A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




PTOLEMY EUERGETES.--_Ptolemy III_. (247-222 B.C.), surnamed
_Euergetes_ (the benefactor), was the most enterprising and
aggressive of this line of monarchs. Most of his conquests were not
permanent, but some of them were. He was a patron of art and of
literature. He raised Egypt to the highest pitch of prosperity that
she ever enjoyed. The first three Ptolemies whose reigns had covered a
century, were followed by a series of incompetent and depraved kings,
nine in number.

Ptolemy IV. (Philopator) (222-205 B.C.) was a weak and dissolute
prince. In war with _Antiochus III_. (the Great) of Syria, he
saved his kingdom; but his own subjects were rebellious and
disaffected. _Ptolemy VI_. (Philometor) (181-148 B.C.) was a
boy at his accession. His guardians engaged in war with Syria, which
would have conquered Egypt but for the interposition of the Romans
in his behalf (170 B.C.).


II. MACEDON AND GREECE.

When Alexander was in the far East, the Spartan king, _Agis III_.
(330 B.C.), headed a revolt against _Antipater_; but Agis was
vanquished and slain. The death of Alexander kindled the hope of
regaining liberty among patriotic Greeks. Athens, under
_Demosthenes_ and _Hyperides_, led the way. A large
confederacy was formed. _Leosthenes_, the Greek commander,
defeated Antipater, and shut him up within the walls of _Lamia_
(in Thessaly). But the Greeks were finally beaten at
_Crannon_. Favorable terms were granted to their cities, except
Athens and Aetolia. Twenty-one thousand citizens were deported from
Athens to Thrace, Italy, and other places. The nine thousand richest
citizens, with _Phocion_ at their head, the anti-democratic
party, had all power left in their hands. Demosthenes, Hyperides, and
other democratic leaders, were proscribed. _Demosthenes_ took
refuge in the temple of Neptune, on the little island of
_Calaurea_. Finding himself pursued by _Archias_, the
officer of Antipater, he took poison, which he had kept by him in a
quill, and died. Thus closed the life of an intrepid statesman who had
served the cause of liberty and of his country through the direst
perils and trials with unfaltering constancy. The democracy again
acquired power temporarily, and _Phocion_ was condemned to death.

_Cassander_, excluded from the Macedonian throne by his father,
Antipater, supplanted _Polysperchon_, the regent (316 B.C.). He
placed _Demetrius_ of _Phaleron_ in power at Athens over a
democracy with restricted prerogatives. He was driven out by
_Demetrius Poliorcetes_, who was helped by Athens to possess
himself of Macedonia and of the most of Greece, but was compelled
(287 B.C.) to give up his throne, which, however, was gained by his
son, _Antigonus Gonatas_ (277 B.C.).

THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE.--In 279 B.C., there occurred an irruption of the
Gauls into Greece, "one of those vast waves of migration which from
time to time sweep over the world." The Macedonian king, _Ptolemy
Ceraunus_, was defeated by them in a great battle, captured, and
put to death. It was two years before these marauders were driven out,
and Macedonia acquired a settled government. This episode in history
favored the growth of two leagues--the _Achaean League_ and the
_Aetolian League_. In these leagues the several cities gave up to
the central council much more power than Greek cities had been in the
habit of granting in former unions. The Achaean League was at first
made up of ten Achaean cities. About 240 B.C. _Aratus_ of Sicyon,
who had brought _Sicyon_ into the league, delivered
_Corinth_ from the Macedonians. To free Greek cities from
subjection to them, was long a great object of the
league. _Peloponnesus_, except Sparta, with _Athens_ and
_Aegina_, joined it.

THE AETOLIAN LEAGUE: WAR OF THE LEAGUES.--The rough Aetolians north of
the Corinthian Gulf, semi-barbarous in their mode of life, formed
another league, and got command of _Phocis_, _Locris_, and
_Boeotia_. A praiseworthy attempt at reform was made in Sparta by
the king, _Agis IV_. (240 B.C.), who was opposed by the rich, and
put to death. _Cleomenes_, his successor, who had the same spirit
as Agis, engaged in conflict with the Achaean League, which then
called in Macedonian help (223 B.C.). It had to give up to Macedon the
Corinthian citadel. _Sparta_ was overthrown. Soon a war between
the two leagues broke out, when the Achaeans again called on the
Macedonians for aid. These conflicts were followed by the interference
of the Romans.

