A Manual of Ancient History, from the earliest times to the overthrow of the Western Empire, A.D.476

Preface

. The object of the present work is to furnish a brief but complete summary of the history of antiquity, from the remotest times down to the overthrow of the Eoman Empire in the West, in a. n. 476. The history of Greece and Eome is taught in all schools professing to give a liberal education, but this is often done to the entire exclusion of the other nations of antiquity, which, though they did not exercise an equally powerful influence either upon their contemporaries or upon posterity, yet ought not to be passed over by any one desirous to obtain a complete view, and form a correct estimate, of the ancient world. The present manual, therefore, embracing the history of all the nations of antiquity, is designed to present to the student, besides the histories of Greece and Eome, an outline of that of the non-classical nations, and to devote to each of them as much attention as their historical importance may seem to demand.

The history of the Jewish nation does not form part of this manual, because it is felt that the history of that memorable people, in order to be in any way satisfactory, cannot be treated with the same brevity as that of other ancient nations; it must further be assumed, that the

PREFACE.

. IV history of the Jews is known to every Christian student from his Bible and the religious instruction he has received J the sacred history, moreover, is of that peculiar kind that it ought not to be placed on a level with that of less favoured nations, it being essentially of a religious character, and every one ought to learn it from the Holy Scriptures, rather than from any summary abridgment. In order, however, to assist the biblical student, a brief chronology of Jewish history, from the Creation down to the destruc tion of Jerusalem, has been added to the Chronological Table at the end of the work. The whole manual is divided into three books, which may be regarded as three distinct courses of history; the first comprising the Asiatic nations and Egyptians ; the second, the Greeks, Macedonians, and the kingdoms that were formed out of the empire of Alexander the Great ; and the third, the Eomans, Carthaginians, and the nations of south-western Europe- L. SCIIMITZ. Edinburgh, April 1855. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 25

Introduction

. The name antiquity in its most general acceptation is commonly understood to comprise the whole period from the creation down to the overthrow of the western empire in a.d. 476, and the history of that vast expanse of time is termed the " History of Antiquity," or " Ancient History." But neither the beginning nor the end of this history is the same for all the nations of antiquity. As to the beginning of the human race in general, it is obvious that, unless assisted by revelation, man could have possessed but very little or no knowledge at all, and after the creation of man many centuries must have passed away before those communities could be formed in the primitive seats of our race, which we term states or nations, and which alone form the subjects of general history. But even the beginnings of these national or political associations, to what ever period they belong, do not yet constitute the beginning of real history, for the accounts of the formation of states and the foundation of cities are generally transmitted to later ages by mere oral tradition, which is ever changing and expanding, until in the end it is impossible to separate its nucleus of truth from what has grown upon and around it.

Real history does not commence until the time when contemporary records of some kind or another are drawn up to assist the memory of man in preserving for posterity the memo rials of a nation's life. We do not mean to assert that absolutely nothing can be known of those periods about which we have no contemporary records, for tradition also may hand down, and has handed down, a vast amount of information concerning past ages, but such information can never be as perfect and free from error as the accounts drawn up by contemporaries, or by persons living so near the events themselves, as to be able, with a reasonable amount 3 ANCIENT HISTORY. of judgment and discernment, to ascertain the truth. Written records fix for ever that which would otherwise be subject to a perpetual process of change and modification.

The possibility of drawing up records of a nation's history depends upon a variety of circumstances, and, above all, upon the art of writing. As this art did not become known to all the ancient nations at once, but was gradually imparted by one to another, it follows that contemporary records were made in some countries at a much earlier period than in others, and it must be observed in general, that the Asiatic nations and the Egyptians practised the art of writing many centuries before it was introduced into Europe. Hence we possess authentic and trustworthy accounts of some Asiatic nations at a period when the history of Europe is still buried in utter darkness. Asia is the cradle of the human race, in Asia the first states were formed, and it is from Asia that Europe and Africa received their inhabitants.

Hence the traditions and history of the Asiatic nations go back to more remote periods than those of any nation in Europe. While thus the nations claiming our attention in antiquity widely differ in regard to the points at which their respective histories and traditions commence, the point at which antiquity terminates is no less different with different nations. The epoch generally assumed as the line of demarcation between antiquity and the middle ages, is the overthrow of the western empire of Borne, and, so far as the south-west of Europe is concerned, that event marks, in a sufficiently striking manner, the transition to an entirely new state of things : — all that was peculiar to the ancient world had then ceased, and a new order of things had sprung up; the ancient empire was broken to pieces, new kingdoms were built up on its ruins, and civilisation, which had before reached a certain culminating point, now began a new career, struggling through many centuries of ignorance and barbarism, until in the end it rose to that height which constitutes the glory of our own age.

