oracles, held fast to their defiance, being urged
+thereto by Themistocles, who showed them how those oracles must mean that,
+although they would suffer evil things, they would be victorious by means
+of wooden bulwarks, which is to say, ships; and thus they were encouraged
+to rely upon building and manning a mighty fleet. And all the other cities
+of Greece resolved to stand by them, except the Argives, who would not
+submit to the leadership of the Spartans. And in like manner Gelon, the
+despot of Syracuse in Sicily, would not send aid unless he were accepted as
+leader. Nor were the men of Thessaly willing to join, since the other
+Greeks could not help them to guard Thessaly itself, as the pass of Tempe
+could be turned.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore the Greeks resolved to make their stand at Thermopyl&aelig; on
+land, and at the strait of Artemisium by sea. But at the strong pass of
+Thermopyl&aelig; only a small force was gathered to hold the barbarians in
+check, there being of the Spartans themselves only 300, commanded by the
+king Leonidas. And when the Persians had come thither and sought to storm
+the pass, they were beaten back with ease, until a track was found by which
+they might take the defenders in the rear. Then Leonidas bade the rest of
+the army depart except his Spartans. But the Thespians also would not go;
+and then those Spartans and Thespians went out into the open and died
+gloriously.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Destruction of the Persian Hosts</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During these same days the Greek fleet at Artemisium fought three
+several engagements with the Persian fleet, in which neither side had much
+the better. And thereafter the Greek fleet withdrew, but was persuaded to
+remain undispersed in the bay of Salamis. The Peloponnesians were no longer
+minded to attempt the defence of Attica, but to fortify their isthmus, so
+that the Athenians had no choice but either to submit or to evacuate
+Athens, removing their families and their goods to Troezen or Aegina or
+Salamis. In the fleet, their contingent was by far the largest and best,
+but the commanding admiral was the Spartan Eurybiades. Then the Persians,
+passing through Boeotia, but, being dispersed before Delphi by thunderbolts
+and other portents, took possession of Athens, after a fierce fight with
+the garrison in the Acropolis.</p>
+
+<p>Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and
+look to the safety of the Peloponnese only. But Themistocles warned them
+that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new lands
+and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded to hold
+together at Salamis. Yet he did not trust only to their goodwill, but sent
+a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of retreat might be
+intercepted. For the Persian fleet had gathered at Phalerum, and now looked
+to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether, despite the council of Queen
+Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have had them not fight by sea at
+all. When Aristides, called the Just, the great rival of Themistocles, came
+to the Greeks with the news that their retreat by sea was cut off, then
+they were no longer divided, but resolved to fight it out.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the
+Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any fleet
+more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom Queen
+Artemisia won praise unmerited. As for King Xerxes, panic seized him when
+he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee. He consented,
+however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in Thessaly, he
+being still assured that he could crush the Greeks. And it was well for him
+that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to pursue and annihilate the
+fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly
+and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the
+Spartans having failed to send succour. But when at length the
+Laced&aelig;monians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an
+army, the Persians fell back to Boeotia. So the Greek hosts gathered near
+Plat&aelig;a to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were
+about 350,000. Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held back,
+till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to the
+Athenians by Alexander of Macedon. But when the Spartan Pausanias, the
+general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little wonder,
+for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Laced&aelig;monians
+should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at
+Marathon. But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.
+Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain
+whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was
+needful to move to a new position. But the move being made by night, most
+of the allies withdrew into the town. But the Spartans, and Tegeans and
+Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and
+their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians. But, Mardonius being slain,
+the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and
+Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there the
+barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were left
+alive. But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with 40,000
+men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.</p>
+
+<p>And on that same day was fought another fight by sea at Mycale in Ionia,
+where also the barbarians were utterly routed, for the fleet had sailed
+thither. And thence the Greeks sailed to Sestos, captured the place, and so
+went home.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='THUCYDIDES'></a>THUCYDIDES</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Peloponnesian_War'></a>The Peloponnesian War</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The Athenian historian, Thucydides, was born about 471
+B.C., within ten years of the great repulse of the Persian invasion. Before
+he was thirty, the great political ascendancy of Pericles was completely
+established at Athens, and the ascendancy of Athens among the Greek states
+was unchallenged, except by Sparta. He was forty at the beginning of the
+Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was appointed to a military command seven
+years later, but his failure in that office caused his banishment. From
+that time he remained an exiled spectator of events; the date of his death
+is uncertain. His great work is the history of the Peloponnesian War to its
+twentieth year, where his history is abruptly broken off. To Herodotus,
+history presented itself as a drama; Thucydides views it with the eyes of a
+philosophical statesman, but writes it also with extraordinary descriptive
+power, not only in pregnant sentences which have never been effectively
+rendered in translation, but in passages of sustained intensity, of which
+it would be vain to reproduce fragments. The abridged translation given
+here has been made direct from the Greek. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Beginning of the War</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I have written the account of the war between Athens and Sparta, since
+it is the greatest and the most calamitous of all wars hitherto to the
+Greeks. For the contest with the Medes was decided in four battles; but
+this war was protracted over many years, and wrought infinite injury and
+bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the
+affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a colony.
+Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian or the
+Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither. But having a quarrel
+with Corinth about Epidamnus, she now formed an alliance with Athens, whose
+intervention enraged the Corinthians.</p>
+
+<p>They then helped Potid&aelig;a, a Corinthian colony, but an Athenian
+tributary, to revolt from Athens. Corinth next appealed to Sparta, as the
+head of Hellas, to intervene ere it should be too late and check the
+Athenian aggression, which threatened to make her the tyrant of all Greece.
+At Sparta the war party prevailed, although King Archidamus urged that
+sufficient pressure could be brought to bear without actual
+hostilities.</p>
+
+<p>The great prosperity and development of Athens since the Persian war had
+filled other states with fear and jealousy. She had rebuilt her city walls
+and refortified the port of Pir&aelig;us after the Persian occupation;
+Sparta had virtually allowed her to take the lead in the subsequent stages
+of the war, as having the most effective naval force at command. Hence she
+had founded the Delian league of the maritime states, to hold the seas
+against Persia. At first these states provided fixed contingents of ships
+and mariners; but Athens was willing enough to accept treasure in
+substitution, so that she might herself supply the ships and men.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the provision of forces by each state to act against Persia was
+changed in effect into a tribute for the expansion of the Athenian fleet.
+The continuous development of the power of Athens had been checked only
+momentarily by her disastrous Egyptian expedition. Her nominal allies found
+themselves actually her tributary dependencies, and various attempts to
+break free from her yoke had made it only more secure and more
+burdensome.</p>
+
+<p>Hence the warlike decision of Sparta was welcomed by others besides
+Corinth. But diplomatic demands preceded hostilities. Sparta and Athens
+sent to each other summons and counter-summons for the "expulsion of the
+curse," that is of all persons connected with certain families which lay
+under the curse of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of Athens, this amounted to requiring the banishment of her
+greatest citizen and statesman, Pericles. To this the Spartans added the
+demand that the Athenians should "restore the freedom of Hellas," and
+should specifically remove certain trading disabilities imposed on the
+people of Megara.</p>
+
+<p>At this crisis Pericles laid down the rules of policy on which Athens
+ought to act--rules which required her to decline absolutely to submit to
+any form of dictation from Sparta. When a principle was at stake, it made
+no difference whether the occasion was trivial or serious. Athens could
+face war with confidence. Her available wealth was far greater--a matter of
+vital importance in a prolonged struggle. Her counsels were not divided by
+the conflicting interests of allies all claiming to direct military
+movements and policy. Her fleet gave her command of the sea, and enabled
+her to strike when and where she chose. If Peloponnesian invaders ravaged
+Attica, still no permanent injury would be done comparable to that which
+the Athenians could inflict upon them. The one necessity was to concentrate
+on the war, and attempt no extension of dominion while it was in
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>War was not yet formally declared when the Thebans attempted to seize
+Plat&aelig;a, a town of Boeotia, which had long been closely allied to
+Athens. The attempt failed, and the Thebans were put to death; but the
+Plat&aelig;ans appealed to Athens for protection against their powerful
+neighbour, and when the Athenian garrison was sent to them, this was
+treated as a <i>casus belli</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were urged on both sides; Sparta summoned her allies to
+muster their contingents on the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica, nearly
+all the mainland states joining the Peloponnesian league. The islanders and
+the cities in Asia Minor, on the other hand, were nearly all either
+actually subject to Athens or in alliance with her.</p>
+
+<p>As Pericles advised, the Athenians left the country open to the ravages
+of the invading forces, and themselves retired within the city. In spite of
+the resentment of those who saw their property being laid waste, Pericles
+maintained his ascendency, and persuaded the people to devote their
+energies to sending out an irresistible fleet, and to establishing a great
+reserve both of ships and treasure, which were to be an annual charge and
+brought into active use only in the case of dire emergency. The fleet
+sailed round the Peloponnese, and the ravages it was able to inflict, with
+the alarm it created, caused the withdrawal of the forces in Attica.</p>
+
+<p>In that winter Pericles delivered a great funeral oration, or panegyric,
+in memory of the Athenians who had so far fallen gloriously in defence of
+their country, in which he painted the characteristic virtues of the
+Athenian people in such a fashion as to rouse to the highest pitch the
+patriotic pride of his countrymen, and their confidence in themselves, in
+their future, and in their leader.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Early Successes of Athens</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the second year of the war, Athens suffered from a fearful visitation
+of the plague, which, however, made no way in the Peloponnese. It broke out
+also among the reinforcements dispatched to Potid&aelig;a; and it required
+all the skill of Pericles to reconcile the Athenians to the continuation of
+the war, after seeing their territories overrun for the second time for six
+weeks. By dint of dwelling on the supreme importance of their decisive
+command of the sea, and on the vast financial resources which secured their
+staying power, he maintained his ascendency until his death in the
+following year, though he had to submit to a fine. The events which
+followed his death only confirmed the profundity of his political judgment,
+and the accuracy with which he had gauged the capacities of the state. In
+that winter Potid&aelig;a was forced to capitulate to the Athenians.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of the third year, the Laced&aelig;monians called on the
+Plat&aelig;ans to desert the Athenian alliance. On their refusal,
+Plat&aelig;a was besieged by the allied forces of the Peloponnesians. With
+splendid resolution, the Plat&aelig;ans defeated the attempt of the allies
+to force an entry till they were able to complete and withdraw behind a
+second and more easily tenable line of defence, when the Peloponnesians
+settled down to a regular investment. The same year was marked by the
+brilliant operations of the Athenian admiral Phormio in the neighbourhood
+of Naupactus.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a Peloponnesian squadron threatened the Pir&aelig;us,
+caused some temporary panic, and awakened the Athenians to the necessity of
+maintaining a look-out, but otherwise effected little. The year is further
+noted for the invasion of Macedonia by the Thracian or Scythian king
+Sitalces, who was, however, induced to retire.</p>
+
+<p>In the next year, Lesbos revolted against the Athenian supremacy. As a
+result, an Athenian squadron blockaded Mitylene. The Laceda&aelig;onians
+were well pleased to accept alliance with a sea-power which claimed to have
+struck against Athens, not as being subject to her, but in anticipation of
+attempted subjugation. The prompt equipment, however, of another Athenian
+fleet chilled the naval enthusiasm of Sparta.</p>
+
+<p>During this winter the Plat&aelig;ans began to feel in straits from
+shortage of supplies, and it was resolved that a party of them should break
+through the siege lines, and escape to Athens, a feat of arms which was
+brilliantly and successfully accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>In the next--the fifth--summer, Mitylene capitulated; the fate of the
+inhabitants was to be referred to Athens. Here Cleon had now become the
+popular leader, and he persuaded the Athenians to order the whole of the
+adult males to be put to death. The opposition, however, succeeded in
+getting this bloodthirsty resolution rescinded. The second dispatch, racing
+desperately after the first, did not succeed in overtaking it, but was just
+in time to prevent the order for the massacre from being carried out.
+Lesbos was divided among Athenian citizens, who left the Lesbians in
+occupation as before, but drew a large rental from them.</p>
+
+<p>In the same summer the remaining garrison of Plat&aelig;a surrendered to
+the Laced&aelig;monians, on terms to be decided by Laced&aelig;monian
+commissioners. Before them the Plat&aelig;ans justified their resistance,
+but the commissioners ignored the defence, and, on the pretext that the
+only question was whether they had suffered any "wrong" at the hands of the
+Plat&aelig;ans, and that the answer to that was obvious, put the
+Plat&aelig;ans to death and razed the city to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, at Corcyra, the popular and the oligarchical parties, who
+favoured the Athenians and Peloponnesians respectively, had reached the
+stage of murderous hostility to each other. The oligarchs captured the
+government, and were then in turn attacked by the popular party; and there
+was savage faction fighting. An attempt was made by the commander of the
+Athenian squadron at Naupactus to act as moderator; the appearance of a
+Peloponnesian squadron and a confused sea-fight, somewhat in favour of the
+latter, brought the popular party to the verge of a compromise. But the
+Peloponnesians retired on the reported approach of a fresh Athenian fleet,
+and a democratic reign of terror followed.</p>
+
+<p>"The father slew the son, and the supplicants were torn from the temples
+and slain near them." And thus was initiated the peculiar horror of this
+war--the desperate civil strife in one city after another, oligarchs hoping
+to triumph by Laced&aelig;monian and democrats by Athenian, support, and
+either party, when uppermost, ruling by terror. It was at this time also
+that the Ionian and Dorian cities of Sicily, headed by Leontini and
+Syracuse respectively, went to war with each other, and an Athenian
+squadron was first induced to participate in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Among the operations of the next, or sixth, summer was a campaign which
+the Athenian commander Demosthenes conducted in &AElig;tolia--successful at
+the outset, but terminating in disaster, which made the general afraid to
+return to Athens. He seized a chance, however, of recovering his credit by
+foiling a Laced&aelig;monian expedition against Naupactus; and in other
+ways he successfully established a high military reputation, so that he was
+no longer afraid to reappear at Athens.</p>
+
+<p>Next year, the Athenians dispatched a larger fleet with Sicily for its
+objective. Demosthenes, however, who had a project of his own in view, was
+given an independent command. He was thus enabled to seize and fortify
+Pylos, a position on the south-west of Peloponnese, with a harbour
+sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm, withdrew their
+invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover Pylos, landing over
+400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality now became the scene of a
+desperate struggle, which finally resulted in the Spartans on Sphacteria
+being completely isolated.</p>
+
+<p>So seriously did the Laced&aelig;monians regard this blow that they
+invited the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal
+alliance; but the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue
+that they refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some
+supplies, however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards
+offered by the Laced&aelig;monians for successful blockade-running. At this
+moment, Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
+easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He had
+the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to take
+precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result that
+within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found themselves with
+no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender. Their choice of the
+latter was an overwhelming blow to Laced&aelig;monian prestige.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Victories of Laced&aelig;mon</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
+Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly menace
+the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians were
+awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested part on
+behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian empire. At a
+sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse successfully urged all
+Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis of <i>uti possidetis,</i>
+and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for remaining. Thus for the
+time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were checked.</p>
+
+<p>At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
+factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
+Laced&aelig;monian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
+Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian party
+became permanently established in power. The most important operations were
+now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly into Macedonia, in
+alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of stirring the cities of
+Chalcidice to throw off the Athenian yoke; and the democrats of Boeotia
+intrigued with Athens to assist in a general revolution. Owing partly to
+misunderstandings and partly to treachery, the Boeotian democrats failed to
+carry out their programme, the Athenians were defeated at Delium, and
+Delium itself was captured by the Boeotians.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Brasidas succeeded in persuading Acanthus to revolt, he
+himself winning the highest of reputations for justice and moderation as
+well as for military skill. Later in the year he suddenly turned his forces
+against the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which he induced to surrender by
+offering very favourable terms before Thucydides, who was in command of
+Thasos, arrived to relieve it. The further successes of Brasidas during
+this winter made the Athenians ready to treat for peace, and a truce was
+agreed upon for twelve months. Brasidas, however, continued to render aid
+to the subject cities which revolted from Athens--this being now the ninth
+year of the war--but he failed in an attempt to capture Potid&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<p>The period of truce terminating without any definite peace being arrived
+at, the summer of the tenth year is chiefly notable for the expedition sent
+under Cleon to recover Amphipolis, and for a recrudescence of the old
+quarrel in Sicily between Leontini and Syracuse. Before Amphipolis, the
+incompetent Cleon was routed by the skill of Brasidas; but the victor as
+well as the vanquished was slain, though he lived long enough to know of
+the victory. Their deaths removed two of the most zealous opponents of the
+peace for which both sides were now anxious. Hence at the close of the
+tenth year a definite peace was concluded.</p>
+
+<p>The Laced&aelig;monians, however, were almost alone in being fully
+satisfied by the terms, and the war was really continued by an
+anti-Laconian confederation of the former Peloponnesian allies, who saw in
+the peace a means to the excessive preponderance of Athens and Sparta.
+Argos was brought into the new confederacy in the hope of establishing her
+nominal equality with Sparta. For some years from this point the
+combinations of the states were constantly changing, while Athens and
+Sparta remained generally on terms of friendliness, the two prominent
+figures at Athens being the conservative Nicias and the restless and
+ambitious young intriguer Alcibiades.</p>
+
+<p>In the fourteenth year there were active hostilities between Argos, with
+which by this time Athens was in alliance, and Laced&aelig;mon, issuing in the
+great battle of Mantinea, where there was an Athenian contingent with the
+Argives. This was notable especially as completely restoring the prestige
+of the Laced&aelig;monian arms, their victory being decisive. The result
+was a new treaty between Sparta and Argos, and the dissolution of the
+Argive-Athenian alliance; but this was once more reversed in the following
+year, when the Argive oligarchy was attacked successfully by the popular
+party.</p>
+
+<p>The next year is marked by the high-handed treatment of the island of
+Melos by the Athenians. This was one of the very few islands which had not
+been compelled to submit to Athens, but had endeavoured to remain neutral.
+Thither the Athenians now sent an expedition, absolutely without excuse, to
+compel their submission.</p>
+
+<p>The Melians, however, refused, and gave the Athenians a good deal of
+trouble before they could be subdued, when the adult male population was
+put to death, and the women and children enslaved. At this time the
+Athenians resolved, under colour of an appeal for assistance from the
+Sicilian city of Egesta, deliberately to set about the establishment of
+their empire in Sicily. The aggressive policy was vehemently advocated by
+Alcibiades, and opposed by Nicias. Nevertheless, he, with Alcibiades and
+Lamachus, was appointed to command the expedition, which was prepared on a
+scale of unparalleled magnificence. It was on the point of starting, when
+the whole city was stirred to frenzy by the midnight mutilation of the
+sacred images called Herm&aelig;, an act laid at the door of Alcibiades,
+along with many other charges of profane outrages. Of set purpose, however,
+the enemies of Alcibiades refused to bring him to trial. The expedition
+sailed. The Syracusans were deaf to the warnings of Hermocrates until the
+great fleet had actually arrived at Rhegium.</p>
+
+<p>Nicias was now anxious to find an excuse, in the evident falsity of
+statements made by the Egestans, for the fleet to content itself with
+making a demonstration and then returning home. The scheme of Alcibiades,
+however, was adopted for gaining over the other Sicilian states in order to
+crush Syracuse. But at this moment dispatches arrived requiring the return
+of Alcibiades to stand trial. Athens was in a panic over the Herm&aelig;
+affair, which was supposed to portend an attempt to reestablish the
+despotism which had been ended a hundred years before by the expulsion of
+the Pisistratid&aelig;. Alcibiades, however, made his escape, and for years
+pursued a life of political intrigue against the Athenian government.</p>
+
+<p>Nicias and Lamachus, left in joint command, drew off the Syracusan
+forces by a ruse, and were thus enabled to occupy unchecked a strong
+position before Syracuse. Although, however, they inflicted a defeat on the
+returned Syracusan forces, they withdrew into winter quarters; the
+Syracusans were roused by Hermocrates to improve their military
+organisation; and both sides entered on a diplomatic contest for winning
+over the other states of Sicily. Alcibiades, now an avowed enemy of Athens,
+was received by the Laced&aelig;monians, whom he induced to send an able
+Spartan officer, Gylippus, to Syracuse, and to determine on the
+establishment of a military post corresponding to that of Pylos on Attic
+soil at Decelea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Disaster of Syracuse</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the spring the Athenians succeeded in establishing themselves on the
+heights called Epipol&aelig;, overlooking Syracuse, began raising a wall of
+circumvallation, and carried by a surprise the counter-stockade which the
+Syracusans were raising. In one of the skirmishes, while the building of
+the wall was in progress, Lamachus was killed; otherwise matters went well
+for the Athenians and ill for the Syracusans, till Gylippus was allowed to
+land at Himera, force his way into Syracuse, and give new life. Nicias was
+guilty of the blunder of allowing Gylippus to land at Himera, to aid the
+defence, at the moment when it was on the point of capitulation. A long
+contest followed, the Athenians endeavouring to complete the investing
+lines, the Syracusans to pierce them with counterworks. Nicias sent to
+Athens for reinforcements, while the Syracusans were energetically fitting
+out a fleet and appealing for air in the Peloponnese. Nicias, in fact, was
+extremely despondent and anxious to resign; the Athenians, however,
+answered his dispatches by preparing a great reinforcement under the
+command of Demosthenes, without accepting the resignation of Nicias. The
+Laced&aelig;monians, however, also sent some reinforcements; at the same
+time they formally declared war, and carried out the plan of occupying and
+fortifying Decelea, which completely commanded the Athenian territory and
+was the cause of untold loss and suffering.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at Syracuse the besieged took the offensive both by sea and land,
+and were worsted on the water, but captured some of the Athenian forts,
+commanding the entry to the besiegers' lines--a serious disaster. By the
+time that Demosthenes with his reinforcements reached Sicily nearly the
+whole island had come over to the side of Syracuse. Before this, the
+Syracusans had again challenged an engagement both by sea and land, with
+results indecisive on the first day but distinctly in their favour on the
+second. At this juncture, Demosthenes arrived, and, seeing the necessity
+for immediate action, made a night attack on the Syracusan lines; but, his
+men falling into confusion after a first success, the attempt was
+disastrously repulsed.</p>
+
+<p>Demosthenes was quick to realise that the whole situation was hopeless;
+but Nicias lacked nerve to accept the responsibility of retiring, and also
+had some idea that affairs within Syracuse were favourable. His obstinacy
+gave Demosthenes and his colleague Eurymedon the impression that he was
+guided by secret information. And now it became the primary object of
+Gylippus and the Syracusans to keep the Athenians from retiring. Another
+naval defeat reduced the Athenians to despair; they resolved that they must
+cut their way out.</p>
+
+<p>The desperate attempt was made, but by almost hopeless men against an
+enemy now full of confidence. To the excited, almost agonised, watchers on
+shore, it seemed for a brief space that the ships might force a passage;
+the fight was a frenzied scuffle; but presently the terrible truth was
+realised--the Athenian ships were being driven ashore. The last hope of
+escape by sea was gone, for, though there were still ships enough, the
+sailors were too utterly demoralised to make the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be
+tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had
+themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads. On the third day the
+Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the lamentations
+of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave behind. For three
+days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually harassed, cut off
+from all communications. On the third day their passage was barred in a
+pass, and they found themselves in a trap. On the third night they
+attempted to break away by a different route, but the van and the rear lost
+touch. Overtaken by the Syracusans, Demosthenes attempted to fight a
+rearguard action, but in vain, and he was forced to surrender at discretion
+with his whole force. Next day, Nicias with the van was overtaken, and,
+after a ghastly scene of confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the
+vanguard were forced to surrender also. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to
+death; great numbers were seized as private spoil by their captors, the
+rest of the prisoners--more than 7,000--were confined for weeks under the
+most noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were
+sold as slaves. So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the
+nineteenth year of the war.</p>
+
+<p>The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident
+expectation of her immediate and utter ruin. Laced&aelig;monians
+anticipated an unqualified supremacy. At Athens there was a stubborn
+determination to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were
+intriguing for Laced&aelig;monian or Persian aid in breaking free, while
+Alcibiades became extremely busy.</p>
+
+<p>The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly
+driven into Pir&aelig;us by an Athenian fleet and blockaded. On the open
+revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought into
+play their reserve fund and reserve navy--the emergency had arisen. While
+one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians struck hard
+at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked successes. Meanwhile,
+a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy and re-established the
+democracy, to which the Athenians accorded freedom, thereby securing an
+ally. In Lesbos also they recovered their challenged supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty
+politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great object
+was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual confusion. These
+events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and to them must be
+added a Laced&aelig;monian treaty with Persia through the satrap
+Tissaphernes. All the leading men, however, were engaged in playing fast
+and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in view. Of this
+labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling outcome was the sudden
+abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the capture of the government
+by a committee of five with a council of four hundred and a supplementary
+assembly of five thousand--in place of the whole body of citizens as
+formerly. The Five and the Four Hundred in effect were the Government, and
+established a reign of terror.</p>
+
+<p>At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army
+and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the
+democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian state.
+Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting through him to
+receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he succeeded in
+restraining the fleet--which was still more than a match for all
+adversaries--from sailing back to the Pir&aelig;us to subvert the rule of
+the Four Hundred. The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact, that
+the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited
+democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have
+joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five
+Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the best
+administration it had ever known. A great naval victory was won by the
+Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly larger
+Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='XENOPHON'></a>XENOPHON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Anabasis'></a>Anabasis</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died
+probably in 355. He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood was
+an intimate member of the Socratic circle. In 401 he joined the expedition
+of Cyrus, recorded in the "Anabasis," and did not again take up his
+residence in Athens. The "Anabasis" must be introduced by an historical
+note. In the year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by
+a peace establishing the Laced&aelig;monian supremacy consequent upon the
+crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami. In the same year the
+Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was succeeded on the throne by his son
+Artaxerxes. His younger son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the
+throne. He had personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek
+soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern nations.
+Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a large contingent of
+Greek mercenaries, who had become the more readily available since the
+internecine struggle between the two leading states of Hellas had been
+brought to an end. The term "Anabasis," or "going up," applies properly to
+the advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is mainly
+concerned, is the "Katabasis." The author writes his record in the third
+person. This epitome has been specially adapted for THE WORLD'S GREATEST
+BOOKS from the Greek text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Going-up of Cyrus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his
+preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on the
+pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the western
+satraps, Tissaphernes. Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus, a
+Laced&aelig;monian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another
+like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a
+Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect
+more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.</p>
+
+<p>Next, an excuse for marching up-country, at the head of all these
+forces, was found in the need of suppressing the Pisidians. He advanced
+from Sardis into Phrygia, where his musters were completed at
+Cel&aelig;n&aelig;. A review was held at Tyri&aelig;um, where the Cilician
+queen, who had supplied funds, was badly frightened by a mock charge of the
+Greek contingent. When the advance had reached Tarsus, there was almost a
+mutiny among the Greeks, who were suspicious of the intentions of Cyrus.
+The diplomacy, however, of their principal general, Clearchus, the
+Laced&aelig;monian, coupled with promises of increased pay, prevailed,
+though it had long been obvious that Pisidia was not the objective of the
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Further reinforcements were received at Issus, the eastern seaport of
+Cilicia; Cyrus then marched through the Cilician gate into Syria. At
+Myriandrus two Greek commanders, probably through jealousy of Clearchus,
+deserted. Cyrus won popularity by refusing to presume thereon; and the
+whole force now struck inland to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.</p>
+
+<p>At Thapsacus, Cyrus announced his purpose. The Greek soldiers were angry
+with their generals for having, as they supposed, wilfully misled them, but
+were mollified by promise of large rewards. One of the commanders, Menon,
+won the approval of Cyrus by being the first to lead his own contingent
+across the Euphrates on his own initiative. The advance was now conducted
+by forced marches through a painfully sterile country. In the course of
+this, the troops of Clearchus and Menon very nearly came to blows; the
+intervention of Proxenus only made matters worse; and order was restored by
+the arrival of Cyrus, who pointed out that the whole expedition must be
+ruined if the Greeks fell out among themselves.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Artaxerxes had realised that the repeated warnings of
+Tissaphernes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
+Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate devastation
+of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian officers of
+Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.</p>
+
+<p>The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
+barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number over
+1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus now
+advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but, finding
+this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was hurriedly
+taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The Greeks, under
+Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the centre, and
+Ari&aelig;us on the left. The king's army was so large that its centre
+extended beyond the left of Cyrus.</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
+without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut off,
+Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed the
+opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing Artaxerxes,
+was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the field. So ended the
+career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the Great had established
+the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the mirror of honour, just himself
+and the rewarder of justice in others, generous and most loyal to his
+friends.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Homeward March</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ari&aelig;us, broke and fled. The
+Greeks had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the
+main body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
+Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter. Artaxerxes,
+however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek column.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
+messengers from Ari&aelig;us that Cyrus was slain, and that Ari&aelig;us
+had fallen back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait
+twenty-four hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward.
+Clearchus replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious,
+and that if Ari&aelig;us would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown
+for him, since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes
+inviting the Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he
+might come and take them if he could, but if he meant to treat them as
+friends, they would be no use to him without their arms, if as enemies,
+they would keep them to defend themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Though no formal appointment was made, the Greeks recognised Clearchus
+as their leader. They fell back to join Ari&aelig;us, who declined the
+proposal to seat him on the Persian throne; and it was agreed to follow a
+new route in retreat to Ionia, the way by which the force had advanced
+being now impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, Artaxerxes began to negotiate through Tissaphernes, the
+Greeks maintaining a bold and even contemptuous front, warranted by the
+king's obvious fear of risking an engagement.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, an offer came to conduct the Greeks back to Grecian territory,
+providing them, at their own cost, with necessaries. Prolonged delays,
+however, aroused suspicions of treachery among the Greeks, who distrusted
+Tissaphernes and Ari&aelig;us alike; but Clearchus held it better not to
+break openly with the Persians. The march at last began along a northerly
+route towards the Black Sea, the Greeks keeping rigidly apart from the
+Persian forces which accompanied them, in readiness for an attack.</p>
+
+<p>At the crossing of the Tigris suspicion was particularly active, the
+conduct of Ari&aelig;us being especially dubious; but still no overt
+hostilities were attempted until the river Zabatus was reached, after three
+weeks of marching. Here Clearchus endeavoured to end the extremely strained
+relations between the Greeks and the barbarian commanders by an interview
+with Tissaphernes. Both men carefully repudiated any idea of hostile
+intentions, and the Persian invited Clearchus and the Greek officers
+generally to attend a conference. Not all, but a considerable number--five
+generals, including Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon, with twenty more
+officers and nearly two hundred others--attended. At a given signal all
+were treacherously massacred; but a fugitive reached the Greek camp, where
+the men sprang to arms. Ari&aelig;us, approaching with an escort, declared
+that Clearchus had been proved guilty of treason, but was received with
+fierce indignation, and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Of the murdered generals, Clearchus was a man of high military capacity,
+but a harsh disciplinarian, feared and respected, but very unpopular;
+Proxenus, a particular friend of Xenophon, was an amiable but not a strong
+man; Menon, the Thessalian, was a crafty and hypocritical time-server, of
+whom no good can be spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The ten thousand Greeks were now in an ugly predicament; they were a
+thousand miles from home, while between them and the Black Sea lay the
+mountains of Armenia. They were surrounded by hostile hordes, and were
+without cavalry. They had no recognised chief, and their most trusted
+leaders were gone. The whole company seemed paralysed under a universal
+despondency. It was at this juncture that Xenophon, an Athenian
+gentleman-volunteer, was stirred to action by a dream. He rose and roused
+the officers of the contingent of Proxenus, to which he was attached.
+Heartened by an address, in which he pointed out that, on the one hand they
+had to depend on their own courage, skill, and resourcefulness, and, on the
+other, were released from all obligation to the Persians, they unanimously
+chose him their leader, and at his instigation roused the senior officers
+of all the other contingents to assemble for deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>The council thus summoned, inspired again by the words of Xenophon,
+vigorously backed up by other leaders, appointed new generals, among them
+Xenophon himself, and set about actively to organise a retreat to the sea.
+The contagion of resolute determination spread through the ranks of the
+whole force. Cheirisophus the Laced&aelig;monian was given the chief
+command, the two youngest generals, Xenophon and Timerion, were placed in
+charge of the rear-guard. A troop of slingers was organised; all horses
+with the arroy were sequestrated to form a cavalry squadron. The army
+started on its march through the unknown, formed in a hollow square, which
+was shortly so organised that the columns could be broadened or narrowed
+according to the ground without creating confusion.</p>
+
+<p>They soon found themselves able to repulse without difficulty even
+attacks in force by the troops of Tissaphernes, the enemy being entirely
+outmatched in hand-to-hand fighting. The slingers and archers, however,
+proved troublesome, and hostile forces, though keeping out of reach, were
+never far off. At last Tissaphernes and Ari&aelig;us drew off altogether,
+and the Greek generals having as alternative courses the march east upon
+Susa, north upon Babylon, and west towards Ionia, decided to revert to the
+course northwards to the Black Sea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Sea! The Sea!</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>This route led at first through the country of the Carduchi, a very
+warlike folk who had never been subjugated. Here there was a good deal of
+hard fighting, the Carduchi being adepts in hill warfare, and particularly
+expert archers. Such was the length and weight of their arrows that Greeks
+collected them, and used them as javelins. Seven days of this brought the
+retreating force to the river Centrites, which parts the Carduchian
+mountains from the province of Armenia. With a barely fordable river,
+troops in evidence on the other side, and the Carduchi hanging on their
+rear, the passage offered great difficulties, solved by the discovery of a
+much shallower ford. A feint at one point by the rearguard drew off the
+enemy on the opposite bank, while the main body crossed at the shallows,
+which the rearguard also managed to pass by a successful ruse which misled
+the Carduchi.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian governor of Western Armenia, Tiribazus, offered safe passage
+through his province, but scouts brought information that large forces were
+collecting, and would dispute the passage of a defile through which the
+army must pass. This point, however, was reached by a forced march, and the
+enemy was put to rout.</p>
+
+<p>For some days after this the marching was very severe; the men had to
+struggle forward on very nearly empty stomachs, through blizzards,
+suffering terribly from frostbite and the blinding effect of the snow on
+their eyes, so that at times nothing short of actual threats from the
+officers could induce the exhausted men to toil forward; and all the time
+the enemy's skirmishers were harassing the troops and cutting off
+stragglers. These, however, were finally dispersed by a sudden onslaught of
+the rearguard, and after this a more populous district was reached, where
+food and wine abounded, and the Greeks, who were not ill-received, made
+some days' halt to recuperate.</p>
+
+<p>Here a guide was obtained for the next stages; but on the third night he
+deserted, because Cheirisophus had lost his temper and struck him. This
+incident was the only occasion of a serious difference between Xenophon and
+the elder commander. On the seventh day after this the river Phasis was
+crossed; but two days later, on approaching a mountain pass, it was seen to
+be occupied in force. A council of war was held, at which some jesting
+passed, Xenophon remarking on the reputation of the Laced&aelig;monians as
+adepts in thieving, a jibe which Cheirisophus retorted on the Athenians; as
+the business in hand was to "steal a match" on the enemy, each encouraged
+the other to act up to the national reputation. In the night, a detachment
+of volunteers captured the ridge above the pass; the enemy facing the main
+body beat a hasty retreat when they found their position turned.</p>
+
+<p>Another five days brought the army into the country of the Taochi, where
+the Greeks had to rush a somewhat dangerous position in order to capture
+supplies. A space of some twenty yards was open to such a storm of missiles
+from above that it could only be passed by drawing the enemy's fire and
+making a dash before fresh missiles were accumulated. When this was
+accomplished, however, the foe offered no practical resistance, but flung
+themselves over the cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen days later the Greeks reached a town called Gymnise, where they
+obtained a guide. Their course lay through tribes towards whom the governor
+was hostile, and the Greeks had no objection to gratifying him by spoiling
+and burning on their way. On the fifth day after leaving Gymnise, a
+mountain pass was reached.</p>
+
+<p>When the van cleared the top of the mountain, there arose a great
+shouting. And when Xenophon heard it, and they of the rear-guard, they
+supposed that other enemies were ranged against them, for the men of the
+land which had been ravaged were following behind; but when the clamour
+grew louder and nearer, and the new arrivals doubled forward to where the
+shouting was, so that it became greater and greater with the added numbers,
+Xenophon thought this must be something of moment. Therefore, taking Lycias
+and the horsemen, he rode forward at speed to give aid; and then suddenly
+they were aware of the soldiers' shout, the word that rang through the
+lines--"The sea! the sea!" Then every man raced, rear-guard and all, urging
+horses and the very baggage-mules to the top of their speed, and when they
+came to the top, they fell on each other's necks, and the generals, and
+officers, too, with tears of delight. And in a moment, whoever it was that
+passed the word, the men were gathering stones, and there they reared a
+mighty column.</p>
+
+<p>And as for the lucky guide, he betook himself home laden with
+presents.</p>
+
+<p>Of what befell between this point and the actual arrival of the army on
+the coast of the Black Sea at the Grecian colony of Trapezus [Trebizond]
+the most curious incident was that of the soldiers lighting upon great
+quantities of honey, which not only made them violently ill, but had an
+intoxicating effect, attributed to the herbs frequented by the bees in that
+district. This necessitated a halt of some days. The second day's march
+thence brought them to Trapezus, where they made sacrificial
+thank-offerings to the gods, and further celebrated the occasion by holding
+athletic games.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The End of the Expedition</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>But Trapezus was not Greece, and the problem of transport was serious.
+The men, sick of marching, were eager to accomplish the rest of their
+journey by sea. Cheirisophus the general, as being a personal friend of the
+Laced&aelig;monian admiral stationed at Byzantium, was commissioned to
+obtain ships from him to take the Greeks home.</p>
+
+<p>Cheirisophus departed. The army, which still numbered over ten thousand
+persons, was willing enough to maintain its military organisation for
+foraging and for self-defence; also to make such arrangements as were
+practicable for collecting ships in case Cheirisophus should fail them; but
+the men flatly refused to consider any further movement except by
+water.</p>
+
+<p>So they stayed where they were, maintaining their supplies by raids on
+the natives; but time passed, and there were no tidings of Cheirisophus. At
+last, they saw nothing for it but to put the sick and other non-combatants
+aboard of the vessels which had been secured, send them on by sea, and
+themselves march by the coast to Cerasus, another Greek colony. Thence they
+continued their westward progress, in which they met with considerable
+resistance from the natives, who were barbarians of a primitive type, until
+they came to Cotyora.</p>
+
+<p>This was another settlement from Sinope; but it received the Greeks very
+inhospitably, so that the latter continued their practice of ravaging the
+neighbouring territories. It was now eight months since the expedition had
+started on its homeward march. Here a deputation arrived from Sinope to
+protest against their proceedings; but Xenophon pointed out that while they
+were perfectly willing to buy what they needed and behave as friends, if
+they were not allowed to buy, self-preservation compelled them to take by
+force. Ultimately, the deputation promised to send ships from Sinope to
+convey them thither.</p>
+
+<p>During the time of waiting there was some risk of the force breaking
+itself up, and some inclination to make attacks on the officers, including
+Xenophon. The formulation of charges, however, enabled him amply to justify
+the acts complained of, and order generally was restored. At last, however,
+a sufficient number of ships were collected to convey the force to Sinope,
+where also Cheirisophus put in his long-delayed appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Cheirisophus came practically without ships and with nothing but vague
+promises from the admiral at Byzantium. At this point it occurred to the
+army that it would be better to have a single commander for the whole than
+a committee of generals each in control of his own division. Hence Xenophon
+was invited to accept the position. On consulting the omens he declined,
+recommending that, since Cheirisophus was a Laced&aelig;monian, it would be
+the proper thing to offer him the command, which was accordingly done.</p>
+
+<p>The force now sailed from Sinope as far as Heraclea. Here the
+contingents from Arcadia and Arch&aelig;a--more than half the force--insisted on
+requisitioning large supplies of money from Heraclea. Cheirisophus,
+supported by Xenophon, refused assent; the Arcadians and Ach&aelig;ans
+consequently refused to serve under their command any more, and appointed
+captains for themselves. The other half of the army was also parted in two
+divisions, commanded by Cheirisophus and Xenophon respectively.</p>
+
+<p>From Calpe the Arcadians and Arch&aelig;ans made an expedition into the
+interior, which fared so ill that Xenophon, hearing by accident of what had
+happened, was obliged to march to their relief. To his satisfaction,
+however, it was found that the enemy had already dispersed, and the Greek
+column was overtaken on the way back to Calpe. The general effect of the
+episode was to impress upon the Arcadians and Arch&aelig;ans that it was
+commonsense for the whole force to remain united.</p>
+
+<p>The usual operations were carried on for obtaining supplies, report
+having arrived that Cleander, the Laced&aelig;monian governor of Byzantium,
+was coming, which he presently did, with a couple of galleys but no
+transports. From information received, Cleander was inclined to regard the
+army as little better than a band of brigands; but this idea was
+successfully dissipated by Xenophon. Cleander went back to Byzantium, and
+the Greeks marched from Calpe to Chrysopolis, which faces Byzantium.</p>
+
+<p>Here the whole force was at last carried over to the opposite shore, and
+once more found itself on European soil, having received promises of pay
+from the admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real intentions were aroused,
+and Xenophon had no little difficulty in preventing his soldiery from
+breaking loose and sacking Byzantium itself.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, the greater part of the force took service with the Thracian
+king Seuthes. Seuthes, however, failed to carry out his promises as to
+payments and rewards. But now the Laced&aelig;monians were engaged in a
+quarrel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes and Artabazus; six thousand
+veterans so experienced as those who had followed this famous march into
+the heart of the Persian empire, had fought their way from Cunaxa to
+Trapezus, and had supported themselves mainly by their military prowess in
+getting from Trapezus to Europe, were a force by no means to be neglected,
+and the bulk of the troops were not unwilling to be incorporated in the
+Laced&aelig;monian armies. And so ends the story of the Retreat of the Ten
+Thousand Greeks.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='GEORGE_GROTE'></a>GEORGE GROTE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Greece'></a>History of Greece</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> George Grote, born at Beckenham, England, Nov. 17, 1794,
+entered the bank founded by his grandfather, from which he withdrew in
+1843. He joined the group of "philosophic Radicals," among whom James Mill
+was a leader, and was a keen politician and reformer, and an ardent
+advocate of the ballot. His determination to write a sound "History of
+Greece" was ensured, if it was not inspired, by Mitford's history, a work
+full of anti-democratic fervour and very antagonistic to the great Greek
+democratic state of Athens. In some respects his work is a defence of the
+Athenian democracy, at least as contrasted with Sparta; it appeared in
+twelve volumes between 1846 and 1856, and covered Greek history from the
+earliest times "till the close of the generation contemporary with
+Alexander the Great." It at once occupied, and still holds, the field as
+the classic work on the subject as a whole, though later research has
+modified many of his conclusions. His methods were pre-eminently thorough,
+dispassionate, and judicial; but he suffers from a lack of sympathetic
+imagination. He died on June 18, 1871, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Early History</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The divine myths constitute the earliest matter of Greek history. These
+may be divided into those which belong to the gods and to the heroes
+respectively; but most of them, in point of fact, present gods, heroes, and
+men in juxtaposition. Every community sought to trace its origin to some
+common divine, or semi-divine, progenitor; the establishment of a pedigree
+was a necessity; and each pedigree contains at some, point figures
+corresponding to some actual historical character, before whom the pedigree
+is imaginary, but after whom, in the main, actual. The precise point where
+the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates into the historical, is
+not usually ascertainable.</p>
+
+<p>The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
+period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend; the
+tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek peoples, and
+having an actual basis in historical fact. The events, however, are of less
+importance than the picture of an actual historical, political, and social
+system, corresponding, not to the supposed date of the Trojan war, but to
+the date of the composition of the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the
+myths themselves with a good deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to
+rationalise them, or to find for them an allegorical interpretation. The
+myths of other European peoples have undergone a somewhat similar
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
+peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
+&AElig;gean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication
+between one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system
+which isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its
+own separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
+congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in the
+city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised into
+the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely recognised
+their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct aggregate, and
+very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate from the
+non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."</p>
+
+<p>Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
+Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
+discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the dual
+kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The government lay
+and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan race--as for a time
+with the Normans in England--which formed a close oligarchy, while within
+the oligarchical body the organisation was democratic and communistic. For
+Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. were characterised by the two
+Messenian wars; and we note that while the Hellenes generally recognised
+her headship, Argos claimed a titular right to that position. As a general
+rule, the primitive monarchical system portrayed in the Homeric poems was
+displaced in the Greek cities by an oligarchical government, which in turn
+was overthrown by an irregular despotism called <i>tyrannis</i>, primarily
+established by a professed popular leader, who maintained his supremacy by
+mercenary troops. One after another these usurping dynasties were again
+ejected in favour either of a restored oligarchy or of a democracy. Sparta,
+where the power of the dual kingship was extremely limited, was the only
+state where the legitimate kingship survived. Corinth attained her highest
+power Under the despot Periander, son of Cypselus. Of the Ionian section of
+Greek states, the supreme type is Athens. Her early history is obscure. The
+kingship seems to have ended by being, so to speak, placed in commission,
+the royal functions being discharged by an elected body of Archons.
+Dissensions among the groups of citizens issued in the democratic Solonian
+constitution, which remained the basis of Athenian government, except
+during the despotism of the house of Pisistratus in the latter half of the
+sixth century B.C. But outside of Greece proper were the numerous Dorian
+and Ionian colonies, really independent cities, planted in the coast
+districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene and Barka in Mediterranean Africa, in
+Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily, and even at Massilia in Gaul, and
+in Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area. These colonies brought the Greek
+world in touch with Lydia and its king, Croesus, with the one sea-going
+Semitic power, the Phoenicians, with the Egyptians, and more remotely with
+the wholly Oriental empires of Assyria and Babylon, as well as with the
+outer barbarians of Scythia.</p>
+
+<p>Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens was generally under the rule of the
+despot Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510, the Pisistratid&aelig; were
+expelled, and Athens became a pure democracy. Meanwhile, the Persian Cyrus
+had seized the Median monarchy and overthrown every other potentate in
+Western Asia; Egypt was added to the vast Persian dominion by his son
+Cambyses. A new dynasty was established by Darius, the son of Hystaspes,
+who organized the empire, but failed to extend it by an incursion into
+European Scythia.</p>
+
+<p>The revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor against the governments
+established by the "great king" brought him in contact with the Athenians,
+who sent help to Ionia. Demands for "earth and water," <i>i.e.,</i> the
+formal recognition of Persian sovereignty, sent to the apparently
+insignificant Greek states were insolently rejected. Darius sent an
+expedition to punish Athens in particular, and the Athenians drove his army
+into the sea at the battle of Marathon.</p>
+
+<p>Xerxes, son of Darius, organised an overwhelming force by land and sea
+to eat up the Greeks. The invaders were met but hardly checked at
+Thermopyl&aelig;, where Leonidas and the immortal three hundred fell; all
+Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands, including
+Athens. But their fleet was shattered to pieces, chiefly by the Athenians
+under Themistocles and Aristides at Salamis, and the destruction of their
+land forces was completed by the united Greeks at Plat&aelig;a. A further
+disaster was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Struggles of Athens and Sparta</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the Sicilian Greeks, led by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
+resisted and overthrew the aggression of Carthage, the issue being decided
+at the battle of Himera. The part played by Athens under the guidance of
+Themistocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a new position among the
+Greek states and an indisputable naval leadership. As the maritime head of
+Hellas she was chief of the naval Delian League, now formed ostensibly to
+carry on the war against Persia. But the leaguers, who first contributed a
+quota of ships, soon began to substitute money to provide ships, which in
+effect swelled the Athenian navy, and turned the contributors into
+tributaries. Thus, almost automatically, the Delian League converted itself
+into an Athenian empire. In Athens itself an unparalleled personal
+ascendancy was acquired by Pericles, who made the form of government and
+administration more democratic than before. But this growing supremacy of
+Athens aroused the jealous alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw her own
+titular hegemony threatened; the subject cities grew restive under the
+Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward professedly as champion of the liberties
+of Hellas; Athens, guided by Pericles, refused to submit to Spartan
+dictation, and accepted the challenge which plunged Greece into the
+Peloponnesian war.</p>
+
+<p>The Athenians concentrated on the expansion of their naval armaments,
+left the open country undefended and gathered within the city walls, and
+landed forces at will on the Peloponnese. Platsea, almost their sole ally
+on land, held out valiantly for some time, but was forced to surrender; and
+Athens herself suffered frightfully from a visitation of the plague. After
+the death of Pericles, Cleon became the most prominent leader of the
+aggressive and democratic party, Nicias, of the anti-democratic peace
+party. Over most of Greece in each state the oligarchic faction favoured
+the Peloponnesian league, the democratic, Athens. The general Demosthenes
+at Pylos effected the surrender of a Laced&aelig;monian force, which
+temporarily shattered Sparta's military prestige, a blow in some degree
+counteracted by the brilliant operations of Brasidas in the north, where,
+however, both he and Cleon were killed.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to the possibilities of a great
+sea-empire, in consequence of her intervention having been invited in
+disputes among the Sicilian states. As the outcome, incited by the
+brilliant young Alcibiades, she resolved on the fatal Sicilian expedition.
+The expedition, planned under command of Alcibiades and Nicias, was
+dispatched in spite of the startling mutilation of the Herm&aelig;, a
+sacrilegious performance attributed to Alcibiades. It had hardly reached
+Sicily when he was recalled, but made his escape and spent some years
+mainly in intriguing against Athens. The siege of Syracuse was progressing
+favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus was allowed to enter and put new life
+into the defence. Disaster followed on disaster both by sea and land;
+finally, the whole Athenian force was either cut to pieces or surrendered
+at discretion, to become the slaves of the Syracusans, both Nicias and
+Demosthenes being put to death.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the truce between Athens and Sparta had been ended, and war
+again declared. Sparta occupied permanently a post of the Attic territory,
+Deceleia, with merciless effect. The Sicilian disaster moved the islanders,
+notably Chios, to revolt, by Spartan help, against Athens. She, however,
+renovated her navy with unexpected vigour. But, with her fleets away,
+Alcibiades inspired oligarchical intrigues in the city; a <i>coup
+d'&eacute;tat</i> gave the government to the leaders of a group of 400. The
+navy stood by the democratic constitution, the 400 were overthrown, and an
+assembly, nominally of 5,000, assumed the government. A great Athenian
+triumph at Arginus&aelig; was followed later by a still more overwhelming
+disaster at &AElig;gos Potami.</p>
+
+<p>The Spartan commander Lysander blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
+to surrender. Lysander established the government known as that of the
+Thirty Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias. Lysander's ascendancy created
+in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the Spartan king
+Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens by Thrasybulus,
+and the restoration of the Athenian democracy. Throughout, the conduct of
+the democratic party, at its best and its worst, contrasted favourably with
+that of the oligarchical faction.</p>
+
+<p>These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
+of the Parthenon and Phidias; of &AElig;schylus, the soldier of Marathon;
+then Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
+himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
+science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
+differing from the Sophists fundamentally.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
+used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
+Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
+who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a Greek
+conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan dominion.
+Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens, their former
+foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the most notable
+battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within the
+Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of Persia,
+and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by the name of
+the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy of Greek
+cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan domination.</p>
+
+<p>In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
+dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at the
+battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill and
+tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige. As a
+consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a force
+under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation was
+established.</p>
+
+<p>Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
+some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
+continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
+cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
+fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
+Himera. Owing to the disaster to Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
+feared by Carthage as a protection to the Hellenic world; and for two
+centuries to come, her interventions in Sicily were incessant. Now, the
+presence of a foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for power at Syracuse
+their opportunity, of which the outcome was the subversion of the democracy
+and the establishment of Dionysius as despot.</p>
+
+<p>His son, Dionysius II., succeeded, and was finally ejected by the
+Corinthian Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career of victories as
+Syracusan general against Carthage, acted as general liberator of Sicilian
+cities from despotisms, laid down his powers, and was content with the
+position, not of despot, but of counsellor, to the great prosperity of
+Sicily as a whole.</p>
+
+<p>Going back to the north of Greece, the semi-Hellenic Macedon with a
+Hellenic dynasty was growing powerful. Philip--father of Alexander the
+Great--was now king, and was resolved to make himself the head of the Greek
+world. His great opponent is found in the person of the Athenian orator
+Demosthenes, who saw that Philip was aiming at ascendancy, but generally
+failed to persuade the Athenians to recognise the danger in which they
+stood. Philip gradually achieved his immediate end of being recognised as
+the captain-general of the Hellenes, and their leader in a new Persian war,
+when his life was cut short by an assassin, and he was succeeded by his
+youthful son Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek states, awakening to their practical subjection, would have
+thrown off the new yoke, but the young king with swift and overwhelming
+energy swept down from Thrace upon Thebes, the centre of resistance, and
+stamped it out. He had already conceived, in part at least, his vast
+schemes of Asiatic conquest; while he lived, Greece had practically no
+distinguishable history. She is merely an appendage to Macedon. Everything
+is absorbed in the Macedon conqueror. With an army incredibly small for the
+task before him, he entered Asia Minor, and routed the Persian forces on
+the river Granicus. The Greek Memnon, the one able leader for the Persians,
+would have organised against him a destructive naval power; but death
+removed him.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander dispersed the armies of the Persian king Darius at the Issus,
+captured Tyre after a remarkable siege, and took easy possession of Egypt,
+where he founded Alexandria. Having organised the administration of the
+conquered territories, he marched to the Euphrates, but did not engage the
+enormous Persian hosts till he found and shattered them at the battle of
+Gaugamela, also called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexander swept on to
+Babylon, to Susa, to Persepolis, assuming the functions of the "Great
+King." The fugitive Darius was assassinated. Alexander henceforth assumed a
+new and oriental demeanour; but he continued his conquests, crossing the
+Hindoo Koosh to Bactria, and then bursting into the Punjab. But his
+ambitions were ended by his death, and their fulfilment, not at all
+according to his designs, was left to the "Diadochi," the generals among
+whom the conquered dominions were parted. Athens led the revolt against
+Macedonian supremacy, but in vain. Demosthenes, condemned by the conquering
+Antipater, took poison. The remainder of the history is that of the
+blotting out of Hellas and of Hellenism.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HEINRICH_SCHLIEMANN'></a>HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Troy_and_Its_Remains'></a>Troy and Its Remains</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
+Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December 27, 1890.
+During his early childhood an old scholar, who had fallen upon evil days,
+delighted him with stories of the great deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age
+of fourteen he was apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
+antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet have the
+happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him from his low position,
+and he went to Holland and found a situation in an office. He now began to
+study languages, suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
+money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to Russia, learning
+Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek. Later, he travelled in Europe
+and the East, making a voyage round the world. At last he realised the
+dream of his life. Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
+Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at Tiryus, Mycen&aelig;,
+and Troy, largely solving the problems of antiquity and arch&aelig;ology
+associated with these localities. "Troy and Its Remains" is published here
+in order that, having read in the classical histories, we may see how the
+ancient world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of one of
+the most famous of arch&aelig;ologists. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Searching for the Site of Troy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October</i> 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca,
+the Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
+by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the Homeric
+Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of Bunarbashi, to
+which place most arch&aelig;ologists assign it. At the same time I endeavoured
+to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be identical with the
+site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and down to its Complete
+destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century
+A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years, after its
+disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium Novum by
+Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited his Ilium
+Novum.</p>
+
+<p>The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
+north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still, which
+is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and from its
+imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of Hissarlik seems
+specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever since my first visit I
+never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of Priam in the depths of
+this hill.</p>
+
+<p>On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
+Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
+excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
+explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
+walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
+Lysimachus.</p>
+
+<p>Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
+end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
+prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
+offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
+hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its stead
+some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of the Trojan
+war.</p>
+
+<p>I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
+on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate this
+locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on the face
+of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's work.
+Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks of stone,
+the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who is an
+enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the Iliad by
+heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All of my
+workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only on Sunday,
+a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, October</i> 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
+continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average, 80
+workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I found an
+immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow, grey, and
+black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently with a kind of
+potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of their having been used
+for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume they have served as <i>ex
+votos</i> for hanging up in the temples.</p>
+
+<p>I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
+inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
+writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
+century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have been
+one of the kings of Pergamus.</p>
+
+<p>The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
+glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west by
+the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, November</i> 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33
+feet. During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous
+mass of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
+of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
+sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
+battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have been
+made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have reached
+the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find are too well
+finished.</p>
+
+<p>I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
+indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and more
+traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly convinced that
+I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan war, and hence I am
+more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy by further excavations;
+for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in this is firm--it can only
+have been here, on the site of Ilium.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, April 5, 1872.</i> On the first of this month I resumed
+the excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.</p>
+
+<p>In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
+small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the owl's
+head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins have
+stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the highest
+importance to arch&aelig;ology. Such symbols were already regarded, thousands of
+years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very greatest importance.
+The figure of the cross represents two pieces of wood which were laid
+crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial altars in order to
+produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the friction of one piece of
+wood against another.</p>
+
+<p>At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
+many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am firmly
+convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a goddess, and the
+important question now presents itself, what goddess is it who is here
+found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be found upon the
+idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must necessarily be the
+tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian Athena, and this indeed
+perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer, who continually calls her
+<i>thea glaukopis Athene,</i> "the goddess with the owl's face."</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, June 18, 1872.</i> I had scarcely begun to extend a third
+cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian marble,
+containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus Apollo, who,
+in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four immortal horses
+which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing is to be seen of a
+chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about two-thirds of the sun's
+disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is very expressive, and the
+folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured; but my admiration is
+specially excited by the four horses, which, snorting and looking wildly
+forward, career through the universe with infinite power. Their anatomy is
+so masterly that I confess I have never seen so masterly a work.</p>
+
+<p>It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
+nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a word
+about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus Apollo
+does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple of the
+sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament to any
+other temple.</p>
+
+<p>I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
+represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
+terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that is,
+Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman upon the
+propyl&aelig;a of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
+sun-city.</p>
+
+<p>This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
+Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this work
+of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo, after
+the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the Ilian
+Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after the
+subjugation of the Persian Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
+the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that at a
+depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric Troy. [The
+reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came back to this
+opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand wonderful objects;
+whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the removal of which gives
+immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls of very fine terra-cotta,
+and it is curious that those which have no decorations at all are always of
+the ordinary shape, and of the size of small tops, or like the craters of
+volcanoes, while almost all those possessing decorations are flat, and in
+the form of a wheel.</p>
+
+<p>Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
+for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number of
+copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small instruments
+for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some curious pieces of
+ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in the shape of an
+exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or double-edged knives of
+white silex in the form of saws in quantities, each about two inches long;
+also many hand millstones of lava, and some beautiful red vases, cups,
+vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these depths we likewise find many bones
+of animals; boars' tusks, small shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and
+stag, as well as the vertebr&aelig; of the shark.</p>
+
+<p>The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
+large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone, hewn
+and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet. These
+buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined with
+earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed to
+pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
+disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
+well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
+which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum are
+those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]</p>
+
+<p>Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
+civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
+foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
+house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the fact
+that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol of the
+<i>suastika</i>, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive Trojans
+belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the symbols on the
+round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which preceded the Trojans
+was likewise of long duration, for all the layers of <i>d&eacute;bris</i>
+at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also were of Aryan
+descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious symbols. Several of
+the symbols belonged to the time when Germans, Pelasgians, Hindoos,
+Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one nation.</p>
+
+<p>I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
+those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
+those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
+glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below, so
+that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
+vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
+urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
+mouth, bent back, and either short or long.</p>
+
+<p>I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
+three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
+very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata we
+also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
+whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs, amongst
+which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position. But the
+fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial altar with
+blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the <i>rosa
+mystica</i>, are also very frequently met with here.</p>
+
+<p>This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
+and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the Holy
+Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan symbol, as
+yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because I find it at a
+depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the successors to the
+Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200 years before Christ.</p>
+
+<p>At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
+by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
+ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches of
+earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate in
+five leaves.</p>
+
+<p>I now come to the strata of <i>d&eacute;bris</i> at a depth of from 23
+to 13 feet, which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan
+race, who took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
+destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
+feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
+entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined with
+clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only are all
+the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are of a
+coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.</p>
+
+<p>A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
+<i>d&eacute;bris</i> on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its
+present surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants
+killed or driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise
+have belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still
+very frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double
+cross with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the
+whorls degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it
+is considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
+strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
+feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
+many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
+together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas leave
+no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the surface of
+this hill was much lower than it is now.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
+it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
+Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
+taken place 700 B.C.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Homeric Legends Verified</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, August</i> 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill
+where I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick,
+which obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
+uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
+trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a depth
+of 46-1/2 feet.</p>
+
+<p>This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
+its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely covered
+it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and imposing,
+for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain of Troy, but
+of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and Samothrace. There is
+not a more sublime situation in the whole area of the plain of Troy than
+this.</p>
+
+<p>In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
+well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that the
+lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and burnt
+alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a vase,
+this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in the
+pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all corpses were
+burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found great numbers.
+The bones were always burnt to ashes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872.</i> In stopping the excavations
+for this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
+exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently thank
+God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but that none
+of us has been seriously hurt.</p>
+
+<p>As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
+solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
+discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
+soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
+called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site of
+which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by the
+whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only corresponds
+perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also with all the
+traditions handed down to us by later authorities.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. </i>During this last week, with
+splendid weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a
+good piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
+Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have laid
+bare the tower in several places.</p>
+
+<p>The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
+the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
+beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote antiquity
+lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently have described
+them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873.</i> Although the Pergamus, whose
+depths I have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by
+the Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
+ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests on
+one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle on
+mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
+probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on <i>Ilios
+anemoessa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
+have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
+street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture to
+assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Sc&aelig;an Gate. It
+is in an excellent state of preservation.</p>
+
+<p>Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
+sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
+company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus the
+Trojan and Ach&aelig;an armies face to face about to settle their agreement
+to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
+Menelaus.</p>
+
+<p>I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
+to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that its
+site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth century.
+But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being obliged to
+give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be able to make it a
+thousand times larger, but I value truth above everything, and I rejoice
+that my three years' excavations have laid open the Homeric Troy, even
+though on a diminished scale, and that I have proved the Iliad based upon
+real facts.</p>
+
+<p>Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
+he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
+events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long doubted
+the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a mere
+invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised world
+will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown itself
+to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected from the
+statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will accept with
+delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really exist, that a
+large portion of it has now been brought to light, and that Homer, even
+though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events that actually
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
+Poseidon and Apollo, the Sc&aelig;an Gate of the palace of King Priam, for
+all these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
+made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments only
+from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was then
+still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in the mouth
+of all minstrels.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='JULIUS_CAESAR'></a>JULIUS C&AElig;SAR</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War'></a>Commentaries on the Gallic
+War</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Caius Julius C&aelig;sar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of
+a noble Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot with
+the democratic section against the republican oligarchy. Marrying Cornelia,
+daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla,
+he incurred the implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit
+Rome. For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome after
+Sulla's death, C&aelig;sar attached himself to the illustrious Pompey,
+whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he obtained a qu&aelig;storship in
+Spain, and on returning next year reconciled the two most powerful men in
+Rome, Pompey and Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the
+First Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
+C&aelig;sar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant success
+excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of Pompey. Civil war
+broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of Pompey, who was defeated in
+the fateful battle of Pharsalia, and was afterwards murdered in Egypt.
+Julius C&aelig;sar now possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on
+games and public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus,
+and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But the jealousy of many
+of the aristocrats led to the formation of a plot, and on March 15, 44
+B.C., C&aelig;sar was assassinated in the Senate House. This summary
+relates to the commentaries known to be by C&aelig;sar himself, certain
+other books having been added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed
+that he writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the Latin
+text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belg&aelig; inhabit; the
+Aquitani another; those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours
+Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs,
+and laws. Among the Gauls the Helvetii surpass the rest in valour, as they
+constantly contend in battle with the Germans. When Messala and Piso were
+consuls, Orgetorix, the most distinguished of the Helvetii, formed a
+conspiracy among the nobility, persuading them that, since they excelled
+all in valour, it would be very easy to acquire the supremacy of the whole
+of Gaul. They made great preparations for the expedition, but suddenly
+Orgetorix died, nor was suspicion lacking that he committed suicide.</p>
+
+<p>After his death, the Helvetii nevertheless attempted the exodus from
+their territories. When it was reported to C&aelig;sar that they were
+attempting to make their route through our province, he gathered as great a
+force as possible, and by forced marches arrived at Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>The Helvetii now sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar, requesting permission
+to pass through the province, which he refused, inasmuch as he remembered
+that Lucius Cassius, the consul, had been slain and his army routed, and
+made to pass under the yoke by the Helvetii. Disappointed in their hope,
+the Helvetii attempted to force a passage across the Rhone, but, being
+resisted by the soldier, desisted.</p>
+
+<p>After the war with the Helvetii was concluded, ambassadors from almost
+all parts of Gaul assembled to congratulate C&aelig;sar, and to declare
+that his victory had happened no less to the benefit of the land of Gaul
+than of the Roman people, because the Helvetii had quitted their country
+with the design of subduing the whole of Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>When the assembly was dismissed, the chiefs' of the &AElig;dui and of
+the Sequani waited upon C&aelig;sar to complain that Ariovistus, the king
+of the Germans, had seized a third of their land, which was the best in
+Gaul, and was now ordering them to depart from another third part.</p>
+
+<p>To ambassadors sent by C&aelig;sar, demanding an appointment of some
+spot for a conference, Ariovistus gave an insolent reply, which was
+repeated on a second overture. Hearing that the king of the Germans was
+threatening to seize Vesontio, the capital of the Sequani, C&aelig;sar, by
+a forced march, arrived there and took possession of the city. Apprised of
+this event, Ariovistus changed his attitude, and sent messengers intimating
+that he agreed to meet C&aelig;sar, as they were now nearer to each other,
+and could meet without danger.</p>
+
+<p>The conference took place, but it led to no successful result, for
+Ariovistus demanded that the Romans should withdraw from Gaul and his
+conduct became afterwards so hostile that it led to war. A battle took
+place about fifty miles from the Rhine. The Germans were routed and fled to
+the river, across which many escaped, the rest being slain in pursuit.
+C&aelig;sar, having concluded two very important wars in one campaign,
+conducted his army into winter quarters.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Taming the Rebellious Belg&aelig;</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>While C&aelig;sar was in winter quarters in Hither Gaul frequent reports
+were brought to him that all the Belg&aelig; were entering into a
+confederacy against the Roman people, because they feared that, after all
+Celtic Gaul was subdued, our army would be led against them. C&aelig;sar,
+alarmed, levied two new legions in Hither Gaul, and proceeded to the
+territory of the Belg&aelig;. As he arrived there unexpectedly, and sooner
+than anyone anticipated, the Remi, who are the nearest of the Belg&aelig;
+to Celtic Gaul, sent messages of submission and gave C&aelig;sar full
+information about the other Belg&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar next learned that the Nervii, a savage and very brave
+people, whose territories bordered those just conquered, had upbraided the
+rest of the Belg&aelig; who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people,
+and had declared that they themselves would neither send ambassadors nor
+accept any condition of peace. He was informed concerning them that they
+allowed no access of any merchants, and that they suffered no wine and
+other things tending to luxury to be imported, because they thought that by
+their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired.</p>
+
+<p>After he had made three days' march into their territory, C&aelig;sar
+discovered that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other side
+of the River Sambre, not more than ten miles from his camp, and that they
+had persuaded the Atrebates and the Veromandui to join with them, and that
+likewise the Aduatuci were expected by them, and were on the march. The
+Roman army proceeded to encamp in front of the river, on a site sloping
+towards it. Here they were fiercely attacked by the Nervii, the assault
+being so sudden that C&aelig;sar had to do all things at one time. The
+standard as the sign to run to arms had to be displayed, the soldiers were
+to be called from the works on the rampart, the order of battle was to be
+formed, and a great part of these arrangements was prevented by the
+shortness of time and the sudden charge of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Time was lacking even for putting on helmets and uncovering shields. In
+such an unfavorable state of affairs, various events of fortune followed.
+The soldiers of the ninth and tenth legions speedily drove back the
+Atrebates, who were breathless with running and fatigue. Many of them were
+slain. In like manner the Veromandui were routed by the eighth and eleventh
+legions; but as part of the camp was very exposed, the Nervii hastened in a
+very close body, under Boduagnatus, their leader, to rush against that
+quarter. Our horsemen and light-armed infantry were by the first assault
+routed, and the enemy, rushing into our camp in great numbers, pressed hard
+on the legions. But C&aelig;sar, seizing a shield and encouraging the
+soldiers, many of whose centurions had been slain, ordering them to extend
+their companies that they might more freely use their swords.</p>
+
+<p>So great a change was soon effected that, though the enemy displayed
+great courage, the battle was ended so disastrously for them that the
+Nervii were almost annihilated. Scarcely five hundred were left who could
+bear arms. Their old men sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar by the consent of
+all who remained, surrendering themselves. The Aduatuci, before mentioned,
+who were coming to the help of the Nervii, returned home when they heard of
+this battle.</p>
+
+<p>All Gaul being now subdued, so high an opinion of this war was spread
+among the barbarians that ambassadors were sent to C&aelig;sar by those
+nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine, to promise that they would give
+hostages and execute his commands. He ordered these embassies to return to
+him at the beginning of the following summer, because he was hastening into
+Italy and Illyricum. Having led his legions into winter quarters among the
+Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states were close to those in
+which he had waged war, he set out for Italy, and a public thanksgiving of
+fifteen days was decreed for these achievements, an honour which before
+that time had been conferred on none.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--War by Land and Sea in Gaul</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When C&aelig;sar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with
+the twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
+Veragri, and the Seduni, who extend from the territories of the Allobroges
+and the Lake of Geneva and the River Rhone to the top of the Alps. The
+reason for sending him was that he desired that the pass along the Alps,
+through which the Roman merchants had been accustomed to travel with great
+danger, should be opened.</p>
+
+<p>Galba fought several successful battles, stormed some of their forts,
+and concluded a peace. He then determined to winter in a village of the
+Veragri, which is called Octodurus. But before the winter camp could be
+completed the tops of the mountains were seen to be crowded with armed men,
+and soon these rushed down from all parts and discharged stones and darts
+on the ramparts.</p>
+
+<p>The fierce battle that followed lasted for more than six hours. During
+the fight more than a third part of the army of 30,000 men of the Seduni
+and the Veragri were slain, and the rest were put to flight,
+panic-stricken. Then Galba, unwilling to tempt fortune again, after having
+burned all the buildings in that village, hastened to return into the
+province, urged chiefly by the want of corn and provision. As no enemy
+opposed his march, he brought his forces safely into the country of the
+Allobroges, and there wintered.</p>
+
+<p>These things being achieved, C&aelig;sar, who was visiting Illyricum to
+gain a knowledge of that country, had every reason to suppose that Gaul was
+reduced to a state of tranquillity. For the Belg&aelig; had been overcome,
+the Germans had been expelled, and the Seduni and the Veragri among the
+Alps defeated. But a sudden war sprang up in Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion of that war was this. P. Crassus, a young man, had taken up
+his winter quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border on
+the Atlantic Ocean. As corn was scarce, he sent out officers among the
+neighbouring states for the purpose of procuring supplies. The most
+considerable of these states was the Veneti, who have a very great number
+of ships with which they have been accustomed to sail into Britain, and
+thus they excel the rest of the states in nautical affairs. With them arose
+the beginning of the revolt.</p>
+
+<p>The Veneti detained Silius and Velanius, who had been sent among them,
+for they thought they should recover by their means the hostages which they
+had given Crassus. The neighbouring people, the Essui and the
+Curiosolit&aelig;, led on by the influence of the Veneti (as the measures
+of the Gauls are sudden and hasty) detained other officers for the same
+motive. All the sea-coast being quickly brought over to the sentiments of
+these states, they sent a common embassy to P. Crassus to say "If he wished
+to receive back his officers, let him send back to them their
+hostages."</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, being informed of these things, since he was himself so far
+distant, ordered ships of war to be built on the River Loire; rowers to be
+raised from the province; sailors and pilots to be provided. These matters
+being quickly executed, he hastened to the army as soon as the season of
+the year admitted.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar at once ordered his army, divided into several detachments,
+to attack the towns of the enemy in different districts. Many were stormed,
+yet much of the warfare was vain and much labour was lost, because the
+Veneti, having numerous ships specially adapted for such a purpose, their
+keels being flatter than those of our ships, could easily navigate the
+shallows and estuaries, and thus their flight hither and thither could not
+be prevented.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in a naval fight, our fleet, being fully assembled, gained a
+victory so signal that, by that one battle, the war with the Veneti and the
+whole sea-coast was finished. C&aelig;sar thought that severe punishment
+should be inflicted, in order that for the future the rights of ambassadors
+should be respected by barbarians; he therefore put to death all their
+senate, and sold the rest for slaves.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time P. Crassus arrived in Aquitania, which, as was
+already said, is, both from its extent and its number of population, a
+third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Pr&aelig;conius,
+the lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
+understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known, the
+Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was long and
+vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired to their
+principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted. Crassus then
+marched into the territories of the Vocates and the Tarusites, who raised a
+great host of men to carry on the war, but suffered total defeat, after
+which the greater part of Aquitania of its own accord surrendered to the
+Romans, sending hostages of their own accord from different tribes. A few
+only--and those remote nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to
+do this.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The First Landing in Britain</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
+Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome, 55
+before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
+called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
+men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
+into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
+strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
+harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
+send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
+home, and going forth in their turn in other years.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the
+Gauls (whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from
+the Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the
+army earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
+discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had taken
+place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the Germans were
+then making excursions to greater distances, and had advanced to the
+territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are under the protection
+of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul, C&aelig;sar thought
+proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had discovered, and,
+having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and ordered some cavalry to
+be raised, resolved to make war against the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>When he had advanced some distance, the Germans sent ambassadors,
+begging him not to advance further, as they had come hither reluctantly,
+having been expelled from their country. But C&aelig;sar, knowing that they
+wished for delay only to make further secret preparations, refused the
+overtures. Marshalling his army in three lines, and marching eight miles,
+he took them by surprise, and the Romans rushed their camp. Many of the
+enemy were slain, the rest being either scattered or drowned in attempting
+to escape by crossing the Meuse in the flight.</p>
+
+<p>The conflict with the Germans being finished, C&aelig;sar thought it
+expedient to cross the Rhine. Since the Germans were so easily urged to go
+into Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories.
+Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty of constructing a bridge, owing
+to the breadth, rapidity, and depth of the river, he devised and built one
+of timber and of great strength, piles being first driven in on which to
+erect it.</p>
+
+<p>The army was led over into Germany, advanced some distance, and burnt
+some villages of the hostile Sigambri, who had concealed themselves in the
+woods after conveying away all their possessions. Then C&aelig;sar, having
+done enough to strike fear into the Germans and to serve both honour and
+interest, after a stay of eighteen days across the Rhine, returned into
+Gaul and cut down the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>During the short part of the summer which remained he resolved to
+proceed into Britain, because succours had been constantly furnished to the
+Gauls from that country. He thought it expedient, if he only entered the
+island, to see into the character of the people, and to gain knowledge of
+their localities, harbours, and landing-places. Having collected about
+eighty transport ships, he set sail with two legions in fair weather, and
+the soldiers were attacked instantly on landing by the cavalry and
+charioteers of the barbarians. The enemy were vanquished, but could not be
+pursued, because the Roman horse had not been able to maintain their course
+at sea and to reach the island. This alone was wanting to C&aelig;sar's
+accustomed success.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--C&aelig;sar on the Thames</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the winter C&aelig;sar commanded as many ships as possible to be
+constructed, and the old repaired. About six hundred transports and twenty
+ships of war were built, and, after settling some disputes in Gaul among
+the chiefs, C&aelig;sar went to Port Itius with the legions. He took with
+him several of the leading chiefs of the Gauls, determined to retain them
+as hostages and to keep them with him during his next expedition to
+Britain, lest a commotion should arise in Gaul during his absence.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, having crossed to the shore of Britain and disembarked his
+army at a convenient spot advanced about twelve miles and repelled all
+attacks of the cavalry and charioteers of the enemy. Then he led his forces
+into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the River Thames, which river can
+be forded in one place only. Here an engagement took place which resulted
+in the flight of the Britons. But Cassivellaunus had sent messengers to the
+four kings who reigned over Kent and the districts by the sea, Cingetorix,
+Carvilius, Taximaquilus, and Segonax, commanding them to collect all their
+forces and assail the naval camp.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle which ensued the Romans were victorious, and when
+Cassivellaunus heard of this disaster he sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar to
+treat about a surrender. C&aelig;sar, since he had resolved to pass the
+winter on the continent, on account of sudden revolts in Gaul, demanded
+hostages and prescribed what tribute Britain should pay each year to the
+Roman people.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, expecting for many reasons greater commotion in Gaul,
+levied additional forces. He saw that war was being prepared on all sides,
+that the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, with the addition of all the
+Germans on this side of the Rhine, were under arms; that the Senones did
+not assemble according to his command, and were concerting measures with
+Carnutes and the neighbouring states; and that the Germans were importuned
+by the Treviri in frequent embassies. Therefore he thought that he ought to
+take prompt measures for the war.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, before the winter was ended, he marched with four legions
+unexpectedly into the territories of the Nervii, captured many men and much
+cattle, wasted their lands, and forced them to surrender and give hostages.
+He followed up his success by worsting the Senones, Carnutes, and Menapii,
+while Labienus defeated the Treviri.</p>
+
+<p>Gaul being tranquil, C&aelig;sar, as he had determined, set out for
+Italy to hold the provincial assizes. There he was informed of the decree
+of the senate that all the youth of Italy should take the military oath,
+and he determined to hold a levy throughout the entire province. The Gauls,
+animated by the opportunity afforded through his absence, and indignant
+that they were reduced beneath the dominion of Rome, began to organise
+their plans for war openly.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the nations confederated and selected as their commander
+Vercingetorix, a young Avernian. On hearing what had happened, C&aelig;sar
+set out from Italy for Transalpine Gaul, and began the campaign by marching
+into the country of the Helvii, although it was the severest time of the
+year, and the country was covered with deep snow.</p>
+
+<p>The armies met, and Vercingetorix sustained a series of losses at
+Vellaunodunum, Genabum, and Noviodunum. The Gauls then threw a strong
+garrison into Avaricum, which C&aelig;sar besieged, and at length
+C&aelig;sar's soldiers took it by storm. All the Gauls, with few
+exceptions, joined in the revolt; and the united forces, under
+Vercingetorix, attacked the Roman army while it was marching into the
+country of the Sequani, but they suffered complete defeat. After struggling
+vainly to continue the war, Vercingetorix surrendered, and the Gallic
+chieftains laid down their arms. C&aelig;sar demanded a great number of
+hostages, sent his lieutenants with various legions to different stations
+in Gaul, and determined himself to winter at Bibracte. A supplication of
+twenty days was decreed at Rome by the senate on hearing of these
+successes.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='TACITUS'></a>TACITUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Annals'></a>Annals</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Publius Cornelius Tacitus was born perhaps at Rome, shortly
+before the accession of the Emperor Nero in 54 A.D. He married the daughter
+of Agricola, famous in the history of Britain, and died probably about the
+time of Hadrian's accession to the empire, 117 A.D. He attained distinction
+as a pleader at the bar, and in public life; but his fame rests on his
+historical works. A man of strong prepossessions and prejudices, he allowed
+them to colour his narratives, and particularly his portraits; but he
+cannot be charged with dishonesty. The portraits themselves are singularly
+powerful; his narrative is picturesque, vivid, dramatic; but the condensed
+character of his style and the pregnancy of his phrases make his work
+occasionally obscure, and particularly difficult to render in translation.
+His "Germania" is a most valuable record of the early institutions of the
+Teutonic peoples. His "Histories" of the empire from Galba to Domitian are
+valuable as dealing with events of which he was an eye-witness. His
+"Annals," covering practically the reigns from Tiberius to Nero, open only
+some forty years before his own birth. Of the original sixteen books, four
+are lost, and four are incomplete. The following epitome has been specially
+prepared from the Latin text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Emperor and Nephew</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Tiberius, adopted son and actual stepson of Augustus, was summoned from
+Illyria by his mother Livia to the bedside of the dying emperor at Nola.
+Augustus left a granddaughter, Agrippina, who was married to Germanicus,
+the nephew of Tiberius; and a grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of evil
+reputation. The succession of Tiberius was not in doubt; but his first act
+was to have Agrippa Postumus put to death--according to his own statement,
+by the order of Augustus. At Rome, consuls, senators, and knights hurried
+to embrace their servitude. The nobler the name that each man bore, the
+more zealous was he in his hypocrisy. The grave pretence of Tiberius that
+he laid no claim to imperial honours was met by the grave pretence that the
+needs of the state forbade his refusal of them, however reluctant he might
+be. His mother, Livia Augusta, was the object of a like sycophancy. But the
+world was not deceived by the solemn farce.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Augustus, however, was the signal for mutinous outbreaks
+among the legions on the European frontiers of the empire; first in
+Pannonia, then in Germany. In Pannonia, the ostensible motive was jealousy
+of the higher pay and easier terms of service of the Pr&aelig;torian guard.
+So violent were the men, and so completely did the officers lose control,
+that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was sent to make terms with the
+mutineers, and only owed his success to the reaction caused by the
+superstitious alarm of the soldiery at an eclipse of the moon. Germanicus,
+who was in command in Germany, was absent in Gaul. Here the mutiny of the
+Lower Army, under C&aelig;cina, was very serious, because it was clearly
+organised, the men working systematically and not haphazard.</p>
+
+<p>News of the outbreak brought their popular general, Germanicus, to the
+spot. The mutineers at once offered to make him emperor, a proposal which
+he indignantly repudiated. The position, in a hostile country, made some
+concession necessary; but fresh disturbances broke out when it was
+suspected that the arrival of a commission from the senate meant that the
+concessions would be cancelled. Here the reaction which broke down the
+mutiny was caused by the shame of the soldiers themselves, when Germanicus
+sent his wife and child away from a camp where their lives were in danger.
+Of their own accord, the best of the soldiers turned on their former
+ringleaders, and slew them. And the legions under C&aelig;cina took similar
+steps to recover their lost credit. Germanicus, however, saw that the true
+remedy for the disaffection would be found in an active campaign. The
+desired effect was attained by an expedition against the Marsi, conducted
+with a success which Tiberius, at Rome, regarded with mixed feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The German tribe named the Cherusci favoured Arminius, the determined
+enemy of Rome, in preference to Segestes, who was conspicuous for "loyalty"
+to Rome. Germanicus advanced to support the latter, and Arminius was
+enraged by the news that his wife, the daughter of Segestes, was a
+prisoner. His call to arms, his declamations in the name of liberty, roused
+the Cherusci, the people who had annihilated the legions of Varus a few
+years before. A column commanded by C&aelig;cina was enticed by Arminius
+into a swampy position, where it was in extreme danger, and a severe
+engagement took place. The scheme of Arminius was to attack the Romans on
+the march; fortunately, the rasher counsels of his uncle, Inguiomerus,
+prevailed; an attempt was made to storm the camp, and the Romans were thus
+enabled to inflict a decisive defeat on the foe.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that the disastrous practice was instituted of
+informers bringing charges of treason against prominent citizens on grounds
+which Tiberius himself condemned as frivolous. The emperor began to make a
+practice of attending trials, which indeed prevented corrupt awards, but
+ruined freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Now arose disturbances in the east. The Parthians expelled their king,
+Vonones, a former favourite of Augustus. Armenia became involved, and these
+things were the source of serious complications later. Tiberius was already
+meditating the transfer of Germanicus to these regions. That general,
+however, was planning a fresh German campaign from the North Sea coast. A
+great fleet carried the army to the mouth of the Ems; thence Germanicus
+marched to the Weser and crossed it. Germanicus was gratified to find that
+his troops were eager for the impending fray. A tremendous defeat was
+inflicted on the Cherusci, with little loss to the Romans. Arminius, who
+had headed a charge which all but broke the Roman line, escaped only with
+the utmost difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the Germans rallied their forces, and a second furious
+engagement took place, in which the foe fought again with desperate valour,
+and were routed mainly through the superiority of the Roman armour and
+discipline. The triumph was marred only by a disaster which befel the
+legions which were withdrawn by sea. A terrific storm wrecked almost the
+entire fleet, and it was with great difficulty that the few survivors were
+rescued. The consequent revival of German hopes made it necessary for two
+large armies to advance against the Marsi and the Catti respectively,
+complete success again attending the Roman arms.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy of his nephew's popularity and success now caused Tiberius to
+insist on his recall. At this time informers charged with treason a young
+man of distinguished family, Libo Drusus, mainly on the ground of his
+foolish consultation of astrologers, with the result that Drusus committed
+suicide. This story will serve as one among many which exemplify the
+prevalent demoralisation. In the same year occurred the audacious
+insurrection of a slave who impersonated the dead Agrippa Postumus; and
+also the deposition of the king of Cappadocia, whose kingdom was annexed as
+a province of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>A contest took place between the Suevi and the Cherusci, in which Rome
+declined to intervene. Maroboduus, of the Suevi, was disliked because he
+took the title of king, which was alien to the German ideas, being in this
+respect contrasted with Arminius. The Cherusci had the better of the
+encounter.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Development of Despotism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Germanicus on his recall was in danger, while in Rome, of being made the
+head of a faction in antagonism to Drusus, the son of Tiberius. He was
+dispatched, however, with extraordinary powers, to take control of the
+East, where Piso, the governor of Syria, believed that he held his own
+appointment precisely that he might be a thorn in the side of Germanicus.
+The latter made a progress through Greece, settled affairs in Armenia and
+Parthia, and continued his journey to Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Piso's machinations, encouraged by the reports which reached him of the
+emperor's displeasure at the conduct of Germanicus, caused the gravest
+friction. Finally, on the return from Egypt through Syria, Germanicus
+became desperately ill. He declared his own belief that Piso and his wife
+had poisoned him; and, on his death, the rumour met general credence,
+though it was unsupported by evidence. Agrippina returned to Rome, bent on
+vengeance, and the object of universal sympathy. Piso attempted to make
+himself master of Syria, but failed to win over the legions, and then
+resolved to return to Rome and defy his accusers.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Arminius was killed in attempting to make himself king.
+Shortly before, Tiberius had rejected with becoming dignity a rival chief's
+offer to poison the national hero of German independence.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival in Italy of Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, the
+popular and official expressions of grief and sympathy were almost
+unprecedented. This public display was not at all encouraged by Tiberius
+himself. Drusus was instructed to emphasize the fact that Piso must not be
+held either guilty or innocent, till the case had been sifted. Tiberius
+insisted that not he, but the senate, must be the judge; the case must be
+decided on its merits, not out of consideration for his own outraged
+feelings. Piso was charged with having corrupted the soldiery, levied war
+on the province of Syria, and poisoned Germanicus. All except the last
+charge were proved up to the hilt; for that alone there was no evidence.
+Piso, however, despaired, fearing less the ebullitions of popular wrath
+than the emotionless implacability of the emperor. He was found dead in his
+room; but whether by his own act or that of Tiberius, was generally
+doubted. The penalties imposed on his wife and son were mitigated by the
+emperor himself.</p>
+
+<p>A number of notorious scandals at this period emphasise the degradation
+of morals and the disregard for the sanctity of the marriage tie in a
+society where children were regarded as a burden, in spite of official
+encouragement of the birth-rate. There was an instructive debate on a
+proposal that magistrates appointed to provinces should not take their
+wives with them.</p>
+
+<p>Risings in Gaul of the Treveri and Aedui created much alarm in Rome; the
+composure of Tiberius was justified by their decisive suppression.</p>
+
+<p>In Africa, Bl&aelig;ms successfully suppressed, though he did not
+finally curb, the brigand chief Tacfarinas, who had been building up a
+nomad empire of his own. It was under Dolabella, the successor of
+Bl&aelig;ms, that Tacfarinas was completely overthrown and slain.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the rule of Tiberius had been, on the whole, prosperous. But
+the ninth year marks the establishment of the ascendancy of &AElig;lius
+Sejanus over the mind of the emperor, whereby his sway was transformed into
+a foul tyranny. Not of noble birth, Sejanus had neglected no means, however
+base, to secure his own favour with Tiberius and with the Pr&aelig;torian
+Guard, of which he held the command. He was now determined to get rid of
+Drusus, the son of Tiberius, as the most dangerous obstacle to his
+ambitions. He accomplished his purpose by administering a poison, of which
+the operation was unsuspected till the facts were revealed many years later
+by an accomplice. Then the young sons of Germanicus became the accepted
+representatives of the imperial line, for the infant sons of Drusus died
+very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, Sejanus now directed his attacks
+against the more powerful persons who might be regarded as partisans of the
+house of Germanicus.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the multiplications of prosecutions, it is to be noted that it
+was still possible for a shrewd and tactful person, as exemplified by the
+career of Marcus Lepidus, to uphold the principles of justice and liberty
+without losing the favour of the emperor. Among other prosecutions, that of
+Cremutius, whose crime was that of praising the memory of Brutus and
+Cassius, demands attention, as the first of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>The ambitions of Sejanus received a check when he had the presumption to
+request Tiberius to grant him the hand of the widow of Drusus in marriage.
+In order the more surely to bring disgrace on the house of Germanicus, he
+now implanted in the mind of Agrippina a conviction that Tiberius intended
+to poison her. That such suspicions were mere commonplaces of that terrible
+time is well illustrated by the story. Incapable of hiding her feelings,
+the persistent gloom of her face and voice, and her refusal of proffered
+dishes as she sat near Tiberius at dinner, attracted his attention; to test
+her, he personally commended and pressed on her some apples; this only
+intensified her suspicions, and she gave them to the attendants untasted.
+Tiberius made no open comment, but observed to his mother that it would
+hardly be surprising should he contemplate harsh measures towards one who
+obviously took him for a poisoner.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Morbid Tyrant and Dotard</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It was at this time that Tiberius withdrew himself from the capital, and
+took up his residence at a country seat where hardly anyone had access to
+him except Sejanus; whether at the favourite's suggestion or not is
+uncertain. The retreat finally selected was the island of Capr&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>The monstrous lengths to which men of the highest rank were now prepared
+to go to curry favour with Tiberius and Sejanus was exemplified in the ruin
+of Sabinus, a loyal friend of the house of Germanicus. The unfortunate man
+was tricked into speaking bitterly of Sejanus and Tiberius. Three senators
+were actually hidden above the ceiling of the room where he was entrapped
+into uttering unguarded phrases, and on this evidence he was condemned.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the aged Livia Augusta removed the last check on the
+influence of Sejanus.</p>
+
+<p>[The account of his two years of unqualified supremacy, and of his
+sudden and utter overthrow has been lost, two books of the "Annals" being
+missing here.]</p>
+
+<p>From this time, the life of Tiberius at Capr&aelig; was one of morbid
+and nameless debauchery. The condition of his mind may be inferred from the
+opening words of one of his letters to the senate. "If I know what to
+write, how to write it, what not to write, may the gods and goddesses
+destroy me with a worse misery than the death I feel myself dying daily."
+The end came when Macro, the prefect of the Pr&aelig;torians, who, to save
+his own life and secure the succession of Gaius C&aelig;sar Caligula, the
+surviving son of Germanicus, caused the old emperor to be smothered.</p>
+
+<p>[The record of the next ten years--the reign of Caligula, and the first
+years of Claudius--is lost. When the story is taken up again, the wife of
+Claudius, the infamous Messalina, was at the zenith of her evil
+career.]</p>
+
+<p>While the doting pedant Claudius was adding new letters to the alphabet,
+Messalina was parading with utter shamelessness her last and fatal passion
+for Silius, and went so far as publicly to marry her paramour. It was the
+freedman Narcissus who made the outrageous truth known to Claudius, and
+practically terrorised him into striking. Half measures were impossible; a
+swarm of Messalina's accomplices in vice were put to death. To her,
+Claudius showed signs of relenting; but Narcissus gave the orders for her
+death without his knowledge. When they told Claudius that she was dead, he
+displayed no emotion, but went on with his dinner, and apparently forgot
+the whole matter.</p>
+
+<p>A new wife had to be provided; Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,
+niece of Claudius himself, and mother of the boy Domitius, who was to
+become the emperor Nero, was the choice of the freedman Pallas, and proved
+the successful candidate. Shortly after, her new husband adopted Nero
+formally as his son. It was not long before she had assumed an air of
+equality with her husband; and all men saw that she intended him to be
+succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
+propr&aelig;tor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
+then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most brilliant
+of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage, however, were
+of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman legions; his forces
+were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the Brigantes, was by them
+betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was carried to Rome, where by
+his dignified demeanour he won pardon and liberty. In the Far East,
+Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew Rhadamistus, and Parthia and
+Armenia remained in wild confusion. The reign of Claudius was brought to an
+end by poison--the notorious Locusta was employed by Agrippina for the
+purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero, to whom his mother's artifices gave
+the priority over Britannicus.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Infamies of Nero</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
+first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was full
+of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a freed-woman, by
+way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother, Agrippina. The latter,
+enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened her son with the legitimate
+claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero had the boy poisoned. In
+terror now of his mother, he would have murdered her, but was checked by
+Burrus. Nero's private excesses and debaucheries developed, while the
+horrible system of delation flourished, and prosecutions for treason
+abounded.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the emperor's passion for Popp&aelig;a Sabina, the wife
+of Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
+immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's boon
+companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Popp&aelig;a remained at
+Rome. Popp&aelig;a was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged
+Nero against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
+the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress. The
+plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero, however,
+with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched assassins to
+carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
+the cringing congratulations of Roman society, to which Thrasea P&aelig;tus
+was alone in refusing to be a party. The emperor forthwith began to plunge
+into the wild extravagances on which his mother's life had been some check.
+He took cover for his passion for chariot-driving and singing by inducing
+men of noble birth to exhibit themselves in the arena; high-born ladies
+acted in disreputable plays; the emperor himself posed as a mime, and
+pretended to be a patron of poetry and philosophy. The wildest licence
+prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to defend it.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the
+Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages committed
+against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to fierce revolt.
+Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the Romans at Camulodunum
+and massacred them. Suetonius, returning hastily from the west, found the
+Roman population in panic. The troops, however, inspired by the general's
+resolution, won a decisive victory, in which it is said that no fewer than
+80,000 Britons, men and women, were slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after, Burrus died--in common belief, if not in actual fact, of
+poison; and Seneca found himself driven into retirement, while Tigellinus
+became Nero's favourite and confidant. Nero then capped his matricide by
+suborning the same scoundrel who had murdered Agrippina to bring foul and
+false charges against his innocent wife, Octavia; who was thus done to
+death when not yet twenty, that her husband might be free to marry
+Popp&aelig;a. As a matter of course, the crime was duly celebrated by a
+public thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>The dispatch of an incompetent general into Asia resulted in a most
+inglorious Parthian campaign. Nero, however, was more interested first in
+extravagant rejoicings at the birth of a daughter to Popp&aelig;a, and then
+in equally extravagant mourning over the infant's death. It was well that
+Corbulo, marching from Syria, restored the Roman prestige in the Far
+East.</p>
+
+<p>These events were followed by the famous fire which devastated Rome;
+whether or no it was actually Nero's own work, rumour declared that he
+appeared on a private stage while the conflagration was raging, and chanted
+appropriately of the fall of Troy. He planned rebuilding on a magnificent
+scale, and sought popularity by throwing the blame of the fire--and putting
+to the most exquisite tortures--a class hated for their abominations,
+called Christians, from their first leader, Christus, who had suffered the
+extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Jud&aelig;a, in the
+reign of Tiberius.</p>
+
+<p>A very widespread conspiracy was now formed against Nero, in favour of
+one Gaius Calpurnius Piso; F&aelig;nius Rufus, an officer of the
+Pr&aelig;torians, who had been subordinated to Tigellinus, being one of the
+leaders. The plot, however, was betrayed by a freedman of one of the
+conspirators.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='SALLUST'></a>SALLUST</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Conspiracy_of_Catiline'></a>The Conspiracy of
+Catiline</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The Roman historian Caius Crispus Sallust, who was born at
+Amiternum in 86 B.C., and died in 34 B.C., lived throughout the active
+career of Julius C&aelig;sar, and died while Anthony and Octavian were
+still rivals for the supreme power. It might be supposed from his works
+that he was a person of eminent virtue, but this was merely a literary
+pose. He was probably driven into private life, in the first place, on
+account of the scandals with which he was associated. He became a partisan
+of C&aelig;sar in the struggle with Pompey, and to this he owed the
+pro-consulship of Numidia, on the proceeds of which he retired into
+leisured ease. Sallust aspired with very limited success to assume the
+mantle of Thucydides, and the r&ocirc;le of a philosophic historian. He
+displays considerable political acumen on occasion, but his assumption of
+stern impartiality is hardly less a pose than his pretense of elevated
+morality. His "Conspiracy of Catiline"--the first of his historical
+essays--was probably written, in part at least, with the object of
+dissociating C&aelig;sar from it; the lurid colors in which he paints the
+conspirator are probably exaggerated. But whether true or false, the
+picture presented is a vivid one. This epitome is adapted specially from
+the Latin text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Plotting</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I esteem the intellectual above the physical qualities of man; and the
+task of the historian has attracted me because it taxes the writer's
+abilities to the utmost Personal ambition had at first drawn me into public
+life, but the political atmosphere, full of degradation and corruption, was
+so uncongenial that I resolved to retire and devote myself to the
+production of a series of historical studies, for which I felt myself to be
+the better fitted by my freedom from the influences which bias the
+political partisan. For the first of these studies I have selected the
+conspiracy of Catiline.</p>
+
+<p>Lucius Catilina [commonly called Catiline] was of high birth, richly
+endowed both in mind and body, but of extreme depravity; with extraordinary
+powers of endurance, reckless, crafty, and versatile, a master in the arts
+of deception, at once grasping and lavish, unbridled in his passions, ready
+of speech, but with little true insight Of insatiable and inordinate
+ambitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's supremacy, with a craving to
+grasp the control of the state, utterly careless of the means, so the end
+were attained. Naturally headstrong, he was urged forward by his want of
+money, the consciousness of his crimes, and the degradation of morals in a
+society where luxury and greed ruled side by side.</p>
+
+<p>The wildest, the most reckless, the most prodigal, the most criminal,
+were readily drawn into the circle of Catiline's associates; in such a
+circle those who were not already utterly depraved very soon became so
+under the sinister and seductive influence of their leader. This man, who
+in the pursuit of his own vices had done his own son to death, did not
+hesitate to encourage his pupils in every species of crime; and with such
+allies, and the aid of the disbanded Sullan soldiery swarming in Italy, he
+dreamed of subverting the Roman state while her armies, under Gn&aelig;us
+Pompeius, were far away.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to secure his own election as consul. One plot of his
+had already failed, because Catiline himself had attempted to move
+prematurely; but the conspirators remained scatheless. Those who were now
+with Catiline included members of the oldest families and of equestrian
+rank. Crassus himself was suspected of complicity, owing to his rivalry
+with Pompeius. The assembled conspirators were addressed by Catiline in a
+speech of the most virulent character. He urged these social outcasts to
+rise against a bloated plutocracy battening on the ill-gotten wealth to
+which his audience had just as good a title. He promised the cancellation
+of all debts, the proscription of the wealthy, and the general application
+of the rule of "the spoils to the victors." He had friends at the head of
+the armies in Spain and Mauritania, if Gaius Antonius were the other
+successful candidate for the consulship, his co-operation, too, could be
+secured. Such was the purport of his speech; but I do not credit the
+popular fiction that the conspirators were solemnly pledged in a bowl of
+mingled wine and blood.</p>
+
+<p>Rumours of the plot, however, began to leak out through a certain
+Fulvia, mistress of Quintus Curio, a man who had been expelled from the
+senatorial body on account of his iniquities; and this probably caused many
+of the nobility to support, for the consulship, Cicero, whom, as a "new
+man," they would otherwise have religiously opposed. The result was that
+Catiline's candidature failed, and Cicero was elected with Gaius Antonius
+for his colleague.</p>
+
+<p>At length Cicero, seeing that the ferment was everywhere increasing to
+an extent with which the ordinary law could not cope, obtained from the
+senate the exceptional powers for dealing with a national emergency which
+they had constitutional authority to grant. Thus, when news came that a
+Catilinarian, Gaius Manlius, had risen in Etruria at the head of an armed
+force, prompt administrative measures were taken to dispatch adequate
+military forces to various parts of the country. Catiline himself had taken
+no overt action; he now presented himself in the senate, was openly
+assailed by Cicero, responded with insults which were interrupted by cries
+of indignation, and flung from the house with the words "Since I am beset
+by enemies and driven out, the fire you have kindled about me shall be
+crushed out by the ruin of yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that delay would be fatal, he started at once for the camp of
+Manlius, leaving Cethegus and Lentulus to keep up the ferment in Rome. To
+several persons of position he sent letters announcing that he was retiring
+to Marseilles; but, with misplaced confidence, he sent one of a different
+and extremely compromising tenor to Quintus Catullus, which the recipient
+read to the senate. It was next reported that he had assumed the consular
+attributes and joined Manlius; whereupon he was proclaimed a public enemy,
+a general levy was decreed, Antonius was appointed to take the field, while
+Cicero was to remain in the capital.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Downfall</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Lentulus at Rome, among his various plots, intrigued to
+obtain the support of the Allobroges, a tribe of Gauls from whom there was
+at the time an embassy in Rome. The envoys, however, took the advice of
+Quintus Fabius Sanga, and while he kept Cicero supplied with information,
+themselves pretended to be at one with the conspirators.</p>
+
+<p>Risings were now taking place all over Italy, though they were
+ill-concerted. At Rome, the plan was that when Catiline's army was at
+F&aelig;sul&aelig;, the tribune Lucius Bestia should publicly accuse Cicero of
+having caused the war; and this was to be the signal for an organised
+massacre, while the city itself was to be fired at twelve points
+simultaneously. The insurgents were then to march out and join Catiline at
+F&aelig;sul&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>The Allobroges were now departing, carrying with them letters from
+Lentulus to Catiline; but according to a concerted plan, they were
+arrested. This provided Cicero with evidence which warranted the arrest of
+Lentulus and other ringleaders in Rome; and its publication created a
+popular revulsion--the lower classes were not averse from plunder, but saw
+no benefit to themselves in a general conflagration of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>A certain Lucius Tarquinius was now captured, who gave information
+tallying with what was already published, but further incriminated Crassus.
+Crassus, however, was so wealthy, and had so many of the senate in his
+power, that even those who believed the charge to be true, thought it
+politic to pronounce it a gross fabrication. The danger of an attempted
+rescue of Lentulus brought on a debate as to what should be done with the
+prisoners. C&aelig;sar, from whatever motive, spoke forcibly against any
+unconstitutional action which, however justified by the enormity of the
+prisoners' guilt, might become a dangerous precedent. In his opinion, the
+wise course would be to confiscate the property of the prisoners, and to
+place their persons in custody not in Rome, but in provincial towns.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar's humanitarian statesmanship was answered by the grave
+austerity of Cato. "The question for us is not that of punishing a crime,
+but of preserving the state--or of what the degenerate Roman of to-day
+cares for more than the state, our lives and property. To speak of clemency
+and compassion is an abuse of terms only too common, when vices are
+habitually dignified with the names of virtues. Let us for once act with
+vigour and decision, and doom these convicted traitors to the death they
+deserve." The decree of death was carried to immediate execution. In the
+meantime, Catiline had raised a force numbering two legions, but not more
+than a quarter of them were properly armed. He remained in the hills,
+refusing to give battle to Antonius.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing the fate of Lentulus and the rest, he attempted to retreat to
+Gaul, but this movement was anticipated and intercepted by Metellus Celer,
+who was posted at Picenum with three legions. With Antonius pressing on his
+rear, Catiline resolved to hazard all on a desperate engagement. In
+exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men fighting for life and
+liberty were more than a match for a foe who had infinitely less at
+stake.</p>
+
+<p>Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the
+government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant
+example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous
+generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against
+the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's
+followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front; he
+himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing at a
+distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and among the
+rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all the stoutest
+soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled with the elation
+of victory.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_GIBBON1'></a>EDWARD GIBBON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__I'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--I</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at
+Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary education at
+Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months at Magdalen College,
+Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church led to his banishment to Lausanne,
+where he spent five years, and acquired a mastery of the French language,
+formed his taste for literary expression, and settled his religious doubts
+in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the militia, and was a
+member of parliament. It was in 1764, while musing amidst, the ruins of the
+Capitol of Rome, that the idea of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the
+city first started into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A
+Study in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous Works,"
+published after his death, which include "The Memoirs of his Life and
+Writings," complete the list of his literary labours. He died of dropsy on
+January 16, 1794. The portion of the work which is epitomized here covers
+the period from the reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and
+includes the famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the
+Christian church. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Rome, Mistress of the World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome
+comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion
+of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed, as a
+valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire
+within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent
+bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the Rhine and
+Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards the south the
+sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent settlement of Great
+Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the precepts of Augustus,
+if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in the east, which were
+renounced by Hadrian.</p>
+
+<p>By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
+its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
+the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added weight
+and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a constant
+preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the meanest, and very
+frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and no longer, as in the
+days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome herself, were preserved
+in their allegiance to the emperor, and their invincibility before the
+enemy, by the influences of superstition, inflexible discipline, and the
+hopes of reward. The peace establishment of the Roman army numbered some
+375,000 men, divided into thirty legions, who were confined, not within the
+walls of fortified cities, which the Romans considered as the refuge of
+pusillanimity, but upon the confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen
+soldiers, distinguished by the titles of City Cohorts and Pr&aelig;torian
+Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the capitol.</p>
+
+<p>"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
+observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
+soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous cities,
+adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public buildings,
+demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the Roman system. In
+Britain, York was the seat of government. London was already enriched by
+commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal
+waters.</p>
+
+<p>All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
+capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
+traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
+frontiers of the empire. This great chain of communications ran in a direct
+line from city to city, and in its construction the Roman engineers snowed
+little respect for the obstacles, either of nature or of private property.
+Mountains were perforated and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most
+rapid streams. The middle part of the road, raised into a terrace which
+commanded the adjacent country, consisted of several strata of sand,
+gravel, and cement, and was paved with granite or large stones. Distances
+were accurately computed by milestones, and the establishment of
+post-houses, at a distance of five or six miles, enabled a citizen to
+travel with ease a hundred miles a day along the Roman roads.</p>
+
+<p>This freedom of intercourse, which was established throughout the Roman
+world, while it extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements of
+social life. Rude barbarians of Gaul laid aside their arms for the more
+peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The cultivation of the earth produced
+abundance in every portion of the empire, and accidental scarcity in any
+single province was immediately relieved by the plentifulness of its more
+fortunate neighbours. Since the productions of nature are the materials of
+art, this flourishing condition of agriculture laid the foundation of
+manufactures, which provided the luxurious Roman with those refinements of
+conveniency, of elegance, and of splendour which his tastes demanded.
+Commerce flourished, and the products of Egypt and the East were poured out
+in the lap of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Though there still existed within the body of the Roman Empire an
+unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the
+benefits of society, the position of a slave was greatly improved in the
+progress of Roman development. The power of life and death was taken from
+his master's hands and vested in the magistrate, to whom he had a right to
+appeal against intolerable treatment. These magistrates exercised the
+authority of the emperor and the senate in every quarter of the empire,
+inflexibly maintaining in their administration, as in the case of military
+government, the use of the Latin tongue. Greek was the natural idiom of
+science, Latin that of government.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Seeds of Dissolution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>But while Roman society persisted in a state of peaceful security, it
+already contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. The long peace
+and uniform government of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison
+into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to
+the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military
+spirit evaporated. The citizens received laws and covenants from the will
+of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army. Of
+their ancient freedom nothing remained except the name, and that Augustus,
+sensible that mankind is governed by names, was careful to preserve.</p>
+
+<p>It was by the will of the senate the emperor ruled. It was from the
+senate that he received the ancient titles of the republic--of consul,
+tribune, pontiff, and censor. Even his title of <i>imperator</i> was
+decreed him, according to the custom of the republic, only for a period of
+ten years. But this specious pretence, which was preserved until the last
+days of the empire, did not mask the real autocratic authority of the
+emperor. The fact that he nominated citizens to the senate was proof, if
+proof were needed, that the independence of that body was destroyed; for
+the principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the
+legislative power is nominated by the executive.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, the dependence of the emperor on the legions completely
+subverted the civil authority. To keep the military power, which had given
+him his position, from undermining it, Augustus had summoned to his aid
+whatever remained in the fierce minds of his soldiers of Roman prejudices,
+and interposing the majesty of the senate between the emperor and the army,
+boldly claimed their allegiance as the first magistrate of the republic.
+During a period of 220 years, the dangers inherent to a military government
+were in a great measure suspended by this artful system. The soldiers were
+seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength and of the weakness
+of the civil authority which afterwards was productive of such terrible
+calamities.</p>
+
+<p>The emperors Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by
+their own domestics. The Roman world, it is true, was shaken by the events
+that followed the death of Nero, when, in the space of eighteen months,
+four princes perished by the sword. But, excepting this violent eruption of
+military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to Commodus passed away
+unstained with civil blood and undisturbed by revolution. The Roman
+citizens might groan under the tyranny, from which they could not hope to
+escape, of the unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the profligate
+and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian; but
+order was maintained, and it was not until Commodus, the son of Marcus
+Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, succeeded to the authority that his
+father had exercised for the benefit of the Roman Empire that the army
+fully realised, and did not fail to exercise, the power it had always
+possessed.</p>
+
+<p>During the first three years of his reign the vices of Commodus affected
+the emperor rather than the state. While the young prince revelled in
+licentious pleasures, the management of affairs remained in the hands of
+his father's faithful councillors; but, in the year 183, the attempt of his
+sister Lucilla to assassinate him produced fatal results. The assassin, in
+attempting the deed, exclaimed, "The senate sends you this!" and though the
+blow never reached the body of the emperor, the words sank deep into his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>He turned upon the senate with relentless cruelty. The possession of
+either wealth or virtue excited the tyrant's fury. Suspicion was equivalent
+to proof; trial to condemnation, and the noblest blood of the senate was
+poured out like water.</p>
+
+<p>He has shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon
+as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered by
+his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the instigation of
+L&aelig;tus, his Pr&aelig;torian prefect, a robust youth was admitted into
+his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and
+celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city, an
+ancient senator of consular rank, and persuaded him to accept the purple. A
+large donative secured them the support of the Pr&aelig;torian guard, and
+the joyous senate eagerly bestowed upon the new Augustus all the titles of
+imperial power.</p>
+
+<p>For eighty-six days Pertinax ruled the empire with firmness and
+moderation, but the strictness of the ancient discipline that he attempted
+to restore in the army excited the hatred of the Pr&aelig;torian guards,
+and the new emperor was struck down on March 28, 193.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--An Empire at Auction</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Pr&aelig;torians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the
+atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it with their
+subsequent conduct. They ran out upon the ramparts of the city, and with a
+loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the
+best bidder by public auction. Sulpicianus, father-in-law of Pertinax, and
+Didius Julianus, bid against each other for the prize. It fell to Julian,
+who offered upwards of &pound;1,000 sterling to each of the soldiers, and
+the author of this ignominious bargain received the insignia of the empire
+and the acknowledgments of a trembling senate.</p>
+
+<p>The news of this disgraceful auction was received by the legions of the
+frontiers with surprise, with indignation, and, perhaps, with envy.
+Albinus, governor of Britain, Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius
+Severus, a native of Africa, commander of the Pannonian army, prepared to
+revenge the death of Pertinax, and to establish their own claims to the
+vacant throne. Marching night and day, Severus crossed the Julian Alps,
+swept aside the feeble defences of Julian, and put an end to a reign of
+power which had lasted but sixty-six days, and had been purchased with such
+immense treasure. Having secured the supreme authority, Severus turned his
+arms against his two competitors, and within three years, and in the course
+of two or three battles, established his position and brought about the
+death of both Albinus and Niger.</p>
+
+<p>The prosperity of Rome revived, and a profound peace reigned throughout
+the world. At the same time, Severus was guilty of two acts which were
+detrimental to the future interests of the republic. He relaxed the
+discipline of the army, increased their pay beyond the example of former
+times, re-established the Pr&aelig;torian guards, who had been abolished
+for their transaction with Julian, and welded more firmly the chains of
+tyranny by filling the senate with his creatures. At the age of sixty-five
+in the year 211, he expired at York of a disorder which was aggravated by
+the labours of a campaign against the Caledonians.</p>
+
+<p>Severus recommended concord to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and his
+sons to the army. The government of the civilised world was entrusted to
+the hands of brothers who were implacable enemies. A latent civil war
+brooded in the city, and hardly more than a year passed before the
+assassins of Caracalla put an end to an impossible situation by murdering
+Geta. Twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death under the vague
+appellation of the friends of Geta. The fears of Macrinus, the controller
+of the civil affairs of the Pr&aelig;torian prefecture, brought about his
+death in the neighbourhood of Carrh&aelig; in Syria on April 8, 217.</p>
+
+<p>For a little more than a year his successor governed the empire, but the
+necessary step of reforming the army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
+218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
+Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the
+East.</p>
+
+<p>Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
+human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the master
+of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female
+sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder on March
+10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.</p>
+
+<p>Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
+ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
+government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
+banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian, reigned
+in his stead.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Tyranny and Disaster</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
+one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
+the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
+but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole state,
+and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's avarice
+ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds of the
+cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
+offerings.</p>
+
+<p>Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
+Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
+domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
+and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
+Aquileia.</p>
+
+<p>Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
+to their own virtues at the hands of the Pr&aelig;torian guard, Gordian
+became emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
+virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
+engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world recognized
+the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
+accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation
+of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that these rites had
+been performed in the history of the city, for the next twenty years the
+Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and
+the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its
+dissolution. Six emperors in turn succeeded to the sceptre of Philip and
+ended their lives, either as the victims of military licence, or in the
+vain attempt to stay the triumphal eruption of the Goths and the Franks and
+the Suevi. In three expeditions the Goths seized the Bosphorus, plundered
+the cities of Bithynia, ravaged Greece, and threatened Italy, while the
+Franks invaded Gaul, overran Spain and the provinces of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Some sparks of their ancient virtue enabled the senate to repulse the
+Suevi, who threatened Rome herself, but the miseries of the empire were not
+assuaged by this one triumph, and the successes of Sapor, king of Persia,
+in the East, seemed to foreshadow the immediate downfall of Rome. Six
+emperors and thirty tyrants attempted in vain to stay the course of
+disaster. Famine and pestilence, tumults and disorders, and a great
+diminution of the population marked this period, which ended with the death
+of the Emperor Gallienus on March 20, 268.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Restorers of the Roman World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The empire, which had been oppressed and almost destroyed by the
+soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians, was saved by a series of great
+princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial provinces of
+Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius, Aurelian,
+Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the foreign and
+domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with a military discipline,
+the strength of the frontier, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers
+of the Roman world.</p>
+
+<p>Claudius gained a crushing victory over the Goths, whose discomfiture
+was completed by disease in the year 269. And his successor, Aurelian, in a
+reign of less than five years, put an end to the Gothic war, chastised the
+Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain from the
+Roman usurpers, and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zenobia, Queen of
+Palmyra, had erected in the East on the ruins of the afflicted empire.</p>
+
+<p>The murder of Aurelian in the East (January 275) led to a curious
+revival of the authority of the senate. During an interregnum of eight
+months the ancient assembly at Rome governed with the consent of the army,
+and appeared to regain with the election of Tacitus, one of their members,
+all their ancient prerogatives. Their authority expired, however, with the
+death of his successor, Probus, who delivered the empire once more from the
+invasions of the barbarians, and succumbed to the too common fate of
+assassination in August 282.</p>
+
+<p>Carus, who was elected in his place, maintained the reputation of the
+Roman arms in the East; but his supposed death by lightning, by delivering
+the sceptre into the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian (December 25,
+283), once more placed the Roman world at the mercy of profligacy and
+licentiousness. A year later, the election of the Emperor Diocletian
+(September 17, 284) founded a new era in the history and fortunes of the
+empire.</p>
+
+<p>It was the artful policy of Diocletian to destroy the last vestiges of
+the ancient constitution. Dividing his unwieldly power among three other
+associates--Maximian, a rough, brutal soldier, who ranked as Augustus; and
+Galerius and Constantius, who bore the inferior titles of C&aelig;sar--the
+emperor removed the centre of government by gradual steps from Rome.
+Diocletian and Maximian held their courts in the provinces, and the
+authority of the senators was destroyed by spoliation and death.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--Reign of the Six Emperors</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>For twenty-one years Diocletian held sway, establishing, with the
+assistance of his associates, the might of the Roman arms in Britain,
+Africa, Egypt, and Persia; and then, on May 1, 305, in a spacious plain in
+the neighborhood of Nicomedia, divested himself of the purple and abdicated
+the throne. On the same day at Milan, Maximian reluctantly made his
+resignation of the imperial dignity.</p>
+
+<p>According to the rules of the new constitution, Constantius and Galerius
+assumed the title of Augustus, and nominated Maximin and Severus as
+C&aelig;sars. The elaborate machinery devised by Diocletian at once broke
+down. Galerius, who was supported by Severus, intrigued for the possession
+of the whole Roman world. Constantine, the son of Constantius, on account
+of his popularity with the army and the people, excited his suspicion, and
+only the flight of Constantine saved him from death. He made his way to
+Gaul, and, after taking part in a campaign with his father against the
+Caledonians, received the title of Augustus in the imperial palace at York
+on the death of Constantius.</p>
+
+<p>Civil war once more raged. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was declared
+Emperor of Rome, and, with the assistance of his father, who broke from his
+retirement, defended his title against Severus, who was taken prisoner at
+Ravenna and executed at Rome in February 307. Galerius, who had raised
+Licinius to fill the post vacated by the death of Severus, invaded Italy to
+reestablish his authority, but, after threatening Rome, was compelled to
+retire.</p>
+
+<p>There were now six emperors. Maximian and his son Maxentius and
+Constantine in the West; in the East, Gelerius, Maximin, and Licinius. The
+second resignation of Maximian, and his renewed attempt to seize the
+imperial power by seducing the soldiers of Constantine, and his subsequent
+execution at Marseilles in February 310, reduced the number to five.
+Galerius died of a lingering disorder in the following year, and the civil
+war that broke out between Maxentius and Constantine, culminating in a
+battle near Rome in 312, placed the sceptre of the West in the hands of the
+son of Constantius. In the East, the alliance between Licinius and Maximin
+dissolved into discord, and the defeat of the latter on April 30, 313,
+ended in his death three or four months later.</p>
+
+<p>The empire was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, and the
+ambition of the two princes rendered peace impossible. In the years 315 and
+323 civil conflict broke out, ending, after the battle of Adrianople and
+the siege of Byzantium, in a culminating victory for Constantine in the
+field of Chrysopolis, in September. Licinius, taken prisoner, laid himself
+and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, and was duly
+executed.</p>
+
+<p>By successive steps, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the
+resignation of Licinius, Constantine had reached the undivided sovereignty
+of the Roman world. His success contributed to the decline of the empire by
+the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase as well of
+the taxes as of the military establishments. The foundation of
+Constantinople and the establishment of the Christian religion were the
+immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__II'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--II</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Decay of the Empire under Constantine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness of
+Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror
+bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new
+capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he
+established have been embraced, and consecrated, by succeeding
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>Byzantium, which, under the more august name of Constantinople, was
+destined to preserve the shadow of the Roman power for nearly a thousand
+years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site selected
+for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor, and its
+circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of the arts
+no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital, and the
+cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments
+to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten years the
+city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial palace, its
+theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with more haste than
+care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with all due pomp and
+ceremony, and a population was provided by the expedient of summoning some
+of the wealthiest families in the empire to take up their residence within
+its walls.</p>
+
+<p>The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
+which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
+system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank of
+each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of the
+Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles of your
+Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent Highness.</p>
+
+<p>The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
+Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still annually
+elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority, not from
+the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor. On the
+morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity, and in the
+two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to office by the
+annual games. As soon as they had discharged these customary duties, they
+retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy, during the remainder of
+the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. Their names
+served only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the
+chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient title of Patrician became now an
+empty honour bestowed by the emperor. Four prefects held jurisdiction over
+as many divisions of the empire, and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and
+Constantinople. The proconsuls and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of
+Respectable, and the provincial magistrates to the lower class of
+Honourable. In the military system, eight master-generals exercised their
+jurisdiction over the cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military
+commanders, with the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held
+sway in the provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for
+such was the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds
+of the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
+The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they were
+included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne. Seven
+ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of the palace,
+and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the number of the
+immediate followers of the sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
+from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
+census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was compelled
+to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid his
+contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this land
+tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial industry, and
+"free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on the occasion of
+any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The peculiar "free gift" of
+the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.</p>
+
+<p>Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
+year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or murder,
+of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the reputation
+of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the Roman world
+was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta. With a
+successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
+Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
+337.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Division of East and West</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
+Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
+Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
+years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
+resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete extinction
+of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for fifty-six years in
+Armenia.</p>
+
+<p>Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
+successively as C&aelig;sars the two nephews of the great Constantine,
+Gallus and Julian. The first, being suspected, was destroyed in 354; the
+second succeeded to the purple in 361.</p>
+
+<p>Trained in the school of the philosophers, and proved as a commander in
+a series of successful campaigns against the German hordes, Julian brought
+to the throne a genius which, in other times, might have effected the
+reformation of the empire. The sufferings of his youth had associated in a
+mind susceptible of the most lively impressions the names of Christ and of
+Constantius, the ideas of slavery and religion. At the age of twenty he
+renounced the Christian faith, and boldly asserted the doctrines of
+paganism. His accession to the supreme power filled the minds of the
+Christians with horror and indignation. But instructed by history and
+reflection, Julian extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the
+benefits of a free and equal toleration, and the only hardship which he
+inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting
+their fellow subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of
+idolaters and heretics.</p>
+
+<p>While re-establishing and reforming the old pagan system and attempting
+to subvert Christianity, he held out a hand of succour to the persecuted
+Jews, asked to be permitted to pay his grateful vows in the holy city of
+Jerusalem, and was only prevented from rebuilding the Temple by a supposed
+preternatural interference. He suppressed the authority of George,
+Archbishop of Alexandria, who had infamously persecuted and betrayed the
+people under his spiritual care, and that odious priest, who has been
+transformed by superstition into the renowned St. George of England, the
+patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter, fell a victim to the just
+resentment of the Alexandrian multitude.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian system of monarchy, introduced by Diocletian, was
+distasteful to the philosophic mind of Julian; he refused the title of lord
+and master, and attempted to restore in all its pristine simplicity the
+ancient government of the republic. In a campaign against the Persians he
+received a mortal wound, and died on June 26, 363.</p>
+
+<p>The election of Jovian, the first of the domestics, by the acclamation
+of the soldiers, resulted in a disgraceful peace with the Persians, which
+aroused the anger and indignation of the Roman world, and the new emperor
+hardly survived this act of weakness for nine months (February 17, 364).
+The throne of the Roman world remained ten days without a master. At the
+end of that period the civil and military powers of the empire solemnly
+elected Valentinian as emperor at Nice in Bithynia.</p>
+
+<p>The new Augustus divided the vast empire with his brother Valens, and
+this division marked the final separation of the western and eastern
+empires. This arrangement continued, until the death of Valentinian in 375,
+when the western empire was divided between his sons, Gratian and
+Valentinian II.</p>
+
+<p>His reign had been notable for the stemming of the invasion of the
+Alemanni of Gaul, the incursions of the Burgundians and the Saxons, the
+restoration of Britain from the attacks of the Picts and Scots, the
+recovery of Africa by the emperor's general, Theodosius, and the diplomatic
+settlement with the approaching hordes of the Goths, who already swarmed
+upon the frontiers of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>Under the three emperors the Roman world began to feel more severely the
+gradual pressure exerted by the hordes of barbarians that moved westward.
+In 376 the Goths, pursued by the Huns, who had come from the steppes of
+China into Europe, sought the protection of Valens, who succoured them by
+transporting them over the Danube into Roman territory. They repaid his
+clemency by uniting their arms with those of the Huns, and defeating and
+killing him at the battle of Hadrianople in 378.</p>
+
+<p>To save the provinces from the ravages of the barbarians, Gratian
+appointed Theodosius, son of his father's general, emperor of the East, and
+the wisdom of his choice was justified by the success of one who added a
+new lustre to the title of Augustus. By prudent strategy, Theodosius
+divided and defeated the Goths, and compelled them to submit.</p>
+
+<p>The sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to
+the government of the East and the West in 395. The symptoms of decay,
+which not even the wise rule of Theodosius had been able to remove, had
+grown more alarming. The luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
+dissolute, and as the increasing depredations of the barbarians had checked
+industry and diminished wealth, this profuse luxury must have been the
+result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour and declines
+the thoughts of futurity.</p>
+
+<p>The secret and destructive poison of the age had affected the camps of
+the legions. The infantry had laid aside their armour, and, discarding
+their shields, advanced, trembling, to meet the cavalry of the Goths and
+the arrows of the barbarians, who easily overwhelmed the naked soldiers, no
+longer deserving the name of Romans. The enervated legionaries abandoned
+their own and the public defence, and their pusillanimous indolence may be
+considered the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Ruin by Goth, Vandal, and Hun</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. His sons within three months
+had once more sharply divided the empire. At a time when the only hope of
+delaying its ruin depended on the firm union of the two sections, the
+subject of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed by their respective
+masters to view each other in a hostile light, to rejoice in their mutual
+calamity, and to embrace as their faithful allies the barbarians, whom they
+incited to invade the territories of their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Alarmed at the insecurity of Rome, Honorius about this time fixed the
+imperial residence within the naturally fortified city of Ravenna--an
+example which was afterwards imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic
+kings and the Exarchs; and till the middle of the eighth century Ravenna
+was considered as the seat of government and the capital of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Arcadius in the East marked the complete division of the
+Roman world. His subjects assumed the language and manners of Greeks, and
+his form of government was a pure and simple monarchy. The name of the
+Roman republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was
+confined to the Latin provinces. A series of internal disputes, both civil
+and religious, marked his career of power, and his reign may be regarded as
+notable if only for the election of St. John Chrysostom to the head of the
+church of Constantinople. Arcadius died in May 408, and was succeeded by
+his supposed son, Theodosius, then a boy of seven, the reins of power being
+first held by the prefect Anthemius, and afterwards by his sister
+Pulcheria, who governed the eastern empire--in fact, for nearly forty
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The wisdom of Honorius, emperor of the West, in removing his capital to
+Ravenna, was soon justified by events. Alaric, king of the Goths, advanced
+in 408 to the gates of Rome, and completely blockaded the city. In the
+course of a long siege, thousands of Romans died of plague and famine, and
+only a heavy ransom, amounting to $1,575,000, relieved the citizens from
+their terrible situation in the year 409. In the same year Alaric again
+besieged Rome, after fruitless negotiations with Honorius, and his attempt
+once more proving successful, he created Attilus, prefect of the city,
+emperor. But the imprudent measures of his puppet sovereign exasperated
+Alaric. Attilus was formally deposed in 410, and the infuriated Goth
+besieged and sacked Rome, and ravaged Italy. The spoil that the barbarians
+carried away with them comprised nearly all the movable wealth of the
+city.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient capital was devastated, the exquisite works of art
+destroyed, and nearly all the monuments of a glorious past sacrificed to
+the insatiate greed of the conquerors. Fire helped to complete the ruin
+wrought by the Goths, and it is not easy to compute the multitude of
+citizens who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were
+suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.</p>
+
+<p>The complete ruin of Italy was prevented by the death of Alaric in
+410.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of Honorius, the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks were
+settled in Gaul. The maritime countries, between the Seine and the Loire,
+followed the example of Britain in 409, and threw off the yoke of the
+empire. Aquitaine, with its capital at Aries, received, under the title of
+the seven provinces, the right of convening an annual assembly for the
+management of its own affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Honorius died in 423, and was succeeded by Valentinian III. His long
+reign was marked by a series of disasters, which foretold the rapidly
+approaching dissolution of the western empire.</p>
+
+<p>Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 429 crossed into Africa, conquered the
+province, and set up in the depopulated territory, with Carthage as his
+capital, a new rule and government. Italy was filled with fugitives from
+Africa, and a barbarian race, which had issued from the frozen regions of
+the north, established their victorious reign over one of the fairest
+provinces of the empire. Two years later, in 441, a new and even more
+terrible danger threatened the empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Goths and Vandals, flying before the Huns, had oppressed the western
+World. The hordes of these barbarians, now gathering strength in their
+union under their king, Attila, threatened an attack upon the eastern
+empire. In appearance their chieftain was terrible in the extreme; his
+portrait exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large head,
+a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in
+the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body of nervous
+strength, though of a disproportionate form. He had a custom of fiercely
+rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he
+inspired.</p>
+
+<p>This savage hero, who had subdued Germany and Scythia, and almost
+exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine, and had conquered Scandinavia,
+was able to bring into the field 700,000 barbarians. An unsuccessful raid
+into Persia induced him to turn his attention to the eastern empire, and
+the enervated troops of Theodosius the Younger dissolved before the fury of
+his onset. He ravaged up to the very gates of Constantinople, and only a
+humiliating treaty preserved his dominion to the "invincible Augustus" of
+the East.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Theodosius the Younger, and the accession of Marcian,
+the husband of Pulcheria, Attila threatened, in 450, both empires. An
+incursion of his hordes into Gaul was rendered abortive by the conduct of
+the patrician, &AElig;tius, who, uniting all the various troops of Gaul and
+Germany, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, under their Merovingian
+prince, and the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, after two important
+battles, induced the Huns to retreat from the field of Chalons. Attila,
+diverted from his purpose, turned into Italy, and the citizens of the
+various towns fled before the savage destroyer. Many families of Aquileia,
+Padua, and the adjacent towns, found a safe refuge in the neighbouring
+islands of the Adriatic, where their place of refuge evolved, in time, into
+the famous Republic of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome, prepared to desert his people and
+his empire. The fortitude of &AElig;tius alone supported and preserved the
+tottering state. Leo, Bishop of Rome, in his sacerdotal robes, dared to
+demand the clemency of the savage king, and the intervention of St. Peter
+and St. Paul is supposed to have induced Attila to retire beyond the
+Danube, with the Princess Honoria as his bride. He did not long survive
+this last campaign, and in 453 he died, and was buried amidst all the
+savage pomp and grief of his subjects. His death resolved the bonds that
+had united the various nations of which his subjects were composed, and in
+a very few years domestic discord had extinguished the empire of the
+Huns.</p>
+
+<p>Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked and pillaged the ancient capital
+in June 455.</p>
+
+<p>The vacant throne was filled by the nomination of Theodoric, king of the
+Goths. The senate of Rome bitterly opposed the elevation of this stranger,
+and though Avitus might have supported his title against the votes of an
+unarmed assembly, he fell immediately he incurred the resentment of Count
+Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the barbarian troops who formed the
+military defence of Italy. At a distance from his Gothic allies, he was
+compelled to abdicate (October 16, 456), and Majorian was raised to fill
+his place.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Last Emperor of the West</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The successor of Avitus was a great and heroic character, such as
+sometimes arise in a degenerate age to vindicate the honour of the human
+species. In the ruin of the Roman world he loved his people, sympathised
+with their distress, and studied by judicial and effectual remedies to
+allay their sufferings. He reformed the most intolerable grievances of the
+taxes, attempted to restore and maintain the edifices of Rome, and to
+establish a new and healthier moral code. His military abilities and his
+fortune were not in proportion to his merits. An unsuccessful attempt
+against the Vandals to recover the lost provinces of Africa resulted in the
+loss of his fleet, and his return from this disastrous campaign terminated
+his reign. He was deposed by Ricimer, and five days later died of a
+reported dysentery, on August 7, 461.</p>
+
+<p>At the command of Ricimer, the senate bestowed the imperial title on
+Libius Severus, who reigned as long as it suited his patron. The increasing
+difficulties, however, of the kingdom of Italy, due largely to the naval
+depredation of the Vandals, compelled Ricimer to seek the assistance of the
+emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the East in 457. Leo determined
+to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals, and solemnly invested Anthemius
+with the diadem and purple of the West (467).</p>
+
+<p>In 472, Ricimer raised the senator Olybrius to the purple, and,
+advancing from Milan, entered and sacked Rome and murdered Anthemius (July
+11, 472). Forty days after this calamitous event, the tyrant Ricimer died
+of a painful disease, and two months later death also removed Olybrius.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne. After
+suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in 475,
+to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the command
+of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna. The troops would
+have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they consented to
+acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.</p>
+
+<p>The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon
+discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the
+slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded a
+third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious demand, and
+his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a bold barbarian,
+who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to associate under his
+command they might extort the justice that had been denied to their dutiful
+petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer, resolving to abolish the
+useless and expensive office of the emperor of the West, compelled the
+unfortunate Augustulus to resign.</p>
+
+<p>So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
+emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
+promontory of Misenum.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__III'></a>Decline and
+Fall of the Roman Empire--III</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Growth of the Christian Church</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
+religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and
+by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The various
+modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by
+the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; by the
+magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of toleration the Christian
+church grew with great rapidity. Five main causes effectually favoured and
+assisted this development.</p>
+
+<p>1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
+the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.</p>
+
+<p>2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
+circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.</p>
+
+<p>4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.</p>
+
+<p>5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
+formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
+Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised
+Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight of Mosaic
+ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the
+same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own
+practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of the public
+religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as the Christian Jews of Jerusalem
+were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence they could
+make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the Emperor
+Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts of the
+city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by disavowing the
+Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the Mosaic ceremonies
+with the Christian faith, and existed, until the fourth century, under the
+name of Ebeonites.</p>
+
+<p>The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
+Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
+field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
+most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few
+years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and noble
+principles of the disciples of Plato.</p>
+
+<p>To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
+future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
+mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts
+of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have
+been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of
+every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate expectation of the second
+coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of God with His saints for a
+thousand years, strengthened the ancient Christians against all trials and
+sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
+Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
+comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
+tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
+healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
+Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.</p>
+
+<p>Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
+the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
+lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those of
+their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
+insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
+search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that institution
+of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state of celibacy was
+regarded as the nearest approach to the divine perfection, and there were
+in the primitive church a great number of persons devoted to the profession
+of perpetual chastity.</p>
+
+<p>The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of
+freedom and equality. The societies which were instituted in the cities of
+the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity. The
+want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional
+assistance of the "prophets "--men or women who, as often as they felt the
+divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the assembly,
+of the faithful. In the course of time bishops and presbyters exercised
+solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance. A hundred years
+after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the president of the
+presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and discipline of the
+Church, managed the public funds, and determined all such differences as
+the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous
+judge.</p>
+
+<p>Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic,
+and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that
+might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these
+little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod. The
+bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at
+stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons. The institution of
+synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest that
+it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular correspondence was
+established between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and
+approved their respective proceedings, and the Catholic Church soon assumed
+the form and acquired the strength of a great federative republic.</p>
+
+<p>The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the
+primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary gifts
+was substituted. In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the opinion of
+the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very
+considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design as our
+statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or bequeathed to any
+corporate body, without special sanctions. The bishops distributed these
+revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or excommunication of
+recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained the dignity of their
+office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Days of Persecution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight
+seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and
+worship. When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the pagans,
+and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic of the
+Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness seems all
+the more remarkable. It can be explained partly by the misapprehension
+which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the principles of the
+Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the sect. The Jews were
+allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive faith. But the Jews
+were a nation; the Christians were a sect. Moreover, the Christians were
+regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of Moses, and, worshipping no
+visible god, were held to be atheists.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman policy also viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
+association among its subjects, and the secret and nocturnal meetings of
+the Christians appeared peculiarly dangerous in the eyes of the law.</p>
+
+<p>They were oppressed by the Emperor Domitian. Trajan protected their
+meetings by requiring definite evidence of these illegal assemblies, and an
+informer who failed in his proofs was subject to a severe or capital
+penalty. But the edicts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius protected the Church
+from the danger of popular clamour in times of disaster, declaring that the
+voice of the multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to
+convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the
+enthusiasm of the Christians.</p>
+
+<p>The authority of Origen and Dionysius annihilates that formidable army
+of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
+Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous achievements
+have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance.</p>
+
+<p>The martyrdom of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, on September 14, 258, was
+one of the most notable of that period. Under Marcus Antoninus, the
+Christians were treated harshly, but the tyrant Commodus protected them by
+his leniency. After a temporary period of persecution during the reign of
+Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm from 211 to 249. The storms gathered
+again under Decius, and so vigorous was the persecution that the bishops of
+the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Church under Constantine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>From 284 to 303, during the reign of Diocletian, the Christian Church
+enjoyed peace and prosperity, but in the latter year Galerius persuaded the
+emperor to renew the persecution of the sect. An edict on February 24
+enacted that all churches throughout the empire should be demolished, and
+the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should presume to
+hold any secret assemblies for the purposes of religious worship. Many
+suffered martyrdom under this cruel enactment. Churches everywhere were
+burnt, and sacred books destroyed. Three more edicts published before March
+304 led to the imprisonment of all persons of the ecclesiastical order,
+compelled the magistrates to exercise torture to subvert the religion of
+their Christian prisoners, and made it the duty, as well as the interest,
+of the imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to torment the most
+obnoxious among the faithful.</p>
+
+<p>But after six years of persecution, the mind of Galerius, softened by
+salutary reflection, induced him to attempt some reparation. In the edict
+of toleration which he published on April 30, 311, he expresses the hope
+"that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers
+to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and prosperity, and for that of
+the Republic."</p>
+
+<p>The triumph of the great Constantine established the security of the
+Christian Church from the attacks of the pagans. Converted in 306,
+Constantine, as soon as he had achieved the conquest of Italy, issued the
+Edict of Milan (313), declaring that the places of worship which had been
+confiscated should be restored to the Church without dispute, without
+delay, and without expense. Though himself never received by baptism into
+the Church, until his last moments, his powerful patronage of the
+Christians, and his edicts of toleration, removed all the temporal
+disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The faith of Christ became the national religion of the empire. The
+soldiers bore upon their helmets and upon their shields the sacred emblem
+of the Cross. All the machinery of government was employed to propagate the
+faith, not only within the empire, but beyond its borders. Confirmed in his
+new religion by the miraculous vision of the Cross, Constantine, who was
+the master of the world, consented to recognise the superiority of the
+ecclesiastical orders in all spiritual matters, while retaining himself the
+temporal power.</p>
+
+<p>The persecution of heresy was carried out by Constantine with all the
+ardour of a convert. An edict confiscated the public property of the
+heretics to the use either of the revenue or the Catholic Church, and the
+penal regulations of Diocletian against the Christians were now employed
+against the schismatics. The Donatists, who maintained the apostolic
+succession of Donatus, primate of Carthage, as opposed to C&aelig;cilian,
+were suppressed in Africa, and a general synod attempted to regulate the
+faith of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the nature of the divine Trinity had early given rise to
+discussion. Of the three main heretical views, that of Arius and his
+disciples was the most prevalent. He held in effect that the Son, by whom
+all things were made, though He had been begotten before all worlds, yet
+had not always existed. He shone only with the reflected light of His
+Almighty Father, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors, who were
+invested with the titles of C&aelig;sar or Augustus. He governed the
+universe.</p>
+
+<p>The Tritheists advocated a system which seemed to establish three
+independent deities, while the Sabellian theory allowed only to the man
+Jesus the inspiration of the divine wisdom. The consubstantiality of the
+Father and of the Son had been established by the Council of Nic&aelig;a in
+325, but the East ranged itself for the most part under the banner of the
+Arian heresy. At first indifferent, Constantine at last persecuted the
+Arians, who later, under Constantius, were received into favour.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople, which for forty years was the stronghold of Arianism,
+was converted to the orthodox faith under Theodosius by Gregory
+Nazianzen.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Conversion of the World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The pagan religion was finally destroyed about the year 390, and the
+faintest vestiges of it were not visible thirty years later. Its influence,
+however, might be observed in many of the ceremonies which were introduced
+into the Church, and the worship of martyrs and relics seemed to revive a
+system of polytheism by the worship of a hierarchy of saints. Among the
+most famous of the dignitaries of the Church at this period was the
+Archbishop of Constantinople, who was distinguished by the epithet of
+Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. He attempted to purify the eastern empire,
+excited the animosity of the Empress Eudoxia, and died in exile in 407.</p>
+
+<p>The monastic system had been founded by Antony, an illiterate youth, in
+the year 305, by the establishment on Mount Cobyim, near the Red Sea, of a
+colony of ascetics, who renounced all the business and pleasures in life as
+the price of eternal happiness. A long series of hermits, monks, and
+anachorets propagated the system and, patronised by Athanasius, it spread
+to all parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The monastic profession was an act of voluntary devotion, and the
+inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God
+whom he deserted. The monks had to give a blind submission to the commands
+of their abbot, however absurd, and the freedom of the mind, the source of
+every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of
+credulity and submission. In their dress and diet they preserved the most
+rigorous simplicity, and they subsisted entirely by their own manual
+exertions. But in the course of time this simplicity vanished, and,
+enriched by the offerings of the faithful, they assumed the pride of
+wealth, and at last indulged in the luxury of extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>The conversion of the barbarians followed upon their invasion of the
+Roman world; but they were involved in the Arian heresy, and from their
+advocacy of that cause they were characterised by the name of heretics, an
+epithet more odious than that of barbarian. The bitterness engendered by
+this reproach confirmed them in their faith, and the Vandals in Africa
+persecuted the orthodox Catholic with all the vigour and cruel arts of
+religious tyranny.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__IV'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--IV</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Theodoric the Ostrogoth</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, an interval of fifty
+years, until the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the
+obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who
+successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same period
+Italy revived and nourished under the government of a Gothic king, who
+might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient
+Romans.</p>
+
+<p>Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of royal line
+of the Amali, was born (455) in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years after
+the death of Attila. The murmurs of the Goths, who complained that they
+were exposed to intolerable hardships, determined Theodoric to attempt an
+adventure worthy of his courage and ambition. He boldly demanded the
+privilege of rescuing Italy and Rome from Odoacer, and at the head of his
+people forced his way, between the years 488 and 489, through hostile
+country into Italy. In three battles he triumphed over Odoacer, forced that
+monarch to capitulate on favourable terms at Ravenna (493), and after
+pretending to allow him to share his sovereignty of Italy, assassinated him
+in the same year.</p>
+
+<p>The long reign of Theodoric (493-526) was marked by a transient return
+of peace and prosperity to Italy. His domestic and foreign policy were
+dictated alike by wisdom and necessity. His people were settled on the
+land, which they held by military tenure. A series of matrimonial alliances
+secured him the support of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the
+Vandals, and the Thuringians, and his sword preserved his territory from
+the incursions of rival barbarians and the two disastrous attacks (505 and
+508) that envy prompted the Emperor Anastasius to attempt.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Justinian the Great</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The death of the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the throne a Dardanian
+peasant, who by his arts secured the suffrage of the guards, despoiled and
+destroyed his more powerful rivals, and reigned under the name of Justin I.
+from 518 to 527. He was succeeded by his nephew, the great Justinian, who
+for thirty-eight years directed the fortunes of the Roman Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Empress Theodora, who before her marriage had been a theatrical
+wanton, was seated, by the fondness of the emperor, on the throne as an
+equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty. Her rapacity, her
+cruelty, and her pride were the subject of contemporary writings, but her
+benevolence to her less fortunate sisters, and her courage amidst the
+factions and dangers of the court, justly entitle her to a certain nobility
+of character.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople in the age of Justinian was torn by the factions of the
+circus. The rival bands of charioteers, who wore respectively liveries of
+green and blue, created in the capital of the East, as they had created in
+Rome, two factions among the populace. Justinian's support of the blues led
+to a serious sedition in the capital. The two factions were united by a
+common desire for vengeance, and with the watchword of "Nika" (vanquish)
+(January 532), raged in tumult through Constantinople for five days. At the
+command of Theodora 3,000 veterans who could be trusted marched through the
+burning streets to the Hippodrome, and there, supported by the repentant
+blues, massacred the unresisting mob.</p>
+
+<p>The Eastern Empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations
+whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers of
+Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over 64 provinces and 935 cities.
+The arts and agriculture flourished under his rule, but the avarice and
+profusion of Justinian oppressed the people. His expensive taste for
+building almost exhausted the resources of the empire. Heavy custom tolls,
+taxes on the food and industry of the poor, the exercise of intolerable
+monopolies, were not excused or compensated for by the parsimonious saving
+in the salaries of court officials, and even in the pay of the soldiers.
+His stately edifices were cemented with the blood and treasures of his
+people, and the rapacity and luxury of the emperor were imitated by the
+civil magistrates and officials.</p>
+
+<p>The schools of Athens, which still kept alight the sacred flame of the
+ancient philosophy, were suppressed by Justinian. The academy of the
+Platonics, the Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics, and
+the Garden of the Epicureans had long survived.</p>
+
+<p>With the death of Simplicius and his six companions, who terminate the
+long list of Grecian philosophers, the golden chain, as it was fondly
+styled, of the Platonic succession was broken, and the Edict of Justinian
+(529) imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman consulship was also abolished by Justinian in 541; but this
+office, the title of which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom,
+still lived in the minds of the people. They applauded the gracious
+condescension of successive princes by whom it was assumed in the first
+year of their reign, and three centuries elapsed after the death of
+Justinian before that obsolete office, which had been suppressed by law,
+could be abolished by custom.</p>
+
+<p>The usurpation by Gelimer (530) of the Vandalic crown of Africa, which
+belonged of right to Hilderic, first encouraged Justinian to undertake the
+African war. Hilderic had granted toleration to the Catholics, and for this
+reason was held in reproach by his Arian subjects. His compulsory
+abdication afforded the emperor of the East an opportunity of interfering
+in the cause of orthodoxy. A large army was entrusted to the command of
+Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to every age and
+to every nation. Proved in the Persian war, Belisarius was given unlimited
+authority. He set sail from Constantinople with a fleet of six hundred
+ships in June 533. He landed on the coast of Africa in September, defeated
+the degenerate Vandals, reduced Carthage within a few days, utterly
+vanquished Gelimer, and completed the conquest of the ancient Roman
+province by 534. The Vandals in Africa fled beyond the power or even the
+knowledge of the Romans.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Gothic Italy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Dissensions in Italy excited the ambition of Justinian. Belisarius was
+sent with another army to Sicily in 535, and after subduing that island and
+suppressing a revolt in Africa, he invaded Italy in 536. Policy dictated
+the retreat of the Goths, and Belisarius entered Rome (December 536). In
+March, Vitiges, the Gothic ruler, returned with a force of one hundred and
+fifty thousand men. The valour of the Roman general supported a siege of
+forty-one days and the intrigues of the Pope Silverius, who was exiled by
+his orders; and, finally, with the assistance of a seasonable
+reinforcement, Belisarius compelled the barbarians to retire in March of
+the following year. The conquests of Ravenna and the suppression of the
+invasion of the Franks completed the subjugation of the Gothic kingdom by
+December 539.</p>
+
+<p>The success of Belisarius and the intrigues of his secret enemies had
+excited the jealousy of Justinian. He was recalled, and the eunuch Narses
+was sent to Italy, as a powerful rival, to oppose the interests of the
+conqueror of Rome and Africa. The infidelity of Antonina, which excited her
+husband's just indignation, was excused by the Empress Theodora, and her
+powerful support was given to the wife of the last of the Roman heroes,
+who, after serving again against the Persians, returned to the capital, to
+be received not with honour and triumph, but with disgrace and contempt and
+a fine of $600,000.</p>
+
+<p>The incursions of the Lombards, the Slavonians, and the Avars and the
+Turks, and the successful raids of the King of Persia were among the number
+of the important events of the reign of Justinian. To maintain his position
+in Africa and Italy taxed his resources to their utmost limit. The
+victories of Justinian were pernicious to mankind; the desolation of Africa
+was such that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without
+meeting the face of either a friend or an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The revolts of the Goths, under their king, Totila (541), once more
+demanded the presence of Belisarius, and, a hero on the banks of the
+Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with
+reluctance the painful task of supporting his own reputation and retrieving
+the faults of his successors. He was too late to save Rome from the Goths,
+by whom it was taken in December 546; but he recovered it in the following
+February. After his recall by his envious sovereign in September 548, Rome
+was once more taken by the Goths. The successful repulse of the Franks and
+Alemanni finally restored the kingdom to the rule of the emperor.
+Belisarius died on March 13, 565.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor survived his death only eight months, and passed away, in
+the eighty-third year of his life and the thirty-eighth of his reign, on
+November 14, 565. The most lasting memorial of his reign is to be found
+neither in his victories nor his monuments, but in the immortal works of
+the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, in which the civil
+jurisprudence of the Romans was digested, and by means of which the public
+reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the
+domestic institutions of the whole of Europe.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Gregory the Great</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Justinian was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II., who lived to see the
+conquest of the greater part of Italy by Alboin, king of the Lombards
+(568-570), the disaffection of the exarch, Narses, and the ruin of the
+revived glories of the Roman world.</p>
+
+<p>During a period of 200 years Italy was unequally divided between the
+king of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. Rome relapsed into a
+state of misery. The Campania was reduced to the state of a dreary
+wilderness. The stagnation of a deluge caused by the torrential swelling of
+the Tiber produced a pestilential disease, and a stranger visiting Rome
+might contemplate with horror the solitude of the city. Gregory the Great,
+whose pontificate lasted from 590 to 604, reconciled the Arians of Italy
+and Spain to the Catholic Church, conquered Britain in the name of the
+Cross, and established his right to interfere in the management of the
+episcopal provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul. The merits of Gregory were
+treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult, but in the
+attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of a citizen and
+the best right of a sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The short and virtuous reign of Tiberius (578-582), which succeeded that
+of Justin, made way for that of Maurice. For twenty years Maurice ruled
+with honesty and honour. But the parsimony of the emperor, and his attempt
+to cure the inveterate evil of a military despotism, led to his undoing,
+and in 602 he was murdered with his children. A like fate befell the
+Emperor Phocas, who succumbed in 610 to the fortunes of Heraclius, the son
+of Crispus, exarch of Africa. For thirty-two years Heraclius ruled the
+Roman world. In three campaigns he chastised the rising power of Persia,
+drove the armies of Chosroes from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, rescued
+Constantinople from the joint siege of the Avars and Persians (626), and
+finally reduced the Persian monarch to the defence of his hereditary
+kingdom. The deposition and murder of Chosroes by his son Siroes (628)
+concluded the successes of the emperor.</p>
+
+<p>A treaty of peace was arranged, and Heraclius returned in triumph to
+Constantinople, where, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he
+peacefully enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. The year after his return he
+made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true Cross to the Holy
+Sepulchre. In the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to the Arabs
+the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.</p>
+
+<p>Heraclius died in 612. His descendants continued to fill the throne in
+the persons of Constantine III. (641), Heracleonas (641), Constans II.
+(641), Constantine IV. (668), Justinian II. (685), until 711, when an
+interval of six years, divided into three reigns, made way for the rise of
+the Isaurian dynasty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The New Era of Charlemagne</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Leo III. ascended the throne on March 25, 718, and the purple descended
+to his family, by the rights of heredity, for three generations. The
+Isaurian dynasty is most notable for the part it played in ecclesiastical
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The introduction of images into the Christian Church had confused the
+simplicity of religious worship. The education of Leo, his reason, perhaps
+his intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired him with a hatred of
+images. By two edicts he proscribed the existence, as well as the use, of
+religious pictures. This heresy of Leo and of his successors and
+descendants, Constantine V. (741), Leo IV. (775), and Constantine VI.
+(780), whose blinding by his mother Irene is one of the most tragic stories
+of Roman history, justified the popes in rebelling against the authority of
+the emperor, and in restoring and establishing the supremacy of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory II. saved the city from the attacks of the Lombards, who had
+seized Ravenna and extinguished the series of Greek exarchs in 751. He
+secured the assistance of Pepin, and the real governor of the French
+monarchy--Charles Martel, who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had
+saved Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. Twice--in 754 and 756--Pepin marched
+to the relief of the city. His son Charlemagne, in 774, seemed to secure
+the permanent safety of the ancient capital by the conquest of Lombardy,
+and for twenty-six years he ruled the Romans as his subjects. The people
+swore allegiance to his person and his family, and the elections of the
+popes were examined and authorised by him. The senate exercised its rights
+by proclaiming him patrician and of the power of the emperor; nothing was
+lacking except the title.</p>
+
+<p>A document, known as the Forged Decretals, which assigned the free and
+perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West to the
+popes by Constantine, was presented by Pope Hadrian I. to Charlemagne. This
+document served to absolve the popes from their debt of gratitude to the
+French monarch, and excused the revolt of Rome from the authority of the
+eastern empire.</p>
+
+<p>Though Constantinople returned, under Irene, to the employment of
+images, and the seventh general council of Nic&aelig;a, September 24, 787,
+pronounced the worship of the Greeks as agreeable to scripture and reason,
+the division between the East and the West could not be avoided. The pope
+was driven to revive the western empire in order to secure the gift of the
+exarchy, to eradicate the claims of the Greeks, and to restore the majesty
+of Rome from the debasement of a provincial town. The emperors of the West
+would receive their crown from the successor of St. Peter, and the Roman
+Church would require a zealous and respectable advocate.</p>
+
+<p>Inspired by these motives, Pope Leo, who had nearly fallen a victim to a
+conspiracy (788), and had been saved and reinstated by Charlemagne, took
+the opportunity presented by the French king's visit to Rome to crown him
+emperor. On the festival of Christmas (800), in the church of St. Peter,
+Leo, after the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, suddenly placed a
+precious crown on his head. The dome resounded with the acclamations of the
+people, his head and body were consecrated with the royal unction, and he
+was saluted, or adored, by the pontiff after the example of the
+C&aelig;sars.</p>
+
+<p>Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='THEODOR_MOMMSEN'></a>THEODOR MOMMSEN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Rome'></a>History of Rome</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig on
+November 30, 1817. He studied at Kiel University for three years, examined
+Roman inscriptions in France and Italy from 1844 to 1847, and attained his
+first professorship at Leipzig in 1848, and the Berlin Chair of Ancient
+History in 1858. His greatest work was the "History of Rome," published in
+1854, and its successor, the "Roman Provinces." On this work he brought to
+bear a research and a scholarship of almost unparalleled range and
+completeness. He was a man capable of vehement and occasionally
+unreasonable partisanship, and a strict and cold-blooded impartiality would
+have tempered the enthusiasm of some of his portraits and the severity of
+others. These defects, however, are less obvious when his history is
+condensed in small compass. There are cases in which his judgments are open
+to adverse criticism. But at the present day it may safely be affirmed that
+there is no extant history of Rome down to the establishment of the empire
+which can be regarded as rivalling that here presented. Upwards of 900
+separate publications remain as a monument of Mommsen's industry. He died
+on November 1, 1903. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Iapygians, Etruscans, and Italians, the last certainly Indo-Europeans,
+are the original stocks of Italy proper. Of the Italians there are two
+divisions, the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian. Central Italy was occupied by
+the Latins, who were established in cantons formed of village groups; which
+cantons at an early age formed themselves into the loose Latin League, with
+Alba at its head.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman canton, on both banks of the Tiber, concentrated itself on the
+city earlier than others. The citizens consisted of the families which
+constituted the larger groups of clans or gentes, formed into those tribes.
+The remainder of the population were their dependents or slaves. At the
+head of the family was the father, and the whole community had its king,
+standing to it in the same relation as the father to the family. His power,
+within the law, was absolute; but he could not override it or change it on
+his own authority. This required the formal assent of the assembled
+citizens. The heads of the clans formed a separate body--the Senate--which
+controlled the appointment of the king, and could veto legislation.</p>
+
+<p>By admission of aliens and absorption of other communities, swelling the
+number of dependents, was gradually created a great body of plebeians,
+non-citizens, who began to demand political rights; and whom it was
+necessary to organise for military purposes which was done by the "Servian
+Constitution." Gradually Rome won a supremacy in the Latin League, a
+position of superiority over the aggregate of the other cantons.</p>
+
+<p>In this community arose three political movements: (1) On the part of
+the full citizen, patricii, to limit the power not of the state, but of the
+kings; (2) of the non-citizens, to acquire political rights; (3) of
+antagonism between the great landholders and the land-interests opposed to
+them. The first resulted in the expulsion of the monarchs, and the
+substitution of a dual kingship held for one year only. But in many
+respects their joint power was curtailed as compared with that of the
+monarch, while for emergencies they could appoint a temporary dictator. The
+change increased the power of the General Assembly, to which it became
+necessary to admit the non-citizen freeholders who were liable to military
+duties. The life tenure of the members of the Senate greatly increased the
+powers of that body, and intensified the antagonism of the patriarch and
+the plebeians.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, a landed nobility was developing; and when fresh land
+was acquired by the state, the Patricians claimed to control it. But the
+great agricultural population could not submit to this process of land
+absorption, and the consequent strife took the form of a demand for
+political recognition, which issued in the appointment of Tribunes of the
+Plebs, with power of administrative veto.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle over privileges lasted for two hundred years. First the
+Canuleian law made marriage valid between patricians and plebeians, and
+instituted for a time military tribunes. The Licinian law, eighty years
+later, admitted plebeians to the consulship, and also required the
+employment of free labour in agriculture. The decisively democratic measure
+was the Horticunian law, after another seventy years, giving the
+exclusively plebeian assembly full legislative power. The practical effect
+of the changes was to create a new aristocracy, semi-plebeian in origin,
+and to reduce the personal power of the chief officers of state, while
+somewhat increasing that of the remodelled Senate; rendering it a body
+selfish indeed in internal matters, but essentially patriotic as well as
+powerful.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Description of Italy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the period of this long constitutional struggle, Rome and her
+kinsfolk had first been engaged in a stubborn and ultimately successful
+contest with the non-Aryan Etruscan race; and then Italy had been attacked
+by the migrating Aryan hordes of the Celts, known as Gauls, who sacked
+Rome, but retired to North Italy; events giving birth to many well-known
+stories, probably in the main mythical. But the practical effect was to
+impose a greater solidarity of the Latin and kindred races, and a more
+decisive acceptance of Roman hegemony.</p>
+
+<p>That hegemony, however, had to be established by persistent compulsion,
+and there were three stages in its completion. First, the subjection of the
+Latins and Campanians; then the struggle of Rome with the Umbrian-Samnites;
+finally, the decisive repulse of the Epirote invader Pyrrhus--in effect a
+Hellenic movement. The Roman supremacy established through the exhaustion
+of the valiant Samnites required to be confirmed by stern repression of
+attempts to recover liberty. But the Hellenic element in Italy,
+antagonistic to the growing Roman power, in effect invited the intervention
+of the Epirote chief. But his scheme was not that of an imperial statesman,
+but of a chivalrous and romantic warrior. His own political blunders and
+the iron determination of the Romans, destroyed his chances of conquest.
+His retirement left Rome undisputed lord of Italy; which in part shared
+full citizenship, in part possessed only the more restricted Latin rights,
+and in part only rights conceded under varying treaties.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of common Italian nationality was developing. But if Rome was
+queen of Italy, Carthage was queen of the seas. Maritime expansion was
+precluded, though Rome's position fitted her for it. Carthage was the one
+Phoenician state which developed political as well as commercial power. The
+commercial cities of North Africa were in subordination to her, in the
+Western Mediterranean she had no rivals, her domestic government was
+oligarchical.</p>
+
+<p>Roman intervention in the affairs of Sicily, where Carthage was the
+dominant power, produced the rupture between the two great states which was
+bound to come sooner or later. Sicily itself was the scene of the initial
+struggle, which taught Rome that her victories on land were liable to be
+nullified by the Carthaginian sea power. She resolved to build a navy, on
+the plan of adopting boarding tactics which would assimilate a naval
+engagement to a battle on land. These tactics were successful enough to
+equalise the fighting value of the respective fleets. The Romans were
+enabled to land an invading army under Regulus in Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Though superior on land, the general's blundering led to a disaster, and
+for some time misfortune by sea and failure by land dogged the Romans. But
+Carthage failed to use her opportunity; she did not attempt to strike a
+crushing blow when she could have done so. But the private energy of Roman
+patriots at last placed on the seas a fleet which once more turned the
+scale, whereas it was on land that the brilliant Carthaginian Hamilcar had
+displayed his genius and daring. The first Punic War gave Rome predominance
+in Sicily, and a position of maritime equality. Sardinia was added to the
+Roman dominion, and her provincial administration came into being.</p>
+
+<p>She was carrying her expansion farther over Celtic regions, when
+Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, hurled himself against her, and came near to
+destroying her. Hamilcar had conceived the idea of imperial expansion, and
+given it shape by creating a dominion in Spain; he had looked forward to
+the life-and-death struggle with Rome that was destined to his son; for
+which Spain was to be the base. Hannibal, left in control in Spain,
+deliberately challenged Rome to war.</p>
+
+<p>The challenge was accepted, war was declared, and Hannibal accomplished
+the amazing feat of leading an army of 60,000 men from Spain and effecting
+the passage of the Alps, while the Romans were landing an army in Spain. In
+a brilliant campaign, he defeated the stubborn Roman legions at
+Vercell&aelig; and the Trebia.</p>
+
+<p>But success depended not on the winning of victories by an isolated
+force, but on the disruption of Italy. His superiority in the field was
+again demonstrated at Trasimenus, but no Italian allies came in. He
+outwitted Fabius, and then utterly shattered at Cann&aelig; a Roman force of
+double his own numbers. For a moment it seemed that Italian cohesion was
+weakening; but the Roman Senate and people were stirred only to a more
+dogged resolution.</p>
+
+<p>Cann&aelig; failed to break up the Roman confederation. Generalship unaided
+could accomplish no more. In Spain, where young Scipio was soon winning
+renown, the Roman arms were in the ascendant, and in Sicily. No effective
+aid was coming from Macedon, though war was declared between her and Rome.
+Hannibal's activities began to be paralysed; by slow degrees he was forced
+into the south. Hannibal succeeded in crossing the Alps with fresh forces,
+but by a brilliant operation was annihilated on the Metaurus. The time had
+come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal and strike at Carthage herself.
+Even Hannibal's return could not save her. The victory of Zama decided the
+issue. Carthage became virtually a tributary and subject state. Spain was a
+Roman province, and North Africa a sort of protectorate.</p>
+
+<p>The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
+protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
+Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria. Antiochus
+had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to impose his own
+yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his decisive overthrow
+at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of Asia Minor. Pergamus,
+under the house of Actalus, was established as a protected kingdom, as
+Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek states, however, were becoming
+conscious that their freedom was hardly more than a name; Perseus of
+Macedon once more challenged Rome, not without Greek support. Macedon was
+finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus at Pydna. From that moment, Rome
+dropped the policy of maintaining free states beyond the seas, which had
+manifestly failed. Virtually, the known world was divided into subjects and
+dependencies of Rome, so vast was the change in the forty years between the
+battles of the Metaurus and Pydna.</p>
+
+<p>Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
+ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
+city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses were
+distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually the
+city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a close
+and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
+inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
+Cato.</p>
+
+<p>In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
+after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
+neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led to
+the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of the
+dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
+Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
+Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
+intrigue for office emoluments, involving a pandering to the city mob for
+its suffrages.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Revolution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Socially, the most patent evil was the total disappearance of the free
+agricultural class, the absorption of all the land into huge estates under
+slave labour. The remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus was the partial
+state resumption of land and its re-allotment. He adopted unconstitutional
+methods for carrying his proposals, and was murdered in a riot led by the
+oligarchs. Appeals to the Roman populace were not, unfortunately, appeals
+to the Roman nation.</p>
+
+<p>His brother, Gaius, deliberately designed a revolution. He proposed to
+work through the antagonism of the aristocrats and the wealthy
+non-senatorial equestrian order; and by concentrating power in the hands of
+the tribunate, hitherto checked by the restrictions on re-election. In
+effect, he meant to destroy the oligarchy by making the Tribune a perpetual
+dictator, and thus to carry through social reforms; to establish also legal
+equality first for the Italians, then for the provinces also. But these
+reforms were not particularly attractive to the city mob, and the other
+side could play the demagogue. The condition of C&aelig;sarism is the
+control of physical force; Gaius Gracchus fell because he had not that
+essential control. The oligarchy remained supreme. The plans of Gracchus
+for planting colonies and distributing allotments were nullified.</p>
+
+<p>The evils of slave labour multiplied, and issued in servile
+insurrections. In Numidia, the able Masimissa had been succeeded by
+Micipsa. On Micipsa's death, the rule was usurped by his illegitimate
+nephew Jugurtha, whose story has been told by Sallust. The war was at least
+terminated less by the low-born general in command, Marius, than his
+brilliant lieutenant Sulla. But Marius re-organised the army on the basis
+which was to make a military despotism practicable, as it made a
+professional instead of a citizen army.</p>
+
+<p>But now a new foe appears; the first Teutonic (not Celtic) hordes of the
+Cimbri and Teutones; to meet with an overwhelming check at the hands of
+Marius at Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig; and Vercell&aelig;. The successful
+soldier allied himself with the popular leader Saturninus; the programme of
+Gaius Gracchus was resuscitated. But Marius, a political incapable,
+separated from the demagogues, and by helping to crush them, effaced
+himself. Livius Drusus attempted to carry out the Gracchan social reform,
+with the senate instead of the tribunate as the controlling power; the
+senatorial party themselves wrecked his schemes, and the antagonistic power
+of the equestrian order was advanced.</p>
+
+<p>But the immediate outcome was the revolt of the Italians, the
+<i>socii</i> (whence the name social war). They were not citizens, not on
+an equal footing with the citizens before the law. The revolt was
+suppressed, but the legions were completely out of hand. The attempt of
+Sulpicius to head the reform movement was answered by Sulla, who for the
+first time led a Roman army against Rome, crushed Sulpicius, prescribed
+some of his adherents, and placed the power of the senate on a stronger
+footing by legal enactment. Then he went to the East, to conduct the war
+against Mithridates.</p>
+
+<p>While Sulla was conducting his operations, military and diplomatic, with
+skill and success in the East, his arrangements at Rome had left discontent
+and disappointment seething. There was another revolution, led by Cinna,
+Marius and Sertorius; it mastered Rome. Marius spilt seas of blood, but
+soon died. For three years Cinna was supreme, but he had no constructive
+policy.</p>
+
+<p>But now Sulla had finished his work in the East. He was returning at the
+head of a body of veterans devoted to him; and his diplomacy won over half
+Italy to his side. The struggle with the revolutionary government was not
+greatly prolonged, and it was decisive.</p>
+
+<p>In plain terms, the Roman constitution had gone utterly to wreck; Sulla
+was in something of the same position as Oliver Cromwell. He had to
+reconstruct under conditions which made a constitutional restoration
+impracticable; but his control of the efficient military force gave him the
+necessary power. That any system introduced must be arbitrary and find its
+main sanction in physical force--that it should partake of terrorism--was
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Sulla obtained the formal conferment on himself of absolute power. He
+began by applying this rule of terror not vindictively, but with impersonal
+mercilessness, against the lives and property of the opposition. In the
+constitution which he promulgated the senatorial body was alone recognised
+as a privileged class; the senate itself was increased, it recovered full
+control of the judiciary and of legislation; no power was left of
+cancelling membership. The tribunician power was curtailed.</p>
+
+<p>The civil and military functions of consuls and pr&aelig;tors were separated.
+They were to hold civil power in Italy proper during their year of office;
+they were then to have a second year in military control of a province. The
+planting of military colonies provided numerous garrisons whose interests
+were associated with the new constitution. When Sulla had done his work, he
+resigned his extraordinary powers with entire indifference. In a little
+more than a year he died.</p>
+
+<p>The Sullan constitution saved the Roman empire from imminent collapse;
+but it was impossible that it should be more than a makeshift, like
+Cromwell's protectorate. There were huge classes with perpetual grievances;
+the removal of the military forces to the provinces left the city of Rome
+without adequate governors of the provinces themselves. And there was no
+man of the hour of supreme ability to carry on work demanding a master.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Pompey and C&aelig;sar</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The young Graccus Pompeius was the most distinguished of the Sullan
+party; Crassus was the wealthiest and most powerful of the Equestrian
+group; Lepidus was the popular leader. A popular insurrection which he
+headed was suppressed, and he disappeared, but Sertorius, once an associate
+of Marius, had obtained a remarkable personal ascendancy in Spain, and, in
+league with the Mediterranean pirates, threatened to be a formidable foe of
+the new constitution. For some years he maintained a gradually waning
+resistance against the arms of Pompeius, but finally was assassinated.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Tigranes, King of Armenia, had been developing a powerful
+monarchy; and mutual distrust had brought on another war with Mithridates,
+successfully conducted by Lucullus. Out of this war arose a struggle with
+Tigranes, on whom an overwhelming defeat was inflicted at Tigranocerta. But
+the brilliant achievements of Lucullus were nullified by the mutinous
+conduct of the troops, and the factious conduct of the home government. The
+gross inefficiency of that government was shown by the immense extension of
+organised piracy, and by the famous slave revolt under Spartacus, which
+seriously endangered the state.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius on his return from Spain was barred on technical grounds from
+the triumph and the consulship which he demanded. He was thus driven into
+an alliance with the democratic party, and with Crassus. The result was the
+fall of the Sullan constitution, and the restoration of checks on the power
+of the senate. Pompeius might have grasped a military despotism; he did
+not, but he did receive extraordinary powers for dealing with the whole
+Eastern question, and when that work was settled successfully, he would be
+able to dictate his own terms.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius began his task by a swift and crushing blow against the pirate
+cities and fleets, which broke up the organisation. He crushed Mithridates
+in one campaign, and received the submission of Tigranes; Mithridates soon
+after fell by his own hand, the victim of an insurrection. Anarchy in Syria
+warranted Pompeius in annexing the Seleucid dominion. The whole of the
+nearer East was now a part of the Roman empire; and was thenceforth ruled
+not as protectorates, but as a group of provinces. Egypt alone was not
+incorporated.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the democratic party at Rome were dominant, though their
+policy was inconsistent and opportunist. Probably the leading men, such as
+Crassus and the rising Gaius, Julius C&aelig;sar, stood aside from the
+wilder schemes, such as the Catilinarian conspiracies, but secretly
+fostered them. Catiline's projects were betrayed, and the illegal execution
+of the captured conspirators by the consul Cicero was hailed by Cato and
+the senatorial party as a triumph of patriotic statesmanship. Catiline
+himself was crushed in the field.</p>
+
+<p>The definite fact emerged, that neither the senatorial nor the
+democratic party could establish a strong government; that would be
+possible only for a military monarchy--a statesman with a policy and an
+irresistible, force at his back. But Pompeius lacked the courage and skill.
+C&aelig;sar, as yet, lacked the military force. Pompeius, on his return
+from the East, again allied himself with Crassus and C&aelig;sar, whose
+object was to acquire for himself the opportunity which Pompeius would not
+grasp. The alliance gave Pompeius the land allotments he required for his
+soldiers, and to C&aelig;sar the consulship followed by a prolonged
+governorship of Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>The conquest and organisation of Gaul was an end in itself, a necessary
+defence against barbarian pressure. C&aelig;sar's operations there were
+invaluable to the empire; incidentally, they enabled him to become master
+of it. C&aelig;sar has left his own record. Gaul was transformed into a
+barrier against the Teutonic migration. But Pompeius, nominally holding a
+far greater position, proved incapable of controlling the situation in
+Rome; he could not even suppress the demagogue Clodius, while the prestige
+of his military exploits was waning. Fear of the power of the Triumvirate
+was driving moderate men to the senatorial part; that party, without an
+efficient leader, began to find in Pompeius rather in ally against the more
+dangerous C&aelig;sar than an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>But they would not concede him the powers he required; which might yet
+be turned to the uses of his colleagues in the Triumvirate; he could not
+afford to challenge C&aelig;sar; and C&aelig;sar adroitly used the
+situation to secure for himself a prolongation of his Gallic command. The
+completion of his work there was to have precedence of his personal
+ambitions. Crassus was sent to the Eastern command; and Pompeius remained
+in Italy, while nominally appointed to Spain.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius, indeed, attained a predominance in Rome which enabled him to
+secure temporarily dictatorial powers which were employed to counteract the
+electoral machinery of the republican party; but he had not the
+qualifications or the inclination to play the demagogue, and could not
+unite his aspirations as a restorer of law and order with effective party
+leadership. Crassus disappeared; his armies in the East met with a complete
+disaster at Carrh&aelig;, and he took his own life. C&aelig;sar and
+Pompeius were left; Pompeius was not content that C&aelig;sar should stand
+on a real equality with him, and the inevitable rupture came.</p>
+
+<p>In effect Pompeius used his dictatorship to extend his own military
+command and to curtail C&aelig;sar's. The position resolved itself into a
+rivalry between the two; C&aelig;sar declaring as always for the democracy,
+Pompeius now assuming the championship of the aristocracy, and the
+guardianship of the constitution.</p>
+
+<p>For C&aelig;sar the vital point now was that his own command should not
+terminate till he exchanged it for a fresh consulship. As the law now
+stood, he could not obtain his election without resigning his command
+beforehand. But he succeeded in forcing Pompeius to break the law; and in
+making the official government responsible for declaring war. He offered a
+compromise, perhaps, in the certainty that it would be rejected--as it was.
+He was virtually declared a public enemy; and he struck at once.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of his devotedly loyal veterans he crossed the Rubicon. His
+rapid and successful advance caused Pompeius to abandon Italy and fall back
+on the Eastern Provinces. The discipline preserved, and the moderation
+displayed by C&aelig;sar won him unexpected favour. Having secured Italy,
+he turned next on Spain, and secured that. Swift and decisive action was
+pitted against inertness. When C&aelig;sar entered Epirus the odds against
+him on paper were enormous; but the triumphant victory of Phansalus
+shattered the Pompeian coalition. Pompeius hurried to Egypt, but was
+assassinated while landing. The struggle, however, was not over till after
+the battle of Thapsus nearly two years after Phansalus.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar was now beyond question master of the whole Roman world. He
+had made himself one of the mightiest of all masters of the art of war; but
+he was even more emphatically unsurpassed as a statesman. In the brief time
+that was left him he laid the foundation of the new monarchy which replaced
+the ancient Republic of Rome.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Mediaeval_History'></a>Medi&aelig;val History</h1>
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_GIBBON2'></a>EDWARD GIBBON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Holy_Roman_Empire'></a>The Holy Roman Empire</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The third of Gibbon's divisions of his great history was
+devoted to that period which is comprised between the establishment of the
+Holy Roman Empire in 800 and the final extinction of the Eastern Empire
+with the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453. Although this
+was the longest period, Gibbon devoted much less space to it than to the
+preceding parts of his history. This fact was partly due to the gradual
+diminution of Roman interests, for the dominions of the empire became
+contracted to the limits of a single city, and also to the fact that the
+material which the most painstaking search placed at his disposal was
+distinctly limited. But though the conquest of the Normans, to instance one
+section, has been dealt with inadequately in the light of modern research,
+the wonderful panorama that Gibbon's genius was able to present never fails
+in its effect or general accuracy. The Holy Roman Empire is, of course,
+properly classified under Medi&aelig;val History, which accounts for its
+separation from the rest of Gibbon's work. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Birth and Sway of the Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Western Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, as it has been called, which
+was re-established by Charlemagne (and lasted in shadow until the
+abdication of Francis II. under the pressure of Napoleon in 1806), was not
+unworthy of its title.</p>
+
+<p>The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
+the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The Greek emperor was
+addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the imperial
+dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks respectfully saluted
+the <i>august</i> Charlemagne with the acclamations of "Basileus" and
+"Emperor of the Romans." Lewis the Pious (814-840) possessed the virtue of
+his father but not the power. When both power and virtue were extinct, the
+Greeks despoiled Lewis II. of his hereditary title, and with the barbarous
+appellation of <i>Rex</i> degraded him amongst the crowd of Latin
+princes.</p>
+
+<p>The imperial title of the West remained in the family of Charlemagne
+until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 884. His insanity dissolved the
+empire into factions, and it was not until Otho, King of Germany, laid
+claim to the title, with fire and sword, that the western empire was
+restored (962). His conquest of Italy and delivery of the pope for ever
+fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From that
+memorable era two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by force
+and ratified by time: (1) That the prince who was elected in the German
+Diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome; (2)
+but that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and Augustus
+till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman pontiff.</p>
+
+<p>The nominal power of the Western emperors was considerable. No pontiff
+could be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the Church,
+had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Gregory VII., in
+1073, usurped this power, and fixed for ever in the college of cardinals
+the freedom and independence of election. Nominally, also, the emperors
+held sway in Rome, but this supremacy was annihilated in the thirteenth
+century. In the fourteenth century the power derived from his title was
+still recognised in Europe; the hereditary monarchs confessed the
+pre-eminence of his rank and dignity.</p>
+
+<p>The persecution of images and their votaries in the East had
+separated-Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and prepared the way
+for the conquests of the Franks. The rise and triumph of the Mahometans
+still further diminished the empire of the East. The successful inroads of
+the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians, who assaulted by sea or by land
+the provinces and the capital, seemed to advance the approach of its final
+dissolution. The Norman adventurers, who founded a powerful kingdom in
+Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople (1146), and their
+hostile enterprises did not cease until the year 1185.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Latin Rulers of Constantinople</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Under the name of the Latins, the subjects of the pope, the nations of
+the West, enlisted under the banner of the Cross for the recovery or the
+release of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and
+preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with Godfrey
+of Bouillon (1095-99) and the peers of Christendom. The second (1147) and
+the third (1189) crusades trod in the footsteps of the first. Asia and
+Europe were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years; and the Christian
+powers were bravely resisted and finally expelled (1291) by Saladin
+(1171-93) and the Mamelukes of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>In these memorable crusades a fleet and army of French and Venetians
+were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the
+capital (1203), they subverted the Greek monarchy; and a dynasty of Latin
+princes was seated near three-score years on the throne of Constantine.</p>
+
+<p>During this period of captivity and exile, which lasted from 1204 to
+1261, the purple was preserved by a succession of four monarchs, who
+maintained their title as the heirs of Augustus, though outcasts from their
+capital. The <i>de facto</i> sovereigns of Constantinople during this
+period, the Latin emperors of the houses of Flanders and Courtenay,
+provided five sovereigns for the usurped throne. By an agreement between
+the allied conquerors, the emperor of the East was nominated by the vote of
+twelve electors, chosen equally from the French and Venetians. To him, with
+all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, a fourth part of
+the Greek monarchy was assigned; the remaining portions were equally snared
+between the republic of Venice and the barons of France.</p>
+
+<p>Under this agreement, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, was
+created emperor (1204-05). The idea of the Roman system, which, despite the
+passage of centuries devoted to the triumphs of the barbarians, had
+impressed itself on Europe, was seen in the emperor's letter to the Roman
+pontiff, in which he congratulated him on the restoration of his authority
+in the East.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat and captivity of Baldwin in a war against the Bulgarians, and
+his subsequent death, placed the crown on the head of his brother Henry
+(1205-16). With him the imperial house of Flanders became extinct, and
+Peter of Courtenay, Count of Auxerre (1217-19), assumed the empire of the
+East. Peter was taken captive by Theodore, the legitimate sovereign of
+Constantinople, and his sons Robert (1221-28) and Baldwin II. (1228-37)
+reigned in succession. The gradual recovery of their empire by the
+legitimate sovereigns of the East culminated in the capture of
+Constantinople by the Greeks (1261). The line of Latin sovereigns was
+extinct. Baldwin lived the remainder of his life a royal fugitive,
+soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration. He died in
+1272.</p>
+
+<p>From the days of the Emperor Heraclius the Byzantine Empire had been
+most tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary
+succession. Five dynasties--the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and
+Comnenian families--enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony during
+their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four generations.
+The imperial house of Comnenius, though its direct line in male descent had
+expired with Andronicus I. (1185), had been perpetuated by marriage in the
+female line, and had survived the exile from Constantinople, in the persons
+of the descendants of Theodore Lascaris.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Pal&aelig;ologus, who, through his mother, might claim perhaps a
+prior right to the throne of the Comnenii, usurped the imperial dignity on
+the recovery of Constantinople, cruelly blinded the young Emperor John, the
+legitimate heir of Theodore Lascaris, and reigned until 1282. His career of
+authority was notable for an attempt to unite the Greek and Roman
+churches--a union which was dissolved in 1283--and his instigation of the
+revolt in Sicily, which ended in the famous Sicilian Vespers (March 30,
+1282), when 8,000 French were exterminated in a promiscuous massacre.</p>
+
+<p>He saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
+and blood. From these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men, who
+assaulted and endangered the empire of his son, Andronicus the Elder
+(1282-1332). Thousands of Genoese and Catalans, released from the wars that
+Michael had aroused in the West, took service under his successor against
+the Turks. Other mercenaries flocked to their standard, and, under the name
+of the Great Company, they subverted the authority of the emperor, defeated
+his troops, laid waste his territory, united themselves with his enemies,
+and, finally, abandoning the banks of the Hellespont, marched into Greece.
+Here they overthrew the remnant of the Latin power, and for fourteen years
+(1311-1326) the Great Company was the terror of the Grecian states.</p>
+
+<p>Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignity of the house
+of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens as
+a government or an appanage was successfully bestowed by the kings of
+Sicily. Conquered in turn by the French and Catalans, Athens at length
+became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth,
+Delphi, and a part of Thessaly, and was ruled by the family of Accaioli,
+plebeians of Florence (1384-1456). The last duke of this dynasty was
+strangled by Mahomet II., who educated his sons in the discipline of the
+seraglio.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of John Pal&aelig;ologus, son of Andronicus the Younger,
+which began in 1355, the eastern empire was nearly subverted by the
+Genoese. On the return of the legitimate sovereign to Constantinople, the
+Genoese, who had established their factories and industries in the suburb
+of Galata, or Pera, were allowed to remain. During the civil wars the
+Genoese forces took advantage of the disunion of the Greeks, and by the
+skilful use of their power exacted a treaty by which they were granted a
+monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominions. The Roman Empire (I
+smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a province of
+Genoa if the ambition of the republic had not been checked by the ruin of
+her freedom and naval power. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of
+conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the
+Euxine till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude of
+Constantinople itself.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--End of the Roman World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Only three more sovereigns ruled the remnants of the Roman world after
+the reign of John Pal&aelig;ologus, but the final downfall of the empire was
+delayed above fifty years by a series of events that had sapped the
+strength of the Mahometan empire. The rise and triumph of the Moguls and
+Tartars under their emperors, descendants of Zingis Khan, had shaken the
+globe from China to Poland and Greece (1206-1304). The sultans were
+overthrown, and in the general disorder of the Mahometan world a veteran
+and adventurous army, which included many Turkoman hordes, was dissolved
+into factions who, under various chiefs, lived a life of rapine and
+plunder. Some of these engaged in the service of Aladin (1219-1236), Sultan
+of Iconium, and among these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Orchan ruled from 1326 to 1360, achieved the conquest of Bithynia, and
+first led the Turks into Europe, and in 1353 established himself in the
+Chersonesus, and occupied Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont. Orchan was
+succeeded by Amurath I. (1389-1403). Bajazet carried his victorious arms
+from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became contracted to
+a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty
+miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of ground not more extensive
+than the lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains of
+Constantinople had not still represented the wealth and populousness of a
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
+Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet had
+not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul power
+under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a conquest of
+Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan (1398-1399),
+Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found himself at length
+face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was taken prisoner in the war
+that followed. Kept, probably only as a precaution, in an iron cage,
+Bajazet attended the marches of his conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403.
+Two years later, Timour also passed away on the road to China. Of his
+empire to-day nothing remains. Since the reign of his descendant
+Aurungzebe, his empire has been dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of
+Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom
+is now possessed by the Christians of a remote island in the northern
+ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
+was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than it
+again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a period of
+civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman Empire was
+once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II. (1421-1451).</p>
+
+<p>One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
+of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
+Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
+domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.</p>
+
+<p>While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
+Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
+Manuel sank into the grave, and John Pal&aelig;ologus II. (1425-1448) was
+permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
+dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
+Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emperors,
+assumed the purple of the C&aelig;sars. For three years he was allowed to
+indulge himself in various private and public designs, the completion of
+which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the ruins of
+the empire.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Great Siege of Constantinople</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Mahomet II. succeeded his father Amurath on February 9, 1451. His
+hostile designs against the capital were immediately seen in the building
+of a fortress on the Bosphorus, which commanded the source whence the city
+drew her supplies. In the following year a quarrel between some Greeks and
+Turks gave him the excuse of declaring war. His cannon--for the use of
+gunpowder, for some time the monopoly of the Christian world, had been
+betrayed to Amurath by the Genoese--commanded the port, and a tribute was
+exacted from all ships that entered the harbour. But the actual siege was
+delayed until the ensuing spring of 1453.</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet, in person, surveyed the city, encouraged his soldiers, and
+discussed with his generals and engineers the best means of making the
+assault. By his orders a huge cannon was built in Hadrianople. It fired a
+ball one mile, and to convey it to its position before the walls, a team of
+sixty oxen and the assistance of 200 men were employed. The Emperor
+Constantine, unable to excite the sympathy of Europe, attempted the best
+defence of which he was capable, with a force of 4,970 Romans and 2,000
+Genoese. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour, and whatever
+supplies arrived from Candia and the Black Sea were detained for the public
+service.</p>
+
+<p>The siege of Constantinople, in which scarcely 7,000 soldiers had to
+defend a city sixteen miles in extent against the powers of the Ottoman
+Empire, commenced on April 6, 1453. The last Constantine deserves the name
+of a hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue, and
+the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western chivalry. But
+their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operations of each
+day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size or number; and if they
+possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the walls, lest
+the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the explosion.</p>
+
+<p>The great cannon of Mahomet could only be fired seven times in one day,
+but the weight and repetition of the shots made some impression on the
+walls. The Turks rushed to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the
+enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault. In the attack, as well
+as in the defence, ancient and modern artillery was employed. Cannon and
+mechanical engines, the bullet and the battering-ram, gunpowder and Greek
+fire, were engaged on both sides.</p>
+
+<p>Christendom watched the struggle with coldness and apathy. Four ships,
+which successfully forced an entrance into the harbour, were the limit of
+their assistance. None the less, Mahomet meditated a retreat. Unless the
+city could be attacked from the harbour, its reduction appeared to be
+hopeless. In this perplexity the genius of Mahomet executed a plan of a
+bold and marvellous cast. He transported his fleet over land for ten miles.
+In the course of one night four-score light galleys and brigantines
+painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and were launched from
+the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far above the
+molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. A bridge, or mole, hastily
+built, formed a base for one of his largest cannon. The galleys, with
+troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible side of the
+walls, and, after a siege of forty days, the diminutive garrison, exhausted
+by a double attack, could hope no longer to avert the fate of the
+capital.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, May 28, preparations were made for the final assault. Mahomet
+had inspired his soldiers with the hope of rewards in this world and the
+next. His camp re-echoed with the shouts of "God is God; there is but one
+God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God"; and the sea and land, from Galata
+to the Seven Towers, were illuminated with the blaze of the Moslem
+fires.</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the state of the Christians. On that last night of the
+Roman Empire, Constantine Pal&aelig;ologus, in his palace, addressed the noblest
+of the Greeks and the bravest of the allies on the duties and dangers that
+lay before them. It was the funeral oration of the Roman Empire. That same
+night the emperor and some faithful companions entered the Dome of St.
+Sofia, which, within a few hours, was to be converted into a mosque, and
+devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the sacrament of the Holy
+Communion. He reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with
+cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all whom he might have
+injured, and mounted on horseback to visit the guards and explore the
+motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last Constantine are
+more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine C&aelig;sars.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak on May 29 the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land. For
+two hours the Greeks maintained the defence with advantage, and the voice
+of the emperor was heard encouraging the soldiers to achieve by a last
+effort the deliverance of their country. The new and fresh forces of the
+Turks supplied the places of their wearied associates. From all sides the
+attack was pressed.</p>
+
+<p>The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps one hundred, times
+superior to that of the Christians, the double walls were reduced by the
+cannons to a heap of ruins, and at last one point was found which the
+besiegers could penetrate. Hasan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and
+strength, ascended the outward fortification. The walls and towers were
+instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from
+the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of
+a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. His mournful
+exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
+head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the
+infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple. Amidst
+the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a
+mountain of the slain.</p>
+
+<p>After his death, resistance and order were no more. Two thousand Greeks
+were put to the sword, and more would have perished had not avarice soon
+prevailed over cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
+which had defied the power of Chosroes and the caliphs, was irretrievably
+subdued by the arms of Mahomet II. Sixty thousand Greeks were driven
+through the streets like cattle and sold as slaves. The nuns were torn from
+the monasteries and compelled to enter the harems of their conquerors. The
+churches were plundered, and the gold and silver, the pearls and jewels,
+the vases and sacerdotal ornaments of St. Sofia were most wickedly
+converted to the service of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>The cathedral itself, despoiled of its images and ornaments, was
+converted into a mosque, and Mahomet II. performed the <i>namaz</i> of
+prayer and thanksgiving at the great altar, where the Christian mysteries
+had so lately been celebrated before the last of the C&aelig;sars. The body
+of Constantine was discovered under a heap of slain, by the golden eagles
+embroidered on his shoes, and after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet
+bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. Constantinople,
+desolated by bloodshed, was re-peopled and re-adorned by Mahomet. Its
+churches were shared between the two religions, and the Greeks were
+attracted back to their ancient capital by the assurance of their lives and
+the free exercise of their religion.</p>
+
+<p>The grief and terror of Europe when the fall of Constantinople became
+known revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades.
+Pius II. attempted to lead Christendom against the Turks, but on the very
+day on which he embarked his forces drew back, and he was compelled to
+abandon the attempt. The siege and sack of Otranto by the Turks put an end
+to all thoughts of a crusade, and the general consternation was only
+allayed by the death of Mahomet II. in the fifty-first year of his age.</p>
+
+<p>His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy; he was possessed of a
+strong city and a capacious harbour, and the same reign might have been
+decorated with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='FRANCOIS_GUIZOT'></a>FRAN&Ccedil;OIS GUIZOT</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Civilisation_in_Europe'></a>History of Civilisation
+in Europe</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Fran&ccedil;ois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, French historian
+and statesman, was born of Huguenot parents at Nimes on October 4, 1787.
+The liberal opinions of his family did not save his father from the
+guillotine in 1794, and the mother fled to Geneva, where Guizot was
+educated. He went to Paris in the later days of the Empire, and engaged
+himself at once in literature and politics. His lectures on the History of
+Civilisation delivered in 1828, 1829, and 1830, during his professorship at
+the University of Paris, revealed him as a historian with a rare capacity
+for mastering the broad essential truths of history, co-ordinating them,
+and expounding them with vigour and impressiveness. His first series of
+lectures was on "The History of Civilisation in Europe," a masterly
+abstract of a colossal subject; the second on "The History of Civilisation
+in France." From 1830 to 1848 Guizot occupied high offices of State,
+ultimately becoming prime minister; in 1848, like his master Louis
+Philippe, he had to fly the country. He died on September 12, 1874.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Nature of Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The subject I propose to consider is the civilisation of Europe--its
+origins, its progress, its aims, its character. The fact of civilisation
+belongs to what is called the philosophic portion of history; it is a
+vague, obscure, complex fact, very difficult, I admit, to explain and
+describe, but none the less requiring explanation and description. It is,
+indeed, the greatest historical fact, to which all others contribute; it is
+a kind of ocean which makes the wealth of a people, and in the bosom of
+which all the elements of the people's life, all the forces of its
+existence, are joined in unity.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is civilisation--this grave, far-reaching precious reality
+that seems the expression of the entire life of a people? It seems to me
+that the first and fundamental fact conveyed by the word civilisation is
+the fact of progress, of development. But what is this progress? What is
+this development? Here is the greatest difficulty of all.</p>
+
+<p>The etymology of the word civilisation seems to provide an easy answer.
+It tells us that civilisation is the perfecting of civil life, the
+development of society properly so called, of the relations of men to men.
+But is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and usual sense of the word?
+France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was acknowledged to be
+the most civilised country in Europe; yet in respect of purely civil
+progress France was then greatly inferior to some other European countries,
+Holland and England, for example. Another development, then, reveals
+itself--the development of individual life, of the man himself, of his
+faculties, sentiments, and ideas.</p>
+
+<p>These two notions that are comprehended in the broad notion of
+civilisation--that of the development of social activity and that of the
+development of individual activity--are intimately related to each other.
+Their relationship is upheld by the instinctive conviction of men; it is
+proved by the course of the world's history--all the great moral and
+intellectual advances of man have profited society, all the great social
+advances have profited the individual mind.</p>
+
+<p>So much for civilisation in general. It is now necessary to point out
+the essential difference between modern European and other civilisations.
+The characteristic of other civilisations has been unity; they seem to have
+emanated from a single fact, a single idea. In Egypt and India, for
+example, the theocratic principle was dominant; in the Greek and Phoenician
+republics, the democratic principle. The civilisation of modern Europe, on
+the contrary, is diverse, confused, stormy; all the forms and principles of
+social organisation theocratic, monarchical, aristocratic, democratic,
+co-exist in it; there are infinite gradations of liberty, wealth,
+influence. All the various forces are in a state of constant struggle; yet
+all of them have a certain family resemblance, as it were, that we cannot
+but recognise.</p>
+
+<p>These diverse elements, for all their conflict, cannot any one of them
+extinguish any other; each has to dwell with the rest, make a compromise
+with the rest. The outcome, then, of this diversity and struggle is
+liberty; and here is the grand and true superiority of the European over
+the other civilisations. European civilisation, if I may say so, has
+entered into eternal truth; it advances in the ways of God.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Feudalism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It would be an important confirmation of my assertion as to the diverse
+character of our civilisation if we should find in its very cradle the
+causes and the elements of that diversity. And indeed, at the fall of the
+Roman empire, we do so find it. Three forms of society, each entirely
+different from the other, are visible at this time of chaos. The
+municipalities survived, the last remnant of the Imperial system. The
+Christian Church survived. And in the third place there were the
+Barbarians, who brought with them a military organisation, and a hardy
+individual independence, that were wholly new to the peoples who had dwelt
+under the shelter of the empire. The Barbarian epoch was the chaos of all
+the elements, the infancy of all the systems, a universal hubbub in which
+even conflict itself had no definite or permanent effects.</p>
+
+<p>Europe laboured to escape from this confusion; at some times, and in
+some places, it was temporarily checked--in particular by the great
+Charlemagne in his revival of the imperial power; but the confusion did not
+cease until its causes no longer acted. These causes were two--one
+material, one moral. The material cause was the irruption of fresh
+Barbarian hordes. The moral cause was the lack of any ideas in common among
+men as to the structure of society. The old imperial fabric had
+disappeared; Charlemagne's restoration of it depended wholly on his own
+personality, and did not survive him; men had no ideas of any new
+structure--their intellectual horizon was limited to their own affairs. By
+the beginning of the tenth century the Barbarian invasions ended, and as
+the populations settled down a new system appeared, based partly on the
+Barbarians' love of independence, partly on their plans of military
+gradation--the system of feudalism.</p>
+
+<p>A sound proof that in the tenth century the feudal system was necessary,
+and the only social state possible, lies in the universality of its
+establishment. Everywhere society was dismembered; everywhere there was
+formed a multitude of small, obscure, isolated societies, consisting of the
+chief, his family, his retainers, and the wretched serfs over whom he ruled
+without restraint, and who had no appeal against his whim. The power he
+exercised was the power of individual over individual, the domination of
+personal will and caprice; and this is perhaps the only kind of tyranny
+that man, to his eternal honour, is never willing to endure. Hence the
+prodigious and invincible hatred that the people have at all times
+entertained for feudal rule, for the memories of it, for its very name.</p>
+
+<p>The narrow concentrated life of the feudal lord lent, undoubtedly, a
+great preponderance to domesticity in his affairs. The lord had his wife
+and children for his permanent society; they continually shared his
+interests, his destiny. It was in the bosom of the feudal family that woman
+gained her importance in civilisation. The system excited development of
+private character and passion that were, all things considered, noble.
+Chivalry was the daughter of feudalism.</p>
+
+<p>But from the social point of view feudalism failed to provide either
+legal order or political security. It contained elaborate obligations
+between the higher and the lower orders of the feudal hierarchy, duties of
+protection on the one side and of service on the other. But these
+obligations could never be established as institutions. There was no
+superior force to which all had to submit; there was public opinion to make
+itself respected. Hence the feudal system was without political guarantee
+to sustain it. Might alone was right. Feudalism was as much opposed to the
+establishment of general order as to the extension of general liberty. It
+was indispensable for the reconstruction of European society, but
+politically it was in itself a radically bad system.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Church</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Church, adhering to its own principles, had steadily
+advanced along the route that it had marked out for itself in the early
+days of its organisation. It was during the feudal epoch the only power
+that made for civilised development. All education was ecclesiastical; all
+the arts were in the service of the Church. It had, during the Dark Ages,
+won the Barbarians to its fold by the gorgeous solemnity of its ritual;
+and, to protect itself against secular interference, it had declared the
+spiritual power to be independent of the temporal--the first great
+assertion, in the history of European civilisation, of the liberty of
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>In one set of respects the Church during the feudal epoch satisfied the
+conditions of good government; in another, it did not. Its power was
+uniformly distributed, it drew its recruits from all classes, and entrusted
+the rule to the most capable. It was in close touch with every grade of
+mankind; every colony of serfs, even, had its priest. It was the most
+popular and most accessible society of the time, the most open to all
+talents and all noble ambitions. But, on the other hand, it failed in that
+all-important requisite of good government, respect for liberty. It denied
+the rights of individual reason in spiritual matters, and it claimed the
+right to compel belief--a claim that placed it in some dependence upon the
+temporal powers, since as a purely spiritual body, governing by influence
+and not by force, it could not persecute without the aid of the secular
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, the Church exerted an immense and on the whole a beneficent
+influence on ideas, sentiments, and conduct; but from the political point
+of view the Church was nearly always the interpreter and defender of the
+theocratic system and the Roman Imperial system--that is, of religious and
+civil despotism.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Towns</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Like the Church, the municipalities survived the downfall of the Roman
+empire. Their history varied greatly in different parts of Europe, but none
+the less some observations can be made that are broadly accurate with
+respect to most of them.</p>
+
+<p>From the fifth to the tenth century, the state of the towns was a state
+neither of servitude nor of liberty. They suffered all the woes that are
+the fate of the weak; they were the prey of continual violence and
+depredation; yet, in spite of the fearful disorders of the time, they
+preserved a certain importance. When feudalism was established, the towns
+lost such independence as they had possessed; they found themselves under
+the heel of feudal chiefs. But feudalism did bring about a sort of peace, a
+sort of order; and with the slightest gleam of peace and order a man's hope
+revives, and on the revival of hope he takes to work. So it was with the
+towns. New wants were created; commerce and industry arose to satisfy them;
+wealth and population slowly returned.</p>
+
+<p>But industry and commerce were absolutely without security; the townsmen
+were exposed to merciless extortion and plundering at the hands of their
+feudal overlords. Nothing irritates a man more than to be harassed in his
+toil, thus deprived of its promised fruits. The only way in which the towns
+could defend themselves from the violence of their masters was by using
+violence themselves. So in the eleventh century we find town after town
+rising in revolt against its despot, and winning from him a charter of
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Although the insurrection was in a sense general, it was in no way
+concerted--it was not a rising of the combined citizens against the
+combined feudal aristocracy. All the towns found themselves exposed to much
+the same evils, and rescued themselves in much the same manner. But each
+town acted for itself--did not go to the help of any other town. Hence
+these detached communities had no ambitions, no aspirations to national
+importance; their outlook was limited to themselves. But at the same time
+the emancipation of the towns created a new class, a class of citizens
+engaged in the same pursuits, with the same interests and the same modes of
+life; a class that would in time unite and assert itself, and prevent the
+domination of a single order of society that has been the curse of
+Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Although it may be broadly asserted that the emancipation did not alter
+the relations of the citizens with the general government, that assertion
+must be modified in one respect. A link was established between the
+citizens and the king. Sometimes they appealed for his aid against their
+lord, sometimes the lord invoked him as judge; in one way or another a
+relation was established between the king and the towns, and the citizens
+thus came into touch with the centre of the State.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Crusades</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>From the fifth to the twelfth century, society, as we have seen,
+contained kings, a lay aristocracy, a clergy, citizens, peasantry, the
+germs, in fact, of all that goes to make a nation and a government; yet--no
+government, no nation. We have come across a multitude of particular
+forces, of local institutions, but nothing general, nothing public, nothing
+properly speaking political.</p>
+
+<p>In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the contrary, all the
+classes and the particular forces have taken a secondary place, are shadowy
+and almost effaced; the stage of the world is occupied by two great
+figures, government and people.</p>
+
+<p>Here, if I am not mistaken, is the essential distinction between
+primitive Europe and modern Europe. Here is the change that was
+accomplished in the period extending from the thirteenth to the sixteenth
+century. Viewed by itself, that period seems a characterless one of
+confusion without cause, of movement without direction, of agitation
+without result. Yet, in relation to the period that followed, this period
+had a tendency and a progress of its own; it slowly accomplished a vast
+work. It was the second period of European civilisation--the period of
+attempt and experiment, succeeding that of origins and formation, and
+preparing the way for that of development properly so called.</p>
+
+<p>The first great event of this period was the Crusades--a universal
+movement of all classes and all countries in moral unity--the truly heroic
+event of Europe. Besides the religious impulse that led to the Crusades,
+there was another impulse. They gave to me an opportunity of widening their
+horizons, of indulging the taste for movement and adventure. The
+opportunity, thus freely taken, changed the face of society. Men's minds
+were opened, their ideas were extended, by contact with other races;
+European society was dragged out of the groove along which it had been
+travelling. Religious ideas remained unchanged, but religious beliefs were
+no longer the only sphere in which the human intellect exercised itself.
