established a more popular government in Pheræ, took and garrisoned
Magnesia, and then advanced upon Thermopylæ. The Athenians anticipated
the danger, and guarded the pass with a strong force. But the liberty of
Greece was destined to be sacrificed to her internal dissensions. The
Sacred War had continued eleven years, when the Thebans called in the
aid of Philip to complete the destruction of Phocis. The Athenians now
remained neutral, and Philip passed Thermopylæ without opposition. In a
short campaign he crushed Phocis, and was admitted as a member of the
Amphictyonic Council, in the place of the conquered state.
[Sidenote: B. C. 349.]
=252.= Athens was now the only power in Greece capable of opposing the
Macedonian king, and Athens was no longer possessed of a Miltiades, a
Conon, or a Themistocles. A great orator, however, had arisen, and when
Olynthus sent envoys to implore aid against the invader, who was now
attacking the Chalcidian cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes aroused
some faint show of their former spirit. The attempted rescue was
defeated, however, by treachery within the walls; and, in 347, Olynthus
fell. The threefold peninsula was now in the power of Philip, and he was
able to push his interests throughout Greece rather by intrigue than
force. Even in Athens a powerful party, sustained by his bribes, labored
to undermine the efforts of the true patriots, of whom Demosthenes was
chief. Æs´chines was the mouth-piece of the Macedonian party, an orator
second only to Demosthenes himself, and won to Philip’s side, probably,
more by flatteries than gifts. He constantly urged peace with the king,
while Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived the extent of Philip’s
designs, opposed them with all the unsparing vehemence of his nature. His
_Philippics_ are the most forcible examples in any language of bold and
eloquent opposition to an unjust usurpation of power.
[Sidenote: B. C. 339.]
=253.= In 340, war was declared on account of the aggressions of Philip
on the Bosphorus; and the Second Sacred War, which broke out in the
following year, gave him a reason for again passing Thermopylæ. He was
now appointed general-in-chief of the Amphictyonic forces, and thus
gained a position in the very heart of Greece, which he did not fail to
use for his own advantage.
[Sidenote: Aug. 7, B. C. 338.]
=254.= The Thebans, in alarm, applied to Athens for aid, which was not
refused. The armies met in battle at Chæronea, and the victory of Philip
gave the death-blow to Grecian independence. All the states except
Sparta acknowledged his sovereignty, and he was made generalissimo of
the Hellenic forces in the war now projected against Persia. To overawe
the hostility of Sparta, he marched through the Peloponnesus to the
southern extremity, and returned by the western coast, meeting no serious
opposition.
Philip’s death by assassination interrupted the movement against the
Persians, and for a moment revived the hopes of the patriots; but the
Macedonian party prevailed under the youthful Alexander, who surpassed
his father both as general and as king.
RECAPITULATION.
Sparta destroyed the Olynthian confederacy, and seized upon
Thebes, which was rescued after three years by Pelopidas and
his fellow exiles. Athens regained her dominion both in the
eastern and western seas, while Thebes became the head of
the new Bœotian League. The treaty of Callias secured peace
among all the states, except Thebes and Sparta. The victory of
Epaminondas over the Spartans at Leuctra established the Theban
supremacy, which was recognized and supported by the Persians
during the remaining years of his life. He four times invaded
Peloponnesus; organized an Arcadian confederacy, with the new
city, Megalopolis, at its head; restored the exiled Messenians
to the lands of their ancestors; twice attacked Sparta itself;
and, finally, triumphed and fell at Mantinea. Agesilaus died on
his return from Egypt, where his aid had secured the throne to
Nectanabis. Athens declined from her second period of greatness
in consequence of the Social War, B. C. 357-355. The Phocians,
with the Delphic treasures which they confiscated, gained
ascendency in central Greece, but lost it in war with Philip of
Macedon. This king ended the Sacred War (B. C. 357-346) by the
destruction of Phocis, assumed her place in the Amphictyonic
Council, conquered the Chalcidian peninsulas, led the allied
forces in the Second Sacred War, and by his victory at Chæronea
established his supremacy over Greece. His son Alexander
inherited his civil and military command.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW.
BOOK III.
1. By what names has Greece been known? § 8.
2. What tribes were included among the Hellenes? 9.
3. What foreigners aided to civilize Greece? 10.
4. Describe three of the Greek heroes. 11-13.
5. What can be said of the siege of Troy? 14.
6. What was the state of the country and people in the
Heroic Age? 11, 17-20.
7. Describe the kings. 15, 16.
8. What connections between Greek and Asiatic religions? 21.
9. Name the twelve Olympian deities. 23.
10. What bearing had Greek belief upon human conduct? 25.
11. What foreign ceremonies were borrowed by the Greeks? 26, 27, 29.
12. What is known of the Mysteries? 28.
13. Describe the oracles. 30-32.
14. What migrations in Greece, B. C. 1124-1100? 33, 34.
15. Describe the Asiatic settlements. 35-37, 85, 86.
16. What political changes at the close of the Heroic Age? 38.
17. What were the bonds of union among the Greeks? 39, 42.
18. Describe the games and the rewards of victors. 40, 41.
19. Recount the history of Argos. 43.
20. What were the condition and government of Sparta, B. C. 900? 44-46.
21. Describe the discipline of Lycurgus. 47-53.
22. The wars of Sparta during the Second Period. 55-61.
23. What was the character of Spartan influence in Greece? 62.
24. What difference of character between Athenians and Spartans? 63.
25. What changes in Athenian government within 400 years? 64, 65.
26. Describe the laws of Draco and their results. 66, 67.
27. What political parties in Attica? 68.
28. What were the character and history of Solon? 69, 70, 74.
29. What was the spirit of his laws? 71-73.
30. Describe the rise of Pisistratus. 75.
31. What occurred during his first tyranny? 76.
32. What occasioned his second expulsion? 77.
33. Describe his third reign. 78.
34. The reign and expulsion of Hippias. 79, 80.
35. What changes were introduced by Clisthenes? 81.
36. Who opposed him? 82.
37. What dangers threatened Athens at this time? 83.
38. What ceremonies attended the founding of Greek colonies? 84.
39. Describe the colonies in Italy. 87-89.
40. In Gaul, Sicily, Africa, Thrace. 91-94.
41. Describe the movements of Darius against Greece. 95-97.
42. The battle of Marathon. 98, 99.
43. The fall of Miltiades. 101, 102.
44. The character and history of Aristides. 103, 104, 116,
117, 130, 132.
45. The character and career of Themistocles. 104-109,
113-117, 130, 136, 138.
46. The battle of Thermopylæ. 111, 112.
47. The battle of Salamis. 117.
48. The retreat of Xerxes. 118.
49. The embassy of Alexander. 119, 120.
50. The condition of Athens. 121.
51. Describe the campaign in Bœotia. 122-126.
52. The subsequent operations of the Greeks. 128, 129.
53. What changes in the rank and politics of Athens? 130.
54. Tell the story of Pausanias. 131.
55. Describe the rise of the Delian Confederacy. 132.
56. The career of Cimon. 133-137, 139-142, 150.
57. The causes and events of the Third
Messenian War. 139, 142, 148.
58. The history of Pericles. 140, 143, 145, 152-157,
159, 161-165.
59. Tell the story of the First Peloponnesian War. 143-147.
60. What occurred at Delphi, B. C. 448? 151.
61. Describe the battle of Coronæa, and its consequences
to Athens. 152-154.
62. The Samian revolt. 156, 157.
63. The war between Corinth and Corcyra. 158.
64. The Theban attack upon Platæa. 160.
65. How was Greece divided in the Peloponnesian War? 161.
66. What was the condition of Athens during the first two
years? 162-164, 166.
67. Describe the siege of Platæa. 167.
68. The revolt of Mytilene. 168-170.
69. The revolution in Corcyra. 171.
70. The condition of Greece in the sixth year of the war. 172.
71. Describe the campaign at Pylos and Sphacteria. 173, 174.
72. What massacres occurred in the eighth year? 175.
73. Describe the invasion of Bœotia. 176.
74. The campaign of Brasidas. 177.
75. How long did the Peace of Nicias continue? 178, 180, 188.
76. Describe the career of Alcibiades. 179-186, 192-194, 198-200, 202.
77. The Sicilian expedition. 179-191.
78. What occasioned a revolution in Athens? 194, 195.
79. Describe the maritime movements of 411, 410 B. C. 197-199.
80. What part was taken by Persia in the Peloponnesian War? 192-194,
198, 201, 204.
81. What occurred at Ægos-Potami? 205, 206.
82. What were the results to Athens? 207-209.
83. Describe the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. 210, 211.
84. The reaction under Thrasybulus. 212, 213.
85. The trial and death of Socrates. 214.
86. Describe the war of Sparta against Elis. 215.
87. Agesilaus, and his Asiatic campaign. 216, 217.
88. The death of Lysander, and retirement of Pausanias. 218.
89. The three great battles of 394 B. C. 219-221.
90. Who restored the walls of Athens? 222.
91. Describe the last two years of the Corinthian War. 223.
92. What were the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas? 226.
93. What occurred at Thebes, from 382 to 379 B. C.? 227, 229, 230.
94. Describe the war in Bœotia and the western seas. 232.
95. The treaty of Callias. 233, 234.
96. The character and tactics of Epaminondas. 229, 235-240,
244-246.
97. The consequences to Sparta of the battle of Leuctra. 236.
98. The restoration of the Messenians. 239.
99. The ambition of the Arcadians. 241.
100. The intervention of the Persians. 242.
101. The plunder of Olympia. 243.
102. The last campaign of Agesilaus. 247.
103. The second period of Athenian greatness, and
Social War. 248.
104. The Sacred War. 249.
105. The advance of Philip of Macedon. 250, 251.
106. Demosthenes and his _Philippics_. 252.
107. The results of the battle of Chæronea. 254.
108. Who succeeded Philip as head of the Grecian armies? 254.
109. How long was Athens the leading state of Greece?
110. What two periods of Spartan supremacy?
111. Length of the Theban supremacy?
112. What was an Olympiad? 40.
BOOK IV.
HISTORY OF THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE AND THE KINGDOMS FORMED FROM IT, UNTIL
THEIR CONQUEST BY THE ROMANS.
FIRST PERIOD. _From the Rise of the Monarchy to the Death of Alexander
the Great, about B. C. 700-323._
=1.= The Kingdom of Macedon, lying north of Thessaly and east of
Illyr´icum, was of little importance before the reign of Philip II.,
whose aggressions ended the independent history of Greece. (See Book III,
§§ 248-254.) In 507 B. C., Amyntas I. submitted to Darius Hystaspes; and
fifteen years later, in the first expedition of Mardonius, the country
became a mere province of the Persian empire, the native kings governing
as tributaries. After Xerxes’ retreat, B. C. 480, Macedonia became free
again, and began to push eastward along the northern coast of the Ægean.
Here it met two rivals: the new Thracian kingdom of Sitalces upon its
eastern frontier, and the Athenian power in the Greek cities of the
Chalcidian peninsulas.
=2.= When Athens was prostrated by her Sicilian disasters, the short but
brilliant reign of Ar´chela´us I. (B. C. 413-399) laid the foundation of
Macedonian greatness. He improved his country by roads, strengthened it
by forts, and introduced a better discipline into the army. His death was
followed by forty years of great tumult, a continued scene of plots and
assassinations, to recount which would only confuse without profiting
the student. When Perdiccas III. died in battle, he left an infant son,
Amyntas, under the regency of his brother Philip. At least five other
princes claimed the crown; the victorious Illyrians occupied the western
provinces, and Thrace and Pæo´nia were ready to absorb the eastern.
=3.= Philip overcame all these perils with admirable spirit and ability.
He made himself king instead of his nephew, defeated the Illyrians, and
took advantage of the Social War to seize Amphipolis, Pydna, and Potidæa.
He pushed the Macedonian boundary eastward as far as the Nestus, and
built the town of Philip´pi for the protection of the gold mines. These
had fallen into neglect during the wars of Athens, but under his improved
management they soon yielded a yearly revenue of a thousand talents
($1,250,000).
=4.= Philip, in his youth, had spent three years in Thebes, where he had
studied the tactics of Epaminondas, as well as the language, character,
and politics of the Greeks. On coming to power, he devoted unwearied
attention to the drilling of his army, until it far surpassed that of any
Hellenic state. No less skilled in diplomacy than in military science,
he knew how to take advantage of the rivalries in Greece, and the
corruptibility of all parties, to play off one against the other, and so
render himself supreme. His rapid movements made him seem to be in many
places at the same moment, and no circumstance which either threatened or
favored his interests escaped his eye.
=5.= The Olynthian War ended with the capture of thirty-two cities in
Chalcidice; the Sacred War made Philip master of Phocis and head of the
Amphictyonic League. In eastern Thrace, the Athenians found aid in the
Persians, who were already alarmed by the rapid rise of the Macedonian
power, and Perin´thus and Byzantium were thus saved for a time. Philip
was victorious (B. C. 339) against a Scythian prince of what is now
Bulga´ria; and though he was defeated and wounded on his return, in a
battle with the Triballi, his plots went on with uninterrupted success.
The Second Sacred War gave him supremacy in central Greece, and the
victory at Chæronea prostrated all remaining opposition. The Congress at
Corinth (B. C. 337) acknowledged his headship, and appointed him to lead
the Greek forces against Persia. The advanced guard of the Macedonian
army was already in Asia, when Philip was assassinated, during the
festivities attending the marriage of his daughter, B. C. 336.
=6.= In the midst of Philip’s early victories, he had heard of the
birth of his son Alexander at Pella. He wrote immediately to his friend
Ar´istot´le,[58] expressing his joy that the young prince was born
during the life of the philosopher to whom he could most gladly commit
his education. On the same day that Alexander was born, the temple of
Artemis at Ephesus was burnt to the ground. The priests and soothsayers,
regarding the fire as an evil omen, ran about the city beating their
breasts and crying aloud, “This day has brought forth the scourge and
destroyer of Asia.” B. C. 356.
[Illustration: Coin of Alexander, enlarged one-half.]
=7.= At the age of sixteen, Alexander was left regent of the kingdom
during his father’s campaign against Byzantium. At Chæroaea, two years
later, he led a corps of Macedonian youth against the Sacred Band of
Thebes, and the victory was mainly due to his courage and impetuosity.
Upon the death of his father, Alexander, at twenty years of age, ascended
a throne beset with many dangers. He expelled or killed his nearest
rivals, marched into Greece and convened at Corinth a new congress, which
conferred upon him the same dignities and powers previously granted to
his father; then instantly returning to Macedon, he signally defeated
his enemies on the west and north, some of whom he pursued even beyond
the Danube. During these campaigns a false report of his death reached
Greece, and Thebes seized the occasion to revolt. But Alexander appeared
suddenly before her gates, stormed and took the city, which, by way of
warning to others, he completely destroyed—saving only the house of
Pindar, the poet—and either enslaved or massacred the inhabitants.
