12 - Beacon Lights of History - Ancient Achievements by John Lord

In the third installment of the Beacon Lights of History series, Lord delves into the remarkable achievements of the ancient world, exploring pivotal developments in law, the fine arts, and science. He brings to life iconic figures such as Cicero and Cleopatra, revealing their enduring impact on history. Summary by KHand.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section twelve of Beacon Lights of History, Volume three, Ancient
Achievements by John Lord. This librifox recording is in the
public domain recording by K Hand Material Life of the Ancients,
Part one, Mechanical and Useful Arts, four thousand to fifty
b C. While the fine arts made great progress among

(00:23):
the cultivated nations of antiquity, and with the Greeks reached
a refinement that has never since been surpassed, the Ancients
were far behind modern nations in everything that has utility
for its object. In implements of war, in agricultural instruments,
in the variety of manufactures, in machinery, in chemical compounds,
in domestic utensils, in grand engineering works, in the comfort

(00:47):
of houses, in modes of land travel and transportation, in navigation,
in the multiplication of books, in triumphs over the forces
of nature, In those discoveries and invention which abridge the
labors of mankind and bring races into closer intercourse, especially
by such wonders as are wrought by steam, gas, electricity, gunpowder,

(01:08):
the mariner's compass, and the art of printing, the modern
world feels its immense superiority to all the ages that
have gone before, and yet, considering the infancy of science
and the youth of nations, more was accomplished by the
ancients for the comfort and convenience of luxury of man
than we naturally might suppose. Egypt was the primeavle seat

(01:28):
of what may be called material civilization, and many arts
and inventions were known there when the rest of the
world was still in ignorance and barbarism more than four
thousand years ago. The Egyptians had chariots of war and
most of the military weapons known afterward to the Greeks,
especially the spear and beau, which were the most effective
offensive weapons known to antiquity or the Middle Ages. Some

(01:52):
of their warriors were clothed in coats of brass equal
to the steel or iron curious worn by the medieval
knights of chivalry. They had the battle axe, the shield,
the sword, the javelin the metal headed arrow. One of
the early Egyptian kings marched against his enemies with six
hundred thousand infantry, twenty thousand cavalry, and twenty three thousand

(02:13):
chariots of war, each drawn by two horses. The saddles
and bridles of their horses were nearly as perfect as
ours are at the present time. The leather they used
was dyed in various colors and adorned with metal edges.
The wheels of their chariots were bound with hoops of
metal and had six spokes. Umbrellas to protect from the
rays of the sun were held over the heads of

(02:35):
their women of rank when they rode in their highly
decorated chariots. Walls of solid masonry, thick and high surrounded
their principal cities. While an attacking or besieging army used
movable towers, Their disciplined troops advanced to battle in true
military precision at the sound of the trumpet. The public
works of Egyptian kings were on a grand scale. They

(02:57):
united rivers with seas by canal, which employed hundreds of
thousands of workmen. They transported heavy blocks of stone of
immense weight and magnitude. For their temples, palaces and tombs.
They erected obelisks in single shafts nearly one hundred feet
in height, and they engraved the sides of these obelisks
from top to bottom with representations of warriors, priests, and captives.

(03:20):
They ornamented their vast temples with sculptures, which required the
hardest metals. Rameses the Great, the Seostres of the Greeks,
had a fleet of four hundred vessels in the Arabian Gulf,
and the rowers wore quilted helmets. His vessels had sails,
which implies the weaving of flax and the twisting of
heavy ropes. Some of his war galleys were propelled by
forty four oars and were one hundred and twenty feet

(03:42):
in length. Among their domestic utensils, the Egyptians used the
same kind of buckets for wells that we find today
among the farmhouses of New England. Skillful gardeners were employed
in ornamenting grounds and in raising fruits and vegetables. The
leather cutters and dressers were famous for their skill, as
well as workers in linen. Most products of the land,

(04:03):
as well as domestic animals, were sold by weight in
carefully adjusted scales. Instead of coins, money was in rings
of gold, silver and copper. The skill used by the
Egyptians in rearing fowls, geese and domestic animals greatly surpassed
that known to modern farmers. According to Wilkinson, they caught
fish in nets equal to the signs employed by modern fishermen.

