The Washington herald., 1915-05-30

cusan victors condemned 5000 of their
| Athenian captives to lanEuish and hun
ger. Many starved in that hole in the
| ground, where now the flowers bloom
and riot. and the rest survived their
eight months Imprisonment only to be
sold into slavery. except a fortunate few
whose recitations of the verses of Eu-
ripides moved their conquerors to adj
II iratio and clemency.
Another scene in Italy recalls a con-
trasting incident in the wars of far-of
! times and an example of berbarous mag
nanimity. A short way above Naples.
on the main road to Rome. branch
line turns away and soon the train
energies through the memorable Caudne
Forks onto a plain now treeless and
bleak beneath it's volcanic ashes.
Out Of the Caudine Forks more than
800 years before the Christian era. 1000
Romans marched against the Samnites
in a campaign of determination. When
the DICTIONARIES had crossed the plain
they were surprised to find the opposite
exit blocked by their barbarous foes, and
when they turned back they found their
retreat cut off. The Samnites had them
In a trap, but they neither slew them nor
enslaved them. On the contrary, the vic
torious chief simply babe them return to
Rome and appeal to the senate for peace
and justice toward the Samnites. The
Roman senate. however. although II
profited by the generosity of the little
nation, refused to requite it or to relent
in its warfare.
Stern as the Romans were in their
enmities they could be equally stern in
keeping faith with an enemy. When
Hannibal sent ten captives into Rome to
seek an exchange of prisoners. and the
senate rejected the proposal. eight of the
messengers embraced their families and
returned to their captivity. The two who
broke their parole and stayed in the city
were so despised for their perfdy that
they killed themselves.
Although Belisarius was a warrior of
the sixth rather than the twentieth CEN
fury. his warfare seems to have merited
only one black mark. Except for the
poisoning OF the aqueducts Of Raycnna.
his campaigns conformed to the highest
standards.
Barbarossa's rules il not his conduct
of war have not been greatly improved
upon since the twelfth century, when he
issued orders in Italy that any soldier
robbing a merchant should be compelled
to restore double the value of his booty
and that whoever among his troops set
fire to a house should be scoursed. shay
ed and branded. But it was in the same
age that William the Conqueror's gal
liant knights at Hastings rushed upon
dying Harold. the last Of the Saxon
kings hacking his body into bits and
burying the fragments beneath heap
of stones.
There is no more unhappy illustration
Of the readiness with which the higher
types of civilization cast aside their
ethics under the maddening and brutal
izing influence OF war than is offered by
the capture of Jerusalem in the Cru
sades. The temple became a charnel
house. The Jews were burned In their
synagogues and not enough Of the 10000
Saracens within the city wall were spared
to bury their dead.
After 100 years. Palestine was the
scene Of another invasioV from the West.
when Napoleon marched up out of Egypt
on his Syrian campaign. As the French
burst through the gates Of Jaffa- some
1900 soldiers Of the Sultan still held out
behind the walls of a khan-an Oriental
caravansary-and they capitulated only
on condition that their lives would be |
spared. Although Napoleon generally |
played the game Of war according to |