=8.= Greece was now awed into submission, and Alexander prepared to
execute his father’s and his own schemes of Asiatic conquest. In the
spring of 334 B. C., he crossed the Hellespont with 35,000 men. The
Persians awaiting him at the Granicus were defeated, and Alexander, with
his usual celerity, overran Asia Minor, which submitted with little
opposition. Memnon, a Rhodian Greek in the service of Darius, and his
greatest general, desired to carry the war into Macedonia, by means of
the overwhelming fleet of the Persians. His movements detained Alexander
some months near the Ægean coast; but his death, in the spring of 333 B.
C., left the invader free to march toward the heart of the empire. Darius
led a vast army to the plain of the Orontes, where he might have had the
advantage over his assailant; but Alexander lingered in the Cilician
mountain passes, until the Persian king was impatient and came to meet
him. The battle of Issus (B. C. 333, Nov.) resulted in the defeat of the
Persians with great slaughter.
=9.= Instead of following Darius, Alexander proceeded to conquer the
sea-coast of the Mediterranean as far as Egypt, thus providing for the
security of Macedon and Greece. Most of the Phœnician cities submitted
as he approached, but Tyre withstood him seven months. When it was taken
(B. C. 332, July), 8,000 of its people were massacred and 30,000 sold
into slavery. Ga´za was captured after a siege of two months. According
to Josephus, the conqueror then marched upon Jerusalem. The high priest,
Jad´dua, came forth to meet him, wearing the breastplate of precious
stones and the miter inscribed with the Holy Name. Alexander prostrated
himself with profound reverence before the priest, and explained to his
followers that in a vision, before leaving Europe, he had seen such a
figure, which had invited him to the conquest of Asia. The high priest
pointed out to him the prophecies of Daniel concerning his career; and
Alexander, in adding the Jews to his empire, exempted them from tribute
every seventh year, when, according to their law, they could neither sow
nor reap.
=10.= In Egypt the Macedonian king was gladly welcomed, for the people
hated the Persians for having insulted their gods and profaned their
temples. At the western mouth of the Nile he founded a new capital,
which he designed as the commercial exchange of the eastern and western
worlds. Alexandria, with its great advantages of position, soon became a
rich and magnificent city. A less judicious proceeding of the conqueror
was a toilsome march across the desert to the temple of Amun. He was
rewarded, however, in being saluted by the priests as the son of the god,
a distinction which Alexander greatly valued.
=11.= Turning to the north and east, Alexander now sought the grand
contest which was to transfer to him the dominions of Cyrus. He had
purposely given Darius time to collect the entire force of his empire, so
that one battle might decide its fate. The battle of Arbela (B. C. 331,
Oct.) has been described in Book II. As its result the three capitals,
Susa, Persep´olis, and Babylon, surrendered almost without resistance;
and Alexander might, without further effort, have assumed the pomp and
ease of an Oriental monarch. But his restless spirit carried him on to
the conquest of the eastern provinces and India. He first marched into
Media, where Darius had rallied the remnants of his forces to oppose him,
but on his approach the dethroned king fled through the Caspian Gates
to Bactria. Before Alexander could overtake him, he was murdered by his
rebellious satrap, Bessus, who assumed the title of king of Persia.
=12.= The Greek mercenaries of Darius, who had formed his most effective
force, were now added to the army of the conqueror. From province
to province Alexander marched, receiving submission and organizing
governments. Bessus fled into Sogdiana, but was taken, and suffered a
cruel death for his treason and usurpation. A new city of Alexandria
was founded on the Jaxartes; and having chastised the Scythians to the
northward, the conqueror returned to Bactria, where he spent the winter
of 329 B. C.
=13.= The genius of Alexander began to be disgraced by the pride and
unscrupulous cruelty of an Eastern king. He adopted the Persian dress and
ceremonial, and required his courtiers to prostrate themselves before
him, as to a divinity rather than a mortal. He had already put to death
his friend Philo´tas, on an unproved charge of plotting against his life;
and the aged Parme´nio, father of Philotas, was subjected without trial
to a similar fate. At Bactra, in a drunken revel, Alexander murdered his
friend Clitus with his own hand.
=14.= During his two years’ war against Sogdiana, Alexander captured a
mountain fortress, where Oxyar´tes, a Bactrian prince, had deposited his
family. Roxa´na, one of the princesses, became the wife of the conqueror.
In the spring of 327 B. C., the Macedonian army crossed the Indus and
invaded the Punjab. No resistance was encountered until it reached the
Hydas´pes, where Porus, an Indian king, was drawn up with his elephants
and a formidable body of men. An obstinate battle resulted in the defeat
and capture of Porus; but his brave spirit so commanded the respect of
his conqueror, that he was permitted to retain his kingdom.
Alexander founded two cities near the Hydaspes, one named Buceph´ala, in
honor of his favorite horse, which died there, and the other, Nicæ´a,
in commemoration of his victories. He gave orders for the building of
a fleet from the Indian forests, while he advanced with his army still
farther to the eastward. All the tribes as far as the Hypha´sis (Sutlej)
were conquered, one by one. On arriving at that river, the Macedonians
refused to go farther. They declared that they had more than fulfilled
the terms of their enlistment, and that they were worn out by the
hardships of eight unprecedented campaigns.
=15.= Alexander was compelled to turn back. His fleet was now ready, and
he descended the Hydaspes to the Indus, in the autumn and winter of 327
B. C. His army marched in two columns along the banks, the entire valley
submitting with little resistance. Two more cities were founded, and
left with Greek garrisons and governors. Arriving at the Indian Ocean,
Near´chus was sent with the fleet to the Persian Gulf, while Alexander
returned by land. His march through Gedro´sia was the most severe of all
his operations, the army suffering for the want of food and water. At
Pura he obtained supplies, and proceeded through Kerman to Pasargadæ, and
thence to Persepolis. Arriving at Susa in the spring of 325 B. C., he
allowed his army some months of needed rest, while he began to organize
the vast empire which he had so rapidly built up.
=16.= Desiring to unite his eastern and western dominions by every bond
of sympathy and common interest, he assigned to eighty of his officers
Asiatic wives with rich dowries. He had himself set the example by taking
for his second wife Barsi´ne, daughter of Darius III.; and when ten
thousand of the soldiery married Asiatic women, he gave presents to them
all. Twenty thousand Persians were received into the army, and drilled
in Macedonian tactics; while Persian satraps were placed over several
provinces, and the court was equally composed of Asiatics and Europeans.
Some of Alexander’s veterans, seeing the conquered nations placed on
a level with themselves, broke into open mutiny. He silenced their
complaints with great address, and then sent 10,000 of them home.
=17.= Unlike most conquerors, Alexander improved the countries which he
had won by arms. Rivers were cleared from obstructions, commerce revived,
and western enterprise took the place of Asiatic indolence and poverty.
The Greek language and literature were planted every-where: every new
exploration added to the treasures of science and the enlightenment of
the human race. On his march from Ecbatana to Babylon, Alexander was met
by embassadors from almost every part of the known world, who came to
offer either submission or friendship.
=18.= He designed to conquer first Arabia, then Italy, Carthage, and the
West, extending his empire from the Indus to the Pillars of Hercules.
Babylon was to be his capital; and Alexander descended the river, to
inspect in person the improvement of the canals which distributed water
over the plain. But his magnificent schemes were cut short from their
accomplishment by his early death. On his return from visiting the
canals, he found the Arabian expedition nearly ready to sail, and he
celebrated the occasion by a banquet to Nearchus and the chief officers.
In the midst of the subsequent preparations, the king was attacked by a
fever, occasioned by his exertions among the marshes, and aggravated,
perhaps, by the wine he had taken at the festival. After an illness of
eleven days he died, at the age of thirty-two, having reigned twelve
years and eight months.
RECAPITULATION.
Macedonia rose to greatness under Archelaus (B. C. 418-399);
was greatly increased by Philip II. (B. C. 350-336), who became
master of Greece. Alexander, trained in his youth to war and
diplomacy, began his reign at twenty; led a Greek army into
Asia; defeated the Persians at the Granicus and at Issus;
conquered Phœnicia, Syria, and Egypt; founded Alexandria on the
Nile; gained a decisive victory over Darius at Arbela, B. C.
331; subdued the eastern and northern provinces of the empire;
founded cities in western India; explored its rivers and coasts
in the interest of science; planned the amalgamation of Europe
and Asia, and the extension of his empire westward to the
Atlantic; died B. C. 323.
SECOND PERIOD. _From the Death of Alexander to the Battle of Ipsus_, B.
C. 323-301.
=19.= Alexander named no successor, but shortly before his death he gave
his ring to Perdiccas. This general, as prime minister, kept the empire
united for two years in the royal family. An infant prince, Alexander
IV., born after his father’s death, was associated on the throne with
Philip Arrhidæ´us, half-brother of the great Alexander. Four regents or
guardians of the empire were appointed—two in Europe and two in Asia. One
of these was murdered by Perdiccas, who thus acquired for himself the
sole administration of Asia, Antipater and Crat´erus ruling west of the
Bosphorus.
The provinces not already bestowed by the conqueror were divided among
ten of his generals, who were expected to govern in the name and for
the benefit of the two kings. Finding it impossible, however, either by
management or force, to keep these lieutenants in subjection to the mere
name of royalty, Perdiccas formed a plan to seize the sovereignty for
himself. Eu´menes was on his side, while his colleagues in the regency,
and the two great provincial governors, Ptol´emy and Antig´onus, were
his most powerful opponents. In a campaign against Ptolemy, in Egypt,
Perdiccas was slain by his own mutinous soldiers. Craterus fell in a
battle with Eumenes, in Cappadocia, and the sole regency devolved upon
Antip´ater. This general defeated the schemes of Euryd´ice—niece of
Alexander the Great, and wife of the imbecile king, Philip Arrhidæus—who
even harangued the army at Tripar´adi´sus, in Syria, demanding to be
admitted to a share in the government. A fresh division and assignment of
the provinces was now made. Antigonus was charged with the prosecution of
the war against Eumenes, in which he made himself master of the greater
part of Asia Minor.
=20.= Antipater died in Macedon, B. C. 319, leaving the regency, not
to his son Cassan´der, but to his friend Polysper´chon. Cassander, in
disgust, fled to Antigonus; and in the war which followed, these two,
with Ptolemy, sought the disruption of the empire, while Eumenes and
Polysperchon fought for its unity. Eumenes collected a force in Cilicia,
with which he meant to conquer Syria and Phœnicia, and thus gain command
of the sea. Antigonus first defeated a royal fleet near Byzantium, and
then marched across the country to the borders of Syria, and pursued
Eumenes inland beyond the Tigris. A number of the eastern satraps here
joined Eumenes, but after two indecisive battles he was seized by his own
troops and given up to Antigonus, who put him to death, B. C. 316.
=21.= In Macedonia, the mock king, Philip Arrhidæus, and his wife were
executed, by order of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great.
But this imperious princess was captured, in her turn, at Pydna;
and, in violation of the terms of her surrender, was murdered by her
enemies. Cassander became master of Macedonia and Greece. He married
Thes´saloni´ca, half-sister of the Conqueror, and founded in her honor
the city which bears her name, B. C. 316.
=22.= The ambition of Antigonus now began to alarm his colleagues,
for he was evidently not to be satisfied with less than the entire
dominion of Alexander. He gave away the eastern satrapies according to
his pleasure. From Babylonia he drove Seleu´cus, who took refuge with
Ptolemy in Egypt, and formed a league with Cassander, Lysim´achus, and
Asander. A war of four years followed (B. C. 315-311), which resulted
in the re-establishment of Seleucus in Babylon and the East, while
Antigonus gained power in Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor. The peace of B.
C. 311 provided for the independence of the Greek cities, but allowed
each general to keep what he had gained, and left Cassander regent
of Macedonia until Alexander IV. should be of age. It was probably
understood between the contracting parties that this last event was
never to occur. The young king and his mother were murdered, by order of
Cassander.
=23.= At the end of a year, Ptolemy broke the peace, on the pretense
that Antigonus had not liberated the Greek cities of Asia Minor. He
was opposed in Cilicia by Deme´trius, son of Antigonus, who gained in
this war the title of _Po´liorce´tes_, the Besieger. Ptolemy, entering
Greece, seized Sicyon and Corinth, and aimed to marry Cleopatra, the
last survivor of the royal house of Macedon; but the princess was
assassinated, by order of Cassander, B. C. 308. Demetrius now arriving
with a fleet to the relief of Athens, Ptolemy withdrew to Cyprus, and
gained possession of the island. A great battle followed off Salamis, one
of the most severe in the world’s history. Ptolemy was defeated, with the
loss of all but eight of his ships, leaving 17,000 prisoners in the hands
of the enemy.
=24.= The five principal generals now assumed the kingly title. Demetrius
spent a year in the siege of Rhodes, which, by its brave and memorable
defense, secured the privileges of a neutral in the remaining years of
the war. Returning to Greece, he assembled a congress at Corinth, which
conferred upon him the titles formerly bestowed on Philip and Alexander,
and then marched northward against the regent, or, rather, king of
Macedon. Alarmed at his endangered position, Cassander stirred up his
allies to invade Asia Minor.
=25.= The decisive battle took place, B. C. 301, at Ipsus, in Phrygia.
Demetrius had arrived from Europe to the assistance of his father; but
Seleucus, with the forces of the East, including 480 Indian elephants,
increased the army of Lysimachus. Antigonus, in his eighty-first year,
was slain; Demetrius, completely defeated, took refuge in Greece, but
was not permitted to enter Athens. The two conquerors, Seleucus and
Lysimachus, divided the dominions of Alexander, with due regard to their
own interests. Seleucus received the Euphrates Valley, Upper Syria,
Cappadocia, and part of Phrygia. Lysimachus added the rest of Asia Minor
to his Thracian dominion, which extended along the western shores of the
Euxine as far as the mouths of the Danube; Ptolemy retained Egypt, and
Cassander continued to reign in Macedonia until his death.
[Illustration: EMPIRE of the MACEDONIANS.]
=26.= The results of the twenty years’ war were disastrous to Greece
and Macedonia, not only by the exhausting expenditure of blood and
treasure, but by the introduction of Oriental habits of luxury and
unmanly servility, in place of the free and simple manners of former
times. Though the minds of the Greeks were enlarged by a knowledge of
the history and philosophy of the Eastern nations, and by observation of
the natural world and its productions in new climates and circumstances,
yet most of the influences which had kept alive the free spirit of the
people had ceased to work. Patriotism was dead; learning took the place
of genius; and imitation, the place of art.
=27.= At the same time, Asia had gained many splendid cities, her
commerce had vastly increased, and the Greek military discipline and
forms of civil government gave new strength to her armies and states.
From the Indus to the Adriatic, and from the Crimea to the southern
bounds of Egypt, the Greek language prevailed, at least among the
educated and ruling classes. In Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the
influence of Hellenic thought continued a thousand years in full force,
until Mahomet and his successors set up their new Semitic empire. The
wide diffusion of the Greek language in western Asia was among the most
important preparations for the spread of Christianity. If Alexander had
lived to complete his great scheme of interfusing the eastern and western
races, Asia would have gained and Europe lost in still greater measure.
RECAPITULATION.