THE EVIL OF FACTION.--The bane of Greece, from the beginning to the
end of its history, was the suicidal spirit of disunion. Her power was
splintered at many crises, when, if united, it might have saved the
land from foreign tyranny. Her resources were drained, generation
after generation, by needless local contests. She owed her downfall to
the desolating influence of faction.



III. THE SYRIAN KINGDOM.

_Seleucus I_. (Nicator) (312-280 B.C.) was the founder of the
Syrian kingdom. From Babylon he extended his dominion to the _Black
Sea_, to the _Jaxartes_, and even to the _Ganges_, so far
as to make the Indian prince, _Sandracottus_, acknowledge him as
suzerain. From Babylon he removed his capital to _Antioch_ on the
Orontes, which he founded,--a city destined to be the rival of
Alexandria among the cities of the East. The effect of this removal,
however, was to loosen his hold upon the Eastern provinces of his
empire. _Seleucia_, on the west bank of the Tigris, he likewise
founded, which became a great commercial city, but was outstripped
later by the Parthian city opposite, _Ctesiphon_. The provinces
beyond the Euphrates he committed to his son, _Antiochus_. With
him (Antiochus I.) begins the decline of the empire through the
influence of Oriental luxury and vice. Under him Syria lost the
eastern part of Asia Minor through the invading Gauls, who converted
northern Phrygia into _Galatia_, while north-western Lydia became
the kingdom of _Pergamon_. _Antiochus II_. (261-246 B.C.)
could not hold the provinces in subjection. The Parthian and Bactrian
kingdoms began under his reign. _Antiochus III_. (the Great)
(223-1876.0.) checked the Parthians and Bactrians, and expelled the
Egyptians from Asia, but prepared for the downfall of the Syrian
Empire by provoking the hostility of the Romans.

BACTRIA, PARTHIA, PERGAMON, GALATIA.--_Bactria_, after it broke
off from Syria, was under Greek princes until, having been weakened
by the Parthians, it was conquered by the Scythians (134 B.C.). The
_Parthians_ issued, as marauders, from the north border of
_Iran_ (256 B.C.), under the _Arsacidae_. They gradually
acquired civilization from contact with Greek culture, especially
after they established the trading-city of _Ctesiphon_. About
200 B.C. the rulers of _Pontus_ made the Greek city of
_Sinope_ their residence, and attained to a high degree of
strength under _Mithridates VI_. (the Great). _Pergamon_
became a flourishing state under the Greek rule of _Attalus
I_. (241 B.C.). It was famed for its wealth and its
trade. _Eumenes II_. (197-159 B.C.) founded the library at
Pergamon. For him parchment was improved, if not invented, the
Egyptians having forbidden the exportation of
papyrus. _Galatia_ was so named from the swarm of Gallic
invaders (about 279 B.C.), who, after incursions in the East, which
were continued for forty years, settled there, and by degrees
yielded to the influences of Greek culture.

PALESTINE: THE MACCABEES: THE IDUMAEAN PRINCES.--_Palestine_
fared comparatively well in the times when the _Ptolemies_ had
control. Not so after it fell under the permanent sway of
_Syria_. The Jews were surrounded and invaded by Gentilism. On
three sides, there were Greek cities. The perils to which their
religion was exposed by the heathen without, and by a lukewarm party
within, made earnest Jews, the bulk of the people, more inflexible in
their adherence to their law and customs. The party of the
_Pharisees_ grew out of the intensity of the loyal and patriotic
feeling which was engendered in the periods following the exile. The
synagogues, centers of worship and of instruction scattered over the
land, acted as a bulwark against the intrusion of heathen doctrine and
heathen practices. The resistance to these dreaded evils came to a
head when the Syrian ruler, _Antiochus Epiphanes_, embittered by
his failures in conflict with Egypt, resolved to break down religious
barriers among his subjects, and, for this end, to exterminate Jewish
worship. In 168 B.C. he set up an altar to Jupiter in the temple at
_Jerusalem_, and even compelled Jewish priests to immolate
swine. Then the revolt broke out in which the family of Maccabees were
the heroic leaders. _Judas Maccabees_ recovered the temple, but
fell in battle (160. B.C.). Under his brother _Simon_, victory
was achieved, and the independence of the nation secured. The chief
power remained in the hands of this family, the _Asmonaean_
princes, until their degeneracy paved the way for Roman intervention
under _Pompeius_. His adviser was the _Idumeaean_,
_Antipater_, a Jewish proselyte, whose son _Herod_ was made
king (39 B.C.).

