Ancient States and Empires: For Colleges and Schools Flashcards
John Lord · Public domain edition · 246 cards · 66 chapters
John Lord’s Ancient States and Empires argues that early biblical history shows divine institutions and patriarchal government shaping human society before formal empires arose. The deck covers Eden’s commands and penalties, Cain and Abel, Noah’s covenant and curse, Babel, Abraham’s rescue of Lot, Jacob’s deception, and Joseph’s rise under Egypt’s Shepherd kings.
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Chapter 1 · Question
According to the chapter, what three divine institutions existed while man was still innocent in Eden?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The author identifies three divine institutions established while man remained in a state of innocence and bliss: the Sabbath, agricultural employment, and marriage. Man was placed in the garden to dress and keep it, making agricultural labor his original occupation, and the seventh day was blessed and sanctified for solemn observance. Marriage was instituted when God formed the woman from Adam's rib.
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CHAPTER I.4 cards
According to the chapter, what three divine institutions existed while man was still innocent in Eden?
The author identifies three divine institutions established while man remained in a state of innocence and bliss: the Sabbath, agricultural employment, and marriage. Man was placed in the garden to dress and keep it, making agricultural labor his original occupation, and the seventh day was blessed and sanctified for solemn observance. Marriage was instituted when God formed the woman from Adam's rib.
Chapter 1
What was the sole condition imposed on Adam and Eve in the garden, and where was Eden thought to be?
The only condition was that they must not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which stood in the midst of the garden. As for location, the author says it is a mooted question, but infers from the headwaters of four rivers, including the Euphrates and Tigris, that Eden lay among the mountains of Armenia, south of the Caucasus, in a temperate region.
Chapter 1
What penalties did God pronounce on the woman and the man after the Fall?
To the woman, God pronounced the pains and sorrows of childbirth and subserviency to her husband. To the man, labor, toil, and sorrow, with the ground cursed to yield thorns and thistles, and food obtained only by the sweat of the brow. Both were sentenced to return to the dust from whence they were taken, a decree the author calls eternal and never abrogated.
Chapter 1
Why did Cain kill Abel, and what was Cain's punishment?
Cain, a husbandman, killed his brother Abel, a shepherd, because Abel's offering was preferred to his own. The author says Abel's virtue was faith, while Cain's sin was jealousy, pride, resentment, and despair. Cain's punishment was expulsion from his father's house, a further curse on the land for him, and the hatred of the human family; he became a wanderer, while his descendants invented arts and built cities.
Chapter 1
CHAPTER II.4 cards
What was the Noachic Code after the flood?
God blessed Noah and his family with posterity, dominion over nature, and animals for food, but imposed new laws against murder and eating blood. The magistrate was given authority to punish murder: "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." The chapter calls this both penalty and prediction, later extended by Moses, and says murder has been the most severely punished crime since.
Chapter 2
How did patriarchal government function before Abraham?
Government was patriarchal: the head of a family held almost unlimited power and was both priest and king, erecting altars and dividing inheritances. He ruled his sons even after they had wives and children. Because the old patriarchs lived to great ages, their authority extended over several generations and great numbers of people. The chapter notes Noah himself pursued husbandry and planted vines.
Chapter 2
What did Noah's curse and blessings assign to Ham, Shem, and Japhet?
After Noah was indecently exposed, Ham made light of it while Shem and Japhet covered their father. Ham was cursed in his children: Canaan was decreed servant of servants, ancestor of races later exterminated by the Jews. Shem received a special religious blessing, through whom all nations were blessed. Japhet was promised temporal prosperity and a share of Shem's blessing. The author argues European races now reap this.
Chapter 2
Why was the Tower of Babel built, and what was the punishment?
The builders aspired to a tower reaching the heavens out of vanity and pride, and fear of being scattered. Nimrod, a descendant of Ham and a mighty hunter, had migrated to Shinar and set up a kingdom at Babel, perhaps a revolt against patriarchal authority. God punished the builders with confusion of tongues; unable to understand each other, they dispersed and the tower was left unfinished.
Chapter 2
CHAPTER III.3 cards
How did Abram rescue Lot from Chederlaomer, and what does the chapter infer from it?
Abram pursued the Chaldean king with 318 trained servants and routed the Chaldeans in a midnight attack, creating a panic, rescuing Lot and all his goods. The chapter infers from this that Abram was a powerful chieftain, and that he was also directly assisted by God, as Joshua later was against the Canaanites. The king of Sodom met him on his return, and Melchizedek brought bread and wine.
Chapter 3
How were Ishmael and Hagar sent away, and what became of Ishmael?
After Isaac's birth, Ishmael, then about fifteen, mocked the event, and Sarah demanded that the son of the bondwoman be expelled with his mother. Abraham was grieved, but by divine counsel sent them away with bread and a bottle of water. When the water ran out at Beersheba, God heard Hagar's weeping and showed her a well. Ishmael dwelt in Paran as an archer, and his mother found him an Egyptian wife; he is ancestor of the twelve Bedouin tribes.
Chapter 3
How did Jacob obtain Esau's birthright and Isaac's blessing?
Esau, faint from hunting, promised his birthright to Jacob by solemn oath in exchange for pottage. The birthright was not secure without Isaac's blessing, so Jacob, with his mother's help, dressed in Esau's garments with skins on his hands and lied to his old, dim father that he was Esau. Isaac, though doubtful, blessed him. Esau's grief was bitter when he returned from the hunt.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER V.4 cards
Why did Joseph's enslavement and rise in Egypt occur under the Shepherd kings?
The chapter states Egypt was probably ruled by the Shepherd kings, whom Jewish writers called Pharaoh, when Joseph was sold to Potiphar. Potiphar, likely second in the kingdom, favored Joseph, who rose to oversee his household. After imprisonment and interpreting Pharaoh's dream, Joseph became viceroy at age thirty, 1715 B.C., limited only by the king.
Chapter 5
How did Joseph's grain policy affect Egyptian land ownership?
The chapter says Joseph sold hoarded grain first for money, then for cattle, then for land, so the king acquired all the realm's property except the priests'. The land was later returned to the people on condition of paying one-fifth of produce annually, which remained to Moses' time. The author argues this strengthened the Shepherd kings and prevented insurrections.
Chapter 5
What was the fundamental principle of the Mosaic code?
The chapter states the great fundamental principle of the Jewish code was establishing the doctrine of the unity of God, since idolatry and polytheism were everywhere prevalent. Jehovah was made supreme head of the Jewish state, to be recognized and obeyed, because he created and preserved them and had delivered them from Egypt. Violation brought the severest penalties.
Chapter 5
What were the circumstances and numbers of the Exodus?
The chapter says the Exodus occurred 430 years from Abraham's call, after a 215-year sojourn in Egypt, much of it slavery. There were 600,000 men besides women, children, and strangers. Moses led them by a sudden turn south and east to the Red Sea, avoiding immediate conflict with Canaan's inhabitants, for which they were unprepared.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER VI.4 cards
Why did the generation that left Egypt fail to enter the promised land?
According to the chapter, all of that generation except Caleb and Joshua died before entering Canaan because they offended God through murmurings, rebellion, and idolatries, and were not deemed worthy to enter. Even Moses and Aaron had sinned against the Lord, and Moses died at 120 after viewing the land from Pisgah.
Chapter 6
What sin of Achan affected the Israelite attack on Ai?
The three thousand men sent against Ai were repulsed as punishment for Achan's sin: he had taken spoil from Jericho, a Babylonian garment, three hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold. After he expiated the crime, Ai was taken and all its inhabitants put to death, with the spoil reserved for the nation.
Chapter 6
How did the Gibeonites survive the Israelite conquest, and on what terms?
The Gibeonites made a separate peace with the Israelites, so their lives were spared, but they were made slaves forever. The chapter presents this as fulfilling the prophecy that Canaan should serve Shem. Their defection enraged the confederate Amorite kings more than the Israelites did, since they were seen as traitors to the general cause.
Chapter 6
Why did Samuel pronounce Saul's future deposition?
Saul offered burnt sacrifices himself instead of waiting for the rites to be performed according to divine direction, disobeying the fundamental laws Moses had given and violating the constitution. Samuel pronounced his future deposition as penalty for this rash act. Later Saul spared the Amalekite king, and Samuel declared that to obey is better than sacrifice.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER VII.2 cards
Why does the author say David is memorable, beyond his conquests?
The author argues David is memorable for his character, his poetry, his romantic vicissitudes of life, and as founder of a dynasty rather than for conquests over neighboring nations. His virtues blended with faults, and his piety despite his sins gives his character singular interest. The author says David lives through all generations in his Psalms.
Chapter 7
What happened to Solomon's kingdom as punishment for his apostasy?
The chapter says Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines turned his heart to idolatry. In punishment, God declared his kingdom would be divided and his son would reign only over the single tribe of Judah, spared for the sake of his father David. Adversaries rose against him: Hadad, Rezon, and Jeroboam. He reigned forty years.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER VIII.3 cards
What geographic and natural features defined the Babylonian monarchy's valley?
The valley of the Euphrates was a plain four hundred miles long and one hundred wide, bounded by Mesopotamia to the north, the Tigris to the east, the Persian Gulf to the south, and the Syrian Desert to the west. It contained about twenty-three thousand square miles. The river flooded like the Nile, though less regularly, depositing rich alluvial soil; wheat was indigenous and the climate was hot in summer and mild in winter.
Chapter 8
According to the chapter, who founded the first Chaldean kingdom and what was its chronology?
The chapter states that Nimrod and his hunters, Cushites of the family of Ham rather than descendants of Shem, migrated from Armenia and gained ascendency over the old settlers. Nimrod's kingdom began at Babel, a tower or temple erected probably B.C. 2334. The author supposes this ancient monarchy lasted two hundred and fifty-eight years, from B.C. 2234 to 1976, ending during the early years of Abraham.
Chapter 8
How did the Assyrian empire's decline and fall differ from its conquests?
The author argues the empire lacked unity: it embraced kingdoms, cities, and tribes that merely paid tribute, limited by the king's power to enforce it. Assyrian armies devastated lands but did not occupy them as the Romans and Greeks did; their conquests resembled Tamerlane's. As monarchs became effeminated, new powers arose, especially Media, which completed Assyria's ruin under Cyaxares. Nineveh was so thoroughly blotted out that no traces remained in Herodotus's time.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER IX.4 cards
Who were the Medes descended from, and where was their territory?
The Medes were descendants of Madai, the third son of Japhet, part of the Japhetic rather than Hamite or Shemite races. Their territory extended from the Caspian Sea north to the mountains of Persia south, and from Armenia and the Tagros chain west to the great desert of Iran east. It included varied climates, fruitful mountain valleys, and excellent pasture where the famous Nisæan horses were reared.
Chapter 9
How did Deioces rise to power among the Medes, according to legend?
According to the legends reported through Greek sources, the seven tribes of Medes suffered anarchy until Deioces's reputation made him arbiter of their disputes. He then retired into private life, anarchy returned, and he was elected king. He organized a despotic power centered at Ecbatana, built on a hill with a royal palace where he reigned in seclusion, transacting business through spies, informers, petitions, and decrees.
Chapter 9
What was Zoroaster's central principle, and what did he blend with it?
Zoroaster, or Zerdusht, probably born B.C. 589, taught dualism as his central principle: the two powers of good and evil, with the former destined ultimately to conquer. He also blended in a reformed Magian worship of the elements, which had gained footing among Chaldean priests and originally came from Scythic invaders. The author argues his ideas became the basis of Persian faith, as Mohammed's later did for Arabia.
Chapter 9
How did Cyrus come to power over Astyages, according to Herodotus?
Herodotus relates that Astyages married his daughter to Cambyses, a Persian noble, to prevent a dream that her offspring would conquer Asia. He sought to destroy the child, but a herdsman preserved it. At ten, Cyrus was chosen king by his playfellows and scourged a noble's son, leading Astyages to discover his pedigree. Harpagus, served his own son's flesh at a feast, conspired with Cyrus, who defeated Astyages, beginning his reign B.C. 558.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER X.4 cards
What was the boundary between the Lydian and Median kingdoms after Cyaxares' conquests?
The river Halys became the boundary between the Lydian and Median kingdoms after Cyaxares continued Median conquests to that river. A war between the two powers was ended by the marriage of the Lydian king's daughter to Cyaxares' son. Cyaxares then besieged Nineveh but was forced to desist by a sudden Scythian inroad.
Chapter 10
According to the chapter, how did the Gordian knot get cut?
The chapter recounts the legend of Gordius, a poor husbandman chosen as king after an oracle directed the Phrygians to crown the first man seen approaching in a wagon. The wagon was consecrated and became famous for a knot no one could untie; whoever untied it was promised the kingdom of Asia. It remained untied until Alexander the Great cut it with his sword.
