THIRD PERIOD.
From the beginning of the wars with Rome, to the downfal of Carthage, B. C. 264—146.
Causes of the Punic wars.
1. The wars between Carthage and Rome were the necessary consequences of a desire of aggrandizement in two conquering nations; any one might have foreseen the struggle between the two rivals as soon as their conquests should once begin to clash. It is, therefore, a question of little importance, to enquire which was the aggressor; and although Rome may not be entirely cleared of that charge, we cannot help observing that, according to the principles of sound policy, the security of Italy was hardly compatible with the sole dominion of the Carthaginians over the island of Sicily.
First war with Rome, 264—241, (twenty-three years,) waged for the possession of Sicily, and decided almost at its commencement by Hiero's passing over to the Roman side. (For the history of it, see below, in the Roman history, Book V. Period ii, parag. 2 sq.)
Fatal consequences of the first Punic war to Carthage.
2. This war cost the republic, Sicily and the sovereignty of the Mediterranean, by which the fate of its other external possessions was already predetermined. But that which appeared at the first view to threaten the greatest danger, was the total exhaustion of its finances; a circumstance which will no longer surprise us, when we consider how many fleets had been destroyed and replaced, how many armies had been annihilated and renewed. Carthage had never before been engaged in such an obstinate struggle as this; and the immediate consequences were more terrific even than the war itself.
Dreadful civil war, B. C. 240—237.
3. The impossibility of paying the mercenaries produced a mutiny among the troops, which rapidly grew into a rebellion of the subject nations, who had been most cruelly oppressed during the war. The consequence was a civil war of three years and a half, which probably would have spared the Romans the trouble of destroying Carthage, had not the state been snatched from ruin by the heroism of Hamilcar.
This war, which lasted from 240 to 237, produced lasting consequences to the state; it gave rise to the feud between Hamilcar and Hanno the Great, which compelled Hamilcar to seek for support against the senate by becoming the leader of a democratic faction.
Sardinia is lost, 237.
4. The revolt spread abroad; it reached Sardinia and caused the loss of that most important island, of which the Romans, flushed with power, took possession, in spite of the terms of the peace.
Rise of the house of the Barcas:
5. The influence of the family of the Barcas, supported in their disputes with the senate by the popular party, now got the upper hand in Carthage; and the first fruit of their power was the new and gigantic project of repairing the loss of Sicily and Sardinia by the conquest of Spain; a vast projects upon Spain, country where the Carthaginians already had some possessions and commercial connections. The immediate object of the Barcas was the support of their family and party; but the Spanish silver mines soon furnished the republic with the means of renewing the contest with Rome also.
executed by Hamilcar and Hasdrubal, 237—221.
By treaty with the Romans the Ebro is fixed as the boundary of their possessions in Spain, 226.
Carthagena founded.
Hannibal succeeds to the command of the army, 221;
and begins the second Punic war, 218.
6. During the nine years in which Hamilcar commanded, and in the following eight in which Hasdrubal, his son-in-law and successor, was at the head of the army, the whole of the south of Spain, as far as the Iberus, was brought under subjection to Carthage, either by negotiation or force of arms. The further progress of the Carthaginians was only arrested by a treaty with the Romans, in which the Iberus was fixed upon as a frontier line, and the freedom of Saguntum acknowledged by both powers. Hasdrubal crowned his victories as a general and as a statesman by the foundation of New Carthage, (Carthagena,) which was to be the future seat of Carthaginian power in the newly-conquered country. Hasdrubal having fallen by the hand of an assassin in the year 221, the party of the Barcas succeeded in appointing Hamilcar's son, Hannibal, a young man of one-and-twenty, for his successor. Hannibal found every thing already prepared in Spain for the furtherance of the hereditary project of his family, which was a renewal of the contest with Rome; and the vigour with which this project was pursued, clearly proves how great must have been the preponderance of the Barcine influence, at that time, in Carthage. Had the commonwealth attended to the marine with the same ardour as their great general did to the land service, the fate of Rome would perhaps have been very different.
Second war with Rome, 218—201, (seventeen years,) first in Italy and Spain, afterwards, from 203, in Africa itself. (See the history of this war below, in the Roman history, Book V, Period ii, parag. 6 sqq.)
Internal state of Carthage during the second Punic war.
7. Until Africa became the scene of action, the second war cost the republic much less than the first; the expenses being principally defrayed by Spain and Italy. Hanno, however, was at the head of a powerful party at home, who were clamorous for peace, and who can say they were wrong? As might be expected, the family of the Barcas were for war, and their influence carried the day. That general who, with hardly any support from Carthage, was yet able to maintain a footing in the country of his powerful foes for no less than fifteen years, and that, too, as much by policy as by force of arms, must extort our admiration. It cannot, however, be denied, that during the struggle one favourable opportunity, at least, was let slip of making peace; a fatal omission, for which the hero of Cannæ paid dearly enough, by the failure of his darling project.
A disgraceful peace the result of the war.
8. By the second peace with Rome, Carthage was deprived of all her possessions out of Africa, and her fleet was delivered into the hands of the Romans. She was now to be a mere trading city under the tutelage of Rome. But Carthage found by this peace her most formidable enemy on the soil of Africa itself. Massinissa had been elevated to the dignity of king of Numidia; and his endeavours to form his nomads into an agricultural Massinissa of Numidia a new instrument of Roman policy. people, and to collect them into cities, must have changed the military system that Carthage had hitherto followed. Roman policy, moreover, had taken care that the article inserted in his favour in the last treaty of peace, should be so ambiguously worded, as to leave abundant openings for dispute.
