Chapter VII: The Ancient World Extended to the Shores of the Atlantic

NEW CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS. The Romans had as yet conquered only
civilized peoples like themselves, with the exception of the tribes in
Spain and southern Gaul. Now the Roman armies were to push northward
over the plains and through the forests of Gaul, across the Rhine into
unknown Germany, and over the Channel into Britain, equally unknown.
They were to be explorers as well as conquerors. In this way they were
to carry their civilization to the Rhine and the Atlantic, and so
increase greatly the part of the earth where men lived and thought as
the Romans did and as the Greeks had before them. The ancient civilized
world was beginning to move from its older center, the Mediterranean,
toward the shore of the Atlantic.

ANCESTORS OF THE FRENCH AND THE GERMANS. The tribes living in Gaul
were not at that time called French, but Gallic. The Gauls were like the
Britons who lived across the Channel in Britain. The German ancestors of
the English had not yet crossed the North Sea to that land. Beyond the
Rhine lived the Germans, who had but little to do with the Romans and
the Greeks and were still barbarians. The Gauls living farthest away
from the Roman settlements were not much more civilized.

The principal difference between the Germans and the Gauls was that the
Gauls lived in villages and towns and cultivated the land or dug in
mines or traded along the rivers, while the Germans had no towns and
dwelt in clearings of the forest. Their wealth, like that of the early
Romans, was their cattle. The land they cultivated was divided between
them year after year, so that a German owned only his hut and the plot
of ground or garden about it. Some of the towns of the Gauls were placed
on high hills and were protected by strong walls.

THE TERRIBLE GERMANS. The Romans had at first been afraid of the
Gauls, because they had never forgotten how terribly these people had
once defeated them. But since that time they had fought the Gauls so
often that they were losing this fear. They now dreaded more to meet the
Germans, who seemed like giants because they were taller even than
the Gauls.

GALLIC AND GERMAN WARRIORS. The leaders of the Germans were sometimes
kings and sometimes nobles whom the Romans called _duces_, from which
comes our word duke. The Gallic chieftains were adorned with gold
necklaces, bracelets, and rings. When they went out to battle, they wore
helmets shaped like the head of some ravenous beast, and their bodies
were protected by coats of chain armor made of iron rings. Their
principal weapon was a long, heavy sword. Both German and Gallic nobles
were accompanied by bands of young men, their devoted followers, who
shared the joys of victory or died with them in case of defeat. It was a
disgrace to lose one's sword or to survive if the leader was killed.

HOW THE GERMANS LIVED. When the Germans were not fighting they were
idle, for all work was done by women and slaves. They were great
drinkers and gamblers, and often in their games a man would stake his
freedom upon the result. If he lost, he became the slave of the winner.
The Germans respected their wives, even if they compelled them to do the
hard work. The women sometimes went with the men to battle, and their
cries encouraged the warriors, or if the warriors wavered, the fierce
reproaches of the women drove them back to the fight.

RELIGION OF THE GERMANS. We remember the religion of the Germans
because four days of the week are named for their gods or the gods of
their neighbors across the Baltic. Their principal god was Wodan, or
Odin, god of the sun and the tempest. Wodan's day is Wednesday. Thursday
is named for Thor, the Northmen's god of thunder. The god of war, Tiw,
gave a name to Tuesday, and Frigu, the goddess of love, to Friday. The
German, like his northern neighbors, thought of heaven as the place
where brave warriors who had died in battle spent their days
in feasting.

JULIUS CAESAR. Julius Caesar was the great Roman general who
conquered the Gauls and led the first expeditions across the Rhine into
Germany and over the Channel into Britain. He was a wealthy noble who,
like other nobles, held one office after another until he became consul.
He was also a great political leader, and with two other men controlled
Rome. We should call them "bosses," but the Romans called them
"triumvirs."

CAESAR IN GAUL. As soon as Caesar became governor of the province
of southern Gaul, he showed that he was a skilful general as well as a
successful politician. He interfered in the wars between the Gauls,
taking sides with the friends of the Romans. When a large army of
Germans entered Gaul, he defeated it and drove it back across the Rhine.
One war led to another until all the tribes from the country now called
Belgium to the Mediterranean coast professed to be friends of the Roman
people. His campaigns lasted from 58 B.C. for nine years. Two or three
times Caesar was very close to ruin, but by his courage and energy he
always succeeded in gaining the victory.

VERCINGETORIX, GALLIC HERO. The great hero of the Gauls in their
struggle with the Romans was Vercingetorix. He was a young noble who
lived in a mountain town of central Gaul. His father had been killed in
an attempt to make himself king of his native city. Vercingetorix
believed that if the Gauls did not unite against the Romans they would
soon see their lands become Roman provinces. As he knew his army was no
match for the Romans in open fight, he persuaded the Gauls to try to
starve the Romans out of the country. He planned to destroy all village
stores of grain, and to cut off the smaller bands of soldiers which
wandered from the main army in search of food.

CAESAR AND VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix found the work of
conquering Caesar in this way too difficult. He was finally driven to
take refuge in Alesia, on a hilltop in eastern Gaul. Here the Romans
prepared to starve him into surrender. They dug miles of deep trenches
about the fortress so that the imprisoned Gauls could not break through.
They dug other trenches to protect themselves from the attacks of a
great army of Gauls which came to rescue Vercingetorix. These trenches
were fifteen or twenty feet wide; they were strengthened by palisades
and ramparts, and filled with water where this was possible. Several
times the Gauls nearly succeeded in breaking through, but the quickness
and stubborn courage of Caesar always saved the day.

