Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  During the Han period two other important events are worthy of note. The art of printing from wooden blocks was invented, but it was not much used for nearly 1000 years. Even so China was 500 years ahead of Europe.

  The second noteworthy fact was the introduction of the examination system for public officials. Boys and girls do not love examinations, and I sympathize with them. But this Chinese system of appointing public officials was a remarkable thing in those days. In other countries, till recently, officials were appointed by favouritism chiefly, or out of a special class or caste. In China any one passing the examination could be appointed. This was not an ideal system, as a person may pass an examination in the Confucian classics and yet may not be a very good public official. But the system was a vast improvement over favouritism and the like, and for 2000 years it lasted in China. It was only recently that it was ended.

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  Rome against Carthage

  April 5, 1932

  From the Far East we shall now go to the West, and trace the growth of Rome. It is said that Rome was founded in the eighth century before Christ. The early Romans, who were probably descendants of the Aryans, had some settlements on the seven hills near the Tiber, and these settlements slowly grew into a city.

  And this City-State went on growing and expanding in Italy till it reached the southern tip at Messina, facing Sicily.

  You will perhaps remember the City-States of Greece. Wherever the Greeks went, they carried this idea of their City-State with them, and dotted all over the Mediterranean coast were Greek colonies and City-States. But now in Rome we are dealing with something very different. To begin with, perhaps Rome was not unlike the Greek City-State, but soon it spread by defeating the neighbouring tribes. The territory of the Roman State thus grew and comprised the great part of Italy. Such a big area could not be a City-State. It was governed from Rome, and Rome itself had a very peculiar type of government. There was no big emperor or king; nor was there the modern type of republic. Still, the government was a kind of republic, dominated over by the rich families owning land. The Senate was supposed to govern, and this Senate was nominated by two elected persons called “Consuls”. For a long time only the aristocrats could become senators. The Roman people were divided into two classes: the patricians or the rich aristocrats, usually landowners; and the plebeians, who were the common citizens. The history of the Roman State or Republic for several hundred years is one of conflict between these two classes. The patricians have all the power, and with the power goes money; the plebeians, or plebs, are the under-dogs with neither power nor money. The plebeians go on struggling and fighting to gain power and slowly some crumbs fall to their lot. It is interesting to note that in this long struggle the plebs successfully tried non-co-operation of a kind. They marched out of Rome in a body and setted down in a new city. This frightened the patricians, as they could not get on without the plebs, and so they compromised with them and gave them some slight privileges. Gradually it became possible for a plebeian to attain high office, and even to become a member of the Senate.

  We talk of the struggles of the patricians and the plebeians, and we are apt to think that no one else counted. But besides these two groups there was in the Roman State an enormous number of slaves who had no rights of any kind. They were not citizens; they had no vote; they were the private and personal property of their master, like dogs or cows. They could be sold or punished at the sweet will of the master. They could be freed also under certain conditions, and when they became free they formed a special class called freed-men. In the ancient world in the West slaves were always in great demand, and in order to fulfil this demand huge slave-markets arose, and expeditions went out to capture men and women, and even children, in distant lands and sell them into slavery. The glory and the majesty of ancient Greece and Rome, as of ancient Egypt, had for their foundation a system of widespread slavery.

  Was this system of slavery equally prevalent then in India? Very probably it was not. Nor did China have it. This does not mean that there was no slavery in ancient India or China. But such slavery as existed was more or less of the domestic kind. A few domestic servants were considered slaves. India and China do not seem to have had labour slaves—huge gangs working on the land or elsewhere. Thus these two countries escaped the most degrading aspects of slavery.

  So Rome grew, and the patricians profited thereby and grew richer and more prosperous. The plebeians, meanwhile, remained poor and were sat upon by the patricians; and both patrician and plebeian combined to sit upon the poor slave.