Hannibal at the head of affairs;
attempts to check the oligarchy.
9. Even after this disgraceful peace, the family of the Barcas still preserved their influence, and Hannibal was placed as supreme magistrate at the head of the republic. He attempts to reform the constitution and the finances, by destroying the oligarchy of the hundred, by whom the finances had been thrown into confusion. Complete as was the success of the first blow, it soon became apparent that aristocratic factions are not so readily annihilated as armies.
The democratic faction to which even the Barcas owed their first elevation, was the cause of the degeneracy of the Carthaginian constitution. By that faction the legislative authority of the senate and magistrates was withdrawn and transferred to the ordo judicum—probably the same as the high state tribunal of the hundred—which now assumed the character of an omnipotent national inquisition; and the members being chosen for life exercised oppressive despotism. This tribunal was formed of those who had served the office of ministers of finance, with whom it shared unblushingly the revenues of the state. Hannibal destroyed this oligarchy by a law, enacting that the members should hold their office but for one year; whereas before they held it for life. In the reform wrought by this law in the finances it was seen, that after all wars and losses, the revenues of the republic were still sufficient, not only for the usual expenditure and the payment of tribute to Rome, but also for leaving a surplus in the public treasury. Ten years had hardly elapsed before Carthage was enabled to pay down at once the whole of the tribute which she had engaged to furnish by instalments.
Hannibal compelled to fly to Syria.
10. The defeated party, whose interests were now the same with those of Rome, joined the Romans, to whom they discovered Hannibal's plan of renewing the war in conjunction with Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. A Roman embassy was sent over to Africa, under some other pretext, to demand that Hannibal should be given up. The Carthaginian general secretly fled to 195. king Antiochus, at whose court he became the chief fomenter of the war against Rome; although unsuccessful in his endeavour to implicate the Carthaginian republic in the struggle.
See hereafter the history of Syria, Book IV, Period iii, separate kingdoms. I. Seleucidæ, parag. 18; and Book V, Period ii, parag. 10 sq.
Roman influence completely established in Carthage.
11. In consequence of the absence of Hannibal, Carthage fell once more under the dominion of the Romans, who contrived, by taking a crafty advantage of the state of parties, to give a show of generosity to the exercise of their power. Even the patriotic faction, if we may judge by the violent steps which they took more than once against Massinissa and his partisans, seem to have been but a tool in the hands of Rome.
The Carthaginian territory gradually dismembered.
12. Disputes with Massinissa, which led to the gradual partition of the Carthaginian territory in Africa. The manner in which this territory had been acquired, facilitated the discovery of claims upon each of the component parts; and the interference of Rome, sometimes disinterested, but oftener swayed by party feeling, ensured the possession of the territory to the Numidian.
Even in 199, a disadvantageous treaty framed with Massinissa for fifty years: nevertheless the rich province of Emporia is lost in 193.—Loss of another province unnamed, to which Massinissa inherited some claims from his father.—Seizure of the province of Tysca, with fifty cities, about 174. Probable date of Cato's embassy, who returned in disgust, because his decision had been rejected, and became the fomenter of a project to destroy Carthage.—New disputes about 152.—Massinissa's party is expelled Carthage.—War breaks out in consequence, during which the king in his ninetieth year personally defeats the Carthaginians; and what with famine and the sword, Hasdrubal's army, which had been surrounded by the enemy, was nearly exterminated; in the mean while the Roman ambassadors, who had come to act as mediators, obeying their private instructions, looked on with quiet indifference.
Destruction of Carthage; third Punic war;
13. Though it is evident that the party spirit raging between Cato and Scipio Nasica had a considerable influence in hastening the destruction of Carthage; and though it is equally clear that Massinissa's late victory paved the way for the immediate execution of that project; yet it is difficult to unravel the web, by which, long before the declaration of war now about to follow, treachery prepared the final scene of this great tragedy. Was the account that Cato at his return gave of the resuscitated power of Carthage consonant brought about probably by Roman duplicity. to truth? Was not the sudden secession of Ariobarzanes, the grandson of Syphax, who was to have led a Numidian army to defend Carthage against Massinissa, previously arranged with Rome? Was not the turbulent Gisgo, who first incited the populace to insult the Roman ambassadors, and then opportunely rescued them from the fury of the mob, in the pay of Rome? These questions give rise to suspicions, although they cannot satisfactorily be answered. At any rate, it may be said, that the conduct of Rome, after war had broken out, corroborates the suspicion. The whole history of the last period sufficiently proves, that it was not so much the debased character of the nation, as party spirit, and the avarice of the great, which produced the fall of Carthage. Advantage was taken of that party spirit and avarice by Roman policy, which, although acting according to the dictates of blind passion, knew how to profit by dark and base intrigue.
Third war with Rome and destruction of Carthage, 150—146. See hereafter the Roman history, Book V, Period ii, parag. 19 sq.
SECOND BOOK.
History of the Persian Empire, from B. C. 560—330.
