General History for Colleges and High Schools
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Title: General History for Colleges and High Schools
Author: P. V. N. Myers
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENERAL HISTORY FOR COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
A GENERAL HISTORY FOR COLLEGES AND HIGH SCHOOLS.
BY
P. V. N. MYERS, A.M.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE ATTIC PLAINS, WITH A GLIMPSE OF THE ACROPOLIS
OF ATHENS.--Frontispiece.]
PREFACE.
This volume is based upon my _Ancient History_ and _Mediæval and Modern
History_. In some instances I have changed the perspective and the
proportions of the narrative; but in the main, the book is constructed
upon the same lines as those drawn for the earlier works. In dealing with
so wide a range of facts, and tracing so many historic movements, I cannot
hope that I have always avoided falling into error. I have, however, taken
the greatest care to verify statements of fact, and to give the latest
results of discovery and criticism.
Considering the very general character of the present work, an enumeration
of the books that have contributed facts to my narration, or have helped
to mould my views on this or that subject, would hardly be looked for; yet
I wish here to acknowledge my special indebtedness, in the earlier parts
of the history, to the works of George Rawlinson, Sayce, Wilkinson,
Brugsch, Grote, Curtius, Mommsen, Merivale, and Leighton; and in the later
parts, and on special periods, to the writings of Hodgkin, Emerton, Ranke,
Freeman, Michaud, Bryce, Symonds, Green (J. R.), Motley, Hallam, Thiers,
Lecky, Baird, and Müller.
Several of the colored maps, with which the book will be found liberally
provided, were engraved especially for my _Ancient History_; but the
larger number are authorized reproductions of charts accompanying
Professor Freeman's _Historical Geography of Europe_. The Roman maps were
prepared for Professor William F. Allen's _History of Rome_, which is to
be issued soon, and it is to his courtesy that I am indebted for their
use.
The illustrations have been carefully selected with reference to their
authenticity and historical truthfulness. Many of those in the Oriental
and Greek part of the work are taken from Oscar Jäger's _Weltgeschichte_;
while most of those in the Roman portion are from Professor Allen's
forthcoming work on Rome, to which I have just referred, the author having
most generously granted me the privilege of using them in my work,
notwithstanding it is to appear in advance of his.
Further acknowledgments of indebtedness are also due from me to many
friends who have aided me with their scholarly suggestions and criticism.
My warmest thanks are particularly due to Professor W.F. Allen, of the
University of Wisconsin; to Dr. E.W. Coy, Principal of Hughes High School,
Cincinnati; to Professor William A. Merrill, of Miami University; and to
Mr. D. H. Montgomery, author of _The Leading Facts of History_ series.
P. V. N. M.
COLLEGE HILL, OHIO,
July, 1889.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PREFACE
LIST OF MAPS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION: THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS
PART I.
ANCIENT HISTORY.
SECTION I.--THE EASTERN NATIONS.
CHAPTER
I. India and China.
1. India.
2. China.
II. Egypt.
1. Political History.
2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture.
III. Chaldæa.
1. Political History.
2. Arts and General Culture.
IV. Assyria.
1. Political History.
2. Religion, Arts, and General Culture.
V. Babylonia.
VI. The Hebrews.
VII. The Phoenicians.
VIII. The Persian Empire.
1. Political History.
2. Government, Religion, and Arts.
SECTION II.--GRECIAN HISTORY.
IX. The Land and the People.
X. The Legendary or Heroic Age.
XI. Religion of the Greeks.
XII. Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization: the Early Growth of
Sparta and of Athens.
1. Age of the Tyrants and of Colonization.
2. The Growth of Sparta.
3. The Growth of Athens.
XIII. The Græco-Persian Wars.
XIV. Period of Athenian Supremacy.
XV. The Peloponnesian War: the Spartan and the Theban Supremacy.
1. The Peloponnesian War.
2. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy.
XVI. Period of Macedonian Supremacy: Empire of Alexander.
XVII. States formed from the Empire of Alexander.
XVIII. Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting.
1. Architecture.
2. Sculpture and Painting.
XIX. Greek Literature.
1. Epic and Lyric Poetry.
2. The Drama and Dramatists.
3. History and Historians.
4. Oratory.
XX. Greek Philosophy and Science.
XXI. Social Life of the Greeks.
SECTION III.--ROMAN HISTORY.
XXII. The Roman Kingdom.
XXIII. The Early Roman Republic: Conquest of Italy.
XXIV. The First Punic War.
XXV. The Second Punic War.
XXVI. The Third Punic War.
XXVII. The Last Century of the Roman Republic.
XXVIII. The Last Century of the Roman Republic (_concluded_).
XXIX. The Roman Empire (from 31 B.C. to A.D. 180).
XXX. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (A.D. 180-476).
XXXI. Roman Civilization.
1. Architecture.
2. Literature, Philosophy, and Law.
3. Social Life.
PART II.
MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION.
SECTION I.--MEDIÆVAL HISTORY.
FIRST PERIOD.--THE DARK AGES.
(From the Fall of Rome, A.D. 476, to the Eleventh Century.)
XXXII. Migrations and Settlements of the Teutonic Tribes.
XXXIII. The Conversion of the Barbarians.
XXXIV. Fusion of the Latin and Teutonic Peoples.
XXXV. The Roman Empire in the East.
XXXVI. Mohammed and the Saracens.
XXXVII. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Empire in the West.
XXXVIII. The Northmen.
XXXIX. Rise of the Papal Power.
SECOND PERIOD.--THE AGE OF REVIVAL.
(From the opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of America by
Columbus, in 1492.)
XL. Feudalism and Chivalry.
1. Feudalism.
2. Chivalry.
XLI. The Norman Conquest of England.
XLII. The Crusades.
1. Introductory: Causes of the Crusades.
2. The First Crusade.
3. The Second Crusade.
4. The Third Crusade.
5. The Fourth Crusade.
6. Close of the Crusades: Their Results.
XLIII. Supremacy of the Papacy: Decline of its Temporal Power.
XLIV. Conquests of the Turanian Tribes.
XLV. Growth of the Towns: The Italian City-Republics.
XLVI. The Revival of Learning.
XLVII. Growth of the Nations: Formation of National Governments
and Literatures.
1. England.
2. France.
3. Spain.
4. Germany.
5. Russia.
6. Italy.
7. The Northern Countries.
SECTION II. MODERN HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION
THIRD PERIOD.--THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
(From the Discovery of America to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648.)
XLVIII. The Beginnings of the Reformation under Luther.
XLIX. The Ascendency of Spain.
1. Reign of the Emperor Charles V.
2. Spain under Philip II.
L. The Tudors and the English Reformation.
1. Introductory.
2. The Reign of Henry VII.
3. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII.
4. Changes in the Creed and Ritual under Edward VI.
5. Reaction under Mary.
6. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Elizabeth.
LI. The Revolt of the Netherlands: Rise of the Dutch Republic.
LII. The Huguenot Wars in France.
LIII. The Thirty Years' War.
FOURTH PERIOD.--THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
(From the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to the present time.)
LIV. The Ascendency of France under the Absolute Government of
Louis XIV.
LV. England under the Stuarts: The English Revolution.
1. The First Two Stuarts.
2. The Commonwealth.
3. The Restored Stuarts.
4. The Orange-Stuarts.
5. England under the Earlier Hanoverians.
LVI. The Rise of Russia: Peter the Great.
LVII. The Rise of Prussia: Frederick the Great.
LVIII. The French Revolution.
1. Causes of the Revolution: The States-General of 1789.
2. The National, or Constituent Assembly.
3. The Legislative Assembly.
4. The National Convention.
5. The Directory.
LIX. The Consulate and the First Empire: France since the Second
Restoration.
1. The Consulate and the Empire.
2. France since the Second Restoration.
LX. Russia since the Congress of Vienna.
LXI. German Freedom and Unity.
LXII. Liberation and Unification of Italy.
LXIII. England since the Congress of Vienna.
1. Progress towards Democracy.
2. Expansion of the Principle of Religious Equality.
3. Growth of the British Empire in the East.
CONCLUSION: THE NEW AGE.
INDEX, PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY, AND GLOSSARY
LIST OF COLORED MAPS.
1. Ancient Egypt
2. The Tigris and the Euphrates
3. Lydia, Media, and Babylonia, c. B.C. 550
4. Greece and the Greek Colonies
5. Greece in the 5th Century B.C.
6. Dominions and Dependencies of Alexander, c. B.C. 323
7. Kingdoms of the Successors of Alexander, c. B.C. 300
8. Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power
9. Mediterranean Lands at the Beginning of Second Punic War
10. Roman Dominions at the End of the Mithridatic War, B.C. 64
11. The Roman Empire under Trajan, A.D. 117
12. Roman Empire divided into Prefectures
13. Europe in the Reign of Theodoric, c. A.D. 500
14. Europe in the Time of Charles the Great, 814
15. The Western Empire as divided at Verdun, 843
16. Spanish Kingdoms, 1360
17. Central Europe, 1360
18. The Spanish Kingdoms and their European Dependencies under Charles V
19. Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries
20. The Baltic Lands, c. 1701
21. Central Europe, 1801
22. Sketch Map of Europe showing Principal Battles of Napoleon
[Footnote: For the use of this map I am indebted to the courtesy
of Mr. D. H. Montgomery, author of "Leading Facts of French History."]
23. Central Europe, 1810
24. Central Europe, 1815
25. South-Eastern Europe according to the Treaty of Berlin, 1878
26. Europe in 1880
GENERAL HISTORY.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION: THE RACES AND THEIR EARLY MIGRATIONS.
DIVISIONS OF HISTORY.--History is usually divided into three periods,--
Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern. Ancient History begins with the earliest
nations of which we can gain any certain knowledge, and extends to the
fall of the Roman Empire in the West, A.D. 476. Mediæval History embraces
the period, about one thousand years in length, lying between the fall of
Rome and the discovery of the New World by Columbus, A.D. 1492. Modern
History commences with the close of the mediæval period and extends to the
present time. [Footnote: It is thought preferable by some scholars to let
the beginning of the great Teutonic migration (A.D. 375) mark the end of
the period of ancient history. Some also prefer to date the beginning of
the modern period from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D.
1453; while still others speak of it in a general way as commencing about
the close of the 15th century, at which time there were many inventions
and discoveries and a great stir in the intellectual world.]
ANTIQUITY OF MAN.--We do not know when man first came into possession of
the earth. We only know that, in ages vastly remote, when both the climate
and the outline of Europe were very different from what they are at
present, man lived on that continent with animals now extinct; and that as
early as 4000 or 3000 B.C.,--when the curtain first rises on the stage of
history,--in some favored regions, as in the Valley of the Nile, there
were nations and civilizations already venerable with age, and possessing
languages, arts, and institutions that bear evidence of slow growth
through very long periods of time before written history begins.
[Footnote: The investigation and study of this vast background of human
life is left to such sciences as _Ethnology, Comparative Philology_,
and _Prehistoric Archeology_.]
THE RACES OF MANKIND.--Distinctions in form, color, and physiognomy divide
the human species into three chief types, or races, known as the Black
(Ethiopian, or Negro), the Yellow (Turanian, or Mongolian), and the White
(Caucasian). But we must not suppose each of these three types to be
sharply marked off from the others; they shade into one another by
insensible gradations.
There has been no perceptible change in the great types during historic
times. The paintings upon the oldest Egyptian monuments show us that at
the dawn of history, about five or six thousand years ago, the principal
races were as distinctly marked as now, each bearing its racial badge of
color and physiognomy. As early as the times of Jeremiah, the permanency
of physical characteristics had passed into the proverb, "Can the
Ethiopian change his skin?"
Of all the races, the White, or Caucasian, exhibits by far the most
perfect type, physically, intellectually, and morally.
[Illustration: NEGRO CAPTIVES, From the Monuments of Thebes. (Illustrating
the permanence of race characteristics.)]
THE BLACK RACE.--Africa is the home of the peoples of the Black Race, but
we find them on all the other continents, whither they have been carried
as slaves by the stronger races; for since time immemorial they have been
"hewers of wood and drawers of water" for their more favored brethren.
THE YELLOW, OR TURANIAN RACE.--The term Turanian is very loosely applied
by the historian to many and widely separated families and peoples. In its
broadest application it is made to include the Chinese and other more or
less closely allied peoples of Eastern Asia; the Ottoman Turks, the
Hungarians, the Finns, the Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe; and (by
some) the Esquimaux and American Indians.
The peoples of this race were, it seems, the first inhabitants of Europe
and of the New World; but in these quarters, they have, in the main,
either been exterminated or absorbed by later comers of the White Race. In
Europe, however, two small areas of this primitive population escaped the
common fate--the Basques, sheltered among the Pyrenees, and the Finns and
Lapps, in the far north; [Footnote: The Hungarians and Turks are Turanian
peoples that have thrust themselves into Europe during historic times]
while in the New World, the Esquimaux and the Indians still represent the
race that once held undisputed possession of the land.
The polished stone implements found in the caves and river-gravels of
Western Europe, the shell-mounds, or kitchen-middens, upon the shores of
the Baltic, the Swiss lake habitations, and the barrows, or grave-mounds,
found in all parts of Europe, are supposed to be relics of a prehistoric
Turanian people.
Although some of the Turanian peoples, as for instance the Chinese, have
made considerable advance in civilization, still as a rule the peoples of
this race have made but little progress in the arts or in general culture.
Even their languages have remained undeveloped. These seem immature, or
stunted in their growth. They have no declensions or conjugations, like
those of the languages of the Caucasian peoples.
THE WHITE RACE AND ITS THREE FAMILIES.--The White Race embraces the
historic nations. This type divides into three families,--the Hamitic, the
Semitic, and the Aryan, or Indo-European (formerly called the Japhetic).
The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic branch. In the
gray dawn of history we discover them already settled in the Valley of the
Nile, and there erecting great monuments so faultless in construction as
to render it certain that those who planned them had had a very long
previous training in the art of building.
The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient
Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the Arabians.
We are not certain what region was the original abode of this family. We
only know that by the dawn of history its various clans and tribes,
whencesoever they may have come, had distributed themselves over the
greater part of Southwestern Asia.
It is interesting to note that the three great historic religions of the
world,--the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan,--the three
religions that alone (if we except that of Zoroaster) teach a belief in
one God, arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family.
The Aryan, or Indo-European, though probably the youngest, is the most
widely scattered family of the White Race. It includes among its members
the ancient Hindus, Medes, and Persians, the classic Greeks and Romans,
and the modern descendants of all these nations; also almost all the
peoples of Europe, and their colonists that have peopled the New World,
and taken possession of other parts of the earth.
MIGRATIONS OF THE ARYANS.--The original seat of the Aryan peoples was, it
is conjectured [Footnote: Some scholars seek the primitive home in
Europe], somewhere in Asia. At a period that cannot be placed later than
3000 B.C., the Aryan household began to break up and scatter, and the
different clans to set out in search of new dwelling-places. Some tribes
of the family spread themselves over the table-lands of Iran and the
plains of India, and became the progenitors of the Medes, the Persians,
and the Hindus. Other clans entering Europe probably by the way of the
Hellespont, pushed themselves into the peninsulas of Greece and Italy, and
founded the Greek and Italian states. Still other tribes seem to have
poured in successive waves into Central Europe. The vanguard of these
peoples are known as the Celts. After them came the Teutonic tribes, who
crowded the former out on the westernmost edge of Europe--into Gaul and
Spain, and out upon the British Isles. These hard-pressed Celts are
represented to-day by the Welsh, the Irish, and the Highland Scots. Behind
the Teutonic peoples were the Slavonic folk, who pushed the former hard
against the Celts, and, when they could urge them no farther to the west,
finally settled down and became the ancestors of the Russians and other
kindred nations.
Although these migratory movements of the various clans and tribes of this
wonderful Aryan family began in the early morning of history, some five
thousand or more years ago, still we must not think of them as something
past and unrelated to the present. These movements, begun in those remote
times, are still going on. The overflow of the population of Europe into
the different regions of the New World, is simply a continuation of the
prehistoric migrations of the members of the primitive Aryan household.
Everywhere the other races and families have given way before the advance
of the Aryan peoples, who have assumed the position of leaders and
teachers among the families of mankind, and are rapidly spreading their
arts and sciences and culture over the earth.
EARLY CULTURE OF THE ARYANS.--One of the most fascinating studies of
recent growth is that which reveals to us the customs, beliefs, and mode
of life of the early Aryans, while they were yet living together as a
single household. Upon comparing the myths, legends, and ballads of the
different Aryan peoples, we discover the curious fact that, under various
disguises, they are the same. Thus our nursery tales are found to be
identical with those with which the Hindu children are amused. But the
discovery should not surprise us. We and the Hindus are kinsmen, children
of the same home; so now, when after a long separation we meet, the tales
we tell are the same, for they are the stories that were told around the
common hearth-fire of our Aryan forefathers.
And when we compare certain words in different Aryan languages, we often
find them alike in form and meaning. Thus, take the word _father_. This
word occurs with but little change of form in several of the Aryan
tongues. [Footnote: Sanscrit, _pitri_; Persian, _padar_; Greek, _pater_;
Latin, _pater_; German, _vater_.] From this we infer that the remote
ancestors of the now widely separated Aryan peoples once lived together
and had a common speech.
Our knowledge of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans, gained through the
sciences of comparative philology and mythology, may be summed up as
follows: They personified and worshipped the various forces and parts of
the physical universe, such as the Sun, the Dawn, Fire, the Winds, the
Clouds. The all-embracing sky they worshipped as the Heaven-Father
(_Dyaus-Pitar_, whence Jupiter). They were herdsmen and at least
occasional farmers. They introduced the sheep, as well as the horse, into
Europe: the Turanian people whom they displaced had neither of these
domestic animals. In social life they had advanced to that stage where the
family is the unit of society. The father was the priest and absolute lord
of his house. The families were united to form village-communities ruled
by a chief, or patriarch, who was assisted by a council of elders.
IMPORTANCE OF ARYAN STUDIES.--This picture of life in the early Aryan
home, the elements of which are gathered in so novel a way, is of the very
greatest historical value and interest. In these customs and beliefs of
the early Aryans, we discover the germs of many of the institutions of the
classical Greeks and Romans, and of the nations of modern Europe. Thus, in
the council of elders around the village patriarch, political historians
trace the beginnings of the senates of Greece and Rome and the national
parliaments of later times.
Just as the teachings of the parental roof mould the life and character of
the children that go out from under its discipline, so have the influences
of that early Aryan home shaped the habits, institutions, and character of
those peoples and families that, as its children, went out to establish
new homes in their "appointed habitations."
RACES OF MANKIND, WITH CHIEF FAMILIES AND PEOPLES.
BLACK RACE (Ethiopian, or Negro).
Tribes of Central and Southern Africa, the Papuans and the Australians.
(This group includes two great divisions, the Negroid and Australoid.)
YELLOW RACE (Turanian, or Mongolian).
(1) The Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, and other kindred peoples of Eastern
Asia; (2) the Malays of Southeastern Asia, and the inhabitants of many
of the Pacific islands; (3) the nomads (Tartars, Mongols, etc.) of
Northern and Central Asia and of Eastern Russia; (4) the Turks, the
Magyars, or Hungarians, the Finns and Lapps, and the Basques, in Europe;
(5) the Esquimaux and the American Indians. Languages of these peoples
are monosyllabic or agglutinative. (Note that the Malays and American
Indians were formerly classified as distinct races.)
WHITE RACE (Caucasian).
Hamitic Family
Egyptians,
Libyans,
Cushites.
Semitic Family
Chaldæans (partly Turanian)
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Canaanites (chiefly Semitic),
Phoenicians,
Hebrews,
Arabs.
Aryan, or Indo-European Family
Indo-Iranic Branch
Hindus,
Medes,
Persians.
Græco-Italic Branch
Greeks,
Romans.
Celtic Branch
Gauls,
Britons,
Scots (Irish),
Picts.
Teutonic Branch
High Germans,
Low Germans,
Scandinavians.
Slavonic Branch
Russians,
Poles, etc.
The peoples of modern Germany are the descendants of various Germanic
tribes. The Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes represent the Scandinavian
branch of the Teutonic family. The Irish, the Welsh, the Scotch
Highlanders, and the Bretons of Brittany (anciently Armorica), in France,
are the present representatives of the ancient Celts. The French,
Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians have sprung, in the main, from a
blending of the Celts, the ancient Romans, and the Germanic tribes that
thrust themselves within the limits of the Roman Empire in the West. The
English are the descendants of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (Teutonic
tribes), slightly modified by interminglings with the Danes and Normans
(also of Teutonic origin). (See _Mediæval and Modern History_, pp. 169-
178.)
