before, therefore, there were any such things as Christians or a
Christian religion, yet Socrates believed and taught two things that
are just what Christians also believe.
One of these things he believed was that each of us has inside a
conscience, which tells us what is right and what is wrong; we don’t
have to read from a book or be told by another what is right or what is
wrong.
Another thing he taught was that there is a life after death and that
when we die our souls live on.
No wonder he was not afraid himself to die!
28
Wise Men and Otherwise
Have you ever been playing in your yard when a strange boy who had been
watching from the other side of the fence asked to be let into the
game, saying he would show you how to play? You didn’t want him around,
and you didn’t want him in, but somehow or other he got in and was soon
bossing everybody else.
Well, there was a man named Philip who lived north of Greece, and he
had been watching Sparta and Athens--not playing but fighting--and he
wanted “to get into the game.” Philip was king of a little country
called Macedonia, but he thought he would like to be king of Greece,
also, and it seemed to him a good time, when Sparta and Athens were
“down and out” after the Peloponnesian War, to step in and make himself
king of that country. Philip was a great fighter, but he didn’t want to
fight Greece unless he had to. He wanted to be made king peaceably, and
he wanted Greece to do it willingly. So he thought up a scheme to bring
this about, and this was his scheme.
He knew, as you do, how the Greeks hated the Persians whom they had
driven out of their country over a hundred years before. Although
the Persian Wars had taken place so long ago, the Greeks had never
forgotten the bravery of their forefathers and the tales of their
victories over the Persians. These stories had been told them over and
over by their fathers and grandfathers, and they loved to read and
reread them in Herodotus’s history of the world.
So Philip said to the Greeks:
“Your ancestors drove the Persians out of Greece, to be sure, but the
Persians went back to their country, and you didn’t go after them and
punish them as you should have done. You didn’t try ’to get even’ with
them. Why don’t you go over to Persia and conquer it now, and make the
Persians pay for what they did to you?” Then he slyly added:
“Let me help you. I’ll lead you against them.”
No one seemed to see through Philip’s scheme--nobody except one man.
This man was an Athenian named Demosthenes.
Demosthenes, when he was a boy, had decided that he would some day be
a great speaker or orator, just as you might say you are going to be a
doctor, or an aviator, or a lawyer when you grow up.
But Demosthenes had picked the one profession which by nature he was
worst fitted for. In the first place, he had such a very soft, weak
voice that one could hardly hear him. Besides this, he st-st-stammered
very b-b-badly and could not re-cite even a sh-sh-short p-p-poem
without hesit-t-tating and st-st-stumbling so that people laughed at
him. It seemed absurd, therefore, that he should aim to be a great
speaker.
But Demosthenes practised and _practised_ and _practised_ by himself.
He went down on the sea-shore and put pebbles in his mouth to make it
more difficult to speak clearly. Then he spoke to the roaring waves,
making believe that he was addressing an angry crowd, who were trying
to drown the sound of his voice, so that he would have to speak very
loud indeed.
So at last, by keeping constantly at it, Demosthenes did become the
greatest speaker that ever lived. He spoke so wonderfully that he could
make his audience laugh or make them cry whenever he wanted to, and he
could persuade them to do almost anything he wished.
Now, Demosthenes was the man who saw through Philip’s scheme for
conquering Persia. He knew that Philip’s real aim was to become king
of Greece. So he made twelve speeches against him. These speeches were
known as Philippics, as they were against Philip. So famous were they
that even to-day we call a speech that bitterly attacks any one a
Philippic.
The Greeks who heard Demosthenes were red-hot against Philip while
they listened to him. But as soon as they got away from the sound of
Demosthenes’s words the same Greeks became lukewarm and did nothing to
stop Philip.
So at last, in spite of everything that Demosthenes had said, Philip
had his way and became king over all Greece.
Before, however, he could start out, as he had promised, to conquer
Persia, he was killed by one of his own men, so that he was unable to
carry out his plan.
But Philip had a son named Alexander. Alexander was only twenty years
old, not old enough even to vote if he had lived in our country, but
when his father died he became king of Macedonia and also of Greece.