Sources. Preservation of historic records among the Persians themselves under the form of royal annals; origin and nature of those annals. As these have been destroyed, we are obliged to deduce the history from foreign writers, some of whom, however, availed themselves of the Persian annals. 1. Greeks: their authority as writers, contemporary, but not always sufficiently acquainted with the east. (a) Ctesias. His court history compiled from Persian annals, would be the principal work did we possess the whole; we have, however, only an extract from it preserved by Photius. (b) Herodotus: who probably availed himself of similar sources in some portion of his work. (c) Xenophon. To this period of history belong, not only his Anabasis and Hellenica, but also his Cyropædia, or portraiture of a happy empire and an accomplished ruler, according to eastern ideas, exhibited in the example of Cyrus: of use so far as pure historic records are interwoven with the narrative. (d) Diodorus, etc. 2. Jewish writers. The books of Esdras and Nehemiah; and more particularly that of Esther, as containing a faithful representation of the Persian court and its manners. 3. The accounts of the later Persian chroniclers, Mirkhond in particular, who flourished in the thirteenth century of the christian era, can have no weight in the scale of criticism; they are nevertheless interesting, inasmuch as they make us acquainted with the ideas that the inhabitants of the east form of their early history.
The modern authors on Persian history are principally those who have written on ancient history in general: see p. 2. A treatise on Persian history, deduced from eastern sources, will be found in the Ancient Universal History, vol. iv.
Brissonius, de Regno Persarum, 1591, 8vo. A very laborious compilation.
The section concerning the Persians in † Heeren, Ideas, etc. vol. i, part 1.
[Malcolm, Sir John, History of Persia, from the earliest ages to the present times. Lond. 1816, 4to. 2 vols. "A valuable work.">[
Original condition of the Persians.
1. State of the Persian nation previous to Cyrus; a highland people, subject to the Medes, dwelling in the mountainous parts of the province of Persis, and leading wholly, or for the most part, a nomad life. Division into ten clans, among which that of the Pasargadæ, the noblest The horde of the Pasargadæ, and ruling horde, is particularly remarkable on account of the figure it makes in subsequent history.—The result of this division was a patriarchal government, the vestiges of which remain visible in the whole of the following history of the Persians. Permanent distinction between the tribes in reference to their mode of life, observable even during the most flourishing period of the Persian state: three of the nobles or warriors, three of the husbandmen, and four of the shepherds. Argument thence deduced, that the history of the has the ascendant. Persians as a dominant nation, is that of the nobler clans alone, and of the Pasargadæ more especially.
Cyrus, similar to Gengis-khan and other Asiatic conquerors;
2. The personal history of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, was, even in the time of Herodotus, so obscured under the veil of romance, that it was no longer possible to detect the real truth. It is, however, evident, that the course of the revolution wrought by him was, on the whole, the same as was followed in all similar empires founded in Asia. Gengis-khan, in a later age, was placed at the head of all the Mogol hordes; in the same manner was Cyrus elected chief of all the Persian tribes, by whose assistance he founds the Persian empire about B. C. 561. became a mighty conqueror, at the time that the Babylonian and Median kingdoms of Inner Asia were on the decline, and before the Lydian empire, under Crœsus, had been firmly established.
Descent of Cyrus from the family of Achæmenes, (Jamshid?). That family belonged to the Pasargadæ tribe, and therefore remained the ruling house.
Of the Medo-Bactrian empire, destroyed 561.
of the Lydian empire:
Asiatic Greeks subjected, about 557
of Babylon, 538.
Cyrus is slain in battle with the Massagetæ, 529.
3. Rise of the Persian dominion, in consequence of the overthrow of the Medo-Bactrian empire, after the defeat of Astyages at Pasargada. Rapid extension by further conquest. Subjection of Asia Minor after the victory won by Cyrus in person over Crœsus, and capture of the Greek colonies by the generals of the Persian monarch. Conquest of Babylon and all the Babylonian provinces. The Phœnician cities submit themselves of their own accord. Even in Cyrus's time, therefore, the frontiers of the Persian empire had been extended in southern Asia to the Mediterranean, to the Oxus, and to the Indus; but the campaign against the nomad races, inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, was unsuccessful; and Cyrus himself fell in the contest.
It cannot be denied but that in the narration of the separate wars waged by Cyrus, discrepancies are found in Herodotus and Ctesias; those two authors, however, agree in the main facts: and, indeed, the differences which exist between them cannot be considered always as direct contradictions.
The Persians adopt the religion, laws, and civility of the conquered Medes.
4. Immediate consequences of this great revolution in respect both of the conquerors and the conquered. Among the former, even in the time of Cyrus, the civilization and luxury of the Medes, their legislation and national religion, and the sacerdotal caste of the magi, who were guardians of that religion, had been introduced, and the whole system of the Persian court had been remodelled upon that of the Medes.
Description of Zoroaster's legislation, and of the magian national religion, according to the Zend-avesta. How far the dogmas of Zoroaster can be considered as dominant among the Persians?—Proof that they were adopted only by the nobler tribes, more particularly the Pasargadæ. Their great and beneficial influence on agriculture.
Anquetil Du Perron, Zend-avesta, ouvrage de Zoroastre, traduit en François sur l'original Zend. Paris, 1771. 4to. This work has been much improved by the critical discussions added to the German translation by J. L. Kleuker. Compare the dissertations on Zoroaster by Meiners and Tychsen, in Comment. Soc. Gotting. and Heeren, Ideas, etc. vol. i.
Hyde, De Religione veterum Persarum; Oxon. 1700, 4to. Replete with learned research, and the first work that excited enquiry on the subject.
† J. S. Rhode, Sacred Traditions of the East; Breslau, 1821. An excellent work for the study of the Zend-avesta, the magian religion, and the antiquities of the Medes and Persians.
Expedients adopted to keep possession of the conquered territories.
Tribute.
Standing armies.
Transfer of whole nations.