But upon the eastern world that event exercised little or no influence, for the Greek empire continued its wretched existence for nearly a thousand years longer, and the Asiatic nations also preserved their previous forms and institutions without any material change, until the establishment of Mahommedanism revolutionised nearly the whole of western Asia and the north of Africa. The nations of central and eastern Asia, lastly, were not affected at all by the event which so completely changed the aspect of western Europe. But notwithstanding this discrepancy, it is convenient, at least for Europeans, to regard the fall of the western empire of Rome as the termination of antiquity, and as the commencement of a new era in history. Down to this event, therefore, it is our intention in this manual to carry the history of the ancient nations.

INTRODUCTION.

. 27 It must not be inferred from the foregoing remarks that the history of the human race is altogether involved in impenetrable darkness during those remote periods, about which neither tradi tions nor written records have come down to us, for there are other sources from which a certain amount of historical knowledge can be obtained, concerning man as well as concerning the globe he in habits. The earth, and the mighty revolutions it has undergone since the days of its creation, and before it became the fit abode for man, are not, properly speaking, subjects of a history which is concerned about man alone ; but being the scene of his joys and sorrows, its history, as revealed by the science of geology, and its description furnished by that of geography, are interesting, nay, indispensable handmaids to the history of man.

Geology, though less necessary to a full understanding of the history of mankind, affords us some insight into the otherwise mysterious revolutions through which the earth has passed before assuming its present form and character. What geology is to the history of the earth, comparative philology has proved to be to the history of man. Ages about which all traditions and all histories are silent, would be like sealed books to us, were it not for comparative philology, a child of the nineteenth century; for the analysis and comparison of languages allow us every now and then to catch a glimpse of the rela tions subsisting among nations often separated, during the historical times, by thousands of miles ; of the state of their civilization, and of their migrations, before they reached the countries in which ultimately they took up their permanent abode.

One example may suffice to show the flood of light which comparative philology in our days has thrown upon the history of mankind : it is now estab lished as a fact beyond all doubt, that the nations on the banks of the Ganges and the Indus, as well as the ancient Persians, spoke a language radically identical with those spoken in Europe from the earliest times, including both Latin and Greek, and perhaps even the Etruscan. This great fact has dispelled a mass of false notions formerly entertained in regard to the ancient population of southern Europe. The radical identity of all these languages shows incon trovertibly that there must have existed at one time a close connec tion among the nations which speak them, and that in fact all these nations must have sprung from one common stock. Of this fact, neither tradition nor history hss preserved the slightest trace.

The primitive seats of man were in all probability in the north-west of India, or the highlands of Armenia; thence the branches spread in all directions, until the ocean set a limit to their migrations. It has thus been established that most of the races of men, from the Ganges in the cast, to the Atlantic in the west, belong to one great family, and it is probable that further investigations will show that all the two thousand languages spoken by man are traceable to one ANCIENT HISTORY. common parent, and will thus confirm the record of Genesis, that all mankind is descended from one common father and one common mother. The study of language will then dispel the idea of several originally distinct races, which physiologists have assumed for the purpose of explaining the phvsical differences which present them selves among the inhabitants of the several parts of our globe.

There can be no doubt that, for practical purposes, it is useful to divide mankind, as it at present exists, into three or even six dif ferent races, each presenting peculiar characteristics, which neither climate nor mode of living apparently ever produces ; but though this is true of the present age of the world, who will undertake to prove that it was so from the beginning ? Is it not possible that for many generations after his first creation man was more plastic and more easily affected by climate and the other influences which at present are nearly inoperative in determining our physical and mental constitution ? If a man by living in central Africa does not now become a negro, it does not follow that it was always so ; and hence we conceive that the strongly marked differences between existing races afford no ground for assuming, as many have done, that these differences have existed from the day of creation, or that God created not one, but several pairs of human beings.

