and expended upon the arts of peace.

37. The Athenians returned to their city and found everything in
ruins. Fire and hate had destroyed home and temple alike. All the
accumulated wealth of generations was gone. Nothing was left but the
indomitable energy which had been tested on so many trying
emergencies, and the wonderful skill of eye and hand which came of
inherited aptitude and long personal experience. Upon the old site a
new city grew in a single generation, marvelous in its splendor of
temple and palace, so light and airy, yet so strong and enduring, that
after the lapse of twenty-five centuries the marble skeletons, though
in ruins, stand, the admiration of all men and of all ages.




CHAPTER II.

_CRUSADES AND THE CRUSADERS_.


1. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, in the year 70 of the
Christian era, Palestine continued for upward of two centuries in the
condition of a Roman province, inhabited by a mixed population of
pagans, Jews, and Christians. In Jerusalem, temples of Venus and
Jupiter were erected on the most sacred spots of Christian history;
and heathenism triumphed in the possession of the Holy City of two
religions. On the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire by
Constantine, in the year 321, this state of things was changed;
Palestine and Jerusalem became objects of interest to all Christians,