Readings in ancient history

Preface

This volume includes selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey, and from the writings of Hesiod, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Demosthenes, Arrian, Plutarch, Livy, Cicero, Caesar, Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Martial. Of the twenty- three chapters into which the work is divided, two are devoted to the Oriental period (Herodotus) and one to the Germans (Tacitus). The other chapters deal with Greek and Roman history as seen through the eyes of the classical historians themselves.

The arrangement of the volume follows, in general, that of my Ancient History, pubUshed simultaneously with it. Each chapter contains the work of a single author and relates to a single definite period or personality. Sufficient editorial matter, in the shape of introductions, notes, and connections between passages, has been supplied to make the book useful to the beginner in ancient history.

The translations quoted have been carefully revised with a view to uniformity and accuracy. All omissions, save those of a trivial character, have been indicated by the usual signs.

Some parts of the book, for instance, the opening chapter on the Oriental peoples and the closing chapter on the Germans, lend themselves to intensive study and may serve to provide an elementary training in historical criticism. The use of the table of contents and of the full index should also suggest helpful topics for essays and reports. Thus, the student may be asked to describe the civilization of the Homeric Age as revealed in the accounts of the Shield of Achilles and the Palace of Alcinous (sees. 13, 16), to set forth the old Roman character as illustrated by the stories of Brutus, Mucins Scaevola, and Cincinnatus (sees. 68, 70, 73), to contrast Caesar's statements about the Germans with the later statements by Tacitus (sees. 94, 1 19-124), to make a comparative study of the Egyptian, Persian, and Gallic priesthoods (sees. i. 3," 93). Similar subjects, involving some discipline of the critical faculty, some exercise of the mental powers in discrimination and judgment, should readily occur to the teacher.

iv PREFACE

My book, however, is not so much a classroom manual as a volume for supplementary reading. In choosing the selections, I have been influenced mainly by the desire to provide immature pupils with a variety of extended, unified, and interesting extracts on matters which a textbook treats with necessary, though none the less deplorable, condensation. Particular emphasis, therefore, has been placed on biography and entertaining narrative. If the work shall help to arouse in the student's mind an attitude of sympathetic appreciation for the great characters and the great deeds of classical antiquity, it will have fulfilled its purpose.

I wish to acknowledge here with hearty thanks the permission graciously granted to me by the Delegates of the Clarendon Press and by Prof. A. W. Mair of Edinburgh University, to use the extracts from Hesiod, by Messrs. G. Bell and Sons, to reproduce certain passages from Mr. E. J. Chinnock's version of Arrian, and by the Walter Scott Publishing Company, to insert various letters of Pliny the Younger, as rendered by Mr. J. B. Firth. The selections from Xenophon, translated by the late H. G. Dakyns, and from Caesar, translated by Mr. T. Rice Holmes, are used through an agreement with the publishers, Macmillan and Company, London.

HUTTON WEBSTER

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Three Oriental Peoples as Described by Herodotus i

1. The Egyptians i

Chapter I Three Oriental Peoples As Described By Herodotus 1

About the middle of the fifth century before Christ, an enterprising Greek, named Herodotus, set forth upon a series of travels which led him to all parts of the civihzed world. By dint of sharp questioning and close observation, Herodotus gained a rich fund of information about lands and peoples, the very existence of which was unknown to many of his countrymen. His impressions are those of an intelUgent tourist who, ignorant of any language except his own, spends a few months in a foreign land, busily occupied with sight-seeing. What Herodotus tells us is always interesting, often true, seldom very profound. But we must accept our author for what he is — the first and the most charming of story-tellers.

