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IEducT T
^OLDWORLD STEPS TO
AMERICAN HISTORY
NIVER
Google
'' 60f. "J.f^T
HARVARD COLLEGE
LIBRARY
OLD WORLD STEPS
TO AMERICAN HISTORY
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Old World Steps
to American History
BY
HARMON B. NIVER
Avihor of '*A School History of Engfand*
ATKINSON, MENTZER & COMPANY
Boston New York Chicago Atlanta Dallas
uiyiiizeu uy >^j v_^ v^ pc i \^
AAaj t^aa harvard university
^^^^^^^^^^^tf^J^DEPT.OF EDUCATION LIBRARY
GIFT OF THE PUBLISHER
JUN 20 1916
TRANSFERRED TO
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
Copyright, 1915,
BY
HARMON B. NIVER
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PREFACE
THIS book has been prepared by combining
the author's two earlier volumes on "Great
Names and Nations," Ancient and Modern. In
the preface to the second volume it was stated:
" The idea that first lessons in history should be
given in chronological order, is one that has gained
strength in recent years. This study as usually
pursuedan our elementary schools begins and ends
with our own country — ^a method which leaves the
children profoundly ignorant of the rest of the
world, and gives them the most erroneous ideas
of the relative age and importance of the United
States."
While a patriotic pride in the land of our birth
is a most commendable quality, an arrogant self-
sufficiency is as deplorable in nations as in men. It
is highly desirable and entirely practicable to give
children in our elementary schools, through story-
telling and reading, some notion of the great actors
in the world's history and of the beginnings of the
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great modern nations of which the United States is
one, When the pupil has some miderstanding of
" how the world has come to be known as we find it
today," he is prepared to take up with fuller appre-
ciation, the story of his own country.
To furnish this background for the study of
American history is the purpose of the present
volume. Especial attention has been given to the
great leaders in the world's history and to the rise
of the nations contemporary with the United
States. The migrations of mankind from the ear-
liest ages, and the great inventions and discoveries
which have shaped the history of the world, have
also been made prominent. In short, it has been
our purpose to fully conform to the spirit and
letter of the new " Course of Study in History "
for the public schools.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
ANCIENT HISTORY.
PAGE
The Study of History 1
The Chinese Republic 6
Japan 19
India 23
Egypt 38
Assyria and Babylonia 47
The Phoenicians 56
The Hebrews 69
Media and Persia 63
Greece 69
Rome 107
The Republic 120
The Empire 140
MEDIAEVAL HISTORY.
The Barbarian Invaders 157
Clovis 161
The Beginning of England 166
Mohammed and the Saracens 170
The Empire of Charlemagne 181
The Northmen 191
The Norman Conquest of England 201
The Crusades 209
Beginning of New Nations 218
The Revival of Learning 227
MODERN HISTORY.
The Search for the Indies 236
Peter the Great and Russia 246
People Against Kings 263
The Settlement of New Lands 270
The New German Empire 277
How Italy Became One Nation 290
The Turks 299
The American Republics 307
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ANCIENT HISTORY
I. THE STUDY OF HISTORY
WHOSE COUNTRY IS THE BEST
There is an old poem about four German kings
who met together, and were boasting, each about
the merits of his own country.
" My land is great and powerful," said the
Saxon king, " because of the treasures of silver,
found in the deep mines among the mountains."
" Behold my land," cried the king from the
Rhineland; "its valleys are covered with golden
harvests, and the vineyards on its hills yield the
best of wine."
"I have great cities and rich churches," cried
Louis of Bavaria, " which make my land better
than yours."
Eberhard, the king of Wiirttemburg, then
spoke:
" My country has only small cities, and its
mountains yield no silver. My greatest treasure
is the love of my people."
Then the other kings said to Eberhard: " Your
wealth is greater than ours, and your country has
the most costly treasure."
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2 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
If I were to ask you what country you think
the best, you would answer, like the German
kings, " My own." The German loves his " Father-
land," the Englishman his " Mother Country," the
Frenchman, his " Beautiful France," the China-
man, his " Flowery Kingdom," and the Japanese,
his " Sunrise " Land. The country that we love
most, is the best country.
OLD COUNTRIES AND NEW COUNTRIES
How shall we tell the age of a country? We
speak of the " Old World," and the " New World,"
and of " Old Countries " and " New Countries."
We say that Columbus " discovered the New World
and the Indians who inhabited it " ; but the New
World was here and the Indians were here, thou-
sands of years before Columbus came.
The birthday of our own country was July 4,
1776. It was on that day that the English colonies
declared their independence of Great Britain and
became a new nation. When a country separates
itself from another country and begins a life of its
own, we may call it a new country or a new nation.
We call America the New World because a new
race of people came into it and made it their own.
Nations are like men: they are born, they grow
up, and pass away. Some nations have been living
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY 3
for thousands of years; others have lived only a
few centuries, or a few years.
IMMIGRATION
Most countries of the world have been settled
by people from older countries. Men are like cer-
tain birds and animals; they are migratory, that is,
they move from place to place in search of new
homes where they can live more comfortably. Our
country was settled by people from the countries
of Europe, and people from these countries are
still coming to America at the rate of about a
million a year. When we study the history of the
countries from which these people come, we find
that Spain, England, France, Germany, and other
countries of Europe, were themselves settled by
people who emigrated from countries lying still
farther east.
Even the very oldest nations, the Chinese, the
Japanese and the Hindus, have not always occupied
the country where they now live. Their legends
tell us that their ancestors came from some older
country in Central Asia. The Greek and Roman
legends also, say that the first people who came into
Greece and Italy, once lived in Asia. On account
of these stories it has been thought that the first
home of the human race was somewhere in Asia;
but the oldest nations of that continent have long
since passed away and have left no records.
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4 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
WHERE THE STUDY OF HISTORY BEGINS
Where, then, shall we begin our study of his-
tory? We cannot begin with our own country, be-
cause all of us or our ancestors have come from
other countries across the ocean. We cannot begin
with England, Germany, or France, because those
countries were settled by people from older coun-
tries.
Let us think for a moment what history is. We
may call it a story of the lives of nations. But in
order to study such a story we must have books
or records of some sort. Now, the oldest nations
did not know how to write, and all that we know
about them must be found out from the stories
handed down from one age to another, or from the
monuments and works which they left. We be-
lieve that the oldest nations are those of Asia and
of Northern Africa, but we do not know whether
China or India or Egypt is the oldest nation still
living, it will be convenient, however, to begin our
study with the nations of Asia, because throughout
the history of the world, men have moved from the
east toward the west.
WHY WE SHOULD STUDY HISTORY
Why do you love your coimtry? Perhaps it
would be better to ask first " Why do you love
your home? " Your home is a comfortable place in
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY
which to live; it provides you with food, shelter,
and the other necessities of life. Your parents
provide for your wants, and do all they can for
your comfort and happiness. We love our coun-
try because it is a safe and comfortable home; be-
cause it protects our lives and property; because
it protects us in whatever part of the world we may
happen to be. We love our coimtry, too, because
of the great deeds of those who founded it, and
who built up its cities and its schools, who fought
its battles, and who made it one of the great and
powerful nations of the earth.
If we study the history of our country, we shall
love it more and we shall try to do all that we can
to make it a better coimtry.
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IL THE CHINESE REPUBLIC
Though China was ruled by kings and em-
perors for thousands of years, it has recently be-
come a republic like that of the United States.
During all their early history, the Chinese had little
to do with the rest of the world, and the rest of
the world knew very little about them. Occasion-
ally a traveler from Europe would make his way
into China, and on his return would have wonder-
ful tales to tell about the wealth and splendor of
that distant coimtry and of the other countries
through which he had passed.
The Chinese have an ancient book telling of a
voyage made across the Pacific Ocean in the fifth
century, by one of their priests and his companions.
The priest's name was Holi-shin, the first part of
the name sounding much like our word whey. This
company discovered a great country on the east side
of the ocean, and called it Fusang, which was their
name for a certain cactus plant that grows abun-
dantly in Mexico. It is generally believed that the
account of this voyage is true. Fusang may have
been Mexico, including our State of California, or,
possibly, it may have been Peru. But the Chinese
seem to have made no use of their discovery of
America, as the Europeans made of the discovery
by Columbus, about a thousand years later.
When the people of Europe had learned to
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 7
make long voyages by sea, they began to search for
the rich countries of the East. Columbus was look-
ing for China and the Indies, when he accidentally
stiunbled upon the New World. It was a long time
before the Europeans made their way to China, and
it was a still longer time before the Chinese would
have anything to do with them. Of late years,
however, China has greatly changed; or perhaps
it would be better to say she has begun to change.
She has adopted many of the ideas of Europe and
America. She is building railroads, opening mines,
and building factories. She has improved her
schools and sends her young men and women to
Europe and America to be educated in the mod-
ern way. And as the greatest change of all, she
has driven out her kings and established a govern-
ment of the people, which we call a republic.
OLD CHINESE CUSTOMS
The Chinese ways of doing things are so differ-
ent from ours that we think many of them ridicu-
lous. But we must remember that they have the
same opinion of our ways. It seems strange to
begin a book on the last page and read the lines
up and down, but that is the way a Chinese book is
made.
In the schools the boys sit with their backs to
the teacher; and when they study and recite their
lessons, they shout as loud as they can.
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8 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
When a Chinaman meets a friend on the street
he bows low and clasps his hands together, moving
them up and down in front of him. If one should
be on horseback or riding in a sedan chair or
carriage, he must get down on the ground before
speaking. If he wears spectacles he must take
them off, for it is a great offense to a Chinaman
to be looked at through glasses. If either should
be too busy to stop he puts a fan before his face.
This means, "In a hurry; can't stop today."
When you call at a Chinaman's home be care-
ful to keep a little ahead of him. on entering and
leaving, and to sit down at the same time with your
host, because it is thought very impolite to sit
when others are standing. During your call he
will give you a cup of tea, using both hands. This
you must receive in the same way; but do not
'drink it until you are ready to go, for a Chinaman
never drinks until he wishes to end his visit, and
the host then expects him to go at once. You may
inquire of a Chinese gentleman how many sons he
has and how they are getting along at school, but
if you should ask after his wife or daughters he
would become your enemy for life.
SOME WISE OLD KINGS
The Chinese are very proud of the great age
of their coimtry and of the wisdom of their kings.
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 9
They call their emperor the " Son of Heaven," and
their empire the " Celestial Empire." They believe
that the world itself was made by a great giant,
especially for Chinamen, and that they are the
greatest and wisest people on the whole earth.
They tell us that many, very many years ago the
first Chinamen came from a far distant country.
For a long time they led a wandering life, living
in tents, until their first great king, Yu-Chau, led
them into the land along the Yellow River and
taught them to build huts from the boughs of
trees.* But they never forgot their tent life, and
the Chinese house is still built to look like a tent.
The next king was the wise Su-jin, who, like
our Indians, found that he could kindle a fire by
rubbing two dry sticks together. He also taught
the people how to count the days, by tying knots
in a string. Fo-hi found out the use of iron, and
Chin-nung invented the plow.
The next king was Hoang-ti. Hoang-ti means
Yellow Emperor, just as Hoang-i^o means Yel-
low River. This emperor divided the year into
months and made the first calendar. He also built
roads and ships. His wife, Se-ling, taught the
people how to unwind silk cocoons and to weave
the fiber into cloth.
During the reign of Yao and Shun, the Yel-
low River caused great destruction and death by
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10 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
overflowing its banks. The people call this river
China's Sorrow, because of the millions that
have been swept away by its floods. The next
emperor, Yu, spent nine years in digging canals
to drain off the waters. But the unruly stream
refused to stay in its new channels, and from time
to time, when the spring floods came, it would
break over its banks, drowning people and carry-
ing away their houses.
The greatest of all the old Chinese kings was
Che-Hoang-ti, who is sometimes called The Great.
When he came to the throne there were a number
of kings ruling in different parts of China who
would not obey the Yellow emperors of the Middle
Kingdom. But Che-Hoang-ti made war on them
and united all their countries into one, which we
now call the Chinese Empire. He was really the
first emperor.
North of China lived a fierce race of yellow
warriors called Tartars. They began to break
into Hoang-ti's country, killing the people and
carrying off their property. He gathered a large
army and defeated the Tartars in many battles,
driving them back into their own land.
To protect his people against these robbers the
emperor then began to build the Great Wall, which
still stands on the northern border of China.
When he was safe from all his enemies, Hoang-
ti divided his empire into thirty-six provinces and
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC U
set a man over each to govern it. He then made
a grand torn* of his whole coimtry. It had been
the custom in China to keep in repair only those
roads over which the kings traveled. But Hoang-
ti said the people needed good roads as well as the
ITie Great Wall of China.
king, and he caused all of them to be kept in good
condition.
We have one thing to tell about this emperor
that is not so worthy of praise. He had made
many changes in the religion and government of
China that the learned men did not like. Wishing
to gain their favor, he called them all together to
a great meeting and explained to them why he had
done these things.
One man arose and said: " You, O king, are the
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12 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
greatest man of all time, and you have done more
for the good of your coimtry than all the kings
that have Uved before you."
At this one of the learned men said: "That
fellow is a vile flatterer, O king, and is imworthy
of the position he occupies. What he has told you
is not true; for in our books we read of kings that
were far greater and wiser than you."
You may be sure that this made Hoang-ti very
angry. He declared that if such things were in
the books he would destroy them, and that he would
put to death any man who should ever speak of
them again. Then he commanded that all the
books in the Empire should be burned, saving only
those which were written about farming, medicine,
building, and astronomy. Four hundred and sixty
of the learned men who would not obey him he
buried alive in a great pit, and many more were put
to death.
But Hoang-ti and his men could not find all
the books. Some were hidden away in secret
places, and after his death they were brought out
and printed again, so that many of the oldest
Chinese books are still treasured and read by the
students and wise men of China.
CONFUCIUS, THE CHINESE SAGE
A sage is a wise man, and Con-fu'-cius, or
Kimg-Fu-tse, was the wisest Chinaman that ever
lived.
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 13
The names of persons, like everything else in
China, are upside down. John Smith would be
called Smith John, and Willie Jones, Jones Willie.
Confucius belonged to the Kimg family, and was
named Fu-tse, or The Teacher. His father, Kimg-
Heih, who was a soldier and a judge, died when the
little Confucius was only three years old, so that
his mother brought him up.
She sent him to school, where he astonished
eveiyone by his knowledge. He became so famous
that he was appointed to a public office at the age
of seventeen. When his mother died, a few years
later, he left his office and went into mourning for
three years, as the custom is in China. After that
he became a teacher of young men, for he thought
he could do the most good in that way. So many
came to learn of him that at one time he is said to
have had 5,000 pupils.
Once he was passing with his pupils through
a field where a man was snaring birds. After
watching for a while Confucius said to the man :
" I do not see any old birds here. Where have
you put them?"
" The old birds are too wary to be caught," re-
plied the hunter, " and the young ones which fly
with them also escape. I can catch only those that
fly by themselves, or that go in company with other
yoimg birds."
"Do you hear that?" asked Confucius of his
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14 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
pupils. " The young birds escape only when they
keep with the old ones."
In this way he would teach his pupils to respect
and obey their parents and teachers, and also to fol-
low the old customs of the country, since these were
established by their ancestors.
Confucius spent his long life of seventy-three
years in teaching and in collecting the old writings
of the empire. His works include the Book of
History, the Book of Rites, the Book of Odes,
and the Spring and Autumn Annals. These
books are greatly prized by the Chinese and are
carefully studied. The Book of Rites tells just
how a Chinaman must live from his birth to his
death. The Chinaman who ban repeat the most of
these books by heart is thought to be the best and
wisest man, and offices and honors are given to him.
Confucius was once asked if he could give some
rule by which we can live at peace with all men.
" Yes," said he; " do not do to others what you
would not like to have them do to you."
Here are some sayings of Confucius:
To see what is right and not to do it is to be a
coward.
He who offends against Heaven has none to
whom he can pray.
The superior man is slow in his words and
earnest in his conduct.
The most important thing taught by Confucius
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 15
was the duty of children to love and obey their
parents when alive, and to honor and worship them
after death. When a Chinaman does wrong or
changes the old ways he is thought to dishonor the
memory of his parents, and there is no greater
crime than this in China.
HOW THE CHINESE CAME TO WEAE PIGTAILS
Many years after Confucius and the great Che-
Hoang-ti had passed away the yellow robbers of
the North came climbing over the Great Wall into
China. The Emperor had brave soldiers to guard
the wall and see that no one should cross it; but now
the Tartars had grown very strong and the Chinese
were not able to keep them out. Their king was
called Gen'-ghis Khan, a name meaning Very
Mighty King. Genghis was one of the greatest
generals that ever lived, and he conquered all of
central and southern Asia and killed millions of
people. He did not live long enough to subdue the
Chinese, for they fought bravely. But his grand-
son, Ku'-blai Khan, carried on the war imtil the
Chinese were forced to yield.
Their great leader. General Chang, escaped to
Indo-China, where he raised a large fleet for a last
attack on the Tartars. But it was caught in a terri-
ble storm in the China Sea and Chang was drowned.
Kublai Khan then became the first Tartar em-
peror of China. He compelled every Chinaman to
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16 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
shave the top of his head and to braid the rest of
his hair in a queue as a sign that he was the slave of
the Tartars.
Kublai Khan built the city of Pekin, which is
still the capital of the Chinese Empire. The city-
was eight miles square and surrounded by a high
wall. Within the outer wall was another city, six
miles square, and within this still another, one mile
square. In the inner square was the royal palace,
containing dining halls for hundreds of guests, and
there were hundreds of other rooms, made very
beautiful with pictures and statues. The palace
was surrounded by a park and a lake, where the
king fished and hunted. Outside of the park the
king kept his army of a hundred thousand men al-
ways ready for war. Marco Polo, a traveler from
Venice in Italy, once visited Kublai at Pekin and
remained many years at his court. When he re-
turned home he wrote an account of his visit. He
told his countrymen all about the wonderful land
of China, with its wealth of gold and jewels, and
his stories made the people of Europe eager to visit
the rich country.
SOME CHINESE INVENTIONS
The Chinese have made many useful inventions,
some of which have been made also in other coup-
tries. The people of Europe, for example, began
to use the mariner's compass about the year 1300;
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THE CHINESE REPUBLIC 17
but the Chinese imderstood the use of this instru-
ment probably 2,000 years before that time. The
art of printing also has been practised in China for
several thousand years. It was discovered in Europe
only in the time of Columbus. The Chinese were
the first discoverers of the art of making gun-
powder, but the only use they made of it was in
celebrating festival days. This discovery was made
in Europe about 2,000 years later by Roger Bacon
It is interesting to note that the Chinese forbade
the making of gunpowder when they foimd that
it was dangerous to human life ; but when the peo-
ple of Europe found that human life could be de-
stroyed by the use of gunpowder, they were all the
more eager to manufacture guns and rifles.
One of the most useful discoveries of the
Chinese was the art of reeling the fiber from the
cocoons of the silk worm and of manufacturing the
silk into cloth. When the people of Europe first
saw Chinese silk, they thought that the fiber was
obtained from some kind of plant. The Chinese
kept the secret carefully, but it was eventually dis-
covered by some travelers from Europe, who took
home with them some eggs of the silk worm con-
cealed in a bamboo rod. Thus the cultivation of
silk was introduced into Europe.
The Chinese discovered also the way to make
porcelain and paper. All nations have found out
how to make pottery of some sort, but the Chinese
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18 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
manufactured beautiful vases and other articles
from clay several thousands of years ago. The
Chinese made paper from rice straw and they now
make many varieties of paper goods which are sold
to all parts of the world.
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III. JAPAN
We have no means of learning anything about
the very early history of Japan. The Japanese
learned the art of writing from China about 2,000
years ago. Before that time there was no means
of keeping records, and we have to depend upon
what we can learn from the records of other nations.
The Japanese stories of the early times tell us that
the first Japanese came from somewhere in the
western part of Asia. They tell us that their first
king, whose name was Jimmu, began his rule about
660 B. C. At that time the people believed that
their ruler was descended from a god and that he
became a god again after he died.
The old religion of Japan was a worship of
dead kings and heroes. The war god of old Japan
is O'-jin, who was once a noted warrior. The Japa- .
nese take great pride in soldierly qualities. They
are brave and hardy. They are very courteous and
dignified in their intercourse with strangers. Every
man is ready to fight and to give his life for his
country in case of need.
In the early times Japan was greatly troubled
by the wars of rival kings and chiefs. It was like
the condition of Germany in the Middle Ages,
when the nobles were often stronger than the king.
The warlike chiefs, or shoguns, at last got con-
trol of the government, and the mikados retired to
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20 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
private life. It was not until 1868 that they were
restored to their old power and position.
When the Tartars overran China and made
themselves masters of that country, they tried also
to take Japan. The Tartar emperor sent a great
fleet in 1281 to make the conquest of the islands.
But a typhoon, or fierce tropical storm, swept over
the sea and completely wrecked the Tartar fleet.
Gradually the Japanese established a feudal
System. The shogun was the chief lord, and his
vassals were called dai'-mi-os. They ruled over
the various provinces, or divisions, of the empire.
In 1889 a constitution was adopted, giving the
people the right to vote and to take part in making
laws. Japan is therefore now a constitutional mon-
archy, like England or Germany.
NEW JAPAN
In 1855 the President of the United States sent
Commodore Perry to Japan to make a treaty which
would allow Americans to visit that country and
trade with the merchants there. This was the first
time that Japan consented to allow foreigners to
come into their country. After the treaty was
made we sent a Mr. Harris to Japan as minister.
A minister is one who looks after a country's
interests in a foreign land. Mr. Harris was re-
ceived with great honor. Men were sent ahead to
see that the road and bridges over which he must
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JAPAN 21
pass were in order. People were asked to sweep
the streets clean in front of their houses. And they
were forbidden to gather in crowds to look at the
procession, as this in Japan is not considered polite.
One of the mikado's palaces was given him
to live in during his stay at the capital. Every
street that he passed through and every place that
he visited was selected beforehand, so that every-
where he might receive every courtesy and kindness.
The most wonderful thing about Japan is the
quickness with which she learned the ways of
civilized nations. For yeafs she annually sent five
himdred young men to England, France, Ger-
many, and the United States. These young men
remained in foreign countries to get an education.
They studied the armies and navies of these coun-
tries. They studied the laws,^ occupations, and the
manufactures of the people among whom they
lived. When they returned to their own land they
taught their countrymen the best things they had
learned.
The Japanese soon began to make the articles
that they brought from abroad. They learned to
build their own war vessels, to make their own can-
non, rifles, and ammunition. They drilled their
soldiers after the German method, because they
thought that the best. They built railroads and
telegraph and telephone lines. During the years
since Commodore Perry visited them, they
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22 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
have made as much progress as other nations have
made in two hundred years.
They are called the Yankees of the East, be-
cause they are so ingenious; they are called the
French of the East, because they are so polite; and
some one has called them the English of the East,
because they are so persevering. They have taken
to themselves all the good qualities of the other
nations.
In 1904-05 Japan engaged in war against
Russia, because that country did not keep an agree-
ment she made to take* her armies out of China.
Russia despised the Japanese, calling them yellow
dwarfs. But in a few months the "dwarfs" sank
all the war vessels that Russia had in. that p9,rt of
the world. By stubborn perseverance and skillful
fighting they took from Russia the strong fortress
at Port Arthur that Russia declared could not be
taken. The Japanese defeated Russia's armies in
many battles by their superior skill, and drove her
out of China. Japan is now counted among the
great nations of the world.
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IV. INDIA
THE HINDUS
North of India once lived a people who called
themselves Ar'-yans, or the noble race. They
kept cattle, sheep, and pigs. They also raised
wheat, which they cut with a sickle and drew away
in wagons with wooden wheels and axles. The
women spun wool and wove it into cloth, and the
men tanned the skins of animals into leather for
shoes. They built canoes and skiffs in which they
sailed upon the rivers, and for weapons they had
spears and the bow and arrow.
After a time the Aryans began to leave their
country. Some climbed the snowy passes of the
mountains and settled along the Indus River in
northern India. There they found a dark-skinned
people. They drove them out and took the land
for themselves. They soon spread over the Indus
valley and came to be called Hindus, or Dwellers
on the Indus. Then they moved southward into
the great plain of the Gan-ges, driving the native
tribes across the hills into the Dec'-can, as the high
plain in the south of India is called.
There is an old collection of hymns from which
we learn much about the Hindu religion. A favor-
ite god was In'-dra, the god of rain. Without
rain the crops fail, and the people die of hunger.
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24 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Indra was thought to fight battles with the clouds
and compel them to give forth rain. Agni was the
god of fire, Soma the god of wine.
After a time this simple worship became a
wicked idolatry. Human beings were sacrificed in
honor of idols. The chief gods became Brah'ma,
the Creator; Vish'-nu, the Preserver, and Si'-va,
the Destroyer.
At O-ris'-sa there is a temple of the god Vishnu.
At the yearly festival in honor of the god a great
wagon containing the idol was drawn through the
streets, and men and women would throw them-
selves under the wheels and be crushed to death.
They be]deved that this pleased the god, and that
he would make them happy after death.
The Ganges is regarded as a holy river, and the
Hindus will travel hundreds of miles to bathe in
its waters.
The Hindus are divided into four great classes
called " castes." The priests, or Brah'-mans, are
the first, or highest caste. The soldiers and rulers
form the second caste. The farmers and mechan-
ics are the third, and the lowest caste is composed
of common laborers. A man must always remain
in the caste in which he was born and follow the
business of his father. According to their belief,
if he lives a good life his soul may pass at death
into the body of an infant born into a higher caste,
but if a Hindu does not remain in his caste and
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INDIA 25
keep all the rules of his religion, then his soul may-
enter the body o'f an animal or of an insect, and
thousands of years must pass before he can hope
to again become a man.
At the same time that Confucius was teaching
the Chinese to return to the old ways of living, a
man arose in India who opposed the foolish ideas
of the Brahmans.
This man was Prince Sidd-hartha, or Gau-
ta'-ma, whose beautiful life, spent for the good of
his fellows, is made familiar in our time by the pop-
ular poem of Sir Edwin Arnold entitled "The
Light of Asia." The story is legendary in its de-
tails. It is interesting to note that Jesus of Naza-
reth came, with His religion of love and purity and
peace, almost midway in time between the gentle
Gautama and the fierce conqueror Mahomet.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA
Gau-ta'-ma was the son of a king in northern
India. In later life he was called The Buddha,
meaning the Enlightened One. His mother,
Ma'-ya, was thought to be the most beautiful
woman in the world. She died soon after Gautama
was born, and he was brought up by his aunt. You
will not be surprised to learn that he was a very
beautiful boy and that he soon became more
thoughtful and wise than any of his playmates.
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When he went to school his teachers soon found that
he already knew more than they did. He could
write from memory all the old hymns, and in arith-
metic they found that he could write numbers large
enough to tell how many drops of water would fall
upon the earth if it rained every day for ten thou-
sand years.
Gautama loved to be by himself. He would
wander into the forest and stay all day lost in
thought.
He wanted to do something to help his fellow-
men to be happy. He felt that he was in the world
to do something, and not to lead a life of pleasure.
His father would not allow him to see any im-
pleasant thing.
People who were old, sick, or poor were kept
away from the palace. But one day when the
prince was riding with a company of friends in a
park, he met an old man, lame, wrinkled, gray-
haired, tottering upon his staff.
" Who is this man? " he asked of his servant.
" Sir," replied the servant, " this man is old,
his senses are feeble, his strength is gone, he is
despised by everybody and left here to die. But
such a fate is not for this man alone; your father
and all your relatives and friends shall come to the
same state, and there is no other end for living
beings."
"Alas!" said the prince, " why are we so proud
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INDIA 27
of our youth, seeing that old age soon comes upon
us? Coachman, turn the chariot quickly. What
have I to do with pleasure? "
Another day, going out again, they met a poor
man suffering with fever. Farther on a funeral
procession was seen bearing a body to the tomb.
He again asked his coachman what these things
meant, and learned that all men could become sick
and die. Once more he met a tall, thin, stern-
looking man, who told the prince that he had left
his home and every pleasure; that he was living
upon alms, wandering about trying to make him-
self better. ' Gautama liked that kind of life, and
one night he left his young wife and his beautiful
palace and rode away into the forest.
He met an old hunter and gave his beautiful
garments of silk for the hunter's yellow coat made
from the skin of a stag. He then sought a noted
teacher who had a school of three himdred pupils;
but he soon went away, for the priest could not tell
him the things he wanted to know. He then heard
of another still more famous teacher. But even
that one could not tell him how to find happiness.
He then went away by himself, and after long
study he found out how to be happy. During that
time we are told that many bad spirits came and
tempted him to return to his old life. When they
found he would not do this, they came in great
armies to kill him, and the rocks and spears which
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28 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
they threw at him were changed into flowers which
formed in wreaths about his head.
When Gautama, or Buddha, as he then called
himself, was satisfied that he had found out the
true religion, he wanted to teach it to others. Soon
he had sixty followers. He sent them out as mis-
sionaries to teach others. Buddha declared that
the Brahmans played tricks upon the people to get
their money. He said that the system of caste was
wrong. " Between a Brahman and a man of an-
other caste," said he, " there is no diif erence." This
was good news to the poor Hindus. Thieves and
robbers, beggars and cripples gathered around
him. Mighty kings came also to confess their
sins, and even many of the proud Brahmans con-
fessed their igoorance before him. The sacrifices
to the old idols were stopped. Beautiful churches
were built for Buddha. They were open to all
classes of people, men and women. Missionaries
were sent to Ceylon, to Siam, to Burma, to Thibet,
and to China, and many of the people in those coun-
tries still hold to the religion of Buddha.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND KING PORUS
Many years after Buddha was dead, the Greek
general, Alexander, set out to conquer the world.
Alexander was King of Macedonia, and we shall
hear about him in the stories of Greece.
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INDIA 29
He had heard of the rich country of the Hindus
along the Indus, and was eager to conquer them,
In the eastern part of Af-ghan-is-tan' there is a
deep valley across the mountains called " Khai'-ber
Pass." India, you know, is cut off from the rest
of Asia by high mountains, and there are only a
few passes by which travelers may reach it. Khai-
ber Pass is the chief one, and many mighty armies
have come that way to India.
At the beginning of summer Alexander broughi
his army to Ca'-bul, and then came marching down
Khaiber Pass into the Pun-jab, or " land of the
five rivers."
It was the rainy season, and the rivers were so
swollen that he had a hard task to get his men
across. The Hindus were astonished at the fear-
less conduct of the Greeks and a good deal fright-
ened by their dangerous-looking swords and spears.
Several of the Hindu kings hastened to surrender
to Alexander. But when he came to the river bor-
dering the coimtry of Poms, that king gathered
an army of soldiers, horsemen, chariots, and ele-
phants to keep him out.
The war-elephants looked dangerous, and Alex-
ander sent his soldiers to another place to cross.
But Poms also sent his men to meet them, and the
Greeks did not dare go into the water.
At last Alexander ordered his soldiers to pitch
their tents as though they meant to remain there.
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30 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
But in the middle of the night he took his bravest
.men and hurried up the river to a good crossing-
place. Long before light they came upon the
astonished Poms. The Hindu king and his men
fought bravely, but they were no match for the
Greeks. Poms was made prisoner and taken into
Alexander's tent.
" How do you wish me to treat you? " asked
Alexander.
" As a king," replied Poms.
The Greek was so pleased with his brave fight
and with his noble answer that he made him his
friend and gave him back his kingdom.
Alexander's men had grown weary of war, so
they went saiUng down the Indus to the sea, where
they met their ships that were to take them back to
Greece.
THE MIGHTY MAH'-MOUD
For many years after Alexander left India,
Poms, his children, and grandchildren were left to
rule in peace. But the Hindus were worshipers of
idols ; and when people of the Mo-ham'-me-dan re-
ligion began to spread over Asia, they made war
on every people who would not accept their faith.
Mahmoud, King of Afghanistan, believed that
God had commanded him to destroy all idols and
idol-worship and to make all Hindus worship the
one true God. Many of the idols were made of
gold and silver, and the temples were stored with
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INDIA 31
money and jewels. All this wealth Mahmoud
carried off to his own country. Mahmoud was a
mighty warrior. Seventeen times he led his sol-
diers to victory in India.
Once he heard of a very rich temple which stood
near the sea in western India. As many as 300,-
000 people worshiped the idol, which was made of
pure gold. Every day the idol was washed with
water brought from the holy river, the Ganges,
a thousand miles away. It took two thousand
priests and three hundred musicians to conduct the
services of the temple.
To reach the temple Mahmoud had to lead his
army across a wide desert where there was no food
or water. • Twenty thousand camels were loaded
with water and provisions for the march.
When he approached the temple a messenger
came out to see him.
" You and all your army will be instantly killed
by our god," said he, " if you offer any disrespect
to his temple."
Mahmoud laughed loudly at this. " We will
see about that to-morrow," he replied. But when
he attacked the walls around the temple, the Hindus
fought so bravely that it was several days before
he broke through.
At last he came in sight of the gold idol, an
ugly-looking object over fifteen feet high. He
hurled his spear at the idol's head and broke off
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32 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
the golden nose. Then the priests fell on their
knees about him and cried, " We will load all your
camels with gold if you will only leave us our
god!" His friends urged him to do this, but
Mahmoud said, " No; I have come to destroy idols,
as God has commanded me."
Then his soldiers threw their spears at the idol
until they broke a great hole in its side. Out
poured a glittering stream of diamonds, rubies,
pearls, and emeralds, which had been stored in the
hollow injage. Besides this there were thousands
of images of gold and silver in various parts of the
temple, an,d Mahmoud carried away more wealth
than he had gained in all his former wars in India.
When this rich king came to die he had all his
gold, silver, and jewels brought out of his treasury
and put before him. All his army, elephants, cam-
els, horses, and chariots passed in review. Then
the king wept at the thought of never seeing any
of his treasures again. He retired to his palace
and a few days afterwards died.
THE GREAT MO-GULS'
Near the city of A'-gra, in India, stands a build-
ing which is said to be the most beautiful in the
world. It is the Taj Ma-hal', or royal tomb of the
wife of the Shah Je'-han, the greatest of the Great
Moguls.
" But who were the Great Moguls? " you ask.
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INDIA 83
The Moguls, or Mongols, were people of the
yellow or Mon-go'-li-an race who conquered India.
They drove out the descendants of Mahmoud and
made Del'-hi their capital city. After that the
Yellow Emperor of India, who lived at Delhi,
was called the Great Mogul. The first Mogul in-
vader was Ti'-mour, the Lame, or Tam-er-lane', a
descendant of the Tartar, Genghis Khan, of whom
we have read. His capital was at Sa-mar-cand', in
Tur-kes-tan'. He was a very bloody warrior, and
delighted to pile up the heads of his prisoners in
front of the cities he conquered. When he took
Delhi he made a great pyramid of 100,000 heads.
Though he stayed only two weeks at Delhi, he
caused greater destruction and suif ering than any
other invader.
Many years after his death, Ba'-ber, the great
grandson of Tamerlane, who ruled at Cabul, led
his army into India and made himself emperor at
Delhi. He was the first Great Mogul.
Baber died before he could entirely conquer
India, but his work was finished by another em-
peror, Ac'-bar, who made himself ruler over the
whole country. The Mogul emperors were noted
for their great wealth and their splendid palaces
and festivals. One of the finest holiday celebra-
tions was held on the emperor's birthday. There
was a fair at which all sorts of goods were sold,
and processions were held lasting several days. A
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34 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
splendid tent was erected for the emperor. There
were rich hangings of silk embroidered with gold
and precious stones. Each noble also had a rich
tent. Several acres of groimd were covered with
silken carpets and rugs, where the court met to see
the ceremonies.
