Part 1
Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=).
The whole number part of a mixed fraction is separated from the fractional part with -, for example, 365-1/4.
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
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THE WORLD’S LEADERS
A NEW SERIES OF BIOGRAPHIES
Edited by W. P. TRENT
Each, with portraits. Large 12mo. $1.75 net.
H. W. BOYNTON’S THE WORLD’S LEADING POETS.--Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe.
G. B. ROSE’S THE WORLD’S LEADING PAINTERS.--Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Rembrandt.
W. L. BEVAN’S THE WORLD’S LEADING CONQUERORS.--Alexander, Cæsar, Charles the Great, The Ottoman Conquerors of Europe, Cortes and Pizarro, Napoleon.
_Other Volumes in Preparation._
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
34 West 33d Street NEW YORK
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[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE]
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The World’s Leaders Edited by W. P. TRENT
THE WORLD’S LEADING CONQUERORS
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, CÆSAR, CHARLES THE GREAT, THE OTTOMAN SULTANS, THE SPANISH CONQUISTADORS, NAPOLEON
BY W. L. BEVAN
Doctor of Political Science, Munich; Sometime Fellow of Columbia University; Professor of History, University of the South
WITH PORTRAITS
[Illustration]
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1913
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COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
_Published March, 1913_
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS RAHWAY, N. J.
PREFACE
The purpose of this volume is to present, in harmony with the popular character of the series of which it is a part, brief sketches of some of the most familiarly named men and well-known incidents in the history of Western Civilization. The plan upon which the work is constructed assumes that the broad highway of historical narrative must be followed, however attractive may be the deviations from it that offer themselves at almost every page. The story told here has been told often before and very frequently the telling of it has come from master hands of literature. It is no easy task to reproduce, in a condensed form, material so often handled under much more generous limitations of space than are possible in this work. An attempt has been made, however, to escape from the bald tabular method of recording historical happenings that is almost certain to make a continuous reading of text-book history an impossibility. This must be the apology for many omissions; not only had the temptation to generalize to be resisted in favor of what might be called a process of arbitrary selection but many things are passed over in order to give appropriate emphasis in treating the matters which do actually appear in a narrative. If the volume had aimed at comprehensiveness, many more conquests would necessarily have been described and the list of characters and leaders in large numbers of military campaigns could of course be almost indefinitely enlarged. One can say in any case that though such additions will naturally suggest themselves, there is less doubt as to the claim of the leaders and events selected to appear with the prominence here assigned to them. If there has been a guiding principle in the selection, it may be found in the deliberate choice made of widely different periods of history. What may be called the group conquest is best illustrated in the case of the Ottoman Sultans and the Spanish Conquistadors, whereas the personal factor of the conqueror comes intensively forward in the chapters describing Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon. Although the military aspect of the history of conquest has not been neglected, the other less visible elements that ushered in great changes in history have not been omitted. In the preparation of the volume some attempt has been made to incorporate methods, points of view, and material that might not be accessible to those not concerned with the range of literature to which the ordinary student of history must appeal. It is only fair, therefore, to express my obligations to the following works. In the chapters dealing with ancient history, Beloch’s “Griechische Geschichte,” Delbrück’s “Kriegs Geschichte,” Kaerst’s “Geschichte des Hellenismus” and Heitland’s “History of the Roman Republic” have been largely used. In the chapter on Charles the Great, apart from Hodgkin’s well-known volumes “Italy and Her Invaders,” I have drawn upon Hartmann’s “Geschichte Italiens,” Ranke’s “Welt Geschichte,” Hauck’s “Kirchen Geschichte” and Lavisse’s “Histoire de France.” For the Ottoman conquest Professor Jorga’s two recently published volumes, “Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches,” have been found especially useful because the author is thoroughly acquainted with the authorities both Slavonic and Turkish not previously accessible to Occidental scholars. In the chapter on the Spanish Conquest use has been made of Payne’s “History of the New World,” MacNutt’s “Life of Las Casas,” and in the narrative portion Garcia’s “Character de la Conquista Española” has been found especially valuable. In the life of Napoleon, which offers the most serious difficulties in applying any accepted method of condensation, the well-known volumes of Fournier and portions of the “Histoire Générale” of Lavisse and Rambaud have been followed. Much help has been received from Professor W. P. Trent, the editor of the series; in the arduous task of revision, I wish to express my special obligations for time and work ungrudgingly given by my colleague, the Rev. S. L. Tyson of the University of the South, and I cannot pass over aid of the same kind received from Mr. Karl Schmidt of the New York _Churchman_.