1. The Egyptians 2

Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend my remarks to a great length, because there is no country that possesses so many wonders, or any that has such a number of works which defy description. Not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world, and the rivers unlike any other rivers,

^ Herodotus. The translation of George Rawlinson, edited by A. J. Grant. 2 vols. London, 1897. John Murray. * Herodotus, ii, 35-37, 65-67, 78, 80, 84-86, 123.

but the people also, in most of their manners and customs, exactly reverse the common practice of mankind. The women attend the markets and trade, while the men sit at home at the loom. While the rest of the world works the woof up the warp, the Egyptians work it down. The women Hkewise carry burdens upon their shoulders, while the men carry them upon their heads .... A woman cannot serve in the priestly office, either for god or goddess, but men are priests to both. Sons need not support their parents unless they choose, but daughters must, whether they wish to do so or not.

In other countries the priests have long hair; in Egypt their heads are shaven. Elsewhere it is customary, in mourning, for near relatives to cut their hair close. The Egyptians, however, who wear no hair at any other time, when they lose a relative, let their beards and the hair of their heads grow long. All other men pass their lives separate from animals; the Eg5^tians have animals always Hving with them. Others make barley and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to do so in Egypt, where the grain they live on is spelt.^ . . . Dough they knead with their feet; but they mix mud, and even take up dirt, with their hands. . . . Their men wear two garments apiece, their women but one. They put on the rings and fasten the ropes to sails inside ; others put them outside. When they write or calculate, instead of going, like the Greeks, from left to right, they move the hand from right to left. They insist, notwithstanding, that it is they who go to the right, and the Greeks who go to the left. They have two quite different kinds of writing, one of which is called sacred, the other common.^

They are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men, and use the following ceremonies. They drink out of

1 One of the most ancient of the varieties of wheat. It is still raised in parts of Europe.

2 A reference to the so-called hieratic writing, and to the demotic or popular script of the Egyptians in the time of Herodotus. Hieratic writing was a simpler form of the earlier hieroglyphics. Demotic writing, derived from hieratic, came into use about 700 b. c.

THE EGYPTIANS 3

brazen cups, which they scour every day. To this practice there is no exception. They wear linen garments, which they are specially careful to have always fresh washed. . . . The priests shave the whole body every other day, that no impure thing may adhere to them when they are engaged in the service of the gods. Their dress is entirely of linen, and their shoes of the papyrus plant. It is not lawful for them to wear either dress or shoes of any other material. They bathe twice every day in cold water, and twice each night; besides which they observe, so to speak, thousands of ceremonies. They enjoy, however, not a few advantages. They consume none of their own property, and are at no expense for anything. Every day bread is baked for them of the sacred corn, and a plentiful supply of beef and of goose flesh is assigned to each, and also a portion of wine made from the grape. Fish they are not allowed to eat. . . . The priests will not even look at beans, which are considered unclean. Instead of a single priest, each god has the attendance of a college, at the head of which is a chief priest. When one of these dies, his son is appointed in his place. . . .

Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, ^ is not a region abounding in wild animals. The animals that do exist in the country, whether domesticated or otherwise, are all regarded as sacred. If I were to explain why they are consecrated to the several gods, I should be led to speak of religious matters, which I particularly shrink from mentioning. . . . The inhabitants of the various cities, when they have made a vow to any god, pay it to his animals in the way which I will now explain. At the time of making the vow they shave the head of the child, cutting ofif all the hair, or else half, or sometimes a third part. This they then weigh in a balance against a sum of silver. Whatever sum the hair weighs is presented to the guardian of the animals, who thereupon cuts up some fish, and gives it to them for food. . . . When a man has killed one of the sacred animals, if he did it with intentional malice, he is punished

^ The ancient name for the continent of Africa exclusive of Egypt.

with death; if unwittingly, he has to pay such a fine as the priests choose to impose. When, however, an ibis or a hawk is killed, whether by accident or on purpose, the man must needs die.

