So exhausted was the empire from the Grecian wars, that when the Egyptians revolted during the reign of Darius II. he found himself unable to subdue them. The superb empire made and left by Cyrus the Great under such admirable government was now becoming thoroughly corrupted and debauched, and was given to all species of licentiousness. Its former glory rapidly departed, and the elements of destruction were actively at work preparing it for the blow Alexander of Macedon was soon to deal it, from which it was destined never to recover.
After the dismemberment of the Macedonian Empire, Persia in part recovered, but became the field for constant barbarian inroads, which kept the kingdom in poverty and misery. Under Chosron, about the year 600, the empire again extended from the Indus to the Mediterranean. Justinian I. waged a successful war against Chosron, and compelled a disadvantageous peace. This was annulled by Chosron II., who again raised Persia to her former greatness by conquering Egypt, Ethiopia, Lydia and Yemen. These sudden conquests were soon lost, and the partially resuscitated empire passed into a rapid decline. At no time since has Persia exerted any considerable influence upon surrounding nations. Under Timour, in the fourteenth century, and the Turks in the fifteenth, it decayed rapidly; in the sixteenth century it became nearly extinct, and, as a nation, it remains virtually so to this day.
THE TENDENCIES OF GOVERNMENT.
[Revised from the New York Herald of May 9, 1870.]
VICTORIA C. WOODHULL’S FOURTH PAPER—A RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY.
[Below we present the fourth subdivision of Mrs. Woodhull’s treatise on “The Tendencies of Government,” from which it will be perceived that the lady has delved deep into the mines of governmental lore, and is vigorously training for the Presidential sweepstakes of 1872:]
Regarding the earliest traditions of Greece, it can be said they are less indefinite than those of Egypt or Assyria. No country of antiquity can be reverted to with more admiration and respect than this. In whatever light her history is considered, illustrious examples of true greatness abound. If her military career be reviewed, where can more glory be found to have been achieved? If her government be examined, where has greater wisdom and moderation ever been exercised? If the comparative advancement of science, literature, art and philosophy made within her domain be appealed to, where has greater proficiency ever been attained? If the personal characteristics of her great men be analyzed, where has patriotism ever risen to so sublime a degree? In many respects Greece may be considered the school-house of the world, wherein it has been taught the rudimentary principles of knowledge, especially that species of knowledge that conduces to the development of wisdom.
The territory of ancient Greece was by no means the Greece of to-day, but embraced all that country lying southward from Illyria and Thrace, now forming a part of Turkey in Europe. It then consisted of the provinces of Epirus, Peloponnesus, Greece proper, Thessaly and Macedonia, besides many islands in the Ægean Sea. The earliest inhabitants of Greece of whom anything is known were the Pelasgi, who “knew no other law than force, were ignorant even of agriculture, and fed on roots and herbs.” A people called the Hellenes, from Asia, mingled with them, and their common name became Greeks, from Græcus, the son of Pelasgus. Although Greece was afterward the seat of so much knowledge and wisdom, it does not appear that these originated among the descendants of its original inhabitants, but that they sprung from the Phœnecian and Egyptian colonies that from various causes found their way into Greece.
Of the constant internal strife carried on between the several Grecian provinces no mention will be made. The first of these to arise was Sicyon, followed by Argos, Mycenæ, Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Macedon. When the population of any of these became large, it was the custom to send out colonies, thus distributing Grecian influence, instead of by war. The powerful cities of Rhegium, Syracuse, Sybaris, Crotona, Tarentum, Gela, Locris, Messina, Marseilles and Agrigentum, were formed from such colonies. For the space of a thousand years, or until 520 years B. C., the Grecians appear to have confined their operations within their own dominions. Being continually engaged in war with each other, they had no opportunity of carrying on aggressive warfare—this was never a Grecian characteristic, though so forcibly illustrated by Alexander of Macedon, and by Cimon and Agesilaus, for retaliation rather than aggression.
It is to be specially observed as illustrating the part Greece performed in the general advancement and diffusion of civilization that while all other great nations were made so by aggressive conquests, Greece rarely ever made war except in self-defence. The influence other nations had upon the world was gained by conquering contiguous countries. The influence Greece exercised was by diffusing among other nations the principles of science, philosophy and government and by commercial intercourse. Thus it is found that up to the time of the first Persian invasion there had been no concentration of the military forces of the several provinces, except as they had taken sides against each other in their feudal wars.