PART I.
_ANCIENT HISTORY._
SECTION I.--THE EASTERN NATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
INDIA AND CHINA.
1. INDIA.
THE ARYAN INVASION.--At the time of the great Aryan migration (see p. 4),
some Aryan bands, journeying from the northwest, settled first the plains
of the Indus and then occupied the valley of the Ganges. They reached the
banks of the latter river as early probably as 1500 B.C.
These fair-skinned invaders found the land occupied by a dark-skinned,
non-Aryan race, whom they either subjugated and reduced to serfdom, or
drove out of the great river valleys into the mountains and the half-
desert plains of the peninsula.
THE ORIGIN OF CASTES.--The conflict of races in Northern India gave rise
to what is known as the system of castes; that is, society became divided
into a number of rigid hereditary classes. There arose gradually four
chief castes: (1) Brahmans, or priests; (2) warriors; (3) agriculturists
and traders; and (4) serfs, or Sudras. The Brahmans were those of pure
Aryan blood, while the Sudras were the despised and oppressed non-Aryan
aborigines. The two middle classes, the warriors and the cultivators of
the soil, were of mixed Aryan and non-Aryan blood. Below these several
castes were the Pariahs, or outcasts, the most degraded of the degraded
natives. [Footnote: At a later period, the Brahmans, in order to
perpetuate their own ascendancy and to secure increased reverence for
their order, incorporated among the sacred hymns an account of creation
which gave a sort of divine sanction to the system of castes by
representing the different classes of society to have had different
origins. The Brahmans, the sacred books are made to say, came forth from
the mouth of Brahma, the soldier from his arms, the farmer from his
thighs, and the Sudra from his feet. ]
The system of castes, modified however by various influences, particularly
by the later system of Buddhism (see p. 11), has characterized Hindu
society from the time the system originated down to the present, and is
one of the most important facts of Indian history.
THE VEDAS.--The most important of the sacred books of the Hindus are
called the Vedas. They are written in the Sanscrit language, which is
believed to be the oldest form of Aryan speech. The Rig-Veda, the most
ancient of the books, is made up of hymns which were composed chiefly
during the long period, perhaps a thousand years or more, while the Aryans
were slowly working their way from the mountains on the northwest of India
across the peninsula to the Ganges. These hymns are filled with memories
of the long conflict of the fair-faced Aryans with the dark-faced
aborigines. The Himalayas, through whose gloomy passes the early emigrants
journeyed, must have deeply impressed the wanderers, for the poets often
refer to the great dark mountains.
BRAHMANISM.--The religion of the Indian Aryans is known as Brahmanism.
This system gradually developed from the same germs as those out of which
grew the Greek and Roman religions. It was at first a pure nature-worship,
that is, the worship of the most striking phenomena of the physical world
as intelligent and moral beings. The chief god was Dyaus-Pitar, the
Heaven-Father. As this system characterized the early period when the
oldest Vedic hymns were composed, it is known as the Vedic religion.
In course of time this nature-worship of the Vedic period developed into a
sort of pantheism, that is, a system which identifies God with the
universe. This form of the Indian religion is known as Brahmanism. Brahma,
an impersonal essence, is conceived as the primal existence. Forth from
Brahma emanated, as heat and light emanate from the sun, all things and
all life. Banish a personal God from the universe, as some modern
scientists would do, leaving nothing but nature with her original nebula,
her endless cycles, her unconscious evolutions, and we have something very
like Brahmanism.
A second, fundamental conception of Brahmanism is that all life, apart
from Brahma, is evil, is travail and sorrow. We can make this idea
intelligible to ourselves by remembering what are our own ideas of this
earthly life. We call it a feverish dream, a journey through a vale of
sorrow. Now the Hindu regards _all_ conscious existence in the same
light. He has no hope in a better future; so long as the soul is
conscious, so long must it endure sorrow and pain.
This conception of all conscious existence as necessarily and always evil,
leads naturally to the doctrine that it is the part of wisdom and of duty
for man to get rid of consciousness, to annihilate himself, in a word, to
commit soul-suicide. Brahmanism teaches that the only way to extinguish
self and thus get rid of the burden of existence, is by re-absorption into
Brahma. But this return to Brahma is dependent upon the soul's
purification, for no impure soul can be re-absorbed into the primal
essence. The necessary freedom from passion and the required purity of
soul can best be attained by self-torture, by a severe mortification of
the flesh; hence the asceticism of the Hindu devotee.
As only a few in each generation reach the goal, it follows that the great
majority of men must be born again, and yet again, until all evil has been
purged away from the soul and eternal repose found in Brahma. He who lives
a virtuous life is at death born into some higher caste, and thus he
advances towards the longed-for end. The evil man, however, is born into a
lower caste, or perhaps his soul enters some unclean animal. This doctrine
of re-birth is known as the transmigration of souls (metempsychosis).
Only the first three classes are admitted to the benefits of religion. The
Sudras and the outcasts are forbidden to read the sacred books, and for
any one of the upper classes to teach a serf how to expiate sin is a
crime.
BUDDHISM.--In the fifth century before our era, a great teacher and
reformer, known as Buddha, or Gautama (died about 470 B.C.), arose in
India. He was a prince, whom legend represents as being so touched by the
universal misery of mankind, that he voluntarily abandoned the luxury of
his home, and spent his life in seeking out and making known to men a new
and better way of salvation. He condemned the severe penances and the
self-torture of the Brahmans, yet commended poverty and retirement from
active life as the best means of getting rid of desire and of attaining
_Nirvana_, that is, the repose of unconsciousness.
[Illustration: STATUE OF BUDDHA.]
Buddha admitted all classes to the benefits of religion, the poor outcast
as well as the high-born Brahman, and thus Buddhism was a revolt against
the earlier harsh and exclusive system of Brahmanism. It holds somewhat
the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity bears to Judaism.
Buddhism gradually gained the ascendancy over Brahmanism; but after some
centuries the Brahmans regained their power, and by the eighth century
after Christ, the faith of Buddha was driven out of almost every part of
India. But Buddhism has a profound missionary spirit, like that of
Christianity, Buddha having commanded his disciples to make known to all
men the way to Nirvana and consequently during the very period when India
was being lost, the missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading the
teachings of their master among the peoples of all the countries of
Eastern Asia, so that to-day Buddhism is the religion of almost one third
of the human race. Buddha has probably nearly as many followers as both
Christ and Mohammed together.
During its long conflict with Buddhism, Brahmanism was greatly modified,
and caught much of the gentler spirit of the new faith, so that modern
Brahmanism is a very different religion from that of the ancient system;
hence it is usually given a new name, being known as Hinduism. [Footnote:
Among the customs introduced into Brahmanism during this period was the
rite of Suttee, or the voluntary burning of the widow on the funeral pyre
of her husband.]
ALEXANDER'S INVASION OF INDIA (327 B.C.).--Although we find obscure
notices of India in the records of the early historic peoples of Western
Asia, yet it is not until the invasion of the peninsula by Alexander the
Great in 327 B.C. that the history of the Indian Aryans comes in
significant contact with that of the progressive nations of the West. From
that day to our own its systems of philosophy, its wealth, and its
commerce have been more or less important factors in universal history.
Greece carried on an intellectual commerce with this country; Rome, and
the Italian republics of the Middle Ages, a more material but not less
important trade. Columbus was seeking a short all-sea route to this
country when he found the New World. And in the upbuilding of the imperial
greatness of the England of to-day, the wealth and trade of India have
played no inconsiderable part.
2. CHINA.
GENERAL REMARKS: THE BEGINNING.--China is the seat of a very old
civilization, older perhaps than that of any other land save Egypt; yet
Chinese affairs have not until recently exerted any appreciable influence
upon the general current of history. All through ancient and mediæval
times the country lay, vague and mysterious, in the haze of the world's
horizon. During the Middle Ages the land was known to Europe under the
name of Cathay.
The beginning of the Chinese nation was a band of Turanian wanderers who
came into the basin of the Yellow River, from the West, probably prior to
3000 B.C. These immigrants gradually pushed out the aborigines whom they
found in the land, and laid the basis of institutions that have endured to
the present day.
DYNASTIC HISTORY.--The government of China since the remotest times has
been a parental monarchy. The Emperor is the father of his people. But
though an absolute prince, still he dare not rule tyrannically: he must
rule justly, and in accordance with the ancient customs and laws.
The Chinese have books that purport to give the history of the different
dynasties that have ruled in the land from a vast antiquity; but these
records are largely mythical and legendary. Everything is confused and
uncertain until we reach the eighth or seventh century before our era; and
even then we meet with little of interest in the dynastic history of the
country until we come to the reign of Che Hwang-te (246-210 B.C.). This
energetic ruler strengthened and consolidated the imperial power, and
executed great works of internal improvement, such as roads and canals.
As a barrier against the incursions of the Huns, he began the erection of
the celebrated Chinese Wall, a great rampart extending for about 1500
miles along the northern frontier of the country. [Footnote: The Great
Wall is one of the most remarkable works of man. "It is," says Dr.
Williams, "the only artificial structure which would arrest attention in a
hasty survey of the globe." It has been estimated that there is more than
seventy times as much material in the wall as there is in the Great
Pyramid of Cheops, and that it represents more labor than 100,000 miles of
ordinary railroad. It was begun in 214(?) and finished in 204(?) B.C. It
is twenty-five feet wide at base, and from fifteen to thirty feet high.
Towers forty feet high rise at irregular intervals. In some places it is a
mere earthen rampart; in others it is faced with brick; and then again it
is composed of stone throughout.]
From the strong reign of Che Hwang-te to the end of the period covered by
ancient history, Chinese dynastic records present no matters of universal
interest that need here occupy our attention.
CHINESE WRITING.--It is nearly certain that the art of writing was known
among the Chinese as early as 2000 B.C. The system employed is curiously
cumbrous. In the absence of an alphabet, each word of the language is
represented upon the written page by means of a symbol, or combination of
symbols; this, of course, requires that there be as many symbols, or
characters, as there are words in the language. The number sanctioned by
good use is about 25,000; but counting obsolete characters, the number
amounts to over 50,000. A knowledge of 5000 or 6000 characters, however,
enables one to read and write without difficulty. The task of learning
even this number might well be hopeless, were it not that many of the
characters bear a remote resemblance to the objects for which they stand,
and when once explained, readily suggest the thing or idea represented.
The nature of the characters shows conclusively that the Chinese system of
writing, like that of all others with which we are acquainted, was at
first purely hieroglyphical, that is, the characters were originally
simply rude outline pictures of material objects. Time and use have worn
them to their present form.
This Chinese system of representing thought, cumbrous and inconvenient as
it is, is employed at the present time by one third of the human race.
Printing from blocks was practised in China as early as the sixth century
of our era, and printing from movable types as early as the tenth or
eleventh century, that is to say, about four hundred years before the same
art was invented in Europe.
CHINESE LITERATURE: CONFUCIUS AND MENCIUS.--The most highly prized portion
of Chinese literature is embraced in what is known as the Five Classics
and the Four Books, called collectively the Nine Classics. The Five
Classics are among the oldest books in the world. For some of the books an
antiquity of 3000 years is claimed. The books embrace chronicles,
political and ethical maxims, and numerous odes. One of the most important
of the Classics is the so-called Book of Rites, said to date from 1200
B.C.
The Four Books are of later origin than the Five Classics, having been
written about the fifth and fourth centuries before the Christian era; yet
they hardly yield to them in sacredness in the eyes of the Chinese. The
first three of the series are by the pupils of the great sage and moralist
Confucius (551-478 B.C.), and the fourth is by Mencius (371-288 B.C.), a
disciple of Confucius, and a scarcely less revered philosopher and ethical
teacher. The teachings of the Four Books may be summed up in the simple
precept, "Walk in the Trodden Paths." Confucius was not a prophet, or
revealer; he laid no claims to a supernatural knowledge of God or of the
hereafter; he said nothing of an Infinite Spirit, and but little of a
future life. His cardinal precepts were obedience to superiors, reverence
for the ancients, and imitation of their virtues. He himself walked in the
old paths, and thus added the force of example to that of precept. He gave
the Chinese the Golden Rule, stated negatively: "What you do not want done
to yourself, do not do to others."
During the reign of Che Hwang-te (see p. 13), Chinese literature suffered
a great disaster. That despot, for the reason that the teachers in their
opposition to him were constantly quoting the ancient writings against his
innovations, ordered the chief historical books to be destroyed, and
sentenced to death any one who should presume to talk about the proscribed
writings, or even allude to the virtues of the ancients in such a way as
to reflect upon his reforms. The contumacious he sent to work upon the
Great Wall. But the people concealed the books in the walls of their
houses, or better still hid them away in their memories; and in this way
the priceless inheritance of antiquity was preserved until the storm had
passed.
INFLUENCE OF THIS LITERATURE AND OF THE SAGE CONFUCIUS.--It would be
impossible to exaggerate the influence which the Nine Classics have had
upon the Chinese nation. For more than 2000 years these writings have been
the Chinese Bible. And as all of the Four Books, though they were not
written by Confucius, yet bear the impress of his mind and thought, just
as the Gospels teach the mind of Christ, a large part of this influence
must be attributed to the life and teachings of that great Sage. His
influence has been greater than that of any other teacher, excepting
Christ and perhaps Buddha. His precepts, implicitly followed by his
countrymen, have shaped their lives from his day to the present.
The moral system of Confucius, making, as it does, filial obedience and a
conformity to ancient customs primary virtues, has exalted the family life
among the Chinese and given a wonderful stability to Chinese society.
Chinese children are the most obedient and reverential to parents of any
children in the world, and the Chinese Empire is the only one in all
history that has prolonged its existence from ancient times to the
present.
But along with much good, one great evil has resulted from this blind,
servile following of the past. The Chinese in strictly obeying the
injunction to walk in the old ways, to conform to the customs of the
ancients, have failed to mark out any new footpaths for themselves. Hence
their lack of originality, their habit of imitation: hence the unchanging,
unprogressive character of Chinese civilization.
EDUCATION AND CIVIL SERVICE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.--China has a very
ancient educational system. The land was filled with schools, academies,
and colleges more than a thousand years before our era, and education is
to-day more general among the Chinese than among any other pagan people. A
knowledge of the sacred books is the sole passport to civil office and
public employment. All candidates for places in the government must pass a
competitive examination in the Nine Classics. This system is practically
the same in principle as that which we, with great difficulty, are trying
to establish in connection with our own civil service.
THE THREE RELIGIONS,--CONFUCIANISM, TAOISM, AND BUDDHISM.--There are three
leading religions in China,--Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The great
Sage Confucius is reverenced and worshipped throughout the Empire. He
holds somewhat the same relation to the system that bears his name that
Christ holds to that of Christianity. Taoism takes its name from Tao,
which is made, like Brahma in Brahmanism, the beginning of all things. It
is a very curious system of mystical ideas and superstitious practices.
Buddhism was introduced into China about the opening of the Christian era,
and soon became widely spread.
There is one element common to all these religions, and that is the
worship of ancestors. Every Chinese, whether he be a Confucianist, a
Taoist, or a Buddhist, reverences his ancestors, and prays and makes
offerings to their spirits.
POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE.--The Chinese have always been a very self-
satisfied and exclusive people. They have jealously excluded foreigners
and outside influence from their country. The Great Wall with which they
have hedged in their country on the north, is the symbol of their policy
of isolation. Doubtless this characteristic of the Chinese has been
fostered by their geographical isolation; for great mountain barriers and
wide deserts cut the country off from communication with the rest of the
Asiatic continent. And then their reverence for antiquity has rendered
them intolerant of innovation and change. Hence, in part, the
unwillingness of the Chinese to admit into their country railroads,
telegraphs, and other modern improvements. For them to adopt these new-
fangled inventions, would be like our adopting a new religion. Such a
departure from the ways and customs of the past has in it, to their way of
thinking, something akin to disrespect and irreverence for ancestors.
CHAPTER II.
EGYPT.
1. POLITICAL HISTORY.
EGYPT AND THE NILE.--Egypt comprises the delta of the Nile and the flood-
plains of its lower course. The whole land is formed of the deposits of
the river; hence Herodotus, in happy phrase, called the country "the gift
of the Nile." The delta country was known to the ancients as Lower Egypt;
while the valley proper, reaching from the head of the delta to the First
Cataract, a distance of six hundred miles, was called Upper Egypt.
[Footnote: About seven hundred miles from the Mediterranean a low ledge of
rocks, stretching across the Nile, forms the first obstruction to
navigation in passing up the river. The rapids found at this point are
termed the First Cataract. Six other cataracts occur in the next seven
hundred miles of the river's course.]
Through the same means by which Egypt was originally created, is the land
each year still renewed and fertilized. The Nile, swollen by the heavy
tropical rains about its sources, begins to rise in its lower parts late
in June, and by October, when the inundation has attained its greatest
height, the country presents the appearance of an inland sea.
By the end of November the river has returned to its bed, and the fields,
over which has been spread a film of rich earth, [Footnote: The rate of
the fluviatile deposit is from three to five inches in a century. The
surface of the valley at Thebes, as shown by the accumulations about the
monuments, has been raised seven feet during the last seventeen hundred
years.] present the appearance of black mud-flats. Usually the plow is run
lightly over the soft surface, but in some cases the grain is sown upon
the undisturbed deposit, and simply trampled in by flocks of sheep and
goats driven over it. In a few weeks the entire land, so recently a
flooded plain, is overspread with a sea of verdure, which forms a striking
contrast to the desert sands and barren hills that rim the valley.
[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT]
CLIMATE.--In Lower Egypt, near the sea, the rainfall in the winter is
abundant; but the climate of Upper Egypt is all but rainless, only a few
slight showers falling throughout the year. This dryness of the Egyptian
air is what has preserved through so many thousand years, in such
wonderful freshness of color and with such sharpness of outline, the
numerous paintings and sculptures of the monuments of the Pharaohs.
The southern line of Egypt only just touches the tropics; still the
climate, influenced by the wide and hot deserts that hem the valley, is
semi-tropical in character. The fruits of the tropics and the cereals of
the temperate zone grow luxuriantly. Thus favored in climate as well as in
the matter of irrigation, Egypt became in early times the granary of the
East. To it less favored countries, when stricken by famine,--a calamity
so common in the East in regions dependent upon the rainfall,--looked for
food, as did the families of Israel during drought and failure of crops in
Palestine.
DYNASTIES AND CHRONOLOGY.--The kings, or Pharaohs, that reigned in Egypt
from the earliest times till the conquest of the country by Alexander the
Great (332 B.C.), are grouped into thirty-one dynasties. Thirty of these
we find in the lists of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who lived in the third
century B.C., and who compiled a chronicle of the kings of the country
from the manuscripts kept in the Egyptian temples.
We cannot assign a positive date to the beginning of the First Dynasty,
chiefly because Egyptologists are at a loss to know whether to consider
all the dynasties of Manetho's list as successive or in part
contemporaneous. Thus, it is held by some scholars that several of these
families were reigning at the same time in the different cities of Upper
and Lower Egypt; while others think that they all reigned at different
epochs, and that the sum of the lengths of the several dynasties gives us
the true date of the beginning of the political history of the country.
Accordingly, some place the beginning of the First Dynasty at about 5000
B.C., while others put it at about 3000 B.C. The constantly growing
evidence of the monuments is in favor of the higher figures.
MENES, THE FIRST OF THE PHARAOHS.--Menes is the first kingly personage,
shadowy and indistinct in form, that we discover in the early dawn of
Egyptian history. Tradition makes him the founder of Memphis, near the
head of the Delta, the site of which capital he secured against the
inundations of the Nile by vast dikes and various engineering works. To
him is ascribed the achievement of first consolidating the numerous petty
principalities of Lower Egypt into a single state.
THE FOURTH DYNASTY: THE PYRAMID KINGS (about 2700 B.C.).--The kings of the
Fourth Dynasty, who reigned at Memphis, are called the Pyramid builders.
Kufu I., the Cheops of the Greeks, was the first great builder. To him we
can now positively ascribe the building of the Great Pyramid, the largest
of the Gizeh group, near Cairo; for his name has been found upon some of
the stones,--painted on them by his workmen before the blocks were taken
from the quarries.
The mountains of stone heaped together by the Pyramid kings are proof that
they were cruel oppressors of their people, and burdened them with useless
labor upon these monuments of their ambition. Tradition tells how the very
memory of these monarchs was hated by the people. Herodotus says that the
Egyptians did not like even to speak the names of the builders of the two
largest pyramids.
THE TWELFTH DYNASTY (about 2300 B.C.).--After the Sixth Dynasty, Egypt,
for several centuries, is almost lost from view. When finally the valley
emerges from the obscurity of this period, the old capital Memphis has
receded into the background, and the city of Thebes has taken its place as
the seat of the royal power.
