The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
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Title: The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Author: Max Duncker
Translator: Evelyn Abbott
Release date: February 28, 2012 [eBook #39006]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39006
Credits: Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY, VOL. 2 (OF 6) ***
Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed
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THE HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY.
THE
HISTORY OF ANTIQUITY.
FROM THE GERMAN
OF
PROFESSOR MAX DUNCKER,
BY
EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A.,
_FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD._
VOL. II.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
1879.
Bungay:
CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
The present volume has been translated from the fifth
edition of the original, and has had, throughout, the
benefit of Professor Duncker's revision.
E. A.
_Oxford, Jan. 14, 1879._
CONTENTS.
BOOK III.
_ASSYRIA. PHOENICIA. ISRAEL._
CHAPTER I. PAGE
THE STORY OF NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS 1
CHAPTER II.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ASSYRIAN KINGDOM 26
CHAPTER III.
THE NAVIGATION AND COLONIES OF THE PHENICIANS 49
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL 89
CHAPTER V.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL 109
CHAPTER VI.
DAVID'S STRUGGLE AGAINST SAUL AND ISHBOSHETH 128
CHAPTER VII.
THE RULE OF DAVID 150
CHAPTER VIII.
KING SOLOMON 179
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAW OF THE PRIESTS 201
CHAPTER X.
JUDAH AND ISRAEL 227
CHAPTER XI.
THE CITIES OF THE PHENICIANS 262
CHAPTER XII.
THE TRADE OF THE PHENICIANS 294
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RISE OF ASSYRIA 308
BOOK III.
ASSYRIA. PHOENICIA. ISRAEL.
ASSYRIA.
CHAPTER I.
THE STORY OF NINUS AND SEMIRAMIS.
About the middle course of the Tigris, where the mountain wall of the
Armenian plateau steeply descends to the south, there is a broad stretch
of hilly country. To the west it is traversed by a few water-courses
only, which spring out of the mountains of Sindyar, and unite with the
Tigris; from the east the affluents are far more abundant. On the
southern shore of the lake of Urumiah the edge of the plateau of Iran
abuts on the Armenian table-land, and then, stretching to the
south-east, it bounds the river valley of the Tigris toward the east.
From its vast, successive ranges, the Zagrus of the Greeks, flow the
Lycus and Caprus (the Greater and the Lesser Zab), the Adhim and the
Diala. The water, which these rivers convey to the land between the
Zagrus and the Tigris, together with the elevation of the soil, softens
the heat and allows olive trees and vines to flourish in the cool air on
the hills, sesame and corn in the valleys between groups of palms and
fruit-trees. The backs of the heights which rise to the east are covered
by forests of oaks and nut trees. Toward the south the ground gradually
sinks--on the west immediately under the mountains of Sindyar, on the
east below the Lesser Zab--toward the course of the Adhim into level
plains, where the soil is little inferior in fertility to the land of
Babylonia. The land between the Tigris and the Greater Zab is known to
Strabo and Arrian as Aturia.[1] The districts between the Greater and
Lesser Zab are called Arbelitis and Adiabene by western writers.[2] The
region bounded by the Lesser Zab and the Adhim or the Diala is called
Sittacene, and the land lying on the mountains rising further toward the
east is Chalonitis. The latter we shall without doubt have to regard as
the Holwan[3] of later times.
According to the accounts of the Greeks, it was in these districts that
the first kingdom rose which made conquests and extended its power
beyond the borders of its native country. In the old time--such is the
story--kings ruled in Asia, whose names were not mentioned, as they had
not performed any striking exploits. The first of whom any memorial is
retained, and who performed great deeds, was Ninus, the king of the
Assyrians. Warlike and ambitious by nature, he armed the most vigorous
of his young men, and accustomed them by long and various exercises to
all the toils and dangers of war. After collecting a splendid army, he
combined with Ariaeus, the prince of the Arabs, and marched with numerous
troops against the neighbouring Babylonians. The city of Babylon was not
built at that time, but there were other magnificent cities in the land.
The Babylonians were an unwarlike people, and he subdued them with
little trouble, took their king prisoner, slew him with his children,
and imposed a yearly tribute on the Babylonians. Then with a still
greater force he invaded Armenia and destroyed several cities. Barzanes,
the king of Armenia, perceived that he was not in a position to resist.
He repaired with costly presents to Ninus and undertook to be his
vassal. With great magnanimity Ninus permitted him to retain the throne
of Armenia; but he was to provide a contingent in war and contribute to
the support of the army. Strengthened by these means, Ninus turned his
course to Media. Pharnus, king of Media, came out to meet him with a
strong force, but he was nevertheless defeated, and crucified with his
wife and seven children, and Ninus placed one of his own trusty men as
viceroy over Media. These successes raised in Ninus the desire to
subjugate all Asia as far as the Nile and the Tanais. He conquered, as
Ctesias narrates, Egypt, Phoenicia, Coele Syria, Cilicia, Lycia and
Caria, Lydia, Mysia, Phrygia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and reduced the
nations on the Pontus as far as the Tanais. Then he made himself master
of the land of the Cadusians and Tapyrians, of the Hyrcanians,
Drangians, Derbiccians, Carmanians, Chorasmians, Barcians, and
Parthians. Beside these, he overcame Persia, and Susiana, and Caspiana,
and many other small nations. But in spite of many efforts he failed to
obtain any success against the Bactrians, because the entrance to their
land was difficult and the number of their men of war was great. So he
deferred the war against the Bactrians to another opportunity, and led
his army back, after subjugating in 17 years all the nations of Asia,
with the exception of the Indians and Bactrians. The king of the
Arabians he dismissed to his home with costly presents and splendid
booty; he began himself to build a city which should not only be greater
than any other then in existence, but should be such that no city in the
future could ever surpass it. This city he founded on the bank of the
Tigris,[4] in the form of an oblong, and surrounded it with strong
fortifications. The two longer sides measured 150 stades each, the two
shorter sides 90 stades each, so that the whole circuit was 480 stades.
The walls reached a height of 100 feet, and were so thick that there was
room in the gangway for three chariots to pass each other. These walls
were surmounted by 1500 towers, each of the height of 200 feet. As to
the inhabitants of the city, the greater number and those of the most
importance were Assyrians, but from the other nations also any who chose
could fix his dwelling here, and Ninus allotted to the settlers large
portions of the surrounding territory, and called the city Ninus, after
his own name.
When the city was built Ninus resolved to march against the Bactrians.
He knew the number and bravery of the Bactrians, and how difficult
their land was to approach, and therefore he collected the armies of all
the subject nations, to the number of 1,700,000 foot soldiers, 210,000
cavalry, and towards 10,600 chariots of war. The narrowness of the
passes which protect the entrance to Bactria compelled Ninus to divide
his army. Oxyartes, who at that time was king of the Bactrians, had
collected the whole male population of his country, about 400,000 men,
and met the enemy at the passes. One part of the Assyrian army he
allowed to enter unmolested; when a sufficient number seemed to have
reached the plains he attacked them and drove them back to the nearest
mountains; about 100,000 Assyrians were slain. But when the whole force
had penetrated into the land, the Bactrians were overcome by superior
numbers and scattered each to his own city. The rest of the cities were
captured by Ninus with little trouble, but Bactra, the chief city, where
the palace of the king lay, he could not reduce, for it was large and
well-provisioned, and the fortress was very strong.
When the siege became protracted, Onnes, the first among the counsellors
of the king and viceroy of Syria, who accompanied the king on this
campaign, sent for his wife Semiramis to the camp. Once when he was
inspecting the flocks of the king in Syria, he had seen at the dwelling
of Simmas, the keeper of these flocks, a beautiful maiden, and he was so
overcome with love for her that he sought and obtained her as a wife
from Simmas. She was the foster-child of Simmas. In a rocky place in the
desert his shepherds had found the maiden about a year old, fed by doves
with milk and cheese; as Simmas was childless he had taken the foundling
as his child, and given her the name of Semiramis Onnes took her to the
city of Ninus. She bore him two sons, Hyapates and Hydaspes, and as she
had everything which beauty requires, she made her husband her slave; he
did nothing without her advice, and everything succeeded admirably. She
also possessed intelligence and daring, and every other gift likely to
advance her. When requested by Onnes to come to the camp, she seized the
opportunity to display her power. She put on such clothing that it could
not be ascertained whether she was a man or a woman, and this succeeded
so well that at a later time the Medes, and after them the Persians
also, wore the robe of Semiramis. When she arrived in the camp she
perceived that the attack was directed only against the parts of the
city lying in the plain, not against the high part and the strong
fortifications of the citadel, and she also perceived that this
direction of the attack induced the Bactrians to be careless in watching
the citadel. She collected all those in the army who were accustomed to
climbing, and with this troop she ascended the citadel from a deep
ravine, captured a part of it, and gave the signal to the army which was
assaulting the walls in the plain. The Bactrians lost their courage when
they saw their citadel occupied, and the city was taken. Ninus admired
the courage of the woman, honoured her with costly presents, and was
soon enchained by her beauty; but his attempts to persuade Onnes to give
up Semiramis to him were in vain; in vain he offered to recompense him
by the gift of his own daughter Sosana in marriage. At length Ninus
threatened to put out his eyes if he did not obey his commands. The
terror of this threat and the violence of his own love drove Onnes out
of his mind. He hung himself. Thus Semiramis came to the throne of
Assyria. When Ninus had taken possession of the great treasures of gold
and silver which were in Bactra, and had arranged everything there, he
led his army back. At Ninus Semiramis bore him a son, Ninyas, and at his
death, when he had reigned 52 years, Ninus bequeathed to her the
sovereign power. She buried his corpse in the royal palace, and caused a
huge mound to be raised over the grave, 6000 feet in the circuit and
5400 feet high, which towered over the city of Ninus like a lofty
citadel, and could be seen far through the plain in which Ninus lay.
As Semiramis was ambitious, and desired to surpass the fame of Ninus,
she built the great city of Babylon, with mighty walls and towers, the
two royal citadels, the bridge over the Euphrates, and the temple of
Belus, and caused a great lake to be excavated to draw off the water of
the Euphrates. Other cities also she founded on the Euphrates and the
Tigris, and caused depots to be made for those who brought merchandise
from Media, Paraetacene, and the bordering countries. After completing
these works she marched with a great army to Media and planted the
garden near Mount Bagistanon. The steep and lofty face of this mountain,
more than 10,000 feet in height, she caused to be smoothed, and on it
was cut her picture surrounded by 100 guards; and an inscription was
engraved in Syrian letters, saying that Semiramis had caused the
pack-saddles of her beasts of burden to be piled on each other, and on
these had ascended to the summit of the mountain. Afterwards she made
another large garden near the city of Chauon, in Media,[5] and on a rock
in the middle of it she erected rich and costly buildings, from which
she surveyed the blooming garden and the army encamped in the plain.
Here she remained for a long time, and gave herself up to every kind of
pleasure. She was unwilling to contract another marriage from fear of
losing the sovereign power, but she lived with any of her warriors who
were distinguished for their beauty. All who had enjoyed her favours she
secretly put to death. After this retirement she turned her course to
Egbatana, caused a path to be cut through the rocks of Mount Zagrus, and
a short and convenient road to be made across them, in order to leave
behind an imperishable memorial of her reign. In Egbatana she erected a
splendid palace, and in order to provide the city with water she caused
a tunnel to be made through the lofty mountain Orontes at its base,
which conveyed the water of a lake lying on the other side of the
heights into the city. After this she marched through Persia and all the
countries of Asia which were subject to her, and caused the mountains to
be cut through and straight and level roads to be built everywhere,
while in the plains she at one place raised great mounds over her dead
generals, and in another built cities on hills; and wherever the army
was encamped eminences were raised for her tent so that she might
overlook the whole. Of these works many are still remaining in Asia and
bear the name of Semiramis. Then she subjugated Egypt,[6] a great part
of Libya, and nearly the whole of Ethiopia, and finally returned to
Bactra.
A long period of peace ensued, till she resolved to subjugate the
Indians on hearing that they were the most numerous of all nations, and
possessed the largest and most beautiful country in the world. For two
years preparations were made throughout her whole kingdom; in the third
year she collected in Bactria 3,000,000 foot soldiers, 500,000 horsemen,
and 100,000 chariots. Beside these, 100,000 camels were covered with the
sewn skins of black oxen, and each was mounted by one warrior; these
animals were intended to pass for elephants with the Indians. For
crossing the Indus 2000 ships were built, then taken to pieces again,
and the various parts packed on camels. Stabrobates, the king of the
Indians, awaited the Assyrians on the bank of the Indus. He also had
prepared for the war with all his power, and gathered together even a
larger force from the whole of India. When Semiramis approached he sent
messengers to meet her with the complaint that she was making war upon
him though he had done her no wrong; and in his letter he reproached her
licentious life, and calling the gods to witness, threatened to crucify
her if victorious. Semiramis read the letter, laughed, and said that the
Indians would find out her virtue by her actions. The fleet of the
Indians lay ready for battle on the Indus. Semiramis caused her ships to
be put together, manned them with her bravest warriors, and, after a
long and stubborn contest, the victory fell to her share. A thousand
ships of the Indians were sunk and many prisoners taken. Then she also
took the islands and cities on the river, and out of these she collected
more than 100,000 prisoners. But the king of the Indians, pretending
flight, led his army back from the Indus; in reality he wished to induce
the enemy to cross the Indus. As matters succeeded according to her
wishes, Semiramis caused a large and broad bridge to be thrown skilfully
over the Indus, and on this her whole army passed over. Leaving 60,000
men to protect the bridge, she pursued the Indians with the rest of her
army, and sent on in front the camels clothed as elephants. At first
the Indians did not understand whence Semiramis could have procured so
many elephants and were alarmed. But the deception could not last.
Soldiers of Semiramis, who were found careless on the watch, deserted to
the enemy to escape punishment, and betrayed the secret. Stabrobates
proclaimed it at once to his whole army, caused a halt to be made, and
offered battle to the Assyrians. When the armies approached each other
the king of the Indians ordered his horsemen and chariots to make the
attack. Semiramis sent against them her pretended elephants. When the
cavalry of the Indians came up their horses started back at the strange
smell, part of them dislodged their riders, others refused to obey the
rein. Taking advantage of this moment, Semiramis, herself on horseback,
pressed forward with a chosen band of men upon the Indians, and turned
them to flight. Stabrobates was still unshaken; he led out his
elephants, and behind them his infantry. Himself on the right wing,
mounted on the best elephant, he chanced to come opposite Semiramis. He
made a resolute attack upon the queen, and was followed by the rest of
the elephants. The soldiers of Semiramis resisted only a short time. The
elephants caused an immense slaughter; the Assyrians left their ranks,
they fled, and the king pressed forward against Semiramis; his arrow
wounded her arm, and as she turned away his javelin struck her on the
back. She hastened away, while her people were crushed and trodden down
by their own numbers; and at last, as the Indians pressed upon them,
were forced from the bridge into the river. As soon as Semiramis saw the
greater part of her army on the nearer bank, she caused the cables to be
cut which held the bridge; the force of the stream tore the beams
asunder, and many Assyrians who were on the bridge were plunged in the
river. The other Assyrians were now in safety, the wounds of Semiramis
were not dangerous, and the king of the Indians was warned by signs from
heaven and their interpretation by the seers not to cross the river.
After exchanging prisoners Semiramis returned to Bactra. She had lost
two-thirds of her army.
Some time afterwards she was attacked by a conspiracy, which her own son
Ninyas set on foot against her by means of an eunuch. Then she
remembered a prophecy given to her in the temple of Zeus Ammon during
the campaign in Libya; that when her son Ninyas conspired against her
she would disappear from the sight of men, and the honours of an
immortal would be paid to her by some nations of Asia. Hence she
cherished no resentment against Ninyas, but, on the contrary,
transferred to him the kingdom, ordered her viceroys to obey him, and
soon after put herself to death, as though, according to the oracle, she
had raised herself to the gods. Some relate that she was changed into a
dove, and flew out of the palace with a flock of doves. Hence it is that
the Assyrians regard Semiramis as an immortal, and the dove as divine.
She was 62 years old, and had reigned 42 years.
The preceding narrative, which is from Diodorus, is borrowed in
essentials from the Persian history of Ctesias, who lived for some time
at the Persian Court in the first two decades of the reign of Artaxerxes
Mnemon (405-361 B.C.). On the end of Semiramis the account of Ctesias
contained more details than the account of Diodorus. This is made clear
by some fragments from Ctesias preserved by other writers. In Nicolaus
of Damascus we are told that after the Indian war Semiramis marched
through the land of the Medes. Here she visited a very lofty and
precipitous mountain, which could only be ascended on one side. On this
she at once caused an abode to be built from which to survey her army.
While encamped here, Satibaras the eunuch told the sons of Onnes,
Hyapates and Hydaspes, that Ninyas would put them to death if he
ascended the throne; they must anticipate him by removing their mother
and Ninyas out of the way, and possessing themselves of the sovereign
power. Moreover, it was to their great dishonour to be spectators of the
licentiousness of their mother, who, even at her years, daily desired
every youth that came in her way. The matter, he said, was easy of
accomplishment; when he summoned them to the queen (he was entrusted
with this business) they could come to the summit of the mountain and
throw their mother down from it. But it happened that behind the altar,
near which they held this conversation, a Mede was lying, who
overheard them. He wrote down everything on a skin and sent it to
Semiramis. When she had read it she caused the sons of Onnes to be
summoned, and gave strict orders that they should come in arms.
Delighted that the deity favoured the undertaking, Satibaras fetched the
young men. When they appeared Semiramis bade the eunuch step aside, and
then she spoke to them: "You worthless sons of an honest and brave
father have allowed yourselves to be persuaded by a worthless slave to
throw down from this height your mother, who holds her empire from the
gods, in order to obtain glory among men, and to rule after the murder
of your mother and your brother Ninyas. Then she spoke to the
Assyrians."[7] Here the fragment of Nicolaus breaks off. From the
fragments of Cephalion we may gather that the sons of Onnes were put to
death by Semiramis. Yet Cephalion gave a different account of the death
of Semiramis from Ctesias; according to him Ninyas slew her.[8] In
Ctesias, as is clear from the account of Diodorus and other remains of
Ctesias, nothing was spoken of beyond the conspiracy which Ninyas
prepared against her.[9]
After the death of Semiramis, so Diodorus continues his narrative,
Ninyas ruled in peace, for he by no means emulated his mother's military
ambition and delight in danger. He remained always in the palace, was
seen by no one but his concubines and eunuchs, took upon himself no care
or trouble, thought only of pleasure and pastime, considered it the
object of sovereign power to give himself up undisturbed to all sorts of
enjoyment. His seclusion served to hide his excesses in obscurity; he
seemed like an invisible God, whom no one ventured to offend even in
word. In order to preserve his kingdom he put leaders over the army,
viceroys, judges, and magistrates over every nation, and arranged
everything as seemed most useful to himself. To keep his subjects in
fear he caused each nation to provide a certain number of soldiers every
year, and these were quartered together in a camp outside the city, and
placed under the command of men most devoted to himself. At the end of
the year they were dismissed and replaced by others to the same number.
Hence his subjects always saw a great force in the camp ready to punish
disobedience or defection. In the same way his descendants also reigned
for 30 generations, till the empire passed to the Medes.[10] Slightly
differing from this account, Nicolaus tells us that Sardanapalus--to
whom in the order of succession the kingdom of Ninus and Semiramis
finally descended--neither carried arms nor went out to the
hunting-field, like the kings in old times, but always remained in his
palace. Yet even in his time the old arrangements were kept and the
satraps of the subject nations gathered with the fixed contingent at the
gate of the king.[11]
From what source is the narrative of Ninus and Semiramis derived? what
title to credibility can be allowed it? Herodotus states that the
dominion of the Assyrians in Asia was the oldest; their supremacy was
followed by that of the Medes, and the supremacy of the Medes was
followed by the kingdom of the Achaemenids. Herodotus too is acquainted
with the name of Semiramis; he represents her as ruling over Babylon,
and building wonderful dykes in the level land, which the river had
previously turned into a lake.[12] Strabo tells of the citadels, cities,
mountain-roads, aqueducts, bridges, and canals which Semiramis
constructed through all Asia, and to Semiramis Lucian traces back the
old temples of Syria.[13] We may assume in explanation that the
tradition of Hither Asia has ascribed to the first king and queen of
Assyria the construction of the ancient road over the Zagrus, of old
dykes and aqueducts in the land of the Euphrates and Tigris, the
building, not of Nineveh only, but also of Babylon, the erection of the
great monuments of forgotten kings of Babylon,--as a fact, Assyrian
kings built in Babylon also in the seventh century. We may find it
conceivable that this tradition has gathered together and carried back
to the time of the foundation all that memory retained of the acts of
Assyrian rulers, the campaigns of conquest of a long series of warlike
and mighty sovereigns, the sum total of the exploits to which Assyria
owed her supremacy. Yet against such an origin of this narrative doubts
arise not easy to be removed. It is true that when this tradition
explains the mode of life and the clothing of the kings of Asia, and the
clothing of the Medes and Persians, from the example of Semiramis, who
wore in the camp a robe, half male and half female (p. 6); when this
tradition derives the inaccessibility of the kings of Asia and their
seclusion in the palace from the fact that Ninyas wished to hide his
excesses, and appear to his subjects as a higher being,--traits of this
kind can be set aside as additions of the Greeks. To the Babylonians and
Assyrians, the Medes and Persians, the life and clothing of their rulers
could not appear contemptible or remarkable, nor their own clothing half
effeminate, though the Greeks might very well search for an explanation
of customs so different from their own, and find them in the example and
command of Semiramis, and the example of Ninyas. And if in Herodotus the
empire of the Assyrians over Asia appears as a hegemony of
confederates,[14] this idea is obviously borrowed from Greek models. The
opposite statement of the division of the Assyrian kingdom into
satrapies, the yearly change of the contingents of troops, comes from
Ctesias, who transferred the arrangements of the Persian kingdom, with
which he was acquainted, to their predecessors, the kingdom of the
Assyrians, or found this transference made in his authorities, Persian
or Mede, and copied it.