On the great day of the festival hundreds of
elephants passed in review, having on their heads
great golden plates set with gems, and covered
with cloths of silk embroidered with gold thread.
Next came thousands of horses and trained ani-
mals — lions, tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards, and
hoimds. Then an enormous troop of horsemen, all
glittering in cloth of gold, closed the procession.
Then a great golden scale was brought out. On
one side sat the emperor. The courtiers piled up
gold, silver, gems, and curious ornaments on the
other side until the mass balanced the weight of the
emperor. All the treasures were then scattered
among the crowd, and there was a mad scramble
to get them.
Many forts, towers, and tombs built by Acbar
are still standing, but Jehan was the greatest
builder; for, besides the Taj Mahal, he left pal-
aces at Agra, and a mosque, or church, called
the Pearl Mosque, on account of its whiteness and
beauty.
The throne on which Jehan sat was one of the
wonders of the world. It was called the Peacock
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INDIA
35
Throne, because the back of it was formed by two
peacocks with tails spread out. The beautiful col-
ors of the plumage were shown by rubies, sapphires,
emeralds, and diamonds, while just above them was
perched a parrot carved from a single emerald*
The framework of the throne was solid gold. The
The Taj Mahal.
throne was worth over thirty millions of dollars, and
the jewelers of Shah Jehan labored seven years to
build it.
Nothing now remains of the throne except the
marble base on which it stood ; for a king of Persia
captured Delhi and carried it away, and no one
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36 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
knows what became of it afterwards. The Moguls
with all their glory, gold, and gems are gone for-
ever, but the palaces, tombs, and monuments which
they left are still the most beautiful structures in
the world.
HOW THE ENGLISH CAME TO INDIA
Many tales of the rich Mogul Empire had been
carried by travelers to the countries of Europe, and
every sea captain was eager to find a way to that
land. Many tried in vain. Columbus thought he
had found India, but it proved to be a new world.
At last a Por'-tu-guese sailor, Vas-co da Ga'-ma,
reached Cal'-i-cut on the western coast. Then came
the Dutch, the French, and the English.
In 1600 the great queen, Elizabeth, gave a
company of merchants permission to trade in In-
dia'. They were called the East India Company.
This company built trading stations at Cal-cut'-ta
and Ma-dras'. Many years afterwards there was a
clerk in their employ at the Madras station named
Robert Clive. Clive was noted for his courage.
He once accused a young officer, with whom he was
playing cards, of cheating. The officer held a pis-
tol at Clive's head.
" Make me an apology at once," he said, " or I
will fire."
"Fire away, then," answered Robert; "I said
you cheated, and now I say it again."
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INDU 37
The officer did not fire.
At this time there was war between the French
and the English. The French held Arcot, a city
with a hundred thousand inhabitants. With only
five hundred men Clive attacked the city and took it.
As he came near the town a terrible thimder-
storm arose. The natives were afraid to fight dur-
ing the storm and soon surrendered.
Clive was then besieged in the city by the
French with ten thousand men. They had war ele-
phants with iron plates on their heads, which were
trained to butt against the gates to break them
down. But Clive, although besieged for many
weeks, drove all his enemies off and saved the town
for the English.
Soon after this there came terrible news from
Calcutta. An Indian prince, Su-ra'-jah Dow'-lah,
had captured the English garrison. He locked up
146 of them in a narrow room, where all but
twenty-three died of suffocation and thirst in one
night.
Clive determined to have revenge. He marched
to Calcutta with 3,000 men. He defeated the
Sura j ah, who had 30,000 men, in the famous battle
of Plas'-sey, and thus made the English power
strong in India. Since that time the English have
conquered the entire country, and the King of
England is Emperor of India. But he owes his
throne to Robert Clive more than to any other man.
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V. EGYPT
THE LAND OF THE NILE
About the time that Confucius was teaching
the Chinese to follow the good old ways of their
fathers, and Buddha was teaching the Hindus
how to live better lives, an old Greek traveler
was writing about the wonderful land of Egypt.
" Egypt," said he, " is the gift of the Nile." In
that country it rains not more than once in a thou-
sand years; but every summer the great river, fed
by the rains of Central Africa, overflows its banks.
All the coimtry then becomes a great lake. The
houses are surroimded by water, and the boys and
girls go about barefooted, wading from place to
place.
When at last the waters go away, a thin layer
of black mud is left spread over all the country.
It was on this account that the country was called
Kent, meaning black land.
Year after year the Nile has been bringing
down its layer of black mud. Every year the lake
grows wider and the mud deeper, imtil now the soil
of Egypt is deep and rich, and cotton, corn, and
wheat grow quickly and yield large crops to feed
and clothe the people.
Great dams are built to hold back the water,
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EGYPT
39
and during the long dry seasons the farmers use it
to water their gardens and fields. Without the
river this rich land would be only a barren waste of
sand, where neither plants nor animals could live.
The Pyi'amids.
Do you wonder that the old Greek traveler called
Egypt the " gift of the Nile "?
At the mouth of the river a great three-sided
piece of black soil has been left. This is called the
" Delta," because the Greek letter delta^ or A, is
three-sided. The Delta is the richest land in all
Egypt.
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40 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Very long ago a company of people came into
the Delta to live. They fomid it very easy to get
food from the rich, black soil. They did not need
to plow or cultivate. They sowed the grain in the
soft mud, and it grew up and gave them a himdred
bushels for one. These people were ruled over by
kings. • They built strong cities, with splendid tem-
ples, monuments, and tombs.
CHEOPS, THE PYRAMD) BUILDEE
One of these cities was called Mem'-phis. It
stood on the left bank of the Nile, and was
once ruled over by a great king by the name of
Che'-ops.
Near Memphis is a wonderful pile of stone
which is called the Great Pyramid. It covers as
much ground as five city blocks, and is nearly
twice as tall as the tallest building in our large
cities. It is built of great blocks of hard, red stone,
each one as large as a trolley car. The Egyptians
must have been good builders, for each one of these
stones was cut out in a quarry himdreds of miles
up the Nile, and brought all the way to Memphis.
Then they had some machinery for raising them
high up in the air so that they might be built into
the pyramid.
For hundreds of years no one knew what the
pyramid was for. As it was of no use to anyone,
men began to take away the stone to make other
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EGYPT
41
buildings. But one day,-when a workman was busy
on the side of the pyramid cutting out a block of
stone, a piece fell through an opening and rolled
down inside the pyramid with a clattering sound.
Obelisk and Ruined Gate to an Egyptian Temple.
He called other workmen, and they found a
long passage leading into the pyramid. Follow-
ing this they came to three large stone rooms, one
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42 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORr
of which had beautiful walls and ceilings made of
a kind of marble polished until it shone like glass.
In the middle of this room was a large stone coffin.
There was no dead body within, but upon the walls
was written in many places the name of Cheops.
Then they knew that this king had built the pyra-
mid for his tomb.
There are seventy pyramids still standing along
the Nile, but that of Cheops is the largest. Nearly
all of them were meant to be the burial places of
kings.
The Egyptians were careful to preserve the
bodies of their friends, for they thought that if the
body should decay it could never be raised from
the dead; so they embalmed it with oils and spices,
and wound it with linen. Thousands of such em-
balmed bodies are found in the tombs of Egypt.
We call them " mummies," and some of them are
so well preserved that they still look like the pictures
and statues of the kings who once lived in them.
It is said that Cheops employed a hundred thou-
sand men for thirty years in building the pyramid.
He seized the people and made them work as
slaves, and even closed the temples in order that he
might have all the money for his work. And after
spending nearly all his life in building a tomb, his
body was not buried in it after all. The people
were so angry on accoimt of his wicked deeds that
they would not allow it to be placed there, and the
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EGYPT 43
statues that he had made of himself they broke.
The pieces of one of them have been f omid.
THE SHEPHERD KINGS
If you look at the map of the continents, you
will see that Asia and Africa are joined together
by a neck of land called the Isthmus of Suez. This
isthmus is a green and delightful coimtry, and
was very attractive to the shepherds who tended
their flocks among the dry hills of Pal'-es-tine.
Sometimes a famine would compel the shepherds to
go down into Egypt to buy food. The granaries
of that country were always well filled, and there
was plenty to sell to those who needed it.
Once the shepherd tribes joined together and
formed a kingdom called the Hit'-tite kingdom.
One of their kings led them into Egypt, and they
fought with the King of Memphis and drove him
out. They then made Egypt their own country
and lived there for two himdred years.
It was in the time of these shepherd kings that
the sons of Jacob went down to Egypt to buy com.
They found that their brother Joseph, whom they
had sold as a slave, had become the chief officer of
the Egyptian king.
The Hittites were of the same race as the He-
brews and felt friendly toward them. So King
Pharaoh invited them into Egypt, and gave them
the land of Goshen in which to live.
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eam'-e-ses the geeat and the hittites
After a time the Egyptians drove the Hittite
kings out of Egypt, but the Hebrews still remained
in the land of Goshen.
The Hittites had formed a new kingdom near
the Red Sea. Rameses the Great had become King
of Egypt, and he was afraid the Hittites were go-
ing to attack his land again, so he made war on
them. He defeated them in a great battle at
Kadesh. A poet who wrote about the battle says
that Rameses drove his chariot right through the
Hittite army, scattering them right and left and
killing many of them. The Hittites were so ter-
rified that they tumbled one over another in their
flight.
When Rameses came back from Kadesh he
rode through Goshen.
"Who are these people that have these fine
sheep and cattle? " he asked.
He was told that they were Israelites, who
had come into Egypt in the time of the Shepherd
Kings.
" Well," said Rameses, " there are more of them
than there are of us, and some day they will drive
us out of our own country, if we do not take care."
" They belong to the same race. as the Hittites,"
his servant told him, " and they have been kept
hard at work, but, in spite of all that can be done
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EGYPT 45
to keep them down, they become stronger every
year."
" Let them be divided into companies of a him-
dred each, and put an overseer at the head of each
company," said Rameses, " and set them to making
bricks. I am going to build a great wall to shut
out these enemies of Egypt."
The wall was built. It reached from the Nile
near Memphis to the Med-i-ter-ra'-ne-an Sea, a dis-
tance of ninety miles.
Then the king built a canal from the Red Sea
to the Nile. Along the wall and the canal he built
" treasure cities." These contained great store-
houses and forts, where food and supplies for war
were kept.
He had plenty of work for them, for he then
decided to build a new capital in the Delta. He
chose the treasure city Ta'-nis. There he built pal-
aces, temples, and gardens, and made it the most
beautiful place in the world.
When Rameses had finished his wall and his
cities he began to build temples. He finished the
great temple of Kar'-nak, which his father, Se'-ti,
began. The Hall of Columns in this temple is the
most wonderful structure in the world. The col-
rnnns are sixty feet high and twelve feet thick.
On the outer wall of the Karnak temple is one
of the most interesting things in Egypt. The
treaty of peace which Rameses made with the Hit-
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OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
tites is carved there. This is the oldest treaty in
the world. In some of the larger books about
Egypt you may read it all. \
Whatever the Egyptians build is noted for
great size. Rameses had a number of huge statues
of himself carved out of the rock. Four of these
stand in front of a great temple. Another, which
is now broken, stood fifty-four feet high — as high
as a four-story building. A beautiful obelisk
which Rameses had placed in front of his temple of
the Sim now stands in a public square in Paris. It
is eighty-two feet high and cut out of a single piece
of pink granite.
Ruins of a Temple of Rameses.
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VI. ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA
NATIONS THAT ARE DEAD AND BURIED
If you turn to the map of the Ancient World
and look in the southwestern part of Asia, you will
find two rivers, called Ti'-gris and Eu-phra'-tes.
These rivers join in the lower part of their course
and flow into the Persian Gulf. Like the Nile, they
overflow their banks in the rainy season and spread
a rich, dark soil over the plains.
Thousands of years ago people made their
homes along these rivers, because it was very easy
to get food. Wheat grew wild there, and when
cultivated yielded large crops. Palm trees of
many kinds were found, from which were obtained
bread, wine, and fruit. The bark furnished a fiber
for cloth, and the trunks, wood to build houses.
The clay along the river banks, and pitch found
in the lakes of the plains, were used to build temples
and palaces. The clay was molded into bricks and
baked in ovens. Often it was made into slabs and
hollow cylinders, which when soft, were written
over with curious wedge-shaped letters. They
were then baked and became clay books, which last
much longer than books made of paper.
Rain seldom fell in this region, but the water
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48 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
of the river was led through the land by a network
of canals and used to moisten the growing crops.
To-day this great river plain is almost a desert.
The traveler sees a vast stretch of level coimtry,
with hundreds of moimds or hillocks of earth rising
here and there. A few thousand wandering Arabs,
living in small villages or tents, form the only
population.
Many years ago some curious travelers began
to dig into these mounds, and made the most won-
derful discoveries. They were found to be remains
of cities, temples, and royal palaces built by the
nations who lived there six thousand years ago.
Three great nations, one after another, ruled in
this land^Chal-de'-a, As-syr'-i-a, and Bab-y-lo'-
ni-a. We can learn much about them from the
Bible and from the books of old travelers. But we
have learned far more from the clay books, the tem-
ples, and carvings which have been dug out of the
mounds. We know little about the very earliest
people of Chaldea, as we call the southern half of
the plain, except that they were of the Yellow race,
and that they had a kind of picture-writing re-
sembling that of the Chinese. The Bible tells us
that Nim'-rod, the great-grandson of Noah and a
mighty himter, was the first settler in this country.
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ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 49
SABGON
The first great King of Chaldea was Sar'-gon I.
A clay cylinder tells a story about Sargon which
reminds us of Moses. This cylinder was written
by Sargon's son and placed in a temple. It says:
" My mother put me in an ark of bulrushes and
closed up the door with pitch. She threw me into
the river." A water-carrier foimd the little Sar-
gon and brought him up.
Sargon was the founder of the first public libra-
ries. He translated the books of the older race
into his own language and placed them in these
libraries for the people to read.
These clay books contain stories of the gods of
the Chaldeans, and prayers and hymns addressed
to them. There are astronomies, geographies, his-
tories, and arithmetics. There is a story of the
Creation, of the Garden of Eden and the Tree of
Life, of the Flood and the Tower of Babel, nearly
as it is found in the Book of Genesis. There is a
story of a great hero named Iz-du-bar', who per-
formed twelve labors, reminding us of the story of
Her'-cu-les.
The Chaldeans were famous astronomers. As
the land was level and the sky clear, it was easy for
them to study the stars. They divided the year into
twelve months, and the day and night into twelve
hours each. They invented the weeks of seven
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days, the last day of each week being, like our Sun-
day, given to rest. The Chaldeans pretended to
foretell events by a study of the stars. They in-
vented weights and measures, made linens, muslin,
and silk, engraved gems, and were the first to be-
gin trade with other nations. Their gods were the
heavenly bodies, the earth, and the waters. They
also worshiped good and evil spirits, which they
represented as monsters, part animal and part
human.
The Chaldeans were the wisest people of an-
cient times, and much of their wisdom has come all
the way down to us.
Chaldea was at last conquered by the As-syr'-
i-ans, a strong nation which had grown up in the
northern part of the plain. Their chief city was
Nin'-e-veh. But the Chaldeans were a peaceful
people, devoted to useful occupations, while the
Assyrians were cruel and warlike, giving all their
energy to conquest and plunder. The cities they
conquered were ruled with great severity, and the
prisoners taken were often tortured and put to
death.
The palace of the Assyrian kings has been dug
up from the great mound which contains all that
is left of the city of Nineveh. In one room thou-
sands of clay books were found, and cylinders which
give accounts of the deeds of great kings. The
carved walls of the palace show scenes in the life
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ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA
51
of a monarch, such as the taking of a city, the tor-
turing of captives, and the king on a lion hunt.
One clay cylinder tells of another Sargon, who
invaded Sa-ma'-ri-a and carried the ten tribes of
Israel away into captivity.
Sen-nach'-e-rib, the son of Sargon, made war
An Assyrian King Hunting.
on Hez-e-ki'-ah, king of Judah. The royal tab-
let reads : " I took forty-six of his strong, fenced
cities. . . . And Hezekiah I shut up in Jerusalem
like a bird in a cage, building towers to hem him in,
and raising banks of earth to prevent his escape."
But a great calamity came upon the army of the
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Assyrian, compelling him to retreat. The Bible
tells us that one hundred and eighty-five thousand
of his men died, " smitten by the angel of the
Lord."
For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill.
And their hearts but once heaved — and forever grew still.
And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail.
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.
sar-da-na-pa'-lus
Another noted Assyrian king was Asshur-bani-
pal', or Sar-da-na-pa'-lus, as he was called by the
Greeks. He was the king who decorated the walh
of the palace at Nineveh with the scenes of his bat-
tles. He was a swift and terrible warrior, and did
really, as he says, " break his enemies into pieces "
and " level their cities with the ground." He built
splendid palaces and made great collections of
books. After being buried for two thousand five
hundred years, his library has been dug up, and
we have learned much from it about Chaldea and
Assyria.
NEB-U-CHAD-NEZ'-ZAR
After seven centuries of Assyrian rule, Chal-
dea, or Babylonia, as the later nation was called,
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ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 53
rebelled and became independent. Under Neb-u-
chad-nez'-zar it joined with the king of Media, and
destroyed the city of Nineveh. This king was the
Napoleon of ancient times. He conquered every
kingdom from the Za'-gros momitains to the Medi-
terranean Sea. He captured Jerusalem, put King
Zed-e-ki'-ah to death, burned the beautiful temple
of Solomon, and carried away all the people of any
note to Babylon, where they remained for seventy
years.
But his greatest work was the rebuilding of the
city of Babylon. The new city was ten miles
square, surrounded by a wall eighty feet high, of
vast width, and sm-moimted by two hundred and
fifty towers. On each of the four sides of the city
were twenty-five gates of brass. Outside the wall
was a broad and deep ditch, filled with water. The
Euphrates river ran through the middle of the city.
There were many wharves on each side of the river.
The streets were laid out straight, and beautiful
green fields, gardens, and parks were frequent.
The king's palace, and the Hanging Gardens near
it, excited the wonder of every traveler. The
Hanging Gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar
to please his queen, A-my'-tis. A series of square
platforms, each smaller than the one below it, were
supported on stone arches. The whole structure
sloped upward like a pyramid, and rose to the height
of seventy-five feet. Each platform was filled
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with earth, and planted with trees and flowers, so
that the whole structure looked like small moun-
tains covered with plants. Thus it reminded Amy-
tis of the green hills of her own country, Media.
The palace and Gardens were inclosed by a wall
three miles in circumference.
The great temple of Bel, the chief Babylonian
god, was another wonderful building. It was a
quarter of a mile in length and breadth. A stair-
way wound around the outside of the temple to the
top. Each stage or story beeame smaller as you
ascended. There were, in all, seven stories, each
sacred to one of the seven heavenly bodies that were
known to them.
In the midst of his beautiful city, in the royal
palace, Nebuchadnezzar stood one day listening to
an explanation of a dream by the Hebrew captive,
Daniel. " Thou shalt be driven from men, and thy
dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
Wherefore, O king, break off thy sins by right-
eousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy
to the poor." But the proud king replied: " Is not
this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal
dwelling place, by the might of my power, and for
the glory of my majesty? "
And in the same hour a disease came upon the
king which drove him from among men, and he
" ate grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the
dew of heaven."
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ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 55
A few years later Babylon was taken by the
Persian king, Cy'-rus, who entered the city at night
by tiu'ning the Euphrates out of its course and
marching through the bed of the river.
The last king, Bel-shaz-zar, was giving a ban-
quet to his lords that night, and the city was given
up to feasting and song. The Persians found the
river gates unguarded, and their army reached the
center of the city before being discovered.
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VII. THE PHOE-NI'CIANS
Phoe-ni'-cia was a little strip of seacoast north-
west of PaF-es-tine, along the Med-i-ter-ra'-ne-an
Sea. The people who lived there were Ca'-naan-
ites, who had come into the land from the East long
before A'-bra-ham left Haran (p. 59).
The rough, rocky soil did not tempt the Phoe-
ni'-cians to become farmers; but the great blue
waters before them, and the splendid cedar forests
which covered their mountains, made them the first
sailors who ever sailed out of sight of land.
They were good workmen, too. We shall read
how they were employed by King Solomon to build
the temple at Je-ru'-sa-lem. They could work
metals, make glass and cloth, and cut jewels. It is
said that some shipwrecked Phoenician sailors once
built a great fire on a sandy shore where there were
many shells groimd up by the waves. Shells are
made of lime. The fire melted the sand and lime
into glass, thus teaching the sailors how to make
this very useful article. The Tyr'-i-an purple
was a rich cloth famous all over the world. The
purple dye was obtained from a small shellfish that
was found along their coast.
To obtain metals for their workmen, they sailed
into every part of the Mediterranean and Black
seas, and even out into the Atlantic Ocean to Gaul
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THE PHOENICIANS 57
and Britain. They brought gold and silver from
Spain, copper from Cyprus, and iron and tin from
Britain. They brought pearls from the East, lions'
and panthers' skins from Africa, linen from Egypt,
and perfumes and spices from Arabia. They made
all these into useful articles, and sold them in all
parts of the world.
The Phoenicians had colonies along the coasts
where they traded. Cadiz, in Spain, and Carthage
are two of their famous colonies. Being mer-
chants, they had to have some way of writing and
of keeping accounts. In order to do this, they ob-
tained in Egypt twenty-two of the picture-letters
of the priests. These they changed into letters like
ours, and gave each letter a name. This alphabet
they taught to all nations with whom they traded.
And so it happened that the Greeks and Romans,
the Germans, and the people of Spain and France,
received a knowledge of writing.
Almost the only king of Phoenicia whose name
has come down to us is that of Hiram, who is men-
tioned in the Bible. Although these people in-
vented the alphabet, they wrote no books, and so we
know little about them. Of Hiram we only know
that he was Solomon's friend and furnished him the
materials to build the temple.
The ships and sailors of Phoenicia carried goods
for nearly every nation of ancient times. They
carried timber to Assyria and Babylonia to con-
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struct the palaces of kings. When Xerx'-es wanted
to bridge the Her-les-pont, to carry his armies into
Greece, it was the Phoenicians who furnished the
boats for the bridge. The King of Egypt hired
their sailors to find a route around Africa by sea.
After a voyage lasting several years, they sailed
their ships out of the Red Sea and back through
the Mediterranean to the mouth of the Nile.
After many centuries the Phoenician nation
was conquered by the Greeks and Romans, and
died out. Nothing but tombs and a few ruins re-
main. But we will remember them on account of
the alphabet, for no invention has done so much
good to the nations of the world as this.
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VIII. THE HEBREWS
About four thousand years ago, when Chaldea
was yet a great kingdom, one of the descendants of
Shem left his native city of Ur, in Chaldea, and
moved with his family into the desert to the west.
His name was Te'-rah, arid he made his home at
Ha'-ran. There he died, and his son Abram came
into possession of all his goods.
Abram became tired of life in the desert. He
had heard of ^ fertile land farther west, nearer the
great sea.
Once he heard a voice speaking to him and tell-
ing him to leave Haran with his family and goods.
The voice told him that he should have many de-
scendants, and that his name should be changed to
A'-bra-ham, which means " father of nations."
So Abraham began to lead a wandering life.
He went westward into Ca'-naan, as the country
between Babylonia and Phoenicia was then called.
This coimtry was the home of wandering tribes,
who lived in tents and moved from place to place
to find grass for their cattle and sheep.
Abraham's family and servants soon became
such a tribe. They were called Hebrews, a word
meaning " from the other side," because they came
from the other side of the Euphrates River. For a
long time he lived at Shec'-hem, on the west of the
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river Jordan. Once, in a time of famine, he went
into Egypt to live. He soon became very rich in
flocks and herds.
At last he died, and his son, Isaac, became
chief of the Hebrews. When Isaac died, his son,
Jacob, became the head of the tribe. Jacob had
twelve sons. Joseph was the youngest, and his
father loved him so much that the older brothers
became jealous. Once, when Joseph was sent to
them with a message, they seized him and sold him
to a company of traveling merchants. The mer-
chants took him to Egypt and sold him to Pot'-i-
phar, the chief servant of the king. Joseph was so
honest and faithful that he became the chief ser-
vant of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king.
When Jacob had become old another terrible
famine came into the land of Canaan. He sent his
sons into Egypt to buy food. They were brought
to Joseph, and he knew his brothers, although they
did not know him.
After a time Joseph brought his father, his
brothers, and their families into Egypt to live —
seventy-two persons in all. He gave them homes
in Goshen, a fertile region north of the Red Sea.
THE HEBREWS LEAVE EGYPT
For many years the Hebrews continued to live
in the land of Goshen; but at last the King of
Egypt began to treat them as slaves and oppressed
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THE HEBREWS 61
them in many ways. In order that they might not
become too numerous, he caused all the male chil-
dren to be killed. Of course, this order was not
carried out. One of the little ones that escaped
was adopted by the king's daughter and grew up
as a prince in the king's court. His name was
Moses, and he afterwards led the children of Israel
out of Egypt into the wilderness, where they re-
mained wandering back and forth for forty years.
After the death of Moses, Joshua became the
leader of the people. They invaded the land of
Canaan, took possession of it, and divided it among
the twelve tribes. For 200 years, the tribes were
governed by judges; but at last, so many enemies
appeared and the people became so rebellious, that
a king was chosen to rule over them.
The first of the Hebrew kings was Saul. He
was a brave soldier and defended the country
against its enemies, but he disobeyed the commands
of God, and the prophet, Samuel, was commanded
to choose a new king.
The new king was David, who became the great-
est of the kings of the Hebrew people. He con-
quered their enemies, and established his capital at
Jerusalem. He built many cities and traded with
the Phoenicians, who lived along the Mediterranean
Sea. He collected vast quantities of gold, silver,
and cedar wood to build a great temple at Jeru-
salem. His son, Solomon, who succeeded him,
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built the temple, which was one of the most beau-
tiful buildings in the world.
After the death of King Solomon, the land was
divided into two kingdoms. This made the people
weaker, and they fell a prey to the kingsof Assyria
and Babylonia. Finally, in the days of the Romans,
the Hebrew kingdom was utterly destroyed, and
the country became a Roman province.
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IX. MEDIA AND PERSIA
In the highlands east of the Ti'-gris River lived
two nations, the Medes and the Persians. They
were of the Aryan branch of the white race, and
had come from the region of Bac'-tri-a, along the
Oxus River. We have read of a Median princess
who became the queen of Nebuchadnezzar, and of
a Persian king who took the Bab'-y-lon-i-an king-
dom under Bel-shaz'zar.
The Medes at first ruled over the Persians, but
when Cy'-rus became King of Persia he conquered
the Medes and founded the Persian Empire, the
greatest nation that had yet appeared in the world.
The first great king of the Medes was Cy-ax'-a-
res. We have read in the story of As-syr'-i-a how
he joined with Nebuchadnezzar and destroyed Nin'-
e-veh and its last king, Sar-da-na-pa'-lus. It is
said that Sardanapalus heaped all his possessions
together into a great heap, and when the Medes
and Babylonians burst into his city he set fire to it
and died in the flames.
As-ty'-a-ges, the son of Cyaxares, was the next
King of Media.
CYRUS THE GREAT
The Greek traveler and historian, He-rod'-o-tus,
tells the story of how Cyrus became king.
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Astyages had dreamed that his daughter, Man-
da'-ne, would bring trouble to his kingdom, so he
married her to a Persian chief, Cam-by^-ses, and
sent her out of his country, hoping thus to avoid
any trouble she might cause him. When her son
Cyrus was bom, Astyages dreamed again that the
child would one day become King of Media instead
of him. He consulted his wise men, and they ad-
vised him to kill Cyrus. He invited his daughter
to bring the child to his court. He then sent for
Har'-pa-gus, one of his chief nobles, and gave him
the baby in a basket, ordering him to put it to death
and bury it.
But Harpagus, fearing to bring trouble upon
himself, called in one of the king's herdsmen, to
whom he gave the child. He told the man what
the king had commanded, and directed him to ex-
pose the child upon the mountains. " After it is
dead," said Harpagus, " send for me, and I will
send one of my trusted servants to see the body,
that I may be sure the king's will has been carried
out."
The herdsman took the little Cyrus to his home,
and told the story to his wife. It happened that
her own baby had just died, so she put the dead
child in the basket, and brought up Cyrus as her
own son.
When Cyrus was ten years old he was one day
playing with the other boys of the village a game
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MEDIA AND PERSIA 65
which they called " choosing a king." One of their
number was made king. The king would then
choose his officers and give them various duties to
perform. On the day that Cyrus was chosen, one
of the boys, who was the son of a nobleman of the
comi:, refused to obey the orders of the cowherd's
son. Whereupon Cyrus, in true Persian fashion,
had him tied up and beaten with rods. The noble-
man complained to King Astyages of the treatment
his son had received, and the cowherd and his sup-
posed son were summoned. Astyages recognized
the royal boy, and compelled the herdsman to tell
the whole story.
When he asked his wise men what he should do
with Cyrus, they told him that when the boys made
Cyrus king his dream had been fulfilled, and that
there was no further danger. So Astyages sent
him back to his parents in Persia.
But the king was terribly enraged at Harpagus,
who had failed to carry out his commands. In his
anger, he actually seized a young son of Harpagus
and cruelly killed him. The king then told Har-
pagus what he had done.
" Whatever the king does is well," said Harpa-
gus; but in his heart he began planning revenge.
The Persians had long been weary of the rule
of Media, and when Cyrus had grown to manhood
it seemed a good time to rebel. Harpagus now
saw a good chance to get revenge upon King Asty-
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ages for the murder of his son. He sent a secret
message to Cyrus, urging him to gather his soldiers
and attack Media. " The army of Astyages," he
said, " will desert to your side." Astyages heard
that Cyrus was raising men, and sent an invitation
to visit him at Ec-bat'-a-na, his capital city. " Tell
him," said Cyrus to the king's messenger, " that I
will be there when he is ready to receive me."
Astyages did not suspect Harpagus, and had
put him in command of his army. When Cyrus
advanced into Media, Harpagus deserted v^ith his
men and joined the Persians. Astyages was made
prisoner, and Cyrus became the king of the Medes
and Persians.
DARIUS
The next great king Was Da-ri'-us. He was the
first king of a new family. That no one should
ever be in doubt as to his race, he had this inscrip-
tion cut on his tomb : " Darius, the great king, the
king of kings; the king of all inhabited countries;
the king of the great earth far and near ; the son of
Hys-tas'-pes, a Persian, the son of a Persian; an
Aryan, of Aryan descent."
Darius made peace everywhere. Then he built
great roads throughout his empire, all leading to
Susa, his capital. He coined new money for the
empire. At Be-his-tun', in Persia, he made smooth
the face of a lofty rock, and had carved upon it an
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MEDIA AND PERSIA 67
account of all his deeds, in three languages, in the
old pictvire- writing -of Chaldea. It has been the
chief means of helping us to learn this strange
language.
Having secured peace within his empire, by put-
ting down a number of small rebellions, Darius then
set out to conquer new lands. There were still two
countries where the Persian armies had not reached
— India on the east and Greece on the west. The
king was especially angry with the Greeks, for
when he sent envoys there to demand earth and
water as a sign of submission, the A-the'-ni-ans ana
Spar'-tans threw his messengers into wells head
foremost, and bade them " help themselves to earth
and water."
The army which he sent into India was victori-
ous, and the whole northwestern part of that coun-
try was added to Persian rule. The story of his
attacks upon Greece, and of his son, Xerxes, will be
told in the chapter on Greece.
The religion of the Persians was the worship of
one god, whom they called Or'-mazd. They be-
lieved also in a bad spirit, whom they called Ah'-ri-
man. After a time new religion teachers, called
Magi, appeared, who taught the worship of the
Sun, or of fire. The descendants of the fire-wor-
shipers are found today in India, and are known
as Parsees'. Zo-ro-as'-ter was the great prophet,
or religious teacher, of the Persians. He lived in
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Bac-tri-a before the race emigrated to Persia. His
book of religion is called the " Eend-Aves'-ta," and
still exists. Deceit of every kind was hateful to the
Persians, and contrary to their religion. He-rod'-
o-tus says they taught their boys three things: " to
ride, to shoot with the bow, and to speak the truth."
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X. GREECE
Geeece consists of the most southern penin-
sula of Evwope. It is a small eoimtry, but in early-
times it was divided into twenty-four little states,
each one managing its own affairs.
The coast line is very ragged, with many inlets
and bays. This made it easy for ships to sail to
any part of the country. Then there were hun-
dreds of little islands, which stretched away across
the sea to the shore of Asia. You will see why it
was that the Greeks soon became the most famous
sailors in the world. They became the rivals of
the Phoe-ni'-cians, and, in the end, took their place
as the leading merchant people of the world.
In the early days the Greek states had kings;
but the people finally put down their kings, and car-
ried on the governments themselves. The Greeks,
like the Medes and Persians, were of the Aryan
branch of the white race. In early times, of which
we know but little, they had wandered westward
along the northern shore of the Black Sea into
Greece. The name Greek was not used by them.
They called themselves Hel-le'-nes, and their coun-
try Hel'-las. These words come from the name
Hel'-len, the ancestor from whom all the Greeks
were thought to be descended.
We are very uncertain as to just what happened
in Greece before 776 b. c. At that time writing
begisin; but the Greeks had lived in their country
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GREECE
71
at least a thousand years before. All that we
know of this early period is found in the poems
of Homer and He'-si-od, who recited their poems
about one hundred years before the first records
were made.
A Wall Built by the Early Inhabitants of Greece.
Hesiod tells about the creation of the world
and the birth of the gods, and Homer tells of the
great deeds of the early heroes.
THE GODS OF GREECE
Hesiod tells us that first in order of time came
Cha'-os, or Confusion. Out of Chaos came Heaven
and Earth. The children of Heaven and Earth
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were the Titans, or giants, the Cy'-elops, and
the Cent-i-ma'-nes, or hundred-handed beings.
Cro'-nos, a Titan,
married Rhe'a.
Their children were
Hes'-ti-a, De-me'-
ter, He'-re, and
three sons, Ha'-des,
Po-sei'-don, and
Zeus. We are better
acquainted with
these deities under
their Latin names —
Ves'-ta, Ce'-res, Ju'-
no, Plu'-to, Nep'-
tune, and Ju'-pi-ter.
Jupiter and his
brothers engaged
in a war against
their father. A
desperate struggle,
lasting ten years,
followed, in which
all the gods, god-
desses, and Titans
took part. Jupiter
and his followers
occupied Mount O-lym'-pus, while Cronos and
his Titans stood on Mount Oth'-rys. Crags and
Ulysses Bending His Bow.
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GREECE
73
mountains were hurled back and forth. The noise
and thunder of the battle caused the distant ocean
to boil, and all nature was in confusion.
Finally, Jupiter, aided by his thunder and light-
Wars of the Gods and Titans.
ning, conquered. These terrible weapons were fiu^-
nished him by the Cyclops (round-eyed), whom he
had released from their gloomy prison, Tar'-tar-
us, under the earth, where Cronos had imprisoned
them. Cronos and his Titans were then thrust
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down there instead, to remain forever. Neptune
built a great wall of brass around them, and the
hundred-handed giants were placed on guard in
front of the entrance.
