Our ancestors in Europe; an introduction to American history

Introduction

It is still generally admitted that the most important history for every child is that of his own country, but happily the old narrow conception of the American story as a thing apart from the rest of the world seems to be rapidly passing. The roots of American civilization are in Europe. Our beginnings and early development form a part of one of the most far-reaching changes of history : the expansion of Europe beyond the ancient limits of the Mediterranean world, the discovery of the American continents, the opening of direct sea routes to India and the far East, the commercial revolution, the first stages of the Europeanization of the world. Only in this larger setting can the history of the United States become really intelligible. If we are to understand our own country and how it came to be what it is, we must know something of the story of our ancestors in Europe and of the heritage we have received from them.

It was to serve the purpose of such an introduction to American history that the present volume was planned. The general field and larger topics have been chosen to meet the requirements for the sixth grade prescribed by the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association, while that freedom in the choice and treatment of details which the Committee itself so wisely urges, has been exercised. The book may also serve its purpose apart from the Committee's course in any of the grammar grades or early years of the "junior high school."

Among the original proposals of the editors were the following : a special effort to combine historical accuracy with attractive style and adaptation to the understanding of children ; concreteness of treatment with adequate detail for clear vi INTRODUCTION

visualization and the consequent sense of reality ; vivid characterization of persons ; the type-study idea ; careful attention to the inter-relations of events and the concept of change in institutions and ways of living. As one important aid in realizing these aims it was suggested that the children be allowed to make the acquaintance of some of the most interesting contemporary writers. The words of Herodotus and Csesar, of Einhard and Roger of Wendover, of Chaucer and Piers the Plowman, of Columbus and Hakluyt, have a unique interest and a value that no effort of the modern writer can replace. Such material Miss Hall has succeeded with remarkable skill in weaving smoothly into her story. Moreover, these old writings, the pictures drawn by people of ancient and medieval times, and the photographs of material remains, supply within the covers of this volume ready means for presenting simply and naturally the idea of evidence and of how historical knowledge is obtained.

Author and editors agree in dissenting strongly from the theory that the way to be simple is to be brief. Probably the chief vice of history textbooks has been the tendency to epitomize, to indulge in sweeping generalizations, to mislead through over-compactness. This book is accordingly somewhat longer than is usual, but in no sense heavier ; on the contrary, it is more interesting and easier to study because the topics are limited in number, and sufficient space has been allowed to treat them clearly and vividly.

Miss Hall has given to her task not only several years of painstaking labor and the consideration of much searching criticism, but her rare skill as a teacher of children, her unusual gifts as a teller of stories, and the experience of travel in Greece and Italy. She has produced a book of distinctive character, one which children will read with pleasure as well as with profit and teachers will welcome as a contribution to the study of history in the grades.

J. MONTGOMERY GAMBRILL

TO TEACHERS

" Have we always been what we are ? " " Why are we so like Europeans and unlike Chinamen ? " " Men and animals grow ; does civilization grow ? " " Before America what was there ? " Thoughtful children ask themselves such questions. Less thoughtful ones ought to be led to ask them. The inquiring attitude of mind, the question formed on the lips or in the brain, are the necessary preludes to right study. The moment when such a question is voiced is the psychological moment for opening this book. As the children continue to read, this initial question should pass through Protean changes and should become at every stage more definite. " What have we learned from the Greeks ? " " How did men learn more about the earth than they knew at first?"

Under purposeful teaching, teaching that trains intelligence rather than crams with facts, such questions will be continually forming. Along beside them will come a host of little ones: "How long was a knight's spear?" "-Did the Greeks kneel when they prayed ? " " How large was Columbus' ship ? " These are honest and intelligent questions, questions well worthy of answers. They show a mind active and eager for accuracy, for definiteness. Children hunger for details. They reason inductively. It is the vivid image that stirs them to make a generalization. I never saw a generalization stir them to anything but revolt.

This book tries to rouse these larger questions and the smaller ones, and it tries to give material for answering them. But it needs the help of an inspiring teacher to complete it. She must make the recitation a discussion, not a quiz. She must in scores of ways stimulate questioning and vivid imaging. She must alternate hard, close thinking viii TO TEACHERS

with gratification of the play instinct. She must see to it that children's hunger to express is satisfied. She must have supplementary material for investigating minds.

