A Little History of the World

This chapter introduces the history of the Romans, beginning at the time of Alexander the Great. While he pushed East, the small peasant tribe living in the Italian peninsula was a modest society occupying only a small patch of land. Still, the inhabitants had a rich lore and culture. They believed that their past went back to ancient Troy, where an ancient Trojan named Aeneas fled to Italy. They dated the founding of Rome to 753 B.C., and they counted time from that year. Rome was ruled by noblemen, known as patricians. They chose among themselves who would govern. The highest officials were the consuls, who ruled jointly in pairs for one year and then had to step down. Those who were not noble were known as plebeians. A plebeian could not voice their opinion on political matters in assembly. After over 100 years of fighting for representation, however, plebeians were given the same rights as patricians. From then on, the consul consisted of one patrician and one plebeian. Gombrich sees the determination of the Romans as their greatest virtue: “But when they set out to do something, they did it, even if it took two hundred years, for they were peasants through and through” (74).

Gombrich turns his attention to the Roman Empire and the resistance of Carthage. After the time of Alexander the Great, the Romans began setting their sights on conquering the entire peninsula, not just small surrounding towns. They did this slowly, by conquering one region at a time. They soon became the rulers of all of Southern Italy and seized Sicily after defeating the Carthaginians in 241 B.C. There was an intelligent, cunning Carthaginian general in Spain named Hannibal who would not stand for Rome’s meddling in their affairs. At Cannae in 217 B.C., the Romans faced their bloodiest defeat at Hannibal’s hand, with over 40,000 Roman soldiers killed. After 14 years of fighting, even he could not keep Rome at bay. Hannibal poisoned himself to avoid capture. In 146 B.C., the Romans destroyed Carthage, razing the city and killing or capturing every person who lived there.

Gombrich begins this chapter by addressing the reader: “If you have always found history boring, you are going to enjoy this chapter” (80). Around 220 B.C., China was ruled by a man named Shih Huang-ti, the first emperor. His family had ruled over a province called Ch’in, and it is likely that all of China took its name from this first emperor and his family. He conquered each province, uniting them all under his power, and began construction of the Great Wall of China to protect his subjects from raids and looting by nearby tribes. In 213 B.C., he ordered that all history books be destroyed, along with poetry and old records and things like the works of Confucius and Lao-tzu. Anyone found in possession of these things was punished by death. His mission was to create a new China and remove anything that came from the past.

His reign, however, did not last long, and after his death, the Han family succeeded him. Though they kept many of his reforms and changes, they saw the value in the past and believed the teachings of Confucius to be an important aspect of Chinese society. When remaining ancient writings were found, they were even more valuable than they had been before the first emperor. They were so valuable that to be a government official, one needed to be well versed in all of them. According to Gombrich, China is the “only country in the world to be ruled for hundreds of years [...] by scholars.” (81) Gombrich concludes his chapter by warning those who might agree with Shih Huang-ti: “[...] if you thought he was right, you were mistaken. It’s a bad idea to try to prevent people from knowing their own history. If you want to do anything new you must first make sure you know what people have tried before” (82).

Turning back to the Romans, Gombrich compares their ambitions with those of Alexander the Great. Unlike Alexander, who wanted to create a “single, vast empire in which everyone was treated equally” (83), the Romans looked down on the people they conquered, and the lands that became their provinces were good only for paying taxes and sending grain back to Rome. Though they were not seen as equal, they were largely left to their own culture in peace. The Roman soldiers were devoted to their successful generals, as well as to the wealthy men who would throw lavish festivals where captives or slaves fought each other or animals to the death in bloody displays. Political rivals would often vie for power by throwing such festivals, trying to garner more public support than their enemy.

By 79 B.C., Rome had become quite different. There were no more peasants, and now the populace was made up of wealthy landowners and the slaves who labored for them. The most popular general at this time was a man named Gaius Julius Caesar. Though it took seven years, he conquered Gaul in 51 B.C. In the face of his victories, other generals who had vied for power stepped down. He seduced Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, and thus added Egypt to the Roman Empire. He reformed the calendar, making it much like the calendar we use today. It was called the Julian calendar, and the month of July is named after him. In 44 B.C., he was assassinated by a group of senators, including his best friend, Brutus. His son, Augustus, became the first Roman emperor in 31 B.C. While he was perhaps not as exceptional as his father, he was a prudent, even-keeled ruler. He enjoyed art and poetry and had copies of great Greek sculptures made. Romans at this time greatly valued Greek writing and philosophy. Gombrich suggests that their reverence for the Greeks “was lucky for us, for if they hadn’t, we might never have heard about any of it” (91).