+The moral state of Europe was profoundly modified.</p>
+
+<p>The social state underwent a similar change. Many of the smaller feudal
+lords sold their fiefs, or impoverished themselves by crusading, or lost
+much of their power during their absence. Property and power came into
+fewer hands; society was more centralised, no longer dispersed as it
+formerly was. The citizens, on their part, were no longer content with
+local industry and trade; they entered upon commerce on a grander scale
+with countries oversea. Petty influence yielded place to larger influences;
+the small existences grouped themselves round the great. By the end of the
+Crusades, the march of society towards centralisation was in steady
+progress.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The Age of Centralisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Already, in the twelfth century, a new idea of kingship had begun, very
+faintly, to make its appearance. In most European countries the king, under
+the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his headship. But
+there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and somebody bore the
+title of king; and society, striving to escape from feudal violence and to
+get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to the king in an
+experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could do. Gradually
+there developed the idea of the king as the protector of public order and
+justice and of the common interest as the paramount magistrate--the idea
+that changed Europe society from a series of classes into a group of
+centralised States.</p>
+
+<p>But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
+These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance, or
+it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To the
+first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over Europe
+that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three reasons--because
+Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal administrative
+force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed by the feudal
+aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy prevented the formation
+of a caste capable of theocratic organisation. Attempts at democracy were
+made, for a time with apparent means, by the Italian civic republics; but
+they were a prey to internal disorder, their government tended to become
+oligarchical, and their incapacity for uniting among themselves made them
+the victims of foreign invaders. The Swiss Republican organisation was more
+successful, but became aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the
+towns of Flanders and the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved
+their privileges, but remained confined within their walls.</p>
+
+<p>The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
+States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and the
+Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were ineffective
+and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was to preserve in
+a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of England were
+exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a mode of
+government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in practice.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
+the war of independence against England brought a sense of national unity
+and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown, and the central power
+made dominant, by the policy of Louis XI. Similar effects were brought
+about in Spain by the war against the Moors and the rule of Ferdinand. In
+England feudalism was destroyed by the Wars of the Roses, and was succeeded
+by the Tudor despotism. In Germany, the House of Austria began its long
+ascendancy. Thus in the fifteenth century the new principles prevailed; the
+old forms, the old liberties were swept aside to make way for centralised
+government under absolute rulers.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time another new fact entered into European history. The
+kings began to enter into relations with each other, to form alliances;
+diplomacy was created. Since it is in the nature of diplomacy to be
+conducted more or less secretly by a few persons, and since the peoples did
+not and would not greatly concern themselves in it, this development was
+favourable to the strengthening of royalty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VII.--The Spiritual Revolt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Although the Church until the sixteenth century had successfully
+suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
+men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous impetus
+from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth century upon
+ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order are presented
+during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the councils of Constance
+and Bale to reform the Church from within; the most notable of which was
+that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual revolution that accompanied
+the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared for the event that was
+inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at Wittenberg in 1520.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
+accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome of
+a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a revolt of
+the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs. The minds of
+men were during the sixteenth century in energetic movement, consumed by
+desire for progress; the Church had become inert and stationary, yet it
+maintained all its pretensions and external importance. The Church, indeed,
+was less tyrannical than it had formerly been, and not more corrupt. But it
+had not advanced; it had lost touch with human thought.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
+where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
+resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and activity
+of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human spirit. It
+accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would have desired.
+It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision between temporal
+absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and did come.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
+movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
+properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
+aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
+monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out against
+absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil societies
+have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical society has
+always been the first to be changed.</p>
+
+<p>We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
+the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
+centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century the
+two principles were for the first time to be opposed.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VIII.--The Political Revolt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
+exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there had
+in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete; the
+Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had formerly
+denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil liberty that were
+stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of action in the old
+institution of the country--the charter, the Parliament, the laws, the
+precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental countries had no such means
+of action, and led to nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
+religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty and
+the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces. For
+the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious party, it
+was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political party took the
+lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that the reformers
+finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute power spiritual and
+temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in that year brought
+England into the great struggle that was raging on the Continent between
+the principle of despotism and the principle of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>England differed from other European countries in that the essential
+diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than anywhere
+else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it was
+overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others were
+strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her nobles and
+commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe lagged behind
+England in civil freedom. But there was another reason--the influence of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
+in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth century,
+French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it was
+unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes supposed,
+adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim was the
+strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
+planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
+despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as the
+most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
+degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be maintained
+without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The rule of Louis
+XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no roots. The decrepit
+remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought face to face with a
+society in which free examination and free speculation had been carried to
+lengths never imagined before. Freedom of thought once came to grips with
+absolute power.</p>
+
+<p>Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
+speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
+upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by this
+grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the insurmountable evil
+of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of a despot like Louis
+XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit that prevailed at the
+Revolution. Each human power has in itself a natural vice, a principle of
+weakness, to which there has to be assigned a limit. It is only by general
+liberty of all rights, interests and opinions that each power can be
+restrained within its legitimate bounds, and intellectual freedom enabled
+to exist genuinely and to the advantage of the whole community.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HENRY_HALLAM'></a>HENRY HALLAM</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='View_of_the_State_of_Europe_During_the_Middle_Ages'></a>View
+of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9,
+1777, at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of Bristol.
+Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was called to the English
+bar, but devoted himself to the study and writing of history. He received
+an appointment in the Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed
+him in comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur Henry,
+who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
+Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried at Clevedon, Somersetshire.
+The "View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages," commonly known as
+Hallam's "Middle Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was
+already well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
+first important work. It is a study of the period from the appearance of
+Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the Franks, to the close of the
+Middle Ages, the arbitrary dividing line being drawn at the invasion of
+Italy by Charles VIII. of France. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--France</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
+Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
+degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors of
+the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
+Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
+deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
+overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
+Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended his
+power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person the Roman
+empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on Christmas Day
+A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces under his
+successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition amongst
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
+Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany was
+completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced by Hugh
+Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the House of
+Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories until the reign
+of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his own hands the greater
+part of the immense territories held by the kings of England as French
+feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of Philip Augustus was
+succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose admirable character enabled
+him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy over the imagination of his
+people. In spite of the disastrous failure of his crusading expeditions,
+the aggrandisement of the crown continued, especially under Philip the
+Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs after the successive reigns of
+his three sons placed Philip of Valois on the throne according to the
+"Salic" law of succession in 1328.</p>
+
+<p>On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
+the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
+pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
+qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of England,
+and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English successes. After
+the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and the English lost
+their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the throne disaster
+followed. France was rent by the rival factions of Burgundy and Orleans,
+the latter taking its more familiar name from the Court of Armagnac. The
+troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. prevented England from taking
+advantage of these dissensions; but Henry V. renewed the war, winning the
+battle of Agincourt in his first campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes
+on his second invasion. After his death came that most marvellous
+revolution wrought by Joan of Arc, and the expulsion of the English from
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
+the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of the
+long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted against
+the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for himself
+sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was secured when
+his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the Duchess Anne.</p>
+
+<p>The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
+of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
+Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
+followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the king's
+vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
+subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
+protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
+neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
+essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
+confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
+conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
+capable of conversion into money payments.</p>
+
+<p>Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
+of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings. A
+close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed by
+the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same position
+as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in many cases
+commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were freemen, and the
+remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It was not impossible
+for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the privileges possessed by the
+vassals of the Crown were scarcely consistent with the sovereignty. Such
+were the rights of coining money, of private war, and of immunity from
+taxation.</p>
+
+<p>Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
+supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons. It
+was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in the
+fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced the
+general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon claimed the
+right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing forward
+grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid convocation of
+the States General by obtaining grants from provincial assemblies of the
+Three Estates.</p>
+
+<p>The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
+feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according to
+recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat. The
+Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the establishment
+of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a supreme Court of
+Peers to whom were added the king's household officers. The peers ceased by
+degrees to attend this court, while the Crown multiplied the councillors of
+inferior rank; and this body became known as the Parliament of Paris--in
+effect an assembly of lawyers.</p>
+
+<p>The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
+of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
+especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
+principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military service
+for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Italy and Spain</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
+revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial supremacy
+was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman emperor. Italian
+unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy offended Italy. Still
+from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election of the King of Germany
+was assumed, at least my him, to convey the sovereignty of Italy. In the
+eleventh century Norman adventurers made themselves masters of Sicily and
+Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on the other hand the emperors favoured
+the development of free cities, owning only the imperial sovereignty and
+tending to self-government on Republican lines. The appearance on the scene
+in the twelfth century of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a
+period characterised by a three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the
+northern cities for independence; the establishment of the temporal
+sovereignty of the Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the
+kingdom of Naples to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first
+quarrels with Milan led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long
+war in which the battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive
+victory. The mutual rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from
+turning this to good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a
+child of four when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his
+mother to that of Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
+temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
+Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire, were
+established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the young
+Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the Papacy which
+ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this time the
+quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere family feuds
+resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as Papal champion;
+the republics of the North were in effect controlled by despots for a brief
+moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the leadership of Rienzi. In
+the general chaos the principle interest attaches to the peculiar but
+highly complicated form of democracy developed in Florence, where the old
+Patrician families were virtually disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was
+the state of Florence, the records certainly point to the conditions having
+been far worse in the cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.</p>
+
+<p>Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
+given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
+position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
+cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her commerce
+by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the taking of
+Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became effectively Queen of
+the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern Mediterranean. In effect her
+government was a close oligarchy; possessed of complete control over
+elections which in theory were originally popular. The oligarchy reached
+its highest and narrowest development with the institution of the famous
+Council of Ten.</p>
+
+<p>Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
+was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
+overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
+the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It was
+not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the Crown of
+Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert successfully
+a claim to Naples.</p>
+
+<p>When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
+dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of the
+greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the more
+northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which were
+developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon. Frontier
+towns acquired large liberties while they were practically responsible for
+defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century great territories
+were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased as the Moors were
+reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the fourteenth century the
+struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and his brother established
+the house of Trastamare on the throne. The Crowns of Castille and Aragon
+were united by the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand.</p>
+
+<p>The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
+Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however, the
+"Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number of these
+was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation through
+representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made nor annulled
+except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was varied by the
+claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when matters were conducted
+in a fashion of which they disapproved.</p>
+
+<p>The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
+Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects counterbalanced
+the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The German Empire and the Papacy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
+five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
+Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
+generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction of
+their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which came
+into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the extinction of
+this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the partisans of the
+Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and Welfs,--the origin of the
+Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House, the Hohenstauffen, gained the
+ascendancy in the person of Frederick Barbarossa. The lineal
+representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found to-day in the House of
+Brunswick.</p>
+
+<p>The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
+history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of election
+of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming established.
+There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, the Duke of
+Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of Bohemia, and the
+Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects, however, several other
+dukes and princes were at least on an equality with the electors.</p>
+
+<p>In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
+some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of Austria,
+Bavaria, or Luxemburg.</p>
+
+<p>Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
+territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
+authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
+1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
+that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free cities.
+Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period mainly by
+Maximilian.</p>
+
+<p>The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
+a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook Mohammedanism.
+Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at first to strengthen
+its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but the so-called fourth
+crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one with no elements of
+permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established, and the crusading
+spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the Byzantine Princes were left
+to cope with the Turks single handed, and the last of the C&aelig;sars died
+heroically when the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
+Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively late
+period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not infrequently the
+Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was more than recovered
+by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were almost exempt from
+civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive authority in matters
+of religion. The state, however, maintained its temporal supremacy. When
+the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed ecclesiastical influence
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
+supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
+after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak kings
+to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority developed
+and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication and
+interdict.</p>
+
+<p>A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
+close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the Papacy
+by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution of
+Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the complete
+supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused to recognise
+the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical appointments within
+their own dominions; and he emphasised the distinction between the
+priesthood, as a cast having divine authority, and the laity, by enforcing
+with the utmost strictness the ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which
+completely separates the churchman from the normal interests and ambitions
+which actuate the layman.</p>
+
+<p>In the contest between Gregory and the emperor, it seemed for the moment
+as if the secular power had won the victory; but, in fact, throughout the
+twelfth century; the claims which Gregory had put forward were becoming
+practically effective partly from the great influence exercised through the
+Crusades. These Papal pretensions reached their climax in the great Pope
+Innocent III., who asserted with practical success the right to pronounce
+absolutely on all disputes between princes or between princes and their
+subjects, and to depose those who rejected his authority. Throughout the
+thirteenth century Rome was once more mistress of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The Church derived great influence from the institution of mendicant
+orders, especially those of St. Dominic and St. Francis which recovered
+much of the esteem forfeited by the old Monastic orders. Another instrument
+of Papal influence was the power of granting dispensations both with regard
+to marriages and as to the keeping of oaths. If the clergy were free for
+the most part from civil taxation, they were nevertheless severely mulcted
+by the Papacy. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction encroached upon the secular
+tribunals; the classes of persons with respect to whom it claimed exclusive
+authority were persistently extended, in spite of the opposition of such
+Princes as Henry II. and Edward I.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the Papal aggressor met his match in Philip the Fair.
+When Boniface VIII. died, his successors first submitted to the French
+monarchy and then became its nominees; while they resided at Avignon,
+virtually under French control. The restoration of the pontificate to Rome
+in 1375 was shortly followed by the Great Schism. For some years there were
+two rival Popes, each of whom was recognised by one or the other half of
+Western Christendom. This was terminated by the Council of Constance, which
+incidentally affirmed the supremacy of general councils over the Pope. The
+following council at Basle was distinctly anti-papal; but the Papacy had
+the better of the contest.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Anglo-Saxon polity limited the succession of the Crown to a
+particular house but allowed a latitude of choice within that house. The
+community was divided into Thames or gentry, Ceorls or freemen, and serfs.
+The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as villeinage. The
+composition of the king's great council called the Witenagemot is doubtful.
+The country was divided into shires, the shire into districts called
+hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. There appears to be no adequate
+authority for the idea that trial by jury was practised; the prevailing
+characteristic of justice was the system of penalty by fine, and the
+responsibility of the tithing for the misdeeds of any of its members. There
+is no direct evidence as to the extent to which feudal tenures were
+beginning to be established before the Norman conquest.</p>
+
+<p>The Norman conquest involved a vast confiscation of property and the
+exclusion of the native English from political privileges. The feudal
+system of land tenure was established; but its political aspect here and in
+France was quite different. There were no barons with territories
+comparable to those of the great French feudataries. That the government
+was extremely tyrannical is certain. The Crown derived its revenues from
+feudal dues, customs duties, tallages--that is, special charges on
+particular towns,--and the war tax called the Danegelt; all except the
+first being arbitrary taxes. The violence of King John led to the demand of
+the barons for the Great Charter, the keystone of English liberty, securing
+the persons and property of all freemen from arbitrary imprisonment or
+spoliation. Thenceforth no right of general taxation is claimed. The barons
+held themselves warranted in refusing supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The King's Court was gradually separated into three branches, King's
+Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas. The advance in the study of law had the
+definite effect of establishing a fixed rule of succession to the Crown.
+One point must still be noticed which distinguishes England from other
+European countries; that the law recognises no distinction of class among
+freemen who stand between the peers and villeins.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Edward I. forms an epoch. The Confirmation of the Charters
+put an end to all arbitrary taxation; and the type of the English
+Parliament was fixed. In the Great Councils the prelates and greater barons
+had assembled, and the lesser barons were also summoned; the term baron
+being equivalent to tenant in chief. A system of representation is
+definitely formulated in Montfort's Parliament of 1265. Whether the knights
+were elected by the freemen of the shire or only by the tenants in chief,
+is not clear. Many towns were self governing--independent, that is, of
+local magnates--under charters from the Crown. Montfort's Parliament is the
+first to which towns sent representatives. Edward established the practice
+in his Model Parliament; probably in order to ensure that his demands for
+money from the towns might in appearance at least receive their formal
+assent.</p>
+
+<p>Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of
+Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the
+illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two
+houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of the
+Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public counsellors.
+Under the second heading is introduced a distinction between statutes and
+ordinances; the latter being of a temporary character, and requiring to be
+confirmed by Parliament before they acquire permanent authority. In the
+next reign the Commons assert the right of examining the public
+expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more openly and boldly expressed
+resentment at the acts of the king's ministers and claimed rights of
+control. For a time, however, the king secured supremacy by a coup
+d'&eacute;tat; which in turn brought about his deposition, and the
+accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness of his title to the
+inheritance of the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably
+redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the inclination
+of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely combated. It is also
+to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of war or peace is freely
+submitted to the approval of Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of
+dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the
+practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked
+sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further
+definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.</p>
+
+<p>At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to
+vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the
+towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members
+were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor
+can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued
+for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower
+clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but
+presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in
+Parliamentary business.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The
+court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a
+juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In spite
+of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of arbitrary
+imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a
+monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular
+courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is
+absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a hereditary
+executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The special advantage
+enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an aristocracy with interests
+antagonistic to those of the people. It would be truer to say that the
+liberties of England were bought by money than by the blood of our
+forefathers.</p>
+
+<p>The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and
+an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time of
+the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382, which
+corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie. Sharply
+though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed to have
+been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is here
+sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a statute
+of Henry VII. that obedience to the <i>de facto</i> government is not to be
+punished on the ground that government is not also <i>de jure</i>.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Europe</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language
+as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters was
+practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost
+exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a multitude
+of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the cause of not
+a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The monasteries
+served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of general
+lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is conclusive as to
+the general corruption of morals among the clergy as among the laity. The
+common diversion of the upper classes, lay and clerical, when not engaged
+in actual war, was hunting. An extended commerce was impossible when
+robbery was a normal occupation of the great.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce
+developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the
+Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the
+manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the
+fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen
+manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great
+Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and Southern
+areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century, by which
+time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic in the
+Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a less
+degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard, developed a
+large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was sufficiently
+difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on the sea, and
+piracy was extremely prevalent.</p>
+
+<p>Governments as well as private persons were under a frequent necessity
+of borrowing, and for a long time the great money lenders were the Jews.
+They, however, were later to a great extent displaced by the merchants of
+Lombardy, and the fifteenth century witnesses the rise of the great
+bankers, Italian and German.</p>
+
+<p>The structure and furniture of all buildings for private purposes made
+exceedingly little provision for comfort, offering an extreme contrast to
+the dignity of the public buildings and the sublimity of ecclesiastical
+architecture.</p>
+
+<p>During the last three hundred years of our period it is clear that there
+was a great diminution of the status of servitude and a great increase in
+the privileges extended to corporate towns. Private warfare was checked and
+lawless robbery to a considerable extent restrained. It is tolerably clear
+that the rise of heretical sects were both the cause and the result of
+moral dissatisfaction, tending to the adoption of higher moral standards.
+Some of these sects were cruelly crushed by merciless persecution, as in
+the case of the Albigenses. The doctrines of Wickliffe, however, were never
+stamped out in England; and the form which they took in Bohemia among the
+followers of the martyred John Huss had little about them that was
+beneficial.</p>
+
+<p>The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
+chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour. To
+this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the Crusades. To
+valour and devotion was added the law of service to womanhood, and chivalry
+may fairly claim to have developed generally the three virtues essential to
+it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality. Resting, however, as it did on
+the personal prowess and skill of the individual in single combat, the
+whole system of chivalry was destroyed by the introduction on an extensive
+scale of the use of firearms.</p>
+
+<p>We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
+four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities; the
+application of modern languages to literature, and especially to poetry;
+and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be said to have
+begun with the establishment of the great schools by Charlemagne out of
+which sprang the European universities. For a long time of course all
+studies were dominated by that of theology, and the scholastic philosophy
+which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits were, they kept alive an
+intellectual activity which ultimately found fresh channels. The Romance
+languages developed a new literature first on the tongues of the
+troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which gave birth to Dante and
+Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century that a new enthusiasm was
+born for the study of classical authors, though Greek was still unknown.
+And the final and decisive impulse was given when the invention of printing
+made the great multiplication of books possible.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='STANLEY_LANE_POOLE'></a>STANLEY LANE-POOLE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Egypt_in_the_Middle_Ages'></a>Egypt in the Middle Ages</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied
+Arabic under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before going up
+to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the
+British Museum," which appeared in fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892,
+and founded his reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
+numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo officially employed by
+the British Government upon the Mohammedan antiquities, and published his
+treatise on "The Art of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year he
+visited Stockholm, Helsingfors, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Constantinople
+to examine their Oriental collections. He has written histories of the
+"Moors in Spain," "Turkey," "The Barbary Corsairs," and "Medi&aelig;val India,"
+which have run to many editions; and biographies of Saladin, Babar,
+Aurangzib; of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and Sir Harry Parkes. He has
+also published a miniature Koran in the "Golden Treasury" series, and
+written "Studies in a Mosque," besides editing three volumes of Lane's
+"Arabic Lexicon." For five years he held the post of Professor of Arabic at
+Trinity College, Dublin, of which he is Litt.D. Mohammedan Egypt, his
+special subject, he has treated in several books on Cairo, the latest being
+"The Story of Cairo." But his most complete work on this subject is "The
+History of Egypt in the Middle Ages," here epitomised by the author.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--A Province of the Caliphate</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Ever since the Arab conquest in 641 Egypt has been ruled by Mohammedans,
+and for more than half the time by men of Turkish race. Though now and
+again a strong man has gathered all the reins of control into his own hands
+and been for a time a personal monarch, as a rule the government has been,
+till recent years, a military bureaucracy.</p>
+
+<p>The people, of course, had no voice in the government. The Egyptians
+have never been a self-governing race, and such a dream as constitutional
+democracy was never heard of until a few years ago. By the Arab conquest in
+the seventh century the people merely changed masters. They were probably
+not indisposed to welcome the Moslems as their deliverers from the tyranny
+of the Orthodox Church of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire, invincibly
+intolerant of the native monophysite heresy; and when the conquest was
+complete they found themselves, on the whole, better off than before. They
+paid their taxes to officials with Arabic instead of Greek titles, but the
+taxes were lighter and the amount was strictly laid down by law.</p>
+
+<p>The land-tax of about a pound per acre was not excessive on so fertile a
+soil, and the poll-tax on nonconformity, of the same amount, was a moderate
+price to pay for entire liberty of conscience and freedom in public worship
+guaranteed by solemn treaty. The other taxes were comparatively
+insignificant, and the total revenue in the eighth century was about
+&pound;7,000,000. The surplus went to the caliph, the head of the vast
+Mohammedan empire, which then stretched from Seville to Samarkand, whose
+capital was first Damascus and afterwards Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>For over 200 years (till 868) Egypt was a mere province of this huge
+caliphate, and was governed, like other provinces, with a sole view to
+revenue. "Milk till the udder be dry and let blood to the last drop" was a
+caliph's instructions to a governor of Egypt. As these governors were
+constantly changed--there were sixty-seven in 118 years under the Abbasid
+caliphs of Baghdad--and as a governor's main object was to "make hay while
+the sun shines," the process of milking the Egyptian cow was often
+accelerated by illegal extortion, and the governor's harvest was reaped
+before it was due. Illegality was, however, checked to some extent by the
+generally wise and just influence of the chief justice, or kadi, whose
+probity often formed the best feature of the Arab government in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did the caliphs extort taxes without giving something in return. The
+development of irrigation works was always a main consideration with the
+early Mohammedan rules, from Spain to India, and in Egypt, where irrigation
+is the country's very life, it was specially cared for, with a
+corresponding increase in the yield. Moreover, the governors usually held
+to the agreement that the Christians should have liberty of conscience, and
+protected them from the Moslem soldiery. As time went on, this toleration
+abated, partly because the Moslems had gradually become the predominant
+population. At the beginning the caliphs had taken anxious precautions
+against the colonising of Egypt; they held it by an army, but they were
+insistent that the army should not take root, but be always free to join
+the caliph's standard. But it was inevitable that the Arabs should settle
+in so fertile and pleasant a land. Each governor brought a small army as
+his escort, and these Arab troops naturally intermarried with Egyptian
+women, who were constitutionally inclined to such alliances. A few Arab
+tribes also settled in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>This gradual and undesigned Arabising of the country would lead to
+oppression of the Christians, to the "squeezing" of wealthy natives, and
+occasionally to the institution of humiliating distinctions of dress and
+other vexations, and even to the spoiling of Coptic churches. Then
+sometimes the Copts, as the Egyptian Christians are called, would rebel.
+Their last and greatest rebellion, which occurred in the Delta in 830-832,
+was ruthlessly trampled out by Turkish troops under Mamun, the only Abbasid
+caliph who made a visit to Egypt. Many Copts now apostatised, and from this
+time dates the predominance of the Moslem population and the settling of
+Arabs in the villages and on the land, instead of as heretofore only in the
+two or three large towns.</p>
+
+<p>The coming of the Turkish troops with the caliph Mamun was an ominous
+event for the country. Up to 846 all the successive governors had been
+Arabs, and many of them were related to the caliphs themselves. With some
+unfortunate exceptions, they seem to have been men of simple habits--the
+Arabs were never luxurious--and usually of strict Mohammedan principles.
+They made money, honestly if possible, during their brief tenure; but they
+did not harass the people much by their personal interference, and left the
+local officials to manage matters in their own way, as had always been the
+custom. They lived at the new capital, Fustat, which grew up on the site of
+the conqueror's camp, and very near the modern Cairo; for Alexandria, the
+symbol of Roman domination, was dismantled in 645 after the Emperor
+Manuel's attempt at reconquest. If they did not do much active good, they
+did little harm, and Egypt pursued her immemorial ways.</p>
+
+<p>The last Arab governor, Anbasa, was a man of fine character, and his
+term of office was distinguished by the building of the fort of Damietta,
+as a protection against Roman raids, and by a defeat of the tributary
+Sudanis near Dongola.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Turkish Governors</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Arabs have neither the ferocity nor the luxuriousness, nor, it
+should be added, the courage and the genius for administration of the
+Turkish race. In the arrival of Turkish troops in 830 we see a symptom of
+what was going on all over the eastern caliphate. Turks were taking the
+place of Arabs in the army and the provincial governments, just as the
+Persians were filling up the civil appointments. The caliph's Turkish
+bodyguard was the beginning of the dismemberment of the caliphate. It
+became the habit of the caliphs to grant the government of Egypt, as a sort
+of fief, to a leading Turkish officer, who usually appointed a deputy to do
+his work and to pay him the surplus revenue. Such a deputy was
+Ahmad-ibn-Tulun (868-884), the first of the many Turkish despots of Egypt.
+Ibn-Tulun was the first ruler to raise Egypt from a mere tax-paying
+appendage of the caliphate to a kingdom, independent save for the
+recognition of the caliph on the coinage, and he was the first to found a
+Moslem dynasty there. A man of fair Mohammedan education, iron will, and
+ubiquitous personal attention to affairs, he added Syria to his dominions,
+defeated the East Romans with vast slaughter near Tarsus (883), kept an
+army of 30,000 Turkish slaves and a fleet of a hundred fighting ships.</p>
+
+<p>He beautified his capital by building a sumptuous palace and his
+well-known mosque, which still stands in his new royal suburb of Katai; he
+encouraged the small farmers and reduced the taxation, yet he left five
+millions in the treasury when he died in 884. His son maintained his power,
+and more than his luxury and artistic extravagance; but there were no
+elements of stability in the dynasty, which depended solely upon the
+character of the ruler. The next generation saw Egypt once more (905) a
+mere province of the caliphate, but with this difference, that its
+governors were now Turks, generally under the control of their own
+soldiery, and much less dependent upon the ever-weakening power of the
+Caliph of Baghdad. One of them, the Ikhshid, in 935 emulated Ibn-Tulun and
+united part of Syria to Egypt; but the sons he left were almost children,
+and the power fell into the hands of the regent Kafur, a black eunuch from
+the Sudan, bought for &pound;25, who combined a luxurious and cultivated
+court with some military successes and real administrative capacity.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Fatimid Caliphs</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Mohammedan world is roughly divided into Sunnis and Shia. The Shia
+are the idealists, the mystics of Islam; the Sunnis are the formalists, the
+schoolmen. The Shia trace an apostolic succession from Ali, the husband of
+the prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima, hold doctrines of immanence and
+illumination, adopt an allegorical interpretation of scripture, and believe
+in the coming of a Mahdi or Messiah. The Sunnis adhere to the elective
+historical caliphate descended from Mohammed's uncle, maintain the eternal
+uncreated sufficiency of the Koran, literally interpreted, and believe in
+no Messiah save Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>The Shia, whatever their racial origin, form the Persian, the Aryan,
+adaptation of Islam, which is an essentially Semitic creed. In the tenth
+century they had established a caliph among the Berbers at Kayrawan (908).
+They had thence invaded Egypt with temporary success in 914 and 919. When
+the death of Kafur in 968 left the country a prey to rival military
+factions, the fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the Fatimid
+caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from Fatima--sent his
+army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the sport of Turkish
+mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just as the Copts had
+welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the Fatimid general,
+entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a name still applied
+both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations in 969, and immediately
+laid the foundations of the fortified palace which he named,
+astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir), El-Kahira, "the Martial," or
+"the Victorious," which gradually expanded to the city of Cairo. He also
+founded the great historic university mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by
+the heretical Shia, became the bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the
+theological centre of orthodox Islam.</p>
+
+<p>The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
+Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like the
+Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and recognised
+the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of their
+hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force extreme Shia
+doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with its graduated
+stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they were content to
+add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary Mohammedan ritual, and to
+set them conspicuously on their coinage, without entering upon a
+propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems apparently preserved their
+orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate for two centuries with
+traditional composure. The Christian Copts found the new
+<i>r&eacute;gime</i> a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
+in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with the
+local heads of the Christian religion.</p>
+
+<p>The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
+Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
+attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
+Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
+Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly due,
+of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and accountants, for
+Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had rest under this wise
+and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example in his luxury and love
+of display, he unquestionably maintained law, enforced equity, punished
+corruption, and valiantly defended his kingdom. He fitted out a fleet of
+600 sail at Maks (then the port of Cairo, on the Nile), which kept the
+Emperor Basil at a distance and assured the caliph's ascendancy from end to
+end of the Mediterranean Sea.</p>
+
+<p>After these two great rulers the Fatimid caliphate subsisted for nearly
+two centuries by no virtue or energy of its own. The caliphs lived
+secluded, like veiled prophets, in their huge palace at Cairo, given over
+to sensual delights (Saladin found 12,000 women in the Great Palace when he
+entered it in 1171), and wholly regardless of their kingdom, which they
+left to the care of vezirs, who were chiefly bent on making their own
+fortunes, though there were many able, and a few honest men amongst them.
+The real power rested with the army, and the only check upon the tyranny
+and debauchery of the army lay in its own jealous divisions. The fanatical
+Berber regiments imported from Tunis, the bloody blacks recruited in the
+Sudan, and the mutinous Turkish troops long established in the country,
+were always at daggers drawn, and their rivalry was the vezirs'
+opportunity. In such anarchy the country fell from bad to worse.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Hakim, the frantic son of Aziz and his Christian wife, was
+a personal despotism of the most eccentric kind, marked by apparently
+unreasonable regulations, such as keeping the shops open by night instead
+of by day, and confining all women to the house for seven years, as well as
+by intermittent persecution of Christians and Jews; and also by enlightened
+acts, such as the founding of the Hall of Science and the building of
+mosques, for all the Fatimides were friends to the arts; and ending in the
+proclamation of Hakim as the incarnation of the Divine Reason, in which
+capacity he is still adored by the Druses of the Lebanon. This assumption
+led to popular tumults and an orgy of carnage, in the midst of which Hakim
+mysteriously disappeared (1021).</p>
+
+<p>His successors, Zahir (1021-1036), and Mustansir (1036-1096) did nothing
+to retrieve the anarchic situation, of which the soldiers were the unruly
+masters. Palace cliques, disastrous famines (one of which lasted seven
+years, 1066-1072, and even led to the public selling of human joints as
+butcher's meat), slave, or rather freedmen's, revolts, military tumults,
+and the occasional temporary ascendancy of a talented vezir, sum up the
+history of Egypt during most of the eleventh century. The wisdom and
+firmness of two great Armenian vezirs, Bedr-el-Gemali (1073-1094) and his
+son Afdal (1094-1121), brought a large degree of order, but the last years
+of the Fatimid caliphate were blotted by savage murders both of caliphs and
+vezirs, and by the loss of their Syrian dominions to Seljuks and
+Crusaders.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The House of Saladin</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It was a question whether Egypt would fall to the Christian king of
+Jerusalem or the Moslem king of Damascus; but, after several invasions by
+both, Nur-ed-din settled the problem by sending his Syrian army to Cairo in
+1169, when the Crusaders withdrew without offering battle, and the Fatimid
+caliphate came to an end in 1171.</p>
+
+<p>On the Syrian general's death, two months after the conquest, his
+nephew, Salah-ed-din ibn-Ayyub (Saladin), succeeded to the vezirate, and
+after Nur-ed-din's death, in 1174, he made himself independent sultan, not
+only of Egypt but of Syria and Mesopotamia. Saladin was a Kurd from the
+Tigris districts; but his training and his following were purely Turkish,
+moulded on the Seljuk model, and recruited largely from the Seljuk lands.
+His fame was won outside Egypt, and only eight of the twenty-four years of
+his reign were spent in Cairo; the rest was passed in waging wars in Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and Palestine, culminating in the catastrophic defeat of the
+Crusaders near Tiberias in 1187, and the conquest of Jerusalem and all of
+the Holy Land.</p>
+
+<p>The famous crusade of Richard I., though it resulted only in recovering
+a strip of coast from Acre to Jaffa, and did not rescue Jerusalem, wore out
+Saladin's strength, and in 1193 the chivalrous and magnanimous "Soldan"
+died. In Egypt his chief work, after repressing revolts of black troops and
+Shia conspiracies, and repelling successive naval attacks on Damietta and
+Alexandria by the Eastern emperor and the kings of Jerusalem and Sicily,
+was the building of the Citadel of Cairo after the model of Norman
+fortresses in Syria, and the encouragement of Sunni orthodoxy by the
+founding and endowment of medresas, or theological colleges. The people,
+who had never been really converted to the Fatimid creed, accepted the
+latest reformation with their habitual nonchalance. This was really the
+greatest achievement of Saladin and his house. Cairo succeeded to Baghdad
+and Cordova as the true metropolis of Islam, and Egypt has remained true to
+the most narrow school of orthodoxy ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
+half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
+brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for a
+quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able son
+Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's frequent
+absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the discredited
+Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure of Damietta was
+a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to defeat the "Franks" at
+Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
+Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with him
+in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to Christians, and
+listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he granted trading
+concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established a consulate at
+Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem learning, built
+colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in every way. What had
+happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the Fatimides, was
+repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne successively till
+1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade, the salvation of Egypt
+devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves, who had formed the
+<i>corps d'&eacute;lite</i> of Saladin's army.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Mamluks</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Political women have played a great r&ocirc;le in Egypt from Hatshepsut
+and Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
+engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
+Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
+Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
+Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
+she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice against a
+woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and a half one
+Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he could, and
+sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that forty-eight
+sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the river," so
+called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and twenty-three Burgis,
+named after the burg, or citadel, where their quarters originally were),
+succeeded one another from 1250 to 1517, it will be seen that their average
+reign was but three and a half years. The throne, in fact, belonged to the
+man with the longest sword.</p>
+
+<p>The bravest and richest generals and court officials surrounded
+themselves with bands of warrior slaves, and reached a power almost equal
+to the reigning sultan, who was, in fact, only <i>primus inter pares</i>,
+and on his death--usually by assassination--they fought for his title. All
+were alike slaves by origin, but this term implied no degradation. Any
+slave with courage and address had the chance of becoming a freedman,
+rising to influence, and climbing into his master's seat. Every man was
+every other man's equal--if he could prove it; but the process of proving
+it often turned Cairo into a shambles.</p>
+
+<p>The Mamluks were physically superb, a race of born soldiers, dashing
+horsemen, skilled leaders, brilliant alike in battle and in all manly
+sports. They were at the same time the most luxurious of men, heavy
+drinkers, debauched sensualists, magnificent in their profusion, in their
+splendid prodigality in works of art and luxury, and in the munificence
+with which they filled their capital with noble monuments of the most
+exquisite Saracenic architecture. Most of the beautiful mosques of Cairo
+were built by these truculent soldiers, all foreigners, chiefly Turks, a
+caste apart, with no thought for the native Egyptians whose lands they
+received as fiefs from the sultan; with no mercy when ambition called for
+secret assassination or wholesale massacre; yet fastidious in dress,
+equipment, and manners, given to superb pageants, laborious in business,
+and fond of music and poetry. Their orthodoxy is attested not only by their
+innumerable religious foundations and endowments, but by their importing
+into Cairo a line of Abbasid caliphs--<i>fain&eacute;ants</i> indeed, but
+in a manner representative of the great caliphs of Baghdad, extinguished by
+the Mongols in 1258--and in maintaining them till the Ottoman sultan
+usurped their very nominal authority as Commanders of the Faithful.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest of all the Mamluks was Beybars (1260-1277). He it was who
+had charged St. Louis's knights at Mansura in 1249, and afterwards helped
+to rout the Mongol hordes at the critical battle of Goliath's Spring in
+1260; and he was the real founder of the Mamluk empire, and organised and
+consolidated his wide dominions so skilfully and firmly that all the
+follies and jealousies and crimes of his successors could not destroy the
+fabric. He made his army perfect in discipline, built a navy, made canals,
+roads, and bridges, annexed Nubia, organised a regular postal service,
+built fortifications, mosques, colleges, halls of justice, and managed
+everything, from the fourth cataract of the Nile and the Holy Cities of
+Arabia to the Pyramus and the Euphrates, by his immense capacity for work
+and amazing rapidity of movements.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt prospered exceedingly under his just, firm, and capable rule; he
+was severe to immorality and strictly prohibited wine, beer, and hashish.
+He entered into diplomatic relations with European powers to the great
+advantage of his country's trade; and his bravery, munificence, and justice
+have made him a popular hero in Arabic romances down to the present
+day.</p>
+
+<p>None of his successors approached his high example Khalil indeed
+recovered Acre and all that remained of the Crusader's possessions in
+Palestine, and the Mamluks, who never lost their soldierly qualities
+whoever happened to be their nominal ruler, handsomely defeated the Mongols
+again in 1299 and 1303, and for ever saved Egypt from the unspeakable curse
+of a Mongol conquest Nasir, whose reign covers most of the first half of
+the fourteenth century, was a great builder, and so were many of the nobles
+of his court. It was the golden age of Saracenic architecture, and Cairo is
+still full of the monuments of Nasir's emirs. He encouraged agriculture,
+stockbreeding, farming, falconry, as well as literature and art,
+everything, in short, except vice, wine, and Christians.</p>
+
+<p>The Burgi, or Circassian Mamluks (1382-1517), were little more than
+chief among the emirs. Widespread corruption, the open sale of high offices
+and of "justice," and general debauchery characterised their rule. Yet they
+built many of the loveliest mosques in Cairo, and the conquest of Cyprus,
+long a nest of Mediterranean piracy, by Bars Bey in 1426 may be added to
+their credit. Kait Bey (1468-1496) was a great builder, and in every way a
+wise, brave, and energetic, public-spirited sovereign, and was an exception
+to the general baseness.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt was rich in his day. The European trade had swelled enormously,
+and the duties brought in a prodigious revenue. The Italian Republics had
+their consulates or their marts in Alexandria, and Marseilles, Narbonne,
+and Catalonia sent their representatives. The Indian trade was also very
+considerable; we read of &pound;36,000 paid at one time in customs dues at
+Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan took toll on
+every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in the palmy days
+that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route in 1497. It was
+an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not resigned without a
+struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off Chaul in the Bay of
+Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida avenged the honour of his
+country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral Hoseyn off Diu in the
+following year, and the prolific transit trade of Egypt was to a great
+extent lost.</p>
+
+<p>This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
+dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
+defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion. But
+the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of Constantinople in
+1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and, after defeating the shah
+of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt was only a matter of time.
+The victory was made easier by jealousies and treachery among the Mamluks.
+Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant troops in a battle near Aleppo in
+August 1516; a last desperate stand of the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill
+at Cairo in January 1517, was overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a
+province of the Turkish empire. Such it remains, formally, to this day.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='RAPHAEL_HOLINSHED'></a>RAPHAEL HOLINSHED</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Chronicles_of_England_Scotland_and_Ireland'></a>Chronicles of
+England, Scotland, and Ireland</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the
+most celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
+Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period of English
+history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain from the earliest times,
+and carried on until the reign of Elizabeth, in the course of which,
+between 1580 and 1584, Holinshed died. The work did good service to
+Shakespeare, who drew from it much of the material for his historical
+plays. The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
+another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John Hooker and
+others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the foreword to which the
+"Chronicles" are described as containing "the most curious and authentic
+account of the manners and customs of our island in the reign of Henry
+VIII. and Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer this
+is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope of this work, it
+is impossible to convey an impression of the whole, which is best
+represented by means of selected examples of the chronicler's method. Being
+the work of so many different authors, the literary quality of the
+"Chronicles" naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
+them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs of early
+England. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William
+Brooke, Knight</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
+down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed in
+the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to yeeld to
+their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I condescended to it,
+and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good, although no gaie
+success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor regard the substance
+of that which is here declared, I must needs confess that it is none of
+mine owne; but if your lordship have consideration of the barbarous
+composition shewed herein, that I may boldlie claim and challenge for mine
+owne. Certes, I protest before God and your Honor, that I never made any
+choise of stile, or words, neither regarded to handle this Treatise in such
+precise order and method as manie other would have done, thinking it
+sufficient, truelie and plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to
+intreat of, rather than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a
+rotten sepulchre, a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable
+to the reader. But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto
+the truth of things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled
+Treatise of mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the
+self-same argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
+sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture, more
+or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of forreine
+inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold commodities have
+oft allured sundrie princes and famous capteines of the world to conquer
+and subdue the same unto their owne subjection. Manie sorts of people
+therefore have come in hither and settled themselves here in this Ile, and
+first of all other, a parcell of the lineage and posteritie of Japhet,
+brought in by Samothes, in the 1910 after the creation of Adam. Howbeit in
+process of time, and after they had indifferentlie replenished and
+furnished this Iland with people, Albion, the giant, repaired hither with a
+companie of his owne race proceeding from Cham, and not onelie annexed the
+same to his owne dominion, but brought all such as he found here of the
+line of Japhet, into miserable servitude and most extreame thraldome. After
+him also, and within lesse than six hundred and two yeares, came Brute, the
+son of Sylvius, with a great train of the posteritie of the dispersed
+Trojans in 324 ships; who rendering the like courtesie unto Chemminits as
+they had done before unto the seed of Japhet, brought them also wholie
+under his rule and governance, and dispossessing them he divided the
+countrie among such princes and capteines as he had led out of Grecia with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Then after some further space of time the Roman Emperours subdued the
+land to their dominion; and after the coming of the Romans, it is hard to
+say with how manie sorts of people we were dailie pestered. For their
+armies did commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I may
+call them) a confused mixture of all other countries and nations then
+living in the world. Howbeit I thinke it best, because they did all beare
+the title of Romans, to retaine onelie that name for them all, albeit they
+were wofull guests to this our Iland: sith that with them came all kinds of
+vice, all riot and excess of behaviour into our countrie, which their
+legions brought with them from each corner of their dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Then did follow the Saxons, and the Danes, and at last the Normans, of
+whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to our
+countrymen than the Danes, or more heavie and intollerable to our Iland
+than the Saxons or the Romans. For they were so cruellie bent to our utter
+subversion and overthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse reproach to be
+accounted a slave than an Englishman, or a drudge in anie filthie businesse
+than a Britaine: insomuch that everie French page was superiour to the
+greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishman's life but a pastime to such
+of them as contended in their braverie who should give the greatest strokes
+or wounds unto their bodies when their toiling and drudgerie could not
+please them or satisfie their greedie humours. Yet such was our lot in
+those daies by the divine appointed order, that we must needs obey such as
+the Lord did set pyer us, and this all because we refused grace offered in
+time, and would not heare when God by his preachers did call us so
+favourablie unto him.</p>
+
+<p>By all this then we perceive, how from time to time this Hand hath not
+onelie been a prey, but as it were a common receptacle for strangers, the
+naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter, till in
+the end they came not onelie to be driven into a corner of this region, but
+in time also verie like utterlie to have been extinguished. Thus we see how
+England hath been manie times subject to the reproach of conquest. And
+whereas the Scots seeme to challenge manie famous victories also over us,
+it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in this as in the most part of
+their historie, which is to seeke great honour by lying, and great renown
+by prating and craking. Indeed they have done great mischief in this Hand,
+and with extreime crueltie; but as for anie conquest the first is yet to
+heare of.</p>
+
+<p>But beside those conquests aforementioned, Huntingdon, the old
+historiographer, speaketh of another, likelie (as he saith) to come one
+daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no man to good, sith
+nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger and much cold.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Of King Richard, the First, and his Journie to the Holie
+Land</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Richard the First of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the Second,
+began his reign over England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of our Lord
+1189. He received the crowne with all due and accustomed sollemnitie, at
+the hands of Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterburie, the third daie of
+September.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this daie of King Richard's coronation, the Jewes that dwelt in
+London and in other parts of the realme, being there assembled, had but
+sorie hap, as it chanced. For they meaning to honour the same coronation
+with their presence, and to present to the king some honourable gift,
+whereby they might declare themselves glad for his advancement, and procure
+his freendship towards them, for the confirming of their privileges and
+liberties; he of a zealous mind to Christes religion, abhorring their
+nation (and doubting some sorcerie by them to be practised) commanded that
+they should not come within the church when he should receive the crowne,
+nor within the palace whilest he was at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>But at dinner-time, among other that pressed in at the palace gate,
+diverse of the Jews were about to thrust in, till one of them was striken
+by a Christian, who alledging the king's commandment, kept them backe from
+comming within the palace. Which some of the unrulie people, perceiving,
+and supposing it had been done by the king's commandement, tooke lightlie
+occasion thereof, and falling upon the Jewes with staves, bats, and stones,
+beat them and chased them home to their houses and lodgings. Then did they
+set fire on the houses, and the Jewes within were either smoldred and
+burned to death within, or else at their comming forth most cruellie
+received upon the points of speares, billes, and swords of their
+adversaries that watched for them verie diligentlie. This great riot well
+deserved sere and grievous punishment, but yet it passed over without
+correction, because of the hatred generallie conceived against the
+obstinate frowardnesse of the Jewes. Finallie, after the tumult was ceased,
+the king commanded that no man should hurt or harm any of the Jewes, and so
+they were restored to peace after they had susteined infinit damage.</p>
+
+<p>No great while after this his coronation, the king sought to prepare
+himself to journey to the holie land, and to this end he had great need of
+money. Therefore he made such sale of things appertaining to him, as well
+in right of the crowne, as otherwise, that it seemed to divers that he made
+his reckoning never to return agan, in so much that some of his councillors
+told him plainelie, that he did not well in making things awaie so freelie;
+unto whom he answered "that in time of need it was no evill policie for a
+man to help himself with his owne." and further, "that if London at that
+time of need would be bought, he would surelie sell it, if he might meet
+with a convenient merchant that were able to give him monie enough for
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Then all things being readie, King Richard set forth, and, after great
+hindrance by tempests, and at the hands of the men of Cyprus, who warred
+against him and were overcome, he came to the citie of Acres, which then
+was besieged by the Christian armie. Such was the valiancie of King Richard
+shown in manfull constraining of the citie, that his praise was greatly
+bruted both amongst the Christians and also the Saracens.</p>
+
+<p>At last, on the twelfth date of Julie, in the yeare of grace 1192, the
+citie of Acres was surrendered into the Christian men's hands. These things
+being concluded, the French King Philip, upon envie and malice conceived
+against King Richard (although he pretended sickness for excuse) departed
+homewards. Now touching this departure, divers occasions are remembered by
+writers of the emulation and secret spite which he should bear towards King
+Richard. But, howsoever, it came to passe, partlie through envie (as hath
+beene thought) conceived at the great deeds of King Richard, whose mightie
+power and valiantnesse he could not well abide, and partlie for other
+respects him moving, he took the sea with three gallies of the Genevois,
+and returned into Italie, and so home into France, having promised first
+unto King Richard in the holie land, and after to pope Celestine at Rome,
+that he would not attempt any hurtfull enterprise against the English
+dominions, till King Richard should be returned out of the holie land. But
+this promise was not kept, for he sought to procure Earle John, King
+Richard's brother, to rebell against him, though he then sought it in
+vaine.</p>
+
+<p>Yet were matters nowise peacefull within the realme of England, and
+because of this, and likewise because the froward humours of the French so
+greatlie hindered him in warring against the Saracens, King Richard
+determined fullie to depart homewards, and at last there was a peace
+concluded with Saladin. But on his journie homewards the King had but sorie
+hap, for he made shipwracke on the coast of Istria, and then fell into
+captivitie; and this was the manner that it came to passe.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Of King Richard's Captivitie</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>King Richard, doubting to fall into the hands of those who might bear
+him ill-will, made the best shift he could to passe through quietlie, yet
+were many of his servants made captive, and he himself came with but three
+men to Vienna. There causing his servants to provide meat for him more
+sumptuous and fine than was thought requisite for so meane a person as he
+counterfeited then, he was straightway remarked, and some gave knowledge to
+the Duke of Austrich named Leopold, who loved him not for some matter that
+had passed in the holie land. Moreover, his page, going about the towne to
+change gold, and buy vittels, bewraied him, having by chance the King's
+gloves under his girdle: whereupon, being examined, for fear of tortures he
+confessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke sent men to apprehend him, but he, being warie that he was
+descried, got him to his weapon; but they alledging the Duke's
+commandement, he boldly answered, "that sith he must be taken, he being a
+King, would yeeld himselfe to none of the companie but to the Duke alone."
+The Duke hearing of this, speedilie came unto him, whom he meeting,
+delivered up his sword, and committed him unto his custodie. Then was he
+brought before the princes and lords of the empire, in whose presence the
+emperour charged him with diverse unlawfull doings. King Richard
+notwithstanding the vaine and frivolous objections laid to his charge, made
+his answers always so pithilie and directlie to all that could be laid
+against him, and excused himself e in everie point so thoroughlie, that the
+emperour much marvelled at his high wisdom and prudence, and not onelie
+greatlie commended him for the same, but from thenceforth used him more
+courteously. Yet did King Richard perceive that no excuses would serve, but
+that he must paie to his covetous host some great summe of monie for his
+hard entertainment. Therefore he sent the bishop of Salisburie into England
+to provide for the paiment of his ransome.</p>
+
+<p>Finallie the King, after he had beene prisoner one yeare, six weekes,
+and three daies, was set at libertie on Candle-mass day, and then with long
+and hastie journies, not keeping the high waies, he hasted forth towards
+England. It is reported that if he had lingered by the way, he had beene
+eftsoones apprehended. For the emperour being incensed against him by
+ambassadors that came from the French king, immediatlie after he was set
+forward, began to repent himselfe in that he had suffered him so soon to
+depart from him, and hereupon sent men after him with all speed to bring
+him backe if they could by any means overtake him, meaning as then to have
+kept him in perpetual prison. But these his knavish tricks being in the
+good providence of God defeated, King Richard at length in good safetie
+landed at Sandwich, and the morrow after came to Canterburie, where he was
+received with procession. From thence he came unto London, where he was
+received with great joy and gladnesse of the people, giving heartie thanks
+to almightie God for his safe return and deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>The same yeare that King Richard was taken by the Duke of Austrich, one
+night in the month of Januarie about the first watch of the night, the
+northwest side of the element appeared of such a ruddie colour as though it
+had burned, without any clouds or other darknesse to cover it, so that the
+stars showed through that redness and might be verie well discerned.
+Diverse bright strakes appeared to flash upwards now and then, dividing the
+rednesse, through the which the stars seemed to be of a bright sanguine
+colour.</p>
+
+<p>In Februarie next insuing, one night after midnight the like wonder was
+seene and shortlie after newes came that the king was taken in Almaigne.
+And the same daie and selfe houre that the king arrived at Sandwich,
+whitest the sunne shone verie bright and cleare, there appeared a most
+brightsome and unaccustomed clearnesse, not farre distant from the sunne,
+as it were to the length and breadth of a man's personage, having a red
+shining brightnesse withall, like to the rainbow, which strange sight when
+manie beheld, there were that prognosticated the king alreadie to be
+arrived.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Of Good Queen Elisabeth, and How She Came into Her
+Kingdom</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After all the stormie, tempestuous, and blustering windie weather of
+Queene Marie was overblowne, the darksome clouds of discomfort dispersed,
+the palpable fogs and mists of most intollerable miserie consumed, and the
+dashing showers of persecution overpast, it pleased God to send England a
+calm and quiet season, a cleare and lovelie sunshine, and a world of
+blessings by good Queene Elisabeth, into whose gracious reign we are now to
+make an happie entrance as followeth.</p>
+
+<p>On her entering the citie of London, she was received of the people with
+prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, and tender words, all which argued a
+wonderfull earnest love of most obedient subjects towards their sovereign.
+And on the other side, her grace, by holding up her hands, and merrie
+countenance to such as stood farre off, and most tender and gentle language
+to those that stood nigh unto her grace, did declare herselfe no lesse
+thankfullie to receive her people's good will, than they lovinglie offered
+it to her. And it was not onelie to those her subjects who were of noble
+birth that she showed herself thus verie gracious, but also to the poorest
+sort. How manie nose gaies did her grace receive at poore women's hands?
+How oftentimes staid she her chariot, when she saw anie simple bodie offer
+to speake to her grace? A branch of rosemarie given her grace with a
+supplication about Fleetbridge, was seene in her chariot till her grace
+came to Westminster, not without the marvellous wondering of such as knew
+the presenter, and noted the queene's most gracious receiving and keeping
+the same. Therefore may the poore and needie looke for great hope at her
+grace's hand, who hath shown so loving a carefulnesse for them.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, because princes be set in their seat by God's appointing, and
+they must therefore first and chieflie tender the glorie of Him from whom
+their glorie issueth; it is to be noted in her grace that for so much as
+God hath so wonderfullie placed her in the seat of government of this
+realme, she in all her doings doth show herselfe most mindful of His
+goodness and mercie shewed unto her. And one notable signe thereof her
+grace gave at the verie time of her passage through London, for in the
+Tower, before she entered her chariot, she lifted up her eies to Heaven and
+saith as followeth:</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord Almightie and everlasting God, I give Thee most heartie thanks
+that Thou hast beene so mercifull unto me as to spare me to behold this joy
+full daie. And I acknowledge that Thou hast dealt as wonderfullie and as
+mercifullie with me as Thou diddest with Thy true and faithfull servant
+Daniell Thy prophet, whom Thou deliveredst out of the den from the crueltie
+of the greedie and raging lions; even so was I overwhelmed, and onlie by
+Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, onlie be thankes, honor, and praise,
+for ever. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>On Sundaie, the five and twentieth daie of Januarie, her majestie was
+with great solemnitie crowned at Westminster, in the Abbey church there, by
+doctor Oglethorpe bishop of Carlisle. She dined in Westminster hall, which
+was richlie hung, and everything ordered in such royall manner, as to such
+a regall and most solemn feast appertained. In the meane time, whilst her
+grace sat at dinner, Sir Edward Dimmocke, knight, her champion by office,
+came riding into the hall in faire complete armour, mounted upon a
+beautifull courser, richlie trapped in cloth of gold, and in the midst of
+the hall cast downe his gauntlet, with offer to fight in her quarell with
+anie man that should denie her to be the righteous and lawfull queene of
+this realme. The queene, taking a cup of gold full of wine, dranke to him
+thereof, and sent it to him for his fee. Finallie, this feast being
+celebrated with all due and fitting royall ceremonies, tooke end with great
+joy and contentation to all the beholders.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, though there was thus an end of the ceremonies befitting the
+queene's coronation, her majesty was everywhere received with brave shows,
+and with pageants, all for the love and respect that her subjects bare her.
+Thus on Whitsundaie, in the first year of her reign, the citizens of London
+set forth a muster before the queene's majestie at Greenwich in the parke
+there, of the number of 1,400 men, whereof 800 were pikes, armed in fine
+corselets, 400 shot in shirts of mail, and 200 halberdiers armed in Almaine
+rivets; these were furnished forth by the crafts and companies of the
+citie. To everie hundred two wifflers were assigned, richlie appointed and
+apparelled for the purpose. There were also twelve wardens of the best
+companies mounted on horsebacke in coates of blacke velvet, to conduct
+them, with drums and fifes, and sixe ensigne all in lerkins of white sattin
+of Bridges, cut and lined with black sarsenet, and caps, hosen, and scarfs
+according. The sergeant-majors, captaine Constable, and captaine Sanders,
+brought them in order before the queene's presence, placing them in battell
+arraie, even as they should have fought; so the shew was verie faire, the
+emperour's and the French king's ammbassadors being present.</p>
+
+<p>Verilie the queene hath ever shown herself forward and most willing that
+her faithfull subjects should be readie and skilfull in war as in peace.
+Thus in the fourteenth yeare of her reign, by order of her council, the
+citizens of London, assembling in their several halles, the masters chose
+out the most likelie and active persons of their companies to be pikemen
+and shot. To these were appointed diverse valiant captaines, who to train
+them up in warlike feats, mustered them thrice everie weeke, sometimes in
+the artillerie yard, teaching the gunners to handle their pieces, sometimes
+at the Miles end, and in saint George's field, teaching them to
+skirmish.</p>
+
+<p>In the arts of peace likewise, she is greatlie pleased with them who are
+good craftsmen, and shews them favour. In government we have peace and
+securitie, and do not greatlie fear those who may stir up wicked rebellion
+within our land, or may come against us from beyond the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In brief, they of Norwich did say well, when the queene's majestie came
+thither, and in a pageant in her honour, one spake these words:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+"Dost them not see the joie of all this flocke?<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome cheere,<br
+/>
+Be still (good queene) their refuge and their rocke,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As they are thine to serve in love and feare;<br />
+So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."<br
+/>
+</blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_A_FREEMAN'></a>EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Norman_Conquest_of_England'></a>The Norman Conquest of
+England</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne,
+Staffordshire, England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
+remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at eleven he
+had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had taught himself the
+rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune in 1848 enabled him to settle
+down and devote himself to historical research, and from that time until
+his death on March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
+strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in two volumes
+of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which appeared in 1849.
+Freeman's reputation as historian rests principally on his monumental
+"History of the Norman Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes
+between 1867 and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
+by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an extraordinary
+degree of insight. His historical scenes are remarkably clear and vivid, as
+though, according to one critic "he had actually lived in the times."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>Preliminary Events</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
+history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that which
+belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands by
+itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional period in
+the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been only Teutonic,
+was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and speech of the
+Romance nations.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when Pope and C&aelig;sar held each other in the
+death grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
+barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection with
+the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less immediate
+change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled, or enslaved
+the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when Africa was subdued
+by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate change than the conquest of
+Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with it not only a new dynasty, but
+a new nobility. It did not expel or transplant the English nation or any
+part of it; but it gradually deprived the leading men and families of
+England of their land and offices, and thrust them down into a secondary
+position under the alien intruders.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be forgotten that the old English constitution survived the
+Norman Conquest. What the constitution had been under the Saxon Eadgar,
+that it remained under William. The laws, with a few changes in detail, and
+also the language of the public documents, remained the same. The powers
+vested in King William and his Witan remained constitutionally the same as
+those which had been vested in King Eadgar and his Witan a hundred years
+before. Immense changes ensued in social condition and administration, and
+in the relation of the kingdom to foreign lands. There was also a vast
+increase of royal power, and new relations were introduced between the king
+and every class of his subjects; but formal constitutional changes there
+were none.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot too often repeat, for the saying is the very summing up of the
+whole history, that the Norman Conquest was not the wiping out of the
+constitution, the laws, the language, the national life of Englishmen. The
+English kingship gradually changed from the old Teutonic to the later
+medi&aelig;val type; but the change began before the Norman Conquest. It
+was hastened by that event; it was not completed till long after it, and
+the gradual transition, was brought to perfection by Henry II.</p>
+
+<p>Certain events indicate the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. The
+accession of Eadward at once brings us among the events that led
+immediately to that conquest, or rather we may look on the accession of
+this Saxon king as the first stage of the conquest itself. Swend and Cnut,
+the Danes, had shown that it was possible for a foreign power to overcome
+England by force of arms.</p>
+
+<p>The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut hindered the formation of a
+lasting Danish dynasty in England. The throne of Cerdic was again filled by
+a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the
+country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient
+nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly
+opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best,
+wittingly or unwillingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by
+accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers--not national kinsmen like
+Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and
+manners--enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once
+more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could not
+altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of Eadward.
+With Eadward, then, the Norman Conquest really begins. The men of the
+generation before the Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to behold the
+event itself, but who were to do all that they could do to advance or
+retard it, are now in the full maturity of life, in the full possession of
+power.</p>
+
+<p>Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide
+among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the
+warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, of York and Ely, are fast growing
+into maturity. Harold Hadrada is already pursuing his wild career of
+night-errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his
+exploits in Russia and Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>The younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof
+and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their
+cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and
+State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold and
+of William, is already a great prelate, abbot of the great house of
+Tewkesbury, soon to succeed Lyfing in the chair of Worcester.</p>
+
+<p>Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were
+already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's bidding,
+and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil and for
+good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in conduct
+and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled minority,
+and learning those arts of the statesman and the warrior which fitted him
+to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest conqueror of
+England.</p>
+
+<p>The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is
+gradually preparing for the scene of their performance. The great struggle
+of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had his share,
+the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of England stand forth
+as worthy rivals of the noblest of prizes, will form the subject of the
+next, the chief and central portion of my history.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle between Normans and Englishmen began with the accession of
+Eadward in 1042, although the actual subjugation of England by force of
+arms was still twenty-four years distant. The thought of another Danish
+king was now hateful. "All folk chose Eadward to King." As the son of
+&AElig;thelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonised
+Alfred, he had long been-familiar to English imaginations. Eadward, and
+Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the
+representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice
+spoke out at once, and unmistakably. His popular election took place in
+June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, and even before his burial.
+Eadward, then, was king, and he reigned as every English king before him
+had reigned, by that union of popular election and royal descent which
+formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship. He was crowned at
+Winchester, April 3, 1043. But by virtue of his peculiar character, his
+natural place was not on the throne of England, but at the head of a Norman
+abbey, for all his best qualities were those of a monk. Like him father, he
+was constantly under the dominion of favourites.</p>
+
+<p>It was to the evil choice of his favourites during the early part of his
+reign that most of the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a still
+more direct path was opened for the ambition of his Norman kinsman. In the
+latter part of his reign, either by happy accident or returning good sense,
+led him to a better choice. Without a guide he could not reign, but the
+good fortune of his later years gave him the wisest and noblest of all
+guides.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the first appearance of the illustrious man round
+whom the main interest of this history will henceforth centre. The second
+son of Godwine lived to be the last of our kings, the hero and martyr of
+our native freedom. The few recorded actions of Harold, Earl of the East
+Angles, could hardly have enabled me to look forward to the glorious career
+of Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, King of the English.</p>
+
+<p>Tall in stature, beautiful in countenance, of a bodily strength whose
+memory still lives in the rude pictorial art of his time, he was foremost
+alike in the active courage and in the passive endurance of the warrior. It
+is plain that in him, no less than in his more successful, and, therefore,
+more famous, rival, we have to admire not only the mere animal courage, but
+that true skill of the leader of armies which would have placed both Harold
+and William high among the captains of any age.</p>
+
+<p>Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
+remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature in
+his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
+warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an enemy.
+From the time of his advancement to the practical government of the kingdom
+there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he can be
+charged.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
+twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
+great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
+ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
+elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as the
+free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in hand
+on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.</p>
+
+<p>William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
+the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed with
+greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish greater
+things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment; no man
+ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession for all
+time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently above all
+others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment in the
+highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose and the
+unbending will.</p>
+
+<p>We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
+But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the same
+time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the conqueror
+of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy and the
+conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the help of
+France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came to his duchy
+under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with competitors for
+his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout the whole of his
+early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his own making, and he
+came honourably out of all.</p>
+
+<p>In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
+Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
+friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare in those days.
+Such visits as those which William and Eustace of Boulogne paid at this
+time to this country were altogether novelties, and unlikely to be
+acceptable to the English mind. We may be sure that every patriotic
+Englishman looked with an evil eye on any French-speaking prince who made
+his way to the English court.</p>
+
+<p>William came with a great following; he tarried awhile in his cousin's
+company; he went away loaded with gifts and honours. And he can hardly
+doubt that he went away encouraged by some kind of promise of succeeding to
+the kingdom which he now visited as a stranger. Direct heirs were lacking
+to the royal house, and William was Eadward's kinsman. The moment was in
+every way favourable for suggesting to William on the one hand, to Eadward
+on the other, the idea of an arrangement by which William should succeed to
+the English crown on Eadward's death. The Norman writers are full of
+Eadward's promise to William, and also of some kind of oath that Harold
+swore to him. Had either the promise or the oath been a pure Norman
+invention, William could never have paraded both in the way that he did in
+the eyes of Europe. I admit, then, some promise of Eadward, some oath of
+Harold. But when the time came for Eadward the Confessor to make his final
+recommendation of a successor, he certainly changed his purpose; for his
+last will, so far as such an expression can be used, was undoubtedly in
+favour of Harold.</p>
+
+<p>There is not the slightest sign of any intention on the part of Eadward
+during his later years to nominate William to the Witan as future king. The
+two streams of English and Norman history were joined together in the year
+when the two sovereigns met for the only time in their reigns. Those
+streams again diverged. England shook off the Norman influence to all
+outward appearance, and became once more the England of &AElig;thelstan and
+Eadgar. But the effects of Eadgar's Norman tendencies were by no means
+wholly wiped away. Normans still remained in the land, and circumstances
+constituted secondary causes of the expedition of William.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1051 that the influence of strangers reached its
+height. During the first nine years of Eadward's reign we find no signs of
+any open warfare between the national and the Normanising parties. The
+course of events shows that Godwine's power was being practically
+undermined, but the great earl was still Jutwardly in the enjoyment of
+royal favour, and his fast possessions were still being added to by royal
+grants. But soon England began to feel how great is the evil when a king
+and those immediately around him are estranged from the mass of his people
+in feeling.</p>
+
+<p>To the French favourites who gradually crowded the court of Eadward the
+name, the speech, and the laws of England were things on which their
+ignorant pride looked with utter contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Count Eustace of Boulogne, now brother-in-law of the king of the
+English, presently came, like the rest of the world, to the English Court.
+The king was spending the autumn at Gloucester. Thither came Count Eustace,
+and, after his satisfactory interview with the king, he turned his face
+homewards. When a few miles from Dover he felt himself, in a region
+specially devoted to Godwine, to be still more thoroughly in an enemy's
+country than in other parts of England, and he and all his company took the
+precaution of putting on their coats of mail.</p>
+
+<p>The proud Frenchmen expected to find free quarters at Dover, and they
+attempted to lodge themselves at their pleasure in the houses of the
+burghers. One Englishman resisted, and was struck dead on the spot. The
+count's party then rode through the town, cutting and slaying at pleasure.
+In a skirmish which quickly ensued twenty Englishmen and nineteen Frenchmen
+were slain.</p>
+
+<p>Count Eustace and the remnant of the party hastened back to Gloucester,
+and told the story after their own fashion. On the mere accusation of a
+stranger, the English king condemned his own subjects without a hearing. He
+sent for Godwine, as earl of the district in which lay the offending town,
+and commanded him to inflict chastisement on Dover. The English champion
+was then in the midst of a domestic rejoicing. He had, like the king, been
+strengthening himself by a foreign alliance, and had just connected his
+house with that of a foreign prince. Tostig, the third son of Godwine, had
+just married Judith, the daughter of Baldwin of Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to
+visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing his
+course. Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract justice and
+humanity, dictated a distinct refusal. Now or never a stand was to be made
+against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial for the burghers of
+Dover.</p>
+
+<p>But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a
+peaceful settlement of the matter. Eustace probably still lingered about
+the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready to
+poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader. It
+was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert. Godwine and three other
+earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of Eustace, but
+the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward, Leofric, and Ralph,
+bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep Godwine in check. Thus the
+northern and southern sections were arrayed against each other.</p>
+
+<p>There were, however, on the king's side, men who were not willing to see
+the country involved in civil war. Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia, stood
+forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed that
+hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should assemble at
+Michaelmas in London.</p>
+
+<p>Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to
+collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London. Godwine and
+his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear without a
+security for a safe conduct. The hostages and safe-conduct were refused.
+The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as he sat at his
+evening meal. The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his feet, overthrew the
+table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode for his life all that
+night. In the morning the king held his witenagemot, and by a vote of the
+king and his whole army, Godwine and his sons were declared outlaws, but
+five days were allowed them to get out of the land. Godwine, Swegen,
+Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha and Judith, the newly-married wife
+of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a ship laden with as much treasure as it
+would hold. They reached the court of Flanders in safety, were honourably
+received by the count, and passed the whole winter with him.</p>
+
+<p>Two of Godwine's sons, however, sought another refuge. Harold and his
+younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek
+shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially
+received by King Diarmid. For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic
+leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over
+the feeble mind of the king was complete. It was while Godwine dwelt as an
+exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the
+friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as
+William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit
+which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one,
+among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.</p>
+
+<p>Stirring events followed in quick succession. General regret was felt
+among all patriotic Englishmen at the absence of Godwine. The common voice
+of England soon began to call for the return of the banished earl, who was
+looked to by all men as the father of his country. England now knew that in
+his fall a fatal blow had been dealt to her own welfare and freedom. And
+Godwine, after sending many petitions to the king, vainly petitioning for a
+reconciliation, determined to return by force, satisfied that the great
+majority of Englishmen would be less likely to resist him than to join his
+banners.</p>
+
+<p>Harold sailed from Ireland to meet his father by way of the English
+Channel. Godwine sailed up the Thames, and London declared for him. Panic
+reigned among the favourites of King Eadward. The foreigners took to
+flight, among the fugitives being Archbishop Robert and Bishop Ulf. The
+gemot met and decreed the restoration of the earl and the outlawry of many
+Normans. The king yielded, and accorded to Godwine the kiss of peace, and a
+revolution was accomplished of which England may well be proud.</p>
+
+<p>But a tragedy soon followed, in the death of the most renowned
+Englishman of that generation. During a meal at the Easter festival Godwine
+fell from his seat, and died after lying insensible for three days. Great
+was the grief of the nation. Harold, in the years that followed, became so
+increasingly popular that he was virtually chief ruler of England, even
+before the death of Eadward, which happened on January 5, 1066. His burial
+was followed by the coronation of Harold. But the moment of struggle was
+now come. The English throne had become vacant, and the Norman duke knew
+how to represent himself as its lawful heir, and to brand the king of the
+nation's choice as an usurper. The days of debate were past, and the sword
+alone could decide between England and her enemy.</p>
+
+<p>William found one Englishman willing to help him in all his schemes, in
+the person of Tostig, Harold's brother, who had been outlawed at the demand
+of the nation, owing to his unfitness to rule his province as Earl of
+Northumberland. He had sunk from bad to worse. Harold had done all he could
+for his fallen brother, but to restore him was impossible. Tostig was at
+the Norman court, urging William to the invasion of England. At his own
+risk, he was allowed to make an incursion on the English coast. Entering
+the Humber, he burned several towns and slew many men. But after these
+ravages Tostig repaired to ask help of Harold Hardrada, whom he induced to
+prepare a great expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Harold Hardrada and Tostig landed and marched towards York. A battle was
+fought between the Mercians and Norwegians at Fulford, in which the former
+were worsted, but Harold was marching northward. In the fearful battle of
+Stamford Bridge both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain, and the Viking
+host was shattered. The victorious English king was banqueting in
+celebration of the great victory, when a messenger appeared who had come at
+fleetest pace from the distant coast of Sussex.</p>
+
+<p>One blow had been warded off, but another still more terrible had
+fallen. Three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of the
+Normans, once the peaceful guest of Edward, had again, but in quite another
+guise, made good his landing on the shores of England. It was in August
+1066 that the Norman fleet had set sail on its great enterprise. For
+several weeks a south wind had been waited for at the mouth of the River
+Dive, prayers and sacred rites of every kind being employed to move Heaven
+to send the propitious breeze. On September 28 the landing was effected at
+Pevensey, the ancient Anderida. There were neither, ships nor men to resist
+the landing. The first armed man who set foot on English ground was Duke
+William himself, whose foot slipped, so that he fell with both hands on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>A loud cry of grief was raised at the evil omen. But the ready wit of
+William failed him not. "By the splendour of God," he cried, "I have taken
+seizin of my kingdom; the earth of England is in my hands." The whole army
+landed in order, but only one day was spent at Pevensey. On the next day
+the army marched on eastward and came to Hastings, which was fixed on as
+the centre of the operations of the whole campaign.</p>
+
+<p>It was a hard lot for the English king to be compelled to hasten
+southward to dislodge the new enemy, after scarcely a moment's rest from
+the toils and glories of Stamford Bridge. But the heart of Harold failed
+him not, and the heart of England beat in unison with the heart of her
+king. As soon as the news came, King Harold held a council of the leaders
+of Stamford Bridge, or perhaps an armed gemot. He told them of the landing
+of the enemy; he set before them the horrors which would come upon the land
+if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud shout of assent rose
+from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his faith rather to die in arms
+than to acknowledge any king but Harold.</p>
+
+<p>The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
+march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
+London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
+immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
+English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
+shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold seems
+to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the fight at
+Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at Pevensey. Though
+his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in order to seek divine
+help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of his earlier days,
+devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross which gave England her
+war-cry.</p>
+
+<p>Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
+from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
+plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan, and
+he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
+ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
+real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to attack
+him at a great disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
+constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The latter
+halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters of the
+invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of Senlac.
+It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a post of great
+natural strength, which he speedily made into what is distinctly spoken of
+as a castle.</p>
+
+<p>The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
+commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
+The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
+kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English post.
+Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse, William led
+his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill of Telham
+first caught sight of the English encamped on the opposite height of
+Senlac.</p>
+
+<p>First in each of the three Norman divisions marched the archers,
+slingers, and cross-bow men, then the more heavily-armed infantry, lastly
+the horsemen. The reason of this arrangement is clear. The light-armed were
+to do what they could with their missiles to annoy the English; the heavy
+infantry were to strive to break down the palisades of the English camp,
+and so to make ready the way for the charge of the horse.</p>
+
+<p>Like the Normans, the English had risen early. The king, after exhorting
+his troops to stand firm, rode to the royal post; he there dismounted, took
+his place on foot, and prayed to God for help. The battle began at nine in
+the morning--one of the sacred hours of the church. The trumpet sounded,
+and a flight of arrows from all three Norman divisions--right, centre, and
+left,--was the prelude to the onslaught of the heavy-armed foot. The real
+struggle now began. The French infantry had to toil up the hill, and to
+break down the palisade, while a shower of stones and javelins disordered
+their approach, and while club, sword and axe greeted all who came within
+the reach of hand-strokes.</p>
+
+<p>Both sides fought with unyielding valour. The war-cries rose on either
+side. The Normans shouted "God help us!" the English called on the "Holy
+Cross." The Norman infantry had soon done its best, but that best had been
+in vain. The choicest chivalry of Europe now pressed on to the attack. The
+knights of Normandy and of all lands from which men had flocked to
+William's standard, now pressed on, striving to make what impression they
+could with the whole strength of themselves and their horses on the
+impenetrable fortress of timber, shields, and living warriors.</p>
+
+<p>But all was in vain. The English had thus far stood their ground well
+and wisely, and the tactics of Harold had so far completely answered. Not
+only had every attack failed, but the great mass of the French army
+altogether lost heart. The Bretons and the other auxiliaries on the left
+were the first to give way. Horse and foot alike, they turned and fled. The
+whole of William's left wing was thrown into utter confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single
+prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops. Order was soon
+restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more terrible
+attack. The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out Harold. A
+few moments more, and the two might have come face to face, but Gyrth, the
+noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at William. The missile
+narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish steed, the first of three
+that died under him that day. But William could not fight on foot as well
+as on horseback. He rose to his feet, pressed straight to seek the man who
+had so nearly slain him, and the earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of
+William's mace. Nor did he fall alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was
+smitten to the earth by an unknown assailant.</p>
+
+<p>The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as
+unyielding as ever. Direct attack was unavailing. In the Norman character
+fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed. He ventured on
+the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the unwary English
+rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts of delight. The
+error was fatal to England. The tide was turned; the duke's object was now
+gained; and the main end of Harold's skilful tactics was frustrated. The
+English were no longer entrenched, and the battle fell into a series of
+single combats. As twilight was coming on an arrow, falling like a bolt
+from heaven, pierced Harold's right eye, and he sank in agony at the foot
+of the standard. Round that standard the fight still raged, till the
+highest nobility, the most valiant soldiery of England were slaughtered to
+a man.</p>
+
+<p>Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we
+may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been
+conquered at all. As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was
+only a matter of time. From that day forward the Normans began to work the
+will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in England no
+chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought down to bondage
+and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an Englishman, and the men of
+England were no more a people.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='JAMES_ANTHONY_FROUDE'></a>JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_England'></a>History of England</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April
+23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894. He was educated at Westminster, and
+Oriel College, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders, he was, for a time, deeply
+influenced by Newman and the Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the
+radical revolution of thought revealed by his first treatise, the "Nemesis
+of Faith," which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation. Its tendency to
+skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its profound pathos, its accent of
+tenderness, and its fervour excited wide admiration. Permanent fame was
+secured by the appearance, in 1856, of the first two instalments of his
+magnificent work, "The History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the
+Defeat of the Armada," the last volume appearing in 1870. This treatise on
+the middle Tudor period is one of the most fascinating historical treatises
+in the whole range of literature. It is written in a vivid and graphic
+prose, and with rare command of the art of picturesque description. Froude
+never accepted the doctrine that history should be treated as a science;
+rather he claimed that the historian should concern himself with the
+dramatic aspect of the period about which he writes. The student may
+disagree with many of Froude's points of view and portraitures, yet his men
+and women breathe with the life he endows them, and their motives are
+actuated by the forces he sets in motion. Of his voluminous works perhaps
+the most notable, with the exception of the "History," are his "History of
+Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," 1871-74, and his "Short Studies on
+Great Subjects," the latter aptly exhibiting Froude's gifts of masterful
+prose and glittering paradox. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Condition of England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and
+the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the
+influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves back
+into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a single
+type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms of the
+son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into paths the
+footprints of his ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that
+to cease to change is to lose place in the great race. Looking back over
+history, we see times of change and progress alternating with other times
+when life and thought have settled into permanent forms. Such was the
+condition of the Greeks through many ages before the Persian wars, and
+such, again, became the condition of Europe when the Northern nations
+grafted religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own hardy
+natures.</p>
+
+<p>A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
+that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is necessarily
+obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we have lost the key
+which would interpret the characters of our fathers. But some broad
+conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least possible to us. A
+rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows that it was something
+under five millions.</p>
+
+<p>The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
+principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
+service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
+strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best be
+determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food. Both were
+as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in the fourteenth
+century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were 1/2d. a pound; mutton
+was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought for 4d.; a good capon for
+3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d. Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d.
+a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon, and table beer was less than 1/2d.</p>
+
+<p>A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
+reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
+could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day can
+for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of the 6th
+of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters, masons,
+bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others, employers of
+skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if no meat and
+drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year, fivepence a day for
+the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the yearly average. The common
+labourers were to receive fourpence a day for the half year; for the
+remaining half, threepence.</p>
+
+<p>The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
+shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and this
+is far from being a full account of his advantages. The agricultural
+labourer held land in connection with his house, while in most parishes
+there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest land, which
+furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and ducks and geese,
+and where, if he could afford a cow, he was in no danger of being unable to
+feed it; and so important was this privilege considered, that when the
+commons began to be largely enclosed, Parliament insisted that the working
+man should not be without some piece of ground on which he could employ his
+own and his family's industry.</p>
+
+<p>By the 7th of the 31st of Elizabeth it was ordered that no cottage
+should be built for residence without four acres of land at lowest being
+attached to it for the sole use of the occupants of such cottage.</p>
+
+<p>The incomes of the great nobles cannot be determined for they varied
+probably as much as they do now. Under Henry IV. the average income of an
+earl was estimated at &pound;2,000 a year. Under Henry VIII. the great Duke
+of Buckingham, the wealthiest English peer, had &pound;6,000. And the
+income of the Archbishop of Canterbury was rated at the same amount. But
+the establishments of such men were enormous. Their retinues in time of
+peace consisted of several hundred persons, and in time of war a large
+share of the expenses was paid often out of private purses.</p>
+
+<p>Passing down to the body of the people, we find that &pound;20 a year
+and heavy duties to do for it, represented the condition of the squire of
+the parish. By the 2nd of Henry V. "the wages" of a parish priest were
+limited to &pound;5 6s. 8d., except in cases where there was a special
+license from the bishop, when they might be raised as high as &pound;6.
+Both squire and priest had sufficient for comfort. Neither was able to
+establish any steep difference between himself and the commons among whom
+he lived, so far as concerned outward advantages.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of all classes were free, open, and liberal. In frank style
+the people lived in "merry England," displaying the "glory of hospitality,"
+England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules according to which all tables
+were open to all comers without reserve. To every man, according to his
+degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare and free lodging. The
+people hated three things with all their hearts--idleness, want, and
+cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>A change, however, was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction
+of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era. Chivalry
+was dying; the abbey and castle were soon together to crumble into ruins;
+and all the forms, desires, beliefs, and convictions of the old world were
+passing away never to return. A new continent had arisen beyond the western
+sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk back into an infinite
+abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth itself, unfixed from its
+foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in the awful vastness of the
+universe. In the fabric of habit which they had so laboriously built for
+themselves mankind were to remain no longer.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
+through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him on
+the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder. The
+clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they deserved it.
+They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt the meaning of
+their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their authority was
+exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of the crown; and
+therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was compelled to stoop before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
+conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
+duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
+recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
+conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
+remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
+their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
+inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without faith,
+wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy and cut
+off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary life.</p>
+
+<p>Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
+taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there were
+no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among them a
+remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who was
+essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
+English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
+influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
+entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
+Protestants.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
+before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
+familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable. Dreaming
+that it could be effected from within, by the church itself inspired with a
+wiser spirit, he himself fell the first victim of a convulsion which he had
+assisted to create, and which he attempted too late to stay.</p>
+
+<p>Wolsey talked of reformation, but delayed its coming. The monasteries
+grew worse and worse. Favoured parish clergy held as many as eight
+benefices. Bishops accumulated sees, and, unable to attend to all, attended
+to none. Wolsey himself, the church reformer (so little did he really know
+what a reformation means), was at once Archbishop of York, Bishop of
+Winchester and of Durham, and Abbot of St. Albans. Under such
+circumstances, we need not be surprised to find the clergy sunk low in the
+respect of the English people.</p>
+
+<p>Fish's famous pamphlet shows the spirit that was seething. He spoke of
+what he had seen and knew. The monks, he tells the king, "be they that have
+made a hundred thousand idle dissolute women in your realm." But Wolsey
+could interfere with neither bishops nor monks without a special
+dispensation from the pope. A new trouble arose from the nation in the
+desire of Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who had been his deceased
+brother's wife, was six years older than himself, and was an obstacle to
+the establishment of the kingdom. Her sons were dead, and she was beyond
+the period when more children could be expected. Though descent in the
+female line was not formally denied, no queen regent had ever, in fact, sat
+upon the throne; nor was the claim distinctly admitted, or the claim of the
+House of York would have been unquestionable. It was, therefore, with no
+little anxiety that the council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children,
+on whom their hopes were centred, either born dead, or dying one after
+another within a few days of their birth.</p>
+
+<p>The line of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak
+from her childhood. If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to
+insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a
+civil war was inevitable. The next heir in blood was James of Scotland, and
+gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the
+existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was
+said, would rise up against a king of Scotland who entered England as
+sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>So far were Henry and Catherine alike that both had imperious tempers,
+and both were indomitably obstinate; but Henry was hot and impetuous,
+Catherine cold and self-contained. She had been the wife of Prince Arthur,
+eldest son of Henry VII., but the death of that prince occurred only five
+months after the marriage. The uncertainty of the laws of marriage, and the
+innumerable refinements of the Roman canon law, affected the legitimacy of
+the children and raised scruples of conscience in the mind of the king. The
+loss of his children must have appeared as a judicial sentence on a
+violation of the Divine law. The divorce presented itself to him as a moral
+obligation, when national advantage combined with superstition to encourage
+what he secretly desired.</p>
+
+<p>Wolsey, after thirty years' experience of public life, was as sanguine
+as a boy. Armed with this little lever of divorce, he saw himself in
+imagination the rebuilder of the Catholic faith and the deliverer of Europe
+from ecclesiastical revolt and from innovations of faith. The mass of the
+people hated Protestantism as he, a true friend of the Catholic cult,
+sincerely detested the reformation of Luther. He believed that the old
+life-tree of Catholicism, which in fact was but cumbering the ground, might
+bloom again in its old beauty. But a truer political prophet than Wolsey
+would have been found in the most ignorant of those poor men who were
+risking death and torture in disseminating the pernicious volumes of the
+English Testament.</p>
+
+<p>Catherine being a Spanish princess, Henry, in 1527, formed a league with
+Francis I., with the object of breaking the Spanish alliance. The pope was
+requested to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of England
+to marry a wife who could bear him children. Deeply as we deplore the
+outrage inflicted on Catherine, and the scandal and suffering occasioned by
+the dispute, it was in the highest degree fortunate that at the crisis of
+public dissatisfaction in England with the condition of the church, a cause
+should have arisen which tested the whole question of church authority in
+its highest form. It was no accident which connected a suit for divorce
+with the reformation of religion.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Anne Boleyn</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Spanish emperor, Charles V., gave Catherine his unwavering support,
+and refused to allow the pope to pass a judicial sentence of divorce.
+Catherine refused to yield. Another person now comes into conspicuous view.
+It has been with Anne Boleyn as with Catherine of Aragon--both are regarded
+as the victims of a tyranny which Catholics and Protestants unite to
+remember with horror, and each has taken the place of a martyred saint in
+the hagiology of the respective creeds. Anne Boleyn was second daughter of
+Sir Thomas Boleyn, a gentleman of noble family. She was educated in Paris,
+and in 1525 came back to England to be maid of honour to Queen Catherine,
+and to be distinguished at the court by her talents, accomplishments, and
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The fortunes of Anne Boleyn were unhappily linked with those of men to
+whom the greatest work ever yet accomplished in this country was committed.
+In the memorable year 1529, after the meeting of parliament, events moved
+apace. In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted, the astonished
+church authorities saw bill after bill hurried up before the lords, by
+which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes would be dried
+up to flow no longer. The Great Reformation had commenced in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>The carelessness of the bishops in the discharge of their most immediate
+duties obliged the legislature to trespass in the provinces most purely
+spiritual, and to undertake the discipline of the clergy. Bill after bill
+struck hard and home on the privileges of the recreant clergy. The aged
+Bishop of Rochester complained to the lords that in the lower house the cry
+was nothing but "Down with the church." Yet, so frightful were the abuses
+that called for radical reform, that even persons who most disapprove of
+the reformation will not at the present time wonder at their enactment, or
+disapprove of their severity. The king treated the bishops, when they
+remonstrated, with the most contemptuous disrespect. Archbishop Cranmer now
+adopted a singular expedient. He advised Henry to invite expressions from
+all the chief learned authorities throughout Europe as to the right of the
+pope to grant him a dispensation of dissolution of his marriage. The
+English universities, to escape imputations of treasons and to avoid
+exciting Henry's wrath, gave replies such as would please him, that of
+Oxford being, however, the more decided of the two. Most of the continental
+authorities declined to pronounce any dictum as to the powers of the
+pope.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>The Fall of the Great Chancellor</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The fall of Wolsey was at hand. His enemies accused him of treason to
+the constitution by violating a law of the realm. He had acted as papal
+legate within the realm. The parliaments of Edward I., Edward III., Richard
+II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced illegal all
+presentations by the pope to any office or dignity in the Anglican Church,
+under a penalty of premunire. Henry did not feel himself called on to
+shield his great minister, although the guilt extended to all who had
+recognised Wolsey in the capacity of papal legate. Indeed, it extended to
+the archbishops, bishops, the privy council, the two houses of parliament,
+and indirectly to the nation itself. The higher clergy had been encouraged
+by Wolsey's position to commit those acts of despotism which had created so
+deep animosity among the people. The overflow of England's last
+ecclesiastical minister was to teach them that the privileges they had
+abused were at an end.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1531, Henry assumed the title which was to occasion such
+momentous consequences, of "Protector and only Supreme Head of the Church
+and Clergy of England." The clergy were compelled to assent. Further
+serious steps marked the great breach with Rome. The annates, or first
+fruits, were abolished. Ever since the crusades a practice had existed in
+all the churches of Europe that bishops and archbishops, on presentation to
+their sees, should transmit to the pope one year's income. This impressive
+impost was not abrogated. It was a sign of the parting of the ways.</p>
+
+<p>Henry laid his conduct open to the world, declaring truly what he
+desired, and seeking it by open means. He was determined to proceed with
+the divorce, and also to continue the reformation of the English church.
+And he was in no small measure aided in the former resolve by the
+recommendation of Francis, for the French king advised him to act on the
+general opinion of Europe that his marriage with Catherine, as widow of his
+elder brother Arthur, was null, and at once made Anne Boleyn his wife. This
+counsel was administered at an interview between the two kings at Boulogne,
+in October, 1532.</p>
+
+<p>The pope had trifled for six years with the momentous question, and
+Henry was growing old. At the outset of the discussion the pope had said:
+"Marry freely; fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you desire." But
+the pontiff, reduced to a dilemma by various causes, had fallen back on his
+Italian cunning, and had changed his attitude, listening to the appeals of
+Catherine and her powerful friends. And now he threatened Henry with
+excommunication.</p>
+
+<p>Henry entered privately into matrimonial relations with Anne in
+November, 1532, and the marriage was solemnly celebrated, with a gorgeous
+pageant, at Westminster Abbey in the following January. On July 24 the
+people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the church
+doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine of Spain,
+heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by that title any
+more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be held and
+esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short years.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Protestantism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
+and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
+fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the growing
+desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the year 1525
+was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The Association of
+Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the land carrying
+tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the order all who dared
+risk their lives in such a cause.</p>
+
+<p>The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
+such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
+spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
+October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
+echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
+Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
+translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the formation
+of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed. The bishops
+subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and these were burned
+before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But Wolsey had for two
+years been suppressing the smaller monasteries. Simultaneously, Protestants
+were persecuted wherever they could be detected and seized. "Little"
+Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished Cambridge student, was burnt as
+a heretic at the stake, as were James Bainham, a barrister of the Middle
+Temple, and several other members of the "association." These were the
+first paladins of the reformation, and the struggle went bravely forward.
+They were the knights who slew the dragons and made the earth habitable for
+common flesh and blood.</p>
+
+<p>As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
+Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
+pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When the
+breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal party at home had
+assumed an attitude of suspended insurrection, the fortunes of the
+Protestants entered into a new phase. The persecution ceased, and those who
+were but lately its likely victims, hiding for their lives, passed at once
+by a sudden alternation into the sunshine of political favour.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell and Latimer together caught the moment as it went by, and
+before it was over a work had been done in England which, when it was
+accomplished once, was accomplished for ever. The conservative party
+recovered their power, and abused it as before; but the chains of the
+nation were broken, and no craft of kings or priests or statesmen could
+weld the magic links again, Latimer became famous as a preacher at
+Cambridge, and was heard of by Henry, who sent for him and appointed him
+one of the royal chaplains. He was accused by the bishops of heresy, but
+was on trial absolved and sent back to his parish. Soon after the tide
+turned, and the reformation entered into a new phase.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Cromwell, like Latimer of humble origin, was the "malleus
+monachorum." Wolsey discovered his merit, and employed him in breaking up
+the small monasteries, which the pope had granted for the foundation of the
+new colleges. Cromwell remained with the great cardinal till his fall. It
+was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed itself. The
+lords had passed a bill of impeachment against Wolsey--violent, vindictive,
+and malevolent. It was to be submitted to the commons. Cromwell prepared an
+opposition, and conducted the defence from his place in parliament so
+skilfully that he threw out the bill, saved Wolsey, and gained such a
+reputation that he became Henry's secretary, representing the government in
+the House of Commons, and was on the highroad to power.</p>
+
+<p>The reformation was blotted with a black and frightful stain. Towards
+the end of April, 1536, certain members of the Privy Council were engaged
+in secretly collecting evidence which implicated the queen in adultery. In
+connection with the terrible charge, as her accomplices five gentlemen were
+arrested--Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeton, a court musician, Sir Henry
+Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and, the accusation in his case being the most
+shocking, Lord Rochford, the queen's brother. The trial was hastily pushed
+forward, and all were executed. The queen, who vehemently and piteously
+appealed to Henry, passionately protesting that she was absolutely
+innocent, was also condemned, and was beheaded in public on Tower Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John
+Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the cause
+of Anne Boleyn's ruin. On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and
+passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the
+queen took cold, and died on October 24.</p>
+
+<p>In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England. The great monasteries
+were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old
+nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics. On January
+6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne, daughter of the
+Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of Saxony. This event was
+brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell. The king was deeply
+displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride when he met her on her
+landing, but retreat was impossible. Though Henry was personally kind to
+the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell's enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great
+statesman. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of
+corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and, in
+spite of Cranmer's efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on July 28,
+1540. For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl of Essex, was
+supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the nation, in the
+ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.</p>
+
+<p>Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne,
+setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without
+objection or delay. The queen had placidly given her consent. Handsome
+settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance
+producing nearly three thousand a year. In August of the same year the King
+married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord Edmond
+Howard. Brief, indeed, was her reign. In November, 1541, she was charged
+with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows. The king was overwhelmed. Some
+dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it with infamy.</p>
+
+<p>Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen. They
+were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been her
+confidential companion, suffered within the Tower. Once more the king
+ventured into marriage. Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last choice,
+was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but by his own
+personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he desired.</p>
+
+<p>The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
+Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
+had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France to
+attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to proclaim
+a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only shepherds and
+agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were instantly the
+finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously defeated the Scots
+that all the latter either perished in the morass by the Solway, or were
+captured.</p>
+
+<p>Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
+Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.</p>
+
+<p>The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
+future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
+conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition of
+the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince Edward to
+the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the morning of
+Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was in
+Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of Monday,
+the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was already in
+session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the minority of
+Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full power. Cranmer set
+the willing example, and the other prelates consented, or were compelled to
+imitate him, in an acknowledgment that all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as
+well as secular, within the realm, only emanated from the sovereign. On
+February it was ordered in council that Hertford should be Duke of
+Somerset, and that his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour
+of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley,
+the chancellor, Earl of Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of
+Warwick. The Duke of Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real
+power was at once in his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he
+persuaded himself--to do good.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Edward's Guardian</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
+proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
+were melted into coin. Somerset gave the popular movement the formal
+sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
+purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide to
+doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in the
+parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the New
+Testament" were provided as a commentary.</p>
+
+<p>Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
+Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
+refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into with
+Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should marry
+Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547, the Scots
+were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned southward. His
+brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him, and was arrested,
+tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549. But the fall of the
+protector himself was not long delayed, for under his administration of
+three years his policy gradually excited wide discontent. In various parts
+of the country insurrections had to be suppressed. The French king had
+taken away the young Scottish queen, the king's majesty's espouse, by which
+marriage the realms of England and Scotland should have been united in
+perpetual peace. Money had been wasted on the royal household. The alliance
+with Charles V. had been trifled away. The princely name and princely
+splendour which Somerset affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst
+the ruin of the national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset
+House, London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
+national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation with
+which the council regarded him.</p>
+
+<p>His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
+both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him to
+such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign his
+deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his uncle.
+On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high treason and
+condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22, 1582. The English
+public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are good judges, for the
+most part, of personal character; and so passionately was Somerset loved,
+that those who were nearest the scaffold started forward to dip their
+handkerchiefs in his blood. Before this event, Dudley, by whose cruel
+treachery the tragedy had been brought about, had been created Duke of
+Northumberland. The great aim of this nobleman was to secure the succession
+to the throne for his own family. With this purpose in view he married his
+son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duchess of
+Suffolk, to whom, by the will of Henry VIII., the crown would pass, in
+default of issue by Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1553, Edward, who had been removed to Greenwich in consequence
+of illness, grew rapidly worse. By the end of the month he was spitting
+blood, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. The
+accession of Mary, who was personally popular, was looked forward to by the
+people as a matter of course. Northumberland now worked on the mind of the
+feeble and dying king, and succeeded in persuading him to declare both his
+sisters incapable of succeeding to the crown, as being illegitimate. The
+king died on July 6. The last male child of the Tudor race had ceased to
+suffer.</p>
+
+<p>When Lady Jane was saluted by Northumberland and four other lords, all
+kneeling at her feet, as queen, she shook, covered her face with her hands,
+and fell fainting to the ground. The next Monday, July 10, the royal barges
+came down the Thames from Richmond, and at three in the afternoon Lady Jane
+landed at the broad staircase of the Tower, as queen, in undesired
+splendour. But that same evening messages came saying that Mary had
+declared herself queen. She had sent addresses to the peers, commanding
+them on their allegiance to come to her.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, the conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane was crushed, without
+bloodshed, although it had seemed for a time as if the nation, was on the
+brink of a civil war. But, though Mary wished to spare Lady Jane and her
+husband, her intentions were frustrated by the determination of Renard,
+ambassador of the emperor. Northumberland was sent to the Tower, and
+beheaded on August 22, and in the following November Lady Jane and her
+husband were also condemned. Mary long hesitated, but at length issued the
+fatal warrant on February 8, 1554, and four days later both were executed.
+Lady Jane was but a delicate girl of seventeen, but met her fate with the
+utmost heroism.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, became the chief instrument of
+the restoration of the Catholic faith under Mary. His fierce spirit soon
+began to display itself. In the fiery obstinacy of his determination this
+prelate speedily became the incarnate expression of the fury of the
+ecclesiastical faction, smarting, as they were, under their long
+degradation, and under the irritating consciousness of those false oaths of
+submission which they had sworn to a power they loathed. Gardiner now saw
+his Romanising party once more in a position to revenge their wrongs when
+there was no longer any Henry to stand between them and their enemies. He
+would take the tide at the flood, forge a weapon keener than the last, and
+establish the Inquisition.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>The Reign of Terror</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Mary listened to the worse counsels of each, and her distempered humour
+settled into a confused ferocity. Both Gardiner and she resolved to secure
+the trial, condemnation, and execution of her sister Elizabeth, but their
+plans utterly miscarried, for no evidence against her could be gathered.
+The princess was known to be favourable to the Protestant cause, but the
+attempts to prove her disloyalty to Mary were vain. She was imprisoned in
+the Tower, and the fatal net appeared to be closing on her. But though the
+danger of her murder was very great, the lords who had reluctantly
+permitted her to be imprisoned would not allow her to be openly sacrificed,
+or indeed, permit the queen to continue in the career of vengeance on which
+she had entered. The necessity of releasing Elizabeth from the Tower was an
+unspeakable annoyance to Mary. A confinement at Woodstock was the furthest
+stretch of severity that the country would, for the present, permit. On May
+19, 1554, Elizabeth was taken up the river.</p>
+
+<p>The princess believed herself that she was being carried off <i>tanquam
+ovis</i>, as she said--as a sheep for the slaughter. But the world thought
+she was set at liberty, and, as her barge passed under the bridge, Mary
+heard with indignation, from the palace windows, three salvoes of artillery
+fired from the Steelyard, as a sign of the joy of the people. Vexations
+began to tell on Mary's spirit. She could not shake off her anxieties, or
+escape from the shadow of her subject's hatred. Insolent pamphlets were
+dropped in her path and in the offices of Whitehall. They were placed by
+mysterious hands in the sanctuary of her bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Her trials began to tell on her understanding. She was ill with
+hysterical longings; ill with the passions which Gardiner, as her
+chancellor, had provoked, but Paget as leader of the opposing party, had
+disappointed. But she was now to become the wife of King Philip of Spain.
+Negotiations for this momentous marriage had been protracted, and even
+after the contract had been signed, Philip seemed slow to arrive. The
+coolness manifested by his tardiness did much to aggravate the queen's
+despondency. On July 20, 1554, he landed at Southampton. The atmospheric
+auspices were not cheering, for Philip, who had come from the sunny plains
+of Castile, from his window at Southampton looked out on a steady downfall
+of July rain. Through the cruel torrent he made his way to church to mass,
+and afterwards Gardiner came to him from the queen. On the next Sunday he
+journeyed to Winchester, again in pouring rain. To the cathedral he went
+first, wet as he was. Whatever Philip of Spain was entering on, whether it
+was a marriage or a massacre, a state intrigue or a midnight murder, his
+first step was ever to seek a blessing from the holy wafer. Mary was at the
+bishop's palace, a few hundred yards' distance. Mary could not wait, and
+the same night the interview took place. Let the curtain fall over the
+meeting, let it close also over the wedding solemnities which followed with
+due splendour two days after. There are scenes in life which we regard with
+pity too deep for words.</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy queen, unloved, unlovable, yet with her parched heart
+thirsting for affection, was flinging herself upon a breast to which an
+iceberg was warm; upon a man to whom love was an unmeaning word, except as
+the most brutal of all passions. Mary set about to complete the Catholic
+reaction. She had restored the Catholic orthodoxy in her own person, and
+now was resolved to bring over her own subjects. But clouds gathered over
+the court. The Spaniards were too much in evidence. With the reaction came
+back the supremacy of the pope, and the ecclesiastical courts were
+reinstated in authority to check unlicensed extravagance of opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and three other prelates formed a court on
+January 28, 1555, in St. Mary Overy's Church, Southwark, and Hooper, Bishop
+of Gloucester, and Canon Rogers of St. Paul's, were brought up before them.
+Both were condemned as Protestants, and both were burnt at the stake, the
+bishop at Gloucester, the canon at Smithfield. They suffered heroically.
+The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of their rivals. There was
+a general conviction among them that Protestants would all flinch at the
+last; that they had no "doctrine that would abide the fire." Many more
+victims were offered. The enemies of the church were to submit or die. So
+said Gardiner, and so said the papal legate and the queen, in the delirious
+belief that they were the chosen instruments of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>The people, whom the cruelty of the party was reconverting to the
+reformation, while the fires of Smithfield blazed, with a rapidity like
+that produced by the gift of tongues at Pentecost, regarded the martyrs
+with admiration as soldiers dying for their country. On Mary, sorrow was
+heaped on sorrow. Her expectation of a child was disappointed, and Philip
+refused to stay in England. His unhappy wife was forced to know that he
+preferred the society of the most abandoned women to hers. The horrible
+crusade against heretics became the business of the rest of her life.
+Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Latimer, and many other persons of
+distinction were amongst the martyrs of the Marian persecution. Latimer was
+eighty years of age.</p>
+
+<p>Mary's miseries were intensified month by month. War broke out between
+England and France. For ten years the French had cherished designs, and on
+January 7, 1558, the famous stronghold fell into their hands. The effect of
+this misfortune on the queen was to produce utter prostration. She now well
+understood that both parliament and the nation were badly disposed towards
+her. But her end was at hand. After much suffering from dropsy and nervous
+debility, she prepared quietly for what she knew was inevitable. On
+November 16, at midnight, taking leave of a world in which she had played
+so evil a part, Mary received the last rites of the church. Towards morning
+she was sinking, and at the elevation of the Host, as mass was being said,
+her head sank, and she was gone. A few hours later the pope's legate,
+Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, followed her. Thus the reign of the pope in
+England and the reign of terror closed together.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12745 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12745 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12745)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+
+Author: Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREATEST BOOKS, VOL. XI. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS
+
+JOINT EDITORS
+
+ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge
+
+J.A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopædia
+
+VOL. XI
+
+ANCIENT HISTORY MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+    ANCIENT HISTORY
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        MASPERO, GASTON
+          Dawn of Civilization
+          Struggle of the Nations
+          Passing of the Empires
+
+      JEWS
+
+        JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS
+          Antiquities of the Jews
+          Wars of the Jews
+
+        MILMAN, HENRY
+          History of the Jews
+
+      GREECE
+
+        HERODOTUS
+          History
+
+        THUCYDIDES
+          Peloponnesian War
+
+        XENOPHON
+          Anabasis
+
+        GROTE, GEORGE
+          History of Greece
+
+        SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH
+          Troy and Its Remains
+
+      ROME
+
+        CÆSAR, JULIUS
+          Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+        TACITUS, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS
+          Annals
+
+        SALLUST, CATOS CRISPUS
+          Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
+
+        MOMMSEN, THEODOR
+          History of Rome
+
+    MEDIÆVAL HISTORY
+
+      HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          The Holy Roman Empire
+
+      EUROPE
+
+        GUIZOT, F.P.G.
+          History of Civilization in Europe
+
+        HALLAM, HENRY
+          View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        LANE-POOLE, STANLEY
+          Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+      ENGLAND
+
+        HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL
+          Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
+
+        FREEMAN, E.A.
+          Norman Conquest of England
+
+        FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY
+          History of England
+
+A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
+of Volume XX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Acknowledgment
+
+
+     Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
+     following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The
+     Struggle of the Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by
+     Gaston Maspero--which appear in this volume, are hereby
+     tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of
+     London, England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Ancient History
+
+
+GASTON MASPERO
+
+
+The Dawn of Civilisation
+
+
+     Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
+     Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in
+     philology and Egyptology, having in great part studied his
+     special subjects on Oriental ground. After occupying for
+     several years the Chair of Egyptology in the École des Hautes
+     Études at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became, in 1874, Professor
+     of Egyptian Philology and Archæology at the Collège de
+     France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director of the
+     Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this
+     museum became enriched with its choicest antique treasures.
+     Dr. Maspero retired in 1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt
+     as Director of Excavations. His works are of the utmost value,
+     his skill in marshalling facts and deducting legitimate
+     inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense
+     work, with the general title of "History of the Ancient
+     Peoples of the Classic East," divided into three parts, each
+     complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of Civilisation"; (2) "The
+     Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the Empires."
+
+
+_I.--The Nile and Egypt_
+
+
+A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
+vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
+plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this,
+the Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as
+it were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper
+begins. It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south
+between regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the
+banks of the river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The
+whole length of the land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly
+parallel at a mean distance of about twelve miles.
+
+During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space;
+and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very
+summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and
+shrunken within the deeps of its own ancient bed, the stream now makes a
+way through its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keep
+to the east, and constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the
+hieroglyphic inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in which the
+river flowed divides, and two other streams are opened up in a southerly
+direction, each of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream.
+
+Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down
+from the distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed
+the immense plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew.
+The river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it
+withheld it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious
+armies follow the Nile for months together, as they pursued the tribes
+who dwelt upon its banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as
+irresistible in its progress as ever. It was a fresh-water sea--_iauma,
+ioma_ was the name by which they called it. The Egyptians, therefore,
+never sought its source. It was said to be of supernatural origin, to
+rise in Paradise, to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man, and
+afterwards to fall into a sea whence it made its way to Egypt.
+
+The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant
+invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as
+large as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the
+Bahr-el-Abiad unites with the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
+Alluvial deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which
+is known as Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our era it must still have
+been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and boatmen the idea of
+an actual sea opening into the Indian Ocean.
+
+Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the
+soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and
+hence it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They
+personified it as a man with regular features, and a vigorous but portly
+body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. Sometimes water springs
+from his breast; sometimes he presents a frog, or libation of vases, or
+bears a tray full of offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or geese. The
+inscriptions call him "Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who
+maketh food to be, and covereth the two lands of Egypt with his
+products; who giveth life, banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to
+overflowing."
+
+He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
+other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his
+head, presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of
+papyrus for his headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses,
+corresponding to the two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and
+Mirit-Mihit for the Lower Egypt--personified the banks of the river.
+They are represented with outstretched arms, as though begging for the
+water that should make them fertile.
+
+
+
+_II.--The Gods of Egypt_
+
+
+The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
+ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly
+every illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of
+some deity. One would think the country had been inhabited for the most
+part by gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the
+requirements of their worship. Each of these deities represented a
+function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit
+was identified with the ripe ear of wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the
+child's cradle at the very moment of its birth; and Raninit presided
+over the naming and nurture of the newly born.
+
+In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual
+jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the
+indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its
+grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one
+of the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form;
+others as animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.
+
+The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
+composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other
+composed of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of
+Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at
+Pharbæthos; Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady
+Tumilat; and, finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was
+enthroned at Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home
+deities. Horus the sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated
+each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended.
+
+Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
+universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
+entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as
+Nit was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human
+form. Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and
+formed a trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the
+local deity was content with one wife and one son, but often he was
+united to two goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than
+lowered, the prestige of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had
+of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents,
+he was generally an infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him
+her breast. The gods had body and soul, like men; they had bones,
+muscles, flesh and blood; they hungered and thirsted, ate and drank;
+they had our passions, griefs, joys and infirmities; and they were
+subject to age, decrepitude and death, though they lived very far beyond
+the term of life of men.
+
+The _sa_, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
+carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who
+thus might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king
+who wished to become impregnated with the divine _sa_ sat before the
+statue of the god in order that this principle might be infused into
+him. The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils
+which death so plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome
+possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was
+the mummy of Anhuri in its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at
+Heliopolis that of Tumu. Usually, by dying, the god became another
+deity. Ptah of Memphis became Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was
+changed into Anubis. Osiris first represented the wild and fickle Nile
+of primitive times; but was soon transformed into a benefactor to
+humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed
+to assume the shapes not only of man, but of rams and bulls, or even of
+water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes. His companion goddess
+was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's horns, who personified the earth,
+and was mother of Horus.
+
+There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family
+fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the
+sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who
+made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water.
+The most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be
+regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed
+gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting
+with an animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden
+intuition.
+
+
+_III.--Legendary History of Egypt_
+
+
+The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or
+traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus.
+Great space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king
+of Egypt, who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys
+rebellious men, and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his
+court was mainly composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went
+forth in his barque, amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his
+accustomed circuit of the world, and returned to his home at the end of
+twelve hours after the journey. In his old age he became the subject of
+the wiles of Isis, who poisoned him, and so secured his departure from
+earth. He was succeeded by Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the
+universe was divided.
+
+The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at
+length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were
+taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain
+by the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was
+divided between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth
+of two kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus,
+son of Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed
+itself under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.
+
+Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating
+to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris
+to the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination
+and trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show.
+Before gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it
+had during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris,
+and had served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from
+the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.
+
+To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two
+Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human
+dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his
+existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are
+mere legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our
+researches. The history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1.
+The Memphite period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from
+the First to the Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers
+over the whole of Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The
+Theban period, from the Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided
+into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3.
+Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided
+again into two parts by the Persian Conquest, the first Saite period,
+from the Twenty-first to the Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite
+Period, from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirtieth dynasty.
+
+
+_IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt_
+
+
+Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel
+to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has
+mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the
+followers of Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose
+granite was erected alongside the god; temples were built here and there
+in the more accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of
+the whole country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and
+uncoffined, were thrust into the sand at a depth of barely three feet
+from the surface. Those of the better class rested in mean rectangular
+chambers, hastily built of yellow bricks, without ornaments or
+treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained the
+provisions left to nourish the departed during the period of his
+existence. Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the
+mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a
+"mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some
+subterranean vaults.
+
+During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs
+formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues,
+and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of
+these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes
+new life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands
+out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else.
+He is god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the
+great-god," connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the
+Pharaohs are blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being
+infused into the royal infant at birth.
+
+The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
+Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
+any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
+very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
+title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered
+her a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of
+private citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having
+no bond of union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of
+birth had destined to be their ruler.
+
+Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
+the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
+were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its
+attendants and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment
+to a score of different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost
+approached the dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which
+adorned each one, a living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers,
+dancers, buffoons and dwarfs whiled away the tedious hours. Many were
+the physicians, chaplains, soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed
+was the army of officials connected with the administration of public
+affairs. The mainspring of all this machinery was the writer, or, as we
+call him, the scribe, across whom we come in all grades of the staff.
+
+The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
+was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
+wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the
+elementary rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the
+scribe takes the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a
+talented scribe rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was
+removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and
+was ennobled.
+
+
+_V.--The Memphite Empire_
+
+
+At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All
+we know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the
+nomads of Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier
+of the Delta, and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid.
+Snofrui called the pyramid "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead
+Pharaoh, identified with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. It
+was built to indicate the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person
+of rank in his tribe or province. The worship of Snofrui, the first
+pyramid-builders, was perpetuated from century to century. His
+popularity was probably great; but his fame has been eclipsed in our
+eyes by that of the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasty who immediately
+followed him--Kheops, Khephren and Mykerinos.
+
+Khufui, the Kheops of the Greeks, was probably son of Snofrui. He
+reigned twenty-three years, successfully defended the valuable mines of
+copper, manganese and turquoise of the Sinaitic peninsula against the
+Bedouin; restored the temple of Hathor at Dendera; embellished that of
+Babastis; built a sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx; and consecrated
+there gold, silver and bronze statues of Horus and many other gods.
+Other Pharaohs had done as much or more; but the Egyptians of later
+dynasties measured the magnificence of Kheops by the dimensions of his
+pyramid at Ghizel. The Great Pyramid was called Khuit, the "Horizon," in
+which Kheops had to be swallowed up, as his father, the sun, was
+engulfed every evening in the horizon of the west. Of Dadufri, his
+immediate successor, we can probably say that he reigned eight years;
+but Khephren, the next son who succeeded to the throne, erected temples
+and a gigantic pyramid, like his father. He placed it some 394 feet to
+the south-west of that of Kheops, and called it Uiru the Great. It is
+much smaller than its neighbour, but at a distance the difference in
+height disappears. The pyramid of Mykerinos, son and successor of
+Khephren, was considerably inferior in height, but was built with
+scrupulous art and refined care.
+
+The Fifth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the Fourth. It reckons nine Pharaohs, who reigned for a
+century and a half, and each of them built pyramids and founded cities,
+and appear to have ruled gloriously. They maintained, and even
+increased, the power and splendour of Egypt. But the history of the
+Memphite Empire unfortunately loses itself in legend and fable, and
+becomes a blank for several centuries.
+
+
+_VI.--The First Theban Empire_
+
+
+The principality of the Oleander--Naru--comprised the territory lying
+between the Nile and the Bahr Yusuf, a district known to the Greeks as
+the island of Heracleopolis. It, moreover, included the whole basin of
+the Fayum, on the west of the valley. Attracted by the fertility of the
+soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up
+their residence in Heracleopolis, the capital of the district of the
+Oleander, and one of them, Snofrui, had built his pyramid at Medum,
+close to the frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the
+Memphites declined, so did the princes of the Oleander grow more
+vigorous and enterprising; and When the Memphite kings passed away,
+these princes succeeded their former masters and eventually sat "upon
+the throne of Horus."
+
+The founder of the Ninth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., who ruled over
+all Egypt, and whose name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.
+His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a
+century. The history of this period seems to have been one of confused
+struggle, the Pharaohs fighting constantly against their vassals, and
+the nobles warring amongst themselves. During the Memphite and
+Heracleopolitan dynasties Memphis, Elephantiné, El-Kab and Koptos were
+the principal cities of the country; and it was only towards the end of
+the Eighth dynasty that Thebes began to realise its power. The revolt of
+the Theban. princes put an end to the Ninth dynasty; and though
+supported by the feudal powers of Central and Northern Egypt, the Tenth
+dynasty did not succeed in bringing them back to their allegiance, and
+after a struggle of nearly 200 years the Thebans triumphed and brought
+the two divisions of Egypt under their rule.
+
+The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban
+dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race. The
+kings of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from
+the valley of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of
+fresh territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country
+had suffered for hundreds of years. The final overthrow of the
+Heracleopolitan dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the
+rule of the Theban house, are supposed to have been the work of that
+Monthotpu, whose name the Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the
+royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious representative
+of the Eleventh dynasty.
+
+The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
+showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
+determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
+found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and
+established for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far
+south to be a suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt,
+Amenemhait proceeded to establish himself in the heart of the country in
+imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took
+up his abode a little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui.
+Having restored peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of
+his reign, when he was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very
+young, to the co-regency with himself.
+
+When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
+against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
+dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with
+greater certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which
+ruled Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its
+great achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight
+sovereigns and the details of their interminable wars are very
+imperfectly known.
+
+Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
+Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty
+kings, who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and
+Sovkhoptus continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work
+so ably begun by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.
+
+During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
+fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
+taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
+Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
+the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
+energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
+incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
+Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis,
+Bubastis and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley,
+from near the spot where it receives its last tributary to where it
+empties itself into the sea. The making of Egypt was finally
+accomplished in his time. The Fourteenth dynasty, however, consists of a
+line of seventy-five kings, whose mutilated names appear on the Turin
+Papyrus. These shadowy Pharaohs followed each other in rapid sequence,
+some reigning only a few months, others for certainly not more than two
+and three years.
+
+Meantime, during what appears to have been an era of rivalries between
+pretenders, mutually jealous of and deposing one another, usurpers in
+succession seizing the crown without strength to keep it, the feudal
+lords displayed more than their old restlessness. The nomad tribes began
+to show growing hostility on the frontier, and the peoples of the Tigris
+and Euphrates were already pushing their vanguards into Central Syria.
+While Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and the eastern
+corner of Africa into subjection, Chaldæa had imposed not only language
+and habits, but also her laws upon the whole of that part of Eastern
+Asia which separated her from Egypt. Thus the time was rapidly
+approaching when these two great civilised powers of the ancient world
+would meet each other face to face and come into fierce and terrible
+collision.
+
+
+_VII.--Ancient Chaldæa_
+
+
+The Chaldæan account of Genesis is contained on fragments of tablets
+discovered and deciphered in 1875 by George Smith. These tell legends of
+the time when "nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when
+nothing below had as yet received the name of earth. Apsu, the Ocean,
+who was their first father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
+all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes
+which bore no fruit. In the time when the gods were not created, Lakhmu
+and Lakhamu were the first to appear and waxed great for ages."
+
+Then came Anu, the sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night;
+Inlil-Bel, the king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and
+the personification of wisdom. Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into
+Anat, Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse
+whom he had produced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these
+fruitful pairs, and, the impulse once given, the world was rapidly
+peopled by their descendants. Sin, Samash and Ramman, who presided
+respectively over the sun, moon and air, were all three of equal rank;
+next came the lords of the planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, the
+warrior-goddess, and Nebo; then a whole army of lesser deities who
+ranged themselves around Anu as around a supreme master.
+
+Discord arose. The first great battle of the gods was between Tiamat and
+Merodach. In this fearful conflict Tiamat was destroyed. Splitting her
+body into halves, the conqueror hung up one on high, and this became the
+heavens; the other he spread out under his feet to form the earth, and
+made the universe as men have known it. Merodach regulated the movements
+of the sun and divided the year into twelve months.
+
+The heavens having been put in order, he set about peopling the earth.
+Many such fables concerning the cosmogony were current among the races
+of the lower Euphrates, who seem to have belonged to three different
+types. The most important were the Semites, who spoke a dialect akin to
+Armenian, Hebrew and Phoenician. Side by side with these the monuments
+give evidence of a race of ill-defined character, whom we provisionally
+call Sumerians, who came, it is said, from some northern country, and
+brought with them a curious system of writing which, adopted by ten
+different nations, has preserved for us all that we know in regard to
+the majority of the empires which rose and fell in Western Asia before
+the Persian conquest. The cities of these Semites and Sumerians were
+divided into two groups, one in the south, near the sea, the other more
+to the north, where the Euphrates and the Tigris are separated by a
+narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, Eridu lying
+nearest the coast. Uru was the most important. Lagash was to the north
+of Eridu. The northern group consisted of Nipur, "the incomparable,"
+Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and residence of life, the only
+metropolis of the Euphrates region of which posterity never lost
+reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the two Sipparas, that
+of Shamash, and that of Annuit.
+
+The earliest Chaldæan civilisation was confined almost to the banks of
+the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not reach
+the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of the
+world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
+north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert,
+it was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an
+isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.
+
+According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
+chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
+36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in
+this mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the
+great deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the
+wickedness of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited
+their wrath. Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved
+miraculously in a great ship. Concerning him and his voyage strange
+fables are recorded. After the deluge, 86 kings ruled during 34,080
+years. One of these was Nimrod, the mighty hunter of the Bible, who
+appears as Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and is the hero of extraordinary
+adventures.
+
+History proper begins with Sargon the Elder, king at the first in Agade,
+who soon annexed Babylon, Sippara, Kishu, Uruk, Kuta and Nipur. His
+brilliant career was like an anticipation of that of the still more
+glorious life of Sargon of Nineveh. His son, Naramsin, succeeded him
+about 3750 B.C. He conquered Elam and was a great builder. After him the
+most famous king of that epoch was Gudea, of Lagash, the prince of whom
+we possess the greatest number of monuments. But in these records we
+have but the dust of history rather than history itself. The materials
+are scanty in the extreme and the framework also is wanting.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Temples and the Gods of Chaldæa_
+
+
+The cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of Egypt,
+by the magnificence of their ruins. They are merely heaps of rubbish in
+which no architectural outline can be traced--mounds of stiff greyish
+clay, containing the remains of the vast structures that were built of
+bricks set in mortar or bitumen. Stone was not used as in Egypt. While
+the Egyptian temple was spread superficially over a large area, the
+Chaldæan temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible. These
+"ziggurats" were composed of several immense cubes piled up on one
+another, and diminishing in size up to the small shrine by which they
+were crowned, and wherein the god himself was supposed to dwell.
+
+The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a
+countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into
+tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe; but,
+whereas in Egypt they were, on the whole, friendly to man, in Chaldæa
+they for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only
+seemed to exist in order to destroy him. Whether Semite or Sumerian, the
+gods, like those of Egypt, were not abstract personages, but each
+contained in himself one of the principal elements of which our universe
+is composed--earth, air, sky, sun, moon and stars. The state religion,
+which all the inhabitants of the same city were solemnly bound to
+observe, included some dozen gods, but the private devotion of
+individuals supplemented this cult by vast additions, each family
+possessing its own household gods.
+
+Animals never became objects of worship as in Egypt; some of them,
+however, as the bull and the lion, were closely allied to the gods. If
+the idea of uniting all these gods into a single supreme one ever
+crossed the mind of a Chaldæan theologian, it never spread to the people
+as a whole. Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on
+which we find recorded prayers, we have as yet discovered no document
+containing the faintest allusion to a divine unity. The temples were
+miniature reproductions of the arrangements of the universe. The
+"ziggurat" represented in its form the mountain of the world, and the
+halls ranged at its feet resembled approximately the accessory parts of
+the world; the temple of Merodach at Babylon comprised them all up to
+the chambers of fate, where the sun received every morning the tablets
+of destiny.
+
+Every individual was placed, from the very moment of his birth, under
+the protection of a god or goddess, of whom he was the servant, or
+rather the son. These deities accompanied him by day and by night to
+guard him from the evil genii ready to attack him on every side. The
+Chaldæans had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in the other
+world as the Egyptians possessed.
+
+The Chaldæan hades is a dark country surrounded by seven high walls, and
+is approached by seven gates, each guarded by a pitiless warder. Two
+deities rule within it--Nergal, "the lord of the great city," and
+Peltis-Allat, "the lady of the great land," whither everything which has
+breathed in this world descends after death. A legend relates that Allat
+reigned alone in hades and was invited by the gods to a feast which they
+had prepared in heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light she refused,
+sending a message by her servant, Namtar, who acquitted himself, with
+such a bad grace, that Anu and Ea were incensed against his mistress,
+and commissioned Nergal to chastise her. He went, and finding the gates
+of hell open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was
+about to decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved
+her life by becoming his wife.
+
+The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the
+departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of
+pestilence and battle. His functions in heaven and earth took up so much
+of his time that he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and
+he was consequently obliged to content himself with the rôle of
+providing subjects for it by dispatching thither the thousands of
+recruits which he gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the
+field of battle.
+
+
+_IX.--Chaldæan Civilisation_
+
+
+The Chaldæan kings, unlike their contemporaries, the Pharaohs, rarely
+put forward any pretension to divinity. They contented themselves with
+occupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the gods.
+While the ordinary priest chose for himself a single deity as master,
+the priest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions. He officiated
+for Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions daily
+occupied many hours. On great days of festival or sacrifice they laid
+aside all insignia of royalty and were clad as ordinary priests.
+
+Women do not seem to have been honoured in the Euphratean regions as in
+Egypt, where the wives of the sovereign were invested with that
+semi-sacred character that led the women to be associated with the
+devotions of the man, and made them indispensable auxiliaries in all
+religious ceremonies. Whereas the monuments on the banks of the Nile
+reveal to us princesses sharing the throne of their husbands, whom they
+embrace with a gesture of frank affection, in Chaldæa, the wives of the
+prince, his mother, sisters, daughters and even his slaves, remain
+absolutely invisible to posterity. The harem in which they were shut up
+by force of custom rarely, if ever, opened its doors; the people seldom
+caught sight of them; and we could count on our fingers the number of
+these whom the inscriptions mention by name.
+
+Life was not so pleasant in Chaldæa as in Egypt. The innumerable
+promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and
+purchase--these cunningly drawn-up deeds which have been deciphered by
+the hundred, reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious,
+and almost exclusively absorbed in material concerns. The climate, too,
+variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed on the
+Chaldæan painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of
+which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable.
+And the plague of usury raged with equal violence in city and country.
+
+In proportion, however, as we are able to bring this wonderful
+civilisation to light we become more and more conscious that we have
+indeed little or nothing in common with it. Its laws, customs, habits
+and character, its methods of action and its modes of thought, are so
+far apart from those of the present day that they seem to belong to a
+humanity utterly different from our own. It thus happens that while we
+understand to a shade the classical language of the Greeks and of the
+Romans, and can read their works almost without effort, the great
+primitive literatures of the world, the Egyptian and Chaldæan, have
+nothing to offer us for the most part but a sequence of problems to
+solve or of enigmas to unriddle with patience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Struggle of the Nations
+
+
+     Maspero in this work gives us the second volume of his great
+     historical trilogy. He shows in parallel views the part played
+     in the history of the ancient world by the first Chaldæan
+     Empire, by Syria, by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, of Egypt,
+     and by the first Cossæan kings who established the greatness
+     of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. The great Theban dynasty
+     is then exhibited in its romantic rise under the Pharaohs.
+     Maspero writes not as a mere chronicler or reciter of events,
+     but as a philosophical historian. He makes the reader
+     understand how fatally the chronic militarism of these
+     competing empires drained each of its manhood and brought
+     Babylon and Assyria simultaneously into a hopeless condition
+     of national anæmia. Equally pathetic is the picture drawn of
+     the gradual but sure decay of the grand empire of the
+     Pharaohs. Maspero, with masterly skill, passes a processional
+     of these despots before our eyes.
+
+
+_I.--The Chaldæan Empire and the Hyksos_
+
+
+Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
+battlefields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such
+regions neighbouring peoples come to settle their quarrels, and bit by
+bit they appropriate it, so that at best the only course open to the
+inhabitants is to join forces with one of the invaders. From remote
+antiquity this was the experience of Syria, which was thus destined to
+become subject to foreign rule. Chaldæa, Egypt, Assyria and Persia in
+turn presided over its destinies. Semites dwelt in the south and the
+centre, while colonies from beyond the Taurus occupied the north. The
+influence of Egypt never penetrated beyond the provinces lying nearest
+the Dead Sea. The remaining populations looked rather to Chaldæa, and
+received the continuous impress of the kingdoms of the Euphrates.
+
+The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at
+first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
+latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
+state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession,
+there to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings
+contain semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes.
+Towards the end of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the
+Christian era, a dynasty arose of which all the members come within the
+range of history.
+
+The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
+the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
+kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416
+B.C. and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the.
+famous and fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the
+throne for fifty-five years.
+
+While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
+separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
+horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
+declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
+invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
+whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
+term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
+conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors.
+The monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The
+problem remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious
+as ever.
+
+About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Isræl,
+or Isrælites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's
+history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews
+arrived in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless
+one of the Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a
+war of five years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs,
+whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from
+various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her
+armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden
+appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The
+isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the
+conflict of the nations was about to begin.
+
+
+_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_
+
+
+The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldæan interference when,
+forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time
+into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
+control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.
+When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of
+Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossæan race
+gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi
+by Chaldæans of the ancient stock.
+
+The Cossæan king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his
+tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
+Media. The Cossæan rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
+doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised
+at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossæan kings did not merely bring
+with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
+land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
+merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
+successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
+over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew
+their allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer
+supreme when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis
+entered the region the native levies which he encountered were by no
+means formidable.
+
+The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
+group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
+completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to
+distinguish at the present time several of these groups, all belonging
+to the same family, but possessing different characteristics--the
+kinsfolk of the Hebrews, the children of Ishmæl and Edom, the Moabites
+and Ammonites, the Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The
+Canaanites were the most numerous, and had they been able to confederate
+under a single king, it would have been impossible for the Egyptians to
+have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of
+Asia.
+
+
+_III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty_
+
+
+The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
+a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
+could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching
+on his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
+surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
+Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the
+secure door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this
+quarter, Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power
+in Ethiopia, where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern
+region and thus extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the
+upper Nile, Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of
+profound peace. Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife,
+Queen Hatshopsitu, reigned for many years with great ability while the
+new Pharaoh, Thutmosis III., was still a youth.
+
+After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
+It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
+reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and
+won a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
+inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
+Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his
+arms, and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king.
+When the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its
+results by means of a series of international decrees, which established
+the constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action
+with the Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position
+among them when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his
+reign.
+
+Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
+who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
+peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
+temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire_
+
+
+When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of
+whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort
+after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By
+such a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III.,
+was raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty.
+He displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting
+mighty building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against
+recalcitrant tribes along the Upper Nile.
+
+Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his
+accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and associated his son,
+Seti I., with himself in the government from his second year of power.
+No sooner had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for
+war against Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron,
+marched to Gaza, and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the
+homage of the Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing
+troops of captives.
+
+By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and
+Luxor, which render his name for ever illustrious. He associated with
+him his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of
+the greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The
+monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of
+the world. He married a Hittite princess when he was more than sixty.
+This alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once
+more breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection
+of the two Powers who shared her territory.
+
+Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old
+age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to
+disfigure it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who
+was thus the glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and
+lived to the age of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes. Under
+his successors, Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation
+became decadent, though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as
+when Minephtah won a great victory over the Libyans. But after the death
+of Siphtah, there were many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy
+prevailed from one end of the Nile valley to the other.
+
+
+_V.--The Rise of the Assyrian Empire_
+
+
+Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last
+dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the
+Oriental world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured
+to rival him in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived.
+In the fifth year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated
+Libyans with complete success. Victories over other enemies followed,
+and also peace and prosperity.
+
+The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had
+so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it
+had made on their constitution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had
+become, as it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and
+language being affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians
+became absorbed in commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the
+inheritance which the Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the
+decline of the power of the latter was that of the Hittites.
+
+The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Cossæan kings, and
+gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard Babylon with
+deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more than 185
+miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many canals
+between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was
+formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper
+Zab, the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every
+means in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and
+the narrow area was the scene of continual war.
+
+Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that
+of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the
+Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of
+latitude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the
+streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a
+network of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The
+provinces thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into
+a proverb. Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well
+wooded. The most important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and
+Nineveh.
+
+Assur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the
+very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was,
+during the struggle with the Chaldæan power, exposed to the attacks of
+the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and
+the Zab, was secure from any sudden assault. Thus it became the custom
+for the kings to pass at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though
+Assur remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire,
+which began its aggrandisement under Assurballit, by his victory over
+the Cossæan kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the
+career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years
+doubled the extent of his dominions. He beautified Assur, but removed
+his court to Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of
+Babylon, and was the first of his race who was able to assume the title
+of King of Sumir and Akkad.
+
+This first conquest of Chaldæa did not produce lasting results, for the
+sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and Assyria became the
+scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the
+depression of Assyria did not last long. Nineveh had become the
+metropolis. Confusion was increased in the whole of this vast region of
+Asia by the invasion and partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon.
+But these were driven back when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To
+Merodach he prayed, and "his prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam,
+taking its king by surprise and defeating him.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of
+Assyria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for
+though his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent
+flying across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of
+Assurishishi, who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son,
+Tiglath-pileser, is the first of the great warrior kings of Assyria to
+stand out before us with any definite individuality. He immediately, on
+his accession, began to employ in aggressive wars the well-equipped army
+left by his father, and in three campaigns he regained all the
+territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and also conquered various
+regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the Chaldæans he met
+with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive, dying about the
+year 1100 B.C.
+
+There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain
+Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the
+footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
+Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left a
+triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had
+accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested
+from him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks
+of the Euphrates near Carchemish.
+
+What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at
+almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?
+The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the
+country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldæa was
+neither extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the
+ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms
+was enrolled in the army, the Chaldæan kings had no difficulty in
+raising, at a moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel
+an invasion, or to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it
+was in schemes that required prolonged and sustained effort that they
+felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age of hand-to-hand
+combats, the mortality in battle was very high; forced marches through
+forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or
+four campaigns against a stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a
+condition of weakness.
+
+When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on Assurishishi, he was still weak from
+the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could
+not conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on
+the banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few
+indecisive advantages; in the second he succumbed.
+
+The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
+causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst
+of her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories
+of Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious
+state of languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted
+themselves which had gradually come to displace the nations over which
+the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to
+them. The Hebrews on the east, and the Philistines on the southwest,
+were about to undertake the conquest of Kharu, as the land which is
+known to us as Canaan was styled by the Egyptians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Passing of the Empires
+
+
+     Maspero, in the third volume of his great archæological
+     trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the
+     Classic East," deals with the passing in succession of the
+     supremacies of the Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldæan,
+     Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The period dealt with in
+     this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries, from 850
+     B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes
+     before us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic
+     dramas. One excellent feature of his method is his balancing
+     of evidences. Where Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ
+     he tells what each asserts. With consummate skill also he
+     arranges his recital like a series of dissolving views,
+     showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading
+     Assyria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media
+     is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of
+     Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the
+     decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
+     culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by
+     Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations
+     on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture
+     and civilisation of the Orient.
+
+
+_I.--The Assyrian Revival_
+
+
+Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
+prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity
+and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the
+country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held
+authority for seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030
+B.C., a Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and
+succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.
+Five or six of his descendants passed away and another was feebly
+reigning when war broke out afresh with Assyria, and the two armies
+encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the
+Lower Zab and the Turnat. The Assyrians were victorious under their
+king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not live long to enjoy his triumph. His
+son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a kingdom which embraced scarcely any of
+the countries that had paid tribute to former sovereign, for most of
+these had gradually regained their liberty.
+
+Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same
+conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the
+vitality and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a
+new element. This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to
+the chariotry. But it must be remembered that the strength and
+discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were
+common to the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus,
+Nairi, the Hittites and Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states
+being, as a rule, both in strength and numbers much on a par, no single
+power was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would be
+its destruction. Twice at least in three centuries a king of Assyria had
+entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had forced the intruder back.
+
+Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those
+conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives.
+He was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than
+the people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief
+cities, then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and
+pillaged many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was
+flayed alive. After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.
+
+A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his
+successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of
+Nimroud, discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He
+conquered the whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a
+savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An
+attack on Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad,
+King of Syria, proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war
+with Babylon, lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for
+Assyria, and Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple
+of E-shaggil, where he offered worship to the local gods.
+
+Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King
+of Isræl, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been
+faithful to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the
+city of Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his
+pledge. He and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance
+against Benhadad, who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had
+organised an expedition, which led to the death of Ahab in battle.
+Isræl lapsed once more into the position of a vassal to Benhadad, and
+long remained in that subjection.
+
+The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son,
+Assur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was
+shaken by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV.,
+the brother of Assurdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son,
+Ramman-nirari III., had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and
+so had secured peace. He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at
+length Damascus made submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and
+able King of Urartu, proved himself a thorn in the side of the Assyrian
+king, for he delivered from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the
+borders of Lake Urmiah and all the adjacent regions.
+
+Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the
+Euphrates, the Assyrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also
+overcame the Hittites and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van,
+or Armenia, which was quite equal in size to Assyria. He died shortly
+before the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent
+the first few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the
+country north of the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of
+Ramman-nirari, but defeated the Assyrians.
+
+Misfortunes accumulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so
+wide a sway, and the end of the Second Assyrian Empire was not far off.
+Syria was lost under Assur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah
+by sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came
+to an end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah,
+proclaimed himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The
+Second Empire had lasted rather less than a century and a half.
+
+
+_II.--To the Destruction of Babylon_
+
+
+Events proved that, at this period at any rate, the decadence of Assyria
+was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of the
+country, but was owing Mainly to the incapacity of its kings and the
+lack of energy displayed by their generals. The Assyrian troops had lost
+none of their former valour, but their leaders had shown less foresight
+and skill. As soon as Tiglath-pileser assumed leadership, the armies
+regained their former prestige and supremacy.
+
+The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, but the buffer provinces,
+containing the tribes on the borders of Syria, Namri, Nairi, Melitene,
+had thrown off the yoke, as had the Arameans, while Menuas of Armenia
+and his son Argistis had by their invasions laid waste the Median
+territory. Sharduris III., son of Argistis, succeeded to the throne of
+Armenia about 760, and at once overran the district of Babilu, carrying
+by storm three royal castles, 23 cities, and 60 villages. He also
+captured the castles of the mountaineers of Melitene. Crossing Mount
+Taurus about 756, he forced the Hittites to swear allegiance.
+
+It was in the middle of this eighth century B.C., in the days of
+Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, and Sharduris III. of Armenia, that
+Isræl, under Jehoash, and his son Jeroboam II.; inspired by the
+exhortations of Elisha the prophet, was rehabilitated for a season,
+winning victories over the Syrians and taking vengeance on Damascus, and
+then attacking the Moabites. The sudden collapse of Damascus led to the
+decline of Syria, but though Jeroboam II. seemed to be firmly seated as
+king in Samaria, the downfall of Isræl and Judah alike, as well as of
+Tyre, Edom, Gaza, Moab, and Ammon, was foretold by the prophet Amos,
+while from the midst of Ephraim the priest-seer, Hosea, was never weary
+of reproaching the tribes with their ingratitude and of predicting their
+coming desolation.
+
+Ere long, Tiglath-pileser began his campaigns against them by attacking
+the Arameans, dwelling on the banks of the Tigris. He overthrew them at
+the first encounter. Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him
+and swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon,
+Borsippa, Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a
+peer," and offered sacrifices to all their gods--to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo,
+Tashmit, and Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.
+
+His next exploit was the rapid conquest of the mountainous and populous
+regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
+conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in
+the difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the
+Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon
+afterwards marched forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout
+of the latter was complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The
+victor was covered with glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the
+forces left him were not sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to
+extort allegiance from the Syrian princes who had allied themselves with
+Sharduris.
+
+After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
+Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of
+Northern Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty
+foiled Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of
+Dhuspas, in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu
+held out against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew.
+Sharduris remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his
+power had received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then,
+Armenia has more than once challenged fortune, but always with the same
+result; it fared no better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under
+Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians.
+
+As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
+Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta,
+where the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
+grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
+abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
+profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
+also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many
+petty states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time
+of Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power
+was really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually
+declared himself king, together with Pharaoh.
+
+Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
+of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was
+at this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Isræl, King
+Pekah being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
+inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.
+
+Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
+had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C.,
+and was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years
+was assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin,
+who was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two
+months and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain
+Ukinzir, an Aramean chief.
+
+But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
+on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against
+it. After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
+Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
+passed since the two empires had been united under one ruler. His
+Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking for him; but he did not
+long survive his triumph, dying after having reigned eighteen years over
+Assyria, and less than two years over Babylon and Chaldæa.
+
+The next great Assyrian name is that of Sargon II., whose origin is not
+clear. And the incidents of the revolution which raised him to the
+throne are also unknown. The first few years of his reign, which
+commenced in 722 B.C., were harassed by revolts among many of the border
+tribes, but these he resolutely faced at all points, inflicting
+overwhelming defeats on the Medes and the Armenians. The Philistines
+were cowed by the storming of Ashdod, and Sargon subdued Phoenicia,
+carrying his arms to the sea. This great monarch, while wars raged round
+him, found time for extensive works of a peaceful character, completing
+the system of irrigation, and erecting buildings at Calah and Nineveh,
+and raising a magnificent palace at Dur-Sharrukin.
+
+And here he intended in peace to build a great city, but he was, in 105
+B.C., assassinated by an alien soldier. Sennacherib, his son, fighting
+on the frontier, was recalled and proclaimed immediately. He either
+failed to inherit his father's good fortune, or lacked his ability.
+Instead of conciliating the vanquished, he massacred entire tribes, and
+failed to re-people these with captive exiles from other nations. So,
+towards the end of his reign--which terminated in 681 B.C.--he found
+himself ruling over a sparsely inhabited desert where his father had
+left him flourishing and populous cities. Phoenicia and Judah formed an
+alliance with each other and with Egypt. Sennacherib bestirred himself
+and Tyre perished. The Assyrian invader then attacked Judah and besieged
+Jerusalem, where Hezekiah was king and Isaiah was prophesying. Whatever
+was the cause, half the army perished by pestilence, and Sennacherib led
+back the remnants of his force to Nineveh.
+
+The disaster was terrible, but not irreparable, for another and an equal
+host could be raised. And it was needed to quell a great Babylonian
+revolt led by Merodachbaladan, who had given the signal of rebellion to
+the mountain tribes also. After a series of terrible conflicts, Babylon
+was taken. And now Sennacherib, who had shown leniency after two
+previous revolts, displayed unbounded fury in his triumph. The massacre
+lasted several days, none being spared of the citizens. Piles of corpses
+filled the streets. The temples and palaces were pillaged, and finally
+the city was burnt.
+
+In the midst of his costly and absorbing wars we may well wonder how
+Sennacherib found time and means for building villas and temples; yet he
+is, nevertheless, the Assyrian king who has left us the largest number
+of monuments.
+
+His last years were embittered by the fierce rivalry of his sons. One of
+these he nominated his successor, Esarhaddon, son of a Babylonian wife.
+During his absence from Nineveh, on the 20th day of Teleth, 681, his
+father, Sennacherib, when praying before the image of his god, was
+assassinated by two other sons, Sharezer and Adrammelech. Esarhaddon,
+hearing of this tragedy, gathered an army, and in a battle defeated
+Sharezer and established himself on the throne.
+
+
+_III.--The Crisis of the Assyrian Power_
+
+
+Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, for he delighted in
+building; but unfortunate disturbances did not permit him to pursue his
+favourite occupation without interruption, and, like his warlike
+predecessors, he was constrained to pass most of his life on the
+battlefield. He began his reign by quelling an insurrection of the
+Cimmerians in the territories on the border of the Black Sea. Sidon
+rebelled ungratefully, although his father had saved her from desolation
+by Tyre. He stormed and burnt the city. The Scythian tribes came on the
+field in 678 B.C., but they were diplomatically conciliated.
+
+Now followed a memorable event. Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all
+the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the
+fabrication of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and
+lavishly devoted gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of
+enamel to decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the
+people, who had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to
+return to their homes.
+
+But fresh foreign complications arose through the support given
+continually to recalcitrant states in the south of Egypt. Esarhaddon was
+provoked to undertake the first actual invasion of Egypt in force by
+Assyria for the purpose of subduing the country. Over a great
+combination of the Egyptians and Ethiopians he won a crushing victory.
+Memphis was taken and sacked. Henceforth, Esarhaddon, in his pride,
+styled himself King of Egypt, and King of the Kings of Egypt, of the
+Said, and of Ethiopia. But he was not very long permitted to enjoy the
+glory of his triumph; a determined revolt of the conquered country
+demanded a fresh campaign. He set out, but was in bad health, and, his
+malady increasing, he died on the journey in the twelfth year of his
+reign.
+
+Before starting on the expedition, he had realised the impossibility of
+a permanent amalgamation of Assyria and Babylon, notwithstanding his
+personal affection for Babylon. Accordingly, he designated as his
+successors his two sons. Assurbanipal was to be King of Assyria, and
+Shamash-shumukin King of Babylon, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+As soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation he had planned
+took place automatically, the two sons proclaiming themselves
+respectively kings of Assyria and Babylon. Thus Babylon regained half
+its independence. But the Assyrian Empire was now at its zenith. Egypt
+was quelled by the army of Esarhaddon, and to Assurbanipal submitted in
+vassalage the nations of the Mediterranean coast.
+
+Now followed years of exhausting warfare and of victory after victory,
+which fatally wasted the strength of Assyria. Never had the empire been
+so respected; never had so many nations united under one sceptre. But
+troubles accumulated. Mutiny in Egypt called for another expedition,
+which led to the capture and sacking of Thebes. Next came a war with
+Elam, ending in its subjection to Assyria, for the first time in
+history.
+
+But with success. Assurbanipal grew arrogant in his attitude to his
+brother, the King of Babylon, and a fratricidal war resulted in the
+defeat and death of Shamash-shumukin and the capture of the rival
+capital. But Assyria was now near one of its recurrent periods of
+exhaustion, and foes were rising for a formidable attack.
+
+
+_IV.--Fall of Media and Chaldæa_
+
+
+At the very height of his apparent grandeur and prosperity Assurbanipal
+was attacked by Phraortes, King of the Medes, who paid for his temerity
+with his life, being left dead, with the greater part of his army, on
+the field. But the sequel was unexpected, for Cyaxares, son of the slain
+Mede, stubbornly continued the conflict, patiently reorganising his
+army, until he won a great victory over the Assyrian generals, and shut
+up the remnant of their forces in Nineveh.
+
+Assurbanipal, after a reign of forty-two years, died about 625 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son, Assuretililani. Against his brother and
+successor, Sinsharishkin, the standard of rebellion was raised by
+Nabopolassar, the governor of Babylon, who declared himself independent,
+and assumed the title of king, but his reign not long after ended with
+his death, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar was proclaimed king in Babylon.
+
+His reign was long and prosperous, and, on the whole, a peaceful one.
+The most notable event in the career of Nebuchadrezzar II., was the
+capture and destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of a revolt of Tyre
+and Judea. The unfortunate king, Zedekiah, saw his sons slain in his
+presence, and then, his eyes having been put out, he was loaded with
+chains, and sent to Babylon.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of fifty-five years. His
+successors were weak rulers, and their reigns were brief and inglorious.
+The army was suffered to dwindle, and the dynasty founded by
+Nabopolassar came to an end in 555 B.C., when Labashi-marduk, the last
+of the line, after reigning only nine months, was murdered by Nabonidus,
+a native Babylonian. This usurper witnessed the rapid rise of the new
+Iranian power which was to destroy him and Babylon. In 553 B.C., Cyrus,
+a Persian general, revolted against Astyages, defeated him, and
+destroyed the Median Empire at one blow.
+
+The only army that was a match for that of Cyrus was the Lydian host
+under King Croesus. A conflict took place between the two, ending in the
+defeat of the most powerful potentate of Asia Minor. But Cyrus treated
+Croesus with consideration, and the Lydian king is said to have become
+the friend of the mighty Persian. From that day neither Egypt nor
+Chaldæa had any chance of victory on the battlefield. Nabonidus became a
+mere vassal of Cyrus, and lived more or less inactively in his palace at
+Tima, leaving the direction of power at Babylon in the hands of his son,
+Bel-sharuzu.
+
+At length the Babylonians grew weary of their king. Nabonidus had never
+been popular, and the discontent of the people at length called for the
+intervention of the suzerain. In 538 Cyrus moved against Babylon, and
+Nabonidus now retreated into the city with his troops, and prepared for
+a siege. But Cyrus, taking advantage of the time of the year when the
+waters were lowest, diverted the Tigris, so that his soldiers were able
+to enter the city without striking a blow. Nabonidus surrendered, and
+Belsharuzur was slain. With him perished the second Chaldæan Empire.
+
+The sagacious conqueror did not pillage the city, and treated the
+citizens with clemency. Cyrus associated his son Cambyses with himself,
+making him King of Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
+of the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian
+dominion extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus
+took place the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.
+
+According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
+his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom;
+but Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
+barbarian hosts of the Massagetæ, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
+the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in
+which all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but
+accomplished the stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone
+remained to be conquered. Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise
+against Egypt; but after a series of successes met with reverses in
+Ethiopia, which affected his mind, and he is said to have ended his own
+life. Power fell into the hands of a chief of one of the seven great
+clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose rival was
+Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.
+
+Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
+being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of
+the great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the
+greatness of the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest
+of the Near East had arrived.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
+
+
+The Antiquities of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole history
+     of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also
+     wrote an autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical
+     treatise, "Flavius Josephus against Apion." His style is so
+     classically elegant that critics have called him the Greek
+     Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities of the Jews"
+     contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
+     portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories
+     embodied in the Old Testament.
+
+
+_I.--From Alexander to Antiochus_
+
+
+After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
+Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
+Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So
+he marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Caria and Pamphylia, and
+again defeated Darius at Issus. The Persian king fled into his own land,
+and his mother, wife, and children were captured. Alexander besieged and
+took first Tyre, and then Gaza, and next marched towards Jerusalem.
+
+At Sapha, in full view of the city, he was met by a procession of the
+priests in fine linen, and a multitude of the citizens in white, the
+high-priest, Jaddua, being at their head in his resplendent robes.
+Graciously responding to the salutations of priests and people,
+Alexander entered Jerusalem, worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple,
+and then invited the people to ask what favours they pleased of him;
+whereupon the high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of
+their forefathers, and pay no tribute on the seventh year. All their
+requests were granted, and Alexander led his army into the neighbouring
+cities.
+
+Now, when Alexander was dead and his government had been divided among
+many, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, by treachery seized Jerusalem, and took
+away many captives to Egypt, and settled them there. His successor,
+Ptolemy Philadelphus, restored to freedom 120,000 Jews who had been kept
+in slavery at the instance of Aristeus, one of his most intimate
+friends. He also dedicated many gifts to God, and showed great
+friendship to the Jews in his dominions.
+
+Other kings in Asia followed the example of Philadelphus, conferring
+honours on Jews who became their auxiliaries, and making them citizens
+with privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Macedonians and Greeks. In
+the reign of Antiochus the Great the Jews suffered greatly while he was
+at war with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, called Epiphanes. When
+Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy, he seized on Judea, but ultimately he made
+a league with Ptolemy, gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and
+yielded up to him Celesyria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia by way of
+dowry. Onias, son of Simon the Just, was then high-priest. He greatly
+provoked the king by neglecting to pay his taxes, so that Ptolemy
+threatened to settle his soldiers in Jerusalem to live on the citizens.
+
+But Joseph, the nephew of Onias, by his wisdom brought all things right
+again, and entered into friendship with the king, who lent him soldiers
+and sent him to force the people in various cities to pay their taxes.
+Many who refused were slain. Joseph not only thus gathered great wealth
+for himself, but sent much to the king and to Cleopatra, and to powerful
+men at the court of Egypt. He had a son named Hyrcanus, who became noted
+for his ability, and crossed the Jordan with many followers; he made war
+successfully on the Arabians, built a magnificent stone castle, and
+ruled over all the region for seven years, even all the time that
+Seleucus was king of Syria. But when Seleucus was dead, his brother
+Antiochus Epiphanes took the kingdom, and Hyrcanus, seeing that
+Antiochus had a great army, feared he should be taken and punished for
+what he had done to the Arabians. So he took his own life, Antiochus
+seizing his possessions.
+
+
+_II.--To the Death of Judas_
+
+
+Antiochus, despising the son of Ptolemy as being but weak, and coveting
+the possession of Egypt, conducted an expedition against that country
+with a great force; but was compelled to withdraw by a declaration of
+the Romans. On his way back from Alexandria he took the city of
+Jerusalem, entering it without fighting in the 143d year of the kingdom
+of the Seleucidæ. He slew many of the citizens, plundered the city of
+much money, and returned to Antioch.
+
+After two years he again came up against Jerusalem, and this time left
+the Temple bare, taking away the golden altar and candlesticks, the
+table of shewbread, and the altar of burnt offering, and all the secret
+treasures. He slew some of the people, and carried off into captivity
+about ten thousand, burnt the finest buildings, erected a citadel, and
+therein placed a garrison of Macedonians. Building an idol altar in the
+Temple, he offered swine on it, and he compelled many of the Jews to
+raise idol altars in every town and village, and to offer swine on them
+every day. But many disregarded him, and these underwent bitter
+punishment. They were tortured or scourged or crucified.
+
+Now, at this time there dwelt at Modin a priest named Mattathias, a
+citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, one of whom, Judas, was called
+Maccabæus. Mattathias and his sons not only refused to sacrifice as
+Antiochus commanded, but, with his sons, attacked and slew an apostate
+Jewish worshipper and Apelles, the king's general, and a few of his
+soldiers. Then the priest and his five sons overthrew the idol altar,
+and fled into the desert, followed by many of their followers with their
+wives and children. About a thousand of these who had hidden in caves
+were overtaken and destroyed; but many who escaped joined themselves to
+Mattathias, and appointed him to be the ruler, who taught them to fight,
+even on the Sabbath. Gathering a great army, he overthrew the idol
+altars, and slew those who broke the laws. But after ruling one year, he
+fell into a distemper, and committed to his sons the conduct of affairs.
+He was buried at Modin, all the people making great lamentation. His son
+Judas took upon himself the administration of affairs in the 146th year,
+and with the help of his brothers and others, cast their enemies out of
+the country and purified the land of its pollutions. Judas celebrated in
+the Temple at Jerusalem the festival of the restoration of the
+sacrifices for eight days.
+
+From that time we call the yearly celebration the Feast of Lights. Judas
+also rebuilt the wall and reared towers of great height. When these
+things were over he made excursions against adversaries on every side,
+he and his brothers Simon and Jonathan subduing in turn Idumæa, Gilead,
+Jazer, Tyre, and Ashdod. Antiochus died of a distemper which overtook
+him as he was fleeing from Elymais, from which he was driven during an
+attack upon its gates. Before he died he called his friends about him,
+and confessed that his calamities had come upon him for the miseries he
+had brought upon the Jewish nation.
+
+Antiochus was succeeded by his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy of tender
+age, whose guardians were Philip and Lysias. He reigned but two years,
+being put to death, together with Lysias, by order of the usurper
+Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who fled from Rome, and, landing in
+Syria, gathered an army, and was joyfully received by the people.
+Against Jerusalem, Demetrius sent an expedition commanded by his
+general, Bacchides. Judas Maccabæus, fighting with great courage, but
+having with him only 800 men, fell in the battle. His brothers Simon and
+Jonathan, receiving his body by treaty from the enemy, carried it to the
+village of Modin, and there buried him. He left behind him a glorious
+reputation, by gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from
+slavery under the Macedonians. He died after filling the office of
+high-priest for three years.
+
+
+_III.--To the Roman Dominion_
+
+
+Jonathan and his brother Simon continued the war against Bacchides. They
+were assisted by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the
+160th year, came up into Syria against Demetrius, and defeated and slew
+him in a great battle near Ptolemais. But the son of Demetrius, named
+after his father, in the 165th year, after Alexander had seated himself
+on the throne and had gained in marriage Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy
+Philometor, came from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers.
+Jonathan and Simon, brothers of Judas Maccabæus, entering into league
+with Demetrius, who offered them very great advantages, defeated at
+Ashdod the army sent by Alexander under Apollonius.
+
+A breach took place between Alexander and Ptolemy through the treachery
+of Ammonius, a friend of the former, and the Egyptian king took away his
+daughter Cleopatra from her husband, and immediately sent to Demetrius,
+offering to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him,
+to give him his daughter in marriage and to restore him to the
+principality of his fathers. These overtures were joyfully accepted, and
+Ptolemy came to Antioch and persuaded the people to receive Demetrius.
+Alexander was beaten in a battle by the two allies and fled into Arabia,
+where, however, his head was speedily cut off by Zabdiel, a prince of
+the country, and sent to Ptolemy. But that king, through wounds caused
+by falling from his horse, died a few days afterwards.
+
+Demetrius, being secure in power, disbanded a great part of his army,
+but this action greatly irritated the soldiers. Furthermore, he was
+hated, as his father had been, by the people of Syria. A revolt was
+raised by an Apanemian named Trypho, who overcame Demetrius in a fight,
+and took from him both his elephants and the city of Antioch. Demetrius
+on this defeat retired into Cilicia, and Trypho delivered the kingdom to
+Antiochus, the youthful son of Alexander, who quickly sent ambassadors
+to Jonathan and made him his confederate and friend, confirming him in
+the high-priesthood and yielding up to him four prefectures which had
+been added to Judea. Accordingly, Jonathan promptly joined him in a war
+against Demetrius, who was again defeated.
+
+Soon after Demetrius had been carried into captivity Trypho deserted
+Antiochus, who had now reigned four years. He usurped power, which he
+basely abused; and Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, raised a force
+against him and drove him away to Apamea, where he was put to death, his
+term of power having lasted only three years. Antiochus Soter then
+attacked Simon, who successfully resisted, established peace, and ruled
+in all for eight years. His death also was the result of treachery, his
+son-in-law Ptolemy playing him false. His son Hyrcanus became
+high-priest, and speedily ejected the forces of Ptolemy from the land.
+Subduing all factions, he ruled justly for thirty-one years, leaving
+five sons.
+
+The eldest, Aristobulus, purposed to change the government into a
+kingdom, and placed a diadem on his own head; but his mother, to whom
+the supremacy had been entrusted, disputed his authority. He cast her
+into prison, where she was starved to death; and next he compassed the
+death of his brother Antigonus, but was soon attacked by a painful
+disease. He reigned only one year. His widow, Alexandra, let his
+brothers out of prison and made Alexander Janneus king.
+
+His reign was one of war and disorder. With savage cruelty he repressed
+rebellion, condemning hundreds of Jews to crucifixion. While these were
+yet living, their wives and children were slain before their eyes. His
+life was ended by a sickness which lasted three years, and after his
+death civil war broke out between his two sons, Aristobulus and
+Hyrcanus, in which great barbarities were committed. The conflict was
+terminated by the intervention of the Romans under Scarus. The two
+brothers appealed to Pompey after he came to Damascus; but that Roman
+general marched against Jerusalem and took it by force. Thus we lost our
+liberty as a nation and became subject to the Romans.
+
+
+_IV.--The Jews and the Romans_
+
+
+Crassus next came with Roman troops into Judea and pillaged the Temple,
+and then marched into Parthia, where both he and his army perished. Then
+Cassius obtained Syria, and checked the Parthians. He passed on to
+Judea, fell on Tarichæa, and took it, and carried away 3,000 Jewish
+captives. A wealthy Idumean named Antipater, who had been a great friend
+of Hyrcanus, and had helped him against Aristobulus, was a very active
+and seditious man. He had married Cypros, a lady of his own Idumean
+race, by whom he had four sons, Phaselus, and Herod, who afterwards
+became king, and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He
+cultivated friendship with other potentates, especially with the King of
+Arabia, to whom he committed the care of his children while he fought
+against Aristobulus. But when Cæsar had taken Rome, and after Pompey and
+the senate had fled beyond the Ionian Sea, Aristobulus was set free from
+the bonds in which he had been laid. Cæsar resolved to send him with two
+legions into Syria to set matters right; but Aristobulus had no
+enjoyment of this trust, for he was poisoned by Pompey's party. But
+Scipio, sent by Pompey to slay Alexander, son of Aristobulus, cut off
+his head at Antioch. And Ptolemy, son of Menneus, ruler of Chalcis, took
+Alexander's brethren to him, and sent his son Philippion to Askelon to
+Aristobulus's wife, and desired her to send back with him her son
+Antigonus and her daughters; the one of whom, Alexandra, Philippion fell
+in love with, and married her; though afterwards his father Ptolemy slew
+him, and married Alexandra.
+
+Now, after Pompey was dead, and after the victory Cæsar had gained over
+him, Antipater, who had managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
+to Cæsar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
+Hyrcanus. He brought over to the side of Cæsar the principal men of the
+Arabians, and also Jamblicus, the ruler of the Syrians, and Ptolemy, his
+son, and Tholomy, the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and
+almost all the cities, and with 3,000 armed Jews he joined Mithradates
+of Pergamus, who was marching with his auxiliaries to aid Cæsar.
+Antipater and Mithradates together won a pitched battle against the
+Egyptians, and Cæsar not only then commended Antipater, but used him
+throughout that war in the most hazardous undertakings, and finally, at
+the end of that campaign, made him procurator of Judea, at the same time
+appointing Hyrcanus high-priest. Antipater, seeing that Hyrcanus was of
+a slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
+Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
+fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
+won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of
+robbers, and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.
+
+Thus Herod became known to Sextus Cæsar, a relation of the great Cæsar,
+who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of Antipater
+and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the Jews,
+especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was capable
+of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
+encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting
+men to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting
+Herod, whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would
+have sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus,
+where he took refuge with Sextus Cæsar. When Herod received the kingdom,
+he slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he
+respected because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city,
+and he even slew Hyrcanus also.
+
+Now, when Cæsar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into Africa to
+fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
+desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
+only Cæsar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
+confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders
+that arose after the death of Cæsar, Cassius came into Syria and
+disturbed Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to
+gather the great tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a
+collector named Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the
+murder of his father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod
+gained new favour with Cassius.
+
+
+_V.--The Herodian Era_
+
+
+In order to secure his position, Herod made an obscure priest from
+Babylon, named Ananelus, high-priest in place of Hyrcanus. This offended
+Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Alexander, son of
+Aristobulus the king. She had ten children, among whom were Mariamne,
+the beautiful wife of Herod, and Aristobulus. She sent an appeal to
+Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in order by her intercession to gain from
+Antony the high-priesthood for this son. At the instance of Antony,
+Herod took the office from Ananelus, and gave it to Aristobulus, but
+took care that the youth should soon be murdered. Then, from causeless
+jealousy, he put to death his uncle Joseph and threw Mariamne into
+prison. Victory in a war with Arabia enhanced his power. Cruelly slaying
+Hyrcanus, he hasted away to Octavian, who had beaten Antony at Actium,
+and obtained also from him, the new Cæsar, Augustus, the kingdom, thus
+being confirmed in his position.
+
+Women of the palace who hated Mariamne for her beauty, her high birth,
+and her pride, falsely accused her to Herod of gross unfaithfulness. He
+loved her passionately, but, giving ear to these traducers, ordered her
+to be tried. She was condemned to death, and showed great fortitude as
+she went to the place of execution, even though her own mother,
+Alexandra, in order to make herself safe from the wrath of the king,
+basely, and publicly, and violently upbraided her, while the people,
+pitying her, mourned at her fate. Herod was also attacked by a
+tormenting distemper. He ordered the execution of Alexandra and of
+several of his most intimate friends.
+
+By his persistent introduction of foreign customs, which corrupted the
+constitution of the country, Herod incurred the deep hatred of very many
+eminent citizens. He erected servile trophies to Cæsar, and prepared
+costly games in which men were condemned to fight with wild beasts. Ten
+men who conspired against him were betrayed, and were tortured horribly,
+and then slain. But the people seized the spy who had informed against
+them, tore him limb from limb, and flung the body in pieces to the dogs.
+By constant and relentless severity Herod still strengthened his rule.
+
+But now fearful disturbances arose in his family. His sister Salome and
+his brother Pheroras displayed virulent hatred against Alexander and
+Aristobulus, sons of the murdered Mariamne, and, on their part, the two
+young men were incensed at the partiality shown by Herod to his eldest
+son, Antipater. This prince was continually using cunning strategy
+against his brethren, while feigning affection for them. He so worked on
+the mind of the king by false accusations against Alexander that many of
+the friends of this youth were tortured to death in the attempts made to
+force disclosures from them.
+
+A traitor named Eurycles fanned the flame by additional accusations, all
+utterly groundless, so that Herod wrote letters to Rome concerning the
+treacherous designs of his sons against him, and asking permission of
+Cæsar to bring them to trial. This was granted, and they were accused
+before an assembly of judges at Berytus and condemned. By their father's
+command they were starved to death. For his share in bringing about this
+tragedy Antipater was hated by the people. But the secret desire of this
+eldest son was to see the end of his father, whom he deeply hated,
+though he now governed jointly with him and was no other than a king
+already.
+
+Herod by this time had nine wives and many children and grandchildren.
+The latter he brought up with much care. Antipater was sent on a mission
+to Rome, and during his absence his plots were discovered, and on his
+return, Herod, amazed at his wickedness, condemned him to death. The
+king now altered his testament, dividing the territory among several of
+his sons. He died on the fifth day after the execution of Antipater,
+having reigned thirty-four years after procuring the death of Antigonus.
+Archelaus, his son, was appointed by Cæsar, in confirmation of Herod's
+will, governor of one-half of the country; but accusation of enemies led
+to his banishment to Vienna, in Gaul. Cyrenaicus, a Roman senator and
+magistrate, was sent by Cæsar to make taxation in Syria and Judea, and
+Caponius was made procurator of Judea. Philip, a son of Herod, built
+cities in honour of Tiberius Cæsar. When Pontius Pilate became
+procurator he removed the army from Cassarea to Jerusalem, abolished
+Jewish laws, and in the night introduced Cæsar's effigies on ensigns.
+
+About this time Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works, drew over
+to him many Jews and Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the
+suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the
+cross, those that loved him did not forsake him, for he appeared to them
+again alive at the third day, as the prophets had foretold; and the
+tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
+John, who was called the Baptist, was slain by Herod the tetrarch at his
+castle at Machserus, by the Dead Sea. The destruction of his army by
+Aretas, king of Arabia, was ascribed by the Jews to God's anger for this
+crime.
+
+Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, became the most famous of his
+descendants. On him Claudius Cæsar bestowed all the dominions of his
+grandfather with the title of king. But pride overcame him. Seated on a
+throne at a great festival at Cæsarea, arrayed in a magnificent robe, he
+was stricken by a disease, and died.
+
+He was succeeded by his son Agrippa, during whose time Felix and Festus
+were procurators in Judea, while Nero was Roman emperor. This Agrippa
+finished the Temple by the work of 18,000 men. The war of the Jews and
+Romans began through the oppression by Gessius Florus, who secured the
+procuratorship by the friendship of his wife Cleopatra with Poppea, wife
+of Nero. Florus filled Judea with intolerable cruelties, and the war
+began in the second year of his rule and the twelfth of the reign of
+Nero. What happened will be known by those who peruse the books I have
+written about the Jewish war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Wars of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," gives the only full and
+     reliable account of the tragic siege and destruction of
+     Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus. Excepting in the opening,
+     he writes throughout in the third person, although he was
+     present in the Roman camp as a prisoner during the siege, and
+     before then had been, as governor of Galilee, the brave and
+     energetic antagonist of the Romans. Becoming the friend of
+     Titus, and despairing of the success of his compatriots, he
+     was employed in efforts to conciliate the leaders of the
+     rebellion during the siege, and he was for three years a
+     privileged captive in the camp of the besiegers. His recital
+     is one of the most thrilling samples of romantic realism in
+     the whole range of ancient literature, and its veracity and
+     honesty have never been impugned. In his autobiography,
+     Josephus tells how, after the war, he was invited by Titus to
+     sail with him to Rome, and how on his arrival there the
+     Emperor Vespasian entertained him in his own palace, bestowed
+     on him a pension, and conferred on him the honours of Roman
+     citizenship. The Emperors Titus and Domitian treated this
+     remarkable Jew with continued favour.
+
+
+_I.--Beginning of the Great Conflict_
+
+
+Whereas the war which the Jews made against the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all times, while some men who were not concerned themselves
+have written vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and while those
+that were there have given false accounts, I, Joseph, the son of
+Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, and a priest also, and who at first fought
+against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done
+afterwards, am the author of this book.
+
+Now, the affairs of the Romans were in great disorder after the death of
+Nero. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name,
+was seventeen years old. He was considered too young to bear the burden
+of royalty, and Judea relapsed into a Roman province. Cuspius Fadus was
+sent as governor, and administered his office with firmness, but found
+civil war disturbing the district beyond Jordan. He cleared the country
+of the robber bands; and his successor, Tiberius Alexander, during a
+brief rule, put down disturbances which broke out in Judea. The province
+was at peace till he was superseded by Cumanus, during whose government
+the people and the Roman soldiery began to show mutual animosity. In a
+terrible riot 20,000 people perished, and Jerusalem was given up to
+wailing and lamentation.
+
+It was in Cæsarea that the events took place which led to the final war.
+This magnificent city was inhabited by two races--the Syrian Greeks, who
+were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently contended for the
+pre-eminence. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the Roman soldiery,
+levied chiefly in Syria, took part with their countrymen. Tumults and
+bloodshed disturbed the streets. At this time a procurator named Gessius
+Florus was appointed, and he, by his barbarities, forced the Jews to
+begin the war in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the
+seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa.
+
+But the occasion of the war was by no means proportioned to those heavy
+calamities that it brought upon us. The fatal flame finally broke out
+from the old feud at Cæsarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the
+magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It happened that the Jews had a
+synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot
+the Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused,
+and to annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean
+buildings and shops upon it, and so made the approach to the synagogue
+as narrow and difficult as possible. The more impetuous of the Jewish
+youth interrupted the workmen. Then the men of greater wealth and
+influence, and among them John, a publican, collected the large sum of
+eight talents, and sent it as a bribe to Florus, that he might stop the
+building. He received the money, made great promises, and at once
+departed for Sebaste from Cæsarea. His object was to leave full scope
+for the riot.
+
+On the following day, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a
+citizen of Cæsarea outraged them by oversetting an earthen vessel in the
+way, over which he sacrificed birds, as done by the law in cleansing
+lepers, and thus he implied that the Jews were a leprous people. The
+more violent Jews, furious at the insult, attacked the Greeks, who were
+already in arms. The Jews were worsted, took up the books of the law,
+and fled to Narbata, about seven miles distant. John, the publican, and
+twelve men of eminence went to Samaria to Florus, implored his aid, and
+reminded him of the eight talents he had received. He threw them into
+prison and demanded seventeen talents from the sacred treasury under
+pretence of Cæsar's necessities. This injustice and oppression caused
+violent excitement in Jerusalem when the news reached that city. The
+people assembled around the Temple with the loudest outcries; but it was
+the purpose of Florus to drive the people to insurrection, and he gave
+his soldiers orders to plunder the upper market and to put to death all
+whom they met. Of men, women, and children there fell that day 3,600.
+
+When Agrippa attempted to persuade the people to obey Florus till Cæsar
+should send someone to succeed him, the more seditious cast reproaches
+on him, and got the king excluded from the city; nay, some had the
+impudence to fling stones at him. At the same time they excited the
+people to go to war, and some laid siege to the Roman garrison in the
+Antonio; others made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada.
+They took it by treachery, and slew the Romans. One, Menahem, a
+Galilean, became leader of the sedition, and went to Masada and broke
+open Herod's armoury, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to
+other robbers, also. These he made use of for a bodyguard, and returned
+in state to Jerusalem, and gave orders to continue the siege of the
+Antonio.
+
+The tower was undermined, and fell, and many soldiers were slain. Next
+day the high-priest Ananias, and his brother Hezekiah, were slain by the
+robbers. By these successes Menahem was puffed up and became barbarously
+cruel; but he was slain, as were also the captains under him, in an
+attack led on by Eleazar, a bold youth who was governor of the Temple.
+
+
+_II.--The Gathering of Great Storms_
+
+
+And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews. On the very
+same day two dreadful massacres happened. In Jerusalem the Jews fell on
+Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had
+made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander
+himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to
+circumcision. On that very day and hour, as though Providence had
+ordained it, the Greeks in Cæsarea rose, and in a single hour slew over
+20,000 Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants. For
+Florus caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys. By this
+tragedy the whole nation was driven to madness. The Jews rose and laid
+waste the villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended
+on Gadara, Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places.
+Sebaste and Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed
+Anthedon and Gaza to the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with
+great slaughter.
+
+When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus,
+the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and
+overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be
+surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls. But the plot
+was discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls,
+and an attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed
+with great loss. Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews
+swarming on all the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in
+the night, leaving 400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and
+to display their ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.
+
+But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the
+army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band.
+This happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
+
+
+_III.--Judea in Rebellion Against Rome_
+
+
+Nero was at this time in Achaia. To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in
+order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the
+Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of
+Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem. Meantime, a great massacre of the
+Jews took place at Damascus. Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued
+after Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their
+governors and commanders. Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of
+Gorion, and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute
+authority in the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected
+of aiming at kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of
+zealots. But as commanding within the Temple he had made himself master
+of the public treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his
+extreme subtlety won over the multitude, and all real authority fell
+into his hands. To the other districts they sent the men most to be
+trusted for courage and fidelity.
+
+Josephus was appointed to the command of Galilee, with particular charge
+of the strong city of Gamala. He raised in that province in the north an
+army of more than a hundred thousand young men, whom he armed and
+exercised after the Roman manner; and he formed a council of seventy,
+and appointed seven judges in each city. He sought to unite the people
+and to win their goodwill. But great trouble arose from the treachery of
+his enemy, John of Gischala, who surpassed all men in craft and deceit.
+He gathered a force of 4,000 robbers and wasted Galilee, while he
+inflamed the dissensions in the cities, and sent messengers to Jerusalem
+accusing Josephus of tyranny. Tiberias and several cities revolted, but
+Josephus suppressed the risings, severely punishing many of the leaders.
+John retired to the robbers at Masada, and took to plundering Idumsea.
+
+
+_IV.--Vespasian and Josephus_
+
+
+Nero, on learning from the messengers the state of affairs, at first
+regarded the revolt lightly; but presently grew alarmed, and appointed
+to the command of the armies in Syria, and the task of subduing the
+Jews, Vespasian, who had pacified the West when it was disordered by the
+Germans, and had also recovered Britain for the Romans. He came to
+Antioch in the early spring, and was there joined by Agrippa and all his
+forces. He marched to Ptolemais, where he was met by his son Titus, who
+had, with expedition unusual in the winter season, sailed from Achaia to
+Alexandria. So the Roman army now numbered 60,000 horsemen and footmen,
+besides large numbers of camp followers who were also accustomed to
+military service and could fight on occasion.
+
+The war was now opened. Josephus attempted no resistance in the open
+field, and the people had been directed to fly to the fortified cities.
+The strongest of all these was Jotapata, and here Josephus commanded in
+person. Being very desirous of demolishing it, Vespasian besieged it
+with his whole army. It was defended with the greatest vigour, but was,
+after fierce conflicts, taken in the thirteenth year of the reign of
+Nero, on the first day of the month Panemus (July). During this dreadful
+siege, and at the capture, 40,000 men fell. The Romans sought in vain
+for the body of Josephus, their stubborn enemy. He had leaped down the
+shaft of a dry well leading to a long cavern. A woman betrayed the
+hiding-place, and Josephus was taken and brought before the conqueror,
+of whom he had demanded from his captors a private conference. To
+Vespasian he announced that he and his son would speedily attain the
+imperial dignity. Vespasian was conciliated by the speech of his
+prisoner, whom he treated with kindness; for though he did not release
+him from his bonds, he bestowed on him suits of clothes and other
+precious gifts.
+
+Joppa, Tiberias, Taricheæ, and Gamala were taken, both Romans and Jews
+perishing in the conflicts. Soon afterwards, by the capture of Gischala,
+all Galilee was subdued, John of Gischala fleeing to Jerusalem.
+
+
+_V.--The Prelude to the Great Siege_
+
+
+While the cities of Galilee thus arrested the course of the Roman
+eagles, Jotapata and Gamala setting the example of daring resistance,
+the leaders of the nation in Jerusalem, instead of sending out armies to
+the relief of the besieged cities, were engaged in the most dreadful
+civil conflicts.
+
+The fame of John of Gishala had gone before him to Jerusalem, and the
+multitude poured forth to do him honour. He falsely represented the
+Roman forces as being very greatly weakened, and declared that their
+engines had been worn out in the sieges in Galilee. He was a man of
+enticing eloquence, to whom the young men eagerly gave heed. So the city
+now began to be divided into hostile factions, and the whole of Judea
+had before set to the people of Jerusalem the fatal example of discord.
+For every city was torn to pieces by civil animosities. Not only the
+public councils, but even numerous families were distracted by the peace
+and war dispute. Through all Judea the youth were ardent for war, while
+the elders vainly endeavoured to allay the frenzy. Bands of desperate
+men began to spread over the land, plundering houses, while the Roman
+garrisons in the towns, rather rejoicing in their hatred to the race
+than wishing to protect the sufferers, afforded little help.
+
+Large numbers of these evil men stole into the city and grew into a
+daring faction, who robbed houses openly, and many of the most eminent
+citizens were murdered by these Zealots, as they were called, from their
+pretence that they had discovered a conspiracy to betray the city to the
+Romans. They dismissed many of the sanhedrin from office and appointed
+men of the lowest degree, who would support them in their violence, till
+the leaders of the people became slaves to their will.
+
+At length resistance was provoked, led by Ananus, oldest of the chief
+priests, a man of great wisdom, and the robber Zealots took refuge in
+the Temple and fortified it more strongly than before. They appointed as
+high-priest one Phanias, a coarse and clownish rustic, utterly ignorant
+of the sacerdotal duties, who when decked in the robes of office caused
+great derision. This sport and pastime for the Zealots caused the more
+religious people to shed tears of grief and shame; and the citizens,
+unable to endure such insolence, rose in great numbers to avenge the
+outrage on the sacred rites. Thus a fierce civil war broke out in which
+very many were slain.
+
+Then John of Gischala with great treachery, outwardly siding with
+Ananus, and secretly aiding the Zealots, sent messengers inviting the
+Idumæans to come to his help, of whom 20,000 broke into the city during
+a stormy night, and slew 8,500 of the people.
+
+
+_VI.--The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem_
+
+
+Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and
+Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding
+his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem. Galba was
+made emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then,
+after the defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was
+proclaimed by the East. He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste
+their strength by their internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants
+with forces to reduce various surrounding districts instead of attacking
+Jerusalem. When he became emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds,
+honouring him for his integrity. Hastening his journey to Rome,
+Vespasian commanded Titus to subdue Judea.
+
+At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously. Eleazar, son of
+Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to
+reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the
+Zealots and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath
+against John of Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned. But he
+deserted the Zealots and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that
+there was war between him and Simon, son of Gioras. Thus Eleazar, John,
+and Simon each led a band in constant fightings, and the Temple was
+everywhere defiled by murders.
+
+Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and
+went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude
+burst forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and
+intercepted him and a few others. He had on neither helmet nor
+breastplate, yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him,
+as if by some purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of
+his foes, he escaped unhurt. Part of the army now advanced to Scopos,
+within a mile of the city, while another occupied a station at the foot
+of the Mount of Olives.
+
+Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem
+for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the
+summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and
+Simon from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so
+near the walls. Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an
+attack at the same moment. Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along
+the valley of Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion,
+encamped at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed
+at the entrenchments. The soldiers fell back, many being killed.
+Witnessing their peril, Titus, with picked troops, fell on the flank of
+the Jews and drove them into the city with great loss.
+
+The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches,
+leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying
+all the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and
+the army took up a position all along the northern and the western wall,
+the footmen being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three
+lines behind, and the archers between. Jerusalem was fortified by three
+walls. These were not one within the other, for each defended one of the
+quarters into which the city was divided.
+
+The first, or outermost, encompassed Bezetha, the next protected the
+citadel of the Antonia and the northern front of the Temple, and the
+third, or old, and innermost wall was that of Sion. Many towers, 35 feet
+high and 35 feet broad, each surmounted with lofty chambers and with
+great tanks for rain water, guarded the whole circuit of the walls, 90
+being in the first wall, 14 in the second, and 60 in the third. The
+whole circuit of the city was about 33 stadia (four miles). From their
+pent-houses of wicker the Romans, with great toil day and night,
+discharged arrows and stones, which slew many of the citizens.
+
+At three different places the battering rams began their thundering
+work, and at length a corner tower came down, yet the walls stood firm,
+for there was no breach. Suddenly the besieged sallied forth and set
+fire to the engines. Titus came up with his horsemen and slew twelve
+Jews with his own hands. One was taken prisoner and was crucified before
+the walls as an example, being the first so executed during the siege.
+The Jews now retreated to the second wall, abandoning the defence of
+Bezetha, which the Romans entered. Titus instantly ordered the second
+wall to be attacked, and for five days the conflict raged more fiercely
+than ever. The Jews were entirely reckless of their own lives,
+sacrificing themselves readily if they could kill their foes. On the
+fifth day they retreated from the second wall, and Titus entered that
+part of the lower city which was within it with I,000 picked men.
+
+But, being desirous of winning the people, he ordered that no houses
+should be set on fire and no massacres should be committed. The
+seditious, however, slew everyone who spoke of peace, and furiously
+assailed the Romans. Some fought from the walls, others from the houses,
+and such confusion prevailed that the Romans retired; then the Jews,
+elated, manned the breach, making a wall of their own bodies.
+
+Thus the fight continued for three days, till Titus a second time
+entered the wall. He threw down all the northern part and strongly
+garrisoned the towers on the south. The strong heights of Sion, the
+citadel of the Antonia, and the fortified Temple still held out Titus,
+eager to save so magnificent a place, resolved to refrain for a few days
+from the attack, in order that the minds of the besieged might be
+affected by their woes, and that the slow results of famine might
+operate. He reviewed his army in full armour, and they received their
+pay in view of the city, the battlements being thronged by spectators
+during this splendid defiling, who looked on in terror and dismay. Then
+Titus sent Josephus to address them and to persuade them to yield, but
+the Zealots reviled him and hurled darts at him; but many began to
+desert, Titus permitted them to come in unmolested. John and Simon in
+their anger watched every outlet and executed any whom they suspected of
+designing to follow.
+
+The famine increased, and the misery of the weaker was aggravated by
+seeing the stronger obtaining food. All natural affection was
+extinguished, husbands and wives, parents and children snatching the
+last morsel from each other. Many wretched men were caught by the Romans
+prowling in the ravines by night to pick up food, and these were
+scourged, tortured, and crucified. In the morning sometimes 500 of these
+victims were seen on crosses before the walls. This was done to terrify
+the rest, and it went on till there was not wood enough for crosses.
+Terrible crimes were committed in the city. The aged high-priest,
+Matthias, was accused of holding communication with the enemy. Three of
+his sons were killed in his presence, and he was executed in sight of
+the Romans, together with sixteen other members of the sanhedrin, and
+the parents of Josephus were thrown into prison. The famine grew so
+woeful that a woman devoured the body of her own child. At length, after
+fierce fighting, the Antonia was scaled, and Titus ordered its
+demolition.
+
+Titus now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders
+would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots
+refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer
+court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones
+resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the
+cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. A soldier flung a
+blazing brand into a gilded door on the north side of the chambers. The
+Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to
+take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.
+
+The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left
+but a small portion of the outer cloisters. Titus next spent eighteen
+days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then
+speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any
+mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of
+this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners
+numbered 97,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY MILMAN, D.D.
+
+
+History of the Jews
+
+
+     Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
+     1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's
+     Cathedral, of which for the last nineteen years of his life he
+     was Dean. He was the youngest son of Sir Francis Milman,
+     physician to George III, and was educated at Greenwich, Eton
+     and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had a considerable
+     reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
+     historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including
+     the "History of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the
+     Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire," and the "History
+     of Latin Christianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas V." The
+     appearance of the "History of the Jews" in 1830 caused no
+     small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
+     themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman
+     wrote several hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty,"
+     "When our heads are bowed in woe." Although this history
+     carries the Jewish race down to modern times, it is included
+     in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating of
+     ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not
+     of a definite country.
+
+
+_I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States_
+
+
+By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Machærus
+and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
+Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of
+the states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
+obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
+indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
+ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish
+state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
+communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
+spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
+families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the
+Jews on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West;
+the chief of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more
+temporal title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.
+
+That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
+historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond
+the Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the
+devastation; and, according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in
+the general wreck.
+
+After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world
+during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt,
+Cyrene, and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant
+religious policy of the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan. Great
+atrocities were committed by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the
+retaliation was terrible. It is said that 220,000 Jews fell before the
+remorseless vengeance of their enemies. The flame spread to Cyprus,
+where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards emperor. He expelled the
+Jews from the island. When Hadrian ascended the throne, in 117 A.D., he
+issued an edict which was tantamount to the total suppression of
+Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the law, and
+the observance of the Sabbath.
+
+At this momentous juncture, when universal dismay prevailed, it was
+announced that the Messiah had appeared. He had come in power and glory.
+His name fulfilled the prophecy of Balaam. Barcochab, the Son of the
+Star, was that star which was to "arise out of Jacob." Wonders attended
+on his person; he breathed flames from his mouth which, no doubt, would
+burn up the strength of the proud oppressor, and wither the armies of
+the tyrannical Hadrian. Above all, Akiba, the greatest of the rabbins,
+the living oracle of divine truth, espoused the claims of the new
+Messiah; he was called the standard-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of
+him also wondrous stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab
+was to the ruins of Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he
+openly assumed the title of king. But he and his followers avoided a
+battle in the open field. On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to
+take command of the Roman forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of
+fifty of the strongest castles and nearly a thousand villages. Severus
+attacked the strongholds in detail, reducing them by famine, and
+gradually brought the war to a close.
+
+Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
+Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets
+of the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
+Jerusalem, which he called Ælia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony of
+foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
+new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the
+edict, the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to
+Bethlehem.
+
+
+_II.--Judaism and Christianity_
+
+
+For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
+extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
+successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as
+a separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under
+Hadrian, before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews
+present the extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly
+organised communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias,
+comprehending all of Isrælitish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire;
+the other under the Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern
+Jews paid allegiance. By the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
+were restored to their ancient privileges. Though still forbidden to
+enter Jerusalem, they were permitted to acquire the freedom of Rome, to
+establish many settlements in Italy, and to enjoy municipal honours.
+
+This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
+from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
+peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became
+the great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered
+nation in the closest uniformity.
+
+The middle of the third century beheld all Isræl incorporated into
+their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
+Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, lived in all the state and
+splendour of an oriental potentate, far outshining in his pomp his rival
+sovereign in Tiberias. The most celebrated of the rabbinical sovereigns
+was Jehuda, sometimes called the nasi or patriarch. His life was of such
+spotless purity that he was named the Holy. He was the author of a new
+constitution for the Jewish people, for he embodied in the celebrated
+Mischna all the authorised traditions of the schools and courts, and all
+the authorised interpretations of the Mosaic law. Both in the East and
+the West the Jews maintained their seclusion from the rest of the world.
+The great work called the Talmud, formed of the Mischna and the Gemara
+(or compilation of comments), was composed during a period of thirty
+years of profound peace for the masters of the Babylonian schools, under
+Persian rule. This remains a monumental token of learning and industry
+of the eastern Jewish rabbins of the third and fourth centuries.
+
+The formal establishment of Christianity by Constantine the Great, in
+the early part of the fourth century, might have led to Jewish
+apprehension lest the Synagogue should be eclipsed by the splendour of
+its triumphant rival, the Christian Church; but the Rabbinical authority
+had raised an insurmountable barrier around the Synagogue. And,
+unhappily, the Church had lost its most effective means of
+conversion--its miraculous powers, its simple doctrine, and the
+blameless lives of its believers. Constantine enacted severe laws
+against the Jews, which seem in great part to have been occasioned by
+their own fiery zeal. But, still earlier than these enactments, Spain
+had given the signal for hostility towards the Jews. A decree was passed
+at the Council of Elvira prohibiting Jewish and Christian farmers and
+peasants from mingling together at harvest home and other festivals.
+
+In Egypt, during the reign of Constantius, who succeeded his father
+Constantine, the hot-headed Jews of Alexandria provoked the enactment by
+that emperor of yet severer laws, by mingling themselves in the factions
+of Arians and Athanasians, which distracted that restless city. They
+joined with the pagans on the side of the Arian bishop, and committed
+frightful excesses. An insurrection in Judea, which terminated in the
+destruction of Dio Cæsarea, gave further pretext for exaction and
+oppression. But the apostasy of the emperor for a time revived the hopes
+of the race, especially when he issued his memorable edict decreeing the
+rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the
+Jewish worship in its original splendour.
+
+The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
+execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced
+with his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most
+distant quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment
+ensued. Fire destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the
+enterprise, and the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.
+
+The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
+fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised
+the whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members
+could not but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely
+dispersed in all those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium,
+the Rhine districts, Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and
+Spain. Not only did the Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively
+in mercantile pursuits, but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly
+into their hands--the internal slave-trade of Europe.
+
+The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
+rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
+Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
+the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking
+to impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
+Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.
+
+A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
+provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to
+issue severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the
+patriarchate. In the East, under the rule during the same period of the
+Persian king, Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in
+531 A.D., the position was not more favourable for the Jews of
+Babylonia.
+
+
+_III.--The Golden Age of Judaism_
+
+
+During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
+rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect
+its throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and
+the first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years
+before Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sabæa and
+established an independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was
+subdued by an Arab chieftain and came to an end. But the Jews were still
+powerful in the Arabian peninsula. Mohammed designed to range all the
+tribes under his banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered
+a massacre of all who refused to accept the Koran.
+
+On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on
+without emotion. But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was
+confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no
+further oppression than the payment of tribute. Spain had maintained its
+odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the
+suffering Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant
+invasion of the country by the Saracens. And in France the Jews became
+numerous and wealthy, and traded with great success.
+
+We enter on a period which may be described as the Golden Age of the
+modern Jews. The religious persecutions of this race by the Mohammedans
+were confined within the borders of Arabia. The Prophet was content with
+enforcing uniformity of worship within the sacred peninsula which gave
+him birth. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca were not to be profaned
+by the unclean footstep of the unbeliever. His immediate successors rose
+from stern fanatics to ambitious conquerors. Whoever would submit to the
+dominion of the caliph might easily evade the recognition of the
+Prophet's title. The Jews had reason to rejoice in the change of
+masters. An Islamite sovereign would not be more oppressive than a
+Byzantine on the throne of Constantinople or a Persian on the throne of
+Ctesiphon. In every respect the Jew rose in the social scale under his
+Mohammedan rulers. Provided he demeaned himself peaceably, and paid his
+tribute, he might go to the synagogue rather than to the mosque.
+
+In the time of Omar, the second caliph, the coinage, already a trust of
+great importance, had been committed to the care of a Jew. And the Jews
+acted as intermediate agents in the interworking of European
+civilisation, its knowledge, arts, and sciences, into the oriental mind,
+and in raising the barbarian conquerors from the chieftains of wild,
+marauding tribes into magnificent and enlightened sovereigns. The caliph
+readily acknowledged as his vassal the Prince of the Captivity, who
+maintained his state as representative of the Jewish community. And in
+the West, during the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, the treatment of
+Jews became much more liberal than before. Their superior intelligence
+and education, in a period when nobles and kings, and even the clergy,
+could not always write their names, pointed them out for offices of
+trust. They were the physicians, the ministers of finance, to monarchs.
+They even became ambassadors. The Golden Age of the Jews endured in
+increasing prosperity during the reign of Louis the Débonnaire, or the
+Pious, at whose court they were so powerful that their interest was
+solicited by the presents of kings. In the reign of Charles the Bald,
+the Jews maintained their high estate, but dark signs of the approaching
+Age of Iron began to lower around.
+
+
+_IV.--The Iron Age of Judaism_
+
+
+Our Iron Age commences in the East, where it witnessed the extinction of
+the Princes of the Captivity by the ignominious death of the last
+sovereign, the downfall of the schools, and the dispersion of the
+community, which from that period remained an abject and degraded part
+of the population. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Caliphate
+fell into weakness and confusion, and split up into several kingdoms
+under conflicting sovereigns, and at the same time Judaism in the East
+was distracted by continual disputes between the Princes of the
+Captivity and the masters of the schools. The tribunals of the civil and
+temporal powers of the Eastern Jewish community were in perpetual
+collision, so that this singular state was weakened internally by its
+own dissensions.
+
+When a violent and rapacious caliph, Ahmed Kader, ascended the throne,
+he cast a jealous look on the powers of his vassal sovereign, and,
+without pretext, he seized Scherira, the prince of the community, now a
+hundred years old, imprisoned him and his son Hai, and confiscated their
+wealth. Hai escaped to resume his office and to transmit its honours and
+its dangers to Hezekiah, who was elected chief of the community, but
+after a reign of two years was arrested with all his family by order of
+the caliph Abdallah Kaim ben Marillah (A.D. 1036). The schools were
+closed. Many of the learned fled to Spain, where the revulsion under the
+Almohades had not yet taken place; all were dispersed. Among the rest
+two of the sons of the unfortunate Prince of the Captivity effected
+their escape to Spain, while the last of the House of David who reigned
+over the Jews of the Dispersion in Babylonia perished on the scaffold.
+
+The Jewish communities in Palestine suffered a slower but more complete
+dissolution. Benjamin of Tudela in the compilation of his travels in the
+twelfth century gives a humiliating account of the few brethren who
+still clung, in dire poverty and meanness, to their native land. In Tyre
+he found 400 Jews, mostly glass-blowers. There were in Jerusalem only
+200, almost all dyers of wool. Ascalon contained 153 Jews; Tiberias, the
+seat of learning, and of the kingly patriarchate, but fifty. In the
+Byzantine Empire the number of Jews had greatly diminished.
+
+We pursue our dark progress to the West, where we find all orders
+gradually arrayed in fierce and implacable animosity against the race of
+Isræl. Every passion was in arms against them. In that singular
+structure, the feudal system, which rose like a pyramid from the
+villeins, or slaves attached to the soil, to the monarch who crowned the
+edifice, the, Jews alone found no proper place. In France and England
+they were the actual property of the king, and there was nowhere any
+tribunal to which they could appeal.
+
+The Jew, often acquiring wealth in commerce, might become valuable
+property of some feudatory lord. He was granted away, he was named in a
+marriage settlement, he was pawned, he was sold, he was stolen. Even
+Churchmen of the highest rank did not disdain such lucrative property.
+Louis, King of Provence, granted to the Archbishop of Aries all the
+possessions which his predecessors have held of former kings, including
+the Jews. Philip the Fair bought of his brother, Charles of Valois, all
+the Jews of his dominions and lordships.
+
+The Jew, making money as he knew how to do by trade and industry, was a
+valuable source of revenue, and was tolerated only as such, but he was a
+valuable possession. Chivalry, the parent of so much good and evil, was
+a source of unmitigated wretchedness to the Jew--for religious
+fanaticism and chivalry were inseparable, the knight of the Middle Ages
+being bound with his good sword to extirpate all the enemies of Christ
+and His Virgin Mother. The power of the clergy tended greatly to
+increase this general detestation against the unhappy Jew. And when
+undisciplined fanatics of the lowest order, under the guidance of Peter
+the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the
+Crusades, fearful massacres of Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz,
+Spiers, Worms, and Cologne. Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were
+deeply marked with Jewish blood.
+
+Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First
+Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through
+Germany preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of
+God. The terrible cry of "Hep!"--the signal for the massacre of
+Isrælites--ran through the cities of the Rhine. Countless atrocities
+took place as the Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph,
+to perish by plague, famine, and the sword.
+
+
+_V.--The Jews in England_
+
+
+In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of
+Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration. There were Jews
+in England under the Saxons. And during the days of the Norman kings
+they were established in Oxford and in London. They taught Hebrew to
+Christian as well as to Jewish students. But they increased in both
+wealth and unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them
+being bruited abroad. In many towns furious rabbles at different times
+attacked the Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates
+cruelly to death, as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in
+the reign of Richard I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums
+from wealthy Jews.
+
+The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive
+enactments against them. Jewish history has a melancholy
+sameness--perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing
+only in their cruelty. When parliament refused to maintain the
+extravagant royal expenditure, nothing remained but still further to
+drain Hebrew veins. In the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the
+crucifixion of a Christian child, called Hugh of Lincoln. The story
+refutes itself, but it created horror throughout the country. For this
+crime eighteen of the richest Jews of Lincoln were hanged, and many more
+flung into dungeons.
+
+The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal
+harshness. At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total
+expulsion from the realm. Their departure was fixed for October 10,
+1290. All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy. The Jews were
+pursued from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their
+sufferings. In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts,
+obligations, mortgages were escheated to the king. A like expulsion had
+been effected in France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler
+rank, was not to be outdone in bigotry.
+
+During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher of
+Seville, Ferdinand Martinez, Arch-deacon of Ecija, excited the populace
+to excesses against the Jews. The streets of the noble city ran with
+blood, and 4,000 victims perished. The cruel spirit spread through the
+kingdom, and appalling massacres followed in many cities. A series of
+intermittent persecutions followed both in Spain and Portugal, in reign
+after reign. Jews and Protestants together went through awful ordeals at
+the hands of the Inquisition. When her glory had declined, Spain, even
+in her lowest decrepitude, indulged in what might seem the luxury of
+persecution.
+
+It was in the reign of Charles II. that the Jews found opportunity to
+steal insensibly back into England. Cromwell had felt very favourably
+disposed towards them, but had not dared to permit the re-establishment
+which they had openly sought. But the necessities of Charles and his
+courtiers quietly accomplished the, change, and the race has ever since
+maintained its footing, and no doubt contributed a fair share to the
+national wealth. Russia throughout her history adhered to her hostility
+to the Jews, but expulsion became impossible with such vast numbers. It
+is estimated that Russia contains half the Jewish population of the
+world, notwithstanding that Russia proper from ancient times has been
+sternly inhospitable to the Jewish race, while Poland has ever been
+hospitable.
+
+The most important measures of amelioration in the lot of the Jews in
+England were passed in 1723, when they acquired the right to possess
+land; in 1753, when parliament enacted the Naturalisation Bill; in 1830,
+when they were admitted to civic corporations; in 1833, when they were
+admitted to the profession of advocates; in 1845, when they were
+rendered eligible for the office of alderman and lord mayor; and in
+1858, when the last and crowning triumph of the principle was achieved
+by the admission of Jews into parliament.
+
+In Asia, the Jews are still found in considerable numbers on the verge
+of the continent; in China, they are now found in one city alone, and
+possess only one synagogue. In Mesopotamia and Assyria the ancient seats
+of the Babylonian Jews are still occupied by 5,270 families. But England
+and Anglo-Saxon countries generally have been the most favourable to the
+race. Perhaps the most remarkable fact in the history of modern Judaism
+is the extension of the Jews in the United States. Writing in 1829, I
+stated, on the best authority then attainable, their numbers at 6,000.
+They are now [in 1863] reckoned at 75,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HERODOTUS
+
+
+History
+
+
+     The "Father of History," as Herodotus has been styled, was
+     born at Halicarnassus, the centre of a Greek colony in Asia
+     Minor, between the years 490 and 480 B.C., and lived probably
+     to sixty, dying about the year 425 B.C. A great part of his
+     life was occupied with travels and investigations in those
+     lands with which his history is mainly concerned. His work is
+     the earliest essay in history in a European language. It is a
+     record primarily of the causes and the course of the first
+     great contest between East and West; and is a storehouse of
+     curious and delightful traveller's gossip as well as a
+     faithful record of events. The canons of evidence in his day
+     were defective, for obvious reasons; a miscellaneous divine
+     interposition in human affairs was taken for granted, and
+     science had not yet reduced incredible marvels to ordinary
+     natural phenomena. Nevertheless, Herodotus was a shrewd and
+     careful critic, honest, and by no means remarkably credulous.
+     If he had not acquired the conception of history as an exact
+     science, he made it a particularly attractive form of
+     literature, to which his simplicity of style gives a slight
+     but pleasant archaic flavour. This epitome has been specially
+     prepared far THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Rise of Persian Power_
+
+
+I will not dispute whether those ancient tales be true, of Io and Helen,
+and the like, which one or another have called the sources of the war
+between the Hellenes and the barbarians of Asia; but I will begin with
+those wrongs whereof I myself have knowledge. In the days of Sadyattes,
+king of Lydia, and his son Alyattes, there was war between Lydia and
+Miletus. And Croesus, the son of Alyattes, made himself master of the
+lands which are bounded by the river Halys, and he waxed in power and
+wealth, so that there was none like to him. To him came Solon, the
+Athenian, but would not hail him as the happiest of all men, saying that
+none may be called happy until his life's end.
+
+Thereafter trouble fell upon Croesus by the slaying of his son when he
+was a-hunting. Then Cyrus the Persian rose up and made himself master of
+the Medes and Persians, and Croesus, fearing his power, was fain to go
+up against him, being deceived by an oracle; but first he sought to make
+alliance with the chief of the states of Hellas. In those days,
+Pisistratus was despot of Athens; but Sparta was mighty, by the laws of
+Lycurgus. Therefore Croesus sent envoys to the Spartans to make alliance
+with them, which was done very willingly. But when Croesus went up
+against Cyrus, his army was put to flight, and Cyrus besieged him in the
+city of Sardis, and took it, and made himself lord of Lydia. He would
+have slain Croesus, but, finding him wise and pious, he made him his
+counsellor.
+
+Now, this Cyrus had before overthrown the Median king, Astyages, whose
+daughter was his own mother. For her father, fearing a dream, wedded her
+to a Persian, and when she bore a child, he gave order for its slaying.
+But the babe was taken away and brought up by a herdsman of the
+hill-folk. But in course of time the truth became known to Astyages, and
+to Harpagus, the officer who had been bidden to slay the babe, and to
+Cyrus himself. Then Harpagus, fearing the wrath of Astyages, bade Cyrus
+gather together the Persians--who in those days were a hardy people of
+the mountains--and made himself king over the Medians; which things
+Cyrus did, overthrowing his grandfather Astyages. And in this wise began
+the dominion of the Persians.
+
+The Ionian cities of Asia were zealous to make alliance with Cyrus when
+he had overthrown Croesus. But he held them of little account, and
+threatened them, and the Lacedæmonians also, who sent him messengers
+warning him to let the Ionians alone. And he sent Harpagus against the
+cities of the Ionians, of whom certain Phocæans and Teians sailed away
+to Rhegium and Abdera rather than become the slaves of the barbarians;
+but the rest, though they fought valiantly enough, were brought to
+submission by Harpagus.
+
+While Harpagus was completing the subjugation of the West, Cyrus was
+making conquest of Upper Asia, and overthrew the kingdom of Assyria, of
+which the chief city was Babylon, a very wonderful city, wherein there
+had ruled two famous queens, Semiramis and Nitocris. Now, this queen had
+made the city wondrous strong by the craft of engineers, yet Cyrus took
+it by a shrewd device, drawing off the water of the river so as to gain
+a passage. Thus Babylon also fell under the sway of the Persian. But
+when Cyrus would have made war upon Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetæ,
+who dwelt to the eastward, there was a very great battle, and Cyrus
+himself was slain and the most part of his host. And Cambyses, his son,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_II.--Wars of Egypt and Persia_
+
+
+Cambyses set out to conquer Egypt, taking in his army certain of the
+Greeks. But of all that I shall tell about that land, the most was told
+to me by the priests whom I myself visited at Memphis and Thebes and
+Heliopolis. They account themselves the most ancient of peoples. If the
+Ionians are right, who reckon that Egypt is only the Nile Delta, this
+could not be. But I reckon that the whole Egyptian territory is. Egypt,
+from the cataracts and Elephantiné down to the sea, parted into the
+Asiatic part and the Libyan part by the Nile.
+
+For the causes of the rising and falling of the Nile, the reasons that
+men give are of no account. And of the sources whence the river springs
+are strange stories told of which I say not whether they be true or
+false: but the course of it is known for four months' journey by land
+and water, and in my opinion it is a river comparable to the Ister.