The period of the Twelfth Dynasty, a line of Theban kings, is one of the
brightest in Egyptian hhistory. Many monuments scattered throughout the
country perpetuate the fame of the sovereigns of this illustrious house.
Egyptian civilization is regarded by many as having during this period
reached the highest perfection to which it ever attained.
THE HYSKOS, OR SHEPHERD KINGS (from about 2100 to 1650 B.C.).--Soon after
the bright period of the Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt again suffered a great
eclipse. Nomadic tribes from Syria crossed the eastern frontier of Egypt,
took possession of the inviting pasture-lands of the Delta, and
established there the empire of the Shepherd Kings.
These Asiatic intruders were violent and barbarous, and destroyed or
mutilated the monuments of the country. But gradually they were
transformed by the civilization with which they were in contact, and in
time they adopted the manners and culture of the Egyptians. It was
probably during the supremacy of the Hyksos that the families of Israel
found a refuge in Lower Egypt. They received a kind reception from the
Shepherd Kings, not only because they had the same pastoral habits, but
also, probably, because of near kinship in race.
At last these intruders, after they had ruled in the valley four or five
hundred years, were expelled by the Theban kings, and driven back into
Asia. This occurred about 1650 B.C. The episode of the Shepherd Kings in
Egypt derives great importance from the fact that these Asiatic conquerors
were one of the mediums through which Egyptian civilization was
transmitted to the Phoenicians, who, through their wide commercial
relations, spread the same among all the early nations of the
Mediterranean area.
And further, the Hyksos conquest was an advantage to Egypt itself. The
conquerors possessed political capacity, and gave the country a strong
centralized government. They made Egypt in fact a great monarchy, and laid
the basis of the power and glory of the mighty Pharaohs of the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Dynasties.
THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY (about 1650-1400 B.C.).--The revolt which drove the
Hyksos from the country was led by Amosis, or Ahmes, a descendant of the
Theban kings. He was the first king of what is known as the Eighteenth
Dynasty, probably the greatest race of kings, it has been said, that ever
reigned upon the earth.
The most eventful period of Egyptian history, covered by what is called
the New Empire, now opens. Architecture and learning seem to have
recovered at a bound from their long depression under the domination of
the Shepherd Kings. To free his empire from the danger of another invasion
from Asia, Amosis determined to subdue the Syrian and Mesopotamian tribes.
This foreign policy, followed out by his successors, shaped many of the
events of their reigns.
Thothmes III., one of the greatest kings of this Eighteenth Dynasty, has
been called "the Alexander of Egyptian history." During his reign the
frontiers of the empire reached their greatest expansion. His authority
extended from the oases of the Libyan desert to the Tigris and the
Euphrates.
[Illustration: PHALANX OF THE KHITA: In the background, town protected by
walls and moats.]
Thothmes was also a magnificent builder. His architectural works in the
valley of the Nile were almost numberless. He built a great part of the
temple of Karnak, at Thebes, the remains of which form the most majestic
ruin in the world. His obelisks stand to-day in Constantinople, in Rome,
in London, and in New York.
The name of Amunoph III. stands next after that of Thothmes III. as one of
the great rulers and builders of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY (about 1400-1280 B.C.).--The Pharaohs of the
Nineteenth Dynasty rival those of the Eighteenth in their fame as
conquerors and builders. It is their deeds and works, in connection with
those of the preceding dynasty, that have given Egypt such a name and
place in history. The two great names of the house are Seti I. and Rameses
II.
One of the most important of Seti's wars was that against the Hittites
(_Khita_, in the inscriptions) and their allies. The Hittites were a
powerful non-Semitic people, whose capital was Carchemish, on the
Euphrates, and whose strength and influence were now so great as to be a
threat to Egypt.
But Seti's deeds as a warrior are eclipsed by his achievements as a
builder. He constructed the main part of what is perhaps the most
impressive edifice ever raised by man,--the world-renowned "Hall of
Columns," in the Temple of Karnak, at Thebes (see illustration, p. 32). He
also cut for himself in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, at the same
place, the most beautiful and elaborate of all the rock-sepulchres of the
Pharaohs (see p. 31). In addition to these and numerous other works, he
began a canal to unite the Red Sea and the Nile,--an undertaking which was
completed by his son and successor, Rameses II.
[Illustration: SETI I. (From a photograph of the mummy.)]
Rameses II., surnamed the Great, was the Sesostris of the Greeks. His is
the most prominent name of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Ancient writers, in
fact, accorded him the first place among all the Egyptian sovereigns, and
made him the hero of innumerable stories. His long reign, embracing sixty-
seven years, was, in truth, well occupied with military expeditions and
the superintendence of great architectural works.
His chief wars were those against the Hittites. Time and again is Rameses
found with his host of war-chariots in their country, but he evidently
fails to break their power; for we find him at last concluding with them a
celebrated treaty, in which the chief of the Hittites is called "The Great
King of the Khita" (Hittites), and is formally recognized as in every
respect the equal of the king of Egypt. Later, Rameses marries a daughter
of the Hittite king. All this means that the Pharaohs had met their peers
in the princes of the Hittites, and that they could no longer hope to
become masters of Western Asia.
It was probably the fear of an invasion by the tribes of Syria that led
Rameses to reduce to a position of grinding servitude the Semitic peoples
that under former dynasties had been permitted to settle in Lower Egypt;
for this Nineteenth Dynasty, to which Rameses II. belongs, was the new
king (dynasty) that arose "which knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8), and
oppressed the children of Israel. It was during the reign of his son
Menephtha that the Exodus took place (about 1300 B.C.).
[Illustration: RAMESES II. RETURNING IN TRIUMPH FROM SYRIA, with his
chariot garnished with the heads of his enemies. (From the monuments of
Karnak.)]
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY (666-527 B.C.).--We pass without comment a long
period of several centuries, marked, indeed, by great vicissitudes in the
fortunes of the Egyptian monarchs, yet characterized throughout by a sure
and rapid decline in the power and splendor of their empire.
During the latter part of this period Egypt was tributary to Assyria. But
about 666 B.C., a native prince, Psammetichus I. (666-612 B.C.), with the
aid of Greek mercenaries from Asia Minor, succeeded in expelling the
Assyrian garrisons. Psammetichus thus became the founder of the Twenty-
sixth Dynasty.
The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian history. Hitherto
Egypt had secluded herself from the world, behind barriers of jealousy,
race, and pride. But Psammetichus being himself, it seems, of non-Egyptian
origin, and owing his throne chiefly to the swords of Greek soldiers, was
led to reverse the policy of the past, and to throw the valley open to the
commerce and influences of the world. His capital, Sais, on the Canopic
branch of the Nile, forty miles from the Mediterranean, was filled with
Greek citizens; and Greek mercenaries were employed in his armies.
This change of policy, occurring at just the period when the rising states
of Greece and Rome were shaping their institutions, was a most significant
event. Egypt became the University of the Mediterranean nations. From this
time forward Greek philosophers, as in the case of Pythagoras and of
Plato, are represented as becoming pupils of the Egyptian priests; and
without question the learning and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians
exerted a profound influence upon the quick, susceptible mind of the
Hellenic race, that was, in its turn, to become the teacher of the world.
The liberal policy of Psammetichus, while resulting in a great advantage
to foreign nations, brought a heavy misfortune upon his own. Displeased
with the position assigned Greek mercenaries in the army, the native
Egyptian soldiers revolted, and two hundred thousand of the troops
seceding in a body, emigrated to Ethiopia, whence no inducement that
Psammetichus offered could persuade them to return.
The son of Psammetichus, Necho II. (612-596 B.C.), the Pharaoh-Necho of
the Bible, followed the liberal policy marked out by his father. To
facilitate commerce, he attempted to reopen the old canal dug by Seti I.
and his son, which had become unnavigable. After the loss of one hundred
and twenty thousand workmen in the prosecution of the undertaking, Necho
was constrained to abandon it; Herodotus says, on account of an
unfavorable oracle.
Necho then fitted out an exploring expedition for the circumnavigation of
Africa, in hope of finding a possible passage for his fleets from the Red
Sea to the Nile by a water channel already opened by nature, and to which
the priests and oracles could interpose no objections. The expedition, we
have reason to believe, actually accomplished the feat of sailing around
the continent; for Herodotus, in his account of the enterprise, says that
the voyagers upon their return reported that, when they were rounding the
cape, the sun was on their right hand (to the north). This feature of the
report, which led Herodotus to disbelieve it, is to us the very strongest
evidence possible that the voyage was really performed.
THE LAST OF THE PHARAOHS.--Before the close of his reign, Necho had come
into collision with the king of Babylon, and was forced to acknowledge his
supremacy. A little later, Babylon having yielded to the rising power of
Persia, Egypt also passed under Persian authority (see p. 77). The
Egyptians, however, were restive under this foreign yoke, and, after a
little more than a century, succeeded in throwing it off; but the country
was again subjugated by the Persian king Artaxerxes III. (about 340 B.C.),
and from that time until our own day no native prince has ever sat upon
the throne of the Pharaohs. Long before the Persian conquest, the Prophet
Ezekiel, foretelling the debasement of Egypt, had declared, "There shall
be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." [Footnote: Ezek. xxx. 13.]
Upon the extension of the power of the Macedonians over the East (333
B.C.), Egypt willingly exchanged masters; and for three centuries the
valley was the seat of the renowned Græco-Egyptian Empire of the
Ptolemies, which lasted until the Romans annexed the region to their all-
absorbing empire (30 B.C.).
"The mission of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled; it had lit the
torch of civilization in ages inconceivably remote, and had passed it on
to other peoples of the West."
2. RELIGION, ARTS, AND GENERAL CULTURE.
CLASSES OF SOCIETY.--Egyptian society was divided into three great
classes, or orders,--priests, soldiers, and common people; the last
embracing shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans.
The sacerdotal order consisted of high-priests, prophets, scribes, keepers
of the sacred robes and animals, sacred sculptors, masons, and embalmers.
They enjoyed freedom from taxation, and met the expenses of the temple
services with the income of the sacred lands, which embraced one third of
the soil of the country.
The priests were extremely scrupulous in the care of their persons. They
bathed twice by day and twice by night, and shaved the entire body every
third day. Their inner clothing was linen, woollen garments being thought
unclean; their diet was plain and even abstemious, in order that, as
Plutarch says, "their bodies might sit light as possible about their
souls."
Next to the priesthood in rank and honor stood the military order. Like
the priests, the soldiers formed a landed class. They held one third of
the soil of Egypt. To each soldier was given a tract of about eight acres,
exempt from all taxes. They were carefully trained in their profession,
and there was no more effective soldiery in ancient times than that which
marched beneath the standard of the Pharaohs.
THE CHIEF DEITIES.--Attached to the chief temples of the Egyptians were
colleges for the training of the sacerdotal order. These institutions were
the repositories of the wisdom of the Egyptians. This learning was open
only to the initiated few.
The unity of God was the central doctrine in this private system. They
gave to this Supreme Being the very same name by which he was known to the
Hebrews--_Nuk Pu Nuk_, "I am that I am." [Footnote: "It is evident
what a new light this discovery throws on the sublime passage in Exodus
iii. 14; where Moses, whom we may suppose to have been initiated into this
formula, is sent both to his people and to Pharaoh to proclaim the true
God by this very title, and to declare that the God of the highest
Egyptian theology was also the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. The
case is parallel to that of Paul at Athens."--Smith's _Ancient History
of the East_, p. 196, note.] The sacred manuscripts say, "He is the one
living and true God,... who has made all things, and was not himself
made."
The Egyptian divinities of the popular mythology were frequently grouped
in triads. First in importance among these groups was that formed by
Osiris, Isis (his wife and sister), and Horus, their son. The members of
this triad were worshipped throughout Egypt.
The god Set (called Typhon by the Greek writers), the principle of evil,
was the Satan of Egyptian mythology. While the good and beneficent Osiris
was symbolized by the life-giving Nile, the malignant Typhon was
emblemized by the terrors and barrenness of the desert.
[Illustration: MUMMY OF A SACRED BULL. (From a photograph.)]
ANIMAL-WORSHIP.--The Egyptians regarded certain animals as emblems of the
gods, and hence worshipped them. To kill one of these sacred animals was
adjudged the greatest impiety. Persons so unfortunate as to harm one
through accident were sometimes murdered by the infuriated people. The
destruction of a cat in a burning building was lamented more than the loss
of the property. Upon the death of a dog, every member of the family
shaved his head. The scarabæus, or beetle, was especially sacred, being
considered an emblem of the sun, or of life.
Not only were various animals held sacred, as being the emblems of certain
deities, but some were thought to be real gods. Thus the soul of Osiris,
it was imagined, animated the body of some bull, which might be known from
certain spots and markings.
Upon the death of the sacred bull, or Apis, as he was called, a great
search, accompanied with loud lamentation, was made throughout the land
for his successor: for, the moment the soul of Osiris departed from the
dying bull, it entered a calf that moment born. The calf was always found
with the proper markings; but, as Wilkinson says, the young animal had
probably been put to "much inconvenience and pain to make the marks and
hair conform to his description."
The body of the deceased Apis was carefully embalmed, and, amid funeral
ceremonies of great expense and magnificence, deposited in the tomb of his
predecessors. In 1851, Mariette discovered this sepulchral chamber of the
sacred bulls. It is a narrow gallery, two thousand feet in length, cut in
the limestone cliffs just opposite the site of ancient Memphis. A large
number of the immense granite coffins, fifteen feet long and eight wide
and high, have been brought to light.
Many explanations have been given to account for the existence of such a
debased form of worship among so cultured a people as were the ancient
Egyptians. Probably the sacred animals in the later worship represent an
earlier stage of the Egyptian religion, just as many superstitious beliefs
and observances among ourselves are simply survivals from earlier and
ruder times.
JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD.--Death was a great equalizer among the Egyptians.
King and peasant alike must stand before the judgment-seat of Osiris and
his forty-two assessors.
This judgment of the soul in the other world was prefigured by a peculiar
ordeal to which the body was subjected here. Between each chief city and
the burial-place on the western edge of the valley was a sacred lake,
across which the body was borne in a barge. But, before admittance to the
boat, it must pass the ordeal called "the judgment of the dead." This was
a trial before a tribunal of forty-two judges, assembled upon the shore of
the lake. Any person could bring accusations against the deceased, false
charges being guarded against by the most dreadful penalties. If it
appeared that the life of the deceased had been evil, passage to the boat
was denied; and the body was either carried home in dishonor, or, in case
of the poor who could not afford to care for the mummy, was interred on
the shores of the lake. Many mummies of those refused admission to the
tombs of their fathers have been dug up along these "Stygian banks."
[Illustration: JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD: above, an ape-assessor scourges an
evil soul, that has been changed into an unclean animal.]
But this ordeal of the body was only a faint symbol of the dread tribunal
of Osiris before which the soul must appear in the lower world. In one
scale of a balance was placed the heart of the deceased; in the other
scale, an image of Justice, or Truth. The soul stands by watching the
result, and, as the beam inclines, is either welcomed to the companionship
of the good Osiris, or consigned to oblivion in the jaws of a frightful
hippopotamus-headed monster, "the devourer of evil souls." This
annihilation, however, is only the fate of those inveterately wicked.
Those respecting whom hopes of reformation may be entertained are
condemned to return to earth and do penance in long cycles of lives in the
bodies of various animals. This is what is known as the transmigration of
souls. The kind of animals the soul should animate, and the length of its
transmigrations, were determined by the nature of its sins.
TOMBS.--The Egyptians bestowed little care upon the temporary residences
of the living, but the "eternal homes" of the dead were fitted up with the
most lavish expenditure of labor. These were chambers, sometimes built of
brick or stone, but more usually cut in the limestone cliffs that form the
western rim of the Nile valley; for that, as the land of the sunset, was
conceived to be the realm of darkness and of death. The cliffs opposite
the ancient Egyptian capitals are honeycombed with sepulchral cells.
[Illustration: BRICK-MAKING IN ANCIENT EGYPT, (From Thebes.)]
In the hills back of Thebes is the so-called Valley of the Tombs of the
Kings, the "Westminster Abbey of Egypt." Here are twenty-five magnificent
sepulchres. These consist of extensive rock-cut passages and chambers
richly sculptured and painted.
The subjects of the decorations of many of the tombs, particularly of the
oldest, are drawn from the life and manners of the times. Thus the artist
has converted for us the Egyptian necropolis into a city of the living,
where the Egypt of four thousand years ago seems to pass before our eyes.
THE PYRAMIDS.--The Egyptian pyramids, the tombs of the earlier Pharaohs,
are the most venerable monuments that have been preserved to us from the
early world. They were almost all erected before the Twelfth Dynasty.
Although thus standing away back in the earliest twilight of the historic
morning, nevertheless they mark, not the beginning, but the perfection of
Egyptian art. They speak of long periods of growth in art and science
lying beyond the era they represent. It is this vast and mysterious
background that astonishes us even more than these giant forms cast up
against it.
[Illustration: THE GREAT HALL OF COLUMNS AT KARNAK.]
Being sepulchral monuments, the pyramids are confined to the western side
of the Nile valley (see p. 31). There are over thirty still standing, with
traces of about forty more.
The Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the Gizeh group, near Cairo, rises
from a base covering thirteen acres, to a height of four hundred and fifty
feet. According to Herodotus, Cheops employed one hundred thousand men for
twenty years in its erection.
PALACES AND TEMPLES.---The earlier Memphian kings built great unadorned
pyramids, but the later Theban monarchs constructed splendid palaces and
temples. Two of the most prominent masses of buildings on the site of
Thebes are called, the one the Temple of Karnak, and the other the Temple
of Luxor, from the names of two native villages built near or within the
ruined enclosures. The former was more than five hundred years in
building. As an adjunct of the temple at Karnak was a Hall of Columns,
which consisted of a phalanx of one hundred and sixty-four gigantic
pillars. Some of these columns measure over seventy feet in height, with
capitals sixty-five feet in circumference.
[Illustration: STATUES OF MEMNON AT THEBES.]
In Nubia, beyond the First Cataract, is the renowned rock-hewn temple of
Ipsambul, the front of which is adorned with four gigantic portrait-
statues of Rameses II., seventy feet in height. This temple has been
pronounced the greatest and grandest achievement of Egyptian art.
SCULPTURE: SPHINXES AND COLOSSI.--A strange immobility, due to the
influence of religion, attached itself, at an early period, to Egyptian
art. The artist, in the portrayal of the figures of the gods, was not
allowed to change a single line in the conventional form. Hence the
impossibility of improvement in sacred sculpture. Wilkinson says that
Menes would have recognized the statue of Osiris in the Temple of Amasis.
Plato complained that the pictures and statues in the temples in his day
were no better than those made "ten thousand years" before.
The heroic, or colossal size of many of the Egyptian statues excites our
admiration. The two colossi at Thebes, known as the "Statues of Memnon,"
are forty-seven feet high, and are hewn each from a single block of
granite. The appearance of these time-worn, gigantic figures, upon the
solitary plain, is singularly impressive. "There they sit together, yet
apart, in the midst of the plain, serene and vigilant, still keeping their
untired watch over the lapse of ages and the eclipse of Egypt."
One of these statues acquired a wide reputation among the Greeks and
Romans, under the name of the "Vocal Memnon." When the rays of the rising
sun fell upon the colossus, it emitted low musical tones, which the
Egyptians believed to be the greeting of the statue to the mother-sun.
[Footnote: It is probable that the musical notes were produced by the
action of the sun upon the surface of the rock while wet with dew. The
phenomenon was observed only while the upper part of the colossus, which
was broken off by an earthquake, remained upon the ground. When the statue
was restored, the music ceased.]
The Egyptian sphinxes were figures having a human head and the body of a
lion, symbolizing intelligence and power. The most famous of the sphinxes
of Egypt is the colossal figure at the base of the Great Pyramid, at
Gizeh, sculptured, some think, by Menes, and others, by one of the kings
of the Fourth Dynasty. The immense statue, cut out of the native rock,
save the fore-legs, which are built of masonry, is ninety feet long and
seventy feet high. "This huge, mutilated figure has an astonishing effect;
it seems like an eternal spectre. The stone phantom seems attentive; one
would say that it hears and sees. Its great ear appears to collect the
sounds of the past; its eyes, directed to the east, gaze, as it were, into
the future; its aspect has a depth, a truth of expression, irresistibly
fascinating to the spectator. In this figure--half statue, half mountain--
we see a wonderful majesty, a grand serenity, and even a sort of sweetness
of expression."