The number of domestic animals in Egypt is very great. . . . On every occasion of a fire in Egypt the strangest prodigy occurs with the cats. The inhabitants allow the fire to rage as it pleases, while they stand about at intervals and watch these animals, which, slipping by the men or else leaping over them, rush headlong into the flames. When this happens, the Eg}^- tians are in deep affliction. If a cat dies in a private house by a natural death, all the inmates of the house shave their eyebrows; on the death of a dog they shave the head and the whole of the body. The cats on their decease are taken to the city of Bubastis,^ where they are embalmed, after which they are buried in sacred repositories. The dogs are interred in the cities to which they belong, likewise in sacred burial places. . . . The bears, which are scarce in Egypt, and the wolves, which are not much bigger than foxes, they bury wherever they happen to find them lying. . . .

In social meetings among the rich, when the banquet is ended, a servant carries round to the several guests a coffin. In it there is a wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted to resemble nature as nearly as possible, about a cubit or two cubits in length. As he shows it to each guest in turn, the servant says, "Gaze here, and drink and be merry; for when you die, such wiU you be." . . .

There is custom in which the Egyptians resemble a particular Greek people, namely the Spartans. Their young men, when they meet their elders in the streets, give way to them and step aside; and if an elder comes in where youths are present, the latter rise from their seats. In another respect they differ entirely from all the peoples of Greece. Instead of speaking to each other when they meet in the streets, they make an obeisance, sinking the hand to the knee. . . ,

1 In the Delta.

THE EGYPTIANS 5

Each physician treats a single disorder, and no more. The country, therefore, swarms with medical practitioners. Some undertake to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth . . . and some treat diseases which are not local.

The following is the way in whidi they conduct their mournings and their funerals. On the death of a man of consequence, the women of his family at once plaster their heads, and sometimes even their faces, with mud. Then, leaving the body indoors, they sally forth and wander through the city, with their dress fastened by a band, and their bosoms bare, beating themselves as they walk. All the female relations join them and do the same. The men, too, similarly begirt, beat their breasts in like manner. When these ceremonies are over, the body is carried away to be embalmed.

There are a set of men in Egypt who practice the art of embalming and make it their proper business. These persons, when a body is brought to them, show the bearers various models of corpses, made in wood, and painted so as to resemble nature. The most perfect is said to be after the manner of him whom I do not think it religious to name in connection with such a matter.^ The second sort is inferior to the first, and less costly; the third is the cheapest of all. All this the embalmers explain, and then ask in which way it is wished that the corpse should be prepared. The bearers tell them, and having concluded their bargain, take their departure, while the embalmers, left to themselves, proceed with their task. . . .

The Egyptians were the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal. They believe that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the moment. Thence it passes on from one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame and is born anew. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years. . . . * A reference to the Egyptian divinity Osiris.

2. Babylon and the Babylonians*

. . . Babylonia possesses a vast number of great cities, of which the most renowned and strongest is Babylon. . . . The city stands on a broad plain, and is an exact square, a hundred and twenty furlongs ^ in length each way, so that the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty furlongs. In magnificence there is no other city that compares with Babylon. It is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a wall fifty royal cubits in width and two hundred in height.^ . . .

And here I must not omit to tell the use to which the earth dug out of the great moat was turned, and the way the wall was made. As fast as they dug the moat, the soil obtained from the cutting was formed into bricks. When a sufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building, and began with bricking in the borders of the moat. Afterwards they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for their cement hot bitumen,* and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lintels and side-posts. . . .

The city is divided into two portions by the river which runs through the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad,

2 A furlong is one-eighth of a mile.

' According to this exaggerated statement, the wall would be nearly 400 feet high. The ideas of the enormous dimensions and magnificence of Babylon, conveyed by Herodotus, have not been borne out by recent excavations upon the site of the city. Explorations conducted by the German Oriental Society have shown that in its most prosperous days Babylon covered little over one square mile of territory. Its famous wall was only about thirty feet high and four miles long. Instead of the hundred gates described by Herodotus, it had but four.

* Bitumen is a kind of pitch.

