13 - 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 thirteen of Beacon Lights of History, Volume three, Ancient
Achievements by John Lord. This LibriVox recording is in the
public domain recording by k hand Material Life of the Ancients,
Part two. The ground plan of Alexandria was traced by
Alexander himself, but it was not completed until the reign

(00:20):
of Ptolemay Philadelphias. Its circumference was about fifteen miles. The
streets were regular and crossed one another at right angles,
being wide enough for free passage of both carriages and
foot passengers. Its harbor could hold the largest fleet ever congregated.
Its walls and gates were constructed with all the skill
and strength known to antiquity. Its population numbered six hundred thousand,

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and all nations were represented in its crowded streets. The
wealth of the city may be inferred from the fact
that in one year, sixty two hundred and fifty talents,
or more than six million dollars, were paid to the
public treasury for ports dues. The library was the largest
in the world, numbering over seven hundred thousand volumes, and
this was connected with a museum, a menagerie, a botanical garden,

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and various halls for lectures, altogether forming the most famous
university in the Roman Empire. The inhabitants were chiefly Greek,
and had all the cultivated tastes and mercantile thrift of
that quick witted people. In a commercial point of view,
Alexandria was the most important city in the world, and
its ships whitened every sea. Unlike most commercial cities, it

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was intellectual, and its schools of poetry, mathematics, medicine, philosophy,
and theology were more renowned than even those of Athens
during the third and fourth centuries. Alexandria, could it have
been transported in its former splendor to our modern world,
would be a great capital in these times. And all
these cities were connected with one another and with Rome
by magnificent roads, perfectly straight and paved with large blocks

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of stone. They were originally constructed for military purposes, but
were used by travelers, and on them posts were regularly established.
They crossed valleys upon arches, and penetrated mountains. In Italy especially,
they were great works of art and connected all the provinces.
There was an uninterrupted communication from the Wall of Antonius
through York, London, Sandwich, Boulogne, Rheims, Lyone, Milan, Rome, Brundisium, Dirachium, Byzantium, Anacria, Tarsus, Antioch,

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Tire Jerusalem a distance of thirty seven hundred and forty miles,
and these roads were divided by milestones and houses for
travelers erected upon them at points of every five or
six miles. Commerce under the Roman emperors was not what
it is now, but was still very considerable, and thus
united the various provinces together. The most remote countries were

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ransacked to furnish luxuries for Rome. Every year, a fleet
of one hundred and twenty vessels sailed from the Red
Sea for the islands of the Indian Ocean, but the Mediterranean,
with the rivers which flowed into it, was the great
highway of the ancient navigator. Navigation by the ancients was
even more rapid than in modern times before the invention
of steam, since oars were employed as well as sails.

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In one summer, one hundred and sixty two Roman miles
were sailed over in twenty four hours. This was the
average speed, or about seven knots. From the mouth of
the Tiber. Vessels could usually reach Africa in two days.
Masilla in three and the Pillars of Hercules in seven.
From Peteoli, the passage to Alexandria had been effected with
moderate winds in nine days. These facts, however, apply only

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to the summer and to favorable winds. The Romans did
not navigate in the inclement seasons, but in summer the
Great Inland Sea was white with sails. Great fleets brought
corn from Gaul, Spain, Sardinia, Africa, Sicily and Egypt. This
was the most important trade, but a considerable commerce was
carried on also in ivory, tortoise, shell, cotton and silk, fabrics,

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pearls and precious stones, gums, spices, wines, wool and oil.
Greek and Asiatic wine, especially the Chian and Lesbian, were
in great demand at Rome. The transport of earthenware, made
generally in the Grecian cities, of wild animals for the
amphitheater of marble, of the spoils of Eastern cities, of
military engines and stores, and of horses, required very large

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fleets and thousands of mariners, which probably belonged chiefly to
great maritime cities. These cities, with their dependencies, required even
more vessels for communication with one another than for Rome herself,
the great central object of enterprise and cupidity. In this
survey of ancient cities, I have not yet spoken of
the great central city, the city of the Seven Hills,

