1. we are now prepared to return to the year
500 b. c.—and follow events in chronological order, with a fair appreciation of their import. just before the close of the last century, darius hystaspes, the king of persia, sent an army into europe, to the north of greece, to chastise the scythians, and it conquered thrace. the greek colonies in asia minor, which had been recently added to the persian empire, became restive under foreign control, and when the persian army returned home, 500—organized a rebellion and took and burned the city of sardis, the ancient capital of lydia. they were assisted by the european greeks; but the vast resources of persia soon enabled darius to take vengeance on them, and miletus was besieged and destroyed. darius summoned the grecian states to offer their submission, but athens and sparta sent back a defiance. darius thereupon gathered a large armament and prepared to invade 495—greece, which he commenced by the conquest of macedon. but a tempest destroyed his ships and 20,000 men, and the expedition returned to persia. in the[84] same year the roman plebeians obtained their first success against the patricians, by which the debts of the poor plebeians to the wealthy patricians were cancelled and tribunes of the people appointed.
490—this year the glory of greece broke forth. darius having sent another and larger army into greece, it advanced on athens and encamped at marathon, within twenty-two miles of the city. the persian host was said to number from 100,000 to 200,000 men. the athenians had but 10,000 citizens, but armed 20,000 slaves, and the city of plat?a sent them 1,000 troops. miltiades, the very able athenian general, marched out and, taking a good position, offered battle. it was the 20th of september. the little army of the greeks obtained a complete victory and the persians returned home in confusion. the great services of miltiades were rewarded with imprisonment, on a frivolous charge, and he died there of his wounds.
485—darius hystaspes, the persian king, died while preparing a still larger armament for the invasion of greece.
484—an insurrection in egypt completely subdued by the persians.
480—xerxes, king of persia, invaded greece with a million soldiers. the battle at the pass of thermopyl? was fought by a thousand spartans under leonidas, their king, and all but one slain. the persian fleet was beaten the same day by themistocles, the athenian admiral. xerxes soon advanced on athens, which was abandoned by its inhabitants and burned by the persians. soon after, themistocles fought the persian navy again at salamis and totally destroyed it. xerxes, leaving a large army in greece, returned to asia.
479—the battle of plat?a ended the persian invasion. the allied greek army numbered 70,000, under pausanias, the spartan king; the persians 300,000. the persians are said to have had 200,000 slain, and their army was[85] totally routed. another victory was gained on the coast of asia minor the same day, and the last remnants of the persian fleet destroyed.
478—athens was rebuilt and surrounded with walls from the treasures of the conquered persians. this was the age of great men in greece. phidias, her greatest sculptor, flourished at this time. the persians, at the time of their first invasion, brought a piece of marble to commemorate the victory of which they were confident. the greeks caused phidias to produce out of it a statue of nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, and set it up on the field of marathon.
478—themistocles died in banishment about this time, and aristides of old age. both were leading statesmen and generals of athens during the persian war.
470—socrates, the most eminent philosopher of all ancient times, was born this year.
” —the death of xerxes by assassination occurred this year.
466—cimon, son of miltiades, was now the great man of athens. he was soon superseded by pericles. from 480 b. c. to 430 was the golden period of athens. she was pre-eminent politically, conducting the war of the grecian allies against persian supremacy on the western shores of asia and in the mediterranean sea. republican liberty was everywhere predominant. the greatest writers, painters and sculptors lived in this period or immediately after it. socrates, plato, aristotle, philosophers; ?schylus, sophocles, euripides, tragic poets; zeuxis and apelles, painters; and phidias in sculpture, were a few among the many great names which are found in or immediately following this period.
457—cincinnatus was made dictator at rome. during this period the romans laid the foundation of their dominion over all italy by waging successful war with the etruscans and samnites, the most vigorous and powerful of their opponents.
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450—the decemvirate was appointed at rome. they were ten magistrates empowered to produce a more perfect code. it was called the “laws of the twelve tables.” the plebeians about this time succeeded in wresting important privileges from the patricians, which more equally balanced the different powers of the state.