Another means of furnishing us with some idea of the history of a nation, in the absence of literary memorials, is to be found in its architectural remains ; for even if they bear no inscriptions, or such inscriptions as cannot be deciphered and understood, the mere forms and structure of their houses, temples, tombs, and other edifices, often reveal to us at least some parts of a nation's life and history, and that too sometimes in a more vivid manner than written records would have done. Hence the mode of life of the Egyptians, and their ordinary pursuits, were known to the world from their sculptured monuments, long before the clue to the reading of the hieroglyphics had been discovered ; and the same may still be as serted of the Etruscans, whose inscribed monuments have not yet been deciphered.

It must not, however, be supposed that ancient history becomes authentic and continuous from the moment the art of writinois discovered and applied to the recording of events, for the earliest records are lost to us in almost every instance ; and even if they were extant, they would scarcely furnish more than the skeleton of history. We are therefore dependent upon later writers, who drew up their accounts by the aid of legends and traditions. The value of such accounts depends upon a variety of circumstances, and the historian is obliged to proceed with the utmost caution and wariness in examining, weighing, and discriminating the authenticity of the sources from which he derives his information. As a great many of the historical writings of the ancients have perished, he is often

INTRODUCTION.

. 29 tcduced to the necessity of filling up gaps by combination and con jecture, or from analogy. Even at periods about which his sources of information flow more copiousty, he has to contend with diffi culties that are unknown to the historian of modern times. Such, for instance, is the unsettled state of ancient chronology. There was no chronological era common to all the nations of antiquity; every people had its own system ; and while some reckoned by lunar years, others computed time by solar ones; with one nation, more over, the year commenced at one season, while with another its be ginning belonged to one quite different. To reduce all these discre pancies to one uniform system of chronology is a matter of extreme difficulty, and we must often be satisfied, after all, with results only approximating to the truth.

We cannot pretend in this work to enter into a critical examination of this and other knotty points connected with ancient history, but our object will be to give those results of modern inquiries which in our judgment appear to be best entitled to our acceptance. According to the principle that man, and more especially those political associations of men which we call states, are the proper subjects of history, all the nations that ever existed during the vast period of antiquity come within the compass of ancient history; but the claim they have upon our attention varies according to the degree of civilisation they attained, and the influence they exercised upon their contemporaries or upon posterity. In a work designed for the instruction of the young, moreover, it would be out of place to record all that is known of every state and tribe we meet with in ancient times.

A selection therefore has to be made, and a Dation deserves a more or less prominent place in history in the proportion in which it has either promoted or retarded the progress of man kind in civilisation. In this view ancient history becomes consi derably narrowed; it must not, however, be imagined that the less ■important nations will be passed over altogether; they will receive their due share of attention, whenever they emerge from their obscurity and come in contact with other more influential branches of the human family. The sacred history of the Jews, however, or the account of the direct interference of God in the affairs of the Jewish nation, will be excluded from the present work, partly because it is, or ought to be, familiar to every one, and partly be cause it appears to us to be more adapted for religious than for historical instruction, being altogether distinct from ordinary poli tical history.

There is yet another method by which the domain of ancient history is sometimes reduced. For there are historians who confine themselves to the consideration of those nations whose history has been transmitted to us by the writers of the two classical nations of antiquity, the Greeks and Romans, and pass over all others 3* ANCIENT HISTORY. whose history has become known to us during the middle ages and in modern times, partly from native records, and partly through travellers and missionaries. It will be our endeavour in the present work to set no such limits to our undertaking, but to pass in review all the great nations of antiquity, from whatever sources our information regarding them may be derived, and thus to exhibit before the young student, in broad outlines, as complete a picture of the ancient world as can be produced by the extended knowledge of the present age.

Much that it would be interesting to know and to understand more thoroughly, will still remain obscure, being seen only through the mist of the many centuries which separate us from the events presented to our contemplation. As the development of the human race has, on the whole, followed the daily course of the sun, we shall begin with the nations of eastern Asia, and thence proceed westward till we reach the shores of the Atlantic, beyond which ancient history does not extend.

Chapter I. Geographical Sketch Of Asia

— THE EARLIEST SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FORMS AMONG ASIATIC NATIONS. 1. Asia is traversed by an immense plateau or high table-land, intercepted by numerous elevations and depressions of the ground, and occupying nearly one-half of the continent. This extends from the Black sea in the West, to the sea of Corea in the East of China, and consists of two main parts, which may be termed the eastern (the larger) and the western highlands of Asia. The former did not become known to the classical nations of antiquity until a very late period, and the ancients call it Scythia, beyond mount Imaus. This eastern highland bears throughout an almost uniform charac ter, though its chains of mountains have many breaks and interrup tions. It is surrounded on all sides by lofty ranges of mountains, either in such a manner that the enclosed table-land sinks down towards its centre, from which the mountains gradually rise on all sides, or the surrounding mountains rise directly from the edge of the table-land.

