The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 5

I repeat it in Latin, because the equivocality, which equally implies, that Pyrrhus could conquer the Romans, and the Romans Pyrrhus, will not subsist in a translation. Under the cover of such ambiguities, the G.o.d eluded all difficulties, and was never in the wrong.

It must, however, be confessed, that sometimes the answer of the oracle was clear and circ.u.mstantial. I have related, in the history of Crsus, the stratagem he made use of to a.s.sure himself of the veracity of the oracle, which was, to demand of it, by his amba.s.sador, what he was doing at a certain time prefixed. The oracle of Delphi replied, in verse, that he was causing a tortoise and a lamb to be drest in a vessel of bra.s.s, which was really the case. The emperor Trajan made a similar trial of the G.o.d at Heliopolis, by sending him a letter sealed up,(96) to which he demanded an answer.(97) The oracle made no other return, than to command a blank paper, well folded and sealed, to be delivered to him. Trajan, upon the receipt of it, was struck with amazement to see an answer so correspondent with his own letter, in which he knew he had written nothing. The wonderful facility with which daemons can transfer themselves almost in an instant from place to place, made it not impossible for them to give the two answers, which I have last mentioned, and to foretell in one country, what they had seen in another; this is Tertullian's opinion.(98)

Admitting it to be true, that some oracles have been followed precisely by the events foretold, we may believe that G.o.d, to punish the blind and sacrilegious credulity of the Pagans, has sometimes permitted the daemons to have a knowledge of things to come, and to foretell them distinctly enough. Which conduct of G.o.d, though very much above human comprehension, is frequently attested in the Holy Scriptures.

It has been questioned, whether the oracles, mentioned in profane history, should be ascribed to the operations of daemons, or only to the wickedness and imposture of men. Van dale, a Dutch physician, has maintained the latter opinion, and Monsieur Fontenelle, when a young man, adopted it, in the persuasion (to use his own words) that it was indifferent, as to the truth of Christianity, whether the oracles were the effect of the agency of spirits, or a series of impostures. Father Baltus, the Jesuit, professor of the Holy Scriptures in the university of Strasburgh, has refuted them both in a very solid treatise, wherein he demonstrates, invincibly, from the unanimous authority of the Fathers, that daemons were the real agents in the oracles. He attacks, with equal force and success, the rashness and presumption of the Anabaptist physician; who, calling in question the capacity and discernment of those holy doctors, secretly endeavoured to efface the high idea all true believers should entertain of those great leaders of the Church, and to depreciate their venerable authority, which is so great a difficulty to all who deviate from the principles of ancient tradition. Now, if that was ever certain and uniform in any thing, it is so in this point; for all the Fathers of the Church, and ecclesiastical writers of all ages, maintain, and attest, that the devil was the author of idolatry in general, and of oracles in particular.

This opinion does not hinder our believing that the priests and priestesses were frequently guilty of fraud and imposture in the answers of the oracles. For is not the devil the father and prince of lies? In the Grecian history, we have seen more than once the Delphic priestess suffer herself to be corrupted by presents. It was from that motive, she persuaded the Lacedaemonians to a.s.sist the people of Athens in the expulsion of the thirty tyrants; that she caused Demaratus to be divested of the royal dignity, to make way for Cleomenes; and drest up an oracle to support the imposture of Lysander, when he endeavoured to change the succession to the throne of Sparta. And I am apt to believe that Themistocles, who well knew the importance of acting against the Persians by sea, inspired the G.o.d with the answer he gave, "to defend themselves with wooden walls." Demosthenes, convinced that the oracles were frequently suggested by pa.s.sion or interest, and suspecting, with reason, that Philip had instructed them to speak in his favour, boldly declared,(99) that the Pythia "philippized;" and bade the Athenians and Thebans remember that Pericles and Epaminondas, instead of listening to, and amusing themselves with, the frivolous answers of the oracle, those idle bugbears of the base and cowardly, consulted only reason in the choice and execution of their measures.

The same father Baltus examines, with equal success, a second point in dispute, namely, the cessation of oracles. Mr. Vandale, to oppose with some advantage a truth so glorious to Jesus Christ, the subverter of idolatry, had falsified the sense of the Fathers, by making them say, "that oracles ceased precisely at the moment of Christ's birth." The learned apologist for the Fathers shows, that they all allege that oracles ceased after our Saviour's birth, and the preaching of his Gospel; not on a sudden, but in proportion as his salutary doctrines became known to mankind, and gained ground in the world. This unanimous opinion of the Fathers is confirmed by the unexceptionable evidence of great numbers of the Pagans, who agree with them as to the time when the oracles ceased.