2. athens was the centre of civilization, and greek culture and ideas were penetrating all the nations in her vicinity. rome was rapidly developing and carthage was at the summit of her glory. she had control of much of the spanish or iberian peninsula. persia, after absorbing all the old monarchies of the east, was declining. the “march of empire” was distinctly defining its “westward course.”
it was about the middle of this century that herodotus, the “father of history,” was rising to fame, and a few years later xenophon, the greek general and historian, was born. thucydides, another historian, dates from this period. the great career of history now fairly commenced.
443—herodotus emigrated from halicarnassus, in asia, to greece.
431—the peloponnesian war, a bitter contest between athens and sparta, commenced. it lasted twenty-three years, and was again revived, ending in the conquest of athens by sparta. this war was followed, after some time, by the rise of the power of thebes, under their famous general, epaminondas, who broke the power of sparta. thebes sunk into insignificance after his death, and philip of macedon commenced the subjugation of all greece. he was followed by alexander the great, who, in return for the loss of republican liberty, rendered greece illustrious by conquering the persian empire, and imbuing all the eastern world with its philosophy and arts. for all these great events one hundred years were required.
429—the death of the illustrious pericles occurred in this year.
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” —plato, the disciple of socrates, and, in some points, superior to him in mental discipline, was born.
420—about this time alcibiades, the nephew of pericles, became prominent in athenian affairs. he had brilliant powers, but little principle.
406—the battle of ?gospotamos, gained by lysander the spartan, broke the power of athens.
404—athens was taken by lysander, its walls demolished, and the government of the “thirty tyrants” established by the spartans. alcibiades, banished from athens, was assassinated by the persians, at the instigation of the spartans.
401—occurred the battle of cunaxa, in babylonia, between cyrus, the brother of artaxerxes, king of persia, and that king. cyrus, who had been governor, or satrap, in asia minor, gathered a large army including more than 10,000 greeks. cyrus was killed and his own army defeated, but the greeks repelled all assaults. their generals having been decoyed into the power of the persians, on the plea of making terms with them, were treacherously slain. the army appointed other commanders, chief among whom was xenophon, afterward the celebrated historian, and they made good their return to greece. it was finely described by xenophon, and known as the “retreat of the ten thousand.”
400—socrates taught doctrines too pure and high-toned for his countrymen to understand, and was condemned to drink poison, as a dangerous man and despiser of the gods, in the 70th year of his age. the athenians soon repented it.
396—the capital of veii, taken by the romans, ended the contest with the etruscans.
389—rome was conquered and, except the capitol, destroyed, by the gauls under brennus. the barbarians soon retired and the city was rebuilt.
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384—aristotle, the most learned of the grecian philosophers, was born at stagira, in macedon. he laid the foundation of scientific study, and was the tutor of alexander the great.
371—epaminondas defeated the spartans at leuctra, and 362—again at mantinea, where he was killed.
360—philip became king of macedon, and soon began to undermine the liberties of greece in a very artful way.
357—the “sacred war” against the phocians, who had plundered the temple of apollo, at delphi, commenced.
356—birth of alexander the great. rutilius, the first plebean dictator at rome.
349—death of plato, the brightest light of grecian philosophy. he systematized and enlarged the doctrines of socrates.
338—occurred the battle of chaeronea between philip and the allied athenians and thebans. the greeks were totally defeated and their liberty lost. demosthenes, the most celebrated orator of the greeks, spent his whole life and his magnificent eloquence in the effort to rouse the greeks against philip; but philip was too crafty and the greeks too little accustomed to act in concert. for nearly a hundred years the states of greece had been exhausted by wars among themselves, and they were too weary of fighting to make the necessary effort against so powerful and skillful an adversary.
336—philip was assassinated on the eve of an expedition against persia, as chief of the grecian states. this popular idea consoled them for the loss of liberty. alexander succeeded his father.
335—thebes rebelled against alexander, and he took and destroyed that ancient city.
334—alexander carried out the project of his father and invaded the persian empire. the battle of the granicus, his first great victory, took place this year.
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333—darius, the persian king, was again thoroughly defeated in the battle of issus. damascus, in syria, was taken and tyre besieged by alexander.
332—tyre was taken and finally destroyed, and alexandria, at the mouth of the nile, founded.
331—a final battle at arbela, in assyria, overthrew the persian empire. darius escaped, but was murdered by bessus, one of his officers. four years were spent by the greeks in subduing the wild tribes on the eastern border of the empire, and settling the government of these vast conquests.