Chapter 10
What does the chapter say about the Phoenicians' circumnavigation of Africa?
Nechos, king of Egypt, dispatched Phoenicians on an experimental voyage round Libya, accomplished in three years; the mariners landed in autumn to plant and raise crops for supplies, and returned through the Straits of Gibraltar. Herodotus reports their claim of having the sun on their right, which he says others may believe but he cannot. The voyage was regarded as desperate and unprofitable and was not repeated.
Chapter 10
What did the Greeks owe to Phoenicia, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that the Greeks owed the Phoenicians the alphabet and the first standard of weights and measures. It also notes Phoenician towns were independent communities, with Tyre holding controlling political power, and that Phoenician power declined between 700 and 530 B.C. as Greek maritime cities rose, with Nebuchadnezzar reducing the Phoenician cities to dependence.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER XI.4 cards
What happened to the ten tribes after the fall of Samaria, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that the ten tribes were carried captive to Assyria by Shalmanezer in 721 B.C., and from that time history loses sight of them as a distinct people. The author says they were probably absorbed among the nations where they settled, and that speculation about their later fate is vain conjecture, with no reliable facts to justify conclusions about their ultimate fortunes.
Chapter 11
How did Daniel rise to influence in Babylon and Persia?
Daniel was taken to Babylon as a hostage and educated in Babylonian knowledge, matching the Chaldean priests in astronomy, divination, and dream interpretation. He maintained influence by interpreting dreams, summoned twice by Nebuchadnezzar and once by Belshazzar for the handwriting on the wall. Under the Persian monarch after Babylon fell, he became a vizier or satrap with great dignity and power.
Chapter 11
How did Esther save the Jews from Haman's decree?
Haman obtained a decree from Ahasuerus for the general massacre of Jews throughout the empire. Esther approached the king at peril of her life, but instead of stating her wish, invited him and Haman to a banquet. The result was Haman's disgrace, Mordecai's elevation, and deliverance of the Jews, though the decree could not be changed; they were warned and allowed to defend themselves, slaying seventy-five thousand enemies.
Chapter 11
What did Ezra and Nehemiah accomplish in Jerusalem?
Ezra came to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, B.C. 458, with treasures for the temple, and caused foreign wives to be repudiated, enforcing laws separating Jews from other nations. Nehemiah, granted a renewed commission B.C. 445, restored the old walls and fortifications in fifty-two days despite opposition. The law was publicly read, the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated, and a renewed covenant made to keep the law and avoid intermarriage.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER XII.4 cards
Why did Tiberius keep Valerius Gratus in power for eleven years?
Tiberius believed that a rapid succession of governors increased the people's oppression, since each new governor sought to enrich himself. The chapter notes that Tiberius was a tyrant but a wise emperor, and that Roman world affairs were never better administered than during his reign. These provincial governors, like the Herodian kings, appointed and removed the high priests and generally resided at Cæsarea to avoid Jewish disputes and tumults.
Chapter 12
How does the chapter describe Pontius Pilate and his handling of Jesus?
The chapter calls Pilate cruel, stern, and reckless of human life, but regardful of the province's peace. Under his rule Jesus Christ was crucified. Pilate sought to transfer the innocent criminal to Herod's tribunal, since Jesus belonged to Herod's jurisdiction as a Galilean, but yielded to the people's importunities and left him at the mercy of the Jewish priesthood. Pilate was later recalled.
Chapter 12
What distinguished the Pharisees from the Sadducees according to the chapter?
The Pharisees were the most powerful and popular party, orthodox, clinging to Mosaic law and traditions, believing in angels and immortality, and predestinarian. The Sadducees aimed to restore original Mosaic religion and expunge tradition, but denied immortality and future punishment, holding that Providence avenges crime in this world. They were less popular but included men of high rank, were cold and heartless, and leaned toward epicureanism.
Chapter 12
What happened to Judea after King Agrippa's death?
Judea relapsed into a Roman province because Agrippa's son was only seventeen and too young to manage a turbulent people rent by feuds. Cuspius Fadus, Tiberius Alexander, Ventidius Cumanus, Felix, Festus Albinus, and Gessius Florus successively administered the discontented province. Their brief administrations were marked by famines and tumults, with robbers, murders, taxation, and pillage, while Agrippa held only nominal power in Jerusalem.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER XIV. (part 1)4 cards
According to the chapter, what sources preserve knowledge of Greece's heroic age?
The Greeks had no authentic written history covering the period from the Hellenes' appearance in Thessaly to the first Olympiad in 776 B.C. This heroic age is known only through legends and traditions called myths, concerning both gods and men. The chapter says mythology lacks historical importance but is full of poetic interest and is interwoven with ancient literature and art, so it cannot be wholly omitted from Greek history.
Chapter 14
How does the chapter describe Hesiod's five races of men?
Following Grote's account of the Hesiodic theogony, the chapter lists: a golden race, good and happy, becoming unseen guardians of men after death; a silver race, inferior and disobedient, buried in the earth; a brazen race, warlike and self-destroyed, descending unhonored into Hades; a race of heroes or demigods, removed to a happier state; and the present iron race, doomed to guilt, toil and suffering.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about the legend of Deucalion's deluge?
Zeus punished the world's wickedness with a deluge that submerged all Greece except a few mountain tops. Deucalion, forewarned, built an ark or chest, floated nine days, and landed on Mount Parnassus. Finding no inhabitants, he and his wife Pyrrha, instructed by Zeus, threw stones over their heads; his became men and hers became women. The chapter says this tradition was doubtless derived from the children of Japhet.
Chapter 14
How did the Heracleids regain the Peloponnesus, according to the legend?
Expelled from their possessions, the Heracleids invaded the Peloponnesus. Hyllos, eldest son, proposed single combat: if he won, the Heracleids would be restored; if defeated, they would forego the claim for three generations. Hyllos was vanquished, and the Heracleids retired to live with the Dorians. When the period ended, aided by the Dorians, they took the Peloponnesus, producing the Dorian settlement of Argos, Sparta and Messenia.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV. (part 2)3 cards
According to the chapter, how did Cecrops contribute to Attica's civilization?
The chapter says Cecrops, described by some as a Pelasgian and by others as an Egyptian, introduced the first elements of civilized life: marriage, the twelve political divisions of Attica, and a new form of worship that abolished the bloody sacrifices to Zeus. He also gave the country the name Cecropia.
Chapter 15
What prophecy did Laius receive, and how did Oedipus come to kill him?
Laius was warned by an oracle that any son he fathered would destroy him, so he had the infant Oedipus exposed on Mount Cithanon. Shepherds of Polybus of Corinth raised him. Told at Delphi not to return home, since he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus met Laius in a chariot and killed him in a quarrel.
Chapter 15
What stratagem ended the Trojan War, and what happened to the Greek chieftains afterward?
After various fortunes, Troy was taken at the end of ten years by stratagem. The surviving Greek chieftains sought to return home with Helen among the spoils, but met many misfortunes from the gods' anger for not sparing Troy's altars. They quarreled among themselves, and even Agamemnon and Menelaus lost their brotherly friendship.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER XIV. (part 3)4 cards
What military and domestic features characterized the Homeric Greeks?
The chapter describes walled cities, palaces, and temples; curiously wrought armor and well-made arms; rich garments and palaces glittering with precious metals; copper hardened for weapons; and warriors with chariots, horses, swords, daggers, spears, helmets, breastplates, and greaves. Fortified cities were built on rocky elevations, though the people generally lived in unfortified villages. Defense was superior to offense, helping men preserve their acquisitions.
Chapter 16
How did the Homeric Greeks compare to feudal barons, according to the chapter?
The chapter states that the ancient chieftains resembled the feudal barons of the Middle Ages in their passion for robbery and adventure. It also notes that the means of defense were superior to those of offense, which enabled men to preserve their acquisitions. So the chieftains combined a taste for plunder with the fortified strongholds needed to keep what they took.
Chapter 16
What arts and cultural practices did the Homeric Greeks lack or possess?
The chapter says we do not read of coined money, the art of writing, sculpture, or ornamental architecture among the Homeric Greeks, but they were fond of music and poetry. Before history commences they had their epics, sung by bards and minstrels, which furnished Homer and Hesiod with materials for their noble productions.
Chapter 16
What does Grote suppose about the composition and preservation of the Homeric poems?
The chapter reports that Grote supposes the Homeric poems were composed eight hundred and fifty years before Christ and preserved two hundred years without the aid of writing. It calls them the most popular and natural of all poems, addressed to unlettered minds. The chapter presents this as Grote's supposition, not established fact.
Chapter 16
CHAPTER XV.4 cards
What was Lycurgus's main goal in reforming Sparta?
The author states Lycurgus aimed to turn Sparta's citizens into disciplined warriors united by strong bonds and governed by an oligarchy under the form of the ancient monarchy. In other words, his object was to secure the ascendency of the small body of Dorian invaders who had conquered Laconia. He was aided by the Delphic oracle and influential men.
Chapter 17
How did Sparta's three main social classes differ in status?
Spartan citizens, descendants of the Dorian invaders, alone held citizenship and equal political rights, owning the soil. The Periœci, remnants of old Achæans mixed with inferior Dorians, had personal freedom and engaged in commerce and manufactures but no political power. The Helots were pure Greeks reduced by conquest to serf-like dependence, bound to the soil and regarded as property of the State, not bought and sold as slaves.
Chapter 17
What powers did the ephors hold in Sparta's government?
The ephors were five officials chosen annually by the people who exercised the chief executive power without responsibility. They could even arrest kings and bring them to trial before the Senate. Two of the five ephors accompanied the king in war as a check on his authority. The author describes Sparta's government as a republic of an aristocratic type.
Chapter 17
How did Sparta finally conquer Messenia in the second war?
After thirty-nine years of servitude, Aristomenes led a Messenian revolt, with Argos, Sicyon, Arcadia, and Pisa siding against Sparta; only Corinth backed Sparta. The Spartans lost the first great battle but won the second, driving the Messenians to Mount Ira, which held eleven years since Spartans were unused to sieges. It fell by treachery, and Messenia became part of Laconia in 668 B.C.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER XVI.4 cards
What was the Amphictyonic Council, and what were its main purposes?
It was a congress of deputies from twelve Greek tribes meeting twice yearly at Delphi and Thermopylae. Each tribe had two votes regardless of strength. Its object was mainly religious—protecting temples, especially the Delphic oracle—and it set rules of war guaranteeing members against complete subjection. It had no common army, so its decrees were often disregarded.
Chapter 18
How did the Olympic games function as a unifying institution in Greece?
Held every four years at Olympia under Elis's regulation, they lasted four days and included chariot, foot, and horse races, wrestling, boxing, and leaping. A universal truce prevailed during assembly and travel. Open to all Greeks, even the poorest, they drew spectators from Asia, served as marts of commerce, and were used to date events by Olympiads from 776 B.C.
Chapter 18
How did Greek governments evolve from monarchy toward democracy, according to the chapter?
After the Trojan war royal authority declined; rule was divided, then made elective, and nobles gained power, forming aristocracies that often became oligarchies. Popular revolts under demagogues produced tyrants, who built temples and theatres but persecuted the eminent. Democracy then arose in states like Athens, though the author argues it led to factions, jealousy of the distinguished, and confiscation of the rich.
Chapter 18
What role did commerce and wealth play in Greek civilization before the Persian wars?
Improved ship-building at Corinth in the seventh century B.C., colonial settlements, and expanded trade fostered wealth. The Euxine, Aegean, and Adriatic were navigated; amber came from the Po's mouth; Greeks went to Egypt for knowledge and wealth, bringing back papyrus. Cities like Athens and Corinth grew rich, like Venice and Genoa later, and wealth increased patronage of architecture and sculpture.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVII. (part 1)4 cards
Why did Histiæus prevent the destruction of Darius's Danube bridge?
The Scythians urged the Greeks to destroy the bridge and trap Darius's retreating army, and Miltiades seconded the plan. Histiæus, tyrant of Miletus, feared such an act would recoil on the Greeks and invite another Scythian inroad. The chapter says the bridge was preserved not from honorable fidelity but from the despot's selfish regard for maintaining his own power.
Chapter 19
What happened to Miletus after the Persian victory at Lade?
The victory at Lade let the Persians attack Miletus by both sea and land, and the city soon fell. The adult male population was slain, and the women and children were sent as slaves to Susa. The Milesian territory was devastated and stripped of inhabitants. The revolt was crushed in 496 B.C., five years after it began, and the other states hastened to submit.
Chapter 19
Why did the Ionian fleet lose at Lade despite Dionysius's training?