The thing that quickens and invigorates nature study is the fact that it makes absolutely necessary the use of real materials to be studied. The danger for history lies in the fact that most of its material is only a reflection preserved in books. We must search diligently for the real material, the substance of the reflection. The men we are reading about did things, said things, made things. Their deeds are gone, though hosts of books give us accounts of them. Can we hear any of the things they said, that we may judge the speakers ? Their voices are dead, but their- writings yet exist. Let us study them. Can we see any of the things they made ? Fortunate the class whose teacher or members have traveled and seen the temples and castles of Europe. Fortunate the school in a city with a good museum, having armor, tapestry, lutes, illuminated manuscripts, models of old buildings. Lacking these good things, we still have the multiplicity of pictures with which our press supplies us. I hope, then, that this book will be a center about which will accumulate a little library especially of sources, a mass of mounted pictures, a small collection of illustrative models.

The making of those models will be a thing to save the souls of some hand-minded children, and the acquaintance with them will vivify and vitalize everybody's thinking. A Greek lyre, a Greek scroll, a Roman house, a catapult, a battering ram, a knight's shield, a castle, an illuminated page, a Viking boat, a tapestry frame, an astrolabe, a series of sketches illustrating a page's life — let us substitute these for description and dissertation. Let us in all ways possible give our classes a chance to make their own observations and to build their own generalizations.

I hope that after reading this book children will say : "What happened next? We are different in some things

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS k

from the people of 1600 : how did these changes come about ? " Children of twelve are not too young, I think, to begin to see human history as a series of changes, a series, too, without end. The point may take in their minds some such crude form as this : " When my father was a boy some things were different from what they are now. What things will be different when I am an old man from what they are now? " For a teacher to arouse this question would be a great accomplishment. To bring it about, the children's eyes must be turned from books to look questioningly upon the society about them, to see it as an elastic and flexible thing that is the outcome of great changes during the past and is inevitably destined to numberless changes in the future.

JENNIE HALL

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The writer has had the benefit of much assistance. Professor W.S. Ferguson of Harvard University has criticised the chapters dealing with the ancient world, and Professor George C. Sellery of the University of Wisconsin those on the Middle Ages. To Miss Lida Lee Tall, supervisor in the Baltimore County public schools, I am indebted for suggestions such as only a thoughtful, inspired teacher can give. Mrs, Eunice Fuller Barnard I gratefully acknowledge as the collector of the illustrations and as the painstaking editor of the entire book. Yet it is a pleasure to pay my largest debt of thanks to Mr. J. M. Gambrill of Teachers College, Columbia University. Not only has he performed most of the arduous labor necessary on the maps, but he has been the severe and stimulating critic of the whole manuscript. Upon none of these kind critics may I lay the responsibility for any of the faults of the book, but I send it out with more assurance because of their assistance.

J. H.

CONTENTS PART I. THE ANCIENT WORLD

HAPTER PAGE

I. Greece, the Explorer and Teacher . . . . i

The World before Our Time i

Early Greek Exploration 3

Ancient Peoples of the Mediterranean . . . .11

Colonization 13

II. What Greece Had to Teach the World ... 20

Religion 20

Art 21

The Olympic Games 29

Greek Cities 34

Athens 38

Education 45

Government 51

III. Greece and Her Neighbors 53

The Persian War 53

The Delian Confederacy . • 59

Macedon Conquers the World 62

Greek Influence on Civilization 70

IV. Rome Grows Strong 74

Rome Conquers Italy 74

Roman Life . . . T]

V. Rome Conquers the World 90

How Rome Conquered Carthage 90

Rome's Conquest of the East 96

Caesar's War in Gaul 99

Conquest Changes the Romans no

VI. The Roman Empire 117

How Rome Ruled the World 117

A New Religion in the Ancient World . . . .128

Results of Roman Rule . 135

xi

XU CONTENTS

Part II. The Newer Nations Chapter Page

VII. The Barbarian Conquerors 140

The Germans 141

The Conquests of the Goths 144

The Franks 148

Charlemagne's Empire . 151

The Vikings . . . 157

VIII. How Germany and France Began .... 161

Charlemagne's Empire Divided 161

Germany 163

IX. How England Began 181

The Angles and Saxons Take Britain . . . .181

The Reign of King Alfred 187

The Norman Conquest 192

The Good Laws of Henry II 200

King John and the Great Charter 205

X. Castle Life 213

Feudalism, or How Men Got Land . . . .214

The Castle 217

A Siege 224

The Warlike Spirit of the Age 228

Knightly Ideals and Training 232

Knightly Pleasures 239

The Time of Chivalry 247

XI. The Workers 249

Farmers 249

Townsmen 263

Traders 277

XII. Religion in the Middle Ages 296

Christian Missionaries 296

Church Organization 298

Monasteries 3°°

Saints and Pilgrimages 316

Mohammedanism, the New Religion in Asia . . 322

The Crusades 329

Contents

Xlll

Part III. Beginnings Of Our Own Times Chattkb

XIII. Great Changes ....

National States

How the World Began to Read

A Change in Religion

XIV. Ships in Strange Seas

Early Sailors and Their Ways Wanted : A New Route to India Portugal's Great Explorers Spanish Ships in a New World Rival Explorers The Results of a Century's Work