Jupiter had many wives. A-pol'-lo and Diana
were his children. Minerva, the goddess of wis-
dom, sprang full-grown from his brain. He mar-
ried Ma'-ia, the daughter of At-las, and their son
was Mer-cu-ry. His last and permanent wife was
Juno, and their children were Mars, the god of
war, and Vul-can, the divine mechanic who made
armor and weapons for the gods and heroes. Ve'-
nus, the goddess of love, sprang from the foam of
the sea near the island of Cyth'-e-ra.
Thus we have the twelve great gods and god-
desses who lived on Mount Olympus and ruled the
world. Besides these twelve there were many
other divinities of less importance, such as the
Muses, the Fates, the Graces, the Dry'-ads of the
woods, and the nymphs of the streams and foun-
tains. Then came the Har'-pies, the Gor'-gons,
the three-headed dog Cer'-be-rus, the Hy'-dra, the
Cen'-taurs, the Sphinx, the Winged-horse Peg'-a-
sus, and a hundred others. Death, Strife, Sleep,
Law, and similar objects, were often looked upon
as divine persons.
The deeds of the heroes are the first things we
read of in the story of Greece. For this reason we
call the early times " the heroic age." Every city
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GREECE 75
and village had its hero, whose deeds were told in
song and story. Some heroes became so famous
that their renown spread throughout Hellas. Such
were Ja'-son, Her'-cu-les, A-chil'-les, The'seus, and
Ulysses. Then there were great adventures in
Jupiter.
which many heroes took part. The most noted of
these were the Ar-go-nau'-tic Ex-pe-di-tion in
search of the golden fleece, The Trojan War, The
Seven against Thebes, and the Cal-y-do'-ni-an
Hunt. These stories were told over and over in
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old Greek poems. Ulysses, or Odysseus, is the hero
of the famous "Odyssey" of Homer.
After the return of the Greeks the Heroic Age
of Greece came to an end. Instead of myths we
find history. The Greeks had already received the
alphabet from the Phoenicians, and they began to
make a record of the leading events in each state.
LEAGUES^ ORACLES^ AND GAMES
In the days of the heroes it was believed that
the gods and goddesses came down to earth and
talked with men. But in later times it was thought
that they chose certain places where they spoke
through a priestess.
Such places were called " oracles," and the mes-
sage which the gods gave was also called an
" oracle."
The god Apollo was especially the one who re-
vealed the future. There were about twenty of
his oracles scattered through Greece, and a smaller
number of those of Jupiter.
When one wished to ask a question of an oracle,
a gift had to be made for the support of the temple.
The priestess would then listen to the question, and
after several days of fasting and ceremony she
would write the answer.
The oracle of Apollo at Del'-phi was the most
noted in all Greece. There a temple was built over
a cleft in the rock, through which a gas arose out
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GREECE 77
of the earth. The priestess sat on a stone over this
cleft and breathed the gas. It* was then that the
god was thought to tell her how to answer the
questioner.
The Greeks had the greatest respect for the
oracles. After a time there was much money-
stored in the temples, made up of the gifts which
had been brought by those who came to inquire of
the oracles.
As it was necessary to protect these treasiu^es,
the cities in the neighborhood of an oracle formed
unions to keep the oracle free and to protect the
temple. The most important of these unions was
that of Delphi. Men chosen from each state in
this league formed a council, and important ques-
tions were decided by them. Often they could stop
wars.
In case of a war they would not allow any town
in the union to be destroyed, or the running water
cut off. They built good roads leading to the tem-
ple, and protected all those who traveled thereon.
Thus the oracles and unions were a means of keep-
ing the cities friendly to one another, and of unit-
ing them against enemies.
Another important thing in Greek life was the
Sacred Games. The Greeks thought that the souls
of the dead were pleased by the same things that
they had enjoyed in life. So games were held,
such as boxing, leaping, running, and wrestling,
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near the tombs of their heroes. Af tej a tune these
games were held in the honor of the gods.
The most important of the Sacred Games were
those held at O-lym'-pi-a, every four years, in honor
of Jupiter. There was a splendid temple at Olym-
pia, and the statue within it, called the Olympian
Jupiter, was one of the wonders of the world.
The first games were held in 776 B.C.; the sec-
ond in 772 B.C. This period of four years was
called an O-lym'-pi-ad. The Greeks reckoned time
by Olympiads. They would tell you, for example,
that Co-roe'-bus won the foot-race in the first year
of the first Olympiad.
Greeks from every part of the world attended
the Sacred Games. During the games no war or
military expedition could be begun. The victors
in the sports received the highest honors and rich
rewards from their native cities. The reward
given in the field was a simple wreath of laurel, or
olive, twined about the head.
After a time it was the custom for poets and
historians to bring their best writings to read at the
games. A kind of fair was also held, where mer-
chants sold or exchanged their goods. All this
made the Greeks more friendly one to another, and
prevented many quarrels.
Besides those at Olympia, Sacred Games were
held at Delphi, in honor of Apollo; at Cor'-inth, in
honor of Nep'-tune; and at Ne-me'-a, in honor of
Jupiter.
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GREECE 79
ATHENS AND SPAETA, AND THEIE LAWGIVEES
After the return of the Greeks from the Trojan
War there was a great deal of confusion in Greece.
This was caused by many people changing their
homes.
There were four branches of the Greeks: the
Do'-ri-ans, I-o'-ni-ans, iE-o'-li-ans, and A-chae'-
ans. The Dorians moved south into the Pel-o-
pon-ne'-sus, or Mo-re'-a, as we now call it, and
drove out the Achaeans, who lived there. The
Achaeans in turn crowded out the iEolians to the
north.
The result of all this was that many Greeks
of all races crossed over to Asia and established
colonies along the shores of the Aegean Sea.
It took a long time for the country to become quiet
again. When the confusion was over, we find that
two cities had become more powerful than the rest —
Sparta, in southern Greece, and Athens, in central
Greece. These two cities established a kind of
leadership over the others, and afterwards became
rivals for the first place.
The noble families became jealous of the kings,
and drove them out. They then governed the cities
themselves. When a few people have control, we
call the government an ol'-i-gar-chy.
Next, we find the common people rising up
against the nobles. Some brave man would become
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their leader. They would then put down the
nobles. To do this, an army had to be raised. The
crafty leader would get control of the anny, and
after the nobles were driven out he would set him-
self up as chief ruler. Such a ruler the Greeks
called a ty'-rant. This meant one who ruled with-
out authority, but not a bad ruler, for a tyrant
might be a good man.
One of the most noted tyrants was Pi-sis'-tra-
tus of Athens. One day he came running into the
market-place with a number of wounds upon his
body, which he had made himself.
" See," he cried to the people, " how the nobles
have treated me, because I have been your friend! "
The people at once gave him a guard of fifty
men. He soon gathered a much larger force,
seized the A-crop'-o-lis, or hill, where there was a
strong fort, and made himself master of the city.
Pisistratus ruled Athens for thirty-three years.
He made the city beautiful with parks and fine
buildings. He gathered a large library and gave
it to the people, and collected and published for the
first time the poems of Homer.
Another tyrant who was a friend to educa-
tion was Per-i-an'-der of Corinth. The Greeks
thought so well of him that they counted him
among their seven wisest men.
The Greeks were too fond of liberty to submit
very long to the rule of the tyrants. They were
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GREECE . 81
soon put down, and free governments established.
Athens and other Ionian cities had dem-o-erat'-ic
governments — ^that is, the people ruled. Sparta
and the other Dorian cities were ruled by a few of
the nobles.
In times of strife and 'trouble it usually happens
that some wise man appears who makes good laws
or plans a new kind of government. Ma'-nu in
India, Me'-nes in Egypt, and Moses, the leader of
the Hebrews, were such lawgivers.
The lawgiver who planned the government of
Sparta was Ly-cur'-gus. Before undertaking his
great work in Sparta, he is said to have traveled
in India and Egypt, studying the laws of those
countries. He went to Crete to learn about the
laws of Mi'-nos, the first king and lawgiver of that
island. He then came home and made the laws
of Sparta.
When his work was done, he went to consult the
oracle at Delphi. He made the people promise to
obey all his laws until he should return. In answer
to his questions about the welfare of Sparta, the
oracle told him that his country would " prosper as
long as she should obey his laws."
Lycurgus sent this answer to his countrymen,
and then went far away into a strange coimtry, and
died an exile. No one knew what became of him,
but the Spartans always honored his memory with
temples and with festivals.
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In Sparta there were two kings, each to keep
watch of the other. Laws were made by an
assembly of all the men over thirty years of
age. There was at first a senate of twenty-eight
men to conduct the government, but later all the
power was given to fivfe men called eph'-ors, or
overseers.
The object of Lycurgus's laws was to make a
race of warriors. The Spartans trained the body
by athletic exercises. The boys practiced the use
of weapons until they became very expert. But
reading, writing, and oratory were despised.
They had martial music, for that gave the soldiers
coiu^age. The children were taken from their
parents at the age of seven and brought up by the
government. From that time imtil the age of
sixty they never retiu^ned to their homes, except for
a visit. All ate at the public tables. The food,
was of the simplest kind, but no complaints were
ever heard. An Athenian who once dined with
them said he saw why the Spartans were not afraid
of death. " For anyone,'' he said, " would prefer
death to living on such food as this."
The Spartans built no walls or defenses for
their city. A traveler once asked the Spartan king,
" Where are your walls? "
" These are our walls," the king replied as he
pointed to his soldiers.
Athens was just the opposite of Sparta. There
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GREECE 83
the body was trained, but only that the mmd might
be made better.
The people ruled in Athens, and there were no
kings. The last Athenian king was Co'-drus, who
gave his life for his country, in this way: The
Dorians had invaded the land, and the oracle said
that " if the king should die the country would be
safe." Codrus went out with only one companion,
and attacked the enemy. He was soon killed.
His successor was called simply ar'-chon, or
ruler, for the Athenians said that " no one was
worthy to be called king after Codrus."
After a time a strife arose between the nobles
and the people, and Dra'-co was appointed to pre-
pare new laws.
These laws were so severe that it was said they
were " written in blood, not ink." Draco said,
" The smallest offenses deserve death, and I know
Qf no severer punishment for the great ones."
The people soon murmured against Draco's
laws, and So'-lon, another of the " seven wise men,"
was chosen to make new laws. His laws were
noted for their mildness.
Under the laws of Draco a man could be sold
into slavery for debt. Solon did away with this.
He gave all power to the assembly of all the people,
in which every man had the right to speak. This
assembly selected the nine archons, and a senate of
four hundred.
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After the tyrants had been driven out, another
lawgiver, named Clis'-the-nes, arose. He divided
all the people of At'-ti-ca into ten tribes, and
increased the number of the senate to five
hundred.
Clisthenes also introduced the practice of os'-
tra-cism. This was a way of getting rid of a
troublesome man by exiling him for ten years. It
was so called from the word ostrdkoriy which means
a shell. If six thousand persons handed in a man's
name written on a shell, that, man had to leave the
country.
Under this good government Athens soon be-
came the strongest state in Greece. Such progress
did she make that the Spartans became jealous of
her, and tried to change her government and set up
one like their own.
But Sparta failed. Her armies were twice de-
feated, and Athens became stronger than ever.
GREECE AND PERSIA
When Darius was trying to subdue the revolt
of his Greek cities in Asia, the Athenians had sent
soldiers to help their countrymen. During this
revolt, Sardis, the old capital of Lydia, was taken
and burned by the Greeks. Darius was so angry
at their insolence that he had one of his servants
repeat to him every day the words " Master, re-
member the Athenians."
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GREECE 85
The time had now come, 500 B.C., when he was
to attempt to pmiish them.
His first attempt to invade Greece failed, on
account bf a terrible storm, which wrecked his fleet
and compelled the army to retreat. But ten years
later he came again, with one hundred and twenty
thousand men and six hundred ships. The Persian
army landed at Mar'-a-thon, a broad plain on the
coast of Attica, near Athens.
The Athenians had sent to several of the Greek
cities for aid, but only Pla-tae'-a responded, with a
thousand men. The Spartans were delayed on ac-
count of a religions festival, and came too late for
^ the battle.
Mil-ti'-a-des, the Athenian general^ drew up his
ten thousand men on the hills back of Marathon,
facing a Persian army ten times as large, arranged
near the seashore. Back of them, along the shore,
lay their ships.
Singing their war hymn, the long, thin line of
Greeks came nmning down the hill, and fiercely
attacked the Persians as they were crowded to-
gether in masses. The Persians were too aston-
ished and frightened to fight long, and throwing
away their spears, they ran to the ships.
The Greeks followed, but the Persians fought
desperately, and lost only ten ships.
The Greeks lost one hundred and ninety-two
men; but sixty-four hundred of the enemy lay dead
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OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
on the field. A swift herald was sent to Athens
with the news of the victory.
Before the battle was over, the flash of a bright
shield on the top of a hill near Athens, twenty miles
away, caught the eye of Miltiades. It was a signal
from some treacherous Greek to the Persian com-
manders to sail to Athens and destroy the city while
its defenders were away. But Miltiades imder-
Greek Wan-iors.
stood the signal, and he at once marched his army
toward Athens.
When the Persians came sailing to Athens the
next morning they saw the very men who had de-
feated them on the previous day. They had no
mind to try the mettle of such men any further;
they gave up the war and returned to Asia.
When Darius heard of the defeat at Marathon,
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GREECE 87
he at once began to gather men, ships, and supplies.
He would attack Greece with so large a force that
failure should be impossible.
While he was still making preparations he
died, and his son Xerx'-es came to the throne.
Xerxes continued the work of his father, and for
eight years all Asia was busy making ready to
destroy Greece. Men were gathered from every
part of the empire, from India to the African
deserts.
Storehouses along the line of march were filled
with grain. A great bridge of boats was built
across the Hellespont, so that the army might
march as if on dry ground. A canal was cut
around Mount Athos, the dangerous promontory
where his former fleet had been wrecked.
At last everything was ready. The 'fleet and
army met at Sardis. For seven days and nights
the Persian host streamed over the bridge. Xerx-
es's bodyguard, the "ten thousand immortals,"
in holiday dress, led the van. Behind them came
the king, drawn by eight milk-white horses, in the
chariot of the sun.
On the plain of Do-ris'-cus the vast host was
counted. A wall was built around ten thousand
men drawn up as closely together as they could
stand. This space was filled one hundred and
seventy times, making the number of the army
one million seven hundred thousand men.
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The fleet carried a half million more. Adding
to these numbers the servants and slaves who accom-
panied the army, it is probable that the whole host
numbered over five miUions of men.
The Greeks were kept informed of the doings
of the Persians, and they were preparing to meet
them. The two leaders at Athens were The-mis'-
to-cles and Ar-is-ti'-des. Both loved their coun-
try. Themistocles was the abler man, but Aristi-
des was so famed for honesty that he received the
surname The Just. Aristides wished to strengthen
the army, but Themistocles thought it better to
build up the fleet. The strife between them be-
came so violent that the city decided to ostracize
one of them. When the shells cast into the urn
were counted, it was found that there were six
thousand bearing the name of Aristides. He there-
fore went into exile.
A story is told of Aristides that he was once
stopped along the road by a rough countryman,
who asked him, not knowing who he was, to write
the name Aristides upon a shell. " And what harm
has Aristides done you, that you wish to banish
him? " he asked. " He has done me no harm,"
said the man; "I do not even know him, but I
am tired of hearing him called ' The Just.' "
Themistocles, left in power, made the Athenian
fleet the strongest in Greece. A congress of all
the Greek cities was held at Corinth the year before
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GREECE 89
Xerxes crossed the Hellespont. But some of them
had been bribed by the Persians; some were jealous
of Athens, some of Sparta, who was to have chief
command, and only fifteen united against the
enemy.
The road which Xerxes was following along
the coast of Greece is interrupted at one point by
a narrow pass called Ther-mop'-y-lae, or the Hot
Gates, from the hot springs that break out at the
foot of the cliffs. Here the Greeks had stationed
the Spartan king Le-on'-i-das, with three hundred
of his own men and six thousand allies from dif-
ferent states. The main body of the Greeks were
celebrating the Sacred Games.
Leonidas was expected to hold the pass till the
games were over, when reenforcements would be
sent. Xerxes waited a few days for the Greeks to
retreat, not dreaming that so small a nimiber would
dare to resist. But when the Spartan king Dem-
a-ra'-tus, who had been driven from his own coun-
try and had joined the Persians, told Xerxes that
the Spartans would surely fight, the king sent a
messenger to Leonidas ordering him to give up his
arms. The reply of the Spartan was, " Come and
take them!"
For two days the Persians stormed the pass.
The wall of their dead along the Spartan front
grew steadily larger. The " immortals " attacked
again and again, with no better success. Xerxes,
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from his throne on a high cliff overlooking the pass,
three times leaped up in anger and astonishment at
their failure.
At length a treacherous Greek pointed out to
Xerxes a mountain path by which he could gain
the rear of the Spartans. When Leonidas saw the
danger he allowed his allies to retreat. All but
seven hundred Thespians retired. The laws of
Sp^^rta forbade retreat or surrender, and the little
band, surrounded by the Persian host, fought and
died to the last man.
Above their graves in after years a marble shaft
was placed, with the following inscription:
Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That hei*e obedient to her laws we lie.
Athens now lay open to the invaders. The
oracle had said, " When everything else in Attica
is taken, you shall find shelter behind your wooden
walls." This was thought to mean the ships. So
the town was left, and the women and children sent
to a place of safety. The soldiers were all placed
upon the ships in the bay of Sal'-a-mis. Here,
too, were the fleets of other cities, nearly four hun-
dred ships in all.
They were attacked by a Persian force of seven
hundred and fifty ships. King Xerxes himself
witnessed the battle.
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GREECE 91
A king sat on the rocky brow
That looks o'er sea-born Salamis ;
And ships by thousands lay below,
And men in nations — ^all were his.
He counted them at break of day,
And when the sim set, where were they ?
Two hundred Persian ships were destroyed, and
the rest fled. The terrified Xerxes hastened back
to Asia before his bridge should be destroyed. He
left a fleet and an army under Mar-do'-ni-us to con-
tinue the war. But in the following year his army
was defeated at Plataea by the Spartan general
Pau-sa'-ni-as, and his fleet was destroyed at Myc'-
a-le, in Asia Minor, where it had been drawn up
on shore to escape the Greeks. The Persians never
invaded Greece again.
WARS AMONG THE GBEEK STATES
The close of the Persian War left Themistocles
the foremost man in Athens, and Athens the fore-
most city in Greece. The people speedily built up
their homes, which the Persians had burned. They
enlarged their city, and built a wall around it seven
miles in extent.
The Spartans sent messengers to persuade them
not to build the wall. " For," said they, " if the
Persians take your city again they may remain in
it, and it will be hard to drive them out."
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What the Spartans really feared was that Ath-
ens would become stronger than they. The Athe-
nians said they would send men to talk the matter
over with them. They sent Themistocles ahead,
but the other men were not to start till the walls
were built high enough to defy the Spartans, if
they should try to stop the work.
In the meantime Themistocles managed to keep
the Spartans quiet. When they would wait no
longer for his friends, he ordered them to send to
Athens to inquire the cause of the delay. Secretly
he sent word to detain the Spartan messengers in
Athens.
In this way time enough was gained to build
the wall so high that it could be defended. The
Athenians also built walls, four miles long and
sixty feet high, nmning from the town down to
the harbor. They increased their fleet by adding
to it twenty vessels each year. After a few years
they felt safe. If they should be attacked from
the land, the high walls would protect them; while
their strong fleet could supply them with food.
Aristides the Just had returned from exile in
time to fight the Persians at Salamis. He now
did another work which made Athens the strong-
est power in the world. He formed all the island
cities, and some of the cities in northern Greece,
into a great union called the Con-fed'-er-a-cy of
De'-los. This league was to defend Greece against
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GREECE 93
the Persians. All the cities were taxed to build up
a fleet, which Athens kept for herself.
Soon she became so powerful in her navy that
Ci'-mon, the son of Miltiades, was sent to drive the
Persians out of the Greek cities in Asia. He was
very successful, and the rich spoils that he brought
home were used to beautify the city. Public build-
ings were erected, and walks and parks were laid
out.
One of these parks, called the Academy, was
a favorite resort of the Athenians, and was noted as
the place where the wise men and philosophers, like
Soc'-ra-tes and Plato, met to talk with their pupilsv
Cimon's very generosity at last brought about
his disgrace and exile. A great earthquake had
destroyed a large part of the city of Sparta. In
the confusion, their slaves, called he'-lots, took up
arms against their masters. The Spartans were
not able to conquer the slaves, who were more in
nimiber than they, and called on Athens for help.
The advice of Per'-i-cles, the greatest man in
Athens next to Cimon, was not to send aid.
But Cimon said, " Athens and Sparta are the
two legs of Greece; do not let one of them be
lamed."
So the Athenians decided to return good for
evil, and sent Cimon with an army to help Sparta.
But when he arrived there the Spartans did not
trust him, fearing that he would take sides with the
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helots. They therefore sent him back to Athens.
This so angered the people that they drove Cimon
into exile, and Pericles became the chief statesman
in Athens.
Pericles made some changes in the government
which gave the people more power. He said that
the poorest man ought to take part in the govern-
ment as well as the richest. He therefore intro-
duced the method of filling the public offices by
lot, so that every citizen had an equal chance. Be-
fore his time all public officials had served without
pay, but to enable the poor man to take part in the
government, he introduced the system of paying
salaries to those who gave their time to the work
of the State. He also had allowances made to the
poorer citizens so that they might attend the per-
formances in the theater and the religious festivals.
Themistocles had been exiled for taking bribes,
but Pericles carried out his plan for strengthening
the navy. He built many ships and equipped them
in the best possible manner, for he saw that if the
Greeks were to be the strongest nation they must
rule the sea. Once he said to the people : " There
is no king or nation in the world which can at this
moment withstand the navy which you can put out
to sea."
It was Pericles who built the splendid temples
and gateways which you may still see crowning the
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GREECE 95
A-crop'-o-lis at Athens. He built the Par'-the-
non, the ruins of which still remain, and the splen-
did approaches to the Acropolis. He adorned the
streets and public places with statues of gods and
heroes. There were so many of them that it was
said " One met more statues than men in the streets
of Athens." Pericles encouraged artists and sculp-
tors to perform their best work. It was during his
time that the great sculptor Phid-i-as, who designed
the Parthenon, lived, and that the famous dramas
of Eu-rip'-i-des, Soph'-o-cles, and other poets, were
written and performed in the theaters of Athens.
Pericles was the most distinguished statesman
and political leader of Greece. Though rich and
of noble birth he was the friend and leader of the
people, and insisted that all were entitled to equal
rights and privileges in the states. One reason for
his great success was his power as a speaker. Some
of his public addresses are preserved and may be
read in the history of Greece written by Thu-cyd'-
i-des. The period of 28 years, from 459 to 481 B. c.
is called the " Age of Pericles ; " during this period
Athens had more famous men than the whole world
ever produced in the same length of time.
During the time of Pericles, all the Greek cities
were either joined to Sparta or Athens. These two
cities had never been very friendly, and soon a
great war arose between them which had the most
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Italy and Neighboring Countries.
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GREECE 97
terrible results for Athens, and weakened the whole
of Greece.
Athens had interfered with some Dorian col-
onies on the coast of Macedonia, and Sparta de-
clared war. When the Spartans invaded Attica
all the Athenians gathered behind their walls in
Athens. Here a terrible disease broke out, and
one-fourth of the fighting men died. Among them
was the great statesman Pericles. At his death he
said that he had so lived " that no Athenian need
ever put on mourning through act of his."
The leader in the later part of this war
was a brilliant young man named Al-ci-bi'-a-des.
Though he was reckless and wicked, he won the
love of the Athenian people, and could get them
to vote for any of his measures.
He persuaded the people to send out a large
army and fleet, with himself as commander, to
attack the Dorian city of Syr'-a-cuse, in Sicily.
" Then," he said, " we will conquer Africa and
unite all the armies with our own. With such a
force we can afterwards crush Sparta at one blow."
This seemed easy, but the forty thousand men who
sailed away from Athens to Sicily never returned.
They were defeated, and perished miserably.
Those that were not killed were sold as slaves.
Alcibiades was called home to answer to a charge
of destroying some statues of the gods in Athens;
but he deserted to Sparta, and advised them to send
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an army and their best general to Sicily. This was
done, and helped to destroy the Athenians.
The Athenians raised another fleet and army,
but they were finally defeated by the Spartan gen-
eral Ly-san'-der at iE-gos-pot'-a-mus, on the Hel-
lespont. The Athenians had lost sixty thousand
men and nearly all their ships. Sparta then com-
pelled them to pull down all their walls and forts
that defended the harbors, and allowed them
to keep only twelve ships of war.
For thirty years Sparta was the strongest na-
tion in Greece. Then the army of Thebes, com-
manded by E-pam-i-non'-das and Pe-lop'-i-das,
vanquished her in the battles of Leuc'-tra and Man-
ti-ne'-a.
For a few years Thebes held the first place.
Then a mighty power arose in Macedonia under
Philip, and in 888 B.C., by the battle of Chaer-o-
ne^'-a, he became the ruler of Greece.
For many years Philip had been planning to
get control of aff^airs in Greece, and now something
happened that gave him a chance to do it. The
Pho'-cians had robbed the temple of Apollo at
Delphi. When the other Greek cities found that
they were not strong enough to punish them, they
called on Philip for aid. This he gladly gave,
and was made a member of the union.
There was one man at Athens who saw that
Philip would soon attack them. This was the ora-
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GREECE
99
tor De-mos'-the-nes. He made twelve speeches to
the Athenians, urging them to fight Philip before
he should take
away their liber-
ties. But the peo-
ple had grown
careless and idle,
and did not heed
what he said. And
when at last the
Thebans and Athe-
nians did try to
drive Philip out,
he was too strong
for them.
Though Athens
had ceased to be
strong in war, she
became more than
ever the leader in
education, in phi-
losophy, in art and
science. It was
during the time
that Sparta ruled
that Soc'-ra-tes,
Demosthenes. .1 j. j. x?
the greatest of
Greek teachers and philosophers, lived in Athens.
His father was a sculptor, and Socrates had begun
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to learn the same art, when he was obliged to lay
down the chisel and take up spear and shield to
fight Sparta.
After the war he became a teacher. He had no
school, and charged nothing for instruction. His
pupils were those whom he met on the street or in
the shops and parks. He neglected his home, and
did not provide well for his children. It is no
wonder that his wife Xan-thip'-pe scolded him.
Once she threw a pitcher of water over him. " I
am not surprised," said Socrates, " that it has be-
gun to rain, for Xanthippe has been thundering
for a long time."
Socrates did not believe in the gods that the
Greeks worshiped, and the charge of impiety was
brought against him. He was also accused of mis-
leading the young men by his teaching. For these
things he was sentenced to drink poison. His last
days were spent in prison. His friends were
allowed to visit him, and his chief pupil, Plato, has
given us an account of his death.
One of his pupils asked, " In what way shall we
bury you, Socrates? "
"Just as you please," he replied; " if you can
catch me and I do not escape you. I cannot per-
suade Cri'-to," he said to the others, " that when I
have drunk the poison I shall no longer remain
with you, but shall depart to some happy state of
the blessed. You cannot bury Socrates, but you
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GREECE ' 101
may bury my body in any way agreeable to our
laws."
Soon after this he drank the poison that . the
jailer brought, and lay down. He soon felt him-
self growing cold, but death came so easily that he
said to Crito, " We owe a sacrifice to the god of
medicine; pay it, and do not neglect it."
" This was the end of our friend," says Plato,
" the best man of all his time, and the most just
and wise."
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Socrates's famous pupil Plato had a still more
famous pupil, Ar-is-tot'*-le, of the city of Sta-gi'-ra,
in Macedonia. He became the teacher of Alexan-
der, the son of Philip of Macedonia.
Aristotle was the greatest thinker and writer of
ancient times, and no man has ever lived since who
was wiser than he. For two thousand years his
books were studied by all those who wished to have
the best education.
His pupil, Alexander, liked much better to read
the poems of Homer than to listen to the instruc-
tion of Aristotle. He loved those books because
they told of war and heroes. When he saw his
father conquering one city after another, he cried
out, "Alas, there will be nothing left for me to do! "
He was fond of athletic sports, and was a fine horse-
man. He succeeded in training a war horse called
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Bu-ceph'-a-lus, that had been given to his father,
and which was so fierce that no man could be found
to ride him.
Alexander was twenty years old when he be-
came King of Macedonia. He soon found plenty
of work to do. The Greek cities and the wild
tribes on the north all revolted at once; and because
so yoimg a king had come to the throne, it seemed
a good time to get back their liberty. But in two
years he had crushed all his enemies.
The city of Thebes revolted the second time,
and Alexander appeared suddenly with an army
and leveled the city with the ground, leaving only
the house of the poet Pindar. He put six himdred
of the people to death and sold the rest as slaves.
It was the ambition of Alexander to conquer
the world. The Persian empire was still the chief
power in Asia, and it was this empire that he set
out to conquer in 884 B.C.
He crossed the Hellespont with thirty-five thou-
sand men. A third Darius was now ruling in Per-
sia. On the banks of the river Gra-ni'-cus he met
a Persian army and defeated it. With his own
hand Alexander slew two Persian nobles. He sent
three hundred suits of armor, gathered from the
battle field, as an offering to the goddess Mi-ner'-va
at Athens.
The chief means by which Philip and Alexander
won their battles was the phalanx. This was a body
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GREECE 103
of men sixteen deep and a thousand in line, making
sixteen thousand in all. They were armed with
pikes or spears so long that the spears of the first
five lines reached out in front of the phalanx.
This body moved in a mass, and nothing could with-
stand it on level ground. When the phalanx struck
the Persian army it plowed a road through it like
some great machine.
Alexander marched on toward Persia. Pass-
ing through the city of Gor'-di-um, he visited the
temple of Jupiter. Here he heard this story: A
peasant named Gordius was once chosen king of
that country. In gratitude he had placed his
wagon and the yoke for the oxen as an offering in
the temple. The yoke was fastened to the pole by
a rope tied in a very intricate knot. The oracle
had said that " whoever could untie the knot would
be the master of all Asia."
When the knot was shown to Alexander he
drew his sword and cut it. This was thought to be
the meaning of the oracle. From this story we
have received the expression " cutting the Gordian
knot," meaning a quick way out of a difficulty.
By the following year Darius had raised a force
of six himdred thousand men, and he advanced to
attack Alexander. The two armies met on the nar-
row plain of Is'-sus, near the Mediterranean Sea.
At the first attack of the Macedonian cavalry the
Persians broke and fled. A vast number of the
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fugitives were killed, and the tent of Darius, his
wife and children, and a large amount of money,
fell into the hands of the Greeks.
From Issus, Alexander marched southward into
Phoenicia and Palestine. The city of Tyre alone
held out against him, and refused to allow him
to enter. Tyre stood upon an island half a mile
from the mainland. As Alexander had no ships,
he built a solid road of timbers and earth through
the sea to the island. Even then he could not break
down the wall which surrounded the city. He then
went among the towns he had conquered and gath-
ered a fleet of two hundred ships. . He surrounded
Tyre and attacked it on all sides at once.
The Greeks at last broke through the walls and
took the city. Eight thousand men were killed,
and the rest of the people were sold as slaves. This
siege of Tyre took nine months, and is considered
to be the most difficult task that Alexander accom-
phshed.
The conqueror next marched to Egypt. The
Egyptians had been ruled harshly by Persia, and
were only too glad to change masters. Here Alex-
ander founded, at the western mouth of the Nile,
a city which has become the most important in
Egypt. He marked out the streets with his own
hand, and named it after himself, Alexandria.
But he also did a very foolish thing in Egypt. He
went to the temple of Jupiter in the desert, where
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GREECE 105
there was a noted oracle. He had the priests of
the temple say that he was not the son of Philip,
but the son of the god Jupiter, and that he was
destined to conquer the world.
After leaving Egypt Alexander again set out
in pursuit of Darius, who was raising an army to
meet him. The final battle took place at Ar-be'-la,
where the Persians were so badly defeated and scat-
tered that they could not be united. The different
nations composing their great army went to their
homes, and Darius fled away with only a small
bodyguard.
He was afterwards' killed in Bactria by his own
nobles, who hoped by putting an end to the king to
stop the pursuit of Alexander. The Greeks then
took possession of the chief cities of Asia. Susa,
Babylon, and Per-sep'-o-Us, with immense treas-
ures, fell into their hands.
In Bactria Alexander met a beautiful princess,
Roxana, and was so charmed with her that he made
her his queen. He next crossed the Hindu Kush
Moimtains into India. Along the upper waters
of the Indus River he found and conquered a rich
country ruled by a king named Porus.
Alexander soon afterwards returned to Baby-
lon, which he intended to make the capital of his
vast empire. Here he was taken sick with a fever,
of which he died at the age of thirty-two years.
His empire was divided among his generals.
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Ptor-e-my received Egypt and the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea; Cas-san'-der took Macedonia;
Ly-sim'-a-chus, Asia Minor and Thrace; while to
Se-leu'-cus fell the greater part of Asia. Only the
kingdom of Ptolemy lasted very long, and all of
them fell, one after another, into the hands of the
Romans.
The wars of Alexander had spread the Greek
language and learning throughout Asia. It made
the two continents that had been so long at war bet-
ter acquainted, and henceforth they Uved in peace.
But a nation in the West, the Romans, had
grown powerful, and began to move eastward, as
Alexander had done, conquering all nations and
making them a part of their own empire.
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XI. ROME
The story of Rome, like that of Athens, is the
story of a single city. This city grew so strong
that it conquered country after country, until, like
Alexander, it ruled the known world.
The founding of Rome was a matter of little
importance at the time, for no one could then have
foreseen the destiny in store for the "Eternal City,"
as it is now called, after more than twenty-six and
a half centuries. We have only legendary stories
of the early life of the city. These have been told
in the writings of poets and historians until they
are known over all the world, being written in books
of all languages.
The stories of early Rome, however much they
may have been exaggerated in retelling, for many
generations before they were first written, are in-
teresting as showing the old Roman love for truth,
heroism, and virtue in all its forms; for they deal
chiefly with men and women of high character and
noble lives, according to the standard of those rude
times.
EARLY KINGS
The Roman historian Livy tells, us that after
Troy was burned by the Greeks, a Trojan prince,
Ae-ne'-as, escaped with the remnant of his people,
to Italy.
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There they were kindly received by King La-ti'-
nus, who gave Aeneas his daughter La-vin'-i-a in
marriage.
The Trojans built first the city of La-vin'-i-um,
and afterward, Alba Longa, where their kings ruled
for many years.
The last of the Trojan kings was Sil'-vi-us
Pro'-cas, who had two sons, Nu'-mi-tor and A-mu'-
li-us. Amulius, the yoimger, seized the crown, which
rightfully belonged to Numitor.
But Numitor had a son and daughter who
might make trouble for the unlawful king. The
son he put to death, and the daughter, whose name
was Rhea Silvia, he compelled to become a Vestal
virgin. The Vestal virgins were girls chosen to
take care of the temple of the goddess Vesta and to
keep the sacred fire burning;. They took a vow
not to marry, and were buried alive if they did.
But Silvia fell in love with Mars, the god of war,
who came to her as a handsome young man and
married her. By and by she had twin sons, Rom'-
u-lus and Re'-mus.
When Amulius heard of this he seized her and
put her to death, according to the custom. He put
the two babies in a basket and threw it into the river
Tiber. The basket washed ashore, and the two
children were found by a mother wolf, who took
care of them as if they were her own cubs. A
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ROME 109
woodpecker also, according to the Roman story,
brought them food. At length a good shepherd,
Faus'-tu-lus, found the twins, took them to his
house, and brought them up as his own children.