What an honour to the Christian religion was this silence imposed upon the oracles by the victory of Jesus Christ! Every Christian had this power.

Tertullian, in one of his _Apologies_,(100) challenges the Pagans to make the experiment, and consents that a Christian should be put to death, if he did not oblige these givers of oracles to confess themselves devils.

Lactantius informs us, that every Christian could silence them by only the sign of the cross.(101) And all the world knows, that when Julian the Apostate was at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, to consult Apollo, the G.o.d, notwithstanding all the sacrifices offered to him, continued mute, and only recovered his speech to answer those who inquired the cause of his silence, that they must ascribe it to the interment of certain bodies in the neighbourhood. Those were the bodies of Christian martyrs, amongst which was that of St. Babylas.

This triumph of the Christian religion ought to give us a due sense of our obligations to Jesus Christ, and, at the same time, of the darkness to which all mankind were abandoned before his coming. We have seen amongst the Carthaginians, fathers and mothers, more cruel than wild beasts, inhumanly giving up their children, and annually depopulating their cities, by destroying the most vigorous of their youth, in obedience to the b.l.o.o.d.y dictates of their oracles and false G.o.ds.(102) The victims were chosen without any regard to rank, s.e.x, age, or condition. Such b.l.o.o.d.y executions were honoured with the name of sacrifices, and designed to make the G.o.ds propitious. "What greater evil," cries Lactantius, "could they inflict in their most violent displeasure, than thus to deprive their adorers of all sense of humanity, to make them cut the throats of their own children, and pollute their sacrilegious hands with such execrable parricides?"

A thousand frauds and impostures, openly detected at Delphi, and every where else, had not opened men's eyes, nor in the least diminished the credit of the oracles; which subsisted upwards of two thousand years, and was carried to an inconceivable height, even in the minds of the greatest men, the most profound philosophers, the most powerful princes, and generally among the most civilized nations, and such as valued themselves most upon their wisdom and policy. The estimation they were in, may be judged from the magnificence of the temple of Delphi, and the immense riches ama.s.sed in it through the superst.i.tious credulity of nations and monarchs.

The temple of Delphi having been burnt about the fifty-eighth Olympiad, the Amphictyons, those celebrated judges of Greece, took upon themselves the care of rebuilding it.(103) They agreed with an architect for three hundred talents, which amounts to nine hundred thousand livres.(104) The cities of Greece were to furnish that sum. The inhabitants of Delphi were taxed a fourth part of it, and collected contributions in all parts, even in foreign nations, for that service. Amasis, at that time king of Egypt, and the Grecian inhabitants of his country, contributed considerable sums towards it. The Alcmaeonidae, a potent family of Athens, took upon themselves the conduct of the building, and made it more magnificent, by considerable additions of their own, than had been proposed in the model.

Gyges, king of Lydia, and Crsus, one of his successors, enriched the temple of Delphi with an incredible number of presents. Many other princes, cities, and private persons, by their example, in a kind of emulation of each other, had heaped up in it tripods, vases, tables, shields, crowns, chariots, and statues of gold and silver of all sizes, equally infinite in number and value. The presents of gold which Crsus alone made to this temple, amounted, according to Herodotus,(105) to upwards of 254 talents; that is, about 762,000 French livres;(106) and perhaps those of silver to as much. Most of these presents were in being in the time of Herodotus. Diodorus Siculus,(107) adding those of other princes to them, makes their amount ten thousand talents, or thirty millions of livres.(108)

Amongst the statues of gold, consecrated by Crsus in the temple of Delphi, was placed that of his female baker, the occasion of which was this:(109) Alyattes, Crsus's father, having married a second wife, by whom he had children, she laid a plan to get rid of her son-in-law, that the crown might descend to her own issue. For this purpose she engaged the female baker to put poison into a loaf, that was to be served at the young prince's table. The woman, who was struck with horror at the crime, (in which she ought to have had no part at all,) gave Crsus notice of it. The poisoned loaf was served to the queen's own children, and their death secured the crown to the lawful successor. When he ascended the throne, in grat.i.tude to his benefactress, he erected a statue to her in the temple of Delphi. But, it may be said, could a person of so mean a condition deserve so great an honour? Plutarch answers in the affirmative; and with a much better t.i.tle, he says, than many of the so-much-vaunted conquerors and heroes, who have acquired their fame only by murder and devastation.

It is not to be wondered at, that such immense riches should have tempted the avarice of mankind, and exposed Delphi to being frequently pillaged.