Dionysius of Phocæa rebuked the Ionians for poor discipline and trained them for seven days, but the sailors mutinied, refusing to serve a commander whose state furnished only three ships. They returned to pleasure on shore. At battle the Samians deserted with sixty ships and others followed, though the Chians fought faithfully. The result was complete defeat.
Chapter 19
How did Athens and Sparta respond to Darius's demand for earth and water?
Darius sent heralds demanding the customary token of submission, earth and water. Many continental cities submitted, including the Thebans, Thessalians, and Ægina. But Athens and Sparta put the heralds to death, which the chapter explains only by the fiercest resentment and rage. The two powers then made common cause and armed the states under their influence to resist Persian domination.
Chapter 19
CHAPTER XVII. (part 2)4 cards
Why was Aristides banished despite his patriotism?
The author explains that Aristides and Themistocles were both patriotic but disagreed on strategy: Aristides wanted to strengthen the army, Themistocles the navy. Themistocles' naval policy was adopted, and since Athens could not prosper with two such rivals advocating different views, Aristides was banished by ostracism.
Chapter 20
What did Xerxes do after a storm destroyed the Hellespont bridge?
Xerxes, in a fury, had the engineers beheaded and ordered the sea itself scourged with three hundred lashes. After this insane wrath was spent, he had the bridge reconstructed, this time using Greek engineers. Two bridges were built side by side on over six hundred anchored ships, with planks and a causeway of wood and earth.
Chapter 20
What double defensive position did the Greeks choose against Persia?
The Greeks chose the Pass of Thermopylae, a narrow defile between Mount Oeta and an impassable morass on the Maliac Gulf, paired with the narrow strait at Artemisium near northern Euboea. Nature provided a land defile and a water strait through which the army and fleet must pass to cooperate, so the fleet could support the land force.
Chapter 20
Why did the Greeks delay full mobilization despite the Persian threat?
The author states that the Olympic games and the Dorian Carneia were at hand and could not be dispensed with even in this extraordinary crisis. The Greeks assembled to keep the national festivals, probably from religious and superstitious motives, auguring no good if they were disregarded. Meanwhile Leonidas was sent with about three thousand one hundred hoplites plus Helots and light troops.
Chapter 20
CHAPTER XVII. (part 3)4 cards
What did Themistocles do after the Persian retreat at Salamis?
After the Persians retreated, Themistocles used his fleet to levy fines and contributions on the islands that had supported the Persians. Meanwhile Xerxes returned to the Hellespont and crossed to Asia, leaving Mardonius in Thessaly with a large army to continue the conquest on land. The chapter says Greece was saved by Salamis and Themistocles' services could not be too highly estimated.
Chapter 21
What happened at the Battle of Plataea and who really won?
At Plataea in 479 B.C., Mardonius attacked against Artabazus' advice. Discipline favored the Greeks, Mardonius was slain, and the fortified camp was stormed with immense slaughter; only three thousand of his men survived besides Artabazus' forty thousand, who retreated. The chapter names the Lacedaemonians, Athenians, and Tegeans as the real victors; the Corinthians arrived after the battle and missed the spoil.
Chapter 21
How did Themistocles' career end, according to the chapter?
Themistocles' popularity declined. He was hated by the Spartans for fortifying Athens, gave offense by boasting and erecting a private chapel to Artemis, and was suspected of taking bribes and favoring Persia (Medism). Banished by ostracism, he fled to Persia, was proclaimed a traitor at Athens with property of one hundred talents confiscated, gained influence with Artaxerxes, received fifty talents yearly, and died at sixty-five with a blighted reputation.
Chapter 21
What did the battles of Marathon, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale each accomplish?
The chapter states Marathon gave the first effective resistance to Persian conquests and created confidence among the Greeks. Salamis destroyed Persia's power at sea and prevented cooperation of land and naval forces. Plataea freed Greece altogether of the invaders. Mycale rescued the Ionian cities. The capture of Sestos in 478 B.C. concludes Herodotus' narration and virtually ended the Persian war, though hostilities continued in Asia.
Chapter 21
CHAPTER XVIII.4 cards
What two rival Greek leagues formed after the Persian defeat, and who led each?
Athens led the Ionian maritime states in the league of Delos, organized under Aristides, while Sparta headed the Dorian Peloponnesian confederacy. Athens championed democratic institutions and sea power; Sparta stood for continental and oligarchal interests. The chapter says the Panhellenic union promoted by the Persian war was broken, and the two states disputed supremacy, with maritime states adhering to Athens and land states to Sparta.
Chapter 22
How did the Delos confederacy's members gradually become tributary to Athens?
The confederate states tired of personal military service and persuaded the Athenians to supply ships and men in their place, imposing on themselves a money payment. Aristides' assessment of four hundred and sixty talents was so just that no jealousies arose, and funds were kept at Delos for the common benefit. Over time the allies sank into tributary status while Athens grew more enterprising and powerful.
Chapter 22
Why did Sparta dismiss the Athenian contingent at Ithome, and what followed?
During the siege of the Helot-held citadel of Ithome, the Spartans grew impatient and suspicious even of the Athenians under Cimon, and summarily dismissed them. The chapter says this ungracious, jealous treatment exasperated Athens, where Pericles had opposed sending troops at all. Athens then formally renounced its alliance with Sparta against Persia and sought alliance with Argos, joined by Thessaly, while Cimon lost his influence.
Chapter 22
What was the Long Wall, and why did it divide Athenian opinion?
Under Pericles the Athenians resolved to connect the city with Peireus by a long wall, a stupendous undertaking. It alarmed Athens' enemies and split the city: Cimon's ostracized party wanted a grand Greek alliance against Persia and feared the wall as a menace to the Peloponnesus, while aristocrats disliked closer ties with the maritime people of Peireus and the taxes involved. The author argues it strengthened Athens but weakened Hellenic unity.
Chapter 22
CHAPTER XIX. (part 1)4 cards
What incident triggered the start of the Peloponnesian War, and who caused it?
The war began over Epidamnus, a Corcyran colony torn by faction. Exiles appealed to barbarians, the city turned to Corinth after Corcyra refused aid, and Corinth defeated Corcyra. Corcyra then sought Athens' help; Athens sent ten ships, which Corinth deemed a breach of faith. Corinth urged Sparta to war, and Sparta declared it, B.C. 433, sixteen years before the truce's end.
Chapter 23
What defensive strategy did Pericles urge on the Athenians, and what did he say about land?
Pericles urged a purely defensive policy: abandon the countryside, move families and property behind Athens' walls, and rely on the fleet and empire rather than fight superior Spartan land forces. He argued the Spartans lacked money, leaders, and allied coordination for distant war. He said to mourn not the loss of land but the men who acquire land.
Chapter 23
What was the plague's effect on Athens, and how many hoplites died?
A great pestilence, already spreading through Western Asia, struck overcrowded Athens in the war's second year. Victims usually died on the seventh or ninth day, and treatment was useless. Thucydides gave a graphic account. The plague demoralized the population, loosening law and morality, and lasted three years. Pericles lost both children and his sister; four thousand four hundred hoplites died, plus most of the horsemen.
Chapter 23
What financial reserves did Athens set aside, and under what restriction?
Expecting a long war, Athens set apart one thousand talents from the Acropolis treasure, not to be used except in certain prescribed dangers. A law made it a capital offense for any citizen to propose using it for another purpose. The Acropolis held some six thousand talents, and the gold-and-ivory statue of the goddess by Phidias was itself valued at four hundred talents.
Chapter 23
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Why did Cleon prevent the Spartan envoys from being heard by a select committee?
The author states Cleon feared that Nicias and other conservative politicians would accept the Spartan peace proposals. By blocking a select committee hearing, Cleon kept the envoys from reaching sympathetic ears, and thus the best opportunity for an honorable peace and reunion of Greece was lost through the arts of a demagogue who inflamed and shared popular passions.
Chapter 24
What happened to the Spartan hoplites on Sphacteria, and why did it astonish Greece?
After the Athenian fleet blockaded the island and reinforcements arrived under Cleon and Demosthenes, the besieged were attacked by about ten thousand men and forced to surrender. This astonished Greece because it was supposed Spartan hoplites would die rather than be taken alive, as at Thermopylae. Cleon returned to Athens within twenty days with three hundred Lacedaemonian prisoners.
Chapter 24
How did the Athenians treat the two thousand Helots, and what does the author say this reveals?
Fearing assaults on their own territory amid a discontented Helot population, the Lacedaemonians entrapped two thousand of the bravest Helots as if honors were to be bestowed, then barbarously slew them. Only the five ephors knew the details, and there was no public examination. The author argues this shows Sparta was governed by a small but exceedingly powerful oligarchy, like Venice in the Middle Ages.
Chapter 24
What were the results of the battle of Delium for Athens?
At Delium the Boeotian forces, including the Theban band of three hundred select warriors who fought in pairs, routed the Athenians. Hippocrates and a thousand hoplites were slain. The victors refused the Athenians the sacred right of burying their dead unless they withdrew from Delium; the Athenians refused, and Delium was besieged and captured. Socrates fought among the hoplites, and Alcibiades helped protect his retreat.
Chapter 24
CHAPTER XIX. (part 3)4 cards
What did Alcibiades do to the Spartan envoys and with what result?
Alcibiades tricked the Lacedæmonian envoys sent to protest the Argive alliance, persuading them by false promises to act contrary to their instructions. This made them appear deceitful and turned Athenian wrath against Sparta. Nicias was then sent to Sparta to clear up the embarrassments but failed, after which Athens concluded an alliance with Argos, Elis, and Mantinea, which only complicated existing difficulties.
Chapter 25
What was the outcome and significance of the battle of Mantinea in 418 B.C.?
The battle of Mantinea, B.C. 418, was decided in favor of the Lacedæmonians with great loss to the Athenians and allies, including generals Laches and Nicostratus. Its moral effect was overwhelming throughout Greece and re-established Sparta's military prestige. It led to renewed Sparta-Argos alliance, an oligarchal government in Argos, Mantinea's submission, and remodeling of Achaian institutions, though Argos later rejoined Athens with Alcibiades' help.
Chapter 25
What happened at Melos in 416 B.C. and how was it received?
The Athenians besieged and conquered Melos, a Dorian island, in B.C. 416. The inhabitants were killed, the women and children sold as slaves, and an Athenian colony settled on the island. The chapter states this massacre exceeded even the customary cruelty of war in those times and raised general indignation among Sparta's allies.
Chapter 25
How did the Sicilian expedition originate, and who opposed it?
Egesta sent envoys seeking help against Selinus, which Syracuse assisted. Alcibiades championed the envoys and inflamed the people with ambitious projects; the chapter says he more than any other man caused the expedition that proved ruinous. Nicias opposed it, foretelling miserable consequences and warning against entrusting command to an unprincipled, extravagant man lacking experience. The assembly sided with Alcibiades.
Chapter 25
CHAPTER XIX. (part 4)4 cards
Why does the author blame Nicias for the Sicilian disaster?
The author argues Nicias, though personally brave, religious, incorruptible, munificent and affable, had no military genius and grossly mismanaged the expedition from first to last. His fault was over-confidence. The author says Athenian confidence in him was misplaced, and that it would have been better to leave the expedition to Alcibiades' management, since Nicias became the unwilling instrument of unparalleled calamities.
Chapter 26
How did the Four Hundred oligarchy come to power at Athens?
Alcibiades, having fled to Tissaphernes, offered Persia's alliance as the price of his restoration, on condition that the Athenian democracy be overthrown. Rich men burdened by war costs listened, hoping to fight Sparta with Persian treasure at no cost to themselves. Pisander was sent to Athens; the assembly, in its extremity, voted to relinquish political power. The Senate of Five Hundred was replaced by an oligarchy of Four Hundred, with all but five thousand disfranchised.
Chapter 26
What happened to the oligarchy of the Four Hundred?
The army at Samos refused the oligarchy's orders and set up its own democracy, sending back the Four Hundred's envoys indignantly. At Athens, soldiers seized and demolished the fort being built to admit a Spartan garrison, and the Four Hundred made concessions. After a naval defeat at Eretria, the Athenians deposed the Four Hundred and gave government to the Five Thousand, soon enlarged to universal citizenship. The old constitution was restored except pay for judges; most oligarchal leaders fled, and a few who sought Spartan aid were tried and executed.
Chapter 26
What was Cyrus the Younger's role in the war, and who was Lysander?
Cyrus, ambitious and self-controlled, was sent by his father Darius as satrap of Lydia, Phrygia and Cappadocia, with a fixed purpose of putting down Athenian power. He formed a cordial alliance with Lysander, the Spartan admiral, described as the most eminent man after Brasidas that Sparta produced — of severe Spartan discipline and virtue, but ambitious and cruel. Lysander visited Cyrus at Sardis, was warmly welcomed, and induced him to grant additional pay to every Spartan seaman.