(04:26):
Their houses, as well as their monuments, were built of brick,
and were sometimes four or five stories in height and
secured by bolts on the doors. Locks and keys were
also in use, made of iron, and the doorways were ornamented.
Some of the roofs of their public buildings were arched
with stone. In their mills for grinding wheat, circular stones
were used, resembling in form those now employed, generally turned

(04:48):
by women, but sometimes so large that asses and mules
were employed in the work. The walls and ceilings of
their buildings were richly painted, the devices being as elaborate
as those of the Greeks. Besides its townhouses, the rich
had villas and gardens where they amused themselves with angling
and spearing fish in the ponds. The gardens were laid
in walks, shaded with trees, and were well watered from

(05:10):
large tanks. Vines were trained on trellis work supported by
pillars and sometimes in the form of bowers. For gathering fruits,
baskets were used somewhat similar to those now employed. Their
wine presses showed considerable ingenuity, and after the necessary fermentation,
the wine was poured into large earthen jars, corresponding to
the amphorae of the Romans, and covered with lids made

(05:33):
air tight by resin and bitumen. The Egyptian had several
kinds of wine, highly praised by the ancients, and wine
among them was cheap and abundant. Egypt was also renowned
for drugs unknown to other nations, and for beer made
of barley, as well as wine. As for fruits, they
had the same variety as we have at the present day,
their favorite fruit being dates. So fond were the Egyptians

(05:56):
of trees and flowers that they exacted a contribution from
the nation's tribute tarried to them of their rarest plants,
so that their gardens bloomed with flowers of every variety
in all seasons of the year. Wreaths and chaplets were
in common use from the earliest antiquity. It was in
their gardens abounding with vegetables as well as with fruits
and flowers, that the Egyptians entertained their friends. In Egyptian

(06:20):
houses were handsome chairs and foe tills, stools and couches,
the legs of which were carved in imitation of the
feet of animals, and these were made of rare woods,
inlaid with ivory and covered with rich stuffs. Some of
the Egyptian chairs were furnished with cushions and covered with
the skins of leopards and lions. The seats were made
of leather painted with flowers. Footstools were sometimes made of

(06:42):
elegant patterns inlaid with ivory and precious woods. Mats were
used in the sitting rooms. The couches were of every
variety of form and utilized in some instances as beds.
The tables were round, square, and oblong, and were sometimes
made of stone and highly ornamented with carvings. Bronze bedsteads
were used by the wealthy classes in their entertainments. Nothing

(07:05):
was omitted by the Obgyptians, which would produce festivity, music, songs, dancing,
and games of chance. The guests arrived in chariots or palanquins,
borne by servants on foot, who also carried parasols over
the heads of their masters. Previous to entering the festive chamber,
water was brought for the feet and hands the ewers employed,
being made often of gold and silver, of beautiful form

(07:28):
and workmanship. Servants and attendants anointed the head with sweet
scented ointment from alabaster vases, and put around the heads
of the guests garlands and wreaths in which the lotus
was conspicuous. They also perfumed the apartments with murr and Frankinson's,
obtained chiefly from Syria. Then one was brought and emptied
into drinking cups of silver or bronze, and even of

(07:49):
porcelain beautifully engraved, one of which was exclusively reserved for
the master of the house. While at dinner the party
were enlivened with musical instruments, the chief of which were
the harp, the lyre, the guitar, the tambourine, the pipe,
the flute, and the symbol. Music was looked upon by
the Egyptians as an important science, and was diligently studied

(08:10):
and highly prized. The song and dance were united with
the sounds of musical instruments. Many of the ornamented vases
and other vessels used by the Egyptians in their banquets
were not inferior in elegance of form and artistic finish
to those made by the Greeks. At a later day,
the pharaoh of the Jewish Exodus had drinking vessels of
gold and silver, exquisitely engraved and ornamented with precious stones.