+
+The priests tell that the first ruler of Egypt was Menes, and after him
+were three hundred and thirty kings, counting one queen, who was called
+Nitocris. After them came Sesostris, who carried his conquest as far as
+the Thracians and Scythians; and later was Rhampsinitus, who married his
+daughter to the clever thief who robbed his treasure-house; and after
+him Cheops, who built the pyramid, drawing the stones from the Arabian
+mountain down to the Nile. Chephren also, and Mycerinus built pyramids,
+and the Greeks have a story--which is not true--that another was built
+by Rhodopis. And in the reign of Sethon, Egypt was invaded by
+Sennacherib the Assyrian, whose army's bowstrings were eaten by
+field-mice.
+
+A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake
+Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were
+made by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them,
+Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson
+Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis. And Amasis
+also prospered, and showed favour to the Greeks. But for whatever
+reason, in his day Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt, invading
+it just when Amasis had died, and his son Psammenitus was reigning.
+
+Cambyses put the Egyptian army to rout in a great battle, and conquered
+the country, making Psammenitus prisoner. Yet he would have set him up
+as governor of the province, according to the Persian custom, but that
+Psammenitus was stirred up to revolt, and, being discovered, was put to
+death. Thereafter Cambyses would have made war upon Carthage, but that
+the Phoenicians would not aid him; and against the Ethiopians, who are
+called "long-lived," but his army could get no food; and against the
+Ammonians, but the troops that went were seen no more.
+
+Now, madness came upon Cambyses, and he died, having committed many
+crimes, among which was the slaying of his brother Smerdis. And there
+rose up one among the Magi who pretended to be Smerdis, and was
+proclaimed king. But this false Smerdis was one whose ears had been cut
+off, and he was thus found out by one of his wives, the daughter of a
+Persian nobleman, Otanes. Then seven nobles conspired together, since
+they would not be ruled over by one of the Magi; and having determined
+that it was best to have one man for ruler, rather than the rule of the
+people or of the nobles, they slew Smerdis and made Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, their king.
+
+Then Darius divided the Persian empire into twenty satrapies, whereof
+each one paid its own tribute, save Persia itself, and he was lord of
+all Asia, and Egypt also.
+
+In the days of Cambyses, Polycrates was despot of Samos, being the first
+who ever thought to make himself a ruler of the seas. And he had
+prospered marvellously. But Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, compassed his
+death by foul treachery, and wrought many other crimes; whom Darius in
+turn put to death by guile, fearing to make open war upon him. And not
+long afterwards, he sent Otanes to make conquest of Samos. And during
+the same days there was a revolt of the Babylonians; and Darius went up
+against Babylon, yet for twenty months he could not take it. Howbeit, it
+was taken by the act of Zopyrus, who, having mutilated himself, went to
+the Babylonians and told them that Darius had thus evilly entreated him,
+and so winning their trust, he made easy entry for the Persian army, and
+so Babylon was taken the second time.
+
+
+_III.--Persian Arms in Europe_
+
+
+Now, Darius was minded to make conquest of the Scythians--concerning
+which people, and the lands beyond those which they inhabit, there are
+many marvels told, as of a bald-headed folk called Argippæi; and the
+Arimaspians or one-eyed people; and the Hyperborean land where the air
+is full of feathers. Of these lands are legends only; nothing is known.
+But concerning the earth's surface, this much is known, that Libya is
+surrounded by water, certain Phoenicians having sailed round it. And of
+the unknown regions of Asia much was searched out by order of Darius.
+
+The Scythians themselves have no cities; but there are great rivers in
+Scythia, whereof the Ister is the greatest of all known streams, being
+greater even than the Nile, if we reckon its tributaries. The great god
+of the Scythians is Ares; and their war customs are savage exceedingly,
+and all their ways barbarous. Against this folk Darius resolved to
+march.
+
+His plan was to convey his army across the Bosphorus on a bridge of
+boats, while the Ionian fleet should sail up to the Ister and bridge
+that, and await him. So he crossed the Bosphorus and marched through
+Thrace, subduing on his way the Getse, who believe that there is no true
+death. But when he passed the Ister, he would have taken the Ionians
+along with him; but by counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he resolved to leave
+them in charge of the bridge, giving order that, after sixty days, they
+might depart home, but no sooner.
+
+Then the Scythians, fearing that they could not match the great king's
+army, summoned the other barbaric peoples to their aid; among whom were
+the Sauromatians, who are fabled to be the offspring of the Amazons. And
+some were willing, but others not. Therefore the Scythians retired
+before Darius, first towards those peoples who would not come to their
+help; and so enticed him into desert regions, yet would in no wise come
+to battle with him.
+
+Now, at length, Darius found himself in so evil a plight that he began
+to march back to the Ister. And certain Scythians came to the Ionians,
+and counselled them to destroy the bridge, the sixty days being passed.
+And this Miltiades, the Athenian despot of the Chersonese, would have
+had them do, so that Darius might perish with all his army; but
+Histiæus of Miletus dissuaded them, because the rule of the despots was
+upheld by Darius. And thus the Persian army was saved, Megabazus being
+left in Europe to subdue the Hellespontines. When Megabazus had subdued
+many of the Thracian peoples, who, indeed, lack only union with each
+other to make them the mightiest of all nations, he sent an embassy to
+Amyntas, the king of Macedon, to demand earth and water. But because
+those envoys insulted the ladies of the court, Alexander, the son of
+Amyntas, slew them all, and of them or all their train was never aught
+heard more.
+
+Now Darius, with fair words, bade Histiseus of Miletus abide with him at
+the royal town of Susa. Then Aristagoras, the brother of Histiæus,
+having failed in an attempt to subdue Naxos, and fearing both
+Artaphernes, the satrap of Sardis, and the Persian general Megabazus,
+with whom he had quarrelled, sought to stir up a revolt of the Ionian
+cities; being incited thereto by secret messages from Histiseus.
+
+To this end, he sought alliance with the Lacedæmonians; but they would
+have nothing to do with him, deeming the venture too remote. Then he
+went to Athens, whence the sons of Pisistratus had been driven forth
+just before. For Hipparchus had been slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton,
+and afterwards Hippias would hardly have been expelled but that his
+enemies captured his children and so could make with him what terms they
+chose. But the Pisistratidse having been expelled, the city grew in
+might, and changes were made in the government of it by Cleisthenes the
+Alcmæonid. But the party that was against Cleisthenes got aid from
+Cleomenes of Sparta; yet the party of Cleisthenes won.
+
+Then, since they reckoned that there would be war with Sparta, the
+Athenians had sought friendship with Artaphernes at Sardis; but since he
+demanded earth and water they broke off. But because Athens was waxing
+in strength, the Spartans bethought them of restoring the despotism of
+the Pisistratidæ. But Sosicles, the Corinthian, dissuaded the allies of
+Sparta from taking part in so evil a deed. Then Hippias sought to stir
+up against the Athenians the ill-will of Artaphernes, who bade them take
+back the Pisistratidæ, which they would not do.
+
+Therefore, when Aristagoras came thither, the Athenians were readily
+persuaded to promise him aid. And he, having gathered the troops of the
+Ionians, who were at one with him, marched with them and the Athenians
+against Sardis and took the city, which by a chance was set on fire. But
+after that the Athenians refused further help to the Ionians, who were
+worsted by the Persians. But the ruin of the Ionians was at the
+sea-fight of Lade, where the men of Chios fought stoutly; but they of
+Samos and Lesbos deserting, there was a great rout.
+
+
+_IV.--Marathon and Thermopylæ_
+
+
+Thereafter King Darius, being very wroth with the Athenians for their
+share in the burning of Sardis, sent a great army across the Hellespont
+to march through Thrace against Athens, under his young kinsman
+Mardonius. But disaster befell these at the hands of the Thracians, and
+the fleet that was to aid them was shattered in a storm; so that they
+returned to Asia without honour. Then Darius sent envoys to demand earth
+and water from the Greek states; and of the islanders the most gave
+them, and some also of the cities on the mainland; and among these were
+the Aeginetans, who were at feud with Athens.
+
+But of those who would not give the earth and water were the Eretrians
+of Eubcea. So Darius sent a great armament by sea against Eretria and
+Athens, led by Datis and Artaphernes, which sailed first against
+Eretria. The Athenians, indeed, sent aid; but when they found that the
+counsels of the Eretrians were divided, so that no firm stand might be
+made, they withdrew. Nevertheless, the Eretrians fought valiantly behind
+their walls, till they were betrayed on the seventh day. But the
+Persians, counselled by Hippias, sailed to the bay of Marathon.
+
+Then the Athenians sent the strong runner Pheidippides to call upon the
+Spartans for aid; who promised it, yet for sacred reasons would not move
+until the full moon. So the Athenian host had none to aid them save the
+loyal Platæans, valiant though few. Yet in the council of their generals
+the word of Miltiades was given for battle, whereto the rest consented.
+Then the Athenians and Platæans, being drawn up in a long line, charged
+across the plain nigh a mile, running upon the masses of the Persians;
+and, breaking them upon the wings, turned and routed the centre also
+after long fighting, and drove them down to the ships, slaying as they
+went; and of the ships they took seven. And of the barbarians there fell
+6,400 men, and of the Athenians, 192. But as for the story that the
+Alcmæonidæ hoisted a friendly signal to the Persians, I credit it not
+at all.
+
+Now, Darius was very wroth with the Greeks when he heard of these
+things, and made preparation for a mighty armament to overthrow the
+Greeks, and also the Egyptians, who revolted soon afterwards. But he
+died before he was ready, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his stead.
+Then, having first crushed the Egyptians, he, being ruled by Mardonius,
+gathered a council and declared his intent of marching against the
+Hellenes; which resolution was commended by Mardonius, but Artabanus,
+the king's uncle, spoke wise words of warning. Then Xerxes would have
+changed his mind, but for a dream which came to him twice, and to
+Artabanus also, threatening disaster if he ceased from his project; so
+that Artabanus was won over to favour it.
+
+Then Xerxes made vast provision for his invasion for the building of a
+bridge over the Hellespont, and the cutting of a canal through the
+peninsula of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been shattered. And
+from all parts of his huge empire he mustered his hosts first in
+Cappadocia, and marched thence by way of Sardis to the Hellespont. And
+because, when the bridge was a building, a great storm wrecked it, he
+bade flog the naughty waves of the sea. Then, the bridge being finished,
+he passed over with his host, which took seven days to accomplish.
+
+And when they were come to Doriscus he numbered them, and found them to
+be 1,700,000 men, besides his fleets. And in the fleet were 1,207 great
+ships, manned chiefly by the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia, having
+also Persian and Scythian fighting men on board. But when Demaratus, an
+exiled king of Sparta, warned Xerxes of the valour of all the Greeks,
+but chiefly of the Spartans, who would give battle, however few they
+might be, against any foe, however many, his words seemed to Xerxes a
+jest, seeing how huge his own army was.
+
+Now, Xerxes had sent to many of the Greek states heralds to demand earth
+and water, which many had given; but to Athens and Sparta he had not
+sent, because there the heralds of his father Darius had been evilly
+entreated. And if it had not been for the resolution of the Athenians at
+this time, all Hellas would have been forced to submit to the Great
+King; for they, in despite of threatening oracles, held fast to their
+defiance, being urged thereto by Themistocles, who showed them how those
+oracles must mean that, although they would suffer evil things, they
+would be victorious by means of wooden bulwarks, which is to say, ships;
+and thus they were encouraged to rely upon building and manning a mighty
+fleet. And all the other cities of Greece resolved to stand by them,
+except the Argives, who would not submit to the leadership of the
+Spartans. And in like manner Gelon, the despot of Syracuse in Sicily,
+would not send aid unless he were accepted as leader. Nor were the men
+of Thessaly willing to join, since the other Greeks could not help them
+to guard Thessaly itself, as the pass of Tempe could be turned.
+
+Therefore the Greeks resolved to make their stand at Thermopylæ on land,
+and at the strait of Artemisium by sea. But at the strong pass of
+Thermopylæ only a small force was gathered to hold the barbarians in
+check, there being of the Spartans themselves only 300, commanded by the
+king Leonidas. And when the Persians had come thither and sought to
+storm the pass, they were beaten back with ease, until a track was found
+by which they might take the defenders in the rear. Then Leonidas bade
+the rest of the army depart except his Spartans. But the Thespians also
+would not go; and then those Spartans and Thespians went out into the
+open and died gloriously.
+
+
+_V.--Destruction of the Persian Hosts_
+
+
+During these same days the Greek fleet at Artemisium fought three
+several engagements with the Persian fleet, in which neither side had
+much the better. And thereafter the Greek fleet withdrew, but was
+persuaded to remain undispersed in the bay of Salamis. The
+Peloponnesians were no longer minded to attempt the defence of Attica,
+but to fortify their isthmus, so that the Athenians had no choice but
+either to submit or to evacuate Athens, removing their families and
+their goods to Troezen or Aegina or Salamis. In the fleet, their
+contingent was by far the largest and best, but the commanding admiral
+was the Spartan Eurybiades. Then the Persians, passing through Boeotia,
+but, being dispersed before Delphi by thunderbolts and other portents,
+took possession of Athens, after a fierce fight with the garrison in the
+Acropolis.
+
+Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and
+look to the safety of the Peloponnese only. But Themistocles warned them
+that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new
+lands and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded
+to hold together at Salamis. Yet he did not trust only to their
+goodwill, but sent a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of
+retreat might be intercepted. For the Persian fleet had gathered at
+Phalerum, and now looked to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether,
+despite the council of Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have
+had them not fight by sea at all. When Aristides, called the Just, the
+great rival of Themistocles, came to the Greeks with the news that their
+retreat by sea was cut off, then they were no longer divided, but
+resolved to fight it out.
+
+In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the
+Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any
+fleet more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom
+Queen Artemisia won praise unmerited. As for King Xerxes, panic seized
+him when he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee. He
+consented, however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in
+Thessaly, he being still assured that he could crush the Greeks. And it
+was well for him that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to
+pursue and annihilate the fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy
+the bridge.
+
+When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly
+and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the
+Spartans having failed to send succour. But when at length the
+Lacedæmonians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an army,
+the Persians fell back to Boeotia. So the Greek hosts gathered near
+Platæa to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were
+about 350,000. Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held
+back, till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to
+the Athenians by Alexander of Macedon. But when the Spartan Pausanias,
+the general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little
+wonder, for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Lacedæmonians
+should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at
+Marathon. But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.
+Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain
+whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was
+needful to move to a new position. But the move being made by night,
+most of the allies withdrew into the town. But the Spartans, and Tegeans
+and Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.
+
+Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and
+their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians. But, Mardonius being slain,
+the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and
+Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there
+the barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were
+left alive. But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with
+40,000 men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.
+
+And on that same day was fought another fight by sea at Mycale in Ionia,
+where also the barbarians were utterly routed, for the fleet had sailed
+thither. And thence the Greeks sailed to Sestos, captured the place, and
+so went home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THUCYDIDES
+
+
+The Peloponnesian War
+
+
+     The Athenian historian, Thucydides, was born about 471 B.C.,
+     within ten years of the great repulse of the Persian invasion.
+     Before he was thirty, the great political ascendancy of
+     Pericles was completely established at Athens, and the
+     ascendancy of Athens among the Greek states was unchallenged,
+     except by Sparta. He was forty at the beginning of the
+     Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was appointed to a military
+     command seven years later, but his failure in that office
+     caused his banishment. From that time he remained an exiled
+     spectator of events; the date of his death is uncertain. His
+     great work is the history of the Peloponnesian War to its
+     twentieth year, where his history is abruptly broken off. To
+     Herodotus, history presented itself as a drama; Thucydides
+     views it with the eyes of a philosophical statesman, but
+     writes it also with extraordinary descriptive power, not only
+     in pregnant sentences which have never been effectively
+     rendered in translation, but in passages of sustained
+     intensity, of which it would be vain to reproduce fragments.
+     The abridged translation given here has been made direct from
+     the Greek.
+
+
+_I.--The Beginning of the War_
+
+
+I have written the account of the war between Athens and Sparta, since
+it is the greatest and the most calamitous of all wars hitherto to the
+Greeks. For the contest with the Medes was decided in four battles; but
+this war was protracted over many years, and wrought infinite injury and
+bloodshed.
+
+Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the
+affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a
+colony. Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian
+or the Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither. But having
+a quarrel with Corinth about Epidamnus, she now formed an alliance with
+Athens, whose intervention enraged the Corinthians.
+
+They then helped Potidæa, a Corinthian colony, but an Athenian
+tributary, to revolt from Athens. Corinth next appealed to Sparta, as
+the head of Hellas, to intervene ere it should be too late and check the
+Athenian aggression, which threatened to make her the tyrant of all
+Greece. At Sparta the war party prevailed, although King Archidamus
+urged that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear without actual
+hostilities.
+
+The great prosperity and development of Athens since the Persian war had
+filled other states with fear and jealousy. She had rebuilt her city
+walls and refortified the port of Piræus after the Persian occupation;
+Sparta had virtually allowed her to take the lead in the subsequent
+stages of the war, as having the most effective naval force at command.
+Hence she had founded the Delian league of the maritime states, to hold
+the seas against Persia. At first these states provided fixed
+contingents of ships and mariners; but Athens was willing enough to
+accept treasure in substitution, so that she might herself supply the
+ships and men.
+
+Thus the provision of forces by each state to act against Persia was
+changed in effect into a tribute for the expansion of the Athenian
+fleet. The continuous development of the power of Athens had been
+checked only momentarily by her disastrous Egyptian expedition. Her
+nominal allies found themselves actually her tributary dependencies, and
+various attempts to break free from her yoke had made it only more
+secure and more burdensome.
+
+Hence the warlike decision of Sparta was welcomed by others besides
+Corinth. But diplomatic demands preceded hostilities. Sparta and Athens
+sent to each other summons and counter-summons for the "expulsion of the
+curse," that is of all persons connected with certain families which lay
+under the curse of the gods.
+
+In the case of Athens, this amounted to requiring the banishment of her
+greatest citizen and statesman, Pericles. To this the Spartans added the
+demand that the Athenians should "restore the freedom of Hellas," and
+should specifically remove certain trading disabilities imposed on the
+people of Megara.
+
+At this crisis Pericles laid down the rules of policy on which Athens
+ought to act--rules which required her to decline absolutely to submit
+to any form of dictation from Sparta. When a principle was at stake, it
+made no difference whether the occasion was trivial or serious. Athens
+could face war with confidence. Her available wealth was far greater--a
+matter of vital importance in a prolonged struggle. Her counsels were
+not divided by the conflicting interests of allies all claiming to
+direct military movements and policy. Her fleet gave her command of the
+sea, and enabled her to strike when and where she chose. If
+Peloponnesian invaders ravaged Attica, still no permanent injury would
+be done comparable to that which the Athenians could inflict upon them.
+The one necessity was to concentrate on the war, and attempt no
+extension of dominion while it was in progress.
+
+War was not yet formally declared when the Thebans attempted to seize
+Platæa, a town of Boeotia, which had long been closely allied to Athens.
+The attempt failed, and the Thebans were put to death; but the Platæans
+appealed to Athens for protection against their powerful neighbour, and
+when the Athenian garrison was sent to them, this was treated as a
+_casus belli_.
+
+Preparations were urged on both sides; Sparta summoned her allies to
+muster their contingents on the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica,
+nearly all the mainland states joining the Peloponnesian league. The
+islanders and the cities in Asia Minor, on the other hand, were nearly
+all either actually subject to Athens or in alliance with her.
+
+As Pericles advised, the Athenians left the country open to the ravages
+of the invading forces, and themselves retired within the city. In spite
+of the resentment of those who saw their property being laid waste,
+Pericles maintained his ascendency, and persuaded the people to devote
+their energies to sending out an irresistible fleet, and to establishing
+a great reserve both of ships and treasure, which were to be an annual
+charge and brought into active use only in the case of dire emergency.
+The fleet sailed round the Peloponnese, and the ravages it was able to
+inflict, with the alarm it created, caused the withdrawal of the forces
+in Attica.
+
+In that winter Pericles delivered a great funeral oration, or panegyric,
+in memory of the Athenians who had so far fallen gloriously in defence
+of their country, in which he painted the characteristic virtues of the
+Athenian people in such a fashion as to rouse to the highest pitch the
+patriotic pride of his countrymen, and their confidence in themselves,
+in their future, and in their leader.
+
+
+_II.--Early Successes of Athens_
+
+
+In the second year of the war, Athens suffered from a fearful visitation
+of the plague, which, however, made no way in the Peloponnese. It broke
+out also among the reinforcements dispatched to Potidæa; and it required
+all the skill of Pericles to reconcile the Athenians to the continuation
+of the war, after seeing their territories overrun for the second time
+for six weeks. By dint of dwelling on the supreme importance of their
+decisive command of the sea, and on the vast financial resources which
+secured their staying power, he maintained his ascendency until his
+death in the following year, though he had to submit to a fine. The
+events which followed his death only confirmed the profundity of his
+political judgment, and the accuracy with which he had gauged the
+capacities of the state. In that winter Potidæa was forced to capitulate
+to the Athenians.
+
+In the summer of the third year, the Lacedæmonians called on the
+Platæans to desert the Athenian alliance. On their refusal, Platæa was
+besieged by the allied forces of the Peloponnesians. With splendid
+resolution, the Platæans defeated the attempt of the allies to force an
+entry till they were able to complete and withdraw behind a second and
+more easily tenable line of defence, when the Peloponnesians settled
+down to a regular investment. The same year was marked by the brilliant
+operations of the Athenian admiral Phormio in the neighbourhood of
+Naupactus.
+
+On the other hand, a Peloponnesian squadron threatened the Piræus,
+caused some temporary panic, and awakened the Athenians to the necessity
+of maintaining a look-out, but otherwise effected little. The year is
+further noted for the invasion of Macedonia by the Thracian or Scythian
+king Sitalces, who was, however, induced to retire.
+
+In the next year, Lesbos revolted against the Athenian supremacy. As a
+result, an Athenian squadron blockaded Mitylene. The Lacedaæonians were
+well pleased to accept alliance with a sea-power which claimed to have
+struck against Athens, not as being subject to her, but in anticipation
+of attempted subjugation. The prompt equipment, however, of another
+Athenian fleet chilled the naval enthusiasm of Sparta.
+
+During this winter the Platæans began to feel in straits from shortage
+of supplies, and it was resolved that a party of them should break
+through the siege lines, and escape to Athens, a feat of arms which was
+brilliantly and successfully accomplished.
+
+In the next--the fifth--summer, Mitylene capitulated; the fate of the
+inhabitants was to be referred to Athens. Here Cleon had now become the
+popular leader, and he persuaded the Athenians to order the whole of the
+adult males to be put to death. The opposition, however, succeeded in
+getting this bloodthirsty resolution rescinded. The second dispatch,
+racing desperately after the first, did not succeed in overtaking it,
+but was just in time to prevent the order for the massacre from being
+carried out. Lesbos was divided among Athenian citizens, who left the
+Lesbians in occupation as before, but drew a large rental from them.
+
+In the same summer the remaining garrison of Platæa surrendered to the
+Lacedæmonians, on terms to be decided by Lacedæmonian commissioners.
+Before them the Platæans justified their resistance, but the
+commissioners ignored the defence, and, on the pretext that the only
+question was whether they had suffered any "wrong" at the hands of the
+Platæans, and that the answer to that was obvious, put the Platæans to
+death and razed the city to the ground.
+
+Meanwhile, at Corcyra, the popular and the oligarchical parties, who
+favoured the Athenians and Peloponnesians respectively, had reached the
+stage of murderous hostility to each other. The oligarchs captured the
+government, and were then in turn attacked by the popular party; and
+there was savage faction fighting. An attempt was made by the commander
+of the Athenian squadron at Naupactus to act as moderator; the
+appearance of a Peloponnesian squadron and a confused sea-fight,
+somewhat in favour of the latter, brought the popular party to the verge
+of a compromise. But the Peloponnesians retired on the reported approach
+of a fresh Athenian fleet, and a democratic reign of terror followed.
+
+"The father slew the son, and the supplicants were torn from the temples
+and slain near them." And thus was initiated the peculiar horror of this
+war--the desperate civil strife in one city after another, oligarchs
+hoping to triumph by Lacedæmonian and democrats by Athenian, support,
+and either party, when uppermost, ruling by terror. It was at this time
+also that the Ionian and Dorian cities of Sicily, headed by Leontini and
+Syracuse respectively, went to war with each other, and an Athenian
+squadron was first induced to participate in the struggle.
+
+Among the operations of the next, or sixth, summer was a campaign which
+the Athenian commander Demosthenes conducted in Ætolia--successful at
+the outset, but terminating in disaster, which made the general afraid
+to return to Athens. He seized a chance, however, of recovering his
+credit by foiling a Lacedæmonian expedition against Naupactus; and in
+other ways he successfully established a high military reputation, so
+that he was no longer afraid to reappear at Athens.
+
+Next year, the Athenians dispatched a larger fleet with Sicily for its
+objective. Demosthenes, however, who had a project of his own in view,
+was given an independent command. He was thus enabled to seize and
+fortify Pylos, a position on the south-west of Peloponnese, with a
+harbour sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm,
+withdrew their invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover
+Pylos, landing over 400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality
+now became the scene of a desperate struggle, which finally resulted in
+the Spartans on Sphacteria being completely isolated.
+
+So seriously did the Lacedæmonians regard this blow that they invited
+the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal alliance; but
+the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue that they
+refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some supplies,
+however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards offered by
+the Lacedæmonians for successful blockade-running. At this moment,
+Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
+easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He
+had the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to
+take precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result
+that within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found
+themselves with no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender.
+Their choice of the latter was an overwhelming blow to Lacedæmonian
+prestige.
+
+
+_III.--Victories of Lacedæmon_
+
+
+The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
+Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly
+menace the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians
+were awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested
+part on behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian
+empire. At a sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse
+successfully urged all Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis
+of _uti possidetis,_ and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for
+remaining. Thus for the time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were
+checked.
+
+At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
+factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
+Lacedæmonian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
+Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian
+party became permanently established in power. The most important
+operations were now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly
+into Macedonia, in alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of
+stirring the cities of Chalcidice to throw off the Athenian yoke; and
+the democrats of Boeotia intrigued with Athens to assist in a general
+revolution. Owing partly to misunderstandings and partly to treachery,
+the Boeotian democrats failed to carry out their programme, the
+Athenians were defeated at Delium, and Delium itself was captured by the
+Boeotians.
+
+Meanwhile, Brasidas succeeded in persuading Acanthus to revolt, he
+himself winning the highest of reputations for justice and moderation as
+well as for military skill. Later in the year he suddenly turned his
+forces against the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which he induced to
+surrender by offering very favourable terms before Thucydides, who was
+in command of Thasos, arrived to relieve it. The further successes of
+Brasidas during this winter made the Athenians ready to treat for peace,
+and a truce was agreed upon for twelve months. Brasidas, however,
+continued to render aid to the subject cities which revolted from
+Athens--this being now the ninth year of the war--but he failed in an
+attempt to capture Potidæa.
+
+The period of truce terminating without any definite peace being arrived
+at, the summer of the tenth year is chiefly notable for the expedition
+sent under Cleon to recover Amphipolis, and for a recrudescence of the
+old quarrel in Sicily between Leontini and Syracuse. Before Amphipolis,
+the incompetent Cleon was routed by the skill of Brasidas; but the
+victor as well as the vanquished was slain, though he lived long enough
+to know of the victory. Their deaths removed two of the most zealous
+opponents of the peace for which both sides were now anxious. Hence at
+the close of the tenth year a definite peace was concluded.
+
+The Lacedæmonians, however, were almost alone in being fully satisfied
+by the terms, and the war was really continued by an anti-Laconian
+confederation of the former Peloponnesian allies, who saw in the peace a
+means to the excessive preponderance of Athens and Sparta. Argos was
+brought into the new confederacy in the hope of establishing her nominal
+equality with Sparta. For some years from this point the combinations of
+the states were constantly changing, while Athens and Sparta remained
+generally on terms of friendliness, the two prominent figures at Athens
+being the conservative Nicias and the restless and ambitious young
+intriguer Alcibiades.
+
+In the fourteenth year there were active hostilities between Argos, with
+which by this time Athens was in alliance, and Lacedæmon, issuing in
+the great battle of Mantinea, where there was an Athenian contingent
+with the Argives. This was notable especially as completely restoring
+the prestige of the Lacedæmonian arms, their victory being decisive. The
+result was a new treaty between Sparta and Argos, and the dissolution of
+the Argive-Athenian alliance; but this was once more reversed in the
+following year, when the Argive oligarchy was attacked successfully by
+the popular party.
+
+The next year is marked by the high-handed treatment of the island of
+Melos by the Athenians. This was one of the very few islands which had
+not been compelled to submit to Athens, but had endeavoured to remain
+neutral. Thither the Athenians now sent an expedition, absolutely
+without excuse, to compel their submission.
+
+The Melians, however, refused, and gave the Athenians a good deal of
+trouble before they could be subdued, when the adult male population was
+put to death, and the women and children enslaved. At this time the
+Athenians resolved, under colour of an appeal for assistance from the
+Sicilian city of Egesta, deliberately to set about the establishment of
+their empire in Sicily. The aggressive policy was vehemently advocated
+by Alcibiades, and opposed by Nicias. Nevertheless, he, with Alcibiades
+and Lamachus, was appointed to command the expedition, which was
+prepared on a scale of unparalleled magnificence. It was on the point of
+starting, when the whole city was stirred to frenzy by the midnight
+mutilation of the sacred images called Hermæ, an act laid at the door of
+Alcibiades, along with many other charges of profane outrages. Of set
+purpose, however, the enemies of Alcibiades refused to bring him to
+trial. The expedition sailed. The Syracusans were deaf to the warnings
+of Hermocrates until the great fleet had actually arrived at Rhegium.
+
+Nicias was now anxious to find an excuse, in the evident falsity of
+statements made by the Egestans, for the fleet to content itself with
+making a demonstration and then returning home. The scheme of
+Alcibiades, however, was adopted for gaining over the other Sicilian
+states in order to crush Syracuse. But at this moment dispatches arrived
+requiring the return of Alcibiades to stand trial. Athens was in a panic
+over the Hermæ affair, which was supposed to portend an attempt to
+reestablish the despotism which had been ended a hundred years before by
+the expulsion of the Pisistratidæ. Alcibiades, however, made his escape,
+and for years pursued a life of political intrigue against the Athenian
+government.
+
+Nicias and Lamachus, left in joint command, drew off the Syracusan
+forces by a ruse, and were thus enabled to occupy unchecked a strong
+position before Syracuse. Although, however, they inflicted a defeat on
+the returned Syracusan forces, they withdrew into winter quarters; the
+Syracusans were roused by Hermocrates to improve their military
+organisation; and both sides entered on a diplomatic contest for winning
+over the other states of Sicily. Alcibiades, now an avowed enemy of
+Athens, was received by the Lacedæmonians, whom he induced to send an
+able Spartan officer, Gylippus, to Syracuse, and to determine on the
+establishment of a military post corresponding to that of Pylos on Attic
+soil at Decelea.
+
+
+_IV.--The Disaster of Syracuse_
+
+
+In the spring the Athenians succeeded in establishing themselves on the
+heights called Epipolæ, overlooking Syracuse, began raising a wall of
+circumvallation, and carried by a surprise the counter-stockade which
+the Syracusans were raising. In one of the skirmishes, while the
+building of the wall was in progress, Lamachus was killed; otherwise
+matters went well for the Athenians and ill for the Syracusans, till
+Gylippus was allowed to land at Himera, force his way into Syracuse, and
+give new life. Nicias was guilty of the blunder of allowing Gylippus to
+land at Himera, to aid the defence, at the moment when it was on the
+point of capitulation. A long contest followed, the Athenians
+endeavouring to complete the investing lines, the Syracusans to pierce
+them with counterworks. Nicias sent to Athens for reinforcements, while
+the Syracusans were energetically fitting out a fleet and appealing for
+air in the Peloponnese. Nicias, in fact, was extremely despondent and
+anxious to resign; the Athenians, however, answered his dispatches by
+preparing a great reinforcement under the command of Demosthenes,
+without accepting the resignation of Nicias. The Lacedæmonians, however,
+also sent some reinforcements; at the same time they formally declared
+war, and carried out the plan of occupying and fortifying Decelea, which
+completely commanded the Athenian territory and was the cause of untold
+loss and suffering.
+
+Now, at Syracuse the besieged took the offensive both by sea and land,
+and were worsted on the water, but captured some of the Athenian forts,
+commanding the entry to the besiegers' lines--a serious disaster. By the
+time that Demosthenes with his reinforcements reached Sicily nearly the
+whole island had come over to the side of Syracuse. Before this, the
+Syracusans had again challenged an engagement both by sea and land, with
+results indecisive on the first day but distinctly in their favour on
+the second. At this juncture, Demosthenes arrived, and, seeing the
+necessity for immediate action, made a night attack on the Syracusan
+lines; but, his men falling into confusion after a first success, the
+attempt was disastrously repulsed.
+
+Demosthenes was quick to realise that the whole situation was hopeless;
+but Nicias lacked nerve to accept the responsibility of retiring, and
+also had some idea that affairs within Syracuse were favourable. His
+obstinacy gave Demosthenes and his colleague Eurymedon the impression
+that he was guided by secret information. And now it became the primary
+object of Gylippus and the Syracusans to keep the Athenians from
+retiring. Another naval defeat reduced the Athenians to despair; they
+resolved that they must cut their way out.
+
+The desperate attempt was made, but by almost hopeless men against an
+enemy now full of confidence. To the excited, almost agonised, watchers
+on shore, it seemed for a brief space that the ships might force a
+passage; the fight was a frenzied scuffle; but presently the terrible
+truth was realised--the Athenian ships were being driven ashore. The
+last hope of escape by sea was gone, for, though there were still ships
+enough, the sailors were too utterly demoralised to make the attempt.
+
+Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be
+tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had
+themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads. On the third day the
+Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the
+lamentations of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave
+behind. For three days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually
+harassed, cut off from all communications. On the third day their
+passage was barred in a pass, and they found themselves in a trap. On
+the third night they attempted to break away by a different route, but
+the van and the rear lost touch. Overtaken by the Syracusans,
+Demosthenes attempted to fight a rearguard action, but in vain, and he
+was forced to surrender at discretion with his whole force. Next day,
+Nicias with the van was overtaken, and, after a ghastly scene of
+confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the vanguard were forced to
+surrender also. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death; great numbers
+were seized as private spoil by their captors, the rest of the
+prisoners--more than 7,000--were confined for weeks under the most
+noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were sold
+as slaves. So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the
+nineteenth year of the war.
+
+The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident
+expectation of her immediate and utter ruin. Lacedæmonians anticipated
+an unqualified supremacy. At Athens there was a stubborn determination
+to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were intriguing
+for Lacedæmonian or Persian aid in breaking free, while Alcibiades
+became extremely busy.
+
+The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly
+driven into Piræus by an Athenian fleet and blockaded. On the open
+revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought
+into play their reserve fund and reserve navy--the emergency had arisen.
+While one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians
+struck hard at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked
+successes. Meanwhile, a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy
+and re-established the democracy, to which the Athenians accorded
+freedom, thereby securing an ally. In Lesbos also they recovered their
+challenged supremacy.
+
+Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty
+politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great
+object was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual
+confusion. These events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and
+to them must be added a Lacedæmonian treaty with Persia through the
+satrap Tissaphernes. All the leading men, however, were engaged in
+playing fast and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in
+view. Of this labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling
+outcome was the sudden abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the
+capture of the government by a committee of five with a council of four
+hundred and a supplementary assembly of five thousand--in place of the
+whole body of citizens as formerly. The Five and the Four Hundred in
+effect were the Government, and established a reign of terror.
+
+At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army
+and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the
+democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian
+state. Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting
+through him to receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he
+succeeded in restraining the fleet--which was still more than a match
+for all adversaries--from sailing back to the Piræus to subvert the rule
+of the Four Hundred. The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact,
+that the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited
+democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have
+joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five
+Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the
+best administration it had ever known. A great naval victory was won by
+the Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly
+larger Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+XENOPHON
+
+
+Anabasis
+
+
+     Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died probably
+     in 355. He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood
+     was an intimate member of the Socratic circle. In 401 he
+     joined the expedition of Cyrus, recorded in the "Anabasis,"
+     and did not again take up his residence in Athens. The
+     "Anabasis" must be introduced by an historical note. In the
+     year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by
+     a peace establishing the Lacedæmonian supremacy consequent
+     upon the crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami.
+     In the same year the Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was
+     succeeded on the throne by his son Artaxerxes. His younger
+     son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the throne. He had
+     personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek
+     soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern
+     nations. Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a
+     large contingent of Greek mercenaries, who had become the more
+     readily available since the internecine struggle between the
+     two leading states of Hellas had been brought to an end. The
+     term "Anabasis," or "going up," applies properly to the
+     advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is
+     mainly concerned, is the "Katabasis." The author writes his
+     record in the third person. This epitome has been specially
+     adapted for THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Going-up of Cyrus_
+
+
+Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his
+preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on
+the pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the
+western satraps, Tissaphernes. Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus,
+a Lacedæmonian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another
+like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a
+Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect
+more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.
+
+Next, an excuse for marching up-country, at the head of all these
+forces, was found in the need of suppressing the Pisidians. He advanced
+from Sardis into Phrygia, where his musters were completed at Celænæ. A
+review was held at Tyriæum, where the Cilician queen, who had supplied
+funds, was badly frightened by a mock charge of the Greek contingent.
+When the advance had reached Tarsus, there was almost a mutiny among the
+Greeks, who were suspicious of the intentions of Cyrus. The diplomacy,
+however, of their principal general, Clearchus, the Lacedæmonian,
+coupled with promises of increased pay, prevailed, though it had long
+been obvious that Pisidia was not the objective of the expedition.
+
+Further reinforcements were received at Issus, the eastern seaport of
+Cilicia; Cyrus then marched through the Cilician gate into Syria. At
+Myriandrus two Greek commanders, probably through jealousy of Clearchus,
+deserted. Cyrus won popularity by refusing to presume thereon; and the
+whole force now struck inland to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.
+
+At Thapsacus, Cyrus announced his purpose. The Greek soldiers were angry
+with their generals for having, as they supposed, wilfully misled them,
+but were mollified by promise of large rewards. One of the commanders,
+Menon, won the approval of Cyrus by being the first to lead his own
+contingent across the Euphrates on his own initiative. The advance was
+now conducted by forced marches through a painfully sterile country. In
+the course of this, the troops of Clearchus and Menon very nearly came
+to blows; the intervention of Proxenus only made matters worse; and
+order was restored by the arrival of Cyrus, who pointed out that the
+whole expedition must be ruined if the Greeks fell out among themselves.
+
+By this time, Artaxerxes had realised that the repeated warnings of
+Tissaphernes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
+Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate
+devastation of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian
+officers of Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.
+
+The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
+barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number
+over 1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus
+now advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but,
+finding this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was
+hurriedly taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The
+Greeks, under Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the
+centre, and Ariæus on the left. The king's army was so large that its
+centre extended beyond the left of Cyrus.
+
+The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
+without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut
+off, Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed
+the opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing
+Artaxerxes, was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the
+field. So ended the career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the
+Great had established the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the
+mirror of honour, just himself and the rewarder of justice in others,
+generous and most loyal to his friends.
+
+
+_II.--The Homeward March_
+
+
+When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ariæus, broke and fled. The Greeks
+had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the main
+body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
+Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter.
+Artaxerxes, however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek
+column.
+
+It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
+messengers from Ariæus that Cyrus was slain, and that Ariæus had fallen
+back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait twenty-four
+hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward. Clearchus
+replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious, and that
+if Ariæus would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown for him,
+since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes inviting the
+Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he might come
+and take them if he could, but if he meant to treat them as friends,
+they would be no use to him without their arms, if as enemies, they
+would keep them to defend themselves.
+
+Though no formal appointment was made, the Greeks recognised Clearchus
+as their leader. They fell back to join Ariæus, who declined the
+proposal to seat him on the Persian throne; and it was agreed to follow
+a new route in retreat to Ionia, the way by which the force had advanced
+being now impracticable.
+
+Now, however, Artaxerxes began to negotiate through Tissaphernes, the
+Greeks maintaining a bold and even contemptuous front, warranted by the
+king's obvious fear of risking an engagement.
+
+Finally, an offer came to conduct the Greeks back to Grecian territory,
+providing them, at their own cost, with necessaries. Prolonged delays,
+however, aroused suspicions of treachery among the Greeks, who
+distrusted Tissaphernes and Ariæus alike; but Clearchus held it better
+not to break openly with the Persians. The march at last began along a
+northerly route towards the Black Sea, the Greeks keeping rigidly apart
+from the Persian forces which accompanied them, in readiness for an
+attack.
+
+At the crossing of the Tigris suspicion was particularly active, the
+conduct of Ariæus being especially dubious; but still no overt
+hostilities were attempted until the river Zabatus was reached, after
+three weeks of marching. Here Clearchus endeavoured to end the extremely
+strained relations between the Greeks and the barbarian commanders by an
+interview with Tissaphernes. Both men carefully repudiated any idea of
+hostile intentions, and the Persian invited Clearchus and the Greek
+officers generally to attend a conference. Not all, but a considerable
+number--five generals, including Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon, with
+twenty more officers and nearly two hundred others--attended. At a given
+signal all were treacherously massacred; but a fugitive reached the
+Greek camp, where the men sprang to arms. Ariæus, approaching with an
+escort, declared that Clearchus had been proved guilty of treason, but
+was received with fierce indignation, and withdrew.
+
+Of the murdered generals, Clearchus was a man of high military capacity,
+but a harsh disciplinarian, feared and respected, but very unpopular;
+Proxenus, a particular friend of Xenophon, was an amiable but not a
+strong man; Menon, the Thessalian, was a crafty and hypocritical
+time-server, of whom no good can be spoken.
+
+The ten thousand Greeks were now in an ugly predicament; they were a
+thousand miles from home, while between them and the Black Sea lay the
+mountains of Armenia. They were surrounded by hostile hordes, and were
+without cavalry. They had no recognised chief, and their most trusted
+leaders were gone. The whole company seemed paralysed under a universal
+despondency. It was at this juncture that Xenophon, an Athenian
+gentleman-volunteer, was stirred to action by a dream. He rose and
+roused the officers of the contingent of Proxenus, to which he was
+attached. Heartened by an address, in which he pointed out that, on the
+one hand they had to depend on their own courage, skill, and
+resourcefulness, and, on the other, were released from all obligation to
+the Persians, they unanimously chose him their leader, and at his
+instigation roused the senior officers of all the other contingents to
+assemble for deliberation.
+
+The council thus summoned, inspired again by the words of Xenophon,
+vigorously backed up by other leaders, appointed new generals, among
+them Xenophon himself, and set about actively to organise a retreat to
+the sea. The contagion of resolute determination spread through the
+ranks of the whole force. Cheirisophus the Lacedæmonian was given the
+chief command, the two youngest generals, Xenophon and Timerion, were
+placed in charge of the rear-guard. A troop of slingers was organised;
+all horses with the arroy were sequestrated to form a cavalry squadron.
+The army started on its march through the unknown, formed in a hollow
+square, which was shortly so organised that the columns could be
+broadened or narrowed according to the ground without creating
+confusion.
+
+They soon found themselves able to repulse without difficulty even
+attacks in force by the troops of Tissaphernes, the enemy being entirely
+outmatched in hand-to-hand fighting. The slingers and archers, however,
+proved troublesome, and hostile forces, though keeping out of reach,
+were never far off. At last Tissaphernes and Ariæus drew off altogether,
+and the Greek generals having as alternative courses the march east upon
+Susa, north upon Babylon, and west towards Ionia, decided to revert to
+the course northwards to the Black Sea.
+
+
+_III.--The Sea! The Sea!_
+
+
+This route led at first through the country of the Carduchi, a very
+warlike folk who had never been subjugated. Here there was a good deal
+of hard fighting, the Carduchi being adepts in hill warfare, and
+particularly expert archers. Such was the length and weight of their
+arrows that Greeks collected them, and used them as javelins. Seven days
+of this brought the retreating force to the river Centrites, which parts
+the Carduchian mountains from the province of Armenia. With a barely
+fordable river, troops in evidence on the other side, and the Carduchi
+hanging on their rear, the passage offered great difficulties, solved by
+the discovery of a much shallower ford. A feint at one point by the
+rearguard drew off the enemy on the opposite bank, while the main body
+crossed at the shallows, which the rearguard also managed to pass by a
+successful ruse which misled the Carduchi.
+
+The Persian governor of Western Armenia, Tiribazus, offered safe passage
+through his province, but scouts brought information that large forces
+were collecting, and would dispute the passage of a defile through which
+the army must pass. This point, however, was reached by a forced march,
+and the enemy was put to rout.
+
+For some days after this the marching was very severe; the men had to
+struggle forward on very nearly empty stomachs, through blizzards,
+suffering terribly from frostbite and the blinding effect of the snow on
+their eyes, so that at times nothing short of actual threats from the
+officers could induce the exhausted men to toil forward; and all the
+time the enemy's skirmishers were harassing the troops and cutting off
+stragglers. These, however, were finally dispersed by a sudden onslaught
+of the rearguard, and after this a more populous district was reached,
+where food and wine abounded, and the Greeks, who were not ill-received,
+made some days' halt to recuperate.
+
+Here a guide was obtained for the next stages; but on the third night he
+deserted, because Cheirisophus had lost his temper and struck him. This
+incident was the only occasion of a serious difference between Xenophon
+and the elder commander. On the seventh day after this the river Phasis
+was crossed; but two days later, on approaching a mountain pass, it was
+seen to be occupied in force. A council of war was held, at which some
+jesting passed, Xenophon remarking on the reputation of the
+Lacedæmonians as adepts in thieving, a jibe which Cheirisophus retorted
+on the Athenians; as the business in hand was to "steal a match" on the
+enemy, each encouraged the other to act up to the national reputation.
+In the night, a detachment of volunteers captured the ridge above the
+pass; the enemy facing the main body beat a hasty retreat when they
+found their position turned.
+
+Another five days brought the army into the country of the Taochi, where
+the Greeks had to rush a somewhat dangerous position in order to capture
+supplies. A space of some twenty yards was open to such a storm of
+missiles from above that it could only be passed by drawing the enemy's
+fire and making a dash before fresh missiles were accumulated. When this
+was accomplished, however, the foe offered no practical resistance, but
+flung themselves over the cliffs.
+
+Eighteen days later the Greeks reached a town called Gymnise, where they
+obtained a guide. Their course lay through tribes towards whom the
+governor was hostile, and the Greeks had no objection to gratifying him
+by spoiling and burning on their way. On the fifth day after leaving
+Gymnise, a mountain pass was reached.
+
+When the van cleared the top of the mountain, there arose a great
+shouting. And when Xenophon heard it, and they of the rear-guard, they
+supposed that other enemies were ranged against them, for the men of the
+land which had been ravaged were following behind; but when the clamour
+grew louder and nearer, and the new arrivals doubled forward to where
+the shouting was, so that it became greater and greater with the added
+numbers, Xenophon thought this must be something of moment. Therefore,
+taking Lycias and the horsemen, he rode forward at speed to give aid;
+and then suddenly they were aware of the soldiers' shout, the word that
+rang through the lines--"The sea! the sea!" Then every man raced,
+rear-guard and all, urging horses and the very baggage-mules to the top
+of their speed, and when they came to the top, they fell on each other's
+necks, and the generals, and officers, too, with tears of delight. And
+in a moment, whoever it was that passed the word, the men were gathering
+stones, and there they reared a mighty column.
+
+And as for the lucky guide, he betook himself home laden with presents.
+
+Of what befell between this point and the actual arrival of the army on
+the coast of the Black Sea at the Grecian colony of Trapezus [Trebizond]
+the most curious incident was that of the soldiers lighting upon great
+quantities of honey, which not only made them violently ill, but had an
+intoxicating effect, attributed to the herbs frequented by the bees in
+that district. This necessitated a halt of some days. The second day's
+march thence brought them to Trapezus, where they made sacrificial
+thank-offerings to the gods, and further celebrated the occasion by
+holding athletic games.
+
+
+_IV.--The End of the Expedition_
+
+
+But Trapezus was not Greece, and the problem of transport was serious.
+The men, sick of marching, were eager to accomplish the rest of their
+journey by sea. Cheirisophus the general, as being a personal friend of
+the Lacedæmonian admiral stationed at Byzantium, was commissioned to
+obtain ships from him to take the Greeks home.
+
+Cheirisophus departed. The army, which still numbered over ten thousand
+persons, was willing enough to maintain its military organisation for
+foraging and for self-defence; also to make such arrangements as were
+practicable for collecting ships in case Cheirisophus should fail them;
+but the men flatly refused to consider any further movement except by
+water.
+
+So they stayed where they were, maintaining their supplies by raids on
+the natives; but time passed, and there were no tidings of Cheirisophus.
+At last, they saw nothing for it but to put the sick and other
+non-combatants aboard of the vessels which had been secured, send them
+on by sea, and themselves march by the coast to Cerasus, another Greek
+colony. Thence they continued their westward progress, in which they met
+with considerable resistance from the natives, who were barbarians of a
+primitive type, until they came to Cotyora.
+
+This was another settlement from Sinope; but it received the Greeks very
+inhospitably, so that the latter continued their practice of ravaging
+the neighbouring territories. It was now eight months since the
+expedition had started on its homeward march. Here a deputation arrived
+from Sinope to protest against their proceedings; but Xenophon pointed
+out that while they were perfectly willing to buy what they needed and
+behave as friends, if they were not allowed to buy, self-preservation
+compelled them to take by force. Ultimately, the deputation promised to
+send ships from Sinope to convey them thither.
+
+During the time of waiting there was some risk of the force breaking
+itself up, and some inclination to make attacks on the officers,
+including Xenophon. The formulation of charges, however, enabled him
+amply to justify the acts complained of, and order generally was
+restored. At last, however, a sufficient number of ships were collected
+to convey the force to Sinope, where also Cheirisophus put in his
+long-delayed appearance.
+
+Cheirisophus came practically without ships and with nothing but vague
+promises from the admiral at Byzantium. At this point it occurred to the
+army that it would be better to have a single commander for the whole
+than a committee of generals each in control of his own division. Hence
+Xenophon was invited to accept the position. On consulting the omens he
+declined, recommending that, since Cheirisophus was a Lacedæmonian, it
+would be the proper thing to offer him the command, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+The force now sailed from Sinope as far as Heraclea. Here the
+contingents from Arcadia and Archæa--more than half the force--insisted
+on requisitioning large supplies of money from Heraclea. Cheirisophus,
+supported by Xenophon, refused assent; the Arcadians and Achæans
+consequently refused to serve under their command any more, and
+appointed captains for themselves. The other half of the army was also
+parted in two divisions, commanded by Cheirisophus and Xenophon
+respectively.
+
+From Calpe the Arcadians and Archæans made an expedition into the
+interior, which fared so ill that Xenophon, hearing by accident of what
+had happened, was obliged to march to their relief. To his satisfaction,
+however, it was found that the enemy had already dispersed, and the
+Greek column was overtaken on the way back to Calpe. The general effect
+of the episode was to impress upon the Arcadians and Archæans that it
+was commonsense for the whole force to remain united.
+
+The usual operations were carried on for obtaining supplies, report
+having arrived that Cleander, the Lacedæmonian governor of Byzantium,
+was coming, which he presently did, with a couple of galleys but no
+transports. From information received, Cleander was inclined to regard
+the army as little better than a band of brigands; but this idea was
+successfully dissipated by Xenophon. Cleander went back to Byzantium,
+and the Greeks marched from Calpe to Chrysopolis, which faces Byzantium.
+
+Here the whole force was at last carried over to the opposite shore, and
+once more found itself on European soil, having received promises of pay
+from the admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real intentions were
+aroused, and Xenophon had no little difficulty in preventing his
+soldiery from breaking loose and sacking Byzantium itself.
+
+Ultimately, the greater part of the force took service with the Thracian
+king Seuthes. Seuthes, however, failed to carry out his promises as to
+payments and rewards. But now the Lacedæmonians were engaged in a
+quarrel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes and Artabazus; six
+thousand veterans so experienced as those who had followed this famous
+march into the heart of the Persian empire, had fought their way from
+Cunaxa to Trapezus, and had supported themselves mainly by their
+military prowess in getting from Trapezus to Europe, were a force by no
+means to be neglected, and the bulk of the troops were not unwilling to
+be incorporated in the Lacedæmonian armies. And so ends the story of the
+Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE GROTE
+
+
+History of Greece
+
+
+     George Grote, born at Beckenham, England, Nov. 17, 1794,
+     entered the bank founded by his grandfather, from which he
+     withdrew in 1843. He joined the group of "philosophic
+     Radicals," among whom James Mill was a leader, and was a keen
+     politician and reformer, and an ardent advocate of the ballot.
+     His determination to write a sound "History of Greece" was
+     ensured, if it was not inspired, by Mitford's history, a work
+     full of anti-democratic fervour and very antagonistic to the
+     great Greek democratic state of Athens. In some respects his
+     work is a defence of the Athenian democracy, at least as
+     contrasted with Sparta; it appeared in twelve volumes between
+     1846 and 1856, and covered Greek history from the earliest
+     times "till the close of the generation contemporary with
+     Alexander the Great." It at once occupied, and still holds,
+     the field as the classic work on the subject as a whole,
+     though later research has modified many of his conclusions.
+     His methods were pre-eminently thorough, dispassionate, and
+     judicial; but he suffers from a lack of sympathetic
+     imagination. He died on June 18, 1871, and was buried in
+     Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+_I.--Early History_
+
+
+The divine myths constitute the earliest matter of Greek history. These
+may be divided into those which belong to the gods and to the heroes
+respectively; but most of them, in point of fact, present gods, heroes,
+and men in juxtaposition. Every community sought to trace its origin to
+some common divine, or semi-divine, progenitor; the establishment of a
+pedigree was a necessity; and each pedigree contains at some, point
+figures corresponding to some actual historical character, before whom
+the pedigree is imaginary, but after whom, in the main, actual. The
+precise point where the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates
+into the historical, is not usually ascertainable.
+
+The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
+period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend;
+the tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek
+peoples, and having an actual basis in historical fact. The events,
+however, are of less importance than the picture of an actual
+historical, political, and social system, corresponding, not to the
+supposed date of the Trojan war, but to the date of the composition of
+the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the myths themselves with a good
+deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to rationalise them, or to
+find for them an allegorical interpretation. The myths of other European
+peoples have undergone a somewhat similar treatment.
+
+Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
+peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
+Ægean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication between
+one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system which
+isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its own
+separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
+congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in
+the city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised
+into the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely
+recognised their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct
+aggregate, and very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate
+from the non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."
+
+Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
+Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
+discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the
+dual kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The
+government lay and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan
+race--as for a time with the Normans in England--which formed a close
+oligarchy, while within the oligarchical body the organisation was
+democratic and communistic. For Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries
+B.C. were characterised by the two Messenian wars; and we note that
+while the Hellenes generally recognised her headship, Argos claimed a
+titular right to that position. As a general rule, the primitive
+monarchical system portrayed in the Homeric poems was displaced in the
+Greek cities by an oligarchical government, which in turn was overthrown
+by an irregular despotism called _tyrannis_, primarily established by a
+professed popular leader, who maintained his supremacy by mercenary
+troops. One after another these usurping dynasties were again ejected in
+favour either of a restored oligarchy or of a democracy. Sparta, where
+the power of the dual kingship was extremely limited, was the only state
+where the legitimate kingship survived. Corinth attained her highest
+power Under the despot Periander, son of Cypselus. Of the Ionian section
+of Greek states, the supreme type is Athens. Her early history is
+obscure. The kingship seems to have ended by being, so to speak, placed
+in commission, the royal functions being discharged by an elected body
+of Archons. Dissensions among the groups of citizens issued in the
+democratic Solonian constitution, which remained the basis of Athenian
+government, except during the despotism of the house of Pisistratus in
+the latter half of the sixth century B.C. But outside of Greece proper
+were the numerous Dorian and Ionian colonies, really independent cities,
+planted in the coast districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene and Barka in
+Mediterranean Africa, in Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily, and
+even at Massilia in Gaul, and in Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area.
+These colonies brought the Greek world in touch with Lydia and its king,
+Croesus, with the one sea-going Semitic power, the Phoenicians, with the
+Egyptians, and more remotely with the wholly Oriental empires of Assyria
+and Babylon, as well as with the outer barbarians of Scythia.
+
+Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens was generally under the rule of the
+despot Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510, the Pisistratidæ were
+expelled, and Athens became a pure democracy. Meanwhile, the Persian
+Cyrus had seized the Median monarchy and overthrown every other
+potentate in Western Asia; Egypt was added to the vast Persian dominion
+by his son Cambyses. A new dynasty was established by Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, who organized the empire, but failed to extend it by an
+incursion into European Scythia.
+
+The revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor against the governments
+established by the "great king" brought him in contact with the
+Athenians, who sent help to Ionia. Demands for "earth and water,"
+_i.e.,_ the formal recognition of Persian sovereignty, sent to the
+apparently insignificant Greek states were insolently rejected. Darius
+sent an expedition to punish Athens in particular, and the Athenians
+drove his army into the sea at the battle of Marathon.
+
+Xerxes, son of Darius, organised an overwhelming force by land and sea
+to eat up the Greeks. The invaders were met but hardly checked at
+Thermopylæ, where Leonidas and the immortal three hundred fell; all
+Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands, including
+Athens. But their fleet was shattered to pieces, chiefly by the
+Athenians under Themistocles and Aristides at Salamis, and the
+destruction of their land forces was completed by the united Greeks at
+Platæa. A further disaster was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.
+
+
+_II.--The Struggles of Athens and Sparta_
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Sicilian Greeks, led by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
+resisted and overthrew the aggression of Carthage, the issue being
+decided at the battle of Himera. The part played by Athens under the
+guidance of Themistocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a new
+position among the Greek states and an indisputable naval leadership. As
+the maritime head of Hellas she was chief of the naval Delian League,
+now formed ostensibly to carry on the war against Persia. But the
+leaguers, who first contributed a quota of ships, soon began to
+substitute money to provide ships, which in effect swelled the Athenian
+navy, and turned the contributors into tributaries. Thus, almost
+automatically, the Delian League converted itself into an Athenian
+empire. In Athens itself an unparalleled personal ascendancy was
+acquired by Pericles, who made the form of government and administration
+more democratic than before. But this growing supremacy of Athens
+aroused the jealous alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw her own
+titular hegemony threatened; the subject cities grew restive under the
+Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward professedly as champion of the
+liberties of Hellas; Athens, guided by Pericles, refused to submit to
+Spartan dictation, and accepted the challenge which plunged Greece into
+the Peloponnesian war.
+
+The Athenians concentrated on the expansion of their naval armaments,
+left the open country undefended and gathered within the city walls, and
+landed forces at will on the Peloponnese. Platsea, almost their sole
+ally on land, held out valiantly for some time, but was forced to
+surrender; and Athens herself suffered frightfully from a visitation of
+the plague. After the death of Pericles, Cleon became the most prominent
+leader of the aggressive and democratic party, Nicias, of the
+anti-democratic peace party. Over most of Greece in each state the
+oligarchic faction favoured the Peloponnesian league, the democratic,
+Athens. The general Demosthenes at Pylos effected the surrender of a
+Lacedæmonian force, which temporarily shattered Sparta's military
+prestige, a blow in some degree counteracted by the brilliant operations
+of Brasidas in the north, where, however, both he and Cleon were killed.
+
+Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to the possibilities of a great
+sea-empire, in consequence of her intervention having been invited in
+disputes among the Sicilian states. As the outcome, incited by the
+brilliant young Alcibiades, she resolved on the fatal Sicilian
+expedition. The expedition, planned under command of Alcibiades and
+Nicias, was dispatched in spite of the startling mutilation of the
+Hermæ, a sacrilegious performance attributed to Alcibiades. It had
+hardly reached Sicily when he was recalled, but made his escape and
+spent some years mainly in intriguing against Athens. The siege of
+Syracuse was progressing favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus was
+allowed to enter and put new life into the defence. Disaster followed on
+disaster both by sea and land; finally, the whole Athenian force was
+either cut to pieces or surrendered at discretion, to become the slaves
+of the Syracusans, both Nicias and Demosthenes being put to death.
+
+Meanwhile, the truce between Athens and Sparta had been ended, and war
+again declared. Sparta occupied permanently a post of the Attic
+territory, Deceleia, with merciless effect. The Sicilian disaster moved
+the islanders, notably Chios, to revolt, by Spartan help, against
+Athens. She, however, renovated her navy with unexpected vigour. But,
+with her fleets away, Alcibiades inspired oligarchical intrigues in the
+city; a _coup d'état_ gave the government to the leaders of a group of
+400. The navy stood by the democratic constitution, the 400 were
+overthrown, and an assembly, nominally of 5,000, assumed the government.
+A great Athenian triumph at Arginusæ was followed later by a still more
+overwhelming disaster at Ægos Potami.
+
+The Spartan commander Lysander blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
+to surrender. Lysander established the government known as that of the
+Thirty Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias. Lysander's ascendancy
+created in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the
+Spartan king Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens
+by Thrasybulus, and the restoration of the Athenian democracy.
+Throughout, the conduct of the democratic party, at its best and its
+worst, contrasted favourably with that of the oligarchical faction.
+
+These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
+of the Parthenon and Phidias; of Æschylus, the soldier of Marathon; then
+Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
+himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
+science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
+differing from the Sophists fundamentally.
+
+
+_III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas_
+
+
+The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
+used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
+Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
+who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a
+Greek conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan
+dominion. Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens,
+their former foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the
+most notable battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within
+the Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of
+Persia, and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by
+the name of the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy
+of Greek cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan
+domination.
+
+In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
+dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at
+the battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill
+and tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige.
+As a consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a
+force under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation
+was established.
+
+Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
+some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
+continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
+cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
+fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
+Himera. Owing to the disaster to Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
+feared by Carthage as a protection to the Hellenic world; and for two
+centuries to come, her interventions in Sicily were incessant. Now, the
+presence of a foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for power at
+Syracuse their opportunity, of which the outcome was the subversion of
+the democracy and the establishment of Dionysius as despot.
+
+His son, Dionysius II., succeeded, and was finally ejected by the
+Corinthian Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career of victories as
+Syracusan general against Carthage, acted as general liberator of
+Sicilian cities from despotisms, laid down his powers, and was content
+with the position, not of despot, but of counsellor, to the great
+prosperity of Sicily as a whole.
+
+Going back to the north of Greece, the semi-Hellenic Macedon with a
+Hellenic dynasty was growing powerful. Philip--father of Alexander the
+Great--was now king, and was resolved to make himself the head of the
+Greek world. His great opponent is found in the person of the Athenian
+orator Demosthenes, who saw that Philip was aiming at ascendancy, but
+generally failed to persuade the Athenians to recognise the danger in
+which they stood. Philip gradually achieved his immediate end of being
+recognised as the captain-general of the Hellenes, and their leader in a
+new Persian war, when his life was cut short by an assassin, and he was
+succeeded by his youthful son Alexander.
+
+The Greek states, awakening to their practical subjection, would have
+thrown off the new yoke, but the young king with swift and overwhelming
+energy swept down from Thrace upon Thebes, the centre of resistance, and
+stamped it out. He had already conceived, in part at least, his vast
+schemes of Asiatic conquest; while he lived, Greece had practically no
+distinguishable history. She is merely an appendage to Macedon.
+Everything is absorbed in the Macedon conqueror. With an army incredibly
+small for the task before him, he entered Asia Minor, and routed the
+Persian forces on the river Granicus. The Greek Memnon, the one able
+leader for the Persians, would have organised against him a destructive
+naval power; but death removed him.
+
+Alexander dispersed the armies of the Persian king Darius at the Issus,
+captured Tyre after a remarkable siege, and took easy possession of
+Egypt, where he founded Alexandria. Having organised the administration
+of the conquered territories, he marched to the Euphrates, but did not
+engage the enormous Persian hosts till he found and shattered them at
+the battle of Gaugamela, also called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexander
+swept on to Babylon, to Susa, to Persepolis, assuming the functions of
+the "Great King." The fugitive Darius was assassinated. Alexander
+henceforth assumed a new and oriental demeanour; but he continued his
+conquests, crossing the Hindoo Koosh to Bactria, and then bursting into
+the Punjab. But his ambitions were ended by his death, and their
+fulfilment, not at all according to his designs, was left to the
+"Diadochi," the generals among whom the conquered dominions were parted.
+Athens led the revolt against Macedonian supremacy, but in vain.
+Demosthenes, condemned by the conquering Antipater, took poison. The
+remainder of the history is that of the blotting out of Hellas and of
+Hellenism.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN
+
+
+Troy and Its Remains
+
+
+     Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
+     Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December
+     27, 1890. During his early childhood an old scholar, who had
+     fallen upon evil days, delighted him with stories of the great
+     deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age of fourteen he was
+     apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
+     antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet
+     have the happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him
+     from his low position, and he went to Holland and found a
+     situation in an office. He now began to study languages,
+     suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
+     money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to
+     Russia, learning Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek.
+     Later, he travelled in Europe and the East, making a voyage
+     round the world. At last he realised the dream of his life.
+     Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
+     Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at
+     Tiryus, Mycenæ, and Troy, largely solving the problems of
+     antiquity and archæology associated with these localities.
+     "Troy and Its Remains" is published here in order that, having
+     read in the classical histories, we may see how the ancient
+     world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of
+     one of the most famous of archæologists.
+
+
+_I.--Searching for the Site of Troy_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October_ 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca, the
+Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
+by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the
+Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of
+Bunarbashi, to which place most archæologists assign it. At the same
+time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be
+identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and
+down to its Complete destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning
+of the ninth century A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years,
+after its disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium
+Novum by Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited
+his Ilium Novum.
+
+The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
+north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still,
+which is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and
+from its imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of
+Hissarlik seems specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever
+since my first visit I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of
+Priam in the depths of this hill.
+
+On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
+Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
+excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
+explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
+walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
+Lysimachus.
+
+Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
+end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
+prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
+offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
+hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its
+stead some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of
+the Trojan war.
+
+I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
+on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate
+this locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on
+the face of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's
+work. Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks
+of stone, the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who
+is an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the
+Iliad by heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All
+of my workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only
+on Sunday, a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.
+
+_Hissarlik, October_ 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
+continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average,
+80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I
+found an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow,
+grey, and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently
+with a kind of potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of
+their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume
+they have served as _ex votos_ for hanging up in the temples.
+
+I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
+inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
+writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
+century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have
+been one of the kings of Pergamus.
+
+The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
+glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west
+by the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.
+
+_Hissarlik, November_ 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33 feet.
+During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous mass
+of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
+of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
+sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
+battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have
+been made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have
+reached the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find
+are too well finished.
+
+I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
+indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and
+more traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly
+convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan
+war, and hence I am more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy
+by further excavations; for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in
+this is firm--it can only have been here, on the site of Ilium.
+
+
+_II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, April 5, 1872._ On the first of this month I resumed the
+excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.
+
+In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
+small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the
+owl's head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins
+have stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the
+highest importance to archæology. Such symbols were already regarded,
+thousands of years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very
+greatest importance. The figure of the cross represents two pieces of
+wood which were laid crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial
+altars in order to produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the
+friction of one piece of wood against another.
+
+At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
+many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am
+firmly convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a
+goddess, and the important question now presents itself, what goddess is
+it who is here found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be
+found upon the idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must
+necessarily be the tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian
+Athena, and this indeed perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer,
+who continually calls her _thea glaukopis Athene,_ "the goddess with the
+owl's face."
+
+_Hissarlik, June 18, 1872._ I had scarcely begun to extend a third
+cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian
+marble, containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus
+Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four
+immortal horses which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing
+is to be seen of a chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about
+two-thirds of the sun's disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is
+very expressive, and the folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured;
+but my admiration is specially excited by the four horses, which,
+snorting and looking wildly forward, career through the universe with
+infinite power. Their anatomy is so masterly that I confess I have never
+seen so masterly a work.
+
+It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
+nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a
+word about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus
+Apollo does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple
+of the sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament
+to any other temple.
+
+I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
+represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
+terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that
+is, Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman
+upon the propylæa of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
+sun-city.
+
+This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
+Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this
+work of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo,
+after the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the
+Ilian Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after
+the subjugation of the Persian Empire.
+
+Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
+the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that
+at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric
+Troy. [The reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came
+back to this opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand
+wonderful objects; whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the
+removal of which gives immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls
+of very fine terra-cotta, and it is curious that those which have no
+decorations at all are always of the ordinary shape, and of the size of
+small tops, or like the craters of volcanoes, while almost all those
+possessing decorations are flat, and in the form of a wheel.
+
+Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
+for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number
+of copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small
+instruments for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some
+curious pieces of ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in
+the shape of an exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or
+double-edged knives of white silex in the form of saws in quantities,
+each about two inches long; also many hand millstones of lava, and some
+beautiful red vases, cups, vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these
+depths we likewise find many bones of animals; boars' tusks, small
+shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and stag, as well as the vertebræ of
+the shark.
+
+The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
+large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone,
+hewn and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet.
+These buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined
+with earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed
+to pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
+disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
+well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
+which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum
+are those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]
+
+Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
+civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
+foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
+house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the
+fact that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol
+of the _suastika_, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive
+Trojans belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the
+symbols on the round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which
+preceded the Trojans was likewise of long duration, for all the layers
+of _débris_ at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also
+were of Aryan descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious
+symbols. Several of the symbols belonged to the time when Germans,
+Pelasgians, Hindoos, Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one
+nation.
+
+I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
+those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
+those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
+glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below,
+so that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
+vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
+urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
+mouth, bent back, and either short or long.
+
+I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
+three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
+very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata
+we also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
+whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs,
+amongst which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position.
+But the fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial
+altar with blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the
+_rosa mystica_, are also very frequently met with here.
+
+This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
+and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the
+Holy Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan
+symbol, as yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because
+I find it at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the
+successors to the Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200
+years before Christ.
+
+At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
+by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
+ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches
+of earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate
+in five leaves.
+
+I now come to the strata of _débris_ at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet,
+which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan race, who
+took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
+destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
+feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
+entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined
+with clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only
+are all the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are
+of a coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.
+
+A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
+_débris_ on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its present
+surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants killed or
+driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise have
+belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still very
+frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double cross
+with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the whorls
+degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it is
+considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
+strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
+feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
+many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
+together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas
+leave no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the
+surface of this hill was much lower than it is now.
+
+It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
+it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
+Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
+taken place 700 B.C.
+
+
+_III.--Homeric Legends Verified_
+
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August_ 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill where
+I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick, which
+obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
+uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
+trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a
+depth of 46-1/2 feet.
+
+This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
+its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
+covered it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and
+imposing, for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain
+of Troy, but of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and
+Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the whole area of
+the plain of Troy than this.
+
+In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
+well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that
+the lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and
+burnt alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a
+vase, this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in
+the pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all
+corpses were burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found
+great numbers. The bones were always burnt to ashes.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872._ In stopping the excavations for
+this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
+exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
+thank God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but
+that none of us has been seriously hurt.
+
+As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
+solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
+discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
+soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
+called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site
+of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by
+the whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only
+corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also
+with all the traditions handed down to us by later authorities.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. _During this last week, with splendid
+weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a good
+piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
+Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have
+laid bare the tower in several places.
+
+The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
+the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
+beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote
+antiquity lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently
+have described them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873._ Although the Pergamus, whose depths I
+have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by the
+Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
+ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests
+on one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle
+on mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
+probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on _Ilios anemoessa_.
+
+My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
+have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
+street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture
+to assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Scæan Gate. It
+is in an excellent state of preservation.
+
+Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
+sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
+company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus
+the Trojan and Achæan armies face to face about to settle their
+agreement to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
+Menelaus.
+
+I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
+to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that
+its site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth
+century. But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being
+obliged to give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be
+able to make it a thousand times larger, but I value truth above
+everything, and I rejoice that my three years' excavations have laid
+open the Homeric Troy, even though on a diminished scale, and that I
+have proved the Iliad based upon real facts.
+
+Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
+he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
+events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long
+doubted the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a
+mere invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised
+world will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown
+itself to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected
+from the statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will
+accept with delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really
+exist, that a large portion of it has now been brought to light, and
+that Homer, even though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events
+that actually happened.
+
+Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
+Poseidon and Apollo, the Scæan Gate of the palace of King Priam, for all
+these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
+made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments
+only from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was
+then still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in
+the mouth of all minstrels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JULIUS CÆSAR
+
+
+Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+
+     Caius Julius Cæsar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of a noble
+     Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot
+     with the democratic section against the republican oligarchy.
+     Marrying Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief
+     opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla, he incurred the
+     implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit Rome.
+     For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome
+     after Sulla's death, Cæsar attached himself to the illustrious
+     Pompey, whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he
+     obtained a quæstorship in Spain, and on returning next year
+     reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and
+     Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the First
+     Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
+     Cæsar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant
+     success excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of
+     Pompey. Civil war broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of
+     Pompey, who was defeated in the fateful battle of Pharsalia,
+     and was afterwards murdered in Egypt. Julius Cæsar now
+     possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on games and
+     public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt,
+     Pontus, and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But
+     the jealousy of many of the aristocrats led to the formation
+     of a plot, and on March 15, 44 B.C., Cæsar was assassinated in
+     the Senate House. This summary relates to the commentaries
+     known to be by Cæsar himself, certain other books having been
+     added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed that he
+     writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul_
+
+
+Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgæ inhabit; the
+Aquitani another; those who in their own language are called Celts, in
+ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language,
+customs, and laws. Among the Gauls the Helvetii surpass the rest in
+valour, as they constantly contend in battle with the Germans. When
+Messala and Piso were consuls, Orgetorix, the most distinguished of the
+Helvetii, formed a conspiracy among the nobility, persuading them that,
+since they excelled all in valour, it would be very easy to acquire the
+supremacy of the whole of Gaul. They made great preparations for the
+expedition, but suddenly Orgetorix died, nor was suspicion lacking that
+he committed suicide.
+
+After his death, the Helvetii nevertheless attempted the exodus from
+their territories. When it was reported to Cæsar that they were
+attempting to make their route through our province, he gathered as
+great a force as possible, and by forced marches arrived at Geneva.
+
+The Helvetii now sent ambassadors to Cæsar, requesting permission to
+pass through the province, which he refused, inasmuch as he remembered
+that Lucius Cassius, the consul, had been slain and his army routed, and
+made to pass under the yoke by the Helvetii. Disappointed in their hope,
+the Helvetii attempted to force a passage across the Rhone, but, being
+resisted by the soldier, desisted.
+
+After the war with the Helvetii was concluded, ambassadors from almost
+all parts of Gaul assembled to congratulate Cæsar, and to declare that
+his victory had happened no less to the benefit of the land of Gaul than
+of the Roman people, because the Helvetii had quitted their country with
+the design of subduing the whole of Gaul.
+
+When the assembly was dismissed, the chiefs' of the Ædui and of the
+Sequani waited upon Cæsar to complain that Ariovistus, the king of the
+Germans, had seized a third of their land, which was the best in Gaul,
+and was now ordering them to depart from another third part.
+
+To ambassadors sent by Cæsar, demanding an appointment of some spot for
+a conference, Ariovistus gave an insolent reply, which was repeated on a
+second overture. Hearing that the king of the Germans was threatening to
+seize Vesontio, the capital of the Sequani, Cæsar, by a forced march,
+arrived there and took possession of the city. Apprised of this event,
+Ariovistus changed his attitude, and sent messengers intimating that he
+agreed to meet Cæsar, as they were now nearer to each other, and could
+meet without danger.
+
+The conference took place, but it led to no successful result, for
+Ariovistus demanded that the Romans should withdraw from Gaul and his
+conduct became afterwards so hostile that it led to war. A battle took
+place about fifty miles from the Rhine. The Germans were routed and fled
+to the river, across which many escaped, the rest being slain in
+pursuit. Cæsar, having concluded two very important wars in one
+campaign, conducted his army into winter quarters.
+
+
+_II.--Taming the Rebellious Belgæ_
+
+
+While Cæsar was in winter quarters in Hither Gaul frequent reports were
+brought to him that all the Belgæ were entering into a confederacy
+against the Roman people, because they feared that, after all Celtic
+Gaul was subdued, our army would be led against them. Cæsar, alarmed,
+levied two new legions in Hither Gaul, and proceeded to the territory of
+the Belgæ. As he arrived there unexpectedly, and sooner than anyone
+anticipated, the Remi, who are the nearest of the Belgæ to Celtic Gaul,
+sent messages of submission and gave Cæsar full information about the
+other Belgæ.
+
+Cæsar next learned that the Nervii, a savage and very brave people,
+whose territories bordered those just conquered, had upbraided the rest
+of the Belgæ who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people, and had
+declared that they themselves would neither send ambassadors nor accept
+any condition of peace. He was informed concerning them that they
+allowed no access of any merchants, and that they suffered no wine and
+other things tending to luxury to be imported, because they thought that
+by their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired.
+
+After he had made three days' march into their territory, Cæsar
+discovered that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other
+side of the River Sambre, not more than ten miles from his camp, and
+that they had persuaded the Atrebates and the Veromandui to join with
+them, and that likewise the Aduatuci were expected by them, and were on
+the march. The Roman army proceeded to encamp in front of the river, on
+a site sloping towards it. Here they were fiercely attacked by the
+Nervii, the assault being so sudden that Cæsar had to do all things at
+one time. The standard as the sign to run to arms had to be displayed,
+the soldiers were to be called from the works on the rampart, the order
+of battle was to be formed, and a great part of these arrangements was
+prevented by the shortness of time and the sudden charge of the enemy.
+
+Time was lacking even for putting on helmets and uncovering shields. In
+such an unfavorable state of affairs, various events of fortune
+followed. The soldiers of the ninth and tenth legions speedily drove
+back the Atrebates, who were breathless with running and fatigue. Many
+of them were slain. In like manner the Veromandui were routed by the
+eighth and eleventh legions; but as part of the camp was very exposed,
+the Nervii hastened in a very close body, under Boduagnatus, their
+leader, to rush against that quarter. Our horsemen and light-armed
+infantry were by the first assault routed, and the enemy, rushing into
+our camp in great numbers, pressed hard on the legions. But Cæsar,
+seizing a shield and encouraging the soldiers, many of whose centurions
+had been slain, ordering them to extend their companies that they might
+more freely use their swords.
+
+So great a change was soon effected that, though the enemy displayed
+great courage, the battle was ended so disastrously for them that the
+Nervii were almost annihilated. Scarcely five hundred were left who
+could bear arms. Their old men sent ambassadors to Cæsar by the consent
+of all who remained, surrendering themselves. The Aduatuci, before
+mentioned, who were coming to the help of the Nervii, returned home when
+they heard of this battle.
+
+All Gaul being now subdued, so high an opinion of this war was spread
+among the barbarians that ambassadors were sent to Cæsar by those
+nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine, to promise that they would give
+hostages and execute his commands. He ordered these embassies to return
+to him at the beginning of the following summer, because he was
+hastening into Italy and Illyricum. Having led his legions into winter
+quarters among the Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states
+were close to those in which he had waged war, he set out for Italy, and
+a public thanksgiving of fifteen days was decreed for these
+achievements, an honour which before that time had been conferred on
+none.
+
+
+_III.--War by Land and Sea in Gaul_
+
+
+When Cæsar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with the
+twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
+Veragri, and the Seduni, who extend from the territories of the
+Allobroges and the Lake of Geneva and the River Rhone to the top of the
+Alps. The reason for sending him was that he desired that the pass along
+the Alps, through which the Roman merchants had been accustomed to
+travel with great danger, should be opened.
+
+Galba fought several successful battles, stormed some of their forts,
+and concluded a peace. He then determined to winter in a village of the
+Veragri, which is called Octodurus. But before the winter camp could be
+completed the tops of the mountains were seen to be crowded with armed
+men, and soon these rushed down from all parts and discharged stones and
+darts on the ramparts.
+
+The fierce battle that followed lasted for more than six hours. During
+the fight more than a third part of the army of 30,000 men of the Seduni
+and the Veragri were slain, and the rest were put to flight,
+panic-stricken. Then Galba, unwilling to tempt fortune again, after
+having burned all the buildings in that village, hastened to return into
+the province, urged chiefly by the want of corn and provision. As no
+enemy opposed his march, he brought his forces safely into the country
+of the Allobroges, and there wintered.
+
+These things being achieved, Cæsar, who was visiting Illyricum to gain a
+knowledge of that country, had every reason to suppose that Gaul was
+reduced to a state of tranquillity. For the Belgæ had been overcome, the
+Germans had been expelled, and the Seduni and the Veragri among the Alps
+defeated. But a sudden war sprang up in Gaul.
+
+The occasion of that war was this. P. Crassus, a young man, had taken up
+his winter quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border
+on the Atlantic Ocean. As corn was scarce, he sent out officers among
+the neighbouring states for the purpose of procuring supplies. The most
+considerable of these states was the Veneti, who have a very great
+number of ships with which they have been accustomed to sail into
+Britain, and thus they excel the rest of the states in nautical affairs.
+With them arose the beginning of the revolt.
+
+The Veneti detained Silius and Velanius, who had been sent among them,
+for they thought they should recover by their means the hostages which
+they had given Crassus. The neighbouring people, the Essui and the
+Curiosolitæ, led on by the influence of the Veneti (as the measures of
+the Gauls are sudden and hasty) detained other officers for the same
+motive. All the sea-coast being quickly brought over to the sentiments
+of these states, they sent a common embassy to P. Crassus to say "If he
+wished to receive back his officers, let him send back to them their
+hostages."
+
+Cæsar, being informed of these things, since he was himself so far
+distant, ordered ships of war to be built on the River Loire; rowers to
+be raised from the province; sailors and pilots to be provided. These
+matters being quickly executed, he hastened to the army as soon as the
+season of the year admitted.
+
+Cæsar at once ordered his army, divided into several detachments, to
+attack the towns of the enemy in different districts. Many were stormed,
+yet much of the warfare was vain and much labour was lost, because the
+Veneti, having numerous ships specially adapted for such a purpose,
+their keels being flatter than those of our ships, could easily navigate
+the shallows and estuaries, and thus their flight hither and thither
+could not be prevented.
+
+At length, in a naval fight, our fleet, being fully assembled, gained a
+victory so signal that, by that one battle, the war with the Veneti and
+the whole sea-coast was finished. Cæsar thought that severe punishment
+should be inflicted, in order that for the future the rights of
+ambassadors should be respected by barbarians; he therefore put to death
+all their senate, and sold the rest for slaves.
+
+About the same time P. Crassus arrived in Aquitania, which, as was
+already said, is, both from its extent and its number of population, a
+third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Præconius, the
+lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
+understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known,
+the Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was
+long and vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired
+to their principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted.
+Crassus then marched into the territories of the Vocates and the
+Tarusites, who raised a great host of men to carry on the war, but
+suffered total defeat, after which the greater part of Aquitania of its
+own accord surrendered to the Romans, sending hostages of their own
+accord from different tribes. A few only--and those remote
+nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to do this.
+
+
+_IV.--The First Landing in Britain_
+
+
+The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
+Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome,
+55 before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
+called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
+men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
+into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
+strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
+harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.
+
+The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
+send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
+home, and going forth in their turn in other years.
+
+Cæsar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the Gauls
+(whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from the
+Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the army
+earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
+discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had
+taken place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the
+Germans were then making excursions to greater distances, and had
+advanced to the territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are
+under the protection of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul,
+Cæsar thought proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had
+discovered, and, having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and
+ordered some cavalry to be raised, resolved to make war against the
+Germans.
+
+When he had advanced some distance, the Germans sent ambassadors,
+begging him not to advance further, as they had come hither reluctantly,
+having been expelled from their country. But Cæsar, knowing that they
+wished for delay only to make further secret preparations, refused the
+overtures. Marshalling his army in three lines, and marching eight
+miles, he took them by surprise, and the Romans rushed their camp. Many
+of the enemy were slain, the rest being either scattered or drowned in
+attempting to escape by crossing the Meuse in the flight.
+
+The conflict with the Germans being finished, Cæsar thought it expedient
+to cross the Rhine. Since the Germans were so easily urged to go into
+Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories.
+Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty of constructing a bridge,
+owing to the breadth, rapidity, and depth of the river, he devised and
+built one of timber and of great strength, piles being first driven in
+on which to erect it.
+
+The army was led over into Germany, advanced some distance, and burnt
+some villages of the hostile Sigambri, who had concealed themselves in
+the woods after conveying away all their possessions. Then Cæsar, having
+done enough to strike fear into the Germans and to serve both honour and
+interest, after a stay of eighteen days across the Rhine, returned into
+Gaul and cut down the bridge.
+
+During the short part of the summer which remained he resolved to
+proceed into Britain, because succours had been constantly furnished to
+the Gauls from that country. He thought it expedient, if he only entered
+the island, to see into the character of the people, and to gain
+knowledge of their localities, harbours, and landing-places. Having
+collected about eighty transport ships, he set sail with two legions in
+fair weather, and the soldiers were attacked instantly on landing by the
+cavalry and charioteers of the barbarians. The enemy were vanquished,
+but could not be pursued, because the Roman horse had not been able to
+maintain their course at sea and to reach the island. This alone was
+wanting to Cæsar's accustomed success.
+
+
+_V.--Cæsar on the Thames_
+
+
+During the winter Cæsar commanded as many ships as possible to be
+constructed, and the old repaired. About six hundred transports and
+twenty ships of war were built, and, after settling some disputes in
+Gaul among the chiefs, Cæsar went to Port Itius with the legions. He
+took with him several of the leading chiefs of the Gauls, determined to
+retain them as hostages and to keep them with him during his next
+expedition to Britain, lest a commotion should arise in Gaul during his
+absence.
+
+Cæsar, having crossed to the shore of Britain and disembarked his army
+at a convenient spot advanced about twelve miles and repelled all
+attacks of the cavalry and charioteers of the enemy. Then he led his
+forces into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the River Thames, which
+river can be forded in one place only. Here an engagement took place
+which resulted in the flight of the Britons. But Cassivellaunus had sent
+messengers to the four kings who reigned over Kent and the districts by
+the sea, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximaquilus, and Segonax, commanding
+them to collect all their forces and assail the naval camp.
+
+In the battle which ensued the Romans were victorious, and when
+Cassivellaunus heard of this disaster he sent ambassadors to Cæsar to
+treat about a surrender. Cæsar, since he had resolved to pass the winter
+on the continent, on account of sudden revolts in Gaul, demanded
+hostages and prescribed what tribute Britain should pay each year to the
+Roman people.
+
+Cæsar, expecting for many reasons greater commotion in Gaul, levied
+additional forces. He saw that war was being prepared on all sides, that
+the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, with the addition of all the Germans
+on this side of the Rhine, were under arms; that the Senones did not
+assemble according to his command, and were concerting measures with
+Carnutes and the neighbouring states; and that the Germans were
+importuned by the Treviri in frequent embassies. Therefore he thought
+that he ought to take prompt measures for the war.
+
+Accordingly, before the winter was ended, he marched with four legions
+unexpectedly into the territories of the Nervii, captured many men and
+much cattle, wasted their lands, and forced them to surrender and give
+hostages. He followed up his success by worsting the Senones, Carnutes,
+and Menapii, while Labienus defeated the Treviri.
+
+Gaul being tranquil, Cæsar, as he had determined, set out for Italy to
+hold the provincial assizes. There he was informed of the decree of the
+senate that all the youth of Italy should take the military oath, and he
+determined to hold a levy throughout the entire province. The Gauls,
+animated by the opportunity afforded through his absence, and indignant
+that they were reduced beneath the dominion of Rome, began to organise
+their plans for war openly.
+
+Many of the nations confederated and selected as their commander
+Vercingetorix, a young Avernian. On hearing what had happened, Cæsar set
+out from Italy for Transalpine Gaul, and began the campaign by marching
+into the country of the Helvii, although it was the severest time of the
+year, and the country was covered with deep snow.
+
+The armies met, and Vercingetorix sustained a series of losses at
+Vellaunodunum, Genabum, and Noviodunum. The Gauls then threw a strong
+garrison into Avaricum, which Cæsar besieged, and at length Cæsar's
+soldiers took it by storm. All the Gauls, with few exceptions, joined in
+the revolt; and the united forces, under Vercingetorix, attacked the
+Roman army while it was marching into the country of the Sequani, but
+they suffered complete defeat. After struggling vainly to continue the
+war, Vercingetorix surrendered, and the Gallic chieftains laid down
+their arms. Cæsar demanded a great number of hostages, sent his
+lieutenants with various legions to different stations in Gaul, and
+determined himself to winter at Bibracte. A supplication of twenty days
+was decreed at Rome by the senate on hearing of these successes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TACITUS
+
+
+Annals
+
+
+     Publius Cornelius Tacitus was born perhaps at Rome, shortly
+     before the accession of the Emperor Nero in 54 A.D. He married
+     the daughter of Agricola, famous in the history of Britain,
+     and died probably about the time of Hadrian's accession to the
+     empire, 117 A.D. He attained distinction as a pleader at the
+     bar, and in public life; but his fame rests on his historical
+     works. A man of strong prepossessions and prejudices, he
+     allowed them to colour his narratives, and particularly his
+     portraits; but he cannot be charged with dishonesty. The
+     portraits themselves are singularly powerful; his narrative is
+     picturesque, vivid, dramatic; but the condensed character of
+     his style and the pregnancy of his phrases make his work
+     occasionally obscure, and particularly difficult to render in
+     translation. His "Germania" is a most valuable record of the
+     early institutions of the Teutonic peoples. His "Histories" of
+     the empire from Galba to Domitian are valuable as dealing with
+     events of which he was an eye-witness. His "Annals," covering
+     practically the reigns from Tiberius to Nero, open only some
+     forty years before his own birth. Of the original sixteen
+     books, four are lost, and four are incomplete. The following
+     epitome has been specially prepared from the Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Emperor and Nephew_
+
+
+Tiberius, adopted son and actual stepson of Augustus, was summoned from
+Illyria by his mother Livia to the bedside of the dying emperor at Nola.
+Augustus left a granddaughter, Agrippina, who was married to Germanicus,
+the nephew of Tiberius; and a grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of
+evil reputation. The succession of Tiberius was not in doubt; but his
+first act was to have Agrippa Postumus put to death--according to his
+own statement, by the order of Augustus. At Rome, consuls, senators, and
+knights hurried to embrace their servitude. The nobler the name that
+each man bore, the more zealous was he in his hypocrisy. The grave
+pretence of Tiberius that he laid no claim to imperial honours was met
+by the grave pretence that the needs of the state forbade his refusal of
+them, however reluctant he might be. His mother, Livia Augusta, was the
+object of a like sycophancy. But the world was not deceived by the
+solemn farce.
+
+The death of Augustus, however, was the signal for mutinous outbreaks
+among the legions on the European frontiers of the empire; first in
+Pannonia, then in Germany. In Pannonia, the ostensible motive was
+jealousy of the higher pay and easier terms of service of the Prætorian
+guard. So violent were the men, and so completely did the officers lose
+control, that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was sent to make terms with
+the mutineers, and only owed his success to the reaction caused by the
+superstitious alarm of the soldiery at an eclipse of the moon.
+Germanicus, who was in command in Germany, was absent in Gaul. Here the
+mutiny of the Lower Army, under Cæcina, was very serious, because it was
+clearly organised, the men working systematically and not haphazard.
+
+News of the outbreak brought their popular general, Germanicus, to the
+spot. The mutineers at once offered to make him emperor, a proposal
+which he indignantly repudiated. The position, in a hostile country,
+made some concession necessary; but fresh disturbances broke out when it
+was suspected that the arrival of a commission from the senate meant
+that the concessions would be cancelled. Here the reaction which broke
+down the mutiny was caused by the shame of the soldiers themselves, when
+Germanicus sent his wife and child away from a camp where their lives
+were in danger. Of their own accord, the best of the soldiers turned on
+their former ringleaders, and slew them. And the legions under Cæcina
+took similar steps to recover their lost credit. Germanicus, however,
+saw that the true remedy for the disaffection would be found in an
+active campaign. The desired effect was attained by an expedition
+against the Marsi, conducted with a success which Tiberius, at Rome,
+regarded with mixed feelings.
+
+The German tribe named the Cherusci favoured Arminius, the determined
+enemy of Rome, in preference to Segestes, who was conspicuous for
+"loyalty" to Rome. Germanicus advanced to support the latter, and
+Arminius was enraged by the news that his wife, the daughter of
+Segestes, was a prisoner. His call to arms, his declamations in the name
+of liberty, roused the Cherusci, the people who had annihilated the
+legions of Varus a few years before. A column commanded by Cæcina was
+enticed by Arminius into a swampy position, where it was in extreme
+danger, and a severe engagement took place. The scheme of Arminius was
+to attack the Romans on the march; fortunately, the rasher counsels of
+his uncle, Inguiomerus, prevailed; an attempt was made to storm the
+camp, and the Romans were thus enabled to inflict a decisive defeat on
+the foe.
+
+It was at this time that the disastrous practice was instituted of
+informers bringing charges of treason against prominent citizens on
+grounds which Tiberius himself condemned as frivolous. The emperor began
+to make a practice of attending trials, which indeed prevented corrupt
+awards, but ruined freedom.
+
+Now arose disturbances in the east. The Parthians expelled their king,
+Vonones, a former favourite of Augustus. Armenia became involved, and
+these things were the source of serious complications later. Tiberius
+was already meditating the transfer of Germanicus to these regions. That
+general, however, was planning a fresh German campaign from the North
+Sea coast. A great fleet carried the army to the mouth of the Ems;
+thence Germanicus marched to the Weser and crossed it. Germanicus was
+gratified to find that his troops were eager for the impending fray. A
+tremendous defeat was inflicted on the Cherusci, with little loss to the
+Romans. Arminius, who had headed a charge which all but broke the Roman
+line, escaped only with the utmost difficulty.
+
+Nevertheless, the Germans rallied their forces, and a second furious
+engagement took place, in which the foe fought again with desperate
+valour, and were routed mainly through the superiority of the Roman
+armour and discipline. The triumph was marred only by a disaster which
+befel the legions which were withdrawn by sea. A terrific storm wrecked
+almost the entire fleet, and it was with great difficulty that the few
+survivors were rescued. The consequent revival of German hopes made it
+necessary for two large armies to advance against the Marsi and the
+Catti respectively, complete success again attending the Roman arms.
+
+Jealousy of his nephew's popularity and success now caused Tiberius to
+insist on his recall. At this time informers charged with treason a
+young man of distinguished family, Libo Drusus, mainly on the ground of
+his foolish consultation of astrologers, with the result that Drusus
+committed suicide. This story will serve as one among many which
+exemplify the prevalent demoralisation. In the same year occurred the
+audacious insurrection of a slave who impersonated the dead Agrippa
+Postumus; and also the deposition of the king of Cappadocia, whose
+kingdom was annexed as a province of the empire.
+
+A contest took place between the Suevi and the Cherusci, in which Rome
+declined to intervene. Maroboduus, of the Suevi, was disliked because he
+took the title of king, which was alien to the German ideas, being in
+this respect contrasted with Arminius. The Cherusci had the better of
+the encounter.
+
+
+_II.--The Development of Despotism_
+
+
+Germanicus on his recall was in danger, while in Rome, of being made the
+head of a faction in antagonism to Drusus, the son of Tiberius. He was
+dispatched, however, with extraordinary powers, to take control of the
+East, where Piso, the governor of Syria, believed that he held his own
+appointment precisely that he might be a thorn in the side of
+Germanicus. The latter made a progress through Greece, settled affairs
+in Armenia and Parthia, and continued his journey to Egypt.
+
+Piso's machinations, encouraged by the reports which reached him of the
+emperor's displeasure at the conduct of Germanicus, caused the gravest
+friction. Finally, on the return from Egypt through Syria, Germanicus
+became desperately ill. He declared his own belief that Piso and his
+wife had poisoned him; and, on his death, the rumour met general
+credence, though it was unsupported by evidence. Agrippina returned to
+Rome, bent on vengeance, and the object of universal sympathy. Piso
+attempted to make himself master of Syria, but failed to win over the
+legions, and then resolved to return to Rome and defy his accusers.
+
+About this time Arminius was killed in attempting to make himself king.
+Shortly before, Tiberius had rejected with becoming dignity a rival
+chief's offer to poison the national hero of German independence.
+
+On the arrival in Italy of Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, the
+popular and official expressions of grief and sympathy were almost
+unprecedented. This public display was not at all encouraged by Tiberius
+himself. Drusus was instructed to emphasize the fact that Piso must not
+be held either guilty or innocent, till the case had been sifted.
+Tiberius insisted that not he, but the senate, must be the judge; the
+case must be decided on its merits, not out of consideration for his own
+outraged feelings. Piso was charged with having corrupted the soldiery,
+levied war on the province of Syria, and poisoned Germanicus. All except
+the last charge were proved up to the hilt; for that alone there was no
+evidence. Piso, however, despaired, fearing less the ebullitions of
+popular wrath than the emotionless implacability of the emperor. He was
+found dead in his room; but whether by his own act or that of Tiberius,
+was generally doubted. The penalties imposed on his wife and son were
+mitigated by the emperor himself.
+
+A number of notorious scandals at this period emphasise the degradation
+of morals and the disregard for the sanctity of the marriage tie in a
+society where children were regarded as a burden, in spite of official
+encouragement of the birth-rate. There was an instructive debate on a
+proposal that magistrates appointed to provinces should not take their
+wives with them.
+
+Risings in Gaul of the Treveri and Aedui created much alarm in Rome; the
+composure of Tiberius was justified by their decisive suppression.
+
+In Africa, Blæms successfully suppressed, though he did not finally
+curb, the brigand chief Tacfarinas, who had been building up a nomad
+empire of his own. It was under Dolabella, the successor of Blæms, that
+Tacfarinas was completely overthrown and slain.
+
+Hitherto the rule of Tiberius had been, on the whole, prosperous. But
+the ninth year marks the establishment of the ascendancy of Ælius
+Sejanus over the mind of the emperor, whereby his sway was transformed
+into a foul tyranny. Not of noble birth, Sejanus had neglected no means,
+however base, to secure his own favour with Tiberius and with the
+Prætorian Guard, of which he held the command. He was now determined to
+get rid of Drusus, the son of Tiberius, as the most dangerous obstacle
+to his ambitions. He accomplished his purpose by administering a poison,
+of which the operation was unsuspected till the facts were revealed many
+years later by an accomplice. Then the young sons of Germanicus became
+the accepted representatives of the imperial line, for the infant sons
+of Drusus died very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, Sejanus now
+directed his attacks against the more powerful persons who might be
+regarded as partisans of the house of Germanicus.
+
+Despite the multiplications of prosecutions, it is to be noted that it
+was still possible for a shrewd and tactful person, as exemplified by
+the career of Marcus Lepidus, to uphold the principles of justice and
+liberty without losing the favour of the emperor. Among other
+prosecutions, that of Cremutius, whose crime was that of praising the
+memory of Brutus and Cassius, demands attention, as the first of the
+kind.
+
+The ambitions of Sejanus received a check when he had the presumption to
+request Tiberius to grant him the hand of the widow of Drusus in
+marriage. In order the more surely to bring disgrace on the house of
+Germanicus, he now implanted in the mind of Agrippina a conviction that
+Tiberius intended to poison her. That such suspicions were mere
+commonplaces of that terrible time is well illustrated by the story.
+Incapable of hiding her feelings, the persistent gloom of her face and
+voice, and her refusal of proffered dishes as she sat near Tiberius at
+dinner, attracted his attention; to test her, he personally commended
+and pressed on her some apples; this only intensified her suspicions,
+and she gave them to the attendants untasted. Tiberius made no open
+comment, but observed to his mother that it would hardly be surprising
+should he contemplate harsh measures towards one who obviously took him
+for a poisoner.
+
+
+_III.--Morbid Tyrant and Dotard_
+
+
+It was at this time that Tiberius withdrew himself from the capital, and
+took up his residence at a country seat where hardly anyone had access
+to him except Sejanus; whether at the favourite's suggestion or not is
+uncertain. The retreat finally selected was the island of Capræ.
+
+The monstrous lengths to which men of the highest rank were now prepared
+to go to curry favour with Tiberius and Sejanus was exemplified in the
+ruin of Sabinus, a loyal friend of the house of Germanicus. The
+unfortunate man was tricked into speaking bitterly of Sejanus and
+Tiberius. Three senators were actually hidden above the ceiling of the
+room where he was entrapped into uttering unguarded phrases, and on this
+evidence he was condemned.
+
+The death of the aged Livia Augusta removed the last check on the
+influence of Sejanus.
+
+[The account of his two years of unqualified supremacy, and of his
+sudden and utter overthrow has been lost, two books of the "Annals"
+being missing here.]
+
+From this time, the life of Tiberius at Capræ was one of morbid and
+nameless debauchery. The condition of his mind may be inferred from the
+opening words of one of his letters to the senate. "If I know what to
+write, how to write it, what not to write, may the gods and goddesses
+destroy me with a worse misery than the death I feel myself dying
+daily." The end came when Macro, the prefect of the Prætorians, who, to
+save his own life and secure the succession of Gaius Cæsar Caligula, the
+surviving son of Germanicus, caused the old emperor to be smothered.
+
+[The record of the next ten years--the reign of Caligula, and the first
+years of Claudius--is lost. When the story is taken up again, the wife
+of Claudius, the infamous Messalina, was at the zenith of her evil
+career.]
+
+While the doting pedant Claudius was adding new letters to the alphabet,
+Messalina was parading with utter shamelessness her last and fatal
+passion for Silius, and went so far as publicly to marry her paramour.
+It was the freedman Narcissus who made the outrageous truth known to
+Claudius, and practically terrorised him into striking. Half measures
+were impossible; a swarm of Messalina's accomplices in vice were put to
+death. To her, Claudius showed signs of relenting; but Narcissus gave
+the orders for her death without his knowledge. When they told Claudius
+that she was dead, he displayed no emotion, but went on with his dinner,
+and apparently forgot the whole matter.
+
+A new wife had to be provided; Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,
+niece of Claudius himself, and mother of the boy Domitius, who was to
+become the emperor Nero, was the choice of the freedman Pallas, and
+proved the successful candidate. Shortly after, her new husband adopted
+Nero formally as his son. It was not long before she had assumed an air
+of equality with her husband; and all men saw that she intended him to
+be succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.
+
+Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
+proprætor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
+then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most
+brilliant of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage,
+however, were of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman
+legions; his forces were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the
+Brigantes, was by them betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was
+carried to Rome, where by his dignified demeanour he won pardon and
+liberty. In the Far East, Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew
+Rhadamistus, and Parthia and Armenia remained in wild confusion. The
+reign of Claudius was brought to an end by poison--the notorious Locusta
+was employed by Agrippina for the purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero,
+to whom his mother's artifices gave the priority over Britannicus.
+
+
+_IV.--The Infamies of Nero_
+
+
+At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
+first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was
+full of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a
+freed-woman, by way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother,
+Agrippina. The latter, enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened
+her son with the legitimate claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero
+had the boy poisoned. In terror now of his mother, he would have
+murdered her, but was checked by Burrus. Nero's private excesses and
+debaucheries developed, while the horrible system of delation
+flourished, and prosecutions for treason abounded.
+
+About this time the emperor's passion for Poppæa Sabina, the wife of
+Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
+immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's
+boon companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Poppæa remained at
+Rome. Poppæa was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged Nero
+against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
+the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress.
+The plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero,
+however, with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched
+assassins to carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.
+
+For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
+the cringing congratulations of Roman society, to which Thrasea Pætus
+was alone in refusing to be a party. The emperor forthwith began to
+plunge into the wild extravagances on which his mother's life had been
+some check. He took cover for his passion for chariot-driving and
+singing by inducing men of noble birth to exhibit themselves in the
+arena; high-born ladies acted in disreputable plays; the emperor himself
+posed as a mime, and pretended to be a patron of poetry and philosophy.
+The wildest licence prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to
+defend it.
+
+About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the
+Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages
+committed against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to
+fierce revolt. Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the
+Romans at Camulodunum and massacred them. Suetonius, returning hastily
+from the west, found the Roman population in panic. The troops, however,
+inspired by the general's resolution, won a decisive victory, in which
+it is said that no fewer than 80,000 Britons, men and women, were
+slaughtered.
+
+Not long after, Burrus died--in common belief, if not in actual fact, of
+poison; and Seneca found himself driven into retirement, while
+Tigellinus became Nero's favourite and confidant. Nero then capped his
+matricide by suborning the same scoundrel who had murdered Agrippina to
+bring foul and false charges against his innocent wife, Octavia; who was
+thus done to death when not yet twenty, that her husband might be free
+to marry Poppæa. As a matter of course, the crime was duly celebrated by
+a public thanksgiving.
+
+The dispatch of an incompetent general into Asia resulted in a most
+inglorious Parthian campaign. Nero, however, was more interested first
+in extravagant rejoicings at the birth of a daughter to Poppæa, and then
+in equally extravagant mourning over the infant's death. It was well
+that Corbulo, marching from Syria, restored the Roman prestige in the
+Far East.
+
+These events were followed by the famous fire which devastated Rome;
+whether or no it was actually Nero's own work, rumour declared that he
+appeared on a private stage while the conflagration was raging, and
+chanted appropriately of the fall of Troy. He planned rebuilding on a
+magnificent scale, and sought popularity by throwing the blame of the
+fire--and putting to the most exquisite tortures--a class hated for
+their abominations, called Christians, from their first leader,
+Christus, who had suffered the extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate,
+procurator of Judæa, in the reign of Tiberius.
+
+A very widespread conspiracy was now formed against Nero, in favour of
+one Gaius Calpurnius Piso; Fænius Rufus, an officer of the Prætorians,
+who had been subordinated to Tigellinus, being one of the leaders. The
+plot, however, was betrayed by a freedman of one of the conspirators.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SALLUST
+
+
+The Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+
+     The Roman historian Caius Crispus Sallust, who was born at
+     Amiternum in 86 B.C., and died in 34 B.C., lived throughout
+     the active career of Julius Cæsar, and died while Anthony and
+     Octavian were still rivals for the supreme power. It might be
+     supposed from his works that he was a person of eminent
+     virtue, but this was merely a literary pose. He was probably
+     driven into private life, in the first place, on account of
+     the scandals with which he was associated. He became a
+     partisan of Cæsar in the struggle with Pompey, and to this he
+     owed the pro-consulship of Numidia, on the proceeds of which
+     he retired into leisured ease. Sallust aspired with very
+     limited success to assume the mantle of Thucydides, and the
+     rôle of a philosophic historian. He displays considerable
+     political acumen on occasion, but his assumption of stern
+     impartiality is hardly less a pose than his pretense of
+     elevated morality. His "Conspiracy of Catiline"--the first of
+     his historical essays--was probably written, in part at least,
+     with the object of dissociating Cæsar from it; the lurid
+     colors in which he paints the conspirator are probably
+     exaggerated. But whether true or false, the picture presented
+     is a vivid one. This epitome is adapted specially from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--The Plotting_
+
+
+I esteem the intellectual above the physical qualities of man; and the
+task of the historian has attracted me because it taxes the writer's
+abilities to the utmost Personal ambition had at first drawn me into
+public life, but the political atmosphere, full of degradation and
+corruption, was so uncongenial that I resolved to retire and devote
+myself to the production of a series of historical studies, for which I
+felt myself to be the better fitted by my freedom from the influences
+which bias the political partisan. For the first of these studies I have
+selected the conspiracy of Catiline.
+
+Lucius Catilina [commonly called Catiline] was of high birth, richly
+endowed both in mind and body, but of extreme depravity; with
+extraordinary powers of endurance, reckless, crafty, and versatile, a
+master in the arts of deception, at once grasping and lavish, unbridled
+in his passions, ready of speech, but with little true insight Of
+insatiable and inordinate ambitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's
+supremacy, with a craving to grasp the control of the state, utterly
+careless of the means, so the end were attained. Naturally headstrong,
+he was urged forward by his want of money, the consciousness of his
+crimes, and the degradation of morals in a society where luxury and
+greed ruled side by side.
+
+The wildest, the most reckless, the most prodigal, the most criminal,
+were readily drawn into the circle of Catiline's associates; in such a
+circle those who were not already utterly depraved very soon became so
+under the sinister and seductive influence of their leader. This man,
+who in the pursuit of his own vices had done his own son to death, did
+not hesitate to encourage his pupils in every species of crime; and with
+such allies, and the aid of the disbanded Sullan soldiery swarming in
+Italy, he dreamed of subverting the Roman state while her armies, under
+Gnæus Pompeius, were far away.
+
+The first step was to secure his own election as consul. One plot of his
+had already failed, because Catiline himself had attempted to move
+prematurely; but the conspirators remained scatheless. Those who were
+now with Catiline included members of the oldest families and of
+equestrian rank. Crassus himself was suspected of complicity, owing to
+his rivalry with Pompeius. The assembled conspirators were addressed by
+Catiline in a speech of the most virulent character. He urged these
+social outcasts to rise against a bloated plutocracy battening on the
+ill-gotten wealth to which his audience had just as good a title. He
+promised the cancellation of all debts, the proscription of the wealthy,
+and the general application of the rule of "the spoils to the victors."
+He had friends at the head of the armies in Spain and Mauritania, if
+Gaius Antonius were the other successful candidate for the consulship,
+his co-operation, too, could be secured. Such was the purport of his
+speech; but I do not credit the popular fiction that the conspirators
+were solemnly pledged in a bowl of mingled wine and blood.
+
+Rumours of the plot, however, began to leak out through a certain
+Fulvia, mistress of Quintus Curio, a man who had been expelled from the
+senatorial body on account of his iniquities; and this probably caused
+many of the nobility to support, for the consulship, Cicero, whom, as a
+"new man," they would otherwise have religiously opposed. The result was
+that Catiline's candidature failed, and Cicero was elected with Gaius
+Antonius for his colleague.
+
+At length Cicero, seeing that the ferment was everywhere increasing to
+an extent with which the ordinary law could not cope, obtained from the
+senate the exceptional powers for dealing with a national emergency
+which they had constitutional authority to grant. Thus, when news came
+that a Catilinarian, Gaius Manlius, had risen in Etruria at the head of
+an armed force, prompt administrative measures were taken to dispatch
+adequate military forces to various parts of the country. Catiline
+himself had taken no overt action; he now presented himself in the
+senate, was openly assailed by Cicero, responded with insults which were
+interrupted by cries of indignation, and flung from the house with the
+words "Since I am beset by enemies and driven out, the fire you have
+kindled about me shall be crushed out by the ruin of yourselves."
+
+Seeing that delay would be fatal, he started at once for the camp of
+Manlius, leaving Cethegus and Lentulus to keep up the ferment in Rome.
+To several persons of position he sent letters announcing that he was
+retiring to Marseilles; but, with misplaced confidence, he sent one of a
+different and extremely compromising tenor to Quintus Catullus, which
+the recipient read to the senate. It was next reported that he had
+assumed the consular attributes and joined Manlius; whereupon he was
+proclaimed a public enemy, a general levy was decreed, Antonius was
+appointed to take the field, while Cicero was to remain in the capital.
+
+
+_II.--The Downfall_
+
+
+Meanwhile, Lentulus at Rome, among his various plots, intrigued to
+obtain the support of the Allobroges, a tribe of Gauls from whom there
+was at the time an embassy in Rome. The envoys, however, took the advice
+of Quintus Fabius Sanga, and while he kept Cicero supplied with
+information, themselves pretended to be at one with the conspirators.
+
+Risings were now taking place all over Italy, though they were
+ill-concerted. At Rome, the plan was that when Catiline's army was at
+Fæsulæ, the tribune Lucius Bestia should publicly accuse Cicero of
+having caused the war; and this was to be the signal for an organised
+massacre, while the city itself was to be fired at twelve points
+simultaneously. The insurgents were then to march out and join Catiline
+at Fæsulæ.
+
+The Allobroges were now departing, carrying with them letters from
+Lentulus to Catiline; but according to a concerted plan, they were
+arrested. This provided Cicero with evidence which warranted the arrest
+of Lentulus and other ringleaders in Rome; and its publication created a
+popular revulsion--the lower classes were not averse from plunder, but
+saw no benefit to themselves in a general conflagration of Rome.
+
+A certain Lucius Tarquinius was now captured, who gave information
+tallying with what was already published, but further incriminated
+Crassus. Crassus, however, was so wealthy, and had so many of the senate
+in his power, that even those who believed the charge to be true,
+thought it politic to pronounce it a gross fabrication. The danger of an
+attempted rescue of Lentulus brought on a debate as to what should be
+done with the prisoners. Cæsar, from whatever motive, spoke forcibly
+against any unconstitutional action which, however justified by the
+enormity of the prisoners' guilt, might become a dangerous precedent. In
+his opinion, the wise course would be to confiscate the property of the
+prisoners, and to place their persons in custody not in Rome, but in
+provincial towns.
+
+Cæsar's humanitarian statesmanship was answered by the grave austerity
+of Cato. "The question for us is not that of punishing a crime, but of
+preserving the state--or of what the degenerate Roman of to-day cares
+for more than the state, our lives and property. To speak of clemency
+and compassion is an abuse of terms only too common, when vices are
+habitually dignified with the names of virtues. Let us for once act with
+vigour and decision, and doom these convicted traitors to the death they
+deserve." The decree of death was carried to immediate execution. In the
+meantime, Catiline had raised a force numbering two legions, but not
+more than a quarter of them were properly armed. He remained in the
+hills, refusing to give battle to Antonius.
+
+On hearing the fate of Lentulus and the rest, he attempted to retreat to
+Gaul, but this movement was anticipated and intercepted by Metellus
+Celer, who was posted at Picenum with three legions. With Antonius
+pressing on his rear, Catiline resolved to hazard all on a desperate
+engagement. In exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men
+fighting for life and liberty were more than a match for a foe who had
+infinitely less at stake.
+
+Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the
+government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant
+example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous
+generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against
+the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's
+followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front;
+he himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing
+at a distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and
+among the rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all
+the stoutest soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled
+with the elation of victory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--I
+
+
+     Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at
+     Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary
+     education at Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months
+     at Magdalen College, Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church
+     led to his banishment to Lausanne, where he spent five years,
+     and acquired a mastery of the French language, formed his
+     taste for literary expression, and settled his religious
+     doubts in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the
+     militia, and was a member of parliament. It was in 1764, while
+     musing amidst, the ruins of the Capitol of Rome, that the idea
+     of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the city first started
+     into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A Study
+     in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous
+     Works," published after his death, which include "The Memoirs
+     of his Life and Writings," complete the list of his literary
+     labours. He died of dropsy on January 16, 1794. The portion of
+     the work which is epitomized here covers the period from the
+     reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and includes the
+     famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the
+     Christian church.
+
+
+_I.--Rome, Mistress of the World_
+
+
+In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome
+comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised
+portion of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed,
+as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the
+empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its
+permanent bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the
+Rhine and Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards
+the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent
+settlement of Great Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the
+precepts of Augustus, if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in
+the east, which were renounced by Hadrian.
+
+By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
+its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
+the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added
+weight and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a
+constant preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the
+meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and
+no longer, as in the days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome
+herself, were preserved in their allegiance to the emperor, and their
+invincibility before the enemy, by the influences of superstition,
+inflexible discipline, and the hopes of reward. The peace establishment
+of the Roman army numbered some 375,000 men, divided into thirty
+legions, who were confined, not within the walls of fortified cities,
+which the Romans considered as the refuge of pusillanimity, but upon the
+confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen soldiers, distinguished by
+the titles of City Cohorts and Prætorian Guards, watched over the safety
+of the monarch and the capitol.
+
+"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
+observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
+soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous
+cities, adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public
+buildings, demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the
+Roman system. In Britain, York was the seat of government. London was
+already enriched by commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary
+effects of its medicinal waters.
+
+All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
+capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
+traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
+frontiers of the empire. This great chain of communications ran in a
+direct line from city to city, and in its construction the Roman
+engineers snowed little respect for the obstacles, either of nature or
+of private property. Mountains were perforated and bold arches thrown
+over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road,
+raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country, consisted of
+several strata of sand, gravel, and cement, and was paved with granite
+or large stones. Distances were accurately computed by milestones, and
+the establishment of post-houses, at a distance of five or six miles,
+enabled a citizen to travel with ease a hundred miles a day along the
+Roman roads.
+
+This freedom of intercourse, which was established throughout the Roman
+world, while it extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements
+of social life. Rude barbarians of Gaul laid aside their arms for the
+more peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The cultivation of the earth
+produced abundance in every portion of the empire, and accidental
+scarcity in any single province was immediately relieved by the
+plentifulness of its more fortunate neighbours. Since the productions of
+nature are the materials of art, this flourishing condition of
+agriculture laid the foundation of manufactures, which provided the
+luxurious Roman with those refinements of conveniency, of elegance, and
+of splendour which his tastes demanded. Commerce flourished, and the
+products of Egypt and the East were poured out in the lap of Rome.
+
+Though there still existed within the body of the Roman Empire an
+unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the
+benefits of society, the position of a slave was greatly improved in the
+progress of Roman development. The power of life and death was taken
+from his master's hands and vested in the magistrate, to whom he had a
+right to appeal against intolerable treatment. These magistrates
+exercised the authority of the emperor and the senate in every quarter
+of the empire, inflexibly maintaining in their administration, as in the
+case of military government, the use of the Latin tongue. Greek was the
+natural idiom of science, Latin that of government.
+
+
+_II.--The Seeds of Dissolution_
+
+
+But while Roman society persisted in a state of peaceful security, it
+already contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. The long peace
+and uniform government of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison
+into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced
+to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the
+military spirit evaporated. The citizens received laws and covenants
+from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a
+mercenary army. Of their ancient freedom nothing remained except the
+name, and that Augustus, sensible that mankind is governed by names, was
+careful to preserve.
+
+It was by the will of the senate the emperor ruled. It was from the
+senate that he received the ancient titles of the republic--of consul,
+tribune, pontiff, and censor. Even his title of _imperator_ was decreed
+him, according to the custom of the republic, only for a period of ten
+years. But this specious pretence, which was preserved until the last
+days of the empire, did not mask the real autocratic authority of the
+emperor. The fact that he nominated citizens to the senate was proof, if
+proof were needed, that the independence of that body was destroyed; for
+the principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the
+legislative power is nominated by the executive.
+
+Moreover, the dependence of the emperor on the legions completely
+subverted the civil authority. To keep the military power, which had
+given him his position, from undermining it, Augustus had summoned to
+his aid whatever remained in the fierce minds of his soldiers of Roman
+prejudices, and interposing the majesty of the senate between the
+emperor and the army, boldly claimed their allegiance as the first
+magistrate of the republic. During a period of 220 years, the dangers
+inherent to a military government were in a great measure suspended by
+this artful system. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense
+of their own strength and of the weakness of the civil authority which
+afterwards was productive of such terrible calamities.
+
+The emperors Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by
+their own domestics. The Roman world, it is true, was shaken by the
+events that followed the death of Nero, when, in the space of eighteen
+months, four princes perished by the sword. But, excepting this violent
+eruption of military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to
+Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood and undisturbed by
+revolution. The Roman citizens might groan under the tyranny, from which
+they could not hope to escape, of the unrelenting Tiberius, the furious
+Caligula, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the
+timid, inhuman Domitian; but order was maintained, and it was not until
+Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher,
+succeeded to the authority that his father had exercised for the benefit
+of the Roman Empire that the army fully realised, and did not fail to
+exercise, the power it had always possessed.
+
+During the first three years of his reign the vices of Commodus affected
+the emperor rather than the state. While the young prince revelled in
+licentious pleasures, the management of affairs remained in the hands of
+his father's faithful councillors; but, in the year 183, the attempt of
+his sister Lucilla to assassinate him produced fatal results. The
+assassin, in attempting the deed, exclaimed, "The senate sends you
+this!" and though the blow never reached the body of the emperor, the
+words sank deep into his heart.
+
+He turned upon the senate with relentless cruelty. The possession of
+either wealth or virtue excited the tyrant's fury. Suspicion was
+equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation, and the noblest blood of the
+senate was poured out like water.
+
+He has shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon
+as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered
+by his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the
+instigation of Lætus, his Prætorian prefect, a robust youth was admitted
+into his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and
+celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city,
+an ancient senator of consular rank, and persuaded him to accept the
+purple. A large donative secured them the support of the Prætorian
+guard, and the joyous senate eagerly bestowed upon the new Augustus all
+the titles of imperial power.
+
+For eighty-six days Pertinax ruled the empire with firmness and
+moderation, but the strictness of the ancient discipline that he
+attempted to restore in the army excited the hatred of the Prætorian
+guards, and the new emperor was struck down on March 28, 193.
+
+
+_III.--An Empire at Auction_
+
+
+The Prætorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious
+murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it with their
+subsequent conduct. They ran out upon the ramparts of the city, and with
+a loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to
+the best bidder by public auction. Sulpicianus, father-in-law of
+Pertinax, and Didius Julianus, bid against each other for the prize. It
+fell to Julian, who offered upwards of £1,000 sterling to each of the
+soldiers, and the author of this ignominious bargain received the
+insignia of the empire and the acknowledgments of a trembling senate.
+
+The news of this disgraceful auction was received by the legions of the
+frontiers with surprise, with indignation, and, perhaps, with envy.
+Albinus, governor of Britain, Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius
+Severus, a native of Africa, commander of the Pannonian army, prepared
+to revenge the death of Pertinax, and to establish their own claims to
+the vacant throne. Marching night and day, Severus crossed the Julian
+Alps, swept aside the feeble defences of Julian, and put an end to a
+reign of power which had lasted but sixty-six days, and had been
+purchased with such immense treasure. Having secured the supreme
+authority, Severus turned his arms against his two competitors, and
+within three years, and in the course of two or three battles,
+established his position and brought about the death of both Albinus and
+Niger.
+
+The prosperity of Rome revived, and a profound peace reigned throughout
+the world. At the same time, Severus was guilty of two acts which were
+detrimental to the future interests of the republic. He relaxed the
+discipline of the army, increased their pay beyond the example of former
+times, re-established the Prætorian guards, who had been abolished for
+their transaction with Julian, and welded more firmly the chains of
+tyranny by filling the senate with his creatures. At the age of
+sixty-five in the year 211, he expired at York of a disorder which was
+aggravated by the labours of a campaign against the Caledonians.
+
+Severus recommended concord to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and his
+sons to the army. The government of the civilised world was entrusted to
+the hands of brothers who were implacable enemies. A latent civil war
+brooded in the city, and hardly more than a year passed before the
+assassins of Caracalla put an end to an impossible situation by
+murdering Geta. Twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death
+under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta. The fears of
+Macrinus, the controller of the civil affairs of the Prætorian
+prefecture, brought about his death in the neighbourhood of Carrhæ in
+Syria on April 8, 217.
+
+For a little more than a year his successor governed the empire, but the
+necessary step of reforming the army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
+218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
+Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the East.
+
+Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
+human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the
+master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the
+female sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder
+on March 10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.
+
+Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
+ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
+government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
+banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_IV.--Tyranny and Disaster_
+
+
+Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
+one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
+the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
+but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole
+state, and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's
+avarice ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds
+of the cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
+offerings.
+
+Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
+Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
+domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
+and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
+Aquileia.
+
+Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
+to their own virtues at the hands of the Prætorian guard, Gordian became
+emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
+virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
+engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world
+recognized the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.
+
+Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
+accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the
+foundation of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that
+these rites had been performed in the history of the city, for the next
+twenty years the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and
+military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and
+fatal moment of its dissolution. Six emperors in turn succeeded to the
+sceptre of Philip and ended their lives, either as the victims of
+military licence, or in the vain attempt to stay the triumphal eruption
+of the Goths and the Franks and the Suevi. In three expeditions the
+Goths seized the Bosphorus, plundered the cities of Bithynia, ravaged
+Greece, and threatened Italy, while the Franks invaded Gaul, overran
+Spain and the provinces of Africa.
+
+Some sparks of their ancient virtue enabled the senate to repulse the
+Suevi, who threatened Rome herself, but the miseries of the empire were
+not assuaged by this one triumph, and the successes of Sapor, king of
+Persia, in the East, seemed to foreshadow the immediate downfall of
+Rome. Six emperors and thirty tyrants attempted in vain to stay the
+course of disaster. Famine and pestilence, tumults and disorders, and a
+great diminution of the population marked this period, which ended with
+the death of the Emperor Gallienus on March 20, 268.
+
+
+_V.--Restorers of the Roman World_
+
+
+The empire, which had been oppressed and almost destroyed by the
+soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians, was saved by a series of
+great princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial
+provinces of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius,
+Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the
+foreign and domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with a
+military discipline, the strength of the frontier, and deserved the
+glorious title of Restorers of the Roman world.
+
+Claudius gained a crushing victory over the Goths, whose discomfiture
+was completed by disease in the year 269. And his successor, Aurelian,
+in a reign of less than five years, put an end to the Gothic war,
+chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and
+Britain from the Roman usurpers, and destroyed the proud monarchy which
+Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, had erected in the East on the ruins of the
+afflicted empire.
+
+The murder of Aurelian in the East (January 275) led to a curious
+revival of the authority of the senate. During an interregnum of eight
+months the ancient assembly at Rome governed with the consent of the
+army, and appeared to regain with the election of Tacitus, one of their
+members, all their ancient prerogatives. Their authority expired,
+however, with the death of his successor, Probus, who delivered the
+empire once more from the invasions of the barbarians, and succumbed to
+the too common fate of assassination in August 282.
+
+Carus, who was elected in his place, maintained the reputation of the
+Roman arms in the East; but his supposed death by lightning, by
+delivering the sceptre into the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian
+(December 25, 283), once more placed the Roman world at the mercy of
+profligacy and licentiousness. A year later, the election of the Emperor
+Diocletian (September 17, 284) founded a new era in the history and
+fortunes of the empire.
+
+It was the artful policy of Diocletian to destroy the last vestiges of
+the ancient constitution. Dividing his unwieldly power among three other
+associates--Maximian, a rough, brutal soldier, who ranked as Augustus;
+and Galerius and Constantius, who bore the inferior titles of Cæsar--the
+emperor removed the centre of government by gradual steps from Rome.
+Diocletian and Maximian held their courts in the provinces, and the
+authority of the senators was destroyed by spoliation and death.
+
+
+_VI.--Reign of the Six Emperors_
+
+
+For twenty-one years Diocletian held sway, establishing, with the
+assistance of his associates, the might of the Roman arms in Britain,
+Africa, Egypt, and Persia; and then, on May 1, 305, in a spacious plain
+in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, divested himself of the purple and
+abdicated the throne. On the same day at Milan, Maximian reluctantly
+made his resignation of the imperial dignity.
+
+According to the rules of the new constitution, Constantius and Galerius
+assumed the title of Augustus, and nominated Maximin and Severus as
+Cæsars. The elaborate machinery devised by Diocletian at once broke
+down. Galerius, who was supported by Severus, intrigued for the
+possession of the whole Roman world. Constantine, the son of
+Constantius, on account of his popularity with the army and the people,
+excited his suspicion, and only the flight of Constantine saved him from
+death. He made his way to Gaul, and, after taking part in a campaign
+with his father against the Caledonians, received the title of Augustus
+in the imperial palace at York on the death of Constantius.
+
+Civil war once more raged. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was declared
+Emperor of Rome, and, with the assistance of his father, who broke from
+his retirement, defended his title against Severus, who was taken
+prisoner at Ravenna and executed at Rome in February 307. Galerius, who
+had raised Licinius to fill the post vacated by the death of Severus,
+invaded Italy to reestablish his authority, but, after threatening Rome,
+was compelled to retire.
+
+There were now six emperors. Maximian and his son Maxentius and
+Constantine in the West; in the East, Gelerius, Maximin, and Licinius.
+The second resignation of Maximian, and his renewed attempt to seize the
+imperial power by seducing the soldiers of Constantine, and his
+subsequent execution at Marseilles in February 310, reduced the number
+to five. Galerius died of a lingering disorder in the following year,
+and the civil war that broke out between Maxentius and Constantine,
+culminating in a battle near Rome in 312, placed the sceptre of the West
+in the hands of the son of Constantius. In the East, the alliance
+between Licinius and Maximin dissolved into discord, and the defeat of
+the latter on April 30, 313, ended in his death three or four months
+later.
+
+The empire was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, and the
+ambition of the two princes rendered peace impossible. In the years 315
+and 323 civil conflict broke out, ending, after the battle of Adrianople
+and the siege of Byzantium, in a culminating victory for Constantine in
+the field of Chrysopolis, in September. Licinius, taken prisoner, laid
+himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, and was duly
+executed.
+
+By successive steps, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the
+resignation of Licinius, Constantine had reached the undivided
+sovereignty of the Roman world. His success contributed to the decline
+of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual
+increase as well of the taxes as of the military establishments. The
+foundation of Constantinople and the establishment of the Christian
+religion were the immediate and memorable consequences of this
+revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--II
+
+
+_I.--Decay of the Empire under Constantine_
+
+
+The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness of
+Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror
+bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new
+capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he
+established have been embraced, and consecrated, by succeeding
+generations.
+
+Byzantium, which, under the more august name of Constantinople, was
+destined to preserve the shadow of the Roman power for nearly a thousand
+years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site
+selected for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor,
+and its circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of
+the arts no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital,
+and the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable
+ornaments to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten
+years the city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial
+palace, its theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with
+more haste than care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with
+all due pomp and ceremony, and a population was provided by the
+expedient of summoning some of the wealthiest families in the empire to
+take up their residence within its walls.
+
+The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
+which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
+system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank
+of each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of
+the Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles
+of your Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent
+Highness.
+
+The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
+Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still
+annually elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority,
+not from the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor.
+On the morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity,
+and in the two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to
+office by the annual games. As soon as they had discharged these
+customary duties, they retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy,
+during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their
+own greatness. Their names served only as the legal date of the year in
+which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient
+title of Patrician became now an empty honour bestowed by the emperor.
+Four prefects held jurisdiction over as many divisions of the empire,
+and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and Constantinople. The proconsuls
+and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of Respectable, and the
+provincial magistrates to the lower class of Honourable. In the military
+system, eight master-generals exercised their jurisdiction over the
+cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military commanders, with
+the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held sway in the
+provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for such was
+the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds of
+the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
+The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they
+were included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne.
+Seven ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of
+the palace, and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the
+number of the immediate followers of the sovereign.
+
+The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
+from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
+census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was
+compelled to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid
+his contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this
+land tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial
+industry, and "free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on
+the occasion of any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The
+peculiar "free gift" of the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.
+
+Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
+year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or
+murder, of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the
+reputation of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the
+Roman world was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta.
+With a successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
+Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
+337.
+
+
+_II.--The Division of East and West_
+
+
+The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
+Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
+Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
+years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
+resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete
+extinction of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for
+fifty-six years in Armenia.
+
+Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
+successively as Cæsars the two nephews of the great Constantine, Gallus
+and Julian. The first, being suspected, was destroyed in 354; the second
+succeeded to the purple in 361.
+
+Trained in the school of the philosophers, and proved as a commander in
+a series of successful campaigns against the German hordes, Julian
+brought to the throne a genius which, in other times, might have
+effected the reformation of the empire. The sufferings of his youth had
+associated in a mind susceptible of the most lively impressions the
+names of Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and religion.
+At the age of twenty he renounced the Christian faith, and boldly
+asserted the doctrines of paganism. His accession to the supreme power
+filled the minds of the Christians with horror and indignation. But
+instructed by history and reflection, Julian extended to all the
+inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal
+toleration, and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians
+was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow subjects,
+whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.
+
+While re-establishing and reforming the old pagan system and attempting
+to subvert Christianity, he held out a hand of succour to the persecuted
+Jews, asked to be permitted to pay his grateful vows in the holy city of
+Jerusalem, and was only prevented from rebuilding the Temple by a
+supposed preternatural interference. He suppressed the authority of
+George, Archbishop of Alexandria, who had infamously persecuted and
+betrayed the people under his spiritual care, and that odious priest,
+who has been transformed by superstition into the renowned St. George of
+England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter, fell a
+victim to the just resentment of the Alexandrian multitude.
+
+The Persian system of monarchy, introduced by Diocletian, was
+distasteful to the philosophic mind of Julian; he refused the title of
+lord and master, and attempted to restore in all its pristine simplicity
+the ancient government of the republic. In a campaign against the
+Persians he received a mortal wound, and died on June 26, 363.
+
+The election of Jovian, the first of the domestics, by the acclamation
+of the soldiers, resulted in a disgraceful peace with the Persians,
+which aroused the anger and indignation of the Roman world, and the new
+emperor hardly survived this act of weakness for nine months (February
+17, 364). The throne of the Roman world remained ten days without a
+master. At the end of that period the civil and military powers of the
+empire solemnly elected Valentinian as emperor at Nice in Bithynia.
+
+The new Augustus divided the vast empire with his brother Valens, and
+this division marked the final separation of the western and eastern
+empires. This arrangement continued, until the death of Valentinian in
+375, when the western empire was divided between his sons, Gratian and
+Valentinian II.
+
+His reign had been notable for the stemming of the invasion of the
+Alemanni of Gaul, the incursions of the Burgundians and the Saxons, the
+restoration of Britain from the attacks of the Picts and Scots, the
+recovery of Africa by the emperor's general, Theodosius, and the
+diplomatic settlement with the approaching hordes of the Goths, who
+already swarmed upon the frontiers of the empire.
+
+Under the three emperors the Roman world began to feel more severely the
+gradual pressure exerted by the hordes of barbarians that moved
+westward. In 376 the Goths, pursued by the Huns, who had come from the
+steppes of China into Europe, sought the protection of Valens, who
+succoured them by transporting them over the Danube into Roman
+territory. They repaid his clemency by uniting their arms with those of
+the Huns, and defeating and killing him at the battle of Hadrianople in
+378.
+
+To save the provinces from the ravages of the barbarians, Gratian
+appointed Theodosius, son of his father's general, emperor of the East,
+and the wisdom of his choice was justified by the success of one who
+added a new lustre to the title of Augustus. By prudent strategy,
+Theodosius divided and defeated the Goths, and compelled them to submit.
+
+The sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to
+the government of the East and the West in 395. The symptoms of decay,
+which not even the wise rule of Theodosius had been able to remove, had
+grown more alarming. The luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
+dissolute, and as the increasing depredations of the barbarians had
+checked industry and diminished wealth, this profuse luxury must have
+been the result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour
+and declines the thoughts of futurity.
+
+The secret and destructive poison of the age had affected the camps of
+the legions. The infantry had laid aside their armour, and, discarding
+their shields, advanced, trembling, to meet the cavalry of the Goths and
+the arrows of the barbarians, who easily overwhelmed the naked soldiers,
+no longer deserving the name of Romans. The enervated legionaries
+abandoned their own and the public defence, and their pusillanimous
+indolence may be considered the immediate cause of the downfall of the
+empire.
+
+
+_III.--Ruin by Goth, Vandal, and Hun_
+
+
+The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. His sons within three months
+had once more sharply divided the empire. At a time when the only hope
+of delaying its ruin depended on the firm union of the two sections, the
+subject of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed by their respective
+masters to view each other in a hostile light, to rejoice in their
+mutual calamity, and to embrace as their faithful allies the barbarians,
+whom they incited to invade the territories of their countrymen.
+
+Alarmed at the insecurity of Rome, Honorius about this time fixed the
+imperial residence within the naturally fortified city of Ravenna--an
+example which was afterwards imitated by his feeble successors, the
+Gothic kings and the Exarchs; and till the middle of the eighth century
+Ravenna was considered as the seat of government and the capital of
+Italy.
+
+The reign of Arcadius in the East marked the complete division of the
+Roman world. His subjects assumed the language and manners of Greeks,
+and his form of government was a pure and simple monarchy. The name of
+the Roman republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of
+freedom, was confined to the Latin provinces. A series of internal
+disputes, both civil and religious, marked his career of power, and his
+reign may be regarded as notable if only for the election of St. John
+Chrysostom to the head of the church of Constantinople. Arcadius died in
+May 408, and was succeeded by his supposed son, Theodosius, then a boy
+of seven, the reins of power being first held by the prefect Anthemius,
+and afterwards by his sister Pulcheria, who governed the eastern
+empire--in fact, for nearly forty years.
+
+The wisdom of Honorius, emperor of the West, in removing his capital to
+Ravenna, was soon justified by events. Alaric, king of the Goths,
+advanced in 408 to the gates of Rome, and completely blockaded the city.
+In the course of a long siege, thousands of Romans died of plague and
+famine, and only a heavy ransom, amounting to $1,575,000, relieved the
+citizens from their terrible situation in the year 409. In the same year
+Alaric again besieged Rome, after fruitless negotiations with Honorius,
+and his attempt once more proving successful, he created Attilus,
+prefect of the city, emperor. But the imprudent measures of his puppet
+sovereign exasperated Alaric. Attilus was formally deposed in 410, and
+the infuriated Goth besieged and sacked Rome, and ravaged Italy. The
+spoil that the barbarians carried away with them comprised nearly all
+the movable wealth of the city.
+
+The ancient capital was devastated, the exquisite works of art
+destroyed, and nearly all the monuments of a glorious past sacrificed to
+the insatiate greed of the conquerors. Fire helped to complete the ruin
+wrought by the Goths, and it is not easy to compute the multitude of
+citizens who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were
+suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.
+
+The complete ruin of Italy was prevented by the death of Alaric in 410.
+
+During the reign of Honorius, the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks were
+settled in Gaul. The maritime countries, between the Seine and the
+Loire, followed the example of Britain in 409, and threw off the yoke of
+the empire. Aquitaine, with its capital at Aries, received, under the
+title of the seven provinces, the right of convening an annual assembly
+for the management of its own affairs.
+
+Honorius died in 423, and was succeeded by Valentinian III. His long
+reign was marked by a series of disasters, which foretold the rapidly
+approaching dissolution of the western empire.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 429 crossed into Africa, conquered the
+province, and set up in the depopulated territory, with Carthage as his
+capital, a new rule and government. Italy was filled with fugitives from
+Africa, and a barbarian race, which had issued from the frozen regions
+of the north, established their victorious reign over one of the fairest
+provinces of the empire. Two years later, in 441, a new and even more
+terrible danger threatened the empire.
+
+The Goths and Vandals, flying before the Huns, had oppressed the western
+World. The hordes of these barbarians, now gathering strength in their
+union under their king, Attila, threatened an attack upon the eastern
+empire. In appearance their chieftain was terrible in the extreme; his
+portrait exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large
+head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few
+hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body
+of nervous strength, though of a disproportionate form. He had a custom
+of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which
+he inspired.
+
+This savage hero, who had subdued Germany and Scythia, and almost
+exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine, and had conquered
+Scandinavia, was able to bring into the field 700,000 barbarians. An
+unsuccessful raid into Persia induced him to turn his attention to the
+eastern empire, and the enervated troops of Theodosius the Younger
+dissolved before the fury of his onset. He ravaged up to the very gates
+of Constantinople, and only a humiliating treaty preserved his dominion
+to the "invincible Augustus" of the East.
+
+After the death of Theodosius the Younger, and the accession of Marcian,
+the husband of Pulcheria, Attila threatened, in 450, both empires. An
+incursion of his hordes into Gaul was rendered abortive by the conduct
+of the patrician, Ætius, who, uniting all the various troops of Gaul and
+Germany, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, under their
+Merovingian prince, and the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, after
+two important battles, induced the Huns to retreat from the field of
+Chalons. Attila, diverted from his purpose, turned into Italy, and the
+citizens of the various towns fled before the savage destroyer. Many
+families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, found a safe refuge
+in the neighbouring islands of the Adriatic, where their place of refuge
+evolved, in time, into the famous Republic of Venice.
+
+Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome, prepared to desert his people and
+his empire. The fortitude of Ætius alone supported and preserved the
+tottering state. Leo, Bishop of Rome, in his sacerdotal robes, dared to
+demand the clemency of the savage king, and the intervention of St.
+Peter and St. Paul is supposed to have induced Attila to retire beyond
+the Danube, with the Princess Honoria as his bride. He did not long
+survive this last campaign, and in 453 he died, and was buried amidst
+all the savage pomp and grief of his subjects. His death resolved the
+bonds that had united the various nations of which his subjects were
+composed, and in a very few years domestic discord had extinguished the
+empire of the Huns.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked and pillaged the ancient capital
+in June 455.
+
+The vacant throne was filled by the nomination of Theodoric, king of the
+Goths. The senate of Rome bitterly opposed the elevation of this
+stranger, and though Avitus might have supported his title against the
+votes of an unarmed assembly, he fell immediately he incurred the
+resentment of Count Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the
+barbarian troops who formed the military defence of Italy. At a distance
+from his Gothic allies, he was compelled to abdicate (October 16, 456),
+and Majorian was raised to fill his place.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Emperor of the West_
+
+
+The successor of Avitus was a great and heroic character, such as
+sometimes arise in a degenerate age to vindicate the honour of the human
+species. In the ruin of the Roman world he loved his people, sympathised
+with their distress, and studied by judicial and effectual remedies to
+allay their sufferings. He reformed the most intolerable grievances of
+the taxes, attempted to restore and maintain the edifices of Rome, and
+to establish a new and healthier moral code. His military abilities and
+his fortune were not in proportion to his merits. An unsuccessful
+attempt against the Vandals to recover the lost provinces of Africa
+resulted in the loss of his fleet, and his return from this disastrous
+campaign terminated his reign. He was deposed by Ricimer, and five days
+later died of a reported dysentery, on August 7, 461.
+
+At the command of Ricimer, the senate bestowed the imperial title on
+Libius Severus, who reigned as long as it suited his patron. The
+increasing difficulties, however, of the kingdom of Italy, due largely
+to the naval depredation of the Vandals, compelled Ricimer to seek the
+assistance of the emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the East in
+457. Leo determined to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals, and
+solemnly invested Anthemius with the diadem and purple of the West
+(467).
+
+In 472, Ricimer raised the senator Olybrius to the purple, and,
+advancing from Milan, entered and sacked Rome and murdered Anthemius
+(July 11, 472). Forty days after this calamitous event, the tyrant
+Ricimer died of a painful disease, and two months later death also
+removed Olybrius.
+
+The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne. After
+suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in
+475, to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the
+command of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna. The
+troops would have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they
+consented to acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.
+
+The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon
+discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the
+slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded
+a third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious
+demand, and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a
+bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to
+associate under his command they might extort the justice that had been
+denied to their dutiful petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer,
+resolving to abolish the useless and expensive office of the emperor of
+the West, compelled the unfortunate Augustulus to resign.
+
+So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
+emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
+promontory of Misenum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--III
+
+
+_I.--The Growth of the Christian Church_
+
+
+The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
+religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened,
+and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The
+various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all
+considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally
+false; by the magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of
+toleration the Christian church grew with great rapidity. Five main
+causes effectually favoured and assisted this development.
+
+1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
+the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.
+
+2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
+circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
+theory.
+
+3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.
+
+4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.
+
+5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
+formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
+Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all
+circumcised Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight
+of Mosaic ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous
+brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited
+for their own practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of
+the public religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as the Christian Jews of
+Jerusalem were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence
+they could make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the
+Emperor Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts
+of the city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by
+disavowing the Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the
+Mosaic ceremonies with the Christian faith, and existed, until the
+fourth century, under the name of Ebeonites.
+
+The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
+Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
+field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
+most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a
+few years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and
+noble principles of the disciples of Plato.
+
+To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
+future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
+mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the
+precepts of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer
+should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every
+rank, and of every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate
+expectation of the second coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of
+God with His saints for a thousand years, strengthened the ancient
+Christians against all trials and sufferings.
+
+The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
+Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
+comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
+tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
+healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
+Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.
+
+Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
+the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
+lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those
+of their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
+insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
+search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that
+institution of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state
+of celibacy was regarded as the nearest approach to the divine
+perfection, and there were in the primitive church a great number of
+persons devoted to the profession of perpetual chastity.
+
+The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of
+freedom and equality. The societies which were instituted in the cities
+of the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity.
+The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional
+assistance of the "prophets "--men or women who, as often as they felt
+the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the
+assembly, of the faithful. In the course of time bishops and presbyters
+exercised solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance. A
+hundred years after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the
+president of the presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and
+discipline of the Church, managed the public funds, and determined all
+such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the
+tribunal of an idolatrous judge.
+
+Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic,
+and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that
+might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these
+little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod. The
+bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at
+stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons. The institution of
+synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest
+that it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular
+correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which
+mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings, and the
+Catholic Church soon assumed the form and acquired the strength of a
+great federative republic.
+
+The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the
+primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary
+gifts was substituted. In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the
+opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of
+very considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design
+as our statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or
+bequeathed to any corporate body, without special sanctions. The bishops
+distributed these revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or
+excommunication of recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained
+the dignity of their office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.
+
+
+_II.--The Days of Persecution_
+
+
+The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight
+seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and
+worship. When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the
+pagans, and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic
+of the Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness
+seems all the more remarkable. It can be explained partly by the
+misapprehension which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the
+principles of the Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the
+sect. The Jews were allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive
+faith. But the Jews were a nation; the Christians were a sect. Moreover,
+the Christians were regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of
+Moses, and, worshipping no visible god, were held to be atheists.
+
+The Roman policy also viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
+association among its subjects, and the secret and nocturnal meetings of
+the Christians appeared peculiarly dangerous in the eyes of the law.
+
+They were oppressed by the Emperor Domitian. Trajan protected their
+meetings by requiring definite evidence of these illegal assemblies, and
+an informer who failed in his proofs was subject to a severe or capital
+penalty. But the edicts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius protected the
+Church from the danger of popular clamour in times of disaster,
+declaring that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted as
+legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had
+embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians.
+
+The authority of Origen and Dionysius annihilates that formidable army
+of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
+Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous
+achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance.
+
+The martyrdom of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, on September 14, 258, was
+one of the most notable of that period. Under Marcus Antoninus, the
+Christians were treated harshly, but the tyrant Commodus protected them
+by his leniency. After a temporary period of persecution during the
+reign of Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm from 211 to 249. The
+storms gathered again under Decius, and so vigorous was the persecution
+that the bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile
+or death.
+
+
+_III.--The Church under Constantine_
+
+
+From 284 to 303, during the reign of Diocletian, the Christian Church
+enjoyed peace and prosperity, but in the latter year Galerius persuaded
+the emperor to renew the persecution of the sect. An edict on February
+24 enacted that all churches throughout the empire should be demolished,
+and the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should
+presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purposes of religious
+worship. Many suffered martyrdom under this cruel enactment. Churches
+everywhere were burnt, and sacred books destroyed. Three more edicts
+published before March 304 led to the imprisonment of all persons of the
+ecclesiastical order, compelled the magistrates to exercise torture to
+subvert the religion of their Christian prisoners, and made it the duty,
+as well as the interest, of the imperial officers to discover, to
+pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful.
+
+But after six years of persecution, the mind of Galerius, softened by
+salutary reflection, induced him to attempt some reparation. In the
+edict of toleration which he published on April 30, 311, he expresses
+the hope "that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up
+their prayers to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and
+prosperity, and for that of the Republic."
+
+The triumph of the great Constantine established the security of the
+Christian Church from the attacks of the pagans. Converted in 306,
+Constantine, as soon as he had achieved the conquest of Italy, issued
+the Edict of Milan (313), declaring that the places of worship which had
+been confiscated should be restored to the Church without dispute,
+without delay, and without expense. Though himself never received by
+baptism into the Church, until his last moments, his powerful patronage
+of the Christians, and his edicts of toleration, removed all the
+temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of
+Christianity.
+
+The faith of Christ became the national religion of the empire. The
+soldiers bore upon their helmets and upon their shields the sacred
+emblem of the Cross. All the machinery of government was employed to
+propagate the faith, not only within the empire, but beyond its borders.
+Confirmed in his new religion by the miraculous vision of the Cross,
+Constantine, who was the master of the world, consented to recognise the
+superiority of the ecclesiastical orders in all spiritual matters, while
+retaining himself the temporal power.
+
+The persecution of heresy was carried out by Constantine with all the
+ardour of a convert. An edict confiscated the public property of the
+heretics to the use either of the revenue or the Catholic Church, and
+the penal regulations of Diocletian against the Christians were now
+employed against the schismatics. The Donatists, who maintained the
+apostolic succession of Donatus, primate of Carthage, as opposed to
+Cæcilian, were suppressed in Africa, and a general synod attempted to
+regulate the faith of the Church.
+
+The subject of the nature of the divine Trinity had early given rise to
+discussion. Of the three main heretical views, that of Arius and his
+disciples was the most prevalent. He held in effect that the Son, by
+whom all things were made, though He had been begotten before all
+worlds, yet had not always existed. He shone only with the reflected
+light of His Almighty Father, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors,
+who were invested with the titles of Cæsar or Augustus. He governed the
+universe.
+
+The Tritheists advocated a system which seemed to establish three
+independent deities, while the Sabellian theory allowed only to the man
+Jesus the inspiration of the divine wisdom. The consubstantiality of the
+Father and of the Son had been established by the Council of Nicæa in
+325, but the East ranged itself for the most part under the banner of
+the Arian heresy. At first indifferent, Constantine at last persecuted
+the Arians, who later, under Constantius, were received into favour.
+
+Constantinople, which for forty years was the stronghold of Arianism,
+was converted to the orthodox faith under Theodosius by Gregory
+Nazianzen.
+
+
+_IV.--The Conversion of the World_
+
+
+The pagan religion was finally destroyed about the year 390, and the
+faintest vestiges of it were not visible thirty years later. Its
+influence, however, might be observed in many of the ceremonies which
+were introduced into the Church, and the worship of martyrs and relics
+seemed to revive a system of polytheism by the worship of a hierarchy of
+saints. Among the most famous of the dignitaries of the Church at this
+period was the Archbishop of Constantinople, who was distinguished by
+the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. He attempted to purify
+the eastern empire, excited the animosity of the Empress Eudoxia, and
+died in exile in 407.
+
+The monastic system had been founded by Antony, an illiterate youth, in
+the year 305, by the establishment on Mount Cobyim, near the Red Sea, of
+a colony of ascetics, who renounced all the business and pleasures in
+life as the price of eternal happiness. A long series of hermits, monks,
+and anachorets propagated the system and, patronised by Athanasius, it
+spread to all parts of the world.
+
+The monastic profession was an act of voluntary devotion, and the
+inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God
+whom he deserted. The monks had to give a blind submission to the
+commands of their abbot, however absurd, and the freedom of the mind,
+the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by
+the habits of credulity and submission. In their dress and diet they
+preserved the most rigorous simplicity, and they subsisted entirely by
+their own manual exertions. But in the course of time this simplicity
+vanished, and, enriched by the offerings of the faithful, they assumed
+the pride of wealth, and at last indulged in the luxury of extravagance.
+
+The conversion of the barbarians followed upon their invasion of the
+Roman world; but they were involved in the Arian heresy, and from their
+advocacy of that cause they were characterised by the name of heretics,
+an epithet more odious than that of barbarian. The bitterness engendered
+by this reproach confirmed them in their faith, and the Vandals in
+Africa persecuted the orthodox Catholic with all the vigour and cruel
+arts of religious tyranny.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--IV
+
+
+_I.--Theodoric the Ostrogoth_
+
+
+After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, an interval of fifty
+years, until the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the
+obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who
+successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same
+period Italy revived and nourished under the government of a Gothic
+king, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the
+ancient Romans.
+
+Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of royal line
+of the Amali, was born (455) in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years
+after the death of Attila. The murmurs of the Goths, who complained that
+they were exposed to intolerable hardships, determined Theodoric to
+attempt an adventure worthy of his courage and ambition. He boldly
+demanded the privilege of rescuing Italy and Rome from Odoacer, and at
+the head of his people forced his way, between the years 488 and 489,
+through hostile country into Italy. In three battles he triumphed over
+Odoacer, forced that monarch to capitulate on favourable terms at
+Ravenna (493), and after pretending to allow him to share his
+sovereignty of Italy, assassinated him in the same year.
+
+The long reign of Theodoric (493-526) was marked by a transient return
+of peace and prosperity to Italy. His domestic and foreign policy were
+dictated alike by wisdom and necessity. His people were settled on the
+land, which they held by military tenure. A series of matrimonial
+alliances secured him the support of the Franks, the Burgundians, the
+Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Thuringians, and his sword preserved his
+territory from the incursions of rival barbarians and the two disastrous
+attacks (505 and 508) that envy prompted the Emperor Anastasius to
+attempt.
+
+
+_II.--Justinian the Great_
+
+
+The death of the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the throne a Dardanian
+peasant, who by his arts secured the suffrage of the guards, despoiled
+and destroyed his more powerful rivals, and reigned under the name of
+Justin I. from 518 to 527. He was succeeded by his nephew, the great
+Justinian, who for thirty-eight years directed the fortunes of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The Empress Theodora, who before her marriage had been a theatrical
+wanton, was seated, by the fondness of the emperor, on the throne as an
+equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty. Her rapacity, her
+cruelty, and her pride were the subject of contemporary writings, but
+her benevolence to her less fortunate sisters, and her courage amidst
+the factions and dangers of the court, justly entitle her to a certain
+nobility of character.
+
+Constantinople in the age of Justinian was torn by the factions of the
+circus. The rival bands of charioteers, who wore respectively liveries
+of green and blue, created in the capital of the East, as they had
+created in Rome, two factions among the populace. Justinian's support of
+the blues led to a serious sedition in the capital. The two factions
+were united by a common desire for vengeance, and with the watchword of
+"Nika" (vanquish) (January 532), raged in tumult through Constantinople
+for five days. At the command of Theodora 3,000 veterans who could be
+trusted marched through the burning streets to the Hippodrome, and
+there, supported by the repentant blues, massacred the unresisting mob.
+
+The Eastern Empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations
+whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers
+of Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over 64 provinces and 935
+cities. The arts and agriculture flourished under his rule, but the
+avarice and profusion of Justinian oppressed the people. His expensive
+taste for building almost exhausted the resources of the empire. Heavy
+custom tolls, taxes on the food and industry of the poor, the exercise
+of intolerable monopolies, were not excused or compensated for by the
+parsimonious saving in the salaries of court officials, and even in the
+pay of the soldiers. His stately edifices were cemented with the blood
+and treasures of his people, and the rapacity and luxury of the emperor
+were imitated by the civil magistrates and officials.
+
+The schools of Athens, which still kept alight the sacred flame of the
+ancient philosophy, were suppressed by Justinian. The academy of the
+Platonics, the Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics,
+and the Garden of the Epicureans had long survived.
+
+With the death of Simplicius and his six companions, who terminate the
+long list of Grecian philosophers, the golden chain, as it was fondly
+styled, of the Platonic succession was broken, and the Edict of
+Justinian (529) imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens.
+
+The Roman consulship was also abolished by Justinian in 541; but this
+office, the title of which admonished the Romans of their ancient
+freedom, still lived in the minds of the people. They applauded the
+gracious condescension of successive princes by whom it was assumed in
+the first year of their reign, and three centuries elapsed after the
+death of Justinian before that obsolete office, which had been
+suppressed by law, could be abolished by custom.
+
+The usurpation by Gelimer (530) of the Vandalic crown of Africa, which
+belonged of right to Hilderic, first encouraged Justinian to undertake
+the African war. Hilderic had granted toleration to the Catholics, and
+for this reason was held in reproach by his Arian subjects. His
+compulsory abdication afforded the emperor of the East an opportunity of
+interfering in the cause of orthodoxy. A large army was entrusted to the
+command of Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to
+every age and to every nation. Proved in the Persian war, Belisarius was
+given unlimited authority. He set sail from Constantinople with a fleet
+of six hundred ships in June 533. He landed on the coast of Africa in
+September, defeated the degenerate Vandals, reduced Carthage within a
+few days, utterly vanquished Gelimer, and completed the conquest of the
+ancient Roman province by 534. The Vandals in Africa fled beyond the
+power or even the knowledge of the Romans.
+
+
+_III.--Gothic Italy_
+
+
+Dissensions in Italy excited the ambition of Justinian. Belisarius was
+sent with another army to Sicily in 535, and after subduing that island
+and suppressing a revolt in Africa, he invaded Italy in 536. Policy
+dictated the retreat of the Goths, and Belisarius entered Rome (December
+536). In March, Vitiges, the Gothic ruler, returned with a force of one
+hundred and fifty thousand men. The valour of the Roman general
+supported a siege of forty-one days and the intrigues of the Pope
+Silverius, who was exiled by his orders; and, finally, with the
+assistance of a seasonable reinforcement, Belisarius compelled the
+barbarians to retire in March of the following year. The conquests of
+Ravenna and the suppression of the invasion of the Franks completed the
+subjugation of the Gothic kingdom by December 539.
+
+The success of Belisarius and the intrigues of his secret enemies had
+excited the jealousy of Justinian. He was recalled, and the eunuch
+Narses was sent to Italy, as a powerful rival, to oppose the interests
+of the conqueror of Rome and Africa. The infidelity of Antonina, which
+excited her husband's just indignation, was excused by the Empress
+Theodora, and her powerful support was given to the wife of the last of
+the Roman heroes, who, after serving again against the Persians,
+returned to the capital, to be received not with honour and triumph, but
+with disgrace and contempt and a fine of $600,000.
+
+The incursions of the Lombards, the Slavonians, and the Avars and the
+Turks, and the successful raids of the King of Persia were among the
+number of the important events of the reign of Justinian. To maintain
+his position in Africa and Italy taxed his resources to their utmost
+limit. The victories of Justinian were pernicious to mankind; the
+desolation of Africa was such that in many parts a stranger might wander
+whole days without meeting the face of either a friend or an enemy.
+
+The revolts of the Goths, under their king, Totila (541), once more
+demanded the presence of Belisarius, and, a hero on the banks of the
+Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with
+reluctance the painful task of supporting his own reputation and
+retrieving the faults of his successors. He was too late to save Rome
+from the Goths, by whom it was taken in December 546; but he recovered
+it in the following February. After his recall by his envious sovereign
+in September 548, Rome was once more taken by the Goths. The successful
+repulse of the Franks and Alemanni finally restored the kingdom to the
+rule of the emperor. Belisarius died on March 13, 565.
+
+The emperor survived his death only eight months, and passed away, in
+the eighty-third year of his life and the thirty-eighth of his reign, on
+November 14, 565. The most lasting memorial of his reign is to be found
+neither in his victories nor his monuments, but in the immortal works of
+the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, in which the civil
+jurisprudence of the Romans was digested, and by means of which the
+public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused
+into the domestic institutions of the whole of Europe.
+
+
+_IV.--Gregory the Great_
+
+
+Justinian was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II., who lived to see the
+conquest of the greater part of Italy by Alboin, king of the Lombards
+(568-570), the disaffection of the exarch, Narses, and the ruin of the
+revived glories of the Roman world.
+
+During a period of 200 years Italy was unequally divided between the
+king of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. Rome relapsed into a
+state of misery. The Campania was reduced to the state of a dreary
+wilderness. The stagnation of a deluge caused by the torrential swelling
+of the Tiber produced a pestilential disease, and a stranger visiting
+Rome might contemplate with horror the solitude of the city. Gregory the
+Great, whose pontificate lasted from 590 to 604, reconciled the Arians
+of Italy and Spain to the Catholic Church, conquered Britain in the name
+of the Cross, and established his right to interfere in the management
+of the episcopal provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul. The merits of
+Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult,
+but in the attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of
+a citizen and the best right of a sovereign.
+
+The short and virtuous reign of Tiberius (578-582), which succeeded that
+of Justin, made way for that of Maurice. For twenty years Maurice ruled
+with honesty and honour. But the parsimony of the emperor, and his
+attempt to cure the inveterate evil of a military despotism, led to his
+undoing, and in 602 he was murdered with his children. A like fate
+befell the Emperor Phocas, who succumbed in 610 to the fortunes of
+Heraclius, the son of Crispus, exarch of Africa. For thirty-two years
+Heraclius ruled the Roman world. In three campaigns he chastised the
+rising power of Persia, drove the armies of Chosroes from Syria,
+Palestine, and Egypt, rescued Constantinople from the joint siege of the
+Avars and Persians (626), and finally reduced the Persian monarch to the
+defence of his hereditary kingdom. The deposition and murder of Chosroes
+by his son Siroes (628) concluded the successes of the emperor.
+
+A treaty of peace was arranged, and Heraclius returned in triumph to
+Constantinople, where, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he
+peacefully enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. The year after his return
+he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true Cross to the
+Holy Sepulchre. In the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to
+the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.
+
+Heraclius died in 612. His descendants continued to fill the throne in
+the persons of Constantine III. (641), Heracleonas (641), Constans II.
+(641), Constantine IV. (668), Justinian II. (685), until 711, when an
+interval of six years, divided into three reigns, made way for the rise
+of the Isaurian dynasty.
+
+
+_V.--The New Era of Charlemagne_
+
+
+Leo III. ascended the throne on March 25, 718, and the purple descended
+to his family, by the rights of heredity, for three generations. The
+Isaurian dynasty is most notable for the part it played in
+ecclesiastical history.
+
+The introduction of images into the Christian Church had confused the
+simplicity of religious worship. The education of Leo, his reason,
+perhaps his intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired him with a
+hatred of images. By two edicts he proscribed the existence, as well as
+the use, of religious pictures. This heresy of Leo and of his successors
+and descendants, Constantine V. (741), Leo IV. (775), and Constantine
+VI. (780), whose blinding by his mother Irene is one of the most tragic
+stories of Roman history, justified the popes in rebelling against the
+authority of the emperor, and in restoring and establishing the
+supremacy of Rome.
+
+Gregory II. saved the city from the attacks of the Lombards, who had
+seized Ravenna and extinguished the series of Greek exarchs in 751. He
+secured the assistance of Pepin, and the real governor of the French
+monarchy--Charles Martel, who, by his signal victory over the Saracens,
+had saved Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. Twice--in 754 and 756--Pepin
+marched to the relief of the city. His son Charlemagne, in 774, seemed
+to secure the permanent safety of the ancient capital by the conquest of
+Lombardy, and for twenty-six years he ruled the Romans as his subjects.
+The people swore allegiance to his person and his family, and the
+elections of the popes were examined and authorised by him. The senate
+exercised its rights by proclaiming him patrician and of the power of
+the emperor; nothing was lacking except the title.
+
+A document, known as the Forged Decretals, which assigned the free and
+perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West to
+the popes by Constantine, was presented by Pope Hadrian I. to
+Charlemagne. This document served to absolve the popes from their debt
+of gratitude to the French monarch, and excused the revolt of Rome from
+the authority of the eastern empire.
+
+Though Constantinople returned, under Irene, to the employment of
+images, and the seventh general council of Nicæa, September 24, 787,
+pronounced the worship of the Greeks as agreeable to scripture and
+reason, the division between the East and the West could not be avoided.
+The pope was driven to revive the western empire in order to secure the
+gift of the exarchy, to eradicate the claims of the Greeks, and to
+restore the majesty of Rome from the debasement of a provincial town.
+The emperors of the West would receive their crown from the successor of
+St. Peter, and the Roman Church would require a zealous and respectable
+advocate.
+
+Inspired by these motives, Pope Leo, who had nearly fallen a victim to a
+conspiracy (788), and had been saved and reinstated by Charlemagne, took
+the opportunity presented by the French king's visit to Rome to crown
+him emperor. On the festival of Christmas (800), in the church of St.
+Peter, Leo, after the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, suddenly placed
+a precious crown on his head. The dome resounded with the acclamations
+of the people, his head and body were consecrated with the royal
+unction, and he was saluted, or adored, by the pontiff after the example
+of the Cæsars.
+
+Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THEODOR MOMMSEN
+
+
+History of Rome
+
+
+     Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig on November
+     30, 1817. He studied at Kiel University for three years,
+     examined Roman inscriptions in France and Italy from 1844 to
+     1847, and attained his first professorship at Leipzig in 1848,
+     and the Berlin Chair of Ancient History in 1858. His greatest
+     work was the "History of Rome," published in 1854, and its
+     successor, the "Roman Provinces." On this work he brought to
+     bear a research and a scholarship of almost unparalleled range
+     and completeness. He was a man capable of vehement and
+     occasionally unreasonable partisanship, and a strict and
+     cold-blooded impartiality would have tempered the enthusiasm
+     of some of his portraits and the severity of others. These
+     defects, however, are less obvious when his history is
+     condensed in small compass. There are cases in which his
+     judgments are open to adverse criticism. But at the present
+     day it may safely be affirmed that there is no extant history
+     of Rome down to the establishment of the empire which can be
+     regarded as rivalling that here presented. Upwards of 900
+     separate publications remain as a monument of Mommsen's
+     industry. He died on November 1, 1903.
+
+
+Iapygians, Etruscans, and Italians, the last certainly Indo-Europeans,
+are the original stocks of Italy proper. Of the Italians there are two
+divisions, the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian. Central Italy was occupied
+by the Latins, who were established in cantons formed of village groups;
+which cantons at an early age formed themselves into the loose Latin
+League, with Alba at its head.
+
+The Roman canton, on both banks of the Tiber, concentrated itself on the
+city earlier than others. The citizens consisted of the families which
+constituted the larger groups of clans or gentes, formed into those
+tribes. The remainder of the population were their dependents or slaves.
+At the head of the family was the father, and the whole community had
+its king, standing to it in the same relation as the father to the
+family. His power, within the law, was absolute; but he could not
+override it or change it on his own authority. This required the formal
+assent of the assembled citizens. The heads of the clans formed a
+separate body--the Senate--which controlled the appointment of the king,
+and could veto legislation.
+
+By admission of aliens and absorption of other communities, swelling the
+number of dependents, was gradually created a great body of plebeians,
+non-citizens, who began to demand political rights; and whom it was
+necessary to organise for military purposes which was done by the
+"Servian Constitution." Gradually Rome won a supremacy in the Latin
+League, a position of superiority over the aggregate of the other
+cantons.
+
+In this community arose three political movements: (1) On the part of
+the full citizen, patricii, to limit the power not of the state, but of
+the kings; (2) of the non-citizens, to acquire political rights; (3) of
+antagonism between the great landholders and the land-interests opposed
+to them. The first resulted in the expulsion of the monarchs, and the
+substitution of a dual kingship held for one year only. But in many
+respects their joint power was curtailed as compared with that of the
+monarch, while for emergencies they could appoint a temporary dictator.
+The change increased the power of the General Assembly, to which it
+became necessary to admit the non-citizen freeholders who were liable to
+military duties. The life tenure of the members of the Senate greatly
+increased the powers of that body, and intensified the antagonism of the
+patriarch and the plebeians.
+
+At the same time, a landed nobility was developing; and when fresh land
+was acquired by the state, the Patricians claimed to control it. But the
+great agricultural population could not submit to this process of land
+absorption, and the consequent strife took the form of a demand for
+political recognition, which issued in the appointment of Tribunes of
+the Plebs, with power of administrative veto.
+
+The struggle over privileges lasted for two hundred years. First the
+Canuleian law made marriage valid between patricians and plebeians, and
+instituted for a time military tribunes. The Licinian law, eighty years
+later, admitted plebeians to the consulship, and also required the
+employment of free labour in agriculture. The decisively democratic
+measure was the Horticunian law, after another seventy years, giving the
+exclusively plebeian assembly full legislative power. The practical
+effect of the changes was to create a new aristocracy, semi-plebeian in
+origin, and to reduce the personal power of the chief officers of state,
+while somewhat increasing that of the remodelled Senate; rendering it a
+body selfish indeed in internal matters, but essentially patriotic as
+well as powerful.
+
+
+_I.--The Description of Italy_
+
+
+During the period of this long constitutional struggle, Rome and her
+kinsfolk had first been engaged in a stubborn and ultimately successful
+contest with the non-Aryan Etruscan race; and then Italy had been
+attacked by the migrating Aryan hordes of the Celts, known as Gauls, who
+sacked Rome, but retired to North Italy; events giving birth to many
+well-known stories, probably in the main mythical. But the practical
+effect was to impose a greater solidarity of the Latin and kindred
+races, and a more decisive acceptance of Roman hegemony.
+
+That hegemony, however, had to be established by persistent compulsion,
+and there were three stages in its completion. First, the subjection of
+the Latins and Campanians; then the struggle of Rome with the
+Umbrian-Samnites; finally, the decisive repulse of the Epirote invader
+Pyrrhus--in effect a Hellenic movement. The Roman supremacy established
+through the exhaustion of the valiant Samnites required to be confirmed
+by stern repression of attempts to recover liberty. But the Hellenic
+element in Italy, antagonistic to the growing Roman power, in effect
+invited the intervention of the Epirote chief. But his scheme was not
+that of an imperial statesman, but of a chivalrous and romantic warrior.
+His own political blunders and the iron determination of the Romans,
+destroyed his chances of conquest. His retirement left Rome undisputed
+lord of Italy; which in part shared full citizenship, in part possessed
+only the more restricted Latin rights, and in part only rights conceded
+under varying treaties.
+
+A sense of common Italian nationality was developing. But if Rome was
+queen of Italy, Carthage was queen of the seas. Maritime expansion was
+precluded, though Rome's position fitted her for it. Carthage was the
+one Phoenician state which developed political as well as commercial
+power. The commercial cities of North Africa were in subordination to
+her, in the Western Mediterranean she had no rivals, her domestic
+government was oligarchical.
+
+Roman intervention in the affairs of Sicily, where Carthage was the
+dominant power, produced the rupture between the two great states which
+was bound to come sooner or later. Sicily itself was the scene of the
+initial struggle, which taught Rome that her victories on land were
+liable to be nullified by the Carthaginian sea power. She resolved to
+build a navy, on the plan of adopting boarding tactics which would
+assimilate a naval engagement to a battle on land. These tactics were
+successful enough to equalise the fighting value of the respective
+fleets. The Romans were enabled to land an invading army under Regulus
+in Africa.
+
+Though superior on land, the general's blundering led to a disaster, and
+for some time misfortune by sea and failure by land dogged the Romans.
+But Carthage failed to use her opportunity; she did not attempt to
+strike a crushing blow when she could have done so. But the private
+energy of Roman patriots at last placed on the seas a fleet which once
+more turned the scale, whereas it was on land that the brilliant
+Carthaginian Hamilcar had displayed his genius and daring. The first
+Punic War gave Rome predominance in Sicily, and a position of maritime
+equality. Sardinia was added to the Roman dominion, and her provincial
+administration came into being.
+
+She was carrying her expansion farther over Celtic regions, when
+Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, hurled himself against her, and came near
+to destroying her. Hamilcar had conceived the idea of imperial
+expansion, and given it shape by creating a dominion in Spain; he had
+looked forward to the life-and-death struggle with Rome that was
+destined to his son; for which Spain was to be the base. Hannibal, left
+in control in Spain, deliberately challenged Rome to war.
+
+The challenge was accepted, war was declared, and Hannibal accomplished
+the amazing feat of leading an army of 60,000 men from Spain and
+effecting the passage of the Alps, while the Romans were landing an army
+in Spain. In a brilliant campaign, he defeated the stubborn Roman
+legions at Vercellæ and the Trebia.
+
+But success depended not on the winning of victories by an isolated
+force, but on the disruption of Italy. His superiority in the field was
+again demonstrated at Trasimenus, but no Italian allies came in. He
+outwitted Fabius, and then utterly shattered at Cannæ a Roman force of
+double his own numbers. For a moment it seemed that Italian cohesion was
+weakening; but the Roman Senate and people were stirred only to a more
+dogged resolution.
+
+Cannæ failed to break up the Roman confederation. Generalship unaided
+could accomplish no more. In Spain, where young Scipio was soon winning
+renown, the Roman arms were in the ascendant, and in Sicily. No
+effective aid was coming from Macedon, though war was declared between
+her and Rome. Hannibal's activities began to be paralysed; by slow
+degrees he was forced into the south. Hannibal succeeded in crossing
+the Alps with fresh forces, but by a brilliant operation was annihilated
+on the Metaurus. The time had come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal
+and strike at Carthage herself. Even Hannibal's return could not save
+her. The victory of Zama decided the issue. Carthage became virtually a
+tributary and subject state. Spain was a Roman province, and North
+Africa a sort of protectorate.
+
+The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
+protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
+Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria.
+Antiochus had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to
+impose his own yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his
+decisive overthrow at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of
+Asia Minor. Pergamus, under the house of Actalus, was established as a
+protected kingdom, as Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek
+states, however, were becoming conscious that their freedom was hardly
+more than a name; Perseus of Macedon once more challenged Rome, not
+without Greek support. Macedon was finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus
+at Pydna. From that moment, Rome dropped the policy of maintaining free
+states beyond the seas, which had manifestly failed. Virtually, the
+known world was divided into subjects and dependencies of Rome, so vast
+was the change in the forty years between the battles of the Metaurus
+and Pydna.
+
+Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
+ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
+city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses
+were distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually
+the city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a
+close and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
+inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
+Cato.
+
+In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
+after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
+neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led
+to the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of
+the dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
+Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
+Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
+intrigue for office emoluments, involving a pandering to the city mob
+for its suffrages.
+
+
+_II.--The Revolution_
+
+
+Socially, the most patent evil was the total disappearance of the free
+agricultural class, the absorption of all the land into huge estates
+under slave labour. The remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus was the
+partial state resumption of land and its re-allotment. He adopted
+unconstitutional methods for carrying his proposals, and was murdered in
+a riot led by the oligarchs. Appeals to the Roman populace were not,
+unfortunately, appeals to the Roman nation.
+
+His brother, Gaius, deliberately designed a revolution. He proposed to
+work through the antagonism of the aristocrats and the wealthy
+non-senatorial equestrian order; and by concentrating power in the hands
+of the tribunate, hitherto checked by the restrictions on re-election.
+In effect, he meant to destroy the oligarchy by making the Tribune a
+perpetual dictator, and thus to carry through social reforms; to
+establish also legal equality first for the Italians, then for the
+provinces also. But these reforms were not particularly attractive to
+the city mob, and the other side could play the demagogue. The condition
+of Cæsarism is the control of physical force; Gaius Gracchus fell
+because he had not that essential control. The oligarchy remained
+supreme. The plans of Gracchus for planting colonies and distributing
+allotments were nullified.
+
+The evils of slave labour multiplied, and issued in servile
+insurrections. In Numidia, the able Masimissa had been succeeded by
+Micipsa. On Micipsa's death, the rule was usurped by his illegitimate
+nephew Jugurtha, whose story has been told by Sallust. The war was at
+least terminated less by the low-born general in command, Marius, than
+his brilliant lieutenant Sulla. But Marius re-organised the army on the
+basis which was to make a military despotism practicable, as it made a
+professional instead of a citizen army.
+
+But now a new foe appears; the first Teutonic (not Celtic) hordes of the
+Cimbri and Teutones; to meet with an overwhelming check at the hands of
+Marius at Aquæ Sextiæ and Vercellæ. The successful soldier allied
+himself with the popular leader Saturninus; the programme of Gaius
+Gracchus was resuscitated. But Marius, a political incapable, separated
+from the demagogues, and by helping to crush them, effaced himself.
+Livius Drusus attempted to carry out the Gracchan social reform, with
+the senate instead of the tribunate as the controlling power; the
+senatorial party themselves wrecked his schemes, and the antagonistic
+power of the equestrian order was advanced.
+
+But the immediate outcome was the revolt of the Italians, the _socii_
+(whence the name social war). They were not citizens, not on an equal
+footing with the citizens before the law. The revolt was suppressed, but
+the legions were completely out of hand. The attempt of Sulpicius to
+head the reform movement was answered by Sulla, who for the first time
+led a Roman army against Rome, crushed Sulpicius, prescribed some of his
+adherents, and placed the power of the senate on a stronger footing by
+legal enactment. Then he went to the East, to conduct the war against
+Mithridates.
+
+While Sulla was conducting his operations, military and diplomatic, with
+skill and success in the East, his arrangements at Rome had left
+discontent and disappointment seething. There was another revolution,
+led by Cinna, Marius and Sertorius; it mastered Rome. Marius spilt seas
+of blood, but soon died. For three years Cinna was supreme, but he had
+no constructive policy.
+
+But now Sulla had finished his work in the East. He was returning at the
+head of a body of veterans devoted to him; and his diplomacy won over
+half Italy to his side. The struggle with the revolutionary government
+was not greatly prolonged, and it was decisive.
+
+In plain terms, the Roman constitution had gone utterly to wreck; Sulla
+was in something of the same position as Oliver Cromwell. He had to
+reconstruct under conditions which made a constitutional restoration
+impracticable; but his control of the efficient military force gave him
+the necessary power. That any system introduced must be arbitrary and
+find its main sanction in physical force--that it should partake of
+terrorism--was inevitable.
+
+Sulla obtained the formal conferment on himself of absolute power. He
+began by applying this rule of terror not vindictively, but with
+impersonal mercilessness, against the lives and property of the
+opposition. In the constitution which he promulgated the senatorial body
+was alone recognised as a privileged class; the senate itself was
+increased, it recovered full control of the judiciary and of
+legislation; no power was left of cancelling membership. The tribunician
+power was curtailed.
+
+The civil and military functions of consuls and prætors were separated.
+They were to hold civil power in Italy proper during their year of
+office; they were then to have a second year in military control of a
+province. The planting of military colonies provided numerous garrisons
+whose interests were associated with the new constitution. When Sulla
+had done his work, he resigned his extraordinary powers with entire
+indifference. In a little more than a year he died.
+
+The Sullan constitution saved the Roman empire from imminent collapse;
+but it was impossible that it should be more than a makeshift, like
+Cromwell's protectorate. There were huge classes with perpetual
+grievances; the removal of the military forces to the provinces left the
+city of Rome without adequate governors of the provinces themselves. And
+there was no man of the hour of supreme ability to carry on work
+demanding a master.
+
+
+_III.--Pompey and Cæsar_
+
+
+The young Graccus Pompeius was the most distinguished of the Sullan
+party; Crassus was the wealthiest and most powerful of the Equestrian
+group; Lepidus was the popular leader. A popular insurrection which he
+headed was suppressed, and he disappeared, but Sertorius, once an
+associate of Marius, had obtained a remarkable personal ascendancy in
+Spain, and, in league with the Mediterranean pirates, threatened to be a
+formidable foe of the new constitution. For some years he maintained a
+gradually waning resistance against the arms of Pompeius, but finally
+was assassinated.
+
+Meanwhile Tigranes, King of Armenia, had been developing a powerful
+monarchy; and mutual distrust had brought on another war with
+Mithridates, successfully conducted by Lucullus. Out of this war arose a
+struggle with Tigranes, on whom an overwhelming defeat was inflicted at
+Tigranocerta. But the brilliant achievements of Lucullus were nullified
+by the mutinous conduct of the troops, and the factious conduct of the
+home government. The gross inefficiency of that government was shown by
+the immense extension of organised piracy, and by the famous slave
+revolt under Spartacus, which seriously endangered the state.
+
+Pompeius on his return from Spain was barred on technical grounds from
+the triumph and the consulship which he demanded. He was thus driven
+into an alliance with the democratic party, and with Crassus. The result
+was the fall of the Sullan constitution, and the restoration of checks
+on the power of the senate. Pompeius might have grasped a military
+despotism; he did not, but he did receive extraordinary powers for
+dealing with the whole Eastern question, and when that work was settled
+successfully, he would be able to dictate his own terms.
+
+Pompeius began his task by a swift and crushing blow against the pirate
+cities and fleets, which broke up the organisation. He crushed
+Mithridates in one campaign, and received the submission of Tigranes;
+Mithridates soon after fell by his own hand, the victim of an
+insurrection. Anarchy in Syria warranted Pompeius in annexing the
+Seleucid dominion. The whole of the nearer East was now a part of the
+Roman empire; and was thenceforth ruled not as protectorates, but as a
+group of provinces. Egypt alone was not incorporated.
+
+Meanwhile, the democratic party at Rome were dominant, though their
+policy was inconsistent and opportunist. Probably the leading men, such
+as Crassus and the rising Gaius, Julius Cæsar, stood aside from the
+wilder schemes, such as the Catilinarian conspiracies, but secretly
+fostered them. Catiline's projects were betrayed, and the illegal
+execution of the captured conspirators by the consul Cicero was hailed
+by Cato and the senatorial party as a triumph of patriotic
+statesmanship. Catiline himself was crushed in the field.
+
+The definite fact emerged, that neither the senatorial nor the
+democratic party could establish a strong government; that would be
+possible only for a military monarchy--a statesman with a policy and an
+irresistible, force at his back. But Pompeius lacked the courage and
+skill. Cæsar, as yet, lacked the military force. Pompeius, on his return
+from the East, again allied himself with Crassus and Cæsar, whose object
+was to acquire for himself the opportunity which Pompeius would not
+grasp. The alliance gave Pompeius the land allotments he required for
+his soldiers, and to Cæsar the consulship followed by a prolonged
+governorship of Gaul.
+
+The conquest and organisation of Gaul was an end in itself, a necessary
+defence against barbarian pressure. Cæsar's operations there were
+invaluable to the empire; incidentally, they enabled him to become
+master of it. Cæsar has left his own record. Gaul was transformed into a
+barrier against the Teutonic migration. But Pompeius, nominally holding
+a far greater position, proved incapable of controlling the situation in
+Rome; he could not even suppress the demagogue Clodius, while the
+prestige of his military exploits was waning. Fear of the power of the
+Triumvirate was driving moderate men to the senatorial part; that party,
+without an efficient leader, began to find in Pompeius rather in ally
+against the more dangerous Cæsar than an enemy.
+
+But they would not concede him the powers he required; which might yet
+be turned to the uses of his colleagues in the Triumvirate; he could not
+afford to challenge Cæsar; and Cæsar adroitly used the situation to
+secure for himself a prolongation of his Gallic command. The completion
+of his work there was to have precedence of his personal ambitions.
+Crassus was sent to the Eastern command; and Pompeius remained in Italy,
+while nominally appointed to Spain.
+
+Pompeius, indeed, attained a predominance in Rome which enabled him to
+secure temporarily dictatorial powers which were employed to counteract
+the electoral machinery of the republican party; but he had not the
+qualifications or the inclination to play the demagogue, and could not
+unite his aspirations as a restorer of law and order with effective
+party leadership. Crassus disappeared; his armies in the East met with a
+complete disaster at Carrhæ, and he took his own life. Cæsar and
+Pompeius were left; Pompeius was not content that Cæsar should stand on
+a real equality with him, and the inevitable rupture came.
+
+In effect Pompeius used his dictatorship to extend his own military
+command and to curtail Cæsar's. The position resolved itself into a
+rivalry between the two; Cæsar declaring as always for the democracy,
+Pompeius now assuming the championship of the aristocracy, and the
+guardianship of the constitution.
+
+For Cæsar the vital point now was that his own command should not
+terminate till he exchanged it for a fresh consulship. As the law now
+stood, he could not obtain his election without resigning his command
+beforehand. But he succeeded in forcing Pompeius to break the law; and
+in making the official government responsible for declaring war. He
+offered a compromise, perhaps, in the certainty that it would be
+rejected--as it was. He was virtually declared a public enemy; and he
+struck at once.
+
+At the head of his devotedly loyal veterans he crossed the Rubicon. His
+rapid and successful advance caused Pompeius to abandon Italy and fall
+back on the Eastern Provinces. The discipline preserved, and the
+moderation displayed by Cæsar won him unexpected favour. Having secured
+Italy, he turned next on Spain, and secured that. Swift and decisive
+action was pitted against inertness. When Cæsar entered Epirus the odds
+against him on paper were enormous; but the triumphant victory of
+Phansalus shattered the Pompeian coalition. Pompeius hurried to Egypt,
+but was assassinated while landing. The struggle, however, was not over
+till after the battle of Thapsus nearly two years after Phansalus.
+
+Cæsar was now beyond question master of the whole Roman world. He had
+made himself one of the mightiest of all masters of the art of war; but
+he was even more emphatically unsurpassed as a statesman. In the brief
+time that was left him he laid the foundation of the new monarchy which
+replaced the ancient Republic of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Mediæval History
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+The Holy Roman Empire
+
+
+     The third of Gibbon's divisions of his great history was
+     devoted to that period which is comprised between the
+     establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 and the final
+     extinction of the Eastern Empire with the conquest of
+     Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453. Although this was the
+     longest period, Gibbon devoted much less space to it than to
+     the preceding parts of his history. This fact was partly due
+     to the gradual diminution of Roman interests, for the
+     dominions of the empire became contracted to the limits of a
+     single city, and also to the fact that the material which the
+     most painstaking search placed at his disposal was distinctly
+     limited. But though the conquest of the Normans, to instance
+     one section, has been dealt with inadequately in the light of
+     modern research, the wonderful panorama that Gibbon's genius
+     was able to present never fails in its effect or general
+     accuracy. The Holy Roman Empire is, of course, properly
+     classified under Mediæval History, which accounts for its
+     separation from the rest of Gibbon's work.
+
+
+_I.--Birth and Sway of the Empire_
+
+
+The Western Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, as it has been called, which
+was re-established by Charlemagne (and lasted in shadow until the
+abdication of Francis II. under the pressure of Napoleon in 1806), was
+not unworthy of its title.
+
+The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
+the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The Greek emperor was
+addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the
+imperial dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks
+respectfully saluted the _august_ Charlemagne with the acclamations of
+"Basileus" and "Emperor of the Romans." Lewis the Pious (814-840)
+possessed the virtue of his father but not the power. When both power
+and virtue were extinct, the Greeks despoiled Lewis II. of his
+hereditary title, and with the barbarous appellation of _Rex_ degraded
+him amongst the crowd of Latin princes.
+
+The imperial title of the West remained in the family of Charlemagne
+until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 884. His insanity dissolved
+the empire into factions, and it was not until Otho, King of Germany,
+laid claim to the title, with fire and sword, that the western empire
+was restored (962). His conquest of Italy and delivery of the pope for
+ever fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From
+that memorable era two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by
+force and ratified by time: (1) That the prince who was elected in the
+German Diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and
+Rome; (2) but that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and
+Augustus till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman
+pontiff.
+
+The nominal power of the Western emperors was considerable. No pontiff
+could be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the
+Church, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Gregory
+VII., in 1073, usurped this power, and fixed for ever in the college of
+cardinals the freedom and independence of election. Nominally, also, the
+emperors held sway in Rome, but this supremacy was annihilated in the
+thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century the power derived from his
+title was still recognised in Europe; the hereditary monarchs confessed
+the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity.
+
+The persecution of images and their votaries in the East had
+separated-Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and prepared the way
+for the conquests of the Franks. The rise and triumph of the Mahometans
+still further diminished the empire of the East. The successful inroads
+of the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians, who assaulted by sea or by
+land the provinces and the capital, seemed to advance the approach of
+its final dissolution. The Norman adventurers, who founded a powerful
+kingdom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople (1146),
+and their hostile enterprises did not cease until the year 1185.
+
+
+_II.--Latin Rulers of Constantinople_
+
+
+Under the name of the Latins, the subjects of the pope, the nations of
+the West, enlisted under the banner of the Cross for the recovery or the
+release of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and
+preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with
+Godfrey of Bouillon (1095-99) and the peers of Christendom. The second
+(1147) and the third (1189) crusades trod in the footsteps of the first.
+Asia and Europe were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years; and
+the Christian powers were bravely resisted and finally expelled (1291)
+by Saladin (1171-93) and the Mamelukes of Egypt.
+
+In these memorable crusades a fleet and army of French and Venetians
+were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the
+capital (1203), they subverted the Greek monarchy; and a dynasty of
+Latin princes was seated near three-score years on the throne of
+Constantine.
+
+During this period of captivity and exile, which lasted from 1204 to
+1261, the purple was preserved by a succession of four monarchs, who
+maintained their title as the heirs of Augustus, though outcasts from
+their capital. The _de facto_ sovereigns of Constantinople during this
+period, the Latin emperors of the houses of Flanders and Courtenay,
+provided five sovereigns for the usurped throne. By an agreement between
+the allied conquerors, the emperor of the East was nominated by the vote
+of twelve electors, chosen equally from the French and Venetians. To
+him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, a
+fourth part of the Greek monarchy was assigned; the remaining portions
+were equally snared between the republic of Venice and the barons of
+France.
+
+Under this agreement, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, was
+created emperor (1204-05). The idea of the Roman system, which, despite
+the passage of centuries devoted to the triumphs of the barbarians, had
+impressed itself on Europe, was seen in the emperor's letter to the
+Roman pontiff, in which he congratulated him on the restoration of his
+authority in the East.
+
+The defeat and captivity of Baldwin in a war against the Bulgarians, and
+his subsequent death, placed the crown on the head of his brother Henry
+(1205-16). With him the imperial house of Flanders became extinct, and
+Peter of Courtenay, Count of Auxerre (1217-19), assumed the empire of
+the East. Peter was taken captive by Theodore, the legitimate sovereign
+of Constantinople, and his sons Robert (1221-28) and Baldwin II.
+(1228-37) reigned in succession. The gradual recovery of their empire by
+the legitimate sovereigns of the East culminated in the capture of
+Constantinople by the Greeks (1261). The line of Latin sovereigns was
+extinct. Baldwin lived the remainder of his life a royal fugitive,
+soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration. He died in
+1272.
+
+From the days of the Emperor Heraclius the Byzantine Empire had been
+most tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary
+succession. Five dynasties--the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian,
+and Comnenian families--enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony
+during their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four
+generations. The imperial house of Comnenius, though its direct line in
+male descent had expired with Andronicus I. (1185), had been perpetuated
+by marriage in the female line, and had survived the exile from
+Constantinople, in the persons of the descendants of Theodore Lascaris.
+
+Michael Palæologus, who, through his mother, might claim perhaps a
+prior right to the throne of the Comnenii, usurped the imperial dignity
+on the recovery of Constantinople, cruelly blinded the young Emperor
+John, the legitimate heir of Theodore Lascaris, and reigned until 1282.
+His career of authority was notable for an attempt to unite the Greek
+and Roman churches--a union which was dissolved in 1283--and his
+instigation of the revolt in Sicily, which ended in the famous Sicilian
+Vespers (March 30, 1282), when 8,000 French were exterminated in a
+promiscuous massacre.
+
+He saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
+and blood. From these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men,
+who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son, Andronicus the Elder
+(1282-1332). Thousands of Genoese and Catalans, released from the wars
+that Michael had aroused in the West, took service under his successor
+against the Turks. Other mercenaries flocked to their standard, and,
+under the name of the Great Company, they subverted the authority of the
+emperor, defeated his troops, laid waste his territory, united
+themselves with his enemies, and, finally, abandoning the banks of the
+Hellespont, marched into Greece. Here they overthrew the remnant of the
+Latin power, and for fourteen years (1311-1326) the Great Company was
+the terror of the Grecian states.
+
+Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignity of the house
+of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens
+as a government or an appanage was successfully bestowed by the kings of
+Sicily. Conquered in turn by the French and Catalans, Athens at length
+became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth,
+Delphi, and a part of Thessaly, and was ruled by the family of Accaioli,
+plebeians of Florence (1384-1456). The last duke of this dynasty was
+strangled by Mahomet II., who educated his sons in the discipline of the
+seraglio.
+
+During the reign of John Palæologus, son of Andronicus the Younger,
+which began in 1355, the eastern empire was nearly subverted by the
+Genoese. On the return of the legitimate sovereign to Constantinople,
+the Genoese, who had established their factories and industries in the
+suburb of Galata, or Pera, were allowed to remain. During the civil wars
+the Genoese forces took advantage of the disunion of the Greeks, and by
+the skilful use of their power exacted a treaty by which they were
+granted a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominions. The Roman
+Empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a
+province of Genoa if the ambition of the republic had not been checked
+by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. Yet the spirit of commerce
+survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital
+and navigated the Euxine till it was involved by the Turks in the final
+servitude of Constantinople itself.
+
+
+_III.--End of the Roman World_
+
+
+Only three more sovereigns ruled the remnants of the Roman world after
+the reign of John Palæologus, but the final downfall of the empire was
+delayed above fifty years by a series of events that had sapped the
+strength of the Mahometan empire. The rise and triumph of the Moguls and
+Tartars under their emperors, descendants of Zingis Khan, had shaken the
+globe from China to Poland and Greece (1206-1304). The sultans were
+overthrown, and in the general disorder of the Mahometan world a veteran
+and adventurous army, which included many Turkoman hordes, was dissolved
+into factions who, under various chiefs, lived a life of rapine and
+plunder. Some of these engaged in the service of Aladin (1219-1236),
+Sultan of Iconium, and among these were the obscure fathers of the
+Ottoman line.
+
+Orchan ruled from 1326 to 1360, achieved the conquest of Bithynia, and
+first led the Turks into Europe, and in 1353 established himself in the
+Chersonesus, and occupied Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont. Orchan
+was succeeded by Amurath I. (1389-1403). Bajazet carried his victorious
+arms from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became
+contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black
+Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of
+ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or
+Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the
+wealth and populousness of a kingdom.
+
+Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
+Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet
+had not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul
+power under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a
+conquest of Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan
+(1398-1399), Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found
+himself at length face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was
+taken prisoner in the war that followed. Kept, probably only as a
+precaution, in an iron cage, Bajazet attended the marches of his
+conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403. Two years later, Timour also
+passed away on the road to China. Of his empire to-day nothing remains.
+Since the reign of his descendant Aurungzebe, his empire has been
+dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a
+Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom is now possessed by the
+Christians of a remote island in the northern ocean.
+
+Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
+was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than
+it again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a
+period of civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman
+Empire was once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II.
+(1421-1451).
+
+One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
+of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
+Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
+domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.
+
+While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
+Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
+Manuel sank into the grave, and John Palæologus II. (1425-1448) was
+permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
+dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
+Constantinople.
+
+On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emperors,
+assumed the purple of the Cæsars. For three years he was allowed to
+indulge himself in various private and public designs, the completion of
+which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the ruins
+of the empire.
+
+
+_IV.--The Great Siege of Constantinople_
+
+
+Mahomet II. succeeded his father Amurath on February 9, 1451. His
+hostile designs against the capital were immediately seen in the
+building of a fortress on the Bosphorus, which commanded the source
+whence the city drew her supplies. In the following year a quarrel
+between some Greeks and Turks gave him the excuse of declaring war. His
+cannon--for the use of gunpowder, for some time the monopoly of the
+Christian world, had been betrayed to Amurath by the Genoese--commanded
+the port, and a tribute was exacted from all ships that entered the
+harbour. But the actual siege was delayed until the ensuing spring of
+1453.
+
+Mahomet, in person, surveyed the city, encouraged his soldiers, and
+discussed with his generals and engineers the best means of making the
+assault. By his orders a huge cannon was built in Hadrianople. It fired
+a ball one mile, and to convey it to its position before the walls, a
+team of sixty oxen and the assistance of 200 men were employed. The
+Emperor Constantine, unable to excite the sympathy of Europe, attempted
+the best defence of which he was capable, with a force of 4,970 Romans
+and 2,000 Genoese. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour,
+and whatever supplies arrived from Candia and the Black Sea were
+detained for the public service.
+
+The siege of Constantinople, in which scarcely 7,000 soldiers had to
+defend a city sixteen miles in extent against the powers of the Ottoman
+Empire, commenced on April 6, 1453. The last Constantine deserves the
+name of a hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman
+virtue, and the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western
+chivalry. But their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the
+operations of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size
+or number; and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant
+them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and
+overthrown by the explosion.
+
+The great cannon of Mahomet could only be fired seven times in one day,
+but the weight and repetition of the shots made some impression on the
+walls. The Turks rushed to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the
+enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault. In the attack, as
+well as in the defence, ancient and modern artillery was employed.
+Cannon and mechanical engines, the bullet and the battering-ram,
+gunpowder and Greek fire, were engaged on both sides.
+
+Christendom watched the struggle with coldness and apathy. Four ships,
+which successfully forced an entrance into the harbour, were the limit
+of their assistance. None the less, Mahomet meditated a retreat. Unless
+the city could be attacked from the harbour, its reduction appeared to
+be hopeless. In this perplexity the genius of Mahomet executed a plan of
+a bold and marvellous cast. He transported his fleet over land for ten
+miles. In the course of one night four-score light galleys and
+brigantines painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and were
+launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far
+above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. A bridge, or
+mole, hastily built, formed a base for one of his largest cannon. The
+galleys, with troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible
+side of the walls, and, after a siege of forty days, the diminutive
+garrison, exhausted by a double attack, could hope no longer to avert
+the fate of the capital.
+
+On Monday, May 28, preparations were made for the final assault. Mahomet
+had inspired his soldiers with the hope of rewards in this world and the
+next. His camp re-echoed with the shouts of "God is God; there is but
+one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God"; and the sea and land, from
+Galata to the Seven Towers, were illuminated with the blaze of the
+Moslem fires.
+
+Far different was the state of the Christians. On that last night of the
+Roman Empire, Constantine Palæologus, in his palace, addressed the
+noblest of the Greeks and the bravest of the allies on the duties and
+dangers that lay before them. It was the funeral oration of the Roman
+Empire. That same night the emperor and some faithful companions entered
+the Dome of St. Sofia, which, within a few hours, was to be converted
+into a mosque, and devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the
+sacrament of the Holy Communion. He reposed some moments in the palace,
+which resounded with cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all
+whom he might have injured, and mounted on horseback to visit the guards
+and explore the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last
+Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine
+Cæsars.
+
+At daybreak on May 29 the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land. For
+two hours the Greeks maintained the defence with advantage, and the
+voice of the emperor was heard encouraging the soldiers to achieve by a
+last effort the deliverance of their country. The new and fresh forces
+of the Turks supplied the places of their wearied associates. From all
+sides the attack was pressed.
+
+The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps one hundred, times
+superior to that of the Christians, the double walls were reduced by the
+cannons to a heap of ruins, and at last one point was found which the
+besiegers could penetrate. Hasan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and
+strength, ascended the outward fortification. The walls and towers were
+instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from
+the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.
+
+Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of
+a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. His mournful
+exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
+head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the
+infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple.
+Amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried
+under a mountain of the slain.
+
+After his death, resistance and order were no more. Two thousand Greeks
+were put to the sword, and more would have perished had not avarice soon
+prevailed over cruelty.
+
+It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
+which had defied the power of Chosroes and the caliphs, was
+irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet II. Sixty thousand Greeks
+were driven through the streets like cattle and sold as slaves. The nuns
+were torn from the monasteries and compelled to enter the harems of
+their conquerors. The churches were plundered, and the gold and silver,
+the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments of St. Sofia
+were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind.
+
+The cathedral itself, despoiled of its images and ornaments, was
+converted into a mosque, and Mahomet II. performed the _namaz_ of prayer
+and thanksgiving at the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had
+so lately been celebrated before the last of the Cæsars. The body of
+Constantine was discovered under a heap of slain, by the golden eagles
+embroidered on his shoes, and after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet
+bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. Constantinople,
+desolated by bloodshed, was re-peopled and re-adorned by Mahomet. Its
+churches were shared between the two religions, and the Greeks were
+attracted back to their ancient capital by the assurance of their lives
+and the free exercise of their religion.
+
+The grief and terror of Europe when the fall of Constantinople became
+known revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades.
+Pius II. attempted to lead Christendom against the Turks, but on the
+very day on which he embarked his forces drew back, and he was compelled
+to abandon the attempt. The siege and sack of Otranto by the Turks put
+an end to all thoughts of a crusade, and the general consternation was
+only allayed by the death of Mahomet II. in the fifty-first year of his
+age.
+
+His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy; he was possessed of a
+strong city and a capacious harbour, and the same reign might have been
+decorated with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FRANÇOIS GUIZOT
+
+
+History of Civilisation in Europe
+
+
+     François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, French historian and
+     statesman, was born of Huguenot parents at Nimes on October 4,
+     1787. The liberal opinions of his family did not save his
+     father from the guillotine in 1794, and the mother fled to
+     Geneva, where Guizot was educated. He went to Paris in the
+     later days of the Empire, and engaged himself at once in
+     literature and politics. His lectures on the History of
+     Civilisation delivered in 1828, 1829, and 1830, during his
+     professorship at the University of Paris, revealed him as a
+     historian with a rare capacity for mastering the broad
+     essential truths of history, co-ordinating them, and
+     expounding them with vigour and impressiveness. His first
+     series of lectures was on "The History of Civilisation in
+     Europe," a masterly abstract of a colossal subject; the second
+     on "The History of Civilisation in France." From 1830 to 1848
+     Guizot occupied high offices of State, ultimately becoming
+     prime minister; in 1848, like his master Louis Philippe, he
+     had to fly the country. He died on September 12, 1874.
+
+
+_I.--The Nature of Civilisation_
+
+
+The subject I propose to consider is the civilisation of Europe--its
+origins, its progress, its aims, its character. The fact of civilisation
+belongs to what is called the philosophic portion of history; it is a
+vague, obscure, complex fact, very difficult, I admit, to explain and
+describe, but none the less requiring explanation and description. It
+is, indeed, the greatest historical fact, to which all others
+contribute; it is a kind of ocean which makes the wealth of a people,
+and in the bosom of which all the elements of the people's life, all the
+forces of its existence, are joined in unity.
+
+What, then, is civilisation--this grave, far-reaching precious reality
+that seems the expression of the entire life of a people? It seems to me
+that the first and fundamental fact conveyed by the word civilisation is
+the fact of progress, of development. But what is this progress? What is
+this development? Here is the greatest difficulty of all.
+
+The etymology of the word civilisation seems to provide an easy answer.
+It tells us that civilisation is the perfecting of civil life, the
+development of society properly so called, of the relations of men to
+men. But is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and usual sense of
+the word? France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was
+acknowledged to be the most civilised country in Europe; yet in respect
+of purely civil progress France was then greatly inferior to some other
+European countries, Holland and England, for example. Another
+development, then, reveals itself--the development of individual life,
+of the man himself, of his faculties, sentiments, and ideas.
+
+These two notions that are comprehended in the broad notion of
+civilisation--that of the development of social activity and that of the
+development of individual activity--are intimately related to each
+other. Their relationship is upheld by the instinctive conviction of
+men; it is proved by the course of the world's history--all the great
+moral and intellectual advances of man have profited society, all the
+great social advances have profited the individual mind.
+
+So much for civilisation in general. It is now necessary to point out
+the essential difference between modern European and other
+civilisations. The characteristic of other civilisations has been unity;
+they seem to have emanated from a single fact, a single idea. In Egypt
+and India, for example, the theocratic principle was dominant; in the
+Greek and Phoenician republics, the democratic principle. The
+civilisation of modern Europe, on the contrary, is diverse, confused,
+stormy; all the forms and principles of social organisation theocratic,
+monarchical, aristocratic, democratic, co-exist in it; there are
+infinite gradations of liberty, wealth, influence. All the various
+forces are in a state of constant struggle; yet all of them have a
+certain family resemblance, as it were, that we cannot but recognise.