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to which all the world was tributary. Whatever was costly
or rare or beautiful in Greece, or Asia or Egypt
was appropriated by her citizen kings. Since citizens were provincial governors.
All the great highways from the Atlantic to the Tigris
converged to the capital. All roads led to Rome. All
the ships of Alexandria and Carthage and Tarantum and other

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commercial capitals were employed in furnis, wishing her with luxuries
and necessities. Never was there so proud a city as
this epitome of the universe. London, Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, Saint Petersburg,
Berlin are great centers of fashion and power. But they
are rivals and excel only in some great department of
human enterprise and genius, as in letters or fashions, or

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commerce or manufactures. Centers of influence and power in the
countries of which they are capitals. Yet they do not
monopolize the wealth and energies of the world. London may
contain more people than did ancient Rome, and may possess
more commercial wealth, but London represents only the British monarchy,
not a universal empire. Rome, however, monopolized every thing and

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controlled all nations and peoples. She could shut up the
schools of Athens, or disperse the ships of Alexandria, or
regulate the shops of Antioch. What Leon and Bordeaux are
to Paris, Corinth and Babylon were to Rome, mere dependent cities. Paul,
condemned at Jerusalem, stretched out his arms to Rome, and
Rome protected him. The philosophers of Greece were the tutors

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of Roman nobility. The kings of the East resorted to
the palaces of Mount Palatine for favors or safety. The
governors of Syria and Egypt, reigning in the palaces of
ancient kings, returned to Rome to squander the riches they
had accumulated. Senators and nobles took their turn as sovereign
rulers of all the known countries of the world. The

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halls in which Darius and Alexander and Pericles and Croesius
and Solomon and Cleopatra had feasted became the witness of
the banquets of Roman proconsuls. Babylon. Thebes and Athens were
only what Delhi and Calcutta are to the English of
our day, cities to be ruled by the delegates of
the Imperial Senate. Rome was the only home of the

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proud governors who reigned on the banks of the Thames,
of the Sign of the Rhine, of the Nile of
the Tigris. After they had enriched themselves with the spoils
of the ancient monarchies, they returned to their estates in
Italy or to their palaces on d In the Aventine,
what a concentration of works of art. On the hills
and around the Forum, and in the campus Marcias and

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other celebrated quarters. There were temples rivaling those of Athens
and Ephesus, baths covering more ground than the pyramids, surrounded
with Corinthian columns, and filled with the choicest treasures ransacked
from the cities of Greece and Asia. Palaces, in comparison
with the Tulliers and Versailles, are small. Theatres which seated
a larger audience than any present public buildings in Europe

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amphitheaters more extensive and costly than Cologne, Milan and York
Minister cathedrals, combined and seating eight times as many spectators
as could be crowded into Saint Peter's Church circuses, where
it is said three hundred and eighty five thousand persons
could witness the games and chariot races at a time.
Bridges still standing which have furnished models for the most

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beautiful at Paris. In London, aqueducts carried over arches one
hundred feet in height, through which flowed the surplus water
of distant lakes, Drains of solid masonry in which large
boats could float, Pillars more than one hundred feet in height,
coated with precious marbles or plates of brass, and covered
with bas reliefs obelisks brought from Egypt fora and basilicas,

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connected together and extending more than three thousand feet in length,
every part of which was filled with animated busts of conquerors, kings, statesmen, poets, publicists,
and philosophers. Mausoleums greater and more splendid than that Arnemisia
erected to the memory of her husband, Triumphal arches under
which marched in stately procession the victorious armies of the

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eternal city, preceded by the spoils and trophies of conquered empires.
Such was the proud capital, a city of palaces, a
residence of nobles who were virtually kings, enriched with the
accumulated treasures of ancient civilization. Great were the capitals of
Greece and Asia. But how preeminent was Rome, since all
were subordinate to her? How bewildering and bewitching to a