PHILOSOPHY: THE STOICS AND THE EPICUREANS.--In the Greek world the
progress of investigation and reflection tended to produce disbelief
in the old mythological system. Social confusion and degeneracy tended
to undermine all religious faith. _Pyrrho_ (about 330 B.C.)
brought forward the skeptical doctrine, that the highest wisdom is to
doubt every thing. _Euhemrus_ (315 B.C.) interpreted the whole
mythology as an exaggeration, by imagination and invention, of
historical events which form its slender nucleus. With the loss of
liberty and the downfall of the Greek states, philosophy became, so to
speak, more _cosmopolitan_. It no longer exalted, in the same
narrow spirit, the _Greek_ above the _barbarian_. It looked
at mankind more as one community. This was a feature of the first of
the two principal sects, the _Stoics_, of whom _Zeno_ (about
330 B.C.), and Chrysippus (280-207 B.C.) were the founders. They
taught that _virtue_ is the _only good_; that is consists
_in living according to nature_; that reason should be dominant,
and tranquillity of spirit be maintained by the complete subjugation
of feeling. The emotions are to be kept down by the force of and iron
will. This is the Stoic _apathy_. The world is wisely ordered:
whatever is, is right; yet the cause of all things is not
personal. Mankind form on great community, "one city." The
_Epicureans_, the second of the prominent sects,--so called from
_Epicurus_, their founder (342-370 B.C.),--made _pleasure_
the chief good, which is to be secured by _prudence_, or such a
regulation of our desires as will yield, on the whole, the largest
fruit of happiness. They believed that the gods exist, but _denied
Providence_.

CULTURE.--In the Greek cities which were founded by the Macedonians,
the political life and independence which Greece had enjoued did not
exist. The "Hellenistic" literature and culture, as it is called,
which followed, lacked the spontaneous energy and original spirit of
the old time. The civilization was that of people not exclusively
Greek in blood. _Alexandria_ was its chief seat. Poetry
languished. It was _prose_--and prose in the form of _learned
inquiries, criticism_, and _science_--that flourished. The
path was the same as that marked out by Aristotle. _Theocritus_,
born in Syracuse, or Cos, under _Ptolemy I._ (about 320 B.C.),
had distinction as a pastoral or bucolic poet. _Euclid_, under
_Ptolemy Soter_, systemized geometry. _Archimedes_, who died
in 212 B.C., is said to have invented the screw, and was skillful in
mechanics. _Eratosthenes_ founded descriptive astronomy and
scientific chronology. "The Alexandrian age busied itself with
literary or scientific research, and with setting in order what the
Greek mind had done in its creative time." After Greece became subject
to Rome (146 B.C.) the _Graeco Roman period_ in Greek literature
begins. The Greek historian _Polybius_ stands on the border
between the Alexandrian age and this next era. He was born about 210
B.C., and died about 128 B.C.

LITERATURE.--Works mentioned on p. 16: Histories of Greece by GROTE
(12 vols.) (democratic in his sympathies), E. CURTIUS (5 vols.),
THIRLWALL (8 vols.), W. Smith (1 vol.), G. W. Cox. Busolt,
_Griechische Geschichte_; Fyffe, _History of Greece_
(primer); Duncker, _History of Greece_ [separately published];
Abbott (2 vols.); Holm (4 vols.); Bury; Oman.

