The extraordinary fatigues which Charidemus had undergone, together with continual exposure to the burning summer heat, resulted in a long and dangerous illness. He had strength enough to make his way along with a number of other invalided men to Ecbatana; but immediately after his arrival in that city the fever which had been lurking in his system declared itself in an acute form. For many days he hovered between life and death, and his recovery was long and tedious, and interrupted by more than one dangerous relapse. All this time the outer world was nothing to him. First came days of delirium in which he raved of battles and sieges, with now and then a softer note in his voice contrasting strangely with the ringing tone of the words of command. These were followed by weeks of indifference, during which the patient took no care for anything but the routine of the sick-room. When his thoughts once more returned to the business and interests of life it was already autumn.
Almost the first news from the world without that penetrated the retirement of his sick-room was the story of a terrible tragedy that had happened almost within sight and hearing.
Parmenio, the oldest, the most trusted of the lieutenants of Alexander, was dead, treacherously slain by his master’s orders; and Philotas his son, the most brilliant cavalry leader in the army, had been put to death on a charge of treason. Whether that charge was true or false no one knew for certain, as no one has been able to discover since. But there were many who believed that both men had been shamefully murdered. The accusation was certainly improbable—for what had Parmenio and his son, both as high in command as they could hope to be, to gain? And it rested on the weakest evidence, the testimony of a worthless boy and a still more worthless woman.
All Charidemus’s feelings were prepossessed in favour of the king; but the story came upon him as an awful shock. With Parmenio he had had no personal acquaintance, but Philotas had been in a way his friend. Haughty and overbearing in his general demeanour, he had treated Charidemus with especial kindness. The first effect of the news was to throw him back in his recovery. For a time, indeed, he was again dangerously ill. He ceased to care for life, and life almost slipped from his grasp.
He was slowly struggling back to health, muchexercised all the time by doubts about his future, when a letter from the king was put into his hands. It ran thus:—
“Alexander the king to Charidemus, greeting.“I hear with pleasure that the gods have preserved you to us. But you must not tempt the Fates again. You have had four years of warfare; let it suffice you for the present. It so happens that at this moment of writing I have before me the demand of Amyntas, son of Craterus, to be relieved of his command. He is, as you know, Governor of Pergamos, and he wishes to take part in the warfare which I purpose to carry on in the further East. This command, therefore, of which he is not unreasonably weary, you may not unreasonably welcome. Herewith is the order that appoints you to it. My keeper of the treasure at Ecbatana will pay you two hundred talents. Consider this as your present share of prize-money. You will also find herewith letters that you will deliver with your own hand. If you have other friends in Pergamos, greet them from me, and say that I wish well both to them and to you. Be sure that if hereafter I shall need you I shall send for you. Farewell.”
“Alexander the king to Charidemus, greeting.
“I hear with pleasure that the gods have preserved you to us. But you must not tempt the Fates again. You have had four years of warfare; let it suffice you for the present. It so happens that at this moment of writing I have before me the demand of Amyntas, son of Craterus, to be relieved of his command. He is, as you know, Governor of Pergamos, and he wishes to take part in the warfare which I purpose to carry on in the further East. This command, therefore, of which he is not unreasonably weary, you may not unreasonably welcome. Herewith is the order that appoints you to it. My keeper of the treasure at Ecbatana will pay you two hundred talents. Consider this as your present share of prize-money. You will also find herewith letters that you will deliver with your own hand. If you have other friends in Pergamos, greet them from me, and say that I wish well both to them and to you. Be sure that if hereafter I shall need you I shall send for you. Farewell.”
This communication solved at least one of the problems over which the young man had been puzzling. The physician had told him most emphatically that for a year or more all campaigning was out of the question. Here was a post which, as far as its duties were concerned, was practically equal to retirement.If he had had his choice he could not have picked out anything more suitable to his circumstances. A doubt indeed occurred whether, after what had happened, he could take anything from Alexander’s hands. But the State, he reflected, must be served. Pergamos must have its garrison, if for no other reason, at least because the child who was at present the king’s only heir was there, and the garrison must have its commander. And besides—who was he that he should judge the king? It would be painful, he acknowledged to himself, to be in daily contact with a man whose hands were red with the blood of a friend. That pain he would be spared. But it was another thing to refuse office at his hand. That would be to pronounce sentence in a case which he had no means of deciding. It was only after conscientiously weighing the matter by the weights of duty that the young man suffered himself to consult his private feelings. Here at least there was not a shadow of doubt in his mind. It was a grief to the ambitious young soldier to be checked in his active career. The campaign which the king was meditating in the further East promised to be full of adventure and interest, but if he was, for the future, tohearonly of these glories, where could he do so with greater content than in the daily companionship of Clearista?
The westward journey was begun the next week. It was accomplished far more easily and speedilythan would have been the case a short time before. The traffic between the coast and Upper Asia was now constant; the passage of invalided soldiers homeward, and of fresh troops to join the army, went on without intermission, and consequently the service of transport had been effectively organized. In about eight weeks Charidemus reported himself at Pergamos, and took possession of his new command.
Barsiné welcomed him with the liveliest delight, and was never wearied of his stories of the campaigns through which he had passed. Clearista, now grown from a girl into a woman—it was nearly four years since the two first met in the citadel of Halicarnassus—had exchanged the frank demeanour of childhood for a maidenly reserve. The young soldier, who had had little experience of women’s ways, was at first disappointed and disheartened by what seemed her coldness. He knew nothing, of course, of the intense eagerness with which she had looked out for tidings of him during these years of absence, of the delight with which she had heard of his probable return, of the day-dreams of which he was ever the principal figure. She treated him as a casual acquaintance, but he was her hero, and not the less so, because, while he was full of striking reminiscences of the war, it was very difficult to get from him any account of personal adventure.
Greek courtships were not conducted, as my readers are probably aware, after English fashion, afashion which is probably singular, whether we compare it with the ways of ancient or of modern life. Certainly a Greek treatise on the subject of “How Men Propose” would have had to be very brief, for lack of variety. Men proposed, it may be said, invariably to the parents or guardian of the lady. But it must not be supposed that then, any more than now, among people where marriage arrangements seem most rigorously to exclude any notion of choice, there was no previous understanding between the young people. Cramp and confine it as you will, human nature is pretty much the same in all times and places.
Charidemus made his suit in due form and to the person whom he was bound by custom to address, to Barsiné. But he did not make it till he had satisfied himself, as far as that could be done without actual words, that the suit would be welcome to the party chiefly interested. Reserve, however carefully maintained, is not always on its guard; a look or a word sometimes betrayed a deeper interest than the girl chose to acknowledge; in short, Charidemus felt hopeful of the result when he opened his heart to Barsiné, and he was not disappointed.
The marriage was solemnized on the fifth anniversary of the day on which Alexander had crossed over from Europe into Asia.
The Banquet at Maracanda.
The Banquet at Maracanda.
The six years that followed were years of quiet, uneventful happiness for Charidemus and his wife. The governorship of Pergamos was not exactly a sinecure, but it was not laborious. The garrison duty was of the slightest. The place was practically safe from attack, even if there had been any enemies to attack it. The governor’s chief duty was the charge of adepôt, for which the town had been found a convenient situation. New troops were trained at it; troops who were invalided, or who had passed their time, were sent there to receive their formal discharge. These veterans had much to tell of what the army was doing. Of course plenty of fable was mixed with the fact, the more so as much of the news came at second or third hand and from very remote regions indeed. A more regular and reliable source of information were the letters which Charondas, who had been attached to headquarters, continued to send to his friend. The two had contrived a system of cypher, and so the Theban wasable to express himself with a freedom which he would not otherwise have been able to use. Some extracts from these letters I shall give:—
“ ... So Bessus the murderer has met with his deserts. We crossed the Oxus, the most rapid and difficult river that we have yet come to. We got over on skins, and lost, I am afraid, a good many men and horses. I myself was carried down full half a mile before I could get to land, and thought more than once that it was all over with me. If Bessus had tried to stop us there must have been disaster; but we heard afterwards that he had been deserted by his men. Very soon after we had crossed the river he was taken. I have no pity for the villain; but I could wish that the king had not punished him as he did. He had his nostrils and ears cut off. You remember how Alexander was moved when he saw those poor mutilated wretches at Persepolis, what horror he expressed. And now he does the same things himself! But truly he grows more and more barbarian in his ways. Listen again to this. We came a few days since on our march to a little town that seemed somewhat differently built from the others in this country. The people came out to greet us. Their dress was partly Greek, partly foreign; their tongue Greek but mixed with barbarisms, yet not so much but that we readily understood them. Nothing could be more liberal than their offers; they werewilling to give us all they had. The king inquired who they were. They were descended, he found—indeed they told the story themselves without any hesitation—from the families of the priests of Apollo at Branchidæ. These priests had told the secret of where their treasures were kept to King Xerxes after his return from Greece, and he to reward them, and also we may suppose, to save them from the vengeance of their countrymen, had planted them in this remote spot, where they had preserved their customs and language as well as they could. Now who could have imagined that the king should do what he did? He must avenge forsooth the honour of Apollo on these remote descendants of the men who caused his shrine to be robbed! He drove the poor creatures back into their town, drew a cordon of soldiers round it, and then sent in a company with orders to massacre every man, woman, and child in it. He gave me the command of these executioners. I refused it. ‘It is against my vows, my lord,’ I said. I thought that he would have struck me down where I stood. But he held his hand. He is always tender with me, for reasons that he has; and since he has been as friendly as ever. But what a monstrous deed! Again I say, the barbarian rather than the Greek.“Another awful deed! O my friend, I often wishthat I were with you in your peaceful retirement. In war the king is as magnificent as ever, but at home he becomes daily less and less master of himself. Truly he is then as formidable to his friends, as he is at other times to his enemies. What I write now I saw and heard with my own eyes. At Maracanda[75]there was a great banquet—I dread these banquets a hundred-fold more than I dread a battle—to which I was invited with some hundred other officers. It was in honour of Cleitus, who had been appointed that day to the government of Bactria. When the cup had gone round pretty often, some of those wretched creatures who make it their business to flatter the king—it pains me to see how he swallows the flatteries of the very grossest with greediness—began to magnify his achievements. He was greater than Dionysus, greater than Hercules; no mortal could have done such things; it was only to be hoped that the gods would not take him till his work was done. If I was sickened to hear such talk, what think you I felt when Alexander himself began to talk in the same strain. Nothing would satisfy him but that he must run down his own father Philip. ‘It was I,’ he said, ‘who really won the victory of Chæronea, though Philip would never own it. And, after all, what petty things that and all his victories are compared to what I have done!’ On this I heardCleitus whisper to his neighbour some lines from Euripides:“‘When armies build their trophies o’er the foe,Not they who bear the burden of the day,But he who leads them reaps alone the praise.’“‘What did he say?’ said the king, who guessed that this certainly was no flattery. No one answered. Then Cleitus spoke out. He, too, had drunk deeply. (What a curse this wine is! Do you remember that we heard of people among the Jews who never will taste it. Really I sometimes think that they are in the right.) He magnified Philip. ‘Whoever may have won the day at Chæronea,’ he said, ‘anyhow it was a finer thing than the burning of Thebes.’ I saw the king wince at this as if some one had struck him. Then turning directly to Alexander, Cleitus said, ‘Sir, we are all ready to die for you; but it is hard that when you are distributing the prizes of victory, you keep the best for those who pass the worst insults on the memory of your father.’ Then he went on to declare that Parmenio and Philotas were innocent—in fact, I do not know what he said. He was fairly beyond himself. The king certainly bore it very well for a long time. At last, when Cleitus scoffed at the oracle of Ammon—‘I tell you the truth better than your father Ammon did,’ were his words—the king’s patience came to an end. He jumped from his couch, caught hold of a spear, and would have run Cleitus through on the spot had notPtolemy and Perdiccas caught him round the waist and held him back, while Lysimachus took away the lance from him. This made him more furious than ever. ‘Help, men,’ he cried to the soldiers on guard. ‘They are treating me as they treated Darius.’ At that they let go their hold. It would have been dangerous to touch him. He ran out into the porch and caught a spear from a sentinel. Just then Cleitus came out. ‘Who goes there?’ he said. Cleitus gave his name. ‘Go to your dear Philip and your dear Parmenio!’ shouted the king, and drove the spear into his heart.“The king is better again, but he has suffered frightfully. Again and again he offered to kill himself. For three days and nights he lay upon the ground, and would neither eat nor drink. At last his bodyguard fairly forced him to do so. One curious reason for the king’s madness I heard. The fatal feast was held in honour of the Twin Brethren, and it was one of the sacred days of Bacchus! Hence the wrath of the neglected god. It is certainly strange how this wrath, be it fact or fancy, continues to haunt him.