XV. Spain and Her Rivals Spaniards in America Spain and Her Enemies Spain and Her Enemies Spain and Her Enemies : 3 England in America Eneland's Rivals in the New World

1. France

2. The Nethe England

Important Dates Index rlands

PAGE

334 334 336 337

341 346

349 360 368 377

379 379 385 388

408 412

417 423

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS

PAGE

Greece about 500 b.c 7

Map Showing Greek Colonization ..... 15

Athens and the Bay of Salamis ..... 45

The Persian Empire about 490 b.c. ..... 54

Alexander's Empire ........ 64

Italy in Relief ......... 75

Rome and Her Hills ........ 76

Rome and Carthage at the Beginning of the Second Punic

War 93

Rome and Carthage at the End of the Second Punic War 95

Modern Countries Included in Roman Empire at Its

Greatest Extent . . . . . . . .116

Part of a Roman Map of the World. From a map of the

4th century. (Reproduced in Synge, A Book of Discovery) . 123

Trading Districts of the Ancient World .... 126

The Germanic Kingdoms ....... 149

Empire of Charlemagne and Its Divisions . . . 162 Europe about the Close of the Twelfth Century

Between pp. 212 and 213

A Castle. (After Viollet-le-duc, Annals of a Fortress) . . 218

Plan of a Manor ......... 251

Trade Routes in the Middle Ages .... 282-283

Ninth-century Plan of a Monastery (St. Gall, Switzerland) 315 Europe about the Middle of the Sixteenth Century

Between pp. 334 arid 335 A Map of the World Made in Alexandria about 150 a.d.

Ptolemy's map. (From Fiske, Discovery of America)* . 341 A Sailor's Map op Europe and Africa, Made in 1351.

From the Laurentian Portolano ...... 343

Exploration Moves bowN the African Coast. (From Fiske,

Discovery of America) * ....... 356

Western Africa. From Martin Behaim's globe, 1492. (Reproduced in Synge, A Book of Discovery) .... 357

The World as Europeans Knew It before 1492 . . 360 Part of a Globe Made in 1492, just before Columbus

Sailed. From Behaim's globe. (From Fiske, Discovery of

Part of a Globe Made in 1531. From the globe of Orontius

Finaeus. (From F'iske, Discovery of America) * . . . 370

The Great Discoveries, 1486 to 1600 ..... 376

* By courtesy of Houghton Miffliu Company.

xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

In order that they may give accurate evidence of the life of other times, the illustrations in this book are taken, with few exceptions, from material contemporary with the periods described. Vase-paintings, statues, buildings, mosaics, illuminations from old manuscripts, early wood-cuts and engravings have all been drawn upon. This list gives the source in each instance, usually citing also the name of a modern work where the illustration in question and others of the same period may be found reproduced. For volumes referred to more than three times the following abbreviations have been used :

Baumeister = Baumeister, A., Denkmaler des Massischen Altertums, Munich,

1887.

Cults = Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, London, 1872. Gardiner = Gardiner, S. R., Students' History of England, 1904. Lacroix = Lacroix, Paul, Manners, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages,

London, 1876.

Lacroix et Sere = Lacroix et S6re, Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Paris. Rawlinson = Rawlinson, George, The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient

Eastern World, 1884.