W. L. B.
SEWANEE, TENN., _January, 1913_.
CONTENTS
ALEXANDER THE GREAT PAGE
I INTRODUCTORY 3
II THE CONQUEST OF GREECE 4
III THE CONQUEST OF PERSIA 17
IV THE INVASION OF INDIA 34
V ALEXANDER’S EMPIRE 48
CÆSAR
I CÆSAR’S BEGINNINGS 65
II ALLIANCE WITH POMPEIUS AND CRASSUS 75
III THE CONQUEST OF GAUL 84
IV THE BREAK WITH POMPEIUS AND THE SENATE 102
V CÆSAR SUPREME 119
CHARLES THE GREAT
I INTRODUCTORY 134
II CONSOLIDATION OF RULE 140
III THE CONQUEST OF THE SAXONS 144
IV OTHER MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS 150
V THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE 158
VI CLOSING YEARS 166
VII THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE 172
VIII CAROLINGIAN CULTURE 180
IX ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 189
X THE CHURCH 198
XI THE EMPIRE WITHOUT AND WITHIN 203
THE OTTOMANS
I OSMAN 213
II MURAD I 219
III BAJESID 235
IV MURAD II 244
V MOHAMMED II 253
VI SELIM AND SOULIMAN 272
VII THE DECLINE OF THE OTTOMANS 280
SPANISH CONQUERORS
I THE SPANIARD AND THE NEW WORLD 293
II THE CAREER OF CORTEZ 322
III THE INCAS 350
IV PIZARRO 357
NAPOLEON
I EARLY YEARS 371
II ITALY AND EGYPT 379
III THE FALL OF THE DIRECTORY 388
IV THE FIRST CONSUL 393
V THE INAUGURATION OF THE EMPIRE 407
VI AT THE ZENITH OF POWER 418
VII THE BEGINNING OF THE END 426
VIII DEFEAT AND EXILE 433
IX THE NAPOLEONIC RÉGIME 448
INDEX 465
PORTRAITS
CHARLES THE GREAT _Frontispiece_
ALEXANDER THE GREAT 3
CÆSAR 65
MOHAMMED II 253
SULEYMAN 276
CORTEZ 322
PIZARRO 357
NAPOLEON 371
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THE WORLD’S LEADING CONQUERORS
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ALEXANDER THE GREAT
I INTRODUCTORY
Even in the critical time of the Persian invasion, the Greek peoples did not act together. The experiences of political individualism were too strong to be overcome, and the rooted tradition of local autonomy successfully resisted all attempts at larger plans of unity. It is not surprising that at a time when Greek thinkers regarded the development of the city-state as the highest field for human endeavor, Greek statesmen should have seen in the expansion of their native communities only a loose federation of subject cities to be exploited financially or for the purpose of adding increased military and naval strength, and not to be subjected to any formal centralized control.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER]
As time went on the old solidarity of the Greek city-state was sapped in the fight of social classes and political parties. Not only were Athens, Sparta, and Thebes frequently at war with one another but in each one of these states there were at work factions dominated by revolutionary aims. Nothing was regarded as fixed except that the community must be self-sufficing, it mattered little in what way. It seemed as if the troubled relations of Greek political life might go on indefinitely after the Persian invasion had been repelled.
