Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1

Part 1

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GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN

A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of

THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY

VOL. I.

Copyright, 1894, BY SELMAR HESS

edited by Charles F. Horne

New-York: Selmar Hess Publisher

Copyright, 1894, by SELMAR HESS.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

SUBJECT AUTHOR PAGE

ALARIC THE BOLD, Archdeacon Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., 56 ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 10 MARC ANTONY, 37 ATTILA, Archdeacon Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., 59 BELISARIUS, Charlotte M. Yonge, 64 GODFREY DE BOUILLON, Henry G. Hewlett, 97 JULIUS CÆSAR, E. Spencer Beesly, M.A., 32 CHARLEMAGNE, Sir J. Bernard Burke, 75 CLOVIS THE FIRST, Thomas Wyatt, A.M., 61 GASPARD DE COLIGNI, Professor Creasy, 164 HERNANDO CORTES, H. Rider Haggard, 150 CYRUS THE GREAT, Clarence Cook, 5 DIOCLETIAN, 50 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, 176 EDWARD I. OF ENGLAND, Thomas Davidson, 109 EDWARD III. OF ENGLAND, 114 EDWARD, THE BLACK PRINCE, L. Drake, 119 BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN, 127 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, 199 HANNIBAL, Walter Whyte, 14 HENRY IV. OF FRANCE, 171 HENRY V. OF ENGLAND, G. P. R. James, 129 HERMANN, 40 JOHN HUNIADES, Professor A. Vambéry, 136 CAIUS MARIUS, James Anthony Froude, LL.D., 25 CHARLES MARTEL, Henry G. Hewlett, 69 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, Clarence Cook, 1 PEPIN THE SHORT, Henry G. Hewlett, 72 FRANCISCO PIZARRO, J. T. Trowbridge, 156 SIR WALTER RALEIGH, 182 SALADIN, Walter Besant, 106 SCIPIO AFRICANUS MAJOR, 18 MILES STANDISH, Elbridge S. Brooks, 189 TRAJAN, J. S. Reid, Litt. D., 42 OLAF TRYGGVESON, Thomas Carlyle, 83 ALBRECHT VON WALLENSTEIN, Henry G. Hewlett, 194 WARWICK, THE KING-MAKER, 146 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, G. W. Prothero, 92

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I.

PHOTOGRAVURES

ILLUSTRATION ARTIST TO FACE PAGE

ATTILA, "THE SCOURGE OF GOD," Ulpiano Checa Frontispiece "AND HE WAS DRIVEN FROM MEN, AND DID EAT GRASS AS OXEN," Georges Rochegrosse 4 HANNIBAL CROSSING THE RHONE, Henri-Paul Motte 14 HERMANN'S TRIUMPH OVER THE ROMANS, Paul Thumann 40 ROME UNDER TRAJAN--A CHARIOT RACE, Ulpiano Checa 48 THE VICTIMS OF GALERIUS, E. K. Liska 54 ALARIC IN ATHENS, Ludwig Thiersch 56 CHARLEMAGNE AT WITIKIND'S BAPTISM, Paul Thumann 78 HENRY V. REJECTS FALSTAFF, Eduard Grützner 132 THE ADMIRAL OF THE SPANISH ARMADA SURRENDERS TO DRAKE, Seymour Lucas 180 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF LUTZEN, Ludwig Braun 202

WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES

ALEXANDER DISCOVERING THE BODY OF DARIUS, Gustave Doré 12 GENEROSITY OF SCIPIO, Schopin 20 MARIUS ON THE RUINS OF CARTHAGE, John Vanderlyn 32 THE IDES OF MARCH, Carl Von Piloty 36 THE LAST GLADIATORIAL CONTEST, J. Stallaert 58 CLOVIS PUNISHING A REBEL, Alphonse De Neuville 62 BELISARIUS RECEIVING ALMS, Jacques-Louis David 68 CHARLES MARTEL AT TOURS, Charles Steuben 72 PEPIN AFTER THE MURDER OF DUKE WAIFRE, Th. Lybaert 74 A NORSE RAID UNDER OLAF, Hugo Vogel 84 WILLIAM AT HASTINGS, P. J. De Loutherbourg 94 GODFREY DE BOUILLON ENTERING JERUSALEM, Carl Von Piloty 104 SALADIN, Gustave Doré 108 EDWARD III. AND THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS, Berthelemy 118 BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN, Alphonse De Neuville 128 HUNIADES AT BELGRADE, Gustave Doré 146 YORK AND LANCASTER--THE RED AND WHITE ROSES, 148 PIZARRO EXHORTING HIS BAND AT GALLO, Lizcano 158 HENRY IV. OF FRANCE AT HOME, J. D. Ingres 176 RALEIGH PARTING FROM HIS WIFE, E. Leutze 188 DEPARTURE OF THE MAYFLOWER, A. W. Bayes 192 WALLENSTEIN'S LAST BANQUET, J. Scholz 198

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Sleep, soldiers! still in honored rest Your truth and valor wearing: The bravest are the tenderest. The loving are the daring.