Stothard = Stothard, C. A., The Tapestry of Bayeux, London, 1827. Synge = Synge, M. B., A Book of Discovery, London, 1912. Viollet-le-duc = Viollet-le-duc, Dictionnaire raisonne du niohilier frangais, Paris,

Queen Elizabeth. From an engraving published in 1596. Frontispiece Assyrian King Hunting. From a relief at Koyunjik. (Rawlinson) ........... 2

Assyrian Lion Hunt. From a relief at Nimrud. (Reproduced

in habysbrd, Monuments of Nineveh) ..... 3

The Monster Scylla. From an Etruscan urn. (Baumeister) 5

The Acropolis of Corinth ....... 9

A Greek Ship. From a Greek vase-painting. (Reproduced

in Chatterton, Ships and Ways of Other Days) ... 10 Zeus, Here, Poseidon, Demeter. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) .......... 20

The Parthenon in Ruins ....... 22

Greek Horsemen. From a photograph of the Parthenon frieze 24

Venus of Melos. From the statue in the Louvre, Paris . . 27 Hermes of Praxiteles. From the statue in the museum at

Temple of Zeus at Olympia. (Baumeister) . . . .31

XV xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Harnessing a Chariot. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) . 33 Three Greeks. From the relief of Orpheus, Eurydice and

Hermes in the Villa Albani, Rome ..... 35

A Greek Potter at Work. From a Greek vase. {Baumeister) 37

The Acropolis of Athens ....... 39

A Greek Lady and Her Slave. From a grave relief in the National Museum, Athens ....... 41

A Greek School. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) 46 and 47

Socrates. From the bust in the National Museum, Naples . 48

Persian Soldiers. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) . 53

A Persian King. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) . . 55

Persian Foot-soldier. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) 56

Noble Persian Guard. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) 57 Soldier of Marathon. From a grave relief in the National

Museum, Athens . . . . . . . .58

Darius, the Persian King, in his War Chariot. From a mosaic at Pompeii. (Baumeister) ...... 66

The Harvard University Stadium 71

A Court in a Roman House. At Pompeii .... 78 Romans Going to Make Sacrifice. From reliefs in the Uffizi

Gallery, Florence ....... 80 and 81

A Roman Woman Sacrificing. From a statue in the National

Museum, Naples ......... 83

A Roman Sacrifice before a Temple. From a relief in the

A Trireme. (Baumeister) ........ 91

The Dying Gauu From the statue in the Capitoline Museum,

Rome 100

A Movable Tower. (A modern drawing in Viollet-le-duc,

Annals of a Fortress) ........ 102

Storming a Town. A modern drawing 104

A Roman War Scene. A detail from Trajan's column, Rome.

A Triumphal Arch. A drawing of the Arch of Titus, Rome.

The Cold Plunge IN A Roman Bath-house. (Viollet-le-duc) . 119 Wax Tablet, Inkhorn, Scroll or Book. (Real Museo Bor-

A Statue of the Emperor Constantine. At Barletta, Italy . 134

A Frankish Barbarian of Early Times. (Lacroix) . . 142

A German Warrior. (Lacroix) ...... 143

Clovis. From a statue on his tomb formerly in the Abbey of

St. Genevieve. (Lacroix) ....... 150

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii

Pope Crowning Charlemagne. From a 14th century manuscript. {Lacroix) ......... 152

Charlemagne. From a miniature at the University of Paris.

Viking Ship. From the reconstruction of Professor Montelius.

(Synge) 158

Holy Roman EiiiPEROR. From a 12th century manuscript.

(Synge) 161

The Pope on His Throne. From a 15th century manuscript.

(Cults) 165

The Greatness of the Emperor. From a 9th century manuscript. (Lacroix) ........ 167

A Caravan in the East. From a 14th century map. (Synge) 170 A King of the Franks on His Carved Chair. From a 10th

century manuscript. (Viollet-le-duc) ..... 175

St. Louis. From a 13th century manuscript. (Lacroix et Sere) 178 A Saxon Warrior. From a print in the British Museum.

(Cutts) 182

Saxon Horsemen. From the British Museum. (Gardiner) . 184 The House of Parliament in England To-day . . . 186 Norman Ship. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) . . 193 Saxon Foot-soldiers and Norman Horsemen. From the

Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) ...... 194

Death of King Harold. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 195 Norman Horsemen. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 196 King William's Ship. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 198 A Norman Banquet. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 200 Pilgrims Leaving a Town. From a manuscript in the British

Museum. (Cutts) 202

Paying Toll on a Bridge. From a painted window at Tournay.

King John. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Reproduced in Fairholt, Costume in England) .... 206 The Castle of an English Baron. A modern drawing . . 207 An English Merchant in Rich Clothes. "Chaucer's merchant" from the EUesmere manuscript. (Reproduced in Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life) . . . . .211 Beginning of a Tournament. From a manuscript in the

British Museum. (Cutts) 213

A Vassal Swearing Fealty. From a 14th century manuscript.

A Sally across a Drawbridge. From a 14th century manuscript. (Cutts) 220 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAOB

A King Giving Orders to His Builder. From a manuscript in

the British Museum. (Gardiner) ..... 223

Besieging a Tower. From a manuscript in the British Museum.

