Ancient religions order to ensure such political and natural separateness, it tended, at the same time, to destroy exclusiveness, and what at first appeared to be ineradicable alienage. War was the means of bringing about a rapprochement between nations, between which, under ordinary circumstances, no pacific relationships existed. Thus before the Medic wars, the Hellenic races scarcely knew of the very existence of the Persians; after their wars commercial intercourse commenced between them. In early society and civilization warfare and all-absorbing militarism were unavoidable. In tribal life, and in the earlier stages of national life, the struggle for material existence is more manifest, its necessity is more fundamental; there is, moreover, a constant conflict between self-sufficiency and self-expansion. And so peace becomes impossible. As Leist remarks, the history of the ascent of civilization is at the same time the history of military development; for it has not been given to mankind to live in a condition of perpetual peace. This principle we find recognized in the political and philosophical speculations of early writers, who expatiate on the immanence and ubiquitous character of strife. And so we find also modern writers erroneously concluding from these theoretical generalizations that war was the normal political condition of the ancient world. The religions of antiquity now make for war, now their influence, for peace. Every nation considered that it possessed the only true religion, and consequently showed a contempt for foreign cults, for the aliens who practised them, and for their territory and surroundings, which were regarded as unclean and accursed. Thus the Hebrews had a 'jealous God' who, whilst being the creator of the entire world, made them his specially 'chosen race.' It was thought a great calamity to be buried in a foreign country; hence, the remains of Jacob 1 B. W. Leist, Gräco-italische Rechtsgeschichte, p. 430: "Die Geschichte der steigenden Civilisation ist zugleich die der steigenden militärischen Ausbildung. Es ist der Menschheit nicht gegeben in stetem Frieden dahinzuleben." and Joseph were to be transferred from Egyptian soil to the more sacred, and therefore more acceptable, Canaan.1 Similarly, on the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the conquered preferred death to leaving their native land. The Egyptians jealously preserved their mysteries and religious initiations from alien contact. In the classification of living creatures, the Hindoos consigned aliens to a lower position than that of horses. and elephants. The Zarathustrian theology of the Persians was based on the conception of the eternal conflict between Ormuzd, the god of light, and Ahriman, the god of darkness and evil; and with the latter they associated foreign peoples. A similar attitude of exclusiveness and opposition is more or less found in the case of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Phoenicians, who all apotheosized brute force. warfare. And in all this hostility, in all the warfare of the The gods and ancient communities, their respective gods necessarily participated; and the attitude of the tutelary deities was very often a reflex of that of their votaries. It was not justice, but national passion, as Laurent says, which animated the gods in the conflict, for example, between the Greeks and the Trojans,-" ce n'est pas la justice, mais la passion qui les pousse à favoriser les Grecs ou les Troyens." 3 The armies engaged in the combat as much to protect their gods as to deliver their country; and the gods were conceived likewise to take part in the hostilities, to assist and defend the nations they watched over, and to share in the work of destruction. Thus Virgil represents the gods in their anger overthrowing Troy "... divom inclementia, divom, has evertit opes sternitque a culmine Troiam." 4 and Neptune with his great trident shaking the walls 1 Gen. xlvii. 29, 30; 1. 24. 2 Tacit. Hist. v. 13. 8 F. Laurent, Hist. du dr. des gens, vol. ii. p. 36. 