5. First political constitution of the Persian empire under Cyrus. No general new organization; but for the most part the original institutions are preserved among the conquered, who are compelled to pay tribute. Royal officers, appointed to collect the tribute, are associated with the generals, who with numerous armies keep in subjection the inhabitants of the conquered countries. For the support of the empire large standing armies are kept in pay, besides which, recourse is frequently had to the transplanting of whole nations; while, as was the case with the Jews, some who had been formerly transplanted are restored to their country. With the same view injunctions are issued, as in the case of the Lydians, to effect the enervation of warlike races by a luxurious and effeminate system of education.
6. Cyrus leaves two sons, the elder of whom, Cambyses, succeeds as king; the younger, Smerdis, (the Tanyoxarces of Ctesias,) becomes independent lord of Bactria and the eastern territories; but is soon after murdered by the command of his elder brother.
Cambyses 529—522.
conquers Egypt, etc.
7. Under Cambyses the conquering arms of the Persians are directed against Africa. Egypt becomes a Persian province, and the neighbouring Libya, together with Cyrene, assume the yoke of their own accord. But the twofold expedition against the opulent commercial establishments, Ammonium in the west, and Meroe in the south, is wholly unsuccessful; that against Carthage is arrested in its commencement by the refusal of the Tyrians to join the naval armament. A colony of six thousand Egyptians is transplanted into Susiana.
His policy in persecuting the Egyptian priesthood:
his vices probably much exaggerated.
8. The cruelty with which Cambyses is accused of treating the Egyptians was directed rather against the powerful caste of the priests, than against the whole nation; and originated more in political than in religious motives. It must be observed, however, that we ought to be particularly on our guard against all the evil that is related of Cambyses, inasmuch as our information respecting that prince is derived entirely from his enemies, the Egyptian priests.
Usurpation of the magi:
death of Cambyses, 522.
9. The usurpation of the Pseudo-Smerdis, (or Tanyoxarces,) was an attempt of the magi to replace a Median dynasty on the throne, by means of a plot hatched within the seraglio. It was the occasion of an accident which cost Cambyses his life, after a reign of seven years and a half: (or, according to Ctesias, of eighteen.)
The false Smerdis, after a reign of eight months, is slain by the seven grandees.
10. The Pseudo-Smerdis kept his seat on the throne eight months, during which he attempted to bring over the conquered nations to his interest by a remission of all tribute for three years; but the discovery of his cheat gave rise to a conspiracy of seven of the chief Persians, who could not brook the rule of a Mede, and the usurper lost his life.
No progress made towards an established government under Cambyses and Smerdis.
The Persians having forsaken the nomad life,
Persepolis is built.
11. It could not be expected that the political organization of the kingdom should advance to completion during the reign of Cambyses, who was almost always absent in the prosecution of war; or during the brief rule of the Pseudo-Smerdis. It remained, therefore, in the same state as under Cyrus. But the introduction of the Median court-ceremonial among the ruling tribe of the Persians, and the adoption of fixed dwellings by that tribe, rendered it necessary that royal residences should be erected for the reception of the king's court; among these Persepolis, (see above, p. 20,) probably commenced by Cyrus, was completed under Darius and Xerxes.
The best drawings of the monuments of Persepolis, remarkable alike for their architecture, their sculpture, and their inscriptions in the arrow-headed character, are to be found in the Travels of Chardin and Niebuhr. Illustrations:
† Herder's Persepolis, in the collection of his works, vol. i.
† Heeren, Ideas, etc. Part I. vol. i. Great assistance in studying the inscriptions, is furnished by
De Sacy, Mémoires sur diverses Antiquités de la Perse; Paris, 1793, 4to. It must be observed, however, that this work is confined to the illustration of the later monuments, belonging to the Sassanidæ. The most successful attempt at deciphering the arrow-headed inscriptions of the old Persic, since Tychsen, Muenter, and Lichtenstein, will be found in
† Grotefend, On the Interpretation of the Arrow-headed Characters, particularly of the Inscriptions at Persepolis, contained in the appendix to Heeren, Ideas, etc. vol. ii. with an accompanying Zend alphabet.
The seven grandees hold council on the future form of government.
12. After a very remarkable debate held by the seven conspirators, concerning the form of of government which should be established, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, one of the family of the Achæmenides, was raised to the throne by an oracle; this king endeavoured to strengthen his right to the sceptre by marrying two of Cyrus's daughters.
Darius (522—486.) a great statesman and conqueror:
13. The reign of Darius I. which lasted thirty-six years, (according to Ctesias 31,) is remarkable for the improvements made both in the external and internal administration of the Persian empire. In the former, by the great expeditions and conquests, which extended the Persian realm to its utmost limits; in the latter, by several important institutions, established for the internal organization of the state.
the first Persian that carries his arms into Europe:
and is embroiled with the European Greeks.
14. The expeditions of the Persians under Cyrus were directed against the countries of Asia; those of Cambyses against Africa. But those undertaken by Darius I. were directed against Europe, though the Persian territory was at the same time extended in the two other quarters of the world. In the reign of this king likewise commenced those wars with the Greeks, so fatal to the Persians; constantly fomented and supported by emigrant or exile Greeks, who found an asylum in the Persian court, and there contrived to raise a party.—First example of the kind exhibited shortly after the accession of Darius, in the case of Syloson, brother to Polycrates, who had been tyrant of Samos: at his request the island was taken possession of by the Persians, and delivered up to him after the almost total destruction of the male population.
Babylon secedes, and is reduced: 516.
15. Great revolt in Babylon, which would not submit tamely to a foreign yoke. After a siege of twenty-one months, Darius by stratagem regains possession of the city. The power of Babylon and the importance of its situation increased the jealousy with which it was guarded by the Persian kings; so much so, that they were wont to reside there a certain portion of the year.