DEATH OF VERCINGETORIX. Vercingetorix now proved that he was a real
hero. He offered to give himself up to Caesar, if this would save the
town. But Caesar demanded the submission of all the chiefs. When they
had laid down their arms before the conqueror, Vercingetorix appeared on
a gaily decorated horse. He rode around the throne where Caesar sat,
dismounted in front, took off his armor, and bowed to the ground. His
fate was hard. He was sent to Rome a prisoner, was shown in the
triumphal procession of the victorious Caesar, and was then put to death
in a dungeon. On the site of Alesia stands a monument erected by the
French to the memory of the brave Gallic hero. The defeat of
Vercingetorix ended the resistance of the Gauls, and not many years
afterward their country was added to the long list of Roman provinces.

CAESAR IN GERMANY. Caesar crossed the Rhine into Germany on a bridge
which his engineers built in ten days. He laid waste the fields of the
tribes near the river in order to make the name of Rome feared, and then
returned to Gaul and destroyed the bridge. Twice he sailed over to
Britain, the last time marching a few miles north of where London now
stands. His purpose was to keep the Britons from stirring up the Gauls
to attack him. Other generals many years later conquered Britain as far
as the hills of Scotland.

THE GERMAN HERO HERMANN. The Romans were not fortunate in their
later attempts to conquer a part of Germany. When Caesar's grandnephew
Augustus was master of Rome, he sent an army under Varus into the
forests far from the Rhine. Hermann, a leader of the Germans, gathered
the tribes together and utterly destroyed the army of Varus. Whenever
Augustus thought of this dreadful disaster, he would cry out, "O Varus,
give me back my legions!" The Rhine and the Danube became the northern
boundaries of the Roman conquests.

GAULS AND BRITONS BECOME ROMAN. Although the Gauls had fought
stubbornly against Caesar they soon became as Roman as the Italians
themselves. They ceased to speak their own language and began to use
Latin. They mastered Latin so thoroughly that their schools were
sometimes regarded as better than the schools in Italy, and Roman youths
were sent to Gaul to learn how best to speak their own language. The
Britons also became very good Romans. Even the Germans frequently
crossed the Rhine and enlisted in the Roman armies. When they returned
to their own country they carried Roman ideas and customs with them.

THE INTEREST OF AMERICANS IN ROMAN SUCCESSES. For Americans the
influence the Romans exerted in Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain is
more important than their work in the eastern Mediterranean, because
from those countries came the early settlers of America. The
civilization which the Romans taught the peoples of western Europe was
to become a valuable part of the civilization of our forefathers.

SIZE OF THE ROMAN WORLD. We may realize how large the world of the
Romans was by observing on a modern map that within its limits lay
modern England, France, Spain, Portugal, the southern part of
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, the Turkish Empire both in
Europe and Asia, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. For a time
they also ruled north of the Danube, and the Rumanians boast that they
are descended from Roman colonists. The peoples in southern Russia were
influenced by the Greeks and by the Romans, although the Romans did not
try to bring them under their rule.

No modern empire has included so many important countries. If we compare
this vast territory with, the scattered colonies of the Greeks, we shall
understand how useful it was that the Romans adopted much of the Greek
civilization, for they could carry it to places that the Greeks
never reached.

QUESTIONS

1. After the Romans had conquered the lands about the Mediterranean,
into what other countries did they march?

2. Who once lived where the French now live? Tell how the Gauls
lived.

3. How did the manner of living of the Germans differ from that of
the Gauls? Were the Britons similar to the Germans or to the Gauls?

4. What names do we get from the names of the German gods?

5. Who was Julius Caesar? Why did he go among the Gauls? What was
the result of his wars with the Gauls? Tell the story of
Vercingetorix.

6. After the conquest of the Gauls, into what countries did Caesar
go?

7. What was the fate of the Roman army in Germany in the time of
Augustus?

8. In which of these countries did the peoples become much like the
Romans?

9. Why have Americans a special interest in the Roman conquest of
Gaul and Britain?

EXERCISES

1. Caesar and Alexander were two of the greatest generals who ever
lived. How many years after Alexander died did Caesar begin his wars
in Gaul? What difference was there between what these two generals
did? Whose work is the more important for us?

2. Plan a large map of the Graeco-Roman world, pasting on each
country a picture of some interesting Greek or Roman ruin. This will
take a long time, but many pictures may be found in advertising
folders of steamship lines and tourist agencies.

REVIEW

(Chapters IV, V, VI, and VII)

_How the Graeco-Roman world was built up_:

1. The Greeks drive back the Persians.

2. The Greeks settle in many places on the shores of the
Mediterranean and Black Seas.

3. Alexander conquers the countries about the eastern Mediterranean.

4. The Romans conquer the Greeks in Italy, but learn their ways of
living.

5. The Romans conquer the Carthaginians and seize their colonies.

6. The Romans conquer all the lands around the Mediterranean.

7. The Romans conquer Gaul and Britain.

_Important dates in this work of building a Graeco-Roman world_:

Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C. Work of Alexander ended, 323 B.C.
Romans become masters of Italy, 275 B.C. Romans conquer Hannibal,
202 B.C. Caesar's conquest of Gaul complete, 49 B.C.