+
+These diverse elements, for all their conflict, cannot any one of them
+extinguish any other; each has to dwell with the rest, make a compromise
+with the rest. The outcome, then, of this diversity and struggle is
+liberty; and here is the grand and true superiority of the European over
+the other civilisations. European civilisation, if I may say so, has
+entered into eternal truth; it advances in the ways of God.
+
+
+_II.--Feudalism_
+
+
+It would be an important confirmation of my assertion as to the diverse
+character of our civilisation if we should find in its very cradle the
+causes and the elements of that diversity. And indeed, at the fall of
+the Roman empire, we do so find it. Three forms of society, each
+entirely different from the other, are visible at this time of chaos.
+The municipalities survived, the last remnant of the Imperial system.
+The Christian Church survived. And in the third place there were the
+Barbarians, who brought with them a military organisation, and a hardy
+individual independence, that were wholly new to the peoples who had
+dwelt under the shelter of the empire. The Barbarian epoch was the chaos
+of all the elements, the infancy of all the systems, a universal hubbub
+in which even conflict itself had no definite or permanent effects.
+
+Europe laboured to escape from this confusion; at some times, and in
+some places, it was temporarily checked--in particular by the great
+Charlemagne in his revival of the imperial power; but the confusion did
+not cease until its causes no longer acted. These causes were two--one
+material, one moral. The material cause was the irruption of fresh
+Barbarian hordes. The moral cause was the lack of any ideas in common
+among men as to the structure of society. The old imperial fabric had
+disappeared; Charlemagne's restoration of it depended wholly on his own
+personality, and did not survive him; men had no ideas of any new
+structure--their intellectual horizon was limited to their own affairs.
+By the beginning of the tenth century the Barbarian invasions ended, and
+as the populations settled down a new system appeared, based partly on
+the Barbarians' love of independence, partly on their plans of military
+gradation--the system of feudalism.
+
+A sound proof that in the tenth century the feudal system was necessary,
+and the only social state possible, lies in the universality of its
+establishment. Everywhere society was dismembered; everywhere there was
+formed a multitude of small, obscure, isolated societies, consisting of
+the chief, his family, his retainers, and the wretched serfs over whom
+he ruled without restraint, and who had no appeal against his whim. The
+power he exercised was the power of individual over individual, the
+domination of personal will and caprice; and this is perhaps the only
+kind of tyranny that man, to his eternal honour, is never willing to
+endure. Hence the prodigious and invincible hatred that the people have
+at all times entertained for feudal rule, for the memories of it, for
+its very name.
+
+The narrow concentrated life of the feudal lord lent, undoubtedly, a
+great preponderance to domesticity in his affairs. The lord had his wife
+and children for his permanent society; they continually shared his
+interests, his destiny. It was in the bosom of the feudal family that
+woman gained her importance in civilisation. The system excited
+development of private character and passion that were, all things
+considered, noble. Chivalry was the daughter of feudalism.
+
+But from the social point of view feudalism failed to provide either
+legal order or political security. It contained elaborate obligations
+between the higher and the lower orders of the feudal hierarchy, duties
+of protection on the one side and of service on the other. But these
+obligations could never be established as institutions. There was no
+superior force to which all had to submit; there was public opinion to
+make itself respected. Hence the feudal system was without political
+guarantee to sustain it. Might alone was right. Feudalism was as much
+opposed to the establishment of general order as to the extension of
+general liberty. It was indispensable for the reconstruction of European
+society, but politically it was in itself a radically bad system.
+
+
+_III.--The Church_
+
+
+Meanwhile the Church, adhering to its own principles, had steadily
+advanced along the route that it had marked out for itself in the early
+days of its organisation. It was during the feudal epoch the only power
+that made for civilised development. All education was ecclesiastical;
+all the arts were in the service of the Church. It had, during the Dark
+Ages, won the Barbarians to its fold by the gorgeous solemnity of its
+ritual; and, to protect itself against secular interference, it had
+declared the spiritual power to be independent of the temporal--the
+first great assertion, in the history of European civilisation, of the
+liberty of thought.
+
+In one set of respects the Church during the feudal epoch satisfied the
+conditions of good government; in another, it did not. Its power was
+uniformly distributed, it drew its recruits from all classes, and
+entrusted the rule to the most capable. It was in close touch with every
+grade of mankind; every colony of serfs, even, had its priest. It was
+the most popular and most accessible society of the time, the most open
+to all talents and all noble ambitions. But, on the other hand, it
+failed in that all-important requisite of good government, respect for
+liberty. It denied the rights of individual reason in spiritual matters,
+and it claimed the right to compel belief--a claim that placed it in
+some dependence upon the temporal powers, since as a purely spiritual
+body, governing by influence and not by force, it could not persecute
+without the aid of the secular arm.
+
+To sum up, the Church exerted an immense and on the whole a beneficent
+influence on ideas, sentiments, and conduct; but from the political
+point of view the Church was nearly always the interpreter and defender
+of the theocratic system and the Roman Imperial system--that is, of
+religious and civil despotism.
+
+
+_IV.--The Towns_
+
+
+Like the Church, the municipalities survived the downfall of the Roman
+empire. Their history varied greatly in different parts of Europe, but
+none the less some observations can be made that are broadly accurate
+with respect to most of them.
+
+From the fifth to the tenth century, the state of the towns was a state
+neither of servitude nor of liberty. They suffered all the woes that are
+the fate of the weak; they were the prey of continual violence and
+depredation; yet, in spite of the fearful disorders of the time, they
+preserved a certain importance. When feudalism was established, the
+towns lost such independence as they had possessed; they found
+themselves under the heel of feudal chiefs. But feudalism did bring
+about a sort of peace, a sort of order; and with the slightest gleam of
+peace and order a man's hope revives, and on the revival of hope he
+takes to work. So it was with the towns. New wants were created;
+commerce and industry arose to satisfy them; wealth and population
+slowly returned.
+
+But industry and commerce were absolutely without security; the townsmen
+were exposed to merciless extortion and plundering at the hands of their
+feudal overlords. Nothing irritates a man more than to be harassed in
+his toil, thus deprived of its promised fruits. The only way in which
+the towns could defend themselves from the violence of their masters was
+by using violence themselves. So in the eleventh century we find town
+after town rising in revolt against its despot, and winning from him a
+charter of liberty.
+
+Although the insurrection was in a sense general, it was in no way
+concerted--it was not a rising of the combined citizens against the
+combined feudal aristocracy. All the towns found themselves exposed to
+much the same evils, and rescued themselves in much the same manner. But
+each town acted for itself--did not go to the help of any other town.
+Hence these detached communities had no ambitions, no aspirations to
+national importance; their outlook was limited to themselves. But at the
+same time the emancipation of the towns created a new class, a class of
+citizens engaged in the same pursuits, with the same interests and the
+same modes of life; a class that would in time unite and assert itself,
+and prevent the domination of a single order of society that has been
+the curse of Asia.
+
+Although it may be broadly asserted that the emancipation did not alter
+the relations of the citizens with the general government, that
+assertion must be modified in one respect. A link was established
+between the citizens and the king. Sometimes they appealed for his aid
+against their lord, sometimes the lord invoked him as judge; in one way
+or another a relation was established between the king and the towns,
+and the citizens thus came into touch with the centre of the State.
+
+
+_V.--The Crusades_
+
+
+From the fifth to the twelfth century, society, as we have seen,
+contained kings, a lay aristocracy, a clergy, citizens, peasantry, the
+germs, in fact, of all that goes to make a nation and a government;
+yet--no government, no nation. We have come across a multitude of
+particular forces, of local institutions, but nothing general, nothing
+public, nothing properly speaking political.
+
+In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the contrary, all the
+classes and the particular forces have taken a secondary place, are
+shadowy and almost effaced; the stage of the world is occupied by two
+great figures, government and people.
+
+Here, if I am not mistaken, is the essential distinction between
+primitive Europe and modern Europe. Here is the change that was
+accomplished in the period extending from the thirteenth to the
+sixteenth century. Viewed by itself, that period seems a characterless
+one of confusion without cause, of movement without direction, of
+agitation without result. Yet, in relation to the period that followed,
+this period had a tendency and a progress of its own; it slowly
+accomplished a vast work. It was the second period of European
+civilisation--the period of attempt and experiment, succeeding that of
+origins and formation, and preparing the way for that of development
+properly so called.
+
+The first great event of this period was the Crusades--a universal
+movement of all classes and all countries in moral unity--the truly
+heroic event of Europe. Besides the religious impulse that led to the
+Crusades, there was another impulse. They gave to me an opportunity of
+widening their horizons, of indulging the taste for movement and
+adventure. The opportunity, thus freely taken, changed the face of
+society. Men's minds were opened, their ideas were extended, by contact
+with other races; European society was dragged out of the groove along
+which it had been travelling. Religious ideas remained unchanged, but
+religious beliefs were no longer the only sphere in which the human
+intellect exercised itself. The moral state of Europe was profoundly
+modified.
+
+The social state underwent a similar change. Many of the smaller feudal
+lords sold their fiefs, or impoverished themselves by crusading, or lost
+much of their power during their absence. Property and power came into
+fewer hands; society was more centralised, no longer dispersed as it
+formerly was. The citizens, on their part, were no longer content with
+local industry and trade; they entered upon commerce on a grander scale
+with countries oversea. Petty influence yielded place to larger
+influences; the small existences grouped themselves round the great. By
+the end of the Crusades, the march of society towards centralisation was
+in steady progress.
+
+
+_VI.--The Age of Centralisation_
+
+
+Already, in the twelfth century, a new idea of kingship had begun, very
+faintly, to make its appearance. In most European countries the king,
+under the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his
+headship. But there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and
+somebody bore the title of king; and society, striving to escape from
+feudal violence and to get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to
+the king in an experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could
+do. Gradually there developed the idea of the king as the protector of
+public order and justice and of the common interest as the paramount
+magistrate--the idea that changed Europe society from a series of
+classes into a group of centralised States.
+
+But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
+These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance,
+or it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To
+the first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over
+Europe that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three
+reasons--because Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal
+administrative force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed
+by the feudal aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy
+prevented the formation of a caste capable of theocratic organisation.
+Attempts at democracy were made, for a time with apparent means, by the
+Italian civic republics; but they were a prey to internal disorder,
+their government tended to become oligarchical, and their incapacity for
+uniting among themselves made them the victims of foreign invaders. The
+Swiss Republican organisation was more successful, but became
+aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the towns of Flanders and
+the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved their privileges,
+but remained confined within their walls.
+
+The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
+States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and
+the Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were
+ineffective and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was
+to preserve in a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of
+England were exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a
+mode of government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in
+practice.
+
+Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
+the war of independence against England brought a sense of national
+unity and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown, and the central
+power made dominant, by the policy of Louis XI. Similar effects were
+brought about in Spain by the war against the Moors and the rule of
+Ferdinand. In England feudalism was destroyed by the Wars of the Roses,
+and was succeeded by the Tudor despotism. In Germany, the House of
+Austria began its long ascendancy. Thus in the fifteenth century the new
+principles prevailed; the old forms, the old liberties were swept aside
+to make way for centralised government under absolute rulers.
+
+At the same time another new fact entered into European history. The
+kings began to enter into relations with each other, to form alliances;
+diplomacy was created. Since it is in the nature of diplomacy to be
+conducted more or less secretly by a few persons, and since the peoples
+did not and would not greatly concern themselves in it, this development
+was favourable to the strengthening of royalty.
+
+
+_VII.--The Spiritual Revolt_
+
+
+Although the Church until the sixteenth century had successfully
+suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
+men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous
+impetus from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth
+century upon ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order
+are presented during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the
+councils of Constance and Bale to reform the Church from within; the
+most notable of which was that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual
+revolution that accompanied the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared
+for the event that was inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at
+Wittenberg in 1520.
+
+The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
+accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome
+of a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a
+revolt of the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs.
+The minds of men were during the sixteenth century in energetic
+movement, consumed by desire for progress; the Church had become inert
+and stationary, yet it maintained all its pretensions and external
+importance. The Church, indeed, was less tyrannical than it had formerly
+been, and not more corrupt. But it had not advanced; it had lost touch
+with human thought.
+
+The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
+where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
+resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and
+activity of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human
+spirit. It accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would
+have desired. It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision
+between temporal absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and
+did come.
+
+Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
+movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
+properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
+aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
+monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out
+against absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil
+societies have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical
+society has always been the first to be changed.
+
+We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
+the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
+centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century
+the two principles were for the first time to be opposed.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Political Revolt_
+
+
+Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
+exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there
+had in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete;
+the Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had
+formerly denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil
+liberty that were stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of
+action in the old institution of the country--the charter, the
+Parliament, the laws, the precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental
+countries had no such means of action, and led to nothing.
+
+Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
+religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty
+and the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces.
+For the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious
+party, it was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political
+party took the lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that
+the reformers finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute
+power spiritual and temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in
+that year brought England into the great struggle that was raging on the
+Continent between the principle of despotism and the principle of
+freedom.
+
+England differed from other European countries in that the essential
+diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than
+anywhere else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it
+was overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others
+were strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her
+nobles and commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe
+lagged behind England in civil freedom. But there was another
+reason--the influence of France.
+
+During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
+in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth
+century, French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it
+was unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes
+supposed, adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim
+was the strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
+planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
+despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as
+the most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.
+
+Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
+degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be
+maintained without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The
+rule of Louis XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no
+roots. The decrepit remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought
+face to face with a society in which free examination and free
+speculation had been carried to lengths never imagined before. Freedom
+of thought once came to grips with absolute power.
+
+Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
+speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
+upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by
+this grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the
+insurmountable evil of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of
+a despot like Louis XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit
+that prevailed at the Revolution. Each human power has in itself a
+natural vice, a principle of weakness, to which there has to be assigned
+a limit. It is only by general liberty of all rights, interests and
+opinions that each power can be restrained within its legitimate bounds,
+and intellectual freedom enabled to exist genuinely and to the advantage
+of the whole community.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY HALLAM
+
+
+View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9, 1777,
+     at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of
+     Bristol. Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was
+     called to the English bar, but devoted himself to the study
+     and writing of history. He received an appointment in the
+     Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed him in
+     comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur
+     Henry, who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's
+     "In Memoriam." Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried
+     at Clevedon, Somersetshire. The "View of the State of Europe
+     during the Middle Ages," commonly known as Hallam's "Middle
+     Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was already
+     well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
+     first important work. It is a study of the period from the
+     appearance of Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the
+     Franks, to the close of the Middle Ages, the arbitrary
+     dividing line being drawn at the invasion of Italy by Charles
+     VIII. of France.
+
+
+_I.--France_
+
+
+The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
+Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
+degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors
+of the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
+Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
+deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
+overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.
+
+Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
+Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended
+his power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person
+the Roman empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on
+Christmas Day A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces
+under his successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition
+amongst brothers.
+
+France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
+Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany
+was completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced
+by Hugh Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the
+House of Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories
+until the reign of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his
+own hands the greater part of the immense territories held by the kings
+of England as French feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of
+Philip Augustus was succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose
+admirable character enabled him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy
+over the imagination of his people. In spite of the disastrous failure
+of his crusading expeditions, the aggrandisement of the crown continued,
+especially under Philip the Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs
+after the successive reigns of his three sons placed Philip of Valois on
+the throne according to the "Salic" law of succession in 1328.
+
+On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
+the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
+pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
+qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of
+England, and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English
+successes. After the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and
+the English lost their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the
+throne disaster followed. France was rent by the rival factions of
+Burgundy and Orleans, the latter taking its more familiar name from the
+Court of Armagnac. The troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
+prevented England from taking advantage of these dissensions; but Henry
+V. renewed the war, winning the battle of Agincourt in his first
+campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes on his second invasion. After
+his death came that most marvellous revolution wrought by Joan of Arc,
+and the expulsion of the English from the country.
+
+In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
+the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of
+the long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted
+against the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for
+himself sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was
+secured when his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the
+Duchess Anne.
+
+The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
+of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
+Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
+followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the
+king's vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
+subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
+protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
+neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
+essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
+confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
+conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
+capable of conversion into money payments.
+
+Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
+of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings.
+A close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed
+by the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same
+position as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in
+many cases commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were
+freemen, and the remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It
+was not impossible for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the
+privileges possessed by the vassals of the Crown were scarcely
+consistent with the sovereignty. Such were the rights of coining money,
+of private war, and of immunity from taxation.
+
+Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
+supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons.
+It was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in
+the fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced
+the general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon
+claimed the right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing
+forward grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid
+convocation of the States General by obtaining grants from provincial
+assemblies of the Three Estates.
+
+The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
+feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according
+to recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat.
+The Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the
+establishment of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a
+supreme Court of Peers to whom were added the king's household officers.
+The peers ceased by degrees to attend this court, while the Crown
+multiplied the councillors of inferior rank; and this body became known
+as the Parliament of Paris--in effect an assembly of lawyers.
+
+The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
+of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
+especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
+principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military
+service for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.
+
+
+_II.--Italy and Spain_
+
+
+After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
+revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial
+supremacy was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman
+emperor. Italian unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy
+offended Italy. Still from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election
+of the King of Germany was assumed, at least my him, to convey the
+sovereignty of Italy. In the eleventh century Norman adventurers made
+themselves masters of Sicily and Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on
+the other hand the emperors favoured the development of free cities,
+owning only the imperial sovereignty and tending to self-government on
+Republican lines. The appearance on the scene in the twelfth century of
+the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a period characterised by a
+three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the northern cities for
+independence; the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the
+Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the kingdom of Naples
+to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first quarrels with Milan
+led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long war in which the
+battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive victory. The mutual
+rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from turning this to
+good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a child of four
+when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his mother to
+that of Sicily.
+
+It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
+temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
+Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire,
+were established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the
+young Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the
+Papacy which ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this
+time the quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere
+family feuds resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as
+Papal champion; the republics of the North were in effect controlled by
+despots for a brief moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the
+leadership of Rienzi. In the general chaos the principle interest
+attaches to the peculiar but highly complicated form of democracy
+developed in Florence, where the old Patrician families were virtually
+disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was the state of Florence, the
+records certainly point to the conditions having been far worse in the
+cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.
+
+Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
+given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
+position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
+cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her
+commerce by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the
+taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became
+effectively Queen of the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern
+Mediterranean. In effect her government was a close oligarchy; possessed
+of complete control over elections which in theory were originally
+popular. The oligarchy reached its highest and narrowest development
+with the institution of the famous Council of Ten.
+
+Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
+was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
+overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
+the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It
+was not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the
+Crown of Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert
+successfully a claim to Naples.
+
+When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
+dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of
+the greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the
+more northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which
+were developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon.
+Frontier towns acquired large liberties while they were practically
+responsible for defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century
+great territories were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased
+as the Moors were reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the
+fourteenth century the struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and
+his brother established the house of Trastamare on the throne. The
+Crowns of Castille and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella
+and Ferdinand.
+
+The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
+Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however,
+the "Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number
+of these was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation
+through representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made
+nor annulled except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was
+varied by the claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when
+matters were conducted in a fashion of which they disapproved.
+
+The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
+Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects
+counterbalanced the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.
+
+
+_III.--The German Empire and the Papacy_
+
+
+When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
+five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
+Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
+generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction
+of their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which
+came into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the
+extinction of this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the
+partisans of the Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and
+Welfs,--the origin of the Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House,
+the Hohenstauffen, gained the ascendancy in the person of Frederick
+Barbarossa. The lineal representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found
+to-day in the House of Brunswick.
+
+The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
+history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of
+election of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming
+established. There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne,
+the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of
+Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects,
+however, several other dukes and princes were at least on an equality
+with the electors.
+
+In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
+some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of
+Austria, Bavaria, or Luxemburg.
+
+Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
+territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
+authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
+1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
+that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free
+cities. Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period
+mainly by Maximilian.
+
+The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
+a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook
+Mohammedanism. Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at
+first to strengthen its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but
+the so-called fourth crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one
+with no elements of permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established,
+and the crusading spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the
+Byzantine Princes were left to cope with the Turks single handed, and
+the last of the Cæsars died heroically when the Ottomans captured
+Constantinople in 1453.
+
+Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
+Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively
+late period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not
+infrequently the Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was
+more than recovered by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were
+almost exempt from civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive
+authority in matters of religion. The state, however, maintained its
+temporal supremacy. When the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed
+ecclesiastical influence increased.
+
+It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
+supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
+after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak
+kings to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority
+developed and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication
+and interdict.
+
+A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
+close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the
+Papacy by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution
+of Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the
+complete supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused
+to recognise the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical
+appointments within their own dominions; and he emphasised the
+distinction between the priesthood, as a cast having divine authority,
+and the laity, by enforcing with the utmost strictness the
+ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which completely separates the churchman
+from the normal interests and ambitions which actuate the layman.
+
+In the contest between Gregory and the emperor, it seemed for the moment
+as if the secular power had won the victory; but, in fact, throughout
+the twelfth century; the claims which Gregory had put forward were
+becoming practically effective partly from the great influence exercised
+through the Crusades. These Papal pretensions reached their climax in
+the great Pope Innocent III., who asserted with practical success the
+right to pronounce absolutely on all disputes between princes or between
+princes and their subjects, and to depose those who rejected his
+authority. Throughout the thirteenth century Rome was once more mistress
+of the world.
+
+The Church derived great influence from the institution of mendicant
+orders, especially those of St. Dominic and St. Francis which recovered
+much of the esteem forfeited by the old Monastic orders. Another
+instrument of Papal influence was the power of granting dispensations
+both with regard to marriages and as to the keeping of oaths. If the
+clergy were free for the most part from civil taxation, they were
+nevertheless severely mulcted by the Papacy. The ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction encroached upon the secular tribunals; the classes of
+persons with respect to whom it claimed exclusive authority were
+persistently extended, in spite of the opposition of such Princes as
+Henry II. and Edward I.
+
+At last, however, the Papal aggressor met his match in Philip the Fair.
+When Boniface VIII. died, his successors first submitted to the French
+monarchy and then became its nominees; while they resided at Avignon,
+virtually under French control. The restoration of the pontificate to
+Rome in 1375 was shortly followed by the Great Schism. For some years
+there were two rival Popes, each of whom was recognised by one or the
+other half of Western Christendom. This was terminated by the Council of
+Constance, which incidentally affirmed the supremacy of general councils
+over the Pope. The following council at Basle was distinctly anti-papal;
+but the Papacy had the better of the contest.
+
+
+_IV.--England_
+
+
+The Anglo-Saxon polity limited the succession of the Crown to a
+particular house but allowed a latitude of choice within that house. The
+community was divided into Thames or gentry, Ceorls or freemen, and
+serfs. The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as
+villeinage. The composition of the king's great council called the
+Witenagemot is doubtful. The country was divided into shires, the shire
+into districts called hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. There
+appears to be no adequate authority for the idea that trial by jury was
+practised; the prevailing characteristic of justice was the system of
+penalty by fine, and the responsibility of the tithing for the misdeeds
+of any of its members. There is no direct evidence as to the extent to
+which feudal tenures were beginning to be established before the Norman
+conquest.
+
+The Norman conquest involved a vast confiscation of property and the
+exclusion of the native English from political privileges. The feudal
+system of land tenure was established; but its political aspect here and
+in France was quite different. There were no barons with territories
+comparable to those of the great French feudataries. That the government
+was extremely tyrannical is certain. The Crown derived its revenues from
+feudal dues, customs duties, tallages--that is, special charges on
+particular towns,--and the war tax called the Danegelt; all except the
+first being arbitrary taxes. The violence of King John led to the demand
+of the barons for the Great Charter, the keystone of English liberty,
+securing the persons and property of all freemen from arbitrary
+imprisonment or spoliation. Thenceforth no right of general taxation is
+claimed. The barons held themselves warranted in refusing supplies.
+
+The King's Court was gradually separated into three branches, King's
+Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas. The advance in the study of law had
+the definite effect of establishing a fixed rule of succession to the
+Crown. One point must still be noticed which distinguishes England from
+other European countries; that the law recognises no distinction of
+class among freemen who stand between the peers and villeins.
+
+The reign of Edward I. forms an epoch. The Confirmation of the Charters
+put an end to all arbitrary taxation; and the type of the English
+Parliament was fixed. In the Great Councils the prelates and greater
+barons had assembled, and the lesser barons were also summoned; the term
+baron being equivalent to tenant in chief. A system of representation is
+definitely formulated in Montfort's Parliament of 1265. Whether the
+knights were elected by the freemen of the shire or only by the tenants
+in chief, is not clear. Many towns were self governing--independent,
+that is, of local magnates--under charters from the Crown. Montfort's
+Parliament is the first to which towns sent representatives. Edward
+established the practice in his Model Parliament; probably in order to
+ensure that his demands for money from the towns might in appearance at
+least receive their formal assent.
+
+Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of
+Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the
+illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two
+houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of
+the Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public
+counsellors. Under the second heading is introduced a distinction
+between statutes and ordinances; the latter being of a temporary
+character, and requiring to be confirmed by Parliament before they
+acquire permanent authority. In the next reign the Commons assert the
+right of examining the public expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more
+openly and boldly expressed resentment at the acts of the king's
+ministers and claimed rights of control. For a time, however, the king
+secured supremacy by a coup d'état; which in turn brought about his
+deposition, and the accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness
+of his title to the inheritance of the Crown.
+
+The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably
+redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the
+inclination of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely
+combated. It is also to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of
+war or peace is freely submitted to the approval of Parliament.
+
+This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of
+dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the
+practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked
+sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further
+definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.
+
+At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to
+vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the
+towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members
+were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor
+can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued
+for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower
+clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but
+presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in
+Parliamentary business.
+
+We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The
+court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a
+juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In
+spite of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of
+arbitrary imprisonment.
+
+So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a
+monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular
+courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is
+absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a
+hereditary executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The
+special advantage enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an
+aristocracy with interests antagonistic to those of the people. It would
+be truer to say that the liberties of England were bought by money than
+by the blood of our forefathers.
+
+The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and
+an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time
+of the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382,
+which corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie.
+Sharply though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed
+to have been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is
+here sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a
+statute of Henry VII. that obedience to the _de facto_ government is not
+to be punished on the ground that government is not also _de jure_.
+
+
+_V.--Europe_
+
+
+In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language
+as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters
+was practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost
+exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a
+multitude of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the
+cause of not a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The
+monasteries served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of
+general lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is
+conclusive as to the general corruption of morals among the clergy as
+among the laity. The common diversion of the upper classes, lay and
+clerical, when not engaged in actual war, was hunting. An extended
+commerce was impossible when robbery was a normal occupation of the
+great.
+
+Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce
+developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the
+Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the
+manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the
+fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen
+manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great
+Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and
+Southern areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century,
+by which time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic
+in the Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a
+less degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard,
+developed a large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was
+sufficiently difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on
+the sea, and piracy was extremely prevalent.
+
+Governments as well as private persons were under a frequent necessity
+of borrowing, and for a long time the great money lenders were the Jews.
+They, however, were later to a great extent displaced by the merchants
+of Lombardy, and the fifteenth century witnesses the rise of the great
+bankers, Italian and German.
+
+The structure and furniture of all buildings for private purposes made
+exceedingly little provision for comfort, offering an extreme contrast
+to the dignity of the public buildings and the sublimity of
+ecclesiastical architecture.
+
+During the last three hundred years of our period it is clear that there
+was a great diminution of the status of servitude and a great increase
+in the privileges extended to corporate towns. Private warfare was
+checked and lawless robbery to a considerable extent restrained. It is
+tolerably clear that the rise of heretical sects were both the cause and
+the result of moral dissatisfaction, tending to the adoption of higher
+moral standards. Some of these sects were cruelly crushed by merciless
+persecution, as in the case of the Albigenses. The doctrines of
+Wickliffe, however, were never stamped out in England; and the form
+which they took in Bohemia among the followers of the martyred John Huss
+had little about them that was beneficial.
+
+The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
+chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour.
+To this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the
+Crusades. To valour and devotion was added the law of service to
+womanhood, and chivalry may fairly claim to have developed generally the
+three virtues essential to it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality.
+Resting, however, as it did on the personal prowess and skill of the
+individual in single combat, the whole system of chivalry was destroyed
+by the introduction on an extensive scale of the use of firearms.
+
+We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
+four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities;
+the application of modern languages to literature, and especially to
+poetry; and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be
+said to have begun with the establishment of the great schools by
+Charlemagne out of which sprang the European universities. For a long
+time of course all studies were dominated by that of theology, and the
+scholastic philosophy which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits
+were, they kept alive an intellectual activity which ultimately found
+fresh channels. The Romance languages developed a new literature first
+on the tongues of the troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which
+gave birth to Dante and Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century
+that a new enthusiasm was born for the study of classical authors,
+though Greek was still unknown. And the final and decisive impulse was
+given when the invention of printing made the great multiplication of
+books possible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+STANLEY LANE-POOLE
+
+
+Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied Arabic
+     under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before
+     going up to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of
+     Oriental Coins in the British Museum," which appeared in
+     fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892, and founded his
+     reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
+     numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo
+     officially employed by the British Government upon the
+     Mohammedan antiquities, and published his treatise on "The Art
+     of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year he visited
+     Stockholm, Helsingfors, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and
+     Constantinople to examine their Oriental collections. He has
+     written histories of the "Moors in Spain," "Turkey," "The
+     Barbary Corsairs," and "Mediæval India," which have run to
+     many editions; and biographies of Saladin, Babar, Aurangzib;
+     of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and Sir Harry Parkes. He has
+     also published a miniature Koran in the "Golden Treasury"
+     series, and written "Studies in a Mosque," besides editing
+     three volumes of Lane's "Arabic Lexicon." For five years he
+     held the post of Professor of Arabic at Trinity College,
+     Dublin, of which he is Litt.D. Mohammedan Egypt, his special
+     subject, he has treated in several books on Cairo, the latest
+     being "The Story of Cairo." But his most complete work on this
+     subject is "The History of Egypt in the Middle Ages," here
+     epitomised by the author.
+
+
+_I.--A Province of the Caliphate_
+
+
+Ever since the Arab conquest in 641 Egypt has been ruled by Mohammedans,
+and for more than half the time by men of Turkish race. Though now and
+again a strong man has gathered all the reins of control into his own
+hands and been for a time a personal monarch, as a rule the government
+has been, till recent years, a military bureaucracy.
+
+The people, of course, had no voice in the government. The Egyptians
+have never been a self-governing race, and such a dream as
+constitutional democracy was never heard of until a few years ago. By
+the Arab conquest in the seventh century the people merely changed
+masters. They were probably not indisposed to welcome the Moslems as
+their deliverers from the tyranny of the Orthodox Church of the East
+Roman or Byzantine Empire, invincibly intolerant of the native
+monophysite heresy; and when the conquest was complete they found
+themselves, on the whole, better off than before. They paid their taxes
+to officials with Arabic instead of Greek titles, but the taxes were
+lighter and the amount was strictly laid down by law.
+
+The land-tax of about a pound per acre was not excessive on so fertile a
+soil, and the poll-tax on nonconformity, of the same amount, was a
+moderate price to pay for entire liberty of conscience and freedom in
+public worship guaranteed by solemn treaty. The other taxes were
+comparatively insignificant, and the total revenue in the eighth century
+was about £7,000,000. The surplus went to the caliph, the head of the
+vast Mohammedan empire, which then stretched from Seville to Samarkand,
+whose capital was first Damascus and afterwards Baghdad.
+
+For over 200 years (till 868) Egypt was a mere province of this huge
+caliphate, and was governed, like other provinces, with a sole view to
+revenue. "Milk till the udder be dry and let blood to the last drop" was
+a caliph's instructions to a governor of Egypt. As these governors were
+constantly changed--there were sixty-seven in 118 years under the
+Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad--and as a governor's main object was to "make
+hay while the sun shines," the process of milking the Egyptian cow was
+often accelerated by illegal extortion, and the governor's harvest was
+reaped before it was due. Illegality was, however, checked to some
+extent by the generally wise and just influence of the chief justice, or
+kadi, whose probity often formed the best feature of the Arab government
+in Egypt.
+
+Nor did the caliphs extort taxes without giving something in return. The
+development of irrigation works was always a main consideration with the
+early Mohammedan rules, from Spain to India, and in Egypt, where
+irrigation is the country's very life, it was specially cared for, with
+a corresponding increase in the yield. Moreover, the governors usually
+held to the agreement that the Christians should have liberty of
+conscience, and protected them from the Moslem soldiery. As time went
+on, this toleration abated, partly because the Moslems had gradually
+become the predominant population. At the beginning the caliphs had
+taken anxious precautions against the colonising of Egypt; they held it
+by an army, but they were insistent that the army should not take root,
+but be always free to join the caliph's standard. But it was inevitable
+that the Arabs should settle in so fertile and pleasant a land. Each
+governor brought a small army as his escort, and these Arab troops
+naturally intermarried with Egyptian women, who were constitutionally
+inclined to such alliances. A few Arab tribes also settled in Egypt.
+
+This gradual and undesigned Arabising of the country would lead to
+oppression of the Christians, to the "squeezing" of wealthy natives, and
+occasionally to the institution of humiliating distinctions of dress and
+other vexations, and even to the spoiling of Coptic churches. Then
+sometimes the Copts, as the Egyptian Christians are called, would rebel.
+Their last and greatest rebellion, which occurred in the Delta in
+830-832, was ruthlessly trampled out by Turkish troops under Mamun, the
+only Abbasid caliph who made a visit to Egypt. Many Copts now
+apostatised, and from this time dates the predominance of the Moslem
+population and the settling of Arabs in the villages and on the land,
+instead of as heretofore only in the two or three large towns.
+
+The coming of the Turkish troops with the caliph Mamun was an ominous
+event for the country. Up to 846 all the successive governors had been
+Arabs, and many of them were related to the caliphs themselves. With
+some unfortunate exceptions, they seem to have been men of simple
+habits--the Arabs were never luxurious--and usually of strict Mohammedan
+principles. They made money, honestly if possible, during their brief
+tenure; but they did not harass the people much by their personal
+interference, and left the local officials to manage matters in their
+own way, as had always been the custom. They lived at the new capital,
+Fustat, which grew up on the site of the conqueror's camp, and very near
+the modern Cairo; for Alexandria, the symbol of Roman domination, was
+dismantled in 645 after the Emperor Manuel's attempt at reconquest. If
+they did not do much active good, they did little harm, and Egypt
+pursued her immemorial ways.
+
+The last Arab governor, Anbasa, was a man of fine character, and his
+term of office was distinguished by the building of the fort of
+Damietta, as a protection against Roman raids, and by a defeat of the
+tributary Sudanis near Dongola.
+
+
+_II.--Turkish Governors_
+
+
+The Arabs have neither the ferocity nor the luxuriousness, nor, it
+should be added, the courage and the genius for administration of the
+Turkish race. In the arrival of Turkish troops in 830 we see a symptom
+of what was going on all over the eastern caliphate. Turks were taking
+the place of Arabs in the army and the provincial governments, just as
+the Persians were filling up the civil appointments. The caliph's
+Turkish bodyguard was the beginning of the dismemberment of the
+caliphate. It became the habit of the caliphs to grant the government of
+Egypt, as a sort of fief, to a leading Turkish officer, who usually
+appointed a deputy to do his work and to pay him the surplus revenue.
+Such a deputy was Ahmad-ibn-Tulun (868-884), the first of the many
+Turkish despots of Egypt. Ibn-Tulun was the first ruler to raise Egypt
+from a mere tax-paying appendage of the caliphate to a kingdom,
+independent save for the recognition of the caliph on the coinage, and
+he was the first to found a Moslem dynasty there. A man of fair
+Mohammedan education, iron will, and ubiquitous personal attention to
+affairs, he added Syria to his dominions, defeated the East Romans with
+vast slaughter near Tarsus (883), kept an army of 30,000 Turkish slaves
+and a fleet of a hundred fighting ships.
+
+He beautified his capital by building a sumptuous palace and his
+well-known mosque, which still stands in his new royal suburb of Katai;
+he encouraged the small farmers and reduced the taxation, yet he left
+five millions in the treasury when he died in 884. His son maintained
+his power, and more than his luxury and artistic extravagance; but there
+were no elements of stability in the dynasty, which depended solely upon
+the character of the ruler. The next generation saw Egypt once more
+(905) a mere province of the caliphate, but with this difference, that
+its governors were now Turks, generally under the control of their own
+soldiery, and much less dependent upon the ever-weakening power of the
+Caliph of Baghdad. One of them, the Ikhshid, in 935 emulated Ibn-Tulun
+and united part of Syria to Egypt; but the sons he left were almost
+children, and the power fell into the hands of the regent Kafur, a black
+eunuch from the Sudan, bought for £25, who combined a luxurious and
+cultivated court with some military successes and real administrative
+capacity.
+
+
+_III.--The Fatimid Caliphs_
+
+
+The Mohammedan world is roughly divided into Sunnis and Shia. The Shia
+are the idealists, the mystics of Islam; the Sunnis are the formalists,
+the schoolmen. The Shia trace an apostolic succession from Ali, the
+husband of the prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima, hold doctrines of
+immanence and illumination, adopt an allegorical interpretation of
+scripture, and believe in the coming of a Mahdi or Messiah. The Sunnis
+adhere to the elective historical caliphate descended from Mohammed's
+uncle, maintain the eternal uncreated sufficiency of the Koran,
+literally interpreted, and believe in no Messiah save Mohammed.
+
+The Shia, whatever their racial origin, form the Persian, the Aryan,
+adaptation of Islam, which is an essentially Semitic creed. In the tenth
+century they had established a caliph among the Berbers at Kayrawan
+(908). They had thence invaded Egypt with temporary success in 914 and
+919. When the death of Kafur in 968 left the country a prey to rival
+military factions, the fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the
+Fatimid caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from
+Fatima--sent his army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the
+sport of Turkish mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just
+as the Copts had welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the
+Fatimid general, entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a
+name still applied both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations
+in 969, and immediately laid the foundations of the fortified palace
+which he named, astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir),
+El-Kahira, "the Martial," or "the Victorious," which gradually expanded
+to the city of Cairo. He also founded the great historic university
+mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by the heretical Shia, became the
+bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the theological centre of orthodox
+Islam.
+
+The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
+Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like
+the Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and
+recognised the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of
+their hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force
+extreme Shia doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with
+its graduated stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they
+were content to add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary
+Mohammedan ritual, and to set them conspicuously on their coinage,
+without entering upon a propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems
+apparently preserved their orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate
+for two centuries with traditional composure. The Christian Copts found
+the new _régime_ a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
+in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with
+the local heads of the Christian religion.
+
+The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
+Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
+attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
+Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
+Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly
+due, of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and
+accountants, for Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had
+rest under this wise and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example
+in his luxury and love of display, he unquestionably maintained law,
+enforced equity, punished corruption, and valiantly defended his
+kingdom. He fitted out a fleet of 600 sail at Maks (then the port of
+Cairo, on the Nile), which kept the Emperor Basil at a distance and
+assured the caliph's ascendancy from end to end of the Mediterranean
+Sea.
+
+After these two great rulers the Fatimid caliphate subsisted for nearly
+two centuries by no virtue or energy of its own. The caliphs lived
+secluded, like veiled prophets, in their huge palace at Cairo, given
+over to sensual delights (Saladin found 12,000 women in the Great Palace
+when he entered it in 1171), and wholly regardless of their kingdom,
+which they left to the care of vezirs, who were chiefly bent on making
+their own fortunes, though there were many able, and a few honest men
+amongst them. The real power rested with the army, and the only check
+upon the tyranny and debauchery of the army lay in its own jealous
+divisions. The fanatical Berber regiments imported from Tunis, the
+bloody blacks recruited in the Sudan, and the mutinous Turkish troops
+long established in the country, were always at daggers drawn, and their
+rivalry was the vezirs' opportunity. In such anarchy the country fell
+from bad to worse.
+
+The reign of Hakim, the frantic son of Aziz and his Christian wife, was
+a personal despotism of the most eccentric kind, marked by apparently
+unreasonable regulations, such as keeping the shops open by night
+instead of by day, and confining all women to the house for seven years,
+as well as by intermittent persecution of Christians and Jews; and also
+by enlightened acts, such as the founding of the Hall of Science and the
+building of mosques, for all the Fatimides were friends to the arts; and
+ending in the proclamation of Hakim as the incarnation of the Divine
+Reason, in which capacity he is still adored by the Druses of the
+Lebanon. This assumption led to popular tumults and an orgy of carnage,
+in the midst of which Hakim mysteriously disappeared (1021).
+
+His successors, Zahir (1021-1036), and Mustansir (1036-1096) did nothing
+to retrieve the anarchic situation, of which the soldiers were the
+unruly masters. Palace cliques, disastrous famines (one of which lasted
+seven years, 1066-1072, and even led to the public selling of human
+joints as butcher's meat), slave, or rather freedmen's, revolts,
+military tumults, and the occasional temporary ascendancy of a talented
+vezir, sum up the history of Egypt during most of the eleventh century.
+The wisdom and firmness of two great Armenian vezirs, Bedr-el-Gemali
+(1073-1094) and his son Afdal (1094-1121), brought a large degree of
+order, but the last years of the Fatimid caliphate were blotted by
+savage murders both of caliphs and vezirs, and by the loss of their
+Syrian dominions to Seljuks and Crusaders.
+
+
+_IV.--The House of Saladin_
+
+
+It was a question whether Egypt would fall to the Christian king of
+Jerusalem or the Moslem king of Damascus; but, after several invasions
+by both, Nur-ed-din settled the problem by sending his Syrian army to
+Cairo in 1169, when the Crusaders withdrew without offering battle, and
+the Fatimid caliphate came to an end in 1171.
+
+On the Syrian general's death, two months after the conquest, his
+nephew, Salah-ed-din ibn-Ayyub (Saladin), succeeded to the vezirate, and
+after Nur-ed-din's death, in 1174, he made himself independent sultan,
+not only of Egypt but of Syria and Mesopotamia. Saladin was a Kurd from
+the Tigris districts; but his training and his following were purely
+Turkish, moulded on the Seljuk model, and recruited largely from the
+Seljuk lands. His fame was won outside Egypt, and only eight of the
+twenty-four years of his reign were spent in Cairo; the rest was passed
+in waging wars in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, culminating in the
+catastrophic defeat of the Crusaders near Tiberias in 1187, and the
+conquest of Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land.
+
+The famous crusade of Richard I., though it resulted only in recovering
+a strip of coast from Acre to Jaffa, and did not rescue Jerusalem, wore
+out Saladin's strength, and in 1193 the chivalrous and magnanimous
+"Soldan" died. In Egypt his chief work, after repressing revolts of
+black troops and Shia conspiracies, and repelling successive naval
+attacks on Damietta and Alexandria by the Eastern emperor and the kings
+of Jerusalem and Sicily, was the building of the Citadel of Cairo after
+the model of Norman fortresses in Syria, and the encouragement of Sunni
+orthodoxy by the founding and endowment of medresas, or theological
+colleges. The people, who had never been really converted to the Fatimid
+creed, accepted the latest reformation with their habitual nonchalance.
+This was really the greatest achievement of Saladin and his house. Cairo
+succeeded to Baghdad and Cordova as the true metropolis of Islam, and
+Egypt has remained true to the most narrow school of orthodoxy ever
+since.
+
+Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
+half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
+brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for
+a quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able
+son Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's
+frequent absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the
+discredited Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure
+of Damietta was a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to
+defeat the "Franks" at Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.
+
+On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
+Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with
+him in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to
+Christians, and listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he
+granted trading concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established
+a consulate at Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem
+learning, built colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in
+every way. What had happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the
+Fatimides, was repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne
+successively till 1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade,
+the salvation of Egypt devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves,
+who had formed the _corps d'élite_ of Saladin's army.
+
+
+_V.--The Mamluks_
+
+
+Political women have played a great rôle in Egypt from Hatshepsut and
+Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
+engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
+Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
+Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
+Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
+France.
+
+At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
+she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice
+against a woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and
+a half one Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he
+could, and sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that
+forty-eight sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the
+river," so called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and
+twenty-three Burgis, named after the burg, or citadel, where their
+quarters originally were), succeeded one another from 1250 to 1517, it
+will be seen that their average reign was but three and a half years.
+The throne, in fact, belonged to the man with the longest sword.
+
+The bravest and richest generals and court officials surrounded
+themselves with bands of warrior slaves, and reached a power almost
+equal to the reigning sultan, who was, in fact, only _primus inter
+pares_, and on his death--usually by assassination--they fought for his
+title. All were alike slaves by origin, but this term implied no
+degradation. Any slave with courage and address had the chance of
+becoming a freedman, rising to influence, and climbing into his master's
+seat. Every man was every other man's equal--if he could prove it; but
+the process of proving it often turned Cairo into a shambles.
+
+The Mamluks were physically superb, a race of born soldiers, dashing
+horsemen, skilled leaders, brilliant alike in battle and in all manly
+sports. They were at the same time the most luxurious of men, heavy
+drinkers, debauched sensualists, magnificent in their profusion, in
+their splendid prodigality in works of art and luxury, and in the
+munificence with which they filled their capital with noble monuments of
+the most exquisite Saracenic architecture. Most of the beautiful mosques
+of Cairo were built by these truculent soldiers, all foreigners, chiefly
+Turks, a caste apart, with no thought for the native Egyptians whose
+lands they received as fiefs from the sultan; with no mercy when
+ambition called for secret assassination or wholesale massacre; yet
+fastidious in dress, equipment, and manners, given to superb pageants,
+laborious in business, and fond of music and poetry. Their orthodoxy is
+attested not only by their innumerable religious foundations and
+endowments, but by their importing into Cairo a line of Abbasid
+caliphs--_fainéants_ indeed, but in a manner representative of the great
+caliphs of Baghdad, extinguished by the Mongols in 1258--and in
+maintaining them till the Ottoman sultan usurped their very nominal
+authority as Commanders of the Faithful.
+
+The greatest of all the Mamluks was Beybars (1260-1277). He it was who
+had charged St. Louis's knights at Mansura in 1249, and afterwards
+helped to rout the Mongol hordes at the critical battle of Goliath's
+Spring in 1260; and he was the real founder of the Mamluk empire, and
+organised and consolidated his wide dominions so skilfully and firmly
+that all the follies and jealousies and crimes of his successors could
+not destroy the fabric. He made his army perfect in discipline, built a
+navy, made canals, roads, and bridges, annexed Nubia, organised a
+regular postal service, built fortifications, mosques, colleges, halls
+of justice, and managed everything, from the fourth cataract of the Nile
+and the Holy Cities of Arabia to the Pyramus and the Euphrates, by his
+immense capacity for work and amazing rapidity of movements.
+
+Egypt prospered exceedingly under his just, firm, and capable rule; he
+was severe to immorality and strictly prohibited wine, beer, and
+hashish. He entered into diplomatic relations with European powers to
+the great advantage of his country's trade; and his bravery,
+munificence, and justice have made him a popular hero in Arabic romances
+down to the present day.
+
+None of his successors approached his high example Khalil indeed
+recovered Acre and all that remained of the Crusader's possessions in
+Palestine, and the Mamluks, who never lost their soldierly qualities
+whoever happened to be their nominal ruler, handsomely defeated the
+Mongols again in 1299 and 1303, and for ever saved Egypt from the
+unspeakable curse of a Mongol conquest Nasir, whose reign covers most of
+the first half of the fourteenth century, was a great builder, and so
+were many of the nobles of his court. It was the golden age of Saracenic
+architecture, and Cairo is still full of the monuments of Nasir's emirs.
+He encouraged agriculture, stockbreeding, farming, falconry, as well as
+literature and art, everything, in short, except vice, wine, and
+Christians.
+
+The Burgi, or Circassian Mamluks (1382-1517), were little more than
+chief among the emirs. Widespread corruption, the open sale of high
+offices and of "justice," and general debauchery characterised their
+rule. Yet they built many of the loveliest mosques in Cairo, and the
+conquest of Cyprus, long a nest of Mediterranean piracy, by Bars Bey in
+1426 may be added to their credit. Kait Bey (1468-1496) was a great
+builder, and in every way a wise, brave, and energetic, public-spirited
+sovereign, and was an exception to the general baseness.
+
+Egypt was rich in his day. The European trade had swelled enormously,
+and the duties brought in a prodigious revenue. The Italian Republics
+had their consulates or their marts in Alexandria, and Marseilles,
+Narbonne, and Catalonia sent their representatives. The Indian trade was
+also very considerable; we read of £36,000 paid at one time in customs
+dues at Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan
+took toll on every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in
+the palmy days that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route
+in 1497. It was an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not
+resigned without a struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off
+Chaul in the Bay of Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida
+avenged the honour of his country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral
+Hoseyn off Diu in the following year, and the prolific transit trade of
+Egypt was to a great extent lost.
+
+This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
+dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
+defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion.
+But the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of
+Constantinople in 1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and,
+after defeating the shah of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt
+was only a matter of time. The victory was made easier by jealousies and
+treachery among the Mamluks. Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant
+troops in a battle near Aleppo in August 1516; a last desperate stand of
+the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill at Cairo in January 1517, was
+overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a province of the Turkish empire.
+Such it remains, formally, to this day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
+
+
+Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
+
+
+     Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the most
+     celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
+     Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period
+     of English history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain
+     from the earliest times, and carried on until the reign of
+     Elizabeth, in the course of which, between 1580 and 1584,
+     Holinshed died. The work did good service to Shakespeare, who
+     drew from it much of the material for his historical plays.
+     The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
+     another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John
+     Hooker and others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the
+     foreword to which the "Chronicles" are described as containing
+     "the most curious and authentic account of the manners and
+     customs of our island in the reign of Henry VIII. and
+     Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer
+     this is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope
+     of this work, it is impossible to convey an impression of the
+     whole, which is best represented by means of selected examples
+     of the chronicler's method. Being the work of so many
+     different authors, the literary quality of the "Chronicles"
+     naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
+     them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs
+     of early England.
+
+
+_I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William Brooke,
+Knight_
+
+
+Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
+down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed
+in the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to
+yeeld to their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I
+condescended to it, and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good,
+although no gaie success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor
+regard the substance of that which is here declared, I must needs
+confess that it is none of mine owne; but if your lordship have
+consideration of the barbarous composition shewed herein, that I may
+boldlie claim and challenge for mine owne. Certes, I protest before God
+and your Honor, that I never made any choise of stile, or words, neither
+regarded to handle this Treatise in such precise order and method as
+manie other would have done, thinking it sufficient, truelie and
+plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather
+than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre,
+a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable to the reader.
+But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto the truth of
+things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled Treatise of
+mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the self-same
+argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.
+
+
+_II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine_
+
+
+As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
+sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture,
+more or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of
+forreine inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold
+commodities have oft allured sundrie princes and famous capteines of the
+world to conquer and subdue the same unto their owne subjection. Manie
+sorts of people therefore have come in hither and settled themselves
+here in this Ile, and first of all other, a parcell of the lineage and
+posteritie of Japhet, brought in by Samothes, in the 1910 after the
+creation of Adam. Howbeit in process of time, and after they had
+indifferentlie replenished and furnished this Iland with people, Albion,
+the giant, repaired hither with a companie of his owne race proceeding
+from Cham, and not onelie annexed the same to his owne dominion, but
+brought all such as he found here of the line of Japhet, into miserable
+servitude and most extreame thraldome. After him also, and within lesse
+than six hundred and two yeares, came Brute, the son of Sylvius, with a
+great train of the posteritie of the dispersed Trojans in 324 ships; who
+rendering the like courtesie unto Chemminits as they had done before
+unto the seed of Japhet, brought them also wholie under his rule and
+governance, and dispossessing them he divided the countrie among such
+princes and capteines as he had led out of Grecia with him.
+
+Then after some further space of time the Roman Emperours subdued the
+land to their dominion; and after the coming of the Romans, it is hard
+to say with how manie sorts of people we were dailie pestered. For their
+armies did commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I
+may call them) a confused mixture of all other countries and nations
+then living in the world. Howbeit I thinke it best, because they did all
+beare the title of Romans, to retaine onelie that name for them all,
+albeit they were wofull guests to this our Iland: sith that with them
+came all kinds of vice, all riot and excess of behaviour into our
+countrie, which their legions brought with them from each corner of
+their dominions.
+
+Then did follow the Saxons, and the Danes, and at last the Normans, of
+whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to
+our countrymen than the Danes, or more heavie and intollerable to our
+Iland than the Saxons or the Romans. For they were so cruellie bent to
+our utter subversion and overthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse
+reproach to be accounted a slave than an Englishman, or a drudge in anie
+filthie businesse than a Britaine: insomuch that everie French page was
+superiour to the greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishman's life
+but a pastime to such of them as contended in their braverie who should
+give the greatest strokes or wounds unto their bodies when their toiling
+and drudgerie could not please them or satisfie their greedie humours.
+Yet such was our lot in those daies by the divine appointed order, that
+we must needs obey such as the Lord did set pyer us, and this all
+because we refused grace offered in time, and would not heare when God
+by his preachers did call us so favourablie unto him.
+
+By all this then we perceive, how from time to time this Hand hath not
+onelie been a prey, but as it were a common receptacle for strangers,
+the naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter,
+till in the end they came not onelie to be driven into a corner of this
+region, but in time also verie like utterlie to have been extinguished.
+Thus we see how England hath been manie times subject to the reproach of
+conquest. And whereas the Scots seeme to challenge manie famous
+victories also over us, it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in
+this as in the most part of their historie, which is to seeke great
+honour by lying, and great renown by prating and craking. Indeed they
+have done great mischief in this Hand, and with extreime crueltie; but
+as for anie conquest the first is yet to heare of.
+
+But beside those conquests aforementioned, Huntingdon, the old
+historiographer, speaketh of another, likelie (as he saith) to come one
+daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no man to good, sith
+nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger and much cold.
+
+
+_III.--Of King Richard, the First, and his Journie to the Holie Land_
+
+
+Richard the First of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the Second,
+began his reign over England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of our
+Lord 1189. He received the crowne with all due and accustomed
+sollemnitie, at the hands of Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterburie, the
+third daie of September.
+
+Upon this daie of King Richard's coronation, the Jewes that dwelt in
+London and in other parts of the realme, being there assembled, had but
+sorie hap, as it chanced. For they meaning to honour the same coronation
+with their presence, and to present to the king some honourable gift,
+whereby they might declare themselves glad for his advancement, and
+procure his freendship towards them, for the confirming of their
+privileges and liberties; he of a zealous mind to Christes religion,
+abhorring their nation (and doubting some sorcerie by them to be
+practised) commanded that they should not come within the church when he
+should receive the crowne, nor within the palace whilest he was at
+dinner.
+
+But at dinner-time, among other that pressed in at the palace gate,
+diverse of the Jews were about to thrust in, till one of them was
+striken by a Christian, who alledging the king's commandment, kept them
+backe from comming within the palace. Which some of the unrulie people,
+perceiving, and supposing it had been done by the king's commandement,
+tooke lightlie occasion thereof, and falling upon the Jewes with staves,
+bats, and stones, beat them and chased them home to their houses and
+lodgings. Then did they set fire on the houses, and the Jewes within
+were either smoldred and burned to death within, or else at their
+comming forth most cruellie received upon the points of speares, billes,
+and swords of their adversaries that watched for them verie diligentlie.
+This great riot well deserved sere and grievous punishment, but yet it
+passed over without correction, because of the hatred generallie
+conceived against the obstinate frowardnesse of the Jewes. Finallie,
+after the tumult was ceased, the king commanded that no man should hurt
+or harm any of the Jewes, and so they were restored to peace after they
+had susteined infinit damage.
+
+No great while after this his coronation, the king sought to prepare
+himself to journey to the holie land, and to this end he had great need
+of money. Therefore he made such sale of things appertaining to him, as
+well in right of the crowne, as otherwise, that it seemed to divers that
+he made his reckoning never to return agan, in so much that some of his
+councillors told him plainelie, that he did not well in making things
+awaie so freelie; unto whom he answered "that in time of need it was no
+evill policie for a man to help himself with his owne." and further,
+"that if London at that time of need would be bought, he would surelie
+sell it, if he might meet with a convenient merchant that were able to
+give him monie enough for it."
+
+Then all things being readie, King Richard set forth, and, after great
+hindrance by tempests, and at the hands of the men of Cyprus, who warred
+against him and were overcome, he came to the citie of Acres, which then
+was besieged by the Christian armie. Such was the valiancie of King
+Richard shown in manfull constraining of the citie, that his praise was
+greatly bruted both amongst the Christians and also the Saracens.
+
+At last, on the twelfth date of Julie, in the yeare of grace 1192, the
+citie of Acres was surrendered into the Christian men's hands. These
+things being concluded, the French King Philip, upon envie and malice
+conceived against King Richard (although he pretended sickness for
+excuse) departed homewards. Now touching this departure, divers
+occasions are remembered by writers of the emulation and secret spite
+which he should bear towards King Richard. But, howsoever, it came to
+passe, partlie through envie (as hath beene thought) conceived at the
+great deeds of King Richard, whose mightie power and valiantnesse he
+could not well abide, and partlie for other respects him moving, he took
+the sea with three gallies of the Genevois, and returned into Italie,
+and so home into France, having promised first unto King Richard in the
+holie land, and after to pope Celestine at Rome, that he would not
+attempt any hurtfull enterprise against the English dominions, till King
+Richard should be returned out of the holie land. But this promise was
+not kept, for he sought to procure Earle John, King Richard's brother,
+to rebell against him, though he then sought it in vaine.
+
+Yet were matters nowise peacefull within the realme of England, and
+because of this, and likewise because the froward humours of the French
+so greatlie hindered him in warring against the Saracens, King Richard
+determined fullie to depart homewards, and at last there was a peace
+concluded with Saladin. But on his journie homewards the King had but
+sorie hap, for he made shipwracke on the coast of Istria, and then fell
+into captivitie; and this was the manner that it came to passe.
+
+
+_IV.--Of King Richard's Captivitie_
+
+
+King Richard, doubting to fall into the hands of those who might bear
+him ill-will, made the best shift he could to passe through quietlie,
+yet were many of his servants made captive, and he himself came with but
+three men to Vienna. There causing his servants to provide meat for him
+more sumptuous and fine than was thought requisite for so meane a person
+as he counterfeited then, he was straightway remarked, and some gave
+knowledge to the Duke of Austrich named Leopold, who loved him not for
+some matter that had passed in the holie land. Moreover, his page, going
+about the towne to change gold, and buy vittels, bewraied him, having by
+chance the King's gloves under his girdle: whereupon, being examined,
+for fear of tortures he confessed the truth.
+
+The Duke sent men to apprehend him, but he, being warie that he was
+descried, got him to his weapon; but they alledging the Duke's
+commandement, he boldly answered, "that sith he must be taken, he being
+a King, would yeeld himselfe to none of the companie but to the Duke
+alone." The Duke hearing of this, speedilie came unto him, whom he
+meeting, delivered up his sword, and committed him unto his custodie.
+Then was he brought before the princes and lords of the empire, in whose
+presence the emperour charged him with diverse unlawfull doings. King
+Richard notwithstanding the vaine and frivolous objections laid to his
+charge, made his answers always so pithilie and directlie to all that
+could be laid against him, and excused himself e in everie point so
+thoroughlie, that the emperour much marvelled at his high wisdom and
+prudence, and not onelie greatlie commended him for the same, but from
+thenceforth used him more courteously. Yet did King Richard perceive
+that no excuses would serve, but that he must paie to his covetous host
+some great summe of monie for his hard entertainment. Therefore he sent
+the bishop of Salisburie into England to provide for the paiment of his
+ransome.
+
+Finallie the King, after he had beene prisoner one yeare, six weekes,
+and three daies, was set at libertie on Candle-mass day, and then with
+long and hastie journies, not keeping the high waies, he hasted forth
+towards England. It is reported that if he had lingered by the way, he
+had beene eftsoones apprehended. For the emperour being incensed against
+him by ambassadors that came from the French king, immediatlie after he
+was set forward, began to repent himselfe in that he had suffered him so
+soon to depart from him, and hereupon sent men after him with all speed
+to bring him backe if they could by any means overtake him, meaning as
+then to have kept him in perpetual prison. But these his knavish tricks
+being in the good providence of God defeated, King Richard at length in
+good safetie landed at Sandwich, and the morrow after came to
+Canterburie, where he was received with procession. From thence he came
+unto London, where he was received with great joy and gladnesse of the
+people, giving heartie thanks to almightie God for his safe return and
+deliverance.
+
+The same yeare that King Richard was taken by the Duke of Austrich, one
+night in the month of Januarie about the first watch of the night, the
+northwest side of the element appeared of such a ruddie colour as though
+it had burned, without any clouds or other darknesse to cover it, so
+that the stars showed through that redness and might be verie well
+discerned. Diverse bright strakes appeared to flash upwards now and
+then, dividing the rednesse, through the which the stars seemed to be of
+a bright sanguine colour.
+
+In Februarie next insuing, one night after midnight the like wonder was
+seene and shortlie after newes came that the king was taken in Almaigne.
+And the same daie and selfe houre that the king arrived at Sandwich,
+whitest the sunne shone verie bright and cleare, there appeared a most
+brightsome and unaccustomed clearnesse, not farre distant from the
+sunne, as it were to the length and breadth of a man's personage, having
+a red shining brightnesse withall, like to the rainbow, which strange
+sight when manie beheld, there were that prognosticated the king
+alreadie to be arrived.
+
+
+_V.--Of Good Queen Elisabeth, and How She Came into Her Kingdom_
+
+
+After all the stormie, tempestuous, and blustering windie weather of
+Queene Marie was overblowne, the darksome clouds of discomfort
+dispersed, the palpable fogs and mists of most intollerable miserie
+consumed, and the dashing showers of persecution overpast, it pleased
+God to send England a calm and quiet season, a cleare and lovelie
+sunshine, and a world of blessings by good Queene Elisabeth, into whose
+gracious reign we are now to make an happie entrance as followeth.
+
+On her entering the citie of London, she was received of the people with
+prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, and tender words, all which argued a
+wonderfull earnest love of most obedient subjects towards their
+sovereign. And on the other side, her grace, by holding up her hands,
+and merrie countenance to such as stood farre off, and most tender and
+gentle language to those that stood nigh unto her grace, did declare
+herselfe no lesse thankfullie to receive her people's good will, than
+they lovinglie offered it to her. And it was not onelie to those her
+subjects who were of noble birth that she showed herself thus verie
+gracious, but also to the poorest sort. How manie nose gaies did her
+grace receive at poore women's hands? How oftentimes staid she her
+chariot, when she saw anie simple bodie offer to speake to her grace? A
+branch of rosemarie given her grace with a supplication about
+Fleetbridge, was seene in her chariot till her grace came to
+Westminster, not without the marvellous wondering of such as knew the
+presenter, and noted the queene's most gracious receiving and keeping
+the same. Therefore may the poore and needie looke for great hope at her
+grace's hand, who hath shown so loving a carefulnesse for them.
+
+Moreover, because princes be set in their seat by God's appointing, and
+they must therefore first and chieflie tender the glorie of Him from
+whom their glorie issueth; it is to be noted in her grace that for so
+much as God hath so wonderfullie placed her in the seat of government of
+this realme, she in all her doings doth show herselfe most mindful of
+His goodness and mercie shewed unto her. And one notable signe thereof
+her grace gave at the verie time of her passage through London, for in
+the Tower, before she entered her chariot, she lifted up her eies to
+Heaven and saith as followeth:
+
+"O Lord Almightie and everlasting God, I give Thee most heartie thanks
+that Thou hast beene so mercifull unto me as to spare me to behold this
+joy full daie. And I acknowledge that Thou hast dealt as wonderfullie
+and as mercifullie with me as Thou diddest with Thy true and faithfull
+servant Daniell Thy prophet, whom Thou deliveredst out of the den from
+the crueltie of the greedie and raging lions; even so was I overwhelmed,
+and onlie by Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, onlie be thankes,
+honor, and praise, for ever. Amen."
+
+On Sundaie, the five and twentieth daie of Januarie, her majestie was
+with great solemnitie crowned at Westminster, in the Abbey church there,
+by doctor Oglethorpe bishop of Carlisle. She dined in Westminster hall,
+which was richlie hung, and everything ordered in such royall manner, as
+to such a regall and most solemn feast appertained. In the meane time,
+whilst her grace sat at dinner, Sir Edward Dimmocke, knight, her
+champion by office, came riding into the hall in faire complete armour,
+mounted upon a beautifull courser, richlie trapped in cloth of gold, and
+in the midst of the hall cast downe his gauntlet, with offer to fight
+in her quarell with anie man that should denie her to be the righteous
+and lawfull queene of this realme. The queene, taking a cup of gold full
+of wine, dranke to him thereof, and sent it to him for his fee.
+Finallie, this feast being celebrated with all due and fitting royall
+ceremonies, tooke end with great joy and contentation to all the
+beholders.
+
+Yet, though there was thus an end of the ceremonies befitting the
+queene's coronation, her majesty was everywhere received with brave
+shows, and with pageants, all for the love and respect that her subjects
+bare her. Thus on Whitsundaie, in the first year of her reign, the
+citizens of London set forth a muster before the queene's majestie at
+Greenwich in the parke there, of the number of 1,400 men, whereof 800
+were pikes, armed in fine corselets, 400 shot in shirts of mail, and 200
+halberdiers armed in Almaine rivets; these were furnished forth by the
+crafts and companies of the citie. To everie hundred two wifflers were
+assigned, richlie appointed and apparelled for the purpose. There were
+also twelve wardens of the best companies mounted on horsebacke in
+coates of blacke velvet, to conduct them, with drums and fifes, and sixe
+ensigne all in lerkins of white sattin of Bridges, cut and lined with
+black sarsenet, and caps, hosen, and scarfs according. The
+sergeant-majors, captaine Constable, and captaine Sanders, brought them
+in order before the queene's presence, placing them in battell arraie,
+even as they should have fought; so the shew was verie faire, the
+emperour's and the French king's ammbassadors being present.
+
+Verilie the queene hath ever shown herself forward and most willing that
+her faithfull subjects should be readie and skilfull in war as in peace.
+Thus in the fourteenth yeare of her reign, by order of her council, the
+citizens of London, assembling in their several halles, the masters
+chose out the most likelie and active persons of their companies to be
+pikemen and shot. To these were appointed diverse valiant captaines, who
+to train them up in warlike feats, mustered them thrice everie weeke,
+sometimes in the artillerie yard, teaching the gunners to handle their
+pieces, sometimes at the Miles end, and in saint George's field,
+teaching them to skirmish.
+
+In the arts of peace likewise, she is greatlie pleased with them who are
+good craftsmen, and shews them favour. In government we have peace and
+securitie, and do not greatlie fear those who may stir up wicked
+rebellion within our land, or may come against us from beyond the sea.
+
+In brief, they of Norwich did say well, when the queene's majestie came
+thither, and in a pageant in her honour, one spake these words:
+
+    "Dost them not see the joie of all this flocke?
+      Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome cheere,
+    Be still (good queene) their refuge and their rocke,
+      As they are thine to serve in love and feare;
+    So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand
+      Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD A. FREEMAN
+
+
+The Norman Conquest of England
+
+
+     Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne, Staffordshire,
+     England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
+     remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at
+     eleven he had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had
+     taught himself the rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune
+     in 1848 enabled him to settle down and devote himself to
+     historical research, and from that time until his death on
+     March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
+     strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in
+     two volumes of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which
+     appeared in 1849. Freeman's reputation as historian rests
+     principally on his monumental "History of the Norman
+     Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes between 1867
+     and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
+     by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an
+     extraordinary degree of insight. His historical scenes are
+     remarkably clear and vivid, as though, according to one critic
+     "he had actually lived in the times."
+
+
+_Preliminary Events_
+
+
+The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
+history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that
+which belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands
+by itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional
+period in the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been
+only Teutonic, was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and
+speech of the Romance nations.
+
+At the very moment when Pope and Cæsar held each other in the death
+grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
+barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection
+with the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less
+immediate change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled,
+or enslaved the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when
+Africa was subdued by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate
+change than the conquest of Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with
+it not only a new dynasty, but a new nobility. It did not expel or
+transplant the English nation or any part of it; but it gradually
+deprived the leading men and families of England of their land and
+offices, and thrust them down into a secondary position under the alien
+intruders.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the old English constitution survived the
+Norman Conquest. What the constitution had been under the Saxon Eadgar,
+that it remained under William. The laws, with a few changes in detail,
+and also the language of the public documents, remained the same. The
+powers vested in King William and his Witan remained constitutionally
+the same as those which had been vested in King Eadgar and his Witan a
+hundred years before. Immense changes ensued in social condition and
+administration, and in the relation of the kingdom to foreign lands.
+There was also a vast increase of royal power, and new relations were
+introduced between the king and every class of his subjects; but formal
+constitutional changes there were none.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, for the saying is the very summing up of the
+whole history, that the Norman Conquest was not the wiping out of the
+constitution, the laws, the language, the national life of Englishmen.
+The English kingship gradually changed from the old Teutonic to the
+later mediæval type; but the change began before the Norman Conquest. It
+was hastened by that event; it was not completed till long after it, and
+the gradual transition, was brought to perfection by Henry II.
+
+Certain events indicate the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. The
+accession of Eadward at once brings us among the events that led
+immediately to that conquest, or rather we may look on the accession of
+this Saxon king as the first stage of the conquest itself. Swend and
+Cnut, the Danes, had shown that it was possible for a foreign power to
+overcome England by force of arms.
+
+The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut hindered the formation of a
+lasting Danish dynasty in England. The throne of Cerdic was again filled
+by a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the
+country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient
+nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly
+opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best,
+wittingly or unwillingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by
+accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers--not national kinsmen
+like Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and
+manners--enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the
+country.
+
+The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once
+more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could
+not altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of
+Eadward. With Eadward, then, the Norman Conquest really begins. The men
+of the generation before the Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to
+behold the event itself, but who were to do all that they could do to
+advance or retard it, are now in the full maturity of life, in the full
+possession of power.
+
+Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide
+among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the
+warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, of York and Ely, are fast growing
+into maturity. Harold Hadrada is already pursuing his wild career of
+night-errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his
+exploits in Russia and Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem.
+
+The younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof
+and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their
+cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and
+State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold
+and of William, is already a great prelate, abbot of the great house of
+Tewkesbury, soon to succeed Lyfing in the chair of Worcester.
+
+Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were
+already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's
+bidding, and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil
+and for good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in
+conduct and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled
+minority, and learning those arts of the statesman and the warrior which
+fitted him to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest
+conqueror of England.
+
+The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is
+gradually preparing for the scene of their performance. The great
+struggle of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had
+his share, the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of
+England stand forth as worthy rivals of the noblest of prizes, will form
+the subject of the next, the chief and central portion of my history.
+
+The struggle between Normans and Englishmen began with the accession of
+Eadward in 1042, although the actual subjugation of England by force of
+arms was still twenty-four years distant. The thought of another Danish
+king was now hateful. "All folk chose Eadward to King." As the son of
+Æthelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonised
+Alfred, he had long been-familiar to English imaginations. Eadward, and
+Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the
+representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice
+spoke out at once, and unmistakably. His popular election took place in
+June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, and even before his
+burial. Eadward, then, was king, and he reigned as every English king
+before him had reigned, by that union of popular election and royal
+descent which formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship. He
+was crowned at Winchester, April 3, 1043. But by virtue of his peculiar
+character, his natural place was not on the throne of England, but at
+the head of a Norman abbey, for all his best qualities were those of a
+monk. Like him father, he was constantly under the dominion of
+favourites.
+
+It was to the evil choice of his favourites during the early part of his
+reign that most of the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a
+still more direct path was opened for the ambition of his Norman
+kinsman. In the latter part of his reign, either by happy accident or
+returning good sense, led him to a better choice. Without a guide he
+could not reign, but the good fortune of his later years gave him the
+wisest and noblest of all guides.
+
+We have now reached the first appearance of the illustrious man round
+whom the main interest of this history will henceforth centre. The
+second son of Godwine lived to be the last of our kings, the hero and
+martyr of our native freedom. The few recorded actions of Harold, Earl
+of the East Angles, could hardly have enabled me to look forward to the
+glorious career of Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, King of the English.
+
+Tall in stature, beautiful in countenance, of a bodily strength whose
+memory still lives in the rude pictorial art of his time, he was
+foremost alike in the active courage and in the passive endurance of the
+warrior. It is plain that in him, no less than in his more successful,
+and, therefore, more famous, rival, we have to admire not only the mere
+animal courage, but that true skill of the leader of armies which would
+have placed both Harold and William high among the captains of any age.
+
+Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
+remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature
+in his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
+warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an
+enemy. From the time of his advancement to the practical government of
+the kingdom there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he
+can be charged.
+
+Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
+twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
+great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
+ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
+elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as
+the free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in
+hand on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.
+
+William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
+the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed
+with greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish
+greater things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment;
+no man ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession
+for all time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently
+above all others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment
+in the highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose
+and the unbending will.
+
+We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
+But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the
+same time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the
+conqueror of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy
+and the conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the
+help of France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came
+to his duchy under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with
+competitors for his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout
+the whole of his early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his
+own making, and he came honourably out of all.
+
+In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
+Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
+friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare in those days.
+Such visits as those which William and Eustace of Boulogne paid at this
+time to this country were altogether novelties, and unlikely to be
+acceptable to the English mind. We may be sure that every patriotic
+Englishman looked with an evil eye on any French-speaking prince who
+made his way to the English court.
+
+William came with a great following; he tarried awhile in his cousin's
+company; he went away loaded with gifts and honours. And he can hardly
+doubt that he went away encouraged by some kind of promise of succeeding
+to the kingdom which he now visited as a stranger. Direct heirs were
+lacking to the royal house, and William was Eadward's kinsman. The
+moment was in every way favourable for suggesting to William on the one
+hand, to Eadward on the other, the idea of an arrangement by which
+William should succeed to the English crown on Eadward's death. The
+Norman writers are full of Eadward's promise to William, and also of
+some kind of oath that Harold swore to him. Had either the promise or
+the oath been a pure Norman invention, William could never have paraded
+both in the way that he did in the eyes of Europe. I admit, then, some
+promise of Eadward, some oath of Harold. But when the time came for
+Eadward the Confessor to make his final recommendation of a successor,
+he certainly changed his purpose; for his last will, so far as such an
+expression can be used, was undoubtedly in favour of Harold.
+
+There is not the slightest sign of any intention on the part of Eadward
+during his later years to nominate William to the Witan as future king.
+The two streams of English and Norman history were joined together in
+the year when the two sovereigns met for the only time in their reigns.
+Those streams again diverged. England shook off the Norman influence to
+all outward appearance, and became once more the England of Æthelstan
+and Eadgar. But the effects of Eadgar's Norman tendencies were by no
+means wholly wiped away. Normans still remained in the land, and
+circumstances constituted secondary causes of the expedition of William.
+
+It was in the year 1051 that the influence of strangers reached its
+height. During the first nine years of Eadward's reign we find no signs
+of any open warfare between the national and the Normanising parties.
+The course of events shows that Godwine's power was being practically
+undermined, but the great earl was still Jutwardly in the enjoyment of
+royal favour, and his fast possessions were still being added to by
+royal grants. But soon England began to feel how great is the evil when
+a king and those immediately around him are estranged from the mass of
+his people in feeling.
+
+To the French favourites who gradually crowded the court of Eadward the
+name, the speech, and the laws of England were things on which their
+ignorant pride looked with utter contempt.
+
+Count Eustace of Boulogne, now brother-in-law of the king of the
+English, presently came, like the rest of the world, to the English
+Court. The king was spending the autumn at Gloucester. Thither came
+Count Eustace, and, after his satisfactory interview with the king, he
+turned his face homewards. When a few miles from Dover he felt himself,
+in a region specially devoted to Godwine, to be still more thoroughly in
+an enemy's country than in other parts of England, and he and all his
+company took the precaution of putting on their coats of mail.
+
+The proud Frenchmen expected to find free quarters at Dover, and they
+attempted to lodge themselves at their pleasure in the houses of the
+burghers. One Englishman resisted, and was struck dead on the spot. The
+count's party then rode through the town, cutting and slaying at
+pleasure. In a skirmish which quickly ensued twenty Englishmen and
+nineteen Frenchmen were slain.
+
+Count Eustace and the remnant of the party hastened back to Gloucester,
+and told the story after their own fashion. On the mere accusation of a
+stranger, the English king condemned his own subjects without a hearing.
+He sent for Godwine, as earl of the district in which lay the offending
+town, and commanded him to inflict chastisement on Dover. The English
+champion was then in the midst of a domestic rejoicing. He had, like the
+king, been strengthening himself by a foreign alliance, and had just
+connected his house with that of a foreign prince. Tostig, the third son
+of Godwine, had just married Judith, the daughter of Baldwin of
+Flanders.
+
+Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to
+visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing
+his course. Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract
+justice and humanity, dictated a distinct refusal. Now or never a stand
+was to be made against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial
+for the burghers of Dover.
+
+But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a
+peaceful settlement of the matter. Eustace probably still lingered about
+the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready
+to poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader.
+It was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert. Godwine and three
+other earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of
+Eustace, but the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward,
+Leofric, and Ralph, bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep
+Godwine in check. Thus the northern and southern sections were arrayed
+against each other.
+
+There were, however, on the king's side, men who were not willing to see
+the country involved in civil war. Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia,
+stood forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed
+that hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should
+assemble at Michaelmas in London.
+
+Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to
+collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London. Godwine
+and his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear
+without a security for a safe conduct. The hostages and safe-conduct
+were refused. The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as
+he sat at his evening meal. The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his
+feet, overthrew the table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode
+for his life all that night. In the morning the king held his
+witenagemot, and by a vote of the king and his whole army, Godwine and
+his sons were declared outlaws, but five days were allowed them to get
+out of the land. Godwine, Swegen, Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha
+and Judith, the newly-married wife of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a
+ship laden with as much treasure as it would hold. They reached the
+court of Flanders in safety, were honourably received by the count, and
+passed the whole winter with him.
+
+Two of Godwine's sons, however, sought another refuge. Harold and his
+younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek
+shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially
+received by King Diarmid. For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic
+leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over
+the feeble mind of the king was complete. It was while Godwine dwelt as
+an exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the
+friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as
+William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit
+which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one,
+among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.
+
+Stirring events followed in quick succession. General regret was felt
+among all patriotic Englishmen at the absence of Godwine. The common
+voice of England soon began to call for the return of the banished earl,
+who was looked to by all men as the father of his country. England now
+knew that in his fall a fatal blow had been dealt to her own welfare and
+freedom. And Godwine, after sending many petitions to the king, vainly
+petitioning for a reconciliation, determined to return by force,
+satisfied that the great majority of Englishmen would be less likely to
+resist him than to join his banners.
+
+Harold sailed from Ireland to meet his father by way of the English
+Channel. Godwine sailed up the Thames, and London declared for him.
+Panic reigned among the favourites of King Eadward. The foreigners took
+to flight, among the fugitives being Archbishop Robert and Bishop Ulf.
+The gemot met and decreed the restoration of the earl and the outlawry
+of many Normans. The king yielded, and accorded to Godwine the kiss of
+peace, and a revolution was accomplished of which England may well be
+proud.
+
+But a tragedy soon followed, in the death of the most renowned
+Englishman of that generation. During a meal at the Easter festival
+Godwine fell from his seat, and died after lying insensible for three
+days. Great was the grief of the nation. Harold, in the years that
+followed, became so increasingly popular that he was virtually chief
+ruler of England, even before the death of Eadward, which happened on
+January 5, 1066. His burial was followed by the coronation of Harold.
+But the moment of struggle was now come. The English throne had become
+vacant, and the Norman duke knew how to represent himself as its lawful
+heir, and to brand the king of the nation's choice as an usurper. The
+days of debate were past, and the sword alone could decide between
+England and her enemy.
+
+William found one Englishman willing to help him in all his schemes, in
+the person of Tostig, Harold's brother, who had been outlawed at the
+demand of the nation, owing to his unfitness to rule his province as
+Earl of Northumberland. He had sunk from bad to worse. Harold had done
+all he could for his fallen brother, but to restore him was impossible.
+Tostig was at the Norman court, urging William to the invasion of
+England. At his own risk, he was allowed to make an incursion on the
+English coast. Entering the Humber, he burned several towns and slew
+many men. But after these ravages Tostig repaired to ask help of Harold
+Hardrada, whom he induced to prepare a great expedition.
+
+Harold Hardrada and Tostig landed and marched towards York. A battle was
+fought between the Mercians and Norwegians at Fulford, in which the
+former were worsted, but Harold was marching northward. In the fearful
+battle of Stamford Bridge both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain,
+and the Viking host was shattered. The victorious English king was
+banqueting in celebration of the great victory, when a messenger
+appeared who had come at fleetest pace from the distant coast of Sussex.
+
+One blow had been warded off, but another still more terrible had
+fallen. Three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of
+the Normans, once the peaceful guest of Edward, had again, but in quite
+another guise, made good his landing on the shores of England. It was in
+August 1066 that the Norman fleet had set sail on its great enterprise.
+For several weeks a south wind had been waited for at the mouth of the
+River Dive, prayers and sacred rites of every kind being employed to
+move Heaven to send the propitious breeze. On September 28 the landing
+was effected at Pevensey, the ancient Anderida. There were neither,
+ships nor men to resist the landing. The first armed man who set foot on
+English ground was Duke William himself, whose foot slipped, so that he
+fell with both hands on the ground.
+
+A loud cry of grief was raised at the evil omen. But the ready wit of
+William failed him not. "By the splendour of God," he cried, "I have
+taken seizin of my kingdom; the earth of England is in my hands." The
+whole army landed in order, but only one day was spent at Pevensey. On
+the next day the army marched on eastward and came to Hastings, which
+was fixed on as the centre of the operations of the whole campaign.
+
+It was a hard lot for the English king to be compelled to hasten
+southward to dislodge the new enemy, after scarcely a moment's rest from
+the toils and glories of Stamford Bridge. But the heart of Harold failed
+him not, and the heart of England beat in unison with the heart of her
+king. As soon as the news came, King Harold held a council of the
+leaders of Stamford Bridge, or perhaps an armed gemot. He told them of
+the landing of the enemy; he set before them the horrors which would
+come upon the land if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud
+shout of assent rose from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his
+faith rather to die in arms than to acknowledge any king but Harold.
+
+The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
+march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
+London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
+immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
+English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
+shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold
+seems to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the
+fight at Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at
+Pevensey. Though his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in
+order to seek divine help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of
+his earlier days, devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross
+which gave England her war-cry.
+
+Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
+from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
+plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan,
+and he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
+ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
+real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to
+attack him at a great disadvantage.
+
+William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
+constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The
+latter halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters
+of the invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of
+Senlac. It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a
+post of great natural strength, which he speedily made into what is
+distinctly spoken of as a castle.
+
+The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
+commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
+scene.
+
+The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
+The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
+kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English
+post. Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse,
+William led his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill
+of Telham first caught sight of the English encamped on the opposite
+height of Senlac.
+
+First in each of the three Norman divisions marched the archers,
+slingers, and cross-bow men, then the more heavily-armed infantry,
+lastly the horsemen. The reason of this arrangement is clear. The
+light-armed were to do what they could with their missiles to annoy the
+English; the heavy infantry were to strive to break down the palisades
+of the English camp, and so to make ready the way for the charge of the
+horse.
+
+Like the Normans, the English had risen early. The king, after exhorting
+his troops to stand firm, rode to the royal post; he there dismounted,
+took his place on foot, and prayed to God for help. The battle began at
+nine in the morning--one of the sacred hours of the church. The trumpet
+sounded, and a flight of arrows from all three Norman divisions--right,
+centre, and left,--was the prelude to the onslaught of the heavy-armed
+foot. The real struggle now began. The French infantry had to toil up
+the hill, and to break down the palisade, while a shower of stones and
+javelins disordered their approach, and while club, sword and axe
+greeted all who came within the reach of hand-strokes.
+
+Both sides fought with unyielding valour. The war-cries rose on either
+side. The Normans shouted "God help us!" the English called on the "Holy
+Cross." The Norman infantry had soon done its best, but that best had
+been in vain. The choicest chivalry of Europe now pressed on to the
+attack. The knights of Normandy and of all lands from which men had
+flocked to William's standard, now pressed on, striving to make what
+impression they could with the whole strength of themselves and their
+horses on the impenetrable fortress of timber, shields, and living
+warriors.
+
+But all was in vain. The English had thus far stood their ground well
+and wisely, and the tactics of Harold had so far completely answered.
+Not only had every attack failed, but the great mass of the French army
+altogether lost heart. The Bretons and the other auxiliaries on the left
+were the first to give way. Horse and foot alike, they turned and fled.
+The whole of William's left wing was thrown into utter confusion.
+
+The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single
+prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops. Order was
+soon restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more
+terrible attack. The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out
+Harold. A few moments more, and the two might have come face to face,
+but Gyrth, the noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at
+William. The missile narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish
+steed, the first of three that died under him that day. But William
+could not fight on foot as well as on horseback. He rose to his feet,
+pressed straight to seek the man who had so nearly slain him, and the
+earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of William's mace. Nor did he fall
+alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was smitten to the earth by an
+unknown assailant.
+
+The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as
+unyielding as ever. Direct attack was unavailing. In the Norman
+character fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed. He
+ventured on the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the
+unwary English rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts
+of delight. The error was fatal to England. The tide was turned; the
+duke's object was now gained; and the main end of Harold's skilful
+tactics was frustrated. The English were no longer entrenched, and the
+battle fell into a series of single combats. As twilight was coming on
+an arrow, falling like a bolt from heaven, pierced Harold's right eye,
+and he sank in agony at the foot of the standard. Round that standard
+the fight still raged, till the highest nobility, the most valiant
+soldiery of England were slaughtered to a man.
+
+Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we
+may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been
+conquered at all. As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was
+only a matter of time. From that day forward the Normans began to work
+the will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in
+England no chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought
+down to bondage and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an
+Englishman, and the men of England were no more a people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
+
+
+History of England
+
+
+     James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April
+     23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894. He was educated at
+     Westminster, and Oriel College, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders, he
+     was, for a time, deeply influenced by Newman and the
+     Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the radical revolution
+     of thought revealed by his first treatise, the "Nemesis of
+     Faith," which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation. Its
+     tendency to skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its
+     profound pathos, its accent of tenderness, and its fervour
+     excited wide admiration. Permanent fame was secured by the
+     appearance, in 1856, of the first two instalments of his
+     magnificent work, "The History of England, from the Fall of
+     Wolsey to the Defeat of the Armada," the last volume appearing
+     in 1870. This treatise on the middle Tudor period is one of
+     the most fascinating historical treatises in the whole range
+     of literature. It is written in a vivid and graphic prose, and
+     with rare command of the art of picturesque description.
+     Froude never accepted the doctrine that history should be
+     treated as a science; rather he claimed that the historian
+     should concern himself with the dramatic aspect of the period
+     about which he writes. The student may disagree with many of
+     Froude's points of view and portraitures, yet his men and
+     women breathe with the life he endows them, and their motives
+     are actuated by the forces he sets in motion. Of his
+     voluminous works perhaps the most notable, with the exception
+     of the "History," are his "History of Ireland in the
+     Eighteenth Century," 1871-74, and his "Short Studies on Great
+     Subjects," the latter aptly exhibiting Froude's gifts of
+     masterful prose and glittering paradox.
+
+
+_I.--The Condition of England_
+
+
+In periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and
+the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the
+influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves
+back into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a
+single type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms
+of the son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into
+paths the footprints of his ancestors.
+
+So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that
+to cease to change is to lose place in the great race. Looking back over
+history, we see times of change and progress alternating with other
+times when life and thought have settled into permanent forms. Such was
+the condition of the Greeks through many ages before the Persian wars,
+and such, again, became the condition of Europe when the Northern
+nations grafted religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own
+hardy natures.
+
+A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
+that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is
+necessarily obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we
+have lost the key which would interpret the characters of our fathers.
+But some broad conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least
+possible to us. A rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows
+that it was something under five millions.
+
+The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
+principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
+service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
+strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best
+be determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food.
+Both were as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in
+the fourteenth century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were
+1/2d. a pound; mutton was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought
+for 4d.; a good capon for 3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d.
+Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d. a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon,
+and table beer was less than 1/2d.
+
+A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
+reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
+could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day
+can for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of
+the 6th of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters,
+masons, bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others,
+employers of skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if
+no meat and drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year,
+fivepence a day for the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the
+yearly average. The common labourers were to receive fourpence a day for
+the half year; for the remaining half, threepence.
+
+The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
+shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and
+this is far from being a full account of his advantages. The
+agricultural labourer held land in connection with his house, while in
+most parishes there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest
+land, which furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and
+ducks and geese, and where, if he could afford a cow, he was in no
+danger of being unable to feed it; and so important was this privilege
+considered, that when the commons began to be largely enclosed,
+Parliament insisted that the working man should not be without some
+piece of ground on which he could employ his own and his family's
+industry.
+
+By the 7th of the 31st of Elizabeth it was ordered that no cottage
+should be built for residence without four acres of land at lowest being
+attached to it for the sole use of the occupants of such cottage.
+
+The incomes of the great nobles cannot be determined for they varied
+probably as much as they do now. Under Henry IV. the average income of
+an earl was estimated at £2,000 a year. Under Henry VIII. the great Duke
+of Buckingham, the wealthiest English peer, had £6,000. And the income
+of the Archbishop of Canterbury was rated at the same amount. But the
+establishments of such men were enormous. Their retinues in time of
+peace consisted of several hundred persons, and in time of war a large
+share of the expenses was paid often out of private purses.
+
+Passing down to the body of the people, we find that £20 a year and
+heavy duties to do for it, represented the condition of the squire of
+the parish. By the 2nd of Henry V. "the wages" of a parish priest were
+limited to £5 6s. 8d., except in cases where there was a special license
+from the bishop, when they might be raised as high as £6. Both squire
+and priest had sufficient for comfort. Neither was able to establish any
+steep difference between himself and the commons among whom he lived, so
+far as concerned outward advantages.
+
+The habits of all classes were free, open, and liberal. In frank style
+the people lived in "merry England," displaying the "glory of
+hospitality," England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules according to
+which all tables were open to all comers without reserve. To every man,
+according to his degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare
+and free lodging. The people hated three things with all their
+hearts--idleness, want, and cowardice.
+
+A change, however, was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction
+of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era.
+Chivalry was dying; the abbey and castle were soon together to crumble
+into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, and convictions of the
+old world were passing away never to return. A new continent had arisen
+beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk
+back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth
+itself, unfixed from its foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in
+the awful vastness of the universe. In the fabric of habit which they
+had so laboriously built for themselves mankind were to remain no
+longer.
+
+
+_II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy_
+
+
+Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
+through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him
+on the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder.
+The clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they
+deserved it. They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt
+the meaning of their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their
+authority was exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of
+the crown; and therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was
+compelled to stoop before them.
+
+The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
+conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
+duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
+recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
+conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
+remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
+their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
+inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without
+faith, wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy
+and cut off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary
+life.
+
+Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
+taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there
+were no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among
+them a remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who
+was essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
+English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
+influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
+entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
+Protestants.
+
+Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
+before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
+familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable.
+Dreaming that it could be effected from within, by the church itself
+inspired with a wiser spirit, he himself fell the first victim of a
+convulsion which he had assisted to create, and which he attempted too
+late to stay.
+
+Wolsey talked of reformation, but delayed its coming. The monasteries
+grew worse and worse. Favoured parish clergy held as many as eight
+benefices. Bishops accumulated sees, and, unable to attend to all,
+attended to none. Wolsey himself, the church reformer (so little did he
+really know what a reformation means), was at once Archbishop of York,
+Bishop of Winchester and of Durham, and Abbot of St. Albans. Under such
+circumstances, we need not be surprised to find the clergy sunk low in
+the respect of the English people.
+
+Fish's famous pamphlet shows the spirit that was seething. He spoke of
+what he had seen and knew. The monks, he tells the king, "be they that
+have made a hundred thousand idle dissolute women in your realm." But
+Wolsey could interfere with neither bishops nor monks without a special
+dispensation from the pope. A new trouble arose from the nation in the
+desire of Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who had been his
+deceased brother's wife, was six years older than himself, and was an
+obstacle to the establishment of the kingdom. Her sons were dead, and
+she was beyond the period when more children could be expected. Though
+descent in the female line was not formally denied, no queen regent had
+ever, in fact, sat upon the throne; nor was the claim distinctly
+admitted, or the claim of the House of York would have been
+unquestionable. It was, therefore, with no little anxiety that the
+council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children, on whom their hopes
+were centred, either born dead, or dying one after another within a few
+days of their birth.
+
+The line of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak
+from her childhood. If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to
+insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a
+civil war was inevitable. The next heir in blood was James of Scotland,
+and gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the
+existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was
+said, would rise up against a king of Scotland who entered England as
+sovereign.
+
+So far were Henry and Catherine alike that both had imperious tempers,
+and both were indomitably obstinate; but Henry was hot and impetuous,
+Catherine cold and self-contained. She had been the wife of Prince
+Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., but the death of that prince occurred
+only five months after the marriage. The uncertainty of the laws of
+marriage, and the innumerable refinements of the Roman canon law,
+affected the legitimacy of the children and raised scruples of
+conscience in the mind of the king. The loss of his children must have
+appeared as a judicial sentence on a violation of the Divine law. The
+divorce presented itself to him as a moral obligation, when national
+advantage combined with superstition to encourage what he secretly
+desired.
+
+Wolsey, after thirty years' experience of public life, was as sanguine
+as a boy. Armed with this little lever of divorce, he saw himself in
+imagination the rebuilder of the Catholic faith and the deliverer of
+Europe from ecclesiastical revolt and from innovations of faith. The
+mass of the people hated Protestantism as he, a true friend of the
+Catholic cult, sincerely detested the reformation of Luther. He believed
+that the old life-tree of Catholicism, which in fact was but cumbering
+the ground, might bloom again in its old beauty. But a truer political
+prophet than Wolsey would have been found in the most ignorant of those
+poor men who were risking death and torture in disseminating the
+pernicious volumes of the English Testament.
+
+Catherine being a Spanish princess, Henry, in 1527, formed a league with
+Francis I., with the object of breaking the Spanish alliance. The pope
+was requested to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of
+England to marry a wife who could bear him children. Deeply as we
+deplore the outrage inflicted on Catherine, and the scandal and
+suffering occasioned by the dispute, it was in the highest degree
+fortunate that at the crisis of public dissatisfaction in England with
+the condition of the church, a cause should have arisen which tested the
+whole question of church authority in its highest form. It was no
+accident which connected a suit for divorce with the reformation of
+religion.
+
+
+_Anne Boleyn_
+
+
+The Spanish emperor, Charles V., gave Catherine his unwavering support,
+and refused to allow the pope to pass a judicial sentence of divorce.
+Catherine refused to yield. Another person now comes into conspicuous
+view. It has been with Anne Boleyn as with Catherine of Aragon--both are
+regarded as the victims of a tyranny which Catholics and Protestants
+unite to remember with horror, and each has taken the place of a
+martyred saint in the hagiology of the respective creeds. Anne Boleyn
+was second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a gentleman of noble family.
+She was educated in Paris, and in 1525 came back to England to be maid
+of honour to Queen Catherine, and to be distinguished at the court by
+her talents, accomplishments, and beauty.
+
+The fortunes of Anne Boleyn were unhappily linked with those of men to
+whom the greatest work ever yet accomplished in this country was
+committed. In the memorable year 1529, after the meeting of parliament,
+events moved apace. In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted,
+the astonished church authorities saw bill after bill hurried up before
+the lords, by which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes
+would be dried up to flow no longer. The Great Reformation had commenced
+in earnest.
+
+The carelessness of the bishops in the discharge of their most immediate
+duties obliged the legislature to trespass in the provinces most purely
+spiritual, and to undertake the discipline of the clergy. Bill after
+bill struck hard and home on the privileges of the recreant clergy. The
+aged Bishop of Rochester complained to the lords that in the lower house
+the cry was nothing but "Down with the church." Yet, so frightful were
+the abuses that called for radical reform, that even persons who most
+disapprove of the reformation will not at the present time wonder at
+their enactment, or disapprove of their severity. The king treated the
+bishops, when they remonstrated, with the most contemptuous disrespect.
+Archbishop Cranmer now adopted a singular expedient. He advised Henry to
+invite expressions from all the chief learned authorities throughout
+Europe as to the right of the pope to grant him a dispensation of
+dissolution of his marriage. The English universities, to escape
+imputations of treasons and to avoid exciting Henry's wrath, gave
+replies such as would please him, that of Oxford being, however, the
+more decided of the two. Most of the continental authorities declined to
+pronounce any dictum as to the powers of the pope.
+
+
+_The Fall of the Great Chancellor_
+
+
+The fall of Wolsey was at hand. His enemies accused him of treason to
+the constitution by violating a law of the realm. He had acted as papal
+legate within the realm. The parliaments of Edward I., Edward III.,
+Richard II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced
+illegal all presentations by the pope to any office or dignity in the
+Anglican Church, under a penalty of premunire. Henry did not feel
+himself called on to shield his great minister, although the guilt
+extended to all who had recognised Wolsey in the capacity of papal
+legate. Indeed, it extended to the archbishops, bishops, the privy
+council, the two houses of parliament, and indirectly to the nation
+itself. The higher clergy had been encouraged by Wolsey's position to
+commit those acts of despotism which had created so deep animosity among
+the people. The overflow of England's last ecclesiastical minister was
+to teach them that the privileges they had abused were at an end.
+
+In February, 1531, Henry assumed the title which was to occasion such
+momentous consequences, of "Protector and only Supreme Head of the
+Church and Clergy of England." The clergy were compelled to assent.
+Further serious steps marked the great breach with Rome. The annates, or
+first fruits, were abolished. Ever since the crusades a practice had
+existed in all the churches of Europe that bishops and archbishops, on
+presentation to their sees, should transmit to the pope one year's
+income. This impressive impost was not abrogated. It was a sign of the
+parting of the ways.
+
+Henry laid his conduct open to the world, declaring truly what he
+desired, and seeking it by open means. He was determined to proceed with
+the divorce, and also to continue the reformation of the English church.
+And he was in no small measure aided in the former resolve by the
+recommendation of Francis, for the French king advised him to act on the
+general opinion of Europe that his marriage with Catherine, as widow of
+his elder brother Arthur, was null, and at once made Anne Boleyn his
+wife. This counsel was administered at an interview between the two
+kings at Boulogne, in October, 1532.
+
+The pope had trifled for six years with the momentous question, and
+Henry was growing old. At the outset of the discussion the pope had
+said: "Marry freely; fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you
+desire." But the pontiff, reduced to a dilemma by various causes, had
+fallen back on his Italian cunning, and had changed his attitude,
+listening to the appeals of Catherine and her powerful friends. And now
+he threatened Henry with excommunication.
+
+Henry entered privately into matrimonial relations with Anne in
+November, 1532, and the marriage was solemnly celebrated, with a
+gorgeous pageant, at Westminster Abbey in the following January. On July
+24 the people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the
+church doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine
+of Spain, heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by
+that title any more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be
+held and esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short
+years.
+
+
+_Protestantism_
+
+
+Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
+and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
+fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the
+growing desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the
+year 1525 was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The
+Association of Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the
+land carrying tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the
+order all who dared risk their lives in such a cause.
+
+The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
+such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
+spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
+October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
+echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
+Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
+translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the
+formation of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed.
+The bishops subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and
+these were burned before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But
+Wolsey had for two years been suppressing the smaller monasteries.
+Simultaneously, Protestants were persecuted wherever they could be
+detected and seized. "Little" Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished
+Cambridge student, was burnt as a heretic at the stake, as were James
+Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and several other members of
+the "association." These were the first paladins of the reformation, and
+the struggle went bravely forward. They were the knights who slew the
+dragons and made the earth habitable for common flesh and blood.
+
+As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
+Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
+pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When
+the breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal party at
+home had assumed an attitude of suspended insurrection, the fortunes of
+the Protestants entered into a new phase. The persecution ceased, and
+those who were but lately its likely victims, hiding for their lives,
+passed at once by a sudden alternation into the sunshine of political
+favour.
+
+Cromwell and Latimer together caught the moment as it went by, and
+before it was over a work had been done in England which, when it was
+accomplished once, was accomplished for ever. The conservative party
+recovered their power, and abused it as before; but the chains of the
+nation were broken, and no craft of kings or priests or statesmen could
+weld the magic links again, Latimer became famous as a preacher at
+Cambridge, and was heard of by Henry, who sent for him and appointed him
+one of the royal chaplains. He was accused by the bishops of heresy, but
+was on trial absolved and sent back to his parish. Soon after the tide
+turned, and the reformation entered into a new phase.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, like Latimer of humble origin, was the "malleus
+monachorum." Wolsey discovered his merit, and employed him in breaking
+up the small monasteries, which the pope had granted for the foundation
+of the new colleges. Cromwell remained with the great cardinal till his
+fall. It was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed
+itself. The lords had passed a bill of impeachment against
+Wolsey--violent, vindictive, and malevolent. It was to be submitted to
+the commons. Cromwell prepared an opposition, and conducted the defence
+from his place in parliament so skilfully that he threw out the bill,
+saved Wolsey, and gained such a reputation that he became Henry's
+secretary, representing the government in the House of Commons, and was
+on the highroad to power.
+
+The reformation was blotted with a black and frightful stain. Towards
+the end of April, 1536, certain members of the Privy Council were
+engaged in secretly collecting evidence which implicated the queen in
+adultery. In connection with the terrible charge, as her accomplices
+five gentlemen were arrested--Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeton, a court
+musician, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and, the accusation in
+his case being the most shocking, Lord Rochford, the queen's brother.
+The trial was hastily pushed forward, and all were executed. The queen,
+who vehemently and piteously appealed to Henry, passionately protesting
+that she was absolutely innocent, was also condemned, and was beheaded
+in public on Tower Hill.
+
+Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John
+Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the
+cause of Anne Boleyn's ruin. On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and
+passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the
+queen took cold, and died on October 24.
+
+In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England. The great monasteries
+were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old
+nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics. On
+January 6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne,
+daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of
+Saxony. This event was brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell.
+The king was deeply displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride
+when he met her on her landing, but retreat was impossible. Though Henry
+was personally kind to the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.
+
+Cromwell's enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great
+statesman. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of
+corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and,
+in spite of Cranmer's efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on
+July 28, 1540. For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl
+of Essex, was supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the
+nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.
+
+Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne,
+setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without
+objection or delay. The queen had placidly given her consent. Handsome
+settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance
+producing nearly three thousand a year. In August of the same year the
+King married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord
+Edmond Howard. Brief, indeed, was her reign. In November, 1541, she was
+charged with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows. The king was
+overwhelmed. Some dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it
+with infamy.
+
+Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen. They
+were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been
+her confidential companion, suffered within the Tower. Once more the
+king ventured into marriage. Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last
+choice, was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but
+by his own personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he
+desired.
+
+The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
+Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
+had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France
+to attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to
+proclaim a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only
+shepherds and agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were
+instantly the finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously
+defeated the Scots that all the latter either perished in the morass by
+the Solway, or were captured.
+
+Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
+Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.
+
+The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
+future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
+conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition
+of the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince
+Edward to the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the
+morning of Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was
+in Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of
+Monday, the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was
+already in session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the
+minority of Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full
+power. Cranmer set the willing example, and the other prelates
+consented, or were compelled to imitate him, in an acknowledgment that
+all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm,
+only emanated from the sovereign. On February it was ordered in council
+that Hertford should be Duke of Somerset, and that his brother, Sir
+Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be
+Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley, the chancellor, Earl of
+Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of Warwick. The Duke of
+Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real power was at once in
+his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he persuaded
+himself--to do good.
+
+
+_Edward's Guardian_
+
+
+Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
+proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
+were melted into coin. Somerset gave the popular movement the formal
+sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
+purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide
+to doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in
+the parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the
+New Testament" were provided as a commentary.
+
+Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
+Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
+refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into
+with Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should
+marry Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547,
+the Scots were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned
+southward. His brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him,
+and was arrested, tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549.
+But the fall of the protector himself was not long delayed, for under
+his administration of three years his policy gradually excited wide
+discontent. In various parts of the country insurrections had to be
+suppressed. The French king had taken away the young Scottish queen, the
+king's majesty's espouse, by which marriage the realms of England and
+Scotland should have been united in perpetual peace. Money had been
+wasted on the royal household. The alliance with Charles V. had been
+trifled away. The princely name and princely splendour which Somerset
+affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst the ruin of the
+national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset House,
+London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
+national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation
+with which the council regarded him.
+
+His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
+both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him
+to such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign
+his deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his
+uncle. On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high
+treason and condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22,
+1582. The English public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are
+good judges, for the most part, of personal character; and so
+passionately was Somerset loved, that those who were nearest the
+scaffold started forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood. Before
+this event, Dudley, by whose cruel treachery the tragedy had been
+brought about, had been created Duke of Northumberland. The great aim of
+this nobleman was to secure the succession to the throne for his own
+family. With this purpose in view he married his son, Lord Guildford
+Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk, to whom,
+by the will of Henry VIII., the crown would pass, in default of issue by
+Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.
+
+In April, 1553, Edward, who had been removed to Greenwich in consequence
+of illness, grew rapidly worse. By the end of the month he was spitting
+blood, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. The
+accession of Mary, who was personally popular, was looked forward to by
+the people as a matter of course. Northumberland now worked on the mind
+of the feeble and dying king, and succeeded in persuading him to declare
+both his sisters incapable of succeeding to the crown, as being
+illegitimate. The king died on July 6. The last male child of the Tudor
+race had ceased to suffer.
+
+When Lady Jane was saluted by Northumberland and four other lords, all
+kneeling at her feet, as queen, she shook, covered her face with her
+hands, and fell fainting to the ground. The next Monday, July 10, the
+royal barges came down the Thames from Richmond, and at three in the
+afternoon Lady Jane landed at the broad staircase of the Tower, as
+queen, in undesired splendour. But that same evening messages came
+saying that Mary had declared herself queen. She had sent addresses to
+the peers, commanding them on their allegiance to come to her.
+
+Happily, the conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane was crushed, without
+bloodshed, although it had seemed for a time as if the nation, was on
+the brink of a civil war. But, though Mary wished to spare Lady Jane and
+her husband, her intentions were frustrated by the determination of
+Renard, ambassador of the emperor. Northumberland was sent to the Tower,
+and beheaded on August 22, and in the following November Lady Jane and
+her husband were also condemned. Mary long hesitated, but at length
+issued the fatal warrant on February 8, 1554, and four days later both
+were executed. Lady Jane was but a delicate girl of seventeen, but met
+her fate with the utmost heroism.
+
+Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, became the chief instrument of
+the restoration of the Catholic faith under Mary. His fierce spirit soon
+began to display itself. In the fiery obstinacy of his determination
+this prelate speedily became the incarnate expression of the fury of the
+ecclesiastical faction, smarting, as they were, under their long
+degradation, and under the irritating consciousness of those false oaths
+of submission which they had sworn to a power they loathed. Gardiner now
+saw his Romanising party once more in a position to revenge their wrongs
+when there was no longer any Henry to stand between them and their
+enemies. He would take the tide at the flood, forge a weapon keener than
+the last, and establish the Inquisition.
+
+
+_The Reign of Terror_
+
+
+Mary listened to the worse counsels of each, and her distempered humour
+settled into a confused ferocity. Both Gardiner and she resolved to
+secure the trial, condemnation, and execution of her sister Elizabeth,
+but their plans utterly miscarried, for no evidence against her could be
+gathered. The princess was known to be favourable to the Protestant
+cause, but the attempts to prove her disloyalty to Mary were vain. She
+was imprisoned in the Tower, and the fatal net appeared to be closing on
+her. But though the danger of her murder was very great, the lords who
+had reluctantly permitted her to be imprisoned would not allow her to be
+openly sacrificed, or indeed, permit the queen to continue in the career
+of vengeance on which she had entered. The necessity of releasing
+Elizabeth from the Tower was an unspeakable annoyance to Mary. A
+confinement at Woodstock was the furthest stretch of severity that the
+country would, for the present, permit. On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was
+taken up the river.
+
+The princess believed herself that she was being carried off _tanquam
+ovis_, as she said--as a sheep for the slaughter. But the world thought
+she was set at liberty, and, as her barge passed under the bridge, Mary
+heard with indignation, from the palace windows, three salvoes of
+artillery fired from the Steelyard, as a sign of the joy of the people.
+Vexations began to tell on Mary's spirit. She could not shake off her
+anxieties, or escape from the shadow of her subject's hatred. Insolent
+pamphlets were dropped in her path and in the offices of Whitehall. They
+were placed by mysterious hands in the sanctuary of her bedroom.
+
+Her trials began to tell on her understanding. She was ill with
+hysterical longings; ill with the passions which Gardiner, as her
+chancellor, had provoked, but Paget as leader of the opposing party, had
+disappointed. But she was now to become the wife of King Philip of
+Spain. Negotiations for this momentous marriage had been protracted, and
+even after the contract had been signed, Philip seemed slow to arrive.
+The coolness manifested by his tardiness did much to aggravate the
+queen's despondency. On July 20, 1554, he landed at Southampton. The
+atmospheric auspices were not cheering, for Philip, who had come from
+the sunny plains of Castile, from his window at Southampton looked out
+on a steady downfall of July rain. Through the cruel torrent he made his
+way to church to mass, and afterwards Gardiner came to him from the
+queen. On the next Sunday he journeyed to Winchester, again in pouring
+rain. To the cathedral he went first, wet as he was. Whatever Philip of
+Spain was entering on, whether it was a marriage or a massacre, a state
+intrigue or a midnight murder, his first step was ever to seek a
+blessing from the holy wafer. Mary was at the bishop's palace, a few
+hundred yards' distance. Mary could not wait, and the same night the
+interview took place. Let the curtain fall over the meeting, let it
+close also over the wedding solemnities which followed with due
+splendour two days after. There are scenes in life which we regard with
+pity too deep for words.
+
+The unhappy queen, unloved, unlovable, yet with her parched heart
+thirsting for affection, was flinging herself upon a breast to which an
+iceberg was warm; upon a man to whom love was an unmeaning word, except
+as the most brutal of all passions. Mary set about to complete the
+Catholic reaction. She had restored the Catholic orthodoxy in her own
+person, and now was resolved to bring over her own subjects. But clouds
+gathered over the court. The Spaniards were too much in evidence. With
+the reaction came back the supremacy of the pope, and the ecclesiastical
+courts were reinstated in authority to check unlicensed extravagance of
+opinion.
+
+Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and three other prelates formed a court on
+January 28, 1555, in St. Mary Overy's Church, Southwark, and Hooper,
+Bishop of Gloucester, and Canon Rogers of St. Paul's, were brought up
+before them. Both were condemned as Protestants, and both were burnt at
+the stake, the bishop at Gloucester, the canon at Smithfield. They
+suffered heroically. The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of
+their rivals. There was a general conviction among them that Protestants
+would all flinch at the last; that they had no "doctrine that would
+abide the fire." Many more victims were offered. The enemies of the
+church were to submit or die. So said Gardiner, and so said the papal
+legate and the queen, in the delirious belief that they were the chosen
+instruments of Providence.
+
+The people, whom the cruelty of the party was reconverting to the
+reformation, while the fires of Smithfield blazed, with a rapidity like
+that produced by the gift of tongues at Pentecost, regarded the martyrs
+with admiration as soldiers dying for their country. On Mary, sorrow was
+heaped on sorrow. Her expectation of a child was disappointed, and
+Philip refused to stay in England. His unhappy wife was forced to know
+that he preferred the society of the most abandoned women to hers. The
+horrible crusade against heretics became the business of the rest of her
+life. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Latimer, and many other
+persons of distinction were amongst the martyrs of the Marian
+persecution. Latimer was eighty years of age.
+
+Mary's miseries were intensified month by month. War broke out between
+England and France. For ten years the French had cherished designs, and
+on January 7, 1558, the famous stronghold fell into their hands. The
+effect of this misfortune on the queen was to produce utter prostration.
+She now well understood that both parliament and the nation were badly
+disposed towards her. But her end was at hand. After much suffering from
+dropsy and nervous debility, she prepared quietly for what she knew was
+inevitable. On November 16, at midnight, taking leave of a world in
+which she had played so evil a part, Mary received the last rites of the
+church. Towards morning she was sinking, and at the elevation of the
+Host, as mass was being said, her head sank, and she was gone. A few
+hours later the pope's legate, Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, followed her.
+Thus the reign of the pope in England and the reign of terror closed
+together.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
+        content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+  <title>The World's Greatest Books XI</title>
+  <style type="text/css">
+
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+  pre
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+
+  .index
+  {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;
+  text-align: center;}
+
+  .figure
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+
+Author: Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREATEST BOOKS, VOL. XI. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<center> <h1>THE WORLD'S</h1> <h1>GREATEST</h1> <h1>BOOKS</h1>
+
+<h2>JOINT EDITORS</h2>
+
+<h3>ARTHUR MEE</h3> <h3>Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge</h3>
+
+<h3>J.A. HAMMERTON</h3> <h3>Editor of Harmsworth's Universal
+Encyclop&aelig;dia</h3>
+
+<h2>VOL. XI</h2>
+
+<h3>ANCIENT HISTORY</h3> <h3>MEDI&AElig;VAL HISTORY</h3>
+</center>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1>Table of Contents</h1>
+
+<b><a href='#Ancient_History'>ANCIENT HISTORY</a></b><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EGYPT<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#GASTON_MASPERO'>MASPERO, GASTON</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Dawn_of_Civilisation'>Dawn of Civilization</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Struggle_of_the_Nations'>Struggle of the Nations</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Passing_of_the_Empires'>Passing of the Empires</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;JEWS<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#FLAVIUS_JOSEPHUS'>JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews'>Antiquities of the Jews</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Wars_of_the_Jews'>Wars of the Jews</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HENRY_MILMAN_DD'>MILMAN, HENRY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_the_Jews'>History of the Jews</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GREECE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HERODOTUS'>HERODOTUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History'>History</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#THUCYDIDES'>THUCYDIDES</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Peloponnesian_War'>Peloponnesian War</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#XENOPHON'>XENOPHON</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Anabasis'>Anabasis</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#GEORGE_GROTE'>GROTE, GEORGE</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Greece'>History of Greece</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HEINRICH_SCHLIEMANN'>SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Troy_and_Its_Remains'>Troy and Its Remains</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ROME<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#JULIUS_CAESAR'>C&AElig;SAR, JULIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War'>Commentaries on the Gallic
+War</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#TACITUS'>TACITUS,
+PUBLIUS CORNELIUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Annals'>Annals</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href='#SALLUST'>SALLUST,
+CATOS CRISPUS</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Conspiracy_of_Catiline'>Conspiracy of Catiline</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_GIBBON1'>GIBBON, EDWARD</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__I'>Decline and Fall of the
+Roman Empire</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#THEODOR_MOMMSEN'>MOMMSEN, THEODOR</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Rome'>History of Rome</a><br />
+<br />
+<a href='#Mediaeval_History'>MEDI&AElig;VAL HISTORY</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_GIBBON2'>GIBBON, EDWARD</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Holy_Roman_Empire'>The Holy Roman Empire</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EUROPE<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#FRANCOIS_GUIZOT'>GUIZOT, F.P.G.</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_Civilisation_in_Europe'>History of Civilization in
+Europe</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#HENRY_HALLAM'>HALLAM, HENRY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#View_of_the_State_of_Europe_During_the_Middle_Ages'>View of the
+State of Europe During the Middle Ages</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;EGYPT<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#STANLEY_LANE_POOLE'>LANE-POOLE, STANLEY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Egypt_in_the_Middle_Ages'>Egypt in the Middle Ages</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ENGLAND<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#RAPHAEL_HOLINSHED'>HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#Chronicles_of_England_Scotland_and_Ireland'>Chronicles of England,
+Scotland and Ireland</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#EDWARD_A_FREEMAN'>FREEMAN, E.A.</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#The_Norman_Conquest_of_England'>Norman Conquest of England</a><br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#JAMES_ANTHONY_FROUDE'>FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY</a><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a
+href='#History_of_England'>History of England</a><br />
+
+<p>A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
+of Volume XX.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>Acknowledgment</h1>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
+following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The Struggle of the
+Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by Gaston Maspero--which appear
+in this volume, are hereby tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian
+Knowledge, of London, England. </p></blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Ancient_History'></a>Ancient History</h1>
+
+
+<h2><a name='GASTON_MASPERO'></a>GASTON MASPERO</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Dawn_of_Civilisation'></a>The Dawn of Civilisation</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
+Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in philology and
+Egyptology, having in great part studied his special subjects on Oriental
+ground. After occupying for several years the Chair of Egyptology in the
+&Eacute;cole des Hautes &Eacute;tudes at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became,
+in 1874, Professor of Egyptian Philology and Arch&aelig;ology at the
+Coll&egrave;ge de France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director
+of the Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this museum
+became enriched with its choicest antique treasures. Dr. Maspero retired in
+1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt as Director of Excavations. His works
+are of the utmost value, his skill in marshalling facts and deducting
+legitimate inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense work,
+with the general title of "History of the Ancient Peoples of the Classic
+East," divided into three parts, each complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of
+Civilisation"; (2) "The Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the
+Empires." </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Nile and Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
+vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
+plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this, the
+Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as it
+were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper begins. It
+is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south between
+regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the banks of the
+river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The whole length of the
+land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly parallel at a mean distance
+of about twelve miles.</p>
+
+<p>During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space;
+and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very
+summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and shrunken
+within the deeps of its own ancient bed, the stream now makes a way through
+its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keep to the east, and
+constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the hieroglyphic
+inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in which the river flowed
+divides, and two other streams are opened up in a southerly direction, each
+of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream.</p>
+
+<p>Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down
+from the distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed
+the immense plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew. The
+river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it withheld
+it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious armies follow
+the Nile for months together, as they pursued the tribes who dwelt upon its
+banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as irresistible in its progress as
+ever. It was a fresh-water sea--<i>iauma, ioma</i> was the name by which
+they called it. The Egyptians, therefore, never sought its source. It was
+said to be of supernatural origin, to rise in Paradise, to traverse burning
+regions inaccessible to man, and afterwards to fall into a sea whence it
+made its way to Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant
+invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as large
+as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the
+Bahr-el-Abiad unites with the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Alluvial
+deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which is known as
+Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our era it must still have been vast
+enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and boatmen the idea of an actual
+sea opening into the Indian Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the
+soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and hence
+it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They personified it
+as a man with regular features, and a vigorous but portly body, such as
+befits the rich of high lineage. Sometimes water springs from his breast;
+sometimes he presents a frog, or libation of vases, or bears a tray full of
+offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or geese. The inscriptions call him
+"Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who maketh food to be, and
+covereth the two lands of Egypt with his products; who giveth life,
+banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."</p>
+
+<p>He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
+other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his head,
+presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for his
+headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses, corresponding to the
+two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and Mirit-Mihit for the Lower
+Egypt--personified the banks of the river. They are represented with
+outstretched arms, as though begging for the water that should make them
+fertile.</p>
+
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Gods of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
+ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly every
+illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of some
+deity. One would think the country had been inhabited for the most part by
+gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the requirements of their
+worship. Each of these deities represented a function, a moment in the life
+of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit was identified with the ripe ear of
+wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the child's cradle at the very moment of its
+birth; and Raninit presided over the naming and nurture of the newly
+born.</p>
+
+<p>In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual
+jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the
+indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its
+grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one of
+the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form; others as
+animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.</p>
+
+<p>The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
+composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other composed
+of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of Sebennytos
+and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at Pharb&aelig;thos;
+Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady Tumilat; and,
+finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was enthroned at
+Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home deities. Horus the
+sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated each other that none
+could say where the one began and the other ended.</p>
+
+<p>Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
+universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
+entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as Nit
+was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human form.
+Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and formed a
+trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the local deity was
+content with one wife and one son, but often he was united to two
+goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than lowered, the prestige
+of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had of himself but limited
+authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was generally an
+infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him her breast. The gods
+had body and soul, like men; they had bones, muscles, flesh and blood; they
+hungered and thirsted, ate and drank; they had our passions, griefs, joys
+and infirmities; and they were subject to age, decrepitude and death,
+though they lived very far beyond the term of life of men.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>sa</i>, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
+carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who thus
+might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king who wished
+to become impregnated with the divine <i>sa</i> sat before the statue of
+the god in order that this principle might be infused into him. The gods
+were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils which death so
+plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome possessed the mummy
+and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was the mummy of Anhuri in
+its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at Heliopolis that of Tumu.
+Usually, by dying, the god became another deity. Ptah of Memphis became
+Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was changed into Anubis. Osiris
+first represented the wild and fickle Nile of primitive times; but was soon
+transformed into a benefactor to humanity, the supremely good being,
+Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed to assume the shapes not only of man,
+but of rams and bulls, or even of water-birds, such as lapwings, herons,
+and cranes. His companion goddess was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's
+horns, who personified the earth, and was mother of Horus.</p>
+
+<p>There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family
+fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the
+sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who
+made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water. The
+most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be regarded as
+the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed gods and
+fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting with an
+animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden intuition.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Legendary History of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or
+traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus. Great
+space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king of Egypt,
+who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men,
+and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his court was mainly
+composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went forth in his barque,
+amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his accustomed circuit of the
+world, and returned to his home at the end of twelve hours after the
+journey. In his old age he became the subject of the wiles of Isis, who
+poisoned him, and so secured his departure from earth. He was succeeded by
+Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the universe was divided.</p>
+
+<p>The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at
+length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were
+taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain by
+the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was divided
+between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth of two
+kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus, son of
+Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed itself
+under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.</p>
+
+<p>Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating
+to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris to
+the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination and
+trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show. Before
+gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it had
+during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris, and had
+served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from the very
+beginning of the Typhonian wars.</p>
+
+<p>To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two
+Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human
+dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his
+existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are mere
+legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our researches. The
+history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1. The Memphite
+period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from the First to the
+Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers over the whole of Egypt
+during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The Theban period, from the
+Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided into two parts by the
+invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3. Saite period, from the
+Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided again into two parts by the
+Persian Conquest, the first Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the
+Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite Period, from the Twenty-eighth to
+the Thirtieth dynasty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel to
+the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has mounted
+guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the followers of
+Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected
+alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more accessible
+places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole country. The
+bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined, were thrust into
+the sand at a depth of barely three feet from the surface. Those of the
+better class rested in mean rectangular chambers, hastily built of yellow
+bricks, without ornaments or treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse
+pottery contained the provisions left to nourish the departed during the
+period of his existence. Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out
+of the mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a
+"mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some
+subterranean vaults.</p>
+
+<p>During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs
+formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues,
+and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of
+these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes new
+life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands out
+boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else. He is
+god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the great-god,"
+connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the Pharaohs are
+blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being infused into the
+royal infant at birth.</p>
+
+<p>The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
+Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
+any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
+very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
+title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered her
+a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of private
+citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having no bond of
+union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of birth had
+destined to be their ruler.</p>
+
+<p>Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
+the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
+were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its attendants
+and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment to a score of
+different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost approached the
+dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which adorned each one, a
+living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers, dancers, buffoons and dwarfs
+whiled away the tedious hours. Many were the physicians, chaplains,
+soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed was the army of officials
+connected with the administration of public affairs. The mainspring of all
+this machinery was the writer, or, as we call him, the scribe, across whom
+we come in all grades of the staff.</p>
+
+<p>The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
+was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
+wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the elementary
+rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the scribe takes
+the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a talented scribe
+rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was removed to Berlin
+by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and was ennobled.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Memphite Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All we
+know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the nomads of
+Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier of the Delta,
+and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid. Snofrui called the
+pyramid "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead Pharaoh, identified
+with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. It was built to indicate
+the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person of rank in his tribe or
+province. The worship of Snofrui, the first pyramid-builders, was
+perpetuated from century to century. His popularity was probably great; but
+his fame has been eclipsed in our eyes by that of the Pharaohs of the
+Memphite dynasty who immediately followed him--Kheops, Khephren and
+Mykerinos.</p>
+
+<p>Khufui, the Kheops of the Greeks, was probably son of Snofrui. He
+reigned twenty-three years, successfully defended the valuable mines of
+copper, manganese and turquoise of the Sinaitic peninsula against the
+Bedouin; restored the temple of Hathor at Dendera; embellished that of
+Babastis; built a sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx; and consecrated
+there gold, silver and bronze statues of Horus and many other gods. Other
+Pharaohs had done as much or more; but the Egyptians of later dynasties
+measured the magnificence of Kheops by the dimensions of his pyramid at
+Ghizel. The Great Pyramid was called Khuit, the "Horizon," in which Kheops
+had to be swallowed up, as his father, the sun, was engulfed every evening
+in the horizon of the west. Of Dadufri, his immediate successor, we can
+probably say that he reigned eight years; but Khephren, the next son who
+succeeded to the throne, erected temples and a gigantic pyramid, like his
+father. He placed it some 394 feet to the south-west of that of Kheops, and
+called it Uiru the Great. It is much smaller than its neighbour, but at a
+distance the difference in height disappears. The pyramid of Mykerinos, son
+and successor of Khephren, was considerably inferior in height, but was
+built with scrupulous art and refined care.</p>
+
+<p>The Fifth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the Fourth. It reckons nine Pharaohs, who reigned for a
+century and a half, and each of them built pyramids and founded cities, and
+appear to have ruled gloriously. They maintained, and even increased, the
+power and splendour of Egypt. But the history of the Memphite Empire
+unfortunately loses itself in legend and fable, and becomes a blank for
+several centuries.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The First Theban Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The principality of the Oleander--Naru--comprised the territory lying
+between the Nile and the Bahr Yusuf, a district known to the Greeks as the
+island of Heracleopolis. It, moreover, included the whole basin of the
+Fayum, on the west of the valley. Attracted by the fertility of the soil,
+the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up their
+residence in Heracleopolis, the capital of the district of the Oleander,
+and one of them, Snofrui, had built his pyramid at Medum, close to the
+frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the Memphites declined,
+so did the princes of the Oleander grow more vigorous and enterprising; and
+When the Memphite kings passed away, these princes succeeded their former
+masters and eventually sat "upon the throne of Horus."</p>
+
+<p>The founder of the Ninth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., who ruled over
+all Egypt, and whose name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.
+His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a century.
+The history of this period seems to have been one of confused struggle, the
+Pharaohs fighting constantly against their vassals, and the nobles warring
+amongst themselves. During the Memphite and Heracleopolitan dynasties
+Memphis, Elephantin&eacute;, El-Kab and Koptos were the principal cities of
+the country; and it was only towards the end of the Eighth dynasty that
+Thebes began to realise its power. The revolt of the Theban. princes put an
+end to the Ninth dynasty; and though supported by the feudal powers of
+Central and Northern Egypt, the Tenth dynasty did not succeed in bringing
+them back to their allegiance, and after a struggle of nearly 200 years the
+Thebans triumphed and brought the two divisions of Egypt under their
+rule.</p>
+
+<p>The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban
+dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race. The kings
+of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from the valley
+of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of fresh
+territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country had
+suffered for hundreds of years. The final overthrow of the Heracleopolitan
+dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the rule of the Theban
+house, are supposed to have been the work of that Monthotpu, whose name the
+Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the royal lists as that of the
+founder and most illustrious representative of the Eleventh dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
+showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
+determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
+found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and established
+for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far south to be a
+suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt, Amenemhait proceeded
+to establish himself in the heart of the country in imitation of the
+glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took up his abode a
+little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui. Having restored
+peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of his reign, when he
+was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very young, to the
+co-regency with himself.</p>
+
+<p>When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
+against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
+dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with greater
+certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which ruled
+Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its great
+achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight sovereigns and
+the details of their interminable wars are very imperfectly known.</p>
+
+<p>Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
+Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty kings,
+who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and Sovkhoptus
+continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work so ably begun
+by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.</p>
+
+<p>During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
+fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
+taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
+Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
+the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
+energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
+incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
+Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis, Bubastis
+and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley, from near the
+spot where it receives its last tributary to where it empties itself into
+the sea. The making of Egypt was finally accomplished in his time. The
+Fourteenth dynasty, however, consists of a line of seventy-five kings,
+whose mutilated names appear on the Turin Papyrus. These shadowy Pharaohs
+followed each other in rapid sequence, some reigning only a few months,
+others for certainly not more than two and three years.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, during what appears to have been an era of rivalries between
+pretenders, mutually jealous of and deposing one another, usurpers in
+succession seizing the crown without strength to keep it, the feudal lords
+displayed more than their old restlessness. The nomad tribes began to show
+growing hostility on the frontier, and the peoples of the Tigris and
+Euphrates were already pushing their vanguards into Central Syria. While
+Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and the eastern corner of
+Africa into subjection, Chald&aelig;a had imposed not only language and
+habits, but also her laws upon the whole of that part of Eastern Asia which
+separated her from Egypt. Thus the time was rapidly approaching when these
+two great civilised powers of the ancient world would meet each other face
+to face and come into fierce and terrible collision.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VII.--Ancient Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an account of Genesis is contained on fragments of
+tablets discovered and deciphered in 1875 by George Smith. These tell
+legends of the time when "nothing which was called heaven existed above,
+and when nothing below had as yet received the name of earth. Apsu, the
+Ocean, who was their first father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
+all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes which
+bore no fruit. In the time when the gods were not created, Lakhmu and
+Lakhamu were the first to appear and waxed great for ages."</p>
+
+<p>Then came Anu, the sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night;
+Inlil-Bel, the king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and the
+personification of wisdom. Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into Anat,
+Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse whom he
+had produced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these fruitful
+pairs, and, the impulse once given, the world was rapidly peopled by their
+descendants. Sin, Samash and Ramman, who presided respectively over the
+sun, moon and air, were all three of equal rank; next came the lords of the
+planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, the warrior-goddess, and Nebo;
+then a whole army of lesser deities who ranged themselves around Anu as
+around a supreme master.</p>
+
+<p>Discord arose. The first great battle of the gods was between Tiamat and
+Merodach. In this fearful conflict Tiamat was destroyed. Splitting her body
+into halves, the conqueror hung up one on high, and this became the
+heavens; the other he spread out under his feet to form the earth, and made
+the universe as men have known it. Merodach regulated the movements of the
+sun and divided the year into twelve months.</p>
+
+<p>The heavens having been put in order, he set about peopling the earth.
+Many such fables concerning the cosmogony were current among the races of
+the lower Euphrates, who seem to have belonged to three different types.
+The most important were the Semites, who spoke a dialect akin to Armenian,
+Hebrew and Phoenician. Side by side with these the monuments give evidence
+of a race of ill-defined character, whom we provisionally call Sumerians,
+who came, it is said, from some northern country, and brought with them a
+curious system of writing which, adopted by ten different nations, has
+preserved for us all that we know in regard to the majority of the empires
+which rose and fell in Western Asia before the Persian conquest. The cities
+of these Semites and Sumerians were divided into two groups, one in the
+south, near the sea, the other more to the north, where the Euphrates and
+the Tigris are separated by a narrow strip of land. The southern group
+consisted of seven, Eridu lying nearest the coast. Uru was the most
+important. Lagash was to the north of Eridu. The northern group consisted
+of Nipur, "the incomparable," Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and
+residence of life, the only metropolis of the Euphrates region of which
+posterity never lost reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the
+two Sipparas, that of Shamash, and that of Annuit.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest Chald&aelig;an civilisation was confined almost to the
+banks of the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not
+reach the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of
+the world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
+north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert, it
+was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an isolated
+area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.</p>
+
+<p>According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
+chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
+36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in this
+mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the great
+deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the wickedness
+of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited their wrath.
+Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved miraculously in
+a great ship. Concerning him and his voyage strange fables are recorded.
+After the deluge, 86 kings ruled during 34,080 years. One of these was
+Nimrod, the mighty hunter of the Bible, who appears as Gilgamesh, King of
+Uruk, and is the hero of extraordinary adventures.</p>
+
+<p>History proper begins with Sargon the Elder, king at the first in Agade,
+who soon annexed Babylon, Sippara, Kishu, Uruk, Kuta and Nipur. His
+brilliant career was like an anticipation of that of the still more
+glorious life of Sargon of Nineveh. His son, Naramsin, succeeded him about
+3750 B.C. He conquered Elam and was a great builder. After him the most
+famous king of that epoch was Gudea, of Lagash, the prince of whom we
+possess the greatest number of monuments. But in these records we have but
+the dust of history rather than history itself. The materials are scanty in
+the extreme and the framework also is wanting.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VIII.--The Temples and the Gods of Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of Egypt,
+by the magnificence of their ruins. They are merely heaps of rubbish in
+which no architectural outline can be traced--mounds of stiff greyish clay,
+containing the remains of the vast structures that were built of bricks set
+in mortar or bitumen. Stone was not used as in Egypt. While the Egyptian
+temple was spread superficially over a large area, the Chald&aelig;an
+temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible. These "ziggurats"
+were composed of several immense cubes piled up on one another, and
+diminishing in size up to the small shrine by which they were crowned, and
+wherein the god himself was supposed to dwell.</p>
+
+<p>The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a
+countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into
+tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe; but, whereas
+in Egypt they were, on the whole, friendly to man, in Chald&aelig;a they
+for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only seemed to
+exist in order to destroy him. Whether Semite or Sumerian, the gods, like
+those of Egypt, were not abstract personages, but each contained in himself
+one of the principal elements of which our universe is composed--earth,
+air, sky, sun, moon and stars. The state religion, which all the
+inhabitants of the same city were solemnly bound to observe, included some
+dozen gods, but the private devotion of individuals supplemented this cult
+by vast additions, each family possessing its own household gods.</p>
+
+<p>Animals never became objects of worship as in Egypt; some of them,
+however, as the bull and the lion, were closely allied to the gods. If the
+idea of uniting all these gods into a single supreme one ever crossed the
+mind of a Chald&aelig;an theologian, it never spread to the people as a
+whole. Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on which we
+find recorded prayers, we have as yet discovered no document containing the
+faintest allusion to a divine unity. The temples were miniature
+reproductions of the arrangements of the universe. The "ziggurat"
+represented in its form the mountain of the world, and the halls ranged at
+its feet resembled approximately the accessory parts of the world; the
+temple of Merodach at Babylon comprised them all up to the chambers of
+fate, where the sun received every morning the tablets of destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Every individual was placed, from the very moment of his birth, under
+the protection of a god or goddess, of whom he was the servant, or rather
+the son. These deities accompanied him by day and by night to guard him
+from the evil genii ready to attack him on every side. The Chald&aelig;ans
+had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in the other world as the
+Egyptians possessed.</p>
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an hades is a dark country surrounded by seven high
+walls, and is approached by seven gates, each guarded by a pitiless warder.
+Two deities rule within it--Nergal, "the lord of the great city," and
+Peltis-Allat, "the lady of the great land," whither everything which has
+breathed in this world descends after death. A legend relates that Allat
+reigned alone in hades and was invited by the gods to a feast which they
+had prepared in heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light she refused,
+sending a message by her servant, Namtar, who acquitted himself, with such
+a bad grace, that Anu and Ea were incensed against his mistress, and
+commissioned Nergal to chastise her. He went, and finding the gates of hell
+open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was about to
+decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved her life by
+becoming his wife.</p>
+
+<p>The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the
+departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of
+pestilence and battle. His functions in heaven and earth took up so much of
+his time that he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and he was
+consequently obliged to content himself with the r&ocirc;le of providing
+subjects for it by dispatching thither the thousands of recruits which he
+gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the field of battle.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IX.--Chald&aelig;an Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Chald&aelig;an kings, unlike their contemporaries, the Pharaohs,
+rarely put forward any pretension to divinity. They contented themselves
+with occupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the
+gods. While the ordinary priest chose for himself a single deity as master,
+the priest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions. He officiated for
+Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions daily occupied
+many hours. On great days of festival or sacrifice they laid aside all
+insignia of royalty and were clad as ordinary priests.</p>
+
+<p>Women do not seem to have been honoured in the Euphratean regions as in
+Egypt, where the wives of the sovereign were invested with that semi-sacred
+character that led the women to be associated with the devotions of the
+man, and made them indispensable auxiliaries in all religious ceremonies.
+Whereas the monuments on the banks of the Nile reveal to us princesses
+sharing the throne of their husbands, whom they embrace with a gesture of
+frank affection, in Chald&aelig;a, the wives of the prince, his mother,
+sisters, daughters and even his slaves, remain absolutely invisible to
+posterity. The harem in which they were shut up by force of custom rarely,
+if ever, opened its doors; the people seldom caught sight of them; and we
+could count on our fingers the number of these whom the inscriptions
+mention by name.</p>
+
+<p>Life was not so pleasant in Chald&aelig;a as in Egypt. The innumerable
+promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and
+purchase--these cunningly drawn-up deeds which have been deciphered by the
+hundred, reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious, and
+almost exclusively absorbed in material concerns. The climate, too,
+variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed on the
+Chald&aelig;an painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of
+which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable. And
+the plague of usury raged with equal violence in city and country.</p>
+
+<p>In proportion, however, as we are able to bring this wonderful
+civilisation to light we become more and more conscious that we have indeed
+little or nothing in common with it. Its laws, customs, habits and
+character, its methods of action and its modes of thought, are so far apart
+from those of the present day that they seem to belong to a humanity
+utterly different from our own. It thus happens that while we understand to
+a shade the classical language of the Greeks and of the Romans, and can
+read their works almost without effort, the great primitive literatures of
+the world, the Egyptian and Chald&aelig;an, have nothing to offer us for
+the most part but a sequence of problems to solve or of enigmas to unriddle
+with patience.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Struggle_of_the_Nations'></a>The Struggle of the
+Nations</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Maspero in this work gives us the second volume of his
+great historical trilogy. He shows in parallel views the part played in the
+history of the ancient world by the first Chald&aelig;an Empire, by Syria,
+by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, of Egypt, and by the first Coss&aelig;an
+kings who established the greatness of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. The
+great Theban dynasty is then exhibited in its romantic rise under the
+Pharaohs. Maspero writes not as a mere chronicler or reciter of events, but
+as a philosophical historian. He makes the reader understand how fatally
+the chronic militarism of these competing empires drained each of its
+manhood and brought Babylon and Assyria simultaneously into a hopeless
+condition of national an&aelig;mia. Equally pathetic is the picture drawn
+of the gradual but sure decay of the grand empire of the Pharaohs. Maspero,
+with masterly skill, passes a processional of these despots before our
+eyes. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Chald&aelig;an Empire and the Hyksos</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
+battlefields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such
+regions neighbouring peoples come to settle their quarrels, and bit by bit
+they appropriate it, so that at best the only course open to the
+inhabitants is to join forces with one of the invaders. From remote
+antiquity this was the experience of Syria, which was thus destined to
+become subject to foreign rule. Chald&aelig;a, Egypt, Assyria and Persia in
+turn presided over its destinies. Semites dwelt in the south and the
+centre, while colonies from beyond the Taurus occupied the north. The
+influence of Egypt never penetrated beyond the provinces lying nearest the
+Dead Sea. The remaining populations looked rather to Chald&aelig;a, and
+received the continuous impress of the kingdoms of the Euphrates.</p>
+
+<p>The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at
+first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
+latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
+state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession, there
+to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings contain
+semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes. Towards the end
+of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the Christian era, a dynasty
+arose of which all the members come within the range of history.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
+the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
+kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416 B.C.
+and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the. famous and
+fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the throne for
+fifty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
+separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
+horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
+declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
+invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
+whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
+term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
+conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors. The
+monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The problem
+remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious as
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Isr&aelig;l,
+or Isr&aelig;lites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's
+history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews arrived
+in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless one of the
+Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a war of five
+years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs, whose policy
+was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from various quarters,
+and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her armies across all her
+frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden appearance in the heart of Syria
+gave a new turn to human history. The isolation of the kingdoms of the
+ancient world was at an end; and the conflict of the nations was about to
+begin.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chald&aelig;an interference
+when, forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first
+time into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
+control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared. When
+Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of Khammurabi became
+extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Coss&aelig;an race gained the
+throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi by
+Chald&aelig;ans of the ancient stock.</p>
+
+<p>The Coss&aelig;an king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and
+his tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
+Media. The Coss&aelig;an rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
+doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised at
+first over the nomes of Egypt. The Coss&aelig;an kings did not merely bring
+with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
+land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
+merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
+successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
+over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew their
+allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer supreme
+when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis entered the
+region the native levies which he encountered were by no means
+formidable.</p>
+
+<p>The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
+group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
+completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to distinguish
+at the present time several of these groups, all belonging to the same
+family, but possessing different characteristics--the kinsfolk of the
+Hebrews, the children of Ishm&aelig;l and Edom, the Moabites and Ammonites, the
+Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The Canaanites were the most
+numerous, and had they been able to confederate under a single king, it
+would have been impossible for the Egyptians to have broken through the
+barrier thus raised between them and the rest of Asia.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
+a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
+could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching on
+his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
+surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
+Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the secure
+door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this quarter,
+Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power in Ethiopia,
+where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern region and thus
+extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the upper Nile,
+Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of profound peace.
+Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife, Queen Hatshopsitu,
+reigned for many years with great ability while the new Pharaoh, Thutmosis
+III., was still a youth.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
+It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
+reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and won
+a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
+inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
+Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his arms,
+and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king. When the
+Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its results by
+means of a series of international decrees, which established the
+constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action with the
+Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position among them
+when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his reign.</p>
+
+<p>Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
+who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
+peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
+temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of
+whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort
+after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such
+a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III., was
+raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty. He
+displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting mighty
+building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against recalcitrant
+tribes along the Upper Nile.</p>
+
+<p>Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his
+accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and associated his son, Seti
+I., with himself in the government from his second year of power. No sooner
+had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for war against
+Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron, marched to Gaza,
+and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the homage of the
+Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing troops of
+captives.</p>
+
+<p>By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and
+Luxor, which render his name for ever illustrious. He associated with him
+his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of the
+greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The
+monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of
+the world. He married a Hittite princess when he was more than sixty. This
+alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once more
+breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection of the
+two Powers who shared her territory.</p>
+
+<p>Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old
+age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to disfigure
+it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who was thus the
+glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and lived to the age
+of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes. Under his successors,
+Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation became decadent,
+though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as when Minephtah won a
+great victory over the Libyans. But after the death of Siphtah, there were
+many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy prevailed from one end of the
+Nile valley to the other.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Rise of the Assyrian Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last
+dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental
+world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him
+in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived. In the fifth
+year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated Libyans with
+complete success. Victories over other enemies followed, and also peace and
+prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had
+so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it had
+made on their constitution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had become, as
+it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and language being
+affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians became absorbed in
+commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the inheritance which the
+Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the decline of the power of the
+latter was that of the Hittites.</p>
+
+<p>The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Coss&aelig;an
+kings, and gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard
+Babylon with deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more
+than 185 miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many
+canals between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was
+formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper Zab,
+the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every means in
+its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and the narrow
+area was the scene of continual war.</p>
+
+<p>Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that
+of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the
+Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of
+latitude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the
+streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a network
+of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The provinces
+thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into a proverb.
+Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well wooded. The most
+important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>Assur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the
+very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was,
+during the struggle with the Chald&aelig;an power, exposed to the attacks
+of the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and
+the Zab, was secure from any sudden assault. Thus it became the custom for
+the kings to pass at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though Assur
+remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire, which
+began its aggrandisement under Assurballit, by his victory over the
+Coss&aelig;an kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the
+career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years doubled
+the extent of his dominions. He beautified Assur, but removed his court to
+Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of Babylon, and was
+the first of his race who was able to assume the title of King of Sumir and
+Akkad.</p>
+
+<p>This first conquest of Chald&aelig;a did not produce lasting results, for the
+sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and Assyria became the
+scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the depression
+of Assyria did not last long. Nineveh had become the metropolis. Confusion
+was increased in the whole of this vast region of Asia by the invasion and
+partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon. But these were driven back
+when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To Merodach he prayed, and "his
+prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam, taking its king by surprise and
+defeating him.</p>
+
+<p>Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of
+Assyria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for though
+his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent flying
+across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of Assurishishi,
+who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son, Tiglath-pileser, is the
+first of the great warrior kings of Assyria to stand out before us with any
+definite individuality. He immediately, on his accession, began to employ
+in aggressive wars the well-equipped army left by his father, and in three
+campaigns he regained all the territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and
+also conquered various regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the
+Chald&aelig;ans he met with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive,
+dying about the year 1100 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain
+Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the
+footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
+Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left a
+triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had
+accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested from
+him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks of the
+Euphrates near Carchemish.</p>
+
+<p>What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at
+almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady? The
+main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the country
+and the material conditions of its existence. Chald&aelig;a was neither
+extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the ambition of
+her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms was enrolled in
+the army, the Chald&aelig;an kings had no difficulty in raising, at a
+moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel an invasion, or
+to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it was in schemes that
+required prolonged and sustained effort that they felt the drawbacks of
+their position. In that age of hand-to-hand combats, the mortality in
+battle was very high; forced marches through forests and across mountains
+entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or four campaigns against a
+stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a condition of weakness.</p>
+
+<p>When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on Assurishishi, he was still weak from
+the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could not
+conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on the
+banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few indecisive
+advantages; in the second he succumbed.</p>
+
+<p>The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
+causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst of
+her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories of
+Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious state of
+languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted themselves which
+had gradually come to displace the nations over which the dynasties of
+Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to them. The Hebrews on the
+east, and the Philistines on the southwest, were about to undertake the
+conquest of Kharu, as the land which is known to us as Canaan was styled by
+the Egyptians.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Passing_of_the_Empires'></a>The Passing of the
+Empires</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Maspero, in the third volume of his great arch&aelig;ological
+trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the Classic
+East," deals with the passing in succession of the supremacies of the
+Babylonian, Assyrian, Chald&aelig;an, Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The
+period dealt with in this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries,
+from 850 B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes before
+us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic dramas. One
+excellent feature of his method is his balancing of evidences. Where
+Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ he tells what each asserts. With
+consummate skill also he arranges his recital like a series of dissolving
+views, showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading Assyria is
+rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media is looming into sight. We
+are, in this third instalment of Maspero's monumental work, brought to
+understand how the decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
+culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by Alexander, prepared
+at length for the entry of Western nations on the stage, and how Europe
+became the heir of the culture and civilisation of the Orient.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Assyrian Revival</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
+prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity and
+distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the country, and
+an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held authority for
+seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030 B.C., a
+Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and succeeded in
+bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule. Five or six of his
+descendants passed away and another was feebly reigning when war broke out
+afresh with Assyria, and the two armies encountered each other again on
+their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat. The
+Assyrians were victorious under their king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not
+live long to enjoy his triumph. His son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a
+kingdom which embraced scarcely any of the countries that had paid tribute
+to former sovereign, for most of these had gradually regained their
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same
+conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the vitality
+and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a new element.
+This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to the chariotry.
+But it must be remembered that the strength and discipline which the
+Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were common to the military
+forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hittites and
+Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states being, as a rule, both in
+strength and numbers much on a par, no single power was able to inflict on
+any of the rest such a defeat as would be its destruction. Twice at least
+in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the
+Babylonians had forced the intruder back.</p>
+
+<p>Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those
+conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives. He
+was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than the
+people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief cities,
+then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and pillaged
+many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was flayed alive.
+After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his
+successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of Nimroud,
+discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He conquered the
+whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a savage bull
+ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An attack on
+Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad, King of Syria,
+proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war with Babylon,
+lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for Assyria, and
+Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple of E-shaggil,
+where he offered worship to the local gods.</p>
+
+<p>Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King
+of Isr&aelig;l, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been faithful
+to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the city of
+Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his pledge. He
+and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance against Benhadad,
+who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had organised an expedition,
+which led to the death of Ahab in battle. Isr&aelig;l lapsed once more into the
+position of a vassal to Benhadad, and long remained in that subjection.</p>
+
+<p>The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son,
+Assur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was shaken
+by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV., the brother
+of Assurdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son, Ramman-nirari III.,
+had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and so had secured peace.
+He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at length Damascus made
+submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and able King of Urartu,
+proved himself a thorn in the side of the Assyrian king, for he delivered
+from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the borders of Lake Urmiah and all
+the adjacent regions.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the
+Euphrates, the Assyrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also
+overcame the Hittites and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van, or
+Armenia, which was quite equal in size to Assyria. He died shortly before
+the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent the first
+few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the country north of
+the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of Ramman-nirari, but
+defeated the Assyrians.</p>
+
+<p>Misfortunes accumulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so
+wide a sway, and the end of the Second Assyrian Empire was not far off.
+Syria was lost under Assur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah by
+sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came to an
+end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah, proclaimed
+himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The Second Empire had
+lasted rather less than a century and a half.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--To the Destruction of Babylon</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Events proved that, at this period at any rate, the decadence of Assyria
+was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of the country,
+but was owing Mainly to the incapacity of its kings and the lack of energy
+displayed by their generals. The Assyrian troops had lost none of their
+former valour, but their leaders had shown less foresight and skill. As
+soon as Tiglath-pileser assumed leadership, the armies regained their
+former prestige and supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, but the buffer provinces, containing
+the tribes on the borders of Syria, Namri, Nairi, Melitene, had thrown off
+the yoke, as had the Arameans, while Menuas of Armenia and his son Argistis
+had by their invasions laid waste the Median territory. Sharduris III., son
+of Argistis, succeeded to the throne of Armenia about 760, and at once
+overran the district of Babilu, carrying by storm three royal castles, 23
+cities, and 60 villages. He also captured the castles of the mountaineers
+of Melitene. Crossing Mount Taurus about 756, he forced the Hittites to
+swear allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the middle of this eighth century B.C., in the days of
+Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, and Sharduris III. of Armenia, that
+Isr&aelig;l, under Jehoash, and his son Jeroboam II.; inspired by the
+exhortations of Elisha the prophet, was rehabilitated for a season, winning
+victories over the Syrians and taking vengeance on Damascus, and then
+attacking the Moabites. The sudden collapse of Damascus led to the decline
+of Syria, but though Jeroboam II. seemed to be firmly seated as king in
+Samaria, the downfall of Isr&aelig;l and Judah alike, as well as of Tyre, Edom,
+Gaza, Moab, and Ammon, was foretold by the prophet Amos, while from the
+midst of Ephraim the priest-seer, Hosea, was never weary of reproaching the
+tribes with their ingratitude and of predicting their coming
+desolation.</p>
+
+<p>Ere long, Tiglath-pileser began his campaigns against them by attacking
+the Arameans, dwelling on the banks of the Tigris. He overthrew them at the
+first encounter. Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him and
+swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon, Borsippa,
+Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a peer," and
+offered sacrifices to all their gods--to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo, Tashmit, and
+Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.</p>
+
+<p>His next exploit was the rapid conquest of the mountainous and populous
+regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
+conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in the
+difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the Euphrates in
+the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon afterwards marched
+forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout of the latter was
+complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The victor was covered with
+glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the forces left him were not
+sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to extort allegiance from the Syrian
+princes who had allied themselves with Sharduris.</p>
+
+<p>After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
+Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of Northern
+Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty foiled
+Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of Dhuspas,
+in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu held out
+against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew. Sharduris
+remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his power had
+received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then, Armenia has more
+than once challenged fortune, but always with the same result; it fared no
+better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under Sharduris in the time
+of the Assyrians.</p>
+
+<p>As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
+Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta, where
+the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
+grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
+abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
+profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
+also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many petty
+states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time of
+Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power was
+really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually declared
+himself king, together with Pharaoh.</p>
+
+<p>Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
+of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was at
+this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Isr&aelig;l, King Pekah
+being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
+inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.</p>
+
+<p>Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
+had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years was
+assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin, who
+was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two months
+and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain Ukinzir, an
+Aramean chief.</p>
+
+<p>But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
+on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against it.
+After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
+Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
+passed since the two empires had been united under one ruler. His
+Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking for him; but he did not
+long survive his triumph, dying after having reigned eighteen years over
+Assyria, and less than two years over Babylon and Chald&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<p>The next great Assyrian name is that of Sargon II., whose origin is not
+clear. And the incidents of the revolution which raised him to the throne
+are also unknown. The first few years of his reign, which commenced in 722
+B.C., were harassed by revolts among many of the border tribes, but these
+he resolutely faced at all points, inflicting overwhelming defeats on the
+Medes and the Armenians. The Philistines were cowed by the storming of
+Ashdod, and Sargon subdued Phoenicia, carrying his arms to the sea. This
+great monarch, while wars raged round him, found time for extensive works
+of a peaceful character, completing the system of irrigation, and erecting
+buildings at Calah and Nineveh, and raising a magnificent palace at
+Dur-Sharrukin.</p>
+
+<p>And here he intended in peace to build a great city, but he was, in 105
+B.C., assassinated by an alien soldier. Sennacherib, his son, fighting on
+the frontier, was recalled and proclaimed immediately. He either failed to
+inherit his father's good fortune, or lacked his ability. Instead of
+conciliating the vanquished, he massacred entire tribes, and failed to
+re-people these with captive exiles from other nations. So, towards the end
+of his reign--which terminated in 681 B.C.--he found himself ruling over a
+sparsely inhabited desert where his father had left him flourishing and
+populous cities. Phoenicia and Judah formed an alliance with each other and
+with Egypt. Sennacherib bestirred himself and Tyre perished. The Assyrian
+invader then attacked Judah and besieged Jerusalem, where Hezekiah was king
+and Isaiah was prophesying. Whatever was the cause, half the army perished
+by pestilence, and Sennacherib led back the remnants of his force to
+Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>The disaster was terrible, but not irreparable, for another and an equal
+host could be raised. And it was needed to quell a great Babylonian revolt
+led by Merodachbaladan, who had given the signal of rebellion to the
+mountain tribes also. After a series of terrible conflicts, Babylon was
+taken. And now Sennacherib, who had shown leniency after two previous
+revolts, displayed unbounded fury in his triumph. The massacre lasted
+several days, none being spared of the citizens. Piles of corpses filled
+the streets. The temples and palaces were pillaged, and finally the city
+was burnt.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of his costly and absorbing wars we may well wonder how
+Sennacherib found time and means for building villas and temples; yet he
+is, nevertheless, the Assyrian king who has left us the largest number of
+monuments.</p>
+
+<p>His last years were embittered by the fierce rivalry of his sons. One of
+these he nominated his successor, Esarhaddon, son of a Babylonian wife.
+During his absence from Nineveh, on the 20th day of Teleth, 681, his
+father, Sennacherib, when praying before the image of his god, was
+assassinated by two other sons, Sharezer and Adrammelech. Esarhaddon,
+hearing of this tragedy, gathered an army, and in a battle defeated
+Sharezer and established himself on the throne.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Crisis of the Assyrian Power</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, for he delighted in
+building; but unfortunate disturbances did not permit him to pursue his
+favourite occupation without interruption, and, like his warlike
+predecessors, he was constrained to pass most of his life on the
+battlefield. He began his reign by quelling an insurrection of the
+Cimmerians in the territories on the border of the Black Sea. Sidon
+rebelled ungratefully, although his father had saved her from desolation by
+Tyre. He stormed and burnt the city. The Scythian tribes came on the field
+in 678 B.C., but they were diplomatically conciliated.</p>
+
+<p>Now followed a memorable event. Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all
+the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the fabrication
+of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and lavishly devoted
+gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of enamel to
+decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the people, who
+had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to return to their
+homes.</p>
+
+<p>But fresh foreign complications arose through the support given
+continually to recalcitrant states in the south of Egypt. Esarhaddon was
+provoked to undertake the first actual invasion of Egypt in force by
+Assyria for the purpose of subduing the country. Over a great combination
+of the Egyptians and Ethiopians he won a crushing victory. Memphis was
+taken and sacked. Henceforth, Esarhaddon, in his pride, styled himself King
+of Egypt, and King of the Kings of Egypt, of the Said, and of Ethiopia. But
+he was not very long permitted to enjoy the glory of his triumph; a
+determined revolt of the conquered country demanded a fresh campaign. He
+set out, but was in bad health, and, his malady increasing, he died on the
+journey in the twelfth year of his reign.</p>
+
+<p>Before starting on the expedition, he had realised the impossibility of
+a permanent amalgamation of Assyria and Babylon, notwithstanding his
+personal affection for Babylon. Accordingly, he designated as his
+successors his two sons. Assurbanipal was to be King of Assyria, and
+Shamash-shumukin King of Babylon, under the suzerainty of his brother. As
+soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation he had planned took
+place automatically, the two sons proclaiming themselves respectively kings
+of Assyria and Babylon. Thus Babylon regained half its independence. But
+the Assyrian Empire was now at its zenith. Egypt was quelled by the army of
+Esarhaddon, and to Assurbanipal submitted in vassalage the nations of the
+Mediterranean coast.</p>
+
+<p>Now followed years of exhausting warfare and of victory after victory,
+which fatally wasted the strength of Assyria. Never had the empire been so
+respected; never had so many nations united under one sceptre. But troubles
+accumulated. Mutiny in Egypt called for another expedition, which led to
+the capture and sacking of Thebes. Next came a war with Elam, ending in its
+subjection to Assyria, for the first time in history.</p>
+
+<p>But with success. Assurbanipal grew arrogant in his attitude to his
+brother, the King of Babylon, and a fratricidal war resulted in the defeat
+and death of Shamash-shumukin and the capture of the rival capital. But
+Assyria was now near one of its recurrent periods of exhaustion, and foes
+were rising for a formidable attack.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Fall of Media and Chald&aelig;a</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At the very height of his apparent grandeur and prosperity Assurbanipal
+was attacked by Phraortes, King of the Medes, who paid for his temerity
+with his life, being left dead, with the greater part of his army, on the
+field. But the sequel was unexpected, for Cyaxares, son of the slain Mede,
+stubbornly continued the conflict, patiently reorganising his army, until
+he won a great victory over the Assyrian generals, and shut up the remnant
+of their forces in Nineveh.</p>
+
+<p>Assurbanipal, after a reign of forty-two years, died about 625 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son, Assuretililani. Against his brother and
+successor, Sinsharishkin, the standard of rebellion was raised by
+Nabopolassar, the governor of Babylon, who declared himself independent,
+and assumed the title of king, but his reign not long after ended with his
+death, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar was proclaimed king in Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>His reign was long and prosperous, and, on the whole, a peaceful one.
+The most notable event in the career of Nebuchadrezzar II., was the capture
+and destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of a revolt of Tyre and Judea.
+The unfortunate king, Zedekiah, saw his sons slain in his presence, and
+then, his eyes having been put out, he was loaded with chains, and sent to
+Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Nebuchadrezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of fifty-five years. His
+successors were weak rulers, and their reigns were brief and inglorious.
+The army was suffered to dwindle, and the dynasty founded by Nabopolassar
+came to an end in 555 B.C., when Labashi-marduk, the last of the line,
+after reigning only nine months, was murdered by Nabonidus, a native
+Babylonian. This usurper witnessed the rapid rise of the new Iranian power
+which was to destroy him and Babylon. In 553 B.C., Cyrus, a Persian
+general, revolted against Astyages, defeated him, and destroyed the Median
+Empire at one blow.</p>
+
+<p>The only army that was a match for that of Cyrus was the Lydian host
+under King Croesus. A conflict took place between the two, ending in the
+defeat of the most powerful potentate of Asia Minor. But Cyrus treated
+Croesus with consideration, and the Lydian king is said to have become the
+friend of the mighty Persian. From that day neither Egypt nor Chald&aelig;a
+had any chance of victory on the battlefield. Nabonidus became a mere
+vassal of Cyrus, and lived more or less inactively in his palace at Tima,
+leaving the direction of power at Babylon in the hands of his son,
+Bel-sharuzu.</p>
+
+<p>At length the Babylonians grew weary of their king. Nabonidus had never
+been popular, and the discontent of the people at length called for the
+intervention of the suzerain. In 538 Cyrus moved against Babylon, and
+Nabonidus now retreated into the city with his troops, and prepared for a
+siege. But Cyrus, taking advantage of the time of the year when the waters
+were lowest, diverted the Tigris, so that his soldiers were able to enter
+the city without striking a blow. Nabonidus surrendered, and Belsharuzur
+was slain. With him perished the second Chald&aelig;an Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The sagacious conqueror did not pillage the city, and treated the
+citizens with clemency. Cyrus associated his son Cambyses with himself,
+making him King of Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital of
+the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian dominion
+extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus took place
+the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
+his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom; but
+Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
+barbarian hosts of the Massaget&aelig;, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
+the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in which
+all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but accomplished the
+stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone remained to be conquered.
+Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise against Egypt; but after a
+series of successes met with reverses in Ethiopia, which affected his mind,
+and he is said to have ended his own life. Power fell into the hands of a
+chief of one of the seven great clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes,
+whose rival was Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
+being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of the
+great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the greatness of
+the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest of the Near East
+had arrived.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='FLAVIUS_JOSEPHUS'></a>FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Antiquities_of_the_Jews'></a>The Antiquities of the
+Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole
+history of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also wrote an
+autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical treatise, "Flavius
+Josephus against Apion." His style is so classically elegant that critics
+have called him the Greek Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities
+of the Jews" contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
+portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories embodied in
+the Old Testament. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--From Alexander to Antiochus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
+Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
+Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So he
+marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Caria and Pamphylia, and again
+defeated Darius at Issus. The Persian king fled into his own land, and his
+mother, wife, and children were captured. Alexander besieged and took first
+Tyre, and then Gaza, and next marched towards Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>At Sapha, in full view of the city, he was met by a procession of the
+priests in fine linen, and a multitude of the citizens in white, the
+high-priest, Jaddua, being at their head in his resplendent robes.
+Graciously responding to the salutations of priests and people, Alexander
+entered Jerusalem, worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple, and then
+invited the people to ask what favours they pleased of him; whereupon the
+high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers,
+and pay no tribute on the seventh year. All their requests were granted,
+and Alexander led his army into the neighbouring cities.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when Alexander was dead and his government had been divided among
+many, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, by treachery seized Jerusalem, and took
+away many captives to Egypt, and settled them there. His successor, Ptolemy
+Philadelphus, restored to freedom 120,000 Jews who had been kept in slavery
+at the instance of Aristeus, one of his most intimate friends. He also
+dedicated many gifts to God, and showed great friendship to the Jews in his
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Other kings in Asia followed the example of Philadelphus, conferring
+honours on Jews who became their auxiliaries, and making them citizens with
+privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Macedonians and Greeks. In the
+reign of Antiochus the Great the Jews suffered greatly while he was at war
+with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, called Epiphanes. When Antiochus
+had beaten Ptolemy, he seized on Judea, but ultimately he made a league
+with Ptolemy, gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and yielded up to
+him Celesyria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia by way of dowry. Onias, son of
+Simon the Just, was then high-priest. He greatly provoked the king by
+neglecting to pay his taxes, so that Ptolemy threatened to settle his
+soldiers in Jerusalem to live on the citizens.</p>
+
+<p>But Joseph, the nephew of Onias, by his wisdom brought all things right
+again, and entered into friendship with the king, who lent him soldiers and
+sent him to force the people in various cities to pay their taxes. Many who
+refused were slain. Joseph not only thus gathered great wealth for himself,
+but sent much to the king and to Cleopatra, and to powerful men at the
+court of Egypt. He had a son named Hyrcanus, who became noted for his
+ability, and crossed the Jordan with many followers; he made war
+successfully on the Arabians, built a magnificent stone castle, and ruled
+over all the region for seven years, even all the time that Seleucus was
+king of Syria. But when Seleucus was dead, his brother Antiochus Epiphanes
+took the kingdom, and Hyrcanus, seeing that Antiochus had a great army,
+feared he should be taken and punished for what he had done to the
+Arabians. So he took his own life, Antiochus seizing his possessions.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--To the Death of Judas</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Antiochus, despising the son of Ptolemy as being but weak, and coveting
+the possession of Egypt, conducted an expedition against that country with
+a great force; but was compelled to withdraw by a declaration of the
+Romans. On his way back from Alexandria he took the city of Jerusalem,
+entering it without fighting in the 143d year of the kingdom of the
+Seleucid&aelig;. He slew many of the citizens, plundered the city of much
+money, and returned to Antioch.</p>
+
+<p>After two years he again came up against Jerusalem, and this time left
+the Temple bare, taking away the golden altar and candlesticks, the table
+of shewbread, and the altar of burnt offering, and all the secret
+treasures. He slew some of the people, and carried off into captivity about
+ten thousand, burnt the finest buildings, erected a citadel, and therein
+placed a garrison of Macedonians. Building an idol altar in the Temple, he
+offered swine on it, and he compelled many of the Jews to raise idol altars
+in every town and village, and to offer swine on them every day. But many
+disregarded him, and these underwent bitter punishment. They were tortured
+or scourged or crucified.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at this time there dwelt at Modin a priest named Mattathias, a
+citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, one of whom, Judas, was called
+Maccab&aelig;us. Mattathias and his sons not only refused to sacrifice as
+Antiochus commanded, but, with his sons, attacked and slew an apostate
+Jewish worshipper and Apelles, the king's general, and a few of his
+soldiers. Then the priest and his five sons overthrew the idol altar, and
+fled into the desert, followed by many of their followers with their wives
+and children. About a thousand of these who had hidden in caves were
+overtaken and destroyed; but many who escaped joined themselves to
+Mattathias, and appointed him to be the ruler, who taught them to fight,
+even on the Sabbath. Gathering a great army, he overthrew the idol altars,
+and slew those who broke the laws. But after ruling one year, he fell into
+a distemper,  and committed to his sons the conduct of affairs. He was
+buried at Modin, all the people making great lamentation. His son Judas
+took upon himself the administration of affairs in the 146th year, and with
+the help of his brothers and others, cast their enemies out of the country
+and purified the land of its pollutions. Judas celebrated in the Temple at
+Jerusalem the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices for eight
+days.</p>
+
+<p>From that time we call the yearly celebration the Feast of Lights. Judas
+also rebuilt the wall and reared towers of great height. When these things
+were over he made excursions against adversaries on every side, he and his
+brothers Simon and Jonathan subduing in turn Idum&aelig;a, Gilead, Jazer,
+Tyre, and Ashdod. Antiochus died of a distemper which overtook him as he
+was fleeing from Elymais, from which he was driven during an attack upon
+its gates. Before he died he called his friends about him, and confessed
+that his calamities had come upon him for the miseries he had brought upon
+the Jewish nation.</p>
+
+<p>Antiochus was succeeded by his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy of tender
+age, whose guardians were Philip and Lysias. He reigned but two years,
+being put to death, together with Lysias, by order of the usurper
+Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who fled from Rome, and, landing in Syria,
+gathered an army, and was joyfully received by the people. Against
+Jerusalem, Demetrius sent an expedition commanded by his general,
+Bacchides. Judas Maccab&aelig;us, fighting with great courage, but having
+with him only 800 men, fell in the battle. His brothers Simon and Jonathan,
+receiving his body by treaty from the enemy, carried it to the village of
+Modin, and there buried him. He left behind him a glorious reputation, by
+gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from slavery under the
+Macedonians. He died after filling the office of high-priest for three
+years.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--To the Roman Dominion</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Jonathan and his brother Simon continued the war against Bacchides. They
+were assisted by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the
+160th year, came up into Syria against Demetrius, and defeated and slew him
+in a great battle near Ptolemais. But the son of Demetrius, named after his
+father, in the 165th year, after Alexander had seated himself on the throne
+and had gained in marriage Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, came
+from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers. Jonathan and Simon,
+brothers of Judas Maccab&aelig;us, entering into league with Demetrius, who
+offered them very great advantages, defeated at Ashdod the army sent by
+Alexander under Apollonius.</p>
+
+<p>A breach took place between Alexander and Ptolemy through the treachery
+of Ammonius, a friend of the former, and the Egyptian king took away his
+daughter Cleopatra from her husband, and immediately sent to Demetrius,
+offering to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him, to
+give him his daughter in marriage and to restore him to the principality of
+his fathers. These overtures were joyfully accepted, and Ptolemy came to
+Antioch and persuaded the people to receive Demetrius. Alexander was beaten
+in a battle by the two allies and fled into Arabia, where, however, his
+head was speedily cut off by Zabdiel, a prince of the country, and sent to
+Ptolemy. But that king, through wounds caused by falling from his horse,
+died a few days afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Demetrius, being secure in power, disbanded a great part of his army,
+but this action greatly irritated the soldiers. Furthermore, he was hated,
+as his father had been, by the people of Syria. A revolt was raised by an
+Apanemian named Trypho, who overcame Demetrius in a fight, and took from
+him both his elephants and the city of Antioch. Demetrius on this defeat
+retired into Cilicia, and Trypho delivered the kingdom to Antiochus, the
+youthful son of Alexander, who quickly sent ambassadors to Jonathan and
+made him his confederate and friend, confirming him in the high-priesthood
+and yielding up to him four prefectures which had been added to Judea.
+Accordingly, Jonathan promptly joined him in a war against Demetrius, who
+was again defeated.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after Demetrius had been carried into captivity Trypho deserted
+Antiochus, who had now reigned four years. He usurped power, which he
+basely abused; and Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, raised a force
+against him and drove him away to Apamea, where he was put to death, his
+term of power having lasted only three years. Antiochus Soter then attacked
+Simon, who successfully resisted, established peace, and ruled in all for
+eight years. His death also was the result of treachery, his son-in-law
+Ptolemy playing him false. His son Hyrcanus became high-priest, and
+speedily ejected the forces of Ptolemy from the land. Subduing all
+factions, he ruled justly for thirty-one years, leaving five sons.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest, Aristobulus, purposed to change the government into a
+kingdom, and placed a diadem on his own head; but his mother, to whom the
+supremacy had been entrusted, disputed his authority. He cast her into
+prison, where she was starved to death; and next he compassed the death of
+his brother Antigonus, but was soon attacked by a painful disease. He
+reigned only one year. His widow, Alexandra, let his brothers out of prison
+and made Alexander Janneus king.</p>
+
+<p>His reign was one of war and disorder. With savage cruelty he repressed
+rebellion, condemning hundreds of Jews to crucifixion. While these were yet
+living, their wives and children were slain before their eyes. His life was
+ended by a sickness which lasted three years, and after his death civil war
+broke out between his two sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, in which great
+barbarities were committed. The conflict was terminated by the intervention
+of the Romans under Scarus. The two brothers appealed to Pompey after he
+came to Damascus; but that Roman general marched against Jerusalem and took
+it by force. Thus we lost our liberty as a nation and became subject to the
+Romans.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Jews and the Romans</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Crassus next came with Roman troops into Judea and pillaged the Temple,
+and then marched into Parthia, where both he and his army perished. Then
+Cassius obtained Syria, and checked the Parthians. He passed on to Judea,
+fell on Tarich&aelig;a, and took it, and carried away 3,000 Jewish captives. A
+wealthy Idumean named Antipater, who had been a great friend of Hyrcanus,
+and had helped him against Aristobulus, was a very active and seditious
+man. He had married Cypros, a lady of his own Idumean race, by whom he had
+four sons, Phaselus, and Herod, who afterwards became king, and Joseph, and
+Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He cultivated friendship with other
+potentates, especially with the King of Arabia, to whom he committed the
+care of his children while he fought against Aristobulus. But when
+C&aelig;sar had taken Rome, and after Pompey and the senate had fled beyond
+the Ionian Sea, Aristobulus was set free from the bonds in which he had
+been laid. C&aelig;sar resolved to send him with two legions into Syria to
+set matters right; but Aristobulus had no enjoyment of this trust, for he
+was poisoned by Pompey's party. But Scipio, sent by Pompey to slay
+Alexander, son of Aristobulus, cut off his head at Antioch. And Ptolemy,
+son of Menneus, ruler of Chalcis, took Alexander's brethren to him, and
+sent his son Philippion to Askelon to Aristobulus's wife, and desired her
+to send back with him her son Antigonus and her daughters; the one of whom,
+Alexandra, Philippion fell in love with, and married her; though afterwards
+his father Ptolemy slew him, and married Alexandra.</p>
+
+<p>Now, after Pompey was dead, and after the victory C&aelig;sar had gained
+over him, Antipater, who had managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
+to C&aelig;sar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
+Hyrcanus. He brought over to the side of C&aelig;sar the principal men of
+the Arabians, and also Jamblicus, the ruler of the Syrians, and Ptolemy,
+his son, and Tholomy, the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and
+almost all the cities, and with 3,000 armed Jews he joined Mithradates of
+Pergamus, who was marching with his auxiliaries to aid C&aelig;sar.
+Antipater and Mithradates together won a pitched battle against the
+Egyptians, and C&aelig;sar not only then commended Antipater, but used him
+throughout that war in the most hazardous undertakings, and finally, at the
+end of that campaign, made him procurator of Judea, at the same time
+appointing Hyrcanus high-priest. Antipater, seeing that Hyrcanus was of a
+slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
+Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
+fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
+won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of robbers,
+and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Herod became known to Sextus C&aelig;sar, a relation of the great
+C&aelig;sar, who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of
+Antipater and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the
+Jews, especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was
+capable of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
+encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting men
+to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting Herod,
+whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would have
+sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus, where he
+took refuge with Sextus C&aelig;sar. When Herod received the kingdom, he
+slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he respected
+because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city, and he even
+slew Hyrcanus also.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when C&aelig;sar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into
+Africa to fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
+desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
+only C&aelig;sar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
+confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders that
+arose after the death of C&aelig;sar, Cassius came into Syria and disturbed
+Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to gather the great
+tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a collector named
+Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the murder of his
+father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod gained new
+favour with Cassius.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Herodian Era</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In order to secure his position, Herod made an obscure priest from
+Babylon, named Ananelus, high-priest in place of Hyrcanus. This offended
+Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Alexander, son of Aristobulus
+the king. She had ten children, among whom were Mariamne, the beautiful
+wife of Herod, and Aristobulus. She sent an appeal to Cleopatra, queen of
+Egypt, in order by her intercession to gain from Antony the high-priesthood
+for this son. At the instance of Antony, Herod took the office from
+Ananelus, and gave it to Aristobulus, but took care that the youth should
+soon be murdered. Then, from causeless jealousy, he put to death his uncle
+Joseph and threw Mariamne into prison. Victory in a war with Arabia
+enhanced his power. Cruelly slaying Hyrcanus, he hasted away to Octavian,
+who had beaten Antony at Actium, and obtained also from him, the new
+C&aelig;sar, Augustus, the kingdom, thus being confirmed in his
+position.</p>
+
+<p>Women of the palace who hated Mariamne for her beauty, her high birth,
+and her pride, falsely accused her to Herod of gross unfaithfulness. He
+loved her passionately, but, giving ear to these traducers, ordered her to
+be tried. She was condemned to death, and showed great fortitude as she
+went to the place of execution, even though her own mother, Alexandra, in
+order to make herself safe from the wrath of the king, basely, and
+publicly, and violently upbraided her, while the people, pitying her,
+mourned at her fate. Herod was also attacked by a tormenting distemper. He
+ordered the execution of Alexandra and of several of his most intimate
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>By his persistent introduction of foreign customs, which corrupted the
+constitution of the country, Herod incurred the deep hatred of very many
+eminent citizens. He erected servile trophies to C&aelig;sar, and prepared
+costly games in which men were condemned to fight with wild beasts. Ten men
+who conspired against him were betrayed, and were tortured horribly, and
+then slain. But the people seized the spy who had informed against them,
+tore him limb from limb, and flung the body in pieces to the dogs. By
+constant and relentless severity Herod still strengthened his rule.</p>
+
+<p>But now fearful disturbances arose in his family. His sister Salome and
+his brother Pheroras displayed virulent hatred against Alexander and
+Aristobulus, sons of the murdered Mariamne, and, on their part, the two
+young men were incensed at the partiality shown by Herod to his eldest son,
+Antipater. This prince was continually using cunning strategy against his
+brethren, while feigning affection for them. He so worked on the mind of
+the king by false accusations against Alexander that many of the friends of
+this youth were tortured to death in the attempts made to force disclosures
+from them.</p>
+
+<p>A traitor named Eurycles fanned the flame by additional accusations, all
+utterly groundless, so that Herod wrote letters to Rome concerning the
+treacherous designs of his sons against him, and asking permission of
+C&aelig;sar to bring them to trial. This was granted, and they were accused
+before an assembly of judges at Berytus and condemned. By their father's
+command they were starved to death. For his share in bringing about this
+tragedy Antipater was hated by the people. But the secret desire of this
+eldest son was to see the end of his father, whom he deeply hated, though
+he now governed jointly with him and was no other than a king already.</p>
+
+<p>Herod by this time had nine wives and many children and grandchildren.
+The latter he brought up with much care. Antipater was sent on a mission to
+Rome, and during his absence his plots were discovered, and on his return,
+Herod, amazed at his wickedness, condemned him to death. The king now
+altered his testament, dividing the territory among several of his sons. He
+died on the fifth day after the execution of Antipater, having reigned
+thirty-four years after procuring the death of Antigonus. Archelaus, his
+son, was appointed by C&aelig;sar, in confirmation of Herod's will,
+governor of one-half of the country; but accusation of enemies led to his
+banishment to Vienna, in Gaul. Cyrenaicus, a Roman senator and magistrate,
+was sent by C&aelig;sar to make taxation in Syria and Judea, and Caponius
+was made procurator of Judea. Philip, a son of Herod, built cities in
+honour of Tiberius C&aelig;sar. When Pontius Pilate became procurator he
+removed the army from Cassarea to Jerusalem, abolished Jewish laws, and in
+the night introduced C&aelig;sar's effigies on ensigns.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works, drew over
+to him many Jews and Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the
+suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross,
+those that loved him did not forsake him, for he appeared to them again
+alive at the third day, as the prophets had foretold; and the tribe of
+Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. John, who was
+called the Baptist, was slain by Herod the tetrarch at his castle at
+Machserus, by the Dead Sea. The destruction of his army by Aretas, king of
+Arabia, was ascribed by the Jews to God's anger for this crime.</p>
+
+<p>Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, became the most famous of his
+descendants. On him Claudius C&aelig;sar bestowed all the dominions of his
+grandfather with the title of king. But pride overcame him. Seated on a
+throne at a great festival at C&aelig;sarea, arrayed in a magnificent robe,
+he was stricken by a disease, and died.</p>
+
+<p>He was succeeded by his son Agrippa, during whose time Felix and Festus
+were procurators in Judea, while Nero was Roman emperor. This Agrippa
+finished the Temple by the work of 18,000 men. The war of the Jews and
+Romans began through the oppression by Gessius Florus, who secured the
+procuratorship by the friendship of his wife Cleopatra with Poppea, wife of
+Nero. Florus filled Judea with intolerable cruelties, and the war began in
+the second year of his rule and the twelfth of the reign of Nero. What
+happened will be known by those who peruse the books I have written about
+the Jewish war.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Wars_of_the_Jews'></a>The Wars of the Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," gives the only full
+and reliable account of the tragic siege and destruction of Jerusalem by
+the Romans under Titus. Excepting in the opening, he writes throughout in
+the third person, although he was present in the Roman camp as a prisoner
+during the siege, and before then had been, as governor of Galilee, the
+brave and energetic antagonist of the Romans. Becoming the friend of Titus,
+and despairing of the success of his compatriots, he was employed in
+efforts to conciliate the leaders of the rebellion during the siege, and he
+was for three years a privileged captive in the camp of the besiegers. His
+recital is one of the most thrilling samples of romantic realism in the
+whole range of ancient literature, and its veracity and honesty have never
+been impugned. In his autobiography, Josephus tells how, after the war, he
+was invited by Titus to sail with him to Rome, and how on his arrival there
+the Emperor Vespasian entertained him in his own palace, bestowed on him a
+pension, and conferred on him the honours of Roman citizenship. The
+Emperors Titus and Domitian treated this remarkable Jew with continued
+favour. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Beginning of the Great Conflict</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Whereas the war which the Jews made against the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all times, while some men who were not concerned themselves
+have written vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and while those
+that were there have given false accounts, I, Joseph, the son of Matthias,
+by birth a Hebrew, and a priest also, and who at first fought against the
+Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, am
+the author of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the affairs of the Romans were in great disorder after the death of
+Nero. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name, was
+seventeen years old. He was considered too young to bear the burden of
+royalty, and Judea relapsed into a Roman province. Cuspius Fadus was sent
+as governor, and administered his office with firmness, but found civil war
+disturbing the district beyond Jordan. He cleared the country of the robber
+bands; and his successor, Tiberius Alexander, during a brief rule, put down
+disturbances which broke out in Judea. The province was at peace till he
+was superseded by Cumanus, during whose government the people and the Roman
+soldiery began to show mutual animosity. In a terrible riot 20,000 people
+perished, and Jerusalem was given up to wailing and lamentation.</p>
+
+<p>It was in C&aelig;sarea that the events took place which led to the
+final war. This magnificent city was inhabited by two races--the Syrian
+Greeks, who were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently
+contended for the pre-eminence. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the
+Roman soldiery, levied chiefly in Syria, took part with their countrymen.
+Tumults and bloodshed disturbed the streets. At this time a procurator
+named Gessius Florus was appointed, and he, by his barbarities, forced the
+Jews to begin the war in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the
+seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa.</p>
+
+<p>But the occasion of the war was by no means proportioned to those heavy
+calamities that it brought upon us. The fatal flame finally broke out from
+the old feud at C&aelig;sarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the
+magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It happened that the Jews had a
+synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot the
+Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused, and to
+annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean buildings and
+shops upon it, and so made the approach to the synagogue as narrow and
+difficult as possible. The more impetuous of the Jewish youth interrupted
+the workmen. Then the men of greater wealth and influence, and among them
+John, a publican, collected the large sum of eight talents, and sent it as
+a bribe to Florus, that he might stop the building. He received the money,
+made great promises, and at once departed for Sebaste from C&aelig;sarea.
+His object was to leave full scope for the riot.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a
+citizen of C&aelig;sarea outraged them by oversetting an earthen vessel in
+the way, over which he sacrificed birds, as done by the law in cleansing
+lepers, and thus he implied that the Jews were a leprous people. The more
+violent Jews, furious at the insult, attacked the Greeks, who were already
+in arms. The Jews were worsted, took up the books of the law, and fled to
+Narbata, about seven miles distant. John, the publican, and twelve men of
+eminence went to Samaria to Florus, implored his aid, and reminded him of
+the eight talents he had received. He threw them into prison and demanded
+seventeen talents from the sacred treasury under pretence of C&aelig;sar's
+necessities. This injustice and oppression caused violent excitement in
+Jerusalem when the news reached that city. The people assembled around the
+Temple with the loudest outcries; but it was the purpose of Florus to drive
+the people to insurrection, and he gave his soldiers orders to plunder the
+upper market and to put to death all whom they met. Of men, women, and
+children there fell that day 3,600.</p>
+
+<p>When Agrippa attempted to persuade the people to obey Florus till
+C&aelig;sar should send someone to succeed him, the more seditious cast
+reproaches on him, and got the king excluded from the city; nay, some had
+the impudence to fling stones at him. At the same time they excited the
+people to go to war, and some laid siege to the Roman garrison in the
+Antonio; others made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada. They
+took it by treachery, and slew the Romans. One, Menahem, a Galilean, became
+leader of the sedition, and went to Masada and broke open Herod's armoury,
+and gave arms not only to his own people, but to other robbers, also. These
+he made use of for a bodyguard, and returned in state to Jerusalem, and
+gave orders to continue the siege of the Antonio.</p>
+
+<p>The tower was undermined, and fell, and many soldiers were slain. Next
+day the high-priest Ananias, and his brother Hezekiah, were slain by the
+robbers. By these successes Menahem was puffed up and became barbarously
+cruel; but he was slain, as were also the captains under him, in an attack
+led on by Eleazar, a bold youth who was governor of the Temple.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Gathering of Great Storms</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews. On the very
+same day two dreadful massacres happened. In Jerusalem the Jews fell on
+Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had
+made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander
+himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to
+circumcision. On that very day and hour, as though Providence had ordained
+it, the Greeks in C&aelig;sarea rose, and in a single hour slew over 20,000
+Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants. For Florus
+caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys. By this tragedy the
+whole nation was driven to madness. The Jews rose and laid waste the
+villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended on Gadara,
+Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places. Sebaste and
+Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed Anthedon and Gaza to
+the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with great slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus,
+the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and
+overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be
+surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls. But the plot was
+discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls, and an
+attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed with great
+loss. Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews swarming on all
+the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in the night, leaving
+400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and to display their
+ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.</p>
+
+<p>But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the
+army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band. This
+happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Judea in Rebellion Against Rome</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero was at this time in Achaia. To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in
+order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the
+Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of
+Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem. Meantime, a great massacre of the Jews
+took place at Damascus. Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued after
+Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their
+governors and commanders. Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of Gorion,
+and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute authority in
+the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected of aiming at
+kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of zealots. But as
+commanding within the Temple he had made himself master of the public
+treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his extreme subtlety
+won over the multitude, and all real authority fell into his hands. To the
+other districts they sent the men most to be trusted for courage and
+fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Josephus was appointed to the command of Galilee, with particular charge
+of the strong city of Gamala. He raised in that province in the north an
+army of more than a hundred thousand young men, whom he armed and exercised
+after the Roman manner; and he formed a council of seventy, and appointed
+seven judges in each city. He sought to unite the people and to win their
+goodwill. But great trouble arose from the treachery of his enemy, John of
+Gischala, who surpassed all men in craft and deceit. He gathered a force of
+4,000 robbers and wasted Galilee, while he inflamed the dissensions in the
+cities, and sent messengers to Jerusalem accusing Josephus of tyranny.
+Tiberias and several cities revolted, but Josephus suppressed the risings,
+severely punishing many of the leaders. John retired to the robbers at
+Masada, and took to plundering Idumsea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Vespasian and Josephus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero, on learning from the messengers the state of affairs, at first
+regarded the revolt lightly; but presently grew alarmed, and appointed to
+the command of the armies in Syria, and the task of subduing the Jews,
+Vespasian, who had pacified the West when it was disordered by the Germans,
+and had also recovered Britain for the Romans. He came to Antioch in the
+early spring, and was there joined by Agrippa and all his forces. He
+marched to Ptolemais, where he was met by his son Titus, who had, with
+expedition unusual in the winter season, sailed from Achaia to Alexandria.
+So the Roman army now numbered 60,000 horsemen and footmen, besides large
+numbers of camp followers who were also accustomed to military service and
+could fight on occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The war was now opened. Josephus attempted no resistance in the open
+field, and the people had been directed to fly to the fortified cities. The
+strongest of all these was Jotapata, and here Josephus commanded in person.
+Being very desirous of demolishing it, Vespasian besieged it with his whole
+army. It was defended with the greatest vigour, but was, after fierce
+conflicts, taken in the thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, on the first
+day of the month Panemus (July). During this dreadful siege, and at the
+capture, 40,000 men fell. The Romans sought in vain for the body of
+Josephus, their stubborn enemy. He had leaped down the shaft of a dry well
+leading to a long cavern. A woman betrayed the hiding-place, and Josephus
+was taken and brought before the conqueror, of whom he had demanded from
+his captors a private conference. To Vespasian he announced that he and his
+son would speedily attain the imperial dignity. Vespasian was conciliated
+by the speech of his prisoner, whom he treated with kindness; for though he
+did not release him from his bonds, he bestowed on him suits of clothes and
+other precious gifts.</p>
+
+<p>Joppa, Tiberias, Tariche&aelig;, and Gamala were taken, both Romans and
+Jews perishing in the conflicts. Soon afterwards, by the capture of
+Gischala, all Galilee was subdued, John of Gischala fleeing to
+Jerusalem.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Prelude to the Great Siege</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>While the cities of Galilee thus arrested the course of the Roman
+eagles, Jotapata and Gamala setting the example of daring resistance, the
+leaders of the nation in Jerusalem, instead of sending out armies to the
+relief of the besieged cities, were engaged in the most dreadful civil
+conflicts.</p>
+
+<p>The fame of John of Gishala had gone before him to Jerusalem, and the
+multitude poured forth to do him honour. He falsely represented the Roman
+forces as being very greatly weakened, and declared that their engines had
+been worn out in the sieges in Galilee. He was a man of enticing eloquence,
+to whom the young men eagerly gave heed. So the city now began to be
+divided into hostile factions, and the whole of Judea had before set to the
+people of Jerusalem the fatal example of discord. For every city was torn
+to pieces by civil animosities. Not only the public councils, but even
+numerous families were distracted by the peace and war dispute. Through all
+Judea the youth were ardent for war, while the elders vainly endeavoured to
+allay the frenzy. Bands of desperate men began to spread over the land,
+plundering houses, while the Roman garrisons in the towns, rather rejoicing
+in their hatred to the race than wishing to protect the sufferers, afforded
+little help.</p>
+
+<p>Large numbers of these evil men stole into the city and grew into a
+daring faction, who robbed houses openly, and many of the most eminent
+citizens were murdered by these Zealots, as they were called, from their
+pretence that they had discovered a conspiracy to betray the city to the
+Romans. They dismissed many of the sanhedrin from office and appointed men
+of the lowest degree, who would support them in their violence, till the
+leaders of the people became slaves to their will.</p>
+
+<p>At length resistance was provoked, led by Ananus, oldest of the chief
+priests, a man of great wisdom, and the robber Zealots took refuge in the
+Temple and fortified it more strongly than before. They appointed as
+high-priest one Phanias, a coarse and clownish rustic, utterly ignorant of
+the sacerdotal duties, who when decked in the robes of office caused great
+derision. This sport and pastime for the Zealots caused the more religious
+people to shed tears of grief and shame; and the citizens, unable to endure
+such insolence, rose in great numbers to avenge the outrage on the sacred
+rites. Thus a fierce civil war broke out in which very many were slain.</p>
+
+<p>Then John of Gischala with great treachery, outwardly siding with
+Ananus, and secretly aiding the Zealots, sent messengers inviting the
+Idum&aelig;ans to come to his help, of whom 20,000 broke into the city
+during a stormy night, and slew 8,500 of the people.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and
+Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding
+his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem. Galba was made
+emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then, after the
+defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was proclaimed by the
+East. He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste their strength by their
+internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants with forces to reduce various
+surrounding districts instead of attacking Jerusalem. When he became
+emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds, honouring him for his
+integrity. Hastening his journey to Rome, Vespasian commanded Titus to
+subdue Judea.</p>
+
+<p>At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously. Eleazar, son of
+Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to
+reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the Zealots
+and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath against John of
+Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned. But he deserted the Zealots
+and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that there was war between him
+and Simon, son of Gioras. Thus Eleazar, John, and Simon each led a band in
+constant fightings, and the Temple was everywhere defiled by murders.</p>
+
+<p>Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and
+went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude burst
+forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and
+intercepted him and a few others. He had on neither helmet nor breastplate,
+yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him, as if by some
+purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of his foes, he
+escaped unhurt. Part of the army now advanced to Scopos, within a mile of
+the city, while another occupied a station at the foot of the Mount of
+Olives.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem
+for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the
+summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and Simon
+from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so near the
+walls. Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an attack at the
+same moment. Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along the valley of
+Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion, encamped at the foot of
+the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed at the entrenchments. The
+soldiers fell back, many being killed. Witnessing their peril, Titus, with
+picked troops, fell on the flank of the Jews and drove them into the city
+with great loss.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches,
+leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying all
+the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and the army
+took up a position all along the northern and the western wall, the footmen
+being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three lines behind, and
+the archers between. Jerusalem was fortified by three walls. These were not
+one within the other, for each defended one of the quarters into which the
+city was divided.</p>
+
+<p>The first, or outermost, encompassed Bezetha, the next protected the
+citadel of the Antonia and the northern front of the Temple, and the third,
+or old, and innermost wall was that of Sion. Many towers, 35 feet high and
+35 feet broad, each surmounted with lofty chambers and with great tanks for
+rain water, guarded the whole circuit of the walls, 90 being in the first
+wall, 14 in the second, and 60 in the third. The whole circuit of the city
+was about 33 stadia (four miles). From their pent-houses of wicker the
+Romans, with great toil day and night, discharged arrows and stones, which
+slew many of the citizens.</p>
+
+<p>At three different places the battering rams began their thundering
+work, and at length a corner tower came down, yet the walls stood firm, for
+there was no breach. Suddenly the besieged sallied forth and set fire to
+the engines. Titus came up with his horsemen and slew twelve Jews with his
+own hands. One was taken prisoner and was crucified before the walls as an
+example, being the first so executed during the siege. The Jews now
+retreated to the second wall, abandoning the defence of Bezetha, which the
+Romans entered. Titus instantly ordered the second wall to be attacked, and
+for five days the conflict raged more fiercely than ever. The Jews were
+entirely reckless of their own lives, sacrificing themselves readily if
+they could kill their foes. On the fifth day they retreated from the second
+wall, and Titus entered that part of the lower city which was within it
+with I,000 picked men.</p>
+
+<p>But, being desirous of winning the people, he ordered that no houses
+should be set on fire and no massacres should be committed. The seditious,
+however, slew everyone who spoke of peace, and furiously assailed the
+Romans. Some fought from the walls, others from the houses, and such
+confusion prevailed that the Romans retired; then the Jews, elated, manned
+the breach, making a wall of their own bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the fight continued for three days, till Titus a second time
+entered the wall. He threw down all the northern part and strongly
+garrisoned the towers on the south. The strong heights of Sion, the citadel
+of the Antonia, and the fortified Temple still held out Titus, eager to
+save so magnificent a place, resolved to refrain for a few days from the
+attack, in order that the minds of the besieged might be affected by their
+woes, and that the slow results of famine might operate. He reviewed his
+army in full armour, and they received their pay in view of the city, the
+battlements being thronged by spectators during this splendid defiling, who
+looked on in terror and dismay. Then Titus sent Josephus to address them
+and to persuade them to yield, but the Zealots reviled him and hurled darts
+at him; but many began to desert, Titus permitted them to come in
+unmolested. John and Simon in their anger watched every outlet and executed
+any whom they suspected of designing to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The famine increased, and the misery of the weaker was aggravated by
+seeing the stronger obtaining food. All natural affection was extinguished,
+husbands and wives, parents and children snatching the last morsel from
+each other. Many wretched men were caught by the Romans prowling in the
+ravines by night to pick up food, and these were scourged, tortured, and
+crucified. In the morning sometimes 500 of these victims were seen on
+crosses before the walls. This was done to terrify the rest, and it went on
+till there was not wood enough for crosses. Terrible crimes were committed
+in the city. The aged high-priest, Matthias, was accused of holding
+communication with the enemy. Three of his sons were killed in his
+presence, and he was executed in sight of the Romans, together with sixteen
+other members of the sanhedrin, and the parents of Josephus were thrown
+into prison. The famine grew so woeful that a woman devoured the body of
+her own child. At length, after fierce fighting, the Antonia was scaled,
+and Titus ordered its demolition.</p>
+
+<p>Titus now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders
+would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots
+refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer
+court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones resisted
+the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the cloisters,
+Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. A soldier flung a blazing brand
+into a gilded door on the north side of the chambers. The Jews, with cries
+of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to take revenge on their
+enemies or perish in the ruins.</p>
+
+<p>The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left
+but a small portion of the outer cloisters. Titus next spent eighteen days
+in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily
+captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night
+alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of
+Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners numbered 97,000.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HENRY_MILMAN_DD'></a>HENRY MILMAN, D.D.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_the_Jews'></a>History of the Jews</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
+1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral,
+of which for the last nineteen years of his life he was Dean. He was the
+youngest son of Sir Francis Milman, physician to George III, and was
+educated at Greenwich, Eton and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had
+a considerable reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
+historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including the "History
+of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the Abolition of Paganism in
+the Roman Empire," and the "History of Latin Christianity to the
+Pontificate of Nicholas V." The appearance of the "History of the Jews" in
+1830 caused no small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
+themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman wrote several
+hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty," "When our heads are bowed
+in woe." Although this history carries the Jewish race down to modern
+times, it is included in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating
+of ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not of a
+definite country. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Mach&aelig;rus
+and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
+Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of the
+states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
+obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
+indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
+ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish state
+it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
+communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
+spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
+families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the Jews
+on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West; the chief
+of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more temporal
+title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.</p>
+
+<p>That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
+historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond the
+Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the devastation; and,
+according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in the general wreck.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world
+during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt, Cyrene,
+and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant religious policy of
+the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan. Great atrocities were committed
+by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the retaliation was terrible. It is said
+that 220,000 Jews fell before the remorseless vengeance of their enemies.
+The flame spread to Cyprus, where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards
+emperor. He expelled the Jews from the island. When Hadrian ascended the
+throne, in 117 A.D., he issued an edict which was tantamount to the total
+suppression of Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the
+law, and the observance of the Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>At this momentous juncture, when universal dismay prevailed, it was
+announced that the Messiah had appeared. He had come in power and glory.
+His name fulfilled the prophecy of Balaam. Barcochab, the Son of the Star,
+was that star which was to "arise out of Jacob." Wonders attended on his
+person; he breathed flames from his mouth which, no doubt, would burn up
+the strength of the proud oppressor, and wither the armies of the
+tyrannical Hadrian. Above all, Akiba, the greatest of the rabbins, the
+living oracle of divine truth, espoused the claims of the new Messiah; he
+was called the standard-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of him also wondrous
+stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab was to the ruins of
+Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he openly assumed the
+title of king. But he and his followers avoided a battle in the open field.
+On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to take command of the Roman
+forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of fifty of the strongest castles
+and nearly a thousand villages. Severus attacked the strongholds in detail,
+reducing them by famine, and gradually brought the war to a close.</p>
+
+<p>Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
+Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets of
+the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
+Jerusalem, which he called &AElig;lia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony
+of foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
+new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the edict,
+the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to Bethlehem.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Judaism and Christianity</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
+extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
+successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as a
+separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under Hadrian,
+before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews present the
+extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly organised
+communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias, comprehending all of
+Isr&aelig;litish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire; the other under the
+Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern Jews paid allegiance. By
+the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient
+privileges. Though still forbidden to enter Jerusalem, they were permitted
+to acquire the freedom of Rome, to establish many settlements in Italy, and
+to enjoy municipal honours.</p>
+
+<p>This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
+from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
+peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became the
+great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered nation
+in the closest uniformity.</p>
+
+<p>The middle of the third century beheld all Isr&aelig;l incorporated into
+their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
+Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, lived in all the state and
+splendour of an oriental potentate, far outshining in his pomp his rival
+sovereign in Tiberias. The most celebrated of the rabbinical sovereigns was
+Jehuda, sometimes called the nasi or patriarch. His life was of such
+spotless purity that he was named the Holy. He was the author of a new
+constitution for the Jewish people, for he embodied in the celebrated
+Mischna all the authorised traditions of the schools and courts, and all
+the authorised interpretations of the Mosaic law. Both in the East and the
+West the Jews maintained their seclusion from the rest of the world. The
+great work called the Talmud, formed of the Mischna and the Gemara (or
+compilation of comments), was composed during a period of thirty years of
+profound peace for the masters of the Babylonian schools, under Persian
+rule. This remains a monumental token of learning and industry of the
+eastern Jewish rabbins of the third and fourth centuries.</p>
+
+<p>The formal establishment of Christianity by Constantine the Great, in
+the early part of the fourth century, might have led to Jewish apprehension
+lest the Synagogue should be eclipsed by the splendour of its triumphant
+rival, the Christian Church; but the Rabbinical authority had raised an
+insurmountable barrier around the Synagogue. And, unhappily, the Church had
+lost its most effective means of conversion--its miraculous powers, its
+simple doctrine, and the blameless lives of its believers. Constantine
+enacted severe laws against the Jews, which seem in great part to have been
+occasioned by their own fiery zeal. But, still earlier than these
+enactments, Spain had given the signal for hostility towards the Jews. A
+decree was passed at the Council of Elvira prohibiting Jewish and Christian
+farmers and peasants from mingling together at harvest home and other
+festivals.</p>
+
+<p>In Egypt, during the reign of Constantius, who succeeded his father
+Constantine, the hot-headed Jews of Alexandria provoked the enactment by
+that emperor of yet severer laws, by mingling themselves in the factions of
+Arians and Athanasians, which distracted that restless city. They joined
+with the pagans on the side of the Arian bishop, and committed frightful
+excesses. An insurrection in Judea, which terminated in the destruction of
+Dio C&aelig;sarea, gave further pretext for exaction and oppression. But
+the apostasy of the emperor for a time revived the hopes of the race,
+especially when he issued his memorable edict decreeing the rebuilding of
+the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the Jewish worship in
+its original splendour.</p>
+
+<p>The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
+execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced with
+his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most distant
+quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment ensued. Fire
+destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the enterprise, and
+the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.</p>
+
+<p>The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
+fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised the
+whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members could not
+but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely dispersed in all
+those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium, the Rhine districts,
+Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and Spain. Not only did the
+Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively in mercantile pursuits,
+but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly into their hands--the
+internal slave-trade of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
+rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
+Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
+the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking to
+impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
+Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
+provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to issue
+severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the patriarchate.