Campaign against the Scythians: 513.
The Persians, though unsuccessful, establish themselves in Europe.
16. First great expedition of Darius undertaken against the Scythians inhabiting the lands north of the Black sea: the former irruption of the Scythians into Asia afforded a pretext for the war, which, therefore, was considered as a general national undertaking. Unsuccessful as the Persian arms were in this vast expedition against the Scythians, and disgraceful as was the retreat from the barren steppes of the Ukrain, yet the power of Darius was established in Thrace and Macedonia, and the Persians obtained firm footing in Europe.
Concerning the peculiar character of the Persian national wars, or great campaigns, in which all the conquered nations were obliged to participate, contrasted with the other wars waged by Persian troops alone.
Campaign against western India, 509:
17. The next expedition made by Darius was more successful. It was carried on along the banks of the Indus, down which river Scylax, a Greek, had previously sailed on a voyage of discovery. The highlands north of the Indus were then subjected to the Persian dominion, and the Indus became the boundary of the kingdom. About the same time that Darius was engaged on the Danube and the Indus, Aryandes, his viceroy in Egypt, led an expedition against against Barca in Africa. Barca, to avenge the murder of king Arcesilaus; a war which terminated in the destruction of the city, and the transplantation of its inhabitants into Asia.
Secession of the Asiatic Greeks, 502—496;
who, assisted by Athens, fire Sardes, 500,
but are completely routed off Miletus, 496.
18. However trifling the first occurrence which gave rise to the revolt of the Asiatic Greeks, it was much more important in its consequences. It was set on foot by Aristagoras, lieutenant-governor of Miletus, who was secretly supported by his relation, the offended Histiæus, then resident at the Persian court. The share taken by the Athenians in this rebellion, which led to the burning of Sardes, was the origin of the national hatred between Persia and European Greece, and of the long series of wars that ensued. The confederates were this time defeated; but the naval battle off the island of Lada, could hardly have had such a fatal result, had not the league been previously corrupted by the craft and gold of Persia. Be that as it may, this war ended in the reduction of the Ionians, and the destruction of Miletus, their flourishing capital; a city which in those days, together with Tyre and Carthage, engrossed the trade of the world.
First campaign against Greece.
under Mardonius, frustrated by a tempest off Athos, 492.
Second campaign.
Battle of Marathon, Sept. 29, 490.
19. First attack upon Greece, particularly Athens. Darius, already enraged against the Athenians by the firing of Sardes, is still further instigated by the suggestions of the banished tyrant of Athens, Hippias, the son of Pisistratus. This prince, who had fled to the Persian court, was evidently the animating spirit of the whole undertaking. Although the first attempt, made under the command of Mardonius, was thwarted by a tempest, yet the mighty expedition which afterwards followed, was undertaken with so much more prudence, and conducted with so much knowledge of the country, that no one can fail to recognize the guiding hand of Hippias. Even the battle of Marathon, which seems to have been but a diversion on the side of the Persians, would not have decided the war, had not the activity of Miltiades defeated the principal design of the enemy upon Athens.
Progress of the Persians towards a regular constitution.
20. It may be said that Darius, by these foreign wars, debilitated the kingdom which he endeavoured to extend; this circumstance, however, it cannot be denied, increases the merit which he has of perfecting the internal organization of the empire. His reign constitutes precisely that period which must enter into the history of every nomad race that has attained to power, and is advancing towards political civilization; a period at which it becomes visible that the nation is endeavouring to obtain a constitution, however gradual the progress towards it.
Division of the empire into satrapies.
21. Division of the empire into twenty satrapies, and the imposition of a regular tribute on each. This division at first depended solely on that of the various tributary races, but from it gradually arose a geographic division, in which the ancient distinction of countries was for the most part preserved.
Proofs that the division into satrapies was originally a mere arrangement for the civil government and collection of taxes, distinct from military power. Duties of the satraps. The attention they were to pay to the cultivation and improvement of the land; to the collection of the imposts; to the execution of the royal commands relating to provincial affairs. An abuse of this institution, at a later period, placed in the hands of these satraps the command also of the troops.—Various means of keeping the satraps in a state of dependence: royal secretaries appointed for each, who were to be the first to receive the king's commands.—Periodical visits paid to the provinces by commissioners under the direct appointment of the king, or by the king himself accompanied with an army.—Establishment of couriers in every part of the empire, for the purpose of securing a safe and rapid communication with the provinces, as was the case also in the Mongol countries; (not a regular post, however, the institution here alluded to being intended only for the court.)
Persian finances: the conquered to support the conquerors.
22. The Persian finance continues to preserve those peculiarities which naturally result from the formation of an empire by a nomad race of conquerors, desirous of living at the expense of the conquered, and under a despotic form of government.
Collection of tribute, mostly in kind, for the support of the court and the armies; and in precious metals, not coined, but in their raw state. Application of the treasure thus collected towards constituting a private chest for the king. Various other royal imposts.—Mode of providing for the public expenditure by assignments on the revenues of one or several places.
Art military.
23. Organization of the military system, conformably to the primitive state of the nation, and the necessity now felt of keeping the conquered countries in subjection by means of standing armies.
Military organization of the Persian nations, by means of a decimal division pervading the whole.—Royal troops cantoned in the open field, according to a certain division of the empire, or stationed as garrisons in the cities, and distinct from the encampments.—Manner in which the troops were supported at the cost and by the taxes of the provinces.—Introduction of mercenaries and Greeks, more particularly among the Persians, and fatal consequences of that measure. Military household of the satraps and grandees.—Institution of a general conscription in national wars. Formation of the Persian navy, consisting of the Phœnician, and not unfrequently of the Asiatic Greek fleets.
