The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 36

Hewitt publishes an interesting drawing (reproduced as fig. 73, _c_), formed "by the union of the four triangles representing the Southeastern and Northwestern races, who all looked on the mother mountain of the East, whence Indra gets the rain, as their national birthplace, where they became united as the Kus.h.i.+te race, the confederation of civilized man. It represents the Greek cross and the double dorje or thunderbolt of Vishnu and Indra and also a map of the Indian races, as distributed at the time of the union. It also forms, with s.p.a.ces left open for the parent rivers, ... an octahedron or eight-sided figure ... and the angles of the tribal angles form the swastika ... the sign of the rain-G.o.d ..., the great Sar of the Phnicians...." Referring the reader to Hewitt's interesting discussion of this figure with which he a.s.sociates the origin of the swastika, I point out a fact he barely notices, namely that the figure coincides with the description of Mt. Meru, a.s.sociated with four lakes, four rivers, four mythical animals and four guardians (p. 320). It is in connection with the cosmical Middle Mountain that the foundation of an earthly kingdom on the same plan becomes significant and the distribution of races figured by Mr. Hewitt a.s.sumes utmost importance. The representation of the four races by "tribal triangles," is of special interest when collated with the Egyptian sign for city or state and the pyramid, the building of which I have several times alluded to as an event facilitating, symbolizing and commemorating the foundation of a quadruplicate state (pp. 220 and 221).

ARABIA.

"In the land of Arabia, of the irrigating and building Minyans and star-wors.h.i.+pping Sabaeans, the land of the Queen of Sheba, or the number seven (sheba) ... a fresh confederacy was formed, to rival that of the Kus.h.i.+te mountain of the East ..." (Hewitt, p. 291).

It is significant that among the Sabaeans the seven-day period prevailed.

a.s.sYRIA.

Seven directions of heaven and earth, seven territorial districts, seven mountains, seven kings, seven-staged towers, seven year and day periods, etc., pp. 328, 348 and 358.

Four-G.o.d cities, square cities, square four-storied towers, four cities, four regions or provinces, four-fold power embodied in king wearing cross, tetrarchies (?).

EGYPT.

Seven cla.s.ses of people, seven districts, seven-day period, pp. 300 and 375.(137)

Quadruplicate division of capital and state, four fields of heaven, p.

372.

Sacerdotal group consisting of 12+1=13 individuals, p. 437.

Division of the country, at one time, into twelve parts (Ast).

CHINA.

Seven Manchurian tribes, p. 302.

Four provinces, four mountains, four seas, p. 286; four cla.s.ses of seven each, p. 292.

At the summit of the present administration in Pekin, Four Grand Secretaries, two of whom are Manchus and two Chinese.(138)

Twelve districts, p. 292.

ANCIENT j.a.pAN.

The "Seven divine generations," each consisting of a G.o.d and G.o.ddess.

Four cla.s.ses of people, 24=8 holy quarters, eight great islands.

Imperial council of twelve divided into the higher council of five called Golosew="Imperial Old Men" and the lower council of seven members termed Waka Tosiyori="Junior Old Men" (Chambers' Encyclopaedia). The imperial council, with the emperor, thus const.i.tuted the sacred thirteen.

PERSIA.

Seven divisions of Cosmos, seven regions, seven spirits personifying celestial bodies and moral qualities.

Ancient confederacy of Iran consisted of six kingdoms grouped around the central royal province, "situated under the pole-star," and called Kwan-iras or Hvan-iratha, ruled by Susi-nag, the original father-G.o.d of the model state identified with the pole-star, Draconis, the serpent (Hewitt, _op. cit._ p. 253), see also Appendix III, list II.

Four-fold rule embodied in king, p. 325. Darius distributed Persian empire into 45=20 satrapies, each including a certain continuous territory (Grote).

GREECE.

Tenos divided into seven quarters, seven divisions of state.(139)

Four tribes,(140) four castes, territorial division of Attica into four parts, inst.i.tution of tetrarchies. Thessaly anciently divided into four tetrarchies. Inst.i.tution (between 600-560 B.C.) of cycle or period, marked by the four sacred Olympic games, one of which took place in one of four cities each year in rotation. Pisistratus added the quadrennial or greater Panathenaea to the ancient annual and lesser Panathenaea (Grote, History of Greece, vol. 4).

Twelve tribes formed by Cecrops-represented by twelve chiefs, +Cecrops=thirteen.

It is most interesting to find this division adopted in Plato's de Legibus, in which it is imagined that three elderly statesmen come together, belonging respectively to Athens, Crete and Lacedaemon, to discuss the reestablishment of the depopulated city of Magnesia in Crete.