(08:34):
Some of the bronze vases found at Thebes and other
parts of Egypt show great skill in the art of
compounding metals and were highly polished. Their bronze knives and
daggers had an elastic spring as if made of steel.
Wilkinson expresses his surprise at the porcelain vessels recently discovered,
as well as admiration of them, especially of their rich
colors and beautiful shapes. There is a porcelain bowl of

(08:56):
exquisite workmanship in the British Museum, inscribed with the name
of Rameses the Second, proving that the arts of pottery
were carried to great perfection two thousand years before Christ.
Boxes of elaborate workmanship made of precious woods, finely carved
and inlaid with ivory, are also preserved in the different
museums of Europe, all dating from a remote antiquity. These

(09:18):
boxes are of every form, with admirably fitting lids representing fishes,
birds and animals. The rings, bracelets, and other articles of
jewelry that have been preserved show great facility on the
part of the Egyptians in cutting the hardest stones. The
skill displayed in the sculptures on the hard obelisks and
granite monuments of Egypt was remarkable, since they were executed

(09:39):
with hardened bronze. Glass blowing was another art in which
the Egyptians excelled. Fifteen hundred years before Christ they made
ornaments of glass, and glass vessels of large size were
used for holding wine. Such was their skill in the
manufacture of glass that they counterfeited precious stones with a
success unknown to the moderns. We read of a unterfitted

(10:00):
emerald six feet in length. Counterfeited necklaces were sold at Thebes,
which deceived strangers. The uses to which glass was applied
were in the manufacture of bottles, beads, mosaic work and
drinking cups, and their different colors show considerable knowledge of chemistry.
The art of cutting and engraving stones was doubtless learned
by the Israelites in their sojourn in Egypt. So perfect

(10:22):
were the Egyptians in the arts of cutting precious stones
that they were sought by foreign merchants, and they furnished
an important material in commerce. From the earliest times The
Egyptians were celebrated for their manufacture of linen, which was
one of the principal articles of commerce, and cotton and
woolen cloths, as well as linen, were woven. Cotton was
used not only for articles of dress, but for the

(10:42):
covering of chairs and other kinds of furniture. The great
mass of the mummy cloths is of coarse texture, but
the fine linen spoken of in the scripture was as
fine as muslin, in some instances, containing more than five
hundred threads to an inch, while the finest productions of
the looms of India have only one hundred threads to
the inn. Not only were the threads of linen cloth

(11:02):
of extraordinary fineness, but the dyes were equally remarkable and
were unaffected by strong alkalis. Spinning was principally the occupation
of women, who also practiced the art of embroidery, in
which gold thread was used supposed to be beaten out
by the hammer. But in the arts of dyeing and embroidery,
the Egyptians were surpassed by the Babylonians, who were renowned
for their cloths of various colors. The manufacture of paper

(11:27):
was Another art for which the Egyptians were famous, made
from the papyrus, a plant growing in the marshland of
the Nile. The papyrus was also applied to the manufacture
of sales, baskets, canoes, and parts of sandals. Some of
the papyri, on which is hieroglyphic writing, dating from two
thousand years before our era, are in good preservation. Sheep

(11:48):
skin parchment was also used for writing. The Egyptians were
especially skilled in the preparation of leather for sandals, shields,
and chairs. The couriers used the same semicircular knife which
is now in use. The great consumption of leather created
a demand far greater than could be satisfied by the
produce of the country, and therefore skins from foreign countries
were imported as part of the tribute laid on conquered

(12:11):
nations or tribes. More numerous than the tanners in Egypt
were the potters, among whom the pottery wheel was known
from a remote antiquity, previous to the arrival of Joseph
from Canaan and long before the foundation of the Greek Athens.
Earthenware was used for holding wine, oils and other liquids,
But the finest production of the potter were the vases
covered with a vitreous glaze and modeled in every variety

