VIII. BEYOND THE RHINE 331 IX. THE LAST ADVANCE 337 _BOOK VI_ ROME AND THE BARBARIANS. THE DECLINE I. A CENTURY OF DISGRACE 343 II. A CENTURY OF REVIVAL 357 III. THREE DEADLY BLOWS 363 EPILOGUE 377 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE FLIGHT OF THE PERSIANS AFTER MARATHON _Frontispiece_ TIMOLEON HOLDING THE FORD OF THE CRIMESSUS 118 THE BATTLE OF ISSUS 140 THE OVERTHROW OF CANNÆ 210 DEFEAT OF THE CIMBRI IN THE BATTLE AT THE WAGGONS 272 CRASSUS DEFEATED BY THE PARTHIANS 300 TRAJAN BESIEGING A DACIAN FORT 340 ATTILA AND LEO 374 To MY DAUGHTERS _BOOK I_ GREECE AND PERSIA. THE DEFENCE I. THE MEN OF MARATHON We may say of wars what a famous philosopher said of revolutions, that they happen about little things, but spring from great causes. When Herodotus at the beginning of his History proceeds to put on record the grounds of the great feud between the Greeks and the Barbarians, he tells us of various outrages committed by one party or the other. The Phœnicians began by carrying off Io, daughter of Inachus; the Greeks retaliated by landing at Tyre and bearing away the king's daughter Europé. This they followed by the capture of Medea, a princess of Colchi. When Paris of Troy ran away with the fair Helen from Sparta he was only setting the account straight. It was then that, according to the Persian sages, with whom Herodotus seems to agree, the Greeks made a fatal mistake. They actually led a great army into Asia to recover a worthless woman, though "men of sense care nothing about such people."