EOMULUS AND EEMUS
When Romulus and Remus found out that
they were the sons of Rhea Silvia, and how Amu-
lius had murdered their mother, they attacked and
slew him in his palace, and made their old grand-
father, Nimiitor, king.
After a time Romulus and Remus were led by
signs to found a city of their own on the bank of
the river where their lives had been so wonder-
fully saved. So they went away from Alba Longa
with their friends and followers, and laid out a
new city.
But a quarrel arose between the two brothers
about a name for it, each claiming the honor, and
Romulus, by accident, killed his brother. And so
Romulus became the founder and king of the new
city, and named it Rome. This was in the year
753 B.C. The Romans made a wall about the city
to protect their homes.
There were several hills in Rome, and on one
of these, the Palatine Hill, Romulus built a fort to
guard the city. Around this fort were built the
first houses. In after years the city was made
larger, and included seven hills within the walls.
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After a time, another people called Sabines,
joined the Romans and then the Lu'-ce-res came
from Etruria, north of "the Tiber.
The Roman people were now made up of three
tribes; the Ram'-nes, or Romans of Romulus; the
Ti'-ti-es, or Sabines, and the Luceres. These three
tribes were the nobles, or pa-tri'-cians. But there
was another class of people, called ple-be'-ians.
They were the workmen, mechanics, and servants
of the patricians. None of them had anything to
do with the government, and they could not fight
in the army.
From the patricians Romulus chose two hun-
dred men called senators, or old men. There was
also an assembly made of the heads of families, or
men capable of bearing arms. This was called the
Co-mi'-tia Cu-ri-a'-ta.
The Senate made laws and carried on the gov-
ernment, but they always had to have the consent
of the assembly of fighting men. In case of war
each tribe sent one thousand men on foot and one
hundred horsemen. The assembled army of thirty-
three hundred men was called the Legion.
After making this form of government for his
people, Romulus suddenly disappeared. A story
tells us that he was carried off to heaven by his
father. Mars, in the midst of a thunderstorm.
There he became one of the gods and was worshiped
under the name Qui-ri'-nus. The Roman people
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ROME 111
were often called Qui-ri'-tes, or Men of the Spear.
The next king was Nu'-ma Pom-pir-i-us, a Sa-
bine. He told the Romans just how and when they
should worship the gods.
He appointed four pon'-tiffs, or priests, and a
chief priest called Pon'-ti-fex Max'-i-mus. These
priests had charge of the worship of all the gods,
and settled all cases of dispute. Then there was
a priest of Jupiter, one to Quirinus, and four Vestal
virgins.
Numa appointed also four men, called au'-gurs,
whose business it was to find out the will of the
gods. This was done in various ways, such as
watching the flight of birds, and by inspecting the
entrails of the animals sacrificed. Numa is said
also to have divided the year into twelve months,
and to have appointed certain days as holidays,
when no business might be done.
tul'-lus hos-til'-i-us
Soon after the death of the good King Numa
the assembly chose Tullus Hostilius as his successor.
The chief event in the reign of Tullus was a war
with the old city of Alba, in which the Albans were
defeated.
They were forced to come to Rome to live, and
they added to the numbers and strength of the city.
Tullus also built a house in front of the Palatine
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Hill, where for centuries the Senate held its meet-
ings.
an'-cus mar'-ti-us
The next king was Ancus Martins, a Sabine.
He built the first prison in Rome and the first
bridge over the Tiber. He also appointed a num-
ber of men called heralds, whose duty it was to
conduct public business with foreign nations. They
declared war by going to the hostile country and
hurling a spear over the boundary.
tar'-quin
Before the time of Tarquin, the next king, all
the power at Rome was in the hands of the two
older tribes, the Ramnes and the Tities. But Tar-
quin added one hundred new senators from the
Etruscan tribe, the Luceres. He also wanted to
make three new tribes from the common people, or
plebeians, many of whom had become rich, and
Tarquin saw that they would soon demand a share
in the government.
Tarquin is best known for his great public
works. He planned the fo'-rum, or public meet-
ing place, and built shops along two sides of it.
Between the Palatine and Av'-en-tine hills he laid
out the Circus Maximus, a great race course for
the celebration of the Roman games.
His greatest work was the Clo-a'-ca Maxima, or
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ROME 113
great sewer, which led off the stagnant waters that
gathered in some low, swampy ground within the
city. So well was this sewer built that it is still
used in Rome. It is so large that a boat can sail
through it, and the joining of the arched stones
is so exact that a knife cannot be thrust between
them.
After reigning thirty-eight years Tarquin was
murdered by two countrymen, who were urged on
by the sons of Ancus Martins. They planned to
seize the throne, but they were outwitted by Tana-
quil, the wife of Tarquin, who caused Servius Tul-
lius, an Etruscan, to put on the royal robe and
declare himself king.
Though he was not lawfully chosen, Servius
proved to be the wisest and best of all the Roman
kings.
ser'-vi-us tul'-li-us
Servius carried out the plans of Tarquin to give
all the people a share in the government. He
divided the whole people into five great classes, ac-
cording to their property.
Each class was divided into companies, called
centuries. There were in all one hundred and
ninety-three centuries.
When all the centuries met in the Field of Mars
to attend to public business, they were called the
Co-mi'-ti-a Cen-tu-ri-a'-ta, or the meeting of the
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centuries. This assembly gradually took the place
of the older Comitia Curiata, which was made up
of patricians only.
The greater number of the plebeians lived on
farms outside the city. Servius divided the land
into twenty districts; afterwards thirty-five. The
men from these districts, which were called tribes,
met together to attend to business which concerned
the plebeians alone. This assembly was called the
Comitia Tri-bu'-ta, or meeting of the tribes.
TARQUIN THE PROUD
Tarquin the Proud was the last and worst of
the seven Roman kings. He showed so much favor
to his Etruscan friends that the Romans hated
him.
Though he was an able ruler, and did much to
improve the city, he was looked upon as a foreigner
and a despot. A crime of almost incredible base-
ness, committed by a prince of his family, named
Sextus, against a noble Roman household, led to
the overthrow of the monarchy ; and the very name
of king {reoo in Latin) became so odious that it was
not assumed even by the great Roman emperors of
a later date.
A very singular story of Tarquin the Proud
tells how the Romans came to possess their sacred
books.
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ROME 115
While he was building a temple to Jupiter, a
mysterious woman came to him and offered to seD
him nine books at a huge price. He refused to buy,
and the woman went away and destroyed three of
the books. She then came again, and offered him
the remaining six at the same price. Tarquin
again refused. The woman then destroyed three
more books, and then came again, offering the three
that were left at the original price.
By this time Tarquin was curious as to what
the books contained, and he asked the augur about
them.
The augur said that the woman was a prophet-
ess, or sibyl, and that the books contained prophe-
cies about Rome. The king bought the three
books, and put two men in charge of them. The
books were kept in a stone chest in a cellar under
the temple, and were always consulted when any
danger threatened the city. They were called the
Sib'-yl-line Books.
This temple had been begun by the elder Tar-
quin. His workmen, in digging the foundation,
had come across a human head. This the augur
said was a sign that Rome would become the capi-
tal, or head city, of the world.
After this that part of Rome where the temple
stood was called the Cap'-i-to-line Hill, and the
temple was the Capitol, or meeting place, of the
Senate.
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A few years later, on account of his wicked
deeds, the people voted to banish Tarquin and to do
away with the office of king.
Then the assembly of the centuries elected two
men, called consuls, to carry on the government.
Junius Brutus, the First Consul.
Brutus and CoUatiiius were chosen as the first
consuls; but CoUatinus himself being of the Tar-
quin family, resigned, and Publius Va-le'-ri-us was
chosen in his place.
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ROME 117
Tarquin prevailed on the Etruscan people to
bring war on the Romans. In the battle that fol-
lowed, Brutus and Aruns, the king's son, met.
Both were on horseback, and with leveled spears
they rode straight at each other. Both fell dead,
pierced through their breasts. The Etruscans fled
soon after.
Tarquin next obtained the help of Lars Por'-
se-na, the King of Clusiimi. They came to Rome
so suddenly with an army that the Romans had no
time to muster their soldiers. Valerius decided to
destroy the bridge, as the only way of keeping the
enemy out of the city. But the foe had to be held
back while workmen with axes and levers cut down
the bridge. Horatius Co'-cles was the first to vol-
unteer. Nearly everybody at some time of life hears
the story of "Horatius at the Bridge." This is told
in stirring verse in one of Lord Macaulay's "Lays
of Ancient Rome," much as it was told, probably,
in old Latin songs of the people. Perhaps the Ro-
man writers, when they first wrote the history of
their great city, gathered much of the earlier nar-
ratives from old, unwritten songs.
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I with two more to help me
Will hold the foe in play.
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In yon straight path a thousand
May well be stopped by three ;
Now who will stand on either hand
And hold the bridge with me?
Spu'-ri-us Lar'-tius and Ti'-tus Her-min'-i-us
ran to him quickly, and the three crossed to the
Etruscan end of the bridge.
Could three men keep back an army? Yes;
the roadway was so narrow that only three men
could walk abreast on it. Three Etruscans ad-
vanced to give battle, but the Romans killed them
all. In the meantime the bridge began to crack
and tremble. Horatius sent his two companions
back, while he remained alone.
As the bridge fell he leaped into the river with
all his armor on and swam safely to the other side.
With shouts of joy they drew him from the water.
The Senate voted him as much land as he could
plow around in a day, and his statue was placed in
a public square, with the story of his heroic deed
engraved upon it.
The Romans tried in various ways to kill Tar-
quin. Once a noble youth named Ca'-ius Mu'-cius
went to his camp to stab him. It happened that
the king's secretary was paying out money to the
soldiers. Mucins, thinking that this was the king,
struck him dead.
The Roman was at once seized and dragged be-
fore Tarquin, who ordered him to confess the plot
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ROME 119
or be burned to death. Mueius stretched out his
right hand and held it in an altar-fire that was burn-
ing in the room until it was nearly burned off.
" Do you think," he said, " that all your tortures
can make a brave man tell his secret? "
The king was astonished at his courage and set
him free. Then Mucins said:
" There are three hundred young Romans who
have sworn to kill you. My lot came first, and I
have failed ; but some one will succeed."
In the next battle the Romans were badly de-
feated, but at the battle of Lake Regillus they
were successful. After this the Latin and Etrus-
can cities refused to help Tarquin. His sons were
all dead, and he was old, so he went to a Greek
city in the south of Italy, where he died. Ever
after his time the Romans hated the very name of
king.
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS
The many wars against Tarquin.had been very
hard on the poorer plebeians, who had to do the
fighting and to pay the larger amount of the tax.
Their farms were plundered, and they had to bor-
row money of the rich patricians to buy tools and
cattle, and to pay the tax.
When the plebeians could not pay their debts,
the patricians could beat them, sell them as slaves,
and even put them to death. The only one who
could protect them was the consul; but as the con-
suls were always patricians, there was no help or
mercy from them.
One day an old man, a plebeian, dressed in rags,
screaming and calling for help, rushed into the
market-place. To the crowd that gathered around
him he said:
" I was born free ; I served my full time in the
army in my youth, fought in twenty-eight battles,
and have often received testimonials of bravery in
the wars. But in the troublous times which came
upon the city I was obliged to get into debt to pay
taxes that were levied upon me, because my farm
was laid waste and my property destroyed. Then,
when I could not pay my debts, I was seized as a
slave by my creditors, with my two sons. Mymas-
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 121
ter laid hard tasks upon me, and when I refused
to do them I was beaten with many stripes."
And then the poor old plebeian showed his
breast seamed with the scars of battle, and his back
covered with blood.
Once, when the VoF-scians invaded Rome, the
plebeians refused to fight until the patricians
agreed not to put them in prison for debt any
more. But when the war was over everything was
as bad as before. Then the plebeians marched
in a body out of the city to a hill a short distance
from Rome, and resolved to- build a new city for
themselves.
The patricians could not have their best soldiers
leave when there were so many enemies about, so
they allowed two men to be chosen, to be called
tribunes, who should have the power to forbid
any law or any decision of a judge that was cruel
or unjust to the plebeians.
This satisfied the plebeians, and they returned
to Rome.
Another just cause for complaint on the part
of the plebeians was that there were no written
laws. No one but the patricians knew what the
laws were. When a poor plebeian was brought be-
fore a patrician judge, you may imagine that the
patrician would generally find that the law was not
on the side of the plebeian.
At last it was decided to have the laws written.
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Two men were sent to Athens to study the good
laws made by Solon and Clisthenes. When they
returned, ten more men were appointed, and these
twelve wrote out the laws.
These laws were engraved on brass plates and
set up in the forum, or market-place, where every
Roman could see them. Every schoolboy was
obliged to commit them to memory. These laws
were the source of all futiu-e laws. They were like
our Con-sti-tu'-tion. There are traces of them
today in all the countries of Europe and America.
Just as Greece gave us the best poetry and art,
Rome gave us the best laws.
THE WARS IN ITALY
In the early days of Rome, Italy was occupied
by many different races and tribes. Just north of
the Tiber were the Etruscans, who, after the kings
were driven from Rome, became enemies of that
city. On the east were the Ae'-qui-ans and Sam'-
nites, and on the south were the Volscians and
Her-ni'-cians.
In the far north, in the valley of the river Po,
lived the Gauls, a wild and savage race. With all
of these nations Rome fought long and bitter wars.
In the end she conquered all of them, and ruled
over the entire peninsula from the Alps to the
Mediterranean Sea.
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 123
THE PUNIC WAES
On the northern shore of Africa lay the city of
Carthage. It has already been mentioned as a
colony of Tyre. It was a great and flourishing
city. It had a population of seven hundred thou-
sand, and commerce had niade it the richest city
in the world. For many years there had been war
between Carthage and the Greek city of Syracuse
in Sicily. Rome then took part in this war. As
Carthage had a strong navy it was necessary to
build ships to fight it.
Up to that time the Romans had fought all
their wars on land and had not needed ships. They
took as a model a Carthaginian vessel that had been
wrecked on their coast, and soon they had a fleet
of one hundred and twenty ships. These ships
were propelled by oars. The rowers sat on long
benches, one above the other. The war vessels had
five banks of oars, and could be moved very fast.
There was a sharp beak in the prow of each ship,
and the mode of fighting was to strike the hostile
ship with this beak and sink it.
In the first battle the Romans lost. Then Du-
il'-i-us, the admiral, had a long bridge made to
board the enemy. This bridge was fastened at
one end to the deck of the vessel. The other end
had a long iron spike on its under side, and was
held up by ropes passing through the mast.
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When a Roman ship came alongside the enemy
it let fall the boarding-bridge. The spike held it
to the deck of the enemy. Then the soldiers rushed
over the bridge, and a hand-to-hand fight took place
in which the Romans easily conquered.
For twenty-three years the war went on. At
last the Romans won a great victory near the coast
of Sicily, and Carthage was forced to make pieace.
Roman Ship in Battle.
She gave Rome all her possessions in Sicily, and
paid a large amount of money in addition.
There were three wars with Carthage. We
call them the Punic wars, because the Latin name
for Carthaginian was Pu'-ni-cus, a word which
means the same as Phoenician. You will remem-
ber that the people of Tyre who settled at Carthage
were Phoenicians.
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 125
The great general of Carthage in the second
Punic war was Han'-ni-bal. He was one of the
four generals of the world who are thought to
be the greatest: Caesar, Napoleon, Hannibal, and
Alexander. His father, Hamilcar, had built up a
strong empire in Spain. From that country they
meant to attack Italy.
To traverse Spain, to cross the Pyrenees Moun-
tains, then to go eastward and climb over the Alps,
and thus to enter Italy at the north end and ad-
vance southward to Rome, was a plan astonishing
in its boldness, and is one of the wonders of history.
In 219 B. c. Hannibal led an army across the
Alps into northern Italy. There he was joined by
the Gauls, who hated Rome. The Roman general
Scip'-i-o had gone to Spain to attack Hannibal, and
he was astonished to learn that the Carthaginian
was on the march for Italy.
HannibaFs first victory at the river Tre'-bi-a
showed his skill as a general. He sent his cavalry
across the river to attack the Romans. After a
short fight they pretended to run. The Roman
general ordered his army to pursue. The Romans
waded through the icy water and followed the re-
treating enemy. In a few moments they found
themselves surrounded. Hannibal had concealed
his men until the Romans were in the trap, then
he attacked them and killed them all.
At Lake Tras-i-me'-nus Hannibal beat the
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Romans again. At the battle of Cannse, the
bloodiest of all, the Romans lost forty thousand
men.
Before the battle Hannibal and his officers rode
to the top of a hill to see the field. One general,
named Gisgo, said " The numbers of the Romans
are wonderful."
" Yes," said Hannibal; " but there is one thing
about them more wonderful than their nvraibers:
in all that host there is not one man by the name
of Gisgo." He meant that one man may be worth
more than an army.
It is said that after the battle Hannibal gath-
ered up a bushel of gold rings from the bodies of
the dead patricians. He sent them to Carthage
as a sign of his great victory.
Fabius was then the general chosen by Rome
to oppose Hannibal. He received the name Cunc-
ta'-tor, or Delayer, because he would not risk a
battle, but tried to wear out his enemy by continual
marching and by cutting off food and supplies.
Soon Hannibal's army became so thinned by
disease and famine that he sent to Spain for more
men.
He had left his brother Has'-dru-bal to com-
mand in Spain. The two Roman brothers, Pub-
lius and Gnae-us Scip'-i-o, had been sent against
him; the latter fell in battle. The younger,
Publius Scipio, then succeeded to the command and
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THE BOMAN REPUBLIC 127
soon drove Hasdrubal out of Spain. Hasdrubal
passed through Gaul, now called France, and
into Italy to the aid of his brother. But he was
met by Claudius Nero, and his whole army was
destroyed.
One night a bloody head was thrown into Han-
nibal's camp, in southern Italy. It was that of
Hasdrubal, his brother.
The Romans then sent Scipio into Africa with
an army, and Hannibal had to fallow him to de-
fend Carthage. At Za'-ma he was defeated by the
good generalship of Scipio. The second Punic
war then came to an end. Spain was given to
Rome, and Carthage was allowed to keep only
twenty ships of war, and had to pay Rome $250,-
000 every year for fifty years. Scipio received
the surname Af-ri-ca'-nus, on account of his victory
in Africa.
Hannibal remained in Carthage and managed
affairs so well that the city became strong again.
Rome demanded that he be given up to them as a
prisoner, but Hannibal fled from his native land
to the court of An-ti'-o-chus, King of Syria, the
successor of Se-leu'-cus, the general of Alexander.
He became the adviser of Antiochus in his war
against Rome, for the Romans made war on him
for sheltering Hannibal. They defeated him at
the battle of Mag-ne'-sia, and made him give up a
large part of his empire.
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Hannibal escaped, but at last he took poison to
avoid being sent to Rome.
Macedonia and Greece were also conquered
about this time, and added to the empire of Rome.
One man who became famous in these Eastern
wars was Marcus Porcius Cato. He held the office
of censor at Rome. It was his duty to appoint the
senators, to keep a list of all the citizens and of their
property, and to oversee the customs and morals of
the people. If a senator did not behave well, Cato
expelled him from the senate; and he put a tax on
all those who wore jewels and had fine things. He
said that the Romans spent too much money and
lived too finely.
Once Cato was sent on public business to Car-
thage. He saw how rich and prosperous the city
had grown, and feared that it might again become
the rival of Rome. He advised his countrymen to
destroy the city. Every speech he made in the
senate after that closed with the words, " Carthage
must be destroyed."
Rome soon picked a quarrel with Carthage.
The poor Carthaginians tried to avoid war. They
gave up to Rome all their weapons and implements
of war, and surrendered three himdred yoimg men
as hostages. But when the Roman general Scipio
told them that their city by the sea must be pulled
down, and that they must go inland to live, they
became furious with despair. They set to work to
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 129
make new arms and defenses. The women cut off
their long hair to make bow-strings and gave up
their jewels and other ornaments to aid in buying
new weapons.
The Women of Carthage.
When the Roman army came Carthage was de-
fended. Scipio blocked up the harbor and besieged
it on every side. At last the Romans broke
through the defenses and took the city. It was
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burned to the ground and never rebuilt. Some of
the ruins may still be seen.
Then Rome became the ruler of nearly all lands
bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Only Egypt,
Syria, and some small states and barbarous tribes
remained to be conquered.
LAND TROUBLES AND THE CIVIL WAKS
In the early days of the Republic the people of
Italy were mostly farmers, who worked their own
land. But after the wars with Hannibal and the
conquest of foreign countries, the small farmers
disappeared, and the land was held in large estates
by rich nobles. They cultivated it with slaves
brought to Rome from conquered countries and
the free laborers were crowded out, many becom-
ing idle.
Two parties had grown up in Rome: one called
the popular party, which favored the common peo-
ple; another called the aristocratic party, which
favored the nobles and the rich.
In order to get the votes of the idle crowd, it
became the custom to make them gifts of food and
money. After a time they began to depend on the
government to support them without work.
The first attempts to cure this bad state of af-
fairs were made by Tiberius and Caius Grac-chus,
who are usually called the Gracchi.
Tiberius was chosen tribune, and had a law
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 131
passed by which the public lands, which were un-
lawfully held by rich nobles, were given to the poor.
Farms of fifteen acres each were given to eighty
thousand Romans.
This was a good law, because it gave the idle
men at the capital a chance to work for their own
living. But the nobles were so angry at Tiberius
that a party of them set upon him in the street and
beat him to death.
Ten years later Caius Gracchus took up his
brother's office and work. He tried to take away
the power of the Senate by putting in new mem-
bers from the Knights, the second order of Roman
citizens. But he, too, was killed by a mob led by
the consul himself.
This struggle between the two political parties
continued until the old Roman republic broke
down, and a new empire ruled by one man was set
up by Augustus Caesar.
The next popular leader was Caius Marius,
who was soon elected consul. A host of savages,
called Cimbri and Teutones, were then threatening
to invade Italy. Finally they did come, and Marius
led his army against them.
In three great battles he slew so many of them,
that in after years the farmers made fences with
their bones.
When Marius returned to Rome a new war had
broken out in Italy.
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The cities outside of Rome were called the
Allies. Their people did not have the same rights
as the people in Rome. They could not vote or
hold office, and they began a war to have them-
selves made Roman citizens. They were defeated,
but only after they had obtained what they
asked for.
In this war, called the Social War, a young
patrician officer named Sulla won great success.
He became the rival of Marius, and the wars of
these two men for the next ten years took away
the lives of thousands of innocent people.
POM -PEY
The next great name in Roman history is
Gnae'us Pompey, who received the surname Mag-
nus, or The Great. He was sent to Spain to sub-
due Ser-to'-ri-us, the last great friend of Marius.
He succeeded, but only after Sertorius had been
assassinated by his own officer.
While Pompey was in Spain a dangerous up-
rising of the gladiators, under the lead of Spar'-ta-
cus, took place in Rome. The gladiators were men
who were trained to fight in the circus for the
amusement of the people.
Spartacus gathered his men near Mount Ve-
suvius. So many discontented people, runaway
slaves, and pirates joined him that he soon had an
army of one hundred thousand men.
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For two years they defied the Roman armies.
Marcus Crassus, a rich senator, took command, and
succeeded in scattering them. Pompey and Cras-
sus were the most popular men at Rome, and were
chosen consuls.
Pompey then began his war against the pirates
in the eastern Mediterranean, and in a few months
cleared the sea of them. He also finished the third
war against Mithradates, and added Syria to the
empire. He captured Jerusalem and stood within
the Jewish temple. He looked about, and was
astonished that there was not a single image of
a god.
In the year 68 b.c. Marcus TuUius Cicero be-
came consul. He loved the freedom of the repub-
lic, and many a time helped to save it from its
enemies.
Cicero was the most famous orator of Rome.
He was also the most polished and graceful writer.
His speeches are read yet in every school where
Latin is taught.
During his consulship a dissolute young noble,
Catiline, gathered an army of discontented and
vicious men. He intended to bum Rome and
seize the government; but Cicero discovered the
plot, and the leaders were seized and put to death.
Catiline escaped to his army outside the city, but
was defeated and killed.
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 135
CJBSAR
A new man had arisen in Rome. This was
Caius Julius Caesar. He had held several offices;
he had been pontifex maximus, had been a judge,
and a governor of Spain. On his return to Italy
he joined Crassus and Pompey to form the first
tri-um'-vi-rate, or three-man government.
There had always been two consuls, but now
there were to be three. When a consul's year of
office was up, he was usually sent out to govern a
province; he was then called "proconsul." Such
an office was very profitable. The governor had
to pay a certain amount of tax to the public treas-
ury; but all he could get out of his province above
that sum was his own. So it was easy for a pro-
consul to become rich.
Caesar received the province of Gaul to govern
for five years. When he received it only the south-
em part was under the power of Rome; but dur-
ing the next four years Caesar subdued the whole
country from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Eng-
lish Channel and the Rhine. He twice invaded
Britain to punish that people for assisting the Gauls
against him. He drove back the German tribes
who had crossed the Rhine into Gaul. He sub-
dued a rebellion of all the Gallic tribes under Ver-
cin-get'-o-rix. Caesar made this chief a prisoner,
and exhibited him in his triumphal procession at
Rome.
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Caesar remained eight years in Gaul. He had
made it into an orderly, well-governed province.
The people soon learned the Latin language, as
that was used in trade and in the schools which were
established. There were sixty tribes, each with its
Julius Caesar.
own language, but soon there was only one. To-
day Gaul is called France, but the French language
is in many ways like the Latin, the language of
Caesar.
During Caesar's wars Crassus died, but Pom-
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 137
pey continued to rule Italy. He was jealous of
Caesar, and when the Senate ordered both of them
to give up their commands, Pompey refused.
Caesar did not think his life safe if he yielded
to Pompey. He had his army drawn up on the
banks of the river Rubicon, that separated his prov-
ince from Italy. When he foimd that Pompey
was determined to remain unlawfully in office, he
exclaimed, " The die is cast! " and led his army into
Italy. Pompey fled into Greece. Caesar soon sub-
dued Italy. He then led his army against Pom-
pey, and defeated him at Phar'-sa-lus. Pompey
fled to Egypt, where he was murdered. A last
battle was won by Caesar at Thap'-sa-cus, in Africa.
Cato fell upon his sword at Utica, and the Roman
republic died with him, for Julius Caesar was then
the ruler of the world.
But many Romans were jealous of Caesar.
Some loved the old republic, and when it was hinted
that Caesar desired to be made king, the old hatred
of the name of king rose up.
Caius Cassius had been refused an office by
Caesar. He gathered a number of men about him,
and they resolved to kill the tyrant, as they called
Caesar. Marcus Brutus and Decimus Brutus were
among the conspirators. Mark Antony was a firm
friend of Caesar, and some of the plotters wanted
to kill both at the same time; but Brutus objected
to this.
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One day the Senate met in a theater built by
Pompey in the Field of Mars. While one of the
conspirators presented a paper for Caesar to read,
Casca, from behind, struck him in the neck with
his dagger. Then the others stabbed him, and.
Mark Antony at Caesar's Funeral.
pierced with twenty-three wounds, Caesar fell dead
at the foot of Pompey's statue.
A public funeral was held for Caesar, and An-
tony read his will, which gave all his wealth to the
people, "This,'' said Antony, "was a Caesar,
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THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 139
When comes there such another?" The people
were so enraged that they drove the murderers from
Rome. Antony and Oc-ta'-\i-us Caesar seized the
government. Octavius was Caesar's nephew, but
had been adopted as his son and heir. These two
associated with them Lepidus, who was in command
of the army, and thus formed the second trium-
virate.
Cassius, Brutus, and their friends fkd to Mace-
donia, where they mustered an army. But the tri-
umvirate defeated them at the battle of Phi'-lip-pi,
and both Brutus and Cassius committed suicide.
The three then divided the world among them.
Lepidus was soon robbed of his share, and a con-
test arose between Octavius and Antony. Antony
had married Octavia, the sister of Octavius, but he
deserted her to marry Cle-o-pa'-tra, the beautiful
Queen of Egypt. Angry at this insult, Octavius
began war, and crushed Antony in a naval battle in
the bay of Ac'-ti-um, on the west coast of Greece.
Thus Octavius became the emperor of the
Roman world. The Senate recognized him as em-
peror, and gave him the title of Augustus. The
temple of Janus was closed, for the civil wars were
over, and the Roman empire began 27 B.C.
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Although we call Augustus Emperor, he did
not have that title. He was careful not to call him-
self king, or to behave in any way like one.
Julius Caesar had been killed because it was
thought he had wished to make himself king.
Augustus was called prince, which then meant
merely the chief citizen. He was made com-
mander of the army, tribune, and judge, so that
he had all the power that a king could have.
The assemblies of the people were done away
with, but the Senate was kept up. The prince and
the Senate governed the empire.
AR-MIN^-I-US
Augustus had already conquered part of Ger-
many, but he wanted to take possession of another
part, which lay between the Rhine and the Elbe
rivers. This would give him a boundary for his
empire which could be more easily defended. The
Roman governor of Germany was Lu'-cius Va'-
rus, a brave man and a good soldier; but he did
not know what terrible fighters the wild German
tribes were.
The chief of the Che-rus'-ci, a German tribe,
was Arminius, or Hermann. He had been a sol-
dier in the Roman army, but he decided to fight for
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 141
his people when he learned that the Romans were
taking away their freedom or driving them from
their houses.
When his warriors were ready, Hermann sent
word to Varus that the Germans were going to
revolt. As Varus was leading his army through
the dark paths of the Teu'-to-berg forest, he was
suddenly assailed on all sides by the fierce German
warriors.
For three days the Romans struggled on, but
they could not escape, and were slain to the last
man.
When the terrible news reached Augustus he
was so stricken with grief that for several days he
did nothing but walk about, exclaiming, " O Varus,
give me back my legions! "
A few years afterwards, Ger-man'-i-cus, an-
other brave Roman general, took vengeance on the
Germans, and brought back to Rome the flags and
standards of Varus's army; but no attempt was
made to keep the land. The Rhine and the Dan-
ube rivers were made the boundaries of the empire
on the north. It was the first time the Romans
had ever given up land that they had once occupied.
Augustus lived only five years after this mis-
fortime, dying in 14 a.d. Thus he reigned from
27 B.C. to 14 A.D., forty-one years in all. You will
notice that the Christian era began in his reign.
The year of the birth of Christ should be called
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the year 1; but an error of four years was made
in fixing the time of His birth, so that we have to
say now that He was born 4 B.C.
The reign of Augustus is often called the Au-
gustan Age. It was a time when many poets,
_mvs£e dH LvxEMB&una vu^,}, jr,.^ ,^ r*nui'£A*rfil^i. omt cjl jalImMa^
Vergil Reading to His Friends.
historians, and philosophers lived. Vergil, Horace,
and the historian, Livy, were friends of the Em-
peror. Much was done in art and building. Au-
gustus so improved the capital that he said, " I
found Rome brick, but I have left it marble."
Augustus was succeeded by his stepson Ti-be'-
ri-us, a good soldier, who ruled well for fifteen years.
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 143
Then he grew gloomy and suspicious, and was
afraid that he would be murdered. He put many
to death who were unjustly accused of treason. At
last he retired to private life, and put the govern-
ment into the hands of his general, Se-ja'-nus.
Sejanus plotted and was strangled in prison.
We pass over the reigns of many emperors who
ruled Rome from 81 to 48 B. C. Vespasian was
engaged in a war against Judea when he received
notice of his election.
VESPASIAN AND TITUS
Leaving his son Titus to finish the war, he
returned to Rome and took charge of the govern-
ment.
For ten years peace and good government pre-
vailed throughout the empire. Titus captured the
famous Jewish capital after a six-months' siege.
The Jews defended it with great bravery, but it was
taken and burned to the ground. The gold and
silver vessels used in the services of the temple were
brought to Rome.
A grand triumph was given to Titus, and a
splendid arch was built in memory of his victory.
Carved in relief upon the arch one may still see
the trumpets and vessels brought from Jerusalem,
and the seven-branched candlestick which stood in
the Holy of Holies, or inner temple.
Vespasian and his son Titus built the most
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famous building that still remains to remind us
of the grandeur of Rome. This was the Col-os-
se'-um, or Fla'-vi-an Am-phi-the'-a-ter, so called
from the family name of the builders. It could
accommodate eighty thousand people, and was
used for the amusements which the Roman emper-
ors gave the people. When it was dedicated, or
first opened, it is said that five thousand wild beasts
were killed in the arena by the trained gladiators.
Then there was chariot racing and an exhibition of
naval warfare, for the great arena could be turned
into a lake large enough for ships to sail on.
pom-pe'-i-i and her-cu-la'-ne-um
But the most wonderful event in the reign of
Titus was one with which he had nothing to do.
The old Romans thought that a great giant had
been buried under Mount Vesuvius, and that when
he grew tired and turned over the mountain would
thunder and the lightning and smoke would dart
out of its summit. But for many centuries the
giant had lain still. The sloping sides of the
mountain were covered with green fields and vine-
yards, dotted bere and there with the country places
of the rich Romans. Two fine and well-built cities,
Pompeii and Herculaneum, had grown up near the
Bay of Naples.
But in the year 79, in the reign of Titus,
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without any warning the whole top of the moun-
tain blew off, and great showers of stones and
ashes rained down upon the siu'rounding country.
Streams of melted rock ran down the moimtain
side, burning and destroying the homes of rich and
poor, while poisonous gases suffocated those who
had escaped the stones and lava. The two cities
were buried so deep that for centuries all trace of
them was lost.
In 1718, while some workmen were digging a
well in Naples, they came to a paved street. Fur-
ther search showed that a whole buried city had
been discovered. Many of the houses and temples
of Pompeii have been imcovered, and we are able
to see just how the old Romans lived. A prison
was foimd, and the skeleton of a Roman sentinel
in armor, still standing on guard, tells of the stern
discipline enforced in the days of Rome.
Titus had a kindly and generous disposition,
although he had been a stem commander in time
of war. Once, when at evening he could not recall
some good action done, he exclaimed, " I have lost
a day!"
We may learn this excellent precept from him:
" Do not let a day pass without doing some good
thing."
Do-mi'-tian, the brother of Titus, succeeded
him; but he was just as bad as Titus had been good.
Then came the five good emperors: Ner'-va,
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Tra'-jan, Ha'-dri-an, An-to-ni'-nus, and Mar'-cus
Au-re'-lius.
All of these emperors persecuted the Christians,
who were regarded as a mischievous sect because
they taught that all the gods of Rome were false,
and that the God they worshiped was the only true
God.
Hadrian is noted for the wall which he built in
Britain to defend the colony against the wild tribes
on the north.
In the reign of Marcus Aurelius the German
tribe of the Mar'-co-man'-ni invaded the empire,
and it was all the armies could do to keep back
these fierce fighters.
DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE
We pass over the reigns of twenty or more
emperors, who are of little interest to us. But in
the year 284 a.d. a great ruler, Di-o-cle'-tian, came
to the throne. He saw that the empire was too
large to be ruled by one man, and wisely divided
it into two, the Eastern Empire and the Western
Empire.
He chose Max-im'-i-an to rule over the western
half, with his capital at Milan, in northern Italy.
Diocletian ruled the eastern half, and had his capi-
tal at Nic-o-me'-di-a.