On special periods: The writings of the ancient authors,--Herodotus
(Rawlinson's translation, 4 vols.), Xenophon, THUCYDIDES (Jowett's
translation, 2 vols.), Polybius, Plutarch's _Lives_. Schäfer,
_Demosthenes und seine Zeit_ (3 vols.); DROYSEN, _Geschichte
des Hellenismus_ (3 vols.); E. A. FREEMAN, _History of Federal
Government_ (vol. i.); FINLAY, _History of Greece from the
Conquest of the Romans_ (7 vols.); G. W. Cox, _History of
Greece from the Earliest Period to the End of the Persian War_ (2
vols.), and _Lives of Greek Statesmen_ (1 vol.); Freeman,
_History of Sicily_ (4 vols.).

On special topics: BOECKH, _The Public Economy of Athens_;
Coulanges, _The Ancient City_, etc.: Gõll, _Kulturbilder aus
Hellas und Rom_ (3 vols.); Guhl and Koner, _The Life of the
Greeks and Romans_, etc.; Green, _Greece and Greek
Antiquities_ (primer); J. P. Mahaffy, _Social Life in
Greece_, also _Rambles in Greece, Old Greek Education_, and
_History of Greek Literature_ (2 vols.); Becker,
_Charicles_ (a story illustrative of Greek life); F. A. Paley,
_Greek Wit_ (2 vols.); Church, _Stories from Homer_;
Black, _The Wise Men of Greece_; Neares, _Greek Anthology_
[in Ancient Classics for English Readers], _Chief Ancient
Philosophies_ [Stoicism, etc.] (1 vol., 1880); Müller and
Donaldson, _History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_ (3
vols.); Mure, _A Critical History of the Language and Literature
of Ancient Greece_ (5 vols.); Jebb, _Attic Orators_ (2
vols.); Symonds, _The Greek Poets_ (2 vols.); G. F. Schömann,
_The Antiquities of Greece_; Gladstone, _Studies on the
Homeric Age_ and _Homer_; Lübke, _Outlines of the History
of Art_; FERGUSSON, _History of Architecture_; D'Anvers,
_Elementary History of Art_; Botsford, _Development of the
Athenian Constitution_; W. W. Fowler, _The City-State of the
Greeks and Romans_; Gilbert, _Constitutional Antiquities of
Sparta and Athens_; Greenidge, _Handbook of Greek
Constitutional History_; H. N. Fowler, _History of Greek
Literature_; Marshall, _Short History of Greek Philosophy_;
Gardner, _Handbook of Greek Sculpture_; Tarbell, History of
Greek Art_; Tozer, _Primer of Classical Geography_; Kiepert,
_Atlas Antiquus_; Cunningham, _Western Civilization_
(vol. 1); Smith (Wayte & Marindin), _Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities_ (2 vols., 1890); Seyffert (Nettleship and Sandys),
_Dictionary of Classical Antiquities_.


MACEDONIAN ROYAL HOUSES



A.--House of Alexander the Great.

(1) AMYNTAS II.
|
+--(4) PHILIP, _m._
| 1, Olympias;
| |
| +--ALEXANDER THE GREAT, _m._
| 1, Roxana;
| |
| +--(7) ALEXANDER.
|
| 2, Concubines.
| |
| +--Hercules.
|
| 2, Cleopatra;
|
| 3, Concubines.
| |
| +--(6) PHILIP ARRHIDAEUS, _m._ Eurydicé.
| |
| +--Thessalonica, _m._ Cassander.
| |
| +--Cynané _m._ Amyntas.
|
+--(2) ALEXANDER II.
|
+--(3) PERDICCAS III.
|
+--Amyntas, _m._ Cynané
|
+--Eurydicé, _m._ Philip Arrhidaeus.



B.--House of Antipater.

ANTIPATER.
|
+--(8) CASSANDER, _m._ Thessalonica.
| |
| +--(9) PHILIP II.
| |
| +--(10) ANTIPATER II.
| |
| +--(11) ALEXANDER.
|
|
+--Philip.
|
+--Eurydicé, _m._ Ptolemy Lagi,
|
+--Phila, _m._
| 1, Craterus;
| 2, Demetrius Poliorcetes.
|
+--Nicaea, _m._ Perdiccas.



C.--House of Antigonus.