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traveler must have the varied wonders of the city. Go
where he would his eye rested on something which was
both a study and a marvel. Let him drive or
walk about the suburbs. There were villas, tombs, aqueducts looking
like our railroads, on arches, sculptured monuments, and gardens of
surpassing beauty and luxury. Let him approach the walls. They

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were great fortifications, extending twenty one miles in circuits according
to the measurement of ammon as adopted by Gibbon, and
forty five miles according to other authorities. Let him enter
any of the various gates that opened into the city
from the roads which radiated to all parts of Italy
and the world. They were of monumental brass, covered with
bas reliefs on which the victories of generals for a

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thousand years were commemorated. Let him pass through any of
the crowded thoroughfares, he saw houses towering scarcely ever less
than seventy feet as tall of those in Edinburgh in
its oldest sections. Most of the houses in which this
vast population lived, according to Strabo, possessed pipes which gave
a never failing supply of water from the rivers that

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flowed into the city through the aqueducts and out again
threw the sewers into the Tiber. Let the traveler walk
up the Via Sacra, the short street scarcely half a
mile in length, and he passed the Flavian Amphitheater, the
Temple of Venus and Rome, the Arch of Titus, the
Temples of Peace, of Vesta and of Castor, the Forum Romanum,

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the Basilica Julia, the arch of Severus, the Temple of Saturn,
and stood before the majestic ascent to the Capitoline Jupiter,
with its magnificent portico and ornamented pediment, surpassing the facade
of any modern church. On his left, as he emerged
from beneath the sculptured arch of Titus, was the Palatine mount,

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nearly covered by the Palace of the Caesars, the magnificent
residences of the higher nobility, and various temples, of which
that of Apollo was the most magnificent, built by Augustus
of solid white marble from Luna. Here were the palaces
of Vaccus, of Phloccus, of Cicero, of Cataline, of Scaurus,
of Antonius, of Clodius, of Agrippa, and of Hortensius. Still

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on his left, in the valley between the Palatine and
the Capitoline, though he could not see it, concealed from
view by the great temples of Vesta and of Castor,
and the still greater edifice known as the Basilica Julia,
was the quarter called the Velabrum, extending to the river
where the ponds Aemilius crossed it, a low quarter of
narrow streets and tall houses where the rabble lived and died.

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On his right, concealed from view by the ades d. V.
Julie and the Forum Romanum, was that magnificent series of
edifices extending from the Temple of Peace to the Temple
of Trajan, including the Basilica Pauli, the Forum Julie, the
Forum Augusti, the Forum Treijani, the Basilica Ulpia, a space

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more than three thousand feet in length and six hundred
in breadth, almost entirely surrounded by porticos and colonnades, and
filled with statues and pictures, displaying on the whole probably
the grandest series of public buildings clustered together ever erected,
especially if we include the Forum Romanum and the various
temples and basilicas which connected the whole. A forest of
marble pillars and statues ascending the steps which led from

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the Temple of Concord to the Temple of Junomoneta upon
the arks or Tarpeian Rock, on the southwestern summit of
the hill itself one of the most beautiful temples in Rome,
erected by Camillus on the spot where the house of
m Manilus Capitolinus had stood, and one came upon the
Roman mint nearer. This was the temple erected by Augustus

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to Jupiter Tonans, and that built by Dimitian to Jupiter custos,
but all the sacred edifices which crowned the Capitoline were
subordinate to the templum Jovis Capitolini, standing on a platform
of eight thousand square feet and built of the richest materials,
the portico, which faced the Via Sacra, consisted of three

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rows of Doric columns, the pediment profusely ornamented with the
choicest sculptures, the apex of the roof surmounted by the
bronze horses of Lysippus, and the roof itself covered with
gilded tiles. The temple had three separate cells, though covered
with one roof. In front of each stood colossal statues
of the three deities to whom it was consecrated. Here