The Persian court both a seraglio and the head quarters of the army.
24. From the time of Darius, the court of the kings of Persia attained its complete form, and the government soon after was wholly concentrated in the seraglio. Yet the mode of life which the kings led, surrounded by a court, taken principally if not wholly from the tribe of the Pasargadæ, and changing their residence according to the revolutions of the seasons, still preserved the traces of nomad origin.
Babylon, Susa, and Ecbatana, the usual residences; Persepolis now used as a royal cemetery. The court supported by the most costly productions of each province; hence arose the rigid ceremonial observed at the royal table.—Internal organization of the seraglio.—Influence of the eunuchs and queen-mothers on the government.
Revolt of Egypt, 488:
death of Darius, 486.
25. Already had Darius commenced preparations to wreak his vengeance on Athens, when a revolution broke out in Egypt, and hindered him from prosecuting his design. He died after nominating for his successor Xerxes I. grandson of Cyrus, and his eldest son by a second wife, Atossa, whose influence over her husband was boundless.
Xerxes I. 486—465:
recovers Egypt, 484:
26. Xerxes I. A prince educated in the seraglio, who knew nothing beyond the art of representing the pomp of royalty. Subjection of Egypt, and severe treatment of that country under the satrap Achæmenes, brother to Xerxes.
leads a mighty army against Greece.
27. Xerxes' famous expedition against Greece was again the result of the cabals and intrigues of the Greek exiles, the Pisistratidæ, the soothsayer Onomacritus, the Thessalian princes or Aleuadæ, who contrived to exert their influence on the king's mind, and to raise a party in their favour among the grandees. But the progress of the campaign showed that no Hippias was at the head of the invading army, although the Persian king did certainly succeed in his avowed object, the capture and destruction of Athens.
Critique on the detailed account given by Herodotus of this expedition, as a national undertaking in which all the subjugated nations were obliged to take a share.—Preparations which last for three years in the Persian empire; league framed with Carthage for the subjection of the Sicilian Greeks, 483—481. The expedition itself in 480; over Asia Minor and the Hellespont, through Thrace and Macedonia.—Muster of the army and division of the troops according to nations at Doriscus; the detailed description of which found in Herodotus, was most probably borrowed from some Persian document.—The pass of Thermopylæ taken by treachery; on the same day a naval engagement off Artemisium.—Athens captured and burnt. Battle of Salamis, Sept. 23, 480. Retreat of Xerxes; an army of picked men left behind, under the command of Mardonius.—Fruitless negotiations with the Athenians.—Second campaign of Mardonius: he is routed at Platææ, Sept. 25, 479; and that event puts an end for ever to the Persian irruptions into Greece: on the same day the Persian army is defeated, and their fleet burnt at Mycale in Asia Minor.
Persia now obliged to concentrate her forces in Asia Minor.
28. The consequences of these repeated and unsuccessful expeditions, in which almost the whole population was engaged, must be self-evident. The empire was weakened and depopulated. The defensive war which the Persians for thirty years were obliged to maintain against the Greeks, who aimed at establishing the independence of their Asiatic countrymen, completely destroyed the balance of their power, by compelling them to transfer their forces to Asia Minor, the most distant western province of the empire.
Policy of the Persians in bribing the Greeks.
Cimon wrests from Persia the sovereignty of the sea:
battle of the Eurymedon, 469.
29. Little as the Greeks had to fear from the Persian arms, the danger with which they were now threatened was much more formidable, when the enemy began to adopt the system of bribing the chieftains of Greece; a system which succeeded beyond expectation in the first trial made of it with Pausanias, and perhaps was not wholly unsuccessful with Themistocles himself.—But the Persians soon found in Cimon an adversary who deprived them of the sovereignty of the sea; who in one day destroyed both their fleet and their army on the Eurymedon; and by the conquest of the Thracian Chersonese, wrested from them the key of Europe.
Bloody deeds in the Persian seraglio:
Xerxes murdered.
30. What little we know further concerning the reign of Xerxes, consists in the intrigues of the seraglio, which now, through the machinations of queen Amestris, became the theatre of all those horrors which are wont to be exhibited in such places, and to which Xerxes himself at last fell a victim, in consequence of the conspiracy of Artabanes and the eunuch Spamitres.
Was Xerxes the Ahasuerus of the Jews?—On the difference between the names of the Persian kings in Persian and Chaldee; not to be wondered at when we consider that they were mere titles or surnames, assumed by the sovereigns after their accession.
Artaxerxes, 465—424.
during his reign Persia is on the decline.
31. Artaxerxes I. surnamed Longimanus. In consequence of the murder of his father and his elder brother, in the conspiracy of Artabanes, this prince ascended the throne, but was unable to keep possession of the sceptre without assassinating, in his turn, Artabanes. His reign, which lasted forty years, exhibits the first symptoms of the decline of the empire, which this king, although possessed of many good qualities, had not the talent or spirit to arrest.
Rebellions in the provinces.
32. At the very commencement of his reign rebellions are excited in the provinces; in the mean while the war with Athens continues. Two battles are required to repress the insurrection of his brother Hystaspes in Bactria.