Perdiccas became vizier, Philip Arrhidæus and Alexander IV
being nominally kings. Wars of the generals for the division of
the empire, B. C. 321-316; 315-311; 310-301. Murder of the two
kings, 316, 311. Battle of Salamis in Cyprus, 306. The decisive
combat at Ipsus gave Syria and the East to Seleucus; Egypt, to
Ptolemy; Thrace, to Lysimachus; Macedonia, to Cassander.
THIRD PERIOD. _History of the Several Kingdoms into which Alexander’s
Empire was divided._
I. THE SYRIAN KINGDOM OF THE SELEU´CIDÆ. B. C. 312-65.
=28.= After the restoration of Seleucus to the government of Babylonia
(see § 22), he extended his power over all the provinces between the
Euphrates and the Indus. He even made war against an Indian kingdom upon
the western headwaters of the Ganges, gaining thereby a great extension
of commerce, and the addition of five hundred elephants to his army. The
battle of Ipsus added to his dominions the country as far west as the
Mediterranean and the center of Phrygia, making his kingdom by far the
greatest that had been formed from the fragments of Alexander’s empire.
This vast dominion was organized by Seleucus with great skill and
energy. In each of the seventy-two provinces new cities sprang up, as
monuments of his power and centers of Greek civilization. Sixteen of
these were named Antioch, in honor of his father; five Laodice´a, for his
mother, Laod´ice; seven for himself, Sel´euci´a; and several for his two
wives, Apame´a and Stratoni´ce. To watch more effectually the movements
of his rivals, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, he removed the seat of government
from the Euphrates to his new capital, Antioch, on the Orontes, which
continued nearly a thousand years to be one of the richest and most
populous cities in the world.
[Illustration: Coin of Antioch, twice the size of the original.]
=29.= In 293 B. C., Seleucus divided his empire with his son Anti´ochus,
giving the younger prince all the provinces east of the Euphrates.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, after gaining and then losing Macedonia, sought
to make for himself a new kingdom in Asia, out of the possessions of
Lysimachus and Seleucus. He was defeated by the latter, and remained a
prisoner the rest of his life.
=30.= Lysimachus, king of Thrace, under the influence of his Egyptian
wife and her brother, Ptolemy Cerau´nus, had alienated the hearts of
his subjects by the murder of his son. The widow of the murdered prince
fled for protection to the court of Seleucus, who undertook her cause
and invaded the territories of Lysimachus. The two aged kings were now
the only survivors of the companions and generals of Alexander. In the
battle of Corupe´dion, B. C. 281, Lysimachus was slain, and all his
Asiatic dominions were transferred to Seleucus. The empire of Alexander
seemed about to be united in the hands of one man. Before crossing the
Hellespont to seize the European provinces, the Syrian king committed the
government of his present dominion to his son, Antiochus. Then passing
the strait, he advanced to Lys´imachi´a, the capital of his late enemy;
but here he was killed by the hand of Ptolemy Ceraunus, B. C. 280. Thrace
and Macedonia became the prize of the murderer.
=31.= Antiochus I. (Soter) inherited the Asiatic dominions of his father,
and made war in Asia Minor against the native kings of Bithynia. One of
these, Nicomedes, called to his assistance the Gauls, who were ravaging
eastern Europe, and rewarded their services with a large territory in
northern Phrygia, which was thence called Gala´tia. North-western Lydia
was also wrested from Antiochus, and formed the kingdom of Per´gamus.
From his only important victory over the Gauls, B. C. 275, the Syrian
king derived his title _Soter_ (the Deliverer); but his operations were
usually unsuccessful, and his kingdom was much reduced both in wealth
and power during his reign. He was defeated and slain near Ephesus, in a
battle with the Gauls, B. C. 261.
=32.= Antiochus II. bore the blasphemous title of _Theos_ (the God), but
he showed himself less than a man by the weakness and licentiousness
of his reign. He abandoned all affairs to worthless favorites, who
were neither feared nor respected in the distant provinces, and two
independent kingdoms sprang up unchecked in Parthia and Bactria, B.
C. 255. The influence of his wife, Laodice, involved him in a war
with Egypt. It was ended by the divorce of Laodice, and the marriage
of Antiochus with Ber´eni´ce, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B. C.
260-252). On the death of Philadelphus, Antiochus sent away Berenice
and took back Laodice; but she, doubting his constancy, murdered him to
secure the kingdom for her son, Seleucus. Berenice and her infant son
were also put to death.
=33.= Seleucus II. (Callini´cus) was first engaged in war with the king
of Egypt, Ptolemy Euer´getes, who came to avenge the deaths of his sister
and nephew. With the exception of part of Lydia and Phrygia, all Asia
west of the Tigris, and even Susiana, Media, and Persia, submitted to
the invader; but the severity of his exactions excited discontent, and
a revolt in Egypt called him home, whereupon Callinicus regained his
territories. Antiochus Hi´erax (the Hawk), a younger brother of the king,
revolted at fourteen years of age, with the assistance of his uncle and
a troop of Gauls. At the same time, Arsa´ces II., the Parthian king,
gained great advantages in Upper Asia, and signally defeated Callinicus
(B. C. 237), who led an expedition in person against him. The war between
the brothers ended, B. C. 229, in the defeat of the rebellious prince.
Seleucus died by a fall from his horse, B. C. 226.
Seleucus III. (Ceraunus) reigned only three years. In the midst of an
expedition against Attalus, king of Pergamus, he was killed in a mutiny
by some of his own officers.
=34.= Antiochus III., the Great, had an eventful reign of thirty-six
years. Molo, his general, first revolted, and made himself master, one by
one, of the countries east of the Euphrates, destroying all the armies
sent against him. Antiochus at length defeated him, B. C. 220, and then
made war upon Egypt for the recovery of Syria and Palestine, which had
hitherto been held by Ptolemy. He was successful at first, but his
defeat at Raph´ia robbed him of all his conquests, except Seleucia in
Syria. Achæ´us, his cousin, and hitherto a faithful servant of Antiochus
and his father, had meanwhile been driven into revolt by the false
accusations of Hermi´as, the prime minister. He subjected to his control
all the countries west of the Taurus. As soon as peace had been made
with Egypt, the king of Syria marched against him, deprived him of all
his possessions in one campaign, besieged him two years in Sardis, and
finally captured and put him to death.
=35.= The Parthian king, Arsaces III., had taken up arms against Media.
Antiochus led an army across the desert to Hecatom´pylos, the Parthian
capital, which he captured; but the battle which followed was indecisive,
and Arsaces remained independent, with the possession of Parthia and
Hyrcania. The war against the Bactrian monarch had a similar result,
Euthyde´mus retaining Bactria and Sogdiana. Antiochus penetrated India,
and renewed the old alliance of Seleucus Nicator with the king of the
upper Ganges. Wintering in Kerma´nia, the Syrian king made a naval
expedition, the next year, against the piratical Arabs of the western
shores of the Persian Gulf. On his return from his seven years’ absence
in the East, Antiochus received the title of “Great,” by which he is
known in history.
=36.= The same year, B. C. 205, Ptolemy Epiph´anes, a child of five
years, succeeded his father in Egypt. Tempted by the unprotected state of
the kingdom, Antiochus made a treaty with Philip of Macedon to divide the
dominions of Ptolemy between them. Philip’s designs were interrupted by a
war with Rome, the now powerful republic of the West. Antiochus carried
on the contest with great energy, but with varying success, in Cœle-Syria
and Palestine. By the decisive battle of Pa´neas, B. C. 198, he gained
complete possession of those provinces; but desiring to prosecute his
wars in another direction, he married his daughter Cleopatra to the young
king of Egypt, and promised the conquered country as her dower.
=37.= He then overran Asia Minor, and crossing the Hellespont, seized
the Thracian Chersonesus. The Romans, who had conquered Philip and
were guardians of Ptolemy, now sent an embassy to Antiochus, requiring
him to surrender all his conquests of territory belonging to either
prince, B. C. 196. Antiochus indignantly rejected their interference,
and prepared for war, with the aid of their great enemy, Hannibal, who
had taken refuge at his court. In 192 B. C., he crossed into Greece and
captured Chalcis; but he was signally defeated soon after by the Romans,
at Thermopylæ, and compelled to withdraw from Europe. They followed him
across the sea, and by two naval victories gained the western coast
of Asia Minor. The two Scip´ios crossed the Hellespont and defeated
Antiochus a fourth time, near Magnesia, in Lydia. He obtained peace only
by surrendering all Asia Minor except Cilicia, with his navy and all his
elephants, and by paying an enormous war indemnity. Twenty hostages were
given for the payment, among whom was Antiochus Epiphanes, the king’s
son. The king of Pergamus received the ceded provinces, and became a most
formidable rival to Syria. To meet his engagements with the Romans,
Antiochus plundered the temples of Asia, and in a commotion excited by
this means in Elyma´is, he lost his life.
=38.= Seleucus IV. (Philop´ator) had a reign of eleven years, unmarked by
important events. The kingdom was exhausted, and the Romans were ready to
seize any exposed province at the least hostile movement of the Syrians.
Heliodo´rus, the treasurer, at length murdered his master and assumed
the crown; but his usurpation was cut short by the arrival of Antiochus
Epiphanes, brother of the late king, who with the aid of Eumenes, king of
Pergamus, established himself upon the throne.
=39.= Antiochus IV. had been thirteen years a hostage at Rome, and
surprised his people by the Roman customs which he introduced. He made a
four years’ war against Egypt, and had nearly conquered the country when
the Romans interfered, and commanded him to give up all his conquests. He
was forced to obey, but he vented his rage upon the Jews, whose temple
he plundered and desecrated. They sprang to arms, under the leadership
of Mat´tathi´as, the priest, and his brave son, Judas Maccabæ´us, and
defeated the army sent to subdue them. Antiochus, who was now in the
East, set forth in person to avenge this insult to his authority. On his
way, he attempted to plunder the temple at Elymais, and was seized with
a furious insanity, in which he died. Both Jews and Greeks believed his
madness to be a judgment for his sacrilege.
=40.= Antiochus V. (Eu´pator), a boy of twelve years, came to the throne
under the control of Lys´ias, the regent. But his father, when dying, had
appointed him another guardian in the person of Philip, who returned to
Antioch bearing the royal signet, while the young king and his minister
were absent in Judæa. Lysias, on hearing this, hastened to make peace
with Judas Maccabæus, and turned back to fight with Philip, whom he
defeated and put to death. The Parthians, meanwhile, were overrunning the
kingdom on the east; and the Romans, on the west, were harshly enforcing
the terms of the treaty made by Antiochus the Great. Demetrius, the son
of Seleucus Philopator, now escaped from Rome, and gained possession
of the kingdom, after ordering the execution of both Eupator and his
guardian.
=41.= Demetrius I. spent some years in vain attempts to put down the
Jewish rebellion. His armies were defeated by Judas Maccabæus, and
the Romans entered into alliance with Judæa, which they now declared
an independent kingdom. The Syrian king was no more successful in
Cappadocia; and in Babylon, the satrap whom he had deposed set up
an impostor, Alexander Balas, who claimed to be a son of Antiochus
Epiphanes. Aided by the forces of Rome, Pergamus, Cappadocia, Egypt, and
Judæa, this man conquered Demetrius and kept the kingdom five years.
=42.= Alexander Balas proved unworthy of a crown, by leaving public
affairs in the weak and incompetent hands of his favorite, Ammo´nius,
while he abandoned himself to indolence and luxury. Demetrius Nica´tor,
eldest son of the former king, encouraged by the contempt of the Syrians
for the licentiousness of Alexander, landed in Cilicia and made war for
the recovery of his kingdom. Ptolemy of Egypt, who had entered Syria with
an army for the aid of his son-in-law, Alexander, became disgusted by his
ingratitude and came over to the side of Demetrius. A battle near Antioch
was decided in favor of the allies. Alexander fled into Arabia, where he
was assassinated by some of his own officers.
=43.= Demetrius II. (Nicator) ruled with such wanton cruelty as to
alienate his subjects. One of them, Diod´otus Tryphon, set up a rival
king in the person of Antiochus VI., a child two years of age, the son of
Alexander Balas. After three or four years he removed this infant monarch
and made himself king, with the aid of Judas Maccabæus. Demetrius, after
fighting ineffectually seven years against his rivals in the west, left
the regency of Syria to his wife, Cleopatra, while he turned against
the Parthians, who had nearly conquered his eastern provinces. He was
defeated and made prisoner by Arsaces VI., and remained ten years a
captive, though he was treated with all the honors of royalty, and
received a Parthian princess for his second wife.
=44.= Cleopatra, unable to wage war alone against Tryphon, called in
Antiochus Side´tes, her husband’s brother, who conquered the usurper
and seated himself on the vacant throne. He made war against the Jews,
and captured Jerusalem by a siege of nearly a year. He afterward turned
against the Parthians and gained some advantages, but he was finally
defeated and lost his life after a reign of nine years. Demetrius Nicator
had been released by the Parthian king, and now re-established himself
in Syria. But Ptolemy Phys´con, of Egypt, raised up a new pretender,
Zabi´nas, who defeated Demetrius at Damascus. Attempting to enter Tyre,
the Syrian king was captured and put to death.
=45.= Seleucus V., his eldest son, assumed the crown without the
permission of his mother, who thereupon caused him to be executed,
and associated with herself her second son, Antiochus VIII. (Grypus).
Zabinas, the pretender, reigned at the same time in part of Syria, until
he was defeated by Antiochus, and put to death by poison, B. C. 122. The
same year Cleopatra was detected in a plot against the life of her son,
and was herself executed.
=46.= Exhausted by long wars, and greatly reduced both in power and
extent, Syria now enjoyed eight years of peace. Judæa and the provinces
east of the Euphrates were wholly independent. The few Syrians who
possessed wealth were enfeebled by luxury, while the mass of the people
were crushed by want. In 114 B. C., Antiochus Cyzice´nus, a half-brother
of the king, revolted against him, and involved the country in another
bloody war of three years. The territory was then divided between
them; but war broke out afresh in 105 B. C., and continued nine years,
resulting in no gain to either party, but great loss and misery to the
nation. Tyre, Sidon, Seleucia, and the whole province of Cilicia became
independent. The Arabs on one side, and the Egyptians on the other,
ravaged the country at pleasure. At length the reign of Antiochus VIII.
was ended with his life, by Hera´cleon, an officer of his court, B. C. 96.
=47.= The murderer did not receive the reward of his crime, for Seleucus
VI. (Epiphanes), the eldest son of Grypus, gained possession of the
kingdom. In two years he conquered Cyzicenus, who committed suicide to
avoid capture; but the claims of the rival house were still maintained
by Antiochus X. (Eu´sebes), his eldest son. Seleucus was now driven
into Cilicia. Here he came to a miserable end, for he was burnt alive
by the people of a town from which he had demanded a subsidy. Philip,
the brother of Seleucus, and second son of Antiochus Grypus, became
king, and with the aid of his younger brothers continued the war against
Eusebes. This prince was defeated and driven to take refuge in Parthia.
But no peace came to the country, for Philip and his brothers, Antiochus
XI., Demetrius, and Antiochus XII., made war with each other, until the
unhappy Syrians called upon Tigra´nes, king of Armenia, to end their
miseries.
