THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES UJ THE WORLD'S GREAT EVENTS IN FIVE VOLUMES A HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES B.C. 4004 TO A.D. 1903 By ESTHER SINGLETON ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS EXECUTED IN DUOGRAPH VOLUME ONE—ANCIENT b.Q. 4004 TO A.D. 70 NEW YORK P. F. COLLIER & SON MCM I V / Copyright iqo-\ Bv P. F. COLLIER & SON D2t V. PREFACE T is not easy to find a satisfactory definition of the term History. In its widest sense, of course, it is the nar- 1 ration of events, or, as Von Humboldt puts it: "the exhibition of what has happened.' The dictionary of the French Academy somewhat Hmits the field of its activities by defining it as the recital of things worthy of remem- brance. This definition is good enough for our purpose, however, since it covers the field of the present work. In accordance with this definition, therefore, History consists of exceptional matters, of celebrated or notorious events, of the lives and actions of great men whether good or evil, of conspicuous achievements in war, politics, ex- ploration, science, art, religion, and literature. This work attempts to g^ve a summary of history thus regarded, by selecting some of the more important events as described and considered by historians. # In relating the great events of history, this work does not attempt to deal^vith the vast mass of knowledge recently LIBRAT^f 2 PREFACE • gained from tlie deciphering of monuments and cylinders. It treats only of those events that have been described and discussed by historians beginning wirti Herodotus and the Hebrew scribes. American, German, EngHsh, and French expeditions year after year delve and rummage among the ruins of ancient cities and add enormous additions to our knowledge of the past, and with this constantly in- creasing wealth of detail the gaps of the distant centuries are gradually being filled up, and a connected view of the whole will be eventually gained. At present, however, not- withstanding the labors of Lenormant, Sayce, Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, de Riancy, Guillemin, Robiou, Mariette, Morris, de Luynes, and many others, the material collected has not yet been presented in such an authoritative form as to enable us to follow the stream of ancient history and recognize all its branches and tributaries. So rapid indeed has been the progress of research that the essays attached to the best translations of Herodotus become antiquated almost before the ink is dry, and the best manuals of ancient history need annual revision. While matters are still in this chaotic state, it is perhaps allowable to confine our selections of the great events of ancient history to those that are recorded in the pages^of Greek and Latin writers, although some of these accounts, such as the details of the foundation of Rome, are al^iittedly legendary. The early writers leaned much on hearsay evidence, although if they had cared to take the trouble they migh»have gone to the PREFACE 3 monuments for their facts, as the modern searchers after truth have been forced to do with infinitely greater pains. It has been pointed out that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were still written and read two centuries and a half after the birth of Christ, and that the Babylonian cuneiform characters were employed till after the destruction of Jerusa- lem, hong before this, the Egyptian records had been trans- lated into Greek by Manetho, and the Babylonian records by Berosus. But these translators were neglected by the contemporary literary world, as being "barbarians," and it was only a Jew, like Josephus, or such orientalizing Chris- tians as Eusebius, who made any use of them. The chief source of information on Oriental history for the literary circles of Greece and Rome were Herodotus, pieced out with excerpts from Ctesius, or Hecateus of Abdera, and ex- panded by compilers like Diodorus. Unfortunately no manu- script containing the work of either Berosus or Manetho has yet been recovered from the tomb, and therefore, since the revival of learning, the world has had to go to Herodotus for all its ideas of the ancient East. Ancient History is improperly separated from Modern by the arbitrary assumption of a particular date. A more convenient and logical division may be made by regarding as ancient all that belongs to a state of things that has com- pletely passed away, and as modern all that connects itself inseparably with the present. In Western Europe, the irrup- 4 PREFACE tioii of the Xorthern Barbarians, in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa the Mohammedan conquests, form the line of demarcation between the two portions of the historic field, since these events broug^ht to a close the old condition of things and introduced the condition which continues to the present day. For practical purposes, historians have agreed to group the leading epochs and dominant phases in general history under six heads. I. The early Oriental Theocracies, represented by the Eg^'ptian, Assyrian, Persian, and Indian monarchies, the Chinese, Japanese, and other Buddhist empires, and some modern states. II. The rise and development of the Greek world, in- volving the story of the separate Hellenic states. III. The rise and consolidation of the Roman world, showing the origin of the Republic, the growth of the Dic- tatorship, and the final fall of the divided empire. IV. The Catholic and feudal world, known as the Middle Ages. V. The formation and development of the great Euro- pean states,—including the rise and progress of the modern PREFACE ^ monarchies, the revival of learning, the Reformation, and to the close of the what is called modern history down Eighteenth Century. VI. The political and industrial revolution of the modern Prussia and world, including the rise and consolidation of and indus- of the United States; the intellectual, scientific Revolution trial revolution of the last century; the French of and the wars to which it gave rise; the development transmarine empires and international communication; democracy and socialism in their various types. his- Rome is the centre of all European histor)\ The tory of Europe is almost wholly made up of the steps by which the older states came under the power of Rome, and secondly, of the way in which the modern states of Europe were formed by the breaking up of that power. Greece alone has a real history of its own, earlier th^n that of Rome and independent of it. The first step toward grasping the history of those centuries through which the ancient world evolved into old the modern is the comprehension of the fact that the Roman Empire did not cease to exist until the year 1453. The line of Roman Emperors continued in unbroken suc- cession from Octavius Augustus to Constantine Paleologus. are Historians who first use the phrase Byzantine Empire PREFACE not very precise as to the date at which the Roman Empire ends and the Byzantine Empire begins. Sometimes the Hne is drawn at the foundation of Constantinople by Con- stantine the Great, sometimes at the death of Theodosius the Great, sometimes at the reign of Justinian, and some- times at the accession of Leo the Isaurian. All these lines are purely arbitrary. No "Byzantine Empire" ever began to exist. The Roman Empire, moreover, was one and un- divided in the Fifth Century: though there were generally more Emperors than one, there were never two Empires. However independent one of another, or even hostile, theo- retically the unity of the Empire which they ruled was unaffected. The transition from the ancient to the mediaeval world may be said to have taken place between the Fourth and the Eighth Century. We can hardly apply the term Mediae- val to the Fourth Century, or the term Ancient to the Eighth. In the year 395 A. D. the Empire was still intact, but with the Fifth Century its dismemberment began. A rival Roman Empire was founded in 800 A. D. The Cor- onation of Charles the Great marks a new departure in European history, and therefore, as Arnold noted, it forms a suitable end as well as a suitable beginning. Such unity as had been given to Western Europe by the Mediaeval Empire and the Papacy disappeared with the Great PREFACE 7 Interregnum in the middle of the Thirteenth Century; and such unity as was afterward suppHed by the growth of formal international relations can not be said to begin before the invasion of Naples by Charles VIII. of France at the end of the Fifteenth Century. In the interval between these two dates there is apparent chaos, and the germs of future order can only be detected by the closest examination. The dominant characteristic of the age is its diversity, A cursory glance over some of the most striking episodes of the period will serve to show the multi- plicity of its interests. The Hundred Years' War between England and France; the rise and fall of the House of Burgundy; the struggle between the old and the new con- ceptions of ecclesiastical polity in the Papal schism ; the coun- cils of Constance and Basle, and the Hussite War ; the mar- vellous achievements of Venice and Florence under both republican and Medicean rule ; the revival of art and letters in many large and small centres ; the growth and decline of great corporations, such as the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Order; the expansion of Christian at the expense of Mohammedan Spain, and, per contra, the conquest of the Eastern Empire by the Turks. The present work presents history by events in detail.