Second secession of Egypt, 463:
33. Second revolt of Egypt, excited by the Libyan king, Inarus of Marea, in conjunction with the Egyptian, Amyrtæus, and supported by an Athenian fleet. Although the confederates did not make themselves masters of Memphis, they defeated the Persian army, commanded by the king's brother, Achæmenes, who lost his life in the battle; they were at last overpowered by Megabyzus, satrap of Syria, and shut up together with Inarus in the town of Byblus. Inarus and partly quelled, 456. his party were admitted to capitulation; but Amyrtæus, having taken refuge in the morasses, continued to make head against the Persians.
Persian fleet and army defeated by Cimon, 449.
Disgraceful peace with Athens, 449.
34. The Grecian war takes, once more, an unfavourable turn for the Persians: Cimon defeats the enemy's fleet and army near Cyprus. The fear of losing the whole of the island accordingly compels Artaxerxes I. to sign a treaty of peace with Athens, in which he recognizes the independence of the Asiatic Greeks, and agrees that his fleet shall not navigate the Ægæan sea, nor his troops approach within three days' march of the coast.
Megabyzus, the first example of a rebellious satrap, 447.
35. But the haughty and powerful Megabyzus, enraged at the execution of Inarus, in violation of the promise made by him to that prince, excites a rebellion in Syria; repeatedly defeats the royal armies, and prescribes himself the conditions upon which he will be reconciled to his sovereign. This was the first great example of a successful insurrection excited by one of the Persian satraps; and chequered as were the subsequent fortunes of Megabyzus, his party continued to subsist after his death in the persons of his sons. He possessed in the centre of the court a support in the dowager queen Amestris, and the reigning Death of Artaxerxes, 424. queen Amytis; (both notorious for their excesses;) who kept Artaxerxes I. in a constant state of tutelage to the hour of his death.
Xerxes II. 424.
36. Revolutions in the government now succeed each other with rapidity and violence. Xerxes II. the only legitimate son and successor of Artaxerxes, is slain, after forty-five days' reign, by his bastard brother Sogdianus. Sogdianus; the latter, in his turn, after a reign of six months, is deposed by another bastard brother, Ochus, who ascends the throne, and assumes the name of Darius II.
Darius II. 423—404.
Rapid decline of the state.
37. Darius II. surnamed the Bastard, or Nothus. He reigns nineteen years under the tutelage of his wife, Parysatis, and of three eunuchs, one of whom, Artoxares, even attempts to open a way to the throne, but is put to death. In this period the decline of the state advances with hurried steps; partly by reason of the extinction of the legitimate royal line, partly by the increased practice of placing more than one province, together with the military command, in the hands of the same satrap. Although the repeated insurrections of the satraps are repressed, the court, by the breach of faith to which it is obliged to have recourse, in order to succeed in its measures, 422. exhibits to the world a convincing proof of its infirmity. The revolt of Arsites, one of the king's brothers, who was supported by a son of Megabyzus, and that of Pisuthnes, satrap of Lydia, are quelled only by obtaining treacherous possession of their 414. persons.
38. In consequence of the weak state of the empire, the fire, which had hitherto been smouldering under the ashes, burst forth in Egypt. Amyrtæus, who had remained till now in the morasses, issued forth, supported by the Egyptians; Third revolt of Egypt, 414. and the Persians were again expelled the land. Obscure as the subsequent history may be, we see that the Persians were obliged to acknowledge, not only Amyrtæus, but his successors. [See page 72].
Peloponnesian war favorable to the Persian interests.
39. The Persians must have regarded it as a happy event, that the Peloponnesian war, kindled in Greece during the reign of Artaxerxes, and protracted through the whole of that of Darius II. had prevented the Greeks from unitedly falling upon Persia. It now became, and henceforward continued to be, the chief policy of the Persians to foment quarrels and wars between the Grecian republics, by siding at various times with various parties; and the mutual hatred of the Greeks rendered this game so easy, that Greece could hardly have escaped total destruction, had the Persian plans been always as wisely laid as they were by Tissaphernes; and had not the caprice and jealousy of the satraps in Asia Minor generally had more effect than the commands of the court.
Alliance of the Persians with Sparta, framed by Tissaphernes, 441; but in consequence of the policy of Alcibiades, and the artful principles of Tissaphernes, followed by no important results, until the younger Cyrus, satrap of all Asia Minor, was by Lysander, 407, brought over to the Spartan interest. (See below, the Grecian history, III. Period, parag. 23.)
Artaxerxes II. 405—362.
40. Artaxerxes II. surnamed Mnemon. Although this prince was the eldest son of Darius, his right to the throne might, according to the Persian ideas of succession, have appeared dubious, since his younger brother, Cyrus, had the advantage over him of being the first born subsequent to the accession of his father. Anabasis of Cyrus. Relying on the support of his mother Parysatis, Cyrus, even without this claim to the throne, would, no doubt, have asserted his pretence to the sovereign power. It would have been, in all probability, a fortunate event for the Persian empire, had the fate of battle, in the ensuing war between the two brothers, assigned the throne to him whom nature seems to have pointed out as the fittest person.
History of this war according to Xenophon. Battle of Cunaxa, in which Cyrus falls, 401. Retreat of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries in the service of Cyrus, under the guidance of Xenophon.
Weak reign of Artaxerxes II.
41. During the whole of this reign, Artaxerxes, now firmly seated on the throne, remained under the tutelage of his mother, Parysatis, whose inveterate hatred against his wife, Statira, and against all who had any share in the death of her darling son, Cyrus, converted the seraglio into a theatre of bloody deeds, such as can be conceived and committed only in similar places.
War with Sparta, 400.
Agesilaus in Asia, 396—394.
Peace of Antalcidas, 387.
Policy of Persia in keeping on good terms with Thebes.