=48.= Tigranes governed, wisely and well, fourteen years (B. C. 83-69);
but having at length incurred the vengeance of the Romans, by rendering
aid to his father-in-law, Mithridates of Pontus, he was forced to give up
all except his hereditary kingdom. Four years longer (B. C. 69-65), Syria
continued its separate existence, under Antiochus XIII. (Asiaticus), the
son of Eusebes. At the end of that time the kingdom was subdued by Pompey
the Great, and became a Roman province.
RECAPITULATION.
Seleucus I. (B. C. 312-281) extended his empire beyond the
Indus, built many cities, gained all Asia Minor by the
defeat of Lysimachus. Antiochus I. (B. C. 280-261) lost the
territories of Pergamus and Galatia; Antiochus II. (261-246),
those of Parthia and Bactria. Under Seleucus II. (246-226), the
greater part of the empire was conquered by Ptolemy, but soon
recovered. Seleucus III. reigned three years (B. C. 226-223).
Antiochus III. (B C. 223-187) quelled the revolts of Molo
and Achæus; had wars with the kings of Parthia and Bactria;
penetrated India as far as the Ganges; punished the pirates of
the Persian Gulf; wrested from Egypt the provinces of Syria
and Palestine; overran Asia Minor, and invaded Greece. He
was defeated by the Romans, twice by sea and twice by land.
Seleucus IV. (B. C. 187-176) was murdered by his treasurer,
Heliodorus. Antiochus IV. (B. C. 176-164) was prevented by the
Romans from conquering Egypt; excited by his persecutions a
revolt in Judæa, which became independent under the Maccabees.
The short reign of Antiochus V. (B. C. 164-162) was filled
with wars of the regents. His uncle, Demetrius I. (B. C.
162-151), had unsuccessful wars with the Jews and Cappadocians;
was conquered by Alexander Balas, who reigned B. C. 151-146.
Demetrius II. had a disputed reign (B. C. 146-140); a ten
years’ imprisonment in Parthia (B. C. 140-130), while his wife
and his brother, Antiochus VII., ruled Syria; and a second
contest with a pretender, B. C. 129-126. Antiochus VIII. (B.
C. 126-96) reigned five years jointly with his mother, seven
years alone, and eighteen years side by side with his brother,
Antiochus IX. (Cyzicenus), who ruled Cœle-Syria and Phœnicia,
B. C. 111-96. Seleucus V. (B. C. 96, 95) conquered Cyzicenus,
but carried on the same war with his son, Eusebes, until his
own violent death. His younger brothers fought first Eusebes,
and then each other, until Tigranes, king of Armenia, conquered
the country and ruled it fourteen years (B. C. 83-69).
Antiochus XIII. the last of the Seleucidæ, reigned B. C. 69-65.
II. EGYPT UNDER THE PTOLEMIES. B. C. 323-30.
=49.= The Macedonian Kingdom in Egypt presented a marked and brilliant
contrast to the native empires and the Persian satrapy. By removing the
capital to Alexandria, the conqueror had provided for free intercourse
with foreign countries, and the old exclusiveness of the Egyptians was
forever broken down. While Palestine was attached to this kingdom,
especial favor was shown to the Jews; and in the Greek conquerors, the
native Egyptians, and the Jewish merchants, the three families of Shem,
Ham, and Japhet were reunited as they had never been since the dispersion
at Babel. The Egyptians, who had abhorred the Persian dominion, hailed
the Macedonians as deliverers; the common people engaged with zeal in the
new industries that promised wealth as the reward of enterprise, and the
learned class found their delight in the intellectual society, as well as
the rare treasures of literature and art, that filled the court of the
Ptolemies.
=50.= Ptolemy I. (Soter[59]) received the Egyptian province immediately
upon the death of Alexander, and proceeded to organize it with great
energy and wisdom. Desiring to make Egypt a maritime power, he sought at
once to conquer Palestine, Phœnicia, and Cyprus, whose forests were as
needful to him for ship-building as their sea-faring people for sailors.
The two countries on the mainland were occupied by Ptolemy in 320 B. C.,
and remained six years in his possession. They were lost in the war with
Antigonus, and only fully regained after the battle of Ipsus, B. C. 301.
Cyprus was the scene of many conflicts, of which the great naval battle
off Salamis, B. C. 306, was the most severe and decisive. It was then
lost to Egypt, but in B. C. 294 or 293 it was regained, and continued her
most valuable foreign possession as long as the kingdom existed. Cyrene
and all the Libyan tribes between it and Egypt were also annexed by
Ptolemy.
=51.= Few changes were made in the internal government of Egypt. The
country, as before, was divided into nomes, each having its own ruler,
who was usually a native Egyptian. The old laws and worship prevailed.
The Ptolemies rebuilt the temples, paid especial honors to the Apis, and
made the most of all points of resemblance between the Greek and Egyptian
religions. A magnificent temple to Sera´pis was erected at Alexandria.
The priests retained their privileges and honors, being exempt from
all taxation. The army was chiefly, and its officers wholly, Greek or
Macedonian, and all civil dignities of any importance were also filled
by the conquering people. The Greek inhabitants of the cities alone
possessed entire freedom in the management of their affairs.
=52.= Ptolemy followed the liberal policy of Alexander toward men of
genius and learning. He collected a vast and precious library, which
he placed in a building connected with the palace; and he founded the
“Museum,” which drew students and professors from all parts of the
world. No spot ever witnessed more literary and intellectual activity
than Alexandria, the University of the East. There Euclid first unfolded
the “Elements of Geometry”; Eratos´thenes discoursed of Geography;
Hipparchus, of Astronomy; Aristoph´anes and Aristar´chus, of Criticism;
Man´etho, of History; while Apel´les and Antiph´ilus added their
paintings, and Phile´tas, Callim´achus, and Apollonius their poems,
for the delight of a court whose monarch was himself an author, and in
which talent constituted rank. Alexandria during this reign was adorned
with many costly and magnificent works. The royal palace; the Museum;
the great light-house on the island of Pharos, which has given its name
to many similar constructions in modern times; the mole or causeway
which connected this island with the mainland; the Hip´podrome, and the
Mausole´um, containing the tomb of Alexander, were among the chief.
Ptolemy Soter was distinguished by his truth and magnanimity from most of
the princes and generals of his age. His unlimited power never led him to
cruelty or self-indulgence. He died at the age of eighty-four, B. C. 283.
=53.= Ptolemy II. (Philadelphus), through the influence of his mother,
had been raised to the throne two years before his father’s death,
instead of his elder brother, Ceraunus. He had been carefully educated
by several of the learned men whom the patronage of his father had drawn
to the court; and he continued, on a still more liberal scale, that
encouragement of science and literature which had already made Alexandria
a successful rival of Athens. He so greatly increased the Alexandrian
Library that he is often mentioned as its founder. Agents were appointed
to search Europe and Asia for every literary work of value, and to secure
it at any cost. An embassy was sent to the high priest at Jerusalem to
bring a copy of the Holy Scriptures, together with a company of learned
men who could translate them into Greek. The translators were entertained
by the king with the greatest honor. The first five books were completed
in the reign of Philadelphus, the rest were translated by order of the
later Ptolemies; and the entire version—still an invaluable treasure
to Biblical scholars—is known as the Sep´tuagint, either from the
seventy translators, or because it was authorized by the San´hedrim of
Alexandria, which consisted of the same number.
=54.= Ptolemy II. was engaged in various wars; first for the furtherance
of the Achæan League, and the protection of the Greeks against Macedonian
aggressions; afterward against his half-brother, Magas, king of Cyrene,
and the kings of Syria, with whom Magas was allied. He gained possession
of the whole coast of Asia Minor, with many of the Cyclades. By the
wisdom of his internal policy, Egypt was meanwhile raised to her highest
pitch of wealth and prosperity. He re-opened the canal made by Rameses
the Great (see Book I, §§ 153, 154), and built the port of Arsinoë, on
the site of the modern Suez. To avoid the dangers of Red Sea navigation,
he founded two cities, named Berenice, farther to the southward, and
connected one of them by a highway with Coptos on the Nile. Egypt thus
reaped the full commercial advantage of her position midway between the
East and the West. For centuries the rich productions of India, Arabia,
and Ethiopia were conveyed along these various highways to Alexandria,
whence they were distributed to Syria, Greece, and Rome. The revenues of
Egypt were equal to those which Darius had derived from the vast empire
of Persia.
=55.= The personal character of Philadelphus was less admirable than that
of his father. He killed two of his brothers, banished a most faithful
counselor, and by marrying his own sister, Arsinoë, introduced a custom
which caused untold misery and mischief in the kingdom. He died B. C.
247, having reigned thirty-eight years, or thirty-six from the death of
his father.
=56.= Ptolemy III. (Euergetes) was the most enterprising monarch of his
race, and pushed the boundaries of his kingdom to their greatest extent.
He gained the Cyr´ena´ica by marriage with the daughter of Magas, and
annexed portions of Ethiopia and Arabia. In his war against Syria to
avenge his sister Berenice (see §§ 32, 33), he even passed the Euphrates
and conquered all the country to the borders of Bactria; but he lost all
this by his sudden recall to Egypt. His conquests on the sea-board, which
could be defended by his fleet, remained permanently in his possession.
All the shores of the Mediterranean, from Cyrene to the Hellespont,
with many important islands, and even a portion of Europe, including
Lysimachia in Thrace, belonged to his dominion.
He continued the patronage of art and letters, and enriched the
Alexandrian libraries with many rare manuscripts. The Egyptians were
still more gratified by the recovery of some ancient images of their
gods, which had been carried away to Assyria by Sargon or Esarhaddon,
and were brought back by Ptolemy from his eastern campaign. Euergetes
died B. C. 222, after a prosperous reign of twenty-five years; and with
him ended the glory of the Macedonian monarchy in Egypt. “Historians
reckon nine Ptolemies after Euergetes. Except Philome´tor, who was mild
and humane; Lath´yrus, who was amiable but weak; and Ptolemy XII.,
who was merely young and incompetent, they were all, almost equally,
detestable.”
=57.= Ptolemy IV. was suspected of having murdered his father, and
therefore took the surname Philopator to allay suspicion. He began his
reign, however, by murdering his mother, his brother, and his uncle,
and marrying his sister Arsinoë. A few years later she, too, was put
to death, at the instigation of a worthless favorite of the king. The
control of affairs was left to Sosib´ius, a minister who was equally
wicked and incompetent. Through his neglect, the army became weakened by
lack of discipline, and the Syrians seized the opportunity to recover
their lost possessions. They were defeated, however, at Raph´ia, and
gained only their port of Seleucia. A revolt of the native Egyptians
occupied many years of this reign.
=58.= Ptolemy V. (Epiphanes) was only five years old at his father’s
death. The kings of Syria and Macedon plotted to divide his dominions
between them, and the only resource of the incompetent ministers was to
call the Romans to their aid. All the foreign dependencies, except Cyprus
and the Cyrenaica, were lost; but by the good management of M. Lep´idus,
Egypt was saved to the little Ptolemy. Aristom´enes, an Acarnanian,
succeeded Lepidus as regent, and his energy and justice restored for a
time the prosperity of the kingdom. At the age of fourteen, Epiphanes
was declared of age, and the government was thenceforth in his name. Few
events of his reign are known. He married Cleopatra of Syria, and soon
after poisoned his late guardian, Aristomenes. His plans for a war with
Syria were prevented by his own assassination, B. C. 181.
=59.= Ptolemy VI. (Philometor) became king at the age of seven, under
the vigorous regency of his mother, Cleopatra. She died B. C. 173, and
the power passed into the hands of two weak and corrupt ministers, who
involved the kingdom in war, and almost in ruin, by their rash invasion
of Syria. Antiochus IV. defeated them at Pelusium, and advancing to
Memphis, gained possession of the young king, whom he used as a tool for
the reduction of the whole country. The Alexandrians crowned Ptolemy
Physcon, a younger brother of the king, and successfully withstood the
besieging army of Antiochus. The Romans now interposing, he was obliged
to retreat.
The two brothers agreed to reign together, and prepared for war with
Antiochus. He captured Cyprus, invaded Egypt a second time, and would
doubtless have added the entire dominion of the Ptolemies to his own,
if the Romans, who claimed the protectorate of Egypt, had not again
interfered and commanded him to withdraw. The Syrian king reluctantly
obeyed, and the brothers reigned four years in peace. They then
quarreled, and Philometor went to plead his cause before the Roman
Senate. The Romans re-instated him in the possession of Egypt, giving
to his brother Physcon Libya and the Cyrenaica. Dissatisfied with his
portion, Physcon went to Rome and obtained a further grant of Cyprus; but
Philometor refused to give it up, and the brothers were preparing for
war, when a revolt in Cyrene engaged the attention of its king. After
nine years he renewed his claim, and obtained from Rome a small squadron
to aid in the capture of the island. He was defeated and made prisoner by
his brother; but his life was spared, and he was restored to his kingdom
of Cyrene. Philometor fell, B. C. 146, in a battle near Antioch, with
Alexander Balas, whom he had himself encouraged to assume the crown of
Syria. (See § 42.)
=60.= Ptolemy VII. (Eupator) had reigned but a few days when he was
murdered by his uncle, Ptolemy Physcon, who, aided by the Romans, united
in himself the two kingdoms, Egypt and Cyrene. This monster created such
terror by his inhuman cruelties, and such disgust by his excesses, that
his capital became half depopulated, and the citizens who remained were
almost constantly in revolt. At last he was forced to take refuge in
Cyprus, the crown remaining to his sister, Cleopatra. To wound the queen
most deeply, he murdered her son, and sent her the head and hands of the
victim. The Alexandrians were so enraged by this atrocity, that they
fought bravely for Cleopatra; but when she applied for aid to the king of
Syria, they became alarmed and recalled Physcon, after an exile of three
years. Warned by his punishment, Physcon now desisted from his cruelties,
and devoted himself to literary pursuits, even gaining some reputation as
an author.
=61.= Ptolemy VIII. (Lath´yrus) succeeded his father in Egypt, while his
brother Alexander reigned in Cyprus, and A´pion, another son of Physcon,
received the Cyrenaica. Cleopatra, the queen mother, had the real power.
After ten years, Lathyrus offended his mother by pursuing a policy of
his own, and was compelled to change places with Alexander, who reigned
eighteen years in Egypt, with the title of Ptolemy IX. Cleopatra was
then put to death, Alexander expelled, and Ptolemy Lathyrus recalled. He
reigned eight years as sole monarch, defeated Alexander, who attempted to
regain Cyprus, and punished a revolt in Thebes by a siege of three years,
ending with the destruction of the city, B. C. 89-86.
=62.= Berenice, the only legitimate child of Lathyrus, reigned six
months alone, and was then married and associated upon the throne with
her cousin, Ptolemy X., a son of Alexander, whose claims were supported
by the Romans. Within three weeks he put his wife to death, and the
Alexandrians, revolting, slew him in the gymnasium, B. C. 80. Fifteen
years of great confusion followed, during which the succession was
disputed by at least five claimants, and Cyprus became a separate kingdom.
=63.= Ptolemy XI. (Aule´tes, or the Flute-Player) then obtained the
crown, and dated his reign from the death of his half-sister, Berenice.