Yet, after making as much allowance as we can for the amalgamating
influence of native tradition, after going as far as we can in setting
apart what may be due to the Greeks, how could such an accurate
narrative, so well acquainted with every detail of the siege of Bactra,
and the battle on the Indus, have been preserved for many centuries in
the tradition of Hither Asia, retained even after the overthrow of
Assyria, and down to the date when curious Greeks, 200 years after the
fall of Nineveh, reached the Euphrates and Tigris? We possess a positive
proof that about this time, in the very place to which this tradition
must have clung most tenaciously, within the circuit of the old Assyrian
country, no remembrance of that mighty past was in existence. When, in
the year 401 B.C., Xenophon with his 10,000 marched past the ruins of
the ancient cities of the Assyrian kingdom, the ruins of Asshur, Chalah,
and Nineveh, before Ctesias wrote, he was merely told that these were
cities of the Medes which could not be taken; into one of them the queen
of the Medes had fled before the Persian king, and the Persians, with
the help of heaven, took and destroyed it when they gained the dominion
over Media.[15] From the Assyrians, therefore, Herodotus and Ctesias
could not have obtained the information given in their statements about
Ninus and Semiramis, nor could their knowledge have come from the
Babylonians. The tradition of Babylonia would never have attributed the
mighty buildings of that city and land to the queen of another nation,
to which Babylon had succumbed. Hence the account of the Greeks about
Assyria and her rulers could only come from the Medes and Persians. But
our narrative ascribes to Semiramis even the great buildings of the
Median rulers, the erection of the royal citadel of Egbatana, the
residence of the Median kings; the parks and rock sculptures of Media,
even the rock figure on Mount Bagistanon (p. 7). This sculpture in the
valley of the Choaspes on the rock-wall of Bagistan (Behistun) is in
existence. The wall is not 10,000 but only 1500 feet high. It is not
Semiramis who is pourtrayed in those sculptures, but Darius, the king of
Persia, and before him are the leaders of the rebellious provinces. It
was the proudest monument of victory in all the history of Persia. Would
a Persian have shown this to a Greek as a monument of Semiramis? It
would rather be a Mede, who would wish to hide from the Greeks that
Media was among the provinces a second time conquered and brought to
subjection.
The difficulty of ascertaining the sources of our narrative is still
further increased in no inconsiderable degree by the fact that the books
of Ctesias are lost, and that Diodorus has not drawn immediately from
them, but from a reproduction of Ctesias' account of Assyria. Yet the
express references to the statements of Ctesias which Diodorus found in
his authority, as well as fragments relating to the subject which have
been elsewhere preserved, allow us to fix with tolerable accuracy what
belongs to Ctesias in this narrative, and what Clitarchus, the renewer
of his work, whom Diodorus had before him, has added.[16] It is Ctesias
who enumerates the nations which Ninus subdued (p. 3). With him
Semiramis was the daughter of a Syrian and Derceto, who throws herself
into the lake of Ascalon, and is then worshipped as a goddess there.[17]
To Ctesias belongs the nourishment of the child Semiramis by the doves
of the goddess, her rise from the shepherd's hut to the throne of
Assyria. He represents her as raising the mountain or the tomb of Ninus;
he ascribes to her the building of Babylon, its mighty walls and royal
citadels, the aqueducts, and the great temple of Bel. He represented her
as marching to the Indus[18] and afterwards towards Media; as making
gardens there and building the road over the Zagrus. He represented her
as raising the mounds over the graves of her lovers;[19] he told of her
sensuality, of the designs of her sons by the first marriage, and the
plot of Ninyas; he recounted her end, which was as marvellous as her
birth and her youth: she flew out of the palace up to heaven with a
flock of doves. If the conquest of Egypt by Semiramis also belongs to
Ctesias,[20] the march through Libya, and the oracle given to her in the
oasis of Ammon, together with the version of her death, which rests on
this oracle (she caused herself to disappear, _i.e._ put herself to
death, in order to share in divine honours), belong to Clitarchus.
If, therefore, we may regard it as an established fact that our
narrative has not arisen out of Assyrian or Babylonian tradition, that
the views and additions of Greek origin introduced into it leave the
centre untouched; if we have succeeded in discovering, to a tolerably
satisfactory degree, the outlines of the narrative of Ctesias, the main
question still remains to be answered: from what sources is this
narrative to be derived? In the first attempt to criticise this account
we find ourselves astonished by the certainty of the statements, the
minute and, in part, extremely vivid descriptions of persons and
incidents. Not only the great prince who founded the power of Assyria,
and the queen whose beauty and courage enchanted him, are known to
Ctesias in their words and actions. He can mention by name the man who
nurtured Semiramis as a girl, and her first husband. He knows the names
of the princes of the Arabs, Medes, Bactrians, and Indians with whom
Ninus and Semiramis had to do. The number of the forces set in motion
against Bactria and India are given accurately according to the weapon
used. The arrangements of the battle beyond the Indus, the progress of
the fight, the wounds carried away by Semiramis, the exchange of
prisoners, are related with the fidelity of an eye-witness. Weight is
obviously laid on the fact that after Semiramis had conquered and
traversed Egypt and Ethiopia, after her unbroken success, the last great
campaign against the Indians fails because she attacked them without
receiving any previous injury. The message which Stabrobates sends to
her, the letter which he writes, the reproaches he makes upon her life,
the minute details which Ctesias gives of the relation of Onnes to
Semiramis, of the conspiracy of the sons by this marriage, who felt
themselves dishonoured by the conduct of their now aged mother, of the
letter of the Mede, whose fidelity discovered the plot to her, of the
speeches which Semiramis made on this occasion, carry us back to a
description at once vivid and picturesque. If we take these pictures
together with the account of Ctesias about the decline of the Assyrian
kingdom, in which also very characteristic details appear, if we
consider the style and the whole tone of these accounts of the beginning
and the end of the Assyrian kingdom, we cannot avoid the conclusion that
Ctesias has either invented the whole narrative or followed a poetic
source.
The first inference is untenable, because the whole narrative bears the
colour and stamp of the East in such distinctness that Ctesias cannot
have invented it, and, on the other hand, it contains so much poetry
that if Ctesias were the author of these descriptions we should have to
credit him with high poetic gifts. We are, therefore, driven to adopt
the second inference--that a poetic source lies at the base of his
account. If, as was proved above, neither Assyrian nor Babylonian
traditions can be taken into consideration, Assyrian and Babylonian
poems are by the same reasoning put out of the question. On the other
hand, we find in Ctesias' history of the Medes episodes of at least
equal poetic power with his narrative of Ninus and Semiramis. Plutarch
tells us that the great deeds of Semiramis were praised in songs.[21] It
is certain that they could not be the songs of Assyria, which had long
since passed away, but we find, on the other hand, that there were
minstrels at the court of the Medes, who sang to the kings at the
banquet; it is, moreover, a Mede who warns Semiramis against Hyapates
and Hydaspes; and the other names in the narrative of Ctesias bear the
stamp of the Iranian language. Further, we find, not only in the
fragments of Ctesias which have come down to us, but also in the
narratives of Herodotus and other Greeks concerning the fortunes of the
Medes and Persians down to the great war of Xerxes against the Hellenes,
remains and traces of poems which can only have been sung amongst the
Medes and Persians. We have, therefore, good grounds for assuming that
it was Medo-Persian poems which could tell the story of Ninus and
Semiramis, and that this part of the Medo-Persian poems was the source
from which Ctesias drew. It was the contents of these poems recounted to
him by Persians or Medes which he no doubt followed in this case, as in
his further narratives of Parsondes and Sparethra, of the rebellion and
struggle of Cyrus against Astyages, just as Herodotus before him drew
from such poems his account of the rebellion of the Magi, the death of
Cambyses, and the conspiracy of the seven Persians.
After severe struggles the princes and people of the Medes succeeded in
casting down the Assyrian empire from the supremacy it had long
maintained; they conquered and destroyed their old and supposed
impregnable metropolis. If the tribes of the Medes had previously been
forced to bow before the Assyrians, they took ample vengeance for the
degradation. Hence the Median minstrels had a most excellent reason to
celebrate this crowning achievement of their nation; it afforded them a
most agreeable subject. If, in the earlier and later struggles of the
Medes against Assyria, the bravery of individual heroes was often
celebrated in song, these songs might by degrees coalesce into a
connected whole, the close of which was the overthrow of the Assyrian
empire. The Median poems which dealt with this most attractive material
must have commenced with the rise of the Assyrian kingdom; they had the
more reason for explaining and suggesting motives for this mighty
movement, as it was incumbent on them to make intelligible the wreck of
the resistance of their own nation to the onset of the Assyrians, and
the previous subjection of Media. In these poems no doubt they described
the cruelty of the conqueror, who crucified their king, with his wife
and seven children (p. 3). The more brilliant, the more overpowering the
might of Assyria, as they described it, owing to eminent sovereigns in
the earliest times, the wider the extent of the empire, the more easily
explained and tolerable became the subjection of the Medes, the greater
the glory to have finally conquered. This final retribution formed the
close; the striking contrast of the former exaltation and subsequent
utter overthrow, brought about by Median power and bravery, formed the
centre of these poems.
The prince of the Assyrians whose success is unfailing till he finds
himself checked in Bactria, the woman of unknown origin found in the
desert, fostered by herdsmen, and raised from the lowest to the most
elevated position,[22] who in bravery surpasses the bravest, who outdoes
the deeds of Ninus, whose charms allure to destruction every one who
approaches her, who makes all whom she favours her slaves in order to
slay them, who without regard to her years makes every youth her lover,
and is, nevertheless, finally exalted to the gods--are these forms due
to the mere imagination of Medo-Persian minstrels, or what material lay
at the base of these lively pictures?
The metropolis of the Assyrians was known to the Greeks as Ninus; in the
inscriptions of the Assyrian kings it is called Ninua. From this the
name of Ninus, the founder of the empire, as well as Ninyas, is
obviously taken. In Herodotus[23] and the chronographers Ninus is the
son of Belus, _i.e._ of Bel, the sky-god already known to us (I. 265).
The monuments of Assyria show us that the Assyrians worshipped a female
deity, which was at once the war-goddess and goddess of sexual
love--Istar-Bilit. Istar was not merely the goddess of battles--bringing
death and destruction, though also conferring victory; she was at the
same time the goddess of sensual love. We have already learned to know
her double nature. In turn she sends life, pleasure, and death. If Istar
of Arbela was the goddess of battle, Istar of Nineveh was the goddess of
love (I. 270). As the goddess of love, doves were sacred to her. In the
temples of Syria there were statues of this goddess with a golden dove
on the head; she was even invoked there under the name of Semiramis, a
word which may mean High name, Name of the Height.[24]
Thus the Medo-Persian minstrels have changed the form and legend of a
goddess who was worshipped in Assyria, whose rites were vigorously
cultivated in Syria, into a heroine, the founder of the Assyrian empire;
just as in the Greek and German epos divine beings have undergone a
similar change. This heroine is the daughter of a maiden who slays the
youth whom she has made happy with her love, who gave her her daughter,
_i.e._ she is the daughter of the goddess herself. Like her mother, the
goddess, the daughter, Semiramis, inspires men with irresistible love,
and thus makes them her slaves. At the same time, as a war-goddess, she
surpasses all men in martial courage, and brings death to all who have
surrendered to her. The origin of the goddess thus transformed into a
heroine is unknown and supernatural; her characteristics are marvellous
powers of victory and charms of love. The neighbourhood of Ascalon,
where we found the oldest and most famous temples of the Syrian goddess
of love (I. 360), was the scene of the origin of the miraculous child.
The doves of the Syrian goddess nourish and protect her in the desert.
She grows up in Syria, where the worship of the goddess of sexual love
was widely spread. Whether Simmas, her foster-father, has arisen out of
Samas, the sun-god of the Semites, and Onnes, the first husband of
Semiramis, out of Anu, the god of Babel and Asshur, cannot indeed be
decided. But in her relation to Onnes, whom her charm makes her slave,
to whom she brings uninterrupted success, till in despair at her loss he
takes his life, the Medo-Persian minstrels describe the glamour of love
and the sensual pleasure, as well as the destruction which proceeds from
her, in the liveliest and most forcible manner. Even after the Indian
campaign she indulges her passions, and then puts those to death to whom
she grants her favours. In this life the poems found a motive for the
plots of her sons, from which she was at first rescued by the fidelity
of a Mede,--a trait which again reveals the origin of the poem. As
Semiramis was a heroine merely, and not a goddess, to the minstrels,
they could represent her overthrow, her defeat and wounds, on the Indus,
which afterwards was the limit of the conquests of the Medians and
Persians. At the end of her life the higher style reappears, the
supernatural origin comes in once more. She flies out of the palace with
the doves of Bilit, which protected her childhood. In Ctesias the
goddess of Ascalon is Derceto,[25] and therefore later writers could
maintain that the kings of Assyria, the descendants or successors of
Semiramis, were named Dercetadae.[26]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Strabo, pp. 736, 737. Arrian, "Anab." 3, 7, 7. The same form of the
name, Athura, is given in the inscriptions of Darius.
[2] Plin. "Hist. Nat." 6, 27; 5, 12: Adiabene Assyria ante dicta.
Ptolemaeus (6, 1) puts Adiabene and Arbelitis side by side. Diodorus, 18,
39. Arrian, Epit. 35: [Greek: ten men mesen ton potamon gen sai ten
Arbelitin eneime Amphimacho.]
[3] Polyb. 5, 54. The border line between the original country of
Assyria and Elam cannot be ascertained with certainty. According to
Herodotus (5, 52) Susa lay 42 parasangs, _i.e._ about 150 miles, to the
south of the northern border of Susiana. Hence we may perhaps take the
Diala as the border between the later Assyria and Elam. The use of the
name Assyria for Mesopotamia and Babylonia, as well as Assyria proper,
in Herodotus (_e.g._ 1, 178) and other Greeks,--the name Syria, which
is only an abbreviation of Assyria (Herod. 7, 63),--arises from the
period of the supremacy of Assyria in the epoch 750-650 B.C. Cf. Strabo,
pp. 736, 737, and Noeldeke, [Greek: ASSYRIOS], Hermes, 1871 (5), 443 ff.
[4] The Euphrates, which Diodorus mentions 2, 3 and also 2, 27, is not
to be put down to a mistake of Ctesias, since Nicolaus (Frag. 9, ed.
Mueller) describes Nineveh as situated on the Tigris in a passage
undoubtedly borrowed from Ctesias. The error belongs, as Carl Jacoby
("Rhein. Museum," 30, 575 ff.) has proved, to the historians of the time
of Alexander and the earliest Diadochi, who had in their thoughts the
city of Mabog (Hierapolis), on the Euphrates, which was also called
Nineveh. The mistake has passed from Clitarchus to the narrative of
Diodorus.
[5] Steph. Byzant. [Greek: Chauon, chora tes Medias, Ktesias en proto
Pertikon. E de Semiramis enteuthen exelaunei, k. t. l.]
[6] Diod. 1, 56.
[7] Frag. 7, ed. Mueller.
[8] Frag. 1, 2, ed. Mueller; cf. Justin. 1, 1.
[9] Anonym. tract. "De Mulier." c. 1.
[10] Diod. 2, 21.
[11] Nicol. Frag. 8, ed. Mueller.
[12] 1, 184.
[13] Strabo, pp. 80, 529, 737; Lucian, "de Syria dea," c. 14.
[14] Herod. 1, 102.
[15] Xenoph. "Anab." 3, 4, 6-10.
[16] Diodorus tells us himself (2, 7) that in writing the first 30
chapters of his second book he had before him the book of Clitarchus on
Alexander. Carl Jacoby (_loc. cit._)--by a comparison with the
statements in point in Curtius, who transcribed Clitarchus, and by the
proof that certain passages in the narrative of Diodorus which relate to
Bactria and India are in agreement with passages in the seventeenth
book, in which Diodorus undoubtedly follows Clitarchus; that certain
observations in the description of Babylon in Diodorus can only belong
to Alexander and his nearest successors; that certain preparations of
Semiramis for the Indian campaign agree with certain preparations of
Alexander for his Indian campaign, and certain incidents in Alexander's
battle against Porus with certain incidents in the battle of Semiramis
against Stabrobates; and finally by showing that the situation of the
ancient Nineveh was unknown to the historians of the time of Alexander,
who were on the other hand acquainted with a Nineveh on the Euphrates
(Hierapolis, Mabog; Plin. "Hist. Nat." 5, 23; Ammian. Marcell. 14, 8,
7)--has made it at least very probable that Diodorus had Ctesias before
him in the revision of Clitarchus. We may allow that Clitarchus brought
the Bactrian Oxyartes into the narrative, unless we ought to read
Exaortes in Diodorus; but that the name of the king in Ctesias was
Zoroaster is in my opinion very doubtful. The sources of Ctesias were
stories related by Persians or Medes from the epic of West Iran. That
this should put Zoroaster at the time of Ninus, and make him king of the
Bactrians, in order to allow him to be overthrown by the Assyrians, is
very improbable. Whether Ctesias ascribed to Semiramis the building of
Egbatana is also very doubtful; that he mentioned her stay in Media, and
ascribed to her the building of the road over the Zagrus and the
planting of gardens, follows from the quotation of Stephanus given
above. Ctesias has not ascribed to her the hanging gardens at Babylon.
Diodorus makes them the work of a later Syrian king, whom Ctesias would
certainly have called king of Assyria. Ctesias too can hardly have
ascribed to her the obelisk at Babylon (Diod. 2, 11); so at least the
addition of Diodorus, "that it belonged to the seven wonders," seems to
me to prove.
[17] "Catasterism." c. 38; Hygin. "Astronom." 2, 41. In Diodorus
Aphrodite, enraged by a maiden, Derceto, imbues her with a fierce
passion for a youth. In shame she slays the youth, exposes the child,
throws herself into the lake of Ascalon, and is changed into a fish. For
this reason the image of the goddess Derceto at Ascalon has the face of
a woman and the body of a fish (2, 4).
[18] Diod. 2, 17, _init._
[19] Georg. Syncell. p. 119, ed. Bonn.
[20] Diod. 1, 56.
[21] "De Iside," c. 24.
[22] Diod. 2, 4, _init._
[23] Herod. 1, 7.
[24] Lucian, "De Syria dea," c. 33, 14, 38. The name Semiramoth is found
1 Chronicles xv. 18, 20; xvi. 5; 2, xvii. 8.
[25] Ctesias in Strabo, p. 785.
[26] Agathias, 2, 24.
CHAPTER II.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ASSYRIAN KINGDOM.
To relegate Ninus and Semiramis with all their works and deeds to the
realm of fiction may appear to be a startling step, going beyond the
limits of a prudent criticism. Does not Ctesias state accurately the
years of the reigns: Ninus reigned, according to his statement, 52
years; Semiramis was 62 years old, and reigned 42 years? Do not the
chronographers assure us that in Ctesias the successors of Ninus and
Semiramis, from Ninyas to Sardanapalus, the last ruler over Assyria, 34
kings, were enumerated, and the length of their reigns accurately given,
and has not Eusebius actually preserved this list? Since, at the same
time, we find out, through Diodorus and the chronographers, as well as
through this list, that Ctesias fixed the continuance of the Assyrian
kingdom at more than 1300 years, or more exactly at 1306, and the fall
of the kingdom took place according to his reckoning in the year 883
B.C., Ninus must on these dates have ascended the throne in the year
2189 B.C. (883 + 1306), and the reign of Semiramis commenced in 2137
B.C. (883 + 1254). Eusebius himself puts the accession of Ninus at 2057
B.C.[27]
If in spite of these accurate statements we persist in refusing to give
credit to Ctesias, Berosus remains, who, according to the evidence of
the chronographers, dealt with the rule of Semiramis over Assyria. After
mentioning the dynasty of the Medes which reigned over Babylon from
2458-2224 B.C., the dynasty of the Elamites (2224-1976 B.C.), of the
Chaldaeans (1976-1518 B.C.), and of the Arabs, who are said to have
reigned over Babylon from the year 1518 to the year 1273 B.C., Berosus
mentioned the rule of Semiramis over the Assyrians. "After this," so we
find it in Polyhistor, "Berosus enumerates the names of 45 kings
separately, and allotted to them 526 years. After them there was a king
of the Chaldaeans named Phul, and after him Sennacherib, the king of the
Assyrians, whose son, Esarhaddon, then reigned in his place."[28] If we
take these 45 kings for kings of Assyria, who ruled over this kingdom
after Semiramis, then, by allowing the supplements of these series of
kings previously mentioned (I. 247), the era of these 45 kings will
begin in the year 1273 B.C. and end in 747 B.C., and the date of
Semiramis will fall immediately before the year 1273 B.C. In the view of
Herodotus, Ninus was at the head of the Assyrian empire, but not
Semiramis. As already observed (p. 14), he mentions Semiramis as a queen
of Babylon, and does not place her higher than the middle of the seventh
century B.C.;[29] but he regards the dominion of Assyria over Upper Asia
as commencing far earlier. Before the Persians the Medes ruled over Asia
for 156 years; before them the Assyrians ruled for 520 years; the Medes
were the first of the subject nations who rebelled against the
Assyrians; the rest of the nations followed their example. As the Median
empire fell before the attack of the Persians in 558 B.C., the
beginning of the Median empire would fall in the year 714 B.C. (558 +
156), and consequently the beginning of the Assyrian kingdom in the year
1234 B.C. (714 + 520), _i.e._ four or five decades later than Berosus
puts the death of Semiramis. For the date of the beginning of the
Assyrian dominion Herodotus and Berosus would thus be nearly in
agreement. It has been assumed that the 45 kings whom the latter
represents as following Semiramis were kings of Assyria, who ruled at
the same time over Babylon, and were thus regarded as a Babylonian
dynasty. This agreement would be the more definite if it could be
supposed that, according to the view of Herodotus, the beginning of the
156 years which he gives to the Median empire was separated by an
interval of some decades from the date of their liberation from the
power of the Assyrians. In this case the empire of the Assyrians over
Asia would not have commenced very long before the year 1273 B.C., and
would have extended from that date over Babylonia. In complete
contradiction to this are the statements of Ctesias, which carry us back
beyond 2000 B.C. for the commencement of the Assyrian empire. They
cannot be brought into harmony with the statements of Herodotus, even if
the time allotted by Ctesias to the Assyrian empire (1306 years) is
reckoned from the established date of the conquest of Nineveh by the
Medes and Babylonians (607 B.C.). The result of such a calculation (607
+ 1306) carries us back to 1913 B.C., a date far higher than Herodotus
and Berosus give.