BABYLON AND THE BABYLONIANS 7

deep, swift stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties itself into the Erythraean Sea.^ The city wall is brought down on both sides to the edge of the stream. From the corners of the wall, a fence of burnt bricks is carried along each bank of the river. The houses are mostly three and four stories high. The streets all run in straight lines, not only those parallel to the river, but also the cross streets which lead down to the water-side. At the river end of these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream. They are of brass, as are the great gates in the outer wall, and open on the water.

The outer wall is the main defense of the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, of less thickness than the first, but very Uttle inferior to it in strength. The center of each division of the town was occupied by a fortress. In the one stood the palace of the kings, surrounded by a wall of great strength and size. In the other was the sacred precinct of Zeus Belus,^ a square enclosure two furlongs each way, with gates of solid brass. ... In the middle of the precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one is about half-way up, one finds seats on which persons are wont to rest during their climb to the summit. On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place. . . .

Very little rain falls in Babylonia. It is enough, however, to make the corn begin to sprout, after which the plant is nourished by means of irrigation from the river. For the river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn-lands of its own accord, but is spread over them by the hand, or by the help of engines. The whole of Babylonia is, like Eg^'pt, intersected with canals. The largest of them all . . . is carried from the

1 The Indian Ocean.

^ The Babylonian god, Bel-Merodach.

Euphrates into another stream, called the Tigris, the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood. """Of all the countries that we know there is no other so fruitful in grain. It makes no pretension, indeed, of growing the fig, the olive, the vine, or any other tree of the kind. But in grain it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hundred-fold, and when the production is greatest, even three hundred-fold.^ The blade of the wheat-plant and barley-plant is often four fingers in breadth. As for the millet and the sesame, I shall not say to what height they grow, though within my own knowledge; for I am not ignorant that what I have already written concerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must seem incredible to those who have never visited the country. . . . Palm-trees grow in great numbers over the whole of the flat country, mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this fruit supplies them with bread, wine, and honey. . . . The natives tie the fruit of the male palms, as they are called by the Greeks, to the branches of the date-bearing palm, to let the gall-fly enter the dates and ripen them. . . . The male palms, Uke the wild fig-trees, have usually the gall-fly in their fruit.

But that wliich surprises me most in the land, after the city itself, I win now proceed to mention. The boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular, and made of skins.^ The frames, which are of willow, are cut in the country of the Armenians above Assyria. A covering of skins is stretched outside the frames, and thus the boats are made, without either stem or stern, quite round like a shield. They are then entirely filled with straw, and their cargo is put on board, after which they are sufifered to float down the stream. Their chief freight is wine, stored in casks made of the wood of the palm-tree. They are managed by two men who stand upright in them,

1 Very probably an exaggerated statement. At present, the yield is only some thirty or forty-fold.

2 Boats such as Herodotus describes, made usually of wicker work covered v/ith native asphalt, are still used in this region. The boatmen scull their craft with a broad, singlc-bladed paddle.

THE PERSIANS 9

each plying an oar, one pulling and the other pushing. The boats are of various sizes. . . . Each vessel has a live ass on board; those of larger size have more than one. When they reach Babylon, the cargo is landed and offered for sale. After this the men break up their boats, sell the straw and the frames, and loading their asses with the skins, set off on their way back to Armenia. The current is too strong to allow a boat to return up-stream, for which reason they make their boats of skins rather than wood. On their return to Armenia they build fresh boats for the next voyage.

The dress of the Babylonians is a linen tunic reaching to the feet, and above it another tunic made of wool. Besides these garments they wear a short white cloak and shoes of a peculiar fashion, not unlike those worn by the Boeotians.^ They have long hair, wear turbans on their heads, and anoint the whole body with perfumes. Every one carries a seal and a walkingstick. The latter is carved at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something similar. It is not their habit to use a stick without an ornament. . . .

The following practice seems to me to be very wise. They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him. If they have ever had his disease themselves, or have known anyone who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them. No one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.

3. The Persians 2

The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following. They have no images of the gods, no temples or altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature \^dth men as the Greeks imagine. The Persians, however,

^ Natives of Bceotia, one of the states of Greece. * Herodotus, i, 131-140.

lo THREE ORIENTAL PEOPLES

ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there offer sacrifice to Zeus/ which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise sacrifice to the sim and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times. . . .