(Cutis) 225

Battering Ram. From a 15th century manuscript. (Cutis) . 226 A Tournament. From a 14th century manuscript. (Cutts) . 229 A Knight of the Thirteenth Century. From a manuscript in

the British Museum. (Cults) 231

Crossbowman. From a manuscript in the British Museum.

(Cidts) 234

A Tournament of Froissart's Time. From a 15th century

manuscript. (Cutts) ........ 237

The Knighting. From a 13th century manuscript. (Lacroix et

Sere) 238

A Gentleman Hawking. From the Loutterell Psalter. (Gardiner) 240

The King Dines. From an early 14th century manuscript. (Cutts) 243 A Lady. From a statue in Chartres Cathedral. (Reproduced in

Gautier, La Chevalerie) ....... 245

A Royal Harper. From an early 14th century manuscript.

(Cutts) 246

A Knight. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Cutts) 248 The Ox-plow. (This and the following illustrations of farm

activities from the Loutterell Psalter. (Gardiner) . . 250 Cutting Grain .......... 252

Stacking the Sheaves ........ 252

Hauling the Cart-load Uphill. (Reproduced in Jusserand,

English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages) .... 254

Threshing With Flails ........ 259

John Ball. From a 15th century manuscript of Froissart's

Chronicles. (Cutts) 261

Medieval Shops. (Lacroix et Sere) ...... 264

A Goldsmith's Shop. From a manuscript in the British Museum.

(Cutts) 266

An Old View of Florence. From a wood-cut in a Florentine

manuscript dated 1495. (Reproduced in Staley, The Guilds

of Florence, London, 1906) 269

A Corner of a Market in Florence. From a wood-cut in a

Florentine manuscript dated 1495. (Reproduced in Staley,

The Guilds of Florence) 270

A. Street Corner in Florence. From the painting of St.

Stephen preaching, by Fra Angelico ..... 272

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix

PAGE

The Bronze Doors of the Baptistry. In Florence . . 274

The Bell Tower. In Florence ....... 275

The Arms of the Apothecaries and Physicians. From the

Landing at a Seaport. From a manuscript in the British

Museum. (Cutts) 279

Merchant Ships Carrying Soldiers. From a 15th century

manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles. (Cutts) . . . 280

Traders Landing at an Eastern Town. From the Livre des

Merveilles, 14th century. (Synge) ..... 286

A Fair. From a painted window at Tournay. (Cutts) . . 289

The Doge op Venice Going in Procession through the City.

From the engraving by J. Amman, 16th century. (Lacroix) 292

Merchants Welcoming a Queen. From a 15th century manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles. (Cutts) .... 294

Members of the Choir Sitting in Their Stalls at Church. From the Book of Hours of Richard II in the British Museum. (Cutts) 296

A Bishop Ordaining a Priest. From a 12th century manuscript. (Gardiner) ........ 299

A Cathedral of the Middle Ages. From a photograph of the

Cathedral at Rheims . . . . . . . .301

A Monk with Gifts for His Monastery. From a manuscript

in the British Museum. (Cutts) 304

An Abbot. From the same. (Cutts) ..... 305

The Crowning of the Virgin Mary. From the painting by Fra

Angelieo 306

A Monk in a Library. From a manuscript in the Library of

Soissons. (Cutts) 308

A. Picture Painted by a Monk in an Old Book. From a miniature in the "Terence" of King Charles VI. (Lacroix) . 309

Initial Letter from an Old Manuscript. (Lacroix et Sere) . 310

A Gift to the Monastery. From a manuscript in the British

Museum. (Cutts) 313

A Monastery Cloister. In the mission of San Juan Capistrano,

California 314

A Tomb. In the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome . 319

A Pilgrim. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Cutts) 320

A Great Noble Goes on a Pilgrimage. From a manuscript

Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. (Cutts) . 321

A Vista in a Saracen Palace. The Alhambra in Spain . . 327

Jerusalem. From a wood-cut in Liber Chronicarum Mundi,

XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGB

Soldier with an Earlt Form op Firearm. From a drawing

in the British Museum. (Cutis) 335

A Printing Office of the Sixteenth Century. From a contemporary engraving . . . . . . . . 337

