The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 11

Epochas of the Roman History.

The first year of Darius I. was the 233d of the building of Rome. Tarquin the Proud was then on the throne, and about ten years afterwards was expelled, when the consular government was subst.i.tuted to that of the kings. In the succeeding part of this period happened the war against Porsenna; the creation of the tribunes of the people; Coriola.n.u.s's retreat among the Volsci, and the war that ensued thereupon; the wars of the Romans against the Latins, the Veientes, the Volsci, and other neighbouring nations; the death of Virginia under the Decemvirate; the disputes between the people and senate about marriages and the consuls.h.i.+p, which occasioned the creating of military tribunes instead of consuls.

This period of time terminates in the 323d year from the foundation of Rome.

The second part, which consists of twenty-seven years, extends from the 43d year of Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s, to the death of Darius Nothus; that is, from the year of the world 3573, to the year 3600. It contains the first nineteen years of the Peloponnesian war, which continued twenty-seven, of which Greece and Sicily were the seat, and wherein the Greeks, who had before triumphed over the barbarians, turned their arms against each other. Among the Athenians, Pericles, Nicias, and Alcibiades; among the Lacedaemonians, Brasidas, Gylippus, and Lysander, distinguished themselves in the most extraordinary manner.

Rome continues to be agitated by different disputes between the senate and the people. Towards the end of this period, and about the 350th year of Rome, the Romans formed the siege of Veji, which lasted ten years.

(M8) I have already observed, that eighty years after the taking of Troy, the Heraclidae, that is, the descendants of Hercules, returned into the Peloponnesus, and made themselves masters of Lacedaemon, where two brothers, Eurysthenes and Procles, sons of Aristodemus, reigned jointly together.

Herodotus observes,(227) that these two brothers were, during their whole lives, at variance; and that almost all their descendants inherited the like disposition of mutual hatred and antipathy; so true it is, that the sovereign power will admit of no partners.h.i.+p, and that two kings will always be too many for one kingdom! However, after the death of these two, the descendants of both still continued to sway the sceptre jointly: and, what is very remarkable, these two branches subsisted for near nine hundred years, from the return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesus, to the death of Cleomenes, and supplied Sparta with kings without interruption, and that generally in a regular succession from father to son, especially in the elder branch of the family.

The Origin and Condition of the Elotae, or Helots.

When the Lacedaemonians first began to settle in Peloponnesus, they met with great opposition from the inhabitants of the country, whom they were obliged to subdue one after another by force of arms, or receive into their alliance on easy and equitable terms, with the imposition of a small tribute. Strabo(228) speaks of a city, called Elos, not far from Sparta, which, after having submitted to the yoke, as others had done, revolted openly, and refused to pay the tribute. Agis, the son of Eurysthenes, newly settled in the throne, was sensible of the dangerous tendency of this first revolt, and therefore immediately marched with an army against them, together with Sous, his colleague. They laid siege to the city, which, after a pretty long resistance, was forced to surrender at discretion. This prince thought it proper to make such an example of them as should intimidate all their neighbours, and deter them from the like attempts, and yet not alienate their minds by too cruel a treatment; for which reason he put none to death. He spared the lives of all the inhabitants, but at the same time deprived them of their liberty, and reduced them all to a state of slavery. From thenceforward they were employed in all mean and servile offices, and treated with extreme rigour.

These were the people who were called Elotae, or Helots. The number of them exceedingly increased in process of time, the Lacedaemonians giving undoubtedly the same name to all the people whom they reduced to the same condition of servitude. As they themselves were averse to labour, and entirely addicted to war, they left the cultivation of their lands to these slaves, a.s.signing every one of them a certain portion of ground, the produce of which they were obliged to carry every year to their respective masters, who endeavoured, by all sorts of ill usage, to make their yoke more grievous and insupportable. This was certainly very bad policy, and could only tend to breed a vast number of dangerous enemies in the very heart of the state, who were always ready to take arms and revolt on every occasion. The Romans acted more prudently; for they incorporated the conquered nations into their state, by a.s.sociating them into the freedom of their city, and thereby converted them from enemies, into brethren and fellow-citizens.

Lycurgus, the Lacedaemonian Lawgiver

Eurytion, or Eurypon, as he is named by others, succeeded Sous.(229) In order to gain the affection of his people, and render his government agreeable, he thought fit to recede in some points from the absolute power exercised by the kings his predecessors: this rendered his name so dear to his subjects, that all his descendants were, from him, called Eurytionidae.