When Alexander was a mere child, he saw some men trying without success
to tame a young and very wild horse that shied and reared in the air so
that no one was able to ride it. Alexander asked to be allowed to try
to ride the animal. Alexander’s father made fun of his son for wanting
to attempt what those older than he had been unable to do, but at last
gave his consent.
Now, Alexander had noticed what the others, although much older, had
not noticed. The horse seemed to be afraid of its own shadow, for young
colts are easily frightened by anything black and moving, as some
children are afraid of the dark.
So Alexander turned the horse around facing the sun, so that its shadow
would be behind, out of sight. He then mounted the animal and, to the
amazement of all, rode off without any further trouble.
His father was delighted at his son’s cleverness and gave him the horse
as a reward. Alexander named the horse Bucephalus and became so fond
of him that when the horse died Alexander built a monument to him and
named several cities after him.
Now, Alexander was a wonderful boy, but he had such a wonderful teacher
named Aristotle that some people think part, at least, of his greatness
was due to the teacher.
Aristotle was probably the greatest teacher that ever lived. If there
were more great teachers like Aristotle, it seems likely there would
have been more great pupils like Alexander.
Aristotle wrote books about all sorts of things--books about the stars
called astronomy, books about animals called zoölogy, and books on
other subjects that you probably have never even heard of, such as
psychology and politics.
For thousands of years these books that Aristotle wrote were the
school-books that boys and girls studied, and for a thousand years
they were the _only_ school-books. Nowadays, a school-book is usually
old-fashioned a few years after it is written and is then no longer
used. So you see how remarkable it was that Aristotle’s school-books
should have been used for so long a time.
Aristotle had been taught by a man named Plato, who was also a great
teacher and philosopher. Plato had been a pupil of Socrates, so that
Aristotle was a kind of “grand-pupil” of Socrates. You have heard of
the Wise Men of the East. These were the three Wise Men of Greece.
SOCRATES,
PLATO,
ARISTOTLE.
Some day you may read what they wrote or said over two thousand years
ago.
29
A Boy King
When you are twenty years old, what do you think you will be doing?
Will you be playing football on your college team?
Will you be working in a bank, or what?
When Alexander was twenty he was king of both Macedonia and Greece. But
Macedonia and Greece were entirely too small for this wonderful young
man. He wanted to own a much bigger country; in fact, he thought he
would like to own the whole world; that was all--nothing more.
So Alexander went right ahead with his father’s plan to conquer Persia.
The time had come to pay back Persia for that last invasion one hundred
and fifty years before.
He got together an army and crossed the Hellespont into Asia and won
battle after battle against the first Persian armies sent out to stop
him.
He kept moving on, for Persia was a vast empire.
Soon he came to a town where in a temple there was kept a rope tied
into a very far-famed and puzzling knot. It was called the Gordian
Knot, and it was very famous because the oracle had said that whoever
should undo this knot would conquer Persia. But no one had ever been
able to untie it.
When Alexander heard the story, he went to the temple and took a look
at the knot. He saw at once that it would be impossible to untie it,
so, instead of even trying, as others had done, he drew his sword and
with one stroke cut the knot in two.
So now when a person settles something difficult, not by fussing with
it as one untangles a snarl, but at a single stroke, cutting through
all difficulties, we say he “cuts the Gordian Knot.”
From that time on, Alexander conquered one city after another and never
lost any battle of importance until he had conquered the whole of
Persia.
Then he went into Egypt, which belonged to Persia, and conquered that
country, too. To celebrate this victory, he founded a town near the
mouth of the Nile and named it after himself, Alexandria. Then he
started there a great library which later grew to be so big that there
were said to be five hundred thousand books in it--that is, half a
million--and was the largest library of ancient times. The books were
not like those in the library of Assur-bani-pal nor the kind we have
now, of course, because printing had not been invented. They were every
one of them written by hand, and not on pages, but on long sheets which
were rolled up on sticks to form a scroll.
[Illustration: A scroll, pens and ink.]