(12:34):
of forms, some of which were as elegant as those
made later by the Greeks, who excelled in this department
of art. Carpenters and cabinet makers formed a large class
of Egyptian workmen for making coffins, boxes, tables, chairs, doors, sofas,
and other articles of furniture, frequently inlaid with ivory and
rare woods. Veneering was known to these workmen, probably arising

(12:57):
from the scarcity of wood. The tools used by the
carpenters as appear from the representations on the monuments, where
the axe, the ads, the hand saw, the chisel, the
drill and the plane. These tools were made of bronze,
with the handles of acacia, tamarisk and other hard woods.
The hatchet by which trees were felled was used by
boat builders. The boxes and other articles of furniture were

(13:19):
highly ornamented with inlaid work. Boat building in Egypt also
employed many workmen. Boats were made of the papyrus, plant, deal, cedar,
and other woods, and were propelled both by sails and oars.
One ship of war built for Ptolemy Philopiter, is said
by ancient riders to have been four hundred seventy eight
feet long, to have had forty banks of oars, and

(13:42):
to have carried four hundred sailors, four thousand rowers, and
three thousand soldiers. This is doubtless an exaggeration, but indicates
great progress in naval architecture. The construction of boats varied
according to the purpose for which they were intended. They
were built with ribs as at the present day, with
small keels ware or sails with spacious cabins in the

(14:02):
center and ornamented sterns. There was usually but one mast
and the prows terminated in the heads of animals. The
boats of burden were somewhat similar to our barges. The
sails were generally painted with rich colors. The origin of
boat building was probably the raft, and improvement followed improvement
until the ship of war rivaled insize our largest vessels,
while Egyptian merchant vessels penetrated to distant seas and probably

(14:25):
doubled the Cape of Good Hope. In regard to agriculture,
the Egyptians were the most advanced of the nations of antiquity,
since the fertility of their soil made the occupation one
of primary importance. Irrigation was universally practiced the Nile, furnishing
water for innumerable canals. The soil was often turned up
with the hoe rather than the plow. The grain was

(14:46):
sown broadcast and was trodden in by goats. Their plow
was very simple and was drawn by oxen, the yoke
being attached to the horns. Although the soil was rich,
manures were frequently used. The chief crops were those of wheat, barley, beans, peas, lentils, vetches, lupines, clover, rice, indigo, cotton, lettuce, flax, hemp, cumin, coriander, poppy, melons, cucumbers, onions,

(15:13):
and leaks. We do not read of carrots, cabbages, beets
or potatoes, which enter so largely into modern husbandry. Oil
was obtained from the olive, the castor, berry, simson, and
coal seed. Among the principal trees which were cultivated were
the vine, olive, locusts, acacia, date, sycamore, pomegranate, and tamarisk.

(15:36):
Grain after harvest was trodden out by oxen, and the
straw was used as provender. To protect the fields from inundation,
dikes were built. All classes in Egypt delighted in the
sports of the field, especially in the hunting of wild animals,
in which the arrow was most frequently used. Sometimes the
animals were caught in nets and enclosed places near water brooks.

(15:58):
The Egyptians also had numerous fish ponds, since they were
as fond of angling as they were of hunting. Hunting
in Egypt was an amusement, not in occupation, as among
nomadic people. Not only was hunting for pleasure a great
amusement among Egyptians, but also among Babylonians and Persians, who
coursed the plains with dogs. They used the noose or
lasso also to catch antelopes and wild cattle, which were

(16:21):
hunted with lions. The bob used in the chase was
similar to that employed in war. All the subjects of
the chase were sculptured on the monuments with great spirit
and fidelity, especially the stag, the ibeks, the porcupine, the wolf,
the hare, the lion, the fox and the giraffe. The
camel was not found among Egyptian sculptures, nor the bear

(16:42):
of the birds found in their sculptures were vultures, eagles, kites, hawks, owls, ravens, larks, swallows, turtle, doves, quails, ostriches, storks, plovers, snipes,
geese and ducks, many of which were taken in nets.
The Nile and Lake birket el Cairn furnished fish in