Is it possible in any other way to approach more closely to the
beginning of the Assyrian kingdom, the date of its foundation, or the
commencement of its conquests? We have already seen how the Pharaohs of
Egypt, after driving out the shepherds in the sixteenth and fifteenth
centuries B.C., reduced Syria to subjection; how the first and third
Tuthmosis, the second and third Amenophis, forced their way beyond Syria
to Naharina. The land of Naharina, in the inscriptions of these kings,
was certainly not the Aram Naharaim, the high land between the Euphrates
and Tigris, in the sense of the books of the Hebrews. It was not
Mesopotamia, but simply "the land of the stream (Nahar)." For the
Hebrews also Nahar, _i.e._ river, means simply the Euphrates. It has
been already shown that the arms of the Egyptians hardly went beyond the
Chaboras to the east; and if the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III.
represent him as receiving on his sixth campaign against the Syrians,
_i.e._ about the year 1584 B.C., the tribute of Urn Assuru, _i.e._ of
the chieftain of Asshur, consisting of 50 minae of lapis-lazuli; if these
inscriptions in the year 1579 once more mention among the tribute of the
Syrians the tribute of this prince in lapis-lazuli, cedar-trunks, and
other wood, it is still uncertain whether the chief of the Assyrians is
to be understood by this prince. Had Tuthmosis III. really reached and
crossed the Tigris, were Assuru Assyria, then from the description of
this prince, and the payment of tribute in lapis-lazuli and
cedar-trunks, we could draw the conclusion that Assyria in the first
half of the sixteenth century B.C. was still in the commencement of its
civilisation, whereas we found above that as early as the beginning of
the twentieth century B.C. Babylonia was united into a mighty kingdom,
and had made considerable advance in the development of her
civilisation.
Our hypothesis was that the Semites, who took possession of the valley
of the Euphrates, were immigrants from the south, from Arabia, and that
this new population forced its way by successive steps up the
river-valley. We were able to establish the fact that the earliest
governments among the immigrants were formed on the lower course of the
Euphrates, and that the centre of the state in these regions slowly
moved upwards towards Babel. We found, further, that Semitic tribes went
in this direction as far as the southern slope of the Armenian
table-land.[30] In this way the region on the Tigris, afterwards called
Assyria, was reached and peopled by the Semites. With the Hebrews
Asshur, beside Arphaxad and Aram, beside Elam and Lud, is the seed of
Shem. "From Shinar" (_i.e._ from Babylonia), we are told in Genesis,
"Asshur went forth and built Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Chalah, and
Resen between Nineveh and Chalah, which is the great city." There is no
reason to call in question this statement that Assyria was peopled and
civilised from Babylonia. Language, writing, and religion exhibit the
closest relationship and agreement between Babylonia and Assyria.
On the west bank of the Tigris, some miles above the confluence of the
Lesser Zab, at the foot of a ridge of hills, lie the remains of an
ancient city. The stamps on the tiles of these ruins tell us that the
name of the city was Asshur. Tiglath Pilesar, a king of Assyria, the
first of the name, whose reign, though we cannot fix the date precisely,
may certainly be put about the year 1110 B.C., narrates in his
inscriptions: The temple of the gods Anu and Bin, which Samsi-Bin, the
son of Ismidagon, built at Asshur 641 years previously, had fallen down;
King Assur-dayan had caused the ruins to be removed without rebuilding
it. For 60 years the foundations remained untouched; he, Tiglath
Pilesar, restored this ancient sanctuary. Tiles from this ruin on the
Tigris, from this city of Asshur, establish also the fact that a prince
named Samsi-Bin, son of Ismidagon, once ruled and built in this city of
Asshur. They have the inscription: "Samsi-Bin, the son of Ismidagon,
built the temple of the god Asshur."[31] Hence Samsi-Bin built temples
in the city of Asshur to the god Asshur as well as to the gods Anu and
Bin. His date falls, according as the 60 years of the inscription of
Tiglath Pilesar, during which the temple of Anu and Bin was not in
existence, are added to the space of 641 years or included in them,
either about the year 1800 or 1740 B.C.; the date of his father
Ismidagon about the year 1830 or 1770 B.C.
In any case it is clear that a place of the name of Asshur, the site of
which is marked by the ruins of Kileh-Shergat, was inhabited about the
year 1800 B.C., and that about this time sanctuaries were raised in it.
The name of the place was taken from the god specially worshipped there.
As Babel (Gate of El) was named after the god El, Asshur was named after
the god of that name. The city was Asshur's city, the land Asshur's
land. Beside the city of Asshur, about 75 miles up the Tigris, there
must have been at the time indicated a second place of the name of Ninua
(Nineveh), the site of which is marked by the ruins of Kuyundshik and
Nebbi Yunus (opposite Mosul), since, according to the statement of
Shalmanesar I., king of Assyria, Samsi-Bin built another temple here to
the goddess Istar.[32] Ismidagon, as well as Samsi-Bin, is called in the
inscription of Tiglath Pilesar I. "Patis of Asshur." The meaning of this
title is not quite clear; the word is said to mean viceroy. If by this
title a vice-royalty over the land of Asshur is meant, we may assume
that Assyria was a colony of Babylonia--that it was under the supremacy
of the kings of Babylon, and ruled by their viceroys. But since at a
later period princes of Assyria called themselves "Patis of Asshur," as
well as "kings of Asshur," the title may be explained as meaning that
the old princes of Assyria called themselves viceroys of the god of the
land, of the god Asshur. Moreover, it would be strange that a colony of
Babylonia, which was under the supremacy of that country, should make
its protecting god a deity different from that worshipped in Babylonia.
From this evidence we may assume that about the year 1800 B.C. a state
named Asshur grew up between the Tigris and the Lesser Zab. This state
must have passed beyond the lower stages of civilisation at the time
when the princes erected temples to their gods at more than one chief
place in their dominions, when they could busy themselves with buildings
in honour of the gods after the example of the ancient princes of Erech
and Nipur, of Hammurabi, and his successors at Babylon. With this result
the statements in the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III do not entirely
agree. Two hundred years after the time of Ismidagon and Samsi-Bin they
speak only of the chief of Asshur, and of tribute in lapis-lazuli and
tree-trunks; but this divergence is not sufficient to make us affirm
with certainty that the "Assuru" of Tuthmosis has no reference whatever
to Assyria. If we were able to place the earliest formation of a state
on the Lower Euphrates about the year 2500 B.C., the beginnings of
Assyria, according to the inferences to be drawn from the evidence of
the first Tiglath Pilesar and the tiles of Kileh-Shergat, could not be
placed later than the year 2000 B.C.
Beside Ismidagon and Samsi-Bin, the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesar and
the tiles of the ruins of Kileh-Shergat mention four or five other names
of princes who belong to the early centuries of the Assyrian empire, but
for whom we cannot fix any precise place. The date of the two kings, who
on Assyrian tablets are the contemporaries of Binsumnasir of Babylon,
Assur-nirar, and Nabudan, could not have been fixed with certainty if
other inscriptions had not made us acquainted with the princes who ruled
over Assyria in succession from 1460--1280 B.C.[33] From these we may
assume that Assur-nirar and Nabudan must have reigned before this series
of princes, _i.e._ before 1460 B.C., from which it further follows that
from about the year 1500 B.C. onwards Assyria was in any case an
independent state beside Babylon. We found above that the treaty which
Assur-bil-nisi, king of Assyria, concluded about the year 1450 B.C. with
Karaindas, king of Babylon, for fixing the boundaries, must have been
preceded by hostile movements on the part of both kingdoms. We saw that
Assur-bil-nisi's successor, Busur-Assur, concluded a treaty with the
same object with Purnapuryas of Babylon, and that Assur-u-ballit, who
succeeded Busur-Assur on the throne of Assyria, gave his daughter in
marriage to Purnapuryas. In order to avenge the murder of Karachardas,
the son of Purnapuryas by this marriage, who succeeded his father on the
throne of Babylon, Assur-u-ballit invaded Babylonia and placed
Kurigalzu, another son of Purnapuryas, on the throne. We might assume
that about this time, _i.e._ about 1400 B.C., the borders of Assyria
and Babylonia touched each other in the neighbourhood of the modern
Aker-Kuf, the ancient Dur-Kurigalzu.[34] Assur-u-ballit, who restored
the temple of Istar at Nineveh which Samsi-Bin had built, was followed
by Pudiel, Bel-nirar, and Bin-nirar.[35] The last tells us, on a stone
of Kileh-Shergat, that Assur-u-ballit conquered the land of Subari,
Bel-nirar the army of Kassi, that Pudiel subjugated all the land as far
as the distant border of Guti; he himself overcame the armies of Kassi,
Guti, Lulumi and Subari; the road to the temple of the god Asshur, his
lord, which had fallen down, he restored with earth and tiles, and set
up his tablet with his name, "on the twentieth day of the month
Muhurili, in the year of Salmanurris."[36]
Bin-nirar's son and successor was Shalmanesar I., who ascended the
throne of Assyria about 1340 B.C. We learnt above from Genesis, that
"Asshur built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Resen and Chalah."
Assur-nasirpal, who ruled over Assyria more than 400 years after
Shalmanesar I., tells us that "Shalmanesar the mighty, who lived before
him, founded the ancient city of Chalah."[37] It is thus clear that
Assyria before the year 1300 B.C. obtained a third residence in addition
to the cities of Asshur and Nineveh. Like Asshur and Nineveh, it lay on
the banks of the Tigris, about 50 miles to the north of Asshur, and 25
to the south of Nineveh. It was not, however, like Asshur, situated on
the western bank of the river, but on the eastern, like Nineveh, a
little above the junction of the Upper Zab, in a position protected by
both rivers, and thus far more secure than Asshur. Shalmanesar also
built in both the old residences of Asshur and Nineveh. Tiles of
Kileh-Shergat bear the stamp, "Palace of Shalmanesar, son of king
Bin-nirar."[38] His buildings in Nineveh are certified by an
inscription, in which Shalmanesar says: "The temple of Istar, which
Samsi-Bin, the prince who was before me, built, and which my predecessor
Assur-u-ballit restored, had fallen into decay in the course of time. I
built it up again from the ground to the roof. The prince who comes
after me and sees my cylinder (p. 37), and sets it again in its place,
as I have set the cylinder of Assur-u-ballit in its place, him may Istar
bless; but him who destroys my monument may Istar curse and root his
name and race out of the land."[39] In the same inscription Shalmanesar
calls himself conqueror of Niri, Lulumi and Musri, districts for
which--at any rate for the two last--we shall have to look in the
neighbourhood of Nineveh, in the chain of the Zagrus. The son of
Shalmanesar I. was Tiglath Adar; he completed the restoration of the
temple of Istar at Nineveh, and fought with such success against
Nazimurdas of Babylon that he placed on his seal this inscription:
"Tiglath Adar, king of the nations, son of Shalmanesar, king of Asshur,
has conquered the land of Kardunias." But he afterwards lost this very
seal to the Babylonians, who placed it as a trophy in the treasure-house
of Babylon (about 1300 B.C.).[40]
These are the beginnings of the Assyrian kingdom according to the
indications of the monuments. After the series of kings from
Assur-bil-nisi to Tiglath Adar, whose dates come down from about the
year 1460 to about 1280 B.C., there is a gap in our knowledge of some
decades. After this we hear at first of new struggles with Babylon. In
these Belkudurussur of Assyria (about 1220 B.C.) lost his life. The
Babylonians, led by their king, Binpaliddin, invaded Assyria with a
numerous army in order to take the city of Asshur. But Adarpalbitkur,
the successor of Belkudurussur, succeeded in forcing them to retire to
Babylon.[41] Of Adarpalbitkur his fourth successor proudly declares that
"he was the protector of the might of Asshur, that he put an end to his
weakness in his land, that he arranged well the army of the land of
Assyria."[42] His son, Assur-dayan (about 1180 B.C.) was able to remove
the war again into the land of Babylonia; he claims to have carried the
booty from three places in Babylonia--Zab, Irriya and Agarsalu--to
Assyria.[43] It was he who had carried away the ruins of the fallen
temple which Samsi-Bin had built at Asshur to Anu and Bin, but had not
erected it again. According to the words of his great-grandson, "he
carried the exalted sceptre, and prospered the nation of Bel; the work
of his hands and the gifts of his fingers pleased the great gods; he
attained great age and long life."[44] Of Assur-dayan's son and
successor, Mutakkil-Nebu (about 1160 B.C.), we only find that "Asshur,
the great lord, raised him to the throne, and upheld him in the
constancy of his heart."[45] Mutakkil-Nebu's son, Assur-ris-ilim
(between 1150 and 1130 B.C.) had to undergo severe struggles against the
Babylonians, who repeatedly invaded Assyria under Nebuchadnezzar I. At
length Assur-ris-ilim succeeded in repulsing Nebuchadnezzar, and took
from him 40 (50) chariots of war with a banner. Tiglath Pilesar, the son
of Assur-ris-ilim, says of the deeds of his father, doubtless with
extreme exaggeration, "he conquered the lands of the enemy, and
subjugated all the hostile lands."[46]
The tiles of a heap of ruins at Asshur bear the inscription, "Tiglath
Pilesar, the favoured of Asshur, has built and set up the temple of his
lord the god Bin." At the four corners of the foundation walls of this
building were discovered four octagonal cylinders of clay, about a foot
and a half in height, on the inscriptions of which this king repeats the
narrative of the deeds of the first five years of his life. He restored
the royal dwelling-places and the fortresses of the land which were in a
bad condition, and planted again the forests of the land of Asshur; he
renovated the habitation of the gods, the temples of Istar and Bilit in
the city of Asshur. At the beginning of his reign Anu and Bin, his
lords, had bidden him set up again the temple which Samsi-Bin had once
built for them. This he accomplished; he caused the two great deities to
enter into their high dwelling-places and rejoiced the heart of their
great divinity. "May Anu and Bin grant me prosperity for ever, may they
bless the work of my hands, may they hear my prayer and lead me to
victory in war and in fight, may they subdue to my dominion all the
lands which rise up against me, the rebellious nations and the princes,
my rivals, may they accept my sacrificial offerings for the continuance
and increase of my race; may it be the will of Asshur and the great gods
to establish my race as firm as the mountains to the remotest days."[47]
These cylinders tell us of the campaign of Tiglath Pilesar. First he
defeated 20,000 Moschi (Muskai) and their five kings. He marched against
the land of Kummukh, which rebelled against him; even that part of the
inhabitants which fled into a city beyond the Tigris which they had
garrisoned he overcame after crossing the Tigris. He also conquered the
people of Kurkhie (Kirkhie) who came to their help; he drove them into
the Tigris and the river Nami, and took prisoner in the battle
Kiliantaru, whom they had made their king; he conquered the land of
Kummukh throughout its whole extent and incorporated it with
Assyria.[48] After this he marched against the land of Kurkhie; next he
crossed the Lower Zab and overcame two districts there. Then he turned
against the princes of the land of Nairi (he puts the number of these at
23); these, and the princes who came from the upper sea to aid them, he
conquered, carried off their flocks, destroyed their cities, and imposed
on them a tribute of 1200 horses and 2000 oxen. These battles in the
north were followed by a campaign in the west. He invaded the land of
Aram, which knew not the god Asshur, his lord;[49] he marched against
the city of Karkamis, in the land of the Chatti; he defeated their
warriors on the east of the Euphrates; he crossed the Euphrates in
pursuit of the fugitives and there destroyed six cities. Immediately
after this the king marched again to the East, against the lands of
Khumani and Musri and imposed tribute upon them.
"Two-and-forty lands and their princes," so the cylinders inform us,
"from the banks of the Lower Zab as far as the bank of the Euphrates,
the land of the Chatti, and the upper sea of the setting sun, all these
my hand has reached since my accession; one after the other I have
subjugated them; I have received hostages from them and laid tribute
upon them."[50] "This temple of Anu and Bin and these towers," so the
inscription of the cylinders concludes, "will grow old; he who in the
succession of the days shall be king in my place at a remote time, may
he restore them and place his name beside mine, then will Anu and Bin
grant to him prosperity, joy and success in his undertakings. But he who
hides my tablets, and erases or destroys them, or puts his name in the
place of mine, him will Anu and Bin curse, his throne will they bring
down, and break the power of his dominion, and cause his army to flee;
Bin will devote his land to destruction, and will spread over it
poverty, hunger, sickness, and death, and destroy his name and his race
from the earth. On the twenty-ninth day of Kisallu, in the year of
In-iliya-allik."[51]
In memory of his achievements against the land of Nairi, Tiglath Pilesar
also set up a special monument. On a rock at one of the sources of the
Eastern Tigris near Karkar we see his image hewn in relief. He wears the
tall cap or _kidaris_; the hair and beard are long and curled; the robe
falls in deep folds to the ancles. The inscription runs: "By the grace
of Asshur, Samas and Bin, the great gods, my lords, I, Tiglath Pilesar,
am ruler from the great sea of the west land (_mat acharri_) to the lake
of the land of Nairi. Three times I have marched to the land of
Nairi."[52] The first subjugation of this district could not, therefore,
have been complete.
As this monument proves, Tiglath Pilesar's campaigns could not have
ended with the fifth year of his reign. From the synchronistic tablets
we can ascertain that he had to undergo severe struggles with the
Babylonians. Marduk-nadin-akh of Babylon invaded Assyria, crossed the
Tigris, and the battle took place on the Lower Zab. In the next year,
according to the same tablets, Tiglath Pilesar is said to have taken the
border-fortresses of Babylon, Dur-Kurigalzu, Sippara, Babili and Upi
(Opis ?).[53] However this may be, Tiglath Pilesar in the end was at a
disadvantage in his contest with the Babylonians. Sennacherib, king of
Assyria, tells us, "The gods of the city Hekali, which Marduk-nadin-akh,
king of the land of Accad, had taken in the time of Tiglath Pilesar,
king of Asshur, and carried to Babylon 418 years previously, I have
caused to be brought back again from Babylon and put up again in their
place." A Babylonian tablet from the tenth year of Marduk-nadin-akh of
Babylon appears to deal with loans on conquered Assyrian territory.[54]
When Tiglath Pilesar ascended the throne about the year 1130 B.C. the
empire of Assyria, as his inscriptions show, had not as yet made any
extensive conquests beyond the circle of the native country. The Muskai,
_i.e._ the Moschi, whom we have found on the north-western slopes of
the Armenian mountains, against whom Tiglath Pilesar first fought, had
forced their way, as the cylinders tell us, into the land of
Kummukh.[55] As the inhabitants of the land of Kummukh are conquered on
the Tigris and forced into it, while others escape over the Tigris and
defend a fortified city on the further side of the river, as the land
itself is then incorporated with Assyria, we must obviously look for it
at no great distance to the north on both shores of the Upper Tigris. We
shall hardly be in error, therefore, if we take this land to be the
district afterwards called Gumathene, on the Tigris, which Ammianus
describes as a fruitful and productive land, _i.e._ as the canton of
Amida.[56] The next conflicts of Tiglath Pilesar took place on the Lower
Zab, _i.e._ at the south-eastern border of the Assyrian country.
Further to the south, on the Zagrus, perhaps in the district of
Chalonitis, or between the Lower Zab and the Adhim, or at any rate to
the east, we must look for the land of Khumani and the land of Musri.
The image at Karkar, Tiglath Pilesar's monument of victory, gives us
information about the position of the land of Nairi. It comprises the
mountain cantons between the Eastern Tigris and the upper course of the
Great Zab, where that river traverses the land of Arrapachitis (Albak).
The lake of the land of Nairi, to which the inscription of Karkar
extends the rule of Tiglath Pilesar, and the upper sea from which
auxiliaries come to the princes of the land of Nairi, are both, no
doubt, Lake Van. The inhabitants of Nairi are not like those of the land
of Kummukh, incorporated with Assyria, they have merely to pay a
moderate tribute in horses and oxen. The campaign of Tiglath Pilesar
against Karkamis (Karchemish) proves that the dominion of Assyria before
his reign did not reach the Euphrates. He marches against the land of
Aram and has then to fight with the army of Karchemish on this side,
_i.e._ on the east side of the Euphrates; the results which he obtained
on this campaign to the west of the Euphrates he does not himself rate
very highly. We saw that in the end he remained at a disadvantage in his
contest with Babylon. On the other hand, in campaigns which took place
in years subsequent to the attempt against Karchemish, he must have
forced his way to the west far beyond the Euphrates, in order to be able
to boast on the monument at Karkar "that he ruled from the sea of Nairi
as far as the great sea of the west land," _i.e._ to the Mediterranean.
Hence we have to assume that he went forth from Karchemish westwards
almost as far as the mouth of the Orontes. We should be more accurately
informed on this matter if the fragment of an inscription on an obelisk
beside an inscription of Assurnasirpal, who reigned more than 200 years
after Tiglath Pilesar, could be referred to Tiglath Pilesar. The
fragment speaks in the third person of the booty gained in hunting by a
king, which is given in nearly the same totals as the results of Tiglath
Pilesar's hunts on his cylinders. These represent him as slaying 120
lions and capturing 800. The fragment speaks of 120 and 800 lions, of
Amsi killed in Charran on the Chabor, of Rim whom the king slew before
the land of Chatti at the foot of Mount Labnani (Lebanon), of a
crocodile (_nasukh_) which the king of Musri sent as a present. The
hunter, it is said, ruled from the city of Babylon, in the land of
Accad, as far as the land of the west (_mat acharri_).[57]
According to the inscriptions on the cylinders the land of Aram lies to
the east of the Euphrates; the city of Karchemish lies on the west bank
in the land of the Chatti. The Chatti are the Hittites of the Hebrews,
the Cheta of the Egyptians. We found that the inscriptions of Sethos and
Ramses II. extended the name of the Cheta as far as the Euphrates (I.
151, 152). But although the kingdom of the Hittites had fallen two
centuries before Tiglath Pilesar crossed the Euphrates, the name still
clung to this region, as the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesar and his
successors prove, more especially to the region from Hamath and Damascus
as far as Lebanon. The land of the west (_mat acharri_) in the strict
sense is, of course, to the Assyrians, from their point of view, the
coast of Syria. Whatever successes Tiglath Pilesar may have gained in
this direction, they were of a transitory nature.