But this relaxation gave birth to horrible confusion, and an unbounded licentiousness in Sparta; and for a long time occasioned infinite mischiefs. The people became so insolent, that nothing could restrain them. If Eurytion's successors attempted to recover their authority by force, they became odious; and if, through complaisance or weakness, they chose to dissemble, their mildness served only to render them contemptible; so that order in a manner was abolished, and the laws no longer regarded. These confusions hastened the death of Lycurgus's father, whose name was Eunomus, and who was killed in an insurrection. Polydectes, his eldest son and successor, dying soon after without children, every body expected Lycurgus would have been king. And indeed he was so in effect, as long as the pregnancy of his brother's wife was uncertain; but as soon as that was manifest, he declared, that the kingdom belonged to her child, in case it proved a son: and from that moment he took upon himself the administration of the government, as guardian to his unborn nephew, under the t.i.tle of Prodicos, which was the name given by the Lacedaemonians to the guardians of their kings. When the child was born, Lycurgus took him in his arms, and cried out to the company that was present, _Behold, my lords of Sparta, your new-born king!_ and, at the same time, he put the infant into the king's seat, and named him Charilaus, because of the joy the people expressed upon occasion of his birth. The reader will find, in the second volume of this history, all that relates to the history of Lycurgus, the reformation he made, and the excellent laws he established in Sparta. Agesilaus was at this time king in the elder branch of the family.

War between the Argives and the Lacedaemonians.

Some time after this, in the reign of Theopompus, a war broke out between the Argives and Lacedaemonians, on account of a little country, called Thyrea, that lay upon the confines of the two states, and to which each of them pretended a right.(230) When the two armies were ready to engage, it was agreed on both sides, in order to spare the effusion of blood, that the quarrel should be decided by three hundred of the bravest men chosen from their respective armies; and that the land in question should become the property of the victorious party. To leave the combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired to some distance. Those generous champions then, who had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced towards each other, and fought with so much resolution and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two on the side of the Argives, and one on that of the Lacedaemonians, lay dead upon the spot; and only the night parted them. The two Argives, looking upon themselves as the conquerors, made what haste they could to Argos to carry the news; the single Lacedaemonian, Othryades by name, instead of retiring, stripped the dead bodies of the Argives, and carrying their arms into the Lacedaemonian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two armies returned to the field of battle. Both sides laid equal claim to the victory: the Argives, because they had more of their champions left alive than the enemy had; the Lacedaemonians, because the two Argives that remained alive had fled; whereas their single soldier had remained master of the field of battle, and had carried off the spoils of the enemy: in short, they could not determine the dispute without coming to another engagement. Here fortune declared in favour of the Lacedaemonians, and the little territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the thoughts of surviving his brave companions, or of enduring the sight of Sparta after their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.

Wars between the Messenians and Lacedaemonians.

There were no less than three several wars between the Messenians and the Lacedaemonians, all of them very fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y. Messenia was a country in Peloponnesus, towards the west, and not far from Sparta: it was of considerable strength, and was governed by its own kings.

The First Messenian War.

(M9) The first Messenian war lasted twenty years, and broke out the second year of the ninth Olympiad.(231) The Lacedaemonians pretended to have received several considerable injuries from the Messenians, and among others, that of having had their daughters ravished by the inhabitants of Messenia, when they went, according to custom, to a temple, that stood on the borders of the two nations; as also that of the murder of Telecles, their king, which was a consequence of the former outrage. Probably a desire of extending their dominion, and of seizing a territory which lay so convenient for them, might be the true cause of the war. But be that as it may, the war broke out in the reign of Polydorus and Theopompus, kings of Sparta, at the time when the office of archon at Athens was still decennial.

Euphaes, the thirteenth descendant from Hercules, was then king of Messenia.(232) He gave the command of his army to Cleonnis. The Lacedaemonians opened the campaign with the siege of Amphea, a small, inconsiderable city, which, however, they thought would suit them very well as a place for military stores. The town was taken by storm, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. This first blow served only to animate the Messenians, by showing them what they were to expect from the enemy, if they did not defend themselves with vigour. The Lacedaemonians, on their part, bound themselves by an oath not to lay down their arms, nor to return to Sparta, till they had made themselves masters of all the cities and lands belonging to the Messenians: so much did they rely upon their strength and valour.

Two battles were fought, wherein the loss was nearly equal on both sides.(233) But after the second, the Messenians suffered extremely through the want of provisions, which occasioned a great desertion in their troops, and at last brought a pestilence among them.

Hereupon they consulted the oracle of Delphi, which directed them, in order to appease the wrath of the G.o.ds, to offer up a virgin of the royal blood in sacrifice. Aristomenes, who was of the race of the Epytides, offered his own daughter. The Messenians then considering, that if they left garrisons in all their towns they should extremely weaken their army, resolved to abandon them all, except Ithome, a little place seated on the top of a hill of the same name, about which they encamped and fortified themselves. In this situation were seven years spent, during which nothing pa.s.sed but slight skirmishes on both sides; the Lacedaemonians not daring in all that time to force the enemy to a battle.