No Greek statesman for a hundred and fifty years, say roughly from 500 B.C. to 350 B.C., the most brilliant period of Greek history, regarded the kingdom of Macedon as anything but a negligible quantity. Macedon itself was a land that lay on the boundaries of the Hellenic world. Its people were held to be half Hellenic and half barbarian. Even to-day scholars are not at one on the question whether the Macedonian dialect can be reckoned as properly belonging to Greek speech. But it was this alien power that ended in bringing Greece to a kind of unity, a unity based on the force of arms. The most remarkable feature of this achievement lies in the fact that it was accomplished by one man, Philip of Macedon, who began his victorious career in 359 B.C. by repressing internal disturbances at home and by dealing effectively with his warlike neighbors, the Illyrians and the Thracians. The divisions in Greece gave him the opportunity of intervention there. He posed as the friend of the oligarchic party in various Greek communities, and made it his aim to oppose by diplomacy and by war the most important center of Greek democracy, Athens. The final struggle between the free states and the Macedonian monarchy took place at the battle of Chæronea, August, 338 B.C. Philip won a decisive victory, because he had spent years in training a professional army that proved irresistible when it faced the best citizen soldiers of Athens, Thebes, and other smaller towns which, persuaded by the eloquence of Demosthenes, stood side by side in the defense of liberty. Philip survived his victory only a short time, dying in 336 B.C. as the master of Greece and leaving to his son Alexander the heritage of his unique achievements.
II THE CONQUEST OF GREECE
Alexander’s succession to the throne of Macedon seemed secured by his father Philip’s sincere personal affection for him. His confidence in Alexander’s ability, even in his son’s early youth, was manifested in the assignment to him of the most responsible positions under his father’s directions. Philip saw to it that his son should be carefully educated by placing him under the charge of Aristotle. Good reports must have come of his precocity, because Philip, while he was occupied in the siege of Byzantium, handed over to Alexander, then only sixteen years old, the administration of Macedon. Two years later, at the battle of Chæronea, already mentioned as marking the downfall of Greek freedom, the youth was placed at the head of the division of the army which took the offensive at a critical part of the engagement, and it was through this important command that the questionable honor of striking the decisive blow in the defeat of the allied forces of free Greece was ungrudgingly conceded to him.
Philip, unattractive as his character was in so many ways, stained as he was by savage passions and duplicity, at least performed conscientiously and effectively a father’s part in preparing his son for the high position he was to take in the future. But the domestic situation of the Macedonian royal family was very far from being modeled on that described in the Odyssey as befitting the heroes and the leaders of men. Philip was lawless, and his numerous amours brought him both difficulty and notoriety, for in his irregular relations he did not scruple to disregard the customary conventions of Greek social life. On his return from his campaign for the subjugation of Greece, he became enamored of Cleopatra, a girl belonging to a distinguished Macedonian family, whose uncle, Attalus, had a high place in the government. Cleopatra’s position made it impossible for the King to offer her the place of a royal mistress; accordingly he made her a legitimate wife. Olympias and her son Alexander left Macedon, the queen returning to her home in Epirus, and the crown prince withdrawing to the traditional enemies of the Macedonians, the Illyrians.
Philip, alarmed at the possibility of political combinations dangerous to his throne, came to an agreement with Alexander by which the latter was to return to his father’s court at Pella, and Olympias’ brother, the prince of Epirus, was induced to give up his hostility against his brother-in-law by a promise that he should have in marriage Philip’s daughter, another Cleopatra. This alliance took place with great ceremony in the summer of 336, in the ancient royal town of Ægæ. Immediately after Philip prepared to set out to war with Persia. During the marriage festivities, however, he was assassinated by one of the members of his bodyguard, Pausanias, who in the confusion that followed almost succeeded in making his escape. Personal motives were assigned as grounds for this murder. Pausanias, it appears, had been deeply insulted by Attalus, the uncle of Philip’s young wife Cleopatra, and failing to get redress from the King, had so revenged on him his injured honor. It has been asked why, if this were the case, he did not strike at Attalus rather than Philip. The probability is that Philip’s murder was inspired by a woman’s indignation.
It was suspected immediately after the event that it was a case of “cherchez la femme,” and all indications pointed to the outraged Olympias as the author of the murder. Alexander himself was thought to have been concerned in his father’s death, for his own rights of succession were endangered by the influence of Cleopatra over Philip, an influence no longer merely sentimental, since she had recently given birth to a son. For this infant she would naturally strive to secure the Macedonian crown, and Alexander would be left to play the uncertain rôle of Pretender.