In the harbor of Alexandria was a little island called Pharos, and on
this island some years later was built a remarkable lighthouse named
from the island, the Pharos, and its light could be seen for many
miles. It was really a building more like a modern sky-scraper with a
tower. It was over thirty stories high, which seemed most remarkable at
that time when most buildings were only one or two stories high, and
its light could be seen for many miles. So the Pharos of Alexandria was
called one of the Seven Wonders of the World. You have already heard of
three others, so this makes the fourth.
Alexandria grew in the course of time to be the largest and most
important seaport of the ancient world. Now, however, the Pharos and
the library and all the old buildings have long since disappeared.
But Alexander did not stay very long in any one place. He was
restless. He wanted to keep on the move. He wanted to see new places
and to conquer new people. He almost forgot his own little country of
Macedonia and Greece. Instead of being homesick, however, as most any
one would have been, he kept going farther and farther away from home
all the time. We should call such a man an adventurer or an explorer,
as well as a great general. And so he kept on conquering and didn’t
stop conquering until he had reached far-off India.
There in India his army, which had stayed on with him all the way,
became homesick and wanted to go back. They had been away from home
for more than ten years and were so far off that they were afraid they
would never get back.
Alexander was now only thirty years old, but he was called Alexander
the Great, for he was ruler of the whole world--at least, all of it
that was then known and inhabited by civilized people, except Italy,
which was still only a collection of little, unimportant towns at that
time. When Alexander found there were no more countries left for him to
conquer, he was so disappointed that he wept!
And so at last, when there was nothing more to conquer, he agreed to do
what his army begged him and started slowly back toward Greece.
He got as far as Babylon, the city once so large and so magnificent.
There he celebrated with a feast, but while feasting and drinking he
suddenly died. So he never reached Greece.
This was in 323 B.C. when he was but 33 years old. You can remember
these figures easily, for they are all 3’s except the middle figure in
the date, which is one less than 3.
Alexander the Great had conquered the largest country that has ever
been under the rule of one man, and yet this was not the only reason we
call him the “Great.”
He was not only a great ruler and a great general, but--this may
surprise you--he was also a great teacher. Aristotle had taught him to
be that.
Alexander taught the Greek language to the people whom he conquered
so that they could read Greek books. He taught them about Greek
sculpture and painting. He taught them the wise sayings of the Greek
philosophers, Socrates and Plato and his own teacher, Aristotle. He
trained the people in athletics as the Greeks did for their Olympic
Games. And so we can say that he taught far more people than any other
teacher who has ever lived.
Alexander had married a beautiful Persian girl named Roxana, but their
only child was a baby, not born until after his father’s death; so when
the great king died there was no one to rule after him. He had told his
generals before he died that the strongest one of them should be the
next ruler; to fight it out among themselves, as we sometimes say, “May
the best man win.”
So his generals did fight to see who should win, and finally four of
them, who were victorious, decided to divide up this great empire and
each have a share.
One of his generals was named Ptolemy I, and he took Egypt as his
share and ruled well; but the others did not amount to much, and
after a while their shares became unimportant and went to pieces.
Like a red toy balloon which stretches and stretches as you blow
it up, Alexander’s empire grew bigger and bigger until--all of a
sudden--“_pop_”--nothing was left but the pieces.
30
Picking a Fight
“Every dog has his day.”
A tennis or golf champion wins over the one who was champion before him
and then has a few years during which he is unbeaten. Sooner or later,
however, some younger and better man beats him and in turn takes the
championship.
It seems almost the same way with countries as with people. One country
wins the championship from another, holds it for a few years, and then,
when older, finally loses it to some new-comer.
We have seen that
_Nineveh_ was champion for a while; then
_Babylon_ had her turn; then
_Persia_, had her turn; then
_Greece_; and, lastly,
_Macedonia_.
You may wonder who was to be the next champion after Alexander’s empire
went to pieces--who was to have the next turn.
When Alexander was conquering the world he went east toward the rising
sun, and south. He paid little attention to the country to the west
toward the setting sun. Rome, which we have not heard of for some time,
was then only a small town with narrow streets and frame houses. It
was not nearly important enough for Alexander to think much about.