  As Rome grew, how was it governed? By the Senate, I have said; and the Senate was nominated by two elected Consuls. Who elected the Consuls? The citizens who were voters. To begin with, when Rome was small like a City-State, all the citizens lived in or near Rome. It was not very difficult for them to meet together and vote. But as Rome grew, there were many citizens living far from Rome and it was not easy for them to vote. “Representative government”, as it is called now, was not evolved or practised then. Now you know that each area or constituency elects its representative for the national Assembly or Parliament or Congress, and so, in a way, the whole nation is represented in a small gathering. This had not apparently struck the old Romans. So they carried on with their voting in Rome when it was almost impossible for the distant voters to come. Indeed, the distant voters seldom knew what was happening. There were no newspapers or pamphlets or printed books and very few people could read. Thus the power of the vote given to people living far from Rome was of no practical use to them. They had the franchise, but distance disfranchised them.

  So that you will notice that it was really only the voters in Rome itself that had any real share in elections and in important decisions. They voted in the open air by going into enclosures. Of these voters many were the poor plebeians. The rich patricians who wanted high office and power bribed these poor people to vote for them. So that Roman elections had quite as much bribery and trickery as sometimes even modern elections have.

  As Rome was growing in Italy, Carthage was growing in power in North Africa. The Carthaginians were the descendants of the Phoenicians and had the tradition of seamanship and of trade. Theirs was also a republic, but it was, even more than that of Rome, a republic of rich men. It was a city republic with a huge slave population.

  Between Rome and Carthage there were, in the early days, Greek colonies in southern Italy and Messina. But Rome and Carthage united to drive out the Greeks and, having succeeded in doing so, Carthage took Sicily, and Rome came right up to the tip of the Italian boot. The friendship and alliance of Rome and Carthage did not last long. Very soon there were clashes between the two, and bitter rivalry developed. The Mediterranean was not big enough for two strong Powers facing each other across the narrow seas. Both were ambitious. Rome was growing and had the ambition and confidence of youth. Carthage, to begin with, perhaps looked down a little on upstart Rome and felt confident of its command of the seas. For over 100 years they fought each other, with intervals of peace in between; and they fought like wild animals, bringing misery to vast populations. There were three wars between them—the Punic Wars they are called. The first Punic War lasted twenty-three years from 264 to 241 BC and ended in a victory for Rome. Twenty-two years later came the second Punic War, and Carthage sent a general, famous in history, named Hannibal. For fifteen years Hannibal harassed Rome and terrorized the Roman people. He defeated their armies with great slaughter—notably at Cannae in 216 BC. And he did all this with little help from Carthage, from which he was cut off, as the Romans held command of the sea. But in spite of defeat and disaster and in spite of the perpetual menace of Hannibal, the Roman people did not give in, and fought on against their hated enemy. Afraid of meeting Hannibal in open battle, they avoided such battles and merely tried to harass him and cut off his communications. The Roman general who was specially fond of avoiding battle in this way was a man called Fabius. For ten years he thus avoided battle. I mention
his name not because he was a great man and therefore worthy of remembrance, but because his name has given birth to a word in the English language—Fabian. There are “Fabian” tactics which do not force the issue; they avoid battle or a crisis and hope to gain their end by slow attrition. There is a Fabian Society in England which believes in socialism but does not believe in hurry or sudden changes.

  Hannibal made a great part of Italy a desert, but Rome’s persistence and doggedness won in the end. In 202 BC, at the battle of Zama, Hannibal was defeated. He fled from place to place, pursued by the unquenchable hatred of Rome. At last he poisoned himself.

  There was peace for half a century between Rome and Carthage, which had been humbled sufficiently and hardly dared challenge Rome now. Even so Rome was not content, and it forced a third Punic War on the Carthaginians. This ended in great slaughter and in the complete destruction of Carthage. Indeed, the plough was made to till the earth where the proud city of Carthage had once stood, the Queen of the Mediterranean.

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  The Roman Republic Becomes an Empire

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

  In Rome, 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 insurrections 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 BC, 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 BC, 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 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 today should remain to bear the name or title of Julius Caesar, 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 Cléopâtre, s’il eût été plus court, toute la face de la terre aurait changé”. 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.

  Rome Becomes an Empire

  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 AC 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.

  Rome 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 Pergamon. 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 overlord 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, especi
ally 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 schoolboys, 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 schoolboy or schoolgirl today 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.

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  South India Overshadows the North

  April 10, 1932

  We return to India after our long journeys to China in the Far East, and Rome in the West.