Whatever happened at Ægæ, the fruits of the crime fell into Alexander’s hands. He had been officially proclaimed his father’s heir. Of Philip’s sons he was the only one who had been tested on the battlefield, and he was also the one who had already shown capacity for leading the state in such crises as were bound to result from his father’s murder. Philip’s old companions in arms did not hesitate for a moment as to the proper choice of a ruler. Alexander was immediately recognized as king, and in the selection special weight was attached to the fact that his cause was urged by Antipater, one of Philip’s closest friends and supporters.
In this way the young prince’s road to the succession was made easy; there were no disturbances, and care was also taken that there should be no competitors for the crown in the future, for the young son of Cleopatra was killed. But these grim measures to establish domestic peace did not stop here. There was another line of Macedonian princes, descended from the dethroned family of Lynkestes; there were two members of this house who might, by making awkward claims at unsuitable times, give much trouble. These two, Heromenes and Arrhabæos, were both executed, on the ground that they had acted as accomplices with Pausanias in the conspiracy against Philip. They had a brother Alexander, whose life was spared only because he was a son-in-law of Antipater and had hailed Alexander as the new king immediately after the murder.
By these deeds of violence, Alexander became the acknowledged master of Macedon, but the prospects outside his own country were anything but favorable. In Asia, Attalus was at the head of the Greek cities. As the uncle of Cleopatra he would naturally be a most bitter enemy of Alexander. The uncertain future in Macedon was not lost on those Greeks whose liberties Philip had so recently destroyed, and whose acquiescence in the rule of Macedon was due only to their fear of the conqueror. Now they were ready to throw off the yoke, needing no excuse, but only an opportunity of rising, which the advent to the throne of an untried youth made most hopeful. A revolt broke out in Ambrakia and the Macedonian governor was driven out. Thebes was preparing for a similar outbreak, and there were plain signs of restlessness in Ætolia and in the Peloponnesus.
Athens was the city to which all the opponents of Macedonian rule looked for sympathy and support. The peace party there, who had gained adherents among the Athenians because of the moderation shown by Philip after his decisive victory at Chæronea, now lost ground because patriotic hopes sprung anew to life at the unexpected death of the man who had shattered the traditional system of Greek city autonomy.
Every Greek regarded Macedon as an alien and semibarbarous power, and one can sympathize with their view. Demosthenes was the leader of the patriotic party in Athens, and all attempts to undermine his popularity only put the partisans of Macedonia in a worse light in the eyes of the Athenians. Whenever he was judicially attacked he came out of the trial in triumph. Besides, the personal ascendancy of Demosthenes protected the minor politicians who joined him as opponents of the friends of the Macedonian monarch. Hyperides, who was responsible for a decree calling every Athenian freeman, slave, and ally under arms for the defense of the city against Philip after the defeat of the Greeks, was brought to trial for his action and, despite the eloquence of the pro-Macedonian orator, Aristogeiton, was acquitted.
The current of popular emotion was even more plainly revealed when the time came to deliver the oration, at the Attic feast of the dead, to commemorate the citizens fallen at the battle of Chæronea. The honor fell to Demosthenes, the one man whose implacable hatred to the Macedonian dynasty and all its works was known to everyone. Attempts were made in Athens to reform the terms of military service by arranging that all citizens should be called out to defend their country, and at the same time money was spent in putting the fortifications of the city in a state to resist an army composed of skilled troops and provided with the siege artillery of the time.
But care had been taken not to invite attack while Athens was yet unprepared. At the marriage feast of Ægæ appeared an Athenian deputation bringing a golden wreath to Philip and a copy of a decree, passed formally by the city, by which it undertook to surrender anyone in its jurisdiction who should dare to plot against the king. When the news of the assassination reached Athens, Demosthenes appeared in the council in festal garb, and solemnly thanked the gods for the deliverance done at Ægæ. He considered that Athens had nothing to fear from the silly youth who now was ruling over Macedon.