327—alexander invaded india and was constantly triumphant till his soldiers refused to go farther from home. they had grown tired of conquering, and alexander reluctantly returned to babylon to consolidate his government.
323—alexander died of a fever, the result of excessive drinking. he left no heir, and his generals divided his empire.
322—the samnites obtained a temporary success by surprising a roman army in a narrow defile of the mountains called the candine forks, and subjected it to a humiliating capitulation. the romans never bowed before misfortune or defeat. they prosecuted the war with invincible resolution until the samnite power was wholly broken, a contest, in all, of about 50 years, which was soon followed by the complete subjugation of the whole peninsula.
3. in this year died the two greatest grecians, demosthenes, the orator, by suicide; and aristotle, by old age. on the death of alexander, demosthenes aroused the athenians to make a stand for their liberties. few of the grecian states joined them and they were totally defeated by antipater, the governor appointed by alexander. demosthenes avoided punishment by taking poison. the achaian league, about forty years after, maintained the liberties of greece for fifty[90] years or more, which then fell before the invincible romans. for many years all the eastern world was in confusion from the struggles of competitors for the empire of alexander. ptolemy established himself soon and firmly in egypt, and seleucus, after various
312—reverses, obtained full possession of the eastern parts of the empire, babylonia, assyria and persia. this year is called the era of the seleucid?. asia minor and greece were a scene of the greatest confusion for seventy years, so far as rulers were concerned. but nearly all these were greeks, and greek culture and philosophy exerted a wide spread influence. in the end it became fully evident that the want of genius in the greek mind to organize, and steadiness in greek character to sustain, settled institutions was absolute. they had, at different times, men of the greatest ability, but when they passed away their plans and institutions perished with them. the acute and accomplished greeks were ever children in the science of government, and the advent of rome alone, whose special skill was in government, saved the world from irretrievable anarchy or fatal despotism.
300—the roman plebeans completed their struggle for constitutional liberty by acquiring a share in the priestly office, which was essential to the full value of their other victories over the patricians, and the roman constitution was complete. it was maintained very fairly for more that one hundred and fifty years, when the spoils of their conquests corrupted the virtue of the citizens and produced the internal disorder that, about a century later still brought about the establishment of the roman empire. yet the forms of government, municipal and other regulations, and the administration of justice, though often interfered with in particular cases, were so well settled on sound principles, and secured so uniformly the welfare of society, that they[91] were preserved longest from general ruin, and revived first in more modern times. greek thought and culture, and roman law remained indestructible.
290—the samnites, sabines and gauls, being all defeated, rome was virtually mistress of italy, although the grecian cities on the eastern coast remained to be subdued. they had little strength in themselves against a power so warlike, and invited pyrrhus, the king of 281—epirus, to their assistance. he twice defeated the roman consuls, but they inflicted on him so much loss that they vainly offered him battle immediately after, and rejected all his overtures to treat for peace. he was at length vanquished and obliged to abandon italy to the republic.
4. the romans soon subdued all opposition and began to look about for other lands to conquer.
264—the carthaginians, on the opposite coast of africa, had become a colossal power, and sought to establish their control over sicily—not an easy task, since it had many colonies of greeks whose national spirit and bravery did not desert them. in this year a call for assistance from a plundering band who had captured a greek city, a part of whom had also invited carthaginian aid, brought rome and carthage in conflict. the carthaginians were enraged at this interference with an island which they had long intended to make their own, and raised an immense army to drive out the intruders. the romans defeated the army and took agrigentum, one of the best strongholds of the carthaginians on the island.
260—the carthaginians were masters of the sea, and the romans had little knowledge of naval affairs. taking a carthaginian vessel which had been driven ashore for a model, they, in a short time, created a fleet and worsted their enemies on their own special element.
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256—the romans again defeated the carthaginians in a sea fight near the island of lipara.