Chapter 26
CHAPTER XIX. (part 5)4 cards
What did the Thirty Tyrants do to Athens, according to the chapter?
The tyrants placed over Athens by Lysander ruled with extreme rigor: they executed those obnoxious to them, seized citizens' property as spoil, and disarmed the remaining hoplites in the city. They even forbade intellectual teaching and shut the mouth of Socrates. Athens was humbled, deprived of her fleet, and powerless, with a Spartan garrison in the Acropolis and discord among the Thirty themselves.
Chapter 27
What does the author identify as the main cause of Athens's downfall?
The author argues the unfortunate Sicilian expedition, which Alcibiades had stimulated, was the main cause. He says maritime supremacy might have been maintained but for this aggression, which Pericles never would have sanctioned and Nicias earnestly disapproved. After that disaster the State's condition totally changed, and the catastrophe ultimately proved the political ruin of Greece, leaving no State strong enough to resist foreign attacks.
Chapter 27
Why does the author say Athens's fall led to Greece's decline?
The author argues Athens's glory was her navy, and once it was destroyed Greece lay open to invasion and to corruption by Persian gold. Athens had resisted Persia and protected the maritime States and islands; when Athens was crippled, the other States declined rapidly, having all exhausted themselves in the war. No single State remained powerful enough to resist foreign attacks, so Athens's catastrophe meant political ruin for Greece itself.
Chapter 27
How does the author judge Alcibiades and Lysander?
The author argues Alcibiades is the worst man in Grecian history: insolent, lawless, extravagant, and unscrupulous, he incited the Sicilian expedition, caused its disaster by sending Gylippus to Syracuse, and originated the revolt of Chios and Miletus, the fortification of Decelea, and the conspiracy of the Four Hundred. Lysander was more fortunate, gaining ascendency in Sparta, but his ambition proved ruinous to his country by involving it in desperate wars.
Chapter 27
CHAPTER XX.4 cards
What was Cyrus's ostensible purpose in recruiting Greek mercenaries?
Cyrus told the Greeks he was enlisting them to conquer and root out the Pisidian mountaineers, who raided from their strongholds in southeastern Asia Minor. Only Clearchus, a Lacedaemonian general, was told the real plan: to dethrone his brother Artaxerxes. The Greeks joined under promise of large rewards, expecting a year's campaign and a rich return home.
Chapter 28
Why did the Greeks mutiny at Tarsus, and how did Clearchus end it?
After crossing Mount Taurus to Tarsus, the Greeks realized they had been deceived and refused to march further. Clearchus first tried severe measures and failed, then pretended to side with them and refuse to march, secretly telling Cyrus to send fresh invitations. He then warned the Greeks of the peril of making Cyrus an enemy in a hostile land, and they agreed to proceed.
Chapter 28
What happened to the Greek generals at the Great Zab?
Tissaphernes led the Greeks north along the Tigris and halted three days at the Great Zab. He then enticed the Greek generals to his tent, ostensibly to feast them and renew negotiations. There they were seized, sent as prisoners to the Persian court, and treacherously murdered, leaving the Greeks leaderless in the heart of Media.
Chapter 28
How did Xenophon come to lead the retreating Greeks?
After the generals were murdered, the Greeks resolved to fight their way home. Xenophon, an Athenian historian and pupil of Socrates who had joined at Proxenus's urging against Socrates's advice, summoned the captains and persuaded them to advance, assuring them of Zeus's protection. He then addressed the army with surpassing eloquence and gained ascendancy through genius, piety, and wisdom, though his military rank was not great.
Chapter 28
CHAPTER XXI.4 cards
What did Lysander do to Athens after completing the Peloponnesian War?
Lysander took possession of Athens, abolished its democratic constitution, demolished its walls, and installed a set of tyrants as his creatures along with a Spartan governor. Under him Lacedæmonian rule became paramount in Greece, and he established an oligarchy of ten citizens plus a Spartan harmost in most cities, ruling oppressively like the Thirty at Athens.
Chapter 29
Why did Sparta's allies turn against her after the war, according to the chapter?
The chapter, quoting Grote, says Athens's prostration removed the common bond of hatred that attached allies to Sparta, while Sparta's conduct gave offense and excited fear of unmeasured imperial ambition. She appropriated nearly the whole Athenian maritime empire with a tribute of one thousand talents, yet no ally received the smallest remuneration, and the money Lysander brought home was all detained by the Lacedæmonians.
Chapter 29
What internal changes weakened Sparta after the Peloponnesian War?
The people became enriched by successful war, and gold and silver were admitted against the old institution of Lycurgus, which recognized only iron money. Public men were enriched by bribes, and the strictness of the old Spartan discipline gradually relaxed. Shortly after Agesilaus's accession, a dangerous conspiracy broke out headed by Cinadon, who saw his class excluded from honors by the oligarchy of ephors and senate; it was put down but left dangerous discontent.
Chapter 29
What was the result of Conon's naval victory off Cnidus in 394 B.C.?
Conon, who had escaped Ægospotami with eight triremes and sheltered in Cyprus under Evagoras, joined Pharnabazus and was given command of the Persian fleet. He detached Rhodes from the Spartan alliance and won a decisive victory over the Spartan admiral Pisander off Cnidus, weakening Sparta's sea power; more than half the Spartan ships were captured or destroyed. This emboldened Thebes and other states to throw off the Spartan yoke.
Chapter 29
CHAPTER XXII.4 cards
How did Pelopidas and his conspirators kill the Theban polemarchs and free Thebes?
In December 379 B.C., Pelopidas and six companions entered Thebes disguised as hunters with concealed daggers, sheltered in Charon's house. Disguised in female attire, they entered Philidas's banquet and killed three polemarchs with daggers, then slew Leontiades at his home. They freed the prisoners, proclaimed Thebes free, and later stormed the Cadmea, expelling the Spartan garrison.
Chapter 30
What was the Sacred Band, and how was it organized?
The Sacred Band was a new brigade of three hundred hoplites organized at Thebes for the special defense of the citadel. It was composed of young men from the best families, distinguished for strength and courage. Alongside a democratic government and severe military training, it helped make the Thebans, always good soldiers, the best army for its size in Greece.
Chapter 30
Why did Athens make peace with Sparta despite their recent naval victories?
After Athens regained mastery of the sea, it grew jealous of Thebes, now mistress of Bœotia, especially after Pelopidas's victory near Tegyra. When Thebes attacked Orchomenus, Athens made peace with the Lacedæmonians. The author argues the Greek states perpetually balanced power, each fearing any rising state, much like modern Europe's balance-of-power policy.
Chapter 30
What did Epaminondas argue at the peace congress, and how did Agesilaus respond?
Epaminondas insisted on swearing the oath for the whole Bœotian confederation, as Sparta did for herself and allies, asking why Thebes shouldn't answer for Bœotia as Sparta did for Laconia. Agesilaus demanded he swear for Thebes alone; Epaminondas refused and countered by asking whether Sparta would leave each Laconian town autonomous. Agesilaus struck the Thebans' name from the roll, excluding them.
Chapter 30
CHAPTER XXIII. (part 1)4 cards
What did Dionysius do to secure his power in Syracuse after the Carthaginian peace?
Dionysius strengthened Syracuse's fortifications, building a new wall with lofty towers and a citadel on Ortygia, which he filled with devoted foreign adherents. He redistributed Syracusan territory, reserving the best lands for his friends, and used wholesale confiscation to support ten thousand mercenary troops. The author notes he extorted enormous contributions, so that in five years twenty percent of all Syracusan property passed into his hands.
Chapter 31
How did Dionysius survive the siege by discontented Syracusans?
While Dionysius campaigned against the Sikels, discontented citizens tried to regain freedom and besieged him in his fortress. His adherents melted away, but he purchased Campanian cavalry in Carthaginian service stationed at Gela while pretending submission. The Syracusans relaxed the siege, allowing him to depart with five triremes; the mercenaries then defeated the dispersed Syracusans, and Dionysius was re-established.
Chapter 31
What was the political constitution of Carthage according to the chapter?
The author describes Carthage's constitution as oligarchal: two kings elected annually presided over a Senate of three hundred drawn from principal families. Great families divided offices and influence, maintaining an insolent distinction from the people. It was an aristocracy based on wealth and created by commerce, as in Venice. A demos existed and was consulted on some occasions but kept dependent on rich families through banquets and lucrative employments.
Chapter 31
What did Dionysius do to prepare Syracuse for offensive war against Carthage?
Dionysius built a wall three and a half miles long from the fort of Trogilus to Euryalus, employing six thousand workers and six thousand ox teams; citizens worked cheerfully and finished it in twenty days. He collected engineers and artisans, fabricated one hundred forty thousand shields and fourteen thousand breastplates, and added two hundred triremes to the existing one hundred ten, including larger ships with five banks of oars.
Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXIII. (part 2)4 cards
Why did Dionysius I enter the Greek tragic poetry contests, and how were his poems received?
The author states Dionysius competed at Greek festivals for the tragic poetry prize, sending lavishly equipped legations to Olympia with rich garments, gold, silver, and splendid tents. His poems were hissed and ridiculed, especially at Olympia, plunging him into shame and grief that nearly drove him mad. The author argues the failure came because the displays came from him, and no grandeur in Syracuse could erase the disgrace.
Chapter 32
What happened when Plato visited Syracuse and discoursed on virtue and justice to Dionysius?
Around 387 B.C., Plato visited Sicily, chiefly to see Mount Ætna, and was introduced to Dion, brother-in-law of Dionysius. Dion urged the tyrant to hear Plato, who argued happiness belongs only to the virtuous and that despots lack true courage. The doctrine offended Dionysius, who had Plato exposed and sold as a slave for twenty minæ; friends paid and freed him, but he was sold again at Egina and repurchased.
Chapter 32
How did Plato's second mission to reform Dionysius II fail?
Dionysius II, twenty-five and weak, vain, and capricious, was initially swayed by Dion and summoned Plato, who came reluctantly at sixty-one. The court grew alarmed, and Plato acted injudiciously, insisting on mental regeneration before practical reforms and showing no indulgence to his pupil. Courtiers slandered Dion as a usurper; Dionysius lost interest in reform, banished Dion, confiscated his property, and though Plato was well treated, he failed in his mission.
Chapter 32
How did Dion overthrow Dionysius II despite commanding only a small force?
After ten years' exile, during which he resided chiefly in Athens and dispensed his wealth in charities, Dion landed at Heracleia with eight hundred veterans while Dionysius was absent in Italy with eighty triremes. Joined by horsemen and other bands, he had five thousand men approaching Syracuse, where the citizens rose, Timocrates withdrew, and Dion entered to a jubilee welcome, was chosen general, captured Epipolæ and Eurylæ, and built a cross wall blockading Ortygia.
Chapter 32
CHAPTER XXIII. (part 3)4 cards
How did Timoleon treat the stronghold of tyranny in Syracuse after taking power?
Timoleon invited the Syracusans to demolish the stronghold where the despots had long entrenched themselves, and he erected courts of justice on its site. He also recalled exiles and invited new colonists, so that sixty thousand immigrants arrived, and he sold public lands to relieve the people's poverty and distress.
Chapter 33
How did Timoleon defeat the large Carthaginian army at Crimisus?
In B.C. 340 the Carthaginians came with seventy thousand men and twelve hundred ships under Hasdrubal and Hamilcar. Timoleon could assemble only twelve thousand, but gained a great victory with the aid of a terrible storm that pelted the Carthaginians in the face. Ten thousand invaders were slain and fifteen thousand taken prisoner, with enormous spoil.
Chapter 33
What did Timoleon do with his power after defeating his enemies?
After delivering Syracuse and defeating Hicetas and Mamercus, tyrants of Leontini and Catana, whom he put to death, Timoleon laid down his power and became a private citizen. Yet his influence remained as great as ever, since he was trusted as a patriot of exalted virtue, and he used it to restore Syracuse, introduce colonists, and enforce wise laws.
Chapter 33
How does the chapter characterize Timoleon's later years and death?
In his latter years Timoleon became blind, but his presence was still needed in serious difficulties, ruling by the moral power of wisdom and sanctity. The author calls him one of the best and loftiest characters of antiquity, noting his patience under contradiction and eagerness to insure free speech even against himself. He died B.C. 337 and received lavish funeral honors.
Chapter 33
CHAPTER XXIV.4 cards
Why did Athens fail to take possession of Amphipolis after Philip ceded it?