4 Aen. ii. 602-3. and foundations out of their places, and utterly destroying the city— "Neptunus muros magnoque emota tridenti "2 The notion of the gods being present and applauding distinguished deeds of courage instigated the contending forces to perform acts of extraordinary valour and fury. "On se bat des deux côtés avec cet acharnement sauvage qui donne la pensée qu'on a des dieux pour soi et qu'on combat contre ces dieux étrangers." And the will of the gods, quite as much as the skill and the valour of the combatants, was thought to decide the destiny of battles. Thus Pausanias says that before the Spartans transgressed in the Messenian war by bringing about the treachery of Aristocrates the Arcadian, battles were decided by valour, and the will of God. And just as nations struggled amongst themselves for territorial aggrandizement, so the gods in their appropriation of various localities sometimes fell into disagreement with each other. Thus we hear of a conflict between Poseidon and Athena as to the possession of Athens, and also of Aegina, between Poseidon and Helios as to Corinth," between Poseidon and Hera as to Argolis, and so on. If a city was conquered, it was universally believed that its own tutelary deities were vanquished with it. Virgil represents Juno as observing to Aeolus that the race 4 1 Aen. ii. 610-612. 2 Fustel de Coulanges, La cité antique, p. 242. 8 3 Pausan. iv. 17. 3 : πρὶν δὲ ἢ παρανομῆσαι Λακεδαιμονίους ἐς τὸν Μεσσηνίων πόλεμον καὶ ̓Αριστοκράτους τοῦ ̓Αρκάδος τὴν προδοσίαν ἀρετῇ τε οἱ μαχόμενοι καὶ τύχαις ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ διεκρίνοντο. 4 Apollod. iii. 14. 5 Apollod. iii. 14. I. Pausan. ii. 30. 6—Cf. supra, p. 129, as to arbitrations between gods. 7 Ibid. ii. 1. 6.—Cf. supra, p. 129. 8 Ibid. ii. 15. 5.—Cf. supra, p. 130. she hated was sailing the Tyrrhene sea, and carrying "Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor, "1 Still, there were unmistakable manifestations of a General pacific tendency induced also, as was said above, by tendency. pacific religion, as well as by the doctrines of philosophers, and, most of all, by the necessities of travel and commercial relationships. Philosophers, moralists, and prophets alike condemned bellicose proclivities and national devotion to hostile enterprise. In the east personages like Isaiah and Ezekiel, Buddha, Lao-Tze, Confucius, and Mencius, denounced wars. Thus LaoTze, the old Chinese sage, says in that remarkable book of aphorisms, the Tao Teh King (Treatise of the way and of virtue'): "He who with reason assists the master of mankind will not with arms strengthen the empire. Where armies are quartered, briars and thorns grow." "The more weapons the people have, the more troubled is the State "; and of a similar character are many other utterances. Greece. In Greece, too, a peaceful and humane movement is Pacific clearly discernible. Ares (Mars) may be the god of movement in slaughter, the destroyer of cities, the TTоλíπорlos; 2 but Athena (Lat. Minerva) is the protectress of cities, épvσíπTOλis,3—the goddess of war too, it may be, but tempered by prudence. She abhors the savage love of war of Ares, and defeats him. She intervenes to put an end to the conflicts between Ulysses and the wooers, and exhorts the men of Ithaca to hold their hands from fierce fighting that they may be parted quickly without bloodshed. Ultimately, she became a goddess of peace, eipnvopópos. Again, with regard to the martial Ares it is worthy of note that Homer makes Zeus address him Growth of cosmopolitanism. as the most hateful of all the gods that dwell in Olympus ἔχθιστος δέ μοί ἐσσι θεῶν οἳ Ολυμπον ἔχουσιν.1 From about the middle of the fifth century B.C. Eipnn, the goddess of peace, daughter of Zeus and Themis (the goddess of justice), was worshipped at Athens.2 Throughout the Homeric poems we find emphatic expressions of pacific desires and inclinations, in spite of the heroic clash of arms. War is everywhere considered a calamity. Large sections of people are shown to be devoted to the cultivation of peace. The Greeks and the Trojans alike rejoice in the settlement of their dispute by the less destructive single combat of Paris and Menelaus, and desire to return peacefully to their hearths and homes. On the shield of Achilles are depicted scenes from country life, by the side of representations of warlike episodes." Kings and princes, however ready they may be to exhibit their prowess in the fight, are none the less attached to the work in their fields. The growth of cosmopolitan conceptions fostered still further the desire for peace and harmony between peoples. In many quarters, the older ideas of a narrow, political exclusiveness gave way to much wider views. Socrates, as Plutarch relates, objected to be considered a mere Athenian or a Greek; he proclaimed himself a citizen of the world, ... οὐκ Αθηναῖος, οὐδὲ Ἕλλην, ἀλλὰ κόσμιος Kóσμos elva. Similarly, Diogenes being asked of what country he was replied that he was a citizen of the world, . . . ἐρωτηθεὶς πόθεν εἴη, κοσμοπολίτης, ἔφη ;8 and so 1 Iliad, v. 890. 3 Odyss. viii. 246 seq. 5 Iliad, xviii. 550 seq. 2 Plut. Cim. 13. 4 Iliad, ii. 134 seq., 283 seq. 6 Iliad, vi. 424; Odyss. xxiv. 225 seq.; cf. xvi. 140. 7 Plut. De exil. 5.-The word κóoμos is here obviously equivalent το κοσμοπολίτης. 8 Diog. Laert. Diogen. vi. 63. |