255—the romans determined to carry the war into africa, and fitting out a large fleet, inflicted a still heavier loss on the carthaginian armaments, landed in africa and defeated an immense army. the carthaginians sued for peace, but the terms proposed by regulus, the roman general, were so severe that they resolved to continue the war. a grecian general, xanthippus, took command of their army and totally defeated the romans, taking regulus prisoner, and destroying or 248—capturing all his army but 2000. the romans lost three fleets by storms, but conquered once in a sea fight, and defeated an army in sicily. the carthaginians again sought peace, but the romans would not abate their first terms, and continued the war until the 240—carthaginians, completely humbled, accepted the severe alternative of submission or destruction. the temple of janus, the god of war, never shut but in time of absolute peace, was now closed for the second time since the building of the city.
the people, whose special occupation was war, soon grew tired of peace, and carried on various conflicts with the gauls settled at the foot of the alps in the 227—north of italy. they invaded illyria, on the east coast of the adriatic sea, whose people were very troublesome pirates. this war was again renewed with a more complete defeat of the illyrians. they had before this subdued sardinia and corsica.
219—the carthaginians pursued their conquests in spain, and the celebrated hannibal took saguntum, which 218—brought on the second punic war, as the war with carthage was termed.
217—hannibal, with great celerity, crossed the pyrenees and the alps—having first completed the conquest of[93] spain—and defeated the romans in the battle of ticinus, and again at trebia.
217—the achaian confederacy, now in the height of its glory in maintaining the liberties of greece, united all the greeks in a confederacy under the influence of philip, king of macedon, with the hope of arresting the power and ambition of rome.
216—hannibal inflicted a dreadful defeat on the romans near the thrasymenean lake. the romans were greatly alarmed, and made fabius maximus dictator, whose habit of refusing a pitched battle, wearing out his adversary by skirmishes and cutting off his supplies, is called “the fabian policy.” this plan is, by maneuvering and delay, to wear out and destroy an invader in detail without peril of defeat in battle. the romans kept armies in spain to prevent the carthaginians from sending reinforcements to hannibal.
215—at the close of this year fabius resigned his dictatorship and the consuls appointed to succeed him abandoned his policy. they offered battle to hannibal at cann? and the army was annihilated. 40,000 romans were slain on the field. these defeats had destroyed the flower of their fighting population, but roman courage and resolution always rose with defeat. they did not despair, but raised a fresh army and put fabius again at its head, against whom the talents of hannibal were vain. they fomented disturbances in greece to keep philip, king of macedon at home, and besieged syracuse in sicily, which had joined the carthaginians, 212—for three years, and then took it by stratagem. archimedes, a celebrated mathematician of syracuse, who had protracted the siege by his ingenious and powerful engines was killed in the sack of the city. soon 210—after the whole island was subdued and remained a roman province.
206—asdrubal, the brother of hannibal, general of the carthaginian[94] forces in spain, crossed the pyrenees and the alps to reinforce hannibal, but was defeated by the romans and slain before hannibal knew of his march.
202—scipio, who had conquered in spain, led an army into africa, hannibal being considered too formidable to attack, though his forces were very small. scipio put 40,000 numidians, allies of carthage, to the sword, besieged the neighboring cities and defeated a large carthaginian army. hannibal was now called home to defend the metropolis. he fought a battle with raw 201—troops, at zama, and was defeated—20,000 carthaginians being slain. the carthaginians begged for peace, hannibal declaring that the war could not be protracted. the roman terms left them little but their city. such was the fruit of inflexible resolution.
5. the romans are an example of a people, who, from first to last, had one clearly defined end, to which everything else was subservient. they formed their state for conquest, and that idea controlled the kingdom, the republic and the empire. they were much wiser than the spartans, for, devoting themselves to war, they meant to secure and enjoy all the fruits of conquest, and they did all that was possible to promote the prosperity of their people that they might produce warriors in abundance; but they relied mainly on actual war for discipline. they were constantly exercised in the art in the field and the orderly and sensible instinct of the race made discipline a matter of course. they were sometimes defeated when they encountered unfamiliar difficulties, or by the mistakes of their leaders, but never abandoned a purpose once adopted and never sued for peace.
morally, the object they set before them was entirely unjustifiable, according to the standard of national rights accepted in our day. but such a conception never entered the minds of men in the ancient times. it is the fruit of modern civilization alone. the romans, and many a nation after them, must work out the destructive consequences of that doctrine[95] that “might makes right” before the universal sense of mankind would recoil from it. it was the accepted doctrine of the ancients, and has not yet disappeared from the world.