Martin Luther as a Monk. From an engraving made in 1520 338

A Portuguese Ship. From a wood-cut of about 1516 in the

British Museum. (Synge) ....... 345

Marco Polo. From a wood-cut in the first printed edition of his

The Polos Begin Their Journey. From the Livre des Mer-

veilles, 14th century. (Synge) ...... 348

Kublai Khan. From an old Chinese encyclopedia. (Synge) . 349

Henry THE Navigator. After a print by Simon de Passe. (Reproduced in Chatterton, Ships and Ways of Other Days) . 352

Vasco da Gama. From a contemporary portrait. (Synge) . 358

Columbus, Departing on His First Voyage, Takes Leave of

THE King and Queen. An old print .... 364

The Santa Maria. From a wood-cut of 1493. (Reproduced in

A Fleet of Magellan's Time. From Mereator's Mappe

Magellan's Victorious Ship. From Hulsius, Collection of

Spanish Conquest of Mexico. From an ancient Aztec drawing.

(Synge) 380

San Domingo in 1586. From A Summarie and True Discourse

of Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage .... 383

Emperor Charles V. From the painting by Titian . . 386

Philip XL From the painting by Titian 389

English and Spanish. From De Bry, Collections of Travels and

Francis Drake. From an engraving by Hondius, 1582 . . 397

The Ark Royal. From an engraving in the British Museum . 403

The Armada Fight. From Adams, Series of Views of the

Armada in the British Museum 405

God's Providence House. In Chester, England . . . 406

Royal Procession of Queen Elizabeth to Visit a Lord. A painting. (Reproduced in Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth. London, 1823) . . . 407

An Indian of Virginia. From a water-color drawing by John White of Raleigh's expedition (1585). In the British Museum 410

The Town op New Amsterdam, or New York, as it Appeared IN 1673. From a contemporary engraving . 412-413

Old Spanish Gate at St. Augustine 414

OUR ANCESTORS IN EUROPE

CHAPTER I GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER The World before Our Time

As you very well know, there was a time when no white man lived in America. In 1500 Europe and Asia and northern Africa were the only homes of civilized people. Even in that small world the people of the East and the people of the West knew little of each other. France, Italy, Spain, Germany, England really made up a world of their own. Architects had filled these countries with beautiful churches and castles and palaces. Painters and sculptors had adorned them with pictures and statues. Poets and philosophers and historians were writing great books, and people all over Europe were reading and studying.

But it had not always been so. Fifteen hundred years before the discovery of America, northern Europe had been a wilderness inhabited by barbarians. There men had lived in mean little houses and had dressed in skins. They had wandered from place to place in search of new pastures for their cattle or of fresh fields for game. They had been unable to read or to write. It was Rome who had taught these barbarians

Assyrian King Hunting

Carved on the wall of the king's palace about 2800 years ago. Notice the king's embroidered robe. Attendant protects him with spear and shield and had civilized them. But long before that time Rome herself had been half barbarian and had had to learn from older nations. Greece was her great teacher. And Greece in turn had been ignorant and had been taught by Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria.

When Greece was young, the civilized world was a narrow fringe around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. There men wore beautiful clothes of marvelously dyed and embroidered cloth. They lived in huge stone palaces gay with carved and painted walls. They drove in chariots and made great walled cities. They built monuments and carved histories upon them. They studied the stars. They dug mines for gold and silver and copper and made shining vases and cups and plates and bracelets and rings and crowns and necklaces. Their bodies and their walls were gorgeous with precious ornaments. Out of this rich old world grew up Greece, the queen of learning. All western peoples to-day look back to her as the mother of their thought and their art. To show a little how these teachers of civilization did their work and how others carried it on, is the purpose of this book.

Assyrian Lion Hunt

Notice the elaborate harness. The king carries a sword slung over his shoulder by a strap. Two attendants have bows across their shoulders

Early Greek Exploration

Greece is a sailor's country. Long arms of bays cut into the land and invite men to try the gentle water. Long points of land jut into the sea like ships' prows, and islands close together beckon a boat from one to another out from the mainland. So Greeks very early became seafaring people. Some of their oldest stories show them venturing into unknown waters, finding wild, uncivilized lands, and meeting many dangers. Jason and his friends, fifty young heroes, planned a search for a certain marvelous ram's fleece of gold, so the story goes. They built a boat of fifty oars — the greatest ship of her time — and when they had finished her, these inexperienced ship-builders could not ^^^^^ ^°" launch her but had to lure her into the sea by magic songs, the story says. Then every hero took an oar, and they rowed toward the strange North, hugging the shore for safety or feeling their way out to near-by islands.

They passed through the narrow Hellespont and on into the Propontis, where few Greeks had ever gone.