(17:04):
great abundance. The profits of the fisheries were enormous and
were farmed out by the government. The Egyptians were very
fond of ornaments in dress, especially the women. They paid
great attention to their sandals. They wore their hair long
and plaited, bound round with an ornamented filet fastened by
a lotus bud. They wore ear rings and a profusion
of rings on the fingers, and bracelets for the arms

(17:26):
made of gold and set with precious stones. The scarabeus
or sacred beetle was the adornment of rings and necklaces.
Even the men wore necklaces and rings and chains. Both
men and women stained the eyelids and brows. Pins and
needles were among the articles of the toilet, usually made
of bronze. Also metallic mirrors finely polished. The men carried

(17:48):
canes or walking sticks. The wands of Moses and Aaron.
As the Egyptians paid great attention to health, physicians were
held in great repute, and none were permitted to practice,
but in some particular brands, such as disease of the eye,
the ear, the head, the teeth, and the eternal maladies,
they were paid by the government and were skilled in
the knowledge of drugs. The art of curing diseases originated,

(18:10):
according to Plini, in Egypt. Connected with the healing art
was the practice of embalming dead bodies, which was carried
to great perfection. In elegance of life. The Greek and Romans, however,
far surpassed any of the nations of antiquity, if not
in luxury itself, which was confined to the palaces of kings,
in social refinements, the Greeks were not behind any modern nation,

(18:31):
as one infers from reading Becker's caricles. Among the Greeks
was the network of trades and professions as in Paris
and London, and a complicated social life in which all
the amenities known to the modern world were seen, especially
in Athens and Corinth and the Ionian capitals. What could
be more polite and courteous than the intercourse carried on
in Greece among cultivated and famous people. When were symposia

(18:55):
more attractive than when the elite of Athens in the
time of Pericles feasted and commune together, When wiz Art
ever brought in support of luxury to greater perfection. We
read of libraries and books and booksellers, of social games,
of attractive gardens and villas, as well as of baths
and spectacles, of markets, and fora in Athens, the common

(19:16):
life of a Pericles or a Cicero differed but little
from that of modern men of rank and fortune. In
describing the various arts which marked the nations of antiquity,
we cannot but feel that, in a material point of view,
the ancient civilization, in its important features, was as splendid
as our own. In the decoration of houses, in social entertainments,

(19:37):
in cookery, the romans were our equals. The mosaics, the
signet rings, cameos, bracelets, bronzes, vases, couches, banqueting tables, lamps,
colored glass potteries all attested great elegance and beauty. The
tables of thugaroot and Delian bronze were as expensive as
modern sideboards, wood and ivory were carved in Rome as

(20:00):
exquisitely as in Japan and China. Mirrors were made of
polished silver. Glass cutters could imitate the colors of precious
stones so well that the Portland vase from the tomb
of Alexander Severus was long considered as a genuine sardonyx.
The palace of Nero glittered with gold and jewels. Perfumes
and flowers were showered from ivory ceilings. The halls of

(20:21):
Heliogobilus were hung with cloth of gold, enriched with jewels.
His beds were silver, and his tables of gold. A
banquet dish of Drusillus weighed five hundred pounds of silver.
Tunics that are embroidered with the figures of various animals.
Sandals were garnished with precious stones. Paulino wore jewels when
she paid visits, valued at eight hundred thousand dollars. Drinking

(20:43):
cups were engraved with scenes from the poets. Libraries were
adorned with busts and presses of rare woods. Sofas were
inlaid with tortoise shelling covered with gorgeous purple. The Roman
grandees rowed and gilded chariots, bathed in marble baths, dined
from the golden plate, drank from crystal cups, slept on
beds of down, reclined on luxurious couches, wore embroidered robes,

(21:07):
and were adorned with precious stones. They ransacked the earth
and the seas for rare dishes for their banquets, and
ornamented their houses with carpets from Babylon, onyx cups from Bithynia,
marble from Numidia, bronzes from Corinth, statues from Athens. Whatever,
in short, was precious or rare or curious in the
most distant countries. What a concentration of material wonders was