Each emperor chose an assistant, who was called
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE
149
a Caesar. It was the duty of the Caesar to look
out for the distant parts of the empire, and see that
The Vision of Constantine.
the taxes were collected and order kept. In case
the emperor died, the Caesar was to become the next
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emperor. In this way disputes about the succes-
sion to the throne would be avoided.
The plan of Diocletian was not followed after
his death. The man he had made Caesar, Con-
stan'-ti-us, succeeded him. But when Constantius
died the soldiers chose his son Constantine to be the
next emperor of the West. A series of bloody
civil wars followed. There were six who claimed
the throne, but Constantine crushed them all, and
became the sole emperor of the West in 806. He
was given the surname The Great.
The most important thing to remember about
Constantine is that he made Christianity the religion
of the empire. He was led to do this by a strange
vision that came to him in the midst of his wars.
He was standing among his officers one day in the
field, when suddenly the sky was lighted up by a
cross of fire. Below the cross he saw the words in
Greek, " By this sign conquer."
That very night he dreamed that Christ stood
before him in shining garments bearing a cross,
and said:
" If you make this your standard I will lead
you to victory."
Constantine at once declared himself a Chris-
tian. He had his banner made in the shape of a
cross with the name of Christ inscribed upon it.
The persecution of Christians then ceased, and
the temples of the heathen gods were changed into
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 151
Christian churches. A later emperor, named Julian,
tried to bring back the old religion, but his attempt
failed. Missionaries were sent out, and the prov-
inces were converted to the religion of Christ.
Constantine then determined to foimd a new
capital which should be more conveniently situated.
He chose the city then called By-zan'-ti-um, on the
Bos'-po-rus. He enlarged and rebuilt it, naming
it Con-stan-ti-no'-ple, or the City of Constantine.
iHe conunenced building the church of St.
Sophia, which became the most splendid Christian
temple in the worid at that time.
In 825 a meeting of all the bishops of the
Church was held at Ni-cae'-a. They drew up the
Nicene Creed, which contains the doctrine that all
Christians believe.
Soon after the death of Constantine the empire
was again divided into eastern and western divi-
sions. Va'-lens ruled the Eastern Empire, at Con-
stantinople, and Val-en-tin'-i-an the Western, at
Milan.
At this time the powerful tribe of the Goths had
their empire north of the Danube and along the
Black Sea. They were attacked by the Huns, a
Tartar tribe, who were moving westward.
These Huns were the most terrible savages that
ever invaded Europe. They were filthy in their
habits, and their sho^, thick bodies and small,
fierce eyes were repulsive to look upon. They rode
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small, strong horses, and seldom dismomited even
to sleep. The Goths fled before them across the
Danube, and Valens gave them the province of
Moe'-si-a to live in. They afterwards attacked and
killed Valens and defeated his army in the battle
of A-dri-an-op'-o-lis.
ALAEIC THE GOTH
The Western emperor Gra'-tian checked the
Goths and enlisted many of them in his army. His
general, The-o-do'-si-us, became the last great ruler
of the whole Roman Empire. At his death he
again divided it between his two sons, Ar-ca'-di-us
and Ho-no'-ri-us ; the latter ruled the West. His
general, Stil'-i-cho, was the most noted man of the
time. The Vis'-i-goths (Western Goths) had again
gathered under their king, Al'-a-ric. They ravaged
Greece and then marched for Italy, but they were
beaten by Stilicho in two battles and forced to
retire. But soon there came another Gothic army
into Italy, and again Stilicho saved the empire by
defeating them and killing their general.
The foolish Honorius thought that his brave
general was planning to seize the empire, and
caused him to be murdered. When Alaric came
again with his Goths, in 408, there was no one
strong enough to defend Italy. Alaric besieged
Rome. The terrified Senate sent messengers to ask
his terms.
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THE ROMAN EMPIRE 153
" I will take all your gold and silver, your mov-
able property, and your slaves," said Alaric.
" What, then, do you leave us? " asked the mes-
sengers.
" I leave you your lives," replied the Goth.
Twice again Alaric came to Rome. The last
time he took the city by assault, and gave it to
his soldiers to plunder. He then passed on to the
south of Italy, where he died. His burial was a
strange one: the river Busento was turned out of
its course, and the young king was buried in the
bed of the stream. The river was then restored to
its former channel, and the slaves who did the work
were put to death, that no one might know the
place of his burial.
ATTILA THE HUN
In the meantime a more terrible enemy than
Goth or Vandal had appeared in Europe. This
was At'-til-a the Hun, whose name inspired terror
wherever it was heard. He was called the Scourge
of God. His banner was a sword set on the end of
a pole. So dreadful was the devastation wrought
by these savages that Attila boasted that where
once his horse had trod the grass never grew again.
Attila set out from Hungary, where he had
established his kingdom, with half a million follow-
ers, saying that he would never stop until he reached
the sea.
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The German tribes of the West joined with the
Roman general A-e'-tius to oppose them. The
armies met on the plain of Chalons, in eastern Gaul.
It was a long and terrible battle, but in the end
Aetius won, and the boastful Attila retreated with
a loss of three hundred thousand men. The next
year Attila died after an unsuccessful attempt to
invade Italy.
The Western Empire was held together a few
years longer by Ric'-i-mer, a Goth, who commanded
the hired German soldiers in the Roman army.
Then another leader of hired soldiers, Orestes,
made his son, a boy of six years, emperor, and gave
him the title of Romulus Augustulus.
The army had grown tired of camp life, and
they demanded that one-third of the lands in Italy
be given to them for homes. When Orestes re-
fused this they mutinied under the lead of O-do-
a'-cer. The little Augustulus was retired to a coun-
try villa, and Odoacer became King of Italy. Every
part of the Western Empire, Spain, Gaul, Africa,
and Italy, was then ruled by kings of the Teutonic
race.
Odoacer sent the crown, the scepter, and the
purple robe of Augustulus to Zeno, the Eastern
emperor at Constantinople, as a sign that the West-
ern Empire had passed away. Out of its various
divisions came the new nations, France, Germany,
Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.
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MEDIi^VAL HISTORY
XII. THE BARBARIAN INVADERS
On the northern boundary of the Roman Em-
pire thepe was a vast stretch of country inhabited
by many wild tribes.
The Ronjans gave little attention to these peo-
ple except to beat them back when they invaded
the Roman lands. But the time came when the
empire grew weak and the barbarians grew strong.
Then they swarmed over the Roman boundaries
and divided the old empire among themselves.
With the exception of At'-ti-la and his Huns,
these invaders belonged to the Teu-ton'-ic, or Ger-
man'-ic, race. They were a tall, strong people,
with light hair and eyes that Tac'-i-tus says were
"fiercely blue.'' Tacitus was a Roman who wrote
a book about the Germans. Julius Caesar also tells
us about them in his account of his wars in Gaul.
The Germans lived in villages and were ruled
by chiefs. A collection of villages was called a
hundred. The hundred was ruled by a count, or
chief of high rank. The whole tribe was ruled by
a king. The people were farmers and raised cat-
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158 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
tie, but hunting and war were their favorite occu-
pations.
When a new chief was to be elected, all the
warriors met together. If a man was proposed
whom they favored, they beat their weapons to-
gether with a great noise. When the chief was
chosen, they raised him up on their shields and took
him to his tent. The warriors were greatly at-
tached to their chiefs. They followed them to war;
and when land and goods were taken from the
enemy, the chief divided them among his men.
Most of the men in a German tribe were free.
But prisoners taken in war became the slaves of
their captors. None but freemen might carry
weapons or go to war.
Before they became Christians, these nations
were heathen. They worshiped many gods, which
in some ways were like the Greek and Roman gods.
The king of their gods was Wo'-den, or O'^din.
He was the god of the sky, and was said to ride
through the air on a swift horse called Sleip'-nir.
Two ravens perched upon his shoulders and told
him all that happened in the world.
Woden was the god of the warrior. His home,
Val-hal'-la, the German heaven, was hung with
swords, shields, and glittering weapons. His maid-
ens were the Val-ky'-ries. When a brave warrior
died, the Valkyries carried him to Valhalla, so that
it was peopled by a multitude of heroes.
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A Valkyrie Carrying a Slain Warrior to Valhalla.
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160 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Every morning Odin led his brave warriors out
to battle. At night they returned and feasted, and
drank the mead, or liquor, that the god himself
liked best.
Thor, the god of thunder, was the son of
Woden. He rode in a chariot drawn by goats,
and had a hammer which came back to his hand
every time he threw it. This glittering hammer
darting through the air was the lightning. The
crashing sound of the hammer as it smote the ene-
mies of Thor, or shattered the ice mountains where
they lived, was the thunder.
Ti'-eu was, like Mars, a god of war. He was
armed with a sword. It was Tieu's sword that
Attila believed he had foimd, and which he made
his standard in battle.
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XIII. CLOVIS
We have read how the German tribes under
O-do-a'-eer overthrew the Roman Empire in Italy.
Twelve years afterwards, in 489, The-od'-o-ric,
King of the Os'-tro-goths (East Goths) , led a great
army with their families and goods into Italy. He
overthrew Odoaeer and set up a kingdom of his
own.
Another race of Teutons called the Franks, or
freemen, lived along the east bank of the Rhine.
In the year 481 a youthful king named Clo'-vis
became their leader. The Franks had always
looked with longing eyes across the Rhine upon
the cultivated fields and fine cities of Gaul. The
merits and generous conduct of Clovis soon led
other tribes to join him. Whatever he won in
battle was thrown together in one great pile and
was divided among his soldiers, the king sharing
equally with them.
The Romans still held the province of Northern
Gaul, and Clovis decided to drive them out and
make it his own kingdom. He led his men against
the Roman governor, Sy-a'-gri-us, and defeated
him. Syagrius fled and Clovis took possession of
Sois'-sons, the capital of the province. Afterwards
he moved his court to a village of clay huts on the
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Seine, which has grown into the beautiful city of
Paris. This part of Gaul became known as France
or the land of the Franks. Thus Clovis founded
one of the great modern nations of the world.
During this campaign against Syagrius an in-
cident occurred that shows the rough manners of
these Frankish tribes and tells us something about
the kind of man Clovis w;as.
Some of his soldiers had carried away from one
of the churches at Rheims a beautiful vase, which
the bishop entreated Clovis to return as a special
favor to him. Accordingly when the spoils were
divided Clovis asked his men to set aside the vase
for himself.
A soldier standing by exclaimed, " Never shall
you have more than your just share! " And as he
spoke he broke the vase to pieces with a blow of
his ax.
Clovis concealed his anger for the time, and
said not a word. A year afterwards when he was
reviewing his soldiers he approached the one who
had insulted him. Taking the man's weapon he
threw it upon the ground, chiding him for not
keeping it in better condition. As the soldier
stooped to pick it up, Clovis shattered his skull with
one blow, exclaiming, " Thus didst thou with the
vase at Soissonsl"
Clovis married Clo-til'-de, niece of Gim'-do-
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CLOVIS
163
tian, and did all in her power to convert her pagan
husband and his people to her own religion.
Clovis was not satisfied with the extent of his
new kingdom, and he soon made war on the Al'-e-
man-ni, another German tribe living along the
"Thus Didst thou with the Vase at Soissonst'*
upper Rhine. It must be remembered that these
Germans thought the most honorable way to get
anything was to take it by war. It was thought
a disgrace to get anything peacefully when it
could be obtained by a fair fight.
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The Alemanni were stubborn fighters and three
times they drove Clovis from the field. Then the
king thought of the God that Clotilde had told him
about, and he prayed earnestly for victory to Clo-
tilde's God. At the next charge of the Franks they
swept the Alemanni from the field.
When Clovis returned home he announced to
his people that he had become a Christian. He or-
dered all heathen gods and temples to be broken
down, and on Christmas day he and three thou-
sand of his warriors were baptized by the arch-
bishop in the church at Rheims.
When Clovis died, his kingdom was divided
among his four sons. Their descendants continued
to rule France for a century. Then in 613 the
whole kingdom was united under Clo-taire'. His
son, Dag'-o-bert, was a worthless king, and a man
named Pip'-in was made mayor of the palace.
This mayor was the real king. A descendant of
Pipin, known as Pipin the Short, retired the " do-
nothing " king to his country place and made him-
self the founder of a new line of kings. The great-
est of this line was Char-le-magne' who in 811 be-
came king of all the Franks.
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The Baptism of Clovis.
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XIV. THE BEGINNING OF ENGLAND
In the Lowlands along the North Sea between
the Rhine and the Elbe and on the peninsula of
Jutland lived the Sax'-ons, An'-gles, and Jutes.
These were German tribes like the Franks and
Goths. They became good sailors on account of
their situation, and often made voyages to Britain
and along the coast of Europe. Like their brother
tribes, they lived by war and plunder, and they
soon became the terror of the Britons living along
the eastern coast.
The Roman army had long protected their
British colqny against the sea robbers. But in 410
Ho-no'-ri-us, the Roman emperor, called his sol-
diers away from Britain to guard Italy against
invasion. Then the Jutes, the Saxons, and the
Angles swarmed over into Britain. Two chiefs of
the Jutes named Hengist and Horsa* are said to
liave been the first comers. They soon drove out
the Britons and took possession of the larger part
of the island. Some of the Britons escaped into
Wales and Cornwall, where their descendants con-
tinue to live.
The Britons had long before this been con-
verted to Christianity by the Romans, and a Chris-
tian king in Wales fought bravely to save his coun-
try from the heathen invaders.
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THE BEGINNING OF ENGLAND 167
This king was Arthur, about whom many tales
are told. He is said to have lived in a splendid
palace at Car'-le-on in Wales where he gathered
about him many brave knights. Twelve of these
are known as the " Knights of the Round Table.'^'
They were wont to go out in search of adventures,
chaining up wicked giants, protecting the helpless,
and driving back the heathen.
While Arthur and his knights were warring
against the Saxons, a Christian priest, St. Patrick,
was converting the wild Irish tribes, baptizing
thousands of them. He founded churches and
schools, where yoimg men were trained to become
missionaries. They were then sent out to teach
the faith to the Picts in Scotland and to the Gauls
across the English channel.
The Saxons and their brother tribes built up
seven kingdoms in Britain. These were united into
one by King Egbert of Wessex, who began to
reign in 802. Egbert was the first to be called
King of England. Long before this the Saxons
also had been converted to Christianity. By Sax-
ons we mean all the Germanic tribes in Britain. It
is strange that although the greater part of the
invaders were Saxcms, it was the Angles who gave
a name to the new country — An'-gle-landy or Eng-
land.
Pope Gregory the Great, while he was yet a
priest, was attracted by the fair faces of some
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THE BEGINNING OF ENGLAND 169
Angle children who were exposed for sale in one
of the slave markets in Rome. They were so beau-
tiful that he said, " They have the faces of angels/^
When he became the head of the church, he sent
Aug'-us-tine with forty monks as missionaries to
convert the Angles to Christianity. Augustine
landed in Kent in 597. Eth'-el-bert was then king
of Kent. Like Clovis, he had married a Chris-
tian princess. Bertha, the daughter of a Prankish
king.
Augustine was welcomed, and in a short time
King Ethelbert and a thousand of his men were
baptized.
During the next century missionaries visited
the other kingdoms of Britain and they too ac-
cepted the Christian faith. An old Roman church
at Can'-ter-bur-y where Jupiter and Juno were
once worshiped was made into a Christian church.
It grew to be the Cathedral of Canterbury and
Augustine became the first archbishop of Canter-
bury.
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XV. MOHAMMED AND THE
SARACENS
The three religions which have taught the world
that there is but one God are the Jewish, the Chris-
tian, and the Mohammedan. These religions have
all come from that branch of the Semitic race
which is descended from Abraham. The wander-
ing Arabs, the tribes of the Arabian desert, claim
Ish'-ma-el, the son of Abraham, as their ancestor.
Their holy city is Mecca.
In Mecca is the Ca'-a-ba, or holy temple, where
a black stone is kept that is believed to have been
given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel. Pilgrims
from all over Arabia came here to worship and to
kiss the sacred stone.
The Arabs were worshipers of the sim, moon,
and stars. The level plain and clear sky made
them familiar with the motions of these bodies.
They found their way across the desert by the stars,
and they thought that their own lives were guided
by the position and motion of the heavenly bodies.
Mohanmaed was the foimder of Islam, as the
Mohammedans call their religion. He was born
in Mecca about 570 a.d. His family belonged to
the tribe of the Ko'-reish-ites, who had charge of
the temple of the Caaba. His parents died when
he was a child and he grew up as a shepherd boy,
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tending the flocks and camels of his uncle, A'-bu
Ta'-lib.
Every owner of camels in the East frequently
has occasion to join caravans carrying merchandise
across the desert. He would receive pay for the
use of his camels and for his own services. Mo-
hammed traveled with his imcle to all parts of
Arabia as a camel driver. Soon he became himself
the leader of a caravan. He became known for his
honesty, and merchants frequently intrusted to him
valuable goods and large sums of money.
When Mohammed was about twenty-five years
old, he was engaged by a widow named Kha-di'-
jah to take charge of her caravans. Her husband
had been successful in this business, and Khadijah
wished to carry it on. Khadijah was so pleased
with his skillful management, and he became so
fond of his mistress, that they decided to be mar-
ried. As his wife was rich he did not need to make
so many journeys as before.
For fifteen years they lived at Mecca. At the
end of this time Mohammed began to think much
about religion. He knew about the religion of the
Jews and' that of the Christians, but he did not
exactly like either of them. He liked still less the
idol worship of Arabia. Mohammed had always
been thoughtful about religion. Each year dur-
ing the holy month of Ram-a-dan', he went away
to a cave near Mecca and there he spent the
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174 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
time in fasting and prayer. It was in this cave
that the angel Gabriel first appeared to him and
taught him the religion that he afterwards taught
to his followers.
From time to time the angel came to him, tell-
ing him more and more about the new religion.
All of this Mohammed remembered carefully and
had it written in a book. This book is the Moham-
medan Bible. They call it the Koran, a word
which like our word Bible means book. The most
important teaching of the Koran is this: " There is
only one God and Mohammed is his prophet."
He first taught his religion to his own family,
and they became his first converts. But when he
began to preach in the streets of Mecca, the crowd
called him a fool and thought he was not right in
his mind.
At last the chiefs of the Koreishites threatened
to kill him if he did not keep silent. They were the
guardians of the Caaba; and Mohammed, by con-
demning their worship of idols and men, of sim
and stars, made the care of the temple less profit-
able. He was at last obliged to flee from Mecca
at night, and he escaped death only by hiding in
a cave while his nephew put on his clothes and lay
down on the couch of the prophet. This made the
pursuers think that Mohammed was still at his
home.
A story tells us that the spiders spim their webs
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MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS 175
across the entrance of the cave, and that the doves
built nests in front of it to deceive the angry chiefs,
who sought the prophet's life.
The flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Me-
dina took place in 622. This is the event from
which all Mohammedans reckon time, just as we
reckon the years from the birth of Christ. The
Arabic word for this event i§ Heg'-i-ra, or flight.
Since 622 was the first year of the flight, 1915
would be 1293 in the Arabic reckoning.
Mohammed had many followers in Medina,
and a mosque, or place of prayer, was soon built
and the prophet taught the people a form of wor-
ship. One God only must be worshiped five times
each day with the face turned toward Mecca. A
part of one's goods must be given each year to
the poor, and the yearly fast in the month Rama-
dan must be kept. Every good Mohammedan
must also make once in his life a pilgrimage to
Mecca. All this was not taught at once, however.
Soon after coming to Medina the prophet said
that the angel Gabriel had told him that Islam
must be forced upon the whole world. All heathen
nations must accept the new religion or be put to
the sword. Jews and Christians must become Mo-
hammedans or pay tribute to the prophet.
Mohammed soon had an army at his command.
He attacked and defeated a caravan of the Ko-
reishites, and finally captured the city of Mecca
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176 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
itself. He broke all the idols of the Caaba, shout-
ing as each one fell, " Truth has come and false-
hood gone forever 1 "
He continued his conquests until all Arabia was
converted. Hearing that the Greek emperor,
Her-a'-cli-us, was preparing to attack him, he
made ready an expedition against him. In the
midst of this he died in the year 632.
Mohammed's father-in-law, A'-bu Bek'-er, was
chosen caliph, or successor, to the prophet. Under
O'-mar, the next caliph, Persia, Palestine, and Sy-
ria were conquered and made to accept the new re-
ligion. Egypt was next added to the rapidly
growing Mohammedan Empire. When Al-ex-an'-
dri-a was taken, a Moslem leader inquired of Omar
what should be done with the books in the famous
library there.
" If these books agree with the Koran, they are
not needed; if they disagree with it they should
be destroyed," said Omar.
The seven hundred thousand rolls of parchment
which the library was thought to contain were dis-
tributed among the public baths of the city and
used for fuel.
In 710 the conquest of Africa was finished and
the leader Ta'-rik crossed into Spain. In 711 in
one great battle he destroyed the Visigothic king-
dom there. When Spain was secured, a great
army crossed the Pyrenees into Gaul. There the
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MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS 177
Mohammedans were met by Charles Martel with
an army of Franks. At Tours in 782, a battle was
fought that saved Christian Europe from de-
struction. The Mohammedan cavalry rode again
and again upon the Prankish infantry, but were
beaten back as if from a wall of iron. All day the
battle lasted. Toward evening a charge was made
by the Franks and the Moslem leader, Abd-er-
Rah'man was killed. During the night the enemy
retreated, and they never appeared in France
again. It was decided by the battle of Tours that
Christians and not Moslems should rule Europe.
Charles was the son of that Pipin who was the
mayor of the palace in the time of the do-nothing
Merovingian kings. From the stout blows which
he dealt the Mohammedans with his battle ax, he
got the surname Martel, or the Hammer. He be-
came the hero of Eiu^ope, for he had saved it
from becoming subject to a false religion.
Soijae time before this the capital of the Mo-
hammedan Empire had been fixed at Bag'-dad on
the Tigris River. This city became the most beau-
tiful in the world. Five bridges spanned the river,
and six himdred canals ran through the city.
There were a thousand mosques and as many tem-
ples. All the wealth obtained by conquest was
spent there. The palace of the caUph was equal
to the golden house of Nero or the cedar house
of Solomon.
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OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
The empire became so large that a second cap-
ital was set up at Cor-do'-va in Spain, where the
caliph of the West ruled.
Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours.
From 768 to 809 there ruled at Bagdad the
most noted of all the caliphs. This was Ha-roun'-
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MOHAMMED AND THE SARACENS 179
al-Ra'-shid (Aaron the Just) . The wonderful tales
of the Arabian Nights are stories of Bagdad in the
good days of Haroun.
When Haroun was a young man he became a
general in the army. He defeated the army of the
Empress Irene of Constantinople and compelled
her to send to Bagdad every year seventy thousand
pieces of gold. This money was paid regularly for
many years; but when Ni-ceph'-o-rus came to the
throne he sent this letter to Haroun:
" The weak and faint-hearted Irene agreed to
pay tribute to you when she should have made you
pay tribute to her. Now, pay back to me all the
gold she sent you or else we will settle with the
sword."
When Haroim had read the letter the messen-
ger of Nicephorus threw down before him a bimdle
of swords.
" Then," the story goes, " the caliph drew his
keen scimiter and with a stroke cut in two the
Roman swords without dulling the edge of the
weapon."
Then he wrote a letter to Nicephorus. This is
what it said:
" Haroim-al-Raschid, Commander of the Faith-
ful, to Nicephorus the Roman dog : I have read thy
letter. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt see my
reply."
The army which he sent utterly routed the Ro-
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180 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
mans. The emperor promised to pay the tribute
again. He did not keep his promise, and Haromi
prepared again to pimish him. But he died be-
fore his army was ready to march. It was left for
the Turks, a Tartar tribe which had been converted
to Mohammedanism, to take the city of Constanti-
nople.
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XVI. THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE
PiPiN THE Short, who set aside the last Me-
rovmgian king and made himself king of Frank-
land, had two sons, Charles and Carloman. As
Carloman lived only a short time Charles became
king. He ruled from 768 to 814. In after times
he was called Charlemagne (Shar-le-mane'), the
French form of Karl the Great.
We must remember that in his time there was
yet no France and no French people. Charle-
magne was a German and spoke the German
language. The Franks, too, were Germans, who
had settled among the Gauls and Romans. The
French people and language came from the mix-
ing of these three races and languages.
On the east of the Rhine, where there were no
Gauls or Romans, a pure German race lived, and
their coimtry is now called Germany.
Why was this king called the Great? Only a
few kings have received this title, and there is al-
ways some good reason for it.
In the first place, Charlemagne was of great
size and stature. He was seven feet high, broad in
shoulders and chest, and of immense strength. He
was fond of himting, riding, and swimming.
He shrank from no toil and feared no danger.
He was a successful general; he fought fifty-two
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182 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
military campaigns and never met defeat. He en-
larged his empire so that it took in all of western
Europe except Spain, and he was crowned by the
Pope as Roman emperor.
Besides knowing how to win battles, he knew
how to govern his empire. He divided it into dis-
tricts; at the head of each district he placed a coimt,
who could be removed if he did not manage well.
Twice each year he called together all the chiefs
and the people to take part in the making of laws.
Every Frank felt that he was a part of the great
empire, and that he was helping to govern it
After the laws were made, judges were chosen and
sent to all parts of the kingdom to hold courts and
enforce the laws.
Charlemagne was the first barbarian king to
establish schools. In his own palace at Aa'-chen
(Aix) he had a school for his own children. He
brought a learned Englishman named Al'-cuin
from the school of York in England to direct the
teaching in his schools.
He himself never learned to read and write
imtil he became a king. But then he saw the need
of it and studied so diligently that he learned to
speak in Latin and to read Greek.
These languages were the most important then
because all the books were written in them. Char-
lemagne cared little for eating and drinking, and
usually read a book while he ate. He was prompt
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Charlemagne.
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184 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
in all his actions, never lost time, and in this way
he had time enough left for recreation when his
work was done.
His first war was against the Lom'-bards in
Italy. The Lombards were a German tribe who
had been invited into Italy by Narses, the general
of Justinian.
After the Gothic kingdom of Theodoric was
destroyed, the Lombard kingdom became the chief
power in northern and central Italy. As the Lom-
bards were Greek Christians they were not friendly
to the Roman Pope and they soon began to
threaten Rome.
This was about the time that Pipin made himself
king of the Franks. As he wanted to be crowned
by the Pope, he was invited to help Rome against
the Lombards. Pipin marched his army into Italy,
took from the Lombard king a large part of his
territory, and gave it to Pope Stephen III. In
return for this, the Pope solemnly crowned him
king.
In the time of Charlemagne another quarrel
came up with the Lombards. He had married the
daughter of Des-i-de'-ri-us, the Lombard king, and
afterwards divorced her and sent her home to her
father. Desiderius was so angry at this that he
called upon Pope Ha'-dri-an to make the son of
Carloman king instead of Charlemagne.
The Frank king promptly led his army across
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THE EMPIRE OP CHARLEMAGNE 185
the Alps, took Desiderius prisoner and shut him
up in a convent. He then put the iron crown of
the Lombard upon his own head and declared him-
self lord of all Italy.
On accoimt of the crimes of the Empress Irene
at Constantinople, who had blinded her own son
that she might rule, the Italians declared them-
selves independent of her. The Eastern emperors
had gone on calling themselves Roman emperors
ever since the time of Constantine, although they
had no power at Rome.
The Greek and Roman churches had come to
think differently about religion. A great dispute
about the use of images came up in the eighth cen-
tury. In the East the mosaics and pictures were
taken out of the churches and destroyed, the priests
claiming that the people worshiped these things as
idols. But the Roman Church held that it was
right to adorn the house of worship with the statues
and pictures of the Saviour, the Virgin, and the
saints.
The Pope thought that there should be an em-
peror in the West who agreed with the Roman
Church. Accordingly, on Christmas Day, 800, in
the Church of St. Peter, Pope Leo III crowned
Charlemagne Roman emperor. As the golden
crown was placed upon his head, all the people
shouted, " Long live Charles Augustus, Emperor
of the Romans 1"
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The Crowning of Charlemagne.
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THE EMPIRE OP CHARLEMAGNE 187
After this, the eastern half of the old Roman
Empire came to be called the Greek Empire. The
language spoken there was Greek, while in the west
only Latin was spoken.
The war against the Saxons was the most stub-
born in which Charlemagne engaged. These fierce
people lived on the eastern bank of the lower
Rhine. They were still worshipers of Thor and
Woden, and they hated the Franks because they
had become Christians.
It took eighteen campaigns and thirty years of
warfare to conquer them. Many times they seemed
to be subdued but then the war broke out afresh.
Charlemagne insisted on making Christians of
them, and baptized many at the point of the sword.
Once he massacred forty-five hundred of them for
breaking a treaty. At last he gave up trying to
conquer them and offered to make peace, if their
heroic leader, Wit'-te-kind, would consent to be
baptized.
After his baptism many of the Saxons became
Christians. Their name still remains in the king-
dom of Saxony, one of the German states.
The emperor built a splendid cathedral at
Aachen, his capital. There he was buried, under
the floor and beneath the dome of the church. His
body was placed sitting in a marble chair, dressed
in his royal robes and crown. His horn, and a
copy of the Gospels were upon his lap and his
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THE EMPIRE OP CHARLEMAGNE 189
sword by his side. The marble chair may still be
seen in the cathedral at Aix, but the other relics
were taken to Vienna by later emperors.
His son Louis was a weak ruler and had a
troubled reign. He divided the kingdom among
his three sons. Louis received the eastern, or Ger-
man part, Charles the western part, and Lothair,
Italy, with a long strip of land running north be-
tween the other two. Such was the beginning of
the modern countries, France, Germany, and Italy.
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Roland in the Pass of Roncesvalles.
(Roland was one of Charlemagne' s bravest warriors,)
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XVII. THE NORTHMEN
The Teutonic tribes living on the northern
shores of Europe, in Denmark, and in Norway and
Sweden are known in history as Northmen.
Just as their brother tribes in Central Europe
invaded and conquered the Roman Empire in the
fifth century, so they invaded and conquered parts
of the older Christian coimtries in the ninth and
tenth centuries.
But the Northmen, living along the bays and
inlets of the coast, became expert sailors and ship-
builders, and their raids and invasions were made
by sea. Like the Franks and Goths they were
strong and warhke, and despised getting anything
by labor which they could get by plunder.
Their ships were long and narrow. There was
one mast in the center which carried a large square
sail. Along the sides there were benches for
twenty or more rowers. Their weapons and food
were packed snugly away in the bottom of the
boat — ^in the bow and stern and imder the benches.
In these boats they made long voyages. Set-
ting out from Denmark or Norway, they would
cross over to England and to the coast of France,
and even to Iceland, Greenland, and America.
They would frequently sail up a river until they
came to a rich city or town. They would then land
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192 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMEHICAK TUSTORY
their warriors and plunder the place, carrying off
all the valuable things they cotdd find. Then they
woidd sail away before enough men could be got
together to catch them.
At first their raids were made in the summer.
When winter came they wotdd all go away to their
homes along the fiords and harbors of Norway.
But toward the end of the ninth century they be-
gan to make settlements along the coasts that they
plundered.
ALFRED THE GREAT
Just 100 years after Charlemagne became king
of France, Alfred, the greatest of English kings,
came to the throne. Alfred and Charlemagne were
much alike in some things. Both were great in
war, both loved learning, and both were expert in
the art of governing their coimtries.
Alfred was the first English king who learned
to read. A Welshman named Asser, who wrote the
life of King Alfred, tells this story:
One day Alfred's mother was showing her sons
a poem written on parchment, and beautifully orna-
mented with colors. She said —
" Whichever of you will first learn to read this
poem shall have it to keep for himself."
Alfred at once sought out a teacher, and soon
learned to read, but his brothers gave no further
thought to the matter. From that time, he devoted
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THE NORTHMEN 193
every spare moment to improving his mind, and
became himself a writer of books.
Alfred was twenty-two years old when he be-
came king, and he at once entered into a terrible
war against the Danes, who had invaded the coun-
try. Three shiploads of these robbers had landed
on the English coast in 787, and when the sheriff
of the place went to inquire who they were, they
slew him. That was the first appearance of the
Northmen in England; but afterward, more and
more of them came. As they were heathen and
hated the Christians, they took delight in plunder-
ing and burning the churches. In those days valu-
able things were usually put in the churches for
safe-keeping. The Danes soon found this out, and
they killed the priests and carried away the treas-
ures.
The Danes proved to be more than a match for
King Alfred and his soldiers; so he decided that
he must build a navy and fight the enemy on the
sea. The English quickly captured a Danish ves-
sel, and they felt so encouraged that they soon had
a good sized fleet of larger and stronger ships than
even those of the Danes. Alfred thus became the
founder of the English navy.
In the sixth year of Alfred's reign, a large
Danish army landed on the coast. They marched
across the country, burning houses and villages, and
robbing the people. King Alfred was driven from
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194 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
his capitol, and with a few of his followers, he hid
in the swamps and woods. But he soon got to-
gether another army and attacked the Danes at
Eddington, where he defeated them in a hard
fought battle.
It was during these wars that Alfred disguised
himself as a minstrel and went into the Danish
camp, where he amused Guthrum, their king, by
singing and playing on the harp. While so doing
he found all about the situation of the Danish camp
and the best way to attack it. After defeating the
Danes, Alfred forced them to make peace and he
baptised Guthrum and thirty of his men. He gave
them the eastern half of England, north of the
Thames River, for their home.
As soon as the war was over, Alfred set to work
to organize an army in case war should break out
again. He stationed his ships along the coast and
built strong forts for the defense of the country.
After doing this, the king gave his attention to
making good laws and in appointing judges who
would study them and make just decisions. He
rebuilt the churches and convents which had been
destroyed by the Danes; and he had many manu-
scripts copied for the use of the priests and other
learned men, for there were yet no printed books.
He kept a record of all the events of his reign, and
this record is the chief means we have of finding
out what happened in King Alfred's time.
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THE NORTHMEN 195
Besides all these things, Alfred was interested
in architecture, in art, in working metals, and in
cutting gems. He measured his time by means of
candles, which were made so that each one would
burn out in four hours. He placed his candles in
horn boxes so that they would not be blown out by
the wind which came through the walls of ihis
palace. These horn boxes were the first lanterns
used in England.
It was Alfred's work as an author that distin-
guished him from nearly all the kings of history
from the time of David and Solomon. Other kings
patronized literature, engaging men to write for
them; but Alfred toiled over his own manuscripts
amid all his other cares, and added greatly to the
meaning of our language by fixing the use of words
and supplying to the people good forms of speech,
while at the same time cultivating their moral and
religious characters and securing to them an endur-
ing record of his reign.
Alfred died in the year 901; and the lasting
gratitude of his people was shown by the observ-
ances in his honor after the lapse of a thousand
years, in 1901.
In the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the
Danes began to come in greater nimabers than ever.
The king gave them great simas of money to go
away. They took the money and were ever de-
manding more and more.
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THE NORTHMEN
197
At last in 1002 Ethelred ordered a general mas-
sacre of the Danes all over England. Thousands
Alfred in the Camp of Guthrum.
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198 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
were killed and among them was Gmihilda, the sis-
ter of King Sweyn of Denmark. Sweyn vowed
vengeance on the English king. He came with a
large army to England and drove Ethelred out
and made himself king of England. In 1016
Canute, his son, succeeded him. He was a good
king and made excellent laws for England. He
was a Christian and forbade the worship of the old
gods. He forbade slavery also, and punished crim-
inals, the strong as well as the weak.