The first of his sons to succeed him was Assur-bel-kala, whose reign we
may fix in the years 1100-1080 B.C. With three successive kings of
Babylon, Marduk-sapik-kullat, Saduni (?), and Nebu-zikir-iskun, he came
into contact, peaceful or hostile. With the first he made a treaty of
peace, with Saduni he carried on war, with Nebu-zikir-iskun he again
concluded a peace, which fixed the borders. This was confirmed by
intermarriage;[58] Assur-bel-kala married his daughter to
Nebu-zikir-iskun, while the latter gave his daughter to Assur-bel-kala.
Of the exploits of his successor, Samsi-Bin II. (1080-1060 B.C.), a
second son of Tiglath Pilesar, we have no account.[59] We cannot
maintain with certainty whether Assur-rab-amar, of whom Shalmanesar II.
tells us that he lost two cities on the Euphrates which Tiglath Pilesar
had taken,[60] was the direct successor of Samsi-Bin.
After this, for the space of more than 100 years (1040-930), there is
again a gap in our knowledge. Not till we reach Assur-dayan II., who
ascended the throne of Assyria about the year 930 B.C., can we again
follow the series of the Assyrian kings downwards without interruption.
This Assur-dayan II. is followed by Bin-nirar II., about 900; Bin-nirar,
by Tiglath Adar II., who reigned from 889-883 B.C. He had to contend
once more against the land of Nairi, _i.e._ against the region between
the Eastern Tigris and the upper course of the Upper Zab. As a memorial
of the successes which he gained here he caused his image to be carved
beside that of Tiglath Pilesar in the rocks at Karkar (see below).
Besides this, there is in existence from his time a pass, _i.e._ a
small tablet, with the inscription, "Permission to enter into the palace
of Tiglath Adar, king of the land of Asshur, son of Bin-nirar, king of
the land of Asshur."[61]
Neither at the commencement nor in the course of the history of Assyria
do the monuments know of a king Ninus, a queen Semiramis, or of any
warlike queen of this kingdom; they do not even mention any woman as
standing independently at the head of Assyria. Once, it is true, we find
the name Semiramis in the inscriptions in the form Sammuramat.
Sammuramat was the wife of king Bin-nirar III., who ruled over Assyria
from the year 810-781 B.C. On the pedestal of two statues, which an
officer of this king, the prefect of Chalah, dedicated to the god Nebo,
the inscription is: "To Nebo, the highest lord of his lords, the
protector of Bin-nirar, king of Asshur, and protector of Sammuramat, the
wife of the palace, his lady." The name of Ninyas is quite unknown to
the monuments, and of the names of the 33 kings which Ctesias gives,
with their names and reigns as successors of Ninyas down to the
overthrow of the kingdom and Sardanapalus (p. 26),--unless we identify
the last name in the list, that of Sardanapalus, with the Assurbanipal
of the inscriptions, _i.e._ with the ruler last but one or two
according to the records,--no single one agrees with the names of the
monuments, which, moreover, give a higher total than six-and-thirty for
the reigns of the Assyrian kings. The list of Ctesias appears to have
been put together capriciously or merely invented; the lengths of the
reigns are pure imagination, and arranged according to certain
synchronisms.
Not less definite is the evidence of the monuments that the pre-eminence
of Assyria over Upper Asia cannot have commenced in the year 2189 or
1913 B.C., as Ctesias asserts, or as may be assumed from his data, nor
in 1273, as has been deduced from the statements of Berosus, nor finally
in the year 1234, according to Herodotus' statements (p. 27). Though we
are able to find only approximately the dates of the kings of Assyria,
whose names and deeds we have passed in review, the result is,
nevertheless, that the power of Assyria in the fifteenth and fourteenth
centuries did not go far beyond the native country--that her forces by
no means surpassed those of Babylon--that precisely in the thirteenth
and twelfth centuries B.C. the kingdom of Babylon was at least as strong
as that of Assyria--that even towards the close of the twelfth century
Tiglath Pilesar I. could gain no success against Babylon--that his
successors sought to establish peaceful relations with Babylonia. There
is just as little reason to maintain the period of 520 years which
Herodotus allows for the Assyrian empire over Asia. This cannot in any
case be assumed earlier than the date of Tiglath Pilesar I., who did at
least cross the Euphrates and enter Northern Syria. The beginning of
this empire would, therefore, be about 1130 B.C., not 1234 B.C. The date
also which Herodotus gives for the close of this empire (before 700
B.C.) cannot, as will be shown, be maintained. According to this datum
the decline and fall of Assyria must have began with the period in
which, as a fact, she rose to the proudest height and extended her power
to the widest extent. The period of 520 years can only be kept
artificially by reckoning it upwards from the year 607 B.C., the year of
the overthrow of the Assyrian empire; then it brings us from this date
to 1127 B.C., _i.e._ to the time of Tiglath Pilesar I. But we saw that
the conquests of Tiglath Pilesar did not extend very far, that his
successes west of the Euphrates were of a transitory nature; in no case
could a dominion of Assyria over Babylon be dated from his reign.
The complete agreement of the Assyrian and Babylonian style and
civilisation is proved most clearly by the monuments. The names of the
princes of Assyria are formed analogously to those of the Babylonians;
the names and the nature of the deities which the Assyrians and
Babylonians worship are the same. In Assyria we meet again with Anu the
god of the high heaven, Samas the sun-god, Sin the moon-god, Bin
(Ramman) the god of the thunder; of the spirits of the planets Adar, the
lord of Saturn, Nebo, the god of Mercury, and Istar, the lady of Venus,
in her double nature of destroyer and giver of fruit, reappear. There is
only one striking difference: the special protector of Assyria, Asshur,
the god of the land, stands at the head of the gods in the place of El
of the Babylonians. He it is after whom the land and the oldest
metropolis is named, whose representatives the oldest princes of Assyria
appear to have called themselves. The name of Asshur is said to mean the
good or the kind;[62] which may even on the Euphrates have been an
epithet of El, which on the Tigris became the chief name of the deity.
As the ancient princes of Ur and Erech, of Nipur and Senkereh, as the
kings of Babel--so also the kings of Assyria, as far back as our
monuments allow us to go--built temples to their gods; like them they
mark the tiles of their buildings with their names; like the kings of
Babel, they cause inscriptions to be written on cylinders, intended to
preserve the memory of their buildings and achievements, and then placed
in the masonry of their temples. The language of the inscriptions of
Assyria differs from those of the Babylonian inscriptions, as one
dialect from another; the system of writing is the same. The population
of Assyria transferred their language and writing, their religious
conceptions and modes of worship, from the Lower Euphrates to the Upper
Tigris. If the princes of Erech, Nipur and Babylon had to repel the
attacks of Elam, the Assyrian land, a region of moderate extent, lay
under the spurs of the Armenian table-land, under the ranges of the
Zagrus. The struggle against the tribes of these mountains, in the
Zagrus and in the region of the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
and the stubborn resistance of these tribes appears to have strengthened
the warlike powers of the Assyrians, and these ceaseless campaigns
trained them to that military excellence which finally, after a period
of exercise which lasted for centuries, won for them the preponderance
over Mesopotamia and Syria, over Babylonia and Elam, no less than over
Egypt.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Diod. 2, 21; Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 56; 2, p. 11, ed. Schoene;
Syncellus, "Chron." 1, 313, 314, ed. Bonn; Brandis, "Rer. Assyr. tempor.
emend." p. 13 _seq._
[28] Euseb. "Chron." 1, p. 26, ed. Schoene.
[29] 1, 184, 187.
[30] Vol. i. 512.
[31] Menant, "Annal." p. 18.
[32] G. Smith, "Discov." p. 249.
[33] The date of Tiglath Adar is fixed by the statement of Sennacherib
that he lost his seal to the Babylonians 600 years before Sennacherib
took Babylon, _i.e._ about the year 1300 B.C. As the series of seven
kings who reigned before Tiglath Adar is fixed, Assur-bil-nisi, the
first of these, can be placed about 1460 B.C. if we allow 20 years to
each.
[34] Vol. i. p. 262.
[35] This series, Pudiel, Bel-nirar and Bin-nirar, is established by
tiles of Kileh-Shergat, and the fact that it joins on to Assur-u-ballit,
by the tablet of Bin-nirar discovered by G. Smith, in which he calls
himself great grandson of Assur-u-ballit, grandson of Bel-nirar, and son
of Pudiel; G. Smith, "Discov." p. 244.
[36] G. Smith, "Discov." pp. 244, 245.
[37] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 20; "Records of the
Past," 7, 17.
[38] Menant, "Annal." p. 73.
[39] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 249.
[40] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 250; E. Schrader, "A. B. Keilinschriften,"
s. 294. As Sennacherib states that he brought back this seal from
Babylon after 600 years, and as Sennacherib took Babylon twice in 704
and 694 B.C., the loss of it falls either in the year 1304 or 1294 B.C.
As he brings back the Assyrian images of the gods at the second capture
(694 B.C.), the seal of Tiglath Adar may have been brought back on this
occasion.
[41] G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 250.
[42] So the passage runs according to a communication from E. Schrader.
On the reading Adarpalbitkur as against the readings Ninpalazira and
Adarpalassar, see E. Schrader, "A. B. Keilinschriften," s. 152. On what
Menant ("Annal." p. 29) grounds the assumption that Belkudurussur was
the immediate successor of Tiglath Adar I cannot say; it would not be
chronologically impossible, but the synchronistic tablet merely informs
us that Adarpalbitkur was the successor of Belkudurussur; G. Rawlinson,
"Mon." 2, 49. Still less am I able to find any foundation for the
statement that Binpaliddin of Babylon, the opponent of Belkudurussur and
Adarpalbitkur, was a vassal-king set up by Assyria. The date of Tiglath
Pilesar I. is fixed by the Bavian inscription, which tells us that
Sennacherib at his second capture of Babylon brought back out of that
city the images of the gods lost by Tiglath Pilesar 418 years previously
(Bav. 43-50), at the period between 1130 and 1100 B.C. If he began to
reign 1130, then the five kings before him (the series from
Adarpalbitkur to Tiglath Pilesar is fixed by the cylinder of the
latter), allowing 20 years to each reign, bring us to 1230 B.C. for the
beginning of Belkudurussur. To go back further seems the more doubtful,
as Tiglath Pilesar put Assur-dayan, the third prince of this series,
only 60 years before his own time.
[43] Sayce, "Records of the Past," 3, 31; Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 31.
[44] Communication from E. Schrader.
[45] Cf. G. Smith, _loc. cit._ p. 251.
[46] Vol. i. p. 263; Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 32.
[47] Menant, "Annal." pp. 47, 48.
[48] Column, 1, 62, _seqq._, 1, 89.
[49] Column, 5, 44.
[50] Column, 6, 39.
[51] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 48.
[52] Vol. i. p. 519; E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 16.
[53] Menant, _loc. cit._ p. 51.
[54] Vol. i. p. 263; Bavian Inscrip. 48-50; Menant, "Annal." pp. 52,
236. Inscription on the black basalt-stone in Oppert et Menant,
"Documents juridiques," p. 98. Is the name of the witness (col. 2, 27),
Sar-babil-assur-issu (p. 115), correctly explained by "The king of Babel
has conquered Asshur"?
[55] Col. 1, 62.
[56] Ammian. Marcell. 18, 9.
[57] Araziki cannot be taken for Aradus, the name of which city on the
obelisk and in the inscriptions of Assurnasirpal, Shalmanesar, and
elsewhere is Arvadu.
[58] Sayce, "Records," 3, 33; Menant, "Annal." p. 53; "Babylone," pp.
129, 130.
[59] According to G. Smith ("Discov." p. 91, 252) this Samsi-Bin II.
restored the temple of Istar at Nineveh which Samsi-Bin I. had built
(above, p. 3).
[60] Inscription of Kurkh, "Records of the Past," 3, 93; Menant,
"Annal." p. 55.
[61] Menant, "Annal." p. 63.
[62] E. Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 7.
CHAPTER III.
THE NAVIGATION AND COLONIES OF THE PHENICIANS.
At the time when Babylonia, on the banks of the Euphrates, flourished
under the successors of Hammurabi in an ancient and peculiar
civilisation, and Assyria was struggling upwards beside Babylonia on the
banks of the Tigris, strengthening her military power in the Armenian
mountains and the ranges of the Zagrus, and already beginning to try her
strength in more distant campaigns, a Semitic tribe succeeded in rising
into eminence in the West also, in winning and exerting a deep-reaching
influence on distant and extensive lands. It was a district of the most
moderate extent from which this influence proceeded, its dominion was of
a different kind from that of the Babylonians and Assyrians; it grew up
on an element which elsewhere appeared not a favourite with the Semites,
and sought its points of support in settlements on distant islands and
coasts. By this tribe the sea was actively traversed and with
ever-increasing boldness; by circumspection, by skill, by tough
endurance and brave ventures it succeeded in extending its dominion in
ever-widening circles, and making the sea the instrument of its wealth
and the bearer of its power.
On the coasts of Syria were settled the tribes of the Arvadites,
Giblites and Sidonians (I. 344). Their land extended from the mouth of
the Eleutherus (Nahr el Kebir) in the north to the promontory of Carmel
in the south. A narrow strip of coast under Mount Lebanon, from 10 to 15
miles in breadth and some 150 miles in length, was all that they
possessed. Richly watered by the streams sent down from Lebanon to the
sea, the small plains formed round their mouths and separated by the
spurs of the mountain ranges are of the most abundant fertility. The
Eleutherus is followed to the south by the Adonis (Nahr el Ibrahim), and
this by the Lycus (Nahr el Kelb); then follow the Tamyras (Nahr Damur),
the Bostrenus (Nahr el Auli[63]), the Belus (the Sihor Libnath of the
Hebrews, now Nahr Naman), and lastly the Kishon. Above the shore rise
hills clothed with date-palms, vines and olives; higher up on Lebanon
splendid mountain pastures spread out, and above these we come to the
vast forests (I. 338) which provide shade in the glowing heat, as
Tacitus says,[64] and to the bright snow-fields which crown the summit
of Lebanon. Ammianus speaks of the region under Lebanon as full of
pleasantness and beauty. The upper slopes of the mountain furnish
pasture and forests; in the rocks are copper and iron. The high
mountain-range, which sharply divided the inhabitants of the coast from
the interior (at a much later time, even after the improvements of the
Roman Caesars, there were, as there are now, nothing but mule-tracks
across Lebanon[65]), lay behind the inhabitants of the coast, and before
them lay the sea. At an early period they must have become familiar with
that element. The name of the tribe which the Hebrew Scriptures call the
"first-born of Canaan" means "fishermen." The places on the coast found
the sea the easiest means of communication. Thus the sea, so rich in
islands, the long but proportionately narrow basin which lay before the
Sidonians, Giblites and Arvadites, would soon attract to longer voyages
the fishermen and navigators of the coast.
We found that the beginning of civilisation in Canaan could not be
placed later than about the year 2500 B.C., and we must therefore allow
a considerable antiquity to the cities of the Sidonians, Giblites,
Arvadites, Zemarites and Arkites. The settlement on the site of Sidon
was founded, no doubt, before the year 2000 B.C., and that on the site
of Byblus cannot certainly be placed later than this period.[66] The
campaigns which the Pharaohs undertook against Syria and the land of the
Euphrates after the expulsion of the Shepherds could not leave these
cities unmoved. If the Zemar of the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III. is
Zemar (Simyra) near Aradus, and Arathutu is Aradus itself, the
territories of these cities were laid waste by this king in his sixth
campaign (about the year 1580 B.C.); if Arkatu is Arka, south of Aradus,
this place must have been destroyed in his fifteenth campaign (about the
year 1570 B.C.). Sethos I. (1440-1400 B.C.) subdued the land of Limanon
(_i.e._ the region of Lebanon), and caused cedars to be felled there.
One of his inscriptions mentions Zor, _i.e._ Tyre, among the cities
conquered by him. The son and successor of Sethos I., Ramses II., also
forced his way in the first decades of the fourteenth century as far as
the coasts of the Phenicians. At the mouth of the Nahr el Kelb, between
Sidon and Berytus, the rocks on the coast display the memorial which he
caused to be set up in the second and third year of his reign in honour
of the successes obtained in this region.[67] In the fifth year of his
reign Ramses, with the king of the Cheta' defeats the king of Arathu in
the neighbourhood of Kadeshu on the Orontes, and Ramses III. about the
year 1310 B.C., mentions beside the Cheta who attack Egypt the people of
Arathu, by which name, in the one case as in the other, may be meant the
warriors of Aradus.[68] If Arathu, like Arathutu, is Aradus, it follows,
from the position which Ramses II. and III. give to the princes of
Arathu, that beside the power to which the kingdom of the Hittites had
risen about the middle of the fifteenth century B.C., and which it
maintained to the end of the fourteenth,[69] the Phenician cities had
assumed an independent position. The successes of the Pharaohs in Syria
come to an end in the first decades of the fourteenth century. Egypt
makes peace and enters into a contract of marriage with the royal house
of the Cheta; the Syrians obtain even the preponderance against Egypt
(I. 152), to which Ramses III. towards the end of the fourteenth century
was first able to oppose a successful defence.
The overthrow of the kingdom of the Hittites, which succumbed to the
attack of the Amorites (I. 348) soon after the year 1300 B.C., must have
had a reaction on the cities of the Phenicians. Expelled Hittites must
have been driven to the coast-land, or have fled thither, and in the
middle of the thirteenth century the successes gained by the Hebrews who
broke in from the East, over the Amorites, the settlement of the Hebrews
on the mountains of the Amorites, must again have thrown the vanquished,
_i.e._ the fugitives of this nation, towards the coast.
With this retirement of the older strata of the population of Canaan to
the coast is connected the movement which from this period emanates
from the coasts of the Phenicians, and is directed towards the islands
of the Mediterranean and the AEgean. It is true that on this subject only
the most scanty statements and traces, only the most legendary
traditions have come down to us, so that we can ascertain these advances
only in the most wavering outlines. One hundred miles to the west off
the coast of Phoenicia lies the island of Cyprus. On the southern coast
of this island, which looked towards Phoenicia, stood the city of
Citium, Kith and Chith in the inscriptions of the Phenicians, and
apparently Kittii in those of the Assyrians. Sidonian coins describe
Citium as a daughter of Sidon.[70] After this city the whole island is
known among the Semites as Kittim and Chittim; this name is even used in
a wider sense for all the islands of the Mediterranean.[71] The western
writers state that before the time of the Trojan war Belus had conquered
and subjugated the island of Cyprus, and that Citium belonged to
Belus.[72] The victorious Belus is the Baal of the Phenicians. The date
of the Trojan war is of no importance for the settlement of the
Phenicians in Cyprus, for this statement is found in Virgil only. More
important is the fact that the settlers brought the Babylonian cuneiform
writing to Cyprus. This became so firmly rooted in use that even the
Greeks, who set foot on the island at a far later time, scarcely before
the end of the ninth century, adopted this writing, which here meanwhile
had gone through a peculiar development, and had become a kind of
syllabic-writing, and used it on coins and in inscriptions even in the
fifth century B.C.[73] The settlement of the Sidonians in Cyprus must
therefore have taken place before the time in which the alphabetic
writing, _i.e._ the writing specially known as Phenician, was in use in
Syria, and hence at the latest before 1100 B.C. How long before this
time the settlement of the Phenicians in Cyprus took place can, perhaps,
be measured by the fact that the Cyprian alphabet is a simplification of
the old Babylonian cuneiform writing. The simplified form would
undoubtedly have been driven out by the far more convenient alphabetic
writing of the Phenicians if the Cyprian writing had not become fixed in
use in this island before the rise of the alphabetic writing. Further,
since the Phenicians, as we shall see, set foot on the coast of Hellas
from about the year 1200 B.C. onwards, we must place the foundation of
the colonies on the coasts nearest them, the settlement in Cyprus,
before this date, about the middle of the thirteenth century B.C.
What population the Phenicians found on Cyprus it is not possible to
discover. Herodotus tells us that the first inhabitants of the island
were Ethiopians, according to the statements of the Cyprians. It is
beyond a doubt that not Citium only, but the greater part of the cities
of the island were founded by the Phenicians, and that the Phenician
element became the ruling element of the whole island.[74] It is Belus
who is said to have conquered Cyprus, and to whom the city of Citium is
said to belong; _i.e._ Citium worshipped the god Baal. At Amathus, to
the west of Citium, on the south coast of the island, which was called
the oldest city on Cyprus, and which nevertheless bears a distinctly
Semitic name (Hamath), Adonis and Ashera-Astarte were worshipped,[75]
and these deities had also one of their oldest and most honoured seats
of worship at Paphos (Pappa in the inscriptions), on the west coast. The
Homeric poems represent Aphrodite as hastening to her altar at Paphos in
Cyprus. Pausanias observes that the Aphrodite of Cyprus was a warlike
Aphrodite,[76] and as the daughters of the Cyprians surrendered
themselves to the foreign seamen in honour of this goddess,[77] it was
the Astarte-Ashera of the Phenicians who was worshipped at Amathus and
Paphos. The Zeus of the Cyprian city Salamis (Sillumi in the
inscriptions of the Assyrians), to whom, according to the evidence of
western writers, human sacrifices were offered, can only be Baal Moloch,
the evil sun-god of the Phenicians. In the beginning of the tenth
century B.C. the cities of Cyprus stood under the supremacy of the king
of Tyre.[78] The island was of extraordinary fertility. The forests
furnished wood for ship-building; the mountains concealed rich veins of
the metal which has obtained the name of copper from this island.[79]
Hence it was a very valuable acquisition, an essential strengthening of
the power of Sidon in the older, and Tyre in the later, period.