+In the East, under the rule during the same period of the Persian king,
+Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in 531 A.D., the
+position was not more favourable for the Jews of Babylonia.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Golden Age of Judaism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
+rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect its
+throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and the
+first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years before
+Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sab&aelig;a and established an
+independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was subdued by an Arab
+chieftain and came to an end. But the Jews were still powerful in the
+Arabian peninsula. Mohammed designed to range all the tribes under his
+banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered a massacre of all
+who refused to accept the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on
+without emotion. But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was
+confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no
+further oppression than the payment of tribute. Spain had maintained its
+odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the suffering
+Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant invasion of the
+country by the Saracens. And in France the Jews became numerous and
+wealthy, and traded with great success.</p>
+
+<p>We enter on a period which may be described as the Golden Age of the
+modern Jews. The religious persecutions of this race by the Mohammedans
+were confined within the borders of Arabia. The Prophet was content with
+enforcing uniformity of worship within the sacred peninsula which gave him
+birth. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca were not to be profaned by the
+unclean footstep of the unbeliever. His immediate successors rose from
+stern fanatics to ambitious conquerors. Whoever would submit to the
+dominion of the caliph might easily evade the recognition of the Prophet's
+title. The Jews had reason to rejoice in the change of masters. An Islamite
+sovereign would not be more oppressive than a Byzantine on the throne of
+Constantinople or a Persian on the throne of Ctesiphon. In every respect
+the Jew rose in the social scale under his Mohammedan rulers. Provided he
+demeaned himself peaceably, and paid his tribute, he might go to the
+synagogue rather than to the mosque.</p>
+
+<p>In the time of Omar, the second caliph, the coinage, already a trust of
+great importance, had been committed to the care of a Jew. And the Jews
+acted as intermediate agents in the interworking of European civilisation,
+its knowledge, arts, and sciences, into the oriental mind, and in raising
+the barbarian conquerors from the chieftains of wild, marauding tribes into
+magnificent and enlightened sovereigns. The caliph readily acknowledged as
+his vassal the Prince of the Captivity, who maintained his state as
+representative of the Jewish community. And in the West, during the reigns
+of Pepin and Charlemagne, the treatment of Jews became much more liberal
+than before. Their superior intelligence and education, in a period when
+nobles and kings, and even the clergy, could not always write their names,
+pointed them out for offices of trust. They were the physicians, the
+ministers of finance, to monarchs. They even became ambassadors. The Golden
+Age of the Jews endured in increasing prosperity during the reign of Louis
+the D&eacute;bonnaire, or the Pious, at whose court they were so powerful
+that their interest was solicited by the presents of kings. In the reign of
+Charles the Bald, the Jews maintained their high estate, but dark signs of
+the approaching Age of Iron began to lower around.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Iron Age of Judaism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Our Iron Age commences in the East, where it witnessed the extinction of
+the Princes of the Captivity by the ignominious death of the last
+sovereign, the downfall of the schools, and the dispersion of the
+community, which from that period remained an abject and degraded part of
+the population. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Caliphate fell
+into weakness and confusion, and split up into several kingdoms under
+conflicting sovereigns, and at the same time Judaism in the East was
+distracted by continual disputes between the Princes of the Captivity and
+the masters of the schools. The tribunals of the civil and temporal powers
+of the Eastern Jewish community were in perpetual collision, so that this
+singular state was weakened internally by its own dissensions.</p>
+
+<p>When a violent and rapacious caliph, Ahmed Kader, ascended the throne,
+he cast a jealous look on the powers of his vassal sovereign, and, without
+pretext, he seized Scherira, the prince of the community, now a hundred
+years old, imprisoned him and his son Hai, and confiscated their wealth.
+Hai escaped to resume his office and to transmit its honours and its
+dangers to Hezekiah, who was elected chief of the community, but after a
+reign of two years was arrested with all his family by order of the caliph
+Abdallah Kaim ben Marillah (A.D. 1036). The schools were closed. Many of
+the learned fled to Spain, where the revulsion under the Almohades had not
+yet taken place; all were dispersed. Among the rest two of the sons of the
+unfortunate Prince of the Captivity effected their escape to Spain, while
+the last of the House of David who reigned over the Jews of the Dispersion
+in Babylonia perished on the scaffold.</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish communities in Palestine suffered a slower but more complete
+dissolution. Benjamin of Tudela in the compilation of his travels in the
+twelfth century gives a humiliating account of the few brethren who still
+clung, in dire poverty and meanness, to their native land. In Tyre he found
+400 Jews, mostly glass-blowers. There were in Jerusalem only 200, almost
+all dyers of wool. Ascalon contained 153 Jews; Tiberias, the seat of
+learning, and of the kingly patriarchate, but fifty. In the Byzantine
+Empire the number of Jews had greatly diminished.</p>
+
+<p>We pursue our dark progress to the West, where we find all orders
+gradually arrayed in fierce and implacable animosity against the race of
+Isr&aelig;l. Every passion was in arms against them. In that singular structure,
+the feudal system, which rose like a pyramid from the villeins, or slaves
+attached to the soil, to the monarch who crowned the edifice, the, Jews
+alone found no proper place. In France and England they were the actual
+property of the king, and there was nowhere any tribunal to which they
+could appeal.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew, often acquiring wealth in commerce, might become valuable
+property of some feudatory lord. He was granted away, he was named in a
+marriage settlement, he was pawned, he was sold, he was stolen. Even
+Churchmen of the highest rank did not disdain such lucrative property.
+Louis, King of Provence, granted to the Archbishop of Aries all the
+possessions which his predecessors have held of former kings, including the
+Jews. Philip the Fair bought of his brother, Charles of Valois, all the
+Jews of his dominions and lordships.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew, making money as he knew how to do by trade and industry, was a
+valuable source of revenue, and was tolerated only as such, but he was a
+valuable possession. Chivalry, the parent of so much good and evil, was a
+source of unmitigated wretchedness to the Jew--for religious fanaticism and
+chivalry were inseparable, the knight of the Middle Ages being bound with
+his good sword to extirpate all the enemies of Christ and His Virgin
+Mother. The power of the clergy tended greatly to increase this general
+detestation against the unhappy Jew. And when undisciplined fanatics of the
+lowest order, under the guidance of Peter the Hermit and Walter the
+Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the Crusades, fearful massacres of
+Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz, Spiers, Worms, and Cologne.
+Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were deeply marked with Jewish
+blood.</p>
+
+<p>Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First
+Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through Germany
+preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of God. The
+terrible cry of "Hep!"--the signal for the massacre of Isr&aelig;lites--ran
+through the cities of the Rhine. Countless atrocities took place as the
+Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph, to perish by plague,
+famine, and the sword.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Jews in England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of
+Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration. There were Jews in
+England under the Saxons. And during the days of the Norman kings they were
+established in Oxford and in London. They taught Hebrew to Christian as
+well as to Jewish students. But they increased in both wealth and
+unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them being bruited
+abroad. In many towns furious rabbles at different times attacked the
+Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates cruelly to death,
+as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in the reign of Richard
+I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums from wealthy Jews.</p>
+
+<p>The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive
+enactments against them. Jewish history has a melancholy
+sameness--perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing only
+in their cruelty. When parliament refused to maintain the extravagant royal
+expenditure, nothing remained but still further to drain Hebrew veins. In
+the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the crucifixion of a Christian
+child, called Hugh of Lincoln. The story refutes itself, but it created
+horror throughout the country. For this crime eighteen of the richest Jews
+of Lincoln were hanged, and many more flung into dungeons.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal
+harshness. At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total
+expulsion from the realm. Their departure was fixed for October 10, 1290.
+All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy. The Jews were pursued
+from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their sufferings.
+In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts, obligations,
+mortgages were escheated to the king. A like expulsion had been effected in
+France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler rank, was not to be
+outdone in bigotry.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher of
+Seville, Ferdinand Martinez, Arch-deacon of Ecija, excited the populace to
+excesses against the Jews. The streets of the noble city ran with blood,
+and 4,000 victims perished. The cruel spirit spread through the kingdom,
+and appalling massacres followed in many cities. A series of intermittent
+persecutions followed both in Spain and Portugal, in reign after reign.
+Jews and Protestants together went through awful ordeals at the hands of
+the Inquisition. When her glory had declined, Spain, even in her lowest
+decrepitude, indulged in what might seem the luxury of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the reign of Charles II. that the Jews found opportunity to
+steal insensibly back into England. Cromwell had felt very favourably
+disposed towards them, but had not dared to permit the re-establishment
+which they had openly sought. But the necessities of Charles and his
+courtiers quietly accomplished the, change, and the race has ever since
+maintained its footing, and no doubt contributed a fair share to the
+national wealth. Russia throughout her history adhered to her hostility to
+the Jews, but expulsion became impossible with such vast numbers. It is
+estimated that Russia contains half the Jewish population of the world,
+notwithstanding that Russia proper from ancient times has been sternly
+inhospitable to the Jewish race, while Poland has ever been hospitable.</p>
+
+<p>The most important measures of amelioration in the lot of the Jews in
+England were passed in 1723, when they acquired the right to possess land;
+in 1753, when parliament enacted the Naturalisation Bill; in 1830, when
+they were admitted to civic corporations; in 1833, when they were admitted
+to the profession of advocates; in 1845, when they were rendered eligible
+for the office of alderman and lord mayor; and in 1858, when the last and
+crowning triumph of the principle was achieved by the admission of Jews
+into parliament.</p>
+
+<p>In Asia, the Jews are still found in considerable numbers on the verge
+of the continent; in China, they are now found in one city alone, and
+possess only one synagogue. In Mesopotamia and Assyria the ancient seats of
+the Babylonian Jews are still occupied by 5,270 families. But England and
+Anglo-Saxon countries generally have been the most favourable to the race.
+Perhaps the most remarkable fact in the history of modern Judaism is the
+extension of the Jews in the United States. Writing in 1829, I stated, on
+the best authority then attainable, their numbers at 6,000. They are now
+[in 1863] reckoned at 75,000.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HERODOTUS'></a>HERODOTUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History'></a>History</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The "Father of History," as Herodotus has been styled, was
+born at Halicarnassus, the centre of a Greek colony in Asia Minor, between
+the years 490 and 480 B.C., and lived probably to sixty, dying about the
+year 425 B.C. A great part of his life was occupied with travels and
+investigations in those lands with which his history is mainly concerned.
+His work is the earliest essay in history in a European language. It is a
+record primarily of the causes and the course of the first great contest
+between East and West; and is a storehouse of curious and delightful
+traveller's gossip as well as a faithful record of events. The canons of
+evidence in his day were defective, for obvious reasons; a miscellaneous
+divine interposition in human affairs was taken for granted, and science
+had not yet reduced incredible marvels to ordinary natural phenomena.
+Nevertheless, Herodotus was a shrewd and careful critic, honest, and by no
+means remarkably credulous. If he had not acquired the conception of
+history as an exact science, he made it a particularly attractive form of
+literature, to which his simplicity of style gives a slight but pleasant
+archaic flavour. This epitome has been specially prepared far THE WORLD'S
+GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Rise of Persian Power</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I will not dispute whether those ancient tales be true, of Io and Helen,
+and the like, which one or another have called the sources of the war
+between the Hellenes and the barbarians of Asia; but I will begin with
+those wrongs whereof I myself have knowledge. In the days of Sadyattes,
+king of Lydia, and his son Alyattes, there was war between Lydia and
+Miletus. And Croesus, the son of Alyattes, made himself master of the lands
+which are bounded by the river Halys, and he waxed in power and wealth, so
+that there was none like to him. To him came Solon, the Athenian, but would
+not hail him as the happiest of all men, saying that none may be called
+happy until his life's end.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter trouble fell upon Croesus by the slaying of his son when he
+was a-hunting. Then Cyrus the Persian rose up and made himself master of
+the Medes and Persians, and Croesus, fearing his power, was fain to go up
+against him, being deceived by an oracle; but first he sought to make
+alliance with the chief of the states of Hellas. In those days, Pisistratus
+was despot of Athens; but Sparta was mighty, by the laws of Lycurgus.
+Therefore Croesus sent envoys to the Spartans to make alliance with them,
+which was done very willingly. But when Croesus went up against Cyrus, his
+army was put to flight, and Cyrus besieged him in the city of Sardis, and
+took it, and made himself lord of Lydia. He would have slain Croesus, but,
+finding him wise and pious, he made him his counsellor.</p>
+
+<p>Now, this Cyrus had before overthrown the Median king, Astyages, whose
+daughter was his own mother. For her father, fearing a dream, wedded her to
+a Persian, and when she bore a child, he gave order for its slaying. But
+the babe was taken away and brought up by a herdsman of the hill-folk. But
+in course of time the truth became known to Astyages, and to Harpagus, the
+officer who had been bidden to slay the babe, and to Cyrus himself. Then
+Harpagus, fearing the wrath of Astyages, bade Cyrus gather together the
+Persians--who in those days were a hardy people of the mountains--and made
+himself king over the Medians; which things Cyrus did, overthrowing his
+grandfather Astyages. And in this wise began the dominion of the
+Persians.</p>
+
+<p>The Ionian cities of Asia were zealous to make alliance with Cyrus when
+he had overthrown Croesus. But he held them of little account, and
+threatened them, and the Laced&aelig;monians also, who sent him messengers
+warning him to let the Ionians alone. And he sent Harpagus against the
+cities of the Ionians, of whom certain Phoc&aelig;ans and Teians sailed
+away to Rhegium and Abdera rather than become the slaves of the barbarians;
+but the rest, though they fought valiantly enough, were brought to
+submission by Harpagus.</p>
+
+<p>While Harpagus was completing the subjugation of the West, Cyrus was
+making conquest of Upper Asia, and overthrew the kingdom of Assyria, of
+which the chief city was Babylon, a very wonderful city, wherein there had
+ruled two famous queens, Semiramis and Nitocris. Now, this queen had made
+the city wondrous strong by the craft of engineers, yet Cyrus took it by a
+shrewd device, drawing off the water of the river so as to gain a passage.
+Thus Babylon also fell under the sway of the Persian. But when Cyrus would
+have made war upon Tomyris, the queen of the Massaget&aelig;, who dwelt to
+the eastward, there was a very great battle, and Cyrus himself was slain
+and the most part of his host. And Cambyses, his son, reigned in his
+stead.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Wars of Egypt and Persia</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Cambyses set out to conquer Egypt, taking in his army certain of the
+Greeks. But of all that I shall tell about that land, the most was told to
+me by the priests whom I myself visited at Memphis and Thebes and
+Heliopolis. They account themselves the most ancient of peoples. If the
+Ionians are right, who reckon that Egypt is only the Nile Delta, this could
+not be. But I reckon that the whole Egyptian territory is. Egypt, from the
+cataracts and Elephantin&eacute; down to the sea, parted into the Asiatic
+part and the Libyan part by the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>For the causes of the rising and falling of the Nile, the reasons that
+men give are of no account. And of the sources whence the river springs are
+strange stories told of which I say not whether they be true or false: but
+the course of it is known for four months' journey by land and water, and
+in my opinion it is a river comparable to the Ister.</p>
+
+<p>The priests tell that the first ruler of Egypt was Menes, and after him
+were three hundred and thirty kings, counting one queen, who was called
+Nitocris. After them came Sesostris, who carried his conquest as far as the
+Thracians and Scythians; and later was Rhampsinitus, who married his
+daughter to the clever thief who robbed his treasure-house; and after him
+Cheops, who built the pyramid, drawing the stones from the Arabian mountain
+down to the Nile. Chephren also, and Mycerinus built pyramids, and the
+Greeks have a story--which is not true--that another was built by Rhodopis.
+And in the reign of Sethon, Egypt was invaded by Sennacherib the Assyrian,
+whose army's bowstrings were eaten by field-mice.</p>
+
+<p>A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake
+Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were made
+by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them,
+Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson
+Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis. And Amasis also
+prospered, and showed favour to the Greeks. But for whatever reason, in his
+day Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt, invading it just when
+Amasis had died, and his son Psammenitus was reigning.</p>
+
+<p>Cambyses put the Egyptian army to rout in a great battle, and conquered
+the country, making Psammenitus prisoner. Yet he would have set him up as
+governor of the province, according to the Persian custom, but that
+Psammenitus was stirred up to revolt, and, being discovered, was put to
+death. Thereafter Cambyses would have made war upon Carthage, but that the
+Phoenicians would not aid him; and against the Ethiopians, who are called
+"long-lived," but his army could get no food; and against the Ammonians,
+but the troops that went were seen no more.</p>
+
+<p>Now, madness came upon Cambyses, and he died, having committed many
+crimes, among which was the slaying of his brother Smerdis. And there rose
+up one among the Magi who pretended to be Smerdis, and was proclaimed king.
+But this false Smerdis was one whose ears had been cut off, and he was thus
+found out by one of his wives, the daughter of a Persian nobleman, Otanes.
+Then seven nobles conspired together, since they would not be ruled over by
+one of the Magi; and having determined that it was best to have one man for
+ruler, rather than the rule of the people or of the nobles, they slew
+Smerdis and made Darius, the son of Hystaspes, their king.</p>
+
+<p>Then Darius divided the Persian empire into twenty satrapies, whereof
+each one paid its own tribute, save Persia itself, and he was lord of all
+Asia, and Egypt also.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of Cambyses, Polycrates was despot of Samos, being the first
+who ever thought to make himself a ruler of the seas. And he had prospered
+marvellously. But Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, compassed his death by
+foul treachery, and wrought many other crimes; whom Darius in turn put to
+death by guile, fearing to make open war upon him. And not long afterwards,
+he sent Otanes to make conquest of Samos. And during the same days there
+was a revolt of the Babylonians; and Darius went up against Babylon, yet
+for twenty months he could not take it. Howbeit, it was taken by the act of
+Zopyrus, who, having mutilated himself, went to the Babylonians and told
+them that Darius had thus evilly entreated him, and so winning their trust,
+he made easy entry for the Persian army, and so Babylon was taken the
+second time.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Persian Arms in Europe</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Now, Darius was minded to make conquest of the Scythians--concerning
+which people, and the lands beyond those which they inhabit, there are many
+marvels told, as of a bald-headed folk called Argipp&aelig;i; and the
+Arimaspians or one-eyed people; and the Hyperborean land where the air is
+full of feathers. Of these lands are legends only; nothing is known. But
+concerning the earth's surface, this much is known, that Libya is
+surrounded by water, certain Phoenicians having sailed round it. And of the
+unknown regions of Asia much was searched out by order of Darius.</p>
+
+<p>The Scythians themselves have no cities; but there are great rivers in
+Scythia, whereof the Ister is the greatest of all known streams, being
+greater even than the Nile, if we reckon its tributaries. The great god of
+the Scythians is Ares; and their war customs are savage exceedingly, and
+all their ways barbarous. Against this folk Darius resolved to march.</p>
+
+<p>His plan was to convey his army across the Bosphorus on a bridge of
+boats, while the Ionian fleet should sail up to the Ister and bridge that,
+and await him. So he crossed the Bosphorus and marched through Thrace,
+subduing on his way the Getse, who believe that there is no true death. But
+when he passed the Ister, he would have taken the Ionians along with him;
+but by counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he resolved to leave them in charge of
+the bridge, giving order that, after sixty days, they might depart home,
+but no sooner.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Scythians, fearing that they could not match the great king's
+army, summoned the other barbaric peoples to their aid; among whom were the
+Sauromatians, who are fabled to be the offspring of the Amazons. And some
+were willing, but others not. Therefore the Scythians retired before
+Darius, first towards those peoples who would not come to their help; and
+so enticed him into desert regions, yet would in no wise come to battle
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at length, Darius found himself in so evil a plight that he began
+to march back to the Ister. And certain Scythians came to the Ionians, and
+counselled them to destroy the bridge, the sixty days being passed. And
+this Miltiades, the Athenian despot of the Chersonese, would have had them
+do, so that Darius might perish with all his army; but Histi&aelig;us of Miletus
+dissuaded them, because the rule of the despots was upheld by Darius. And
+thus the Persian army was saved, Megabazus being left in Europe to subdue
+the Hellespontines. When Megabazus had subdued many of the Thracian
+peoples, who, indeed, lack only union with each other to make them the
+mightiest of all nations, he sent an embassy to Amyntas, the king of
+Macedon, to demand earth and water. But because those envoys insulted the
+ladies of the court, Alexander, the son of Amyntas, slew them all, and of
+them or all their train was never aught heard more.</p>
+
+<p>Now Darius, with fair words, bade Histiseus of Miletus abide with him at
+the royal town of Susa. Then Aristagoras, the brother of Histi&aelig;us, having
+failed in an attempt to subdue Naxos, and fearing both Artaphernes, the
+satrap of Sardis, and the Persian general Megabazus, with whom he had
+quarrelled, sought to stir up a revolt of the Ionian cities; being incited
+thereto by secret messages from Histiseus.</p>
+
+<p>To this end, he sought alliance with the Laced&aelig;monians; but they
+would have nothing to do with him, deeming the venture too remote. Then he
+went to Athens, whence the sons of Pisistratus had been driven forth just
+before. For Hipparchus had been slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and
+afterwards Hippias would hardly have been expelled but that his enemies
+captured his children and so could make with him what terms they chose. But
+the Pisistratidse having been expelled, the city grew in might, and changes
+were made in the government of it by Cleisthenes the Alcm&aelig;onid. But
+the party that was against Cleisthenes got aid from Cleomenes of Sparta;
+yet the party of Cleisthenes won.</p>
+
+<p>Then, since they reckoned that there would be war with Sparta, the
+Athenians had sought friendship with Artaphernes at Sardis; but since he
+demanded earth and water they broke off. But because Athens was waxing in
+strength, the Spartans bethought them of restoring the despotism of the
+Pisistratid&aelig;. But Sosicles, the Corinthian, dissuaded the allies of
+Sparta from taking part in so evil a deed. Then Hippias sought to stir up
+against the Athenians the ill-will of Artaphernes, who bade them take back
+the Pisistratid&aelig;, which they would not do.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, when Aristagoras came thither, the Athenians were readily
+persuaded to promise him aid. And he, having gathered the troops of the
+Ionians, who were at one with him, marched with them and the Athenians
+against Sardis and took the city, which by a chance was set on fire. But
+after that the Athenians refused further help to the Ionians, who were
+worsted by the Persians. But the ruin of the Ionians was at the sea-fight
+of Lade, where the men of Chios fought stoutly; but they of Samos and
+Lesbos deserting, there was a great rout.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Marathon and Thermopyl&aelig;</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Thereafter King Darius, being very wroth with the Athenians for their
+share in the burning of Sardis, sent a great army across the Hellespont to
+march through Thrace against Athens, under his young kinsman Mardonius. But
+disaster befell these at the hands of the Thracians, and the fleet that was
+to aid them was shattered in a storm; so that they returned to Asia without
+honour. Then Darius sent envoys to demand earth and water from the Greek
+states; and of the islanders the most gave them, and some also of the
+cities on the mainland; and among these were the Aeginetans, who were at
+feud with Athens.</p>
+
+<p>But of those who would not give the earth and water were the Eretrians
+of Eubcea. So Darius sent a great armament by sea against Eretria and
+Athens, led by Datis and Artaphernes, which sailed first against Eretria.
+The Athenians, indeed, sent aid; but when they found that the counsels of
+the Eretrians were divided, so that no firm stand might be made, they
+withdrew. Nevertheless, the Eretrians fought valiantly behind their walls,
+till they were betrayed on the seventh day. But the Persians, counselled by
+Hippias, sailed to the bay of Marathon.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Athenians sent the strong runner Pheidippides to call upon the
+Spartans for aid; who promised it, yet for sacred reasons would not move
+until the full moon. So the Athenian host had none to aid them save the
+loyal Plat&aelig;ans, valiant though few. Yet in the council of their
+generals the word of Miltiades was given for battle, whereto the rest
+consented. Then the Athenians and Plat&aelig;ans, being drawn up in a long
+line, charged across the plain nigh a mile, running upon the masses of the
+Persians; and, breaking them upon the wings, turned and routed the centre
+also after long fighting, and drove them down to the ships, slaying as they
+went; and of the ships they took seven. And of the barbarians there fell
+6,400 men, and of the Athenians, 192. But as for the story that the
+Alcm&aelig;onid&aelig; hoisted a friendly signal to the Persians, I credit it not at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Darius was very wroth with the Greeks when he heard of these
+things, and made preparation for a mighty armament to overthrow the Greeks,
+and also the Egyptians, who revolted soon afterwards. But he died before he
+was ready, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his stead. Then, having first
+crushed the Egyptians, he, being ruled by Mardonius, gathered a council and
+declared his intent of marching against the Hellenes; which resolution was
+commended by Mardonius, but Artabanus, the king's uncle, spoke wise words
+of warning. Then Xerxes would have changed his mind, but for a dream which
+came to him twice, and to Artabanus also, threatening disaster if he ceased
+from his project; so that Artabanus was won over to favour it.</p>
+
+<p>Then Xerxes made vast provision for his invasion for the building of a
+bridge over the Hellespont, and the cutting of a canal through the
+peninsula of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been shattered. And
+from all parts of his huge empire he mustered his hosts first in
+Cappadocia, and marched thence by way of Sardis to the Hellespont. And
+because, when the bridge was a building, a great storm wrecked it, he bade
+flog the naughty waves of the sea. Then, the bridge being finished, he
+passed over with his host, which took seven days to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>And when they were come to Doriscus he numbered them, and found them to
+be 1,700,000 men, besides his fleets. And in the fleet were 1,207 great
+ships, manned chiefly by the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia, having
+also Persian and Scythian fighting men on board. But when Demaratus, an
+exiled king of Sparta, warned Xerxes of the valour of all the Greeks, but
+chiefly of the Spartans, who would give battle, however few they might be,
+against any foe, however many, his words seemed to Xerxes a jest, seeing
+how huge his own army was.</p>
+
+<p>Now, Xerxes had sent to many of the Greek states heralds to demand earth
+and water, which many had given; but to Athens and Sparta he had not sent,
+because there the heralds of his father Darius had been evilly entreated.
+And if it had not been for the resolution of the Athenians at this time,
+all Hellas would have been forced to submit to the Great King; for they, in
+despite of threatening oracles, held fast to their defiance, being urged
+thereto by Themistocles, who showed them how those oracles must mean that,
+although they would suffer evil things, they would be victorious by means
+of wooden bulwarks, which is to say, ships; and thus they were encouraged
+to rely upon building and manning a mighty fleet. And all the other cities
+of Greece resolved to stand by them, except the Argives, who would not
+submit to the leadership of the Spartans. And in like manner Gelon, the
+despot of Syracuse in Sicily, would not send aid unless he were accepted as
+leader. Nor were the men of Thessaly willing to join, since the other
+Greeks could not help them to guard Thessaly itself, as the pass of Tempe
+could be turned.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore the Greeks resolved to make their stand at Thermopyl&aelig; on
+land, and at the strait of Artemisium by sea. But at the strong pass of
+Thermopyl&aelig; only a small force was gathered to hold the barbarians in
+check, there being of the Spartans themselves only 300, commanded by the
+king Leonidas. And when the Persians had come thither and sought to storm
+the pass, they were beaten back with ease, until a track was found by which
+they might take the defenders in the rear. Then Leonidas bade the rest of
+the army depart except his Spartans. But the Thespians also would not go;
+and then those Spartans and Thespians went out into the open and died
+gloriously.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Destruction of the Persian Hosts</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During these same days the Greek fleet at Artemisium fought three
+several engagements with the Persian fleet, in which neither side had much
+the better. And thereafter the Greek fleet withdrew, but was persuaded to
+remain undispersed in the bay of Salamis. The Peloponnesians were no longer
+minded to attempt the defence of Attica, but to fortify their isthmus, so
+that the Athenians had no choice but either to submit or to evacuate
+Athens, removing their families and their goods to Troezen or Aegina or
+Salamis. In the fleet, their contingent was by far the largest and best,
+but the commanding admiral was the Spartan Eurybiades. Then the Persians,
+passing through Boeotia, but, being dispersed before Delphi by thunderbolts
+and other portents, took possession of Athens, after a fierce fight with
+the garrison in the Acropolis.</p>
+
+<p>Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and
+look to the safety of the Peloponnese only. But Themistocles warned them
+that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new lands
+and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded to hold
+together at Salamis. Yet he did not trust only to their goodwill, but sent
+a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of retreat might be
+intercepted. For the Persian fleet had gathered at Phalerum, and now looked
+to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether, despite the council of Queen
+Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have had them not fight by sea at
+all. When Aristides, called the Just, the great rival of Themistocles, came
+to the Greeks with the news that their retreat by sea was cut off, then
+they were no longer divided, but resolved to fight it out.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the
+Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any fleet
+more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom Queen
+Artemisia won praise unmerited. As for King Xerxes, panic seized him when
+he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee. He consented,
+however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in Thessaly, he
+being still assured that he could crush the Greeks. And it was well for him
+that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to pursue and annihilate the
+fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly
+and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the
+Spartans having failed to send succour. But when at length the
+Laced&aelig;monians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an
+army, the Persians fell back to Boeotia. So the Greek hosts gathered near
+Plat&aelig;a to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were
+about 350,000. Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held back,
+till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to the
+Athenians by Alexander of Macedon. But when the Spartan Pausanias, the
+general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little wonder,
+for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Laced&aelig;monians
+should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at
+Marathon. But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.
+Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain
+whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was
+needful to move to a new position. But the move being made by night, most
+of the allies withdrew into the town. But the Spartans, and Tegeans and
+Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and
+their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians. But, Mardonius being slain,
+the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and
+Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there the
+barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were left
+alive. But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with 40,000
+men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.</p>
+
+<p>And on that same day was fought another fight by sea at Mycale in Ionia,
+where also the barbarians were utterly routed, for the fleet had sailed
+thither. And thence the Greeks sailed to Sestos, captured the place, and so
+went home.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='THUCYDIDES'></a>THUCYDIDES</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Peloponnesian_War'></a>The Peloponnesian War</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The Athenian historian, Thucydides, was born about 471
+B.C., within ten years of the great repulse of the Persian invasion. Before
+he was thirty, the great political ascendancy of Pericles was completely
+established at Athens, and the ascendancy of Athens among the Greek states
+was unchallenged, except by Sparta. He was forty at the beginning of the
+Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was appointed to a military command seven
+years later, but his failure in that office caused his banishment. From
+that time he remained an exiled spectator of events; the date of his death
+is uncertain. His great work is the history of the Peloponnesian War to its
+twentieth year, where his history is abruptly broken off. To Herodotus,
+history presented itself as a drama; Thucydides views it with the eyes of a
+philosophical statesman, but writes it also with extraordinary descriptive
+power, not only in pregnant sentences which have never been effectively
+rendered in translation, but in passages of sustained intensity, of which
+it would be vain to reproduce fragments. The abridged translation given
+here has been made direct from the Greek. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Beginning of the War</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I have written the account of the war between Athens and Sparta, since
+it is the greatest and the most calamitous of all wars hitherto to the
+Greeks. For the contest with the Medes was decided in four battles; but
+this war was protracted over many years, and wrought infinite injury and
+bloodshed.</p>
+
+<p>Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the
+affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a colony.
+Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian or the
+Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither. But having a quarrel
+with Corinth about Epidamnus, she now formed an alliance with Athens, whose
+intervention enraged the Corinthians.</p>
+
+<p>They then helped Potid&aelig;a, a Corinthian colony, but an Athenian
+tributary, to revolt from Athens. Corinth next appealed to Sparta, as the
+head of Hellas, to intervene ere it should be too late and check the
+Athenian aggression, which threatened to make her the tyrant of all Greece.
+At Sparta the war party prevailed, although King Archidamus urged that
+sufficient pressure could be brought to bear without actual
+hostilities.</p>
+
+<p>The great prosperity and development of Athens since the Persian war had
+filled other states with fear and jealousy. She had rebuilt her city walls
+and refortified the port of Pir&aelig;us after the Persian occupation;
+Sparta had virtually allowed her to take the lead in the subsequent stages
+of the war, as having the most effective naval force at command. Hence she
+had founded the Delian league of the maritime states, to hold the seas
+against Persia. At first these states provided fixed contingents of ships
+and mariners; but Athens was willing enough to accept treasure in
+substitution, so that she might herself supply the ships and men.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the provision of forces by each state to act against Persia was
+changed in effect into a tribute for the expansion of the Athenian fleet.
+The continuous development of the power of Athens had been checked only
+momentarily by her disastrous Egyptian expedition. Her nominal allies found
+themselves actually her tributary dependencies, and various attempts to
+break free from her yoke had made it only more secure and more
+burdensome.</p>
+
+<p>Hence the warlike decision of Sparta was welcomed by others besides
+Corinth. But diplomatic demands preceded hostilities. Sparta and Athens
+sent to each other summons and counter-summons for the "expulsion of the
+curse," that is of all persons connected with certain families which lay
+under the curse of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of Athens, this amounted to requiring the banishment of her
+greatest citizen and statesman, Pericles. To this the Spartans added the
+demand that the Athenians should "restore the freedom of Hellas," and
+should specifically remove certain trading disabilities imposed on the
+people of Megara.</p>
+
+<p>At this crisis Pericles laid down the rules of policy on which Athens
+ought to act--rules which required her to decline absolutely to submit to
+any form of dictation from Sparta. When a principle was at stake, it made
+no difference whether the occasion was trivial or serious. Athens could
+face war with confidence. Her available wealth was far greater--a matter of
+vital importance in a prolonged struggle. Her counsels were not divided by
+the conflicting interests of allies all claiming to direct military
+movements and policy. Her fleet gave her command of the sea, and enabled
+her to strike when and where she chose. If Peloponnesian invaders ravaged
+Attica, still no permanent injury would be done comparable to that which
+the Athenians could inflict upon them. The one necessity was to concentrate
+on the war, and attempt no extension of dominion while it was in
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>War was not yet formally declared when the Thebans attempted to seize
+Plat&aelig;a, a town of Boeotia, which had long been closely allied to
+Athens. The attempt failed, and the Thebans were put to death; but the
+Plat&aelig;ans appealed to Athens for protection against their powerful
+neighbour, and when the Athenian garrison was sent to them, this was
+treated as a <i>casus belli</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were urged on both sides; Sparta summoned her allies to
+muster their contingents on the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica, nearly
+all the mainland states joining the Peloponnesian league. The islanders and
+the cities in Asia Minor, on the other hand, were nearly all either
+actually subject to Athens or in alliance with her.</p>
+
+<p>As Pericles advised, the Athenians left the country open to the ravages
+of the invading forces, and themselves retired within the city. In spite of
+the resentment of those who saw their property being laid waste, Pericles
+maintained his ascendency, and persuaded the people to devote their
+energies to sending out an irresistible fleet, and to establishing a great
+reserve both of ships and treasure, which were to be an annual charge and
+brought into active use only in the case of dire emergency. The fleet
+sailed round the Peloponnese, and the ravages it was able to inflict, with
+the alarm it created, caused the withdrawal of the forces in Attica.</p>
+
+<p>In that winter Pericles delivered a great funeral oration, or panegyric,
+in memory of the Athenians who had so far fallen gloriously in defence of
+their country, in which he painted the characteristic virtues of the
+Athenian people in such a fashion as to rouse to the highest pitch the
+patriotic pride of his countrymen, and their confidence in themselves, in
+their future, and in their leader.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Early Successes of Athens</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the second year of the war, Athens suffered from a fearful visitation
+of the plague, which, however, made no way in the Peloponnese. It broke out
+also among the reinforcements dispatched to Potid&aelig;a; and it required
+all the skill of Pericles to reconcile the Athenians to the continuation of
+the war, after seeing their territories overrun for the second time for six
+weeks. By dint of dwelling on the supreme importance of their decisive
+command of the sea, and on the vast financial resources which secured their
+staying power, he maintained his ascendency until his death in the
+following year, though he had to submit to a fine. The events which
+followed his death only confirmed the profundity of his political judgment,
+and the accuracy with which he had gauged the capacities of the state. In
+that winter Potid&aelig;a was forced to capitulate to the Athenians.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of the third year, the Laced&aelig;monians called on the
+Plat&aelig;ans to desert the Athenian alliance. On their refusal,
+Plat&aelig;a was besieged by the allied forces of the Peloponnesians. With
+splendid resolution, the Plat&aelig;ans defeated the attempt of the allies
+to force an entry till they were able to complete and withdraw behind a
+second and more easily tenable line of defence, when the Peloponnesians
+settled down to a regular investment. The same year was marked by the
+brilliant operations of the Athenian admiral Phormio in the neighbourhood
+of Naupactus.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a Peloponnesian squadron threatened the Pir&aelig;us,
+caused some temporary panic, and awakened the Athenians to the necessity of
+maintaining a look-out, but otherwise effected little. The year is further
+noted for the invasion of Macedonia by the Thracian or Scythian king
+Sitalces, who was, however, induced to retire.</p>
+
+<p>In the next year, Lesbos revolted against the Athenian supremacy. As a
+result, an Athenian squadron blockaded Mitylene. The Laceda&aelig;onians
+were well pleased to accept alliance with a sea-power which claimed to have
+struck against Athens, not as being subject to her, but in anticipation of
+attempted subjugation. The prompt equipment, however, of another Athenian
+fleet chilled the naval enthusiasm of Sparta.</p>
+
+<p>During this winter the Plat&aelig;ans began to feel in straits from
+shortage of supplies, and it was resolved that a party of them should break
+through the siege lines, and escape to Athens, a feat of arms which was
+brilliantly and successfully accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>In the next--the fifth--summer, Mitylene capitulated; the fate of the
+inhabitants was to be referred to Athens. Here Cleon had now become the
+popular leader, and he persuaded the Athenians to order the whole of the
+adult males to be put to death. The opposition, however, succeeded in
+getting this bloodthirsty resolution rescinded. The second dispatch, racing
+desperately after the first, did not succeed in overtaking it, but was just
+in time to prevent the order for the massacre from being carried out.
+Lesbos was divided among Athenian citizens, who left the Lesbians in
+occupation as before, but drew a large rental from them.</p>
+
+<p>In the same summer the remaining garrison of Plat&aelig;a surrendered to
+the Laced&aelig;monians, on terms to be decided by Laced&aelig;monian
+commissioners. Before them the Plat&aelig;ans justified their resistance,
+but the commissioners ignored the defence, and, on the pretext that the
+only question was whether they had suffered any "wrong" at the hands of the
+Plat&aelig;ans, and that the answer to that was obvious, put the
+Plat&aelig;ans to death and razed the city to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, at Corcyra, the popular and the oligarchical parties, who
+favoured the Athenians and Peloponnesians respectively, had reached the
+stage of murderous hostility to each other. The oligarchs captured the
+government, and were then in turn attacked by the popular party; and there
+was savage faction fighting. An attempt was made by the commander of the
+Athenian squadron at Naupactus to act as moderator; the appearance of a
+Peloponnesian squadron and a confused sea-fight, somewhat in favour of the
+latter, brought the popular party to the verge of a compromise. But the
+Peloponnesians retired on the reported approach of a fresh Athenian fleet,
+and a democratic reign of terror followed.</p>
+
+<p>"The father slew the son, and the supplicants were torn from the temples
+and slain near them." And thus was initiated the peculiar horror of this
+war--the desperate civil strife in one city after another, oligarchs hoping
+to triumph by Laced&aelig;monian and democrats by Athenian, support, and
+either party, when uppermost, ruling by terror. It was at this time also
+that the Ionian and Dorian cities of Sicily, headed by Leontini and
+Syracuse respectively, went to war with each other, and an Athenian
+squadron was first induced to participate in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>Among the operations of the next, or sixth, summer was a campaign which
+the Athenian commander Demosthenes conducted in &AElig;tolia--successful at
+the outset, but terminating in disaster, which made the general afraid to
+return to Athens. He seized a chance, however, of recovering his credit by
+foiling a Laced&aelig;monian expedition against Naupactus; and in other
+ways he successfully established a high military reputation, so that he was
+no longer afraid to reappear at Athens.</p>
+
+<p>Next year, the Athenians dispatched a larger fleet with Sicily for its
+objective. Demosthenes, however, who had a project of his own in view, was
+given an independent command. He was thus enabled to seize and fortify
+Pylos, a position on the south-west of Peloponnese, with a harbour
+sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm, withdrew their
+invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover Pylos, landing over
+400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality now became the scene of a
+desperate struggle, which finally resulted in the Spartans on Sphacteria
+being completely isolated.</p>
+
+<p>So seriously did the Laced&aelig;monians regard this blow that they
+invited the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal
+alliance; but the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue
+that they refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some
+supplies, however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards
+offered by the Laced&aelig;monians for successful blockade-running. At this
+moment, Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
+easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He had
+the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to take
+precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result that
+within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found themselves with
+no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender. Their choice of the
+latter was an overwhelming blow to Laced&aelig;monian prestige.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Victories of Laced&aelig;mon</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
+Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly menace
+the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians were
+awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested part on
+behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian empire. At a
+sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse successfully urged all
+Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis of <i>uti possidetis,</i>
+and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for remaining. Thus for the
+time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were checked.</p>
+
+<p>At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
+factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
+Laced&aelig;monian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
+Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian party
+became permanently established in power. The most important operations were
+now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly into Macedonia, in
+alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of stirring the cities of
+Chalcidice to throw off the Athenian yoke; and the democrats of Boeotia
+intrigued with Athens to assist in a general revolution. Owing partly to
+misunderstandings and partly to treachery, the Boeotian democrats failed to
+carry out their programme, the Athenians were defeated at Delium, and
+Delium itself was captured by the Boeotians.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Brasidas succeeded in persuading Acanthus to revolt, he
+himself winning the highest of reputations for justice and moderation as
+well as for military skill. Later in the year he suddenly turned his forces
+against the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which he induced to surrender by
+offering very favourable terms before Thucydides, who was in command of
+Thasos, arrived to relieve it. The further successes of Brasidas during
+this winter made the Athenians ready to treat for peace, and a truce was
+agreed upon for twelve months. Brasidas, however, continued to render aid
+to the subject cities which revolted from Athens--this being now the ninth
+year of the war--but he failed in an attempt to capture Potid&aelig;a.</p>
+
+<p>The period of truce terminating without any definite peace being arrived
+at, the summer of the tenth year is chiefly notable for the expedition sent
+under Cleon to recover Amphipolis, and for a recrudescence of the old
+quarrel in Sicily between Leontini and Syracuse. Before Amphipolis, the
+incompetent Cleon was routed by the skill of Brasidas; but the victor as
+well as the vanquished was slain, though he lived long enough to know of
+the victory. Their deaths removed two of the most zealous opponents of the
+peace for which both sides were now anxious. Hence at the close of the
+tenth year a definite peace was concluded.</p>
+
+<p>The Laced&aelig;monians, however, were almost alone in being fully
+satisfied by the terms, and the war was really continued by an
+anti-Laconian confederation of the former Peloponnesian allies, who saw in
+the peace a means to the excessive preponderance of Athens and Sparta.
+Argos was brought into the new confederacy in the hope of establishing her
+nominal equality with Sparta. For some years from this point the
+combinations of the states were constantly changing, while Athens and
+Sparta remained generally on terms of friendliness, the two prominent
+figures at Athens being the conservative Nicias and the restless and
+ambitious young intriguer Alcibiades.</p>
+
+<p>In the fourteenth year there were active hostilities between Argos, with
+which by this time Athens was in alliance, and Laced&aelig;mon, issuing in the
+great battle of Mantinea, where there was an Athenian contingent with the
+Argives. This was notable especially as completely restoring the prestige
+of the Laced&aelig;monian arms, their victory being decisive. The result
+was a new treaty between Sparta and Argos, and the dissolution of the
+Argive-Athenian alliance; but this was once more reversed in the following
+year, when the Argive oligarchy was attacked successfully by the popular
+party.</p>
+
+<p>The next year is marked by the high-handed treatment of the island of
+Melos by the Athenians. This was one of the very few islands which had not
+been compelled to submit to Athens, but had endeavoured to remain neutral.
+Thither the Athenians now sent an expedition, absolutely without excuse, to
+compel their submission.</p>
+
+<p>The Melians, however, refused, and gave the Athenians a good deal of
+trouble before they could be subdued, when the adult male population was
+put to death, and the women and children enslaved. At this time the
+Athenians resolved, under colour of an appeal for assistance from the
+Sicilian city of Egesta, deliberately to set about the establishment of
+their empire in Sicily. The aggressive policy was vehemently advocated by
+Alcibiades, and opposed by Nicias. Nevertheless, he, with Alcibiades and
+Lamachus, was appointed to command the expedition, which was prepared on a
+scale of unparalleled magnificence. It was on the point of starting, when
+the whole city was stirred to frenzy by the midnight mutilation of the
+sacred images called Herm&aelig;, an act laid at the door of Alcibiades,
+along with many other charges of profane outrages. Of set purpose, however,
+the enemies of Alcibiades refused to bring him to trial. The expedition
+sailed. The Syracusans were deaf to the warnings of Hermocrates until the
+great fleet had actually arrived at Rhegium.</p>
+
+<p>Nicias was now anxious to find an excuse, in the evident falsity of
+statements made by the Egestans, for the fleet to content itself with
+making a demonstration and then returning home. The scheme of Alcibiades,
+however, was adopted for gaining over the other Sicilian states in order to
+crush Syracuse. But at this moment dispatches arrived requiring the return
+of Alcibiades to stand trial. Athens was in a panic over the Herm&aelig;
+affair, which was supposed to portend an attempt to reestablish the
+despotism which had been ended a hundred years before by the expulsion of
+the Pisistratid&aelig;. Alcibiades, however, made his escape, and for years
+pursued a life of political intrigue against the Athenian government.</p>
+
+<p>Nicias and Lamachus, left in joint command, drew off the Syracusan
+forces by a ruse, and were thus enabled to occupy unchecked a strong
+position before Syracuse. Although, however, they inflicted a defeat on the
+returned Syracusan forces, they withdrew into winter quarters; the
+Syracusans were roused by Hermocrates to improve their military
+organisation; and both sides entered on a diplomatic contest for winning
+over the other states of Sicily. Alcibiades, now an avowed enemy of Athens,
+was received by the Laced&aelig;monians, whom he induced to send an able
+Spartan officer, Gylippus, to Syracuse, and to determine on the
+establishment of a military post corresponding to that of Pylos on Attic
+soil at Decelea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Disaster of Syracuse</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the spring the Athenians succeeded in establishing themselves on the
+heights called Epipol&aelig;, overlooking Syracuse, began raising a wall of
+circumvallation, and carried by a surprise the counter-stockade which the
+Syracusans were raising. In one of the skirmishes, while the building of
+the wall was in progress, Lamachus was killed; otherwise matters went well
+for the Athenians and ill for the Syracusans, till Gylippus was allowed to
+land at Himera, force his way into Syracuse, and give new life. Nicias was
+guilty of the blunder of allowing Gylippus to land at Himera, to aid the
+defence, at the moment when it was on the point of capitulation. A long
+contest followed, the Athenians endeavouring to complete the investing
+lines, the Syracusans to pierce them with counterworks. Nicias sent to
+Athens for reinforcements, while the Syracusans were energetically fitting
+out a fleet and appealing for air in the Peloponnese. Nicias, in fact, was
+extremely despondent and anxious to resign; the Athenians, however,
+answered his dispatches by preparing a great reinforcement under the
+command of Demosthenes, without accepting the resignation of Nicias. The
+Laced&aelig;monians, however, also sent some reinforcements; at the same
+time they formally declared war, and carried out the plan of occupying and
+fortifying Decelea, which completely commanded the Athenian territory and
+was the cause of untold loss and suffering.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at Syracuse the besieged took the offensive both by sea and land,
+and were worsted on the water, but captured some of the Athenian forts,
+commanding the entry to the besiegers' lines--a serious disaster. By the
+time that Demosthenes with his reinforcements reached Sicily nearly the
+whole island had come over to the side of Syracuse. Before this, the
+Syracusans had again challenged an engagement both by sea and land, with
+results indecisive on the first day but distinctly in their favour on the
+second. At this juncture, Demosthenes arrived, and, seeing the necessity
+for immediate action, made a night attack on the Syracusan lines; but, his
+men falling into confusion after a first success, the attempt was
+disastrously repulsed.</p>
+
+<p>Demosthenes was quick to realise that the whole situation was hopeless;
+but Nicias lacked nerve to accept the responsibility of retiring, and also
+had some idea that affairs within Syracuse were favourable. His obstinacy
+gave Demosthenes and his colleague Eurymedon the impression that he was
+guided by secret information. And now it became the primary object of
+Gylippus and the Syracusans to keep the Athenians from retiring. Another
+naval defeat reduced the Athenians to despair; they resolved that they must
+cut their way out.</p>
+
+<p>The desperate attempt was made, but by almost hopeless men against an
+enemy now full of confidence. To the excited, almost agonised, watchers on
+shore, it seemed for a brief space that the ships might force a passage;
+the fight was a frenzied scuffle; but presently the terrible truth was
+realised--the Athenian ships were being driven ashore. The last hope of
+escape by sea was gone, for, though there were still ships enough, the
+sailors were too utterly demoralised to make the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be
+tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had
+themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads. On the third day the
+Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the lamentations
+of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave behind. For three
+days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually harassed, cut off
+from all communications. On the third day their passage was barred in a
+pass, and they found themselves in a trap. On the third night they
+attempted to break away by a different route, but the van and the rear lost
+touch. Overtaken by the Syracusans, Demosthenes attempted to fight a
+rearguard action, but in vain, and he was forced to surrender at discretion
+with his whole force. Next day, Nicias with the van was overtaken, and,
+after a ghastly scene of confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the
+vanguard were forced to surrender also. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to
+death; great numbers were seized as private spoil by their captors, the
+rest of the prisoners--more than 7,000--were confined for weeks under the
+most noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were
+sold as slaves. So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the
+nineteenth year of the war.</p>
+
+<p>The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident
+expectation of her immediate and utter ruin. Laced&aelig;monians
+anticipated an unqualified supremacy. At Athens there was a stubborn
+determination to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were
+intriguing for Laced&aelig;monian or Persian aid in breaking free, while
+Alcibiades became extremely busy.</p>
+
+<p>The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly
+driven into Pir&aelig;us by an Athenian fleet and blockaded. On the open
+revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought into
+play their reserve fund and reserve navy--the emergency had arisen. While
+one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians struck hard
+at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked successes. Meanwhile,
+a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy and re-established the
+democracy, to which the Athenians accorded freedom, thereby securing an
+ally. In Lesbos also they recovered their challenged supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty
+politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great object
+was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual confusion. These
+events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and to them must be
+added a Laced&aelig;monian treaty with Persia through the satrap
+Tissaphernes. All the leading men, however, were engaged in playing fast
+and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in view. Of this
+labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling outcome was the sudden
+abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the capture of the government
+by a committee of five with a council of four hundred and a supplementary
+assembly of five thousand--in place of the whole body of citizens as
+formerly. The Five and the Four Hundred in effect were the Government, and
+established a reign of terror.</p>
+
+<p>At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army
+and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the
+democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian state.
+Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting through him to
+receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he succeeded in
+restraining the fleet--which was still more than a match for all
+adversaries--from sailing back to the Pir&aelig;us to subvert the rule of
+the Four Hundred. The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact, that
+the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited
+democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have
+joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five
+Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the best
+administration it had ever known. A great naval victory was won by the
+Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly larger
+Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='XENOPHON'></a>XENOPHON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Anabasis'></a>Anabasis</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died
+probably in 355. He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood was
+an intimate member of the Socratic circle. In 401 he joined the expedition
+of Cyrus, recorded in the "Anabasis," and did not again take up his
+residence in Athens. The "Anabasis" must be introduced by an historical
+note. In the year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by
+a peace establishing the Laced&aelig;monian supremacy consequent upon the
+crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami. In the same year the
+Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was succeeded on the throne by his son
+Artaxerxes. His younger son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the
+throne. He had personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek
+soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern nations.
+Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a large contingent of
+Greek mercenaries, who had become the more readily available since the
+internecine struggle between the two leading states of Hellas had been
+brought to an end. The term "Anabasis," or "going up," applies properly to
+the advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is mainly
+concerned, is the "Katabasis." The author writes his record in the third
+person. This epitome has been specially adapted for THE WORLD'S GREATEST
+BOOKS from the Greek text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Going-up of Cyrus</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his
+preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on the
+pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the western
+satraps, Tissaphernes. Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus, a
+Laced&aelig;monian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another
+like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a
+Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect
+more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.</p>
+
+<p>Next, an excuse for marching up-country, at the head of all these
+forces, was found in the need of suppressing the Pisidians. He advanced
+from Sardis into Phrygia, where his musters were completed at
+Cel&aelig;n&aelig;. A review was held at Tyri&aelig;um, where the Cilician
+queen, who had supplied funds, was badly frightened by a mock charge of the
+Greek contingent. When the advance had reached Tarsus, there was almost a
+mutiny among the Greeks, who were suspicious of the intentions of Cyrus.
+The diplomacy, however, of their principal general, Clearchus, the
+Laced&aelig;monian, coupled with promises of increased pay, prevailed,
+though it had long been obvious that Pisidia was not the objective of the
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Further reinforcements were received at Issus, the eastern seaport of
+Cilicia; Cyrus then marched through the Cilician gate into Syria. At
+Myriandrus two Greek commanders, probably through jealousy of Clearchus,
+deserted. Cyrus won popularity by refusing to presume thereon; and the
+whole force now struck inland to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.</p>
+
+<p>At Thapsacus, Cyrus announced his purpose. The Greek soldiers were angry
+with their generals for having, as they supposed, wilfully misled them, but
+were mollified by promise of large rewards. One of the commanders, Menon,
+won the approval of Cyrus by being the first to lead his own contingent
+across the Euphrates on his own initiative. The advance was now conducted
+by forced marches through a painfully sterile country. In the course of
+this, the troops of Clearchus and Menon very nearly came to blows; the
+intervention of Proxenus only made matters worse; and order was restored by
+the arrival of Cyrus, who pointed out that the whole expedition must be
+ruined if the Greeks fell out among themselves.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Artaxerxes had realised that the repeated warnings of
+Tissaphernes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
+Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate devastation
+of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian officers of
+Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.</p>
+
+<p>The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
+barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number over
+1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus now
+advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but, finding
+this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was hurriedly
+taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The Greeks, under
+Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the centre, and
+Ari&aelig;us on the left. The king's army was so large that its centre
+extended beyond the left of Cyrus.</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
+without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut off,
+Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed the
+opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing Artaxerxes,
+was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the field. So ended the
+career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the Great had established
+the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the mirror of honour, just himself
+and the rewarder of justice in others, generous and most loyal to his
+friends.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Homeward March</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ari&aelig;us, broke and fled. The
+Greeks had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the
+main body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
+Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter. Artaxerxes,
+however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek column.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
+messengers from Ari&aelig;us that Cyrus was slain, and that Ari&aelig;us
+had fallen back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait
+twenty-four hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward.
+Clearchus replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious,
+and that if Ari&aelig;us would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown
+for him, since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes
+inviting the Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he
+might come and take them if he could, but if he meant to treat them as
+friends, they would be no use to him without their arms, if as enemies,
+they would keep them to defend themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Though no formal appointment was made, the Greeks recognised Clearchus
+as their leader. They fell back to join Ari&aelig;us, who declined the
+proposal to seat him on the Persian throne; and it was agreed to follow a
+new route in retreat to Ionia, the way by which the force had advanced
+being now impracticable.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, Artaxerxes began to negotiate through Tissaphernes, the
+Greeks maintaining a bold and even contemptuous front, warranted by the
+king's obvious fear of risking an engagement.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, an offer came to conduct the Greeks back to Grecian territory,
+providing them, at their own cost, with necessaries. Prolonged delays,
+however, aroused suspicions of treachery among the Greeks, who distrusted
+Tissaphernes and Ari&aelig;us alike; but Clearchus held it better not to
+break openly with the Persians. The march at last began along a northerly
+route towards the Black Sea, the Greeks keeping rigidly apart from the
+Persian forces which accompanied them, in readiness for an attack.</p>
+
+<p>At the crossing of the Tigris suspicion was particularly active, the
+conduct of Ari&aelig;us being especially dubious; but still no overt
+hostilities were attempted until the river Zabatus was reached, after three
+weeks of marching. Here Clearchus endeavoured to end the extremely strained
+relations between the Greeks and the barbarian commanders by an interview
+with Tissaphernes. Both men carefully repudiated any idea of hostile
+intentions, and the Persian invited Clearchus and the Greek officers
+generally to attend a conference. Not all, but a considerable number--five
+generals, including Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon, with twenty more
+officers and nearly two hundred others--attended. At a given signal all
+were treacherously massacred; but a fugitive reached the Greek camp, where
+the men sprang to arms. Ari&aelig;us, approaching with an escort, declared
+that Clearchus had been proved guilty of treason, but was received with
+fierce indignation, and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Of the murdered generals, Clearchus was a man of high military capacity,
+but a harsh disciplinarian, feared and respected, but very unpopular;
+Proxenus, a particular friend of Xenophon, was an amiable but not a strong
+man; Menon, the Thessalian, was a crafty and hypocritical time-server, of
+whom no good can be spoken.</p>
+
+<p>The ten thousand Greeks were now in an ugly predicament; they were a
+thousand miles from home, while between them and the Black Sea lay the
+mountains of Armenia. They were surrounded by hostile hordes, and were
+without cavalry. They had no recognised chief, and their most trusted
+leaders were gone. The whole company seemed paralysed under a universal
+despondency. It was at this juncture that Xenophon, an Athenian
+gentleman-volunteer, was stirred to action by a dream. He rose and roused
+the officers of the contingent of Proxenus, to which he was attached.
+Heartened by an address, in which he pointed out that, on the one hand they
+had to depend on their own courage, skill, and resourcefulness, and, on the
+other, were released from all obligation to the Persians, they unanimously
+chose him their leader, and at his instigation roused the senior officers
+of all the other contingents to assemble for deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>The council thus summoned, inspired again by the words of Xenophon,
+vigorously backed up by other leaders, appointed new generals, among them
+Xenophon himself, and set about actively to organise a retreat to the sea.
+The contagion of resolute determination spread through the ranks of the
+whole force. Cheirisophus the Laced&aelig;monian was given the chief
+command, the two youngest generals, Xenophon and Timerion, were placed in
+charge of the rear-guard. A troop of slingers was organised; all horses
+with the arroy were sequestrated to form a cavalry squadron. The army
+started on its march through the unknown, formed in a hollow square, which
+was shortly so organised that the columns could be broadened or narrowed
+according to the ground without creating confusion.</p>
+
+<p>They soon found themselves able to repulse without difficulty even
+attacks in force by the troops of Tissaphernes, the enemy being entirely
+outmatched in hand-to-hand fighting. The slingers and archers, however,
+proved troublesome, and hostile forces, though keeping out of reach, were
+never far off. At last Tissaphernes and Ari&aelig;us drew off altogether,
+and the Greek generals having as alternative courses the march east upon
+Susa, north upon Babylon, and west towards Ionia, decided to revert to the
+course northwards to the Black Sea.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Sea! The Sea!</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>This route led at first through the country of the Carduchi, a very
+warlike folk who had never been subjugated. Here there was a good deal of
+hard fighting, the Carduchi being adepts in hill warfare, and particularly
+expert archers. Such was the length and weight of their arrows that Greeks
+collected them, and used them as javelins. Seven days of this brought the
+retreating force to the river Centrites, which parts the Carduchian
+mountains from the province of Armenia. With a barely fordable river,
+troops in evidence on the other side, and the Carduchi hanging on their
+rear, the passage offered great difficulties, solved by the discovery of a
+much shallower ford. A feint at one point by the rearguard drew off the
+enemy on the opposite bank, while the main body crossed at the shallows,
+which the rearguard also managed to pass by a successful ruse which misled
+the Carduchi.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian governor of Western Armenia, Tiribazus, offered safe passage
+through his province, but scouts brought information that large forces were
+collecting, and would dispute the passage of a defile through which the
+army must pass. This point, however, was reached by a forced march, and the
+enemy was put to rout.</p>
+
+<p>For some days after this the marching was very severe; the men had to
+struggle forward on very nearly empty stomachs, through blizzards,
+suffering terribly from frostbite and the blinding effect of the snow on
+their eyes, so that at times nothing short of actual threats from the
+officers could induce the exhausted men to toil forward; and all the time
+the enemy's skirmishers were harassing the troops and cutting off
+stragglers. These, however, were finally dispersed by a sudden onslaught of
+the rearguard, and after this a more populous district was reached, where
+food and wine abounded, and the Greeks, who were not ill-received, made
+some days' halt to recuperate.</p>
+
+<p>Here a guide was obtained for the next stages; but on the third night he
+deserted, because Cheirisophus had lost his temper and struck him. This
+incident was the only occasion of a serious difference between Xenophon and
+the elder commander. On the seventh day after this the river Phasis was
+crossed; but two days later, on approaching a mountain pass, it was seen to
+be occupied in force. A council of war was held, at which some jesting
+passed, Xenophon remarking on the reputation of the Laced&aelig;monians as
+adepts in thieving, a jibe which Cheirisophus retorted on the Athenians; as
+the business in hand was to "steal a match" on the enemy, each encouraged
+the other to act up to the national reputation. In the night, a detachment
+of volunteers captured the ridge above the pass; the enemy facing the main
+body beat a hasty retreat when they found their position turned.</p>
+
+<p>Another five days brought the army into the country of the Taochi, where
+the Greeks had to rush a somewhat dangerous position in order to capture
+supplies. A space of some twenty yards was open to such a storm of missiles
+from above that it could only be passed by drawing the enemy's fire and
+making a dash before fresh missiles were accumulated. When this was
+accomplished, however, the foe offered no practical resistance, but flung
+themselves over the cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen days later the Greeks reached a town called Gymnise, where they
+obtained a guide. Their course lay through tribes towards whom the governor
+was hostile, and the Greeks had no objection to gratifying him by spoiling
+and burning on their way. On the fifth day after leaving Gymnise, a
+mountain pass was reached.</p>
+
+<p>When the van cleared the top of the mountain, there arose a great
+shouting. And when Xenophon heard it, and they of the rear-guard, they
+supposed that other enemies were ranged against them, for the men of the
+land which had been ravaged were following behind; but when the clamour
+grew louder and nearer, and the new arrivals doubled forward to where the
+shouting was, so that it became greater and greater with the added numbers,
+Xenophon thought this must be something of moment. Therefore, taking Lycias
+and the horsemen, he rode forward at speed to give aid; and then suddenly
+they were aware of the soldiers' shout, the word that rang through the
+lines--"The sea! the sea!" Then every man raced, rear-guard and all, urging
+horses and the very baggage-mules to the top of their speed, and when they
+came to the top, they fell on each other's necks, and the generals, and
+officers, too, with tears of delight. And in a moment, whoever it was that
+passed the word, the men were gathering stones, and there they reared a
+mighty column.</p>
+
+<p>And as for the lucky guide, he betook himself home laden with
+presents.</p>
+
+<p>Of what befell between this point and the actual arrival of the army on
+the coast of the Black Sea at the Grecian colony of Trapezus [Trebizond]
+the most curious incident was that of the soldiers lighting upon great
+quantities of honey, which not only made them violently ill, but had an
+intoxicating effect, attributed to the herbs frequented by the bees in that
+district. This necessitated a halt of some days. The second day's march
+thence brought them to Trapezus, where they made sacrificial
+thank-offerings to the gods, and further celebrated the occasion by holding
+athletic games.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The End of the Expedition</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>But Trapezus was not Greece, and the problem of transport was serious.
+The men, sick of marching, were eager to accomplish the rest of their
+journey by sea. Cheirisophus the general, as being a personal friend of the
+Laced&aelig;monian admiral stationed at Byzantium, was commissioned to
+obtain ships from him to take the Greeks home.</p>
+
+<p>Cheirisophus departed. The army, which still numbered over ten thousand
+persons, was willing enough to maintain its military organisation for
+foraging and for self-defence; also to make such arrangements as were
+practicable for collecting ships in case Cheirisophus should fail them; but
+the men flatly refused to consider any further movement except by
+water.</p>
+
+<p>So they stayed where they were, maintaining their supplies by raids on
+the natives; but time passed, and there were no tidings of Cheirisophus. At
+last, they saw nothing for it but to put the sick and other non-combatants
+aboard of the vessels which had been secured, send them on by sea, and
+themselves march by the coast to Cerasus, another Greek colony. Thence they
+continued their westward progress, in which they met with considerable
+resistance from the natives, who were barbarians of a primitive type, until
+they came to Cotyora.</p>
+
+<p>This was another settlement from Sinope; but it received the Greeks very
+inhospitably, so that the latter continued their practice of ravaging the
+neighbouring territories. It was now eight months since the expedition had
+started on its homeward march. Here a deputation arrived from Sinope to
+protest against their proceedings; but Xenophon pointed out that while they
+were perfectly willing to buy what they needed and behave as friends, if
+they were not allowed to buy, self-preservation compelled them to take by
+force. Ultimately, the deputation promised to send ships from Sinope to
+convey them thither.</p>
+
+<p>During the time of waiting there was some risk of the force breaking
+itself up, and some inclination to make attacks on the officers, including
+Xenophon. The formulation of charges, however, enabled him amply to justify
+the acts complained of, and order generally was restored. At last, however,
+a sufficient number of ships were collected to convey the force to Sinope,
+where also Cheirisophus put in his long-delayed appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Cheirisophus came practically without ships and with nothing but vague
+promises from the admiral at Byzantium. At this point it occurred to the
+army that it would be better to have a single commander for the whole than
+a committee of generals each in control of his own division. Hence Xenophon
+was invited to accept the position. On consulting the omens he declined,
+recommending that, since Cheirisophus was a Laced&aelig;monian, it would be
+the proper thing to offer him the command, which was accordingly done.</p>
+
+<p>The force now sailed from Sinope as far as Heraclea. Here the
+contingents from Arcadia and Arch&aelig;a--more than half the force--insisted on
+requisitioning large supplies of money from Heraclea. Cheirisophus,
+supported by Xenophon, refused assent; the Arcadians and Ach&aelig;ans
+consequently refused to serve under their command any more, and appointed
+captains for themselves. The other half of the army was also parted in two
+divisions, commanded by Cheirisophus and Xenophon respectively.</p>
+
+<p>From Calpe the Arcadians and Arch&aelig;ans made an expedition into the
+interior, which fared so ill that Xenophon, hearing by accident of what had
+happened, was obliged to march to their relief. To his satisfaction,
+however, it was found that the enemy had already dispersed, and the Greek
+column was overtaken on the way back to Calpe. The general effect of the
+episode was to impress upon the Arcadians and Arch&aelig;ans that it was
+commonsense for the whole force to remain united.</p>
+
+<p>The usual operations were carried on for obtaining supplies, report
+having arrived that Cleander, the Laced&aelig;monian governor of Byzantium,
+was coming, which he presently did, with a couple of galleys but no
+transports. From information received, Cleander was inclined to regard the
+army as little better than a band of brigands; but this idea was
+successfully dissipated by Xenophon. Cleander went back to Byzantium, and
+the Greeks marched from Calpe to Chrysopolis, which faces Byzantium.</p>
+
+<p>Here the whole force was at last carried over to the opposite shore, and
+once more found itself on European soil, having received promises of pay
+from the admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real intentions were aroused,
+and Xenophon had no little difficulty in preventing his soldiery from
+breaking loose and sacking Byzantium itself.</p>
+
+<p>Ultimately, the greater part of the force took service with the Thracian
+king Seuthes. Seuthes, however, failed to carry out his promises as to
+payments and rewards. But now the Laced&aelig;monians were engaged in a
+quarrel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes and Artabazus; six thousand
+veterans so experienced as those who had followed this famous march into
+the heart of the Persian empire, had fought their way from Cunaxa to
+Trapezus, and had supported themselves mainly by their military prowess in
+getting from Trapezus to Europe, were a force by no means to be neglected,
+and the bulk of the troops were not unwilling to be incorporated in the
+Laced&aelig;monian armies. And so ends the story of the Retreat of the Ten
+Thousand Greeks.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='GEORGE_GROTE'></a>GEORGE GROTE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Greece'></a>History of Greece</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> George Grote, born at Beckenham, England, Nov. 17, 1794,
+entered the bank founded by his grandfather, from which he withdrew in
+1843. He joined the group of "philosophic Radicals," among whom James Mill
+was a leader, and was a keen politician and reformer, and an ardent
+advocate of the ballot. His determination to write a sound "History of
+Greece" was ensured, if it was not inspired, by Mitford's history, a work
+full of anti-democratic fervour and very antagonistic to the great Greek
+democratic state of Athens. In some respects his work is a defence of the
+Athenian democracy, at least as contrasted with Sparta; it appeared in
+twelve volumes between 1846 and 1856, and covered Greek history from the
+earliest times "till the close of the generation contemporary with
+Alexander the Great." It at once occupied, and still holds, the field as
+the classic work on the subject as a whole, though later research has
+modified many of his conclusions. His methods were pre-eminently thorough,
+dispassionate, and judicial; but he suffers from a lack of sympathetic
+imagination. He died on June 18, 1871, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Early History</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The divine myths constitute the earliest matter of Greek history. These
+may be divided into those which belong to the gods and to the heroes
+respectively; but most of them, in point of fact, present gods, heroes, and
+men in juxtaposition. Every community sought to trace its origin to some
+common divine, or semi-divine, progenitor; the establishment of a pedigree
+was a necessity; and each pedigree contains at some, point figures
+corresponding to some actual historical character, before whom the pedigree
+is imaginary, but after whom, in the main, actual. The precise point where
+the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates into the historical, is
+not usually ascertainable.</p>
+
+<p>The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
+period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend; the
+tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek peoples, and
+having an actual basis in historical fact. The events, however, are of less
+importance than the picture of an actual historical, political, and social
+system, corresponding, not to the supposed date of the Trojan war, but to
+the date of the composition of the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the
+myths themselves with a good deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to
+rationalise them, or to find for them an allegorical interpretation. The
+myths of other European peoples have undergone a somewhat similar
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
+peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
+&AElig;gean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication
+between one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system
+which isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its
+own separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
+congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in the
+city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised into
+the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely recognised
+their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct aggregate, and
+very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate from the
+non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."</p>
+
+<p>Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
+Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
+discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the dual
+kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The government lay
+and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan race--as for a time
+with the Normans in England--which formed a close oligarchy, while within
+the oligarchical body the organisation was democratic and communistic. For
+Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. were characterised by the two
+Messenian wars; and we note that while the Hellenes generally recognised
+her headship, Argos claimed a titular right to that position. As a general
+rule, the primitive monarchical system portrayed in the Homeric poems was
+displaced in the Greek cities by an oligarchical government, which in turn
+was overthrown by an irregular despotism called <i>tyrannis</i>, primarily
+established by a professed popular leader, who maintained his supremacy by
+mercenary troops. One after another these usurping dynasties were again
+ejected in favour either of a restored oligarchy or of a democracy. Sparta,
+where the power of the dual kingship was extremely limited, was the only
+state where the legitimate kingship survived. Corinth attained her highest
+power Under the despot Periander, son of Cypselus. Of the Ionian section of
+Greek states, the supreme type is Athens. Her early history is obscure. The
+kingship seems to have ended by being, so to speak, placed in commission,
+the royal functions being discharged by an elected body of Archons.
+Dissensions among the groups of citizens issued in the democratic Solonian
+constitution, which remained the basis of Athenian government, except
+during the despotism of the house of Pisistratus in the latter half of the
+sixth century B.C. But outside of Greece proper were the numerous Dorian
+and Ionian colonies, really independent cities, planted in the coast
+districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene and Barka in Mediterranean Africa, in
+Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily, and even at Massilia in Gaul, and
+in Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area. These colonies brought the Greek
+world in touch with Lydia and its king, Croesus, with the one sea-going
+Semitic power, the Phoenicians, with the Egyptians, and more remotely with
+the wholly Oriental empires of Assyria and Babylon, as well as with the
+outer barbarians of Scythia.</p>
+
+<p>Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens was generally under the rule of the
+despot Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510, the Pisistratid&aelig; were
+expelled, and Athens became a pure democracy. Meanwhile, the Persian Cyrus
+had seized the Median monarchy and overthrown every other potentate in
+Western Asia; Egypt was added to the vast Persian dominion by his son
+Cambyses. A new dynasty was established by Darius, the son of Hystaspes,
+who organized the empire, but failed to extend it by an incursion into
+European Scythia.</p>
+
+<p>The revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor against the governments
+established by the "great king" brought him in contact with the Athenians,
+who sent help to Ionia. Demands for "earth and water," <i>i.e.,</i> the
+formal recognition of Persian sovereignty, sent to the apparently
+insignificant Greek states were insolently rejected. Darius sent an
+expedition to punish Athens in particular, and the Athenians drove his army
+into the sea at the battle of Marathon.</p>
+
+<p>Xerxes, son of Darius, organised an overwhelming force by land and sea
+to eat up the Greeks. The invaders were met but hardly checked at
+Thermopyl&aelig;, where Leonidas and the immortal three hundred fell; all
+Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands, including
+Athens. But their fleet was shattered to pieces, chiefly by the Athenians
+under Themistocles and Aristides at Salamis, and the destruction of their
+land forces was completed by the united Greeks at Plat&aelig;a. A further
+disaster was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Struggles of Athens and Sparta</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the Sicilian Greeks, led by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
+resisted and overthrew the aggression of Carthage, the issue being decided
+at the battle of Himera. The part played by Athens under the guidance of
+Themistocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a new position among the
+Greek states and an indisputable naval leadership. As the maritime head of
+Hellas she was chief of the naval Delian League, now formed ostensibly to
+carry on the war against Persia. But the leaguers, who first contributed a
+quota of ships, soon began to substitute money to provide ships, which in
+effect swelled the Athenian navy, and turned the contributors into
+tributaries. Thus, almost automatically, the Delian League converted itself
+into an Athenian empire. In Athens itself an unparalleled personal
+ascendancy was acquired by Pericles, who made the form of government and
+administration more democratic than before. But this growing supremacy of
+Athens aroused the jealous alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw her own
+titular hegemony threatened; the subject cities grew restive under the
+Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward professedly as champion of the liberties
+of Hellas; Athens, guided by Pericles, refused to submit to Spartan
+dictation, and accepted the challenge which plunged Greece into the
+Peloponnesian war.</p>
+
+<p>The Athenians concentrated on the expansion of their naval armaments,
+left the open country undefended and gathered within the city walls, and
+landed forces at will on the Peloponnese. Platsea, almost their sole ally
+on land, held out valiantly for some time, but was forced to surrender; and
+Athens herself suffered frightfully from a visitation of the plague. After
+the death of Pericles, Cleon became the most prominent leader of the
+aggressive and democratic party, Nicias, of the anti-democratic peace
+party. Over most of Greece in each state the oligarchic faction favoured
+the Peloponnesian league, the democratic, Athens. The general Demosthenes
+at Pylos effected the surrender of a Laced&aelig;monian force, which
+temporarily shattered Sparta's military prestige, a blow in some degree
+counteracted by the brilliant operations of Brasidas in the north, where,
+however, both he and Cleon were killed.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to the possibilities of a great
+sea-empire, in consequence of her intervention having been invited in
+disputes among the Sicilian states. As the outcome, incited by the
+brilliant young Alcibiades, she resolved on the fatal Sicilian expedition.
+The expedition, planned under command of Alcibiades and Nicias, was
+dispatched in spite of the startling mutilation of the Herm&aelig;, a
+sacrilegious performance attributed to Alcibiades. It had hardly reached
+Sicily when he was recalled, but made his escape and spent some years
+mainly in intriguing against Athens. The siege of Syracuse was progressing
+favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus was allowed to enter and put new life
+into the defence. Disaster followed on disaster both by sea and land;
+finally, the whole Athenian force was either cut to pieces or surrendered
+at discretion, to become the slaves of the Syracusans, both Nicias and
+Demosthenes being put to death.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the truce between Athens and Sparta had been ended, and war
+again declared. Sparta occupied permanently a post of the Attic territory,
+Deceleia, with merciless effect. The Sicilian disaster moved the islanders,
+notably Chios, to revolt, by Spartan help, against Athens. She, however,
+renovated her navy with unexpected vigour. But, with her fleets away,
+Alcibiades inspired oligarchical intrigues in the city; a <i>coup
+d'&eacute;tat</i> gave the government to the leaders of a group of 400. The
+navy stood by the democratic constitution, the 400 were overthrown, and an
+assembly, nominally of 5,000, assumed the government. A great Athenian
+triumph at Arginus&aelig; was followed later by a still more overwhelming
+disaster at &AElig;gos Potami.</p>
+
+<p>The Spartan commander Lysander blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
+to surrender. Lysander established the government known as that of the
+Thirty Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias. Lysander's ascendancy created
+in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the Spartan king
+Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens by Thrasybulus,
+and the restoration of the Athenian democracy. Throughout, the conduct of
+the democratic party, at its best and its worst, contrasted favourably with
+that of the oligarchical faction.</p>
+
+<p>These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
+of the Parthenon and Phidias; of &AElig;schylus, the soldier of Marathon;
+then Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
+himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
+science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
+differing from the Sophists fundamentally.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
+used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
+Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
+who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a Greek
+conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan dominion.
+Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens, their former
+foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the most notable
+battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within the
+Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of Persia,
+and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by the name of
+the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy of Greek
+cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan domination.</p>
+
+<p>In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
+dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at the
+battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill and
+tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige. As a
+consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a force
+under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation was
+established.</p>
+
+<p>Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
+some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
+continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
+cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
+fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
+Himera. Owing to the disaster to Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
+feared by Carthage as a protection to the Hellenic world; and for two
+centuries to come, her interventions in Sicily were incessant. Now, the
+presence of a foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for power at Syracuse
+their opportunity, of which the outcome was the subversion of the democracy
+and the establishment of Dionysius as despot.</p>
+
+<p>His son, Dionysius II., succeeded, and was finally ejected by the
+Corinthian Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career of victories as
+Syracusan general against Carthage, acted as general liberator of Sicilian
+cities from despotisms, laid down his powers, and was content with the
+position, not of despot, but of counsellor, to the great prosperity of
+Sicily as a whole.</p>
+
+<p>Going back to the north of Greece, the semi-Hellenic Macedon with a
+Hellenic dynasty was growing powerful. Philip--father of Alexander the
+Great--was now king, and was resolved to make himself the head of the Greek
+world. His great opponent is found in the person of the Athenian orator
+Demosthenes, who saw that Philip was aiming at ascendancy, but generally
+failed to persuade the Athenians to recognise the danger in which they
+stood. Philip gradually achieved his immediate end of being recognised as
+the captain-general of the Hellenes, and their leader in a new Persian war,
+when his life was cut short by an assassin, and he was succeeded by his
+youthful son Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek states, awakening to their practical subjection, would have
+thrown off the new yoke, but the young king with swift and overwhelming
+energy swept down from Thrace upon Thebes, the centre of resistance, and
+stamped it out. He had already conceived, in part at least, his vast
+schemes of Asiatic conquest; while he lived, Greece had practically no
+distinguishable history. She is merely an appendage to Macedon. Everything
+is absorbed in the Macedon conqueror. With an army incredibly small for the
+task before him, he entered Asia Minor, and routed the Persian forces on
+the river Granicus. The Greek Memnon, the one able leader for the Persians,
+would have organised against him a destructive naval power; but death
+removed him.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander dispersed the armies of the Persian king Darius at the Issus,
+captured Tyre after a remarkable siege, and took easy possession of Egypt,
+where he founded Alexandria. Having organised the administration of the
+conquered territories, he marched to the Euphrates, but did not engage the
+enormous Persian hosts till he found and shattered them at the battle of
+Gaugamela, also called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexander swept on to
+Babylon, to Susa, to Persepolis, assuming the functions of the "Great
+King." The fugitive Darius was assassinated. Alexander henceforth assumed a
+new and oriental demeanour; but he continued his conquests, crossing the
+Hindoo Koosh to Bactria, and then bursting into the Punjab. But his
+ambitions were ended by his death, and their fulfilment, not at all
+according to his designs, was left to the "Diadochi," the generals among
+whom the conquered dominions were parted. Athens led the revolt against
+Macedonian supremacy, but in vain. Demosthenes, condemned by the conquering
+Antipater, took poison. The remainder of the history is that of the
+blotting out of Hellas and of Hellenism.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HEINRICH_SCHLIEMANN'></a>HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Troy_and_Its_Remains'></a>Troy and Its Remains</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
+Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December 27, 1890.
+During his early childhood an old scholar, who had fallen upon evil days,
+delighted him with stories of the great deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age
+of fourteen he was apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
+antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet have the
+happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him from his low position,
+and he went to Holland and found a situation in an office. He now began to
+study languages, suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
+money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to Russia, learning
+Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek. Later, he travelled in Europe
+and the East, making a voyage round the world. At last he realised the
+dream of his life. Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
+Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at Tiryus, Mycen&aelig;,
+and Troy, largely solving the problems of antiquity and arch&aelig;ology
+associated with these localities. "Troy and Its Remains" is published here
+in order that, having read in the classical histories, we may see how the
+ancient world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of one of
+the most famous of arch&aelig;ologists. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Searching for the Site of Troy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October</i> 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca,
+the Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
+by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the Homeric
+Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of Bunarbashi, to
+which place most arch&aelig;ologists assign it. At the same time I endeavoured
+to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be identical with the
+site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and down to its Complete
+destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century
+A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years, after its
+disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium Novum by
+Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited his Ilium
+Novum.</p>
+
+<p>The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
+north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still, which
+is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and from its
+imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of Hissarlik seems
+specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever since my first visit I
+never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of Priam in the depths of
+this hill.</p>
+
+<p>On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
+Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
+excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
+explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
+walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
+Lysimachus.</p>
+
+<p>Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
+end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
+prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
+offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
+hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its stead
+some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of the Trojan
+war.</p>
+
+<p>I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
+on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate this
+locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on the face
+of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's work.
+Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks of stone,
+the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who is an
+enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the Iliad by
+heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All of my
+workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only on Sunday,
+a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, October</i> 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
+continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average, 80
+workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I found an
+immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow, grey, and
+black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently with a kind of
+potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of their having been used
+for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume they have served as <i>ex
+votos</i> for hanging up in the temples.</p>
+
+<p>I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
+inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
+writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
+century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have been
+one of the kings of Pergamus.</p>
+
+<p>The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
+glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west by
+the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, November</i> 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33
+feet. During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous
+mass of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
+of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
+sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
+battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have been
+made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have reached
+the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find are too well
+finished.</p>
+
+<p>I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
+indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and more
+traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly convinced that
+I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan war, and hence I am
+more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy by further excavations;
+for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in this is firm--it can only
+have been here, on the site of Ilium.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, April 5, 1872.</i> On the first of this month I resumed
+the excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.</p>
+
+<p>In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
+small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the owl's
+head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins have
+stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the highest
+importance to arch&aelig;ology. Such symbols were already regarded, thousands of
+years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very greatest importance.
+The figure of the cross represents two pieces of wood which were laid
+crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial altars in order to
+produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the friction of one piece of
+wood against another.</p>
+
+<p>At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
+many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am firmly
+convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a goddess, and the
+important question now presents itself, what goddess is it who is here
+found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be found upon the
+idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must necessarily be the
+tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian Athena, and this indeed
+perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer, who continually calls her
+<i>thea glaukopis Athene,</i> "the goddess with the owl's face."</p>
+
+<p><i>Hissarlik, June 18, 1872.</i> I had scarcely begun to extend a third
+cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian marble,
+containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus Apollo, who,
+in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four immortal horses
+which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing is to be seen of a
+chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about two-thirds of the sun's
+disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is very expressive, and the
+folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured; but my admiration is
+specially excited by the four horses, which, snorting and looking wildly
+forward, career through the universe with infinite power. Their anatomy is
+so masterly that I confess I have never seen so masterly a work.</p>
+
+<p>It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
+nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a word
+about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus Apollo
+does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple of the
+sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament to any
+other temple.</p>
+
+<p>I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
+represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
+terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that is,
+Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman upon the
+propyl&aelig;a of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
+sun-city.</p>
+
+<p>This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
+Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this work
+of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo, after
+the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the Ilian
+Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after the
+subjugation of the Persian Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
+the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that at a
+depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric Troy. [The
+reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came back to this
+opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand wonderful objects;
+whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the removal of which gives
+immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls of very fine terra-cotta,
+and it is curious that those which have no decorations at all are always of
+the ordinary shape, and of the size of small tops, or like the craters of
+volcanoes, while almost all those possessing decorations are flat, and in
+the form of a wheel.</p>
+
+<p>Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
+for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number of
+copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small instruments
+for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some curious pieces of
+ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in the shape of an
+exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or double-edged knives of
+white silex in the form of saws in quantities, each about two inches long;
+also many hand millstones of lava, and some beautiful red vases, cups,
+vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these depths we likewise find many bones
+of animals; boars' tusks, small shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and
+stag, as well as the vertebr&aelig; of the shark.</p>
+
+<p>The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
+large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone, hewn
+and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet. These
+buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined with
+earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed to
+pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
+disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
+well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
+which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum are
+those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]</p>
+
+<p>Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
+civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
+foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
+house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the fact
+that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol of the
+<i>suastika</i>, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive Trojans
+belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the symbols on the
+round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which preceded the Trojans
+was likewise of long duration, for all the layers of <i>d&eacute;bris</i>
+at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also were of Aryan
+descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious symbols. Several of
+the symbols belonged to the time when Germans, Pelasgians, Hindoos,
+Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one nation.</p>
+
+<p>I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
+those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
+those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
+glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below, so
+that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
+vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
+urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
+mouth, bent back, and either short or long.</p>
+
+<p>I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
+three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
+very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata we
+also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
+whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs, amongst
+which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position. But the
+fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial altar with
+blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the <i>rosa
+mystica</i>, are also very frequently met with here.</p>
+
+<p>This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
+and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the Holy
+Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan symbol, as
+yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because I find it at a
+depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the successors to the
+Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200 years before Christ.</p>
+
+<p>At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
+by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
+ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches of
+earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate in
+five leaves.</p>
+
+<p>I now come to the strata of <i>d&eacute;bris</i> at a depth of from 23
+to 13 feet, which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan
+race, who took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
+destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
+feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
+entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined with
+clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only are all
+the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are of a
+coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.</p>
+
+<p>A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
+<i>d&eacute;bris</i> on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its
+present surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants
+killed or driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise
+have belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still
+very frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double
+cross with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the
+whorls degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it
+is considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
+strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
+feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
+many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
+together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas leave
+no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the surface of
+this hill was much lower than it is now.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
+it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
+Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
+taken place 700 B.C.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Homeric Legends Verified</i></h4>
+
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, August</i> 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill
+where I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick,
+which obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
+uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
+trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a depth
+of 46-1/2 feet.</p>
+
+<p>This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
+its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely covered
+it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and imposing,
+for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain of Troy, but
+of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and Samothrace. There is
+not a more sublime situation in the whole area of the plain of Troy than
+this.</p>
+
+<p>In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
+well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that the
+lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and burnt
+alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a vase,
+this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in the
+pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all corpses were
+burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found great numbers.
+The bones were always burnt to ashes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872.</i> In stopping the excavations
+for this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
+exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently thank
+God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but that none
+of us has been seriously hurt.</p>
+
+<p>As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
+solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
+discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
+soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
+called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site of
+which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by the
+whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only corresponds
+perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also with all the
+traditions handed down to us by later authorities.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. </i>During this last week, with
+splendid weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a
+good piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
+Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have laid
+bare the tower in several places.</p>
+
+<p>The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
+the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
+beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote antiquity
+lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently have described
+them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873.</i> Although the Pergamus, whose
+depths I have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by
+the Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
+ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests on
+one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle on
+mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
+probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on <i>Ilios
+anemoessa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
+have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
+street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture to
+assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Sc&aelig;an Gate. It
+is in an excellent state of preservation.</p>
+
+<p>Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
+sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
+company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus the
+Trojan and Ach&aelig;an armies face to face about to settle their agreement
+to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
+Menelaus.</p>
+
+<p>I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
+to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that its
+site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth century.
+But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being obliged to
+give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be able to make it a
+thousand times larger, but I value truth above everything, and I rejoice
+that my three years' excavations have laid open the Homeric Troy, even
+though on a diminished scale, and that I have proved the Iliad based upon
+real facts.</p>
+
+<p>Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
+he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
+events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long doubted
+the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a mere
+invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised world
+will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown itself
+to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected from the
+statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will accept with
+delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really exist, that a
+large portion of it has now been brought to light, and that Homer, even
+though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events that actually
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
+Poseidon and Apollo, the Sc&aelig;an Gate of the palace of King Priam, for
+all these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
+made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments only
+from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was then
+still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in the mouth
+of all minstrels.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='JULIUS_CAESAR'></a>JULIUS C&AElig;SAR</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Commentaries_on_the_Gallic_War'></a>Commentaries on the Gallic
+War</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Caius Julius C&aelig;sar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of
+a noble Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot with
+the democratic section against the republican oligarchy. Marrying Cornelia,
+daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla,
+he incurred the implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit
+Rome. For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome after
+Sulla's death, C&aelig;sar attached himself to the illustrious Pompey,
+whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he obtained a qu&aelig;storship in
+Spain, and on returning next year reconciled the two most powerful men in
+Rome, Pompey and Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the
+First Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
+C&aelig;sar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant success
+excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of Pompey. Civil war
+broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of Pompey, who was defeated in
+the fateful battle of Pharsalia, and was afterwards murdered in Egypt.
+Julius C&aelig;sar now possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on
+games and public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus,
+and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But the jealousy of many
+of the aristocrats led to the formation of a plot, and on March 15, 44
+B.C., C&aelig;sar was assassinated in the Senate House. This summary
+relates to the commentaries known to be by C&aelig;sar himself, certain
+other books having been added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed
+that he writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the Latin
+text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belg&aelig; inhabit; the
+Aquitani another; those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours
+Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs,
+and laws. Among the Gauls the Helvetii surpass the rest in valour, as they
+constantly contend in battle with the Germans. When Messala and Piso were
+consuls, Orgetorix, the most distinguished of the Helvetii, formed a
+conspiracy among the nobility, persuading them that, since they excelled
+all in valour, it would be very easy to acquire the supremacy of the whole
+of Gaul. They made great preparations for the expedition, but suddenly
+Orgetorix died, nor was suspicion lacking that he committed suicide.</p>
+
+<p>After his death, the Helvetii nevertheless attempted the exodus from
+their territories. When it was reported to C&aelig;sar that they were
+attempting to make their route through our province, he gathered as great a
+force as possible, and by forced marches arrived at Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>The Helvetii now sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar, requesting permission
+to pass through the province, which he refused, inasmuch as he remembered
+that Lucius Cassius, the consul, had been slain and his army routed, and
+made to pass under the yoke by the Helvetii. Disappointed in their hope,
+the Helvetii attempted to force a passage across the Rhone, but, being
+resisted by the soldier, desisted.</p>
+
+<p>After the war with the Helvetii was concluded, ambassadors from almost
+all parts of Gaul assembled to congratulate C&aelig;sar, and to declare
+that his victory had happened no less to the benefit of the land of Gaul
+than of the Roman people, because the Helvetii had quitted their country
+with the design of subduing the whole of Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>When the assembly was dismissed, the chiefs' of the &AElig;dui and of
+the Sequani waited upon C&aelig;sar to complain that Ariovistus, the king
+of the Germans, had seized a third of their land, which was the best in
+Gaul, and was now ordering them to depart from another third part.</p>
+
+<p>To ambassadors sent by C&aelig;sar, demanding an appointment of some
+spot for a conference, Ariovistus gave an insolent reply, which was
+repeated on a second overture. Hearing that the king of the Germans was
+threatening to seize Vesontio, the capital of the Sequani, C&aelig;sar, by
+a forced march, arrived there and took possession of the city. Apprised of
+this event, Ariovistus changed his attitude, and sent messengers intimating
+that he agreed to meet C&aelig;sar, as they were now nearer to each other,
+and could meet without danger.</p>
+
+<p>The conference took place, but it led to no successful result, for
+Ariovistus demanded that the Romans should withdraw from Gaul and his
+conduct became afterwards so hostile that it led to war. A battle took
+place about fifty miles from the Rhine. The Germans were routed and fled to
+the river, across which many escaped, the rest being slain in pursuit.
+C&aelig;sar, having concluded two very important wars in one campaign,
+conducted his army into winter quarters.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Taming the Rebellious Belg&aelig;</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>While C&aelig;sar was in winter quarters in Hither Gaul frequent reports
+were brought to him that all the Belg&aelig; were entering into a
+confederacy against the Roman people, because they feared that, after all
+Celtic Gaul was subdued, our army would be led against them. C&aelig;sar,
+alarmed, levied two new legions in Hither Gaul, and proceeded to the
+territory of the Belg&aelig;. As he arrived there unexpectedly, and sooner
+than anyone anticipated, the Remi, who are the nearest of the Belg&aelig;
+to Celtic Gaul, sent messages of submission and gave C&aelig;sar full
+information about the other Belg&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar next learned that the Nervii, a savage and very brave
+people, whose territories bordered those just conquered, had upbraided the
+rest of the Belg&aelig; who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people,
+and had declared that they themselves would neither send ambassadors nor
+accept any condition of peace. He was informed concerning them that they
+allowed no access of any merchants, and that they suffered no wine and
+other things tending to luxury to be imported, because they thought that by
+their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired.</p>
+
+<p>After he had made three days' march into their territory, C&aelig;sar
+discovered that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other side
+of the River Sambre, not more than ten miles from his camp, and that they
+had persuaded the Atrebates and the Veromandui to join with them, and that
+likewise the Aduatuci were expected by them, and were on the march. The
+Roman army proceeded to encamp in front of the river, on a site sloping
+towards it. Here they were fiercely attacked by the Nervii, the assault
+being so sudden that C&aelig;sar had to do all things at one time. The
+standard as the sign to run to arms had to be displayed, the soldiers were
+to be called from the works on the rampart, the order of battle was to be
+formed, and a great part of these arrangements was prevented by the
+shortness of time and the sudden charge of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Time was lacking even for putting on helmets and uncovering shields. In
+such an unfavorable state of affairs, various events of fortune followed.
+The soldiers of the ninth and tenth legions speedily drove back the
+Atrebates, who were breathless with running and fatigue. Many of them were
+slain. In like manner the Veromandui were routed by the eighth and eleventh
+legions; but as part of the camp was very exposed, the Nervii hastened in a
+very close body, under Boduagnatus, their leader, to rush against that
+quarter. Our horsemen and light-armed infantry were by the first assault
+routed, and the enemy, rushing into our camp in great numbers, pressed hard
+on the legions. But C&aelig;sar, seizing a shield and encouraging the
+soldiers, many of whose centurions had been slain, ordering them to extend
+their companies that they might more freely use their swords.</p>
+
+<p>So great a change was soon effected that, though the enemy displayed
+great courage, the battle was ended so disastrously for them that the
+Nervii were almost annihilated. Scarcely five hundred were left who could
+bear arms. Their old men sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar by the consent of
+all who remained, surrendering themselves. The Aduatuci, before mentioned,
+who were coming to the help of the Nervii, returned home when they heard of
+this battle.</p>
+
+<p>All Gaul being now subdued, so high an opinion of this war was spread
+among the barbarians that ambassadors were sent to C&aelig;sar by those
+nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine, to promise that they would give
+hostages and execute his commands. He ordered these embassies to return to
+him at the beginning of the following summer, because he was hastening into
+Italy and Illyricum. Having led his legions into winter quarters among the
+Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states were close to those in
+which he had waged war, he set out for Italy, and a public thanksgiving of
+fifteen days was decreed for these achievements, an honour which before
+that time had been conferred on none.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--War by Land and Sea in Gaul</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When C&aelig;sar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with
+the twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
+Veragri, and the Seduni, who extend from the territories of the Allobroges
+and the Lake of Geneva and the River Rhone to the top of the Alps. The
+reason for sending him was that he desired that the pass along the Alps,
+through which the Roman merchants had been accustomed to travel with great
+danger, should be opened.</p>
+
+<p>Galba fought several successful battles, stormed some of their forts,
+and concluded a peace. He then determined to winter in a village of the
+Veragri, which is called Octodurus. But before the winter camp could be
+completed the tops of the mountains were seen to be crowded with armed men,
+and soon these rushed down from all parts and discharged stones and darts
+on the ramparts.</p>
+
+<p>The fierce battle that followed lasted for more than six hours. During
+the fight more than a third part of the army of 30,000 men of the Seduni
+and the Veragri were slain, and the rest were put to flight,
+panic-stricken. Then Galba, unwilling to tempt fortune again, after having
+burned all the buildings in that village, hastened to return into the
+province, urged chiefly by the want of corn and provision. As no enemy
+opposed his march, he brought his forces safely into the country of the
+Allobroges, and there wintered.</p>
+
+<p>These things being achieved, C&aelig;sar, who was visiting Illyricum to
+gain a knowledge of that country, had every reason to suppose that Gaul was
+reduced to a state of tranquillity. For the Belg&aelig; had been overcome,
+the Germans had been expelled, and the Seduni and the Veragri among the
+Alps defeated. But a sudden war sprang up in Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion of that war was this. P. Crassus, a young man, had taken up
+his winter quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border on
+the Atlantic Ocean. As corn was scarce, he sent out officers among the
+neighbouring states for the purpose of procuring supplies. The most
+considerable of these states was the Veneti, who have a very great number
+of ships with which they have been accustomed to sail into Britain, and
+thus they excel the rest of the states in nautical affairs. With them arose
+the beginning of the revolt.</p>
+
+<p>The Veneti detained Silius and Velanius, who had been sent among them,
+for they thought they should recover by their means the hostages which they
+had given Crassus. The neighbouring people, the Essui and the
+Curiosolit&aelig;, led on by the influence of the Veneti (as the measures
+of the Gauls are sudden and hasty) detained other officers for the same
+motive. All the sea-coast being quickly brought over to the sentiments of
+these states, they sent a common embassy to P. Crassus to say "If he wished
+to receive back his officers, let him send back to them their
+hostages."</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, being informed of these things, since he was himself so far
+distant, ordered ships of war to be built on the River Loire; rowers to be
+raised from the province; sailors and pilots to be provided. These matters
+being quickly executed, he hastened to the army as soon as the season of
+the year admitted.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar at once ordered his army, divided into several detachments,
+to attack the towns of the enemy in different districts. Many were stormed,
+yet much of the warfare was vain and much labour was lost, because the
+Veneti, having numerous ships specially adapted for such a purpose, their
+keels being flatter than those of our ships, could easily navigate the
+shallows and estuaries, and thus their flight hither and thither could not
+be prevented.</p>
+
+<p>At length, in a naval fight, our fleet, being fully assembled, gained a
+victory so signal that, by that one battle, the war with the Veneti and the
+whole sea-coast was finished. C&aelig;sar thought that severe punishment
+should be inflicted, in order that for the future the rights of ambassadors
+should be respected by barbarians; he therefore put to death all their
+senate, and sold the rest for slaves.</p>
+
+<p>About the same time P. Crassus arrived in Aquitania, which, as was
+already said, is, both from its extent and its number of population, a
+third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Pr&aelig;conius,
+the lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
+understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known, the
+Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was long and
+vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired to their
+principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted. Crassus then
+marched into the territories of the Vocates and the Tarusites, who raised a
+great host of men to carry on the war, but suffered total defeat, after
+which the greater part of Aquitania of its own accord surrendered to the
+Romans, sending hostages of their own accord from different tribes. A few
+only--and those remote nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to
+do this.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The First Landing in Britain</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
+Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome, 55
+before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
+called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
+men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
+into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
+strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
+harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
+send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
+home, and going forth in their turn in other years.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the
+Gauls (whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from
+the Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the
+army earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
+discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had taken
+place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the Germans were
+then making excursions to greater distances, and had advanced to the
+territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are under the protection
+of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul, C&aelig;sar thought
+proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had discovered, and,
+having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and ordered some cavalry to
+be raised, resolved to make war against the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>When he had advanced some distance, the Germans sent ambassadors,
+begging him not to advance further, as they had come hither reluctantly,
+having been expelled from their country. But C&aelig;sar, knowing that they
+wished for delay only to make further secret preparations, refused the
+overtures. Marshalling his army in three lines, and marching eight miles,
+he took them by surprise, and the Romans rushed their camp. Many of the
+enemy were slain, the rest being either scattered or drowned in attempting
+to escape by crossing the Meuse in the flight.</p>
+
+<p>The conflict with the Germans being finished, C&aelig;sar thought it
+expedient to cross the Rhine. Since the Germans were so easily urged to go
+into Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories.
+Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty of constructing a bridge, owing
+to the breadth, rapidity, and depth of the river, he devised and built one
+of timber and of great strength, piles being first driven in on which to
+erect it.</p>
+
+<p>The army was led over into Germany, advanced some distance, and burnt
+some villages of the hostile Sigambri, who had concealed themselves in the
+woods after conveying away all their possessions. Then C&aelig;sar, having
+done enough to strike fear into the Germans and to serve both honour and
+interest, after a stay of eighteen days across the Rhine, returned into
+Gaul and cut down the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>During the short part of the summer which remained he resolved to
+proceed into Britain, because succours had been constantly furnished to the
+Gauls from that country. He thought it expedient, if he only entered the
+island, to see into the character of the people, and to gain knowledge of
+their localities, harbours, and landing-places. Having collected about
+eighty transport ships, he set sail with two legions in fair weather, and
+the soldiers were attacked instantly on landing by the cavalry and
+charioteers of the barbarians. The enemy were vanquished, but could not be
+pursued, because the Roman horse had not been able to maintain their course
+at sea and to reach the island. This alone was wanting to C&aelig;sar's
+accustomed success.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--C&aelig;sar on the Thames</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the winter C&aelig;sar commanded as many ships as possible to be
+constructed, and the old repaired. About six hundred transports and twenty
+ships of war were built, and, after settling some disputes in Gaul among
+the chiefs, C&aelig;sar went to Port Itius with the legions. He took with
+him several of the leading chiefs of the Gauls, determined to retain them
+as hostages and to keep them with him during his next expedition to
+Britain, lest a commotion should arise in Gaul during his absence.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, having crossed to the shore of Britain and disembarked his
+army at a convenient spot advanced about twelve miles and repelled all
+attacks of the cavalry and charioteers of the enemy. Then he led his forces
+into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the River Thames, which river can
+be forded in one place only. Here an engagement took place which resulted
+in the flight of the Britons. But Cassivellaunus had sent messengers to the
+four kings who reigned over Kent and the districts by the sea, Cingetorix,
+Carvilius, Taximaquilus, and Segonax, commanding them to collect all their
+forces and assail the naval camp.</p>
+
+<p>In the battle which ensued the Romans were victorious, and when
+Cassivellaunus heard of this disaster he sent ambassadors to C&aelig;sar to
+treat about a surrender. C&aelig;sar, since he had resolved to pass the
+winter on the continent, on account of sudden revolts in Gaul, demanded
+hostages and prescribed what tribute Britain should pay each year to the
+Roman people.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar, expecting for many reasons greater commotion in Gaul,
+levied additional forces. He saw that war was being prepared on all sides,
+that the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, with the addition of all the
+Germans on this side of the Rhine, were under arms; that the Senones did
+not assemble according to his command, and were concerting measures with
+Carnutes and the neighbouring states; and that the Germans were importuned
+by the Treviri in frequent embassies. Therefore he thought that he ought to
+take prompt measures for the war.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, before the winter was ended, he marched with four legions
+unexpectedly into the territories of the Nervii, captured many men and much
+cattle, wasted their lands, and forced them to surrender and give hostages.
+He followed up his success by worsting the Senones, Carnutes, and Menapii,
+while Labienus defeated the Treviri.</p>
+
+<p>Gaul being tranquil, C&aelig;sar, as he had determined, set out for
+Italy to hold the provincial assizes. There he was informed of the decree
+of the senate that all the youth of Italy should take the military oath,
+and he determined to hold a levy throughout the entire province. The Gauls,
+animated by the opportunity afforded through his absence, and indignant
+that they were reduced beneath the dominion of Rome, began to organise
+their plans for war openly.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the nations confederated and selected as their commander
+Vercingetorix, a young Avernian. On hearing what had happened, C&aelig;sar
+set out from Italy for Transalpine Gaul, and began the campaign by marching
+into the country of the Helvii, although it was the severest time of the
+year, and the country was covered with deep snow.</p>
+
+<p>The armies met, and Vercingetorix sustained a series of losses at
+Vellaunodunum, Genabum, and Noviodunum. The Gauls then threw a strong
+garrison into Avaricum, which C&aelig;sar besieged, and at length
+C&aelig;sar's soldiers took it by storm. All the Gauls, with few
+exceptions, joined in the revolt; and the united forces, under
+Vercingetorix, attacked the Roman army while it was marching into the
+country of the Sequani, but they suffered complete defeat. After struggling
+vainly to continue the war, Vercingetorix surrendered, and the Gallic
+chieftains laid down their arms. C&aelig;sar demanded a great number of
+hostages, sent his lieutenants with various legions to different stations
+in Gaul, and determined himself to winter at Bibracte. A supplication of
+twenty days was decreed at Rome by the senate on hearing of these
+successes.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='TACITUS'></a>TACITUS</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Annals'></a>Annals</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Publius Cornelius Tacitus was born perhaps at Rome, shortly
+before the accession of the Emperor Nero in 54 A.D. He married the daughter
+of Agricola, famous in the history of Britain, and died probably about the
+time of Hadrian's accession to the empire, 117 A.D. He attained distinction
+as a pleader at the bar, and in public life; but his fame rests on his
+historical works. A man of strong prepossessions and prejudices, he allowed
+them to colour his narratives, and particularly his portraits; but he
+cannot be charged with dishonesty. The portraits themselves are singularly
+powerful; his narrative is picturesque, vivid, dramatic; but the condensed
+character of his style and the pregnancy of his phrases make his work
+occasionally obscure, and particularly difficult to render in translation.
+His "Germania" is a most valuable record of the early institutions of the
+Teutonic peoples. His "Histories" of the empire from Galba to Domitian are
+valuable as dealing with events of which he was an eye-witness. His
+"Annals," covering practically the reigns from Tiberius to Nero, open only
+some forty years before his own birth. Of the original sixteen books, four
+are lost, and four are incomplete. The following epitome has been specially
+prepared from the Latin text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Emperor and Nephew</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Tiberius, adopted son and actual stepson of Augustus, was summoned from
+Illyria by his mother Livia to the bedside of the dying emperor at Nola.
+Augustus left a granddaughter, Agrippina, who was married to Germanicus,
+the nephew of Tiberius; and a grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of evil
+reputation. The succession of Tiberius was not in doubt; but his first act
+was to have Agrippa Postumus put to death--according to his own statement,
+by the order of Augustus. At Rome, consuls, senators, and knights hurried
+to embrace their servitude. The nobler the name that each man bore, the
+more zealous was he in his hypocrisy. The grave pretence of Tiberius that
+he laid no claim to imperial honours was met by the grave pretence that the
+needs of the state forbade his refusal of them, however reluctant he might
+be. His mother, Livia Augusta, was the object of a like sycophancy. But the
+world was not deceived by the solemn farce.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Augustus, however, was the signal for mutinous outbreaks
+among the legions on the European frontiers of the empire; first in
+Pannonia, then in Germany. In Pannonia, the ostensible motive was jealousy
+of the higher pay and easier terms of service of the Pr&aelig;torian guard.
+So violent were the men, and so completely did the officers lose control,
+that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was sent to make terms with the
+mutineers, and only owed his success to the reaction caused by the
+superstitious alarm of the soldiery at an eclipse of the moon. Germanicus,
+who was in command in Germany, was absent in Gaul. Here the mutiny of the
+Lower Army, under C&aelig;cina, was very serious, because it was clearly
+organised, the men working systematically and not haphazard.</p>
+
+<p>News of the outbreak brought their popular general, Germanicus, to the
+spot. The mutineers at once offered to make him emperor, a proposal which
+he indignantly repudiated. The position, in a hostile country, made some
+concession necessary; but fresh disturbances broke out when it was
+suspected that the arrival of a commission from the senate meant that the
+concessions would be cancelled. Here the reaction which broke down the
+mutiny was caused by the shame of the soldiers themselves, when Germanicus
+sent his wife and child away from a camp where their lives were in danger.
+Of their own accord, the best of the soldiers turned on their former
+ringleaders, and slew them. And the legions under C&aelig;cina took similar
+steps to recover their lost credit. Germanicus, however, saw that the true
+remedy for the disaffection would be found in an active campaign. The
+desired effect was attained by an expedition against the Marsi, conducted
+with a success which Tiberius, at Rome, regarded with mixed feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The German tribe named the Cherusci favoured Arminius, the determined
+enemy of Rome, in preference to Segestes, who was conspicuous for "loyalty"
+to Rome. Germanicus advanced to support the latter, and Arminius was
+enraged by the news that his wife, the daughter of Segestes, was a
+prisoner. His call to arms, his declamations in the name of liberty, roused
+the Cherusci, the people who had annihilated the legions of Varus a few
+years before. A column commanded by C&aelig;cina was enticed by Arminius
+into a swampy position, where it was in extreme danger, and a severe
+engagement took place. The scheme of Arminius was to attack the Romans on
+the march; fortunately, the rasher counsels of his uncle, Inguiomerus,
+prevailed; an attempt was made to storm the camp, and the Romans were thus
+enabled to inflict a decisive defeat on the foe.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that the disastrous practice was instituted of
+informers bringing charges of treason against prominent citizens on grounds
+which Tiberius himself condemned as frivolous. The emperor began to make a
+practice of attending trials, which indeed prevented corrupt awards, but
+ruined freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Now arose disturbances in the east. The Parthians expelled their king,
+Vonones, a former favourite of Augustus. Armenia became involved, and these
+things were the source of serious complications later. Tiberius was already
+meditating the transfer of Germanicus to these regions. That general,
+however, was planning a fresh German campaign from the North Sea coast. A
+great fleet carried the army to the mouth of the Ems; thence Germanicus
+marched to the Weser and crossed it. Germanicus was gratified to find that
+his troops were eager for the impending fray. A tremendous defeat was
+inflicted on the Cherusci, with little loss to the Romans. Arminius, who
+had headed a charge which all but broke the Roman line, escaped only with
+the utmost difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the Germans rallied their forces, and a second furious
+engagement took place, in which the foe fought again with desperate valour,
+and were routed mainly through the superiority of the Roman armour and
+discipline. The triumph was marred only by a disaster which befel the
+legions which were withdrawn by sea. A terrific storm wrecked almost the
+entire fleet, and it was with great difficulty that the few survivors were
+rescued. The consequent revival of German hopes made it necessary for two
+large armies to advance against the Marsi and the Catti respectively,
+complete success again attending the Roman arms.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy of his nephew's popularity and success now caused Tiberius to
+insist on his recall. At this time informers charged with treason a young
+man of distinguished family, Libo Drusus, mainly on the ground of his
+foolish consultation of astrologers, with the result that Drusus committed
+suicide. This story will serve as one among many which exemplify the
+prevalent demoralisation. In the same year occurred the audacious
+insurrection of a slave who impersonated the dead Agrippa Postumus; and
+also the deposition of the king of Cappadocia, whose kingdom was annexed as
+a province of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>A contest took place between the Suevi and the Cherusci, in which Rome
+declined to intervene. Maroboduus, of the Suevi, was disliked because he
+took the title of king, which was alien to the German ideas, being in this
+respect contrasted with Arminius. The Cherusci had the better of the
+encounter.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Development of Despotism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Germanicus on his recall was in danger, while in Rome, of being made the
+head of a faction in antagonism to Drusus, the son of Tiberius. He was
+dispatched, however, with extraordinary powers, to take control of the
+East, where Piso, the governor of Syria, believed that he held his own
+appointment precisely that he might be a thorn in the side of Germanicus.
+The latter made a progress through Greece, settled affairs in Armenia and
+Parthia, and continued his journey to Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Piso's machinations, encouraged by the reports which reached him of the
+emperor's displeasure at the conduct of Germanicus, caused the gravest
+friction. Finally, on the return from Egypt through Syria, Germanicus
+became desperately ill. He declared his own belief that Piso and his wife
+had poisoned him; and, on his death, the rumour met general credence,
+though it was unsupported by evidence. Agrippina returned to Rome, bent on
+vengeance, and the object of universal sympathy. Piso attempted to make
+himself master of Syria, but failed to win over the legions, and then
+resolved to return to Rome and defy his accusers.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Arminius was killed in attempting to make himself king.
+Shortly before, Tiberius had rejected with becoming dignity a rival chief's
+offer to poison the national hero of German independence.</p>
+
+<p>On the arrival in Italy of Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, the
+popular and official expressions of grief and sympathy were almost
+unprecedented. This public display was not at all encouraged by Tiberius
+himself. Drusus was instructed to emphasize the fact that Piso must not be
+held either guilty or innocent, till the case had been sifted. Tiberius
+insisted that not he, but the senate, must be the judge; the case must be
+decided on its merits, not out of consideration for his own outraged
+feelings. Piso was charged with having corrupted the soldiery, levied war
+on the province of Syria, and poisoned Germanicus. All except the last
+charge were proved up to the hilt; for that alone there was no evidence.
+Piso, however, despaired, fearing less the ebullitions of popular wrath
+than the emotionless implacability of the emperor. He was found dead in his
+room; but whether by his own act or that of Tiberius, was generally
+doubted. The penalties imposed on his wife and son were mitigated by the
+emperor himself.</p>
+
+<p>A number of notorious scandals at this period emphasise the degradation
+of morals and the disregard for the sanctity of the marriage tie in a
+society where children were regarded as a burden, in spite of official
+encouragement of the birth-rate. There was an instructive debate on a
+proposal that magistrates appointed to provinces should not take their
+wives with them.</p>
+
+<p>Risings in Gaul of the Treveri and Aedui created much alarm in Rome; the
+composure of Tiberius was justified by their decisive suppression.</p>
+
+<p>In Africa, Bl&aelig;ms successfully suppressed, though he did not
+finally curb, the brigand chief Tacfarinas, who had been building up a
+nomad empire of his own. It was under Dolabella, the successor of
+Bl&aelig;ms, that Tacfarinas was completely overthrown and slain.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the rule of Tiberius had been, on the whole, prosperous. But
+the ninth year marks the establishment of the ascendancy of &AElig;lius
+Sejanus over the mind of the emperor, whereby his sway was transformed into
+a foul tyranny. Not of noble birth, Sejanus had neglected no means, however
+base, to secure his own favour with Tiberius and with the Pr&aelig;torian
+Guard, of which he held the command. He was now determined to get rid of
+Drusus, the son of Tiberius, as the most dangerous obstacle to his
+ambitions. He accomplished his purpose by administering a poison, of which
+the operation was unsuspected till the facts were revealed many years later
+by an accomplice. Then the young sons of Germanicus became the accepted
+representatives of the imperial line, for the infant sons of Drusus died
+very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, Sejanus now directed his attacks
+against the more powerful persons who might be regarded as partisans of the
+house of Germanicus.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the multiplications of prosecutions, it is to be noted that it
+was still possible for a shrewd and tactful person, as exemplified by the
+career of Marcus Lepidus, to uphold the principles of justice and liberty
+without losing the favour of the emperor. Among other prosecutions, that of
+Cremutius, whose crime was that of praising the memory of Brutus and
+Cassius, demands attention, as the first of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>The ambitions of Sejanus received a check when he had the presumption to
+request Tiberius to grant him the hand of the widow of Drusus in marriage.
+In order the more surely to bring disgrace on the house of Germanicus, he
+now implanted in the mind of Agrippina a conviction that Tiberius intended
+to poison her. That such suspicions were mere commonplaces of that terrible
+time is well illustrated by the story. Incapable of hiding her feelings,
+the persistent gloom of her face and voice, and her refusal of proffered
+dishes as she sat near Tiberius at dinner, attracted his attention; to test
+her, he personally commended and pressed on her some apples; this only
+intensified her suspicions, and she gave them to the attendants untasted.
+Tiberius made no open comment, but observed to his mother that it would
+hardly be surprising should he contemplate harsh measures towards one who
+obviously took him for a poisoner.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Morbid Tyrant and Dotard</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It was at this time that Tiberius withdrew himself from the capital, and
+took up his residence at a country seat where hardly anyone had access to
+him except Sejanus; whether at the favourite's suggestion or not is
+uncertain. The retreat finally selected was the island of Capr&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>The monstrous lengths to which men of the highest rank were now prepared
+to go to curry favour with Tiberius and Sejanus was exemplified in the ruin
+of Sabinus, a loyal friend of the house of Germanicus. The unfortunate man
+was tricked into speaking bitterly of Sejanus and Tiberius. Three senators
+were actually hidden above the ceiling of the room where he was entrapped
+into uttering unguarded phrases, and on this evidence he was condemned.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the aged Livia Augusta removed the last check on the
+influence of Sejanus.</p>
+
+<p>[The account of his two years of unqualified supremacy, and of his
+sudden and utter overthrow has been lost, two books of the "Annals" being
+missing here.]</p>
+
+<p>From this time, the life of Tiberius at Capr&aelig; was one of morbid
+and nameless debauchery. The condition of his mind may be inferred from the
+opening words of one of his letters to the senate. "If I know what to
+write, how to write it, what not to write, may the gods and goddesses
+destroy me with a worse misery than the death I feel myself dying daily."
+The end came when Macro, the prefect of the Pr&aelig;torians, who, to save
+his own life and secure the succession of Gaius C&aelig;sar Caligula, the
+surviving son of Germanicus, caused the old emperor to be smothered.</p>
+
+<p>[The record of the next ten years--the reign of Caligula, and the first
+years of Claudius--is lost. When the story is taken up again, the wife of
+Claudius, the infamous Messalina, was at the zenith of her evil
+career.]</p>
+
+<p>While the doting pedant Claudius was adding new letters to the alphabet,
+Messalina was parading with utter shamelessness her last and fatal passion
+for Silius, and went so far as publicly to marry her paramour. It was the
+freedman Narcissus who made the outrageous truth known to Claudius, and
+practically terrorised him into striking. Half measures were impossible; a
+swarm of Messalina's accomplices in vice were put to death. To her,
+Claudius showed signs of relenting; but Narcissus gave the orders for her
+death without his knowledge. When they told Claudius that she was dead, he
+displayed no emotion, but went on with his dinner, and apparently forgot
+the whole matter.</p>
+
+<p>A new wife had to be provided; Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,
+niece of Claudius himself, and mother of the boy Domitius, who was to
+become the emperor Nero, was the choice of the freedman Pallas, and proved
+the successful candidate. Shortly after, her new husband adopted Nero
+formally as his son. It was not long before she had assumed an air of
+equality with her husband; and all men saw that she intended him to be
+succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
+propr&aelig;tor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
+then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most brilliant
+of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage, however, were
+of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman legions; his forces
+were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the Brigantes, was by them
+betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was carried to Rome, where by
+his dignified demeanour he won pardon and liberty. In the Far East,
+Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew Rhadamistus, and Parthia and
+Armenia remained in wild confusion. The reign of Claudius was brought to an
+end by poison--the notorious Locusta was employed by Agrippina for the
+purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero, to whom his mother's artifices gave
+the priority over Britannicus.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Infamies of Nero</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
+first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was full
+of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a freed-woman, by
+way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother, Agrippina. The latter,
+enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened her son with the legitimate
+claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero had the boy poisoned. In
+terror now of his mother, he would have murdered her, but was checked by
+Burrus. Nero's private excesses and debaucheries developed, while the
+horrible system of delation flourished, and prosecutions for treason
+abounded.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the emperor's passion for Popp&aelig;a Sabina, the wife
+of Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
+immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's boon
+companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Popp&aelig;a remained at
+Rome. Popp&aelig;a was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged
+Nero against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
+the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress. The
+plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero, however,
+with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched assassins to
+carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
+the cringing congratulations of Roman society, to which Thrasea P&aelig;tus
+was alone in refusing to be a party. The emperor forthwith began to plunge
+into the wild extravagances on which his mother's life had been some check.
+He took cover for his passion for chariot-driving and singing by inducing
+men of noble birth to exhibit themselves in the arena; high-born ladies
+acted in disreputable plays; the emperor himself posed as a mime, and
+pretended to be a patron of poetry and philosophy. The wildest licence
+prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to defend it.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the
+Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages committed
+against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to fierce revolt.
+Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the Romans at Camulodunum
+and massacred them. Suetonius, returning hastily from the west, found the
+Roman population in panic. The troops, however, inspired by the general's
+resolution, won a decisive victory, in which it is said that no fewer than
+80,000 Britons, men and women, were slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after, Burrus died--in common belief, if not in actual fact, of
+poison; and Seneca found himself driven into retirement, while Tigellinus
+became Nero's favourite and confidant. Nero then capped his matricide by
+suborning the same scoundrel who had murdered Agrippina to bring foul and
+false charges against his innocent wife, Octavia; who was thus done to
+death when not yet twenty, that her husband might be free to marry
+Popp&aelig;a. As a matter of course, the crime was duly celebrated by a
+public thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p>The dispatch of an incompetent general into Asia resulted in a most
+inglorious Parthian campaign. Nero, however, was more interested first in
+extravagant rejoicings at the birth of a daughter to Popp&aelig;a, and then
+in equally extravagant mourning over the infant's death. It was well that
+Corbulo, marching from Syria, restored the Roman prestige in the Far
+East.</p>
+
+<p>These events were followed by the famous fire which devastated Rome;
+whether or no it was actually Nero's own work, rumour declared that he
+appeared on a private stage while the conflagration was raging, and chanted
+appropriately of the fall of Troy. He planned rebuilding on a magnificent
+scale, and sought popularity by throwing the blame of the fire--and putting
+to the most exquisite tortures--a class hated for their abominations,
+called Christians, from their first leader, Christus, who had suffered the
+extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Jud&aelig;a, in the
+reign of Tiberius.</p>
+
+<p>A very widespread conspiracy was now formed against Nero, in favour of
+one Gaius Calpurnius Piso; F&aelig;nius Rufus, an officer of the
+Pr&aelig;torians, who had been subordinated to Tigellinus, being one of the
+leaders. The plot, however, was betrayed by a freedman of one of the
+conspirators.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='SALLUST'></a>SALLUST</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Conspiracy_of_Catiline'></a>The Conspiracy of
+Catiline</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The Roman historian Caius Crispus Sallust, who was born at
+Amiternum in 86 B.C., and died in 34 B.C., lived throughout the active
+career of Julius C&aelig;sar, and died while Anthony and Octavian were
+still rivals for the supreme power. It might be supposed from his works
+that he was a person of eminent virtue, but this was merely a literary
+pose. He was probably driven into private life, in the first place, on
+account of the scandals with which he was associated. He became a partisan
+of C&aelig;sar in the struggle with Pompey, and to this he owed the
+pro-consulship of Numidia, on the proceeds of which he retired into
+leisured ease. Sallust aspired with very limited success to assume the
+mantle of Thucydides, and the r&ocirc;le of a philosophic historian. He
+displays considerable political acumen on occasion, but his assumption of
+stern impartiality is hardly less a pose than his pretense of elevated
+morality. His "Conspiracy of Catiline"--the first of his historical
+essays--was probably written, in part at least, with the object of
+dissociating C&aelig;sar from it; the lurid colors in which he paints the
+conspirator are probably exaggerated. But whether true or false, the
+picture presented is a vivid one. This epitome is adapted specially from
+the Latin text. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Plotting</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>I esteem the intellectual above the physical qualities of man; and the
+task of the historian has attracted me because it taxes the writer's
+abilities to the utmost Personal ambition had at first drawn me into public
+life, but the political atmosphere, full of degradation and corruption, was
+so uncongenial that I resolved to retire and devote myself to the
+production of a series of historical studies, for which I felt myself to be
+the better fitted by my freedom from the influences which bias the
+political partisan. For the first of these studies I have selected the
+conspiracy of Catiline.</p>
+
+<p>Lucius Catilina [commonly called Catiline] was of high birth, richly
+endowed both in mind and body, but of extreme depravity; with extraordinary
+powers of endurance, reckless, crafty, and versatile, a master in the arts
+of deception, at once grasping and lavish, unbridled in his passions, ready
+of speech, but with little true insight Of insatiable and inordinate
+ambitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's supremacy, with a craving to
+grasp the control of the state, utterly careless of the means, so the end
+were attained. Naturally headstrong, he was urged forward by his want of
+money, the consciousness of his crimes, and the degradation of morals in a
+society where luxury and greed ruled side by side.</p>
+
+<p>The wildest, the most reckless, the most prodigal, the most criminal,
+were readily drawn into the circle of Catiline's associates; in such a
+circle those who were not already utterly depraved very soon became so
+under the sinister and seductive influence of their leader. This man, who
+in the pursuit of his own vices had done his own son to death, did not
+hesitate to encourage his pupils in every species of crime; and with such
+allies, and the aid of the disbanded Sullan soldiery swarming in Italy, he
+dreamed of subverting the Roman state while her armies, under Gn&aelig;us
+Pompeius, were far away.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to secure his own election as consul. One plot of his
+had already failed, because Catiline himself had attempted to move
+prematurely; but the conspirators remained scatheless. Those who were now
+with Catiline included members of the oldest families and of equestrian
+rank. Crassus himself was suspected of complicity, owing to his rivalry
+with Pompeius. The assembled conspirators were addressed by Catiline in a
+speech of the most virulent character. He urged these social outcasts to
+rise against a bloated plutocracy battening on the ill-gotten wealth to
+which his audience had just as good a title. He promised the cancellation
+of all debts, the proscription of the wealthy, and the general application
+of the rule of "the spoils to the victors." He had friends at the head of
+the armies in Spain and Mauritania, if Gaius Antonius were the other
+successful candidate for the consulship, his co-operation, too, could be
+secured. Such was the purport of his speech; but I do not credit the
+popular fiction that the conspirators were solemnly pledged in a bowl of
+mingled wine and blood.</p>
+
+<p>Rumours of the plot, however, began to leak out through a certain
+Fulvia, mistress of Quintus Curio, a man who had been expelled from the
+senatorial body on account of his iniquities; and this probably caused many
+of the nobility to support, for the consulship, Cicero, whom, as a "new
+man," they would otherwise have religiously opposed. The result was that
+Catiline's candidature failed, and Cicero was elected with Gaius Antonius
+for his colleague.</p>
+
+<p>At length Cicero, seeing that the ferment was everywhere increasing to
+an extent with which the ordinary law could not cope, obtained from the
+senate the exceptional powers for dealing with a national emergency which
+they had constitutional authority to grant. Thus, when news came that a
+Catilinarian, Gaius Manlius, had risen in Etruria at the head of an armed
+force, prompt administrative measures were taken to dispatch adequate
+military forces to various parts of the country. Catiline himself had taken
+no overt action; he now presented himself in the senate, was openly
+assailed by Cicero, responded with insults which were interrupted by cries
+of indignation, and flung from the house with the words "Since I am beset
+by enemies and driven out, the fire you have kindled about me shall be
+crushed out by the ruin of yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that delay would be fatal, he started at once for the camp of
+Manlius, leaving Cethegus and Lentulus to keep up the ferment in Rome. To
+several persons of position he sent letters announcing that he was retiring
+to Marseilles; but, with misplaced confidence, he sent one of a different
+and extremely compromising tenor to Quintus Catullus, which the recipient
+read to the senate. It was next reported that he had assumed the consular
+attributes and joined Manlius; whereupon he was proclaimed a public enemy,
+a general levy was decreed, Antonius was appointed to take the field, while
+Cicero was to remain in the capital.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Downfall</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Lentulus at Rome, among his various plots, intrigued to
+obtain the support of the Allobroges, a tribe of Gauls from whom there was
+at the time an embassy in Rome. The envoys, however, took the advice of
+Quintus Fabius Sanga, and while he kept Cicero supplied with information,
+themselves pretended to be at one with the conspirators.</p>
+
+<p>Risings were now taking place all over Italy, though they were
+ill-concerted. At Rome, the plan was that when Catiline's army was at
+F&aelig;sul&aelig;, the tribune Lucius Bestia should publicly accuse Cicero of
+having caused the war; and this was to be the signal for an organised
+massacre, while the city itself was to be fired at twelve points
+simultaneously. The insurgents were then to march out and join Catiline at
+F&aelig;sul&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p>The Allobroges were now departing, carrying with them letters from
+Lentulus to Catiline; but according to a concerted plan, they were
+arrested. This provided Cicero with evidence which warranted the arrest of
+Lentulus and other ringleaders in Rome; and its publication created a
+popular revulsion--the lower classes were not averse from plunder, but saw
+no benefit to themselves in a general conflagration of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>A certain Lucius Tarquinius was now captured, who gave information
+tallying with what was already published, but further incriminated Crassus.
+Crassus, however, was so wealthy, and had so many of the senate in his
+power, that even those who believed the charge to be true, thought it
+politic to pronounce it a gross fabrication. The danger of an attempted
+rescue of Lentulus brought on a debate as to what should be done with the
+prisoners. C&aelig;sar, from whatever motive, spoke forcibly against any
+unconstitutional action which, however justified by the enormity of the
+prisoners' guilt, might become a dangerous precedent. In his opinion, the
+wise course would be to confiscate the property of the prisoners, and to
+place their persons in custody not in Rome, but in provincial towns.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar's humanitarian statesmanship was answered by the grave
+austerity of Cato. "The question for us is not that of punishing a crime,
+but of preserving the state--or of what the degenerate Roman of to-day
+cares for more than the state, our lives and property. To speak of clemency
+and compassion is an abuse of terms only too common, when vices are
+habitually dignified with the names of virtues. Let us for once act with
+vigour and decision, and doom these convicted traitors to the death they
+deserve." The decree of death was carried to immediate execution. In the
+meantime, Catiline had raised a force numbering two legions, but not more
+than a quarter of them were properly armed. He remained in the hills,
+refusing to give battle to Antonius.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing the fate of Lentulus and the rest, he attempted to retreat to
+Gaul, but this movement was anticipated and intercepted by Metellus Celer,
+who was posted at Picenum with three legions. With Antonius pressing on his
+rear, Catiline resolved to hazard all on a desperate engagement. In
+exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men fighting for life and
+liberty were more than a match for a foe who had infinitely less at
+stake.</p>
+
+<p>Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the
+government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant
+example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous
+generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against
+the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's
+followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front; he
+himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing at a
+distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and among the
+rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all the stoutest
+soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled with the elation
+of victory.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_GIBBON1'></a>EDWARD GIBBON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__I'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--I</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at
+Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary education at
+Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months at Magdalen College,
+Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church led to his banishment to Lausanne,
+where he spent five years, and acquired a mastery of the French language,
+formed his taste for literary expression, and settled his religious doubts
+in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the militia, and was a
+member of parliament. It was in 1764, while musing amidst, the ruins of the
+Capitol of Rome, that the idea of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the
+city first started into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A
+Study in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous Works,"
+published after his death, which include "The Memoirs of his Life and
+Writings," complete the list of his literary labours. He died of dropsy on
+January 16, 1794. The portion of the work which is epitomized here covers
+the period from the reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and
+includes the famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the
+Christian church. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Rome, Mistress of the World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome
+comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion
+of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed, as a
+valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire
+within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent
+bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the Rhine and
+Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards the south the
+sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent settlement of Great
+Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the precepts of Augustus,
+if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in the east, which were
+renounced by Hadrian.</p>
+
+<p>By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
+its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
+the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added weight
+and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a constant
+preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the meanest, and very
+frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and no longer, as in the
+days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome herself, were preserved
+in their allegiance to the emperor, and their invincibility before the
+enemy, by the influences of superstition, inflexible discipline, and the
+hopes of reward. The peace establishment of the Roman army numbered some
+375,000 men, divided into thirty legions, who were confined, not within the
+walls of fortified cities, which the Romans considered as the refuge of
+pusillanimity, but upon the confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen
+soldiers, distinguished by the titles of City Cohorts and Pr&aelig;torian
+Guards, watched over the safety of the monarch and the capitol.</p>
+
+<p>"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
+observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
+soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous cities,
+adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public buildings,
+demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the Roman system. In
+Britain, York was the seat of government. London was already enriched by
+commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary effects of its medicinal
+waters.</p>
+
+<p>All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
+capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
+traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
+frontiers of the empire. This great chain of communications ran in a direct
+line from city to city, and in its construction the Roman engineers snowed
+little respect for the obstacles, either of nature or of private property.
+Mountains were perforated and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most
+rapid streams. The middle part of the road, raised into a terrace which
+commanded the adjacent country, consisted of several strata of sand,
+gravel, and cement, and was paved with granite or large stones. Distances
+were accurately computed by milestones, and the establishment of
+post-houses, at a distance of five or six miles, enabled a citizen to
+travel with ease a hundred miles a day along the Roman roads.</p>
+
+<p>This freedom of intercourse, which was established throughout the Roman
+world, while it extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements of
+social life. Rude barbarians of Gaul laid aside their arms for the more
+peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The cultivation of the earth produced
+abundance in every portion of the empire, and accidental scarcity in any
+single province was immediately relieved by the plentifulness of its more
+fortunate neighbours. Since the productions of nature are the materials of
+art, this flourishing condition of agriculture laid the foundation of
+manufactures, which provided the luxurious Roman with those refinements of
+conveniency, of elegance, and of splendour which his tastes demanded.
+Commerce flourished, and the products of Egypt and the East were poured out
+in the lap of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Though there still existed within the body of the Roman Empire an
+unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the
+benefits of society, the position of a slave was greatly improved in the
+progress of Roman development. The power of life and death was taken from
+his master's hands and vested in the magistrate, to whom he had a right to
+appeal against intolerable treatment. These magistrates exercised the
+authority of the emperor and the senate in every quarter of the empire,
+inflexibly maintaining in their administration, as in the case of military
+government, the use of the Latin tongue. Greek was the natural idiom of
+science, Latin that of government.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Seeds of Dissolution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>But while Roman society persisted in a state of peaceful security, it
+already contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. The long peace
+and uniform government of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison
+into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to
+the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military
+spirit evaporated. The citizens received laws and covenants from the will
+of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army. Of
+their ancient freedom nothing remained except the name, and that Augustus,
+sensible that mankind is governed by names, was careful to preserve.</p>
+
+<p>It was by the will of the senate the emperor ruled. It was from the
+senate that he received the ancient titles of the republic--of consul,
+tribune, pontiff, and censor. Even his title of <i>imperator</i> was
+decreed him, according to the custom of the republic, only for a period of
+ten years. But this specious pretence, which was preserved until the last
+days of the empire, did not mask the real autocratic authority of the
+emperor. The fact that he nominated citizens to the senate was proof, if
+proof were needed, that the independence of that body was destroyed; for
+the principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the
+legislative power is nominated by the executive.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, the dependence of the emperor on the legions completely
+subverted the civil authority. To keep the military power, which had given
+him his position, from undermining it, Augustus had summoned to his aid
+whatever remained in the fierce minds of his soldiers of Roman prejudices,
+and interposing the majesty of the senate between the emperor and the army,
+boldly claimed their allegiance as the first magistrate of the republic.
+During a period of 220 years, the dangers inherent to a military government
+were in a great measure suspended by this artful system. The soldiers were
+seldom roused to that fatal sense of their own strength and of the weakness
+of the civil authority which afterwards was productive of such terrible
+calamities.</p>
+
+<p>The emperors Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by
+their own domestics. The Roman world, it is true, was shaken by the events
+that followed the death of Nero, when, in the space of eighteen months,
+four princes perished by the sword. But, excepting this violent eruption of
+military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to Commodus passed away
+unstained with civil blood and undisturbed by revolution. The Roman
+citizens might groan under the tyranny, from which they could not hope to
+escape, of the unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the profligate
+and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian; but
+order was maintained, and it was not until Commodus, the son of Marcus
+Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, succeeded to the authority that his
+father had exercised for the benefit of the Roman Empire that the army
+fully realised, and did not fail to exercise, the power it had always
+possessed.</p>
+
+<p>During the first three years of his reign the vices of Commodus affected
+the emperor rather than the state. While the young prince revelled in
+licentious pleasures, the management of affairs remained in the hands of
+his father's faithful councillors; but, in the year 183, the attempt of his
+sister Lucilla to assassinate him produced fatal results. The assassin, in
+attempting the deed, exclaimed, "The senate sends you this!" and though the
+blow never reached the body of the emperor, the words sank deep into his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>He turned upon the senate with relentless cruelty. The possession of
+either wealth or virtue excited the tyrant's fury. Suspicion was equivalent
+to proof; trial to condemnation, and the noblest blood of the senate was
+poured out like water.</p>
+
+<p>He has shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon
+as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered by
+his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the instigation of
+L&aelig;tus, his Pr&aelig;torian prefect, a robust youth was admitted into
+his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and
+celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city, an
+ancient senator of consular rank, and persuaded him to accept the purple. A
+large donative secured them the support of the Pr&aelig;torian guard, and
+the joyous senate eagerly bestowed upon the new Augustus all the titles of
+imperial power.</p>
+
+<p>For eighty-six days Pertinax ruled the empire with firmness and
+moderation, but the strictness of the ancient discipline that he attempted
+to restore in the army excited the hatred of the Pr&aelig;torian guards,
+and the new emperor was struck down on March 28, 193.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--An Empire at Auction</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Pr&aelig;torians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the
+atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it with their
+subsequent conduct. They ran out upon the ramparts of the city, and with a
+loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the
+best bidder by public auction. Sulpicianus, father-in-law of Pertinax, and
+Didius Julianus, bid against each other for the prize. It fell to Julian,
+who offered upwards of &pound;1,000 sterling to each of the soldiers, and
+the author of this ignominious bargain received the insignia of the empire
+and the acknowledgments of a trembling senate.</p>
+
+<p>The news of this disgraceful auction was received by the legions of the
+frontiers with surprise, with indignation, and, perhaps, with envy.
+Albinus, governor of Britain, Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius
+Severus, a native of Africa, commander of the Pannonian army, prepared to
+revenge the death of Pertinax, and to establish their own claims to the
+vacant throne. Marching night and day, Severus crossed the Julian Alps,
+swept aside the feeble defences of Julian, and put an end to a reign of
+power which had lasted but sixty-six days, and had been purchased with such
+immense treasure. Having secured the supreme authority, Severus turned his
+arms against his two competitors, and within three years, and in the course
+of two or three battles, established his position and brought about the
+death of both Albinus and Niger.</p>
+
+<p>The prosperity of Rome revived, and a profound peace reigned throughout
+the world. At the same time, Severus was guilty of two acts which were
+detrimental to the future interests of the republic. He relaxed the
+discipline of the army, increased their pay beyond the example of former
+times, re-established the Pr&aelig;torian guards, who had been abolished
+for their transaction with Julian, and welded more firmly the chains of
+tyranny by filling the senate with his creatures. At the age of sixty-five
+in the year 211, he expired at York of a disorder which was aggravated by
+the labours of a campaign against the Caledonians.</p>
+
+<p>Severus recommended concord to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and his
+sons to the army. The government of the civilised world was entrusted to
+the hands of brothers who were implacable enemies. A latent civil war
+brooded in the city, and hardly more than a year passed before the
+assassins of Caracalla put an end to an impossible situation by murdering
+Geta. Twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death under the vague
+appellation of the friends of Geta. The fears of Macrinus, the controller
+of the civil affairs of the Pr&aelig;torian prefecture, brought about his
+death in the neighbourhood of Carrh&aelig; in Syria on April 8, 217.</p>
+
+<p>For a little more than a year his successor governed the empire, but the
+necessary step of reforming the army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
+218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
+Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the
+East.</p>
+
+<p>Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
+human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the master
+of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the female
+sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder on March
+10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.</p>
+
+<p>Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
+ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
+government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
+banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian, reigned
+in his stead.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Tyranny and Disaster</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
+one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
+the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
+but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole state,
+and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's avarice
+ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds of the
+cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
+offerings.</p>
+
+<p>Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
+Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
+domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
+and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
+Aquileia.</p>
+
+<p>Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
+to their own virtues at the hands of the Pr&aelig;torian guard, Gordian
+became emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
+virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
+engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world recognized
+the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
+accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation
+of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that these rites had
+been performed in the history of the city, for the next twenty years the
+Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and
+the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its
+dissolution. Six emperors in turn succeeded to the sceptre of Philip and
+ended their lives, either as the victims of military licence, or in the
+vain attempt to stay the triumphal eruption of the Goths and the Franks and
+the Suevi. In three expeditions the Goths seized the Bosphorus, plundered
+the cities of Bithynia, ravaged Greece, and threatened Italy, while the
+Franks invaded Gaul, overran Spain and the provinces of Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Some sparks of their ancient virtue enabled the senate to repulse the
+Suevi, who threatened Rome herself, but the miseries of the empire were not
+assuaged by this one triumph, and the successes of Sapor, king of Persia,
+in the East, seemed to foreshadow the immediate downfall of Rome. Six
+emperors and thirty tyrants attempted in vain to stay the course of
+disaster. Famine and pestilence, tumults and disorders, and a great
+diminution of the population marked this period, which ended with the death
+of the Emperor Gallienus on March 20, 268.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Restorers of the Roman World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The empire, which had been oppressed and almost destroyed by the
+soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians, was saved by a series of great
+princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial provinces of
+Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius, Aurelian,
+Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the foreign and
+domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with a military discipline,
+the strength of the frontier, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers
+of the Roman world.</p>
+
+<p>Claudius gained a crushing victory over the Goths, whose discomfiture
+was completed by disease in the year 269. And his successor, Aurelian, in a
+reign of less than five years, put an end to the Gothic war, chastised the
+Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and Britain from the
+Roman usurpers, and destroyed the proud monarchy which Zenobia, Queen of
+Palmyra, had erected in the East on the ruins of the afflicted empire.</p>
+
+<p>The murder of Aurelian in the East (January 275) led to a curious
+revival of the authority of the senate. During an interregnum of eight
+months the ancient assembly at Rome governed with the consent of the army,
+and appeared to regain with the election of Tacitus, one of their members,
+all their ancient prerogatives. Their authority expired, however, with the
+death of his successor, Probus, who delivered the empire once more from the
+invasions of the barbarians, and succumbed to the too common fate of
+assassination in August 282.</p>
+
+<p>Carus, who was elected in his place, maintained the reputation of the
+Roman arms in the East; but his supposed death by lightning, by delivering
+the sceptre into the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian (December 25,
+283), once more placed the Roman world at the mercy of profligacy and
+licentiousness. A year later, the election of the Emperor Diocletian
+(September 17, 284) founded a new era in the history and fortunes of the
+empire.</p>
+
+<p>It was the artful policy of Diocletian to destroy the last vestiges of
+the ancient constitution. Dividing his unwieldly power among three other
+associates--Maximian, a rough, brutal soldier, who ranked as Augustus; and
+Galerius and Constantius, who bore the inferior titles of C&aelig;sar--the
+emperor removed the centre of government by gradual steps from Rome.
+Diocletian and Maximian held their courts in the provinces, and the
+authority of the senators was destroyed by spoliation and death.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--Reign of the Six Emperors</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>For twenty-one years Diocletian held sway, establishing, with the
+assistance of his associates, the might of the Roman arms in Britain,
+Africa, Egypt, and Persia; and then, on May 1, 305, in a spacious plain in
+the neighborhood of Nicomedia, divested himself of the purple and abdicated
+the throne. On the same day at Milan, Maximian reluctantly made his
+resignation of the imperial dignity.</p>
+
+<p>According to the rules of the new constitution, Constantius and Galerius
+assumed the title of Augustus, and nominated Maximin and Severus as
+C&aelig;sars. The elaborate machinery devised by Diocletian at once broke
+down. Galerius, who was supported by Severus, intrigued for the possession
+of the whole Roman world. Constantine, the son of Constantius, on account
+of his popularity with the army and the people, excited his suspicion, and
+only the flight of Constantine saved him from death. He made his way to
+Gaul, and, after taking part in a campaign with his father against the
+Caledonians, received the title of Augustus in the imperial palace at York
+on the death of Constantius.</p>
+
+<p>Civil war once more raged. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was declared
+Emperor of Rome, and, with the assistance of his father, who broke from his
+retirement, defended his title against Severus, who was taken prisoner at
+Ravenna and executed at Rome in February 307. Galerius, who had raised
+Licinius to fill the post vacated by the death of Severus, invaded Italy to
+reestablish his authority, but, after threatening Rome, was compelled to
+retire.</p>
+
+<p>There were now six emperors. Maximian and his son Maxentius and
+Constantine in the West; in the East, Gelerius, Maximin, and Licinius. The
+second resignation of Maximian, and his renewed attempt to seize the
+imperial power by seducing the soldiers of Constantine, and his subsequent
+execution at Marseilles in February 310, reduced the number to five.
+Galerius died of a lingering disorder in the following year, and the civil
+war that broke out between Maxentius and Constantine, culminating in a
+battle near Rome in 312, placed the sceptre of the West in the hands of the
+son of Constantius. In the East, the alliance between Licinius and Maximin
+dissolved into discord, and the defeat of the latter on April 30, 313,
+ended in his death three or four months later.</p>
+
+<p>The empire was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, and the
+ambition of the two princes rendered peace impossible. In the years 315 and
+323 civil conflict broke out, ending, after the battle of Adrianople and
+the siege of Byzantium, in a culminating victory for Constantine in the
+field of Chrysopolis, in September. Licinius, taken prisoner, laid himself
+and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, and was duly
+executed.</p>
+
+<p>By successive steps, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the
+resignation of Licinius, Constantine had reached the undivided sovereignty
+of the Roman world. His success contributed to the decline of the empire by
+the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase as well of
+the taxes as of the military establishments. The foundation of
+Constantinople and the establishment of the Christian religion were the
+immediate and memorable consequences of this revolution.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__II'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--II</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Decay of the Empire under Constantine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness of
+Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror
+bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new
+capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he
+established have been embraced, and consecrated, by succeeding
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>Byzantium, which, under the more august name of Constantinople, was
+destined to preserve the shadow of the Roman power for nearly a thousand
+years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site selected
+for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor, and its
+circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of the arts
+no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital, and the
+cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments
+to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten years the
+city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial palace, its
+theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with more haste than
+care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with all due pomp and
+ceremony, and a population was provided by the expedient of summoning some
+of the wealthiest families in the empire to take up their residence within
+its walls.</p>
+
+<p>The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
+which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
+system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank of
+each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of the
+Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles of your
+Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent Highness.</p>
+
+<p>The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
+Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still annually
+elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority, not from
+the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor. On the
+morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity, and in the
+two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to office by the
+annual games. As soon as they had discharged these customary duties, they
+retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy, during the remainder of
+the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their own greatness. Their names
+served only as the legal date of the year in which they had filled the
+chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient title of Patrician became now an
+empty honour bestowed by the emperor. Four prefects held jurisdiction over
+as many divisions of the empire, and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and
+Constantinople. The proconsuls and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of
+Respectable, and the provincial magistrates to the lower class of
+Honourable. In the military system, eight master-generals exercised their
+jurisdiction over the cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military
+commanders, with the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held
+sway in the provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for
+such was the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds
+of the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
+The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they were
+included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne. Seven
+ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of the palace,
+and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the number of the
+immediate followers of the sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
+from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
+census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was compelled
+to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid his
+contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this land
+tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial industry, and
+"free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on the occasion of
+any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The peculiar "free gift" of
+the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.</p>
+
+<p>Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
+year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or murder,
+of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the reputation
+of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the Roman world
+was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta. With a
+successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
+Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
+337.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Division of East and West</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
+Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
+Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
+years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
+resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete extinction
+of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for fifty-six years in
+Armenia.</p>
+
+<p>Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
+successively as C&aelig;sars the two nephews of the great Constantine,
+Gallus and Julian. The first, being suspected, was destroyed in 354; the
+second succeeded to the purple in 361.</p>
+
+<p>Trained in the school of the philosophers, and proved as a commander in
+a series of successful campaigns against the German hordes, Julian brought
+to the throne a genius which, in other times, might have effected the
+reformation of the empire. The sufferings of his youth had associated in a
+mind susceptible of the most lively impressions the names of Christ and of
+Constantius, the ideas of slavery and religion. At the age of twenty he
+renounced the Christian faith, and boldly asserted the doctrines of
+paganism. His accession to the supreme power filled the minds of the
+Christians with horror and indignation. But instructed by history and
+reflection, Julian extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the
+benefits of a free and equal toleration, and the only hardship which he
+inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting
+their fellow subjects, whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of
+idolaters and heretics.</p>
+
+<p>While re-establishing and reforming the old pagan system and attempting
+to subvert Christianity, he held out a hand of succour to the persecuted
+Jews, asked to be permitted to pay his grateful vows in the holy city of
+Jerusalem, and was only prevented from rebuilding the Temple by a supposed
+preternatural interference. He suppressed the authority of George,
+Archbishop of Alexandria, who had infamously persecuted and betrayed the
+people under his spiritual care, and that odious priest, who has been
+transformed by superstition into the renowned St. George of England, the
+patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter, fell a victim to the just
+resentment of the Alexandrian multitude.</p>
+
+<p>The Persian system of monarchy, introduced by Diocletian, was
+distasteful to the philosophic mind of Julian; he refused the title of lord
+and master, and attempted to restore in all its pristine simplicity the
+ancient government of the republic. In a campaign against the Persians he
+received a mortal wound, and died on June 26, 363.</p>
+
+<p>The election of Jovian, the first of the domestics, by the acclamation
+of the soldiers, resulted in a disgraceful peace with the Persians, which
+aroused the anger and indignation of the Roman world, and the new emperor
+hardly survived this act of weakness for nine months (February 17, 364).
+The throne of the Roman world remained ten days without a master. At the
+end of that period the civil and military powers of the empire solemnly
+elected Valentinian as emperor at Nice in Bithynia.</p>
+
+<p>The new Augustus divided the vast empire with his brother Valens, and
+this division marked the final separation of the western and eastern
+empires. This arrangement continued, until the death of Valentinian in 375,
+when the western empire was divided between his sons, Gratian and
+Valentinian II.</p>
+
+<p>His reign had been notable for the stemming of the invasion of the
+Alemanni of Gaul, the incursions of the Burgundians and the Saxons, the
+restoration of Britain from the attacks of the Picts and Scots, the
+recovery of Africa by the emperor's general, Theodosius, and the diplomatic
+settlement with the approaching hordes of the Goths, who already swarmed
+upon the frontiers of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>Under the three emperors the Roman world began to feel more severely the
+gradual pressure exerted by the hordes of barbarians that moved westward.
+In 376 the Goths, pursued by the Huns, who had come from the steppes of
+China into Europe, sought the protection of Valens, who succoured them by
+transporting them over the Danube into Roman territory. They repaid his
+clemency by uniting their arms with those of the Huns, and defeating and
+killing him at the battle of Hadrianople in 378.</p>
+
+<p>To save the provinces from the ravages of the barbarians, Gratian
+appointed Theodosius, son of his father's general, emperor of the East, and
+the wisdom of his choice was justified by the success of one who added a
+new lustre to the title of Augustus. By prudent strategy, Theodosius
+divided and defeated the Goths, and compelled them to submit.</p>
+
+<p>The sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to
+the government of the East and the West in 395. The symptoms of decay,
+which not even the wise rule of Theodosius had been able to remove, had
+grown more alarming. The luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
+dissolute, and as the increasing depredations of the barbarians had checked
+industry and diminished wealth, this profuse luxury must have been the
+result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour and declines
+the thoughts of futurity.</p>
+
+<p>The secret and destructive poison of the age had affected the camps of
+the legions. The infantry had laid aside their armour, and, discarding
+their shields, advanced, trembling, to meet the cavalry of the Goths and
+the arrows of the barbarians, who easily overwhelmed the naked soldiers, no
+longer deserving the name of Romans. The enervated legionaries abandoned
+their own and the public defence, and their pusillanimous indolence may be
+considered the immediate cause of the downfall of the empire.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Ruin by Goth, Vandal, and Hun</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. His sons within three months
+had once more sharply divided the empire. At a time when the only hope of
+delaying its ruin depended on the firm union of the two sections, the
+subject of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed by their respective
+masters to view each other in a hostile light, to rejoice in their mutual
+calamity, and to embrace as their faithful allies the barbarians, whom they
+incited to invade the territories of their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>Alarmed at the insecurity of Rome, Honorius about this time fixed the
+imperial residence within the naturally fortified city of Ravenna--an
+example which was afterwards imitated by his feeble successors, the Gothic
+kings and the Exarchs; and till the middle of the eighth century Ravenna
+was considered as the seat of government and the capital of Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Arcadius in the East marked the complete division of the
+Roman world. His subjects assumed the language and manners of Greeks, and
+his form of government was a pure and simple monarchy. The name of the
+Roman republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of freedom, was
+confined to the Latin provinces. A series of internal disputes, both civil
+and religious, marked his career of power, and his reign may be regarded as
+notable if only for the election of St. John Chrysostom to the head of the
+church of Constantinople. Arcadius died in May 408, and was succeeded by
+his supposed son, Theodosius, then a boy of seven, the reins of power being
+first held by the prefect Anthemius, and afterwards by his sister
+Pulcheria, who governed the eastern empire--in fact, for nearly forty
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The wisdom of Honorius, emperor of the West, in removing his capital to
+Ravenna, was soon justified by events. Alaric, king of the Goths, advanced
+in 408 to the gates of Rome, and completely blockaded the city. In the
+course of a long siege, thousands of Romans died of plague and famine, and
+only a heavy ransom, amounting to $1,575,000, relieved the citizens from
+their terrible situation in the year 409. In the same year Alaric again
+besieged Rome, after fruitless negotiations with Honorius, and his attempt
+once more proving successful, he created Attilus, prefect of the city,
+emperor. But the imprudent measures of his puppet sovereign exasperated
+Alaric. Attilus was formally deposed in 410, and the infuriated Goth
+besieged and sacked Rome, and ravaged Italy. The spoil that the barbarians
+carried away with them comprised nearly all the movable wealth of the
+city.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient capital was devastated, the exquisite works of art
+destroyed, and nearly all the monuments of a glorious past sacrificed to
+the insatiate greed of the conquerors. Fire helped to complete the ruin
+wrought by the Goths, and it is not easy to compute the multitude of
+citizens who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were
+suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.</p>
+
+<p>The complete ruin of Italy was prevented by the death of Alaric in
+410.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of Honorius, the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks were
+settled in Gaul. The maritime countries, between the Seine and the Loire,
+followed the example of Britain in 409, and threw off the yoke of the
+empire. Aquitaine, with its capital at Aries, received, under the title of
+the seven provinces, the right of convening an annual assembly for the
+management of its own affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Honorius died in 423, and was succeeded by Valentinian III. His long
+reign was marked by a series of disasters, which foretold the rapidly
+approaching dissolution of the western empire.</p>
+
+<p>Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 429 crossed into Africa, conquered the
+province, and set up in the depopulated territory, with Carthage as his
+capital, a new rule and government. Italy was filled with fugitives from
+Africa, and a barbarian race, which had issued from the frozen regions of
+the north, established their victorious reign over one of the fairest
+provinces of the empire. Two years later, in 441, a new and even more
+terrible danger threatened the empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Goths and Vandals, flying before the Huns, had oppressed the western
+World. The hordes of these barbarians, now gathering strength in their
+union under their king, Attila, threatened an attack upon the eastern
+empire. In appearance their chieftain was terrible in the extreme; his
+portrait exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large head,
+a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in
+the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body of nervous
+strength, though of a disproportionate form. He had a custom of fiercely
+rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he
+inspired.</p>
+
+<p>This savage hero, who had subdued Germany and Scythia, and almost
+exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine, and had conquered Scandinavia,
+was able to bring into the field 700,000 barbarians. An unsuccessful raid
+into Persia induced him to turn his attention to the eastern empire, and
+the enervated troops of Theodosius the Younger dissolved before the fury of
+his onset. He ravaged up to the very gates of Constantinople, and only a
+humiliating treaty preserved his dominion to the "invincible Augustus" of
+the East.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Theodosius the Younger, and the accession of Marcian,
+the husband of Pulcheria, Attila threatened, in 450, both empires. An
+incursion of his hordes into Gaul was rendered abortive by the conduct of
+the patrician, &AElig;tius, who, uniting all the various troops of Gaul and
+Germany, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, under their Merovingian
+prince, and the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, after two important
+battles, induced the Huns to retreat from the field of Chalons. Attila,
+diverted from his purpose, turned into Italy, and the citizens of the
+various towns fled before the savage destroyer. Many families of Aquileia,
+Padua, and the adjacent towns, found a safe refuge in the neighbouring
+islands of the Adriatic, where their place of refuge evolved, in time, into
+the famous Republic of Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome, prepared to desert his people and
+his empire. The fortitude of &AElig;tius alone supported and preserved the
+tottering state. Leo, Bishop of Rome, in his sacerdotal robes, dared to
+demand the clemency of the savage king, and the intervention of St. Peter
+and St. Paul is supposed to have induced Attila to retire beyond the
+Danube, with the Princess Honoria as his bride. He did not long survive
+this last campaign, and in 453 he died, and was buried amidst all the
+savage pomp and grief of his subjects. His death resolved the bonds that
+had united the various nations of which his subjects were composed, and in
+a very few years domestic discord had extinguished the empire of the
+Huns.</p>
+
+<p>Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked and pillaged the ancient capital
+in June 455.</p>
+
+<p>The vacant throne was filled by the nomination of Theodoric, king of the
+Goths. The senate of Rome bitterly opposed the elevation of this stranger,
+and though Avitus might have supported his title against the votes of an
+unarmed assembly, he fell immediately he incurred the resentment of Count
+Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the barbarian troops who formed the
+military defence of Italy. At a distance from his Gothic allies, he was
+compelled to abdicate (October 16, 456), and Majorian was raised to fill
+his place.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Last Emperor of the West</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The successor of Avitus was a great and heroic character, such as
+sometimes arise in a degenerate age to vindicate the honour of the human
+species. In the ruin of the Roman world he loved his people, sympathised
+with their distress, and studied by judicial and effectual remedies to
+allay their sufferings. He reformed the most intolerable grievances of the
+taxes, attempted to restore and maintain the edifices of Rome, and to
+establish a new and healthier moral code. His military abilities and his
+fortune were not in proportion to his merits. An unsuccessful attempt
+against the Vandals to recover the lost provinces of Africa resulted in the
+loss of his fleet, and his return from this disastrous campaign terminated
+his reign. He was deposed by Ricimer, and five days later died of a
+reported dysentery, on August 7, 461.</p>
+
+<p>At the command of Ricimer, the senate bestowed the imperial title on
+Libius Severus, who reigned as long as it suited his patron. The increasing
+difficulties, however, of the kingdom of Italy, due largely to the naval
+depredation of the Vandals, compelled Ricimer to seek the assistance of the
+emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the East in 457. Leo determined
+to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals, and solemnly invested Anthemius
+with the diadem and purple of the West (467).</p>
+
+<p>In 472, Ricimer raised the senator Olybrius to the purple, and,
+advancing from Milan, entered and sacked Rome and murdered Anthemius (July
+11, 472). Forty days after this calamitous event, the tyrant Ricimer died
+of a painful disease, and two months later death also removed Olybrius.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne. After
+suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in 475,
+to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the command
+of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna. The troops would
+have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they consented to
+acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.</p>
+
+<p>The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon
+discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the
+slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded a
+third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious demand, and
+his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a bold barbarian,
+who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to associate under his
+command they might extort the justice that had been denied to their dutiful
+petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer, resolving to abolish the
+useless and expensive office of the emperor of the West, compelled the
+unfortunate Augustulus to resign.</p>
+
+<p>So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
+emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
+promontory of Misenum.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__III'></a>Decline and
+Fall of the Roman Empire--III</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Growth of the Christian Church</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
+religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and
+by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The various
+modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by
+the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; by the
+magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of toleration the Christian
+church grew with great rapidity. Five main causes effectually favoured and
+assisted this development.</p>
+
+<p>1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
+the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.</p>
+
+<p>2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
+circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.</p>
+
+<p>4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.</p>
+
+<p>5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
+formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
+Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised
+Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight of Mosaic
+ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the
+same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own
+practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of the public
+religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as the Christian Jews of Jerusalem
+were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence they could
+make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the Emperor
+Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts of the
+city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by disavowing the
+Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the Mosaic ceremonies
+with the Christian faith, and existed, until the fourth century, under the
+name of Ebeonites.</p>
+
+<p>The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
+Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
+field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
+most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few
+years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and noble
+principles of the disciples of Plato.</p>
+
+<p>To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
+future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
+mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts
+of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have
+been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of
+every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate expectation of the second
+coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of God with His saints for a
+thousand years, strengthened the ancient Christians against all trials and
+sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
+Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
+comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
+tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
+healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
+Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.</p>
+
+<p>Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
+the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
+lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those of
+their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
+insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
+search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that institution
+of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state of celibacy was
+regarded as the nearest approach to the divine perfection, and there were
+in the primitive church a great number of persons devoted to the profession
+of perpetual chastity.</p>
+
+<p>The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of
+freedom and equality. The societies which were instituted in the cities of
+the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity. The
+want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional
+assistance of the "prophets "--men or women who, as often as they felt the
+divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the assembly,
+of the faithful. In the course of time bishops and presbyters exercised
+solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance. A hundred years
+after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the president of the
+presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and discipline of the
+Church, managed the public funds, and determined all such differences as
+the faithful were unwilling to expose before the tribunal of an idolatrous
+judge.</p>
+
+<p>Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic,
+and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that
+might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these
+little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod. The
+bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at
+stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons. The institution of
+synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest that
+it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular correspondence was
+established between the provincial councils, which mutually communicated and
+approved their respective proceedings, and the Catholic Church soon assumed
+the form and acquired the strength of a great federative republic.</p>
+
+<p>The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the
+primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary gifts
+was substituted. In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the opinion of
+the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of very
+considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design as our
+statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or bequeathed to any
+corporate body, without special sanctions. The bishops distributed these
+revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or excommunication of
+recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained the dignity of their
+office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Days of Persecution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight
+seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and
+worship. When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the pagans,
+and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic of the
+Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness seems all
+the more remarkable. It can be explained partly by the misapprehension
+which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the principles of the
+Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the sect. The Jews were
+allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive faith. But the Jews
+were a nation; the Christians were a sect. Moreover, the Christians were
+regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of Moses, and, worshipping no
+visible god, were held to be atheists.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman policy also viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
+association among its subjects, and the secret and nocturnal meetings of
+the Christians appeared peculiarly dangerous in the eyes of the law.</p>
+
+<p>They were oppressed by the Emperor Domitian. Trajan protected their
+meetings by requiring definite evidence of these illegal assemblies, and an
+informer who failed in his proofs was subject to a severe or capital
+penalty. But the edicts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius protected the Church
+from the danger of popular clamour in times of disaster, declaring that the
+voice of the multitude should never be admitted as legal evidence to
+convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had embraced the
+enthusiasm of the Christians.</p>
+
+<p>The authority of Origen and Dionysius annihilates that formidable army
+of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
+Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous achievements
+have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance.</p>
+
+<p>The martyrdom of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, on September 14, 258, was
+one of the most notable of that period. Under Marcus Antoninus, the
+Christians were treated harshly, but the tyrant Commodus protected them by
+his leniency. After a temporary period of persecution during the reign of
+Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm from 211 to 249. The storms gathered
+again under Decius, and so vigorous was the persecution that the bishops of
+the most considerable cities were removed by exile or death.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Church under Constantine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>From 284 to 303, during the reign of Diocletian, the Christian Church
+enjoyed peace and prosperity, but in the latter year Galerius persuaded the
+emperor to renew the persecution of the sect. An edict on February 24
+enacted that all churches throughout the empire should be demolished, and
+the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should presume to
+hold any secret assemblies for the purposes of religious worship. Many
+suffered martyrdom under this cruel enactment. Churches everywhere were
+burnt, and sacred books destroyed. Three more edicts published before March
+304 led to the imprisonment of all persons of the ecclesiastical order,
+compelled the magistrates to exercise torture to subvert the religion of
+their Christian prisoners, and made it the duty, as well as the interest,
+of the imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to torment the most
+obnoxious among the faithful.</p>
+
+<p>But after six years of persecution, the mind of Galerius, softened by
+salutary reflection, induced him to attempt some reparation. In the edict
+of toleration which he published on April 30, 311, he expresses the hope
+"that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers
+to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and prosperity, and for that of
+the Republic."</p>
+
+<p>The triumph of the great Constantine established the security of the
+Christian Church from the attacks of the pagans. Converted in 306,
+Constantine, as soon as he had achieved the conquest of Italy, issued the
+Edict of Milan (313), declaring that the places of worship which had been
+confiscated should be restored to the Church without dispute, without
+delay, and without expense. Though himself never received by baptism into
+the Church, until his last moments, his powerful patronage of the
+Christians, and his edicts of toleration, removed all the temporal
+disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>The faith of Christ became the national religion of the empire. The
+soldiers bore upon their helmets and upon their shields the sacred emblem
+of the Cross. All the machinery of government was employed to propagate the
+faith, not only within the empire, but beyond its borders. Confirmed in his
+new religion by the miraculous vision of the Cross, Constantine, who was
+the master of the world, consented to recognise the superiority of the
+ecclesiastical orders in all spiritual matters, while retaining himself the
+temporal power.</p>
+
+<p>The persecution of heresy was carried out by Constantine with all the
+ardour of a convert. An edict confiscated the public property of the
+heretics to the use either of the revenue or the Catholic Church, and the
+penal regulations of Diocletian against the Christians were now employed
+against the schismatics. The Donatists, who maintained the apostolic
+succession of Donatus, primate of Carthage, as opposed to C&aelig;cilian,
+were suppressed in Africa, and a general synod attempted to regulate the
+faith of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the nature of the divine Trinity had early given rise to
+discussion. Of the three main heretical views, that of Arius and his
+disciples was the most prevalent. He held in effect that the Son, by whom
+all things were made, though He had been begotten before all worlds, yet
+had not always existed. He shone only with the reflected light of His
+Almighty Father, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors, who were
+invested with the titles of C&aelig;sar or Augustus. He governed the
+universe.</p>
+
+<p>The Tritheists advocated a system which seemed to establish three
+independent deities, while the Sabellian theory allowed only to the man
+Jesus the inspiration of the divine wisdom. The consubstantiality of the
+Father and of the Son had been established by the Council of Nic&aelig;a in
+325, but the East ranged itself for the most part under the banner of the
+Arian heresy. At first indifferent, Constantine at last persecuted the
+Arians, who later, under Constantius, were received into favour.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople, which for forty years was the stronghold of Arianism,
+was converted to the orthodox faith under Theodosius by Gregory
+Nazianzen.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Conversion of the World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The pagan religion was finally destroyed about the year 390, and the
+faintest vestiges of it were not visible thirty years later. Its influence,
+however, might be observed in many of the ceremonies which were introduced
+into the Church, and the worship of martyrs and relics seemed to revive a
+system of polytheism by the worship of a hierarchy of saints. Among the
+most famous of the dignitaries of the Church at this period was the
+Archbishop of Constantinople, who was distinguished by the epithet of
+Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. He attempted to purify the eastern empire,
+excited the animosity of the Empress Eudoxia, and died in exile in 407.</p>
+
+<p>The monastic system had been founded by Antony, an illiterate youth, in
+the year 305, by the establishment on Mount Cobyim, near the Red Sea, of a
+colony of ascetics, who renounced all the business and pleasures in life as
+the price of eternal happiness. A long series of hermits, monks, and
+anachorets propagated the system and, patronised by Athanasius, it spread
+to all parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The monastic profession was an act of voluntary devotion, and the
+inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God
+whom he deserted. The monks had to give a blind submission to the commands
+of their abbot, however absurd, and the freedom of the mind, the source of
+every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by the habits of
+credulity and submission. In their dress and diet they preserved the most
+rigorous simplicity, and they subsisted entirely by their own manual
+exertions. But in the course of time this simplicity vanished, and,
+enriched by the offerings of the faithful, they assumed the pride of
+wealth, and at last indulged in the luxury of extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>The conversion of the barbarians followed upon their invasion of the
+Roman world; but they were involved in the Arian heresy, and from their
+advocacy of that cause they were characterised by the name of heretics, an
+epithet more odious than that of barbarian. The bitterness engendered by
+this reproach confirmed them in their faith, and the Vandals in Africa
+persecuted the orthodox Catholic with all the vigour and cruel arts of
+religious tyranny.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name='Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire__IV'></a>Decline and Fall
+of the Roman Empire--IV</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Theodoric the Ostrogoth</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, an interval of fifty
+years, until the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the
+obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who
+successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same period
+Italy revived and nourished under the government of a Gothic king, who
+might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient
+Romans.</p>
+
+<p>Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of royal line
+of the Amali, was born (455) in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years after
+the death of Attila. The murmurs of the Goths, who complained that they
+were exposed to intolerable hardships, determined Theodoric to attempt an
+adventure worthy of his courage and ambition. He boldly demanded the
+privilege of rescuing Italy and Rome from Odoacer, and at the head of his
+people forced his way, between the years 488 and 489, through hostile
+country into Italy. In three battles he triumphed over Odoacer, forced that
+monarch to capitulate on favourable terms at Ravenna (493), and after
+pretending to allow him to share his sovereignty of Italy, assassinated him
+in the same year.</p>
+
+<p>The long reign of Theodoric (493-526) was marked by a transient return
+of peace and prosperity to Italy. His domestic and foreign policy were
+dictated alike by wisdom and necessity. His people were settled on the
+land, which they held by military tenure. A series of matrimonial alliances
+secured him the support of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the
+Vandals, and the Thuringians, and his sword preserved his territory from
+the incursions of rival barbarians and the two disastrous attacks (505 and
+508) that envy prompted the Emperor Anastasius to attempt.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Justinian the Great</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The death of the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the throne a Dardanian
+peasant, who by his arts secured the suffrage of the guards, despoiled and
+destroyed his more powerful rivals, and reigned under the name of Justin I.
+from 518 to 527. He was succeeded by his nephew, the great Justinian, who
+for thirty-eight years directed the fortunes of the Roman Empire.</p>
+
+<p>The Empress Theodora, who before her marriage had been a theatrical
+wanton, was seated, by the fondness of the emperor, on the throne as an
+equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty. Her rapacity, her
+cruelty, and her pride were the subject of contemporary writings, but her
+benevolence to her less fortunate sisters, and her courage amidst the
+factions and dangers of the court, justly entitle her to a certain nobility
+of character.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople in the age of Justinian was torn by the factions of the
+circus. The rival bands of charioteers, who wore respectively liveries of
+green and blue, created in the capital of the East, as they had created in
+Rome, two factions among the populace. Justinian's support of the blues led
+to a serious sedition in the capital. The two factions were united by a
+common desire for vengeance, and with the watchword of "Nika" (vanquish)
+(January 532), raged in tumult through Constantinople for five days. At the
+command of Theodora 3,000 veterans who could be trusted marched through the
+burning streets to the Hippodrome, and there, supported by the repentant
+blues, massacred the unresisting mob.</p>
+
+<p>The Eastern Empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations
+whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers of
+Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over 64 provinces and 935 cities.
+The arts and agriculture flourished under his rule, but the avarice and
+profusion of Justinian oppressed the people. His expensive taste for
+building almost exhausted the resources of the empire. Heavy custom tolls,
+taxes on the food and industry of the poor, the exercise of intolerable
+monopolies, were not excused or compensated for by the parsimonious saving
+in the salaries of court officials, and even in the pay of the soldiers.
+His stately edifices were cemented with the blood and treasures of his
+people, and the rapacity and luxury of the emperor were imitated by the
+civil magistrates and officials.</p>
+
+<p>The schools of Athens, which still kept alight the sacred flame of the
+ancient philosophy, were suppressed by Justinian. The academy of the
+Platonics, the Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics, and
+the Garden of the Epicureans had long survived.</p>
+
+<p>With the death of Simplicius and his six companions, who terminate the
+long list of Grecian philosophers, the golden chain, as it was fondly
+styled, of the Platonic succession was broken, and the Edict of Justinian
+(529) imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman consulship was also abolished by Justinian in 541; but this
+office, the title of which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom,
+still lived in the minds of the people. They applauded the gracious
+condescension of successive princes by whom it was assumed in the first
+year of their reign, and three centuries elapsed after the death of
+Justinian before that obsolete office, which had been suppressed by law,
+could be abolished by custom.</p>
+
+<p>The usurpation by Gelimer (530) of the Vandalic crown of Africa, which
+belonged of right to Hilderic, first encouraged Justinian to undertake the
+African war. Hilderic had granted toleration to the Catholics, and for this
+reason was held in reproach by his Arian subjects. His compulsory
+abdication afforded the emperor of the East an opportunity of interfering
+in the cause of orthodoxy. A large army was entrusted to the command of
+Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to every age and
+to every nation. Proved in the Persian war, Belisarius was given unlimited
+authority. He set sail from Constantinople with a fleet of six hundred
+ships in June 533. He landed on the coast of Africa in September, defeated
+the degenerate Vandals, reduced Carthage within a few days, utterly
+vanquished Gelimer, and completed the conquest of the ancient Roman
+province by 534. The Vandals in Africa fled beyond the power or even the
+knowledge of the Romans.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Gothic Italy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Dissensions in Italy excited the ambition of Justinian. Belisarius was
+sent with another army to Sicily in 535, and after subduing that island and
+suppressing a revolt in Africa, he invaded Italy in 536. Policy dictated
+the retreat of the Goths, and Belisarius entered Rome (December 536). In
+March, Vitiges, the Gothic ruler, returned with a force of one hundred and
+fifty thousand men. The valour of the Roman general supported a siege of
+forty-one days and the intrigues of the Pope Silverius, who was exiled by
+his orders; and, finally, with the assistance of a seasonable
+reinforcement, Belisarius compelled the barbarians to retire in March of
+the following year. The conquests of Ravenna and the suppression of the
+invasion of the Franks completed the subjugation of the Gothic kingdom by
+December 539.</p>
+
+<p>The success of Belisarius and the intrigues of his secret enemies had
+excited the jealousy of Justinian. He was recalled, and the eunuch Narses
+was sent to Italy, as a powerful rival, to oppose the interests of the
+conqueror of Rome and Africa. The infidelity of Antonina, which excited her
+husband's just indignation, was excused by the Empress Theodora, and her
+powerful support was given to the wife of the last of the Roman heroes,
+who, after serving again against the Persians, returned to the capital, to
+be received not with honour and triumph, but with disgrace and contempt and
+a fine of $600,000.</p>
+
+<p>The incursions of the Lombards, the Slavonians, and the Avars and the
+Turks, and the successful raids of the King of Persia were among the number
+of the important events of the reign of Justinian. To maintain his position
+in Africa and Italy taxed his resources to their utmost limit. The
+victories of Justinian were pernicious to mankind; the desolation of Africa
+was such that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without
+meeting the face of either a friend or an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The revolts of the Goths, under their king, Totila (541), once more
+demanded the presence of Belisarius, and, a hero on the banks of the
+Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with
+reluctance the painful task of supporting his own reputation and retrieving
+the faults of his successors. He was too late to save Rome from the Goths,
+by whom it was taken in December 546; but he recovered it in the following
+February. After his recall by his envious sovereign in September 548, Rome
+was once more taken by the Goths. The successful repulse of the Franks and
+Alemanni finally restored the kingdom to the rule of the emperor.
+Belisarius died on March 13, 565.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor survived his death only eight months, and passed away, in
+the eighty-third year of his life and the thirty-eighth of his reign, on
+November 14, 565. The most lasting memorial of his reign is to be found
+neither in his victories nor his monuments, but in the immortal works of
+the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, in which the civil
+jurisprudence of the Romans was digested, and by means of which the public
+reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused into the
+domestic institutions of the whole of Europe.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Gregory the Great</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Justinian was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II., who lived to see the
+conquest of the greater part of Italy by Alboin, king of the Lombards
+(568-570), the disaffection of the exarch, Narses, and the ruin of the
+revived glories of the Roman world.</p>
+
+<p>During a period of 200 years Italy was unequally divided between the
+king of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. Rome relapsed into a
+state of misery. The Campania was reduced to the state of a dreary
+wilderness. The stagnation of a deluge caused by the torrential swelling of
+the Tiber produced a pestilential disease, and a stranger visiting Rome
+might contemplate with horror the solitude of the city. Gregory the Great,
+whose pontificate lasted from 590 to 604, reconciled the Arians of Italy
+and Spain to the Catholic Church, conquered Britain in the name of the
+Cross, and established his right to interfere in the management of the
+episcopal provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul. The merits of Gregory were
+treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult, but in the
+attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of a citizen and
+the best right of a sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The short and virtuous reign of Tiberius (578-582), which succeeded that
+of Justin, made way for that of Maurice. For twenty years Maurice ruled
+with honesty and honour. But the parsimony of the emperor, and his attempt
+to cure the inveterate evil of a military despotism, led to his undoing,
+and in 602 he was murdered with his children. A like fate befell the
+Emperor Phocas, who succumbed in 610 to the fortunes of Heraclius, the son
+of Crispus, exarch of Africa. For thirty-two years Heraclius ruled the
+Roman world. In three campaigns he chastised the rising power of Persia,
+drove the armies of Chosroes from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, rescued
+Constantinople from the joint siege of the Avars and Persians (626), and
+finally reduced the Persian monarch to the defence of his hereditary
+kingdom. The deposition and murder of Chosroes by his son Siroes (628)
+concluded the successes of the emperor.</p>
+
+<p>A treaty of peace was arranged, and Heraclius returned in triumph to
+Constantinople, where, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he
+peacefully enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. The year after his return he
+made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true Cross to the Holy
+Sepulchre. In the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to the Arabs
+the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.</p>
+
+<p>Heraclius died in 612. His descendants continued to fill the throne in
+the persons of Constantine III. (641), Heracleonas (641), Constans II.
+(641), Constantine IV. (668), Justinian II. (685), until 711, when an
+interval of six years, divided into three reigns, made way for the rise of
+the Isaurian dynasty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The New Era of Charlemagne</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Leo III. ascended the throne on March 25, 718, and the purple descended
+to his family, by the rights of heredity, for three generations. The
+Isaurian dynasty is most notable for the part it played in ecclesiastical
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The introduction of images into the Christian Church had confused the
+simplicity of religious worship. The education of Leo, his reason, perhaps
+his intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired him with a hatred of
+images. By two edicts he proscribed the existence, as well as the use, of
+religious pictures. This heresy of Leo and of his successors and
+descendants, Constantine V. (741), Leo IV. (775), and Constantine VI.
+(780), whose blinding by his mother Irene is one of the most tragic stories
+of Roman history, justified the popes in rebelling against the authority of
+the emperor, and in restoring and establishing the supremacy of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory II. saved the city from the attacks of the Lombards, who had
+seized Ravenna and extinguished the series of Greek exarchs in 751. He
+secured the assistance of Pepin, and the real governor of the French
+monarchy--Charles Martel, who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had
+saved Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. Twice--in 754 and 756--Pepin marched
+to the relief of the city. His son Charlemagne, in 774, seemed to secure
+the permanent safety of the ancient capital by the conquest of Lombardy,
+and for twenty-six years he ruled the Romans as his subjects. The people
+swore allegiance to his person and his family, and the elections of the
+popes were examined and authorised by him. The senate exercised its rights
+by proclaiming him patrician and of the power of the emperor; nothing was
+lacking except the title.</p>
+
+<p>A document, known as the Forged Decretals, which assigned the free and
+perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West to the
+popes by Constantine, was presented by Pope Hadrian I. to Charlemagne. This
+document served to absolve the popes from their debt of gratitude to the
+French monarch, and excused the revolt of Rome from the authority of the
+eastern empire.</p>
+
+<p>Though Constantinople returned, under Irene, to the employment of
+images, and the seventh general council of Nic&aelig;a, September 24, 787,
+pronounced the worship of the Greeks as agreeable to scripture and reason,
+the division between the East and the West could not be avoided. The pope
+was driven to revive the western empire in order to secure the gift of the
+exarchy, to eradicate the claims of the Greeks, and to restore the majesty
+of Rome from the debasement of a provincial town. The emperors of the West
+would receive their crown from the successor of St. Peter, and the Roman
+Church would require a zealous and respectable advocate.</p>
+
+<p>Inspired by these motives, Pope Leo, who had nearly fallen a victim to a
+conspiracy (788), and had been saved and reinstated by Charlemagne, took
+the opportunity presented by the French king's visit to Rome to crown him
+emperor. On the festival of Christmas (800), in the church of St. Peter,
+Leo, after the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, suddenly placed a
+precious crown on his head. The dome resounded with the acclamations of the
+people, his head and body were consecrated with the royal unction, and he
+was saluted, or adored, by the pontiff after the example of the
+C&aelig;sars.</p>
+
+<p>Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='THEODOR_MOMMSEN'></a>THEODOR MOMMSEN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Rome'></a>History of Rome</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig on
+November 30, 1817. He studied at Kiel University for three years, examined
+Roman inscriptions in France and Italy from 1844 to 1847, and attained his
+first professorship at Leipzig in 1848, and the Berlin Chair of Ancient
+History in 1858. His greatest work was the "History of Rome," published in
+1854, and its successor, the "Roman Provinces." On this work he brought to
+bear a research and a scholarship of almost unparalleled range and
+completeness. He was a man capable of vehement and occasionally
+unreasonable partisanship, and a strict and cold-blooded impartiality would
+have tempered the enthusiasm of some of his portraits and the severity of
+others. These defects, however, are less obvious when his history is
+condensed in small compass. There are cases in which his judgments are open
+to adverse criticism. But at the present day it may safely be affirmed that
+there is no extant history of Rome down to the establishment of the empire
+which can be regarded as rivalling that here presented. Upwards of 900
+separate publications remain as a monument of Mommsen's industry. He died
+on November 1, 1903. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Iapygians, Etruscans, and Italians, the last certainly Indo-Europeans,
+are the original stocks of Italy proper. Of the Italians there are two
+divisions, the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian. Central Italy was occupied by
+the Latins, who were established in cantons formed of village groups; which
+cantons at an early age formed themselves into the loose Latin League, with
+Alba at its head.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman canton, on both banks of the Tiber, concentrated itself on the
+city earlier than others. The citizens consisted of the families which
+constituted the larger groups of clans or gentes, formed into those tribes.
+The remainder of the population were their dependents or slaves. At the
+head of the family was the father, and the whole community had its king,
+standing to it in the same relation as the father to the family. His power,
+within the law, was absolute; but he could not override it or change it on
+his own authority. This required the formal assent of the assembled
+citizens. The heads of the clans formed a separate body--the Senate--which
+controlled the appointment of the king, and could veto legislation.</p>
+
+<p>By admission of aliens and absorption of other communities, swelling the
+number of dependents, was gradually created a great body of plebeians,
+non-citizens, who began to demand political rights; and whom it was
+necessary to organise for military purposes which was done by the "Servian
+Constitution." Gradually Rome won a supremacy in the Latin League, a
+position of superiority over the aggregate of the other cantons.</p>
+
+<p>In this community arose three political movements: (1) On the part of
+the full citizen, patricii, to limit the power not of the state, but of the
+kings; (2) of the non-citizens, to acquire political rights; (3) of
+antagonism between the great landholders and the land-interests opposed to
+them. The first resulted in the expulsion of the monarchs, and the
+substitution of a dual kingship held for one year only. But in many
+respects their joint power was curtailed as compared with that of the
+monarch, while for emergencies they could appoint a temporary dictator. The
+change increased the power of the General Assembly, to which it became
+necessary to admit the non-citizen freeholders who were liable to military
+duties. The life tenure of the members of the Senate greatly increased the
+powers of that body, and intensified the antagonism of the patriarch and
+the plebeians.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, a landed nobility was developing; and when fresh land
+was acquired by the state, the Patricians claimed to control it. But the
+great agricultural population could not submit to this process of land
+absorption, and the consequent strife took the form of a demand for
+political recognition, which issued in the appointment of Tribunes of the
+Plebs, with power of administrative veto.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle over privileges lasted for two hundred years. First the
+Canuleian law made marriage valid between patricians and plebeians, and
+instituted for a time military tribunes. The Licinian law, eighty years
+later, admitted plebeians to the consulship, and also required the
+employment of free labour in agriculture. The decisively democratic measure
+was the Horticunian law, after another seventy years, giving the
+exclusively plebeian assembly full legislative power. The practical effect
+of the changes was to create a new aristocracy, semi-plebeian in origin,
+and to reduce the personal power of the chief officers of state, while
+somewhat increasing that of the remodelled Senate; rendering it a body
+selfish indeed in internal matters, but essentially patriotic as well as
+powerful.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Description of Italy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>During the period of this long constitutional struggle, Rome and her
+kinsfolk had first been engaged in a stubborn and ultimately successful
+contest with the non-Aryan Etruscan race; and then Italy had been attacked
+by the migrating Aryan hordes of the Celts, known as Gauls, who sacked
+Rome, but retired to North Italy; events giving birth to many well-known
+stories, probably in the main mythical. But the practical effect was to
+impose a greater solidarity of the Latin and kindred races, and a more
+decisive acceptance of Roman hegemony.</p>
+
+<p>That hegemony, however, had to be established by persistent compulsion,
+and there were three stages in its completion. First, the subjection of the
+Latins and Campanians; then the struggle of Rome with the Umbrian-Samnites;
+finally, the decisive repulse of the Epirote invader Pyrrhus--in effect a
+Hellenic movement. The Roman supremacy established through the exhaustion
+of the valiant Samnites required to be confirmed by stern repression of
+attempts to recover liberty. But the Hellenic element in Italy,
+antagonistic to the growing Roman power, in effect invited the intervention
+of the Epirote chief. But his scheme was not that of an imperial statesman,
+but of a chivalrous and romantic warrior. His own political blunders and
+the iron determination of the Romans, destroyed his chances of conquest.
+His retirement left Rome undisputed lord of Italy; which in part shared
+full citizenship, in part possessed only the more restricted Latin rights,
+and in part only rights conceded under varying treaties.</p>
+
+<p>A sense of common Italian nationality was developing. But if Rome was
+queen of Italy, Carthage was queen of the seas. Maritime expansion was
+precluded, though Rome's position fitted her for it. Carthage was the one
+Phoenician state which developed political as well as commercial power. The
+commercial cities of North Africa were in subordination to her, in the
+Western Mediterranean she had no rivals, her domestic government was
+oligarchical.</p>
+
+<p>Roman intervention in the affairs of Sicily, where Carthage was the
+dominant power, produced the rupture between the two great states which was
+bound to come sooner or later. Sicily itself was the scene of the initial
+struggle, which taught Rome that her victories on land were liable to be
+nullified by the Carthaginian sea power. She resolved to build a navy, on
+the plan of adopting boarding tactics which would assimilate a naval
+engagement to a battle on land. These tactics were successful enough to
+equalise the fighting value of the respective fleets. The Romans were
+enabled to land an invading army under Regulus in Africa.</p>
+
+<p>Though superior on land, the general's blundering led to a disaster, and
+for some time misfortune by sea and failure by land dogged the Romans. But
+Carthage failed to use her opportunity; she did not attempt to strike a
+crushing blow when she could have done so. But the private energy of Roman
+patriots at last placed on the seas a fleet which once more turned the
+scale, whereas it was on land that the brilliant Carthaginian Hamilcar had
+displayed his genius and daring. The first Punic War gave Rome predominance
+in Sicily, and a position of maritime equality. Sardinia was added to the
+Roman dominion, and her provincial administration came into being.</p>
+
+<p>She was carrying her expansion farther over Celtic regions, when
+Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, hurled himself against her, and came near to
+destroying her. Hamilcar had conceived the idea of imperial expansion, and
+given it shape by creating a dominion in Spain; he had looked forward to
+the life-and-death struggle with Rome that was destined to his son; for
+which Spain was to be the base. Hannibal, left in control in Spain,
+deliberately challenged Rome to war.</p>
+
+<p>The challenge was accepted, war was declared, and Hannibal accomplished
+the amazing feat of leading an army of 60,000 men from Spain and effecting
+the passage of the Alps, while the Romans were landing an army in Spain. In
+a brilliant campaign, he defeated the stubborn Roman legions at
+Vercell&aelig; and the Trebia.</p>
+
+<p>But success depended not on the winning of victories by an isolated
+force, but on the disruption of Italy. His superiority in the field was
+again demonstrated at Trasimenus, but no Italian allies came in. He
+outwitted Fabius, and then utterly shattered at Cann&aelig; a Roman force of
+double his own numbers. For a moment it seemed that Italian cohesion was
+weakening; but the Roman Senate and people were stirred only to a more
+dogged resolution.</p>
+
+<p>Cann&aelig; failed to break up the Roman confederation. Generalship unaided
+could accomplish no more. In Spain, where young Scipio was soon winning
+renown, the Roman arms were in the ascendant, and in Sicily. No effective
+aid was coming from Macedon, though war was declared between her and Rome.
+Hannibal's activities began to be paralysed; by slow degrees he was forced
+into the south. Hannibal succeeded in crossing the Alps with fresh forces,
+but by a brilliant operation was annihilated on the Metaurus. The time had
+come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal and strike at Carthage herself.
+Even Hannibal's return could not save her. The victory of Zama decided the
+issue. Carthage became virtually a tributary and subject state. Spain was a
+Roman province, and North Africa a sort of protectorate.</p>
+
+<p>The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
+protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
+Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria. Antiochus
+had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to impose his own
+yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his decisive overthrow
+at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of Asia Minor. Pergamus,
+under the house of Actalus, was established as a protected kingdom, as
+Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek states, however, were becoming
+conscious that their freedom was hardly more than a name; Perseus of
+Macedon once more challenged Rome, not without Greek support. Macedon was
+finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus at Pydna. From that moment, Rome
+dropped the policy of maintaining free states beyond the seas, which had
+manifestly failed. Virtually, the known world was divided into subjects and
+dependencies of Rome, so vast was the change in the forty years between the
+battles of the Metaurus and Pydna.</p>
+
+<p>Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
+ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
+city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses were
+distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually the
+city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a close
+and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
+inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
+Cato.</p>
+
+<p>In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
+after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
+neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led to
+the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of the
+dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
+Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
+Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
+intrigue for office emoluments, involving a pandering to the city mob for
+its suffrages.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Revolution</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Socially, the most patent evil was the total disappearance of the free
+agricultural class, the absorption of all the land into huge estates under
+slave labour. The remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus was the partial
+state resumption of land and its re-allotment. He adopted unconstitutional
+methods for carrying his proposals, and was murdered in a riot led by the
+oligarchs. Appeals to the Roman populace were not, unfortunately, appeals
+to the Roman nation.</p>
+
+<p>His brother, Gaius, deliberately designed a revolution. He proposed to
+work through the antagonism of the aristocrats and the wealthy
+non-senatorial equestrian order; and by concentrating power in the hands of
+the tribunate, hitherto checked by the restrictions on re-election. In
+effect, he meant to destroy the oligarchy by making the Tribune a perpetual
+dictator, and thus to carry through social reforms; to establish also legal
+equality first for the Italians, then for the provinces also. But these
+reforms were not particularly attractive to the city mob, and the other
+side could play the demagogue. The condition of C&aelig;sarism is the
+control of physical force; Gaius Gracchus fell because he had not that
+essential control. The oligarchy remained supreme. The plans of Gracchus
+for planting colonies and distributing allotments were nullified.</p>
+
+<p>The evils of slave labour multiplied, and issued in servile
+insurrections. In Numidia, the able Masimissa had been succeeded by
+Micipsa. On Micipsa's death, the rule was usurped by his illegitimate
+nephew Jugurtha, whose story has been told by Sallust. The war was at least
+terminated less by the low-born general in command, Marius, than his
+brilliant lieutenant Sulla. But Marius re-organised the army on the basis
+which was to make a military despotism practicable, as it made a
+professional instead of a citizen army.</p>
+
+<p>But now a new foe appears; the first Teutonic (not Celtic) hordes of the
+Cimbri and Teutones; to meet with an overwhelming check at the hands of
+Marius at Aqu&aelig; Sexti&aelig; and Vercell&aelig;. The successful
+soldier allied himself with the popular leader Saturninus; the programme of
+Gaius Gracchus was resuscitated. But Marius, a political incapable,
+separated from the demagogues, and by helping to crush them, effaced
+himself. Livius Drusus attempted to carry out the Gracchan social reform,
+with the senate instead of the tribunate as the controlling power; the
+senatorial party themselves wrecked his schemes, and the antagonistic power
+of the equestrian order was advanced.</p>
+
+<p>But the immediate outcome was the revolt of the Italians, the
+<i>socii</i> (whence the name social war). They were not citizens, not on
+an equal footing with the citizens before the law. The revolt was
+suppressed, but the legions were completely out of hand. The attempt of
+Sulpicius to head the reform movement was answered by Sulla, who for the
+first time led a Roman army against Rome, crushed Sulpicius, prescribed
+some of his adherents, and placed the power of the senate on a stronger
+footing by legal enactment. Then he went to the East, to conduct the war
+against Mithridates.</p>
+
+<p>While Sulla was conducting his operations, military and diplomatic, with
+skill and success in the East, his arrangements at Rome had left discontent
+and disappointment seething. There was another revolution, led by Cinna,
+Marius and Sertorius; it mastered Rome. Marius spilt seas of blood, but
+soon died. For three years Cinna was supreme, but he had no constructive
+policy.</p>
+
+<p>But now Sulla had finished his work in the East. He was returning at the
+head of a body of veterans devoted to him; and his diplomacy won over half
+Italy to his side. The struggle with the revolutionary government was not
+greatly prolonged, and it was decisive.</p>
+
+<p>In plain terms, the Roman constitution had gone utterly to wreck; Sulla
+was in something of the same position as Oliver Cromwell. He had to
+reconstruct under conditions which made a constitutional restoration
+impracticable; but his control of the efficient military force gave him the
+necessary power. That any system introduced must be arbitrary and find its
+main sanction in physical force--that it should partake of terrorism--was
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Sulla obtained the formal conferment on himself of absolute power. He
+began by applying this rule of terror not vindictively, but with impersonal
+mercilessness, against the lives and property of the opposition. In the
+constitution which he promulgated the senatorial body was alone recognised
+as a privileged class; the senate itself was increased, it recovered full
+control of the judiciary and of legislation; no power was left of
+cancelling membership. The tribunician power was curtailed.</p>
+
+<p>The civil and military functions of consuls and pr&aelig;tors were separated.
+They were to hold civil power in Italy proper during their year of office;
+they were then to have a second year in military control of a province. The
+planting of military colonies provided numerous garrisons whose interests
+were associated with the new constitution. When Sulla had done his work, he
+resigned his extraordinary powers with entire indifference. In a little
+more than a year he died.</p>
+
+<p>The Sullan constitution saved the Roman empire from imminent collapse;
+but it was impossible that it should be more than a makeshift, like
+Cromwell's protectorate. There were huge classes with perpetual grievances;
+the removal of the military forces to the provinces left the city of Rome
+without adequate governors of the provinces themselves. And there was no
+man of the hour of supreme ability to carry on work demanding a master.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Pompey and C&aelig;sar</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The young Graccus Pompeius was the most distinguished of the Sullan
+party; Crassus was the wealthiest and most powerful of the Equestrian
+group; Lepidus was the popular leader. A popular insurrection which he
+headed was suppressed, and he disappeared, but Sertorius, once an associate
+of Marius, had obtained a remarkable personal ascendancy in Spain, and, in
+league with the Mediterranean pirates, threatened to be a formidable foe of
+the new constitution. For some years he maintained a gradually waning
+resistance against the arms of Pompeius, but finally was assassinated.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Tigranes, King of Armenia, had been developing a powerful
+monarchy; and mutual distrust had brought on another war with Mithridates,
+successfully conducted by Lucullus. Out of this war arose a struggle with
+Tigranes, on whom an overwhelming defeat was inflicted at Tigranocerta. But
+the brilliant achievements of Lucullus were nullified by the mutinous
+conduct of the troops, and the factious conduct of the home government. The
+gross inefficiency of that government was shown by the immense extension of
+organised piracy, and by the famous slave revolt under Spartacus, which
+seriously endangered the state.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius on his return from Spain was barred on technical grounds from
+the triumph and the consulship which he demanded. He was thus driven into
+an alliance with the democratic party, and with Crassus. The result was the
+fall of the Sullan constitution, and the restoration of checks on the power
+of the senate. Pompeius might have grasped a military despotism; he did
+not, but he did receive extraordinary powers for dealing with the whole
+Eastern question, and when that work was settled successfully, he would be
+able to dictate his own terms.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius began his task by a swift and crushing blow against the pirate
+cities and fleets, which broke up the organisation. He crushed Mithridates
+in one campaign, and received the submission of Tigranes; Mithridates soon
+after fell by his own hand, the victim of an insurrection. Anarchy in Syria
+warranted Pompeius in annexing the Seleucid dominion. The whole of the
+nearer East was now a part of the Roman empire; and was thenceforth ruled
+not as protectorates, but as a group of provinces. Egypt alone was not
+incorporated.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the democratic party at Rome were dominant, though their
+policy was inconsistent and opportunist. Probably the leading men, such as
+Crassus and the rising Gaius, Julius C&aelig;sar, stood aside from the
+wilder schemes, such as the Catilinarian conspiracies, but secretly
+fostered them. Catiline's projects were betrayed, and the illegal execution
+of the captured conspirators by the consul Cicero was hailed by Cato and
+the senatorial party as a triumph of patriotic statesmanship. Catiline
+himself was crushed in the field.</p>
+
+<p>The definite fact emerged, that neither the senatorial nor the
+democratic party could establish a strong government; that would be
+possible only for a military monarchy--a statesman with a policy and an
+irresistible, force at his back. But Pompeius lacked the courage and skill.
+C&aelig;sar, as yet, lacked the military force. Pompeius, on his return
+from the East, again allied himself with Crassus and C&aelig;sar, whose
+object was to acquire for himself the opportunity which Pompeius would not
+grasp. The alliance gave Pompeius the land allotments he required for his
+soldiers, and to C&aelig;sar the consulship followed by a prolonged
+governorship of Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>The conquest and organisation of Gaul was an end in itself, a necessary
+defence against barbarian pressure. C&aelig;sar's operations there were
+invaluable to the empire; incidentally, they enabled him to become master
+of it. C&aelig;sar has left his own record. Gaul was transformed into a
+barrier against the Teutonic migration. But Pompeius, nominally holding a
+far greater position, proved incapable of controlling the situation in
+Rome; he could not even suppress the demagogue Clodius, while the prestige
+of his military exploits was waning. Fear of the power of the Triumvirate
+was driving moderate men to the senatorial part; that party, without an
+efficient leader, began to find in Pompeius rather in ally against the more
+dangerous C&aelig;sar than an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>But they would not concede him the powers he required; which might yet
+be turned to the uses of his colleagues in the Triumvirate; he could not
+afford to challenge C&aelig;sar; and C&aelig;sar adroitly used the
+situation to secure for himself a prolongation of his Gallic command. The
+completion of his work there was to have precedence of his personal
+ambitions. Crassus was sent to the Eastern command; and Pompeius remained
+in Italy, while nominally appointed to Spain.</p>
+
+<p>Pompeius, indeed, attained a predominance in Rome which enabled him to
+secure temporarily dictatorial powers which were employed to counteract the
+electoral machinery of the republican party; but he had not the
+qualifications or the inclination to play the demagogue, and could not
+unite his aspirations as a restorer of law and order with effective party
+leadership. Crassus disappeared; his armies in the East met with a complete
+disaster at Carrh&aelig;, and he took his own life. C&aelig;sar and
+Pompeius were left; Pompeius was not content that C&aelig;sar should stand
+on a real equality with him, and the inevitable rupture came.</p>
+
+<p>In effect Pompeius used his dictatorship to extend his own military
+command and to curtail C&aelig;sar's. The position resolved itself into a
+rivalry between the two; C&aelig;sar declaring as always for the democracy,
+Pompeius now assuming the championship of the aristocracy, and the
+guardianship of the constitution.</p>
+
+<p>For C&aelig;sar the vital point now was that his own command should not
+terminate till he exchanged it for a fresh consulship. As the law now
+stood, he could not obtain his election without resigning his command
+beforehand. But he succeeded in forcing Pompeius to break the law; and in
+making the official government responsible for declaring war. He offered a
+compromise, perhaps, in the certainty that it would be rejected--as it was.
+He was virtually declared a public enemy; and he struck at once.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of his devotedly loyal veterans he crossed the Rubicon. His
+rapid and successful advance caused Pompeius to abandon Italy and fall back
+on the Eastern Provinces. The discipline preserved, and the moderation
+displayed by C&aelig;sar won him unexpected favour. Having secured Italy,
+he turned next on Spain, and secured that. Swift and decisive action was
+pitted against inertness. When C&aelig;sar entered Epirus the odds against
+him on paper were enormous; but the triumphant victory of Phansalus
+shattered the Pompeian coalition. Pompeius hurried to Egypt, but was
+assassinated while landing. The struggle, however, was not over till after
+the battle of Thapsus nearly two years after Phansalus.</p>
+
+<p>C&aelig;sar was now beyond question master of the whole Roman world. He
+had made himself one of the mightiest of all masters of the art of war; but
+he was even more emphatically unsurpassed as a statesman. In the brief time
+that was left him he laid the foundation of the new monarchy which replaced
+the ancient Republic of Rome.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a name='Mediaeval_History'></a>Medi&aelig;val History</h1>
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_GIBBON2'></a>EDWARD GIBBON</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Holy_Roman_Empire'></a>The Holy Roman Empire</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> The third of Gibbon's divisions of his great history was
+devoted to that period which is comprised between the establishment of the
+Holy Roman Empire in 800 and the final extinction of the Eastern Empire
+with the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453. Although this
+was the longest period, Gibbon devoted much less space to it than to the
+preceding parts of his history. This fact was partly due to the gradual
+diminution of Roman interests, for the dominions of the empire became
+contracted to the limits of a single city, and also to the fact that the
+material which the most painstaking search placed at his disposal was
+distinctly limited. But though the conquest of the Normans, to instance one
+section, has been dealt with inadequately in the light of modern research,
+the wonderful panorama that Gibbon's genius was able to present never fails
+in its effect or general accuracy. The Holy Roman Empire is, of course,
+properly classified under Medi&aelig;val History, which accounts for its
+separation from the rest of Gibbon's work. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Birth and Sway of the Empire</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Western Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, as it has been called, which
+was re-established by Charlemagne (and lasted in shadow until the
+abdication of Francis II. under the pressure of Napoleon in 1806), was not
+unworthy of its title.</p>
+
+<p>The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
+the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The Greek emperor was
+addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the imperial
+dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks respectfully saluted
+the <i>august</i> Charlemagne with the acclamations of "Basileus" and
+"Emperor of the Romans." Lewis the Pious (814-840) possessed the virtue of
+his father but not the power. When both power and virtue were extinct, the
+Greeks despoiled Lewis II. of his hereditary title, and with the barbarous
+appellation of <i>Rex</i> degraded him amongst the crowd of Latin
+princes.</p>
+
+<p>The imperial title of the West remained in the family of Charlemagne
+until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 884. His insanity dissolved the
+empire into factions, and it was not until Otho, King of Germany, laid
+claim to the title, with fire and sword, that the western empire was
+restored (962). His conquest of Italy and delivery of the pope for ever
+fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From that
+memorable era two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by force
+and ratified by time: (1) That the prince who was elected in the German
+Diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome; (2)
+but that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and Augustus
+till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman pontiff.</p>
+
+<p>The nominal power of the Western emperors was considerable. No pontiff
+could be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the Church,
+had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Gregory VII., in
+1073, usurped this power, and fixed for ever in the college of cardinals
+the freedom and independence of election. Nominally, also, the emperors
+held sway in Rome, but this supremacy was annihilated in the thirteenth
+century. In the fourteenth century the power derived from his title was
+still recognised in Europe; the hereditary monarchs confessed the
+pre-eminence of his rank and dignity.</p>
+
+<p>The persecution of images and their votaries in the East had
+separated-Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and prepared the way
+for the conquests of the Franks. The rise and triumph of the Mahometans
+still further diminished the empire of the East. The successful inroads of
+the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians, who assaulted by sea or by land
+the provinces and the capital, seemed to advance the approach of its final
+dissolution. The Norman adventurers, who founded a powerful kingdom in
+Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople (1146), and their
+hostile enterprises did not cease until the year 1185.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Latin Rulers of Constantinople</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Under the name of the Latins, the subjects of the pope, the nations of
+the West, enlisted under the banner of the Cross for the recovery or the
+release of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and
+preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with Godfrey
+of Bouillon (1095-99) and the peers of Christendom. The second (1147) and
+the third (1189) crusades trod in the footsteps of the first. Asia and
+Europe were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years; and the Christian
+powers were bravely resisted and finally expelled (1291) by Saladin
+(1171-93) and the Mamelukes of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>In these memorable crusades a fleet and army of French and Venetians
+were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the
+capital (1203), they subverted the Greek monarchy; and a dynasty of Latin
+princes was seated near three-score years on the throne of Constantine.</p>
+
+<p>During this period of captivity and exile, which lasted from 1204 to
+1261, the purple was preserved by a succession of four monarchs, who
+maintained their title as the heirs of Augustus, though outcasts from their
+capital. The <i>de facto</i> sovereigns of Constantinople during this
+period, the Latin emperors of the houses of Flanders and Courtenay,
+provided five sovereigns for the usurped throne. By an agreement between
+the allied conquerors, the emperor of the East was nominated by the vote of
+twelve electors, chosen equally from the French and Venetians. To him, with
+all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, a fourth part of
+the Greek monarchy was assigned; the remaining portions were equally snared
+between the republic of Venice and the barons of France.</p>
+
+<p>Under this agreement, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, was
+created emperor (1204-05). The idea of the Roman system, which, despite the
+passage of centuries devoted to the triumphs of the barbarians, had
+impressed itself on Europe, was seen in the emperor's letter to the Roman
+pontiff, in which he congratulated him on the restoration of his authority
+in the East.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat and captivity of Baldwin in a war against the Bulgarians, and
+his subsequent death, placed the crown on the head of his brother Henry
+(1205-16). With him the imperial house of Flanders became extinct, and
+Peter of Courtenay, Count of Auxerre (1217-19), assumed the empire of the
+East. Peter was taken captive by Theodore, the legitimate sovereign of
+Constantinople, and his sons Robert (1221-28) and Baldwin II. (1228-37)
+reigned in succession. The gradual recovery of their empire by the
+legitimate sovereigns of the East culminated in the capture of
+Constantinople by the Greeks (1261). The line of Latin sovereigns was
+extinct. Baldwin lived the remainder of his life a royal fugitive,
+soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration. He died in
+1272.</p>
+
+<p>From the days of the Emperor Heraclius the Byzantine Empire had been
+most tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary
+succession. Five dynasties--the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian, and
+Comnenian families--enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony during
+their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four generations.