War with Evagoras of Cyprus, 385.
42. The insurrection and rout of Cyrus produced a corresponding change in the political relations between the Persian court and Sparta: which, however, were now determined, not so much by the will of the monarch himself, as by the satraps of Asia Minor, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, of whose jealousy Sparta knew how to take advantage. The former, by his severity towards the Asiatic Greeks, who had supported the cause of Cyrus, excited a war with Sparta, in which he himself fell a victim. The death of the satrap is not, however, succeeded by tranquillity; for Agesilaus commands in Asia, and threatens to overthrow the Persian throne itself. The policy of the Persians is shown by the war which they foment in Greece against Sparta: Conon is placed at the head of their fleet, and extricates Persia from her difficulties better than could have been done by her own generals; in the peace of Antalcidas she herself dictates the terms, by which the Grecian colonies of Asia Minor, together with Cyprus and Clazomenæ, are again delivered into her possession. The rising power of Thebes under Epaminondas and Pelopidas, with whom Persia keeps up a friendly connection, ensures her from any future blow at the hands of the Spartans.—War for the possession of Cyprus with Evagoras, who, however, by the subsequent peace retains the sovereignty of Salamis.
War with the Cadusii, 384.
Attempt to recover Egypt, 374.
43. The war against the Cadusii in the mountains of Caucasus, proves that Artaxerxes II. was not fitted for military command; and his attempt to recover Egypt from king Nectanebus I. which was defeated by the feud between Iphicrates and Artabazus, evinces that the most numerous Persian host could achieve nothing without the assistance of Grecian troops and Grecian generals.—It could hardly be expected that an empire should endure much longer, when in the court all was ruled by the desire of revenge in the women; when the political organization was already so corrupt, that the satraps waged war against each other; and when those generals who gave any proof of talent received no better reward than that of Datames.
The succession to the throne of Persia is disputed and almost produces the downfal of the empire before the death of Artaxerxes.
Rebellion in the west dispelled by treachery, 362.
44. In fact, it seemed not unlikely that the Persian empire would fall asunder a little before the death of Artaxerxes Mnemon. A quarrel about the succession arose in the court between the three legitimate sons of the king, the eldest of whom, Darius, was put to death: the standard of rebellion was erected in the western half of the empire, and joined by all the governors of Asia Minor and Syria, supported by Tachos, king of Egypt, to whose assistance the Spartans had sent Agesilaus. The insurrection, however, was quelled in consequence of the treachery of the chief leader, Orontes, who was bribed over to the court.
Artaxerxes III. about 362—338.
contemporary with Philip, the father of Alexander the Great.
45. In the midst of these commotions died Artaxerxes II.: his youngest son, Ochus, took possession of the throne, and assumed the name of Artaxerxes III. This king conceived that he could not establish his power but by the total destruction of the royal family, numerous as it was. He was contemporary with Philip of Macedon, in whom he soon found a more formidable rival than any he could have met with in his own family.
Insurrection in Asia Minor, 358.
46. The new insurrection fomented by Artabazus in Asia Minor, was accompanied with success so long as it was backed by the Thebans; but the reception which Artabazus met with at the hands of Philip soon betrayed the secret intentions of the Macedonian king.
Rebellion of the Phœnicians and Cyprians, 356.
47. But the extensive rebellion of the Phœnicians and Cyprians, in conjunction with Egypt, compelled the king to undertake another expedition, which succeeded almost beyond expectation; although in this case the object was again attained principally by treachery and by Grecian auxiliaries.
Treachery of Mentor, the leader of the confederates: the consequent capture and destruction of Sidon, followed by the subjection of Phœnicia, 356. Capture of Cyprus by Grecian troops, under the command of Phocion and the younger Evagoras, 354. Expedition of the king in person against Egypt: victory of Pelusium, won over king Nectanebus II. with the help of Grecian mercenaries. Egypt becomes, once more, a Persian province.
The Persian empire once more restored to its ancient bounds.
The king poisoned by the eunuch Bagoas,
48. This restoration of the empire to its former limits was followed by a period of tranquillity, the result of force, as Mentor and the eunuch Bagoas, holding the king in complete dependence, divided the kingdom, as it were, between themselves; until Bagoas was pleased, by poison, to remove Artaxerxes out of his way.
Bagoas places Arces on the throne, but soon after makes away with him. 336.
49. After the assassination of the royal family, Bagoas placed on the throne the king's youngest and only surviving son, Arces. Bagoas was desirous of reigning in the name of that prince; but after the lapse of two years, he found it necessary to depose him, and to substitute in his place a distant relation of the reigning family, Darius Codomannus, who commenced his reign by putting to death the wretch himself.
Darius III. 336.
His kingdom invaded by Alexander the Great, 334.
50. Darius III. Codomannus, not having been educated, like his predecessors, in the seraglio, gave proof of virtues which entitled him to a better fate. Attacked in the second year of his reign by Macedon, against which Persia had hitherto made no preparation for resistance,—unless, perhaps, the dagger which pierced Philip was pointed by Persian hands,—Darius was unable at once to reestablish a kingdom which of itself was mouldering away. And yet, had not death defeated the invasion of Macedonia by his general, Memnon, it might have been matter of doubt, whether Alexander would ever have shone as the conqueror of Alexander's dominion established in Asia, 330. Asia.—After the loss of two battles, in which he fought in person, Darius III. fell a victim to the treachery of Bessus, and the burning of Persepolis made known to Asia that the realm of Persia was destroyed, and that the east must acknowledge a new lord and master.
For the history of the war, see below: the history of Macedon.