Without mentioning more ancient times, Xerxes, who invaded Greece with a million of men, endeavoured to seize upon the spoils of this temple. Above an hundred years after, the Phoceans, near neighbours of Delphi, plundered it at several times. The same rich booty was the sole motive of the irruption of the Gauls into Greece under Brennus. The guardian G.o.d of Delphi, if we may believe historians, sometimes defended this temple by surprising prodigies; and at others, either from impotence or want of presence of mind, suffered himself to be plundered. When Nero made this temple, so famous throughout the universe, a visit, and found in it five hundred fine bra.s.s statues of ill.u.s.trious men and G.o.ds to his liking, which had been consecrated to Apollo, (those of gold and silver having undoubtedly disappeared upon his approach,) he ordered them to be taken down, and shipping them on board his vessels, carried them with him to Rome.

Those who are desirous of more particular information concerning the oracles and riches of the temple of Delphi, may consult some dissertations upon this subject, printed in the _Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres_,(110) of which I have made good use, according to my custom.

Of the Games and Combats.

Games and combats made a part of the religion, and had a share in almost all the festivals of the ancients; and for that reason it is proper that they should find a place in this Work. Whether we consider their origin, or the design of their inst.i.tution, we shall not be surprised at their being so prevalent in the best governed states.

Hercules, Theseus, Castor and Pollux, and the greatest heroes of antiquity, were not only the inst.i.tutors or restorers of them, but thought it glorious to share in the exercise of them, and meritorious to succeed therein. These subduers of monsters, and of the common enemies of mankind, thought it no disgrace to them, to aspire to the victories in these combats; nor that the new wreaths with which their brows were encircled in the solemnization of these games, detracted from the l.u.s.tre of those they had before acquired. Hence the most famous poets made these combats the subject of their verses; the beauty of whose poetry, whilst it immortalized themselves, seemed to promise an eternity of fame to those whose victories it celebrated. Hence arose that uncommon ardour which animated all Greece, to tread in the steps of those ancient heroes, and like them, to signalize themselves in the public combats.

A reason more solid, and originating in the very nature of these combats, and of the people who used them, may be given for their prevalence. The Greeks, by nature warlike, and equally intent upon forming the bodies and minds of their youth, introduced these exercises, and annexed honours to them, in order to prepare the younger sort for the profession of arms, to confirm their health, to render them stronger and more robust, to inure them to fatigues, and to make them intrepid in close fight, in which, the use of fire-arms being then unknown, strength of body generally decided the victory. These athletic exercises supplied the place of those in use amongst our n.o.bility, as dancing, fencing, riding the great horse, &c.; but they did not confine themselves to a graceful mien, nor to the beauties of a shape and face; they were for joining strength to the charms of person.

It is true, these exercises, so ill.u.s.trious by their founders, and so useful in the ends at first proposed from them, introduced public masters, who taught them to young persons, and from practising them with success, made public show and ostentation of their skill. This sort of men applied themselves solely to the practice of this art, and carrying it to an excess, they formed it into a kind of science, by the addition of rules and refinements; often challenging each other out of a vain emulation, till at length they degenerated into a profession of people, who, without any other employment or merit, exhibited themselves as a sight for the diversion of the public. Our dancing-masters are not unlike them in this respect, whose natural and original designation was to teach youth a graceful manner of walking, and a good address; but now we see them mount the stage, and perform ballets in the garb of comedians, capering, jumping, skipping, and making variety of strange unnatural motions. We shall see in the sequel, what opinion the wiser among the ancients had of their professed combatants and wrestling-masters.

There were four games solemnized in Greece. The _Olympic_, so called from Olympia, otherwise Pisa, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus, near which they were celebrated, after the expiration of every four years, in honour of Jupiter Olympicus. The _Pythian_, sacred to Apollo Pythius,(111) so called from the serpent Python, killed by him; they were celebrated at Delphi every four years. The _Nemaean_, which took their name from Nemaea, a city and forest of Peloponnesus, and were either inst.i.tuted or restored by Hercules, after he had slain the lion of the Nemaean forest. They were solemnized every two years. And lastly, the _Isthmian_, celebrated upon the isthmus of Corinth, every four years, in honour of Neptune.

Theseus(112) was the restorer of them, and they continued even after the ruin of Corinth. That persons might be present at these public sports with greater quiet and security, there was a general suspension of arms, and cessation of hostilities throughout all Greece, during the time of their celebration.