197—sicily, spain and carthage were conquered, and roman valor looked around for opportunities of winning fresh laurels. philip of macedon, an ambitious prince, threatened the athenians, who implored help from rome. an army immediately proceeded to greece, penetrated into macedonia, and completely defeated philip at cynocephal?.
6. the romans were now the mightiest people in the civilized world. their obstinate contests with the vigorous nations of the west had often perilled the existence of their state, and a people of ordinary stamina and persistence would not, at the best, have risen above the rank of the etruscans and samnites, nor have made rome greater than syracuse or carthage. they, however, matured and grew into an invincible power, whose solid and stately grandeur struck the intelligent but unpractical greeks with admiration, and all the old peoples of the east with awe.
the romans were not without admiration for the ancient valor and the graceful culture of the greeks. when, two hundred and fifty years before, the romans revised their laws, under the decemvirate, they sent to athens to obtain models from that republic. athens was now treated by them with much consideration, and finally became the university city of the empire. when roman influence became paramount after the battle of cynocephal? they did not at once proceed with brutal force against the land of beauty and art, but took it under their protection, and proclaimed the full liberty of the grecian states. it filled the greeks with transport, and for some time rome played the noble and dignified part of a disinterested protector; but when the achaians, under their excellent and talented leader philop?men, sought to realize the fact of liberty, the romans abandoned that pretence and made greece a roman province. thus the whole of europe[96] that was sufficiently civilized to maintain a settled government was ruled by the roman republic. the period of rude and restless valor among the greeks was past. the stage of cultivation they had reached inclined them to the quiet and elegant refinements of the scholar, and they readily received the roman rule which suppressed the turbulence of ambitious adventurers and suffered no oppression but their own. the romans represented the strength of the male element in human nature, the greeks the grace of the female. they now coalesced, were married, so to speak, and the product of their union was, in the course of ages, modern civilization, which, when mature, was to share the eminent qualities of both.
7. the broken fragments of alexander’s immense empire in western asia and egypt were all that now stood between rome and the mastery of the world. the roman people were too well convinced that it was their grand destiny to achieve universal dominion to hasten prematurely the conquest of the primitive home of civilization. they watchfully waited until the course of events should throw the dominions of the seleucid? and the ptolemys into their hands, without offending the majesty of the republic by an undignified violence and haste.
190—antiochus the great, who now reigned over the empire of the seleucid?, with true grecian imprudence, became ambitious of conquests in europe. he invaded greece 191—and was defeated at thermopyl? by the romans and driven into asia. the younger scipio, brother of the conqueror of hannibal, followed and totally defeated 189—him at magnesia, in asia minor. he purchased peace by the loss of all the fruits of his ambition, but was left in possession of the syrian kingdom. the failure to destroy so powerful an enemy appears to have brought on the two scipios the rebuke of the republic, the conqueror of carthage having aided his brother in the war. they were condemned to a heavy fine, which scipio africanus refused to pay and went int[97]o 183—exile, where he died. his death occurred in the same year that hannibal, pursued by the vengeance of the romans for having aided antiochus, committed suicide by taking poison to avoid falling into their hands; and in this year also philop?men, the last patriotic hero 170—of greece, was slain by his enemies. perses, king of macedon, revolted, and, after some successes, was finally overthrown under the walls of pydna and dethroned.
168—the carthaginians could not altogether forget their ancient greatness, and having displeased the romans by some independence of action, it was resolved to 148—destroy their city. with the courage of despair they set the romans at defiance, and defended themselves with a resolute bravery that engaged the lively sympathies of all after times for their painful fate. for two years they maintained the combat against their pitiless foes, who could pardon everything but rivalry in their 146—sweeping ambition, and then perished in the ruins of their once glorious metropolis. a revolt of the achaians was punished, in the same year, by the destruction of the splendid city of corinth, in greece.
140—the embers of independence in spain broke forth in war, which was checked by the assassination of viriathes, a patriotic chieftain of great ability, and 133—quenched in blood by the self-destruction of the citizens of numantium. about the same time the republic acquired the kingdom of pergamus, covering the richest parts of asia minor, by the will of attalus, its king, who, on his death, bequeathed it to rome. this led, in a few years, to contests with the neighboring asiatic sovereigns, and resulted, in about half a century, in the conquest and reduction into the state of roman provinces of all western asia.