Athens neglected to occupy Amphipolis because it was busy trying to regain Euboea, then under Theban control, and was further distracted by the revolt of Aegean allies known as the social war. Philip later besieged the city despite having ceded it, and by intrigue prevented Athens from sending aid. The chapter calls Athens' neglect a great mistake, since Amphipolis commanded the Strymon crossing and was easily defensible by sea.
Chapter 34
What was the social war and what did it cost Athens?
The social war was the revolt of major Aegean allies—Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Cos, Rhodes, and Byzantium—against Athens' confederacy. The chapter attributes it to Athenian selfishness, neglect of mercenary pay, and intrigues by the Carian prince Mausolus. Athens was defeated at Chios under Chabrias and failed on the Hellespont amid quarrels among its generals. Timotheus was fined one hundred talents and died in exile, Iphicrates was never employed again, and peace guaranteed the rebels' independence.
Chapter 34
How did Demosthenes train himself as an orator despite natural disadvantages?
Demosthenes had a feeble voice and ungraceful gestures, but overcame them through unwearied labor: he studied rhetoric under Iaeanus, heard Plato and Isocrates, copied Thucydides' history eight times by hand, and reportedly practiced with pebbles in his mouth and declaimed on the shore in storms. He also spent months in a subterranean chamber practicing composition and delivery. The chapter argues, however, that natural genius, not labor alone, made him antiquity's greatest orator.
Chapter 34
Why does the chapter call Phocion's influence mischievous despite his virtue?
Phocion was personally incorruptible, brave, and elected general forty-five times without soliciting office, but he opposed the war with Philip. The author argues that because Athenians of the time preferred peace and home pleasures, Phocion's commanding patriotism and morality had a mischievous effect, while Demosthenes' policy was good. Demosthenes foresaw Philip's schemes, but the degenerate Athenians did not sympathize with his lofty principles.
Chapter 34
CHAPTER XXV. (part 1)4 cards
How does the author compare Alexander to Caesar and Napoleon?
The author argues Alexander does not compare with Caesar or Napoleon in comprehensiveness of genius, magnanimity, variety of attainments, or posthumous influences. He calls Alexander a meteor of surprising magnitude and says his fame is greater than his genius. Yet he concedes Alexander's military genius was great, even transcendent, and his glory shines undiminished after two thousand years.
Chapter 35
What did Philip accomplish that prepared Alexander's conquests?
The author argues Philip found Macedonia a little brook and left it a broad, deep river; under Alexander it became an irresistible torrent. Philip created an army, a military system, and generals so effective that Greece succumbed and yielded her liberties. Alexander had only to follow out Philip's policy of subduing the Persians. The author suggests Philip, had he lived, might have conquered Persia himself.
Chapter 35
Why did the author call the Persian armies ineffective against Alexander?
The author argues Persian hosts were undisciplined mercenaries, unlike the original troops of Cyrus, and were adequate only to hold the empire together against internal revolt. At Issus and Arbela Darius fled at the battle's start, and the greater the Persian numbers the worse the rout. The author says Alexander's harder work was sieges like Tyre and Gaza, not pitched battles.
Chapter 35
How did Alexander treat Thebes after its revolt, and why?
When Thebes declared independence during Alexander's Thracian campaign, he appeared suddenly, took the city by assault, and massacred the population, including women and children. Thirty thousand captives were reserved for sale, the city was razed, and only the Cadmea was kept for a Macedonian garrison. The author says the remorseless conqueror wished to strike terror and prevent rebellion, and the effect was achieved.
Chapter 35
CHAPTER XXV. (part 2)4 cards
Why did Darius execute Charidemus, and what had Charidemus advised?
Charidemus, a Greek, advised Darius not to rely on his undisciplined Asiatics against the Macedonians but to subsidize the Greeks instead. The advice was so unpalatable to the proud, self-reliant king amid his vast forces that he treated Charidemus as a traitor and sent him to execution.
Chapter 36
What did Darius do with the mountain passes Alexander needed to invade Persia?
Darius, in his self-confidence, left the passes over Mount Taurus and Mount Amanus undefended. The Cilician Gates, an impregnable defile where only four soldiers could pass abreast, was utterly undefended, so Alexander marched through unobstructed without the loss of a man. The author compares this to the Greeks holding Thermopylae against Xerxes.
Chapter 36
What happened at the Battle of Issus, and what did the author say caused the Persian defeat?
Alexander's charge routed the Asiatic hoplites on the Persian left; Darius panicked, turned his chariot, and fled, casting away his bow, shield, and royal mantle, which triggered a general flight. The author argues the battle was lost by the giving way of the Asiatic hoplites and Darius's flight, and that Darius's cowardice and incompetency were more marked than Alexander's generalship.
Chapter 36
Why did Alexander first subdue the coastal provinces before pursuing Darius further?
The author describes Alexander as a prudent, far-reaching general who chose to subdue the coastal provinces first, making the Persian fleet useless and ultimately capturing it, leaving his rear without an enemy. Accordingly he sent Parmenio to capture Damascus, then advanced into Phoenicia, where most cities sent letters of submission.
Chapter 36
CHAPTER XXV. (part 3)4 cards
How did Alexander treat Darius's family and captured soldiers who resisted him?
The author states Alexander was kind to the family of Darius both before and after Darius was assassinated by the satrap Bessus, and was generous to his own soldiers, never losing their affection. However, he was cruel and sanguinary toward captives who had caused him trouble, putting thousands to the sword in cold blood.
Chapter 37
What happened to Alexander's army at Carmania after the westward desert march?
After the fleet sailed from the Indus round by the Persian Gulf to the Tigris, Alexander marched his army westward through deserts, suffering great fatigue and losing many men, horses, and baggage. At Carmania he halted, and the army was abandoned for seven days to drunken festivities.
Chapter 37
What caused Alexander's death at Babylon in B.C. 323?
At Babylon, after planning to circumnavigate and conquer Arabia, Alexander celebrated Hephæstion's funeral with a pyre two hundred feet high costing twelve thousand talents, followed by a general banquet. He passed a whole night drinking with his friend Medius; the heated blood fueled a raging fever that carried him off in a few days at age thirty-two, after a reign of twelve years and eight months.
Chapter 37
What does the author argue about Hellenism spreading into Asia after Alexander's conquests?
The author argues that instead of Hellenizing Asia, Alexander rather Asiatized Hellas. He credits the Diadochi—Antigonas, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus—with whatever process occurred, but claims Hellenism never to a great extent passed into Asia. Old Oriental habits and opinions survived and instead invaded the western world, undermining Greece and even Rome through effeminated habits.
Chapter 37
CHAPTER XXVI.4 cards
According to legend, how did Romulus and Remus come to found Rome?
The twins were sons of the Vestal Silvia, exposed by order of Amulius, suckled by a she-wolf, and raised by a herdsman. After their royal origin was discovered and Numitor restored, they resolved to found a city. Rome arose on the Palatine as an asylum for outlaws and slaves, who were provided with wives through the rape of the Sabine women.
Chapter 38
How did Servius Tullius reorganize the Roman constitution and army?
Servius left old institutions intact but divided the population into thirty tribes including both patricians and plebeians, creating a popular assembly. He organized citizens for military service by property: eighteen equestrian centuries and infantry classes totaling one hundred ninety-four centuries, each with one vote. Since the first class alone had one hundred centuries, the rich controlled public affairs.
Chapter 38
What was the significance of the Horatii and Curiatii story?
With Rome and Alba at war, three brothers from each side fought as champions. Two Horatii died and all three Curiatii were wounded; the surviving Horatius feigned flight and defeated them separately, making the Albans subjects of Rome. He then killed his sister for mourning her Curiatii betrothed. Tried and condemned, he appealed to the people, who reversed the judgment — the first recorded appeal in a capital case.
Chapter 38
How did Ancus Martius create the plebeian class?
Ancus Martius, the fourth king, conquered many Latin towns and incorporated their inhabitants, settling them on the Aventine. They were freemen but not citizens, called plebeians, with modified civil but not political rights. Though of the same race as the Romans, they were a conquered people not reduced to slavery; they kept their lands, had their own gentes and families, could not intermarry with patricians, and were bound to fight for the State.
Chapter 38
CHAPTER XXVII.4 cards
How did the consulship limit the power of the two annually elected consuls?
Consuls were elected annually from the patricians by the Comitia Centuriata, where patrician power predominated. They convened the Senate, introduced ambassadors, and commanded armies, and wore a purple-bordered toga with lictors. But their powers were restricted: they could not nominate priests, and they were amenable to the laws after their term expired.
Chapter 39
What did the plebeians gain from their rebellion in the fifteenth year of the republic?
Under the consulship of Publius Servilius and Appius Claudius, the plebeians rebelled and took a hill between the Anio and Tiber. Abandoned by the farmers who tilled the land, the patricians were forced to treat despite Appius Claudius's opposition. The plebeians won a remission of their debts and the appointment of two magistrates called tribunes to protect them.
Chapter 39
What powers did the tribunes hold, and what was the limit of their authority?
Tribunes could halt execution of laws condemning debtors to imprisonment or a military levy, and their jurisdiction extended over every citizen, even the consul. There was no appeal except in the Comitia Tributa. Their persons were inviolable, but their power was negative: they could not originate laws, only prevent wrongs, and their constitutional veto ended in dangerous encroachments.
Chapter 39
Who proposed the first agrarian law, and what happened to him?
Spurius Cassius proposed to the Comitia Centuriata that conquered public domain be measured, part reserved for the State and part distributed to needy citizens, without touching individual property. It passed against violent opposition. When his consulship expired, the curiae judged him and he lost his life, accused of seeking regal power for protecting the commons.
Chapter 39
CHAPTER XXVIII.4 cards
Why did Rome first clash with the Samnites in 343 B.C.?
The Samnites came into collision with Rome when Capua, whose capital was Campania's chief city under Etruscan influence, appealed to Rome for help against them. The victories of Valerius Corvus and Cornelius Cossus gave Campania to the Romans.
Chapter 40
How did the Romans treat the peace agreement made by Gaius Pontius?
After trapping the Romans at a mountain pass, the Samnite general Gaius Pontius granted an equitable peace rather than taking the whole army prisoner. The Roman Senate canceled the agreement, disregarding the oaths of its generals and the six hundred equites left as hostages, and renewed the war. The Samnites did not sacrifice the hostages.
Chapter 40
What decided the battle of Heraclea, and what did Pyrrhus say of the cost?
At Heraclea the legion and phalanx drove each other back seven times, but Pyrrhus's reserves and his elephants, unfamiliar to the Romans, decided the battle. Seven thousand Romans were left dead. The battle cost Pyrrhus four thousand veterans, leading him to say another such victory would be his ruin.
Chapter 40
How did Appius Claudius influence the Senate's response to Pyrrhus's peace offer?
The Senate was disposed to accept Pyrrhus's peace offer, but the old and blind Appius Claudius was carried through the crowded forum in his litter and delivered a vehement speech denouncing the peace. He infused a new spirit into the Senate, which refused to treat with a foreign enemy on Italian soil.
Chapter 40
CHAPTER XXIX.4 cards
What occasioned the outbreak of the First Punic War, and who does the author say was the aggressor?
The rupture began over Messina, held by the Mamertines, who sought foreign aid against Hiero of Syracuse. A Carthaginian garrison was admitted, and the Romans, seeking a pretext for war, sent an army to protect Messina. The author argues the Romans were plainly the aggressors, citing their seizure of the Carthaginian general Hanno and forced evacuation of the citadel as a violation of international law.
Chapter 41
How did the Romans neutralize Carthaginian seamanship in the First Punic War?
The Romans built a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships in sixty days, using a wrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a model. They converted decks into battlefields by fitting each ship with a long boarding-bridge, hinged at the mast and dropped onto the enemy deck, fixed by a spike. The bridge was wide enough for two soldiers abreast, with bulwarks protecting its sides.
Chapter 41
What terms did the Romans offer Carthage after Regulus's early successes in Africa?
After Regulus defeated the Carthaginians and became master of the country to within ten miles of Carthage, the city sued for peace. The Romans offered terms only on condition of ceding Sicily and Sardinia, surrendering the fleet, and reducing Carthage to a dependent city. The author notes the proposal was rejected, and despair gave courage to the defeated Carthaginians.
Chapter 41
How was Regulus defeated and captured after his African campaign?
While Regulus lay inactive in winter quarters, Hamilcar returned from Sicily with veteran troops, giving the Carthaginians a nucleus for a new army. Assisted by the Lacedaemonian general Xanthippus and a band of Greek mercenaries, they marched unexpectedly on Regulus and decisively defeated him at Tunis. Only two thousand Romans escaped; Regulus and five hundred legionaries were taken captive.
Chapter 41
CHAPTER XXX.3 cards
Why does Lord call the peace between Carthage and Rome a mere truce?