Rome herself was not thinking of anything then except keeping the
neighboring towns from beating her.
[Illustration: Map of Mediterranean showing Carthage, Spain, etc.]
It is usual to speak of a city as “her” or “she” as if a city were a
girl, but Rome was more like a small boy whom all the other boys were
“picking” on. In the course of time, however, Rome began to grow up and
was not only able to take care of herself but could put up a very stiff
fight. She was then no longer satisfied with just defending herself. So
she fought and won battles with most of the other towns in Italy, until
at last she found herself champion of the whole of the “boot.” Then she
began to look around to see what other countries there were outside of
Italy that she might conquer.
Perhaps you have noticed that Italy, the “boot,” seems about to kick a
little island as if it were a football. This island is Sicily, and just
opposite Sicily was a city called Carthage.
Carthage had been founded by the Phenicians many years before and had
become a very rich and powerful city. As she was by the sea, she had
built many ships and traded with all the other seaports along the
Mediterranean, just as the old Phenician cities of Tyre and Sidon had
done.
Carthage did not like to see Rome getting so strong and growing so big
and becoming so powerful. In other words, Carthage was jealous of Rome.
Rome, on her side, was jealous of the wealth and trade of Carthage. So
Rome anxiously looked around for some excuse to get into a fight with
her.
Now, you know how easy it is to pick a quarrel and start a fight when
you are “looking for trouble.” One boy sticks out his tongue, the other
gives him a kick, and the fight is on.
Well, two countries are at times just like little boys; they start a
fight with just as little excuse, and though they call the fight “war”
it is nothing but a “scrap.” Only there are no fathers to come along
and give them both a spanking and send them to bed without any supper.
So it didn’t take long for Rome and Carthage to find an excuse, and a
war was started between them. The Romans called this fight a Punic War,
for “Punic” was their name for Phenician, and the Carthaginians were
Phenicians.
As Carthage was across the water, the Romans could not get to her
except in boats. But Rome had no boats. She was not on the sea-shore,
and she knew nothing about making boats, nor about sailing them, if she
had had them.
The Carthaginians, on the other hand, had many, many boats, and, like
all the Phenicians, were old and experienced sailors.
But Rome happened to find the wreck of a Carthaginian ship that had
been cast ashore, and she at once set to work to make a copy of it.
In a remarkably short time she had built one ship, then another and
another, until she had a great many ships. Then, though she was new at
the game, she attacked the Carthaginian fleet.
It would seem that the Carthaginians could easily have won, for the
Romans knew so little about boats. But in sea battles, before this,
the fighting had been done by running into the enemy and ramming and
sinking their ships.
The Romans knew they were no match for the Carthaginians in this sort
of fighting. So they thought up a way in which they could fight them as
on land.
To do this they invented a kind of big hook which they called a “crow.”
The idea was for a ship to run close alongside a Carthaginian ship and,
instead of trying to sink her, to throw out this big hook or “crow,”
catch hold of the other ship, and pull both boats dose together. The
Roman soldiers would then scramble over the sides into the enemy’s boat
and fight them the same way they would on land.
The scheme worked.
This new kind of fighting took the Carthaginians by surprise, and they
were no match for the Romans at first.
But Rome did not have things all her own way by any means. The
Carthaginians soon learned how to fight in this fashion, too. So Rome
lost, as well as won, battles both on land and on sea. But at last she
did win, and the Carthaginians were beaten. Thus ended the first Punic
War.
31
The Boot Kicks and Stamps
But the Carthaginians were not beaten for good. They were only waiting
for another chance to get even. As, however, they had been unsuccessful
in attacking Italy from in front as they had been doing, they made up
their minds to attack her from the back. Their scheme was to go the
long way round through Spain and down into Italy from the north.
In order to do this, they had first of all to conquer Spain so that
they could get through. They did this, however, rather easily, for the
Carthaginians had a very great general named Hannibal. But then came
the great difficulty, to get into Italy by this back way.
Across the top of the “boot,” at the north of Italy, there are the
great mountains called the Alps. They are miles high and covered even
in summer with ice and snow. There are crags and steep cliffs along
which any one passing who made a single misstep would be dashed to
death thousands of feet below.