Following Zeno of Rhodes, who wrote the history of his home in the first
half of the second century B.C.,[80] Diodorus tells us: The king of the
Phenicians, Agenor, bade his son Cadmus seek his sister Europa,[81] who
had disappeared, and bring back the maiden, or not return himself to
Phoenicia. Overtaken by a violent storm, Cadmus vowed a shrine to
Poseidon. He was saved, and landed on the island of Rhodes, where the
inhabitants worshipped before all other gods the sun, who had here
begotten seven sons and among them Makar. Cadmus set up a temple in
Rhodes to Poseidon, as he had vowed to do, and left behind Phenicians to
keep up the service; but in the temple which belonged to Athena at
Cnidus in Rhodes he dedicated a work of art, an iron bowl, which bore an
inscription in Phenician letters, the oldest inscription which came from
Phoenicia to the Hellenes. From Rhodes Cadmus came to Samothrace, and
there married Harmonia. The gods celebrated this first marriage by
bringing gifts, and blessing the married pair to the tones of heavenly
music.[82]
Ephorus says that Cadmus carried off Harmonia while sailing past
Samothrace, and hence in that island search was still made for Harmonia
at the festivals.[83] Herodotus informs us that Cadmus of Tyre, the son
of Agenor, in his search for Europa, landed on the island of Thera,
which was then called Callisto, and there left behind some Phenicians,
either because the land pleased him or for some other reason. These
Phenicians inhabited the island for eight generations before Theras
landed there from Lacedaemon. The rest went to the island of Thasos and
there built a temple to Heracles, which he had himself seen, and the
city of Thasos. This took place five generations before Heracles the son
of Amphitryon was born. After that Cadmus came to the land now called
Boeotia, and the Phenicians who were with him inhabited the land and
taught the Hellenes many things, among others the use of writing,
"which as it seems to me the Hellenes did not possess before. They
learnt this writing, as it was used by the Phenicians; in the course of
time the form of the letters changed with the language. From these
Phenicians the Ionians, among whom they dwelt, learnt the letters,
altered their form a little, and extended their use. As was right, they
called them Phenician letters, since the Phenicians had brought them
into Greece. I have myself seen inscriptions in Cadmeian letters (_i.e._
from the time of Cadmus) in the temple of Ismenian Apollo at
Thebes."[84] According to the narrative of Hellanicus, Cadmus received
an oracle, bidding him follow the cow which bore on her back the sign of
the full moon, and found a city where she lay down. Cadmus carried out
the command, and when the cow lay down wearied, where Thebes now stands,
Cadmus built there the Cadmeia (the citadel of Thebes).[85] According to
the statement of Pherecydes Cadmus also built the city of Thebes.[86]
With Hecataeus of Miletus Cadmus passes as the discoverer of letters;
according to others he also discovered the making of iron armour and the
art of mining.[87]
The direction of the Phenician settlements, which proceeds in the AEgean
sea from S.E. to N.W., cannot be mistaken in these legends. First
Rhodes, then the Cyclades, then the islands on the Thracian coast,
Samothrace and Thasos, were colonised; and at length, on the strait of
Euboea, the mainland of Hellas was trodden by the Phenicians, who are
said to have gained precisely from this point a deep-reaching influence
over the Hellenes. The legend of Cadmus goes far back among the Greeks.
In the Homeric poems the inhabitants of Thebes are "Cadmeians." The
Thebaid praised "the divine wisdom of Cadmus;" in the poems of Hesiod he
leads home Harmonia, "the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite," and Pindar
describes how the Muses sang for "the divine Cadmus, the wealthiest of
mortals, when in seven-gated Thebes he led the ox-eyed Harmonia to the
bridal-bed."[88] Agenor, the father of Cadmus, is a name which the
Greeks have given to the Baal of the Phenicians.[89] Cadmus himself, the
wealthiest of mortals, who leads home the daughter of a god and a
goddess,--who celebrates the first marriage at which the gods assemble,
bring gifts and sing,--whose wife was worshipped as the protecting
goddess of Thebes,[90]--whose daughters, Ino, Leucothea and Semele, are
divine creatures, whom Zeus leads to the Elysian fields,[91]--can only
be a god. He seeks the lost Europa, and is to follow the cow which bears
the sign of the full moon. We know the moon-goddess of the Phenicians,
who bears the crescent moon and cow's horns, the horned Astarte, who
wears a cow's head, the goddess of battle and sensual desire, and thus
the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. "The great temple of Astarte at
Sidon," so we find in the book of the Syrian goddess, "belongs, as the
Sidonians say, to Astarte; but a priest told me that it was a temple of
Europa, the sister of Cadmus." The meaning of the word Europa has been
discussed previously (I. 371). Cadmus, who seeks the lost moon-goddess,
who at length finds and overcomes her, and celebrates with her the holy
marriage, is the Baal Melkarth of the Phenicians. The death-bringing
Istar-Astarte is changed into Bilit-Ashera, into the fruit-giving
goddess;[92] the gloomy Europa changes into Harmonia, the goddess of
union, birth and increase, yet not without leaving to her descendants
deadly gifts. It is the myth of Melkarth and Astarte which the Greeks
present to us in the story of Cadmus; with this myth they have connected
the foundation of the Phenician settlements in Rhodes, Thera,
Samothrace, Thasos and Boeotia; they have changed it into the foundation
of these colonies. The name Cadmus means the man of the East; to the
Hebrews the Arabs who dwelt to the east of them were known as Beni
Kedem, _i.e._ sons of the East.[93] To the Greeks the Phenicians were
men of the East, just as to the English of the thirteenth century the
merchants of Lubeck were Easterlings. The citadel of Thebes, which the
men of the East built, preserved the name of Cadmus the son of the East,
and kept it alive among the Greeks.
What we can gather from Grecian legend is confirmed by some statements
of historians and by traces which tell of settlements of the Phenicians.
Thucydides informs us that the Phenicians colonised most of the islands
of the AEgean.[94] Diodorus has already told us with regard to Rhodes
that in the temples of this island were Phenician works of art and
inscriptions, and that in Rhodes the sun-god and the seven children
which he begot there were worshipped. In the number eight made by these
deities we can hardly fail to recognise the eight great deities of the
Phenicians; the sun-god at their head is the Baal of the Phenicians (I.
357). And if Diodorus mentions Makar among the seven sons of the sun-god
of Rhodes,--if according to others Rhodes, like Cyprus, was called
Macaria,--Makar is a Greek form of the name Melkarth. We further learn
that on the highest mountain summit in Rhodes, on Atabyris, Zeus was
worshipped under the form of a bull, and that a human sacrifice was
offered yearly to Cronos. In Atabyris we cannot fail to recognise the
Semitic Tabor, _i.e._ the height. We found above that the Phenicians
worshipped Baal under the form of a bull, and the Greeks are wont to
denote Baal Moloch by the name of Cronos.[95] These forms of worship
continued to exist even when at a later time Hellenic immigrants had got
the upper hand in Rhodes. It was the Dorians who here met with
resistance from the Phenicians at Camirus and Ialysus; they got the
upper hand, but admitted Phenician families into their midst,[96] and
continued their sacred rites. Diodorus informs us that the Phenicians
whom Cadmus had left behind on Rhodes had formed a mixed community with
the Ialysians, and that it was said that priests of their families had
performed the sacred duties.[97] Even at a later time Rhodes stood in
close relation with Phoenicia, especially with the city of Aradus.[98]
Thus it happened that the colonies which the Rhodians planted in the
seventh and sixth centuries in Sicily, Gela and Acragas, carried thither
the worship of Zeus Atarbyrius. Zeus Atarbyrius was the protecting deity
of Acragas, and human sacrifices were offered to his iron bull-image on
the citadel of that city as late as the middle of the sixth century. The
coins of Gela also exhibit a bull.[99] Of the island of Thera, Herodotus
told us that the Phenicians colonised it and inhabited it for eight
generations, _i.e._ for more than 250 years according to his
computation. Herodotus names the chief of the Phenicians whom Cadmus
left behind on Thera; others speak of the two altars which he erected
there.[100] The descendants of these Phenicians were found here by the
Greek settlers from Laconia. It is certain that even in the third
century B.C. the island worshipped the hero Phoenix.[101] Of the island
of Melos we learn that it was occupied by Phenicians of Byblus, and
named by them after their mother city;[102] the island of Oliaros near
Paros was, on the other hand, according to Heracleides Ponticus,
occupied by the Sidonians.[103] Strabo informs us that Samothrace was
previously called Melite (Malta); from its height (the island is a
mountain rising high in the sea and covered with oak forests; the summit
reaches 5000 feet) it obtained the name of Samos, "for high places are
called Sami;"[104] as a matter of fact the stem of the word of this
meaning, like the name Melite, belongs to the Phenician language.
Ephorus has already told us (p. 56) that the Samothracians sought for
Harmonia at their festivals; Diodorus represents Cadmus as celebrating
the marriage with Harmonia on Samothrace as well as at Thebes, and we
learn from Herodotus that the Cabiri, _i.e._ the great gods of the
Phenicians, were worshipped on Samothrace; votive tablets of the island
dating from Roman times still bear the inscription, "to the great gods,"
_i.e._ to the Cabiri.[105] The islands of Imbros and Lemnos also
worshipped the Cabiri; Lemnos especially worshipped Hephaestus, who had a
leading place in this circle.[106] The island of Thasos is said,
according to the statement of the Greeks, to have been called after a
son of Phoenix, or Agenor, of the name of Thasos, who was consequently a
brother of Cadmus. Herodotus saw on the island a temple which the
Phenicians had built to Heracles, _i.e._ to Baal-Melkarth, and the mines
which they had made on the coast opposite Samothrace; "they had
overturned a great mountain in order to get gold from it."[107]
Herodotus also tells us that the temple of Aphrodite Urania on the
island of Cythera off the coast of Laconia was founded by the
Phenicians, and Pausanias calls this temple the oldest and most sacred
temple of Urania among the Hellenes; the wooden image in this temple
exhibited the goddess in armour. Aphrodite Urania is with the Greeks the
Syrian Aphrodite; if she was represented on Cythera in armour it is
clear that she was worshipped there by the Phenicians as Astarte-Ashera,
_i.e._ as the goddess of war and love.[108]
Not in the islands only, but on the coasts of Hellas also, the
Phenicians have left traces of their ancient occupation, especially in
the form of worship belonging to them. On the isthmus of Corinth
Melicertes, _i.e._ Melkarth, was worshipped as a deity protecting
navigation; Corinthian coins exhibit him on a dolphin.[109] Aphrodite,
whose shrine stood on the summit of Acrocorinthus, was worshipped by
prostitution like the Ashera-Bilit of the Phenicians. In Attica also, in
the deme of Athmonon, there was a shrine of the goddess of Cythera,
which king Porphyrion, _i.e._ the purple man, the Phenician, is said to
have founded there at a very ancient time "before king Actaeus."[110]
At Marathon, where Heracles was worshipped, and of whom the name
represents the Phenician city Marathus, rose a fountain which had the
name Makaria, _i.e._ Makar,[111] the name of Melkarth, which we have
already met with in Cyprus and Rhodes, and shall meet with again. More
plainly still do the tombs lately discovered in Hymettus at the village
of Spata attest the ancient settlement of the Phenicians on the Attic
coast. These are chambers dug deeply into the rock after the Phenician
manner, with horizontal roofs after the oldest fashion of Phenician
graves; and shafts lead down to them from the surface. The ornaments and
works in glass, ivory, gold and brass discovered here, which are made
after Babylonian and Egyptian models, can only have been brought by the
Phenicians.[112] The citadel of Thebes, as has been said, retains the
name of Cadmus; the poetry of the Greeks praised the mighty walls, the
seven gates of Thebes. We know the number seven of the great Phenician
gods; we can prove that the seven gates were dedicated to the gods of
the sun, the moon and the five planets;[113] and the Greeks have already
admitted to us that they received the wearing of armour, the art of
mining and masonry and finally their alphabet from Cadmus, _i.e._ from
the Phenicians, the Cadmeans of Thebes.
In the Homeric poems Europa, the daughter of Phoenix, bears Minos to
Zeus. The abode of Minos is the "great city" of Cnossus in Crete; he
receives each nine years the revelations of his father Zeus; for his
daughter Ariadne Daedalus adorns a dancing place at Cnossus. After his
death Minos carries in the under world the golden sceptre, and by his
decisions puts an end to the contentions of the shades.[114] His
descendants rule in Crete.[115] Later accounts tell us that Zeus in the
form of a bull carried off Europa from Phoenicia, and bore her over the
sea to Crete. The wife of her son Minos, Pasiphae, then united with a
bull which rose out of the sea, and brought forth the Minotaur, _i.e._
the Minos-bull, a man with a bull's head.[116] The son of Minos,
Androgeos (earth-man) or Eurygyes (Broadland), was destroyed in Attica
by the bull of Marathon, who consumed him in his flames.[117] To avenge
the death of Androgeos Minos seized Megara, and blight and famine
compelled the Athenians to send, in obedience to the command of Minos,
seven boys and seven girls every ninth year to Crete, who were then
sacrificed to the Minotaur.[118] Others narrate that Hephaestus had given
Minos a man of brass, who wandered round the island and kept off foreign
vessels, and clasped to his glowing breast all who were disobedient to
Minos.[119] When Daedalus retired before the wrath of Minos from Crete to
Sicily, Minos equipped his ships to bring him back; but he there found,
according to Herodotus, a violent death.[120] The king of the Sicanians,
so Diodorus tells us, gave him a friendly welcome, and caused a warm
bath to be prepared, and then craftily suffocated him in it. The Cretans
buried their king in a double grave; they laid the bones in a secret
place, and built upon them a temple to Aphrodite, and as they could not
return to Crete because the Cretans had burned their ships, they
founded the city Minoa in Sicily; but the tomb of Minos was shown in
Crete also.[121]
A bull-god carries the daughter of Phoenix over the sea to Crete and
begets Minos; a bull who rises out of the sea begets with Pasiphae,
_i.e._ the all-shining, the Minos-bull, to which in case of blight and
famine boys and girls are sacrificed in the number sacred among the
Semites; Androgeos succumbs to the heat of the bull of Marathon, an iron
man slays his victims by pressing them to his glowing breast. These
legends of the Greeks are unmistakable evidence of the origin of the
rites observed in Crete from the coast of Syria, of the settlement of
Phenicians in Crete. The bull-god may be the Baal Samim or the Baal
Moloch of the Phenicians; Europa has already revealed herself to us as
the moon-goddess of the Phenicians (p. 58); Pasiphae is only another
name for the same goddess, the lady of the nightly sky, the starry
heaven. We know that on occasions of blight human sacrifices were
offered to Baal Moloch, the fiery, consuming, angry sun-god, and that
these sacrifices were burnt. Ister, a writer of the third century B.C.,
tells us quite simply; In ancient times children were sacrificed to
Cronos in Crete.[122] Before the harbour of Megara lay an island of the
name of Minoa; at the time of the summer heat before the corn was ripe,
the Athenians offered peace-offerings at the Thargelia, "in the place of
human sacrifices,"[123] that the consuming sun might not kill the
harvest. The name of the island and this custom, as well as the flames
of the bull of Marathon, prove that beside the worship of the Syrian
goddess at Athmonon, and the worship of Melkarth at Marathon, the
worship of Baal Moloch had penetrated as far as Megara and Attica.
Minos, the son of the sky-god, the husband of the moon-goddess, who from
time to time receives revelations from heaven, and even after his death
is judge of the dead, is himself a god; his proper name is Minotaur, a
name taken from the form of the bull's image and the bull's head. When
Baal Melkarth had found and overcome Astarte, after he had celebrated
with her the holy marriage, he went to rest according to the Phenician
myth in the waters of the western sea which he had warmed. The
Phenicians were of opinion that the beams of the sun when sinking there
in the far west had the most vigorous operation because of their greater
proximity.[124] Minos goes to Sicily; there in a hot bath he ends his
life, and over his resting-place rises the temple of Astarte-Ashera,
with whom he celebrated his marriage in the west, and who by this
marriage is changed from the goddess of war into the goddess of love.
The tombs of Minos in Crete, Sicily, and finally at Gades, of which the
Greeks speak, are in the meaning of the Phenician myth merely
resting-places of the god, who in the spring wakes from his slumber into
new power. The Greeks made Minos, who continued to live in the
under-world, a judge in the causes of the shades, and finally a judge of
the souls themselves. On the southern coast of Sicily, at the mouth of
the Halycus, lay the city which the Greeks called Minoa or
Heraclea-Minoa after Minos. To the Phenicians it was known as Rus
Melkarth (p. 78), a title which proves beyond doubt that Minos was one
of the names given by the Greeks to this god of the Phenicians.
The worship of Baal Moloch, which the Phenicians brought to Crete and
the shores of Megara and Attica, was not all that the Greeks personified
in the form of Minos; they did not confine themselves to one side of
the myth of Baal Melkarth. When Grecian colonists settled subsequently
in Crete they found the cities of the Phenicians full of artistic
capacity, and their life regulated by legal ordinances. Thus their
legend could place the artist Daedalus, the discoverer and pattern of all
art-industry, beside Minos, and refer to Minos the ordinances of the
cities. Zeus himself had revealed these arrangements to him. At a later
time the Greek cities of Crete traced their own institutions back to
Minos; here and there they may perhaps have followed a Phenician model,
or they may have given out that such a model had been followed. Plato
represents Minos as receiving the wise laws which he introduced into
Crete from Zeus. With Aristotle also Minos is the founder of the Cretan
laws.[125] In the circle of the Cabiri the sky-god Baal Samim was the
protector and defender of law (I. 377).
Lastly, Minos is with the Greeks at once the representation and
expression of the dominion which the Phenicians exercised in ancient
times over the islands of the AEgean sea, before the settlements of the
Greeks obtained the supremacy over the islands and the ships of the
Greeks took the lead in these waters. In the age of the Heroes, so
Herodotus tells us, Minos established the first naval empire; the
Carians, who inhabited the islands, he made his subjects; they did not
indeed pay tribute, but they had to man his ships whenever
necessary.[126] "The oldest king," says Thucydides, "of whom tradition
tells us that he possessed a fleet was Minos. He ruled over the greatest
part of the Greek sea and the Cyclades, which he colonised, driving out
the Carians and making his sons lords of the islands."[127] Minos, as a
king ruling by law, is then said to have put an end to piracy.
The Phenicians could not certainly have left out of sight the largest of
the islands, which forms the boundary of the AEgean sea; and the
traditions of the Greeks can hardly go wrong if they make this island
the centre of the naval supremacy of Minos, _i.e._ of the supremacy of
the Phenicians over the Cyclades. Crete must have been the mainstay of
their activity in the AEgean, just as Thebes was the point on the
mainland where they planted the firmest foot. The title Minoa seems to
lie at the base of the name of Minos, a title borne not only by the
island off Megara and the city in Sicily, but also by two cities in
Crete (one on the promontory of Drepanum, the other in the region of
Lyctus), by some islands near Crete, a city in Amorgus, and a city in
Siphnus. The name Minoa (from _navah_) could mean dwelling; it is
certain evidence of a Phenician settlement. But the Phenicians have left
traces of their existence in Crete beside the names Minos and Minoa and
the forms of worship denoted by them. Coins of the Cretan cities Gortys
and Phaestus exhibit a bull or a bull-headed man as a stamp. Near the
Cretan city of Cydonia the Jardanus, _i.e._ the Jordan, falls into the
sea; the name of the city Labana goes back to the Phenician word
_libanon_, i.e. "white." Cnossus, the abode of Minos in Homer and
Herodotus,[128] was previously named Kairatus; _Karath_ in Phenician
means city. Itanus, in Crete (_Ethanath_ in the Semitic form), is
expressly stated to be a foundation of the Phenicians.[129]
With regard to the state of civilisation reached by Syria before the
year 1500 B.C., we may draw some conclusions from the fact that not
merely did the civilisation of Egypt influence the shepherds of Semitic
race who ruled over Egypt at that period, but that Semitic manners and
customs left behind traces in Egypt (I. 128). Hence we may assume that
the Syrians carried their wine and their oil to the Nile at the time
when their kinsmen ruled there (1950-1650 B.C.). The civilisation of
Syria appears more clearly from the tributes imposed by Tuthmosis III.
on Syria, which are here and there illustrated by the pictures
accompanying the inscriptions of this Pharaoh. The burdens imposed on
the Syrians consist not only of corn, wine, oil and horses; not only of
gold, silver and iron, but also of arms and works of art, among which
the pictures allow us to recognise carefully-decorated vessels. On the
other hand, it is clear from the fact that the Babylonian weights and
measures were in use in Syria at this time (I. 304) that the Syrians
before this period were in lively intercourse with the land of the
Euphrates, that even before the sixteenth century B.C. caravans must
have traversed the Syrian deserts in every direction, and even then the
Syrians must have exchanged the products of their land for Babylonian
stuffs and the frankincense which the Arabians on their part carried to
Babylon. The dependence of Syria on Egypt under the Tuthmosis and
Amenophis can only have augmented the intercourse of the Syrians with
the land of the Nile. Afterwards Sethos I. (1440-1400) caused wood to be
felled on Lebanon; it must have been the places on the coast under
Lebanon which carried to Egypt in their ships, along with the wine and
oil of the coast and the interior, the wood so necessary there for
building and exchanged it for the fabrics of Egypt. Wood for building
could not be conveyed on the backs of camels, and the way by sea from
the Phenician towns to the mouths of the Nile was far easier and less
dangerous than the road by land over rocky heights and through sandy
deserts. Hence, as early as the fifteenth century B.C., we may regard
the Phenician cities as the central points of a trade branching east and
west, which must have been augmented by the fact that they conveyed not
only products of the Syrian land to the Euphrates and the Nile, but
could also carry the goods which they obtained in exchange in Egypt to
Babylonia, and what they obtained beyond the Euphrates to Egypt. At the
same time the fabrics of Babylon and Egypt roused them to emulation, and
called forth an industry among the Phenicians which we see producing
woven stuffs, vessels of clay and metal, ornaments and weapons, and
becoming pre-eminent in the colouring of stuffs with the liquor of the
purple-fish, which are found on the Phenician coasts. This industry
required above all things metals, of which Babylonia and Egypt were no
less in need, and when the purple-fish of their own coasts were no
longer sufficient for their extensive dyeing, colouring-matter had to be
obtained. Large quantities of these fish produced a proportionately
small amount of the dye. Copper-ore was found in Cyprus, gold in the
island of Thasos, and purple-fish on the coasts of Hellas. When the fall
of the kingdom of the Hittites and the overthrow of the Amorite princes
in the south of Canaan augmented the numbers of the population on the
coast, these cities were no longer content to obtain those possessions
of the islands by merely landing and making exchanges with the
inhabitants. Intercourse with semi-barbarous tribes must be protected by
the sword. Good harbours were needed where the ships could be sheltered
from storm and bad weather, where the crews could find safety from the
natives, rest and fresh stores of water and provisions. Thus arose
protecting forts on the distant islands and coasts, which received the
ships of the native land. Under the protection of these intercourse
could be carried on with the natives, and they were points of support
for the collection of the fish and the sinking of mines.