In these games, which were solemnized with incredible magnificence, and drew together a prodigious concourse of spectators and combatants from all parts, a simple wreath was all the reward of the victors. In the Olympic games, it was composed of wild olive. In the Pythian, of laurel. In the Nemaean, of green parsley;(113) and in the Isthmian, of the same herb dried. The inst.i.tutors of these games wished that it should be implied from hence, that honour alone, and not mean and sordid interest, ought to be the motive of great actions. Of what were men not capable, accustomed to act solely from so glorious a principle! We have seen in the Persian war,(114) that Tigranes, one of the most considerable captains in the army of Xerxes, having heard the prizes in the Grecian games described, cried out with astonishment, addressing himself to Mardonius, who commanded in chief, "Heavens! against what men are you leading us? Insensible to interest, they combat only for glory!"(115) Which exclamation, though looked upon by Xerxes as an effect of abject fear, abounds with sense and judgment.

It was from the same principle that the Romans, whilst they bestowed upon other occasions crowns of gold of great value, persisted always in giving only a wreath of oaken leaves to him who had saved the life of a citizen.(116) "O manners, worthy of eternal remembrance!" cried Pliny, in relating this laudable custom, "O grandeur, truly Roman, that would a.s.sign no other reward but honour, for the preservation of a citizen! a service, indeed, above all reward; thereby sufficiently evincing their opinion, that it was criminal to save a man's life from the motive of lucre and interest!" _O mores aeternos, qui tanta opera honore solo donaverint; et c.u.m reliquas coronas auro commendarent, salutem civis in pretio esse noluerint, clara professione servari quidem hominem nefus esse lucri causa!_

Amongst all the Grecian games, the Olympic held undeniably the first rank, and that for three reasons. They were sacred to Jupiter, the greatest of the G.o.ds; inst.i.tuted by Hercules, the first of the heroes; and celebrated with more pomp and magnificence, amidst a greater concourse of spectators attracted from all parts, than any of the rest.

If Pausanias may be believed,(117) women were prohibited to be present at them upon pain of death; and during their continuance, it was ordained, that no woman should approach the place where the games were celebrated, or pa.s.s on that side of the river Alpheus. One only was so bold as to violate this law, and slipt in disguise amongst those who were training the wrestlers. She was tried for the offence, and would have suffered the penalty enacted by the law, if the judges, in regard to her father, her brother, and her son, who had all been victors in the Olympic games, had not pardoned her offence, and saved her life.

This law was very conformable with the manners of the Greeks, amongst whom the ladies were very reserved, seldom appeared in public, had separate apartments, called _Gynaecea_, and never ate at table with the men when strangers were present. It was certainly inconsistent with decency to admit them at some of the games, as those of wrestling and the Pancratium, in which the combatants fought naked.

The same Pausanias tells us in another place,(118) that the priestess of Ceres had an honourable seat in these games, and that virgins were not denied the liberty of being present at them. For my part, I cannot conceive the reason of such inconsistency, which indeed seems incredible.

The Greeks thought nothing comparable to the victory in these games. They looked upon it as the perfection of glory, and did not believe it permitted to mortals to desire any thing beyond it. Cicero a.s.sures us,(119) that with them it was no less honourable than the consular dignity in its original splendour with the ancient Romans. And in another place he says,(120) that to conquer at Olympia, was almost, in the estimation of the Grecians, more great and glorious, than to receive the honour of a triumph at Rome. Horace speaks in still stronger terms of this kind of victory. He is not afraid to say,(121) that "it exalts the victor above human nature; they were no longer men but G.o.ds."

We shall see hereafter what extraordinary honours were paid the victor, of which one of the most affecting was, to date the year with his name.

Nothing could more effectually stimulate their endeavours, and make them regardless of expenses, than the a.s.surance of immortalizing their names, which, through all future ages would be enrolled in their annals, and stand in the front of all laws made in the same year with the victory. To this motive may be added the joy of knowing, that their praises would be celebrated by the most famous poets, and form the subject of conversation in the most ill.u.s.trious a.s.semblies; for these odes were sung in every house, and formed a part in every entertainment. What could be a more powerful incentive to a people, who had no other object and aim than that of human glory?

I shall confine myself upon this head to the Olympic games, which continued five days; and shall describe, in as brief a manner as possible, the several kinds of combats of which they were composed. M. Burette has treated this subject in several dissertations, printed in the _Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres_; wherein purity, perspicuity, and elegance of style are united with profound erudition. I make no scruple in appropriating to my use the riches of my brethren; and, in what I have already said upon the Olympic games, have made very free with the late Abbe Ma.s.sieu's remarks upon the _Odes_ of Pindar.

The combats which had the greatest share in the solemnity of the public games, were boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, the discus or quoit, and racing. To these may be added the exercises of leaping, throwing the dart, and that of the trochus or wheel; but as these were neither important nor of any great reputation, I shall content myself with having only mentioned them in this place. For the better methodizing the particulars of these games and exercises, it will be necessary to begin with an account of the Athletae, or combatants.