(21:30):
to be seen in all the countries that bordered on
the Mediterranean, not merely in Italy and in Greece, but
in Sicily and Asia Minor, and even in Gaul and Spain.
Every country was dotted with cities, villas, and farms. Every
country was famous for oil or fruit, or wine, or
vegetables or timber, or flocks or pasture or horses. More
than two hundred and fifty cities or towns in Italy

(21:52):
alone are historical, and some were famous. The excavations of Pompeii, Attest,
great luxury and elegance of life, Cortona, Clusium, veill Acona, Ostia, Prenestae, Antium, Mysenome, Baie, Petoli, Neapolis,
Brundusium Siberus were all celebrated, and still more remarkable were

(22:16):
the old capitals of Greece, Asia Minor and Africa. Syracuse
was older than Rome and had a fortress of a
mile and a half in length. Carthage under the Emperors
nearly equaled its ancient magnificence. Athens was never more splendid
than in the time of the Roman Antonines. In spite
of successive conquests, there still towered upon the acropolis, the
most wonderful temple of antiquity, built of pentelic marble and

(22:40):
adorned with the sculptures of Phidias. Corinth was richer and
more luxurious than Athens, and possessed the most valuable pictures
of Greece, as well as the finest statues. A single
street for three miles was adorned with costly edifices, and
even the islands which were colonized by Greeks were seats
of sculpture and painting, as well as of schools. Of learning.

(23:00):
Still grander were the cities of Asia Minor. Antioch had
a street four miles in length with double colonnades, and
its baths, theaters, museums, and temples excited universal admiration. At
Ephesus was the Grand Temple of Diana, four times as
large as the Parthenon at Athens, covering as much ground
as Cologne Cathedral. With one hundred and twenty eight columns

(23:22):
sixty feet high, the Ephesian theater was capable of seating
sixty thousand spectator. Tarsus, the birth base of Saul, was
no mean city, and Damascus, the old capital of Syria,
was both beautiful and rich. Leadicia was famous for tapestries,
Heireopolis for its iron wares, Cibera Fritz Dyes, Sardis for
its wines, Smyrna for its beautiful monuments, Delos for its

(23:45):
slave trade, Cyrene for its horses, Paphos for its Temple
of Venus, in which were a hundred altars Celeucia, on
the Tigris had a population of four hundred thousand cesarea
in Palestine, founded by Herod the Great and the pre
principal seat of government to the Roman prefects had a
harbor equal in size to the renowned Piraeus, and was
secured against the southwest winds by a mole of such

(24:08):
massive construction that the blocks of stone sunk under the
water were fifty feet in length, eighteen in width, and
nine in thickness. The city itself was constructed of polished stone,
with an agora, a theater, a circus, a praetorium, and
a temple to Caesar. Tire, which had resisted for seven
months the armies of Alexander, remained to the fall of

(24:29):
the empire, a great emporium of trade. It monopolized the
manufacture of imperial purple. Sidon was equally celebrated for its
glass and embroidered robes. The Sidonians cast glass mirrors and
imitated precious stones. But the glory of both Tire and
Sidon was in ships, which visited all the coasts of
the Mediterranean and even penetrated to Britain and India. But

(24:54):
greater than Tire or Antioch or any Eastern city was Alexandria,
the capital of Egypt. Egypt, even in its decline, was
still a great monarchy, and when the scepter of three
hundred kings passed from Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies,
to Augustus Caesar, the conqueror at Actium. The military force
of Egypt is said to have amounted to seven hundred
thousand men. The annual revenues of this state under the

(25:17):
Ptolemace amounted to about seventeen million dollars in gold and silver,
besides the produce of the earth. A single feast cost
Philadelphius more than half a million pounds sterling, and he
had accumulated treasures to the amount of seven hundred and
forty thousand talents or about eight hundred and sixty million dollars.

(25:38):
What European monarch ever possessed such a sum. The kings
of Egypt, even when tributary to Rome, were richer in
gold and silver than was Louis the fourteenth in the
proudest hour of his life. End of Section twelve.