conversion of her kingdom into a Roman province after her death, but
emphasize the fact that all Hellenistic lands were at that time in the
power of Rome and that the period of Graeco-Roman culture had begun much
earlier. In B.C. 146 had occurred the destruction of Corinth and the
absorption of Old Greece into a part of the Roman province of Macedon,
and from that time Rome exerted a marked influence over the social life
of Hellas. One of the chief characteristics of this age was the freer
life of women of all classes. Even in Athens and Boeotia, the mistress
of the house obtained her rights as mother and hostess. Perhaps it was
in imitation of what they saw in Rome, perhaps it was merely the natural
process of evolution, but, at any rate, the recognition of the
capabilities and the elevated position of woman was general. Plutarch is
the best chronicler of Greek life in the first century after the
Christian era, and his works abound in precepts on the relations of the
sexes, in whose equality he was a firm believer, and on the proper
training and education of woman. His own wife, Timoxena, paid visits and
received guests even when her husband was absent, shared fully the
intellectual life of her husband, and took part in all his public
interests.
The age was mending its manners. New ideas were prevailing among men.
Woman was becoming more and more fully a factor in the world. Yet, for
her complete emancipation, there was need of a new dogma, a great
revelation, which would bring about startling reforms in the moral and
social life of mankind. Already "the Word had been made flesh, and dwelt
among them full of grace and truth"; yet the great writers of the first
century of our era, Dion, Plutarch, even Josephus, seem never to have
heard of the new teaching which had been preached throughout Asia Minor
and at Athens and Corinth--the new teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, which
was destined to overturn the prevailing conception of woman and her
status and to lead her into a fulness of life such as had never been
conceived in the imagination of even the most elevated of her sex.
[Illustration 384 _CLEOPATRA After the painting by Alexandre Cabanel.
From the period when the last Pharaoh died until it fell under the Roman
domination, Egypt was ruled by the Greek Ptolemies, and the last of the
rulers of Greek descent was the world-famous Cleopatra._
_Plutarch, in his life of Antony, states that after the defeat of
Actium, Cleopatra, feeling the end of her reign imminent, busied herself
in making a collection of poisons; and in order to see which of them was
the least painful in operation, she had them tried upon prisoners
condemned to die._]
In Cleopatra and other Greek women considered in the volume, we have
observed from time to time the highest development of feminine
endowments, physical, intellectual, or sensuous. The ethereal beauty of
Helen, the poetic fervor of Sappho, the intellectual temper of Aspasia,
the artistic temperament of Phryne, and the seductive sensibility of
Cleopatra--these exhibit phases of feminine perfection that have not
found their counterparts in modern times. Yet in each instance mentioned
there was the one thing needful--the corresponding development of the
moral and spiritual nature. These women were but pagans. Each sought in
her own way to attain the highest perfection possible to woman; still,
for them the truth was but seen in a glass darkly, and their philosophy
had not yet taught them concerning the higher life of the spirit as
distinct from the body.
Yet the dominion established by Julius Caesar, which embraced all the
Hellenistic lands, was even in Cleopatra's time preparing the way for
the dominion of the Son of Man, who brought into the world new
conceptions of womanhood, new influences destined to elevate and ennoble
the sex and emphasize the higher elements in human character that the
ancients had so sadly neglected. Pagan Woman attained unrivalled
excellence in physical beauty, intellectual endowment, and sensuous
charm; to Christian Woman was vouchsafed the light which dispelled the
moral darkness of antiquity and made attainable the highest spiritual
excellence.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SUBJECT ARTIST PAGE
Aspasia _Henry Holiday_ Fronts.
Circe _Henri P. Motte_ 80
Sappho in her school of poetry in _Hector Leroux_ 120
Lesbos
The Grecian toilette _From an antique vase_ 176
Phryne _Henry I. Siemiradsky_ 232
Cleopatra _Alexandre Cabanel_ 384