In 59 B. C., he was acknowledged by the Romans; but by that time his
oppressive and profligate government had so disgusted the people, that
they drove him from the kingdom. He took refuge four years in Rome, while
his two daughters nominally governed Egypt, first jointly, and then the
younger alone, after her sister’s death. In 55 B. C. Auletes returned,
supported by a Roman army, put to death his daughter, who had opposed his
restoration, and reigned under Roman protection three and a half years.
He died, B. C. 51, leaving four children: the famous Cleopatra, aged
seventeen; Ptolemy XII.; another Ptolemy, and a daughter Arsinoë, still
younger.
[Illustration: Coin of Antony and Cleopatra, twice the size.]
=64.= The princess Cleopatra received the crown under Roman patronage,
in conjunction with the elder Ptolemy. The brother and sister quarreled,
and Cleopatra was driven into Syria. Here she met Julius Cæsar, and by
her talents and accomplishments gained great ascendency over his mind. By
his aid Ptolemy was conquered and slain, and Cleopatra established in the
kingdom. She removed her younger brother by poison, and had thenceforth
no rival. With consummate ability, mixed with the unscrupulous cruelty
of her race, she reigned seventeen years in great prosperity. Cæsar
was her protector while he lived, and Antony then became her slave,
sacrificing all his interests, and his honor as a Roman and a general, to
her slightest caprices. In the civil wars of Rome, Antony was at length
defeated at Actium; Cleopatra committed suicide, and her kingdom became a
Roman province, B. C. 30.
=65.= The kingdom of the Ptolemies had continued 293 years, from the
death of Alexander to that of Cleopatra. During 101 years, under the
first three kings, it was the most flourishing, well organized, and
prosperous of the Macedonian monarchies; the nearly two centuries which
remained were among the most degraded periods in the history of the human
race.
RECAPITULATION.
Prosperity of Egypt under the Ptolemies. Concourse of races at
Alexandria. Ptolemy I. (B. C. 323-283) conquered Palestine,
Phœnicia, Cyprus, and the African coast as far as Cyrene. Old
laws and worship retained. Alexandrian Library and Museum,
professors and public works. Ptolemy Philadelphus (B. C.
283-247) ordered a Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures;
constructed cities, roads, and canals for purposes of
commerce. Acquisitions of Ptolemy III. (B. C. 247-222). Rapid
conquests in Asia, speedily lost. Collection of manuscripts
and recovery of images. Decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom.
Crimes of Ptolemy IV. (B. C. 222-205). Victory at Raphia, B.
C. 217. Roman interference during the minority of Ptolemy V.
(B. C. 205-181). Ptolemy VI. (B. C. 181-146) taken by Antiochus
IV., of Syria. His brother Physcon crowned. Rome protected
Egyptian dependencies against Syria, and divided them between
the brothers. Ptolemy VII. was murdered by his uncle, Ptolemy
Physcon, who reigned B. C. 146-117. He was exiled for his
crimes, but recalled in three years. Ptolemy VIII. and his
brother Alexander reigned alternately in Egypt and Cyprus
while their mother lived (B. C. 117-89). After her death, the
former was sole monarch until B. C. 81. Berenice reigned six
months (B. C. 81, 80), and was then murdered by her husband,
Ptolemy X. He was slain by the Alexandrians. Ptolemy XI. (B. C.
80-51) made good his claim after fifteen years’ anarchy; was
acknowledged by the Romans, but expelled (B. C. 59-55) by his
subjects; returned to reign under Roman protection. Cleopatra
poisoned her two brothers, and by favor of Cæsar and Antony
kept her kingdom twenty-one years, B. C. 51-30.
III. MACEDONIA AND GREECE.
=66.= Upon the death of Alexander, the greater part of Greece revolted
against Macedon, Athens, as of old, being the leader. Antipater, the
Macedonian regent, was defeated near Thermopylæ, and besieged in Lamia,
in Thessaly. The confederates were afterward worsted at Cranon, and the
good management of Antipater dissolved the league by treating with its
members separately, and offering the most lenient terms to all except the
leaders. Athens suffered the punishment she had often inflicted. Twelve
thousand of her citizens were forcibly removed to Thrace, Illyria, Italy,
and Africa, only nine thousand of the wealthier sort being left, who
willingly submitted to the Macedonian supremacy. Demosthenes, with the
principal members of his party, were executed, and the last remains of
Athenian independence destroyed.
=67.= The wars of the generals and the intrigues of the Macedonian
princesses belong to Period II. (See §§ 19-25.) Three years after the
battle of Ipsus, Cassander died, B. C. 298, leaving the crown to his
son, Philip IV. The young king reigned less than a year, and his mother,
Thessalonica, then divided Macedonia between her two remaining sons,
Antipater and Alexander. The former, being dissatisfied with his portion,
murdered his mother and called in his father-in-law, Lysimachus, to aid
him in gaining the whole. His brother, at the same time, asked aid of
Demetrius, who reigned in Greece, and of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. With
their help he drove Antipater out of Macedonia; but he gained nothing by
the victory, for Demetrius had undertaken the war solely with the view of
placing himself upon the throne, which he accomplished by the murder of
Alexander. Antipater II. was put to death the same year by Lysimachus, B.
C. 294.
=68.= The kingdom now included Thessaly, Attica, and the greater part
of the Peloponnesus, Pyrrhus having received several countries on the
western coast of Greece. Demetrius, however, sacrificed all his dominions
to his unbounded ambition and conceit. He failed in an attack on Pyrrhus,
and being invaded both from the east and west, was compelled to abandon
Macedonia, B. C. 287. In a later expedition into Asia, he became the
prisoner of Seleucus, and died in the third year of his captivity. (See §
29.)
=69.= Pyrrhus remained king of the greater part of Macedonia nearly a
year, but was then driven back to his hereditary kingdom by Lysimachus,
who thus extended his own dominions from the Halys to Mount Pindus, B.
C. 286. The capital of this consolidated kingdom was Lysimachia, in the
Chersonese, and Macedonia for five years was merely a province. The
nobles, becoming discontented, called in Seleucus, who defeated and
killed Lysimachus, B. C. 281.
=70.= For a few weeks the aged Seleucus governed nearly all the dominions
of Alexander, except Egypt. He was then assassinated by Ptolemy
Ceraunus,[60] who became king in his stead. The Egyptian prince was soon
overwhelmed by a new peril in the invasion of the Gauls. This restless
people had been pouring for nearly a century into northern Italy, where
they had driven out the Etruscans from the plain of the Po, and given
their own name to Gallia Cisalpina. Now turning eastward, they occupied
the plain of the Danube, and pressed southward as far as Illyricum,
whence they proceeded in three divisions, one falling upon the Thracians,
another upon the Pæonians, and a third upon the Macedonians. The last
army encountered Ptolemy Ceraunus, who was defeated and slain in battle.
For two years they ravaged Macedonia, while Melea´ger, a brother of
Ceraunus, and Antipater, a nephew of Cassander, successively occupied the
throne, B. C. 279-277.
=71.= Brennus, a Gallic leader, with more than 200,000 men, marched
through Thessaly, laying all waste with fire and sword. A furious battle
took place at Thermopylæ, and the Gauls, at last, only gained the rear
of the Greek army by the same mountain path which had admitted the
troops of Xerxes two hundred years before. Brennus pushed on to plunder
Delphi, but an army of 4,000, well posted upon the heights of Parnassus,
withstood him with success; and a violent wintry storm, which confused
and benumbed the assailants, convinced devout Greeks that Apollo was once
more defending his sanctuary. The Gallic leader was severely wounded,
and unwilling to survive his disgrace, put an end to his own life. His
army broke up into a multitude of marauding bands, without order or
discipline, and the greater part perished from cold, hunger, or battle.
Their countrymen, however, established a kingdom in Thrace; and another
band, invited into Asia Minor by Nicomedes, became possessed of a large
tract of country, which received their name as Gala´tia.
=72.= During the disorders in Macedonia, Sosthenes, an officer of noble
birth, had been placed at the head of affairs, instead of Antipater, who
was deposed for his incapacity. After the Gauls had retired, Antipater
regained the throne. But Antigonus Gonatas, who had maintained himself
as an independent prince in central and southern Greece, ever since the
captivity of his father, Demetrius, now appeared with an army composed
mainly of Gallic mercenaries, defeated Antipater, and gained possession
of Macedonia. Antiochus Soter made war against him, but was opposed
with so much energy that he acknowledged Antigonus as king, and gave
him his sister Phila in marriage. But Antigonus was never acceptable to
either Greeks or Macedonians, and when Pyrrhus, the most popular prince
of his age, returned from Italy, the whole Macedonian army was ready to
desert to his side. Antigonus was defeated, and for a year or more was a
fugitive, B. C. 273-271.
=73.= Pyrrhus was the greatest warrior and one of the best princes of
his time—a time from which truth and fidelity seemed almost to have
disappeared. He might have become the most powerful monarch in the world,
if his perseverance had been equal to his talents and ambition. But
instead of organizing the territory he possessed, he was ever thirsting
for new conquests. In a war upon southern Greece he was repulsed from
Sparta, and in attempting to seize Argos by night, he was killed by a
tile thrown by a woman from a house-top.
=74.= Antigonus Gonatas now returned and reigned thirty-two years. He
extended his power over most of the Peloponnesus, and waged war five
years against the Athenians, who were aided by Sparta and Egypt. In the
meantime, Antigonus was recalled by the incursion of Alexander, son of
Pyrrhus, who was carrying all before him, and had been acknowledged king
of Macedon. Demetrius, son of Antigonus, chased him out of Macedonia,
and even out of Epirus; and though he was soon restored to his paternal
dominion, he remained thenceforth at peace with his neighbors. Athens
fell in 263 B. C. Nineteen years later, Antigonus gained possession of
Corinth; but this was the last of his successes.
=75.= The Achæan League, which had been suppressed by the immediate
successors of Alexander, had soon revived, and extended itself beyond the
limits of Achaia, receiving cities from all the Peloponnesus. In 243 B.
C., Ara´tus, its head, by a sudden and well-concerted movement captured
Corinth, which immediately joined the League. Several important cities
followed the example; and Antigonus, who had grown old and cautious,
was unable to oppose them, except by stirring up Ætolia to attack the
Achæans. He died B. C. 239, having lived eighty and reigned thirty-seven
years.
=76.= Demetrius II. allied himself with Epirus, and broke friendship with
the Ætolians, who were enemies of that kingdom. The consequence was, that
the Ætolians made a junction with the Achæan League to oppose him. He
was able to defeat them in Thessaly and Bœotia, but south of the isthmus
the ascendency of Macedon was at an end. The Romans now for the first
time interfered in Grecian affairs, by requiring the Ætolian confederacy
to abstain from aggressions upon Acarnania. Corcyra, Apollonia, and
Epidamnus fell into their hands, B. C. 228, a year after the death of
Demetrius II.
=77.= Philip V. was but eight years old when he inherited his father’s
dominions, under the guardianship of his kinsman, Antigonus Doson.
During this regency great changes took place in Sparta, which led to
a brief return of her old energy. The laws of Lycurgus had continued
in force more than five centuries, but the time of their fitness and
usefulness had passed away. The rigid separation which they made between
the different classes, now limited the number of true Spartans to 700,
while the property tests were so severe, that only 100 enjoyed the full
rights of citizens. The wealth of the community was concentrated in the
hands of a few, who violated the old law by living in great luxury. In
this condition, Sparta was unable even to defend herself against Illyrian
pirates or Ætolian marauders, still less to exert any influence, as of
old, in the general affairs of Greece.
The reforms proposed B. C. 230, by Agis IV., and carried, four years
later, by Cleomenes, added 3,800 _periϫci_ to the number of citizens,
and re-divided the lands of the state between these and 15,000 selected
Laconians. Debts were abolished, and the old simple and frugal customs
of Lycurgus restored. Sparta was now able to defeat the forces of the
Achæan League, and to draw from it, into her own alliance, most of the
Peloponnesian towns out of Achaia. But Aratus, the head of the League,
violated all its principles by calling in Antigonus, the Macedonian
regent, and putting him in possession of Acro-Corinthus. In the battle of
Sella´sia, B. C. 221, Cleomenes was defeated, and forced to take refuge
at the court of Ptolemy Philopator. The League which had been created
to defend the liberties of Greece, had betrayed them; and there was no
longer any hope either of restoring the glories of Sparta, or of checking
the overwhelming power of Macedon and Rome.
=78.= Antigonus died B. C. 220, and Philip, now seventeen years of age,
assumed the government. The great advantages gained during the regency
were soon lost by his rashness. He hastily allied himself with Hannibal
against Rome, and then with Antiochus of Syria against Egypt. (See §§ 37,
59.) His first war, however, was against Ætolia, which had sprung to arms
immediately upon his accession, hoping at once to overbalance its rival,
Achaia, and to increase its own territories at the expense of Macedon. As
early as the time of Alexander the Great, the Ætolian tribes had formed
themselves into a federal republic, which occupied a similar position
in central Greece to that of the Achæan League in the Peloponnesus. By
the subjection or annexation of several states, it was now extended from
the Ionian to the Ægean Sea. Philip overran Ætolia with great energy,
captured its seat of government, and by his brilliant successes showed a
military talent worthy of the early days of Macedonian conquest. But the
news of a great victory gained by Hannibal at Lake Thrasyme´ne, recalled
his attention to the object of his chief ambition, a war with Rome.
=79.= The first movement in the new war was the siege of Apollonia, a
Roman colony in Illyricum. Philip hoped to drive the Romans from the
western coast of Greece, and thus prepare the way for an invasion of
Italy. His camp was surprised at night by Vale´rius, and he was forced
to burn his ships and retreat in all haste. The Ætolians and all their
allies—Sparta, Elis, and the kings of Illyricum and Pergamus—took sides
with Rome, and carried the war into Macedonia, forcing Philip to ask
the aid of Carthage. The Romans captured Zacynthus, Ne´sos and Œniadæ,
Antic´yra in Locris, and the island of Ægina, and presented all to the
Ætolians.
At this crisis, Philopϫmen, the greatest Greek of his time, became
commander of the Achæan cavalry, and, two years later, the head of the
League. He improved the drill and tactics of the army, and infused new
spirit into the whole nation. His invasion of Elis, in concert with
Philip, was unsuccessful, and the king was defeated by Sulpic´ius Galba;
but, in 207 B. C., the great victory of Mantinea placed the Macedonians
and Achæans on a more equal footing with the Romans. Peace was made on
terms honorable to all parties.
=80.= Philip, spoiled by ambition, had become unscrupulous and reckless.
Instead of securing what he already possessed, he continually grasped
after new conquests; and disregarding the storm that was sure to burst
upon him sooner or later from the west, he now turned to the east and
south. He made a treaty with Antiochus the Great for a partition of the
Egyptian dependencies, by which he was to receive Thrace and the western
part of Asia Minor. This led at once to war with At´talus of Pergamus,
an ally of Rome, as well as with Rhodes, which took the part of Egypt.
His fleet was signally defeated off Chios, B. C. 201; and though he
afterward gained a victory at Lade, his losses were not retrieved. He
captured, however, the important islands of Samos, Thasos, and Chios,
with the province of Caria, and several places in Ionia.