In order to obtain the raw material necessary for their industry no less
than to carry off the surplus of population, the Phenicians were brought
to colonise Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Thera, Melos, Oliarus, Samothrace,
Imbros, Lemnos and Thasos. In the bays of Laconia and Argos, in the
straits of Euboea,[130] purple-fish were found in extraordinary
quantities. The Phenicians settled in the island of Cythera in the bay
of Laconia, which, as Aristotle says, was once called Porphyrussa from
its purple-fish,[131] and there erected that ancient temple to the
oriental Aphrodite, Aphrodite in armour, just as in Attica in the deme
of Athmonon they founded the temple of the Syrian Aphrodite and
excavated the tombs on Hymettus.[132] Midway between the straits of
Euboea and the bay of Corinth, which abounded with purple-fish, rose the
strong fortress of the Cadmeia, and on Acrocorinthus the shrine of
Ashera.
Herodotus and Thucydides told us above (p. 67) that the Carians
inhabited the islands of the AEgean sea. These were they whom Minos had
made subject to his dominion. Beside this, we are informed more
particularly that the Carians had possessed the island of Rhodes, which
lay off their coast, and had dwelt on Chios and Samos (I. 571). What
degree of civilisation was reached by the population of the islands of
the AEgean sea before the Phenicians came into relations with them may be
inferred to some extent from the discoveries made in the island of
Thera. In and beneath three layers of ashes and tufa caused by vast
eruptions of the volcanos of this island have been discovered stone
instruments, pottery of the most rudimentary kind, in part with the
rudest indications of the human face and figure, and beside these
weapons of copper and brass. In the upper layers of the tufa we find far
better pottery decorated in the Phenician style. On Melos also, and in
the tombs at Camirus in Rhodes, vessels of the same kind have been
discovered; and, finally, in the highest of the layers at Thera are gold
ornaments of the most various kinds, and ornaments of electron, _i.e._
of mixed gold and silver, all of a workmanship essentially non-Hellenic.
From these facts we may draw the conclusion that the ships of the
Phenicians brought to these inhabitants their earliest weapons in brass
and copper, their pottery and ornaments; that the Carians of the
islands, following these patterns, raised their own efforts to a higher
stage, and that afterwards the Phenicians themselves settled in the
islands and made themselves masters of them. Perhaps we may even go a
step further. In the lower strata of the excavations at Hissarlik, on
the Trojan coast, we find exactly the same primitive pottery, with the
same indications of human forms, as in Thera, while in the refuse lying
above this are idols and pottery adorned after Phenician patterns, which
correspond exactly to the idols of Cyprus, as well as ornaments like
those of Thera. Hence in this region also we may assume that the
Phenicians gave the impulse and the example to the development of
civilisation, and the more so as the name of the city of Adramyttion on
the Trojan coast repeats the name of a Phenician foundation on the coast
of North Africa (Adrames, Hadrumetum), and even Strabo ascribes the
worship of the Cabiri to some places on the Trojan coast.[133] Far more
definite traces of the Phenician style and skill are in existence on the
shore of the bay of Argos. The ancient tombs which have been recently
discovered behind the lions' gate at Mycenae are hewn in the rocks after
the manner of the Phenicians. As in the ancient burying-places of the
Phenicians, a perpendicular shaft forms the entrance to the sepulchral
chambers; the corpses are laid in them without coffins, as was the most
ancient custom in Phoenicia. The masks of beaten gold-leaf which were
found on the faces of five or six of the corpses buried here are
evidence of a custom which the Phenicians borrowed from the gilded faces
of Egyptian coffins.[134] The corpses are covered with gold ornaments
and other decorations. There is a large number of weapons and ornaments
of gold, silver, copper, brass and glass in the tombs; the execution
exhibits a technical skill sometimes more, sometimes less practised. The
ornaments remind us of Babylonian and Assyrian patterns; the idols in
burnt clay are in the Phenician style; the palm-leaves and palms,
antelopes and leopards which frequently occur, point to regions of the
East; the articles of amber and the ostrich egg can only have reached
the bay of Argos in Phenician ships. Still there are grave reasons for
refusing to believe that the persons buried in this tomb are princes of
the Phenicians. The numerous pieces of armour show that the dead who
rest here were buried with their armour, which is not the traditional
custom either with regard to the Phenicians or the Hellenes, but which
Thucydides quotes as a mark of the tombs of the Carians.[135] We learn,
moreover, even from the Homeric poems, that the Carians loved gold
ornaments, and further, that the Greeks improved their armour after the
pattern of the Carians (I. 572). As we also find the double axe of the
Carian god, the "Zeus Stratius" as the Greeks called him, the "axe-god,"
the Chars-El in the Carian language (I. 573), on some ornaments of the
tombs of Mycenae, the supposition forces itself upon us that Carians from
the western islands must have occupied the shore of the bay of Argos. In
any case, the tombs of Mycenae, both from their position and their
contents, announce to us that the people who excavated them and placed
their dead in them were dependent on the style and skill of the
Phenicians.
Can we fix the time at which the Phenicians first set foot on the
islands of Hellas? Herodotus tells us that Troy was taken in the third
generation after the death of Minos.[136] If we put three full
generations, according to the calculation of Herodotus, between the
death of Minos and the conquest of Ilium, the first event took place 100
years before the second. Since, according to the data of Herodotus, the
capture of Ilium falls in the year 1280 or 1260 B.C., Minos would have
died in the year 1380 or 1360 B.C. The landing of the Phenicians on
Thasos and the expedition of Cadmus from Phoenicia beyond the islands to
Boeotia are placed by Herodotus five generations before Heracles, and
Heracles is placed 900 years before his own time. If we reckon upwards
from the year 450 or 430 B.C., Heracles lived about the year 1350 or
1330 B.C., and Cadmus five generations, _i.e._ 166-2/3 years, before
this date, or about the year 1516 or 1496 B.C.[137] On the island of
Thera, Herodotus further remarks, the Phenicians whom Cadmus left
behind him there had dwelt for eight generations, _i.e._ 266-2/3 years,
before the Dorians came to the island.[138] Melos was also occupied by
Dorians, who asserted in 416 B.C. that their community had been in
existence 700 years,[139] according to which statement the Dorians came
to Melos in the year 1116 B.C. With this event the Phenician rule over
the island came to an end. If we assume that Thera, which is close by
Melos, was taken from the Phenicians by the Dorians at the same time as
the latter island, the eight generations given by Herodotus for the
settlements of the Phenicians on Thera would carry us back to the year
1382 B.C. (1116 + 266-2/3), a date which is certainly in agreement with
his statement about the death of Minos, but contradicts the date given
for Cadmus, who yet, according to the narrative of Herodotus, left
behind the settlers on Thera and Thasos when he first sailed to Boeotia.
Herodotus fixes dates according to generations and the genealogies of
legend. The five generations which separated Cadmus from Heracles were
for him, no doubt, Polydorus, Labdacus, Laius, Oedipus and Polynices;
for the three generations between the death of Minos and the capture of
Troy we find in Homer only two, Deucalion and Idomeneus.[140] But we can
still find from Herodotus' calculations how far back the Greeks placed
the beginning and the end of the empire of the Phenicians over their
islands and coasts. Beyond this the chronographers do not give us any
help. Eusebius and Hieronymus (Jerome) place the rape of Europa in the
year 1429 or 1426 B.C.; the rule of Cadmus at Thebes in the year 1427
B.C. or 1319 (1316) B.C.; the settlement of the Phenicians on Thera,
Melos, and Thasos in the year 1415 B.C.; the beginning of the rule of
Minos in the year 1410 B.C., or, according to another computation, in
the year 1251 B.C.[141]
We can hardly obtain fixed points for determining the time of the
settlements of the Phenicians in the AEgean sea. In the lower strata of
the excavations at Hissarlik, on the coast of Troas, clay lentils have
been found with Cyprian letters upon them.[142] Since the Greeks
declared that they learnt their alphabet from the Phenicians and Cadmus,
and since as a fact it is the alphabet of the Phenicians which lies at
the root of the Greek, the Cyprian letters can only have been brought
thither by Phenician ships from Cyprus before the discovery of the
Phenician letters, or from the islands off the Trojan coast occupied by
the Phenicians, from Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrace; otherwise they must
have come to the Troad at a later time by Cyprian ships or settlers, a
supposition which is forbidden by the antiquity of the other remains
discovered with or near the lentils. Among the sons of Japheth, the
representative of the northern nations, Genesis mentions Javan, _i.e._
the Ionian, the Greek; and enumerates the sons of Javan: Elisha,
Tarshish, Chittim, and Dodanim or Rodanim--the reading is
uncertain.[143] It is a question whether the genealogical table in
Genesis belongs to the first or second text of the Pentateuch, _i.e._
whether it was written down in the middle of the eleventh or of the
tenth century B.C. In any case it follows that in the beginning of the
eleventh or tenth century B.C. the name and nation of the Ionians was
known not only in the harbour-cities of Phoenicia, but in the interior
of Syria, and the inhabitants of the islands and of the northern coasts
of the Mediterranean were reckoned in the stock of these Ionians.
Chittim is, as was remarked above, primarily the island of Cyprus; the
Rodanim are the inhabitants of Rhodes (Dodanim would have to be referred
to Dodona); Elisha is Elis in the Peloponnese, or the island of Sicily,
if the name is not one given generally to western coasts and
islands;[144] Tarshish is Tartessus, _i.e._ the region at the mouth of
the Guadalquivir. If Ezekiel mentions the purple which the Phenicians
bring from "the isles of Elishah,"[145] the islands and coasts of the
AEgean sea are plainly meant, on which the Phenicians collected the fish
for their purple dye. This much is clear, that at least about the year
1000 B.C. not only the islands and coasts of the AEgean were known in
Syria, but even then the name of the distant land of Tarshish was
current in Syria. We shall further see that as early as 1100 B.C.
Phenician ships had passed the straits of Gibraltar. Hence we may
conclude that the Phenicians must have set foot on Cyprus about the year
1250 B.C., and on the islands and coasts of Hellas about the year 1200
B.C.
Thucydides observes that in ancient times the Phenicians had occupied
the promontories of Sicily and the small islands lying around Sicily, in
order to carry on trade with the Sicels.[146] Diodorus Siculus tells us
that when the Phenicians extended their trade to the western ocean they
settled in the island of Melite (Malta), owing to its situation in the
middle of the sea and excellent harbours, in order to have a refuge for
their ships. The island of Gaulus also, which lies close to Melite, is
said to have been a colony of the Phenicians.[147] On the south-eastern
promontory of Malta there was a temple of Heracles-Melkarth,[148] the
foundation walls of which appear to be still in existence, and still
more definite evidence of the former population of this island is given
by the Phenician inscriptions found there. The island, like the
mother-country, carried on weaving, and the products were much sought
after in antiquity. On Gaulus also, a name mentioned on Phenician coins,
are the remains of a Phenician temple. Between Sicily and the coast of
Africa, where it approaches Sicily most nearly, lay the island of
Cossyra, coins of which bear Phenician legends. Along with a dwarfish
figure they present the name "island of the sons,"[149] _i.e._ no doubt,
the children of the sun-god whom we met with in Rhodes. On the east
coast of Sicily there lay, on a small promontory scarcely connected with
the mainland (now Isola degli Magnisi), the city of Thapsos, the name of
which reveals its founders; _Tiphsach_ means coming over, here coming
over to the mainland. In the same way the promontory of Pachynus
(_pachun_ means wart), further to the south, and the harbour of
Phoenicus are evidence of Phenician colonisation. On the south coast of
Sicily, not far from the mouth of the Halycus, the Phenicians built that
city which is known to the Greeks as Makara and Minoa, or Heracleaminoa;
the coins of the city present in Phenician characters the name
Rus-Melkart, _i.e._ "head (promontory) of Melkarth."[150] Off the west
coast of Sicily the Phenicians occupied the small island of Motye.[151]
On this coast of the larger island, on Mount Eryx, which rises steeply
out of a bald table land (2000 feet above the sea), they founded the
city of Eryx, and on the summit of the mount, 5000 feet high, they
built a temple to the Syrian Aphrodite. In Diodorus it is Eryx the son
of Aphrodite who builds this temple; AEneas then adorns it with many
votive offerings, "since it was dedicated to his mother."[152] Virgil
represents the temple as being founded on the summit of Eryx, near to
the stars, in honour of Venus Idalia, _i.e._ the goddess worshipped at
Idalion (Idial) on Cyprus by the immigrants from the East, who, with
him, are the companions of AEneas.[153] The courtezans at this temple,
the sensual character of the worship, and the sacred doves kept here (in
a red one the goddess herself was supposed to be seen[154]), even
without the Phenician inscriptions found there, would leave no doubt of
its Syrian origin. The mighty substructure of the building is still in
existence. Daedalus is said to have built it for the king of the
Sicanians (p. 64). Beside the Syrian goddess, the Phenicians also
worshipped here the Syrian god Baal Melkarth. According to the account
of Diodorus, Heracles overcame Eryx in wrestling, and so took his land
from him, though he left the usufruct of it to the inhabitants.[155] The
kings of Sparta traced their origin to Heracles. When Dorieus, the son
of Anaxandridas, king of Sparta, desired to emigrate in his anger that
the crown had fallen to his brother Cleomenes, the oracle bade him
retire to Eryx; the land of Eryx belonged to the Heraclids because their
ancestor won it. The Carthaginians, it is true, did not acknowledge this
right; Dorieus was slain, and most of those who followed him.[156] On
the north coast of Sicily, Panormus (Palermo) and Soloeis were the most
important colonies of the Phenicians. Panormus, on coins of the
Phenicians Machanath, _i.e._ the camp, worshipped the goddess of the
sexual passion; Soloeis (_sela_, rock) worshipped Melkarth. In a hymn to
Aphrodite, Sappho inquires whether she lingers in Cyprus or at
Panormus.[157] Motye, Soloeis and Panormus were in the fifth century the
strongest outposts of the Carthaginians in Sicily.[158]
On Sardinia also, as Diodorus tells us, the Phenicians planted many
colonies.[159] The mountains of Sardinia contained iron, silver, and
lead. According to the legend of the Greeks, Sardus, the son of Makeris,
as the Libyans called Heracles, first came with Libyans to the island.
Then Heracles sent his brother's son Iolaus, together with his own sons,
whom he had begotten in Attica, to Sardinia. As Heracles had been lord
of the whole West, these regions belonged of right to Iolaus and his
companions. Iolaus conquered the native inhabitants, took possession of
and divided the best and most level portion of the land which was
afterwards known by the name of Iolaus; then he sent for Daedalus out of
Sicily and erected large buildings, which, Diodorus adds, are still in
existence; but in Sicily temples were erected to himself, and honour
paid as to a hero, and a famous shrine was erected in Agyrion, "where,"
as Diodorus remarks of this his native city, "even to this day yearly
sacrifices are offered."[160] Makeris, the supposed father of Sardus,
is, like Makar, a form of the name Melkarth. If Sardinia and the whole
West as well as Eryx is said to have belonged to Heracles, if Heracles
sends out his nearest relations to Sardinia, if the artist Daedalus is
his companion here as he was the companion of Minos in Crete and Sicily,
it becomes obvious that the temples of Baal Melkarth on the coasts of
Sardinia and Sicily lie at the base of these legends of the Greeks, that
it was the Phenicians who brought the worship of their god along with
their colonies to these coasts, to which they were led by the wealth of
the Sardinian mountains in copper. As we already ventured to suppose (I.
368), Iolaus may be an epithet or a special form of Baal.[161]
The legend of the Greeks makes Heracles, _i.e._ Baal Melkarth, lord of
the whole West. As a fact, the colonies of the Phenicians went beyond
Sardinia in this direction. Their first colonies on the north coast of
Africa appear to have been planted where the shore runs out nearest
Sicily; Hippo was apparently regarded as the oldest colony.[162] In the
legends of the coins mentioned above (p. 53) Hippo is named beside Tyre
and Citium as a daughter of Sidon. When a second Hippo was afterwards
founded further to the west, opposite the south coast of Sardinia, at
the mouth of the Ubus, the old Hippo got the name of "Ippoacheret," and
among the Greeks "Hippon Zarytos," _i.e._ "the other Hippo."[163] Ityke
(_atak_, settlement, Utica), on the mouth of the Bagradas (Medsherda),
takes the next place after this Hippo, if indeed it was not founded
before it. Aristotle tells us that the Phenicians stated that Ityke was
built 287 years before Carthage,[164] and Pliny maintains that Ityke was
founded 1178 years before his time.[165] As Carthage was founded in the
year 846 B.C. (below, chap. 11), Ityke, according to Aristotle's
statement, was built in the year 1133 B.C. With this the statement of
Pliny agrees. He wrote in the years 52-77 A.D., and therefore he places
the foundation of Ityke in the year 1126 or 1100 B.C.
About the same time, _i.e._ about the year 1100 B.C., the Phenicians had
already reached much further to the west. In his Phenician history,
Claudius Iolaus tells us that Archaleus (Arkal, Heracles[166]), the son
of Phoenix, built Gadeira (Gades).[167] "From ancient times," such is
the account of Diodorus, "the Phenicians carried on an uninterrupted
navigation for the sake of trade, and planted many colonies in Africa,
and not a few in Europe, in the regions lying to the west. And when
their undertakings succeeded according to their desire and they had
collected great treasures, they resolved to traverse the sea beyond the
pillars of Heracles, which is called Oceanus. First of all, on their
passage through these pillars, they founded upon a peninsula of Europe a
city which they called Gadeira, and erected works suitable to the place,
chiefly a beautiful temple to Heracles, with splendid offerings
according to the custom of the Phenicians. And as this temple was
honoured at that time, so also in later times down to our own days it
was held in great reverence. When the Phenicians, in order to explore
the coasts beyond the pillars, took their course along the shore of
Libya, they were carried away far into the Oceanus by a strong wind, and
after being driven many days by the storm they came to a large island
opposite Libya, where the fertility was so great and the climate so
beautiful that it seemed by the abundance of blessings found there to be
intended for the dwelling of the gods rather than men."[168] Strabo
says, the Gaditani narrated that an oracle bade the Tyrians send a
colony to the pillars of Heracles. When those who had been sent reached
the straits of Mount Calpe they were of opinion that the promontories
which enclosed the passage, Calpe and the opposite headland of Abilyx in
Libya,[169] were the pillars which bounded the earth, and the limit of
the travels of Heracles, which the oracle mentioned. So they landed on
this side of the straits, at the spot where the city of the Axitani
(Sexi) now stands; but since the sacrifices were not favourable there
they turned back. Those sent out after them sailed through the straits,
and cast anchor at an island sacred to Heracles, 1500 stades beyond the
pillars, opposite the city of Onoba in Iberia; but as the sacrifices
were again unfavourable they also again turned home. Finally, a third
fleet landed on a little island 750 stades beyond Mount Calpe, close to
the mainland, and not far from the mouth of the Baetis. Here, on the east
side of the island, they built a temple to Heracles; on the opposite
side of the island they built the city of Gadeira, and on the extreme
western point the temple of Cronos. In the temple of Heracles there were
two fountains and "two pillars of brass, eight cubits in height, on
which is recorded the cost of the building of this temple."[170] This
foundation of Gades, which on the coins is called Gadir and Agadir,
_i.e._ wall, fortification, the modern Cadiz, and without doubt the most
ancient city in Europe which has preserved its name, is said to have
taken place in the year 1100 B.C.[171] If Ityke was founded before 1100
B.C. or about that time, we have no reason to doubt the founding of
Gades soon after that date. Hence the ships of the Phenicians would have
reached the ocean about the time when Tiglath Pilesar I. left the Tigris
with his army, trod the north of Syria, and looked on the Mediterranean.
The marvellous and impressive aspect of the rocky gate which opens a
path for the waves of the Mediterranean to the boundless waters of the
Atlantic Ocean might implant in the Phenician mariners who first passed
beyond it the belief that they had found in these two mountains the
pillars which the god set up to mark the end of the earth; in the
endless ocean beyond them they could easily recognise the western sea in
which their sun-god went to his rest. That Gades, on the shore of the
sea into which the sun went down, was especially zealous in the worship
of Melkarth, that the descent of the god into the western ocean (the
supposed death of Heracles[172]) and the awakening of the god with the
sun of the spring were here celebrated with especial emphasis, is a fact
which requires no explanation. The legends of the Hesperides, the
daughters of the West, in whose garden Melkarth celebrates the holy
marriage with Astarte (I. 371), of the islands of the blest in the
western sea, appear to have a local background in the luxuriant
fertility and favoured climate of Madeira and the Canary islands.
