The murder of Caesar - 44Bc
The Battle of Pharsalia made Caesar lord of Rome. He then had to deal with Africa which was in revolt. A short campaign ended in the victory being announced in the Senate as Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). He returned to Rome and took supreme command; the Republic was at an end. Now the head of the army controlled the empire.
Unlike Marius and Sulla, Caesar proclaimed a general pardon for all his former opponents, not one was put to death. He; then instituted a number of popular reforms, but some jealous men who wished to restore the Republic waited for him in the Forum and stabbed him to death.
A Second Triumvirate was formed consisting of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), Lepidus and Octavius, Caesar’s heir.
His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world to the North Sea, and he also conducted the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. The collapse of the triumvirate, however, led to a stand-off with Pompey and the Senate. Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the master of the Roman world.
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The Great Wall of China - c. 215 BC
It has been said, with considerable justification, that the Great Wall of China is the most stupendous example of human endeavour. Known in China as the WanLich’ang Ch’en, the Wall of Ten Thousand Miles, it formed the northern boundary of the Chinese Empire and was actually some 2,400 kilometres long, varying in height from four-and-a-half metres to nine metres.
It was built at the command of Shih Huang Ti, of the Ch’in dynasty (22I— 206 BC) who pressed every third able-bodied man in his kingdom into its building. The result was truly the eighth wonder of the world. It was built across northern China, over high mountains and through very difficult country. In terms of human suffering and futility a writer once said, ‘The Chinese never got over it . . . but the Tartars did!’
Shih Huang Ti was a brutal ruler who cared little for art and learning, and who ordered that every book in China should be burned with the exception of religious, medical and agricultural works. In 206 BC, Liu Pang led a revolt against the Ch’in and, changing his name to Kao Tsu, became the first ruler of the Han dynasty.
The age of Pericles - 490-429 BC
The Delian League marked the begin-fling of the Golden Age of Greece which for thirty years was dominated by one of the most outstanding men in history —Pericles (49o—429 BC). He was the son of noble parents who provided him, when a youth, with the finest and most advanced teachers of the day.
By 461 BC he had become one of the leaders of the democratic party, assuming control when its leader, Ephialtes, was assassinated. He carried the democratic system further, insisting that every officer of state, except the generals and judges, were to be chosen by lot. Also, any person carrying out such civic duties was to be paid accordingly, thus allowing even the poorest citizen to become an office-holder.
His work was interrupted by war with Athens’ great rival, Sparta, which broke out in 456 BC, Pericles becoming one of the Athenian generals. War ended in 451 BC and Pericles was able to devote himself to the rebuilding of his capital city. Much of it had been burned by the enemy during the Persian wars and Pericles resolved to make Athens the most beautiful city in the world. He engaged the greatest architects (Ictinus and Callicrates) and sculptor (Pheidias) and these men produced the magnificent Parthenon, high on the Acropolis.
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