The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor

by Susan Wise Bauer

Then the gods made traders and farmers out of Purusha’s knees.

Finally the gods came to the bottoms of Purusha’s feet. Out of his feet, they made a humble group of people—the servants. Servants were not allowed to learn how to read and write. Instead, they spent their lives taking care of the priests, the warriors, and the traders and farmers.

These four groups of people became known as castes. If your family belonged to the farmer caste, you could only grow up to be a farmer. You could only marry someone who was also born to be a farmer. You could never be a warrior or a priest. And if your parents were servants, you were doomed to be a servant.

But the poorest people in India were those who didn’t belong to the caste system at all. They were called “Untouchables.”

The Hindus believed that touching an Untouchable would make them unclean. And they didn’t even want to look at the Untouchables who did the dirtiest jobs! These Untouchables were called Unseeables. They were only allowed to do their work at night.

From then on, Siddhartha was known as the Buddha. He taught his followers that they should be honest, make peace with their enemies, and avoid violence. The followers of the Buddha became known as Buddhists. Soon, many people in ancient India were Buddhists.

The Aryan people probably came into India around 1500 BC/BCE; their civilization reached a high point around 500 BC/BCE, when sixteen separate kingdoms existed in the northern part of India. Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) lived around 563–483 BC/BCE.

When the Aryans first settled in India, they built lots of different cities. The cities belonged to many different small kingdoms. Each kingdom was independent, and the kings of these little kingdoms spent many years fighting each other. But one family of Indian kings wanted India to be a strong, unified country. They united the different Indian cities together into one empire—the Mauryan Empire. This empire covered the whole northern part of India. The most famous Mauryan emperor was named Asoka. He became king around 268 BC/BCE. Asoka conquered cities through India in a war that killed thousands of people. But when Asoka visited the defeated cities after his great victories, he saw the suffering that his soldiers had caused.

The Mauryan Empire lasted from 321–233 BC/BCE. Asoka ruled from 268–233 BC/BCE; the Mauryan empire began to disintegrate after his death.

Pictograms were picture-words that looked almost exactly like the words they represented.

With printing, books can be made quickly and cheaply. The Chinese were the first ancient people to use printing. The oldest printed book in the world is a Chinese book called the Diamond Sutra. It was printed over a thousand years ago, but we can still read it today!

His parents named him Julius Caesar. The Caesars were important people. They claimed to be descended from Romulus, the founder of the city of Rome. Julius’s father was a rich nobleman who helped to make the laws of Rome. And Julius’s uncle was a consul, one of the two rulers of Rome.

As soon as Julius was old enough, his father sent him to school to learn reading, writing, mathematics, and rhetoric—the art of speaking in public. Julius Caesar became very good at speaking in public. He grew up to be tall and strong, with keen black eyes and a deep, powerful voice. Whenever he made a speech, crowds gathered to listen to him.

Finally, the government of Rome sent them Caesar’s ransom. They took the money and told Caesar goodbye.

“Now who does the sea belong to?” Caesar said to the pirate captain. He took the pirates back to Rome, and had them all executed!

After this, everyone in Rome knew who Caesar was. They knew that he was a strong leader and a fierce fighter. Julius Caesar’s name was on everyone’s lips. The people of Rome were ready to vote for Caesar!

But there was a problem: Rome already had two consuls. There was no room for Caesar. Instead, Caesar was given the job of governing the Romans who lived all the way over in Spain. Many Romans had settled here, and they needed a Roman leader to run their colony.

In Spain, Caesar worked hard and became popular. He drove away the mountain bandits that kept attacking the Roman cities in Spain. But all the time, he longed to go back to Rome and become powerful there, in his home town.

“By the time he was my age, Alexander the Great was already the king of five or six different countries! And I haven’t done anything remarkable yet! I should weep and be sad!

Now three powerful men ruled Rome—and Caesar was one of them! The three rulers were called the triumvirate.

Before long, no one paid much attention to the other two consuls. Caesar was the only one who mattered.

Julius Caesar was popular with the people of Rome. But he wasn’t popular with the Senate. The Senate was a group of rich, powerful men who had most of the power in Rome. The Senate helped to take care of Rome. The consuls were supposed to listen to what the Senate said. But Caesar didn’t pay very much attention to the Senate. He did what he pleased.

Caesar took good care of his army. He trained them to fight. He paid them well and gave them plenty to eat. The soldiers weren’t used to being treated so well. Soon they were completely loyal to Caesar. They followed him into battle against Rome’s neighbors. Caesar didn’t always win his battles, but he didn’t let the people of Rome know that. Instead, he only sent them messages about his victories! He pretended that he never lost a fight. The country Caesar wanted to conquer most was called Britain.

The people who lived in Britain were called Celts. They were tall, muscular, warlike men.

The Romans landed triumphantly on the beaches of Britain. But the Romans only stayed in Britain three weeks.