Antigonus I.
|
|
+--(12) DEMETRIUS I (Poliorcetes), _m._
| Phila, daughter of Antipater.
| |
| +--(13) Antigonus II (Gonatas), _m._
| | Phila, daughter of Seleucus Nicator.
| | |
| | +--(14) Demetrius II, _m._
| | 1, Stratonice;
| | |
| | +--(16) PHILIP III.
| | | |
| | | +--(17) PERSEUS, _m._
| | | | Laodicé, daughter of Seleucus Philopator.
| | | |
| | | +--Demetrius
| | |
| | +--Apama.
| |
| | 2, Phthia.
| |
| +--Craterus.
| | |
| | +--Alexander
| |
| +--Demetrius the Handsome.
| | |
| | +--Antigonus III (Doson), _m._
| | | Phthia, widow of Demetrius II
| | |
| | +--Echecrates,
| | |
| | +--Antigonus.
| |
| +--Stratonice, _m._
| | 1, Seleucus Nicator;
| | 2, Antiochus Theus.
| |
| +--Phila.
|
+--Philip.

[From Rawlinson's _Manual of Ancient History_.]




SECTION II. ROMAN HISTORY.


INTRODUCTION.

PLACE OF ROME IN HISTORY.--Rome is the bridge which unites, while it
separates, the ancient and the modern world. The history of Rome is
the narrative of the building up of a single City, whose dominion
gradually spread until it comprised all the countries about the
Mediterranean, or what were then the civilized nations. "In this great
empire was gathered up the sum total that remained of the religions,
laws, customs, languages, letters, arts, and sciences of all the
nations of antiquity which had successively held sway or
predominance." Under the system of Roman government and Roman law they
were combined in one ordered community. It was out of the wreck of the
ancient Roman Empire that the modern European nations were
formed. Their likeness to one another, their bond of fellowship, is
due to the heritage of laws, customs, letters, religion, which they
have received in common from Rome.

THE INHABITANTS OF ANCIENT ITALY.--Until a late period in Roman
history, the Apennines, and not the Alps, were the northern boundary
of Italy. The most of the region between the Alpine range and the
Apennines, on both sides of the Po, was inhabited by _Gauls_,
akin to the Celts of the same name north of the Alps. On the west of
Gallia were the _Ligurians_, a rough people of unknown
extraction. People thought to be of the same race as the Ligurians
dwelt in _Sardinia_ and in _Corsica_, and in a part of
_Sicily_. On the east of Gallia were the Venetians, whose lineage
is not ascertained. The Apennines branch off from the Alps in a
southeasterly direction until they near the Adriatic, when they turn
to the south, and descend to the extreme point of the peninsula, thus
forming the backbone of Italy. On the west, in the central portion of
the peninsula, is the hilly district called by the ancients,
_Etruria_ (now Tuscany), and the plains of _Latium_ and
_Campania_. What is now termed _Campania_, the district
about Rome, is a part of ancient Latium. The _Etrurians_ differed
widely, both in appearance and in language, from the Romans. They were
not improbably _Aryans_, but nothing more is known of their
descent. In the east, in what is now _Calabria_, and in
_Apulia_, there was another people, the _Iapygians_, whose
origin is not certain, but who were not so far removed from the Greeks
as from the Latins. The southern and south-eastern portions of the
peninsula were the seat of the _Greek_ settlements, and the
country was early designated _Great Greece_. Leaving out the
Etrurians, Iapygians, and Greeks, Italy, south of Gallia, was
inhabited by nations allied to one another, and more remotely akin to
the Greeks. These Italian nations were divided into an eastern and a
western stock. The western stock, the _Latins_, whose home was in
Latium, were much nearer of kin to the Greeks than were the
eastern. The eastern stock comprised the _Umbrians_ and the
_Oscans_. It included the Sabines, Samnites, and Lucanians.

We are certain, that, "from the common cradle of peoples and
languages, there issued a stock which embraced in common the
ancestors of the Greeks and the Italians; that from this, at a
subsequent period, the Italians branched off; and that these divided
again into the western and eastern stocks, while, at a still later
date, the eastern became subdivided into Umbrians and Oscans."
(Mommsen's _History of Rome_, vol. i., p. 36.)

ITALY AND GREECE.--In two important points, Italy is geographically
distinguished from Greece. The sea-coast of Italy is more uniform, not
being broken by bays and harbors; and it is not cut up, like Greece,
by chains of mountains, into small cantons. The Romans had not the
same inducement to become a sea-faring people; there were fewer
cities; there was an opportunity for closer and more extended
leagues. It is remarkable that the outlets of Greece were towards the
east; those of Italy towards the west. The two nations were thus
averted from one another: they were, so to speak, back to back.

THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.--The Greeks and Romans, although sprung from a
common ancestry, and preserving common features in their language, and
to some extent in their religion, were very diverse in their natural
traits. The Greeks had more genius: the Romans more stability. In art
and letters the Romans had little originality. In these provinces they
were copyists of the Greeks: they lacked ideality. They had, also, far
less delicacy of perception, flexibility, and native refinement of
manners. But they had more sobriety of character and more
endurance. They were a _disciplined_ people; and in their
capacity for discipline lay the secret of their supremacy in arms and
of their ability to give law to the world. If they produced a much
less number of great men than the Greeks, there was more widely
diffused among Roman citizens a conscious dignity and strength. The
Roman was naturally _grave_: the fault of the Greek was
_levity_. _Versatility_ belonged to the Greek:
_virility_ to the Roman. Above all, the sense of right and of
justice was stronger among the Romans. They had, in an eminent degree,
the political instinct, the capacity for governing, and for building
up a political system on a firm basis. This trait was connected with
their innate reverence for authority, and their habit of
obedience. The noblest product of the Latin mind is the _Roman
law_, which is the foundation of almost all modern codes. With all
their discernment of justice and love of order, the Romans, however,
were too often hard and cruel. Their history is stained here and there
with acts of unexampled atrocity. In private life, too, when the rigor
of self-control gave way, they sunk into extremes of vulgar
sensuality. If, compared with the Greeks, they stood morally at a
greater height, they might fall to a lower depth.

THE ROMAN RELIGION.--The difference between the Greek and Roman mind
was manifest in the sphere of religion. Before their separation from
one another they had brought from the common hearthstone elements of
worship which both retained. _Jupiter_, like _Zeus_, was the
old Aryan god of the shining sky. But the Greek conception, even of
the chief deity, differed from the Roman. When the Romans came into
intercourse with the Greeks, they identified the Greek divinities with
their own, and more and more appropriated the tales of the Greek
mythology, linking them to their own deities. Of the early worship
peculiar to the Romans, we know but little. But certain traits always
belonged to the Roman religion. Their mood was too prosaic to invent a
theogony, to originate stories of the births, loves, and romantic
adventures of the gods, such as the Greek fancy devised. The Roman
myths were heroic, not religious: they related to the deeds of valiant
men. Their deities were, in the first place, much more abstract, less
vividly conceived, less endowed with distinct personal
characteristics. And, secondly, their service to the gods was more
punctilious and methodical. It was regulated, down to the minutiæ, by
fixed rules. Worship was according to law, was something due to the
gods, and was discharged, like any other debt, exactly, and at the
proper time. The Roman took advantage of technicalities in dealing
with his gods: he was legal to the core. The word _religion_ had
the same root as _obligation_. It denoted the bondage or service
owed by man to the gods in return for their protection and favor; and
hence the anxiety, or scrupulous watchfulness against the omission of
what is required to avert the displeasure of the powers above.

ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS.--The Romans attributed their origin to the
mythical _Æneas_, who fled, with a band of fugitives, from the
flames of _Troy_, and whose son, _Ascanius_, or
_Iulus_, settled in _Alba Longa_, in Latium. What is known
of the foundation of Rome is, that it was a settlement of Latin
farmers and traders on the group of hills, seven in number, near the
border of Latium, on the _Tiber_. It was the head of navigation
for small vessels, and Rome was at first, it would seem, the
trading-village for the exchange of the products of the
farming-district in which it was placed. Such an outpost would be
useful to guard Latium against the _Etrurians_ across the
river. Of the three townships, or clans, which united to form
Rome,--the _Ramnes_, the _Tities_, and the
_Luceres_,--the first and third were Latin. The second, which was
_Sabine_, blended with the Roman element, as the language
proves. The clans, or tribes, in Latium together formed a league, the
central meeting-place of which was at first _Alba Longa_. There
is some reason to think that the Sabines were from _Cures_ near
Rome. Certain it is that Rome, even at the outset, derived its
strength from a combination of tribes.

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