The author argues the twenty-one-year peace was only a truce because new sources of quarrel were accumulating and forces were being prepared for a more decisive encounter. Carthage resented paying tribute to Rome and losing its commercial policy, and a war party led by Hamilcar soon organized for renewed hostilities.
Chapter 42
What act by Hannibal occasioned the Second Punic War?
Hannibal's reduction of Saguntum, an Iberian city allied with Rome, was the occasion—though not the cause—of the Second Punic War. The city resisted for eight months and its inhabitants were treated with savage cruelty. The Romans demanded Carthage surrender the general who had broken the peace.
Chapter 42
Why did Fabius avoid pitched battle, and how did Rome respond?
Fabius the dictator, aged and prudent, determined to avoid pitched battle and starve or weary out Hannibal, following him along the heights through a summer of marches. The defensive policy wounded Roman pride and made him unpopular, so the Senate equipped eight legions under consuls Paulus and Varro.
Chapter 42
CHAPTER XXXI.4 cards
What three garrisons were called the 'three fetters of the Hellenes'?
The Macedonian king Philip V. maintained strong garrisons at Demetrias in Magnesia, Chalcis on the island of Euboea, and Corinth. The chapter calls these 'the three fetters of the Hellenes,' since together they held Greece under Macedonian control. The chapter adds that the real strength of the kingdom lay in Macedonia itself, not in Greece proper.
Chapter 43
What pretext did Rome use to declare war on Macedonia?
The casus belli was an attack by a Macedonian general on Athens, made to avenge the murder of two Arcanians who had intruded upon the Eleusinian Mysteries in 201 B.C. Athens was an ally of Rome. The chapter notes Rome entered the Macedonian war reluctantly, and Mommsen is cited calling it one of the most righteous wars Rome ever waged.
Chapter 43
What terms did Philip V. accept after his defeat at Cynocephalae?
Philip lost his foreign possessions in Asia Minor, Thrace, Greece, and the Aegean islands, but kept Macedonia. He was barred from foreign alliances without Roman consent, from sending garrisons abroad, from an army over five thousand men, and from a navy beyond five ships, and had to pay one thousand talents. The chapter says Rome treated him with respect, granting terms like those given to Carthage.
Chapter 43
What were the terms imposed on Antiochus III after Magnesia?
Antiochus surrendered Asia Minor and paid three thousand talents at once plus the same sum for twelve years, retaining only Cilicia. He was forbidden to wage aggressive war on Western states, to sail armed ships west of the Calycadnus mouth in Cilicia, to tame elephants, or to receive political fugitives. The chapter says his power was utterly broken and Syria never again appealed to arms.
Chapter 43
CHAPTER XXXII.4 cards
Why did Rome declare the Third Punic War, and what did Cato repeatedly say?
The chapter states Rome sought Carthage's absolute ruin though Carthage had broken no treaties, and that Masinissa's aggression was secretly encouraged by the Romans. Cato, heading a party bent on destroying Carthage, ended every speech with "Carthago est delenda." Rome declared war in 149 B.C., which the author calls the wickedest war Rome ever waged.
Chapter 44
What defenses did Carthage surrender before Rome demanded the city's destruction?
On the Romans' first demand, Carthage surrendered two hundred thousand stand of arms and two thousand catapults, and later handed over three hundred hostages from its noblest families. The chapter says the city ruled three hundred Libyan cities with a population of seven hundred thousand and could have manufactured more arms, yet gave up these means of defense out of blind confidence in Rome.
Chapter 44
How long did the disarmed Carthage resist, and what was produced during the siege?
Though disarmed, Carthage withstood the Romans for three years, five times as long as it took Vespasian and Titus to capture Jerusalem. The city resounded day and night with men and women making arms and catapults: daily one hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred spears, and one thousand missiles, and a fleet of one hundred and fifty ships was built during the siege.
Chapter 44
How did Hasdrubal and his wife meet their ends when the citadel fell?
Hasdrubal, certain of no mercy, retreated to the temple of Æsculapius with three hundred Roman deserters. When the temple caught fire, he rushed out with an olive branch and begged Scipio for his life, which was granted. His wife, denouncing the man who betrayed his country and deserted his family, cut her children's throats, threw them into the flames, and leaped in herself.
Chapter 44
CHAPTER XXXIII.4 cards
How did Scipio Æmilianus finally capture Numantia?
Scipio Æmilianus spent the summer of 134 B.C. in preparations, then built a double wall of circumvallation with towers around the city, blocking access to the Douro River, its source of provisions. Rather than offer battle, he fought with mattock and spade. The city, defended by only eight thousand citizens, held out nearly a year and was reduced only by famine; its inhabitants were sold as slaves and the city leveled.
Chapter 45
Who was Viriathus and why was he notable?
Viriathus was a Spanish chieftain who led a renewed Lusitanian insurrection, signally defeated the Romans, and was recognized as king of all the Lusitanians. The chapter says he was distinguished not only for bravery but for temperance and art, a sort of Homeric hero whose name and exploits were sounded throughout the peninsula. He kept the whole Roman power at bay for five years and was destroyed only by treachery.
Chapter 45
What happened to Corinth in the Achæan war of 149 B.C.?
The Achæan war began under Metellus and continued under Mummius, who reduced the belligerents and entered Corinth, the seat of rebellion and Greece's first commercial city. By order of the Senate the Corinthian citizens were sold into slavery, the fortifications were leveled, and the city was sacked. The mock sovereignty of leagues was abolished, and all remains of Grecian liberty fled.
Chapter 45
How did Macedonia become a Roman province in 148 B.C.?
After Perseus's fall Macedonia was split into four small States that could not live in peace. A pretender calling himself the son of Perseus, backed by the Thracian chief Teres, invaded Macedonia and defeated Roman forces, killing the prætor Juventius. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus finally subdued him, and the four States were converted into a single Roman province in 148 B.C., not a united kingdom but a united province.
Chapter 45
CHAPTER XXXIV.4 cards
What new nobility arose in Rome by the fifth century of the city?
The patricians lost exclusive control, but a new nobility formed from those who had held curule offices and were members of the Senate. Their descendants, plebeian as well as patrician, gained privileges such as wax ancestor images, a purple stripe on the tunic, and a gold ring. These families became a hereditary nobility that dominated the Senate and the equestrian order.
Chapter 46
How did provincial governorships affect Roman politics after conquest?
The Senate selected provincial governors, or praetors, from the aristocratic circles. They held great power, lived in former royal palaces, and had opportunities to accumulate fortunes. They were rarely called to account until their term expired, so they acted as virtual sovereigns abroad, conducting a legalized tyranny and returning home arrogant and accustomed to adulation, which threatened the old institutions.
Chapter 46
What did Flaminius and later politicians do to Roman festivals?
For five hundred years the people had been content with one festival and one circus a year. Flaminius added another festival and another circus. By the year 550 of the city there were five festivals. Candidates for consul spent large sums on these games, and their splendor became the standard by which voters measured a candidate's fitness. A gladiatorial show cost 720,000 sesterces.
Chapter 46
What did Cato attempt as censor, and what was the result?
Cato, the last great statesman of the older school, was austere, upright, and hostile to corruption and innovation. As censor he erased the name of Flaminius's brother from the Senate roll and Scipio's brother from the equites. He attempted vigorous reform and passed sumptuary laws, but the effect was temporary and unsatisfactory, since legislation cannot cure deep-seated corruption of morals.
Chapter 46
CHAPTER XXXV.4 cards
What did Tiberius Gracchus's agrarian law propose regarding State land?
Tiberius Gracchus proposed that State lands held by possessors without payment revert to the State, except five hundred jugera for each holder and two hundred and fifty for each son. Resumed land was to be divided into thirty-jugera lots for burgesses and Italian allies as inalienable leaseholds paying rent to the State. The author calls this a declaration of war on the great landholders.
Chapter 47
How did Tiberius Gracchus overcome his colleague Octavius's veto?
After Octavius vetoed the law twice and the Senate refused to yield, Gracchus demanded before the assembled people that his colleague be deposed, contrary to all custom and precedent. The Comitia Tributa, composed chiefly of proletarians, voted for the proposal, and Octavius was removed from the tribune bench by the lictors. The agrarian law then passed by acclamation.
Chapter 47
What does the author argue about Tiberius Gracchus's motives and methods?
The author argues Gracchus was patriotic and public-spirited, wishing to revive the older days of the republic, and doubts he contemplated usurping supreme power or was ambitious like Caesar. But the author argues he did not grasp the issues at stake, and that setting aside his colleagues to achieve a good end did evil, striking a vital blow at the constitution and making a step toward monarchy.
Chapter 47
What happened to Scipio Æmilianus after he intervened against the land commission?
Scipio Æmilianus intervened, and by a decree of the people through his influence the commission was withdrawn, leaving the matter to the consuls, virtually suspending the law. He lost his popularity for this, as the author compares to Webster's 7th of March speech, and was found murdered in his bed at fifty-six, B.C. 129, which the author calls the democratic reply to the aristocratic massacre of Tiberius.
Chapter 47
CHAPTER XXXVI.4 cards
Why did the Senate's restored oligarchy face growing social problems after the Gracchi?
The chapter states that under the restored Senate rule the administration was feeble and unpopular, and social evils spread rapidly. Both slavery and great fortunes increased, provinces were miserably governed, and pirates and robbers pillaged the Mediterranean. A great slave revolt in Sicily briefly gained mastery of the island. The author presents these as symptoms of a degenerate governing class.
Chapter 48
How did the war with Jugurtha end, and what did it reveal about Rome?
After seven years, Bocchus, king of Mauritania, agreed with Marius to betray Jugurtha, who had married his daughter and sought his protection. Marius sent Sulla to complete the treachery, and Jugurtha became a Roman prisoner, appearing in Marius's triumph before execution. The author argues the war exposed the venality of the governing lords and showed Rome must be ruled by a degenerate oligarchy or a tyrant.
Chapter 48
What happened at the battle of Aransio (Orange) in 105 B.C.?
The Cimbri under King Boiorix invaded toward Italy. Jealousy between the generals Caepio and Maximus, and Caepio's refusal to bring his army across the Rhone to cooperate, led to one of Rome's most disastrous defeats. About eighty thousand soldiers and half as many camp followers perished. The author notes that had the Cimbri immediately advanced through the Alps, overwhelming disasters might have followed.
Chapter 48
How did Marius defeat the Cimbri and what reforms did he make?
Marius awaited the barbarians in a fortified camp at the confluence of the Rhone and Isère, repulsed their attack, then followed them for six days. At Aquae Sextiae the barbarians were decisively defeated. He joined Catulus on the Po, and at Vercellae on 30 June 101 B.C. the Cimbri were annihilated. The author says Marius changed the burgess levy into enlistments open to every free-born citizen and abolished the aristocratic classification.
Chapter 48
CHAPTER XXXVII.4 cards
Why did the Italian allies revolt against Rome, and who tried to win them the franchise peacefully?
The Italian allies were oppressed and held no political privileges, not belonging to the class of burgesses. The tribune M. Livius Drusus, a wealthy aristocrat with popular sympathies, attempted to extend the Roman franchise and other reforms, but he was assassinated, as Gracchus had been. After his death the allies, who outnumbered the Roman burgesses, chose war over permanent exclusion from citizenship.
Chapter 49
How did the Social War begin and which regions joined the insurgents?
The insurrection broke out at Asculum in Picenum and spread rapidly through Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania, so that all Central and Southern Italy were soon in arms. The insurgents were chiefly farmers. Etruria and Umbria stayed loyal to Rome, having earlier sided with the equestrians against Drusus. Envoys offered to lay down arms in exchange for citizenship, but Rome refused.
Chapter 49
What concession did Rome make during the first campaign, and what did it exclude?
After defeats and despondency in the capital, Rome resolved to grant the political franchise to Italians who had remained faithful or had submitted. The concession did not include the actual insurgents, but it strengthened wavering communities on Rome's side and tranquilized Etruria and Umbria. The author notes the insurgents still gained politically from the first campaign.
Chapter 49
How did Sulla respond to the transfer of his command to Marius?
Sulpicius, fearing Sulla's return from camp at Nola, proposed transferring the Asian command from Sulla to Marius. Sulla disobeyed the mandate and marched on Rome with about thirty-five thousand men, mostly devoted mercenaries, crossing the sacred boundary forbidden to war. He quickly made himself master of Rome, annulled the Sulpician laws, and punished their author and adherents; Marius and Sulpicius fled.
Chapter 49
CHAPTER XXXVIII.4 cards
What orders did Mithridates give to governors regarding Italians in Asia?