“Thank the gods we are in the field, and Alexander is himself again. Nay, he is more than himself.Sometimes I scarcely wonder at the flatterers who say that he is more than man. There never was such energy, such skill, so much courage joined to so much prudence. His men will follow him anywhere; when he heads them they think nothing impossible. Since I last wrote he has done what no man has ever done before; he has tamed the Scythians. The great Cyrus, you know, met his end at their hands; Darius narrowly escaped with his life. And now this marvellous man first conquers them and then makes friends of them. A week ago he took in a couple of days a place which every one pronounced to be impregnable: the ‘Sogdian Rock,’ they called it. Never before had man entered it except with the good will of those who held it. It was a rock some two hundred cubits high, rising almost sheer on every side, though, of course, when one looked closely at it, there were ledges and jutting points on which an expert climber could put his foot. The king summoned the barbarians to surrender. If they would, he said, they should go away unharmed, and carry all their property with them. They laughed at him. ‘If you have any soldiers with wings, you should send them,’ they said, ‘we are not afraid of any others.’ The same day the king called an assembly of the soldiers. ‘You see that rock,’ he said, ‘we must have it. The man who first climbs to the top shall have twelve talents, the second eleven, the third ten, and so on. I give twelve prizes; twelve will beenough.’ That night three hundred men started for this strange race. They took their iron tent-pegs with them, to drive into the ice or the ground, as it might be, and ropes to haul themselves up by. Thirty fell and were killed. The rest reached the top, the barbarians not having the least idea that the attempt was being made. At dawn Alexander sent the herald again. ‘Alexander,’ he said, ‘has sent his soldiers with wings, and bids you surrender.’ They looked round, and the men were standing on the top. They did not so much as strike a single blow for themselves. It is true that others did this for the king. But this is the marvel of him. Not only does he achieve the impossible himself, but he makes others achieve it for him.“We have fought and won a great battle, greater by far than Granīcus, or Issus, or Arbela. We had crossed the Indus—I talk, you see, familiarly of rivers of which a year or two ago scarcely any one had ever heard the name—and had come to the Hydaspes. There a certain Porus, king of the region that lies to the eastward of that river,[76]was encamped on the opposite bank. Our Indian allies—happily the tribes here have the fiercest feuds among themselves—said that he was by far the most powerfulprince in the whole country. And indeed when we came to deal with his army we found it a most formidable force, not a few good troops with an enormous multitude of helpless creatures who did nothing but block up the way, but really well-armed, well-disciplined soldiers. The first thing was to get across the river. It was quite clear that Porus was not going to let us get over at our own time and in our own way, as Darius let us get across the Euphrates and the Tigris. You would have admired the magnificent strategy by which Alexander managed it. First, he put the enemy off their guard by a number of false alarms. Day after day he made feints of attempting the passage, till Porus did not think it worth while to take any notice of them. Then he gave out that he should not really attempt it till the river became fordable, that is, quite late in the summer. Meanwhile he was making preparations secretly. The place that he pitched upon was about seventeen miles above Porus’s camp. The river divides there, flowing round a thickly-wooded island. To get to this island—a thing which could be done without any trouble—was to get, you see, half across the river. We had had a number of large boats for the crossing of the Indus. These were taken to pieces, carried across the country, and then put together again. Besides these there was a vast quantity of bladders. Craterus was left with about a third of the army opposite toPorus’s camp. He was to make a feint of crossing, and convert it into a real attempt if he saw a chance of making good his landing. You see the real difficulty was in the enemy’s elephants. Horses will not face elephants. If Porus moved his elephants away, then Craterus was to make the attempt in earnest. Some other troops were posted half way between the camp and the island. These were to make another feint. The king himself was going to force a passage at all hazards. Then came in his good luck, which is really almost as astonishing as his skill. There was a violent thunderstorm in the night. In the midst of this, while there was so much noise from the thunder and the torrents of rain that nothing could be heard on the opposite bank, the king’s force got across to the island. Then, by a another stroke of good fortune, the rain ceased, and the rest of the crossing was finished without having to strike a blow.“Meanwhile Porus had heard that something was going on higher up the river, and sent a detachment of cavalry under one of his sons to defend the bank. It was too late. If they had come while we were crossing, they might have made the work very difficult. As it was, they were simply crushed by our cavalry.“Then we marched on—I had crossed, I should have told you, with the king—and about half way to Porus’s camp, found him with his army drawn up.Very formidable it looked, I assure you. In front of the centre were the elephants. We had never met elephants before. Some of our men had never even seen them. I think now, after trial of them, that they look a great deal worse than they are; but at the time they alarmed me very much. How our lines could stand firm against such monsters I could not think. On the wings were the chariots, with four horses all of them. Each chariot had six men in it, two heavily-armed, two archers, and two drivers. The cavalry were posted behind the chariots, and the infantry behind the elephants.“Alexander began by sending the mounted archers into action, by way of clearing the way for himself and his cavalry. The archers sent a shower of arrows on the chariots in front of the left wing. These were closely packed together, and made an excellent mark. Some of the arrows, I observed, fell among the cavalry behind them. Meanwhile Alexander, with theéliteof the cavalry, had gained one of their flanks, while Cœnus threatened the other. They tried to form a double front. While they were making the change, the king fell upon them like a thunderbolt. They held their own for a short time; but our cavalry was too heavy for them. They fell back upon the elephants.“Here there was a check. At one time I thought there was going to be more than a check. Our horses could not be brought to face the great brutes;the horses of the Indians were used to them, and moved in and out among them freely. Nor could the phalanx stand against them. The long spears were simply brushed aside like so many straws when an elephant moved up against the line. If their drivers could have kept them under control, it must have gone hard with us. But they could not. There are thin places in the animal’s skin where it can be easily wounded; and when it is wounded it is at least as dangerous to friends as to enemies. Only a few of the creatures were killed, but many became quite unmanageable. At last, as if by common consent—and this was one of the most curious things I had ever seen—such as were still serviceable, turned and left the field. They seemed to know that they were beaten. Indeed, I have since been told that their sagacity is wonderful.“Porus was mounted on the largest elephant, and, I suppose, the bravest, for it was the last to turn. The king had been wounded in several places, and was faint with loss of blood. The driver of his elephant was afraid that he would fall, and made his beast kneel. Just then Alexander came up; and thinking that the king was dead ordered his body to be stripped of the arms, which were of very fine workmanship, I may tell you. The elephant, when it saw this, caught up its master with its trunk, and lifted him to its back, and then began to lay about it furiously. It was soon killed, but not till it had done agreat deal of mischief. King Porus was carried to our camp by Alexander’s orders, and attended to by the physicians with the greatest care. When he was recovered of his wounds, and this it did not take him long to do, for these Indians are amazingly healthy people, he was brought before the king. I was there, and a more splendidly handsome man, I never saw. ‘How would you have me treat you?’ asked Alexander. ‘As a king should treat a king,’ was the answer. And so, I hear, it is to be. Porus is to be restored to his throne, and a large tract of country is to be added to his dominions.“We have had a great festival of Bacchus. The god himself was represented riding on a tiger, which, by the way, was very well made up. After the procession there was a competition in drinking wine. What marvellous amounts these Indians drank! One swallowed twenty-three pints and got the prize. He lived only four days afterwards.“At last we have turned back. We came to a river called the Hyphasis, beyond which, our guide told us, there lived Indians bigger and stronger than any that we had hitherto seen. All this, as you may suppose, fired the king’s fancy, and made him more anxious than ever to go on. But the soldiers began to murmur. ‘They had gone far enough,’ theysaid. ‘Was there ever to be an end? Were they ever to see their country again?’ Then Alexander called the men together, and expounded his great scheme. I cannot pretend to give you his geography, for I did not understand it. But I remember he told us that if we went on far enough we should come out somewhere by the Pillars of Hercules. His promises were magnificent; and indeed if we were to conquer the world, they could not be too big. His speech ended, he asked our opinion. Any one that differed from him was to express his views freely. This is just what we have been learning not to do. In fact, he is less and less able to bear free speech. There was a long silence. ‘Speak out,’ the king said again and again; but no one rose. At last Cœnus, the oldest, you know of the generals, came forward. The substance of what he said was this: ‘The more you have done, the more bound you are to consider whether you have not done enough. How few remain of those who set out with you, you know. Let those few enjoy the fruits of their toils and dangers. Splendid those fruits are; we were poor, and we are wealthy; we were obscure, and we are famous throughout the world. Let us enjoy our wealth and our honours at home. And you, sire, are wanted elsewhere, in your own kingdom which you left ten years ago, and in Greece which your absence has made unquiet. If you wish henceforth to lead a new army, to conquerCarthage and the lands that border on the Ocean, you will find volunteers in abundance to follow you, all the more easily when they shall see us return to enjoy in peace all that you have given us.’ The king was greatly troubled—that was evident in his face—but he said nothing, and dismissed us. The next day he called us together again, and briefly said that he should carry out his purpose; we might do as we pleased. Then he shut himself up in his tent two days. He hoped, I fancy, that the men would yield. As there was no sign of any change in their feelings, he gave way, but in his own fashion. He ordered sacrifice to be offered as usual. The soothsayer reported that the signs were adverse. Then we were called together a third time. “The will of the gods,” he said, “seems to favour you, not me. Let it be so. We will turn back.” You should have heard the shout that the men sent up! Having yielded the king did everything with the best grace, behaving as if he were as glad to go back as the rest of us.”
“ ... So Bessus the murderer has met with his deserts. We crossed the Oxus, the most rapid and difficult river that we have yet come to. We got over on skins, and lost, I am afraid, a good many men and horses. I myself was carried down full half a mile before I could get to land, and thought more than once that it was all over with me. If Bessus had tried to stop us there must have been disaster; but we heard afterwards that he had been deserted by his men. Very soon after we had crossed the river he was taken. I have no pity for the villain; but I could wish that the king had not punished him as he did. He had his nostrils and ears cut off. You remember how Alexander was moved when he saw those poor mutilated wretches at Persepolis, what horror he expressed. And now he does the same things himself! But truly he grows more and more barbarian in his ways. Listen again to this. We came a few days since on our march to a little town that seemed somewhat differently built from the others in this country. The people came out to greet us. Their dress was partly Greek, partly foreign; their tongue Greek but mixed with barbarisms, yet not so much but that we readily understood them. Nothing could be more liberal than their offers; they werewilling to give us all they had. The king inquired who they were. They were descended, he found—indeed they told the story themselves without any hesitation—from the families of the priests of Apollo at Branchidæ. These priests had told the secret of where their treasures were kept to King Xerxes after his return from Greece, and he to reward them, and also we may suppose, to save them from the vengeance of their countrymen, had planted them in this remote spot, where they had preserved their customs and language as well as they could. Now who could have imagined that the king should do what he did? He must avenge forsooth the honour of Apollo on these remote descendants of the men who caused his shrine to be robbed! He drove the poor creatures back into their town, drew a cordon of soldiers round it, and then sent in a company with orders to massacre every man, woman, and child in it. He gave me the command of these executioners. I refused it. ‘It is against my vows, my lord,’ I said. I thought that he would have struck me down where I stood. But he held his hand. He is always tender with me, for reasons that he has; and since he has been as friendly as ever. But what a monstrous deed! Again I say, the barbarian rather than the Greek.
“Another awful deed! O my friend, I often wishthat I were with you in your peaceful retirement. In war the king is as magnificent as ever, but at home he becomes daily less and less master of himself. Truly he is then as formidable to his friends, as he is at other times to his enemies. What I write now I saw and heard with my own eyes. At Maracanda[75]there was a great banquet—I dread these banquets a hundred-fold more than I dread a battle—to which I was invited with some hundred other officers. It was in honour of Cleitus, who had been appointed that day to the government of Bactria. When the cup had gone round pretty often, some of those wretched creatures who make it their business to flatter the king—it pains me to see how he swallows the flatteries of the very grossest with greediness—began to magnify his achievements. He was greater than Dionysus, greater than Hercules; no mortal could have done such things; it was only to be hoped that the gods would not take him till his work was done. If I was sickened to hear such talk, what think you I felt when Alexander himself began to talk in the same strain. Nothing would satisfy him but that he must run down his own father Philip. ‘It was I,’ he said, ‘who really won the victory of Chæronea, though Philip would never own it. And, after all, what petty things that and all his victories are compared to what I have done!’ On this I heardCleitus whisper to his neighbour some lines from Euripides:
“‘When armies build their trophies o’er the foe,Not they who bear the burden of the day,But he who leads them reaps alone the praise.’