GLASS MANUFACTURE.--The manufacture of glass, a discovery usually
attributed to the Phoenicians, [Footnote: The Phoenicians, being the
carriers of antiquity, often received credit among the peoples with whom
they traded, for various inventions and discoveries of which they were
simply the disseminators.] was carried on in Egypt more than four thousand
years ago. The paintings of the monuments represent glass-blowers moulding
all manner of articles. Glass bottles, and various other objects of the
same material, are found in great numbers in the tombs. Some of these
objects show that the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with processes of
coloring glass that secured results which we have not yet been able to
equal. The Egyptian artists imitated, with marvellous success, the
variegated hues of insects and stones. The manufacture of precious gems,
so like the natural stone as to defy detection, was a lucrative
profession.
THE PAPYRUS PAPER.--The chief writing material used by the ancient
Egyptians was the noted papyrus paper, manufactured from a reed which grew
in the marshes and along the water-channels of the Nile. From the Greek
names of this Egyptian plant, _byblos_ and _papyrus_, come our words
"Bible" and "paper." The plant has now entirely disappeared from Egypt,
and is found only on the Anapus, in the island of Sicily, and on a
small stream near Jaffa, in Palestine. Long before the plant became
extinct in Egypt an ancient prophecy had declared, "The paper reeds by the
brooks ... shall wither, be driven away, and be no more." (Isa. xix. 7.)
The costly nature of the papyrus paper led to the use of many substitutes
for writing purposes--as leather, broken pottery, tiles, stones, and
wooden tablets.
FORMS OF WRITING.--The Egyptians employed three forms of writing: the
_hieroglyphical_, consisting of rude pictures of material objects,
usually employed in monumental inscriptions; the _hieratic_, an
abbreviated or rather simplified form of the hieroglyphical, adapted to
writing, and forming the greater part of the papyrus manuscripts; and the
_demotic_, or _encorial_, a still simpler form than the hieratic. The last
did not come into use till about the seventh century B.C., and was then
used for all ordinary documents, both of a civil and commercial nature. It
could be written eight or ten times as fast as the hieroglyphical form.
KEY TO EGYPTIAN WRITING.--The key to the Egyptian writing was discovered
by means of the Rosetta Stone. This valuable relic, a heavy block of black
basalt, is now in the British Museum. It holds an inscription, written in
hieroglyphic, in demotic, and in Greek characters. Champollion, a French
scholar, by comparing the characters composing the words Ptolemy,
Alexander, and other names in the parallel inscriptions, discovered the
value of several of the symbols; and thus were opened the vast libraries
of Egyptian learning.
We have now the Ritual, or Book, of the Dead, a sort of guide to the soul
in its journey through the underworld; romances, and fairy tales, among
which is "Cinderella and the Glass Slipper"; autobiographies, letters,
fables, and epics; treatises on medicine, astronomy, and various other
scientific subjects; and books on history--in prose and verse--which fully
justify the declaration of the Egyptian priests to Solon: "You Greeks are
mere children, talkative and vain; you know nothing at all of the past."
ASTRONOMY, GEOGRAPHY AND ARITHMETIC.--The cloudless and brilliant skies of
Egypt invited the inhabitants of the Nile valley to the study of the
heavenly bodies. And another circumstance closely related to their very
existence, the inundation of the Nile, following the changing cycles of
the stars, could not but have incited them to the watching and predicting
of astronomical movements. Their observations led them to discover the
length, very nearly, of the sidereal year, which they made to consist of
365 days, every fourth year adding one day, making the number for that
year 366. They also divided the year into twelve months of thirty days
each, adding five days to complete the year. This was the calendar that
Julius Cæsar introduced into the Roman Empire, and which, slightly
reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, has been the system employed by
almost all the civilized world up to the present day.
The Greeks accounted for the early rise of the science of geometry among
the Egyptians by reference to the necessity they were under each year of
re-establishing the boundaries of their fields--the inundation
obliterating old landmarks and divisions. The science thus forced upon
their attention was cultivated with zeal and success. A single papyrus has
been discovered that holds twelve geometrical theorems.
Arithmetic was necessarily brought into requisition in solving
astronomical and geometrical problems. We ourselves are debtors to the
ancient Egyptians for much of our mathematical knowledge, which has come
to us from the banks of the Nile, through the Greeks and the Saracens.
MEDICINE AND THE ART OF EMBALMING.--The custom of embalming the dead,
affording opportunities for the examination of the body, without doubt had
a great influence upon the development of the sciences of anatomy and
medicine among the Egyptians. That the embalmers were physicians, we know
from various testimonies. Thus we are told in the Bible that Joseph
"commanded the _physicians_ to embalm his father." The Egyptian doctors
had a very great reputation among the ancients.
Every doctor was a specialist, and was not allowed to take charge of cases
outside of his own branch. As the artist was forbidden to change the lines
of the sacred statues, so the physician was not permitted to treat cases
save in the manner prescribed by the customs of the past; and if he were
so presumptuous as to depart from the established mode of treatment, and
the patient died, he was adjudged guilty of murder. Many drugs and
medicines were used; the ciphers, or characters, employed by modern
apothecaries to designate grains and drams are of Egyptian invention.
The Egyptians believed that after a long lapse of time, several thousand
years, the departed soul would return to earth and reanimate its former
body; hence their custom of preserving the body by means of embalmment. In
the processes of embalming, the physicians made use of oils, resin,
bitumen, and various aromatic gums. The body was swathed in bandages of
linen, while the face was sometimes gilded, or covered with a gold mask.
As this, which was the "most approved method" of embalming, was very
costly, the expense being equivalent probably to $1000 of our money, the
bodies of the poorer classes were simply "salted and dried," wrapped in
coarse mats, and laid in tiers in great trenches in the desert sands.
[Illustration: PROFILE OF RAMESES II. (From a photograph of the mummy.)]
Only a few years ago (in 1881) the mummies of Thothmes III., Seti I., and
Rameses II., together with those of nearly all of the other Pharaohs of
the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first Dynasties, were
found in a secret cave near Thebes. It seems that, some time in the 12th
century B.C., a sudden alarm caused these bodies to be taken hastily from
the royal tombs of which we have spoken (see p. 31), and secreted in this
hidden chamber. When the danger had passed, the place of concealment had
evidently been forgotten; so the bodies were never restored to their
ancient tombs, but remained in this secret cavern to be discovered in our
own day.
The mummies were taken to the Boulak Museum, at Cairo, where they were
identified by means of the inscriptions upon the cases and wrappings.
Among others the body of Seti I. and that of Rameses II. were unbandaged
(1886), so that now we may look upon the faces of the greatest and most
renowned of the Pharaohs. The faces of both Seti and Rameses are so
remarkably preserved, that "were their subjects to return to earth to-day
they could not fail to recognize their old sovereigns." Both are strong
faces, of Semitic cast, that of Rameses bearing a striking resemblance to
that of his father Seti, and both closely resembling their portrait
statues and profiles. Professor Maspero, the director-general of the
excavations and antiquities of Egypt, in his official report of the
uncovering of the mummies, writes as follows of the appearance of the face
of Rameses: "The face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the
living king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps slightly animal;
but even under the somewhat grotesque disguise of mummification, there is
plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride."
[Footnote: On the finding and identification of the Pharaohs, consult two
excellent articles in _The Century Magazine_ for May, 1887.]
CHAPTER III.
CHALDÆA.
1. POLITICAL HISTORY.
BASIN OF THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES.-The northern part of the Tigris and
Euphrates valley, the portion that comprised ancient Assyria, consists of
undulating plains, broken in places by considerable mountain ridges.
But all the southern portion of the basin, the part known as Chaldæa, or
Babylonia, having been formed by the gradual encroachment of the deposits
of the Tigris and Euphrates upon the waters of the Persian Gulf, is as
level as the sea. During a large part of the year, rains are infrequent;
hence agriculture is dependent mainly upon artificial irrigation. The
distribution of the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates was secured, in
ancient times, by a stupendous system of canals and irrigants, which, at
the present day, in a sand-choked and ruined condition, spread like a
perfect network over the face of the country (see cut, p. 41).
The productions of Babylonia are very like those of the Nile valley. The
luxuriant growth of grain upon these alluvial flats excited the wonder of
all the Greek travellers who visited the East. Herodotus will not tell the
whole truth, for fear his veracity may be doubted. The soil is as fertile
now as in the time of the historian; but owing to the neglect of the
ancient canals, the greater part of this once populous district has been
converted into alternating areas of marsh and desert.
THE THREE GREAT MONARCHIES.--Within the Tigris-Euphrates basin, three
great empires--the Chaldæan, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian--
successively rose to prominence and dominion. Each, in turn, not only
extended its authority over the valley, but also made the power of its
arms felt throughout the adjoining regions. We shall now trace the rise
and the varied fortunes of these empires, and the slow growth of the arts
and sciences from rude beginnings among the early Chaldæans to their
fuller and richer development under the Assyrian and Babylonian
monarchies.
THE CHALDÆANS A MIXED PEOPLE.--In the earliest times Lower Chaldæa was
known as Shumir, the Shinar of the Bible, while Upper Chaldæa bore the
name of Accad. The original inhabitants were conjecturally of Turanian
race, and are called Accadians.
[Illustration: ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CANALS.]
These people laid the basis of civilization in the Euphrates valley, so
that with them the history of Asian culture begins. They brought with them
into the valley the art of hieroglyphical writing, which later developed
into the well-known cuneiform system. They also had quite an extensive
literature, and had made considerable advance in the art of building.
The civilization of the Accadians was given a great impulse by the arrival
of a Semitic people. These foreigners were nomadic in habits, and
altogether much less cultured than the Accadians. Gradually, however, they
adopted the arts and literature of the people among whom they had settled;
yet they retained their own language, which in the course of time
superseded the less perfect Turanian speech of the original inhabitants;
consequently the mixed people, known later as Chaldæans, that arose from
the blending of the two races, spoke a language essentially the same as
that used by their northern neighbors, the Semitic Assyrians.
SARGON (SHARRUKIN) I. (3800? B.C.).--We know scarcely anything about the
political affairs of the Accadians until after the arrival of the Semites.
Then, powerful kings, sometimes of Semitic and then again of Turanian, or
Accadian origin, appear ruling in the cities of Accad and Shumir, and the
political history of Chaldæa begins.
The first prominent monarch is called Sargon I. (Sharrukin), a Semitic
king of Agade, one of the great early cities. An inscription recently
deciphered makes this king to have reigned as early as 3800 B.C. He
appears to have been the first great organizer of the peoples of the
Chaldæan plains.
Yet not as a warrior, but as a patron and protector of letters, is
Sargon's name destined to a sure place in history. He classified and
translated into the Semitic, or Assyrian tongue the religious,
mythological, and astronomical literature of the Accadians, and deposited
the books in great libraries, which he established or enlarged,--the
oldest and most valuable libraries of the ancient world. The scholar Sayce
calls him the Chaldæan Solomon.
CONQUEST OF CHALDÆA BY THE ELAMITES (2286 B.C.).--While the Chaldæan kings
were ruling in the great cities of Lower Babylonia, the princes of the
Elamites, a people of Turanian race, were setting up a rival kingdom to
the northeast, just at the foot of the hills of Persia.
In the year 2286 B.C., a king of Elam, Kudur-Nakhunta by name, overran
Chaldæa, took all the cities founded by Sargon and his successors, and
from the temples bore off in triumph to his capital, Susa, the statues of
the Chaldæan gods, and set up in these lowland regions what is known as
the Elamite Dynasty.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES REGION.]
More than sixteen hundred years after this despoiling of the Chaldæan
sanctuaries, a king of Nineveh captured the city of Susa, and finding
there these stolen statues, caused them to be restored to their original
temples.
The Chedorlaomer of Genesis, whose contact with the history of the Jewish
patriarch Abraham has caused his name to be handed down to our own times
in the records of the Hebrew people, is believed to have been the son and
successor of Kudur-Nakhunta.
CHALDÆA ECLIPSED BY ASSYRIA.--After the Elamite princes had maintained a
more or less perfect dominion over the cities of Chaldæa for two or three
centuries, their power seems to have declined; and then for several
centuries longer, down to about 1300 B.C., dynasties and kings of which we
know very little as yet, ruled the country.
During this period, Babylon, gradually rising into prominence,
overshadowed the more ancient Accadian cities, and became the leading city
of the land. From it the whole country was destined, later, to draw the
name by which it is best known--Babylonia.
Meanwhile a Semitic power had been slowly developing in the north. This
was the Assyrian empire, the later heart and centre of which was the great
city of Nineveh. For a long time Assyria was simply a province or
dependency of the lower kingdom; but about 1300 B.C., the Assyrian monarch
Tiglathi-nin conquered Babylonia, and Assyria assumed the place that had
been so long held by Chaldæa. From this time on to the fall of Nineveh in
606 B.C., the monarchs of this country virtually controlled the affairs of
Western Asia.
2. ARTS AND GENERAL CULTURE.
TOWER-TEMPLES.--In the art of building, the Chaldæans, though their
edifices fall far short of attaining the perfection exhibited by the
earliest Egyptian structures, displayed no inconsiderable architectural
knowledge and skill.
The most important of their constructions were their tower-temples. These
were simple in plan, consisting of two or three terraces, or stages,
placed one upon another so as to form a sort of rude pyramid. The material
used in their construction was chiefly sun-dried brick. The edifice was
sometimes protected by outer courses of burnt brick. The temple proper
surmounted the upper platform.
All these tower-temples have crumbled into vast mounds, with only here and
there a projecting mass of masonry to distinguish them from natural hills,
for which they were at first mistaken.
CUNEIFORM WRITING.--We have already mentioned the fact that the Accadians,
when they entered the Euphrates valley, were in possession of a system of
writing. This was a simple pictorial, or hieroglyphical system, which they
gradually developed into the cuneiform.
In the cuneiform system, the characters, instead of being formed of
unbroken lines, are composed of wedge-like marks; hence the name (from
_cuneus_, a wedge). This form, according to the scholar Sayce, arose
when the Accadians, having entered the low country, substituted tablets of
clay for the papyrus or other similar material which they had formerly
used. The characters were impressed upon the soft tablet by means of a
triangular writing-instrument, which gave them their peculiar wedge-shaped
form.
The cuneiform mode of writing, improved and simplified by the Assyrians
and the Persians, was in use about two thousand years, being employed by
the nations in and near the Euphrates basin, down to the time of the
conquest of the East by the Macedonians.
BOOKS AND LIBRARIES.--The books of the Chaldæans were in general clay
tablets, varying in length from one inch to twelve inches, and being about
one inch thick. Those holding records of special importance, after having
been once written over and baked, were covered with a thin coating of
clay, and then the matter was written in duplicate and the tablets again
baked. If the outer writing were defaced by accident or altered by design,
the removal of the outer coating would at once show the true text.
The tablets were carefully preserved in great public libraries. Even
during the Turanian period, before the Semites had entered the land, one
or more of these collections existed in each of the chief cities of Accad
and Shumir. "Accad," says Sayce, "was the China of Asia. Almost every one
could read and write." Erech was especially renowned for its great
library, and was known as "the City of Books."
[Illustration: CHALDÆAN TABLET.]
THE RELIGION.--The Accadian religion, as revealed by the tablets, was
essentially the same as that held today by the nomadic Turanian tribes of
Northern Asia--what is known as Shamanism. It consisted in a belief in
good and evil spirits, of which the latter held by far the most prominent
place. To avert the malign influence of these wicked spirits, the
Accadians had resort to charms and magic rites. The religion of the
Semites was a form of Sabæanism,--that is, a worship of the heavenly
bodies,--in which the sun was naturally the central object of adoration.
When the Accadians and the Semites intermingled, their religious systems
blended to form one of the most influential religions of the world--one
which spread far and wide under the form of Baal worship. There were in
the perfected system twelve primary gods, at whose head stood Il, or Ra.
Besides these great divinities, there were numerous lesser and local
deities.
There were features of this old Chaldæan religion which were destined to
exert a wide-spread and potent influence upon the minds of men. Out of the
Sabæan Semitic element grew astrology, the pretended art of forecasting
events by the aspect of the stars, which was most elaborately and
ingeniously developed, until the fame of the Chaldæan astrologers was
spread throughout the ancient world, while the spell of that art held in
thraldom the mind of mediæval Europe.
Out of the Shamanistic element contributed by the Turanian Accadians, grew
a system of magic and divination which had a most profound influence not
only upon all the Eastern nations, including the Jews, but also upon the
later peoples of the West. mediæval magic and witchcraft were, in large
part, an unchanged inheritance from Chaldæa.
THE CHALDÆAN GENESIS.--The cosmological myths of the Chaldæans, that is,
their stories of the origin of things, are remarkably like the first
chapters of Genesis.
[Illustration: ASSYRIAN TABLET WITH PARTS OF THE DELUGE LEGEND.]
The discoveries and patient labors of various scholars have reproduced, in
a more or less perfect form, from the legendary tablets, the Chaldæan
account of the Creation of the World, of an ancestral Paradise and the
Tree of Life with its angel guardians, of the Deluge, and of the Tower of
Babel. [Footnote: Consult especially George Smith's _The Chaldæan
Account of Genesis_; see also _Records of the Past_, Vol. VII. pp.
127, 131.]
THE CHALDÆAN EPIC OF IZDUBAR.--Beside their cosmological myths, the
Chaldæans had a vast number of so-called heroic and nature myths. The most
noted of these form what is known as the Epic of Izdubar (Nimrod?), which
is doubtless the oldest epic of the race. This is in twelve parts, and is
really a solar myth, which recounts the twelve labors of the sun in his
yearly passage through the twelve signs of the Chaldæan zodiac.
This epic was carried to the West, by the way of Phoenicia and Asia Minor,
and played a great part in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. "The
twelve labors of Heracles may be traced back to the adventures of
Gisdhubar [Izdubar] as recorded in the twelve books of the great epic of
Chaldæa." (Sayce.)
SCIENCE.--In astronomy and arithmetic the Chaldæans made substantial
progress. The clear sky and unbroken horizon of the Chaldæan plains,
lending an unusually brilliant aspect to the heavens, naturally led the
Chaldæans to the study of the stars. They early divided the zodiac into
twelve signs, and named the zodiacal constellations, a memorial of their
astronomical attainments which will remain forever inscribed upon the
great circle of the heavens; they foretold eclipses, constructed sun-dials
of various patterns, divided the year into twelve months, and the day and
night into twelve hours each, and invented or devised the week of seven
days, the number of days in the week being determined by the course of the
moon. "The 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the lunar month were
kept like the Jewish Sabbath, and were actually so named in Assyria."
In arithmetic, also, the Chaldæans made considerable advance. A tablet has
been found which contains the squares and cubes of the numbers from one to
sixty.
CONCLUSION.-This hasty glance at the beginnings of civilization among the
primitive peoples of the Euphrates valley, will serve to give us at least
some little idea of how much modern culture owes to the old Chaldæans. We
may say that Chaldæa was one of the main sources--Egypt was the other--of
the stream of universal history.
CHAPTER IV.
ASSYRIA.
1. POLITICAL HISTORY.
TIGLATH-PILESER I. (1130-1110 B.C.).--It is not until about two centuries
after the conquest of Chaldæa by the Assyrian prince Tiglathi-Nin (see p.
43), that we find a sovereign of renown at the head of Assyrian affairs.
This was Tiglath-Pileser I., who came to the throne about 1130 B.C. The
royal records detail at great length his numerous war expeditions, and
describe minutely the great temples which he constructed.
For the two centuries following the reign of Tiglath-Pileser, Assyria is
quite lost to history; then it is again raised into prominence by two or
three strong kings; after which it once more almost "drops below the
historical horizon."
TIGLATH-PILESER II. (745-727 B.C.).--With this king, who was a usurper,
begins what is known as the Second Empire. He was a man of great energy
and of undoubted military talent,--for by him the Assyrian power was once
more extended over the greater part of Southwestern Asia.
But what renders the reign of this king a landmark in Assyrian history, is
the fact that he was not a mere conqueror like his predecessors, but a
political organizer of great capacity. He laid the basis of the power and
glory of the great kings who followed him upon the Assyrian throne.
SARGON (722-705 B.C.).--Sargon was one of the greatest conquerors and
builders of the Second Empire. In 722 B.C., he took Samaria and carried
away the Ten Tribes into captivity beyond the Tigris. The larger part of
the captives were scattered among the Median towns, where they became so
mingled with the native population as to be inquired after even to this
day as the "lost tribes."
During this reign the Egyptians and their allies, in the first encounter
(the battle of Raphia, 720 B.C.) between the empires of the Euphrates and
the Nile valley, suffered a severe defeat, and the ancient kingdom of the
Pharaohs became tributary to Assyria.