But Alexander showed that the great orator had not taken his enemy’s measure. By the rapidity of his actions, he checked all attempts to revolt. Suddenly appearing at the head of his army in Thessaly, he received from the Thessalian allied cities the position of commander-in-chief, as his father had done before him, and moving rapidly south, he reached Thermopylæ, where he summoned the Amphiktyons, and meeting no opposition, was declared by them guardian of the temple at Delphi. Marching farther south to Thebes, he prevented, by his presence with an overwhelming force, any anti-Macedonian movement; and when the Athenians sent a delegation to greet him, he was tactful enough not to ask for further guaranties of good behavior on the part of the city they represented.
The Hellenic league, which included all the Greek states south of Thermopylæ and all the islands which had once owned the supremacy of Athens, met again at Corinth and renewed with Alexander the same agreement that had previously been made with his father, a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance, and the chief command by land and sea was assigned to the new king, as his father’s successor. After this triumphal and peaceful progress, Alexander returned home, where his barbarian neighbors were giving trouble by revolts against his authority.
In order to bring himself in contact with the Greek opposition to Alexander, Attalus, one of the two commanders of the Macedonian army in Asia, had entered into relations with Demosthenes, only a short time after Alexander’s succession. As Cleopatra’s uncle he took a leading part in engineering a conspiracy intended to supplant Alexander by Amyntas, the young son of Perdikkas, the elder brother of Philip, who by the traditional usage of the Macedonian monarchy was entitled to succeed Philip. The success of Alexander in Greece convinced Attalus of the futility of his schemes, and he therefore tried to make advances to the young ruler. But Alexander was not to be placated, and, as a deviser of conspiracies in his own interest, he showed that he had nothing to learn from the practised hands of the Macedonian nobles.
It would have been extremely unwise for Alexander to have shown himself openly an enemy of Attalus, who enjoyed much popularity in the army. Accordingly he made a show of friendship by graciously accepting the advances of Attalus, and at the same time he despatched an associate, Hekatæus, on whom he could rely, with directions to assassinate him. The treacherous deed was made the easier, because Parmenio, joint-commander with Attalus in Asia Minor, facilitated the plans of the assassination, despite the fact that Attalus was married to his daughter. The tribal interests of a half-barbarous people had full sway among the Macedonians, so Parmenio, who had throughout his life been conscientiously loyal to the Macedonian monarchy, did not scruple to sacrifice his daughter’s husband, when it appeared that his son-in-law was plotting to supplant the regularly accepted monarch of his people.
Alexander’s difficulties were being quickly dissolved by crime and bloodshed. The Macedonians had none of the political experiences common to the free Greek communities, and assassination was regarded both as an ordinary expedient for removing opponents, and as the logical method of rounding off a policy that was complicated. With Attalus removed, Alexander could proceed, without further hesitation, to strengthen his position at home. Amyntas, the young pretender, was executed, and with him all of the relatives of Attalus and Cleopatra. In this Borgia-like program of eliminating possible claimants to the throne, only the stepbrother of Alexander, a half-witted lad, Amidæus, was spared. Later Alexander’s mother, Olympias, forced her rival, the queen-widow Cleopatra, to commit suicide.
With this orgy of crime, the reign of Alexander was ushered in, and one reads with astonishment to-day the thin and specious apologies which would excuse the young ruler, the real instigator of these atrocities. As a matter of fact he early acquired the habit of assassination; unfortunately he never unlearned it. Whatever may be argued in behalf of his people, who were uncivilized, nothing can extenuate this early exercise in crime of the pupil of Aristotle. When we survey his record of one year we perceive that hatred of his deeds must have been the test of patriotism and good citizenship among the Greek communities, who might well see in him the typical tyrant of their political theories.
Alexander’s violent preparations for a peaceful reign were successful. During his lifetime the tranquillity of Macedonia was not disturbed. Greece had been brought by the display of military supremacy to a position of servitude; all that needed to be done before he took up his father’s program for the invasion of Asia, was to bring the western tribes on his northern frontier to reason, and to force home upon them the realization of the power of Macedon.