Aristotle has insinuated that the scheme proposed by Plato was not original and had been actually realized at Lacedaemon. Mr. George Burger, the able translator of Bohn's edition of Plato's Works, in his introduction to vol. V, remarks that, if that were the case, Plato would never have wasted his time in writing two elaborate treatises on matters already well known, when it would have been sufficient to point out ...

the inst.i.tutions of Lycurgus as the pattern, if not of a faultless government, at least of one, that approached the nearest to perfection.

Plato might have replied to the charge made by Aristotle by saying that his notions were all the better for not being original, for it was thus shown that, as some of them were practicable, since they had already been put into practice-the rest, which were a reform rather of existing inst.i.tutions than the construction of a code perfectly novel, would be equally practicable if they were submitted to the same test. In his Protagoras, Plato distinctly states that in Crete and Lacedaemon a most beautiful philosophy was to be found, which had been handed down from ancient times.... Let us now examine the plan discussed by the three statesmen and submitted to them by the anonymous Athenian who, according to Cicero, Plutarch and Boeckh, was Plato himself.

In the case of "the Magnesians, whom a G.o.d is again raising up and settling into a colony ... a divine polity...." Plato says: ... "It is meet, in the first place, to build the city as much as possible in the middle of the country.... After this to divide it into twelve parts(141) and placing first the temple of Hestia, and Zeus and Athene, to call it the Acropolis and to throw around a circular enclosure and from it to cut the city and all the country into twelve parts. But the twelve parts ought to be equalized ... and the allotments to be five thousand and forty....

After this to a.s.sign the twelve allotments to the twelve G.o.ds and to call them by their names and to consecrate to each the portion attained by lot and to call it a phyle; and again to divide the twelve sections of the city in the same manner as they divided the rest of the country, and that each should possess two habitations, one near the centre and the other near the extremity, and thus let the method end ... (B. V, C. 14).... We ought, in the first place, to resume the number five thousand and forty because it had and has now convenient distributions, both the whole number and that which was a.s.signed to the wards, which we laid down as the twelfth part of the whole, being exactly four hundred and twenty. And as the whole number has twelve divisions, so also has that of the wards. Now it is meet to consider each division as a sacred gift of a deity through its _following both the months and revolutions of the universe_. (By this is meant, says Ast, the twelve signs of the zodiac.) _Hence that which is inherent leads every state, making them holy_.... Some persons indeed have made a more correct distribution than others, and with better fortune have dedicated the distribution to the G.o.ds. But we now a.s.sert that the number five thousand and forty has been chosen most correctly, as it has all divisions as far as twelve, beginning from one, except that by eleven; ...

let us distribute this number; and dedicating to a G.o.d ... each portion, and giving the altars ... let us inst.i.tute monthly two meetings relating to sacrifices ... twelve according to the divisions of the wards and twelve to that of the city ... for the sake of every kind of intercourse."

It should be noted here that, as in his Republic, Plato provides his ideal state with female as well as male guardians, and with priestesses as well as priests, whose duty it was to fulfil sacerdotal functions. Special attention is drawn to this point, as in practice, it naturally signifies a dual government, such as I have traced in ancient Egypt, Babylonia-a.s.syria, and also in Mexico and Peru.

"As regards the number of ... festivals ... let there be three hundred and sixty-five ... so that some one of the magistrates may always sacrifice ... there are to be twelve festivals to the twelve G.o.ds from whom each tribe has its name ... and twelve guardians of the law.... There ought to be twelve hamlets, one in the middle of each twelfth part, and in each hamlet to be selected first, a market place and temples ... prepare all the rest of the country by it into thirteen parts for the handicraftsmen and to cause one portion of these to reside in the city by distributing this portion among the twelve parts of the whole city ... to have other persons distributed out of the city, in a circle around it."

The portions of Plato's work dealing with the appointment of the governors and guardians of the state and their rotations in office and imposed tours of inspection, are of such particular interest in connection with the present comparative research, that I am impelled to quote them here.