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were preserved what was most sacred in the eyes of Romans,
and it was itself the richest of all the temples
of the city. What a beautiful panorama was presented to
the view from the summit of this consecrated hill, only
mounted by a steep ascent of one hundred steps. To
the south was the Via Sacra, extending to the Colosseum,
and beyond it the Appia Via, lined with monuments as

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far as the eye could reach a little beyond the fora.
To the east was the Carinae, a fashionable quarter of
beautiful shops and houses, and still farther off were the
baths of Titus. Extending from the Carinae to the Esqualine mount.
To the northeast were the Viminol and Corinnial hills. After
the Palatine the most ancient part of the city the

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seat of the Sabine population, abounding in fanes and temples,
the most splendid of which was the Temple of Corineus,
erected originally to Romulus by Numa, but rebuilt by Augustus
with a double row of columns on each of its
sides seventy six in number. Nearby was the house of
Atticus and the gardens of Sallust In the valley between
the Corinneal and Pincian afterwards the property of the Emperor.

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Far back on the Corneal, near the wall of Servius
were the baths of Diocletian, and still farther to the
east the Praetorian camp, established by Tiberius and included within
the wall of Aurelian. To the northeast, the eye lighted
on the Pincian Hill, covered with the gardens of Leusolus
to possess, which Messalina caused the death of Valarius Asiaticus,

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into whose possession they had fallen. In the valley which
lay between the Phora and the Quineal was the celebrated Subura,
the quarter of shops, markets and artificers, a busy, noisy,
vulgar section, not beautiful, but full of life and enterprise
and wickedness. The eye then turned north and the whole
length of the Via Flamina was exposed to view, extending

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from the Capitoline to the Flaminian Gate, perfectly straight. The
finest street in Rome and a parallel to the modern Corso,
it was the great highway to the north of Vitaly,
monuments and temples and palaces lining to this celebrated street.
It was spanned by the triumphal arches of Claudius and
Marcus Aurelius. To the west of it was the Campus Martius,

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with its innumerable objects of interest, the baths of Agrippa,
the pantheon, the Thermae Alexandrinae, the column of Marcus Aurelius,
and the mausoleum of Augustus beneath the Capituline. On the
west toward the river was the Circus Flaminius, the Portico
of Octavius, the Theater of Balibus, and the Theatre of Pompeii,
where forty thousand spectators were accommodated. Stretching beyond the Thermae Alexandre,

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near the Pantheon was the magnificent bridge which crossed the Tiber,
built by Hadrian when he founded his mausoleum, to which
it led, still standing under the name of the Ponte
s Angelo the Eye took in eight or nine bridges
over the Tiber, some of wood, but generally of stone,
of beautiful masonry and crowned with statues. In the valley
between the Palatine and the Avantine was a great Circus maximus,

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founded by the early Tarkin. It was the largest open
space enclosed by walls and porticos in the city. It
seated three hundred eighty five thousand spectators. How vast a
city which could spare nearly four hundred thousand of its
population to see the chariot races. Beyond was the Aventine itself.
This also was rich in legendary monuments and in the
Palaces of the Great, though originally a Plebeian quarter. Here

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dwelt Trajan before he was emperor, and Eneus the Poet,
and Pauola, the friend of Saint Jerome. Beneath the Aventine
and a little south of the Circus Maximus, were the
great baths of Caracalla, the ruins of which, next to
those of the Colosseum, made on my mind the strongest
impression of all that I saw that pertains to antiquity,
though these were not so large as those of Diocletium.

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The view south took in the Caelian Hill, the ancient
residence of Tullus Hostillus. This hill was the residence of
many distinguished Romans, among whose palaces was that of Claudius Centumalus,
which towered ten or twelve stories into the air. But
grander than any of these palaces was that of Platius Letteranus,
on whose site now stands the Basilica of Saint John Lateran,

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the gift of Constantine to the Bishop of Rome, one
of the most ancient of the Christian churches, in which
for fifteen hundred years daily services have been performed. Such
were the objects of interest in grandeur that met the
eye as it was turned toward the various quarters of
the city, which contained between three and four millions of people.
Lipsius estimates four millions as the population, including slaves, women, children,