In 1042 the Danish line of kings died out and
Edward the Confessor, the son of Ethelred, was
restored to his throne.
ROLF THE GANGER
While these things were going on in England, '
the Northmen were making conquests in northern
France. Once they stabled their horses in the great
church that Charlemagne built at Aachen.
RoUo was a noted leader in the attacks on
France. He was called Rolf the Ganger, or goer,
on accoimt of his long legs. In 885 Rolf came
sailing up the Seine with thirty thousand men and
seven hundred ships, and laid siege to the city of
Paris. The city stood on an island, and was con-
nected with the mainland by two bridges. These
bridges were defended by two high and strong
towers. The Northmen after staying for eighteen
months gave up the task and retreated.
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THE NORTHMEN 199
In 911 Rolf and his Northmen came again.
They were routed in one battle, but King Charles
saw that they were too strong to be driven out. He
then did what Alfred had done in England. He
gave them two provinces in the northern part of
France. Rolf received a French princess for his
wife and became the vassal of the French king.
When Rolf was told that he must kiss the
king's foot as a sign of faithfulness, he scornfully
refused. When the French said that that part of
the ceremony could not be left out, the chief told
one of his men to kiss the king's foot for him. The
soldier knelt before the king and lifted up his foot
so high to kiss it that Charles rolled off his seat.
The Northmen burst into laughter at his ridiculous
appearance.
The land given to Rolf became known as the
duchy of Normandy, and the Northmen were
called Normans. Although Rolf had been a pirate
and a plunderer himself, he would not allow any
lawlessness in his new duchy. He made strict laws,
and robbery was punished by hanging. Normandy
became the best governed part of France.
The new duke divided the land among his
chiefs. They in turn gave part of their land to
their meriy that is, the soldiers who fought with
them, and kept the rest for themselves. Each man
who thus received land of a chief had to give him
part of the grain and fruit that he raised. He also
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200 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
had to do a certain number of days' work for his
lord each year and fight for him in case of war.
Any man who received lands from another became
a vassal and he had to take the oath of fealty, or
faithfulness, to his lord.
The land thus received was called a fief or feud,
and this system of landholding was called the
feudal system.
The vassal was a freeman. But the great mass
of the people were serfs. Some were slkves that
could be bought and sold. The serfs could not be
sold but were obliged to live always upon the estate
of their lord. They could not get any pay for their
labor and when the land changed hands the serfs
went with it.
Wherever the Northmen went, they learned the
language and accepted the religion of the land in
which they lived. In France they became French-
men, in England they became Englishmen.
One of the descendants of Duke RoUo was
William I, the conqueror and King of England.
In Russia also a band of Northmen under a
chief named Rurik set up a government with Nov'-
go-rod as his capital. This was the beginning of
the Russian Empire. Under King Vlad'-i-mir
they were converted to Christianity and became
Russians just as RoUo and his men became French.
Wherever the Northmen were found, they were
skillful in both war and government.
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XVIII. THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF
ENGLAND
When the Danes drove King Ethelred from
his throne in England, he fled to Noi*mandy. His
wife was Emma, the great-granddaughter of the
first duke, RoUo. His son Edward, called the Con-
fessor, on account of his piety, grew up at the Nor*
man court.
When Edward was restored to his father's
kingdom he took along many Norman friends to
whom he gave good places as officers in the English
government. This was very displeasing to the
English nobles, especially to the Earl Godwin, who
was the most powerful among them. After a time
Godwin drove the Norman families back to Nor-
mandy.
Edward married Edith, the daughter of God-
win, but they had no children. After Edward's
death, therefore, the English people chose Harold,
the son of Godwin, to rule over them.
Duke William of Normandy now laid claim to
the English throne. He said that Edward had
agreed to leave it to him.
Once Harold had been shipwrecked on the Nor-
man coast and found his way to the court of Wil-
liam. Before William would allow him to return
to England, he made him lay his hand upon an
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202 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
altar and swear that when Edward died, he would
support William's claim to the throne.
The top of the altar was then removed and
Harold was shown that his hand had rested just
above the bones of certain holy men, or saints. To
swear upon the bones of the saints was considered
the most solemn kind of oath, and anyone who
broke it would be treated as an outlaw.
'William sent a message to Harold reminding
him of his oath.
But Harold replied that he had been chosen
king by the people of England and that he would
stand up for his rights.
William then made preparation to invade Eng-
land. For eight months Normandy was a busy
workshop. Bows and arrows, swords and spears,
helmets and armor, were made ready. Along the
coast hundreds of ships were fitted out and stored
with provisions.
WilUam had asked the Pope for consent to con-
quer England. It was given and the Pope sent
also a beautiful flag, that he had blessed, to be car-
ried at the head of the Norman Army.
At last everything was ready and the Normans
crossed the English Channel and landed on the
English coast near Hastings. As William went
ashore he stimibled and nearly fell. Some men
near him exclaimed that it was a bad sign. But the
duke showed them the earth which he had in his
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THE NORMAN CONQUEST OP ENGLAND 203
hand saying, " It is a sign that I am taking pos-
session of England."
The Normans found no one to oppose them,
for King Harold was away in the North fighting
an army led by the King of Norway, who had in-
vaded England. At Stamford Bridge Harold's
army nearly destroyed the Norwegians and the
English rebels who were with them. The English
were celebrating the victory at a banquet, when
news came from the South that Duke William had
landed in England.
Harold hastened to meet him, gathering men
as he advanced. He placed his army on a hill near
William's camp, and fortified it by driving stakes
into the groimd around it.
Here the Normans made several attacks, but
were driven back. At last the English soldiers
came out of their defenses to attack the retreating
Normans and were slain. Then William made a
fierce attack on the king's standard, around which
the best of the English soldiers were gathered.
The king was wounded, the standard taken, and
the battle of Hastings was won. This battle made
Duke William of Normandy King William of
England.
The new king soon had orderly government es-
tablished. Those English who refused to accept
his rule were harshly treated and lost all their es-
tates ; but those who submitted were kindly treated.
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204 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
The feudal system was set up in England. AH
land belonged to the king. It was divided among
the barons who came with him, and they in turn
divided their shares among their men. The small-
est division of land was called a knight's fee, be-
cause anyone holding this amount of land must
furnish one knight to fight for the king. There
were sixty thousand knights' fees in England.
When the king needed an army, he called upon his
barons to come with a nimiber of soldiers accord-
ing to the land they held. The barons called upon
their men and an army was soon assembled.
Three times each year William called together
all the men in England that held land of him, to
make laws and advise him about the state of the
kingdom. It is said: " He made such good peace
in the land that a man might travel all over Eng-
land with his bosom full of gold without molesta-
tion."
For a long time there were two nations, two
languages, and two kinds of law in England. But
just as the Northmen became Frenchmen in
France, the Norman-French became Englishmen
in England. It required nearly two hundred years
to blend the two nations into one. But King John
lost the province of Normandy, and from that time
the Norman conquerors became more and more
English.
The feudal system continued a long time in
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Harold Receiving the News of the Norman Invasion of
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206 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
England, but it was finally abolished, and every
man became the owner of the land that he had once
held of the king.
There were two bad things about this system
that caused it to be set aside. One was that it made
the barons too strong. Sometimes one baron would
have at his command several hundred knights.
With such a force he could defy the king. Many
barons set up an independent rule of their own.
Some became highwaymen and robbed merchants
and plimdered the people. Often a quarrel would
arise between two barons and then they would carry
on war until one was conquered.
All of this made the country unsafe to travel in
or even to live in. The only way to be safe was
to become the vassal of some powerful noble who
made it a point of honor to stand by his men.
Every baron lived in a strong house built of
stone which we call a feudal castle. This castle
was a huge structure. It contained great courts
and dining halls large enough to accommodate
hundreds of men. There were stables for horses
and storehouses for food and supplies of war.
Outside was a deep moat, or ditch, filled with wa-
ter. This made it possible for a baron to gather
all his men within the castle and to remain there
for a long time if he was besieged.
His men could gather on the high walls and
towers and throw down stones and weapons upon
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THE NORMAN CONQUEST OP ENGLAND 207
the besiegers. The only way to take a castle was
to batter a hole through the walls, or to build up
high towers alongside of them. Then a bridge
could be made from the tower to the wall of the
castle. But with brave defenders inside, the baron
could usually bid defiance to any foe.
The feudal system was a bad thing for the king,
the people, the merchants, and for all the weak and
unprotected. It made the king too weak to pro-
tect his people. It made the people the slaves of
the nobles. The man who was not protected by
some lord might be killed as an outlaw. The mer-
chants had to travel in large companies with armed
men to protect them.
After the death of Charlemagne and the divi-
sion of his empire, there were no more strong and
able kings to keep the nobles in order. The result
was that each noble built a strong castle and be-
came partly independent. In this way the feudal
system spread over Europe. After a time it came
about that the people joined with the kings to put
down the nobles.
A witty writer said that the king was the cat,
the nobles were the rats, and the people were the
mice. Both cats and rats eat mice, but there was
only one cat while there were many rats. So it
was prudent for the mice to help the cat to kill off
the rats, even if the cat ate a few of them.
The merchants and mechanics lived mainly in
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208 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
cities. Soon the cities grew strong and rich enough
to purchase their independence of the noble in
whose province they stood. The noble was always
in need of money for his wars, and the city would
furnish the money in return for the privilege of
governing itself.
When gunpowder came into use the power of
the nobles was soon broken down. A musket ball
could pierce their armor and a cannon could batter
down their castles. A few pieces of cannon, with
the help of the people and the free cities, made the
kings strong again; and in place of the feudal
system, Europe became divided into monarchies
ruled by powerful kings.
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XIX. THE CRUSADES
We have read how the followers of Mohammed
overran all Western Asia and compelled the inhabi-
tants to accept their religion. Jerusalem, Naza-
reth, Bethlehem, and all the places associated with
the life of Christ fell into their hands.
Among the early Christians it was thought to
be a very pious act to make a pilgrimage, or jour-
ney, to some sacred place. The tomb of some saint,
hke that of St. Thomas at Canterbury in England,
might be the place. But a visit to the birthplace
of the Saviour at Bethlehem or to His tomb at
Jerusalem, was thought to bring upon the pilgrims
the choicest blessing of heaven.
The Saracen caliphs at Bagdad ruled over
Palestine and the holy places. Haroun-al-Raschid
was one of these caliphs. They were usually intel-
ligent and liberal men, and were willing that the
Christian pilgrims from Europe should be allowed
to visit Palestine, They even encouraged such pil-
grims and treated them courteously for the pil-
grims brought considerable money into the country.
But in the wars of the caliphs, a Tartar tribe
Hving near the Caspian Sea was converted to the
faith. These were the Turks. They soon became
stronger than the caliphs, and took away almost
all their possessions. The Turks were ignorant
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210 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
and barbarous. They called the Christian pilgrims
dogs and unbelievers, and seized and plundered
them. They even tortured, insulted, and killed
many. The holy church at Jerusalem was made
into a stable and the other holy places were treated
with like contempt.
When stories of these insults were brought
back to Europe, it made the Christians very angry.
The Pope and the priests began to urge the
kings and nobles to take revenge upon the infidel
Turks.
You may imagine how the Christian knight
was aifected by this oppression. He had taken a
vow to aid the persecuted and the helpless, and to
be a champion in the cause of religion. What
could please his chivalrous nature more than to
go to the Holy Land to fight the heathen and pro-
tect the pilgrims?
The father of the first Crusade, or War of the
Cross, was Peter the Hermit, a monk of Am'-i-ens,
France. A council of the church was held at Cler-
mont in France to consider what should be done.
Pope Urban made a speech to a great throng of
people telling them of the wrongs suif ered at the
hands of the Tm*ks.
" When Christ calls you to defend Him," cried
the Pope, " let nothing keep you at home. Who-
ever shall leave his house, his father, or his mother,
his wife, or his children in the name of Christ, shall
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THE CRUSADES 211
be rewarded a hundredfold, and shall have eternal
life."
The vast assembly rose up in their enthusiasm
and shouted: " It is the will of God! It is the will
of God! " Those who were willing to join in a
war against the Tm*ks placed crosses upon the
breast or shoulder.
Peter was at the council and immediately after-
wards he set out on a journey through Europe
preaching with great earnestness to enormous
crowds of people. Everyivhere he was welcomed,
and thousands of men in every land took the cross.
Finally a day was set when the expedition should
start for Constantinople. From that place they
were to cross into Asia Minor, and march through
Syria to Jerusalem.
Peter himself led an advanced guard of eighty
thousand men, women, and children through Eu-
rope. But they had made no arrangement for food
or shelter. On the way through Hungary they
compelled the people to feed them. The Him-
garians attacked and killed many of them. Hun-
ger and cold killed more. Not more than seven
thousand crossed the Bosporus into Asia, and these
were cut to pieces by a Turkish army.
In the meantime the main army of the cru-
saders gathered. It was a splendid body of well-
disciplined soldiers. There were a hundred thou-
sand mail-clad knights and six himdred thousand
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THE CRUSADES 213
footmen, commanded by Godfrey, the Duke of
Lor-raine', and Tan'-cred of Sicily, two of the
noblest knights in Europe.
The different bodies of troops met at the Bos-
porus. The capital city of the Turks, Ni-cse'-a,
was taken. The crusaders then took up the march
to An'rti-och, a distance of two hundred miles.
Disease, starvation, and the enemy killed nearly
half of them before they reached that city. It was
seven months before the stronghold fell into their
hands. Then they pushed on to Jerusalem.
At last they came in sight of the Holy City.
All their strife and toils were forgotten in their
enthusiasm. They kissed the ground and marched
bareheaded and barefooted, in the manner of pious
pilgrims.
A month was spent in building machines to
scale the walls. A first assault was unsuccessful.
But at the second the crusaders burst in the city.
For seven days there was a fearful slaughter of
Moslems and Jews, and it only ceased when there
was no one left to kill.
Jerusalem was then made into a Christian king-
dom with Godfrey at the head of it. He would
not be called king but took the title, Defender of
the Holy Sepulcher. This was the end of the first
Crusade. It had lasted three years (1096-99).
The crusaders then returned to Europe leaving a
few hundred knights to guard the holy places.
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THE CRUSADES 215
About a hundred years after the first Crusade,
the city of Jerusalem was taken by Sal'-a-din, the
Mohammedan ruler of Egypt. But Saladin showed
a nobler nature than the Christians or Turks.
There was no slaughter of prisoners or of defense-
less women and children.
Three great sovereigns then set out, each with
an army, to recover the Holy City ; Richard, King
of England, PhiUp Augustus of France, and the
distinguished German emperor, Frederick Bar-
ba-ros'-sa. The emperor was drowned while cross-
ing a swollen stream in Asia Minor and his son,
Frederick II, also lost his life in this, the third
Crusade. The chief event was the siege of A'-cre,
a city on the coast which blocked the way to Jeru-
salem.
It took a long time to capture the place. It
is said that six hundred thousand men were gath-
ered about its walls. Saladin made strong efforts
to drive the besiegers off, but he failed, and the
city surrendered in 1191.
Philip and Richard could not agree, and the
French king led his army home. Richard re-
mained two years after the fall of Acre trying
in vain to take Jerusalem. But his troops were
so thinned by disease and battle that they were
scarcely equal in number to the Moslem garrison
in the Holy City, and Saladin with an enormous
army was hovering near. So he made a truce with
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THE CRUSADES 217
Saladin. It was agreed that the Christians should
go untroubled to the holy places, and that a strip
of coast from Tyre to Joppa should be held by
Richard,
There were in all eight crusades, but the re-
maining five are of little importance. They closed
in 1291, having lasted almost two hundred years.
In that year the last Christian was driven out of
Palestine and the Mohammedans have held the
land to this day.
Though the Crusades did not keep Jerusalem
out of the hands of the Moslems, they had some
good results. They helped to take away power
from the feudal nobles who had oppressed the peo-
ple. Thousands of the nobles died in war. Many
more got so far into debt that they could not afford
to keep knights about them. When a noble died
and had no heirs, his estates went to the king. In
that way the kings became strong enough to control
the rest of the nobles.
The Crusades also led to commerce between
Europe and tjie East. The Italian cities, Venice
and Genoa, became rich in supplying the needs of
the crusading armies, and they kept up the trade
that they had begun. Soon the products of India,
China, Persia, and Arabia, were brought to Venice
and Genoa. From these cities merchants sold them
all over Europe.
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XX. BEGINNING OF NEW NATIONS
ENGLAND
The nobles were much less in number after the
Crusades. But those that were left became more
powerful and the fights between them and the
kings in the different countries of Europe still
went on.
When Richard the Lion-hearted died, his
brother John, a very wicked man, became kLig.
It would take a long time to tell all the bad things
he did, but here is one of them.
The rightful heir to the throne was Arthur,
the son of John's older brother, Geoffrey. John
took Arthur prisoner and shut him up in a castle
in Rouen. He ordered the jailer to put out the
boy's eyes, but Arthur begged so pitifully that
the jailer did not have the heart to do it.
Then John came one night accompanied by his
squire, and the two men took Arthur out on the
Seine in a boat where they killed him and sunk his
body in the river. Whether this is true or not, it
is certain that Arthur was never seen again after
he left the castle with his imcle.
The French king fought against John and took
Normandy away from him. When John sum-
moned his barons to go with him to France to win
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BEGINNING OF THE NATIONS 219
the lost province back, they refused to go. Then
he began to take away their property and to abuse
their famihes. Some of them were secretly mur-
dered as Arthur had been. No man's life was safe
in England while John was king.
At last the barons made war on the king and
compelled him to sign a paper called the Great
Charter. By doing this he agreed not to take any
more money from the people without the consent
of the great council composed of the nobles and
the bishops of England. He also promised that
no man should be unlawfully imprisoned or put to
death.
The Great Charter contained many other
things that took away the power of the king, and
made the Uf e and property of the people safer.
In the reign of John's son, Henry III, Simon
de Montfort, the leader of the barons, called to-
gether the representatives of the people. These
with the nobles and bishops made up the English
Parliament, the body which still governs England.
Thus in England the barons and the people
joined together to take away power from a wicked
king and give it to the people.
For the next two hundred and fifty years the
nobles remained very powerful in England; but
they did not try to rule independently of the king
as in France and Germany. In the middle of the
fifteenth century a civil war, called the " Wars of
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King John Signing the Great Charter.
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BEGINNING OP THE NATIONS 221
the Roses," broke out in England between the rival
houses of York and Lancaster. Both these fami-
lies claimed the throne. So many of the nobles
were killed in this war that they never became
powerful again.
King Henry VII would not allow them to
keep any armed men in their castles. The kings
of England then became so strong that they ruled
the country without consulting the people very
much about it.
After a time one of the kings, Charles I, be-
came so tyrannical that the people rebelled against
him and put him to death. England then became
a republic for a time. Charles II, the son of
Charles I, was restored to the throne, but from
that time the people gained more and more power.
FRANCE
When the empire of Charlemagne was divided
in 841, his grandson, Charles, became king of the
western Franks. He gave the coimty of Paris to
a brave soldier, Robert the Strong. Just as the
descendants of Clovis became worthless and were
set aside by Pepin, so Pepin's descendants became
weak, and at last died out altogether.
Then the counts of Frankland chose Hugh
Capet, the great-grandson of Robert the Strong, to
be king. Hugh's domain had become known as
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222 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
the Duchy of France. He was therefore the first
King of France.
The French counts and dukes were just as
strong as the king, and considered themselves his
equal. A large part of the history of France for
four centuries is taken up with wars between the
kings and their vassals. Louis XI at last subdued
the last of them and made himself supreme.
France became a strong monarchy. The common
people in France had little power. They were
mostly serfs or slaves, and they did not gain en-
tire freedom from their lords until the outbreak of
the French Revolution.
GERMANY AND ITALY
The story of the feudal lords and the kings in
Germany is quite different from that of France or
England. The country became divided into five
duchies, Sax'-o-ny, Fran-co'-ni-a, Swa'-bi-a, Ba-
va'-ri-a, and Lor-raine'. These great dukes with
the bishops elected the German emperor.
In 1856 four princes and three archbishops ob-
tained the right to choose the emperor of Germany.
These were called the seven electors, and Germany
and Italy together were known as the Holy Roman
Empire.
In 911 the family of Charlemagne had died
out. The last king of his house was known as
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BEGINNING OP THE NATIONS 223
Louis the Child. At his death the nobles met and
chose Conrad, of Franconia, king. At this time a
tribe of fierce Tartar warriors called Magyars
(Ma-jarz') invaded Germany, and a strong king
was needed to defend the country. Conrad lived
only a few years. On his deathbed he called his
brother to him and gave him the crown and
jewels.
"Take these to Henry of Saxony/' he said.
" He is the only one strong enough to defend the
coimtry."
The princes met at Aachen and elected Henry.
The messengers sent to inform him of his election
foimd him himting birds. On this accoimt he be-
came known as Henry the Fowler.
Henry proved to be a vigorous ruler. First he
compelled the Duke of Lorraine, who had set up
an independent kingdom, to obey his authority.
Soon the Magyars began to pour into the country.
Henry beat them in one battle, but seeing that his
soldiers were not fit for war, he made a truce with
the barbarians for nine years agreeing to pay them
every year a large simi of gold.
Then Henry set to work to train his army. He
built forts along the border and stocked them with
food and supplies. Before the truce was up he was
ready to meet the enemy again.
In the tenth year the Magyar king sent to de-
mand the tribute again.
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224 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
" No," said Henry, " not a piece of gold will
I give you."
There was a hard struggle, but at Mer'-se-
bm-g, in 933, Henry took the camp of the Magyars
and got back a large amount of money that they
had taken from him. The Magyars then settled
along the lower Danube and called their kingdom
Hungary, and there they are to-day. They are the
only people in Europe except the Turks who do
not belong to the white race.
The greatest of all the old German emperors
was Frederick I of the house of Ho'-hen-stau-f en.
He is known as Frederick Barbarossa, or Red-
beard. One of the best of his acts was to stop the
wars and plunderings of the barons. He com-
pelled all the princes to obey him, and made the
kings of Poland and Bohemia his vassals.
But Frederick with all his power could not con-
quer the Italian cities. These cities were founded
by the Lombard nation whom Narses had brought
into Italy. Milan was the leading one. They had
grown rich by trade, and were determined to gov-
ern themselves. They drove out the counts and
bishops who had ruled them. When Frederick
came into Italy with his army, they joined in a
league against him.
The king captured and burned Milan, but in
the end he was defeated and the cities became free
and independent.
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Henry the Fowler Chosen Emperor of Germany.
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226 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Frederick's death during the third Crusade has
been mentioned. He was the best loved of all the
emperors, and the people mourned for him many
years. A legend grew up among the peasants
that the hero was not dead, but asleep in a cav-
ern among the mountains. In after years, when
the empire fell into disorder and weakness, the
people sighed for the return of the times of
Barbarossa.
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XXI. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING
Revival means a bringing to life again.
When a country has schools and colleges, books,
and works of art, and when the people are edu-
cated, we may say learning is found there.
The barbarian tribes that swarmed into Europe
cared nothing for learning. The books of the
Greeks and Romans were destroyed. There were
no schools worthy the name. Here and there a wise
king like Alfred the Great or Charlemagne, had
established schools, but most kings cared only for
war.
The knights and nobles despised learning.
Study was for priests and not a fit occupation for
a soldier. A few schools were kept up in the
churches or in the convents where the monks lived;
but these were only for the education of the priests.
We may say truly that learning had died out
in Eiu'ope.
During the fifteenth century it was revived, or
brought to life again in Italy.
Italy was less exposed to the attacks of the bar-
barians than the other European coimtries. The
Lombard cities were the first to grow rich. Flor-
ence, Venice, Genoa, and Pavia, had many citizens
who had grown wealthy by trade. When people
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228 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
have money they can devote their time to writing
books or to painting and sculptm^e.
The people of these rich Italian cities were the
first people in Eiu'ope to give some attention to
books.
The poet Petrarch was the first to begin to study
the old Greek and Latin books. He loved to
read the poems of Homer. He said that there were
not more than ten men in Italy who could under-
stand them.
Petrarch and other Italian scholars began to
search through the old libraries of the churches and
monasteries for rolls of parchment containing old
writings. In neglected cellars among heaps of
rubbish, and in strange nooks and out-of-the-way
comers they foimd here and there a manuscript
which was priceless.
These precious old rolls were unrolled and
copies were made and placed in libraries. It was
in the fifteenth century that Pope Nicholas V
founded the great Vatican library at Rome. He
collected five thousand voliunes at a cost of $250,-
000. This Pope kept several hundred clerks at
work copying books, for you must remember that
there were no printing presses at that time.
Constantinople was the only city that had not
been taken by the invading tribes. Many valuable
collections of books were kept there. Schools were
kept up and many learned Greeks taught in them.
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THE REVIVAL OP LEARNING 229
In the thirteenth century the Turks began to attack
this city. They crossed the Bosporus and cap-
tured all the land about the city. The Turkish Sul-
tan, Baj-a-zet', defeated an army of one hundred
thousand French and German knights and swore
that in a short time " he would stable his horse in
St. Peter's Church at Rome."
But before Bajazet could carry out his plans,
his own kingdom in Asia was invaded by Tam-er-
lane', a descendant of the great Genghis Khan of
whom we read in the story of China. His name
was reaUy Timour the Lame. He was so called
because he was lame in one of his legs. But this
name was changed into Tamerlane.
Tamerlane ruled in Turkestan. His capital
was at Sam-ar-cand', where he lived in a fine palace
of marble. He was chief of the Mongols, a tribe
of Tartars. He had conquered all of Asia except
India and Turkey, both of which he afterwards did
conquer. He was more cruel than Attila, the
" scourge of God." It is estimated that he burned
and plundered fifty thousand towns and killed five
millions of people. When he took Ispahan in Per-
sia he slew seventy thousand. At Delhi in India,
one hundred thousand prisoners were massacred.
He took Bagdad, the old capital of Haroim-al-
Raschid, and made a pyramid of ninety thousand
heads at the gates of the city.
He now decided to subdue the whole world.
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statue of Gutenburg, the Inventor of the Printing Press.
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THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 231
"There is only one God in heaven," said he,
" and there should be only one king on earth."
From Bagdad he marched west. Bajazet hurried
away from Constantinople to meet him. They met
at Angora in Asia Minor. The Turkish army was
destroyed. Bajazet was made a prisoner. Tim-
our put him in an iron cage and chained him to
one of the bars. In this way he was carried from
place to place for the amusement of the Mongol
soldiers.
Tamerlane returned to his capital and gave sev-
eral weeks to feasting. Then he called his armies
together and set out to reconquer China which had
just rebelled and had driven out her Mongol em-
perors. On the march he died. His empire fell to
pieces at once, and the world breathed a little more
freely when it heard that he was dead.
The people of Constantinople knew that sooner
or later their city would be taken. They could
hardly muster ten thousand soldiers while their ene-
my had several hundred thousand. Many Greeks
began to leave the city for Italy, Teachers and
scholars, who owned precious parchment rolls, took
their treasures to Italy. They set up schools in the
Italian cities, where they taught Greek and Latin.
They were made welcome. The Italians had
become earnest students of these languages and
they gave their wealth to these Greek teachers.
Many hundreds and even thousands of these pre-
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OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
cious old books of Greece and Rome were thus
saved. For in 1453 Mohammed II besieged Con-
stantinople -with two hundred thousand men and
took it by storm. He took down the cross from
Mohammed II. Entering Constantinople.
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THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 233
the steeple of the cathedral of St. Sophia, and put
up the crescent, the sign of the Mohammedan re-
ligion.
Since 1453 the Turks have continued to hold
the city on the Bosporus, that Constantine had
thought the finest place in the whole world for a
capital.
While the Italian clerks were slowly copying
old manuscripts with pen and ink, a German, John
Gutenburgj of JVIainz, w^as inventing a quicker
method of book -making- Long ages ago the Chi-
nese had discovered a way of printing. Before
Gutenburg's time thi^ Chinese method was in use
in Kurope also.
A block of hard wood was made of the size of
the page to be printed. On this block was care-
fully carved the words and sentences of that page,
^V'^hen this was done, the wood aroimd the letters
was cut away leaving the letters standing out in
relief.
Ink was ]3ut on the block. It was then care-
fully pressed down on a sheet of paper, just as we
use a rubber stamp to-day,
Gutenburg improved this method by cutting
out each letter separately on a piece of wood or
metal. When this movable type had been used to
print one page, it could be taken out to set up
another page. Thus the printing press was in-
vented in 1438. About the same time also the art
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234 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
of making paper from linen rags was discovered.
These were two of the greatest inventions ever
made by man.
A few years after this invention, printing
presses were set up in Italy. The greatest printer
of the age was Al'-dus Ma-nu'-ti-us of Venice.
John Gutenburg aiid the First Printing Press.
Gutenburg's first printed book was a Latin Bible
made about 1450.
Aldus printed hundreds of books in Greek and
Latin. His books were famous for their beauty
and freedom from mistakes.
Scholars from England, France, and Germany
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THE REVIVAL OP LEARNING 235
flocked to Italy to learn of the great teachers there.
When they returned to their homes they carried
with them copies of the books they had studied.
Teaching in the Italian schools consisted in read-
ing and copying the old Greek and Latin manu-
scripts. First the teacher would read a passage.
This was written down by the class. Then the
teacher would explain the meaning of the passage
copied ; this was also written. When the course was
finished, each pupil would have a complete copy of
the book along with the explanations given by the
teacher.
In a few years schools were established all over
Europe for the study of Greek and Latin, or the
New Learning, as it was called. Books on geog-
raphy and travel were eagerly read, for men had
begun to make voyages along the coasts of Africa
and northern Europe.
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MODERN HISTORY
XXII. THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES
When Alexander the Great led his army into
India he was surprised to find a rich and prosper-
ous land.
The Greek settlers in Asia began a trade with
India which was kept up for many centuries.
Even before Alexander's time it is probable that
the Phoenician merchants carried on trade with the
far Eastern countries by way of Babylonia.
When the Crusaders marched through Asia
Minor, they were astonished at the wealth and
splendor of the great cities. They were delighted
with the perfumes and spices of Arabia. The skill
of the Arabs in the making of steel weapons was
greater than their own. The people of Asia could
make beautifully dyed cloths. They also under-
stood arithmetic, algebra, chemistry, and astron-
omy, and had translated many of the Greek books
into their own language.
Through the Crusaders, the people of Europe
became accustomed to the luxuries of Eastern coim-
tries. When these wars were over, the Italian
cities, especially Venice and Genoa, began a trade
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THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES 237
with Asia that made them the richest cities in the
world. The goods brought to these cities were sold
to kings and nobles through all Europe.
By and by travelers made their way to far-off
Cathay, or China, and to the Spice Islands of the
East Indies. The most noted of these travelers,
Marco Polo, has already been mentioned as a vis-
itor at the court of Kublai, the Tartar emperor of
China. ^ i^
Polo wrote an account of his travels. The tales
he told of the splendid cities and rich palaces of
marble, ivory, and gold, were not believed by his
fellow-countrymen. He told of the island of
Cipango in the ocean east of Cathay. He made a
voyage among the Spice Islands, along the coast of
India, and through the Persian Gulf, and every-
where he saw signs of luxmy and wealth. At the
close of his life some one asked him if he had
not erred in his account of his travels. " Every
word of it is true," said he.
The merchants of Genoa were friendly with
the Greek emperors of Constantinople. They were
allowed to send their ships into the Black Sea and
to trade with the people in southern Russia. From
this place they sent caravans overland to China,
and brought back the rich silks of that country.
Venice traded in the eastern Mediterranean
with Egypt and the coast of Asia, where they met
caravans which journeyed as far as the Tigris and
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238 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Euphrates rivers and the Persian Gulf. There
these caravans bought goods of other caravans that
came from countries still farther east.
When the Turks took possession of Western
Asia they would no longer allow the Christian mer-
chants to trade in those parts, and after they took
Constantinople they shut the vessels of Genoa out
of the Black Sea. Their pirate ships swarmed in
the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, and it
was unsafe for a merchant vessel to venture into
those parts, unless well armed.
The Turks sailed even out into the Atlantic and
along the coasts of Europe and Africa, and many
a battle was fought with them by sailors of Italy
and Portugal.
Columbus tells of a sea fight which a vessel of
Genoa had with a Turk off the Portuguese coast.
The Genoese ship was sunk and the crew swam
ashore, Colimibus among them.
When the Eastern trade routes were thus cut
off by the Turks, the Italian cities began to search
for a new route to India by sea. In this work the
Portuguese took the lead. Marco Polo had told of
a great ocean on the east coast of India and China.
If they could only find this ocean! But Africa was
in the way. They must sail aroimd it. It was not
thought to be very far. But there were strange
ideas about the ocean in those times. People
thought that if one sailed out to the edge of the
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240 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
ocean, the ship would fall off the earth, or else be
destroyed by the terrible monsters that were
thought to live there. They thought the earth to be
flat, like a round pie dish, and that the ocean was a
great stream flowing around the outer edge.
Then it was believed that as one approached the
equator, the water became boiling hot, and of
course no one could sail a ship on boiling water.
But Prince Henry of Portugal was not dis-
turbed by these tales. He sent out ship after ship
along the coast of Africa to look for a strait
through it or a way around it. He also told his
sailors to go ashore and look for gold. The sailors
were easily frightened and soon turned back.
When they reached Cape Non, they were met with
such terrible storms that they did not think it pos-
sible to go farther.
When Prince Henry died in 1463, his sailors
had gone as far as the gold coast. In 1471 they
crossed the equator and were astonished not to find
boiling water. At last in 1486, Batholomew Diaz
reached the most southern point of Africa, which
was named the Cape of Good Hope. For now
they had " good hope " of reaching Polo's won-
derful ocean and the Indies.
In 1498 four ships sailed under the command
of Vasco da Gama, a young man, but one who was
never frightened by anything. When he reached
the Cape, the storms so alarmed his men that they
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THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES 241
resolved to turn back. But Vasco locked them up
and sailed on.
He passed the Natal coast on Christmas Day,
which he named in honor of the birth of Christ.
On he sailed up the eastern coast. At Mozambique
he f oimd a pilot who knew the way to India. Then
they struck eastward across the Indian Ocean and
arrived at last in the harbor of Calicut on the west-
tern coast of India. The road to the Indies was
found at last.
Everywhere da Gama found the Moors in pos-
session of the trade. A battle was fought with them
at Calicut before they would allow the Portuguese
to go ashore. In 1500 da Gama returned to Lis-
bon with his ships laden with the treasures of the
East. The Portuguese then sailed frequently over
da Gama's route to India. Their great generals,
Al-me'-i-da and Al-bu-quer'-que, drove out the
Mohammedans, and Portuguese settlements took
their place along the African coast.
While the Portuguese were sailing east around
Africa in search of the Indies, Columbus was hop-
ing to find them by sailing west. When he read
Polo's tale of a great ocean east of Asia, he said
that this ocean was only the western side of the
Atlantic Ocean, and that the world was round like
a globe and not flat like a plate as most people
thought. Being round, India could be reached by
sailing west, just as a fly can walk around an apple.
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THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES 243
When Columbus asked help of the King of
Spain to fit out a fleet, that king was making a
final eff^ort to drive the Mohammedans out of
Spain, After ten years of bloody war, the Moorish
kingdom of Gra-na'-da was taken. Bo-ab-dil', the
last king, fell in battle, and the people were given
the choice of becoming Christians or leaving the
country. For a hundred years longer the Moorish
people remained in Spain, But on account of cruel
persecution many left. In 1609 Phihp III drove
the last of them, about a million, out of the land.