“‘When armies build their trophies o’er the foe,Not they who bear the burden of the day,But he who leads them reaps alone the praise.’
“‘When armies build their trophies o’er the foe,
Not they who bear the burden of the day,
But he who leads them reaps alone the praise.’
“‘What did he say?’ said the king, who guessed that this certainly was no flattery. No one answered. Then Cleitus spoke out. He, too, had drunk deeply. (What a curse this wine is! Do you remember that we heard of people among the Jews who never will taste it. Really I sometimes think that they are in the right.) He magnified Philip. ‘Whoever may have won the day at Chæronea,’ he said, ‘anyhow it was a finer thing than the burning of Thebes.’ I saw the king wince at this as if some one had struck him. Then turning directly to Alexander, Cleitus said, ‘Sir, we are all ready to die for you; but it is hard that when you are distributing the prizes of victory, you keep the best for those who pass the worst insults on the memory of your father.’ Then he went on to declare that Parmenio and Philotas were innocent—in fact, I do not know what he said. He was fairly beyond himself. The king certainly bore it very well for a long time. At last, when Cleitus scoffed at the oracle of Ammon—‘I tell you the truth better than your father Ammon did,’ were his words—the king’s patience came to an end. He jumped from his couch, caught hold of a spear, and would have run Cleitus through on the spot had notPtolemy and Perdiccas caught him round the waist and held him back, while Lysimachus took away the lance from him. This made him more furious than ever. ‘Help, men,’ he cried to the soldiers on guard. ‘They are treating me as they treated Darius.’ At that they let go their hold. It would have been dangerous to touch him. He ran out into the porch and caught a spear from a sentinel. Just then Cleitus came out. ‘Who goes there?’ he said. Cleitus gave his name. ‘Go to your dear Philip and your dear Parmenio!’ shouted the king, and drove the spear into his heart.
“The king is better again, but he has suffered frightfully. Again and again he offered to kill himself. For three days and nights he lay upon the ground, and would neither eat nor drink. At last his bodyguard fairly forced him to do so. One curious reason for the king’s madness I heard. The fatal feast was held in honour of the Twin Brethren, and it was one of the sacred days of Bacchus! Hence the wrath of the neglected god. It is certainly strange how this wrath, be it fact or fancy, continues to haunt him.
“Thank the gods we are in the field, and Alexander is himself again. Nay, he is more than himself.Sometimes I scarcely wonder at the flatterers who say that he is more than man. There never was such energy, such skill, so much courage joined to so much prudence. His men will follow him anywhere; when he heads them they think nothing impossible. Since I last wrote he has done what no man has ever done before; he has tamed the Scythians. The great Cyrus, you know, met his end at their hands; Darius narrowly escaped with his life. And now this marvellous man first conquers them and then makes friends of them. A week ago he took in a couple of days a place which every one pronounced to be impregnable: the ‘Sogdian Rock,’ they called it. Never before had man entered it except with the good will of those who held it. It was a rock some two hundred cubits high, rising almost sheer on every side, though, of course, when one looked closely at it, there were ledges and jutting points on which an expert climber could put his foot. The king summoned the barbarians to surrender. If they would, he said, they should go away unharmed, and carry all their property with them. They laughed at him. ‘If you have any soldiers with wings, you should send them,’ they said, ‘we are not afraid of any others.’ The same day the king called an assembly of the soldiers. ‘You see that rock,’ he said, ‘we must have it. The man who first climbs to the top shall have twelve talents, the second eleven, the third ten, and so on. I give twelve prizes; twelve will beenough.’ That night three hundred men started for this strange race. They took their iron tent-pegs with them, to drive into the ice or the ground, as it might be, and ropes to haul themselves up by. Thirty fell and were killed. The rest reached the top, the barbarians not having the least idea that the attempt was being made. At dawn Alexander sent the herald again. ‘Alexander,’ he said, ‘has sent his soldiers with wings, and bids you surrender.’ They looked round, and the men were standing on the top. They did not so much as strike a single blow for themselves. It is true that others did this for the king. But this is the marvel of him. Not only does he achieve the impossible himself, but he makes others achieve it for him.
“We have fought and won a great battle, greater by far than Granīcus, or Issus, or Arbela. We had crossed the Indus—I talk, you see, familiarly of rivers of which a year or two ago scarcely any one had ever heard the name—and had come to the Hydaspes. There a certain Porus, king of the region that lies to the eastward of that river,[76]was encamped on the opposite bank. Our Indian allies—happily the tribes here have the fiercest feuds among themselves—said that he was by far the most powerfulprince in the whole country. And indeed when we came to deal with his army we found it a most formidable force, not a few good troops with an enormous multitude of helpless creatures who did nothing but block up the way, but really well-armed, well-disciplined soldiers. The first thing was to get across the river. It was quite clear that Porus was not going to let us get over at our own time and in our own way, as Darius let us get across the Euphrates and the Tigris. You would have admired the magnificent strategy by which Alexander managed it. First, he put the enemy off their guard by a number of false alarms. Day after day he made feints of attempting the passage, till Porus did not think it worth while to take any notice of them. Then he gave out that he should not really attempt it till the river became fordable, that is, quite late in the summer. Meanwhile he was making preparations secretly. The place that he pitched upon was about seventeen miles above Porus’s camp. The river divides there, flowing round a thickly-wooded island. To get to this island—a thing which could be done without any trouble—was to get, you see, half across the river. We had had a number of large boats for the crossing of the Indus. These were taken to pieces, carried across the country, and then put together again. Besides these there was a vast quantity of bladders. Craterus was left with about a third of the army opposite toPorus’s camp. He was to make a feint of crossing, and convert it into a real attempt if he saw a chance of making good his landing. You see the real difficulty was in the enemy’s elephants. Horses will not face elephants. If Porus moved his elephants away, then Craterus was to make the attempt in earnest. Some other troops were posted half way between the camp and the island. These were to make another feint. The king himself was going to force a passage at all hazards. Then came in his good luck, which is really almost as astonishing as his skill. There was a violent thunderstorm in the night. In the midst of this, while there was so much noise from the thunder and the torrents of rain that nothing could be heard on the opposite bank, the king’s force got across to the island. Then, by a another stroke of good fortune, the rain ceased, and the rest of the crossing was finished without having to strike a blow.
“Meanwhile Porus had heard that something was going on higher up the river, and sent a detachment of cavalry under one of his sons to defend the bank. It was too late. If they had come while we were crossing, they might have made the work very difficult. As it was, they were simply crushed by our cavalry.
“Then we marched on—I had crossed, I should have told you, with the king—and about half way to Porus’s camp, found him with his army drawn up.Very formidable it looked, I assure you. In front of the centre were the elephants. We had never met elephants before. Some of our men had never even seen them. I think now, after trial of them, that they look a great deal worse than they are; but at the time they alarmed me very much. How our lines could stand firm against such monsters I could not think. On the wings were the chariots, with four horses all of them. Each chariot had six men in it, two heavily-armed, two archers, and two drivers. The cavalry were posted behind the chariots, and the infantry behind the elephants.
“Alexander began by sending the mounted archers into action, by way of clearing the way for himself and his cavalry. The archers sent a shower of arrows on the chariots in front of the left wing. These were closely packed together, and made an excellent mark. Some of the arrows, I observed, fell among the cavalry behind them. Meanwhile Alexander, with theéliteof the cavalry, had gained one of their flanks, while Cœnus threatened the other. They tried to form a double front. While they were making the change, the king fell upon them like a thunderbolt. They held their own for a short time; but our cavalry was too heavy for them. They fell back upon the elephants.
“Here there was a check. At one time I thought there was going to be more than a check. Our horses could not be brought to face the great brutes;the horses of the Indians were used to them, and moved in and out among them freely. Nor could the phalanx stand against them. The long spears were simply brushed aside like so many straws when an elephant moved up against the line. If their drivers could have kept them under control, it must have gone hard with us. But they could not. There are thin places in the animal’s skin where it can be easily wounded; and when it is wounded it is at least as dangerous to friends as to enemies. Only a few of the creatures were killed, but many became quite unmanageable. At last, as if by common consent—and this was one of the most curious things I had ever seen—such as were still serviceable, turned and left the field. They seemed to know that they were beaten. Indeed, I have since been told that their sagacity is wonderful.
“Porus was mounted on the largest elephant, and, I suppose, the bravest, for it was the last to turn. The king had been wounded in several places, and was faint with loss of blood. The driver of his elephant was afraid that he would fall, and made his beast kneel. Just then Alexander came up; and thinking that the king was dead ordered his body to be stripped of the arms, which were of very fine workmanship, I may tell you. The elephant, when it saw this, caught up its master with its trunk, and lifted him to its back, and then began to lay about it furiously. It was soon killed, but not till it had done agreat deal of mischief. King Porus was carried to our camp by Alexander’s orders, and attended to by the physicians with the greatest care. When he was recovered of his wounds, and this it did not take him long to do, for these Indians are amazingly healthy people, he was brought before the king. I was there, and a more splendidly handsome man, I never saw. ‘How would you have me treat you?’ asked Alexander. ‘As a king should treat a king,’ was the answer. And so, I hear, it is to be. Porus is to be restored to his throne, and a large tract of country is to be added to his dominions.
“We have had a great festival of Bacchus. The god himself was represented riding on a tiger, which, by the way, was very well made up. After the procession there was a competition in drinking wine. What marvellous amounts these Indians drank! One swallowed twenty-three pints and got the prize. He lived only four days afterwards.
“At last we have turned back. We came to a river called the Hyphasis, beyond which, our guide told us, there lived Indians bigger and stronger than any that we had hitherto seen. All this, as you may suppose, fired the king’s fancy, and made him more anxious than ever to go on. But the soldiers began to murmur. ‘They had gone far enough,’ theysaid. ‘Was there ever to be an end? Were they ever to see their country again?’ Then Alexander called the men together, and expounded his great scheme. I cannot pretend to give you his geography, for I did not understand it. But I remember he told us that if we went on far enough we should come out somewhere by the Pillars of Hercules. His promises were magnificent; and indeed if we were to conquer the world, they could not be too big. His speech ended, he asked our opinion. Any one that differed from him was to express his views freely. This is just what we have been learning not to do. In fact, he is less and less able to bear free speech. There was a long silence. ‘Speak out,’ the king said again and again; but no one rose. At last Cœnus, the oldest, you know of the generals, came forward. The substance of what he said was this: ‘The more you have done, the more bound you are to consider whether you have not done enough. How few remain of those who set out with you, you know. Let those few enjoy the fruits of their toils and dangers. Splendid those fruits are; we were poor, and we are wealthy; we were obscure, and we are famous throughout the world. Let us enjoy our wealth and our honours at home. And you, sire, are wanted elsewhere, in your own kingdom which you left ten years ago, and in Greece which your absence has made unquiet. If you wish henceforth to lead a new army, to conquerCarthage and the lands that border on the Ocean, you will find volunteers in abundance to follow you, all the more easily when they shall see us return to enjoy in peace all that you have given us.’ The king was greatly troubled—that was evident in his face—but he said nothing, and dismissed us. The next day he called us together again, and briefly said that he should carry out his purpose; we might do as we pleased. Then he shut himself up in his tent two days. He hoped, I fancy, that the men would yield. As there was no sign of any change in their feelings, he gave way, but in his own fashion. He ordered sacrifice to be offered as usual. The soothsayer reported that the signs were adverse. Then we were called together a third time. “The will of the gods,” he said, “seems to favour you, not me. Let it be so. We will turn back.” You should have heard the shout that the men sent up! Having yielded the king did everything with the best grace, behaving as if he were as glad to go back as the rest of us.”
The Indian Bacchus.
The Indian Bacchus.
Along with this letter Charidemus received a despatch from the king requiring his presence at Babylon in a year and a half’s time from the date of writing.[77]
Charidemus arrived at Babylon punctually at the time appointed, reaching it at a date which may be put in our reckoning as early in January, 323. Alexander had not arrived, but was on his way from Susa.
A week after his arrival he had the pleasure of meeting his Theban friend, who had been sent on in advance to superintend the final arrangements for a ceremony which occupied most of the king’s thoughts at this time, the funeral of Hephaestion. For Hephaestion was dead, killed by a fever, not very serious in itself, but aggravated by the patient’s folly and intemperance, and Alexander was resolved to honour him with obsequies more splendid than had ever before been bestowed on mortal man. The outlay had already reached ten thousand talents, and at least two thousand more would have to be spent before the whole scheme was carried out. And then there were chapels to be built and priesthoods endowed, for the oracle of Ammon had declaredthat the dead man might be lawfully worshipped as a hero, though it had forbidden the divine honours which it was asked to sanction.