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and strangers, though this estimate is regarded as too large
by Maraval and others. Yet, how enormous must have been
the number of the people when there were nine thousand
and twenty five baths, and when those of Diocletian could
accommodate thirty two hundred bathers at a time. The wooden
theater of Scaurus contained eighty thousand seats, that of Marcellus
twenty thousand. The Colosseum would seat eighty seven thousand persons

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and give standing space for twenty two thousand more. The
Circus Maximus would hold three hundred eighty five thousand spectators.
If only one person out of four of the free
population witnessed the games and spectacles at a time, we
thus must have four millions of people altogether in the city.
The Aureylian walls are now only thirteen miles in circumference,

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but Lipsius estimates the original circumference at forty five miles
and Vipiscus at nearly fifty the diameter of the city
must have been eleven miles, since Strebo tells us that
the actual limit of Rome was at a place between
the fifth and sixth milestone from the column of Trason
in the Forum, the central and most conspicuous object in
the city except the capital. Modern writers taking London in

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Paris for their measure of material civilization seem unwilling to
admit that Rome could have reached such a pitch of
glory and wall and power. To him who stands within
the narrow limits of the Forum as it now appears,
it seems incredible that it could have been the center
of a much larger city than Europe can now boast
of Grave Historians are loath to compromise their dignity and
character for truth by admitting statements which seem to men

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of limited views to be fabulous, and which transcend modern experience.
But we should remember that most of the monuments of
ancient Rome have entirely disappeared. Nothing remains of the Palace
of the Caesars, which nearly covered the Palatine Hill, little
of the fora, which connected together covered a space twice
as large as that enclosed by the palaces. Of the
Louver and the Tuliers, with all their galleries and courts.

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Almost nothing of the glories of the Capitoline hill, and
little comparatively of those Thermae, which were a mile in circuit.
But what does remain attests and unparalleled grandeur. The broken
pillars of the Forum, the lofty columns of Trajan and
Marcus Aurelius, the Pantheon, lifting its spacious dome two hundred
feet in the air, the mere vestibule of the baths

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of Agrippa, the tri tutful arches of Titus and Trajan
and Constantine, the bridges which span the Tiber, the aqueducts
which crossed the Campagna, the Cloaca maxima which drained the
marshes and lakes of the infant city, and above all
the Colosseum. What glory and shame are associated with that
single edifice, that alone, if nothing else remained of Pagan antiquity,

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would indicate a grandeur and a folly such as cannot
now be seen on earth. It reveals a wonderful skill
in masonry and great architectural strength. It shows the wealth
and resources of rulers who must have had the treasures
of the world at their command. It shows the restless
passions of the people for excitement, and the necessity on
the part of the government of yielding to this taste.

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What leisure and indolence marked a city which could afford
to give up so much time to demoralizing sports. What
facilities for transportation were afforded when so many wild beasts
could be brought to the capital from the central parts
of Africa without calling out unusual comment? How imperious a
populace that compels the government to provide such expensive pleasure.

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The Games of Titus on the dedication of the Colosseum
lasted one hundred days, and five thousand wild beasts were
slaughtered in the arena. The number of the gladiators who
fought surpasses belief. At the triumph of Trajan over the Dacians,
ten thousand gladiators were exhibited, and the emperor himself presided
under a gilded canopy, surrounded by thousands of his lords.

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Underneath the arena, strewed with yellow sand and star dust,
was a solid pavement so closely cemented that it could
be turned into an artificial lake on which naval battles
were fought. But it was the conflict of gladiators which
most deeply stimulated the passions of the people. The benches
were crowded with eager spectators, and the voices of one
hundred thousand were raised in triumph or rage as the

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miserable victims sank exhausted in the bloody sport. Yet it
was not the gladiatorial sports of the amphitheater which most
strikingly attested the greatness and splendor of the city. Nor
the palaces in which as many as four hundred slaves
were sometimes maintained as domestic servants for a single establishment
twelve hundred in number according to the lowest estimate, but
probably five times as numerous, since every senator every night,