The former is the case in the north, where mount Altai forms a kind of circumvallation, while the latter form appears more in the south, about the Himalayan mountains, the northern foot of which rises from the very edge of the table-land. These mountains and highlands were regarded by the earliest inhabitants of the East as the centre of the earth's surface, as the habitation of the gods and of the blessed, where peace, and light, and splendour reigned for ever, and where war and death were unknown. It is true, all the countries of Asia are grouped around those highlands as around a mighty citadel ; but the notion that they were the abode of happiness appears to have arisen only from the sublime grandeur of the mountains, for in reality the life of the tribes inhabiting them was poor and wretched, when compared with that of the nations occupying the plains, abounding in the most luxurious vegetation and in all the richest gifts of nature; for the former were for the most part nomades, that is, tribes wandering with their flocks and herds over the extensive steppes, sometimes overrunning as conquerors the more fertile countries around their highlands.

Their mode of life, without any towns or fixed habitations, with few wants, and these easily satisfied, remained the same for ages, and it was impossible for them to make any considerable progress in civilisation. Hence they remained far behind the surrounding nations that lived under more favourable circumstances. From the central table-land the countries sink down towards the seas in the most different forms: mighty rivers with numerous tributaries form extensive water-systems, which are at the same time the great high roads along which the nations have migrated. The northern part of Asia, sloping down from the central highlands, the modern Siberia, does not come into consideration in ancient history, but the eastern, southern, and western slopes are the scenes of the manifold struggles and developments of the Asiatic nations, which will engage our attention.

In many of these countries, history, even in the remotest times, meets with regularly organized states, sometimes even displaying a splendour and magnificence bordering upon the fabulous. Wealthy cities with superb temples and palaces form the centres of civilisation and refinement, and an extensive com merce supplies them with the comforts and luxuries, for which the East has at all times been proverbial. But the very bounties of nature, which almost dispensed with the labour of man, at the same time rendered him incapable of vigorous exertion, and checked his progress, or caused him to sink into listless indolence. 2. All the nations we meet with in ancient history — with the ex ception, perhaps, of the Chinese and a few others — belong to one of two great races, Indo-Germanic and the Semitic.

The languages of these two races, notwithstanding their almost endless varieties, prove incontestably that each of them must have descended from one common root. The Semitic race embraces not only those nations which, according to the Mosaic account, are descended from Shem, that is, the Hebrews and Arabs, but ali the tribes from the Tigris to the Mediterranean and the Red sea. It is accordingly encircled by the far more extensive territories inhabited by branches of the Indo-Germanic race, which comprises, in Asia, the Indians and Persians, and in Europe, the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, Slavonians, and Lithuanians. It is owing to this greater extension of the Indo-Germanic race that the languages spoken by its different branches differ more widely from one another than those of the Semitic.

For thousands of years these two races have been the great promoters of civilisation, sometimes the one rising higher in the scale and sometimes the other. Their characters diverged at a very early period, but they have nevertheless exercised a considerable influence upon each other, and at times have contended with each other for the sovereignty of the world. The most strikino differences between them may be briefly stated thus : The Semites OENERAL remarks. 33 are distinguished for their quick and keen perception, for their bold and restless spirit of enterprise, for their obstinate perseverance in the pursuit of their objects, for their spirit of exclusiveness in the possession of what they have gained, for their strong passions and sensual propensities, and, above all, for their strong desire to com prehend the will of the deity, and their lofty aspirations iu religion.

It is owing to this last circumstance that the religious systems recognising the existence of only one true God, have originated among Semitic nations. The Indo-Germanic race, embracing a multitude of nations of different degrees of civilisation and of different capabilities, is not so easily characterised; but still the more prominent among its branches possess greater clearness and calmness of mind, and greater powers of reflection, than the Semites ; they exhibit great genius for organisation, and a wonderful capability fur developing the various circumstances in which they are placed, as well as for literature aud the arts, in tho last of which the Semites have always been far behind them. Their minds being very docile aud plastic, they have in later times not only adopted the religious systems of the Semites, but advanced aud developed them so much, that at present they far surpass their original instructors.