Sargon was a famous builder. Near the foot of the Persian hills he founded
a large city, which he named for himself; and there he erected a royal
residence, described in the inscriptions as "a palace of incomparable
magnificence," the site of which is now preserved by the vast mounds of
Khorsabad.
SENNACHERIB (705-681 B.C.).--Sennacherib, the son of Sargon, came to the
throne 705 B.C. We must accord to him the first place of renown among all
the great names of the Assyrian Empire. His name, connected as it is with
the story of the Jews, and with many of the most wonderful discoveries
among the ruined palaces of Nineveh, has become as familiar to the ear as
that of Nebuchadnezzar in the story of Babylon.
The fulness of the royal inscriptions of this reign enables us to permit
Sennacherib to tell us in his own words of his great works and military
expeditions. Respecting the decoration of Nineveh, he says: "I raised
again all the edifices of Nineveh, my royal city; I reconstructed all its
old streets, and widened those that were too narrow. I have made the whole
town a city shining like the sun."
Concerning an expedition against Hezekiah, king of Judah, he says: "I took
forty-six of his strong fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were
scattered about I took and plundered a countless number. And from these
places I captured and carried off as spoil 200,150 people, old and young,
male and female, together with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen
and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in
Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round
the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so
as to prevent escape." [Footnote: Rawlinson's _Ancient Monarchies_,
Vol. II. p. 161.]
While Sennacherib was besieging Jerusalem, the king of Egypt appeared in
the field in the south with aid for Hezekiah. This caused Sennacherib to
draw off his forces from the siege to meet the new enemy; but near the
frontiers of Egypt the Assyrian host, according to the Hebrew account, was
smitten by "the angel of the Lord," [Footnote: This expression is a
Hebraism, meaning often any physical cause of destruction, as a plague or
storm. In the present case, the destroying agency was probably a
pestilence. ] and the king returned with a shattered army and without
glory to his capital, Nineveh.
Sennacherib employed the closing years of his reign in the digging of
canals, and in the erection of a splendid palace at Nineveh. He was
finally murdered by his own sons.
[Illustration: SIEGE OF A CITY, SHOWING USE OF BATTERING-RAM. (From
Nimrud.)]
ASSHUR-BANI-PAL (668-626? B.C.).--This king, the Sardanapalus of the
Greeks, is distinguished for his magnificent patronage of art and
literature. During his reign Assyria enjoyed her Augustan age.
But Asshur-bani-pal was also possessed of a warlike spirit. He broke to
pieces, with terrible energy, in swift campaigns, the enemies of his
empire. All the scenes of his sieges and battles he caused to be
sculptured on the walls of his palace at Nineveh. These pictured panels
are now in the British Museum. They are a perfect Iliad in stone.
SARACUS OR ESARHADDON II. (?-606 B.C.).--Saracus was the last of the long
line of Assyrian kings. His reign was filled with misfortunes for himself
and his kingdom. For nearly or quite seven centuries the Ninevite kings
had lorded it over the East. There was scarcely a state in all Western
Asia that had not, during this time, felt the weight of their conquering
arms; scarcely a people that had not suffered their cruel punishments, or
tasted the bitterness of their servitude.
But now swift misfortunes were bearing down upon the oppressor from every
quarter. The Scythian hordes, breaking through the mountain gates on the
north, spread a new terror throughout the upper Assyrian provinces; from
the mountain defiles on the east issued the armies of the recent-grown
empire of the Aryan Medes, led by the renowned Cyaxares; from the southern
lowlands, anxious to aid in the overthrow of the hated oppressor, the
Babylonians, led by the youthful Nebuchadnezzar, the son of the traitor
viceroy Nabopolassar, joined, it appears, the Medes as allies, and
together they laid close siege to the Assyrian capital.
The operations of the besiegers seem to have been aided by an unusual
inundation of the Tigris, which undermined a section of the city walls. At
all events the place was taken, and dominion passed away forever from the
proud capital [Footnote: Saracus, in his despair, is said to have erected
a funeral pyre within one of the courts of his palace, and, mounting the
pile with the members of his family, to have perished with them in the
flames; but this is doubtless a poetical embellishment of the story.] (606
B.C.). Two hundred years later, when Xenophon with his Ten Thousand
Greeks, in his memorable retreat (see p. 156), passed the spot, the once
great city was a crumbling mass of ruins, of which he could not even learn
the name.
2. RELIGION, ARTS, AND GENERAL CULTURE.
RELIGION.--The Assyrians were Semites, and as such they possessed the deep
religious spirit that has always distinguished the peoples of this family.
In this respect they were very much like the Hebrews. The wars which the
Assyrian monarchs waged were not alone wars of conquest, but were, in a
certain sense, crusades made for the purpose of extending the worship and
authority of the gods of Assyria. They have been likened to the wars of
the Hebrew kings, and again to the conquests of the Saracens.
As with the wars, so was it with the architectural works of these
sovereigns. Greater attention, indeed, was paid to the palace in Assyria
than in Babylonia; yet the inscriptions, as well as the ruins, of the
upper country attest that the erection and adornment of the temples of the
gods were matters of anxious and constant care on the part of the Assyrian
monarchs. Their accounts of the construction and dedication of temples for
their gods afford striking parallels to the Bible account of the building
of the temple at Jerusalem by King Solomon.
[Illustration: EMBLEM OF ASSHUR.]
Not less prominently manifested is the religious spirit of these kings in
what we may call their sacred literature, which is filled with prayers
singularly like those of the Old Testament.
As to the Assyrian deities and their worship, these were in all their
essential characteristics so similar to those of the later Chaldæan
system, already described (see p. 45), that any detailed account of them
here is unnecessary. One difference, however, in the two systems should be
noted. The place occupied by Il, or Ra, as the head of the Chaldæan
deities, is in Assyria given to the national god Asshur, whose emblem was
a winged circle with the figure of a man within, the whole perhaps
symbolizing, according to Rawlinson, eternity, omnipresence, and wisdom.
CRUELTY OF THE ASSYRIANS.--The Assyrians have been called the "Romans of
Asia." They were a proud, martial, cruel, and unrelenting race. Although
possessing, as we have just noticed, a deep and genuine religious feeling,
still the Assyrian monarchs often displayed in their treatment of
prisoners the disposition of savages. In common with most Asiatics, they
had no respect for the body, but subjected captives to the most terrible
mutilations. The sculptured marbles taken from the palaces exhibit the
cruel tortures inflicted upon prisoners; kings are being led before their
conqueror by means of hooks thrust through one or both lips; [Footnote:
See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10-13 (Revised Version).] other prisoners are being
flayed alive; the eyes of some are being bored out with the point of a
spear; and still others are having their tongues torn out.
[Illustration: ASSYRIANS FLAYING THEIR PRISONERS ALIVE.]
An inscription by Asshur-nazir-pal, found in one of the palaces at Nimrud,
runs as follows: "Their men, young and old, I took prisoners. Of some I
cut off the feet and hands; of others I cut off the noses, ears, and lips;
of the young men's ears I made a heap; of the old men's heads I built a
tower. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male
children and the female children I burned in the flames."
ROYAL SPORTS.--The Assyrian king gloried in being, like the great Nimrod,
"a mighty hunter before the Lord." The monuments are covered with
sculptures that represent the king engaged in the favorite royal sport.
Asshur-nazir-pal had at Nineveh a menagerie, or hunting-park, filled with
various animals, many of which were sent him as tribute by vassal princes.
[Illustration: LION HUNT. (From Nineveh.)]
REMAINS OF ASSYRIAN CITIES.--Enormous grass-grown mounds, enclosed by
crumbled ramparts, alone mark the sites of the great cities of the
Assyrian kings. The character of the remains arises from the nature of the
building material. City walls, palaces, and temples were constructed
chiefly of sun-dried bricks, so that the generation that raised them had
scarcely passed away before they began to sink down into heaps of rubbish.
The rains of many centuries have beaten down and deeply furrowed these
mounds, while the grass has crept over them and made green alike the
palaces of the kings and the temples of the gods. [Footnote: Lying upon
the left bank of the Upper Tigris are two enormous mounds surrounded by
heavy earthen ramparts, about eight miles in circuit. This is the site of
ancient Nineveh, the immense enclosing ridges being the ruined city walls.
These ramparts are still, in their crumbled condition, about fifty feet
high, and average about one hundred and fifty in width. The lower part of
the wall was constructed of solid stone masonry; the upper portion of
dried brick. This upper and frailer part, crumbling into earth, has
completely buried the stone basement. The Turks of to-day quarry the stone
from these old walls for their buildings.]
PALACE-MOUNDS AND PALACES.--In order to give a certain dignity to the
royal residence, to secure the fresh breezes, and to render them more
easily defended, the Assyrians, as well as the Babylonians and the
Persians, built their palaces upon lofty artificial terraces, or
platforms. These eminences, which appear like natural, flat-topped hills,
were constructed with an almost incredible expenditure of human labor. The
great palace-mound at Nineveh, called by the natives Koyunjik, covers an
area of one hundred acres, and is from seventy to ninety feet high. Out of
the material composing it could be built four pyramids as large as that of
Cheops. Upon this mound stood several of the most splendid palaces of the
Ninevite kings.
[Illustration: RESTORATION OF A COURT IN SARGON'S PALACE AT KHORSABAD.
(After Fergusson.)]
The group of buildings constituting the royal residence was often of
enormous extent; the various courts, halls, corridors, and chambers of the
Palace of Sennacherib, which surmounted the great platform at Nineveh,
covered an area of over ten acres. The palaces were usually one-storied.
The walls, constructed chiefly of dried brick, were immensely thick and
heavy. The rooms and galleries were plastered with stucco, or panelled
with precious woods, or lined with enamelled bricks. The main halls,
however, and the great open courts were faced with slabs of alabaster,
covered with sculptures and inscriptions, the illustrated narrative of the
wars and labors of the monarch. There were two miles of such sculptured
panelling at Koyunjik. At the portals of the palace, to guard the
approach, were stationed the colossal human-headed bulls.
[Illustration: SCULPTURES FROM A GATEWAY AT KHORSABAD.]
An important adjunct of the palace was the temple, a copy of the tower-
temples of the Chaldæans. Its position is marked at present by a lofty
conical mound rising amidst and overlooking the palace ruins.
Upon the decay of the Assyrian palaces, the material forming the upper
part of the thick walls completely buried and protected all the lower
portion of the structure. In this way their sculptures and inscriptions
have been preserved through so many centuries, till brought to light by
the recent excavations of French and English antiquarians.
THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT NINEVEH.--Within the palace of Asshur-bani-pal at
Nineveh, Layard discovered what is known as the Royal Library. There were
two chambers, the floors of which were heaped with books, like the
Chaldæan tablets already described, The number of books in the collection
has been estimated at ten thousand. The writing upon some of the tablets
is so minute that it cannot be read without the aid of a magnifying glass.
We learn from the inscriptions that a librarian had charge of the
collection. Catalogues of the books have been found, made out on clay
tablets. The library was open to the public, for an inscription says, "I
[Asshur-bani-pal] wrote upon the tablets; I placed them in my palace for
the instruction of my people."
Asshur-bani-pal, as we have already learned, was the Augustus of Assyria.
It was under his patronage and direction that most of the books were
prepared and placed in the Ninevite collection. The greater part of these
were copies of older Chaldæan tablets; for the literature of the
Assyrians, as well as their arts and sciences, was borrowed almost in a
body from the Chaldæans. All the old libraries of the low country were
ransacked, and copies of their tablets made for the Royal Library at
Nineveh. Rare treasures were secured from the libraries founded or
enlarged by Sargon of Agade (see p. 42). In this way was preserved the
most valuable portion of the early Chaldæan literature, which would
otherwise have been lost to the world.
The tablets embrace a great variety of subjects; the larger part, however,
are lexicons and treatises on grammar, and various other works intended as
text-books for scholars. Perhaps the most curious of the tablets yet found
are notes issued by the government, and made redeemable in gold and silver
on presentation at the king's treasury.
From one part of the library, which seems to have been the archives
proper, were taken copies of treaties, reports of officers of the
government, deeds, wills, mortgages, and contracts. One tablet, known as
"the Will of Sennacherib," conveys to certain priests some personal
property to be held in trust for one of his sons. This is the oldest will
in existence.
CHAPTER V.
BABYLONIA.
BABYLONIAN AFFAIRS FROM 1300 TO 625 B.C.--During the six centuries and
more that intervened between the conquest of the old Chaldæan monarchy by
the Assyrian king Tiglathi-Nin and the successful revolt of the low
countries under Nabopolassar (see pp. 43, 51), the Babylonian peoples bore
the Assyrian yoke very impatiently. Again and again they made violent
efforts to throw it off; and in several instances they succeeded, and for
a time enjoyed home rulers. But for the most part the whole country as far
as the "Sea," as the Persian Gulf is called in the inscriptions, was a
dependency of the great overshadowing empire of the north.
NABOPOLASSAR (625-604 B.C.).--Nabopolassar was the first king of what is
called the New Babylonian Monarchy. When troubles and misfortunes began to
thicken about the last Assyrian king, Saracus, he intrusted to the care of
Nabopolassar, as his viceroy, the towns and provinces of the South. The
chance now presented of obtaining a crown proved too great a temptation
for the satrap's fidelity to his master. He revolted and became
independent (625 B.C.). Later, he entered into an alliance with the Median
king, Cyaxares, against his former sovereign (see p. 51). Through the
overthrow of Nineveh and the break-up of the Assyrian Empire, the new
Babylonian kingdom received large accessions of territory.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR (604-561 B.C.).--Nabopolassar was followed by his renowned
son Nebuchadnezzar, whose oppressive wars and gigantic architectural works
rendered Babylon at once the scourge and the wonder of the ancient world.
Jerusalem, having repeatedly revolted, was finally taken and sacked. The
temple was stripped of its sacred vessels of silver and gold, which were
carried away to Babylon, and the temple itself with the adjoining palace
was given to the flames; the people, save a miserable remnant, were also
borne away into the "Great Captivity" (586 B.C.).
With Jerusalem subdued, Nebuchadnezzar pushed with all his forces the
siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, whose investment had been commenced
several years before. In striking language the prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxix.
18) describes the length and hardness of the siege: "Every head was made
bald, and every shoulder was peeled." After a siege of thirteen years, the
city seems to have fallen into the hands of the Babylonian king, and his
authority was now undisputed from the Zagros Mountains to the
Mediterranean.
The numerous captives of his many wars, embracing peoples of almost every
nation in Western Asia, enabled Nebuchadnezzar to rival even the Pharaohs
in the execution of enormous works requiring an immense expenditure of
human labor: Among his works were the Great Palace in the royal quarter of
the city; the celebrated Hanging Gardens; and gigantic reservoirs, canals,
and various engineering works, embracing a vast system of irrigation that
reached every part of Babylonia.
In addition to all these works, the indefatigable monarch seems to have
either rebuilt or repaired almost every city and temple throughout the
entire country. There are said to be at least a hundred sites in the tract
immediately about Babylon which give evidence, by inscribed bricks bearing
his legend, of the marvellous activity and energy of this monarch.
In the midst of all these gigantic undertakings, surrounded by a brilliant
court of councillors and flatterers, the reason of the king was suddenly
and mysteriously clouded. [Footnote: "Nebuchadnezzar fell a victim to that
mental aberration which has often proved the penalty of despotism, but in
the strange and degrading form to which physicians have given the name of
lycanthropy; in which the patient, fancying himself a beast, rejects
clothing and ordinary food, and even (as in this case) the shelter of a
roof, ceases to use articulate speech, and sometimes persists in going on
all-fours."--Smith's _Ancient History of the East_, p. 357.] After a
period the cloud passed away, "the glory of his kingdom, his honor, and
brightness returned unto him." But it was the splendor of the evening; for
the old monarch soon after died at the age of eighty, worn out by the
toils and cares of a reign of forty-three years, the longest, most
memorable, and instructive in the annals of the Babylonian or Assyrian
kings.
THE FALL OF BABYLON.--In 555 B.C., Nabonadius, the last king of Babylon,
began his reign. He seems to have associated with himself in the
government his son Belshazzar, who shared with his father the duties and
honors of royalty, apparently on terms of equal co-sovereignty.
To the east of the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, beyond the
ranges of the Zagros, there had been growing up an Aryan kingdom, the
Medo-Persian, which, at the time now reached by us, had excited by its
aggressive spirit the alarm of all the nations of Western Asia. For
purposes of mutual defence, the king of Babylon, and Croesus, the well-
known monarch of Lydia, a state of Asia Minor, formed an alliance against
Cyrus, the strong and ambitious sovereign of the Medes and Persians. This
league awakened the resentment of Cyrus, and, after punishing Croesus and
depriving him of his kingdom (see p. 75), he collected his forces to
chastise the Babylonian king.
Anticipating the attack, Nabonadius had strengthened the defences of
Babylon, and stationed around it supporting armies. But he was able to
avert the fatal blow for only a few years. Risking a battle in the open
field, his army was defeated, and the gates of the capital were thrown
open to the Persians (538 B.C.). [Footnote: The device of turning the
Euphrates, which Herodotus makes an incident of the siege, was not
resorted to by Cyrus; but it seems that a little later (in 521-519 B.C.),
the city, having revolted, was actually taken in this way by the Persian
king Darius. Herodotus confused the two events.]
With the fall of Babylon, the sceptre of dominion, borne for so many years
by Semitic princes, was given into the hands of the Aryan peoples, who
were destined, from this time forward, to shape the course of events, and
control the affairs of civilization.
THE GREAT EDIFICES OF BABYLON.--The deep impression which Babylon produced
upon the early Greek travellers was made chiefly by her vast architectural
works,--her temples, palaces, elevated gardens, and great walls. The
Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar and the walls of the city were reckoned
among the wonders of the world.
[Illustration: BIRS-NIMRUD. (Ruins of the great Temple of the Seven
Spheres, near Babylon.)]
The Babylonians, like their predecessors the Chaldæans, accorded to the
sacred edifice the place of pre-eminence among their architectural works.
Sacred architecture in the time of Nebuchadnezzar had changed but little
from the early Chaldæan models (see p. 44); save that the temples were now
larger and more splendid, being made, in the language of the inscriptions,
"to shine like the sun." The celebrated Temple of the Seven Spheres, at
Borsippa, a suburb of Babylon, may serve as a representative of the later
Babylonian temples. This structure was a vast pyramid, rising in seven
consecutive stages, or platforms, to a height of over one hundred and
fifty feet. Each of the stages was dedicated to one of the seven planets,
or spheres. (The sun and moon were reckoned as planets.) The stages sacred
to the sun and moon were covered respectively with plates of gold and
silver. The chapel, or shrine proper, surmounted the uppermost stage. An
inscribed cylinder discovered under the corner of one of the stages (the
Babylonians always buried records beneath the corners of their public
edifices), informs us that this temple was a restoration by Nebuchadnezzar
of a very ancient one, which in his day had become, from "extreme old
age," a heap of rubbish. This edifice in its decay has left one of the
grandest and most impressive ruins in all the East.
The Babylonian palaces and palace-mounds, in all essential features, were
like those of the Assyrians, already described.
The so-called Hanging Gardens excited the greatest admiration of the
ancient Greek visitors to Babylon. They were constructed by
Nebuchadnezzar, to please his wife Amytis, who, tired of the monotony of
the Babylonian plains, longed for the mountain scenery of her native
Media. The gardens were probably built somewhat in the form of the tower-
temples, the successive stages being covered with earth, and beautified
with rare plants and trees, so as to simulate the appearance of a mountain
rising in cultivated terraces towards the sky.
Under the later kings, Babylon was surrounded with stupendous walls.
Herodotus affirms that these defences enclosed an area just fourteen miles
square. A recently discovered inscription corroborates the statement of
the historian. The object in enclosing such an enormous district seems to
have been to bring sufficient arable ground within the defences to support
the inhabitants in case of a protracted siege. No certain traces of these
great ramparts can now be found.
CHAPTER VI.
THE HEBREWS.
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.--Hebrew history begins with the departure of Abraham
out of Ur of the Chaldees, about 2000 B.C. The story of Abraham and his
nephew Lot, of Isaac and his sons Jacob and Esau, of the sojourn of the
descendants of Jacob in Egypt, of the Exodus, of the conquest of Canaan
and the apportionment of the land among the twelve tribes of Israel,--all
this marvellous story is told in the Hebrew Scriptures with a charm and
simplicity that have made it the familiar possession of childhood.
THE JUDGES (from about 1300 to 1095 B.C.).--Along period of anarchy and
dissension followed the conquest and settlement of Canaan by the Hebrews.