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and every rich man was proud to possess a residence
which would attract attention. Nor the temples, which numbered four
hundred and twenty four, most of which were of marble,
filled with statues, the contributions of ages, and surrounded with groves.
Nor the fora and basilicas with their porticoes, statues and pictures,
covering more space than any cluster of public buildings in
Europe a mile and a half in circuit. Nor the

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baths nearly as large, still more completely filled with works
of art, nor the Circus Maximus, where more people witnessed
the chariot races at a time that are nightly assembled
in all the places of public amusement in Paris, London,
and New York combined, more than could be seated in
all the cathedrals of England and France. It is not
these which most impressively make us feel the amazing grandeur

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of the old capital of the world. The triumphal processions
of the conquering generals were still more exciting to behold,
for these appealed more directly to the imagine nation and
excited those passions which urged the Romans to a career
of conquest from generation to generation. No military review of
modern times equaled those gorgeous triumphs, even as no scenic

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performance compares with the gladiatorial shows. The sun has never
shown upon any human assemblage so magnificent and so grand,
so imposing, and yet so guilty. Not only were displayed
the spoils of conquered kingdoms and the triumphal cars of generals,
but the whole military strength of the capital, an army
of one hundred thousand men flushed with victory. Followed the

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gorgeous procession of nobles and princes. The triumph of Aurelian
on his return from the East gives us some idea
of the grandeur of that ovation to the conquerors. The
pomp was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and
two hundred of the most curious animals from every climate north, south,
east and west. These were followed by sixteen hundred gladiators

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devoted to the cruel amusement of the amphitheater. Then were
displayed the arms and ensigns of conquered nations, the slate
and wardrobe of the Syrian Queen. Then ambassadors from all
parts of the Earth, all remarkable in their rich dresses,
with their crowns and offerings. Then the captives taken in
the various wars Goths, Vandals, Samaritans, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians

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and Egyptians, each marked by their national costume. Then the
Queen of the East, the beautiful Zenobia, confined by fetters
of gold and fainting under the weight of jewels, preceding
the beautiful chariot in which she had hoped to enter
the gates of Rome, then the chariot of the Persian king,
then the triumphal car of Aurelian himself, drawn by elephants. Finally,
the most illustrious of the Senate and the army closed

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the solemn procession amid the acclamations of the people and
the sound of musical instruments. It took from dawn of
the day until the ninth hour for the procession to
pass to the capital, and the festival was protracted by
theatrical representations the games of the circus, the hunting of
wild beasts, combats of gladiators, and naval engagements. Such were

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the material wonders of the ancient civilizations, culminating in their
latest and greatest representative and displayed in its proud capital,
nearly all of which became later the spoil of barbarians
who ruthlessly marched over the classic world, having no regard
for its choicest treasures. Those old glories are now indeed
succeeded by a prouder civilization, the work of nobler races,

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after sixteen hundred years of new experiments. But why such
an eclipse of the glory of man? The reason is
apparent if we survey the internal state of the ancient empires,
especially of society as it existed under the Roman emperors.
Authorities Herodotus, Strabo, Plini, Polybius, Diodorus, Siclius, Titus, Livius, Pausanius.

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On the geography and resources of the ancient nations, see
an able chapter on Mediterranean prosperity in Louis Napoleon's History
of Caesar. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography is exhaustive. Wilkinson
has revealed the civilization of ancient Egypt. Professor Becker's and
Book of Rome, as well as his Gallus and Chericles,
shed much light on manners and customs. Dyer's History of

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the City of Rome is the fullest description of its
wonders that I have read. Neiber, Bunsen and Platner, among
the Germans, have written learnedly, but also have created much
doubt about things supposed to be established. Momsen, Curticus, and
Maraval are also great authorities. Nor are the magnificent chapters
of Gibbon to be disregarded by the student of Roman history,

(26:28):
notwithstanding his elaborate and inflated style. End of Section thirteen