In April the king reached Babylon. The soothsayers had warned him not to enter the city. He might have heeded their advice but for the advice of his counsellor, the Greek sophist Anaxarchus, who had permanently secured his favour by his extravagant flatteries. “The priests of Belus,” he suggested, “have been embezzling the revenues of the temple, and they don’t want to have you looking into their affairs.” His stay was brief; the funeral preparations were not complete, and he started for a voyage of some weeks among the marshes of the Euphrates, an expedition which probably did not benefit his health.
In June he returned, and, all being then ready, celebrated the funeral of his friend with all the pomp and solemnity with which it was possible to surround it. The beasts offered in sacrifice were enough to furnish ample meals for the whole army. Every soldier also received a large allowance of wine. The banquet given to the principal officers was one of extraordinary magnificence and prolonged even beyond what was usual with the king.
Two or three days afterwards the two friends were talking over the disquieting rumours about the king’s health which were beginning to circulate through the city. They could not fail to remember the curiousprediction which they had heard years before from the lips of Arioch, or to compare with it the recent warnings of the Babylonian soothsayers. Charondas, too, had a strange story to tell of Calanus, an Indian sage, who had accompanied the conqueror in his return from that country. Weary of life the man had deliberately burnt himself on a funeral pile raised by his own hands. Before mounting it he had bidden farewell to all his friends. The king alone he left without any salutation. “My friend,” he had said, “I shall soon see you again.”
When the friends reached their quarters they found Philip, the Acarnanian, waiting for them. The physician looked pale and anxious.
“Is the king ill?” they asked with one voice. “Seriously so,” said Philip, “if what I hear be true.”
“And have you prescribed for him?”
“He has not called me in; nor would he see me, if I were to present myself. He has ceased to believe in physicians; soothsayers, prophets, quacks of every kind, have his confidence. Gladly would I go to him, though indeed a physician carries his life in his hand, if he seeks to cure our king or his friend. Poor Glaucias did his best for Hephaestion. But what can be expected when a patient in a fever eats a fowl and drinks a gallon of wine? Æsculapius himself could not have saved his life. And then poor Glaucias is crucified because Hephaestion dies.And, mark my words, the king will go the same way, unless he changes his manners. What with his own folly and the folly of his friends, there is no chance for him. You saw what he drank at the funeral banquet. Well, he had the sense to feel that he had had enough, and was going home, when Medius must induce him to sup with him, and he drinks as much more. Then comes a day of heavy sleep and then another supper, at which, I am told, he tried to drain the great cup of Hercules, and fell back senseless on his couch. The next morning he could not rise; and to-day, too, he has kept his bed. But he saw his generals in the afternoon and talked to them about his plans. I understood from Perdiccas that he seemed weak, but was as clear in mind as ever. And now, my friends, I should recommend you not to leave Babylon till this matter is settled one way or another. If Alexander should die—which the gods forbid—there is no knowing what may happen; and there is a proverb which I, and I dare say you, have often found to be true, that the absent always have the worst of it.”
In obedience to this suggestion the two friends remained in Babylon, waiting anxiously for the development of events. On the second day after the conversation with Philip, recorded above, Charidemus met the admiral Nearchus,[78]as he was returning froman interview with the king. “How is he?” he asked. “I can hardly say,” replied the admiral. “To look at him, one would say that things were going very badly with him. But his energy is enormous. He had a long talk with me about the fleet. He knew everything; he foresaw everything. Sometimes his voice was so low that I could hardly hear him speak, but he never hesitated for a name or a fact. I believe that he knows the crew and the armament, and the stores of every ship in the fleet. And he seems to count on going. We are to start on the day after to-morrow. But it seems impossible.”
Three days more passed in the same way. The councils of war were still held, and the king showed the same lively interest in all preparations, and still talked as if he were intending to take a part himself in the expedition. Then came a change for the worse. It could no longer be doubted that the end was near, and the dying man was asked to whom he bequeathed his kingdom. “To the strongest,” he answered, and a faint smile played upon his lips as he said it. Afterwards an attendant heard him muttering to himself, “They will give me fine funeral games.”[79]The following day the generals came as usual; he knew them, but could not speak.
And now, human aid being despaired of, a final effort was made to get help from other powers. The desperately sick were sometimes brought into the temple of Serapis, the pleasure of the god having been first ascertained by a deputation of friends who spent the night in the temple. Accordingly seven of the chief officers of the army inquired of the deity whether he would that Alexander should be brought into the shrine. “Let him remain where he is,” was the answer given in some mysterious way; and the king was left to die in peace.
One thing, however, still remained to be done. The news of the king’s dangerous illness had spread through the army, and the men came thronging in tumultuous crowds about the gates of the palace. It was, too, impossible to quiet them. They would see him; they would know for themselves how he fared; if he was to be concealed, how could they be sure that some foul play was not being practised. The murmurs were too loud and angry, and the murmurers too powerful to be disregarded with impunity. The officers and a certain number of the soldiers, selected by their comrades, were to be admitted within the gates and into the sick chamber itself. It was a strange and pathetic sight. The dying king sat propped up with pillows on his couch. He had not, indeed, worn and wasted as were his features, the aspect of death. The fever had given a brilliance to his eyes and a flush to his cheek thatseemed full of life. And he knew his visitors. He had a truly royal memory for faces, and there was not one among the long lines of veterans, weeping most of them with all the abandonment of grief which southern nations permit themselves, whom he did not recognize. Speak he could not, though now and then his lips were seen to move, as though there were something that he was eager to say. When Charondas passed him he seemed to be specially moved. He bent his head slightly—for he could not beckon with his hands, long since become powerless—as if he would speak with him. The Theban bent down and listened intently. He could never afterwards feel sure whether he had heard a sound or guessed the word from the movements of the lips, but he always retained an absolute conviction that the king uttered, or at least formed in his breath, the word “Dionysus.” He had walked all his days in fear of the anger of the god. Now it had fallen upon him to the uttermost. Thebes was avenged by Babylon.
That evening the great conqueror died.
“There was some truth after all in what Arioch told us,” said Charidemus to his friend, about a week after the death of the king, “though I have always felt sure that the spirit which he pretended to consultwas a fraud. But was there not something which concerned ourselves?”
“Yes,” replied Charondas, “I remember the words well. ‘Happy are they who stand afar off and watch.’ And indeed it scarcely needs a soothsayer to tell us that.”
“You have heard, I dare say,” said Charidemus, “of what Alexander was heard to whisper to himself. ‘They will give me fine funeral games.’ Have you a mind to take part in these same games?”
“Not I,” replied his friend; “two or three of the big men will win great prizes, I doubt not; but little folk such as you and me will run great risk of being tripped up. But what are we to do?”
The Macedonian paused a few moments, “I have thought the matter over many times, and talked it over too with my wife, who has, if you will believe me, as sound a judgment as any of us. You see that standing out of the tumult, as I have been doing for the last five years and more, I have had, perhaps, better opportunities for seeing the matter on all sides. I always felt that if the king died young—and there was always too much reason to fear, quite apart from the chances of war, that he would—there would be a terrible struggle for the succession. No man living, I am sure, could take up the burden that he bore. Many a year will pass before the world sees another Alexander; but there will be kingdoms to be carved out of the empire. That I saw; and then I put tomyself the question, what I should do. It seemed to me that there would be no really safe resting-place where a man might enjoy his life in peace and quietness in either Macedonia or Greece. I sometimes thought that there would be no such place anywhere. And then I recollected a delightful spot where I spent some of the happiest months of my life, while you were with the king in Egypt, that inland sea in the country of the Jews. If there is to be a haven of rest anywhere, it will be there. What say you? are you willing to leave the world and spend the rest of your days there?”
“Yes,” said the Theban, “on conditions.”
“And what are these conditions?”
“They do not depend upon you, though you may possibly help me to obtain them.”
The conditions, as my readers may guess, were the consent of Miriam, the great-grand-daughter of Eleazar of Babylon, to share this retirement, and the approbation of her kinsfolk. These, not to prolong my story now that its main interest is over, were obtained without much difficulty. Eleazar was dead. Had he been alive, it is likely that he would have refused his consent, for he kept with no little strictness to the exclusive traditions of his race. His grandson and successor was more liberal, or, perhaps we should say, more latitudinarian in his views. Charondas bore a high reputation as a gallant and honourable man; and he had acquired alarge fortune, as any high officer in Alexander’s army could hardly fail to do, if he was gifted with ordinary prudence. A bag of jewels which he had brought back from India, and which were estimated as worth four hundred talents at the least, was one of the things, though it is only fair to say, not the chief thing that impressed the younger Eleazar in his favour. Miriam’s consent had virtually been given long before.
Charidemus and his wife had a painful parting with Barsiné. She recognized the wisdom of their choice; but she refused to share their retirement. “I must keep my son,” she said, “where his father placed him. Some day he may be called to succeed him, and his subjects must know where to find him.”[80]
In the spring of the following year the two householdswere happily established in two charming dwellings at the southern end of the Lake of Galilee. Though the friends never formally adopted the Jewish faith, they regarded it with such respect that they and their families became “Proselytes of the gate.”[81]It is needless to tell the story of their after lives. Let it suffice to say that these were singularly uneventful and singularly happy.