"There was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his
own eyes." During this time there arose a line of national heroes, such as
Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, whose deeds of valor and daring, and the
timely deliverance they wrought for the tribes of Israel from their foes,
caused their names to be handed down with grateful remembrance to
following ages.
These popular leaders were called Judges because they usually exercised
judicial functions, acting as arbiters between the different tribes, as
well as between man and man. Their exploits are narrated in the Book of
Judges, which is a collection of the fragmentary, yet always interesting,
traditions of this early and heroic period of the nation's life. The last
of the Judges was Samuel, whose life embraces the close of the anarchical
age and the beginning of the monarchy.
FOUNDING OF THE HEBREW MONARCHY (about 1095 B.C.).--During the period of
the Judges, the tribes of Israel were united by no central government.
Their union was nothing more than a league, or confederation, which has
been compared to the Saxon Heptarchy in England. But the common dangers to
which they were exposed from the attacks of the half-subdued Canaanitish
tribes about them, and the example of the great kingdoms of Egypt and
Assyria, led the people to begin to think of the advantages of a closer
union and a stronger government. Consequently the republic, or
confederation, was changed into a kingdom, and Saul, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a man chosen in part because of his commanding stature and royal
aspect, was made king of the new monarchy (about 1095 B.C.).
The king was successful in subduing the enemies of the Hebrews, and
consolidated the tribes and settled the affairs of the new state. But
towards the close of his reign, his reason became disturbed: fits of gloom
and despondency passed into actual insanity, which clouded the closing
years of his life. At last he and his three sons fell in battle with the
Philistines upon Mount Gilboa (about 1055 B.C.).
THE REIGN OF DAVID (about 1055-1015 B.C.).--Upon the death of Saul, David,
son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, who had been previously anointed and
encouraged to expect the crown by the prophet Samuel, assumed the sceptre.
This warlike king transformed the pastoral and half-civilized tribes into
a conquering people, and, in imitation of the monarchs of the Nile and the
Euphrates, extended the limits of his empire in every direction, and waged
wars of extermination against the troublesome tribes of Moab and Edom.
Poet as well as warrior, David enriched the literature of his own nation
and of the world with lyric songs that breathe such a spirit of devotion
and trust that they have been ever since his day the source of comfort and
inspiration to thousands. [Footnote: The authorship of the different
psalms is a matter of debate, yet critics are very nearly agreed in
ascribing the composition of at least a considerable number of them to
David.] He had in mind to build at Jerusalem, his capital city, a
magnificent temple, and spent the latter years of his life in collecting
material for this purpose. In dying, he left the crown to Solomon, his
youngest son, his eldest, Absalom, having been slain in a revolt against
his father, and the second, Adonijah, having been excluded from the
succession for a similar crime.
THE REIGN OF SOLOMON (about 1015-975 B.C.).--Solomon did not possess his
father's talent for military affairs, but was a liberal patron of
architecture, commerce, and learning. He erected, with the utmost
magnificence of adornment, the temple at Jerusalem, planned by his father
David. King Hiram of Tyre, who was a close friend of the Hebrew monarch,
aided him in this undertaking by supplying him with the celebrated cedar
of Lebanon, and with Tyrian architects, the most skilled workmen at that
time in the world. The dedication ceremonies upon the completion of the
building were most imposing and impressive. Thenceforth this temple was
the centre of the Jewish worship and of the national life.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. (A Restoration.)]
For the purpose of extending his commerce, Solomon built fleets upon the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The most remote regions of Asia and Africa
were visited by his ships, and their rich and wonderful products made to
contribute to the wealth and glory of his kingdom.
Solomon maintained one of the most magnificent courts ever held by an
oriental sovereign. When the Queen of Sheba, attracted by the reports of
his glory, came from Southern Arabia to visit the monarch, she exclaimed,
"The half was not told me." He was the wisest king of the East. His
proverbs are famous specimens of sententious wisdom. He was versed, too,
in botany, being acquainted with plants and trees "from the hyssop upon
the wall to the cedar of Lebanon."
But wise as was Solomon in his words, his life was far from being either
admirable or prudent. In conformity with Asiatic custom, he had many
wives--seven hundred, we are told--of different nationalities and
religions. Through their persuasion the old monarch himself fell into
idolatry, which turned from him the affections of his best subjects, and
prepared the way for the dissensions and wars that followed his death.
THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM (about 975 B.C.).--The reign of Solomon was
brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew monarchy. In order to
carry on his vast undertakings, he had laid most oppressive taxes upon his
people. When Rehoboam, his son, succeeded to his father's place, the
people entreated him to lighten the taxes that were making their very
lives a burden. Influenced by young and unwise counsellors, he replied to
the petition with haste and insolence: "My father," said he, "chastised
you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." Immediately all
the tribes, save Judah and Benjamin, rose in revolt, and succeeded in
setting up, to the north of Jerusalem, a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as
its first king. This northern state, with Samaria as its capital, became
known as the Kingdom of Israel; the southern, of which Jerusalem remained
the capital, was called the Kingdom of Judah.
Thus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon. United, the tribes
might have maintained an empire capable of offering successful resistance
to the encroachments of the powerful and ambitious monarchs about them.
But now the land becomes an easy prey to the spoiler. It is henceforth the
pathway of the conquering armies of the Nile and the Euphrates. Between
the powerful monarchies of these regions, as between an upper and nether
millstone, the little kingdoms are destined, one after the other, to be
ground to pieces.
THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL (975?-722 B.C.).--The kingdom of the Ten Tribes
maintained an existence for about two hundred and fifty years. Its story
is instructive and sad. Many passages of its history are recitals of the
struggles between the pure worship of Jehovah and the idolatrous service
of the deities introduced from the surrounding nations. The cause of the
religion of Jehovah, as the tribes of Israel had received it from the
patriarch Abraham and the lawgiver Moses, was boldly espoused and upheld
by a line of the most remarkable teachers and prophets produced by the
Hebrew race, among whom Elijah and Elisha stand preeminent.
The little kingdom was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian power. This
happened 722 B.C., when Samaria, as we have already narrated in the
history of Assyria, was captured by Sargon, king of Nineveh, and the Ten
Tribes were carried away into captivity beyond the Euphrates (see p. 48).
From this time they are quite lost to history.
The country, left nearly vacant by this wholesale deportation of its
inhabitants, was filled with other subjects or captives of the Assyrian
king. The descendants of these, mingled with the few Jews of the poorer
class that were still left in the country, formed the Samaritans of the
time of Christ.
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH (975?-586 B.C.).--This little kingdom, torn by
internal religious dissensions, as was its rival kingdom of the north, and
often on the very verge of ruin from Egyptian or Assyrian armies,
maintained an independent existence for about four centuries. During this
period, a line of eighteen kings, of most diverse character, sat upon the
throne. Upon the extension of the power of Babylon to the west, Jerusalem
was forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Babylonian kings.
The kingdom at last shared the fate of its northern rival. Nebuchadnezzar,
in revenge for an uprising of the Jews, besieged and captured Jerusalem,
and carried away a large part of the people, and their king Zedekiah, into
captivity at Babylon (see p. 58). This event virtually ended the separate
and political life of the Hebrew race (586 B.C.). Henceforth Judah
constituted simply a province of the empires--Babylonian, Persian,
Macedonian, and Roman--which successively held sway over the regions of
Western Asia, with, however, just one flicker of national life under the
Maccabees, during a part of the two centuries preceding the birth of
Christ.
It only remains to mention those succeeding events which belong rather to
the story of the Jews as a people than as a nation. Upon the capture of
Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus (see p. 60), that monarch, who was
kindly disposed towards the Jews that he there found captives, permitted
them to return to Jerusalem and restore the temple. Jerusalem thus became
again the centre of the old Hebrew worship, and, although shorn of
national glory, continued to be the sacred centre of the ancient faith
till the second generation after Christ. Then, in chastisement for
repeated revolts, the city was laid in ruins by the Romans; while vast
numbers of the inhabitants--some authorities say over one million--were
slain, or perished by famine, and the remnant were driven into exile to
different lands.
Thus, by a series of unparalleled calamities and persecutions, the
descendants of Abraham were "sifted among all nations"; but to this day
they cling with a strange devotion and loyalty to the simple faith of
their fathers.
HEBREW RELIGION AND LITERATURE.
The ancient Hebrews made little or no contribution to science. They
produced no new order of architecture. In sculpture they did nothing:
their religion forbade their making "graven images." Their mission was to
teach religion. Here they have been the instructors of the world. Their
literature is a religious one; for literature with them was simply a
medium for the conveyance of religious instruction and the awakening of
devotional feeling.
The Hebrew religion, a pure monotheism, the teachings of a long line of
holy men--patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, and priests--stretching from
Abraham down to the fifth century B.C., is contained in the sacred books
of the Old Testament Scriptures. In these ancient writings, patriarchal
traditions, histories, dramas, poems, prophecies, and personal narratives
blend in a wonderful mosaic, which pictures with vivid and grand effect
the various migrations, the deliverances, the calamities--all the events
and religious experiences in the checkered life of the Chosen People.
Out of this old exclusive, formal Hebrew religion, transformed and
spiritualized by the Great Teacher, grew the Christian faith. Out of the
Old Testament arose the New, which we should think of as a part of Hebrew
literature: for although written in the Greek language, and long after the
close of the political life of the Jewish nation, still it is essentially
Hebrew in thought and doctrine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew
Scriptures.
Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of pre-
eminence, the Bible (The Book), it remains to mention especially the
Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were composed after the
decline of the prophetic spirit, and which show traces, as indeed do
several of the later books of the Bible, of the influence of Persian and
Greek thought. These books are generally regarded by the Jews and
Protestants as uncanonical, but in the main are considered by the Roman
Catholics as possessing equal authority with the other books of the Bible.
Neither should we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of Hebrew
customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon of the rabbis, a work
held by most Jews next in sacredness to the Holy Book; the writings of
Philo, an illustrious rabbi who lived at Alexandria just before the birth
of Christ; and the _Antiquities of the Jews_ and the _Jewish Wars_ by the
historian Josephus, who lived and wrote about the time of the taking of
Jerusalem by Titus; that is, during the latter part of the first century
after Christ.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PHOENICIANS.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.--Ancient Phoenicia embraced a little strip of
broken sea-coast lying between the Mediterranean and the ranges of Mount
Lebanon. One of the most noted productions of the country was the fine
fir-timber cut from the forests that crowned the lofty ranges of the
Lebanon Mountains. The "cedar of Lebanon" holds a prominent place both in
the history and the poetry of the East.
Another celebrated product of the country was the Tyrian purple, which was
obtained from several varieties of the murex, a species of shell-fish,
secured at first along the Phoenician coast, but later sought in distant
waters, especially in the Grecian seas.
The Phoenicians were of Semitic race, and of close kin to most of the so-
called Canaanitish tribes. They were a maritime and trading people.
TYRE AND SIDON.--The various Phoenician cities never coalesced to form a
true nation. They simply constituted a sort of league, or confederacy, the
petty states of which generally acknowledged the leadership of Tyre or of
Sidon, the two chief cities. The place of supremacy in the confederation
was at first held by Sidon, but later by Tyre.
From the 11th to the 4th century B.C., Tyre controlled, almost without
dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoenicia. During this time
the maritime enterprise and energy of her merchants spread the fame of the
little island-capital throughout the world. She was queen and mistress of
the Mediterranean.
During all the last centuries of her existence, Phoenicia was, for the
most part, tributary to one or another of the great monarchies about her.
She acknowledged in turn the suzerainty of the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the
Babylonian, the Persian, and the Macedonian kings. Alexander the Great,
after a most memorable siege, captured the city of Tyre--which alone of
all the Phoenician cities closed her gates against the conqueror--and
reduced it to ruins (332 B.C.). The city never recovered from this blow.
The larger part of the site of the once brilliant maritime capital is now
"bare as the top of a rock,"--a place where the fishermen that still
frequent the spot spread their nets to dry.
PHOENICIAN COMMERCE.--When we catch our first glimpse of the
Mediterranean, about 1500 B.C., it is dotted with the sails of Phoenician
navigators. It was natural that the people of the Phoenician coast should
have been led to a seafaring life. The lofty mountains that back the
little strip of shore seemed to shut them out from a career of conquest
and to prohibit an extension of their land domains. At the same time, the
Mediterranean in front invited them to maritime enterprise; while the
forests of Lebanon in the rear offered timber in abundance for their
ships. The Phoenicians, indeed, were the first navigators who pushed out
boldly from the shore and made real sea voyages.
The longest voyages were made to procure tin, which was in great demand
for the manufacture of articles in bronze. The nearest region where this
metal was found was the Caucasus, on the eastern shore of the Euxine. The
Phoenician sailors boldly threaded the Aegean Archipelago, passed through
the Hellespont, braved the unknown terrors of the Black Sea, and from the
land of Colchis brought back to the manufacturers of Asia the coveted
article.
Towards the close of the 11th century B.C., the jealousy of the Pelasgic
states of Greece and of the Archipelago, that were now growing into
maritime power, closed the Aegean Sea against the Phoenician navigators.
They then pushed out into the Western Mediterranean, and opened the tin-
mines of the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula. When these began to fail, these
bold sailors passed the Pillars of Hercules, faced the dangers of the
Atlantic, and brought back from those distant seas the tin gathered in the
mines of Britain.
PHOENICIAN COLONIES.--Along the different routes pursued by their ships,
and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians established naval
stations and trading-posts. Settlements were made in Cyprus, in Rhodes,
and on other islands of the Aegean Sea, as well as in Greece itself. The
shores of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were fringed with colonies; while
the coast of North Africa was dotted with such great cities as Utica,
Hippo, and Carthage. Colonies were even planted beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, upon the Atlantic seaboard. The Phoenician settlement of Gades,
upon the western coast of Spain, is still preserved in the modern Cadiz.
ARTS DISSEMINATED BY THE PHOENICIANS.--We can scarcely overrate the
influence of Phoenician maritime enterprise upon the distribution of the
arts and the spread of culture among the early peoples of the
Mediterranean area. "Egypt and Assyria," says Lenormant, "were the
birthplace of material civilization; the Canaanites [Phoenicians] were its
missionaries." Most prominent of the arts which they introduced among all
the nations with whom they traded was that of alphabetical writing.
Before or during the rule of the Hyksos in Egypt, the Phoenician settlers
in the Delta borrowed from the Egyptians twenty-two hieratic characters,
which they passed on to their Asiatic kinsmen. These characters received
new names, and became the Phoenician alphabet. Now, wherever the
Phoenicians went, they carried this alphabet as "one of their exports." It
was through them, probably, that the Greeks received it; the Greeks passed
it on to the Romans, and the Romans gave it to the German peoples. In this
way did our alphabet come to us from Old Egypt.
The introduction of letters among the different nations, vast as was the
benefit which the gift conferred upon peoples just beginning to make
advances in civilization, was only one of the many advantages which
resulted to the early civilization of Europe from the commercial
enterprise of the Phoenicians. It is probable that they first introduced
among the semi-civilized tribes of that continent the use of bronze, which
marks an epoch in their growing culture. Articles of Phoenician
workmanship are found in the earliest tombs of the Greeks, the Etruscans,
and the Romans; and in very many of the manufactures of these peoples may
be traced the influence of Phoenician art.
GREAT ENTERPRISES AIDED BY THE PHOENICIANS.--While scattering the germs of
civilization and culture broadcast over the entire Mediterranean area, the
enterprising Phoenicians were also lending aid to almost every great
undertaking of antiquity.
King Hiram of Tyre furnished Solomon with artisans and skilled workmen,
and with great rafts of timber from Lebanon, for building the splendid
temple at Jerusalem. The Phoenicians also provided timber from their fine
forests for the construction of the great palaces and temples of the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians. They built for the Persian
king Xerxes the Hellespontine bridges over which he marched his immense
army into Greece (see p. 81). They furnished contingents of ships to the
kings of Nineveh and Babylon for naval operations both upon the
Mediterranean and the Persian and Arabian gulfs. Their fleets served as
transports and convoys to the expeditions of the Persian monarchs aiming
at conquest in Asia Minor or in Europe. They formed, too, the naval branch
of the armaments of the Pharaohs; for the Egyptians hated the sea, and
never had a native fleet. And it was Phoenician sailors that, under the
orders of Pharaoh-Necho, circumnavigated Africa (see p. 26)--an
undertaking which, although attended perhaps with less advantage to the
world, still is reckoned quite as remarkable, considering the remote age
in which it was accomplished, as the circumnavigation of the globe by the
Portuguese navigator Magellan, more than two thousand years later.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
1. POLITICAL HISTORY.
KINSHIP OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS.--It was in very remote times, that some
Aryan tribes, separating themselves from the other members of the Aryan
family, sought new abodes on the plateau of Iran. The tribes that settled
in the south became known as the Persians; while those that took
possession of the mountain regions of the northwest were called Medes. The
Medes, through mingling with native non-Aryan tribes, became quite
different from the Persians; but notwithstanding this, the names of the
two peoples were always very closely associated, as in the familiar
legend, "The law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."
THE MEDES AT FIRST THE LEADING RACE.--Although the Persians were destined
to become the dominant tribe of all the Iranian Aryans, still the Medes
were at first the leading people. Cyaxares (625-585 B.C.) was their first
prominent leader and king. We have already seen how, aided by the
Babylonians, he overthrew the last king of Nineveh, and burned that
capital (see p. 51).
Cyaxares was followed by his son Astyages (585-558 B.C.), during whose
reign the Persians, whom Cyaxares had brought into at least partial
subjection to the Median crown, revolted, overthrew the Median power, and
thenceforth held the place of leadership and authority.
REIGN OF CYRUS THE GREAT (558-529 B.C.).--The leader of the revolt against
the Medes was Cyrus, the tributary king of the Persians. Through his
energy and soldierly genius, he soon built up an empire more extended than
any over which the sceptre had yet been swayed by an Oriental monarch, or
indeed, so far as we know, by any ruler before his time. It stretched from
the Indus to the farthest limits of Asia Minor, and from the Caspian Sea
to the Persian Gulf, thus embracing not only the territories of the Median
kingdom, but also those of the allied kingdoms of Lydia and Babylonia. The
subjugation of Babylonia to the Persian authority has already been
narrated (see p. 60). We will now tell how Cyrus gained the kingdom of
Lydia.
[Illustration: KINGDOMS OF LYDIA, MEDIA, AND BABYLONIA. C. B.C. 550]
Lydia was a country in the western part of Asia Minor. It was a land
highly favored by nature. It embraced two rich river valleys,--the plains
of the Hermus and the Cayster,--which, from the mountains inland, slope
gently to the island-dotted Aegean. The Pactolus, and other tributaries of
the streams we have named, rolled down "golden sands," while the mountains
were rich in the precious metals. The coast region did not at first belong
to Lydia; it was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it with cities. The
capital of the country was Sardis, whose citadel was set on a lofty and
precipitous rock.
The Lydians were a mixed people, formed, it is thought, by the mingling,
in prehistoric times, of Aryan tribes that crossed the Aegean from Europe,
with the original non-Aryan population of the country.
The last and most renowned of the Lydian kings was Croesus. Under him the
Lydian empire attained its greatest extension, embracing all the states of
Asia Minor west of the Halys, save Lycia. The tribute Croesus collected
from the Greek cities, which he subjugated, and the revenues he derived
from his gold mines, rendered him the richest monarch of his times, so
that his name has passed into the proverb "Rich as Croesus."
Now Astyages, whom Cyrus had just overthrown, was the brother-in-law of
this Croesus. When Croesus heard of his relative's misfortune, he resolved
to avenge his wrongs. The Delphian oracle (see p. 104), to which he sent
to learn the issue of a war upon Cyrus, told him that he "would destroy a
great kingdom." Interpreting this favorably, he sent again to inquire
whether the empire he should establish would prove permanent, and received
this oracle: "Flee and tarry not when a mule [Footnote: The allusion is to
the (traditional) mixed Persian and Median descent of Cyrus.] shall be
king of the Medes." Deeming the accession of a mule to the Persian throne
altogether impossible, he inferred the oracle to mean that his empire
should last forever.
Thus encouraged in his purpose, Croesus prepared to make war upon Persia.
But he had miscalculated the strength and activity of his enemy. Cyrus
marched across the Halys, defeated the Lydian army in the field, and after
a short siege captured Sardis; and Lydia became a province of the new
Persian empire.
[Illustration: TOMB OF CYRUS THE GREAT. (Present Condition.)]
There is a story which tells how Cyrus had caused a pyre to be erected on
which to burn Croesus, but at the last moment was struck by hearing the
unfortunate monarch repeatedly call the name of Solon. Seeking the meaning
of this, he was told that Croesus in his prosperous years was visited by
the Greek sage Solon, who, in answer to the inquiry of Croesus as to
whether he did not deem him a happy man, replied, "Count no man happy
until he is dead." Cyrus was so impressed with the story, so the legend
tells, that he released the captive king, and treated him with the
greatest kindness.