The Persians offer sacrifice in the following manner. They raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations. There is no sound of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no consecrated barley-cake. The man who wishes to sacrifice simply brings his victim to a spot of ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name of the god to whom he intends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encircled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is not allowed to pray for blessings on himself alone, but he prays for the welfare of the king, and of the whole Persian people, among whom he is of necessity included. He cuts the victim in pieces, and having boiled the flesh, he lays it out upon the tenderest herbage that he can find. . . . When all is ready, one of the Magi ^ comes forward and chants a hymn, which, they say, recounts the origin of the gods. It is not lawful to offer sacrifice unless there is a Magus present. After waiting a short time the sacrificer carries the flesh of the victim away with him, and makes whatever use of it he may please.

Of all the days in the year, the one which they celebrate most is their birthday. It is customary to have the table furnished on that day with an ampler supply than common. The richer Persians cause an ox, a horse, a camel, and an ass to be baked whole and so served up to them ; the poorer classes use the smaller kinds of cattle. They eat httle solid food but abundance of dessert, which is set on the table a few dishes at a time. It is this custom which makes them say that " the Greeks, when they eat, leave off hungry, having nothing worth

1 A reference to the Persian supreme god, Ahura-Mazda, whom Herodotus identifies with the Greek Zeus.

2 The Magi (singular, Magus) were the priests of the Persians.

THE PERSIANS ii

mention served up to them after the meats; whereas, if they had more put before them, they would not stop eating." . , .

The Persians are very fond of wine. It is their practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk. On the morrow, when they are sober, the decision they reached on the preceding night is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made. If the decision is then approved, they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberation, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.

When they meet each other in the streets, you may know that the persons meeting are of equal rank ... if, instead of speaking, they kiss each other on the lips. In the case where one is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek. Where the difference of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself upon the ground. . . .

There is no nation which so readily adopts foreign customs as the Persians. Thus, they have taken the dress of the Medes, considering it superior to their own; and in war they wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their own. . . .

Next to bravery in battle, it is regarded as the greatest prqof of manly excellence to be the father of many sons. Every year the king sends rich gifts to the man who can show the largest number; for they hold that number is strength. Their sons are carefully instructed from their fifth to their twentieth year, in three things alone: to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth. Until their fifth year they are not allowed to come into the sight of their father, but pass their lives with the women. This is done that, if the child dies young, the father may not be afflicted by its loss.

To my mind the following are v\ise rules — that the king shall not put anyone to death for a single fault, and that none of the Persians shall visit a single fault in a slave with any extreme penalty. In every case the services of the offender must be set against his misdoings. If the latter are found to outweigh the former, the aggrieved party only then shall proceed to punishment. . . .

The most disgraceful thing in the world, they think, is to tell a lie; the next worst, to owe a debt; because, among other reasons, the debtor is obliged to tell Hes. If a Persian has the leprosy, he is not allowed to enter into a city or to have any dealings with the other Persians. He must, they say, have sinned against the sun. Foreigners attacked by this disorder are forced to leave the country: even white pigeons are often driven away, as guilty of the same offense. . . . There is another peculiarity, which the Persians themselves have never noticed, but which has not escaped my observation. Their names, which are expressive of some bodily or mental excellence, all end with the same letter — the letter which is called San by the Dorians and Sigma by the lonians.^ ' Anyone who examines will find that the Persian names, one and all without exception, end with this letter.^

Thus much I can declare of the Persians with entire certainty, from my own actual knowledge. There is another custom which is spoken of with reserve, and not openly, concerning their dead. It is said that the body of a male Persian is never biyied, until it has been torn either by a dog or a bird of prey. That the Magi have this custom is beyond a doubt, for they practice it without any concealment. The dead bodies are covered with wax and are then buried in the ground.