It was in 1492 that Queen Isabella at last gave
Columbus three ships for his western voyage. His
discovery of a new world in the West was the most
important event in the history of the world.
For many years America was thought to be a
part of India. But in 1513 a Spaniard, Bal-bo'-a,
crossed the Isthmus of Darien and saw the great
Pacific Ocean. Six years later, Ferdinand Ma-
gel'-lan, a Portuguese sailor, was trying to find a
shorter voyage around the southern end of South
America into the Pacific Ocean. He crossed this
ocean to the islands south of Asia and came back to
Portugal by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He
had sailed aroimd the world.
Magellan had proved that America was a new
continent separate from India. But he had also
found the voyage to be far longer than the route
around Africa. Magellan did not live to reach
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THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES 245
home, and only one of his five ships returned. The
tale of his voyage is one of the most thrilling and
interesting in history.
These voyages would not have been possible
had it not been for the mariner's compass, by which
the sailor can steer his ship in fair weather or in
storm, by day or by night. And without gun-
powder and muskets the explorers would not have
been able to conquer the fierce natives that they
found on every coast. It was the savage tribes in
the Philippine Islands that killed Magellan, and
the first colony that Columbus established in Hayti
was soon destroyed by the Indians.
A new period in the history of the world begins
with the voyage of Columbus and the finding of the
Indians. We call it modern history. Three great
inventions mark the beginning of this period,
the printing press, the compass, and gunpowder.
The story of printing has already been told in
the Chapter on " The Revival of Learning." Both
gunpowder and the compass were known in China
at least 2,000 years before they were invented in
Europe. The compass now in use was invented
by Flavio Gioja (Fla'-vi-o Jo'-ya), an Italian,
about 1300. A few years before this, gunpowder
was discovered by Roger Bacon, a learned stu-
dent and professor at Oxford, England. It was
first used in war by the English at the battle of
Cre'-cy in France, 1346.
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XXIII. PETER THE GREAT AND
RUSSIA
In the story of the Northmen we have seen how
a pirate chief, Rurik, began the kingdom of Rus-
sia. The Finns, living along the Baltic Sea, called
the invaders Rustsi (pirates). From this came the
word Russia. But the Mongols and Turks, who
invaded Europe from time to time, completely
crushed the little kingdom. The Russians were
made slaves and forced to pay tribute for more
than two hundred years.
In the fifteenth century, Ivan the Great freed
his country from the Tartars and built up a new
kingdom at Moscow. In 1682 the greatest of the
Russian rulers, Peter the Great, came to the throne
of Muscovy, as the country was then called. Dur-
ing his reign of forty-three years, he changed his
little barbarous kingdom into a great and progres-
sive modem empire.
One of Peter's intimate friends was a Swiss
named Lefort. Lefort had traveled widely, and
he told Peter how affairs were managed in the
great European nations.
Peter's first work was to get seaports. His only
port was Archangel, in the north. The harbor was
frozen during the greater part of the year and
was of little use. The Swedes held the Baltic, and
the Tartars kept the region bordering on the Black
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PETER THE GREAT AND RUSSIA 247
Sea. In two expeditions Peter broke the Tartar
power in the south and seized a port on the Sea of
Azof.
But he needed a fleet. The Russians had no
ships and did not know how to build them.
Peter determined to learn how. He disguised
himself as a common laborer and went to Holland.
The Dutch were the best shipbuilders in the world
at that time. He hired himself to a rich shipbuilder
at Amsterdam and helped to build a large vessel for
the East Indian service. He learned the whole proc-
ess of building a ship, from the laying of the keel
to the rigging of the sails.
After a time it leaked out that the active and
hustling workman was the King of Russia. The
Dutch called him Boss Peter. They have preserved
the little house where he lived, and you may still
see the two rooms where he cooked his food and
slept.
Peter was not content to learn one thing. He
also studied medicine, learned to pull teeth, and
studied the manufacture of paper, flour, and the
construction of mills and printing presses. In
fact, every art and industry that he thought might
be of use to build up his own country was care-
fully studied. He was not interested in war, but
later he became a good soldier.
From Holland he went to England. King
William III gave him a beautiful vessel fitted out
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PETER THE GREAT AND RUSSIA
249
for war, and arranged a mock naval battle to show
him howto use it. When Peter departed he slipped
into the king's hand a large and beautiful ruby of
great value.
Ivan the Great had organized a powerful com-
pany of guards called the Strel'-it-zes. This im-
perial bodyguard reminds us of the Pretorian
Guard at Rome. When the government did not
suit them, they rebelled and set up a king that they
liked better.
While Peter was studying naval tactics in Eng-
land, he heard that the Strelitzes had revolted. He
hurried back to Moscow, and with his own sword
he cut off the heads of a hundred of the rebels in
an hour. He then disbanded them altogether and
organized a new army.
The dress of the Russians was like that of the
Turks. They wore long robes with wide sleeves,
and long beards were the height of fashion. Peter
wanted them to dress like the people of civilized
countries, and made a law that every man except the
priests should cut off his beard. He ordered the
long robes to be shortened, and the loose sleeves to
be made smaller. W^hen some of his courtiers ob-
jected to this new regulation, Peter took a pair of
shears and clipped off their beards and skirts him-
self. He also placed barbers and tailors at the
gates of the city, and when a long-bearded Russian
came along he was seized and shaved.
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PETER THE GREAT AND RUSSIA 249
for war, and arranged a mock naval battle to show
him how to use it. When Peter departed he slipped
into the king's hand a large and beautiful ruby of
great value.
Ivan the Great had organized a powerful com-
pany of guards called the StreV-it-zes. This im-
perial bodyguard reminds us of the Pretorian
Guard at Rome. When the government did not
suit them, they rebelled and set up a king that they
liked better.
While Peter was studying naval tactics in Eng-
land, he heard that the Strelitzes had revolted. He
hurried back to Moscow, and with his own sword
he cut off the heads of a hundred of the rebels in
an hour. He then disbanded them altogether and
organized a new army.
The dress of the Russians was like that of the
Turks. They wore long robes with wide sleeves,
and long beards were the height of fashion. Peter
wanted them to dress like the people of civilized
countries, and made a law that every man except the
priests should cut off his beard. He ordered the
long robes to be shortened, and the loose sleeves to
be made smaller. When some of his courtiers ob-
jected to this new regulation, Peter took a pair of
shears and clipped off their beards and skirts him-
self. He also placed barbers and tailors -at the
gates of the city, and when a long-bearded Russian
came along he was seized and shaved.
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250 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
The results of Peter's travels were now seen in
other changes. He began by building schools and
factories. Then he laid out roads and canals, and
established a postal system. The gold and silver
were made into new coins, mining was begim, and
new laws were made, giving the people of each
town a share in the government.
While Peter was busy with these things, a boy
of fifteen years became King of Sweden. Several
kings of Europe thought this a good time to rob
Sweden of some of her land. Peter wanted the
Baltic coast as a place to build a new capital, and
to afford harbors for his ships.
But the new king wai^ Charles XII, who turned
out to be a yoimg Alexander. He attacked Peter
at Narva, and with eight thousand men beat twenty
thousand Russians.
" The Swedes have beaten us this time," said
Peter, " but they will soon teach us how to beat
them." And they did. At PuV-to-wa, the Rus-
sians so defeated the army of Charles that he fled
into Turkey with less than a dozen men.
Peter then filled in the marshes along the river
Neva and built the city of St. Petersburg. This
brought Russia into the midst of European affairs,
and made her one of the greatest of the nations.
One more war, this time against Persia, brought
to Russia the Caspian Sea and the land around it.
Two years later Peter died of a fever which he got
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PETER THE GREAT AND RUSSIA
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by exposing himself in assisting some shipwrecked
sailors in the Gulf of Finland.
Forty years after his death (1762) another
great sovereign came to the throne of Russia. This
was Catherine the Great, the ablest woman that
The Battle of Pultowa.
ever sat on a throne. She was fully as active and
far more wicked than the great Peter himself.
There is only one of Catherine's many deeds
that we shall now try to remember, and that one is
the seizure of Poland. With Prussia and Austria
she divided that kingdom, and each of the robbers
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252 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
took a part. The Poles fought desperately under
their patriotic leader, Kos-ci-us'-ko, but they were
defeated by the three giants who seized their
country.
" Now," said Catherine, " I have a doormat on
which I may step when I go into Europe."
Poland was ruled by a Russian governor at
first, and the people were allowed to have their own
laws and the Catholic religion. But in 1832 they
rebelled on account of harsh government.
After a series of bloody battles they were put
down, and eighty thousand of them were exiled to
Siberia in one year.
The Roman Catholic religion was suppressed
and the Greek Catholic faith forced upon the
people.
The Russian Government is still the harshest in
Europe. Some day the people will no doubt rise
up and demand liberty.
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XXIV. PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS
There was once an uprising of the people in an
old city of Europe. Some of the rebels were seized
by the soldiers, and one poor stuttering fellow was
brought before the king.
" Why have you rebelled against me? " sternly
asked the king.
" For t-t-to-o m-much taxes," was the poor fel-
low's reply.
" Too much taxes " has been the cause of much
trouble between people and kings. It has brought
about revolutions, or changes of government. The
revolutions in England, in France, and in America
were all caused by too much taxes. The people will
put up longer with a king who takes their lives
than they will with one who takes their money.
A great deal of the old history is about kings
and nobles. But in the modern history we find
more about the people. In most countries they
were kept under by the king, the priests, and the
soldiers. But gradually they have gained a share
in the affairs of government. Usually they gained
their rights through bloody wars and deeds of vio-
lence, for tyrants do not give up power easily.
Let us see now how the people threw off the
rule of their kings in some of the leading nations.
After the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Scotch
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254 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
king, James Stuart, became King James I of Eng-
land. He believed that a king had the right to
make any laws he pleased, whether the people liked
them or not. He also thought he had a right to
tax them without their consent. James's son,
Charles I, succeeded him in 1625.
In England, as we have learned, there was a
body of men called the Parliament. Every coimty
and city chose two men to represent them in this
Parliament. These men made up the House of
Commons. The nobles and bishops composed the
House of Lords. No tax could be raised without
the consent of the House of Commons.
As soon as Charles began to reign, he levied
taxes on the people without asking the House of
Commons. They then drew up a document called
the Petition of Right, and made the king sign it.
In this he agreed not to take money from the
people in any way without the consent of Par-
liament.
But the king broke his word and taxed the
people more than ever. At last they and the Par-
liament began war against him. The great leader
in this civil war was Oliver Cromwell. For three
years the war went on. Cromwell won the battles
of Marston Moor and Nase'-by. The king was
taken prisoner, and put to death as a " tyrant,
traitor, murderer, and public enemy."
England then became a republic with Cromwell
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256 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
at the head of it. He was called Protector of the
Commonwealth.
After his death, the son of Charles I became
king. He ruled according to the laws of the coun-
try. But his brother, James II, came to the throne
in 1685, and began to rule in the old way, without
the consent of the Parliament.
James tried to change the religion of the coun-
try, as well as to collect taxes imlawfully. He put
many people to death without a fair trial. The
people soon came to hate him so much that they de-
clared the throne vacant and made William of Or-
ange king. William was King of Holland, and a
descendant of William the Silent, who had fought
against Philip II. This change of kings is called
the English Revolution.
Since that event the people have gained more
and more power in England, imtil to-day they
have entire charge of the government, while the
king has very little power left.
In 1775 the American colonies rebelled against
another English king, George III. He tried to do
what the Stuart kings had done — ^tax them without
their consent. A long war followed, which we call
our Revolutionary War. The colonies won and
became the United States of America. The great
leader of the colonial armies was George Wash-
ington, who took command at Boston in 1775. By
March of the following year he had driven the Brit-
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 257
ish out of that city. But he was defeated in Au-
gust, 1776, in the battle of Long Island, and was
obliged to retreat across the Delaware River into
Pennsylvania. In the meantime the Declaration
of Independence had been signed at Philadelphia,
July 4, 1776. For five years longer the war went
on until the British were surrounded at Yorktown,
and their general. Lord Cornwallis, compelled to
surrender. The independence of the new republic
of the United States was acknowledged when a
treaty of peace was made in 1783.
George III was the last English king who had
very much power. The Parliament declared that
the " King's power had increased too much . and
ought to be diminished." And they speedily di-
minished it.
The next uprising of the people took place in
France. Again it was " too much taxes " that
caused the trouble. France had been governed by
kings since the time of Clovis, twelve hundred years
before. The king was assisted in the government
by a council of his nobles, and by an assembly of
the people. We have read how all the freemen
met in the time of Charlemagne to assist the king.
But after Louis XI conquered his vassals he took
all the power himself, and neither the nobles nor
the people had anything to do in ruling the country.
From 1643 to 1715 Louis XIV had been king.
The French called him the Magnificent. He ruled
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 259
alone. Such a government we call an absolute
monarchy. He fought long and expensive wars
with England, Germany, and the Netherlands.
These wars made the taxes very heavy.
There were about one hundred thousand nobles
and priests in France who owned one half the land.
They paid no tax at all. The people who owned
the other half of the land paid all the taxes. The
nobles as well as the king taxed the people. It was
said: " The nobles take half of the people's money
and the king takes the rest."
They had to work on roads and public works
without pay. They were taxed for everything
they bought; and every peasant who sold any vege-
tables or grain had to pay a tax when he took them
to market.
Black bread with a piece of onion to flavor it
was their food. Besides, they had to make the flour
in the lord's mill and bake the bread in his oven,
and pay well for the privilege. They were not
allowed to build fences to protect their crops, be-
cause that interfered with the lord's hunting. At
night they had to stay up and thrash the frog-
ponds, so that the croaking of the frogs might not
disturb the lord's sleep.
During* the reign of Louis XV (1715-74),
things grew worse and worse. He was wicked and
wasted the public money. England took away
the French colonies in India and America. France
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lost her fleets and armies. More taxes were laid
on the suffering people until they became rebel-
lious and desperate from starvation.
" After me comes the deluge," said Louis to his
courtiers on his deathbed. And a deluge of fire
and blood did come in the shape of the French
Revolution.
The next king was Louis XVI, the grandson
of Louis XV. He was married to Marie Antoi-
nette, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria.
A boy and girl became the rulers of a coimtry that
needed the genius of a Caesar or a Napoleon.
The king called the clergy and the nobles to-
gether to see what could be done to pay the great
debt that had been brought on by the foolish wars.
But they refused to pay a cent of tax, and the peo-
ple could not pay any more.
Next the States General was summoned. This
included, besides the nobles and the clergy, the rep-
resentatives of the people, who were called the
Third Estate.
The Third Estate soon took the power into their
own hands, and called themselves the National As-
sembly. The king attempted to send them home,
but they declared that they would never go till they
had reformed the government of France. They
drew up a constitution, or law, which took away
from the king the power to levy taxes, and gave
it to an assembly of the people. This government
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 261
lasted only a year. Then a new assembly, called
the National Convention, met in 1792.
During this time (1789-92) the king had en-
listed a bodyguard of German and Swiss soldiers.
This angered the people. They took the Bastile
(Bas-teel'), or state prison where the tyrannical
kings had kept their prisoners, and leveled it to
the gromid. The king and queen were made pris-
oners in Paris. Once they nearly succeeded in es-
caping from France, but they were captm^d and
brought back and kept as prisoners in the palace
of the Tuileries (Twe'-le-riz). Many French
nobles had fled from the coimtry to get help to
restore the king to power. Prussia and Austria
sent armies to Paris imder the Duke of Bnms-
wick. But the Revolutionary generals defeated
him.
A Paris mob attacked the Tuileries and killed
the Swiss guards to the last man. Then about ten
thousand royalists^ that is, those who favored the
king, were taken from the jails and killed.
When the National Convention met, they abol-
ished the monarchy, and made France a republic.
The king and queen were put to death. Now be-
gan the time that is called the Reign of Terror.
During this period everybody suspected of favor-
ing a return to the old government was beheaded.
An instrument called the guil'-lo-tine was invented
for cutting off heads quickly, and a special sewer
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262 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
had to be made to carry off the blood. It was like
the days of Mariiis and Sulla in ancient Rome.
In the city of Nantes (Nants) , thirty thousand
were killed. Killing one at a time took too long,
so the prisoners were lined up and mowed down
with cannon. Sometimes a ship would be loaded
with victims and sunk in the river. Three hundred
little children were drowned at one time in the river
Loire.
At last Robes-pierre', the leader in the work of
blood, was himself sent to the guillotine. The peo-
ple came to their senses again, and the work of the
mob was over.
In October, 1795, the Convention met to form
another government for France. Its members had
seen enough blood, but the Paris mob, " Terror-
ists " they were called, had not. About forty
thousand men and women surroimded the palace
where the Convention met. They forced back the
troops, and the members were in fear of their
Hves.
Two years before this, when the French army
had captured the city of Toulon, a young officer
of the artillery had shown great skill in planting
the guns. There was one man in the Convention
who had been present.
" I know of a man," cried he, " who can pro-
tect us from the mob."
That man was Napoleon Bo'-na-parte, a native
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 263
of the island of Corsica. He was then twenty-six
years of age. The Convention put him in com-
mand of the troops, and adjourned until the next
day. During the night Napoleon planted cannon
facing every street that led to the Tuileries palace
and charged them with grape shot.
The next day came, and the Convention met.
The mob again advanced, determined to kill the
men who were trying to restore order. They were
allowed to approach within a himdred yards; when
boom! whifF! they were met by a hail of shot that
sent them flying back in wild disorder, leaving hun-
dreds of dead and dying on the ground. The mob
and France had found a master.
The yoirng man who thus became famous in a
day was born in the island of Corsica in 1769. He
was educated in a French military school and ap-
pointed to the army at the age of sixteen. In
school he was noted for industry and perseverance.
A hard problem was once given to his class. Napo-
leon shut himself in his room and worked at it for
seventy-two hours, and solved it.
The Directory at once made him commander
of the National Guard. It was his business to de-
fend Paris. But the enemies of France were com-
ing on every side, and he was first sent to Italy to
meet the Austrians and Sar-din'-i-ans.
In eighteen months he had compelled both coun-
tries to make peace. He had won fourteen battles.
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OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
and taken a hundred thousand prisoners with two
thousand pieces of cannon.
France then declared war against England, and
Napoleon was put in command. He took a fleet
and army to Egypt, intending to take possession
Napoleon at School.
of that country, and then to attack the English pos-
sessions in India.
But there he failed. Admiral Nelson destroyed
his fleet in the Battle of the Nile, and Napoleon re-
turned to Paris. The people received him joy-
fully. The Directory had failed to govern success-
fully, and Napoleon drove them out. He then took
chargre of affairs himself- He was called the
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 265
" First Consul.'* There were two other consuls, but
Napoleon had all the power.
Austria had begun war again, but was defeated
in the battles. of Ma-ren'-go and Ho-hen-lin'-den
and forced to make peace.
Napoleon was made First Consul for Ufe in
1802 by a vote of the people. In 1804 they chose
him Emperor of France. From that time imtil
the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, he was constantly
engaged in war. The story of Napoleon's life is
a story of battles.
Let us see what these wars were about. It was
a rule in Europe that no one country should be al-
lowed to become too strong, for fear it might seize
upon its weaker neighbors. This was called keep-
ing the balance of power. The balance of power
was then in favor of France. Napoleon had seized
lands in Italy and Germany which did not belong
to France, and the other countries joined together
to make him give up the conquered territories.
England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden made
the first great attempt to overthrow him.
To fight England, he must invade that coun-
try. So he gathered a great army at Bou-logne',
and was only waiting for his ships to come to take
his army across the English Channel. But Nelson
destroyed his fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, and
Napoleon was obliged to give up the attempt.
He then marched his army into Austria, where
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 267
he defeated one hundred thousand Russians and
Austrians at Aus'-ter-litz. It was his greatest
victory.
In 1806 Prussia joined the alliance against him.
In two battles he crushed that country and took
possession of Berlin.
While there he visited the tomb of the famous
fighter, Frederick the Great. The sword of the
great general was kept suspended over his grave.
Napoleon took it down and said :
" I will send this to France as a relic."
Said one of his generals, " If I were you I
should keep it for myself."
" Have I not then a sword of my own? " asked
the emperor.
The next year (1807) Russia was completely
overwhelmed at the Battle of Fried'-land and com-
pelled to ask for peace.
The emperor and the czar met on a raft. " Do
you hate England? " asked Napoleon.
" As much' as you do," answered the czar.
" Then," said Napoleon, "peace is soon made."
He next began war against Spain and Portu-
gal to get control of those countries. This war was
called the " Peninsular War."
England sent an army imder Sir Arthur Wel-
lesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington) to the aid
of these countries. After a long struggle Napo-
leon's generals were defeated and driven out.
During the Peninsular War Russia had broken
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 269
her agreement with Napoleon, so he invaded that
country with half a million of soldiers. The Rus-
sians allowed him to march as far as Moscow, and
they then burned the city. But they would not
fight him. They destroyed all the food, and made
the coimtry through which he must march a desert.
Winter came on and Napoleon had to retreat to
France. In that terrible retreat he lost three hun-
dred thousand men.
Again his enemies joined against him and de-
feated him at Leip'-sic. He then resigned the em-
pire and went to the little island of Elba to live.
But he broke his agreement to live a private
life and escaped to France. He soon raised a fresh
army and hurried to meet the English and Prus-
sians in Belgium.
At Waterloo he met the English under the
Duke of Wellington. After a stubborn battle he
was defeated and his army driven from the field.
He was not allowed to escape again, but was
taken in an English vessel to the island of St. Hel-
ena. There he died. May 1, 1821.
Louis XVIII, a brother of Louis XVI, was
then placed upon the throne a second time. He was
succeeded by Charles X. Charles was driven out
in 1830, and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was
chosen king. He was driven out in 1848 and a
republic established for the second time. Louis
Napoleon, nephew of the great general, was chosen
president.
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XXV. THE SETTLEMENT OF
NEW LANDS
Aftee the route to the Indies was discovered
by the Portuguese, and a new world found by Co-
lumbus, the nations of Europe made haste to send
ships and colonists to the new lands. Although
these lands were occupied already by other races,
it was considered right for Christian nations to
drive out the heathen and take their lands. The
Portuguese were the first to establish trading ports
along the coast of Africa. They also settled in
the islands of Java, Sumatra, and in the Moluccas.
When Philip II conquered Portugal all these col-
onies of Portugal became Spanish.
The Dutch were famous merchants and ship-
builders, and when Philip made war on them on
account of their religion, they sent their ships to the
East and seized all the Spanish settlements. Soon
all the tea, coffee, and spices of the Indies were
in the hands of the Dutch merchants, and they
grew rich by selling them to the nations of Eu-
rope.
The Dutch East India Company employed
Henry Hudson to look for a shorter road to the
Indies. He sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean
and entered the Delaware and Hudson rivers. He
took possession of all the land between these rivers
for Holland. They named it New Netherlands.
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PEOPLE AGAINST KINGS 271
The English king, Henry VII, sent out John
Cabot to find a western route to the Indies. Ca-
bot sailed along the coast of North America
and claimed all that part of it lying between
Nova Scotia and the Spanish possession on the
south.
. Colimibus had discovered the West India is-
lands and the coast of South America. Ponce de
Leon foimd the coast of Florida. Cortez con-
quered Mexico, and Pizarro, Peru. And so, the
southern half of the New World came into the pos-
session of Spain. The Pope had divided the new
lands between Spain and Portugal by drawing
a line straight around the globe, near the fifteenth
meridian. This gave Brazil and the East Indies
to Portugal. But all the.Western world belonged
to Spain.
But France, England, and Holland paid no
attention to the Pope's division of the world. It is
told of Francis I, the French king, that he asked
Philip to " show him the will of Father Adam by
which the New World was divided between Spain
and Portugal." The will was not foimd, evidently,
for Francis, too, sent out explorers, who sailed up
the St. Lawrence River and discovered the great
fisheries along the coast of Newfoimdland. This
part of the New World became known as Canada,
and was settled by the French.
The trade with the mainland of India was first
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in the control of Portugal and Holland. But
France and England soon took the greater part
of it from them. The English East India Com-
pany was established by Queen Elizabeth in 1600.
The merchants of this company built trading sta-
tions at Ma-dras' and Cal-cut'-ta in India.
From 1689 to 1782 France and England were
almost constantly at war. These wars were due to
the ambition of the kings of France, Louis XIV
and Louis XV, to make France more powerful
than the other nations. The war in America was
decided by the capture of Quebec in 1759. General
Wolfe and his army climbed the steep cliffs above
the city during the night. In the morning they
waited for the French to attack them on the Plains
of Abraham. Montcalm,* the French commander,
led his men against the foe, but the French were
defeated, and both Montcalm* and Wolfe were
killed. A single monimaent has been built to the
memory of both.
Only two years before this, in 1757, Robert
Clive had won the battle of Plassey in India. This
made the English supreme in the Valley of the
Ganges River, the richest part of India. The Eng-
lish continued to take town after town until now
they rule the whole of India. They owe their vast
empire in America and India to James Wolfe and
Robert Clive more than to any other two men.
Peace was made in 1763, and England made
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France give up nearly all her colonies in America
and India.
The English also gradually drove the Dutch
out of their African colonies. In 1806 they seized
Cape Colony, and the Dutch moved into Natal.
Then England took this also. Finally the Boers
(Boors) , as the Dutch were called, crossed the Vaal
River and settled the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal. These colonies were also taken by
England at the end of the Great Boer War in
1901. British East Africa, Egypt, and the Sudan,
are also under the control of England.
About 1775. the English began to settle Aus-
tralia. Gold was found there in 1851, and the
country grew rapidly. Sheep were found to thrive
in the dry climate, and stock-raising has become
the leading occupation. The English have also
settlements in the islands of the Pacific, in the East
Indies, and on the coast of China. About one-fifth
of the land surface of the globe is under the control
of Great Britain.
When the power of the Turks began to grow
less, France crossed the Mediterranean to attack
the pirates who had for several centuries mad^ that
sea unsafe for merchants. She took Algiers and
kept it. Later she seized Algeria and Tunis, while
Italy captured Tripoli from the Turks in 1911.
The discovery of the New World and the In-
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THE SETTLEMENT OP NEW LANDS 275
dies came at a time when many people in Europe
were most anxious to find new homes. The Span-
ish were led to go to the colonies in America by the
discovery of gold and silver in Mexico and Peru.
The Dutch were content with the profits of the
spice trade. Great coffee plantations grew up in
Java and Simiatra, and the Dutch farmers found
them very profitable. The French began a valu-
able fur trade with the Indians, and the fisheries
kept thousands of men busy.
The religious wars in Europe drove a multitude
of settlers to the New World. Protestants from
Germany, France, and England emigrated to
America. During the. reign of the tyrannical
English king Charles I, the Pilgrims and Puritans
left England and settled in Massachusetts. The
Quakers and Catholics also were persecuted, and
found homes in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
When Cromwell ruled, the friends of the Stuart
kings, called Royalists or Cavaliers, came in thou-
sands and built up the Virginia colony.
Thousands of people in England were out of
work. The land had been taken away from the
farmers. by the landlords and turned into sheep
pastures. This left many laborers out of employ-
ment, and they were glad to find a home in the
American colonies.
The Thirty Years' War in Germany compelled
many Germans to leave the country. The Hugue-
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276 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
nots, or French Protestants, were persecuted and
driven out of France by the Catholic kings. Many
went into Germany and Holland, and still more
found homes in America. All of these causes
brought thousands of good, industrious settlers to
the new lands.
The new colonies grew rapidly, and New Eng-
land, New France, New Netherlands, and New
Spain added much honor and wealth to the old
countries of Europe. After a time many of the
colonies across the ocean broke away from the
mother countries and made themselves into inde-
pendent nations.
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XXVI. THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE
A GREAT deal has been said in this book about
a German Empire. The old empire was a disor-
derly empire, where rival kings were constantly-
engaged in war. The emperor always had hard
work to keep his vassals in order. But the German
Empire of to-day is a imited, orderly, and well-
governed nation. It was established in 1871, and
the King of Prussia became the emperor. Prussia
was the youngest of the German states, but be-
came the strongest one. In this chapter we want
to learn something about the growth of Prussia
and how the new German Empire was formed.
The old German Empire was always exposed
to the attacks of savage people on the eastern bor-
der. It was the custom of the emperors to appoint
their bravest soldiers to rule over the mark, or bor-
der land, in order to keep out invaders. This offi-
cer was called markgraf, or count of the border.
In the times of Charlemagne, there was a border
state called the ost mark, or eastern border. Later
this state was called ost reich, or Austria, meaning
eastern kingdom.
The markgraf was allowed to conquer as much
of the enemy's land as he could and add it to his
mark. So it came about that the border state be-
came the largest and most powerful of the empire.
277
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278 OLD WORLD STiEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
In the twelfth century, the emperor appointed
a daring soldier, Albert the Bear, to govern the
north mark. He took the city of Branitu from
the Wends, a Slavonic race, and from it he called
his mark, Bran'-den-burg. When Albert's family
died out, Brandenbtu-g was given to Frederick of
Ho-hen-zoll'-em, an ancestor of the present Ger-
man emperor. In 1356 the Markgraf of Bran-
denburg obtained the right to vote at the elec-
tion of the emperor. This gave him the title of
Elector.
The greatest of the Electors of Brandenburg
was Frederick William, a HohenzoUem, who be-
gan to rule in 1640. In return for help which he
gave to the King of Poland in a war, he received
the Duchy of Prussia. This had been taken from
the Slavonic tribes by the Teutonic knights, when
they returned from the Crusades. Frederick, the
son of Frederick William, was crowned at Konigs-
berg, in 1688, as the first King of Prussia.
The next king was a rough, despotic man also
named Frederick William. He loved two things
above all else, money and big soldiers. He had a
regiment, called the Potsdam giants, nimibering
two thousand four hundred men. Some of them
were eight feet tall. He hunted all Europe for big
men, and wherever he heard of one, he induced him
in some way to join his famous regiment.
He was always busy, rushing about, and look-
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THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 279
ing over his shoulder right and left. If he saw
anyone idle, or lounging about, he would give him
a rap with his stick, and tell him to " be off and
get to work!" He especially despised fine and
showy clothes, and anyone who met him dressed
in this way was pretty certain to get a caning.
Though rough in his ways, he was very just, and
he would not suffer the poor people to be wronged
or injured in any way.
His little son Frederick, who was to become
Frederick the Great, had a harder time than most
boys. He was fond of pictures and music — things
which his father despised. He had a flute, but woe
to him if his father caught him playing on it. The
king wanted his son to study history, geography,
mathematics, and about guns and war, for he in-
tended to make a soldier of him. But Frederick
liked Latin and French — languages which his
father could see no use for.
At last Frederick and his tutor, Kat'-te, planned
to run away to England to the court of his uncle,
George II. But the plan was discovered. The
angry old king hanged Katte, and he came very
near hanging Frederick too. For a long time he
was kept in prison and fed on bread and water.
When his sister Mina was married, he was re-
leased, and his father seemed glad to have him
about again.
When Frederick William died, in 1740, Prus-
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sia was one of the strongest states in Europe. He
left a well-filled treasury and a well-disciplined
army of eighty thousand men.
Frederick — of course he was not called the
Great till after his death — soon showed that he had
a genius for war. His first war began at once.
The emperor, Charles VI of Austria, had left his
throne to his daughter, Maria Theresa. Being a
woman, the neighboring kings hoped to rob her of
part of her possessions. In those days " right was
the might of the strongest." Frederick wanted
Si-le'-sia, as it bordered on his kingdom, so he
marched his army into it and took possession.
France, Spain, and Bavaria also made ready to
seize other provinces.
Thus beset with enemies, Maria Theresa ap-
pealed to the Hungarian nobles. Dressed in
mourning, with crown on her head and sword at
her side, and carrying her infant son in her arms,
she appeared before the Diet. She was a beautiful
woman, and her beauty, her tears, and the pathetic
and eloquent address she made, stirred the chival-
rous Hungarian blood. In the old-time manner
they clashed their swords upon their scabbards, and
with uplifted blades, swore that they would die for
their queen.
England and Sardinia joined Austria in the
war that followed. But when it ended, Silesia re-
mained in the hands of Frederick. Prussia was
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THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 281
never known to give up anything that she had once
taken.
But Maria Theresa determined to have revenge
and to get Silesia. During the next eight years
she was busy enlisting allies on her side, while Fred-
erick enlarged and disciplined his army. Then the
Seven Years' War began. France, Russia, Po-
land, Saxony, and Sweden fought with Austria,
while Frederick had only the half-hearted support
of England.
Frederick, surrounded by enemies, attacked
them with a vigor and success that earned him the
title of Great. He beat the French at Ross'-bach,
the Austrians at Leuthen (Loi'-ten), and the Rus-
sians at Zorn'-dorf. But then his fortune failed
him. He lost two battles. The Russians and Aus-
trians defeated him so badly at Ku'-ners-dorf that
he wrote to his minister, " All is lost." The Rus-
sians took Berlin. He defeated the Austrians
again, but his treasury and his army were ex-
hausted, and Spain, too, joined his enemies.
At this point Peter III, a friend to Frederick,
came to the throne of Russia. Peter said that
he and Frederick together would " conquer the
world." They won a victory, but Peter was mur-
dered, and Russia called home her troops.
By this time Frederick's enemies were also ex-
hausted and ready for peace. It was made at Paris
in 1763. It was this treaty that stripped France
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THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 283
of her colonies. Frederick had won a reputation
as the greatest general in Europe, and Silesia is
still a part of the German Empire.
Frederick ruled Prussia until 1786. He was
a friend of the American colonies during the strug-
gle for independence, and sent a sword to General
George Washington. In his love for the common
people, and in respect for their rights, he was like
his father. In the. beautiful street, " Unter den
Linden," in Berlin, is a splendid bronze statue of
Frederick on horseback. A copy of this statue
was presented to the United States in 1904, and
now stands in the city of Washington.
During the wars of Napoleon, Prussia was ut-
terly crushed by the battles of Jena (Ya'-na) and
Auerstadt (Ou'-er-stet). Half of her possessions
were taken away and given to Napoleon's brother,
Jerome, who was made King of West-pha'-li-a.
But after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo by the
English and Prussians, Prussia got back all that
was lost.
There were at this time (1815) thirty-nine Ger-
man states, still separate and independent. But
there was a congress or diet, composed of delegates
from all these states, that had power to settle dis-
putes among them, and could act on matters that
concerned them all alike.
The German people felt that the states ought
to be joined together into one nation, instead of
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284 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
having thirty-nine nations. The leading German
states were Prussia and Austria. Since the time
of Frederick the Great they had been enemies. If
the German states were to be united, it was clear
that one of these rival states must remain out-
side the imion. It was like the case of two quar-
relsome families. One house would not be big
enough to hold both.
In 1848 Austria had a war with her Hxmgarian
subjects, who had revolted under the lead of Louis
Kossuth. In early life Kossuth had been a law-
yer and editor of a newspaper. The peasants of
Hungary were serfs, and the country was gov-
erned harshly by Austria. Kossuth wanted the
peasants to be made free, and the people to have
more rights. He had once been put into prison
for printing a newspaper, and he wanted a free
press.
In 1848 there was a great uprising of the peo-
ple through all Europe, demanding freedom and a
share in the government. Kossuth at this time was
a member of the Hungarian Diet. He now de-
manded an independent government for Hungary.