Mithridates ordered all governors dependent on him to massacre, on the same day, every Italian—free or enslaved, men, women, and children—found in their cities. According to the chapter, one hundred and fifty thousand were slaughtered in a single day. The confiscated property of the murdered Italians replenished his treasury, along with contributions from Asia Minor.
Chapter 50
What terms did Sulla demand of Mithridates for peace?
Sulla required restoration of all Mithridates' conquests: Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Bithynia, the Hellenic cities, and the islands of the sea, plus a contribution of three thousand talents. Mithridates initially refused, but after Sulla proceeded into Asia he reluctantly accepted. Sulla later levied twenty thousand talents in Asia and reduced Mithridates to a client king.
Chapter 50
How did Sulla reorganize the Roman state as dictator?
Sulla conferred citizenship on all Italians except freedmen and gave sequestered estates to his supporters. He restored the office of judices to the Senate, deprived the equites of separate seats at festivals, restored the Senate's power with three hundred new members, and increased the praetors to eight. Legislation remained nominally elective but could only proceed on a Senate decree; tribunes were selected from the Senate.
Chapter 50
How did Marius and Cinna come to control Rome?
Cinna, backed by a majority of the Tribunes, led a reaction against Sulla's aristocratic rule but was driven out and outlawed. The outlaws joined the Campanian army at Nola, and Marius brought six thousand men from Numidia. Famine and desertion made the city indefensible, and Rome capitulated to an army of its own citizens. Marius then began a reign of terror, killing the consul Octavius and others.
Chapter 50
CHAPTER XXXIX.4 cards
How did Pompey and Crassus obtain the consulship after the Spartacus revolt?
Both were ineligible, yet each demanded the consulship after Crassus subdued Spartacus and Pompey destroyed the escaping slaves. Both obtained their ends by making great promises; Pompey in particular promised to restore the tribunitian power. Pompey then broke with the aristocracy, whose champion he had been, and carried a law taking the judices from the equites as well as the Senate, subverting Sulla's constitution within ten years.
Chapter 51
What command did Gabinius's law give Pompey against the Mediterranean pirates?
The tribune Gabinius proposed that the people elect a man of consular rank with absolute power for three years over the whole Mediterranean and fifty miles inland from the coast, commanding two hundred ships. Pompey was not named but was clearly meant. The Senate opposed it, but the law passed amid tumults over the price of corn, and Pompey was commissioned to prepare five hundred ships and enlist one hundred and twenty thousand men.
Chapter 51
How did Mithridates die, and what happened to his kingdom?
After Pompey rejected his overtures and cut his army to pieces, Mithridates fled to the Cimmerian Bosphorus. His kingdom of Pontus was already lost and made a Roman province. His followers grew disaffected and his son Pharnaces rebelled, leaving him no remedy but suicide to escape capture. He died B.C. 63, after a reign of fifty-three years, in his sixty-ninth year.
Chapter 51
What was Cicero's early career before he became consul?
Cicero was born B.C. 106 near Arpinum of an equestrian, not senatorial, family. He studied law under Q. Mucius Scævola, served one campaign in the social war at eighteen, and kept aloof from the Marius-Sulla struggles. He pleaded in the forum at twenty-five, studied at Athens, and was elected quæstor at thirty through reputation rather than family interest, serving in Sicily.
Chapter 51
CHAPTER XL.3 cards
Why could Caesar not legally be consul or celebrate a triumph without disbanding his army?
Caesar's proconsular imperium was to end one year after the Gallic war. By custom, no one could sue for the consulship while commanding an army, and a triumph required disbanding the army first. Without an army he would be unsafe at Rome among his enemies, so he could legally do neither without giving up his command.
Chapter 52
How did Caesar's six cohorts decide the Battle of Pharsalia?
Pompey planned to outflank Caesar's right with 7,000 cavalry against Caesar's 1,000. Caesar withdrew six cohorts from his third line and posted them behind his cavalry. When Pompey's cavalry swept forward, these cohorts charged unexpectedly; the cavalry broke and fled. The cohorts then defeated the slingers and archers and attacked the rear of Pompey's left, letting Caesar bring up his third line to win.
Chapter 52
How did Pompey die after Pharsalia, and why?
Pompey fled to Larissa, sailed to Mitylene, then chose Egypt over Africa, where his fleet and province remained. Egypt was disputed between the young Cleopatra and Ptolemy. Ptolemy had Pompey invited to a conference; his minister Achillus sent a boat, and on landing Pompey was stabbed by Septimius, who persuaded Ptolemy to kill him to propitiate Caesar and gain the Egyptian crown.
Chapter 52
CHAPTER XLI.4 cards
Who were the most powerful men in Rome after Caesar's assassination?
The chapter names Marcus Antonius, Caesar's most able lieutenant and relative; Octavius, Caesar's adopted heir, a young man of nineteen; Lepidus, Caesar's colleague consul; Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey; Brutus and Cassius, the chief conspirators; Dolabella; the consuls Hirtia and Pansa; Piso, Caesar's father-in-law; and Cicero, still influential from his weight of character. All were great nobles who had filled the highest offices.
Chapter 53
How did Antony secure power and popularity after Caesar's death?
As consul and nearest heir, Antony possessed Caesar's papers, governed Cisalpine Gaul, and rifled the public treasury of seven hundred million sesterces left by Caesar. He formed a union with Lepidus, convened the Senate, used treasure to overawe it, urged ratification of Caesar's acts, abolished the dictatorship, and delivered the funeral oration that inflamed the people against the assassins.
Chapter 53
How did Octavius claim his inheritance and rise to the consulship?
Octavius returned from Apollonia, was warmly received by the veteran troops and by Cicero, and claimed his inheritance from Antony, who said it was public treasure and already spent. Octavius borrowed money to pay Caesar's legacies, won popularity with shows, then marched on Rome with eight legions, pretending to be coerced by them. The overawed Senate allowed him the consulship at twenty, with Pedius as colleague.
Chapter 53
What was the outcome of the triumvirate and the Battle of Philippi?
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus met at Bononia and agreed to share the empire as triumvirs, dividing provinces and legions and concerting a proscription of three hundred senators and two thousand knights, including Cicero. Lepidus held Rome while Antony marched east against Brutus and Cassius, whose combined forces met the triumvirs at Philippi in Thrace in the last decisive battle over whether the old constitutional party or the party of usurpation would rule.
Chapter 53
CHAPTER XLII.3 cards
How did Augustus structure his power while preserving republican forms?
The author argues Augustus based his power on an organized military establishment as permanent head, with soldiers swearing personal fealty to him and officers appointed by him. Yet he paid respect to ancient traditions and magistracies, especially the Senate's dignity, vesting his true military power under aristocratic forms. The Senate retained external dignity but crippled legislative powers, and the people lost election of magistrates.
Chapter 54
What was the composition and size of the Roman standing army under Augustus?
A standing army became an imperial institution, with the praetorian guards protecting the emperor at double pay, camped outside the city. Twenty-five legions each had 6,100 foot and 726 horse, recruited from beyond Italy. Auxiliary troops equaled the legions, totaling 340,000—the standing army stationed across provinces. Naval armaments were established in seas and frontier rivers.
Chapter 54
Why did the masses accept Augustus's monarchy despite losing political liberty?
The author argues the people were indifferent to political changes because the horrors of the Marian and Sullan revolutions, struggles of Caesar and Pompey, and massacres of the triumvirs had alarmed and disgusted all classes. They sought repose, security, and peace, preferring any government that repressed anarchy. Enfranchisement of foreign slaves degraded the people, and civil-war spoliation blighted agriculture and reduced population.
Chapter 54
CHAPTER XLIII. (part 1)3 cards
How did Augustus formally hold power without a new title?
The chapter states Octavius simply retained all the great offices of State and ruled as consul, tribune, censor, pontifex maximus, and chief of the Senate rather than by a new title. These offices were not bestowed at once; his reign is dated from the final defeat of his rivals in 29 B.C., and he received the title Augustus two years later.
Chapter 55
What was the result of Drusus's campaigns in Germany?
Drusus, step-son of Augustus, advanced as far as the Elbe but was mortally injured by a fall from his horse, lingered a month, and died in 9 B.C., to universal Roman regret. The chapter says the effect of his various campaigns was to check the inroads of the Germans for a century, and that forts studded the Rhine banks afterward.
Chapter 55
What happened to Varus and his army in the Teutoburg forest?
The chapter records that Varus's Roman army was cut to pieces in the forest of Teutoburg, near the river Lippe, when thirty thousand men were destroyed by the Germans under Arminius (Hermann). This disaster completed the humiliation of Augustus; all ideas of extending the empire beyond the Rhine became visionary, and that river remained the northern boundary.
Chapter 55
CHAPTER XLIII. (part 2)4 cards
How does the author explain Tiberius's change of character for the worse?
The author argues Tiberius's character worsened because of the atmosphere of lies around absolute monarchs, unbounded temptations, servile courtiers, perpetual cares of office, and the disgust and satiety his experiences produced. He notes Tiberius still governed vigilantly and ably, and urges charitable judgment of absolute princes, directing eyes to their services rather than defects.
Chapter 56
What apologue did Tiberius use to justify keeping governors in office for years?
Tiberius kept provincial governors in office several years, justifying it with the story of flies on a soldier's wound: the sufferer begged a passer-by not to drive them off, saying they had nearly sucked their fill and were becoming tolerable, while fresh ones with keener appetites would replace them. The emperor saw abuses but despaired of remedy, distrusting human nature.
Chapter 56
How did Tiberius handle the trial of Piso after Germanicus's death?
After Germanicus died, probably naturally, Piso was arraigned before the Senate for the alleged poisoning and for exceeding his powers as governor of Syria. Tiberius abstained from interfering, checked popular feeling, and acted with great impartiality, betraying neither sympathy nor aversion. Piso found no favor and killed himself when condemnation was certain.
Chapter 56
How did Tiberius deal with Sejanus once he saw through him?
Tiberius penetrated Sejanus's character and used profound dissimulation, one of his marked traits. Though Sejanus conspired against his life, the emperor shrank from openly denouncing him to the Senate; he used consummate craft to secure the arrest and execution, carried out by Macro of his bodyguard. Sejanus's death was followed by ruin of accomplices and friends.
Chapter 56
CHAPTER XLIII. (part 3)4 cards
According to the chapter, how did Claudius react after Messalina's assassination?
The chapter says Claudius vacillated when Messalina confronted him, then promised her an interview the next day. Narcissus, fearing her influence, had her assassinated instead. The emperor then drowned his grief, affection, or anger in wine and music, and seemingly forgot her. The author cautions that Messalina may have been calumniated by her rival Agrippina, who took her place as wife.
Chapter 57
How did Agrippina secure Nero's accession after Claudius's death?
The chapter states Agrippina contrived to poison Claudius at Sinuessa with Locusta, a professed poisoner, and Xenophon, a physician, while she feigned grief. She held Britannicus in her arms and detained him and his sisters in the palace while preparations were made. Nero was then proclaimed imperator by the prætorian guards in A.D. 54, though the throne by right belonged to Britannicus.
Chapter 57
What does the author argue about Claudius's character and reign?
The author argues Claudius should not be classed with wicked or imbecile princes despite his bodily infirmities and the slanders attached to his name. He sought to imitate Augustus's wisest measures, respected letters, administered vigorously and successfully, exceeded his ministers in assiduous labors, and partly restored the Senate's dignity. His great weakness was being ruled by favorites and women.
Chapter 57
What crimes does the chapter attribute to Nero after Agrippina's murder?
The chapter says Nero descended upon the stage, instituted demoralizing games, executed high-ranking men for their riches, destroyed members of the imperial family, murdered Doryphorus and Pallas, drove his chariot in the Circus Maximus, held debauched banquets, was said to have kindled the conflagration of his capital, levied oppressive taxes for his golden palace, destroyed Seneca, and kicked his wife so savagely she died. He also persecuted Christians.
Chapter 57
CHAPTER XLIV.4 cards
Who were the three short-lived emperors between Nero and Vespasian?
Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Galba was saluted imperator by the legions before Nero's death in A.D. 68 and acknowledged by the Senate, reigning only months. Otho reigned three months, and Vitellius was removed by violent death like his predecessors. The chapter describes all three as gluttons and sensualists who left no mark and excited only contempt.
Chapter 58
What did Vespasian do after the fall of Jerusalem?
Titus returned to Rome and celebrated a joint triumph with his father Vespasian. The gates of the temple of Janus were shut—the first time since Augustus—and universal peace was proclaimed. Vespasian also purified the Senate to two hundred members, restored the finances, rebuilt the capitol, and erected the temple of Peace, the new forum, the baths of Titus, and the Coliseum.
Chapter 58
What was Agricola's role in Britain under Domitian?