--BAYARD TAYLOR

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

By CLARENCE COOK

(645-561 B.C.)

With the death of Sardanapalus, the great monarch of Assyria, and the taking of Nineveh, the capital city, by the Medes, the kingdom of Assyria came to an end, and the vast domain was parcelled out among the conquerors. At the time of the catastrophe, the district of Babylonia, with its capital city Babylon, was ruled as a dependent satrapy of Assyria by Nabopolassar. Aided by the Medes, he now took possession of the province and established himself as an independent monarch, strengthening the alliance by a marriage between the Princess Amuhia, the daughter of the Median king, and his son Nebuchadnezzar.

In the partition of Assyria, the region stretching from Egypt to the upper Euphrates, including Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, had fallen to the share of Nabopolassar. But the tribes that peopled it were not disposed to accept the rule of the new claimant, and looked about for an ally to support them in their resistance. Such an ally they thought they had found in Egypt.

Part 2

Egypt was the great rival of Babylon, as she had been of Assyria. Both desired to control the highways of traffic connecting the Mediterranean with the farther East. Egypt had the advantage, both from her actual position on the Mediterranean and her nearer neighborhood to the coveted territory, and she used her advantage with audacity and skill. No sooner, however, did Nabopolassar feel himself firm on his throne than he resolved to check the ambition of Egypt and secure for himself the sovereignty of the lands in dispute.

The task was not an easy one. Pharaoh Necho had been for three years in possession of the whole strip along the Mediterranean--Palestine, Phoenicia, and part of Syria--and was pushing victoriously on to Assyria, when he was met at the plain of Megiddo, commanding the principal pass in the range of Mount Carmel, by the forces of the petty kingdom of Judah, disputing his advance. He defeated them in a bloody engagement, in which Josiah, King of Judah, was slain, and then continued his march to Carchemish, a stronghold built to defend one of the few fordable passes of the upper Euphrates. This important place having been taken after a bloody battle, Necho was master of all the strategic points north and west of Babylonia.

Nebuchadnezzar was now put in command of an army, to force Pharaoh to give up his prey. Marching directly upon Carchemish, he attacked the Egyptian and defeated him with great slaughter. Following up his victory, he wrested from Pharaoh, in engagement after engagement, all that he had gained in Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, and was in the midst of fighting in Egypt itself, when the news came of the death of his father; and he hastened home at once by forced marches to secure his possession of the throne. In his train were captives of all the nations he had conquered: Syrians, Phoenicians, Jews, and Egyptians. Among the Jewish prisoners was Daniel, the author of the book of the Old Testament called by his name, and to whom we owe the little personal knowledge we have of the great Babylonian monarch.

Of all the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar in this long struggle with Egypt, that of the Jewish people is the most interesting to us. The Jews had fought hard for independence, but if they must be conquered and held in subjection, they preferred the rule of Egypt to that of Babylon. Even the long slavery of their ancestors in that country and the sufferings it had entailed, with the tragic memories of the exodus and the wanderings in the desert, had not been potent to blot out the traditions of the years passed in that pleasant land with its delicious climate, its nourishing and abundant food. Alike in prosperity and in evil days the hearts of the people of Israel yearned after Egypt, and the denunciations of her prophets are never so bitter as when uttered against those who turned from Jehovah to worship the false gods of the Nile. Three times did the inhabitants of Jerusalem rebel against the rule of Babylon, and three times did Nebuchadnezzar come down upon them with a cruel and unrelenting vengeance, carrying off their people into bondage, each time inflicting great damage upon the city and leaving her less capable of resistance; yet each time her rulers had turned to Egypt in the vain hope of finding in her a defence against the oppressor, but in every instance Egypt had proved a broken reed.

Of the three successive kings of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar had left to rule the city as his servants, and who had all in turn rebelled against him, one had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment in Babylon; a second had been carried there in chains and probably killed, while the third, captured in a vain attempt to escape after the taking of the city, had first been made to see his sons killed before his eyes, had then been cruelly blinded, and afterward carried in chains to Babylon, and cast into prison. The last siege of the city lasted eighteen months, and when it was finally taken by assault, its ruin was complete. By previous deportations Jerusalem had been deprived of her princes, her warriors, her craftsmen, and her smiths, with all the treasure laid up in the palace of her kings, and all the vessels of gold and silver consecrated to the worship of Jehovah. Little then was left for her to suffer, when the punishment of her latest rebellion came. Her walls were thrown down, her temple, her chief glory, was destroyed, the greater part of the inhabitants who had survived the prolonged siege were carried off to swell the crowd of exiles already in Babylon, and only a few of the humbler sort of folk, the vine-dressers and the small farmers, were left behind.

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