They have, in fact, developed all that is great and noble in man to sueh a degree, as to outstrip all other races. 3. Many Asiatic nations have, or pretend to have, traditions about their existence as states, which go back many thousands of years before the commencement of the Christian era. It need hardly be remarked that such traditions are of no historical value; the account now universally adopted in Christendom, and at the same time the most plausible in itself, is that contained in the Scriptures, according to which the first pair of human beings was created about four thousand years before the birth of Christ. It is impossible to determine the part of Asia where our first parents were placed by their creator, nor can we trace with any accuracy the gradual in crease and extension of our race.

All we know is, that in tho course of time men spread from Asia over the two other ancient continents of Africa and Europe. The Mosaic account divides all the nations of the earth according to their descent from the three sons of Noah, viz., Shem, Ham, and Japhet — Shem being described as the ancestor of the Semitic race, Ham as the father of the Egyp tians and Africans, and Japhet as the progenitor of the inhabitants of Asia Minor and Europe. But we have already observed that language is the only safe criterion in classifying the different branches of the human family, and the study of languages, as it advances, points more and more distinctly to one common stock of human beings — all physiological differences of races being, in all probability, the result of accident and of outward circumstances. 4.

The character and the institutions, social and political, of the Asiatic nations have, on the whole, undergone very few changes, and their present condition is not very different from what it was thousands of years ago. All of them reached a certain degree of civilisation, and it cannot be denied that in some instances very great progress was made, but none of them ever advanced beyond a certain point, at which they either remained stationary, or from which they sank back into a state of semi-barbarism. The causes of this phenomenon are found partly in the climate of southern Asia, where the luxurious productiveness of nature supports man without much exertion on his part, and where the easy mode of life allowed him to sink into a state of indolence and apathy, which proved to be the greatest obstacle to a steady and progressive deve lopment.

Other causes may be found in the social and political relations of the eastern nations, some of which may be traced again to climatic influences. 5. Ever since the beginning of the human race, or at least so far as we can trace its history, the strong has always subdued the weak, the rich has oppressed tho poor, and the cunning has cheated the simple. He who had the power, claimed the right to rule over the weaker as his subjects or his slaves; and this state of inequality descended from father to son, and from generation to generation; it was regarded even by great philosophers as the natural and legi timate state of things. Women, being the weaker sex, were treated in Asia only as the means of gratifying the passions, and promoting the comforts of men; the wife, in her relation to her husband, was no more than a servant; and the natural consequence was, that a man took to himself as many such servants as he was able to main tain.

Polygamy was the natural offshoot of such a degraded view of the matrimonial relation, in which the husband considered him self to have many rights, but no duties. This evil, which has existed in Asia from time immemorial, and still degrades both sexes in eastern countries, renders a family life similar to that of Europe an impossibility; it destnyys the natural relation between parent and child, and causes that between husband and wife to be almost the same as between a master and his slave, which debases both. 6. As a state is only an extended family, it is but natural to ex pect, in the larger community, vices and virtues analogous to those prevailing in the family. Despotism, therefore, is the form of go vernment which we have to look for in the East; and it may be asserted in general, that the despotism exercised by the head of a state is of a more unmitigated character than that practised bv the head of a family; for in the latter the members come into closer and more frequent contact, both with one another and with the head, and the obedience and kind offices of the one party cannot fail to draw forth gratitude and affection from the other.

In the state, the despot, living in haughty seclusion from his subjects FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. stands to them in no relation that might develop his better feelings. Despotism, which, during the historical periods of Eastern history, is the established form of government, seems nevertheless not to have been the original one, which must rather have contained ele ments of both liberty and servitude. The earliest form of govern ment in Asia appears to have been the patriarchal, in which the head of a family, or of an aggregate of families, that is, a tribe, exercised the sovereign power. Such a community, proud of its real or imaginary ancestor or founder, of its deeds of valour, and other distinctions, might be either extremely exclusive, or might admit strangers to the same rights and privileges as those enjoyed by the men boasting one common origin.

This form of government is generally preserved longest among a nomadic people. Such a people at first scarcely shows any distinction among the parts of which it is composed. A priestly class may, in some instances, begin to separate itself from the rest ; but the head and centre of the whole nation is always the chief who has succeeded to those rights and distinctions which, in the belief of all, belonged to their first progenitor by the law of nature. Their wandering mode of life renders it necessary for the nation to be always ready for war, either to repel aggression, or to conquer new pastures for their herds and flocks. The personal contact of the patriarchal ruler with his sub jects softens his relation to them in a similar manner as that sub sisting in a family between the head and the members.