This war between Croesus and Cyrus derives a special importance from the
fact that it brought the Persian empire into contact with the Greek cities
of Asia, and thus led on directly to that memorable struggle between
Greece and Persia known as the Græco-Persian War.
Tradition says that Cyrus lost his life while leading an expedition
against some Scythian tribes in the north. He was buried at Pasargadæ, the
old Persian capital, and there his tomb stands to-day, surrounded by the
ruins of the magnificent buildings with which he adorned that city. The
following cuneiform inscription may still be read upon a pillar near the
sepulchre: "I am Cyrus, the king, the Akhæmenian."
Cyrus, notwithstanding his seeming love for war and conquest, possessed a
kindly and generous disposition. Almost universal testimony has ascribed
to him the purest and most beneficent character of any Eastern monarch.
REIGN OF CAMBYSES (529-522 B.C.).--Cyrus the Great left two sons, Cambyses
and Smerdis: the former, as the oldest, inherited the sceptre, and the
title of king. He began a despotic and unfortunate reign by causing his
brother, whose influence he feared, to be secretly put to death.
With far less ability than his father for their execution, Cambyses
conceived even vaster projects of conquest and dominion. Asia had hitherto
usually afforded a sufficient field for the ambition of Oriental despots.
Cambyses determined to add the country of Africa to the vast inheritance
received from his father. Upon some slight pretext, he invaded Egypt,
captured Memphis, and ascended the Nile to Thebes. From here he sent an
army of fifty thousand men to subdue the oasis of Ammon, in the Libyan
desert. Of the vast host not a man returned from the expedition. It is
thought that the army was overwhelmed and buried by one of those fatal
storms, called simooms, that so frequently sweep over those dreary wastes
of sand.
After a short, unsatisfactory stay in Egypt, Cambyses set out on his
return to Persia. While on his way home, news was brought to him that his
brother Smerdis had usurped the throne. A Magian [Footnote: There were at
this time two opposing religions in Persia: Zoroastrianism, which taught
the simple worship of God under the name of Ormazd; and Magianism, a less
pure faith, whose professors were fire-worshippers. The former was the
religion of the Aryans; the latter, that of the non-Aryan portion of the
population. The usurpation which placed Smerdis on the throne was planned
by the Magi, Smerdis himself being a fire-priest.] impostor, Gomates by
name, who resembled the murdered Smerdis, had personated him, and actually
grasped the sceptre. Entirely disheartened by this startling
intelligence, Cambyses in despair took his own life.
REIGN OF DARIUS I. (521-486 B.C.).--The Persian nobles soon rescued the
sceptre from the grasp of the false Smerdis, and their leader, Darius,
took the throne. The first act of Darius was to punish, by a general
massacre, the Magian priests for the part they had taken in the usurpation
of Smerdis.
[Illustration: CAPTIVE INSURGENTS BROUGHT BEFORE DARIUS. Beneath his foot
is the Magus Gomates, the false Smerdis. (From the great Behistun Rock.)]
With quiet and submission secured throughout the empire, Darius gave
himself, for a time, to the arts of peace. He built a palace at Susa, and
erected magnificent structures at Persepolis; reformed the administration
of the government (see p. 82), making such wise and lasting changes that
he has been called "the second founder of the Persian empire"; established
post-roads, instituted a coinage for the realm, and upon the great rock of
Behistun, a lofty smooth-faced cliff on the western frontier of Persia,
caused to be inscribed a record of all his achievements. [Footnote: This
important inscription is written in the cuneiform characters, and in three
languages, Aryan, Turanian, and Semitic. It is the Rosetta Stone of the
cuneiform writings, the key to their treasures having been obtained from
its parallel columns.]
And now the Great King, Lord of Western Asia and of Egypt, conceived and
entered upon the execution of vast designs of conquest, the far-reaching
effects of which were destined to live long after he had passed away.
Inhospitable steppes on the north, and burning deserts on the south, whose
shifting sands within a period yet fresh in memory had been the grave of a
Persian army, seemed to be the barriers which Nature herself had set for
the limits of empire in these directions. But on the eastern flank of the
kingdom the rich and crowded plains of India invited the conqueror with
promises of endless spoils and revenues; while on the west a new
continent, full of unknown mysteries, presented virgin fields never yet
traversed by the army of an Eastern despot. Darius determined to extend
the frontiers of his empire in both these directions.
At one blow the region of northwestern India known as the Punjab, was
brought under Persian authority; and thus with a single effort were the
eastern limits of the empire pushed out so as to include one of the
richest countries of Asia--one which henceforth returned to the Great King
an annual revenue vastly larger than that of any other province hitherto
acquired, not even excepting the rich district of Babylonia.
With an army numbering, it is said, more than 700,000 men, Darius now
crossed the Bosphorus by means of a sort of pontoon bridge, constructed by
Grecian architects, and passing the Danube by means of a similar bridge,
penetrated far into what is now Russia, which was then occupied by
Scythian hordes. The results of the expedition were the addition of Thrace
to the Persian empire, and the making of Macedonia a tributary kingdom.
Thus the Persian kings secured their first foothold upon the European
continent.
The most significant campaign in Europe was yet to follow. In 500 B.C.,
the Ionian cities in Asia Minor subject to the Persian authority revolted.
The Greeks of Europe lent aid to their sister states. Sardis was sacked
and burned by the insurgents. With the revolt crushed and punished with
great severity, Darius determined to chastise the European Greeks, and
particularly the Athenians, for their insolence in giving aid to his
rebellious subjects. Herodotus tells us that he appointed a person whose
sole duty it was daily to stir up the purpose of the king with the words,
"Master, remember the Athenians."
A large land and naval armament was fitted out and placed under the
command of Mardonius, a son-in-law of Darius. The land forces suffered
severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of Thrace, and the fleet was
wrecked by a violent storm off Mount Athos, three hundred ships being lost
(492 B.C.).
Two years after this disaster, another expedition, consisting of 120,000
men, was borne by ships across the AEgean to the plains of Marathon. The
details of the significant encounter that there took place between the
Persians and the Athenians will be given when we come to narrate the
history of Greece. We need now simply note the result,--the complete
overthrow of the Persian forces by the Greeks under Miltiades (490 B.C.).
Darius, angered beyond measure by the failure of the expedition, stirred
up all the provinces of his vast empire, and called for new levies from
far and near, resolved upon leading in person such an army into Greece
that the insolent Athenians should be crushed at a single blow, and the
tarnished glory of the Persian arms restored. In the midst of these
preparations, with the Egyptians in revolt, the king suddenly died, in the
year 486 B.C.
REIGN OF XERXES I. (486-465 B.C.).--The successor of Darius, his son
Xerxes, though more inclined to indulge in the ease and luxury of the
palace than to subject himself to the hardship and discipline of the camp,
was urged by those about him to an active prosecution of the plans of his
father.
After crushing the Egyptian revolt and another insurrection in Babylonia,
the Great King was free to devote his attention to the distant Greeks.
Mustering the contingents of the different provinces of his empire, Xerxes
led his vast army over the bridges he had caused to be thrown across the
Hellespont, crushed the Spartan guards at the Pass of Thermopylæ, pushed
on into Attica, and laid Athens in ruins. But there fortune forsook him.
At the naval battle of Salamis, his fleet was cut to pieces by the Grecian
ships; and the king, making a precipitate retreat into Asia, hastened to
his capital, Susa. Here, in the pleasures of the harem, he sought solace
for his wounded pride and broken hopes. He at last fell a victim to palace
intrigue, being slain in his own chamber (465 B.C.).
END OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.--The power and supremacy of the Persian
monarchy passed away with the reign of Xerxes. The last one hundred and
forty years of the existence of the empire was a time of weakness and
anarchy. This period was spanned by the reigns of eight kings. It was in
the reign of Artaxerxes II., called Mnemon for his remarkable memory, that
took place the well-known expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks under
Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, an account of which will be given in
connection with Grecian history (see chap. XV.).
The march of the Ten Thousand through the very heart of the dominions of
the Great King demonstrated the amazing internal weakness of the empire.
Marathon and Salamis had shown the immense superiority of the free
soldiery of Greece over the splendid but servile armies of Persia, that
were often driven to battle with the lash. These disclosures invited the
Macedonians to the invasion and conquest of the empire.
In the year 334 B.C., Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, led a small
army of thirty-five thousand Greeks and Macedonians across the Hellespont.
Three great battles--that of the Granicus, that of Issus, and that of
Arbela--decided the fate of the Persian Empire. Darius III., the last of
the Persian kings, fled from the field of Arbela, on the plains of
Assyria, only to be treacherously assassinated by one of his own generals.
The succeeding movements of Alexander, and the establishment by him of the
short-lived Macedonian monarchy upon the ruins of the Persian state, are
matters that properly belong to Grecian history, and will be related in a
following chapter.
2. GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, AND ARTS.
THE GOVERNMENT.--Before the reign of Darius I., the government of the
Persian Empire was like that of all the great monarchies that had preceded
it; that is, it consisted of a great number of subject states, which were
allowed to retain their own kings and manage their own affairs, only
paying tribute and homage, and furnishing contingents in time of war, to
the Great King.
We have seen how weak was this rude and primitive type of government.
Darius I., who possessed rare ability as an organizer, remodelled the
system of his predecessors, and actually realized for the Persian monarchy
what Tiglath-Pileser II. had long before attempted, but only with partial
and temporary success, to accomplish for the Assyrian.
The system of government which Darius I. thus first made a real fact in
the world, is known as the _satrapal_, a form represented to-day by
the government of the Turkish Sultan. The entire kingdom was divided into
twenty or more provinces, over each of which was placed a governor, called
a satrap, appointed by the king. These officials held their position at
the pleasure of the sovereign, and were thus rendered his subservient
creatures. Each province contributed to the income of the king a stated
revenue.
There were provisions in the system by which the king might be apprised of
the disloyalty of his satraps. Thus the whole dominion was firmly cemented
together, and the facility with which almost sovereign states--which was
the real character of the different parts of the empire under the old
system--could plan and execute revolt, was removed.
LITERATURE AND RELIGION: ZOROASTRIANISM.--The literature of the ancient
Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book is called the Zendavesta.
The oldest part is named the Vendidad. This consists of laws,
incantations, and mythical tales.
[Illustration: THE KING IN COMBAT WITH A MONSTER. (From Persepolis.)]
The religious system of the Persians, as taught in the Zendavesta, is
known as Zoroastrianism, from Zoroaster, its founder. This great reformer
and teacher is now generally supposed to have lived and taught about 1000
B.C.
Zoroastrianism was a system of belief known as dualism. Opposed to the
"good spirit," Ormazd (Ahura Mazda), there was a "dark spirit," Ahriman
(Angro-Mainyus), who was constantly striving to destroy the good creations
of Ormazd by creating all evil things--storm, drought, pestilence, noxious
animals, weeds and thorns in the world without, and evil in the heart of
man within. From all eternity these two powers had been contending for the
mastery; in the present neither had the decided advantage; but in the near
future Ormazd would triumph over Ahriman, and evil be forever destroyed.
The duty of man was to aid Ormazd by working with him against the evil-
loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate every evil and vice in his own
bosom; to reclaim the earth from barrenness; and to kill all bad animals--
frogs, toads, snakes, lizards--which Ahriman had created. Herodotus saw
with amazement the Magian priests armed with weapons and engaged in
slaying these animals as a "pious pastime." Agriculture was a sacred
calling, for the husbandman was reclaiming the ground from the curse of
the Dark Spirit. Thus men might become co-workers with Ormazd in the
mighty work of overthrowing and destroying the kingdom of the wicked
Ahriman.
The evil man was he who allowed vice and degrading passions to find a
place in his own soul, and neglected to exterminate noxious animals and
weeds, and to help redeem the earth from the barrenness and sterility
created by the enemy of Ormazd. [Footnote: The belief of the Zoroastrians
in the sacredness of the elements,--earth, water, fire, and air,--created
a difficulty in regard to the disposal of dead bodies. They could neither
be burned, buried, thrown into the water, nor left to decay in a
sepulchral chamber or in the open air, without polluting one or another of
the sacred elements. So they were given to the birds and wild beasts,
being exposed on lofty towers or in desert places. Those whose feelings
would not allow them thus to dispose of their dead, were permitted to bury
them, provided they first encased the body in wax, to preserve the ground
from contamination. The modern Parsees, or Fire-Worshippers, give their
dead to the birds.]
After death the souls of the good and the bad alike must pass over a
narrow bridge: the good soul crosses in safety, and is admitted to the
presence of Ahura Mazda; while the evil soul is sure to fall from the
path, sharp as the edge of a scimitar, into a pit of woe, the dwelling-
place of Ahriman.
ARCHITECTURE.--The simple religious faith of the Persians discouraged,
though it did not prohibit, the erection of temples: their sacred
architecture scarcely included more than an altar and pedestal. The palace
of the monarch was the structure that absorbed the best efforts of the
Persian artist.
In imitation of the inhabitants of the valley of the Euphrates, the
Persian kings raised their palaces upon lofty terraces, or platforms. But
upon the table-lands they used stone instead of adobe or brick, and at
Persepolis, raised, for the substruction of their palaces, an immense
platform of massive masonry, which is one of the most wonderful monuments
of the world's ancient builders. This terrace, which is uninjured by the
2300 years that have passed since its erection, is about 1500 feet long,
1000 feet wide, and 40 feet high. The summit is reached by broad stairways
of stone, pronounced by competent judges the finest work of the kind that
the ancient or even the modern world can boast.
[Illustration: THE RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS.]
Surmounting this platform are the ruins of the palaces of several of the
Persian monarchs, from Cyrus the Great to Artaxerxes Ochus. These ruins
consist chiefly of walls, columns, and great monolithic door- and window-
frames. Colossal winged bulls, copied from the Assyrians, stand as wardens
at the gateway of the ruined palaces.
Numerous sculptures in bas-relief decorate the faces of the walls, and
these throw much light upon the manners and customs of the ancient Persian
kings. The successive palaces increase, not only in size, but in
sumptuousness of adornment, thus registering those changes which we have
been tracing in the national history. The residence of Cyrus was small and
modest, while that of Artaxerxes Ochus equalled in size the great palace
of the Assyrian Sargon.
TABLE OF KINGS OF MEDIA AND PERSIA.
Kings of Media
Phraortes. . . . . . . . . . . . ? -625
Cyaxares . . . . . . . . . . . . 625-585
Astyages . . . . . . . . . . . . 585-558
Kings of Persia
Cyrus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558-529
Cambyses . . . . . . . . . . . . 529-522
Pseudo-Smerdis . . . . . . . . . 522-521
Darius I. . . . . . . . . . . . 521-486
Xerxes I. . . . . . . . . . . . 486-465
Artaxerxes I. (Longimanus) . . . 465-425
Xerxes II. . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Sogdianus . . . . . . . . . . . 425-424
Darius II. (Nothus) . . . . . . 424-405
Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon) . . . . 405-359
Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) . . . . 359-338
Arses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338-336
Darius III. (Codomannus) . . . . 336-330
SECTION II.--GRECIAN HISTORY
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.
DIVISIONS OF GREECE.--Long arms of the sea divide the Grecian peninsula
into three parts, called Northern, Central, and Southern Greece.
Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and Epirus.
Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley, walled in on all
sides by rugged mountains. It was celebrated far and wide for the variety
and beauty of its scenery. On its northern edge, lay a beautiful glen,
called the Vale of Tempe, the only pass by which the plain of Thessaly
could be entered from the north. The district of Epirus stretched along
the Ionian Sea on the west. In the gloomy recesses of its forests of oak
was situated the renowned Dodonean oracle of Zeus.
Central Greece was divided into eleven districts, among which were Phocis,
Boeotia, and Attica. In Phocis was the city of Delphi, famous for its
oracle and temple; in Boeotia, the city of Thebes; and in Attica, the
brilliant Athens.
Southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, was also divided into eleven
provinces, of which the more important were Arcadia, embracing the central
part of the peninsula; Achaia, the northern part; Argolis, the eastern;
and Messenia and Laconia, the southern. The last district was ruled by the
city of Sparta, the great rival of Athens.
MOUNTAINS.--The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall along a considerable
reach of the northern frontier of Greece, shutting out at once the cold
winds and hostile races from the north. Branching off at right angles to
these mountains is the Pindus range, which runs south into Central Greece.
In Northern Thessaly is Mount Olympus, the most celebrated mountain of the
peninsula. The ancient Greeks thought it the highest mountain in the world
(it is 9700 feet in height), and believed that its cloudy summit was the
abode of the celestials.
South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, celebrated in
fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war against the gods,
piled one upon another, in order to scale Olympus.
Parnassus and Helicon, in Central Greece,--beautiful mountains clad with
trees and vines and filled with fountains,--were believed to be the
favorite haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are Hymettus, praised for its
honey, and Pentelicus, renowned for its marbles.
The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all directions
from the central country of Arcadia,--"the Switzerland of Greece."
ISLANDS ABOUT GREECE.--Very much of the history of Greece is intertwined
with the islands that lie about the mainland. On the east, in the Aegean
Sea, are the Cyclades, so called because they form an irregular circle
about the sacred isle of Delos, where was a very celebrated shrine of
Apollo. Between the Cyclades and Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which
islands, as the name implies, are sown irregularly over that portion of
the Aegean.
Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the ancients
Euboea, but known to us as Negropont. Close to the Asian shores are the
large islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Rhodes.
To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, the largest of which was
called Corcyra, now Corfu. The rugged island of Ithaca was the birthplace
of Odysseus, or Ulysses, the hero of the _Odyssey_. Cythera, just south of
the Peloponnesus, was sacred to Aphrodite (Venus), as it was here fable
said she rose from the sea-foam. Beyond Cythera, in the Mediterranean,
midway between Greece and Egypt, is the large island of Crete, noted in
legend for its labyrinth and its legislator Minos.
INFLUENCE OF COUNTRY.--The physical features of a country have much to do
with the moulding of the character and the shaping of the history of its
people. Mountains, isolating neighboring communities and shutting out
conquering races, foster the spirit of local patriotism and preserve
freedom; the sea, inviting abroad, and rendering intercourse with distant
countries easy, awakens the spirit of adventure and develops commercial
enterprise.
Now, Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country. Abrupt
mountain-walls fence it off into a great number of isolated districts,
each of which in ancient times became the seat of a distinct community, or
state. Hence the fragmentary character of its political history. The
Hellenic states never coalesced to form a single nation.
The peninsula is, moreover, by deep arms and bays of the sea, converted
into what is in effect an archipelago. (No spot in Greece is forty miles
from the sea.) Hence its people were early tempted to a sea-faring life.
The shores of the Mediterranean and the Euxine were dotted with Hellenic
colonies. Intercourse with the old civilizations of Egypt and Phoenicia
stirred the naturally quick and versatile Greek intellect to early and
vigorous thought. The islands strewn with seeming carelessness through the
AEgean Sea were "stepping-stones," which invited the earliest settlers of
Greece to the delightful coast countries of Asia Minor, and thus blended
the life and history of the opposite shores.
Again, the beauty of Grecian scenery inspired many of the most striking
passages of her poets; and it is thought that the exhilarating atmosphere
and brilliant skies of Attica were not unrelated to the lofty achievements
of the Athenian intellect.
THE PELASGIANS.--The historic inhabitants of the land we have described
were called by the Romans Greeks, but they called themselves Hellenes,
from their fabled ancestor Hellen.
But the Hellenes, according to their own account, were not the original
inhabitants of the country. They were preceded by a people whom they
called Pelasgians. Who these folk were is a matter of debate. Some think
that the Pelasgians and Hellenes were kindred tribes, but that the
Hellenes, possessing superior qualities, gradually acquired ascendency
over the Pelasgians and finally absorbed them.
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC WALLS AT MYCENÆ. (The Lions' Gate.)]
The Pelasgians were somewhat advanced beyond the savage state. They
cultivated the ground, and protected their cities with walls. Remnants of
their rude but massive masonry still encumber in places the soil of
Greece.
THE HELLENES.--The Hellenes were divided into four tribes; namely, the
Ionians, the Dorians, the Achæans, and the Æolians. The Ionians were a
many-sided, imaginative people. They developed every part of their nature,
and attained unsurpassed excellence in art, literature, and philosophy.
The most noted Ionian city was Athens, whose story is a large part of the
history of Hellas.
The Dorians were a practical, unimaginative race. Their speech and their
art were both alike without ornament. They developed the body rather than
the mind. Their education was almost wholly gymnastic and military. They
were unexcelled as warriors. The most important city founded by them was
Sparta, the rival of Athens.