=81.= The great disaster of the war was the rupture of the treaty with
Rome. That power interfered in behalf of her allies, Egypt, Rhodes, and
Pergamus; and when Philip rejected all reasonable demands, she declared
the peace at an end. In the second war with Rome, Greece was at first
divided into three parties, some states remaining neutral, some siding
with Rome, and some with Macedon. But when the consul, Fla´mini´nus,
proclaimed liberty to all the Greeks, and declared himself their champion
against the long detested power of Macedon, nearly every state went over
to the Roman side. On the land, Macedonia was attacked by Sulpicius
Galba, aided by the Illyrians and Dardanians; while by sea, a Roman
fleet, increased by Rhodian and Pergamene vessels, threatened the coast.
Several important towns in Eubœa were taken, but the great decisive
battle was fought (B. C. 197) at Cynocephalæ, where Philip was defeated
and his power utterly prostrated. He was compelled to abandon all the
Greek cities which he held, either in Europe or Asia, to surrender
his entire navy, and to pay a war indemnity of one thousand talents
($1,250,000).
=82.= In settling the affairs of Greece, the Romans subdivided the
states into still smaller sections than of old, and guaranteed perfect
independence to each. The two leagues of Achaia and Ætolia were, however,
left to balance each other. The states were generally satisfied with the
arrangement, but the Ætolians stirred up a new war in the very year of
Flamininus’s departure, and called in Antiochus from Asia to their aid.
He was defeated at Thermopylæ by the Romans, B. C. 191, and the great
battle of Magnesia, in the following year, ended all hope of resistance
to the power of Rome. The Achæan League, sustained by the wise and able
management of Philopœmen, gained in power by the weakening of its rival,
and now included the whole Peloponnesus, with Megaris and some other
territories beyond the peninsula.
=83.= Philip had aided the Romans in the recent war, and had been
permitted to extend his dominions over part of Thrace, and southward
into Thessaly. But when peace was secured, he was required to give
up all except his hereditary kingdom. Demetrius, the second son of
Philip, had long been a hostage at Rome, and acted now as his father’s
ambassador. The Roman Senate conceded many points, for the sake of the
warm friendship which it professed for this young prince; but its favor
only aroused the suspicions of his father and the jealousy of his elder
brother, Per´seus. The latter forged letters to convince his father
of the treason of Demetrius, and the innocent youth was put to death
by order of the king. But the grief and remorse of Philip exceeded
all bounds, when he learned the deception that had been practiced. He
believed that he was haunted by the spirit of Demetrius, and it was agony
of mind, rather than bodily illness, that soon occasioned his death.
An ancient historian remarked that there were few monarchs of whom more
good or more evil could justly be said, than of Philip V. If the promise
of his youth had been fulfilled, and the opportunities of his reign
improved, he would have done great things for Macedonia and Greece. But
his talents became obscured by drunkenness and profligacy, his natural
generosity was spoiled by the habit of supreme command, and he became in
later years a gloomy, unscrupulous, and suspicious tyrant.
=84.= Philip had designed to punish the crime of Perseus by leaving
the throne to a distant relative, Antigonus; but the sudden death of
the father, while Antigonus was absent from court, enabled the son to
make himself king without opposition. He pursued with much diligence
the policy of Philip, in preparing Macedonia for a second struggle with
Rome. The revenues were increased by a careful working of the mines;
the population, wasted by so many wars, was recruited by colonies of
Thracians and others; and close alliances were made with the kings of
Asia, and with the hardy barbarians of the north, Gauls, Illyrians, and
Germans, whose aid might be invaluable when the decisive moment should
arrive. But Perseus failed to unite the states of Greece, in which a
large party already preferred his supremacy to that of Rome; and instead
of using his treasures to satisfy and confirm his allies, he hoarded them
penuriously, only to enrich his enemies at the end of the war.
=85.= In the spring of 171 B. C., the Romans landed in Epirus, and spent
some months in winning the Greek states to their side by money and
influence. In the autumn they met Perseus in Thessaly, with nearly equal
forces, and were defeated. The Macedonian made no use, however, of his
victory, and nothing of importance was done for two years. In 168 B. C.,
L. Æmil´ius Paulus assumed the command, and forced Perseus to a battle
near Pydna. Here the fate of Macedon was finally decided. Perseus was
defeated and fled to Samothrace, where he was soon captured with all
his treasures. He was taken to Rome, and compelled to walk in chains in
the splendid triumph of Æmilius. After several years, the last of the
Macedonian kings died in imprisonment at Alba.
Macedonia was not immediately made a Roman province, but was divided into
four distinct states, which were forbidden all intercourse with each
other. The people were consoled by a great reduction in the taxes, the
Romans demanding only half the amount which they had been accustomed to
pay their native kings.
=86.= In Greece, all confederacies, except the Achæan League, were
dissolved. Achaia had been the constant friend of Rome during the war;
but to insure its submission, one thousand of the principal citizens
were accused of having secretly aided Perseus, and were carried to Italy
for trial. They were imprisoned seventeen years without a hearing; and
then, when all but three hundred had died, these were sent back, in the
certainty that their resentment against Rome would lead them to some rash
act of hostility.
All happened as the Romans had foreseen. The three of the exiles who
were most embittered by this unprovoked outrage came into power, and
their enmity gave to their foes what they most desired, a pretext for
an armed invasion of the territories of the League. In 146 B. C., war
was declared. One of the Achæan leaders was disastrously defeated and
slain near Thermopylæ; another, with the remnant of the army, made a last
stand at Corinth, but he was defeated and the city was taken, plundered,
and destroyed. Within a few years Greece was placed under proconsular
government, like other provinces of Rome. It remained nearly sixteen
centuries a part of that great empire, which, though driven from Italy,
maintained its existence in the East, until it was overthrown by the
Turks, A. D. 1453.
RECAPITULATION.
Lamian War ended in the subjection of Greece to Macedonia.
Cassander reigned B. C. 316-297. Death of all his sons within
three years, left the crown to Demetrius, son of Antigonus,
(B. C. 294-287,) who lost it by rash enterprises, and died
a prisoner in Asia. Pyrrhus, the Epirote, reigned a year.
Macedonia was then annexed to Thrace (B. C. 286-281). On the
death of Lysimachus, it fell to Seleucus, who was murdered
in turn by Ptolemy Ceraunus. In the reign of Ptolemy (B.
C. 281-279), Meleager, Antipater II., and Sosthenes (B. C.
279-277), the Gauls ravaged Macedonia and Greece, gained
Thermopylæ, but were defeated at Delphi. Antigonus, son of
Demetrius (B. C. 277-273), was expelled by Pyrrhus, whose
second reign lasted B. C. 273-271, but who was killed at Argos,
and Antigonus restored (B. C. 271-239). He captured Athens and
Corinth; the latter was retaken by the Achæan League. Demetrius
II. (B. C. 239-229) allied himself with Epirus against the
Achæan and Ætolian Leagues. First interference of Rome in
Grecian affairs, B. C. 238. Regency of Antigonus Doson, B. C.
229-220. Reform and renewed energy in Sparta. Macedonians,
in alliance with the Achæan League, defeated the Spartans at
Sellasia, B. C. 221. Independent reign of Philip V., B. C.
220-179. His wars against Ætolia, Rome, Egypt. Romans, in a
second war, proclaimed liberty to the Greeks; overthrew Philip
at Cynocephalæ, B. C. 197; subdivided and reorganized the
Grecian states. The Ætolians provoked another war, their ally,
Antiochus, was defeated at Thermopylæ and Magnesia. Death of
Prince Demetrius and his father. Efforts of Perseus, the last
king of Macedon (B. C. 179-168). His war with Rome; defeat at
Pydna; capture and death. Division of Macedonia. Reduction of
tribute. Treachery of the Romans toward the Achæan League. Last
war with Rome. Battle of Leucopetra, near Corinth, B. C. 146.
IV. THRACE.
=87.= The Thracian kingdom of Lysimachus has no history that need detain
us. Unlike Egypt or Syria under Macedonian rule, it contributed nothing
to literature, science, or general civilization. The several tribes were
powerful by reason of their numbers, their hardy contempt of danger and
exposure, and their untamable love of freedom; but their strength was too
often wasted in fighting against each other, and thus they were reduced
either to subjects or humble allies of the more civilized nations to the
southward. At the same time, their position on the Danube rendered them
the most exposed of all the ancient kingdoms, to the incursions of the
northern barbarians; and the history of Thrace under the Romans is only a
record of wars and devastations.
V. KINGDOM OF PERGAMUS.
=88.= Beside the four great monarchies already described, a number of
smaller kingdoms arose from the ruins of Alexander’s empire. A few of
these will be briefly mentioned. Pergamus, on the Ca´icus in Mysia,
possessed a strong fortress, which was used by Lysimachus as a place
of safe keeping for his treasures, under the charge of Philetæ´rus,
of Tium, an officer in whom he reposed the greatest confidence. This
person, provoked by ill-treatment from the Thracian queen, made himself
independent, and by means of the ample treasures of Lysimachus,
maintained his principality undisturbed for twenty years, B. C. 283-263.
(See §§ 30, 31.)
His nephew, Eumenes, who succeeded him, increased his territories by
a victory over Antiochus I., near Sardis. After reigning twenty-two
years (B. C., 263-241), he was succeeded by his cousin, Attalus I., who
gained a great victory over the Gauls, and, first of his family, took
the title of king. Ten years later, he defeated Antiochus Hierax (see
§ 33), and included in his own dominions all the countries west of the
Halys and north of the Taurus. In wars with the kings of Syria, he lost
these conquests, and was limited for seven years to his own principality
of Pergamus; but by the aid of Gallic mercenaries and his own good
management, he won back most of the territories. He earned the favor of
Rome by joining that Republic against Philip V. of Macedon. The country
was ravaged by Philip in the interval of his Roman wars (see § 80); but
the great victory off Chios compensated Attalus for his losses, and the
treasures he amassed made his name proverbial for wealth. His exertions
in behalf of his allies, during the second war of Rome and Macedon, ended
his life at an advanced age, B. C. 197.
=89.= Eumenes II., his eldest son and successor, aided the Roman
operations against the kings of Syria and Macedonia, with so much
energy and talent, that he was rewarded with an increase of territory
on both sides of the Hellespont, and his kingdom was for a time one
of the greatest in Asia. He continued his father’s liberal policy in
the encouragement of art and literature, founded the great Library of
Pergamus, which was second only to that of Alexandria, and beautified
his capital with many magnificent buildings. At his death his crown was
assumed by his brother, Attalus II. (Philadelphus), as the son of Eumenes
was still a child. More than half the twenty-one years of Philadelphus’s
reign were occupied by wars, especially against Pru´sias II., king of
Bithynia. By aiding the revolt of Nicomedes, who gained that kingdom
instead of his father, Attalus secured some years of peace, which he
employed in building cities and increasing his library. Chief of the
cities were Eumeni´a, in Phrygia; Philadelphia, in Lydia; and Attali´a,
in Pamphylia.
=90.= Philadelphus died B. C. 138, leaving the kingdom to his nephew,
Attalus III. (Philometor), the son of Eumenes II. This king crowded into
the short period of five years more crimes and atrocities than can be
found in all the other reigns of his dynasty put together. He murdered
all the old friends of his father and uncle, with their families; all
who still held any office of trust in the kingdom; and, finally, his own
nearest relatives, including his mother, for whom he had professed the
warmest affection by the surname he adopted. At last he retired from
this atrocious career of misgovernment, to the more innocent pursuits
of painting, sculpture, and gardening. He died of a fever, leaving his
kingdom a legacy to the Roman people. Aristoni´cus, a half-brother of
Attalus III., successfully resisted the Roman claims for three years,
even defeating and capturing Licin´ius Crassus, who was sent to take
possession; but he was in turn made prisoner, and Pergamus was added to
the territories of Rome, B. C. 130.
VI. BITHYNIA.
=91.= This tributary province of Persia regained its independence
upon the overthrow of that empire, and resisted all the efforts of
Alexander’s generals to reduce it. Among its kings were Nicomedes I.,
who founded Nicomedia on the Propontis; Zeilas, who gained his crown by
the aid of the Gauls; and Prusias, his son, who extended his kingdom
by constant wars, and would have raised it to great importance but for
the offense he gave the Romans, by making war against Pergamus and by
sheltering Hannibal. He was forced to surrender to Eumenes some important
territories.
Prusias II. suffered still greater disasters, owing to his own
contemptible wickedness. He sent his son Nicomedes to Rome, with secret
orders for his assassination. But the plot failed; and Nicomedes II.,
whose popularity had excited his father’s jealousy, now returned with
the support of the Romans and the Pergamene king, and gained possession
of the throne. He reigned fifty-eight years with the title Epiphanes
(Illustrious). His son, Nicomedes III., in alliance with the Romans, made
war seven years with Mithridates, king of Pontus, their most able and
resolute opponent. He was twice expelled from his dominions; but after
the close of the first Mithridatic War, he reigned peacefully ten years,
and, having no children, left his kingdom to the Romans, B. C. 74.
VII. PONTUS.
=92.= Cappadocia under the Persians had been a satrapy, governed by
the descendants of that Ota´nes who conspired with Darius I. against
the false Smerdis. (See Book II.) In 363 B. C., a son of the satrap
Mithridates revolted, and made himself king of that portion of Cappadocia
which lay next the sea, and was thence called Pontus by the Greeks.
This kingdom was for a short time subject to the Macedonian power; but
Mithridates I., in 318 B. C., became again independent. The annals of
the next two reigns are of no great importance. Mithridates III. (B. C.
245-190) enlarged and strengthened his dominion by alliances with the
Asiatic monarchs, as well as by wars. His son Phar´naces conquered Sinope
from the Greeks, and made it his capital. The next king, Mithridates
IV. (B. C. 160-120), aided Rome against Carthage and Pergamus, and was
rewarded by the addition of the Greater Phrygia to his dominions.
=93.= Mithridates V., the Great, came to the throne at the age of eleven
years, his father having been murdered by some officers of the court.
The young prince, distrusting his guardians, began in his earliest years
to accustom himself to antidotes against poison, and to spend much of
his time in hunting, which enabled him to take refuge in the most rough
and inaccessible portions of his kingdom. He had, however, received a
Greek education at Sinope; and when, at the age of twenty, he assumed the
government, he possessed not only a soul and body inured to every sort of
peril and hardship, but a mind furnished with all the knowledge needful
to a king. He spoke twenty-five languages, and could transact business
with every tribe of his dominions, in its own peculiar dialect.
The Romans had already seized his province of Phrygia, and he clearly
saw the conflict which must soon take place with the all-absorbing
Republic. He determined, therefore, to extend his kingdom to the eastward
and northward, thus increasing its power and wealth, so as to make it
more nearly a match for its great western antagonist. In seven years
he added to his dominions half the shores of the Black Sea, including
the Cimme´rian peninsula—now the Crimea—and extending westward to the
Dniester. He made alliances with the wild and powerful tribes upon the
Danube, and with the kings of Armenia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. From
the last two countries he afterward drove out their hereditary kings,
placing his own son on the throne of Cappadocia, and Socrates, a younger
brother of Nicomedes III., on that of Bithynia.