It was the Alps, therefore, that formed a bigger and better wall than
any city or country could possibly build. Of course the Romans thought
it impossible for any army to climb over such a terribly high and
dangerous wall.
Time and again there have been things that people call impossible to
do, and then some one has come along and done them.
People said it was impossible to fly.
Then some one did it.
People said it was impossible to cross the Alps with an army.
Then Hannibal came along, and before the Romans knew what had happened
he had done it. He had crossed the Alps with his army and was in at the
back door!
The Romans were unable to keep him from marching on toward their city,
winning battle after battle as he came along. They were unable to
prevent him marching up and down Italy, conquering other towns in Italy
and doing pretty much as he pleased. It seemed as if Rome were beaten
and she were to lose all of Italy.
Now, in some games, if you can’t defend your own goal, it may be a good
plan to try attacking your opponent’s goal.
Rome thought she would try this plan. While Hannibal was attacking her,
she herself would attack Carthage while its general was away and there
was no strong goal-keeper to defend that city.
So the Romans sent a young man named Scipio with an army to do this.
First, however, Scipio went to Spain to cut Hannibal off from the way
he had come, and this country Scipio reconquered.
Then he went over to Africa to attack Carthage itself.
The Carthaginians, frightened at being attacked with their general and
his army far off in Italy, sent as fast as they could for Hannibal to
come home. When at last he arrived, it was too late. Scipio fought a
famous battle at Zama near Carthage, and the Carthaginians were beaten,
beaten a second time by the Romans. Thus ended the second Punic War in
202 B.C. This is another easy name and easy date--just like a telephone
number:
Zama--two-O-two.
The Romans had won two wars against Carthage; you would think that they
would now have been satisfied. But they weren’t. They thought they had
not beaten Carthage badly enough. They were afraid she was not quite
dead or that she might come to life. They thought there might be a
little spark left that might start a fire if it weren’t trampled out.
Now, it is bad sport to pummel your opponent after he is beaten, and
Carthage was beaten--beaten, black and blue--there was no hope of her
“coming back.” And yet a few years later the Romans attacked her again
for the third and last time.
Carthage was unable to defend herself, and the Romans viciously burned
the city to the ground. It is said they even plowed over the land
so that no trace of the city should remain, and sowed it with salt
which prevented anything growing there. After that Carthage was never
rebuilt, and now it is hard to tell even where the old city once was.
[Illustration]
32
The New Champion of the World
You can well imagine how proud all the Romans now were that they _were_
Romans, for Rome was the champion fighter of the world. If a man could
toss his head and say, “I am a Roman citizen,” people were always ready
to do something for him, afraid to do him any harm, afraid what might
happen to them if they did. Rome was ruler not only of Italy but of
Spain and Africa. Like other nations before her, once she had started
conquering, she kept on conquering, until by 100 B.C. she in her turn
was ruler of almost all the countries bordering the Mediterranean
Sea--all except Egypt.
The New Champion of the World, who was to be champion for a great many
years, was very businesslike and practical.
The Greeks loved beautiful things, beautiful buildings, beautiful
sculpture, beautiful poems. The Romans copied the Greeks and learned
from them how to make many beautiful things, but the Romans were most
interested in practical and useful things.
For example, now that Rome ruled the world, she had to be able to send
messengers and armies easily and quickly in every direction to the
end of her empire and back again. So it was necessary for her to have
roads, for of course there were no railroads then. Now, an ordinary
road made by simply clearing away the ground gets full of deep ruts and
in rainy weather becomes so muddy that it can hardly be used at all.
So Rome set to work and built roads. These roads were like paved
streets. Large rocks were placed at the bottom for a foundation,
smaller stones placed on top, and large, flat paving-stones laid
over all. Thousands of miles of such roads she built to all parts of
her empire. One could go from almost anywhere all the way to Rome on
paved roads. We still have an expression, “All roads lead to Rome.” So
well were these roads made that many of them still exist to-day, two
thousand years after they were built.