Indeed, they almost despaired of being able to reduce them: nor was there any thing but the obligation of the oath, by which they had bound themselves, that made them continue so burthensome a war. What gave them the greatest uneasiness was, their apprehension, lest their absence from their wives for so many years, an absence which might still continue many more, should destroy their families at home, and leave Sparta dest.i.tute of citizens.(234) To prevent this misfortune, they sent home such of their soldiers as were come to the army since the forementioned oath had been taken, and made no scruple of prost.i.tuting their wives to their embraces.

The children that sprung from this unlawful intercourse were called Partheniae, a name given them to denote the infamy of their birth. As soon as they were grown up, not being able to endure such an opprobrious distinction, they banished themselves from Sparta with one consent, and, under the conduct of Phalantus, went and settled at Tarentum in Italy, after driving out the ancient inhabitants.(235)

At last, in the eighth year of the war, which was the thirteenth of Euphaes's reign, a fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y battle was fought near Ithome.(236) Euphaes pierced through the battalions of Theopompus with too much heat and precipitation for a king. He there received a mult.i.tude of wounds, several of which were mortal. He fell, and seemed to give up the ghost.

Whereupon, wonderful efforts of courage were exerted on both sides; by the one, to carry off the king; by the other, to save him. Cleonnis killed eight Spartans, who were dragging him along, and spoiled them of their arms, which he committed to the custody of some of his soldiers. He himself received several wounds, all in the fore part of his body, which was a certain proof that he had never turned his back upon his enemies.

Aristomenes, fighting on the same occasion, and for the same end, killed five Lacedaemonians, whose spoils he likewise carried off, without receiving any wound. In short, the king was saved and carried off by the Messenians; and, all mangled and b.l.o.o.d.y as he was, he expressed great joy that he had not been worsted. Aristomenes, after the battle was over, met Cleonnis, who, by reason of his wounds, could neither walk by himself, nor with the a.s.sistance of those that lent him their hands. He therefore took him upon his shoulders, without quitting his arms, and carried him to the camp.

As soon as they had applied the first dressing to the wounds of the king of Messenia and of his officers, there arose a new contention among the Messenians, that was pursued with as much warmth as the former, but was of a very different kind, and yet the consequence of the other. The affair in question was the adjudging the prize of glory to him that had signalized his valour most in the late engagement. It was a custom among them, which had long been established, publicly to proclaim, after a battle, the name of the man that had showed the greatest courage. Nothing could be more proper to animate the officers and soldiers, to inspire them with resolution and intrepidity, and to stifle the natural apprehension of death and danger. Two ill.u.s.trious champions entered the lists on this occasion, namely, Cleonnis and Aristomenes.

The king, notwithstanding his weak condition, attended by the princ.i.p.al officers of his army, presided in the council, where this important dispute was to be decided. Each compet.i.tor pleaded his own cause. Cleonnis founded his pretensions upon the great number of the enemies he had slain, and upon the mult.i.tude of wounds he had received in the action, which were so many undoubted testimonies of the courage with which he had faced both death and danger; whereas, the condition in which Aristomenes came out of the engagement, without hurt and without wound, seemed to show, that he had been very careful of his own person, or, at most, could only prove that he had been more fortunate, but not more brave or courageous, than himself. And as to his having carried him on his shoulders into the camp, that action indeed might serve to prove the strength of his body, but nothing farther; and the thing in dispute at this time, says he, is not strength, but valour.

The only thing Aristomenes was reproached for, was his not being wounded; therefore he confined himself to that point: "I am," says he, "called fortunate because I have escaped from the battle without wounds. If that were owing to my cowardice, I should deserve another epithet than that of fortunate; and, instead of being admitted to dispute the prize, ought to undergo the rigour of the laws that punish cowards. But what is objected to me as a crime, is in truth my greatest glory. For, if my enemies, astonished at my valour, durst not venture to attack or oppose me, it is no small degree of merit that I made them fear me; or, if whilst they engaged me, I had at the same time strength to cut them in pieces, and skill to guard against their attacks, I must then have been at once both valiant and prudent. For whoever, in the midst of an engagement, can expose himself to dangers with caution and security, shows that he excels at the same time both in the virtues of the mind and the body. As for courage, no man living can reproach Cleonnis with any want of it; but, for his honour's sake, I am sorry that he should appear to want grat.i.tude."

After the conclusion of these harangues, the question was put to the vote.

The whole army is in suspense, and impatiently waits for the decision. No dispute could be so warm and interesting as this. It is not a compet.i.tion for gold or silver, but solely for honour. The proper reward of virtue is pure disinterested glory. Here the judges are unsuspected. The actions of the compet.i.tors still speak for them. It is the king himself, surrounded with his officers, who presides and adjudges. A whole army are the witnesses. The field of battle is a tribunal without partiality and cabal.