=94.= The Roman Senate now interfered, and with their favor Nicomedes
invaded Pontus. Mithridates marched into Cappadocia and drove out its
newly reinstated king; then into Bithynia, where he routed the army of
Nicomedes and defeated the Romans. He speedily made himself master of all
Asia Minor, except a few towns in the extreme south and west; and from
his headquarters at Pergamus, gave orders for a general massacre of all
Romans and Italians in Asia. Eighty thousand persons fell in consequence
of this atrocious act, but from that moment the tide turned against
Mithridates. Two large armies which he sent into Greece, were defeated
by Sulla at Chæronea. A great battle in Bithynia was lost by the Pontic
generals. Pontus itself was invaded, and its king became a fugitive.
Peace was at length made, on terms most humiliating to Mithridates. He
surrendered all his conquests, and a fleet of seventy vessels; agreed to
pay 2,000 talents; and recognized the kings of Cappadocia and Bithynia,
whom he had formerly expelled. The reverses of Mithridates naturally led
the subject nations on the Euxine to throw off his yoke. He was preparing
to march against them, when a second Roman war was kindled by a sudden
and unprovoked aggression of Murena, the general of the Republic in the
East. The Romans were defeated on the Halys, and peace was restored, B.
C. 82.
=95.= In the seven years’ breathing-space which followed, Mithridates
subdued all his revolted subjects, and recruited his forces with the
utmost energy. His army, drawn largely from the barbarous nations on
the Danube and Euxine, was drilled and equipped according to the Roman
system, and his navy was increased to four hundred vessels. Both the
Pontic king and the Romans would willingly have remained some years
longer at peace, but, in 74 B. C., the legacy of Bithynia to the latter
power, by Nicomedes III., brought them into unavoidable collision.
Mithridates first seized the country, and gained a double victory over
Cotta, by sea and land. But he failed in the sieges of Chalcedon and
Cyzicus, and in the second year he was repeatedly worsted by Lucul´lus.
His fleet was first defeated off Tenedos, and then wrecked by a storm. In
the third year Mithridates was driven out of his own dominions, and those
of his son-in-law, Tigranes. For three years the war was carried on in
Armenia, where the two kings were twice defeated by Lucullus.
In 68 B. C., Mithridates returned to his kingdom, and defeated the Romans
twice within a few months. But in 66 B. C., Pompey assumed the command,
and Mithridates, after the loss of nearly his whole army, abandoned
Pontus, and retired into the barbarous regions north of the Euxine, where
the Romans did not care to pursue him. With a spirit untamed either by
years or misfortunes, he plotted the bold design of gathering to his
standard the wild tribes along the Danube, and marching upon Italy from
the north. But his officers did not share his enthusiasm. A conspiracy
against him was headed by his own son; and the old king, deserted by all
whom he would have trusted, attempted to end his life by poison. His
constitution had been for many years so guarded by antidotes, that the
drugs had no effect, and he was finally dispatched by one of his Gallic
soldiers. Pontus became a Roman province, only a small portion of its
territory continuing, a century or more, under princes of the ancient
dynasty.
VIII. CAPPADOCIA.
[Illustration: Coin of Ariarathes V., twice the size of original.]
=96.= The southern part of Cappadocia remained loyal to the Persian
kings until their downfall at Arbela. It was conquered by Perdiccas
after the death of Alexander, but within six years became independent,
and continued under native kings until it was absorbed into the Roman
dominions, A. D. 17. The history of these monarchs is of little
importance, except so far as it is included in that of the neighboring
nations. The fifth king, Ariara´thes IV., made, in his later years, a
close and friendly alliance with the Romans, which continued unbroken
under his successors.
Ariarathes V. (B. C. 131-96) presents the sole example of a “blameless
prince” in the three centuries following Alexander. No act of deceit or
cruelty is recorded against him. Cappadocia, under his reign, became a
celebrated abode of philosophy, under the patronage and example of the
king. With Ariarathes VIII., the royal Persian line became extinct, and
the Cappadocians chose a new sovereign in Ariobarza´nes I. (B. C. 93-64).
This king was three times driven out of his dominions by the sovereigns
of Armenia and Pontus, and three times reinstated by the Romans. The last
king, Archelaus (B. C. 36-A. D. 17), was summoned by Tibe´rius to Rome,
where he died, and his kingdom became a Roman province.
IX. ARMENIA.
=97.= Armenia was included in the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, from
the battle of Ipsus to that of Magnesia, B. C. 190. Two generals of
Antiochus III. then revolted against him, and set up the kingdoms
of Armenia Major on the east, and Armenia Minor on the west of the
Euphrates. The greatest king of Armenia Major was Tigranes I. (B. C.
96-55), who not only gained important victories from the Parthian
monarch, but conquered all Syria, and held it fourteen years. He incurred
the vengeance of Rome in various ways, but chiefly by sustaining his
father-in-law, Mithridates, in his wars against the Republic. He suffered
several calamitous defeats, with the loss of his capital, Tigran´ocer´ta.
In 67 B. C., the disaffection of the Roman troops gave the two kings the
opportunity to recover much of what they had lost. The appearance of the
great Pompey upon the scene again turned the tide. The young Tigranes
rebelled against his father, with the aid of Parthia and Rome. The king
surrendered all his conquests, retaining only his hereditary kingdom
of the Greater Armenia. His son, Artavas´des I. (B. C. 55-34), aided
the expedition of Crassus against the Parthians; but having afterward
offended Antony, he was taken prisoner and put to death by order of
Cleopatra. Artaxias, his son, ordered a massacre of all the Romans in
Armenia. In 19 B. C., he was himself murdered by his own relations. The
remaining kings were sovereigns only in name, being set up or displaced
alternately by the Romans and Parthians, until Armenia was absorbed by
the former, A. D. 114. Armenia Minor was usually a dependency of some
neighboring kingdom, from the time of Mithridates to that of Vespa´sian
(A. D. 69-79), when it, too, became a Roman province.
X. BACTRIA.
=98.= Bactria was a part of the Syrian empire from 305 to 255 B. C.
Diodotus, the satrap, then made himself independent, and established
a new Greek kingdom, the most easterly of all the scattered fragments
of Alexander’s conquests. Euthydemus, the third king, was a native of
Magnesia, and a usurper (B. C. 222-200). His son Demetrius made many
victorious campaigns, extending over Afghanistan and into India (B. C.
200-180). He lost a part of his native dominions to a rebel, Eucrat´ides,
who reigned north of the Pa´ropam´isus range during the life of
Demetrius, and after his death, over the whole country. He, too, carried
on Indian wars with great energy and success. Under his son, Heli´ocles
(B. C. 160-150), the Bactrian kingdom rapidly declined, being invaded by
the Parthian kings on the west, and the Tartar tribes from the north.
XI. PARTHIAN EMPIRE OF THE ARSACIDÆ.
=99.= The Parthians established their independence about B. C. 250, under
the lead of the Scythian Arsaces. The people were of the same race with
the modern Turks—treacherous in war, indolent and unaspiring in peace,
rude in arts and barbarous in manners. Their warlike hardihood, however,
gave the Romans a more troublesome resistance than they encountered in
any other portion of Alexander’s former empire; and the dominion of the
Arsacidæ lasted nearly 500 years, until it was overthrown by the new
Persian kingdom, A. D. 226. The greatness of the Parthian empire dates
from Mithridates, who is also called Arsaces VI., B. C. 174-136. The
neighboring kingdom of Bactria, with its Greek monarchs and its higher
civilization, had hitherto maintained the ascendency; but while these
kings were absorbed in their Indian conquests, Mithridates seized upon
several of their provinces, and eventually absorbed their whole dominion.
[Illustration: Coin of Arsaces III., twice the size of original.]
The Parthian empire, at its greatest extent, comprised all the countries
between the Euphrates and the Indus; from the Araxes and the Caspian
on the north, to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean on the south. Its
numerous parts were not consolidated into one government, as were the
satrapies of Persia or the provinces of Rome; but each nation, with its
own laws and usages, retained its native king, who was tributary to the
lord-paramount in the Arsacid family. Hence the Parthian coins, like the
Assyrian monuments, commonly bear the title “King of Kings.” The wars of
Mithridates made the Euphrates the boundary-line between the Parthian and
Roman empires. The wealth and power of the Oriental monarchy provoked
at once the avarice and the jealousy of the western Republic, and a
collision could not long be delayed. The details of the Parthian wars of
Rome will be found in Book V.
RECAPITULATION.
Bravery and barbarism of the Thracians. Rise of Pergamus, B.
C. 283. Reigns of Philotærus, Eumenes, Attalus I. Success and
enlightened policy of Eumenes II. Wars of Attalus Philadelphus.
His new cities. Crimes of Attalus III. Bequest of his kingdom
to Rome. Short reign of Aristonicus. Bithynia ruled by
Nicomedes I., Zeilas, Prusias I. and II., Nicomedes II. and
III., B. C. 278-74. Rise of the kingdom of Pontus, B. C. 363.
Independent of Macedon, B. C. 318; enlarged by Mithridates
III. and Pharnaces, B. C. 245-160. Education of Mithridates
V., his conquests and alliances; first collision with the
Romans, B. C. 88; massacre of 80,000 Italians; disasters and
humiliating peace. Second Roman War, B. C. 83, 82. Seven
years’ drill of Pontic forces in Roman tactics. Third Roman
War, B. C. 74-65; Mithridates driven into Armenia, B. C. 71;
recovered his kingdom, B. C. 68; defeated by Pompey, B. C.
66; took refuge in the northern wilds, and ended his life by
violence, B. C. 63. Pontus became a Roman province. Cappadocia
in alliance with Rome, B. C. 188. Just and peaceful reign of
Ariarathes V. End of the dynasty in Ariarathes VIII. Exiles
and returns of Ariobarzanes I. The country absorbed into the
Roman dominion, A. D. 17. Armenia a part of the Syrian empire,
B. C. 301-190. “Greater” and “Lesser” kingdoms then formed
on the east and west of the Euphrates. Conquest of Syria
by Tigranes I., B. C. 83. His wars with Rome, B. C. 69-66.
Losses. Fate of Artavasdes. Massacre of the Romans by Artaxias.
Alternate dependence upon Rome and Parthia, B. C. 19-A. D.
114. Bactria dependent upon Syria, B. C. 305-255. Diodotus
reigned, B. C. 255-237. The third king a Lydian, B. C. 222-200.
Indian campaigns of Demetrius and Eucratidas, B. C. 200-160.
Decline and fall of the kingdom under attacks of surrounding
barbarians, B. C. 160-80. Parthian empire powerful, but
uncivilized. Absorption of Bactrian provinces, B. C. 174-136. A
group of kingdoms, rather than a nation, side by side with Rome.
XII. JUDÆA.
=100.= Judæa, with the rest of Syria, had been assigned to Laom´edon
upon the partition of Alexander’s conquests; but it was soon annexed by
Ptolemy Soter, and continued 117 years a part of the Egyptian empire. Its
history in this Book will be considered in three periods:
I. From the Fall of the Persian Empire to the Rise of an
Independent Jewish Kingdom, B. C. 323-168.
II. The Time of the Maccabees, B. C. 168-37.
III. The Time of the Herods, B. C. 37-A. D. 44.
FIRST PERIOD. Under the first three Ptolemies, the Jews were peaceful and
prosperous. The high priest was at the head of the state, and in local
matters ruled with little interference from Egypt. Ptolemy Philopator,
however, a wicked and foolish prince, attempted to profane the temple,
and the Jews, in alarm, sought protection from Antiochus the Great. That
monarch, with their aid, gained possession of all the coast between
Upper Syria and the Desert of Sinai; and though often disputed, and once
recovered by the Egyptians, this district remained a part of the Syrian
kingdom.
=101.= For thirty years the privileges of the Jews were respected by
their new sovereigns; but toward the close of his reign, Seleucus IV.
resolved to appropriate the sacred treasures of the temple to his own
pressing needs, and sent Heliodorus, his treasurer, for this purpose to
Jerusalem. According to the Jewish tradition,[61] three angels appeared
for the defense of the holy place. One of them was seated on a terrible
horse, which trampled Heliodorus under its feet, while the others
scourged him until he fell lifeless to the ground. He was only restored
by the prayers of the high priest, and the treasury remained unmolested.
Antiochus Epiphanes, the brother and successor of Seleucus, was guilty
of still more impious outrages. He put up the high priesthood at
auction, and twice awarded it to the highest bidder, on condition of
his introducing Greek rites and customs into Jerusalem. One of these
mercenary pontiffs stole the sacred vessels of the temple and sold
them at Tyre. An insurrection arose at Jerusalem, but it was punished
by Antiochus in person, who seized the city, set up an altar to Zeus
Olympius, with daily sacrifices of swine’s flesh in the sacred inclosure
of the temple, and put to death a great number of the people. Two years
later, B. C. 168, he ordered a general massacre of the Jews, and by a
frightful persecution sought to exterminate the last remnant of the
ancient religion. The Asmonæ´an family now arose, and by their brave
fidelity made themselves at last sovereigns of Judæa.
=102.= SECOND PERIOD. Mattathias, a priest, living between Jerusalem
and Joppa, killed with his own hand the king’s officer who was sent to
enforce the heathen sacrifices, together with the first renegade Jew
who consented to offer. He then took refuge in the mountains with his
five sons, and was reinforced daily by fugitives from various parts of
Judæa. As their numbers increased, this band issued frequently from their
fastnesses, cut off detachments of the Syrian army, destroyed heathen
altars, and in many places restored the Jewish worship in the synagogues.
The aged Mattathias died in the first year of the war, and was succeeded
in command of the forces by his third son, Judas, who obtained the name
of _Maccabæus_ from his many victories.
During the disputes for the Syrian regency, which followed the death of
Antiochus Epiphanes (see §§ 40, 41), Judas Maccabæus gained possession of
all Jerusalem, except the citadel on Mount Zion, and held it three years.
He purified the temple, restored the incense, lights, and sacrifices,
and drove out Syrians and Hellenizing Jews from every part of Judæa.
The Syrian general, Nicanor, was twice defeated with great loss. In the
second battle, near Beth-horon, Nicanor fell, and his whole army was
cut to pieces. The Romans made alliance with the Maccabees; but before
their aid could arrive, Judas had fallen in battle, B. C. 160. Jerusalem
was lost, and for fourteen years Jonathan Maccabæus could only carry
on a guerrilla warfare from his fastness in the Desert of Teko´ah. The
disputes for the Syrian throne, between Demetrius and Alexander Balas,
which were continued under their sons (see §§ 42-46), gave a respite
to the Jews, and even made their alliance an object of desire to both
parties. Jonathan was thenceforth recognized as prince and high priest,
with full possession of the Holy City.
=103.= His brother Simon succeeded him in both dignities, and under his
prosperous administration Judæa recovered, in great measure, from the
long-continued ravages of war. The life of Simon was ended by treachery.