"Let each (of the twelve) phyles furnish for the year five Rural Stewards (in all sixty) ... each of whom is to choose twelve young men ... to the latter let there be allotted portions of the country during a month ... so that all of them may have a practical knowledge of every part of the country.... But let the governors.h.i.+p and guardians.h.i.+p continue to the guards and governors for two years, and let those who first obtain by lot their respective portions, the guard officers, lead out, _changing the places of the country constantly by going to the place next in order towards the right in a circle, and let the right be that which is in the east_. But as the years come around, in the second year, in order that the greatest portion of the guards may become acquainted with the country, not only at one season of the year, but that as many as possible may know thoroughly in addition to the country, at the same time what occurs relatively to each spot in the country at each season, let the officers _lead them out again to the left, constantly changing the place until they go through the second year_. In the third year it is meet to choose other rural stewards and guard officers as the five curators of the twelve young men.... There were to be three city stewards, dividing the twelve parts of the city into three ... and five Market-Stewards, to be chosen from ten elected"....(142)

It is deeply interesting to consider from the standpoint of comparative study the princ.i.p.al features of the perfected scheme proposed by Plato, in the fifth century B. C, for the establishment of an ideal colony, which is designated as a "divine polity" or a "holy land." This is especially the case when we see that Plato himself states that it is the conformity of the states to the inherent laws of nature, that confers upon it divinity or holiness. It seems impossible not to recognize that both ideal republics of Plato were intended to be "celestial kingdoms" or "kingdoms of heaven" and that he expounded and doubtlessly perfected, an ancient ideal which had been more or less successfully carried out in different countries during many centuries before his time.

Having studied the proposed scheme for the foundation of a new colony of the Greeks, who proudly maintained that "it was meet that the Greeks should rule barbarians," and pursued a regular system of colonization, let us now obtain an idea of the mode in which Greeks had previously founded colonies by reading the following pa.s.sage from Grote's History of Greece, vol. IV, chap. XXVII:

"Under reign of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, about the middle of seventh century B.C., Grecian mercenaries were first established in Egypt and Grecian traders admitted ... into the Nile.(143) The opening of this new market emboldened them to traverse the direct sea which separates Krete from Egypt-a dangerous voyage with vessels which rarely ventured to lose sight of land-and seems to have first made them acquainted with the neighboring coast of Libya ... hence arose the foundation of the important colony called Kyrene" ... about 630 B.C.

"Thera was the mother-city, herself a colony from Lacedaemon ... political dissension among its inhabitants ... bad seasons, distress and over-population led to the emigration that founded Kyrene.... The oekist Battus was selected and consecrated to work of founding the colony....

_From the seven districts into which Thera was divided, emigrants were drafted for the colony, one brother being singled out by lot from the different families_.... The band which accompanied Battus was generally supplied with provisions for one year and was all conveyed in two pentekonters-armed s.h.i.+ps with fifty rowers each. Thus humble was the start of the mighty Kyrene. After six years residence in one spot they abandoned it and were conducted to a better site by guides, saying: 'Here, men of h.e.l.las, is the place for you to dwell, for here the sky is perforated.' "(144) The small force brought over by Battus was enabled at first to fraternize with the indigenous Libyans,-next, reinforced by additional colonists and availing themselves of the power of native chiefs, to overawe and subjugate them....

"The Theraean colonists seem to have married Libyan wives, whence Herodotus describes the women of Kyrene and Barka as following, even in his time, religious observances indigenous and not h.e.l.lenic. Even the descendants of the primitive oekist Battus were semi-Libyan.... We must bear in mind that the population of the [Graeco-Libyan] cities was not pure Greek, but more or less mixed, like that of the colonies in Italy, Sicily or Ionia....

Isokrates praises the well-chosen site of the colony of Kyrene because it was planted in the midst of indigenous natives apt for subjection and far distant from any formidable enemies.... We are then to conceive the first Theraean colonists as established in their lofty fortified post Kyrene, in the centre of Libyan Perioeki, till then strangers to walls, to arts and perhaps even to cultivated land.... To these rude men the Theraeans communicated the elements of h.e.l.lenism and civilization, not without receiving themselves much that was non-h.e.l.lenic in return, and perhaps the reactionary influence of the Libyan element against the h.e.l.lenic might have proved the stronger of the two had they not been reinforced by new-comers from Greece.... About 543 B.C. owing to discontent, etc., the regal prerogative of the Battiad line was terminated and a republican government established; the dispossessed prince retaining both the landed domains and various sacerdotal functions which had belonged to his predecessors."

ROME.

Seven hills, seven places of wors.h.i.+p, septemvirate, seven ministers, Septizonium, p. 464.

Roman quadrata, Ja.n.u.s quadrifrontis, quadruplicate territorial division carried out. Palestine, for instance, divided into four tetrarchies under Roman rule.

Twelve G.o.ds, twelve months, etc.

New Rome divided into four parts, each consisting of thirteen prefectures _i. e._ fifty-two prefectures in all.

GAUL.