FOOTNOTES[1]“Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.”[2]About £20.[3]Philip, King of Macedonia, who by this time was very nearly master of Greece, had, it was said, consulted the Delphic oracle as to his plans, and had received from the priestess an answer which may be thus Englished:—“Craft may be baffled, force may fail,The silver spear shall still prevail.”To the king himself a witticism of similar import was attributed: “I have never found,” he said, “a citadel impregnable, into which I could send an ass laden with silver.”[4]This sentence was that the city of Thebes should be razed to the ground and all its territory distributed among the allies; that all the captive Thebans, with a few exceptions, should be sold as slaves; that all who had escaped might be arrested and put to death wherever they might be found.[5]Homer insists on thebeautyof Achilles.“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,Nireus, the fairest man that came to TroyOf all the Greeks,save Peleus’ blameless son.”[6]A complete description of the organization of the Macedonian army would be out of place in a book of this kind. Any reader who may be anxious to make himself acquainted with the subject will find it treated with much fulness in Grote’s “History of Greece” (vol. xii. pp. 75-89). For my purposes a brief outline will suffice. The Macedonian infantry consisted (1) of the Pezetæri, or Foot Companions, who made up the phalanx, of which I shall have occasion to say something hereafter; (2) the Hypaspistæ,i.e., “shield-bearers,” originally a bodyguard for the person of the king, but afterwards, as has been in the case of many modern armies, our own included, enlarged into a considerable force of light infantry; (3) irregular troops, javelin-throwers, archers, &c. A select corps of actual body-guards was chosen out of the Hypaspistæ. The horse was divided into (1) heavy cavalry, armed with axystonor thrusting pike; (2) light cavalry, who carried a lighter weapon. These may be called Lancers.[7]On the Hellespont, the nearest point of Europe to Asia.[8]When Lysander the Spartan was urged to destroy Athens, then at his mercy, he replied that he could not “put out one of the eyes of Greece!”[9]The names of the two were Charidemus and Ephialtes. Ephialtes was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus. Of Charidemus we shall hear again.[10]As a matter of fact Phocion was born in 401, and was therefore sixty-seven years old.[11]He was one of the “Royal Youths.” Q. Curtius gives this description of this corps: “It was the custom among the Macedonian nobles to hand over their grown-up sons to the king, for the performance of functions which differed but little from domestic service. They took it in turns to pass the night close to the door of the house in which the king slept. They received the king’s horses from the grooms, and brought them to him when he was ready to mount. They accompanied him when he hunted, and they stood close to him in battle. In return, they were carefully instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. They had the especial distinction of sitting down to meals with the king. No one but the king himself was allowed to inflict corporal punishment upon them. This company was the Macedonian training-ground for generals and officers.”[12]This soothsayer was Aristander, who was attached to the retinue of the king, and accompanied him in all his campaigns.[13]Chœrilus was a notoriously bad poet, to whom Alexander committed the task of celebrating his achievements, a curious contradiction, Horace thinks, to the discrimination which he showed in forbidding any one to paint his portrait except Apelles, or to make a statue of him except Lysippus. The joke about Chœrilus was that, having agreed to receive a gold piece for every good verse and a stripe for every bad one, the balance against him was so heavy that he was beaten to death.[14]The oracle had declared that the first of the Greeks who should leap on shore in the expedition against Troy would be slain. Protesilaüs, a Thessalian prince, unhesitatingly took the doom upon himself, leapt from his ship and was slain by Hector.[15]The animal was probably stupefied with drugs. Otherwise it is difficult to account for its standing still. It was considered a most disastrous omen when an ox attempted to escape, and the occurrence was probably rare. It must have happened very frequently unless some such means had been used to prevent it.[16]There was even then a fierce dispute about the site of Homer’s Troy. Curiously enough it has been recently renewed, but the reader need not be troubled with it either in its ancient or its modern form.[17]The phalanx was a development due to the military genius of Philip of Macedon on the tactics adopted by Epaminondas. This great Theban commander massed his troops in a heavy column which he brought to bear on one point of the enemy’s line. But the Theban column was powerless to deal with the phalanx. At Chæronea it was utterly broken by it, all the front rank soldiers falling on the ground. They were met by an impassablechevaux de frise. Polybius writes (the passage is a fragment of his twenty-ninth book): “The consul Lucius Æmilius [Paullus] had never seen a phalanx till he saw it in the army of Perseus on this occasion [the battle of Pydna]; and he often confessed to some of his friends at Rome subsequently that he had never beheld anything more alarming and terrible than the Macedonian phalanx; and yet he had been, if any one ever had, not only a spectator, but an actor in many battles.” It is interesting to note that the historian was himself one of the “friends at Rome,” to whom the great general related this experience. “It is impossible,” he writes elsewhere, “to confront a charge of the phalanx, so long as it retains its proper formation and strength.” But he goes on to show that it could not do this except when it could choose its own ground.[18]Historians are unusually well agreed about the total of the force which Alexander carried over into Asia. The highest numbers are 43,000 infantry and 6,500 cavalry; the lowest, 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.[19]By this phrase are meant the seven nobles who conspired to slay the Magian usurper, who, after the death of Cambyses, personated the dead Smerdis, and held the Persian throne for a few months. Darius, one of the seven, became king, but to his fellow-conspirators and their descendants certain privileges, as immunity from taxes and free access to the person of the king, were accorded in perpetuity.[20]The battle of the Granicus was fought on May 25th.[21]Parmenio had been in command of the other wing of the army.[22]A talent, I may remind my readers, was about equivalent to £200; a drachma to something less than tenpence, afranc, it may be said, for convenience of recollection, though, strictly speaking, the drachma and the franc stand in the proportions of 39 to 38.[23]The Taurus range may be said, speaking roughly, to be the eastern boundary of Lesser Asia.[24]The legend was that in the reign of this king a lion’s cub was born in some marvellous way, that an oracle declared that if the creature were carried round the fortifications of the city they never could be taken; that it was so carried round, but that when the bearers came to the citadel, it seemed so absurd that a place so strong could be in any danger of capture, the king ordered that it should not be carried any further. But this was the very place which was successfully attacked by the soldiers of Cyrus, when that king was besieging Crœsus the Lydian in his capital.[25]The Princess Ada was one of the five children of Hecatomnus, King of Caria, who was descended from the famous queen, “the Carian Artemisia, strong in war,” as Tennyson describes her, who fought at Salamis. It was the custom of the Carian reigning house (as it was afterwards of the Ptolemies, the Greek kings of Egypt) for brothers to marry sisters. Hecatomnus, dying in 379, was succeeded by his son Mausolus and his daughter Artemisia. Mausolus died in 352, and was succeeded by his widow. She reigned alone for two years, and was succeeded by Idrieus and Ada, her father’s second son and second daughter. Idrieus died 344, and Ada reigned alone, till in 340 she was expelled by her youngest brother, Pixodarus. The daughter of the usurper was married to a Persian noble who, on his father-in-law’s death in 335, received Caria as a satrapy.[26]“First in the large-experienced craft” is the title with which the writer or transcriber of his epitaph apostrophises him. I say “transcriber” because the epigram is found in the Greek Anthology as well as among the remains of Halicarnassus.[27]In the epitaph on Herodotus, it is said that he left Halicarnassus, his native town, to “escape from ridicule.”[28]“Let no one enter who knows not geometry,” was written on the door of the house in which Plato taught the chosen few. His popular lectures were addressed to much larger audiences.[29]These are allusions to the story in the Odyssey. It is “Memnon the god-like, the goodliest man in the host,” the “son of the Day-dawn light,” by whom Antilochus was slain. But the story is told by post-Homeric writers. Dictys Cretensis says, that Memnon came with an army of Ethiopians and Indians from Caucasus to Troy, that he slew Antilochus, when that hero tried to rescue his father the aged Nestor, and that he was himself slain by Achilles.[30]B.C.371.[31]Gibraltar.[32]This island was Britain, and is so described by the Massilian geographer Pytheas.[33]About £400.[34]Alexander did send such of his troops as were newly married to spend the winter of 334-3 at home, and made himself exceedingly popular by so doing.[35]ThePeploswas the sacred robe destined to adorn the statue of the goddess. It was carried, spread like a sail on a mast, much after the fashion of the banners used in processions now-a-days. It was embroidered with figures, the Battle of the Giants, in which Athené was represented as playing an important part, being one of the chief subjects. TheBasket-bearerswere maidens who carried baskets on their heads containing various sacred things used in the worship. It was necessary that they should be of unmixed Athenian descent, and the office was considered a great honour. Their hair was powdered; they carried strings of figs in their hands, and parasols were held over their heads.[36]It was aboutseventyfeet.[37]This was the crushing defeat which led to the capture of Athens and the termination of the Peloponnesian War.[38]The Lyceum was agymnasium,i.e., a place where athletic exercises were practised, in the eastern suburb of Athens, with covered walks round it. In the largest of these, called for distinction’s sakeThe Walk, Aristotle was accustomed to teach. It was thus that his school got the name of the “Peripatetics.”[39]Antipater, who was left in charge of Macedonia and the home provinces by Alexander when he started on his Asian expedition.[40]333B.C.[41]It was founded by Sardanapalus (Assur-bani-pal), built, according to the legend, along with Anchialus, in a single day.[42]Charidemus, it will be remembered, was one of the Athenians exiled at the demand of Alexander after the fall of Thebes. He had taken refuge with Darius.[43]The modern Thipsach (thePassage).[44]Three thousand talents, equivalent to about £600,000.[45]At Susa fifty thousand talents, or about £11,500,000, were found; at Persepolis one hundred and twenty thousand, or £27,600,000; huge sums, but nevertheless not equal to the amounts held in bullion and coin by the Banks of England and France.[46]Since Ahab (about 900B.C.) had made peace with Benhadad, King of Syria, on condition that he should have “streets” in Damascus, as Benhadad’s father had had them in Samaria.[47]Tyre stood a siege of nearly thirteen years from Nebuchadnezzar’s army, but was at last compelled to capitulate. “Her prestige and her commerce dwindled; she was not allowed to rebuild her suburb upon the mainland (Palæ-tyrus), which remained in ruins till the time of Alexander; and she lost for a time the leading position among Phœnician cities, which seems to have passed to Sidon.” (Professor Rawlinson’s “Phœnicia,” pp. 173-4.)[48]Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, hurled the young Scamandrius or Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromaché, from the walls of Troy.[49]Very possibly this had something to do with the extravagancies of his later years, when he assumed the Persian dress, lived in Persian fashion, and even demanded Oriental prostrations from his attendants. The attempt which he made to combine Macedonian and Persian soldiers in the phalanx was certainly a part of the same scheme.[50]This was by the caravan road from Damascus to Egypt. The road crossed the Jordan at the north of the Lake of Galilee, and then struck westward across the country till it reached the Maritime Plain. Somewhere about Joppa a traveller to Jerusalem left the caravan road turning eastward to make his way up to Jerusalem. The distance would be 136 miles.[51]According to Herodotus (viii. 97) the work was commenced as a blind to conceal from the Greeks and from his own people the king’s resolution to return to Asia, after his defeat at Salamis.[52]Thirteen years.[53]This was not, as my readers may fancy, an anticipation of Peter the Great’s sojourn at Deptford, for the purpose of learning the art of shipbuilding. Abdalonymus (Abd-Elomin, “servant of the gods”), whom Hephaestion, acting for Alexander, had made King of Sidon, though of royal descent, was a working man (“on account of his poverty he cultivated a garden near the city for a humble remuneration,” says Curtius), and his son may well have gone to work for his livelihood in the dockyards of Tyre.[54]When Tyre was taken the crews of the Sidonian galleys did actually rescue a number of the inhabitants, who would otherwise have been slain or sold into captivity.[55]Herodotus says it was of emerald, but Sir J. G. Wilkinson (in Prof. Rawlinson’s “Herodotus”) notes that it was doubtless of green glass, glass having been manufactured in Egypt even thousands of years before the time of Herodotus.[56]Nearly two hundred miles.[57]Democedes was a physician of Crotona, whose services were engaged by the cities of Ægina and Athens and by Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos, in succession, at increasing salaries (£344, £406, £487 10s.). He was taken prisoner in company with Polycrates and sent up to Susa. Here he remained for a time unnoticed among the king’s slaves. Darius chanced to sprain his ankle, in leaping from his horse, and the Egyptian physicians who were called in failed to effect a cure. Some courtier had chanced to hear that Polycrates had had a famous physician in attendance on him, and suggested that his advice should be asked. He was brought as he was, “clothed in rags and clanking his chains,” into the king’s presence. It was only under threat of torture that he confessed his knowledge of medicine. But he treated the injury with success, and was amply rewarded, the king giving him two pairs of golden chains, and each of the royal wives dipping a saucer into a chest of gold coins and pouring the contents into his hands so bountifully that the slave who followed him was enriched by the stray pieces. He afterwards healed Atossa, Darius’s principal queen, of a dangerous carbuncle. By a stratagem which I have not space here to describe he got back to his native city, where he married the daughter of the great athlete Milo, and finally settled.[58]About £1,220.[59]Between two and three in the morning.[60]“Its name,” says Curtius, “is given to it from its rapidity, for in the Persian tongue Tigris is the word for an arrow” (iv. 9, 16). The Biblical word Chiddekel or Hiddekel (Genesis ii. 14) is said to be compounded of two formsChidorHid, “river,” anddekelan arrow.[61]NowErbil, a station on the caravan-route between Erzeroum and Baghdad.[62]So Arrian says, writing with the two contemporary memoirs of Alexander’s generals before him. These two were Ptolemy, afterwards King of Egypt, and Aristobulus, a soldier of considerable repute.[63]Now called the Great Zab.[64]Susa was the official capital of the kingdom; Babylon, though fallen somewhat from its former greatness, was still the largest city. One might compare them to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but that Moscow is intensely Russian in feeling, while Babylon was probably strong by Anti-Persian. It had not forgotten its own independence, an independence which it tried more than once to assert by arms.[65]That described in 2 Kings xxiv. 13-16 as having happened in the eighth year of Jehoiachin (B.C.602).[66]It seems probable that Astyages is to be identified with “Darius the Mede” mentioned in the Book of Daniel as succeeding to the government of Babylon after the death of Belshazzar.[67]Five “darics” would be about equal to about £5 10s. The coin got its name from the first Darius.[68]The walls of Babylon were built of brick.[69]Not even by Cortes and his Spaniards in the newly-conquered Mexico, or by Pizarro in the still richer Peru.[70]Equal to about eleven millions and a half. Two-thirds were in uncoined gold and silver; the rest in gold darics. The average stock of bullion and coin held by the Bank of England is about half as much again.[71]The phrase is taken from the historian Curtius.[72]About £150.[73]We may compare, as a somewhat similar incident in modern times, the plunder of the Chinese Emperor’s Summer Palace in Pekin in the Chinese War of 1860. Happily modern feelings forbade the massacre which accompanied the spoil of Persepolis; but the destruction of the palace was a distinct act of vengeance on the wanton aggression and the brutality of the Chinese ruler, who was personally punished by the loss of his palace, just as the Persians were punished by the destruction of their metropolis. A famous English poem, Dryden’s “Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day,” attributes the destruction of Persepolis to a drunken freak of Alexander; but there is no doubt that it was a deliberate act. Curtius speaks of it as having been proposed at a council of war, and other historians mention the unavailing resistance of Parmenio.[74]Nine o’clock at night. The time of year seems to have been July.[75]Maracanda is the modern Samarcand.[76]The kingdom of Porus consisted of the eastern portion of the Punjaub. The Hydaspes is the Djalan or Jelam, sometimes called Behât.[77]This may be reckoned to have been midsummer in the year 326B.C.He reached Susa in the winter of 324. But the chronology of the latter part of the campaign is uncertain.[78]Nearchus had been in command of the fleet which had taken part in Alexander’s operations in the further East, and he was now about to command it again in the expedition which was about to be made against Arabia.[79]The funeral games would be the wars fought by his successors to determine who was the “strongest,” named as the legatee of his power. The prediction was amply fulfilled.[80]As this child does not come into my story, a few words may be given to describe his fate. The name given to him was Heracles, Heracles being the Greek divinity with whom the Tyrian Melkarth was commonly identified. Brought up by his mother in the retirement described above, he was mentioned as a possible successor after Alexander’s death. The proposition met with no favour at the time, but eleven years later his claims were advanced by Polysperchon, one of the generals who engaged in the struggle for the fragments of Alexander’s empire. He was persuaded to leave his retirement, and, as being the only surviving child of the emperor, seemed likely to become an important person. Cassander, who had usurped the throne of Macedonia, marched against Polysperchon, who had the young prince and his mother in his camp, but found his troops unwilling to act against Alexander’s son. He proceeded to bribe Polysperchon with the offer of the government of the Peloponnese, if he would abandon the young man’s cause. Polysperchon caused him to be murdered, and Barsiné with him.[81]“The Rabbins distinguish two classes of proselytes, viz.,proselytes of righteousness, who received circumcision, and bound themselves to keep the whole Mosaic law, and to comply with all the requirements of Judaism, andproselytes of the gate, who dwelt among the Jews, and although uncircumcised, observed certain specified laws, especially the seven precepts of Noah (as the Rabbins called them),i.e., against the seven chief sins, idolatry, blasphemy against God, parricide, unchastity, theft or plundering, rebellion against rulers, and the use of ‘flesh with the blood thereof.’”