He came back a year later with more soldiers. This time he was able to stay in Britain longer. He forced some of the Celts to pay money to the Roman army as tribute. But the other British tribes remained free of Roman control. Caesar hadn’t exactly conquered Britain. But he didn’t tell the people in Rome about his defeats! Instead, he kept sending messages of victory back to Rome.

Two of the senators decided that they would try to make one of the other consuls, Pompey, turn against Caesar. This was hard to do, because Pompey had married Caesar’s daughter. But Pompey was jealous of Caesar.

He stood at the river for a long time, staring at the bridge. “Even yet,” he said to the captain of his army, “we may turn back. But once we cross that little bridge … we will have to settle this with our swords.”

Let the die be cast!” He crossed the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC/BCE. His army followed him towards Rome.

Back in Rome, Pompey and the senators were trying to raise an army of their own. But no one wanted to fight against Caesar’s soldiers. After all, Caesar’s army had spent years fighting in foreign countries. They were tough, strong, and loyal to their leader. When Caesar and his army came in sight of Rome, all of Pompey’s soldiers ran away. And before Caesar could enter the city, Pompey fled as well.

Today, when someone has to make an important decision, people still say “You’re about to cross the Rubicon.” Crossing the Rubicon means that you’re about to do something that you can’t undo. We get this expression from the story of Julius Caesar’s return to Rome.

Caesar now ruled all of Rome and all of Rome’s territories. The army obeyed him. The people loved him. And the Senate couldn’t drive him out. But Caesar still wanted to get rid of Pompey. He knew that Pompey had run away to Egypt. And down in Egypt, Pompey was trying to convince the Egyptians to help him attack Caesar and take Rome back.

They had two pharaohs—a queen named Cleopatra and her brother. Cleopatra and her brother were supposed to rule Egypt together. But they didn’t get along with each other. They fought constantly, because each one wanted to rule Egypt alone. But when Cleopatra and her brother heard that Caesar was coming, they stopped quarrelling with each other. They were terrified.

Caesar was startled to get Pompey’s head in a bag. And he was sad, too. He and Pompey had once been friends. They had been consuls together for years. And Pompey had been his son-in-law!

“Caesar,” Cleopatra said sweetly, “if you’ll help me get rid of my brother, so that I can rule Egypt all by myself, I will share Egypt’s riches with you.” Caesar was overcome by Cleopatra. He fell madly in love with her and agreed to do everything she said. He told his army to fight against the Egyptians who were loyal to Cleopatra’s brother. The Roman soldiers did as they were told. Cleopatra’s brother was killed in the battle, and Cleopatra became the sole ruler of Egypt.

“Let’s raise an army of Romans who are loyal to the Senate and try to defeat Caesar, one last time!” So they gathered together an army and marched down towards Egypt, ready to attack Caesar. Caesar hadn’t forgotten how to fight, though. He got his own soldiers together and defeated the Senate army in record time.

Caesar was known for his fast victories. In fact, after one victory, when a friend asked him to describe the battle, he answered, “I can do it in three words: Veni, Vidi, Vici.” In Latin, the language of the Romans, this meant, “I came, I saw, I conquered!”

Caesar finally left Egypt and came back to Rome. No one could fight against him any more! And the people loved him. So when he came back to Rome, Caesar was made dictator for life.

And once Caesar was dictator, he took power away from the Senate. Now, only Caesar could declare war, pass laws, and raise taxes. He started to make money with his own picture on it.

But then Caesar did two things that made many people angry. First, he called the Senate together. “I am the dictator of Rome,” he told them, “but the kings of other countries will respect me more if you call me ‘King Caesar.’ So from now on I want you to call me ‘king.’ Second, I want my nephew Octavian to be king after me. I’m going to adopt him to be my son. I want him to inherit my power too.”

“You, too, Brutus?” And then Caesar died, there on the marble floor of the Senate building. His slaves came and carried his body home. Caesar, the greatest Roman, had been killed by his own friends and countrymen.

Caesar’s campaigns in Britain took place 55–54 BC/BCE. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC/BCE; she was twenty-one when Caesar arrived in Egypt in 48 BC/BCE (Caesar was fifty-two). Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC/BCE.

After Caesar died, Rome was in an uproar! Who would be in charge of Rome now?

Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, was only nineteen when Caesar died. But he had inherited all of Caesar’s money, because he was Caesar’s adopted son. He took Caesar’s money and threw a big party in memory of Caesar. The party lasted ten days, and the whole city of Rome was invited. Then Octavian gave presents and money to every poor family in Rome. Suddenly Octavian was very popular! The people of Rome loved him because he was generous. The army loved him because he was Caesar’s adopted son.

But the people of Rome and the army wanted Octavian to be a consul, and the Senate was afraid to say no. So Octavian became a consul of Rome. Just like Julius Caesar, he led the army into nearby countries and conquered them for Rome. Just like Julius Caesar, he made the Roman Empire bigger and richer.

But Octavian didn’t make the same mistakes that Caesar had made. He knew that Caesar had made the Senate angry when he demanded to be called “king.”