The land off the coast of which Gades lay, the valley of the
Guadalquivir, was named by the Phenicians Tarsis (Tarshish), and by the
Greeks Tartessus. The genealogical table in Genesis places Tarsis among
the sons of Javan. The prophet Ezekiel represents the ships of Tarshish
as bringing silver, iron, tin and lead to Tyre. "The ships of Tarshish,"
so he says to the city of Tyre, "were thy caravans; so wert thou
replenished and very glorious in the midst of the sea."[173] The
Sicilian Stesichorus of Himera expresses himself in more extravagant
terms. He sang of the "fountains of Tartessus (the Guadalquivir) rooted
in silver." The Greeks represent the Tartessus, the river which brought
down gold, tin, iron in its waters, as springing from the silver
mountain,[174] and according to Herodotus the first Greek ship, a
merchantman of Samos, which was driven about the year 630 B.C. by a
storm from the east to Tartessus, made a profit of 60 talents.[175]
Aristotle tells us that the first Phenicians who sailed to Tartessus
obtained so much silver in exchange for things of no value that the
ships could not carry the burden, so that the Phenicians left behind the
tackle and even the anchor they had brought with them and made new
tackle of silver.[176] Poseidonius says that among that people it was
not Hades, but Plutus, who dwelt in the under-world. Once the forests
had been burned, and the silver and gold, melted by an enormous fire,
flowed out on the surface; every hill and mountain became a heap of gold
and silver. On the north-west of this land the ground shone with silver,
tin and white gold mixed with silver. This soil the rivers washed down
with them. The women drew water from the river and poured it through
sieves, so that nothing but gold, silver and tin remained in the
sieve.[177] Diodorus tells the same story of the ancient burning of the
forests on the Pyrenees (from which fire they got their name), by which
the silver ore was rendered fluid and oozed from the mountains, so that
many streams were formed of pure silver. To the native inhabitants the
value of silver was so little known that the Phenicians obtained it in
exchange for small presents, and gained great treasures by carrying the
silver to Asia and all other nations. The greed of the merchants went so
far that when the ships were laden, and there was still a large quantity
of silver remaining, they took off the lead from the anchors and
replaced it with silver. Strabo assures us that the land through which
the Baetis flows was not surpassed in fertility and all the blessings of
earth and sea by any region in the world; neither gold nor silver,
copper nor iron, was found anywhere else in such abundance and
excellence. The gold was not only dug up, but also obtained by washing,
as the rivers and streams brought down sands of gold. In the sands of
gold pieces were occasionally found half-a-pound in weight, and
requiring very little purification. Stone salt was also found there, and
there was abundance of house cattle and sheep, which produced excellent
wool, of corn and wine. The coast of the shore beyond the pillars was
covered with shell-fish and large purple-fish, and the sea was rich in
fish (the tunnies and the Tartessian murena so much sought after in
antiquity),[178] which the ebb and flow of the tide brought up to the
beach. Corn, wine, the best oil, wax, honey, pitch and cinnabar were
exported from this fortunate land.[179]
If the Phenicians were able in the thirteenth century to settle upon
Cyprus and Rhodes, the islands of the AEgean and the coasts of Hellas,
their population must have been numerous, their industry active, their
trade lucrative. That subsequently in the twelfth century they also took
into possession the coasts of Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa by means
of their colonies is a proof that the request for the raw products and
metals of the West was very lively and increasing in Syria and in Egypt,
in Assyria and Babylonia. The market of these lands must have been very
remunerative to the Phenicians in order to induce them to make their
discoveries, their distant voyages and remote settlements. If the
Phenicians about the year 1100 B.C. were in a position to discover the
straits of Gibraltar, the fact shows us that they must have practised
navigation for a long time. The horizon of the Greek mariner ended even
in the ninth century in the waters of Sicily, and in the fifth century
B.C. the voyage of a Greek ship from the Syrian coast to the pillars of
Heracles occupied 80 days.[180] After the founding of Gades the
Phenicians ruled over the whole length of the Mediterranean by their
harbour fortresses and factories. Their ships crossed the long basin in
every direction, and everywhere they found harbours of safety. They
showed themselves no less apt and inventive in the arts of navigation
than the Babylonians had shown themselves in technical inventions and
astronomy; they were bolder and more enterprising than the Assyrians in
the campaigns which the latter attempted at the time when the
Phenicians were building Gades; they were more venturesome and enduring
on the water than their tribesmen the Arabians on the sandy sea of the
desert. In the possession of the ancient civilisation of the East their
mariners and merchants presented the same contrast to the Thracians and
Hellenes, the Sicels, the Libyans and Iberians which the Portuguese and
the Spaniards presented 2500 years later to the tribes of America.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] Robinson, "Palestine," 3, 710.
[64] Tac. "Hist." 5, 6.
[65] Renan, "Mission de Phenicie," p. 836.
[66] Vol. i. pp. 344, 345.
[67] Vol. i. p. 151.
[68] Vol. i. p. 153.
[69] Vol. i. p. 344.
[70] The legend runs, "From the Sidonians, Mother of Kamb, Ippo,
Kith(?), Sor," Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 134.
[71] Isaiah xxiii. 1, 19; Jeremiah ii. 10; Ezekiel xxvii. 6; Joseph.
"Antiq." 1, 6, 1.
[72] Virgil, "AEn." 1, 619, 620.
[73] Brandis, "Monatsberichte Berl. Akad." 1873, s. 645 ff.
[74] Herod. 7, 90.
[75] Stephan. Byz. [Greek: Amathous].
[76] "Odyss." 8, 362; Tac. "Annal." 2, 3; Pausan. 1, 14, 6; Pompon.
Mela, 2, 7.
[77] Vol. i. p. 359.
[78] Joseph. "in Apion." 1, 18; "Antiq." 8, 5, 3, 9, 14, 2.
[79] Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 239, 240.
[80] Diod. 5, 56.
[81] In Homer Europa is not the daughter of Agenor but of Phoenix ("Il."
14, 321), just as Cadmus, Thasos, and Europa are sometimes children of
Agenor and sometimes of Phoenix. In Hdt. 1, 2 it is Cretans who carry
off Europa, the daughter of the king of Tyre.
[82] Diod. 4, 2, 60; 5, 56, 57, 58, 48, 49.
[83] Ephor. Frag. 12, ed. Mueller.
[84] Herod. 4, 147; 2, 45, 49; 5, 58, 59.
[85] Frag. 8, 9, ed. Mueller.
[86] Frag. 40-42, 43-45, ed. Mueller.
[87] Frag. 163, ed. Mueller.
[88] "Theog." 937, 975; Pind. "Pyth." 3, 88 _seqq._
[89] Movers, "Phoeniz." 1, 129, 131.
[90] Plut. "Pelop." c. 19.
[91] Pind. "Olymp." 2, 141.
[92] Vol. i. 271.
[93] Movers, "Phoeniz." 1, 517.
[94] Thac. 1, 8.
[95] Vol. i. 363, 364.
[96] Athenaeus, p. 360.
[97] Diod. 5, 58.
[98] Boeckh. C. I. G. 2526.
[99] Hefter, "Goetterdienste auf Rhodos," 3, 18; Welcker, "Mythologie,"
1, 145; Brandis, "Munzwesen," s. 587.
[100] Schol. Pind. "Pyth." 4, 88; Pausan. 3, 1, 7, 8; Steph. Byz.
[Greek: Membliaros].
[101] Boeckh. C. I. G. 2448.
[102] Herod. 4, 147; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Melos].
[103] Steph. Byz. [Greek: Oliaros].
[104] Strabo, pp. 346, 457, 472; Diod. 5, 47.
[105] Vol. i. 378; Herod. 2, 51; Conze, "Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres,"
_e.g._ s. 91.
[106] Strabo, p. 473; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Imbros]; vol. i. 378.
[107] Herod. 2, 44; 6, 47.
[108] Herod. 1, 105; Pausan. 1, 14, 7; 3, 23, 1.
[109] Pausan. 10, 11, 5; Boeckh, "Metrologie," s. 45.
[110] Pausan. 1, 2, 5; 1, 14, 6, 7.
[111] Strabo, p. 377; Pausan. 1, 32, 5.
[112] [Greek: ATHENAION s' g'], 1877, and below, chap. xi.
[113] Brandis, "Hermes," 2, 275 ff. I cannot agree in all points with
the deductions of this extremely acute inquiry.
[114] "Il." 14, 321; 18, 593; "Odyss." 19, 178; 11, 568.
[115] "Odyss." 11, 523.
[116] Diod. 4, 60.
[117] Serv. ad "AEneid." 6, 30.
[118] Hesych. [Greek: ep' Eurugun agon]; Plut. "Thes." c. 15; Diod. 4,
65.
[119] Apollodor. 1, 9, 26; Suidas, [Greek: Sardonios gelos].
[120] Herod. 7, 110.
[121] Diod. 4, 76-78; Schol. Callim. "Hymn. in Jovem," 8.
[122] Istri frag. 47, ed. Mueller.
[123] Istri frag. 33, ed. Mueller.
[124] Muellenhoff, "Deutsche Alterthumskunde," i. 222.
[125] Plato, "Minos," pp. 262, 266, 319, 321; "De. Legg," _init._;
Aristot. "Pol." 2, 8, 1, 2; 7, 9, 2.
[126] Herod. 1, 171; 3, 122; 7, 169-171.
[127] Herod. 1, 4.
[128] Herod. 3, 122.
[129] Strabo, p. 476; Steph. Byz. [Greek: Itanos].
[130] Pausan. 3, 21, 6.
[131] Aristotle, in Steph. Byz. [Greek: Kythera].
[132] Above, p. 63.
[133] Strabo, p. 479.
[134] Below, chap. 11.
[135] Thuc. 1, 8.
[136] Herod. 7, 171.
[137] Herod. 2, 44, 145.
[138] Herod. 4, 147.
[139] Thuc. 5, 112.
[140] Herod. 5, 89; "Il." 13, 451; "Odyss." 19, 178.
[141] Euseb. "Chron." 2, p. 34 _seqq._ ed. Schoene. Even in Diodorus, 4,
60, we find two Minoses, an older and a younger.
[142] Lenormant, "Antiq. de la Troade," p. 32.
[143] Genesis x. 2-4: 1 Chron. i. 5-7.
[144] Kiepert, "Monatsberichte Berl. Akad." 1859.
[145] Ezek. xxvii. 7.
[146] Thuc. vi. 2.
[147] Diod. v. 12.
[148] Ptolem. 4, 3, 47.
[149] _Ai benim_; Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 355, 359, 362.
[150] Heracl. Pont. frag. 29, ed. Mueller; Gesen. "Monum." p. 293;
Olshausen, "Rh. Mus." 1852, S. 328.
[151] Thuc. 6, 2.
[152] Diod. 4, 83.
[153] "AEn." 5, 760.
[154] Diod. 4, 83; Strabo, p. 272; Athenaeus, p. 374; Aelian, "Hist. An."
4, 2; 10, 50.
[155] Diod. 4, 23.
[156] Herod. 5, 43.
[157] Steph. Byz. [Greek: Solous]. Sapphon. frag. 6, ed. Bergk; it is
possible that Panormus on Crete may be meant.
[158] Thuc. 6, 2.
[159] Diod. 5, 35.
[160] Diod. 4, 24, 29, 30; 5, 15; Arist. "De mirab. ausc." c. 104;
Pausan. 10, 17, 2.
[161] Movers ("Phoeniz." 1, 536) assumes that Iolaus may be identical
with Esmun (I. 377).
[162] Sallust, "Jugurtha," 19, 1.
[163] Movers, _loc. cit._ s. 144.
[164] "De mirab. ausc." c. 146.
[165] "Hist. nat." 16, 79.
[166] Arkal or Archal may mean "fire of the All," "light of the All."
[167] Etym. Magn. [Greek: Gadeira].
[168] Diod. 5, 19, 20.
[169] On the meaning given in Avienus ("Ora marit") of Abila as "high
mountain," and Calpa as "big-bellied jar," cf. Muellenhoff, "Deutsche
Alterthumsk," 1, 83.
[170] Strabo, pp. 169-172. Justin (44, 5) represents the Tyrians as
founding Gades in consequence of a dream. In regard to the name cf.
Avien. "Ora marit," 267-270.
[171] Movers, "Phoeniz." 2, 622. Strabo (p. 48) puts the first
settlements of the Phenicians in the midst of the Libyan coast and at
Gades just after the Trojan war, Velleius (1, 2, 6, in combination with
1, 8, 4), in the year 1100 B.C. Cf. Movers, _loc. cit._ S. 148, note 90.
The Greeks called both land and river Tartessus. The pillars of the
Tyrian god "Archaleus," are with them the pillars of their "Heracles,"
which he sets up as marks of his campaigns. Here, opposite the mouth of
the Tartessus, they place the island Erythea, _i.e._ the red island on
which the giant Geryon, _i.e._ "the roarer," guards the red oxen of the
sun: Erythea is one of the islands near Cadiz; Muellenhoff, Deutsche
"Alterthumsk:" 1, 134 ff.
[172] Sall. "Jugurtha," c. 19.
[173] Ezek. xxvii. 12, 25.
[174] In Strabo, p. 148; Muellenhoff, _loc. cit._ 1, 81.
[175] Herod. 4, 152.
[176] "De mirab. ausc." c. 147.
[177] In Strabo, p. 148.
[178] Aristoph. "Ranae," 475.
[179] Diod. 5, 35; Strabo, p. 144 _seqq._
[180] Scylax, "Peripl." c. 111.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL.
Not far removed from the harbour-cities, whose ships discovered the land
of silver, which carried the natural wealth of the West to the lands of
the Euphrates and Tigris, and the Nile, in order to exchange them for
the productions of those countries, in part immediately upon the borders
of the marts which united the East and the West, and side by side with
them, dwelt the Israelites on the heights and in the valleys which they
had conquered, in very simple and original modes of life.
Even during the war against the ancient population of Canaan,
immediately after the first successes against the Amorites, they had, as
we have seen, dropped any common participation in the struggle, any
unity under one leader. According to their numbers and bravery, and the
resistance encountered, the various tribes had won larger or smaller
territories, better or inferior districts. Immigration and conquest did
not lead among the Israelites to a combination of their powers under the
supremacy of one leader, but rather to separation into clans and
cantons, which was also favoured by the nature of the country conquered,
a district lying in unconnected parts, and possessing no central region
adapted for governing the whole. Thus, after the settlement, the life of
the nation became divided into separate circles according to the
position and character of the mountain canton which the particular tribe
had obtained, and the fortune which it had experienced. Even if there
was an invasion of the enemy, the tribe attacked was left to defend
itself as well as it could. It was only very rarely, and in times of
great danger, that the nobles and elders of the whole land, and a great
number of the men of war from all the tribes, were collected round the
sacred ark at Shiloh, at Bethel, at Mizpeh, or at Gilgal for common
counsel or common defence. But even when a resolution was passed by the
nobles and elders and the people, individual tribes sometimes resisted,
even by force of arms, the expressed will of the nation, or at least of
a great part of the nobles and people, and the division of the tribes
sometimes led even to open war.
Within the tribes also there was no fixed arrangement, no fixed means
for preserving peace. The clans and families for the most part possessed
separate valleys, glens, or heights. The heads of the oldest families
were also the governors of these cantons, and composed the differences
between the members of the clan, canton, or city by their decisions;
while in other places bold and successful warriors at the head of
voluntary bands made acquisitions, in which the descendants of the
leader took the rank of elder and judge. Eminent houses of this kind,
together with the heads of families of ancient descent, formed the order
of nobles and elders; "who hold the judge's staff in their hands, and
ride on spotted asses with beautiful saddles, while the common people go
afoot."[181] If a tribe fell into distress and danger, the nobles and
elders assembled and took counsel, while the people stood round, unless
some man of distinction had already risen and summoned the tribe to
follow him. For the people did not adhere exclusively to the chief of
the oldest family in the canton; nobles and others within, and in
special cases without, the tribe, who had obtained a prominent position
by warlike actions, or by the wisdom of their decisions, whose position
and power promised help, protection and the accomplishment of the
sentence, were invited to remove strife and differences, unless the
contending persons preferred to help themselves. Only the man who could
not help himself sought, as a rule, the decision of the elder or judge.
The names of some of the men whose decision was sought in that time have
been preserved in the tradition of the Israelites. Tholah of the tribe
of Issachar, Jair of the land of Gilead, Ebzan of Bethlehem in the tribe
of Judah, Elon of the tribe of Zebulun, and Abdon of Ephraim, are all
mentioned as judges of note. Of Jair we are told that he had 30 sons,
who rode on 30 asses, and possessed 30 villages. Ebzan is also said to
have had 30 sons and to have married 30 daughters; while Abdon had 40
sons and 30 grandsons, who rode on 70 asses.[182]
On the heights and table-lands of the districts east of the Jordan, in
the land of Gilead, were settled the tribes of Reuben and Gad and a part
of the tribe of Manasseh. At an early period they grew together, so that
the name of the region sometimes represents the names of these tribes.
Here the pastoral life and breeding of cattle remained predominant, as
in the less productive districts on the west of the Jordan. But on the
plains and in the valleys of the west the greater part of the settlers
devoted themselves to the culture of the vine and agriculture. The walls
of the ancient cities were at first used as a protection against the
attacks of robbers, or raids of enemies; the inhabitants, afterwards as
before, planted their fields and vineyards outside the gates.[183] But
the custom of dwelling together led to the beginnings of civic life,
industrial skill, and common order. The trade of the Phenicians, which
touched the land of the Hebrews here and there, and the more advanced
culture of the cities of the coast, could not remain without influence
on the Hebrews.
The religious feeling which separated the Israelites from the Canaanites
was not more thoroughly effective than the community of blood and the
contrast to the ancient population of the land in bringing about the
combination and union of the Israelites. The religious life was as much
without organisation as the civic; on the contrary, as the Israelites
spread as settlers over a larger district, the unity and connection of
religious worship which Moses previously established again fell to the
ground. It is true, the sacred ark remained at Shiloh, five leagues to
the north of Bethel, under the sacred tent in the land of the tribe of
Ephraim. At this place a festival was held yearly in honour of Jehovah,
to which the Israelites assembled to offer prayer and sacrifice. On
other occasions also people went to Shiloh to offer sacrifice.[184] The
priestly office in the sacred tent at the sacred ark remained with the
descendants of Aaron, in the family of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the
eldest son of Aaron (I. 497). But with the settlement a number of other
places of sacrifice had risen up beside the sanctuary at Shiloh. On the
heights and under the oaks at Ramah in the land of Benjamin, at Mizpeh
in the same district, as well as at Mizpeh beyond Jordan, where Jacob
and Laban had parted in peace,[185] at Bethel on the borders of the
land of Ephraim and Benjamin, where Abraham sacrificed (between Bethel
and Ai) and Jacob received the name of Israel;[186] finally at Gilgal on
the east of Jordan, where Joshua lay encamped, and kept the passover,
before he attacked Jericho, Jehovah was invoked. At these places also
the firstlings of the fruits were offered; goats, rams, and bulls were
offered, with or without the intervention of the priest, and inquiry
made for the will of Jehovah without priestly help or intervention. Any
one who set up an altar established a priest there, or hired a priest.
For this purpose men were chosen who claimed to be of the race of Moses
and Aaron, just as the service of the sacred ark at Shiloh was in the
hands of this family; but men of other origin and tribes were not
excluded even from the priesthood at the ark.[187]
In such a want of any defined and influential position of the
priesthood, in the want of any church organisation, it was only the
superior personal power of the priests at Shiloh which could protect the
religious feeling and traditional custom against the influences of the
new surroundings, and Canaanitish rites. Tradition, at any rate from the
first third of the eleventh century B.C., had no good to tell of the
morals of the priests at Shiloh. To those who came to bring an offering
the servant of the priest said, "Give flesh to roast for the priest; he
will not have it sodden but raw." If the person sacrificing replied, "We
will burn only the fat, then take what you desire," the servant
answered, "You must give it me now, and if you will not I shall take it
by force." If the priest desired cooked flesh from the sacrifice, he
sent his servant, who struck with his three-pronged fork into the
cauldron, and what he brought out was the priest's.
The religious views of the Israelites, not sufficiently represented
among themselves, were the more exposed to the influence of the rites of
the Canaanites, as these rites belonged to tribes of kindred nature and
character. In this way it came about that the Canaanitish gods Baal and
Astarte were worshipped beside Jehovah, the god of Israel, and that in
one or two places the old worship was perhaps entirely driven out by
these new gods. But even where this did not take place, it was owing to
the example and impulse of the Syrian modes of worship that images were
here and there set up on the altars of Jehovah. When the conception of
the divine nature in the spirit of a nation passes beyond the first
undefined feeling and intimation,--when it receives a plainer and more
expressive shape in the minds of men, and the first steps of artistic
and technical skill, or the example of neighbours, are coincident with
this advance,--the general result is that men desire to see the ruling
powers fixed in distinct forms, then the gods are presented in a
realistic manner in visible forms and images. And thus it was among the
Israelites. The command of Moses given in opposition to the images of
Egypt (I. 354) was long since forgotten. Michah, a man of the tribe of
Ephraim, caused a goldsmith to make a carved and molten image of Jehovah
of 200 shekels of silver; and set it up in a temple on Mount Ephraim,
establishing as a priest a Levite, the "descendant of Moses." When a
part of Dan marched northwards in order to win for themselves abodes
there, which they could not conquer from the Philistines, the men of Dan
carried off this image along with the Levite and set it up in the city
of Laish (Dan), which they took from the Sidonians (I. 371), and the
"grandson of Moses" and his descendants continued to be priests before
this image.[188] At Nob also there was a gilded image of Jehovah, and
many had Teraphim, or images of gods in the form of men, in their
houses.[189]
Nothing important was undertaken before inquiry was made of the will of
Jehovah. The inquiry was made as a rule by casting lots before the
sacred tabernacle at Shiloh, before the altars and images of
Jehovah,[190] or by questioning the priests and soothsayers. Counsel was
also taken of these if a cow had gone astray, and they received in
return bread or a piece of money.
Of the feuds which the tribes of Israel carried on at this time, some
have remained in remembrance.[191] The concubine of a Levite, so we are
told in the book of Judges, who dwelt on Mount Ephraim, ran away from
her husband; she went back to her father, to Bethlehem in Judah. Her
husband rose and followed her, pacified her, and then set out on his
return. The first evening they reached the city of the Jebusites, but
the Levite would not pass the night among the Canaanites (I. 500), and
turned aside to Gibeah, a place in the tribe of Benjamin. Here no one
received the travellers; they were compelled to remain in the street
till an old man came home late in the evening from his work in the
field. When he heard that the traveller was from Ephraim he received him
into his house, for he was himself an Ephraimite, gave fodder to the
asses of the Levite and his concubine, and placed his attendant with
his own servants. Then they washed their feet, and drank, and their
hearts were merry. But the men of Gibeah collected round the house in
the evening, pressed on the door, and demanded that the stranger from
Ephraim should be given up to them; they wished to destroy him. In order
to save himself the priest gave up to them his concubine, that they
might satisfy their passions on her. The men of Gibeah abused her the
whole night through, so that next morning she lay dead upon the
threshold. The Levite went with the corpse to his home at Ephraim, cut
it into twelve pieces with a knife, and sent a piece to each tribe.