[1]“Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.”
[1]“Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.”
[2]About £20.
[2]About £20.
[3]Philip, King of Macedonia, who by this time was very nearly master of Greece, had, it was said, consulted the Delphic oracle as to his plans, and had received from the priestess an answer which may be thus Englished:—“Craft may be baffled, force may fail,The silver spear shall still prevail.”To the king himself a witticism of similar import was attributed: “I have never found,” he said, “a citadel impregnable, into which I could send an ass laden with silver.”
[3]Philip, King of Macedonia, who by this time was very nearly master of Greece, had, it was said, consulted the Delphic oracle as to his plans, and had received from the priestess an answer which may be thus Englished:—
“Craft may be baffled, force may fail,The silver spear shall still prevail.”
“Craft may be baffled, force may fail,The silver spear shall still prevail.”
“Craft may be baffled, force may fail,
The silver spear shall still prevail.”
To the king himself a witticism of similar import was attributed: “I have never found,” he said, “a citadel impregnable, into which I could send an ass laden with silver.”
[4]This sentence was that the city of Thebes should be razed to the ground and all its territory distributed among the allies; that all the captive Thebans, with a few exceptions, should be sold as slaves; that all who had escaped might be arrested and put to death wherever they might be found.
[4]This sentence was that the city of Thebes should be razed to the ground and all its territory distributed among the allies; that all the captive Thebans, with a few exceptions, should be sold as slaves; that all who had escaped might be arrested and put to death wherever they might be found.
[5]Homer insists on thebeautyof Achilles.“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,Nireus, the fairest man that came to TroyOf all the Greeks,save Peleus’ blameless son.”
[5]Homer insists on thebeautyof Achilles.
“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,Nireus, the fairest man that came to TroyOf all the Greeks,save Peleus’ blameless son.”
“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,Nireus, the fairest man that came to TroyOf all the Greeks,save Peleus’ blameless son.”
“Nireus from Syma brought three balanced ships,
Nireus, the fairest man that came to Troy
Of all the Greeks,save Peleus’ blameless son.”
[6]A complete description of the organization of the Macedonian army would be out of place in a book of this kind. Any reader who may be anxious to make himself acquainted with the subject will find it treated with much fulness in Grote’s “History of Greece” (vol. xii. pp. 75-89). For my purposes a brief outline will suffice. The Macedonian infantry consisted (1) of the Pezetæri, or Foot Companions, who made up the phalanx, of which I shall have occasion to say something hereafter; (2) the Hypaspistæ,i.e., “shield-bearers,” originally a bodyguard for the person of the king, but afterwards, as has been in the case of many modern armies, our own included, enlarged into a considerable force of light infantry; (3) irregular troops, javelin-throwers, archers, &c. A select corps of actual body-guards was chosen out of the Hypaspistæ. The horse was divided into (1) heavy cavalry, armed with axystonor thrusting pike; (2) light cavalry, who carried a lighter weapon. These may be called Lancers.
[6]A complete description of the organization of the Macedonian army would be out of place in a book of this kind. Any reader who may be anxious to make himself acquainted with the subject will find it treated with much fulness in Grote’s “History of Greece” (vol. xii. pp. 75-89). For my purposes a brief outline will suffice. The Macedonian infantry consisted (1) of the Pezetæri, or Foot Companions, who made up the phalanx, of which I shall have occasion to say something hereafter; (2) the Hypaspistæ,i.e., “shield-bearers,” originally a bodyguard for the person of the king, but afterwards, as has been in the case of many modern armies, our own included, enlarged into a considerable force of light infantry; (3) irregular troops, javelin-throwers, archers, &c. A select corps of actual body-guards was chosen out of the Hypaspistæ. The horse was divided into (1) heavy cavalry, armed with axystonor thrusting pike; (2) light cavalry, who carried a lighter weapon. These may be called Lancers.
[7]On the Hellespont, the nearest point of Europe to Asia.
[7]On the Hellespont, the nearest point of Europe to Asia.
[8]When Lysander the Spartan was urged to destroy Athens, then at his mercy, he replied that he could not “put out one of the eyes of Greece!”
[8]When Lysander the Spartan was urged to destroy Athens, then at his mercy, he replied that he could not “put out one of the eyes of Greece!”
[9]The names of the two were Charidemus and Ephialtes. Ephialtes was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus. Of Charidemus we shall hear again.
[9]The names of the two were Charidemus and Ephialtes. Ephialtes was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus. Of Charidemus we shall hear again.
[10]As a matter of fact Phocion was born in 401, and was therefore sixty-seven years old.
[10]As a matter of fact Phocion was born in 401, and was therefore sixty-seven years old.
[11]He was one of the “Royal Youths.” Q. Curtius gives this description of this corps: “It was the custom among the Macedonian nobles to hand over their grown-up sons to the king, for the performance of functions which differed but little from domestic service. They took it in turns to pass the night close to the door of the house in which the king slept. They received the king’s horses from the grooms, and brought them to him when he was ready to mount. They accompanied him when he hunted, and they stood close to him in battle. In return, they were carefully instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. They had the especial distinction of sitting down to meals with the king. No one but the king himself was allowed to inflict corporal punishment upon them. This company was the Macedonian training-ground for generals and officers.”
[11]He was one of the “Royal Youths.” Q. Curtius gives this description of this corps: “It was the custom among the Macedonian nobles to hand over their grown-up sons to the king, for the performance of functions which differed but little from domestic service. They took it in turns to pass the night close to the door of the house in which the king slept. They received the king’s horses from the grooms, and brought them to him when he was ready to mount. They accompanied him when he hunted, and they stood close to him in battle. In return, they were carefully instructed in all the branches of a liberal education. They had the especial distinction of sitting down to meals with the king. No one but the king himself was allowed to inflict corporal punishment upon them. This company was the Macedonian training-ground for generals and officers.”
[12]This soothsayer was Aristander, who was attached to the retinue of the king, and accompanied him in all his campaigns.
[12]This soothsayer was Aristander, who was attached to the retinue of the king, and accompanied him in all his campaigns.
[13]Chœrilus was a notoriously bad poet, to whom Alexander committed the task of celebrating his achievements, a curious contradiction, Horace thinks, to the discrimination which he showed in forbidding any one to paint his portrait except Apelles, or to make a statue of him except Lysippus. The joke about Chœrilus was that, having agreed to receive a gold piece for every good verse and a stripe for every bad one, the balance against him was so heavy that he was beaten to death.
[13]Chœrilus was a notoriously bad poet, to whom Alexander committed the task of celebrating his achievements, a curious contradiction, Horace thinks, to the discrimination which he showed in forbidding any one to paint his portrait except Apelles, or to make a statue of him except Lysippus. The joke about Chœrilus was that, having agreed to receive a gold piece for every good verse and a stripe for every bad one, the balance against him was so heavy that he was beaten to death.
[14]The oracle had declared that the first of the Greeks who should leap on shore in the expedition against Troy would be slain. Protesilaüs, a Thessalian prince, unhesitatingly took the doom upon himself, leapt from his ship and was slain by Hector.
[14]The oracle had declared that the first of the Greeks who should leap on shore in the expedition against Troy would be slain. Protesilaüs, a Thessalian prince, unhesitatingly took the doom upon himself, leapt from his ship and was slain by Hector.
[15]The animal was probably stupefied with drugs. Otherwise it is difficult to account for its standing still. It was considered a most disastrous omen when an ox attempted to escape, and the occurrence was probably rare. It must have happened very frequently unless some such means had been used to prevent it.
[15]The animal was probably stupefied with drugs. Otherwise it is difficult to account for its standing still. It was considered a most disastrous omen when an ox attempted to escape, and the occurrence was probably rare. It must have happened very frequently unless some such means had been used to prevent it.
[16]There was even then a fierce dispute about the site of Homer’s Troy. Curiously enough it has been recently renewed, but the reader need not be troubled with it either in its ancient or its modern form.
[16]There was even then a fierce dispute about the site of Homer’s Troy. Curiously enough it has been recently renewed, but the reader need not be troubled with it either in its ancient or its modern form.
[17]The phalanx was a development due to the military genius of Philip of Macedon on the tactics adopted by Epaminondas. This great Theban commander massed his troops in a heavy column which he brought to bear on one point of the enemy’s line. But the Theban column was powerless to deal with the phalanx. At Chæronea it was utterly broken by it, all the front rank soldiers falling on the ground. They were met by an impassablechevaux de frise. Polybius writes (the passage is a fragment of his twenty-ninth book): “The consul Lucius Æmilius [Paullus] had never seen a phalanx till he saw it in the army of Perseus on this occasion [the battle of Pydna]; and he often confessed to some of his friends at Rome subsequently that he had never beheld anything more alarming and terrible than the Macedonian phalanx; and yet he had been, if any one ever had, not only a spectator, but an actor in many battles.” It is interesting to note that the historian was himself one of the “friends at Rome,” to whom the great general related this experience. “It is impossible,” he writes elsewhere, “to confront a charge of the phalanx, so long as it retains its proper formation and strength.” But he goes on to show that it could not do this except when it could choose its own ground.
[17]The phalanx was a development due to the military genius of Philip of Macedon on the tactics adopted by Epaminondas. This great Theban commander massed his troops in a heavy column which he brought to bear on one point of the enemy’s line. But the Theban column was powerless to deal with the phalanx. At Chæronea it was utterly broken by it, all the front rank soldiers falling on the ground. They were met by an impassablechevaux de frise. Polybius writes (the passage is a fragment of his twenty-ninth book): “The consul Lucius Æmilius [Paullus] had never seen a phalanx till he saw it in the army of Perseus on this occasion [the battle of Pydna]; and he often confessed to some of his friends at Rome subsequently that he had never beheld anything more alarming and terrible than the Macedonian phalanx; and yet he had been, if any one ever had, not only a spectator, but an actor in many battles.” It is interesting to note that the historian was himself one of the “friends at Rome,” to whom the great general related this experience. “It is impossible,” he writes elsewhere, “to confront a charge of the phalanx, so long as it retains its proper formation and strength.” But he goes on to show that it could not do this except when it could choose its own ground.
[18]Historians are unusually well agreed about the total of the force which Alexander carried over into Asia. The highest numbers are 43,000 infantry and 6,500 cavalry; the lowest, 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.
[18]Historians are unusually well agreed about the total of the force which Alexander carried over into Asia. The highest numbers are 43,000 infantry and 6,500 cavalry; the lowest, 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.
[19]By this phrase are meant the seven nobles who conspired to slay the Magian usurper, who, after the death of Cambyses, personated the dead Smerdis, and held the Persian throne for a few months. Darius, one of the seven, became king, but to his fellow-conspirators and their descendants certain privileges, as immunity from taxes and free access to the person of the king, were accorded in perpetuity.