These two great Hellenic families divided Hellas [Footnote: Under the name
Hellas the ancient Greeks included not only Greece proper and the islands
of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor,
Southern Italy, Sicily, and elsewhere. "Wherever were Hellenes, there was
Hellas."] into two rival parties, which through their mutual jealousies
and contentions finally brought all the bright hopes and promises of the
Hellenic race to utter ruin.
The Achæans are represented by the Greek legends as being the predominant
race in the Peloponnesus during the Heroic Age. The Æolians formed a
rather ill-defined division. In historic times the name is often made to
include all Hellenes not enumerated as Ionians or Dorians.
These several tribes, united by bonds of language and religion, always
regarded themselves as members of a single family. They were proud of
their ancestry, and as exclusive almost as the Hebrews. All non-Hellenic
people they called _Barbarians_ [Footnote: At first, this term meant
scarcely more than "unintelligible folk"; but later, it came to express
aversion and contempt.].
When the mists of antiquity are first lifted from Greece, about the
beginning of the eighth century B.C., we discover the several families of
the Hellenic race in possession of Greece proper, of the islands of the
Ægean, and of the western coasts of Asia Minor. Respecting their
prehistoric migrations and settlements, we have little or no certain
knowledge.
ORIENTAL IMMIGRANTS.--According to their own traditions the early growth
of civilization among the European Hellenes was promoted by the settlement
among them of Oriental immigrants, who brought with them the arts and
culture of the different countries of the East.
From Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him the arts,
learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He is represented as the
builder of the citadel (the _Cecropia_) of what was afterwards the
illustrious city of Athens. From Phoenicia Cadmus brought the letters of
the alphabet, and founded the city of Thebes. The Phrygian Pelops, the
progenitor of the renowned heroes Agamemnon and Menelaus, settled in the
southern peninsula, which was called after him the Peloponnesus (the
Island of Pelops).
The nucleus of fact in all these legends is probably this,--that the
European Greeks received the primary elements of their culture from the
East through their Asiatic kinsmen.
LOCAL PATRIOTISM OF THE GREEKS: THE CITY THE POLITICAL UNIT.--The narrow
political sympathies of the ancient Greeks prevented their ever uniting to
form a single nation. The city was with them the political unit. It was
regarded as a distinct, self-governing state, just like a modern nation. A
citizen of one city was an alien in any other: he could not marry a woman
of a city not his own, nor hold property in houses or lands within its
territory.
A Greek city-state usually embraced, besides the walled town, a more or
less extensive border of gardens and farms, a strip of sea-coast, or
perhaps a considerable mountain-hemmed valley or plain. The _model_
city (or _state_, as we should say) must not be over large. In this,
as in everything else, the ancient Greeks applied the Delphian rule--
"Measure in all things." "A small city," says one of their poets, "set
upon a rock and well governed, is better than all foolish Nineveh."
Aristotle thought that the ideal city should not have more than ten
thousand citizens.
CHAPTER X.
THE LEGENDARY, OR HEROIC AGE.
(From the earliest times to 776 B.C.)
CHARACTER OF THE LEGENDARY AGE.--The real history of the Greeks does not
begin before the eighth century B.C. All that lies back of that date is an
inseparable mixture of myth, legend, and fact. Yet this shadowy period
forms the background of Grecian history, and we cannot understand the
ideas and acts of the Greeks of historic times without at least some
knowledge of what they believed their ancestors did and experienced in
those prehistoric ages.
So, as a sort of prelude to the story we have to tell, we shall repeat
some of the legends of the Greeks respecting their national heroes and
their great labors and undertakings. But it must be carefully borne in
mind that these legends are not history, though some of them may be
confused remembrances of actual events.
THE HEROES: HERACLES, THESEUS, AND MINOS.--The Greeks believed that their
ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or semi-divine lineage. Every
tribe, district, city, and village even, preserved traditions of its
heroes, whose wonderful exploits were commemorated in song and story. Many
of these personages acquired national renown, and became the revered
heroes of the whole Greek race.
Heracles was the greatest of the national heroes of the Greeks. He is
represented as performing, besides various other exploits, twelve
superhuman labors, and as being at last translated from a blazing pyre to
a place among the immortal gods. The myth of Heracles, who was at first a
solar divinity, is made up mainly of the very same fables that were told
of the Chaldæan solar hero Izdubar (see p. 46). Through the Phoenicians,
these stories found their way to the Greeks, who ascribed to their own
Heracles the deeds of the Chaldæan sun-god.
Theseus, a descendant of Cecrops, was the favorite hero of the Athenians,
being one of their legendary kings. Among his great exploits was the
slaying of the Minotaur,--a monster which Minos, king of Crete, kept in a
labyrinth, and fed upon youths and maidens sent from Athens as a forced
tribute.
Minos, king of Crete, was one of the greatest tribal heroes of the
Dorians. Legend makes him a legislator of divine wisdom, the suppressor of
piracy in the Grecian seas, and the founder of the first great maritime
state of Hellas.
THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION.--Besides the labors and exploits of single
heroes, the legends of the Greeks tell of several memorable enterprises
conducted by bands of heroes. Among these were the Argonautic Expedition
and the Siege of Troy.
The tale of the Argonautic Expedition is told with many variations in the
legends of the Greeks. Jason, a prince of Thessaly, with fifty companion
heroes, among whom were Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus, the latter a
musician of superhuman skill, the music of whose lyre moved brutes and
stones, set sail in "a fifty-oared galley," called the _Argo_ (hence
the name _Argonauts_, given to the heroes), in search of a "golden
fleece" which was fabled to be nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon,
in the Grove of Ares, on the eastern shores of the Euxine, an inhospitable
region of unknown terrors. The expedition is successful, and, after many
wonderful adventures, the heroes return in triumph with the sacred relic.
Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its primitive form it
was doubtless a pure myth of the rain-clouds; but in its later forms we
may believe it to symbolize the maritime explorations in the eastern seas,
of some of the tribes of Pelasgian Greece.
THE TROJAN WAR (legendary date 1194-1184 B.C.).--The Trojan War was an
event about which gathered a great circle of tales and poems, all full of
an undying interest and fascination.
Ilios, or Troy, was the capital of a strong empire, represented as Grecian
in race and language, which had grown up in Asia Minor, along the shores
of the Hellespont. The traditions tell how Paris, son of Priam, king of
Troy, visited the Spartan king Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his
hospitality by secretly bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for
her rare beauty.
All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A host of one
hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered. Agamemnon, brother of
Menelaus and "king of men," was chosen leader of the expedition. Under him
were the "lion-hearted Achilles," of Thessaly, the "crafty Ulysses"
(Odysseus), king of Ithaca, Ajax, "the swift son of Oileus," the
Telamonian Ajax, the aged Nestor, and many more--the most valiant heroes
of all Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from Aulis
in Greece, across the Ægean to the Trojan shores.
For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the city of
Priam. On the plains beneath the walls of the capital, the warriors of the
two armies fight in general battle, or contend in single encounter. At
first, Achilles is foremost in every fight; but a fair-faced maiden, who
fell to him as a prize, having been taken from him by his chief,
Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and sulks in his tent. Though the
Greeks are often sorely pressed, still the angered hero refuses them his
aid. At last, however, his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, eldest
son of Priam, and then Achilles goes forth to avenge his death. In a
fierce combat he slays Hector, fastens his body to his chariot wheels, and
drags it thrice around the walls of Troy.
The city is at last taken through a device of the "crafty Ulysses." Upon
the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue of a horse, in
the body of which are hidden several Grecian warriors. Then the Greeks
retire to their ships, as though about to abandon the siege. The Trojans
issue from the gates and gather in wondering crowds about the image. They
believe it to be an offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it;
but, on the other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named
Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the statue
within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the horse, open the
gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is sacked, and burned to the
ground. The aged Priam is slain, after having seen his sons and many of
his warriors perish before his face. Æneas, with his aged father,
Anchises, and a few devoted followers, escapes, and, after long
wanderings, becomes the fabled founder of the Roman race in Italy.
It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in this the
most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends. Some believe it to
be the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks and
the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the former to
secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really existed in prehistoric
times such a city as Troy, has been placed beyond doubt by the excavations
and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann.
RETURN OF THE GRECIAN CHIEFTAINS.--After the fall of Troy, the Grecian
chieftains and princes returned home. The poets represent the gods as
withdrawing their protection from the hitherto favored heroes, because
they had not respected the altars of the Trojans. So, many of them were
driven in endless wanderings over sea and land. Homer's _Odyssey_ portrays
the sufferings of the "much-enduring" Odysseus (Ulysses), impelled by
divine wrath to long journeyings through strange seas.
In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been taken of the
absence of the princes, and their thrones had been usurped. Thus at Argos,
Ægisthus had won the unholy love of Clytemnestra, wife and queen of
Agamemnon, who on his return was murdered by the guilty couple. In
pleasing contrast with this we have exhibited to us the constancy of
Penelope, although sought by many suitors during the absence of her
husband Ulysses.
THE DORIAN INVASION, OR THE RETURN OF THE HERACLIDÆ (legendary date 1104
B.C.).--We set the tradition of the return of the Heraclidæ apart from the
legends of the enterprises just detailed, for the reason that it
undoubtedly contains quite a large historical element. The legend tells
how Heracles, an Achæan, in the times before the Trojan War, ruled over
the Peloponnesian Achæans. Just before that event his children were driven
from the land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile
appointed by the Fates having expired, the descendants of the hero, at the
head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned, and with their aid
effected the conquest of the greater part of the Peloponnesus, and
established themselves as conquerors and masters in the land that had
formerly been ruled by their semi-divine ancestor.
This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric invasion of the
Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of Greece, and the expulsion or
subjugation of the native inhabitants of the peninsula.
Some of the dispossessed Achæans, crowding towards the north of the
Peloponnesus, drove out the Ionians who occupied the southern shore of the
Corinthian Gulf, and settling there, gave the name _Achaia_ to all that
region.
Arcadia, in the centre of the Peloponnesus, was another district which did
not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people here, even down to the
latest times, retained their primitive customs and country mode of life;
hence _Arcadian_ came to mean rustic and artless.
MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR.--The Greek legends represent that the Dorian
invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct migrations from
the mother-land to the shores of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands.
The northwestern shore of Asia Minor was settled, mainly, by Aeolian
emigrants from Boeotia. The neighboring island of Lesbos became the home
and centre of Æolian culture in poetry and music.
The coast to the south of the Æolians was occupied by Ionian emigrants,
who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon that shore,
built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), which finally
united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy.
South of the Ionians, all along the southwestern shore of Asia Minor, the
Dorians established their colonies. They also settled the important
islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and colonized Crete.
The traditions of these various settlements represent them as having been
effected in a very short period; but it is probable that the movement
embraced several centuries,--possibly a longer time than has been occupied
by the English race in colonizing the different lands of the Western
World.
With these migrations to the Asiatic shores, the Legendary Age of Greece
comes to an end. From this time forward we tread upon fairly firm historic
ground.
SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE.--In Homeric times the Greeks were ruled by
hereditary kings, who were believed to be of divine or superhuman lineage.
The king was at once the lawgiver, the judge, and the military leader of
his people. He was expected to prove his divine right to rule, by his
courage, strength, wisdom, and eloquence. When he ceased to display these
qualities, "the sceptre departed from him."
The king was surrounded by an advisory council of chiefs or nobles. The
king listened to what the nobles had to say upon any measure he might
propose, and then acted according to his own will or judgment, restrained
only by the time-honored customs of the community.
Next to the council of chiefs, there was a general assembly, called the
_Agora_, made up of all the common freemen. The members of this body
could not take part in any debate, nor could they vote upon any question.
This body, so devoid seemingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was
destined to become the all-powerful popular assembly in the democratic
cities of historic Greece.
Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little; the legendary
tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and nobles. Slavery existed,
but the slaves did not constitute as numerous a class as they became in
historic times.
In the family, the wife held a much more honored position than she
occupied in later times. The charming story of the constant Penelope,
which we find in the _Odyssey_, assures us that the Homeric age cherished
a chivalric feeling for woman.
In all ranks of society, life was marked by a sort of patriarchal
simplicity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading. Ulysses
constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill in swinging the
scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weaving were the chief
occupations of the women of all classes.
One pleasing and prominent virtue of the age was hospitality. There were
no public inns in those times, hence a sort of gentle necessity compelled
the entertainment of wayfarers. The hospitality accorded was the same free
and impulsive welcome that the Arab sheik of to-day extends to the
traveller whom chance brings to his tent. But while hospitable, the nobles
of the heroic age were often cruel, violent, and treacherous. Homer
represents his heroes as committing without a blush all sorts of fraud and
villanies. Piracy was considered an honorable occupation.
[Illustration: FORTY-OARED GREEK BOAT. (After a Vase Painting.)]
Art and architecture were in a rudimentary state. Yet some advance had
been made. The cities were walled, and the palaces of the kings possessed
a certain barbaric splendor. Coined money was unknown; wealth was reckoned
chiefly in flocks and herds, and in uncoined metals. The art of writing
was probably unknown, at least there is no certain mention of it; and
sculpture could not have been in an advanced state, as the Homeric poems
make no mention of statues. The state of literature is shown by the poems
of the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_: before the close of the age, epic poetry had
reached a perfection beyond which it has never been carried.
Commerce was yet in its infancy. Although the Greeks were to become a
great maritime people, still in the Homeric age they had evidently
explored the sea but little. The Phoenicians then ruled the waves. The
Greeks in those early times knew scarcely anything of the world beyond
Greece proper and the neighboring islands and shores. Scarcely an echo of
the din of life from the then ancient and mighty cities of Egypt and
Chaldæa seems to have reached their ears.
CHAPTER XI.
RELIGION OF THE GREEKS.
INTRODUCTORY.--Without at least some little knowledge of the religious
ideas and institutions of the ancient Greeks, we should find very many
passages of their history wholly unintelligible. Hence a few remarks upon
these matters will be in place here.
COSMOGRAPHY OF THE GREEKS.--The Greeks supposed the earth to be, as it
appears, a plane, circular in form like a shield. Around it flowed the
"mighty strength of the ocean river," a stream broad and deep, beyond
which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian darkness and terror. The
heavens were a solid vault, or dome, whose edge shut down close upon the
earth. Beneath the earth, reached by subterranean passages, was Hades, a
vast region, the realm of departed souls. Still beneath this was the
prison Tartarus, a pit deep and dark, made fast by strong gates of brass
and iron. Sometimes the poets represent the gloomy regions beyond the
ocean stream as the cheerless abode of the dead.
The sun was an archer-god, borne in a fiery chariot up and down the steep
pathway of the skies. Naturally it was imagined that the regions in the
extreme east and west, which were bathed in the near splendors of the
sunrise and sunset, were lands of delight and plenty. The eastern was the
favored country of the Ethiopians [Footnote: There was also a western
division of these people.], a land which even Zeus himself so loved to
visit that often he was found absent from Olympus when sought by
suppliants. The western region, adjoining the ocean stream, formed the
Elysian Fields, the abodes of the souls of heroes and of poets. [Footnote:
These conceptions, it will be understood, belong to the early period of
Greek mythology. As the geographical knowledge of the Greeks became more
extended, they modified considerably the topography not only of the upper-
world, but also of the nether-world.]
THE OLYMPIC COUNCIL.--There were twelve members of the celestial council,
six gods and as many goddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father of
gods and men; Poseidon, ruler of the sea; Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of
light, of music, and of prophecy; Ares, the god of war; Hephæstus, the
deformed god of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus; Hermes,
the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of invention and
commerce, himself a thief and the patron of thieves.
[Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER.]
The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen of Zeus;
Athena, or Pallas,--who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus,--the
goddess of wisdom, and the patroness of the domestic arts; Artemis, the
goddess of the chase; Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, born of
the sea-foam; Hestia, the goddess of the hearth; Demeter, the earth-
mother, the goddess of grains and harvests. [Footnote: The Latin names of
these divinities are as follows: Zeus = Jupiter; Poseidon = Neptune;
Apollo = Apollo; Ares = Mars; Hephæstus = Vulcan; Hermes = Mercury; Hera =
Juno; Athena = Minerva; Artemis = Diana; Aphrodite = Venus; Hestia =
Vesta; Demeter = Ceres.
These Latin names, however, are not the equivalents of the Greek names,
and should not be used as such. The mythologies of the Hellenes and Romans
were as distinct as their languages. Consult Rawlinson's _Religions of
the Ancient World_.]
These great deities were simply magnified human beings, possessing all
their virtues, and often their weaknesses. They give way to fits of anger
and jealousy. "Zeus deceives, and Hera is constantly practising her
wiles." All the celestial council, at the sight of Hephæstus limping
across the palace floor, burst into "inextinguishable laughter"; and
Aphrodite, weeping, moves all to tears. They surpass mortals rather in
power, than in size of body. They can render themselves visible or
invisible to human eyes. Their food is ambrosia and nectar; their
movements are swift as light. They may suffer pain; but death can never
come to them, for they are immortal. Their abode is Mount Olympus and the
airy regions above the earth.
LESSER DEITIES AND MONSTERS.--Besides the great gods and goddesses that
constituted the Olympian council there was an almost infinite number of
other deities, celestial personages, and monsters neither human nor
divine.
Hades (Pluto) ruled over the lower realms; Dionysus (Bacchus) was the god
of wine; the goddess Nemesis was the punisher of crime, and particularly
the queller of the proud and arrogant; Æolus was the ruler of the winds,
which he confined in a cave secured by mighty gates.
There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. The Nymphs were
beautiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the rivers, the
lakes, and the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and death, and three
Furies (Eumenides or Erinnyes) avenged crime, especially murder and
unnatural crimes. The Gorgons were three sisters, with hair entwined with
serpents. A single gaze upon them chilled the beholder to stone. Besides
these there were Scylla and Charybdis, sea-monsters that made perilous the
passage of the Sicilian Straits, the Centaurs, the Cyclops, Cerberus, the
watch-dog of Hades, and a thousand others.
Many at least of these monsters were simply personifications of the human
passions or of the malign and destructive forces of nature. Thus, the
Furies were the embodiment of an aroused and accusing conscience; the
Gorgons were tempests, which lash the sea into a fury that paralyzes the
affrighted sailor; Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous whirlpools off the
coast of Sicily. To the common people at least, however, they were real
creatures, with all the parts and habits given them by the poets.
MODES OF DIVINE COMMUNICATION.--In the early ages the gods were wont, it
was believed, to visit the earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer's
time this familiar intercourse was a thing of the past--a tradition of a
golden age that had passed away. Their forms were no longer seen, their
voices no longer heard. In these later and more degenerate times the
recognized modes of divine communication with men were by oracles, and by
casual and unusual sights and sounds, as thunder and lightning, a sudden
tempest, an eclipse, a flight of birds,--particularly of birds that mount
to a great height, as these were supposed to know the secrets of the
heavens,--the appearance or action of the sacrificial victims, or any
strange coincidence. The art of interpreting these signs or omens was
called the art of divination.
ORACLES.--But though the gods might reveal their will and intentions
through signs and portents, still they granted a more special
communication of counsel through what were known as _oracles_. These
communications, it was believed, were made by Zeus, and especially by
Apollo, who was the god of prophecy, the Revealer.
Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods manifest their
presence and communicate the divine will. These favored spots were called
oracles, as were also the responses there received. There were twenty-two
oracles of Apollo in different parts of the Grecian world, but a much
smaller number of those of Zeus. These were usually situated in wild and
desolate spots--in dark forests or among gloomy mountains.
The most renowned of the oracles was that of the Pelasgian Zeus at Dodona,
in Epirus, and that of Apollo at Delphi, in Phocis. At Dodona the priests
listened in the dark forests for the voice of Zeus in the rustling leaves
of the sacred oak. At Delphi there was a deep fissure in the ground, which
emitted stupefying vapors, that were thought to be the inspiring breath of
Apollo. Over the spot was erected a splendid temple, in honor of the
oracle. The revelation was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess,
seated upon a tripod placed over the orifice. As she became overpowered by
the influence of the prophetic exhalations, she uttered the message of the
god. These mutterings of the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests,
interpreted, and written in hexameter verse. Sometimes the will of Zeus
was communicated to the pious seeker by dreams and visions granted to him
while sleeping in the temple of the oracle.
The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world: it was often
consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of Rome in times of
extreme danger and perplexity. Among the Greeks scarcely any undertaking
was entered upon without the will and sanction of the oracle being first
sought.
Especially true was this in the founding of colonies. Apollo was believed
"to take delight in the foundation of new cities." No colony could prosper
that had not been established under the superintendence of the Delphian
god.
Some of the responses of the
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