Author: Coleman Phillipson

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-25

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9781330360897

Excerpt from The International Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome, Vol. 2 of 2 The practice of establishing confederations and alliances was frequent amongst the Greeks and the Romans, particularly so in the case of the former. Indeed, all the nations of antiquity, in spite of bellicose proclivities universally manifested, fully recognized the advantages of union and harmony between the civilized peoples, and accordingly often entered into federal pacts, or into more temporary and less comprehensive alliances. But usually such a policy obtained where there was a certain affinity between the nations, - an affinity due to common origin, similarity of national life and institutions, or common language. Thus in ancient China alliances with the alien barbarians could scarcely be dreamt of, but there were frequent confederations set up between the Chinese States, for which purpose the sovereigns usually attended in person general conferences specially convened therefor. Similarly the Phoenician cities entered into treaties of alliance with the object of mutual protection ; and even subsequent to their conquest by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians, successively, they endeavoured to arrange a congress for the discussion and settlement of their common affairs, and for the establishment of a federation. But this effort failed owing to the jealous rivalry of Sidon and Tyre, each of which cities - as in the notorious case of Athens and Sparta - hankered after the political hegemony, if not the virtual supremacy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.