[19]By this phrase are meant the seven nobles who conspired to slay the Magian usurper, who, after the death of Cambyses, personated the dead Smerdis, and held the Persian throne for a few months. Darius, one of the seven, became king, but to his fellow-conspirators and their descendants certain privileges, as immunity from taxes and free access to the person of the king, were accorded in perpetuity.
[20]The battle of the Granicus was fought on May 25th.
[20]The battle of the Granicus was fought on May 25th.
[21]Parmenio had been in command of the other wing of the army.
[21]Parmenio had been in command of the other wing of the army.
[22]A talent, I may remind my readers, was about equivalent to £200; a drachma to something less than tenpence, afranc, it may be said, for convenience of recollection, though, strictly speaking, the drachma and the franc stand in the proportions of 39 to 38.
[22]A talent, I may remind my readers, was about equivalent to £200; a drachma to something less than tenpence, afranc, it may be said, for convenience of recollection, though, strictly speaking, the drachma and the franc stand in the proportions of 39 to 38.
[23]The Taurus range may be said, speaking roughly, to be the eastern boundary of Lesser Asia.
[23]The Taurus range may be said, speaking roughly, to be the eastern boundary of Lesser Asia.
[24]The legend was that in the reign of this king a lion’s cub was born in some marvellous way, that an oracle declared that if the creature were carried round the fortifications of the city they never could be taken; that it was so carried round, but that when the bearers came to the citadel, it seemed so absurd that a place so strong could be in any danger of capture, the king ordered that it should not be carried any further. But this was the very place which was successfully attacked by the soldiers of Cyrus, when that king was besieging Crœsus the Lydian in his capital.
[24]The legend was that in the reign of this king a lion’s cub was born in some marvellous way, that an oracle declared that if the creature were carried round the fortifications of the city they never could be taken; that it was so carried round, but that when the bearers came to the citadel, it seemed so absurd that a place so strong could be in any danger of capture, the king ordered that it should not be carried any further. But this was the very place which was successfully attacked by the soldiers of Cyrus, when that king was besieging Crœsus the Lydian in his capital.
[25]The Princess Ada was one of the five children of Hecatomnus, King of Caria, who was descended from the famous queen, “the Carian Artemisia, strong in war,” as Tennyson describes her, who fought at Salamis. It was the custom of the Carian reigning house (as it was afterwards of the Ptolemies, the Greek kings of Egypt) for brothers to marry sisters. Hecatomnus, dying in 379, was succeeded by his son Mausolus and his daughter Artemisia. Mausolus died in 352, and was succeeded by his widow. She reigned alone for two years, and was succeeded by Idrieus and Ada, her father’s second son and second daughter. Idrieus died 344, and Ada reigned alone, till in 340 she was expelled by her youngest brother, Pixodarus. The daughter of the usurper was married to a Persian noble who, on his father-in-law’s death in 335, received Caria as a satrapy.
[25]The Princess Ada was one of the five children of Hecatomnus, King of Caria, who was descended from the famous queen, “the Carian Artemisia, strong in war,” as Tennyson describes her, who fought at Salamis. It was the custom of the Carian reigning house (as it was afterwards of the Ptolemies, the Greek kings of Egypt) for brothers to marry sisters. Hecatomnus, dying in 379, was succeeded by his son Mausolus and his daughter Artemisia. Mausolus died in 352, and was succeeded by his widow. She reigned alone for two years, and was succeeded by Idrieus and Ada, her father’s second son and second daughter. Idrieus died 344, and Ada reigned alone, till in 340 she was expelled by her youngest brother, Pixodarus. The daughter of the usurper was married to a Persian noble who, on his father-in-law’s death in 335, received Caria as a satrapy.
[26]“First in the large-experienced craft” is the title with which the writer or transcriber of his epitaph apostrophises him. I say “transcriber” because the epigram is found in the Greek Anthology as well as among the remains of Halicarnassus.
[26]“First in the large-experienced craft” is the title with which the writer or transcriber of his epitaph apostrophises him. I say “transcriber” because the epigram is found in the Greek Anthology as well as among the remains of Halicarnassus.
[27]In the epitaph on Herodotus, it is said that he left Halicarnassus, his native town, to “escape from ridicule.”
[27]In the epitaph on Herodotus, it is said that he left Halicarnassus, his native town, to “escape from ridicule.”
[28]“Let no one enter who knows not geometry,” was written on the door of the house in which Plato taught the chosen few. His popular lectures were addressed to much larger audiences.
[28]“Let no one enter who knows not geometry,” was written on the door of the house in which Plato taught the chosen few. His popular lectures were addressed to much larger audiences.
[29]These are allusions to the story in the Odyssey. It is “Memnon the god-like, the goodliest man in the host,” the “son of the Day-dawn light,” by whom Antilochus was slain. But the story is told by post-Homeric writers. Dictys Cretensis says, that Memnon came with an army of Ethiopians and Indians from Caucasus to Troy, that he slew Antilochus, when that hero tried to rescue his father the aged Nestor, and that he was himself slain by Achilles.
[29]These are allusions to the story in the Odyssey. It is “Memnon the god-like, the goodliest man in the host,” the “son of the Day-dawn light,” by whom Antilochus was slain. But the story is told by post-Homeric writers. Dictys Cretensis says, that Memnon came with an army of Ethiopians and Indians from Caucasus to Troy, that he slew Antilochus, when that hero tried to rescue his father the aged Nestor, and that he was himself slain by Achilles.
[30]B.C.371.
[30]B.C.371.
[31]Gibraltar.
[31]Gibraltar.
[32]This island was Britain, and is so described by the Massilian geographer Pytheas.
[32]This island was Britain, and is so described by the Massilian geographer Pytheas.
[33]About £400.
[33]About £400.
[34]Alexander did send such of his troops as were newly married to spend the winter of 334-3 at home, and made himself exceedingly popular by so doing.
[34]Alexander did send such of his troops as were newly married to spend the winter of 334-3 at home, and made himself exceedingly popular by so doing.
[35]ThePeploswas the sacred robe destined to adorn the statue of the goddess. It was carried, spread like a sail on a mast, much after the fashion of the banners used in processions now-a-days. It was embroidered with figures, the Battle of the Giants, in which Athené was represented as playing an important part, being one of the chief subjects. TheBasket-bearerswere maidens who carried baskets on their heads containing various sacred things used in the worship. It was necessary that they should be of unmixed Athenian descent, and the office was considered a great honour. Their hair was powdered; they carried strings of figs in their hands, and parasols were held over their heads.
[35]ThePeploswas the sacred robe destined to adorn the statue of the goddess. It was carried, spread like a sail on a mast, much after the fashion of the banners used in processions now-a-days. It was embroidered with figures, the Battle of the Giants, in which Athené was represented as playing an important part, being one of the chief subjects. TheBasket-bearerswere maidens who carried baskets on their heads containing various sacred things used in the worship. It was necessary that they should be of unmixed Athenian descent, and the office was considered a great honour. Their hair was powdered; they carried strings of figs in their hands, and parasols were held over their heads.
[36]It was aboutseventyfeet.
[36]It was aboutseventyfeet.
[37]This was the crushing defeat which led to the capture of Athens and the termination of the Peloponnesian War.
[37]This was the crushing defeat which led to the capture of Athens and the termination of the Peloponnesian War.
[38]The Lyceum was agymnasium,i.e., a place where athletic exercises were practised, in the eastern suburb of Athens, with covered walks round it. In the largest of these, called for distinction’s sakeThe Walk, Aristotle was accustomed to teach. It was thus that his school got the name of the “Peripatetics.”
[38]The Lyceum was agymnasium,i.e., a place where athletic exercises were practised, in the eastern suburb of Athens, with covered walks round it. In the largest of these, called for distinction’s sakeThe Walk, Aristotle was accustomed to teach. It was thus that his school got the name of the “Peripatetics.”
[39]Antipater, who was left in charge of Macedonia and the home provinces by Alexander when he started on his Asian expedition.
[39]Antipater, who was left in charge of Macedonia and the home provinces by Alexander when he started on his Asian expedition.
[40]333B.C.
[40]333B.C.
[41]It was founded by Sardanapalus (Assur-bani-pal), built, according to the legend, along with Anchialus, in a single day.
[41]It was founded by Sardanapalus (Assur-bani-pal), built, according to the legend, along with Anchialus, in a single day.
[42]Charidemus, it will be remembered, was one of the Athenians exiled at the demand of Alexander after the fall of Thebes. He had taken refuge with Darius.
[42]Charidemus, it will be remembered, was one of the Athenians exiled at the demand of Alexander after the fall of Thebes. He had taken refuge with Darius.
[43]The modern Thipsach (thePassage).
[43]The modern Thipsach (thePassage).
[44]Three thousand talents, equivalent to about £600,000.
[44]Three thousand talents, equivalent to about £600,000.
[45]At Susa fifty thousand talents, or about £11,500,000, were found; at Persepolis one hundred and twenty thousand, or £27,600,000; huge sums, but nevertheless not equal to the amounts held in bullion and coin by the Banks of England and France.
[45]At Susa fifty thousand talents, or about £11,500,000, were found; at Persepolis one hundred and twenty thousand, or £27,600,000; huge sums, but nevertheless not equal to the amounts held in bullion and coin by the Banks of England and France.
[46]Since Ahab (about 900B.C.) had made peace with Benhadad, King of Syria, on condition that he should have “streets” in Damascus, as Benhadad’s father had had them in Samaria.
[46]Since Ahab (about 900B.C.) had made peace with Benhadad, King of Syria, on condition that he should have “streets” in Damascus, as Benhadad’s father had had them in Samaria.
[47]Tyre stood a siege of nearly thirteen years from Nebuchadnezzar’s army, but was at last compelled to capitulate. “Her prestige and her commerce dwindled; she was not allowed to rebuild her suburb upon the mainland (Palæ-tyrus), which remained in ruins till the time of Alexander; and she lost for a time the leading position among Phœnician cities, which seems to have passed to Sidon.” (Professor Rawlinson’s “Phœnicia,” pp. 173-4.)
[47]Tyre stood a siege of nearly thirteen years from Nebuchadnezzar’s army, but was at last compelled to capitulate. “Her prestige and her commerce dwindled; she was not allowed to rebuild her suburb upon the mainland (Palæ-tyrus), which remained in ruins till the time of Alexander; and she lost for a time the leading position among Phœnician cities, which seems to have passed to Sidon.” (Professor Rawlinson’s “Phœnicia,” pp. 173-4.)
[48]Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, hurled the young Scamandrius or Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromaché, from the walls of Troy.
[48]Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, hurled the young Scamandrius or Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromaché, from the walls of Troy.
[49]Very possibly this had something to do with the extravagancies of his later years, when he assumed the Persian dress, lived in Persian fashion, and even demanded Oriental prostrations from his attendants. The attempt which he made to combine Macedonian and Persian soldiers in the phalanx was certainly a part of the same scheme.
[49]Very possibly this had something to do with the extravagancies of his later years, when he assumed the Persian dress, lived in Persian fashion, and even demanded Oriental prostrations from his attendants. The attempt which he made to combine Macedonian and Persian soldiers in the phalanx was certainly a part of the same scheme.
[50]This was by the caravan road from Damascus to Egypt. The road crossed the Jordan at the north of the Lake of Galilee, and then struck westward across the country till it reached the Maritime Plain. Somewhere about Joppa a traveller to Jerusalem left the caravan road turning eastward to make his way up to Jerusalem. The distance would be 136 miles.
[50]This was by the caravan road from Damascus to Egypt. The road crossed the Jordan at the north of the Lake of Galilee, and then struck westward across the country till it reached the Maritime Plain. Somewhere about Joppa a traveller to Jerusalem left the caravan road turning eastward to make his way up to Jerusalem. The distance would be 136 miles.
[51]According to Herodotus (viii. 97) the work was commenced as a blind to conceal from the Greeks and from his own people the king’s resolution to return to Asia, after his defeat at Salamis.
[51]According to Herodotus (viii. 97) the work was commenced as a blind to conceal from the Greeks and from his own people the king’s resolution to return to Asia, after his defeat at Salamis.
[52]Thirteen years.
[52]Thirteen years.
[53]This was not, as my readers may fancy, an anticipation of Peter the Great’s sojourn at Deptford, for the purpose of learning the art of shipbuilding. Abdalonymus (Abd-Elomin, “servant of the gods”), whom Hephaestion, acting for Alexander, had made King of Sidon, though of royal descent, was a working man (“on account of his poverty he cultivated a garden near the city for a humble remuneration,” says Curtius), and his son may well have gone to work for his livelihood in the dockyards of Tyre.