+The imperial house of Comnenius, though its direct line in male descent had
+expired with Andronicus I. (1185), had been perpetuated by marriage in the
+female line, and had survived the exile from Constantinople, in the persons
+of the descendants of Theodore Lascaris.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Pal&aelig;ologus, who, through his mother, might claim perhaps a
+prior right to the throne of the Comnenii, usurped the imperial dignity on
+the recovery of Constantinople, cruelly blinded the young Emperor John, the
+legitimate heir of Theodore Lascaris, and reigned until 1282. His career of
+authority was notable for an attempt to unite the Greek and Roman
+churches--a union which was dissolved in 1283--and his instigation of the
+revolt in Sicily, which ended in the famous Sicilian Vespers (March 30,
+1282), when 8,000 French were exterminated in a promiscuous massacre.</p>
+
+<p>He saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
+and blood. From these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men, who
+assaulted and endangered the empire of his son, Andronicus the Elder
+(1282-1332). Thousands of Genoese and Catalans, released from the wars that
+Michael had aroused in the West, took service under his successor against
+the Turks. Other mercenaries flocked to their standard, and, under the name
+of the Great Company, they subverted the authority of the emperor, defeated
+his troops, laid waste his territory, united themselves with his enemies,
+and, finally, abandoning the banks of the Hellespont, marched into Greece.
+Here they overthrew the remnant of the Latin power, and for fourteen years
+(1311-1326) the Great Company was the terror of the Grecian states.</p>
+
+<p>Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignity of the house
+of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens as
+a government or an appanage was successfully bestowed by the kings of
+Sicily. Conquered in turn by the French and Catalans, Athens at length
+became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth,
+Delphi, and a part of Thessaly, and was ruled by the family of Accaioli,
+plebeians of Florence (1384-1456). The last duke of this dynasty was
+strangled by Mahomet II., who educated his sons in the discipline of the
+seraglio.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of John Pal&aelig;ologus, son of Andronicus the Younger,
+which began in 1355, the eastern empire was nearly subverted by the
+Genoese. On the return of the legitimate sovereign to Constantinople, the
+Genoese, who had established their factories and industries in the suburb
+of Galata, or Pera, were allowed to remain. During the civil wars the
+Genoese forces took advantage of the disunion of the Greeks, and by the
+skilful use of their power exacted a treaty by which they were granted a
+monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominions. The Roman Empire (I
+smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a province of
+Genoa if the ambition of the republic had not been checked by the ruin of
+her freedom and naval power. Yet the spirit of commerce survived that of
+conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital and navigated the
+Euxine till it was involved by the Turks in the final servitude of
+Constantinople itself.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--End of the Roman World</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Only three more sovereigns ruled the remnants of the Roman world after
+the reign of John Pal&aelig;ologus, but the final downfall of the empire was
+delayed above fifty years by a series of events that had sapped the
+strength of the Mahometan empire. The rise and triumph of the Moguls and
+Tartars under their emperors, descendants of Zingis Khan, had shaken the
+globe from China to Poland and Greece (1206-1304). The sultans were
+overthrown, and in the general disorder of the Mahometan world a veteran
+and adventurous army, which included many Turkoman hordes, was dissolved
+into factions who, under various chiefs, lived a life of rapine and
+plunder. Some of these engaged in the service of Aladin (1219-1236), Sultan
+of Iconium, and among these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Orchan ruled from 1326 to 1360, achieved the conquest of Bithynia, and
+first led the Turks into Europe, and in 1353 established himself in the
+Chersonesus, and occupied Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont. Orchan was
+succeeded by Amurath I. (1389-1403). Bajazet carried his victorious arms
+from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became contracted to
+a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty
+miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of ground not more extensive
+than the lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains of
+Constantinople had not still represented the wealth and populousness of a
+kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
+Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet had
+not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul power
+under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a conquest of
+Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan (1398-1399),
+Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found himself at length
+face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was taken prisoner in the war
+that followed. Kept, probably only as a precaution, in an iron cage,
+Bajazet attended the marches of his conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403.
+Two years later, Timour also passed away on the road to China. Of his
+empire to-day nothing remains. Since the reign of his descendant
+Aurungzebe, his empire has been dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of
+Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom
+is now possessed by the Christians of a remote island in the northern
+ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
+was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than it
+again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a period of
+civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman Empire was
+once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II. (1421-1451).</p>
+
+<p>One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
+of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
+Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
+domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.</p>
+
+<p>While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
+Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
+Manuel sank into the grave, and John Pal&aelig;ologus II. (1425-1448) was
+permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
+dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
+Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emperors,
+assumed the purple of the C&aelig;sars. For three years he was allowed to
+indulge himself in various private and public designs, the completion of
+which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the ruins of
+the empire.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Great Siege of Constantinople</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Mahomet II. succeeded his father Amurath on February 9, 1451. His
+hostile designs against the capital were immediately seen in the building
+of a fortress on the Bosphorus, which commanded the source whence the city
+drew her supplies. In the following year a quarrel between some Greeks and
+Turks gave him the excuse of declaring war. His cannon--for the use of
+gunpowder, for some time the monopoly of the Christian world, had been
+betrayed to Amurath by the Genoese--commanded the port, and a tribute was
+exacted from all ships that entered the harbour. But the actual siege was
+delayed until the ensuing spring of 1453.</p>
+
+<p>Mahomet, in person, surveyed the city, encouraged his soldiers, and
+discussed with his generals and engineers the best means of making the
+assault. By his orders a huge cannon was built in Hadrianople. It fired a
+ball one mile, and to convey it to its position before the walls, a team of
+sixty oxen and the assistance of 200 men were employed. The Emperor
+Constantine, unable to excite the sympathy of Europe, attempted the best
+defence of which he was capable, with a force of 4,970 Romans and 2,000
+Genoese. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour, and whatever
+supplies arrived from Candia and the Black Sea were detained for the public
+service.</p>
+
+<p>The siege of Constantinople, in which scarcely 7,000 soldiers had to
+defend a city sixteen miles in extent against the powers of the Ottoman
+Empire, commenced on April 6, 1453. The last Constantine deserves the name
+of a hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman virtue, and
+the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western chivalry. But
+their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operations of each
+day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size or number; and if they
+possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the walls, lest
+the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by the explosion.</p>
+
+<p>The great cannon of Mahomet could only be fired seven times in one day,
+but the weight and repetition of the shots made some impression on the
+walls. The Turks rushed to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the
+enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault. In the attack, as well
+as in the defence, ancient and modern artillery was employed. Cannon and
+mechanical engines, the bullet and the battering-ram, gunpowder and Greek
+fire, were engaged on both sides.</p>
+
+<p>Christendom watched the struggle with coldness and apathy. Four ships,
+which successfully forced an entrance into the harbour, were the limit of
+their assistance. None the less, Mahomet meditated a retreat. Unless the
+city could be attacked from the harbour, its reduction appeared to be
+hopeless. In this perplexity the genius of Mahomet executed a plan of a
+bold and marvellous cast. He transported his fleet over land for ten miles.
+In the course of one night four-score light galleys and brigantines
+painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and were launched from
+the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far above the
+molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. A bridge, or mole, hastily
+built, formed a base for one of his largest cannon. The galleys, with
+troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible side of the
+walls, and, after a siege of forty days, the diminutive garrison, exhausted
+by a double attack, could hope no longer to avert the fate of the
+capital.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, May 28, preparations were made for the final assault. Mahomet
+had inspired his soldiers with the hope of rewards in this world and the
+next. His camp re-echoed with the shouts of "God is God; there is but one
+God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God"; and the sea and land, from Galata
+to the Seven Towers, were illuminated with the blaze of the Moslem
+fires.</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the state of the Christians. On that last night of the
+Roman Empire, Constantine Pal&aelig;ologus, in his palace, addressed the noblest
+of the Greeks and the bravest of the allies on the duties and dangers that
+lay before them. It was the funeral oration of the Roman Empire. That same
+night the emperor and some faithful companions entered the Dome of St.
+Sofia, which, within a few hours, was to be converted into a mosque, and
+devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the sacrament of the Holy
+Communion. He reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with
+cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all whom he might have
+injured, and mounted on horseback to visit the guards and explore the
+motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last Constantine are
+more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine C&aelig;sars.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak on May 29 the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land. For
+two hours the Greeks maintained the defence with advantage, and the voice
+of the emperor was heard encouraging the soldiers to achieve by a last
+effort the deliverance of their country. The new and fresh forces of the
+Turks supplied the places of their wearied associates. From all sides the
+attack was pressed.</p>
+
+<p>The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps one hundred, times
+superior to that of the Christians, the double walls were reduced by the
+cannons to a heap of ruins, and at last one point was found which the
+besiegers could penetrate. Hasan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and
+strength, ascended the outward fortification. The walls and towers were
+instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from
+the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of
+a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. His mournful
+exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
+head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the
+infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple. Amidst
+the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a
+mountain of the slain.</p>
+
+<p>After his death, resistance and order were no more. Two thousand Greeks
+were put to the sword, and more would have perished had not avarice soon
+prevailed over cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
+which had defied the power of Chosroes and the caliphs, was irretrievably
+subdued by the arms of Mahomet II. Sixty thousand Greeks were driven
+through the streets like cattle and sold as slaves. The nuns were torn from
+the monasteries and compelled to enter the harems of their conquerors. The
+churches were plundered, and the gold and silver, the pearls and jewels,
+the vases and sacerdotal ornaments of St. Sofia were most wickedly
+converted to the service of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>The cathedral itself, despoiled of its images and ornaments, was
+converted into a mosque, and Mahomet II. performed the <i>namaz</i> of
+prayer and thanksgiving at the great altar, where the Christian mysteries
+had so lately been celebrated before the last of the C&aelig;sars. The body
+of Constantine was discovered under a heap of slain, by the golden eagles
+embroidered on his shoes, and after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet
+bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. Constantinople,
+desolated by bloodshed, was re-peopled and re-adorned by Mahomet. Its
+churches were shared between the two religions, and the Greeks were
+attracted back to their ancient capital by the assurance of their lives and
+the free exercise of their religion.</p>
+
+<p>The grief and terror of Europe when the fall of Constantinople became
+known revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades.
+Pius II. attempted to lead Christendom against the Turks, but on the very
+day on which he embarked his forces drew back, and he was compelled to
+abandon the attempt. The siege and sack of Otranto by the Turks put an end
+to all thoughts of a crusade, and the general consternation was only
+allayed by the death of Mahomet II. in the fifty-first year of his age.</p>
+
+<p>His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy; he was possessed of a
+strong city and a capacious harbour, and the same reign might have been
+decorated with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='FRANCOIS_GUIZOT'></a>FRAN&Ccedil;OIS GUIZOT</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_Civilisation_in_Europe'></a>History of Civilisation
+in Europe</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Fran&ccedil;ois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, French historian
+and statesman, was born of Huguenot parents at Nimes on October 4, 1787.
+The liberal opinions of his family did not save his father from the
+guillotine in 1794, and the mother fled to Geneva, where Guizot was
+educated. He went to Paris in the later days of the Empire, and engaged
+himself at once in literature and politics. His lectures on the History of
+Civilisation delivered in 1828, 1829, and 1830, during his professorship at
+the University of Paris, revealed him as a historian with a rare capacity
+for mastering the broad essential truths of history, co-ordinating them,
+and expounding them with vigour and impressiveness. His first series of
+lectures was on "The History of Civilisation in Europe," a masterly
+abstract of a colossal subject; the second on "The History of Civilisation
+in France." From 1830 to 1848 Guizot occupied high offices of State,
+ultimately becoming prime minister; in 1848, like his master Louis
+Philippe, he had to fly the country. He died on September 12, 1874.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Nature of Civilisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The subject I propose to consider is the civilisation of Europe--its
+origins, its progress, its aims, its character. The fact of civilisation
+belongs to what is called the philosophic portion of history; it is a
+vague, obscure, complex fact, very difficult, I admit, to explain and
+describe, but none the less requiring explanation and description. It is,
+indeed, the greatest historical fact, to which all others contribute; it is
+a kind of ocean which makes the wealth of a people, and in the bosom of
+which all the elements of the people's life, all the forces of its
+existence, are joined in unity.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is civilisation--this grave, far-reaching precious reality
+that seems the expression of the entire life of a people? It seems to me
+that the first and fundamental fact conveyed by the word civilisation is
+the fact of progress, of development. But what is this progress? What is
+this development? Here is the greatest difficulty of all.</p>
+
+<p>The etymology of the word civilisation seems to provide an easy answer.
+It tells us that civilisation is the perfecting of civil life, the
+development of society properly so called, of the relations of men to men.
+But is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and usual sense of the word?
+France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was acknowledged to be
+the most civilised country in Europe; yet in respect of purely civil
+progress France was then greatly inferior to some other European countries,
+Holland and England, for example. Another development, then, reveals
+itself--the development of individual life, of the man himself, of his
+faculties, sentiments, and ideas.</p>
+
+<p>These two notions that are comprehended in the broad notion of
+civilisation--that of the development of social activity and that of the
+development of individual activity--are intimately related to each other.
+Their relationship is upheld by the instinctive conviction of men; it is
+proved by the course of the world's history--all the great moral and
+intellectual advances of man have profited society, all the great social
+advances have profited the individual mind.</p>
+
+<p>So much for civilisation in general. It is now necessary to point out
+the essential difference between modern European and other civilisations.
+The characteristic of other civilisations has been unity; they seem to have
+emanated from a single fact, a single idea. In Egypt and India, for
+example, the theocratic principle was dominant; in the Greek and Phoenician
+republics, the democratic principle. The civilisation of modern Europe, on
+the contrary, is diverse, confused, stormy; all the forms and principles of
+social organisation theocratic, monarchical, aristocratic, democratic,
+co-exist in it; there are infinite gradations of liberty, wealth,
+influence. All the various forces are in a state of constant struggle; yet
+all of them have a certain family resemblance, as it were, that we cannot
+but recognise.</p>
+
+<p>These diverse elements, for all their conflict, cannot any one of them
+extinguish any other; each has to dwell with the rest, make a compromise
+with the rest. The outcome, then, of this diversity and struggle is
+liberty; and here is the grand and true superiority of the European over
+the other civilisations. European civilisation, if I may say so, has
+entered into eternal truth; it advances in the ways of God.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Feudalism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It would be an important confirmation of my assertion as to the diverse
+character of our civilisation if we should find in its very cradle the
+causes and the elements of that diversity. And indeed, at the fall of the
+Roman empire, we do so find it. Three forms of society, each entirely
+different from the other, are visible at this time of chaos. The
+municipalities survived, the last remnant of the Imperial system. The
+Christian Church survived. And in the third place there were the
+Barbarians, who brought with them a military organisation, and a hardy
+individual independence, that were wholly new to the peoples who had dwelt
+under the shelter of the empire. The Barbarian epoch was the chaos of all
+the elements, the infancy of all the systems, a universal hubbub in which
+even conflict itself had no definite or permanent effects.</p>
+
+<p>Europe laboured to escape from this confusion; at some times, and in
+some places, it was temporarily checked--in particular by the great
+Charlemagne in his revival of the imperial power; but the confusion did not
+cease until its causes no longer acted. These causes were two--one
+material, one moral. The material cause was the irruption of fresh
+Barbarian hordes. The moral cause was the lack of any ideas in common among
+men as to the structure of society. The old imperial fabric had
+disappeared; Charlemagne's restoration of it depended wholly on his own
+personality, and did not survive him; men had no ideas of any new
+structure--their intellectual horizon was limited to their own affairs. By
+the beginning of the tenth century the Barbarian invasions ended, and as
+the populations settled down a new system appeared, based partly on the
+Barbarians' love of independence, partly on their plans of military
+gradation--the system of feudalism.</p>
+
+<p>A sound proof that in the tenth century the feudal system was necessary,
+and the only social state possible, lies in the universality of its
+establishment. Everywhere society was dismembered; everywhere there was
+formed a multitude of small, obscure, isolated societies, consisting of the
+chief, his family, his retainers, and the wretched serfs over whom he ruled
+without restraint, and who had no appeal against his whim. The power he
+exercised was the power of individual over individual, the domination of
+personal will and caprice; and this is perhaps the only kind of tyranny
+that man, to his eternal honour, is never willing to endure. Hence the
+prodigious and invincible hatred that the people have at all times
+entertained for feudal rule, for the memories of it, for its very name.</p>
+
+<p>The narrow concentrated life of the feudal lord lent, undoubtedly, a
+great preponderance to domesticity in his affairs. The lord had his wife
+and children for his permanent society; they continually shared his
+interests, his destiny. It was in the bosom of the feudal family that woman
+gained her importance in civilisation. The system excited development of
+private character and passion that were, all things considered, noble.
+Chivalry was the daughter of feudalism.</p>
+
+<p>But from the social point of view feudalism failed to provide either
+legal order or political security. It contained elaborate obligations
+between the higher and the lower orders of the feudal hierarchy, duties of
+protection on the one side and of service on the other. But these
+obligations could never be established as institutions. There was no
+superior force to which all had to submit; there was public opinion to make
+itself respected. Hence the feudal system was without political guarantee
+to sustain it. Might alone was right. Feudalism was as much opposed to the
+establishment of general order as to the extension of general liberty. It
+was indispensable for the reconstruction of European society, but
+politically it was in itself a radically bad system.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Church</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Church, adhering to its own principles, had steadily
+advanced along the route that it had marked out for itself in the early
+days of its organisation. It was during the feudal epoch the only power
+that made for civilised development. All education was ecclesiastical; all
+the arts were in the service of the Church. It had, during the Dark Ages,
+won the Barbarians to its fold by the gorgeous solemnity of its ritual;
+and, to protect itself against secular interference, it had declared the
+spiritual power to be independent of the temporal--the first great
+assertion, in the history of European civilisation, of the liberty of
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>In one set of respects the Church during the feudal epoch satisfied the
+conditions of good government; in another, it did not. Its power was
+uniformly distributed, it drew its recruits from all classes, and entrusted
+the rule to the most capable. It was in close touch with every grade of
+mankind; every colony of serfs, even, had its priest. It was the most
+popular and most accessible society of the time, the most open to all
+talents and all noble ambitions. But, on the other hand, it failed in that
+all-important requisite of good government, respect for liberty. It denied
+the rights of individual reason in spiritual matters, and it claimed the
+right to compel belief--a claim that placed it in some dependence upon the
+temporal powers, since as a purely spiritual body, governing by influence
+and not by force, it could not persecute without the aid of the secular
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, the Church exerted an immense and on the whole a beneficent
+influence on ideas, sentiments, and conduct; but from the political point
+of view the Church was nearly always the interpreter and defender of the
+theocratic system and the Roman Imperial system--that is, of religious and
+civil despotism.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The Towns</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Like the Church, the municipalities survived the downfall of the Roman
+empire. Their history varied greatly in different parts of Europe, but none
+the less some observations can be made that are broadly accurate with
+respect to most of them.</p>
+
+<p>From the fifth to the tenth century, the state of the towns was a state
+neither of servitude nor of liberty. They suffered all the woes that are
+the fate of the weak; they were the prey of continual violence and
+depredation; yet, in spite of the fearful disorders of the time, they
+preserved a certain importance. When feudalism was established, the towns
+lost such independence as they had possessed; they found themselves under
+the heel of feudal chiefs. But feudalism did bring about a sort of peace, a
+sort of order; and with the slightest gleam of peace and order a man's hope
+revives, and on the revival of hope he takes to work. So it was with the
+towns. New wants were created; commerce and industry arose to satisfy them;
+wealth and population slowly returned.</p>
+
+<p>But industry and commerce were absolutely without security; the townsmen
+were exposed to merciless extortion and plundering at the hands of their
+feudal overlords. Nothing irritates a man more than to be harassed in his
+toil, thus deprived of its promised fruits. The only way in which the towns
+could defend themselves from the violence of their masters was by using
+violence themselves. So in the eleventh century we find town after town
+rising in revolt against its despot, and winning from him a charter of
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Although the insurrection was in a sense general, it was in no way
+concerted--it was not a rising of the combined citizens against the
+combined feudal aristocracy. All the towns found themselves exposed to much
+the same evils, and rescued themselves in much the same manner. But each
+town acted for itself--did not go to the help of any other town. Hence
+these detached communities had no ambitions, no aspirations to national
+importance; their outlook was limited to themselves. But at the same time
+the emancipation of the towns created a new class, a class of citizens
+engaged in the same pursuits, with the same interests and the same modes of
+life; a class that would in time unite and assert itself, and prevent the
+domination of a single order of society that has been the curse of
+Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Although it may be broadly asserted that the emancipation did not alter
+the relations of the citizens with the general government, that assertion
+must be modified in one respect. A link was established between the
+citizens and the king. Sometimes they appealed for his aid against their
+lord, sometimes the lord invoked him as judge; in one way or another a
+relation was established between the king and the towns, and the citizens
+thus came into touch with the centre of the State.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Crusades</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>From the fifth to the twelfth century, society, as we have seen,
+contained kings, a lay aristocracy, a clergy, citizens, peasantry, the
+germs, in fact, of all that goes to make a nation and a government; yet--no
+government, no nation. We have come across a multitude of particular
+forces, of local institutions, but nothing general, nothing public, nothing
+properly speaking political.</p>
+
+<p>In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the contrary, all the
+classes and the particular forces have taken a secondary place, are shadowy
+and almost effaced; the stage of the world is occupied by two great
+figures, government and people.</p>
+
+<p>Here, if I am not mistaken, is the essential distinction between
+primitive Europe and modern Europe. Here is the change that was
+accomplished in the period extending from the thirteenth to the sixteenth
+century. Viewed by itself, that period seems a characterless one of
+confusion without cause, of movement without direction, of agitation
+without result. Yet, in relation to the period that followed, this period
+had a tendency and a progress of its own; it slowly accomplished a vast
+work. It was the second period of European civilisation--the period of
+attempt and experiment, succeeding that of origins and formation, and
+preparing the way for that of development properly so called.</p>
+
+<p>The first great event of this period was the Crusades--a universal
+movement of all classes and all countries in moral unity--the truly heroic
+event of Europe. Besides the religious impulse that led to the Crusades,
+there was another impulse. They gave to me an opportunity of widening their
+horizons, of indulging the taste for movement and adventure. The
+opportunity, thus freely taken, changed the face of society. Men's minds
+were opened, their ideas were extended, by contact with other races;
+European society was dragged out of the groove along which it had been
+travelling. Religious ideas remained unchanged, but religious beliefs were
+no longer the only sphere in which the human intellect exercised itself.
+The moral state of Europe was profoundly modified.</p>
+
+<p>The social state underwent a similar change. Many of the smaller feudal
+lords sold their fiefs, or impoverished themselves by crusading, or lost
+much of their power during their absence. Property and power came into
+fewer hands; society was more centralised, no longer dispersed as it
+formerly was. The citizens, on their part, were no longer content with
+local industry and trade; they entered upon commerce on a grander scale
+with countries oversea. Petty influence yielded place to larger influences;
+the small existences grouped themselves round the great. By the end of the
+Crusades, the march of society towards centralisation was in steady
+progress.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VI.--The Age of Centralisation</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Already, in the twelfth century, a new idea of kingship had begun, very
+faintly, to make its appearance. In most European countries the king, under
+the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his headship. But
+there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and somebody bore the
+title of king; and society, striving to escape from feudal violence and to
+get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to the king in an
+experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could do. Gradually
+there developed the idea of the king as the protector of public order and
+justice and of the common interest as the paramount magistrate--the idea
+that changed Europe society from a series of classes into a group of
+centralised States.</p>
+
+<p>But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
+These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance, or
+it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To the
+first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over Europe
+that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three reasons--because
+Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal administrative
+force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed by the feudal
+aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy prevented the formation
+of a caste capable of theocratic organisation. Attempts at democracy were
+made, for a time with apparent means, by the Italian civic republics; but
+they were a prey to internal disorder, their government tended to become
+oligarchical, and their incapacity for uniting among themselves made them
+the victims of foreign invaders. The Swiss Republican organisation was more
+successful, but became aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the
+towns of Flanders and the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved
+their privileges, but remained confined within their walls.</p>
+
+<p>The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
+States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and the
+Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were ineffective
+and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was to preserve in
+a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of England were
+exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a mode of
+government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in practice.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
+the war of independence against England brought a sense of national unity
+and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown, and the central power
+made dominant, by the policy of Louis XI. Similar effects were brought
+about in Spain by the war against the Moors and the rule of Ferdinand. In
+England feudalism was destroyed by the Wars of the Roses, and was succeeded
+by the Tudor despotism. In Germany, the House of Austria began its long
+ascendancy. Thus in the fifteenth century the new principles prevailed; the
+old forms, the old liberties were swept aside to make way for centralised
+government under absolute rulers.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time another new fact entered into European history. The
+kings began to enter into relations with each other, to form alliances;
+diplomacy was created. Since it is in the nature of diplomacy to be
+conducted more or less secretly by a few persons, and since the peoples did
+not and would not greatly concern themselves in it, this development was
+favourable to the strengthening of royalty.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VII.--The Spiritual Revolt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Although the Church until the sixteenth century had successfully
+suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
+men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous impetus
+from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth century upon
+ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order are presented
+during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the councils of Constance
+and Bale to reform the Church from within; the most notable of which was
+that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual revolution that accompanied
+the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared for the event that was
+inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at Wittenberg in 1520.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
+accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome of
+a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a revolt of
+the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs. The minds of
+men were during the sixteenth century in energetic movement, consumed by
+desire for progress; the Church had become inert and stationary, yet it
+maintained all its pretensions and external importance. The Church, indeed,
+was less tyrannical than it had formerly been, and not more corrupt. But it
+had not advanced; it had lost touch with human thought.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
+where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
+resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and activity
+of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human spirit. It
+accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would have desired.
+It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision between temporal
+absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and did come.</p>
+
+<p>Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
+movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
+properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
+aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
+monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out against
+absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil societies
+have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical society has
+always been the first to be changed.</p>
+
+<p>We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
+the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
+centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century the
+two principles were for the first time to be opposed.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>VIII.--The Political Revolt</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
+exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there had
+in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete; the
+Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had formerly
+denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil liberty that were
+stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of action in the old
+institution of the country--the charter, the Parliament, the laws, the
+precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental countries had no such means
+of action, and led to nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
+religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty and
+the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces. For
+the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious party, it
+was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political party took the
+lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that the reformers
+finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute power spiritual and
+temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in that year brought
+England into the great struggle that was raging on the Continent between
+the principle of despotism and the principle of freedom.</p>
+
+<p>England differed from other European countries in that the essential
+diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than anywhere
+else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it was
+overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others were
+strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her nobles and
+commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe lagged behind
+England in civil freedom. But there was another reason--the influence of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
+in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth century,
+French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it was
+unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes supposed,
+adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim was the
+strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
+planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
+despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as the
+most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
+degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be maintained
+without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The rule of Louis
+XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no roots. The decrepit
+remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought face to face with a
+society in which free examination and free speculation had been carried to
+lengths never imagined before. Freedom of thought once came to grips with
+absolute power.</p>
+
+<p>Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
+speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
+upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by this
+grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the insurmountable evil
+of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of a despot like Louis
+XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit that prevailed at the
+Revolution. Each human power has in itself a natural vice, a principle of
+weakness, to which there has to be assigned a limit. It is only by general
+liberty of all rights, interests and opinions that each power can be
+restrained within its legitimate bounds, and intellectual freedom enabled
+to exist genuinely and to the advantage of the whole community.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='HENRY_HALLAM'></a>HENRY HALLAM</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='View_of_the_State_of_Europe_During_the_Middle_Ages'></a>View
+of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9,
+1777, at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of Bristol.
+Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was called to the English
+bar, but devoted himself to the study and writing of history. He received
+an appointment in the Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed
+him in comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur Henry,
+who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
+Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried at Clevedon, Somersetshire.
+The "View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages," commonly known as
+Hallam's "Middle Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was
+already well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
+first important work. It is a study of the period from the appearance of
+Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the Franks, to the close of the
+Middle Ages, the arbitrary dividing line being drawn at the invasion of
+Italy by Charles VIII. of France. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--France</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
+Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
+degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors of
+the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
+Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
+deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
+overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
+Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended his
+power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person the Roman
+empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on Christmas Day
+A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces under his
+successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition amongst
+brothers.</p>
+
+<p>France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
+Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany was
+completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced by Hugh
+Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the House of
+Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories until the reign
+of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his own hands the greater
+part of the immense territories held by the kings of England as French
+feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of Philip Augustus was
+succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose admirable character enabled
+him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy over the imagination of his
+people. In spite of the disastrous failure of his crusading expeditions,
+the aggrandisement of the crown continued, especially under Philip the
+Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs after the successive reigns of
+his three sons placed Philip of Valois on the throne according to the
+"Salic" law of succession in 1328.</p>
+
+<p>On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
+the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
+pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
+qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of England,
+and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English successes. After
+the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and the English lost
+their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the throne disaster
+followed. France was rent by the rival factions of Burgundy and Orleans,
+the latter taking its more familiar name from the Court of Armagnac. The
+troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. prevented England from taking
+advantage of these dissensions; but Henry V. renewed the war, winning the
+battle of Agincourt in his first campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes
+on his second invasion. After his death came that most marvellous
+revolution wrought by Joan of Arc, and the expulsion of the English from
+the country.</p>
+
+<p>In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
+the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of the
+long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted against
+the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for himself
+sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was secured when
+his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the Duchess Anne.</p>
+
+<p>The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
+of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
+Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
+followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the king's
+vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
+subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
+protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
+neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
+essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
+confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
+conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
+capable of conversion into money payments.</p>
+
+<p>Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
+of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings. A
+close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed by
+the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same position
+as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in many cases
+commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were freemen, and the
+remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It was not impossible
+for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the privileges possessed by the
+vassals of the Crown were scarcely consistent with the sovereignty. Such
+were the rights of coining money, of private war, and of immunity from
+taxation.</p>
+
+<p>Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
+supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons. It
+was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in the
+fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced the
+general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon claimed the
+right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing forward
+grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid convocation of
+the States General by obtaining grants from provincial assemblies of the
+Three Estates.</p>
+
+<p>The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
+feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according to
+recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat. The
+Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the establishment
+of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a supreme Court of
+Peers to whom were added the king's household officers. The peers ceased by
+degrees to attend this court, while the Crown multiplied the councillors of
+inferior rank; and this body became known as the Parliament of Paris--in
+effect an assembly of lawyers.</p>
+
+<p>The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
+of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
+especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
+principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military service
+for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Italy and Spain</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
+revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial supremacy
+was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman emperor. Italian
+unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy offended Italy. Still
+from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election of the King of Germany
+was assumed, at least my him, to convey the sovereignty of Italy. In the
+eleventh century Norman adventurers made themselves masters of Sicily and
+Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on the other hand the emperors favoured
+the development of free cities, owning only the imperial sovereignty and
+tending to self-government on Republican lines. The appearance on the scene
+in the twelfth century of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a
+period characterised by a three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the
+northern cities for independence; the establishment of the temporal
+sovereignty of the Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the
+kingdom of Naples to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first
+quarrels with Milan led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long
+war in which the battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive
+victory. The mutual rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from
+turning this to good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a
+child of four when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his
+mother to that of Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
+temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
+Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire, were
+established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the young
+Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the Papacy which
+ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this time the
+quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere family feuds
+resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as Papal champion;
+the republics of the North were in effect controlled by despots for a brief
+moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the leadership of Rienzi. In
+the general chaos the principle interest attaches to the peculiar but
+highly complicated form of democracy developed in Florence, where the old
+Patrician families were virtually disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was
+the state of Florence, the records certainly point to the conditions having
+been far worse in the cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.</p>
+
+<p>Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
+given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
+position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
+cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her commerce
+by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the taking of
+Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became effectively Queen of
+the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern Mediterranean. In effect her
+government was a close oligarchy; possessed of complete control over
+elections which in theory were originally popular. The oligarchy reached
+its highest and narrowest development with the institution of the famous
+Council of Ten.</p>
+
+<p>Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
+was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
+overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
+the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It was
+not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the Crown of
+Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert successfully
+a claim to Naples.</p>
+
+<p>When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
+dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of the
+greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the more
+northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which were
+developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon. Frontier
+towns acquired large liberties while they were practically responsible for
+defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century great territories
+were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased as the Moors were
+reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the fourteenth century the
+struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and his brother established
+the house of Trastamare on the throne. The Crowns of Castille and Aragon
+were united by the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand.</p>
+
+<p>The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
+Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however, the
+"Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number of these
+was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation through
+representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made nor annulled
+except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was varied by the
+claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when matters were conducted
+in a fashion of which they disapproved.</p>
+
+<p>The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
+Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects counterbalanced
+the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The German Empire and the Papacy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
+five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
+Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
+generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction of
+their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which came
+into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the extinction of
+this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the partisans of the
+Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and Welfs,--the origin of the
+Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House, the Hohenstauffen, gained the
+ascendancy in the person of Frederick Barbarossa. The lineal
+representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found to-day in the House of
+Brunswick.</p>
+
+<p>The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
+history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of election
+of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming established.
+There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, the Duke of
+Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of Bohemia, and the
+Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects, however, several other
+dukes and princes were at least on an equality with the electors.</p>
+
+<p>In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
+some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of Austria,
+Bavaria, or Luxemburg.</p>
+
+<p>Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
+territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
+authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
+1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
+that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free cities.
+Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period mainly by
+Maximilian.</p>
+
+<p>The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
+a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook Mohammedanism.
+Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at first to strengthen
+its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but the so-called fourth
+crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one with no elements of
+permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established, and the crusading
+spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the Byzantine Princes were left
+to cope with the Turks single handed, and the last of the C&aelig;sars died
+heroically when the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
+Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively late
+period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not infrequently the
+Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was more than recovered
+by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were almost exempt from
+civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive authority in matters
+of religion. The state, however, maintained its temporal supremacy. When
+the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed ecclesiastical influence
+increased.</p>
+
+<p>It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
+supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
+after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak kings
+to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority developed
+and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication and
+interdict.</p>
+
+<p>A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
+close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the Papacy
+by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution of
+Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the complete
+supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused to recognise
+the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical appointments within
+their own dominions; and he emphasised the distinction between the
+priesthood, as a cast having divine authority, and the laity, by enforcing
+with the utmost strictness the ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which
+completely separates the churchman from the normal interests and ambitions
+which actuate the layman.</p>
+
+<p>In the contest between Gregory and the emperor, it seemed for the moment
+as if the secular power had won the victory; but, in fact, throughout the
+twelfth century; the claims which Gregory had put forward were becoming
+practically effective partly from the great influence exercised through the
+Crusades. These Papal pretensions reached their climax in the great Pope
+Innocent III., who asserted with practical success the right to pronounce
+absolutely on all disputes between princes or between princes and their
+subjects, and to depose those who rejected his authority. Throughout the
+thirteenth century Rome was once more mistress of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The Church derived great influence from the institution of mendicant
+orders, especially those of St. Dominic and St. Francis which recovered
+much of the esteem forfeited by the old Monastic orders. Another instrument
+of Papal influence was the power of granting dispensations both with regard
+to marriages and as to the keeping of oaths. If the clergy were free for
+the most part from civil taxation, they were nevertheless severely mulcted
+by the Papacy. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction encroached upon the secular
+tribunals; the classes of persons with respect to whom it claimed exclusive
+authority were persistently extended, in spite of the opposition of such
+Princes as Henry II. and Edward I.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, the Papal aggressor met his match in Philip the Fair.
+When Boniface VIII. died, his successors first submitted to the French
+monarchy and then became its nominees; while they resided at Avignon,
+virtually under French control. The restoration of the pontificate to Rome
+in 1375 was shortly followed by the Great Schism. For some years there were
+two rival Popes, each of whom was recognised by one or the other half of
+Western Christendom. This was terminated by the Council of Constance, which
+incidentally affirmed the supremacy of general councils over the Pope. The
+following council at Basle was distinctly anti-papal; but the Papacy had
+the better of the contest.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Anglo-Saxon polity limited the succession of the Crown to a
+particular house but allowed a latitude of choice within that house. The
+community was divided into Thames or gentry, Ceorls or freemen, and serfs.
+The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as villeinage. The
+composition of the king's great council called the Witenagemot is doubtful.
+The country was divided into shires, the shire into districts called
+hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. There appears to be no adequate
+authority for the idea that trial by jury was practised; the prevailing
+characteristic of justice was the system of penalty by fine, and the
+responsibility of the tithing for the misdeeds of any of its members. There
+is no direct evidence as to the extent to which feudal tenures were
+beginning to be established before the Norman conquest.</p>
+
+<p>The Norman conquest involved a vast confiscation of property and the
+exclusion of the native English from political privileges. The feudal
+system of land tenure was established; but its political aspect here and in
+France was quite different. There were no barons with territories
+comparable to those of the great French feudataries. That the government
+was extremely tyrannical is certain. The Crown derived its revenues from
+feudal dues, customs duties, tallages--that is, special charges on
+particular towns,--and the war tax called the Danegelt; all except the
+first being arbitrary taxes. The violence of King John led to the demand of
+the barons for the Great Charter, the keystone of English liberty, securing
+the persons and property of all freemen from arbitrary imprisonment or
+spoliation. Thenceforth no right of general taxation is claimed. The barons
+held themselves warranted in refusing supplies.</p>
+
+<p>The King's Court was gradually separated into three branches, King's
+Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas. The advance in the study of law had the
+definite effect of establishing a fixed rule of succession to the Crown.
+One point must still be noticed which distinguishes England from other
+European countries; that the law recognises no distinction of class among
+freemen who stand between the peers and villeins.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Edward I. forms an epoch. The Confirmation of the Charters
+put an end to all arbitrary taxation; and the type of the English
+Parliament was fixed. In the Great Councils the prelates and greater barons
+had assembled, and the lesser barons were also summoned; the term baron
+being equivalent to tenant in chief. A system of representation is
+definitely formulated in Montfort's Parliament of 1265. Whether the knights
+were elected by the freemen of the shire or only by the tenants in chief,
+is not clear. Many towns were self governing--independent, that is, of
+local magnates--under charters from the Crown. Montfort's Parliament is the
+first to which towns sent representatives. Edward established the practice
+in his Model Parliament; probably in order to ensure that his demands for
+money from the towns might in appearance at least receive their formal
+assent.</p>
+
+<p>Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of
+Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the
+illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two
+houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of the
+Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public counsellors.
+Under the second heading is introduced a distinction between statutes and
+ordinances; the latter being of a temporary character, and requiring to be
+confirmed by Parliament before they acquire permanent authority. In the
+next reign the Commons assert the right of examining the public
+expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more openly and boldly expressed
+resentment at the acts of the king's ministers and claimed rights of
+control. For a time, however, the king secured supremacy by a coup
+d'&eacute;tat; which in turn brought about his deposition, and the
+accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness of his title to the
+inheritance of the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably
+redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the inclination
+of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely combated. It is also
+to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of war or peace is freely
+submitted to the approval of Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of
+dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the
+practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked
+sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further
+definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.</p>
+
+<p>At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to
+vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the
+towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members
+were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor
+can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued
+for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower
+clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but
+presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in
+Parliamentary business.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The
+court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a
+juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In spite
+of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of arbitrary
+imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a
+monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular
+courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is
+absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a hereditary
+executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The special advantage
+enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an aristocracy with interests
+antagonistic to those of the people. It would be truer to say that the
+liberties of England were bought by money than by the blood of our
+forefathers.</p>
+
+<p>The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and
+an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time of
+the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382, which
+corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie. Sharply
+though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed to have
+been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is here
+sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a statute
+of Henry VII. that obedience to the <i>de facto</i> government is not to be
+punished on the ground that government is not also <i>de jure</i>.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Europe</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language
+as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters was
+practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost
+exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a multitude
+of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the cause of not
+a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The monasteries
+served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of general
+lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is conclusive as to
+the general corruption of morals among the clergy as among the laity. The
+common diversion of the upper classes, lay and clerical, when not engaged
+in actual war, was hunting. An extended commerce was impossible when
+robbery was a normal occupation of the great.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce
+developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the
+Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the
+manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the
+fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen
+manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great
+Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and Southern
+areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century, by which
+time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic in the
+Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a less
+degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard, developed a
+large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was sufficiently
+difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on the sea, and
+piracy was extremely prevalent.</p>
+
+<p>Governments as well as private persons were under a frequent necessity
+of borrowing, and for a long time the great money lenders were the Jews.
+They, however, were later to a great extent displaced by the merchants of
+Lombardy, and the fifteenth century witnesses the rise of the great
+bankers, Italian and German.</p>
+
+<p>The structure and furniture of all buildings for private purposes made
+exceedingly little provision for comfort, offering an extreme contrast to
+the dignity of the public buildings and the sublimity of ecclesiastical
+architecture.</p>
+
+<p>During the last three hundred years of our period it is clear that there
+was a great diminution of the status of servitude and a great increase in
+the privileges extended to corporate towns. Private warfare was checked and
+lawless robbery to a considerable extent restrained. It is tolerably clear
+that the rise of heretical sects were both the cause and the result of
+moral dissatisfaction, tending to the adoption of higher moral standards.
+Some of these sects were cruelly crushed by merciless persecution, as in
+the case of the Albigenses. The doctrines of Wickliffe, however, were never
+stamped out in England; and the form which they took in Bohemia among the
+followers of the martyred John Huss had little about them that was
+beneficial.</p>
+
+<p>The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
+chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour. To
+this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the Crusades. To
+valour and devotion was added the law of service to womanhood, and chivalry
+may fairly claim to have developed generally the three virtues essential to
+it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality. Resting, however, as it did on
+the personal prowess and skill of the individual in single combat, the
+whole system of chivalry was destroyed by the introduction on an extensive
+scale of the use of firearms.</p>
+
+<p>We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
+four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities; the
+application of modern languages to literature, and especially to poetry;
+and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be said to have
+begun with the establishment of the great schools by Charlemagne out of
+which sprang the European universities. For a long time of course all
+studies were dominated by that of theology, and the scholastic philosophy
+which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits were, they kept alive an
+intellectual activity which ultimately found fresh channels. The Romance
+languages developed a new literature first on the tongues of the
+troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which gave birth to Dante and
+Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century that a new enthusiasm was
+born for the study of classical authors, though Greek was still unknown.
+And the final and decisive impulse was given when the invention of printing
+made the great multiplication of books possible.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='STANLEY_LANE_POOLE'></a>STANLEY LANE-POOLE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Egypt_in_the_Middle_Ages'></a>Egypt in the Middle Ages</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied
+Arabic under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before going up
+to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the
+British Museum," which appeared in fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892,
+and founded his reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
+numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo officially employed by
+the British Government upon the Mohammedan antiquities, and published his
+treatise on "The Art of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year he
+visited Stockholm, Helsingfors, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Constantinople
+to examine their Oriental collections. He has written histories of the
+"Moors in Spain," "Turkey," "The Barbary Corsairs," and "Medi&aelig;val India,"
+which have run to many editions; and biographies of Saladin, Babar,
+Aurangzib; of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and Sir Harry Parkes. He has
+also published a miniature Koran in the "Golden Treasury" series, and
+written "Studies in a Mosque," besides editing three volumes of Lane's
+"Arabic Lexicon." For five years he held the post of Professor of Arabic at
+Trinity College, Dublin, of which he is Litt.D. Mohammedan Egypt, his
+special subject, he has treated in several books on Cairo, the latest being
+"The Story of Cairo." But his most complete work on this subject is "The
+History of Egypt in the Middle Ages," here epitomised by the author.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--A Province of the Caliphate</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Ever since the Arab conquest in 641 Egypt has been ruled by Mohammedans,
+and for more than half the time by men of Turkish race. Though now and
+again a strong man has gathered all the reins of control into his own hands
+and been for a time a personal monarch, as a rule the government has been,
+till recent years, a military bureaucracy.</p>
+
+<p>The people, of course, had no voice in the government. The Egyptians
+have never been a self-governing race, and such a dream as constitutional
+democracy was never heard of until a few years ago. By the Arab conquest in
+the seventh century the people merely changed masters. They were probably
+not indisposed to welcome the Moslems as their deliverers from the tyranny
+of the Orthodox Church of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire, invincibly
+intolerant of the native monophysite heresy; and when the conquest was
+complete they found themselves, on the whole, better off than before. They
+paid their taxes to officials with Arabic instead of Greek titles, but the
+taxes were lighter and the amount was strictly laid down by law.</p>
+
+<p>The land-tax of about a pound per acre was not excessive on so fertile a
+soil, and the poll-tax on nonconformity, of the same amount, was a moderate
+price to pay for entire liberty of conscience and freedom in public worship
+guaranteed by solemn treaty. The other taxes were comparatively
+insignificant, and the total revenue in the eighth century was about
+&pound;7,000,000. The surplus went to the caliph, the head of the vast
+Mohammedan empire, which then stretched from Seville to Samarkand, whose
+capital was first Damascus and afterwards Baghdad.</p>
+
+<p>For over 200 years (till 868) Egypt was a mere province of this huge
+caliphate, and was governed, like other provinces, with a sole view to
+revenue. "Milk till the udder be dry and let blood to the last drop" was a
+caliph's instructions to a governor of Egypt. As these governors were
+constantly changed--there were sixty-seven in 118 years under the Abbasid
+caliphs of Baghdad--and as a governor's main object was to "make hay while
+the sun shines," the process of milking the Egyptian cow was often
+accelerated by illegal extortion, and the governor's harvest was reaped
+before it was due. Illegality was, however, checked to some extent by the
+generally wise and just influence of the chief justice, or kadi, whose
+probity often formed the best feature of the Arab government in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did the caliphs extort taxes without giving something in return. The
+development of irrigation works was always a main consideration with the
+early Mohammedan rules, from Spain to India, and in Egypt, where irrigation
+is the country's very life, it was specially cared for, with a
+corresponding increase in the yield. Moreover, the governors usually held
+to the agreement that the Christians should have liberty of conscience, and
+protected them from the Moslem soldiery. As time went on, this toleration
+abated, partly because the Moslems had gradually become the predominant
+population. At the beginning the caliphs had taken anxious precautions
+against the colonising of Egypt; they held it by an army, but they were
+insistent that the army should not take root, but be always free to join
+the caliph's standard. But it was inevitable that the Arabs should settle
+in so fertile and pleasant a land. Each governor brought a small army as
+his escort, and these Arab troops naturally intermarried with Egyptian
+women, who were constitutionally inclined to such alliances. A few Arab
+tribes also settled in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>This gradual and undesigned Arabising of the country would lead to
+oppression of the Christians, to the "squeezing" of wealthy natives, and
+occasionally to the institution of humiliating distinctions of dress and
+other vexations, and even to the spoiling of Coptic churches. Then
+sometimes the Copts, as the Egyptian Christians are called, would rebel.
+Their last and greatest rebellion, which occurred in the Delta in 830-832,
+was ruthlessly trampled out by Turkish troops under Mamun, the only Abbasid
+caliph who made a visit to Egypt. Many Copts now apostatised, and from this
+time dates the predominance of the Moslem population and the settling of
+Arabs in the villages and on the land, instead of as heretofore only in the
+two or three large towns.</p>
+
+<p>The coming of the Turkish troops with the caliph Mamun was an ominous
+event for the country. Up to 846 all the successive governors had been
+Arabs, and many of them were related to the caliphs themselves. With some
+unfortunate exceptions, they seem to have been men of simple habits--the
+Arabs were never luxurious--and usually of strict Mohammedan principles.
+They made money, honestly if possible, during their brief tenure; but they
+did not harass the people much by their personal interference, and left the
+local officials to manage matters in their own way, as had always been the
+custom. They lived at the new capital, Fustat, which grew up on the site of
+the conqueror's camp, and very near the modern Cairo; for Alexandria, the
+symbol of Roman domination, was dismantled in 645 after the Emperor
+Manuel's attempt at reconquest. If they did not do much active good, they
+did little harm, and Egypt pursued her immemorial ways.</p>
+
+<p>The last Arab governor, Anbasa, was a man of fine character, and his
+term of office was distinguished by the building of the fort of Damietta,
+as a protection against Roman raids, and by a defeat of the tributary
+Sudanis near Dongola.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Turkish Governors</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Arabs have neither the ferocity nor the luxuriousness, nor, it
+should be added, the courage and the genius for administration of the
+Turkish race. In the arrival of Turkish troops in 830 we see a symptom of
+what was going on all over the eastern caliphate. Turks were taking the
+place of Arabs in the army and the provincial governments, just as the
+Persians were filling up the civil appointments. The caliph's Turkish
+bodyguard was the beginning of the dismemberment of the caliphate. It
+became the habit of the caliphs to grant the government of Egypt, as a sort
+of fief, to a leading Turkish officer, who usually appointed a deputy to do
+his work and to pay him the surplus revenue. Such a deputy was
+Ahmad-ibn-Tulun (868-884), the first of the many Turkish despots of Egypt.
+Ibn-Tulun was the first ruler to raise Egypt from a mere tax-paying
+appendage of the caliphate to a kingdom, independent save for the
+recognition of the caliph on the coinage, and he was the first to found a
+Moslem dynasty there. A man of fair Mohammedan education, iron will, and
+ubiquitous personal attention to affairs, he added Syria to his dominions,
+defeated the East Romans with vast slaughter near Tarsus (883), kept an
+army of 30,000 Turkish slaves and a fleet of a hundred fighting ships.</p>
+
+<p>He beautified his capital by building a sumptuous palace and his
+well-known mosque, which still stands in his new royal suburb of Katai; he
+encouraged the small farmers and reduced the taxation, yet he left five
+millions in the treasury when he died in 884. His son maintained his power,
+and more than his luxury and artistic extravagance; but there were no
+elements of stability in the dynasty, which depended solely upon the
+character of the ruler. The next generation saw Egypt once more (905) a
+mere province of the caliphate, but with this difference, that its
+governors were now Turks, generally under the control of their own
+soldiery, and much less dependent upon the ever-weakening power of the
+Caliph of Baghdad. One of them, the Ikhshid, in 935 emulated Ibn-Tulun and
+united part of Syria to Egypt; but the sons he left were almost children,
+and the power fell into the hands of the regent Kafur, a black eunuch from
+the Sudan, bought for &pound;25, who combined a luxurious and cultivated
+court with some military successes and real administrative capacity.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--The Fatimid Caliphs</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Mohammedan world is roughly divided into Sunnis and Shia. The Shia
+are the idealists, the mystics of Islam; the Sunnis are the formalists, the
+schoolmen. The Shia trace an apostolic succession from Ali, the husband of
+the prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima, hold doctrines of immanence and
+illumination, adopt an allegorical interpretation of scripture, and believe
+in the coming of a Mahdi or Messiah. The Sunnis adhere to the elective
+historical caliphate descended from Mohammed's uncle, maintain the eternal
+uncreated sufficiency of the Koran, literally interpreted, and believe in
+no Messiah save Mohammed.</p>
+
+<p>The Shia, whatever their racial origin, form the Persian, the Aryan,
+adaptation of Islam, which is an essentially Semitic creed. In the tenth
+century they had established a caliph among the Berbers at Kayrawan (908).
+They had thence invaded Egypt with temporary success in 914 and 919. When
+the death of Kafur in 968 left the country a prey to rival military
+factions, the fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the Fatimid
+caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from Fatima--sent his
+army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the sport of Turkish
+mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just as the Copts had
+welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the Fatimid general,
+entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a name still applied
+both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations in 969, and immediately
+laid the foundations of the fortified palace which he named,
+astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir), El-Kahira, "the Martial," or
+"the Victorious," which gradually expanded to the city of Cairo. He also
+founded the great historic university mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by
+the heretical Shia, became the bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the
+theological centre of orthodox Islam.</p>
+
+<p>The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
+Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like the
+Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and recognised
+the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of their
+hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force extreme Shia
+doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with its graduated
+stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they were content to
+add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary Mohammedan ritual, and to
+set them conspicuously on their coinage, without entering upon a
+propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems apparently preserved their
+orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate for two centuries with
+traditional composure. The Christian Copts found the new
+<i>r&eacute;gime</i> a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
+in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with the
+local heads of the Christian religion.</p>
+
+<p>The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
+Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
+attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
+Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
+Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly due,
+of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and accountants, for
+Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had rest under this wise
+and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example in his luxury and love
+of display, he unquestionably maintained law, enforced equity, punished
+corruption, and valiantly defended his kingdom. He fitted out a fleet of
+600 sail at Maks (then the port of Cairo, on the Nile), which kept the
+Emperor Basil at a distance and assured the caliph's ascendancy from end to
+end of the Mediterranean Sea.</p>
+
+<p>After these two great rulers the Fatimid caliphate subsisted for nearly
+two centuries by no virtue or energy of its own. The caliphs lived
+secluded, like veiled prophets, in their huge palace at Cairo, given over
+to sensual delights (Saladin found 12,000 women in the Great Palace when he
+entered it in 1171), and wholly regardless of their kingdom, which they
+left to the care of vezirs, who were chiefly bent on making their own
+fortunes, though there were many able, and a few honest men amongst them.
+The real power rested with the army, and the only check upon the tyranny
+and debauchery of the army lay in its own jealous divisions. The fanatical
+Berber regiments imported from Tunis, the bloody blacks recruited in the
+Sudan, and the mutinous Turkish troops long established in the country,
+were always at daggers drawn, and their rivalry was the vezirs'
+opportunity. In such anarchy the country fell from bad to worse.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Hakim, the frantic son of Aziz and his Christian wife, was
+a personal despotism of the most eccentric kind, marked by apparently
+unreasonable regulations, such as keeping the shops open by night instead
+of by day, and confining all women to the house for seven years, as well as
+by intermittent persecution of Christians and Jews; and also by enlightened
+acts, such as the founding of the Hall of Science and the building of
+mosques, for all the Fatimides were friends to the arts; and ending in the
+proclamation of Hakim as the incarnation of the Divine Reason, in which
+capacity he is still adored by the Druses of the Lebanon. This assumption
+led to popular tumults and an orgy of carnage, in the midst of which Hakim
+mysteriously disappeared (1021).</p>
+
+<p>His successors, Zahir (1021-1036), and Mustansir (1036-1096) did nothing
+to retrieve the anarchic situation, of which the soldiers were the unruly
+masters. Palace cliques, disastrous famines (one of which lasted seven
+years, 1066-1072, and even led to the public selling of human joints as
+butcher's meat), slave, or rather freedmen's, revolts, military tumults,
+and the occasional temporary ascendancy of a talented vezir, sum up the
+history of Egypt during most of the eleventh century. The wisdom and
+firmness of two great Armenian vezirs, Bedr-el-Gemali (1073-1094) and his
+son Afdal (1094-1121), brought a large degree of order, but the last years
+of the Fatimid caliphate were blotted by savage murders both of caliphs and
+vezirs, and by the loss of their Syrian dominions to Seljuks and
+Crusaders.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--The House of Saladin</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>It was a question whether Egypt would fall to the Christian king of
+Jerusalem or the Moslem king of Damascus; but, after several invasions by
+both, Nur-ed-din settled the problem by sending his Syrian army to Cairo in
+1169, when the Crusaders withdrew without offering battle, and the Fatimid
+caliphate came to an end in 1171.</p>
+
+<p>On the Syrian general's death, two months after the conquest, his
+nephew, Salah-ed-din ibn-Ayyub (Saladin), succeeded to the vezirate, and
+after Nur-ed-din's death, in 1174, he made himself independent sultan, not
+only of Egypt but of Syria and Mesopotamia. Saladin was a Kurd from the
+Tigris districts; but his training and his following were purely Turkish,
+moulded on the Seljuk model, and recruited largely from the Seljuk lands.
+His fame was won outside Egypt, and only eight of the twenty-four years of
+his reign were spent in Cairo; the rest was passed in waging wars in Syria,
+Mesopotamia, and Palestine, culminating in the catastrophic defeat of the
+Crusaders near Tiberias in 1187, and the conquest of Jerusalem and all of
+the Holy Land.</p>
+
+<p>The famous crusade of Richard I., though it resulted only in recovering
+a strip of coast from Acre to Jaffa, and did not rescue Jerusalem, wore out
+Saladin's strength, and in 1193 the chivalrous and magnanimous "Soldan"
+died. In Egypt his chief work, after repressing revolts of black troops and
+Shia conspiracies, and repelling successive naval attacks on Damietta and
+Alexandria by the Eastern emperor and the kings of Jerusalem and Sicily,
+was the building of the Citadel of Cairo after the model of Norman
+fortresses in Syria, and the encouragement of Sunni orthodoxy by the
+founding and endowment of medresas, or theological colleges. The people,
+who had never been really converted to the Fatimid creed, accepted the
+latest reformation with their habitual nonchalance. This was really the
+greatest achievement of Saladin and his house. Cairo succeeded to Baghdad
+and Cordova as the true metropolis of Islam, and Egypt has remained true to
+the most narrow school of orthodoxy ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
+half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
+brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for a
+quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able son
+Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's frequent
+absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the discredited
+Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure of Damietta was
+a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to defeat the "Franks" at
+Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
+Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with him
+in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to Christians, and
+listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he granted trading
+concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established a consulate at
+Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem learning, built
+colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in every way. What had
+happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the Fatimides, was
+repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne successively till
+1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade, the salvation of Egypt
+devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves, who had formed the
+<i>corps d'&eacute;lite</i> of Saladin's army.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--The Mamluks</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Political women have played a great r&ocirc;le in Egypt from Hatshepsut
+and Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
+engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
+Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
+Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
+Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
+France.</p>
+
+<p>At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
+she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice against a
+woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and a half one
+Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he could, and
+sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that forty-eight
+sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the river," so
+called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and twenty-three Burgis,
+named after the burg, or citadel, where their quarters originally were),
+succeeded one another from 1250 to 1517, it will be seen that their average
+reign was but three and a half years. The throne, in fact, belonged to the
+man with the longest sword.</p>
+
+<p>The bravest and richest generals and court officials surrounded
+themselves with bands of warrior slaves, and reached a power almost equal
+to the reigning sultan, who was, in fact, only <i>primus inter pares</i>,
+and on his death--usually by assassination--they fought for his title. All
+were alike slaves by origin, but this term implied no degradation. Any
+slave with courage and address had the chance of becoming a freedman,
+rising to influence, and climbing into his master's seat. Every man was
+every other man's equal--if he could prove it; but the process of proving
+it often turned Cairo into a shambles.</p>
+
+<p>The Mamluks were physically superb, a race of born soldiers, dashing
+horsemen, skilled leaders, brilliant alike in battle and in all manly
+sports. They were at the same time the most luxurious of men, heavy
+drinkers, debauched sensualists, magnificent in their profusion, in their
+splendid prodigality in works of art and luxury, and in the munificence
+with which they filled their capital with noble monuments of the most
+exquisite Saracenic architecture. Most of the beautiful mosques of Cairo
+were built by these truculent soldiers, all foreigners, chiefly Turks, a
+caste apart, with no thought for the native Egyptians whose lands they
+received as fiefs from the sultan; with no mercy when ambition called for
+secret assassination or wholesale massacre; yet fastidious in dress,
+equipment, and manners, given to superb pageants, laborious in business,
+and fond of music and poetry. Their orthodoxy is attested not only by their
+innumerable religious foundations and endowments, but by their importing
+into Cairo a line of Abbasid caliphs--<i>fain&eacute;ants</i> indeed, but
+in a manner representative of the great caliphs of Baghdad, extinguished by
+the Mongols in 1258--and in maintaining them till the Ottoman sultan
+usurped their very nominal authority as Commanders of the Faithful.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest of all the Mamluks was Beybars (1260-1277). He it was who
+had charged St. Louis's knights at Mansura in 1249, and afterwards helped
+to rout the Mongol hordes at the critical battle of Goliath's Spring in
+1260; and he was the real founder of the Mamluk empire, and organised and
+consolidated his wide dominions so skilfully and firmly that all the
+follies and jealousies and crimes of his successors could not destroy the
+fabric. He made his army perfect in discipline, built a navy, made canals,
+roads, and bridges, annexed Nubia, organised a regular postal service,
+built fortifications, mosques, colleges, halls of justice, and managed
+everything, from the fourth cataract of the Nile and the Holy Cities of
+Arabia to the Pyramus and the Euphrates, by his immense capacity for work
+and amazing rapidity of movements.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt prospered exceedingly under his just, firm, and capable rule; he
+was severe to immorality and strictly prohibited wine, beer, and hashish.
+He entered into diplomatic relations with European powers to the great
+advantage of his country's trade; and his bravery, munificence, and justice
+have made him a popular hero in Arabic romances down to the present
+day.</p>
+
+<p>None of his successors approached his high example Khalil indeed
+recovered Acre and all that remained of the Crusader's possessions in
+Palestine, and the Mamluks, who never lost their soldierly qualities
+whoever happened to be their nominal ruler, handsomely defeated the Mongols
+again in 1299 and 1303, and for ever saved Egypt from the unspeakable curse
+of a Mongol conquest Nasir, whose reign covers most of the first half of
+the fourteenth century, was a great builder, and so were many of the nobles
+of his court. It was the golden age of Saracenic architecture, and Cairo is
+still full of the monuments of Nasir's emirs. He encouraged agriculture,
+stockbreeding, farming, falconry, as well as literature and art,
+everything, in short, except vice, wine, and Christians.</p>
+
+<p>The Burgi, or Circassian Mamluks (1382-1517), were little more than
+chief among the emirs. Widespread corruption, the open sale of high offices
+and of "justice," and general debauchery characterised their rule. Yet they
+built many of the loveliest mosques in Cairo, and the conquest of Cyprus,
+long a nest of Mediterranean piracy, by Bars Bey in 1426 may be added to
+their credit. Kait Bey (1468-1496) was a great builder, and in every way a
+wise, brave, and energetic, public-spirited sovereign, and was an exception
+to the general baseness.</p>
+
+<p>Egypt was rich in his day. The European trade had swelled enormously,
+and the duties brought in a prodigious revenue. The Italian Republics had
+their consulates or their marts in Alexandria, and Marseilles, Narbonne,
+and Catalonia sent their representatives. The Indian trade was also very
+considerable; we read of &pound;36,000 paid at one time in customs dues at
+Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan took toll on
+every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in the palmy days
+that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route in 1497. It was
+an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not resigned without a
+struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off Chaul in the Bay of
+Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida avenged the honour of his
+country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral Hoseyn off Diu in the
+following year, and the prolific transit trade of Egypt was to a great
+extent lost.</p>
+
+<p>This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
+dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
+defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion. But
+the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of Constantinople in
+1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and, after defeating the shah
+of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt was only a matter of time.
+The victory was made easier by jealousies and treachery among the Mamluks.
+Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant troops in a battle near Aleppo in
+August 1516; a last desperate stand of the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill
+at Cairo in January 1517, was overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a
+province of the Turkish empire. Such it remains, formally, to this day.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='RAPHAEL_HOLINSHED'></a>RAPHAEL HOLINSHED</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='Chronicles_of_England_Scotland_and_Ireland'></a>Chronicles of
+England, Scotland, and Ireland</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the
+most celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
+Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period of English
+history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain from the earliest times,
+and carried on until the reign of Elizabeth, in the course of which,
+between 1580 and 1584, Holinshed died. The work did good service to
+Shakespeare, who drew from it much of the material for his historical
+plays. The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
+another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John Hooker and
+others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the foreword to which the
+"Chronicles" are described as containing "the most curious and authentic
+account of the manners and customs of our island in the reign of Henry
+VIII. and Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer this
+is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope of this work, it
+is impossible to convey an impression of the whole, which is best
+represented by means of selected examples of the chronicler's method. Being
+the work of so many different authors, the literary quality of the
+"Chronicles" naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
+them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs of early
+England. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William
+Brooke, Knight</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
+down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed in
+the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to yeeld to
+their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I condescended to it,
+and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good, although no gaie
+success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor regard the substance
+of that which is here declared, I must needs confess that it is none of
+mine owne; but if your lordship have consideration of the barbarous
+composition shewed herein, that I may boldlie claim and challenge for mine
+owne. Certes, I protest before God and your Honor, that I never made any
+choise of stile, or words, neither regarded to handle this Treatise in such
+precise order and method as manie other would have done, thinking it
+sufficient, truelie and plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to
+intreat of, rather than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a
+rotten sepulchre, a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable
+to the reader. But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto
+the truth of things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled
+Treatise of mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the
+self-same argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
+sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture, more
+or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of forreine
+inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold commodities have
+oft allured sundrie princes and famous capteines of the world to conquer
+and subdue the same unto their owne subjection. Manie sorts of people
+therefore have come in hither and settled themselves here in this Ile, and
+first of all other, a parcell of the lineage and posteritie of Japhet,
+brought in by Samothes, in the 1910 after the creation of Adam. Howbeit in
+process of time, and after they had indifferentlie replenished and
+furnished this Iland with people, Albion, the giant, repaired hither with a
+companie of his owne race proceeding from Cham, and not onelie annexed the
+same to his owne dominion, but brought all such as he found here of the
+line of Japhet, into miserable servitude and most extreame thraldome. After
+him also, and within lesse than six hundred and two yeares, came Brute, the
+son of Sylvius, with a great train of the posteritie of the dispersed
+Trojans in 324 ships; who rendering the like courtesie unto Chemminits as
+they had done before unto the seed of Japhet, brought them also wholie
+under his rule and governance, and dispossessing them he divided the
+countrie among such princes and capteines as he had led out of Grecia with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Then after some further space of time the Roman Emperours subdued the
+land to their dominion; and after the coming of the Romans, it is hard to
+say with how manie sorts of people we were dailie pestered. For their
+armies did commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I may
+call them) a confused mixture of all other countries and nations then
+living in the world. Howbeit I thinke it best, because they did all beare
+the title of Romans, to retaine onelie that name for them all, albeit they
+were wofull guests to this our Iland: sith that with them came all kinds of
+vice, all riot and excess of behaviour into our countrie, which their
+legions brought with them from each corner of their dominions.</p>
+
+<p>Then did follow the Saxons, and the Danes, and at last the Normans, of
+whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to our
+countrymen than the Danes, or more heavie and intollerable to our Iland
+than the Saxons or the Romans. For they were so cruellie bent to our utter
+subversion and overthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse reproach to be
+accounted a slave than an Englishman, or a drudge in anie filthie businesse
+than a Britaine: insomuch that everie French page was superiour to the
+greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishman's life but a pastime to such
+of them as contended in their braverie who should give the greatest strokes
+or wounds unto their bodies when their toiling and drudgerie could not
+please them or satisfie their greedie humours. Yet such was our lot in
+those daies by the divine appointed order, that we must needs obey such as
+the Lord did set pyer us, and this all because we refused grace offered in
+time, and would not heare when God by his preachers did call us so
+favourablie unto him.</p>
+
+<p>By all this then we perceive, how from time to time this Hand hath not
+onelie been a prey, but as it were a common receptacle for strangers, the
+naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter, till in
+the end they came not onelie to be driven into a corner of this region, but
+in time also verie like utterlie to have been extinguished. Thus we see how
+England hath been manie times subject to the reproach of conquest. And
+whereas the Scots seeme to challenge manie famous victories also over us,
+it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in this as in the most part of
+their historie, which is to seeke great honour by lying, and great renown
+by prating and craking. Indeed they have done great mischief in this Hand,
+and with extreime crueltie; but as for anie conquest the first is yet to
+heare of.</p>
+
+<p>But beside those conquests aforementioned, Huntingdon, the old
+historiographer, speaketh of another, likelie (as he saith) to come one
+daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no man to good, sith
+nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger and much cold.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>III.--Of King Richard, the First, and his Journie to the Holie
+Land</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Richard the First of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the Second,
+began his reign over England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of our Lord
+1189. He received the crowne with all due and accustomed sollemnitie, at
+the hands of Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterburie, the third daie of
+September.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this daie of King Richard's coronation, the Jewes that dwelt in
+London and in other parts of the realme, being there assembled, had but
+sorie hap, as it chanced. For they meaning to honour the same coronation
+with their presence, and to present to the king some honourable gift,
+whereby they might declare themselves glad for his advancement, and procure
+his freendship towards them, for the confirming of their privileges and
+liberties; he of a zealous mind to Christes religion, abhorring their
+nation (and doubting some sorcerie by them to be practised) commanded that
+they should not come within the church when he should receive the crowne,
+nor within the palace whilest he was at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>But at dinner-time, among other that pressed in at the palace gate,
+diverse of the Jews were about to thrust in, till one of them was striken
+by a Christian, who alledging the king's commandment, kept them backe from
+comming within the palace. Which some of the unrulie people, perceiving,
+and supposing it had been done by the king's commandement, tooke lightlie
+occasion thereof, and falling upon the Jewes with staves, bats, and stones,
+beat them and chased them home to their houses and lodgings. Then did they
+set fire on the houses, and the Jewes within were either smoldred and
+burned to death within, or else at their comming forth most cruellie
+received upon the points of speares, billes, and swords of their
+adversaries that watched for them verie diligentlie. This great riot well
+deserved sere and grievous punishment, but yet it passed over without
+correction, because of the hatred generallie conceived against the
+obstinate frowardnesse of the Jewes. Finallie, after the tumult was ceased,
+the king commanded that no man should hurt or harm any of the Jewes, and so
+they were restored to peace after they had susteined infinit damage.</p>
+
+<p>No great while after this his coronation, the king sought to prepare
+himself to journey to the holie land, and to this end he had great need of
+money. Therefore he made such sale of things appertaining to him, as well
+in right of the crowne, as otherwise, that it seemed to divers that he made
+his reckoning never to return agan, in so much that some of his councillors
+told him plainelie, that he did not well in making things awaie so freelie;
+unto whom he answered "that in time of need it was no evill policie for a
+man to help himself with his owne." and further, "that if London at that
+time of need would be bought, he would surelie sell it, if he might meet
+with a convenient merchant that were able to give him monie enough for
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Then all things being readie, King Richard set forth, and, after great
+hindrance by tempests, and at the hands of the men of Cyprus, who warred
+against him and were overcome, he came to the citie of Acres, which then
+was besieged by the Christian armie. Such was the valiancie of King Richard
+shown in manfull constraining of the citie, that his praise was greatly
+bruted both amongst the Christians and also the Saracens.</p>
+
+<p>At last, on the twelfth date of Julie, in the yeare of grace 1192, the
+citie of Acres was surrendered into the Christian men's hands. These things
+being concluded, the French King Philip, upon envie and malice conceived
+against King Richard (although he pretended sickness for excuse) departed
+homewards. Now touching this departure, divers occasions are remembered by
+writers of the emulation and secret spite which he should bear towards King
+Richard. But, howsoever, it came to passe, partlie through envie (as hath
+beene thought) conceived at the great deeds of King Richard, whose mightie
+power and valiantnesse he could not well abide, and partlie for other
+respects him moving, he took the sea with three gallies of the Genevois,
+and returned into Italie, and so home into France, having promised first
+unto King Richard in the holie land, and after to pope Celestine at Rome,
+that he would not attempt any hurtfull enterprise against the English
+dominions, till King Richard should be returned out of the holie land. But
+this promise was not kept, for he sought to procure Earle John, King
+Richard's brother, to rebell against him, though he then sought it in
+vaine.</p>
+
+<p>Yet were matters nowise peacefull within the realme of England, and
+because of this, and likewise because the froward humours of the French so
+greatlie hindered him in warring against the Saracens, King Richard
+determined fullie to depart homewards, and at last there was a peace
+concluded with Saladin. But on his journie homewards the King had but sorie
+hap, for he made shipwracke on the coast of Istria, and then fell into
+captivitie; and this was the manner that it came to passe.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>IV.--Of King Richard's Captivitie</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>King Richard, doubting to fall into the hands of those who might bear
+him ill-will, made the best shift he could to passe through quietlie, yet
+were many of his servants made captive, and he himself came with but three
+men to Vienna. There causing his servants to provide meat for him more
+sumptuous and fine than was thought requisite for so meane a person as he
+counterfeited then, he was straightway remarked, and some gave knowledge to
+the Duke of Austrich named Leopold, who loved him not for some matter that
+had passed in the holie land. Moreover, his page, going about the towne to
+change gold, and buy vittels, bewraied him, having by chance the King's
+gloves under his girdle: whereupon, being examined, for fear of tortures he
+confessed the truth.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke sent men to apprehend him, but he, being warie that he was
+descried, got him to his weapon; but they alledging the Duke's
+commandement, he boldly answered, "that sith he must be taken, he being a
+King, would yeeld himselfe to none of the companie but to the Duke alone."
+The Duke hearing of this, speedilie came unto him, whom he meeting,
+delivered up his sword, and committed him unto his custodie. Then was he
+brought before the princes and lords of the empire, in whose presence the
+emperour charged him with diverse unlawfull doings. King Richard
+notwithstanding the vaine and frivolous objections laid to his charge, made
+his answers always so pithilie and directlie to all that could be laid
+against him, and excused himself e in everie point so thoroughlie, that the
+emperour much marvelled at his high wisdom and prudence, and not onelie
+greatlie commended him for the same, but from thenceforth used him more
+courteously. Yet did King Richard perceive that no excuses would serve, but
+that he must paie to his covetous host some great summe of monie for his
+hard entertainment. Therefore he sent the bishop of Salisburie into England
+to provide for the paiment of his ransome.</p>
+
+<p>Finallie the King, after he had beene prisoner one yeare, six weekes,
+and three daies, was set at libertie on Candle-mass day, and then with long
+and hastie journies, not keeping the high waies, he hasted forth towards
+England. It is reported that if he had lingered by the way, he had beene
+eftsoones apprehended. For the emperour being incensed against him by
+ambassadors that came from the French king, immediatlie after he was set
+forward, began to repent himselfe in that he had suffered him so soon to
+depart from him, and hereupon sent men after him with all speed to bring
+him backe if they could by any means overtake him, meaning as then to have
+kept him in perpetual prison. But these his knavish tricks being in the
+good providence of God defeated, King Richard at length in good safetie
+landed at Sandwich, and the morrow after came to Canterburie, where he was
+received with procession. From thence he came unto London, where he was
+received with great joy and gladnesse of the people, giving heartie thanks
+to almightie God for his safe return and deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>The same yeare that King Richard was taken by the Duke of Austrich, one
+night in the month of Januarie about the first watch of the night, the
+northwest side of the element appeared of such a ruddie colour as though it
+had burned, without any clouds or other darknesse to cover it, so that the
+stars showed through that redness and might be verie well discerned.
+Diverse bright strakes appeared to flash upwards now and then, dividing the
+rednesse, through the which the stars seemed to be of a bright sanguine
+colour.</p>
+
+<p>In Februarie next insuing, one night after midnight the like wonder was
+seene and shortlie after newes came that the king was taken in Almaigne.
+And the same daie and selfe houre that the king arrived at Sandwich,
+whitest the sunne shone verie bright and cleare, there appeared a most
+brightsome and unaccustomed clearnesse, not farre distant from the sunne,
+as it were to the length and breadth of a man's personage, having a red
+shining brightnesse withall, like to the rainbow, which strange sight when
+manie beheld, there were that prognosticated the king alreadie to be
+arrived.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>V.--Of Good Queen Elisabeth, and How She Came into Her
+Kingdom</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>After all the stormie, tempestuous, and blustering windie weather of
+Queene Marie was overblowne, the darksome clouds of discomfort dispersed,
+the palpable fogs and mists of most intollerable miserie consumed, and the
+dashing showers of persecution overpast, it pleased God to send England a
+calm and quiet season, a cleare and lovelie sunshine, and a world of
+blessings by good Queene Elisabeth, into whose gracious reign we are now to
+make an happie entrance as followeth.</p>
+
+<p>On her entering the citie of London, she was received of the people with
+prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, and tender words, all which argued a
+wonderfull earnest love of most obedient subjects towards their sovereign.
+And on the other side, her grace, by holding up her hands, and merrie
+countenance to such as stood farre off, and most tender and gentle language
+to those that stood nigh unto her grace, did declare herselfe no lesse
+thankfullie to receive her people's good will, than they lovinglie offered
+it to her. And it was not onelie to those her subjects who were of noble
+birth that she showed herself thus verie gracious, but also to the poorest
+sort. How manie nose gaies did her grace receive at poore women's hands?
+How oftentimes staid she her chariot, when she saw anie simple bodie offer
+to speake to her grace? A branch of rosemarie given her grace with a
+supplication about Fleetbridge, was seene in her chariot till her grace
+came to Westminster, not without the marvellous wondering of such as knew
+the presenter, and noted the queene's most gracious receiving and keeping
+the same. Therefore may the poore and needie looke for great hope at her
+grace's hand, who hath shown so loving a carefulnesse for them.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, because princes be set in their seat by God's appointing, and
+they must therefore first and chieflie tender the glorie of Him from whom
+their glorie issueth; it is to be noted in her grace that for so much as
+God hath so wonderfullie placed her in the seat of government of this
+realme, she in all her doings doth show herselfe most mindful of His
+goodness and mercie shewed unto her. And one notable signe thereof her
+grace gave at the verie time of her passage through London, for in the
+Tower, before she entered her chariot, she lifted up her eies to Heaven and
+saith as followeth:</p>
+
+<p>"O Lord Almightie and everlasting God, I give Thee most heartie thanks
+that Thou hast beene so mercifull unto me as to spare me to behold this joy
+full daie. And I acknowledge that Thou hast dealt as wonderfullie and as
+mercifullie with me as Thou diddest with Thy true and faithfull servant
+Daniell Thy prophet, whom Thou deliveredst out of the den from the crueltie
+of the greedie and raging lions; even so was I overwhelmed, and onlie by
+Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, onlie be thankes, honor, and praise,
+for ever. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>On Sundaie, the five and twentieth daie of Januarie, her majestie was
+with great solemnitie crowned at Westminster, in the Abbey church there, by
+doctor Oglethorpe bishop of Carlisle. She dined in Westminster hall, which
+was richlie hung, and everything ordered in such royall manner, as to such
+a regall and most solemn feast appertained. In the meane time, whilst her
+grace sat at dinner, Sir Edward Dimmocke, knight, her champion by office,
+came riding into the hall in faire complete armour, mounted upon a
+beautifull courser, richlie trapped in cloth of gold, and in the midst of
+the hall cast downe his gauntlet, with offer to fight in her quarell with
+anie man that should denie her to be the righteous and lawfull queene of
+this realme. The queene, taking a cup of gold full of wine, dranke to him
+thereof, and sent it to him for his fee. Finallie, this feast being
+celebrated with all due and fitting royall ceremonies, tooke end with great
+joy and contentation to all the beholders.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, though there was thus an end of the ceremonies befitting the
+queene's coronation, her majesty was everywhere received with brave shows,
+and with pageants, all for the love and respect that her subjects bare her.
+Thus on Whitsundaie, in the first year of her reign, the citizens of London
+set forth a muster before the queene's majestie at Greenwich in the parke
+there, of the number of 1,400 men, whereof 800 were pikes, armed in fine
+corselets, 400 shot in shirts of mail, and 200 halberdiers armed in Almaine
+rivets; these were furnished forth by the crafts and companies of the
+citie. To everie hundred two wifflers were assigned, richlie appointed and
+apparelled for the purpose. There were also twelve wardens of the best
+companies mounted on horsebacke in coates of blacke velvet, to conduct
+them, with drums and fifes, and sixe ensigne all in lerkins of white sattin
+of Bridges, cut and lined with black sarsenet, and caps, hosen, and scarfs
+according. The sergeant-majors, captaine Constable, and captaine Sanders,
+brought them in order before the queene's presence, placing them in battell
+arraie, even as they should have fought; so the shew was verie faire, the
+emperour's and the French king's ammbassadors being present.</p>
+
+<p>Verilie the queene hath ever shown herself forward and most willing that
+her faithfull subjects should be readie and skilfull in war as in peace.
+Thus in the fourteenth yeare of her reign, by order of her council, the
+citizens of London, assembling in their several halles, the masters chose
+out the most likelie and active persons of their companies to be pikemen
+and shot. To these were appointed diverse valiant captaines, who to train
+them up in warlike feats, mustered them thrice everie weeke, sometimes in
+the artillerie yard, teaching the gunners to handle their pieces, sometimes
+at the Miles end, and in saint George's field, teaching them to
+skirmish.</p>
+
+<p>In the arts of peace likewise, she is greatlie pleased with them who are
+good craftsmen, and shews them favour. In government we have peace and
+securitie, and do not greatlie fear those who may stir up wicked rebellion
+within our land, or may come against us from beyond the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In brief, they of Norwich did say well, when the queene's majestie came
+thither, and in a pageant in her honour, one spake these words:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+"Dost them not see the joie of all this flocke?<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome cheere,<br
+/>
+Be still (good queene) their refuge and their rocke,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As they are thine to serve in love and feare;<br />
+So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."<br
+/>
+</blockquote>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='EDWARD_A_FREEMAN'></a>EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='The_Norman_Conquest_of_England'></a>The Norman Conquest of
+England</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne,
+Staffordshire, England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
+remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at eleven he
+had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had taught himself the
+rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune in 1848 enabled him to settle
+down and devote himself to historical research, and from that time until
+his death on March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
+strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in two volumes
+of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which appeared in 1849.
+Freeman's reputation as historian rests principally on his monumental
+"History of the Norman Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes
+between 1867 and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
+by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an extraordinary
+degree of insight. His historical scenes are remarkably clear and vivid, as
+though, according to one critic "he had actually lived in the times."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>Preliminary Events</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
+history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that which
+belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands by
+itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional period in
+the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been only Teutonic,
+was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and speech of the
+Romance nations.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when Pope and C&aelig;sar held each other in the
+death grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
+barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection with
+the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less immediate
+change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled, or enslaved
+the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when Africa was subdued
+by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate change than the conquest of
+Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with it not only a new dynasty, but
+a new nobility. It did not expel or transplant the English nation or any
+part of it; but it gradually deprived the leading men and families of
+England of their land and offices, and thrust them down into a secondary
+position under the alien intruders.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be forgotten that the old English constitution survived the
+Norman Conquest. What the constitution had been under the Saxon Eadgar,
+that it remained under William. The laws, with a few changes in detail, and
+also the language of the public documents, remained the same. The powers
+vested in King William and his Witan remained constitutionally the same as
+those which had been vested in King Eadgar and his Witan a hundred years
+before. Immense changes ensued in social condition and administration, and
+in the relation of the kingdom to foreign lands. There was also a vast
+increase of royal power, and new relations were introduced between the king
+and every class of his subjects; but formal constitutional changes there
+were none.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot too often repeat, for the saying is the very summing up of the
+whole history, that the Norman Conquest was not the wiping out of the
+constitution, the laws, the language, the national life of Englishmen. The
+English kingship gradually changed from the old Teutonic to the later
+medi&aelig;val type; but the change began before the Norman Conquest. It
+was hastened by that event; it was not completed till long after it, and
+the gradual transition, was brought to perfection by Henry II.</p>
+
+<p>Certain events indicate the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. The
+accession of Eadward at once brings us among the events that led
+immediately to that conquest, or rather we may look on the accession of
+this Saxon king as the first stage of the conquest itself. Swend and Cnut,
+the Danes, had shown that it was possible for a foreign power to overcome
+England by force of arms.</p>
+
+<p>The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut hindered the formation of a
+lasting Danish dynasty in England. The throne of Cerdic was again filled by
+a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the
+country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient
+nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly
+opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best,
+wittingly or unwillingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by
+accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers--not national kinsmen like
+Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and
+manners--enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once
+more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could not
+altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of Eadward.
+With Eadward, then, the Norman Conquest really begins. The men of the
+generation before the Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to behold the
+event itself, but who were to do all that they could do to advance or
+retard it, are now in the full maturity of life, in the full possession of
+power.</p>
+
+<p>Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide
+among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the
+warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, of York and Ely, are fast growing
+into maturity. Harold Hadrada is already pursuing his wild career of
+night-errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his
+exploits in Russia and Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>The younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof
+and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their
+cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and
+State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold and
+of William, is already a great prelate, abbot of the great house of
+Tewkesbury, soon to succeed Lyfing in the chair of Worcester.</p>
+
+<p>Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were
+already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's bidding,
+and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil and for
+good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in conduct
+and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled minority,
+and learning those arts of the statesman and the warrior which fitted him
+to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest conqueror of
+England.</p>
+
+<p>The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is
+gradually preparing for the scene of their performance. The great struggle
+of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had his share,
+the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of England stand forth
+as worthy rivals of the noblest of prizes, will form the subject of the
+next, the chief and central portion of my history.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle between Normans and Englishmen began with the accession of
+Eadward in 1042, although the actual subjugation of England by force of
+arms was still twenty-four years distant. The thought of another Danish
+king was now hateful. "All folk chose Eadward to King." As the son of
+&AElig;thelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonised
+Alfred, he had long been-familiar to English imaginations. Eadward, and
+Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the
+representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice
+spoke out at once, and unmistakably. His popular election took place in
+June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, and even before his burial.
+Eadward, then, was king, and he reigned as every English king before him
+had reigned, by that union of popular election and royal descent which
+formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship. He was crowned at
+Winchester, April 3, 1043. But by virtue of his peculiar character, his
+natural place was not on the throne of England, but at the head of a Norman
+abbey, for all his best qualities were those of a monk. Like him father, he
+was constantly under the dominion of favourites.</p>
+
+<p>It was to the evil choice of his favourites during the early part of his
+reign that most of the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a still
+more direct path was opened for the ambition of his Norman kinsman. In the
+latter part of his reign, either by happy accident or returning good sense,
+led him to a better choice. Without a guide he could not reign, but the
+good fortune of his later years gave him the wisest and noblest of all
+guides.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the first appearance of the illustrious man round
+whom the main interest of this history will henceforth centre. The second
+son of Godwine lived to be the last of our kings, the hero and martyr of
+our native freedom. The few recorded actions of Harold, Earl of the East
+Angles, could hardly have enabled me to look forward to the glorious career
+of Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, King of the English.</p>
+
+<p>Tall in stature, beautiful in countenance, of a bodily strength whose
+memory still lives in the rude pictorial art of his time, he was foremost
+alike in the active courage and in the passive endurance of the warrior. It
+is plain that in him, no less than in his more successful, and, therefore,
+more famous, rival, we have to admire not only the mere animal courage, but
+that true skill of the leader of armies which would have placed both Harold
+and William high among the captains of any age.</p>
+
+<p>Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
+remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature in
+his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
+warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an enemy.
+From the time of his advancement to the practical government of the kingdom
+there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he can be
+charged.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
+twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
+great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
+ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
+elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as the
+free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in hand
+on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.</p>
+
+<p>William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
+the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed with
+greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish greater
+things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment; no man
+ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession for all
+time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently above all
+others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment in the
+highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose and the
+unbending will.</p>
+
+<p>We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
+But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the same
+time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the conqueror
+of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy and the
+conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the help of
+France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came to his duchy
+under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with competitors for
+his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout the whole of his
+early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his own making, and he
+came honourably out of all.</p>
+
+<p>In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
+Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
+friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare in those days.
+Such visits as those which William and Eustace of Boulogne paid at this
+time to this country were altogether novelties, and unlikely to be
+acceptable to the English mind. We may be sure that every patriotic
+Englishman looked with an evil eye on any French-speaking prince who made
+his way to the English court.</p>
+
+<p>William came with a great following; he tarried awhile in his cousin's
+company; he went away loaded with gifts and honours. And he can hardly
+doubt that he went away encouraged by some kind of promise of succeeding to
+the kingdom which he now visited as a stranger. Direct heirs were lacking
+to the royal house, and William was Eadward's kinsman. The moment was in
+every way favourable for suggesting to William on the one hand, to Eadward
+on the other, the idea of an arrangement by which William should succeed to
+the English crown on Eadward's death. The Norman writers are full of
+Eadward's promise to William, and also of some kind of oath that Harold
+swore to him. Had either the promise or the oath been a pure Norman
+invention, William could never have paraded both in the way that he did in
+the eyes of Europe. I admit, then, some promise of Eadward, some oath of
+Harold. But when the time came for Eadward the Confessor to make his final
+recommendation of a successor, he certainly changed his purpose; for his
+last will, so far as such an expression can be used, was undoubtedly in
+favour of Harold.</p>
+
+<p>There is not the slightest sign of any intention on the part of Eadward
+during his later years to nominate William to the Witan as future king. The
+two streams of English and Norman history were joined together in the year
+when the two sovereigns met for the only time in their reigns. Those
+streams again diverged. England shook off the Norman influence to all
+outward appearance, and became once more the England of &AElig;thelstan and
+Eadgar. But the effects of Eadgar's Norman tendencies were by no means
+wholly wiped away. Normans still remained in the land, and circumstances
+constituted secondary causes of the expedition of William.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1051 that the influence of strangers reached its
+height. During the first nine years of Eadward's reign we find no signs of
+any open warfare between the national and the Normanising parties. The
+course of events shows that Godwine's power was being practically
+undermined, but the great earl was still Jutwardly in the enjoyment of
+royal favour, and his fast possessions were still being added to by royal
+grants. But soon England began to feel how great is the evil when a king
+and those immediately around him are estranged from the mass of his people
+in feeling.</p>
+
+<p>To the French favourites who gradually crowded the court of Eadward the
+name, the speech, and the laws of England were things on which their
+ignorant pride looked with utter contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Count Eustace of Boulogne, now brother-in-law of the king of the
+English, presently came, like the rest of the world, to the English Court.
+The king was spending the autumn at Gloucester. Thither came Count Eustace,
+and, after his satisfactory interview with the king, he turned his face
+homewards. When a few miles from Dover he felt himself, in a region
+specially devoted to Godwine, to be still more thoroughly in an enemy's
+country than in other parts of England, and he and all his company took the
+precaution of putting on their coats of mail.</p>
+
+<p>The proud Frenchmen expected to find free quarters at Dover, and they
+attempted to lodge themselves at their pleasure in the houses of the
+burghers. One Englishman resisted, and was struck dead on the spot. The
+count's party then rode through the town, cutting and slaying at pleasure.
+In a skirmish which quickly ensued twenty Englishmen and nineteen Frenchmen
+were slain.</p>
+
+<p>Count Eustace and the remnant of the party hastened back to Gloucester,
+and told the story after their own fashion. On the mere accusation of a
+stranger, the English king condemned his own subjects without a hearing. He
+sent for Godwine, as earl of the district in which lay the offending town,
+and commanded him to inflict chastisement on Dover. The English champion
+was then in the midst of a domestic rejoicing. He had, like the king, been
+strengthening himself by a foreign alliance, and had just connected his
+house with that of a foreign prince. Tostig, the third son of Godwine, had
+just married Judith, the daughter of Baldwin of Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to
+visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing his
+course. Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract justice and
+humanity, dictated a distinct refusal. Now or never a stand was to be made
+against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial for the burghers of
+Dover.</p>
+
+<p>But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a
+peaceful settlement of the matter. Eustace probably still lingered about
+the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready to
+poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader. It
+was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert. Godwine and three other
+earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of Eustace, but
+the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward, Leofric, and Ralph,
+bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep Godwine in check. Thus the
+northern and southern sections were arrayed against each other.</p>
+
+<p>There were, however, on the king's side, men who were not willing to see
+the country involved in civil war. Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia, stood
+forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed that
+hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should assemble at
+Michaelmas in London.</p>
+
+<p>Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to
+collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London. Godwine and
+his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear without a
+security for a safe conduct. The hostages and safe-conduct were refused.
+The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as he sat at his
+evening meal. The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his feet, overthrew the
+table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode for his life all that
+night. In the morning the king held his witenagemot, and by a vote of the
+king and his whole army, Godwine and his sons were declared outlaws, but
+five days were allowed them to get out of the land. Godwine, Swegen,
+Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha and Judith, the newly-married wife
+of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a ship laden with as much treasure as it
+would hold. They reached the court of Flanders in safety, were honourably
+received by the count, and passed the whole winter with him.</p>
+
+<p>Two of Godwine's sons, however, sought another refuge. Harold and his
+younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek
+shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially
+received by King Diarmid. For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic
+leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over
+the feeble mind of the king was complete. It was while Godwine dwelt as an
+exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the
+friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as
+William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit
+which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one,
+among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.</p>
+
+<p>Stirring events followed in quick succession. General regret was felt
+among all patriotic Englishmen at the absence of Godwine. The common voice
+of England soon began to call for the return of the banished earl, who was
+looked to by all men as the father of his country. England now knew that in
+his fall a fatal blow had been dealt to her own welfare and freedom. And
+Godwine, after sending many petitions to the king, vainly petitioning for a
+reconciliation, determined to return by force, satisfied that the great
+majority of Englishmen would be less likely to resist him than to join his
+banners.</p>
+
+<p>Harold sailed from Ireland to meet his father by way of the English
+Channel. Godwine sailed up the Thames, and London declared for him. Panic
+reigned among the favourites of King Eadward. The foreigners took to
+flight, among the fugitives being Archbishop Robert and Bishop Ulf. The
+gemot met and decreed the restoration of the earl and the outlawry of many
+Normans. The king yielded, and accorded to Godwine the kiss of peace, and a
+revolution was accomplished of which England may well be proud.</p>
+
+<p>But a tragedy soon followed, in the death of the most renowned
+Englishman of that generation. During a meal at the Easter festival Godwine
+fell from his seat, and died after lying insensible for three days. Great
+was the grief of the nation. Harold, in the years that followed, became so
+increasingly popular that he was virtually chief ruler of England, even
+before the death of Eadward, which happened on January 5, 1066. His burial
+was followed by the coronation of Harold. But the moment of struggle was
+now come. The English throne had become vacant, and the Norman duke knew
+how to represent himself as its lawful heir, and to brand the king of the
+nation's choice as an usurper. The days of debate were past, and the sword
+alone could decide between England and her enemy.</p>
+
+<p>William found one Englishman willing to help him in all his schemes, in
+the person of Tostig, Harold's brother, who had been outlawed at the demand
+of the nation, owing to his unfitness to rule his province as Earl of
+Northumberland. He had sunk from bad to worse. Harold had done all he could
+for his fallen brother, but to restore him was impossible. Tostig was at
+the Norman court, urging William to the invasion of England. At his own
+risk, he was allowed to make an incursion on the English coast. Entering
+the Humber, he burned several towns and slew many men. But after these
+ravages Tostig repaired to ask help of Harold Hardrada, whom he induced to
+prepare a great expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Harold Hardrada and Tostig landed and marched towards York. A battle was
+fought between the Mercians and Norwegians at Fulford, in which the former
+were worsted, but Harold was marching northward. In the fearful battle of
+Stamford Bridge both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain, and the Viking
+host was shattered. The victorious English king was banqueting in
+celebration of the great victory, when a messenger appeared who had come at
+fleetest pace from the distant coast of Sussex.</p>
+
+<p>One blow had been warded off, but another still more terrible had
+fallen. Three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of the
+Normans, once the peaceful guest of Edward, had again, but in quite another
+guise, made good his landing on the shores of England. It was in August
+1066 that the Norman fleet had set sail on its great enterprise. For
+several weeks a south wind had been waited for at the mouth of the River
+Dive, prayers and sacred rites of every kind being employed to move Heaven
+to send the propitious breeze. On September 28 the landing was effected at
+Pevensey, the ancient Anderida. There were neither, ships nor men to resist
+the landing. The first armed man who set foot on English ground was Duke
+William himself, whose foot slipped, so that he fell with both hands on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>A loud cry of grief was raised at the evil omen. But the ready wit of
+William failed him not. "By the splendour of God," he cried, "I have taken
+seizin of my kingdom; the earth of England is in my hands." The whole army
+landed in order, but only one day was spent at Pevensey. On the next day
+the army marched on eastward and came to Hastings, which was fixed on as
+the centre of the operations of the whole campaign.</p>
+
+<p>It was a hard lot for the English king to be compelled to hasten
+southward to dislodge the new enemy, after scarcely a moment's rest from
+the toils and glories of Stamford Bridge. But the heart of Harold failed
+him not, and the heart of England beat in unison with the heart of her
+king. As soon as the news came, King Harold held a council of the leaders
+of Stamford Bridge, or perhaps an armed gemot. He told them of the landing
+of the enemy; he set before them the horrors which would come upon the land
+if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud shout of assent rose
+from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his faith rather to die in arms
+than to acknowledge any king but Harold.</p>
+
+<p>The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
+march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
+London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
+immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
+English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
+shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold seems
+to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the fight at
+Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at Pevensey. Though
+his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in order to seek divine
+help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of his earlier days,
+devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross which gave England her
+war-cry.</p>
+
+<p>Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
+from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
+plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan, and
+he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
+ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
+real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to attack
+him at a great disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
+constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The latter
+halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters of the
+invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of Senlac.
+It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a post of great
+natural strength, which he speedily made into what is distinctly spoken of
+as a castle.</p>
+
+<p>The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
+commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
+The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
+kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English post.
+Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse, William led
+his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill of Telham
+first caught sight of the English encamped on the opposite height of
+Senlac.</p>
+
+<p>First in each of the three Norman divisions marched the archers,
+slingers, and cross-bow men, then the more heavily-armed infantry, lastly
+the horsemen. The reason of this arrangement is clear. The light-armed were
+to do what they could with their missiles to annoy the English; the heavy
+infantry were to strive to break down the palisades of the English camp,
+and so to make ready the way for the charge of the horse.</p>
+
+<p>Like the Normans, the English had risen early. The king, after exhorting
+his troops to stand firm, rode to the royal post; he there dismounted, took
+his place on foot, and prayed to God for help. The battle began at nine in
+the morning--one of the sacred hours of the church. The trumpet sounded,
+and a flight of arrows from all three Norman divisions--right, centre, and
+left,--was the prelude to the onslaught of the heavy-armed foot. The real
+struggle now began. The French infantry had to toil up the hill, and to
+break down the palisade, while a shower of stones and javelins disordered
+their approach, and while club, sword and axe greeted all who came within
+the reach of hand-strokes.</p>
+
+<p>Both sides fought with unyielding valour. The war-cries rose on either
+side. The Normans shouted "God help us!" the English called on the "Holy
+Cross." The Norman infantry had soon done its best, but that best had been
+in vain. The choicest chivalry of Europe now pressed on to the attack. The
+knights of Normandy and of all lands from which men had flocked to
+William's standard, now pressed on, striving to make what impression they
+could with the whole strength of themselves and their horses on the
+impenetrable fortress of timber, shields, and living warriors.</p>
+
+<p>But all was in vain. The English had thus far stood their ground well
+and wisely, and the tactics of Harold had so far completely answered. Not
+only had every attack failed, but the great mass of the French army
+altogether lost heart. The Bretons and the other auxiliaries on the left
+were the first to give way. Horse and foot alike, they turned and fled. The
+whole of William's left wing was thrown into utter confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single
+prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops. Order was soon
+restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more terrible
+attack. The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out Harold. A
+few moments more, and the two might have come face to face, but Gyrth, the
+noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at William. The missile
+narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish steed, the first of three
+that died under him that day. But William could not fight on foot as well
+as on horseback. He rose to his feet, pressed straight to seek the man who
+had so nearly slain him, and the earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of
+William's mace. Nor did he fall alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was
+smitten to the earth by an unknown assailant.</p>
+
+<p>The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as
+unyielding as ever. Direct attack was unavailing. In the Norman character
+fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed. He ventured on
+the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the unwary English
+rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts of delight. The
+error was fatal to England. The tide was turned; the duke's object was now
+gained; and the main end of Harold's skilful tactics was frustrated. The
+English were no longer entrenched, and the battle fell into a series of
+single combats. As twilight was coming on an arrow, falling like a bolt
+from heaven, pierced Harold's right eye, and he sank in agony at the foot
+of the standard. Round that standard the fight still raged, till the
+highest nobility, the most valiant soldiery of England were slaughtered to
+a man.</p>
+
+<p>Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we
+may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been
+conquered at all. As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was
+only a matter of time. From that day forward the Normans began to work the
+will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in England no
+chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought down to bondage
+and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an Englishman, and the men of
+England were no more a people.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name='JAMES_ANTHONY_FROUDE'></a>JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE</h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name='History_of_England'></a>History of England</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p> James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April
+23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894. He was educated at Westminster, and
+Oriel College, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders, he was, for a time, deeply
+influenced by Newman and the Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the
+radical revolution of thought revealed by his first treatise, the "Nemesis
+of Faith," which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation. Its tendency to
+skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its profound pathos, its accent of
+tenderness, and its fervour excited wide admiration. Permanent fame was
+secured by the appearance, in 1856, of the first two instalments of his
+magnificent work, "The History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the
+Defeat of the Armada," the last volume appearing in 1870. This treatise on
+the middle Tudor period is one of the most fascinating historical treatises
+in the whole range of literature. It is written in a vivid and graphic
+prose, and with rare command of the art of picturesque description. Froude
+never accepted the doctrine that history should be treated as a science;
+rather he claimed that the historian should concern himself with the
+dramatic aspect of the period about which he writes. The student may
+disagree with many of Froude's points of view and portraitures, yet his men
+and women breathe with the life he endows them, and their motives are
+actuated by the forces he sets in motion. Of his voluminous works perhaps
+the most notable, with the exception of the "History," are his "History of
+Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," 1871-74, and his "Short Studies on
+Great Subjects," the latter aptly exhibiting Froude's gifts of masterful
+prose and glittering paradox. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4><i>I.--The Condition of England</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>In periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and
+the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the
+influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves back
+into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a single
+type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms of the
+son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into paths the
+footprints of his ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that
+to cease to change is to lose place in the great race. Looking back over
+history, we see times of change and progress alternating with other times
+when life and thought have settled into permanent forms. Such was the
+condition of the Greeks through many ages before the Persian wars, and
+such, again, became the condition of Europe when the Northern nations
+grafted religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own hardy
+natures.</p>
+
+<p>A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
+that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is necessarily
+obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we have lost the key
+which would interpret the characters of our fathers. But some broad
+conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least possible to us. A
+rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows that it was something
+under five millions.</p>
+
+<p>The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
+principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
+service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
+strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best be
+determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food. Both were
+as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in the fourteenth
+century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were 1/2d. a pound; mutton
+was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought for 4d.; a good capon for
+3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d. Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d.
+a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon, and table beer was less than 1/2d.</p>
+
+<p>A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
+reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
+could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day can
+for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of the 6th
+of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters, masons,
+bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others, employers of
+skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if no meat and
+drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year, fivepence a day for
+the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the yearly average. The common
+labourers were to receive fourpence a day for the half year; for the
+remaining half, threepence.</p>
+
+<p>The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
+shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and this
+is far from being a full account of his advantages. The agricultural
+labourer held land in connection with his house, while in most parishes
+there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest land, which
+furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and ducks and geese,
+and where, if he could afford a cow, he was in no danger of being unable to
+feed it; and so important was this privilege considered, that when the
+commons began to be largely enclosed, Parliament insisted that the working
+man should not be without some piece of ground on which he could employ his
+own and his family's industry.</p>
+
+<p>By the 7th of the 31st of Elizabeth it was ordered that no cottage
+should be built for residence without four acres of land at lowest being
+attached to it for the sole use of the occupants of such cottage.</p>
+
+<p>The incomes of the great nobles cannot be determined for they varied
+probably as much as they do now. Under Henry IV. the average income of an
+earl was estimated at &pound;2,000 a year. Under Henry VIII. the great Duke
+of Buckingham, the wealthiest English peer, had &pound;6,000. And the
+income of the Archbishop of Canterbury was rated at the same amount. But
+the establishments of such men were enormous. Their retinues in time of
+peace consisted of several hundred persons, and in time of war a large
+share of the expenses was paid often out of private purses.</p>
+
+<p>Passing down to the body of the people, we find that &pound;20 a year
+and heavy duties to do for it, represented the condition of the squire of
+the parish. By the 2nd of Henry V. "the wages" of a parish priest were
+limited to &pound;5 6s. 8d., except in cases where there was a special
+license from the bishop, when they might be raised as high as &pound;6.
+Both squire and priest had sufficient for comfort. Neither was able to
+establish any steep difference between himself and the commons among whom
+he lived, so far as concerned outward advantages.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of all classes were free, open, and liberal. In frank style
+the people lived in "merry England," displaying the "glory of hospitality,"
+England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules according to which all tables
+were open to all comers without reserve. To every man, according to his
+degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare and free lodging. The
+people hated three things with all their hearts--idleness, want, and
+cowardice.</p>
+
+<p>A change, however, was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction
+of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era. Chivalry
+was dying; the abbey and castle were soon together to crumble into ruins;
+and all the forms, desires, beliefs, and convictions of the old world were
+passing away never to return. A new continent had arisen beyond the western
+sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk back into an infinite
+abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth itself, unfixed from its
+foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in the awful vastness of the
+universe. In the fabric of habit which they had so laboriously built for
+themselves mankind were to remain no longer.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
+through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him on
+the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder. The
+clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they deserved it.
+They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt the meaning of
+their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their authority was
+exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of the crown; and
+therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was compelled to stoop before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
+conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
+duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
+recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
+conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
+remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
+their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
+inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without faith,
+wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy and cut
+off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary life.</p>
+
+<p>Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
+taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there were
+no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among them a
+remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who was
+essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
+English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
+influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
+entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
+Protestants.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
+before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
+familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable. Dreaming
+that it could be effected from within, by the church itself inspired with a
+wiser spirit, he himself fell the first victim of a convulsion which he had
+assisted to create, and which he attempted too late to stay.</p>
+
+<p>Wolsey talked of reformation, but delayed its coming. The monasteries
+grew worse and worse. Favoured parish clergy held as many as eight
+benefices. Bishops accumulated sees, and, unable to attend to all, attended
+to none. Wolsey himself, the church reformer (so little did he really know
+what a reformation means), was at once Archbishop of York, Bishop of
+Winchester and of Durham, and Abbot of St. Albans. Under such
+circumstances, we need not be surprised to find the clergy sunk low in the
+respect of the English people.</p>
+
+<p>Fish's famous pamphlet shows the spirit that was seething. He spoke of
+what he had seen and knew. The monks, he tells the king, "be they that have
+made a hundred thousand idle dissolute women in your realm." But Wolsey
+could interfere with neither bishops nor monks without a special
+dispensation from the pope. A new trouble arose from the nation in the
+desire of Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who had been his deceased
+brother's wife, was six years older than himself, and was an obstacle to
+the establishment of the kingdom. Her sons were dead, and she was beyond
+the period when more children could be expected. Though descent in the
+female line was not formally denied, no queen regent had ever, in fact, sat
+upon the throne; nor was the claim distinctly admitted, or the claim of the
+House of York would have been unquestionable. It was, therefore, with no
+little anxiety that the council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children,
+on whom their hopes were centred, either born dead, or dying one after
+another within a few days of their birth.</p>
+
+<p>The line of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak
+from her childhood. If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to
+insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a
+civil war was inevitable. The next heir in blood was James of Scotland, and
+gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the
+existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was
+said, would rise up against a king of Scotland who entered England as
+sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>So far were Henry and Catherine alike that both had imperious tempers,
+and both were indomitably obstinate; but Henry was hot and impetuous,
+Catherine cold and self-contained. She had been the wife of Prince Arthur,
+eldest son of Henry VII., but the death of that prince occurred only five
+months after the marriage. The uncertainty of the laws of marriage, and the
+innumerable refinements of the Roman canon law, affected the legitimacy of
+the children and raised scruples of conscience in the mind of the king. The
+loss of his children must have appeared as a judicial sentence on a
+violation of the Divine law. The divorce presented itself to him as a moral
+obligation, when national advantage combined with superstition to encourage
+what he secretly desired.</p>
+
+<p>Wolsey, after thirty years' experience of public life, was as sanguine
+as a boy. Armed with this little lever of divorce, he saw himself in
+imagination the rebuilder of the Catholic faith and the deliverer of Europe
+from ecclesiastical revolt and from innovations of faith. The mass of the
+people hated Protestantism as he, a true friend of the Catholic cult,
+sincerely detested the reformation of Luther. He believed that the old
+life-tree of Catholicism, which in fact was but cumbering the ground, might
+bloom again in its old beauty. But a truer political prophet than Wolsey
+would have been found in the most ignorant of those poor men who were
+risking death and torture in disseminating the pernicious volumes of the
+English Testament.</p>
+
+<p>Catherine being a Spanish princess, Henry, in 1527, formed a league with
+Francis I., with the object of breaking the Spanish alliance. The pope was
+requested to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of England
+to marry a wife who could bear him children. Deeply as we deplore the
+outrage inflicted on Catherine, and the scandal and suffering occasioned by
+the dispute, it was in the highest degree fortunate that at the crisis of
+public dissatisfaction in England with the condition of the church, a cause
+should have arisen which tested the whole question of church authority in
+its highest form. It was no accident which connected a suit for divorce
+with the reformation of religion.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Anne Boleyn</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>The Spanish emperor, Charles V., gave Catherine his unwavering support,
+and refused to allow the pope to pass a judicial sentence of divorce.
+Catherine refused to yield. Another person now comes into conspicuous view.
+It has been with Anne Boleyn as with Catherine of Aragon--both are regarded
+as the victims of a tyranny which Catholics and Protestants unite to
+remember with horror, and each has taken the place of a martyred saint in
+the hagiology of the respective creeds. Anne Boleyn was second daughter of
+Sir Thomas Boleyn, a gentleman of noble family. She was educated in Paris,
+and in 1525 came back to England to be maid of honour to Queen Catherine,
+and to be distinguished at the court by her talents, accomplishments, and
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The fortunes of Anne Boleyn were unhappily linked with those of men to
+whom the greatest work ever yet accomplished in this country was committed.
+In the memorable year 1529, after the meeting of parliament, events moved
+apace. In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted, the astonished
+church authorities saw bill after bill hurried up before the lords, by
+which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes would be dried
+up to flow no longer. The Great Reformation had commenced in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>The carelessness of the bishops in the discharge of their most immediate
+duties obliged the legislature to trespass in the provinces most purely
+spiritual, and to undertake the discipline of the clergy. Bill after bill
+struck hard and home on the privileges of the recreant clergy. The aged
+Bishop of Rochester complained to the lords that in the lower house the cry
+was nothing but "Down with the church." Yet, so frightful were the abuses
+that called for radical reform, that even persons who most disapprove of
+the reformation will not at the present time wonder at their enactment, or
+disapprove of their severity. The king treated the bishops, when they
+remonstrated, with the most contemptuous disrespect. Archbishop Cranmer now
+adopted a singular expedient. He advised Henry to invite expressions from
+all the chief learned authorities throughout Europe as to the right of the
+pope to grant him a dispensation of dissolution of his marriage. The
+English universities, to escape imputations of treasons and to avoid
+exciting Henry's wrath, gave replies such as would please him, that of
+Oxford being, however, the more decided of the two. Most of the continental
+authorities declined to pronounce any dictum as to the powers of the
+pope.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>The Fall of the Great Chancellor</i></p>
+
+
+<p>The fall of Wolsey was at hand. His enemies accused him of treason to
+the constitution by violating a law of the realm. He had acted as papal
+legate within the realm. The parliaments of Edward I., Edward III., Richard
+II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced illegal all
+presentations by the pope to any office or dignity in the Anglican Church,
+under a penalty of premunire. Henry did not feel himself called on to
+shield his great minister, although the guilt extended to all who had
+recognised Wolsey in the capacity of papal legate. Indeed, it extended to
+the archbishops, bishops, the privy council, the two houses of parliament,
+and indirectly to the nation itself. The higher clergy had been encouraged
+by Wolsey's position to commit those acts of despotism which had created so
+deep animosity among the people. The overflow of England's last
+ecclesiastical minister was to teach them that the privileges they had
+abused were at an end.</p>
+
+<p>In February, 1531, Henry assumed the title which was to occasion such
+momentous consequences, of "Protector and only Supreme Head of the Church
+and Clergy of England." The clergy were compelled to assent. Further
+serious steps marked the great breach with Rome. The annates, or first
+fruits, were abolished. Ever since the crusades a practice had existed in
+all the churches of Europe that bishops and archbishops, on presentation to
+their sees, should transmit to the pope one year's income. This impressive
+impost was not abrogated. It was a sign of the parting of the ways.</p>
+
+<p>Henry laid his conduct open to the world, declaring truly what he
+desired, and seeking it by open means. He was determined to proceed with
+the divorce, and also to continue the reformation of the English church.
+And he was in no small measure aided in the former resolve by the
+recommendation of Francis, for the French king advised him to act on the
+general opinion of Europe that his marriage with Catherine, as widow of his
+elder brother Arthur, was null, and at once made Anne Boleyn his wife. This
+counsel was administered at an interview between the two kings at Boulogne,
+in October, 1532.</p>
+
+<p>The pope had trifled for six years with the momentous question, and
+Henry was growing old. At the outset of the discussion the pope had said:
+"Marry freely; fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you desire." But
+the pontiff, reduced to a dilemma by various causes, had fallen back on his
+Italian cunning, and had changed his attitude, listening to the appeals of
+Catherine and her powerful friends. And now he threatened Henry with
+excommunication.</p>
+
+<p>Henry entered privately into matrimonial relations with Anne in
+November, 1532, and the marriage was solemnly celebrated, with a gorgeous
+pageant, at Westminster Abbey in the following January. On July 24 the
+people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the church
+doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine of Spain,
+heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by that title any
+more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be held and
+esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short years.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Protestantism</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
+and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
+fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the growing
+desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the year 1525
+was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The Association of
+Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the land carrying
+tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the order all who dared
+risk their lives in such a cause.</p>
+
+<p>The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
+such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
+spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
+October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
+echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
+Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
+translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the formation
+of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed. The bishops
+subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and these were burned
+before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But Wolsey had for two
+years been suppressing the smaller monasteries. Simultaneously, Protestants
+were persecuted wherever they could be detected and seized. "Little"
+Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished Cambridge student, was burnt as
+a heretic at the stake, as were James Bainham, a barrister of the Middle
+Temple, and several other members of the "association." These were the
+first paladins of the reformation, and the struggle went bravely forward.
+They were the knights who slew the dragons and made the earth habitable for
+common flesh and blood.</p>
+
+<p>As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
+Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
+pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When the
+breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal party at home had
+assumed an attitude of suspended insurrection, the fortunes of the
+Protestants entered into a new phase. The persecution ceased, and those who
+were but lately its likely victims, hiding for their lives, passed at once
+by a sudden alternation into the sunshine of political favour.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell and Latimer together caught the moment as it went by, and
+before it was over a work had been done in England which, when it was
+accomplished once, was accomplished for ever. The conservative party
+recovered their power, and abused it as before; but the chains of the
+nation were broken, and no craft of kings or priests or statesmen could
+weld the magic links again, Latimer became famous as a preacher at
+Cambridge, and was heard of by Henry, who sent for him and appointed him
+one of the royal chaplains. He was accused by the bishops of heresy, but
+was on trial absolved and sent back to his parish. Soon after the tide
+turned, and the reformation entered into a new phase.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Cromwell, like Latimer of humble origin, was the "malleus
+monachorum." Wolsey discovered his merit, and employed him in breaking up
+the small monasteries, which the pope had granted for the foundation of the
+new colleges. Cromwell remained with the great cardinal till his fall. It
+was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed itself. The
+lords had passed a bill of impeachment against Wolsey--violent, vindictive,
+and malevolent. It was to be submitted to the commons. Cromwell prepared an
+opposition, and conducted the defence from his place in parliament so
+skilfully that he threw out the bill, saved Wolsey, and gained such a
+reputation that he became Henry's secretary, representing the government in
+the House of Commons, and was on the highroad to power.</p>
+
+<p>The reformation was blotted with a black and frightful stain. Towards
+the end of April, 1536, certain members of the Privy Council were engaged
+in secretly collecting evidence which implicated the queen in adultery. In
+connection with the terrible charge, as her accomplices five gentlemen were
+arrested--Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeton, a court musician, Sir Henry
+Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and, the accusation in his case being the most
+shocking, Lord Rochford, the queen's brother. The trial was hastily pushed
+forward, and all were executed. The queen, who vehemently and piteously
+appealed to Henry, passionately protesting that she was absolutely
+innocent, was also condemned, and was beheaded in public on Tower Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John
+Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the cause
+of Anne Boleyn's ruin. On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and
+passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the
+queen took cold, and died on October 24.</p>
+
+<p>In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England. The great monasteries
+were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old
+nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics. On January
+6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne, daughter of the
+Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of Saxony. This event was
+brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell. The king was deeply
+displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride when he met her on her
+landing, but retreat was impossible. Though Henry was personally kind to
+the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.</p>
+
+<p>Cromwell's enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great
+statesman. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of
+corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and, in
+spite of Cranmer's efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on July 28,
+1540. For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl of Essex, was
+supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the nation, in the
+ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.</p>
+
+<p>Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne,
+setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without
+objection or delay. The queen had placidly given her consent. Handsome
+settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance
+producing nearly three thousand a year. In August of the same year the King
+married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord Edmond
+Howard. Brief, indeed, was her reign. In November, 1541, she was charged
+with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows. The king was overwhelmed. Some
+dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it with infamy.</p>
+
+<p>Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen. They
+were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been her
+confidential companion, suffered within the Tower. Once more the king
+ventured into marriage. Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last choice,
+was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but by his own
+personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he desired.</p>
+
+<p>The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
+Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
+had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France to
+attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to proclaim
+a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only shepherds and
+agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were instantly the
+finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously defeated the Scots
+that all the latter either perished in the morass by the Solway, or were
+captured.</p>
+
+<p>Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
+Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.</p>
+
+<p>The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
+future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
+conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition of
+the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince Edward to
+the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the morning of
+Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was in
+Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of Monday,
+the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was already in
+session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the minority of
+Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full power. Cranmer set
+the willing example, and the other prelates consented, or were compelled to
+imitate him, in an acknowledgment that all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as
+well as secular, within the realm, only emanated from the sovereign. On
+February it was ordered in council that Hertford should be Duke of
+Somerset, and that his brother, Sir Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour
+of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley,
+the chancellor, Earl of Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of
+Warwick. The Duke of Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real
+power was at once in his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he
+persuaded himself--to do good.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Edward's Guardian</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
+proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
+were melted into coin. Somerset gave the popular movement the formal
+sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
+purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide to
+doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in the
+parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the New
+Testament" were provided as a commentary.</p>
+
+<p>Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
+Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
+refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into with
+Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should marry
+Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547, the Scots
+were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned southward. His
+brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him, and was arrested,
+tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549. But the fall of the
+protector himself was not long delayed, for under his administration of
+three years his policy gradually excited wide discontent. In various parts
+of the country insurrections had to be suppressed. The French king had
+taken away the young Scottish queen, the king's majesty's espouse, by which
+marriage the realms of England and Scotland should have been united in
+perpetual peace. Money had been wasted on the royal household. The alliance
+with Charles V. had been trifled away. The princely name and princely
+splendour which Somerset affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst
+the ruin of the national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset
+House, London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
+national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation with
+which the council regarded him.</p>
+
+<p>His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
+both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him to
+such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign his
+deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his uncle.
+On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high treason and
+condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22, 1582. The English
+public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are good judges, for the
+most part, of personal character; and so passionately was Somerset loved,
+that those who were nearest the scaffold started forward to dip their
+handkerchiefs in his blood. Before this event, Dudley, by whose cruel
+treachery the tragedy had been brought about, had been created Duke of
+Northumberland. The great aim of this nobleman was to secure the succession
+to the throne for his own family. With this purpose in view he married his
+son, Lord Guildford Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duchess of
+Suffolk, to whom, by the will of Henry VIII., the crown would pass, in
+default of issue by Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1553, Edward, who had been removed to Greenwich in consequence
+of illness, grew rapidly worse. By the end of the month he was spitting
+blood, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. The
+accession of Mary, who was personally popular, was looked forward to by the
+people as a matter of course. Northumberland now worked on the mind of the
+feeble and dying king, and succeeded in persuading him to declare both his
+sisters incapable of succeeding to the crown, as being illegitimate. The
+king died on July 6. The last male child of the Tudor race had ceased to
+suffer.</p>
+
+<p>When Lady Jane was saluted by Northumberland and four other lords, all
+kneeling at her feet, as queen, she shook, covered her face with her hands,
+and fell fainting to the ground. The next Monday, July 10, the royal barges
+came down the Thames from Richmond, and at three in the afternoon Lady Jane
+landed at the broad staircase of the Tower, as queen, in undesired
+splendour. But that same evening messages came saying that Mary had
+declared herself queen. She had sent addresses to the peers, commanding
+them on their allegiance to come to her.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, the conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane was crushed, without
+bloodshed, although it had seemed for a time as if the nation, was on the
+brink of a civil war. But, though Mary wished to spare Lady Jane and her
+husband, her intentions were frustrated by the determination of Renard,
+ambassador of the emperor. Northumberland was sent to the Tower, and
+beheaded on August 22, and in the following November Lady Jane and her
+husband were also condemned. Mary long hesitated, but at length issued the
+fatal warrant on February 8, 1554, and four days later both were executed.
+Lady Jane was but a delicate girl of seventeen, but met her fate with the
+utmost heroism.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, became the chief instrument of
+the restoration of the Catholic faith under Mary. His fierce spirit soon
+began to display itself. In the fiery obstinacy of his determination this
+prelate speedily became the incarnate expression of the fury of the
+ecclesiastical faction, smarting, as they were, under their long
+degradation, and under the irritating consciousness of those false oaths of
+submission which they had sworn to a power they loathed. Gardiner now saw
+his Romanising party once more in a position to revenge their wrongs when
+there was no longer any Henry to stand between them and their enemies. He
+would take the tide at the flood, forge a weapon keener than the last, and
+establish the Inquisition.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>The Reign of Terror</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Mary listened to the worse counsels of each, and her distempered humour
+settled into a confused ferocity. Both Gardiner and she resolved to secure
+the trial, condemnation, and execution of her sister Elizabeth, but their
+plans utterly miscarried, for no evidence against her could be gathered.
+The princess was known to be favourable to the Protestant cause, but the
+attempts to prove her disloyalty to Mary were vain. She was imprisoned in
+the Tower, and the fatal net appeared to be closing on her. But though the
+danger of her murder was very great, the lords who had reluctantly
+permitted her to be imprisoned would not allow her to be openly sacrificed,
+or indeed, permit the queen to continue in the career of vengeance on which
+she had entered. The necessity of releasing Elizabeth from the Tower was an
+unspeakable annoyance to Mary. A confinement at Woodstock was the furthest
+stretch of severity that the country would, for the present, permit. On May
+19, 1554, Elizabeth was taken up the river.</p>
+
+<p>The princess believed herself that she was being carried off <i>tanquam
+ovis</i>, as she said--as a sheep for the slaughter. But the world thought
+she was set at liberty, and, as her barge passed under the bridge, Mary
+heard with indignation, from the palace windows, three salvoes of artillery
+fired from the Steelyard, as a sign of the joy of the people. Vexations
+began to tell on Mary's spirit. She could not shake off her anxieties, or
+escape from the shadow of her subject's hatred. Insolent pamphlets were
+dropped in her path and in the offices of Whitehall. They were placed by
+mysterious hands in the sanctuary of her bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Her trials began to tell on her understanding. She was ill with
+hysterical longings; ill with the passions which Gardiner, as her
+chancellor, had provoked, but Paget as leader of the opposing party, had
+disappointed. But she was now to become the wife of King Philip of Spain.
+Negotiations for this momentous marriage had been protracted, and even
+after the contract had been signed, Philip seemed slow to arrive. The
+coolness manifested by his tardiness did much to aggravate the queen's
+despondency. On July 20, 1554, he landed at Southampton. The atmospheric
+auspices were not cheering, for Philip, who had come from the sunny plains
+of Castile, from his window at Southampton looked out on a steady downfall
+of July rain. Through the cruel torrent he made his way to church to mass,
+and afterwards Gardiner came to him from the queen. On the next Sunday he
+journeyed to Winchester, again in pouring rain. To the cathedral he went
+first, wet as he was. Whatever Philip of Spain was entering on, whether it
+was a marriage or a massacre, a state intrigue or a midnight murder, his
+first step was ever to seek a blessing from the holy wafer. Mary was at the
+bishop's palace, a few hundred yards' distance. Mary could not wait, and
+the same night the interview took place. Let the curtain fall over the
+meeting, let it close also over the wedding solemnities which followed with
+due splendour two days after. There are scenes in life which we regard with
+pity too deep for words.</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy queen, unloved, unlovable, yet with her parched heart
+thirsting for affection, was flinging herself upon a breast to which an
+iceberg was warm; upon a man to whom love was an unmeaning word, except as
+the most brutal of all passions. Mary set about to complete the Catholic
+reaction. She had restored the Catholic orthodoxy in her own person, and
+now was resolved to bring over her own subjects. But clouds gathered over
+the court. The Spaniards were too much in evidence. With the reaction came
+back the supremacy of the pope, and the ecclesiastical courts were
+reinstated in authority to check unlicensed extravagance of opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and three other prelates formed a court on
+January 28, 1555, in St. Mary Overy's Church, Southwark, and Hooper, Bishop
+of Gloucester, and Canon Rogers of St. Paul's, were brought up before them.
+Both were condemned as Protestants, and both were burnt at the stake, the
+bishop at Gloucester, the canon at Smithfield. They suffered heroically.
+The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of their rivals. There was
+a general conviction among them that Protestants would all flinch at the
+last; that they had no "doctrine that would abide the fire." Many more
+victims were offered. The enemies of the church were to submit or die. So
+said Gardiner, and so said the papal legate and the queen, in the delirious
+belief that they were the chosen instruments of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>The people, whom the cruelty of the party was reconverting to the
+reformation, while the fires of Smithfield blazed, with a rapidity like
+that produced by the gift of tongues at Pentecost, regarded the martyrs
+with admiration as soldiers dying for their country. On Mary, sorrow was
+heaped on sorrow. Her expectation of a child was disappointed, and Philip
+refused to stay in England. His unhappy wife was forced to know that he
+preferred the society of the most abandoned women to hers. The horrible
+crusade against heretics became the business of the rest of her life.
+Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Latimer, and many other persons of
+distinction were amongst the martyrs of the Marian persecution. Latimer was
+eighty years of age.</p>
+
+<p>Mary's miseries were intensified month by month. War broke out between
+England and France. For ten years the French had cherished designs, and on
+January 7, 1558, the famous stronghold fell into their hands. The effect of
+this misfortune on the queen was to produce utter prostration. She now well
+understood that both parliament and the nation were badly disposed towards
+her. But her end was at hand. After much suffering from dropsy and nervous
+debility, she prepared quietly for what she knew was inevitable. On
+November 16, at midnight, taking leave of a world in which she had played
+so evil a part, Mary received the last rites of the church. Towards morning
+she was sinking, and at the elevation of the Host, as mass was being said,
+her head sank, and she was gone. A few hours later the pope's legate,
+Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, followed her. Thus the reign of the pope in
+England and the reign of terror closed together.</p>
+
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+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+
+Author: Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
+
+Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREATEST BOOKS, VOL. XI. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Hagerson, Kevin Handy and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS
+
+JOINT EDITORS
+
+ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge
+
+J.A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia
+
+VOL. XI
+
+ANCIENT HISTORY MEDIAEVAL HISTORY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents
+
+    ANCIENT HISTORY
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        MASPERO, GASTON
+          Dawn of Civilization
+          Struggle of the Nations
+          Passing of the Empires
+
+      JEWS
+
+        JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS
+          Antiquities of the Jews
+          Wars of the Jews
+
+        MILMAN, HENRY
+          History of the Jews
+
+      GREECE
+
+        HERODOTUS
+          History
+
+        THUCYDIDES
+          Peloponnesian War
+
+        XENOPHON
+          Anabasis
+
+        GROTE, GEORGE
+          History of Greece
+
+        SCHLIEMANN, HEINRICH
+          Troy and Its Remains
+
+      ROME
+
+        CAESAR, JULIUS
+          Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+        TACITUS, PUBLIUS CORNELIUS
+          Annals
+
+        SALLUST, CATOS CRISPUS
+          Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
+
+        MOMMSEN, THEODOR
+          History of Rome
+
+    MEDIAEVAL HISTORY
+
+      HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
+
+        GIBBON, EDWARD
+          The Holy Roman Empire
+
+      EUROPE
+
+        GUIZOT, F.P.G.
+          History of Civilization in Europe
+
+        HALLAM, HENRY
+          View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+      EGYPT
+
+        LANE-POOLE, STANLEY
+          Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+      ENGLAND
+
+        HOLINSHED, RAPHAEL
+          Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
+
+        FREEMAN, E.A.
+          Norman Conquest of England
+
+        FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY
+          History of England
+
+A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
+of Volume XX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Acknowledgment
+
+
+     Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
+     following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The
+     Struggle of the Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by
+     Gaston Maspero--which appear in this volume, are hereby
+     tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of
+     London, England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Ancient History
+
+
+GASTON MASPERO
+
+
+The Dawn of Civilisation
+
+
+     Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
+     Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in
+     philology and Egyptology, having in great part studied his
+     special subjects on Oriental ground. After occupying for
+     several years the Chair of Egyptology in the Ecole des Hautes
+     Etudes at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became, in 1874, Professor
+     of Egyptian Philology and Archaeology at the College de
+     France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director of the
+     Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this
+     museum became enriched with its choicest antique treasures.
+     Dr. Maspero retired in 1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt
+     as Director of Excavations. His works are of the utmost value,
+     his skill in marshalling facts and deducting legitimate
+     inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense
+     work, with the general title of "History of the Ancient
+     Peoples of the Classic East," divided into three parts, each
+     complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of Civilisation"; (2) "The
+     Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the Empires."
+
+
+_I.--The Nile and Egypt_
+
+
+A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
+vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
+plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this,
+the Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as
+it were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper
+begins. It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south
+between regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the
+banks of the river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The
+whole length of the land is shut in by two ranges of hills, roughly
+parallel at a mean distance of about twelve miles.
+
+During the earlier ages the river filled all this intermediate space;
+and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very
+summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted and
+shrunken within the deeps of its own ancient bed, the stream now makes a
+way through its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keep
+to the east, and constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the
+hieroglyphic inscriptions. At Khartoum the single channel in which the
+river flowed divides, and two other streams are opened up in a southerly
+direction, each of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream.
+
+Which is the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down
+from the distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed
+the immense plains of equatorial Africa? The old Egyptians never knew.
+The river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it
+withheld it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious
+armies follow the Nile for months together, as they pursued the tribes
+who dwelt upon its banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as
+irresistible in its progress as ever. It was a fresh-water sea--_iauma,
+ioma_ was the name by which they called it. The Egyptians, therefore,
+never sought its source. It was said to be of supernatural origin, to
+rise in Paradise, to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man, and
+afterwards to fall into a sea whence it made its way to Egypt.
+
+The sea mentioned in all the tales is, perhaps, a less extravagant
+invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, nearly as
+large as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain where the
+Bahr-el-Abiad unites with the Sobat and with the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
+Alluvial deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, which
+is known as Birket Nu; but in ages preceding our era it must still have
+been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and boatmen the idea of
+an actual sea opening into the Indian Ocean.
+
+Everything is dependent upon the river--the soil, the produce of the
+soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds--and
+hence it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They
+personified it as a man with regular features, and a vigorous but portly
+body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. Sometimes water springs
+from his breast; sometimes he presents a frog, or libation of vases, or
+bears a tray full of offerings of flowers, corn, fish, or geese. The
+inscriptions call him "Hapi, father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who
+maketh food to be, and covereth the two lands of Egypt with his
+products; who giveth life, banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to
+overflowing."
+
+He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, the
+other blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers on his
+head, presides over Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of
+papyrus for his headdress, and watches over the Delta. Two goddesses,
+corresponding to the two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for the Upper, and
+Mirit-Mihit for the Lower Egypt--personified the banks of the river.
+They are represented with outstretched arms, as though begging for the
+water that should make them fertile.
+
+
+
+_II.--The Gods of Egypt_
+
+
+The incredible number of religious scenes to be found represented on the
+ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance very striking. Nearly
+every illustration in the works of Egyptologists shows us the figure of
+some deity. One would think the country had been inhabited for the most
+part by gods, with just enough men and animals to satisfy the
+requirements of their worship. Each of these deities represented a
+function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe. Thus, Naprit
+was identified with the ripe ear of wheat; Maskhonit appeared by the
+child's cradle at the very moment of its birth; and Raninit presided
+over the naming and nurture of the newly born.
+
+In penetrating this mysterious world we are confronted by an actual
+jumble of gods, many being of foreign origin; and these, with the
+indigenous deities, made up nations of gods. This mixed pantheon had its
+grades of noble princes and kings, each of its members representing one
+of the forces constituting the world. Some appeared in human form;
+others as animals; others as combinations of human and animal forms.
+
+The sky-gods, like the earth-gods, were separated into groups, the one
+composed of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other
+composed of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of
+Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati, or Horus, of the two eyes, at
+Pharbaethos; Har-Sapedi, or Horus, of the zodiacal light, in the Wady
+Tumilat; and, finally, Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disc, was
+enthroned at Heliopolis; and sun-gods were numerous among the home
+deities. Horus the sun, and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated
+each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended.
+
+Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
+universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
+entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as
+Nit was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human
+form. Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and
+formed a trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the
+local deity was content with one wife and one son, but often he was
+united to two goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than
+lowered, the prestige of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had
+of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents,
+he was generally an infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him
+her breast. The gods had body and soul, like men; they had bones,
+muscles, flesh and blood; they hungered and thirsted, ate and drank;
+they had our passions, griefs, joys and infirmities; and they were
+subject to age, decrepitude and death, though they lived very far beyond
+the term of life of men.
+
+The _sa_, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
+carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who
+thus might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king
+who wished to become impregnated with the divine _sa_ sat before the
+statue of the god in order that this principle might be infused into
+him. The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils
+which death so plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome
+possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was
+the mummy of Anhuri in its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at
+Heliopolis that of Tumu. Usually, by dying, the god became another
+deity. Ptah of Memphis became Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was
+changed into Anubis. Osiris first represented the wild and fickle Nile
+of primitive times; but was soon transformed into a benefactor to
+humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed
+to assume the shapes not only of man, but of rams and bulls, or even of
+water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes. His companion goddess
+was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's horns, who personified the earth,
+and was mother of Horus.
+
+There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpents and family
+fetishes. Fine single sycamores, flourishing as if by miracle amid the
+sand, were counted divine, and worshipped by Egyptians of all ranks, who
+made them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables and water.
+The most famous of them all, the Sycamore of the South, used to be
+regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth. Each family possessed
+gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out by some fortuitous meeting
+with an animal or an object; perhaps by a dream and often by sudden
+intuition.
+
+
+_III.--Legendary History of Egypt_
+
+
+The legendary history of Egypt begins with the Heliopolitan Enneads, or
+traditions of the divine dynasties of Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit and Horus.
+Great space is taken up with the fabulous history of Ra, the first king
+of Egypt, who allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys
+rebellious men, and ascends to heaven. He dwelt in Heliopolis, where his
+court was mainly composed of gods and goddesses. In the morning he went
+forth in his barque, amid the acclamations of the crowd, made his
+accustomed circuit of the world, and returned to his home at the end of
+twelve hours after the journey. In his old age he became the subject of
+the wiles of Isis, who poisoned him, and so secured his departure from
+earth. He was succeeded by Shu and Sibu, between whom the empire of the
+universe was divided.
+
+The fantastic legends concocted by the priests go on to relate how at
+length Egypt was civilised by Osiris and Isis. By Osiris the people were
+taught agriculture; Isis weaned them from cannibalism. Osiris was slain
+by the red-haired and jealous demon, Sit-Typhon, and then Egypt was
+divided between Horus and Sit as rivals; and so it consisted henceforth
+of two kingdoms, of which one, that of the north, duly recognised Horus,
+son of Isis, as its patron deity; the other, that of the south, placed
+itself under the supreme protection of Sit-Nubiti, the god of Ombos.
+
+Elaborate and intricate and hopelessly confused are the fables relating
+to the Osirian embalmment, and to the opening of the kingdom of Osiris
+to the followers of Horus. Souls did not enter it without examination
+and trial, as it is the aim of the famous Book of the Dead to show.
+Before gaining access to this paradise each of them had to prove that it
+had during earthly life belonged to a friend or to a vassal of Osiris,
+and had served Horus in his exile, and had rallied to his banner from
+the very beginning of the Typhonian wars.
+
+To Menes of Thinis tradition ascribes the honour of fusing the two
+Egypts into one empire, and of inaugurating the reign of the human
+dynasties. But all we know of this first of the Pharaohs, beyond his
+existence, is practically nothing, and the stories related of him are
+mere legends. The real history of the early centuries eludes our
+researches. The history as we have it is divided into three periods: 1.
+The Memphite period, which is usually called the "Ancient Empire," from
+the First to the Tenth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin were rulers
+over the whole of Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. 2. The
+Theban period, from the Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty. It is divided
+into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3.
+Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided
+again into two parts by the Persian Conquest, the first Saite period,
+from the Twenty-first to the Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite
+Period, from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirtieth dynasty.
+
+
+_IV.--Political Constitution of Egypt_
+
+
+Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel
+to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The great Sphinx Harmakhis has
+mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the
+followers of Horus. In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose
+granite was erected alongside the god; temples were built here and there
+in the more accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of
+the whole country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and
+uncoffined, were thrust into the sand at a depth of barely three feet
+from the surface. Those of the better class rested in mean rectangular
+chambers, hastily built of yellow bricks, without ornaments or
+treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained the
+provisions left to nourish the departed during the period of his
+existence. Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the
+mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a
+"mastaba," comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some
+subterranean vaults.
+
+During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs
+formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues,
+and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of
+these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes
+new life and reappears in the full daylight of history. The king stands
+out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else.
+He is god to his subjects, who call him "the good-god," and "the
+great-god," connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings. So the
+Pharaohs are blood relations of the sun-god, the "divine double" being
+infused into the royal infant at birth.
+
+The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the
+Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of
+any king in particular, or of their everyday life. The royal family was
+very numerous. At least one of the many women of the harem received the
+title of "great spouse," or queen. Her union with the god-king rendered
+her a goddess. Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of
+private citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having
+no bond of union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of
+birth had destined to be their ruler.
+
+Highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments of
+the people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh. His person was, as it
+were, minutely subdivided into compartments, each requiring its
+attendants and their appointed chiefs. His toilet alone gave employment
+to a score of different trades. The guardianship of the crowns almost
+approached the dignity of a priesthood, for was not the urseus, which
+adorned each one, a living goddess? Troops of musicians, singers,
+dancers, buffoons and dwarfs whiled away the tedious hours. Many were
+the physicians, chaplains, soothsayers and magicians. But vast indeed
+was the army of officials connected with the administration of public
+affairs. The mainspring of all this machinery was the writer, or, as we
+call him, the scribe, across whom we come in all grades of the staff.
+
+The title of scribe was of no particular value in itself, for everyone
+was a scribe who knew how to read and write, was fairly proficient in
+wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the
+elementary rules of book-keeping. "One has only to be a scribe, for the
+scribe takes the lead of all," said the wise man. Sometimes, however, a
+talented scribe rose to a high position, like the Amten, whose tomb was
+removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and who became a favourite of the king and
+was ennobled.
+
+
+_V.--The Memphite Empire_
+
+
+At that time "the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrui arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth." All
+we know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the
+nomads of Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier
+of the Delta, and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid.
+Snofrui called the pyramid "Kha," the Rising, the place where the dead
+Pharaoh, identified with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. It
+was built to indicate the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person
+of rank in his tribe or province. The worship of Snofrui, the first
+pyramid-builders, was perpetuated from century to century. His
+popularity was probably great; but his fame has been eclipsed in our
+eyes by that of the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasty who immediately
+followed him--Kheops, Khephren and Mykerinos.
+
+Khufui, the Kheops of the Greeks, was probably son of Snofrui. He
+reigned twenty-three years, successfully defended the valuable mines of
+copper, manganese and turquoise of the Sinaitic peninsula against the
+Bedouin; restored the temple of Hathor at Dendera; embellished that of
+Babastis; built a sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx; and consecrated
+there gold, silver and bronze statues of Horus and many other gods.
+Other Pharaohs had done as much or more; but the Egyptians of later
+dynasties measured the magnificence of Kheops by the dimensions of his
+pyramid at Ghizel. The Great Pyramid was called Khuit, the "Horizon," in
+which Kheops had to be swallowed up, as his father, the sun, was
+engulfed every evening in the horizon of the west. Of Dadufri, his
+immediate successor, we can probably say that he reigned eight years;
+but Khephren, the next son who succeeded to the throne, erected temples
+and a gigantic pyramid, like his father. He placed it some 394 feet to
+the south-west of that of Kheops, and called it Uiru the Great. It is
+much smaller than its neighbour, but at a distance the difference in
+height disappears. The pyramid of Mykerinos, son and successor of
+Khephren, was considerably inferior in height, but was built with
+scrupulous art and refined care.
+
+The Fifth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the Fourth. It reckons nine Pharaohs, who reigned for a
+century and a half, and each of them built pyramids and founded cities,
+and appear to have ruled gloriously. They maintained, and even
+increased, the power and splendour of Egypt. But the history of the
+Memphite Empire unfortunately loses itself in legend and fable, and
+becomes a blank for several centuries.
+
+
+_VI.--The First Theban Empire_
+
+
+The principality of the Oleander--Naru--comprised the territory lying
+between the Nile and the Bahr Yusuf, a district known to the Greeks as
+the island of Heracleopolis. It, moreover, included the whole basin of
+the Fayum, on the west of the valley. Attracted by the fertility of the
+soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had from time to time taken up
+their residence in Heracleopolis, the capital of the district of the
+Oleander, and one of them, Snofrui, had built his pyramid at Medum,
+close to the frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the
+Memphites declined, so did the princes of the Oleander grow more
+vigorous and enterprising; and When the Memphite kings passed away,
+these princes succeeded their former masters and eventually sat "upon
+the throne of Horus."
+
+The founder of the Ninth dynasty was perhaps Khiti I., who ruled over
+all Egypt, and whose name has been found on rocks at the first cataract.
+His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously for more than a
+century. The history of this period seems to have been one of confused
+struggle, the Pharaohs fighting constantly against their vassals, and
+the nobles warring amongst themselves. During the Memphite and
+Heracleopolitan dynasties Memphis, Elephantine, El-Kab and Koptos were
+the principal cities of the country; and it was only towards the end of
+the Eighth dynasty that Thebes began to realise its power. The revolt of
+the Theban. princes put an end to the Ninth dynasty; and though
+supported by the feudal powers of Central and Northern Egypt, the Tenth
+dynasty did not succeed in bringing them back to their allegiance, and
+after a struggle of nearly 200 years the Thebans triumphed and brought
+the two divisions of Egypt under their rule.
+
+The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban
+dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race. The
+kings of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from
+the valley of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of
+fresh territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country
+had suffered for hundreds of years. The final overthrow of the
+Heracleopolitan dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the
+rule of the Theban house, are supposed to have been the work of that
+Monthotpu, whose name the Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the
+royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious representative
+of the Eleventh dynasty.
+
+The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp,
+showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and
+determined to assert it. He inspected the whole land, restored what he
+found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and
+established for each its frontiers. Recognising that Thebes lay too far
+south to be a suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt,
+Amenemhait proceeded to establish himself in the heart of the country in
+imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent. He took
+up his abode a little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui.
+Having restored peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of
+his reign, when he was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very
+young, to the co-regency with himself.
+
+When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war
+against the Libyans. He reigned alone for thirty-two years. The Twelfth
+dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with
+greater certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which
+ruled Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its
+great achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight
+sovereigns and the details of their interminable wars are very
+imperfectly known.
+
+Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of
+Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty
+kings, who reigned for a period of over 453 years. The Nofirhoptus and
+Sovkhoptus continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work
+so ably begun by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.
+
+During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were
+fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic
+taste. During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the
+Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in
+the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous
+energy. The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon
+incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.
+Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis,
+Bubastis and Thebes, was undisputed master of the whole Nile valley,
+from near the spot where it receives its last tributary to where it
+empties itself into the sea. The making of Egypt was finally
+accomplished in his time. The Fourteenth dynasty, however, consists of a
+line of seventy-five kings, whose mutilated names appear on the Turin
+Papyrus. These shadowy Pharaohs followed each other in rapid sequence,
+some reigning only a few months, others for certainly not more than two
+and three years.
+
+Meantime, during what appears to have been an era of rivalries between
+pretenders, mutually jealous of and deposing one another, usurpers in
+succession seizing the crown without strength to keep it, the feudal
+lords displayed more than their old restlessness. The nomad tribes began
+to show growing hostility on the frontier, and the peoples of the Tigris
+and Euphrates were already pushing their vanguards into Central Syria.
+While Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and the eastern
+corner of Africa into subjection, Chaldaea had imposed not only language
+and habits, but also her laws upon the whole of that part of Eastern
+Asia which separated her from Egypt. Thus the time was rapidly
+approaching when these two great civilised powers of the ancient world
+would meet each other face to face and come into fierce and terrible
+collision.
+
+
+_VII.--Ancient Chaldaea_
+
+
+The Chaldaean account of Genesis is contained on fragments of tablets
+discovered and deciphered in 1875 by George Smith. These tell legends of
+the time when "nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when
+nothing below had as yet received the name of earth. Apsu, the Ocean,
+who was their first father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
+all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes
+which bore no fruit. In the time when the gods were not created, Lakhmu
+and Lakhamu were the first to appear and waxed great for ages."
+
+Then came Anu, the sunlit sky by day, the starlit firmament by night;
+Inlil-Bel, the king of the earth; Ea, the sovereign of the waters and
+the personification of wisdom. Each of them duplicated himself, Anu into
+Anat, Bel into Belit, Ea into Damkina, and united himself to the spouse
+whom he had produced from himself. Other divinities sprang from these
+fruitful pairs, and, the impulse once given, the world was rapidly
+peopled by their descendants. Sin, Samash and Ramman, who presided
+respectively over the sun, moon and air, were all three of equal rank;
+next came the lords of the planets, Ninib, Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, the
+warrior-goddess, and Nebo; then a whole army of lesser deities who
+ranged themselves around Anu as around a supreme master.
+
+Discord arose. The first great battle of the gods was between Tiamat and
+Merodach. In this fearful conflict Tiamat was destroyed. Splitting her
+body into halves, the conqueror hung up one on high, and this became the
+heavens; the other he spread out under his feet to form the earth, and
+made the universe as men have known it. Merodach regulated the movements
+of the sun and divided the year into twelve months.
+
+The heavens having been put in order, he set about peopling the earth.
+Many such fables concerning the cosmogony were current among the races
+of the lower Euphrates, who seem to have belonged to three different
+types. The most important were the Semites, who spoke a dialect akin to
+Armenian, Hebrew and Phoenician. Side by side with these the monuments
+give evidence of a race of ill-defined character, whom we provisionally
+call Sumerians, who came, it is said, from some northern country, and
+brought with them a curious system of writing which, adopted by ten
+different nations, has preserved for us all that we know in regard to
+the majority of the empires which rose and fell in Western Asia before
+the Persian conquest. The cities of these Semites and Sumerians were
+divided into two groups, one in the south, near the sea, the other more
+to the north, where the Euphrates and the Tigris are separated by a
+narrow strip of land. The southern group consisted of seven, Eridu lying
+nearest the coast. Uru was the most important. Lagash was to the north
+of Eridu. The northern group consisted of Nipur, "the incomparable,"
+Borsip, Babylon (gate of the god and residence of life, the only
+metropolis of the Euphrates region of which posterity never lost
+reminiscence), Kishu, Kuta, Agade, and, lastly, the two Sipparas, that
+of Shamash, and that of Annuit.
+
+The earliest Chaldaean civilisation was confined almost to the banks of
+the lower Euphrates; except at the northern boundary it did not reach
+the Tigris and did not cross the river. Separated from the rest of the
+world, on the east by the vast marshes bordering on the river, on the
+north by the Mesopotamian table-land, on the west by the Arabian desert,
+it was able to develop its civilisation as Egypt had done, in an
+isolated area, and to follow out its destiny in peace.
+
+According to Ferossasi the first king was Aloros of Babylon. He was
+chosen by the god Oannes, and reigned supernaturally for ten sari, or
+36,000 years, each saros being 3,600 years. Nine kings follow, each in
+this mythical record reigning an enormous period. Then took place the
+great deluge, 691,000 years after the creation, in consequence of the
+wickedness of men, who neglected the worship of the gods, and excited
+their wrath. Shamashnapishtim, king at this time in Shurippak, was saved
+miraculously in a great ship. Concerning him and his voyage strange
+fables are recorded. After the deluge, 86 kings ruled during 34,080
+years. One of these was Nimrod, the mighty hunter of the Bible, who
+appears as Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and is the hero of extraordinary
+adventures.
+
+History proper begins with Sargon the Elder, king at the first in Agade,
+who soon annexed Babylon, Sippara, Kishu, Uruk, Kuta and Nipur. His
+brilliant career was like an anticipation of that of the still more
+glorious life of Sargon of Nineveh. His son, Naramsin, succeeded him
+about 3750 B.C. He conquered Elam and was a great builder. After him the
+most famous king of that epoch was Gudea, of Lagash, the prince of whom
+we possess the greatest number of monuments. But in these records we
+have but the dust of history rather than history itself. The materials
+are scanty in the extreme and the framework also is wanting.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Temples and the Gods of Chaldaea_
+
+
+The cities of the Euphrates attract no attention, like those of Egypt,
+by the magnificence of their ruins. They are merely heaps of rubbish in
+which no architectural outline can be traced--mounds of stiff greyish
+clay, containing the remains of the vast structures that were built of
+bricks set in mortar or bitumen. Stone was not used as in Egypt. While
+the Egyptian temple was spread superficially over a large area, the
+Chaldaean temple strove to attain as high an elevation as possible. These
+"ziggurats" were composed of several immense cubes piled up on one
+another, and diminishing in size up to the small shrine by which they
+were crowned, and wherein the god himself was supposed to dwell.
+
+The gods of the Euphrates, like those of the Nile, constituted a
+countless multitude of visible and invisible beings, distributed into
+tribes and empires throughout all the regions of the universe; but,
+whereas in Egypt they were, on the whole, friendly to man, in Chaldaea
+they for the most part pursued him with an implacable hatred, and only
+seemed to exist in order to destroy him. Whether Semite or Sumerian, the
+gods, like those of Egypt, were not abstract personages, but each
+contained in himself one of the principal elements of which our universe
+is composed--earth, air, sky, sun, moon and stars. The state religion,
+which all the inhabitants of the same city were solemnly bound to
+observe, included some dozen gods, but the private devotion of
+individuals supplemented this cult by vast additions, each family
+possessing its own household gods.
+
+Animals never became objects of worship as in Egypt; some of them,
+however, as the bull and the lion, were closely allied to the gods. If
+the idea of uniting all these gods into a single supreme one ever
+crossed the mind of a Chaldaean theologian, it never spread to the people
+as a whole. Among all the thousands of tablets or inscribed stones on
+which we find recorded prayers, we have as yet discovered no document
+containing the faintest allusion to a divine unity. The temples were
+miniature reproductions of the arrangements of the universe. The
+"ziggurat" represented in its form the mountain of the world, and the
+halls ranged at its feet resembled approximately the accessory parts of
+the world; the temple of Merodach at Babylon comprised them all up to
+the chambers of fate, where the sun received every morning the tablets
+of destiny.
+
+Every individual was placed, from the very moment of his birth, under
+the protection of a god or goddess, of whom he was the servant, or
+rather the son. These deities accompanied him by day and by night to
+guard him from the evil genii ready to attack him on every side. The
+Chaldaeans had not such clear ideas as to what awaited them in the other
+world as the Egyptians possessed.
+
+The Chaldaean hades is a dark country surrounded by seven high walls, and
+is approached by seven gates, each guarded by a pitiless warder. Two
+deities rule within it--Nergal, "the lord of the great city," and
+Peltis-Allat, "the lady of the great land," whither everything which has
+breathed in this world descends after death. A legend relates that Allat
+reigned alone in hades and was invited by the gods to a feast which they
+had prepared in heaven. Owing to her hatred of the light she refused,
+sending a message by her servant, Namtar, who acquitted himself, with
+such a bad grace, that Anu and Ea were incensed against his mistress,
+and commissioned Nergal to chastise her. He went, and finding the gates
+of hell open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was
+about to decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved
+her life by becoming his wife.
+
+The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the
+departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of
+pestilence and battle. His functions in heaven and earth took up so much
+of his time that he had little leisure to visit his nether kingdom, and
+he was consequently obliged to content himself with the role of
+providing subjects for it by dispatching thither the thousands of
+recruits which he gathered daily from the abodes of men or from the
+field of battle.
+
+
+_IX.--Chaldaean Civilisation_
+
+
+The Chaldaean kings, unlike their contemporaries, the Pharaohs, rarely
+put forward any pretension to divinity. They contented themselves with
+occupying an intermediate position between their subjects and the gods.
+While the ordinary priest chose for himself a single deity as master,
+the priest-king exercised universal sacerdotal functions. He officiated
+for Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions daily
+occupied many hours. On great days of festival or sacrifice they laid
+aside all insignia of royalty and were clad as ordinary priests.
+
+Women do not seem to have been honoured in the Euphratean regions as in
+Egypt, where the wives of the sovereign were invested with that
+semi-sacred character that led the women to be associated with the
+devotions of the man, and made them indispensable auxiliaries in all
+religious ceremonies. Whereas the monuments on the banks of the Nile
+reveal to us princesses sharing the throne of their husbands, whom they
+embrace with a gesture of frank affection, in Chaldaea, the wives of the
+prince, his mother, sisters, daughters and even his slaves, remain
+absolutely invisible to posterity. The harem in which they were shut up
+by force of custom rarely, if ever, opened its doors; the people seldom
+caught sight of them; and we could count on our fingers the number of
+these whom the inscriptions mention by name.
+
+Life was not so pleasant in Chaldaea as in Egypt. The innumerable
+promissory notes, the receipted accounts, the contracts of sale and
+purchase--these cunningly drawn-up deeds which have been deciphered by
+the hundred, reveal to us a people greedy of gain, exacting, litigious,
+and almost exclusively absorbed in material concerns. The climate, too,
+variable and oppressive in summer and winter alike, imposed on the
+Chaldaean painful exactions, and obliged him to work with an energy of
+which the majority of Egyptians would not have felt themselves capable.
+And the plague of usury raged with equal violence in city and country.
+
+In proportion, however, as we are able to bring this wonderful
+civilisation to light we become more and more conscious that we have
+indeed little or nothing in common with it. Its laws, customs, habits
+and character, its methods of action and its modes of thought, are so
+far apart from those of the present day that they seem to belong to a
+humanity utterly different from our own. It thus happens that while we
+understand to a shade the classical language of the Greeks and of the
+Romans, and can read their works almost without effort, the great
+primitive literatures of the world, the Egyptian and Chaldaean, have
+nothing to offer us for the most part but a sequence of problems to
+solve or of enigmas to unriddle with patience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Struggle of the Nations
+
+
+     Maspero in this work gives us the second volume of his great
+     historical trilogy. He shows in parallel views the part played
+     in the history of the ancient world by the first Chaldaean
+     Empire, by Syria, by the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, of Egypt,
+     and by the first Cossaean kings who established the greatness
+     of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. The great Theban dynasty
+     is then exhibited in its romantic rise under the Pharaohs.
+     Maspero writes not as a mere chronicler or reciter of events,
+     but as a philosophical historian. He makes the reader
+     understand how fatally the chronic militarism of these
+     competing empires drained each of its manhood and brought
+     Babylon and Assyria simultaneously into a hopeless condition
+     of national anaemia. Equally pathetic is the picture drawn of
+     the gradual but sure decay of the grand empire of the
+     Pharaohs. Maspero, with masterly skill, passes a processional
+     of these despots before our eyes.
+
+
+_I.--The Chaldaean Empire and the Hyksos_
+
+
+Some countries seem destined from their origin to become the
+battlefields of the contending nations which environ them. Into such
+regions neighbouring peoples come to settle their quarrels, and bit by
+bit they appropriate it, so that at best the only course open to the
+inhabitants is to join forces with one of the invaders. From remote
+antiquity this was the experience of Syria, which was thus destined to
+become subject to foreign rule. Chaldaea, Egypt, Assyria and Persia in
+turn presided over its destinies. Semites dwelt in the south and the
+centre, while colonies from beyond the Taurus occupied the north. The
+influence of Egypt never penetrated beyond the provinces lying nearest
+the Dead Sea. The remaining populations looked rather to Chaldaea, and
+received the continuous impress of the kingdoms of the Euphrates.
+
+The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at
+first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the
+latter as the city increased in power. Each ruler was obliged to go in
+state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession,
+there to do homage to the divine statue. The long lists of early kings
+contain semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes.
+Towards the end of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the
+Christian era, a dynasty arose of which all the members come within the
+range of history.
+
+The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing
+the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign. Of the ten
+kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416
+B.C. and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the.
+famous and fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the
+throne for fifty-five years.
+
+While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt,
+separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the
+horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival. But she had strangely
+declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by
+invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to
+whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the
+term Hyksos for this people. Modern scholars have put forward many
+conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors.
+The monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature. The
+problem remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious
+as ever.
+
+About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Israel,
+or Israelites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world's
+history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews
+arrived in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless
+one of the Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a
+war of five years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs,
+whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from
+various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her
+armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden
+appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The
+isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the
+conflict of the nations was about to begin.
+
+
+_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_
+
+
+The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldaean interference when,
+forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time
+into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
+control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.
+When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of
+Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossaean race
+gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi
+by Chaldaeans of the ancient stock.
+
+The Cossaean king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his
+tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
+Media. The Cossaean rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
+doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised
+at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossaean kings did not merely bring
+with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
+land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
+merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
+successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
+over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew
+their allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer
+supreme when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis
+entered the region the native levies which he encountered were by no
+means formidable.
+
+The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
+group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
+completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to
+distinguish at the present time several of these groups, all belonging
+to the same family, but possessing different characteristics--the
+kinsfolk of the Hebrews, the children of Ishmael and Edom, the Moabites
+and Ammonites, the Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanites. The
+Canaanites were the most numerous, and had they been able to confederate
+under a single king, it would have been impossible for the Egyptians to
+have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of
+Asia.
+
+
+_III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty_
+
+
+The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
+a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
+could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching
+on his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
+surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
+Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the
+secure door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this
+quarter, Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power
+in Ethiopia, where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern
+region and thus extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the
+upper Nile, Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of
+profound peace. Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife,
+Queen Hatshopsitu, reigned for many years with great ability while the
+new Pharaoh, Thutmosis III., was still a youth.
+
+After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
+It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
+reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and
+won a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
+inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
+Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his
+arms, and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king.
+When the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its
+results by means of a series of international decrees, which established
+the constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action
+with the Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position
+among them when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his
+reign.
+
+Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
+who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
+peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
+temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire_
+
+
+When the male line failed, there was no lack of princesses in Egypt, of
+whom any one who happened to come to the throne might choose a consort
+after her own heart, and thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By
+such a chance alliance Harmhabi, himself a descendant of Thutmosis III.,
+was raised to the kingly office as first Pharaoh of the XIXth Dynasty.
+He displayed great activity both within Egypt and beyond it, conducting
+mighty building enterprises and also undertaking expeditions against
+recalcitrant tribes along the Upper Nile.
+
+Rameses I., who succeeded Harmhabi, was already an old man at his
+accession. He reigned only six or seven years, and associated his son,
+Seti I., with himself in the government from his second year of power.
+No sooner had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies than he set out for
+war against Southern Syria, then in open revolt. He captured Hebron,
+marched to Gaza, and then northward to Lebanon, where he received the
+homage of the Phoenicians, and returned in triumph to Egypt, bringing
+troops of captives.
+
+By Seti I. were built the most wonderful of the halls at Karaak and
+Luxor, which render his name for ever illustrious. He associated with
+him his son, still very young, who became renowned as Ramses II., one of
+the greatest warriors and builders amongst all the rulers of Egypt The
+monuments and temples erected by this king also are among the wonders of
+the world. He married a Hittite princess when he was more than sixty.
+This alliance secured a long period of peace and prosperity. Syria once
+more breathed freely, her commerce being under the combined protection
+of the two Powers who shared her territory.
+
+Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old
+age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to
+disfigure it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day. Ramses the Great, who
+was thus the glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and
+lived to the age of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes. Under
+his successors, Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation
+became decadent, though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as
+when Minephtah won a great victory over the Libyans. But after the death
+of Siphtah, there were many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy
+prevailed from one end of the Nile valley to the other.
+
+
+_V.--The Rise of the Assyrian Empire_
+
+
+Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last
+dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the
+Oriental world. He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured
+to rival him in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived.
+In the fifth year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated
+Libyans with complete success. Victories over other enemies followed,
+and also peace and prosperity.
+
+The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had
+so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it
+had made on their constitution and customs. Syria and Phoenicia had
+become, as it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and
+language being affected by Egyptian influence. But the Phoenicians
+became absorbed in commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the
+inheritance which the Egyptians were letting slip. Coeval with the
+decline of the power of the latter was that of the Hittites.
+
+The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Cossaean kings, and
+gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard Babylon with
+deadly hatred. The capitals of the two countries were not more than 185
+miles apart. The line of demarcation followed one of the many canals
+between the Tigris and Euphrates. It then crossed the Tigris and was
+formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land--the Upper
+Zab, the Radanu, or the Turnat. Each of the two states strove by every
+means in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and
+the narrow area was the scene of continual war.
+
+Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that
+of her rival. She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the
+Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of
+latitude. This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the
+streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a
+network of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region. The
+provinces thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into
+a proverb. Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well
+wooded. The most important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and
+Nineveh.
+
+Assur, dedicated to the deity from which it took its name, placed on the
+very edge of the Mesopotamian desert, with the Tigris behind it, was,
+during the struggle with the Chaldaean power, exposed to the attacks of
+the Babylonian armies; while Nineveh, entrenched behind the Tigris and
+the Zab, was secure from any sudden assault. Thus it became the custom
+for the kings to pass at Nineveh the trying months of the year, though
+Assur remained the official capital and chief sanctuary of the empire,
+which began its aggrandisement under Assurballit, by his victory over
+the Cossaean kings of Babylon. But the heroic age comes before us in the
+career of Shalmaneser I., a powerful sovereign who in a few years
+doubled the extent of his dominions. He beautified Assur, but removed
+his court to Kalakh. His son, Tukulti-ninip I., made himself master of
+Babylon, and was the first of his race who was able to assume the title
+of King of Sumir and Akkad.
+
+This first conquest of Chaldaea did not produce lasting results, for the
+sons of the hero fought each other for the Crown, and Assyria became the
+scene of civil wars. The fortunes of Babylon rose again, but the
+depression of Assyria did not last long. Nineveh had become the
+metropolis. Confusion was increased in the whole of this vast region of
+Asia by the invasion and partial triumph of the Elamites over Babylon.
+But these were driven back when Nebuchadrezzar arose in Babylon. To
+Merodach he prayed, and "his prayer was heard," and he invaded Elam,
+taking its king by surprise and defeating him.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar no longer found any rival to oppose him save the king of
+Assyria, whom he attacked; but now his aggression was checked, for
+though his forces were successful at first, they were ultimately sent
+flying across the frontiers with great loss, through the prowess of
+Assurishishi, who became a mighty king in Nineveh. But his son,
+Tiglath-pileser, is the first of the great warrior kings of Assyria to
+stand out before us with any definite individuality. He immediately, on
+his accession, began to employ in aggressive wars the well-equipped army
+left by his father, and in three campaigns he regained all the
+territories that Shalmaneser I. had lost, and also conquered various
+regions of Asia Minor and Syria. In a rising of the Chaldaeans he met
+with a severe defeat, which he did not long survive, dying about the
+year 1100 B.C.
+
+There is only one gleam in the murky night of this period. A certain
+Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and, following in the
+footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
+Mediterranean; on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left a
+triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he had
+accomplished. His good fortune soon forsook him. The Arameans wrested
+from him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkinu, which commanded both banks
+of the Euphrates near Carchemish.
+
+What were the causes of this depression from which Babylon suffered at
+almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?
+The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of the
+country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldaea was
+neither extensive nor populous enough to afford a solid basis for the
+ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capable of bearing arms
+was enrolled in the army, the Chaldaean kings had no difficulty in
+raising, at a moment's notice, a force which could be employed to repel
+an invasion, or to make a sudden attack on some distant territory; it
+was in schemes that required prolonged and sustained effort that they
+felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age of hand-to-hand
+combats, the mortality in battle was very high; forced marches through
+forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss of men, and three or
+four campaigns against a stubborn foe soon reduced the army to a
+condition of weakness.
+
+When Nebuchadrezzar I. made war on Assurishishi, he was still weak from
+the losses he had incurred during the campaign against Elam, and could
+not conduct his attack with the same vigour as had gained him victory on
+the banks of the Ulai. In the first year he only secured a few
+indecisive advantages; in the second he succumbed.
+
+The same reasons which explain the decadence of Babylon show us the
+causes of the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst
+of her warlike spirit. The country was now forced to pay for the glories
+of Assurishishi and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious
+state of languor and depression. And ere long newer races asserted
+themselves which had gradually come to displace the nations over which
+the dynasties of Thutmosis and Ramses had held sway as tributary to
+them. The Hebrews on the east, and the Philistines on the southwest,
+were about to undertake the conquest of Kharu, as the land which is
+known to us as Canaan was styled by the Egyptians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Passing of the Empires
+
+
+     Maspero, in the third volume of his great archaeological
+     trilogy, completing his "History of the Ancient Peoples of the
+     Classic East," deals with the passing in succession of the
+     supremacies of the Babylonian, Assyrian, Chaldaean,
+     Medo-Persian and Iranian Empires. The period dealt with in
+     this graphic narrative covers fully five centuries, from 850
+     B.C. to 330 B.C. M. Maspero in cinematographic style passes
+     before us the actors in many of the most thrilling of historic
+     dramas. One excellent feature of his method is his balancing
+     of evidences. Where Xenophon and Herodotus absolutely differ
+     he tells what each asserts. With consummate skill also he
+     arranges his recital like a series of dissolving views,
+     showing how epochs overlap, and how as Babylon is fading
+     Assyria is rising, and as the latter in turn is waning Media
+     is looming into sight. We are, in this third instalment of
+     Maspero's monumental work, brought to understand how the
+     decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another,
+     culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by
+     Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations
+     on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture
+     and civilisation of the Orient.
+
+
+_I.--The Assyrian Revival_
+
+
+Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a
+prey to civil discord and foreign invasion. It was a period of calamity
+and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the
+country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held
+authority for seven years. This intruder having died about the year 1030
+B.C., a Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and
+succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.
+Five or six of his descendants passed away and another was feebly
+reigning when war broke out afresh with Assyria, and the two armies
+encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the
+Lower Zab and the Turnat. The Assyrians were victorious under their
+king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not live long to enjoy his triumph. His
+son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a kingdom which embraced scarcely any of
+the countries that had paid tribute to former sovereign, for most of
+these had gradually regained their liberty.
+
+Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same
+conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the
+vitality and elasticity of its earlier days. Its army now possessed a
+new element. This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to
+the chariotry. But it must be remembered that the strength and
+discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were
+common to the military forces of all the great states--Elam, Damascus,
+Nairi, the Hittites and Chaldea. Thus, the armies of all these states
+being, as a rule, both in strength and numbers much on a par, no single
+power was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would be
+its destruction. Twice at least in three centuries a king of Assyria had
+entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had forced the intruder back.
+
+Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those
+conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives.
+He was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than
+the people of Babylonia. Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief
+cities, then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and
+pillaged many of the cities around. Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was
+flayed alive. After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.
+
+A summary of the events in the reign of thirty-five years of his
+successor, Shalmaneser III., is contained on the Black Obelisk of
+Nimroud, discovered by Layard and preserved in the British Museum. He
+conquered the whole country round Lake Van, ravaging the country "as a
+savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields." An
+attack on Damascus led to a terrible but indecisive battle, Benhadad,
+King of Syria, proving himself fully a match for the invader. But a war
+with Babylon, lasting for a period of two years, ended with victory for
+Assyria, and Shalmaneser, entering the city, went direct to the temple
+of E-shaggil, where he offered worship to the local gods.
+
+Memorable events followed, first in connection with Damascus, Ahab, King
+of Israel, Benhadad's ally, and other confederates, had not been
+faithful to his suzerainty. Ahab had by treaty agreed to surrender the
+city of Ramoth-gilead to the Syrian monarch and had not fulfilled his
+pledge. He and Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, had concluded an alliance
+against Benhadad, who seized the disputed fortress, and the two had
+organised an expedition, which led to the death of Ahab in battle.
+Israel lapsed once more into the position of a vassal to Benhadad, and
+long remained in that subjection.
+
+The last days of Shalmaneser were embittered by the revolt of his son,
+Assur-dain-pal, and his death occurred in 824 B.C. The kingdom was
+shaken by the struggle that ensued between his sons. Samsi-ramman IV.,
+the brother of Assurdain-pal, reigned for twelve years; his son,
+Ramman-nirari III., had married the Babylonian princess Sammuramat, and
+so had secured peace. He was an energetic and capable ruler. To him at
+length Damascus made submission and paid tribute. But Menuas, a bold and
+able King of Urartu, proved himself a thorn in the side of the Assyrian
+king, for he delivered from the yoke of Nineveh the tribes on the
+borders of Lake Urmiah and all the adjacent regions.
+
+Everywhere along the Lower Zab, and on the frontier as far as the
+Euphrates, the Assyrian outposts were driven back by Menuas, who also
+overcame the Hittites and by his campaigns formed that kingdom of Van,
+or Armenia, which was quite equal in size to Assyria. He died shortly
+before the death of Ramman-nirari, in 784 B.C. His son, Argistis, spent
+the first few years of his reign in completing his conquests in the
+country north of the Araxes. He was attacked by Shalmaneser IV., son of
+Ramman-nirari, but defeated the Assyrians.
+
+Misfortunes accumulated for the rulers and people who had exercised so
+wide a sway, and the end of the Second Assyrian Empire was not far off.
+Syria was lost under Assur-nirari III., who was also driven from Calah
+by sedition in 746 B.C. He died some months later and the dynasty came
+to an end, and in 745 a usurper, the leader of the revolt at Calah,
+proclaimed himself king under the name of Tiglath-pileser III. The
+Second Empire had lasted rather less than a century and a half.
+
+
+_II.--To the Destruction of Babylon_
+
+
+Events proved that, at this period at any rate, the decadence of Assyria
+was not due to any exhaustion of the race or impoverishment of the
+country, but was owing Mainly to the incapacity of its kings and the
+lack of energy displayed by their generals. The Assyrian troops had lost
+none of their former valour, but their leaders had shown less foresight
+and skill. As soon as Tiglath-pileser assumed leadership, the armies
+regained their former prestige and supremacy.
+
+The empire still included the original patrimony of Assur and its
+ancient colonies on the Upper Tigris, but the buffer provinces,
+containing the tribes on the borders of Syria, Namri, Nairi, Melitene,
+had thrown off the yoke, as had the Arameans, while Menuas of Armenia
+and his son Argistis had by their invasions laid waste the Median
+territory. Sharduris III., son of Argistis, succeeded to the throne of
+Armenia about 760, and at once overran the district of Babilu, carrying
+by storm three royal castles, 23 cities, and 60 villages. He also
+captured the castles of the mountaineers of Melitene. Crossing Mount
+Taurus about 756, he forced the Hittites to swear allegiance.
+
+It was in the middle of this eighth century B.C., in the days of
+Tiglath-pileser III. of Assyria, and Sharduris III. of Armenia, that
+Israel, under Jehoash, and his son Jeroboam II.; inspired by the
+exhortations of Elisha the prophet, was rehabilitated for a season,
+winning victories over the Syrians and taking vengeance on Damascus, and
+then attacking the Moabites. The sudden collapse of Damascus led to the
+decline of Syria, but though Jeroboam II. seemed to be firmly seated as
+king in Samaria, the downfall of Israel and Judah alike, as well as of
+Tyre, Edom, Gaza, Moab, and Ammon, was foretold by the prophet Amos,
+while from the midst of Ephraim the priest-seer, Hosea, was never weary
+of reproaching the tribes with their ingratitude and of predicting their
+coming desolation.
+
+Ere long, Tiglath-pileser began his campaigns against them by attacking
+the Arameans, dwelling on the banks of the Tigris. He overthrew them at
+the first encounter. Nabunazir, then king in Babylon, bowed before him
+and swore fidelity to him, and he visited Sippar, Nipur, Babylon,
+Borsippa, Kuta, Kishu, Dilbat and Uruk, Babylonian "cities without a
+peer," and offered sacrifices to all their gods--to Bel Zirbanit, Nebo,
+Tashmit, and Nir-gal. This settlement took place in 745 B.C.
+
+His next exploit was the rapid conquest of the mountainous and populous
+regions on the shores of the Caspian. And now he ventured to try
+conclusions with Armenia and to attack the famous kingdom of Urartu in
+the difficult fastnesses round Lakes Van and Urumiah. Crossing the
+Euphrates in the spring of 743 B.C., he captured Arpad, and soon
+afterwards marched forth to meet the great army of Sharduris. The rout
+of the latter was complete, and he fled, after losing 73,000 men. The
+victor was covered with glory; yet the triumph cost him dear, for the
+forces left him were not sufficient to finish the campaign, nor to
+extort allegiance from the Syrian princes who had allied themselves with
+Sharduris.
+
+After spending the winter in Nineveh, reorganising his troops, the
+Assyrian inaugurated a campaign which ended in the subjugation of
+Northern Syria and its incorporation in the empire. Only one difficulty
+foiled Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of
+Dhuspas, in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu
+held out against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew.
+Sharduris remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his
+power had received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then,
+Armenia has more than once challenged fortune, but always with the same
+result; it fared no better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under
+Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians.
+
+As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
+Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta,
+where the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
+grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
+abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
+profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
+also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many
+petty states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time
+of Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power
+was really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually
+declared himself king, together with Pharaoh.
+
+Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
+of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was
+at this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Israel, King
+Pekah being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
+inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.
+
+Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
+had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C.,
+and was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years
+was assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin,
+who was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two
+months and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain
+Ukinzir, an Aramean chief.
+
+But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
+on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against
+it. After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
+Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
+proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
+passed since the two empires had been united under one ruler. His
+Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking for him; but he did not
+long survive his triumph, dying after having reigned eighteen years over
+Assyria, and less than two years over Babylon and Chaldaea.
+
+The next great Assyrian name is that of Sargon II., whose origin is not
+clear. And the incidents of the revolution which raised him to the
+throne are also unknown. The first few years of his reign, which
+commenced in 722 B.C., were harassed by revolts among many of the border
+tribes, but these he resolutely faced at all points, inflicting
+overwhelming defeats on the Medes and the Armenians. The Philistines
+were cowed by the storming of Ashdod, and Sargon subdued Phoenicia,
+carrying his arms to the sea. This great monarch, while wars raged round
+him, found time for extensive works of a peaceful character, completing
+the system of irrigation, and erecting buildings at Calah and Nineveh,
+and raising a magnificent palace at Dur-Sharrukin.
+
+And here he intended in peace to build a great city, but he was, in 105
+B.C., assassinated by an alien soldier. Sennacherib, his son, fighting
+on the frontier, was recalled and proclaimed immediately. He either
+failed to inherit his father's good fortune, or lacked his ability.
+Instead of conciliating the vanquished, he massacred entire tribes, and
+failed to re-people these with captive exiles from other nations. So,
+towards the end of his reign--which terminated in 681 B.C.--he found
+himself ruling over a sparsely inhabited desert where his father had
+left him flourishing and populous cities. Phoenicia and Judah formed an
+alliance with each other and with Egypt. Sennacherib bestirred himself
+and Tyre perished. The Assyrian invader then attacked Judah and besieged
+Jerusalem, where Hezekiah was king and Isaiah was prophesying. Whatever
+was the cause, half the army perished by pestilence, and Sennacherib led
+back the remnants of his force to Nineveh.
+
+The disaster was terrible, but not irreparable, for another and an equal
+host could be raised. And it was needed to quell a great Babylonian
+revolt led by Merodachbaladan, who had given the signal of rebellion to
+the mountain tribes also. After a series of terrible conflicts, Babylon
+was taken. And now Sennacherib, who had shown leniency after two
+previous revolts, displayed unbounded fury in his triumph. The massacre
+lasted several days, none being spared of the citizens. Piles of corpses
+filled the streets. The temples and palaces were pillaged, and finally
+the city was burnt.
+
+In the midst of his costly and absorbing wars we may well wonder how
+Sennacherib found time and means for building villas and temples; yet he
+is, nevertheless, the Assyrian king who has left us the largest number
+of monuments.
+
+His last years were embittered by the fierce rivalry of his sons. One of
+these he nominated his successor, Esarhaddon, son of a Babylonian wife.
+During his absence from Nineveh, on the 20th day of Teleth, 681, his
+father, Sennacherib, when praying before the image of his god, was
+assassinated by two other sons, Sharezer and Adrammelech. Esarhaddon,
+hearing of this tragedy, gathered an army, and in a battle defeated
+Sharezer and established himself on the throne.
+
+
+_III.--The Crisis of the Assyrian Power_
+
+
+Esarhaddon was personally inclined for peace, for he delighted in
+building; but unfortunate disturbances did not permit him to pursue his
+favourite occupation without interruption, and, like his warlike
+predecessors, he was constrained to pass most of his life on the
+battlefield. He began his reign by quelling an insurrection of the
+Cimmerians in the territories on the border of the Black Sea. Sidon
+rebelled ungratefully, although his father had saved her from desolation
+by Tyre. He stormed and burnt the city. The Scythian tribes came on the
+field in 678 B.C., but they were diplomatically conciliated.
+
+Now followed a memorable event. Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all
+the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the
+fabrication of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and
+lavishly devoted gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of
+enamel to decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the
+people, who had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to
+return to their homes.
+
+But fresh foreign complications arose through the support given
+continually to recalcitrant states in the south of Egypt. Esarhaddon was
+provoked to undertake the first actual invasion of Egypt in force by
+Assyria for the purpose of subduing the country. Over a great
+combination of the Egyptians and Ethiopians he won a crushing victory.
+Memphis was taken and sacked. Henceforth, Esarhaddon, in his pride,
+styled himself King of Egypt, and King of the Kings of Egypt, of the
+Said, and of Ethiopia. But he was not very long permitted to enjoy the
+glory of his triumph; a determined revolt of the conquered country
+demanded a fresh campaign. He set out, but was in bad health, and, his
+malady increasing, he died on the journey in the twelfth year of his
+reign.
+
+Before starting on the expedition, he had realised the impossibility of
+a permanent amalgamation of Assyria and Babylon, notwithstanding his
+personal affection for Babylon. Accordingly, he designated as his
+successors his two sons. Assurbanipal was to be King of Assyria, and
+Shamash-shumukin King of Babylon, under the suzerainty of his brother.
+As soon as Esarhaddon had passed away, the separation he had planned
+took place automatically, the two sons proclaiming themselves
+respectively kings of Assyria and Babylon. Thus Babylon regained half
+its independence. But the Assyrian Empire was now at its zenith. Egypt
+was quelled by the army of Esarhaddon, and to Assurbanipal submitted in
+vassalage the nations of the Mediterranean coast.
+
+Now followed years of exhausting warfare and of victory after victory,
+which fatally wasted the strength of Assyria. Never had the empire been
+so respected; never had so many nations united under one sceptre. But
+troubles accumulated. Mutiny in Egypt called for another expedition,
+which led to the capture and sacking of Thebes. Next came a war with
+Elam, ending in its subjection to Assyria, for the first time in
+history.
+
+But with success. Assurbanipal grew arrogant in his attitude to his
+brother, the King of Babylon, and a fratricidal war resulted in the
+defeat and death of Shamash-shumukin and the capture of the rival
+capital. But Assyria was now near one of its recurrent periods of
+exhaustion, and foes were rising for a formidable attack.
+
+
+_IV.--Fall of Media and Chaldaea_
+
+
+At the very height of his apparent grandeur and prosperity Assurbanipal
+was attacked by Phraortes, King of the Medes, who paid for his temerity
+with his life, being left dead, with the greater part of his army, on
+the field. But the sequel was unexpected, for Cyaxares, son of the slain
+Mede, stubbornly continued the conflict, patiently reorganising his
+army, until he won a great victory over the Assyrian generals, and shut
+up the remnant of their forces in Nineveh.
+
+Assurbanipal, after a reign of forty-two years, died about 625 B.C., and
+was succeeded by his son, Assuretililani. Against his brother and
+successor, Sinsharishkin, the standard of rebellion was raised by
+Nabopolassar, the governor of Babylon, who declared himself independent,
+and assumed the title of king, but his reign not long after ended with
+his death, in 605 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar was proclaimed king in Babylon.
+
+His reign was long and prosperous, and, on the whole, a peaceful one.
+The most notable event in the career of Nebuchadrezzar II., was the
+capture and destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of a revolt of Tyre
+and Judea. The unfortunate king, Zedekiah, saw his sons slain in his
+presence, and then, his eyes having been put out, he was loaded with
+chains, and sent to Babylon.
+
+Nebuchadrezzar died in 562 B.C. after a reign of fifty-five years. His
+successors were weak rulers, and their reigns were brief and inglorious.
+The army was suffered to dwindle, and the dynasty founded by
+Nabopolassar came to an end in 555 B.C., when Labashi-marduk, the last
+of the line, after reigning only nine months, was murdered by Nabonidus,
+a native Babylonian. This usurper witnessed the rapid rise of the new
+Iranian power which was to destroy him and Babylon. In 553 B.C., Cyrus,
+a Persian general, revolted against Astyages, defeated him, and
+destroyed the Median Empire at one blow.
+
+The only army that was a match for that of Cyrus was the Lydian host
+under King Croesus. A conflict took place between the two, ending in the
+defeat of the most powerful potentate of Asia Minor. But Cyrus treated
+Croesus with consideration, and the Lydian king is said to have become
+the friend of the mighty Persian. From that day neither Egypt nor
+Chaldaea had any chance of victory on the battlefield. Nabonidus became a
+mere vassal of Cyrus, and lived more or less inactively in his palace at
+Tima, leaving the direction of power at Babylon in the hands of his son,
+Bel-sharuzu.
+
+At length the Babylonians grew weary of their king. Nabonidus had never
+been popular, and the discontent of the people at length called for the
+intervention of the suzerain. In 538 Cyrus moved against Babylon, and
+Nabonidus now retreated into the city with his troops, and prepared for
+a siege. But Cyrus, taking advantage of the time of the year when the
+waters were lowest, diverted the Tigris, so that his soldiers were able
+to enter the city without striking a blow. Nabonidus surrendered, and
+Belsharuzur was slain. With him perished the second Chaldaean Empire.
+
+The sagacious conqueror did not pillage the city, and treated the
+citizens with clemency. Cyrus associated his son Cambyses with himself,
+making him King of Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
+remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
+of the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian
+dominion extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus
+took place the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.
+
+According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
+his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom;
+but Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
+barbarian hosts of the Massagetae, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
+the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in
+which all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but
+accomplished the stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone
+remained to be conquered. Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise
+against Egypt; but after a series of successes met with reverses in
+Ethiopia, which affected his mind, and he is said to have ended his own
+life. Power fell into the hands of a chief of one of the seven great
+clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose rival was
+Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.
+
+Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
+being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of
+the great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the
+greatness of the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest
+of the Near East had arrived.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
+
+
+The Antiquities of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole history
+     of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also
+     wrote an autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical
+     treatise, "Flavius Josephus against Apion." His style is so
+     classically elegant that critics have called him the Greek
+     Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities of the Jews"
+     contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
+     portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories
+     embodied in the Old Testament.
+
+
+_I.--From Alexander to Antiochus_
+
+
+After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
+Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
+Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So
+he marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Caria and Pamphylia, and
+again defeated Darius at Issus. The Persian king fled into his own land,
+and his mother, wife, and children were captured. Alexander besieged and
+took first Tyre, and then Gaza, and next marched towards Jerusalem.
+
+At Sapha, in full view of the city, he was met by a procession of the
+priests in fine linen, and a multitude of the citizens in white, the
+high-priest, Jaddua, being at their head in his resplendent robes.
+Graciously responding to the salutations of priests and people,
+Alexander entered Jerusalem, worshipped and sacrificed in the Temple,
+and then invited the people to ask what favours they pleased of him;
+whereupon the high-priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of
+their forefathers, and pay no tribute on the seventh year. All their
+requests were granted, and Alexander led his army into the neighbouring
+cities.
+
+Now, when Alexander was dead and his government had been divided among
+many, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, by treachery seized Jerusalem, and took
+away many captives to Egypt, and settled them there. His successor,
+Ptolemy Philadelphus, restored to freedom 120,000 Jews who had been kept
+in slavery at the instance of Aristeus, one of his most intimate
+friends. He also dedicated many gifts to God, and showed great
+friendship to the Jews in his dominions.
+
+Other kings in Asia followed the example of Philadelphus, conferring
+honours on Jews who became their auxiliaries, and making them citizens
+with privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Macedonians and Greeks. In
+the reign of Antiochus the Great the Jews suffered greatly while he was
+at war with Ptolemy Philopater, and with his son, called Epiphanes. When
+Antiochus had beaten Ptolemy, he seized on Judea, but ultimately he made
+a league with Ptolemy, gave him his daughter Cleopatra to wife, and
+yielded up to him Celesyria, Samaria, Judea, and Phoenicia by way of
+dowry. Onias, son of Simon the Just, was then high-priest. He greatly
+provoked the king by neglecting to pay his taxes, so that Ptolemy
+threatened to settle his soldiers in Jerusalem to live on the citizens.
+
+But Joseph, the nephew of Onias, by his wisdom brought all things right
+again, and entered into friendship with the king, who lent him soldiers
+and sent him to force the people in various cities to pay their taxes.
+Many who refused were slain. Joseph not only thus gathered great wealth
+for himself, but sent much to the king and to Cleopatra, and to powerful
+men at the court of Egypt. He had a son named Hyrcanus, who became noted
+for his ability, and crossed the Jordan with many followers; he made war
+successfully on the Arabians, built a magnificent stone castle, and
+ruled over all the region for seven years, even all the time that
+Seleucus was king of Syria. But when Seleucus was dead, his brother
+Antiochus Epiphanes took the kingdom, and Hyrcanus, seeing that
+Antiochus had a great army, feared he should be taken and punished for
+what he had done to the Arabians. So he took his own life, Antiochus
+seizing his possessions.
+
+
+_II.--To the Death of Judas_
+
+
+Antiochus, despising the son of Ptolemy as being but weak, and coveting
+the possession of Egypt, conducted an expedition against that country
+with a great force; but was compelled to withdraw by a declaration of
+the Romans. On his way back from Alexandria he took the city of
+Jerusalem, entering it without fighting in the 143d year of the kingdom
+of the Seleucidae. He slew many of the citizens, plundered the city of
+much money, and returned to Antioch.
+
+After two years he again came up against Jerusalem, and this time left
+the Temple bare, taking away the golden altar and candlesticks, the
+table of shewbread, and the altar of burnt offering, and all the secret
+treasures. He slew some of the people, and carried off into captivity
+about ten thousand, burnt the finest buildings, erected a citadel, and
+therein placed a garrison of Macedonians. Building an idol altar in the
+Temple, he offered swine on it, and he compelled many of the Jews to
+raise idol altars in every town and village, and to offer swine on them
+every day. But many disregarded him, and these underwent bitter
+punishment. They were tortured or scourged or crucified.
+
+Now, at this time there dwelt at Modin a priest named Mattathias, a
+citizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, one of whom, Judas, was called
+Maccabaeus. Mattathias and his sons not only refused to sacrifice as
+Antiochus commanded, but, with his sons, attacked and slew an apostate
+Jewish worshipper and Apelles, the king's general, and a few of his
+soldiers. Then the priest and his five sons overthrew the idol altar,
+and fled into the desert, followed by many of their followers with their
+wives and children. About a thousand of these who had hidden in caves
+were overtaken and destroyed; but many who escaped joined themselves to
+Mattathias, and appointed him to be the ruler, who taught them to fight,
+even on the Sabbath. Gathering a great army, he overthrew the idol
+altars, and slew those who broke the laws. But after ruling one year, he
+fell into a distemper, and committed to his sons the conduct of affairs.
+He was buried at Modin, all the people making great lamentation. His son
+Judas took upon himself the administration of affairs in the 146th year,
+and with the help of his brothers and others, cast their enemies out of
+the country and purified the land of its pollutions. Judas celebrated in
+the Temple at Jerusalem the festival of the restoration of the
+sacrifices for eight days.
+
+From that time we call the yearly celebration the Feast of Lights. Judas
+also rebuilt the wall and reared towers of great height. When these
+things were over he made excursions against adversaries on every side,
+he and his brothers Simon and Jonathan subduing in turn Idumaea, Gilead,
+Jazer, Tyre, and Ashdod. Antiochus died of a distemper which overtook
+him as he was fleeing from Elymais, from which he was driven during an
+attack upon its gates. Before he died he called his friends about him,
+and confessed that his calamities had come upon him for the miseries he
+had brought upon the Jewish nation.
+
+Antiochus was succeeded by his son, Antiochus Eupator, a boy of tender
+age, whose guardians were Philip and Lysias. He reigned but two years,
+being put to death, together with Lysias, by order of the usurper
+Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who fled from Rome, and, landing in
+Syria, gathered an army, and was joyfully received by the people.
+Against Jerusalem, Demetrius sent an expedition commanded by his
+general, Bacchides. Judas Maccabaeus, fighting with great courage, but
+having with him only 800 men, fell in the battle. His brothers Simon and
+Jonathan, receiving his body by treaty from the enemy, carried it to the
+village of Modin, and there buried him. He left behind him a glorious
+reputation, by gaining freedom for his nation and delivering them from
+slavery under the Macedonians. He died after filling the office of
+high-priest for three years.
+
+
+_III.--To the Roman Dominion_
+
+
+Jonathan and his brother Simon continued the war against Bacchides. They
+were assisted by Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in the
+160th year, came up into Syria against Demetrius, and defeated and slew
+him in a great battle near Ptolemais. But the son of Demetrius, named
+after his father, in the 165th year, after Alexander had seated himself
+on the throne and had gained in marriage Cleopatra, daughter of Ptolemy
+Philometor, came from Crete with a great number of mercenary soldiers.
+Jonathan and Simon, brothers of Judas Maccabaeus, entering into league
+with Demetrius, who offered them very great advantages, defeated at
+Ashdod the army sent by Alexander under Apollonius.
+
+A breach took place between Alexander and Ptolemy through the treachery
+of Ammonius, a friend of the former, and the Egyptian king took away his
+daughter Cleopatra from her husband, and immediately sent to Demetrius,
+offering to make a league of mutual assistance and friendship with him,
+to give him his daughter in marriage and to restore him to the
+principality of his fathers. These overtures were joyfully accepted, and
+Ptolemy came to Antioch and persuaded the people to receive Demetrius.
+Alexander was beaten in a battle by the two allies and fled into Arabia,
+where, however, his head was speedily cut off by Zabdiel, a prince of
+the country, and sent to Ptolemy. But that king, through wounds caused
+by falling from his horse, died a few days afterwards.
+
+Demetrius, being secure in power, disbanded a great part of his army,
+but this action greatly irritated the soldiers. Furthermore, he was
+hated, as his father had been, by the people of Syria. A revolt was
+raised by an Apanemian named Trypho, who overcame Demetrius in a fight,
+and took from him both his elephants and the city of Antioch. Demetrius
+on this defeat retired into Cilicia, and Trypho delivered the kingdom to
+Antiochus, the youthful son of Alexander, who quickly sent ambassadors
+to Jonathan and made him his confederate and friend, confirming him in
+the high-priesthood and yielding up to him four prefectures which had
+been added to Judea. Accordingly, Jonathan promptly joined him in a war
+against Demetrius, who was again defeated.
+
+Soon after Demetrius had been carried into captivity Trypho deserted
+Antiochus, who had now reigned four years. He usurped power, which he
+basely abused; and Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, raised a force
+against him and drove him away to Apamea, where he was put to death, his
+term of power having lasted only three years. Antiochus Soter then
+attacked Simon, who successfully resisted, established peace, and ruled
+in all for eight years. His death also was the result of treachery, his
+son-in-law Ptolemy playing him false. His son Hyrcanus became
+high-priest, and speedily ejected the forces of Ptolemy from the land.
+Subduing all factions, he ruled justly for thirty-one years, leaving
+five sons.
+
+The eldest, Aristobulus, purposed to change the government into a
+kingdom, and placed a diadem on his own head; but his mother, to whom
+the supremacy had been entrusted, disputed his authority. He cast her
+into prison, where she was starved to death; and next he compassed the
+death of his brother Antigonus, but was soon attacked by a painful
+disease. He reigned only one year. His widow, Alexandra, let his
+brothers out of prison and made Alexander Janneus king.
+
+His reign was one of war and disorder. With savage cruelty he repressed
+rebellion, condemning hundreds of Jews to crucifixion. While these were
+yet living, their wives and children were slain before their eyes. His
+life was ended by a sickness which lasted three years, and after his
+death civil war broke out between his two sons, Aristobulus and
+Hyrcanus, in which great barbarities were committed. The conflict was
+terminated by the intervention of the Romans under Scarus. The two
+brothers appealed to Pompey after he came to Damascus; but that Roman
+general marched against Jerusalem and took it by force. Thus we lost our
+liberty as a nation and became subject to the Romans.
+
+
+_IV.--The Jews and the Romans_
+
+
+Crassus next came with Roman troops into Judea and pillaged the Temple,
+and then marched into Parthia, where both he and his army perished. Then
+Cassius obtained Syria, and checked the Parthians. He passed on to
+Judea, fell on Tarichaea, and took it, and carried away 3,000 Jewish
+captives. A wealthy Idumean named Antipater, who had been a great friend
+of Hyrcanus, and had helped him against Aristobulus, was a very active
+and seditious man. He had married Cypros, a lady of his own Idumean
+race, by whom he had four sons, Phaselus, and Herod, who afterwards
+became king, and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a daughter, Salome. He
+cultivated friendship with other potentates, especially with the King of
+Arabia, to whom he committed the care of his children while he fought
+against Aristobulus. But when Caesar had taken Rome, and after Pompey and
+the senate had fled beyond the Ionian Sea, Aristobulus was set free from
+the bonds in which he had been laid. Caesar resolved to send him with two
+legions into Syria to set matters right; but Aristobulus had no
+enjoyment of this trust, for he was poisoned by Pompey's party. But
+Scipio, sent by Pompey to slay Alexander, son of Aristobulus, cut off
+his head at Antioch. And Ptolemy, son of Menneus, ruler of Chalcis, took
+Alexander's brethren to him, and sent his son Philippion to Askelon to
+Aristobulus's wife, and desired her to send back with him her son
+Antigonus and her daughters; the one of whom, Alexandra, Philippion fell
+in love with, and married her; though afterwards his father Ptolemy slew
+him, and married Alexandra.
+
+Now, after Pompey was dead, and after the victory Caesar had gained over
+him, Antipater, who had managed the Jewish affairs, became very useful
+to Caesar when he made war against Egypt, and that by the order of
+Hyrcanus. He brought over to the side of Caesar the principal men of the
+Arabians, and also Jamblicus, the ruler of the Syrians, and Ptolemy, his
+son, and Tholomy, the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at Mount Libanus, and
+almost all the cities, and with 3,000 armed Jews he joined Mithradates
+of Pergamus, who was marching with his auxiliaries to aid Caesar.
+Antipater and Mithradates together won a pitched battle against the
+Egyptians, and Caesar not only then commended Antipater, but used him
+throughout that war in the most hazardous undertakings, and finally, at
+the end of that campaign, made him procurator of Judea, at the same time
+appointing Hyrcanus high-priest. Antipater, seeing that Hyrcanus was of
+a slow and slothful temper, made his eldest son, Phaselus, governor of
+Jerusalem; but committed Galilee to his next son, Herod, who was only
+fifteen, but was a youth of great mind, and soon proved his courage, and
+won the love of the Syrians by freeing their country of a nest of
+robbers, and slaying the captain of these, one Hezekias.
+
+Thus Herod became known to Sextus Caesar, a relation of the great Caesar,
+who was now president of Syria. Now, the growing reputation of Antipater
+and his sons excited the envy of the principal men among the Jews,
+especially as they saw that Herod was violent and bold, and was capable
+of acting tyrannically. So they accused him before Hyrcanus of
+encroaching on the government, and of transgressing the laws by putting
+men to death without their condemnation by the sanhedrin. Protecting
+Herod, whom he loved as his own son, from the sanhedrin when they would
+have sentenced him to death, Hyrcanus aided him to flee to Damascus,
+where he took refuge with Sextus Caesar. When Herod received the kingdom,
+he slew all the members of that sanhedrin excepting Sameas, whom he
+respected because he persuaded the people to admit Herod into the city,
+and he even slew Hyrcanus also.
+
+Now, when Caesar was come to Rome, and was ready to sail into Africa to
+fight against Scipio and Cato, Hyrcanus sent ambassadors to him,
+desiring the ratification of the league of friendship between them. Not
+only Caesar but the senate heaped honours on the ambassadors, and
+confirmed the understanding that subsisted. But during the disorders
+that arose after the death of Caesar, Cassius came into Syria and
+disturbed Judea by exacting great sums of money. Antipater sought to
+gather the great tax demanded from Judea, and was foully slain by a
+collector named Malichus, on whom Herod quickly took vengeance for the
+murder of his father. By his energy in obtaining the required tax, Herod
+gained new favour with Cassius.
+
+
+_V.--The Herodian Era_
+
+
+In order to secure his position, Herod made an obscure priest from
+Babylon, named Ananelus, high-priest in place of Hyrcanus. This offended
+Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Alexander, son of
+Aristobulus the king. She had ten children, among whom were Mariamne,
+the beautiful wife of Herod, and Aristobulus. She sent an appeal to
+Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in order by her intercession to gain from
+Antony the high-priesthood for this son. At the instance of Antony,
+Herod took the office from Ananelus, and gave it to Aristobulus, but
+took care that the youth should soon be murdered. Then, from causeless
+jealousy, he put to death his uncle Joseph and threw Mariamne into
+prison. Victory in a war with Arabia enhanced his power. Cruelly slaying
+Hyrcanus, he hasted away to Octavian, who had beaten Antony at Actium,
+and obtained also from him, the new Caesar, Augustus, the kingdom, thus
+being confirmed in his position.
+
+Women of the palace who hated Mariamne for her beauty, her high birth,
+and her pride, falsely accused her to Herod of gross unfaithfulness. He
+loved her passionately, but, giving ear to these traducers, ordered her
+to be tried. She was condemned to death, and showed great fortitude as
+she went to the place of execution, even though her own mother,
+Alexandra, in order to make herself safe from the wrath of the king,
+basely, and publicly, and violently upbraided her, while the people,
+pitying her, mourned at her fate. Herod was also attacked by a
+tormenting distemper. He ordered the execution of Alexandra and of
+several of his most intimate friends.
+
+By his persistent introduction of foreign customs, which corrupted the
+constitution of the country, Herod incurred the deep hatred of very many
+eminent citizens. He erected servile trophies to Caesar, and prepared
+costly games in which men were condemned to fight with wild beasts. Ten
+men who conspired against him were betrayed, and were tortured horribly,
+and then slain. But the people seized the spy who had informed against
+them, tore him limb from limb, and flung the body in pieces to the dogs.
+By constant and relentless severity Herod still strengthened his rule.
+
+But now fearful disturbances arose in his family. His sister Salome and
+his brother Pheroras displayed virulent hatred against Alexander and
+Aristobulus, sons of the murdered Mariamne, and, on their part, the two
+young men were incensed at the partiality shown by Herod to his eldest
+son, Antipater. This prince was continually using cunning strategy
+against his brethren, while feigning affection for them. He so worked on
+the mind of the king by false accusations against Alexander that many of
+the friends of this youth were tortured to death in the attempts made to
+force disclosures from them.
+
+A traitor named Eurycles fanned the flame by additional accusations, all
+utterly groundless, so that Herod wrote letters to Rome concerning the
+treacherous designs of his sons against him, and asking permission of
+Caesar to bring them to trial. This was granted, and they were accused
+before an assembly of judges at Berytus and condemned. By their father's
+command they were starved to death. For his share in bringing about this
+tragedy Antipater was hated by the people. But the secret desire of this
+eldest son was to see the end of his father, whom he deeply hated,
+though he now governed jointly with him and was no other than a king
+already.