His son-in-law, Ptolemy, the governor of Jericho, desiring to seize the
government for himself, murdered the high priest and two of his sons
at a banquet. But the other son, John Hyrcanus, escaped and succeeded
his father. At the beginning of his reign, Jerusalem endured a long and
painful siege by Antiochus Sidetes, B. C. 135-133. Its walls, which had
been restored, were leveled with the ground; and a tribute was again
demanded, which lasted, however, no longer than the life of Sidetes.
Hyrcanus captured Samaria, and destroyed the temple on Mount Gerizim (see
Book II, § 64). He conquered Id´ume´a, rendering Judæa fully equal in
power to Syria, which was now reduced from a great empire to a petty and
exhausted kingdom.
=104.= Aristobu´lus, son of Hyrcanus, was the first of the family who
assumed the title of king. He reigned but a year, and was succeeded
by his brother, Alexander Jannæ´us (B. C. 105-78). This prince was a
Sadducee, and the opposite sect of the Pharisees stirred up a mob to
attack him, while officiating as high priest in the Feast of Tabernacles.
The riot was put down with a slaughter of 6,000 insurgents. Alexander
gained victories over the Moabites and the Arabs of Gilead; but in a
subsequent war with the latter he suffered a great defeat, and the
malcontents at home seized the occasion for a new outbreak. The civil war
now raged six years. For a time Alexander was driven to the mountains,
but at length he regained the ascendency, and revenged himself upon the
rebels with frightful cruelty. He left the crown to his widow, Alexandra,
who joined the Pharisees, and was maintained in power by their influence.
=105.= After her death, her two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, quarreled
seven years for the sovereignty. Pompey the Great, who was then at
Damascus, interfered and captured Jerusalem, carried off Aristobulus to
Rome, and established the elder brother in the government. He reigned six
years in peace, B. C. 63-57. In the latter year Aristobulus escaped, and
being joined by many of his partisans, renewed the war. He was besieged
and taken in Machæ´rus by the Roman proconsul, who also deposed Hyrcanus,
and set up a sort of oligarchy in Jerusalem. Pompey, in taking the city,
had left its sacred treasures untouched, but during this period, Crassus,
on his way to Parthia, seized and plundered the temple. After ten years
(B. C. 57-47), Hyrcanus was restored to the high priesthood, while
his friend Antipater, the Idumæan, was appointed procurator, or civil
governor, of Judæa.
In B. C. 40, Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, with the aid of a Parthian
force, captured Jerusalem and reigned three years, the last of the
Asmonæan princes. Antipater had been poisoned; his son Herod repaired to
Rome, and received from the Senate the title of King of Judæa. Returning
speedily, he conquered Galilee and advanced to the siege of Jerusalem.
This was protracted several years, for the Jews were firmly attached to
Antigonus, and resented equally the interference of Rome and the reign of
an Edomite. After hard fighting the walls were taken, and the king was
executed like a common criminal.
=106.= THIRD PERIOD, B. C. 37-A. D. 44. Herod was justly surnamed “the
Great,” for his talents and the grandeur of his enterprises, though
his character was stained by the worst faults of a tyrant, cruelty and
reckless caprice. At the age of fifteen he had been made governor of
Galilee by Julius Cæsar, and had ruled with great energy and success,
suppressing the banditti who infested the country, and putting their
leaders to death. He began his reign in Judæa by a massacre of all who
had been opposed to him, especially those whose wealth would best enable
him to reward his Roman benefactors. The Temple, which, being used as a
fortress, had been nearly destroyed in the repeated sieges, was rebuilt,
by his orders, with a magnificence which rivaled the glories of Solomon.
His liberality was equally shown during a famine which visited Judæa and
the surrounding countries. He bought immense quantities of corn in Egypt,
and fed the entire people at his own expense, beside supplying several
provinces with seed for the next harvest.
Herod affected Roman tastes: he built a circus and amphitheater in
a suburb of Jerusalem, where games and combats of wild beasts were
celebrated in honor of the emperor Augustus. To show his impartiality,
he restored the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, while he adorned his
new and magnificent city of Cæsare´a with imposing shrines of the Roman
gods. This universal tolerance was most unpleasing to the Jews, and their
disposition to revolt was only kept down by the vigilance of innumerable
spies, and the construction of a chain of fortresses around Jerusalem.
=107.= The last two members of the Asmonæan family were Mariam´ne and
Aristobulus, grandchildren of Hyrcanus II. Herod married the former,
and bestowed upon the latter the office of high priest; but the great
popularity of the young prince alarmed his jealousy, and he caused him
to be secretly assassinated. Though devotedly attached to Mariamne,
Herod twice ordered her put to death in case of his own decease,
during perilous expeditions for which he was leaving the capital.
These atrocious orders coming to the knowledge of the queen, naturally
increased the aversion for Herod which had been inspired by the murder of
her grandfather and her brother.
Her high spirit scorned concealment; she was brought to trial, and her
bitter enemies persuaded Herod to consent to her execution. But the
violence of his grief and remorse kept him a long time on the verge of
insanity, and a raging fever nearly ended his life. His temper, which had
been generous though hasty, now became so ferocious that his best friends
were often ordered to death on the slightest suspicion. Three of his sons
were executed on charges of conspiracy. From his death-bed he ordered a
massacre of the infants in Bethlehem, because wise men from the East had
informed him that in that little village the Messiah was born. About the
same time, he had set up a golden eagle over the gate of the Temple. A
sedition immediately arose, and its leaders were punished with atrocious
cruelty, by the command of the dying king. Herod died in the same year
with the birth of our Lord, which the common chronology places, by an
error, B. C. 4.
[Illustration: TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM, AS REBUILT BY HEROD.
_Herod’s Porch._ _Solomon’s Porch._ _Castle of Antonia._]
=108.= His dominions, except Abilene in Syria, were divided among
his three sons, Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip, the eldest receiving
Judæa and Samaria. He reigned so oppressively that he was removed by
the Romans, A. D. 8; and until A. D. 36, the province was managed by
procurators, or governors, subject to the præfects of Syria. Under the
fifth of these, Pontius Pilate, Christ was crucified by Roman authority,
through the accusations of the chief officers of the Jews. Herod Antipas
was meanwhile ruling in Galilee (B. C. 4-A. D. 39; see Luke xxiii: 6-12),
and Philip in Trachoni´tis (B. C. 4-A. D. 37; see Mark vi: 17, 18).
When these provinces became vacant, they were bestowed by the Emperor
Calig´ula upon his favorite, Herod Agrip´pa I., grandson of Herod the
Great and Mariamne. A. D. 41, Samaria and Judæa were also added to his
dominions, which for three years covered the entire territory of Herod
the Great.
=109.= Agrippa began to persecute the Christians in the year 44, and the
Romans again placed Judæa under the government of procurators. Gessius
Florus, the sixth of the new series, was a cruel and crafty tyrant, who
plundered his province without pity or shame. He shared the spoils of
highway robbers, whom he permitted and even encouraged. Twice he stirred
up riots in Jerusalem, sacrificing the lives of thousands of people, only
that he might avail himself of the confusion to pillage the Temple.
His atrocities at length drove the Jews to open revolt. A Roman army
of 100,000 men, commanded by Titus, the son of the emperor Vespasian,
besieged the Holy City five months. The three walls, the fortress of
Mount Zion, and the Temple had each to be taken by separate assault; and
never was a siege more memorable for the obstinacy of the resistance. The
Temple was surrendered Sept. 8, 70. All the people who had not perished
by the hardships of the siege, were made slaves and divided among the
victors as prizes. Large colonies were transported into the heart of
Germany or to Italy, where the golden vessels of the Temple adorned the
triumphal procession of Titus at Rome. No ancient city of any fame was
ever so completely ruined as Jerusalem. Mount Zion was plowed as a field
and sown with salt, and the buildings of the Temple were leveled to the
ground.
RECAPITULATION.
Judæa subject to Egypt, B. C. 320-203; to Syria, B. C. 203-168.
Persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, and revolt of Mattathias,
B. C. 168. Victories of Judas Maccabæus, B. C. 166-160.
Jonathan prince and high priest, B. C. 160-143. Prosperous
reign of Simon, B. C. 143-133. Siege and capture of Jerusalem
by Antiochus Sidetes, B. C. 135-133. Conquests of John
Hyrcanus, B. C. 135-106. Aristobulus I. takes the royal title.
Civil wars of Pharisees and Sadducees, under Alexander Jannæus,
B. C. 105-78. Reign of Alexandra, B. C. 78-69. Hyrcanus II.,
B. C. 69, 68. Aristobulus II., B. C. 68-63. Jerusalem taken
by Pompey, who awards the sovereignty to Hyrcanus. After
six years, Hyrcanus deposed and an oligarchy set up, B. C.
57-47. Jerusalem plundered by Crassus, B. C. 54. Antipater,
the Idumæan, governor, B. C. 47-40, while Hyrcanus is again
high priest. Antigonus prince and priest, B. C. 40-37. Herod,
son of Antipater, invested at Rome with the royalty of Judæa,
conquers Galilee, and by a long siege takes Jerusalem, B. C.
37. His greatness and tyranny. His public works. Execution of
Queen Mariamne, B. C. 29. “Murder of the Innocents,” and death
of Herod, B. C. 4. Division of his kingdom into tetrarchies.
Archelaus succeeded in his government by Roman governors, A. D.
8-36. The Crucifixion, A. D. 29 or 30. Four provinces united
under Herod Agrippa, A. D. 41. Procurators restored, A. D. 44.
Gessius Florus, A. D. 65, 66. Siege and capture of Jerusalem by
Titus, A. D. 70.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW.
BOOK IV.
1. Describe the rise of Macedonia. §§ 1, 2.
2. The successive steps of the ascendency of Philip. 2-5.
3. The youth, education, and character of Alexander. 6, 7.
4. His conquests and Asiatic policy. 8-12, 14-17.
5. His projects and death. 18.
6. The war of the regents. 19.
7. What was done by Antipater? 19, 20, 66, 67.
8. By Antigonus and his son? 20, 22-25, 29, 68.
9. What became of the near relatives of Alexander? 21-23.
10. What were the results of the battle of Ipsus? 25.
11. Effects upon Europe and Asia of Alexander’s conquests? 26, 27.
12. Describe the extent and organization of the kingdom of
Seleucus. 28-30.
13. Name the Seleucidæ, and relate one incident of each. 28-48.
14. Describe in detail the reign of Antiochus the Great. 34-37, 100.
15. The last but one of the kings of Syria. 48, 97.
16. The incursions of the Gauls. 31, 70, 71.
17. The condition of Egypt under the Ptolemies. 49, 51, 54.
18. Alexandria and its schools. 52, 53.
19. The conquests of the first three Ptolemies. 50, 54, 56.
20. The character of their successors. 56, 57, 60, 62-65.
21. What was the result to Athens of the Lamian War? 68.
22. What became of the sons of Cassander? 67.
23. How many kings of Thrace and Macedonia B. C. 281? 69, 70.
24. Describe the two reigns of Antigonus Gonatas. 72, 74.
25. The character of Pyrrhus. 72, 73.
26. Tell the history of the Achæan League. 75-79, 82, 86.
27. What occurred in Sparta during the Macedonian regency
of Antigonus Doson? 77.
28. Describe the character and reign of Philip V. 78-81, 83.
29. The successive interventions of the Romans in
affairs of Macedonia and Greece. 76, 79, 81-83, 85, 86.
30. The last of the Antigonidæ. 84.
31. How many kings of other families or nations reigned in
Macedonia during the Third Period?
32. Describe the Thracians. 87.
33. The origin and history of Pergamus. 88-90.
34. Of Bithynia. 91.
35. The early history of Pontus. 92.
36. Tell the story of Mithridates V. 93-95.
37. Describe Cappadocia. 96.
38. Tell in brief the history of Armenia, B. C. 301-A. D. 114. 97.
39. Describe the most easterly of the Greek kingdoms in Asia. 98.
40. The character and history of the Parthians. 99.
41. How was Judæa governed, B. C. 323-168? 100, 101.
42. Describe its condition under the Syrian kings. 101.
43. The rise and reign of the Maccabees. 102-105.
44. The character of Herod, and the great events of
his reign. 106, 107.
45. How were his dominions distributed B. C. 4-A. D. 44? 108.
46. Describe the last twenty-six years of Jewish history. 109.
47. How many battles have been described at Beth-horon?
48. How many at Thermopylæ?
49. How many at Mantinea?
50. How many at Salamis in Cyprus?
51. How many at Chæronea?
BOOK V.
HISTORY OF ROME, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FALL OF THE WESTERN
EMPIRE, A. D. 476.
GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ITALY.
=1.= ITALY, bounded by the Alps, and the Adriatic, Ionian, and
Tyrrhe´nian seas, is the smallest of the three peninsulas of southern
Europe. It is inferior to Greece in the number of its harbors and
littoral islands, but excels it in the richness and extent of its plains
and fertile mountain-sides, being thus better fitted for agriculture and
the rearing of cattle than for maritime interests. Still, from its long
and narrow shape, Italy has an extended coast-line; the slopes of the
Apennines abounded, in ancient times, with forests of oak suitable for
ship-timber; and the people, especially of Etru´ria, were early attracted
to the sea.
=2.= The Alps, which separate Italy from the rest of Europe, have had an
important effect upon her history. At present they are traversed securely
by less than a dozen roads, which are among the wonders of modern
engineering. In early times they formed a usually effectual barrier
against the barbarous nations on the north and west. The Apennines leave
the Alpine range near the present boundary between Italy and France, and
extend in a south-easterly and southerly direction to the end of the
peninsula, throwing off lateral ridges on both sides to the sea, and
forming that great variety of surface and climate which is the peculiar
charm of the country. A multitude of rivers contribute vastly to the
fertility of the soil, though, from their short and rapid course, they
are of little value for navigation. Varro preferred the climate of Italy
to that of Greece, as producing in perfection every thing good for the
use of man. No barley could be compared with the Campa´nian, no wheat
with the Apu´lian, no rye with the Faler´nian, no oil with the Vena´fran.
=3.= NORTHERN ITALY lies between the Swiss Alps and the Upper Apennines,
and is almost covered by the great plain of the Po, which is one of the
most fertile regions of Europe. It comprised, in the most ancient times,
the three countries of Ligu´ria, Upper Etruria, and Vene´tia. The second
of these divisions, together with some portions of the Ligurian and
Venetian territories, was conquered, in the sixth century before Christ,
by a Celtic population from the north and west, and was thenceforth known
as Cisalpine Gaul. The region north of the Apennines does not belong to
Roman or even Italian history until about the time of the Christian Era,
when it became incorporated in the territories of Rome.
=4.= The peninsula proper is divided into the two regions of central and
southern Italy, by a line drawn from the mouth of the Tifer´nus, on the
Adriatic, to that of the Sil´arus, on the western coast. CENTRAL ITALY
comprised six countries, of which three, Etruria, La´tium, and Campania,
were on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and three others, Um´bria, Pice´num, and the
Sabine country, on the Adriatic. _Etruria_ was, in the earliest times,
the most important division of Italy proper. It was separated from
Liguria by the river Macra; from Cisalpine Gaul, by the Apennines; and
from Umbria, the Sabine territory, and Latium, by the Tiber.