[53]This was not, as my readers may fancy, an anticipation of Peter the Great’s sojourn at Deptford, for the purpose of learning the art of shipbuilding. Abdalonymus (Abd-Elomin, “servant of the gods”), whom Hephaestion, acting for Alexander, had made King of Sidon, though of royal descent, was a working man (“on account of his poverty he cultivated a garden near the city for a humble remuneration,” says Curtius), and his son may well have gone to work for his livelihood in the dockyards of Tyre.
[54]When Tyre was taken the crews of the Sidonian galleys did actually rescue a number of the inhabitants, who would otherwise have been slain or sold into captivity.
[54]When Tyre was taken the crews of the Sidonian galleys did actually rescue a number of the inhabitants, who would otherwise have been slain or sold into captivity.
[55]Herodotus says it was of emerald, but Sir J. G. Wilkinson (in Prof. Rawlinson’s “Herodotus”) notes that it was doubtless of green glass, glass having been manufactured in Egypt even thousands of years before the time of Herodotus.
[55]Herodotus says it was of emerald, but Sir J. G. Wilkinson (in Prof. Rawlinson’s “Herodotus”) notes that it was doubtless of green glass, glass having been manufactured in Egypt even thousands of years before the time of Herodotus.
[56]Nearly two hundred miles.
[56]Nearly two hundred miles.
[57]Democedes was a physician of Crotona, whose services were engaged by the cities of Ægina and Athens and by Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos, in succession, at increasing salaries (£344, £406, £487 10s.). He was taken prisoner in company with Polycrates and sent up to Susa. Here he remained for a time unnoticed among the king’s slaves. Darius chanced to sprain his ankle, in leaping from his horse, and the Egyptian physicians who were called in failed to effect a cure. Some courtier had chanced to hear that Polycrates had had a famous physician in attendance on him, and suggested that his advice should be asked. He was brought as he was, “clothed in rags and clanking his chains,” into the king’s presence. It was only under threat of torture that he confessed his knowledge of medicine. But he treated the injury with success, and was amply rewarded, the king giving him two pairs of golden chains, and each of the royal wives dipping a saucer into a chest of gold coins and pouring the contents into his hands so bountifully that the slave who followed him was enriched by the stray pieces. He afterwards healed Atossa, Darius’s principal queen, of a dangerous carbuncle. By a stratagem which I have not space here to describe he got back to his native city, where he married the daughter of the great athlete Milo, and finally settled.
[57]Democedes was a physician of Crotona, whose services were engaged by the cities of Ægina and Athens and by Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos, in succession, at increasing salaries (£344, £406, £487 10s.). He was taken prisoner in company with Polycrates and sent up to Susa. Here he remained for a time unnoticed among the king’s slaves. Darius chanced to sprain his ankle, in leaping from his horse, and the Egyptian physicians who were called in failed to effect a cure. Some courtier had chanced to hear that Polycrates had had a famous physician in attendance on him, and suggested that his advice should be asked. He was brought as he was, “clothed in rags and clanking his chains,” into the king’s presence. It was only under threat of torture that he confessed his knowledge of medicine. But he treated the injury with success, and was amply rewarded, the king giving him two pairs of golden chains, and each of the royal wives dipping a saucer into a chest of gold coins and pouring the contents into his hands so bountifully that the slave who followed him was enriched by the stray pieces. He afterwards healed Atossa, Darius’s principal queen, of a dangerous carbuncle. By a stratagem which I have not space here to describe he got back to his native city, where he married the daughter of the great athlete Milo, and finally settled.
[58]About £1,220.
[58]About £1,220.
[59]Between two and three in the morning.
[59]Between two and three in the morning.
[60]“Its name,” says Curtius, “is given to it from its rapidity, for in the Persian tongue Tigris is the word for an arrow” (iv. 9, 16). The Biblical word Chiddekel or Hiddekel (Genesis ii. 14) is said to be compounded of two formsChidorHid, “river,” anddekelan arrow.
[60]“Its name,” says Curtius, “is given to it from its rapidity, for in the Persian tongue Tigris is the word for an arrow” (iv. 9, 16). The Biblical word Chiddekel or Hiddekel (Genesis ii. 14) is said to be compounded of two formsChidorHid, “river,” anddekelan arrow.
[61]NowErbil, a station on the caravan-route between Erzeroum and Baghdad.
[61]NowErbil, a station on the caravan-route between Erzeroum and Baghdad.
[62]So Arrian says, writing with the two contemporary memoirs of Alexander’s generals before him. These two were Ptolemy, afterwards King of Egypt, and Aristobulus, a soldier of considerable repute.
[62]So Arrian says, writing with the two contemporary memoirs of Alexander’s generals before him. These two were Ptolemy, afterwards King of Egypt, and Aristobulus, a soldier of considerable repute.
[63]Now called the Great Zab.
[63]Now called the Great Zab.
[64]Susa was the official capital of the kingdom; Babylon, though fallen somewhat from its former greatness, was still the largest city. One might compare them to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but that Moscow is intensely Russian in feeling, while Babylon was probably strong by Anti-Persian. It had not forgotten its own independence, an independence which it tried more than once to assert by arms.
[64]Susa was the official capital of the kingdom; Babylon, though fallen somewhat from its former greatness, was still the largest city. One might compare them to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but that Moscow is intensely Russian in feeling, while Babylon was probably strong by Anti-Persian. It had not forgotten its own independence, an independence which it tried more than once to assert by arms.
[65]That described in 2 Kings xxiv. 13-16 as having happened in the eighth year of Jehoiachin (B.C.602).
[65]That described in 2 Kings xxiv. 13-16 as having happened in the eighth year of Jehoiachin (B.C.602).
[66]It seems probable that Astyages is to be identified with “Darius the Mede” mentioned in the Book of Daniel as succeeding to the government of Babylon after the death of Belshazzar.
[66]It seems probable that Astyages is to be identified with “Darius the Mede” mentioned in the Book of Daniel as succeeding to the government of Babylon after the death of Belshazzar.
[67]Five “darics” would be about equal to about £5 10s. The coin got its name from the first Darius.
[67]Five “darics” would be about equal to about £5 10s. The coin got its name from the first Darius.
[68]The walls of Babylon were built of brick.
[68]The walls of Babylon were built of brick.
[69]Not even by Cortes and his Spaniards in the newly-conquered Mexico, or by Pizarro in the still richer Peru.
[69]Not even by Cortes and his Spaniards in the newly-conquered Mexico, or by Pizarro in the still richer Peru.
[70]Equal to about eleven millions and a half. Two-thirds were in uncoined gold and silver; the rest in gold darics. The average stock of bullion and coin held by the Bank of England is about half as much again.
[70]Equal to about eleven millions and a half. Two-thirds were in uncoined gold and silver; the rest in gold darics. The average stock of bullion and coin held by the Bank of England is about half as much again.
[71]The phrase is taken from the historian Curtius.
[71]The phrase is taken from the historian Curtius.
[72]About £150.
[72]About £150.
[73]We may compare, as a somewhat similar incident in modern times, the plunder of the Chinese Emperor’s Summer Palace in Pekin in the Chinese War of 1860. Happily modern feelings forbade the massacre which accompanied the spoil of Persepolis; but the destruction of the palace was a distinct act of vengeance on the wanton aggression and the brutality of the Chinese ruler, who was personally punished by the loss of his palace, just as the Persians were punished by the destruction of their metropolis. A famous English poem, Dryden’s “Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day,” attributes the destruction of Persepolis to a drunken freak of Alexander; but there is no doubt that it was a deliberate act. Curtius speaks of it as having been proposed at a council of war, and other historians mention the unavailing resistance of Parmenio.
[73]We may compare, as a somewhat similar incident in modern times, the plunder of the Chinese Emperor’s Summer Palace in Pekin in the Chinese War of 1860. Happily modern feelings forbade the massacre which accompanied the spoil of Persepolis; but the destruction of the palace was a distinct act of vengeance on the wanton aggression and the brutality of the Chinese ruler, who was personally punished by the loss of his palace, just as the Persians were punished by the destruction of their metropolis. A famous English poem, Dryden’s “Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day,” attributes the destruction of Persepolis to a drunken freak of Alexander; but there is no doubt that it was a deliberate act. Curtius speaks of it as having been proposed at a council of war, and other historians mention the unavailing resistance of Parmenio.
[74]Nine o’clock at night. The time of year seems to have been July.
[74]Nine o’clock at night. The time of year seems to have been July.
[75]Maracanda is the modern Samarcand.
[75]Maracanda is the modern Samarcand.
[76]The kingdom of Porus consisted of the eastern portion of the Punjaub. The Hydaspes is the Djalan or Jelam, sometimes called Behât.
[76]The kingdom of Porus consisted of the eastern portion of the Punjaub. The Hydaspes is the Djalan or Jelam, sometimes called Behât.
[77]This may be reckoned to have been midsummer in the year 326B.C.He reached Susa in the winter of 324. But the chronology of the latter part of the campaign is uncertain.
[77]This may be reckoned to have been midsummer in the year 326B.C.He reached Susa in the winter of 324. But the chronology of the latter part of the campaign is uncertain.
[78]Nearchus had been in command of the fleet which had taken part in Alexander’s operations in the further East, and he was now about to command it again in the expedition which was about to be made against Arabia.
[78]Nearchus had been in command of the fleet which had taken part in Alexander’s operations in the further East, and he was now about to command it again in the expedition which was about to be made against Arabia.
[79]The funeral games would be the wars fought by his successors to determine who was the “strongest,” named as the legatee of his power. The prediction was amply fulfilled.
[79]The funeral games would be the wars fought by his successors to determine who was the “strongest,” named as the legatee of his power. The prediction was amply fulfilled.
[80]As this child does not come into my story, a few words may be given to describe his fate. The name given to him was Heracles, Heracles being the Greek divinity with whom the Tyrian Melkarth was commonly identified. Brought up by his mother in the retirement described above, he was mentioned as a possible successor after Alexander’s death. The proposition met with no favour at the time, but eleven years later his claims were advanced by Polysperchon, one of the generals who engaged in the struggle for the fragments of Alexander’s empire. He was persuaded to leave his retirement, and, as being the only surviving child of the emperor, seemed likely to become an important person. Cassander, who had usurped the throne of Macedonia, marched against Polysperchon, who had the young prince and his mother in his camp, but found his troops unwilling to act against Alexander’s son. He proceeded to bribe Polysperchon with the offer of the government of the Peloponnese, if he would abandon the young man’s cause. Polysperchon caused him to be murdered, and Barsiné with him.
[80]As this child does not come into my story, a few words may be given to describe his fate. The name given to him was Heracles, Heracles being the Greek divinity with whom the Tyrian Melkarth was commonly identified. Brought up by his mother in the retirement described above, he was mentioned as a possible successor after Alexander’s death. The proposition met with no favour at the time, but eleven years later his claims were advanced by Polysperchon, one of the generals who engaged in the struggle for the fragments of Alexander’s empire. He was persuaded to leave his retirement, and, as being the only surviving child of the emperor, seemed likely to become an important person. Cassander, who had usurped the throne of Macedonia, marched against Polysperchon, who had the young prince and his mother in his camp, but found his troops unwilling to act against Alexander’s son. He proceeded to bribe Polysperchon with the offer of the government of the Peloponnese, if he would abandon the young man’s cause. Polysperchon caused him to be murdered, and Barsiné with him.
[81]“The Rabbins distinguish two classes of proselytes, viz.,proselytes of righteousness, who received circumcision, and bound themselves to keep the whole Mosaic law, and to comply with all the requirements of Judaism, andproselytes of the gate, who dwelt among the Jews, and although uncircumcised, observed certain specified laws, especially the seven precepts of Noah (as the Rabbins called them),i.e., against the seven chief sins, idolatry, blasphemy against God, parricide, unchastity, theft or plundering, rebellion against rulers, and the use of ‘flesh with the blood thereof.’”
[81]“The Rabbins distinguish two classes of proselytes, viz.,proselytes of righteousness, who received circumcision, and bound themselves to keep the whole Mosaic law, and to comply with all the requirements of Judaism, andproselytes of the gate, who dwelt among the Jews, and although uncircumcised, observed certain specified laws, especially the seven precepts of Noah (as the Rabbins called them),i.e., against the seven chief sins, idolatry, blasphemy against God, parricide, unchastity, theft or plundering, rebellion against rulers, and the use of ‘flesh with the blood thereof.’”