He became the head of the nation, raised armies,
and made ready for war. In 1849 Hungary was
declared independent of Austria. He won several
victories over the Austrians, and would have be-
come another Washington if Russia had not come
to the aid of his enemies. A Russian army joined
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THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE
285
the Austrians, and Kossuth was forced to surren-
der, August 18, 1849.
Kossuth fled into Tiu-key, and afterwards vis-
ited England and America. He was welcomed
Louis Kossuth.
everywhere as a patriot and the hero of his country.
We come now to the work of the greatest of
German statesmen, Otto von Bismarck. It was
he who imited the German states and founded the
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Grerman Empire. The King of Austria was presi-
dent of the German Diet, but Prussia was really
the strongest state.
In 1861 William I became King of Prussia,
and soon afterwards Bismarck became his Prime
Minister. Bismarck had been a member of the Diet
and minister to Russia and France. He was a
shrewd, bold man, but he knew how to work secretly
for his own ends, too. He had fully made up his
mind to make Prussia the head of the German
states, and to drive Austria out of German affairs.
Year after year he added soldiers to the army
imtil he had nearly half a million trained men. He
made a secret treaty with the King of Sardinia to
help against Austria, in case of war. He formed
a new plan of government for Germany, leaving
i^ustria out.
When two nations want to fight, they will soon
find something to fight about. In this case the
quarrel was about the two provinces, Hol'-stein and
Schles'-wig. These had been taken from Denmark,
f.nd Prussia and Austria could not agree as to the
division of them. Austria wanted the question to
be settled by the Diet, but Bismarck sent twenty
thousand soldiers into Holstein and said that " only
blood and iron could settle the question."
The war called the " Austro-Prussian War "
then began. Von Moltke, the commander of the
German armies, had the war all planned out before
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287
it began, and everything worked to perfection.
The states that were the allies of Austria were com-
pelled to remain neutral. King George of Hano-
Bismarck.
ver refused, and his army was surrounded and
taken prisoners.
The three Prussian armies then took up their
march toward Vienna. At the village of Sa-do'-wa
they met the Austrian army. Several victories had
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been won, but the battle at Sadowa was decisive.
A half million of men fought imtil noon without
victory on either side. Then a fresh Prussian army
arrived, and the Austrians were driven from the
field. By the treaty of peace that King Francis
Joseph was forced to make, Austria was no longer
to take any part in the affairs of Grcrmany.
A imion of the chief German states called the
North German Union was now formed. The
Prussian King was to be president of the imion
and command the armies. The king and Bismarck
already knew where they would soon have need of
armies.
Louis Napoleon was elected president of the sec-
ond French republic in 1848. This was called the
year of revolutions, because there were so many
of them. He made himself emperor in 1852, and
was called Napoleon III. He saw how strong
Prussia was growing, and hoped to be able to
check her. He was anxious to extend France to
the river Rhine. But when the French ambassador
spoke to Bismarck about giving up the rest of
Alsace to France, the man of "blood and iron"
very gruffly refused to think of it.
In 1870 something happened that brought on
war between France and Germany. The crown of
Spain was offered to a member of the House of
HohenzoUern, that is, the Prussian royal family.
Prince Leopold, to whom it was offered, re-
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THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 289
fused to accept. But Napoleon III wanted King
William to promise that no relative of his should
occupy the Spanish throne. The French minister
made this demand of the king on a public street
at Ems. The king told him " to see the ministry
at Berlin." At Berlin, Bismarck dismissed the am-
bassador with a rude refusal.
France began to call her armies together at
once. Every German state joined with Prussia,
and a million of German soldiers were soon in the
field. They were eager to avenge the wrongs that
the first Napoleon had brought upon them fifty
years before. The war with Austria lasted only
seven weeks. This war lasted only eight. The
French were beaten everywhere. The decisive bat-
tle was fought at Sedan, where the French had to
surrender ninety thousand men. Two months later
they surrendered their main army, one hundred
and seventy-six thousand men. Paris was then be-
sieged and taken.
Napoleon had surrendered his sword to King
William at Sedan. He did not dare return to
Paris, but at the close of the war fled to England.
His empire was over, and for the third time France
became a republic.
On Januai'y 18, 1871, in the palace of the
French kings at Ver-sailles', King William of
Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany. The
German states were at last imited to form a Ger-
man nation.
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XXVII. HOW ITALY BECAME
ONE NATION
All during the Middle Ages, that is, from 476
to 1492, Italy had no king ruling the whole coun-
try like England or France. But each city had its
own duke or prince. Rome and the near-by ter-
ritory was ruled by the Pope. This state of affairs
made the coimtry weak. The stronger nations, es-
pecially Spain, France, and Austria, overran Italy,
seized upon such of the cities as they wanted, and
added them to their own possessions.
During the first half of the fourteenth century
an attempt was made to unite the parts of Italy.
At this time the residence of the popes was in
France, and Rome was in great confusion, owing
to the quarrels of leading families. These fami-
lies built strong castles and behaved like the feudal
barons of Germany.
Nicolo di Rienzi is the hero of this first attempt
to imite Italy. His brother, a boy, had been killed
in the strife of the nobles, and he wished to be re-
venged upon them. Rienzi was a persuasive orator,
and he called the people together in secret meetings*
He asked them to meet him in Rome on a certain
day. On that day he appeared before them and
read to them a form of government and laws that
he had prepared. The people shouted their ap-
proval. They chose him chief ruler, and called
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HOW ITALY BECAME ONE NATION 291
him Tribune, after the old Roman officer of the
people.
For a time Rienzi ruled Rome well. Then he
planned to bring imder his government the other
Italian cities. Many of them favored his plans.
But the success he had seems to have turned his
head. He began to take on the appearance of roy-
alty. He called himself high-sounding titles, as,
August Tribime, Defender of Italy, and Friend
of Mankind. Finally, he had himself publicly
crowned with seven crowns.
Soon the clergy, the nobles, and many of the
people turned against him and drove him out of
Italy. Affairs in Rome became as bad as before.
After a time Rienzi returned. But he soon began
to levy high taxes, and behaved as foolishly as be-
fore. Then the people rebelled again. This time
they pursued him to the capital and stabbed him
to death. Petrarch, the poet who led in the revival
of learning, said of him:
" I loved his virtues. I praised his ends, and I
looked forward to the rule of Rome over a united
and happy Italy at peace with the world."
During the rule of the free cities of Italy, more
great men flourished than at any time in the world's
history. Athens, in the time of Pericles, is the only
city that can compare with Florence in the days of
Rienzi. The greatest artists and sculptors, poets,
and historians were bom in that city. Dan'-te,
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292 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Raph'-a-el, and Michaelangelo were some of the
greatest artists and poets.
In geography and science, too, Italy took the
lead. To prove this we need only name Colum-
bus, Vespucius, and Cabot among the discoverers.
In the early times man thought the earth to be
fixed and immovable, and that the sim and the stars
revolved around it. An early astronomer, Ptolemy
(Tol'-e-my), had taught this, and for many cen-
turies men believed it. Toward the end of the six-
teenth century a Polish astronomer, Co-per'-ni-
cus, taught that the sim is the center around which
the earth and the planets revolve, and that the stars
are fixed.
This idea of Copernicus was taught by the most
famous of Italian scientific men, Gal-i-le'-o. The
first discoveries of Galileo were made while he was
a medical student at the University of Pi'-sa.
There is a famous tower there that leans to one
side on account of the foundation having settled
unequally. It is known as the " leaning " tower.
From the top of this tower Galileo would drop
objects of different weight and material. He
found that two objects of the same size and shape
would strike the ground at the same time, no mat-
ter if one weighed more than the other.
He observed the swaying of a large chandelier
in the cathedral. It suggested to him the pendu-
lum, which is used in measuring time. But Gali-
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HOW ITALY BECAME ONE NATION 293
leo's greatest work was the invention of the tele-
scope, an instrument that makes distant objects
seem near. With it he discovered the moons of
Jupiter, and watched them revolve around that
planet. He also saw the black spots on the sun,
and could tell by the movement of these spots that
the sun turns on an axis like the earth.
He was the first to see the moimtains and val-
leys on the surface of the moon. The telescope
enabled him to see thousands of stars that could
not be seen by the naked eye.
Galileo became nearly blind in his old age.
John Milton, the greatest of English poets, went
to see him when, as a young man, he traveled in
Italy. The old philosopher took pleasure in ex-
plaining to the young Milton the mystery of the
sun, the planets, and their motions.
Before his death, in 1642, Italy had become the
most wicked country in Europe. Nowhere else
were there so many murders, poisonings, and revo-
lutions. Rulers were treacherous, and no man's
word could be trusted.
Much of this wickedness was caused by bad gov-
ernment. Early in the nineteenth century. Napo-
leon put the Pope in prison and added Italy to the
French Empire, but after his defeat it was given
back to its former owners. In the peace which came
to Europe at the end of the Napoleonic wars, in
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294 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
1815, the rulers of the nations banded together to
put down all opposition to their governments. Ex-
hausted by the long reign of disorder, the people
submitted for a time. Then the opportunity was
given for a gradual and orderly advancement in
self-government.
Instead of this, however, a distrust of the people
and a repression of their desires were conspicuous
in the governments of the nations of Continental
Europe. The pent-up force of the people's will
grew stronger with the years, and was certain to
burst forth in revolutionary uprisings sooner or
later. The very map of Europe was an absurdity.
The Austrian Empire was a patchwork made
up of many nationalities. There was no such thing
as an Austrian language or Austrian blood. Italy,
on the other hand, was divided among numerous
governments despite its unity of language, litera-
ture, and history. Venice and the northern part be-
longed to Austria ; the Pope ruled the central part ;
the south was called the Kingdom of Naples, and
was ruled by a king of the French Royal house,
the Bourbons. The northw^estern part, called
Piedmont, was part of the domain of Victor
Emmanuel I, King of Sardinia.
The French had given Italy a taste of liberty,
and when the old rulers began to rule harshly, there
were soon mutterings of discontent.
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296 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORJf
Plots and societies were soon f ormecf to over-
throw the tyrants. Two of the most noted leaders
of the patriots were Joseph Mazzini (Mat-se'-ne)
and Joseph Ga-ri-bar-di. They founded a secret
Garibaldi.
society called Young Italy, whose object was to
fight for the freedom and unity of Italy whenever
and wherever the chance came. Another older so-
ciety was the Car-bo-na'-ri, or charcoal-burners.
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HOW ITALY BECAME ONE NATION 297
These societies stirred up many revolts, but all
attempts to obtain rights for the people were put
down by the troops of Austria. Mazzini and Gari-
baldi had to flee from Italy to save their lives.
Garibaldi spent fourteen years in South America,
where he married a Spanish giri, Anita. In peace
or in war, this devoted wife was always with him
imtil her death.
In 1849 he returned to Rome where he stirred
up the people to resist the French and the Aus-
trians. When he saw that he was sure to be de-
feated, he led five thousand of his men through the
enemy to join the Sardinian king, Victor Emman-
uel II, in the north. The Austrians triumphed
again over conquered Italy.
Victor Emmanuel had for his minister a shrewd
statesman named Count Ca-vour'. Cavour in-
duced Napoleon III to help drive Austria out of
Italy. Sardinia had helped France in the Crimean
War (p. 220), and now France returned the favor.
The armies of France and Sardinia won two great
victories over the Austrians at Ma-gen'-ta and at
Sol-f e-ri'-no. Austria gave up all her Italian pos-
sessions, except Venice. That city and territory she
was soon to lose also.
In 1860 came one of the romantic adventures
of Garibaldi. The people of Naples and of Sicily
had rebelled against their king. Gathering a thou-
sand of his men, the hero of the " red shirt " sailed
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298 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
from Genoa for Sicily. He drove the troops of the
king out of Sicily. Then he crossed for Naples,,
where the people welcomed him as their saviour.
A vote was taken, and the people of Naples and
Sicily all agreed to join the kingdom of Victor
Emmanuel II.
The next step in uniting Italy was made in
1866, at the close of the Seven Weeks' War. Ca-
vour and Bismarck had agreed to make Austria
give up Venice, and it was done.
The final step was the most important of all.
The capital had been first at Turin, then at Flor-
ence. Rome was still held by the Pope, who was
protected by a French army.
When the Franco-Prussian War began, in 1870,
Napoleon III withdrew his troops from Rome to
fight Germany. Victor Emmanuel at once gave
notice to the Pope that Rome would now be made
the capital of the Italian kingdom. The people of
Rome voted to join the new kingdom. Thus the
domains of the popes, over which they had ruled
since the time of Pepin, King of the Franks, were
taken from them. It was the last stroke, Victor
Emmanuel at last ruled over a imited Italy; from
the Alps to the Mediterranean his rule was gladly
accepted.
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XXVIII. THE TURKS
The city of Constantine on the Bosporus came
into the hands of the Turks in 1453, and is still a
Mohammedan city. Five times each day from the
Calling to Prayer.
tower of each of the five hundred mosques of the
city, the voice of the muezzin, or priest, may be
heard calling the people to prayer:
" God is great; there is but one God; Moham-
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300 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
med is the prophet of God. Prayer is better than
sleep; come to prayer 1 "
Every good Mohammedan then turns his face
toward Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet, and
repeats a prayer.
The Turks are the only people of Europe who
are not Christians. They have always illtreated
the Christians who live in their coimtry. This per-
secution has led to many wars, which have ended
in taking away from Turkey several of her prov-
inces. The Turks would have been driven out of
Europe long ago if the Christian nations could
have agreed as to who should have their capital city.
In some ways Constantinople is the most impor-
tant city in Europe. One reason why it is impor-
tant is because it controls the entrance to the Black
Sea. Then, the nation that owns Constantinople
can send ships to any part of the eastern Mediter-
ranean, and to the mouth of the Nile. The Suez
Canal has become the great highway to the Indies.
More ships pass through this canal than any other.
England depends upon it to reach India, her great-
est colony. Now, a strong nation in control of
Constantinople and the Black Sea could easily
send war vessels and seize the Suez Canal. When
Turkey was a strong nation, she would not allow
any ships of other nations to sail on the eastern
Mediterranean. Now she is a weak nation and can-
not do this.
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302 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
Russia has made many attempts to drive out
the Turks and get Constantinople for herself. But
England and France have prevented this, for fear
that Russia would try to shut their ships out of the
Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.
The meaning of the " Eastern Question " is
this: if the Turks are driven out of Europe, what
nation shall have Constantinople?
In 1820 Turkey was greatly weakened by a
revolt among the imperial guard of the sultan.
This body of men was called the jan'-i-za-ries. Sev-
eral times they had rebelled and put the sultan to
death. At last Mohammed II determined to get
rid of them. Eight thousand were penned up in
their barracks and burned. Twenty thousand more
were executed or exiled. The rest were disbanded
and scattered.
In 1825 Greece rebelled against Turkey and
gained her independence. The hero of this war
was Marco Bozzaris (bot'za-res), who is sometimes
called the Leonidas of modern Greece. His great-
est deed was a night attack on the Turkish army,
in which he routed them and captured their camp.
It was his last battle.
* ' They fought like brave men, long and well ;
They piled that ground with Moslem slain ;
They conquered, but Bozzaris fell
Bleeding at every vein.
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THE TURKS 303
" Bozzaris, with the storied brave,
Greece nutured in her glory''s prime,
Rest thee ! There is no prouder grave,
Even in her own proud clime.
" We tell thy doom without a sigh,
For thou art Fi'eedom's now, and Tamer's,
One of the few — the immortal names,
That were not bom to die. *"
Turkey had been further weakened after the
Greek rebellion. Me'-hem-et Ali, the sultan's vice-
roy in Egypt, had rebelled against his lord. He
had destroyed the sultan's fleet and robbed him
of half his possessions. Mehemet even threatened
Constantinople. If England and other European
nations had not stopped him, he would have made
himself master of the whole Turkish Empire.
The bad treatment of the Christians living in
Turkey led to several wars with Russia. In 1858
Nicholas I, the Czar of Russia, proposed to Eng-
land to drive out the Turks and divide up the coun-
try between them. When England refused, the
czar began a war against Turkey " to protect the
Christians," he said. But England and France
thought what he wanted was Constantinople, and
they joined the Turks against him. This war is
called the Cri-me'-an War, because it was fought
mainly on the peninsula of Cri-me'-a.
The French and English defeated the Russians
in nearly every battle.
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304 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
At the battle of Bal-a-kla'-va occurred the fa-
mous " charge of the light brigade," about which
the English poet Tennyson has written a splendid
poem. This brigade was ordered to recapture some
guns which had been taken from the English. But
by mistake they attempted to take a battery two
miles away, in the very center of the Russian army.
*^ Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward.
All in the valley of death
Rode the six hundred.
* Foi*wai"d, the Light Brigade !
Charge for the guns ! ^ he said ?
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundi*ed.^
** * Forward, the Light Brigade ! *
Was there a man dismayed ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blundei-ed.
Theii"s not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die :
IntG the Valley of Death
Rode the six himdred.
** Cannon to right of them.
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered :
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THE TURKS
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
305
ITie Capture of Sebastopol.
" When can their glory fade ?
O the wild charge they made !
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made ! .
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred ! ''
This war was ended when the Russian strong-
hold of Se-bas'-to-pol was taken. The Russians
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306 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
agreed not to keep a war fleet in the Black Sea, and
not to interfere any more in the afi^airs of Turkey.
In 1876 Turkey massacred thousands of Chris-
tians in Bulgaria. This led to another war with
Russia. Turkey lost Bulgaria and two other prov-
inces. In 1911, still another war was fought be-
tween Turkey and the Christian states of the Bal-
kan Peninsula. Turkey lost all her European
possessions except the city of Constantinople, and
a small adjoining territory.
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XXIX. THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS
All the colonies in America, before 1776, had
been ruled by governors sent out by the mother
countries. In that year the thirteen English colo-
nies along the Atlantic coast of North America
declared themselves independent of Great Britain
and became the United States of America.
A republic is a country where the people them-
selves choose the men who govern it. The United
States was the first republic to be formed in the
New World.
The example of the United States in freeing
itself from the rule of a king was soon felt in both
Europe and in the Spanish colonies of America.
The French soldiers who fought with Washington
went home to take part in the French revolution.
The French king was put to death and France be-
came a republic. But the French did not act as
wisely as the American colonists. They had had
no experience in governing themselves, while the
Americans were accustomed to manage their own
affairs in the towns and cities.
Since the French people could not bring about
order, they fell under the control of a man who
could keep order, NapDleon Bonaparte.
In 1808 Napoleon conquered Spain and made
his brother, Joseph, king of that coimtry.
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308 OLD WORLD STEPS TO AMERICAN HISTORY
The Spanish colonies in America refused to
submit to the rule of a French king and revolted
under the lead of Simon Bolivar.
Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. When
a young man, he visited the tomb of Washington
at Mount Vernon. He resolved to follow the ex-
ample of the great patriot and devote his life to
obtaining the independence of Venezuela.
In 1811 he called a meeting of the citizens of
Caracas. A declaration of independence was
signed, and Fran-cis'-co Miran'-da, an older patriot
than Bolivar, was made chief. A few days after
this a fearful earthquake destroyed the city and
killed several thousand of Miranda's soldiers.
The Spanish governor had ten thousand men
sent from Spain, and he soon got his power back.
Miranda was sent to Spain where he died in prison.
But Bolivar escaped and lived to see his country
free and independent.
He at first fled to the island of Jamaica. A
few years later he returned to South America. He
was made dictator at Lima in 1828. Peru and
Venezuela joined forces. They defeated the Span-
ish army on the lofty plain of A-ya-cu'-cho, twelve
thousand feet above the sea. A new republic was
formed and named Bolivia in honor of the leader.
Soon afterwards the republics of Colombia,
Ecuador, and Venezuela were formed.
A few years before this, in 1818, Chile and the
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THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS 309
Argentine Republic were organized. Ten years
later Paraguay and U'-ru-guay were separated
from Argentina and became distinct republics.
Brazil remained an empire under the rule of Dom
Pe'-dro II till 1889. It then became a republic.
In Mexico there was a long and bloody war
with Spain. The leader in the war for Mexican
independence was I-tur-bi'-de, who finally de-
feated the Spanish in 1821. Mexico was declared
independent and Iturbide became emperor of the
country. In 1824, the form of government was
changed to a republic.
Napoleon III attempted to seize Mexico in
1861 and make an Austrian noble, Max-i-mil'-i-an,
emperor. But the United States interfered, and
declared that she would protect the young repub-
lics in America. The French troops sailed back
to France, and Maximilian was captured and shot
by Mexican soldiers.
During this same period (1808-21) the little
states of Central America also drove out their
Spanish governors, and began to govern themselves
as republics. We might call the time between our
own Revolution and 1824 the revolutionary age,
since there were no less than sixteen new republics
formed by revolutions during that time.
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Reference Index
Aachen {d'ken), 182
Abder Rah'man, 177
A'braham, 69, 170
Ac'bar, 33
Achaeans (a ke'ons), 79
A chil les (a kil'lez), 75
A crop'o lis, 80, 96
Ac'tium, 139
A'dri aH op'o lis, 162
Ae gos Pot'amos (e'gos), 98
Ae o li ans (e o'li ans), 79
Aeneas (ene'as), 107
Ae qui ans (e'quians), 122
Aetius (a e'shus), 154
Afghan is tan', 29
A'gra, 32
Al'aric, 162
Al'ba Lon'ga, 108
Al ci bi'a des, 97
Arcuin, 182
Ale man'ni, 163
Al ex an'dcr, the Great, 28, 101
Alexan'dria, 104, 176
Al'fred, 192
Amu'lius, 108
A my 'tis, 62
An'cus Martius (mar'shi us),
112
An'gles, 166
An'tioch, 213
An ti'o chus, 1 27
Antoni'nus, 148
An'tony, 137
A pol'lo, 74
Arbe'la, 105
Ar ca'di us, 152
Ar cot', 37
At' go nau'tic Ex pe di' ti on,
176
Ar is ti'des, 88
Aristot'le, 101
Ar min'i us, 140
A'runs, 117
Ar'thur, King, 167
Ar'yans, 23
As'shur ba ni pal', 62
As syr'i a, 47, 62
As ty'a ges, 63
Ath'ens, 79
Ath OS, Mount, 87
At'las, 74
At'tila, 163
Aug'us tine, 169
Augus'tus, 139
Aus'ter litz, 267
Av'en tine, 112
B
Ba'bel, 49
Ba'ber, 33
Bab'ylon, 106
Bab y lo'nia, 47, 63
Ba'con, Roger, 17, 245
Bactria, 63, 106
Bagdad', 177,209,231
310
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INDEX
311
Bal bo'a, 243
Be his tun', (56
Bel, 64
Bel shaz'zar, 55, 63
Bis'marck, Otto von, 285
Bo ab dil', 243
Bol'i var, 308
Bo'na parte, Na po'le on, 262
Bozzaris (hot za'res), 302
Brifain, 136
Brit'ons, 166
Bru'tus, 116, 137
Bu ceph'a lus, 102
Buddha {hood' da), 2%
Bu sen'to, 1 53
By zan'ti um, 151
Ca'aba, 170
Ca'diz, 57
Caesar (*e'jarar), 131, 135
Cal cut'ta, 36
Can cut, 36
Cal'y do'ni an Hunt, 76
Cam by'ses, 64
Ca'naan, 69
Can'nae, 126
Ca nute', 198
Can'terbury, 169
Ca'pet, Hugh, 221
Car'leon, 167
Car'loman, 181
Car'thage, 57, 123
Cas san'der, 106
Cas'sius, 137
Cath'er ine, the Great, 25 1
Cat'i line, 134
Ca'to, 128, 137
Ca vour', 297
Cen taurs', 74
Ce'res, 72
Cer'be rus, 74
Chae ro ne a (Jeer a ne'a), 98
Chaldea (kalde'a),^%
Chalons (*^a ion'), 164
Chang, 15
Charlemagne (sharpie mdn')^
164
Charles XII of Sweden, 250
Che Hoang ti (che hwang'te),
10
Cheops (keops),4fO
Che rus'ci, 140
Christians, 148
Cic'ero, 134
Cim'bri, 131
Ci'mon, 93
Cir'cus Max'i mus, 112
Clau'dius, 127
Cle'opa'tra, 139
Clis'the nes, 84
Clive, 36
Clotaire', 164
Clotil'de, 162
Clo'vis, 161
Co'drus, 83
Collati'nus, 116
Col'os se'um, 144
Co lum'bus, 238
Co mit'i a Cu'ri a'ta, 110
Co mit'ia Cen tu'ri a'ta, 113
Co mit'i a Tribu'ta, 114
Con fu'cius, 12
Con'stan tine, 148
Con'stan ti no'ple, 161
Con stan'ti us, 1 60
Cordo'va, 178
Cor'inth, 78, 88
Coroebus (ko re'hus), 78
Cor'tez,271
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312
INDEX
Cras'sus, 184
Crete (kret), SO
Cri'to, 100
Crom'well, Oliver, 264
Cro'nos, 72
Cy ax'a res, 63
Cy'clops, 73
Cy'prus, 57
Cy'rus, 55, 63
D
Dag'obert, 164
Danes, 193
Dan'iel, 64
Dan'te,291
Da ri'us, 66, 84
Delhi (rfeZ'Ze),83
De'los, 92
Del'phi, 76, 77
Del'ta, 39
Dem'a ra tus, 89
De me'ter, 72
De mos'the nes, 99
Des'i de'ri us, 1 84
Di an'a, 74
Di'o cle'tian, 148
Domitian (do 7nish'an),14f6
Do'ri ans, 79
Do ris'cus, 87
Dra'co, 83
Dry'ads, 74
Duil'lius, 123
E
Eg bat'a na, 66
E'dith, 201
Edward the Confessor, 198
Egbert, 167
E'gypt, 38
E pam i non'das, 98
Eth'elbert, 169
Eth'elred, 196
Etru'ria, 110
Eu rip'i des, 96
Eu phra'tes, 47
F
Fa'bius, 126
Faus'tulus, 109
Francis I, 271
Francis Joseph, 288
Franks, 161
Fred'er ick Bar'ba ros'sa, 216,
224
Frederick II, 216
Frederick the Great, 279
G
Gal'i le'o, 292
Ga ri bal'di, 296
Gauls, 122
Gen'ghis Khan, 16
Gen'oa, 217
George III, 266
German'! cus, 141
Gis'go, 126
God'frey,213
Godwin, Earl, 201
Gor di an Knot, 108
Gor'gons, 74
Go'shen, 44, 60
Goths, 151
Gracchus (grak'us), 130
Graces, 74
Gra ni'cus, 102
Gra'tian, 162
Greg'o ry, the Great, 167
Gunhil'da, 198
Gut'en berg, John, 238
Guthrum (goth'ro7n),194f
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INDEX
313
H
Ha'des, 72
Ha'drian, 148
Hamil'car, 126
Han'ni bal, 126
Har'old, 201
Haroun al Raschid (ha roon'al
ra'shed), 178
Har'pa gus, 64
Har'pies, 74
Has'drubal, 126
Has'tings, 202
He'brews, 68
Hegira (he jVra), 176
Hel'las, 69
Hel'len, 69
Hel'les pont, 68, 87
Hen'gist, 166
Henry VII, 221, 271
Henry, Prince, 240
Henry the Fowler, 223
Her a'cli us, 176
Her'cu la'ne um, 144
Her'cu les, 76
He're, 72
Her ni'cians, 122
He rod'o tus, 63, 68
He'siod,71
Hes'ti a, 72
Hez'eki'ah, 61
Hin'dus, 23
Hi'ram, 67
Hit'tites, 48
Hoang ti (hwang'it), 10
Ho'mer, 71
Hono'rius, 162
Hor'ace, 142
Ho ra'ti us, 117
Hor'sa, 166
Hun'gary, 168
Huns, 161
Hy'dra, 74
Hys tas'pes, QQ
I
Id'za bar, 49
In'dia, 106
In'dra, 23
In'dus, 106
I o'ni ans, 79
I'rene, 179
Is a bel'la, 243
Ish'mael, 170
Is'sus, 103
Iturbide (e'toor bertha), 309
Ja'cob, 43, 60
James I, 264
Ja'nus, 139
Ja'son, 76
Je'han, 84
Je ru'sa lem, 61, 184
Jim'mu, 19
John, King, 204
Jop'pa,217
Jor'dan, 60
Jo seph, 43, 60
Josh'ua, 61
Ju'li an, 161
Ju'no, 74
Ju'pi ter, 72, 74
Jus tin'i an, 184
Jutes, 166
K
Kar'nak, 46
Khai'ber Pass (ki'her), !
Ko'ran, 174
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314
INDEX
Kos suth% 284
Kublai Khan (koo'hli kan), 75
Lars Por'se na, 117
Lati'nus, 108
La vin'i a, 108
Layin i um^ 108
Le'o, 186
Le on'i das, 89
Leuc'tra, 98
Liv'y, 107, 142
Lom'bards, 184
Lothaire', 189
Louis XIV, 267
Louis XV, 269
Louis XVI, 260
Lu'ce res, 110
Ly cur'gus, 81
Ly san'der, 98
Ly sim'a chus, 106
M
Mac e do'ni a, 97, 128
Ma dras', 36
Ma geFlan, 243
Ma'gi, 67
Magne'si a, 127
Mag'yars, 223
Mah'moud, 30
Man da'ne, 64
Man ti ne'a, 98
Ma'nu, 81
Mar'a thon, 86
Mar cell'us,
Mar'co man'ni, 148
Mar'co Polo, 16,287
Mar'cus Au re li us, 148
Mar do'ni us, 91
Ma'rius, 131
Mars, 74, 108
Mar tel', Charles, 177
Max im'i an, 148
Mazzini (mat se'ne) , 296
Mec'ca, 170
Medes, 63, 69
Me'di a, 68
Mem phis, 40
Me'nes, 81
Mer'cu ry, 74
Mi'chael An'ge lo, 272
Mil'an, 224
Mil ti'a des, 86
Mi ner'va, 74
Mi'nos, 81
Mi ran'da Fran cis'co, 808
Mith'ra da'tes, 134
Mo guls', 83
Mo ham'med, 1 70
Mo ham'med II, 232
Molt'ke, von, 286
Mont calm', 272
Mont'fort, Simon de, 219
Mo'ses, 81
Mu'ses, 74
Myc'ale, 91
N
Na po le on III, 269
Nar'ces, 184
Neb'u chad Nez'zar, 62
Nel'son, 264
Ne me'a, 78
Nep'tune, 74
Ner'va, 146
Neth'er lands. New, 270
Nicae'a, 161,213
Ni ceph'o rus, 1 79
Nich'o las V, Pope, 228
Nic ome'di a, 148
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Google
INDEX
315
Nile, 89
Nim'rod, 48
Nin'e veh, 50
No'ah, 48
North'men, 191
Nu'ma, 111
Nu'mi tor, 108
o
Octa'vius, 139
O'din, 168
Odoa'cer, 162
O'jin, 19
O lym'pi a, 78
O lym'pus. Mount, 74
O'mar, 176
O res'tes, 164
Or'mazda, 67
Os'trogoths, 161
Oth'rys, Mount, 78
Pal'atine, 109
PaFestine, 104,217
Par'is, 162
Par'sees, 67
Par' the non, 95
Patri'cians, 120
Patrick, Saint, 167
Pausa'ni as, 91
Pe lop'i das, 98
Pel o pon ne'sus, 79
Per i an'der, 80
Per'i cles, 98
Perry, 21
Per sep'o lis, 106
Peter the Great, 246
Peter the Hermit, 210
Petrarch, 228
Pharaoh (/^a'ro), 48
Phar'salus, 187
Phid'i as, 96
Phil'ip, 98
Phil'ip Au gus'tus, 216
Phil ip pi, 189
Pho ci ans (fo'she ans), 98
Phoe ni cia (fe nish'a), 56, 61,
69, 76, 104
Picts, 167
Pin'dar, 102
Pip'pin, 164
Pi sis'tra tus, 80
Pi zar'ro, 271
Plas'sey, 87
Plataea (plate^a),S5,91
Pla'to, 98
Plebe'ians, 120
Plu'to, 72
Pompeii (pom pa^ye),!^^
Pom'pey, 182
Pon'ti f ex Max'i mus. 111
Po'rus, 29, 106
Po sei'don, 72
Ptolemy (tol'e my), 106
Pu'nic Wars, 128
Pun jab', 29
Qui ri'nus, 110
Quiri'tes, 110
R
Ram a dan', 172
Ram'e ses, 46
Ram'nes, 110
Raph'a el, 292
Regillus (re jiVlus), 119
Re'mus, 108
Rhe'a, 108
Richard, 216
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Google
316
INDEX
Ri'en zi, 290
Rol'lo, 198
Rom'u lus, 108
Rox a'na, 106
Ru'bi con, 139
Ru'rik, 200, 246
Sa'bines, 110
Saradin,216
Sal'a mis, 90
St. Sophi'a, 151
Sama'ri a, 61
Sam nites, 122
Sar'da na pa'lus, 62, 63
Sar'dis, 84, 87
Sar'gon, 49
Sax'ons, 166
Scipio (*ip'io), 126
Se ja'nus, 143
Seleu'cus, 106, 127
Sen nach'e rib, 6 1
Serto'rius, 132
Se'ti, 46
Sex'tus, 114
Shech'em, 69
Sib'ylline Books, 116
Sicily, 97
Sil'vi us Pro cas, 108
Soc'ra tes, 98, 99
Sol'omon, 61
So'lon, 88
Soph'o cles, 96
Spar'ta, 79, 89
Spar'ta cus, 132
Sphinx, 74
Spu'ri us Lar'tius, 118
Sta gi'ra, 101
Stil'i cho, 162
Sul'la, 181
Su ra'jah Dow'lah, 87
Su'sa, 66, 106
Sweyn, 198
Syp'acuse, 97, 123
Tac'itus,167
Tam'er lane, 33, 229
Tan'aquil, 118
Tan'cred,213
Ta'nis, 46
Ta'rik, 176
Tar'quin, 112, 114
Te'rah, 69
Teu'to berg, 141
Thap'sacus, 187
Thebes, 98
The mis'to cles, 88,91
Theod'oric, 161
Theodo'sius, 162
Thermop'ylae (Ze), 89
Thes'pi ans, 90
Thor, 160
Thu cyd'i des, 96
Ti'tans, 73
Titus, 148
Ti'tus Her min'i us, 1 18
Tra'jan, 148
Treb'ia, 126
Trasime'nus, 126
Trojan War, 76
Troy, 107
Tul'lus Hostil'ius, 111
Turks, 274, 299
Tyre, 104, 123
u
U lys'ses, 76
Ur,69
Digitized by
Google
INDEX
817
Ur'ban,210
U'tica;187
Va'lens, 161
Val en tin'i an, 161
Valhal'la, 168
Valky'rie, 168
Va'rus, 140
Vas'co da Ga'ma, 86, 240
Ven'ice, 217
Ve'nus, 74
Ver cin get'o ris, 186
Ver'gil, 142
Ves pa'sian, 148
Ves'ta, 108
Victor Em man'u el, 294
Vis'igoths, 162
Vlad'i mir, 200
Volscians (voVshians), 121
Vul'can, 74.
w
Wash'ing ton, 266
Well'ing ton, 267
William the Conqueror, 200
William of Orange, 266
William I, 289
Wit'te kind, 187
Wolfe, James, 272
Xanthippe (zan tip'e), 100
Xanthippus {zan tip' us),
Xerxes (zerk's es), 68, 87.
Ya'o, 9
Yu, 10
Yu' Chau, 9
Za gros Mountains, 68
Za'ma, 127
Zed e ki'ah, 68
Zend'-A ves'ta, 68
Ze'no, 164
Zo ro as'ter, 67
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