Agricola finally conquered Britain, extending his conquests to the Grampian Hills over seven years, until Domitian recalled him out of jealousy. He taught the Britons the arts and luxuries of civilized life, to settle in towns, and to build houses and temples. His most celebrated foe was Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who led two hundred and forty thousand but was defeated with the loss of eighty thousand.
Chapter 58
How did Trajan's conquest of Dacia benefit Rome?
Trajan subdued Decebalus and added Dacia to the provinces, erasing the disgrace of tribute paid under Domitian. Enough treasures were secured to defray the war's expenses and his triumph, at whose games eleven thousand beasts were slain and ten thousand gladiators fought. He built a Danube bridge of stone piers 4,570 feet long, and his column with 2,500 bas-relief figures still stands.
Chapter 58
CHAPTER XLV. (part 1)4 cards
According to the chapter, what was the general condition of the Roman world from Julius Caesar to Commodus?
The author argues that despite some odious tyrants and madmen removed by assassination, able or virtuous princes generally ruled for over two hundred years. Government preserved and extended civilization, despotism was not signally oppressive, governors ruled more wisely than under the republic, and peace, security, and law reigned, so population, civilization, and wealth increased.
Chapter 59
What moral and social corruptions does the chapter say accompanied Roman prosperity and preceded decline?
The author argues prosperity led to vice, false security, and pride; all classes became corrupt. Disproportionate fortunes, slavery, and luxury undermined moral health and martial virtues. Literature grew frivolous, usury was ruinous, art was prostituted to degraded tastes, women were degraded, gladiatorial games outraged humanity, and cooks and buffoons were honored above scholars, with sensualism triumphant.
Chapter 59
How did Didius Julianus become emperor, and what happened to him?
After Pertinax was killed in a praetorian sedition eighty-six days after Commodus's death, the guards publicly sold the empire to the wealthy senator Didius Julianus for one thousand dollars to each soldier. The bargain disgusted the capital and raised provincial legions in revolt; Septimius Severus prevailed and was confirmed by the Senate, and Julianus was murdered after a brief reign of sixty-six days.
Chapter 59
What did Septimius Severus do to the Senate and the praetorian guard?
Having restored peace and dignity, the author states Severus established an undisguised military despotism and threw aside all deference to the Senate. He created a new praetorian guard four times as numerous as the old, recruited from barbarian ranks, who thus began to overawe the capital. Its commander was the jurist Papinian, his prime minister; a violent persecution of Christians occurred around A.D. 200.
Chapter 59
CHAPTER XLV. (part 2)4 cards
How did Diocletian divide imperial authority among his colleagues?
Diocletian associated three colleagues with himself: Maximian held the rank of Augustus and governed the western provinces from Milan, while Diocletian kept the East with Nicomedia as his seat. Galerius and Constantius served as Cæsars, watching the Danube frontier from Sirmium and spending time in Britain respectively. Galerius was adopted by Diocletian and married his daughter Valeria; Constantius was adopted by Maximian and married his daughter Theodora.
Chapter 60
What did Diocletian's persecution decree order against the Christians?
A decree ordered all Christian churches destroyed, their property confiscated, sacred writings burned, Christians deprived of civil rights, and even doomed to death. The decree, publicly exhibited at Nicomedia, was torn down by a Christian. Fires in the palace were blamed on Christians, and the command was issued to imprison all ministers of religion and punish those who protected them. The persecution then extended throughout the empire for ten years.
Chapter 60
What did Diocletian do in A.D. 305 and why?
At the summit of his power and age fifty-nine, Diocletian abdicated, persuading Maximian to do the same; the two Augusti gave place to the two Cæsars at Nicomedia and Milan on the same day, May 1, A.D. 305. The chapter says he may have been wearied, disgusted, ill, or craving rest. He retired to a palace near Salonæ, planted cabbages, and refused all solicitations to resume power.
Chapter 60
How did Constantine come to power after Constantius's death?
Constantius, dying at York in A.D. 306, transmitted his empire to his son Constantine and commended him to the soldiers. Constantine had abruptly left Nicomedia despite Galerius seeking to retain him, evaded Severus, and crossed Europe to reach his father. Galerius was enraged but compelled to submit, naming Constantine Cæsar over the western provinces; he was not elevated to Augustus until two years later.
Chapter 60
CHAPTER XLV. (part 3)4 cards
What happened to Constantine's rival or conspirator in the twentieth year of his reign?
The man—never definitively established as rival or conspirator—was accused, tried, and put to death while Constantine celebrated his vicennalia at Rome. The chapter says Constantine is generally reproached for this bloody tragedy, after which he took his final departure from Rome. Four years later Rome was degraded to a secondary city and Constantinople was dedicated as the new capital.
Chapter 61
How did Constantine divide the empire for internal regulation?
He divided it into four prefectures—East, Illyricum, Italy, and the Gauls—subdivided into thirteen dioceses governed by vicars or vice-prefects styled counts and dukes. The provinces numbered one hundred and sixteen, governed by proconsuls, consuls, correctors, and presidents called clarissimi. The chapter states this new machinery created many offices, raised expenses, and made taxation more rigorous and oppressive.
Chapter 61
How did Constantine separate military from civil power, and what was the army's size?
Military power was separated from civil. Two master-generals led infantry and cavalry, later increased to eight, under whom served thirty-five commanders—ten counts and twenty dukes. Legions were reduced from six thousand to fifteen hundred men; there were one hundred and thirty-two legions, a total force of six hundred and forty-five thousand at five hundred and eighty-three permanent stations.
Chapter 61
What was Constantine's reign memorable for, and where did he die?
The chapter calls his reign memorable for recognizing Christianity as a State religion, and tumultuous from civil wars and contests with barbarians. He was called away to resist Sapor II and died at age sixty-four at his palace near Nicomedia in A.D. 337. Constantinople, not Rome, became the future capital of the empire.
Chapter 61
CHAPTER XLVI. THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE.4 cards
What is the stated purpose and intended audience of Lord's book?
The author states the work is designed chiefly for educational purposes, meant to supply a connected history of the ancient world within moderate limits for colleges and schools. He aims to present the salient points—the most important events and characters of four thousand years—in a connected narrative, without theories or comments, and without encumbering the book with details of comparatively little interest.
Chapter 62
Which authorities does Lord say he relied on, and how did he use them?
The author says he was contented with the last standard authorities, which he merely simplified, abridged, and condensed. He names himself most indebted to Rawlinson, Grote, Thirlwall, Niebuhr, Mommsen, and Merivale, and says he followed the general plan of Philip Smith, whose digest in three large octavos he considered too extensive for schools.
Chapter 62
Why does Lord include Scriptural movements in a secular history?
The author notes that most ancient histories for schools have omitted to notice those great movements to which the Scriptures refer. He presents them briefly because their connection with the Oriental world is intimate and impressive, and ought not to be omitted even on secular grounds. He asks rhetorically, "What is history without a Divine Providence?"
Chapter 62
What claim does Lord make about originality and about the style of the book?
The author lays no claim to original investigation in so broad a field. He says he has been contented with standard authorities, and although he felt warranted in making free use of his materials, it will be seen that the style, arrangement, and reflections are his own. He adds that if the book prove useful, his object will be attained.
Chapter 62
CHAPTER XLVI. (part 1)4 cards
How did Constantine's three sons divide the empire?
The three sons of Constantine divided the empire between them: the eldest, at twenty-one, retained the prefecture of Gaul; Constantius, aged twenty, kept Thrace and the East; and Constans, the youngest at seventeen, added the Italian prefecture with Greece.
Chapter 63
What happened to the Roman army at Hadrianople in A.D. 378?
At Hadrianople the emperor Valens attacked the Gothic camp defended by Fritagern. Two-thirds of the imperial army was destroyed, the emperor was slain, and sixty thousand infantry and six thousand cavalry lay dead. The victors, inexperienced in sieges, failed to take the city and retired with spoil to western Thrace.
Chapter 63
Why did Ambrose refuse Theodosius entry to the basilica?
After the massacre of seven thousand people at Thessalonica, a revenge for the killing of the commander Boderic, Ambrose wrote to the emperor and then met him at the door of the basilica, refusing admission until he had expiated the crime by rigorous penance. The emperor submitted, an act of ecclesiastical authority that formed a precedent.
Chapter 63
How does the chapter characterize Julian the Apostate?
The chapter calls Julian the Apostate because he proclaimed a change in the established religion while tolerating Christianity. It describes him as a Platonic philosopher of great virtue and ability whose life was unstained by vices, but argues his attempt to restore paganism was senseless and ineffectual, since paganism had expired as a popular belief.
Chapter 63
CHAPTER XLVI. (part 2)4 cards
What happened to Alaric after the Goths sacked Rome?
After six days the Goths evacuated Rome and marched south, plundering Campania. Alaric then prepared to invade Sicily, but he sickened and died in Bruttium. He was buried beneath the bed of a river so that the location of his sepulchre would never be found. He was succeeded by his brother-in-law Adolphus, with whom Honorius made peace.
Chapter 64
How did the Vandals come to invade Africa?
Aetius persuaded Valentinian III (or rather his mother Placidia) to recall Boniface from governing Africa. Boniface refused, revolted, and called in the Vandals from Spain under Genseric. Genseric invaded Africa with fifty thousand warriors, and Boniface, too late repenting, was defeated and ceded three provinces in 432.
Chapter 64
What was the outcome of the battle of Chalons in 451?
Aetius led imperial forces composed of Britains, Franks, Burgundians, Sueves, Saxons, and Visigoths against Attila's Huns and allied tribes on the plains of Champagne. The chapter calls it a decisive battle delivering Europe from Asia and the Gothic nations from the Mongol races. Attila was beaten, Gaul saved, and reportedly three hundred thousand were slain.
Chapter 64
What happened to the Western empire by 476?
The last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, son of Orestes, was dethroned by Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, in 476. Odoacer divided Italy's lands among his followers and let Augustulus live as a pensioner in a Campanian villa. The chapter states the Western empire was completely dismembered, with barbarians settled in the lands they had invaded.
Chapter 64
CHAPTER XLVI. (part 3)4 cards
According to the chapter, what did the Mosaic legislation establish for the Jews?
The chapter describes the Mosaic legislation as establishing a Jewish theocracy, in which God was regarded as the supreme ruler and the Oracle and Priesthood served as its instruments. The Hebrew Constitution rested on this arrangement, and the chapter presents the Ten Commandments and Moses on Mount Sinai as its foundation. The author argues this theocratic principle shaped the Jewish code and set the Jews apart from surrounding nations.
Chapter 65
What does the chapter say about Jewish non-intercourse with other nations?
The chapter lists the non-intercourse of the Jews with other nations as a feature of the Mosaic system, grouped with the wanderings of the Israelites and the death of Moses. It presents this separation as part of the Jewish theocracy and code rather than an incidental habit. The author argues this distinctness shaped the nation's character and history, including its later conflicts with surrounding peoples.
Chapter 65
How does the chapter characterize the reigns of the kings of Judah?
The chapter treats the character of the kings of Judah as a distinct topic, listing it alongside the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews. It presents the reigns of rulers such as Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah as uneven in quality, with Josiah described as having a noble reign. The author argues the kings' characters mattered for the nation's fate, connecting them to Nebuchadnezzar's wars and the captivity.
Chapter 65
What role does the chapter assign to the Maccabees in Jewish history?
The chapter presents the Maccabees as leaders who rose amid the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus and the turbulent reigns of the high priests. It names Mattathias and his successes, then his son Judas with his heroic deeds, and later Jonathan Maccabeus as master of Judea. The author argues their resistance shaped Judea's fortunes, including hostilities with Syria and an alliance forced with the Romans.
Chapter 65
CHAPTER XLVI. (part 4)3 cards
What was the decisive outcome of the Battle of Chæronea?
The chapter lists the Battle of Chæronea as decisive, following the alliance of Thebes and Athens and Philip's renewed military preparations. It highlights the Macedonian phalanx. Afterward, Athens took desperate measures and Thebes fell. Philip then invaded the Peloponnesus and collected a large force against the Persians before his death.
Chapter 66
What errors did the Persians make before the Battle of Issus?
The chapter says the Persians resolved on offensive operations but neglected to guard the mountain passes, which Alexander passed through unobstructed. It calls this infatuation and error. The Persians then advanced to Issus, where the great and decisive battle occurred, marked also by the cowardice of Darius and his flight.
Chapter 66
What happened to Alexander's soldiers at the Indus?
The chapter records that Alexander penetrated to the Indus and encountered Porus. His soldiers then refused to advance further to the East. After this, he returned to Persepolis and abandoned himself to pleasure. The chapter also notes the death of Hephæstion, Alexander's grief, and his own death in Babylon.
Chapter 66
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #27114 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-31. Cards reviewed 2026-10-31.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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