+
+Herod by this time had nine wives and many children and grandchildren.
+The latter he brought up with much care. Antipater was sent on a mission
+to Rome, and during his absence his plots were discovered, and on his
+return, Herod, amazed at his wickedness, condemned him to death. The
+king now altered his testament, dividing the territory among several of
+his sons. He died on the fifth day after the execution of Antipater,
+having reigned thirty-four years after procuring the death of Antigonus.
+Archelaus, his son, was appointed by Caesar, in confirmation of Herod's
+will, governor of one-half of the country; but accusation of enemies led
+to his banishment to Vienna, in Gaul. Cyrenaicus, a Roman senator and
+magistrate, was sent by Caesar to make taxation in Syria and Judea, and
+Caponius was made procurator of Judea. Philip, a son of Herod, built
+cities in honour of Tiberius Caesar. When Pontius Pilate became
+procurator he removed the army from Cassarea to Jerusalem, abolished
+Jewish laws, and in the night introduced Caesar's effigies on ensigns.
+
+About this time Jesus, a wise man, a doer of wonderful works, drew over
+to him many Jews and Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the
+suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the
+cross, those that loved him did not forsake him, for he appeared to them
+again alive at the third day, as the prophets had foretold; and the
+tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
+John, who was called the Baptist, was slain by Herod the tetrarch at his
+castle at Machserus, by the Dead Sea. The destruction of his army by
+Aretas, king of Arabia, was ascribed by the Jews to God's anger for this
+crime.
+
+Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, became the most famous of his
+descendants. On him Claudius Caesar bestowed all the dominions of his
+grandfather with the title of king. But pride overcame him. Seated on a
+throne at a great festival at Caesarea, arrayed in a magnificent robe, he
+was stricken by a disease, and died.
+
+He was succeeded by his son Agrippa, during whose time Felix and Festus
+were procurators in Judea, while Nero was Roman emperor. This Agrippa
+finished the Temple by the work of 18,000 men. The war of the Jews and
+Romans began through the oppression by Gessius Florus, who secured the
+procuratorship by the friendship of his wife Cleopatra with Poppea, wife
+of Nero. Florus filled Judea with intolerable cruelties, and the war
+began in the second year of his rule and the twelfth of the reign of
+Nero. What happened will be known by those who peruse the books I have
+written about the Jewish war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+The Wars of the Jews
+
+
+     Josephus, in his "Wars of the Jews," gives the only full and
+     reliable account of the tragic siege and destruction of
+     Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus. Excepting in the opening,
+     he writes throughout in the third person, although he was
+     present in the Roman camp as a prisoner during the siege, and
+     before then had been, as governor of Galilee, the brave and
+     energetic antagonist of the Romans. Becoming the friend of
+     Titus, and despairing of the success of his compatriots, he
+     was employed in efforts to conciliate the leaders of the
+     rebellion during the siege, and he was for three years a
+     privileged captive in the camp of the besiegers. His recital
+     is one of the most thrilling samples of romantic realism in
+     the whole range of ancient literature, and its veracity and
+     honesty have never been impugned. In his autobiography,
+     Josephus tells how, after the war, he was invited by Titus to
+     sail with him to Rome, and how on his arrival there the
+     Emperor Vespasian entertained him in his own palace, bestowed
+     on him a pension, and conferred on him the honours of Roman
+     citizenship. The Emperors Titus and Domitian treated this
+     remarkable Jew with continued favour.
+
+
+_I.--Beginning of the Great Conflict_
+
+
+Whereas the war which the Jews made against the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all times, while some men who were not concerned themselves
+have written vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and while those
+that were there have given false accounts, I, Joseph, the son of
+Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, and a priest also, and who at first fought
+against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done
+afterwards, am the author of this book.
+
+Now, the affairs of the Romans were in great disorder after the death of
+Nero. At the decease of Herod Agrippa, his son, who bore the same name,
+was seventeen years old. He was considered too young to bear the burden
+of royalty, and Judea relapsed into a Roman province. Cuspius Fadus was
+sent as governor, and administered his office with firmness, but found
+civil war disturbing the district beyond Jordan. He cleared the country
+of the robber bands; and his successor, Tiberius Alexander, during a
+brief rule, put down disturbances which broke out in Judea. The province
+was at peace till he was superseded by Cumanus, during whose government
+the people and the Roman soldiery began to show mutual animosity. In a
+terrible riot 20,000 people perished, and Jerusalem was given up to
+wailing and lamentation.
+
+It was in Caesarea that the events took place which led to the final war.
+This magnificent city was inhabited by two races--the Syrian Greeks, who
+were heathens, and the Jews. The two parties violently contended for the
+pre-eminence. The Jews were the more wealthy; but the Roman soldiery,
+levied chiefly in Syria, took part with their countrymen. Tumults and
+bloodshed disturbed the streets. At this time a procurator named Gessius
+Florus was appointed, and he, by his barbarities, forced the Jews to
+begin the war in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the
+seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa.
+
+But the occasion of the war was by no means proportioned to those heavy
+calamities that it brought upon us. The fatal flame finally broke out
+from the old feud at Caesarea. The decree of Nero had assigned the
+magistracy of that city to the Greeks. It happened that the Jews had a
+synagogue, the ground around which belonged to a Greek. For this spot
+the Jews offered a much higher price than it was worth. It was refused,
+and to annoy them as much as possible, the owner set up some mean
+buildings and shops upon it, and so made the approach to the synagogue
+as narrow and difficult as possible. The more impetuous of the Jewish
+youth interrupted the workmen. Then the men of greater wealth and
+influence, and among them John, a publican, collected the large sum of
+eight talents, and sent it as a bribe to Florus, that he might stop the
+building. He received the money, made great promises, and at once
+departed for Sebaste from Caesarea. His object was to leave full scope
+for the riot.
+
+On the following day, while the Jews were crowding to the synagogue, a
+citizen of Caesarea outraged them by oversetting an earthen vessel in the
+way, over which he sacrificed birds, as done by the law in cleansing
+lepers, and thus he implied that the Jews were a leprous people. The
+more violent Jews, furious at the insult, attacked the Greeks, who were
+already in arms. The Jews were worsted, took up the books of the law,
+and fled to Narbata, about seven miles distant. John, the publican, and
+twelve men of eminence went to Samaria to Florus, implored his aid, and
+reminded him of the eight talents he had received. He threw them into
+prison and demanded seventeen talents from the sacred treasury under
+pretence of Caesar's necessities. This injustice and oppression caused
+violent excitement in Jerusalem when the news reached that city. The
+people assembled around the Temple with the loudest outcries; but it was
+the purpose of Florus to drive the people to insurrection, and he gave
+his soldiers orders to plunder the upper market and to put to death all
+whom they met. Of men, women, and children there fell that day 3,600.
+
+When Agrippa attempted to persuade the people to obey Florus till Caesar
+should send someone to succeed him, the more seditious cast reproaches
+on him, and got the king excluded from the city; nay, some had the
+impudence to fling stones at him. At the same time they excited the
+people to go to war, and some laid siege to the Roman garrison in the
+Antonio; others made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada.
+They took it by treachery, and slew the Romans. One, Menahem, a
+Galilean, became leader of the sedition, and went to Masada and broke
+open Herod's armoury, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to
+other robbers, also. These he made use of for a bodyguard, and returned
+in state to Jerusalem, and gave orders to continue the siege of the
+Antonio.
+
+The tower was undermined, and fell, and many soldiers were slain. Next
+day the high-priest Ananias, and his brother Hezekiah, were slain by the
+robbers. By these successes Menahem was puffed up and became barbarously
+cruel; but he was slain, as were also the captains under him, in an
+attack led on by Eleazar, a bold youth who was governor of the Temple.
+
+
+_II.--The Gathering of Great Storms_
+
+
+And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews. On the very
+same day two dreadful massacres happened. In Jerusalem the Jews fell on
+Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had
+made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander
+himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to
+circumcision. On that very day and hour, as though Providence had
+ordained it, the Greeks in Caesarea rose, and in a single hour slew over
+20,000 Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants. For
+Florus caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys. By this
+tragedy the whole nation was driven to madness. The Jews rose and laid
+waste the villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended
+on Gadara, Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places.
+Sebaste and Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed
+Anthedon and Gaza to the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with
+great slaughter.
+
+When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus,
+the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and
+overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be
+surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls. But the plot
+was discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls,
+and an attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed
+with great loss. Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews
+swarming on all the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in
+the night, leaving 400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and
+to display their ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.
+
+But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the
+army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band.
+This happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
+
+
+_III.--Judea in Rebellion Against Rome_
+
+
+Nero was at this time in Achaia. To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in
+order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the
+Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of
+Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem. Meantime, a great massacre of the
+Jews took place at Damascus. Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued
+after Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their
+governors and commanders. Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of
+Gorion, and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute
+authority in the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected
+of aiming at kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of
+zealots. But as commanding within the Temple he had made himself master
+of the public treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his
+extreme subtlety won over the multitude, and all real authority fell
+into his hands. To the other districts they sent the men most to be
+trusted for courage and fidelity.
+
+Josephus was appointed to the command of Galilee, with particular charge
+of the strong city of Gamala. He raised in that province in the north an
+army of more than a hundred thousand young men, whom he armed and
+exercised after the Roman manner; and he formed a council of seventy,
+and appointed seven judges in each city. He sought to unite the people
+and to win their goodwill. But great trouble arose from the treachery of
+his enemy, John of Gischala, who surpassed all men in craft and deceit.
+He gathered a force of 4,000 robbers and wasted Galilee, while he
+inflamed the dissensions in the cities, and sent messengers to Jerusalem
+accusing Josephus of tyranny. Tiberias and several cities revolted, but
+Josephus suppressed the risings, severely punishing many of the leaders.
+John retired to the robbers at Masada, and took to plundering Idumsea.
+
+
+_IV.--Vespasian and Josephus_
+
+
+Nero, on learning from the messengers the state of affairs, at first
+regarded the revolt lightly; but presently grew alarmed, and appointed
+to the command of the armies in Syria, and the task of subduing the
+Jews, Vespasian, who had pacified the West when it was disordered by the
+Germans, and had also recovered Britain for the Romans. He came to
+Antioch in the early spring, and was there joined by Agrippa and all his
+forces. He marched to Ptolemais, where he was met by his son Titus, who
+had, with expedition unusual in the winter season, sailed from Achaia to
+Alexandria. So the Roman army now numbered 60,000 horsemen and footmen,
+besides large numbers of camp followers who were also accustomed to
+military service and could fight on occasion.
+
+The war was now opened. Josephus attempted no resistance in the open
+field, and the people had been directed to fly to the fortified cities.
+The strongest of all these was Jotapata, and here Josephus commanded in
+person. Being very desirous of demolishing it, Vespasian besieged it
+with his whole army. It was defended with the greatest vigour, but was,
+after fierce conflicts, taken in the thirteenth year of the reign of
+Nero, on the first day of the month Panemus (July). During this dreadful
+siege, and at the capture, 40,000 men fell. The Romans sought in vain
+for the body of Josephus, their stubborn enemy. He had leaped down the
+shaft of a dry well leading to a long cavern. A woman betrayed the
+hiding-place, and Josephus was taken and brought before the conqueror,
+of whom he had demanded from his captors a private conference. To
+Vespasian he announced that he and his son would speedily attain the
+imperial dignity. Vespasian was conciliated by the speech of his
+prisoner, whom he treated with kindness; for though he did not release
+him from his bonds, he bestowed on him suits of clothes and other
+precious gifts.
+
+Joppa, Tiberias, Taricheae, and Gamala were taken, both Romans and Jews
+perishing in the conflicts. Soon afterwards, by the capture of Gischala,
+all Galilee was subdued, John of Gischala fleeing to Jerusalem.
+
+
+_V.--The Prelude to the Great Siege_
+
+
+While the cities of Galilee thus arrested the course of the Roman
+eagles, Jotapata and Gamala setting the example of daring resistance,
+the leaders of the nation in Jerusalem, instead of sending out armies to
+the relief of the besieged cities, were engaged in the most dreadful
+civil conflicts.
+
+The fame of John of Gishala had gone before him to Jerusalem, and the
+multitude poured forth to do him honour. He falsely represented the
+Roman forces as being very greatly weakened, and declared that their
+engines had been worn out in the sieges in Galilee. He was a man of
+enticing eloquence, to whom the young men eagerly gave heed. So the city
+now began to be divided into hostile factions, and the whole of Judea
+had before set to the people of Jerusalem the fatal example of discord.
+For every city was torn to pieces by civil animosities. Not only the
+public councils, but even numerous families were distracted by the peace
+and war dispute. Through all Judea the youth were ardent for war, while
+the elders vainly endeavoured to allay the frenzy. Bands of desperate
+men began to spread over the land, plundering houses, while the Roman
+garrisons in the towns, rather rejoicing in their hatred to the race
+than wishing to protect the sufferers, afforded little help.
+
+Large numbers of these evil men stole into the city and grew into a
+daring faction, who robbed houses openly, and many of the most eminent
+citizens were murdered by these Zealots, as they were called, from their
+pretence that they had discovered a conspiracy to betray the city to the
+Romans. They dismissed many of the sanhedrin from office and appointed
+men of the lowest degree, who would support them in their violence, till
+the leaders of the people became slaves to their will.
+
+At length resistance was provoked, led by Ananus, oldest of the chief
+priests, a man of great wisdom, and the robber Zealots took refuge in
+the Temple and fortified it more strongly than before. They appointed as
+high-priest one Phanias, a coarse and clownish rustic, utterly ignorant
+of the sacerdotal duties, who when decked in the robes of office caused
+great derision. This sport and pastime for the Zealots caused the more
+religious people to shed tears of grief and shame; and the citizens,
+unable to endure such insolence, rose in great numbers to avenge the
+outrage on the sacred rites. Thus a fierce civil war broke out in which
+very many were slain.
+
+Then John of Gischala with great treachery, outwardly siding with
+Ananus, and secretly aiding the Zealots, sent messengers inviting the
+Idumaeans to come to his help, of whom 20,000 broke into the city during
+a stormy night, and slew 8,500 of the people.
+
+
+_VI.--The Siege and Fall of Jerusalem_
+
+
+Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and
+Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding
+his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem. Galba was
+made emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then,
+after the defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was
+proclaimed by the East. He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste
+their strength by their internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants
+with forces to reduce various surrounding districts instead of attacking
+Jerusalem. When he became emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds,
+honouring him for his integrity. Hastening his journey to Rome,
+Vespasian commanded Titus to subdue Judea.
+
+At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously. Eleazar, son of
+Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to
+reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the
+Zealots and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath
+against John of Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned. But he
+deserted the Zealots and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that
+there was war between him and Simon, son of Gioras. Thus Eleazar, John,
+and Simon each led a band in constant fightings, and the Temple was
+everywhere defiled by murders.
+
+Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and
+went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude
+burst forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and
+intercepted him and a few others. He had on neither helmet nor
+breastplate, yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him,
+as if by some purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of
+his foes, he escaped unhurt. Part of the army now advanced to Scopos,
+within a mile of the city, while another occupied a station at the foot
+of the Mount of Olives.
+
+Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem
+for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the
+summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and
+Simon from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so
+near the walls. Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an
+attack at the same moment. Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along
+the valley of Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion,
+encamped at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed
+at the entrenchments. The soldiers fell back, many being killed.
+Witnessing their peril, Titus, with picked troops, fell on the flank of
+the Jews and drove them into the city with great loss.
+
+The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches,
+leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying
+all the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and
+the army took up a position all along the northern and the western wall,
+the footmen being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three
+lines behind, and the archers between. Jerusalem was fortified by three
+walls. These were not one within the other, for each defended one of the
+quarters into which the city was divided.
+
+The first, or outermost, encompassed Bezetha, the next protected the
+citadel of the Antonia and the northern front of the Temple, and the
+third, or old, and innermost wall was that of Sion. Many towers, 35 feet
+high and 35 feet broad, each surmounted with lofty chambers and with
+great tanks for rain water, guarded the whole circuit of the walls, 90
+being in the first wall, 14 in the second, and 60 in the third. The
+whole circuit of the city was about 33 stadia (four miles). From their
+pent-houses of wicker the Romans, with great toil day and night,
+discharged arrows and stones, which slew many of the citizens.
+
+At three different places the battering rams began their thundering
+work, and at length a corner tower came down, yet the walls stood firm,
+for there was no breach. Suddenly the besieged sallied forth and set
+fire to the engines. Titus came up with his horsemen and slew twelve
+Jews with his own hands. One was taken prisoner and was crucified before
+the walls as an example, being the first so executed during the siege.
+The Jews now retreated to the second wall, abandoning the defence of
+Bezetha, which the Romans entered. Titus instantly ordered the second
+wall to be attacked, and for five days the conflict raged more fiercely
+than ever. The Jews were entirely reckless of their own lives,
+sacrificing themselves readily if they could kill their foes. On the
+fifth day they retreated from the second wall, and Titus entered that
+part of the lower city which was within it with I,000 picked men.
+
+But, being desirous of winning the people, he ordered that no houses
+should be set on fire and no massacres should be committed. The
+seditious, however, slew everyone who spoke of peace, and furiously
+assailed the Romans. Some fought from the walls, others from the houses,
+and such confusion prevailed that the Romans retired; then the Jews,
+elated, manned the breach, making a wall of their own bodies.
+
+Thus the fight continued for three days, till Titus a second time
+entered the wall. He threw down all the northern part and strongly
+garrisoned the towers on the south. The strong heights of Sion, the
+citadel of the Antonia, and the fortified Temple still held out Titus,
+eager to save so magnificent a place, resolved to refrain for a few days
+from the attack, in order that the minds of the besieged might be
+affected by their woes, and that the slow results of famine might
+operate. He reviewed his army in full armour, and they received their
+pay in view of the city, the battlements being thronged by spectators
+during this splendid defiling, who looked on in terror and dismay. Then
+Titus sent Josephus to address them and to persuade them to yield, but
+the Zealots reviled him and hurled darts at him; but many began to
+desert, Titus permitted them to come in unmolested. John and Simon in
+their anger watched every outlet and executed any whom they suspected of
+designing to follow.
+
+The famine increased, and the misery of the weaker was aggravated by
+seeing the stronger obtaining food. All natural affection was
+extinguished, husbands and wives, parents and children snatching the
+last morsel from each other. Many wretched men were caught by the Romans
+prowling in the ravines by night to pick up food, and these were
+scourged, tortured, and crucified. In the morning sometimes 500 of these
+victims were seen on crosses before the walls. This was done to terrify
+the rest, and it went on till there was not wood enough for crosses.
+Terrible crimes were committed in the city. The aged high-priest,
+Matthias, was accused of holding communication with the enemy. Three of
+his sons were killed in his presence, and he was executed in sight of
+the Romans, together with sixteen other members of the sanhedrin, and
+the parents of Josephus were thrown into prison. The famine grew so
+woeful that a woman devoured the body of her own child. At length, after
+fierce fighting, the Antonia was scaled, and Titus ordered its
+demolition.
+
+Titus now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders
+would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots
+refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer
+court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones
+resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the
+cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. A soldier flung a
+blazing brand into a gilded door on the north side of the chambers. The
+Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to
+take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.
+
+The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left
+but a small portion of the outer cloisters. Titus next spent eighteen
+days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then
+speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any
+mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of
+this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners
+numbered 97,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY MILMAN, D.D.
+
+
+History of the Jews
+
+
+     Henry Hart Milman, D.D., was born in London on February 10,
+     1791, died on September 24, 1868, and was buried in St. Paul's
+     Cathedral, of which for the last nineteen years of his life he
+     was Dean. He was the youngest son of Sir Francis Milman,
+     physician to George III, and was educated at Greenwich, Eton
+     and Oxford. Although as a scholarly poet he had a considerable
+     reputation, his literary fame rests chiefly on his fine
+     historical works, of which fifteen volumes appeared, including
+     the "History of the Jews," the "History of Christianity to the
+     Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire," and the "History
+     of Latin Christianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas V." The
+     appearance of the "History of the Jews" in 1830 caused no
+     small consternation among the orthodox, but among the Jews
+     themselves it was exceptionally well received. Dean Milman
+     wrote several hymns, including "Ride on, ride on in majesty,"
+     "When our heads are bowed in woe." Although this history
+     carries the Jewish race down to modern times, it is included
+     in the section of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS treating of
+     ancient history, as it is the history of an ancient race, not
+     of a definite country.
+
+
+_I.--Dissolution of the Jewish States_
+
+
+By the destruction of Jerusalem and of the fortified cities of Machaerus
+and Masada, which had held out after it, the political existence of the
+Jewish nation was annihilated; it was never again recognised as one of
+the states or kingdoms of the world. We have now to trace a despised and
+obscure race in almost every region of the world. We are called back,
+indeed, for a short time to Palestine, to relate new scenes of revolt,
+ruin, and persecution. Not long after the dissolution of the Jewish
+state it revived again in appearance, under the form of two separate
+communities--one under a sovereignty purely spiritual, the other partly
+spiritual and partly temporal, but each, comprehending all the Jewish
+families in the two great divisions of the world. At the head of the
+Jews on this side of the Euphrates appeared the Patriarch of the West;
+the chief of the Mesopotamian communities, assumed the striking but more
+temporal title of Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity.
+
+That Judaism should have thus survived is one of the most marvellous of
+historic phenomena. But, for the most part, the populous cities beyond
+the Jordan, the dominions of Agrippa, and Samaria escaped the
+devastation; and, according to tradition, the sanhedrin was spared in
+the general wreck.
+
+After a brief interval of peace for the Jews scattered through the world
+during the reign of Nerva, their settlements in Babylonia, Egypt,
+Cyrene, and Judea broke out in rebellion against the intolerant
+religious policy of the otherwise sagacious and upright Trajan. Great
+atrocities were committed by revolting Jews in Egypt, and the
+retaliation was terrible. It is said that 220,000 Jews fell before the
+remorseless vengeance of their enemies. The flame spread to Cyprus,
+where it was quenched by Hadrian, afterwards emperor. He expelled the
+Jews from the island. When Hadrian ascended the throne, in 117 A.D., he
+issued an edict which was tantamount to the total suppression of
+Judaism, for it interdicted circumcision, the reading of the law, and
+the observance of the Sabbath.
+
+At this momentous juncture, when universal dismay prevailed, it was
+announced that the Messiah had appeared. He had come in power and glory.
+His name fulfilled the prophecy of Balaam. Barcochab, the Son of the
+Star, was that star which was to "arise out of Jacob." Wonders attended
+on his person; he breathed flames from his mouth which, no doubt, would
+burn up the strength of the proud oppressor, and wither the armies of
+the tyrannical Hadrian. Above all, Akiba, the greatest of the rabbins,
+the living oracle of divine truth, espoused the claims of the new
+Messiah; he was called the standard-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of
+him also wondrous stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab
+was to the ruins of Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he
+openly assumed the title of king. But he and his followers avoided a
+battle in the open field. On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to
+take command of the Roman forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of
+fifty of the strongest castles and nearly a thousand villages. Severus
+attacked the strongholds in detail, reducing them by famine, and
+gradually brought the war to a close.
+
+Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
+Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets
+of the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
+Jerusalem, which he called AElia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony of
+foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
+new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the
+edict, the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to
+Bethlehem.
+
+
+_II.--Judaism and Christianity_
+
+
+For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
+extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
+successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as
+a separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under
+Hadrian, before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews
+present the extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly
+organised communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias,
+comprehending all of Israelitish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire;
+the other under the Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern
+Jews paid allegiance. By the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
+were restored to their ancient privileges. Though still forbidden to
+enter Jerusalem, they were permitted to acquire the freedom of Rome, to
+establish many settlements in Italy, and to enjoy municipal honours.
+
+This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
+from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
+peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became
+the great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered
+nation in the closest uniformity.
+
+The middle of the third century beheld all Israel incorporated into
+their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
+Resch-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, lived in all the state and
+splendour of an oriental potentate, far outshining in his pomp his rival
+sovereign in Tiberias. The most celebrated of the rabbinical sovereigns
+was Jehuda, sometimes called the nasi or patriarch. His life was of such
+spotless purity that he was named the Holy. He was the author of a new
+constitution for the Jewish people, for he embodied in the celebrated
+Mischna all the authorised traditions of the schools and courts, and all
+the authorised interpretations of the Mosaic law. Both in the East and
+the West the Jews maintained their seclusion from the rest of the world.
+The great work called the Talmud, formed of the Mischna and the Gemara
+(or compilation of comments), was composed during a period of thirty
+years of profound peace for the masters of the Babylonian schools, under
+Persian rule. This remains a monumental token of learning and industry
+of the eastern Jewish rabbins of the third and fourth centuries.
+
+The formal establishment of Christianity by Constantine the Great, in
+the early part of the fourth century, might have led to Jewish
+apprehension lest the Synagogue should be eclipsed by the splendour of
+its triumphant rival, the Christian Church; but the Rabbinical authority
+had raised an insurmountable barrier around the Synagogue. And,
+unhappily, the Church had lost its most effective means of
+conversion--its miraculous powers, its simple doctrine, and the
+blameless lives of its believers. Constantine enacted severe laws
+against the Jews, which seem in great part to have been occasioned by
+their own fiery zeal. But, still earlier than these enactments, Spain
+had given the signal for hostility towards the Jews. A decree was passed
+at the Council of Elvira prohibiting Jewish and Christian farmers and
+peasants from mingling together at harvest home and other festivals.
+
+In Egypt, during the reign of Constantius, who succeeded his father
+Constantine, the hot-headed Jews of Alexandria provoked the enactment by
+that emperor of yet severer laws, by mingling themselves in the factions
+of Arians and Athanasians, which distracted that restless city. They
+joined with the pagans on the side of the Arian bishop, and committed
+frightful excesses. An insurrection in Judea, which terminated in the
+destruction of Dio Caesarea, gave further pretext for exaction and
+oppression. But the apostasy of the emperor for a time revived the hopes
+of the race, especially when he issued his memorable edict decreeing the
+rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah, and the restoration of the
+Jewish worship in its original splendour.
+
+The whole Jewish world was now in commotion. Julian entrusted the
+execution of the project to his favourite, Alypius, while he advanced
+with his ill-fated army to the East. The Jews crowded from the most
+distant quarters to assist in the work. But terrible disappointment
+ensued. Fire destroyed the work, and various catastrophes frustrated the
+enterprise, and the death of Julian rendered it hopeless.
+
+The irruption of the Northern Barbarians during the latter half of the
+fourth to about the end of the fifth century so completely disorganised
+the whole frame of society that the condition of its humblest members
+could not but be powerfully influenced thereby. The Jews were widely
+dispersed in all those countries on which the storm fell--in Belgium,
+the Rhine districts, Germany, where it was civilised, Gaul, Italy, and
+Spain. Not only did the Jews in their scattered colonies engage actively
+in mercantile pursuits, but one great branch of commerce fell chiefly
+into their hands--the internal slave-trade of Europe.
+
+The Church beheld this evil with grief and indignation, and popes issued
+rescripts and interdicts. Fierce hostility grew up between Church and
+Synagogue. The Church had not then the power--it may be hoped it had not
+the will--to persecute. It was fully occupied with the task of seeking
+to impart to the fierce conquerors--the Vandals; Goths, and other
+Barbarians--the humanising and civilising knowledge of Christianity.
+
+A great enemy arose in the person of the Emperor Justinian, who was
+provoked by savage conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans to
+issue severe enactments against both, which led to the fall of the
+patriarchate. In the East, under the rule during the same period of the
+Persian king, Chosroes the Just, or Nushirvan, who began his reign in
+531 A.D., the position was not more favourable for the Jews of
+Babylonia.
+
+
+_III.--The Golden Age of Judaism_
+
+
+During the conflict between Persian and Roman emperors a power was
+rapidly growing up in the secret deserts of Arabia which was to erect
+its throne on the ruins of both. The Jews were the first opponents and
+the first victims of Mohammed. At least a hundred and twenty years
+before Christ, Jewish settlers had built castles in Sabaea and
+established an independent kingdom, known as Homeritis, which was
+subdued by an Arab chieftain and came to an end. But the Jews were still
+powerful in the Arabian peninsula. Mohammed designed to range all the
+tribes under his banner; but his overtures were scorned, and he ordered
+a massacre of all who refused to accept the Koran.
+
+On one day 700 Jews were slain in Medina while the Prophet looked on
+without emotion. But the persecution of the Jews by the Mohammedans was
+confined to Arabia, for under the empire of the caliphs they suffered no
+further oppression than the payment of tribute. Spain had maintained its
+odious distinction in the West, and it is not surprising that the
+suffering Jews by active intrigue materially assisted the triumphant
+invasion of the country by the Saracens. And in France the Jews became
+numerous and wealthy, and traded with great success.
+
+We enter on a period which may be described as the Golden Age of the
+modern Jews. The religious persecutions of this race by the Mohammedans
+were confined within the borders of Arabia. The Prophet was content with
+enforcing uniformity of worship within the sacred peninsula which gave
+him birth. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca were not to be profaned
+by the unclean footstep of the unbeliever. His immediate successors rose
+from stern fanatics to ambitious conquerors. Whoever would submit to the
+dominion of the caliph might easily evade the recognition of the
+Prophet's title. The Jews had reason to rejoice in the change of
+masters. An Islamite sovereign would not be more oppressive than a
+Byzantine on the throne of Constantinople or a Persian on the throne of
+Ctesiphon. In every respect the Jew rose in the social scale under his
+Mohammedan rulers. Provided he demeaned himself peaceably, and paid his
+tribute, he might go to the synagogue rather than to the mosque.
+
+In the time of Omar, the second caliph, the coinage, already a trust of
+great importance, had been committed to the care of a Jew. And the Jews
+acted as intermediate agents in the interworking of European
+civilisation, its knowledge, arts, and sciences, into the oriental mind,
+and in raising the barbarian conquerors from the chieftains of wild,
+marauding tribes into magnificent and enlightened sovereigns. The caliph
+readily acknowledged as his vassal the Prince of the Captivity, who
+maintained his state as representative of the Jewish community. And in
+the West, during the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, the treatment of
+Jews became much more liberal than before. Their superior intelligence
+and education, in a period when nobles and kings, and even the clergy,
+could not always write their names, pointed them out for offices of
+trust. They were the physicians, the ministers of finance, to monarchs.
+They even became ambassadors. The Golden Age of the Jews endured in
+increasing prosperity during the reign of Louis the Debonnaire, or the
+Pious, at whose court they were so powerful that their interest was
+solicited by the presents of kings. In the reign of Charles the Bald,
+the Jews maintained their high estate, but dark signs of the approaching
+Age of Iron began to lower around.
+
+
+_IV.--The Iron Age of Judaism_
+
+
+Our Iron Age commences in the East, where it witnessed the extinction of
+the Princes of the Captivity by the ignominious death of the last
+sovereign, the downfall of the schools, and the dispersion of the
+community, which from that period remained an abject and degraded part
+of the population. During the ninth and tenth centuries the Caliphate
+fell into weakness and confusion, and split up into several kingdoms
+under conflicting sovereigns, and at the same time Judaism in the East
+was distracted by continual disputes between the Princes of the
+Captivity and the masters of the schools. The tribunals of the civil and
+temporal powers of the Eastern Jewish community were in perpetual
+collision, so that this singular state was weakened internally by its
+own dissensions.
+
+When a violent and rapacious caliph, Ahmed Kader, ascended the throne,
+he cast a jealous look on the powers of his vassal sovereign, and,
+without pretext, he seized Scherira, the prince of the community, now a
+hundred years old, imprisoned him and his son Hai, and confiscated their
+wealth. Hai escaped to resume his office and to transmit its honours and
+its dangers to Hezekiah, who was elected chief of the community, but
+after a reign of two years was arrested with all his family by order of
+the caliph Abdallah Kaim ben Marillah (A.D. 1036). The schools were
+closed. Many of the learned fled to Spain, where the revulsion under the
+Almohades had not yet taken place; all were dispersed. Among the rest
+two of the sons of the unfortunate Prince of the Captivity effected
+their escape to Spain, while the last of the House of David who reigned
+over the Jews of the Dispersion in Babylonia perished on the scaffold.
+
+The Jewish communities in Palestine suffered a slower but more complete
+dissolution. Benjamin of Tudela in the compilation of his travels in the
+twelfth century gives a humiliating account of the few brethren who
+still clung, in dire poverty and meanness, to their native land. In Tyre
+he found 400 Jews, mostly glass-blowers. There were in Jerusalem only
+200, almost all dyers of wool. Ascalon contained 153 Jews; Tiberias, the
+seat of learning, and of the kingly patriarchate, but fifty. In the
+Byzantine Empire the number of Jews had greatly diminished.
+
+We pursue our dark progress to the West, where we find all orders
+gradually arrayed in fierce and implacable animosity against the race of
+Israel. Every passion was in arms against them. In that singular
+structure, the feudal system, which rose like a pyramid from the
+villeins, or slaves attached to the soil, to the monarch who crowned the
+edifice, the, Jews alone found no proper place. In France and England
+they were the actual property of the king, and there was nowhere any
+tribunal to which they could appeal.
+
+The Jew, often acquiring wealth in commerce, might become valuable
+property of some feudatory lord. He was granted away, he was named in a
+marriage settlement, he was pawned, he was sold, he was stolen. Even
+Churchmen of the highest rank did not disdain such lucrative property.
+Louis, King of Provence, granted to the Archbishop of Aries all the
+possessions which his predecessors have held of former kings, including
+the Jews. Philip the Fair bought of his brother, Charles of Valois, all
+the Jews of his dominions and lordships.
+
+The Jew, making money as he knew how to do by trade and industry, was a
+valuable source of revenue, and was tolerated only as such, but he was a
+valuable possession. Chivalry, the parent of so much good and evil, was
+a source of unmitigated wretchedness to the Jew--for religious
+fanaticism and chivalry were inseparable, the knight of the Middle Ages
+being bound with his good sword to extirpate all the enemies of Christ
+and His Virgin Mother. The power of the clergy tended greatly to
+increase this general detestation against the unhappy Jew. And when
+undisciplined fanatics of the lowest order, under the guidance of Peter
+the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the
+Crusades, fearful massacres of Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz,
+Spiers, Worms, and Cologne. Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were
+deeply marked with Jewish blood.
+
+Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First
+Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through
+Germany preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of
+God. The terrible cry of "Hep!"--the signal for the massacre of
+Israelites--ran through the cities of the Rhine. Countless atrocities
+took place as the Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph,
+to perish by plague, famine, and the sword.
+
+
+_V.--The Jews in England_
+
+
+In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of
+Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration. There were Jews
+in England under the Saxons. And during the days of the Norman kings
+they were established in Oxford and in London. They taught Hebrew to
+Christian as well as to Jewish students. But they increased in both
+wealth and unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them
+being bruited abroad. In many towns furious rabbles at different times
+attacked the Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates
+cruelly to death, as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in
+the reign of Richard I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums
+from wealthy Jews.
+
+The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive
+enactments against them. Jewish history has a melancholy
+sameness--perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing
+only in their cruelty. When parliament refused to maintain the
+extravagant royal expenditure, nothing remained but still further to
+drain Hebrew veins. In the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the
+crucifixion of a Christian child, called Hugh of Lincoln. The story
+refutes itself, but it created horror throughout the country. For this
+crime eighteen of the richest Jews of Lincoln were hanged, and many more
+flung into dungeons.
+
+The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal
+harshness. At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total
+expulsion from the realm. Their departure was fixed for October 10,
+1290. All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy. The Jews were
+pursued from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their
+sufferings. In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts,
+obligations, mortgages were escheated to the king. A like expulsion had
+been effected in France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler
+rank, was not to be outdone in bigotry.
+
+During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher of
+Seville, Ferdinand Martinez, Arch-deacon of Ecija, excited the populace
+to excesses against the Jews. The streets of the noble city ran with
+blood, and 4,000 victims perished. The cruel spirit spread through the
+kingdom, and appalling massacres followed in many cities. A series of
+intermittent persecutions followed both in Spain and Portugal, in reign
+after reign. Jews and Protestants together went through awful ordeals at
+the hands of the Inquisition. When her glory had declined, Spain, even
+in her lowest decrepitude, indulged in what might seem the luxury of
+persecution.
+
+It was in the reign of Charles II. that the Jews found opportunity to
+steal insensibly back into England. Cromwell had felt very favourably
+disposed towards them, but had not dared to permit the re-establishment
+which they had openly sought. But the necessities of Charles and his
+courtiers quietly accomplished the, change, and the race has ever since
+maintained its footing, and no doubt contributed a fair share to the
+national wealth. Russia throughout her history adhered to her hostility
+to the Jews, but expulsion became impossible with such vast numbers. It
+is estimated that Russia contains half the Jewish population of the
+world, notwithstanding that Russia proper from ancient times has been
+sternly inhospitable to the Jewish race, while Poland has ever been
+hospitable.
+
+The most important measures of amelioration in the lot of the Jews in
+England were passed in 1723, when they acquired the right to possess
+land; in 1753, when parliament enacted the Naturalisation Bill; in 1830,
+when they were admitted to civic corporations; in 1833, when they were
+admitted to the profession of advocates; in 1845, when they were
+rendered eligible for the office of alderman and lord mayor; and in
+1858, when the last and crowning triumph of the principle was achieved
+by the admission of Jews into parliament.
+
+In Asia, the Jews are still found in considerable numbers on the verge
+of the continent; in China, they are now found in one city alone, and
+possess only one synagogue. In Mesopotamia and Assyria the ancient seats
+of the Babylonian Jews are still occupied by 5,270 families. But England
+and Anglo-Saxon countries generally have been the most favourable to the
+race. Perhaps the most remarkable fact in the history of modern Judaism
+is the extension of the Jews in the United States. Writing in 1829, I
+stated, on the best authority then attainable, their numbers at 6,000.
+They are now [in 1863] reckoned at 75,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HERODOTUS
+
+
+History
+
+
+     The "Father of History," as Herodotus has been styled, was
+     born at Halicarnassus, the centre of a Greek colony in Asia
+     Minor, between the years 490 and 480 B.C., and lived probably
+     to sixty, dying about the year 425 B.C. A great part of his
+     life was occupied with travels and investigations in those
+     lands with which his history is mainly concerned. His work is
+     the earliest essay in history in a European language. It is a
+     record primarily of the causes and the course of the first
+     great contest between East and West; and is a storehouse of
+     curious and delightful traveller's gossip as well as a
+     faithful record of events. The canons of evidence in his day
+     were defective, for obvious reasons; a miscellaneous divine
+     interposition in human affairs was taken for granted, and
+     science had not yet reduced incredible marvels to ordinary
+     natural phenomena. Nevertheless, Herodotus was a shrewd and
+     careful critic, honest, and by no means remarkably credulous.
+     If he had not acquired the conception of history as an exact
+     science, he made it a particularly attractive form of
+     literature, to which his simplicity of style gives a slight
+     but pleasant archaic flavour. This epitome has been specially
+     prepared far THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Rise of Persian Power_
+
+
+I will not dispute whether those ancient tales be true, of Io and Helen,
+and the like, which one or another have called the sources of the war
+between the Hellenes and the barbarians of Asia; but I will begin with
+those wrongs whereof I myself have knowledge. In the days of Sadyattes,
+king of Lydia, and his son Alyattes, there was war between Lydia and
+Miletus. And Croesus, the son of Alyattes, made himself master of the
+lands which are bounded by the river Halys, and he waxed in power and
+wealth, so that there was none like to him. To him came Solon, the
+Athenian, but would not hail him as the happiest of all men, saying that
+none may be called happy until his life's end.
+
+Thereafter trouble fell upon Croesus by the slaying of his son when he
+was a-hunting. Then Cyrus the Persian rose up and made himself master of
+the Medes and Persians, and Croesus, fearing his power, was fain to go
+up against him, being deceived by an oracle; but first he sought to make
+alliance with the chief of the states of Hellas. In those days,
+Pisistratus was despot of Athens; but Sparta was mighty, by the laws of
+Lycurgus. Therefore Croesus sent envoys to the Spartans to make alliance
+with them, which was done very willingly. But when Croesus went up
+against Cyrus, his army was put to flight, and Cyrus besieged him in the
+city of Sardis, and took it, and made himself lord of Lydia. He would
+have slain Croesus, but, finding him wise and pious, he made him his
+counsellor.
+
+Now, this Cyrus had before overthrown the Median king, Astyages, whose
+daughter was his own mother. For her father, fearing a dream, wedded her
+to a Persian, and when she bore a child, he gave order for its slaying.
+But the babe was taken away and brought up by a herdsman of the
+hill-folk. But in course of time the truth became known to Astyages, and
+to Harpagus, the officer who had been bidden to slay the babe, and to
+Cyrus himself. Then Harpagus, fearing the wrath of Astyages, bade Cyrus
+gather together the Persians--who in those days were a hardy people of
+the mountains--and made himself king over the Medians; which things
+Cyrus did, overthrowing his grandfather Astyages. And in this wise began
+the dominion of the Persians.
+
+The Ionian cities of Asia were zealous to make alliance with Cyrus when
+he had overthrown Croesus. But he held them of little account, and
+threatened them, and the Lacedaemonians also, who sent him messengers
+warning him to let the Ionians alone. And he sent Harpagus against the
+cities of the Ionians, of whom certain Phocaeans and Teians sailed away
+to Rhegium and Abdera rather than become the slaves of the barbarians;
+but the rest, though they fought valiantly enough, were brought to
+submission by Harpagus.
+
+While Harpagus was completing the subjugation of the West, Cyrus was
+making conquest of Upper Asia, and overthrew the kingdom of Assyria, of
+which the chief city was Babylon, a very wonderful city, wherein there
+had ruled two famous queens, Semiramis and Nitocris. Now, this queen had
+made the city wondrous strong by the craft of engineers, yet Cyrus took
+it by a shrewd device, drawing off the water of the river so as to gain
+a passage. Thus Babylon also fell under the sway of the Persian. But
+when Cyrus would have made war upon Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetae,
+who dwelt to the eastward, there was a very great battle, and Cyrus
+himself was slain and the most part of his host. And Cambyses, his son,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_II.--Wars of Egypt and Persia_
+
+
+Cambyses set out to conquer Egypt, taking in his army certain of the
+Greeks. But of all that I shall tell about that land, the most was told
+to me by the priests whom I myself visited at Memphis and Thebes and
+Heliopolis. They account themselves the most ancient of peoples. If the
+Ionians are right, who reckon that Egypt is only the Nile Delta, this
+could not be. But I reckon that the whole Egyptian territory is. Egypt,
+from the cataracts and Elephantine down to the sea, parted into the
+Asiatic part and the Libyan part by the Nile.
+
+For the causes of the rising and falling of the Nile, the reasons that
+men give are of no account. And of the sources whence the river springs
+are strange stories told of which I say not whether they be true or
+false: but the course of it is known for four months' journey by land
+and water, and in my opinion it is a river comparable to the Ister.
+
+The priests tell that the first ruler of Egypt was Menes, and after him
+were three hundred and thirty kings, counting one queen, who was called
+Nitocris. After them came Sesostris, who carried his conquest as far as
+the Thracians and Scythians; and later was Rhampsinitus, who married his
+daughter to the clever thief who robbed his treasure-house; and after
+him Cheops, who built the pyramid, drawing the stones from the Arabian
+mountain down to the Nile. Chephren also, and Mycerinus built pyramids,
+and the Greeks have a story--which is not true--that another was built
+by Rhodopis. And in the reign of Sethon, Egypt was invaded by
+Sennacherib the Assyrian, whose army's bowstrings were eaten by
+field-mice.
+
+A thing more wonderful than the pyramids is the labyrinth near Lake
+Moeris, and still more wonderful is Lake Moeris itself, all which were
+made by the twelve kings who ruled at once after Sethon. And after them,
+Psammetichus made himself the monarch; and after him his great grandson
+Apries prospered greatly, till he was overthrown by Amasis. And Amasis
+also prospered, and showed favour to the Greeks. But for whatever
+reason, in his day Cambyses made his expedition against Egypt, invading
+it just when Amasis had died, and his son Psammenitus was reigning.
+
+Cambyses put the Egyptian army to rout in a great battle, and conquered
+the country, making Psammenitus prisoner. Yet he would have set him up
+as governor of the province, according to the Persian custom, but that
+Psammenitus was stirred up to revolt, and, being discovered, was put to
+death. Thereafter Cambyses would have made war upon Carthage, but that
+the Phoenicians would not aid him; and against the Ethiopians, who are
+called "long-lived," but his army could get no food; and against the
+Ammonians, but the troops that went were seen no more.
+
+Now, madness came upon Cambyses, and he died, having committed many
+crimes, among which was the slaying of his brother Smerdis. And there
+rose up one among the Magi who pretended to be Smerdis, and was
+proclaimed king. But this false Smerdis was one whose ears had been cut
+off, and he was thus found out by one of his wives, the daughter of a
+Persian nobleman, Otanes. Then seven nobles conspired together, since
+they would not be ruled over by one of the Magi; and having determined
+that it was best to have one man for ruler, rather than the rule of the
+people or of the nobles, they slew Smerdis and made Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, their king.
+
+Then Darius divided the Persian empire into twenty satrapies, whereof
+each one paid its own tribute, save Persia itself, and he was lord of
+all Asia, and Egypt also.
+
+In the days of Cambyses, Polycrates was despot of Samos, being the first
+who ever thought to make himself a ruler of the seas. And he had
+prospered marvellously. But Oroetes, the satrap of Sardis, compassed his
+death by foul treachery, and wrought many other crimes; whom Darius in
+turn put to death by guile, fearing to make open war upon him. And not
+long afterwards, he sent Otanes to make conquest of Samos. And during
+the same days there was a revolt of the Babylonians; and Darius went up
+against Babylon, yet for twenty months he could not take it. Howbeit, it
+was taken by the act of Zopyrus, who, having mutilated himself, went to
+the Babylonians and told them that Darius had thus evilly entreated him,
+and so winning their trust, he made easy entry for the Persian army, and
+so Babylon was taken the second time.
+
+
+_III.--Persian Arms in Europe_
+
+
+Now, Darius was minded to make conquest of the Scythians--concerning
+which people, and the lands beyond those which they inhabit, there are
+many marvels told, as of a bald-headed folk called Argippaei; and the
+Arimaspians or one-eyed people; and the Hyperborean land where the air
+is full of feathers. Of these lands are legends only; nothing is known.
+But concerning the earth's surface, this much is known, that Libya is
+surrounded by water, certain Phoenicians having sailed round it. And of
+the unknown regions of Asia much was searched out by order of Darius.
+
+The Scythians themselves have no cities; but there are great rivers in
+Scythia, whereof the Ister is the greatest of all known streams, being
+greater even than the Nile, if we reckon its tributaries. The great god
+of the Scythians is Ares; and their war customs are savage exceedingly,
+and all their ways barbarous. Against this folk Darius resolved to
+march.
+
+His plan was to convey his army across the Bosphorus on a bridge of
+boats, while the Ionian fleet should sail up to the Ister and bridge
+that, and await him. So he crossed the Bosphorus and marched through
+Thrace, subduing on his way the Getse, who believe that there is no true
+death. But when he passed the Ister, he would have taken the Ionians
+along with him; but by counsel of Coes of Mitylene, he resolved to leave
+them in charge of the bridge, giving order that, after sixty days, they
+might depart home, but no sooner.
+
+Then the Scythians, fearing that they could not match the great king's
+army, summoned the other barbaric peoples to their aid; among whom were
+the Sauromatians, who are fabled to be the offspring of the Amazons. And
+some were willing, but others not. Therefore the Scythians retired
+before Darius, first towards those peoples who would not come to their
+help; and so enticed him into desert regions, yet would in no wise come
+to battle with him.
+
+Now, at length, Darius found himself in so evil a plight that he began
+to march back to the Ister. And certain Scythians came to the Ionians,
+and counselled them to destroy the bridge, the sixty days being passed.
+And this Miltiades, the Athenian despot of the Chersonese, would have
+had them do, so that Darius might perish with all his army; but
+Histiaeus of Miletus dissuaded them, because the rule of the despots was
+upheld by Darius. And thus the Persian army was saved, Megabazus being
+left in Europe to subdue the Hellespontines. When Megabazus had subdued
+many of the Thracian peoples, who, indeed, lack only union with each
+other to make them the mightiest of all nations, he sent an embassy to
+Amyntas, the king of Macedon, to demand earth and water. But because
+those envoys insulted the ladies of the court, Alexander, the son of
+Amyntas, slew them all, and of them or all their train was never aught
+heard more.
+
+Now Darius, with fair words, bade Histiseus of Miletus abide with him at
+the royal town of Susa. Then Aristagoras, the brother of Histiaeus,
+having failed in an attempt to subdue Naxos, and fearing both
+Artaphernes, the satrap of Sardis, and the Persian general Megabazus,
+with whom he had quarrelled, sought to stir up a revolt of the Ionian
+cities; being incited thereto by secret messages from Histiseus.
+
+To this end, he sought alliance with the Lacedaemonians; but they would
+have nothing to do with him, deeming the venture too remote. Then he
+went to Athens, whence the sons of Pisistratus had been driven forth
+just before. For Hipparchus had been slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton,
+and afterwards Hippias would hardly have been expelled but that his
+enemies captured his children and so could make with him what terms they
+chose. But the Pisistratidse having been expelled, the city grew in
+might, and changes were made in the government of it by Cleisthenes the
+Alcmaeonid. But the party that was against Cleisthenes got aid from
+Cleomenes of Sparta; yet the party of Cleisthenes won.
+
+Then, since they reckoned that there would be war with Sparta, the
+Athenians had sought friendship with Artaphernes at Sardis; but since he
+demanded earth and water they broke off. But because Athens was waxing
+in strength, the Spartans bethought them of restoring the despotism of
+the Pisistratidae. But Sosicles, the Corinthian, dissuaded the allies of
+Sparta from taking part in so evil a deed. Then Hippias sought to stir
+up against the Athenians the ill-will of Artaphernes, who bade them take
+back the Pisistratidae, which they would not do.
+
+Therefore, when Aristagoras came thither, the Athenians were readily
+persuaded to promise him aid. And he, having gathered the troops of the
+Ionians, who were at one with him, marched with them and the Athenians
+against Sardis and took the city, which by a chance was set on fire. But
+after that the Athenians refused further help to the Ionians, who were
+worsted by the Persians. But the ruin of the Ionians was at the
+sea-fight of Lade, where the men of Chios fought stoutly; but they of
+Samos and Lesbos deserting, there was a great rout.
+
+
+_IV.--Marathon and Thermopylae_
+
+
+Thereafter King Darius, being very wroth with the Athenians for their
+share in the burning of Sardis, sent a great army across the Hellespont
+to march through Thrace against Athens, under his young kinsman
+Mardonius. But disaster befell these at the hands of the Thracians, and
+the fleet that was to aid them was shattered in a storm; so that they
+returned to Asia without honour. Then Darius sent envoys to demand earth
+and water from the Greek states; and of the islanders the most gave
+them, and some also of the cities on the mainland; and among these were
+the Aeginetans, who were at feud with Athens.
+
+But of those who would not give the earth and water were the Eretrians
+of Eubcea. So Darius sent a great armament by sea against Eretria and
+Athens, led by Datis and Artaphernes, which sailed first against
+Eretria. The Athenians, indeed, sent aid; but when they found that the
+counsels of the Eretrians were divided, so that no firm stand might be
+made, they withdrew. Nevertheless, the Eretrians fought valiantly behind
+their walls, till they were betrayed on the seventh day. But the
+Persians, counselled by Hippias, sailed to the bay of Marathon.
+
+Then the Athenians sent the strong runner Pheidippides to call upon the
+Spartans for aid; who promised it, yet for sacred reasons would not move
+until the full moon. So the Athenian host had none to aid them save the
+loyal Plataeans, valiant though few. Yet in the council of their generals
+the word of Miltiades was given for battle, whereto the rest consented.
+Then the Athenians and Plataeans, being drawn up in a long line, charged
+across the plain nigh a mile, running upon the masses of the Persians;
+and, breaking them upon the wings, turned and routed the centre also
+after long fighting, and drove them down to the ships, slaying as they
+went; and of the ships they took seven. And of the barbarians there fell
+6,400 men, and of the Athenians, 192. But as for the story that the
+Alcmaeonidae hoisted a friendly signal to the Persians, I credit it not
+at all.
+
+Now, Darius was very wroth with the Greeks when he heard of these
+things, and made preparation for a mighty armament to overthrow the
+Greeks, and also the Egyptians, who revolted soon afterwards. But he
+died before he was ready, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his stead.
+Then, having first crushed the Egyptians, he, being ruled by Mardonius,
+gathered a council and declared his intent of marching against the
+Hellenes; which resolution was commended by Mardonius, but Artabanus,
+the king's uncle, spoke wise words of warning. Then Xerxes would have
+changed his mind, but for a dream which came to him twice, and to
+Artabanus also, threatening disaster if he ceased from his project; so
+that Artabanus was won over to favour it.
+
+Then Xerxes made vast provision for his invasion for the building of a
+bridge over the Hellespont, and the cutting of a canal through the
+peninsula of Athos, where the fleet of Mardonius had been shattered. And
+from all parts of his huge empire he mustered his hosts first in
+Cappadocia, and marched thence by way of Sardis to the Hellespont. And
+because, when the bridge was a building, a great storm wrecked it, he
+bade flog the naughty waves of the sea. Then, the bridge being finished,
+he passed over with his host, which took seven days to accomplish.
+
+And when they were come to Doriscus he numbered them, and found them to
+be 1,700,000 men, besides his fleets. And in the fleet were 1,207 great
+ships, manned chiefly by the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia, having
+also Persian and Scythian fighting men on board. But when Demaratus, an
+exiled king of Sparta, warned Xerxes of the valour of all the Greeks,
+but chiefly of the Spartans, who would give battle, however few they
+might be, against any foe, however many, his words seemed to Xerxes a
+jest, seeing how huge his own army was.
+
+Now, Xerxes had sent to many of the Greek states heralds to demand earth
+and water, which many had given; but to Athens and Sparta he had not
+sent, because there the heralds of his father Darius had been evilly
+entreated. And if it had not been for the resolution of the Athenians at
+this time, all Hellas would have been forced to submit to the Great
+King; for they, in despite of threatening oracles, held fast to their
+defiance, being urged thereto by Themistocles, who showed them how those
+oracles must mean that, although they would suffer evil things, they
+would be victorious by means of wooden bulwarks, which is to say, ships;
+and thus they were encouraged to rely upon building and manning a mighty
+fleet. And all the other cities of Greece resolved to stand by them,
+except the Argives, who would not submit to the leadership of the
+Spartans. And in like manner Gelon, the despot of Syracuse in Sicily,
+would not send aid unless he were accepted as leader. Nor were the men
+of Thessaly willing to join, since the other Greeks could not help them
+to guard Thessaly itself, as the pass of Tempe could be turned.
+
+Therefore the Greeks resolved to make their stand at Thermopylae on land,
+and at the strait of Artemisium by sea. But at the strong pass of
+Thermopylae only a small force was gathered to hold the barbarians in
+check, there being of the Spartans themselves only 300, commanded by the
+king Leonidas. And when the Persians had come thither and sought to
+storm the pass, they were beaten back with ease, until a track was found
+by which they might take the defenders in the rear. Then Leonidas bade
+the rest of the army depart except his Spartans. But the Thespians also
+would not go; and then those Spartans and Thespians went out into the
+open and died gloriously.
+
+
+_V.--Destruction of the Persian Hosts_
+
+
+During these same days the Greek fleet at Artemisium fought three
+several engagements with the Persian fleet, in which neither side had
+much the better. And thereafter the Greek fleet withdrew, but was
+persuaded to remain undispersed in the bay of Salamis. The
+Peloponnesians were no longer minded to attempt the defence of Attica,
+but to fortify their isthmus, so that the Athenians had no choice but
+either to submit or to evacuate Athens, removing their families and
+their goods to Troezen or Aegina or Salamis. In the fleet, their
+contingent was by far the largest and best, but the commanding admiral
+was the Spartan Eurybiades. Then the Persians, passing through Boeotia,
+but, being dispersed before Delphi by thunderbolts and other portents,
+took possession of Athens, after a fierce fight with the garrison in the
+Acropolis.
+
+Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and
+look to the safety of the Peloponnese only. But Themistocles warned them
+that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new
+lands and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded
+to hold together at Salamis. Yet he did not trust only to their
+goodwill, but sent a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of
+retreat might be intercepted. For the Persian fleet had gathered at
+Phalerum, and now looked to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether,
+despite the council of Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have
+had them not fight by sea at all. When Aristides, called the Just, the
+great rival of Themistocles, came to the Greeks with the news that their
+retreat by sea was cut off, then they were no longer divided, but
+resolved to fight it out.
+
+In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the
+Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any
+fleet more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom
+Queen Artemisia won praise unmerited. As for King Xerxes, panic seized
+him when he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee. He
+consented, however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in
+Thessaly, he being still assured that he could crush the Greeks. And it
+was well for him that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to
+pursue and annihilate the fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy
+the bridge.
+
+When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly
+and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the
+Spartans having failed to send succour. But when at length the
+Lacedaemonians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an army,
+the Persians fell back to Boeotia. So the Greek hosts gathered near
+Plataea to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were
+about 350,000. Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held
+back, till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to
+the Athenians by Alexander of Macedon. But when the Spartan Pausanias,
+the general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little
+wonder, for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Lacedaemonians
+should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at
+Marathon. But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.
+Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain
+whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was
+needful to move to a new position. But the move being made by night,
+most of the allies withdrew into the town. But the Spartans, and Tegeans
+and Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.
+
+Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and
+their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians. But, Mardonius being slain,
+the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and
+Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there
+the barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were
+left alive. But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with
+40,000 men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.
+
+And on that same day was fought another fight by sea at Mycale in Ionia,
+where also the barbarians were utterly routed, for the fleet had sailed
+thither. And thence the Greeks sailed to Sestos, captured the place, and
+so went home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THUCYDIDES
+
+
+The Peloponnesian War
+
+
+     The Athenian historian, Thucydides, was born about 471 B.C.,
+     within ten years of the great repulse of the Persian invasion.
+     Before he was thirty, the great political ascendancy of
+     Pericles was completely established at Athens, and the
+     ascendancy of Athens among the Greek states was unchallenged,
+     except by Sparta. He was forty at the beginning of the
+     Peloponnesian War. Thucydides was appointed to a military
+     command seven years later, but his failure in that office
+     caused his banishment. From that time he remained an exiled
+     spectator of events; the date of his death is uncertain. His
+     great work is the history of the Peloponnesian War to its
+     twentieth year, where his history is abruptly broken off. To
+     Herodotus, history presented itself as a drama; Thucydides
+     views it with the eyes of a philosophical statesman, but
+     writes it also with extraordinary descriptive power, not only
+     in pregnant sentences which have never been effectively
+     rendered in translation, but in passages of sustained
+     intensity, of which it would be vain to reproduce fragments.
+     The abridged translation given here has been made direct from
+     the Greek.
+
+
+_I.--The Beginning of the War_
+
+
+I have written the account of the war between Athens and Sparta, since
+it is the greatest and the most calamitous of all wars hitherto to the
+Greeks. For the contest with the Medes was decided in four battles; but
+this war was protracted over many years, and wrought infinite injury and
+bloodshed.
+
+Of the immediate causes of the war the first is to be found in the
+affairs of Epidamnus, Corcyra, and Corinth, of which Corcyra was a
+colony. Of the Greek states, the most were joined either to the Athenian
+or the Peloponnesian league, but Corcyra had joined neither. But having
+a quarrel with Corinth about Epidamnus, she now formed an alliance with
+Athens, whose intervention enraged the Corinthians.
+
+They then helped Potidaea, a Corinthian colony, but an Athenian
+tributary, to revolt from Athens. Corinth next appealed to Sparta, as
+the head of Hellas, to intervene ere it should be too late and check the
+Athenian aggression, which threatened to make her the tyrant of all
+Greece. At Sparta the war party prevailed, although King Archidamus
+urged that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear without actual
+hostilities.
+
+The great prosperity and development of Athens since the Persian war had
+filled other states with fear and jealousy. She had rebuilt her city
+walls and refortified the port of Piraeus after the Persian occupation;
+Sparta had virtually allowed her to take the lead in the subsequent
+stages of the war, as having the most effective naval force at command.
+Hence she had founded the Delian league of the maritime states, to hold
+the seas against Persia. At first these states provided fixed
+contingents of ships and mariners; but Athens was willing enough to
+accept treasure in substitution, so that she might herself supply the
+ships and men.
+
+Thus the provision of forces by each state to act against Persia was
+changed in effect into a tribute for the expansion of the Athenian
+fleet. The continuous development of the power of Athens had been
+checked only momentarily by her disastrous Egyptian expedition. Her
+nominal allies found themselves actually her tributary dependencies, and
+various attempts to break free from her yoke had made it only more
+secure and more burdensome.
+
+Hence the warlike decision of Sparta was welcomed by others besides
+Corinth. But diplomatic demands preceded hostilities. Sparta and Athens
+sent to each other summons and counter-summons for the "expulsion of the
+curse," that is of all persons connected with certain families which lay
+under the curse of the gods.
+
+In the case of Athens, this amounted to requiring the banishment of her
+greatest citizen and statesman, Pericles. To this the Spartans added the
+demand that the Athenians should "restore the freedom of Hellas," and
+should specifically remove certain trading disabilities imposed on the
+people of Megara.
+
+At this crisis Pericles laid down the rules of policy on which Athens
+ought to act--rules which required her to decline absolutely to submit
+to any form of dictation from Sparta. When a principle was at stake, it
+made no difference whether the occasion was trivial or serious. Athens
+could face war with confidence. Her available wealth was far greater--a
+matter of vital importance in a prolonged struggle. Her counsels were
+not divided by the conflicting interests of allies all claiming to
+direct military movements and policy. Her fleet gave her command of the
+sea, and enabled her to strike when and where she chose. If
+Peloponnesian invaders ravaged Attica, still no permanent injury would
+be done comparable to that which the Athenians could inflict upon them.
+The one necessity was to concentrate on the war, and attempt no
+extension of dominion while it was in progress.
+
+War was not yet formally declared when the Thebans attempted to seize
+Plataea, a town of Boeotia, which had long been closely allied to Athens.
+The attempt failed, and the Thebans were put to death; but the Plataeans
+appealed to Athens for protection against their powerful neighbour, and
+when the Athenian garrison was sent to them, this was treated as a
+_casus belli_.
+
+Preparations were urged on both sides; Sparta summoned her allies to
+muster their contingents on the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica,
+nearly all the mainland states joining the Peloponnesian league. The
+islanders and the cities in Asia Minor, on the other hand, were nearly
+all either actually subject to Athens or in alliance with her.
+
+As Pericles advised, the Athenians left the country open to the ravages
+of the invading forces, and themselves retired within the city. In spite
+of the resentment of those who saw their property being laid waste,
+Pericles maintained his ascendency, and persuaded the people to devote
+their energies to sending out an irresistible fleet, and to establishing
+a great reserve both of ships and treasure, which were to be an annual
+charge and brought into active use only in the case of dire emergency.
+The fleet sailed round the Peloponnese, and the ravages it was able to
+inflict, with the alarm it created, caused the withdrawal of the forces
+in Attica.
+
+In that winter Pericles delivered a great funeral oration, or panegyric,
+in memory of the Athenians who had so far fallen gloriously in defence
+of their country, in which he painted the characteristic virtues of the
+Athenian people in such a fashion as to rouse to the highest pitch the
+patriotic pride of his countrymen, and their confidence in themselves,
+in their future, and in their leader.
+
+
+_II.--Early Successes of Athens_
+
+
+In the second year of the war, Athens suffered from a fearful visitation
+of the plague, which, however, made no way in the Peloponnese. It broke
+out also among the reinforcements dispatched to Potidaea; and it required
+all the skill of Pericles to reconcile the Athenians to the continuation
+of the war, after seeing their territories overrun for the second time
+for six weeks. By dint of dwelling on the supreme importance of their
+decisive command of the sea, and on the vast financial resources which
+secured their staying power, he maintained his ascendency until his
+death in the following year, though he had to submit to a fine. The
+events which followed his death only confirmed the profundity of his
+political judgment, and the accuracy with which he had gauged the
+capacities of the state. In that winter Potidaea was forced to capitulate
+to the Athenians.
+
+In the summer of the third year, the Lacedaemonians called on the
+Plataeans to desert the Athenian alliance. On their refusal, Plataea was
+besieged by the allied forces of the Peloponnesians. With splendid
+resolution, the Plataeans defeated the attempt of the allies to force an
+entry till they were able to complete and withdraw behind a second and
+more easily tenable line of defence, when the Peloponnesians settled
+down to a regular investment. The same year was marked by the brilliant
+operations of the Athenian admiral Phormio in the neighbourhood of
+Naupactus.
+
+On the other hand, a Peloponnesian squadron threatened the Piraeus,
+caused some temporary panic, and awakened the Athenians to the necessity
+of maintaining a look-out, but otherwise effected little. The year is
+further noted for the invasion of Macedonia by the Thracian or Scythian
+king Sitalces, who was, however, induced to retire.
+
+In the next year, Lesbos revolted against the Athenian supremacy. As a
+result, an Athenian squadron blockaded Mitylene. The Lacedaaeonians were
+well pleased to accept alliance with a sea-power which claimed to have
+struck against Athens, not as being subject to her, but in anticipation
+of attempted subjugation. The prompt equipment, however, of another
+Athenian fleet chilled the naval enthusiasm of Sparta.
+
+During this winter the Plataeans began to feel in straits from shortage
+of supplies, and it was resolved that a party of them should break
+through the siege lines, and escape to Athens, a feat of arms which was
+brilliantly and successfully accomplished.
+
+In the next--the fifth--summer, Mitylene capitulated; the fate of the
+inhabitants was to be referred to Athens. Here Cleon had now become the
+popular leader, and he persuaded the Athenians to order the whole of the
+adult males to be put to death. The opposition, however, succeeded in
+getting this bloodthirsty resolution rescinded. The second dispatch,
+racing desperately after the first, did not succeed in overtaking it,
+but was just in time to prevent the order for the massacre from being
+carried out. Lesbos was divided among Athenian citizens, who left the
+Lesbians in occupation as before, but drew a large rental from them.
+
+In the same summer the remaining garrison of Plataea surrendered to the
+Lacedaemonians, on terms to be decided by Lacedaemonian commissioners.
+Before them the Plataeans justified their resistance, but the
+commissioners ignored the defence, and, on the pretext that the only
+question was whether they had suffered any "wrong" at the hands of the
+Plataeans, and that the answer to that was obvious, put the Plataeans to
+death and razed the city to the ground.
+
+Meanwhile, at Corcyra, the popular and the oligarchical parties, who
+favoured the Athenians and Peloponnesians respectively, had reached the
+stage of murderous hostility to each other. The oligarchs captured the
+government, and were then in turn attacked by the popular party; and
+there was savage faction fighting. An attempt was made by the commander
+of the Athenian squadron at Naupactus to act as moderator; the
+appearance of a Peloponnesian squadron and a confused sea-fight,
+somewhat in favour of the latter, brought the popular party to the verge
+of a compromise. But the Peloponnesians retired on the reported approach
+of a fresh Athenian fleet, and a democratic reign of terror followed.
+
+"The father slew the son, and the supplicants were torn from the temples
+and slain near them." And thus was initiated the peculiar horror of this
+war--the desperate civil strife in one city after another, oligarchs
+hoping to triumph by Lacedaemonian and democrats by Athenian, support,
+and either party, when uppermost, ruling by terror. It was at this time
+also that the Ionian and Dorian cities of Sicily, headed by Leontini and
+Syracuse respectively, went to war with each other, and an Athenian
+squadron was first induced to participate in the struggle.
+
+Among the operations of the next, or sixth, summer was a campaign which
+the Athenian commander Demosthenes conducted in AEtolia--successful at
+the outset, but terminating in disaster, which made the general afraid
+to return to Athens. He seized a chance, however, of recovering his
+credit by foiling a Lacedaemonian expedition against Naupactus; and in
+other ways he successfully established a high military reputation, so
+that he was no longer afraid to reappear at Athens.
+
+Next year, the Athenians dispatched a larger fleet with Sicily for its
+objective. Demosthenes, however, who had a project of his own in view,
+was given an independent command. He was thus enabled to seize and
+fortify Pylos, a position on the south-west of Peloponnese, with a
+harbour sheltered by the isle of Sphacteria. The Spartans, in alarm,
+withdrew their invading force from Attica, and attempted to recover
+Pylos, landing over 400 of their best men on Sphacteria. The locality
+now became the scene of a desperate struggle, which finally resulted in
+the Spartans on Sphacteria being completely isolated.
+
+So seriously did the Lacedaemonians regard this blow that they invited
+the Athenians to make peace virtually in terms of an equal alliance; but
+the Athenians were now so confident of a triumphant issue that they
+refused the terms--chiefly at the instigation of Cleon. Some supplies,
+however, were got into Sphacteria, owing to the high rewards offered by
+the Lacedaemonians for successful blockade-running. At this moment,
+Cleon, the Athenian demagogue, having rashly declared that he could
+easily capture Sphacteria, was taken at his word and sent to do it. He
+had the wit, however, to choose Demosthenes for his colleague, and to
+take precisely the kind of troops Demosthenes wanted; with the result
+that within twenty days, as he had promised, the Spartans found
+themselves with no other alternatives than annihilation or surrender.
+Their choice of the latter was an overwhelming blow to Lacedaemonian
+prestige.
+
+
+_III.--Victories of Lacedaemon_
+
+
+The capture of the island of Cythera in the next summer gave the
+Athenians a second strong station from which they could constantly
+menace the Peloponnese. On the other hand, in this year the Sicilians
+were awakening to the fact that Athens was not playing a disinterested
+part on behalf of the Ionian states, but was dreaming of a Sicilian
+empire. At a sort of peace congress, Hermocrates of Syracuse
+successfully urged all Sicilians to compose their quarrels on the basis
+of _uti possidetis,_ and thus deprive the Athenians of any excuse for
+remaining. Thus for the time Athenian aspirations in that quarter were
+checked.
+
+At Megara this year the dissensions of the oligarchical and popular
+factions almost resulted in its capture by the Athenians. The
+Lacedaemonian Brasidas, however--who had distinguished himself at
+Pylos--effected an entry, so that the oligarchical and Peloponnesian
+party became permanently established in power. The most important
+operations were now in two fields. Brasidas made a dash through Thessaly
+into Macedonia, in alliance with Perdiccas of Macedon, with the hope of
+stirring the cities of Chalcidice to throw off the Athenian yoke; and
+the democrats of Boeotia intrigued with Athens to assist in a general
+revolution. Owing partly to misunderstandings and partly to treachery,
+the Boeotian democrats failed to carry out their programme, the
+Athenians were defeated at Delium, and Delium itself was captured by the
+Boeotians.
+
+Meanwhile, Brasidas succeeded in persuading Acanthus to revolt, he
+himself winning the highest of reputations for justice and moderation as
+well as for military skill. Later in the year he suddenly turned his
+forces against the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which he induced to
+surrender by offering very favourable terms before Thucydides, who was
+in command of Thasos, arrived to relieve it. The further successes of
+Brasidas during this winter made the Athenians ready to treat for peace,
+and a truce was agreed upon for twelve months. Brasidas, however,
+continued to render aid to the subject cities which revolted from
+Athens--this being now the ninth year of the war--but he failed in an
+attempt to capture Potidaea.
+
+The period of truce terminating without any definite peace being arrived
+at, the summer of the tenth year is chiefly notable for the expedition
+sent under Cleon to recover Amphipolis, and for a recrudescence of the
+old quarrel in Sicily between Leontini and Syracuse. Before Amphipolis,
+the incompetent Cleon was routed by the skill of Brasidas; but the
+victor as well as the vanquished was slain, though he lived long enough
+to know of the victory. Their deaths removed two of the most zealous
+opponents of the peace for which both sides were now anxious. Hence at
+the close of the tenth year a definite peace was concluded.
+
+The Lacedaemonians, however, were almost alone in being fully satisfied
+by the terms, and the war was really continued by an anti-Laconian
+confederation of the former Peloponnesian allies, who saw in the peace a
+means to the excessive preponderance of Athens and Sparta. Argos was
+brought into the new confederacy in the hope of establishing her nominal
+equality with Sparta. For some years from this point the combinations of
+the states were constantly changing, while Athens and Sparta remained
+generally on terms of friendliness, the two prominent figures at Athens
+being the conservative Nicias and the restless and ambitious young
+intriguer Alcibiades.
+
+In the fourteenth year there were active hostilities between Argos, with
+which by this time Athens was in alliance, and Lacedaemon, issuing in
+the great battle of Mantinea, where there was an Athenian contingent
+with the Argives. This was notable especially as completely restoring
+the prestige of the Lacedaemonian arms, their victory being decisive. The
+result was a new treaty between Sparta and Argos, and the dissolution of
+the Argive-Athenian alliance; but this was once more reversed in the
+following year, when the Argive oligarchy was attacked successfully by
+the popular party.
+
+The next year is marked by the high-handed treatment of the island of
+Melos by the Athenians. This was one of the very few islands which had
+not been compelled to submit to Athens, but had endeavoured to remain
+neutral. Thither the Athenians now sent an expedition, absolutely
+without excuse, to compel their submission.
+
+The Melians, however, refused, and gave the Athenians a good deal of
+trouble before they could be subdued, when the adult male population was
+put to death, and the women and children enslaved. At this time the
+Athenians resolved, under colour of an appeal for assistance from the
+Sicilian city of Egesta, deliberately to set about the establishment of
+their empire in Sicily. The aggressive policy was vehemently advocated
+by Alcibiades, and opposed by Nicias. Nevertheless, he, with Alcibiades
+and Lamachus, was appointed to command the expedition, which was
+prepared on a scale of unparalleled magnificence. It was on the point of
+starting, when the whole city was stirred to frenzy by the midnight
+mutilation of the sacred images called Hermae, an act laid at the door of
+Alcibiades, along with many other charges of profane outrages. Of set
+purpose, however, the enemies of Alcibiades refused to bring him to
+trial. The expedition sailed. The Syracusans were deaf to the warnings
+of Hermocrates until the great fleet had actually arrived at Rhegium.
+
+Nicias was now anxious to find an excuse, in the evident falsity of
+statements made by the Egestans, for the fleet to content itself with
+making a demonstration and then returning home. The scheme of
+Alcibiades, however, was adopted for gaining over the other Sicilian
+states in order to crush Syracuse. But at this moment dispatches arrived
+requiring the return of Alcibiades to stand trial. Athens was in a panic
+over the Hermae affair, which was supposed to portend an attempt to
+reestablish the despotism which had been ended a hundred years before by
+the expulsion of the Pisistratidae. Alcibiades, however, made his escape,
+and for years pursued a life of political intrigue against the Athenian
+government.
+
+Nicias and Lamachus, left in joint command, drew off the Syracusan
+forces by a ruse, and were thus enabled to occupy unchecked a strong
+position before Syracuse. Although, however, they inflicted a defeat on
+the returned Syracusan forces, they withdrew into winter quarters; the
+Syracusans were roused by Hermocrates to improve their military
+organisation; and both sides entered on a diplomatic contest for winning
+over the other states of Sicily. Alcibiades, now an avowed enemy of
+Athens, was received by the Lacedaemonians, whom he induced to send an
+able Spartan officer, Gylippus, to Syracuse, and to determine on the
+establishment of a military post corresponding to that of Pylos on Attic
+soil at Decelea.
+
+
+_IV.--The Disaster of Syracuse_
+
+
+In the spring the Athenians succeeded in establishing themselves on the
+heights called Epipolae, overlooking Syracuse, began raising a wall of
+circumvallation, and carried by a surprise the counter-stockade which
+the Syracusans were raising. In one of the skirmishes, while the
+building of the wall was in progress, Lamachus was killed; otherwise
+matters went well for the Athenians and ill for the Syracusans, till
+Gylippus was allowed to land at Himera, force his way into Syracuse, and
+give new life. Nicias was guilty of the blunder of allowing Gylippus to
+land at Himera, to aid the defence, at the moment when it was on the
+point of capitulation. A long contest followed, the Athenians
+endeavouring to complete the investing lines, the Syracusans to pierce
+them with counterworks. Nicias sent to Athens for reinforcements, while
+the Syracusans were energetically fitting out a fleet and appealing for
+air in the Peloponnese. Nicias, in fact, was extremely despondent and
+anxious to resign; the Athenians, however, answered his dispatches by
+preparing a great reinforcement under the command of Demosthenes,
+without accepting the resignation of Nicias. The Lacedaemonians, however,
+also sent some reinforcements; at the same time they formally declared
+war, and carried out the plan of occupying and fortifying Decelea, which
+completely commanded the Athenian territory and was the cause of untold
+loss and suffering.
+
+Now, at Syracuse the besieged took the offensive both by sea and land,
+and were worsted on the water, but captured some of the Athenian forts,
+commanding the entry to the besiegers' lines--a serious disaster. By the
+time that Demosthenes with his reinforcements reached Sicily nearly the
+whole island had come over to the side of Syracuse. Before this, the
+Syracusans had again challenged an engagement both by sea and land, with
+results indecisive on the first day but distinctly in their favour on
+the second. At this juncture, Demosthenes arrived, and, seeing the
+necessity for immediate action, made a night attack on the Syracusan
+lines; but, his men falling into confusion after a first success, the
+attempt was disastrously repulsed.
+
+Demosthenes was quick to realise that the whole situation was hopeless;
+but Nicias lacked nerve to accept the responsibility of retiring, and
+also had some idea that affairs within Syracuse were favourable. His
+obstinacy gave Demosthenes and his colleague Eurymedon the impression
+that he was guided by secret information. And now it became the primary
+object of Gylippus and the Syracusans to keep the Athenians from
+retiring. Another naval defeat reduced the Athenians to despair; they
+resolved that they must cut their way out.
+
+The desperate attempt was made, but by almost hopeless men against an
+enemy now full of confidence. To the excited, almost agonised, watchers
+on shore, it seemed for a brief space that the ships might force a
+passage; the fight was a frenzied scuffle; but presently the terrible
+truth was realised--the Athenian ships were being driven ashore. The
+last hope of escape by sea was gone, for, though there were still ships
+enough, the sailors were too utterly demoralised to make the attempt.
+
+Hermocrates and Gylippus, sure that a retreat by land would not be
+tried, succeeded by a trick in detaining the Athenians till they had
+themselves sent out detachments to hold the roads. On the third day the
+Athenians began their retreat in unspeakable misery, amid the
+lamentations of the sick and wounded, whom they were forced to leave
+behind. For three days they struggled on, short of food and perpetually
+harassed, cut off from all communications. On the third day their
+passage was barred in a pass, and they found themselves in a trap. On
+the third night they attempted to break away by a different route, but
+the van and the rear lost touch. Overtaken by the Syracusans,
+Demosthenes attempted to fight a rearguard action, but in vain, and he
+was forced to surrender at discretion with his whole force. Next day,
+Nicias with the van was overtaken, and, after a ghastly scene of
+confusion and slaughter, the remnants of the vanguard were forced to
+surrender also. Nicias and Demosthenes were put to death; great numbers
+were seized as private spoil by their captors, the rest of the
+prisoners--more than 7,000--were confined for weeks under the most
+noisome conditions in the quarries, and finally the survivors were sold
+as slaves. So pitiably ended that once magnificent enterprise in the
+nineteenth year of the war.
+
+The terrific disaster filled every enemy of Athens with confident
+expectation of her immediate and utter ruin. Lacedaemonians anticipated
+an unqualified supremacy. At Athens there was a stubborn determination
+to prepare for a desperate stand; but half the islanders were intriguing
+for Lacedaemonian or Persian aid in breaking free, while Alcibiades
+became extremely busy.
+
+The first Peloponnesian squadron which attempted to move was promptly
+driven into Piraeus by an Athenian fleet and blockaded. On the open
+revolt of some of the states, the Athenians for the first time brought
+into play their reserve fund and reserve navy--the emergency had arisen.
+While one after another of the subject cities revolted, the Athenians
+struck hard at Chios, and especially Miletus, and obtained marked
+successes. Meanwhile, a revolution in Samos had expelled the oligarchy
+and re-established the democracy, to which the Athenians accorded
+freedom, thereby securing an ally. In Lesbos also they recovered their
+challenged supremacy.
+
+Phrynicus now came into prominence as a shrewd commander and a crafty
+politician, while the intricate intrigues of Alcibiades, whose great
+object was to recover his position at Athens, created perpetual
+confusion. These events took place in the twentieth year of the war, and
+to them must be added a Lacedaemonian treaty with Persia through the
+satrap Tissaphernes. All the leading men, however, were engaged in
+playing fast and loose, each of them having his personal ambitions in
+view. Of this labyrinth of plots and counter-plots, the startling
+outcome was the sudden abrogation of the constitution at Athens and the
+capture of the government by a committee of five with a council of four
+hundred and a supplementary assembly of five thousand--in place of the
+whole body of citizens as formerly. The Five and the Four Hundred in
+effect were the Government, and established a reign of terror.
+
+At Athens, the administration thus formed was effective; but the army
+and fleet at Satnos repudiated the revolution and swore loyalty to the
+democracy, claiming to be the true representatives of the Athenian
+state. Moreover, they allied themselves with Alcibiades, expecting
+through him to receive Persian support; and, happily for Athens, he
+succeeded in restraining the fleet--which was still more than a match
+for all adversaries--from sailing back to the Piraeus to subvert the rule
+of the Four Hundred. The more patriotic of the oligarchs saw, in fact,
+that the best hopes for the state lay in the establishment of a limited
+democracy; with the result that the extreme oligarchs, who would have
+joined hands with the enemy, were overthrown, and the rule of the Five
+Thousand replaced that of the Four Hundred, providing Athens with the
+best administration it had ever known. A great naval victory was won by
+the Athenian fleet, under the command of Thrasybulus, over a slightly
+larger Peloponnesian fleet at Cynossema.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+XENOPHON
+
+
+Anabasis
+
+
+     Xenophon was born at Athens about B.C. 430, and died probably
+     in 355. He was an Athenian gentleman who in his early-manhood
+     was an intimate member of the Socratic circle. In 401 he
+     joined the expedition of Cyrus, recorded in the "Anabasis,"
+     and did not again take up his residence in Athens. The
+     "Anabasis" must be introduced by an historical note. In the
+     year 404 B.C. the Peloponnesian war was brought to a close by
+     a peace establishing the Lacedaemonian supremacy consequent
+     upon the crowning disaster to the Athenians at Aegos Potami.
+     In the same year the Persian king Darius Nothus died, and was
+     succeeded on the throne by his son Artaxerxes. His younger
+     son, Cyrus, determined to make a bid for the throne. He had
+     personal knowledge of the immense superiority of the Greek
+     soldiery and the Greek discipline over those of the Eastern
+     nations. Accordingly, he planned to obtain the services of a
+     large contingent of Greek mercenaries, who had become the more
+     readily available since the internecine struggle between the
+     two leading states of Hellas had been brought to an end. The
+     term "Anabasis," or "going up," applies properly to the
+     advance into the interior; the retreat, with which the work is
+     mainly concerned, is the "Katabasis." The author writes his
+     record in the third person. This epitome has been specially
+     adapted for THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS from the Greek text.
+
+
+_I.--The Going-up of Cyrus_
+
+
+Cyrus, the younger brother of Artaxerxes the king, began his
+preparations for revolt by gradually gathering and equipping an army on
+the pretext of hostile relations between himself and another of the
+western satraps, Tissaphernes. Notably, he secretly furnished Clearchus,
+a Lacedaemonian, with means to equip a Greek force in Thrace; another
+like force was ready to move from Thessaly under Aristippus; while a
+Boeotian, Proxenus, and two others friends were commissioned to collect
+more mercenaries to aid in the war with Tissaphernes.
+
+Next, an excuse for marching up-country, at the head of all these
+forces, was found in the need of suppressing the Pisidians. He advanced
+from Sardis into Phrygia, where his musters were completed at Celaenae. A
+review was held at Tyriaeum, where the Cilician queen, who had supplied
+funds, was badly frightened by a mock charge of the Greek contingent.
+When the advance had reached Tarsus, there was almost a mutiny among the
+Greeks, who were suspicious of the intentions of Cyrus. The diplomacy,
+however, of their principal general, Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian,
+coupled with promises of increased pay, prevailed, though it had long
+been obvious that Pisidia was not the objective of the expedition.
+
+Further reinforcements were received at Issus, the eastern seaport of
+Cilicia; Cyrus then marched through the Cilician gate into Syria. At
+Myriandrus two Greek commanders, probably through jealousy of Clearchus,
+deserted. Cyrus won popularity by refusing to presume thereon; and the
+whole force now struck inland to Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.
+
+At Thapsacus, Cyrus announced his purpose. The Greek soldiers were angry
+with their generals for having, as they supposed, wilfully misled them,
+but were mollified by promise of large rewards. One of the commanders,
+Menon, won the approval of Cyrus by being the first to lead his own
+contingent across the Euphrates on his own initiative. The advance was
+now conducted by forced marches through a painfully sterile country. In
+the course of this, the troops of Clearchus and Menon very nearly came
+to blows; the intervention of Proxenus only made matters worse; and
+order was restored by the arrival of Cyrus, who pointed out that the
+whole expedition must be ruined if the Greeks fell out among themselves.
+
+By this time, Artaxerxes had realised that the repeated warnings of
+Tissaphernes and others were justified; and as the expedition neared
+Babylonia, signs of the enemy became apparent in the deliberate
+devastation of the country. Here Orontes, one of the principal Persian
+officers of Cyrus, was convicted of treason and put to death.
+
+The army was again reviewed, the whole force amounting to some 100,000
+barbarians and nearly 14,000 Greeks; the enemy were reputed to number
+over 1,000,000, though not so many took part in the engagement. Cyrus
+now advanced, expecting battle immediately at an entrenched pass; but,
+finding this unoccupied, he did not maintain battle order; which was
+hurriedly taken up on news of the approach of the royal forces. The
+Greeks, under Clearchus, occupied the right wing, Cyrus being in the
+centre, and Ariaeus on the left. The king's army was so large that its
+centre extended beyond the left of Cyrus.
+
+The Greeks advanced on the royalist left, which broke and fled almost
+without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut
+off, Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed
+the opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing
+Artaxerxes, was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the
+field. So ended the career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the
+Great had established the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the
+mirror of honour, just himself and the rewarder of justice in others,
+generous and most loyal to his friends.
+
+
+_II.--The Homeward March_
+
+
+When Cyrus fell, the left wing, under Ariaeus, broke and fled. The Greeks
+had meantime poured on in pursuit of the royalist left, while the main
+body of the royalists were in possession of the rebel camp, though a
+Greek guard, which had been left there, held the Greek quarter.
+Artaxerxes, however, had no mind to give battle to the returning Greek
+column.
+
+It was not till next day that Clearchus and his colleagues learned by
+messengers from Ariaeus that Cyrus was slain, and that Ariaeus had fallen
+back to the last halting-place, where he proposed to wait twenty-four
+hours, and no more, before starting in his retreat westward. Clearchus
+replied, that the Greeks, for their part, had been victorious, and that
+if Ariaeus would rejoin them they would win the Persian crown for him,
+since Cyrus was dead. The next message was from Artaxerxes inviting the
+Greeks to give up their arms; to which they replied that he might come
+and take them if he could, but if he meant to treat them as friends,
+they would be no use to him without their arms, if as enemies, they
+would keep them to defend themselves.
+
+Though no formal appointment was made, the Greeks recognised Clearchus
+as their leader. They fell back to join Ariaeus, who declined the
+proposal to seat him on the Persian throne; and it was agreed to follow
+a new route in retreat to Ionia, the way by which the force had advanced
+being now impracticable.
+
+Now, however, Artaxerxes began to negotiate through Tissaphernes, the
+Greeks maintaining a bold and even contemptuous front, warranted by the
+king's obvious fear of risking an engagement.
+
+Finally, an offer came to conduct the Greeks back to Grecian territory,
+providing them, at their own cost, with necessaries. Prolonged delays,
+however, aroused suspicions of treachery among the Greeks, who
+distrusted Tissaphernes and Ariaeus alike; but Clearchus held it better
+not to break openly with the Persians. The march at last began along a
+northerly route towards the Black Sea, the Greeks keeping rigidly apart
+from the Persian forces which accompanied them, in readiness for an
+attack.
+
+At the crossing of the Tigris suspicion was particularly active, the
+conduct of Ariaeus being especially dubious; but still no overt
+hostilities were attempted until the river Zabatus was reached, after
+three weeks of marching. Here Clearchus endeavoured to end the extremely
+strained relations between the Greeks and the barbarian commanders by an
+interview with Tissaphernes. Both men carefully repudiated any idea of
+hostile intentions, and the Persian invited Clearchus and the Greek
+officers generally to attend a conference. Not all, but a considerable
+number--five generals, including Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon, with
+twenty more officers and nearly two hundred others--attended. At a given
+signal all were treacherously massacred; but a fugitive reached the
+Greek camp, where the men sprang to arms. Ariaeus, approaching with an
+escort, declared that Clearchus had been proved guilty of treason, but
+was received with fierce indignation, and withdrew.
+
+Of the murdered generals, Clearchus was a man of high military capacity,
+but a harsh disciplinarian, feared and respected, but very unpopular;
+Proxenus, a particular friend of Xenophon, was an amiable but not a
+strong man; Menon, the Thessalian, was a crafty and hypocritical
+time-server, of whom no good can be spoken.
+
+The ten thousand Greeks were now in an ugly predicament; they were a
+thousand miles from home, while between them and the Black Sea lay the
+mountains of Armenia. They were surrounded by hostile hordes, and were
+without cavalry. They had no recognised chief, and their most trusted
+leaders were gone. The whole company seemed paralysed under a universal
+despondency. It was at this juncture that Xenophon, an Athenian
+gentleman-volunteer, was stirred to action by a dream. He rose and
+roused the officers of the contingent of Proxenus, to which he was
+attached. Heartened by an address, in which he pointed out that, on the
+one hand they had to depend on their own courage, skill, and
+resourcefulness, and, on the other, were released from all obligation to
+the Persians, they unanimously chose him their leader, and at his
+instigation roused the senior officers of all the other contingents to
+assemble for deliberation.
+
+The council thus summoned, inspired again by the words of Xenophon,
+vigorously backed up by other leaders, appointed new generals, among
+them Xenophon himself, and set about actively to organise a retreat to
+the sea. The contagion of resolute determination spread through the
+ranks of the whole force. Cheirisophus the Lacedaemonian was given the
+chief command, the two youngest generals, Xenophon and Timerion, were
+placed in charge of the rear-guard. A troop of slingers was organised;
+all horses with the arroy were sequestrated to form a cavalry squadron.
+The army started on its march through the unknown, formed in a hollow
+square, which was shortly so organised that the columns could be
+broadened or narrowed according to the ground without creating
+confusion.
+
+They soon found themselves able to repulse without difficulty even
+attacks in force by the troops of Tissaphernes, the enemy being entirely
+outmatched in hand-to-hand fighting. The slingers and archers, however,
+proved troublesome, and hostile forces, though keeping out of reach,
+were never far off. At last Tissaphernes and Ariaeus drew off altogether,
+and the Greek generals having as alternative courses the march east upon
+Susa, north upon Babylon, and west towards Ionia, decided to revert to
+the course northwards to the Black Sea.
+
+
+_III.--The Sea! The Sea!_
+
+
+This route led at first through the country of the Carduchi, a very
+warlike folk who had never been subjugated. Here there was a good deal
+of hard fighting, the Carduchi being adepts in hill warfare, and
+particularly expert archers. Such was the length and weight of their
+arrows that Greeks collected them, and used them as javelins. Seven days
+of this brought the retreating force to the river Centrites, which parts
+the Carduchian mountains from the province of Armenia. With a barely
+fordable river, troops in evidence on the other side, and the Carduchi
+hanging on their rear, the passage offered great difficulties, solved by
+the discovery of a much shallower ford. A feint at one point by the
+rearguard drew off the enemy on the opposite bank, while the main body
+crossed at the shallows, which the rearguard also managed to pass by a
+successful ruse which misled the Carduchi.
+
+The Persian governor of Western Armenia, Tiribazus, offered safe passage
+through his province, but scouts brought information that large forces
+were collecting, and would dispute the passage of a defile through which
+the army must pass. This point, however, was reached by a forced march,
+and the enemy was put to rout.
+
+For some days after this the marching was very severe; the men had to
+struggle forward on very nearly empty stomachs, through blizzards,
+suffering terribly from frostbite and the blinding effect of the snow on
+their eyes, so that at times nothing short of actual threats from the
+officers could induce the exhausted men to toil forward; and all the
+time the enemy's skirmishers were harassing the troops and cutting off
+stragglers. These, however, were finally dispersed by a sudden onslaught
+of the rearguard, and after this a more populous district was reached,
+where food and wine abounded, and the Greeks, who were not ill-received,
+made some days' halt to recuperate.
+
+Here a guide was obtained for the next stages; but on the third night he
+deserted, because Cheirisophus had lost his temper and struck him. This
+incident was the only occasion of a serious difference between Xenophon
+and the elder commander. On the seventh day after this the river Phasis
+was crossed; but two days later, on approaching a mountain pass, it was
+seen to be occupied in force. A council of war was held, at which some
+jesting passed, Xenophon remarking on the reputation of the
+Lacedaemonians as adepts in thieving, a jibe which Cheirisophus retorted
+on the Athenians; as the business in hand was to "steal a match" on the
+enemy, each encouraged the other to act up to the national reputation.
+In the night, a detachment of volunteers captured the ridge above the
+pass; the enemy facing the main body beat a hasty retreat when they
+found their position turned.
+
+Another five days brought the army into the country of the Taochi, where
+the Greeks had to rush a somewhat dangerous position in order to capture
+supplies. A space of some twenty yards was open to such a storm of
+missiles from above that it could only be passed by drawing the enemy's
+fire and making a dash before fresh missiles were accumulated. When this
+was accomplished, however, the foe offered no practical resistance, but
+flung themselves over the cliffs.
+
+Eighteen days later the Greeks reached a town called Gymnise, where they
+obtained a guide. Their course lay through tribes towards whom the
+governor was hostile, and the Greeks had no objection to gratifying him
+by spoiling and burning on their way. On the fifth day after leaving
+Gymnise, a mountain pass was reached.
+
+When the van cleared the top of the mountain, there arose a great
+shouting. And when Xenophon heard it, and they of the rear-guard, they
+supposed that other enemies were ranged against them, for the men of the
+land which had been ravaged were following behind; but when the clamour
+grew louder and nearer, and the new arrivals doubled forward to where
+the shouting was, so that it became greater and greater with the added
+numbers, Xenophon thought this must be something of moment. Therefore,
+taking Lycias and the horsemen, he rode forward at speed to give aid;
+and then suddenly they were aware of the soldiers' shout, the word that
+rang through the lines--"The sea! the sea!" Then every man raced,
+rear-guard and all, urging horses and the very baggage-mules to the top
+of their speed, and when they came to the top, they fell on each other's
+necks, and the generals, and officers, too, with tears of delight. And
+in a moment, whoever it was that passed the word, the men were gathering
+stones, and there they reared a mighty column.
+
+And as for the lucky guide, he betook himself home laden with presents.
+
+Of what befell between this point and the actual arrival of the army on
+the coast of the Black Sea at the Grecian colony of Trapezus [Trebizond]
+the most curious incident was that of the soldiers lighting upon great
+quantities of honey, which not only made them violently ill, but had an
+intoxicating effect, attributed to the herbs frequented by the bees in
+that district. This necessitated a halt of some days. The second day's
+march thence brought them to Trapezus, where they made sacrificial
+thank-offerings to the gods, and further celebrated the occasion by
+holding athletic games.
+
+
+_IV.--The End of the Expedition_
+
+
+But Trapezus was not Greece, and the problem of transport was serious.
+The men, sick of marching, were eager to accomplish the rest of their
+journey by sea. Cheirisophus the general, as being a personal friend of
+the Lacedaemonian admiral stationed at Byzantium, was commissioned to
+obtain ships from him to take the Greeks home.
+
+Cheirisophus departed. The army, which still numbered over ten thousand
+persons, was willing enough to maintain its military organisation for
+foraging and for self-defence; also to make such arrangements as were
+practicable for collecting ships in case Cheirisophus should fail them;
+but the men flatly refused to consider any further movement except by
+water.
+
+So they stayed where they were, maintaining their supplies by raids on
+the natives; but time passed, and there were no tidings of Cheirisophus.
+At last, they saw nothing for it but to put the sick and other
+non-combatants aboard of the vessels which had been secured, send them
+on by sea, and themselves march by the coast to Cerasus, another Greek
+colony. Thence they continued their westward progress, in which they met
+with considerable resistance from the natives, who were barbarians of a
+primitive type, until they came to Cotyora.
+
+This was another settlement from Sinope; but it received the Greeks very
+inhospitably, so that the latter continued their practice of ravaging
+the neighbouring territories. It was now eight months since the
+expedition had started on its homeward march. Here a deputation arrived
+from Sinope to protest against their proceedings; but Xenophon pointed
+out that while they were perfectly willing to buy what they needed and
+behave as friends, if they were not allowed to buy, self-preservation
+compelled them to take by force. Ultimately, the deputation promised to
+send ships from Sinope to convey them thither.
+
+During the time of waiting there was some risk of the force breaking
+itself up, and some inclination to make attacks on the officers,
+including Xenophon. The formulation of charges, however, enabled him
+amply to justify the acts complained of, and order generally was
+restored. At last, however, a sufficient number of ships were collected
+to convey the force to Sinope, where also Cheirisophus put in his
+long-delayed appearance.
+
+Cheirisophus came practically without ships and with nothing but vague
+promises from the admiral at Byzantium. At this point it occurred to the
+army that it would be better to have a single commander for the whole
+than a committee of generals each in control of his own division. Hence
+Xenophon was invited to accept the position. On consulting the omens he
+declined, recommending that, since Cheirisophus was a Lacedaemonian, it
+would be the proper thing to offer him the command, which was
+accordingly done.
+
+The force now sailed from Sinope as far as Heraclea. Here the
+contingents from Arcadia and Archaea--more than half the force--insisted
+on requisitioning large supplies of money from Heraclea. Cheirisophus,
+supported by Xenophon, refused assent; the Arcadians and Achaeans
+consequently refused to serve under their command any more, and
+appointed captains for themselves. The other half of the army was also
+parted in two divisions, commanded by Cheirisophus and Xenophon
+respectively.
+
+From Calpe the Arcadians and Archaeans made an expedition into the
+interior, which fared so ill that Xenophon, hearing by accident of what
+had happened, was obliged to march to their relief. To his satisfaction,
+however, it was found that the enemy had already dispersed, and the
+Greek column was overtaken on the way back to Calpe. The general effect
+of the episode was to impress upon the Arcadians and Archaeans that it
+was commonsense for the whole force to remain united.
+
+The usual operations were carried on for obtaining supplies, report
+having arrived that Cleander, the Lacedaemonian governor of Byzantium,
+was coming, which he presently did, with a couple of galleys but no
+transports. From information received, Cleander was inclined to regard
+the army as little better than a band of brigands; but this idea was
+successfully dissipated by Xenophon. Cleander went back to Byzantium,
+and the Greeks marched from Calpe to Chrysopolis, which faces Byzantium.
+
+Here the whole force was at last carried over to the opposite shore, and
+once more found itself on European soil, having received promises of pay
+from the admiral Anaxibius. Suspicions of his real intentions were
+aroused, and Xenophon had no little difficulty in preventing his
+soldiery from breaking loose and sacking Byzantium itself.
+
+Ultimately, the greater part of the force took service with the Thracian
+king Seuthes. Seuthes, however, failed to carry out his promises as to
+payments and rewards. But now the Lacedaemonians were engaged in a
+quarrel with the western satraps, Tissaphernes and Artabazus; six
+thousand veterans so experienced as those who had followed this famous
+march into the heart of the Persian empire, had fought their way from
+Cunaxa to Trapezus, and had supported themselves mainly by their
+military prowess in getting from Trapezus to Europe, were a force by no
+means to be neglected, and the bulk of the troops were not unwilling to
+be incorporated in the Lacedaemonian armies. And so ends the story of the
+Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE GROTE
+
+
+History of Greece
+
+
+     George Grote, born at Beckenham, England, Nov. 17, 1794,
+     entered the bank founded by his grandfather, from which he
+     withdrew in 1843. He joined the group of "philosophic
+     Radicals," among whom James Mill was a leader, and was a keen
+     politician and reformer, and an ardent advocate of the ballot.
+     His determination to write a sound "History of Greece" was
+     ensured, if it was not inspired, by Mitford's history, a work
+     full of anti-democratic fervour and very antagonistic to the
+     great Greek democratic state of Athens. In some respects his
+     work is a defence of the Athenian democracy, at least as
+     contrasted with Sparta; it appeared in twelve volumes between
+     1846 and 1856, and covered Greek history from the earliest
+     times "till the close of the generation contemporary with
+     Alexander the Great." It at once occupied, and still holds,
+     the field as the classic work on the subject as a whole,
+     though later research has modified many of his conclusions.
+     His methods were pre-eminently thorough, dispassionate, and
+     judicial; but he suffers from a lack of sympathetic
+     imagination. He died on June 18, 1871, and was buried in
+     Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+_I.--Early History_
+
+
+The divine myths constitute the earliest matter of Greek history. These
+may be divided into those which belong to the gods and to the heroes
+respectively; but most of them, in point of fact, present gods, heroes,
+and men in juxtaposition. Every community sought to trace its origin to
+some common divine, or semi-divine, progenitor; the establishment of a
+pedigree was a necessity; and each pedigree contains at some, point
+figures corresponding to some actual historical character, before whom
+the pedigree is imaginary, but after whom, in the main, actual. The
+precise point where the legend fades into the mythical, or consolidates
+into the historical, is not usually ascertainable.
+
+The legendary period culminates in the tale of Troy, which belongs to a
+period prior to the Dorian conquest presented in the Herakleid legend;
+the tale of Troy itself remaining the common heritage of the Greek
+peoples, and having an actual basis in historical fact. The events,
+however, are of less importance than the picture of an actual
+historical, political, and social system, corresponding, not to the
+supposed date of the Trojan war, but to the date of the composition of
+the Homeric poems. Later ages regarded the myths themselves with a good
+deal of scepticism, and were often disposed to rationalise them, or to
+find for them an allegorical interpretation. The myths of other European
+peoples have undergone a somewhat similar treatment.
+
+Greece proper, that is, the European territory occupied by the Hellenic
+peoples, has a very extensive coast-line, covers the islands of the
+AEgean, and is so mountainous on the mainland that communication between
+one point and another is not easy. This facilitated the system which
+isolated communities, compelling each one to develop and perfect its own
+separate organisation; so that Greece became, not a state, but a
+congerie of single separate city states--small territories centering in
+the city, although in some cases the village system was not centralised
+into the city system. On the other hand, the Hellenes very definitely
+recognised their common affinity, looked on themselves as a distinct
+aggregate, and very emphatically differentiated that entire aggregate
+from the non-Hellenes, whom they designated as "barbarians."
+
+Of these states, the first to come into view--post-Homerically--is
+Sparta, the head of the Dorian communities, governed under the laws and
+discipline attributed to Lycurgus, with its special peculiarity of the
+dual kingship designed to make a pure despotism impossible. The
+government lay and remained in the hands of the conquering Spartan
+race--as for a time with the Normans in England--which formed a close
+oligarchy, while within the oligarchical body the organisation was
+democratic and communistic. For Sparta, the eighth and seventh centuries
+B.C. were characterised by the two Messenian wars; and we note that
+while the Hellenes generally recognised her headship, Argos claimed a
+titular right to that position. As a general rule, the primitive
+monarchical system portrayed in the Homeric poems was displaced in the
+Greek cities by an oligarchical government, which in turn was overthrown
+by an irregular despotism called _tyrannis_, primarily established by a
+professed popular leader, who maintained his supremacy by mercenary
+troops. One after another these usurping dynasties were again ejected in
+favour either of a restored oligarchy or of a democracy. Sparta, where
+the power of the dual kingship was extremely limited, was the only state
+where the legitimate kingship survived. Corinth attained her highest
+power Under the despot Periander, son of Cypselus. Of the Ionian section
+of Greek states, the supreme type is Athens. Her early history is
+obscure. The kingship seems to have ended by being, so to speak, placed
+in commission, the royal functions being discharged by an elected body
+of Archons. Dissensions among the groups of citizens issued in the
+democratic Solonian constitution, which remained the basis of Athenian
+government, except during the despotism of the house of Pisistratus in
+the latter half of the sixth century B.C. But outside of Greece proper
+were the numerous Dorian and Ionian colonies, really independent cities,
+planted in the coast districts of Asia Minor, at Cyrene and Barka in
+Mediterranean Africa, in Epirus (Albania), Southern Italy, Sicily, and
+even at Massilia in Gaul, and in Thrace beyond the proper Hellenic area.
+These colonies brought the Greek world in touch with Lydia and its king,
+Croesus, with the one sea-going Semitic power, the Phoenicians, with the
+Egyptians, and more remotely with the wholly Oriental empires of Assyria
+and Babylon, as well as with the outer barbarians of Scythia.
+
+Between 560 and 510 B.C., Athens was generally under the rule of the
+despot Pisistratus and his son Hippias. In 510, the Pisistratidae were
+expelled, and Athens became a pure democracy. Meanwhile, the Persian
+Cyrus had seized the Median monarchy and overthrown every other
+potentate in Western Asia; Egypt was added to the vast Persian dominion
+by his son Cambyses. A new dynasty was established by Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes, who organized the empire, but failed to extend it by an
+incursion into European Scythia.
+
+The revolt of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor against the governments
+established by the "great king" brought him in contact with the
+Athenians, who sent help to Ionia. Demands for "earth and water,"
+_i.e.,_ the formal recognition of Persian sovereignty, sent to the
+apparently insignificant Greek states were insolently rejected. Darius
+sent an expedition to punish Athens in particular, and the Athenians
+drove his army into the sea at the battle of Marathon.
+
+Xerxes, son of Darius, organised an overwhelming force by land and sea
+to eat up the Greeks. The invaders were met but hardly checked at
+Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the immortal three hundred fell; all
+Greece north of the Isthmus of Corinth was in their hands, including
+Athens. But their fleet was shattered to pieces, chiefly by the
+Athenians under Themistocles and Aristides at Salamis, and the
+destruction of their land forces was completed by the united Greeks at
+Plataea. A further disaster was inflicted on the same day at Mycale.
+
+
+_II.--The Struggles of Athens and Sparta_
+
+
+Meanwhile, the Sicilian Greeks, led by Gelo of Syracuse, successfully
+resisted and overthrew the aggression of Carthage, the issue being
+decided at the battle of Himera. The part played by Athens under the
+guidance of Themistocles in the repulse of Persia gave her a new
+position among the Greek states and an indisputable naval leadership. As
+the maritime head of Hellas she was chief of the naval Delian League,
+now formed ostensibly to carry on the war against Persia. But the
+leaguers, who first contributed a quota of ships, soon began to
+substitute money to provide ships, which in effect swelled the Athenian
+navy, and turned the contributors into tributaries. Thus, almost
+automatically, the Delian League converted itself into an Athenian
+empire. In Athens itself an unparalleled personal ascendancy was
+acquired by Pericles, who made the form of government and administration
+more democratic than before. But this growing supremacy of Athens
+aroused the jealous alarm of other Greek states. Sparta saw her own
+titular hegemony threatened; the subject cities grew restive under the
+Athenian yoke. Sparta came forward professedly as champion of the
+liberties of Hellas; Athens, guided by Pericles, refused to submit to
+Spartan dictation, and accepted the challenge which plunged Greece into
+the Peloponnesian war.
+
+The Athenians concentrated on the expansion of their naval armaments,
+left the open country undefended and gathered within the city walls, and
+landed forces at will on the Peloponnese. Platsea, almost their sole
+ally on land, held out valiantly for some time, but was forced to
+surrender; and Athens herself suffered frightfully from a visitation of
+the plague. After the death of Pericles, Cleon became the most prominent
+leader of the aggressive and democratic party, Nicias, of the
+anti-democratic peace party. Over most of Greece in each state the
+oligarchic faction favoured the Peloponnesian league, the democratic,
+Athens. The general Demosthenes at Pylos effected the surrender of a
+Lacedaemonian force, which temporarily shattered Sparta's military
+prestige, a blow in some degree counteracted by the brilliant operations
+of Brasidas in the north, where, however, both he and Cleon were killed.
+
+Meanwhile, Athens was awakening to the possibilities of a great
+sea-empire, in consequence of her intervention having been invited in
+disputes among the Sicilian states. As the outcome, incited by the
+brilliant young Alcibiades, she resolved on the fatal Sicilian
+expedition. The expedition, planned under command of Alcibiades and
+Nicias, was dispatched in spite of the startling mutilation of the
+Hermae, a sacrilegious performance attributed to Alcibiades. It had
+hardly reached Sicily when he was recalled, but made his escape and
+spent some years mainly in intriguing against Athens. The siege of
+Syracuse was progressing favourably, when the Spartan Gylippus was
+allowed to enter and put new life into the defence. Disaster followed on
+disaster both by sea and land; finally, the whole Athenian force was
+either cut to pieces or surrendered at discretion, to become the slaves
+of the Syracusans, both Nicias and Demosthenes being put to death.
+
+Meanwhile, the truce between Athens and Sparta had been ended, and war
+again declared. Sparta occupied permanently a post of the Attic
+territory, Deceleia, with merciless effect. The Sicilian disaster moved
+the islanders, notably Chios, to revolt, by Spartan help, against
+Athens. She, however, renovated her navy with unexpected vigour. But,
+with her fleets away, Alcibiades inspired oligarchical intrigues in the
+city; a _coup d'etat_ gave the government to the leaders of a group of
+400. The navy stood by the democratic constitution, the 400 were
+overthrown, and an assembly, nominally of 5,000, assumed the government.
+A great Athenian triumph at Arginusae was followed later by a still more
+overwhelming disaster at AEgos Potami.
+
+The Spartan commander Lysander blockaded Athens; starvation forced her
+to surrender. Lysander established the government known as that of the
+Thirty Tyrants, who were headed by Kritias. Lysander's ascendancy
+created in Sparta a party in opposition to him; in the outcome, the
+Spartan king Pausanias helped in the overthrow of the Thirty at Athens
+by Thrasybulus, and the restoration of the Athenian democracy.
+Throughout, the conduct of the democratic party, at its best and its
+worst, contrasted favourably with that of the oligarchical faction.
+
+These eighty years were the great period of Athenian literature and art:
+of the Parthenon and Phidias; of AEschylus, the soldier of Marathon; then
+Sophocles and Euripides and Aristophanes; finally, of Socrates, not
+himself an author, but the inspirer of Plato, and the founder of ethical
+science; according to popular ideas, the typical Sophist, but in fact
+differing from the Sophists fundamentally.
+
+
+_III.--The Blotting Out of Hellas_
+
+
+The triumph of Sparta has established her empire among the Greeks; she
+used her power with a tyranny infinitely more galling than the sway of
+Athens. The Spartan character had become greatly demoralised. Agesilaus,
+who succeeded to the kingship, set on foot ambitious projects for a
+Greek conquest of Asia; but Greece began to revolt against the Spartan
+dominion. Thebes and other cities rose, and called for help from Athens,
+their former foe. In the first stages of the ensuing war, of which the
+most notable battle was Coronea, Sparta maintained her supremacy within
+the Peloponnesus, but not beyond. Athens obtained the countenance of
+Persia, and the counter-diplomacy of Sparta produced the peace known by
+the name of the Spartan Antalcidas, establishing generally the autonomy
+of Greek cities. But this in effect meant the restoration of Spartan
+domination.
+
+In course of time, however, this brought about the defiance of Spartan
+dictation by Thebes and the tremendous check to her power inflicted at
+the battle of Leuctra, by Epaminondas the Theban, whose military skill
+and tactical originality there overthrew the Spartan military prestige.
+As a consequence, half the Peloponnese itself broke away from Sparta; a
+force under Epaminondas aided the Arcadians, and the Arcadian federation
+was established.
+
+Hellenic Sicily during these years was having a history of her own of
+some importance. Syracuse, after her triumph over the Athenian forces,
+continued the contest with her neighbours, which had been the ostensible
+cause of the Athenian expedition. But this was closed by the advent of
+fresh invaders, the Carthaginians, who renewed the attack repulsed at
+Himera. Owing to the disaster to Athens, her fleets were no longer to be
+feared by Carthage as a protection to the Hellenic world; and for two
+centuries to come, her interventions in Sicily were incessant. Now, the
+presence of a foreign foe in Sicily gave intriguers for power at
+Syracuse their opportunity, of which the outcome was the subversion of
+the democracy and the establishment of Dionysius as despot.
+
+His son, Dionysius II., succeeded, and was finally ejected by the
+Corinthian Timoleon, who, after a brilliant career of victories as
+Syracusan general against Carthage, acted as general liberator of
+Sicilian cities from despotisms, laid down his powers, and was content
+with the position, not of despot, but of counsellor, to the great
+prosperity of Sicily as a whole.
+
+Going back to the north of Greece, the semi-Hellenic Macedon with a
+Hellenic dynasty was growing powerful. Philip--father of Alexander the
+Great--was now king, and was resolved to make himself the head of the
+Greek world. His great opponent is found in the person of the Athenian
+orator Demosthenes, who saw that Philip was aiming at ascendancy, but
+generally failed to persuade the Athenians to recognise the danger in
+which they stood. Philip gradually achieved his immediate end of being
+recognised as the captain-general of the Hellenes, and their leader in a
+new Persian war, when his life was cut short by an assassin, and he was
+succeeded by his youthful son Alexander.
+
+The Greek states, awakening to their practical subjection, would have
+thrown off the new yoke, but the young king with swift and overwhelming
+energy swept down from Thrace upon Thebes, the centre of resistance, and
+stamped it out. He had already conceived, in part at least, his vast
+schemes of Asiatic conquest; while he lived, Greece had practically no
+distinguishable history. She is merely an appendage to Macedon.
+Everything is absorbed in the Macedon conqueror. With an army incredibly
+small for the task before him, he entered Asia Minor, and routed the
+Persian forces on the river Granicus. The Greek Memnon, the one able
+leader for the Persians, would have organised against him a destructive
+naval power; but death removed him.
+
+Alexander dispersed the armies of the Persian king Darius at the Issus,
+captured Tyre after a remarkable siege, and took easy possession of
+Egypt, where he founded Alexandria. Having organised the administration
+of the conquered territories, he marched to the Euphrates, but did not
+engage the enormous Persian hosts till he found and shattered them at
+the battle of Gaugamela, also called Arbela. Darius fled, and Alexander
+swept on to Babylon, to Susa, to Persepolis, assuming the functions of
+the "Great King." The fugitive Darius was assassinated. Alexander
+henceforth assumed a new and oriental demeanour; but he continued his
+conquests, crossing the Hindoo Koosh to Bactria, and then bursting into
+the Punjab. But his ambitions were ended by his death, and their
+fulfilment, not at all according to his designs, was left to the
+"Diadochi," the generals among whom the conquered dominions were parted.
+Athens led the revolt against Macedonian supremacy, but in vain.
+Demosthenes, condemned by the conquering Antipater, took poison. The
+remainder of the history is that of the blotting out of Hellas and of
+Hellenism.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN
+
+
+Troy and Its Remains
+
+
+     Heinrich Schliemann was born at Kalkhorst, a village in
+     Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December
+     27, 1890. During his early childhood an old scholar, who had
+     fallen upon evil days, delighted him with stories of the great
+     deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age of fourteen he was
+     apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
+     antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet
+     have the happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him
+     from his low position, and he went to Holland and found a
+     situation in an office. He now began to study languages,
+     suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
+     money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to
+     Russia, learning Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek.
+     Later, he travelled in Europe and the East, making a voyage
+     round the world. At last he realised the dream of his life.
+     Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
+     Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at
+     Tiryus, Mycenae, and Troy, largely solving the problems of
+     antiquity and archaeology associated with these localities.
+     "Troy and Its Remains" is published here in order that, having
+     read in the classical histories, we may see how the ancient
+     world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of
+     one of the most famous of archaeologists.
+
+
+_I.--Searching for the Site of Troy_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October_ 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca, the
+Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
+by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the
+Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of
+Bunarbashi, to which place most archaeologists assign it. At the same
+time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be
+identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and
+down to its Complete destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning
+of the ninth century A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years,
+after its disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium
+Novum by Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited
+his Ilium Novum.
+
+The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
+north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still,
+which is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and
+from its imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of
+Hissarlik seems specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever
+since my first visit I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of
+Priam in the depths of this hill.
+
+On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
+Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
+excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
+explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
+walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
+Lysimachus.
+
+Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
+end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
+prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
+offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
+hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its
+stead some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of
+the Trojan war.
+
+I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
+on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate
+this locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on
+the face of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's
+work. Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks
+of stone, the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who
+is an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the
+Iliad by heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All
+of my workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only
+on Sunday, a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.
+
+_Hissarlik, October_ 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
+continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average,
+80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I
+found an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow,
+grey, and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently
+with a kind of potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of
+their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume
+they have served as _ex votos_ for hanging up in the temples.
+
+I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
+inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
+writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
+century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have
+been one of the kings of Pergamus.
+
+The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
+glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west
+by the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.
+
+_Hissarlik, November_ 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33 feet.
+During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous mass
+of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
+of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
+sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
+battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have
+been made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have
+reached the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find
+are too well finished.
+
+I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
+indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and
+more traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly
+convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan
+war, and hence I am more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy
+by further excavations; for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in
+this is firm--it can only have been here, on the site of Ilium.
+
+
+_II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation_
+
+
+_Hissarlik, April 5, 1872._ On the first of this month I resumed the
+excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.
+
+In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
+small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the
+owl's head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins
+have stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the
+highest importance to archaeology. Such symbols were already regarded,
+thousands of years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very
+greatest importance. The figure of the cross represents two pieces of
+wood which were laid crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial
+altars in order to produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the
+friction of one piece of wood against another.
+
+At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
+many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am
+firmly convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a
+goddess, and the important question now presents itself, what goddess is
+it who is here found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be
+found upon the idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must
+necessarily be the tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian
+Athena, and this indeed perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer,
+who continually calls her _thea glaukopis Athene,_ "the goddess with the
+owl's face."
+
+_Hissarlik, June 18, 1872._ I had scarcely begun to extend a third
+cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian
+marble, containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus
+Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four
+immortal horses which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing
+is to be seen of a chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about
+two-thirds of the sun's disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is
+very expressive, and the folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured;
+but my admiration is specially excited by the four horses, which,
+snorting and looking wildly forward, career through the universe with
+infinite power. Their anatomy is so masterly that I confess I have never
+seen so masterly a work.
+
+It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
+nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a
+word about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus
+Apollo does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple
+of the sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament
+to any other temple.
+
+I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
+represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
+terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that
+is, Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman
+upon the propylaea of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
+sun-city.
+
+This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
+Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this
+work of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo,
+after the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the
+Ilian Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after
+the subjugation of the Persian Empire.
+
+Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
+the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that
+at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric
+Troy. [The reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came
+back to this opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand
+wonderful objects; whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the
+removal of which gives immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls
+of very fine terra-cotta, and it is curious that those which have no
+decorations at all are always of the ordinary shape, and of the size of
+small tops, or like the craters of volcanoes, while almost all those
+possessing decorations are flat, and in the form of a wheel.
+
+Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
+for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number
+of copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small
+instruments for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some
+curious pieces of ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in
+the shape of an exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or
+double-edged knives of white silex in the form of saws in quantities,
+each about two inches long; also many hand millstones of lava, and some
+beautiful red vases, cups, vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these
+depths we likewise find many bones of animals; boars' tusks, small
+shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and stag, as well as the vertebrae of
+the shark.
+
+The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
+large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone,
+hewn and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet.
+These buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined
+with earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed
+to pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
+disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
+well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
+which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum
+are those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]
+
+Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
+civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
+foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
+house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the
+fact that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol
+of the _suastika_, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive
+Trojans belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the
+symbols on the round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which
+preceded the Trojans was likewise of long duration, for all the layers
+of _debris_ at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also
+were of Aryan descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious
+symbols. Several of the symbols belonged to the time when Germans,
+Pelasgians, Hindoos, Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one
+nation.
+
+I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
+those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
+those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
+glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below,
+so that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
+vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
+urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
+mouth, bent back, and either short or long.
+
+I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
+three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
+very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata
+we also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
+whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs,
+amongst which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position.
+But the fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial
+altar with blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the
+_rosa mystica_, are also very frequently met with here.
+
+This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
+and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the
+Holy Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan
+symbol, as yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because
+I find it at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the
+successors to the Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200
+years before Christ.
+
+At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
+by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
+ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches
+of earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate
+in five leaves.
+
+I now come to the strata of _debris_ at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet,
+which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan race, who
+took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
+destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
+feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
+entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined
+with clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only
+are all the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are
+of a coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.
+
+A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
+_debris_ on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its present
+surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants killed or
+driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise have
+belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still very
+frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double cross
+with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the whorls
+degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it is
+considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
+strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
+feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
+many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
+together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas
+leave no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the
+surface of this hill was much lower than it is now.
+
+It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
+it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
+Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
+taken place 700 B.C.
+
+
+_III.--Homeric Legends Verified_
+
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August_ 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill where
+I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick, which
+obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
+uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
+trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a
+depth of 46-1/2 feet.
+
+This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
+its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
+covered it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and
+imposing, for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain
+of Troy, but of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and
+Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the whole area of
+the plain of Troy than this.
+
+In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
+well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that
+the lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and
+burnt alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a
+vase, this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in
+the pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all
+corpses were burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found
+great numbers. The bones were always burnt to ashes.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872._ In stopping the excavations for
+this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
+exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
+thank God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but
+that none of us has been seriously hurt.
+
+As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
+solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
+discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
+soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
+called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site
+of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by
+the whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only
+corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also
+with all the traditions handed down to us by later authorities.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. _During this last week, with splendid
+weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a good
+piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
+Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have
+laid bare the tower in several places.
+
+The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
+the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
+beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote
+antiquity lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently
+have described them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.
+
+_Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873._ Although the Pergamus, whose depths I
+have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by the
+Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
+ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests
+on one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle
+on mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
+probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on _Ilios anemoessa_.
+
+My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
+have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
+street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture
+to assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Scaean Gate. It
+is in an excellent state of preservation.
+
+Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
+sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
+company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus
+the Trojan and Achaean armies face to face about to settle their
+agreement to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
+Menelaus.
+
+I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
+to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that
+its site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth
+century. But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being
+obliged to give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be
+able to make it a thousand times larger, but I value truth above
+everything, and I rejoice that my three years' excavations have laid
+open the Homeric Troy, even though on a diminished scale, and that I
+have proved the Iliad based upon real facts.
+
+Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
+he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
+events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long
+doubted the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a
+mere invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised
+world will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown
+itself to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected
+from the statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will
+accept with delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really
+exist, that a large portion of it has now been brought to light, and
+that Homer, even though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events
+that actually happened.
+
+Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
+Poseidon and Apollo, the Scaean Gate of the palace of King Priam, for all
+these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
+made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments
+only from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was
+then still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in
+the mouth of all minstrels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JULIUS CAESAR
+
+
+Commentaries on the Gallic War
+
+
+     Caius Julius Caesar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of a noble
+     Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot
+     with the democratic section against the republican oligarchy.
+     Marrying Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief
+     opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla, he incurred the
+     implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit Rome.
+     For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome
+     after Sulla's death, Caesar attached himself to the illustrious
+     Pompey, whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he
+     obtained a quaestorship in Spain, and on returning next year
+     reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and
+     Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the First
+     Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
+     Caesar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant
+     success excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of
+     Pompey. Civil war broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of
+     Pompey, who was defeated in the fateful battle of Pharsalia,
+     and was afterwards murdered in Egypt. Julius Caesar now
+     possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on games and
+     public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt,
+     Pontus, and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But
+     the jealousy of many of the aristocrats led to the formation
+     of a plot, and on March 15, 44 B.C., Caesar was assassinated in
+     the Senate House. This summary relates to the commentaries
+     known to be by Caesar himself, certain other books having been
+     added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed that he
+     writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul_
+
+
+Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit; the
+Aquitani another; those who in their own language are called Celts, in
+ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language,
+customs, and laws. Among the Gauls the Helvetii surpass the rest in
+valour, as they constantly contend in battle with the Germans. When
+Messala and Piso were consuls, Orgetorix, the most distinguished of the
+Helvetii, formed a conspiracy among the nobility, persuading them that,
+since they excelled all in valour, it would be very easy to acquire the
+supremacy of the whole of Gaul. They made great preparations for the
+expedition, but suddenly Orgetorix died, nor was suspicion lacking that
+he committed suicide.
+
+After his death, the Helvetii nevertheless attempted the exodus from
+their territories. When it was reported to Caesar that they were
+attempting to make their route through our province, he gathered as
+great a force as possible, and by forced marches arrived at Geneva.
+
+The Helvetii now sent ambassadors to Caesar, requesting permission to
+pass through the province, which he refused, inasmuch as he remembered
+that Lucius Cassius, the consul, had been slain and his army routed, and
+made to pass under the yoke by the Helvetii. Disappointed in their hope,
+the Helvetii attempted to force a passage across the Rhone, but, being
+resisted by the soldier, desisted.
+
+After the war with the Helvetii was concluded, ambassadors from almost
+all parts of Gaul assembled to congratulate Caesar, and to declare that
+his victory had happened no less to the benefit of the land of Gaul than
+of the Roman people, because the Helvetii had quitted their country with
+the design of subduing the whole of Gaul.
+
+When the assembly was dismissed, the chiefs' of the AEdui and of the
+Sequani waited upon Caesar to complain that Ariovistus, the king of the
+Germans, had seized a third of their land, which was the best in Gaul,
+and was now ordering them to depart from another third part.
+
+To ambassadors sent by Caesar, demanding an appointment of some spot for
+a conference, Ariovistus gave an insolent reply, which was repeated on a
+second overture. Hearing that the king of the Germans was threatening to
+seize Vesontio, the capital of the Sequani, Caesar, by a forced march,
+arrived there and took possession of the city. Apprised of this event,
+Ariovistus changed his attitude, and sent messengers intimating that he
+agreed to meet Caesar, as they were now nearer to each other, and could
+meet without danger.
+
+The conference took place, but it led to no successful result, for
+Ariovistus demanded that the Romans should withdraw from Gaul and his
+conduct became afterwards so hostile that it led to war. A battle took
+place about fifty miles from the Rhine. The Germans were routed and fled
+to the river, across which many escaped, the rest being slain in
+pursuit. Caesar, having concluded two very important wars in one
+campaign, conducted his army into winter quarters.
+
+
+_II.--Taming the Rebellious Belgae_
+
+
+While Caesar was in winter quarters in Hither Gaul frequent reports were
+brought to him that all the Belgae were entering into a confederacy
+against the Roman people, because they feared that, after all Celtic
+Gaul was subdued, our army would be led against them. Caesar, alarmed,
+levied two new legions in Hither Gaul, and proceeded to the territory of
+the Belgae. As he arrived there unexpectedly, and sooner than anyone
+anticipated, the Remi, who are the nearest of the Belgae to Celtic Gaul,
+sent messages of submission and gave Caesar full information about the
+other Belgae.
+
+Caesar next learned that the Nervii, a savage and very brave people,
+whose territories bordered those just conquered, had upbraided the rest
+of the Belgae who had surrendered themselves to the Roman people, and had
+declared that they themselves would neither send ambassadors nor accept
+any condition of peace. He was informed concerning them that they
+allowed no access of any merchants, and that they suffered no wine and
+other things tending to luxury to be imported, because they thought that
+by their use the mind is enervated and the courage impaired.
+
+After he had made three days' march into their territory, Caesar
+discovered that all the Nervii had stationed themselves on the other
+side of the River Sambre, not more than ten miles from his camp, and
+that they had persuaded the Atrebates and the Veromandui to join with
+them, and that likewise the Aduatuci were expected by them, and were on
+the march. The Roman army proceeded to encamp in front of the river, on
+a site sloping towards it. Here they were fiercely attacked by the
+Nervii, the assault being so sudden that Caesar had to do all things at
+one time. The standard as the sign to run to arms had to be displayed,
+the soldiers were to be called from the works on the rampart, the order
+of battle was to be formed, and a great part of these arrangements was
+prevented by the shortness of time and the sudden charge of the enemy.
+
+Time was lacking even for putting on helmets and uncovering shields. In
+such an unfavorable state of affairs, various events of fortune
+followed. The soldiers of the ninth and tenth legions speedily drove
+back the Atrebates, who were breathless with running and fatigue. Many
+of them were slain. In like manner the Veromandui were routed by the
+eighth and eleventh legions; but as part of the camp was very exposed,
+the Nervii hastened in a very close body, under Boduagnatus, their
+leader, to rush against that quarter. Our horsemen and light-armed
+infantry were by the first assault routed, and the enemy, rushing into
+our camp in great numbers, pressed hard on the legions. But Caesar,
+seizing a shield and encouraging the soldiers, many of whose centurions
+had been slain, ordering them to extend their companies that they might
+more freely use their swords.
+
+So great a change was soon effected that, though the enemy displayed
+great courage, the battle was ended so disastrously for them that the
+Nervii were almost annihilated. Scarcely five hundred were left who
+could bear arms. Their old men sent ambassadors to Caesar by the consent
+of all who remained, surrendering themselves. The Aduatuci, before
+mentioned, who were coming to the help of the Nervii, returned home when
+they heard of this battle.
+
+All Gaul being now subdued, so high an opinion of this war was spread
+among the barbarians that ambassadors were sent to Caesar by those
+nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine, to promise that they would give
+hostages and execute his commands. He ordered these embassies to return
+to him at the beginning of the following summer, because he was
+hastening into Italy and Illyricum. Having led his legions into winter
+quarters among the Carnutes, the Andes, and the Turones, which states
+were close to those in which he had waged war, he set out for Italy, and
+a public thanksgiving of fifteen days was decreed for these
+achievements, an honour which before that time had been conferred on
+none.
+
+
+_III.--War by Land and Sea in Gaul_
+
+
+When Caesar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with the
+twelfth legion and part of the cavalry against the Nantuates, the
+Veragri, and the Seduni, who extend from the territories of the
+Allobroges and the Lake of Geneva and the River Rhone to the top of the
+Alps. The reason for sending him was that he desired that the pass along
+the Alps, through which the Roman merchants had been accustomed to
+travel with great danger, should be opened.
+
+Galba fought several successful battles, stormed some of their forts,
+and concluded a peace. He then determined to winter in a village of the
+Veragri, which is called Octodurus. But before the winter camp could be
+completed the tops of the mountains were seen to be crowded with armed
+men, and soon these rushed down from all parts and discharged stones and
+darts on the ramparts.
+
+The fierce battle that followed lasted for more than six hours. During
+the fight more than a third part of the army of 30,000 men of the Seduni
+and the Veragri were slain, and the rest were put to flight,
+panic-stricken. Then Galba, unwilling to tempt fortune again, after
+having burned all the buildings in that village, hastened to return into
+the province, urged chiefly by the want of corn and provision. As no
+enemy opposed his march, he brought his forces safely into the country
+of the Allobroges, and there wintered.
+
+These things being achieved, Caesar, who was visiting Illyricum to gain a
+knowledge of that country, had every reason to suppose that Gaul was
+reduced to a state of tranquillity. For the Belgae had been overcome, the
+Germans had been expelled, and the Seduni and the Veragri among the Alps
+defeated. But a sudden war sprang up in Gaul.
+
+The occasion of that war was this. P. Crassus, a young man, had taken up
+his winter quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border
+on the Atlantic Ocean. As corn was scarce, he sent out officers among
+the neighbouring states for the purpose of procuring supplies. The most
+considerable of these states was the Veneti, who have a very great
+number of ships with which they have been accustomed to sail into
+Britain, and thus they excel the rest of the states in nautical affairs.
+With them arose the beginning of the revolt.
+
+The Veneti detained Silius and Velanius, who had been sent among them,
+for they thought they should recover by their means the hostages which
+they had given Crassus. The neighbouring people, the Essui and the
+Curiosolitae, led on by the influence of the Veneti (as the measures of
+the Gauls are sudden and hasty) detained other officers for the same
+motive. All the sea-coast being quickly brought over to the sentiments
+of these states, they sent a common embassy to P. Crassus to say "If he
+wished to receive back his officers, let him send back to them their
+hostages."
+
+Caesar, being informed of these things, since he was himself so far
+distant, ordered ships of war to be built on the River Loire; rowers to
+be raised from the province; sailors and pilots to be provided. These
+matters being quickly executed, he hastened to the army as soon as the
+season of the year admitted.
+
+Caesar at once ordered his army, divided into several detachments, to
+attack the towns of the enemy in different districts. Many were stormed,
+yet much of the warfare was vain and much labour was lost, because the
+Veneti, having numerous ships specially adapted for such a purpose,
+their keels being flatter than those of our ships, could easily navigate
+the shallows and estuaries, and thus their flight hither and thither
+could not be prevented.
+
+At length, in a naval fight, our fleet, being fully assembled, gained a
+victory so signal that, by that one battle, the war with the Veneti and
+the whole sea-coast was finished. Caesar thought that severe punishment
+should be inflicted, in order that for the future the rights of
+ambassadors should be respected by barbarians; he therefore put to death
+all their senate, and sold the rest for slaves.
+
+About the same time P. Crassus arrived in Aquitania, which, as was
+already said, is, both from its extent and its number of population, a
+third part of Gaul. Here, a few years before, L. Valerius Praeconius, the
+lieutenant, had been killed and his army routed, so that Crassus
+understood no ordinary care must be used. On his arrival being known,
+the Sotiates assembled great forces, and the battle that followed was
+long and vigorously contested. The Sotiates being routed, they retired
+to their principal stronghold, but it was stormed, and they submitted.
+Crassus then marched into the territories of the Vocates and the
+Tarusites, who raised a great host of men to carry on the war, but
+suffered total defeat, after which the greater part of Aquitania of its
+own accord surrendered to the Romans, sending hostages of their own
+accord from different tribes. A few only--and those remote
+nations--relying on the time of year, neglected to do this.
+
+
+_IV.--The First Landing in Britain_
+
+
+The following winter, this being the year in which Cn. Pompey and M.
+Crassus were consuls [this was the year 699 after the building of Rome,
+55 before Christ; it was the fourth year of the Gallic war] the Germans,
+called the Usipetes, and likewise the Tenchtheri, with a great number of
+men, crossed the Rhine, not far from the place at which that river falls
+into the sea. The motive was to escape from the Suevi, the largest and
+strongest nation in Germany, by whom they had been for several years
+harassed and hindered from agricultural pursuits.
+
+The Suevi are said to possess a hundred cantons, from each of which they
+send forth for war a thousand armed men yearly, the others remaining at
+home, and going forth in their turn in other years.
+
+Caesar, hearing that various messages had been sent to them by the Gauls
+(whose fickle disposition he knew) asking them to come forward from the
+Rhine, and promising them all that they needed, set forward for the army
+earlier in the year than usual. When he had arrived in the region, he
+discovered that those things which he had suspected would occur, had
+taken place, and that, allured by the hopes held out to them, the
+Germans were then making excursions to greater distances, and had
+advanced to the territories of the Euburones and the Condrusi, who are
+under the protection of the Treviri. After summoning the chiefs of Gaul,
+Caesar thought proper to pretend ignorance of the things which he had
+discovered, and, having conciliated and confirmed their minds, and
+ordered some cavalry to be raised, resolved to make war against the
+Germans.
+
+When he had advanced some distance, the Germans sent ambassadors,
+begging him not to advance further, as they had come hither reluctantly,
+having been expelled from their country. But Caesar, knowing that they
+wished for delay only to make further secret preparations, refused the
+overtures. Marshalling his army in three lines, and marching eight
+miles, he took them by surprise, and the Romans rushed their camp. Many
+of the enemy were slain, the rest being either scattered or drowned in
+attempting to escape by crossing the Meuse in the flight.
+
+The conflict with the Germans being finished, Caesar thought it expedient
+to cross the Rhine. Since the Germans were so easily urged to go into
+Gaul, he desired they should have fears for their own territories.
+Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty of constructing a bridge,
+owing to the breadth, rapidity, and depth of the river, he devised and
+built one of timber and of great strength, piles being first driven in
+on which to erect it.
+
+The army was led over into Germany, advanced some distance, and burnt
+some villages of the hostile Sigambri, who had concealed themselves in
+the woods after conveying away all their possessions. Then Caesar, having
+done enough to strike fear into the Germans and to serve both honour and
+interest, after a stay of eighteen days across the Rhine, returned into
+Gaul and cut down the bridge.
+
+During the short part of the summer which remained he resolved to
+proceed into Britain, because succours had been constantly furnished to
+the Gauls from that country. He thought it expedient, if he only entered
+the island, to see into the character of the people, and to gain
+knowledge of their localities, harbours, and landing-places. Having
+collected about eighty transport ships, he set sail with two legions in
+fair weather, and the soldiers were attacked instantly on landing by the
+cavalry and charioteers of the barbarians. The enemy were vanquished,
+but could not be pursued, because the Roman horse had not been able to
+maintain their course at sea and to reach the island. This alone was
+wanting to Caesar's accustomed success.
+
+
+_V.--Caesar on the Thames_
+
+
+During the winter Caesar commanded as many ships as possible to be
+constructed, and the old repaired. About six hundred transports and
+twenty ships of war were built, and, after settling some disputes in
+Gaul among the chiefs, Caesar went to Port Itius with the legions. He
+took with him several of the leading chiefs of the Gauls, determined to
+retain them as hostages and to keep them with him during his next
+expedition to Britain, lest a commotion should arise in Gaul during his
+absence.
+
+Caesar, having crossed to the shore of Britain and disembarked his army
+at a convenient spot advanced about twelve miles and repelled all
+attacks of the cavalry and charioteers of the enemy. Then he led his
+forces into the territories of Cassivellaunus to the River Thames, which
+river can be forded in one place only. Here an engagement took place
+which resulted in the flight of the Britons. But Cassivellaunus had sent
+messengers to the four kings who reigned over Kent and the districts by
+the sea, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximaquilus, and Segonax, commanding
+them to collect all their forces and assail the naval camp.
+
+In the battle which ensued the Romans were victorious, and when
+Cassivellaunus heard of this disaster he sent ambassadors to Caesar to
+treat about a surrender. Caesar, since he had resolved to pass the winter
+on the continent, on account of sudden revolts in Gaul, demanded
+hostages and prescribed what tribute Britain should pay each year to the
+Roman people.
+
+Caesar, expecting for many reasons greater commotion in Gaul, levied
+additional forces. He saw that war was being prepared on all sides, that
+the Nervii, Aduatuci, and Menapii, with the addition of all the Germans
+on this side of the Rhine, were under arms; that the Senones did not
+assemble according to his command, and were concerting measures with
+Carnutes and the neighbouring states; and that the Germans were
+importuned by the Treviri in frequent embassies. Therefore he thought
+that he ought to take prompt measures for the war.
+
+Accordingly, before the winter was ended, he marched with four legions
+unexpectedly into the territories of the Nervii, captured many men and
+much cattle, wasted their lands, and forced them to surrender and give
+hostages. He followed up his success by worsting the Senones, Carnutes,
+and Menapii, while Labienus defeated the Treviri.
+
+Gaul being tranquil, Caesar, as he had determined, set out for Italy to
+hold the provincial assizes. There he was informed of the decree of the
+senate that all the youth of Italy should take the military oath, and he
+determined to hold a levy throughout the entire province. The Gauls,
+animated by the opportunity afforded through his absence, and indignant
+that they were reduced beneath the dominion of Rome, began to organise
+their plans for war openly.
+
+Many of the nations confederated and selected as their commander
+Vercingetorix, a young Avernian. On hearing what had happened, Caesar set
+out from Italy for Transalpine Gaul, and began the campaign by marching
+into the country of the Helvii, although it was the severest time of the
+year, and the country was covered with deep snow.
+
+The armies met, and Vercingetorix sustained a series of losses at
+Vellaunodunum, Genabum, and Noviodunum. The Gauls then threw a strong
+garrison into Avaricum, which Caesar besieged, and at length Caesar's
+soldiers took it by storm. All the Gauls, with few exceptions, joined in
+the revolt; and the united forces, under Vercingetorix, attacked the
+Roman army while it was marching into the country of the Sequani, but
+they suffered complete defeat. After struggling vainly to continue the
+war, Vercingetorix surrendered, and the Gallic chieftains laid down
+their arms. Caesar demanded a great number of hostages, sent his
+lieutenants with various legions to different stations in Gaul, and
+determined himself to winter at Bibracte. A supplication of twenty days
+was decreed at Rome by the senate on hearing of these successes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+TACITUS
+
+
+Annals
+
+
+     Publius Cornelius Tacitus was born perhaps at Rome, shortly
+     before the accession of the Emperor Nero in 54 A.D. He married
+     the daughter of Agricola, famous in the history of Britain,
+     and died probably about the time of Hadrian's accession to the
+     empire, 117 A.D. He attained distinction as a pleader at the
+     bar, and in public life; but his fame rests on his historical
+     works. A man of strong prepossessions and prejudices, he
+     allowed them to colour his narratives, and particularly his
+     portraits; but he cannot be charged with dishonesty. The
+     portraits themselves are singularly powerful; his narrative is
+     picturesque, vivid, dramatic; but the condensed character of
+     his style and the pregnancy of his phrases make his work
+     occasionally obscure, and particularly difficult to render in
+     translation. His "Germania" is a most valuable record of the
+     early institutions of the Teutonic peoples. His "Histories" of
+     the empire from Galba to Domitian are valuable as dealing with
+     events of which he was an eye-witness. His "Annals," covering
+     practically the reigns from Tiberius to Nero, open only some
+     forty years before his own birth. Of the original sixteen
+     books, four are lost, and four are incomplete. The following
+     epitome has been specially prepared from the Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--Emperor and Nephew_
+
+
+Tiberius, adopted son and actual stepson of Augustus, was summoned from
+Illyria by his mother Livia to the bedside of the dying emperor at Nola.
+Augustus left a granddaughter, Agrippina, who was married to Germanicus,
+the nephew of Tiberius; and a grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of
+evil reputation. The succession of Tiberius was not in doubt; but his
+first act was to have Agrippa Postumus put to death--according to his
+own statement, by the order of Augustus. At Rome, consuls, senators, and
+knights hurried to embrace their servitude. The nobler the name that
+each man bore, the more zealous was he in his hypocrisy. The grave
+pretence of Tiberius that he laid no claim to imperial honours was met
+by the grave pretence that the needs of the state forbade his refusal of
+them, however reluctant he might be. His mother, Livia Augusta, was the
+object of a like sycophancy. But the world was not deceived by the
+solemn farce.
+
+The death of Augustus, however, was the signal for mutinous outbreaks
+among the legions on the European frontiers of the empire; first in
+Pannonia, then in Germany. In Pannonia, the ostensible motive was
+jealousy of the higher pay and easier terms of service of the Praetorian
+guard. So violent were the men, and so completely did the officers lose
+control, that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was sent to make terms with
+the mutineers, and only owed his success to the reaction caused by the
+superstitious alarm of the soldiery at an eclipse of the moon.
+Germanicus, who was in command in Germany, was absent in Gaul. Here the
+mutiny of the Lower Army, under Caecina, was very serious, because it was
+clearly organised, the men working systematically and not haphazard.
+
+News of the outbreak brought their popular general, Germanicus, to the
+spot. The mutineers at once offered to make him emperor, a proposal
+which he indignantly repudiated. The position, in a hostile country,
+made some concession necessary; but fresh disturbances broke out when it
+was suspected that the arrival of a commission from the senate meant
+that the concessions would be cancelled. Here the reaction which broke
+down the mutiny was caused by the shame of the soldiers themselves, when
+Germanicus sent his wife and child away from a camp where their lives
+were in danger. Of their own accord, the best of the soldiers turned on
+their former ringleaders, and slew them. And the legions under Caecina
+took similar steps to recover their lost credit. Germanicus, however,
+saw that the true remedy for the disaffection would be found in an
+active campaign. The desired effect was attained by an expedition
+against the Marsi, conducted with a success which Tiberius, at Rome,
+regarded with mixed feelings.
+
+The German tribe named the Cherusci favoured Arminius, the determined
+enemy of Rome, in preference to Segestes, who was conspicuous for
+"loyalty" to Rome. Germanicus advanced to support the latter, and
+Arminius was enraged by the news that his wife, the daughter of
+Segestes, was a prisoner. His call to arms, his declamations in the name
+of liberty, roused the Cherusci, the people who had annihilated the
+legions of Varus a few years before. A column commanded by Caecina was
+enticed by Arminius into a swampy position, where it was in extreme
+danger, and a severe engagement took place. The scheme of Arminius was
+to attack the Romans on the march; fortunately, the rasher counsels of
+his uncle, Inguiomerus, prevailed; an attempt was made to storm the
+camp, and the Romans were thus enabled to inflict a decisive defeat on
+the foe.
+
+It was at this time that the disastrous practice was instituted of
+informers bringing charges of treason against prominent citizens on
+grounds which Tiberius himself condemned as frivolous. The emperor began
+to make a practice of attending trials, which indeed prevented corrupt
+awards, but ruined freedom.
+
+Now arose disturbances in the east. The Parthians expelled their king,
+Vonones, a former favourite of Augustus. Armenia became involved, and
+these things were the source of serious complications later. Tiberius
+was already meditating the transfer of Germanicus to these regions. That
+general, however, was planning a fresh German campaign from the North
+Sea coast. A great fleet carried the army to the mouth of the Ems;
+thence Germanicus marched to the Weser and crossed it. Germanicus was
+gratified to find that his troops were eager for the impending fray. A
+tremendous defeat was inflicted on the Cherusci, with little loss to the
+Romans. Arminius, who had headed a charge which all but broke the Roman
+line, escaped only with the utmost difficulty.
+
+Nevertheless, the Germans rallied their forces, and a second furious
+engagement took place, in which the foe fought again with desperate
+valour, and were routed mainly through the superiority of the Roman
+armour and discipline. The triumph was marred only by a disaster which
+befel the legions which were withdrawn by sea. A terrific storm wrecked
+almost the entire fleet, and it was with great difficulty that the few
+survivors were rescued. The consequent revival of German hopes made it
+necessary for two large armies to advance against the Marsi and the
+Catti respectively, complete success again attending the Roman arms.
+
+Jealousy of his nephew's popularity and success now caused Tiberius to
+insist on his recall. At this time informers charged with treason a
+young man of distinguished family, Libo Drusus, mainly on the ground of
+his foolish consultation of astrologers, with the result that Drusus
+committed suicide. This story will serve as one among many which
+exemplify the prevalent demoralisation. In the same year occurred the
+audacious insurrection of a slave who impersonated the dead Agrippa
+Postumus; and also the deposition of the king of Cappadocia, whose
+kingdom was annexed as a province of the empire.
+
+A contest took place between the Suevi and the Cherusci, in which Rome
+declined to intervene. Maroboduus, of the Suevi, was disliked because he
+took the title of king, which was alien to the German ideas, being in
+this respect contrasted with Arminius. The Cherusci had the better of
+the encounter.
+
+
+_II.--The Development of Despotism_
+
+
+Germanicus on his recall was in danger, while in Rome, of being made the
+head of a faction in antagonism to Drusus, the son of Tiberius. He was
+dispatched, however, with extraordinary powers, to take control of the
+East, where Piso, the governor of Syria, believed that he held his own
+appointment precisely that he might be a thorn in the side of
+Germanicus. The latter made a progress through Greece, settled affairs
+in Armenia and Parthia, and continued his journey to Egypt.
+
+Piso's machinations, encouraged by the reports which reached him of the
+emperor's displeasure at the conduct of Germanicus, caused the gravest
+friction. Finally, on the return from Egypt through Syria, Germanicus
+became desperately ill. He declared his own belief that Piso and his
+wife had poisoned him; and, on his death, the rumour met general
+credence, though it was unsupported by evidence. Agrippina returned to
+Rome, bent on vengeance, and the object of universal sympathy. Piso
+attempted to make himself master of Syria, but failed to win over the
+legions, and then resolved to return to Rome and defy his accusers.
+
+About this time Arminius was killed in attempting to make himself king.
+Shortly before, Tiberius had rejected with becoming dignity a rival
+chief's offer to poison the national hero of German independence.
+
+On the arrival in Italy of Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, the
+popular and official expressions of grief and sympathy were almost
+unprecedented. This public display was not at all encouraged by Tiberius
+himself. Drusus was instructed to emphasize the fact that Piso must not
+be held either guilty or innocent, till the case had been sifted.
+Tiberius insisted that not he, but the senate, must be the judge; the
+case must be decided on its merits, not out of consideration for his own
+outraged feelings. Piso was charged with having corrupted the soldiery,
+levied war on the province of Syria, and poisoned Germanicus. All except
+the last charge were proved up to the hilt; for that alone there was no
+evidence. Piso, however, despaired, fearing less the ebullitions of
+popular wrath than the emotionless implacability of the emperor. He was
+found dead in his room; but whether by his own act or that of Tiberius,
+was generally doubted. The penalties imposed on his wife and son were
+mitigated by the emperor himself.
+
+A number of notorious scandals at this period emphasise the degradation
+of morals and the disregard for the sanctity of the marriage tie in a
+society where children were regarded as a burden, in spite of official
+encouragement of the birth-rate. There was an instructive debate on a
+proposal that magistrates appointed to provinces should not take their
+wives with them.
+
+Risings in Gaul of the Treveri and Aedui created much alarm in Rome; the
+composure of Tiberius was justified by their decisive suppression.
+
+In Africa, Blaems successfully suppressed, though he did not finally
+curb, the brigand chief Tacfarinas, who had been building up a nomad
+empire of his own. It was under Dolabella, the successor of Blaems, that
+Tacfarinas was completely overthrown and slain.
+
+Hitherto the rule of Tiberius had been, on the whole, prosperous. But
+the ninth year marks the establishment of the ascendancy of AElius
+Sejanus over the mind of the emperor, whereby his sway was transformed
+into a foul tyranny. Not of noble birth, Sejanus had neglected no means,
+however base, to secure his own favour with Tiberius and with the
+Praetorian Guard, of which he held the command. He was now determined to
+get rid of Drusus, the son of Tiberius, as the most dangerous obstacle
+to his ambitions. He accomplished his purpose by administering a poison,
+of which the operation was unsuspected till the facts were revealed many
+years later by an accomplice. Then the young sons of Germanicus became
+the accepted representatives of the imperial line, for the infant sons
+of Drusus died very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, Sejanus now
+directed his attacks against the more powerful persons who might be
+regarded as partisans of the house of Germanicus.
+
+Despite the multiplications of prosecutions, it is to be noted that it
+was still possible for a shrewd and tactful person, as exemplified by
+the career of Marcus Lepidus, to uphold the principles of justice and
+liberty without losing the favour of the emperor. Among other
+prosecutions, that of Cremutius, whose crime was that of praising the
+memory of Brutus and Cassius, demands attention, as the first of the
+kind.
+
+The ambitions of Sejanus received a check when he had the presumption to
+request Tiberius to grant him the hand of the widow of Drusus in
+marriage. In order the more surely to bring disgrace on the house of
+Germanicus, he now implanted in the mind of Agrippina a conviction that
+Tiberius intended to poison her. That such suspicions were mere
+commonplaces of that terrible time is well illustrated by the story.
+Incapable of hiding her feelings, the persistent gloom of her face and
+voice, and her refusal of proffered dishes as she sat near Tiberius at
+dinner, attracted his attention; to test her, he personally commended
+and pressed on her some apples; this only intensified her suspicions,
+and she gave them to the attendants untasted. Tiberius made no open
+comment, but observed to his mother that it would hardly be surprising
+should he contemplate harsh measures towards one who obviously took him
+for a poisoner.
+
+
+_III.--Morbid Tyrant and Dotard_
+
+
+It was at this time that Tiberius withdrew himself from the capital, and
+took up his residence at a country seat where hardly anyone had access
+to him except Sejanus; whether at the favourite's suggestion or not is
+uncertain. The retreat finally selected was the island of Caprae.
+
+The monstrous lengths to which men of the highest rank were now prepared
+to go to curry favour with Tiberius and Sejanus was exemplified in the
+ruin of Sabinus, a loyal friend of the house of Germanicus. The
+unfortunate man was tricked into speaking bitterly of Sejanus and
+Tiberius. Three senators were actually hidden above the ceiling of the
+room where he was entrapped into uttering unguarded phrases, and on this
+evidence he was condemned.
+
+The death of the aged Livia Augusta removed the last check on the
+influence of Sejanus.
+
+[The account of his two years of unqualified supremacy, and of his
+sudden and utter overthrow has been lost, two books of the "Annals"
+being missing here.]
+
+From this time, the life of Tiberius at Caprae was one of morbid and
+nameless debauchery. The condition of his mind may be inferred from the
+opening words of one of his letters to the senate. "If I know what to
+write, how to write it, what not to write, may the gods and goddesses
+destroy me with a worse misery than the death I feel myself dying
+daily." The end came when Macro, the prefect of the Praetorians, who, to
+save his own life and secure the succession of Gaius Caesar Caligula, the
+surviving son of Germanicus, caused the old emperor to be smothered.
+
+[The record of the next ten years--the reign of Caligula, and the first
+years of Claudius--is lost. When the story is taken up again, the wife
+of Claudius, the infamous Messalina, was at the zenith of her evil
+career.]
+
+While the doting pedant Claudius was adding new letters to the alphabet,
+Messalina was parading with utter shamelessness her last and fatal
+passion for Silius, and went so far as publicly to marry her paramour.
+It was the freedman Narcissus who made the outrageous truth known to
+Claudius, and practically terrorised him into striking. Half measures
+were impossible; a swarm of Messalina's accomplices in vice were put to
+death. To her, Claudius showed signs of relenting; but Narcissus gave
+the orders for her death without his knowledge. When they told Claudius
+that she was dead, he displayed no emotion, but went on with his dinner,
+and apparently forgot the whole matter.
+
+A new wife had to be provided; Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,
+niece of Claudius himself, and mother of the boy Domitius, who was to
+become the emperor Nero, was the choice of the freedman Pallas, and
+proved the successful candidate. Shortly after, her new husband adopted
+Nero formally as his son. It was not long before she had assumed an air
+of equality with her husband; and all men saw that she intended him to
+be succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.
+
+Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
+propraetor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
+then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most
+brilliant of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage,
+however, were of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman
+legions; his forces were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the
+Brigantes, was by them betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was
+carried to Rome, where by his dignified demeanour he won pardon and
+liberty. In the Far East, Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew
+Rhadamistus, and Parthia and Armenia remained in wild confusion. The
+reign of Claudius was brought to an end by poison--the notorious Locusta
+was employed by Agrippina for the purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero,
+to whom his mother's artifices gave the priority over Britannicus.
+
+
+_IV.--The Infamies of Nero_
+
+
+At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
+first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was
+full of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a
+freed-woman, by way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother,
+Agrippina. The latter, enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened
+her son with the legitimate claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero
+had the boy poisoned. In terror now of his mother, he would have
+murdered her, but was checked by Burrus. Nero's private excesses and
+debaucheries developed, while the horrible system of delation
+flourished, and prosecutions for treason abounded.
+
+About this time the emperor's passion for Poppaea Sabina, the wife of
+Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
+immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's
+boon companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Poppaea remained at
+Rome. Poppaea was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged Nero
+against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
+the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress.
+The plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero,
+however, with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched
+assassins to carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.
+
+For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
+the cringing congratulations of Roman society, to which Thrasea Paetus
+was alone in refusing to be a party. The emperor forthwith began to
+plunge into the wild extravagances on which his mother's life had been
+some check. He took cover for his passion for chariot-driving and
+singing by inducing men of noble birth to exhibit themselves in the
+arena; high-born ladies acted in disreputable plays; the emperor himself
+posed as a mime, and pretended to be a patron of poetry and philosophy.
+The wildest licence prevailed, and there were those who ventured even to
+defend it.
+
+About this time the Roman governor in Britain, Suetonius, crossed the
+Menai Strait and conquered the island of Anglesea. But outrages
+committed against Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, stirred that tribe to
+fierce revolt. Being joined by the Trinobantes, they fell upon the
+Romans at Camulodunum and massacred them. Suetonius, returning hastily
+from the west, found the Roman population in panic. The troops, however,
+inspired by the general's resolution, won a decisive victory, in which
+it is said that no fewer than 80,000 Britons, men and women, were
+slaughtered.
+
+Not long after, Burrus died--in common belief, if not in actual fact, of
+poison; and Seneca found himself driven into retirement, while
+Tigellinus became Nero's favourite and confidant. Nero then capped his
+matricide by suborning the same scoundrel who had murdered Agrippina to
+bring foul and false charges against his innocent wife, Octavia; who was
+thus done to death when not yet twenty, that her husband might be free
+to marry Poppaea. As a matter of course, the crime was duly celebrated by
+a public thanksgiving.
+
+The dispatch of an incompetent general into Asia resulted in a most
+inglorious Parthian campaign. Nero, however, was more interested first
+in extravagant rejoicings at the birth of a daughter to Poppaea, and then
+in equally extravagant mourning over the infant's death. It was well
+that Corbulo, marching from Syria, restored the Roman prestige in the
+Far East.
+
+These events were followed by the famous fire which devastated Rome;
+whether or no it was actually Nero's own work, rumour declared that he
+appeared on a private stage while the conflagration was raging, and
+chanted appropriately of the fall of Troy. He planned rebuilding on a
+magnificent scale, and sought popularity by throwing the blame of the
+fire--and putting to the most exquisite tortures--a class hated for
+their abominations, called Christians, from their first leader,
+Christus, who had suffered the extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate,
+procurator of Judaea, in the reign of Tiberius.
+
+A very widespread conspiracy was now formed against Nero, in favour of
+one Gaius Calpurnius Piso; Faenius Rufus, an officer of the Praetorians,
+who had been subordinated to Tigellinus, being one of the leaders. The
+plot, however, was betrayed by a freedman of one of the conspirators.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SALLUST
+
+
+The Conspiracy of Catiline
+
+
+     The Roman historian Caius Crispus Sallust, who was born at
+     Amiternum in 86 B.C., and died in 34 B.C., lived throughout
+     the active career of Julius Caesar, and died while Anthony and
+     Octavian were still rivals for the supreme power. It might be
+     supposed from his works that he was a person of eminent
+     virtue, but this was merely a literary pose. He was probably
+     driven into private life, in the first place, on account of
+     the scandals with which he was associated. He became a
+     partisan of Caesar in the struggle with Pompey, and to this he
+     owed the pro-consulship of Numidia, on the proceeds of which
+     he retired into leisured ease. Sallust aspired with very
+     limited success to assume the mantle of Thucydides, and the
+     role of a philosophic historian. He displays considerable
+     political acumen on occasion, but his assumption of stern
+     impartiality is hardly less a pose than his pretense of
+     elevated morality. His "Conspiracy of Catiline"--the first of
+     his historical essays--was probably written, in part at least,
+     with the object of dissociating Caesar from it; the lurid
+     colors in which he paints the conspirator are probably
+     exaggerated. But whether true or false, the picture presented
+     is a vivid one. This epitome is adapted specially from the
+     Latin text.
+
+
+_I.--The Plotting_
+
+
+I esteem the intellectual above the physical qualities of man; and the
+task of the historian has attracted me because it taxes the writer's
+abilities to the utmost Personal ambition had at first drawn me into
+public life, but the political atmosphere, full of degradation and
+corruption, was so uncongenial that I resolved to retire and devote
+myself to the production of a series of historical studies, for which I
+felt myself to be the better fitted by my freedom from the influences
+which bias the political partisan. For the first of these studies I have
+selected the conspiracy of Catiline.
+
+Lucius Catilina [commonly called Catiline] was of high birth, richly
+endowed both in mind and body, but of extreme depravity; with
+extraordinary powers of endurance, reckless, crafty, and versatile, a
+master in the arts of deception, at once grasping and lavish, unbridled
+in his passions, ready of speech, but with little true insight Of
+insatiable and inordinate ambitions, he was possessed, after Sulla's
+supremacy, with a craving to grasp the control of the state, utterly
+careless of the means, so the end were attained. Naturally headstrong,
+he was urged forward by his want of money, the consciousness of his
+crimes, and the degradation of morals in a society where luxury and
+greed ruled side by side.
+
+The wildest, the most reckless, the most prodigal, the most criminal,
+were readily drawn into the circle of Catiline's associates; in such a
+circle those who were not already utterly depraved very soon became so
+under the sinister and seductive influence of their leader. This man,
+who in the pursuit of his own vices had done his own son to death, did
+not hesitate to encourage his pupils in every species of crime; and with
+such allies, and the aid of the disbanded Sullan soldiery swarming in
+Italy, he dreamed of subverting the Roman state while her armies, under
+Gnaeus Pompeius, were far away.
+
+The first step was to secure his own election as consul. One plot of his
+had already failed, because Catiline himself had attempted to move
+prematurely; but the conspirators remained scatheless. Those who were
+now with Catiline included members of the oldest families and of
+equestrian rank. Crassus himself was suspected of complicity, owing to
+his rivalry with Pompeius. The assembled conspirators were addressed by
+Catiline in a speech of the most virulent character. He urged these
+social outcasts to rise against a bloated plutocracy battening on the
+ill-gotten wealth to which his audience had just as good a title. He
+promised the cancellation of all debts, the proscription of the wealthy,
+and the general application of the rule of "the spoils to the victors."
+He had friends at the head of the armies in Spain and Mauritania, if
+Gaius Antonius were the other successful candidate for the consulship,
+his co-operation, too, could be secured. Such was the purport of his
+speech; but I do not credit the popular fiction that the conspirators
+were solemnly pledged in a bowl of mingled wine and blood.
+
+Rumours of the plot, however, began to leak out through a certain
+Fulvia, mistress of Quintus Curio, a man who had been expelled from the
+senatorial body on account of his iniquities; and this probably caused
+many of the nobility to support, for the consulship, Cicero, whom, as a
+"new man," they would otherwise have religiously opposed. The result was
+that Catiline's candidature failed, and Cicero was elected with Gaius
+Antonius for his colleague.
+
+At length Cicero, seeing that the ferment was everywhere increasing to
+an extent with which the ordinary law could not cope, obtained from the
+senate the exceptional powers for dealing with a national emergency
+which they had constitutional authority to grant. Thus, when news came
+that a Catilinarian, Gaius Manlius, had risen in Etruria at the head of
+an armed force, prompt administrative measures were taken to dispatch
+adequate military forces to various parts of the country. Catiline
+himself had taken no overt action; he now presented himself in the
+senate, was openly assailed by Cicero, responded with insults which were
+interrupted by cries of indignation, and flung from the house with the
+words "Since I am beset by enemies and driven out, the fire you have
+kindled about me shall be crushed out by the ruin of yourselves."
+
+Seeing that delay would be fatal, he started at once for the camp of
+Manlius, leaving Cethegus and Lentulus to keep up the ferment in Rome.
+To several persons of position he sent letters announcing that he was
+retiring to Marseilles; but, with misplaced confidence, he sent one of a
+different and extremely compromising tenor to Quintus Catullus, which
+the recipient read to the senate. It was next reported that he had
+assumed the consular attributes and joined Manlius; whereupon he was
+proclaimed a public enemy, a general levy was decreed, Antonius was
+appointed to take the field, while Cicero was to remain in the capital.
+
+
+_II.--The Downfall_
+
+
+Meanwhile, Lentulus at Rome, among his various plots, intrigued to
+obtain the support of the Allobroges, a tribe of Gauls from whom there
+was at the time an embassy in Rome. The envoys, however, took the advice
+of Quintus Fabius Sanga, and while he kept Cicero supplied with
+information, themselves pretended to be at one with the conspirators.
+
+Risings were now taking place all over Italy, though they were
+ill-concerted. At Rome, the plan was that when Catiline's army was at
+Faesulae, the tribune Lucius Bestia should publicly accuse Cicero of
+having caused the war; and this was to be the signal for an organised
+massacre, while the city itself was to be fired at twelve points
+simultaneously. The insurgents were then to march out and join Catiline
+at Faesulae.
+
+The Allobroges were now departing, carrying with them letters from
+Lentulus to Catiline; but according to a concerted plan, they were
+arrested. This provided Cicero with evidence which warranted the arrest
+of Lentulus and other ringleaders in Rome; and its publication created a
+popular revulsion--the lower classes were not averse from plunder, but
+saw no benefit to themselves in a general conflagration of Rome.
+
+A certain Lucius Tarquinius was now captured, who gave information
+tallying with what was already published, but further incriminated
+Crassus. Crassus, however, was so wealthy, and had so many of the senate
+in his power, that even those who believed the charge to be true,
+thought it politic to pronounce it a gross fabrication. The danger of an
+attempted rescue of Lentulus brought on a debate as to what should be
+done with the prisoners. Caesar, from whatever motive, spoke forcibly
+against any unconstitutional action which, however justified by the
+enormity of the prisoners' guilt, might become a dangerous precedent. In
+his opinion, the wise course would be to confiscate the property of the
+prisoners, and to place their persons in custody not in Rome, but in
+provincial towns.
+
+Caesar's humanitarian statesmanship was answered by the grave austerity
+of Cato. "The question for us is not that of punishing a crime, but of
+preserving the state--or of what the degenerate Roman of to-day cares
+for more than the state, our lives and property. To speak of clemency
+and compassion is an abuse of terms only too common, when vices are
+habitually dignified with the names of virtues. Let us for once act with
+vigour and decision, and doom these convicted traitors to the death they
+deserve." The decree of death was carried to immediate execution. In the
+meantime, Catiline had raised a force numbering two legions, but not
+more than a quarter of them were properly armed. He remained in the
+hills, refusing to give battle to Antonius.
+
+On hearing the fate of Lentulus and the rest, he attempted to retreat to
+Gaul, but this movement was anticipated and intercepted by Metellus
+Celer, who was posted at Picenum with three legions. With Antonius
+pressing on his rear, Catiline resolved to hazard all on a desperate
+engagement. In exhorting his troops, he dwelt on the fact that men
+fighting for life and liberty were more than a match for a foe who had
+infinitely less at stake.
+
+Thus brought to bay, Catiline's soldiers met the attack of the
+government troops with furious valour, their leader setting a brilliant
+example of desperate daring, and the most vigilant and vigorous
+generalship. But Petreius, on the other side, directed his force against
+the rebel centre, shattered it, and took the wings in flank. Catiline's
+followers stood and fought till they fell, with their wounds in front;
+he himself hewed his way through the foe, and was found still breathing
+at a distance from his own ranks. No quarter was given or taken; and
+among the rebels there were no survivors. In the triumphant army, all
+the stoutest soldiers were slain or wounded; mourning and grief mingled
+with the elation of victory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--I
+
+
+     Edward Gibbon, son of a Hampshire gentleman, was born at
+     Putney, near London, April 27, 1737. After a preliminary
+     education at Westminster, and fourteen "unprofitable" months
+     at Magdalen College, Oxford, a whim to join the Roman church
+     led to his banishment to Lausanne, where he spent five years,
+     and acquired a mastery of the French language, formed his
+     taste for literary expression, and settled his religious
+     doubts in a profound scepticism. He served some years in the
+     militia, and was a member of parliament. It was in 1764, while
+     musing amidst, the ruins of the Capitol of Rome, that the idea
+     of writing "The Decline and Fall" of the city first started
+     into his mind. The vast work was completed in 1787. "A Study
+     in Literature," written in French, and his "Miscellaneous
+     Works," published after his death, which include "The Memoirs
+     of his Life and Writings," complete the list of his literary
+     labours. He died of dropsy on January 16, 1794. The portion of
+     the work which is epitomized here covers the period from the
+     reign of Commodus to the era of Charlemagne, and includes the
+     famous portion of the work dealing with the growth of the
+     Christian church.
+
+
+_I.--Rome, Mistress of the World_
+
+
+In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome
+comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised
+portion of mankind. On the death of Augustus, that emperor bequeathed,
+as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the
+empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its
+permanent bulwarks and boundaries--on the west the Atlantic Ocean, the
+Rhine and Danube on the north, the Euphrates on the east, and towards
+the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa. The subsequent
+settlement of Great Britain and Dacia supplied the two exceptions to the
+precepts of Augustus, if we omit the transient conquests of Trajan in
+the east, which were renounced by Hadrian.
+
+By maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge
+its limits, the early emperors caused the Roman name to be revered among
+the most remote nations of the earth. The terror of their arms added
+weight and dignity to their moderation. They preserved peace by a
+constant preparation for war. The soldiers, though drawn from the
+meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind, and
+no longer, as in the days of the ancient republic, recruited from Rome
+herself, were preserved in their allegiance to the emperor, and their
+invincibility before the enemy, by the influences of superstition,
+inflexible discipline, and the hopes of reward. The peace establishment
+of the Roman army numbered some 375,000 men, divided into thirty
+legions, who were confined, not within the walls of fortified cities,
+which the Romans considered as the refuge of pusillanimity, but upon the
+confines of the empire; while 20,000 chosen soldiers, distinguished by
+the titles of City Cohorts and Praetorian Guards, watched over the safety
+of the monarch and the capitol.
+
+"Wheresoever the Roman conquers he inhabits," was a very just
+observation of Seneca. Colonies, composed for the most part of veteran
+soldiers, were settled throughout the empire. Rich and prosperous
+cities, adorned with magnificent temples and baths and other public
+buildings, demonstrated at once the magnificence and majesty of the
+Roman system. In Britain, York was the seat of government. London was
+already enriched by commerce, and Bath was celebrated for the salutary
+effects of its medicinal waters.
+
+All the great cities were connected with each other, and with the
+capital, by the public highway, which, issuing from the Forum of Rome,
+traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and was terminated only by the
+frontiers of the empire. This great chain of communications ran in a
+direct line from city to city, and in its construction the Roman
+engineers snowed little respect for the obstacles, either of nature or
+of private property. Mountains were perforated and bold arches thrown
+over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road,
+raised into a terrace which commanded the adjacent country, consisted of
+several strata of sand, gravel, and cement, and was paved with granite
+or large stones. Distances were accurately computed by milestones, and
+the establishment of post-houses, at a distance of five or six miles,
+enabled a citizen to travel with ease a hundred miles a day along the
+Roman roads.
+
+This freedom of intercourse, which was established throughout the Roman
+world, while it extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements
+of social life. Rude barbarians of Gaul laid aside their arms for the
+more peaceful pursuits of agriculture. The cultivation of the earth
+produced abundance in every portion of the empire, and accidental
+scarcity in any single province was immediately relieved by the
+plentifulness of its more fortunate neighbours. Since the productions of
+nature are the materials of art, this flourishing condition of
+agriculture laid the foundation of manufactures, which provided the
+luxurious Roman with those refinements of conveniency, of elegance, and
+of splendour which his tastes demanded. Commerce flourished, and the
+products of Egypt and the East were poured out in the lap of Rome.
+
+Though there still existed within the body of the Roman Empire an
+unhappy condition of men who endured the weight, without sharing the
+benefits of society, the position of a slave was greatly improved in the
+progress of Roman development. The power of life and death was taken
+from his master's hands and vested in the magistrate, to whom he had a
+right to appeal against intolerable treatment. These magistrates
+exercised the authority of the emperor and the senate in every quarter
+of the empire, inflexibly maintaining in their administration, as in the
+case of military government, the use of the Latin tongue. Greek was the
+natural idiom of science, Latin that of government.
+
+
+_II.--The Seeds of Dissolution_
+
+
+But while Roman society persisted in a state of peaceful security, it
+already contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. The long peace
+and uniform government of the Romans introduced a slow and secret poison
+into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced
+to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the
+military spirit evaporated. The citizens received laws and covenants
+from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a
+mercenary army. Of their ancient freedom nothing remained except the
+name, and that Augustus, sensible that mankind is governed by names, was
+careful to preserve.
+
+It was by the will of the senate the emperor ruled. It was from the
+senate that he received the ancient titles of the republic--of consul,
+tribune, pontiff, and censor. Even his title of _imperator_ was decreed
+him, according to the custom of the republic, only for a period of ten
+years. But this specious pretence, which was preserved until the last
+days of the empire, did not mask the real autocratic authority of the
+emperor. The fact that he nominated citizens to the senate was proof, if
+proof were needed, that the independence of that body was destroyed; for
+the principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost when the
+legislative power is nominated by the executive.
+
+Moreover, the dependence of the emperor on the legions completely
+subverted the civil authority. To keep the military power, which had
+given him his position, from undermining it, Augustus had summoned to
+his aid whatever remained in the fierce minds of his soldiers of Roman
+prejudices, and interposing the majesty of the senate between the
+emperor and the army, boldly claimed their allegiance as the first
+magistrate of the republic. During a period of 220 years, the dangers
+inherent to a military government were in a great measure suspended by
+this artful system. The soldiers were seldom roused to that fatal sense
+of their own strength and of the weakness of the civil authority which
+afterwards was productive of such terrible calamities.
+
+The emperors Caligula and Domitian were assassinated in their palace by
+their own domestics. The Roman world, it is true, was shaken by the
+events that followed the death of Nero, when, in the space of eighteen
+months, four princes perished by the sword. But, excepting this violent
+eruption of military licence, the two centuries from Augustus to
+Commodus passed away unstained with civil blood and undisturbed by
+revolution. The Roman citizens might groan under the tyranny, from which
+they could not hope to escape, of the unrelenting Tiberius, the furious
+Caligula, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the
+timid, inhuman Domitian; but order was maintained, and it was not until
+Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher,
+succeeded to the authority that his father had exercised for the benefit
+of the Roman Empire that the army fully realised, and did not fail to
+exercise, the power it had always possessed.
+
+During the first three years of his reign the vices of Commodus affected
+the emperor rather than the state. While the young prince revelled in
+licentious pleasures, the management of affairs remained in the hands of
+his father's faithful councillors; but, in the year 183, the attempt of
+his sister Lucilla to assassinate him produced fatal results. The
+assassin, in attempting the deed, exclaimed, "The senate sends you
+this!" and though the blow never reached the body of the emperor, the
+words sank deep into his heart.
+
+He turned upon the senate with relentless cruelty. The possession of
+either wealth or virtue excited the tyrant's fury. Suspicion was
+equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation, and the noblest blood of the
+senate was poured out like water.
+
+He has shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon
+as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered
+by his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the
+instigation of Laetus, his Praetorian prefect, a robust youth was admitted
+into his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and
+celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city,
+an ancient senator of consular rank, and persuaded him to accept the
+purple. A large donative secured them the support of the Praetorian
+guard, and the joyous senate eagerly bestowed upon the new Augustus all
+the titles of imperial power.
+
+For eighty-six days Pertinax ruled the empire with firmness and
+moderation, but the strictness of the ancient discipline that he
+attempted to restore in the army excited the hatred of the Praetorian
+guards, and the new emperor was struck down on March 28, 193.
+
+
+_III.--An Empire at Auction_
+
+
+The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious
+murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it with their
+subsequent conduct. They ran out upon the ramparts of the city, and with
+a loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to
+the best bidder by public auction. Sulpicianus, father-in-law of
+Pertinax, and Didius Julianus, bid against each other for the prize. It
+fell to Julian, who offered upwards of L1,000 sterling to each of the
+soldiers, and the author of this ignominious bargain received the
+insignia of the empire and the acknowledgments of a trembling senate.
+
+The news of this disgraceful auction was received by the legions of the
+frontiers with surprise, with indignation, and, perhaps, with envy.
+Albinus, governor of Britain, Niger, governor of Syria, and Septimius
+Severus, a native of Africa, commander of the Pannonian army, prepared
+to revenge the death of Pertinax, and to establish their own claims to
+the vacant throne. Marching night and day, Severus crossed the Julian
+Alps, swept aside the feeble defences of Julian, and put an end to a
+reign of power which had lasted but sixty-six days, and had been
+purchased with such immense treasure. Having secured the supreme
+authority, Severus turned his arms against his two competitors, and
+within three years, and in the course of two or three battles,
+established his position and brought about the death of both Albinus and
+Niger.
+
+The prosperity of Rome revived, and a profound peace reigned throughout
+the world. At the same time, Severus was guilty of two acts which were
+detrimental to the future interests of the republic. He relaxed the
+discipline of the army, increased their pay beyond the example of former
+times, re-established the Praetorian guards, who had been abolished for
+their transaction with Julian, and welded more firmly the chains of
+tyranny by filling the senate with his creatures. At the age of
+sixty-five in the year 211, he expired at York of a disorder which was
+aggravated by the labours of a campaign against the Caledonians.
+
+Severus recommended concord to his sons, Caracalla and Geta, and his
+sons to the army. The government of the civilised world was entrusted to
+the hands of brothers who were implacable enemies. A latent civil war
+brooded in the city, and hardly more than a year passed before the
+assassins of Caracalla put an end to an impossible situation by
+murdering Geta. Twenty thousand persons of both sexes suffered death
+under the vague appellation of the friends of Geta. The fears of
+Macrinus, the controller of the civil affairs of the Praetorian
+prefecture, brought about his death in the neighbourhood of Carrhae in
+Syria on April 8, 217.
+
+For a little more than a year his successor governed the empire, but the
+necessary step of reforming the army brought about his ruin. On June 7,
+218, he succumbed to the superior fortune of Elagabulus, the grandson of
+Severus, a youth trained in all the superstitions and vices of the East.
+
+Under this sovereign Rome was prostituted to the vilest vices of which
+human nature is capable. The sum of his infamy was reached when the
+master of the Roman world affected to copy the dress and manners of the
+female sex. The shame and disgust of the soldiers resulted in his murder
+on March 10, 222, and the proclamation of his cousin, Alexander Severus.
+
+Again the necessity of restoring discipline within the army led to the
+ruin of the emperor, and, despite thirteen years of just and moderate
+government, Alexander was murdered in his tent on March 19, 235, on the
+banks of the Rhine, and Maximin, his chief lieutenant, a Thracian,
+reigned in his stead.
+
+
+_IV.--Tyranny and Disaster_
+
+
+Fear of contempt, for his origin was mean and barbarian, made Maximin
+one of the cruellest tyrants that ever oppressed the Roman world. During
+the three years of his reign he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy,
+but from the banks of the Rhine and the Danube oppressed the whole
+state, and trampled on every principle of law and justice. The tyrant's
+avarice ruined not only private citizens, but seized the municipal funds
+of the cities, and stripped the very temples of their gold and silver
+offerings.
+
+Maximus and Balbinus, on July 9, 237, were declared emperors. The
+Emperor Maximus advanced to meet the furious tyrant, but the stroke of
+domestic conspiracy prevented the further eruption of civil war. Maximin
+and his son were murdered by their disappointed troops in front of
+Aquileia.
+
+Three months later, Maximus and Balbinus, on July 15, 238, fell victims
+to their own virtues at the hands of the Praetorian guard, Gordian became
+emperor. At the end of six years, he, too, after an innocent and
+virtuous reign, succumbed to the ambition of the prefect Philip, while
+engaged in a war with Persia, and in March 244, the Roman world
+recognized the sovereignty of an Arabian robber.
+
+Returning to Rome, Philip celebrated the secular games, on the
+accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the
+foundation of Rome. From that date, which marked the fifth time that
+these rites had been performed in the history of the city, for the next
+twenty years the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and
+military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and
+fatal moment of its dissolution. Six emperors in turn succeeded to the
+sceptre of Philip and ended their lives, either as the victims of
+military licence, or in the vain attempt to stay the triumphal eruption
+of the Goths and the Franks and the Suevi. In three expeditions the
+Goths seized the Bosphorus, plundered the cities of Bithynia, ravaged
+Greece, and threatened Italy, while the Franks invaded Gaul, overran
+Spain and the provinces of Africa.
+
+Some sparks of their ancient virtue enabled the senate to repulse the
+Suevi, who threatened Rome herself, but the miseries of the empire were
+not assuaged by this one triumph, and the successes of Sapor, king of
+Persia, in the East, seemed to foreshadow the immediate downfall of
+Rome. Six emperors and thirty tyrants attempted in vain to stay the
+course of disaster. Famine and pestilence, tumults and disorders, and a
+great diminution of the population marked this period, which ended with
+the death of the Emperor Gallienus on March 20, 268.
+
+
+_V.--Restorers of the Roman World_
+
+
+The empire, which had been oppressed and almost destroyed by the
+soldiers, the tyrants, and the barbarians, was saved by a series of
+great princes, who derived their obscure origin from the martial
+provinces of Illyricum. Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius,
+Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues triumphed over the
+foreign and domestic enemies of the state, re-established, with a
+military discipline, the strength of the frontier, and deserved the
+glorious title of Restorers of the Roman world.
+
+Claudius gained a crushing victory over the Goths, whose discomfiture
+was completed by disease in the year 269. And his successor, Aurelian,
+in a reign of less than five years, put an end to the Gothic war,
+chastised the Germans who invaded Italy, recovered Gaul, Spain, and
+Britain from the Roman usurpers, and destroyed the proud monarchy which
+Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, had erected in the East on the ruins of the
+afflicted empire.
+
+The murder of Aurelian in the East (January 275) led to a curious
+revival of the authority of the senate. During an interregnum of eight
+months the ancient assembly at Rome governed with the consent of the
+army, and appeared to regain with the election of Tacitus, one of their
+members, all their ancient prerogatives. Their authority expired,
+however, with the death of his successor, Probus, who delivered the
+empire once more from the invasions of the barbarians, and succumbed to
+the too common fate of assassination in August 282.
+
+Carus, who was elected in his place, maintained the reputation of the
+Roman arms in the East; but his supposed death by lightning, by
+delivering the sceptre into the hands of his sons Carinus and Numerian
+(December 25, 283), once more placed the Roman world at the mercy of
+profligacy and licentiousness. A year later, the election of the Emperor
+Diocletian (September 17, 284) founded a new era in the history and
+fortunes of the empire.
+
+It was the artful policy of Diocletian to destroy the last vestiges of
+the ancient constitution. Dividing his unwieldly power among three other
+associates--Maximian, a rough, brutal soldier, who ranked as Augustus;
+and Galerius and Constantius, who bore the inferior titles of Caesar--the
+emperor removed the centre of government by gradual steps from Rome.
+Diocletian and Maximian held their courts in the provinces, and the
+authority of the senators was destroyed by spoliation and death.
+
+
+_VI.--Reign of the Six Emperors_
+
+
+For twenty-one years Diocletian held sway, establishing, with the
+assistance of his associates, the might of the Roman arms in Britain,
+Africa, Egypt, and Persia; and then, on May 1, 305, in a spacious plain
+in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, divested himself of the purple and
+abdicated the throne. On the same day at Milan, Maximian reluctantly
+made his resignation of the imperial dignity.
+
+According to the rules of the new constitution, Constantius and Galerius
+assumed the title of Augustus, and nominated Maximin and Severus as
+Caesars. The elaborate machinery devised by Diocletian at once broke
+down. Galerius, who was supported by Severus, intrigued for the
+possession of the whole Roman world. Constantine, the son of
+Constantius, on account of his popularity with the army and the people,
+excited his suspicion, and only the flight of Constantine saved him from
+death. He made his way to Gaul, and, after taking part in a campaign
+with his father against the Caledonians, received the title of Augustus
+in the imperial palace at York on the death of Constantius.
+
+Civil war once more raged. Maxentius, the son of Maximian, was declared
+Emperor of Rome, and, with the assistance of his father, who broke from
+his retirement, defended his title against Severus, who was taken
+prisoner at Ravenna and executed at Rome in February 307. Galerius, who
+had raised Licinius to fill the post vacated by the death of Severus,
+invaded Italy to reestablish his authority, but, after threatening Rome,
+was compelled to retire.
+
+There were now six emperors. Maximian and his son Maxentius and
+Constantine in the West; in the East, Gelerius, Maximin, and Licinius.
+The second resignation of Maximian, and his renewed attempt to seize the
+imperial power by seducing the soldiers of Constantine, and his
+subsequent execution at Marseilles in February 310, reduced the number
+to five. Galerius died of a lingering disorder in the following year,
+and the civil war that broke out between Maxentius and Constantine,
+culminating in a battle near Rome in 312, placed the sceptre of the West
+in the hands of the son of Constantius. In the East, the alliance
+between Licinius and Maximin dissolved into discord, and the defeat of
+the latter on April 30, 313, ended in his death three or four months
+later.
+
+The empire was now divided between Constantine and Licinius, and the
+ambition of the two princes rendered peace impossible. In the years 315
+and 323 civil conflict broke out, ending, after the battle of Adrianople
+and the siege of Byzantium, in a culminating victory for Constantine in
+the field of Chrysopolis, in September. Licinius, taken prisoner, laid
+himself and his purple at the feet of his lord and master, and was duly
+executed.
+
+By successive steps, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the
+resignation of Licinius, Constantine had reached the undivided
+sovereignty of the Roman world. His success contributed to the decline
+of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual
+increase as well of the taxes as of the military establishments. The
+foundation of Constantinople and the establishment of the Christian
+religion were the immediate and memorable consequences of this
+revolution.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--II
+
+
+_I.--Decay of the Empire under Constantine_
+
+
+The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness of
+Constantine. After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror
+bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new
+capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he
+established have been embraced, and consecrated, by succeeding
+generations.
+
+Byzantium, which, under the more august name of Constantinople, was
+destined to preserve the shadow of the Roman power for nearly a thousand
+years after it had been extinguished by Rome herself, was the site
+selected for the new capital. Its boundary was traced by the emperor,
+and its circumference measured some sixteen miles. In a general decay of
+the arts no architect could be found worthy to decorate the new capital,
+and the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable
+ornaments to supply this want of ability. In the course of eight or ten
+years the city, with its beautiful forum, its circus, its imperial
+palace, its theatres, baths, churches, and houses, was completed with
+more haste than care. The dedication of the new Rome was performed with
+all due pomp and ceremony, and a population was provided by the
+expedient of summoning some of the wealthiest families in the empire to
+take up their residence within its walls.
+
+The gradual decay of Rome had eliminated that simplicity of manners
+which was the just pride of the ancient republic. Under the autocratic
+system of Diocletian, a hierarchy of dependents had sprung up. The rank
+of each was marked with the most scrupulous exactness, and the purity of
+the Latin language was debased by the invention of the deceitful titles
+of your Sincerity, your Excellency, your Illustrious and Magnificent
+Highness.
+
+The officials of the empire were divided into three classes of the
+Illustrious, Respectable, and Honourable. The consuls were still
+annually elected, but obtained the semblance of their ancient authority,
+not from the suffrages of the people, but from the whim of the emperor.
+On the morning of January 1 they assumed the ensigns of their dignity,
+and in the two capitals of the empire they celebrated their promotion to
+office by the annual games. As soon as they had discharged these
+customary duties, they retired into the shade of private life, to enjoy,
+during the remainder of the year, the undisturbed contemplation of their
+own greatness. Their names served only as the legal date of the year in
+which they had filled the chair of Marius and of Cicero. The ancient
+title of Patrician became now an empty honour bestowed by the emperor.
+Four prefects held jurisdiction over as many divisions of the empire,
+and two municipal prefects ruled Rome and Constantinople. The proconsuls
+and vice-prefects belonged to the rank of Respectable, and the
+provincial magistrates to the lower class of Honourable. In the military
+system, eight master-generals exercised their jurisdiction over the
+cavalry and the infantry, while thirty-five military commanders, with
+the titles of counts and dukes, under their orders, held sway in the
+provinces. The army itself was recruited with difficulty, for such was
+the horror of the profession of a soldier which affected the minds of
+the degenerate Romans that compulsory levies had frequently to be made.
+The number of the barbarian auxiliaries enormously increased, and they
+were included in the legions and the troops that surrounded the throne.
+Seven ministers with the rank of Illustrious regulated the affairs of
+the palace, and a host of official spies and torturers swelled the
+number of the immediate followers of the sovereign.
+
+The general tribute, or indiction, as it was called, was derived largely
+from the taxation of landed property. Every fifteen years an accurate
+census, or survey, was made of all lands, and the proprietor was
+compelled to state the true facts of his affairs under oath, and paid
+his contribution partly in gold and partly in kind. In addition to this
+land tax there was a capitation tax on every branch of commercial
+industry, and "free gifts" were exacted from the cities and provinces on
+the occasion of any joyous event in the family of the emperor. The
+peculiar "free gift" of the senate of Rome amounted to some $320,000.
+
+Constantine celebrated the twentieth year of his reign at Rome in the
+year 326. The glory of his triumph was marred by the execution, or
+murder, of his son Crispus, whom he suspected of a conspiracy, and the
+reputation of the emperor who established the Christian religion in the
+Roman world was further stained by the death of his second wife, Fausta.
+With a successful war against the Goths in 331, and the expulsion of the
+Sarmatians in 334, his reign closed. He died at Nicomedia on May 22,
+337.
+
+
+_II.--The Division of East and West_
+
+
+The unity of the empire was again destroyed by the three sons of
+Constantine. A massacre of their kinsmen preceded the separation of the
+Roman world between Constantius, Constans, and Constantine. Within three
+years, civil war eliminated Constantine. The conflict among the emperors
+resulted in a doubtful war with Persia, and the almost complete
+extinction of the Christian monarchy which had been founded for
+fifty-six years in Armenia.
+
+Constantius was left sole emperor in 353. He associated with himself
+successively as Caesars the two nephews of the great Constantine, Gallus
+and Julian. The first, being suspected, was destroyed in 354; the second
+succeeded to the purple in 361.
+
+Trained in the school of the philosophers, and proved as a commander in
+a series of successful campaigns against the German hordes, Julian
+brought to the throne a genius which, in other times, might have
+effected the reformation of the empire. The sufferings of his youth had
+associated in a mind susceptible of the most lively impressions the
+names of Christ and of Constantius, the ideas of slavery and religion.
+At the age of twenty he renounced the Christian faith, and boldly
+asserted the doctrines of paganism. His accession to the supreme power
+filled the minds of the Christians with horror and indignation. But
+instructed by history and reflection, Julian extended to all the
+inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal
+toleration, and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians
+was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow subjects,
+whom they stigmatised with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics.
+
+While re-establishing and reforming the old pagan system and attempting
+to subvert Christianity, he held out a hand of succour to the persecuted
+Jews, asked to be permitted to pay his grateful vows in the holy city of
+Jerusalem, and was only prevented from rebuilding the Temple by a
+supposed preternatural interference. He suppressed the authority of
+George, Archbishop of Alexandria, who had infamously persecuted and
+betrayed the people under his spiritual care, and that odious priest,
+who has been transformed by superstition into the renowned St. George of
+England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter, fell a
+victim to the just resentment of the Alexandrian multitude.
+
+The Persian system of monarchy, introduced by Diocletian, was
+distasteful to the philosophic mind of Julian; he refused the title of
+lord and master, and attempted to restore in all its pristine simplicity
+the ancient government of the republic. In a campaign against the
+Persians he received a mortal wound, and died on June 26, 363.
+
+The election of Jovian, the first of the domestics, by the acclamation
+of the soldiers, resulted in a disgraceful peace with the Persians,
+which aroused the anger and indignation of the Roman world, and the new
+emperor hardly survived this act of weakness for nine months (February
+17, 364). The throne of the Roman world remained ten days without a
+master. At the end of that period the civil and military powers of the
+empire solemnly elected Valentinian as emperor at Nice in Bithynia.
+
+The new Augustus divided the vast empire with his brother Valens, and
+this division marked the final separation of the western and eastern
+empires. This arrangement continued, until the death of Valentinian in
+375, when the western empire was divided between his sons, Gratian and
+Valentinian II.
+
+His reign had been notable for the stemming of the invasion of the
+Alemanni of Gaul, the incursions of the Burgundians and the Saxons, the
+restoration of Britain from the attacks of the Picts and Scots, the
+recovery of Africa by the emperor's general, Theodosius, and the
+diplomatic settlement with the approaching hordes of the Goths, who
+already swarmed upon the frontiers of the empire.
+
+Under the three emperors the Roman world began to feel more severely the
+gradual pressure exerted by the hordes of barbarians that moved
+westward. In 376 the Goths, pursued by the Huns, who had come from the
+steppes of China into Europe, sought the protection of Valens, who
+succoured them by transporting them over the Danube into Roman
+territory. They repaid his clemency by uniting their arms with those of
+the Huns, and defeating and killing him at the battle of Hadrianople in
+378.
+
+To save the provinces from the ravages of the barbarians, Gratian
+appointed Theodosius, son of his father's general, emperor of the East,
+and the wisdom of his choice was justified by the success of one who
+added a new lustre to the title of Augustus. By prudent strategy,
+Theodosius divided and defeated the Goths, and compelled them to submit.
+
+The sons of Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius succeeded respectively to
+the government of the East and the West in 395. The symptoms of decay,
+which not even the wise rule of Theodosius had been able to remove, had
+grown more alarming. The luxury of the Romans was more shameless and
+dissolute, and as the increasing depredations of the barbarians had
+checked industry and diminished wealth, this profuse luxury must have
+been the result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour
+and declines the thoughts of futurity.
+
+The secret and destructive poison of the age had affected the camps of
+the legions. The infantry had laid aside their armour, and, discarding
+their shields, advanced, trembling, to meet the cavalry of the Goths and
+the arrows of the barbarians, who easily overwhelmed the naked soldiers,
+no longer deserving the name of Romans. The enervated legionaries
+abandoned their own and the public defence, and their pusillanimous
+indolence may be considered the immediate cause of the downfall of the
+empire.
+
+
+_III.--Ruin by Goth, Vandal, and Hun_
+
+
+The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius. His sons within three months
+had once more sharply divided the empire. At a time when the only hope
+of delaying its ruin depended on the firm union of the two sections, the
+subject of Arcadius and Honorius were instructed by their respective
+masters to view each other in a hostile light, to rejoice in their
+mutual calamity, and to embrace as their faithful allies the barbarians,
+whom they incited to invade the territories of their countrymen.
+
+Alarmed at the insecurity of Rome, Honorius about this time fixed the
+imperial residence within the naturally fortified city of Ravenna--an
+example which was afterwards imitated by his feeble successors, the
+Gothic kings and the Exarchs; and till the middle of the eighth century
+Ravenna was considered as the seat of government and the capital of
+Italy.
+
+The reign of Arcadius in the East marked the complete division of the
+Roman world. His subjects assumed the language and manners of Greeks,
+and his form of government was a pure and simple monarchy. The name of
+the Roman republic, which so long preserved a faint tradition of
+freedom, was confined to the Latin provinces. A series of internal
+disputes, both civil and religious, marked his career of power, and his
+reign may be regarded as notable if only for the election of St. John
+Chrysostom to the head of the church of Constantinople. Arcadius died in
+May 408, and was succeeded by his supposed son, Theodosius, then a boy
+of seven, the reins of power being first held by the prefect Anthemius,
+and afterwards by his sister Pulcheria, who governed the eastern
+empire--in fact, for nearly forty years.
+
+The wisdom of Honorius, emperor of the West, in removing his capital to
+Ravenna, was soon justified by events. Alaric, king of the Goths,
+advanced in 408 to the gates of Rome, and completely blockaded the city.
+In the course of a long siege, thousands of Romans died of plague and
+famine, and only a heavy ransom, amounting to $1,575,000, relieved the
+citizens from their terrible situation in the year 409. In the same year
+Alaric again besieged Rome, after fruitless negotiations with Honorius,
+and his attempt once more proving successful, he created Attilus,
+prefect of the city, emperor. But the imprudent measures of his puppet
+sovereign exasperated Alaric. Attilus was formally deposed in 410, and
+the infuriated Goth besieged and sacked Rome, and ravaged Italy. The
+spoil that the barbarians carried away with them comprised nearly all
+the movable wealth of the city.
+
+The ancient capital was devastated, the exquisite works of art
+destroyed, and nearly all the monuments of a glorious past sacrificed to
+the insatiate greed of the conquerors. Fire helped to complete the ruin
+wrought by the Goths, and it is not easy to compute the multitude of
+citizens who, from an honourable station and a prosperous fortune, were
+suddenly reduced to the miserable condition of captives and exiles.
+
+The complete ruin of Italy was prevented by the death of Alaric in 410.
+
+During the reign of Honorius, the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks were
+settled in Gaul. The maritime countries, between the Seine and the
+Loire, followed the example of Britain in 409, and threw off the yoke of
+the empire. Aquitaine, with its capital at Aries, received, under the
+title of the seven provinces, the right of convening an annual assembly
+for the management of its own affairs.
+
+Honorius died in 423, and was succeeded by Valentinian III. His long
+reign was marked by a series of disasters, which foretold the rapidly
+approaching dissolution of the western empire.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, in 429 crossed into Africa, conquered the
+province, and set up in the depopulated territory, with Carthage as his
+capital, a new rule and government. Italy was filled with fugitives from
+Africa, and a barbarian race, which had issued from the frozen regions
+of the north, established their victorious reign over one of the fairest
+provinces of the empire. Two years later, in 441, a new and even more
+terrible danger threatened the empire.
+
+The Goths and Vandals, flying before the Huns, had oppressed the western
+World. The hordes of these barbarians, now gathering strength in their
+union under their king, Attila, threatened an attack upon the eastern
+empire. In appearance their chieftain was terrible in the extreme; his
+portrait exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuck: a large
+head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few
+hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short, square body
+of nervous strength, though of a disproportionate form. He had a custom
+of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which
+he inspired.
+
+This savage hero, who had subdued Germany and Scythia, and almost
+exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine, and had conquered
+Scandinavia, was able to bring into the field 700,000 barbarians. An
+unsuccessful raid into Persia induced him to turn his attention to the
+eastern empire, and the enervated troops of Theodosius the Younger
+dissolved before the fury of his onset. He ravaged up to the very gates
+of Constantinople, and only a humiliating treaty preserved his dominion
+to the "invincible Augustus" of the East.
+
+After the death of Theodosius the Younger, and the accession of Marcian,
+the husband of Pulcheria, Attila threatened, in 450, both empires. An
+incursion of his hordes into Gaul was rendered abortive by the conduct
+of the patrician, AEtius, who, uniting all the various troops of Gaul and
+Germany, the Saxons, the Burgundians, the Franks, under their
+Merovingian prince, and the Visigoths under their king, Theodoric, after
+two important battles, induced the Huns to retreat from the field of
+Chalons. Attila, diverted from his purpose, turned into Italy, and the
+citizens of the various towns fled before the savage destroyer. Many
+families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, found a safe refuge
+in the neighbouring islands of the Adriatic, where their place of refuge
+evolved, in time, into the famous Republic of Venice.
+
+Valentinian fled from Ravenna to Rome, prepared to desert his people and
+his empire. The fortitude of AEtius alone supported and preserved the
+tottering state. Leo, Bishop of Rome, in his sacerdotal robes, dared to
+demand the clemency of the savage king, and the intervention of St.
+Peter and St. Paul is supposed to have induced Attila to retire beyond
+the Danube, with the Princess Honoria as his bride. He did not long
+survive this last campaign, and in 453 he died, and was buried amidst
+all the savage pomp and grief of his subjects. His death resolved the
+bonds that had united the various nations of which his subjects were
+composed, and in a very few years domestic discord had extinguished the
+empire of the Huns.
+
+Genseric, king of the Vandals, sacked and pillaged the ancient capital
+in June 455.
+
+The vacant throne was filled by the nomination of Theodoric, king of the
+Goths. The senate of Rome bitterly opposed the elevation of this
+stranger, and though Avitus might have supported his title against the
+votes of an unarmed assembly, he fell immediately he incurred the
+resentment of Count Ricimer, one of the chief commanders of the
+barbarian troops who formed the military defence of Italy. At a distance
+from his Gothic allies, he was compelled to abdicate (October 16, 456),
+and Majorian was raised to fill his place.
+
+
+_IV.--The Last Emperor of the West_
+
+
+The successor of Avitus was a great and heroic character, such as
+sometimes arise in a degenerate age to vindicate the honour of the human
+species. In the ruin of the Roman world he loved his people, sympathised
+with their distress, and studied by judicial and effectual remedies to
+allay their sufferings. He reformed the most intolerable grievances of
+the taxes, attempted to restore and maintain the edifices of Rome, and
+to establish a new and healthier moral code. His military abilities and
+his fortune were not in proportion to his merits. An unsuccessful
+attempt against the Vandals to recover the lost provinces of Africa
+resulted in the loss of his fleet, and his return from this disastrous
+campaign terminated his reign. He was deposed by Ricimer, and five days
+later died of a reported dysentery, on August 7, 461.
+
+At the command of Ricimer, the senate bestowed the imperial title on
+Libius Severus, who reigned as long as it suited his patron. The
+increasing difficulties, however, of the kingdom of Italy, due largely
+to the naval depredation of the Vandals, compelled Ricimer to seek the
+assistance of the emperor Leo, who had succeeded Marcian in the East in
+457. Leo determined to extirpate the tyranny of the Vandals, and
+solemnly invested Anthemius with the diadem and purple of the West
+(467).
+
+In 472, Ricimer raised the senator Olybrius to the purple, and,
+advancing from Milan, entered and sacked Rome and murdered Anthemius
+(July 11, 472). Forty days after this calamitous event, the tyrant
+Ricimer died of a painful disease, and two months later death also
+removed Olybrius.
+
+The emperor Leo nominated Julius Nepos to the vacant throne. After
+suppressing a rival in the person of Glycerius, Julius succumbed, in
+475, to a furious sedition of the barbarian confederates, who, under the
+command of the patrician Orestes, marched from Rome to Ravenna. The
+troops would have made Orestes emperor, but when he declined they
+consented to acknowledge his son Augustulus as emperor of the West.
+
+The ambition of the patrician might have seemed satisfied, but he soon
+discovered, before the end of the first year, that he must either be the
+slave or the victim of his barbarian mercenaries. The soldiers demanded
+a third part of the land of Italy. Orestes rejected the audacious
+demand, and his refusal was favourable to the ambition of Odoacer, a
+bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers that if they dared to
+associate under his command they might extort the justice that had been
+denied to their dutiful petition. Orestes was executed, and Odoacer,
+resolving to abolish the useless and expensive office of the emperor of
+the West, compelled the unfortunate Augustulus to resign.
+
+So ended, in the year 476, the empire of the West, and the last Roman
+emperor lived out his life in retirement in the Lucullan villa on the
+promontory of Misenum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--III
+
+
+_I.--The Growth of the Christian Church_
+
+
+The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned
+religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened,
+and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The
+various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all
+considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally
+false; by the magistrate as equally useful. Under this spirit of
+toleration the Christian church grew with great rapidity. Five main
+causes effectually favoured and assisted this development.
+
+1. The inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians, purified from
+the narrow and unsocial spirit of the Jewish religion.