Of the Athletae, or Combatants.

The term Athletae is derived from the Greek word ?????, which signifies labour, combat. This name was given to those who exercised themselves with an intention to dispute the prizes in the public games. The art by which they formed themselves for these encounters, was called Gymnastic, from the Athletae's practising naked.

Those who were designed for this profession frequented, from their most tender age, the Gymnasia or Palaestrae, which were a kind of academies maintained for that purpose at the public expense. In these places, such young people were under the direction of different masters, who employed the most effectual methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the public games, and to train them for the combats. The regimen they were under was very hard and severe. At first they had no other nourishment than dried figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a coa.r.s.e heavy sort of bread, called ??a. They were absolutely forbidden the use of wine, and enjoined continence; which Horace expresses thus:(122)

Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, Abstinuit venere et vino.

Who in th' Olympic race the prize would gain, Has borne from early youth fatigue and pain, Excess of heat and cold has often try'd, Love's softness banish'd, and the gla.s.s deny'd.

St. Paul, by a comparison drawn from the Athletae, exhorts the Corinthians, near whose city the Isthmian games were celebrated, to a sober and penitent life. "Those who strive," says he, "for the mastery, are temperate in all things: Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." Tertullian uses the same thought to encourage the martyrs.(123) He makes a comparison from what the hopes of victory made the Athletae endure. He repeats the severe and painful exercises they were obliged to undergo; the continual denial and constraint, in which they pa.s.sed the best years of their lives; and the voluntary privation which they imposed upon themselves, of all that was most pleasing and grateful to their pa.s.sions. It is true, the Athletae did not always observe so severe a regimen, but at length subst.i.tuted in its stead a voracity and indolence extremely remote from it.

The Athletae, before their exercises,(124) were rubbed with oils and ointments to make their bodies more supple and vigorous. At first they made use of a belt, with an ap.r.o.n or scarf fastened to it, for their more decent appearance in the combats; but one of the combatants happening to lose the victory by this covering's falling off, that accident was the occasion of sacrificing modesty to convenience, and retrenching the ap.r.o.n for the future. The Athletae were naked only in some exercises, as wrestling, boxing, the pancratium, and the foot-race. They practised a kind of novitiate in the Gymnasia for ten months, to accomplish themselves in the several exercises by a.s.siduous application; and this they did in the presence of such, as curiosity or idleness conducted to look on. But when the celebration of the Olympic games drew nigh, the Athletae who were to appear in them were kept to double exercise.

Before they were admitted to combat, other proofs were required; as to birth, none but Greeks were to be received. It was also necessary, that their manners should be unexceptionable, and their condition free. No foreigner was admitted to combat in the Olympic games; and when Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, presented himself to dispute the prize, his compet.i.tors, without any regard to the royal dignity, opposed his reception as a Macedonian, and consequently a barbarian and a stranger; nor could the judges be prevailed upon to admit him, till he had proved in due form his family originally descended from the Argives.

The persons who presided in the games were called _Agonothetae_, _Athlothetae_, and _h.e.l.lanodicae_: they registered the name and country of each champion; and upon the opening of the games a herald proclaimed the names of the combatants. They were then made to take an oath, that they would religiously observe the several laws prescribed in each kind of combat, and do nothing contrary to the established orders and regulations of the games. Fraud, artifice, and excessive violence, were absolutely prohibited; and the maxim so generally received elsewhere,(125) that it is indifferent whether an enemy is conquered by deceit or valour, was banished from these combats. The address of a combatant, expert in all the niceties of his art, who knows how to shift and ward dexterously, to put the change upon his adversary with art and subtlety, and to improve the least advantages, must not be confounded here with the cowardly and knavish cunning of one who, without regard to the laws prescribed, employs the most unfair means to vanquish his compet.i.tor. Those who disputed the prize in the several kinds of combats, drew lots for their precedency in them.

It is time to bring our champions to blows, and to run over the different kinds of combats, in which they exercised themselves.

Of Wrestling.

Wrestling is one of the most ancient exercises of which we have any knowledge, having been practised in the time of the patriarchs, as the wrestling of the angel with Jacob proves.(126) Jacob supported the angel's attack so vigorously, that the latter, perceiving he could not throw so rough a wrestler, was reduced to make him lame by touching the sinew of his thigh, which immediately shrunk up.

Wrestling, among the Greeks, as well as other nations, was practised at first with simplicity, little art, and in a natural manner; the weight of the body, and the strength of the muscles, having more share in it than address and skill. Theseus was the first that reduced it to method, and refined it by the rules of art. He was also the first who established the public schools, called _Palaestrae_, where the young people had masters to instruct them in it.