Every one who saw it said, "The like was never heard since Israel came
out of Egypt." And the chiefs of the nation assembled and pronounced a
curse upon him who did not come to Mizpah (in the land of Benjamin) that
he should be put to death. Then all the tribes assembled at Mizpah, it
is said about 400,000 men;[192] only from Jabesh in Gilead and the tribe
of Benjamin no one came. The Levite told what had happened to him, and
the tribes sent messengers to Benjamin, to bring the men of Gibeah. But
the children of Benjamin refused, and assembled their men of war, more
than 26,000 in number, and took up arms. Then the people rose up and
said, "Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin."[193] Every tenth man
was sent back for supplies; the rest marched out against Benjamin. But
"Benjamin was a ravening wolf, who ate up the spoil at morning and
divided the booty in the evening;" they were mighty archers, and could
throw with the left hand as well as the right.[194] They fought twice
at Gibeah with success against their countrymen. Not till the third
contest did the Israelites gain the victory, and then only by an
ambuscade and counterfeit flight. After this overthrow the whole tribe
is said to have been massacred, the flocks and herds destroyed, and the
cities burnt. Only 600 men, as we are told, escaped to the rock Rimmon
on the Dead Sea. When the community again assembled at Bethel the people
were troubled that a tribe should be extirpated and wanting in Israel;
so they caused peace and a safe return to be proclaimed to the remainder
of Benjamin. And when 12,000 men were sent out against Jabesh to punish
the city because none of their inhabitants came to the gathering at
Mizpeh, they were ordered to spare the maidens of Jabesh. In obedience
to this command they brought 400 maidens back from Jabesh, and these
were given to the Benjamites. But as this number was insufficient the
Benjamites were allowed, when the yearly festival was held at Shiloh (p.
92), and the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance before the city, to
rush out from the vineyards and carry off wives for themselves. Thus
does tradition explain the non-execution of the decree that no Israelite
should give his daughter to wife to a man of Benjamin, and the rescue of
the tribe of Benjamin from destruction.[195]
Without unity and connection in their political and religious life, amid
the quarrels and feuds of the tribes, families and individuals, when
every one helped and avenged himself, and violence and cruelty
abounded,--in the lawless condition when "every one in Israel did what
was right in his own eyes,"--the Israelites were in danger of becoming
the prey of every external foe, and it was a question whether they could
long maintain the land they had won. It was fortunate that there was no
united monarchy at the head either of the Philistines or the Phenicians,
that the latter were intent on other matters, as their colonies in the
Mediterranean, while the cities of the Philistines, though they acquired
a closer combination as early as the eleventh century B.C., or even
earlier (I. 348), did not, at least at first, go out to make foreign
conquests. But it was unavoidable that the old population, especially in
the north, where they remained in the greatest numbers amongst the
Israelites, should again rise and find strong points of support in the
Canaanite princes of Hazor and Damascus; that the Moabites who lay to
the east of the Dead Sea, the Ammonites, the neighbours of the land of
Gilead, that the wandering tribes of the Syrian desert should feel
themselves tempted to invade Israel, to carry off the flocks and plunder
the harvests and, if they found no vigorous resistance, to take up a
permanent settlement in the country. Without the protection of natural
borders, without combination and guidance, as they were, the Israelites
could only succeed in resisting such attacks when in the time of danger
a skilful and brave warrior was found, who was able to rouse his own
tribe, and perhaps one or two of the neighbouring tribes, to a vigorous
resistance, or to liberation if the enemy was already in the land. It is
the deeds of such heroes, and almost these alone, which remained in the
memory of the Israelites from the first two centuries following their
settlement; and these narratives, in part fabulous, must represent the
history of Israel for this period.
Eglon, king of Moab, defeated the Israelites, passed over the Jordan,
took Jericho, and here established himself. With Gilead the tribe of
Benjamin, which dwelt nearest to Jericho, at first must have felt with
especial weight the oppression of Moab. For 18 years the Israelites are
said to have served Eglon. Then Ehud, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
reputed great grandson of the youngest son of Jacob, the father of the
Benjamites, came with others to Jericho to bring tribute. When the tax
had been delivered Ehud desired to speak privately with the king.
Permission was given, and Ehud went with a two-edged sword in his hand,
under his garment, to the king, who sat alone in the cool upper chamber.
Ehud spoke: "I have a message from God to thee;" and when Eglon rose to
receive the message Ehud smote him with the sword in the belly, "so that
even the haft went in, and the fat closed over the blade, for the king
of Moab was a very fat man. But Ehud went down to the court, and closed
the door behind him." When the servants found the door closed they
thought that the king had covered his feet for sleep. At last they took
the key and found the king dead on the floor. But Ehud blew the trumpet
on Mount Ephraim, assembled a host, seized the fords of Jordan, and slew
about 10,000 Moabites, and the Moabites retired into their old
possessions.[196]
Another narrative tells of the fortunes of the tribes of Naphtali,
Zebulun, and Issachar, which were settled in the north, under Mount
Hermon. Jabin, king of Hazor, had chariots of iron, and Sisera his
captain was a mighty warrior, and for 20 years they oppressed the
Israelites.[197] Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, of the tribe of
Issachar, dwelt in the land of Benjamin, between Bethel and Ramah, under
the palm-tree; she could announce the will of Jehovah, and the people
came to her to obtain counsel and judgment. At her command Barak, the
son of Abinoam, assembled the men of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali;
assistance also came from Issachar, Manasseh, Ephraim and Benjamin.
Sisera went forth with 900 chariots and a great host and the Israelites
retired before him to the south of the brook Kishon. Sisera crossed the
brook and came upon the Israelites in the valley of Megiddo; he was
defeated, leapt from his chariot, and fled on foot and came unto the
tent of Heber the Kenite. Jael, Heber's wife, met him and said, "Turn
in, my lord, to me; fear not." When in his thirst he asked for water,
she opened the bottle of milk and allowed him to drink, and when he lay
down to rest she covered him with the carpet. Being wearied, he sank
into a deep sleep. Then Jael softly took the nail of the tent and a
hammer in her hand, and smote the nail through his temples so that it
passed into the earth. When Barak, who pursued the fugitive, came, Jael
said, "I will show thee the man whom thou seekest," and led him into the
tent where Sisera lay dead on the ground.
Israel's song of victory is as follows: "Listen, ye kings; give ear, ye
princes; I will sing to Jehovah, I will play on the harp of Jehovah, the
king of Israel. There were no princes in Israel till I, Deborah, arose a
mother in Israel. Arise, Barak; bring forth thy captives, thou son of
Abinoam. Shout, ye that ride on she-asses, and ye that sit upon carpets,
and ye that go on foot, and let the people come down into the plain, to
the gates of the cities. Then I said, Go down, O people of Jehovah,
against the strong; a small people against the mighty. From Ephraim they
came and from Benjamin, from Machir (_i.e._ from the Manassites on the
east of the lake of Gennesareth) the rulers came, and the chiefs of
Issachar were with Deborah, and Zebulun is a people which perilled his
life to the death, and Naphtali on the heights of the field. On the
streams of Reuben there was taking of counsel, but why didst thou sit
still among the herds to hear the pipe of the herdsmen? Gilead also
remained beyond Jordan, and Asher abode on the shore of the sea in his
valleys, and Dan on his heights. The kings came, they fought at the
water of Megiddo; they gained no booty of silver. Issachar, the support
of Barak, threw himself in the valley at his heels. The brook Kishon
washed away the enemy: a brook of battles is the brook Kishon. Go forth,
my soul, upon the strong. Blessed above women shall Jael be, above women
in the tent. He asked for water, she gave him milk; she brought him
cream in a lordly dish. She put forth her hand to the nail, and her
right hand to the workman's hammer, and she smote Sisera, she shattered
and pierced his temples. Between her feet he lay shattered. The mother
of Sisera looked from her window; she called through the lattice: 'Why
linger his chariots in returning? why delay the wheels of his chariot?'
Her wise maidens answered her; nay, she answered herself: 'Will they not
find spoil and divide it; one or two maidens to each, spoil of broidered
robes for Sisera?' So must all thine enemies perish, O Jehovah, but may
those who love him be as the sun going forth in his strength." Whether
this song was composed by Deborah, or by some other person in her name,
it is certainly an ancient song of victory and contemporary with the
events it celebrates.
The tribes of Israel also which were settled in the land of Gilead
remembered with gratitude a mighty warrior who had once delivered them
from grievous oppression. The Ammonites, the eastern neighbours of the
land of Gilead, oppressed "the sons of Israel who dwelt beyond Jordan"
for 18 years, and marched over Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and the
house of Ephraim. Then the elders of the land of Gilead bethought them
of Jephthah (Jephthah means "freed from the yoke"), to whom they had
formerly refused the inheritance of his father because he was not the
son of the lawful wife, but of a courtezan. He had retired into the
gorges of the mountain and collected round him a band of robbers, and
done deeds of bravery. To him the elders went; he was to be their leader
in fighting against the sons of Ammon. Jephthah said, "Have ye not
driven me out of the house of my father? now that ye are in distress ye
come to me." Still he followed their invitation, and the people of
Gilead gathered round him at Mizpeh and made him their chief and leader.
"If I return in triumph from the sons of Ammon," such was Jephthah's
vow, "the first that meets me at the door of my house shall be dedicated
to Jehovah, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt-offering." When he had
asked the tribe of Ephraim for assistance in vain he set out against the
Ammonites with the warriors of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh,
and overcame them in a great battle on the river Arnon. The Ephraimites
made it a reproach against Jephthah that he had fought against the
Ammonites without them; they crossed the Jordan in arms. But Jephthah
said, "I was in straits, and my people with me; I called to you, but ye
aided me not." He assembled the men of Gilead, defeated the Ephraimites,
and came to the fords of the Jordan before the fugitives, so that more
than 42,000 men of Ephraim are said to have been slain.
When he returned to his home at Mizpeh his only daughter came to meet
him joyfully, with her maidens and timbrels and dancing. Jephthah tore
his garments and cried, "My daughter, thou hast brought me very low; I
have opened my mouth to Jehovah and cannot take it back." "My father,"
she answered, "if thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, do to me as
thou hast spoken, for Jehovah has given thee vengeance on thine enemies,
the Ammonites. But first let me go with my companions to the mountains,
and there for two months bewail my virginity." This was done, and on her
return Jephthah did to her according to his vow. And it was a custom in
Israel for the maidens to lament the daughter of Jephthah for four days
in the year. After this Jephthah is said to have been judge for six
years longer beyond Jordan, _i.e._ to have maintained the peace in these
districts.
Grievous calamity came upon Israel in this period from a migratory
people of the Syrian desert, from the incursions of the Midians, who,
like the Moabites and Ammonites, are designated in Genesis as a nation
kindred to the Israelites, with whom Moses was said to have entered into
close relations (I. 449, 468). Now the Midianites with other tribes of
the desert attacked Israel in constant predatory incursions. "Like
locusts in multitude," we are told, "the enemy came with their flocks
and tents; there was no end of them and their camels. When Israel had
sowed the sons of the East came up and destroyed the increase of the
land as far as Gaza, and left no sustenance remaining, no sheep, oxen
and asses. And the sons of Israel were compelled to hide themselves in
ravines, and caves, and mountain fortresses."[198] For seven years
Israel is said to have been desolated in this manner. Beside the tribes
of Issachar and Zebulun, between Mount Tabor and the Kishon, dwelt a
part of the tribe of Manasseh. The family of Abiezer, belonging to this
tribe, possessed Ophra. In an incursion of the Midianites the sons of
Joash, a man of this family, were slain;[199] only Gideon, the youngest,
remained. When the Midianites came again, after their wont, at the time
of harvest, and encamped on the plain of Jezreel, and Gideon was beating
wheat in the vat of the wine-press in order to save the corn from the
Midianites, Jehovah aroused him. He gathered the men of his family
around him, 300 in number.[200] When Jehovah had given him a favourable
sign, and he had reconnoitred the camp of the Midianites, together with
his armour-bearer Phurah, he determined to attack them in the night. He
divided his troop into companies containing a hundred men; each took a
trumpet and a lighted torch, which was concealed in an earthen pitcher.
These companies were to approach the camp of the Midianites from three
sides, and when Gideon blew the trumpet and disclosed his torch they
were all to do the same. Immediately after the second night-watch, when
the Midianites had just changed the guards, Gideon gave the signal. All
broke their pitchers, blew their trumpets, and cried, "The sword for
Jehovah and Gideon!" Startled, terrified, and imagining that they were
attacked by mighty hosts, the Midianites fled. Then the men of Manasseh,
Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali arose, and Gideon hastily sent messengers
to the Ephraimites that they should seize the fords of Jordan before
the Midianites. The Ephraimites assembled and took two princes of the
Midianites, Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). The Ephraimites strove with
Gideon that he had not summoned them sooner. Gideon replied modestly,
"Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of
Abiezer? Did not Jehovah give the princes of Midian into your hand?
Could I do what ye have done?" He pursued the Midianites over the Jordan
in order to get into his power their princes Zebah and Zalmunna, who had
previously slain his brothers. When he passed the river at Succoth he
asked the men of Succoth to give bread to his wearied soldiers. But the
elders feared the vengeance of the Midianites, and said, "Are Zebah and
Zalmunna already in thine hand, that we should give bread to thy men?"
Gideon replied in anger, "If Jehovah gives them into my hand I will tear
your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers." The
inhabitants of Penuel on the Jabbok also, to which Gideon marched,
refused to feed their countrymen; like those of Succoth, they feared the
Midianites. Gideon led his army by the way of the dwellers in tents far
away to Karkor. Here he defeated and scattered the 15,000 Midianites who
had escaped, and captured the two princes. Then he turned back to
Succoth and said to the elders, "See, here are Zebah and Zalmunna, for
whom ye mocked me." He caused them to be seized, seventy-seven in
number, and tore them to death with thorns and briers. The tower of
Penuel he destroyed, and caused the inhabitants of the place to be
slain. To the captured princes he said, "What manner of men were they
whom ye once slew at Tabor?" And they answered, "As thou art, they
looked like the sons of a king." "They were my brethren, the sons of my
mother," Gideon answered. "As Jehovah liveth, if ye had saved them alive
I would not slay you. Stand up," he called to his first-born son Jether,
"and slay them." But the youth feared and drew not his sword, for he was
yet young. "Slay us thyself," said the prisoners, "for as the man is, so
is his strength." This was done. When the booty was divided Gideon
claimed as his share the golden ear-rings of the slain Midianites. They
were collected in Gideon's mantle, and the weight reached 1700 shekels
of gold, beside the purple raiment of the dead kings, and the moons and
chains on the necks of the camels.
Gideon had gained a brilliant victory; no more is heard of the raids of
the Midianites. Out of the booty he set up a gilded image (ephod) at
Ophra.[201] He overthrew the altar of Baal and the image of Astarte in
his city; and this, as is expressly stated, in the night (from which we
must conclude that the inhabitants of Ophra were attached to this
worship); and in the place of it he set up an altar to Jehovah on the
height, and in the city another altar, which he called "Jehovah, peace."
"Unto this day it is still in Ophra."
After the liberation of the land, which was owing to him, Gideon held
the first place in Israel. We are told that the crown had been offered
to him and that he refused it.[202] But if Gideon left 70 sons of his
body by many wives, if we find that his influence descended to his sons,
he must have held an almost royal position, in which a harem was not
wanting. He died, as it seems, in a good old age, and was buried in the
grave of his fathers (after 1150 B.C.[203]).
The same need of protection which preserved Gideon in power till his
death had induced some cities to form a league, after the pattern of the
cities of the Philistines, for mutual support and security. Shechem, the
old metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim, was the chief city of this
league. Here on the citadel at Shechem the united cities had built a
temple to Baal Berith, _i.e._ to Baal of the league, and established a
fund for the league in the treasury of this temple. One of the 70 sons
of Gideon, the child of a woman of Shechem, by name Abimelech, conceived
the plan of establishing a monarchy in Israel by availing himself of
Gideon's name and memory, the desire for order and protection from which
the league had arisen, and the resources of the cities. At first he
sought to induce the cities to make him their chief. Supported by them,
he sought to remove his brothers and to take the monarchy into his own
hands as the only heir of Gideon. A skilful warrior like Abimelech, who
carried with him the fame and influence of a great father, must have
been welcome to the cities as a leader and chief in such wild times.
Abimelech spoke to the men of Shechem: "Consider that I am your bone and
your flesh; which is better, that 70 men rule over you or I only?" Then
the citizens of Shechem and the inhabitants of the citadel assembled
under the oak of Shechem and made Abimelech their king, and gave him 70
shekels of silver from the temple of Baal Berith, "that he might be able
to pay people to serve him." With these and the men of Shechem who
followed him he marched and slew all his brethren at Ophra in his
father's house (one only, Jotham, escaped him), and Israel obeyed him.
Abimelech seemed to have reached his object. Perhaps he might have
maintained the throne thus won by blood had he not, three years
afterwards, quarrelled with the cities which helped him to power. The
cities rose against him. Abimelech with his forces went against the
chief city, Shechem. The city was taken and destroyed, the inhabitants
massacred. About 1000 men and women fled for refuge into the temple of
Baal Berith in the citadel; Abimelech caused them to be burned along
with the temple. Then he turned from Shechem to Thebez, some miles to
the north. When he stormed the city the inhabitants fled into the strong
tower, closed it, and went up on the roof of the tower. Abimelech
pressed on to the door of the tower to set it on fire, when a woman
threw a stone down from above which fell on Abimelech and broke his
skull. Then the king called to his armour-bearer, "Draw thy sword and
slay me, that it may not be said, A woman slew him." The youthful
monarchy was wrecked on this quarrel of the citizens with the new king.
After this time Eli the priest at the sacred tabernacle, a descendant of
Ithamar, the youngest son of Aaron,[204] is said to have been in honour
among the Israelites. Not only was he the priest of the national shrine,
but counsel and judgment were also sought from him. But Eli's sons,
Hophni and Phinehas; did evil, and lay with the women who came to the
sacred tabernacle to offer prayer and sacrifice.[205]
FOOTNOTES:
[181] Judges v. 10, 14; x. 4.
[182] Judges x. 1-5; xii. 8-15.
[183] _e.g._ Judges ix. 27.
[184] Judges xxi. 19; 1 Sam. i. 3; ii. 13.
[185] Judges xx. 1; vol. i. 410.
[186] 1 Sam. x. 3; vol. i. 390, 411.
[187] Judges xvii. 5, 10; xviii. 30; 1 Sam. vii. 1; 2, vi. 3.
[188] Judges xvii. ff.
[189] 1 Sam. xix. 13-16; xxi. 9; Gen. xxxi. 34; Judges xvii. 5; xviii.
14, 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 24.
[190] _e.g._ Judges vi. 36-40; xviii. 5; xx. 18 ff. The priests wore a
pocket with lots (apparently small stones) on the breast. The Urim and
Thummim of the High Priest was originally nothing but these lots.
[191] On the composition of the Book of Judges, cf. De Wette-Schrader,
"Einleitung," 325 ff.
[192] In David's time only 270,000 are given: below, chap. 7.
[193] Judges xx. 8; xxi. 7-18.
[194] Gen. xlix. 27; Judges xx. 16; 1 Chron. viii. 39; xii. 2; 2 Chron.
xiv. 7.
[195] These events belong, according to Judges xx. 27 ff., to the period
immediately after the conquest: as a fact, the war against Benjamin is
not to be placed long after this, _i.e._ about 1200 B.C. Cf. De
Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 326.
[196] Judges iii. 12 ff.
[197] Judges iv., v.
[198] Judges vi. 2-5.
[199] Judges viii. 19.
[200] The observation that Gideon was the least in the house of his
father, and his family the weakest in Manasseh (Judges vi. 15), is due
no doubt to the tendency of the Ephraimitic text to show how strong
Jehovah is even in the weak. From similar motives it is said that Gideon
himself reduced his army to 300 men (Judges vii. 2-6). In the presence
of the Ephraimites Gideon speaks only of the family of Abiezer.
[201] What is meant in Judges viii. 27 by an ephod is not clear. The
words which follow in the verse--that all Israel went whoring after
Gideon--are obviously an addition of the prophetic revision.
[202] Judges viii. 22.
[203] Gideon's date can only be fixed very indefinitely. He and the
generations after him must have belonged to the second half of the
twelfth century B.C.
[204] Joseph. "Antiq." 5, 11, 5.
[205] 1 Sam. ii. 22-25.
CHAPTER V.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL.
More than a century and a half had passed since the Israelites had won
their land in Canaan. The greater part of the tribes, beside the
breeding of cattle, were occupied with the cultivation of vines and
figs, and regular agriculture; the minority had become accustomed to
life in settled cities, and the earliest stages of industry; but the
unity of the nation was lost, and in the place of the religious fervour
which once accompanied the exodus from Egypt, the rites of the Syrian
deities had forced their way in alongside of the worship of Jehovah. The
division and disorganisation of the nation had exposed the Israelites to
the attacks of their neighbours; the attempt of Abimelech to establish a
monarchy in connection with the cities had failed; the anarchy still
continued. Worse dangers still might be expected in the future. The
forces of the Moabites, Midianites, and Ammonites were not superior to
that of the Israelites, the attacks of the tribes of the desert were of
a transitory nature; but what if the cities of the coast, superior in
civilisation, art, and combined power, should find it convenient when
the affairs of Israel were in this position to extend their borders to
the interior, and Israel should be gradually subjugated from the coast?
From the Phenicians there was nothing to fear: navigation and trade
entirely occupied them; from the beginning of the eleventh century
their ships devoted their attention to discoveries in the Atlantic
Ocean, beyond the straits of Gibraltar (p. 83). The case was different
with the warlike cities of the Philistines. If the Philistines were
behind the Israelites in the extent of their territory and dominion,
their forces were held together and well organised by means of the
confederation of the cities. Bounded to the west by the sea, and to the
south by the desert, the only path open to them for extending their
power was in the direction of the Hebrews. For a long time they had been
content to put a limit upon the extension of the tribes of Judah and
Dan, but in the first half of the eleventh century B.C. the condition of
Israel appeared to the federation of the Philistines sufficiently
inviting to induce them to pass from defence to attack. Their blows fell
first on Judah, Simeon, and the part of Dan which had remained in the
south on the borders of the Philistines; tribes which had hitherto been
exempted from atta
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