Estructura de las Enseñanzas

April 9, 1932

WITH the final defeat and destruction of Carthage, Rome was supreme and without a rival in the western world. It had already conquered the Greek States; it now took possession of the

territories belonging to Carthage. Thus Spain came to Rome after the second Punic War. But still the Roman dominions comprised the Mediterranean

74

countries only. The whole of northern and central Europe was independent of Borne.

In Borne, the result of victory and conquest was wealth and luxury, and gold and slaves poured in from the conquered lands. But where did they go to ? The Senate, as I have told you, was the governing body in Rome, and it consisted of people from rich aristocratic families. This group of rich people controlled the Roman Republic and its life, and as the power and extent of Rome grew, the wealth of these people grew with it. So that the rich became richer, while the poor remained poor or actually became poorer. The slave populations grew, and luxury and misery advanced side by side. When this happens there is usually trouble. It is an amazing thing how much human beings will put up with, but there is a limit to human endurance, and when this is reached there are burst-ups.

The rich people tried to lull the poor by games and contests in circuses, where gladiators were forced to fight and kill each other just to amuse the spectators. Large numbers of slaves and prisoners of war were thus killed for what was called, I suppose, sport.

But disorders increased in the Roman State. There were in surrections and massacres, and bribery and corruption during the elections. Even the poor, down-trodden slaves rose in revolt under a gladiator named Spartacus. But they were crushed ruthlessly, and it is said that 6000 of them were crucified on the Appian Way in Rome.

Adventurers and generals gradually become more important and overshadow the Senate. There is civil war and desolation, and rival generals fighting each other. In the East, in Parthia

(Mesopotamia), the Roman legions suffered a great defeat at the battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C., where the Parthians destroyed the Roman army sent against them.

Among these crowds of Roman generals two names stand out— Pompey and Julius Caesar.

Caesar, as you know, conquered France, or Gaul as it was called, and Britain. Pompey went east and had some success there. But between the two there was bitter rivalry; both were ambitious and could not tolerate a rival. The poor Senate receded into the background, although each paid lip-homage to it. Caesar defeated Pompey, and thus became the chief man in the Roman world.

But Rome was a republic, and so he could not officially be the boss of everything. Attempts were

made, therefore, to crown him king or emperor. He was willing enough, but the long republican tradition made him hesitate. Indeed, this tradition was too strong for him, and he was stabbed to death by Brutus and others on the very steps of the Forum. You must have read Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, in which this scene is given.

Julius Caesar was killed in the year 44 B.C., but his death did not save the Republic. Caesar's adopted son and great-nephew, Octavian, and his friend Marc Antony avenged Caesar's death.

And then kingship came back, and Octavian became the chief of the 75 76

State, the Princeps, and the Republic ceased to be. The Senate continued, but without any real power.

Octavian, when he became Princeps or Chief, took the name and title of Augustus Caesar. His successors after him were all called Caesars. Indeed, the word Caesar came to mean emperor.

Kaiser and Tsar are derived from this same word " Caesar ". The word Kaiser has also long been a Hindustani word—Kaisar-i-Rum, Kaisar-i-Hind. King George of England now rejoices in the title of Kaisar-i-Hind. The German Kaiser is gone, so also the Austrian Kaiser, and the Turkish Kaiser, and Russian Tsar. And it is interesting and curious to consider that the King of England alone to-day should remain to bear the name or title of Julius Caeser, who conquered Britain for Rome.

So Julius Caesar's name has become a word of imperial grandeur. What would have happened if Pompey had beaten him at Pharsalus in Greece ? Probably Pompey then would have become princeps or emperor, and the word Pompey might have come to mean emperor. We would then have had the German Pompey (Wilhelm II); and even King George might have become Pompey-i-Hind !

During these days of transition for the Roman State—when the Republic was becoming an empire—there lived in Egypt a woman destined to become famous in history for her beauty. She was Cleopatra. She has not a very savoury reputation, but she belongs to that limited number of women who are supposed to have changed history because of their beauty. She was quite a girl when Julius Caesar went to Egypt. Later she became great friends with Marc Antony and did him little good. Indeed, she treacherously deserted him with her ships in the middle of a great naval battle. A famous French writer, Pascal, wrote long ago : " Le nez de Cleopatre, s'il eut ete plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait change ". This is a bit of exaggeration. The world would not have changed very greatly with the nose of Cleopatra. But it is possible that Caesar began to think of himself as a king or emperor, as a kind of god-ruler, after his visit to Egypt. In Egypt there was no republic, but a monarchy, and the ruler was not only supreme, but was considered almost a god. This was the old Egyptian idea, and the Greek Ptolemys, who ruled Egypt after Alexander's death, adopted most of the Egyptian customs and ideas. Cleopatra belonged to this family of the Ptolemys, and was thus a Greek or rather Macedonian princess.

Whether Cleopatra helped in the process or not, the Egyptian idea of god-ruler travelled to Rome and found a home there. Even in Julius Caesar's life-time, when the Republic flourished, statues

to him were put up and worshipped. We shall see later how this became a regular practice with the Roman Emperors.

We have now reached a great turning-point in the history of Rome —the end of the Republic.

Octavian became Princeps under the title of Augustus Caesar in A.D. 27. We shall have to carry on later this story of Rome and her emperors. Meanwhile, let us have a look at the Roman dominions during the last days of the Republic.

77

Borne ruled Italy, of course, and Spain and Gaul (France) in the west. In the east she had Greece and Asia Minor, where, you will remember, there was the Greek State of Pergamum. In northern Africa, Egypt was supposed to be an allied and protected State; Carthage and some other parts of the Mediterranean countries were also under Rome. Thus, in the north, the boundary of the Roman dominions ran along the Rhine. All the peoples of Germany and Russia and northern and central Europe were outside the Roman world. So also were all the people to the east of

Mesopotamia.

Rome was great in those days, but many people in Europe, ignorant of the history of other countries, imagine that it dominated the world. This was very far from being the case. At this very period, you will remember, the great Han dynasty of China ruled or was over-lord of an area which stretched right across Asia to the Caspian Sea. At the battle of Carrhae, in

Mesopotamia, where the Romans were badly defeated, it is probable that the Parthians were helped by the Mongolians.

But Roman history, especially the history of the Roman Republic, is dear to the European, as he considers the old Roman State to be a kind of ancestor of the modern European States, and to some extent this is true. And so English school-boys, whether they knew modern history or not, were made to learn Greek and Roman history. I well remember being made to read, in the original Latin, Julius Caesar's account of his campaign in Gaul. Caesar was not only a warrior but a graceful and effective writer also, and his De Bello Gallico is still read in thousands of schoolrooms in Europe.

We began, a little while ago, to survey the world at the time of Ashoka. We have not only finished that survey, but have gone beyond it in China and in Europe. We are now almost on the threshold of the Christian era, and we shall have to go back to India to bring our knowledge of her people up to date. For great changes took place there after Ashoka's death, and new empires arose in the south and the north.

I have tried to make you think of world-history as one continuous whole. But you will remember, I hope, that in these early days the contacts between distant countries were of the most limited kind. Rome, which was advanced in many ways, knew little of geography and maps and took no special steps to learn. A school-boy or schoolgirl to-day knows far more of geography than the great generals and the wise men of the Roman Senate knew, although they considered

themselves masters of the world. And just as they considered themselves masters of the world,

some thousands of miles away, across the great continent of Asia, the rulers of China also considered themselves the masters of the world.

78

29 SOUTH INDIA OVERSHADOWS THE