PART III--THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT
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CHAPTER XLI
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THEATRE OF WARFARE
World war--the prophecy of the ages--now threatened the foundations
of civilization. Whether or not the modern era was to fall under
the sword, as did the democracy of Greece and the mighty Roman
Empire, was again to be decided on battle grounds that for seventy
centuries have devoured the generations. The mountain passes were
once more to reverberate with the battle cry--the roar of guns,
the clank of artillery, the tramp of soldiery. The rivers were
to run crimson with the blood of men; cities were to fall before
the invaders; ruin and death were to consume nations. It was as
though Xerxes, and Darius, and Alexander the Great, and Hannibal,
and all the warriors of old were to return to earth to lead again
gigantic armies over the ancient battle fields.
While the war was gaining momentum on the western battle grounds
of Europe, gigantic armies were gathering in the East--there to
wage mighty campaigns that were to hold in the balance the destiny
of the great Russian Empire; the empire of Austria, the Balkan
kingdoms-Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Bulgaria. The Turks were
again to enter upon a war of invasion. Greece once more was to
tremble under the sword. Even Egypt and Persia and Jerusalem itself,
the battle grounds of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Trojans,
the bloody fields of paganism and early Christianity, were all to
be awakened by the modern trumpets of war.
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