+
+2. The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional
+circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important
+theory.
+
+3. The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church.
+
+4. The pure and austere morals of the early Christians.
+
+5. The union and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradually
+formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The early Christians of the mother church at Jerusalem subscribed to the
+Mosaic law, and the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all
+circumcised Jews. But the Gentile church rejected the intolerable weight
+of Mosaic ceremonies, and at length refused to their more scrupulous
+brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited
+for their own practise. After the ruin of the temple of the city, and of
+the public religion of the Jews, the Nazarenes, as the Christian Jews of
+Jerusalem were called, retired to the little town of Pella, from whence
+they could make easy and frequent pilgrimages to the Holy City. When the
+Emperor Hadrian forbade the Jewish people from approaching the precincts
+of the city, the Nazarenes escaped from the common proscription by
+disavowing the Mosaic law. A small remnant, however, still combined the
+Mosaic ceremonies with the Christian faith, and existed, until the
+fourth century, under the name of Ebeonites.
+
+The immortality of the soul had been held by a few sages of Greece and
+Rome, who were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the
+field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the
+most sincere admiration could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a
+few years of duration. But reason could not justify the specious and
+noble principles of the disciples of Plato.
+
+To the Christians alone the authority of Christ gave a certainty of a
+future life, and when the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to
+mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the
+precepts of the Gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer
+should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every
+rank, and of every province in the Roman Empire. The immediate
+expectation of the second coming of Christ, and the reign of the Son of
+God with His saints for a thousand years, strengthened the ancient
+Christians against all trials and sufferings.
+
+The supernatural gifts which even in this life were ascribed to the
+Christians above the rest of mankind must have conduced to their own
+comfort, and very frequently to the conviction of infidels. The gift of
+tongues, of vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling demons, of
+healing the sick, and of raising the dead, were prodigies claimed by the
+Christian Church at the time of the apostles and their first disciples.
+
+Repentance for their past sins, and the laudable desire of supporting
+the reputation of the society in which they were engaged, rendered the
+lives of the primitive Christians much purer and more austere than those
+of their pagan contemporaries or their degenerate successors. They were
+insistent in their condemnation of pleasure and luxury, and, in their
+search after purity, were induced to approve reluctantly that
+institution of marriage which they were compelled to tolerate. A state
+of celibacy was regarded as the nearest approach to the divine
+perfection, and there were in the primitive church a great number of
+persons devoted to the profession of perpetual chastity.
+
+The government of the primitive church was based on the principles of
+freedom and equality. The societies which were instituted in the cities
+of the Roman Empire were united only by the ties of faith and charity.
+The want of discipline and human learning was supplied by the occasional
+assistance of the "prophets "--men or women who, as often as they felt
+the divine impulse, poured forth the effusions of the spirit in the
+assembly, of the faithful. In the course of time bishops and presbyters
+exercised solely the functions of legislation and spiritual guidance. A
+hundred years after the death of the apostles, the bishop, acting as the
+president of the presbyterial college, administered the sacrament and
+discipline of the Church, managed the public funds, and determined all
+such differences as the faithful were unwilling to expose before the
+tribunal of an idolatrous judge.
+
+Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic,
+and towards the end of the second century, realizing the advantages that
+might result from a closer union of their interests and designs, these
+little states adopted the useful institution of a provincial synod. The
+bishops of the various churches met in the capital of the province at
+stated periods, and issued their decrees or canons. The institution of
+synods was so well suited to private ambition and to public interest
+that it was received throughout the whole empire. A regular
+correspondence was established between the provincial councils, which
+mutually communicated and approved their respective proceedings, and the
+Catholic Church soon assumed the form and acquired the strength of a
+great federative republic.
+
+The community of goods which for a short time had been adopted in the
+primitive church was gradually abolished, and a system of voluntary
+gifts was substituted. In the time of the Emperor Decius it was the
+opinion of the magistrates that the Christians of Rome were possessed of
+very considerable wealth, and several laws, enacted with the same design
+as our statutes of mortmain, forbade real estate being given or
+bequeathed to any corporate body, without special sanctions. The bishops
+distributed these revenues, exercised the right of exclusion or
+excommunication of recalcitrant members of the Church, and maintained
+the dignity of their office with ever increasing pomp and circumstance.
+
+
+_II.--The Days of Persecution_
+
+
+The persecution of Christians by the Roman emperors must at first sight
+seem strange, when one considers their inoffensive mode of faith and
+worship. When one remembers the scepticism that prevailed among the
+pagans, and the tolerant view of all religions which was characteristic
+of the Roman citizen in the early years of the empire, this harshness
+seems all the more remarkable. It can be explained partly by the
+misapprehension which existed in the mind of the pagan world as to the
+principles of the Christian faith, and partly by the organization of the
+sect. The Jews were allowed the exercise of their unsocial and exclusive
+faith. But the Jews were a nation; the Christians were a sect. Moreover,
+the Christians were regarded as apostates from the ancient faith of
+Moses, and, worshipping no visible god, were held to be atheists.
+
+The Roman policy also viewed with the utmost jealousy and distrust any
+association among its subjects, and the secret and nocturnal meetings of
+the Christians appeared peculiarly dangerous in the eyes of the law.
+
+They were oppressed by the Emperor Domitian. Trajan protected their
+meetings by requiring definite evidence of these illegal assemblies, and
+an informer who failed in his proofs was subject to a severe or capital
+penalty. But the edicts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius protected the
+Church from the danger of popular clamour in times of disaster,
+declaring that the voice of the multitude should never be admitted as
+legal evidence to convict or to punish those unfortunate persons who had
+embraced the enthusiasm of the Christians.
+
+The authority of Origen and Dionysius annihilates that formidable army
+of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of
+Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous
+achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance.
+
+The martyrdom of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, on September 14, 258, was
+one of the most notable of that period. Under Marcus Antoninus, the
+Christians were treated harshly, but the tyrant Commodus protected them
+by his leniency. After a temporary period of persecution during the
+reign of Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm from 211 to 249. The
+storms gathered again under Decius, and so vigorous was the persecution
+that the bishops of the most considerable cities were removed by exile
+or death.
+
+
+_III.--The Church under Constantine_
+
+
+From 284 to 303, during the reign of Diocletian, the Christian Church
+enjoyed peace and prosperity, but in the latter year Galerius persuaded
+the emperor to renew the persecution of the sect. An edict on February
+24 enacted that all churches throughout the empire should be demolished,
+and the punishment of death was pronounced against all who should
+presume to hold any secret assemblies for the purposes of religious
+worship. Many suffered martyrdom under this cruel enactment. Churches
+everywhere were burnt, and sacred books destroyed. Three more edicts
+published before March 304 led to the imprisonment of all persons of the
+ecclesiastical order, compelled the magistrates to exercise torture to
+subvert the religion of their Christian prisoners, and made it the duty,
+as well as the interest, of the imperial officers to discover, to
+pursue, and to torment the most obnoxious among the faithful.
+
+But after six years of persecution, the mind of Galerius, softened by
+salutary reflection, induced him to attempt some reparation. In the
+edict of toleration which he published on April 30, 311, he expresses
+the hope "that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up
+their prayers to the Deity whom they adore for our safety and
+prosperity, and for that of the Republic."
+
+The triumph of the great Constantine established the security of the
+Christian Church from the attacks of the pagans. Converted in 306,
+Constantine, as soon as he had achieved the conquest of Italy, issued
+the Edict of Milan (313), declaring that the places of worship which had
+been confiscated should be restored to the Church without dispute,
+without delay, and without expense. Though himself never received by
+baptism into the Church, until his last moments, his powerful patronage
+of the Christians, and his edicts of toleration, removed all the
+temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of
+Christianity.
+
+The faith of Christ became the national religion of the empire. The
+soldiers bore upon their helmets and upon their shields the sacred
+emblem of the Cross. All the machinery of government was employed to
+propagate the faith, not only within the empire, but beyond its borders.
+Confirmed in his new religion by the miraculous vision of the Cross,
+Constantine, who was the master of the world, consented to recognise the
+superiority of the ecclesiastical orders in all spiritual matters, while
+retaining himself the temporal power.
+
+The persecution of heresy was carried out by Constantine with all the
+ardour of a convert. An edict confiscated the public property of the
+heretics to the use either of the revenue or the Catholic Church, and
+the penal regulations of Diocletian against the Christians were now
+employed against the schismatics. The Donatists, who maintained the
+apostolic succession of Donatus, primate of Carthage, as opposed to
+Caecilian, were suppressed in Africa, and a general synod attempted to
+regulate the faith of the Church.
+
+The subject of the nature of the divine Trinity had early given rise to
+discussion. Of the three main heretical views, that of Arius and his
+disciples was the most prevalent. He held in effect that the Son, by
+whom all things were made, though He had been begotten before all
+worlds, yet had not always existed. He shone only with the reflected
+light of His Almighty Father, and, like the sons of the Roman emperors,
+who were invested with the titles of Caesar or Augustus. He governed the
+universe.
+
+The Tritheists advocated a system which seemed to establish three
+independent deities, while the Sabellian theory allowed only to the man
+Jesus the inspiration of the divine wisdom. The consubstantiality of the
+Father and of the Son had been established by the Council of Nicaea in
+325, but the East ranged itself for the most part under the banner of
+the Arian heresy. At first indifferent, Constantine at last persecuted
+the Arians, who later, under Constantius, were received into favour.
+
+Constantinople, which for forty years was the stronghold of Arianism,
+was converted to the orthodox faith under Theodosius by Gregory
+Nazianzen.
+
+
+_IV.--The Conversion of the World_
+
+
+The pagan religion was finally destroyed about the year 390, and the
+faintest vestiges of it were not visible thirty years later. Its
+influence, however, might be observed in many of the ceremonies which
+were introduced into the Church, and the worship of martyrs and relics
+seemed to revive a system of polytheism by the worship of a hierarchy of
+saints. Among the most famous of the dignitaries of the Church at this
+period was the Archbishop of Constantinople, who was distinguished by
+the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth. He attempted to purify
+the eastern empire, excited the animosity of the Empress Eudoxia, and
+died in exile in 407.
+
+The monastic system had been founded by Antony, an illiterate youth, in
+the year 305, by the establishment on Mount Cobyim, near the Red Sea, of
+a colony of ascetics, who renounced all the business and pleasures in
+life as the price of eternal happiness. A long series of hermits, monks,
+and anachorets propagated the system and, patronised by Athanasius, it
+spread to all parts of the world.
+
+The monastic profession was an act of voluntary devotion, and the
+inconstant fanatic was threatened with the eternal vengeance of the God
+whom he deserted. The monks had to give a blind submission to the
+commands of their abbot, however absurd, and the freedom of the mind,
+the source of every generous and rational sentiment, was destroyed by
+the habits of credulity and submission. In their dress and diet they
+preserved the most rigorous simplicity, and they subsisted entirely by
+their own manual exertions. But in the course of time this simplicity
+vanished, and, enriched by the offerings of the faithful, they assumed
+the pride of wealth, and at last indulged in the luxury of extravagance.
+
+The conversion of the barbarians followed upon their invasion of the
+Roman world; but they were involved in the Arian heresy, and from their
+advocacy of that cause they were characterised by the name of heretics,
+an epithet more odious than that of barbarian. The bitterness engendered
+by this reproach confirmed them in their faith, and the Vandals in
+Africa persecuted the orthodox Catholic with all the vigour and cruel
+arts of religious tyranny.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--IV
+
+
+_I.--Theodoric the Ostrogoth_
+
+
+After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, an interval of fifty
+years, until the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the
+obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who
+successively ascended the throne of Constantinople. During the same
+period Italy revived and nourished under the government of a Gothic
+king, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the
+ancient Romans.
+
+Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of royal line
+of the Amali, was born (455) in the neighbourhood of Vienna two years
+after the death of Attila. The murmurs of the Goths, who complained that
+they were exposed to intolerable hardships, determined Theodoric to
+attempt an adventure worthy of his courage and ambition. He boldly
+demanded the privilege of rescuing Italy and Rome from Odoacer, and at
+the head of his people forced his way, between the years 488 and 489,
+through hostile country into Italy. In three battles he triumphed over
+Odoacer, forced that monarch to capitulate on favourable terms at
+Ravenna (493), and after pretending to allow him to share his
+sovereignty of Italy, assassinated him in the same year.
+
+The long reign of Theodoric (493-526) was marked by a transient return
+of peace and prosperity to Italy. His domestic and foreign policy were
+dictated alike by wisdom and necessity. His people were settled on the
+land, which they held by military tenure. A series of matrimonial
+alliances secured him the support of the Franks, the Burgundians, the
+Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Thuringians, and his sword preserved his
+territory from the incursions of rival barbarians and the two disastrous
+attacks (505 and 508) that envy prompted the Emperor Anastasius to
+attempt.
+
+
+_II.--Justinian the Great_
+
+
+The death of the Emperor Anastasius had raised to the throne a Dardanian
+peasant, who by his arts secured the suffrage of the guards, despoiled
+and destroyed his more powerful rivals, and reigned under the name of
+Justin I. from 518 to 527. He was succeeded by his nephew, the great
+Justinian, who for thirty-eight years directed the fortunes of the Roman
+Empire.
+
+The Empress Theodora, who before her marriage had been a theatrical
+wanton, was seated, by the fondness of the emperor, on the throne as an
+equal and independent colleague in the sovereignty. Her rapacity, her
+cruelty, and her pride were the subject of contemporary writings, but
+her benevolence to her less fortunate sisters, and her courage amidst
+the factions and dangers of the court, justly entitle her to a certain
+nobility of character.
+
+Constantinople in the age of Justinian was torn by the factions of the
+circus. The rival bands of charioteers, who wore respectively liveries
+of green and blue, created in the capital of the East, as they had
+created in Rome, two factions among the populace. Justinian's support of
+the blues led to a serious sedition in the capital. The two factions
+were united by a common desire for vengeance, and with the watchword of
+"Nika" (vanquish) (January 532), raged in tumult through Constantinople
+for five days. At the command of Theodora 3,000 veterans who could be
+trusted marched through the burning streets to the Hippodrome, and
+there, supported by the repentant blues, massacred the unresisting mob.
+
+The Eastern Empire, after Rome was barbarous, still embraced the nations
+whom she had conquered beyond the Adriatic, and as far as the frontiers
+of Ethiopia and Persia. Justinian reigned over 64 provinces and 935
+cities. The arts and agriculture flourished under his rule, but the
+avarice and profusion of Justinian oppressed the people. His expensive
+taste for building almost exhausted the resources of the empire. Heavy
+custom tolls, taxes on the food and industry of the poor, the exercise
+of intolerable monopolies, were not excused or compensated for by the
+parsimonious saving in the salaries of court officials, and even in the
+pay of the soldiers. His stately edifices were cemented with the blood
+and treasures of his people, and the rapacity and luxury of the emperor
+were imitated by the civil magistrates and officials.
+
+The schools of Athens, which still kept alight the sacred flame of the
+ancient philosophy, were suppressed by Justinian. The academy of the
+Platonics, the Lyceum of the Peripatetics, the Portico of the Stoics,
+and the Garden of the Epicureans had long survived.
+
+With the death of Simplicius and his six companions, who terminate the
+long list of Grecian philosophers, the golden chain, as it was fondly
+styled, of the Platonic succession was broken, and the Edict of
+Justinian (529) imposed a perpetual silence on the schools of Athens.
+
+The Roman consulship was also abolished by Justinian in 541; but this
+office, the title of which admonished the Romans of their ancient
+freedom, still lived in the minds of the people. They applauded the
+gracious condescension of successive princes by whom it was assumed in
+the first year of their reign, and three centuries elapsed after the
+death of Justinian before that obsolete office, which had been
+suppressed by law, could be abolished by custom.
+
+The usurpation by Gelimer (530) of the Vandalic crown of Africa, which
+belonged of right to Hilderic, first encouraged Justinian to undertake
+the African war. Hilderic had granted toleration to the Catholics, and
+for this reason was held in reproach by his Arian subjects. His
+compulsory abdication afforded the emperor of the East an opportunity of
+interfering in the cause of orthodoxy. A large army was entrusted to the
+command of Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to
+every age and to every nation. Proved in the Persian war, Belisarius was
+given unlimited authority. He set sail from Constantinople with a fleet
+of six hundred ships in June 533. He landed on the coast of Africa in
+September, defeated the degenerate Vandals, reduced Carthage within a
+few days, utterly vanquished Gelimer, and completed the conquest of the
+ancient Roman province by 534. The Vandals in Africa fled beyond the
+power or even the knowledge of the Romans.
+
+
+_III.--Gothic Italy_
+
+
+Dissensions in Italy excited the ambition of Justinian. Belisarius was
+sent with another army to Sicily in 535, and after subduing that island
+and suppressing a revolt in Africa, he invaded Italy in 536. Policy
+dictated the retreat of the Goths, and Belisarius entered Rome (December
+536). In March, Vitiges, the Gothic ruler, returned with a force of one
+hundred and fifty thousand men. The valour of the Roman general
+supported a siege of forty-one days and the intrigues of the Pope
+Silverius, who was exiled by his orders; and, finally, with the
+assistance of a seasonable reinforcement, Belisarius compelled the
+barbarians to retire in March of the following year. The conquests of
+Ravenna and the suppression of the invasion of the Franks completed the
+subjugation of the Gothic kingdom by December 539.
+
+The success of Belisarius and the intrigues of his secret enemies had
+excited the jealousy of Justinian. He was recalled, and the eunuch
+Narses was sent to Italy, as a powerful rival, to oppose the interests
+of the conqueror of Rome and Africa. The infidelity of Antonina, which
+excited her husband's just indignation, was excused by the Empress
+Theodora, and her powerful support was given to the wife of the last of
+the Roman heroes, who, after serving again against the Persians,
+returned to the capital, to be received not with honour and triumph, but
+with disgrace and contempt and a fine of $600,000.
+
+The incursions of the Lombards, the Slavonians, and the Avars and the
+Turks, and the successful raids of the King of Persia were among the
+number of the important events of the reign of Justinian. To maintain
+his position in Africa and Italy taxed his resources to their utmost
+limit. The victories of Justinian were pernicious to mankind; the
+desolation of Africa was such that in many parts a stranger might wander
+whole days without meeting the face of either a friend or an enemy.
+
+The revolts of the Goths, under their king, Totila (541), once more
+demanded the presence of Belisarius, and, a hero on the banks of the
+Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he accepted with
+reluctance the painful task of supporting his own reputation and
+retrieving the faults of his successors. He was too late to save Rome
+from the Goths, by whom it was taken in December 546; but he recovered
+it in the following February. After his recall by his envious sovereign
+in September 548, Rome was once more taken by the Goths. The successful
+repulse of the Franks and Alemanni finally restored the kingdom to the
+rule of the emperor. Belisarius died on March 13, 565.
+
+The emperor survived his death only eight months, and passed away, in
+the eighty-third year of his life and the thirty-eighth of his reign, on
+November 14, 565. The most lasting memorial of his reign is to be found
+neither in his victories nor his monuments, but in the immortal works of
+the Code, the Pandects, and the Institutes, in which the civil
+jurisprudence of the Romans was digested, and by means of which the
+public reason of the Romans has been silently or studiously transfused
+into the domestic institutions of the whole of Europe.
+
+
+_IV.--Gregory the Great_
+
+
+Justinian was succeeded by his nephew, Justin II., who lived to see the
+conquest of the greater part of Italy by Alboin, king of the Lombards
+(568-570), the disaffection of the exarch, Narses, and the ruin of the
+revived glories of the Roman world.
+
+During a period of 200 years Italy was unequally divided between the
+king of the Lombards and the exarchate of Ravenna. Rome relapsed into a
+state of misery. The Campania was reduced to the state of a dreary
+wilderness. The stagnation of a deluge caused by the torrential swelling
+of the Tiber produced a pestilential disease, and a stranger visiting
+Rome might contemplate with horror the solitude of the city. Gregory the
+Great, whose pontificate lasted from 590 to 604, reconciled the Arians
+of Italy and Spain to the Catholic Church, conquered Britain in the name
+of the Cross, and established his right to interfere in the management
+of the episcopal provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul. The merits of
+Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach and insult,
+but in the attachment of a grateful people he found the purest reward of
+a citizen and the best right of a sovereign.
+
+The short and virtuous reign of Tiberius (578-582), which succeeded that
+of Justin, made way for that of Maurice. For twenty years Maurice ruled
+with honesty and honour. But the parsimony of the emperor, and his
+attempt to cure the inveterate evil of a military despotism, led to his
+undoing, and in 602 he was murdered with his children. A like fate
+befell the Emperor Phocas, who succumbed in 610 to the fortunes of
+Heraclius, the son of Crispus, exarch of Africa. For thirty-two years
+Heraclius ruled the Roman world. In three campaigns he chastised the
+rising power of Persia, drove the armies of Chosroes from Syria,
+Palestine, and Egypt, rescued Constantinople from the joint siege of the
+Avars and Persians (626), and finally reduced the Persian monarch to the
+defence of his hereditary kingdom. The deposition and murder of Chosroes
+by his son Siroes (628) concluded the successes of the emperor.
+
+A treaty of peace was arranged, and Heraclius returned in triumph to
+Constantinople, where, after the exploits of six glorious campaigns, he
+peacefully enjoyed the sabbath of his toils. The year after his return
+he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to restore the true Cross to the
+Holy Sepulchre. In the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to
+the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians.
+
+Heraclius died in 612. His descendants continued to fill the throne in
+the persons of Constantine III. (641), Heracleonas (641), Constans II.
+(641), Constantine IV. (668), Justinian II. (685), until 711, when an
+interval of six years, divided into three reigns, made way for the rise
+of the Isaurian dynasty.
+
+
+_V.--The New Era of Charlemagne_
+
+
+Leo III. ascended the throne on March 25, 718, and the purple descended
+to his family, by the rights of heredity, for three generations. The
+Isaurian dynasty is most notable for the part it played in
+ecclesiastical history.
+
+The introduction of images into the Christian Church had confused the
+simplicity of religious worship. The education of Leo, his reason,
+perhaps his intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired him with a
+hatred of images. By two edicts he proscribed the existence, as well as
+the use, of religious pictures. This heresy of Leo and of his successors
+and descendants, Constantine V. (741), Leo IV. (775), and Constantine
+VI. (780), whose blinding by his mother Irene is one of the most tragic
+stories of Roman history, justified the popes in rebelling against the
+authority of the emperor, and in restoring and establishing the
+supremacy of Rome.
+
+Gregory II. saved the city from the attacks of the Lombards, who had
+seized Ravenna and extinguished the series of Greek exarchs in 751. He
+secured the assistance of Pepin, and the real governor of the French
+monarchy--Charles Martel, who, by his signal victory over the Saracens,
+had saved Europe from the Mohammedan yoke. Twice--in 754 and 756--Pepin
+marched to the relief of the city. His son Charlemagne, in 774, seemed
+to secure the permanent safety of the ancient capital by the conquest of
+Lombardy, and for twenty-six years he ruled the Romans as his subjects.
+The people swore allegiance to his person and his family, and the
+elections of the popes were examined and authorised by him. The senate
+exercised its rights by proclaiming him patrician and of the power of
+the emperor; nothing was lacking except the title.
+
+A document, known as the Forged Decretals, which assigned the free and
+perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West to
+the popes by Constantine, was presented by Pope Hadrian I. to
+Charlemagne. This document served to absolve the popes from their debt
+of gratitude to the French monarch, and excused the revolt of Rome from
+the authority of the eastern empire.
+
+Though Constantinople returned, under Irene, to the employment of
+images, and the seventh general council of Nicaea, September 24, 787,
+pronounced the worship of the Greeks as agreeable to scripture and
+reason, the division between the East and the West could not be avoided.
+The pope was driven to revive the western empire in order to secure the
+gift of the exarchy, to eradicate the claims of the Greeks, and to
+restore the majesty of Rome from the debasement of a provincial town.
+The emperors of the West would receive their crown from the successor of
+St. Peter, and the Roman Church would require a zealous and respectable
+advocate.
+
+Inspired by these motives, Pope Leo, who had nearly fallen a victim to a
+conspiracy (788), and had been saved and reinstated by Charlemagne, took
+the opportunity presented by the French king's visit to Rome to crown
+him emperor. On the festival of Christmas (800), in the church of St.
+Peter, Leo, after the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, suddenly placed
+a precious crown on his head. The dome resounded with the acclamations
+of the people, his head and body were consecrated with the royal
+unction, and he was saluted, or adored, by the pontiff after the example
+of the Caesars.
+
+Europe dates a new era from his restoration of the western empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THEODOR MOMMSEN
+
+
+History of Rome
+
+
+     Theodor Mommsen was born at Garding in Schleswig on November
+     30, 1817. He studied at Kiel University for three years,
+     examined Roman inscriptions in France and Italy from 1844 to
+     1847, and attained his first professorship at Leipzig in 1848,
+     and the Berlin Chair of Ancient History in 1858. His greatest
+     work was the "History of Rome," published in 1854, and its
+     successor, the "Roman Provinces." On this work he brought to
+     bear a research and a scholarship of almost unparalleled range
+     and completeness. He was a man capable of vehement and
+     occasionally unreasonable partisanship, and a strict and
+     cold-blooded impartiality would have tempered the enthusiasm
+     of some of his portraits and the severity of others. These
+     defects, however, are less obvious when his history is
+     condensed in small compass. There are cases in which his
+     judgments are open to adverse criticism. But at the present
+     day it may safely be affirmed that there is no extant history
+     of Rome down to the establishment of the empire which can be
+     regarded as rivalling that here presented. Upwards of 900
+     separate publications remain as a monument of Mommsen's
+     industry. He died on November 1, 1903.
+
+
+Iapygians, Etruscans, and Italians, the last certainly Indo-Europeans,
+are the original stocks of Italy proper. Of the Italians there are two
+divisions, the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian. Central Italy was occupied
+by the Latins, who were established in cantons formed of village groups;
+which cantons at an early age formed themselves into the loose Latin
+League, with Alba at its head.
+
+The Roman canton, on both banks of the Tiber, concentrated itself on the
+city earlier than others. The citizens consisted of the families which
+constituted the larger groups of clans or gentes, formed into those
+tribes. The remainder of the population were their dependents or slaves.
+At the head of the family was the father, and the whole community had
+its king, standing to it in the same relation as the father to the
+family. His power, within the law, was absolute; but he could not
+override it or change it on his own authority. This required the formal
+assent of the assembled citizens. The heads of the clans formed a
+separate body--the Senate--which controlled the appointment of the king,
+and could veto legislation.
+
+By admission of aliens and absorption of other communities, swelling the
+number of dependents, was gradually created a great body of plebeians,
+non-citizens, who began to demand political rights; and whom it was
+necessary to organise for military purposes which was done by the
+"Servian Constitution." Gradually Rome won a supremacy in the Latin
+League, a position of superiority over the aggregate of the other
+cantons.
+
+In this community arose three political movements: (1) On the part of
+the full citizen, patricii, to limit the power not of the state, but of
+the kings; (2) of the non-citizens, to acquire political rights; (3) of
+antagonism between the great landholders and the land-interests opposed
+to them. The first resulted in the expulsion of the monarchs, and the
+substitution of a dual kingship held for one year only. But in many
+respects their joint power was curtailed as compared with that of the
+monarch, while for emergencies they could appoint a temporary dictator.
+The change increased the power of the General Assembly, to which it
+became necessary to admit the non-citizen freeholders who were liable to
+military duties. The life tenure of the members of the Senate greatly
+increased the powers of that body, and intensified the antagonism of the
+patriarch and the plebeians.
+
+At the same time, a landed nobility was developing; and when fresh land
+was acquired by the state, the Patricians claimed to control it. But the
+great agricultural population could not submit to this process of land
+absorption, and the consequent strife took the form of a demand for
+political recognition, which issued in the appointment of Tribunes of
+the Plebs, with power of administrative veto.
+
+The struggle over privileges lasted for two hundred years. First the
+Canuleian law made marriage valid between patricians and plebeians, and
+instituted for a time military tribunes. The Licinian law, eighty years
+later, admitted plebeians to the consulship, and also required the
+employment of free labour in agriculture. The decisively democratic
+measure was the Horticunian law, after another seventy years, giving the
+exclusively plebeian assembly full legislative power. The practical
+effect of the changes was to create a new aristocracy, semi-plebeian in
+origin, and to reduce the personal power of the chief officers of state,
+while somewhat increasing that of the remodelled Senate; rendering it a
+body selfish indeed in internal matters, but essentially patriotic as
+well as powerful.
+
+
+_I.--The Description of Italy_
+
+
+During the period of this long constitutional struggle, Rome and her
+kinsfolk had first been engaged in a stubborn and ultimately successful
+contest with the non-Aryan Etruscan race; and then Italy had been
+attacked by the migrating Aryan hordes of the Celts, known as Gauls, who
+sacked Rome, but retired to North Italy; events giving birth to many
+well-known stories, probably in the main mythical. But the practical
+effect was to impose a greater solidarity of the Latin and kindred
+races, and a more decisive acceptance of Roman hegemony.
+
+That hegemony, however, had to be established by persistent compulsion,
+and there were three stages in its completion. First, the subjection of
+the Latins and Campanians; then the struggle of Rome with the
+Umbrian-Samnites; finally, the decisive repulse of the Epirote invader
+Pyrrhus--in effect a Hellenic movement. The Roman supremacy established
+through the exhaustion of the valiant Samnites required to be confirmed
+by stern repression of attempts to recover liberty. But the Hellenic
+element in Italy, antagonistic to the growing Roman power, in effect
+invited the intervention of the Epirote chief. But his scheme was not
+that of an imperial statesman, but of a chivalrous and romantic warrior.
+His own political blunders and the iron determination of the Romans,
+destroyed his chances of conquest. His retirement left Rome undisputed
+lord of Italy; which in part shared full citizenship, in part possessed
+only the more restricted Latin rights, and in part only rights conceded
+under varying treaties.
+
+A sense of common Italian nationality was developing. But if Rome was
+queen of Italy, Carthage was queen of the seas. Maritime expansion was
+precluded, though Rome's position fitted her for it. Carthage was the
+one Phoenician state which developed political as well as commercial
+power. The commercial cities of North Africa were in subordination to
+her, in the Western Mediterranean she had no rivals, her domestic
+government was oligarchical.
+
+Roman intervention in the affairs of Sicily, where Carthage was the
+dominant power, produced the rupture between the two great states which
+was bound to come sooner or later. Sicily itself was the scene of the
+initial struggle, which taught Rome that her victories on land were
+liable to be nullified by the Carthaginian sea power. She resolved to
+build a navy, on the plan of adopting boarding tactics which would
+assimilate a naval engagement to a battle on land. These tactics were
+successful enough to equalise the fighting value of the respective
+fleets. The Romans were enabled to land an invading army under Regulus
+in Africa.
+
+Though superior on land, the general's blundering led to a disaster, and
+for some time misfortune by sea and failure by land dogged the Romans.
+But Carthage failed to use her opportunity; she did not attempt to
+strike a crushing blow when she could have done so. But the private
+energy of Roman patriots at last placed on the seas a fleet which once
+more turned the scale, whereas it was on land that the brilliant
+Carthaginian Hamilcar had displayed his genius and daring. The first
+Punic War gave Rome predominance in Sicily, and a position of maritime
+equality. Sardinia was added to the Roman dominion, and her provincial
+administration came into being.
+
+She was carrying her expansion farther over Celtic regions, when
+Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, hurled himself against her, and came near
+to destroying her. Hamilcar had conceived the idea of imperial
+expansion, and given it shape by creating a dominion in Spain; he had
+looked forward to the life-and-death struggle with Rome that was
+destined to his son; for which Spain was to be the base. Hannibal, left
+in control in Spain, deliberately challenged Rome to war.
+
+The challenge was accepted, war was declared, and Hannibal accomplished
+the amazing feat of leading an army of 60,000 men from Spain and
+effecting the passage of the Alps, while the Romans were landing an army
+in Spain. In a brilliant campaign, he defeated the stubborn Roman
+legions at Vercellae and the Trebia.
+
+But success depended not on the winning of victories by an isolated
+force, but on the disruption of Italy. His superiority in the field was
+again demonstrated at Trasimenus, but no Italian allies came in. He
+outwitted Fabius, and then utterly shattered at Cannae a Roman force of
+double his own numbers. For a moment it seemed that Italian cohesion was
+weakening; but the Roman Senate and people were stirred only to a more
+dogged resolution.
+
+Cannae failed to break up the Roman confederation. Generalship unaided
+could accomplish no more. In Spain, where young Scipio was soon winning
+renown, the Roman arms were in the ascendant, and in Sicily. No
+effective aid was coming from Macedon, though war was declared between
+her and Rome. Hannibal's activities began to be paralysed; by slow
+degrees he was forced into the south. Hannibal succeeded in crossing
+the Alps with fresh forces, but by a brilliant operation was annihilated
+on the Metaurus. The time had come when Scipio could disregard Hannibal
+and strike at Carthage herself. Even Hannibal's return could not save
+her. The victory of Zama decided the issue. Carthage became virtually a
+tributary and subject state. Spain was a Roman province, and North
+Africa a sort of protectorate.
+
+The threatening extension of Macedonian power now demanded the
+protecting intervention of Rome; an honest act of liberation for the
+Greeks, but entailing presently the war with Antiochus of Syria.
+Antiochus had left Phillip and Macedon in the lurch; now he sought to
+impose his own yoke in place of theirs. The practical outcome was his
+decisive overthrow at the battle of Magnesia, and the cession to Rome of
+Asia Minor. Pergamus, under the house of Actalus, was established as a
+protected kingdom, as Numidia under Masinissa had been. The Greek
+states, however, were becoming conscious that their freedom was hardly
+more than a name; Perseus of Macedon once more challenged Rome, not
+without Greek support. Macedon was finally crushed by Aemilius Paullus
+at Pydna. From that moment, Rome dropped the policy of maintaining free
+states beyond the seas, which had manifestly failed. Virtually, the
+known world was divided into subjects and dependencies of Rome, so vast
+was the change in the forty years between the battles of the Metaurus
+and Pydna.
+
+Rapid extension of dominion by conquest had demoralising results; the
+ruling race was exposed to strong temptations in the provinces, and the
+city remained the seat of government, while the best of the burgesses
+were distributed elsewhere. Hence, the popular assembly became virtually
+the city mob, while the ruling families tended more and more to form a
+close and greedy and plutocratic oligarchy. The demoralisation was very
+inadequately checked by the austerity of the censorship as exercised by
+Cato.
+
+In the provinces, the Spanish natives revolted, and were only repressed
+after severe fighting. In Greece, Asia and Africa, the Roman rule gave
+neither freedom nor strong government. In Africa, the disturbances led
+to the wiping out of Carthage; in Greece to the complete subjection of
+the dependent states; in the Far East, a new Parthian power arose under
+Mithridates. The Mediterranean was allowed to be infested by pirates.
+Revolution was at hand. Politics had become reduced to a process of
+intrigue for office emoluments, involving a pandering to the city mob
+for its suffrages.
+
+
+_II.--The Revolution_
+
+
+Socially, the most patent evil was the total disappearance of the free
+agricultural class, the absorption of all the land into huge estates
+under slave labour. The remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus was the
+partial state resumption of land and its re-allotment. He adopted
+unconstitutional methods for carrying his proposals, and was murdered in
+a riot led by the oligarchs. Appeals to the Roman populace were not,
+unfortunately, appeals to the Roman nation.
+
+His brother, Gaius, deliberately designed a revolution. He proposed to
+work through the antagonism of the aristocrats and the wealthy
+non-senatorial equestrian order; and by concentrating power in the hands
+of the tribunate, hitherto checked by the restrictions on re-election.
+In effect, he meant to destroy the oligarchy by making the Tribune a
+perpetual dictator, and thus to carry through social reforms; to
+establish also legal equality first for the Italians, then for the
+provinces also. But these reforms were not particularly attractive to
+the city mob, and the other side could play the demagogue. The condition
+of Caesarism is the control of physical force; Gaius Gracchus fell
+because he had not that essential control. The oligarchy remained
+supreme. The plans of Gracchus for planting colonies and distributing
+allotments were nullified.
+
+The evils of slave labour multiplied, and issued in servile
+insurrections. In Numidia, the able Masimissa had been succeeded by
+Micipsa. On Micipsa's death, the rule was usurped by his illegitimate
+nephew Jugurtha, whose story has been told by Sallust. The war was at
+least terminated less by the low-born general in command, Marius, than
+his brilliant lieutenant Sulla. But Marius re-organised the army on the
+basis which was to make a military despotism practicable, as it made a
+professional instead of a citizen army.
+
+But now a new foe appears; the first Teutonic (not Celtic) hordes of the
+Cimbri and Teutones; to meet with an overwhelming check at the hands of
+Marius at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae. The successful soldier allied
+himself with the popular leader Saturninus; the programme of Gaius
+Gracchus was resuscitated. But Marius, a political incapable, separated
+from the demagogues, and by helping to crush them, effaced himself.
+Livius Drusus attempted to carry out the Gracchan social reform, with
+the senate instead of the tribunate as the controlling power; the
+senatorial party themselves wrecked his schemes, and the antagonistic
+power of the equestrian order was advanced.
+
+But the immediate outcome was the revolt of the Italians, the _socii_
+(whence the name social war). They were not citizens, not on an equal
+footing with the citizens before the law. The revolt was suppressed, but
+the legions were completely out of hand. The attempt of Sulpicius to
+head the reform movement was answered by Sulla, who for the first time
+led a Roman army against Rome, crushed Sulpicius, prescribed some of his
+adherents, and placed the power of the senate on a stronger footing by
+legal enactment. Then he went to the East, to conduct the war against
+Mithridates.
+
+While Sulla was conducting his operations, military and diplomatic, with
+skill and success in the East, his arrangements at Rome had left
+discontent and disappointment seething. There was another revolution,
+led by Cinna, Marius and Sertorius; it mastered Rome. Marius spilt seas
+of blood, but soon died. For three years Cinna was supreme, but he had
+no constructive policy.
+
+But now Sulla had finished his work in the East. He was returning at the
+head of a body of veterans devoted to him; and his diplomacy won over
+half Italy to his side. The struggle with the revolutionary government
+was not greatly prolonged, and it was decisive.
+
+In plain terms, the Roman constitution had gone utterly to wreck; Sulla
+was in something of the same position as Oliver Cromwell. He had to
+reconstruct under conditions which made a constitutional restoration
+impracticable; but his control of the efficient military force gave him
+the necessary power. That any system introduced must be arbitrary and
+find its main sanction in physical force--that it should partake of
+terrorism--was inevitable.
+
+Sulla obtained the formal conferment on himself of absolute power. He
+began by applying this rule of terror not vindictively, but with
+impersonal mercilessness, against the lives and property of the
+opposition. In the constitution which he promulgated the senatorial body
+was alone recognised as a privileged class; the senate itself was
+increased, it recovered full control of the judiciary and of
+legislation; no power was left of cancelling membership. The tribunician
+power was curtailed.
+
+The civil and military functions of consuls and praetors were separated.
+They were to hold civil power in Italy proper during their year of
+office; they were then to have a second year in military control of a
+province. The planting of military colonies provided numerous garrisons
+whose interests were associated with the new constitution. When Sulla
+had done his work, he resigned his extraordinary powers with entire
+indifference. In a little more than a year he died.
+
+The Sullan constitution saved the Roman empire from imminent collapse;
+but it was impossible that it should be more than a makeshift, like
+Cromwell's protectorate. There were huge classes with perpetual
+grievances; the removal of the military forces to the provinces left the
+city of Rome without adequate governors of the provinces themselves. And
+there was no man of the hour of supreme ability to carry on work
+demanding a master.
+
+
+_III.--Pompey and Caesar_
+
+
+The young Graccus Pompeius was the most distinguished of the Sullan
+party; Crassus was the wealthiest and most powerful of the Equestrian
+group; Lepidus was the popular leader. A popular insurrection which he
+headed was suppressed, and he disappeared, but Sertorius, once an
+associate of Marius, had obtained a remarkable personal ascendancy in
+Spain, and, in league with the Mediterranean pirates, threatened to be a
+formidable foe of the new constitution. For some years he maintained a
+gradually waning resistance against the arms of Pompeius, but finally
+was assassinated.
+
+Meanwhile Tigranes, King of Armenia, had been developing a powerful
+monarchy; and mutual distrust had brought on another war with
+Mithridates, successfully conducted by Lucullus. Out of this war arose a
+struggle with Tigranes, on whom an overwhelming defeat was inflicted at
+Tigranocerta. But the brilliant achievements of Lucullus were nullified
+by the mutinous conduct of the troops, and the factious conduct of the
+home government. The gross inefficiency of that government was shown by
+the immense extension of organised piracy, and by the famous slave
+revolt under Spartacus, which seriously endangered the state.
+
+Pompeius on his return from Spain was barred on technical grounds from
+the triumph and the consulship which he demanded. He was thus driven
+into an alliance with the democratic party, and with Crassus. The result
+was the fall of the Sullan constitution, and the restoration of checks
+on the power of the senate. Pompeius might have grasped a military
+despotism; he did not, but he did receive extraordinary powers for
+dealing with the whole Eastern question, and when that work was settled
+successfully, he would be able to dictate his own terms.
+
+Pompeius began his task by a swift and crushing blow against the pirate
+cities and fleets, which broke up the organisation. He crushed
+Mithridates in one campaign, and received the submission of Tigranes;
+Mithridates soon after fell by his own hand, the victim of an
+insurrection. Anarchy in Syria warranted Pompeius in annexing the
+Seleucid dominion. The whole of the nearer East was now a part of the
+Roman empire; and was thenceforth ruled not as protectorates, but as a
+group of provinces. Egypt alone was not incorporated.
+
+Meanwhile, the democratic party at Rome were dominant, though their
+policy was inconsistent and opportunist. Probably the leading men, such
+as Crassus and the rising Gaius, Julius Caesar, stood aside from the
+wilder schemes, such as the Catilinarian conspiracies, but secretly
+fostered them. Catiline's projects were betrayed, and the illegal
+execution of the captured conspirators by the consul Cicero was hailed
+by Cato and the senatorial party as a triumph of patriotic
+statesmanship. Catiline himself was crushed in the field.
+
+The definite fact emerged, that neither the senatorial nor the
+democratic party could establish a strong government; that would be
+possible only for a military monarchy--a statesman with a policy and an
+irresistible, force at his back. But Pompeius lacked the courage and
+skill. Caesar, as yet, lacked the military force. Pompeius, on his return
+from the East, again allied himself with Crassus and Caesar, whose object
+was to acquire for himself the opportunity which Pompeius would not
+grasp. The alliance gave Pompeius the land allotments he required for
+his soldiers, and to Caesar the consulship followed by a prolonged
+governorship of Gaul.
+
+The conquest and organisation of Gaul was an end in itself, a necessary
+defence against barbarian pressure. Caesar's operations there were
+invaluable to the empire; incidentally, they enabled him to become
+master of it. Caesar has left his own record. Gaul was transformed into a
+barrier against the Teutonic migration. But Pompeius, nominally holding
+a far greater position, proved incapable of controlling the situation in
+Rome; he could not even suppress the demagogue Clodius, while the
+prestige of his military exploits was waning. Fear of the power of the
+Triumvirate was driving moderate men to the senatorial part; that party,
+without an efficient leader, began to find in Pompeius rather in ally
+against the more dangerous Caesar than an enemy.
+
+But they would not concede him the powers he required; which might yet
+be turned to the uses of his colleagues in the Triumvirate; he could not
+afford to challenge Caesar; and Caesar adroitly used the situation to
+secure for himself a prolongation of his Gallic command. The completion
+of his work there was to have precedence of his personal ambitions.
+Crassus was sent to the Eastern command; and Pompeius remained in Italy,
+while nominally appointed to Spain.
+
+Pompeius, indeed, attained a predominance in Rome which enabled him to
+secure temporarily dictatorial powers which were employed to counteract
+the electoral machinery of the republican party; but he had not the
+qualifications or the inclination to play the demagogue, and could not
+unite his aspirations as a restorer of law and order with effective
+party leadership. Crassus disappeared; his armies in the East met with a
+complete disaster at Carrhae, and he took his own life. Caesar and
+Pompeius were left; Pompeius was not content that Caesar should stand on
+a real equality with him, and the inevitable rupture came.
+
+In effect Pompeius used his dictatorship to extend his own military
+command and to curtail Caesar's. The position resolved itself into a
+rivalry between the two; Caesar declaring as always for the democracy,
+Pompeius now assuming the championship of the aristocracy, and the
+guardianship of the constitution.
+
+For Caesar the vital point now was that his own command should not
+terminate till he exchanged it for a fresh consulship. As the law now
+stood, he could not obtain his election without resigning his command
+beforehand. But he succeeded in forcing Pompeius to break the law; and
+in making the official government responsible for declaring war. He
+offered a compromise, perhaps, in the certainty that it would be
+rejected--as it was. He was virtually declared a public enemy; and he
+struck at once.
+
+At the head of his devotedly loyal veterans he crossed the Rubicon. His
+rapid and successful advance caused Pompeius to abandon Italy and fall
+back on the Eastern Provinces. The discipline preserved, and the
+moderation displayed by Caesar won him unexpected favour. Having secured
+Italy, he turned next on Spain, and secured that. Swift and decisive
+action was pitted against inertness. When Caesar entered Epirus the odds
+against him on paper were enormous; but the triumphant victory of
+Phansalus shattered the Pompeian coalition. Pompeius hurried to Egypt,
+but was assassinated while landing. The struggle, however, was not over
+till after the battle of Thapsus nearly two years after Phansalus.
+
+Caesar was now beyond question master of the whole Roman world. He had
+made himself one of the mightiest of all masters of the art of war; but
+he was even more emphatically unsurpassed as a statesman. In the brief
+time that was left him he laid the foundation of the new monarchy which
+replaced the ancient Republic of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Mediaeval History
+
+
+EDWARD GIBBON
+
+
+The Holy Roman Empire
+
+
+     The third of Gibbon's divisions of his great history was
+     devoted to that period which is comprised between the
+     establishment of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 and the final
+     extinction of the Eastern Empire with the conquest of
+     Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453. Although this was the
+     longest period, Gibbon devoted much less space to it than to
+     the preceding parts of his history. This fact was partly due
+     to the gradual diminution of Roman interests, for the
+     dominions of the empire became contracted to the limits of a
+     single city, and also to the fact that the material which the
+     most painstaking search placed at his disposal was distinctly
+     limited. But though the conquest of the Normans, to instance
+     one section, has been dealt with inadequately in the light of
+     modern research, the wonderful panorama that Gibbon's genius
+     was able to present never fails in its effect or general
+     accuracy. The Holy Roman Empire is, of course, properly
+     classified under Mediaeval History, which accounts for its
+     separation from the rest of Gibbon's work.
+
+
+_I.--Birth and Sway of the Empire_
+
+
+The Western Empire, or Holy Roman Empire, as it has been called, which
+was re-established by Charlemagne (and lasted in shadow until the
+abdication of Francis II. under the pressure of Napoleon in 1806), was
+not unworthy of its title.
+
+The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
+the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The Greek emperor was
+addressed by him as brother instead of father; and as long as the
+imperial dignity of the West was usurped by a hero, the Greeks
+respectfully saluted the _august_ Charlemagne with the acclamations of
+"Basileus" and "Emperor of the Romans." Lewis the Pious (814-840)
+possessed the virtue of his father but not the power. When both power
+and virtue were extinct, the Greeks despoiled Lewis II. of his
+hereditary title, and with the barbarous appellation of _Rex_ degraded
+him amongst the crowd of Latin princes.
+
+The imperial title of the West remained in the family of Charlemagne
+until the deposition of Charles the Fat in 884. His insanity dissolved
+the empire into factions, and it was not until Otho, King of Germany,
+laid claim to the title, with fire and sword, that the western empire
+was restored (962). His conquest of Italy and delivery of the pope for
+ever fixed the imperial crown in the name and nation of Germany. From
+that memorable era two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by
+force and ratified by time: (1) That the prince who was elected in the
+German Diet acquired from that instant the subject kingdoms of Italy and
+Rome; (2) but that he might not legally assume the titles of Emperor and
+Augustus till he had received the crown from the hands of the Roman
+pontiff.
+
+The nominal power of the Western emperors was considerable. No pontiff
+could be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the
+Church, had graciously signified his approbation and consent. Gregory
+VII., in 1073, usurped this power, and fixed for ever in the college of
+cardinals the freedom and independence of election. Nominally, also, the
+emperors held sway in Rome, but this supremacy was annihilated in the
+thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century the power derived from his
+title was still recognised in Europe; the hereditary monarchs confessed
+the pre-eminence of his rank and dignity.
+
+The persecution of images and their votaries in the East had
+separated-Rome and Italy from the Byzantine throne, and prepared the way
+for the conquests of the Franks. The rise and triumph of the Mahometans
+still further diminished the empire of the East. The successful inroads
+of the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians, who assaulted by sea or by
+land the provinces and the capital, seemed to advance the approach of
+its final dissolution. The Norman adventurers, who founded a powerful
+kingdom in Apulia and Sicily, shook the throne of Constantinople (1146),
+and their hostile enterprises did not cease until the year 1185.
+
+
+_II.--Latin Rulers of Constantinople_
+
+
+Under the name of the Latins, the subjects of the pope, the nations of
+the West, enlisted under the banner of the Cross for the recovery or the
+release of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek emperors were terrified and
+preserved by the myriads of pilgrims who marched to Jerusalem with
+Godfrey of Bouillon (1095-99) and the peers of Christendom. The second
+(1147) and the third (1189) crusades trod in the footsteps of the first.
+Asia and Europe were mingled in a sacred war of two hundred years; and
+the Christian powers were bravely resisted and finally expelled (1291)
+by Saladin (1171-93) and the Mamelukes of Egypt.
+
+In these memorable crusades a fleet and army of French and Venetians
+were diverted from Syria to the Thracian Bosphorus; they assaulted the
+capital (1203), they subverted the Greek monarchy; and a dynasty of
+Latin princes was seated near three-score years on the throne of
+Constantine.
+
+During this period of captivity and exile, which lasted from 1204 to
+1261, the purple was preserved by a succession of four monarchs, who
+maintained their title as the heirs of Augustus, though outcasts from
+their capital. The _de facto_ sovereigns of Constantinople during this
+period, the Latin emperors of the houses of Flanders and Courtenay,
+provided five sovereigns for the usurped throne. By an agreement between
+the allied conquerors, the emperor of the East was nominated by the vote
+of twelve electors, chosen equally from the French and Venetians. To
+him, with all the titles and prerogatives of the Byzantine throne, a
+fourth part of the Greek monarchy was assigned; the remaining portions
+were equally snared between the republic of Venice and the barons of
+France.
+
+Under this agreement, Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainault, was
+created emperor (1204-05). The idea of the Roman system, which, despite
+the passage of centuries devoted to the triumphs of the barbarians, had
+impressed itself on Europe, was seen in the emperor's letter to the
+Roman pontiff, in which he congratulated him on the restoration of his
+authority in the East.
+
+The defeat and captivity of Baldwin in a war against the Bulgarians, and
+his subsequent death, placed the crown on the head of his brother Henry
+(1205-16). With him the imperial house of Flanders became extinct, and
+Peter of Courtenay, Count of Auxerre (1217-19), assumed the empire of
+the East. Peter was taken captive by Theodore, the legitimate sovereign
+of Constantinople, and his sons Robert (1221-28) and Baldwin II.
+(1228-37) reigned in succession. The gradual recovery of their empire by
+the legitimate sovereigns of the East culminated in the capture of
+Constantinople by the Greeks (1261). The line of Latin sovereigns was
+extinct. Baldwin lived the remainder of his life a royal fugitive,
+soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his restoration. He died in
+1272.
+
+From the days of the Emperor Heraclius the Byzantine Empire had been
+most tranquil and prosperous when it could acquiesce in hereditary
+succession. Five dynasties--the Heraclian, Isaurian, Amorian, Basilian,
+and Comnenian families--enjoyed and transmitted the royal patrimony
+during their respective series of five, four, three, six, and four
+generations. The imperial house of Comnenius, though its direct line in
+male descent had expired with Andronicus I. (1185), had been perpetuated
+by marriage in the female line, and had survived the exile from
+Constantinople, in the persons of the descendants of Theodore Lascaris.
+
+Michael Palaeologus, who, through his mother, might claim perhaps a
+prior right to the throne of the Comnenii, usurped the imperial dignity
+on the recovery of Constantinople, cruelly blinded the young Emperor
+John, the legitimate heir of Theodore Lascaris, and reigned until 1282.
+His career of authority was notable for an attempt to unite the Greek
+and Roman churches--a union which was dissolved in 1283--and his
+instigation of the revolt in Sicily, which ended in the famous Sicilian
+Vespers (March 30, 1282), when 8,000 French were exterminated in a
+promiscuous massacre.
+
+He saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion
+and blood. From these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men,
+who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son, Andronicus the Elder
+(1282-1332). Thousands of Genoese and Catalans, released from the wars
+that Michael had aroused in the West, took service under his successor
+against the Turks. Other mercenaries flocked to their standard, and,
+under the name of the Great Company, they subverted the authority of the
+emperor, defeated his troops, laid waste his territory, united
+themselves with his enemies, and, finally, abandoning the banks of the
+Hellespont, marched into Greece. Here they overthrew the remnant of the
+Latin power, and for fourteen years (1311-1326) the Great Company was
+the terror of the Grecian states.
+
+Their factions drove them to acknowledge the sovereignity of the house
+of Arragon; and, during the remainder of the fourteenth century, Athens
+as a government or an appanage was successfully bestowed by the kings of
+Sicily. Conquered in turn by the French and Catalans, Athens at length
+became the capital of a state that extended over Thebes, Argos, Corinth,
+Delphi, and a part of Thessaly, and was ruled by the family of Accaioli,
+plebeians of Florence (1384-1456). The last duke of this dynasty was
+strangled by Mahomet II., who educated his sons in the discipline of the
+seraglio.
+
+During the reign of John Palaeologus, son of Andronicus the Younger,
+which began in 1355, the eastern empire was nearly subverted by the
+Genoese. On the return of the legitimate sovereign to Constantinople,
+the Genoese, who had established their factories and industries in the
+suburb of Galata, or Pera, were allowed to remain. During the civil wars
+the Genoese forces took advantage of the disunion of the Greeks, and by
+the skilful use of their power exacted a treaty by which they were
+granted a monopoly of trade, and almost a right of dominions. The Roman
+Empire (I smile in transcribing the name) might soon have sunk into a
+province of Genoa if the ambition of the republic had not been checked
+by the ruin of her freedom and naval power. Yet the spirit of commerce
+survived that of conquest; and the colony of Pera still awed the capital
+and navigated the Euxine till it was involved by the Turks in the final
+servitude of Constantinople itself.
+
+
+_III.--End of the Roman World_
+
+
+Only three more sovereigns ruled the remnants of the Roman world after
+the reign of John Palaeologus, but the final downfall of the empire was
+delayed above fifty years by a series of events that had sapped the
+strength of the Mahometan empire. The rise and triumph of the Moguls and
+Tartars under their emperors, descendants of Zingis Khan, had shaken the
+globe from China to Poland and Greece (1206-1304). The sultans were
+overthrown, and in the general disorder of the Mahometan world a veteran
+and adventurous army, which included many Turkoman hordes, was dissolved
+into factions who, under various chiefs, lived a life of rapine and
+plunder. Some of these engaged in the service of Aladin (1219-1236),
+Sultan of Iconium, and among these were the obscure fathers of the
+Ottoman line.
+
+Orchan ruled from 1326 to 1360, achieved the conquest of Bithynia, and
+first led the Turks into Europe, and in 1353 established himself in the
+Chersonesus, and occupied Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont. Orchan
+was succeeded by Amurath I. (1389-1403). Bajazet carried his victorious
+arms from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became
+contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black
+Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of
+ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or
+Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the
+wealth and populousness of a kingdom.
+
+Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
+Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet
+had not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul
+power under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a
+conquest of Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan
+(1398-1399), Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found
+himself at length face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was
+taken prisoner in the war that followed. Kept, probably only as a
+precaution, in an iron cage, Bajazet attended the marches of his
+conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403. Two years later, Timour also
+passed away on the road to China. Of his empire to-day nothing remains.
+Since the reign of his descendant Aurungzebe, his empire has been
+dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a
+Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom is now possessed by the
+Christians of a remote island in the northern ocean.
+
+Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
+was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than
+it again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a
+period of civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman
+Empire was once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II.
+(1421-1451).
+
+One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
+of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
+Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
+domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.
+
+While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
+Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
+Manuel sank into the grave, and John Palaeologus II. (1425-1448) was
+permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
+dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
+Constantinople.
+
+On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emperors,
+assumed the purple of the Caesars. For three years he was allowed to
+indulge himself in various private and public designs, the completion of
+which were interrupted by a Turkish war, and finally buried in the ruins
+of the empire.
+
+
+_IV.--The Great Siege of Constantinople_
+
+
+Mahomet II. succeeded his father Amurath on February 9, 1451. His
+hostile designs against the capital were immediately seen in the
+building of a fortress on the Bosphorus, which commanded the source
+whence the city drew her supplies. In the following year a quarrel
+between some Greeks and Turks gave him the excuse of declaring war. His
+cannon--for the use of gunpowder, for some time the monopoly of the
+Christian world, had been betrayed to Amurath by the Genoese--commanded
+the port, and a tribute was exacted from all ships that entered the
+harbour. But the actual siege was delayed until the ensuing spring of
+1453.
+
+Mahomet, in person, surveyed the city, encouraged his soldiers, and
+discussed with his generals and engineers the best means of making the
+assault. By his orders a huge cannon was built in Hadrianople. It fired
+a ball one mile, and to convey it to its position before the walls, a
+team of sixty oxen and the assistance of 200 men were employed. The
+Emperor Constantine, unable to excite the sympathy of Europe, attempted
+the best defence of which he was capable, with a force of 4,970 Romans
+and 2,000 Genoese. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbour,
+and whatever supplies arrived from Candia and the Black Sea were
+detained for the public service.
+
+The siege of Constantinople, in which scarcely 7,000 soldiers had to
+defend a city sixteen miles in extent against the powers of the Ottoman
+Empire, commenced on April 6, 1453. The last Constantine deserves the
+name of a hero; his noble band of volunteers was inspired with Roman
+virtue, and the foreign auxiliaries supported the honour of the Western
+chivalry. But their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the
+operations of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size
+or number; and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant
+them on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and
+overthrown by the explosion.
+
+The great cannon of Mahomet could only be fired seven times in one day,
+but the weight and repetition of the shots made some impression on the
+walls. The Turks rushed to the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the
+enormous chasm and to build a road to the assault. In the attack, as
+well as in the defence, ancient and modern artillery was employed.
+Cannon and mechanical engines, the bullet and the battering-ram,
+gunpowder and Greek fire, were engaged on both sides.
+
+Christendom watched the struggle with coldness and apathy. Four ships,
+which successfully forced an entrance into the harbour, were the limit
+of their assistance. None the less, Mahomet meditated a retreat. Unless
+the city could be attacked from the harbour, its reduction appeared to
+be hopeless. In this perplexity the genius of Mahomet executed a plan of
+a bold and marvellous cast. He transported his fleet over land for ten
+miles. In the course of one night four-score light galleys and
+brigantines painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and were
+launched from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, far
+above the molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. A bridge, or
+mole, hastily built, formed a base for one of his largest cannon. The
+galleys, with troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible
+side of the walls, and, after a siege of forty days, the diminutive
+garrison, exhausted by a double attack, could hope no longer to avert
+the fate of the capital.
+
+On Monday, May 28, preparations were made for the final assault. Mahomet
+had inspired his soldiers with the hope of rewards in this world and the
+next. His camp re-echoed with the shouts of "God is God; there is but
+one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God"; and the sea and land, from
+Galata to the Seven Towers, were illuminated with the blaze of the
+Moslem fires.
+
+Far different was the state of the Christians. On that last night of the
+Roman Empire, Constantine Palaeologus, in his palace, addressed the
+noblest of the Greeks and the bravest of the allies on the duties and
+dangers that lay before them. It was the funeral oration of the Roman
+Empire. That same night the emperor and some faithful companions entered
+the Dome of St. Sofia, which, within a few hours, was to be converted
+into a mosque, and devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the
+sacrament of the Holy Communion. He reposed some moments in the palace,
+which resounded with cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all
+whom he might have injured, and mounted on horseback to visit the guards
+and explore the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last
+Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine
+Caesars.
+
+At daybreak on May 29 the Turks assaulted the city by sea and land. For
+two hours the Greeks maintained the defence with advantage, and the
+voice of the emperor was heard encouraging the soldiers to achieve by a
+last effort the deliverance of their country. The new and fresh forces
+of the Turks supplied the places of their wearied associates. From all
+sides the attack was pressed.
+
+The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps one hundred, times
+superior to that of the Christians, the double walls were reduced by the
+cannons to a heap of ruins, and at last one point was found which the
+besiegers could penetrate. Hasan, the Janizary, of gigantic stature and
+strength, ascended the outward fortification. The walls and towers were
+instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from
+the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.
+
+Amidst these multitudes, the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of
+a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. His mournful
+exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
+head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the
+infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple.
+Amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried
+under a mountain of the slain.
+
+After his death, resistance and order were no more. Two thousand Greeks
+were put to the sword, and more would have perished had not avarice soon
+prevailed over cruelty.
+
+It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
+which had defied the power of Chosroes and the caliphs, was
+irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet II. Sixty thousand Greeks
+were driven through the streets like cattle and sold as slaves. The nuns
+were torn from the monasteries and compelled to enter the harems of
+their conquerors. The churches were plundered, and the gold and silver,
+the pearls and jewels, the vases and sacerdotal ornaments of St. Sofia
+were most wickedly converted to the service of mankind.
+
+The cathedral itself, despoiled of its images and ornaments, was
+converted into a mosque, and Mahomet II. performed the _namaz_ of prayer
+and thanksgiving at the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had
+so lately been celebrated before the last of the Caesars. The body of
+Constantine was discovered under a heap of slain, by the golden eagles
+embroidered on his shoes, and after exposing the bloody trophy, Mahomet
+bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. Constantinople,
+desolated by bloodshed, was re-peopled and re-adorned by Mahomet. Its
+churches were shared between the two religions, and the Greeks were
+attracted back to their ancient capital by the assurance of their lives
+and the free exercise of their religion.
+
+The grief and terror of Europe when the fall of Constantinople became
+known revived, or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of the crusades.
+Pius II. attempted to lead Christendom against the Turks, but on the
+very day on which he embarked his forces drew back, and he was compelled
+to abandon the attempt. The siege and sack of Otranto by the Turks put
+an end to all thoughts of a crusade, and the general consternation was
+only allayed by the death of Mahomet II. in the fifty-first year of his
+age.
+
+His lofty genius aspired to the conquest of Italy; he was possessed of a
+strong city and a capacious harbour, and the same reign might have been
+decorated with the trophies of the New and the Ancient Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FRANCOIS GUIZOT
+
+
+History of Civilisation in Europe
+
+
+     Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, French historian and
+     statesman, was born of Huguenot parents at Nimes on October 4,
+     1787. The liberal opinions of his family did not save his
+     father from the guillotine in 1794, and the mother fled to
+     Geneva, where Guizot was educated. He went to Paris in the
+     later days of the Empire, and engaged himself at once in
+     literature and politics. His lectures on the History of
+     Civilisation delivered in 1828, 1829, and 1830, during his
+     professorship at the University of Paris, revealed him as a
+     historian with a rare capacity for mastering the broad
+     essential truths of history, co-ordinating them, and
+     expounding them with vigour and impressiveness. His first
+     series of lectures was on "The History of Civilisation in
+     Europe," a masterly abstract of a colossal subject; the second
+     on "The History of Civilisation in France." From 1830 to 1848
+     Guizot occupied high offices of State, ultimately becoming
+     prime minister; in 1848, like his master Louis Philippe, he
+     had to fly the country. He died on September 12, 1874.
+
+
+_I.--The Nature of Civilisation_
+
+
+The subject I propose to consider is the civilisation of Europe--its
+origins, its progress, its aims, its character. The fact of civilisation
+belongs to what is called the philosophic portion of history; it is a
+vague, obscure, complex fact, very difficult, I admit, to explain and
+describe, but none the less requiring explanation and description. It
+is, indeed, the greatest historical fact, to which all others
+contribute; it is a kind of ocean which makes the wealth of a people,
+and in the bosom of which all the elements of the people's life, all the
+forces of its existence, are joined in unity.
+
+What, then, is civilisation--this grave, far-reaching precious reality
+that seems the expression of the entire life of a people? It seems to me
+that the first and fundamental fact conveyed by the word civilisation is
+the fact of progress, of development. But what is this progress? What is
+this development? Here is the greatest difficulty of all.
+
+The etymology of the word civilisation seems to provide an easy answer.
+It tells us that civilisation is the perfecting of civil life, the
+development of society properly so called, of the relations of men to
+men. But is this all? Have we exhausted the natural and usual sense of
+the word? France, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was
+acknowledged to be the most civilised country in Europe; yet in respect
+of purely civil progress France was then greatly inferior to some other
+European countries, Holland and England, for example. Another
+development, then, reveals itself--the development of individual life,
+of the man himself, of his faculties, sentiments, and ideas.
+
+These two notions that are comprehended in the broad notion of
+civilisation--that of the development of social activity and that of the
+development of individual activity--are intimately related to each
+other. Their relationship is upheld by the instinctive conviction of
+men; it is proved by the course of the world's history--all the great
+moral and intellectual advances of man have profited society, all the
+great social advances have profited the individual mind.
+
+So much for civilisation in general. It is now necessary to point out
+the essential difference between modern European and other
+civilisations. The characteristic of other civilisations has been unity;
+they seem to have emanated from a single fact, a single idea. In Egypt
+and India, for example, the theocratic principle was dominant; in the
+Greek and Phoenician republics, the democratic principle. The
+civilisation of modern Europe, on the contrary, is diverse, confused,
+stormy; all the forms and principles of social organisation theocratic,
+monarchical, aristocratic, democratic, co-exist in it; there are
+infinite gradations of liberty, wealth, influence. All the various
+forces are in a state of constant struggle; yet all of them have a
+certain family resemblance, as it were, that we cannot but recognise.
+
+These diverse elements, for all their conflict, cannot any one of them
+extinguish any other; each has to dwell with the rest, make a compromise
+with the rest. The outcome, then, of this diversity and struggle is
+liberty; and here is the grand and true superiority of the European over
+the other civilisations. European civilisation, if I may say so, has
+entered into eternal truth; it advances in the ways of God.
+
+
+_II.--Feudalism_
+
+
+It would be an important confirmation of my assertion as to the diverse
+character of our civilisation if we should find in its very cradle the
+causes and the elements of that diversity. And indeed, at the fall of
+the Roman empire, we do so find it. Three forms of society, each
+entirely different from the other, are visible at this time of chaos.
+The municipalities survived, the last remnant of the Imperial system.
+The Christian Church survived. And in the third place there were the
+Barbarians, who brought with them a military organisation, and a hardy
+individual independence, that were wholly new to the peoples who had
+dwelt under the shelter of the empire. The Barbarian epoch was the chaos
+of all the elements, the infancy of all the systems, a universal hubbub
+in which even conflict itself had no definite or permanent effects.
+
+Europe laboured to escape from this confusion; at some times, and in
+some places, it was temporarily checked--in particular by the great
+Charlemagne in his revival of the imperial power; but the confusion did
+not cease until its causes no longer acted. These causes were two--one
+material, one moral. The material cause was the irruption of fresh
+Barbarian hordes. The moral cause was the lack of any ideas in common
+among men as to the structure of society. The old imperial fabric had
+disappeared; Charlemagne's restoration of it depended wholly on his own
+personality, and did not survive him; men had no ideas of any new
+structure--their intellectual horizon was limited to their own affairs.
+By the beginning of the tenth century the Barbarian invasions ended, and
+as the populations settled down a new system appeared, based partly on
+the Barbarians' love of independence, partly on their plans of military
+gradation--the system of feudalism.
+
+A sound proof that in the tenth century the feudal system was necessary,
+and the only social state possible, lies in the universality of its
+establishment. Everywhere society was dismembered; everywhere there was
+formed a multitude of small, obscure, isolated societies, consisting of
+the chief, his family, his retainers, and the wretched serfs over whom
+he ruled without restraint, and who had no appeal against his whim. The
+power he exercised was the power of individual over individual, the
+domination of personal will and caprice; and this is perhaps the only
+kind of tyranny that man, to his eternal honour, is never willing to
+endure. Hence the prodigious and invincible hatred that the people have
+at all times entertained for feudal rule, for the memories of it, for
+its very name.
+
+The narrow concentrated life of the feudal lord lent, undoubtedly, a
+great preponderance to domesticity in his affairs. The lord had his wife
+and children for his permanent society; they continually shared his
+interests, his destiny. It was in the bosom of the feudal family that
+woman gained her importance in civilisation. The system excited
+development of private character and passion that were, all things
+considered, noble. Chivalry was the daughter of feudalism.
+
+But from the social point of view feudalism failed to provide either
+legal order or political security. It contained elaborate obligations
+between the higher and the lower orders of the feudal hierarchy, duties
+of protection on the one side and of service on the other. But these
+obligations could never be established as institutions. There was no
+superior force to which all had to submit; there was public opinion to
+make itself respected. Hence the feudal system was without political
+guarantee to sustain it. Might alone was right. Feudalism was as much
+opposed to the establishment of general order as to the extension of
+general liberty. It was indispensable for the reconstruction of European
+society, but politically it was in itself a radically bad system.
+
+
+_III.--The Church_
+
+
+Meanwhile the Church, adhering to its own principles, had steadily
+advanced along the route that it had marked out for itself in the early
+days of its organisation. It was during the feudal epoch the only power
+that made for civilised development. All education was ecclesiastical;
+all the arts were in the service of the Church. It had, during the Dark
+Ages, won the Barbarians to its fold by the gorgeous solemnity of its
+ritual; and, to protect itself against secular interference, it had
+declared the spiritual power to be independent of the temporal--the
+first great assertion, in the history of European civilisation, of the
+liberty of thought.
+
+In one set of respects the Church during the feudal epoch satisfied the
+conditions of good government; in another, it did not. Its power was
+uniformly distributed, it drew its recruits from all classes, and
+entrusted the rule to the most capable. It was in close touch with every
+grade of mankind; every colony of serfs, even, had its priest. It was
+the most popular and most accessible society of the time, the most open
+to all talents and all noble ambitions. But, on the other hand, it
+failed in that all-important requisite of good government, respect for
+liberty. It denied the rights of individual reason in spiritual matters,
+and it claimed the right to compel belief--a claim that placed it in
+some dependence upon the temporal powers, since as a purely spiritual
+body, governing by influence and not by force, it could not persecute
+without the aid of the secular arm.
+
+To sum up, the Church exerted an immense and on the whole a beneficent
+influence on ideas, sentiments, and conduct; but from the political
+point of view the Church was nearly always the interpreter and defender
+of the theocratic system and the Roman Imperial system--that is, of
+religious and civil despotism.
+
+
+_IV.--The Towns_
+
+
+Like the Church, the municipalities survived the downfall of the Roman
+empire. Their history varied greatly in different parts of Europe, but
+none the less some observations can be made that are broadly accurate
+with respect to most of them.
+
+From the fifth to the tenth century, the state of the towns was a state
+neither of servitude nor of liberty. They suffered all the woes that are
+the fate of the weak; they were the prey of continual violence and
+depredation; yet, in spite of the fearful disorders of the time, they
+preserved a certain importance. When feudalism was established, the
+towns lost such independence as they had possessed; they found
+themselves under the heel of feudal chiefs. But feudalism did bring
+about a sort of peace, a sort of order; and with the slightest gleam of
+peace and order a man's hope revives, and on the revival of hope he
+takes to work. So it was with the towns. New wants were created;
+commerce and industry arose to satisfy them; wealth and population
+slowly returned.
+
+But industry and commerce were absolutely without security; the townsmen
+were exposed to merciless extortion and plundering at the hands of their
+feudal overlords. Nothing irritates a man more than to be harassed in
+his toil, thus deprived of its promised fruits. The only way in which
+the towns could defend themselves from the violence of their masters was
+by using violence themselves. So in the eleventh century we find town
+after town rising in revolt against its despot, and winning from him a
+charter of liberty.
+
+Although the insurrection was in a sense general, it was in no way
+concerted--it was not a rising of the combined citizens against the
+combined feudal aristocracy. All the towns found themselves exposed to
+much the same evils, and rescued themselves in much the same manner. But
+each town acted for itself--did not go to the help of any other town.
+Hence these detached communities had no ambitions, no aspirations to
+national importance; their outlook was limited to themselves. But at the
+same time the emancipation of the towns created a new class, a class of
+citizens engaged in the same pursuits, with the same interests and the
+same modes of life; a class that would in time unite and assert itself,
+and prevent the domination of a single order of society that has been
+the curse of Asia.
+
+Although it may be broadly asserted that the emancipation did not alter
+the relations of the citizens with the general government, that
+assertion must be modified in one respect. A link was established
+between the citizens and the king. Sometimes they appealed for his aid
+against their lord, sometimes the lord invoked him as judge; in one way
+or another a relation was established between the king and the towns,
+and the citizens thus came into touch with the centre of the State.
+
+
+_V.--The Crusades_
+
+
+From the fifth to the twelfth century, society, as we have seen,
+contained kings, a lay aristocracy, a clergy, citizens, peasantry, the
+germs, in fact, of all that goes to make a nation and a government;
+yet--no government, no nation. We have come across a multitude of
+particular forces, of local institutions, but nothing general, nothing
+public, nothing properly speaking political.
+
+In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the contrary, all the
+classes and the particular forces have taken a secondary place, are
+shadowy and almost effaced; the stage of the world is occupied by two
+great figures, government and people.
+
+Here, if I am not mistaken, is the essential distinction between
+primitive Europe and modern Europe. Here is the change that was
+accomplished in the period extending from the thirteenth to the
+sixteenth century. Viewed by itself, that period seems a characterless
+one of confusion without cause, of movement without direction, of
+agitation without result. Yet, in relation to the period that followed,
+this period had a tendency and a progress of its own; it slowly
+accomplished a vast work. It was the second period of European
+civilisation--the period of attempt and experiment, succeeding that of
+origins and formation, and preparing the way for that of development
+properly so called.
+
+The first great event of this period was the Crusades--a universal
+movement of all classes and all countries in moral unity--the truly
+heroic event of Europe. Besides the religious impulse that led to the
+Crusades, there was another impulse. They gave to me an opportunity of
+widening their horizons, of indulging the taste for movement and
+adventure. The opportunity, thus freely taken, changed the face of
+society. Men's minds were opened, their ideas were extended, by contact
+with other races; European society was dragged out of the groove along
+which it had been travelling. Religious ideas remained unchanged, but
+religious beliefs were no longer the only sphere in which the human
+intellect exercised itself. The moral state of Europe was profoundly
+modified.
+
+The social state underwent a similar change. Many of the smaller feudal
+lords sold their fiefs, or impoverished themselves by crusading, or lost
+much of their power during their absence. Property and power came into
+fewer hands; society was more centralised, no longer dispersed as it
+formerly was. The citizens, on their part, were no longer content with
+local industry and trade; they entered upon commerce on a grander scale
+with countries oversea. Petty influence yielded place to larger
+influences; the small existences grouped themselves round the great. By
+the end of the Crusades, the march of society towards centralisation was
+in steady progress.
+
+
+_VI.--The Age of Centralisation_
+
+
+Already, in the twelfth century, a new idea of kingship had begun, very
+faintly, to make its appearance. In most European countries the king,
+under the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his
+headship. But there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and
+somebody bore the title of king; and society, striving to escape from
+feudal violence and to get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to
+the king in an experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could
+do. Gradually there developed the idea of the king as the protector of
+public order and justice and of the common interest as the paramount
+magistrate--the idea that changed Europe society from a series of
+classes into a group of centralised States.
+
+But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
+These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance,
+or it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To
+the first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over
+Europe that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three
+reasons--because Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal
+administrative force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed
+by the feudal aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy
+prevented the formation of a caste capable of theocratic organisation.
+Attempts at democracy were made, for a time with apparent means, by the
+Italian civic republics; but they were a prey to internal disorder,
+their government tended to become oligarchical, and their incapacity for
+uniting among themselves made them the victims of foreign invaders. The
+Swiss Republican organisation was more successful, but became
+aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the towns of Flanders and
+the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved their privileges,
+but remained confined within their walls.
+
+The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
+States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and
+the Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were
+ineffective and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was
+to preserve in a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of
+England were exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a
+mode of government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in
+practice.
+
+Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
+the war of independence against England brought a sense of national
+unity and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown, and the central
+power made dominant, by the policy of Louis XI. Similar effects were
+brought about in Spain by the war against the Moors and the rule of
+Ferdinand. In England feudalism was destroyed by the Wars of the Roses,
+and was succeeded by the Tudor despotism. In Germany, the House of
+Austria began its long ascendancy. Thus in the fifteenth century the new
+principles prevailed; the old forms, the old liberties were swept aside
+to make way for centralised government under absolute rulers.
+
+At the same time another new fact entered into European history. The
+kings began to enter into relations with each other, to form alliances;
+diplomacy was created. Since it is in the nature of diplomacy to be
+conducted more or less secretly by a few persons, and since the peoples
+did not and would not greatly concern themselves in it, this development
+was favourable to the strengthening of royalty.
+
+
+_VII.--The Spiritual Revolt_
+
+
+Although the Church until the sixteenth century had successfully
+suppressed all attempts at spiritual independence, yet the broadening of
+men's minds that began with the Crusades, and received a vigorous
+impetus from the Renaissance, made its mark even in the fifteenth
+century upon ecclesiastical affairs. Three main facts of the moral order
+are presented during this period: the ineffectual attempts of the
+councils of Constance and Bale to reform the Church from within; the
+most notable of which was that of Huss in Bohemia; and the intellectual
+revolution that accompanied the Renaissance. The way was thus prepared
+for the event that was inaugurated when Luther burnt the Pope's Bull at
+Wittenberg in 1520.
+
+The Reformation was not, as its opponents contend, the result of
+accident or intrigue; nor was it, as its upholders contend, the outcome
+of a simple desire for the reform of abuses. It was, in reality, a
+revolt of the human spirit against absolute power in spiritual affairs.
+The minds of men were during the sixteenth century in energetic
+movement, consumed by desire for progress; the Church had become inert
+and stationary, yet it maintained all its pretensions and external
+importance. The Church, indeed, was less tyrannical than it had formerly
+been, and not more corrupt. But it had not advanced; it had lost touch
+with human thought.
+
+The Reformation, in all the lands that it reached, in all the lands
+where it played a great part, whether as conqueror, or as conquered,
+resulted in general, constant, and immense progress in liberty and
+activity of thought, and tended towards the emancipation of the human
+spirit. It accomplished more than it knew; more, perhaps, than it would
+have desired. It did not attack temporal absolutism; but the collision
+between temporal absolutism and spiritual freedom was bound to come, and
+did come.
+
+Spiritual movement in European history has always been ahead of temporal
+movement. The Church began as a very loose society, without a
+properly-constituted government. Then it placed itself under an
+aristocratic control of bishops and councils. Then it came under the
+monarchical rule of the Popes; and finally a revolution broke out
+against absolutism in spiritual affairs. The ecclesiastical and civil
+societies have undergone the same vicissitudes; but the ecclesiastical
+society has always been the first to be changed.
+
+We are now in possession of one of the great facts of modern society,
+the liberty of the human spirit. At the same time we see political
+centralisation prevailing nearly everywhere. In the seventeenth century
+the two principles were for the first time to be opposed.
+
+
+_VIII.--The Political Revolt_
+
+
+Their first shock was in England, for England was a country of
+exceptional conditions both civil and religious. The Reformation there
+had in part been the work of the kings themselves, and was incomplete;
+the Reformers remained militant, and denounced the bishops as they had
+formerly denounced the Pope. Moreover, the aspirations after civil
+liberty that were stirred up by the emancipation of thought had means of
+action in the old institution of the country--the charter, the
+Parliament, the laws, the precedents. Similar aspirations in Continental
+countries had no such means of action, and led to nothing.
+
+Two national desires coincided in England at this epoch--the desire for
+religious revolution and liberty, and the desire for political liberty
+and the overthrow of despotism. The two sets of reformers joined forces.
+For the political party, civil freedom was the end; for the religious
+party, it was only a means; but throughout the conflict the political
+party took the lead, and the others followed. It was not until 1688 that
+the reformers finally attained their aim in the abolition of absolute
+power spiritual and temporal; and the accession of William of Orange in
+that year brought England into the great struggle that was raging on the
+Continent between the principle of despotism and the principle of
+freedom.
+
+England differed from other European countries in that the essential
+diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than
+anywhere else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it
+was overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others
+were strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her
+nobles and commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe
+lagged behind England in civil freedom. But there was another
+reason--the influence of France.
+
+During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
+in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth
+century, French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it
+was unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes
+supposed, adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim
+was the strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
+planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
+despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as
+the most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.
+
+Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
+degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be
+maintained without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The
+rule of Louis XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no
+roots. The decrepit remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought
+face to face with a society in which free examination and free
+speculation had been carried to lengths never imagined before. Freedom
+of thought once came to grips with absolute power.
+
+Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
+speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
+upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by
+this grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the
+insurmountable evil of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of
+a despot like Louis XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit
+that prevailed at the Revolution. Each human power has in itself a
+natural vice, a principle of weakness, to which there has to be assigned
+a limit. It is only by general liberty of all rights, interests and
+opinions that each power can be restrained within its legitimate bounds,
+and intellectual freedom enabled to exist genuinely and to the advantage
+of the whole community.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+HENRY HALLAM
+
+
+View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Henry Hallam, the English historian, was born on July 9, 1777,
+     at Windsor, his father being Canon of Windsor, and Dean of
+     Bristol. Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was
+     called to the English bar, but devoted himself to the study
+     and writing of history. He received an appointment in the
+     Civil Service, which, with his private means, placed him in
+     comfortable leisure for his wide researches. His son, Arthur
+     Henry, who died at the age of 22, is the subject of Tennyson's
+     "In Memoriam." Hallam died on January 21, 1859, and was buried
+     at Clevedon, Somersetshire. The "View of the State of Europe
+     during the Middle Ages," commonly known as Hallam's "Middle
+     Ages," was published by the author in 1818. Hallam was already
+     well known among the literary men of the day, but this was his
+     first important work. It is a study of the period from the
+     appearance of Clovis, the creator of the dominion of the
+     Franks, to the close of the Middle Ages, the arbitrary
+     dividing line being drawn at the invasion of Italy by Charles
+     VIII. of France.
+
+
+_I.--France_
+
+
+The Frankish dominion was established over the Roman province of Gaul by
+Clovis at the opening of the sixth century. The Merovingian dynasty
+degenerated rapidly; and the power passed into the hands of the Mayors
+of the Palace--an office which became hereditary with Pepin Heristal and
+Charles Martel. With the sanction of the Pope the Merovingian king was
+deposed by Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who was crowned king and
+overthrew the Lombard power in Italy.
+
+Pepin was succeeded by Charlemagne, who completed the conquest of the
+Lombards, carried his arms into Spain as far as the Ebro, and extended
+his power eastwards over the Saxons as far as the Elbe. In his person
+the Roman empire was revived, and he was crowned emperor at Rome on
+Christmas Day A.D. 800. The great empire he had built up fell to pieces
+under his successors, who adopted the disastrous plan of partition
+amongst brothers.
+
+France fell to the share of one branch of the Carlovingians. The
+Northmen were allowed to establish themselves in Normandy, and Germany
+was completely separated from France. The Carlovingians were displaced
+by Hugh Capet. The actual royal domain was small, and the kings of the
+House of Capet exercised little control over their great feudatories
+until the reign of Philip Augustus. That crafty monarch drew into his
+own hands the greater part of the immense territories held by the kings
+of England as French feudatories. After a brief interval the craft of
+Philip Augustus was succeeded by the idealism of St. Louis, whose
+admirable character enabled him to achieve an extraordinary ascendancy
+over the imagination of his people. In spite of the disastrous failure
+of his crusading expeditions, the aggrandisement of the crown continued,
+especially under Philip the Fair; but the failure of the direct heirs
+after the successive reigns of his three sons placed Philip of Valois on
+the throne according to the "Salic" law of succession in 1328.
+
+On the pretext of claiming the succession for himself, Edward III. began
+the great French war which lasted, interrupted by only one regular
+pacification, for a hundred and twenty years. The brilliant personal
+qualities of Edward and the Black Prince, the great resources of
+England, and the quality of the soldiery, account for the English
+successes. After the peace of Bretigny these triumphs were reversed, and
+the English lost their possessions; but when Charles VI. ascended the
+throne disaster followed. France was rent by the rival factions of
+Burgundy and Orleans, the latter taking its more familiar name from the
+Court of Armagnac. The troubled reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV.
+prevented England from taking advantage of these dissensions; but Henry
+V. renewed the war, winning the battle of Agincourt in his first
+campaign and securing the Treaty of Troyes on his second invasion. After
+his death came that most marvellous revolution wrought by Joan of Arc,
+and the expulsion of the English from the country.
+
+In France the effect of the war was to strengthen the Crown as against
+the Nobility, a process developed by the subtlety of Louis XI. Out of
+the long contest in which the diplomatic skill of the king was pitted
+against the fiery ambitions of Charles of Burgundy, Louis extracted for
+himself sundry Burgundian provinces. The supremacy of the Crown was
+secured when his son Charles VIII. acquired Brittany by marrying the
+Duchess Anne.
+
+The essential distinction of ranks in France was found in the possession
+of land. Besides the National lands, there were lands reserved to the
+Crown, which, under the name of benefices, were bestowed upon personal
+followers of the king, held more or less on military tenure; and the
+king's vassals acquired vassals for themselves by a similar process of
+subinfeudation. On the other hand freeholders inclined, for the sake of
+protection, to commend themselves, as the phrase was, to their stronger
+neighbours and so to assume the relation of vassal to liege lord. The
+essential principle was a mutual contract of support and fidelity,
+confirmed by the ceremonies of homage, fealty, and investiture, which
+conferred upon the lord the right to various reliefs, fines, and rights
+capable of conversion into money payments.
+
+Gentility, now hereditary, was derived from the tenure of land; the idea
+of it was emphasised by the adoption of surnames and armorial bearings.
+A close aristocracy was created, somewhat modified by the right claimed
+by the king of creating nobles. Prelates and abbots were in the same
+position as feudal nobles, though the duty of personal service was in
+many cases commuted for an equivalent. Below the gentle class were
+freemen, and the remainder of the population were serfs or villeins. It
+was not impossible for villeins to purchase freedom. In France the
+privileges possessed by the vassals of the Crown were scarcely
+consistent with the sovereignty. Such were the rights of coining money,
+of private war, and of immunity from taxation.
+
+Such legislation as there was appears to have been effected by the king,
+supported by a Royal Council or a more general assembly of the barons.
+It was only by degrees that the Royal ordinances came to be current in
+the fiefs of the greater vassals. It was Philip the Fair who introduced
+the general assembly of the Three Estates. This assembly very soon
+claimed the right of granting and refusing money as well as of bringing
+forward grievances. The kings of France, however, sought to avoid
+convocation of the States General by obtaining grants from provincial
+assemblies of the Three Estates.
+
+The old system of jurisdiction by elected officers was superseded by
+feudal jurisdiction, having three degrees of power, and acting according
+to recognised local customs, varied by the right to ordeal by combat.
+The Crown began to encroach on these feudal jurisdictions by the
+establishment of Royal courts of appeal; but there also subsisted a
+supreme Court of Peers to whom were added the king's household officers.
+The peers ceased by degrees to attend this court, while the Crown
+multiplied the councillors of inferior rank; and this body became known
+as the Parliament of Paris--in effect an assembly of lawyers.
+
+The decline of the feudal system was due mainly to the increasing power
+of the Crown on the one hand, and of the lower ranks on the other; more
+especially from the extension of the privileges of towns. But the feudal
+principle itself was weakened by the tendency to commute military
+service for money, enabling the Crown to employ paid troops.
+
+
+_II.--Italy and Spain_
+
+
+After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire the imperial title was
+revived from the German, Otto the Great of Saxony. His imperial
+supremacy was recognised in Italy; the German king was the Roman
+emperor. Italian unity had gone to pieces, but the German supremacy
+offended Italy. Still from the time of Conrad of Franconia the election
+of the King of Germany was assumed, at least my him, to convey the
+sovereignty of Italy. In the eleventh century Norman adventurers made
+themselves masters of Sicily and Southern Italy. In Northern Italy on
+the other hand the emperors favoured the development of free cities,
+owning only the imperial sovereignty and tending to self-government on
+Republican lines. The appearance on the scene in the twelfth century of
+the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa introduced a period characterised by a
+three-fold change: the victorious struggle of the northern cities for
+independence; the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the
+Papacy in the middle provinces; and the union of the kingdom of Naples
+to the dominions of the Imperial House. The first quarrels with Milan
+led to the formation of the Lombard league, and a long war in which the
+battle of Legnano gave the confederates a decisive victory. The mutual
+rivalries of the States, however, prevented them from turning this to
+good account. Barbarossa's grandson, Frederick II., was a child of four
+when he succeeded to the Swabian inheritance, and through his mother to
+that of Sicily.
+
+It was now that the powerful Pope Innocent III. so greatly extended the
+temporal power of the Papacy, and that the rival parties of Guelfs and
+Ghibelins, adherents the one of the Papacy, the other of the Empire,
+were established as factions in practically every Italian city. When the
+young Frederick grew up he was drawn into a long struggle with the
+Papacy which ended in the overthrow of the Imperial authority. From this
+time the quarrel of Guelfs and Ghibelins for the most part became mere
+family feuds resting on no principles. Charles of Anjou was adopted as
+Papal champion; the republics of the North were in effect controlled by
+despots for a brief moment. Rome revived her republicanism under the
+leadership of Rienzi. In the general chaos the principle interest
+attaches to the peculiar but highly complicated form of democracy
+developed in Florence, where the old Patrician families were virtually
+disfranchised. Wild and disorderly as was the state of Florence, the
+records certainly point to the conditions having been far worse in the
+cities ruled by the Visconti and their like.
+
+Of Genoa's wars with Pisa and with Venice a detailed account cannot be
+given. Of all the northern cities Venice achieved the highest political
+position; isolated to a great extent from the political problems of the
+cities of Lombardy and Tuscany, she developed her wealth and her
+commerce by the sea. Her splendour may, however, be dated from the
+taking of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, when she became
+effectively Queen of the Adriatic and Mistress of the Eastern
+Mediterranean. In effect her government was a close oligarchy; possessed
+of complete control over elections which in theory were originally
+popular. The oligarchy reached its highest and narrowest development
+with the institution of the famous Council of Ten.
+
+Naples and Sicily came under the dominion of Charles of Anjou when he
+was adopted as Papal champion. The French supremacy, however, was
+overthrown when the Sicilians rose and carried out the massacre known as
+the Sicilian Vespers. They offered the Crown to the King of Aragon. It
+was not till 1409, however, that Sicily was definitely united to the
+Crown of Aragon and a few years later the same king was able to assert
+successfully a claim to Naples.
+
+When the Roman empire was tottering the Visigoths established their
+dominion in Spain. In 712 Saracen invaders made themselves masters of
+the greater part of the peninsula. The Christians were driven into the
+more northern parts and formed a number of small States out of which
+were developed the kingdoms of Navarre, Leon and Castille, and Aragon.
+Frontier towns acquired large liberties while they were practically
+responsible for defence against the Moors. During the thirteenth century
+great territories were recovered from the Moors; but the advance ceased
+as the Moors were reduced to the compact kingdom of Granada. In the
+fourteenth century the struggle for Castille between Pedro the Cruel and
+his brother established the house of Trastamare on the throne. The
+Crowns of Castille and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella
+and Ferdinand.
+
+The government of the old Gothic monarchy was through the Crown and a
+Council of Prelates and Nobles. At a comparatively early date, however,
+the "Cortes" was attended by deputies from the town, though the number
+of these was afterwards closely limited. The principle of taxation
+through representatives was recognised; and laws could neither be made
+nor annulled except in the Cortes. This form of constitutionalism was
+varied by the claim of the nobles to assume forcible control when
+matters were conducted in a fashion of which they disapproved.
+
+The union of Castille and Aragon led immediately to the conquest of
+Granada completed in 1492; an event which in some respects
+counterbalanced the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.
+
+
+_III.--The German Empire and the Papacy_
+
+
+When the German branch of the Carlovingian dynasty became extinct the
+five German nations--Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and
+Lorraine--resolved to make the German kingship elective. For some
+generations the Crown was bestowed on the Saxon Ottos. On the extinction
+of their house in 1024, it was succeeded by a Franconian dynasty which
+came into collision with the Papacy under Pope Gregory VII. On the
+extinction of this line in 1025 Germany became divided between the
+partisans of the Houses of Swabia and Saxony, the Wibelungs and
+Welfs,--the origin of the Hibelines and Guelfs. The Swabian House,
+the Hohenstauffen, gained the ascendancy in the person of Frederick
+Barbarossa. The lineal representatives of the Saxon Guelfs are found
+to-day in the House of Brunswick.
+
+The rule of the Swabian House is most intimately connected with Italian
+history. In the thirteenth century the principle that the right of
+election of the emperor lay with seven electors was apparently becoming
+established. There were the Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne,
+the Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the King of
+Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. In all other respects,
+however, several other dukes and princes were at least on an equality
+with the electors.
+
+In 1272 the election fell on the capable Rudolph of Hapsburg; and for
+some time after this the emperors were chosen from the Houses of
+Austria, Bavaria, or Luxemburg.
+
+Disintegration was greatly increased by the practice of the partition of
+territories among brothers in place of primogeniture. A preponderating
+authority was given to the electors by the Golden Bull of Charles IV. in
+1355. The power of the emperor as against the princes was increased, as
+that of the latter was counterbalanced by the development of free
+cities. Considerable reforms were introduced at the close of our period
+mainly by Maximilian.
+
+The depravity of the Greek empire would have brought it to utter ruin at
+a much earlier date but for the degeneration which overtook
+Mohammedanism. Incidentally the Crusades helped the Byzantine power at
+first to strengthen its hold on some of its threatened possessions; but
+the so-called fourth crusade replaced the Greek Empire by a Latin one
+with no elements of permanency. When a Greek dynasty was re-established,
+and the crusading spirit of Western Europe was already dead, the
+Byzantine Princes were left to cope with the Turks single handed, and
+the last of the Caesars died heroically when the Ottomans captured
+Constantinople in 1453.
+
+Throughout the early middle ages the Church acquired enormous wealth and
+Church lands were free from taxation. It was not till a comparatively
+late period that the payment of tithes was enforced by law. Not
+infrequently the Church was despoiled by violence, but the balance was
+more than recovered by fraud. By the time of Charlemagne the clergy were
+almost exempt from civil jurisdiction and held practically an exclusive
+authority in matters of religion. The state, however, maintained its
+temporal supremacy. When the strong hand of Charlemagne was removed
+ecclesiastical influence increased.
+
+It was under Gregory the Great that the Papacy acquired its great
+supremacy over the Provincial Churches. As the power of the Church grew
+after the death of Charlemagne, partly from the inclination of weak
+kings to lean on ecclesiastical support, the Papal claims to authority
+developed and began to be maintained by the penalties of excommunication
+and interdict.
+
+A period of extreme laxity in the tenth century was to be brought to a
+close in the eleventh partly by the pressure brought to bear on the
+Papacy by the Saxon emperors, but still bore by the ambitious resolution
+of Gregory VII. This remarkable man was determined to assert the
+complete supremacy of the Holy See over all secular powers. He refused
+to recognise the right of secular princes to make ecclesiastical
+appointments within their own dominions; and he emphasised the
+distinction between the priesthood, as a cast having divine authority,
+and the laity, by enforcing with the utmost strictness the
+ecclesiastical law of celibacy, which completely separates the churchman
+from the normal interests and ambitions which actuate the layman.
+
+In the contest between Gregory and the emperor, it seemed for the moment
+as if the secular power had won the victory; but, in fact, throughout
+the twelfth century; the claims which Gregory had put forward were
+becoming practically effective partly from the great influence exercised
+through the Crusades. These Papal pretensions reached their climax in
+the great Pope Innocent III., who asserted with practical success the
+right to pronounce absolutely on all disputes between princes or between
+princes and their subjects, and to depose those who rejected his
+authority. Throughout the thirteenth century Rome was once more mistress
+of the world.
+
+The Church derived great influence from the institution of mendicant
+orders, especially those of St. Dominic and St. Francis which recovered
+much of the esteem forfeited by the old Monastic orders. Another
+instrument of Papal influence was the power of granting dispensations
+both with regard to marriages and as to the keeping of oaths. If the
+clergy were free for the most part from civil taxation, they were
+nevertheless severely mulcted by the Papacy. The ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction encroached upon the secular tribunals; the classes of
+persons with respect to whom it claimed exclusive authority were
+persistently extended, in spite of the opposition of such Princes as
+Henry II. and Edward I.
+
+At last, however, the Papal aggressor met his match in Philip the Fair.
+When Boniface VIII. died, his successors first submitted to the French
+monarchy and then became its nominees; while they resided at Avignon,
+virtually under French control. The restoration of the pontificate to
+Rome in 1375 was shortly followed by the Great Schism. For some years
+there were two rival Popes, each of whom was recognised by one or the
+other half of Western Christendom. This was terminated by the Council of
+Constance, which incidentally affirmed the supremacy of general councils
+over the Pope. The following council at Basle was distinctly anti-papal;
+but the Papacy had the better of the contest.
+
+
+_IV.--England_
+
+
+The Anglo-Saxon polity limited the succession of the Crown to a
+particular house but allowed a latitude of choice within that house. The
+community was divided into Thames or gentry, Ceorls or freemen, and
+serfs. The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as
+villeinage. The composition of the king's great council called the
+Witenagemot is doubtful. The country was divided into shires, the shire
+into districts called hundreds, and the hundreds into tithings. There
+appears to be no adequate authority for the idea that trial by jury was
+practised; the prevailing characteristic of justice was the system of
+penalty by fine, and the responsibility of the tithing for the misdeeds
+of any of its members. There is no direct evidence as to the extent to
+which feudal tenures were beginning to be established before the Norman
+conquest.
+
+The Norman conquest involved a vast confiscation of property and the
+exclusion of the native English from political privileges. The feudal
+system of land tenure was established; but its political aspect here and
+in France was quite different. There were no barons with territories
+comparable to those of the great French feudataries. That the government
+was extremely tyrannical is certain. The Crown derived its revenues from
+feudal dues, customs duties, tallages--that is, special charges on
+particular towns,--and the war tax called the Danegelt; all except the
+first being arbitrary taxes. The violence of King John led to the demand
+of the barons for the Great Charter, the keystone of English liberty,
+securing the persons and property of all freemen from arbitrary
+imprisonment or spoliation. Thenceforth no right of general taxation is
+claimed. The barons held themselves warranted in refusing supplies.
+
+The King's Court was gradually separated into three branches, King's
+Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas. The advance in the study of law had
+the definite effect of establishing a fixed rule of succession to the
+Crown. One point must still be noticed which distinguishes England from
+other European countries; that the law recognises no distinction of
+class among freemen who stand between the peers and villeins.
+
+The reign of Edward I. forms an epoch. The Confirmation of the Charters
+put an end to all arbitrary taxation; and the type of the English
+Parliament was fixed. In the Great Councils the prelates and greater
+barons had assembled, and the lesser barons were also summoned; the term
+baron being equivalent to tenant in chief. A system of representation is
+definitely formulated in Montfort's Parliament of 1265. Whether the
+knights were elected by the freemen of the shire or only by the tenants
+in chief, is not clear. Many towns were self governing--independent,
+that is, of local magnates--under charters from the Crown. Montfort's
+Parliament is the first to which towns sent representatives. Edward
+established the practice in his Model Parliament; probably in order to
+ensure that his demands for money from the towns might in appearance at
+least receive their formal assent.
+
+Parliament was not definitely divided into two houses until the reign of
+Edward III. In this reign the Commons succeeded in establishing the
+illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two
+houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and the right of
+the Commons to enquire into public abuses and to impeach public
+counsellors. Under the second heading is introduced a distinction
+between statutes and ordinances; the latter being of a temporary
+character, and requiring to be confirmed by Parliament before they
+acquire permanent authority. In the next reign the Commons assert the
+right of examining the public expenditure. Moreover the Parliaments more
+openly and boldly expressed resentment at the acts of the king's
+ministers and claimed rights of control. For a time, however, the king
+secured supremacy by a coup d'etat; which in turn brought about his
+deposition, and the accession of Henry IV., despite the absurd weakness
+of his title to the inheritance of the Crown.
+
+The rights thus acquired developed until the War of the Roses. Notably
+redress of grievances became the condition of supply; and the
+inclination of the Crown to claim a dispensing power is resolutely
+combated. It is also to be remarked that the king's foreign policy of
+war or peace is freely submitted to the approval of Parliament.
+
+This continues during the minority of Henry VI.; but the revival of
+dissatisfaction with the government leads to a renewed activity in the
+practice of impeachments; and Parliament begins to display a marked
+sensitiveness on the question of its privileges. The Commons further
+definitely express their exclusive right of originating money bills.
+
+At this time it is clear that at least all freeholders were entitled to
+vote in the election of the knights of the shire. The selection of the
+towns which sent up members, and the franchise under which their members
+were elected, seems to have been to a considerable extent arbitrary. Nor
+can we be perfectly certain of the principles on which writs were issued
+for attendance in the upper house. We find that for some time the lower
+clergy as well as the higher were summoned to attend Parliament; but
+presently, sitting in a separate chamber, they ceased to take part in
+Parliamentary business.
+
+We have seen the King's Court divided into three courts of justice. The
+court itself, however, as the king's Council, continued to exercise a
+juridical as well as a deliberative and administrative function. In
+spite of the charter, it possessed an effective if illegal power of
+arbitrary imprisonment.
+
+So far the essential character of our constitution appears to be a
+monarchy greatly limited by law but swerving continually into irregular
+courses which there was no constraint adequate to correct. There is
+absolutely no warrant for the theory that the king was merely a
+hereditary executive magistrate, the first officer of the State. The
+special advantage enjoyed by England lay in the absence of an
+aristocracy with interests antagonistic to those of the people. It would
+be truer to say that the liberties of England were bought by money than
+by the blood of our forefathers.
+
+The process by which the villein became a hired labourer is obscure and
+an attempt was made to check it by the Statute of Labourers at the time
+of the Black Death. This was followed by the peasant's revolt of 1382,
+which corresponded to the far worse horrors of the French Jacquerie.
+Sharply though this was suppressed, the real object of the rising seemed
+to have been accomplished. Of the period of the Wars of the Roses it is
+here sufficient to say that it established the principle embodied in a
+statute of Henry VII. that obedience to the _de facto_ government is not
+to be punished on the ground that government is not also _de jure_.
+
+
+_V.--Europe_
+
+
+In spite of the Teutonic incursion, Latin remained the basis of language
+as it survived in Italy, France, and Spain. But the pursuit of letters
+was practically confined to the clergy and was by them employed almost
+exclusively in the interests of clerical authority. To this end a
+multitude of superstitions were encouraged; superstitions which were the
+cause of not a few strange and irrational outbursts of fanaticism. The
+monasteries served indeed a useful purpose as sanctuaries in days of
+general lawlessness and rapine; but the huge weight of evidence is
+conclusive as to the general corruption of morals among the clergy as
+among the laity. The common diversion of the upper classes, lay and
+clerical, when not engaged in actual war, was hunting. An extended
+commerce was impossible when robbery was a normal occupation of the
+great.
+
+Gradually, however, a more orderly society emerged. Maritime commerce
+developed in two separate areas, the northern and western, and the
+Mediterranean. The first great commerce in the north arises from the
+manufacture in Flanders of the wool exported from England. And in the
+fourteenth century England herself began to compete in the woollen
+manufacture. The German free manufacturing towns established the Great
+Hanseatic League; but maritime commerce between the Northern and
+Southern areas was practically non-existent till the fifteenth century,
+by which time English ships were carrying on a fairly extensive traffic
+in the Mediterranean. In that area the great seaports of Italy, and in a
+less degree, of Catalonia and the French Mediterranean seaboard,
+developed a large commerce. Naturally, however, the law which it was
+sufficiently difficult to enforce by land was even more easily defied on
+the sea, and piracy was extremely prevalent.
+
+Governments as well as private persons were under a frequent necessity
+of borrowing, and for a long time the great money lenders were the Jews.
+They, however, were later to a great extent displaced by the merchants
+of Lombardy, and the fifteenth century witnesses the rise of the great
+bankers, Italian and German.
+
+The structure and furniture of all buildings for private purposes made
+exceedingly little provision for comfort, offering an extreme contrast
+to the dignity of the public buildings and the sublimity of
+ecclesiastical architecture.
+
+During the last three hundred years of our period it is clear that there
+was a great diminution of the status of servitude and a great increase
+in the privileges extended to corporate towns. Private warfare was
+checked and lawless robbery to a considerable extent restrained. It is
+tolerably clear that the rise of heretical sects were both the cause and
+the result of moral dissatisfaction, tending to the adoption of higher
+moral standards. Some of these sects were cruelly crushed by merciless
+persecution, as in the case of the Albigenses. The doctrines of
+Wickliffe, however, were never stamped out in England; and the form
+which they took in Bohemia among the followers of the martyred John Huss
+had little about them that was beneficial.
+
+The great moral school of the Middle Ages was the institution of
+chivalry, which existed to animate and cherish the principle of honour.
+To this a strong religious flavor was superadded, perhaps by the
+Crusades. To valour and devotion was added the law of service to
+womanhood, and chivalry may fairly claim to have developed generally the
+three virtues essential to it, of loyalty, courtesy, and liberality.
+Resting, however, as it did on the personal prowess and skill of the
+individual in single combat, the whole system of chivalry was destroyed
+by the introduction on an extensive scale of the use of firearms.
+
+We turn lastly to the intellectual improvement which may be referred to
+four points: the study of civil laws the institution of universities;
+the application of modern languages to literature, and especially to
+poetry; and the revival of ancient learning. Education may almost be
+said to have begun with the establishment of the great schools by
+Charlemagne out of which sprang the European universities. For a long
+time of course all studies were dominated by that of theology, and the
+scholastic philosophy which pertained to it. Barren as these pursuits
+were, they kept alive an intellectual activity which ultimately found
+fresh channels. The Romance languages developed a new literature first
+on the tongues of the troubadours and then in Italy--the Italy which
+gave birth to Dante and Petrarch. It was about the fourteenth century
+that a new enthusiasm was born for the study of classical authors,
+though Greek was still unknown. And the final and decisive impulse was
+given when the invention of printing made the great multiplication of
+books possible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+STANLEY LANE-POOLE
+
+
+Egypt in the Middle Ages
+
+
+     Stanley Lane-Poole, born on December 18, 1845, studied Arabic
+     under his great-uncle, Lane, the Orientalist, and, before
+     going up to Oxford for his degree, began his "Catalogue of
+     Oriental Coins in the British Museum," which appeared in
+     fourteen volumes between 1875 and 1892, and founded his
+     reputation as the first living authority on Arabic
+     numismatics. In 1883, 1896, and 1897 he was at Cairo
+     officially employed by the British Government upon the
+     Mohammedan antiquities, and published his treatise on "The Art
+     of the Saracens in Egypt" in 1886, in which year he visited
+     Stockholm, Helsingfors, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and
+     Constantinople to examine their Oriental collections. He has
+     written histories of the "Moors in Spain," "Turkey," "The
+     Barbary Corsairs," and "Mediaeval India," which have run to
+     many editions; and biographies of Saladin, Babar, Aurangzib;
+     of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and Sir Harry Parkes. He has
+     also published a miniature Koran in the "Golden Treasury"
+     series, and written "Studies in a Mosque," besides editing
+     three volumes of Lane's "Arabic Lexicon." For five years he
+     held the post of Professor of Arabic at Trinity College,
+     Dublin, of which he is Litt.D. Mohammedan Egypt, his special
+     subject, he has treated in several books on Cairo, the latest
+     being "The Story of Cairo." But his most complete work on this
+     subject is "The History of Egypt in the Middle Ages," here
+     epitomised by the author.
+
+
+_I.--A Province of the Caliphate_
+
+
+Ever since the Arab conquest in 641 Egypt has been ruled by Mohammedans,
+and for more than half the time by men of Turkish race. Though now and
+again a strong man has gathered all the reins of control into his own
+hands and been for a time a personal monarch, as a rule the government
+has been, till recent years, a military bureaucracy.
+
+The people, of course, had no voice in the government. The Egyptians
+have never been a self-governing race, and such a dream as
+constitutional democracy was never heard of until a few years ago. By
+the Arab conquest in the seventh century the people merely changed
+masters. They were probably not indisposed to welcome the Moslems as
+their deliverers from the tyranny of the Orthodox Church of the East
+Roman or Byzantine Empire, invincibly intolerant of the native
+monophysite heresy; and when the conquest was complete they found
+themselves, on the whole, better off than before. They paid their taxes
+to officials with Arabic instead of Greek titles, but the taxes were
+lighter and the amount was strictly laid down by law.
+
+The land-tax of about a pound per acre was not excessive on so fertile a
+soil, and the poll-tax on nonconformity, of the same amount, was a
+moderate price to pay for entire liberty of conscience and freedom in
+public worship guaranteed by solemn treaty. The other taxes were
+comparatively insignificant, and the total revenue in the eighth century
+was about L7,000,000. The surplus went to the caliph, the head of the
+vast Mohammedan empire, which then stretched from Seville to Samarkand,
+whose capital was first Damascus and afterwards Baghdad.
+
+For over 200 years (till 868) Egypt was a mere province of this huge
+caliphate, and was governed, like other provinces, with a sole view to
+revenue. "Milk till the udder be dry and let blood to the last drop" was
+a caliph's instructions to a governor of Egypt. As these governors were
+constantly changed--there were sixty-seven in 118 years under the
+Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad--and as a governor's main object was to "make
+hay while the sun shines," the process of milking the Egyptian cow was
+often accelerated by illegal extortion, and the governor's harvest was
+reaped before it was due. Illegality was, however, checked to some
+extent by the generally wise and just influence of the chief justice, or
+kadi, whose probity often formed the best feature of the Arab government
+in Egypt.
+
+Nor did the caliphs extort taxes without giving something in return. The
+development of irrigation works was always a main consideration with the
+early Mohammedan rules, from Spain to India, and in Egypt, where
+irrigation is the country's very life, it was specially cared for, with
+a corresponding increase in the yield. Moreover, the governors usually
+held to the agreement that the Christians should have liberty of
+conscience, and protected them from the Moslem soldiery. As time went
+on, this toleration abated, partly because the Moslems had gradually
+become the predominant population. At the beginning the caliphs had
+taken anxious precautions against the colonising of Egypt; they held it
+by an army, but they were insistent that the army should not take root,
+but be always free to join the caliph's standard. But it was inevitable
+that the Arabs should settle in so fertile and pleasant a land. Each
+governor brought a small army as his escort, and these Arab troops
+naturally intermarried with Egyptian women, who were constitutionally
+inclined to such alliances. A few Arab tribes also settled in Egypt.
+
+This gradual and undesigned Arabising of the country would lead to
+oppression of the Christians, to the "squeezing" of wealthy natives, and
+occasionally to the institution of humiliating distinctions of dress and
+other vexations, and even to the spoiling of Coptic churches. Then
+sometimes the Copts, as the Egyptian Christians are called, would rebel.
+Their last and greatest rebellion, which occurred in the Delta in
+830-832, was ruthlessly trampled out by Turkish troops under Mamun, the
+only Abbasid caliph who made a visit to Egypt. Many Copts now
+apostatised, and from this time dates the predominance of the Moslem
+population and the settling of Arabs in the villages and on the land,
+instead of as heretofore only in the two or three large towns.
+
+The coming of the Turkish troops with the caliph Mamun was an ominous
+event for the country. Up to 846 all the successive governors had been
+Arabs, and many of them were related to the caliphs themselves. With
+some unfortunate exceptions, they seem to have been men of simple
+habits--the Arabs were never luxurious--and usually of strict Mohammedan
+principles. They made money, honestly if possible, during their brief
+tenure; but they did not harass the people much by their personal
+interference, and left the local officials to manage matters in their
+own way, as had always been the custom. They lived at the new capital,
+Fustat, which grew up on the site of the conqueror's camp, and very near
+the modern Cairo; for Alexandria, the symbol of Roman domination, was
+dismantled in 645 after the Emperor Manuel's attempt at reconquest. If
+they did not do much active good, they did little harm, and Egypt
+pursued her immemorial ways.
+
+The last Arab governor, Anbasa, was a man of fine character, and his
+term of office was distinguished by the building of the fort of
+Damietta, as a protection against Roman raids, and by a defeat of the
+tributary Sudanis near Dongola.
+
+
+_II.--Turkish Governors_
+
+
+The Arabs have neither the ferocity nor the luxuriousness, nor, it
+should be added, the courage and the genius for administration of the
+Turkish race. In the arrival of Turkish troops in 830 we see a symptom
+of what was going on all over the eastern caliphate. Turks were taking
+the place of Arabs in the army and the provincial governments, just as
+the Persians were filling up the civil appointments. The caliph's
+Turkish bodyguard was the beginning of the dismemberment of the
+caliphate. It became the habit of the caliphs to grant the government of
+Egypt, as a sort of fief, to a leading Turkish officer, who usually
+appointed a deputy to do his work and to pay him the surplus revenue.
+Such a deputy was Ahmad-ibn-Tulun (868-884), the first of the many
+Turkish despots of Egypt. Ibn-Tulun was the first ruler to raise Egypt
+from a mere tax-paying appendage of the caliphate to a kingdom,
+independent save for the recognition of the caliph on the coinage, and
+he was the first to found a Moslem dynasty there. A man of fair
+Mohammedan education, iron will, and ubiquitous personal attention to
+affairs, he added Syria to his dominions, defeated the East Romans with
+vast slaughter near Tarsus (883), kept an army of 30,000 Turkish slaves
+and a fleet of a hundred fighting ships.
+
+He beautified his capital by building a sumptuous palace and his
+well-known mosque, which still stands in his new royal suburb of Katai;
+he encouraged the small farmers and reduced the taxation, yet he left
+five millions in the treasury when he died in 884. His son maintained
+his power, and more than his luxury and artistic extravagance; but there
+were no elements of stability in the dynasty, which depended solely upon
+the character of the ruler. The next generation saw Egypt once more
+(905) a mere province of the caliphate, but with this difference, that
+its governors were now Turks, generally under the control of their own
+soldiery, and much less dependent upon the ever-weakening power of the
+Caliph of Baghdad. One of them, the Ikhshid, in 935 emulated Ibn-Tulun
+and united part of Syria to Egypt; but the sons he left were almost
+children, and the power fell into the hands of the regent Kafur, a black
+eunuch from the Sudan, bought for L25, who combined a luxurious and
+cultivated court with some military successes and real administrative
+capacity.
+
+
+_III.--The Fatimid Caliphs_
+
+
+The Mohammedan world is roughly divided into Sunnis and Shia. The Shia
+are the idealists, the mystics of Islam; the Sunnis are the formalists,
+the schoolmen. The Shia trace an apostolic succession from Ali, the
+husband of the prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima, hold doctrines of
+immanence and illumination, adopt an allegorical interpretation of
+scripture, and believe in the coming of a Mahdi or Messiah. The Sunnis
+adhere to the elective historical caliphate descended from Mohammed's
+uncle, maintain the eternal uncreated sufficiency of the Koran,
+literally interpreted, and believe in no Messiah save Mohammed.
+
+The Shia, whatever their racial origin, form the Persian, the Aryan,
+adaptation of Islam, which is an essentially Semitic creed. In the tenth
+century they had established a caliph among the Berbers at Kayrawan
+(908). They had thence invaded Egypt with temporary success in 914 and
+919. When the death of Kafur in 968 left the country a prey to rival
+military factions, the fourth of the caliphs of Kayrawan--called the
+Fatimid caliphs, because they claimed a very doubtful descent from
+Fatima--sent his army into Egypt. The people, who had too long been the
+sport of Turkish mercenaries, received the invaders as deliverers, just
+as the Copts had welcomed the Arabs three centuries before. Gauhar, the
+Fatimid general, entered Fustat (or Misr, as it was usually called, a
+name still applied both to Egypt and to its capital) amid acclamations
+in 969, and immediately laid the foundations of the fortified palace
+which he named, astrologically, after the planet Mars (Kahir),
+El-Kahira, "the Martial," or "the Victorious," which gradually expanded
+to the city of Cairo. He also founded the great historic university
+mosque of the Azhar, which, begun by the heretical Shia, became the
+bulwark of rigid scholasticism and the theological centre of orthodox
+Islam.
+
+The theological change was abrupt. It was as though Presbyterian
+Scotland had suddenly been put under the rule of the Jesuits. But, like
+the Society of Jesus, the Shia were pre-eminently intellectual and
+recognised the necessity of adapting their teaching to the capacities of
+their hearers, and the conditions of the time. They did not force
+extreme Shia doctrine upon the Egyptians. Their esoteric system, with
+its graduated stages of initiation, permitted a large latitude, and they
+were content to add their distinctive formulas to the ordinary
+Mohammedan ritual, and to set them conspicuously on their coinage,
+without entering upon a propaganda. The bulk of the Egyptian Moslems
+apparently preserved their orthodoxy and suffered an heretical caliphate
+for two centuries with traditional composure. The Christian Copts found
+the new _regime_ a marked improvement. Mysticism finds kindred elements
+in many faiths, and the Fatimid caliphs soon struck up relations with
+the local heads of the Christian religion.
+
+The second Egyptian caliph, Aziz (975-996), was greatly influenced by a
+Christian wife, who encouraged his natural clemency. Bishop Severus
+attended his court, and Coptic churches were rebuilt. Throughout the
+Fatimid period we constantly find Christians and Jews, and especially
+Armenians, advanced to the highest offices of state. This was partly
+due, of course, to their special qualifications as scribes and
+accountants, for Arabs and Turks were no hands at "sums." The land had
+rest under this wise and tolerant caliph. If he set a dangerous example
+in his luxury and love of display, he unquestionably maintained law,
+enforced equity, punished corruption, and valiantly defended his
+kingdom. He fitted out a fleet of 600 sail at Maks (then the port of
+Cairo, on the Nile), which kept the Emperor Basil at a distance and
+assured the caliph's ascendancy from end to end of the Mediterranean
+Sea.
+
+After these two great rulers the Fatimid caliphate subsisted for nearly
+two centuries by no virtue or energy of its own. The caliphs lived
+secluded, like veiled prophets, in their huge palace at Cairo, given
+over to sensual delights (Saladin found 12,000 women in the Great Palace
+when he entered it in 1171), and wholly regardless of their kingdom,
+which they left to the care of vezirs, who were chiefly bent on making
+their own fortunes, though there were many able, and a few honest men
+amongst them. The real power rested with the army, and the only check
+upon the tyranny and debauchery of the army lay in its own jealous
+divisions. The fanatical Berber regiments imported from Tunis, the
+bloody blacks recruited in the Sudan, and the mutinous Turkish troops
+long established in the country, were always at daggers drawn, and their
+rivalry was the vezirs' opportunity. In such anarchy the country fell
+from bad to worse.
+
+The reign of Hakim, the frantic son of Aziz and his Christian wife, was
+a personal despotism of the most eccentric kind, marked by apparently
+unreasonable regulations, such as keeping the shops open by night
+instead of by day, and confining all women to the house for seven years,
+as well as by intermittent persecution of Christians and Jews; and also
+by enlightened acts, such as the founding of the Hall of Science and the
+building of mosques, for all the Fatimides were friends to the arts; and
+ending in the proclamation of Hakim as the incarnation of the Divine
+Reason, in which capacity he is still adored by the Druses of the
+Lebanon. This assumption led to popular tumults and an orgy of carnage,
+in the midst of which Hakim mysteriously disappeared (1021).
+
+His successors, Zahir (1021-1036), and Mustansir (1036-1096) did nothing
+to retrieve the anarchic situation, of which the soldiers were the
+unruly masters. Palace cliques, disastrous famines (one of which lasted
+seven years, 1066-1072, and even led to the public selling of human
+joints as butcher's meat), slave, or rather freedmen's, revolts,
+military tumults, and the occasional temporary ascendancy of a talented
+vezir, sum up the history of Egypt during most of the eleventh century.
+The wisdom and firmness of two great Armenian vezirs, Bedr-el-Gemali
+(1073-1094) and his son Afdal (1094-1121), brought a large degree of
+order, but the last years of the Fatimid caliphate were blotted by
+savage murders both of caliphs and vezirs, and by the loss of their
+Syrian dominions to Seljuks and Crusaders.
+
+
+_IV.--The House of Saladin_
+
+
+It was a question whether Egypt would fall to the Christian king of
+Jerusalem or the Moslem king of Damascus; but, after several invasions
+by both, Nur-ed-din settled the problem by sending his Syrian army to
+Cairo in 1169, when the Crusaders withdrew without offering battle, and
+the Fatimid caliphate came to an end in 1171.
+
+On the Syrian general's death, two months after the conquest, his
+nephew, Salah-ed-din ibn-Ayyub (Saladin), succeeded to the vezirate, and
+after Nur-ed-din's death, in 1174, he made himself independent sultan,
+not only of Egypt but of Syria and Mesopotamia. Saladin was a Kurd from
+the Tigris districts; but his training and his following were purely
+Turkish, moulded on the Seljuk model, and recruited largely from the
+Seljuk lands. His fame was won outside Egypt, and only eight of the
+twenty-four years of his reign were spent in Cairo; the rest was passed
+in waging wars in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, culminating in the
+catastrophic defeat of the Crusaders near Tiberias in 1187, and the
+conquest of Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land.
+
+The famous crusade of Richard I., though it resulted only in recovering
+a strip of coast from Acre to Jaffa, and did not rescue Jerusalem, wore
+out Saladin's strength, and in 1193 the chivalrous and magnanimous
+"Soldan" died. In Egypt his chief work, after repressing revolts of
+black troops and Shia conspiracies, and repelling successive naval
+attacks on Damietta and Alexandria by the Eastern emperor and the kings
+of Jerusalem and Sicily, was the building of the Citadel of Cairo after
+the model of Norman fortresses in Syria, and the encouragement of Sunni
+orthodoxy by the founding and endowment of medresas, or theological
+colleges. The people, who had never been really converted to the Fatimid
+creed, accepted the latest reformation with their habitual nonchalance.
+This was really the greatest achievement of Saladin and his house. Cairo
+succeeded to Baghdad and Cordova as the true metropolis of Islam, and
+Egypt has remained true to the most narrow school of orthodoxy ever
+since.
+
+Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
+half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
+brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for
+a quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able
+son Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's
+frequent absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the
+discredited Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure
+of Damietta was a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to
+defeat the "Franks" at Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.
+
+On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
+Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with
+him in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to
+Christians, and listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he
+granted trading concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established
+a consulate at Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem
+learning, built colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in
+every way. What had happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the
+Fatimides, was repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne
+successively till 1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade,
+the salvation of Egypt devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves,
+who had formed the _corps d'elite_ of Saladin's army.
+
+
+_V.--The Mamluks_
+
+
+Political women have played a great role in Egypt from Hatshepsut and
+Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
+engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
+Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
+Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
+Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
+France.
+
+At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
+she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice
+against a woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and
+a half one Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he
+could, and sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that
+forty-eight sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the
+river," so called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and
+twenty-three Burgis, named after the burg, or citadel, where their
+quarters originally were), succeeded one another from 1250 to 1517, it
+will be seen that their average reign was but three and a half years.
+The throne, in fact, belonged to the man with the longest sword.
+
+The bravest and richest generals and court officials surrounded
+themselves with bands of warrior slaves, and reached a power almost
+equal to the reigning sultan, who was, in fact, only _primus inter
+pares_, and on his death--usually by assassination--they fought for his
+title. All were alike slaves by origin, but this term implied no
+degradation. Any slave with courage and address had the chance of
+becoming a freedman, rising to influence, and climbing into his master's
+seat. Every man was every other man's equal--if he could prove it; but
+the process of proving it often turned Cairo into a shambles.
+
+The Mamluks were physically superb, a race of born soldiers, dashing
+horsemen, skilled leaders, brilliant alike in battle and in all manly
+sports. They were at the same time the most luxurious of men, heavy
+drinkers, debauched sensualists, magnificent in their profusion, in
+their splendid prodigality in works of art and luxury, and in the
+munificence with which they filled their capital with noble monuments of
+the most exquisite Saracenic architecture. Most of the beautiful mosques
+of Cairo were built by these truculent soldiers, all foreigners, chiefly
+Turks, a caste apart, with no thought for the native Egyptians whose
+lands they received as fiefs from the sultan; with no mercy when
+ambition called for secret assassination or wholesale massacre; yet
+fastidious in dress, equipment, and manners, given to superb pageants,
+laborious in business, and fond of music and poetry. Their orthodoxy is
+attested not only by their innumerable religious foundations and
+endowments, but by their importing into Cairo a line of Abbasid
+caliphs--_faineants_ indeed, but in a manner representative of the great
+caliphs of Baghdad, extinguished by the Mongols in 1258--and in
+maintaining them till the Ottoman sultan usurped their very nominal
+authority as Commanders of the Faithful.
+
+The greatest of all the Mamluks was Beybars (1260-1277). He it was who
+had charged St. Louis's knights at Mansura in 1249, and afterwards
+helped to rout the Mongol hordes at the critical battle of Goliath's
+Spring in 1260; and he was the real founder of the Mamluk empire, and
+organised and consolidated his wide dominions so skilfully and firmly
+that all the follies and jealousies and crimes of his successors could
+not destroy the fabric. He made his army perfect in discipline, built a
+navy, made canals, roads, and bridges, annexed Nubia, organised a
+regular postal service, built fortifications, mosques, colleges, halls
+of justice, and managed everything, from the fourth cataract of the Nile
+and the Holy Cities of Arabia to the Pyramus and the Euphrates, by his
+immense capacity for work and amazing rapidity of movements.
+
+Egypt prospered exceedingly under his just, firm, and capable rule; he
+was severe to immorality and strictly prohibited wine, beer, and
+hashish. He entered into diplomatic relations with European powers to
+the great advantage of his country's trade; and his bravery,
+munificence, and justice have made him a popular hero in Arabic romances
+down to the present day.
+
+None of his successors approached his high example Khalil indeed
+recovered Acre and all that remained of the Crusader's possessions in
+Palestine, and the Mamluks, who never lost their soldierly qualities
+whoever happened to be their nominal ruler, handsomely defeated the
+Mongols again in 1299 and 1303, and for ever saved Egypt from the
+unspeakable curse of a Mongol conquest Nasir, whose reign covers most of
+the first half of the fourteenth century, was a great builder, and so
+were many of the nobles of his court. It was the golden age of Saracenic
+architecture, and Cairo is still full of the monuments of Nasir's emirs.
+He encouraged agriculture, stockbreeding, farming, falconry, as well as
+literature and art, everything, in short, except vice, wine, and
+Christians.
+
+The Burgi, or Circassian Mamluks (1382-1517), were little more than
+chief among the emirs. Widespread corruption, the open sale of high
+offices and of "justice," and general debauchery characterised their
+rule. Yet they built many of the loveliest mosques in Cairo, and the
+conquest of Cyprus, long a nest of Mediterranean piracy, by Bars Bey in
+1426 may be added to their credit. Kait Bey (1468-1496) was a great
+builder, and in every way a wise, brave, and energetic, public-spirited
+sovereign, and was an exception to the general baseness.
+
+Egypt was rich in his day. The European trade had swelled enormously,
+and the duties brought in a prodigious revenue. The Italian Republics
+had their consulates or their marts in Alexandria, and Marseilles,
+Narbonne, and Catalonia sent their representatives. The Indian trade was
+also very considerable; we read of L36,000 paid at one time in customs
+dues at Gidda, then an Egyptian port on the Red Sea. The Mamluk sultan
+took toll on every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in
+the palmy days that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route
+in 1497. It was an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not
+resigned without a struggle. The Mamluk fleet engaged the Portuguese off
+Chaul in the Bay of Bengal in 1508 and defeated them; but Almeida
+avenged the honour of his country by a victory over the Mamluk admiral
+Hoseyn off Diu in the following year, and the prolific transit trade of
+Egypt was to a great extent lost.
+
+This final effort was made by the last great sultan of the Circassian
+dynasty, Kansuh Ghuri (1501-1516), who also exerted himself manfully in
+defending his country from the impending disaster of Ottoman invasion.
+But the Othmanli Turks, greatly heartened by the conquest of
+Constantinople in 1453, had been steadily encroaching in Asia, and,
+after defeating the shah of Persia, their advance upon Syria and Egypt
+was only a matter of time. The victory was made easier by jealousies and
+treachery among the Mamluks. Kansuh fell at the head of his gallant
+troops in a battle near Aleppo in August 1516; a last desperate stand of
+the Mamluks under the Mukattam Hill at Cairo in January 1517, was
+overcome, and Sultan Selim made Egypt a province of the Turkish empire.
+Such it remains, formally, to this day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+RAPHAEL HOLINSHED
+
+
+Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
+
+
+     Raphael Holinshed, who was born about 1520, is one of the most
+     celebrated of English chroniclers. The "Chronicles of England,
+     Scotland, and Ireland," known by his name, cover a long period
+     of English history, beginning with a "Description" of Britain
+     from the earliest times, and carried on until the reign of
+     Elizabeth, in the course of which, between 1580 and 1584,
+     Holinshed died. The work did good service to Shakespeare, who
+     drew from it much of the material for his historical plays.
+     The first edition, published in 1577, was succeeded in 1587 by
+     another, in which the "Chronicles" were continued by John
+     Hooker and others. An edition appeared in 1807, in the
+     foreword to which the "Chronicles" are described as containing
+     "the most curious and authentic account of the manners and
+     customs of our island in the reign of Henry VIII. and
+     Elizabeth "; and being the work of a contemporary observer
+     this is not too much to claim for it. Owing to the great scope
+     of this work, it is impossible to convey an impression of the
+     whole, which is best represented by means of selected examples
+     of the chronicler's method. Being the work of so many
+     different authors, the literary quality of the "Chronicles"
+     naturally varies; but the learning and research they show make
+     them an invaluable aid to the study of the manners and customs
+     of early England.
+
+
+_I.--Master Holinshed to his Good Lord and Master, Sir William Brooke,
+Knight_
+
+
+Being earnestlie required, Right Honorable, of divers my freends, to set
+down some breefe discourse of some of those things which I had observed
+in the reading of manifold antiquities, I was at first verie loth to
+yeeld to their desires. But, they pressing their irksome sute, I
+condescended to it, and went in hand with the work, with hopes of good,
+although no gaie success. In the process of this Booke, if your Honor
+regard the substance of that which is here declared, I must needs
+confess that it is none of mine owne; but if your lordship have
+consideration of the barbarous composition shewed herein, that I may
+boldlie claim and challenge for mine owne. Certes, I protest before God
+and your Honor, that I never made any choise of stile, or words, neither
+regarded to handle this Treatise in such precise order and method as
+manie other would have done, thinking it sufficient, truelie and
+plainelie to set forth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather
+than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre,
+a thing neither commendable in a writer, nor profitable to the reader.
+But howsoever it be done, I have had an especial eye unto the truth of
+things, and for the rest, I hope that this foule frizeled Treatise of
+mine will prove a spur to others better learned to handle the self-same
+argument, if in my life-time I doo not peruse it again.
+
+
+_II.--Some Account of the Historie of Britaine_
+
+
+As few or no nations can justlie boast themselves to have continued
+sithence their countrie was first replenished, without anie mixture,
+more or lesse, of forreine inhabitant mixture, more or lesse, of
+forreine inhabitants; no more can this our Iland, whose manifold
+commodities have oft allured sundrie princes and famous capteines of the
+world to conquer and subdue the same unto their owne subjection. Manie
+sorts of people therefore have come in hither and settled themselves
+here in this Ile, and first of all other, a parcell of the lineage and
+posteritie of Japhet, brought in by Samothes, in the 1910 after the
+creation of Adam. Howbeit in process of time, and after they had
+indifferentlie replenished and furnished this Iland with people, Albion,
+the giant, repaired hither with a companie of his owne race proceeding
+from Cham, and not onelie annexed the same to his owne dominion, but
+brought all such as he found here of the line of Japhet, into miserable
+servitude and most extreame thraldome. After him also, and within lesse
+than six hundred and two yeares, came Brute, the son of Sylvius, with a
+great train of the posteritie of the dispersed Trojans in 324 ships; who
+rendering the like courtesie unto Chemminits as they had done before
+unto the seed of Japhet, brought them also wholie under his rule and
+governance, and dispossessing them he divided the countrie among such
+princes and capteines as he had led out of Grecia with him.
+
+Then after some further space of time the Roman Emperours subdued the
+land to their dominion; and after the coming of the Romans, it is hard
+to say with how manie sorts of people we were dailie pestered. For their
+armies did commonlie consist of manie sorts of people, and were (as I
+may call them) a confused mixture of all other countries and nations
+then living in the world. Howbeit I thinke it best, because they did all
+beare the title of Romans, to retaine onelie that name for them all,
+albeit they were wofull guests to this our Iland: sith that with them
+came all kinds of vice, all riot and excess of behaviour into our
+countrie, which their legions brought with them from each corner of
+their dominions.
+
+Then did follow the Saxons, and the Danes, and at last the Normans, of
+whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to
+our countrymen than the Danes, or more heavie and intollerable to our
+Iland than the Saxons or the Romans. For they were so cruellie bent to
+our utter subversion and overthrow, that in the beginning it was lesse
+reproach to be accounted a slave than an Englishman, or a drudge in anie
+filthie businesse than a Britaine: insomuch that everie French page was
+superiour to the greatest Peere; and the losse of an Englishman's life
+but a pastime to such of them as contended in their braverie who should
+give the greatest strokes or wounds unto their bodies when their toiling
+and drudgerie could not please them or satisfie their greedie humours.
+Yet such was our lot in those daies by the divine appointed order, that
+we must needs obey such as the Lord did set pyer us, and this all
+because we refused grace offered in time, and would not heare when God
+by his preachers did call us so favourablie unto him.
+
+By all this then we perceive, how from time to time this Hand hath not
+onelie been a prey, but as it were a common receptacle for strangers,
+the naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter,
+till in the end they came not onelie to be driven into a corner of this
+region, but in time also verie like utterlie to have been extinguished.
+Thus we see how England hath been manie times subject to the reproach of
+conquest. And whereas the Scots seeme to challenge manie famous
+victories also over us, it shall suffice for answer, that they deale in
+this as in the most part of their historie, which is to seeke great
+honour by lying, and great renown by prating and craking. Indeed they
+have done great mischief in this Hand, and with extreime crueltie; but
+as for anie conquest the first is yet to heare of.
+
+But beside those conquests aforementioned, Huntingdon, the old
+historiographer, speaketh of another, likelie (as he saith) to come one
+daie out of the North, which is a wind that bloweth no man to good, sith
+nothing is to be had in those parts, but hunger and much cold.
+
+
+_III.--Of King Richard, the First, and his Journie to the Holie Land_
+
+
+Richard the First of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the Second,
+began his reign over England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of our
+Lord 1189. He received the crowne with all due and accustomed
+sollemnitie, at the hands of Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterburie, the
+third daie of September.
+
+Upon this daie of King Richard's coronation, the Jewes that dwelt in
+London and in other parts of the realme, being there assembled, had but
+sorie hap, as it chanced. For they meaning to honour the same coronation
+with their presence, and to present to the king some honourable gift,
+whereby they might declare themselves glad for his advancement, and
+procure his freendship towards them, for the confirming of their
+privileges and liberties; he of a zealous mind to Christes religion,
+abhorring their nation (and doubting some sorcerie by them to be
+practised) commanded that they should not come within the church when he
+should receive the crowne, nor within the palace whilest he was at
+dinner.
+
+But at dinner-time, among other that pressed in at the palace gate,
+diverse of the Jews were about to thrust in, till one of them was
+striken by a Christian, who alledging the king's commandment, kept them
+backe from comming within the palace. Which some of the unrulie people,
+perceiving, and supposing it had been done by the king's commandement,
+tooke lightlie occasion thereof, and falling upon the Jewes with staves,
+bats, and stones, beat them and chased them home to their houses and
+lodgings. Then did they set fire on the houses, and the Jewes within
+were either smoldred and burned to death within, or else at their
+comming forth most cruellie received upon the points of speares, billes,
+and swords of their adversaries that watched for them verie diligentlie.
+This great riot well deserved sere and grievous punishment, but yet it
+passed over without correction, because of the hatred generallie
+conceived against the obstinate frowardnesse of the Jewes. Finallie,
+after the tumult was ceased, the king commanded that no man should hurt
+or harm any of the Jewes, and so they were restored to peace after they
+had susteined infinit damage.
+
+No great while after this his coronation, the king sought to prepare
+himself to journey to the holie land, and to this end he had great need
+of money. Therefore he made such sale of things appertaining to him, as
+well in right of the crowne, as otherwise, that it seemed to divers that
+he made his reckoning never to return agan, in so much that some of his
+councillors told him plainelie, that he did not well in making things
+awaie so freelie; unto whom he answered "that in time of need it was no
+evill policie for a man to help himself with his owne." and further,
+"that if London at that time of need would be bought, he would surelie
+sell it, if he might meet with a convenient merchant that were able to
+give him monie enough for it."
+
+Then all things being readie, King Richard set forth, and, after great
+hindrance by tempests, and at the hands of the men of Cyprus, who warred
+against him and were overcome, he came to the citie of Acres, which then
+was besieged by the Christian armie. Such was the valiancie of King
+Richard shown in manfull constraining of the citie, that his praise was
+greatly bruted both amongst the Christians and also the Saracens.
+
+At last, on the twelfth date of Julie, in the yeare of grace 1192, the
+citie of Acres was surrendered into the Christian men's hands. These
+things being concluded, the French King Philip, upon envie and malice
+conceived against King Richard (although he pretended sickness for
+excuse) departed homewards. Now touching this departure, divers
+occasions are remembered by writers of the emulation and secret spite
+which he should bear towards King Richard. But, howsoever, it came to
+passe, partlie through envie (as hath beene thought) conceived at the
+great deeds of King Richard, whose mightie power and valiantnesse he
+could not well abide, and partlie for other respects him moving, he took
+the sea with three gallies of the Genevois, and returned into Italie,
+and so home into France, having promised first unto King Richard in the
+holie land, and after to pope Celestine at Rome, that he would not
+attempt any hurtfull enterprise against the English dominions, till King
+Richard should be returned out of the holie land. But this promise was
+not kept, for he sought to procure Earle John, King Richard's brother,
+to rebell against him, though he then sought it in vaine.
+
+Yet were matters nowise peacefull within the realme of England, and
+because of this, and likewise because the froward humours of the French
+so greatlie hindered him in warring against the Saracens, King Richard
+determined fullie to depart homewards, and at last there was a peace
+concluded with Saladin. But on his journie homewards the King had but
+sorie hap, for he made shipwracke on the coast of Istria, and then fell
+into captivitie; and this was the manner that it came to passe.
+
+
+_IV.--Of King Richard's Captivitie_
+
+
+King Richard, doubting to fall into the hands of those who might bear
+him ill-will, made the best shift he could to passe through quietlie,
+yet were many of his servants made captive, and he himself came with but
+three men to Vienna. There causing his servants to provide meat for him
+more sumptuous and fine than was thought requisite for so meane a person
+as he counterfeited then, he was straightway remarked, and some gave
+knowledge to the Duke of Austrich named Leopold, who loved him not for
+some matter that had passed in the holie land. Moreover, his page, going
+about the towne to change gold, and buy vittels, bewraied him, having by
+chance the King's gloves under his girdle: whereupon, being examined,
+for fear of tortures he confessed the truth.
+
+The Duke sent men to apprehend him, but he, being warie that he was
+descried, got him to his weapon; but they alledging the Duke's
+commandement, he boldly answered, "that sith he must be taken, he being
+a King, would yeeld himselfe to none of the companie but to the Duke
+alone." The Duke hearing of this, speedilie came unto him, whom he
+meeting, delivered up his sword, and committed him unto his custodie.
+Then was he brought before the princes and lords of the empire, in whose
+presence the emperour charged him with diverse unlawfull doings. King
+Richard notwithstanding the vaine and frivolous objections laid to his
+charge, made his answers always so pithilie and directlie to all that
+could be laid against him, and excused himself e in everie point so
+thoroughlie, that the emperour much marvelled at his high wisdom and
+prudence, and not onelie greatlie commended him for the same, but from
+thenceforth used him more courteously. Yet did King Richard perceive
+that no excuses would serve, but that he must paie to his covetous host
+some great summe of monie for his hard entertainment. Therefore he sent
+the bishop of Salisburie into England to provide for the paiment of his
+ransome.
+
+Finallie the King, after he had beene prisoner one yeare, six weekes,
+and three daies, was set at libertie on Candle-mass day, and then with
+long and hastie journies, not keeping the high waies, he hasted forth
+towards England. It is reported that if he had lingered by the way, he
+had beene eftsoones apprehended. For the emperour being incensed against
+him by ambassadors that came from the French king, immediatlie after he
+was set forward, began to repent himselfe in that he had suffered him so
+soon to depart from him, and hereupon sent men after him with all speed
+to bring him backe if they could by any means overtake him, meaning as
+then to have kept him in perpetual prison. But these his knavish tricks
+being in the good providence of God defeated, King Richard at length in
+good safetie landed at Sandwich, and the morrow after came to
+Canterburie, where he was received with procession. From thence he came
+unto London, where he was received with great joy and gladnesse of the
+people, giving heartie thanks to almightie God for his safe return and
+deliverance.
+
+The same yeare that King Richard was taken by the Duke of Austrich, one
+night in the month of Januarie about the first watch of the night, the
+northwest side of the element appeared of such a ruddie colour as though
+it had burned, without any clouds or other darknesse to cover it, so
+that the stars showed through that redness and might be verie well
+discerned. Diverse bright strakes appeared to flash upwards now and
+then, dividing the rednesse, through the which the stars seemed to be of
+a bright sanguine colour.
+
+In Februarie next insuing, one night after midnight the like wonder was
+seene and shortlie after newes came that the king was taken in Almaigne.
+And the same daie and selfe houre that the king arrived at Sandwich,
+whitest the sunne shone verie bright and cleare, there appeared a most
+brightsome and unaccustomed clearnesse, not farre distant from the
+sunne, as it were to the length and breadth of a man's personage, having
+a red shining brightnesse withall, like to the rainbow, which strange
+sight when manie beheld, there were that prognosticated the king
+alreadie to be arrived.
+
+
+_V.--Of Good Queen Elisabeth, and How She Came into Her Kingdom_
+
+
+After all the stormie, tempestuous, and blustering windie weather of
+Queene Marie was overblowne, the darksome clouds of discomfort
+dispersed, the palpable fogs and mists of most intollerable miserie
+consumed, and the dashing showers of persecution overpast, it pleased
+God to send England a calm and quiet season, a cleare and lovelie
+sunshine, and a world of blessings by good Queene Elisabeth, into whose
+gracious reign we are now to make an happie entrance as followeth.
+
+On her entering the citie of London, she was received of the people with
+prayers, wishes, welcomings, cries, and tender words, all which argued a
+wonderfull earnest love of most obedient subjects towards their
+sovereign. And on the other side, her grace, by holding up her hands,
+and merrie countenance to such as stood farre off, and most tender and
+gentle language to those that stood nigh unto her grace, did declare
+herselfe no lesse thankfullie to receive her people's good will, than
+they lovinglie offered it to her. And it was not onelie to those her
+subjects who were of noble birth that she showed herself thus verie
+gracious, but also to the poorest sort. How manie nose gaies did her
+grace receive at poore women's hands? How oftentimes staid she her
+chariot, when she saw anie simple bodie offer to speake to her grace? A
+branch of rosemarie given her grace with a supplication about
+Fleetbridge, was seene in her chariot till her grace came to
+Westminster, not without the marvellous wondering of such as knew the
+presenter, and noted the queene's most gracious receiving and keeping
+the same. Therefore may the poore and needie looke for great hope at her
+grace's hand, who hath shown so loving a carefulnesse for them.
+
+Moreover, because princes be set in their seat by God's appointing, and
+they must therefore first and chieflie tender the glorie of Him from
+whom their glorie issueth; it is to be noted in her grace that for so
+much as God hath so wonderfullie placed her in the seat of government of
+this realme, she in all her doings doth show herselfe most mindful of
+His goodness and mercie shewed unto her. And one notable signe thereof
+her grace gave at the verie time of her passage through London, for in
+the Tower, before she entered her chariot, she lifted up her eies to
+Heaven and saith as followeth:
+
+"O Lord Almightie and everlasting God, I give Thee most heartie thanks
+that Thou hast beene so mercifull unto me as to spare me to behold this
+joy full daie. And I acknowledge that Thou hast dealt as wonderfullie
+and as mercifullie with me as Thou diddest with Thy true and faithfull
+servant Daniell Thy prophet, whom Thou deliveredst out of the den from
+the crueltie of the greedie and raging lions; even so was I overwhelmed,
+and onlie by Thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, onlie be thankes,
+honor, and praise, for ever. Amen."
+
+On Sundaie, the five and twentieth daie of Januarie, her majestie was
+with great solemnitie crowned at Westminster, in the Abbey church there,
+by doctor Oglethorpe bishop of Carlisle. She dined in Westminster hall,
+which was richlie hung, and everything ordered in such royall manner, as
+to such a regall and most solemn feast appertained. In the meane time,
+whilst her grace sat at dinner, Sir Edward Dimmocke, knight, her
+champion by office, came riding into the hall in faire complete armour,
+mounted upon a beautifull courser, richlie trapped in cloth of gold, and
+in the midst of the hall cast downe his gauntlet, with offer to fight
+in her quarell with anie man that should denie her to be the righteous
+and lawfull queene of this realme. The queene, taking a cup of gold full
+of wine, dranke to him thereof, and sent it to him for his fee.
+Finallie, this feast being celebrated with all due and fitting royall
+ceremonies, tooke end with great joy and contentation to all the
+beholders.
+
+Yet, though there was thus an end of the ceremonies befitting the
+queene's coronation, her majesty was everywhere received with brave
+shows, and with pageants, all for the love and respect that her subjects
+bare her. Thus on Whitsundaie, in the first year of her reign, the
+citizens of London set forth a muster before the queene's majestie at
+Greenwich in the parke there, of the number of 1,400 men, whereof 800
+were pikes, armed in fine corselets, 400 shot in shirts of mail, and 200
+halberdiers armed in Almaine rivets; these were furnished forth by the
+crafts and companies of the citie. To everie hundred two wifflers were
+assigned, richlie appointed and apparelled for the purpose. There were
+also twelve wardens of the best companies mounted on horsebacke in
+coates of blacke velvet, to conduct them, with drums and fifes, and sixe
+ensigne all in lerkins of white sattin of Bridges, cut and lined with
+black sarsenet, and caps, hosen, and scarfs according. The
+sergeant-majors, captaine Constable, and captaine Sanders, brought them
+in order before the queene's presence, placing them in battell arraie,
+even as they should have fought; so the shew was verie faire, the
+emperour's and the French king's ammbassadors being present.
+
+Verilie the queene hath ever shown herself forward and most willing that
+her faithfull subjects should be readie and skilfull in war as in peace.
+Thus in the fourteenth yeare of her reign, by order of her council, the
+citizens of London, assembling in their several halles, the masters
+chose out the most likelie and active persons of their companies to be
+pikemen and shot. To these were appointed diverse valiant captaines, who
+to train them up in warlike feats, mustered them thrice everie weeke,
+sometimes in the artillerie yard, teaching the gunners to handle their
+pieces, sometimes at the Miles end, and in saint George's field,
+teaching them to skirmish.
+
+In the arts of peace likewise, she is greatlie pleased with them who are
+good craftsmen, and shews them favour. In government we have peace and
+securitie, and do not greatlie fear those who may stir up wicked
+rebellion within our land, or may come against us from beyond the sea.
+
+In brief, they of Norwich did say well, when the queene's majestie came
+thither, and in a pageant in her honour, one spake these words:
+
+    "Dost them not see the joie of all this flocke?
+      Vouchsafe to view their passing gladsome cheere,
+    Be still (good queene) their refuge and their rocke,
+      As they are thine to serve in love and feare;
+    So fraud, nor force, nor forreine foe may stand
+      Against the strength of thy most puissant hand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+EDWARD A. FREEMAN
+
+
+The Norman Conquest of England
+
+
+     Edward Augustus Freeman was born at Harborne, Staffordshire,
+     England, Aug. 2, 1823. His precocity as a child was
+     remarkable; at seven he read English and Roman history, and at
+     eleven he had acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and had
+     taught himself the rudiments of Hebrew. An increase in fortune
+     in 1848 enabled him to settle down and devote himself to
+     historical research, and from that time until his death on
+     March 17, 1892, his life was one spell of literary
+     strenuousness. His first published work, other than a share in
+     two volumes of verse, was "A History of Architecture," which
+     appeared in 1849. Freeman's reputation as historian rests
+     principally on his monumental "History of the Norman
+     Conquest." It was published in fifteen volumes between 1867
+     and 1876, and, in common with all his works, is distinguished
+     by critical ability, exhaustiveness of research, and an
+     extraordinary degree of insight. His historical scenes are
+     remarkably clear and vivid, as though, according to one critic
+     "he had actually lived in the times."
+
+
+_Preliminary Events_
+
+
+The Norman Conquest is important, not as the beginning of English
+history, but as its chief turning point. Its whole importance is that
+which belongs to a turning point. This conquest is an event which stands
+by itself in the history of Europe. It took place at a transitional
+period in the world's development. A kingdom which had hitherto been
+only Teutonic, was brought within the sphere of the laws, manners, and
+speech of the Romance nations.
+
+At the very moment when Pope and Caesar held each other in the death
+grasp, a church which had hitherto maintained a sort of insular and
+barbaric independence was brought into a far more intimate connection
+with the Roman See. The conquest of England by William wrought less
+immediate change than when the first English conquerors slew, expelled,
+or enslaved the whole nation of the vanquished Britons or than when
+Africa was subdued by Genseric. But it wrought a greater immediate
+change than the conquest of Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It brought with
+it not only a new dynasty, but a new nobility. It did not expel or
+transplant the English nation or any part of it; but it gradually
+deprived the leading men and families of England of their land and
+offices, and thrust them down into a secondary position under the alien
+intruders.
+
+It must not be forgotten that the old English constitution survived the
+Norman Conquest. What the constitution had been under the Saxon Eadgar,
+that it remained under William. The laws, with a few changes in detail,
+and also the language of the public documents, remained the same. The
+powers vested in King William and his Witan remained constitutionally
+the same as those which had been vested in King Eadgar and his Witan a
+hundred years before. Immense changes ensued in social condition and
+administration, and in the relation of the kingdom to foreign lands.
+There was also a vast increase of royal power, and new relations were
+introduced between the king and every class of his subjects; but formal
+constitutional changes there were none.
+
+I cannot too often repeat, for the saying is the very summing up of the
+whole history, that the Norman Conquest was not the wiping out of the
+constitution, the laws, the language, the national life of Englishmen.
+The English kingship gradually changed from the old Teutonic to the
+later mediaeval type; but the change began before the Norman Conquest. It
+was hastened by that event; it was not completed till long after it, and
+the gradual transition, was brought to perfection by Henry II.
+
+Certain events indicate the remoter causes of the Norman Conquest. The
+accession of Eadward at once brings us among the events that led
+immediately to that conquest, or rather we may look on the accession of
+this Saxon king as the first stage of the conquest itself. Swend and
+Cnut, the Danes, had shown that it was possible for a foreign power to
+overcome England by force of arms.
+
+The misgovernment of the sons of Cnut hindered the formation of a
+lasting Danish dynasty in England. The throne of Cerdic was again filled
+by a son of Woden; but there can be no doubt that the shock given to the
+country by the Danish Conquest, especially the way in which the ancient
+nobility was cut off in the long struggle with Swend and Cnut, directly
+opened the way for the coming of the Norman. Eadward did his best,
+wittingly or unwillingly, to make his path still easier. This he did by
+accustoming Englishmen to the sight of strangers--not national kinsmen
+like Cnut's Danes, but Frenchmen, men of utterly alien speech and
+manners--enjoying every available place of honour or profit in the
+country.
+
+The great national reaction under Godwine and Harold made England once
+more England for a few years. But this change, happy as it was, could
+not altogether do away with the effects of the French predilections of
+Eadward. With Eadward, then, the Norman Conquest really begins. The men
+of the generation before the Conquest, the men whose eyes were not to
+behold the event itself, but who were to do all that they could do to
+advance or retard it, are now in the full maturity of life, in the full
+possession of power.
+
+Eadward is on the throne of England; Godwine, Leofric, and Siward divide
+among them the administration of the realm. The next generation, the
+warriors of Stamfordbridge and Senlac, of York and Ely, are fast growing
+into maturity. Harold Hadrada is already pursuing his wild career of
+night-errantry in distant lands, and is astonishing the world by his
+exploits in Russia and Sicily, at Constantinople and at Jerusalem.
+
+The younger warriors of the Conquest, Eadwine and Morcere and Waltheof
+and Hereward, were probably born, but they must still have been in their
+cradles or in their mothers' arms. But, among the leaders of Church and
+State, Ealdred, who lived to place the crown on the head both of Harold
+and of William, is already a great prelate, abbot of the great house of
+Tewkesbury, soon to succeed Lyfing in the chair of Worcester.
+
+Tostig must have been on the verge of manhood; Swegen and Harold were
+already men, bold and vigorous, ready to march at their father's
+bidding, and before long to affect the destiny of their country for evil
+and for good. Beyond the sea, William, still a boy in years but a man in
+conduct and counsel, is holding his own among the storms of a troubled
+minority, and learning those arts of the statesman and the warrior which
+fitted him to become the wisest ruler of Normandy, the last and greatest
+conqueror of England.
+
+The actors in the great drama are ready for their parts; the ground is
+gradually preparing for the scene of their performance. The great
+struggle of nations and tongues and principles in which each of them had
+his share, the struggle in which William of Normandy and Harold of
+England stand forth as worthy rivals of the noblest of prizes, will form
+the subject of the next, the chief and central portion of my history.
+
+The struggle between Normans and Englishmen began with the accession of
+Eadward in 1042, although the actual subjugation of England by force of
+arms was still twenty-four years distant. The thought of another Danish
+king was now hateful. "All folk chose Eadward to King." As the son of
+AEthelred and Emma, the brother of the murdered and half-canonised
+Alfred, he had long been-familiar to English imaginations. Eadward, and
+Eadward alone, stood forth as the heir of English royalty, the
+representative of English nationality. In his behalf the popular voice
+spoke out at once, and unmistakably. His popular election took place in
+June, immediately on the death of Harthacnut, and even before his
+burial. Eadward, then, was king, and he reigned as every English king
+before him had reigned, by that union of popular election and royal
+descent which formed the essence of all ancient Teutonic kingship. He
+was crowned at Winchester, April 3, 1043. But by virtue of his peculiar
+character, his natural place was not on the throne of England, but at
+the head of a Norman abbey, for all his best qualities were those of a
+monk. Like him father, he was constantly under the dominion of
+favourites.
+
+It was to the evil choice of his favourites during the early part of his
+reign that most of the misfortunes of his time were owing, and that a
+still more direct path was opened for the ambition of his Norman
+kinsman. In the latter part of his reign, either by happy accident or
+returning good sense, led him to a better choice. Without a guide he
+could not reign, but the good fortune of his later years gave him the
+wisest and noblest of all guides.
+
+We have now reached the first appearance of the illustrious man round
+whom the main interest of this history will henceforth centre. The
+second son of Godwine lived to be the last of our kings, the hero and
+martyr of our native freedom. The few recorded actions of Harold, Earl
+of the East Angles, could hardly have enabled me to look forward to the
+glorious career of Harold, Earl of the West Saxons, King of the English.
+
+Tall in stature, beautiful in countenance, of a bodily strength whose
+memory still lives in the rude pictorial art of his time, he was
+foremost alike in the active courage and in the passive endurance of the
+warrior. It is plain that in him, no less than in his more successful,
+and, therefore, more famous, rival, we have to admire not only the mere
+animal courage, but that true skill of the leader of armies which would
+have placed both Harold and William high among the captains of any age.
+
+Great as Harold was in war, his character as a civil ruler is still more
+remarkable, still more worthy of admiration. The most prominent feature
+in his character is his singular gentleness and mercy. Never, either in
+warfare or in civil strife, do we find Harold bearing hardly upon an
+enemy. From the time of his advancement to the practical government of
+the kingdom there is not a single harsh or cruel action with which he
+can be charged.
+
+Such was the man who, seemingly in the fourth year of Eadward, in the
+twenty-fourth of his own age, was invested with the rule of one of the
+great divisions of England, who, seven years later, became the virtual
+ruler of the kingdom; who, at last, twenty-one years from his first
+elevation, received, alone among English kings, the crown of England as
+the free gift of her people, and, alone among English kings, died axe in
+hand on her soil in the defence of England against foreign invaders.
+
+William of Normandy bears a name which must for ever stand forth among
+the foremost of mankind. No man that ever trod this earth was endowed
+with greater natural gifts; to no man was it ever granted to accomplish
+greater things. No man ever did his work more effectually at the moment;
+no man ever left his work behind him as more truly an abiding possession
+for all time. In his character one feature stands out pre-eminently
+above all others. Throughout his career we admire in him the embodiment
+in the highest degree that human nature will allow of the fixed purpose
+and the unbending will.
+
+We are too apt to look upon William as simply the conqueror of England.
+But so to do is to look at him only in his most splendid, but at the
+same time his least honourable, aspect. William learned to become the
+conqueror of England only by first becoming the conqueror of Normandy
+and the conqueror of France. He found means to conquer Normandy by the
+help of France, and to conquer France by the help of Normandy. He came
+to his duchy under every disadvantage. At once bastard and minor, with
+competitors for his coronet arising at every moment, he was throughout
+the whole of his early life beset by troubles, none of which were of his
+own making, and he came honourably out of all.
+
+In 1052, William paid his memorable visit to England. At that time both
+Normandy and England were at rest, enjoying peace. Visits of mere
+friendship and courtesy among sovereign princes were rare in those days.
+Such visits as those which William and Eustace of Boulogne paid at this
+time to this country were altogether novelties, and unlikely to be
+acceptable to the English mind. We may be sure that every patriotic
+Englishman looked with an evil eye on any French-speaking prince who
+made his way to the English court.
+
+William came with a great following; he tarried awhile in his cousin's
+company; he went away loaded with gifts and honours. And he can hardly
+doubt that he went away encouraged by some kind of promise of succeeding
+to the kingdom which he now visited as a stranger. Direct heirs were
+lacking to the royal house, and William was Eadward's kinsman. The
+moment was in every way favourable for suggesting to William on the one
+hand, to Eadward on the other, the idea of an arrangement by which
+William should succeed to the English crown on Eadward's death. The
+Norman writers are full of Eadward's promise to William, and also of
+some kind of oath that Harold swore to him. Had either the promise or
+the oath been a pure Norman invention, William could never have paraded
+both in the way that he did in the eyes of Europe. I admit, then, some
+promise of Eadward, some oath of Harold. But when the time came for
+Eadward the Confessor to make his final recommendation of a successor,
+he certainly changed his purpose; for his last will, so far as such an
+expression can be used, was undoubtedly in favour of Harold.
+
+There is not the slightest sign of any intention on the part of Eadward
+during his later years to nominate William to the Witan as future king.
+The two streams of English and Norman history were joined together in
+the year when the two sovereigns met for the only time in their reigns.
+Those streams again diverged. England shook off the Norman influence to
+all outward appearance, and became once more the England of AEthelstan
+and Eadgar. But the effects of Eadgar's Norman tendencies were by no
+means wholly wiped away. Normans still remained in the land, and
+circumstances constituted secondary causes of the expedition of William.
+
+It was in the year 1051 that the influence of strangers reached its
+height. During the first nine years of Eadward's reign we find no signs
+of any open warfare between the national and the Normanising parties.
+The course of events shows that Godwine's power was being practically
+undermined, but the great earl was still Jutwardly in the enjoyment of
+royal favour, and his fast possessions were still being added to by
+royal grants. But soon England began to feel how great is the evil when
+a king and those immediately around him are estranged from the mass of
+his people in feeling.
+
+To the French favourites who gradually crowded the court of Eadward the
+name, the speech, and the laws of England were things on which their
+ignorant pride looked with utter contempt.
+
+Count Eustace of Boulogne, now brother-in-law of the king of the
+English, presently came, like the rest of the world, to the English
+Court. The king was spending the autumn at Gloucester. Thither came
+Count Eustace, and, after his satisfactory interview with the king, he
+turned his face homewards. When a few miles from Dover he felt himself,
+in a region specially devoted to Godwine, to be still more thoroughly in
+an enemy's country than in other parts of England, and he and all his
+company took the precaution of putting on their coats of mail.
+
+The proud Frenchmen expected to find free quarters at Dover, and they
+attempted to lodge themselves at their pleasure in the houses of the
+burghers. One Englishman resisted, and was struck dead on the spot. The
+count's party then rode through the town, cutting and slaying at
+pleasure. In a skirmish which quickly ensued twenty Englishmen and
+nineteen Frenchmen were slain.
+
+Count Eustace and the remnant of the party hastened back to Gloucester,
+and told the story after their own fashion. On the mere accusation of a
+stranger, the English king condemned his own subjects without a hearing.
+He sent for Godwine, as earl of the district in which lay the offending
+town, and commanded him to inflict chastisement on Dover. The English
+champion was then in the midst of a domestic rejoicing. He had, like the
+king, been strengthening himself by a foreign alliance, and had just
+connected his house with that of a foreign prince. Tostig, the third son
+of Godwine, had just married Judith, the daughter of Baldwin of
+Flanders.
+
+Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to
+visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing
+his course. Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract
+justice and humanity, dictated a distinct refusal. Now or never a stand
+was to be made against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial
+for the burghers of Dover.
+
+But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a
+peaceful settlement of the matter. Eustace probably still lingered about
+the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready
+to poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader.
+It was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert. Godwine and three
+other earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of
+Eustace, but the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward,
+Leofric, and Ralph, bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep
+Godwine in check. Thus the northern and southern sections were arrayed
+against each other.
+
+There were, however, on the king's side, men who were not willing to see
+the country involved in civil war. Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia,
+stood forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed
+that hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should
+assemble at Michaelmas in London.
+
+Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to
+collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London. Godwine
+and his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear
+without a security for a safe conduct. The hostages and safe-conduct
+were refused. The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as
+he sat at his evening meal. The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his
+feet, overthrew the table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode
+for his life all that night. In the morning the king held his
+witenagemot, and by a vote of the king and his whole army, Godwine and
+his sons were declared outlaws, but five days were allowed them to get
+out of the land. Godwine, Swegen, Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha
+and Judith, the newly-married wife of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a
+ship laden with as much treasure as it would hold. They reached the
+court of Flanders in safety, were honourably received by the count, and
+passed the whole winter with him.
+
+Two of Godwine's sons, however, sought another refuge. Harold and his
+younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek
+shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially
+received by King Diarmid. For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic
+leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over
+the feeble mind of the king was complete. It was while Godwine dwelt as
+an exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the
+friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as
+William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit
+which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one,
+among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.
+
+Stirring events followed in quick succession. General regret was felt
+among all patriotic Englishmen at the absence of Godwine. The common
+voice of England soon began to call for the return of the banished earl,
+who was looked to by all men as the father of his country. England now
+knew that in his fall a fatal blow had been dealt to her own welfare and
+freedom. And Godwine, after sending many petitions to the king, vainly
+petitioning for a reconciliation, determined to return by force,
+satisfied that the great majority of Englishmen would be less likely to
+resist him than to join his banners.
+
+Harold sailed from Ireland to meet his father by way of the English
+Channel. Godwine sailed up the Thames, and London declared for him.
+Panic reigned among the favourites of King Eadward. The foreigners took
+to flight, among the fugitives being Archbishop Robert and Bishop Ulf.
+The gemot met and decreed the restoration of the earl and the outlawry
+of many Normans. The king yielded, and accorded to Godwine the kiss of
+peace, and a revolution was accomplished of which England may well be
+proud.
+
+But a tragedy soon followed, in the death of the most renowned
+Englishman of that generation. During a meal at the Easter festival
+Godwine fell from his seat, and died after lying insensible for three
+days. Great was the grief of the nation. Harold, in the years that
+followed, became so increasingly popular that he was virtually chief
+ruler of England, even before the death of Eadward, which happened on
+January 5, 1066. His burial was followed by the coronation of Harold.
+But the moment of struggle was now come. The English throne had become
+vacant, and the Norman duke knew how to represent himself as its lawful
+heir, and to brand the king of the nation's choice as an usurper. The
+days of debate were past, and the sword alone could decide between
+England and her enemy.
+
+William found one Englishman willing to help him in all his schemes, in
+the person of Tostig, Harold's brother, who had been outlawed at the
+demand of the nation, owing to his unfitness to rule his province as
+Earl of Northumberland. He had sunk from bad to worse. Harold had done
+all he could for his fallen brother, but to restore him was impossible.
+Tostig was at the Norman court, urging William to the invasion of
+England. At his own risk, he was allowed to make an incursion on the
+English coast. Entering the Humber, he burned several towns and slew
+many men. But after these ravages Tostig repaired to ask help of Harold
+Hardrada, whom he induced to prepare a great expedition.
+
+Harold Hardrada and Tostig landed and marched towards York. A battle was
+fought between the Mercians and Norwegians at Fulford, in which the
+former were worsted, but Harold was marching northward. In the fearful
+battle of Stamford Bridge both Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain,
+and the Viking host was shattered. The victorious English king was
+banqueting in celebration of the great victory, when a messenger
+appeared who had come at fleetest pace from the distant coast of Sussex.
+
+One blow had been warded off, but another still more terrible had
+fallen. Three days after the fight at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of
+the Normans, once the peaceful guest of Edward, had again, but in quite
+another guise, made good his landing on the shores of England. It was in
+August 1066 that the Norman fleet had set sail on its great enterprise.
+For several weeks a south wind had been waited for at the mouth of the
+River Dive, prayers and sacred rites of every kind being employed to
+move Heaven to send the propitious breeze. On September 28 the landing
+was effected at Pevensey, the ancient Anderida. There were neither,
+ships nor men to resist the landing. The first armed man who set foot on
+English ground was Duke William himself, whose foot slipped, so that he
+fell with both hands on the ground.
+
+A loud cry of grief was raised at the evil omen. But the ready wit of
+William failed him not. "By the splendour of God," he cried, "I have
+taken seizin of my kingdom; the earth of England is in my hands." The
+whole army landed in order, but only one day was spent at Pevensey. On
+the next day the army marched on eastward and came to Hastings, which
+was fixed on as the centre of the operations of the whole campaign.
+
+It was a hard lot for the English king to be compelled to hasten
+southward to dislodge the new enemy, after scarcely a moment's rest from
+the toils and glories of Stamford Bridge. But the heart of Harold failed
+him not, and the heart of England beat in unison with the heart of her
+king. As soon as the news came, King Harold held a council of the
+leaders of Stamford Bridge, or perhaps an armed gemot. He told them of
+the landing of the enemy; he set before them the horrors which would
+come upon the land if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud
+shout of assent rose from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his
+faith rather to die in arms than to acknowledge any king but Harold.
+
+The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
+march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
+London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
+immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
+English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
+shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold
+seems to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the
+fight at Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at
+Pevensey. Though his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in
+order to seek divine help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of
+his earlier days, devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross
+which gave England her war-cry.
+
+Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
+from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
+plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan,
+and he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
+ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
+real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to
+attack him at a great disadvantage.
+
+William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
+constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The
+latter halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters
+of the invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of
+Senlac. It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a
+post of great natural strength, which he speedily made into what is
+distinctly spoken of as a castle.
+
+The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
+commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
+scene.
+
+The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
+The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
+kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English
+post. Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse,
+William led his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill
+of Telham first caught sight of the English encamped on the opposite
+height of Senlac.
+
+First in each of the three Norman divisions marched the archers,
+slingers, and cross-bow men, then the more heavily-armed infantry,
+lastly the horsemen. The reason of this arrangement is clear. The
+light-armed were to do what they could with their missiles to annoy the
+English; the heavy infantry were to strive to break down the palisades
+of the English camp, and so to make ready the way for the charge of the
+horse.
+
+Like the Normans, the English had risen early. The king, after exhorting
+his troops to stand firm, rode to the royal post; he there dismounted,
+took his place on foot, and prayed to God for help. The battle began at
+nine in the morning--one of the sacred hours of the church. The trumpet
+sounded, and a flight of arrows from all three Norman divisions--right,
+centre, and left,--was the prelude to the onslaught of the heavy-armed
+foot. The real struggle now began. The French infantry had to toil up
+the hill, and to break down the palisade, while a shower of stones and
+javelins disordered their approach, and while club, sword and axe
+greeted all who came within the reach of hand-strokes.
+
+Both sides fought with unyielding valour. The war-cries rose on either
+side. The Normans shouted "God help us!" the English called on the "Holy
+Cross." The Norman infantry had soon done its best, but that best had
+been in vain. The choicest chivalry of Europe now pressed on to the
+attack. The knights of Normandy and of all lands from which men had
+flocked to William's standard, now pressed on, striving to make what
+impression they could with the whole strength of themselves and their
+horses on the impenetrable fortress of timber, shields, and living
+warriors.
+
+But all was in vain. The English had thus far stood their ground well
+and wisely, and the tactics of Harold had so far completely answered.
+Not only had every attack failed, but the great mass of the French army
+altogether lost heart. The Bretons and the other auxiliaries on the left
+were the first to give way. Horse and foot alike, they turned and fled.
+The whole of William's left wing was thrown into utter confusion.
+
+The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single
+prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops. Order was
+soon restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more
+terrible attack. The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out
+Harold. A few moments more, and the two might have come face to face,
+but Gyrth, the noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at
+William. The missile narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish
+steed, the first of three that died under him that day. But William
+could not fight on foot as well as on horseback. He rose to his feet,
+pressed straight to seek the man who had so nearly slain him, and the
+earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of William's mace. Nor did he fall
+alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was smitten to the earth by an
+unknown assailant.
+
+The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as
+unyielding as ever. Direct attack was unavailing. In the Norman
+character fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed. He
+ventured on the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the
+unwary English rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts
+of delight. The error was fatal to England. The tide was turned; the
+duke's object was now gained; and the main end of Harold's skilful
+tactics was frustrated. The English were no longer entrenched, and the
+battle fell into a series of single combats. As twilight was coming on
+an arrow, falling like a bolt from heaven, pierced Harold's right eye,
+and he sank in agony at the foot of the standard. Round that standard
+the fight still raged, till the highest nobility, the most valiant
+soldiery of England were slaughtered to a man.
+
+Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we
+may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been
+conquered at all. As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was
+only a matter of time. From that day forward the Normans began to work
+the will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in
+England no chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought
+down to bondage and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an
+Englishman, and the men of England were no more a people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE
+
+
+History of England
+
+
+     James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April
+     23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894. He was educated at
+     Westminster, and Oriel College, Oxford. Taking Holy Orders, he
+     was, for a time, deeply influenced by Newman and the
+     Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the radical revolution
+     of thought revealed by his first treatise, the "Nemesis of
+     Faith," which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation. Its
+     tendency to skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its
+     profound pathos, its accent of tenderness, and its fervour
+     excited wide admiration. Permanent fame was secured by the
+     appearance, in 1856, of the first two instalments of his
+     magnificent work, "The History of England, from the Fall of
+     Wolsey to the Defeat of the Armada," the last volume appearing
+     in 1870. This treatise on the middle Tudor period is one of
+     the most fascinating historical treatises in the whole range
+     of literature. It is written in a vivid and graphic prose, and
+     with rare command of the art of picturesque description.
+     Froude never accepted the doctrine that history should be
+     treated as a science; rather he claimed that the historian
+     should concern himself with the dramatic aspect of the period
+     about which he writes. The student may disagree with many of
+     Froude's points of view and portraitures, yet his men and
+     women breathe with the life he endows them, and their motives
+     are actuated by the forces he sets in motion. Of his
+     voluminous works perhaps the most notable, with the exception
+     of the "History," are his "History of Ireland in the
+     Eighteenth Century," 1871-74, and his "Short Studies on Great
+     Subjects," the latter aptly exhibiting Froude's gifts of
+     masterful prose and glittering paradox.
+
+
+_I.--The Condition of England_
+
+
+In periods like the present, when knowledge is every day extending, and
+the habits and thoughts of mankind are perpetually changing under the
+influence of new discoveries, it is no easy matter to throw ourselves
+back into a time in which for centuries the European world grew upon a
+single type, in which the forms of the father's thoughts were the forms
+of the son's, and the late descendant was occupied in treading into
+paths the footprints of his ancestors.
+
+So absolutely has change become the law of our present condition, that
+to cease to change is to lose place in the great race. Looking back over
+history, we see times of change and progress alternating with other
+times when life and thought have settled into permanent forms. Such was
+the condition of the Greeks through many ages before the Persian wars,
+and such, again, became the condition of Europe when the Northern
+nations grafted religion and the laws of the Western empire on their own
+hardy natures.
+
+A condition of things differing alike both inwardly and outwardly from
+that into which a happier fortune has introduced ourselves, is
+necessarily obscure to us. In the alteration of our own characters we
+have lost the key which would interpret the characters of our fathers.
+But some broad conclusions as to what they were are, however, at least
+possible to us. A rough census taken at the time of the Armada shows
+that it was something under five millions.
+
+The feudal system, though practically modified, was still the organising
+principle of the nation, and the owner of land was bound to military
+service at home whenever occasion required. All land was held upon a
+strictly military principle. The state of the working classes can best
+be determined by a comparison of their wages with the price of food.
+Both were as far as possible regulated by Act of Parliament. Wheat in
+the fourteenth century averaged 10d. the bushel; beef and pork were
+1/2d. a pound; mutton was 3/4d. The best pig or goose could be bought
+for 4d.; a good capon for 3d.; a chicken for 1d.; a hen for 2d.
+Strong-beer, which now costs 1s. 6d. a gallon, was then a 1d. a gallon,
+and table beer was less than 1/2d.
+
+A penny at the time of which we write must have been nearly equal in the
+reign of Henry VIII. to the present shilling. For a penny the labourer
+could buy as much bread, beef, beer, and wine as the labourer of to-day
+can for a shilling. Turning then to the question of wages, by the 3d of
+the 6th of Henry VIII., it was enacted that the master, carpenters,
+masons, bricklayers, tilers, plumbers, glaziers, joiners, and others,
+employers of skilled workmen should give to each of their journeymen, if
+no meat and drink was allowed, sixpence a day for the half year,
+fivepence a day for the other half; or fivepence-half penny for the
+yearly average. The common labourers were to receive fourpence a day for
+the half year; for the remaining half, threepence.
+
+The day labourer received what was equivalent to something near twenty
+shillings a week, the wages at present paid in English colonies; and
+this is far from being a full account of his advantages. The
+agricultural labourer held land in connection with his house, while in
+most parishes there were large ranges of common and unenclosed forest
+land, which furnished fuel to him gratis, where pigs might range, and
+ducks and geese, and where, if he could afford a cow, he was in no
+danger of being unable to feed it; and so important was this privilege
+considered, that when the commons began to be largely enclosed,
+Parliament insisted that the working man should not be without some
+piece of ground on which he could employ his own and his family's
+industry.
+
+By the 7th of the 31st of Elizabeth it was ordered that no cottage
+should be built for residence without four acres of land at lowest being
+attached to it for the sole use of the occupants of such cottage.
+
+The incomes of the great nobles cannot be determined for they varied
+probably as much as they do now. Under Henry IV. the average income of
+an earl was estimated at L2,000 a year. Under Henry VIII. the great Duke
+of Buckingham, the wealthiest English peer, had L6,000. And the income
+of the Archbishop of Canterbury was rated at the same amount. But the
+establishments of such men were enormous. Their retinues in time of
+peace consisted of several hundred persons, and in time of war a large
+share of the expenses was paid often out of private purses.
+
+Passing down to the body of the people, we find that L20 a year and
+heavy duties to do for it, represented the condition of the squire of
+the parish. By the 2nd of Henry V. "the wages" of a parish priest were
+limited to L5 6s. 8d., except in cases where there was a special license
+from the bishop, when they might be raised as high as L6. Both squire
+and priest had sufficient for comfort. Neither was able to establish any
+steep difference between himself and the commons among whom he lived, so
+far as concerned outward advantages.
+
+The habits of all classes were free, open, and liberal. In frank style
+the people lived in "merry England," displaying the "glory of
+hospitality," England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules according to
+which all tables were open to all comers without reserve. To every man,
+according to his degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare
+and free lodging. The people hated three things with all their
+hearts--idleness, want, and cowardice.
+
+A change, however, was coming upon the world, the meaning and direction
+of which even still is hidden from us, a change from era to era.
+Chivalry was dying; the abbey and castle were soon together to crumble
+into ruins; and all the forms, desires, beliefs, and convictions of the
+old world were passing away never to return. A new continent had arisen
+beyond the western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had sunk
+back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth
+itself, unfixed from its foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in
+the awful vastness of the universe. In the fabric of habit which they
+had so laboriously built for themselves mankind were to remain no
+longer.
+
+
+_II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy_
+
+
+Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
+through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him
+on the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder.
+The clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they
+deserved it. They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt
+the meaning of their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their
+authority was exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of
+the crown; and therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was
+compelled to stoop before them.
+
+The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
+conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
+duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
+recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
+conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
+remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
+their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
+inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without
+faith, wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy
+and cut off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary
+life.
+
+Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
+taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there
+were no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among
+them a remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who
+was essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
+English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
+influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
+entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
+Protestants.
+
+Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
+before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
+familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable.
+Dreaming that it could be effected from within, by the church itself
+inspired with a wiser spirit, he himself fell the first victim of a
+convulsion which he had assisted to create, and which he attempted too
+late to stay.
+
+Wolsey talked of reformation, but delayed its coming. The monasteries
+grew worse and worse. Favoured parish clergy held as many as eight
+benefices. Bishops accumulated sees, and, unable to attend to all,
+attended to none. Wolsey himself, the church reformer (so little did he
+really know what a reformation means), was at once Archbishop of York,
+Bishop of Winchester and of Durham, and Abbot of St. Albans. Under such
+circumstances, we need not be surprised to find the clergy sunk low in
+the respect of the English people.
+
+Fish's famous pamphlet shows the spirit that was seething. He spoke of
+what he had seen and knew. The monks, he tells the king, "be they that
+have made a hundred thousand idle dissolute women in your realm." But
+Wolsey could interfere with neither bishops nor monks without a special
+dispensation from the pope. A new trouble arose from the nation in the
+desire of Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who had been his
+deceased brother's wife, was six years older than himself, and was an
+obstacle to the establishment of the kingdom. Her sons were dead, and
+she was beyond the period when more children could be expected. Though
+descent in the female line was not formally denied, no queen regent had
+ever, in fact, sat upon the throne; nor was the claim distinctly
+admitted, or the claim of the House of York would have been
+unquestionable. It was, therefore, with no little anxiety that the
+council of Henry VIII. perceived his male children, on whom their hopes
+were centred, either born dead, or dying one after another within a few
+days of their birth.
+
+The line of the Princess Mary was precarious, for her health was weak
+from her childhood. If she lived, her accession would be a temptation to
+insurrection; if she did not live, and the king had no other children, a
+civil war was inevitable. The next heir in blood was James of Scotland,
+and gravely as statesmen desired the union of the two countries, in the
+existing mood of the people, the very stones in London streets, it was
+said, would rise up against a king of Scotland who entered England as
+sovereign.
+
+So far were Henry and Catherine alike that both had imperious tempers,
+and both were indomitably obstinate; but Henry was hot and impetuous,
+Catherine cold and self-contained. She had been the wife of Prince
+Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., but the death of that prince occurred
+only five months after the marriage. The uncertainty of the laws of
+marriage, and the innumerable refinements of the Roman canon law,
+affected the legitimacy of the children and raised scruples of
+conscience in the mind of the king. The loss of his children must have
+appeared as a judicial sentence on a violation of the Divine law. The
+divorce presented itself to him as a moral obligation, when national
+advantage combined with superstition to encourage what he secretly
+desired.
+
+Wolsey, after thirty years' experience of public life, was as sanguine
+as a boy. Armed with this little lever of divorce, he saw himself in
+imagination the rebuilder of the Catholic faith and the deliverer of
+Europe from ecclesiastical revolt and from innovations of faith. The
+mass of the people hated Protestantism as he, a true friend of the
+Catholic cult, sincerely detested the reformation of Luther. He believed
+that the old life-tree of Catholicism, which in fact was but cumbering
+the ground, might bloom again in its old beauty. But a truer political
+prophet than Wolsey would have been found in the most ignorant of those
+poor men who were risking death and torture in disseminating the
+pernicious volumes of the English Testament.
+
+Catherine being a Spanish princess, Henry, in 1527, formed a league with
+Francis I., with the object of breaking the Spanish alliance. The pope
+was requested to make use of his dispensing power to enable the King of
+England to marry a wife who could bear him children. Deeply as we
+deplore the outrage inflicted on Catherine, and the scandal and
+suffering occasioned by the dispute, it was in the highest degree
+fortunate that at the crisis of public dissatisfaction in England with
+the condition of the church, a cause should have arisen which tested the
+whole question of church authority in its highest form. It was no
+accident which connected a suit for divorce with the reformation of
+religion.
+
+
+_Anne Boleyn_
+
+
+The Spanish emperor, Charles V., gave Catherine his unwavering support,
+and refused to allow the pope to pass a judicial sentence of divorce.
+Catherine refused to yield. Another person now comes into conspicuous
+view. It has been with Anne Boleyn as with Catherine of Aragon--both are
+regarded as the victims of a tyranny which Catholics and Protestants
+unite to remember with horror, and each has taken the place of a
+martyred saint in the hagiology of the respective creeds. Anne Boleyn
+was second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a gentleman of noble family.
+She was educated in Paris, and in 1525 came back to England to be maid
+of honour to Queen Catherine, and to be distinguished at the court by
+her talents, accomplishments, and beauty.
+
+The fortunes of Anne Boleyn were unhappily linked with those of men to
+whom the greatest work ever yet accomplished in this country was
+committed. In the memorable year 1529, after the meeting of parliament,
+events moved apace. In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted,
+the astonished church authorities saw bill after bill hurried up before
+the lords, by which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes
+would be dried up to flow no longer. The Great Reformation had commenced
+in earnest.
+
+The carelessness of the bishops in the discharge of their most immediate
+duties obliged the legislature to trespass in the provinces most purely
+spiritual, and to undertake the discipline of the clergy. Bill after
+bill struck hard and home on the privileges of the recreant clergy. The
+aged Bishop of Rochester complained to the lords that in the lower house
+the cry was nothing but "Down with the church." Yet, so frightful were
+the abuses that called for radical reform, that even persons who most
+disapprove of the reformation will not at the present time wonder at
+their enactment, or disapprove of their severity. The king treated the
+bishops, when they remonstrated, with the most contemptuous disrespect.
+Archbishop Cranmer now adopted a singular expedient. He advised Henry to
+invite expressions from all the chief learned authorities throughout
+Europe as to the right of the pope to grant him a dispensation of
+dissolution of his marriage. The English universities, to escape
+imputations of treasons and to avoid exciting Henry's wrath, gave
+replies such as would please him, that of Oxford being, however, the
+more decided of the two. Most of the continental authorities declined to
+pronounce any dictum as to the powers of the pope.
+
+
+_The Fall of the Great Chancellor_
+
+
+The fall of Wolsey was at hand. His enemies accused him of treason to
+the constitution by violating a law of the realm. He had acted as papal
+legate within the realm. The parliaments of Edward I., Edward III.,
+Richard II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced
+illegal all presentations by the pope to any office or dignity in the
+Anglican Church, under a penalty of premunire. Henry did not feel
+himself called on to shield his great minister, although the guilt
+extended to all who had recognised Wolsey in the capacity of papal
+legate. Indeed, it extended to the archbishops, bishops, the privy
+council, the two houses of parliament, and indirectly to the nation
+itself. The higher clergy had been encouraged by Wolsey's position to
+commit those acts of despotism which had created so deep animosity among
+the people. The overflow of England's last ecclesiastical minister was
+to teach them that the privileges they had abused were at an end.
+
+In February, 1531, Henry assumed the title which was to occasion such
+momentous consequences, of "Protector and only Supreme Head of the
+Church and Clergy of England." The clergy were compelled to assent.
+Further serious steps marked the great breach with Rome. The annates, or
+first fruits, were abolished. Ever since the crusades a practice had
+existed in all the churches of Europe that bishops and archbishops, on
+presentation to their sees, should transmit to the pope one year's
+income. This impressive impost was not abrogated. It was a sign of the
+parting of the ways.
+
+Henry laid his conduct open to the world, declaring truly what he
+desired, and seeking it by open means. He was determined to proceed with
+the divorce, and also to continue the reformation of the English church.
+And he was in no small measure aided in the former resolve by the
+recommendation of Francis, for the French king advised him to act on the
+general opinion of Europe that his marriage with Catherine, as widow of
+his elder brother Arthur, was null, and at once made Anne Boleyn his
+wife. This counsel was administered at an interview between the two
+kings at Boulogne, in October, 1532.
+
+The pope had trifled for six years with the momentous question, and
+Henry was growing old. At the outset of the discussion the pope had
+said: "Marry freely; fear nothing, and all shall be arranged as you
+desire." But the pontiff, reduced to a dilemma by various causes, had
+fallen back on his Italian cunning, and had changed his attitude,
+listening to the appeals of Catherine and her powerful friends. And now
+he threatened Henry with excommunication.
+
+Henry entered privately into matrimonial relations with Anne in
+November, 1532, and the marriage was solemnly celebrated, with a
+gorgeous pageant, at Westminster Abbey in the following January. On July
+24 the people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the
+church doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine
+of Spain, heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by
+that title any more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be
+held and esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short
+years.
+
+
+_Protestantism_
+
+
+Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
+and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
+fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the
+growing desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the
+year 1525 was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The
+Association of Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the
+land carrying tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the
+order all who dared risk their lives in such a cause.
+
+The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
+such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
+spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
+October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
+echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
+Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
+translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the
+formation of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed.
+The bishops subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and
+these were burned before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But
+Wolsey had for two years been suppressing the smaller monasteries.
+Simultaneously, Protestants were persecuted wherever they could be
+detected and seized. "Little" Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished
+Cambridge student, was burnt as a heretic at the stake, as were James
+Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and several other members of
+the "association." These were the first paladins of the reformation, and
+the struggle went bravely forward. They were the knights who slew the
+dragons and made the earth habitable for common flesh and blood.
+
+As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
+Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
+pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When
+the breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal party at
+home had assumed an attitude of suspended insurrection, the fortunes of
+the Protestants entered into a new phase. The persecution ceased, and
+those who were but lately its likely victims, hiding for their lives,
+passed at once by a sudden alternation into the sunshine of political
+favour.
+
+Cromwell and Latimer together caught the moment as it went by, and
+before it was over a work had been done in England which, when it was
+accomplished once, was accomplished for ever. The conservative party
+recovered their power, and abused it as before; but the chains of the
+nation were broken, and no craft of kings or priests or statesmen could
+weld the magic links again, Latimer became famous as a preacher at
+Cambridge, and was heard of by Henry, who sent for him and appointed him
+one of the royal chaplains. He was accused by the bishops of heresy, but
+was on trial absolved and sent back to his parish. Soon after the tide
+turned, and the reformation entered into a new phase.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, like Latimer of humble origin, was the "malleus
+monachorum." Wolsey discovered his merit, and employed him in breaking
+up the small monasteries, which the pope had granted for the foundation
+of the new colleges. Cromwell remained with the great cardinal till his
+fall. It was then that the truly noble nature which was in him showed
+itself. The lords had passed a bill of impeachment against
+Wolsey--violent, vindictive, and malevolent. It was to be submitted to
+the commons. Cromwell prepared an opposition, and conducted the defence
+from his place in parliament so skilfully that he threw out the bill,
+saved Wolsey, and gained such a reputation that he became Henry's
+secretary, representing the government in the House of Commons, and was
+on the highroad to power.
+
+The reformation was blotted with a black and frightful stain. Towards
+the end of April, 1536, certain members of the Privy Council were
+engaged in secretly collecting evidence which implicated the queen in
+adultery. In connection with the terrible charge, as her accomplices
+five gentlemen were arrested--Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeton, a court
+musician, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and, the accusation in
+his case being the most shocking, Lord Rochford, the queen's brother.
+The trial was hastily pushed forward, and all were executed. The queen,
+who vehemently and piteously appealed to Henry, passionately protesting
+that she was absolutely innocent, was also condemned, and was beheaded
+in public on Tower Hill.
+
+Henry immediately after the tragedy married Jane, daughter of Sir John
+Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered conclusive of the
+cause of Anne Boleyn's ruin. On December 12, 1537, a prince, so long and
+passionately hoped for, was born; but a sad calamity followed, for the
+queen took cold, and died on October 24.
+
+In 1539 monastic life came to an end in England. The great monasteries
+were dissolved; the abbey lands were distributed partly amongst the old
+nobility and partly amongst the chapters of six new bishoprics. On
+January 6, 1540, was solemnised the marriage of Henry with Anne,
+daughter of the Duke of Cleves, and sister-in-law of the Elector of
+Saxony. This event was brought about by the negotiations of Cromwell.
+The king was deeply displeased with the ungainly appearance of his bride
+when he met her on her landing, but retreat was impossible. Though Henry
+was personally kind to the new queen, the marriage made him wretched.
+
+Cromwell's enemies speedily hatched a conspiracy against the great
+statesman. He was arrested on a charge of high treason, was accused of
+corruption and heresy, of gaining wealth by bribery and extortion, and,
+in spite of Cranmer's efforts to save him, passed to the scaffold on
+July 28, 1540. For eight years Cromwell, who had been ennobled as Earl
+of Essex, was supreme with king, parliament, and convocation, and the
+nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him.
+
+Convocation had already dissolved the marriage of Henry and Anne,
+setting both free to contract and consummate other marriages without
+objection or delay. The queen had placidly given her consent. Handsome
+settlements were made on her in the shape of estates for her maintenance
+producing nearly three thousand a year. In August of the same year the
+King married, without delay of circumstance, Catherine, daughter of Lord
+Edmond Howard. Brief, indeed, was her reign. In November, 1541, she was
+charged with unfaithfulness to her marriage vows. The king was
+overwhelmed. Some dreadful spirit pursued his married life, tainting it
+with infamy.
+
+Two gentlemen confessed their guilty connection with the queen. They
+were hanged at Tyburn, and the queen and Lady Rochford, who had been
+her confidential companion, suffered within the Tower. Once more the
+king ventured into marriage. Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his last
+choice, was selected, not in the interest of politics or religion, but
+by his own personal judgment; and this time he found the peace which he
+desired.
+
+The great event of 1542 was the signal victory of the English over a
+Scottish army of ten thousand men at Solway Moss. King James of Scotland
+had undertaken, at the instigation of the pope and of the King of France
+to attack the English as heretics. The Scottish clergy were ready to
+proclaim a pilgrimage of grace. But the English borderers, though only
+shepherds and agriculturists, as soon as they mounted their horses, were
+instantly the finest light cavalry in Europe. They so disastrously
+defeated the Scots that all the latter either perished in the morass by
+the Solway, or were captured.
+
+Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was attended in his last moments by
+Cranmer, having sent specially for the archbishop.
+
+The king did not leave the world without expressing his views on the
+future with elaborate explicitness. He spent the day before his death in
+conversation with Lord Hertford and Sir William Paget on the condition
+of the country. By separate and earnest messages he commended Prince
+Edward to the care both of Charles V. and of Francis I. The earl, on the
+morning of Henry's death, hastened off to bring up the prince, who was
+in Hertfordshire with the Princess Elizabeth, and in the afternoon of
+Monday, the 31st, he arrived at the Tower with Edward. The Council was
+already in session, and Hertford was appointed protector during the
+minority of Edward. Thus, the reforming Protestant party was in full
+power. Cranmer set the willing example, and the other prelates
+consented, or were compelled to imitate him, in an acknowledgment that
+all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm,
+only emanated from the sovereign. On February it was ordered in council
+that Hertford should be Duke of Somerset, and that his brother, Sir
+Thomas Seymour, should be Lord Seymour of Sudleye; Lord Parr was to be
+Marquis of Northampton; Lord Wriothesley, the chancellor, Earl of
+Southampton; and Viscount Lisle was to be Earl of Warwick. The Duke of
+Somerset was the young king's uncle, and the real power was at once in
+his hands. But if he was ambitious, it was only--as he persuaded
+himself--to do good.
+
+
+_Edward's Guardian_
+
+
+Under his rule the spirit of iconoclasm spread fast, and the reformation
+proceeded to completion. Churches were cleared of images, and crucifixes
+were melted into coin. Somerset gave the popular movement the formal
+sanction of the Government. Injunctions were issued for the general
+purification of the churches. The Book of Homilies was issued as a guide
+to doctrine, care was taken that copies of the Bible were accessible in
+the parish churches, and translations of Erasmus's "Paraphrase of the
+New Testament" were provided as a commentary.
+
+Somerset was a brave general as well as a great statesman. He invaded
+Scotland during the first year of his protectorate, on account of the
+refusal of the Scottish government to ratify the contract entered into
+with Henry VIII., by which it was agreed that Mary Queen of Scots should
+marry Edward. At the memorable battle of Pinkie, on September 10, 1547,
+the Scots were completely beaten. But Somerset was hastily summoned
+southward. His brother, Lord Seymour, had been caballing against him,
+and was arrested, tried, and beheaded on Tower Hill, on March 20, 1549.
+But the fall of the protector himself was not long delayed, for under
+his administration of three years his policy gradually excited wide
+discontent. In various parts of the country insurrections had to be
+suppressed. The French king had taken away the young Scottish queen, the
+king's majesty's espouse, by which marriage the realms of England and
+Scotland should have been united in perpetual peace. Money had been
+wasted on the royal household. The alliance with Charles V. had been
+trifled away. The princely name and princely splendour which Somerset
+affected, the vast fortune which he amassed amidst the ruin of the
+national finances, and the palace--now known as Somerset House,
+London--which was rising before the eyes of the world amidst the
+national defeats and misfortunes, combined to embitter the irritation
+with which the council regarded him.
+
+His great rival, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by constant insinuations
+both in and out of parliament, excited the national feeling against him
+to such a degree that at length the young king was constrained to sign
+his deposition. He seems to have entertained no strong attachment to his
+uncle. On December I, 1551, he was tried before the lords for high
+treason and condemned. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 22,
+1582. The English public, often wildly wrong on general questions, are
+good judges, for the most part, of personal character; and so
+passionately was Somerset loved, that those who were nearest the
+scaffold started forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood. Before
+this event, Dudley, by whose cruel treachery the tragedy had been
+brought about, had been created Duke of Northumberland. The great aim of
+this nobleman was to secure the succession to the throne for his own
+family. With this purpose in view he married his son, Lord Guildford
+Dudley, to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk, to whom,
+by the will of Henry VIII., the crown would pass, in default of issue by
+Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.
+
+In April, 1553, Edward, who had been removed to Greenwich in consequence
+of illness, grew rapidly worse. By the end of the month he was spitting
+blood, and the country was felt to be on the eve of a new reign. The
+accession of Mary, who was personally popular, was looked forward to by
+the people as a matter of course. Northumberland now worked on the mind
+of the feeble and dying king, and succeeded in persuading him to declare
+both his sisters incapable of succeeding to the crown, as being
+illegitimate. The king died on July 6. The last male child of the Tudor
+race had ceased to suffer.
+
+When Lady Jane was saluted by Northumberland and four other lords, all
+kneeling at her feet, as queen, she shook, covered her face with her
+hands, and fell fainting to the ground. The next Monday, July 10, the
+royal barges came down the Thames from Richmond, and at three in the
+afternoon Lady Jane landed at the broad staircase of the Tower, as
+queen, in undesired splendour. But that same evening messages came
+saying that Mary had declared herself queen. She had sent addresses to
+the peers, commanding them on their allegiance to come to her.
+
+Happily, the conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane was crushed, without
+bloodshed, although it had seemed for a time as if the nation, was on
+the brink of a civil war. But, though Mary wished to spare Lady Jane and
+her husband, her intentions were frustrated by the determination of
+Renard, ambassador of the emperor. Northumberland was sent to the Tower,
+and beheaded on August 22, and in the following November Lady Jane and
+her husband were also condemned. Mary long hesitated, but at length
+issued the fatal warrant on February 8, 1554, and four days later both
+were executed. Lady Jane was but a delicate girl of seventeen, but met
+her fate with the utmost heroism.
+
+Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, became the chief instrument of
+the restoration of the Catholic faith under Mary. His fierce spirit soon
+began to display itself. In the fiery obstinacy of his determination
+this prelate speedily became the incarnate expression of the fury of the
+ecclesiastical faction, smarting, as they were, under their long
+degradation, and under the irritating consciousness of those false oaths
+of submission which they had sworn to a power they loathed. Gardiner now
+saw his Romanising party once more in a position to revenge their wrongs
+when there was no longer any Henry to stand between them and their
+enemies. He would take the tide at the flood, forge a weapon keener than
+the last, and establish the Inquisition.
+
+
+_The Reign of Terror_
+
+
+Mary listened to the worse counsels of each, and her distempered humour
+settled into a confused ferocity. Both Gardiner and she resolved to
+secure the trial, condemnation, and execution of her sister Elizabeth,
+but their plans utterly miscarried, for no evidence against her could be
+gathered. The princess was known to be favourable to the Protestant
+cause, but the attempts to prove her disloyalty to Mary were vain. She
+was imprisoned in the Tower, and the fatal net appeared to be closing on
+her. But though the danger of her murder was very great, the lords who
+had reluctantly permitted her to be imprisoned would not allow her to be
+openly sacrificed, or indeed, permit the queen to continue in the career
+of vengeance on which she had entered. The necessity of releasing
+Elizabeth from the Tower was an unspeakable annoyance to Mary. A
+confinement at Woodstock was the furthest stretch of severity that the
+country would, for the present, permit. On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was
+taken up the river.
+
+The princess believed herself that she was being carried off _tanquam
+ovis_, as she said--as a sheep for the slaughter. But the world thought
+she was set at liberty, and, as her barge passed under the bridge, Mary
+heard with indignation, from the palace windows, three salvoes of
+artillery fired from the Steelyard, as a sign of the joy of the people.
+Vexations began to tell on Mary's spirit. She could not shake off her
+anxieties, or escape from the shadow of her subject's hatred. Insolent
+pamphlets were dropped in her path and in the offices of Whitehall. They
+were placed by mysterious hands in the sanctuary of her bedroom.
+
+Her trials began to tell on her understanding. She was ill with
+hysterical longings; ill with the passions which Gardiner, as her
+chancellor, had provoked, but Paget as leader of the opposing party, had
+disappointed. But she was now to become the wife of King Philip of
+Spain. Negotiations for this momentous marriage had been protracted, and
+even after the contract had been signed, Philip seemed slow to arrive.
+The coolness manifested by his tardiness did much to aggravate the
+queen's despondency. On July 20, 1554, he landed at Southampton. The
+atmospheric auspices were not cheering, for Philip, who had come from
+the sunny plains of Castile, from his window at Southampton looked out
+on a steady downfall of July rain. Through the cruel torrent he made his
+way to church to mass, and afterwards Gardiner came to him from the
+queen. On the next Sunday he journeyed to Winchester, again in pouring
+rain. To the cathedral he went first, wet as he was. Whatever Philip of
+Spain was entering on, whether it was a marriage or a massacre, a state
+intrigue or a midnight murder, his first step was ever to seek a
+blessing from the holy wafer. Mary was at the bishop's palace, a few
+hundred yards' distance. Mary could not wait, and the same night the
+interview took place. Let the curtain fall over the meeting, let it
+close also over the wedding solemnities which followed with due
+splendour two days after. There are scenes in life which we regard with
+pity too deep for words.
+
+The unhappy queen, unloved, unlovable, yet with her parched heart
+thirsting for affection, was flinging herself upon a breast to which an
+iceberg was warm; upon a man to whom love was an unmeaning word, except
+as the most brutal of all passions. Mary set about to complete the
+Catholic reaction. She had restored the Catholic orthodoxy in her own
+person, and now was resolved to bring over her own subjects. But clouds
+gathered over the court. The Spaniards were too much in evidence. With
+the reaction came back the supremacy of the pope, and the ecclesiastical
+courts were reinstated in authority to check unlicensed extravagance of
+opinion.
+
+Gardiner, Bonner, Tunstal, and three other prelates formed a court on
+January 28, 1555, in St. Mary Overy's Church, Southwark, and Hooper,
+Bishop of Gloucester, and Canon Rogers of St. Paul's, were brought up
+before them. Both were condemned as Protestants, and both were burnt at
+the stake, the bishop at Gloucester, the canon at Smithfield. They
+suffered heroically. The Catholics had affected to sneer at the faith of
+their rivals. There was a general conviction among them that Protestants
+would all flinch at the last; that they had no "doctrine that would
+abide the fire." Many more victims were offered. The enemies of the
+church were to submit or die. So said Gardiner, and so said the papal
+legate and the queen, in the delirious belief that they were the chosen
+instruments of Providence.
+
+The people, whom the cruelty of the party was reconverting to the
+reformation, while the fires of Smithfield blazed, with a rapidity like
+that produced by the gift of tongues at Pentecost, regarded the martyrs
+with admiration as soldiers dying for their country. On Mary, sorrow was
+heaped on sorrow. Her expectation of a child was disappointed, and
+Philip refused to stay in England. His unhappy wife was forced to know
+that he preferred the society of the most abandoned women to hers. The
+horrible crusade against heretics became the business of the rest of her
+life. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishops Ridley and Latimer, and many other
+persons of distinction were amongst the martyrs of the Marian
+persecution. Latimer was eighty years of age.
+
+Mary's miseries were intensified month by month. War broke out between
+England and France. For ten years the French had cherished designs, and
+on January 7, 1558, the famous stronghold fell into their hands. The
+effect of this misfortune on the queen was to produce utter prostration.
+She now well understood that both parliament and the nation were badly
+disposed towards her. But her end was at hand. After much suffering from
+dropsy and nervous debility, she prepared quietly for what she knew was
+inevitable. On November 16, at midnight, taking leave of a world in
+which she had played so evil a part, Mary received the last rites of the
+church. Towards morning she was sinking, and at the elevation of the
+Host, as mass was being said, her head sank, and she was gone. A few
+hours later the pope's legate, Cardinal Pole, at Lambeth, followed her.
+Thus the reign of the pope in England and the reign of terror closed
+together.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI.
+by Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
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