In short, all the votes concurred in favour of Aristomenes, and adjudged him the prize.

Euphaes died not many days after the decision of this affair.(237) He had reigned thirteen years, and during all that time had been engaged in war with the Lacedaemonians. As he died without children, he left the Messenians at liberty to choose his successor. Cleonnis and Damis were candidates in opposition to Aristomenes; but he was elected king in preference to them. When he was on the throne, he did not scruple to confer on his two rivals the princ.i.p.al offices of the state; all strongly attached to the public good, even more than to their own glory; compet.i.tors, but not enemies, these great men were actuated by a zeal for their country, and were neither friends nor adversaries to one another, but for its preservation.

In this relation, I have followed the opinion of the late Monsieur Boivin, the elder,(238) and have made use of his learned dissertation upon a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, which the world was little acquainted with.

He supposes, and proves in it, that the king, spoken of in that fragment, is Euphaes; and that Aristomenes is the same that Pausanias calls Aristodemus, according to the custom of the ancients, who were often called by two different names.

Aristomenes, otherwise called Aristodemus, reigned near seven years, and was equally esteemed and beloved by his subjects. The war still continued all this time.(239) Towards the end of his reign he beat the Lacedaemonians, took their king Theopompus, and, in honour of Jupiter of Ithome, sacrificed three hundred of them, among whom their king was the princ.i.p.al victim. Shortly after, Aristodemus sacrificed himself upon the tomb of his daughter, in conformity to the answer of an oracle. Damis was his successor, but without taking upon him the t.i.tle of king.

After his death, the Messenians never had any success in their affairs, but found themselves in a very wretched and hopeless condition.(240) Being reduced to the last extremity, and utterly dest.i.tute of provisions, they abandoned Ithome, and fled to such of their allies as were nearest to them. The city was immediately razed, and the other part of the country submitted. They were made to engage by oath never to forsake the party of the Lacedaemonians, and never to revolt from them: a very useless precaution, only proper to make them add the guilt of perjury to their rebellion. Their new masters imposed no tribute upon them; but contented themselves with obliging them to bring to the Spartan market one half of the corn they should reap every harvest. It was likewise stipulated, that the Messenians, both men and women, should attend, in mourning, the funerals of the kings and chief citizens of Sparta; which the Lacedaemonians probably looked upon as a mark of dependence, and as a kind of homage paid to their nation. (M10) Thus ended the first Messenian war, after having lasted twenty years.

The Second Messenian War.

The lenity with which the Lacedaemonians treated the Messenians at first, was of no long duration.(241) When once they found the whole country had submitted, and thought the people incapable of giving them any further trouble, they returned to their natural character of insolence and haughtiness, that often degenerated into cruelty, and sometimes even into ferocity. Instead of treating the vanquished with kindness, as friends and allies, and endeavouring by gentle methods to win those whom they had subdued by force, they seemed intent upon nothing but aggravating their yoke, and making them feel the whole weight of subjection. They laid heavy taxes upon them, delivered them up to the avarice of the collectors of those taxes, gave no ear to their complaints, rendered them no justice, treated them with contempt like vile slaves, and committed the most heinous outrages against them.

Man, who is born for liberty, can never reconcile himself to servitude: the most gentle slavery exasperates, and provokes him to rebel. What could be expected then from so cruel a one, as that under which the Messenians groaned? After having endured it with great uneasiness(242) near forty years, they resolved to throw off the yoke, and to recover their ancient liberty. (M11) This was in the fourth year of the twenty-third Olympiad: the office of archon at Athens was then made annual; and Anaxander and Anaxidamus reigned at Sparta.

The Messenians' first care was to strengthen themselves by the alliance of the neighbouring nations. These they found well inclined to enter into their views, as very agreeable to their own interests. For it was not without jealousy and apprehensions, that they saw so powerful a city rising up in the midst of them, which manifestly seemed to aim at extending her dominion over all the rest. The people therefore of Elis, the Argives and Sicyonians, declared for the Messenians. But before their forces were joined, a battle was fought between the Lacedaemonians and Messenians. Aristomenes, the second of that name,(243) was at the head of the latter. He was a commander of intrepid courage, and of great abilities in war. The Lacedaemonians were beaten in this engagement. Aristomenes, to give the enemy at first an advantageous opinion of his bravery, knowing what influence it has on the success of future enterprises, boldly ventured to enter into Sparta by night, and upon the gate of the temple of Minerva, surnamed Chalcioecos, to hang up a s.h.i.+eld, on which was an inscription, signifying, that it was a present offered by Aristomenes to the G.o.ddess, out of the spoils of the Lacedaemonians.