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[Illustration: Attila, "The Scourge of God".]




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

[Illustration: Publisher's arm.]

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 CAESAR,               _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. Vambery_,              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 Gruetzner_         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 Dore_             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 Dore_            108
  EDWARD III. AND THE BURGHERS OF
    CALAIS,                              _Berthelemy_              118
  BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN,                  _Alphonse De Neuville_    128
  HUNIADES AT BELGRADE,                  _Gustave Dore_            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[1]

By CLARENCE COOK

(645-561 B.C.)

         [Footnote 1: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

[Illustration: Nebuchadnezzar.]


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.

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.

When Nebuchadnezzar rested after his conquests, secure in the
subjugation of his rivals, and in the possession of his vast kingdom,
he gave himself up to the material improvement of Babylon and the
surrounding country. The city as he left it, at the end of his reign
of forty-three years, was built on both sides of the Euphrates, and
covered a space of four hundred square miles, equal to five times the
size of London. It was surrounded by a triple wall of brick; the
innermost, over three hundred feet high, and eighty-five feet broad at
the top, with room for four chariots to drive abreast. The walls were
pierced by one hundred gate-ways framed in brass and with brazen
gates, and at the points where the Euphrates entered and left the city
the walls also turned and followed the course of the river, thus
dividing the city into two fortified parts. These two districts were
connected by a bridge of stone piers, guarded by portcullises, and
ferries also plied between the quays that lined the river-banks, to
which access was given by gates in the walls.

Nebuchadnezzar's palace was a splendid structure covering a large
space at one end of the bridge. In the central